Region

The United States is hopeful about getting a hostage deal in the Israel-Hamas conflict and believes the parties are getting closer to an agreement, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday."We are closer than we've been. We believe we're getting closer," Kirby said at a news briefing. "We won't say and do not want to say anything in these delicate hours that could put a deal at greater risk."Gaza's Hamas government said Tuesday the death toll in the Palestinian territory had reached 14,128 since war began on October 7 between Israeli forces and Hamas.Hamas said 5,840 children and 3,920 women were among the dead, with another 33,000 people wounded. Its health ministry has previously said it can no longer give exact tolls as intense fighting has prevented bodies from being recovered.

Hamas officials are “approaching a truce agreement” with Israel after weeks of the war in the Gaza Strip, according to Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian group that rules the besieged enclave.⁠The group delivered its response to Qatari mediators in the ongoing talks, Haniyeh said in a statement to Reuters news agency on Tuesday morning.⁠A Hamas official told ⁠Al Jazeera that negotiations were centred on how long the ceasefire would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and the exchange of Israeli captives held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.⁠Both sides will free women and children and details will be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said Ezzat al-Risheq, a Hamas senior official. ⁠

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday signaled that a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a temporary truce is "now very close.""We are now very close, very close. We could bring some of these hostages home very soon. But I don't want to get into the details of things, because nothing is done until it's done," he said at the White House. "Things are looking good at the moment."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet on Tuesday amid growing signs of an imminent deal on the release of hostages who were taken by Hamas to the Gaza Strip more than six weeks ago."We are making progress. I don't think it's worth saying too much, not at even this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon," Netanyahu told reservists without providing further details.His office said that "in light of developments in the matter of the release of our hostages," he would convene his war cabinet at 6pm(1600 GMT) followed by meetings of his wider security cabinet and the full cabinet.In a sign it was expecting hostages to return soon, Netanyahu's office said it was convening the directors-general of all the relevant government ministries to prepare for treatment and aid, in light of the latest developments.A source familiar with the negotiations said Hamas would free 50 women and children, including some foreigners, while Israel releases 150 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and minors, during a temporary four-day ceasefire.A US official briefed on the discussions facilitated by Qatar said the deal would include 50 hostages, mostly women and children, in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners and a pause in the fighting of four or five days.There is a tentative deal but it's not final until everything is agreed upon, the US official said."We believe we are very, very close to having a deal," the official told Reuters. "There is still a lot of work to be done, still approval that has to be achieved, but we believe we are very close."

The leader of Hamas said on Tuesday a truce deal with Israel was close and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped for good news soon about hostages, the most optimistic signals so far of a deal to pause the war in Gaza and free captives.Hamas officials were "close to reaching a truce agreement" with Israel and the group had delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.Netanyahu said: "We are making progress. I don't think it's worth saying too much, not at even this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon", according to remarks released by the Israeli prime minister's office.Later on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden told reporters that an accord to release some of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas was very near. "My team is in the region shuttling between capitals. We're now very close, very close, to bringing some of these hostages home very soon," he said."But I don't want to get into the details because nothing is done until it's done."Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet amid growing signs of a deal to free a number of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas militants to Gaza after their deadly cross-border raid into Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered the war.A source familiar with the negotiations said Hamas would free 50 women and children, including some foreigners, while Israel releases 150 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and minors, during a four-day ceasefire.A US official briefed on the discussions facilitated by Qatar gave the same figures for releases by each side, saying the 50 hostages to be freed would be mostly women and children, with fighting paused for four or five days.There is a tentative deal but it is not final until everything is agreed upon, the official said."We believe we are very, very close to having a deal," the official told Reuters. "There is still a lot of work to be done, still approval that has to be achieved. but we believe we are very close."It would be the first truce of the six-week-old war and the first mass release of those held by both sides.Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage into Israeli communities near Gaza killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. In Israel's subsequent aerial blitz and invasion of Gaza, the enclave's Hamas-run government says at least 13,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed including at least 5,600 children.A Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV earlier that negotiations were centred on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and details of the exchange of captives. Both sides would free women and children, and details would be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said the official, Issat el Reshiq.Israel's Channel 12 and Channel 13 TV stations both quoted unidentified officials as saying terms of a deal could be reached "within hours".Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, met Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday to "advance humanitarian issues" related to the war, the Geneva-based ICRC said in a statement. She also separately met Qatari authorities.The ICRC said it was not part of hostage negotiations but as a neutral intermediary it was ready "to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to".Around two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been made homeless, with thousands a day still trekking south on foot with belongings and children in their arms. The central and southern parts of the enclave, where Israel has told them to go, have also regularly come under attack.A day and a night of rain and cold winter weather worsened the dire conditions in the Gaza Strip for the displaced, many thousands of whom are sleeping rough or in makeshift tents.Gaza health authorities said on Tuesday at least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza at midnight. There was no immediate comment from Israel.The already crowded Nuseirat district, which grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, is just south of wetlands that bisect the narrow, coastal strip and has been the arrival point for huge numbers escaping the fighting concentrated in the urbanised north.Israeli bombing in southern areas leaves Gazans fearing they have no place safe to go. Neighbouring Egypt has allowed the evacuation of some wounded and foreign passport holders, but says it will not accept a forced, mass exodus.Despite an Israeli order to flee, tens of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in north Gaza - wide swathes of which Israel says its forces now control but where Hamas are waging guerrilla-style war in fiercely contested pockets.All hospitals in the north have ceased functioning normally, many still housing patients and displaced Gazans. The World Health Organization said it was working on plans to evacuate three Northern Gaza hospitals: Al Shifa, Al Ahli and the Indonesian Hospital, lamenting this as a last resort.Issam Nabhan, head of the nursing department of the Indonesian Hospital, where the WHO and Gaza authorities say 12 people were killed on Monday by Israeli fire, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday there were 60 bodies in the grounds."There is no oxygen to supply the patients. All those on artificial respiration have died. We speak out to the free world. The Indonesian hospital has become a cemetery, not a hospital."

