Israeli tanks were positioned around a hospital complex in northern Gaza where 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, the enclave’s health ministry said on Monday as fighting raged amid signs of an imminent lull in hostilities.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli army about the report from the Indonesian Hospital but the Palestinian news agency WAFA said the facility had been hit by artillery fire.
Like many other health facilities in Gaza, Hospital Indonesia, which was established in 2016 with funding from an Indonesian organization, has ceased operations. But health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said there were about 700 people, including the medical team and the wounded, inside the facility.
At the end of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, at least 14 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes on homes in the town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, health officials said.
Ground operations in the Gaza Strip continued, as the IDF and ISA killed three additional company commanders of the terrorist organization Hamas. IDF
The Israeli army released a statement with video of airstrikes and soldiers going house to house, saying it killed three Hamas company commanders and a squad of Palestinian fighters, without giving a specific location.
While ongoing fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces has prompted an offensive, US and Israeli officials say a deal to free several hostages held in Palestinian territories is nearing.
Some aid has entered through the Rafah commercial crossing with Egypt where 40 trucks containing equipment for the Emirati field hospital are expected later, a statement by the General Authority for Gaza Crossings and Borders.
Israeli tanks are seen around a hospital complex in northern Gaza where Palestinians have been killed and wounded. IDF
Some 240 hostages were taken during a deadly cross-border attack into Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, which prompted Israel to attack the Palestinian enclave to stamp out the Islamist movement after several inconclusive wars since 2007.
About 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack, according to Israeli figures, the deadliest day in the country’s 75-year history.
Since then, the Hamas-run government of Gaza says at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,500 children, by relentless Israeli bombing and airstrikes.
A man carries a child injured in an Israeli attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Israeli tanks and troops stormed into Gaza late last month and have since seized large areas in the north and northwest and east around Gaza City, the Israeli military said.
But Hamas and local witnesses said the militants waged a guerilla-style war in the crowded, urbanized northern pocket, including parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Pantai refugee camps.
The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hamas ally, said its fighters attacked seven Israeli military vehicles during clashes in the northern areas of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and Al-Saftawi and west of Jabalia.
This grab is from footage released by the Israeli military on November 17, 2023. Israeli Army/AFP via Getty Images
In Beijing, Arab and Islamic ministers joined international calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as their delegation visited major world capitals to press for an end to hostilities and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to injured civilians.
Israel said Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis seized a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship in the southern Red Sea, describing the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.
Houthi forces have launched long-range missiles and drones into Israel in solidarity with Hamas.
An injured Palestinian receives treatment after being injured in an Israeli airstrike on November 19, 2023. ZUMAPRESS.com
HOPE FOR BUSINESS
Despite ongoing fighting in Gaza, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that Israel hoped a large number of hostages could be released by Hamas “in the next few days.”
On Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told a news conference in Doha that the main obstacles to a deal were now “very small”, with most of them “practical and logistical” remaining.
A White House official said the “very complicated, very sensitive” negotiations were making progress.
IDF troops uncovered a 55 meter long 10 meter deep terrorist tunnel under the Al-Shifa Hospital complex. Israel Defense Forces/UPI/Shutterstock
They coincided with Israel preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas into southern Gaza, marked by increased airstrikes on targets Israel sees as hotbeds of armed militants.
However, Israel’s main ally the United States warned on Sunday not to start combat operations in the south until military planners take into account the safety of Palestinian civilians.
Traumatized Gazans have been on the move since the start of the war, taking shelter in hospitals or trudging from north to south and, in some cases, back again, in a desperate attempt to stay out of the line of fire.
An Israeli soldier rides a tank amid the Israeli army’s ongoing ground operation against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas November 20, 2023. via REUTERS
The civilian death toll in Gaza is “shocking and unacceptable,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, appealing again on Sunday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Witnesses reported fierce fighting between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance on Jabalia, home to 100,000 people and, according to Israel, a significant militant stronghold.
Repeated Israeli bombardment of Jabalia, an urban extension of Gaza City that grew out of a Palestinian refugee camp from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, has killed scores of civilians, Palestinian medics say.
Israeli tanks and troops stormed into Gaza last month, as they seized areas in the north and northwest and east around Gaza City. IDF
Via social media in Arabic, the Israeli army on Sunday urged residents of several Jabalia neighborhoods to move south “to preserve your safety” and to that end said it would cease military action from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
After the “pause” ended, 11 Palestinians in Jabalia were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a house, the district’s health ministry said.
Palestinians say Israel’s repeated bombardment of southern Gaza makes Israel’s security promises meaningless.
A total of 64 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the conflict, according to the latest military count.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
