Despite growing international pressure for respite, Israel continues to bomb health facilities and residential areas in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes on Sunday and Monday kept the focus on the enclave’s hospitals and civilian neighborhoods, a tactic that only encouraged renewed calls from around the world for a ceasefire. fire in besieged Palestinian territory as civilian casualties rise.
Mass casualties were reported following strikes on the Jabalia and Nuseirat refugee camps. Israeli artillery shelling targeted several residences in the Shujayea, Tuffah and Daraj neighborhoods of Gaza City.
Continuous shooting was reported at the entrance to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. At least 26 Palestinians were killed in an attack on the hospital earlier, Tel Aviv Tribune journalists reported.
The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, has been targeted several times over the past 48 hours. An Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building on Sunday, killing a 13-year-old girl named Dina Abu Mehsen and injuring several others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A bomb fell near the building but did not explode, causing widespread panic and injuring three people, according to Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah.
In a statement to Tel Aviv Tribune, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra denounced Israel for attempting to “eliminate” the besieged enclave’s health sector.
“What the occupation is doing is part of the scenario that started in northern Gaza from the Shifa compound,” he said.
“Targeting the Nasser Medical Complex is part of the occupation’s policy to eliminate the health sector and would lead to the collapse of the health system in the southern Gaza Strip,” he added.
Gaza’s deadliest war on record began with attacks by Hamas, which rules the enclave, on October 7, when the group killed 1,139 people and kidnapped around 250, according to updated Israeli figures.
Gaza’s health ministry says more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed during the Israeli campaign in Gaza. It said more than 100 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, while dozens more were believed to have died so far Monday.
The World Health Organization described the situation at al-Shifa hospital – once the cornerstone of the territory’s health system – as a “bloodbath”, as hundreds of injured patients sheltered there and that “new patients were arriving every minute”.
The UN agency said the hospital, which was occupied by Israeli forces at the start of the war, provides only basic trauma stabilization, has no blood for transfusions and virtually no staff to care for a constant flow of patients, after a visit to deliver medications. and surgical supplies to the facility.
Dr Rana Hajjeh, from the WHO office in Cairo, told Tel Aviv Tribune: “What they saw was a scene of complete horror. Injured patients are all over the floor, they are sutured to the floor. There are not enough beds or stretchers. There are no painkillers. They basically just bleed onto the floor.
Thousands of displaced people are using the hospital building and grounds as shelter during severe water and food shortages, Hajjeh said.
“Extremely worried”
Israeli soldiers attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza several days earlier in the week and killed dozens of people before evacuating injured patients and medical staff to the hospital, according to Gaza health authorities. the enclave.
Citing the ministry’s reports, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week he was “extremely concerned” about the situation at the hospital.
The WHO said it was urgently collecting information at the hospital, where Gaza authorities said Israeli forces this week used a bulldozer to destroy the perimeter of a site Israel said was used by Hamas fighters.
The Israeli military said the hospital was used as Hamas’ “command and control center” and that soldiers arrested around 80 fighters before leaving the site on Saturday.
Earlier in the week, Gaza authorities said around 70 medical staff were arrested by Israel during the raid.
The group denied using Kamal Adwan or other hospitals for its activities. Israel also said Al-Shifa had been used by Hamas before occupying it last month.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila called for an “urgent investigation” after Israeli forces were accused of crushing Palestinians, including injured patients, with bulldozers in the courtyard of the hospital.
Only four out of 24 hospitals operating in northern Gaza before the start of the war with Israel had even partial service, and three of them are barely functioning, the WHO said.
Israeli raids on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 110 Palestinians on Sunday, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
Another attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least 25 people overnight, according to Tel Aviv Tribune’s team on the ground.
The strikes and raids reportedly continued on Monday.
Calls for a truce
The Israeli government is under increasing pressure from the international community to suspend fighting and do more to protect civilians.
The United Nations Security Council is due to vote on Monday on a new resolution, drafted by the United Arab Emirates, calling for a truce and the delivery of aid to Gaza.
The UN estimates that 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza – about 80 percent of the population – have been displaced by the war.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if people started dying of starvation, or a combination of hunger, disease and low immunity,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations refugee agency. Palestinians.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called for an “immediate and lasting” truce on Sunday during a visit to Israel.
Germany and the United Kingdom also joined calls for a ceasefire over the weekend, and Israeli protesters demanded that the government restart negotiations with Hamas to release more hostages after three of them were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops while waving a white flag.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was expected to pressure Israel to end major combat operations when he arrives in Tel Aviv on Monday. He will also visit Qatar, which negotiated a previous truce agreement.