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SvennoJ on 15 February 2024
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Blinken says ‘very hard’ obstacles remain for Israel-Hamas deal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a deal between Israel and Hamas that would include a pause in the fighting and the release of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners is still possible but “very hard” points of disagreement have yet to be resolved.

“We are very committed to do everything we can to move forward and see if we can reach an agreement,” he added. Talks involving Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the US ended in Cairo this week without a breakthrough.

You are the obstacle, keeping on green lighting the ongoing genocide. No red lines even for Rafah, just please limit the 'bad stories' coming out of Gaza, which the IDF has been doing by eliminating journalists...

Al Jazeera rejects Israel’s justification for ‘heinous crimes’ against journalists

Al Jazeera Media Network has issued a statement rebuking Israel for claiming that it targeted and severely injured the network’s journalist Ismail Abu Omar because he is a Hamas deputy commander.

“The Network condemns the accusations against its journalists and recalls Israel’s long record of lies and fabrication of evidence through which it seeks to hide its heinous crimes,” Al Jazeera said in a statement. 

Abu Omar was wounded on Tuesday in an Israeli drone attack along with Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Matar. “At a time when its correspondents and field crews are making great sacrifices to cover what is happening in Gaza, Al Jazeera’s employment policies stipulate that employees are not to engage in any political affiliations that may affect their professionalism and to adhere to the controls and directives contained in the Network’s code of ethics and code of conduct,” Al Jazeera said. “Al Jazeera ensures that all its journalists and correspondents adhere to the editorial standards.”

Throughout the war, Israel has justified attacks in Gaza – including on civilian infrastructure, journalists, hospitals, aid groups and medics – by claiming its targets are associated with Hamas but without providing credible evidence.

PRCS rejects Israel’s ‘terrorist’ accusations

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says Israeli claims that 20 “terrorists disguised as medical personnel” where arrested from al-Amal Hospital on Friday were “fabricated”. The Israeli army raided the Khan Younis hospital last week after it had come under heavy bombardment for weeks. Thousands of displaced people had taken shelter there.

“The PRCS believes that these accusations are only part of a series of excuses fabricated by the occupation forces to justify the siege, bombing, storming of hospitals, and killing of PRCS medical staff and others in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a post on X. The aid organisation added that Israeli forces arrested nine of its medical and administrative staff as well as nine elderly patients and their companions.

Video shows bodies of infants decomposing at al-Nasr Hospital

Footage has emerged showing the decomposing bodies of premature infants at Al Nassr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which was besieged earlier in the war. Al Jazeera’s verification unit, Sanad, confirmed the video shows the infants’ remains left unattended in one of the hospital’s wards.

“On November 10, the Israeli army besieged Al Nassr Children’s Hospital and then instructed the medical staff to evacuate the hospital along with the displaced persons,” Mohammed Hamouda, a doctor at the hospital, told Al Jazeera in a voice message. “In this situation, we were forced to merge the nursery with the intensive care unit for critical cases requiring artificial respiration,” he said. “We operated a generator to keep the equipment running. We left the hospital under the Israeli siege with the understanding that the Red Cross would follow up on these cases.”

“However, all of them passed away and were left to decompose,” he concluded.

UNRWA says 84 percent of health facilities impacted by attacks

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has said that 84 percent of Gaza’s health facilities have been affected by attacks since the war began. Israeli forces have targeted and raided health facilities throughout the conflict.

“Shocking footage shows unimaginable destruction in Gaza City, including our health centre. +70 percent of civilian infrastructure- including homes, hospitals & schools- have been destroyed or severely damaged,” the group said in a social media post. “84 percent of health facilities have been affected by attacks. Nowhere is safe.”

‘Everyone is hungry in Gaza today’: Aid group

Joyce Ajlouny – the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Quaker organisation working in Gaza since 1949 – tells Al Jazeera starvation in Gaza is at a “just enormous and truly catastrophic” level.

“Our staff who despite being displaced many times have continued to distribute some aid, [which is a] drop in the ocean. They told us on the call yesterday that they are having a hard time finding fresh food. Some of the [aid] trucks have spoiled food because of the bureaucracy. … The trucks have been held for far too long [by Israel],” she said from Bethesda in the US state of Maryland.

“We have purchased a few trucks of aid in Egypt, but we are not able to get them in [Gaza]. I think we have got only one truck in since the beginning of this war,” Ajlouny added.

“[Our staff] are telling us that they are seeing people hungry. Everyone is hungry in Gaza today. That is just enormous and truly catastrophic, and we’ve never seen anything like that before.” She also said her organisation is “worried that if an attack on Rafah takes place, then this is going to exacerbate the situation, and we are going to see our ability to provide humanitarian assistance, including food, crippled even more”.