The Israeli Army is already in the center of Gaza and has in recent hours intensified attacks against the city’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, where Israel believes that Hamas has tunnels leading to the organization’s headquarters. The health center received several hits during the night and Israeli snipers reportedly shot at civilians who were trying to flee the center, according to what health personnel told the Palestinian Red Crescent. In the hospital there are still 1,500 patients, 1,500 medical staff and between 15,000 and 20,000 people from northern Gaza who are staying in the center, seeking refuge, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The hospital director, Mohammed Abu Selmiya, stated that the facility has lost electricity. “Medical devices have stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” he told Al Jazeera broadcaster by phone. Selmiya’s testimony coincides with other workers at the center and she stated that the Israeli Army had shot civilians who were trying to flee the hospital. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have announced that they have lost communication with their colleagues in the hospital. At least two premature babies died last night due to lack of electricity.
In another airstrike near the Mahdi maternity hospital in Nasr, northwest Gaza, two doctors were killed and several displaced people were injured. For its part, the Al Quds hospital in Gaza City has announced that it is no longer operational due to a lack of fuel and medical supplies.
The Israeli bombings last night also affected an office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) where dozens of Gazans have also taken refuge. According to the organization, several people were killed or injured in the attack, although the total number has not yet been revealed. “This is wrong in every way,” UNDP chief Achim Steiner said in a tweet. “Civilians, civilian infrastructure and the inviolability of UN facilities must always be protected,” he warned.
During Sunday morning, the Israeli Army bombed the south of the Gaza Strip, in the city of Khan Younis – where thirteen civilians died – and also the Rafah crossing, the only access to the outside in the entire Strip, which connects Gaza with Egypt.
In the north of the Strip, the Israeli General Staff again announced a seven-hour window without hostilities so that Gazans can flee to the south. The stoppage is limited only to the Salah El-Din road where we have seen these days in television images thousands of people fleeing on foot towards the south. “Do not surrender to Hamas: its presence continues in the region and exposes you to very great danger,” the Army said in a statement in Arabic. “We ask residents to take advantage of this temporary suspension of attacks and move south,” the note added.
Last night Israeli television broadcast a new speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he again rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire. “The war against Hamas is advancing with all its strength and has one objective: to win. There is no alternative to victory,” he assured.
For his part, the leader of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, the influential Lebanese Shiite party that supports Hamas, announced yesterday that its armed wing has used new types of weapons and drones to attack Israeli targets in the north of the country. In a televised speech he assured that the front on the border between Lebanon and Israel will continue to be active. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant responded to Nasrallah’s speech and warned that if Hezbollah drags the country into a war, they will turn Beirut into Gaza. “Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war that could happen,” Gallant warned.