Palestinian officials said a field hospital accompanied by 170 personnel sent by Jordan entered the Gaza Strip yesterday, the first since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in the first week of October.Weeks of intense bombardment and acute shortages of fuel and medical supplies have prompted the collapse of Gaza’s health system, with the majority of hospitals no longer functioning. There are around 30,000 wounded people across Gaza, according to the Palestinian territory’s Hamas-run government, which said Sunday that 13,000 had been killed, mostly civilians.Mohamed Zaqout, director-general of Gaza hospitals, said the field hospital will be established in Khan Yunis, in the south, “to receive the wounded and the sick”.Hospitals in the area were experiencing “catastrophic” conditions, he said, “with the influx of hundreds of wounded each day and continued aggressive aerial and artillery strikes”.They could no longer accept sick patients or women who needed to give birth by Caesarean section, he added.The war broke out when Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel.The field hospital has a 41-bed capacity, the Jordanian royal palace said, and Aed Yaghi, head of medical aid in Gaza, said it was accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid. It would help ease the pressure on existing health services, he said, adding: “The number of medical personnel is limited and there aren’t (enough) ambulances.” Palestinian medics hope field hospitals sent by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar will soon follow.All goods and individuals entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt are subject to Israeli approval.The head of Gaza’s crossings authority, Hisham Adwan, said six ambulances from Kuwait also entered the territory yesterday. An AFP journalist said the ambulances were taken to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.While hospitals in southern Gaza are overwhelmed, those in the north are now surrounded by fighting.Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra described the north as “catastrophic”, with the “sick and wounded are dying from lack of care”.

Israeli ships are a "legitimate target", Yemen's Houthi rebels warned Monday, after their seizure of an Israel-linked cargo vessel opened a new dimension in the Gaza war.Sunday's capture of the Galaxy Leader and its 25 international crew came days after the Houthis threatened to target Israeli shipping over the Israel-Hamas war.The Houthis, declaring themselves part of the "axis of resistance", have also launched a series of drones and missiles towards Israel."Israeli ships are legitimate targets for us anywhere...and we will not hesitate to take action," Major General Ali al-Moshki, a Houthi military official, told the group's Al-Massirah TV station.Analysts also said Houthi threats to shipping around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a choke-point at the foot of the commercially vital Red Sea, were likely to rise.The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned Galaxy Leader is operated by a Japanese firm but has links to Israeli businessman Abraham "Rami" Ungar.The Houthis said the capture was in retaliation for Israel's war against Hamas, sparked by the October first week storming by the Palestinian fighters into the country.More than 13,000 people have since been killed in Israel's aerial bombardment and ground operations in the Gaza Strip, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry says.Sunday's ship seizure "is only the beginning," Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdul-Salam said Sunday in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, pledging further maritime attacks until Israel halts its Gaza campaign.Maritime security company Ambrey said it had learned that the rebels boarded the ship by rappelling or sliding down a rope from a helicopter — the method used by Iran during previous vessel seizures in the Strait of Hormuz.The vessel headed from Turkey to India was re-routed to the Yemeni port of Salif in Hodeidah province, according to Ambrey and a Yemeni maritime source.Ambrey said the owner of the Galaxy Leader, which transports cars and other vehicles, is listed as Britain's Ray Car Carriers whose parent company belongs to Ungar, the Israeli businessman.Israel's military said the seizure was a "very grave incident of global consequence", while a US military official called it "a flagrant violation of international law".The crew were reportedly "under investigation" by the Houthis, Ambrey said. They include Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Filipinos, Mexicans and a Romanian, according to Israeli and Romanian officials.Nippon Yusen, also known as NYK Line of Japan, said it had set up a task team to gather information and ensure the crew's safety.Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said Tokyo was "directly approaching the Houthis" as well as communicating with Israel."We are also urging Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and other countries concerned to strongly urge the Houthis for the early release of the vessel and crew members," she said.The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterised the capture as an "attack against an international vessel"."We have repeatedly announced that the resistance groups in the region represent their countries and make decisions and act based on the interests of their countries," said Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.Yemen's coastline overlooks the Bab al-Mandab Strait — a narrow pass between Yemen and Djibouti at the foot of the Red Sea — which is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and carries about a fifth of global oil consumption."The threat of disruption to shipping in the wider region is likely to rise," said Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft."If security concerns compel shipping companies to avoid the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the result will be significantly higher costs due to the lack of alternative routes." Mohamed al-Basha, senior Middle East analyst for the US-based Navanti Group said the failure of Houthi missile and drone launches to hit targets inside Israel "might have influenced the decision to refocus on the Red Sea arena".

