Hezbollah confirms Hassan Nasrallah dead in Beirut strike

In this file photo, taken on December 6, 2011, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks to the crowd in a rare public appearance during a rally to mark the Muslim holy day of Ashoura, in Beirut’s southern suburbs. (AP/File)
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Updated 28 September 2024
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Hezbollah confirms Hassan Nasrallah dead in Beirut strike

  • Israel army says struck more than 140 Hezbollah targets ‘since last night’
  • Hamas group says Nasrallah’s killing will only strengthen the resistance

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Lebanon’s Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed and vowed to continue the battle against Israel, hours after the Israeli military announced his death in a strike in Beirut on Friday.
The military said that it carried out a precise airstrike while Hezbollah leadership met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders, were also killed in the attack, the Israeli military said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said that 6 people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes on Friday, which leveled six apartment buildings.
Israel’s military said Saturday that “most” senior leaders of Hezbollah had been killed, after it announced the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the group, which has not provided confirmation.
“Most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told an online press briefing.
Nasrallah has lead Hezbollah for more than three decades. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
Israel maintained a heavy barrage of airstrikes against Hezbollah on Saturday, as Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets toward Israel.
The Israeli military said it was mobilizing additional reserve soldiers as tensions escalate with Lebanon.
The military said Saturday morning it was activating three battalions of reserve soldiers, after earlier sending two brigades to northern Israel earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.
Hezbollah also said that it had targeted Israeli sites on Saturday including Rosh Pina in the north with missiles in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese cities, villages and civilians.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, smoke rose and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes. Shelters set up in the city center for displaced people were overflowing. Many families slept in public squares and beaches or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.
At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded in the strikes against the Hezbollah on Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said. It was the biggest blast to hit the Lebanese capital in the past year and appeared likely to push the escalating conflict closer to full-fledged war. At least 720 people have been killed in Lebanon during the week, according to the Health Ministry.
Reuters journalists heard more than 20 airstrikes in Beirut before dawn on Saturday and more after sunrise. Smoke could be seen rising over the city’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh.
Thousands of people have fled the area since Friday’s attack, congregating in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
“They want to destroy Dahiyeh, they want to destroy all of us,” said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation order. Nearby, the newly displaced in Beirut’s Martyrs Square rolled mats onto the ground to try to sleep.
The Israeli military said a missile fired at central Israel on Saturday had struck an open area. Earlier, the military said about 10 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and that some had been intercepted.
The Israeli military also said it was striking Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley, a region of eastern Lebanon at the Syrian border that it has pounded over the last week.
Israel’s five hours of continuous strikes on Beirut early on Saturday followed Friday’s attack, by far the most powerful by Israel on the city during the conflict with Hezbollah that has played out in parallel to the Gaza war for nearly a year.
The escalation has sharply increased fears the conflict could spiral out of control, potentially drawing in Iran, Hezbollah’s principal backer, as well as the United States.
There was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah’s fate after Friday’s heavy strikes, but a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was not reachable.
“I think it’s too early to say... Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed,” the Israeli official told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.
Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive. Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was checking his status.
Israel’s attacks in Lebanon have widened to new areas this week. On Saturday, an airstrike hit the Lebanese mountain town of Bhamdoun, southeast of Beirut, Lebanese lawmaker for the area Mark Daou told Reuters.
The mayor of Bhamdoun, Walid Khayrallah, told Reuters the strike hit a large empty lot and did not cause any casualties.
Death toll rises
Hours before the latest barrage, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that his country had a right to continue the campaign.
“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely,” he said.
Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern. He later cut short his New York trip to return to Israel.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported seven buildings were destroyed.
Hours later, the Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate as it targeted missile launchers and weapons storage sites it said were under civilian housing.
Hezbollah denied any weapons or arms depots were located in buildings that were hit in the Beirut suburbs, the group’s media office said in a statement.
Alaa Al-Din Saeed, a resident of a neighborhood that Israel identified as a target, told Reuters he was fleeing with his wife and three children.
“We found out on the television. There was a huge commotion in the neighborhood,” he said. The family grabbed clothes, identification papers and some cash but were stuck in traffic with others trying to flee.
“We’re going to the mountains. We’ll see how to spend the night — and tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.”
Around 100,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced this week, increasing the number uprooted in the country to well over 200,000.
Israel’s government has said that returning some 70,000 Israeli evacuees to their homes is a war aim.
Fear the fighting will spread
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and missiles against targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. The group said it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a woman was treated for minor injuries.
Israel’s air defense systems have ensured the damage has so far been minimal.
Iran, which said Friday’s attack crossed “red lines,” accused Israel of using US-made “bunker-busting” bombs.
At the UN, where the annual General Assembly met this week, the intensification prompted expressions of concern including by France, which with the US has proposed a 21-day ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a New York press conference: “We believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict... We will continue to work intentionally with all parties to urge them to choose that course.”
Hezbollah opened the latest bout in a decades-long conflict with a missile barrage against Israel immediately following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza last year.


