Patients evacuated from Gaza hospital after Israeli airstrike

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli air-strike has destroyed parts of a hospital after Israel seized a corridor in the war-battered Palestinian territory and said it planned to expand its military offensive.

The civil defence agency in the Hamas-run territory said Israel's air force targeted a building of the Al-Ahli hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital, in Gaza City on Sunday. 

The air-strike came "minutes after the Israeli army's warning to evacuate this building of patients, the injured and their companions", the agency said in a statement.

"The bombing led to the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units," it added.

There have been no reports of casualties in the strike. 

Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of having tunnels under hospitals and using the medical facilities as command centres to plan and carry out attacks against the army and Israel, a charge denied by the Palestinian group.

Al-Ahli hospital was heavily damaged by an explosion in its car park on October 17, 2023, leaving scores of people dead.

Militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad accused Israel, which denied responsibility and blamed a misfired rocket by Islamic Jihad for that blast — a claim backed by the United States.

Hamas's press office said on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Gaza's hospitals, including Al-Ahli, with "bombing, arson (and) destruction", or otherwise rendered them "non-operational", since the start of the war.

On March 28, the World Health Organization said 22 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were partially functional.

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Gaza's health ministry said on Saturday at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when a ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.

Israel's plans to expand its military offensive

The strike follows after Israel said it plans to expand its military offensive in Gaza after seizing a new corridor as part of a broader effort to take large parts of the war-battered Palestinian territory.

"Soon, IDF [Israel Defense Forces] operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement addressing Gazans.

"The IDF has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route (along the border with Egypt) and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone," Mr Katz said.

“This is the only way to stop the war". 

Mr Katz said the military also took over several areas in northern Gaza and the "security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim Corridor".

His announcement came after a Hamas official told reporters the group expected "real progress" towards a ceasefire deal to end the war, ahead of talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.

Palestinians in dire situation

Since a ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, Israel's renewed offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. 

Hamas said the offensive not only "kills defenceless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation's prisoners [hostages] uncertain".

On Saturday, the Islamist militant group released a video showing Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander criticising Israel's government for failing to secure his release.

The soldier was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis gathered to mark the Passover festival and called for the release of hostages.

"Passover has so many meanings, but I think freedom is the most important one, and that's one thing we are missing for the second year already," protester Oren Baron said.

Israel ordered Saturday's Khan Yunis evacuation after it intercepted four projectiles fired from Gaza.

"IDF troops are operating with significant force in the area and will strike with intensity on any location from which rockets are launched," the military posted on X.

The United Nations warned on Friday that expanding evacuation orders were resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising "real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza".

Ahead of a meeting between Hamas and Egyptian and Qatari mediators later Saturday, a Hamas official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said the group hoped the meeting would "achieve real progress towards reaching an agreement to end the war".

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said Hamas had not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and hostage release agreement.

Hamas later confirmed its delegation had departed for Cairo.

"We in the Hamas movement affirm our positive engagement with any proposals that ensure a permanent ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of occupation forces, an end to the suffering of our Palestinian people, and the achievement of a serious prisoner exchange deal," it said.

The Hamas-ruled health ministry said on Saturday that at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.

Israel continues pressuring Hamas with troops

Israeli troops were deployed last week to the new security corridor referred to as Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah — an indication it could soon launch another major ground operation.

The Rafah municipality, in a statement, called Israel's actions a “flagrant breach of international legitimacy".

Israel has vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms.

The Israeli government has also imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.

Israel has claimed that enough supplies entered Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that it shattered last month. Aid groups have disputed that.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Morag would be "a second Philadelphi corridor", referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since May 2024. Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off Gaza's northern third from the rest of the territory.

The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50 per cent control of the territory.

AFP/Reuters