Medics transfer 28 Gazan newborns to Egypt for careBabies came from Gaza's besieged Al Shifa HospitalWHO doctor says 11 or 12 are in a critical conditionFirst personal details emerge as mother tells her storyBorn prematurely in Gaza just before war broke out, the baby girl was treated at Al Shifa Hospital as it gradually collapsed, separated from her displaced family, then evacuated to Egypt on Monday along with her mother and 27 other Palestinian newborns.Lobna al-Saik, the baby's mother, was one of a few parents accompanying some of the 28 infants as they were taken in a convoy of ambulances from a hospital in southern Gaza, through the Rafah border crossing, into Egypt to receive treatment."They are innocent children, premature babies," an exhausted al-Saik said in a video interview provided by the Egyptian government. "My message to the world is 'enough'."Egyptian television footage showed medical staff at Rafah carefully picking up tiny babies from inside Palestinian ambulances and placing them in mobile incubators, which were then wheeled across a car park towards Egyptian ambulances.The babies, from a total of 31 moved on Sunday from the besieged Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to a maternity hospital in Rafah, wore only nappies and tiny green hats. They were taken to Egyptian hospitals."Of those 31, 11 or 12 are critically ill, all the others seriously ill," said Dr. Rick Brennan of the World Health Organization (WHO), in an interview with Reuters in Cairo."Each of them has serious infections and quite a few of them have a low body temperature and so they really do need detailed specialist care," he said.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 12 of the babies had been flown to Cairo.The newborns have captured global attention since images emerged eight days ago of them lying side by side on beds at Al Shifa Hospital after their incubators were switched off for lack of power amid Israel's military assault on Gaza City.When doctors at Al Shifa raised the alarm about them, there were 39 babies. Since then, eight have died.The story of al-Saik and her unnamed daughter provided some of the first personal details to emerge about the infants.Al-Saik said just before the war started her baby had been receiving oxygen at Al Shifa because of breathing difficulties after her premature birth.The family left their home on the third day of the war to escape Israeli bombardment. Like hundreds of thousands of others, al-Saik moved to the south of the Gaza Strip with her three other children, while the baby girl stayed at Al Shifa.With shortages of electricity, water, medicines and other basics, conditions at Al Shifa deteriorated and the baby lost weight and got sick."There was no milk and she kept getting worse, she was back to zero, to living on oxygen again," said al-Saik.The mother was reunited with her baby in Rafah, but to accompany her to Egypt, she said she had to leave her other children behind in Gaza."I didn't even get a chance to hug them because I couldn't leave my daughter in this state. I didn't say goodbye to them. Something might happen to them, they could be bombed or martyred," she said, her voice breaking as tears welled up.Jeremy Hopkins, head of UNICEF in Cairo, told Reuters the agency was working with Egyptian authorities to find out the circumstances of each of the babies, including those who did not have relatives with them, so they could be provided with support beyond the immediate medical care.Dr. Mohammad Salama, head of the neonatal unit at the Al-Helal Al-Emairati Maternity Hospital in Rafah where the babies spent Sunday night after arriving from Al Shifa, said the three who had remained behind were in a stable condition.He said all 31 babies had been in a "catastrophic condition" when they arrived from Al Shifa and the hospital in Rafah had worked hard to stabilise them before their evacuation."Some were suffering from malnutrition, others from dehydration and some from low temperatures," he told Reuters by telephone.Salama said some of the babies were with their mothers, while others were accompanied by medical staff.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday he believes a deal is near to secure the release of some of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, telling reporters "I believe so" when asked at the White House about a possible agreement.Reuters reported last week that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire that would help boost emergency aid shipments to Gaza civilians, citing an official briefed on the talks.About 240 hostages were taken during Hamas's deadly cross-border rampage into Israel on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to invade the tiny Palestinian territory to wipe out the Islamist militant group.About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas assault, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,500 children, by unrelenting Israeli bombardment.Despite ongoing fighting, Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, told ABC News on Sunday that Israel was hopeful a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas "in coming days."

