The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of 9,500 people, including 3,900 children and 2,509 women, as well as injuring 24,158 others, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Saturday. The ministry also said that 150 medical personnel were among the dead and 27 ambulances were destroyed by the Israeli attacks.
The ministry added that 105 health institutions were deliberately targeted by the Israeli occupation forces, rendering 16 hospitals and 32 primary care centers out of service due to the damage and the shortage of fuel.
It also reported that the hospitals in the Gaza Strip were overwhelmed with wounded people who suffered from serious, complex and critical injuries, and that many of them died every day due to the lack of adequate medical care in the Strip.
The ministry denounced the Israeli occupation’s intention to prevent the evacuation of the wounded from the north of the Gaza Strip to its south and from there to the Rafah land crossing, and demanded the provision of a safe corridor for the critically wounded to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.
Gaza’s health authority also accused the Israeli occupation of terrorizing the health system and medical staff by bombing the vicinity of hospitals and their entrances, and urged the international community to not remain silent in the face of the Israeli massacres and the systematic and deliberate targeting of hospitals, ambulances, and medical staff.
The ministry also called on the international community to review its positions regarding the crimes committed against the Palestinian people, and to hold the Israeli occupation accountable and stop its aggressions.
It appealed to all institutions and parties to provide safe passage for the delivery of medical aid and fuel to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, especially Al-Shifa Medical Complex and the Indonesian Hospital, before a major catastrophe occurs.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces and the Palestinian resistance movements engaged in fierce ground battles in Beit Lahia and eastern Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. The resistance also launched dozens of mortar shells at the occupation forces.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced that it targeted the Sderot settlement with a barrage of missiles. Al-Qassam said that it fired an Ayyash 250 missile at the port of Eilat in retaliation for the massacres against civilians.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli army “intercepted a missile fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip towards the city of Eilat in the south of the country.” The distance between Gaza and Eilat is 250 kilometres, which is the farthest distance that Hamas missiles have reached so far, according to Haaretz.
Al-Qassam also claimed that its fighters attacked a “Zionist force” hiding in a building northwest of Gaza City, and clashed with it using machine guns and explosives, confirming that five soldiers were killed and others wounded.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation army spokesman Daniel Hajri announced in a press conference that the families of 242 people who were captured by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were notified, in addition to informing the families of 345 occupation soldiers who were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle.
The Israeli occupation army also destroyed two mosques in the Al-Zaytoun and Al-Sabra neighbourhoods, south of Gaza City, on Saturday. Anadolu Agency reported that the Israeli army demolished the Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque on Street 8 in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, and the Al-Istiqama Mosque in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood, within two hours.
Moreover, the Israeli army bombed the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital, where 21 Palestinians were injured, and killed 15 others and wounded dozens in an Israeli air strike that targeted a United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp. In addition, the Israeli army bombed the vicinity of Al-Wafa Hospital and the gate of Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital, causing many casualties.
On Saturday evening, Abu Ubaida, the official spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, said that the Palestinian people are facing a systematic genocide by an enemy who is immune from any accountability in a world ruled by the law of the jungle.
In a recorded speech on Saturday, Abu Ubaida stated that they are fighting an unequal war, but it will be a lesson for the world and a legacy for history. He added that their fighters destroyed 24 Israeli military vehicles and engaged in close combat with the enemy forces in the northwest and south of Gaza City and Beit Hanoun.
He also said that the brigades used anti-tank guided missiles and Al-Yassin shells to target the Israeli forces, and that the destruction caused by the enemy will only result in disappointment, defeat and humiliation. He added that what they revealed is only a fraction of the heroism of their fighters against the enemy forces on the ground.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Galant said on Saturday that the Israeli army faced fierce and tough battles in Gaza and expanded its ground invasion. He also said, “We have very difficult days ahead.”
Galant alleged that Hamas is suffering heavy losses from the Israeli army, which is determined to eliminate Yahya Al-Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli minister indicated that Israel has no intention of going to war with Hezbollah, “but if Nasrallah makes the same mistake as Sinwar, the consequences will be dire for Lebanon.”
He concluded his speech by expressing Israel’s desire to wipe out Hamas, saying, “There will be no Hamas in Gaza by the end of this war, and we have an agreement with the United States on that.”
In the meantime, Egypt’s Minister of Health and Population, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, visited the Bir al-Abd Hospital in North Sinai on Saturday to check on the services provided to the Palestinians who were injured by Israel’s aggression on the Gaza Strip.
During a press conference at the Rafah border crossing, Abdel Ghaffar said that Egyptian medical teams have been present in large numbers in North Sinai hospitals for more than 20 days, preparing to offer medical and emergency services to the Palestinian brothers and sisters. He said that about 150 ambulances were stationed near the Rafah crossing and other locations in North Sinai.
The minister also said that “the psychological impact that the Palestinians are going through is no less important and dangerous than their physical injuries, so psychological rehabilitation begins from the first moment they are received at the Rafah border crossing.” He noted that there was no actual need for a field hospital at the moment.
