Tag: Hamas

  • Attacks on hospitals, camps continue: What we know about day 29

    Attacks on hospitals, camps continue: What we know about day 29

    Entrance of Al-Nasser Children’s Hospital bombed

    Israel has bombed the entrance of Al-Nasser Children’s Hospital, resulting in several casualties, according to local media outlets.

    Israeli forces targeting solar panels

    While solar panels have been the only source of power for some in Gaza, Israeli air strikes have destroyed the ones on al-Wafa Hospital.

    The attack led to a power outage in the facility.

    2,200 people buried under debris

    About 2,200 people are still buried in the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli attacks, including 1,250 children, reveals the Health Ministry’s spokesperson.

    UN school attack

    Dozen of people have been reportedly killed in the Israeli attack on al-Fakhoora school. The total number is yet to be confirmed. “The number [of people killed] is expected to rise,” Reuters quoted Muhammad Abu Silmeyeh as saying.

    The largest facility in the north, Al-Fakhoora school had been sheltering displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp.

    Since October 7, the refugee camp has been targetted three times.

    Shelters under attack

    While the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has been sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, they have been under attack by Israeli targets.

    They have revealed that since October 7, nearly 50 buildings and assets of the agency have been affected, some being directly hit including UNRWA buildings sheltering about 700,000 people.

    As of yet, at least 72 UNRWA staff members have been killed, some alongside their families.

    Netanyahu ‘no longer someone we can talk to’: Erdogan

    The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced to cut ties with the Israeli prime minister following Israel’s attacks in Gaza.

    “Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to. We have written him off,” Turkish media quoted Erdogan as stating.

    Hezbollah’s Nasrallah calls for ceasefire

    While calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, on Friday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah announced to hold off any escalation with Israel.

    He also asserted Hezbollah or Iran had no prior knowledge of the October 7 attack on Israel.

  • 1,200 children still buried under rubble: What we know about day 28

    1,200 children still buried under rubble: What we know about day 28

    Israel disconnects with Gaza

    The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has announced that Israel has cut off all contact with Gaza, and that Palestinian workers will no longer be employed in the country.

    “Those workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day of the outbreak of the war will be returned to Gaza,” it stated in a post on X.

    The Security Cabinet has also planned on cutting down all funds for the besieged enclave from the Palestinian Authority funds.

    US drones fly over Gaza to track captives

    According to Al Jazeera, two US officials told the Reuters news agency that surveillance US drones have been flying over Gaza to search for hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.

    The surveillance has reportedly been going on since more than a week now.

    US officials believe the 10 Americans who remain “unaccounted” may be among the 200 plus hostages in Gaza.

    Gaza workers in Israel

    Gisha, an Israeli NGO, published a statement on the Israeli cabinet’s decision on Friday to return Palestinian workers in Israel since October 7 back to Gaza.

    Gisha, HaMoked and other human rights groups had submitted “Letters, petitions and individual inquiries to Israeli authorities regarding hundreds of Gaza residents, including both workers and people who had entered Israel with permits to receive medical treatment, who were present in Israel on October 7 and had since been unlawfully, secretly detained by Israeli authorities”.

    They are reportedly detained in Israeli military bases in the occupied West Bank, disconnected from the world and without access to legal representation.

    “Israel refused to disclose the names and whereabouts of all the people it was holding, as well as the legal grounds for their detention. We have reason to believe that the holding conditions in these facilities were extremely dire, and that detainees were subjected to extensive physical violence and psychological abuse, as well as being held in inhumane conditions,” the statement said.

    1,200 children still buried under rubble

    Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra reported on the latest statistics: 1,200 children are still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, 136 paramedics have been killed, 25 ambulance vehicles have been completely destroyed, and 126 hospitals and another 50 medical centres have been targeted.

    Tear gas aimed at worshippers in Al-Aqsa

    Al Jazeera correspondents have reported that Israeli forces have used tear gas against Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem’s Wadi al-Joz neighbourhood after stopping them from Friday prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

    Cross-border fire between Israel-Lebanon border continue

    The Israeli army claims to have killed a group of Hezbollah fighters on Thursday in Lebanon and targeted one of their sites.

    The army reportedly struck in response to an attack from Lebanese territory towards a military position in northern Israel near the border.

