The Palestinian Red Crescent Society decided not to evacuate its Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, and confirmed that the occupation army deliberately fired rockets directly next to the hospital to force medical staff, displaced persons and patients to leave.

Raed al-Nims, a spokesman for the association, said, "Our decision is to continue working in the hospital and not to evacuate it." The association explained in a statement that the occupation raids caused severe damage to the hospital departments, and exposed the people and patients to suffocation.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier that it had received threats from the occupation authorities to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital immediately, amid repeated warnings to hospitals in the Gaza Strip and targeting medical centers.

He stated that the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital has been witnessing continuous Israeli raids since the early hours of the morning, which led to the destruction of neighboring buildings within a range of 50 meters, stressing his refusal to evacuate the hospital, which hosts more than 400 patients, most of them women and children, and their situation is dangerous.

The association appealed to the international community to stop the Israeli threats and prevent a catastrophe targeting patients and displaced people in the hospital, whose number exceeded 14,<>, most of whom are children and women, and to publish scenes from inside the hospital after the bombing of its surroundings.

Video footage posted by activists on social media platforms also showed the moment the Israeli occupation forces shelled the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital, which is crowded with injured and displaced people, in addition to rising smoke and hearing explosions in the populated area of civilian homes as well.

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14,<> displaced

Bashar Murad, director of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza, said that about 14,<> displaced people are inside the hospital, while the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip warned against targeting the hospital after its surroundings were subjected to Israeli shelling following threats to evacuate it.

Bashar confirmed to Al Jazeera that they received calls demanding the evacuation of the hospital since the morning, and that the Israeli shelling targeted a residential tower near the hospital and damaged it, noting that the bombing of the vicinity of the hospital could lead to an explosion inside it due to the presence of oxygen tanks.

For his part, the head of the government media office in the Gaza Strip, Salama Maarouf, warned of a repeat of the massacre of the National Baptist Hospital, which killed hundreds of people, including children.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza also issued warnings to spare the hospital any damage, saying, "We warn of the intentions of the occupation to target Al-Quds Hospital after focusing on bombing its surroundings."

Internationally, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said reports of threats to evacuate Gaza's al-Quds hospital were deeply worrying.

The Israeli occupation forces deliberately continue to launch rockets directly near Al-Quds hospital in #Gaza to force medical staff, displaced individuals, and patients to evacuate the hospital. This has caused significant damage to hospital departments and exposed residents and... pic.twitter.com/Nh3nkeGadp

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) October 29, 2023

This comes in light of the evacuation orders from the occupation to several hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including a threat to evacuate on October 15 to the Kuwaiti hospital in the center of Rafah, which was rejected by the hospital administration.

Warnings of the bombing of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza continue after the occupation committed a massacre by bombing the Baptist Hospital on October 17, which led to the death of more than 500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, who took the hospital as a safe haven from Israeli raids.