The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it was working on an evacuation plan for Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the target of the Israeli army’s raids against the Islamist group Hamas, describing the site as a “death zone”.
First change: November 19, 2023 – 8:05 a.m
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The statement came following a visit by WHO and other UN officials to the hospital, which was under siege by Israeli troops earlier this week. A day earlier, Hamas’ health ministry announced the deaths of more than 80 people in two Israeli bombings at a United Nations-run refugee camp in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, which was devastated by fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The first bombing, targeting a school, killed 50 people, while the second bombing hit a house and killed 32 people from the same family, according to authorities from Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007. The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) expressed outrage at a “horrific” attack. “These attacks (…) must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” wrote the head of the organization, Philippe Lazzarini, on the X network.
The second bombing, which hit a house in the same refugee camp, killed 32 members of the same family, including 19 children, said the Hamas Health Ministry, which released a list of names. The Israeli military said it was analyzing reports of “an incident in the Jabaliya region.” Another Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis occurred overnight, killing at least 26 people, according to the director of Nasser Hospital in this southern Gaza Strip city.
According to Israeli authorities, on October 7, Hamas commandos killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped around 240 people along with other armed groups on Israeli soil. Since then, Israeli retaliatory bombings have continued in Gaza, killing 12,300 Palestinian civilians, including 5,000 children, according to a Hamas Health Ministry tally.
– Hospital evacuated –
Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, has been a flashpoint in recent days as Israeli forces accuse Hamas of using the medical facility as a command center, something the Palestinian group and health workers have denied. On Sunday, the WHO said an investigation team had visited the hospital, which it described as a “death zone,” with a huge cemetery at the entrance and about 300 patients and 25 staff still inside.
“WHO and its partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families,” the organization said in a statement. The WHO expects that several missions will be organized in the coming days to urgently evacuate the remaining patients to Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital in Gaza, although “they are already working beyond their capacity.”
A day earlier, hundreds of people had evacuated Al Shifa, where more than 2,000 patients, doctors and displaced persons were at the time. According to Hamas, 24 of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip have ceased operations. And according to the United Nations, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced by the war. Most have fled south with the bare essentials and are surviving the coming cold.
At the request of the United States, Israel on Friday authorized the daily entry of two fuel tankers via Rafah. According to the authority of the Palestinian part of the border crossing, these first 17,000 liters will allow the reactivation of the electricity generators of hospitals and telecommunications networks. Tensions are also high in the West Bank, an area occupied by Israel since 1967, where about 200 Palestinians have been killed by settlers and Israeli soldiers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
– “We have not reached an agreement” –
Late Saturday, the White House said it was continuing to work “hard” to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to release the hostages and end the fighting. “We have not reached an agreement yet, but we continue to work hard to reach an agreement,” Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said on the social network X (formerly Twitter), denying a Washington Post report that there was one Agreement has already been reached.
US President Joe Biden wrote in the same newspaper on Saturday that Gaza and the West Bank should be “reunified” under a “strengthened” Palestinian Authority and supported “a two-state solution”, referring to the joint creation of a Palestinian one State. to Israel. Netanyahu is also facing pressure from relatives of those abducted by Hamas, who are demanding a deal that would allow their release.