Israel only sees the red cross as a target
Israeli attack in southern Lebanon kills medic: Report
Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting a “hostile” attack in Lebanon’s southern city of Naquora, in conjunction with air raids.
Hezbollah-linked rescuers said Israel was behind the attack which hit an ambulance, killing one medic and wounding another.
The attack comes after several drones fired from Lebanon hit the Golan Heights earlier today, causing no injuries, according to Israel’s military.
Aid not reaching Gaza’s civilians: UN
The limited aid that is entering the enclave is not reaching those in need, said the United Nations, calling on Israel to fulfil its legal obligations to ensure aid delivery.
“The aid that is getting in is not getting to the people, and that’s a major problem,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
“We continue to insist that Israeli authorities’ obligation under the law to facilitate delivery of aid does not stop at the border,” said Laerke, pointing to Israel’s control of the key Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing on its border.
Rafah crossing being closed a ‘real problem’: Blinken
The humanitarian situation remains dire in Gaza due to combat operations in the south, especially in terms of distributing aid to civilians, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.
“Rafah remains closed, and that’s a real problem,” Blinken said during a news conference in Prague. The US is working intensely to address the acute needs of Gaza civilians, he added.
The Rafah border crossing has been closed since early May after Israeli forces stepped up their military offensive in the area, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians had taken shelter.
If you actually thought it was a problem you would do something about it, instead of insisting there is no full scale invasion of Rafah. You are a real problem.
Israel confirms forces operating in central Rafah
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/middleeast/idf-central-rafah-intl/index.html
The Israeli military is in central Rafah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed in a statement Friday, despite international concern and anger over its military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city.
The IDF statement confirms what eyewitnesses told CNN earlier this week, when tanks were spotted in central Rafah for the first time since it entered the city earlier this month.
“IDF troops in central Rafah located Hamas rocket launchers, terror tunnel shafts, and weapons. The troops also dismantled a Hamas weapons storage facility in the area,” the IDF said in the statement.
Israel launched its ground assault on the city on May 6 and has mainly been operating in its eastern districts and close to the border with Egypt. This week, it also moved into the city’s western district of Tal as-Sultan, where intense clashes with Hamas fighters have been reported by witnesses.
More than one million Palestinians have fled the city since the assault began, scattering across southern and central Gaza.
Hospitals lack basic resources in Gaza: Doctor
Dr James Smith, an emergency physician from the UK who is working in Gaza, says the health system there is “completely decimated”.
“What that means is that we lack the basic resources needed to treat infections with first-line antibiotics or to stem bleeding with the most appropriate dressings and so on,” he told Al Jazeera.
“In addition to the trauma injuries that we’re seeing, we’re receiving every day tens of patients presenting with jaundice, suspected hepatitis, many people who are hungry and dehydrated presenting with really, really serious infections and other medical problems,” he added.
Smith was originally supposed to be in Gaza for only a two-week mission but now finds himself stranded there. “I would say I’m contentedly unable to leave Gaza at the moment,” he said. “I feel that it’s important for us to be here with the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine.”
“And there are 2 .1 million people who are stranded in Gaza.”
‘Absurd’ to say that Israeli operation in Rafah is limited: Doctor
Dr Smith tells Al Jazeera that comments by the US State Department that the Israeli army is not conducting a major military operation in Rafah are “absurd”.
“We’ve had soldiers and tanks now reportedly pushing right over towards the coastline. For the last several weeks, I have watched air strikes, artillery strikes firing onto the shoreline from the Israeli naval warships that are positioned just off the coast,” he said. “There is nothing limited about the Israeli military incursion into Rafah.”
“We’ve watched over several weeks now a mass exodus of people, the forced displacements of more than 900,000 people out of Rafah fleeing some of the most grotesque and barbaric Israeli violence that we have seen since October of last year,” he added.
