Hamas’ deputy health minister told AFP on Monday that “all hospitals in Gaza province”, the north of the Gaza Strip where fighting is taking place between the Israeli army and Hamas, were “out of service”. Since Friday, the noose has tightened around hospitals, mainly in Gaza City, at the heart of the fighting, with the Israeli army ensuring that they are used by Hamas to attack it. Furthermore, hospitals are now deprived of electricity due to lack of fuel necessary to operate the generators, the shortage of which is due to the siege imposed by Israel.
Information to remember:
- According to Hamas, “all hospitals in the north of the enclave are “out of service”.
- At least 6 premature babies and 9 patients died at al-Chifa hospital, according to new report
- At least 44 Israeli soldiers have died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
- Nearly 200,000 Palestinians fled the north of the territory in three days.
At least 6 premature babies and 9 patients died at al-Chifa hospital, according to new report
Hamas’ deputy health minister told AFP on Monday that “six premature babies” and “nine patients in intensive care” had died due to the lack of electricity at al-Chifa hospital, the largest of the Gaza Strip shelled and besieged by Israel.
Youssef Abou Rich, present in the hospital where thousands of displaced people are also sheltering, gave a previous report on Sunday evening of “five babies” and “seven patients” who died. On Saturday, the hospital announced that 39 premature babies were still in al-Chifa and that nurses were carrying out “hand breathing massages” to keep them alive. A doctor from the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also indicated that 17 patients were in intensive care.
Bombings continue in the north of the enclave
Thousands of Palestinians hope on Monday to leave the site of the Al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, without water or electricity for several days and trapped in fighting between Hamas and the Israeli army. At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised on Sunday in an interview with the American channel NBC the possibility of an agreement to release some of the approximately 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip, a condition according to him to all ceasefire.
“The less I express myself on the subject, the more I increase the chances that this will materialize,” declared Benjamin Netanyahu, without commenting on the negotiations for the release of the hostages, shortly before the 38th day, Monday, of the war launched on October 7 by a bloody attack by the Islamist movement, fatal to some 1,200 people, especially civilians, and unprecedented in the history of Israel. In the Gaza Strip, incessant Israeli bombardments have killed 11,180 people since October 7, mostly civilians, including 4,609 children, according to the Hamas health ministry.
44 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the start of the war, announces IDF
The Israeli army announced Monday the death of two new soldiers in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing to 44 the total of its soldiers killed in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Hamas.
Israel has been relentlessly striking the Gaza Strip since the deadly attack carried out on its soil by Hamas on October 7, and has been carrying out a parallel ground operation since October 27 with the aim of “annihilating” the Palestinian Islamist movement in power. in the territory. This toll of 44 concerns soldiers killed “in the Gaza Strip during the war”, specified an Israeli army spokesperson contacted by AFP.
Thousands of Palestinians continue to flee south
Nearly 200,000 Palestinians fled in three days from the north of the territory via “corridors” opened daily during “breaks”, to take refuge in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said on Saturday evening.
Besides al-Chifa, the situation remains complicated in other hospitals in Gaza according to Mohammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in this territory: patients “are in the streets without care” after the “forced evacuations” of two pediatric hospitals, al- Nasr and al-Rantissi. And another hospital in Gaza City, al-Quds, stopped operating on Sunday due to a lack of fuel and electricity, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
“The Israeli army ordered us to leave al-Quds hospital this morning,” Islam Chamallah told AFP on Sunday, after walking a dozen kilometers with her daughter in her arms, her husband and their three other children who are progressing with difficulty. The Israeli army had indicated that it had “secured” passages to evacuate civilians from certain health establishments including the site of the al-Chifa hospital where 15,000 people were crowded according to figures from Hamas and the health coordination office. humanitarian aid from the UN.
The Israeli army told AFP that a “humanitarian corridor” to leave the hospital towards the south was still “in place”. But “the (Israeli) tanks are completely besieging the al-Chifa hospital,” Hamas Deputy Health Minister Youssef Abou Rich told AFP, stressing that “650 patients, around forty children in incubators , all threatened with death” are in this hospital. Hamas announced Sunday evening that “five premature babies” and “seven intensive care patients” had died due to the lack of electricity at al-Chifa hospital.
And those who were able to go to the south of the territory saw it targeted by Israeli strikes. In Bani Souheila, near Khan Younès, a bombing of around ten houses left “10 dead, including women and children”, according to medical services. “I don’t even have a pancake of bread to feed my children,” explains to AFP a 42-year-old woman, Oum Yaaqoub, who arrived in Khan Younes three days ago with her husband and seven children.
“Maximum hold”
In a message on X, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) described the situation at al-Chifa hospital as “serious and dangerous” after “three days without electricity, without water”.
“The incessant firefights and bombardments in the surrounding area are aggravating already difficult circumstances,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The world cannot remain silent when hospitals, which should be havens of peace, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, despair. Ceasefire now,” he added.
In an interview with his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog, French President Emmanuel Macron said, according to the Israeli presidency, that he was not “accusing Israel of intentionally harming civilians” in Gaza, in reference to an interview with the BBC during which he had earlier “urged Israel to stop” the bombings killing civilians in Gaza.
Israel’s main ally, which denies deliberately targeting civilian sites, Washington said it opposed the fighting in hospitals in Gaza, “where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire.” Condemning on Sunday “Hamas’ use of hospitals and civilians as human shields”, the European Union called on Israel for “maximum restraint” to protect civilians and at a time of fear of regionalization of the conflict.
Towards an extension of the conflict?
The international community fears an extension of the conflict to the border between Israel and Lebanon, where daily exchanges of fire intensified on Sunday, or even beyond in the region involving pro-Iran militias, Israel’s number one enemy and supporter key to Hamas.
Ten people were injured in Israel by an anti-tank missile that fell in the north of the country, emergency services said, while the Israeli army said it responded by targeting the origin of the shot, in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, operates. And the United States launched strikes in Syria on Sunday “on facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran-affiliated groups, in response to continued attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
This is the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted sites in Syria that it says are linked to Iran, which supports various armed groups accused by Washington of being behind of an increase in attacks against its forces in the Middle East.