The al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip targeted by Israeli raids, has become a “death zone”, denounced the World Health Organization which requested its evacuation, at a time when Israeli army expands operations in besieged territory.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, said on Saturday that Israeli strikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp, managed by the UN in the north of the territory, had left more than 80 dead, including at least 50 in a school that houses displaced people.
Images broadcast on social networks authenticated by AFP show bodies, some covered in blood, on the floors of the al-Fakhoura school in the Jabaliya camp, targeted by a strike according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, where mattresses had been installed under tables.
Asked about this strike, the Israeli army told AFP that it had “received reports of an incident in the Jabaliya region”, adding that it was “being examined”.
The second strike, which hit a house in Jabaliya, killed 32 members of the same family, including 19 children, according to the Hamas health ministry.
“We receive appalling images of numerous deaths and injuries once again in an UNRWA school which sheltered thousands of displaced people“, wrote on X (ex-Twitter) the head of this UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, demanding that “these attacks” stop.
Expansion of operations
As the war enters its 44th day on Sunday, the Israeli army “continues to expand its operations in new areas of the Gaza Strip”, it announced, indicating that it had carried out operations in the areas of Jabaliya on Saturday and Zaytoun, in the north of the territory.
Hundreds of people who had taken refuge in al-Chifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, left the premises on Saturday after being ordered to do so by the Israeli army, according to the director of the establishment and a journalist of the AFP on site. The army denied having ordered the evacuation, saying only that it had “responded to a request” from the director of al-Chifa hospital.
“Death Zone”
Al-Chifa hospital has become a “death zone” where the situation is “desperate” due to the lack of water, electricity, medicine, food and medical equipment, said Saturday evening theWorld Health Organization (WHO), which carried out a one-hour mission there on Saturday.
According to the WHO, the huge hospital complex still housed 25 caregivers and 291 patients on Saturday, including 32 babies in critical condition, 22 patients on dialysis and two in intensive care. Many of the injured suffer serious infections due to a lack of antibiotics and poor hygiene conditions, the organization reported.
“WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of remaining patients, staff and their families” to other hospitals in Gaza, added the WHO.
According to the Israeli army, which launched a raid on the hospital on Wednesday morning, the latter houses a Hamas hideout installed in particular in a network of tunnels. The Islamist movement denies it.
The war was sparked on October 7 by a Hamas attack on Israeli soil in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli authorities, the vast majority civilians.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” the Islamist movement, which took power in Gaza in 2007. The army relentlessly shelled the small Palestinian territory and launched a ground operation on October 27.
On Saturday evening, the Hamas government announced that 12,300 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli bombings since October 7, including more than 5,000 children.
March for the hostages
Since October 9, the territory has been under a “complete siege” by Israel, which has cut off deliveries of food, water, electricity and medicine.
In Israel, relatives of some 240 people kidnapped on the day of the Hamas attack arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday after several days of marching to maintain pressure on their government and demand the release of the hostages.
“Take them home now. All“, proclaimed in the middle of a sea of Israeli flags the demonstrators who left Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
The White House said Saturday it “continues to work hard” to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the hostages.
ADVERTISEMENT“We haven’t reached an agreement yet, but we continue to work hard” in this sense, wrote on X (ex-Twitter) the spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House, Adrienne Watson, denying information from the Washington Post according to whom an agreement providing for the release of hostages in exchange for a five-day pause in the fighting had been concluded between the belligerents.
In a column published by the same daily, American President Joe Biden has also threatened to ban visas to the United States from “extremist” settlers who attack civilians in the West Bank.
