Israel orders closure of al-Awda Hospital, a ‘lifeline' in north Gaza
Israel has ordered the closure of al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, leaving health officials scrambling to relocate dozens of people who remain at the medical facility, as deadly bombardment and starvation rack the besieged enclave.
At least 70 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks since the early hours of Thursday.
The Gaza Health Ministry called Israel's push, which forced the hospital out of commission, a 'continuation of the violations and crimes' against the medical sector in the territory.
Al-Awda was the last operating hospital in northern Gaza, according to health officials. Shutting down the hospital came amid continued Israeli forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, the latest order late on Thursday impacting large numbers of people north and east of Gaza City.
'The Health Ministry calls on all concerned sides to ensure protection for the health system in the Gaza Strip, as guaranteed by international and humanitarian laws,' the ministry said in a statement.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said 97 people, including 13 patients, are still at the hospital. The United Nations agency is planning a mission on Friday to transfer the patients to another facility.
'Due to impassable roads, the hospital's medical equipment cannot be relocated,' WHO said in a statement.
'With Al-Awda's closure, there is no remaining functional hospital in North Gaza — severing a critical lifeline for the people there.'
WHO pleaded 'for the hospital's protection and staff and patients' safety'.Israel has been besieging and bombing hospitals across Gaza, killing more than 1,400 medical workers, as well as patients and the displaced taking shelter, since the beginning of the war, according to local authorities.
The closure of al-Awda Hospital comes as the humanitarian crisis becomes more catastrophic by the day in Gaza, with Israel continuing its suffocating blockade on the enclave.
An effort, backed by the United States and Israel, to distribute limited food supplies at specific sites run by a shadowy organisation, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, continued to be marred by chaos on Thursday.
'We have come a long distance, around 10km [6.2 miles] to take this box tainted with blood,' Palestinian resident Saher Abu Tahoon told Al Jazeera in central Gaza.
'We need this box because there's no food to eat. We haven't seen any food or flour in five days. We went to get food for our children from a very faraway place. I can't even carry this box because I am too tired, and I am too hungry.'
Multiple explosions were heard and Israeli gunfire was reported near a distribution centre in central Gaza earlier on Friday.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said Palestinians who walked to the newly opened aid site at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza were unable to leave due to Israeli military activity in the area.
'Many of the people who showed up at the site are trapped right now and unable to leave the area due to the presence of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles [and] the ongoing shooting,' Mahmoud said.
'They've been sending appeals to the Red Cross to coordinate their departure from the area. It's becoming very risky for them to walk on their own.'Israel has been pushing to bypass and sideline the United Nations from the aid distribution process, a self-serving approach critics say would further weaponise humanitarian assistance in the territory.
'The problems are that the insecurity continues, and frankly, they are not making it easy for us to deliver humanitarian goods,' Dujarric said.
There are 600 aid trucks on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing (called Kerem Shalom by Israel), but Israel has blocked the world body from retrieving the supplies for the past three days, he added.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said 'starvation is threatening the future of the children' in the Palestinian enclave.
'What's urgently needed is a political will to allow the UN and partners to provide assistance at scale without hindrance or interruption,' Lazzarini said in a post on X. 'Allow us to do our work.'
Amid the dire humanitarian conditions, Israel maintained its relentless bombardment on Thursday, killing at least 70 Palestinians in attacks across Gaza, according to medical sources.
The Palestinian Civil Defence said an Israeli strike on a residential building in Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City left approximately 30 people missing under the rubble.
'Due to the lack of heavy equipment, it is not possible to recover the missing individuals from under the rubble,' the Civil Defence said in a statement.
'Therefore, we call on the international community and human rights organizations for immediate and urgent intervention to protect civilians and innocent people in the Gaza Strip.'Meanwhile, Washington said that Israel has accepted a temporary ceasefire proposal put forward by US envoy Steve Witkoff, but Hamas is still studying the plan.
'Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas,' White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
'I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home.'
Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim told the AFP news agency that the US proposal meant 'the continuation of killing and famine … and does not meet any of our people's demands, foremost among them halting the war'.
'Nonetheless, the movement's leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,' he added.
Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, told Al Jazeera it was 'unusual' for Israel to come out and agree to a proposal first and that Netanyahu may be betting on the plan being impossible for Hamas to accept so that he can paint them as the 'bad guys' and continue the war.
'It happened before … and Netanyahu put the blame on them,' he said.
Earlier this week, Hamas officials said the group reached an understanding for a ceasefire deal with Witkoff, but Israel and the US were quick to dismiss the assertion by the Palestinian group.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Boston Globe
8 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
A US judge halts the deportation of the Egyptian family of the Boulder firebombing suspect
The family members have not been charged in the attack on a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in the Sunday attack in downtown Boulder. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the family were being processed for removal proceedings. It's rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation. Advertisement 'It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,' attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit. 'Such methods of collective or family punishment violates the very foundations of a democratic justice system.' Soliman's wife, 18-year-old daughter, two minor sons, and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. 'We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,' Noem said in a statement. Advertisement Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, in response to the Boulder attack. Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as 'Mohammed.' Soliman's wife said she was 'shocked' to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to the lawsuit. Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack from 12 to 15, plus a dog. Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. The Associated Press on Wednesday sent an email to prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims. Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday's demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling 'Free Palestine,' police said. Soliman, an Egyptian man who federal authorities say has been living in the US illegally, did not carry out his full plan 'because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,' police wrote in an affidavit. According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire 'to kill all Zionist people' — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack. A vigil is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the local Jewish community center. Advertisement Soliman was born in el-Motamedia, an Egyptian farming village in the Nile Delta province of Gharbia, about 75 miles north of Cairo, according to an Egyptian security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media. Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents. Soliman arrived in the US in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired. Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports. Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting for his daughter to graduate before carrying it out, the affidavit said. A newspaper in Colorado Springs that profiled one of Soliman's children in April noted the family's journey from Egypt to Kuwait and then to the US. It said after initially struggling in school, his daughter landed academic honors and volunteered at a local hospital. Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime as well as attempted murder counts at the state level, but authorities say additional charges could come. He is being held in a county jail on a $10 million cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday. His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday. Public defenders' policy prohibits speaking to the media. Advertisement Witnesses and police have said Soliman set himself on fire as he hurled the second incendiary device. Authorities said they believe Soliman acted alone. Although they did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries, a booking photo showed him with a large bandage over one ear.


New York Post
14 minutes ago
- New York Post
Princeton smiles on antisemites, big savings for New York and other commentary
Campus watch: Princeton Smiles on Antisemites Protesters at 'an event at Princeton featuring former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett' called Jewish students ' 'inbred swine,' among other slurs' as they disrupted the guest's address, but the school says no student will 'be disciplined for their premeditated disruption and blatant antisemitism,' laments Danielle Shapiro at Real Clear Politics. Princeton pretends it can't ID those 'who were shouting antisemitic slurs' since 'it was dark and they were wearing masks.' Bull. The message is clear: 'Wear a mask and you can abuse Jews on campus.' Advertisement 'Princeton's president constantly talks about Princeton's free speech rules, and yet when tested, the university will not enforce them.' Indeed, 'If Princeton won't take basic steps to protect its students,' then the 'Department of Education must.' Eye on Congress: Big Savings for New York 'Look alert, New Yorkers: Congress has a chance to cut the cost of living,' cheers The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Advertisement Rep. Nick Langworthy's House bill 'would reduce the cost of federally funded construction projects' in New York, which unlike the other 49 states places 'absolute liability on property owners and contractors for construction workers' gravity-related injuries.' 