Biden says Gaza hospital ‘must be protected’ as MSF doctor warns of ‘inhuman’ conditions
- ‘It’s my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospital,’ Biden said, adding: ‘The hospital must be protected’
- Hundreds of people stranded in Gaza’s biggest hospital were enduring ‘inhuman’ conditions, said a doctor with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
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US President Joe Biden urged Israel on Monday to protect Gaza’s main hospital as heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas raged around the complex.
“The hospital must be protected.”
Biden, who spoke as he was signing a women’s health research initiative alongside First Lady Jill Biden, added that he was “in contact with the Israelis” on the matter.
The Israeli army confirmed on Tuesday the identity of a soldier held hostage by Hamas, after the publication by the armed wing of the Palestinian group showed the young woman in captivity.
The army wrote in a statement that “our hearts go out to the Marciano family, whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organisation,” officially confirming a hostage’s identity for the first time, after Hamas gunmen abducted about 240 people when they stormed across the militarised border from Gaza on October 7.
A doctor with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday that hundreds of people stranded in Gaza’s biggest hospital were enduring “inhuman” conditions while heavy fighting raged around them.
“The situation is very bad, it is inhuman,” a surgeon with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the medical charity group, wrote on social media.
“We don’t have electricity. There’s no water in the hospital,” added the doctor, who was not named.
Israel on Monday declared Hamas had “lost control” over Gaza.
“Terrorists are fleeing southward. Civilians are looting Hamas bases. They don’t have faith in the government any more,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Israeli television without providing evidence.
“Hamas has lost control of Gaza,” he said, as Israeli troops battled with the militant group in the streets of Gaza City.
Israeli tanks at gates of Gaza hospital where hundreds of patients are trapped
The Hamas government’s deputy health minister Youssef Abu Rish said the death toll inside al-Shifa rose to 27 adult intensive care patients and seven babies since the weekend as the facility suffered fuel shortages.
A lack of fuel was also hitting the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. The agency’s Gaza chief Thomas White said operations “will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed to enter” the territory.
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The Israeli army pushed on with their campaign, determined to destroy Hamas whose gunmen it says killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages in the country’s worst ever attack when they stormed across the militarised border from Gaza.
Israel said 44 of its troops have been killed in its Gaza ground operation.
But Israel is facing intense international pressure to minimise civilian suffering amid its massive air and ground operations that Hamas authorities say have killed 11,240 people, including 4,630 children.
Separately, the Hamas-run health ministry said there were dozens of bodies on the streets of northern Gaza, where the heaviest fighting was raging, saying ambulances were coming under Israeli fire when they tried to retrieve them.
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On Monday, Israel’s top diplomat, as quoted by his spokesman, said the nation has “two or three weeks until international pressure really steps up”.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen added that Israel is working to “broaden the window of legitimacy, and the fighting will carry on for as long as necessary”.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Monday reported more heavy fighting and again stressed its claim that Hamas was hiding in civilian infrastructure.
“IDF troops are continuing to conduct raids … targeting terrorist infrastructure located in central governmental institutions in the heart of the civilian population, including schools, universities, mosques and residences of terrorists,” it said.
The war in Gaza has also spurred concerns of a wider regional conflict.
At least eight pro-Iran fighters were killed in US strikes on eastern Syria, a war monitor said, in response to attacks on American forces.
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International attention has focused on the plight of Palestinians, and protests have been held worldwide in solidarity with the 2.4 million under bombardment and near-total siege for more than five weeks.
About 980 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been let into Gaza since October 21, according to the UN humanitarian agency.
Before the war, 500 trucks entered every day, it said.
Fuel is in critical need, especially for hospital generators, but Israel has been concerned that any fuel deliveries could be diverted to Hamas militants.
Israel’s military said it would observe a “self-evacuation corridor” on Monday, allowing people to move from al-Shifa southward, but admitted the area was still the scene of “intense battles”.
The Israeli army also said its ground soldiers had hand-delivered 300 litres (80 gallons) of fuel near the hospital “for urgent medical purposes”.
