CAIRO: The closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza has prevented the medical evacuations of at least 2,000 patients, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday, calling for Rafah and other routes to be reopened.
Before the closure, “approximately 50 critical patients a day left Gaza ... It means that since the 7th of May at least 2,000 people have been unable to leave Gaza to receive medical care,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza.
The Rafah crossing was the main conduit for evacuations as well as for humanitarian aid earlier in the war that began between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7. It shut when Israel launched an operation on the southern edge of the Gaza strip in May.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar held talks late last week aimed at re-opening the crossing and increasing humanitarian aid flows, according to Egyptian security sources. But Rafah, where Egypt wants Israeli troops to pull back and a Palestinian presence to be restored, remains closed.
Movement through the nearby Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, which Peeperkorn described as unsafe, has been impeded by insecurity and logistical challenges.
At least 10,000 people are in need of evacuation from Gaza, Peeperkorn said, adding that this was an underestimate of the number needing critical care for both war traumas and chronic diseases.
“We need more routes for medical emergency evacuation (medevac), we would like to see Kerem Shalom and other routes also opened for medevac where patients can then be referred to the referral hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” Peeperkorn said.
A group of five children who had been evacuated from northern Gaza to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and were reportedly poised to leave the strip were still awaiting evacuation, Peeperkorn said.
2,000 medical evacuations from Gaza prevented by Rafah crossing closure: WHO
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2,000 medical evacuations from Gaza prevented by Rafah crossing closure: WHO
- The Rafah crossing was the main conduit for evacuations as well as for humanitarian aid earlier in the war
- US, Egypt and Qatar held talks late last week aimed at re-opening crossing, increasing aid flows
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV studios targeted in new wave of Israeli air strikes on Beirut
BEIRUT: An apparent new wave of Israeli air strikes rocked the Lebanese capital Saturday midnight, with reports saying a building housing studios of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV channel was among those targeted.
Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Israel has killed at least 41,825 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the UN
- Ahead of the October 7 anniversary, thousands joined pro-Palestinian rallies in London, Paris, Cape Town and other cities
JERUSALEM: Israel placed its forces on alert Saturday ahead of the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack, after a military official said the country is preparing its retaliation for Iran’s missile attack.
The alert came with Israel engaged in an intensifying war with the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said would be hit “without concession or respite.”
Ahead of Monday’s grim anniversary, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a televised briefing: “We are prepared with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” when there could be “attacks on the home front.”
The unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
One year later, although the war in Gaza continues at a lower tempo, Israel has turned its focus north to Lebanon, where it is now at war with Hezbollah, and is focused on the movement’s backer Iran.
The Israeli military said it had killed around 440 Hezbollah fighters “from the ground and from the air” since Monday when troops began “targeted” ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel says it aims to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by almost a year of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel to return home.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called Iran an “ongoing threat” after Tehran, which backs armed groups across the Middle East, on Tuesday launched around 200 missiles at Israel in revenge for Israeli killings of top militant leaders.
The missile attack killed one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and caused some damage to an Israeli air base according to satellite images.
It came on the day Israeli ground forces began their raids into Lebanon after days of intense strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon.
An Israeli military official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said the army “is preparing a response” to Iran’s attack.
Later, Hagari said Israel’s response would come at a “place and time we decide.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, noted Iran had twice launched “hundreds of missiles” at Israeli territory since April.
“Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and to respond to these attacks and that is what we will do,” said Netanyahu, whose critics accuse him of obstructing efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and deal to free hostages still held by Hamas.
A high-level Hezbollah source said Saturday the group had lost contact with Hashem Safieddine, widely tipped to be the next Hezbollah leader, after air strikes this week in Beirut.
The movement is yet to name a new chief after Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah late last month in a massive strike in the Lebanese capital.
Late Saturday Israel issued a new appeal for residents of southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, to evacuate.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday said that “the resistance in the region will not back down.”
On Saturday Hezbollah said its fighters were confronting Israeli troops in Lebanon’s southern border region, where the Israeli military said it struck militants inside a mosque in Bint Jbeil.
The military reported frequent rocket fire from Lebanon while Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on northern Israel’s Ramat David air base, and on a “military industries company” near Israel’s coastal city of Acre.