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Monday 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in the north of the Palestinian territory.The 12, including wounded patients and their companions, "were killed and dozens wounded as a result of the Israeli occupation targeting the Indonesian Hospital", said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.The ministry director said it had not been possible to recover the bodies."The (Israeli) occupation has destroyed some buildings of the Indonesian Hospital, and other buildings are under sniper fire," Munir al-Bursh said from the hospital.Bursh said the 140-bed Indonesian Hospital currently has 650 patients, more than 100 of whom require urgent surgery.The Israeli military previously ordered residents of northern Gaza to flee southwards and said Sunday it was "expanding its operational activities".Bursh said Israeli forces "targeted" people trying to leave the Indonesian Hospital.Israeli strikes have hit "the clinics and surgeries floor at the hospital, destroyed equipment and bodies are piled up", he said.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment by AFP.The Hamas government has repeatedly accused Israel of launching a "war against hospitals", which scores of strikes on and near medical facilities in recent weeks.The Israeli military says the Hamas militant group has built underground infrastructure below hospitals for military usage, which Hamas and medical officials deny.The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA has reported the "collapse of services" at hospitals across northern Gaza, following widespread strikes and the lack of fuel and medical supplies.Al-Shifa hospital was described Sunday as a "death zone" by the World Health Organization, in the wake of incursions by Israeli soldiers and multiple strikes on the facility.More than 250 patients and 20 healthcare workers remain at the hospital, WHO said after 31 premature babies were evacuated southwards, 28 of whom were transferred to Egypt on Monday.

A group of 28 prematurely born babies evacuated from Gaza's biggest hospital were taken into Egypt for urgent treatment on Monday, while Palestinian health authorities said people were killed inside another Gaza hospital encircled by Israeli tanks.The newborns had been in north Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, where several others died after their incubators were knocked out amid a collapse of medical services during Israel's military assault on Gaza City.Israeli forces seized Al Shifa last week to search for what they said was a Hamas tunnel network built underneath. Hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people left Al Shifa at the weekend, with doctors saying they were ejected by troops and Israel saying the departures were voluntary.Live footage aired by Egypt's Al Qahera TV showed medical staff carefully lifting tiny infants from inside an ambulance and placing them in mobile incubators, which were then wheeled across a car park towards other ambulances.The babies had been transported on Sunday to a hospital in Rafah, on the southern border of Hamas-ruled Gaza, so their condition could be stabilised ahead of transfer to Egypt.All of the evacuated babies were "fighting serious infections", a World Health Organisation spokesperson said.Eight infants have died since doctors at Al Shifa originally raised an international alarm this month about 39 premature babies at risk from a lack of infection control, clean water and medicines in the neo-natal ward.At another hospital, funded by Indonesia, Gaza's health ministry said at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by firing into the complex encircled by Israeli tanks.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about the situation at the hospital where health officials said 700 patients along with staff were under Israeli fire.The Palestinian news agency WAFA said the facility in the northeast Gaza town of Beit Lahia had been hit by artillery rounds. Palestinian health officials said there were frantic efforts to evacuate civilians out of harm's way.Hospital staff denied there were any armed militants on the premises. "We had information earlier that tanks were besieging the Indonesian Hospital. Unfortunately..., communications there are almost cut," Nahed Abu Taaema, director of Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, told Reuters."We are very concerned about the fate of our colleagues and the fate of wounded and patients as well as (displaced) people who may have still (been) sheltering there. No ambulances can reach them, and we're afraid the wounded will die."Indonesia condemned what it called Israel's "attack" on the hospital set up with Indonesian funding in 2016, saying it clearly violated international humanitarian laws, and urged countries close to Israel to get it to stop the violence.Like all other health facilities in the northern half of Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital has largely ceased operations but is still sheltering patients, staff and displaced residents.Israel has ordered the total evacuation of the north, but thousands of civilians remain, many sheltering in hospitals. Food, fuel, medicines and drinking water have been running out across the enclave under Israel's six-week-old siege.In the south, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans who fled the north of the enclave are sheltering, at least 14 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli strikes on houses in Rafah, according to Gaza health authorities. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the incident.Witnesses also reported bouts of heavy fighting between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance into north Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, home to 100,000 people.Repeated Israeli bombardment of Jabalia, an urban extension of Gaza City that grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, has killed scores of civilians, Palestinian medics say.The Israeli military issued a statement with video of air strikes and troops going house-to-house in Gaza, saying they killed three Hamas company commanders and a squad of Palestinian fighters, without giving specific locations.Despite continued fighting, US and Israeli officials said a Qatari-mediated deal to free some of the hostages held in the Palestinian enclave and pause fighting temporarily to enable aid deliveries to stricken civilians was edging closer.The United Nations says two thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been made homeless. Gaza's Hamas-run government said at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,500 children.Another 20,000 Gazans, including increasing numbers of unaccompanied children, journeyed from the north to south, mainly by donkey cart or bus or on foot, on Sunday, and some 900,000 displaced people are now in UN shelters, the UN Humanitarian Office (OCHA) said in an update on Monday.Thousands more displaced people were sleeping against the walls of shelters in the south, out in the open, with an average of one shower for 700 people and one toilet for 150, OCHA said.Israeli forces have seized wide areas of the north and northwest and east around Gaza City, the Israeli military says.But Hamas and local witnesses say militants are waging guerrilla-style warfare in the warrens of the congested, urbanised north, including parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Beach refugee camps.

