Middle-East
Little light, no beds, not enough anesthesia: A view from the 'nightmare' of Gaza's hospitals
The only thing worse than the screams of a patient undergoing surgery without enough anesthesia are the terror-stricken faces of those awaiting their turn, a 51-year-old orthopedic surgeon says.
When the Israeli bombing intensifies and the wounded swamp the Gaza City hospitals where Dr. Nidal Abed works, he treats patients wherever he can — on the floor, in the corridors, in rooms crammed with 10 patients instead of two. Without enough medical supplies, Abed makes do with whatever he can find – clothes for bandages, vinegar for antiseptic, sewing needles for surgical ones.
Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are nearing collapse under the Israeli blockade that cut power and deliveries of food and other necessities to the territory. They lack clean water. They are running out of basic items for easing pain and preventing infections. Fuel for their generators is dwindling.
Palestinian death toll in West Bank surges as Israel pursues militants following Hamas rampage
Israel began its bombing campaign after Hamas militants surged across the border on Oct. 7 and killed over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and abducted more than 200 others. Israel's offensive has devastated neighborhoods, shuttered five hospitals, killed thousands and wounded more people than its remaining health facilities can handle.
"We have a shortage of everything, and we are dealing with very complex surgeries," Abed, who works with Doctors Without Borders, told The Associated Press from Al Quds Hospital. The medical center is still treating hundreds of patients in defiance of an evacuation order the Israeli military gave Friday. Some 10,000 Palestinians displaced by the bombing have also taken refuge in the hospital compound.
"These people are all terrified, and so am I," the surgeon said. "But there is no way we'll evacuate."
At least 60% of Gaza's population displaced due to Israeli attacks: UN
The first food, water and medicine trickled into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday after being stalled on the border for days. Four trucks in the 20-truck aid convoy were carrying drugs and medical supplies, the World Health Organization said. Aid workers and doctors warned it was not nearly enough to address Gaza's spiraling humanitarian crisis.
"It's a nightmare. If more aid doesn't come in, I fear we'll get to the point where going to a hospital will do more harm than good," Mehdat Abbas, an official in the Hamas-run Health Ministry, said.
Across the territory's hospitals, ingenuity is being put to the test. Abed used household vinegar from the corner store as disinfectant until the stores ran out, he said. Too many doctors had the same idea. Now, he cleans wounds with a mixture of saline and the polluted water that trickles from taps because Israel cut off the water.
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters march in London as Israel-Hamas war roils the world
A shortage of surgical supplies forced some staff to use sewing needles to stitch wounds, which Abed said can damage tissue. A shortage of bandages forced medics to wrap clothes around large burns, which he said can cause infections. A shortage of orthopedic implants forced Abed to use screws that don't fit his patients' bones. There are not enough antibiotics, so he gives single pills rather than multiple courses to patients suffering terrible bacterial infections.
"We are doing what we can to stabilize the patients, to control the situation," he said. "People are dying because of this."
When Israel cut fuel to the territory's sole power plant two weeks ago, Gaza's rumbling generators kicked in to keep life-support equipment running in hospitals.
Authorities are desperately scrounging up diesel to keep them going. United Nations agencies are distributing their remaining stocks. Motorists are emptying their gas tanks.
In some hospitals, the lights have already switched off. At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis this week, nurses and surgical assistants held their iPhones over the operating table, guiding the surgeons with the flashlights as they snipped.
At Shifa Hospital, Gaza's biggest, where Abed also worked this week, the intensive care unit runs on generators but most other wards are without power. Air conditioning is a bygone luxury. Abed catches beads of sweat dripping from his patients' foreheads as he operates.
People wounded in the airstrikes are overwhelming the facilities. Hospitals don't have enough beds for them.
"Even a normal hospital with equipment would not be able to deal with what we're facing," Abed said. "It would collapse."
Shifa Hospital — with a maximum capacity of 700 people — is treating 5,000 people, general director Mohammed Abu Selmia says. Lines of patients, some in critical condition, snake out of operating rooms. The wounded lie on floors or on gurneys sometimes stained with the blood of previous patients. Doctors operate in crowded corridors filled with moans.
The scenes — infants arriving alone to intensive care because no one else in their family survived, patients awake and grimacing in pain during surgeries — have traumatized Abed into numbness.
But what still pains him is having to choose which patients to prioritize.
"You have to decide," he said. "Because you know that many will not make it."
Israel plans to step up attacks on the Gaza Strip
Aid deliveries have begun moving into the besieged Gaza Strip, two weeks after the militant group Hamas rampaged through southern Israel and Israel responded with airstrikes.
Israel says Hamas has freed two American hostages who had been held in Gaza since the war began Oct. 7. Israeli airstrikes continued to hit southern Gaza, an area swollen by civilians who fled there from the north on Israeli instructions. Israel’s military spokesman said the country planned to step up its attacks starting Saturday as preparation for the next stage of its war on Hamas.
The war, which is in its 15th day on Saturday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that the death toll has reached 4,385, while 13,561 people have been wounded.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly in the initial attack on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed into Israel. In addition, 203 people were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, the Israeli military has said.
Currently:
1. Egypt is hosting dozens of regional leaders and senior Western officials for a summit on the war.
2. The father of freed American teenage hostage Natalie Raanan says she’s doing well after her release by Hamas.
3. Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators are marching in London and other cities.
