Israel kills dozens, blocks aid to north Gaza
- UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has issued an urgent plea for a pause in fighting in northern Gaza to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians trapped there.
- Hezbollah claims responsibility for Saturday’s drone attack targeting the Israeli prime minister’s residence, confirms Israel has captured some of its fighters.
Beit Lahiya hospital director warns that more patients may die
Dr Marwan Sultan, director of Beit Lahiya’s Indonesian Hospital, says he’s concerned that more patients will die due to Israeli actions against the hospital.
“The Israeli occupation army prevents the entry of fuel and medical supplies to the Indonesian Hospital and cuts off electricity to staff and patients,” he told Al Jazeera. “The Israeli occupation army is still besieging the hospital, and dozens of patients may die.”
He added that medical workers are unable to rescue wounded Palestinians.
“Dozens of killed and wounded in the streets, and no one can rescue them due to the siege imposed on the hospitals in the north.”
Israeli forces order people in Beit Lahiya to flee
The situation is atrocious in the north of the Gaza Strip because the Israeli military right now is completely focusing on Beit Lahiya. They have turned the Jabalia refugee camp into a completely shattered landscape.
The vast majority of residential homes and civil infrastructure there are completely in ruins as the situation is getting more critical, especially for families who fled the Jabalia refugee camp, as everyone knows, to Beit Lahiya. Beit Lahiya is just a few kilometres away from Jabalia.
These are very densely populated areas under relentless Israeli attack. And apparently, the Israeli military had been focusing on evacuation centres.
We saw different videos for the Israeli military equipped with drones that were equipped with loudspeakers, hovering over these evacuation centres, ordering families in Beit Lahiya town to flee by taking certain roads leading to military checkpoints.
And later, they will conduct a mass arrest campaign for Palestinian men who will be arrested and taken to undisclosed locations, while women will be transferred to Gaza City as the death toll there soars.
Iran’s Pezeshkian says the West ‘shamelessly defends crime against humanity’
The Iranian president says the ongoing conflict “cannot end by killing one or two people, but end by establishing justice”, referring to Israel’s recent killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
He condemned European countries and the US for “supplying Israel with weapons and shamelessly defending every crime against humanity”.
“The governments and forces that talk about human rights and international law are violators of all laws and rights,” he added.
Blinken lands in Israel for new Gaza ceasefire push
The US secretary of state has landed in Israel to hold talks with officials, amid an intensified exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
Blinken, launching his regional tour exactly two weeks before the US elections, will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with US officials hopeful of progress but downplaying chances of an immediate breakthrough during his trip.
Northern Israeli hospital says it received 16 wounded soldiers
The Ziv Medical Center in the city of Safad says the soldiers were injured in fighting in southern Lebanon, where intense clashes are reported, according to Israeli media reports.
Reports said they were treated in the emergency room except for one who required further treatment in the orthopaedics department.
‘Low expectations’ for Blinken’s trip to Israel
The expectations are really low when it comes to the prospect of diplomacy winning out in the Israel trip by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken [starting today].
This is his 11th trip to Israel since October 7.
In all of those attempts to come here, to this region, and try to get a ceasefire agreement, there has only been one weeklong ceasefire implemented.
And that was in late November.
US President Joe Biden has been very vocal since the killing of Yahya Sinwar last week that he would like the Israelis to try and step back from conflict and try to get a ceasefire agreement finalised.
However, the rhetoric from Prime Minister Netanyahu and many others in his government as well as the Israeli opposition is in a tone of defiance.
They insist Israel will continue to stay in Gaza for years to come and they will continue to wage this war until their aims are achieved.
