IDF says 4 hospitals in northern Gaza refusing to evacuate, Hamas using some as cover

By Emanuel Fabian

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21 October 2023, 1:02 pm

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Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

A Palestinian man walks with a child while a woman comforts another outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on October 12, 2023. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

An Israeli security official says several hospitals in the northern part of the Gaza Strip have not yet vacated despite a call from the IDF to move south.

“In the north of the Gaza Strip, there are 20 hospitals, as of now six have already been vacated, 10 have not yet, and four are refusing,” the official says.

He says it is hard for some of the hospitals to move seriously wounded and ill patients, but that the military has “a direct relationship with almost all hospital managers and we encourage them to evacuate.”

The official also accuses Hamas of using some hospitals as shelters, “because it knows this is a sensitive site we will avoid attacking.”