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According to the UN, rescue workers in the Gaza Strip can hardly work due to the fighting and the lack of fuel. Israel wants to allow fuel deliveries for humanitarian purposes. All developments in the live blog.
The USA also assumes that Hamas is using hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes. National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby said: “Hamas and members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are using some hospitals in the Gaza Strip – including the Shifa Clinic – and tunnels beneath them to conceal and advance their military operations and to capture hostages “to hold on to”.
The Israeli military said, citing intelligence information, that the terrorist organization Hamas was controlling “terrorist activities” from the clinic. Israel is convinced that there is a Hamas command center beneath the site. The Palestinian Organization denies this.
The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, does not see Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a legitimate political partner for Germany. During Erdogan’s visit on Friday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz must make it clear that his “relativization of Hamas terror will not be accepted under any circumstances,” Schuster told the “Editorial Network Germany”.
“Anyone who not only denies Israel’s right to exist, but actively fights it, must not be a partner for German politics.” With his propaganda, Erdogan is also fueling the riots on German streets and the psychological terror against Jews in Germany, the Central Council President added. “A clear condemnation of Erdogan’s behavior would also be in the Chancellor’s interest from a domestic policy perspective.”
The Israeli military said it killed several fighters from the radical Islamist Palestinian group Hamas at the start of the storming of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. “Before our soldiers entered the hospital, they were confronted with explosive devices and groups of terrorists. Fights ensued in which terrorists were killed,” the military said. Israeli army radio reported five deaths. Weapons were also found in the clinic building.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
After warnings of a collapse in humanitarian support in the Gaza Strip due to a lack of fuel, Israel has announced that trucks carrying aid supplies will be refueled today. The trucks used by the UN are to be supplied with diesel at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, as the Israeli Cogat authority responsible for contacts with the Palestinians announced on Platform X. Israel is thus complying with a request from the US government.
The Israeli military says it has brought incubators and baby food to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The military said the military operation in the clinic is still ongoing. However, the incubators, baby food and other medical supplies were delivered to the hospital.
The Israeli Coordination Center for Government Activities in the Occupied Territories (COGAT) shared photos on the X platform that are intended to show the material. Medical teams and Arabic-speaking soldiers are on site to ensure that these supplies reach those in need. “Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza,” the agency wrote.
According to the UN, only one hospital in the northern Gaza Strip is accepting patients due to fighting between the Israeli army and the Islamist Hamas and due to a lack of fuel. The Al-Ahli hospital in the city of Gaza is the only one still in minimal operation, said the UN emergency agency OCHA.
All others would have stopped operations due to a lack of electricity, medical supplies, oxygen, food and water. The situation is “made worse by bombardments and fighting in their surroundings.” There are currently around 500 patients in Al-Ahli Hospital.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 22 of the 36 hospitals in the entire Gaza Strip have now ceased operations. The 14 still operating homes have “barely enough resources to carry out crucial and life-saving operations” and care for patients, including those in intensive care, the WHO said.
According to a doctor working there, there was heavy fighting last night on the grounds of the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. There were hours of gunfire and bombardment, said Ahmed Muchallalati, a doctor at the largest clinic in the coastal strip, to the Washington Post.
He saw Israeli tanks near the clinic complex. “We don’t know what their plan is.” He still wants to try to continue to care for the patients. Israel suspects there is a command center for the Islamist Hamas under the hospital grounds. This denies this. The BBC quoted an eyewitness at the clinic who reported six tanks and more than a hundred soldiers on the hospital grounds. Some were masked and shouted in Arabic: “Don’t move, don’t move!” Smoke bombs were also used.
The news channel Al-Jazeera reports, citing employees, that there are still an estimated 650 patients in the hospital. According to doctor Muchallalati, around 100 of them are in mortal danger. There were also 2,000 to 3,000 displaced people there, as well as 700 medical and administrative staff. The information cannot be independently verified.
According to the UN, rescue workers and ambulances in the Gaza Strip can hardly be deployed due to the fighting and lack of fuel. The situation has brought “rescuers and ambulances to a standstill in these areas,” the UN emergency relief office OCHA said overnight.
Many calls for help, for example from family members who are trapped under rubble after attacks, remain unfulfilled. The Palestinian Red Crescent said the aid organization had received “hundreds of calls” asking it to transport the dead and injured. However, the employees could not reach these victims.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, Israeli forces have penetrated the basement of the Al-Shifa complex. “The occupying army is now in the basement, searching it. They are inside the complex, shooting and throwing explosives,” spokesman for the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, Ashraf al-Kidra, said, according to Reuters.
The army first entered the surgery and emergency rooms, Mohammed Zakout, head of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, told the Arabic television channel Al Jazeera. The military has so far only confirmed that it is conducting a military operation at the hospital. The information cannot currently be independently verified.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
In response to the Israeli military’s incursion into Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Hamas also blames US President Joe Biden. The US intelligence community’s statement on Tuesday that the US supported Israel’s conclusion that militants were operating from the complex gave Israel a “green light” for the military operation, the terror group said, according to the Reuters news agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again called for his country’s support in the fight against the militant Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In a post on ” He demanded: “The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating the barbarism of Hamas.”
Earlier, according to media reports, Trudeau had “urgently” called on the Israeli government to “exercise maximum restraint” in its fight in the Gaza Strip and to grant a humanitarian pause at a press conference in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The world is watching. Testimonies from doctors, family members, survivors and children who have lost their parents can be heard on television and on social media. Trudeau added: “The world is witnessing this killing of women, children and babies. It must stop.”
Hundreds of demonstrators called for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of the Israeli parliament. At the rally on Tuesday evening, participants accused the head of government of being unworthy of his office, as the AP news agency reported. “Go, go, go!” they chanted. Many demonstrators held banners with slogans that blamed Netanyahu for the terrorist attack by Hamas and other extremist organizations on southern Israel on October 7.
The Israeli military says it has taken action against the militant Islamist Palestinian group Hamas at Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. “Based on intelligence information and operational necessity, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is conducting a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specific area of Shifa Hospital,” the army said. She called on all members of the terrorist militia in the hospital to surrender. Israel had previously warned the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza about the operation.
Israel now wants to allow fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip for humanitarian purposes. United Nations trucks will be allowed to bring 24,000 liters of fuel into the area via the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, said the Israeli authority responsible for Palestinian affairs, Cogat. In doing so, Israel is complying with a request from the USA. It was not explained when the fuel could be delivered to the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of people gathered in Washington to “March for Israel” and against anti-Semitism. Israel’s army says it has taken control of several government buildings in Gaza City. All developments in the live blog.