Israel resume air attacks on Gaza after captive’s release
After Israeli forces were handed the US-Israeli captive, they started their air strikes again in the Gaza Strip. We can hear the F-16s and the drones hovering in the sky.
Palestinians have a lot of questions about what is going to happen now on the ground. Palestinian families are unable to secure food. They’re saying they are unable to feed their children. Their children are going to bed hungry.
However, Hamas said that this is a very positive step towards the negotiations, where they’re aiming at a ceasefire, they’re also aiming for the end of the war, the entrance of the humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Journalist killed in Israeli attack on hospital in south Gaza
Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that Hassan Eslaih has been killed in an Israeli air raid on the burns department at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
Eslaih was wounded last month in an Israeli attack on a media tent outside the hospital. At least two people were also killed in that attack.
The burn unit where Hassan Eslaih was receiving treatment, one other was also killed in the strike
Israel confirms deadly attack on Nasser Hospital
In a post on X, the Israeli military said it “carried out a targeted attack” in “the area of the Nasser Hospital” where it says Hamas was “operating a command and control complex”.
It did not offer any evidence to back the claim.
Latest Israeli killing takes death toll among Gaza journalists to 215
The Government Media Office in Gaza has confirmed the death of journalist Hassan Eslaih and says it condemns “in the strongest terms the systematic targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists” by Israeli forces.
It said that Eslaih was “assassinated” as he was receiving treatment at the Nasser Medical Complex earlier today, and that his killing has raised the death toll among journalists since the war began to 215.
- Eslaih was the director of the Alam24 News Agency and a freelancer who contributed to international news organisations, including photos of the Hamas-led October 7 attack.
- He was the target of an Israeli attack on a media tent outside Nasser Hospital last month. At least two people were killed in the bombing.
- Eslaih survived, but suffered severe injuries, including burns, and lost two fingers.
- Israel claims Eslaih is a Hamas fighter who participated in the October 7 attack, an allegation he vehemently denied.
- At the time, he told Mondoweiss, a US-based news outlet, that Israel was “trying to obliterate the image of Palestinian journalists with these false claims that they belong to Hamas and other factions”. He added that he did not belong to any party in Gaza.
Does international law permit Israel to attack hospitals in Gaza?
Health facilities, including hospitals and ambulances, are protected under international humanitarian law. This protection is also extended to the wounded and sick, as well as medical staff.
This means hospitals may not be attacked unless they are being used by a party to the conflict to commit “an act harmful to the enemy”, such as to launch attacks.
And even then, the attacking force must issue a warning to cease this misuse, and can only attack after such a warning goes unheeded.
This is why Israel has repeatedly sought to justify its attacks on hospitals in Gaza by claiming – without evidence – that the dozens of such facilities it has destroyed in the enclave have all been “command and control complexes” run by Hamas.
The UN’s human rights office, in a report in December, said Israel is yet to substantiate its claims that Palestinian armed groups are using hospitals for military purposes, and says Israel’s attacks on medical facilities in Gaza may amount to war crimes.
That this question even needs to be asked...
