Israeli military conducts raid at Gaza’s largest hospital, asks Hamas to surrender 

Israeli military conducts raid at Gaza’s largest hospital, asks Hamas to surrender 
Graphic content/Men walk as patients rest at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023. (AFP/File)
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Updated 15 November 2023
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Israeli military conducts raid at Gaza’s largest hospital, asks Hamas to surrender 

Israeli military conducts raid at Gaza’s largest hospital, asks Hamas to surrender 
  • Israel says Hamas has a command center underneath Al-Shifa and uses it to conceal military operations 
  • Hamas says about 7,000 civilians are trapped inside the hospital and under constant fire from Israeli snipers 

The Israeli military said it was carrying out a raid on Wednesday against Palestinian Hamas fighters in Al-Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, and urged them all to surrender. 

Less than an hour earlier, around 1 a.m. local time (2300 GMT), a Gaza health ministry spokesman said Israel had told officials in the enclave that it would raid the Shifa hospital complex “in the coming minutes.” 

Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, director-general of the Gaza health ministry, told Al Jazeera television that Israeli forces had raided the western side of the medical complex. “There are big explosions and dust entered the areas where we are. We believe an explosion occurred inside the hospital,” Bursh said. 

The fate of Al-Shifa has become a focus of international alarm because of worsening conditions in the facility in recent days with global calls for a humanitarian cease-fire after five weeks of an Israeli assault on Gaza. 

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: “Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa hospital.” 

The military added: “The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians.” 

Israel has said that Hamas has a command center underneath Al-Shifa and uses the hospital and tunnels beneath it to conceal military operations and to hold hostages. Hamas denies it. 

The US said on Tuesday that its own intelligence supported Israel’s conclusions. 

Israeli forces have waged fierce street battles against Hamas fighters over the past 10 days before advancing into the center of Gaza City and surrounding Al-Shifa. 

Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its cross-border assault into Israel on Oct 7. Israel says Hamas killed 1,200 people in the rampage and took more than 240 hostages. 

In the West Bank, a separate Palestinian enclave not controlled by Hamas, Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai Alkaila said Israel was “committing a new crime against humanity, medical staff and patients by besieging” Al-Shifa. 

“We hold the occupation forces fully responsible for the lives of the medical staff, patients and displaced people in Al-Shifa,” Alkaila said in a statement. 

Hamas says 650 patients and 5,000 to 7,000 other civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from Israeli snipers and drones. Amid shortages of fuel, water and supplies, it says 40 patients have died in recent days. 

Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed. 

Palestinians trapped in the hospital dug a mass grave on Tuesday to bury patients who died and no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators, Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza’s health ministry spokesman, said. 

Qidra said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply disturbed by the “dramatic loss of life” in the hospitals, his spokesman said. “In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” the spokesman told reporters. 

Medical officials in Hamas-run Gaza say more than 11,000 people are confirmed dead from Israeli strikes, around 40 percent of them children, and countless others trapped under rubble. 

Around two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been made homeless, unable to escape the territory where food, fuel, fresh water and medical supplies are running out. 

Israel’s move toward Shifa hospital has raised questions about how it would interpret international laws on protection of medical facilities and the thousands of displaced people sheltering there, UN human rights officials have said. 

Hospitals are protected buildings under international humanitarian law. But allegations that Shifa is also being used for military purposes complicated the situation because that would also breach international law, UN officials have said. 

Medical units used for acts harmful to the enemy, and which have ignored a warning to stop doing so, lose their special protection under international law. 

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, said before Israel’s raid that even if Hamas was proven to be using hospitals to conduct military operations, international law required that effective warnings be given before attacks. 

This meant people there needed a safe place to go and a safe way to get there, Shakir said. “It’s very alarming because you have to remember hospitals in Gaza are housing tens of thousands of displaced persons.” 

Israel said in its statement on Wednesday that it had given Gaza authorities 12 hours to cease military activities within the hospital. “Unfortunately, it did not,” the military statement said. 

International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said in an Oct. 30 statement on attacks on protected sites such as hospitals that Israel would also “need to demonstrate the proper application of the principles of distinction, precaution and of proportionality.” 

Although protection under international law could be lost, he said, “the burden of proving that the protective status is lost rests with those who fire the gun, the missile or the rocket in question.” 


Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms
Updated 10 sec ago
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Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms
  • Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.


Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case

Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case
Updated 16 min 26 sec ago
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Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case

Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case
  • “The (hostage) families demand an investigation against all those suspected of sabotage and undermining state security,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement

JERUSALEM: A Gaza hostages campaign group called Monday for an investigation into the alleged leak of confidential documents by an ex-aide to Israel’s premier, which may have undermined efforts to secure their release.
A court announced Sunday that Eliezer Feldstein, a former aide to Benjamin Netanyahu, had been detained along with three others for allegedly leaking documents to foreign media.
The case has prompted the opposition to question whether Netanyahu was involved in the leak — an allegation denied by his office.
“The (hostage) families demand an investigation against all those suspected of sabotage and undermining state security,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“Such actions, especially during wartime, endanger the hostages, jeopardize their chances of return and abandon them to the risk of being killed by Hamas terrorists.”
The forum represents most of the families of the 97 hostages still held in Gaza after they were seized in the unprecedented October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war.
The Israeli military says 34 of them are dead.
“The suspicions suggest that individuals associated with the prime minister acted to carry out one of the greatest frauds in the country’s history,” the forum said.
“This is a moral low point like no other. It is a severe blow to the remaining trust between the government and its citizens.”
Critics have long accused Netanyahu of stalling in truce negotiations and prolonging the war to appease his far-right coalition partners.
Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet and the army launched an investigation into the breach in September after two newspapers, British weekly The Jewish Chronicle and Germany’s Bild tabloid, published articles based on the classified military documents.
One article claimed a document had been uncovered showing that then Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar — later killed by Israel — and the hostages in Gaza would be smuggled into Egypt through the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The other was based on what was said to be an internal Hamas leadership memo on Sinwar’s strategy to hamper talks toward the liberation of hostages.
The Israeli court said the release of the documents ran the risk of causing “severe harm to state security.”
“As a result, the ability of security bodies to achieve the objective of releasing the hostages, as part of the war goals, could have been compromised,” it added.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli soil, mostly civilians, according to AFP’s count based on official Israeli data, including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 43,341 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures as reliable.
Meanwhile, late on Monday Netanyahu asked the attorney general to begin investigating other alleged leaks from cabinet meetings during the war.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have witnessed an incessant flood of serious leaks and revelations of state secrets,” he said in a letter to the attorney general, which was posted on his Telegram channel.
“Therefore, I am appealing to you to immediately order the investigation of the leaks in general.”


UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO

UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO
Updated 05 November 2024
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UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO

UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO
  • “This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” Tedros says

GENEVA: The chief of the World Health Organization on Monday denounced Israel’s decision to cut ties with the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, saying it would not make the country safer while increasing civilian suffering in Gaza.
“Let me be clear: There is simply no alternative to UNRWA,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video posted on X.
“This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” Tedros added.
His comments came after Israel said it had formally notified the UN of its decision to sever ties with UNRWA, after Israeli lawmakers backed the move last week.
The suspension of the agency, which coordinates nearly all aid in war-ravaged Gaza, sparked global condemnation including from key Israeli backer the United States.
The move is expected to come into force in late January, with the UN Security Council warning it would have severe consequences for millions of Palestinians.
Israel has accused a dozen UNRWA employees of taking part in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the deadliest in Israeli history.
A series of probes found some “neutrality related issues” at UNRWA but said Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.
The agency, which employs 13,000 people in Gaza, fired nine employees after an internal probe found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October.”
UNRWA, which was established in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli conflict following Israel’s creation a year earlier, provides assistance to nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
“Every day, it provides thousands of medical consultations and vaccinated hundreds of children,” Tedros said, adding that many humanitarian partners rely on UNRWA’s logistical networks to get supplies into Gaza.
He said that the UNRWA staff his organization had worked with were “dedicated health and humanitarian professionals who work tirelessly for their communities under unimaginable circumstances.”
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers to be reliable.


GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait

GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait
Updated 04 November 2024
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GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait

GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait
  • Meeting gathers ministers, UN agency representatives, international organizations

KUWAIT CITY: Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Al-Budaiwi addressed a high-level conference on counter-terrorism and border security on Monday.

The conference, which is being held in Kuwait and ends on Tuesday, has been organized by Kuwait in partnership with Tajikistan and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism.

It gathered ministers, UN agency representatives, and international and regional organizations to help bolster international counter-terrorism efforts.

Al-Budaiwi said: “This important regional conference focuses on border security and combating terrorism, which are vital issues requiring collective action.”

Al-Budaiwi spoke of the GCC’s achievements in security collaboration, including information-sharing and laws targeting terrorism financing.

He added: “The GCC countries have built a common security system through joint agreements, enhancing cooperation in border protection and addressing security threats.”

He stressed the region’s proactive approach in utilizing technology and training personnel to safeguard borders against transnational threats like arms and human trafficking.


Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village

Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village
Updated 04 November 2024
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Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village

Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village
  • Prime minister calls on international community to address Israeli aggression against Lebanon and protect nation’s heritage and cultural sites
  • Three people were killed in a raid on a residence in the town of Arabsalim in Iqlim Al-Tuffah

BEIRUT: Dozens of houses and other buildings in the Lebanese border village of Mays Al-Jabal have been destroyed during Israeli incursions over the past 48 hours, residents said. The fate of several elderly villagers, including a woman, who refused to leave their homes before the attacks remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, on Monday called on the international community to address Israel’s “continued aggression against Lebanon and its crimes of killing and destruction.”

