Patients evacuated from Gaza European Hospital as Israel orders Khan Younis residents to leave

Displaced individuals also dismantled their tents around the hospital and relocated.

Medical and technical teams began evacuating patients from Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis city late Monday ahead of a possible Israeli ground assault.

The Israeli army did not specifically order those in the hospital to leave, but medical teams started evacuating patients, injured people and some of the hospital's medical equipment as the hospital is located in one of the areas where residents received text warnings from Israeli authorities to move to another location.

Medical sources told Anadolu that the medical teams moved several patients and injured people to Nasser Hospital in central Khan Younis.

They added that the hospital’s technical teams also moved some medical devices and equipment out of fear that it would be damaged if the Israeli army raids the hospital.

An Anadolu correspondent also reported that displaced people also dismantled their tents around the hospital and moved to other places upon receiving the Israeli army's evacuation orders earlier in the day.

The Gaza European Hospital is one of the few hospitals operating in the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli army deliberately and systematically had targeted most of Gaza’s hospitals in the course of its military operations across the enclave, rendering most of them out of service.

The Israeli army on Monday ordered residents of eastern Khan Younis to immediately leave, claiming the area has become a "dangerous combat zone."

The army asked the people to head to areas known as humanitarian zones in the western part of the city, known as the Al-Mawasi area.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

At least 37,900 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and around 87,060 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.