By Abdul Adil
(AA, Wafa, Al Jazeera, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least 32 more Palestinians were killed in relentless Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 44,612, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Friday.
A ministry statement added that some 105,834 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 32 people and injured 95 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Gaza’s civil defence says at least 29 people were killed in “a series of air strikes on the northern and western sides” of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground says patients and staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital were “soaked in blood” after multiple Israeli drone strikes.
More disturbing reports are coming out from the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Among the many challenges is the heavy presence of the Israeli military, the armoured vehicles, tanks and quadcopters are a very visible presence monitoring the area and shooting at any moving object, whether within the area or inside the facility.
The entire facility has been completely evacuated by the Israeli military. In the early hours of today, the military ordered the director of the hospital to evacuate everyone from the hospital and go through a checkpoint leaving the area.
“We just came from Kamal Adwan Hospital,” Faradina Sulistiyani, a general surgeon from the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee Indonesia, said. “There were two warnings for us to evacuate the hospital and they are heavily bombing the hospital now. There are a lot of medical staff and patients out there.”
At that particular checkpoint, 70 people were detained and taken to unknown area for interrogation.
The Israeli military has now come forward with a denial, saying it did not target or enter the northern Gaza hospital.
In a statement, the army said it would “continue to operate against terror infrastructure and terrorists” in northern Gaza, including “adjacent to” the hospital.
At least five Palestinians, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Friday evening, according to local sources.
WAFA correspondent reported that Israeli warplanes targeted a house that had been evacuated prior to the attack. The bombing resulted in the killing of five people, with several others wounded in neighboring homes.
Three of the victims were later identified and transported to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Six Palestinians were killed and several others were injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and Rafah on Friday evening, according to local sources.
In Gaza City, four people were killed and others injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a gathering of civilians on Kashkou Street in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.
Meanwhile, two more individuals were killed in a separate airstrike west of Rafah, located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
WAFA correspondent reported that two civilians were killed and a third was seriously injured in the Israeli’s bombardment of eastern areas in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the middle of the Strip.
Israeli warplanes struck homes and buildings while military vehicles simultaneously opened fire in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City.
A Palestinian man was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Khirbat al-Adas area, northeastern Rafah city, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, hospitals in northern Gaza are facing relentless attacks and crippling shortages of medical supplies, fuel, and blood units, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
“The ground offensive on northern Gaza continues to hinder access to health services,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told a press briefing in Geneva. “Access to Kamal Adwan, Al Awda, and Indonesian hospitals remains severely restricted, with reported critical shortages of medical supplies, fuel, and blood units.”
“WHO missions are severely hampered,” Peeperkorn said.
Regarding Thursday’s attack by quadcopters on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, he said a 16-year-old patient was killed while being transported in a wheelchair to the X-ray department.
He added that 12 others were injured, including two health personnel, one of whom sustained serious injuries. The hospital’s oxygen, compressed air, and water networks were damaged, according to the representative.
In the last week alone, attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital have left three health workers injured and claimed the life of the ICU head nurse, Peeperkorn said, adding that the hospital’s generators were also damaged, compounding the crisis.
WEST BANK
A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli gunfire during a raid on Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, early this morning, according to Palestinian security sources.
The sources confirmed that 23-year-old Mustafa Ahmad Masha was shot in the head during confrontations that broke out as Israeli military vehicles stormed the camp.
Initially, Masha was critically injured, but he later succumbed to his wounds after being taken to a local hospital.
According to sources, the Israeli occupation forces prevented ambulances’ access to the injured youth for several hours, before permitting his transfer to the hospital.
The slain Palestinian, Masha, was a freed prisoner released from Israeli custody on August 21 after serving two years in prison. He is the fourth member of the Masha family to be killed this year in the Balata refugee camp by the Israeli forces.
In addition, Israeli forces have detained three Palestinian journalists near the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Local sources and witnesses told Wafa news agency that Israeli forces detained Motassim Saqf al-Hayt, Mo’men Samreen and Hatem Hamdan after assaulting them at the town’s entrance.
Four other journalists were briefly held. They were also subjected to abuse before being released, the report said.
LEBANON
In Lebanon, at least 4,047 people have been killed and 16,638 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.
The Lebanese army on Friday said a five-member committee, tasked to monitor the implementation of the Lebanon-Israel cease-fire, will hold its first meeting next week.
The five-member committee includes representatives from the US, France, Lebanon, Israel and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
In a statement, the Lebanese army said US’ Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, French Brig. Gen. Guillaume Ponchin, and Lebanon’s Brig. Gen. Edgar Lawondes conducted an aerial inspection of the south Litani River area.
According to Anadolu, based on reports from Lebanon’s official news agency as of Thursday, the Israeli army has violated the cease-fire agreement with Lebanon nearly 150 times since it took effect on Nov. 27.
The cease-fire deal came into force on Nov. 27 in hopes of ending the 14 months of fighting between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. It is, however, described as fragile, as countless violations were documented by Lebanon.
The Israeli army committed seven more violations of the fragile Israel-Lebanon cease-fire that took effect on Nov. 27, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).
The violations occurred in the Bent Jbeil district in southern Lebanon and the Akkar district in northern Lebanon. They included artillery shelling, warplane overflights, an airstrike, gunfire, and incursions.
Lebanon’s state broadcaster reported that Israeli warplanes struck the Arida border crossing in Akkar on Friday, damaging infrastructure and severing the road linking Lebanon and Syria.
The Israeli army claimed on Friday that it had intercepted a drone launched toward the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border.
In a statement, the Israeli army reported that “following the alerts, the Israeli Air Force intercepted a suspicious aerial target.”
The army stated that an investigation was underway but did not specify the source of the drone. Hezbollah has not confirmed or denied the involvement.
This marks the second time that sirens were heard in northern Israel since the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon began.
[Photo: A girl looks at the funeral ceremony of the bodies recovered from the rubble of houses destroyed in Lebanon’s border villages and by the Israeli indiscriminate airstrikes, in Majdal Selem, Lebanon on December 06, 2024. The bodies were of 30 Hezbollah members who were killed in the airstrikes before the ceasefire agreement with Israel. Photojournalist: Houssam Shbaro/AA]
