Israeli army withdraws from Nasser Hospital, continues to besiege it: Gaza Health Ministry

The Israeli army has withdrawn from inside the Nasser Medical Complex in the southern Gaza Strip but continues to besiege the building, as well as the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, the Palestinian enclave's Health Ministry said on Thursday.

"Israeli occupation forces are preventing movement to and from the Nasser Medical Complex" in Khan Younis city, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

It noted that medical staff had buried 13 patients killed in Nasser Hospital due to the generators and oxygen supply being shut down as a result of Israeli attacks siege. The ministry did not mention the date of their deaths.

Adding that sewage water had flooded the hospital's ground floors, it said: "The occupation still prevents the repair of water tanks, sewage network, and the operation of the electric generator in the hospital."

Gaza's Health Ministry had said Tuesday that the number of deaths in Nasser Hospital's intensive care unit, to which Israel cut off power and prevented an oxygen machine from working, has risen to eight.

On Al-Amal Hospital, also in Khan Younis, the ministry said Israeli forces "continue to besiege it and target it repeatedly."

It warned that "occupation forces are endangering the lives of medical teams and patients in the hospital due to the lack of water, food, oxygen, and treatment."

For weeks, the Israeli army has escalated its military campaign against the healthcare system in Khan Younis, forcing thousands of displaced Palestinians to leave Al-Amal Hospital and Nasser Medical Complex in recent days.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, killed at least 29,410 Palestinians and injured nearly 70,000 others, while less than 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

For the first time since its creation in 1948, Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the UN, over its Gaza war.

An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.