Israeli strikes kill 13 people overnight as bombardment of one of Gaza's last hospitals continues

AT LEAST 13 people, including some living in tents for displaced Palestinians, were killed in Israeli air strikes overnight, according to the territory’s civil defence agency.

Four people were killed when an Israeli missile hit the home of the Shurafa family in eastern Gaza City, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency.

Three people were killed and several wounded when a tent housing Palestinians displaced by the war was hit by an Israeli missile in the east of Khan Yunis city, Bassal said.

Another tent housing displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza was also hit by an Israeli air strike overnight, killing at least four people, he added.

Two other people were killed in separate incidents, Bassal said.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its forces were continuing their land and air assault in northern Gaza, where the civil defence says hundreds have been killed since 6 October, when the military launched its siege and offensive.

“Over the past day, IDF (military) troops in the area of Jabalia eliminated dozens of terrorists during close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes,” the military said in a statement.

Kamal Adwan Hospital

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have continued to bombard one of Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, injuring staff and child patients and damaging the building.

Israel escalated a major air and ground assault on northern Gaza last month, during which time it has killed hundreds of people, forced tens of thousands to flee south and cut off essential supplies.

Senior members of the Irish Government have repeatedly condemned the Israeli assault on the north.

Gaza’s health ministry has said Israeli forces have been “continuing to violently bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital”, where Israeli soldiers have already rounded up male staff en masse.

Hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh said in a statement the situation was “catastrophic”, with several staff wounded.

“We do not understand the purpose behind this bombing that is targeting the hospital.”

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World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said six child patients were injured in the strike on the hospital, which he described as “appalling”.

“One child sustained a critical injury. Water tanks were damaged. Heavy bombardment persisted very close to the hospital, including when WHO was delivering aid,” he said.

Israel’s military said it was checking the report.

Separately, it said troops “are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the northern and central Gaza Strip”.

UNRWA

Earlier yesterday, Israel issued formal notification that it was cutting off ties with UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees.

The ban sparked global condemnation and came despite the United States in mid-October warning Israel it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to Gaza within 30 days.

UNRWA is a lifeline for many Palestinians, including virtually the entire population of the Gaza Strip.

“There is simply no alternative to UNRWA,” WHO chief Tedros said in a video on social media yesterday, adding that the “ban will not make Israel safer”.

Israel has accused a dozen of UNRWA’s roughly 13,000 employees in Gaza of involvement in the 7 October 2023 attacks led by Hamas.

“On the instruction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA,” a ministry statement said.

Katz was quoted as saying UNRWA was “part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution”.

The letter sent by Israel to the president of the UN General Assembly, dated 3 November and seen by the AFP news agency, said the ban would come into effect “following a three-month period”.

Jonathan Fowler, an UNRWA spokesman, told AFP the move would be disastrous.

“If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip – an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone,” Fowler said.

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UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media that an average of just 30 trucks daily were allowed into Gaza last month.

The UN has said around 500 trucks entered every day before the war.

‘Rogue state’

Gazans told AFP they were alarmed by Israel’s move.

Abdul Karim Kallab from the southern city of Khan Younis said the people “depend almost entirely on aid coming from abroad, especially from UNRWA”, and without it they would starve.

Hamas said it showed that Israel was a “rogue state”.

But Katz said aid would continue entering Gaza “in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel”.

UNRWA fired nine employees after an internal probe found they “may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October”.

The UN General Assembly, which originally set up UNRWA, will hold a session tomorrow, which was scheduled before Israel sent the letter.

Gaza’s civil defence chief Mahmud Bassal said yesterday that “there is a severe blockade on medicine, water, and food” in north Gaza and more than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel’s operation there.

Hamas, meanwhile, said it had held talks with rival Palestinian faction Fatah in Cairo on “the war on Gaza and pathways for national action”, adding such talks would continue.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed Hamas for rejecting a temporary truce as he also pressed Israel again to allow more aid into Gaza. Hamas has not changed its long-held position on the idea of a temporary ceasefire, instead insisting on a permanent cessation of fighting. 

Since last October, Israel has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, most of them civilians.

With reporting from © AFP 2024

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