Israeli strikes on Gaza leave 19 dead

Hospitals to cut or stop services 'within 48 hours' over fuel shortages

FE Team | Published: November 23, 2024 21:26:59

GAZA CITY, Nov 23 (AFP): Gaza's civil defence agency said that 19 people, including at least six children, were killed by Israeli air strikes and tank fire on Saturday.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that "19 people were killed and more than 40 others wounded in three massacres caused by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip between midnight and this morning", as well as by tank fire in Rafah in the territory's south.
One of the strikes hit a house in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north of the territory, killing seven people, three of them children, and wounding 10.
"What did these people do?" said Abdullah Shaldan, a member of the family whose house was destroyed. "They were sleeping in their homes-they are civilians who have nothing to do with Hamas or the resistance."
AFPTV footage showed people searching the rubble using torches and mobile phones in the darkness, while a young boy desperately cried "papa".
Another strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis killed six people, including three children, and wounded 26 displaced people who were living in tents near the house that was struck, said Bassal.
"I immediately rushed there and saw the destruction and people carrying body parts from under the rubble," Umm Muhammad Abu Sabla, the sister of one of the victims, told AFP.
"Our entire life is misery. Let them kill us all so we can be relieved from this suffering," the 62-year-old said.
The Hamas government's health ministry warned on Friday all hospitals in Gaza would have to stop or reduce services "within 48 hours" for lack of fuel, blaming Israel for blocking its entry.
"We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry," Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, said during a press conference.
"We call on international institutions to exploit the decision of the International Criminal Court to stop the genocidal war in Gaza Strip," he added.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday "for crimes against humanity and war crimes" committed between October 8, 2023, and May 20 this year.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, whom Israel says it killed in a July air strike, but whose death Hamas has not confirmed.
Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of war in the Palestinian territory following Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
In late October, the health ministry reported that all hospitals but one in northern Gaza were out of service.
The only medical facility still only partly functioning in the area affected by the Israeli assault had "no medicine or medical supplies", Kamal Adwan hospital director Hossam Abu Safia said at the time.
The ministry's latest warning comes three days after the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed grave concern for hospitals still partly operating in northern Gaza.