At least five patients at the largest functioning hospital in southern Gaza died after a power outage during an Israeli raid on the facility left them deprived of oxygen, Gaza health officials said Friday.
Troops stormed Nasser Hospital on Thursday after a days-long siege of the facility in which patients, doctors and humanitarian aid groups described an increasingly dire situation, with dwindling supplies of food and water and reports of snipers shooting civilians trying to enter the area to leave.
According to the Israeli military, Hamas has used the hospital for military purposes, including to hide some of the 250 hostages captured on October 7. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel's top military spokesman, said the military had intelligence indicating that there could be bodies of hostages at the Nasser hospital complex.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it had discovered mortar shells, grenades and weapons at the facility and arrested more than 20 militants who took part in the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and sparked the war became Gaza. The Israeli military has not said whether it has found prisoners at the hospital.
The U.N. human rights office said the raid on Nasser Hospital appeared to be “part of a series of attacks by Israeli forces on life-saving civilian infrastructure in Gaza, particularly hospitals.” The agency said it had documented similar raids in central and northern Gaza since the war began.
“With a health system near collapse due to attacks on facilities and restrictions on essential humanitarian supplies, the impact on civilians is horrific,” said a statement from UN human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.
Developments:
∎ Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Friday that Israel is “thoroughly planning future operations in Rafah” and reiterated the military's claim that the border town is a Hamas stronghold, Al Jazeera reported. Gallant did not provide a timetable for the military operations.
∎ The White House announced a directive signed by President Joe Biden that will effectively allow Palestinian immigrants who would otherwise have to leave the United States to stay for at least 18 months without the threat of deportation.
∎ The Palestinian Red Crescent, an independent aid group, said the Israeli military attacked the second floor of Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, severely damaging two nursing rooms. Less than a week before the raid on Nasser Hospital, Israel stormed Al-Amal Hospital.
At least two people were killed and four injured in a shooting at a bus stop in southern Israel, Israeli media reported.
The incident occurred on Friday at a bus station in southern Israel, where an attacker got out of a car and opened fire, according to Haaretz. The suspect was fatally shot by an armed civilian who drove by during the shooting, the outlet reported, citing Israeli police.
According to Portal, the shooter was described by Israeli media as a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X said the attack “Remind us that the whole country is a front and that the murderers, who do not only come from Gaza, want to kill us all.”
“We will continue to fight with all our might until complete victory, on every front and everywhere, until we restore security and peace for all citizens of Israel,” he added.
Jack Lew, The US ambassador to Israel said he was “appalled by today's terrorist attack” and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
UN court rejects South Africa's request on Rafah
The U.N. top court on Friday rejected a request from South Africa for urgent measures to protect Rafah, but stressed that Israel must comply with measures imposed last month in the early stages of a landmark genocide case.
The International Court of Justice said in a statement that the “dangerous situation” in Gaza “requires the immediate and effective implementation of the interim measures” it ordered on January 26.
There was no need for a new order as the existing measures applied to all of Gaza, including the southernmost city of Rafah.
“The court emphasizes that the State of Israel remains obliged to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and the said order, including ensuring the security of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the court said.
Spokesperson for the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs Clayson Monyela said in a post on X: earlier Twitter that the court “confirmed our view that the dangerous situation requires immediate and effective implementation of the interim measures indicated by the court in its order of January 26, 2024, which apply throughout the #GazaStrip, and made it clear that this also includes #Rafah.” ”
Biden said Friday he “hopes” Israel does not launch a “massive land invasion” on Rafah, the densely populated border town in southern Gaza, before a temporary ceasefire and hostage-taking agreement is reached.
Biden said he was optimistic about the negotiations and did not expect a major Israeli military operation in Rafah.
“My hope and expectation is that we will get this hostage deal, we will bring the Americans home… the deal is being negotiated now and we will see where it takes us,” Biden said after giving a speech following the death of Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Peace talks appeared to stall this week after Israel withdrew from ongoing talks in Cairo, calling Hamas' demands “insane” and saying it had not been presented with a current proposal.
In recent days, Israeli officials have expressed their intention to launch a major military operation in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, where over a million displaced people have sought refuge. Israel claims Rafah is Hamas' last stronghold and has promised to disband its battalions there.
Humanitarian aid groups, meanwhile, say an invasion of the crowded border town would have devastating consequences, and the Biden administration has said it would not support any operation unless there were practical plans to protect civilians. Martin Griffiths, head of the U.N. emergency response, has warned of a “massacre” and others said even if civilians were evacuated there would be nowhere for them to go because much of the enclave had been destroyed.
Military crews are responding to a missile attack that targeted a ship in the Red Sea on Friday, the British military's Maritime Trade Organization Center said.
An explosion was reported “in close proximity” to a ship off the coast of Yemen on Friday morning. “The crew and vessel are reported safe,” the Trade Organization Center said.
For months, the Houthi rebel group has been carrying out drone and missile attacks on naval vessels and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, prompting military action from the United States, disrupting a key shipping route and driving up the price of goods.
In response, the United States and Britain have carried out dozens of attacks on Houthi military installations in areas of Yemen controlled by the group. The Houthis said their attacks were an expression of their solidarity with Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Egypt is clearing land and building a wall near its border with the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned and lengthy Israeli military operation in Rafah, according to satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press.
The construction signals Egypt's preparation for a scenario in which some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians crowding the territory's southern border could flee to Egypt. The Middle East neighbor has warned Israel that if this happens it would suspend the peace treaty signed in the late 1970s.
Gallant told reporters Friday that there are no plans to push Palestinians into Egypt.
“The State of Israel has no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt,” Gallant said. “We respect and value our peace agreement with Egypt, which represents a cornerstone of stability in the region and an important partner.”
Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Thursday show ongoing construction work on the wall, which lies 2 miles west of the Gaza border. Construction crews nearby also appear to be leveling and clearing the area for an unknown purpose.
The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous Egyptian officials, described that “an 8-square-mile walled enclosure” was being built in the area that could accommodate over 100,000 people.
After a phone call with Biden, Netanyahu said on social media that he rejected international pressure to create a Palestinian state.
“Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said this on Thursday. “Such recognition after the October 7 massacre would be an enormous reward for unprecedented terrorism and would prevent any future peace settlement.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly spoken out against the creation of a Palestinian state. On the phone, Biden and Netanyahu discussed “ongoing hostage negotiations,” the urgent need for humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians and the Biden administration's view that a military operation in Rafah “cannot be carried out without a credible and actionable plan to ensure the security of and.” “There should be support for the civilian population,” said a White House summary.
Meanwhile, concerns are growing over a planned Israeli offensive in Rafah, a town on Gaza's border with Egypt that Israel claims is Hamas's last stronghold.
Since Israel began its bombing campaign and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians have fled south, heeding evacuation orders and leaflets from the Israeli military. Rafah's prewar population, which numbered about 280,000 people, grew to 1.4 million within months as people crowded into crowded shelters and sprawling tent camps to escape escalating fighting.
Faced with the threat of a large-scale military operation, many civilians who had already been repeatedly displaced began to flee to other parts of the war-ravaged area.
Contributors: Associated Press; Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY