No news on Gaza doctor, official 10 days after ‘enforced disappearance’: Ministry
The Gaza Health Ministry says 10 days have passed since the Israeli “kidnapping” of Marwan al-Hams, a doctor and the director of field hospitals in the enclave.
According to the ministry, there is no information about his health status and conditions of detention.
Palestinian authorities say al-Hams was taken by an Israeli undercover unit last week outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern city of Rafah.
Israel “is practicing enforced disappearance against imprisoned medical personnel”, the ministry said in a statement. At least 361 medical personnel remain imprisoned in Israeli jails, it added.
False Israeli accusations against Al Jazeera journalist put his life in danger: UN official
Irene Khan, UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, says her organisation was “deeply concerned” by the Israeli army’s threats against Anas al-Sharif, the last Al Jazeera journalist in the northern Gaza Strip.
She spoke to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic and made the following points:
- The Israeli army accuses al-Sharif and other journalists, without any evidence, of being “terrorists”.
- We call on the world to prevent Israel from targeting al-Sharif and other journalists in Gaza.
- The Israeli army is falsely labelling journalists as “terrorists” to justify their killing.
- Israel refuses to allow any international journalist into Gaza and smears the reputation of local journalists.
- The killing and detention of Palestinian journalists is an Israeli strategy to suppress the truth.
- We call for the protection of brave journalists in Gaza, as their reports of genocide can move the world.
Israel’s defence, justice ministers say time ripe for West Bank annexation: Report
The offices of Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defence Minister Israel Katz have issued a joint statement, saying the current moment represents an opportunity to annex the occupied West Bank.
“Ministers Katz and Levin have been working for many years to implement Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” said the statement quoted by The Times of Israel newspaper, using a biblical term for the West Bank. “At this very moment, there is a moment of opportunity that must not be missed.”
The report said the statement was issued in response to a Channel 14 story claiming that neither Katz nor Levin had issued instructions to prepare for annexation, which the statement called “false”, pointing to work done by the two ministers, including as part of Trump’s defunct 2020 “Deal of the Century”.
“This was expressed, among other things, in the work done by Minister Levin during President Trump’s first term, in which all the necessary things were prepared for the important move – from a proposal for resolutions to precise maps, and Defense Minister Katz led a series of unprecedented decisions to strengthen settlement and pave the way for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” the statement reads, according to the newspaper.
