More Gaza hospitals suspend operations as Israel hunts Hamas

People stand over a crater following an Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 12, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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Updated 13 November 2023
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More Gaza hospitals suspend operations as Israel hunts Hamas

  • Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside
  • Battles around Gaza’s largest Al-Shifa hospital leave many trapped

GAZA/JERUSALEM: Two more major hospitals in Gaza closed to new patients on Sunday, with staff saying that Israeli bombardment plus lack of fuel and medicine meant more babies and others could die.
Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, medical staff said. Israel says it is homing in on Hamas militants in the area and the hospitals should be evacuated.
Gaza’s largest and second largest hospitals, Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, said they were suspending operations. With more people killed and wounded daily but half of the territory’s hospitals now out of action, there are ever fewer places for the injured.




Newborns are placed in bed after being taken off incubators in Gaza's Al Shifa hospital after power outage, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Gaza City, Gaza November 12, 2023. (REUTERS)

“My son was injured and there was not a single hospital I could take him to so he could get stitches,” said Ahmed Al-Kahlout, who was fleeing south in accordance with Israeli advice while fearing that nowhere in Gaza was safe.
A plastic surgeon in Shifa said bombing of the building housing incubators had forced them to line up premature babies on ordinary beds, using the little power available to turn the air conditioning to warm.
“We are expecting to lose more of them day by day,” said Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati.
Israel says Hamas has placed command centers under and near the hospitals and it needs to get at them to free around 200 hostages the militants took in Israel in an attack just over a month ago. Hamas has denied using hospitals in this way.
On Sunday, a Palestinian official briefed on talks over the release of hostages said Hamas had suspended the negotiations because of the way Israel had handled Shifa hospital.
There was no immediate comment from either Hamas or Israel.

’NO ONE IS ALLOWED IN, NOBODY IS ALLOWED OUT’
Israel’s military said it had offered to evacuate newborn babies and had placed 300 liters of fuel at Shifa’s entrance on Saturday night, but that both gestures had been blocked by Hamas.
Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Shifa, said reports of refusing to leave the diesel were “lies and slander.” Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said that of 45 babies in incubators at Shifa, three had already died.




Israeli army soldiers attend an armed first response group training session in the Druze village of Hurfeish, which has garnered the name "Tsahal village" (a Hebrew-language acronym for the "Israel Defence Forces"), near the border with Lebanon in northern Israel on November 10, 2023. (AFP)

Shifa was out of reach for the newly wounded, said Mohammad Qandil, a doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in south Gaza, who is in touch with colleagues there.
“Shifa hospital now isn’t working, no one is allowed in, nobody is allowed out,” he said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Al-Quds hospital was also out of service, with staff struggling to care for those already there with little medicine, food and water.
“Al Quds hospital has been cut off from the world in the last 6-7 days. No way in, no way out,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.




Men check the bodies of people killed in bombardment that hit a school housing displaced Palestinians, as they lie on the ground in the yard of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Three UN agencies expressed horror at the situation in the hospitals, saying it had in 36 days registered at least 137 attacks on health care facilities, resulting in 521 deaths and 686 injuries — including 16 dead and 38 wounded medics.
“The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair,” it said, saying half of Gaza’s hospitals were now closed.
With the humanitarian situation across Gaza worsening, 80 foreigners and several injured Palestinians crossed into Egypt in the first evacuations since Friday, four Egyptian security sources said.
Poland said 18 of them were its citizens, and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS News American citizens would be moved out of Gaza during Sunday.

AID DELIVERIES BY TRUCK AND PARACHUTE
At least 80 aid trucks had also moved from Egypt into Gaza by Sunday afternoon, two of the sources said. Jordan said earlier it had air-dropped a second batch into a field hospital.
Very little aid has entered Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas more than a month ago after militants rampaged through southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, according to Israeli officials.




White phosphorus fired by Israeli army to create a smoke screen, is seen on the Israel-Lebanon border in northern Israel, November 12, 2023. (REUTERS)

Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since then, around 40 percent of them children.
Disease is spreading among evacuees packed into schools and other shelters and surviving on tiny amounts of food and water, international aid agencies say.
Speaking from inside Gaza City, Jamila, 54, said she and her family could hear the roar of tanks nearby.
“During the day, people try to look for essential items such as bread and water, and at night people try to stay alive,” she said. “We hear explosions throughout the night, sometimes we can tell that some of these explosions are exchanges of fire between the resistance fighters and the Israeli forces.”
Palestinian health officials said 13 people had been killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Sunday.
Residents reported increased fighting around Al-Shati refugee camp, by the coast in northern Gaza. The Israeli military said it had killed a number of militants there and called on civilians to use a four-hour pause to evacuate south.
The Gaza fighting has reignited conflict on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, which has seen the worst cross-border clashes since 2006.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, said it attacked Israeli army troops near the Dovev Barracks on Sunday, inflicting casualties.
The Israeli military said earlier that anti-tank missiles fired by militants had hit a number of civilians, adding that it was retaliating with artillery fire.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said one of its members near the town of Al-Qawzah in southern Lebanon had been wounded by a bullet overnight.

