The Hamas Ministry of Health accuses this Friday, October 25, 2024, of having stormed the last hospital still operating in the north of the Gaza Strip, where fighting is raging. Two airstrikes left at least twenty dead in Khan Younes, in the South.
Northern Gaza is experiencing its “darkest hours”, alerted the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, in a video. He denounces the disastrous humanitarian situation in which the Palestinian population finds itself exposed “to the bombings” et “to starvation”. He also warned: Israel's actions could amount to “atrocities”.
Hamas Health Ministry denounces assault on hospital in northern Gaza
Intense fighting is taking place in the north of the Gaza Strip where the Israeli army claims to have lost three soldiers. In total, the IDF deplores 361 deaths in its ranks since its entry into Gaza on October 27, 2023.
Since October 6, the Jewish state has concentrated its offensive against Hamas in the north of Gaza, around Jabalia. The army said it would continue its operations in the hospital area “based on information” according to which this health establishment “terrorists” et “their infrastructure” would be present there.
For its part, the Hamas Ministry of Health claims that “Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital and are inside.” According to him, Israeli soldiers “detain hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people” who found refuge in the establishment in order to flee the “incessant bombardments”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that it had lost all contact with the staff of this hospital, a “very worrying development”, she emphasizes.
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Gaza Civil Defense announces 12 dead in group waiting for humanitarian aid
At least 12 people were killed this Friday by Israeli drone strikes in the north of the Gaza Strip, says the Gaza Civil Defense. The victims were part of a group waiting for humanitarian aid.
“Civil Defense recovered 12 dead and several injured after Israeli drone strikes targeting a vehicle and a group of citizens waiting for help north of the Al-Shati refugee camp in the west of the city of Gaza”, said to theAFP the spokesperson for the organization, Mahmoud Bassal.
The south of the Gaza Strip is not spared either. At least 20 people, including nine children and adolescents, were killed in two Israeli strikes on Khan Younes during the night from Thursday to Friday, Civil Defense also announced.
Towards a possible resumption of ceasefire talks
Israel is increasing pressure on northern Gaza as discussions for a ceasefire could resume after a call from Washington. The United States has urged Israel to seize the opportunity of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinouar, killed by Israeli soldiers on October 16, to find a way out of the conflict.
On Sunday, David Barnea, the head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, is due to meet his CIA counterpart, Bill Burns, and the Qatari Prime Minister in Qatar.
On Thursday, Hamas declared itself “ready for a cessation of hostilities”, provided that Israel commits to a ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza. The Palestinian Islamist group also demands a “serious agreement” exchange between Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. So far, these conditions have been rejected by Israel during previous indirect negotiations.
Three journalists killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon
In Lebanon, during the night from Thursday to Friday, the Jewish state struck a residence housing several journalists covering the conflict in Hasbaya, a sector of the south hitherto spared by the fighting. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “war crime” after the death of three journalists in a strike he described as “deliberate”. For its part, Israel has not commented on this strike.
The victims of this strike are cameraman Ghassan Najjar and his technician Mohammed Reda, who work for the pro-Iranian news channel Al-Mayadeenand journalist Wissam Qassem, from Hezbollah al-Manar television.
“Woke up by the whistle of the missile”, Darine el-Helwe, senior reporter for Emirati television Sky News Arabiaestimates with theAFP what “Israel's message is that it does not want media coverage in the sector.”
Also read: TESTIMONY. “I took a plane ticket with no return”: the conflict in Lebanon seen from Saint-Lô
Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut
Israeli strikes also hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, where the army of the Jewish state announced that it had targeted “weapons warehouses and command centers” of the Shiite movement.
In southern Lebanon, the Israeli army announced that it had lost ten soldiers in two days. A salvo of rockets fired by Hezbollah, which continues its daily attacks against northern Israel, left two dead, the army and an Israeli hospital announced.
A “diplomatic solution” in Lebanon is “really urgent”, underlined the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, who met the Lebanese Prime Minister this Friday in London. He also insisted on the need to implement UN Resolution 1701, dating from 2006, “so that there can be real security along the border” Israeli-Lebanese.