JAKARTA: Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza after being ordered to do so by the Israeli military are being shot at as they evacuate, Indonesian hospital volunteers report, as hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped in the area.
The Israeli forces issued evacuation orders on Sunday morning for large parts of northern Gaza and instructed residents to seek refuge in the overcrowded “safe zone” in the southern area of Al-Mawasi, ahead of new ground and air attacks.
The Indonesia Hospital in north Gaza, which is funded by the Indonesian NGO Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, or MER-C, was among the medical centers ordered to evacuate.
MER-C volunteers said the people who tried to flee were targeted by Israeli forces on the routes designated as humanitarian zones.
“We have Indonesian volunteers there, and when they reported to us we could hear the sound of guns being fired sporadically as people started to evacuate to the south,” Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees in Jakarta, told Arab News.
“What Israel is doing is just like the beginning of their war on Gaza, asking residents to evacuate according to the military’s orders, but shooting them while they are evacuating,” he said. “Now it’s the same, they issue the designated routes for evacuation but shoot people on their journey.”
The Indonesia Hospital was functioning partially before Sunday’s evacuation orders. More than two dozen patients remained under the care of about 40 medical workers who chose to stay.
“Health workers are still there even though they are also ordered to leave the hospital. They are doing so for the sake of humanity, because many residents are also staying, refusing to evacuate,” Murad said.
“Many people are also in critical condition, so the health workers are staying because they are very needed by the people. All the patients being treated are victims of Israeli attacks.”
Dozens of people were reported to have been killed and wounded in north Gaza this week, as Israel launched new strikes, which it said were aimed at preventing Palestinian fighters from regrouping in the area.
“Israel didn’t keep its promise. When they issued the orders for evacuation, it was also written that there will be humanitarian routes … but in reality, Israel shot and bombed the refugees who are evacuating,” Fikri Rofiul Haq, a MER-C volunteer at the Indonesian hospital, said in an audio message shared on social media.
“Israel also threatened that anyone who stays in the hospital will be killed or captured … Israel is destroying all health facilities in northern Gaza, because there are only three functioning hospitals left.”
About 400,000 people are trapped in north Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN relief agency for Palestine, UNRWA, wrote on X on Wednesday.
He said many refused to leave “because they know too well that no place anywhere in Gaza is safe.”
More than a year since Israel launched its war on Gaza, its military has killed at least 42,000 people and injured more than 97,000. The real death toll is feared to be much higher, with estimates published by the medical journal The Lancet indicating that as of July it could be more than 186,000.