4. A tent camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza reawakens old traumas.
5. The fallout from the Israel-Hamas war has spilled into workplaces everywhere.
Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
ISRAEL STRIKES UNDERGROUND COMPOUND AT WEST BANK MOSQUE, MILITARY SAYS
Israeli Defense Forces said a military aircraft launched a strike early Sunday on the Al-Ansar mosque at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The IDF said via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been using an “underground terror route” beneath the mosque. One Palestinian was killed in the shelling, Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Tensions have risen in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops, arrest raids and attacks by Jewish settlers.
ITALIAN PREMIER GOES TO ISRAEL
ROME — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has made a trip to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, her office said.
The meeting Saturday came after Meloni participated in a summit in Cairo focused on ways to de-escalate the raging Israel-Hamas war.
Meloni's office said that in her meeting she reiterated “the right of Israel to defend itself under international law and to live in peace” while also underlining "the importance of guaranteeing humanitarian access to Gaza and a prospect of peace for the region.’’
Her office said she brought “a message of solidary and Italy's closeness” following Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Oct. 7.
PRESIDENT BIDEN SPEAKS WITH 2 FREED HOSTAGES
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has spoken on the phone with two freed Americans who had been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, were released Friday. It was the first such hostage release from among the roughly 200 people the militant group abducted from Israel during its Oct. 7 rampage.
Video of Biden speaking with them by phone was posted Saturday on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. He told the mother and daughter that he was glad they had been released.
“We’re going to get them all out, God willing,” he said.
Natalie thanked Biden for his “services” to Israel. Judith said they are in good health.
Hamas said it released the mother and daughter for humanitarian reasons in an agreement with the Qatari government.
Family members have said Judith and Natalie had been on a trip from their home in the Chicago suburb of Evanston to Israel to celebrate Judith’s mother’s birthday and the Jewish holidays.
This item has been corrected to reflect that the video was posted Saturday, not that Biden spoke to them on Saturday.
ISRAEL SAYS IT WILL INCREASE ATTACKS ON GAZA
Israel plans to step up its attacks on the Gaza Strip starting Saturday as preparation for the next stage of its war on Hamas, Israel's military spokesman says.
Asked about a possible ground invasion into Gaza, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Saturday night that the military was trying to create optimal conditions beforehand.
“We will deepen our attacks to minimize the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the war. We are going to increase the attacks, from today,” Hagari said.
He repeated his call for residents of Gaza City to head south for their safety.
UN AGENCIES SAY MORE AID IS NEEDED
CAIRO — United Nations aid agencies said a first 20-truck convoy of assistance that reached Gaza Saturday was “only a small beginning and far from enough.”
The agencies, including the World Health Organization, the World Food Program and others, said in a joint statement that more than 1.6 million people are in critical need of humanitarian aid.
“Vulnerable people are at greatest risk and children are dying at an alarming rate and being denied their right to protection, food, water and health care,” they said.
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The agencies, which also include the U.N. population fund and UNICEF, called for a humanitarian cease-fire, along with immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access throughout Gaza.
“Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities. It is now catastrophic. The world must do more,” they said.
DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS SAYS GAZA HOSPITALS ARE OVERWHELMED
CAIRO — Doctors Without Borders says Gaza’s health care system is “facing collapse.”
The global medical group said Saturday that hospitals in Gaza are “overwhelmed and lacking resources” amid continued Israeli airstrikes and siege following Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Oct. 7.
The group’s warning come after Medhat Abbas, an official with the Gaza health ministry, said early Saturday that five hospitals has stopped functioning and two others were partly out of service.
“We recently made a large donation of medical stock, including medicines, narcotics and medical equipment to Al Shifa hospital, the main surgical facility in the strip,” the group, known by its French acronym MSF, wrote on X platform.
An nurse with the aid group in Gaza, Loay Harb, said that when the supplies were delivered to the hospital, she and others “saw hundreds of people taking shelter and it was difficult to walk inside.”
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE SUMMIT
CAIRO — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is calling for an international peace summit to bring about the end of the Israel-Hamas war.
Speaking at a conference in Cairo on Saturday, Abbas reiterated his “complete rejection of the killing of civilians on both sides.” He also urged the “release of all civilians, prisoners, and detainees,” likely alluding to some 210 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Read: Overwhelmed to see love and support here for people in Palestine: Ambassador
Abbas leads the Palestinian Authority, a government exercising semi-autonomous control in the West Bank. The government is deeply loathed among Palestinians, who view it as corrupt and collaborationist with Israel.
Hamas seized control of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip in 2007 and enjoys a strong base of support in the West Bank.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES HIT SEVERAL RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — A barrage of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis near a U.N. school struck several residential buildings, prompting a frantic rescue effort as medics rushed several dead bodies and dozens of wounded Palestinians to the hospital.
At the Hamouda family home seven people were killed and 40 others were wounded, survivors told The Associated Press at the scene of the attack.
CAIRO SUMMIT
CAIRO — At a summit of world leaders in Cairo focused on ways to de-escalate the raging Israel-Hamas war, representatives from Arab and European nations called for more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza and appealed for protection of civilians in the strip.
Several Arab leaders, including Egypt and Jordan, took the opportunity to castigate the international community over its inaction and a double standard they said that the world displayed on the devastating Israeli bombing campaign on Gaza.
