Israel-Palestine war: Thousands flee Gaza hospital amid battle

Explosions erupt during Israeli bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip. Pic/AP

Thousands of people have fled Gaza's largest hospital as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants battle outside its gates, but hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies at risk of dying because of a power blackout, remained inside, health officials said.

With only intermittent communications, it was difficult to reconcile competing claims from the Israeli military, which said it was providing safe corridors for people to escape, while Palestinian health officials inside Shifa Hospital, who said the compound was surrounded by constant heavy gunfire.

The military also said it had placed 300 litres of fuel near the hospital to help power its generators, but that Hamas militants had prevented staff from reaching it. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza disputed that and said the fuel would have provided less than an hour of electricity.

Prematurely born Palestinian babies in Shifa Hospital. Pic/AP

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Shifa has been without water for three days and "is not functioning as a hospital anymore". Another hospital in Gaza City, Al-Quds, was forced to shut down on Sunday because it ran out of fuel. Israeli forces are stationed nearby and that preparations are being made to evacuate some 6,000 patients, medics and displaced people.

Officials say 20 patients, including three babies, have died since the hospital's emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday. Another 36 babies and other patients are at risk of dying because there is no way to power life-saving medical equipment.

Over 180,000 across France march against anti-Semitism

More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, marched peacefully on Sunday to protest against rising antisemitism in the wake of Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left, conservatives and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron's party as well as far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended Sunday's march in the French capital amid tight security. Macron did not attend, but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against "the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism." The interior ministry said at least 182,000 people marched in several in French cities in response to the call launched by the leaders of the parliament's upper and lower houses.

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No of litres of fuel kept near hospital to keep it going

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