The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of 11,240 people, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women since it began. The government media office in the besieged Strip reported that 29,000 people were also injured, 70% of whom were children.
The Israeli bombing destroyed 41,120 housing units, as well as 94 government buildings, 253 schools, 71 mosques, and 3 churches.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society denounced the false accusations of the occupation army that gunmen fired shells from inside Al-Quds Hospital and considered it a clear incitement to continue targeting and besieging the hospital in violation of international humanitarian law.
The society said that there were no gunmen inside the hospital, that no shots were fired from inside the hospital, and that everyone in the hospital was patients, their relatives, and medical staff.
The society added that its convoy, which was heading with the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, had to turn back due to the dangerous situation in the Tal Al-Hawa area. It said: “The medical staff, patients, and their companions are still trapped inside the hospital without food, water, or electricity”.
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that there was no safe place in Gaza, as a result of the Israeli bombing. He said that UNRWA facilities were subjected to Israeli bombing and that ignoring the protection of civilian infrastructure, including UN facilities, hospitals, schools, shelters, and places of worship, was evidence of the level of terror that civilians in Gaza face every day.
Also on Monday, Palestinian media reported that fierce fighting erupted between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli occupation forces near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
The hospital, which is the largest health center in the area, has been surrounded by dead bodies for days, as the occupation prevents people from burying their loved ones. The hospital is under siege by Israeli tanks, trapping the displaced, wounded, patients, and medical staff inside.
Muhammad Abu Salamiya, the director of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, said in media statements that the number of casualties inside the complex had risen and that eight people had died since Monday morning. He said that the hospital had no water, fuel, or health services and that the wounded would die from their injuries.
The Israeli occupation claims that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) uses Al-Shifa Hospital as the headquarters of its leaders, but the movement denies these allegations.
Hamas stated on Monday saying that it “has no role in the management of Al-Shifa Hospital, and has no presence in its decision-making structure.” It said that the complex is “under the authority of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which oversees its administrative and technical affairs.”
The statement came in response to the lies spread by the occupation media, which said that the occupation had offered to supply the hospital with some fuel, but Hamas had refused.
Hamas said that “the occupation’s offer to provide the hospital with only 300 litres of fuel is an insult to the pain and suffering of the patients, newborns, and medical staff, who are trapped inside, without water, food, or electricity.”
“This amount is not enough to run the generators for more than half an hour. The occupation is trying to launch a cheap propaganda campaign to cover up its ugly face and hide its crimes against humanity, such as bombing hospitals, killing medical staff, and endangering patients’ lives by cutting off fuel, water, and medicine,” the statement read.
Hamas repeated its calls to the United Nations and the international community to intervene immediately to bring fuel into the Gaza Strip, to operate hospitals, save the sick, children, and wounded inside, and stop the blatant violations of international laws committed by the Israeli occupation.
Meanwhile, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said that the Israeli government crossed all red lines, and pointed out that the war did not start on October 7 and that the conflict had its roots. He said: “Hamas did not create the conflict, but the conflict created it”.
Al-Safadi stated that Israel had an interest in undermining the credibility of the Jordanian position “because it harms it,” and noted that “we will resort to all the cards and tools that can contribute to stopping the Israeli aggression on Gaza. Any attempt to displace the Palestinians towards Jordan is a declaration of war, and we will respond to it and deal with it firmly”.
On the other hand, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the EU called for an immediate temporary cessation of “hostilities” and the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said that her country’s position was clear that there must be a ceasefire and the delivery of aid to Gaza. She also expressed her support for the work of the International Criminal Court to investigate what was happening in Gaza and prevent impunity.
In the meantime, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that they had completely or partially destroyed 20 Israeli military vehicles in the span of 48 hours. This was announced by their official spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, in a video broadcasted by Al Jazeera on Monday.
Abu Ubaida said that the Israeli forces would face the resistance of the mujahideen in every step they took. He also said that the Israeli leaders’ hopes of eliminating their resistance were futile and that they were trying to escape a humiliating defeat.
He revealed that Qatari mediation efforts had led to an agreement to release Israeli prisoners in exchange for 200 Palestinian children and 75 women. He said: “The enemy asked for the release of 100 women and children from its prisoners in Gaza, and the mediators told us that we could include the release of 50 women and children in Gaza in a 5-day truce.”
He explained that the truce to release some of the detainees in Gaza involved a ceasefire and allowing aid to enter the Strip, but he accused the Israeli side of stalling.
The Al-Qassam Brigades also announced that they had launched a barrage of missiles at Tel Aviv in response to the ongoing Israeli massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Israeli TV Channel 13 reported that 20 rockets were fired from Gaza towards the coastal cities and Tel Aviv. Israeli TV Channel 12 said that five of these rockets were intercepted.
Moreover, the Jerusalem Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, also said that they had targeted the Israeli vehicles that had entered the land of Abu Oreiban, south of the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, with 107 missiles. They also said that they had shelled the Israeli forces that had entered the area near the textile factory and the equestrian club in the northwest of Gaza with mortars.
