Israel’s army says it hits an ambulance used by the Islamist Hamas during its advance. The attack caused consternation – and had other consequences. The overview.
After an Israeli attack on an ambulance, departures from the Gaza Strip have been stopped for the time being. Injured Palestinians as well as foreigners and Palestinians with dual citizenship are affected. Security sources in Gaza said that foreigners could not leave the Gaza Strip until the wounded could be brought to Egypt.
A source close to the Egyptian Red Crescent also confirmed to the German Press Agency that employees of the Palestinian Red Crescent had been ordered by the authorities to stop transporting wounded Palestinians for the time being. First, safe routes would have to be created for ambulances to travel from the Gaza Strip to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The statements of the warring parties about the shelling
Israel’s army said it attacked an ambulance used by the Islamist Hamas during its advance in the north of the Gaza Strip. The military said several terrorists were killed.
The Palestinian Red Crescent and the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said wounded people should be taken to the Rafah crossing so they can be treated in Egypt. The Red Crescent condemned the attack on the ambulance convoy.
15 people are said to have been killed and another 60 injured in the rocket attack at the gates of the hospital. All information cannot currently be independently verified.
Report: More than 700 people were waiting to leave the country
The US broadcaster CNN reported, citing Egyptian authorities, that around 730 people were due to leave the Gaza Strip, including 386 US citizens and 151 Germans. According to the Egyptian Red Crescent, 1,102 foreigners and Palestinians have left the Gaza Strip with a second passport since the Gaza war broke out.
Leading UN officials horrified and shocked after shelling
The images of corpses lying on the street in front of the Shifa Hospital in the city of Gaza are shocking, wrote UN Secretary-General António Guterres late on Friday evening. Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan then accused Guterres of “completely ignoring the fact that Hamas is deliberately using ambulances for terrorist targets.”
Referring to the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, Erdan wrote: “Where was your horror when Hamas fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli ambulances and executed paramedics in cold blood?”
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, wrote on the platform , injuries and damage.” He added: “We repeat: patients, medical staff, facilities and ambulances must be protected at all times. Always.” The WHO chief also called for an immediate ceasefire.
Hamas fires rocket towards Eilat
The armed wing of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, has once again fired a longer-range rocket into southern Israel. The Qassam Brigades said it had fired an Ayash 250 rocket at the Israeli port city of Eilat, at the southernmost point of Israel. This is a self-produced rocket that, according to Hamas, should have a range of 250 kilometers.
The Israeli army said an attack from the Gaza Strip had been identified following a rocket alarm in the Arava region north of Eilat. The projectile was intercepted by the Arrow missile defense system. According to paramedics, there were no injuries according to initial findings.
Immediate ceasefire demanded
Meanwhile, several Arab states and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) have called for an “immediate ceasefire in Gaza” after a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. An “immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza” is urgently needed, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said at a press conference in the capital Amman. Adequate aid must arrive in the Gaza Strip immediately. The “expulsion of the Palestinians” must be stopped. “Murder and war crimes must stop and Israel’s immunity from international law must end,” said Al-Safadi.
According to a US media report in the Gaza war, the Islamist Hamas is trying to smuggle injured members of its military wing out into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing. This delayed the evacuation of foreigners from the Gaza Strip, wrote the New York Times, citing a high-ranking American government official.
Israel sets up three-hour windows for escape
The Israeli army has once again given civilians in the Gaza Strip a window of opportunity to flee to the south of the coastal area. Residents have from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time (12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CET) to use a safe escape route, an Israeli army spokesman wrote on X in Arabic about an hour before the start of the time window. The army also released a map showing the designated road.
Israel’s army had already repeatedly asked people in the north to flee to the south of the sealed-off coastal strip. According to the military, at least around 700,000 people have already done this. The United Nations even speaks of 1.4 million internally displaced people. In total, more than 2.2 million people live in the densely populated area.
New incidents on Israel’s northern border
There has been renewed fighting on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Israel’s army says it has attacked terrorist cells in Lebanon that attempted to attack targets in Israel. The military also registered several rocket launches from the neighboring country and attacked the locations where they were launched, the army announced on Telegram. According to the information, there were initially no reports of injuries.
The Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon said it had attacked the border area with rockets. Israeli territory was hit. In response, Israeli warplanes attacked Lebanese territory. Various outlying areas were shelled by the Israeli military.
Erdogan breaks off contact with Netanyahu
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he has broken off contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the Gaza war. “Netanyahu is no longer any kind of interlocutor for us.
We have deleted it, we have crossed it out,” said Erdogan on the return flight from the Kazakh capital Astana, according to a statement from his press office. However, Ankara does not intend to break off diplomatic relations with Israel. The Turkish Foreign Ministry called its ambassador to Israel “for consultations ” back to Ankara.