Israeli forces yesterday ordered doctors, patients and refugees to evacuate Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital, a medical complex described by a visiting UN / World Health Organization team yesterday as a “death zone.” Doctors and witnesses reported that the IDF had given the thousands of people still at the hospital an hour to leave the area and escorted some of them out at gunpoint, a charge denied by Israel. One doctor described the scene as “horrible, unprecedented” as wounded people were forced out of the hospital and taunted by Israeli troops. Twenty-five health workers and almost 300 critical patients remain in the hospital, according to the WHO team.

All for nothing: Israeli forces have laid siege to Al Shifa — the largest hospital in Gaza — for more than a week, claiming that the operation was necessary to unearth Hamas’ headquarters which they said was underneath the complex. Four days after it first raided the hospital, the IDF has produced only images of a few guns and a small hole in the ground.

ON THE GROUND- More than 80 Palestinians were killed yesterday in a double Israeli strike — including one on a UN school — on the densely-populated Jabalia refugee camp, an attack decried by Egypt as a war crime and a “deliberate insult to the UN.” Forty-seven were killed by Israeli air strikes carried out on residential blocks in Khan Younis.

Remember: The Gaza Health Ministry is no longer able to provide an accurate death toll due to Israel shutting down almost all of the hospitals in north Gaza. The official death toll surpassed 12k over the weekend — 70% of whom are women and children — but the actual figure is expected to be far higher, with thousands of people remaining under the rubble and ambulances no longer able to reach the wounded across much of the territory.

Israel is preparing to force Gazans further south: Israeli forces have already displaced 70% of Gaza’s 2.3 mn population, including forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate the north of the territory south of Wadi Gaza. Now it’s ordering residents in the southern city of Khan Younis — the second-largest city in Gaza with a population of 400k before the war — to leave their homes ahead of an expected offensive in the south.

EU NOT ON BOARD WITH ETHNIC CLEANSING

The EU isn’t on board with forced displacement: EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen backed Egypt’s rejection of Israeli ambitions to forcibly displace Gazans into the Sinai during talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Cairo on Saturday. “We agree on the principle of no forced displacement of Palestinians and a political horizon based on a two-state solution,” she wrote on X following the talks.

NO NEWS ON INVESTMENT PACKAGE

No news on rumored EU assistance package: Neither side elaborated on discussions over a rumored major financial assistance package reported by Bloomberg last week. According to the news outlet, the EU is planning to mobilize almost USD 10 bn in investment for Egypt and provide some form of debt relief to stabilize the economy and prevent a new wave of migration in the wake of the Gaza conflict. The two sides are working on a “strategic, comprehensive partnership,” von der Leyen said, without providing further details.

Shoukry denies displacement-for-debt-relief pact: Israel and the US have not offered to give Egypt debt relief in return for taking in Palestinian refugees, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters on Thursday.

Five countries demand ICC investigation into Israeli war crimes: Five nations have filed areferral to the International Criminal Court to investigate the alleged war crimes committed by the Israeli military in Gaza. ICC prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan confirmed receiving the referral on Friday, which was submitted by South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti.

South Africa to cut all ties with Israel: South Africa’s ruling party said on Thursday it will back an opposition motion to close Israel’s embassy and suspend all diplomatic ties until it agrees to a ceasefire, according to Reuters.

ALSO IN DIPLOMACY- El Sisi spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron | Shoukry spoke to USSecretary of State AntonyBlinken and the head of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees | Jordan cancels water-for-energy agreement with Israel | Erdogan says Germany siding with Israel because of holocaust guilt in “tense” presser with German Chancellor Scholz.

AID- Israel finally buckles to pressure, will allow small amounts of fuel: Israel has agreed to allow 140k liters of fuel into Gaza every two days following pressure from the US and UN. This is only half the amount required to sustain essential services such as aid deliveries, water systems, hospitals and bakeries.

More genocidal rhetoric: The decision by the cabinet to allow in fuel didn’t sit well with everyone in the Israeli Knesset, with the deputy speaker becoming the latest Israeli official taking to X to issue a genocidal statement. “We are too humane. Burn Gaza now no less,” the far-right Likud MP wrote.

Tags: