A hospital that needs“to be resuscitated”. The emergency department of al-Chifa hospital in northern Gaza, devastated by Israeli bombings, is “a bloodbath”, writes the WHO on Sunday December 17. A team from the World Health Organization and other UN agencies was able to deliver medical equipment Saturday to the hospital, where “tens of thousands of people displaced” took refuge within the hospital complex for shelter, underlines a WHO press release. Follow our live stream.
Catherine Colonna in Israel. The head of French diplomacy arrived in Israel where she will call for a truce “immediate and lasting” in the Gaza Strip. Catherine Colonna should meet families of French hostages and call “for a new immediate and lasting humanitarian truce”, leading to a lasting ceasefire, in order to obtain the release of all the hostages, and to be able to provide humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza, according to a press release from the Quai d’Orsay.
New strikes on Gaza. Israel launched new strikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday. At least 12 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, the Hamas health ministry announced. Witnesses also reported Israeli bombardment on the southern town of Bani Suheila.
Increasing pressure to free the hostages. Relatives of the hostages have increased calls on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push him to reach an agreement on the release of the captives as the army admits to having killed “by mistake” three of them in the Palestinian territory. The three hostages killed were among some 250 people captured during the unprecedented attack launched on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil which left 1,140 dead, according to the latest data provided by Israeli authorities.