In an air attack conducted by Israeli forces yesterday evening east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, 10 people died, including children. Al Jazeera reports, citing witnesses, Palestinian media reports and an Al Jazeera journalist, according to whom the attack hit a family home in al-Qarara. A video seen by Al Jazeera shows some of the dead, including a young girl and a baby, in al-Nasr children’s hospital. The attack came a day after the Israeli army dropped leaflets in and around al-Qarara warning residents to evacuate to “known shelters”.
Raid also in the city of Jenin and in the Jenin refugee camp, in the West Bank. Jenin deputy governor Kamal Abu al-Roub said Israeli forces “stormed the camp with dozens of vehicles, including huge bulldozers.” He further said that power outages are prevalent in the camp and also in other parts of the city, as clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians are ongoing. According to witnesses, Israeli vehicles surrounded the camp from the eastern and western sides and explosions were heard.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program is sounding the alarm: “in Gaza, the food system is collapsing.” «With only ten percent of food and water supplies in Gaza, we are faced with a huge hole. The situation sees 2.2 million people, which is almost the entire population of Gaza, in need of primary care. Of the over a thousand trucks that entered Gaza since the opening of the Rafah crossing – the spokesperson recalled – only 447 carried food. This he emphasized – means that food can only be enough for 7 percent of the population, considering the minimum daily intake of calories. We have received more than 40 thousand requests for help from people who have no food.”
While Israel claims to have secured control of the western part of Gaza City, saying it is ready to open a new phase in the ground operation, the body of a woman kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 was found by soldiers. «They would have found him in a structure near the al Shifa hospital, where a hunt for militiamen has been underway for days in the hope of finding some of the people taken hostage. According to the army, the woman was killed. Her name was Yehudit Weiss, she was 65 years old and, the Israeli military spokesperson explained, she had been kidnapped in Kibbutz Beeri, close to the Strip, where her husband found her dead. The spokesperson also explained that military equipment was found in the place where the body was discovered, including some Kalashnikov rifles and a grenade launcher.
The al Shifa hospital remains a central element of the operations of the Israeli ground troops, who continue to guard a part of the structure with “focused” operations in the various buildings, floor by floor: an activity – it has been explained – linked precisely to the hostages . If Hamas – which reported 200 doctors and nurses killed – denounced the “destruction of some departments” of the hospital, the Israeli military spokesperson made it known that the army – more than 50 soldiers died in combat – has in his possession “clear information” indicating a connection between Hamas activity in Shifa and the hostages. As well as – he added – “new evidence” which reveals a network of tunnels belonging to the Islamic faction under the hospital. In fact, “weapons and intelligence material were found, including information relating to the Hamas attacks on 7 October”. In one of the laptops found in one of the departments, the image of the soldier Ori Megidish – later freed – taken before being captured was found. Hamas, in a statement released in Beirut, underlines how at Shifa the Israeli soldiers orchestrated a staging, displaying weapons, ammunition, computers and military uniforms on the shelves of the aisles as if they were in a supermarket. But the Israeli army replies: what has been found for now «is only the tip of the iceberg. Hamas wasn’t here – it is claimed – because it understood that we were coming.”
To know more
– Gaza, hospitals without respite. Raids on al-Shifa: “It’s a war zone”
Hamas: We are fighting the Israelis in Jenin ‘With heavy fire and explosive devices’
In a short post on Telegram, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said they were fighting “together with all the other resistance groups in the camp” for refugees in Jenin, in the West Bank. This was reported by Al Jazeera online, adding that according to what is read in the post, Palestinian fighters are targeting Israeli forces “with heavy fire and explosive devices”.
Blinken to Israel: urgent action against settler violence
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel to take “urgent” action to stop settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. In a phone call with Benny Gantz, an opposition leader who joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, Blinken “stressed the urgent need for concrete steps to reduce tensions in the West Bank, including by addressing rising levels of extremist settler violence,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Blinken speaks with Egyptian minister Shoukry, concrete steps for civilians
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry about the situation in Gaza and joint efforts to increase humanitarian assistance for Palestinians who urgently need it. Blinken thanked Egypt for its leadership in facilitating the safe exit of United States and other foreign nationals from Gaza through Egypt to their final destinations, and in advancing efforts to free the hostages. The Secretary of State reaffirmed the importance of “concrete steps” to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians across Gaza and the United States’ rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians. Blinken then underlined the United States’ commitment to working in concert with Egypt and other regional partners toward the formation of a “viable and prosperous” Palestinian state.
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