UK FM facing calls to recognize Palestine statehood

Updated 5 sec ago
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UK FM facing calls to recognize Palestine statehood

  • Labour’s chair of foreign affairs committee says recognition would be ‘first step’
  • Major conference promoting two-state solution will be co-hosted by Saudi Arabia in June

LONDON: The governing Labour Party chair of the foreign affairs committee is pushing for UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy to recognize Palestine as a state, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

MP Emily Thornberry said the move would be a “first step” if Lammy announced British recognition next month at a high-level conference co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France.

It follows Lammy’s halting of trade talks with Israel and the summoning of the country’s ambassador in response to Tel Aviv’s renewed Gaza offensive.

Labour’s manifesto at the last general election said the party was “committed” to recognizing Palestine within the context of a two-state solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long vowed to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Thornberry told the Telegraph: “I think Britain and France should recognize Palestine at the New York conference chaired by Saudi Arabia in June.

“The two signatories of the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, which created the borders of the Middle East as we see today, would be very powerful.

“It would be a first step in working multilaterally to update Oslo, build on the Arab Deal and create a new peace deal proposal.”

The conference in the US will be held from June 17-20, and aims to galvanize support for the two-state solution.

French diplomats have said the event will likely lead to more countries recognizing Palestine as a state.

David Cameron, who served as foreign secretary in the previous Conservative government, said last year that Britain was weighing whether to recognize Palestine.

In the UN, 139 of 193 member states recognize Palestine, while Israel is recognized by 165. In 2021, the UK abstained in a UN General Assembly vote that granted Palestine “non-member observer” status.

Labour MP Rachael Maskell said: “With the imminent catastrophic loss of life through starvation and military operations, the government must hesitate no longer in fully recognizing the state of Palestine.

“The reprehensible actions of the Israeli government must be held to account, so full sanctions and ceasing all arms sales must also take place immediately.”

Lammy, speaking in the House of Commons this week, condemned Israel’s expansion of the Gaza war as an “affront to the values of British people.” He added: “History will judge them.”

Lammy outlined a series of sanctions against Israeli settlers who are targeting Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.

“Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,” he said.

Some MPs say the government should take further action over the Gaza war, such as a complete arms embargo on Israel and sanctions on senior members of its government, including Netanyahu.


In Syria, a Shiite shrine and community navigate a changed landscape

Updated 21 May 2025
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In Syria, a Shiite shrine and community navigate a changed landscape

  • It’s more than just religious devotion that the golden-domed shrine became known for during Syria’s prolonged civil war
  • With such a legacy, local Shiite community leaders and members are now navigating a dramatically altered political landscape around Sayyida Zeinab and beyond

SAYYIDA ZEINAB, Syria: At the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, rituals of faith unfold: worshippers kneel in prayer, visitors raise their palms skyward or fervently murmur invocations as they press their faces against an ornate structure enclosing where they believe the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad is entombed.

But it’s more than just religious devotion that the golden-domed shrine became known for during Syria’s prolonged civil war.

At the time, the shrine’s protection from Sunni extremists became a rallying cry for some Shiite fighters and Iran-backed groups from beyond Syria’s borders who backed the former government of Bashar Assad. The shrine and the surrounding area, which bears the same name, has emerged as one symbol of how the religious and political increasingly intertwined during the conflict.

An altered landscape after Assad’s ouster

With such a legacy, local Shiite community leaders and members are now navigating a dramatically altered political landscape around Sayyida Zeinab and beyond, after Assad’s December ouster by armed insurgents led by the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). The complex transition that is underway has left some in Syria’s small Shiite minority feeling vulnerable.

“For Shiites around the world, there’s huge sensitivity surrounding the Sayyida Zeinab Shrine,” said Hussein Al-Khatib. “It carries a lot of symbolism.”

