Israel is still being criticized for the intrusion into the Shifa Hospital in Gaza – now people have been killed again in the shelling of a clinic.
A hospital has once again come under fire during the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Twelve people were killed in an attack on the Indonesian hospital in the northern part of the coastal strip, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said. Several patients and their companions were among the victims. The ministry blamed Israel for the attack.
Meanwhile, 28 of the premature babies evacuated from the embattled Shifa hospital in Gaza arrived in Egypt for treatment. An unconfirmed media report that a pause in fighting to release hostages would begin on Monday had not been confirmed by late afternoon.
According to the Ministry of Health, dozens were injured in the shelling of the Indonesian hospital. The Israeli military did not initially comment when asked. The Hamas information could not initially be independently verified.
The Indonesian government strongly condemned the shelling and also blamed Israel. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said it was a “clear violation of international humanitarian law”. The construction of the hospital was financed by the Indonesian government.
Hospitals have repeatedly been the focus of the war between the Islamist Hamas and Israel. The Israeli army accuses Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes. Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US, denies this.
The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. On the Israeli side, more than 1,200 people were killed and around 240 hostages, including from Germany, were taken to Gaza.
Israel responded with massive air strikes, a blockade of the Gaza Strip and began a ground offensive in late October. According to Palestinian information, more than 13,000 people have been killed so far.
Concern about military action in the Indonesian hospital
The Israeli army said the Indonesian hospital was also surrounded by a “terrorist infrastructure.” The clinic was built on a Hamas tunnel system. This information could not initially be verified independently. However, the allegations fueled concerns about a possible deployment in the hospital complex.
Eyewitnesses reported Israeli tanks stationed not far from the hospital. According to the spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, there are still 200 employees in the clinic and thousands of displaced people. He did not give an exact number. “We have asked the World Health Organization to evacuate the patients,” the spokesman said.
Premature babies brought from Gaza to Egypt
28 of the premature babies evacuated from the Shifa Hospital in Gaza are now in Egypt, but according to the World Health Organization (WHO), some are in mortal danger. The state-affiliated Egyptian television channel Al-Kahira showed babies in incubators being handed over to Egyptian ambulances at the Rafah border crossing. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed the transfer.
According to the WHO, none of them were accompanied by family members because the Palestinian Ministry of Health was unable to locate the relatives. Because of a lack of medicine, babies are battling serious infections, according to the WHO. WHO employees described the conditions in Shifa Hospital as devastating after an initial visit on Saturday.
Doctors Without Borders: 70 dead after air strike in Khan Yunis
According to Doctors Without Borders, at least 70 people have been killed following an Israeli airstrike in the city of Khan Yunis. Dozens of patients, including many children and young people, had to be treated for severe burns at Nasser Hospital on Sunday, the aid organization said, citing its staff at the clinic.
The Israeli army did not initially release a statement on reports of attacks in the south of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant announced on Saturday that the attacks in the Gaza Strip would soon be expanded to the south.
Rocket alarm in northern Israel after shelling from Lebanon
According to the Israeli army, around 25 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel on Monday. The Israeli army said it attacked several targets in its northern neighboring country. The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah confirmed attacks in Israel and said it registered several hits.
Egypt: Israel is “systematically” hindering aid to the Gaza Strip
Egypt accused Israel of “systematically” obstructing aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. Egypt is doing everything possible to enable deliveries through the Rafah border crossing, said Foreign Minister Samih Shukri during a visit to China. “But Israel’s policy of hindering the import of aid is systematic,” Schukri said, according to his spokesman. Israel wants to “pressure” Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip during the “ongoing bombardment and occupation,” he argued.
Israel: Politicians push forward death penalty law for terrorists
Israeli politicians want to make it easier to impose the death penalty on terrorists. Parliament’s internal security committee discussed a corresponding law from the right-wing extremist ruling party Otzma Jehudit (Jewish Force) on Monday.
According to a draft of the law from March, “whoever intentionally or out of indifference causes the death of an Israeli citizen, if the act is motivated by racism or out of hostility against a certain population group” will be punished with death – with the aim of “the “To harm the State of Israel or the rebirth of the Jewish people in their homeland”.
In the occupied West Bank, military courts should be able to hand out death sentences with a simple majority. Similar attempts to impose the death penalty for terrorists have failed in the past. Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954.