AAccording to the health authority controlled by the radical Islamic Hamas, all 31 remaining premature babies have been evacuated from the Al-Shifa Hospital in the city of Gaza. The babies will be accompanied by “three doctors and two nurses,” Gaza Hospital Director General Mohammed Zakut said on Sunday.
The Red Crescent emergency service said they were transferred in ambulances to the south of the Gaza Strip. The aim is to transfer her to a hospital in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
For days, the Israeli army has been on the site of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, where it suspects a Hamas terrorist operations center. On Saturday, hundreds of people left the hospital complex on foot heading south.
The World Health Organization (WHO) described the clinic as a “death zone” after an hour-long visit by WHO staff and other UN aid workers and announced that it would prepare with partner organizations for an immediate evacuation of the approximately 300 remaining patients.
On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other groups kidnapped around 240 hostages into the Gaza Strip in massacres and attacks in the Israeli border area, thereby provoking Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip
Source: OpenStreetMap; Infographic WORLD
All developments in the live ticker:
3:00 p.m. – France wants to take in sick children from the Gaza Strip
France wants to take in sick and injured children from the Gaza Strip who need urgent medical attention. The Elysée Palace in Paris said it would use all available resources to help bring the children from the coastal area to French hospitals. A French Navy helicopter carrier for medical support is also expected to arrive in Egypt in a few days. Another French aid flight carrying medical supplies is also scheduled to take off at the beginning of the week.
So far, only relatively few injured people have been able to leave the sealed-off Gaza Strip. On Friday, according to the Egyptian Red Crescent, there were more than 70 and a group of children who were to be treated in the United Arab Emirates. The Gulf state had offered to take in up to 1,000 children from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.
2:08 p.m. – Tens of thousands protest in Pakistan against Israeli airstrikes
Tens of thousands of people protested in Pakistan against Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Participants in the protest in the city of Lahore in the east of the country shouted anti-Israel and anti-American slogans and called for jihad, a so-called holy war. The country’s most important religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, called for the protest. It had already organized large demonstrations in the port city of Karachi and in the capital Islamabad this month.
Protesters in Lahore
Source: AFP/ARIF ALI
12:20 p.m. – Doctors Without Borders reports deaths in attack on own convoy
One person was killed in an attack on a convoy belonging to the aid organization Doctors Without Borders in the northern Gaza Strip. “The organization condemns the attack in the strongest possible terms,” she said. The five vehicles were marked all around and on the roof as a “Doctors Without Borders” convoy. The organization wanted to keep employees and their families safe. They have been holding out in precarious conditions for a week at the organization’s compound near Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Among the 137 people, 65 were children. They were therefore unable to escape because of the ongoing fighting around the hospital.
11:53 a.m. – 47 reported dead in attacks in Khan Yunis
According to a clinic, at least 47 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip since Saturday. This emerged from current statistics from Nasser Hospital. A photographer reported to the German Press Agency that there were many body bags lined up in the clinic. One picture showed a father holding the body of his young son. The Israeli army has not yet released a statement on reports of attacks in the south of the Gaza Strip.
11:51 a.m. – Hamas authorities: 30 infants evacuated from Shifa clinic
At least 30 infants have been evacuated from Shifa Hospital in Gaza, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities. A spokesman for the authorities, Medhat Abbas, confirmed this figure to the AP news agency. The babies were to be transferred to medical facilities in Egypt. The World Health Organization previously announced that a team had visited the clinic and found, among other things, 32 babies there. There was no immediate comment from the WHO.
11:34 a.m. – Qatar: Only “minor” obstacles before agreement
According to the Qatari government, only “minor” obstacles stand in the way of an agreement in the negotiations for the release of the hostages kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. The remaining questions are more of a “logistical and practical” nature, said Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at a press conference with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Doha. Al Thani did not give a timetable.
10:41 a.m. – WHO team finds mass grave in Al-Shifa Hospital
A World Health Organization inspection team has found a mass grave containing more than 80 bodies at the entrance to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. After an hour-long stay, the team described the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip as a “death zone,” said the WHO in Geneva. The WHO mission to the hospital, in which other UN aid workers also took part, had been coordinated with the Israeli army.
A United Nations team visited Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Sunday. The World Health Organization, which led the mission, said 291 patients remained there after the evacuation, including 32 infants in extremely critical condition. Other patients suffered from severely infected wounds or spinal injuries.
10:01 a.m. – Israel: 59 soldiers killed since ground operations began in Gaza
According to the military, 59 soldiers have been killed since Israel’s ground operations in the Gaza Strip began on October 27th. An army spokesman said a total of 380 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7th. This number also includes soldiers who died on the border with Lebanon.
9:57 a.m. – Hamas authorities: Death toll in Gaza rises to more than 12,300
The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to more than 12,300 since the war began six weeks ago, according to Hamas authorities. The government press office in Gaza said around 30,000 people were injured. There are more than 5,000 children and young people among the dead. There are also thousands of missing people.
The numbers cannot currently be independently verified. According to the information, this is by far the highest number of Palestinians killed during a war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
9:05 a.m. – Negotiations between Israel and Hamas – 87 hostages could be released
Israel, the US and Hamas are said to be “close” to an agreement on the release of dozens of women and children held hostage in the Gaza Strip. In return, the parties are considering a five-day break in fighting. The report the Washington Post citing people familiar with the regulations and Israeli television.
Accordingly, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas is said to have signaled its fundamental willingness to release up to 87 hostages, reported the broadcaster N12. These include 53 women, children and young people and 34 foreigners. In return, Israel must commit to a five-day break in fighting in the Gaza Strip and to the release of female Palestinian prisoners, minors in Israeli prisons and so-called security prisoners. Hamas is also demanding that more fuel be imported into the coastal strip.
Unless something comes up at the last minute, the release could begin in the next few days, according to a detailed six-page draft of an agreement quoted by the Washington Post. Initially, 50 or more hostages were to be released in smaller groups, every 24 hours. The pause in fighting should make more humanitarian aid and better care possible, the report continues. The draft is the result of weeks of talks in Doha, Qatar, between Israel, the United States and Hamas, which was indirectly represented by Qatari mediators.
At the same time, N12 reported that it was still unclear whether the deal would move forward. One problem is that there has recently been hardly any contact with the Hamas boss in the Gaza Strip, Jihia al-Sinwar. He has not yet provided a clear final answer through the mediators in Qatar, they said. Israel believes al-Sinwar has been in underground hideouts since the war began on October 7. He was most recently thought to be in his birthplace of Chan Yunis in the south of the coastal strip. According to the TV station, communication takes place via several intermediaries.
After the publication of the Washington Post report, the White House also emphasized that there was still no agreement. “We have not reached an agreement yet, but we continue to work hard to reach an agreement,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on “X.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said there was no agreement yet on the release of hostages.
06:01 a.m. – Israeli casualties from the ground offensive rise to 58
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the deaths of two more soldiers killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. This brings the number of Israeli deaths in the ground offensive against Hamas to 58.
00:29 – WHO plans to rescue the remaining patients in Al-Shifa clinic
The World Health Organization (WHO) is working hard on a plan to rescue the remaining patients from Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote this on the short message portal X. Employees visited the hospital on Saturday. There is no water, no electricity or food there and hardly any medical needs left. The WHO is working with partners on this and is demanding support for this plan.