EXPLANER
Israeli forces disguised as doctors and nurses kill three Palestinians in a West Bank hospital amid the Gaza war.
Here’s how things are going on Tuesday January 30, 2024:
Violence in the West Bank
- Israeli special forces disguised as doctors and nurses killed three Palestinians inside the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
- The Israeli military said the targeted Palestinians were members of armed groups.
- The Al-Farouq mosque, in the Khan Younis refugee camp, was bombed, with heavy fire.
- During ongoing raids in the Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps, Israeli forces bulldozed roads, water, telecommunications and electricity lines, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
- Five Palestinians arrested Monday by the Israeli army during a raid in Jenin said they had been tortured in custody, Wafa reported.
Latest news on continued Israeli strikes on Gaza
- Israeli planes targeted a family’s home in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City on Tuesday, killing at least 20 civilians and injuring several others, according to Wafa.
- Wafa reported that dozens of women and children fled an UNRWA shelter in Gaza City after a raid by Israeli forces on Tuesday. The women and children took shelter at the Arab Ahli Hospital, which was heavily damaged during the initial phase of Israel’s war on Gaza.
- Israeli military forces shelled the Batn al-Sameen area and the al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wafa reported.
- The Palestinian movement Hamas said on Monday that Israel must end its offensive on Gaza and withdraw from the enclave before more prisoners are released. Israel says it will fight until Hamas is eradicated. More than 100 Israeli prisoners are still held by Hamas.
- On Monday, Hamas fired its first series of rockets in weeks at Israeli cities, proving it still had the capacity to launch them after nearly four months of war.
- U.S. officials said Monday that the armed forces may have mistaken an enemy drone for a U.S. drone and let it pass safely through a desert base in Jordan, where it killed three U.S. soldiers and injured dozens. others.
- On Saturday, Israeli forces showed foreign journalists an area in Bani Suheila, in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, where forces had destroyed a mosque and an Islamic cemetery.
Diplomacy
- White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the United States does not want a broader war with Iran or in the region, “but we have to do what we must do.”
- Twelve Israeli ministers attended a conference on Sunday calling for the reconstruction of Israeli settlements in Gaza. This was condemned by Kirby as “irresponsible, reckless and inflammatory”.
- Qatar Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said Monday he hoped U.S. retaliation for the attack in Jordan would not jeopardize progress toward a new deal to release captives between Israel and Hamas.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that the situation in the Middle East was more dangerous than it had been since at least 1973.
- As hunger rises in Gaza, the United States and several other countries have suspended funding to the United Nations humanitarian agency, UNRWA, after Israel accused a dozen UNRWA employees of being involved in the October 7 attacks against Israel. The UN, which is investigating this affair, speaks of “collective punishment”.
- At the same time, some countries, including Spain and Norway, have confirmed their continued financial support for UNRWA.