After Assad’s ouster, Al-Khatib joined other Syrian Shiite community members to protect the shrine from the inside. The new security forces guard it from the outside.

“We don’t want any sedition among Muslims,” he said. “This is the most important message, especially in this period that Syria is going through.”

Zeinab is a daughter of the first Shiite imam, Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad; she’s especially revered among Shiites as a symbol of steadfastness, patience and courage.

She has several titles, such as the “mother of misfortunes” for enduring tragedies, including the 7th-century killing of her brother, Hussein. His death exacerbated the schism between Islam’s two main sects, Sunni and Shiite, and is mourned annually by Shiites.

Zeinab’s burial place is disputed; some Muslims believe it’s elsewhere. The Syria shrine has drawn pilgrims, including from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. Since Assad’s ouster, however, fewer foreign visitors have come, an economic blow to those catering to them in the area.

The shrine’s locale has faced many attacks

Over the years, the Sayyida Zeinab area has suffered deadly attacks by militants.

In January, state media reported that intelligence officials in Syria’s post-Assad government thwarted a plan by the Daesh group to set off a bomb at the shrine. The announcement appeared to be an attempt by Syria’s new leaders to reassure religious minorities, including those seen as having supported Assad’s former government.

Al-Khatib, who moved his family from Aleppo province to the Sayyida Zeinab area shortly before Assad’s fall, said Assad had branded himself as a protector of minorities. “When killings, mobilization ... and sectarian polarization began,” the narrative “of the regime and its allies was that ‘you, as a Shiite, you as a minority member, will be killed if I fall.’”

The involvement of Sunni militants and some hard-line foreign Shiite fighters fanned sectarian flames, he said.

The Syria conflict began as one of several uprisings against Arab dictators before Assad brutally crushed what started as largely peaceful protests and a civil war erupted. It became increasingly fought along sectarian lines, drew in foreign fighters and became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers on different sides.

Post-Assad, new tensions center on the shrine

Recently, a red flag reading “Oh, Zeinab” that had fluttered from its dome was removed after some disparaged it as a sectarian symbol.

Sheikh Adham Al-Khatib, a representative of followers of the Twelver branch of Shiism in Syria, said such flags “are not directed against anyone,” but that it was agreed to remove it for now to keep the peace.

“We don’t want a clash to happen. We see that ... there’s sectarian incitement, here and there,” he said.

Earlier, Shiite leaders had wrangled with some endowments ministry officials over whether the running of the shrine would stay with the Shiite endowment trustee as it’s been, he said, adding “we’ve rejected” changing the status quo. No response was received before publication to questions sent to a Ministry of Endowments media official.

Adham Al-Khatib and other Shiite leaders recently met with Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.

“We’ve talked transparently about some of the transgressions,” he said. “He promised that such matters would be handled but that they require some patience because of the negative feelings that many harbor for Shiites as a result of the war.”

Many, the sheikh said, “are holding the Shiites responsible for prolonging the regime’s life.” This “is blamed on Iran, on Hezbollah and on Shiites domestically,” he said, adding that he believes the conflict was political rather than religious.

Early in the conflict, he said, “our internal Shiite decision was to be neutral for long months.” But, he said, there was sectarian incitement against Shiites by some and argued that “when weapons, kidnappings and killing of civilians started, Shiites were forced to defend themselves.”

Regionally, Assad was backed by Iran and the Shiite militant Lebanese group Hezbollah, whose intervention helped prop up his rule. Most rebels against him were Sunni, as were their patrons in the region.

Besides the shrine’s protection argument, geopolitical interests and alliances were at play as Syria was a key part of Iran’s network of deterrence against Israel.

Emotions can run high; for some, fears persist

Today, rumors and some social media posts can threaten to inflame emotions.

Shrine director Jaaffar Kassem said he received a false video purporting to show the shrine on fire and was flooded with calls about it.

At the shrine, Zaher Hamza said he prays “for safety and security” and the rebuilding of “a modern Syria, where there’s harmony among all and there are no grudges or injustice.”

Is he worried about the shrine? “We’re the ones who are in the protection of Sayyida Zeinab — not the ones who will protect the Sayyida Zeinab,” he replied.

While some Shiites have fled Syria after Assad’s fall, Hamza said he wouldn’t.

“Syria is my country,” he said. “If I went to Lebanon, Iraq or to European countries, I’d be displaced. I’ll die in my country.”

