Al-Shifa Hospital has become a “death zone”, denounced the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday, November 19, demanding its evacuation, at a time when the Israeli army is expanding its operations in the besieged territory. The WHO coordinated a one-hour “very high risk” mission to the hospital complex on Saturday.
Hundreds of people who had taken refuge in the establishment, the largest in Gaza, had already left the premises after being ordered to do so on Saturday by the Israeli army, according to the director of the establishment and a journalist from the Agence France-Presse on site. The army denies having ordered the evacuation, only claiming to have “responded to a request” from the director of Al-Shifa hospital.
After these departures, the huge hospital complex still housed on Saturday, according to the WHO, 25 caregivers and 291 patients, including 32 babies in critical condition, 22 patients on dialysis and two in intensive care. Many injured people suffer from serious infections due to the lack of antibiotics and poor hygiene conditions, the organization reported at the end of its mission.
“WHO and its partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of remaining patients, staff and their families” to other hospitals in Gaza, added the organization, which again called for a cease and desist. -fire.
Despite Hamas’s denials, the Israeli army, which launched a raid on the hospital on Wednesday morning, reiterated its accusations that the establishment houses a den of the Islamist movement, installed in particular in a network of tunnels.
UN-run school targeted by strike
As the war enters its 44th day on Sunday, Israeli forces continue to “expand [their] operations into new areas of the Gaza Strip,” they announced, claiming to have intervened on Saturday in the areas of Jabaliya and Zaytoun, in the north of the territory.
Hamas assured Saturday that Israeli strikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp, managed by the UN, had left more than 80 dead, including at least 50 in a school that houses displaced people. Images broadcast on social networks and authenticated by Agence France-Presse show bodies, some covered in blood, on the floors of the Al-Fakhoura school in the Jabaliya camp, targeted by a strike, according to the Ministry of Defense. health of the Palestinian territory.
Asked about this strike, the Israeli army told AFP that it had “received reports of an incident in the Jabaliya region”, adding that it was “being examined”. The second strike, which hit a house in Jabaliya, killed 32 members of the same family, including 19 children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
“We are receiving appalling images of numerous deaths and injuries once again in a UNRWA school which sheltered thousands of displaced people,” wrote on X the head of this UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, who demanded that “these attacks” stop.
A march in Israel to demand the release of hostages
More than two-thirds of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, according to the UN. Most have fled south with the minimum they have and are trying to survive in the cold that sets in. According to UNRWA, 70% of the population does not have access to drinking water in the south of the territory, where sewage has begun to flow into the streets as sewage treatment plants have stopped operating due to lack of fuel. .
And strikes are also taking place in the south of the Gaza Strip. During the night from Friday to Saturday, a bombing left 26 dead in the town of Khan Younès, according to the director of the Nasser hospital.
On Saturday evening, Gaza’s health ministry announced that 12,300 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli bombardments since the Hamas attack on October 7, including more than 5,000 children.
For its part, the Israeli army announced on Saturday evening that 236 people were being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. The latest report showed 239 hostages. The army did not specify the reasons for this reassessment. A march to support the families of these hostages arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday with the aim of maintaining pressure on the Israeli government. “Take them home now. All,” proclaimed the demonstrators, who left Tel Aviv on Tuesday, amid a sea of Israeli flags. The families were able to be received on Monday by the government’s war cabinet.
Biden wants reunification of the West Bank and Gaza
US President Joe Biden again warned on Saturday, in an article published by the Washington Post, against Israel’s temptation to occupy the Gaza Strip, calling for a future reunification of the enclave with the West Bank. under a “revitalized Palestinian Authority.”
“Gaza must never again be used as a base for terrorism. There must be no forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, and no reduction of territory,” he said.
He also threatened to ban visas to the United States from “extremist” settlers who attack civilians in the West Bank. “Extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must end and those who commit this violence must be held accountable,” he wrote.
While most of the fighting since the Hamas attack has taken place in Gaza, tensions are high in the West Bank, territory occupied since 1967 by Israel: around 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.