Israeli military says it has ‘credible intelligence’ that Hamas held hostages at Nasser hospital
The Israeli military said it had âcredible intelligenceâ that Hamas had held hostages at the hospital and that the remains of hostages might still be inside, reports AP.
IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari, said forces were conducting a âprecise and limitedâ operation there and would not forcibly evacuate medics or patients. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters.
Gazaâs Hamas-run health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said Israel had launched a âmassive incursionâ with heavy shooting that injured many of the displaced people who had sheltered there. He said the military had ordered medics to move all patients into an older building that was not properly equipped for their treatment.
âMany cannot evacuate, such as those with lower limb amputations, severe burns, or the elderly,â he said in an interview with the Al Jazeera network. In a statement to the news organisation, al-Qidra said six patients on ventilators had been transferred.
Key events
Humanitarian chiefs stressed that states and especially Israel could not âoffloadâ responsibility for the horrors unfolding in Gaza onto aid workers.
The Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric told a Geneva briefing for diplomats on events in Gaza that their countries were responsible for ensuring the Geneva Conventions are upheld.
âIt is not in your interest to offload (that) responsibility… onto humanitarian actors,â she said.
âIf the way operations are conducted today limit our operational space to a minimum… we will not be able to resolve the problem,â she added.
âIt doesnât make sense to criticise humanitarian actors for not doing more. You have to enable us to do more.â
Christopher Lockyear, head of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, agreed.
In the current situation, âwhen we are talking about humanitarian assistance, weâre talking about an illusion of aid,â he said.
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths warned the diplomats not to âlook to the humanitarian community as a rescue brigade for the people compressed into that areaâ in southern Gaza.
âConditions do not allow it,â he said.
âIt will not be our fault if people suffer,â he insisted. âIt will be the fault of those who decide to make this happen.â
Videos that Reuters verified on Thursday as having been filmed inside Nasser Hospital, though it could not verify when, reportedly showed scenes of chaos and terror.
Men walked through dark corridors using the lights from their phones, with plaster dust swirling around and debris lying in the corridors, at one point wheeling a bed through a damaged area.
At one point in a video gunshots rang out and a doctor shouted âIs there anyone still inside? There is gunfire, there is gunfire – heads downâ.
Speaking about the hospital raid, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said âthis sensitive operation was prepared with precision and is being conducted by IDF special forces who underwent specified trainingâ.
Here is a map from the Guardianâs graphics team showing where the reported Israeli ground operations are taking place in the southern Gaza Strip. It also highlights where Nasser hospital in Khan Younis is located.
Brazilian president criticises Israeli action in Gaza saying its ‘behaviour has no explanation’
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that multilateral institutions are failing to resolve international conflicts and criticised Israeli actions in Gaza, reports Reuters.
âIsraelâs behavior has no explanation: with the pretext of fighting Hamas, it is killing women and children,â he said after a meeting with Egyptâs president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Lula said there would not be peace without the establishment of a Palestinian state and called for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The UN relief and works agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) published its latest situation report on the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
All information, unless specified, is from 11â12 February 2024 and is valid as of 12 February 2024. Here are the key points:
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There are 1.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in UNRWA installations, since 7 October 2023.
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At least 396 IDPs sheltering in UNRWA premises have been killed and 1,381 have been injured since 7 October 2023.
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156 UNRWA colleagues have been killed since 7 October 2023.
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There have been 318 incidents recorded and 153 UNRWA installations damaged since 7 October 2023.
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367,422 families outside of shelters have received flour in middle areas and southern governates since 21 November 2023.
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Only six out of 23 UNRWA health care centres were operational (according to a partial update on 5 February due to security and internet connectivity issues).
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20,460 patients received healthcare in six (out of 23) UNRWA health care centres and shelters (according to a partial update on 5 February due to security and internet connectivity issues).
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As per an update on 16 January, seven water wells continue to operate pumping approximately 3,000 cubic metres of water.
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Solid waste management continues in Rafah and Khan Younis and partially in Middle Areas, where approximately 45 truck loadings were transferred to temporary sites.
Israel formally complains to the Vatican after Cardinal Pietro Parolin spoke of ‘carnage’ in Gaza
Israel has formally complained to the Vatican after its number two spoke of the âcarnageâ in Gaza by what he termed a disproportionate Israeli military operation after the 7 October Hamas attacks.
The Israeli embassy to the Holy See called the comments by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, âdeplorable.â In a statement on Wednesday, the embassy said he hadnât considered what it said were the relevant facts on which to judge the legitimacy of Israelâs actions.
