GAZA CITY
The Palestinian Health Ministry said early on Saturday that it had to evacuate a southern Gaza Strip hospital after Israel's artillery shelled it late on Friday.
The ministry said it had to evacuate the Abu Youssef al-Naggar Hospital in Rafah after it came under fire from Israel's artillery late on Friday.
"The hospital, the largest in Rafah, was shelled several times, which compelled us to evacuate it," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.
He said the ministry had moved hospital patients to two small hospitals in central Gaza. He said the two hospitals are, however, not equipped enough to receive the patients.
He called for ushering in safe passages to medical care givers so that they can offer the necessary help to the victims of Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Al-Qodra said aid responders have not been able to drive ambulances out of the southern Gaza Strip City of Rafah because of Israeli attacks since early Friday.
Eyewitnesses, meanwhile, say the bodies of Israel's attack victims are being kept, not in mortuary refrigerators, but in vegetable refrigerators in Rafah's hospitals.
The eyewitnesses added that victims can be seen sitting and sleeping on floors in the corridors of the hospitals in Rafah.
A 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire that started at 8:00am (0500 GMT) on Friday fell apart a short time later when Israel resumed its strikes against Rafah city.
Israel said it did not abide by the ceasefire after one of its army units was attacked in the southern part of Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire.
The Israeli army said later that one of its troops was abducted, while two of his colleagues were killed.
The truce was mediated by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United States Secretary of States John Kerry. Israel and the Palestinians should have sent negotiators to discuss a durable ceasefire in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Israel's attacks were, however, considered by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas as an attempt by Israel to mislead the world and justify its killing of Palestinian civilians.
The movement did not either deny or confirm the abduction of the Israeli soldier.
By Mustafa Haboosh
www.aa.com.tr/en