 

 


UN calls for $370m in new humanitarian aid for Lebanon

Imran Riza, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, attends an interview with Reuters in Beirut, Lebanon October 3, 2024.
Updated 08 January 2025
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UN calls for $370m in new humanitarian aid for Lebanon

  • Following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza, Israel in September stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon

UNITED NATIONS, United States: The United Nations joined the Lebanese government on Tuesday to appeal for an additional $371.4 million in humanitarian aid for people displaced by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
The extension builds on an initial aid appeal for $426 million launched in October, as all-out war flared between the two sides and sent hundreds of thousands in Lebanon fleeing their homes.
That appeal raised approximately $250 million, according to the UN.
Following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza, Israel in September stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon.
After two months of warring, in which Hezbollah’s influential chief Hassan Nasrallah and multiple other leaders were killed, a ceasefire deal was reached that went into effect in late November.
“While the cessation of hostilities offers hope, over 125,000 people remain displaced, and hundreds of thousands more face immense challenges rebuilding their lives,” Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, said in a statement Tuesday.
The additional funding “is urgently required to sustain life-saving efforts and prevent further deterioration of an already dire situation,” he added.
The appeal is primarily aimed to assist an estimated one million Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian refugees affected by the conflict, funding a three-month period of emergency efforts through March 2025.
Since the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon began on November 27, more than 800,000 displaced people in Lebanon have been able to return home, according to UN figures.
 

 


Qatar and Turkiye dispatch two power ships to generate electricity for Syria

Updated 08 January 2025
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Qatar and Turkiye dispatch two power ships to generate electricity for Syria

  • The vessels, which have power plants installed, are expected to increase the amount of electricity generated in the country by about 50 percent
  • Syria’s energy infrastructure was badly damaged during the decade-long civil war, with most areas receiving power for only two or three hours a day

LONDON: Qatar and Turkiye sent two power-generating ships to Syria on Tuesday to help address the energy crisis in the country caused by insufficient electricity supplies.

Khaled Abu Di, the director of Syria’s Public Establishment for Transmission and Distribution of Electricity, said the floating power plants are capable of generating a total of 800 megawatts a day, which would increase the amount of electricity generated in the country by about 50 percent, state news agency SANA reported.

Syria’s energy infrastructure was badly damaged during more than a decade of civil war in the country that culminated in the fall of the ruling Assad regime in December. The deterioration resulted in severe power shortages, with many areas receiving electricity for only two or three hours a day.

Abu Di said efforts are underway to secure transmission lines to deliver the electricity generated by the ships. He added that his team is also working to repair dozens of damaged conversion plants and connection lines to get the national grid up and running again.


How Israeli law permitting child detention imperils the rights of Palestinian minors

Updated 08 January 2025
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How Israeli law permitting child detention imperils the rights of Palestinian minors

  • Under legislation passed in November by the Knesset, Israeli authorities are permitted to imprison Palestinians under the age of 14
  • Rights monitors say Israel has detained some 460 children since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack triggered the Gaza war

DUBAI: Frightened, alone, and often injured during arrest, Palestinian children routinely find themselves vulnerable to abuses and deprived of basic rights after they are taken into Israeli custody, according to human rights monitors.

Under legislation passed in November by the Knesset, Israeli authorities are now permitted to detain Palestinians under the age of 14 — a measure that rights groups claim is motivated by revenge rather than security needs.

The bill, proposed by a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and approved by 53-33 votes, allows judges to sentence minors between the ages of 12 and 14 to prison terms if convicted of terrorist murder, manslaughter, or attempted murder.

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces during a raid at the Balata camp for Palestinian refugees, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on November 23, 2023. (AFP)

According to the law, which was passed as a temporary measure lasting for five years, convicted minors can be held in closed facilities until they turn 14, after which they can be transferred to regular prisons.

An identical law, which was passed in 2016 following a series of attacks carried out by teenagers and other minors, expired in 2020.

