Joe Biden on Monday called on Israel to protect the main hospital in Gaza, near which fighting is taking place between the Israeli army and Hamas militants.
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“I hope and expect less intrusive measures regarding the hospital,” Al-Chifa, the American president, said at the White House when journalists asked whether he had spoken to the Israeli leadership about it. “The hospital needs to be protected,” he added.
Joe Biden, who said he is “in touch with the Israelis” on the issue, spoke from the Oval Office at the signing of a research initiative on women’s health alongside first lady Jill Biden.
The US president added that an agreement to “release prisoners” was still being negotiated with the help of Qatar.
Hundreds of people are stuck in “inhumane” conditions at Al-Chifa Hospital, according to a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) surgeon.
Israel claims that Hamas installed its infrastructure in a network of tunnels under Al-Chifa Hospital, which Hamas denies.
The building has turned into a war zone as doctors and humanitarian organizations worry about the fate of thousands of civilians and sick people.
The Hamas government’s deputy health minister, Youssef Abou Rich, told AFP on Monday that “seven premature babies” and “27 intensive care patients” had died since Saturday due to the lack of electricity at that hospital.
Israel, which is urging the population to leave war zones, announced that an “evacuation corridor” would remain in place on Monday to allow civilians to leave Al-Chifa hospital, but acknowledged that this sector was in danger. Victim of “intense fighting” .
Israel has been relentlessly attacking the Gaza Strip since the attack by Hamas commandos on October 7 and has been conducting a ground operation since October 27 with the aim of “destroying” the Islamist movement.
On the Israeli side, around 1,200 people were killed, according to authorities, the vast majority civilians, killed on the day of the attack, on a scale and with violence unseen since Israel’s founding in 1948.
According to the Hamas Health Ministry, Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip since October 7 have killed 11,240 people, mostly civilians, including 4,630 children.