Medics warn of danger, desperation at key Gaza hospital

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Medics are sounding the alarm at southern Gaza's Nasser hospital, where a nurse said snipers are killing people, sewage has flooded the emergency room and drinking water has run out.

"It was a black night, with strikes and explosions all night," Mohammed al-Astal, a nurse in the emergency department, told AFP on Wednesday.

Fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants has taken place all around Nasser hospital in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

Astal said the facility has been "besieged" for a month, with constant danger and no food or drinking water left.

"At night, tanks opened heavy fire on the hospital and snipers on the roofs of buildings surrounding Nasser hospital opened fire and killed three displaced people," the 39-year-old nurse said.

He said dozens of young men and some women were detained in Tuesday by Israeli troops, who also "forced the displaced people to leave under gunfire".

Gaza's health ministry reported that  thousands of people, including patients, have been made to leave the hospital.

Israel's military said soldiers "opened a secure route to evacuate the civilian population taking shelter in the area of the Nasser hospital", without commenting on the allegations of sniper fire.

In a statement, the military said it "does not intend to evacuate patients and medical staff" and troops have been "thoroughly instructed" to protect civilians and medical facilities.

Israeli forces operating across the Gaza Strip have repeatedly raided hospitals, which are granted special protection under the laws of war.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday he was "alarmed" by reports from Nasser hospital, which he described as the "backbone of the health system in southern Gaza".

The agency has been denied access to the hospital in recent days and has lost contact with staff there, the WHO chief wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

There have also been reports that the fighting in the area has destroyed warehouses filled with medical supplies, which the WHO said served hospitals in central and southern Gaza.

The agency's envoy for the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, described