    Credits: Al Jazeera

  • Hamas reportedly sent texts to families of Israeli captives

    Hamas reportedly sent texts to families of Israeli captives

    Families of Israeli civilians who are under Hamas’s captivity have reportedly received text messages in Hebrew from senders claiming to be Hamas, asking recipients to click on a link to access information on the hostages.

    “We offered your government a prisoner exchange, but it did not accept,” the text read.

    “This is our message: the release of all prisoners in exchange for the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

    To know the condition of all your prisoners, stay in touch with us.”

    ”

  • “It’s inhumane”: Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan describes conditions Gaza doctors are working in

    “It’s inhumane”: Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan describes conditions Gaza doctors are working in

    Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care doctor for Doctors Without Borders and a co-founder of the GazaMedicVoices social platform, reflects in an interview on the on-going struggle of doctors in Gaza who are working under dearth of basic medical supplies.

    “I refuse to let my imagination go to the places where reality has taken us in these last three weeks.” she said.

    “Everyday I feel like things can’t get worse, and then they seem to get worse.”

    Dr. Tanya asserted Gaza doctors are “World class experts in the field of medicine and in the field of mass casualties” but she goes on to remark that having to carry out medical procedures without pain control or anaesthesia “makes it sound very barbaric.”

    With “hands tied” and being “stripped of every tool” used in modern medicine — from anaesthesia to ventilators and monitors — it is an unfathomable place to be in, she described.

    “I can’t fathom being in the position that they are in,” she stated, highlighting that the doctors in Gaza are working every day despite the trauma they are seeing, despite fear for their family’s well being, despite fear for their own life, and constantly being threatened to be bombed in the health facility because they “refuse to leave” their patients and evacuate.

    “I’ve never been in that position and I don’t know many people that have been in that position to be honest. The conditions that we’re seeing in the Gaza strip right now are unthinkable.” she added, calling it “unprecedented in modern times”.

    She further highlighted in her interview that the children there are coming in with 70-90 per cent of their bodies burned, stressing that doctors would normally and “obviously” give them immediate pain control. And a regular change of dressing would be carried out under sterile conditions; and if the burns are extensive, they are put to sleep for the process because it is so “exquisitely painful”.

    But in Gaza, pain relief is not an option.

    Dr. Tanya also quoted the doctors currently serving in Gaza who, to describe their situation, used words like “inhumane”, “intolerable”, “unbearable”.

    “They are crying out to the outside world and many of them are giving up. They’re saying the world has come together to eliminate us,” she reiterated.

    Others say, “They are deaf and blind to our suffering. All we have is God.”

  • Death toll crosses 9,000: What we know about day 27

    Death toll crosses 9,000: What we know about day 27

    Biden finally calls for a ‘pause’ in war

    For the first time since October 7, US President Joe Biden has called for a humanitarian “pause” to Israel’s war in Gaza, asserting the eimportance of evacuation of all citizens in Gaza.

    “I think we need a pause,” he said on Wednesday when a heckler referred to an immediate ceasefire during a campaign speech.

    Biden was asked what he meant by “pause” to which he responded, “Time to get the prisoners out.”

    The White House later clarified that the reference was of captives under Hamas.

    Almost 200 killed, over 100 missing in Jabalia bombing

    According to a report by Gaza’s Government Media Office, more than 1,000 people have been affected by bombing on Jabalia refugee camp which includes 195 killed, 120 missing and at least 777 wounded.

    The Israeli military attacked the camp on Tuesday as well as Wednesday promoting the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to deem the attacks “appalling”, while the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the “disproportionate attacks” could amount to “war crimes”.

    Israel, on the contrary, claimed to have targeted a Hamas commander.

    12,000 targets in Gaza attacked

    Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari has stated that more than 12,000 targets have been attacked since October 7.

    Eleven bakeries destroyed

    UN relief agency UNOCHA has reported on the destruction of 11 bakeries in Gaza that were struck by Israel since October 7.

    Now, only nine bakeries are reportedly left in Gaza as of Wednesday.

    While UNOCHA is supplying the bakeries with flour, they are, nonetheless, struggling to operate due to fuel shortages and additionally, people have to wait in long queues.

    Israel-Lebanon conflict continues

    Al Jazeera reported that the Israeli army claimed that one of its drones was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon.

    The military responded by attacking the squad and the site from where the rocket was launched.