The Israeli Occupation forces attacked the Indonesian Hospital, north of Gaza City, at dawn Monday.Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported that the occupation army fired live ammunition directly at the Indonesian Hospital which was crowded with wounded, while its artillery shelled violently the area around the hospital, leaving a number of Palestinians injured.The occupation forces also shelled the vicinity of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza Strip.WAFA added that the occupation warplanes bombed the residence of Al Hasnat family, injuring several of Palestinians.The occupation warplanes also targeted a residential apartment in Sheikh Zayed City in northern Gaza Strip, in conjunction with artillery continuous shelling of various areas north of the Strip.The number of martyrs in the last Israeli raids in northern Gaza Strip remains unclear amidst inability of medical civil defense crews to reach the bombed areas, and communications and Internet outages. (QNA)

The Palestinian Ministry of Education said that more than 5,000 children, including over 3,000 students, have been martyred since the start of the Israeli occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7.In a press release carried by the Palestinian news agency (WAFA) on the occasion of the World Children's Day, celebrated annually on Nov. 20, the ministry said that the scenes of killing children and school students in Gaza have violated all norms and conventions, and expose the occupation's mentality and its continuous targeting of education throughout the country.The ministry called on the world's countries and their institutions to protect the rights of Palestinian children and school students in life and in education, and to stand against the Israeli occupation, affirming the natural right of the children of Palestine to a decent life and a safe and stable education.It also urged all organizations and institutions advocating for childhood and the right to education to fulfill their responsibilities within their mandates, curb the escalating violations, stop the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against children, students, and educational personnel in all regions, and urgently intervene to end this aggression.In a preliminary statistic, the Ministry of Health announced an increase in the number of martyrs in the Gaza Strip to more than 12,200, including approximately 5,000 children, 3,250 women, and 690 elderly. The number of injuries exceeded 29,500, with more than 4,000 citizens still listed as missing, including 2,000 children. (QNA)

Palestinian medics evacuated 31 premature babies from Gaza City’s war-torn Al-Shifa hospital yesterday in a high-risk operation, the UN said, pledging to also move patients and staff who remain there.The hospital, Gaza’s largest, has been described by the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) as a “death zone”, after it sent a team to visit the facility on Saturday.Mohamed Zaqut, director general of hospitals in Gaza, said “all 31 premature babies in Al-Shifa hospital...have been evacuated” and said “preparations are under way” for them to enter Egypt.It was also confirmed by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) which said the transfer had been carried out in co-ordination with UN agencies including the WHO.Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations, with the army claiming Hamas uses it as a base.Hamas, and medical staff, have denied the accusations.Israel is seeking to destroy the Hamas fighters behind the October first week storming into the country.The Hamas health authority says Israel’s relentless military campaign has killed more than 12,300 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 31 “very sick” babies were moved out of Al-Shifa hospital in six PCRS ambulances under “extremely intense and high-risk security conditions”.They were taken to a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where they were “receiving urgent care in the neonatal intensive care unit,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, saying they were accompanied by “six health workers and 10 staff family members”.The agency was planning “further missions...to urgently transport remaining patients and health staff out of Al-Shifa Hospital”, he added, once guarantees of safe passage are secured.The WHO’s initial visit to Al-Shifa came after hundreds fled the hospital on Saturday following what Al-Shifa’s director said were Israeli army orders for it to be emptied.Israel denied ordering the move.An AFP journalist at the scene saw crowds of sick, injured and displaced people walking towards the seafront, with the health ministry saying 120 patients had stayed behind, among them a number of premature babies.“Many patients can not leave the hospital as they are in the ICU beds or the baby incubators,” Ahmed al-Mokhallalati, a doctor at the hospital, wrote Saturday on X, formerly Twitter.Following its visit to Al-Shifa, the WHO said 291 patients and 25 health workers were still inside the hospital, figures issued several hours before the babies were evacuated.Since November 11, when fuel supplies ran out at Al-Shifa, eight babies died due to the lack of electricity to run incubator units, the health ministry has said.

The Israeli occupation forces’ bombing of UNRWA-operated Al Fakhoora School in the northern Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing and wounding of dozens of Palestinians including children, has drawn wide condemnation.The Muslim World League condemned the continuous horrific and barbaric crimes against civilians and civilian facilities, which represent a flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian laws and norms.It urgently called for the international community to respond immediately to this catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories by putting an end to the systematic crimes against innocent civilians, subjecting their perpetrators to accountability in accordance with international legitimacy, and implementing an immediate ceasefire.TURKISH FOREIGNMINISTRY CRITICISESThe Turkish Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the Israeli attack.The attack is more “evidence” that Israel “deliberately and ruthlessly targeted the civilian population, especially children, in Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement yesterday. The international community should no longer “turn a blind eye to Israel undermining law and all humanitarian values with the grave crimes it has committed.It is imperative to immediately declare an unconditional and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. We call on every conscientious member of the international community to take the necessary steps in this direction,” the ministry stressed.GCC CHIEFDECRIES ATTACKGCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi expressed his strong condemnation of the bombing of the Al Fakhoora School.He stated that this aggressive act, which targeted innocent civilians, constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian laws, treaties, and values, adding that it goes against all ethical and humanitarian principles. He reiterated his complete rejection of any deliberate targeting of the lives of innocent civilians, calling for an immediate ceasefire.He stressed the importance of ensuring the protection of civilians, relief facilities, and humanitarian workers. He also called for the activation of relevant international decisions and the implementation of international accountability mechanisms to investigate these ongoing violations and hold the perpetrators accountable.He affirmed the GCC countries’ commitment to their steadfast position in supporting all international efforts to achieve peace and justice, and standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their legitimate demands.He called on the international community to take urgent and immediate action to put an end to these aggressive acts and to prevent further escalation that threatens regional and international stability.GUTERRES SHOCKEDUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday that he was deeply shocked that two UNRWA schools were struck in less than 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens of people, including women and children.“Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians are seeking shelter at UN facilities throughout Gaza due to the intensified fighting. I reaffirm that our premises are inviolable,” Guterres said in a statement.He stressed that fighting in Gaza was causing a staggering and unacceptable number of civilian casualties and again called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. (QNA)

