Israel besieges 2 more Gaza hospitals

Israeli forces besieged two more Gaza hospitals yesterday, pinning down medical teams under heavy gunfire and forcing the evacuation from one hospital of most patients and displaced people sheltering there, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

Israeli forces say hospitals in the Gaza Strip where war has been raging for over five months have frequently been used as strongholds of Hamas militants harbouring bases and weapons. Hamas and medical staff deny this.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its staff was killed when Israeli tanks suddenly pushed back into areas around Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, amid shelling and gunfire.

Israeli armoured forces sealed off Al-Amal Hospital and carried out extensive bulldozing operations in its vicinity, the Red Crescent said in a statement, adding: "All of our teams are in extreme danger at the moment and are completely immobilised."

It said Israeli forces demanded the complete evacuation of staff, patients and displaced people from Al-Amal and fired smoke bombs into the area to try to push out its occupants.

Hours later, the Red Crescent said all patients who could be moved as well as displaced people who found refuge from fighting in the hospital compound had been evacuated westwards to Al Mawasi, a coastal beach settlement.

Hospital staff remained along with nine severely ill or wounded people and 10 companions as well as a displaced family with special needs, it added. "There is a need to evacuate these patients and wounded (safely)."

Earlier, the Red Crescent said a displaced Palestinian was killed inside the hospital premises by Israeli gunfire.

Khan Younis residents said Israeli forces had also advanced and formed a cordon around Nasser Hospital in western Khan Younis under cover of heavy fire from the air and ground.

Separately, the Israeli military said it had captured 480 militants in a continuing week-long raid into the Palestinian enclave's largest hospital, Al Shifa, in Gaza City in the north of the densely populated strip.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said dozens of patients and medical staffers had been detained by Israeli forces at Al Shifa. The Hamas-run government media office said Israeli forces had killed five Palestinian doctors.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those reports. It said earlier that it had killed over 170 gunmen in the raid, which the Palestinian Health Ministry said had also caused the deaths of five patients.

Al Shifa is one of the few healthcare facilities even partially operational in north Gaza, and - like others - had also been housing some of the nearly 2 million civilians - over 80 percent of Gaza's population - displaced by the war.

Reuters has been unable to access Gaza's contested hospital areas and verify accounts by either side.

In Rafah, Gaza's southernmost town on the Egyptian border town that has become the last refuge for half of Gaza's uprooted population, an Israeli air strike on a house killed seven people, health officials said.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said another 84 people had been killed over the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll in the nearly six-month-old war to 32,226.

Hamas also said Israel had launched more than 60 airstrikes as well as artillery bombardment on Gaza City, the southern urban centre of Khan Yunis and other areas.

Israel's military said fighter jets had struck about 65 targets across Gaza.

Israel has faced ever greater global scrutiny and opposition to its military campaign as Palestinian civilian deaths have soared and its siege has brought widespread malnutrition and hunger.

Tensions have grown between Israel and its traditional top ally the United States, which has called for greater efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.

The main flashpoint is Israel's plan to push its ground invasion into Rafah city on the Egyptian border, where some 1.5 million Palestinians are living, mostly in overcrowded shelters.

Washington has made clear it would not support an Israeli attack on Rafah without a plan to protect civilians there.

US intelligence chief Bill Burns and his Israeli counterpart David Barnea departed Doha late Saturday following talks on a temporary truce in Gaza and a hostage exchange, a source briefed on the talks told AFP.

The latest negotiations "focused on details and a ratio for the exchange of hostages and prisoners", the source said, adding that technical teams remained in Qatar.

A major sticking point has been Hamas's position that a temporary truce must lead to a permanent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a demand Israel has rejected.

• Israel strikes 65 targets in Gaza 
• 84 more Palestinians killed 
• CIA, Mossad chiefs leave Qatar following Gaza truce talks 
• Death toll in enclave tops 32,226