Newslooks- (AP)
Israel has agreed to allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip while the Israeli military keeps up its airstrikes on the Palestinian territory. More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled homes in the north and Gaza City after Israel told them to evacuate. The airstrikes early Thursday continued across the entire territory, including in areas in the south that Israel had declared as “safe zones.” The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt following a request from U.S. President Joe Biden. The war that began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, and Israel vowed to destroy the militant group, has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 12,500 others have been wounded. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed. An Israeli military spokesperson said Thursday that the families of 206 people believed to have been captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza had been notified.
Currently:
- Egypt and other Arab countries typically don’t want to take in Palestinian refugees.
- Relatives of people taken hostage by Hamas militants tell their stories as they hope for their safe return.
Here’s what’s happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press has the story::
Israel OKs limited aid for Gaza as regional tensions rise after hospital blast
GAZA HOSPITAL SHUTS OFF LIGHTS TO CONSERVE FUEL
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s second-largest hospital has switched off the lights in the majority of the facility as staff try to conserve energy amid fuel shortages.
Lights are still on in Nasser Hospital’s intensive care unit, but in many other departments, doctors are using cellphones and flashlights to illuminate procedures.
Meanwhile, funerals were held for the victims of an earlier strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. A mother wept, clutching the small body of her child cocooned in white cloth.
HAMAS COMMANDER KILLED IN AN ISRAELI STRIKE
GAZA STRIP, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s government press office says the commander of the Hamas-led National Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Jihad Muheisen, was killed in an Israeli strike on his home in Gaza City along with some of his relatives.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many of his relatives were killed in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City. The National Security Forces is a paramilitary organization in Gaza taken over by Hamas after its 2007 seizure of the strip.
Separately, Hamas officials told The Associated Press that Hamas legislative council member Jamila al-Shanti was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday. She was known as the first woman to be elected to political office within the Hamas group and the widow of one of the founders of the Islamist movement.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE HITS DENSLEY POPULATED AREA IN SOUTHERN GAZA
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit a densely populated area in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, again on Thursday.
Many wounded were being rushed to the Nasser Hospital from the strike in the al-Amal neighborhood.
Earlier, a doctor at a hospital said that at least a dozen people were killed and 40 others were wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in Khan Younis.
PALESTINIAN DEATH TOLL IN GAZA INCREASES TO 3,785
The death toll in Gaza since Israel declared war has risen to 3,785 Palestinians killed, including 1,524 children, 1,000 women and 120 older people, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
In addition, 12,493 others have been wounded, including 3,983 children and 3,300 women.
ISRAEL CONDUCTS A RAID IN THE WEST BANK
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has conducted an extensive raid in the West Bank, arresting more than 80 Palestinians.
The latest in a series of stepped-up Israeli operations in the territory since the outbreak of war, the raid on Wednesday night provoked violent clashes and left three Palestinians dead, including two children.
The military said that 63 of the 80 suspects arrested overnight were linked to Hamas. Of the 524 Palestinians arrested since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, 330 are Hamas affiliates.
Forces also demolished the home of a militant who killed an Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, earlier this year. The militant, who the military identified as Ahmed Yasin Jidan, was shot shortly after killing Amir.
Clashes ensued across the territory in response to the raid, with Israeli forces firing on Palestinians who threw rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Since the latest war began, 69 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. U.N. monitors are describing the period as the deadliest phase since they started recording data.
SUNAK SAYS UK STANDING BY ISRAEL IN ITS ‘DARKEST HOUR’
JERUSALEM — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says Britain is standing by Israel in its “darkest hour” as it wages war on Hamas following the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7 attack.
Sunak spoke alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Joe Biden made a similar trip to Israel to express solidarity.
“I am proud to stand here with you in Israel’s darkest hour as your friend,” Sunak said.
The U.K. prime minister acknowledged the “shocking scenes” over the past day, including the aftermath of an explosion at a Gaza hospital, saying “we mourn the loss of every innocent life.”
