The Latest: Israeli army orders evacuation of a Gaza City hospital as world leaders gather at the UN

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Israeli forces showed no signs of relenting on their new ground offensive in Gaza City on Monday as world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly and more countries prepared to join the surge of nations recognizing a Palestinian state.

Hundreds of thousands have remained in the city, the territory’s largest and already in ruins from nearly two years of war and struggling with famine. The Israeli military ordered the evacuation on Monday of the Jordanian Hospital, a key health clinic, a Palestinian health official said.

The latest Israeli operation, which started last Tuesday, further escalates a conflict that has roiled the Middle East and likely pushes any ceasefire farther out of reach. The Israeli military, which says it wants to “destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure,” hasn’t given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications it could take months.

Many have been attempting to relocate from the city, where 1 million people once lived, to the southern Gaza Strip, following Israeli military calls for a full evacuation.

Here's the latest:

About 400 people gathered at the Palestinian Mission to the U.K. on Monday to mark Britain’s recognition of the Palestinian state.

A crowd clapped and cheered as the Palestinian flag was raised in front of the building during a ceremony.

Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian head of mission in the U.K., thanked the people of Britain for supporting their cause.

“We will always remember how you stood by our sides, on the right side of history,” he said.

Zomlot also held up a plaque made for the newly inaugurated embassy, though he didn’t give details about when the mission would formally transition to an embassy.

He also said Sunday that recognition must be followed by action, including sanctioning Israel and reversing the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

Site Management Cluster, whose figures are widely trusted by the U.N. and humanitarian groups, said its teams counted about 297,597 “movements” from Gaza City toward the south between August 14 and Sept. 20.

The organization uses the term “movements” in case the same displaced person moves more than once. But in reality, field monitoring teams say nearly all movements are people fleeing the city.

They monitor the number of people moving during daytime hours through four locations in Gaza, meaning the figure could be an undercount.

Israel’s military claims that over 500,000 Palestinians have left the city.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are still sheltering in the city as troops move in.

Some Palestinians fleeing Gaza City said they see the flurry of recognitions as “a glimmer of hope” and urged other countries to join the move.

“This is a beginning, or a glimmer of hope for the Palestinian people,” said Fawzi Nour al-Deen, a displaced Palestinian, said late on Sunday. “We are a people who deserve to have a state.”

Naser Asaliya, another displaced Palestinian from Gaza City, said it was a “positive” move.

“No matter how simple, anything that supports us, strengthens our resolve in light of this unjust blockade,” he said.

Others downplayed the impact of the recognition in the face of the devastation of the territory.

“All of this is worthless,” said Huda Masawabi, a displaced woman. “We just hope to God that someone outside would acknowledge us or even deal with us as mere human beings.”

Thousands of workers and students across Italy have joined a general strike and demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Italy’s grassroots unions called for the 24-hour strike on Monday, affecting both public and private sectors, including transportation, schools and ports.

The strike caused disruptions nationwide, with delays for trains and limited public transport in cities like Rome and Milan.

More than 20,000 people gathered in front of Rome’s central station to protest the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Unions and student organizations have criticized the Italian and EU governments for their inaction.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot linked France’s gradual establishment of diplomatic relations with a Palestinian state on the release of hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza, following their Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

The comments come as French President Emmanuel Macron is to formally recognize a Palestinian state later on Monday at the United Nations.

This is “a symbolic, immediate, political decision that shows France’s commitment to the two-state solution,” Barrot said, speaking on TF1 television on Monday.

He added that its "implementation, the establishment of diplomatic relations, will be gradual and under condition of a number of factors on the ground, including the release of hostages.”

The Jordanian field hospital in the city's southwestern neighborhood of Tal al-Hawa received orders to evacuate on Monday morning, according to a senior health official.

The military has already ordered all Palestinians in Gaza City to head south, to central and southern Gaza Strip. It has told aid workers in private messages that all humanitarian sites — except hospitals — must evacuate.

The military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dr. Muneer al-Boush, director general of the Gaza Health Ministry, told The Associated Press that the hospital has at least 300 patients, as well as medical staff and family members of the patients.

The order came as residents reported that troops were approaching the facility, with dozens of families trapped in their homes and shelters around the hospital.

Britain, Canada and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday, joining nearly 150 countries that have already done so, and France was expected to do the same at the General Assembly.

Portugal also joined the group, announcing its recognition later Sunday from New York.

France and Saudi Arabia hope to use this year’s gathering of world leaders and the increasingly horrific war in the Gaza Strip to inject new urgency into the quest for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But the efforts to push a two-state solution face major obstacles, beginning with vehement opposition from the United States and Israel. The U.S. has blocked Palestinian officials from even attending the General Assembly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has threatened to take unilateral action in response — possibly including the annexation of parts of the West Bank.

The two flags and a dove with an olive branch have been projected onto a giant screen on the Eiffel Tower on Sunday evening, ahead of France’s recognition of a Palestinian State.

The city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said on Bluesky social media that it was meant to show Paris’ support for French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative, to be formalized at a United Nations conference later on Monday.

“Paris reaffirms its commitment to peace, which more than ever requires a two-state solution” and expressed “its solidarity towards all Palestinian and Israeli civilian victims,” Hidalgo wrote.

The mayor of Saint-Denis, in Paris' northern suburbs, raised the Palestinian flag on the town hall on Monday morning as a “testament of solidarity” toward the people in Gaza.

France’s Interior Ministry said at least 21 municipalities across the country have made a similar move, defying a government order not to display of Palestinian flags on town halls in line with the principle of neutrality in public services.

Saint-Denis' mayor Mathieu Hanotin said that at “this terrible moment that we live through every day in Gaza," the flag was a "testament to international solidarity in the face of the ongoing massacres.”

Cities such as Nantes and Rennes in western France and several suburban towns around Paris also raised the Palestinian flag, echoing a call launched by Socialist leader Olivier Faure.

Faure said France’s recognition of a Palestinian state, alongside other Western nations, was “a major step towards the possibility tomorrow of a peace with two states.”