• Erdogan seeks pressure on US to stop attacks
• Two babies die after power to incubators cut off
• Strike on UN compound causes ‘significant’ number of casualties
• Biden calls Qatar’s emir

GAZA STRIP: Amid Israeli bombardment, two major hospitals in northern Gaza — Al Shifa and Al Quds — closed to new patients on Sunday, with staff saying that a lack of fuel and medicine meant those already being treated could die.

Hospitals in the north of the besieged Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, medical staff said.

Intense fighting raged around Al Shifa hospital where doctors said thousands of Palestinians were trapped in dire conditions.

Soon after the strike, Hamas said it is suspending negotiations for exchange of prisoners because of Israel’s handling of the Al Shifa Hospital, a Palestinian official told Reuters.

Fears have intensified for patients and people taking refuge in Al-Shifa and other healthcare facilities in Gaza, and medical aid group Doctors Without Borders warned that without a ceasefire or evacuation the hospital “will become a morgue”.

Other buildings serving as shelters have also been hit, including a strike on a UN compound in Gaza City that the United Nations Development Programme said caused “a significant number of deaths and injuries.”

Besides, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for pressure on the United States to stop Israel’s offensive in Gaza, but said there would be no agreement unless Washington accepted the enclave as Palestinian land.

Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital is caught in Israel’s ground offensive aimed at destroying Hamas, and the compound has been repeatedly hit by strikes, one of which Hamas health officials said destroyed the cardiac ward on Sunday.

The Israeli military has denied deliberately targeting the hospital and accused Hamas of using medical facilities or tunnels under them as hideouts — a charge Hamas denies.

‘Bloodiest ever’

The bloodiest ever Gaza conflict broke out after Hamas fighters smashed through the militarised border with Israel on Oct 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 240 people hostage, according to the most recent Israeli figures.

Israel’s relentless campaign in response has killed more than 11,000 people, also mostly civilians and including thousands of children, according to the latest figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Witnesses inside the Al-Shifa hospital told AFP by phone on Sunday that “violent fighting” had raged around the hospital the whole night.

Inside Al-Shifa hospital, Doctors Without Borders surgeon Mohammed Obeid said there was no water, power, food or internet access for about 600 post-operative patients, 37-40 babies and 17 people in intensive care.

The surgeon said in an audio message posted on social media that two babies died in the Al-Shifa neonatal unit after power to their incubators was cut off and a man also died when his ventilator shut down.

The Israeli military pledged on Saturday to aid the evacuation of babies from the hospital, noting “staff of the Al-Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow”.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “we will help the babies in the paediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed.”

A “safe passage” was to be opened from Al-Shifa to allow people to flee towards the south, the Israeli military said Sunday.

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

Very little aid has made it into Gaza in the five weeks of war, with the densely populated coastal territory effectively sealed off by a total blockade that Israel has vowed to maintain until the prisoners are freed.

Gaza governance

As the fighting raged, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan­yahu ruled out a role for the current Palestinian Authority government in Gaza once the war is over.

“There will have to be something else there,” he said, when asked whether the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in Occupied West Bank, may govern Gaza after the war.

Pressure on Washington

President Erdogan called for pressure on the United States to stop Israel’s offensive in the besieged Palestinian enclave, but said there would be no agreement unless Washington accepted the enclave as Palestinian land.

Mr Erdogan returned from a summit on Saturday of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which condemned Israeli forces’ barbaric actions in Gaza without approving concrete punitive measures.

“We should hold talks with Egypt and the Gulf countries, and pressure the United States,” Mr Erdogan told Turkish reporters on board his return flight from Riyadh.

“The US should increase its pressure on Israel. The West should increase pressure on Israel… It’s vital for us to secure a ceasefire,” he said.

“The European Union thinks exactly the same as Israel regarding Hamas. But we did not think like them,” Mr Erdogan said. “I see Hamas as a political party that won the elections in Palestine. I don’t look at it the same way they do,” he added.

Biden calls Qatar’s emir

Meanwhile, Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani received a phone call from US President Joe Biden to discuss developments in Gaza, the Amiri Diwan — the main seat of government in Qatar — reported on Sunday.

During the telephonic conversation, Sheikh Al-Thani called for not just an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but also permanent opening of the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2023