Satellite images reveal destruction of hospitals in Gaza
The crisis in Gaza’s hospitals, or what remains of them, is catastrophic. Hospitals can barely treat patients, and staff don’t have the equipment, medicine or even beds necessary to take care of Palestinians in the enclave, who are struggling to survive under Israeli bombing.
The hospitals themselves have come under repeated attack with most damaged or destroyed. A medical team sent to Gaza by three aid groups described the situation in the hospitals as having reached “unimaginable” levels.
To understand the scale of the physical damage to the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency analysed satellite images captured from October 22 to March 27.
Sanad found that 24 hospitals were damaged, including:
- 6 hospitals in northern Gaza
- 10 hospitals in Gaza City
- 1 hospital in Deir el-Balah
- 7 hospitals in Khan Younis
The analysis covers hospitals that have been destroyed or occupied by Israeli forces.
Al-Shifa hospital
Rise in ‘scholasticide’ Gaza education system
Sean Carroll, president and CEO of the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) organisation, says the entire formal education system in Gaza “has come to a standstill”. Discussing the destruction of the education system in Gaza, Carroll told Al Jazeera the term “scholasticide” is accurate and reflects the targeting of schools in the besieged enclave.
Palestinians “know the importance of education”, he said, adding that formal education is “paramount” among Palestinians in Gaza as well as in the occupied West Bank. “The literacy rate in Gaza is 97 or 98 percent, even higher than the West Bank,” Carroll said.
“Now, every single university in Gaza is out of commission, and the entire education system … has come to a standstill.” The targeting of schools and the inability of “anyone” to get a formal education are giving rise to the term “scholasticide”, Carroll said.
US indeed OKs the invasion of Rafah
US says Israel agrees to listen to American concerns during Rafah meeting
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says that Israeli and US officials have met on Israel’s planned invasion of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, the last city in the Gaza Strip yet untouched by an Israeli army ground offensive.
Around 1.5 million people, most of them displaced from other parts of Gaza, are currently sheltering in the city, and the US has said for months that it will not support Israel’s upcoming attack if a plan is not in place to protect the civilians there.
Sullivan said US and Israeli officials discussed US concerns with various courses of action in Rafah, which Israel agreed to take into account and discuss further, adding officials will meet again soon.
“The two sides agreed on the shared objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah,” the White House said in a statement, adding that the meeting involved the US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group, which was convened by Sullivan.
Israel has been slow to react to US requests over the course of its war on Gaza, including on the protection of civilians and humanitarian workers, as well as on the amount of aid that gets into the Strip.
Spokesperson Patrick Ryder says the Pentagon views the discussions with the Israelis regarding Rafah were technical in nature. He said the discussion enabled the United States to share with Israel its “concerns” and “provide lessons learned” from years of conducting “those types of operations.”
“We understand the need of Israel to go after Hamas, to eliminate, or defeat Hamas’ threat” “We believe there is a way to do this while also taking into account the civilian safety and ensuring humanitarian assistance,” Ryder said
Delusional bunch of fanatics. Still nothing learned from Mosul, Fallujah, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen and so on.
