Number of killed people brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital rises to 30
The bodies of at least 30 killed Palestinians have now been brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, reports Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abou Azzoum from the medical facility. The victims include many elderly people, children and women, including some people who remain unidentified, he said.
Grief-stricken relatives of the victims who spoke to Al Jazeera said their loved ones were killed when their homes were attacked in the middle of the night with no prior warning.
‘Heartbreak’ in Al-Aqsa Hospital as attack victims pour in
Today I visited the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital, where the bodies of the killed Palestinians have been taken. The scenes were full of heartbreak.
I’ve been speaking to relatives of those killed away from the camera because they are in a very miserable condition. They told me they were sleeping peacefully when their homes were destroyed – and that they are lucky to have survived.
They said they had been following the orders of the Israeli military, escaping from the north to the middle area, only [for their relatives to be] killed in an area that is supposed to be a “safe zone”.
They are frustrated that they are still not afforded protection, saying they were hit with no prior warning and had done nothing wrong. They said they do not expect any end to the fighting in the foreseeable future.
Palestinians react next to the bodies of relatives killed in an Israeli strike, in Deir Al-Balah, Saturday
Israeli military operations ‘intensifying’ in northern Gaza’s Zeitoun
Israeli troops are engaging in fierce close-quarters battles in northern Gaza’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, where they have killed several fighters in recent hours and seized weaponry, according to an Israeli military statement.
Israeli forces are also pressing on with operations in Rafah, said the military, where they have also killed fighters and destroyed military sites. Throughout Gaza, Israel’s military has waged strikes on “tens” of targets over the last day, it said, hitting launch sites, observation posts and fighter positions.
There was no immediate comment by Hamas.
Group of 17 medics forced to evacuate ‘safe house’ in Rafah
Mosab Nasser, chief executive officer at FAJR Scientific, a non-profit US medical organisation, has told Al Jazeera that 17 medical personnel are currently stuck in Rafah after Israel seized the Rafah border crossing.
The group arrived on April 29 on a two-week mission, Nasser said, speaking from the European Gaza Hospital in Rafah.
“We were operating the first week of our mission with no problems and then the military operation started in eastern Rafah. But then it started trickling farther west where our safe house was,” he said.
“This morning we received the evacuation orders from Block 6 in Rafah where our safe house is – it is not longer safe – to evacuate, so we had to interrupt our work at the hospital and go back and pick up our stuff from the unsafe house and bring it back to the European Hospital,” he added.
Nasser said the Israeli military operation was not, as Israel claims, concentrated on eastern Rafah. “What we have experienced is completely otherwise. In fact, bombs were falling in the neighbourhood where we were, within a distance of less than 500 metres [0.3 miles] from the supposedly safe house, which put our physicians and surgeons at risk.”
Essay Pro