Medics sound alarm at wave of Palestinians fleeing Gaza City assault

Doctors and medical staff at the largest hospital still functioning in Gaza say they will be overwhelmed by a wave of new wounded and sick patients if hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee the north of the devastated territory in the face of an intensifying Israeli offensive.

- Jason Burke

Dr Mohammed Saqr, the director of nursing at the Nasser medical complex near Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, said there were not enough staff to cope with even existing demand and that supplies of medicine and fuel were running low.

"We have been working for more than 23 months in an emergency situation so we are all exhausted," Saqr said on Friday. "Some of us are still in Israeli jails and others were killed inside the hospital and outside and others had to leave the Gaza Strip to escape death, so our numbers are not like before the war."

There appears little chance of a new ceasefire after Israel's strike on Qatar last week. The attack targeted the leadership of Hamas, who were meeting to consider new terms for a deal set out by Donald Trump.

Israel's military has ordered one million people in Gaza City to leave before a new offensive. On Saturday the Israel Defense Forces said more than 250,000 had already fled, though Gaza's civil defence agency said the figure was closer to 68,000.

Footage and photographs published over the weekend showed exhausted families moving along the coastal road near Nuseirat, south of Gaza City, their belongings stacked high in vehicles.