Israel continued to attack hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in a territory struggling with communications cuts which made it impossible to deliver humanitarian aid on Friday.
What there is to know
Israel continues its offensive against hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
All communications are cut again in the territory, which also no longer has fuel. Sanitation pumps no longer work and sewage now flows into the streets of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
Communications cuts made it impossible to deliver humanitarian aid on Friday, the UN announced.
The Israeli army announced that it had discovered near the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza the body of a hostage kidnapped by Hamas
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced that a “violent attack” was being carried out in Gaza itself on the Ahli Arab hospital, which is now under siege.
At the same time, after being stormed on Wednesday, the largest hospital in Gaza, the al-Chifa hospital, was the subject of searches by the Israeli soldiers who began to comb it, building by building, floor by floor , before the eyes of patients, civilians and staff. Shooting against this hospital was also reported by journalists.
In addition, an Indonesian hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip also stopped operating on Thursday, its director announced.
“A completely different story”
On Thursday, the United States, through the State Department, said it was “deeply concerned” and opposed to strikes on hospitals from the air. These denunciations came after the attack on the Jordanian military hospital in Gaza on Wednesday, which left seven people injured.
At a press conference, American President Joe Biden, for his part, made a distinction between attacks and searches carried out on the ground which, in his eyes, are “a completely different story” and which do not fall under a “ indiscriminate bombardment.
Joe Biden added that Hamas has “a good number of terrorists […]. Hamas has said publicly that they intend to attack Israel again as they have done before, cutting off and burning the heads of babies, burning women and children alive.”
As France recalled in a press release, international humanitarian law, however, obliges belligerents to protect hospitals and to use the principle of proportionality.
PHOTO DOUG MILLS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
US President Joe Biden
Does the president have proof that the Hamas leadership is hiding under hospitals, as the Netanyahu government claims to justify its strikes against hospitals? a journalist asked the president at a press conference.
“No, I can’t say,” he replied.
Does he have the conviction, based on what he knows, that such a command is found under the hospitals? To this question, the president answered in the affirmative.
Also on Thursday, Antony Blinken, the head of American diplomacy, called on Israel to take urgent measures to put an end to settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Mr. Blinken has been emphasizing to Israelis “the urgent need to take concrete steps to defuse tensions in the West Bank, including by addressing increasing levels of violence from extremist settlers,” said Matthew Miller, Door -spokesperson for the US Department of State.
When this will ceasedoes he?
Pressed to say how much longer the war would continue in his opinion, Joe Biden, still during his press conference on Thursday, recalled that he could not predict the future, but that he had been clear with “ Bibi [Benyamin Nétanyaou] and his war cabinet” that in his opinion, “the only answer ultimately lies in the actual creation of two states.”
“I have made it clear to the Israelis that I think it is a big mistake for them to think that they will occupy and keep Gaza. I don’t think that would work. »
During a visit to Gaza territory, Israeli lieutenant Herzi Halevi declared Thursday that the army believed it was “close” to eliminating Hamas’ “military system” in the northern part of the enclave.
Furthermore, the Israeli army claimed to have taken “operational control” of the port of Gaza City.
Note that the body of a 65-year-old woman, taken hostage by Hamas, was also found near al-Chifa hospital. The military did not say how she died or when.
Doctors of the World Canada calls out Ottawa
In a letter sent publicly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly, Nadja Pollaert, executive director of Doctors of the World Canada, indicates that without a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, “it is impossible to rescue, treat and save.
PHOTO SPENCER COLBY, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
The Executive Director of Doctors of the World Canada, Nadja Pollaert
Since October 7, nearly 70% of the 11,000 people killed on the Palestinian side have been women and children. The territory has become “a cemetery for children”, strongly deplored António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations a month after the start of the war.
Médecins du monde lost the Dr Maysara Rayes, emergency doctor, “killed with her family under the rubble of their building during a bombing on November 5. The bulldozers could not get there to rescue them due to lack of fuel. Further bombing then disrupted rescue efforts. Their bodies were found after 48 hours.”
“Humanitarian breaks are of no use, because no daily break of a few hours will, logistically or physically, provide the aid and care needed to alleviate the suffering of the 2.2 million Gazans trapped in the enclave. »
Mme Pollaert pleads for a ceasefire, which she believes is “ essential to restore the protection of civilians and provide vital humanitarian aid.”
Every minute that passes “costs lives”, recalls Mme Pollaert.
With Agence France-Presse