The response of the world, the office of President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi said, displayed a “shortcoming in the values of the international community in addressing crises.”
“While we see one place officials rushing and competing to promptly condemn the killing of innocent people, we find incomprehensible hesitation in denouncing the same act in another place,” it said in reference to fierce Western condemnation of Hamas’ attack on Israel and a weaker reaction to Palestinian suffering.
The summit did not immediately produce any statements about the prospects of a cease-fire
UN MONITOR SAYS MORE AID IS NEEDED
JERUSALEM —- A United Nations monitor says the 20 trucks of aid delivered to Gaza are just a “tiny fraction” of what is needed by some 1.4 Palestinians who have been displaced since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Normally, 500 trucks pass through crossings into Gaza every day. The 20 trucks that arrived Saturday were the first to arrive there in two weeks.
Andrea De Domenico is the head of the U.N. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territories. He says UNWRA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is working the World Food Program, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization to direct the aid to those most in need. But he said it will be challenging to get aid into the hands of people who are not staying at U.N. facilities.
Read: Israel-Hamas war: Why India’s Congress is facing backlash over ‘support for Palestine’
The aid consists of canned food such as tuna, basic medical supplies, medicines, and water. He said the U.N. is pushing for an “unimpeded” flow of aid into the strip through the Rafah crossing, but that discussions of further aid are mired in deliberations “between parties.”
“If we don’t stabilize the supply pipeline,” Domenico said, “we head toward catastrophe.
DUAL CITIZENS CAN'T GET OUT OF GAZA
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian Americans and other dual citizens rushed to southern Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt on Saturday as 20 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered the besieged strip that has staggered under shortages of medicine and food.
Even as embassies asked their citizens in Gaza to stand ready at the border, crowds of disappointed Palestinians holding American, Canadian, German and British passports waited hours in vain for at least fifth time this week.
“There is no opening of the crossing, and the suffering is the same,” said U.S. citizen Dina al- Khatib. “They communicate with us, but there is no change.”
With a humanitarian disaster brewing in Gaza, al-Khatib said she and her family were desperate to get out.
“It’s is not like previous wars,” she said. “There is no electricity, no water, no internet, nothing.”
IDF OFFICIAL: PRIVATE HOMES CAN BE LEGITIMATE TARGETS IF HAMAS MILITANTS ARE IN THEM
JERUSALEM — A senior Israel Defense Forces official says the military will try not to strike zones in Gaza where humanitarian aid is being distributed, unless rockets are fired from the area.
“It’s a safe zone. We have a system which every time we decide that an area … is a safe zone, we declare no attack in this area. We won’t attack them,” he told a group of foreign journalists.
He added that the definition of what constitutes a “legitimate target” has changed, because the use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas “turns a private home into a legitimate target. And anyone who supports that home is a legitimate target.”
He acknowledged that the IDF has attacked houses where there are civilians living among militants.
— Julia Frankel in Jerusalem.
AT LEAST 12 PEOPLE DIE IN A HOUSE IN GAZA HIT BY AN ISRAELI STRIKE
DEIR-AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — People searched for neighbors buried under the rubble of a house in central Gaza that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. Witnesses said 12 people in one household died in the strike and five others were believed to be trapped.
Read more: 31 killed as Israel-Palestine fighting continues, Egypt pushes truce
People clambered on slabs of concrete and twisted metal looking for survivors. A woman in a bloodstained headscarf was helped out of the wreckage.
Men carried a body on a stretcher to an ambulance, and another man ran, carrying the limp body of a small child. Others helped lead away shocked-looking people covered in dust, including a boy with a bloody face.
The house was some 200 meters (yards) from the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
FIGHTING INTENSIFIES ALONG ISRAEL'S BORDER WITH LEBANON
BEIRUT — Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters exchanged fire Saturday in several areas along the Lebanon-Israel border as violence escalates over the Israel-Hamas war.
Tension has been picking up along the border over the past two weeks following the Oct. 7, attack by the Palestinian militant Hamas group on southern Israel that killed over 1,400 civilians and troops. Israel’s strikes on Gaza since then have killed over 4,000 Palestinians.
An Associated Press journalist in south Lebanon heard loud explosions along the border close to the Mediterranean coast.
The state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli shelling hit several villages, adding that a car was directly hit in the village of Houla. There was no immediate word on casualties.
An Israeli army spokesman said a group of gunmen fired a shell into Israel adding that an Israeli drone then targeted them. He added that another group of gunmen fired toward the Israeli town of Margaliot and a drone attacked them shortly afterward.
“Direct hits were scored in both strikes,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Journalists in Gaza wrestle with issues of survival in addition to getting stories out
A limited number of journalists in Gaza are trying to report on the war with Israel while facing the same problems as the besieged Palestinian population there — wondering where to live, where to get food and water, and how to stay safe.
The aftermath of Tuesday's explosion that killed hundreds at a Gaza City hospital is the latest example of how that reality hinders the world's ability to get a full picture of what is happening to the Palestinian population In Gaza.
Outside journalists have been unable to enter Gaza since the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7. The sole entry point for journalists, Israel's Erez crossing, was attacked in the rampage and remains closed. A handful of news organizations had maintained a regular presence with bureaus there, including The Associated Press, the BBC, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Al-Jazeera, with a network of stringers helping others.
