Fears grow for patients in raided Nasser Hospital
Not only has the Nasser Hospital, in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis been under siege for the past 20 days, the Israeli military has stormed it, destroying its equipment and a warehouse where its supplies were being stored. It was turned from a healing place into a combat zone.
Humanitarian convoys from the World Health Organization (WHO) are being prevented from reaching the besieged hospital. At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser Hospital, according to the health ministry.
Israel torturing detainees from Gaza: Prisoners’ rights group
The Palestinian Prisoners Society says Israeli authorities are refusing to reveal the fate or whereabouts of people it detained from Gaza.
In a statement, the organisation said, “134 days into the war on Gaza, and the ongoing genocide, our fears are rising that Israeli forces will commit horrid crimes to our detainees, especially as more testimonies are emerging from former prisoners, who say they were subject to torture.” It added that the prisoners include women, children, and the elderly, as well as medics and doctors.
Red Crescent shares images of ‘brutality’ towards doctors
The PRCS has posted photos of two Palestinian doctors arrested a week ago from al-Amal Hospital by Israeli soldiers, who were later allegedly tortured, beaten and humiliated before their release on Friday. “The Israeli occupation arrested 12 PRCS teams, including seven who were arrested from inside Al-Amal Hospital about a week ago”, the Red Crescent said.
PRCS said it is concerned for the safety of its detained team members, whose fate remains unknown, and “calls on the international community to urgently intervene to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to immediately release our detained teams and provide protection for PRCS teams working in the Gaza Strip”.
These images show the brutality with which the Israeli occupation forces treated two doctors whom they arrested a week ago from Al-Amal Hospital, subjected to torture, beating, and humiliation before being released yesterday.
The Israeli occupation continues to arrest 12 PRCS… pic.twitter.com/CKI3NyNI7C
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 17, 2024
Int’l mechanism needed to compel Israel to protect civilians: Ministry
The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs has called for an international mechanism to ensure that civilians’ humanitarian needs are secured, as it warned of a serious deterioration in the living conditions of displaced civilians in Rafah. In a statement on X, the ministry said, “We need these mechanisms to safeguard the lives of civilians, something that the international community has failed to do for over 134 days of genocide on our people”.
The international community, the ministry added, is not only failing at halting Israel’s bombardment of homes and hospitals, but is also unable to allow for providing food, water and basic humanitarian relief to the internally displaced.
Palestinians crowd oustide a bakery to buy bread in Rafah on February 15
Air raids reported in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah
A series of air raids have hit Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, an area where displaced Palestinians are returning to since Israel intensified attacks on the southern city of Rafah. Raids hit the east of the city, an area that has come under heavy bombardment over the past week, as well as the south. Ambulances were rushed to the scene to take casualties to the hospital.
“That was insane,” Hany Allouh, a 39-year-old father of two young children. “The rockets flew above us and caused an enormous explosion. They exploded one after the other, causing panic among the people in the streets.”
An ambulance arrives at the scene in Deir el-Balah
11,000 injured in Gaza in need for treatment abroad: Media office
At least 11,000 injured Palestinians in Gaza are in need for urgent treatment abroad, the strip’s government media office says in its latest update. It also estimated that 700,000 people have contracted infectious diseases as a result of displacement, while 60,000 pregnant women face health risks due to poor sanitary conditions.
The office said 350,000 chronically ill patients lack medications and 10,000 cancer patients are at risk of dying without treatment.
‘Pure misery’: 300,000 in Gaza’s north facing famine
The Gaza Strip was already one of the poorest places in the Middle East even before Israel declared a total siege on the territory after Hamas’s October 7 attack. Though much of Gaza was reliant on food aid, enough of it was entering to largely meet the needs of its 2.4 million people. But now, after more than four months of war, the population is inching closer towards famine.
“There are about 300,000 people in the north and I have no idea how they’ve survived,” said Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA in the Palestinian territories.
“What we managed to bring up there is absolutely not enough. It is pure misery. Repeatedly, when we are allowed to cross the checkpoint at Wadi Gaza to deliver food assistance, thousands of people block and unload the trucks at the risk of being shot.”