Israel should not pursue big offensive against Hamas in south Gaza until military planners have taken into account the safety of fleeing Palestinian civilians, a White House official saysGaza's civilian death toll 'staggering and unacceptable', UN chief Guterres says, again urging a humanitarian ceasefireHamas gunmen battled Israeli forces trying to push into Gaza's largest refugee camp on Sunday and at least 11 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli air strike on a house, medics said, as hopes rose of a deal to free some hostages from the enclave.The Washington Post said on Sunday that US mediators were close to a deal between Israel and Hamas to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in their war that would help boost emergency aid shipments to Gaza civilians, citing people familiar with the matter.The Post had reported on Saturday that a tentative deal had been reached, but this was denied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US officials, with a White House spokesperson saying efforts were continuing to clinch a deal.On Sunday, however, Israel's Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog said in an interview on ABC's "This Week" that Israel was hopeful a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas "in coming days".Hamas took about 240 hostages during its deadly cross-border rampage into Israel on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to besiege and invade the tiny Palestinian territory to wipe out its ruling group after several inconclusive wars since 2007.Reuters reported on Nov. 15 that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire, citing an official briefed on the talks. At the time, the official said general outlines had been agreed but Israel was still negotiating details.On Sunday, HE the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani told a press conference in Doha that the main obstacles to a deal were now "very minor", with mainly "practical and logistical" issues to surmount.The delicate hostage talks coincide with Israel preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas to Gaza's southern half, signalled by increasing air strikes there on targets Israel sees as lairs of Hamas.However, Israel's main ally the United States cautioned it on Sunday not to embark on combat operations in the south until military planners have taken into account the safety of fleeing Palestinian civilians.Gaza's traumatised population has been on the move since the start of the war, sheltering in hospitals or trudging from the north to the south and, in some cases, back again, in desperate efforts to stay out of the line of fire.The civilian death toll in Gaza was "staggering and unacceptable", UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday, again appealing for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.Israeli tanks and troops stormed into Gaza late last month and have since wrested control of large areas of the north and northwest and east around Gaza City, the military says.But Hamas and local witnesses say fighters are waging guerrilla-style war in pockets of the densely urbanised north, including parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Beach refugee camps.Witnesses reported heavy fighting overnight on Sunday between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's camps with nearly 100,000 people.Jabalia, a poor and crowded district that grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, has come under repeated Israeli bombardment that has killed scores of civilians, Palestinian medics say.Via social media in Arabic, Israel's military on Sunday urged residents of several Jabalia neighbourhoods to evacuate towards south Gaza "to preserve your safety" and to that end said it would pause military action from 10am to 2pm.After the "pause" period expired, 11 Palestinians in Jabalia were killed by an Israeli air strike on a house, the enclave's health ministry said.Most of Jabalia's inhabitants rejected previous Israeli appeals to clear out to the south of the narrow coastal enclave. The south has also been repeatedly bombarded by Israel, rendering Israeli promises of safety absurd, Palestinians say.Around 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamas's shock Oct. 7 assault, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's Health Ministry raised its death toll from Israeli bombardments to 12,300, including 5,000 children.In the centre of the narrow coastal enclave, Palestinian medics said 31 people were killed, including two local journalists, in Israeli air strikes targeting a number of houses in the Bureij and Nusseirat refugee camps late on Saturday night. Another air strike killed a woman and her child overnight in the main southern city of Khan Younis, they said.In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, dozens of Palestinians marched to a funeral for 15 residents killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment block on Saturday."Our youth are dying, women and children are dying, where are the Arab presidents?" wailed Heydaya Asfour, a relative of some of the dead.Hamas's armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said the fighters killed six soldiers at close range in the village of Juhr al-Dik, just east of Gaza City, after ambushing them with an anti-personnel missile and closing in with machine guns.A total of 62 Israeli soldiers have died in the conflict, according to the latest army count.A team led by the World Health Organization that visited Al Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, described it as a "death zone", days after advancing Israeli forces seized the premises to root out an alleged underground Hamas command centre.The WHO team reported signs of gunfire and shelling and a mass grave at Al Shifa's entrance, and said it was making plans for the immediate evacuation of 291 remaining patients, including the war-wounded, and 25 staff.On Sunday, 31 premature babies were evacuated from Al Shifa in a joint operation by the UN and Palestinian Red Crescent and will be taken over the southern Rafah border crossing to Egypt for hospitalisation there, Gaza's health ministry said.Eight premature babies previously died at Al Shifa for lack of electricity and medication crucial to care, it said.Hundreds of other patients, staff and displaced people who were sheltering in Al Shifa left on Saturday, with Palestinian health officials saying they were ejected inhumanely by Israeli troops and the military saying the departures were voluntary.

Palestinian medics evacuated 31 premature babies from Gaza City's war-torn Al-Shifa hospital Sunday in a high-risk operation, the UN said, pledging to also move patients and staff who remain there.The hospital, Gaza's largest, has been described by the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) as a "death zone", after it sent a team to visit the facility on Saturday.Mohammed Zaqut, director general of hospitals in Gaza, told AFP "all 31 premature babies in Al-Shifa hospital... have been evacuated" and said "preparations are under way" for them to enter Egypt.It was also confirmed by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) which said the transfer had been carried out in coordination with United Nations agencies including the WHO.Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations, with the army claiming Hamas uses it as a base. Hamas, and medical staff, have denied the accusations.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 31 "very sick" babies were moved out of Al-Shifa hospital in six PCRS ambulances under "extremely intense and high-risk security conditions".They were taken to a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where they were "receiving urgent care in the neonatal intensive care unit," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, saying they were accompanied by "six health workers and 10 staff family members".The agency was planning "further missions... to urgently transport remaining patients and health staff out of Al-Shifa Hospital", he added, once guarantees of safe passage are secured.The WHO's initial visit to Al-Shifa came after hundreds fled the hospital on Saturday following what Al-Shifa's director said were Israeli army orders for it to be emptied.An AFP journalist at the scene saw crowds of sick, injured and displaced people walking towards the seafront, with the health ministry saying 120 patients had stayed behind, among them a number of premature babies."Many patients can not leave the hospital as they are in the ICU beds or the baby incubators," Ahmed al-Mokhallalati, a doctor at the hospital, wrote Saturday on X, formerly Twitter.Following its visit to Al-Shifa, the WHO said 291 patients and 25 health workers were still inside the hospital, figures issued several hours before the babies were evacuated.Since November 11, when fuel supplies ran out at Al-Shifa, eight babies died due to the lack of electricity to run incubator units, the health ministry has said.

