Hospital in Rafah stops operating amid Israeli bombs
STORY: These are the empty corridors of Rafah's Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital.
It's located in an area of the southern Gazan city that has been designated by the Israeli army as a combat zone as part of its military operations there.
Health officials said around 200 patients in that hospital were forced to evacuate to the west of the city after receiving calls warning them to leave.
The hospital has had to stop services.
Hamas said it was battling Israeli forces in the east of Rafah on Wednesday (May 8).
Muhammad Zaqout is a Palestinian doctor.
"The situation is: most of them who are critical are dying in the field hospitals, are dying in the Kuwaiti and other field hospitals."
Israel has threatened a major assault on Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are holed up there.
Western nations and the United Nations have warned a full-scale attack on the city would be a humanitarian catastrophe since more than a million people are sheltering there.
Israel has told civilians in Rafah to go to an "expanded humanitarian zone" in al-Mawasi, some 12 miles away.
But Palestinians like Imad Houbi, who lives in east Rafah, said there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip anymore.
“There is nowhere safe in Gaza. The shelling exposes their lies about the safe areas. There are no safe areas.”
Hundreds of thousands are now on the move again, trying to flee the city.
The Israeli military released a video on Wednesday (May 8) that it says shows its operations in Rafah.
Reuters was not able to independently verify all locations or the date the video was filmed.
This came after a U.S. official said President Joe Biden's administration paused a shipment of weapons to Israel last week in an apparent response to the expected Rafah offensive.
It would be the first such delay since the Biden administration offered its "ironclad" support to Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Israeli tallies say about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others were taken hostage.
The Gaza health ministry says Israel's subsequent offensive has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians.
It said on Wednesday (May 8) that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was still closed after Israeli tanks pushed into the complex there the day before.
It has cut off a vital aid route and the only exit for the evacuation of wounded patients.
Israel said it was reopening the other crossing in southern Gaza, Kerem Shalom, through which most aid to Gaza has been delivered recently.
In Cairo, ceasefire talks were expected to continue on Wednesday (May 8), according to two Egyptian sources.
Israel on Monday declared that a three-phase proposal approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been watered down.