Some are less at ease.

Small groups of women gathered recently at the Sayyida Zeinab courtyard, chatting among themselves in what appeared to be a quiet atmosphere. Among them was Kamla Mohamed.

Early in the war, Mohamed said, her son was kidnapped more than a decade ago by anti-government rebels for serving in the military. The last time she saw him, she added, was on a video where he appeared with a bruised face.

When Assad fell, Mohamed feared for her family.

Those fears were fueled by the later eruption of violence in Syria’s coastal region, where a counteroffensive killed many Alawite civilians — members of the minority sect from which Assad hails and drew support as he ruled over a Sunni majority. Human rights groups reported revenge killings against Alawites; the new authorities said they were investigating.

“We were scared that people would come to us and kill us,” Mohamed said, clutching a prayer bead. “Our life has become full of fear.”

Another Syrian Shiite shrine visitor said she’s been feeling on edge. She spoke on condition she only be identified as Umm Ahmed, or mother of Ahmed, as is traditional, for fear of reprisals against her or her family.

She said, speaking shortly after the coastal violence in March, that she’s thought of leaving the country, but added that there isn’t enough money and she worries that her home would be stolen if she did. Still, “one’s life is the most precious,” she said.

She hopes it won’t come to that.

“Our hope in God is big,” she said. “God is the one protecting this area, protecting the shrine and protecting us.”


UK pledges over $5 million in aid to Gaza

Updated 21 May 2025
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UK pledges over $5 million in aid to Gaza

  • Announcement follows Britain's freezing of free-trade talks with Israel over its Gaza offensive

LONDON: Britain pledged $5.4 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the government said on Wednesday, as its Minister for Development Jenny Chapman visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The Israeli government’s failure to allow full humanitarian access to aid workers is abhorrent. Far too few trucks are crossing into Gaza,” Chapman said.
“The UK is clear — Israel will not achieve security through prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
Britain on Tuesday paused free trade talks with Israel over its new offensive in Gaza, with foreign minister David Lammy calling for an end to the blockade of aid.
The British Red Cross will receive the new aid package and deliver it through the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Britain said.


Jordanian ambassador visits Nablus field hospital providing medical services for Palestinians

Updated 21 May 2025
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Jordanian ambassador visits Nablus field hospital providing medical services for Palestinians

  • The facility began operations in September 2023 to enhance medical cooperation between Jordan and Palestine
  • The governor of Nablus said the initiative was a ‘generous gesture’ from Jordan

LONDON: Jordanian Ambassador to Palestine Issam Al-Bdour visited the Jordanian field hospital in Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank, on Wednesday to observe the medical services being provided.

The hospital’s commanding officer briefed Al-Bdour and Nablus Mayor Ghassan Daghlas on the facility’s services provided to residents of Nablus and its environs, the Petra news agency reported.

The ambassador toured the hospital’s various departments and expressed appreciation for the efforts of the Jordanian medical teams and the Jordanian Armed Forces’ role in supporting Palestinians.

The facility began operations in September 2023 to enhance medical cooperation between Jordan and Palestine. It includes clinics for pediatrics, gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, orthopedics, dermatology, and dentistry, as well as operating rooms and intensive care units.

Daghlas described the initiative as a “generous gesture” reflecting the ongoing historical relations between Jordan and Palestine.


Israeli forces encircle two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals

Updated 21 May 2025
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Israeli forces encircle two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals

  • Indonesian hospital and Al-Awda hospital are among the region’s only surviving medical centers
  • Three hospitals and three primary health care centers are within an evacuation zone announced by Israel Friday

