The biggest medical facility nonetheless managing to operate in wartime Gaza is now a hospital in little greater than identify solely, the top of the World Well being Group stated on Sunday.
After per week of siege by the Israeli army, there are solely about 20 critically sick sufferers left at Nasser Hospital — however even that’s too many for it to deal with, stated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O. director common.
“Nasser hospital in Gaza shouldn’t be purposeful anymore,” Dr. Tedros said on social media.
Dr. Tedros stated on Sunday that some 200 sufferers remained on the hospital in Khan Younis, within the southern Gaza Strip, and that about 20 of them urgently wanted to be transferred elsewhere. “The price of delays can be paid by sufferers’ lives,” he stated.
Israel has justified its army actions on the hospital by saying that Hamas militants have been utilizing it and different medical facilities to hide army actions, and on Sunday it stated it had discovered each weapons and Hamas militants on the Nasser advanced.
Hamas has repeatedly denied utilizing hospitals as cowl.
On Thursday, after days of repeated orders for the hundreds of civilians taking shelter on the hospital to depart, Israeli forces started staging a raid.
Requested in regards to the W.H.O. assertion, a spokesman for the Israeli army, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, stated in a briefing that “it’s in our greatest curiosity that the hospital retains functioning.” He stated that work was being finished to repair a damaged generator there and {that a} short-term generator was in use.
However the Israeli army additionally stated that its troops had been persevering with to deploy at Nasser hospital and in close by areas, and that that they had uncovered extra weapons there.
Dr. Tedros stated that W.H.O. staff who reached the hospital over the weekend had not been permitted to enter it to evaluate the circumstances of the sufferers, however he stated a gas supply was made to the medical facility.
His assertion got here a day after the Israel Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that talks to achieve a cease-fire and a deal for the discharge of the hostages taken within the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault had been at an deadlock. Mr. Netanyahu stated his authorities was pushing forward with plans for a floor offensive in Rafah, within the southern Gaza Strip, regardless of mounting worldwide warnings over the humanitarian price.
With Israel below strain to droop its army assault in Gaza, begun after the Hamas-led cross-border assault in October, the Israeli cupboard met on Sunday and authorized a decision rejecting any makes an attempt by the worldwide neighborhood to impose a Palestinian state on Israel.
The motion — largely symbolic — adopted latest feedback from a few of Israel’s allies suggesting that they may think about merely recognizing a Palestinian state forward of any settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mr. Netanyahu, who introduced the decision to his cupboard, described its approval as a “declarative choice” that was wanted “in mild of remarks which were heard lately within the worldwide neighborhood.”
Whereas the Biden administration has been attempting to dealer a deal for the normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, American and Saudi officers have stated that its prospects of success hinges on Israel’s agreeing to work towards a two-state resolution — which means the institution of a Palestinian state alongside it.
Mr. Netanyahu has rebuffed latest strain from President Biden to comply with that path after the warfare in Gaza is over, and in latest weeks doubled down on his opposition.
The ultimate wording of the Israeli decision authorized on Sunday appeared to have been rigorously crafted with the purpose of accommodating each ultranationalist members of Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing authorities, who oppose the very notion of negotiations with the Palestinians, and the centrists who joined the federal government after the warfare started.
The decision didn’t explicitly rule out the potential of Palestinian statehood, focusing as an alternative on the method.
“Israel totally rejects worldwide diktats concerning a everlasting settlement with the Palestinians,” it learn, including that “a settlement, whether it is to be reached, will come about solely by means of direct negotiations between the events, with out preconditions.”
A Netanyahu rival who joined the warfare cupboard after the Hamas assault, Benny Gantz, echoed the prime minister’s remarks about an invasion of Rafah.
“The world should know, and Hamas leaders should know: If by Ramadan our hostages are usually not dwelling, the combating will proceed to the Rafah space,” he stated in a speech on Sunday. The holy month of fasting for Muslims is predicted to start on March 10.
Addressing issues in regards to the humanitarian toll, Mr. Gantz pledged that any army motion could be finished “in a coordinated method, facilitating the evacuation of civilians” with the assistance of American and Egyptian officers.
Greater than 1,000,000 Palestinians fled to Rafah and elsewhere within the south to flee the combating within the north. Many ended up at Nasser Hospital looking for shelter, however left there final week as Israeli forces issued evacuation orders.
After the raid on the hospital, Israeli forces reported detaining “tons of” of individuals, together with some it stated had taken half within the Oct. 7 assault. The Israeli army additionally stated that it found weapons within the medical advanced and proof tied to the assault. One car discovered there was from Nir Oz, an Israel kibbutz that was the scene of a bloodbath that day, the Israelis stated.
It was not doable to independently confirm both declare in regards to the scenario there.
On a go to to Israeli forces working on the hospital, the chief of Israel’s southern command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, described the raid there as a “exact, high-quality, centered operation.”
However on Sunday, the Palestinian Crimson Crescent said that Israeli shelling had struck one other hospital in Gaza, Al-Amal, inflicting extreme injury.
Ephrat Livni and Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.