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Israel orders closure of al-Awda Hospital, a ‘lifeline' in north Gaza
Israel orders closure of al-Awda Hospital, a ‘lifeline' in north Gaza

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Health
  • Yahoo

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.

Israeli attacks kill 16 in Gaza as aid kitchens shut after supplies run out
Israeli attacks kill 16 in Gaza as aid kitchens shut after supplies run out

Yahoo

time08-05-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Israeli attacks kill 16 in Gaza as aid kitchens shut after supplies run out

Israeli air strikes have killed at least 12 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, following a deadly 24-hour period in which more than 100 people lost their lives, according to medical officials. New strikes on Thursday killed at least three people in separate attacks in Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, quoting medical sources. In Shujayea, east of Gaza City, shelling killed another person and wounded several others. Further north, Israeli warplanes targeted a home in Beit Lahiya, killing five, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Rescuers were still searching for a woman believed to be trapped beneath the rubble. The attack site in Beit Lahiya was 'full of displaced people', said Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City. 'The owner of this residential home and the people he hosted as displaced people were killed inside this residential home. Many others were reported with severe injuries and burns, transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, which is already overwhelmed. 'One single family just lost nine family members, including women and children, and more people are missing and trapped under the rubble,' added Mahmoud. In Khan Younis, one girl was killed and four others wounded after Israeli artillery hit tents sheltering displaced families in the western part of the city. The continuing assault on Gaza comes amid growing alarm that Israel's total blockade of aid is pushing the enclave into famine. Israel's blockade on Gaza – tightened on March 2 – has pushed the population deeper into crisis, cutting off aid and crippling humanitarian relief. On Wednesday, World Central Kitchen (WCK), one of the key food providers in Gaza, announced it had halted all cooking operations. 'We have no more food to prepare,' the aid group said, after exhausting flour and other basic supplies needed to run its soup kitchens and mobile bakeries. WCK had been providing at least 130,000 meals and 80,000 loaves of bread daily. 'The trucks are ready in Egypt, Jordan and Israel,' said WCK founder Jose Andres. 'But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow.' The World Food Programme previously warned its food stocks in Gaza had run dry, ending a vital lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The continuing blockade, aid agencies say, has accelerated the onset of famine. Malnutrition is now widespread, with humanitarian workers warning they can no longer treat or prevent hunger-related illnesses. Rights groups have condemned the blockade as a 'starvation tactic' and argue it may constitute a war crime. Sean Carroll, president of American Near East Refugee Aid, told Al Jazeera that Gaza's humanitarian crisis has reached a critical point, with aid deliveries plummeting. 'We were delivering nearly a million meals a week, and we've only delivered a few thousand in the past 66 days,' he said, noting that stocks are depleted. 'I think governments have to use every diplomatic lever, every political lever, every economic lever to convince all parties that there needs to be a return to some semblance of delivering humanitarian aid. We are losing our humanity here,' added Carroll. Scenes at the few remaining open aid centres are increasingly chaotic. Children, women and men jostle for shrinking rations as food distribution systems break down. Bakeries have shut and fuel shortages have left water distribution networks tensions have flared beyond Gaza, with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warning Iran that it could face the same fate as Hamas and Hezbollah. His remarks followed a Houthi drone attack near Israel's Ben Gurion airport. 'You are directly responsible,' Katz said on Thursday. 'What we have done to Hezbollah in Beirut, to Hamas in Gaza, we will do to you in Tehran, too.' Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a ballistic missile that struck near Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday, saying the attack was in support of Palestinians in Gaza. The strike disrupted flights and prompted Israel to launch air strikes on Sanaa's international airport and power stations in Houthi-controlled areas, killing at least one and injuring dozens, according to Houthi reports. Iran denied backing the Houthi assault. Despite a United States-Houthi ceasefire mediated by Oman on Tuesday, ensuring 'freedom of navigation' in the Red Sea, Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said, 'We will carry out more military operations against the Israeli enemy,' targeting Israel and its ships.

Israeli attacks kill over 60 Palestinians as Gaza blockade accelerates starvation
Israeli attacks kill over 60 Palestinians as Gaza blockade accelerates starvation

Qatar Tribune

time07-05-2025

  • Politics
  • Qatar Tribune

Israeli attacks kill over 60 Palestinians as Gaza blockade accelerates starvation

Israel's attacks on Gaza have killed at least 61 people since dawn, targeting civilians in crowded places, as its more than two-month blockade of the besieged and bombarded enclave has caused acute food shortages, accelerating the starvation of the Palestinian population. A reconnaissance drone strike targeted an area near the Thai and Palmyra restaurants in al-Wehda Street, in Gaza City. Two missiles were fired at two locations at the same time, 100 metres apart, one inside a restaurant and another at the intersection, killing at least 17 people. Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli air strike targeted one of the few places where Palestinians are able to get a meal. 'The tables and chairs are all thrown around and blood stains the ground as a result of severe bleeding [due to the attack],' Mahmoud said among a crowd of residents and street vendors examining the destruction after the attack. At the site of another attack, Mahmoud explained that people were on the ground, 'soaked in blood and shredded into pieces'. More relentless Israeli strikes were scattered across Gaza, with 13 people killed and several more injured, in a strike targeting al-Karama School in the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City. Also in the north, another three people were killed and several were wounded in a strike on a house in Jabalia. Another eight people, including a father, his children and cousins, were killed in Khan Younis city in the south, including five in a strike on one home. Another three people, including a child, died after a tent shelter was attacked in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. A husband and wife were also killed when a house was hit in Bani Suheila village in the east of the Strip. The dead included four people who were recovered from under the rubble after an Israeli attack earlier this week on a school sheltering displaced people in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said on Tuesday night that more than 30 people had been killed and dozens wounded there. The intensified attacks have been compounded by an Israeli blockade on essential supplies since March 2, leaving the enclave deprived of fuel items and food, including a worsening shortage of flour. (Agencies)

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