TRANSCRIPT
Along a coastal road metres from the sea, displaced Gazans carried their belongings as they headed south on foot away from Israel's siege of Al-Shifa Hospital.
Four months after troops first stormed the complex, Israel's latest raid on Al-Shifa has entered its fourth day.
Umm Fahed Awad says she and her family chose to seek another place of refuge for the safety of her children.
"They were scared. I don’t know what more to tell you. There is famine. Over there, the situation is very bad, more than you can imagine. They besieged us. We were there for three days without water, without food, without drinks. We have triplets. We cannot find them water to drink, or milk.”
Israel says it has killed dozens of militants and arrested more than 500 people at Gaza’s biggest hospital, but that civilians had not been harmed and were being evacuated.
Hamas, which has denied using the hospital for military purposes, said those killed were wounded patients and displaced people.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari says fighting is ongoing and will continue for several days.
"The fighting continues inside the hospital building, inside the hospital building. There are Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who have decided to barricade themselves. They are currently holed up in the area of the emergency room."
The World Health Organisation, citing reports of health workers being arrested and detained, says it is concerned by military operations around the hospital.
It said access to Al-Shifa has become "impossible", and a planned humanitarian mission has had to be cancelled.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has voiced wider concerns about Gaza's children, saying the future of an "entire generation" is in "serious peril" under the threat of famine.
He has called for an immediate ceasefire for therapeutic food to be delivered to malnourished children.
"Once again, we ask Israel to open more crossings and accelerate the entry and delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid into and within Gaza. Once again, we call for health care to be protected and not militarised."
The World Bank has found that of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, more than half of whom are under 18, 1.1 million are at "catastrophic" risk of famine.
Dr Tedros says so little food has been allowed into Gaza, up to 16 per cent of children under five are now malnourished, compared to one per cent before the war began.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his sixth diplomatic visit to the region since October the 7th, says children should not be dying of malnutrition.
"100% of the population of Gaza is experiencing severe levels of acute food insecurity. We cannot, we must not allow that to continue. Now, the ceasefire that we're working on would be the best, most immediate way to enable us to surge humanitarian assistance. But it's not the only way."
Mr Blinken, speaking from Cairo, has said there is a "clear consensus" for an immediate, sustained ceasefire, after talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Ahead of a visit to Israel tomorrow, he says humanitarian assistance to Gaza will "surge" if there is an agreement including the release of hostages.
The hope for the hostages' release was echoed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where Israelis gathered to pray and blow traditional shofar horns.
More than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, including at least 33 believed to have died.
Among the family members praying for their return was Ilay David, whose 22-year-old brother Eyvatar was taken captive on October the 7th.
“We came here to the Western Wall for the biggest Shema Prayer ever, it was broadcast to all over the world, to communities all over the world. And we're hopeful and we know that it will help us to bring back our loved ones home.”
Amid frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the hostage crisis, the Israeli leader is determined to go ahead with a ground assault on Rafah, where around 1.5 million people are sheltering.
In the strongest comments yet from Israel's closest ally, Mr Blinken has said the assault would be "a mistake" and was "not necessary" to deal with Hamas in the region.
The remarks come as the US toughened its stance at the UN, calling for support for its Security Council resolution on the "imperative" of an immediate ceasefire, rather than "efforts" for a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal - an earlier draft.
Meanwhile France has said it will bring its own "broader" resolution to rival that of the US, which has abstained from or voted against three ceasefire resolutions so far.
Amid international posturing on the issue, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has said the continuing situation in Gaza, where the health ministry says the death toll is near 32,000, is a "failure of humanity".
"It’s not an earthquake, it’s not a flood. It’s bombing. The only way of stopping this humanitarian crisis, human crisis, is Israel respecting more the civilians and allowing more support to enter into Gaza."
