Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 453

UN experts have decried Israel’s raid on an embattled hospital in northern Gaza, demanding an end to the “blatant assault” on health rights in the besieged Palestinian territory, AFP reports.

Reiterating charges that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza, two independent United Nations rights experts said they were “horrified” by the raid last Friday on Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning major hospital.

“For well over a year into the genocide, Israel’s blatant assault on the right to health in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory is plumbing new depths of impunity,” the experts said in a statement.

“We are horrified and concerned by reports from northern Gaza.”

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A Palestinian has been killed and several wounded as Israel bombed al-Mansoura Street in the Shujaiya neighbourhood east of Gaza City, Al Jazeera correspondents report.

Three people were also killed in an air raid on the town of al-Zawaida, in the central Gaza Strip.

Twenty-eight Israeli soldiers are suspected to have committed suicide since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, Al Jazeera reports according to an Israeli military statement.

“The figure is higher than 2023 when 17 soldiers were killed in ‘suspected suicides’ including seven after the outbreak of war,” it added.

According to figures released by the army, at least 891 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 5,569 others wounded since the outbreak of the fighting in Gaza. The army said 363 soldiers were killed in 2024, down from 558 in 2023. In 2022, 44 Israeli soldiers were killed.

The government media office in Gaza says the number of humanitarian relief workers killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023, has risen to 736, Al Jazeera reports.

“This escalation is part of a deliberate plan by the Israeli occupation to create an administrative and governmental vacuum and to spread chaos and insecurity in Gaza Strip, aiming to undermine the resilience and stability of our people,” the media office said in a statement.

“The shocking rise in the number of aid security personnel martyred, now totalling 736, highlights the extent of the crimes perpetrated by the occupation, targeting those who strive to provide assistance and relief to our afflicted people.”

Six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike at the interior ministry headquarters in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza strip, medics told Reuters.

Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson says Israeli forces are “carrying out cleansing and extermination operations throughout the Gaza Strip”, Al Jazeera reports.

Israeli troops committed “a massacre” in southern al-Mawasi, killing 12 people. Another 10 Palestinians were killed in the northern Jabalia refugee camp, spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said.

“The [Israeli] occupation fires on every spot in the Gaza Strip amid catastrophic conditions,” said Basal.

The health ministry in Gaza has said that 28 people were killed in the enclave in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll of the conflict to 45,581, AFP reports.

The ministry also said in a statement that at least 108,438 people had been wounded in nearly 15 months of conflict since October 7, 2023.

Among the dead from an Israeli air attack that killed at least 11 people in the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” were the Gaza police chief Mahmud Salah and his deputy Hussam Shahwan, Al Jazeera reports, citing Gaza’s interior ministry.

The interior ministry condemned the killing of the two police officers saying “they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people”.

“By committing the assassination, the occupation continues to spread chaos in the Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens. The police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens,” it said.

At least seven people have been killed and several others wounded during an Israeli strike on Deir el-Balah city in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground reports.

The death toll also increased to 10 in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, following an Israeli attack.

In a statement on X, the UN refugee agency for Palestinians said that Israeli authorities continue to ban international media from Gaza.

“Throughout 2024, UNRWA continued to provide information and firsthand accounts on the humanitarian impact the war [has] on civilians.

“Access to international journalists to report freely from Gaza must be granted,” UNRWA said.

At least four people have been killed and several wounded after Israeli air attacks hit the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Since this morning, at least 18 people have been killed and dozens wounded in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip.

Women and children were among the 11 dead in southern Khan Younis.

The Israeli army has published its first official death toll since the start of the conflict on Oct 7, 2023, announcing 891 officers and soldiers have been killed, Al Jazeera reports citing Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth.

Meanwhile, Israeli Army Radio reported 28 Israeli soldiers have committed suicide since the beginning of the conflict, including 16 reservists, the highest number in 13 years.

Dozens of settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces have stormed the Palestinian town of Kifl Haris in the Salfit governorate, Al Jazeera reports.

Local sources told the Wafa news agency the Israeli settlers entered the town last night to perform Talmudic rituals at Islamic shrines. During the incursion, settlers attacked residents’ homes and vehicles causing significant damage.

Earlier, Israeli forces raided the town and shut the iron gate at its entrance, forcing shop owners to close their businesses and restricting residents’ movement for the settlers’ entry.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has threatened Palestinian resistance group Hamas with “severe blows not seen in Gaza for a long time” unless it agrees to release hostages and stop firing rockets at Israel, Anadolu reports.

