The director general of hospitals in Gaza warns the lives of hundreds of patients are at risk because of the catastrophic situation at al-Shifa Hospital.Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila says Israeli forces “are not evacuating people from hospitals; instead they are forcibly evicting the wounded onto the streets, leaving them to face inevitable death”.
Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital has been caught in Israel’s ground offensive and health officials say its cardiac ward has been destroyed.More than 11,100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. In Israel, after a downward revision, the death toll now stands at more than 1,200.
Kamal Abu al-Rub, Jenin’s acting governor, says Israel is attacking the city and its refugee camp on a daily basis, turning it into a third front after Gaza and Lebanon.“The successive raids on the city of Jenin, its camp, and surrounding villages, the targeting of civilians and ambulance crews, the road closures, and the attacks on mosques indicate that Israel is exacting revenge,” he told Al Jazeera.
Abu al-Rub said that residents are worried that Israel’s army will carry out a major operation “in the coming days, in light of the world’s preoccupation with the ongoing aggression in the Gaza Strip, and the world’s silence towards what’s happening there and in the West Bank”.
South African police fired stun grenades and water cannon in Cape Town to quell clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.Numerous demonstrations in support of both sides have been held for weeks in South Africa’s major cities where the ruling ANC party has been a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause for decades.
But the country also boasts the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa, some of whom have organised vigils and demonstrations in support of Israel.Speaking to CNN, the UN Secretary-General has said: “You cannot use the horrific things that Hamas did as a reason for collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”He said that 101 UN personnel have been killed so far in the bombardment of Gaza.