Israel's order to Palestinians to evacuate the northern part of Gaza led journalists at AP and AFP, for example, to abandon bureaus in Gaza City and head south.
As Israel readies troops for ground assault, Gaza awaits urgently needed aid from Egypt
"Working in Gaza right now is extremely difficult and that's in large part because our staff are both covering the story and worrying about their own safety and the safety of their families," said Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press.
AP staff stocked up on bottled water and other supplies before abandoning their Gaza City bureau, which replaced an office destroyed by Israeli bombs in 2021.
Even with power supplies limited, AP staff members have provided photos, video and other reporting each day since the war's start, Pace said. No such luck for a camera left behind on the bureau's balcony that provided a live stream of the skyline; the generator likely ran out of fuel.
The nine Agence France-Presse journalists in Gaza feel caught in a squeeze between wanting to work and also take care of their families, said Phil Chetwynd, global news director. Managers are stressing the importance of safety first, he said.
"This is a population that over the years has been used to fairly extreme situations, but I think they would all say that this is on a much, much bigger scale," Chetwynd said, referring to the previous four wars between Israel and Hamas.
At least 19 journalists have been killed since the start of the war, 15 of them in Gaza, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Already, more journalists have been killed in Gaza during the past two weeks than in the territory since 2001, said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa coordinator.
On CNN, journalist Ibrahim Dahman reported on the journey to find safety that he took with his wife and two sons, ages 7 and 11. One son plaintively asked when they found a room: "They don't strike hotels, right?"
"I feel intense fear," Dahman said. "I am worried about myself, my wife and my children."
Gazans find nowhere is safe during Israel’s relentless bombing
AP photojournalist Adel Hana's family fled to the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, below the evacuation line, to shelter in a cousin's home near the local hospital. But a series of blasts rocked the building, killing at least seven family members and burying women and children in the rubble, he said.
"It doesn't make sense," Hana said. "We went to Deir al-Balah because we thought we would be safe."
Marwan al-Ghoul, working for CBS News, was similarly heading south with his family in Gaza. When he came upon the aftermath of a bombing in a residential area, he got out to film scenes of bodies buried in rubble and crying children walking through the bombing site.
The need to bear witness, the journalists said, came after a week of intense focus on the attacks in Israel, where news media have been working freely. News organizations are conscious of the need to show that there is suffering on both sides.
Even with fewer news organizations operating in Gaza, there is a rich journalism tradition there, said Andrew Roy, CBS News' London bureau chief. With advances in technology, many people are able to tote cameras to noteworthy scenes, he said.
That was the case after Tuesday's explosion at al-Ahli hospital. "You can often show people things that in the past you would not have been able to show," Roy said.
Even without a full-time staff member in Gaza, The New York Times offered on its website Wednesday a graphic that detailed the hospital grounds, an overhead still picture of the blast scene that showed burnt-out cars and video that depicted the fiery aftermath of the explosion , taken at some distance through a fence. The Times said it had independently verified the video's accuracy.
Still, the material doesn't replace professional journalists able to quickly reach the scene and interview people there.
"Eyewitness reporting is the best, being able to report what you see," said Luke Baker, Jerusalem bureau chief for Reuters between 2014-2017. Experienced journalists are also more apt to know sources they can depend upon for truthful information, he said.
OIC calls for immediate end to Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza
In the aftermath of the al-Ahli hospital explosion, journalists were left to sift through the competing finger-pointing over which side was to blame. "The truth does matter," Rachel Maddow said on MSNBC's overage. "It's the only thing we have here."
In past Gaza conflicts, the Internet was a useful source of information and videos. But the spread of disinformation online this time has made it much less reliable, and verifying material that can be trusted is enormously time-consuming, Chetwynd said.
As the story moves forward, news organizations are looking for ways to compensate for the barriers faced by journalists in Gaza. The AP, for example, has assigned a team of Arabic-speaking journalists to conduct interviews and monitor online activity.
For those left in Gaza, Pace said there's a concern about when supplies are going to run out without reinforcements, including power.
"It's not constant and it's not reliable," she said.
CPJ's Mansour said that he hopes the United Nations keeps the welfare of journalists on its agenda, including safe passage out of the country for those who need it.
"The people who live in this place didn't make the decision to live in a war zone," Chetwynd said.
As Israel readies troops for ground assault, Gaza awaits urgently needed aid from Egypt
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes Thursday, including in the south where Palestinians were told to take refuge, as the Israeli defense minister ordered ground troops to prepare to see Gaza "from the inside", though he didn't indicate when the ground assault would begin.
Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals tried to stretch out ebbing medical supplies and fuel for generators, as authorities worked out logistics for a desperately needed aid delivery from Egypt. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza performed surgeries by the light of mobile phones and used vinegar to treat infected wounds.
Amid the violence, President Joe Biden pledged unwavering support for Israel's security, "today and always," while adding that the world "can't ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians" in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Also read: US military shoots down missiles and drones as it faces growing threats in volatile Middle East
In an address Thursday night from the Oval office, hours after returning to Washington from an urgent visit to Israel, Biden drew a distinction between ordinary Palestinians and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. He linked the current war in Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin "both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy."
