Key Points
- More Australians, permanent residents and family members have left Gaza for Egypt.
- Gaza's health officials say Israeli tanks have surrounded a hospital in north.
- The hospital has largely ceased operations but is still sheltering patients, staff, and displaced residents.
Another 31 Australian citizens, permanent residents, and family members have left Gaza and made it to the safety of Egypt.
The evacuation took to 62, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
"They are being supported by our consular staff in Egypt," Senator Wong said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The group left via the Rafah crossing - the only access point between Egypt and Gaza.
"We are working with partners as part of international efforts to allow for the safe passage of foreign nationals from Gaza," Wong said.
"We all want to take the next steps towards a ceasefire, but it cannot be one‑sided."
Wong last week backed a United Nations resolution for all sides in the Hamas-Israel war to protect civilians, particularly children, during the hostilities and calling for the immediate release of all hostages.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks have surrounded a hospital in north Gaza and at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by firing into the complex, health officials said on Monday, as fighting raged on amid indications of a possible pause in hostilities.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about the situation at the Indonesian Hospital, where health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza said 700 patients along with staff were under fire from Israeli forces.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said the facility in the northeast Gaza town of Beit Lahia had been hit by artillery fire. Palestinian health officials said there were frantic efforts to evacuate civilians out of harm's way.
Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in front of the morgue in Deir al Balah, 19 November, 2023. Source: AP / Hatem Moussa
“We had information earlier that tanks were besieging the Indonesian Hospital. Unfortunately..., communications there are almost cut,” Nahed Abu Taaema, director of Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, told the Reuters news agency.
“We are very concerned about the fate of our colleagues and the fate of wounded and patients as well as (displaced) people who may have still sheltering there. No ambulances can reach them, and we're afraid the wounded will die,” said Abu Taeema.
Like all other health facilities in the northern half of Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital, set up in 2016 with funding from Indonesian organisations, has largely ceased operations but is still sheltering patients, staff, and displaced residents.
Israel , but thousands of civilians remain, many seeking shelter in hospitals. Fuel and medicines have been running out across the entire enclave under Israel's six-week-old siege.
Witnesses also reported bouts of heavy fighting between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance into north Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, home to 100,000 people and, according to Israel, a significant militant stronghold.
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza's Jabalia region on 12 November. Source: Getty, Anadolu / Anadolu Agency/Anadolu via Getty Images
At the other end of the Gaza Strip, health officials said at least 14 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli air strikes on houses in the town of Rafah, near the border with Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans who fled the north of the enclave are sheltering in southern areas including Rafah.
The Israeli military issued a statement with video of air strikes and troops going house-to-house in Gaza, saying they killed three Hamas company commanders and a squad of Palestinian fighters, without giving specific locations.
Despite continued fighting, United States and Israeli officials said a Qatari-mediated deal to free some of the hostages held in the Palestinian enclave and pause fighting temporarily to enable aid deliveries to stricken civilians was edging closer.
About 240 hostages were taken during a deadly , which prompted Israel to invade the tiny Palestinian territory to wipe out the Islamist movement after several inconclusive wars since 2007.
Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas assault, according to Israeli tallies, the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year history.
Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run government said at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,500 children, by unrelenting Israeli bombardment.
The United Nations says two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million population has been made homeless.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, which has gained power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the US. New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
