Gaza hospitals facing collapse as conflict rages on

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s hospitals were facing “complete collapse”, Palestinian medics warned Wednesday as the UN said supplies were running critically low and the Hamas-run health ministry reported 700 deaths in Israeli strikes in 24 hours.

An alarm is growing over the spiralling humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has been bombing since October 7 when Hamas gunmen poured across its border beginning an attack that killed more than 1,400 people, while also kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

At least 2,000 children have been killed in Gaza over 17 days, according to aid group Save the Children. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, Israeli strikes since October 7 have killed more than 6,500 people, an increase of over 700 since Tuesday. Violence has also risen sharply in the occupied West Bank, where health officials said more than 100 Palestinians had been killed, mostly in raids by Israeli troops or in clashes with Israeli settlers.

Among the latest casualties in Gaza, three family members of Al Jazeera Arabic Gaza correspondent Wael Dahdouh were also killed in an Israeli strike, including his wife, son and daughter. Six other children survived. His family, who originally lived in Gaza City, fled Israel’s bombardment to stay with relatives at the Nuseirat Camp. The camp is located 8 km south of Gaza City and 6 km north of Deir al-Balah. Dahdouh stayed behind in Gaza City to continue covering the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

Israel has cut off Gaza’s usual water, food and other supplies, and fewer than 70 relief trucks have entered the impoverished territory since the war began. But none have contained fuel, which Israel fears Hamas will use for weapons and explosives. According to UN figures, 12 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals and nearly two-thirds of its 72 primary healthcare clinics have shut down after being damaged by Israeli air strikes or due to fuel shortages. Fuel is used to power vital services such as hospitals in Gaza which rely on generators, and aid agencies have warned that more people will die if medical equipment, water desalination plants and ambulances stop running. Once the generators stop running, hospitals will “turn into morgues”, the Red Cross has warned. Hospitals are also struggling with a dramatic shortage of medicines and equipment.

UN figures show over a third of the narrow Palestinian territory’s 35 hospitals have closed due to damage or insufficient fuel, and one doctor said he was forced to perform surgeries without anaesthetic. “The hospitals are in a state of complete collapse,” said Mohammed Abu Selmeya, head of Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital. He told AFP “more than 90 percent of medicines” had run out and “we urgently need fuel to run the generators and to operate hospital departments and operating theatres.”

His words came as the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA warned it could be forced to halt its operations by nightfall if it didn’t receive any deliveries of fuel. Petrol stations in the southern town of Rafah had also run dry. “We ask God for the fuel to arrive so cars, tractors, ambulances and UNRWA operations can function to help the people,” taxi driver Ibrahim Namla told AFP. “If fuel doesn’t enter Gaza today or tomorrow, it will be a disaster.”

And there has been no let-up in the strikes, with one hitting a building in Rafah where many children were inside, residents said. “We saw the children being bombarded while their mother was hugging them,” said Umm Omar al-Khaldi, whose neighbours were killed. “Where are the Arabs? Where is the humanity? Have mercy on us!”

The Gaza war has sparked fears of a regional conflagration if it draws in more of Israel’s enemies -- especially Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a close ally of both Iran and Hamas, which has already traded deadly cross-border with Israeli forces along the border. As the fighting raged on, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah held talks with senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives in Beirut about how to achieve “real victory... in Gaza and Palestine” and stop Israel’s “brutal aggression”, the Lebanese movement said.

Jordan’s King Abdullah became the latest regional leader to warn that ongoing violence could “lead to an explosion” in the wider Middle East after talks with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed eight soldiers in southern Syria with its airforce later hitting Aleppo airport for the fourth time in a fortnight, the defence ministry in Damascus said.

The US media outlet Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that Israel has agreed to delay the ground invasion of Gaza for now, in order for the United States to rush missile defences to the region. Citing US and Israeli officials, the Pentagon is working to deploy about 11 air defence systems in the region, WSJ said, including for US troops stationed in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Israeli officials, according to the publication, have agreed to US requests to wait until these systems are in place, potentially within this week.

According to CNN, intelligence shared with the US suggests a small cell of Hamas operatives planning the surprise attack on Israel communicated via a network of hardwired phones built into the network of tunnels underneath Gaza.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in Cairo a “massive” Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip would be “an error”, warning it would harm civilians without ensuring Israel’s long-term security. “If it’s a massive intervention that would put civilian lives at risk, I think it’s an error... for Israel too because it is unlikely to protect Israel in the long term, and because it is incompatible with... international humanitarian law and the rules of law,” Macron said after meeting Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who also urged Israel to avoid an invasion.

Also, Qatar’s prime minister said that negotiations the Gulf Arab state is leading to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are progressing and he is hopeful there will soon be a breakthrough. Qatar’s foreign ministry urged de-escalation and warned that an Israeli ground assault on the densely populated enclave would make freeing hostages “much more difficult.” “There is some progress and some breakthrough and we remain hopeful,” said Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at a press conference in the Qatari capital.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres rejected the “misrepresentations” of his remarks a day earlier on Palestinian grievances that infuriated Israel. “I am shocked by misrepresentations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council -- as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas,” Guterres told reporters, without naming Israel. Guterres said Wednesday it was “necessary to set the record straight, especially out of respect for the victims and their families.”

In a related development, Israel has blocked visas for UN officials following Guterres comments.

Also the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the war between Israel and Hamas is already impacting Middle East economies, and could lead to long-term economic damage. Speaking to CNN’s Richard Quest in front of an audience at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Saudi Arabia, Kristalina Georgieva said: “What we see is more jitters in what has already been an anxious world. And on a horizon that has had plenty of cloud, one more and it can get deeper.”

Amnesty International said Israeli authorities must rescind the forced “evacuation” orders in Gaza, and to put an end to threats creating fear and panic amongst civilians. “Declaring a whole city or region a military target flies in the face of international humanitarian law,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser, said in a statement, adding that those carrying out attacks “must distinguish at all times between civilians or civilian objects and military objectives”.

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar accused the international community of “double standards” in their reaction to the escalating conflict. Qatar’s top diplomat Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said the two governments -- both Western allies -- “reaffirm our complete rejection of responding to the crisis with double standards when it comes to human life”. “It is not permissible to condemn the killing of civilians in one context and justify it in another.” Al-Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s prime minister, said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said: “The failure of some American and north European countries to condemn and prevent the destruction and disaster in Gaza constitutes a very serious double standard and plays a destabilising role. “The operation in Gaza should be stopped as soon as possible. Humanitarian corridors should be opened,” he added.

Meanwhile, Russia and China have vetoed the latest US resolution on Israel-Hamas war at Security Council. The US resolution had called for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza. The US, Albania, France, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, and the UK voted in favour. Brazil and Mozambique abstained.