Northern Gaza’s main hospital ‘forced to close’ as Israel escalates offensive

The main hospital serving people in the north of Gaza has been forced to close because of escalating Israeli strikes and what the country’s health ministry said was a siege of the facility.

The Indonesian Hospital was the last remaining functioning public hospital in the war-battered area.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on claims of fighting around the hospital.

Northern Gaza’s previous main hospital, Kamal Adwan, was forced to stop serving Palestinians last year because of Israeli strikes, as was a second facility, Beit Hanoun Hospital.

Strikes

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 103 people overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, as Israel intensifies its war in the territory that, after more than 19 months, shows no signs of abating.

More than 48 people were killed in airstrikes in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, some of which hit houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital. Among the dead were 18 children and 13 women, hospital spokesperson Weam Fares said.

In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine people from a single family, according to the Gaza health ministry’s emergency services.

Another strike on a family’s residence, also in Jabaliya, killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defence, which operates under the Hamas-run government.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the overnight strikes.

Offensive

The bloodshed comes as Israel ramps up its war in Gaza with a new offensive named “Gideon’s Chariots”, in which Israel says it plans to seize territory, displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza’s south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.

Israel says the new plan is meant to ramp up pressure on the militant Hamas group to agree to a temporary ceasefire on Israel’s terms, one that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza but would not necessarily end the war.

Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a pathway to ending the war as part of any new ceasefire deal.

Israel had said it would wait until the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region before launching its new offensive, saying it was giving a chance for efforts to bring about a new ceasefire deal.

And while teams are still negotiating a potential truce in the Qatari capital Doha, there appears to have been no breakthrough.

Mr Trump did not visit Israel during his trip, which ended on Friday.

Israel shattered a previous eight-week ceasefire in mid-March, launching fierce airstrikes that killed hundreds.

Days before the end of that ceasefire, Israel also halted all imports into Gaza, including food, medicine and fuel, deepening a humanitarian crisis and sparking warnings of an increasing risk of famine in the territory, a blockade that continues.

Israel says that move is also meant to pressure Hamas.

The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.