Israeli forces search hospital in Khan Younis, says Palestine Red Crescent Society
Israeli forces in Gaza on Friday entered and began to search Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said in a statement. “The occupation forces stormed Al-Amal Hospital and began to search it,” the PRCS said. The organization on Thursday reported “intense and continuous gunfire” near the hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet commented on the claim. CNN has asked the Israeli military about the operation. The IDF on Friday said that its troops were “continuing to conduct targeted raids in western Khan Yunis.”
Where things stand: Around 220 patients and staff remain at the hospital following an evacuation last week, according to the PRCS. “We are facing difficulty communicating with our crews inside the hospital, as they are not responding via wireless communication devices,” the PRCS said. “It’s crucial to highlight that Khan Yunis has been experiencing a communication blackout for about a month.”
Around 8,000 displaced people were last week evacuated from Al Amal Hospital and PRCS’ Khan Younis headquarters, according to the PRCS.
Red Crescent loses contact with its medical teams in al-Amal Hospital
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says it has completely lost contact with its teams working at al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, as a result of the continuing Israeli raid on the facility that began two hours ago.
Al-Amal Hospital and the Nasser Medical Complex have both been targeted and besieged for the past 19 days, and doctors have warned of the depletion of medical supplies, fuel, and oxygen shortages.
🚨 Urgent: We have completely lost contact with our teams working at Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYunis due to the continuous occupation raid on the hospital.
⚠️We are deeply worried about the safety of our teams inside Al-Amal Hospital, as well as the wounded and patients.…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 9, 2024
Egypt responds to Biden remarks on Sisi stopping aid into Gaza, saying Israeli bombardment prevented aid entry
Israel had bombed Rafah four times and damaged the crossing, therefore preventing the entry of aid into Gaza, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. “Egypt — from the first moment — opened the Rafah crossing on its part without restrictions or conditions, and mobilized humanitarian aid in large quantities … but the continued bombing of the Palestinian side of the crossing by Israel, which was repeated four times, prevented the entry of aid,” the statement said.
The statement was issued in response to US President Joe Biden's remarks on Thursday, saying that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi Sisi did not want to “open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in” but he “talked to him.” The presidency said that once the Israeli bombing stopped, it repaired the crossing to allow the entry of aid into Gaza.
Half of UN requests to deliver aid in Gaza denied, UNRWA says
The UN's main relief agency in Gaza said Friday that half of its aid mission requests to deliver aid in Gaza since the beginning of the year have been denied. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has not been able to deliver aid in Gaza since January 23, agency Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X, adding that people in the territory are on the verge of famine.
"The @UN has identified deep pockets of starvation and hunger in northern #Gaza where people are believed to be on the verge of famine," Lazzarini said. "At least 300,000 people living in the area depend on our assistance for their survival. Preventing access prevents lifesaving humanitarian aid. With the necessary political will, this can be easily reversed." The UN's World Food Program (WFP) warned Thursday on X that "2.2 million people in Gaza live in inhumane conditions, facing starvation, famine, disease" and "the winter cold is adding to their suffering."
CNN has reached out to Israel’s Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories and Israeli Defense Forces for comment on Lazzarini’s statement.
Mark Zuckerberg needs to be charged at the ICC as well. Meta has previously enabled genocide in Myanmar.
Meta may flag more social posts containing word ‘zionist’ as anti-Semitic
US newspaper The Washington Post says it has seen internal guidance from tech giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, that shows a debate is occurring within the company over how to flag user posts containing the word “zionist”. The Washington Post says the move would be to “counter a surge of anti-Semitism online”, and could set the company up for a clash over censorship, as users continue to post about Israel’s continuing war on Gaza.
To date, the war has killed at least 27,947 Palestinians and wounded 67,459 others.
The social media company has reportedly briefed some advocacy groups, both Jewish and Palestinian, on the possible change, which would expand “how it enforces its ban against hate speech to include more uses of the term, especially when it might appear as a hateful substitute for ‘Jews’ or ‘Israelis,'” the Post says, citing “people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters” at Meta.
Yesterday, The Palestinian Digital Rights Coalition, a social media watchdog group, sent letters to Meta, X, Telegram and TikTok drawing attention to the proliferation of dehumanising rhetoric against Palestinians on their platforms amid the war on Gaza.
