PRCS says nurse found dead two weeks after Israeli raid on Al-Amal Hospital
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that nurse Mohammed Abed’s body was found two weeks after Israeli forces fired at him during the evacuation of Al-Amal Hospital. “Since then, his fate remained unknown, as the ambulance crew was prevented from transporting him,” the PRCS said in a post on social media.
“His decomposed body was found today, identified through the uniform of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which was supposed to provide him with protection,” the PRCS added. The PRCS said Abed’s dedication to his work as a nurse meant he continued to help patients while the hospital remained under siege for 43 days.
The number of PRCS staff killed by Israeli forces in Gaza while performing their humanitarian duties has now risen to 16, the organisation added.
‘Children dying of infections’ at overwhelmed hospitals: UNICEF
Tess Duncan, a UNICEF spokesperson, says Gaza’s health facilities remain severely underequipped as they struggle to treat children who are sick, injured and malnourished.
“I visited four hospitals in the last five days, and I can tell you that every medical director has told me about the impact of the lack of resources and the lack of staff,” Duncan told Al Jazeera from outside the Kuwaiti Hospital in Gaza’s Rafah district.
“They’re running at four times capacity. Children are dying due to infections. Children are dying from malnutrition. There’s just not enough staff and resources to go around. … That’s why we have to rush this aid in, and that’s why we need a ceasefire,” she said.
‘We can smell the stench’: Palestinians return to destroyed Khan Younis
After Israeli troops left the largely destroyed southern city of Khan Younis, a stream of displaced Palestinians walked there, hoping to return to their homes from temporary shelters in nearby Rafah.
Muhammad Yunis, 51, a Palestinian in northern Gaza, saw nothing but devastation. “Isn’t the bombing, death and destruction enough? There are bodies still under the rubble. We can smell the stench.”
At least 33,175 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, since Israel’s attack began in October. Gaza’s Health Ministry says about 7,000 missing people are believed buried under the debris of bombed buildings.
Maha Thaer, a mother of four returning to Khan Younis, said she would move back into her badly damaged apartment “even though it is not suitable for living, but it is better than tents”.
Vast areas of Gaza have been turned into a rubble-strewn wasteland with damage estimated at $18.5bn to critical infrastructure, mostly housing, a World Bank report says.
Khan Younis ‘destroyed beyond recognition’
The moment people heard the Israelis would withdraw from the city of Khan Younis, Palestinians who were displaced in Rafah city and the central area of the Strip rushed back to inspect their homes and to check on remaining family members who were trapped.
We’re looking at more than 90 percent of the city destroyed, not only residential homes but also public facilities, the roads – entire areas have been destroyed beyond recognition.
We were told by some residents of the eastern part of Khan Younis they could not recognise the streets where they lived all their lives.
Khan Younis: ‘Animals can’t live here, so how can humans?’
Residents of Khan Younis return to a landscape marked by shattered multi-story buildings, charred overturned vehicles, and southern Gaza’s main hospital Nasser in shambles after Israeli forces’ retreat.
“It’s all just rubble,” a dejected Ahmad Abu al-Rish said. “Animals can’t live here, so how is a human supposed to?”
Allowing people to return to Khan Younis could relieve some pressure on overcrowded Rafah, where 1.5 million have sheltered from Israel’s war machine. But Israeli officials say the troop withdrawal is only temporary as plans for Rafah’s ground invasion come to fruition.
Israel’s military quietly drew down troops in devastated northern Gaza earlier in the war. But it has continued to carry out air strikes and raids in areas where it says Hamas resurfaced, including Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, leaving what the head of the World Health Organization called “an empty shell”.
