Israel bombed Gaza and increased attacks near the large hospital

2023-11-12 19:21:00

Israel bombed Gaza and increased attacks near the large hospital. Photo: AFP
Israel bombed last Saturday night and during the Gaza Strip and His troops were fighting Hamas militants near the largest hospital in the Palestinian territory, where thousands of doctors, patients and displaced people are trapped, without electricity and almost without supplies, according to health authorities.

In a televised speech, Last Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected growing calls from the international community for a ceasefire in Gaza. unless it includes the release of the nearly 240 hostages taken by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in its attacks in Israel last month.

Netanyahu said Israel will bring “full force” to the battle with Hamas, again vowed to end the Islamist group’s 16-year rule in the Gaza Strip and accused it of being responsible for the deadly impact of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. civilian population of the coastal enclave, where 2.4 million people live.

Israel is under increasing international pressure, including from its biggest ally, the United States, over its offensive, which enters its sixth week. and that has unleashed marches of repudiation around the world, including one of some 300,000 people last Saturday in London, the largest in the British capital since hostilities began.

In the Gaza StripResidents reported intense airstrikes and shelling overnight, including in the area around Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital, the territory’s largest, which lost power two days ago.

lsraeli airstrikes hit the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/RJdqZUp4JP

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) November 12, 2023

According to IsraelHamas hides a command post inside and beneath the hospital compound, an accusation that is rejected by the Islamist movement and hospital staff.

People inside the hospital said by telephone that throughout the night there was “violent fighting” in its vicinity, the AFP news agency reported.

The Gaza Ministry of Health assured that An Israeli bombing destroyed the hospital’s cardiology unit building this Sunday.

The Israeli Army, however, denied last Saturday that it had deliberately attacked the hospital.

Fear for patients and refugees at Al Shifa and other medical centers in Gaza is growing.

The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated that hospitals will become “morgues” without a ceasefire or evacuation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected a ceasefire in Gaza. Photo: AFP
For its part, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced “a significant number of deaths and injuries” in a “bombing” last Saturday at one of its headquarters in Gaza City.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said the power outage at Al Shifa Hospital left the neonatal intensive care unit out of service, causing the death of a premature baby, another child in an incubator and four patients.

Another 37 babies were at risk of death, he added.

Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas after its October 7 attacks, which left some 1,200 dead, mostly civilians. Some 240 people, including twenty Argentines, were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

More than 11,000 people died in the Gaza Strip, also mostly civilians and many children, due to Israel’s offensive in response, according to the latest balance from the Health Ministry of Hamas, which controls the Palestinian territory.

The ministry has not updated the casualty figures for two days, citing the collapse of hospital services.

Israeli Army spokesman Daniel Hagari He promised last Saturday that soldiers would help this Sunday evacuate the babies from Al Shifa to “a safer hospital.”

The Army indicated that a “safe passage” will be opened to allow the evacuation of people from Al Shifa.

The Ministry of Health says that in Al Shia there are still 1,500 patients and 1,500 doctors or health personnel in general, as well as between 15,000 and 20,000 displaced people.

Gaza residents reported intense airstrikes and shelling overnight. Photo: AFP
According to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)20 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are “out of service” due to the lack of supplies due to the Israeli siege.

The Red Cross said another large hospital in Gaza City, Al Quds, was out of service due to a lack of electricity.

Humanitarian aid has entered in dribs and drabs from neighboring Egypt into this territory of just 362 square kilometers, thanks to the intermittent opening of the crossing in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which borders Egyptian territory.

The step has also served for the evacuation of Palestinians with dual nationality and wounded people.

This Sunday, 500 Palestinians with dual nationality crossed into Egypt through the Rafah crossing along with seven wounded Palestinians, AFP and AlQahera News said. close to the Egyptian intelligence services.

Netanyahu said last Saturday that he opposed the current Palestinian National Authority (PNA) government of President Mahmoud Abbas playing a role in Gaza once the offensive against Hamas ends.

“There will have to be something different there,” he said.

The ANP is based in the West Bank, the other Palestinian territories, which have been under military occupation and colonized by Israel since 1967. Abbas’ self-government is a rival to Hamas, which expelled him from Gaza in 2007.

Abbas has shown himself willing to take control of Gaza, but only within a comprehensive agreement with Israel that includes the decolonization of the West Bank and east Jerusalem to form a Palestinian state in all those territories.

Even before the Hamas attacks, the conflict resolution formula supportedThe far-right government of Netanyahu rejected the creation of a Palestinian stateated by the United States and the vast majority of the international community.

More than 170 Palestinians have died in the West Bank in military operations and attacks by Israeli settlers since those of Hamas in Israel, according to the ANP, including at least two shot by soldiers in raids on towns in the north of the territory.

Intense fighting in the northern Gaza Strip accelerated an exodus of people to the south. Israel has urged civilians in Gaza to move south to safety, even though it has also launched bombings there.

The authorities warned about the lack of electricity and supplies in the health unit. Photo: AFP
The Israeli Army reopened a “safe corridor” this Sunday for seven hours so that the Gazans go to the south of the strip

Nearly 1.6 million Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes since October 7, according to the UN.

The newly displaced no longer find places to take refuge and some are forced to sleep on the streets.

About the conflict

Since its inception, the conflict has threatened to spread throughout the Middle East, where pro-Iran militias operate and have recently been attacking Israeli territory from Lebanon, Yemen and Syria and US military bases in Syria and Iraq.

This Sunday, Israeli fighter jets attacked “terrorist infrastructure” in Syria after firing from that territory towards the Syrian Golan region, annexed by Israel, the Israeli Army reported.

In the north of Israel, on the border with Lebanon, there are also daily exchanges of fire with the Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Hamas.

Besides, Several civilians were injured in the northern Israeli border town of Dovev by an anti-tank missile launched by Hezbollah, which said it was directed against a military target.

The Israeli military later said it responded with artillery strikes in southern Lebanon.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called on Muslim countries to designate the Israeli military as a “terrorist organization” during a summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.