Palestinians flee from central Gaza's main hospital as strike kills Hezbollah commander in Lebanon

Medics, patients, and displaced individuals are evacuating the main hospital in central Gaza as the conflict intensifies between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, Associated Press quoted witnesses as saying on Monday. The potential loss of this facility would further devastate a health system already severely impacted by three months of war. Simultaneously, an Israeli airstrike claimed the life of an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese security official. This incident marks the latest development in a series of escalating strikes between Israel and the militant group, raising concerns about a broader conflict. Over the past few days, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, citing safety concerns. This caused panic among those seeking refuge there, leading many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the southern part of the besieged territory. Israel has stated that major operations in northern Gaza are largely concluded, with current focus on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Officials anticipate the fighting to persist for several more months as the army aims to dismantle Hamas and secure the release of hostages taken during the militant group’s October 7 attack that triggered the conflict. The ongoing offensive has resulted in the death of over 22,000 Palestinians, widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, displacement of nearly 85% of its 2.3 million population, and a quarter of residents facing the threat of starvation. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in the region this week. While the U.S. has offered crucial military and diplomatic support for the offensive, it has called on Israel to take greater measures to protect civilians. However, the U.S. has also joined Israel in rejecting international calls for a cease-fire. ‘Sickening scenes’ in Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gaza’s hospitals, which are also struggling to treat dozens of people wounded each day in Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the U.N. humanitarian office. Omar al-Darawi, an employee at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days. He said thousands of people left after the aid groups pulled out, and that patients have been concentrated on one floor so the remaining doctors can tend to them more easily. “We have large numbers of wounded who can’t move” he said. “They need special care, which is unavailable.” More dead and wounded arrive each day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza following heavy airstrikes. The Health Ministry said early Monday that 73 bodies and 99 wounded were brought to the hospital in just the last 24 hours. World Health Organization staff who visited Sunday saw “sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the U.N. agency, said in a statement. “The bloodbath in Gaza must end.” Dire conditions in the isolated North The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October. Entire neighborhoods have been demolished, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled, while those who remain face severe shortages of food and water. The WHO said late Sunday it has not been able to deliver supplies to northern Gaza in 12 days. Even there, Israel is still battling what it describes as pockets of militants. An airstrike early Sunday flattened a four-story home filled with displaced people in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least 70, including women and children, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense. There was no immediate confirmation from the Health Ministry, which has struggled to maintain its operations in the north. Search efforts were still underway on Monday. The civil defense circulated a graphic video showing the aftermath of attack, with several bodies scattered among the rubble. Jabaliya, which was built for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and is now a dense, built-up neighborhood, has seen weeks of heavy fighting. More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 58,000 wounded, since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Health officials say about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes. The military says it has killed some 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 176 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive. Seeking to head off a wide war Blinken, who met with the leaders of Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, once again spoke of the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to minimize harm to civilians and allow more aid into the territory. But his main focus appeared to be preventing the war from spreading. The killing of a senior Hamas leader in a strike in Beirut last week ratcheted up tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese border, where Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have been regularly trading fire since the start of the war. A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base in northern Israel on Saturday in one of the biggest attacks in three months of low-intensity fighting along the border. The militant group said was an “initial response” to the killing of Hamas’ deputy political leader Saleh Arouri. Monday’s strike on a car killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official who spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations. Hezbollah identified the slain fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing further details. Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north, but its leaders say their patience is wearing thin, and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to go to war. Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel that day, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage, over 100 of whom were released during a cease-fire in November. Hezbollah has said its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, aim to ease pressure on Gaza. But the group appears wary of risking an all-out war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon. With inputs from agencies