Currently Online 
Gaza:
Fighting, bombardment continues in Beit Hanoon
One of the key developments on the ground is a new Israeli military incursion in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza. This city was turned into rubble in the early phase of the war. But now the Israeli military is there again, fighting against remaining Hamas battalions. The city has come under bombardment that has destroyed more neighbourhoods.
At the same time, more attacks have been carried out in Rafah in the far south of the territory. A group of Palestinians was hit by a drone missile in Rafah’s central market, causing a number of casualties.
Israeli attacks on hospitals part of ‘campaign to eradicate Palestinian society’
Dr Mads Gilbert, an emergency physician, spoke to Al Jazeera about the continued attacks on medical facilities by Israeli forces in Gaza following the ongoing sieges on al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals.
He said there is no proof to back up the claims made by the Israeli military that the hospitals are used by Palestinian fighters.
“My experience from more than 20 years in Gaza is that the Palestinians don’t use civilian structures as what [Israel are] claiming, as some sort of hideouts for the armed resistance,” he said.
The Israeli attacks on hospitals, mosques, education facilities and bakeries are part of a “campaign to eradicate the Palestinian society and any sign of Palestinian structures in the civilian life”, he said.
“This is the politics of eradicating the Indigenous people to take their lands.”
He appealed to the governments of Spain, Ireland and Norway, who stated they would recognise an independent Palestinian state on Wednesday, to “step up the political pressure and practical sanctions against Israel” to halt the healthcare crisis in Gaza.
Palestinian killed in attack on central Gaza farmland
Rescuers have recovered the body of a Palestinian killed by an Israeli air attack in az-Zawayda area of central Gaza.
Footage posted by the Palestine Red Crescent Society shows medics covering the body of the victim, lying in an agricultural area, in a white shroud and transporting it to a hospital.
Israeli attacks since October 7 have regularly targeted Gaza’s farmland, decimating around half of the enclave’s tree crops even as the population faces a severe food shortage, according to satellite analysis by Kent State University’s He Yin.
Amid fuel shortages, Gaza residents relying more on donkey carts for transportation
With fuel shortages driving up the cost of transportation, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are increasingly struggling to get around – even for critical trips to the hospital.
“One litre of diesel now costs $16,” [$60 per gallon] Juda Safi, a displaced Palestinian who uses his pick-up truck to make a living, told Al Jazeera. “It’s utter injustice. If I charge a passenger $1 to $3, we end up fighting, but it’s beyond my control. I hardly end up covering the cost of fuel or earning something to feed my family.”
For those who cannot afford such fares, a donkey cart is the only alternative, say residents, who are increasingly using them to carry goods or travel.
Maggot infestations and wounds that never heal for Gaza’s malnourished
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/5/22/maggot-infestations-and-wounds-that-never-heal-for-gazas-malnourished
Dr Mohammed Harara, 28, had barely begun working as a general practitioner when he was thrust to the front lines of a warzone, forced to become a jack-of-all-trades.
In the nearly eight months since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza, Harara has seen more than he thought he ever would. Like the maggot-infested wounds of the maimed that he has had to stand by and helplessly look at.
Lacking medication and even basic hygiene materials, Harara and his colleagues are not able to clean – or keep clean – festering wounds. Also complicating their struggles are the patients’ severely compromised physical conditions, which are slow to heal and can make such an infestation lethal.
“Slowly, these unhygienic conditions caused the body to go into sepsis and people were dying,” he told Al Jazeera.
Gaza death toll rises
The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war has risen to at least 35,800, with 91 fatalities recorded in the past 24-hour reporting period, according to the latest figures by the Health Ministry in the besieged and bombarded territory.
Another 80,011 people have been wounded in the Israeli attacks since October 7, the ministry said, while thousands more are missing under the rubble and presumed killed.
Gaza National Security Forces assistant commander killed in Israeli strike: Interior Ministry
The Interior Ministry in Gaza says in a statement published on its official Telegram channel that Major General Diaa ad-Din ash-Shurafa was killed “as a result of an assassination carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft”.
The statement says he was on a tour of as-Saraya area of central Gaza City in the northern Strip this morning when he was killed, and that four other officers were injured in the attack.
The National Security Forces operate in the occupied West Bank, where it is under the command of the Palestinian Authority, and the Gaza Strip, where it reports to the Hamas-led government. Its function is to support governmental security forces.
Qassam Brigades says Israeli commander captured on October 7
Hamas’s armed wing announced in a video message that it captured Asaf Hamami, commander of the Israeli army’s Southern Brigade in the Gaza Strip, during its attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to Israeli media, Hamami was thought to have been killed on October 7 fighting in the Nirim kibbutz.
Al-Aqsa Hospital to cease operations due to lack of fuel: Gaza Health Ministry
Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza will soon stop its operations “because of [Israel’s] practices and the United Nations’ procrastination regarding the necessary fuel for the generators to work at the hospital”, Khalil al-Degran, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson says at a news conference.
He said the hospital received 3,000 litres (800 gallons) of fuel on Wednesday, when it needs 5,000 litres (1,320 gallons) to operate, adding that there are currently 1,300 sick and wounded patients in the hospital.
“Their medical treatment will stop because of the lack of fuel,” he continued. “We have launched so many appeals during recent days to urgently have fuel in the hospital, but no concerned parties have responded.”
Black smoke rises as Israeli soldiers fight in western Rafah
Israeli forces have killed at least 38 Palestinians in air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip and have engaged in close combat with Hamas fighters in the city of Rafah. Israeli tanks advanced in Rafah’s southeast, edged towards the city’s western district of Yibna and continued to operate in three eastern suburbs, residents said.
“The occupation [Israeli forces] is trying to move farther to the west. They are on the edge of Yibna, which is densely populated. They didn’t invade it yet,” one resident said, asking not to be named. “We hear explosions, and we see black smoke coming up from the areas where the army has invaded. It was another very difficult night.”
MSF sounds alarm on situation at al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says al-Awda Hospital “is being forced to close”.
“This follows a terrifying 4-day siege – the latest in a series of systematic attacks on health care by Israeli forces. Staff & patients were forced to leave one of the only hospitals still functioning in the north of Gaza,” it said on X.
Al-Awda Hospital came under siege by Israeli forces on Sunday and since then has come under direct attack by the Israeli army several times.
🔴Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza is being forced to close.
This follows a terrifying 4-day siege—the latest in a series of systematic attacks on health care by Israeli forces.
Staff & patients were forced to leave one of the only hospitals still functioning in the north of Gaza.
— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) May 23, 2024
‘Health catastrophe’ imminent if fuel not supplied to Al-Aqsa Hospita
The Al-Aqsa Hospital just issued a press release providing an update on the dire situation at the central Gaza health facility.
- The administration of Al-Aqsa Hospital warns of an imminent health catastrophe if fuel is not supplied to the hospital within the next few hours.
- We express our deep astonishment and disapproval at the policy of procrastination that Al-Aqsa Hospital is being subjected to.
- For many hours, we have been in contact with the relevant authorities and the World Health Organization, which is the body responsible for supplying fuel to the hospital. But there has been no response to our request to supply fuel immediately and urgently.
- We appeal to the international community to supply 50,000 litres of fuel to the hospital in the coming hours before the health disaster strikes hundreds of sick and wounded people. Any procrastination in supplying fuel means a death sentence for these sick and wounded people.