Biden said he was sending an "urgent budget request" to Congress on Friday, to cover emergency military aid to both Israel and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, an unclassified U.S. intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimated casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital this week on the "low end" of 100 to 300 deaths. The death toll "still reflects a staggering loss of life," U.S. intelligence officials said in the report, seen by The Associated Press. It said intelligence officials were still assessing the evidence and their casualty estimate may evolve.
Biden and other U.S. officials already have said that U.S. intelligence officials believe the explosion at al-Ahli Hospital was not caused by an Israeli airstrike. Thursday's findings echoed that.
Also read: Gazans find nowhere is safe during Israel’s relentless bombing
The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Oct. 7 Hamas rampage in southern Israel. Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north of Gaza and flee south, strikes extended across the territory, heightening fears among the territory's 2.3 million people that nowhere was safe.
Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, and tensions flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In a fiery speech to Israeli infantry soldiers on the Gaza border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant urged the forces to "get organized, be ready" to move in. Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border.
"Whoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside," he said. "It might take a week, a month, two months until we destroy them," he added, referring to Hamas.
Israel's consent for Egypt to let in food, water and medicine provided the first possible opening in its seal of the territory. Many Gaza residents are down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water.
Egypt and Israel were still negotiating the entry of fuel for hospitals. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas has stolen fuel from U.N. facilities and Israel wants assurances that won't happen. The first trucks of aid were expected to go in Friday.
With the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza's second-largest hospital deteriorated further, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel of Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most of the hospital and medical staff were using mobile phones for light.
At least 80 wounded civilians and 12 dead flooded into the hospital after witnesses said a strike hit a residential building in Khan Younis. Doctors had no choice but to leave two to die because there were no ventilators, Qandeel said.
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"We can't save more lives if this keeps happening," he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospitals and a U.N. agency donated some of its last fuel.
The agency's donation to Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest, would "keep us going for another few hours," hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
Al-Ahli Hospital was still recovering from Tuesday's explosion, which remains a point of dispute between Hamas and Israel. Hamas quickly said an Israeli airstrike hit the hospital, which Israel denied. The AP has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
The blast left body parts strewn on the hospital grounds, where crowds of Palestinians had clustered in hopes of escaping Israeli airstrikes. The U.S. assessment noted "only light structural damage," with no impact crater visible.
Near al-Ahli, meanwhile, another explosion struck a Greek Orthodox church housing displaced Palestinians late Thursday, resulting in deaths and dozens of wounded. Abu Selmia, the Shifa Hospital director general, said dozens were hurt at the Church of Saint Porphyrios but could not give a precise death toll because bodies were buried under rubble.
Palestinian authorities blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, a claim that could not be independently verified. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem condemned the attack and said it would "not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty" to provide assistance.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority women, children and older adults. Nearly 12,500 were injured, and another 1,300 people were believed buried under rubble, authorities said.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas' deadly incursion. Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives.
Also read: France regrets failure of Security Council resolution calling for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza
More than 1 million Palestinians, about half of Gaza's population, have fled their homes in the north since Israel told them to evacuate, crowding into U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters or the homes of relatives.
For the first time since Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in 1967, a major tent camp arose to house displaced people. Dozens of U.N.-provided tents lined a dirt lot in Khan Younis.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through Rafah, the territory's only connection to Egypt, remained fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would "thwart" any diversions by Hamas. Biden said the deliveries "will end" if Hamas takes any aid.
More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near Rafah, according to Khalid Zayed, the head of the Red Crescent for North Sinai.
Under an arrangement reached between the United Nations, Israel and Egypt, U.N. observers will inspect the trucks before entering Gaza. The U.N., working with the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent, will ensure aid goes only to civilians, an Egyptian official and European diplomat told the AP. A U.N. flag will be raised on both sides of the crossing as a sign of protection against airstrikes, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
It was not immediately clear how much cargo the crossing could handle. Waleed Abu Omar, spokesperson for the Palestinian side, said work has not started to repair the road damaged by Israeli airstrikes.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Al-Arabiya TV that foreigners and dual nationals would be allowed to leave Gaza once the crossing was opened.
Israel said it agreed to allow aid from Egypt because of a request by Biden — which followed days of intense talks with the U.S. secretary of state to overcome staunch Israeli refusal.
Israel had previously said it would let nothing into Gaza until Hamas freed the hostages taken from Israel. Relatives of some of the captives were furious over the aid announcement.
"The Israeli government pampers the murderers and kidnappers," the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said.
The Israeli military said Thursday it killed a top Palestinian militant in Rafah and hit hundreds of targets across Gaza, including militant tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructure and command centers. Palestinians have launched barrages of rockets at Israel since the fighting began.
Violence was also escalating in the West Bank, where Israel carried out a rare airstrike Thursday, targeting militants in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
Six Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and the Israeli military said the strike killed militants and resulted in 10 Israeli officers being wounded. More than 74 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war started.
US military shoots down missiles and drones as it faces growing threats in volatile Middle East
With tensions spiking in the Middle East, U.S. forces in the region are facing increasing threats as a Navy warship shot down missiles appearing to head toward Israel Thursday and American bases in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by drone attacks.
Later Thursday, a U.S. official said there had been an attack near Baghdad's airport, where U.S. forces are hosted. The official said one projectile was shot down and another struck, but according to early reports no one was injured. It wasn't clear what type of munition was fired. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss reports not yet made public, said information was still being gathered.
