2023-11-11 18:30:19
Time.news – Israel’s war against Hamas has reached its end thirty-sixth day. While the leaders of Islamic countries meet in Riyadh to discuss the crisis, in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health reports that more than 11,078 Palestinians have been killed and that theal-Shifa hospital is completely dark and isolated after being hit by a missile.
“We have started to lose human lives,” said Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the hospital. “Patients are dying by the minute, even babies in incubators“. The facility “remained without electricity, internet, water and medical supplies” he added.
According to the IDF, the attack on the largest health facility in the Gaza Strip was the result of a failed missile launch by Hamas. According to an Israeli source cited by the Wall Street Journal, the hostages in the hands of Hamas they could be kept in the basement of the hospital and this makes it difficult for the army to operate in the complex.
© Khader Al Zanoun / AFP
“The situation is catastrophic”
The situation inside the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City is “catastrophic”, said a surgeon quoted by the NGO Doctors Without Borders. “In the last few hours the attacks against the hospital have dramatically intensified. Our staff reported a catastrophic situation a few hours ago,” the organization wrote on X. Doctors Without Borders said it was currently unable to contact none of the hospital staff.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one person was killed and 28 others wounded in an Israeli attack on Gaza’s Al-Quds hospital. According to the report, some of the victims were refugees who had sought shelter in the hospital compound.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization said 20 hospitals in Gaza were completely out of service. The Israeli army said it had conducted a series of raids against Hamas facilities located in the heart of a civilian district of Gaza, and had killed two Nukhba force commanders who took part in the October 7 assault.
Another air strike, according to the Israeli armed forces, would have caused the death of Ahmed Siam, commander of Hamas’ Nasser-Radwan company
The French president, Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to stop the bombing of Gaza, but the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, responded by stating that the deaths of civilians are the responsibility of Hamas. Meeting with the heads of Gaza’s border communities, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel will have control of security over Gaza after the elimination of Hamas.
The Riyadh summit
Muslim leaders are meanwhile gathered in the Saudi capital for a meeting that should underline the request to end the fighting in Gaza before the war between Israel and Hamas involves other countries. The emergency meeting of Arab League and of theOrganization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is held after the bloody attacks by Hamas militants on October 7, which Israeli officials say left around 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, and 239 people taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent air and ground offensive killed more than 11,000 people, also mostly civilians and many of them children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Aid groups have joined calls for a ceasefire, warning of a humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza, where food, water and medicine are in short supply. The Arab League and the OIC were initially supposed to meet separately. Arab diplomats explained that the decision to merge the meetings was made after Arab League delegations failed to reach agreement on a final statement.
Some countries, including Algeria and Lebanon, have proposed responding to the devastation of Gaza by threatening to cut off oil supplies to Israel and its allies and to sever the economic and diplomatic ties that some Arab League countries have with Israel .
However, at least three countries – including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalized ties with Israel in 2020 – rejected the proposal, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Before the meeting, the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad he said he didn’t “expect anything,” criticizing Arab leaders for the delay. “We do not place our hopes in these meetings, because we have seen their results for many years,” Mohammad al-Hindi, the group’s deputy secretary general, said at a news conference in Beirut. “The fact that this conference is being held after 35 days of war is an indication of its achievements.”
Host Saudi Arabia “confirms that it holds the (Israeli) occupation authorities responsible for crimes committed against the Palestinian people,” the crown prince said Mohammed bin Salman, de facto ruler of the Gulf kingdom, at the start of the summit. “We are certain that the only way to ensure security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation, the siege and the settlements,” he said of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank .
© Khaled Al Zanoun/ AFP
The exterior of Al-Shifa hospital
“The siege must end”
At the joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh, the leaders focused on “Israeli aggression against Gaza”, reads the joint statement released by the Arab League.
The statement calls for an end to the siege of Gaza and the introduction of humanitarian aid. The countries also called on the international community to stop arms exports to Israel. Initially, only 22 members of the Arab League were expected to participate, but the meeting was then extended to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a larger association of 57 Muslim-majority states to which the Arab League countries belong .
Reproduction is expressly reserved © Time.news 2023
#Total #blackout #alShifa #Doctors #Borders #catastrophe