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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ 1 day ago

Israel carries out overnight attacks on Gaza

The Israeli military were reported to have carried several deadly attacks overnight and early this morning across the Gaza Strip, including:

  • Two people were killed on Friday night when an Israeli warplane attacked buildings in the Remal neighbourhood west of Gaza City.
  • Another person was killed by an aircraft attack near the Jordanian Field Hospital in Sabra, south of Gaza City.
  • The bodies of seven people have been pulled from the rubble of a family home in the Maghazi refugee camp after an early-morning Israeli strike.
  • Paramedics have spent the night transporting people wounded by Israeli shelling and gunfire in the al-Mawasi so-called “humanitarian zone” to hospital in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza.
  • Israeli forces were reported to have surrounded an area where 300 families remain in Beit Hanoon in the northern Gaza Strip, which has been under military siege for months.

No ‘single intact body’ found after Israeli strike on Gaza City neighbourhood.

A resident of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Sobh Halawa, told Al Jazeera of the attack in the area on Friday morning by Israeli forces which had killed many.

“Since the early morning, we have been working without any tools or equipment, using only our hands to pull out remains – not even whole bodies,” Halawa said. “We are collecting pieces of human flesh so that they won’t be eaten by cats and dogs,” he said. “We haven’t found a single intact body. They are all human remains. Little children and women.”

Gaza’s civil defence emergency workers reported later on Friday that the remains of 15 people were recovered from an attack on a house in Sheikh Radwan where some 40 displaced people had been sheltering.


Schoolgirl aged 12 among 9 killed in Israeli strike on Maghazi refugee camp

The death toll from a strike by the Israeli military on a home in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza has risen to nine, Al Jazeera correspondents and local media outlets are reporting. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said one of the victims was a 12-year-old schoolgirl who was studying for online exams.


Rockets launched from Gaza towards Israel: Army

Two rockets have been fired on West Jerusalem from northern Gaza, according to a military statement. “Interception attempts were made, the details are under investigation,” it added.

Our correspondent Hamdah Salut reports that the incident is over and that no injuries have been reported.


What Israeli air attacks have taken place across Gaza today?

  • An Israeli bombardment in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed 10 people.
  • Gaza’s Civil Defence says a body was recovered and three wounded people rescued after an Israeli strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.
  • Wafa news agency reported that two Palestinians were killed in a raid on al-Mawasi area in the south of Gaza.
  • Two people were killed and one wounded in an Israeli attack on Nassr neighbourhood in western Gaza City.
  • At least nine people were killed in a strike on Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
  • At least two people were killed and several wounded as Israel bombed Jabalia al-Balad and Jabalia an-Nazla in northern Gaza.


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SvennoJ 1 day ago

Israeli forces block roads, fire at locals in occupied West Bank town

Israeli forces have raided a town near Hebron in the occupied West Bank and opened fire in a town north of Tulkarem.

The Palestinian wire service Wafa reported that Israeli forces arrived in Beit Ula west of Hebron where they conducted a search of homes and installed roadblocks on the road. No arrests were reported.

Israeli forces also raided Qafin town, north of Tulkarem, and opened fire with live bullets.

Wafa reports that military vehicles moved into the town and searched its neighbourhoods. Reinforcements were dispatched to join the operation after confrontations with local Palestinians resisting the raid.

One military vehicle was damaged. There were no initial reports of casualties.


Palestinian groups clash in occupied West Bank: Analysts

Loyalties in the occupied West Bank may be shifting as security forces with the Palestinian Authority (PA) conduct a campaign against Palestinian resistance fighters, according to analysts.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank, said that Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) reported engaging in armed clashes with “occupation forces” in Jenin on Thursday, but that there was information on Israeli military operations in the area.

“It would be a notable inflection if PIJ began referring to the PA as ‘occupation forces’,” the ISW said. “It would, conversely, also be notable if [Israeli forces] began operating in Jenin at the same time as the PA operation against Palestinian militias,” the ISW said.

The ISW also said battles between the PA and Palestinian resistance fighters had killed three of the authority’s security forces since the start of December.


Palestinian presidential guard member killed in Jenin

The official spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, has confirmed the death of a commander during the continuing military operation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank.

Major Hussein Ahmed Hassan Nassar, from the Palestinian presidential guard, was killed today after “being shot by gangs of outlaws while performing his duty”, he was quoted as saying by the official Wafa news agency.

The Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fatah, which controls the PA, also mourned the major in a statement.

It said security forces will “continue their natural and national role in confronting the gangs of outlaws who seek, at the behest of regional parties, to fuel international conflicts in parallel context with the [Israeli] occupation’s plans for annexation and deportation”.

Last week, another member of the presidential guard was killed during the PA operation, which was launched on December 14 and has also killed a commander of the Jenin Brigade of armed factions, among others.


Israeli forces arrest 15 Palestinians in West Bank: Prisoners’ groups

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society say the Israeli forces have arrested 15 Palestinians from various parts of the occupied West Bank last night and this morning, including a woman and former prisoners.

The two groups have reported arrests in the occupied governorates of Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah and Hebron.


Israeli settlers attack farmers near West Bank’s Ramallah

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian farmers working their lands in Silwad, east of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Video footage captured by local media shows farmers with bloody wounds on their heads and faces after having been beaten. The settlers also smashed the windows of a vehicle belonging to a Palestinian resident.

Three Palestinians were injured and one was arrested, according to the Wafa news agency. Silwad Mayor Raed Nimer told the outlet that the settlers came from an outpost erected less than a month ago in the al-Burj area.

Israeli settlers have ramped up their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, often under the protection of Israeli soldiers, since the Hamas-led attacks on October 2023. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. The International Court of Justice said earlier this year that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.


Israeli special forces seize man in Nablus: Report

The Wafa news agency reports that a special team of Israeli forces “kidnapped” a young man from al-Quds Street in the eastern area of the occupied West Bank city. Security sources quoted by Wafa named the man as Hisham Duweikat.



SvennoJ 3 hours ago

Main events on December 28th

  • Israel’s military confirmed detaining Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in besieged northern Gaza, after its forces raided the facility and set fire to it. The doctor’s whereabouts remain unknown.
  • Some of the hundreds of patients and medics who were taken from Kamal Adwan and later released say they were beaten and humiliated by the Israeli military.
  • At least 36 Palestinians were killed and many more wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday, the Wafa news agency reported, citing medical sources.
  • Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, the state secretary at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned Israel’s assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital and said that Oslo had “a political obligation, a moral imperative, to speak out in favour of” Palestinians.
  • The Houthis claim that they shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen.
  • In Israel, the families of captives held by Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sabotaging negotiations for a ceasefire as hundreds of protesters again took to the streets of Tel Aviv demanding a deal.



Amnesty chief highlights plight of Kamal Adwan director

Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, has called attention to the arrest of Dr Abu Safia.

“His whereabouts are not known,” she said in a post on X.

Callamard also noted that Abu Safia is considered a human rights defender by Front Line Defenders, an Irish-based organisation that works to protect people who are “at risk for their peaceful and legitimate human rights work”.

The Israeli military confirmed that it has arrested Abu Safia and more than 240 others from the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

It said he was being held for questioning.




Israeli forces beat, humiliate Palestinians taken from Kamal Adwan, freed detainees say

As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli military detained hundreds of Palestinians during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday. Some of them have been released and spoke to the media about the violence and abuse they suffered at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

“The Israeli soldiers tied us up and blindfolded us,” said Ismail al-Kahlout. “We could hear people screaming and knew who exactly was being beaten… They beat us with sticks and batons in the cold. They later took hundreds of Palestinians away with them.”



SvennoJ 3 hours ago

MedGlobal demands Abu Safia’s immediate release

Zaher Sahloul, the president of MedGlobal, which employs Abu Safia as its lead physician in Gaza, has released a statement on his arrest.

Dr. Abu Safia “has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions no medical professional should have to endure,” Sahloul said.

“His arrest is not only unjust — it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which upholds the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones. MedGlobal urgently calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu [Safia].”


Calls grow for Abu Safia’s release

Palestinians and activists are taking to social media calling on Israel to release Dr Abu Safia. Many of them shared a picture of the doctor, in his white coat, walking towards an Israeli tank.

  • Abu Safia is a paediatrician by training.
  • He has refused multiple Israeli orders to evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital.
  • He was briefly arrested and released when Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan in late October. The military detained 44 of the hospital’s staff, leaving Abu Safia and a handful of medical workers to care for dozens of wounded people there.
  • During that same operation, Israeli forces killed Abu Safia’s son, Ibrahim, in a drone strike on the gate of the hospital. The doctor, who led the funeral prayers for his son in Kamal Adwan’s courtyard, accused the Israeli military of killing his son to punish him for refusing to evacuate the hospital.
  • Abu Safia has kept the world informed of Israel’s near-daily attacks on the hospital since October, issuing video statements and pleading for international intervention to end the relentless bombardment.
  • Abu Safia was wounded by shrapnel from an Israeli attack on the hospital on November 23, but he pleaded to continue his work. “This will not stop us,” he said. “I was injured at my workplace, and that is an honour. My blood is no more precious than that of my colleagues or the people we serve. I will return to my patients as soon as I recover.”

