by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip will be suspended on Friday according to the United Nations due to a lack of fuel and a communications cut, worsening the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave after six weeks of Israeli military offensive against Hamas.
For the second day in a row on Thursday, no trucks carrying aid entered the territory due to lack of fuel and the World Food Program (WFP) is warning of the imminent risk of famine.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency said an Israeli strike hit a group of displaced people and caused casualties near the Rafah crossing point on the border with Egypt, through which international aid passes.
According to the Al Djazira channel, this strike left nine people dead. Israel could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Israeli army said Friday that it had found near the Al Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, the bodies of two Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas and that it had discovered a well leading to tunnels used by the Islamist group within the hospital complex itself.
“Corporal Noa Marciano, 19, was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Her body was excavated by the IDF near Al Chifa Hospital in Gaza,” the army said on X, ex-Twitter.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, Israeli forces found the remains of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman who worked in a nursery school, kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Be’eri.
Around 240 hostages were captured by Hamas during its coordinated October 7 attacks in southern Israel, which left some 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians.
The IDF also announced that it had discovered “terrorist infrastructure” within the Al Chifa hospital, including an operational tunnel shaft and a vehicle containing numerous weapons.
In a statement released Thursday, Hamas rejected claims by the Pentagon and the US State Department that the group is using Al Chifa Hospital for military purposes.
CLASHES IN THE WEST BANK
Israel, which has set itself the objective of “eradicating” the Palestinian Islamist movement in response to the carnage of October 7, is massively bombing the Gaza Strip where its army is carrying out ground operations.
The Israeli General Staff said the army was close to destroying Hamas’s military infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip and there were indications of possible operations in other parts of the territory, notably around Khan Younes (south) where Israel dropped leaflets urging the population to evacuate.
At least 11,500 Palestinians, including more than 4,700 children, were killed in the offensive, according to data from representatives of Gaza health authorities considered reliable by the UN.
“We are extremely concerned about the spread of diseases as winter sets in,” Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, said on Friday.
It reported more than 70,000 cases of acute respiratory infections and more than 44,000 cases of diarrheal diseases in the crowded enclave, where two-thirds of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced by fighting. .
In the West Bank, the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said in a statement on Friday that they had clashed with Israeli forces for several hours, unleashing a “torrent of fire” and setting up ambushes using explosives.
The Israeli military confirmed airstrikes against fighters in Jenin who opened fire on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and used explosives. At least five fighters were killed according to her. According to Palestinian ambulance services, three Palestinians were killed by a drone strike.
Israeli Army Radio also reported a shootout between Palestinian activists and Israeli forces near Hebron, without immediately providing an assessment.
According to Palestinian authorities, at least 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7.
(With Reuters offices, Kate Entringer and Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French service)
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