According to the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Israel imprisoned more than 460 children between the months of October 2023 and January 2024.

INNUMBERS

460

Children imprisoned by Israel between October 2023 and January 2024, according to the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

16

Israeli courts have long defined the term ‘Palestinian child’ as a person under the age of 16, rather than the internationally recognized age of 18.

The Israeli parliament also passed a law in November that allows for the deportation of the family members of those convicted of attacks on Israeli citizens.

Furthermore, it allows for the deportation of the family members of those who had advance knowledge and either failed to report the matter to the police or “expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism.”

Under legislation passed in November by the Knesset, Israeli authorities are now permitted to imprison Palestinians under the age of 14. (AFP file/Getty Images)

Relatives of those who published “praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism or a terrorist organization” can also be deported.

“This is a historic and important day for all citizens of Israel,” Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, said in a statement welcoming the bill, which he said “sends a clear message the State of Israel will not allow the families of the terrorists to continue enjoying life as if nothing had happened.

“From today onwards, every father, mother, child, brother, sister or spouse who identifies with and supports their family member who harmed the citizens of Israel will be deported.”

The abuse of Palestinian children in military detention was a child protection crisis before Oct. 7, and it has only become worse, says Jason Lee, Save the Children.

Both Israel’s Justice Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office raised concerns about the legislation, which stipulates that those being expelled would be sent to Gaza or other destinations for 7-15 years for citizens or 10-20 years for legal residents.

Some opposition members of the Knesset suggested at the time that the legislation is targeted specifically at Palestinian citizens of Israel, saying the law is unlikely to apply to Jewish Israelis convicted of terrorism offenses.

Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations have branded both new laws unconstitutional.

Israeli policemen detain a Palestinian boy in the east Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Issawiya on May 15, 2012, during protests to mark Nakba day. (AFP)

Hadeel Abu Salih, an attorney working for Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, sent a letter to the Israeli parliament claiming the legislation was motivated by revenge and retribution.

Abu Salih also said the legislation contradicts the principles of Israel’s Youth Law, which stresses rehabilitation over punitive measures for minors.

The Legal Center released a statement saying that “through these laws, Israel further entrenches its two-tiered legal system, with one set of laws for Jewish Israelis under criminal law and another, with inferior rights, for Palestinians under the pretext of counterterrorism.

An Israeli soldier controls a Palestinian boy during clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters following a march against Palestinian land confiscation to expand the nearby Jewish Hallamish settlement on August 28, 2015 in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah. (AFP)

“By embedding apartheid-like policies into the law, the Knesset further institutionalized systematic oppression, in contravention of both international law and basic human and constitutional rights.”

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war, Israeli forces have significantly increased the rate of arrests of Palestinian children, both in Gaza and the West Bank.

Between October and November 2023 alone, 254 minors were reportedly arrested by Israeli forces. Some of these detainees have since been released.

Israeli security forces scuffle with a Palestinian boy outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's old city during a demonstration on December 26, 2015. (AFP)

The bulk of the arrest operations appear to take place in towns, camps, and other areas with points of contact with Israeli checkpoints. Although the precise charges leveled against these minors are unknown, the most common offense is throwing stones.

In some cases, rights monitors say children under the age of 10 are taken in order to pressure their relatives to surrender themselves to Israeli authorities.

Palestinian children released from Israeli detention often describe traumatic experiences, recounting harsh measures enforced by guards and the prison administration, including allegations of physical and psychological torture during interrogation.

Nael al-Atrash, eleven-years-old, is blind folded and hand cuffed by Israeli soldiers who raided the neighborhood of Jabal al-Takruri in the West Bank town of Hebron 08 March 2006. (AFP)

Testimonies shared with Save the Children include severe beatings in the presence of their relatives, being shot at, having their legs restrained, and being blindfolded during transfers between detention centers.

Several claim that food and water were also withheld for long periods of time as a form of punishment. Some have even alleged sexual abuse. Monitors say minors are routinely denied their right to legal aid and at times the presence of a family member during their interrogations.

As a result of these abuses, minors are allegedly coerced into signing false confessions and into signing documents without understanding their content. Children are also rarely granted bail before standing trial.

The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society have expressed concern about the ongoing detention of children and the alleged abuses.

Both say the behavior of Israeli prison administrations and conditions inside overcrowded facilities have become worse since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Monitors say the detention centers holding minors do not meet the minimum humanitarian standards. A large number of detained children are reportedly sharing cells and are deprived of an education, medical assistance, and personal items such as books and clothing.