    Egypt to help evacuate ‘about 7,000’ foreign nationals

    The Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that Egypt will help evacuate “about 7,000” foreigners and dual nationals from Gaza through Rafah border.

    These 7,000 people consist of “more than 60” nationalities.

    At least 60 people detained across the occupied West Bank

    In an overnight raid by the Israeli forces, at least 60 people have been detained across the occupied West Bank.

    The total number of Palestinians detained since October 7 now crosses 1,800.

    Additionally, 132 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank while more than 2,100 are wounded.

    Israeli agricultural sector struggling

    The Ministry of Labor reported that Israel’s agricultural sector is reportedly affected with “significant damage” as thousands of foreign workers have left since October 7.

    More than a quarter of about 30,000 foreign workers working in Israel have departed while about 20,000 Palestinian agricultural workers have not been allowed to enter Israel.

    The ministry has now given a green signal to 5,000 foreign workers to overcome the shortage in the agriculture sector.

    Credits: Al Jazeera

  • Biden calls for humanitarian ‘pause’ in Israel’s war in Gaza

    Biden calls for humanitarian ‘pause’ in Israel’s war in Gaza

    Washington (AFP) – President Joe Biden, when responding to a heckler at a Minnesota campaign event Wednesday night, said he thinks there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israeli-Hamas war to get “prisoners” out of Gaza.

    The 80-year-old Democrat was delivering remarks to some 200 supporters in the northern US state when a member of the audience shouted out to him.

    “As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now,” she said, referring to the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.

    The president responded: “I think we need a pause. A pause means giving time to get the prisoners out.”

    Asked about his remarks, the White House later clarified that by “prisoners” the president was referring to hostages held by Hamas.

    Biden engaged further with the woman, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the nickname Bibi.

    “I’m the guy that convinced Bibi to call for a ceasefire to let the prisoners out. I’m the guy that talked to (Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-)Sisi to convince him to open the door” along Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow freed hostages to leave.

    Biden indicated that he was discussing the recent release of two US hostages formerly held by the Palestinian Islamist group.

    The White House has previously called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid to be delivered into Gaza or to carry out evacuations, but has so far refused to discuss a ceasefire, believing it would exclusively play into the hands of Hamas.

    The war between Israel and Hamas entered its 26th day on Wednesday.

    In retaliation for the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7, the Israeli army has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip, and has launched an increasingly extensive ground operation into the territory.

  • Remember their names: Al Jazeera breaks down casualty report from Gaza

    Remember their names: Al Jazeera breaks down casualty report from Gaza

    Last week, Gaza’s Health Ministry released a list of Palestinians killed by the on-going Israeli attacks on the besieged strip.

    The list was released a day after US President Joe Biden questioned the accuracy of the death toll of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

    “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” he said.

    This was followed by a release of a comprehensive report on October 26, detailing the names, ages, gender and ID numbers of 6,747 of the victims.

    From October 7 to October 25 alone, a span of 19 days, at least 7,028 people were killed in Israeli attacks which included 2,913 children.

    Al Jazeera has now broken down the data, revealing that 7,028 deaths in 19 days means 370 average daily deaths. While 16,297 injuries indicated 858 average daily injuries.

    Moreover, 73 per cent of those killed in the attacks were women, children and the elderly.

    Among the victims are:
    133 babies below the age of one
    482 toddlers (1-3 years old)
    344 preschoolers (4-5 years old)
    1,042 primary school children (6-12 years old)
    664 high school children (13-17 years old)
    966 young adults (18-25 years old)
    2,506 adults (26-55 years old)
    521 Nakba survivors (56-74 years old)
    89 Nakba survivors (75+ years old)

    Read more: Know their names

  • Wounded Gazans to cross Rafah border for treatment: What we know about day 26

    Wounded Gazans to cross Rafah border for treatment: What we know about day 26

    Jabalia refugee camp attack

    On Tuesday, Israeli air strikes targeted the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza — the largest refugee camp in Gaza sheltering children, women, and men.

    An IDF spokesman confirmed to Wolf Blitzer on CNN that an Israeli strike hit the Jabalia refugee camp, killing hundreds of civilians.

    “There was a very senior Hamas commander in that area,” Israeli army spokesperson Richard Hecht told CNN. “We’re looking into it and we’ll be coming out with more data as we learn what happened there.”

    As per reports, at least 50 have been killed so far while 400 have been injured.