Also read: Gazans find nowhere is safe during Israel’s relentless bombing
Earlier, the USS Carney, a Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the U.S. military in the defense of Israel in this conflict.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters the missiles were "potentially" headed toward Israel but said the U.S. hasn't finished its assessment of what they were targeting.
A U.S. official said they don't believe the missiles — which were shot down over the water — were aimed at the U.S. warship. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations that had not yet been announced.
But an array of other drone attacks over the past three days did target U.S. bases, including one in southern Syria on Thursday that caused minor injuries.
The rash of violence comes in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel almost two weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the U.S. has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.
Also read: Egypt, Jordan fear Israel could force permanent expulsion of Palestinians into their countries
In recent days, however, a number of militant groups across the region — from Hezbollah to the Houthis — have expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel. Since Tuesday, militants have launched at least four drone attacks on U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria where U.S. troops train local defense forces and support the mission to counter the Islamic State group.
The attacks fuel escalating worries in the U.S. and the West that the war in Israel could expand into a larger regional conflict.
"That's exactly what we are trying to prevent," Ryder said.
The most recent drone attack was Thursday at al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq posted a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, saying they had fired a salvo of rockets at the base and "they hit their targets directly and precisely." A U.S. official confirmed the latest attack but said it was too early to assess any impact.
Also Thursday, the al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria was struck by drones. U.S. troops have maintained a presence at the base for a number of years to train Syrian allies and monitor Islamic State militant activity.
The Pentagon said one drone was shot down, but another hit the base and caused minor injuries.
The garrison is located on a vital road that often used by Iranian-backed militants to ferry weapons to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon — and Israel's doorstep.
Syrian opposition activists also said there was a separate drone attack on an oil facility in eastern Syria that houses American troops. Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet, said three drones with explosives struck the Conoco gas field in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, also confirmed explosions at the site.
Also read: OIC calls for immediate end to Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza
On Tuesday, militants launched three drones against two Iraq bases that the U.S. uses to train forces and conduct operations against the Islamic State. During the spate of launches, one warning turned out to be a false alarm at al-Asad, but it sent personnel rushing into bunkers. During that incident, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died, Ryder said.
He said the Pentagon does not yet have confirmation on who launched the drone attacks but said the U.S. "will take all necessary actions to defend U.S. and coalition forces against any threat." He said any military response would come "at a time and a manner of our choosing."
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have sometimes been used as foot soldiers in regional conflicts, including in Syria and Yemen, and have in recent days threatened to attack U.S. facilities in Iraq and elsewere because of American support for Israel.
"Our missiles, drones, and special forces are ready to direct qualitative strikes at the American enemy in its bases and disrupt its interests if it intervenes in this battle," Ahmad "Abu Hussein" al-Hamidawi, head of the Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement last Wednesday. He also threatened to launch missiles at Israeli targets.
Following the blast at the hospital in Gaza, the group issued another statement in which it blamed the U.S. and its support for Israel for the catastrophe and called for an end to the U.S. presence in Iraq.
"These evil people must leave the country. Otherwise, they will taste the fire of hell in this world before the afterlife," the statement said.
Also read: Palestinians in Gaza feel nowhere is safe amid unrelenting Israeli airstrikes
On the intercepts by the Carney, Ryder said the strikes were done because the Houthi missiles "posed a potential threat" based on their flight profile. He added that the U.S. is prepared to do whatever is needed "to protect our partners and our interests in this important region." He said the U.S. is still assessing what the target was, but said no U.S. forces or civilians on the ground were injured.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel. Last week, in Yemen's Sanaa, which is held by the Houthi rebels still at war with a Saudi-led coalition, demonstrators crowded the streets waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags. The rebels' slogan long has been, "God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse of the Jews; victory to Islam."
Last week, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the rebel group's leader, warned the United States against intervening in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, threatening that his forces would retaliate by firing drones and missiles.
When approached Thursday, two Houthi officials declined to comment on the incident. One said he was unaware of the incident, while the second said he did not have the authority to speak about it.
Gazans find nowhere is safe during Israel’s relentless bombing
Israeli airstrikes pounded locations across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including parts of the south that Israel had declared as safe zones, heightening fears among more than 2 million Palestinians trapped in the territory that nowhere was safe.
In the nearly two weeks since a devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel, the Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in response. Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north and head to what it called “safe zones” in the south, strikes continued across the territory overnight and Palestinian militants continued firing rockets into Israel.
A residential building in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter, was among the places hit. Medical personnel at Nasser Hospital said they received at least 12 dead and 40 wounded.
The bombardments came after Israel agreed Wednesday to allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to Gaza, the first crack in a punishing 11-day siege. Many of Gaza's residents were down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water.
The announcement of a plan to bring water, food and other supplies into Gaza came as fury over a Tuesday night explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East. There were conflicting claims of who was behind the blast, which health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said had killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Egypt, Jordan fear Israel could force permanent expulsion of Palestinians into their countries
As desperate Palestinians in sealed-off Gaza try to find refuge under Israel's relentless bombardment in retaliation for Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 attack, some ask why neighboring Egypt and Jordan don't take them in.
