An Israeli security official said on Saturday that Israel is demanding the evacuation of 20 hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.

The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted an unnamed security official as saying that Israel demanded the evacuation of 20 hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, of which 6 were evacuated, 4 refused, and the rest are in the process of being evacuated, without further details.

Yesterday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that it had received a threat from the occupation authorities to bomb Al-Quds Hospital.

She added that the Israeli army demanded the immediate evacuation of the hospital, which houses more than 400 patients and about 12,000 displaced civilians who took refuge in it, as it is considered a safe place. The vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital had been subjected to heavy bombardment 3 days ago.

UN and international institutions said, during the past few days, that there is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli bombing and siege imposed on Gaza.

The number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip is 34, with the Ministry of Health directly managing 13 hospitals in the Strip, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) provides health services to more than 70% of the Strip’s population.

Hospitals, medical teams and civil defense teams were not spared from the continuous Israeli bombing that destroyed entire neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Ministry of Health documented the death of 44 people from the health sector teams and the injury of 70 others. The occupation aircraft also targeted the homes of a number of doctors working in the Strip’s hospitals.

The health sector in Gaza is suffering from round-the-clock exhaustion, and constant exhaustion of the limited number of doctors, nurses, laboratory workers, and ambulance drivers, who work around the clock to receive endless waves of martyrs and wounded.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that 7 hospitals and 21 health centers were out of service in the Strip.

On Tuesday, an Israeli raid targeted Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, leading to the death of more than 500 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children who took the hospital as a safe refuge from the intense Israeli bombing.