Two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals have been encircled by Israeli troops, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week, as Israel pursued its renewed offensive into the devastated Palestinian territory.
The Indonesian hospital and Al-Awda hospital are among the region’s only surviving medical centers. Both have come under fire this week, including shelling at Al-Awda that happened Wednesday as The Associated Press spoke to its director on the phone.
A third hospital, Kamal Adwan, is out of service, its director said, citing Israeli troops and drones in its vicinity.
Israeli authorities issued evacuation orders Friday for large parts of northern Gaza ahead of attacks intended to pressure the Hamas militant group to release more hostages. New evacuation orders followed Tuesday.
All three hospitals and three primary health care centers are within the evacuation zone. Israel has not ordered the evacuation of the facilities themselves. Another two hospitals and four primary care centers are within 1,000 meters (yards) of the zone, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization.
Israeli military operations and evacuation orders “are stretching the health system beyond the breaking point,” he said.
Hundreds of attacks on health facilities
Only 20 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functioning, serving the territory’s more than 2 million people, amid continued bombing, rising malnutrition rates, and dwindling medical supplies.
The WHO said hospitals in northern Gaza are “at a serious risk of shutting down completely.” The United Nations agency has documented nearly 700 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza since the start of Israel’s 19-month war against the Hamas militant group.
The Israeli military has raided or laid siege to hospitals throughout the war, accusing Hamas of using them as command centers and to hide fighters, though it has only provided evidence for some of its claims. Hamas security men have been seen in hospitals during the war, controlling access to certain areas, and in recent weeks Israel has targeted alleged militants inside health facilities.
Palestinians say the latest attacks on hospitals in the north are part of a larger plan to displace the population to the south and eventually drive them from Gaza.
Israel has vowed to facilitate what it refers to as the voluntary migration of much of Gaza’s population to other countries, which many Palestinians and others view as a plan for forcible expulsion.
Israel wants to “ensure the forced displacement of people from the area” by putting hospitals out of service, said Rami Shourafi, a board member of Al-Awda hospital.
The Indonesian hospital comes under attack
The Indonesian hospital, once the largest in northern Gaza, has been surrounded by Israeli troops, who were positioned about 500 meters (545 yards) away. Drones have hovered above, monitoring any movement, since Sunday, an aid group that supports the hospital said.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating around the hospital and targeting Hamas infrastructure but that troops had not entered the facility and ambulances were allowed to move.
Israeli bulldozers demolished a perimeter wall of the hospital, according to the aid group MERC-Indonesia and a hospital staff member who had since evacuated. The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
On Tuesday, airstrikes targeted the hospital’s generators, sparking a fire and damaging its main power supply. The strikes also caused damage to the hospital’s water supply, according to a video posted by MERC-Indonesia. Large flames were seen rising from the area before daybreak. A speaker in the video said the fire was close to the hospital fuel supply, but firefighters controlled the flames.
At least one staff member was killed, according to WHO, which said those who remained in the hospital were in urgent need of water and food. The UN said it was working to transfer remaining patients to other facilities.
Military activity around the hospital also damaged ceilings, the hospital roof and some equipment. At least 20 doctors and staff members decided to stay in the building, said MERC-Indonesia, and most patients evacuated themselves after fighting intensified in the area starting Thursday.
Doctors and staffers at the hospital were not immediately reachable for comment. A video posted by MERC-Indonesia that was shot from the hospital windows showed an Israeli tank a few meters (several feet) away from the hospital.
Israeli strikes isolate Al-Awda hospital
Nearly a kilometer (about half a mile) away, Israeli drones fired Monday into the Al-Awda hospital courtyard, preventing movement, Shourafi said. On Wednesday, the hospital was shelled while its director was on the phone with The Associated Press. A large boom could be heard on the call.
“They are bombing the hospital,” said Dr. Mohammed Salha, the facility’s director. He later said one security guard was wounded. Patients were not near to the area hit, he said.
A video shared with AP showed damage to the roof and debris in the corridors, with dust still rising from the area.
On Tuesday, Israeli drones fired at two ambulances that transferred three patients to Gaza City as the crews tried to return to the hospital, spokesperson Khaled Alhelo said.
Alhelo himself was unable to return to the hospital Tuesday because of military activity. There are currently no ambulances or Internet lines at Al-Awda hospital, according to Shourafi and Alhelo.
Israeli troops are about 900 meters (about half a mile) away from the hospital, Alhelo said. But the real risk, he said, is from Israeli drones flying over the hospital and preventing any movement in or out.
“Anyone moving in the hospital is fired at. They are all keeping low inside the hospital,” he said.
The Israeli military had no comment when asked on the situation at Al-Awda and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s shelling.
About 47 patients, including nearly 20 children and several pregnant women, and some 140 doctors and medical staff members are still at the hospital, hospital board member Shourafi said.
He said the hospital board decided not to evacuate the hospital and called for supplies and the return of ambulances because there are still bombings and wounded people in the area.
“In light of the war, and conflict, it should remain functioning,” Shourafi said. He said the hospital has been besieged and raided several times since the war began in October 2023, but he called the current phase the “most critical.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.