Israel raids main Gaza hospital as Rafah concerns grow

Update Children rest outside, as Palestinians arrive in Rafah after they were evacuated from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis due to the Israeli ground operation. (Reuters)
Children rest outside, as Palestinians arrive in Rafah after they were evacuated from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis due to the Israeli ground operation. (Reuters)
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Updated 16 February 2024
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Israel raids main Gaza hospital as Rafah concerns grow

Children rest outside, as Palestinians arrive in Rafah after they were evacuated from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
  • MSF said people ordered by Israel to evacuate hospital faced impossible choice to stay “and become a potential target” or leave into “apocalyptic landscape” of bombings
  • Health authorities said Israel had forced out displaced people and families of medical staff sheltering in Nasser Hospital

JERUSALEM/DOHA: Israeli forces said on Thursday they had raided the biggest functioning hospital in Gaza, as video posted online showed chaos, shouting and the sound of shooting in darkened corridors that were filled with dust and smoke.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari described the raid on Nasser Hospital as “precise and limited” and said it was based on credible information that Hamas was hiding in the facility, had kept hostages there and that bodies of hostages may still be there.
A spokesperson for Hamas called Israel’s claim “lies.”
Health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave said Israel had forced out displaced people and families of medical staff sheltering in Nasser Hospital, with some 2,000 arriving in the southern border city of Rafah overnight and some pushing north to Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.
The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has since devastated tiny, crowded Gaza, killing 28,663 people, also mostly civilian, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run strip and forcing nearly all its inhabitants from their homes.
The UN humanitarian office had said on Wednesday that Nasser Hospital was besieged by Israeli forces with allegations of sniper fire at the facility, endangering the lives of medics, patients and thousands of displaced people.
The medical charity Medicins San Frontieres said people ordered by Israel to evacuate the hospital faced an impossible choice to stay “and become a potential target” or leave “into an apocalyptic landscape” of bombings.
Fighting at the hospital comes as Israel faces growing international pressure to show restraint in its Gaza war, after vowing to press its offensive into Rafah, the last relatively safe place for civilians in the enclave.
Attacks that have destroyed the majority of Gaza’s medical facilities have caused particular concern throughout the conflict, including Israeli raids on hospitals in other cities, shelling in the vicinity of hospitals and the targeting of ambulances.
As massive bombardment destroyed swathes of residential districts and forced most people from their homes, hospitals quickly became the focus for displaced people seeking shelter around buildings they thought more likely to be safe.
Israel accuses Hamas of regularly using hospitals, ambulances and other medical facilities for military purposes, and has aired footage taken by its troops that it says shows tunnels containing weapons below some hospitals.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had apprehended a number of suspects at the Nasser Hospital and that its operations there were continuing.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Israel’s statement accusing the group of hiding fighters or keeping hostages at the hospital was “lies.” He added that “all previous Israeli allegations against hospitals had proven to be false.”

VIDEO SHOWS HOSPITAL CHAOS
Speaking about the hospital raid, Hagari said “this sensitive operation was prepared with precision and is being conducted by IDF special forces who underwent specified training.”
He said one objective of the operation was to ensure the hospital could continue treating Gazan patients and “we communicated this in a number of conversations we had with the hospital staff,” adding there was no obligation to evacuate.
Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had forced doctors at Nasser hospital to abandon patients in intensive care there, putting their lives in danger.
Videos that Reuters verified on Thursday as having been filmed inside Nasser Hospital, though it could not verify when, showed scenes of chaos and terror.
Men walked through dark corridors using the lights from their phones, with plaster dust swirling around and debris lying in the corridors, at one point wheeling a bed through a damaged area.
At one point in a video gunshots rang out and a doctor shouted “Is there anyone still inside? There is gunfire, there is gunfire — heads down.”
Another man in a video said the Israeli army had surrounded the hospital and nobody could get out.
The World Health Organization has previously said half the medical staff of Nasser Hospital had already fled.


Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis

Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis
Updated 49 sec ago
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Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis

Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis
Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area
Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza health officials said a wave of Israeli strikes hit the territory’s southern district of Khan Yunis on Tuesday evening, killing a dozen people, seven of them children.
At least five strikes targeted parts of Khan Yunis, including one in the Al-Mawasi area where thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in tents along the coast.
Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry reported.
A witness told AFP that several tents caught fire from the strike, which also wounded more than 20 people.
Five people, including three children, were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in Khan Yunis, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.
Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis, while another two were killed when an apartment was hit.
There was no immediate comment from the military about the latest strikes.
They came as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha on a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages.
In recent months, the Israeli military has focused its offensive on northern districts of Gaza, particularly the town of Jabalia and its adjacent refugee camp.
“We won’t stop. We will bring them (Hamas) to the point where they understand that they must return all hostages,” Israel’s army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told troops during a visit to Jabalia late on Monday.
“They see, every single day, what you are doing to them, and they understand that this is becoming unbearable,” he said, according to a statement released by the military.
During their October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the war, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 45,885 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office

Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office
Updated 11 min 5 sec ago
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Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office

Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office
  • Harris plans to visit Changi Naval Base in Singapore and meet with leaders of the city-state
  • The next stop is Bahrain, where Harris will visit the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet

WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris plans to close out her term with an around-the-world trip making stops in Singapore, Bahrain and Germany, her office said.
The trip, which is scheduled to last from Jan. 13 to Jan. 17, will be a final opportunity for Harris to address US foreign policy challenges before Donald Trump takes office. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is expected to join the vice president.
Although she has not disclosed her next steps after losing the presidential election, the expansive travel suggests that Harris might want to continue playing a role on the global stage. There’s also speculation that Harris could run for governor of her home state of California.
Dean Lieberman, Harris’ deputy national security adviser, said in a written statement that “the vice president felt it important to spend some of her final days in office thanking and engaging directly with US servicemembers deployed overseas, which as she has said, has been one of her greatest privileges as vice president.”
There are US troops based at all three of Harris’ stops.
Harris plans to visit Changi Naval Base in Singapore and meet with leaders of the city-state. Singapore’s location in the Indo-Pacific region makes it a key partner for addressing issues involving China, including freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
The next stop is Bahrain, where Harris will visit the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet. The fleet has been engaged in efforts to protect Israel from Iranian attacks and regional shipping activity from the Houthis in Yemen.
Harris’ final stop will be Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, home to a deployment of US Air Force fighter jets. She plans to talk about the importance of NATO in deterring Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
Harris has previously visited Germany and Singapore. Bahrain will be the 22nd country she’s visited during her term.
“The vice president continues to believe in a strong US global leadership role because it benefits the security and prosperity of the American people, and she will reaffirm this throughout her trip,” Lieberman said.


Israeli forces kill 31 Palestinians in Gaza onslaught, 3 in West Bank

Israeli forces kill 31 Palestinians in Gaza onslaught, 3 in West Bank
Updated 2 min 4 sec ago
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Israeli forces kill 31 Palestinians in Gaza onslaught, 3 in West Bank

Israeli forces kill 31 Palestinians in Gaza onslaught, 3 in West Bank
  • Qatar confirms ‘technical meetings’ on ceasefire ongoing

CAIRO, DOHA: The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that 31 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 45,885 as the war entered its 16th month.

The ministry also said that at least 109,196 people had been wounded in the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian group’s Oct, 7, 2023 attack.
Separately, Israeli forces killed at least three Palestinians in stepped-up operations across the occupied West Bank following the killing of three Israelis near a Jewish settlement. The Palestinian Health Ministry said an 18-year-old was killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike in Tamun, a town northeast of Nablus city, while a 40-year-old was shot dead in the nearby village of Taluza.

FASTFACT

Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 45,885 Palestinians and wounded 109,196 since Oct. 7, 2023.

The Israeli military said that after a clash with militants in the Tamun area, its war planes struck and killed two fighters. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA also reported a second Palestinian killed in a strike in Tamun.

Displaced Palestinian man Tayseer Obaid sits with his family in an underground pit he dug at their tent encampment to protect them from Israeli strikes, in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, January 6, 2025. (REUTERS)

