Hamas accuses Israel of attacking Gaza hospital and carrying out deadly bombing

Hamas on Friday accused Israeli forces of attacking the last functioning hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two children, and new bombings that killed at least 38 people.

After more than a year of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, northern Gaza is experiencing its “darkest time”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned.

The Health Ministry of Gaza, the Hamas-ruled territory, announced in the evening that Israeli forces were “searching” the Kamal Adwan hospital and “shooting” inside apartments.

“Two children died in the intensive care unit after the hospital’s generator failed and an oxygen station was attacked,” the ministry said.

He had earlier claimed that the army was “holding hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced persons” in the compound in Jabaliya.

The Israeli military told AFP it was “verifying” the reports.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over the loss of contact with the hospital.

On 6 October, Israel launched an operation in the already devastated north of the region, indicating that it had detected “the presence of terrorists and their infrastructure” around Jabaliya.

Gaza Civil Defense previously reported that at least 38 people were killed by Israeli shelling during the day.

According to this source, at least 12 people were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid in western Gaza City, where thousands fled north to escape the fighting, with six more killed in other bombings in the city and Khan Younis. Another 20 people were killed. In the south.

The Israeli army announced the deaths of three soldiers in the sector, bringing its casualties to 361 since entering Gaza in late October 2023.

– Perspective of conversation –

The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Islamic militants killed 1,206 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, and abducted 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. , including hostages who died in captivity.

Of the 251 abducted, 97 are held in Gaza, but 34 have been declared dead by the army.

In response to the attack, Israel launched an offensive against Hamas in Gaza, killing at least 42,847 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry considered reliable by the United Nations.

Following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli troops in Gaza on 16 October, signs emerged of the possibility of new indirect talks leading to a ceasefire.

David Barnia, the head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad, will meet with his CIA counterpart Bill Burns and Qatar’s prime minister in Qatar on Sunday.

Hamas expressed a desire to “cease hostilities”, although this was subject to Israel’s “commitment” to a ceasefire, its “withdrawal” from Gaza, and an agreement to exchange Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

These conditions were rejected by Israel in previous indirect negotiations, under the auspices of Qatar, the United States, and Egypt, all of which were unsuccessful.

– New bomb blasts in Beirut –

After nearly a year of cross-border conflict between Israel and Hamas’s ally Lebanese Islamic movement Hezbollah, Israeli forces stepped up bombardment of Lebanon on September 23 and began a ground offensive a week later.

According to Israeli officials, the aim is to allow about 60,000 people displaced by Hezbollah’s rocket attacks to return to the north of the country.

On Friday night, Israeli forces again bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut, one of Hezbollah’s strongholds, after urging the population to evacuate the area, the Lebanese National News Agency (ANI) reported.

AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke rising over the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital and AFP correspondents heard several explosions.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “war crimes” over the death of three journalists in a bombing of a residence in the southern city of Hasbaya, which had so far not been affected by the bombing.

“The incident is being analyzed,” the Israeli military said.

A Ghassan cameraman and a technician from the pro-Iran al-Mayadeen network, and a journalist from the Hezbollah al-Manar channel were killed.

In southern Lebanon, the Israeli army announced ten casualties in two days, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed since it began its ground campaign on September 30 to 32, according to a tally established by AFP.

A volley of rockets fired by Hezbollah killed two people at a supermarket in an Arab town in northern Israel on Friday, the army and an Israeli hospital announced.

Antony Blinken, concluding his final tour of the Middle East, said it is “really urgent” to reach a “diplomatic solution” in Lebanon.

At least 1,580 people have died in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP report based on official figures.

Lebanese authorities said on Friday they had recorded the entry of more than 500,000 people from Lebanon to Syria since then.

According to the United Nations, 800,000 people have been displaced so far due to the conflict.

BAR-SG/JVB-SAG-HGS/CJC