IDF orders evacuation of hospital in northern Gaza

Dr. Rami al-Ashrafi said Thursday that the Israeli army wants to evacuate everyone in Al-Awda Hospital in the heavily devastated Jabaliya area. One of the last functioning medical centers in northern Gaza, the hospital has been encircled by Israeli troops and has come under fire in recent days.

Speaking by phone to The Associated Press, al-Ashrafi said there are 82 staffers, including doctors, and seven patients left at the hospital. A total of 30 patients and 57 staff were already evacuated Tuesday, he said

Israeli authorities issued evacuation orders last week for large parts of northern Gaza ahead of offensives against Hamas, although the army did not order the hospital itself to evacuate.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, said last week that Israeli military operations and evacuation orders in Gaza “are stretching the health system beyond the breaking point.”

Palestinians describe more chaos at aid hub

Palestinians described more scenes of chaos on Thursday at an aid distribution hub in the Gaza Strip established by a new Israeli and US-backed foundation. They said large crowds pushed their way through metal turnstiles as security contractors struggled to control the crowd.

People scattered as gunfire rang out, though it was not clear who fired or if there were any casualties. One woman said she had waited for hours before leaving with only a small bag of lentils. “We have no bread to feed our children. I couldn’t get a single bag of flour,” she said in tears, declining to give her name. “I want to eat. I’m hungry.”

The hubs set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are guarded by private security contractors, with Israeli forces stationed nearby. Gaza’s Health Ministry and the United Nations said dozens of people were wounded by gunfire as they sought aid on Tuesday. GHF denied its forces fired on anyone, and the Israeli military said it only fired warning shots.

The UN and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new aid system, saying it will not be able to feed Gaza’s 2.3 million people and that it lets Israel use food to control the population.

GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israeli strike kills municipal worker in southern Lebanon

An Israeli drone strike killed a municipal worker in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency said.

The man was on his way to work on a well supplying water to homes when he was killed in the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, the agency said. Lebanon’s Health Ministry also reported one person killed in the strike.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it had killed a “Hezbollah terrorist” who was “rehabilitating a site used by” the group “to manage its fire and defense array."

A US-brokered ceasefire agreement brought the latest war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to an end in late November, but Israel has continued to launch near-daily strikes on Lebanon since then. Lebanon has complained that Israel is violating the ceasefire while Israel says it is striking Hezbollah facilities and officials to prevent the group from rearming.

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