Gaza: Biden calls on Israel to protect hospital where displaced people are trapped

Thousands of displaced people live in “inhumane” conditions. in the main hospital in Gaza City, according to a doctor, in the middle of the fighting between Hamas and the Israeli army, called Monday to death. restraint by Joe Biden.

“I hope and expect less intrusive actions regarding the hospital” Al-Chifa, the US president said at the White House, adding: “the hospital must be protected.”

In the immense al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the territory, “the situation is very serious, it is inhumane”, Doctors Without Borders warned on X (ex-Twitter), quoting one of its surgeons. present in the complex.

For days, clashes between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers have been concentrated around the complex and paramedics have been unable to recover the dead and wounded from the surrounding streets, the doctor added.

“We have no electricity, no food, no water in the hospital,” said this MSF member. “People will die in a few hours without working artificial respirators.”

The Hamas government's deputy health minister, Youssef Abou Rich, told AFP on Monday that “seven premature babies ” and “27 patients in intensive care” had died since Saturday due to the lack of electricity in this hospital which, according to the WHO, houses at least 600 patients and 1,500 displaced people.

– Indications of the presence of 'hostages –

The situation is also dramatic at al-Quds hospital, another area where fighting is raging, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. “Our teams are stuck with patients and wounded, without electricity, water or food,” the organization said on ground by Hamas commandos on October 7, and has been carrying out a ground operation since October 27 with the aim of “annihilating” the Islamist movement.

On the Israeli side, around 1,200 people were killed, according to the authorities, the vast majority of them civilians killed on the day of the attack, on a scale and violence never seen since the creation of Israel in 1948.

The Israeli army, which reported on Monday 44 soldiers killed since the start of the war, estimates that some 240 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip on October 7.

In another hospital establishment, the Rantisi pediatric hospital evacuated on Saturday, the army announced that it had gathered “clues which suggest that Hamas was holding hostages”, showing images of a baby bottle or a piece of rope near a chair .

In Washington, Mr. Biden recalled that an agreement for “the release of prisoners” was still being negotiated with the help of Qatar.

The armed wing of Hamas has accused the Israeli government of “procrastinating” in discussions concerning the possible release of dozens of hostages in exchange for that of “200 children and 75 women” imprisoned by Israel.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the possibility of an agreement to release hostages, a condition according to him for any ceasefire.

– “Human shields” –

Israeli tanks along the border with the Gaza Strip, November 13, 2023 © AFP – FADEL SENNA

On the 38th day of the war, Israeli bombings on Gaza killed 11,240 people, mostly civilians, including 4,630 children, according to the Hamas health ministry.

The Israeli army accuses the Islamist movement Palestinian to have installed its infrastructure in a network of tunnels under the al-Chifa hospital, transformed into a war zone in the heart of Gaza City, and to use the sick and refugees as “human shields”.

The army announced that it “continued to carry out raids, targeting terrorist infrastructures installed in government buildings, in the heart of the civilian population, including in schools, universities, mosques”. But, a military spokesperson, Richard Hecht, clarified on X: “Let's be clear, our war is against Hamas, not against the population of Gaza.”

Smoke billowed from the Martyrs Mosque in the center of Gaza City, while alarms sounded in the deserted streets, according to images shot by AFP.

Satellite image released on November 12, 2023 by Maxar Technologies showing the damage around al-Chifa hospital in Gaza © Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies – –

Images released by the Israeli army show columns of soldiers advancing through fields of dusty ruins, supported by tanks and bulldozers, or opening fire from ambush in a destroyed building.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video message that Hamas had “lost control in Gaza” and that its fighters were “fleeing to the south” of the territory.

The Palestinian movement, classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, did not immediately react to these assertions.

– “Legitimacy” of the operations –

The funeral of Palestinians killed during a nighttime bombardment on the south of the Gaza Strip, on November 13, 2023 in Khan Younes © AFP – Mahmud HAMS

The head of Israeli diplomacy, Eli Cohen, his part admitted that his country must strive to prolong “the legitimacy” of military operations in the face of increasing international pressure for a cessation of hostilities and the protection of civilians.

For several weeks, the UN calls for fuel to be brought into the besieged Palestinian territory deprived of electricity, in particular to run generators in hospitals.

Due to a lack of fuel, the trucks of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) will not be able to receive international aid coming from Egypt via the Rafah terminal on Tuesday, its boss, Thomas White, announced on Monday on X. /p>

Israel refuses to let fuel enter Gaza, saying it could benefit the military operations of Hamas, in power since 2007.

– “Destruction is everywhere” –

Nearly 200,000 Palestinians, according to the Israeli army, had fled in three days, as of Saturday, to take refuge in the south where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are crowded together in disastrous humanitarian conditions.

< p>According to the UN, around 1.6 of the territory's 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war.

In Bureij, in the center of the Gaza Strip, families who came from the north continued to flee on foot or piled up on carts, children placed on hospital beds.

“The destruction is everywhere”, “even the birds have lost their lives”, testified a Palestinian, Adel Shamallakh.

International aid is arriving slowly from Egypt, in very insufficient quantity according to the UN. A Turkish ship carrying field hospitals arrived at the Egyptian port of Al-Arish, near the Rafah border crossing.

A young Palestinian in the empty shelves of a supermarket in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, November 13, 2023 © AFP – MOHAMMED ABED

Around 980 trucks loaded with aid have arrived in the Gaza Strip since October 21, including 76 on Sunday, according to Ocha.

In the other meaning, more than 550 foreign and dual nationals were able to leave Gaza on Monday, as well as nine injured Palestinians, according to Palestinian services.

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