The Hamas Ministry of Health on Monday accused the Israeli army of “bombing and destroying” the Kamal Adwan hospital, the only one still operating in the north of the Gaza Strip, reporting “many injuries among the medical staff and patients.
The Israeli army said it was verifying this information. It had previously indicated “operating against the infrastructure and terrorist agents in the north and center” of the Palestinian territory, a sector where it launched an offensive on October 6, claiming to want to overcome units of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Ignoring international warnings, Israel also officially informed the UN on Monday of the ban on UNRWA, an agency considered the “backbone” of aid to refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the army “continues to violently bomb and destroy the Kamal Adwan hospital”, targeting “all parts of it”.
The director of the establishment, located in Beit Lahia, Houssam Abou Safia, clarified that no one could leave. He described a “catastrophic” situation after strikes without prior warning.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7, 2023 by Hamas on Israeli soil. The next day, in support of its Palestinian ally, Hezbollah, opened a front against Israel, triggering nearly a year of exchanges of fire which turned into open war in September.
On the eve of the presidential election in the United States, Israel’s main ally, diplomatic efforts to put an end to these hostilities remained unsuccessful.
“Collapse”
A week after Parliament passed a law banning the activities in Israel of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Foreign Affairs “notified the UN of the cancellation of the “agreement between Israel and UNRWA”, according to a press release.
The agreement dates back to 1967, when Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as East Jerusalem, began, where UNRWA provided essential aid to Palestinian refugees for decades – education, health , social services, food and cash assistance.
Israel, of which UNRWA has been a long-time pet peeve, once again accused “employees of the organization of having participated in the October 7 massacre.” According to the Israeli statement, “the UN has received countless evidence of Hamas operatives employed by UNRWA and the use of its facilities for terrorist purposes.”
“If the law is implemented, it risks causing the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in Gaza, of which UNRWA is the backbone,” warned Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for the agency.
In its letter to the UN, dated November 3 and consulted by AFP, Israel specifies that the UNRWA ban will come into force after “a period of three months”.
The UN Security Council expressed its “deep concern” after the adoption of the law, calling on Israel to “respect its international obligations” and the agency’s “mandate”. The United Nations General Assembly is due to hold a session on Wednesday devoted to UNRWA.
“Kill all the Palestinian people”
“Currently, the Palestinian people depend almost entirely on aid from abroad, especially from UNRWA, and interrupting it amounts to killing the entire Palestinian people,” reacts Abdel Karim Kallab, in Khan Younes, in the south from Gaza.
“People are going to die of hunger,” worries Houria Abou Charkh, a displaced person from Gaza City.
For Hamas, Israel’s decision “is an attempt to deny refugees the right to return to their homes.”
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity. Of 251 people kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched a destructive offensive in Gaza which left 43,374 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry. The vast majority of the inhabitants of the small besieged territory have been displaced.
“This is not enough”
According to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, the daily average of trucks authorized by Israel to enter Gaza fell to 30 in October, which “is not enough to meet the needs of more than 2 million people, many of whom are starving and sick and living in desperate conditions.
On its northern front, Israel carried out new air raids on southern Lebanon on Monday, where its troops have also been engaged on the ground since September 30.
The Israeli army launched a massive bombing campaign against pro-Iranian Hezbollah on September 23, saying it wanted to push its fighters back around thirty km from the border, to allow the return of some 60,000 inhabitants of northern Israel displaced by his shots.
The movement, however, continued these shots, and said on Monday that it had launched a salvo of rockets on Safed.
At least 1,940 people have been killed since September 23 in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on official data.
An Israeli strike also targeted a neighborhood south of Damascus on Monday where Hezbollah fighters are based, killing at least two, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) and the official Syrian press agency. Sana.