Israeli courts have long defined the term “Palestinian child” as a person under the age of 16, rather than the internationally recognized age of 18 as defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Israeli authorities have previously denied the maltreatment of detainees.

Responding to separate claims by the UN in March last year about the alleged mistreatment of adults captured in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces told the BBC: “The mistreatment of detainees during their time in detention or whilst under interrogation violates IDF values and contravenes IDF and is therefore absolutely prohibited.”

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for Palestine, accused the international community of failing to address the detention of Palestinian children, saying minors in Israeli custody are “tormented often beyond the breaking point.”

On World Children’s Day, marked by the UN on Nov. 20, the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs released a statement saying that around 270 Palestinian children were being held in Israeli jails.

“The occupation continues to detain no less than 270 children, who are mainly held in Ofer and Megiddo prisons, in addition to camps established by the occupation army after the Gaza war,” the commission said.

“Systematic crimes are being committed by the prison administration against the jailed children, in addition to beatings, torture, and daily abuses.”

According to Palestinian rights monitors, more than 11,700 people from the West Bank have been detained since October 2023. This does not include those from the Gaza Strip, where the number of arrests is thought to be far higher.

Similarly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority urged the international community on World Children’s Day to pressure Israel to honor its commitments to global treaties, especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It stressed the need to ensure Palestinian children are not excluded from international charters that call for special protections for children against violence and detention.

The ministry also condemned the law undertaken by the Knesset to detain children under the age of 14 years, calling it a dangerous escalation that further undermines Palestinian children’s rights.

Despite international and local human rights organizations calling for the abolition of the Knesset’s child detention laws, the Israeli government insists the law will remain in place for the next five years.

 


Germany pushing for EU to relax sanctions on Syria, sources say

Updated 08 January 2025
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Germany pushing for EU to relax sanctions on Syria, sources say

  • This requires an unanimous EU decision
  • Germany’s foreign ministry declined to comment

BERLIN: Germany is leading European Union discussions on easing sanctions imposed on the Syrian government of toppled President Bashar Assad and aiding the country’s population, foreign ministry sources said on Tuesday.
“We are actively discussing ways to provide sanctions relief to the Syrian people in certain sectors,” one of the sources said. This requires an unanimous EU decision.
Germany’s foreign ministry declined to comment.
A lightning rebel offensive overthrew Assad on Dec. 8 and Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which led the advance, set up a caretaker government.
The US on Monday issued a six-month sanctions exemption for transactions with some government bodies to ease the flow of humanitarian assistance, address Syria’s power shortages and allow personal remittances.
The EU, United States, Britain and other governments imposed tough sanctions on Syria after Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 spiraled into civil war.
HTS has renounced its ties with Al Qaeda but is still designated a terrorist entity by the United Nations and US
German officials first circulated thoughts on easing sanctions on Syria in documents sent to Brussels before Christmas.
The FT first reported on Tuesday that the documents outline how the EU could gradually ease restrictions on Damascus in return for progress on social issues, including safeguarding minority and women’s rights and upholding commitments to ensuring non-proliferation of weapons.
The FT, citing an unnamed source familiar with the EU discussions, added that, like Washington, the bloc could make any easing of sanctions temporary to ensure that it could be reversed if necessary.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday traveled to Syria for a one-day trip with her French counterpart on behalf of the EU and met with HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
Baerbock said during her visit that all Syrian groups including women and Kurds must be involved in the country’s transition if Damascus wants European support.


Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis

Updated 08 January 2025
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Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis

  • Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area
  • Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza health officials said a wave of Israeli strikes hit the territory’s southern district of Khan Yunis on Tuesday evening, killing a dozen people, seven of them children.
At least five strikes targeted parts of Khan Yunis, including one in the Al-Mawasi area where thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in tents along the coast.
Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry reported.
A witness told AFP that several tents caught fire from the strike, which also wounded more than 20 people.
Five people, including three children, were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in Khan Yunis, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.
Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis, while another two were killed when an apartment was hit.
There was no immediate comment from the military about the latest strikes.
They came as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha on a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages.
In recent months, the Israeli military has focused its offensive on northern districts of Gaza, particularly the town of Jabalia and its adjacent refugee camp.
“We won’t stop. We will bring them (Hamas) to the point where they understand that they must return all hostages,” Israel’s army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told troops during a visit to Jabalia late on Monday.
“They see, every single day, what you are doing to them, and they understand that this is becoming unbearable,” he said, according to a statement released by the military.
During their October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the war, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 45,885 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.