10 hospitals halt operation due to Israeli bombardment, fuel shortages: Gaza Health Ministry

“The number of hospitals that have stopped operating due to shelling and fuel shortages has increased to 10,” the ministry said.

The total number of medical institutions of all types that were subjected to Israeli shelling and stopped working because of this has reached 29, the ministry added.

Demands by Israel for the evacuation of Gaza hospitals amount to “a death penalty for patients”, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The regional director of the World Health Organization has also told Al Jazeera at least 20 out of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are no longer functioning.

Earlier, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Israel had increased its threats to target and bomb hospitals in the besieged strip, and that the international community must stop this before “more massacres are carried out”.

The death toll in Gaza due to Israel’s ongoing bombardment has climbed to 4,700, including more than 1,800 children and over 1,000 women, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave has confirmed. The number of injured has also risen to 16,000.

The number of people in the Gaza Strip who had to leave their homes due to the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has reached 1.5 million, which amounts to 70% of the Gazan population.

The latest escalation between Hamas and Israel began early on October 7, when the Palestinian fighters launched a surprise attack on multiple locations along the Gaza border in response to Israel’s repeated aggression against Palestinians and desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israeli officials estimate that more than 1,400 people have been killed in the Hamas assault and over 5,000 have been wounded.

Israeli massive air strikes on the densely-populated Gaza Strip.