Sunak plans to travel to Saudi Arabia later Thursday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as Britain tries to dampen down regional tensions, get aid into Gaza and secure the release of U.K. hostages held by Hamas.
EU SAYS PROMISE OF AID TO GAZA A START BUT MORE NEEDED
BRUSSELS — On the promise that some aid will be allowed to get into Gaza, the European Union said it was a start. But the bloc said that more needed to be done to be in line with international commitments.
“We also welcome the announcement made by Israel that it will not thwart the deliveries of food, water or medicine coming from Egypt,” European Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said.
“And let me just add that we also understand that this will be a limited — the quantity of humanitarian aid will be limited in quantity as well as in nature. It needs to be reminded that international humanitarian law obliges all parties to ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access to people in need. Restrictions on the quantity, destination and categories of items are not in line with this obligation.”
He also said that a second plane with emergency aid was to land in Egypt later. Together it amounts to about 50 tons of essential humanitarian supplies, medicine, food, water and shelter.
DRONE ATTACK HITS OIL FACILITY HOUSING US TROOPS IN SYRIA
BEIRUT — Syrian opposition activists say a drone attack has been conducted on an oil facility in eastern Syria housing American troops and a U.S. base in a nearby area.
There was no immediate word on casualties and the U.S. military didn’t immediately respond to requests for confirmation.
Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet, said that three drones with explosives struck the Conoco gas field in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq on Thursday.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, confirmed that five explosions were heard at the Conoco gas field.
THREE DRONES ALSO HIT A US BASE IN SYRIA
BEIRUT — The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that three drones also attacked the U.S. base of Tanf in eastern Syria near where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq meet. It said two drones were shot down before reaching their targets while the third hit the base, causing some material damage.
The Observatory, an opposition war monitor, and Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet, said the attack appears to be the work of Iran-based fighters who are deployed in eastern Syria and western Iraq.
Since the fighting in Gaza began on Oct. 7, Iran-backed fighters have been on alert in the region as the U.S. sends aircraft carriers and warships to the region.
Coalition forces were slightly wounded in Iraq in a spate of drone attacks since Tuesday at U.S. bases in Iraq.
UNKNOWN HOW MUCH FUEL REMAINS AT GAZA HOSPITALS
A Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson said it wasn’t known how much fuel hospitals had left in their stocks on Thursday.
“The MoH (Ministry of Health) asked all gasoline stations in the Gaza Strip to give whatever they have to sustain the operation of the standby generators of the hospitals,” Medhat Abbas told The Associated Press. “They have collected a very small amount of fuel which of course, because the generators of the hospitals are very large, they are consuming thousands of liters, so we don’t know how long they can continue.”
With medical supplies also running short, doctors are resorting to desperate measures to care for the hundreds of wounded Palestinian patients.
“Surgery is being performed in the corridors of hospitals without anaesthesia, yes without anaesthesia, to save the lives of those who may have hope to live,” he said. “Others are left to die, to succumb to their destiny.
THE SITUATION AT GAZA’S LARGEST HOSPITAL
At Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, director Mohammed Abu Selmia gave the AP an update on fuel stocks.
He said some fuel had been obtained “through UNRWA (U.N. Relief and Works Agency) with assistance from the World Health Organization, he added, saying it was pumped into generators.
“Enough to keep us going for another few hours.”
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a surgeon working at Shifa Hospital, tweeted a photo of a bottle of vinegar.
“Vinegar from the corner shop to treat pseudodomonas bacterial wound infections,” he said. “It’s come to that.”
UN COMMENTS ON MOVEMENT OF FUEL IN GAZA
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the agency was able to move some fuel in the past few days from existing and very little fuel resources it had in GAZA.
“The fuel was inside Gaza and is being sent to health providers,” she said.
UNRWA has not been able to bring in any supplies including much needed fuel since Oct. 7, when the siege was imposed.
