RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Explosions and shootings shook the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital and surrounding neighborhoods as Israeli forces stormed through the facility for a second day Tuesday. The military said it had killed 50 Hamas militants in the hospital, but it could not be independently confirmed that the dead were combatants.
The raid was a new blow to the Shifa medical complex, which had only partially resumed operations after a destructive Israeli raid in November. Thousands of Palestinian patients, medical staff and displaced people were trapped inside the sprawling complex Tuesday, as heavy fighting between troops and Hamas fighters raged in nearby districts. Details were scarce, with communications from inside the hospital nearly impossible.
“It’s very hard right now. There’s heavy bombardment in the area of Shifa, and buildings are being hit. The sound of tank and artillery fire is continuous,” Emy Shaheen, who lives near the hospital, said in a voice message with repeated booms of shelling audible in the background. She said a large fire had been raging for hours near the hospital.
The Israeli military said it raided Shifa early Monday because Hamas fighters had grouped in the hospital and were directing attacks from inside.
The claim could not be confirmed, and the Hamas media office said all those killed in the assault were civilians. But the surge in fighting in Gaza City underscored Hamas’ continued presence in northern Gaza months after Israeli ground troops claimed they largely had control over the area.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza vowing to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. More than 31,800 Palestinians have been killed in the bombardment and offensive since. Much of northern Gaza has been leveled, and an international authority on hunger crises warned on Monday that 70 percent of people there were experiencing catastrophic hunger and that famine was imminent.
The mayhem in the north came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his determination to invade Gaza’s southernmost town, Rafah – one of the last major towns not targeted by a ground assault.
A day earlier, in their first phone call in a month, US President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu not to carry out a Rafah operation, urging “an alternative approach” to more precisely target Hamas fighters there.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has expressed concern over attacking Rafah because some 1.4 million people from across Gaza have crowded into the area. UN officials have warned of a massive death toll and the potential collapse of the humanitarian aid effort if troops moved into Rafah.
Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss Rafah with Biden administration officials.
But on Tuesday, he told a parliamentary committee that while he would listen to US proposals “out of respect” to Biden, “we are determined to complete the elimination of these (Hamas) battalions in Rafah, and there is no way to do this without a ground incursion.”
Airstrikes in Rafah overnight destroyed an apartment and several houses, killing at least 15 people, including six women and children, hospital officials said.
NEW SHIFA SIEGE
The army last raided Shifa Hospital in November after claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command center within and beneath the facility. The military revealed a tunnel leading to some underground rooms, as well as weapons it said were found inside the hospital. However, the evidence fell short of the earlier claims, and critics accused the army of recklessly endangering the lives of civilians.
The hospital, which is the heart of Gaza’s health system, was severely damaged in the assault and has only been able to resume limited operations since. Gaza officials say some 30,000 displaced people were taking refuge in the compound when the new Israeli assault began.
The raid came before dawn Monday when tanks surrounded the facility and troops stormed into multiple buildings.
The military on Tuesday said two of its soldiers had been killed in the operation. It said troops on Monday killed Faiq Mabhouh, a senior officer in Gaza’s police force, which is under the Hamas-led government but distinct from the militant group’s armed fighting wing. The military said he was hiding in Shifa with weapons, but the Gaza government said he was in charge of protecting aid distribution in the north.
The raid prompted heavy fighting for blocks around Shifa. Hamas’ military wing said it struck two Israeli armored vehicles and a group of soldiers with rockets in the vicinity of the hospital.
Emergency services received multiple calls for help from people whose buildings had been bombed in the streets around Shifa, but rescue teams could not go to the scene because of the fighting, said Mahmoud Bassal, civil defense spokesperson.
Kareem Al-Shawwa, a Palestinian living about a kilometer from the hospital, said the past 24 hours had been “terrifying,” with explosions and heavy exchanges of fire. He said Israeli troops had told residents to evacuate the area, but he and his family were too afraid of getting caught in the fighting to leave their home.
“Either we’re forced to evacuate and they (Israeli soldiers) will detain men, or we’ll die,” he said, referring to the military’s mass roundups of men from among people evacuating.
Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian facilities to shield its fighters, and the Israeli military has raided several hospitals since the start of the war.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that at least 31,726 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but it says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel that triggered the war and took another 250 people hostage. Hamas is still believed to be holding about 100 captives, as well as the remains of 30 others, after most of the rest were freed during a ceasefire last year.
Heavy fighting rages around Gaza’s biggest hospital as Israel raids it for a second day
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Heavy fighting rages around Gaza’s biggest hospital as Israel raids it for a second day
- The raid was a new blow to the Shifa medical complex
- Thousands of Palestinian patients, medical staff and displaced people were trapped inside the sprawling complex Tuesday, as heavy fighting between troops and Hamas fighters raged
Egypt hosts Fatah-Hamas post-war Gaza talks as part of ceasefire efforts
The talks are part of Egypt’s broader mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas and to expand humanitarian access to the enclave.
Leaders from Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo last month to discuss forming the committee based on a proposal put forward by Egypt, but talks were adjourned for later discussion, sources close to the talks told Reuters.
The sources said the committee would be made up of independent Palestinian figures not aligned to a particular movement, addressing the question of who would run Gaza after the year-long war is over.
Israel rejects any role by Hamas in Gaza after the war is ended and has said it does not trust the rival Palestinian Authority of Abbas to run the enclave.
Mediators, including Egypt and Qatar with backing from the United States, have so far failed to secure a truce that would end the Gaza war and facilitate a release of Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas, along with thousands of Palestinians detained by Israel.
Hamas is pressing for an end to hostilities while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the war will continue until Hamas is dismantled.
Hamas political official Izzat Al-Risheq dismissed proposals of limited or temporary truces as “smokescreens.”
“We are positively open to any proposals or ideas that ensure the cessation of aggression and the withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” Al-Risheq said in a statement.
The conflict continues to exact a heavy humanitarian toll, with medics reporting that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp on Saturday.
Palestinian health officials said at least 60 people had been killed by Israeli military strikes across Gaza Strip since Friday.
In the latest round of violence, Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group allied with Hamas, said it launched rockets at Sderot, Mefalsim and other Israeli territory near the Gaza border late on Saturday.
The Israeli military said two projectiles crossed from northern Gaza, landing in an open area but caused no injuries.
The war erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory offensives have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of Gaza to rubble.
Strike on Gaza polio vaccine center wounds four children: WHO
- Organization launched second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza on Saturday
GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said six people including four children were hurt Saturday in a strike on a polio vaccination center in northern Gaza.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a message on X, that the UN agency had received “an extremely concerning report” that the center “was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving polio vaccination” drive.
Without naming who carried out the strike, he said the Sheikh Radwan primary health care center was “in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow vaccination to proceed.”
“Six people, including four children, were injured,” he added.
The Israeli military has been pounding northern Gaza in recent weeks as part of its campaign to crush the Hamas militant movement in retaliation for the militants’ attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The WHO launched a needed second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza on Saturday after Israeli bombing halted the drive.
The vaccination drive began on September 1 with a successful first round, after the besieged Palestinian territory confirmed its first case of polio in 25 years.
“A WHO team was at the site just before” Saturday’s strike, Ghebreyesus said.
“This attack, during humanitarian pause, jeopardizes the sanctity of health protection for children and may deter parents from bringing their children for vaccination,” he added.
“These vital humanitarian-area-specific pauses must be absolutely respected,” he said, calling for a ceasefire in the territory.
The WHO says some 119,000 children in the north are awaiting a second dose, while 452,000 have been vaccinated in central and southern Gaza.
Typically spread through sewage and contaminated water, poliovirus is highly infectious.
It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal, mainly affecting children under the age of five.
Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 43,314 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the UN considers reliable.
Israeli commando unit abducts Lebanese maritime student
- According to a Lebanese military source and based on shared CCTV footage, the operation involved 20 to 25 commandos
BEIRUT: A Lebanese maritime student was abducted in Batroun, northern Lebanon, by Israeli commandos, authorities said on Saturday
Axios news portal reported that “the abductee was taken to be questioned on Hezbollah’s naval activities,” citing an Israeli official.
Leaked information identified the abductee as Imad Amhaz, a student at the Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute in Batroun, who was in his parents’ house at the time of the incident.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said an “unidentified military force carried out a sea landing on the shore of Batroun, went with all its weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, and kidnapped a Lebanese man.”
According to a Lebanese military source and based on shared CCTV footage, the operation involved 20 to 25 commandos.
Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transportation Ali Hamieh said that “the sea is under supervision, and we are waiting for the outcome of the investigations.”
Hamieh added that the Lebanese government will contact UNIFIL to know whether the operation was carried out in cooperation with the UN peacekeeping force.
A UNIFIL spokesperson said the force “has not been involved in facilitating any kidnapping or other violation of Lebanese sovereignty. Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk.”
An Israeli official told Axios that “the Israeli Navy SEALs captured Imad Amhaz — a senior member of Hezbollah’s naval force — in an operation in northern Lebanon.”
Lebanon accused Israel of carrying out the operation and violating Lebanese territorial waters, despite the presence of a UNIFIL maritime task force.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was killed and 15 others were wounded on Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold.
The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the “Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout Mall ... in the southern suburbs of Beirut.”
A residential building was hit near the Galerie Semaan crossroads in Beirut’s southern suburb — an area struck for the first time.
Elsewhere, Israeli planes raided several buildings and apartments near the Imam Hussein Complex in Tyre, destroying them completely and injuring civilians.
Raids also targeted a house in Tebnine, near the governmental hospital, killing two people, severely injuring others, and significantly damaging the hospital and nearby buildings.
In Bekaa, the raids carried out by the Israeli military on Baalbek and its surroundings in the last 48 hours damaged the Roman wall outside the Temple of Baalbek, near the Gouraud Barracks, causing about 30 meters of the wall to collapse and severely damaging the historical monument.
Israel’s Channel 13 reported that “around 180 missiles have been launched from Lebanon toward the Galilee, Haifa and Acre since Saturday morning.”
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed on X that Israel eliminated Mueen Moussa Ezzeddin, the commander of the coastal sector of Hezbollah, and Hassan Majid Dhiab, the artillery commander in the area, who was responsible for the launches toward the outskirts of Haifa on Thursday. He accused both of being “responsible for firing over 400 rocket shells toward Israeli territory over the past month.”
Adraee reported that “over the past 24 hours, (Israeli forces) targeted anti-tank missile launch sites, terrorists, military buildings, weapons depots, and Hezbollah command centers deep in and south of Lebanon.”
Israeli reconnaissance aircraft consistently operated in Lebanese airspace, particularly over Beirut, the southern suburbs, the southern region, Bekaa, and extending to the north.
The Israeli military reiterated its warnings to displaced individuals against returning to their homes.
The death toll resulting from Israeli attacks on Lebanon reached 2,897 with 13,150 injured as of Friday.
Additional raids targeted once again the Al-Qaa to Jousieh border crossing, which connects Lebanon to Syria, putting it completely out of service.
The crossing is among six legal crossings that connect Lebanon to Syria, and leads to the Al-Qusayr district in western Homs on the Syrian side.
The crossing had been previously put out of service about a week ago, when Israeli raids targeted it from the Syrian side, killing four members of the Syrian military intelligence.
Israel claims that it is bombing border crossings “because Hezbollah is using them to transport weapons from Syria to Lebanon.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “Israeli targets included most illegal land crossings to prevent the entry of supplies to Lebanon.
“There is ongoing Israeli aerial surveillance of crossings and the border area closely.”
The observatory said that since Sep. 26, “Israel has targeted the Syrian-Lebanese border with 31 raids, destroying many sites, putting several legal and illegal crossings out of service, and killing 28 people, including four Hezbollah members and four Syrians working with the militant party.”
It noted that “the Israeli raids put the main Masnaah-Jdeidet Yabous crossing between both countries out of service, as it was targeted twice,” adding that “the crossing is currently limited to pedestrians.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said the group targeted “the city of Safed and the Glilot base associated with Military Intelligence Unit 8200 in the outskirts of Tel Aviv, as well as the settlements of Dalton, Be’er Ya’akov, Sha’al, Yesud HaMa’ala, Bar Yohai (Safsaf), and the Kiryot area north of Haifa.”
Hezbollah announced that it launched “an aerial assault with a fleet of attack drones on the Palmachim Airbase, south of Tel Aviv.”
Additionally, it targeted “the Zevulon military industries base north of Haifa with qualitative missile salvo twice in a row, and it conducted an aerial attack with a squadron of attack drones on the Shraga base north of the city of Acre.”
Sirens sounded in 20 towns in northern Israel following a missile barrage from southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military announced that it “detected 15 missile launches from southern Lebanon and successfully intercepted the majority of them.”
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported “explosions heard in Acre, Nahariya, the Haifa Bay, and several towns in Galilee.”
The Israeli Air Force said it was “pursuing several drones that breached the airspace from Lebanon.”
Israeli media reported that the “David’s Sling system was activated to intercept missiles launched from Lebanon toward the Tel Aviv area.”
Hezbollah rockets targeted a building in the Arab town of Al-Tira, located approximately 25 km northeast of Tel Aviv, resulting in injuries to 19 individuals on Friday night.
Lebanon says one dead, 15 wounded in Israel strike on south Beirut
- The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning
BEIRUT: Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 15 others were wounded Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold, which has been hard hit by the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the "Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout Mall... in the southern suburbs of Beirut".
The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning.
According to an AFP photographer, the strike targeted an abandoned building, which includes a car dealership on the ground floor.
The area was cordoned of by the army and security forces.
Beirut's southern suburbs have been heavily bombed by Israel since its war with Hezbollah erupted in September.
The war has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on figures from Lebanon's health ministry.
Archaeologists unearth an ancient Middle Kingdom Egyptian tomb in Luxor
- Some items such as jewelry in women’s burials were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads
CAIRO: Archaeologists from Egypt and the United States unearthed an ancient tomb with 11 sealed burials near the famed city of Luxor, Egyptian authorities said.
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement Friday the tomb, which dates back to the Middle Kingdom (1938 B.C.-1630 B.C.), was found in the South Asasif necropolis, next to the Temple of Hatshepsut on the Nile’s West Bank in Luxor.
The joint Egyptian-American mission excavating the necropolis found coffins for men, women and children, suggesting that it was a family tomb used for generations during the 12th Dynasty and the beginning of the 13th Dynasty, said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt.
He said ancient floods destroyed most of the burials’ wooden coffins and linen wrappings.
However, some items such as jewelry in women’s burials were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads and two cylindrical agate beads framing a hippo-head amulet, according to the statement.
Catherine Blakeney, chief American archaeologist with the mission, said they found two copper mirrors, one with a lotus-shaped handle, and the second with a unique design of Hathor, goddess of the sky, women, fertility and love in ancient Egypt.
The discovery came as Egypt has doubled efforts to attract more tourists, a significant source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped North African country. Tourism, which depends heavily on Egypt’s rich Pharaonic artifacts, suffered a long downturn after the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising.
Last month, the Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega project near the famed Giza Pyramids, opened 12 halls exhibiting Pharaonic artifacts for visitors as a trial ahead of the yet-unannounced official opening.
