2023-11-12 05:01:00
The United Nations (UN) indicated this Saturday that the four large hospitals located in the north of the Gaza Strip were completely surrounded by the Israeli Army, while Israel announced that it will evacuate premature babies at Al Shifa Hospital before the lack of electricity.
The siege
“There can be no justification for acts of war that leave health facilities without electricity, food or water, or for patients and civilians to be shot at,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths in a statement. an official statement. “This is inconceivable, reprehensible and must stop. Hospitals must be places of greater security and those who need them must trust that they are places of refuge and not of war,” he stressed.
The Red Crescent denounced that Israeli tanks surround the Al Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip on all sides. “Israeli battle tanks and military vehicles surrounded the hospital on all sides and artillery fire made the entire building shake,” the humanitarian organization reported in a message published on its social network account X. It also explained that there were shootings in the hospital and that the number of wounded is unknown at the moment, while appealing to the international community to protect the health centers in Gaza, where thousands of internally displaced people continue to take refuge.
Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of COGAT for Gaza – the body of the Israeli Ministry of Defense that supervises civilian activities in the Palestinian territories – denied the accusation regarding Al Shifa Hospital. “In the last few hours I heard on the news that there is a siege and attacks on Al Shifa Hospital. I want to say it clearly: this is a lie,” Tetro declared in a recorded video. According to him, there are actually clashes between Army troops and agents of the Islamist group Hamas around the hospital, but the building is not surrounded nor is it being shot at. “The east side of the hospital remains open and even now, whoever wants can leave,” he stressed.
The humanitarian crisis
However, the Al-Shifa hospital – the largest in the Strip – was left without electricity after the fuel used to run the generators completely ran out. The spokesman for the Israeli Armed Forces, Daniel Hagari, announced that this Sunday they will evacuate the premature babies from the hospital, where two have already died due to the lack of electricity supply for the incubators. “The staff at Al Shifa Hospital asked us to help transfer the babies from the pediatric department to a safer hospital. We will give the help they asked for,” he said.
The Israeli Army also indicated in a statement the extension from four to seven hours of the deadline granted for those civilians who want to flee from the northern part of the Strip to the south through the Salah al Din highway. The military document also mentions that a new coastal route will be opened for evacuations.
Humanitarian sources informed the EFE agency that the Rafah crossing, which connects the Gaza Strip with Egypt, remained closed during the day, without trucks with humanitarian aid accessing the enclave or wounded people and Palestinians with foreign passports being evacuated.
According to the latest balance sheet from the Gaza Ministry of Health, there are more than 11,000 dead–of which around 4,500 are minors–and more than 27,000 injured, within the framework of Israel’s bombing campaign against the Gaza Strip. in retaliation for the Hamas terrorist attack that killed 1,400 people and took 240 hostages – among them twenty with Argentine citizenship -.
The problem with Hezbollah grows
Meanwhile, the Israeli armed forces launched air and artillery attacks against infrastructure linked to the Shiite group Hezbollah on Lebanese territory, located more than 40 kilometers from the common border, an unprecedented distance since the current outbreak broke out more than a month ago. escalation of the conflict. “What we can do in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut,” warned Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to the Hamas-allied movement. “If Hezbollah makes those mistakes here, the first to pay the price will be the Lebanese citizens,” he added.
For its part, the Lebanese Shiite group claimed responsibility in a statement for several attacks against military targets in areas located in northern Israel. They attacked a barracks in the town of Margaliot with rockets, in addition to several military positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms, territory that Lebanon claims as its own and that has already been the target of other actions in recent weeks. In these operations they used guided missiles and rockets that caused casualties among the Israeli ranks, according to the note, which did not specify the number of casualties.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his organization will maintain pressure on the group’s forces on the border with Israel by using new weapons in attacks, referring to new drones and the use of Burkan missiles, which carry an explosive charge. between 300 and 500 kilograms. “Daily operations continued despite all preventive measures taken by the enemy. Resistance continues,” Nasrallah detailed.
#Gaza #hospitals #surrounded #Israeli #Army #warned #Red #Crescent