Israel pounds Lebanon and Gaza with 160 strikes
- Israeli air strikes hit the Dahiyeh, Haret Hreik, and Chiyah areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut in the past few hours in the fifth day of bombing of Lebanon’s capital.
- An Israeli drone kills two more paramedics in Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate as outrage pours in after at least 12 rescuers died in an air attack on a civil defence centre.
Israel seeks to undermine Palestinian ‘will of resistance’ by attacks on hospitals: Physician
The Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital a year ago has had a major impact on Gaza’s healthcare capacity, says physician Mads Gilbert, who has worked in Gaza over the last 20 years, including at al-Shifa Hospital.
Dr Gilbert, who was denied access to Gaza by the Isreali army after October 7 last year, has told Al Jazeera from Tromso, Norway, that “by attacking healthcare [facilities] and ambulances, killing healthcare workers and diminishing capacity, and producing hundreds of thousands of people in need through the bombing and all the diseases [present] imposed by the siege, they are actually undermining the will of resistance in the people”.
Still, Palestinians have reopened the emergency department, three operating rooms and have about 40 doctors and 70 nurses working at al-Shifa, he said, adding that “this willingness to restore function is an amazing, impressive capacity from our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza”.
Gilbert said the only medical solution is for an immediate, lasting ceasefire to be implemented, an immediate opening of Gaza and an end to the siege.
“[It is] costing thousands of lives that we do not report because they are dying from infections, from maltreated or untreated diabetes, from cancer, who cannot be treated because the healthcare system is broken down systematically by Israeli occupation forces.”
Israel’s destruction of al-Shifa: One year since siege of Gaza’s largest hospital
It has been a year since Israeli forces laid siege to Gaza’s largest hospital and destroyed it.
Denounced as “barbaric” by doctors, multiple investigations have debunked Israeli claims that it was a Hamas command centre.
Israel has not been able to provide evidence to back those claims either.
But the iconic al-Shifa Hospital is far from forgotten, as medical workers all over the world continue to rally for those who destroyed it to face justice.
Two more paramedics killed in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon: Ministry
We reported earlier that an Israeli drone hit a civil defence team on Arnoun-Kfar Tibnit road in the Nabatieh governorate in Lebanon while they conducted fieldwork.
The country’s Health Ministry now says the attack killed at least one paramedic, injured four others and two more paramedics are still missing.
At least one more paramedic was killed in a separate Israeli attack at dawn in the town of Burj Rahhal in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district, the ministry said.
The victim was “directly targeted by the Israeli enemy during his rescue work to pull out a wounded person”, it said.
“The Ministry of Public Health reiterates its condemnation of these barbaric attacks on paramedics during their humanitarian rescue work, which shows an unprecedented level of violence that leaves no room for humanitarian values that were previously absent during wars and conflicts,” the ministry’s statement said on X.
Global response needed to stop Israeli settler violence in West Bank: Palestinian official
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has said the escalation of settler violence in the occupied West Bank requires an international response, according to the Wafa news agency.
Abu Rudeineh was explicitly referring to the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, where settlers attacked Palestinian homes and set on fire several agricultural farms.
He added the continuation of the “genocide” in Gaza also required an international position to stop the violence.
Abu Rudeineh held the US responsible for Israel’s persistence in defying international law due to their continuous support through money, weapons and political cover.
“Our people will remain steadfast in the face of the occupation and its crimes, and will confront these crimes, clinging to their land, holy sites and rights, stressing that Israeli terrorism by the occupation army and colonists, and American support will not achieve security and stability in the entire region,” he said.
Israeli artillery shelling kills one in Gaza City
Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian in an artillery attack targeting a group of residents near the Islamic Complex Mosque in the Sabra neighbourhood of southern Gaza City, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.
A correspondent also reported a Palestinian was injured in an Israeli drone strike that targeted areas northwest of Rafah city in southern Gaza.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at least 43,764 Palestinians and wounded 103,490 since October 7, 2023.