As Israel prepares to widen its military campaign in Gaza, Palestinians such as 80-year-old Mahrous Nasrallah wonder if there will be anywhere left to shelter in the tiny enclave where entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble.Nasrallah was five years old when his family was forced to move from his hometown of Beersheba to Gaza during the "Nakba", the Arabic word for "catastrophe" that refers to Palestinians' mass dispossession after Israel was founded in 1948.He still dreams of returning to that childhood home in the Negev desert."Let them send us to the Negev ... The Negev can take millions of people and they can stop making problems every two years. This is desperate life," he said.Any hope of a new refuge now in the centre of Israel is a distant and desperate one.The bombardment has flattened swathes of northern Gaza, while some two-thirds of the enclave's population of 2.3 million have been displaced to the south.Adding to the misery, the weather has turned, sending rain pounding down onto flimsy shelters and tents.The traumatized population has been on the move since the start of the war, sheltering in hospitals or moving from the north to the south and, in some cases, back again.An expected Israeli offensive in the south could compel hundreds of thousands who fled Gaza City to uproot yet again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, compounding an already dire humanitarian crisis.Many, like Laila Abu Nemer who moved from Gaza City to the south, wonder how her family can survive the Israeli onslaught now in its seventh week."There is no bread, if we get a loaf of bread we divide it among the children. There are vegetables, they gave us vegetables but there is no way to cook, so there is no way the children can eat," she said."It feels hard that every day when we are sleeping with the children, they wake up terrified because of the sound (of explosions). There is no safety at all."An Israeli advance into southern Gaza may prove more complicated and deadlier than the north, with Hamas militants dug into the Khan Younis region, a power base of Gaza political leader Yahya Sinwar, a senior Israeli source and two top ex-officials said.Nourhan Saqallah quit Gaza City and moved to Deir Al-Balah after Israel urged people to move to the south. For now she and her family are sheltering in a tent."They are threatening they want to empty the area for the ground offensive," she said. "What will be our fate?"

The Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Israeli attack on the UN Al-Fakhoura school in northern Gaza Strip."We strongly condemn Israel's attack on the Al-Fakhoura school operated by the UN in Gaza on November 18, which resulted in the killing of dozens of innocent Palestinian children," the Ministry said statement on Sunday.The attack is more "evidence" that Israel "deliberately and ruthlessly targeted the civilian population, especially children, in Gaza," the Ministry added.The international community should no longer "turn a blind eye to Israel undermining law and all humanitarian values with the grave crimes it has committed. It is imperative to immediately declare an unconditional and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. We call on every conscientious member of the international community to take the necessary steps in this direction," the Ministry stressed.Dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured Saturday in an Israeli bombardment of the UN-run learning center in Jabalia Camp, northern Gaza Strip. (QNA)

A humanitarian assessment team visited Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza and saw signs of the Israeli shelling and gunfire in what was described as a "death zone," the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.The WHO-led team, which included public health experts, logistics officers and security staff from various UN departments, was able to spend only an hour inside the hospital on Saturday due to security concerns, WHO said in a statement.The team described the hospital as a "death zone" and said the situation was "desperate," with the hospital basically not functioning as a medical facility due to scarcity of clean water, fuel, medicine and other essentials."Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and were told more than 80 people were buried there," the WHO statement said.The hallways and hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, and patients and health staff expressed fear for their health and safety, it said. There were 25 health workers and 291 patients, including 32 babies in critical condition, remaining in Al-Shifa, WHO said."WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families," it said."Over the next 24-72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients" to other hospitals in the south of Gaza.The remaining 2,500 internally displaced people who had sought refuge on Al Shifa grounds were gone after the Israeli Defense Forces issued evacuation orders on Saturday, WHO said.WHO repeated its call for an immediate ceasefire and sustained humanitarian assistance, saying options for medical care in the small coastal enclave were dwindling. (QNA)