The Israeli military said a third militant was killed in a firefight in Taluza and several were arrested in various incidents. Hamas’s armed Al-Qassam Brigades confirmed the man killed in Taluza was one of its fighters.
WAFA meanwhile reported revenge attacks by Jewish settlers, who it said had set fire to a vehicle overnight and attacked a Palestinian village.
It said the Israeli military was setting up more checkpoints and road closures, and conducting increased incursions and raids.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities renewed a closure order for Al Jazeera’s Ramallah office in the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers posted the extension order on the entrance of the building housing Al Jazeera’s offices in central Ramallah.
The extension applies from Dec. 22 and lasts 45 days. In September, Israeli forces raided the Ramallah office and issued an initial 45-day closure order.
Talks aimed at cementing a truce in Gaza are ongoing, with “technical meetings” taking place between the parties, mediator Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said.
“The technical meetings are still happening between both sides,” ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said, referring to meetings with lower-level officials on the details of an agreement. “There are no principal meetings taking place at the moment.”
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end the devastating conflict in Gaza.
Ansari said there were “a lot of issues that are being discussed” in the ongoing meetings, but refused to go into details “to protect the integrity of the negotiations.”
Hamas said at the end of last week that indirect negotiations in Doha had resumed, while Israel said it had authorized negotiators to continue the talks in the Qatari capital.
A previous round of mediation in December ended with both sides blaming the other for the impasse.

 


Trump Middle East envoy predicts ‘good things’ to announce on Gaza hostages before inauguration

Trump Middle East envoy predicts ‘good things’ to announce on Gaza hostages before inauguration
Updated 07 January 2025
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Trump Middle East envoy predicts ‘good things’ to announce on Gaza hostages before inauguration

Trump Middle East envoy predicts ‘good things’ to announce on Gaza hostages before inauguration
  • “Well, I think we’re making a lot of progress, and I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha,” Witkoff said
  • “I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president“

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday he hopes to have good things to report about hostages held by Hamas in Gaza by the time Trump is sworn in as US president on Jan. 20.
“Well, I think we’re making a lot of progress, and I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha,” Witkoff said at a Trump press conference in Palm Beach, Florida.
Doha has been hosting negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza war that would include freeing hostages that Hamas abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Doha is capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, which along with Egypt and the US has been mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Witkoff said that if he did not travel back to Doha on Tuesday night, he would head there on Wednesday night.
“I think that we’ve had some really great progress, and I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” Witkoff said.
Trump, a Republican who will succeed Democratic President Joe Biden, repeated his threat that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the hostages by the time he takes office.
“It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,” he said.
Hamas-led Islamist militants killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250, including Israeli-American dual nationals, during their Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 100 hostages have been freed through negotiations or Israeli military rescue operations. Of the 101 still held in Gaza, roughly half are believed to be alive.
Israel’s subsequent campaign against Hamas has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health officials, displaced nearly all of the population in Hamas-ruled Gaza and reduced much of its territory to rubble.


Gaza clan leaders urge Palestinian Authority to govern coastal enclave

Gaza clan leaders urge Palestinian Authority to govern coastal enclave
Updated 07 January 2025
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Gaza clan leaders urge Palestinian Authority to govern coastal enclave

Gaza clan leaders urge Palestinian Authority to govern coastal enclave
  • Community leaders demand a stop to ongoing forced Israeli displacement of Palestinians from northern Gaza
  • Confirm the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole representative of the Palestinian people

LONDON: Clan leaders in Gaza City and northern Gaza called for the Palestinian Authority to govern the coastal enclave in a rare public statement this week.

Prominent clan leaders in the Gaza Strip have requested President Mahmoud Abbas take charge of Gaza’s affairs, which have been affected by Israel’s war in the enclave and clashes between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces since October 2023.

Some signatories include Yahya Ayub Al-Kafarnah, chief of Gaza’s northern clans; Zakaria Jahshan, coordinator of the Christian denominations; and Mohammed Al-Masry, former mayor of Beit Lahia municipality, along with many other community leaders, dignitaries, and Mukhtars.

They urged the PA to lead the Gaza Strip, connect it to the West Bank geographically, and stop the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians from northern Gaza by Israel.

They confirmed that the Palestine Liberation Organization, which neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad are a part of, will continue to be the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people.

The community leaders urged the PA to exercise pressure on Arab and Western countries to “force the Israeli government to stop its war of genocide ... and secure an immediate ceasefire,” the WAFA press agency reported.

Mediated and indirect talks between Hamas and Israel to secure an exchange of captives and a truce have been ongoing for months, but without success.

At least 45,000 Palestinians have died during the war in Gaza, and around 11,000 are missing under the rubble of bombed or damaged buildings, with 100,000 people having left the enclave.

The Gaza Strip’s population had decreased by 6 percent in 2024, according to recent data by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.