By Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters
Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 6 November 2023. Photo: AFP / Mohammed Abed
Israel faced mounting international pressure, including from its main ally the United States, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death toll rose and fighting intensified near hospitals.
The number of Palestinians killed during the bombardment of the coastal enclave in the past five weeks rose above 11,000, according to Gaza health officials, as Israeli forces waged war on Hamas militants who carried out the deadly 7 October rampage in southern Israel.
In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the cross-fire, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."
But Blinken reaffirmed US support for Israel's campaign to ensure that Gaza can no longer be used "as a platform for launching terrorism".
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a BBC interview published late on Friday, said Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians. France, he said, "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas, but that while recognising Israel's right to protect itself.
"We do urge them to stop this bombing," Macron said.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. "These crimes that Hamas (is) committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world," Netanyahu said.
Israel has said that Hamas militants, who are holding as many as 240 hostages of different nationalities taken in last month's attack, would exploit a truce to regroup if there were a ceasefire.
Saudi Arabia was set to host an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit on Saturday. The Saudi foreign ministry said "countries feel the need to unify efforts and come out with a unified collective position".
Before leaving Tehran to attend the summit in Riyadh, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said: "Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action."
"Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important," he added.
Iran backs both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group in Gaza, as well as Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon.
Overcrowded hospitals hit by exposions, gunfure
The compound of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 November 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas. Photo: BASHAR TALEB
Fighting intensified overnight into Saturday near Gaza City's overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.
"Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals," said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.
He said later that at least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering.
Gaza officials said missiles landed in a courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave's biggest hospital, in the early hours of Friday, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi paediatric cancer hospital.
Israel's military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.
The hospitals, filled with displaced people as well as patients and medical staff, are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants are concentrated.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa hospital's basement, which meant the facility could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.
Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals. Hamas denies that.
World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that health workers the group was in contact with at Shifa had been forced to leave the hospital in search of safety.
"Many of the thousands sheltering at the hospital are forced to evacuate due to security risks, while many still remain there," Tedros wrote on social media.
Palestinians walk down a road as they flee Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza towards the southern areas on November 10, 2023. Photo: AFP / Majdi Fathi
'No one is safe'
Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times.
"One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack," he said by phone. Videos verified by Reuters showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood.
Israeli tanks have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi hospital as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier.
This story was first published by Reuters.