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Gaza, day 440: the last intensive care unit in northern Gaza destroyed

Israel continues its genocidal campaign in Gaza, murdering at least 52 Palestinians since Thursday morning. Update on the situation in the Palestinian enclave on day 440, between intensification of bombings and hopes of a ceasefire.

By Palestine Media Agency, December 20, 2024

KEY FIGURES
in Gaza since October 7, 2023:
45,129 deaths
including 17,000 children
11,000 people trapped under the rubble
107,338 injured
1.9 million displaced

In a video published on social networks, the United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese calls Israel's genocide in Gaza “the shame of the century”, denouncing the complicity of the Western media and the 192 states which “do not They couldn't stop it.”

Night “full of horror” in northern Gaza

On the night of Tuesday, December 17 to Wednesday, December 18, the Kamal Adwan hospital suffered major bombings, as well as explosions near its premises, causing a fire which put the last functioning intensive care unit out of service. marching in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Eid Sabbah, director of nursing at Kamal Adwan Hospital, describes a night “full of horror” at the medical facility. It reports that Israeli bulldozers began encircling the area around the hospital on Tuesday evening, destroying streets and infrastructure. Quadcopter drones then targeted the medical complex and its surroundings. Eight Palestinians were killed west of Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to civil defense forces, and many are still under the rubble.

On Wednesday morning, continued Israeli bombardment sparked a fire in the hospital's intensive care unit. Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya says that “sudden and crazy shooting targeted the hospital, with all kinds of weapons. The occupation deliberately targeted the intensive care unit by clearly shooting at it.”

“Today the intensive care unit is out of service and the situation is catastrophic. For more than 75 days we have been appealing to the world to protect the health system and its staff, but there is no response.”

At least 2,500 Palestinians have been killed and 10,000 injured in the latest Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, while hundreds more have been arrested and thousands expelled ·are by force.

In an investigative report by the daily Haaretz published Wednesday, numerous testimonies from Israeli soldiers describe various acts of intentional killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. These accounts report that a line north of the Netzarim Corridor, known as the “line of corpses,” was established by the Israeli army. Testimonies indicate that Israeli soldiers are ordered to shoot to kill any Palestinian who crosses this line, whether civilians or not, and to send photographic evidence of these murders to their hierarchy, counting each case as the assassination of a fighter.

Israel further intensifies its bombings

At least 51 Palestinians have been murdered since Thursday morning, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense, including in humanitarian areas housing refugees.

On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, medical sources reported that 13 Palestinians were murdered in two separate Israeli strikes. The first targeted the Shati camp in Gaza City and killed 9 people, and the second hit homes north of Beit Lahia and killed 4 people.

Later on Thursday, airstrikes killed at least 15 Palestinians and injured dozens in two schools, Dar al-Arqam and Shaaban al-Rayes, housing displaced families in the suburb of Tuffah , in eastern Gaza City, doctors said, adding that most of the victims were women and children. Witnesses report that the strikes caused enormous destruction to nearby schools and residential buildings.

In Gaza City, an Israeli attack on a house in the Daraj neighborhood killed at least four Palestinians, and another person was killed in an attack on a group of civilians in the Zeitoun neighborhood.

A possible ceasefire

Israeli sources have reported significant progress in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Cairo. According to published leaks, the two sides agreed on a large number of issues regarding the first phase of a 60-day ceasefire, which would include a first wave of prisoner exchanges, where Hamas would release an as-yet-unspecified number of Israeli prisoners, particularly remaining civilians, while Israel would release a number of Palestinian detainees.

According to Reuters, Israel has agreed to withdraw, initially in part, from the Philadelphia Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border. In July and August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on maintaining a military presence there, saying it was a matter of national security, despite statements by Israeli army officials that the army did not need to maintain its position there. Mr. Netanyahu's insistence on this point was one of the main reasons for the failure of ceasefire negotiations at the time.

This news comes as the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch – HRW – accused Israel, in a report published Thursday, of “extermination and acts of genocide” against the Palestinians. from the Gaza Strip.

The HRW report focuses on what it describes as Israel's restriction of Palestinian access to drinking water below minimum necessary quantities. According to HRW, Israel's destruction of water resources and infrastructure in Gaza has forced Palestinians to consume contaminated water, leading to the outbreak of deadly diseases, particularly among children. HRW claims that Israel committed these actions deliberately, which constitutes genocidal intent.

Another report, published yesterday by Médecins Sans Frontières, shows that repeated Israeli military attacks against civilians in Gaza and the systematic refusal of humanitarian aid are destroying living conditions, which constitute “clear signs of ethnic cleansing”.

“The recent military offensive in the north is a stark illustration of the brutal war Israeli forces are waging against Gaza, and we are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped and bombed,” reports Christopher Lockyear, general secretary of MSF. “What our medical teams have observed on the ground throughout this conflict matches descriptions provided by a growing number of legal experts and organizations who conclude that a genocide is underway in Gaza. »

Injured Palestinians flee after Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Thursday [Mahmoud Isleem/Anadolu].
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