More than 13,300 people, including more than 5,600 children and 3,550 women, have been killed by the Israeli aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip in the past 45 days. The number of injured has exceeded 31,000, 75% of whom are children and women.
On Monday, the Israeli occupation bombed the Indonesian Hospital, killing dozens of patients and refugees who were sheltering there.
Marwan Al-Sultan, the medical director of the hospital, said that the Israeli attack caused panic among the wounded and doctors, and resulted in deaths and destruction. He said that the hospital was hosting 700 injured people and more than 2,000 displaced people.
Also on Monday, the first group of premature babies who were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza crossed to Egypt to receive treatment, after many babies died due to the collapse of medical services caused by a power outage. The Palestinian Red Crescent said that more than 20 children are expected to cross.
In addition, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that more than 100 evacuees from Gaza will arrive in Turkey on Monday, including dozens who will receive medical care there.
Koca said that 61 patients, accompanied by 49 of their relatives, arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Sunday night. They will fly to Ankara on Monday, after spending the night in Al-Arish Hospital.
The government media office in Gaza held the international community and the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the worsening humanitarian situation and the shortage of food supplies in the Gaza Strip. It accused them of agreeing to implement a policy of starvation against the Palestinian people in the Strip.
“Markets and shops are suffering from a lack of basic food items such as flour, oil, rice, and various types of canned goods, coinciding with the complete halt of bakery operations, and thus the complete disappearance of hundreds of types of food items from the market,” the office said in a statement.
The office warned of the possibility of famine and the spread of diseases and epidemics in Gaza, as the number of displaced people exceeds the capacity of the shelters, and the demand for basic relief materials that are not available increases.
It called on the Arab and Islamic countries to fulfil their responsibilities; open the Rafah border crossing permanently and supply Gaza with food and basic aid before a real humanitarian catastrophe occurs.
The Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that he was horrified by the attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza. He emphasized that “health workers and civilians should not be subjected to terror, especially when they are inside a hospital.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the delivery of humanitarian aid. He also urged the consideration of a two-state solution as soon as the war ended.
At the same time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that children cannot continue to “pay the heavy price of war,” stressing that there is no ambiguity in international law in this regard.
Furthermore, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that the number of displaced people in Gaza has reached about 1.7 million people since 7 October.
On the ground, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said on Monday that it had destroyed 60 Israeli military vehicles, including 10 troop carriers, in the past three days.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, said: “A large force of our elite fighters, consisting of 25 personnel, carried out a complex attack on the Israeli forces stationed in Rantisi Hospital. Only one of our fighters was martyred, and the rest returned to their bases safely.”
The Al-Qassam Brigades also said that it had fired a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv in response to the massacres against civilians. It announced that it had targeted the Israeli Re’im military base in Gaza with rockets as well.
Sirens were heard in a wide area from Ashdod in the south to Herzliya in the north, including the Greater Tel Aviv area.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, also said that it had fired rockets at the Israeli Kerem Shalom site in the southeast of Gaza, and the Mitai base in the area near Gaza. The Brigades claimed that they had killed or wounded six soldiers during clashes in the Al-Taqaddum area, west of Beit Lahia.
Israeli Radio reported that shells had landed in open areas in Kiryat Shmona.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced the death of a soldier in fierce battles north of Gaza, bringing the death toll today to three. The army said that the soldier was a sergeant in the Givati Brigade.
On Monday morning, the Israeli army said that it had killed the leaders of three Hamas units in Gaza, and identified and eliminated an armed cell and a weapons depot where it was hiding.
The Israeli army also said that it had arrested 300 people in Gaza during the ground operation that started more than three weeks ago, alleging that they belonged to various Palestinian factions in the Strip. It said in a statement: “We have arrested more than 300 members of Palestinian factions during the ground operation, who were transferred for further investigation in Israel.”