Katz’s remarks came after he visited the southern city of Netivot, which was targeted by two rockets fired from central Gaza yesterday.

One of the rockets was intercepted, while the other fell in an open area, Yedioth Ahronoth reported, citing the Israeli military.

“If Hamas does not allow the release of Israeli captives soon, despite Israel’s willingness to make significant concessions, and continues firing at Israeli towns, it will face strong strikes that Gaza has not witnessed in a long time,” Katz threatened.

Israeli bombing of the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, has killed at least two people, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that an overnight Israeli air strike killed at least 11 people, including the chief of the territory’s now dismantled Hamas police force, AFP reports.

“Eleven people were martyred, including three children and two women, and 15 were injured after the occupation aircraft bombed a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip,” Gaza’s civil defence agency said in a statement.

Among those killed were the police chief Mahmud Salah and his deputy Hussam Shahwan, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

Israeli forces have stormed the occupied West Bank city, arresting one man from the Ras al-Ein neighbourhood near the Church of the Nativity, and a second man from the Karkafa area in the city centre, the Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli forces have also issued forced eviction orders to Palestinian families in the Khirbet Tana area, near the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, according to the Quds News Network.

Israel’s Army Radio is reporting that a top military lawyer has sent a “strong” letter to Major-General Yaron Finkelman, who commands the country’s Southern Command, warning that his forces are not adequately assessing the size of the civilian population in areas they are attacking and operating in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports.

Doron Kadosh, the journalist behind the Army Radio report, said the letter by Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi raised concerns that this failure “has implications for both the scope of humanitarian aid entering a particular area, and also for air force strikes in that area [due to calculations of ‘collateral damage’ — harm to uninvolved civilians]”.

Kadosh did not state when Tomer-Yerushalmi sent her letter.

He said the lawyer cited how the military — which has been laying siege to North Gaza since October 6 — initially assessed that only 3,000 civilians were living in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. But the figure turned out to be much higher as it was found later that about 14,000 people had been displaced from the town.

Kadosh said the letter prompted an internal inquiry, but the probe found that “there were no deficiencies in the scope of humanitarian aid that entered Beit Lahiya, and that the firing and attacks in the area did not cause any unusual harm to uninvolved people.”

Those findings contradict reports from the UN and other aid agencies operating in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian media now reports that Mahmoud Salah, the director-general of Gaza’s police force, and his assistant, Hussam Mustafa Shawan, have both been killed in that attack, Al Jazeera reports.

Francesca Albanese has called on the Palestinian Authority to rescind its decision to ban Al Jazeera’s broadcasts in the occupied West Bank, saying “journalism is not a crime”.

“When Israel banned AJ months ago, I urged the concerned authorities to reverse that decision. I ask the same to the PA now,” the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory said on X.

Dozens of Israeli settlers who raided the town of Kifl Haris to perform religious rituals at Islamic shrines have also attacked homes and vehicles there, according to the Wafa news agency.

The raid on Kifl Haris, located north of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, took place under the protection of Israeli soldiers, Wafa reported.

Prior to the raid, the soldiers closed the gate to the town, and forced shop owners to shutter their businesses and imposed a curfew there, the agency added.

The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday ordered the suspension of broadcasts by Qatar-based Al Jazeera across the Palestinian territories, accusing the network of airing “inciting content”, AFP reports, citing official media.

“The specialised ministerial committee, comprising the ministries of culture, interior and communications, has decided to suspend broadcasts and freeze all activities of Al Jazeera satellite channel and its office in Palestine,” the official Wafa news agency said.

“The decision also includes temporarily freezing the work of all journalists, employees, crews and affiliated channels until their legal status is rectified due to Al Jazeera’s violations of the laws and regulations in force in Palestine,” the report said.

“This decision comes in response to Al Jazeera’s insistence on broadcasting inciting content and reports characterised by misinformation, incitement, sedition and interference in Palestinian internal affairs,” it added.

An Al Jazeera employee contacted by AFP confirmed that the network’s office in Ramallah had received a suspension order on Wednesday.

Later on Wednesday, the channel aired images of what appeared to be Palestinian security officers entering the network’s office in Ramallah and handing over the suspension orders, but there was still no reaction from the channel to the Palestinian Authority’s move.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a tent encampment sheltering displaced families in southern Gaza strip early today, medics said, Reuters reports.

The 10 people, including women and children, were killed in a tent in Al-Mawasi, designated as a humanitarian area in western Khan Younis, according to the medics.

Fifteen people were also wounded, the medics added. The Israeli military has not immediately commented.