    Wounded Gazans to cross Rafah border

    Rafah border will reportedly open today to allow wounded Palestinians into Egypt for treatment in hospitals.

    On Tuesday, AFP news reported that a large number of ambulances had gathered at Rafah and that according to Egyptian medical officials, “Medical teams will be present at the crossing to examine the cases … and determine the hospitals they will be sent to.”

    Additionally, a field hospital will be built to treat wounded Palestinians in Sheikh Zuweid — about 15 kilometres from Rafah.

    Telecommunication cut again

    Palestinian telecoms company has said that, “All communications and Internet services” with Gaza has been cut off.
    Paltel said there is a “complete interruption” of the services with the Gaza Strip.

    It said the interruption was caused by “International routes that were previously reconnected being cut off again”.

    Houthi attack on Israel

    Yemen’s Houthi militants have claimed to have launched a “large number” of ballistic missiles and drones targeting Israel, and warning of more attacks.

    Previously, on Tuesday morning, Israel military claimed to have destroyed an unidentified “aerial target” over the Red Sea.

    “There was no threat or risk to civilians,” they said.

  • Gaza women taking period-delaying pills amidst lack of privacy, water: Al Jazeera exclusive

    Gaza women taking period-delaying pills amidst lack of privacy, water: Al Jazeera exclusive

    Linah Alsaafin and Ruwaida Amer from Al Jazeera have reported from Gaza on Palestinian women who have been struggling to cope with menses at a time when medical supplies have been cut and the region is under heavy military attacks by Israel.

    Since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, Gazans have been internally displaced, living in poor conditions among a large number of people with no privacy, and no access to water or menstrual hygiene products like sanitary napkins and/or tampons. To counter this major problem, women are resorting to norethisterone tablets that are usually prescribed in times of severe menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and painful periods.

    While these pills have side effects like irregular vaginal bleeding, nausea, changes to the menstrual cycle, dizziness and mood swings, Palestinian women do not have any choice for now.

    Al Jazeera spoke to 41-year-old Salma who fled her hometown, Tel al-Hawa, and is now at a relative’s place in Deir el-Balah refugee camp. She is in a “constant state of fear, discomfort and depression, which has taken a toll on her menstrual cycle”.

    “I am experiencing the most difficult days of my life during this war,” Salma says. “I got my period twice this month so far – which is very irregular for me – and suffered heavy bleeding.”

    Nevin Adnan, a psychologist and social worker based in Gaza City, explained to Al Jazeera that while normally, women may experience psychological and physical symptoms before and during periods (changes in mood and lower abdominal, back pain); these symptoms, however, can worsen under stress.

    “Displacement causes extreme stress and that affects the woman’s body and her hormones,” she said.

    “There can also be an increase of the physical symptoms associated with menstruation, such as abdominal and back pain, constipation and bloating,” she said, adding that they may also experience insomnia, constant nervousness and extreme tension.

    This is why, Adnan asserts, more women are taking period-delaying pills “to avoid embarrassment and shame due to the lack of hygiene, privacy, and available health products”.

    “In war, we are forced to do everything we can,” says Salma.

    “There is never a choice.”

    Read full story: No privacy, no water: Gaza women use period-delaying pills amid war

  • Bolivia cuts ties with Israel

    Bolivia cuts ties with Israel

    In the light of the latest developments in the Gaza strip where Israel is proceeding with its military operations, killing more than 8,000 people, Bolivia’s government has announced on Tuesday that its breaking diplomatic ties with Israel.

    Bolivia “has decided to break diplomatic relations with the Israeli state in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip,” Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani announced at a press conference.

    Bolivia also called for a cease-fire and an end to “the blockade that prevents the entry of food, water and other essential elements for life.”

    Interim Foreign Minister Maria Nela Prada asserted that the press conference had been held “in reference to the crimes against humanity being committed in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people.”

    Last time Bolivia had cut diplomatic ties with Israel was in 2009 under the leftist President Evo Morales, also in protest of atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza. But in 2020, the right-wing government of interim President Jeanine Anez reestablished ties.

    Morales, on social media, urged the current President Luis Arce to condemn Israel and to deem it a terrorist state.

    Previously, on Monday, Arce had a meeting with the Palestinian ambassador to Bolivia after which he had posted, “We reject the war crimes being committed in Gaza. We support international initiatives to guarantee humanitarian aid, in compliance with international law,”.