Abu Safia is a hero, his arrest is meant as a warning to other doctors

Dr Ali Elaydi, an orthopaedic surgeon who is originally from Gaza, says Israel’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital and the arrest of Dr Abu Safia are aimed at emptying the north of the enclave of its residents.

“It essentially robs the entire population of northern Gaza of any sustainable medical care. I believe this is truly intentional to force the people out of northern Gaza,” Elaydi said from the US city of Dallas.

“It is systematic. [The Israelis] have decided that without medical care, they [the Palestinians in north Gaza] would have to evacuate.”  Elaydi, who worked as a medical volunteer in Gaza in April, described Israel’s arrest of Abu Safia as a warning.

“Dr Abu Safia is one of the most outspoken physicians in north Gaza, speaking on behalf of the people of the north Gaza… and them [the Israelis] detaining him, beating him and questioning him, has been undeniably intentional, so that they could make anyone who questions their behaviour punishable,” Elaydi said.

“It is a warning to every other physician to not speak out for their patients.”

Elaydi added, “He is a hero standing up for the Palestinian people and I aspire to be who he is.”



SvennoJ 3 hours ago

Israeli forces took patient files, generators from Kamal Adwan Hospital

There’s been footage of Israeli soldiers inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital, collecting all the files, papers and information of people admitted to the hospital.

We also saw them taking the hospital generators to an unknown location.

We have been trying to find out if the Israeli forces have left the hospital, but all we know is that the hospital is empty of other people and also out of service.

Kamal Adwan was one of the last hospitals still operating in northern Gaza and surgeries were conducted there. There was a serious lack of medical supplies, but volunteer doctors were making miracles out of very basic equipment.

This is not the first time the Israeli forces are doing this to a hospital in Gaza. We saw Al-Shifa Hospital, where the exact scenario took place, including the fact that the director of the hospital was arrested. This also happened in Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in the past few months.

Israeli forces are now targeting al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which is the only hospital in Gaza City.


Israeli military shells Gaza’s Ahli Hospital

Multiple videos circulating online, which have been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, show that the Israeli military has again attacked the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

The top floor of the healthcare facility, also known as the Baptist Hospital, was hit by artillery shelling. The hospital is in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in northern Gaza that has been repeatedly besieged by Israeli ground and air forces.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEJn6WDtrM_

Israeli military bombs al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City

After attacking the Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, the Israeli military has now hit the al-Wafaa Hospital in the western part of the same area. Al Jazeera’s correspondent confirms that one of the floors of the hospital was attacked.

Early reports from local sources indicate a number of casualties. Smoke could be seen rising from the area.



Israeli attack on al-Wafaa Hospital kills seven Palestinians

The Israeli military’s attack on the upper floor of al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City has killed at least seven people and wounded others, some critically, according to Gaza’s civil defence.



Around the Network
SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Israeli military claims attack on hospital targeted Hamas ‘command and control centre’

The Israeli military has again claimed that its latest attack on a Gaza hospital was targeting “terrorists”.

It said in a statement that Hamas operatives were hit “in a command and control complex established in a building that previously served as al-Wafaa Hospital in the Gaza City area and is no longer used as an active hospital”.

The army claimed the targets were affiliated with a Shujayea unit of Hamas, without providing any evidence.

As we reported earlier, at least seven Palestinians were killed in the strike, one of several on hospitals in northern Gaza.


Damage is seen after an Israeli strike on Al-Wafaa Hospital


Palestinians killed at al-Wafaa Hospital ‘obviously patients’

The seven Palestinians who were killed in al-Wafaa Hospital are obviously patients because the hospital treats the elderly. And after the war started, it started admitting people with chronic diseases and functioned as a rehabilitation centre.

All of this is happening as Israeli forces are systematically attacking different hospitals across the Gaza Strip. We’re talking about, according to the Ministry of Health, at least 33 hospitals going out of service in the past 14 months.



Bodies ‘ripped to pieces’ at site of hospital bombing

A witness at the scene of Israel’s bombing of al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City says he saw bodies “ripped to pieces”. “I am here making [and selling] tea and coffee, and suddenly, an Israeli missile landed on the tents behind me,” Majad Malek told Al Jazeera.

“Almost a dozen were killed and many more injured. We pulled out a couple of dead bodies from this side and five or six from there, all ripped to pieces. All that we recovered were body parts, pieces of flesh.”

The attack was on the upper floor of the hospital and killed at least seven people.

