“We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba,” a member of Israel’s war cabinet announced on national television. Avi Dichter’s comments line up with leaked Israeli intelligence documents showing that Tel Aviv harbors plans for the permanent expulsion of the Palestinian population from large parts of Gaza under the cover of a wartime “humanitarian” evacuation.

• The Electronic Intifada

“On 6 October, a few of us met to talk about preparing for a friend’s wedding,” writes Deema Aed Yaghi from Gaza. “Within two days after Israel’s genocidal war began, my friend’s home was completely destroyed.”

• The Electronic Intifada

The UN human rights office, citing the besieged facility’s medical director, said al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City “is currently hosting more than 10,000 displaced persons, patients and medical staff, including those in critical medical conditions.” The office added that “there are reports that already weakened telecommunications and internet services will completely cease in about four days due to a lack of fuel and power. A further and extended blackout of telecommunications and internet connection would deepen the already catastrophic humanitarian conditions.”

The regional directors of three UN agencies – the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN’s organization for children (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization – said “we are horrified at the latest reports of attacks on and in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Rantisi Naser Pediatric Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, and others in Gaza City and northern Gaza, killing many, including children.” The agencies added that “attacks on medical facilities and civilians are unacceptable and are a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and conventions.” The three organizations said that “decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and prevent further loss of life, and preserve what’s left of the health care system in Gaza.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross called “for the protection of civilians in Gaza trapped in fighting, whether they are trying to evacuate or staying where they are.” The humanitarian organization said that civilians were fleeing the north to the south in “precarious and unsafe conditions,” walking for “dozens of kilometers past dead bodies lying on the streets and without necessities like food and water.” The ICRC said that its “teams in Gaza and hotline operators [were receiving] numerous calls from displaced people searching for their family members” and that “the southern area is not equipped to cater to the massive number of people arriving with nothing but the clothes they are wearing, and the quantity of humanitarian aid coming in is largely insufficient.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross’ delegation in Palestine said it was “carefully following up on all the appeals that have come our way in the past two days” and, acknowledging “the deep frustration,” added that its teams “are not sparing an effort on the ground.” The humanitarian organization expressed “profound alarm” over the situation in Gaza, saying that it was “gravely concerned by the precarious and unsafe conditions under which civilians are evacuating from the north.” ICRC added that “we don’t have the logistical capacity and security guarantees to facilitate evacuations, but we’re sparing no efforts to influence those responsible for the protection of the civilians who decide to evacuate and those who stay behind.”

Melanie Ward, the head of the UK charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, said that the organization is “deeply concerned by uncritical media reporting regarding the Israeli military’s statement that it will help move premature babies trapped at [al-Shifa] hospital to a ‘safer hospital.’” Ward added that “the only safe option to save these babies would be for Israel to cease its assault and besiegement of al-Shifa, to allow fuel to reach the hospital, and to ensure that the surviving parents of these babies can be reunited with them.” She said that “the transfer of critically ill neonates is a complex and technical process … with ambulances unable to reach the hospital and no hospital with capacity to receive them, there is no indication of how this can be done safely.”

The director of al-Shifa hospital, under attack by Israel in Gaza City, told Al-Araby TV that two its patients in the intensive care unit had died, not all of them as had been initially reported. He warned that if the present catastrophic situation continued, all of al-Shifa’s intensive care patients will die and dialysis patients will die due to the inability to provide dialysis treatment.

Mustafa Sarsour, a journalist inside the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City, said that the main building at the campus was hit by gunfire. Sarsour told Al Jazeera that five premature babies died on 12 November due to a lack of supplies and the hospital’s inability to provide treatment. He said that Israeli drones shot at civilians in the hospital courtyard and that Israel’s claims that it had provided safe passages to leave the hospital were false.

The Government Information Office in Gaza said that the death toll in the territory had risen to 11,180 people since 7 October, including more than 4,600 children. The office added that Israeli occupation forces targeted the intensive care unit, surgery building and maternity department at al-Shifa hospital, the largest health facility in Gaza. Twenty-two hospitals and nearly 50 other health facilities in Gaza have been forced to stop serving patients.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society announced that Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City is no longer operational “due to the depletion of available fuel” and subsequent power outage. The humanitarian organization said “the hospital has been left to fend for itself under ongoing bombardment, posing severe risks to medical staff, patients and displaced civilians” sheltering at the facility. The Red Crescent added that it “holds the international community and signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention accountable for the complete breakdown of the health system and the resulting dire humanitarian conditions.”