The two countries, which flank Israel on opposite sides and share borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively, have replied with a staunch refusal. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his toughest remarks yet on Wednesday, saying the current war was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, "but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to ... migrate to Egypt." He warned this could wreck peace in the region.
Also read: OIC calls for immediate end to Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza
Jordan's King Abdullah II gave a similar message a day earlier, saying, "No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt."
Their refusal is rooted in fear that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into their countries and nullify Palestinian demands for statehood. El-Sissi also said a mass exodus would risk bringing militants into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, from where they might launch attacks on Israel, endangering the two countries' 40-year-old peace treaty.
Here is a look at what is motivating Egypt's and Jordan's stances.
A HISTORY OF DISPLACEMENT
Displacement has been a major theme of Palestinian history. In the 1948 war around Israel's creation, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from what is now Israel. Palestinians refer to the event as the Nakba, Arabic for "catastrophe."
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In the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 300,000 more Palestinians fled, mostly into Jordan.
The refugees and their descendants now number nearly 6 million, most living in camps and communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The diaspora has spread further, with many refugees building lives in Gulf Arab countries or the West.
After fighting stopped in the 1948 war, Israel refused to allow refugees to return to their homes. Since then, Israel has rejected Palestinian demands for a return of refugees as part of a peace deal, arguing that it would threaten the country's Jewish majority.
Egypt fears history will repeat itself and a large Palestinian refugee population from Gaza will end up staying for good.
NO GUARANTEE OF RETURN
That's in part because there's no clear scenario for how this war will end.
Israel says it intends to destroy Hamas for its bloody rampage in its southern towns. But it has given no indication of what might happen afterward and who would govern Gaza. That has raised concerns that it will reoccupy the territory for a period, fueling further conflict.
The Israeli military said Palestinians who followed its order to flee northern Gaza to the strip's southern half would be allowed back to their homes after the war ends.
Egypt is not reassured.
El-Sissi said fighting could last for years if Israel argues it hasn't sufficiently crushed militants. He proposed that Israel house Palestinians in its Negev Desert, which neighbors the Gaza Strip, until it ends its military operations.
"Israel's lack of clarity regarding its intentions in Gaza and the evacuation of the population is in itself problematic," said Riccardo Fabiani, Crisis Group International's North Africa Project Director. "This confusion fuels fears in the neighborhood."
Also read: Israel will let Egypt deliver some aid to Gaza, as doctors struggle to treat hospital blast victims
Egypt has pushed for Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and Israel said Wednesday that it would, though it didn't say when. According to United Nations, Egypt, which is dealing with a spiraling economic crisis, already hosts some 9 million refugees and migrants, including roughly 300,000 Sudanese who arrived this year after fleeing their country's war.
But Arab countries and many Palestinians also suspect Israel might use this opportunity to force permanent demographic changes to wreck Palestinian demands for statehood in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which was also captured by Israel in 1967.
El-Sissi repeated warnings Wednesday that an exodus from Gaza was intended to "eliminate the Palestinian cause … the most important cause of our region." He argued that if a demilitarized Palestinian state had been created long ago in negotiations, there would not be war now.
"All historical precedent points to the fact that when Palestinians are forced to leave Palestinian territory, they are not allowed to return back," said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Egypt doesn't want to be complicit in ethnic cleansing in Gaza."
Arab countries' fears have only been stoked by the rise under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of hard-right parties that talk in positive terms about removing Palestinians. Since the Hamas attack, the rhetoric has become less restrained, with some right-wing politicians and media commentators calling for the military to raze Gaza and drive out its inhabitants. One lawmaker said Israel should carry out a "new Nakba" on Gaza.
WORRIES OVER HAMAS
At the same time, Egypt says a mass exodus from Gaza would bring Hamas or other Palestinian militants onto its soil. That might be destabilizing in Sinai, where Egypt's military fought for years against Islamic militants and at one point accused Hamas of backing them.
Egypt has backed Israel's blockade of Gaza since Hamas took over in the territory in 2007, tightly controlling the entry of materials and the passage of civilians back and forth. It also destroyed the network of tunnels under the border that Hamas and other Palestinians used to smuggle goods into Gaza.
Also read: US vetoes Security Council resolution calling for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza
With the Sinai insurgency largely put down, "Cairo does not want to have a new security problem on its hands in this problematic region," Fabiani said.
El-Sissi warned of an even more destabilizing scenario: the wrecking of Egypt and Israel's 1979 peace deal. He said that with the presence of Palestinian militants, Sinai "would become a base for attacks on Israel. Israel would have the right to defend itself ... and would strike Egyptian territory."
"The peace which we have achieved would vanish from our hands," he said, "all for the sake of the idea of eliminating the Palestinian cause."
OIC calls for immediate end to Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza
The Executive Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has stressed the importance of preserving the lives of all civilians, and not targeting them in any way being inconsistent with international law and international humanitarian law, as well as divine laws.
In its final communiqué of extraordinary open-ended meeting held at the level of foreign ministers in Jeddah, the OIC called on member states to apply all feasible and effective diplomatic, legal and deterrent measures, to stop the occupying power Israel's crimes against humanity.
The meeting was held on October 18, upon the joint invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Chair of the current session of the Islamic Summit and Chair of the Executive Committee, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to discuss the ongoing Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people.
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In light of the blatant and unprecedented Israeli aggression in the occupied Palestinian territory and the heinous massacres perpetrated against civilians in Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation forces, the meeting called for the immediate cessation of the barbaric aggression of the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people and the immediate lifting of the siege imposed to the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli aggression led to hundreds of innocent civilian casualties, thousands of injuries, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands through the demolition of their homes.
The OIC reaffirmed its strong condemnation of the unprecedented aggression against civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the entire occupied Palestinian territory by killing, bombing, deliberately destroying infrastructure, threatening to commit atrocities and to exterminate them, as well as the absolute rejection of targeting civilians under any pretext or displacing them from their homes, or starving and depriving them of safe access to humanitarian aid in contravention of all international norms and laws, and of the most basic humanitarian principles and values.
Also read: Palestinians in Gaza feel nowhere is safe amid unrelenting Israeli airstrikes
The meeting called upon all countries to quickly provide humanitarian, medical and relief aid, water and electricity, and to open humanitarian corridors immediately in order to safely deliver urgent aid to the Gaza Strip, including through the United Nations institutions particularly the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and support its efforts in this regard.
Israel, the occupying power, bears full responsibility for the fate of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the real tragedy they are subjected to under bombardment, siege, and starvation, without electricity, food, or clean water, while being forced to abandon their homes, and for the policy of indiscriminate collective punishment that it applies in a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as its legal responsibilities as the occupying power in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, according to the joint communiqué.
Also read: France regrets failure of Security Council resolution calling for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza
It expressed its strong regret and condemnation of the failure of the United Nations Security Council and its inability to discharge its responsibilities by taking a decisive decision to halt the war crimes carried out by the Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and all Palestinian territory, which negatively affect the Security Council's role in maintaining international peace and security and protecting unarmed civilians.
The meeting called upon the United Nations and the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities, to take all urgent measures to ensure an end to the brutal and barbaric aggression against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip and the entire Palestinian territory, to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, to provide protection for defenseless Palestinian civilians, and to stop the escalating humanitarian catastrophe carried out by the forces of the illegal Israeli occupation.
France regrets failure of Security Council resolution calling for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza
France has regretted the failure of the draft resolution brought by Brazil to the Security Council.
France voted for the draft resolution, which was most likely to bring the Council together around common principles and had the support of 12 countries, said the French Embassy in Dhaka on Thursday.
Also read: US vetoes Security Council resolution calling for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza
This text was unequivocally condemning the "terrorist attacks" by Hamas against Israel, demanding the release of the hostages, urging respect by all for international humanitarian law, humanitarian pauses, and the urgent opening of full, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access to the United Nations, ICRC and humanitarian organizations in Gaza to enable the provision of basic commodities to the civilian population.
Also read: Shock and disarray at the Gaza hospital bomb site
The draft resolution also recalled the perspective of two states, living side by side within secure and recognized borders, and underlined the importance of increasing efforts to prevent escalation in the Middle East.
Also read: Gaza's doctors struggle to save hospital blast survivors as Middle East rage grows
France thanked Brazil for its initiative and its coordinating role. France will remain mobilized with its partners to respond to the humanitarian emergency and avoid a regional conflagration.
France has already mobilized 10 million euros in additional humanitarian aid for the population of Gaza.
Shock and disarray at the Gaza hospital bomb site
According to Palestinian health officials, the explosion at a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday night killed at least 471 people.
They allege an Israeli air attack, while Israel's military says the blast was caused by a botched rocket fire by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The BBC went to the area and discovered that body parts were still being gathered.
Also read: Israel will let Egypt deliver some aid to Gaza, as doctors struggle to treat hospital blast victims
Mattresses soaked in blood were scattered over the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab hospital, along with clothing and personal belongings left behind in the turmoil that followed the bomb and the massive fire, the BBC reported.
More than a dozen vehicles were left wrecked in an adjacent parking lot.
Also read: Gaza's doctors struggle to save hospital blast survivors as Middle East rage grows
The buildings nearby are also damaged, with shrapnel pockmarks. However, no huge impact crater can be seen, the report said.
People are in a state of terror, unable to comprehend what occurred in a location that was meant to be protected by international humanitarian law. It said.
Also read: Palestinian medics in Gaza struggle to save lives under Israeli siege and bombardment
"We left our home to come here," a woman who survived the explosion told the BBC. "We thought it would be safe, but then it got bombed."
Doctors said the majority of the dead were among the thousands of civilians who had sought refuge at the hospital since Friday. They fled there when the Israeli military ordered people to flee the northern Gaza Strip as it increased airstrikes on Hamas, added the report.
Many of those who remained in the courtyard were elderly or infirm, unable to travel south due to a lack of transportation.
One witness told BBC that they were seated on the ground when it was shaken by a massive explosion.
Later, people from all across the Gaza Strip rushed to the area to assist, he claimed. They began collecting dead bodies and transporting injured people.
Those in critical condition were transported away on motorcycles, while those in less bad condition had to walk 3 kms to Shifa hospital.
According to the World Health Organization, despite their protected status, 20 hospitals in the north, including Al-Ahli Arab, have received orders to evacuate their patients and personnel.
The UN agency has stated that the instructions are difficult to follow due to existing insecurity, the severe condition of many patients, a lack of ambulances, and a paucity of beds elsewhere, and has warned that it will "further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe".