Hospitals are transporting patients as Israeli tanks surround the Jabalia camp

Amid gunfire and Israeli artillery fire, Palestinian medics say they have begun evacuating premature babies and other patients away from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp, as soldiers and tanks surround us.

Israel’s military has launched its third offensive in the area since the start of the war in Gaza, which it says is aimed at regrouping Hamas targets.

Two other local hospitals are virtually inaccessible and are under evacuation orders, Gazan health officials said.

A number of people have been reported killed and injured in the north in recent days.

The Hamas-run Civil Defense agency said on Monday its first responders found the bodies of 15 people following an Israeli strike on a tented camp for displaced people near al-Yemen al-Saeed Hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “attacked terrorists operating inside a command and control center installed in the Jabalia area that served as a medical center”, and that it had taken measures to minimize civilian casualties.

The Civil Defense also said five people were killed in a strike on a family home in the camp, which had more than 110,000 registered residents before the war.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN refugee agency for Palestine (Unrwa) warned that its shelters and services are being forced to close.

“With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading and deepening again,” said Philippe Lazzarini, adding that the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign for children in Gaza is under threat.

Residents have been speaking to the BBC about their fear and despair.

“I have been fired more than 10 times. “I have gone from house to house, school to school, bombarded, and from street to street,” said Ahmed Leki, a 50-year-old father from Falluja in Jabalia.

“We are tired, completely tired. There is nothing left. Where can we go? We have small children, and there is no safe place in Gaza, not one inch is safe,” he added.

“We left our homes with shells on us, bombed, destroyed and mutilated bodies. Enough is enough.”

In recent days, new evacuation orders have been issued by the Israeli army covering a wide area in the north of the enclave, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and parts of Gaza City.

All those remaining in the north – an estimated 400,000 people – were told to head south.

“Immigration is very difficult, it is a disaster. No means of transportation, no necessities of life. Men, women, and children ask, ‘Where are we going?’ and the answer is, ‘I don’t know,'” said Bilal al-Amreeti, a local man.

“The sound of Israeli warplanes is above us, there are bombings, and bombings are going on everywhere.”

Despite Israel’s reassurance, many Gazans fear that it intends to eliminate the northern part of the strip and turn it into a closed military zone or Jewish settlement.