Israeli military raid continues on al-Shifa hospital, weapons found

The Israeli military announced two new soldiers killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing its total number of soldiers killed in the Palestinian territories to 50 since the start of the war with Hamas.

On October 27, Israeli tanks entered Gaza as part of a ground operation aimed at “destroying” the Islamist movement.

In His daily bulletin, OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) reports that of the 24 hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, only one is still functioning and receiving patients. This is Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.

“Eighteen hospitals have been closed and evacuated since the start of the war, including three – An Nasr, Ar Randisi and Al Quds – in the past three days,” the UN writes.

Israel’s military said its warplanes struck the home of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Gaza.

He has been the political leader of Hamas since 2017, but operates from Qatar. The Israeli military asserts that the shelter was “used as a terrorist infrastructure and often used as a meeting place for senior Hamas leaders.”

Israeli police said they had “neutralized” an attacker after a shooting near a security checkpoint linking Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank, while Israeli emergency services said “five people were wounded.”

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave without waiting for the end of the military operation in the Gaza Strip.

“People cannot lead a long campaign (army, editor’s note) with a prime minister in whom they have no faith,” he declared.

Yaïr Lapid had accused the Netanyahu government of an “inexcusable failure” for failing to prevent Hamas attacks on October 7.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has said Israel cannot afford to leave a vacuum in Gaza and must maintain a substantial force there in the short term to prevent a resurgence of Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

“If we step away, who’s going to take over? We can’t leave a vacuum. We have to think about what the mechanism might be; there are a lot of ideas being floated,” Isaac Herzog said in an interview. Financial Times.

“But no one wants to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again,” he added.

Clashes erupted between dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators and police in front of the Democratic Party’s national headquarters in Washington on Wednesday evening.

Capital Police X (formerly Twitter) said in a message that “our officers are working to contain approximately 150 people who are demonstrating illegally and violently” near the party offices.

“Officers are making arrests,” police added, adding that they treated six for “minor cuts” and “stabs.”

Elected officials who were in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices at the time were escorted out of the building by police to bring them to safety. Protesters are demanding a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip.

“There are already 239 hostages in the hands of Hamas and we have no news from them,” Israeli army spokesman Olivier Rafowicz told BFMTV.

An IDF spokesman condemned the “game” Hamas is playing and the “psychological warfare” it is waging against Israel, particularly through the broadcast of videos showing hostages.

Qatar on Wednesday called for an “international investigation” into Israeli military operations against hospitals in the Gaza Strip, condemning today’s raid on al-Sifa hospital as a “war crime”.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry “condemns in the strongest terms” the raid against al-Sifa in Gaza, calling it “a war crime and a flagrant violation of international laws and treaties.”

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During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the Israeli army announced that it was carrying out another operation at al-Shifa hospital, the Hamas administration’s Ministry of Health announced the presence of Israeli bulldozers on the hospital premises, the UN said. About 2,300 people, including patients, caregivers and displaced people.

Israeli bulldozers destroyed parts of the southern entrance to the hospital, the ministry said in a brief statement in Arabic.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday pledged that he was “relatively optimistic” about the upcoming release of hostages held by Hamas and asked Israel to be “very careful” in running its operations from Gaza at the main hospital.

“I don’t know what happened in the last four hours, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but we have received great cooperation from the Qataris,” he said during the meeting. With Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Hello everyone and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the war between Israel and Hamas.