GAZA STRIP
\nAmid Israeli bombardment, two major hospitals in northern Gaza \u2014 Al Shifa and Al Quds \u2014 closed to new patients on Sunday, with staff saying that a lack of fuel and medicine meant those already being treated could die.
\nHospitals 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.
\nSoon after the strike, Hamas said it is suspending negotiations for exchange of prisoners because of Israel\u2019s 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 \u201cwill become a morgue\u201d.
\nOther 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 \u201ca significant number of deaths and injuries.\u201d Besides, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for pressure on the United States to stop Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza, but said there would be no agreement unless Washington accepted the enclave as Palestinian land.<\/p>\n
Gaza City\u2019s Al-Shifa hospital is caught in Israel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military has denied deliberately targeting the hospital and accused Hamas of using medical facilities or tunnels under them as hideouts \u2014 a charge Hamas denies.<\/p>\n
\u2018Bloodiest ever\u2019<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Witnesses inside the Al-Shifa hospital told AFP by phone on Sunday that \u201cviolent fighting\u201d had raged around the hospital the whole night.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military pledged on Saturday to aid the evacuation of babies from the hospital, noting \u201cstaff of the Al-Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow\u201d.<\/p>\n
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that \u201cwe will help the babies in the paediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u201csafe passage\u201d was to be opened from Al-Shifa to allow people to flee towards the south, the Israeli military said Sunday.<\/p>\n
Twenty of Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals are \u201cno longer functioning\u201d, according to the UN\u2019s humanitarian agency.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Gaza governance<\/p>\n
As the fighting raged, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan\u00adyahu ruled out a role for the current Palestinian Authority government in Gaza once the war is over.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will have to be something else there,\u201d he said, when asked whether the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in Occupied West Bank, may govern Gaza after the war.<\/p>\n
Pressure on Washington<\/p>\n
President Erdogan called for pressure on the United States to stop Israel\u2019s offensive in the besieged Palestinian enclave, but said there would be no agreement unless Washington accepted the enclave as Palestinian land.<\/p>\n
Mr Erdogan returned from a summit on Saturday of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which condemned Israeli forces\u2019 barbaric actions in Gaza without approving concrete punitive measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should hold talks with Egypt and the Gulf countries, and pressure the United States,\u201d Mr Erdogan told Turkish reporters on board his return flight from Riyadh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US should increase its pressure on Israel. The West should increase pressure on Israel\u2026 It\u2019s vital for us to secure a ceasefire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Union thinks exactly the same as Israel regarding Hamas. But we did not think like them,\u201d Mr Erdogan said. \u201cI see Hamas as a political party that won the elections in Palestine. I don\u2019t look at it the same way they do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Biden calls Qatar\u2019s emir<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Qatar\u2019s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani received a phone call from US President Joe Biden to discuss developments in Gaza, the Amiri Diwan \u2014 the main seat of government in Qatar \u2014 reported on Sunday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GAZA STRIP Amid Israeli bombardment, two major hospitals in northern Gaza \u2014 Al Shifa and Al Quds \u2014 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-367833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n