His appeal came during meetings with ambassadors from the permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, the UK, France, Russia and China — and Sandra de Waal, the EU’s envoy to Lebanon.

The death toll in the country had risen to 2,968 by Sunday evening, officials said, including dozens of children, women and the elderly people who died in the rubble of their homes. The number of wounded has risen to 13,319. Health Minister Firas Abiad said eight hospitals in the south of the country, the Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs are out of service.

The people of Mays Al-Jabal appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for help to search for survivors who might be trapped under the rubble following the Israeli attacks. Some of the missing were said to be in their 80s and 90s and had received medical and food aid in recent months from the Red Cross, in coordination with UN Interim Force in Lebanon and the Lebanese army.

Explosions during the attacks in Mays Al-Jabal caused tremors similar to those in the towns of Kfarkela, Blida, Mhaibib, Khiam, Ayta Al-Shaab and Ramyah over the past two weeks. Israeli forces were reportedly spotted on the move in the vicinity of Mays Al-Jabal’s government hospital on Monday in preparation for a fresh assault.

Activists on social media shared satellite images of the devastation caused by the Israeli attacks on border villages, from which the inhabitants have fled.

Israeli airstrikes hit the villages of Tyre and Bint Jbeil but did not stop there. A Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Authority center in the town of Bazouriyeh was targeted, killing two paramedics and wounding several people.

Bint Jbeil, Maroun Al-Ras, Yaroun and Aitaroun have also come under sporadic artillery fire, though they were quiet on Monday. However, three people were killed in a raid on a residence in the town of Arabsalim in Iqlim Al-Tuffah region, and an Israeli airstrike on Machghara in Western Bekaa killed four people and left several injured.

The Israeli army said the air force had killed Abu Ali Rida, a Hezbollah leader in the southern Baraachit area said to be responsible for planning and carrying out rocket and anti-tank attacks, and overseeing the activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area.

Hezbollah said it “struck a gathering of soldiers to the east of Maroun Al-Ras, using a suicide drone that reached its intended target.” The group also said Israeli forces “retreated from the Khiam region on Sunday, as well as from Sarda, Al-Amra, Talat Al-Hamames and the vicinity of Al-Wazzani.”

It added that its forces had attacked the Nahariya settlement and the Meron air surveillance base, and launched a suicide-drone assault targeting Israeli forces in the Yiftah settlement.

On Sunday night, Hezbollah said it launched an “air attack with a squadron of suicide drones on a gathering of Israeli forces in the Manara settlement,” and targeted “the settlements of Elite Hashahar, Sha'al, Hatzor, Dalton and Yesud HaMa’ala with rocket barrages.”

Sirens sounded in Acre and Nahariya on Monday. Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israeli army, said: “Within 30 minutes this morning, the air force successfully intercepted four drones en route to Israel. Some of these drones originated from Lebanon, while others came from the east. Two of the drones were intercepted before entering the country’s airspace.”

According to Israeli news reports, “a drone was intercepted in the Rekhs Ramim area in Upper Galilee without activating the sirens.” And an Israeli attack on a residence in the Baalbek-Hermel area, close to the Douris municipality, reportedly caused significant damage.

During his meeting with the international envoys, Mikati said Israel had “turned against all the suggested solutions and continues its war crimes in various Lebanese regions, to the extent of targeting archaeological sites. This, in itself, is an additional crime against humanity and must be confronted and stopped.”

He highlighted the “escalation of Israeli hostilities against Lebanon and the atrocities committed, including killings and destruction, which should be brought to the attention of the international community, which remains silent on these events.”

Nations that traditionally “carry the banner of humanity and human rights should exert maximum pressure on Israel to stop its aggression,” Mikati added.

He said the Lebanese government has “welcomed all calls advocating for a ceasefire but Israel has turned against all proposed solutions. We renew our demand to put pressure on Israel to cease its aggression.”

The government previously agreed to “enhance the presence of the army and recruit military personnel,” he continued, and during an upcoming parliamentary session “we will discuss certain executive measures to support recruiting 1,500 members for the army.”

Mikati reiterated the need for the international community to put pressure on Israel to avoid targeting civilians, medical teams and ambulance crews, and handed the envoys “a letter in which he stressed that the ongoing Israeli aggression, especially the attacks on places such as Baalbek and Tyre, have led to the displacement of entire villages and threatened priceless heritage and cultural sites.”

He also presented them with a report on the damage to Lebanon’s health sector caused by the Israeli attacks, and called for “an immediate ceasefire to stop the senseless violence and protect our country’s cultural heritage.”

Mikati urged the Security Council “to take swift and decisive action to protect the historical treasures that are not only part of our national identity but also hold significance as global historical landmarks.”

He added: “We must work together to ensure the preservation of these sites for future generations.”