Hamas blocked the exits from the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt for foreigners, people with dual nationality and the wounded Palestinians: around 700 people, who had been waiting to leave Gaza since the early hours of the morning, were stopped. And they will be blocked – the militiamen said – until Israel guarantees that the ambulances with the wounded will be able to leave the Strip. A response to Friday’s attack on the convoy of emergency vehicles in front of the al Shifa hospital which the Jewish state, but also the USA, claim are carrying militiamen and weapons.
Gaza, Al-Shifa hospital without power: doctors forced to use torches
An attack, in any case, which is “horrifying”, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, once again thundered. And while the Israeli tanks advance, reaching the south of Gaza City where today they clashed heavily with Palestinian militiamen, the raids also continue. And the toll of civilian victims does not stop, as reported by UNRWA, the UN agency which confirmed an attack on a school managed by the United Nations agency, where displaced people are taking refuge and where children are also believed to have died. But the one near the Jabalya refugee camp was not the only one: two other schools, including the only Catholic one in the Strip, were hit by bombs. With Hamas reporting “dozens of deaths” while Sister Saleh, the principal of the religious institute made it known that there were only three boys on guard in her facility.
Gaza, MSF doctor witnesses raid outside Al Shifa hospital: “There are no more medicines, stop the war”
According to the report from the Gaza Ministry of Health, which speaks of at least 2 deaths, the entrance to the al-Nasser pediatric hospital in Gaza City was also hit. The school of the Sisters of the Rosary, according to Sister Saleh, suffered damage to the large external courtyard and the surrounding structures: it is in the Tel al-Awa area, the same where the fighting took place between the Israeli tanks which had now arrived south of the city and the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
Closed to the passage of people waiting to leave the Strip, the Rafah crossing still saw aid enter today too. At least 30 trucks, according to Haaretz: four with medical equipment and medicines and the others with food, water and other humanitarian materials. Fuel, however, remains a taboo: Israel has confirmed that it will not allow its entry out of fear that it could end up in Hamas. David Satterfield, the US special envoy for the Middle East, however hoped that the entry of fuel would be allowed “as soon as the fuel already present in the Strip is exhausted”, anticipating “an agreed mechanism”: it will be destined only for southern Gaza, not to the north of the Palestinian enclave.
The reporter takes off his helmet and vest during the live broadcast: “Nothing protects journalists, we die one after the other”
And still on the subject of aid, EU sources have made it known that there are glimmers of possibility for the opening of the maritime corridor, at the center of the latest European summit last week: «The proposal could be approved by Israel provided that there is their control of containers in Cyprus”, a port that would act as the hub for the operation.
On the field, where today the army chief of staff Herzi Halevi held an operational meeting inside the Strip for the first time, Israel then denounced that Hamas fired mortars and anti-tank missiles on the Salah al-Din road which the Israeli army had vacated the area to allow – between 1pm and 4pm – the movement of the population from the north (where according to the US envoy there were still 400 thousand people) to the south of Gaza. “This – added the military spokesperson – demonstrates once again that Hamas exploits the population and prevents them from acting for their own security”.
Gaza, Israel’s attack on an ambulance convoy
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant took matters further by threatening that Israel “will reach the top of Hamas and eliminate Yihia Sinwar”, the leader of the faction in Gaza. And he invited the Palestinians to collaborate: “If you get to him before us, the war will be shortened.” Meanwhile, the hunt for Hamas leaders also continues, with the Israeli air force announcing that it had hit the home of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political office, with a missile, who however lives in Doha, Qatar with his family .
Returning to the story of the attack on the ambulances, Israel reiterated that there were militiamen that Hamas wanted to get out of Gaza. A version which was confirmed by US sources according to which “Hamas tried to take its fighters out of Gaza via Rafah with ambulances, thus slowing down efforts to evacuate foreigners”.
American and Egyptian officials – according to the same sources – explained that in the list provided by the Palestinian authorities of seriously injured people who had to be released “a third of the names were of fighters, none of whom were among the 76 Palestinians wounded and ultimately evacuated”.
If the Gaza front remains the main one, tension is also growing in the north where clashes continue on the border with Hezbollah while in the south of the Jewish state a new long-range rocket headed towards Eilat was intercepted while, for the first time, sirens resounded in the settlements of Arava, in the Negev desert: «The Arrow air defense system intercepted the launch from the Strip», the army announced. Almost a month after the start of the war, the death toll in Gaza is rising again, now approaching 10 thousand deaths: 9,488 victims so far according to Hamas which speaks of 3,900 minors and 2,509 women.
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Attack on the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza: “At least 51 dead”
At least 51 people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli army attack on the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. This is what the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports – as reported by the Ynet website. The attack occurred during the night between Saturday and Sunday.
United Nations alarm: almost 1.5 million displaced in Gaza
Nearly 1.5 million people in Gaza are displaced from their homes. Of these, 710,275 have found refuge in 149 UNRWA facilities, 122,000 people are in hospitals, churches and public buildings, 109,755 people have taken refuge in 89 schools and the rest are staying with host families. The data was provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. «Overcrowded conditions – we read in a statement – continue to create serious health risks. Damage to water and sanitation infrastructure and limited availability of fuel to pump water create additional public health risks. Several cases of acute respiratory infections, diarrhea and chickenpox have already been reported among people in UNRWA shelters.” Furthermore, “around 530,000 people have taken refuge in 92 UNRWA facilities in the southern governorates of Deir Al Balah, Khan Younis areas and Rafah: Shelters have exceeded their capacity and are unable to accommodate new arrivals. Many displaced people seek safety by sleeping on the streets.”
Blinken will see Abu Mazen in Ramallah today
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet the President of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) today in Ramallah: this is the first trip of the US diplomatic chief to the West Bank since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas. A Palestinian official told the Times of Israel. In recent days, Blinken declared in a congressional hearing: «At some point, what would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalized Palestinian National Authority to have governance and, ultimately, responsibility for security for Gaza» . These comments marked the first time the Biden administration has publicly declared its desire for the Palestinian Authority to return to the Gaza Strip, after privately raising the idea with regional partners during the war between Israel and Hamas.
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