BEIRUT, November 13. /TASS/. A convoy of vehicles on its way to the southern Gaza Strip to evacuate patients and staff from Al-Quds Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip was stopped amid heavy gunfire near the hospital, said the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

"The convoy of vehicles that set off from the southern Gaza Strip <...>, accompanied by the ICRC (the International Committee of the Red Cross - TASS) to secure the evacuation of patients and medical staff from Al-Quds Hospital was stopped" in the central Palestinian enclave, the PRCS wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

The convoy is waiting for the situation to settle down to be able to proceed with the evacuation, the PRCS added.

Earlier, the PRCS reported that Israeli forces had encircled the hospital amid preparations for the evacuation, saying that "Israeli tanks and military stationed near Al-Quds Hospital from all directions."

The Arab media reported on November 8 that Israel had struck the hospital. Israel, however, said that the strikes had been delivered on Hamas militants seated in a building adjacent to the hospital, which had entailed secondary blasts. The Israeli side has repeatedly accused Hamas of organizing its infrastructure facilities in the exact vicinity of civilian structures, as well as in tunnels under them.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total siege of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.