Palestinian officials say many people died in a big explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday. People are worried about Israel not giving enough food, fuel, and electricity to the people living in the area.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that on Tuesday, when a bomb hit Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, thousands of people who had lost their homes were staying there for safety. Many people who were hurt in the accident are still trapped under the collapsed building, the statement said.
Palestinian officials accused Israeli airstrikes for causing the deadly incident. However, the Israeli Defense Forces strongly denied being involved in the hospital attack. They put the blame on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, a rival militant group in Gaza, claiming it was due to a failed rocket launch.
We did not attack that. Our intelligence tellsus it was a rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad that failed. I want to beclear that we do not purposefully target important places and especially not hospitals. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus spoke to CNN.
Israel has been attacking Gaza for over a week because Hamas, a group that controls Gaza, attacked and killed people. Gaza is a place where 2. 2 million people live. Hospitals are having a hard time taking care of the injured people in the area because they don’t have enough electricity and water.
Important help for people in need is gathering at the closed border in Gaza, overthought have been attempts to open a path from Egypt. The United Nations and other officials have said that they want to make sure that aid convoys can go safely to where they need to go.
Due to increasing international pressure to deal with the crisis, US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday. This is an unusual visit during times of war and comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken made significant efforts in the Middle East.
Biden was supposed to go to a meeting in Amman, Jordan’s capital, together with some Arab leaders. However, the meeting was not held because of the explosion at the hospital.
Instead of the meeting that was supposed to happen, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, decided to go back to Ramallah for an important meeting with other Palestinian leaders.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, many people who were forced to leave their homes were staying at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the middle of Gaza City.
Hamas, the group in charge of the area, said that over 500 people died because of the bombing. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that around 200 to 300 people are believed to have died in the attack, but these figures are not final and are just initial estimates.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the “violent terrorists in Gaza” were responsible for an assault on the hospital last Tuesday.
“The one who cruelly killed our children is also killing their own children,” he said.
Rear Admis a high-ranking officer in the Israeli military who speaks on behalf of the military. Daniel Hagari, who spoke to CNN, said that the IDF has evidence of militants in Gaza calling the incident an Islamic Jihad event. They also have drone footage that shows the strike’s impact on the hospital’s parking lot, but not on the hospital itself.
Hagari mentioned that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will soon make public the video and sound recordings of the captured conversations.
As Israeli and Gazan officials accuse each other for the hospital tragedy, protests have started in several Middle Eastern cities,like Amman, where protesters tried to reach the Israeli embassy.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over a week of bombings by Israel has resulted in the deaths of at least 3,000 people, with 1,032 girls and 940 boys among them. Additionally, 12,500 people have been injured in Gaza. This information was shared on Tuesday. Over the past 10 days, more people have been killed in Gaza than during the 51-day conflict between Gaza and Israel in 2014.
The military of Israel (IDF)claims that it does not purposely attack hospitals. However, the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders argue that Israeli airstrikes have indeed hit medical buildings such as hospitals and ambulances.
On Tuesday, Israeli airplanes bombed two crowded areas where refugees live and a school run by UNRWA that shelters displaced people in central Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials reported that this attack caused the death of at least 18 individuals and injured numerous others.
According to the IDF, a top leader of Hamas named Ayman Nofal was killed in the bombings in Gaza on Tuesday.
At least 61 people have died in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. At least 20 people who were helping others in Gaza, including workers from the UN, the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent, have been killed, according to the UN.
Currently, the health care system in Gaza is in critical condition and there is a shortage of food and water. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said that 20 out of 23 hospitals can not offer full services because they do not have enough fuel.
United Nations organizations have said that stores will soon run out of food and the only seawater desalination plant in Gaza has stopped working. This could lead to more deaths, dehydration, and diseases caused by contaminated water.
Hospitals in south Gaza have been getting many dead bodies from various places. Dr[Director’s Name], who oversees the hospitals in Gaza, shared this information. Mohammad Zaqout spoke to CNN. Many people were hurtor killed due to bombings in Rafah.
The Palestinian Interior Ministry said that Israeli airstrikes had caused the deaths of at least 49 people in the cities of Rafah and Khan Youn is in southern Gaza.
Colonel Peter Lerner stated that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have launched multiple airstrikes on Hamas militant targets amidst escalating tensions between the two parties. Rewrite this text in simpler words: Colonel. Jonathan Conricus, who spoke to CNN, said that he did not know about any specific attacks in those areas, but it’s possible that they occurred.
There is a growing need for urgent help from both sides of the crossing because a lot of aid is gathering on the Egyptian side of the border.
Blinken said on Tuesday that the US and Israel have agreed to create a plan that will help get emergency assistance from other countries and international organizations to the people in Gaza who need it.
But Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, told CNN that there is a long line of aid waiting to cross into Gaza at the Rafah crossing.
Currently, there is no approved and secure way for convoys to safely enter without the risk of being targeted.
He said that the crossing was attacked with bombs four times in the last few days.
Sending assistance to people who need it in Gaza is really hard because there have been many times when Israeli airstrikes have hit buildings owned by the United Nations.
“We should create safe zones for humanitarians to travel through and for people who need aid to receive it safely,” said UN spokesperson Dujarric during a press briefing on Tuesday, according to CNN.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), named Margaret Harris, said to CNN that the organization had made a deal with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to allow aid through the Rafah crossing. However, because of the strikes from Israel, the crossing became dangerous, which stopped important supplies from being delivered.
On Tuesday, Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said that Gaza should only receive dangerous explosives from the Air Force and not any humanitarian help. He stated this on the messaging app Telegram, insisting that Hamas needs to release their hostages first.
In Gaza, many people who have been forced to leave their homes have come together near the crossing. More than 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes in just the past week, says UNRWA.
One family of five Palestinian-Americans, who are all US citizens, went to Rafah on Monday because they heard the borders were going to be opened. However, they were not successful in their attempt. Haifa Kaoud, whose husband Hesham is part of the group stuck in Gaza, shared this information.
Pictures taken from space by Maxar Technologies reveal that there are four big holes in the road, each measuring around 30 feet or 9 meters. These holes are located at the border crossing nearest to the Egyptian gate. Additionally, there are also blocks of solid concrete in the area.
Efforts by diplomats to bring peace to the conflict have not been successful until now. On Monday, the UN Security Council said no to a Russian proposal for a humanitarian ceasefire because it didn’t receive enough support.
Many countries, like the US, the United Kingdom, and France, voted against it because the draft did not criticize Hamas for the attack on October 7. The Israeli military claimed that at least 1,400 people died in the attack and many were taken hostage.
This means that a French-Israeli woman named Mia Schem was shown in a video made by Hamas where she was being held hostage. Her mother, Keren Scharf Schem, begged world leaders to bring her baby back home when she talked to reporters on Tuesday.
CNN cannot confirm on its own where and when the video of Schem, who is 21 years old, was recorded and what her current condition is.
Local leaders are worried about fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, in the northern part of Lebanon. Additionally, they are concerned about the potential involvement of Syria in this conflict, as recent strikes at the border have raised tensions and increased the risk of a larger-scale war.
The IDF said on Tuesday that someone shot bullets towards different spots on the fence that separates Israel and Lebanon.
At the same time, the leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, said that if the bad things happening in Gaza continue, Muslims and those who resist may start to lose their patience and no one will be able to stop them from taking action.
After Hamas invaded on October 7th, some fighters from Lebanon shot at Israel, but Israel defended themselves and there was a battle that resulted in deaths.
On Friday evening, an Israeli attack took the life of Issam Abdallah, a reporter from Reuters who was from south Lebanon. The attack injured at least six other journalists.
A CNN video analysis discovered that the reporters were wearing special jackets that had clear markings indicating they were members of the press.
On Tuesday, there was an attack in Alma al-Shaab, southern Lebanon. The attack was by Israel and it caused the deaths of at least four people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
On Tuesday, the militant group, Hezbollah, said that two of their fighters died in clashes. We are not sure if they are included in the number of deaths reported by the Red Cross.