JERUSALEM: Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Monday 200 patients were evacuated from a hospital with the help of the Red Cross just hours after it was hit by a deadly Israeli strike.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP 200 people were evacuated from the Indonesian hospital in Jabaliya and taken by bus to Nasser hospital in the southern town of Khan Yunis.
"The Israeli army is laying siege to the Indonesian hospital," he said.
"We fear the same thing will happen there as it did in Al-Shifa," he added, referring to the largest hospital in Gaza which Israeli troops have been searching since Wednesday.
The evacuation of the 140-bed hospital, which is close to the Jabaliya refugee camp, was carried out in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), he said, in a condition laid down by doctors after Israel struck an ambulance in northern Gaza, claiming it was being used by Hamas militants.
"There are still 400 patients in the hospital and we are working with the ICRC to evacuate," he said, indicating that "around 2,000 displaced persons" were in and around the hospital.
The Hamas-run government earlier reported that dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles were deployed around the outskirts of the hospital and were firing towards the facility.
An AFP reporter in Khan Yunis saw two buses arriving at Nasser hospital in company of the Red Cross.
During the morning, Qudra said an Israeli strike on a hospital had killed 12 people, among them patients and their companions, and wounded dozens of others.