Fifth Palestinian newborn dies from hypothermia

We have another baby that froze to death earlier this morning. This increases the death toll in Gaza due to hypothermia to five Palestinian newborns.

According to the father of Juma al-Batran, who was only 30 days old, the family evacuated from Beit Lahiya to the central Gaza Strip eight months ago and did not have a tent.

They only had a couple of blankets and wood, and that’s how the father protected his family. He said he was unable to give warmth to his child. He was unable to bring blankets and winter clothes, and he was unable to feed his children.

Juma has a twin brother who is currently in the ICU.

It was heartbreaking to see Juma’s father carrying him today, his hands and legs blue because he was literally freezing. The area where they were sheltering is very close to the sea and very windy. There are no tarps or tents, and Juma’s father was unable to give his children basic necessities.

Not only are Palestinian babies and children dying from air attacks and artillery, but also from malnutrition and hypothermia.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

UN housing expert slams Israel as babies freeze to death in Gaza

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, says he has warned for months that “more than a million Palestinians lack shelter” for winter conditions.

“Now babies are freezing to death,” Rajagopal added, noting that this is another “achievement” of Israel’s so-called “most moral army in the world”.

Several Palestinian babies have frozen to death in the past few nights in Gaza, including three who died of hypothermia in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi.


How Israel uses Gaza as testing ground to export weapons globally

Antony Loewenstein, the author of the Palestine Laboratory, says Israel is using Palestinians as “guinea pigs to export oppressive weapons and technology globally”.

She also says Israel’s ties with its allies are not just about “a defence relationship”, but that it has become “an ideological model and ethnonationalist model” for these countries.

You can watch the video from our colleagues at AJ+ here:


Western support fuelling Israel’s genocide in Gaza, UK legislator says

Zarah Sultana has decried the UK’s arms sales to Israel, noting that the Israeli military has destroyed the last semi-functional hospital in Gaza, and launched attacks on Yemen from which the WHO director-general “narrowly survived”.

“Remember the outrage when Israel first targeted hospitals in Gaza?” the Labour politician wrote on Twitter.

“Now, the last hospital in northern Gaza is destroyed, babies are freezing to death & the WHO Director-General narrowly survived an attack in Yemen. This genocide is fuelled by UK arms sales and Western support,” she said.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Netanyahu’s office denies report of a ‘limited’ deal with Hamas

The office of the Israeli prime minister has dismissed a media report that claimed his government and Hamas may agree to a “limited” truce deal as a gesture of goodwill before US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

A report by Israel’s Channel 12 had claimed that both sides are interested in a smaller deal in time for Trump’s January 20 inauguration, but did not provide details.

Netanyahu’s office called the report “a complete lie”.

The Times of Israel also quoted an unnamed senior Arab diplomat as denying the report.

After talks about a Gaza agreement heated up again earlier this month, the Israeli government and Hamas have been trading blame this week for the lack of a breakthrough.


Israel prepares to tell UN freed captives faced physical, sexual abuse

The Israeli government plans to submit a report to the UN this week that says captives freed from Gaza in an exchange deal last year, including children, endured physical and sexual abuse during captivity.

The Israeli Health Ministry said in a statement it is preparing to present the report to Alice Jill Edwards, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, based on testimonies from released captives.

As the Israeli military continues to bomb and besiege Gaza, this will be the latest in a series of reports Israel has presented to allege abuse, including starvation and beatings.

Hamas has consistently denied the charges. Some previous Israeli claims and witness testimonies have been proven inaccurate.

Military and political objectives ‘not aligned’

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, says he does not know why Israel continues to pound Gaza and target its medical facilities, saying Israel’s operation in Gaza has “exhausted itself”.

“It achieved the military objectives that it had, and that was to degrade Hamas, to render Hamas incapacitated to the point of not being able to govern,” he told Al Jazeera. “That has been achieved.”

Pinkas said that if Netanyahu wants to, as he has said before, “eradicate, obliterate and annihilate Hamas”, the Israeli army would need to occupy and “take care of” the entire Gaza Strip.

“That’s something Israel is hesitant and reluctant to do,” he said. “From Israel’s point of view, … the military objectives were never aligned with coherent political objectives.”

“So when there’s no political objective, you’re left with sporadic, so-called intelligence-driven operations that, with all due respect, yield very little utility.”

‘Hospitals should not be targeted’

Pinkas says there is no justification for Israel to target medical facilities in Gaza like it did this morning when it attacked the upper floor of al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City and killed at least seven people.

“It’s horrible beyond description,” the former Israeli ambassador and government adviser told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv. “There’s no other way of saying this. And there’s absolutely no justification – military, political, moral – that could explain something like this.”

