JERUSALEM: Gaza’s civil defense agency Friday reported deadly air strikes around Kamal Adwan Hospital in the territory’s north as well as “direct fire” on the health facility, which the Israeli army firmly denied.
Several witnesses described intense bombings in the vicinity of the hospital.
“There was a series of air strikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire,” said hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh, adding that four staff were killed.
The Israeli military on Friday denied claims it had struck or entered Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying it was operating next to the facility.
“Contrary to the reports made over the past day, the (military) did not strike the Kamal Adwan Hospital or operate within it,” it said in a statement.
It said it would “continue to operate against terror infrastructure and terrorists” in northern Gaza, including “adjacent to” the hospital.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said 29 people were killed and dozens wounded on Friday by Israeli shelling in north Gaza, “especially around Kamal Adwan,” one of the area’s last functioning health centers.
The agency’s spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP that the Israeli army entered the hospital, evacuated patients and arrested several Palestinians.
Abu Safieh said that following the latest raid, no surgeons were left.
Beit Lahia has been the site of a major Israeli military operation for the past two months that has again escalated in recent days, forcing thousands to flee, the civil defense agency said.
Israeli forces have stormed Kamal Adwan on several occasions since the start of the war nearly 14 months ago.
The hospital said its intensive care unit director Ahmad Al-Kahlut was killed in an air strike late last month.
The latest strikes came just days after the World Health Organization said an emergency medical team had reached the hospital for the first time in 60 days.
Dr. Faradina Sulistiyani, a surgeon on the team, told AFP from Gaza City that all seven of her team members left the premises on foot as the bombing went on.
The UN agency’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters he had “extremely concerning information” from the Kamal Adwan.
He said the Israeli army was first spotted outside the hospital at 4:00 am (0200 GMT).
He said that the international medical team said that “panic caused by the bombing and shelling, along with the panicked crowd inside the hospital” caused Gazans and the team to leave the hospital despite there being “no official evacuation order.”
Peeperkorn said that a “substantial amount” of people including patients and staff remained in the hospital, which is still “minimum operational.”
With little to no aid reaching the hospital since the start of the Israeli operation in early October, the hospital had run out of most supplies, including fuel.
The Israeli army said Friday that it is “in continuous contact with the hospital in order to deliver supplies, food and medical equipment.”
The Israeli army says its operation in the far north aims to keep Hamas militants from regrouping there.
Human rights groups have accused it of pursuing a plan to evacuate or starve all those remaining there, a goal which Israel denies.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that displaced Palestinians would not be allowed to move back to Gaza’s north as long as the military operations are ongoing.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s surprise October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,612 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry which the UN considers reliable.
North Gaza air strikes bring chaos to nearby hospital
https://arab.news/9yebm
North Gaza air strikes bring chaos to nearby hospital
- Beit Lahia has been the site of an intense Israeli military operation for the past two months
- The Israeli army has stormed Kamal Adwan on several occasions since the start of their offensive nearly 14 months ago
Iran delegation in Oman for high-stakes nuclear talks with US
- Iranian state TV said that after his delegation arrived in Muscat on Saturday morning Araghchi met with Omani officials
- Trump had made a surprise announcement last Monday that the talks would take place
They will be the highest-level discussions between the foes since an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program crumbled after Trump pulled out in 2018 during his first term in office.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are set to lead the discussions behind closed doors in Muscat, the capital of Oman, which has long played a mediating role between Iran and Western countries.
Iranian state TV said that after his delegation arrived in Muscat on Saturday morning Araghchi met with Omani officials.
Hours before the talks were due to begin Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country. But they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump had made a surprise announcement last Monday that the talks would take place.
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s adviser Ali Shamkhani said Tehran was “seeking a real and fair agreement,” adding that “important and implementable proposals are ready.”
If Washington showed goodwill, the path forward would be “smooth,” he said on social media platform X.
The format for the talks has not been confirmed, with the United States calling them direct talks but Iran insisting on an intermediary.
According to Iranian news agency Tasnim, the delegations will start indirect negotiations after a meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi.
The talks are expected to begin in the afternoon with Busaidi as intermediary, Tasnim added.
Trump announced the talks during a White House press appearance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Iran’s arch foe.
’Red line’
The contact between the two sides, which have not had diplomatic relations for decades, follows repeated threats of military action by both the United States and Israel.
“If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” Trump said on Wednesday when asked what would happen if the talks fail to produce a deal.
Responding to Trump’s threat, Tehran said it could expel United Nations nuclear inspectors, a move that Washington warned would be an “escalation.”
Iran, weighed down by years of sanctions and weakened by Israel’s pummelling of its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, has strong incentives to negotiate.
The United States wants to stop Iran from ever getting close to developing a nuclear bomb.
The 2015 deal which Trump withdrew from aimed to render it practically impossible for Iran to build an atomic bomb, while at the same time allowing it to pursue a civil nuclear program.
Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany were the other parties to the agreement, of which Araghchi was a key architect.
Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal that “our position today” starts with demanding that Iran completely dismantle its nuclear program — a view held by hard-liners around Trump that few expect Iran would ever accept.
“That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries,” Witkoff told the newspaper.
“Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability,” added Witkoff.
Iran, which insists its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes, stepped up its activities after Trump abandoned the 2015 agreement.
The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report noted with “serious concern” that Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, nearing the weapons grade of 90 percent.
’Survival of the regime’
Karim Bitar, a Middle East Studies lecturer at Sciences Po university in Paris, said negotiations “will not focus exclusively on... the nuclear program.”
“The deal would have to include Iran stopping its support to its regional allies,” a long-standing demand by US allies in the Gulf, he said.
For Iran, it could be a matter of the government’s very survival.
“The one and only priority is the survival of the regime, and ideally, to get some oxygen, some sanctions relief, to get their economy going again, because the regime has become quite unpopular,” Bitar said.
Ali Vaez, of the International Crisis Group think-tank, said agreeing the scope of the talks would be “one of the first and most consequential issues.”
“Iran does not want an expanded agenda in the early stages. But no deal will be sustainable unless it becomes more comprehensive,” he said.
Iran is “likely to engage on steps to roll back its nuclear program, but not dismantle it entirely” in exchange for sanctions relief, Vaez added.
What are US troops doing in the Middle East and where are they?
- Since 2023, the Houthi movement has launched more than 100 attacks on ships off Yemen’s coast, which they say were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza with Iran-backed Hamas militants
WASHINGTON: The United States and Iran are set for talks this weekend in Oman as President Donald Trump reiterated this week threats of military action against Tehran if it does not agree to limits on its nuclear program.
Western countries suspect Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, which Iran denies.
If Iran does not make a deal, Trump has said, “There will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
Here is what we know about the US military presence in the Middle East:
WHERE ARE US BASES IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
The US has operated bases around the Middle East for decades and the largest is Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, built in 1996, based on the number of personnel.
Other countries where the US has troops include Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
There are normally about 30,000 US troops across the region, down sharply from when US forces were involved in major operations. There were more than 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan in 2011 and over 160,000 in Iraq in 2007.
The US has roughly 2,000 troops in Syria at small bases mostly in the northeast. About 2,500 US personnel are stationed in Iraq including at the US Union III site in Baghdad.
WHAT REINFORCEMENTS HAS TRUMP SENT?
The Pentagon has said that it surged additional forces to the Middle East in recent weeks.
It also relocated as many as six B-2 bombers in March to a US-British military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, which experts said would put them in an ideal position to intervene quickly in the Middle East.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that it was up to Iran to decide whether to interpret this as a message to Tehran.
The Pentagon has also sent other aircraft and more air defense assets including a Patriot missile defense battalion.
Two US aircraft carrier ships are in the Middle East, and each carries thousands of troops and dozens of aircraft.
WHY ARE US TROOPS STATIONED IN THE REGION?
US troops are stationed in the Middle East for a variety of reasons.
In some countries like Iraq, US troops are fighting Daesh militants and local forces. But over the past several years Iran-backed fighters have attacked US personnel who have struck back.
Jordan, a key US ally in the region, has hundreds of US trainers and they hold extensive exercises throughout the year.
US troops are in other countries such as Qatar and the UAE as a security assurance, for training and to assist in regional military action as needed.
The United States is undertaking a bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.
DO US BASES IN THE REGION GET ATTACKED OFTEN?
US bases are highly guarded facilities, including air defense systems to protect against missiles or drones. Facilities in countries like Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait are not usually attacked.
But US troops in Iraq and Syria have come under frequent attack in recent years.
Since 2023, the Houthi movement has launched more than 100 attacks on ships off Yemen’s coast, which they say were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza with Iran-backed Hamas militants.
These include drone and missile strikes on US Navy ships in the region. So far, no Houthi attack is known to have damaged a US warship.
Samaritans mark Passover in West Bank, hoping for ‘peace’
- “The Samaritans’ Passover is the festival of freedom, the festival of independence, of the forgiveness of our Lord for the children of Israel,” Khader Adel Najer Cohen, a priest and director of the Samaritan Studies Center, told AFP
GERIZIM, Palestinian Territories: Wearing white overalls and red fez hats, dozens of Samaritan men slaughtered sheep for Passover Friday as prayers in ancient Hebrew echoed across Mount Gerizim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A group of priests in colorful robes recited the sacred verses as younger men in white caps herded the sheep.
“What’s happening here is something that we’ve been doing for 3,600 years,” 30-year-old Abood Cohen told AFP.
Dressed in butcher’s whites, the young Samaritan wore a smudge of sheep’s blood on his forehead as he explained the traditions of his small religious community that developed alongside Judaism.
According to their tradition, Samaritans are descended from Israelites and view Jews as close, yet distinct, relatives.
Many Christians recognize the name through the parable of the Good Samaritan.
“Every family has to bring one sheep,” Cohen said. The animal is then slaughtered and cooked on Mount Gerizim near the West Bank city of Nablus.
“Why do we do it here in Gerizim? Because the holiest place on earth is Mount Gerizim for the Samaritans,” he said.
The community believes this is the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son for God.
Like Jews, Samaritans celebrate the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt at Passover.
“The Samaritans’ Passover is the festival of freedom, the festival of independence, of the forgiveness of our Lord for the children of Israel,” Khader Adel Najer Cohen, a priest and director of the Samaritan Studies Center, told AFP.
But the ritual slaughter, as well as the fact that the community’s holiest site is Gerizim, not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, are two elements that set Samaritans apart from Jews.
Passover is also the time for two Samaritan communities to come together, Abood Cohen said.
Out of 880 Samaritans, half live in Gerizim and speak mostly Arabic, while the other half have lived in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon since the early 20th century, and speak mostly Hebrew.
“They get involved in the Israeli culture more, so they might speak Hebrew more than us,” said Abood Cohen, who works as a tour guide.
Yefet Tsedaka, a Samaritan priest from Holon and editor of a Samaritan community magazine, highlighted the communities’ shared heritage.
“We in Holon are just a branch of the Gerizim, because the high priest is here,” he said.
Sitting next to him, Hosni Wasef Cohen, priest and director of the Samaritan museum, concurred.
“As Samaritans, we all come together here to make the sacrifice. There is no difference between Samaritans here and in Holon.”
Gerizim’s Samaritans have historically strong ties with Palestinians, and some hold political office in nearby Nablus.
But since the war in Gaza and heightened tensions in the West Bank have led to movement restrictions for Palestinians, crowds were smaller this year.
“It’s very different (this year). If there were no war, there would be many guests coming from Nablus — our friends, and our friends from the government would come to Nablus and the Israelis too, and they would all gather here,” said Jameel Samri, a Samaritan priest.
“We hope there will be peace and that everyone can come and see” next year, he added.
Hod, a Holon Samaritan who did not wish to share his last name for privacy reasons, told AFP that “because of the situation we need to reduce the amount of the Arabs that come here.”
A worker in the high-tech sector, Hod added that “we want to be good with the Israel side, because we are Israelis.”
But priest Khader Cohen lamented the distance that the war and the movement restrictions had brought to the communities.
“We used to love that the Palestinians and Israelis would participate with us and celebrate together, because we are a bridge of love and peace between peoples,” he told AFP.
Israel’s army says it will fire air force reservists who condemned the war
- Soldiers are required to steer clear of politics, and they rarely speak out against the army
- Israel has imposed a blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel’s military said Friday it will fire air force reservists who signed an open letter that condemns the war in Gaza for mainly serving political interests while failing to bring home the hostages.
In a statement to The Associated Press, an army official said there was no room for any individual, including reservists on active duty, “to exploit their military status while simultaneously participating in the fighting,” calling the letter a breach of trust between commanders and subordinates.
The army said it had decided that any active reservist who signed the letter will not be able to continue serving. It did not specify how many people that included or if the firings had begun.
Nearly 1,000 Israeli Air Force reservists and retirees signed the letter, published in Israeli media Thursday, demanding the immediate return of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the fighting.
The letter comes as Israel has ramped up its offensive in Gaza, trying to increase pressure on Hamas to return the 59 hostages still being held. More than half are presumed dead. Israel has imposed a blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle. It has pledged to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor through it.
While those who signed the letter did not refuse military service, they are the latest in a growing number of Israeli soldiers speaking out against the prolonged conflict, some saying they saw or did things that crossed ethical lines.
“It’s completely illogical and irresponsible on behalf of the Israeli policy makers … risking the lives of the hostages, risking the lives of more soldiers and risking lives of many, many more innocent Palestinians, while it had a very clear alternative,” Guy Poran, a retired Israeli Air Force pilot who spearheaded the letter told The AP.
He said he’s not aware of anyone who signed the letter being fired, and since it was published, it has gained dozens more signatures.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed the letter on Friday, saying it was written by a “small handful of weeds, operated by foreign-funded (non-governmental organizations) whose sole goal is to overthrow the right-wing government.” He said anyone who encourages refusal will be immediately dismissed.
Soldiers are required to steer clear of politics, and they rarely speak out against the army. After Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel quickly united behind the war launched against the militant group. Divisions here have grown as the war progresses, but most criticism has focused on the mounting number of soldiers killed and the failure to bring home hostages, not actions in Gaza.
Advocates for hostage return keep up the pressure
Freed hostages and their families are doing what they can to keep attention on their plight and urge the government to get everyone out.
Agam Berger, a military spotter who was taken hostage and freed in January, plans to join an upcoming March of the Living Ceremony at the sites of former Nazi concentration camps in Poland. Berger, playing a 130-year-old violin that survived the Holocaust, will be accompanied by Daniel Weiss, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri whose parents were killed by Hamas.
But the war ignited by that attack shows no signs of slowing.
Since Israel ended an eight-week ceasefire last month, it said it will push farther into Gaza until Hamas releases the hostages. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, according to the United Nations.
The Israeli military on Friday issued an urgent warning to residents in several neighborhoods in northern Gaza, calling on them to evacuate immediately. At least 26 people have been killed and more than 100 others wounded in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Palestinians lined up at a charity kitchen Friday in central Gaza said shortages of food, fuel and other essentials are worsening.
“There is no flour or gas or wood. Everything is expensive and there is no money,” said Reem Oweis, a displaced woman from Al-Mughraqa in south Gaza, waiting in line for a serving of rice, the only food available.
“I completely rely on charity kitchens. If those charity kitchens close, my children and I will die,” said another displaced woman, Nema Faragallah.
Brazil pushes for the release of body of teen who died in Israeli custody
Also this week, Brazil’s Embassy in the West Bank said it had requested the immediate release of the body of a 17-year-old Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody.
A representative from Brazil’s office in Ramallah, told the AP it was helping the family speed up the process to bring Walid Ahmad’s body home. Ahmad had a Brazilian passport.
According to an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy, starvation was likely the primary cause of his death.
Ahmad had been held for six months without being charged. He was extremely malnourished and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr. Daniel Solomon, who watched the autopsy conducted by Israeli experts at the request of the boy’s family.
Israel’s prison service said it operates according to the law and all prisoners are given basic rights.
Family of Palestinian-American teen killed by Israeli troops seeks justice, US govt response
- Amer Rabee, 14, was shot dead on April 6 while picking almonds near his West Bank home
- Not ‘a single word of remorse or concern’ from American government, uncle tells Arab News
CHICAGO: The family of Palestinian-American Amer Rabee, 14, who was killed on April 6 by Israeli soldiers while picking almonds near his home in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayyah, is seeking justice and a response from the US government, his uncle Rami Jbara said.
The family has not heard “a single word of remorse or concern” from the US government, Jbara, who lives in the state of New Jersey, told Arab News.
He said Rabee was shot dead while with two other Palestinian-American boys, Ayoub Assad and Abdul Rahman Shehadeh.
“The US will move its army for any American citizen in the whole world except in Israel,” he added. “These kids … were unarmed. They had no weapons on them. They’re 13 and 14 years old.”
Jbara said his nephew was shot “all over — his head, his shoulders, his stomach, his legs,” adding that Rabee was in the West Bank studying at the local high school, living with his parents who had moved back there from New Jersey.
Jbara said Rabee’s father protested to the US Embassy in Jerusalem, adding that this was not the first incident with soldiers or settlers from the settlement of Shiloh just north of Turmus Ayyah.
Settlers have been harassing the town’s residents for years, but the harassment has increased in the past year with “no response” from Israel’s government, police or military, he added.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, representing New Jersey, said Rabee’s death “is another devastating reminder of the horrific human cost of ongoing conflict and tensions in the region.
“There must be a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances around his death and the actions of Israeli security forces.”
Booker added: “I call on the Trump administration to reinstate sanctions on perpetrators of such violence, which directly threatens the objectives of protecting innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians and preventing the war in Gaza and tensions in the West Bank from escalating into a wider regional conflict.”
Palestinians at the Palestinian American Community Center in the city of Clifton, New Jersey, told Arab News that they are meeting to determine how to raise the issue of Rabee’s killing with the US government and to raise awareness of Israeli violence.
