An aerial view of Nasser Hospital released by the IDF, with suspected Hamas positions marked out.
Israeli Special Forces entered the main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, saying they had credible intelligence that the Hamas had held some hostages abducted during the October 7 raid on Israel there.
A day earlier, Dr Khaled Alserr, a surgeon at the Nasser hospital was quoted as saying one patient died and seven were wounded in firing by Israeli forces that had laid siege to the facility.
Although International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on hospitals, Israel insists that the Hamas uses hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters, making them legitimate targets.
Elusive Peace
Negotiations for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip appeared increasingly elusive after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu pulled out a team led by the Mossad head which had gone to Cairo for talks brokered by Egypt, the US and Qatar, citing the “delusional demands” of the Hamas and a lack of fresh proposals.
The raid on Nasser Hospital came amid warnings by the UN and various governments worldwide against attacking the southern city of Rafah, which Israeli says is Hamas’ last stronghold. More than a million Palestinians escaping Israeli attacks have sought refuge in the city, which borders Egypt.
Vatican Slammed
In other developments, Israel lodged a formal complaint with the Vatican after Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the tiny city-state’s secretary of state, referred to the “carnage” in Gaza and described the Israeli response to the October 7 Hamas attacks as “disproportionate.”
“Israel’s right to self-defence has been invoked to justify that this operation is proportional, but with 30,000 dead, it’s not,” he said at a reception Tuesday. While condemning the Hamas attacks against Israel and all forms of anti-Semitism, he questioned Israel’s claim that it was acting in self-defence by inflicting “carnage” on Gaza.
Troubled North
Meanwhile, tensions along Israel’s northern border escalated with Lebanese state media saying 10 civilians had died during two Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Wednesday. On Thursday, there were more attacks targeting what Israeli described as Hezbollah infrastructure and launch posts.
Asserting that the Israeli army would continue to respond to Hezbollah’s regular attacks, Avi Hyman, spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, said that “Our message to Hezbollah has and always will be: Don’t try us.” Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate.
X Message
In a sign of further hardening positions, several Israeli ministers including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich rejected the two state solution, which calls for Palestinian statehood. “We will in no way agree to this plan, which actually says that the Palestinians deserve a reward for the terrible massacre they did to us: a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said on social media platform X. “The message is that it pays very well to massacre Israeli citizens,” he added.
His colleague and national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir concurred.
“1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. not going to happen!” he wrote on X. “A demilitarized Palestinian state is a necessary condition for any future in this place, and this is not a gift we give them, but a burden we release from ourselves.”
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