The Israeli army said after the attack that it was targeting Hamas fighters and the hospital was no longer operating in a medical capacity. Pinkas said what was or was not in the hospital “doesn’t matter”.

“Hospitals should be out of bounds. Hospitals should not be targeted, period,” he said.

The goal is to ethnically cleanse Northern Gaza, get everyone out or at least all the credible sources like doctors and journalists. It's clear by now the IDF is attempting to empty Northern Gaza. No more hospitals no more reason for the WHO etc to go there... Makes it easier to deny further access to the UN and aid organizations.

And they'll get there as long as the US and Europe keep shielding Israel.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Israeli forces continue to bombard south Lebanon

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli attacks continued on southern Lebanese towns and villages on Saturday night, in violation of a ceasefire agreed with Hezbollah last month.

The Israeli raids included a “violent bombing operation” on areas between the towns of Markaba and Rab Thalathine in the Marjayoun district, the NNA reported. Israeli ground troops also invaded Qantara and Taybeh and burned a number of homes there, NNA said, citing the Lebanese army.

The Anadolu Agency says Israeli forces have violated the ceasefire agreement more than 300 times since it went into effect a month ago.


Israel signals it wants to stay in southern Lebanon past ceasefire deadline

The Israeli leadership is exploring the possibility of continuing to occupy areas across southern Lebanon past the 60-day deadline pledged in a ceasefire agreement reached with Hezbollah in late November, according to the country’s most widely read newspaper.

Israel Hayom reported that top political and military leaders have held several discussions in recent days regarding the potential extension.

Israel will be reportedly discussing the prospect with both the outgoing Joe Biden administration and president-elect Donald Trump in the US, since the ceasefire’s deadline is due less than a week after Trump takes office.

The reasons being raised by Israeli leaders are an alleged slow deployment by the Lebanese army in the south, and the “abundance of Hezbollah’s weapons and infrastructure that are still exposed in the field”.

The Lebanese army has repeatedly condemned the Israeli military for deadly attacks across southern Lebanon in repeated violations of the ceasefire, while Israel has kept warning Lebanese citizens against returning to their homes.

It was always about occupying more land, another buffer zone for your buffer zones. It's the same tactic as in the West Bank, annex more and more.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Several Palestinians killed, wounded in Israeli attack on Rafah

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that the casualties occurred in an Israeli bomb attack on a house in the Al Nasr neighbourhood of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

We’ll bring you more as soon as we hear more.

The bombing came as Palestinian media reported a quadcopter assault on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, as well as attacks from a gunboat on the al-Mawasi area in the south of the Strip.

Earlier in the night, Israeli forces also shelled the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and blew up houses in besieged areas north of the enclave.


Israeli attack on Rafah kills a man and his wife

The Wafa news agency is reporting that the couple were killed when Israeli forces bombed their home in the Kaf Miraj area, north of the city of Rafah.

Several others were wounded, it said.

The Palestinian Civil Defence meanwhile said its crews put out a fire in southern Khan Younis. It said the fire at the al-Shawaf family house had been sparked by an Israeli attack.

Earlier, we reported that another Israeli attack had killed and wounded several Palestinians in the al-Nasr area of Rafah. The exact toll from that attack is still unclear.


Casualties after Israeli attack on Gaza’s Jabalia

There have been a number of casualties after the latest Israeli attack on besieged northern Gaza. We will bring you more details when we have them.


Seven Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Beit Hanoon

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that seven people have been killed and others wounded after Israeli forces targeted a home in Beit Hanoon, a city located in the besieged north of the Gaza Strip.


Israeli air strike kills police station chief in Gaza City

The Ministry of Interior in Gaza says the Israeli military has “assassinated” the head of the Remal police station in Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave.

Colonel Talat Joda was killed on Saturday in an air strike while performing his duties in serving the citizens, the ministry said in a statement. “The occupation’s deliberate targeting of police personnel aims to spread chaos in Palestinian society and deepen human suffering of citizens,” it said.

The ministry called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its targeting of civil servants in Gaza in light of the “catastrophic conditions” experienced by Palestinians there.


Gaza authorities warn of deteriorating conditions with heavy rains expected

The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip says more heavy rain is expected over the besieged enclave starting later today and forecast to worsen by Tuesday.

This exacerbates the suffering of more than two million people in Gaza, many of whom are bereft of adequate shelter. The office stated that 110,000 out of 135,000 tents in Gaza are out of service after having “completely deteriorated”.

More rain and strong winds would especially endanger Palestinians forced to shelter near coastal areas, with some waves expected to rise as high as 2 metres (6ft), it added.