WHO says trying to restore partial functionality at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is working with its partners to restore partial functionality to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza weeks after it was devastated by another Israeli military ground assault.
“The plan here is not to open the hospital as a whole, like the way it was before, but there is a minimum package of services that we expect at a secondary health care facility at this level,” said Husna Daffalla, a WHO coordinator.
She said that includes the maternity ward, operating theatres, the emergency department, paediatrics, an intensive care unit, and a newborn unit.
Hundreds of bodies were found in mass graves at the Nasser Hospital last month, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating.
#Gaza: @WHO and partners have started work to clean-up Nasser Medical Complex as part of efforts to restore functionality so it can serve patients again pic.twitter.com/haho4xg0q2
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) May 1, 2024
Palestinian Red Crescent to establish field hospital with Kuwaiti, Egyptian help
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says it has received trucks loaded with medical devices and equipment belonging to the Kuwaiti Red Crescent via the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza.
The aim, it says, is to establish a field hospital in the Mawasi area near Khan Younis in southern Gaza to provide medical services to “hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians”.
As the Israeli military continues its attacks on the southern parts of the enclave and also plans to invade Rafah from the ground, the PRCS is undertaking this project with help from Kuwaiti and Egyptian counterparts.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society is receiving trucks loaded with medical devices and equipment belonging to the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Field Hospital via the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip. 📍PRCS plans to establish the hospital in the Mawasi Khan Younis area to… pic.twitter.com/61E6XPaaZu
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 1, 2024
Israel says ‘anti-Semitic’ Colombian president can’t change relations
The Israeli foreign minister says the “hate-filled and anti-Semitic” Colombian President Gustavo Petro cannot change bilateral relations that he claims “have always been warm”.
Israel Katz said in a post on X that the Colombian president – who announced hours earlier that the South American nation will sever diplomatic relations with Israel – is rewarding Hamas.
He said Israel will “continue to protect its citizens fearlessly” despite Colombia siding with “the most despicable monsters known to humanity”.
The Israeli military has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says Colombia’s decision to cut political ties is a reward for Hamas
US House passes ‘anti-Semitism’ bill that targets Israel criticism
The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that broadens the definition of “anti-Semitism” in order to include the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity”.
The proposal was passed 320-91, and aims to codify a definition of anti-Semitism offered by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It will now have to be also approved by the Senate, but many US politicians – especially Republicans – have backed it, as tens of thousands of students stage pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country.
Democratic and Jewish member of Congress Sara Jacobs, who voted against the legislation, said she has faced anti-Semitism all her life, “but I do not believe that anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitism”.
She said she rejected the legislation “because it fails to effectively address the very real rise of anti-Semitism, all while defunding colleges and universities across the country and punishing many, if not all, of the non-violent protesters speaking out against the Israeli military’s conduct”.
My statement on voting against H.R. 6090: pic.twitter.com/XtxQ1iHatW
— Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (@RepSaraJacobs) May 1, 2024