Israeli army orders evacuation of Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighborhood, Al-Shifa Hospital

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army ordered on Monday residents and displaced people in the Al-Rimal neighborhood and the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to evacuate immediately to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

"For your safety, to all those present and displaced in the Al-Rimal neighborhood and in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, you must evacuate the area immediately to the west, then southward through Rashid Street to the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi," army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X.

Early Monday, the Israeli army announced that its forces stormed the Al-Shifa Hospital, which houses thousands of ill and wounded patients, as well as displaced people.

Adraee claimed that the military and Shin Bet security agency were operating inside Al-Shifa "to thwart terrorist activities and arrest saboteurs."

"During the operation, the army forces came under fire from saboteurs inside the hospital, and the forces responded by firing back and injuring the saboteurs," he said.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 which killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 31,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in the enclave, and nearly 73,700 others injured, besides mass destruction, displacement and shortages of necessities.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul