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Tag: Gaza Strip

  • Israeli strikes render Gaza Strip’s second-largest hospital inoperative

    Israeli strikes render Gaza Strip’s second-largest hospital inoperative

    Amidst ongoing conflict and fuel shortages, the Gaza Strip’s second-largest hospital, Nasser Hospital, in the southern city of Khan Yunis, has been forced completely out of service.

    Local and UN health officials reported that Israeli raids have contributed to the hospital’s closure as Israel engages in battles with Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.

    Despite the hospital still providing shelter for patients afflicted by war injuries and Gaza’s escalating health crisis, the facility lacks power and adequate staffing to attend to all patients, according to Hamas health officials.

    “It’s gone completely out of service,” the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters.

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    “There are only four medical staffers currently caring for patients inside the facility,” he said.

    Gaza’s hospitals have become a focal point in the ongoing four-month conflict between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Strip.

    Most hospitals have been rendered inoperable due to the intensifying fighting and severe fuel shortages, leaving Gaza’s population of 2.3 million without adequate access to healthcare.

    Tens of thousands have been injured by airstrikes, while many others suffer from chronic illnesses and, increasingly, starvation, according to officials from Hamas’s health department.

    Accusations of Misuse of Medical Facilities

    The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have conducted operations within medical facilities, claiming to have discovered Hamas weapons and evidence of hostages being held in hospitals. Hamas denies these allegations. The international community stresses the importance of protecting hospitals, which are designated as protected under international law.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged Israel to allow its staff access to Nasser Hospital, where a week-long siege and IDF raids have hindered efforts to assist patients.

    “Despite our efforts, WHO teams have been denied entry to assess patient conditions and address critical medical needs,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

    The IDF reported that its special forces have been engaged in operations in and around Nasser Hospital, resulting in the elimination of dozens of Hamas militants and the seizure of a significant number of weapons.

    According to the military, ongoing operations have targeted terrorists in Nasser Hospital, leading to the arrest of at least 100 suspects, the neutralization of armed individuals in the vicinity, and the discovery of weapons within the hospital premises.

    Hamas has refuted claims that its fighters use medical facilities as cover for their activities.

    Impact on Gaza’s Population

    Israel’s air and ground offensive has had far-reaching effects across Gaza, displacing nearly all inhabitants from their homes. Hamas health authorities report that 28,985 people, predominantly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

    The conflict began when Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and the abduction of 253 hostages.

  • IDF claims to have discovered hidden Hamas facilities at Gaza University

    IDF claims to have discovered hidden Hamas facilities at Gaza University

    Now we will give you some new information about Israel’s military mission in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

    On X, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that soldiers destroyed buildings and infrastructure at Al-Azhar University because they believe Hamas was using it for military purposes.

    Hagari found a secret way under the ground that goes from the university to a school about a kilometer away during the raid.

    He also said they found things that make things explode, parts for rockets, and machines that send rockets into the sky.

    Hagari reported that IDF troops found about 200 radios and lots of cameras at an observation post near the Shatti Hospital during a raid.

    “We also found a combat weapon, bullets, bombs, a place for snipers, military gear, and places to shoot from,” he says.

  • Israeli raid in Jericho kills Palestinian gunmen

    Israeli raid in Jericho kills Palestinian gunmen

    Israeli and Palestinian sources report that several Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli army raid near Jericho in the occupied West Bank.


    It is thought that five people have died, though it is unknown if all of them were gunmen.

    The Israeli military has been conducting operations to target militants in the area almost every night.

    Israelis have been targeted in raids and attacks during a particularly bloody time since the year’s beginning.

    According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the goal of the operation on Sunday night was to apprehend a “Hamas terrorist cell,” which the IDF claimed was responsible for a shooting that took place a week earlier at a restaurant close to a Jewish settlement outside of Jericho. In that attack, nobody was hurt.

    Hamas, the militant Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip, is less prominent in the West Bank. Palestinian towns and villages there are mostly governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is dominated by Hamas’ secular rival, Fatah.

    The raid, coupled with activity by a Hamas cell, is unusual in Jericho, which has a relatively high concentration of Fatah-loyal PA security forces.

    Witnesses say there was heavy gunfire during the incident in Jericho’s large Aqabat Jabr refugee camp. Bullet holes and bloodstains could be seen in a small house at the centre of the fighting.

    IDF spokesperson Ran Kochav said soldiers “neutralised the terrorists”, some of whom, he said, were involved in the attack on the restaurant.

    Hamas said its fighters were among the dead.

    The governor of Jericho, Jihad Abu al-Assal, said five people had been killed and their bodies taken away by the IDF. Eight other people were also arrested, he said.

    Israeli-Palestinian tensions have spiralled since an IDF raid against militants in the West Bank city of Jenin 10 days ago left 10 Palestinians, including two civilians, dead. Israeli security services said a “terror squad” had been planning an imminent attack.

    Hours later, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on Jewish worshippers and passers-by outside a synagogue in occupied East Jerusalem, killing seven. The following morning, a 13-year-old Palestinian shot a group of people, also in East Jerusalem, wounding an Israeli father and son.

    Later in the day, security camera footage showed a gunman and an accomplice entering the restaurant near Vered Yeriho settlement, where about 30 people were sitting. Military sources said the man, armed with an assault rifle, fired one shot in the air before his weapon jammed and the pair left the scene in a car with an Israeli licence plate.

    There have been international calls for calm, including from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem and the West Bank following the recent bloodshed.

    At least 37 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank so far this year, including militants and civilians, as the military continues operations there.

    Last year in the West Bank, more than 150 Palestinians were killed, nearly all by Israeli forces. The dead included unarmed civilians, militant gunmen and armed attackers.

    Meanwhile, a series of attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs targeting Israelis, as well as militant gunfire at troops during arrest raids, killed more than 30 people, including civilians, police, and soldiers. 

  • Bush ordered CIA to find Arafat’s replacement, according to UK documents

    Bush ordered CIA to find Arafat’s replacement, according to UK documents

    Documents say US President George W. Bush considered the Palestinian leader “useless,” but the US spy agency found no suitable successor.

    Former United States President George W Bush ordered the CIA to search for a replacement for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the escalation of the second Intifada in 2001, the BBC said, quoting recently released British documents.

    The US effort came after the failure of the Camp David negotiations in 2000 between Arafat and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The talks followed the escalation of violence in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

    According to the BBC documents, Bush expected early on that Ariel Sharon, who succeeded Barak, would use the Gaza Strip to sow divisions among the Palestinians.

    The documents deal with discussions that took place between the United Kingdom and the US a few months after Bush and his administration, which was dominated by neoconservatives, entered the White House.

    When Bush was inaugurated in January 2001, the second Palestinian uprising was at its height. It had erupted in late September 2000 when Sharon entered the courtyards of Al Aqsa Mosque, an act widely seen by Palestinians as a provocation.

    The Bush administration called on Arafat to stop the uprising to lay the groundwork for the start of security negotiations with Israel. It also vetoed a draft resolution in the United Nations Security Council, which proposed sending a UN observer force to protect Palestinian civilians from Israeli forces in the occupied territories.

    After the negotiations were aborted, telephone talks were held between Bush and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair in which they discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at length.

    According to the minutes of the talks, the prime minister said Arafat was a liability.

    He said the Palestinian leader “had reached the limits of what he can do constructively and he is only working to maintain his position”. He added that Arafat “no longer has anything to offer”, indicating that the leader had made all the possible concessions he could.

    Bush endorsed what Blair had said, then described Arafat as “weak and useless”. He revealed that he had asked the CIA to search for possible successors to the Palestinian leader but said that the agency “researched the Palestinian scene thoroughly and concluded that there is no successor available”.

    The British documents revealed that the US secretary of state at the time, Colin Powell, did not agree with Bush’s search for a replacement for Arafat.

    Arafat died a few years later, on November 11, 2004, at a Paris hospital after a cerebral haemorrhage caused by a toxic substance – polonium – that was found on his clothes and body.

    Palestinians and Arabs accused Israel of killing him. It denied any responsibility for his death.

  • Israeli forces kill a Palestinian student “en route to school”

    Palestinians say , Mahmoud al-Saadi, 18, was killed by the Israeli army on his way to school from the Jenin refugee camp.

    During an Israeli raid on the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin, a Palestinian high school student was reportedly shot dead while on his way to school.

    Mahmoud al-relatives Saadi’s confirmed to Al Jazeera that he was killed on Monday. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, he was 18 years old and was shot in the stomach.

    According to the ministry and local journalists, at least four other Palestinians were injured after being shot.

    The Palestinian Ministry of Education mourned al-Saadi in a statement on Monday. It said he was a student at the Farhat Hashad Boys Secondary School in Jenin and and that he had been killed on his way to school.

    Local journalist Mujahed al-Saadi told Al Jazeera that the teen was his distant relative and that witnesses he spoke to confirmed that he was killed while standing on the street headed to the classroom.

    “He was headed out of the camp. He was surprised by the army, and the army shot him moments before they pulled out [of the camp],” Mujahed told Al Jazeera.

    The Israeli army said in a statement that they had returned fire during an operation to arrest nine wanted Palestinians.

    “During the activity, shots were fired, and charges were thrown at the forces in the area, the fighters shot at suspects who shot at them,” the statement said.

    The Palestinian foreign affairs ministry described the killing as a ” field execution” and a “heinous crime,” adding that it is “part of the daily series of killings against our people, with cover and approval at the Israeli political level.”

    It said it holds the “Israeli government fully and directly responsible for this crime,” and called on “the international community to provide international protection for our people.”

    Mujahed told Al Jazeera that Mahmoud was shot on the street adjacent to the one where Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead on May 11 while she was covering an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp. Mujahed was a few metres away from Abu Akleh when she was killed.

    Speaking about Mahmoud, Mujahed said his relative “was at the top of his class” and had three sisters.

    Dozens of Israeli armoured jeeps raided Jenin and its refugee camp on Monday, just before 8am (05:00 GMT). The raid lasted about an hour.

    In the camp, Israeli forces besieged the home of a wanted Palestinian man, Rateb al-Bali, while his family, including his children, were inside, and targeted the house with bullets and missiles.

    Mujahed said al-Bali was “at home with his father and other family members, including his nieces and nephews, and a pregnant relative”.

    “The army targeted the home with Energa grenades and bullets,” continued Mujahed, noting that no family members were injured.

    Al-Bali, who escaped unhurt, eventually emerged from the house with his father and handed himself over to the Israeli army.

    He has previously spent a year in Israeli prisons under administrative detention without trial or charge.

    Israeli forces have been carrying out near-daily raids, arrests and killings in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, where Palestinian armed resistance is growing.

    Across the West Bank, however, Israeli forces have for decades regularly carried out raids into Palestinian cities and villages, often leading to injuries or killings of unarmed Palestinians.

    This year marks the highest number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the West Bank since 2006.

    Since the start of 2022, Israeli forces have killed at least 199 Palestinians, including 47 children, in the West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

    Close to 8,900 others have been wounded by the Israeli army this year until November 7, in the West Bank alone, the UN has reported.

    At least 25 people in Israel have also been killed this year in Palestinian attacks.

     

  • At least 21 killed in a fire at a Gaza refugee camp

    As the fire broke out, residents were attending a party in the building. Witnesses reported hearing screams but were unable to assist those inside due to the intensity of the fire.

    Officials say at least 21 people were killed and several others were injured in a fire at a residential building in a Gaza refugee camp.

    The flames that engulfed the top floor of a four-story residential building in the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp took firefighters more than an hour to extinguish.

    Residents were attending a party in the building, and witnesses said they heard screaming but couldn’t help those inside due to the intensity of the fire.

    The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) tweeted that reports say among those killed include eight children, four women and one retired UNRWA staff.

    Ambulances rushed those who were injured to local hospitals and Israel, which together with Egypt maintains a blockade on Gaza, said it would allow in those in need of medical treatment.

    Gaza’s Interior Ministry said an initial investigation revealed that large amounts of gasoline had been stored at the site, fuelling the blaze. It was not clear how the gasoline was ignited.

    Footage from the scene shows large crowds gathering outside the building, while Hamas police officers inside assess the site.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it a national tragedy and said there would be a day of mourning.

    Hamas police officers secure the scene of burned apartment in Jabalia refugee camp. Pic: AP
    Image:Hamas officers secure the scene of burned apartment in Jabalia refugee camp. Pic: AP

    Hussein al Sheikh, secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a statement that the Palestinian Authority urged Israel to open the Erez crossing with Gaza to transport serious cases in order to treat them outside the enclave if necessary.

    Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz tweeted that his staff would assist with evacuating those who were injured.

    Jabalia is one of eight refugee camps in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people and one of the world’s most densely populated areas.

    Gaza, which is ruled by Palestinian militant group Hamas and under the crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockage, faces an energy crisis.

    People often store gasoline and cooking gas in their homes in preparation for winter and house fires have previously been caused by candles and gas leaks.

  • West Bank: Palestinian man dies after being shot by Israeli soldiers

    The Palestinian Wafa news agency, quoting medical sources, identified the slain man as 31-year-old Mujahed Ahmad Daoud.

     The Palestinian Ministry of Health says a Palestinian man who was shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Saturday night has died as a result of his injuries.

    According to ministry authorities, three people were injured in the Israeli fire on Sunday.

    Palestinian Wafa news agency, quoting medical sources, identified the slain man as Mujahed Ahmad Daoud, a 31-year-old Palestinian from the town of Qarawet Bani Hassan.

    Daoud was rushed to Istishari Hospital in Ramallah where efforts to save his life failed.

    The Israeli military said Palestinians had started “a violent riot” near Qarawet Bani Hassan on Saturday and soldiers who had been operating there opened fire.

    Tensions high

    The incident follows months of tensions that have deepened since Israel began a crackdown in the West Bank in March in response to a series of attacks by Palestinians in Israel.

    Israeli forces have been carrying out near-daily raids in recent months, largely focused on the towns of Jenin and Nablus in the West Bank, where a new wave of Palestinian armed resistance is emerging.

    Since the beginning of the year, at least 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including 51 Palestinians during Israel’s three-day assault on Gaza in August, according to the Ministry of Health.

    Tensions have also been high in occupied East Jerusalem after Israeli police locked down the Shuafat camp last week on the pretext of searching for a Palestinian suspected of killing a female Israeli soldier.