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33 min ago
Israel-Hamas battles create havoc in Gaza hospitals
GAZA CITY - Heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas trapped thousands of people in Gaza's hospitals on Sunday, with medics and aid workers warning patients will die in the crippled facilities unless there is a pause in the battle.
Bright flares lit up the night sky over Gaza City and blasts echoed across the city, AFP television images showed, as Israel's air and ground campaign to destroy Hamas brought the fight to key medical installations.
"If we do not stop this bloodshed immediately with a ceasefire or at the bare minimum a medical evacuation of patients, these hospitals will become a morgue," medical aid group Doctors Without Borders warned Sunday.
Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the biggest in the territory, is "totally surrounded and bombardments are going on nearby", said the hospital's director, Mohammad Abu Salmiya.
"The medical team cannot work and the bodies, in their dozens, cannot be managed or buried," he said.
The UN's World Health Organization expressed alarm at the situation in Al-Shifa.
READ: Tens of thousands flee as Israel tightens Gaza City 'stranglehold'
"WHO is gravely concerned about the safety of health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support, and displaced people who remain inside the hospital," director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The Israeli military has denied strikes or a siege at Al-Shifa hospital, and has repeatedly accused Hamas of using medical facilities as command centres and hideouts.
Hames has denied the accusations.