Hamas accuses Israel of bombing hospital in northern Gaza Strip

Hamas's health ministry on Monday accused the Israeli army of “bombing and destroying” the Kamal Adwan hospital, the only one still functioning in the northern Gaza Strip, reporting “numerous injuries among medical staff and patients.”

The Israeli army said it verified the reports. It had previously indicated that it was “operating against terrorist infrastructure and agents in the north and centre” of the Palestinian territory, an area where it launched an offensive on October 6, saying it wanted to overcome units of the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Defying international criticism, Israel also officially informed the UN on Monday of the ban on UNRWA, an agency considered the “backbone” of aid to refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the army “continues to violently bomb and destroy the Kamal Adwan hospital”, targeting “all parts of it”.

The director of the facility, located in Beit Lahia, Houssam Abou Safia, described a “catastrophic” situation after strikes without prior warning.

“The third floor of the facility was reportedly hit again, injuring six children,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

The war in Gaza was triggered by the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7, 2023 by Hamas on Israeli soil. The next day, in support of its Palestinian ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah opened a front against Israel, triggering nearly a year of exchanges of fire that turned into open war in September.

On the eve of the presidential election in the United States, Israel's main ally, diplomatic efforts to end these hostilities have remained unsuccessful.

– “No alternative” – ​​

A week after Parliament voted on a law banning the activities in Israel of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Foreign Affairs “notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between Israel and UNRWA,” according to a statement.

The agreement dates back to 1967, the year Israel began its occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as East Jerusalem, where UNRWA provided essential aid for decades – education, health, social services, food aid and in species.

Flour distribution at an UNRWA center in Deir el-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, on November 3, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

Israel, for which UNRWA has been a long-standing bête noire, has again accused “employees of the organization of having participated in the October 7 massacre” 2023.

“If the law is implemented, it risks causing the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in Gaza, of which UNRWA is the backbone,” warned Jonathan Fowler, a spokesman for the agency.

“There is simply no alternative to UNRWA,” reacted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X, for whom the ban “will not make Israel safer” but will “only increase the suffering” of the Palestinians.

Israel has told the UN that the ban on UNRWA will come into effect after “a period of three months.”

The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold a session on UNRWA on Wednesday.

– “Kill all the Palestinian people” –

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

A Palestinian man cries over the body of a child killed in an Israeli strike, at Nasser hospital in Khan Youness in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 3, 2024 © AFP – BASHAR TALEB

“Currently, the Palestinian people depend almost entirely on aid from abroad, especially from UNRWA, and cutting it off is tantamount to killing “All the Palestinian people,” reacts Abdel Karim Kallab, in Khan Younès, in the south of Gaza.

Hamas said Israel's decision “is an attempt to deny refugees the right to return to their homes.”

The movement also said on Monday that it had spoken with its rival Fatah in Cairo about the war in Gaza and efforts to reach a Palestinian national consensus.

A man wounded by an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, is evacuated on a stretcher, on November 4, 2024 © AFP – –

In a phone call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “noted that Hamas has once again refused to release even a limited number of hostages in order to secure a ceasefire and relief for the people of Gaza,” according to a State Department statement.

Hamas said on Friday that it had refused to consider a proposal for a short-term truce in the Gaza Strip from mediating countries because it did not include a permanent ceasefire.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack, which left 1,206 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or killed in captivity. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, with 34 declared dead by the army.

A Palestinian girl cries at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 3, 2024 © AFP – BASHAR TALEB

The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation in Gaza has left 43,374 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN. The vast majority of the inhabitants of the small besieged territory have been displaced.

– “It is not enough” –

According to the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, the daily average of trucks allowed by Israel to enter Gaza fell to 30 in October, which “is not enough to meet the needs of more than 2 million people, many of whom are hungry and sick and living in desperate conditions.”

On its northern front, Israel carried out new air raids on Monday on southern Lebanon, where its troops have also been engaged on the ground since September 30.

A cloud of smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Zawtar el Charkiyeh in southern Lebanon on November 4, 2024 © AFP – –

The Israeli army launched a massive bombing campaign against pro-Iranian Hezbollah on September 23, saying it wanted to push its fighters back about thirty km from the border, to allow the return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by its fire.

The movement is nevertheless continuing these attacks, and said on Monday that it had launched a salvo of rockets on Safed.

At least 1,940 people have been killed since September 23 in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on official data.

The Israeli army also claimed on Monday that it had struck targets in Damascus belonging to Hezbollah intelligence for Syria. The raid killed two Hezbollah fighters according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

All reproduction and representation rights reserved. © (2024) Agence France-Presse