Hamas said Israeli strikes killed two of its operatives in north and east Lebanon on Saturday, as Israel’s military confirmed the killing of two Hamas figures.
Hamas said one of them was hit near Tripoli, the first such strike in the northern area.
Netanyahu said Israel had “destroyed a large part” of Hezbollah’s arsenal and “changed the course of the war.”
In a March report, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said estimates of Hezbollah’s rockets and missiles varied from 120,000-200,000.
On central Beirut’s busy Hamra Street, Salma Salman said she had been camping out with her seven-year-old twin daughters for nearly two weeks.
“We’re living a terrifying, never-ending nightmare,” she said.
Across Lebanon, the wave of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds has killed more than 1,110 people since September 23, according to a tally based on official figures.
The head of the UN’s refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, said in Lebanon that the country “faces a terrible crisis” and warned “hundreds of thousands of people are left destitute or displaced by Israeli air strikes.”
Israeli bombardment has put at least four hospitals in Lebanon out of service, the facilities said.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it rejected a request by the Israeli military to “relocate some of our positions” in south Lebanon.
Ireland’s President Michael Higgins, whose country has peacekeepers in the mission, said Israel was “demanding that the entire UNIFIL... walk away,” which he called “an insult to the most important global institution.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, visiting Damascus on Saturday after a stop in Beirut, renewed his call for ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon while threatening Israel with an “even stronger” reaction to any attack on Iran.
French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time “that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” adding that France was not providing any.
He also criticized Israel’s decision to send ground troops into Lebanon.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators tried unsuccessfully for months to reach a Gaza truce and secure the release of 97 hostages still held in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Medics and rescuers said Israeli fire early Saturday killed at least 12 people across Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,825 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.
Ahead of the October 7 anniversary, thousands joined pro-Palestinian rallies in London, Paris, Cape Town and other cities.
Herzog, the Israeli president, said his country’s October 7 “wounds still cannot fully heal.”
Health workers in Lebanon describe deadly Israeli attacks on colleagues and fear more
- The health ministry on Thursday said 40 paramedics, firefighters and health care workers had been killed in Israeli attacks over three days, making it even more challenging to care for people wounded in the intense fighting
BEIRUT: Israel’s military struck outside the gates of a hospital in southern Lebanon without warning on Friday, killing seven paramedics and forcing the facility to close, the hospital director told The Associated Press a day after one of the most deadly attacks on health workers in the weeks since fighting escalated between Israel and Hezbollah.
The account of the Friday airstrikes that flung hospital doors off their hinges and shattered glass was the latest to detail attacks that Lebanon’s health ministry says have killed dozens of health workers.
Marjayoun hospital director Mounes Kalakesh said that even before Friday’s attack, ambulance crews in the area were so reluctant to operate that the facility had not received anyone wounded for days.
“We have not been able to work. There was fear and panic among the staff,” he said.
Kalakesh said the government hospital didn’t receive any warning from Israeli forces before the attack, even though nearby villages have received such warnings to evacuate.
Israel has not commented specifically on the incident. Friday’s attack came hours before Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesman accused the Hezbollah militant group, based in southern Lebanon, of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, and warned medical teams to stay clear of the group. The spokesman provided no evidence.
It is a charge that Lebanese officials and hospital directors, including Kalakesh, deny. Lebanon’s health minister has accused Israel of committing “a war crime” by targeting medical teams and paramedics.
The health ministry on Thursday said 40 paramedics, firefighters and health care workers had been killed in Israeli attacks over three days, making it even more challenging to care for people wounded in the intense fighting.
The ministry has said more than 100 health workers have been killed in the year since the war in Gaza began and since Israel and Hezbollah stepped up exchanges of fire along the border.
The paramedics with the Islamic Health Committee are part of the coordinated health ministry response to crises in Lebanon. Other civil defense teams have expressed concern for their safety, with some saying they came under attack while clearly identified and operating in areas where they were transporting the wounded or putting out fires.
Israeli strikes have landed near the Marjayoun hospital before but never had come so close, Kalakesh said. He described the paramedics dying in their burning vehicles.
The 45-bed hospital is now shut down.
“I am responsible for this staff. I must protect them,” Kalakesh said, explaining the decision to evacuate. At the time of the Friday attack, there were 30 staff in the hospital. His team was already exhausted after a year of working close to the front line.
Other groups have expressed concern.
A Lebanese Red Cross convoy, escorted by Lebanese troops and coordinated with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, came under fire on Thursday. A Lebanese soldier was killed and four Red Cross volunteers were wounded.
Separately on Thursday, Israeli forces struck rescue teams with the Islamic Health Committee in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the southern village of Odeissah, killing at least four.
In Odeissah, responding ambulances were hit by Israeli fire and three medics who were wounded in the initial attack were killed as rescuers tried to reach them, the health ministry said. In the Beirut suburbs, the team working to remove rubble from the initial airstrike was hit in a drone attack that killed a driver and wounded seven, said Islamic Health Committee spokesman Mahmoud Karaki.
Targeting the health sector undermines the safety net for the public, Karaki said, He said 145 of his team members have been wounded over the past year.
Lebanon’s health ministry has said nine hospitals and 45 health care centers have been damaged during that time.
Hours after the Friday attack outside Marjayoun hospital, another hospital in the southern town of Bint Jbeil was shelled by Israeli forces after receiving a warning to evacuate. Nine members of the medical and nursing staff at Salah Ghandour Hospital were wounded, most of them seriously.
The hospital later shut down because of the damage.
Netanyahu says ‘shame’ on Macron for urging halt to arms supply to Israel
- Netanyahu said Israel was fighting a war on several fronts against groups backed by arch-foe Iran
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for calling for a halt to arms supplies to Israel, which is fighting wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
“As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side. Yet, President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.
Netanyahu said Israel was fighting a war on several fronts against groups backed by arch-foe Iran.
“Is Iran imposing an arms embargo on Hezbollah, on the Houthis, on Hamas and on its other proxies? Of course not,” he said. All three groups are backed by Tehran and form part of its “axis of resistance” against Israel.
“This axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this terror axis call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace!“
Netanyahu said Israel would win even without their support.
“But their shame will continue long after the war is won,” he said.
“Rest assured, Israel will fight until the battle is won — for our sake and for the sake of peace and security in the world.”
Gaza journalist, her family among 12 killed in Israeli strikes
- Macron urges halt to arms deliveries to Israel, stresses ‘political solution’ to conflict
CAIRO/PARIS: Israeli airstrikes pounded areas across the Gaza Strip on Monday killing 12, including a journalist and her family, medics said, although the intensity of the ground offensive has subsided as Israel steps up its fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Palestinian health officials said Wafa Al-Udaini, who wrote articles about the war in English advocating the Palestinian viewpoint, was killed when a missile struck her house in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, also killing her husband and their two children. Udaini’s death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli offensive since Oct. 7 to 174, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
In another strike, a Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while in the northern town of Beit Hanoun an airstrike killed one man and injured others, medics said.
FASTFACT
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi renewed his call for ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon as he held talks with his country’s Syrian ally.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Nuseirat, one of Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, killed six people, health officials said.
Some residents said fighting and Israeli military activities in Gaza have declined slightly in the past week as Israel has escalated its military offensive in Lebanon.
While the intensity of the ground offensive has been lower, Israel has kept up its airstrikes in the enclave, they added.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced by the war, in which more than 41,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged a halt to arms deliveries to Israel, which has been criticized over the conduct of its retaliatory operation in Gaza.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter.
“France is not delivering any,” he added during the interview recorded early this week.
The US provides about $3 billion in weapons to Israel each year.
In May, the State Department said it did not have enough evidence to block shipments of weapons but that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used arms in ways inconsistent with standards of humanitarian law.
In September, Britain said it was suspending some arms exports to Israel, citing a “clear risk” that they could be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.
Macron reiterated his concern over the conflict in Gaza that is continuing despite repeated calls for a ceasefire.
“I think we are not being heard,” he said. “I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel,” he said, adding that the conflict was leading to “hatred.”
Macron also said avoiding an escalation in Lebanon was a “priority.”
“Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza,” he added.
