By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ on 31 January 2024
Edit Thread

UNRWA forced to leave Khan Younis, says agency’s Gaza chief

UNRWA says that its staff, along with thousands of the already displaced Gaza population, have been forced to flee Khan Younis due to intense fighting over the last eight days. “We’ve lost a health clinic, major shelters – facilities that were supporting the people of Khan Younis,” said Thomas White, UNRWA’s director of Gaza affairs.

WHO says Gaza is ‘starving to death’

The World Health Organization’s emergencies director Michael Ryan has said that Gaza is suffering under constraints on humanitarian aid. Israel has consistently stymied aid delivery efforts in Gaza, where severe hunger is widespread and the risk of famine continues to grow. “This is a population that is starving to death,” Ryan said at a press conference on Wednesday. “This is a population that is being pushed to the brink and they are not parties to this conflict.”

Gaza Health Ministry: Khan Younis hospitals have run out of food

The ministry has released an update on the dire humanitarian situation at Nasser and al-Amal hospitals. Things are “getting worse” at Khan Younis’ two major medical complexes, the ministry said. The situation “threatens the death of many wounded and sick people as a result of targeting and the lack of medical capabilities”, it continued, adding that both hospitals have run out of food.

Both facilities have been under siege by Israeli forces for nearly a week, with the Palestine Red Crescent saying yesterday that Israeli tanks breached the courtyard of al-Amal Hospital and “stormed” it. “We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the lives of medical staff, patients and displaced persons in Nasser Medical Complex and Al Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis,” the ministry’s statement concluded, adding a call for the Red Cross the UN to intervene to protect the lives of patients and displaced Palestinians sheltering there, and for the urgent delivery of food and supplies.

6,420 detentions in occupied West Bank since October 7

Prisoners rights group Addameer says most arrests took place in Hebron while the detainees include:

  • 215 women
  • 400 children
  • 51 journalists
  • 3,000 under administrative detention (no charge)
  • 7 who died in prison

Addameer said the data does not include Gaza’s detainees, because Israeli authorities have denied rights groups information about them. “The total number of detainees in Israeli prisons stands at 8,800 including more than 3,290 administrative detainees,” it said.

Palestinian children in West Bank afraid to go to school: UNICEF

Jonathan Crickx, the chief of communication and advocacy at UNICEF in Palestine, has told Al Jazeera that 99 children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war. “That is more than double the entire year of 2022 and that is happening amid an increased military and law enforcement operations,” he said from occupied East Jerusalem. “It is also important to note that 600 children have also been injured.”

Crickx, who also said that 600 Palestinian children have been wounded over the same period, noted that the violence was “creating fear”. “So many children, especially in Jenin and Nablus, are scared of going to school,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, an estimated 625,000 students have been unable to attend even an hour of class since October 7 and more than 300 school buildings have been either damaged or are used as shelters for internally displaced people, he said. “So, the overall, situation in the education system is very concerning and what is really required in order for children to go to school is a long, lasting ceasefire,” Crickx said. “Education is where hope lies. It is where children can actually build their own future and hopefully a better future.”

Satellite photos reveal damage done to al-Amal Hospital by Israeli forces

Sanad, our verification unit, has done an analysis of satellite images taken on January 29 that captured the impact of Israel’s military operations near al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.

Here are some of the findings:

  • Comparisons with earlier photos show extensive levelling operations carried out by Israeli vehicles on the northern side of the hospital building.
  • About 25 Israeli vehicles were stationed in the area, including more than 20 vehicles located approximately 500 metres (1,640 feet) west of the hospital building. Other vehicles were seen in separate areas.
  • Israeli forces caused widespread destruction in the western area of the hospital, where thousands of displaced people lived before having to evacuate.

Hamas condemns killing of handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinians in Beit Lahia

The Hamas government media office has called on human rights organisations “to document this horrific crime”.

It said on Telegram that Israel was continuing to “exterminate” the Palestinian people without regard to the decisions of the International Court of Justice, “which demanded that they stop the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing”.

Palestinian foreign affairs ministry calls for investigation after discovery of mass grave

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called for the formation of an international investigation team to look into accusations that Israeli forces executed prisoners. “According to testimonies of Palestinian citizens, more than 30 decomposing bodies of Palestinian martyrs were discovered buried in the northern Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement. “They were killed while blindfolded and with their hands tied, as clear evidence that they were executed… in the most horrific forms.”

Al Jazeera has spoken to witnesses who discovered the bodies and identified them. “As we were cleaning, we came across a pile of rubble inside the schoolyard. We were shocked to find out that the dozens of dead bodies were buried under this pile,” a man said. “The moment we opened the black plastic bags, we found the bodies, already decomposed. They were blindfolded, legs and hands tied. The plastic cuffs were used on their hands and legs and cloths straps around their eyes and heads.”

Video and images that emerged Tuesday showed dozens of body bags being uncovered at a school in Beit Lahia that had been used as a shelter during the fighting by hundreds of people. Some of the body bags had tags in Hebrew along with bar codes. CNN has geolocated the video to the Hamad bin Khalifa Secondary School, which along with other schools and shelters in the area was in the middle of intensive combat in early December.

The identity of the victims is unknown, as are the circumstances and date of their deaths. The area was the scene of heavy fighting in December, and two schools in Beit Lahia, including Hamad bin Khalifa, were surrounded by the Israeli military for a time. Satellite imagery from January 13 shows a number of craters in the immediate area and the tracks of bulldozers.