Patients, staff stranded at Gaza's Nasser hospital amid Israeli assault

Israeli forces have battled Palestinian fighters near the main hospital in Gaza's second-largest city of Khan Younis, where medics said hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people were unable to leave because of the fighting.

Israel ordered residents to leave a swath of downtown Khan Younis that includes Nasser and two smaller hospitals as it pushes ahead with its brutal offensive in the tiny enclave.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said its staff was trapped inside Nasser Hospital with some 850 patients and thousands of displaced people because the surrounding roads were inaccessible or too dangerous.

Nasser Hospital is one of only two hospitals in southern Gaza that can still treat critically ill patients, the group said. Gaza’s Health Ministry also said the hospital had been isolated.

The Israeli military said its forces were battling fighters inside Khan Younis after completing their encirclement of the city the day before. It said aircraft were striking targets as part of the "operations" there and had also targeted suspected fighters in central and northern Gaza.

Thousands of people fled south from Khan Younis on Tuesday toward the town of Rafah. The UN says some 1.5 million people — around two-thirds of Gaza's population — are crowded into shelters and tent camps in and around Rafah, which is on the border with Egypt.

'Safe zones'

Even there, Palestinians have found little safety, with Israel regularly carrying out strikes in and around the town. Palestinian witnesses said that in recent days Israeli soldiers and tanks had pushed into parts of Muwasi, a sandy a rea along the coast that Israel had declared a "safe zone", where tens of thousands of people were living in tents without basic services.

In all, some 1.7 million people have been displaced within Gaza, according to the UN refugee agency. Most have fled from the north, where Israel's air and ground offensive has reduced entire neighbourhoods to shelled-out wastelands, raising the question of whether residents will ever be able to return.

At least 210 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll from the war to 25,700, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, saying most of the dead are women and children.

Another 386 Palestinians have been wounded over the past day, bringing the total to 63,740 and adding more strain to already overwhelmed hospitals, the ministry said.

UN officials have expressed fears that even more people could die from the disease, with at least one-quarter of the population facing starvation.