The Ministry of Health in Gaza has warned of the dire consequences of an unprecedented crisis in medicines and medical supplies, threatening the lives of patients as hospitals and health centres struggle to cope.
The Ministry said that 60% of essential medicines and 83% of medical supplies have run out of its warehouses, leaving it unable to provide crucial services, including emergency care, surgeries, intensive care, kidney dialysis, primary healthcare, and mental health services.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi discussed mediation efforts to ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and exchange detainees with US President Joe Biden in a phone call on Friday evening. The two presidents reviewed the latest developments in the negotiation round currently hosted by Cairo, and both stressed the importance of the concerned parties’ commitment to overcoming obstacles and showing flexibility to complete the agreement.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has issued new evacuation orders for residents of several areas in Gaza, continuing a policy implemented since the beginning of its offensive.
The Israeli army has ordered Palestinians in the areas of Al-Masdar, Al-Maghazi, and East Deir al-Balah to evacuate immediately. Palestinians near Salah Al-Din Street (central Gaza Strip) have also been ordered to evacuate.
The Deir al-Balah Municipality in central Gaza announced that about 100,000 Palestinians had been displaced from the eastern part of the city over the past two days due to Israeli bombing and evacuation orders. “100,000 Palestinians were displaced from the east of the city during the past two days, and 20 shelters were put out of service due to the Israeli bombing and evacuation orders,” the municipality said.
The Ministry of Health reported that Israeli forces carried out five massacres against civilians in Gaza during the past 48 hours, resulting in 69 deaths and 212 injuries. The ministry’s daily report stated that the death toll from the Israeli aggression has risen to 40,334 deaths and 93,356 injuries since October 7.
Leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) have said that a delegation from the movement is expected to arrive in Cairo on Saturday to hear from mediators about the latest developments in the negotiations regarding a ceasefire in Gaza. The movement added: “We affirm our commitment to what we agreed to on July 2, which is the agreement based on the Biden Declaration and the Security Council resolution.”
Reuters cited an informed source as saying that there is a disagreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli negotiators after his insistence on keeping the Israeli army in the Philadelphi Corridor in the Gaza Strip. The sources added that Netanyahu agreed to move one site from the Philadelphi Corridor hundreds of metres while maintaining full control.
On the ground, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that it had detonated a minefield in a number of Israeli vehicles and engineering equipment in the military sites area east of the city of Deir Al-Balah, noting that a helicopter had been spotted landing for evacuation.
The Qassam Brigades also indicated that it had targeted an Israeli occupation tank of the “Merkava” type with a “Yassin 105” shell east of the city of Deir al-Balah.
