Israeli soldiers open fire on, humiliate staff delivering medical aid in Gaza: WHO

Israeli soldiers open fire on, humiliate staff delivering medical aid in Gaza: WHO
UN staff approach a wounded Palesinian reportedly shot by Israeli forces while leaving Gaza City. (File/AFP)
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Updated 12 December 2023
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Israeli soldiers open fire on, humiliate staff delivering medical aid in Gaza: WHO

Israeli soldiers open fire on, humiliate staff delivering medical aid in Gaza: WHO
  • PRCS health worker forced to walk back without clothes or shoes, and with his hands tied behind his back
  • One patient died from untreated wounds as a result delays caused by Israeli soldiers

LONDON: Israel Defense Forces opened fire on a medical convoy transporting World Health Organization staff through Gaza on Saturday, according to the head of the UN agency.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the WHO team and their partners from the Palestine Red Crescent Society were on a “high-risk” mission to deliver medical supplies to Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza when they were hit by bullets.

The WHO reported that IDF soldiers treated PRCS health workers in “a degrading and humiliating manner” at multiple military checkpoints and during detentions as the convoy, which included ambulances, traveled through Gaza.

The WHO-led convoy was reportedly subjected to an initial inspection at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint on its way to the hospital, where IDF soldiers removed ambulance staff from their vehicles for identification. Two PRCS employees were allegedly detained for more than an hour.

“WHO staff saw one of them being forced to kneel at gunpoint and then taken out of sight, where he was reportedly harassed, beaten, stripped and searched,” the WHO stated on Tuesday.

After the mission passed through the checkpoint and entered Gaza City, “the aid truck carrying the medical supplies and an ambulance were hit by bullets,” Tedros wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

On its return to the south of Gaza, after picking up patients from Al-Ahli, the mission was stopped again at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, with critical patients allegedly searched by armed Israeli soldiers.

As a result of the delays, one of the patients died from his untreated wounds, Tedros said.

A PRCS health worker, previously detained, was taken for a second interrogation, the WHO reported. He was later released that night following UN intervention but was forced to walk back without clothes or shoes, and with his hands tied behind his back.

“We are deeply concerned about the prolonged checks and detention of health workers that put the lives of already fragile patients at risk,” Tedros said.

“The difficulties faced by this mission illustrate the shrinking space for humanitarian actors to provide aid within Gaza, despite the desperate need for access to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian situation,” the WHO separately stated.

The incident comes amid growing concerns over human rights violations by Israeli military troops, who faced fierce backlash last week for stripping, blindfolding Palestinian men, and parading them in the streets.

The operation to Al-Ahli Hospital delivered enough trauma and surgical supplies to treat 1,500 patients, and also transferred 19 critical patients to a medical complex in the Strip’s south.
 


Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534

Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534
Updated 26 September 2024
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Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534

Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534
  • The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours
  • Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strike on school

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Civil defense rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike Thursday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 15 people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas command center.
The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.
Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “15 martyrs, including children and women, and dozens wounded, some of them seriously, following an Israeli bombardment of Al-Faluja school in Jabalia camp in north Gaza.”
Bassal earlier said the death toll was seven.
The military said it carried out “precise strikes” targeting Hamas militants operating inside what it said was a command-and-control center at the Al-Faluja school.
AFP was unable to immediately verify what was targeted, and the military statement did not provide information on casualties.
Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 41,534 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 12th month.
The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,092 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,534

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,534
Updated 26 September 2024
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,534

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,534
  • The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours
  • Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strike on school

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Civil defense rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike Thursday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 15 people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas command center.
The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.
Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “15 martyrs, including children and women, and dozens wounded, some of them seriously, following an Israeli bombardment of Al-Faluja school in Jabalia camp in north Gaza.”
Bassal earlier said the death toll was seven.
The military said it carried out “precise strikes” targeting Hamas militants operating inside what it said was a command-and-control center at the Al-Faluja school.
AFP was unable to immediately verify what was targeted, and the military statement did not provide information on casualties.
Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 41,534 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 12th month.
The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,092 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

 

 

 

 


Israel strike targets head of Hezbollah drone unit

Israel strike targets head of Hezbollah drone unit
Updated 42 min 15 sec ago
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Israel strike targets head of Hezbollah drone unit

Israel strike targets head of Hezbollah drone unit
  • An “Israeli strike targeted the commander of Hezbollah’s drone unit, Mohammed Srur, known as Abu Saleh, whose fate is still unclear,” the source said
  • Srur studied mathematics and was among a number of top advisers sent by Hezbollah to Yemen to train the country’s Houthi militants

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday targeted the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, a source close to the group said.

The Israeli military said it killed the commander in an airstrike on an apartment building in the Beirut suburbs.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment on Israel's claim that Mohammed Hussein Surour was dead.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed in the attack, the fourth in a week targeting Hezbollah commanders in the densely populated area, one of the group’s strongholds.

An “Israeli strike targeted the commander of Hezbollah’s drone unit, Mohammed Srur, known as Abu Saleh, whose fate is still unclear,” the source said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The Israeli military said it was “carrying out precise strikes in Beirut,” without immediately providing further details.

“The Israeli enemy strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs killed two people and wounded 15, including a woman in critical condition,” a health ministry statement said, adding the toll was preliminary.

Srur studied mathematics and was among a number of top advisers sent by Hezbollah to Yemen to train the country’s Houthi militants, who are also backed by Iran, the source close to Hezbollah said.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said “three missiles” targeted “a residential apartment in a 10-story building.”

An AFP photographer said the target of the strike was close to the building where the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil, and other commanders were killed in a strike last Friday.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that strike killed 55 people, including seven children.


Sudan military offensive sparks new fighting in Khartoum as cholera outbreak worsens

Sudan military offensive sparks new fighting in Khartoum as cholera outbreak worsens
Updated 26 September 2024
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Sudan military offensive sparks new fighting in Khartoum as cholera outbreak worsens

Sudan military offensive sparks new fighting in Khartoum as cholera outbreak worsens
  • For months, some of the worst fighting has been in the city of El Fasher
  • The death toll from Sudan’s cholera outbreak jumped by nearly 100 or nearly 20 percent in only two days

CAIRO: New fighting rocked Sudan’s capital on Thursday, as the death toll rapidly increased from the country’s worsening cholera outbreak, officials and Sudanese media said.
Sudan’s military launched an operation in the early hours of Thursday aimed at taking control of areas in the capital that had been in the hands of its enemy, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Sudanese media reported increased military movements and airstrikes in the districts of Khartoum and Omdurman, the heaviest in the capital area in months.
A military spokesman confirmed the operation was underway, but declined to comment further. The escalation comes as the head of Sudan’s military, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan is expected to address the United Nations’ General Assembly on Thursday.
For months, some of the worst fighting has been in the city of El Fasher, the capital of the North Darfur state. RSF forces have laid siege to the city since May. On Thursday, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said that artillery shelling on a market there had killed at least 20 civilians on Sep. 20 and 21.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Sudan’s cholera outbreak jumped by nearly 100 or nearly 20 percent in only two days, Sudan’s health ministry said Wednesday, in a worrying sign that the disease is spreading more rapidly. A total of 473 people have died from cholera since the country’s rainy season began two months ago, health officials said.
Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health in a Wednesday update reported on Facebook 14,944 cholera cases across 10 states, with 386 new cases. It said six people died on Tuesday alone in six states.
The majority of cases were reported in Kassala, where UNICEF is collaborating with the ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) to carry out a second round of the oral cholera vaccination campaign that kicked off last week.
UNICEF delivered 404,000 doses of the vaccine to Sudan on Sep. 9. More vaccination campaigns are expected to be rolled out in other affected states.
Cholera was officially declared an outbreak on August 12 by the health ministry after a new wave of cases was reported starting July 22. The disease is spreading in areas devastated by recent heavy rainfalls and floods, especially in eastern Sudan which sheltered millions of people displaced by the conflict between the Sudanese military and a rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Cholera is a highly contagious disease that causes diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration and could be fatal if not immediately treated, according to WHO. It’s transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.
Over 900 areas in 11 states have been affected by cholera between June and September 24, with the northern state being the most impacted, according to the ministry.
UNICEF said in a statement last week that an estimated 3.4 million children under the age of five are at high risk of epidemic diseases.
The war in Sudan created environments prone to disease outbreaks, impacting millions of people already experiencing food insecurity and displacement. The country plunged into war in April 2023 after tensions increased between the military and the RSF.


No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says

No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says
Updated 26 September 2024
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No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says

No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says

DOHA: There is no formal mediation track working toward a ceasefire in Lebanon yet, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a press briefing on Thursday following days of violence between Hezbollah and Israel.
He said he was not aware of a “direct link” between a 21-day Lebanon ceasefire proposal and a Gaza ceasefire proposal on which Qatar had worked extensively alongside Egypt and the United States.