Tents sheltering Palestinians displaced from Gaza City are pitched by damaged buildings at the Qatari-built Hamad City residential complex in northwestern Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP
Health officials reported that 36 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City alone, while eight others died while waiting for aid near distribution centres north of Rafah.
These casualties brought the overall Palestinian death toll to 65,419, with 167,160 wounded since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society said Tuesday that Israel destroyed its main centre in Gaza City after ordering it evacuated, according to the Associated Press.
The charity said an Israeli strike levelled its six-storey building in the central Samer area. The centre, one of the city's main medical facilities, had provided blood donation and testing services, trauma care, cancer medicine, and treatment for chronic diseases.
It added that another of its centres was damaged and surrounded by Israeli troops, while a third was destroyed in a separate strike.
Multiple hospitals in Gaza City, already suffering from famine conditions, have been forced to shut down as Israeli forces continue their assaults.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, condemned the strikes. “Attacks on health facilities must end. The senseless violence must stop. Cease fire!” he wrote on X.
On Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and the Specialized Eye Hospital were forced to close due to nearby military operations.
Al-Rantisi was Gaza’s only paediatric speciality hospital, while the Eye Hospital was the only advanced ophthalmology facility in the strip.
The Israeli occupation army has repeatedly bombed and raided hospitals in Gaza since the beginning of the war.
On Monday, 24 countries, including Canada, France, and Germany, called on Israel to reopen a medical corridor allowing Palestinian patients from Gaza to receive treatment in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and to lift restrictions on medical supplies entering the territory.
The joint statement reflects mounting criticism of Israel’s war, even from some of its closest allies.
900,000 residents remain in Gaza City
Earlier in September, Israel launched a major assault to occupy Gaza City, which had already suffered widespread destruction after months of bombardment.
The UN’s hunger crisis authority warned in August that Israel’s blockade and ongoing assaults had pushed Gaza City into famine.
The government media office in Gaza said around 900,000 residents remain in Gaza City despite relentless Israeli bombardment and the use of explosive-laden armoured vehicles in crowded neighbourhoods.
It added that nearly 335,000 people have been forcibly displaced, with more than 60,000 fleeing their homes in the past three days alone.
At the same time, officials reported a wave of reverse displacement, with more than 24,000 people returning to their original neighbourhoods in Gaza City from the southern parts of the strip by Tuesday evening.
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