Fighting erupted in the streets around Gaza City’s largest hospital on Saturday as the facility itself ran out of fuel and went dark.
The Israel Defense Forces vehemently denied laying siege to Al-Shifa Hospital, which it said was located on the main hub of tunnels dug by Hamas, and pledged to help evacuate babies from the crippled facility on Sunday.
Israeli military officials told CNN troops were engaged in “ongoing heavy fighting” against Hamas near Al-Shifa Hospital, which has about 1,500 patients and the same number of medical staff, and between 15,000 and 20,000 civilians sheltering from the fighting,
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari dismissed what he called “false reports” that the hospital was targeted.
“We are fighting terrorists who choose to fight close to Shifa Hospital,” he said, according to The Times of Israel.
“There is a lot of misinformation from Gaza today. So I want to clarify the facts. No enclosure, I repeat no enclosure, at Shifa Hospital. The eastern side of the hospital is open for the safe passage of Gazans who want to leave the hospital,” said Hagari.
Smoke billows from destroyed buildings in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot.NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
How celebrities, schools and businesses responded to Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel
A hospital spokesman said two premature babies died and 37 others were at risk after the facility lost power, Al Jazeera reported.
“We speak directly and regularly with hospital staff,” Hagari said.
“The Shifa Hospital staff has requested that tomorrow we will help the baby in the pediatric ward to go to a safer hospital. We will provide the necessary assistance.”
Israeli troops take up positions inside the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing Israeli ground operations against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.via REUTERS
Another patient was killed when an Israeli shell hit the intensive care unit, hospital spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said on Saturday.
“All I can say is that we are already losing lives. Patients are dying, victims, and wounded are also dying – even babies in incubators,” added Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The hospital – the largest in Gaza City – officially has no electricity, internet, water, and lacks medical supplies, he said.
Fighting in the Gaza Strip intensified this week. NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest news on Hamas attacks on Israel
The dire situation prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross to speak out and complain that the health system in Gaza had reached a “point of no return” following the month-long fighting.
“Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly insecure, the health care system in Gaza has reached a point of no recovery risking the lives of thousands of injured, sick and displaced people,” the ICRC warned.
Israeli tanks are reportedly approaching a second hospital where 14,000 displaced people are taking shelter.
In other developments:
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s claim that there was “no justification” for Israel’s continued siege of civilians in Gaza more than a month after Hamas attacked southern Israel and killed 1,400 people.
“A ceasefire with Hamas means surrender,” Netanyahu insisted, adding that he believed any civilian casualties in Gaza were Hamas’ fault.
“Hamas-ISIS is brutally holding hostages – women, children and the elderly – which is a crime against humanity,” he said.
“Hamas-ISIS use schools, mosques and hospitals as terrorist headquarters.”
“The crimes that Hamas-ISIS committed today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere else in the world. World leaders must condemn Hamas-ISIS and not Israel.”
Military drones circle the northern part of the Gaza Strip. NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
- Social media posts on Saturday showed Hamas firing on Gaza civilians trying to move south during a pause in the fighting. About 50,000 people are believed to have evacuated Northern Gaza and moved south during the lull in fighting.
- The IDF said on Saturday that five more Israeli soldiers died in Gaza fighting on Friday, including four who were killed when a booby trap in a tunnel near them went off. That brings the number of soldiers killed to 42 since the operation began.
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah seized on the rift in Israel’s relations with Western powers in a fiery statement boasting of growing global pressure on Israel’s military to abandon its offensive in Gaza.
“We saw thousands of people in Washington, New York, London and Paris protesting Israel,” Nasrallah said in a speech at an Arab-Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia Saturday.
“The only voice that stands out [as an Israeli ally] is the US and its ‘follower’ the UK,” Nasrallah, who has been Hezbollah’s secretary general since 1992, said in a videotaped speech.
The Israeli army is operating inside the Gaza Strip. via REUTERS
Follow The Post’s coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas
Palestinian youths swing a shepherd’s sling during clashes with Israeli security forces following a protest in support of Palestinians in the West Bank.APAImages/Shutterstock
The Israel-Hamas War: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches its biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early morning ambush on Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli cities.
The terrorists killed over 1,400 Israelis, injured over 4,200, and took at least 200 hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly announced, “We are at war,” and promised Hamas would pay “an unprecedented price.”
Gaza’s Ministry of Health – which is controlled by Hamas – reports at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
He called for increased pressure on the US.
“If you want to end the attack in front of this secondary [in Iraq and Syria]you must impose termination on [Israeli] attack Gaza,” he said in a sharp jab at the Biden administration.
- The summit – hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud – later issued a statement calling for a definitive end to fighting in Gaza and demanding that the world not remain silent or turn a blind eye to the suffering of the Palestinian people.
“The only solution to this conflict is continued resistance to Israeli oppression until the establishment of a Palestinian state from the river to the sea,” Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi told attendees at the high-profile meeting in a statement echoing the rally. chant of pro-Palestinian protesters around the world.
“We want to take a historic and decisive decision on what is happening in the Palestinian territories. Killing civilians and bombing hospitals are manifestations of Israeli crimes in Gaza. Today, everyone must decide which side they are on,” the statement said.
- Netanyahu said that IDF forces are also active in other fields, including in the West Bank, Syria and the Red Sea.
The IDF said it was carrying out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to missile and rocket attacks on northern Israel.
Netanyahu warned Hezbollah not to expand the war. “It will be the mistake of your life,” he said, and will seal the fate of Lebanon.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