Speaking on Monday at a reception, Parolin had condemned the 7 October attacks against Israel and all forms of antisemitism. But he questioned Israelâs claim to be acting in self-defence by inflicting âcarnageâ on Gaza.
âIsraelâs right to self-defence has been invoked to justify that this operation is proportional, but with 30,000 dead, itâs not,â he said.
In its statement, the Israeli embassy accused Hamas of turning the Gaza Strip into âthe biggest terrorist base ever seen.â It said Israeli armed forces were acting according to international law and said the proportion of Palestinian civilians to âterroristsâ killed was less than in other conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
But in a front-page editorial on Thursday entitled âStop the Carnage,â the Vaticanâs editorial director Andrea Tornielli doubled down on the Vatican position. Tornielli quoted a Rome-based Holocaust survivor, Edith Bruck, who has been highly critical of the Israeli governmentâs response, which she has blamed on the rise in antisemitic acts against Jews around the world.
Israeli military says it has ‘credible intelligence’ that Hamas held hostages at Nasser hospital
The Israeli military said it had âcredible intelligenceâ that Hamas had held hostages at the hospital and that the remains of hostages might still be inside, reports AP.
IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari, said forces were conducting a âprecise and limitedâ operation there and would not forcibly evacuate medics or patients. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters.
Gazaâs Hamas-run health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said Israel had launched a âmassive incursionâ with heavy shooting that injured many of the displaced people who had sheltered there. He said the military had ordered medics to move all patients into an older building that was not properly equipped for their treatment.
âMany cannot evacuate, such as those with lower limb amputations, severe burns, or the elderly,â he said in an interview with the Al Jazeera network. In a statement to the news organisation, al-Qidra said six patients on ventilators had been transferred.
US Central Command (Centcom) said on Thursday its forces carried out four strikes on Wednesday in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen where the Iran-backed militia had been preparing to target ships in the Red Sea.
Feb. 14 Summary of Red Sea activities
On Feb. 14, between the hours of 1p.m. â 7:30p.m.(Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces successfully conducted four self-defense strikes against seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM), three mobile unmanned aerial⦠pic.twitter.com/CWU8w2f21b
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 15, 2024
We “won’t agree in any way” to a two-state peace plan, says Israeli finance minister
Israelâs far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich has rejected plans for an establishment of a Palestinian state, saying Israel âwonât agree in any wayâ to it.
On his X account on Thursday, Smotrich posted a screenshot of a headline from the Israeli news website Ynet that translates as âreport: US promotes comprehensive plan for establishment of Palestinian stateâ and wrote:
We wonât agree in any way to this plan which actually says that the Palestinians deserve a reward for the terrible massacre they did to us: a Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.
The message is that it really pays off to massacre Israeli citizens
A Palestinian state is an existential threat for the state of Israel as was proven on the 7 October, Kfar Saba wonât be Kfar Aza!â
×× × ×¡××× ×ש×× ×××¤× ×ת××× ×ת ××× ×©×××¢×©× ×××רת ש××××¢ ×פ×ס××× ×× ×¤×¨×¡ ×¢× ×××× ×× ××¨× ×©×¢×©× ×× ×: ×××× × ×¤×שת×× ×ת ש×××¨×ª× ×ר×ש×××.
××סר ××× ×©×שת×× ×××× ××××× ×××ר×× ×שר××.
×××× × ×¤×ס××× ×ת ×× ×××× ×§×××× ×¢× ×××× ×ª ×שר×× ××× ×©×××× ×7 ×××ק×××ר, ×פר ס×× ×× ×ª××× ×פר ×¢××! pic.twitter.com/e9uJK4TO82— ×צ××× ×¡×××ר××¥’ (@bezalelsm) February 15, 2024
Israelâs national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir also posted on X. He wrote:
1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. Not going to happen. The establishment of a Palestinian state means the establishment of a Hamas state.â
Israeli military confirm its special forces are inside Nasser hospital
Israeli special forces are operating inside Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the military said on Thursday, saying it had credible information that the bodies of hostages taken on 7 October may be in the facility reports Reuters.
âWe conduct precise rescue operations â as we have in the past â where our intelligence indicates that the bodies of hostages may be held,â the military said in a statement.
Hezbollah says Israel ‘will pay’ after civilians killed in south Lebanon strikes
Senior Hezbollah official and member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah said on Thursday that Israel would face reprisal after two sets of strikes on southern Lebanon the previous day killed 10 civilians, half of them children.
âThe enemy [Israel] will pay the price for these crimes,â Fadlallah told Reuters when asked about the armed groupâs reaction.
