Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it exposed Hamas tunnel under Shifa Hospital
World Health Organization officials visited the hospital in Gaza on Saturday.
Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
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What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
Al-Shifa doctors describe hospital evacuation
Patients and doctors evacuated the Al-Shifa hospital on Saturday, after the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed Israel forced them to leave. The IDF released a statement denying it ordered the evacuation, but in a Friday briefing another spokesperson said the IDF was urging anyone left in Al-Shifa hospital to leave and that it hoped it would take place in the "next few hours."
Doctors described their exodus from the hospital to ABC News, with Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati -- who is still in the hospital -- saying "all critical ICU patients have died. The situation is terrifying."
"Today early in morning people were forcefully evacuated from the hospital, with absolutely no plan of evacuation of the patients and the medical staff. Most of the civilians together with most of the staff left the hospital," Mokhallalati said.
Mokhallalati said there are around 300 patients, who cannot move, and less than 50 medical staff still in the hospital.
"There are still 33 premature babies in the hospital -- one baby died yesterday, and two babies were taken by their parents to evacuate with them. There is only one neonatologist and one nurse with them," he added. The Israelis have provided only three transport incubators for 33 babies. So, if they tell us 'you have to evacuate now,' I have no idea how to evacuate them."
Dr. Adnan Al-Barash, head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital, told ABC News that the "Israeli army forced us to leave the hospital at gunpoint."
"The path for us to walk was set out among the tanks, we had elderly, wounded… The scene was very tragic and sad," Al-Barash said.
"We went out between the tanks, and we could not get the wounded out on the broken roads and we could not move wheelchairs for the wounded," he added.
-ABC News' Dragana Jovanovic and Zoe Magee
Death toll in Gaza rises to 12,300, Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says
In the Gaza Strip, at least 12,300 people have been killed and over 30,000 others have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The United Nations released a statement saying many were killed in a UNRWA school sheltering displaced people.
"Receiving horrifying images & footage of scores of people killed and injured in another UNRWA school sheltering thousands of displaced in the north of the Gaza Strip. These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer," said Philippe Lazzarini from UNRWA.
-ABC News' Nasser Atta
IDF denies it ordered evacuation of Al-Shifa hospital amid exodus of patients
The IDF denied Saturday that it ordered an evacuation of Al-Shifa's patients, claiming the hospital's director requested to allow people in the hospital to leave and that the IDF agreed and offered to assist.
The director of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry -- who said he is leading the exodus of patients -- said in an interview with Al Jazeera that Israel issued the order and that Israel refused to allow ambulances to assist in the evacuation.
The IDF said Saturday it "acceded to the request of the director of the Shifa Hospital to enable additional Gazans who were in the hospital, and would like to evacuate, to do so via the secure route. At no point, did the IDF order the evacuation of patients or medical teams and in fact proposed that any request for medical evacuation will be facilitated by the IDF. Medical personnel will remain in the hospital to support patients who are unable to evacuate."
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an IDF spokesperson, denied the IDF had ordered medical staff and patients to evacuate, as well as the the Gaza Health Ministry’s claim that patients had been given an hour to leave, calling it "fake news."
However, another spokesman, Lt. Col Elad Goren, in his evening briefing Friday night said the IDF was urging anyone left in Al-Shifa to leave and that it hoped it would take place in the "next few hours."
Officials and doctors at Al-Shifa hospital say almost all patients and civilians there have been forced to leave the hospital this morning, after Israeli forces gave them one hour to get out.
Dr. Munir Al Barsh, director general from the Gaza Health Ministry, told Al Jazeera, he and hundreds of patients, many seriously injured, were now on the road on foot, making their way south.
He said around 450 patients and wounded had left following the Israeli order. He painted a harrowing picture, saying many patients have open wounds, are missing limbs, some are still in beds and wheelchairs.
According to Al Barsh, around 120 patients who are unable to move are still in the hospital, including the nearly three dozen premature babies. Five medical staff have remained to care for them.
He said the column of hundreds of patients are now trying to make their way to the first hospital they can find on route.
-ABC News' Patrick Reevell
Telecom services partially restored in Gaza
Telecommunications services have been partially restored in Gaza thanks to fuel reaching the region, the Palestinian Authority Communications Ministry said.
About 17,000 liters of diesel entered Gaza on Friday via the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border crossing, according to border crossing spokesman Wael Abu Omar.
Two fuel trucks are expected to enter Gaza daily beginning on Saturday, according to Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.