“It is very critical for the survival of the people in the Gaza Strip that fuel is sent to Gaza IMMEDIATELY,” Touma wrote, adding, “this is the only way to get water pumped again through the network and for hospitals and electricity.”
“The siege on Gaza has to be lifted,” she said. “UNRWA is calling for regular and sustained humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.”
Ofir Feuerstein, spokesperson of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said, “The U.N.’s stance is that the crossing needs to be opened immediately.”
PALESTINIANS SAY ISRAEL IS TARGETING BAKERIES IN GAZA
Israel has bombed and targeted areas with bakeries in Gaza over the course of the war while dozens of Palestinians were lining up to buy bread, causing high numbers of dead and wounded, Salam Marouf, the head of the government media office, said in a statement.
By repeatedly targeting bakeries, he said that Israel sought to worsen the humanitarian situation, inflict a greater number of casualties and “make it more difficult for citizens, to the point that obtaining some loaves of bread has become a dangerous journey.” More than five bakeries were targeted in different areas to the north and south of Gaza, either directly or in the area where they are located, Maarouf said.
Aid groups, including the World Food Program, have warned Gaza is running low on food supplies with shops only having a few days worth of supplies left.
EGYPT’S PRESIDENT MEETS WITH US GENERAL IN CAIRO
CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi met with Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of the U.S. Central Command, in Cairo to discuss efforts to “intensify cooperation” between the two countries and to “restore stability” in the region, the president’s office said.
Within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the U.S. began moving warships and aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean to provide Israel with support. Israel has conducted unrelenting airstrikes on Gaza.
Egypt has long acted as a key broker between Israel and Hamas. On Wednesday, Egypt and Israel reached a deal that would allow aid to enter the Palestinian territory.
Also Thursday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with U.K. counterpart James Cleverly in Cairo, where they talked about ways to de-escalate the conflict and address the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
XI URGES EGYPTIAN PREMIER TO OPEN A HUMANITARIAN CORRIDOR
BEIJING — At a meeting in China’s capital Beijing on Thursday, President Xi Jinping urged visiting Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians fleeing the fighting in Gaza.
Xi also reiterated China’s backing of the formation of a Palestinian state as solution to the ongoing violence.
EMERGENCY CREWS WORK TO RESCUE SURVIVORS AT GAZA BUILDING
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — A doctor at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip says at least 12 people were killed and 40 others wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in a densely populated neighborhood in the city of Khan Younis.
Dr. Mohammed Qandeel said the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received the patients on Thursday morning. The city is located within what Israel called a safe zone when it encouraged Gaza residents to evacuate the territory’s north.
Emergency crews rushed to rescue survivors around a crater at least one floor deep where people were believed to be trapped. One rescued woman staggered unsteadily from the scene, screaming that God would take revenge against Israel.
A rescue worker rushed a small, ash-covered child toward an ambulance, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.
GERMANY’S LEADER DEMANDS RELEASE OF HOSTAGES
BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has demanded in a speech watched by relatives of some of the hostages held by Hamas for the militant group to free the captives.
In a speech to the German parliament, Scholz underlined Germany’s staunch support for Israel and renewed a warning that it “would be a serious mistake” for Hezbollah, Iran or their proxies to enter the war.
Scholz traveled to Israel and Egypt this week. He said Thursday: “One important task we all have is to free the hostages, the kidnapped. They most be released without preconditions.”
German officials say a “low two-digit number” of German-Israeli dual citizens are believed to be held in Gaza.
AUSTRALIAN LAWMAKER ACCUSES ISRAEL OF ‘PUNISHING’ PALESTINIANS
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian government minister Ed Husic has accused Israel of collectively punishing Palestinians in its war on Hamas.
Husic told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday: “I feel very strongly that Palestinians are being collectively punished here for Hamas’ barbarism.” He added: “I really do feel there is an obligation on governments, particularly the Israeli government, to … follow the rules of international law and to observe in particular that innocents should be protected.”
