Netanyahu pushes back Western calls for protecting civilians
A child killed every 10 minutes in Gaza: WHO
Israel’s prime minister pushed back Saturday against calls from Western allies to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, where a child is killed on average every 10 minutes in the besieged strip, according to the World Health Organization.
Israeli troops encircled Gaza’s largest hospital where doctors said Saturday five patients died, including a premature baby, after the last generator ran out
of fuel.
The regime’s deadly strike hit the hospital compound on Friday killing at least 13, as heavy fighting between Hamas and Israel has sent tens of thousands of civilians fleeing their homes.
Israel has portrayed Shifa Hospital as Hamas’ main command post, claiming fighters that rampaged through southern Israel on October 7 were using civilians as human shields there and had set up elaborate bunkers underneath it. Hamas and Shifa staff deny the allegations. Hamas has asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to send missions to come to Shifa to investigate the Israeli allegations.
Red Cross raises alarm
The director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Robert Mardini, has said the organization is “shocked and appalled” by the images and reports emerging from Shifa Hospital.
He said the “unbearably desperate situation” must stop now and that patients and staff must be protected.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said Israeli tanks are 20 meters away from Quds Hospital in Gaza.
“Direct shooting at the hospital, creating a state of extreme panic and fear among 14,000 displaced people,” it posted to X on Saturday.
In recent days, fighting near Shifa and other hospitals in the combat zone of northern Gaza has intensified and supplies have run out.
Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi and Quds hospitals, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times.
“There is no electricity. Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” said Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa, speaking by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the United Nations Security Council on Friday that a child is killed on average every 10 minutes in Gaza, warning: “Nowhere and no one is safe.”
Health care system ‘on its knees’
He said that half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary health care centers were not functioning and those that were operating were way beyond their capacities, describing the health care system as being “on its knees”.
“Hospital corridors crammed with the injured, the sick, the dying. Morgues overflowing. Surgery without anesthesia. Tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering at hospitals,” Tedros told the 15-member council.
Israel has struck Gaza - an enclave of 2.3 million people - from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground invasion, killing more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them
children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas, repeating long-standing claims that the resistance group uses civilians in Gaza as human shields. He said that while Israel has urged civilians to leave combat zones, “Hamas is doing everything it can to prevent them from leaving.”
‘No justification’ for bombing
His claims came after French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for a cease-fire and urged other leaders to join his call, telling the BBC there was “no justification” for Israel’s ongoing bombing.
He called on Israel to stop bombing civilians in Gaza, saying there was “no justification” and the deaths were causing
“resentment”.
Macron said Israel had the right to protect itself after the Hamas attacks, but he added: “These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed.”
Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which now the regime says the death toll had been revised to around 1,200 from a previous estimate of 1,400, Israel’s allies have defended the country’s right to protect itself. But now, into the second month of war, there are growing differences in how many feel Israel should conduct its
fight.
The US has been pushing for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory where conditions are increasingly dire. However, Israel has so far only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians are able to flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along the territory’s main north-south artery.
Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, more than 150,000 civilians have fled the north, according to UN monitors.
London’s weekly protests
Since Hamas’s attack, there has been strong support and sympathy for Israel from Western governments, including Britain’s. But the Israeli military response has also prompted anger, with weekly protests in London demanding a cease-fire.
In London, a large pro-Palestinian march kicked off on Saturday following scuffles nearby between far-right protesters and police, who launched a major operation to avert clashes between the two rival groups.
The pro-Palestinian march drew counter-protesters from right-wing groups to the capital on what is Britain’s day of remembrance for war veterans.
Organizers have said the rally on Armistice Day could be one of the largest political marches in British history.
A Palestinian flag has been wrapped around a first world war memorial near London’s Wellington Arch.
Protesters were later seen by PA reporters climbing the statue, with one holding a megaphone and shouting: “Free, free Palestine”.
AP, AFP, Reuters, and the Guardian contributed to this report.