'High liability means expensive insurance,' so 'many construction companies refuse to work in New York.' The House bill would 'determine liability based on which parties are to blame for the accident' for 'any project that receives federal money or tax incentives, or 'is subject to Federal permitting requirements.' ' With the feds running the Penn Station revamp and the Gateway NY-NJ rail project, Langworthy savings of 'at least $2 billion in federal tax dollars over the next 10 years.' Advertisement Speech beat: Tyranny Rules Britannia 'Lucy Connolly is Britain's foremost political prisoner,' rails Dominic Green at The Free Press. The mother and nanny is 'serving a 31-month sentence for 'stirring up racial hatred' in a single tweet that she deleted less than four hours after posting.' Her 2024 post 'called for the mass deportation of foreign-born criminals' after Axel Rudakubana 'went on a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed children's party' in England's north. Advertisement 'Plenty of more serious offenders escape prison terms.' Britain's government is simply 'intimidating the law-abiding majority into silence.' 'Lucy Connolly is in prison' purely 'to 'deter' other British people from venting their dissatisfaction about immigration and its discontents on social media outlets that, being American companies, the government cannot control.' Censorship desk: Rubio Takes on EU Bullies Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week 'shocked many of our allies by issuing a new visa restriction policy that bars foreign nationals deemed 'responsible for censorship of protected expression' in the U.S.,' hails Jonathan Turley at The Hill. Until now, 'Europe has faced no consequences for its aggressive efforts at transnational censorship,' particularly its 'draconian' Digital Services Law, which 'allows for sweeping censorship and speech prosecutions' — leading the EU 'to threaten' US corporations for refusing to censor Americans and others on social media. It's 'time for the U.S. to treat this as an attack on our citizens from abroad' and 'get serious about the European threat to free speech. And Rubio is doing just that — finally imposing real consequences for censorship.' Conservative: Greta's Narcissistic Gaza Mission Greta Thunberg heading to Gaza on a sailboat seems far more like 'Western narcissism . . . than an actual attempt to effect change,' snarks Ian Haworth at the Washington Examiner. 'What is a small boat of a dozen professional agitators going to achieve by trying, and inevitably failing, to reach an active war zone?' Advertisement Plus, 'Thunberg is actively supporting' Hamas, 'the brutal terrorist group that carried out the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.' She may not 'care about Hamas's Israeli victims,' but should about its 'Palestinian victims.' 'Thunberg is a participant, willing or unwilling, in the latest pseudo-religious cult that provides members with the same frenzied levels of purist adulation as the climate change cult.' — Compiled by The Post Editorial Board


American Military News
20 minutes ago
- American Military News
Video: Feds detain terror attack suspect's wife, kids
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials took the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman into custody on Tuesday after the Egyptian national carried out a 'targeted terror attack' that left 12 individuals injured at a pro-Israel event in Boulder, Colorado. According to The Independent, the 45-year-old illegal immigrant injured 12 individuals on Sunday who were holding a demonstration to raise awareness for the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. The outlet noted that Soliman used a 'makeshift flamethrower' and threw Molotov cocktails at the pro-Israel activists while shouting 'Free Palestine!' and End Zionist!' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel announced that Sunday's incident in Colorado was being investigated as a 'targeted terror attack.' In a video message shared on X, formerly Twitter, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Tuesday that ICE was taking the terror attack suspect's family into custody. 'Today, @DHSgov and @ICEGov are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody,' Noem tweeted. READ MORE: Video: 'Terror attack' leaves 8 injured in Colorado; suspect identified as foreign national In the video, Noem said, 'Mohamed's despicable actions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but we're also investigating to what extent his family knew about this horrific attack, if they had any knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it. I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and for all of their families. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to all of them, and I want them to know that justice will be served.' Today, @DHSgov and @ICEGov are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody. This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this… — Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) June 3, 2025 The New York Post cited sources on Tuesday who claimed that Soliman's family's visa status was revoked and that the family was in custody at a Dilley detention facility located in southern Texas. The sources claimed that federal law enforcement officials plan to use expedited removal to deport the terror attack's family. Tuesday's ICE arrests come just one day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a warning to terrorists, terrorist families, and terrorist sympathizers in the United States. The secretary of state warned, 'In light of yesterday's horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you.'