No let-up in Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals, homes

GAZA STRIP: Hospi­tals and residential areas in Gaza Strip reported being under constant fire on Saturday, as Israel reje­cted condemnation by key allies of a rising civilian death toll.

The director of the besieged Palestinian territory’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, said on Saturday the compound was struck repeatedly overnight and lost power for hours after its generator was hit.

“We received calls about dozens of dead and hundreds wounded in air and artillery strikes, but our ambulances weren’t able to go out because of gunfire,” said director Mohammad Abu Salmiya.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said a number of premature babies at Al Shifa compound were at risk of dying in abcence of fuel.

The suffering in Gaza has prompted growing calls for a halt in five weeks of fighting in order to protect civilian lives and allow humanitarian aid into the densely populated territory.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Israel had the right to defend itself, but urged it to stop strikes on civilians in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pus­h­ed back, saying the resp­onsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas.

“Israel does everything in its power to avoid harming civilians and urges them to leave the battle areas,” he said.

The Gaza health ministry says Israeli fighting has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and thousands of them children.

In northern Gaza, the director of Indonesian hospital said lack of fuel had forced the facility to cut power to the desalination plant, scanners and lifts.

Twenty of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “no longer functioning”, the UN’s humanitarian agency said.

‘Far too many’ deaths

Concern over the civilian toll has also come from Washington, with US Sec­r­etary of State Antony Blinken saying on Friday: “Far too many Palest­inians have been killed.”

The hostilities in Gaza have stoked regional tensions, with cross-border exchanges between the Israeli army and Leba­non’s Hezbollah movement.

Fighting has reduced some streets in Gaza to ruins, with the sounds of apparent explosions and gunfire caught on Gaza City’s camera.

The bodies of about 50 people killed in a strike on the city’s Al Buraq school were taken to Al Shifa hospital, its director said.

Israel claimed its forces launched an air strike on the school, because Hamas uses civilians as “human shields”.

While around 150,000 Palestinians have already left in a “mass evacuation” south from the northern Gaza Strip, strikes were hitting buildings at the southern end of Gaza in Rafah.

Almost 1.6 million people have been displaced since Oct 7, according to UN Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.