Israel Burns North Gaza's Last Functioning Hospital as Fifth Baby Freezes to Death
+ more journalists killed, ceasefire conversations delayed, new Syrian government arrests judge, German market suspect Zionist, ex-Muslim & more.
Israeli soldiers stormed into and burned the last functioning hospital in Northern Gaza after forcibly removing staff and patients on Friday, Health Ministry officials said.
According to the Enclave’s Health Ministry troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital, including the lab and surgery department.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is “now empty.” Footage circulating on local media depicts smoke rising from the area of the hospital.
“Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified member of the staff said in an audio message posted on hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya’s social media. According to the post, some evacuated patients had been unhooked from oxygen. “There are currently patients who could die at any moment,” the medical staffer said.
Before setting the place ablaze, troops forcibly removed medial staff and patients to assemble in the yard, making them strip despite the winter weather, the Associated Press reported.
The hospital directors and some other staff were also arrested. A this time the whereabouts of Kamal Adwan’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, and other staff are unclear, friends and colleagues told CNN.
Some critically ill, caregivers and health workers were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, the World Health Organization said.
The Israeli Defense Force has denied all claims of burning the hospital and claimed the fire was small and in an empty building. To justify their actions Israeli military said the hospital was being used by Hamas fighters as a base, as per usual no evidence was provided.
Friday’s attack on Kamal Adwan follows several others including the killing of five medial staff on Thursday. Per Al Jazeera, among those martyred were a laboratory technician and two maintenance workers.
According to WHO, Israeli authorities have repeatedly targeted and denied humanitarian access to Kamal Adwan Hospital. A request to deploy international emergency medical teams was denied by Israeli authorities this week “despite the need for immediate surgical interventions for injured patients.”
Related: Israel Attacks North Gaza’s Last Functioning Hospital
In the past 72-hours, at least five infants have died of hypothermia from low temperatures and a lack of access to warmth while living in tents at the al-Mawasi refugee camp, said Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Youns.
Dr. al-Farra confirmed the death of three-week-old Sila Mahmoud al-Faseeh on Thursday adding that two other babies, aged three days and one month, had been brought to the hospital over the previous 48 hours after dying of hypothermia.
A fifth baby was confirmed dead Sunday morning.
“The tents do not protect from the cold, and it gets very cold at night with no way to keep warm,” said Dr. al-Farra. “Blankets, mattresses, and other winter supplies have been stuck in the region for months waiting for approval to get into Gaza.”
⤵️ WEEKLY NEWS RE-CAP 🗞️💨
🕊️ TALKS OF CEASEFIRE DELAYED: Hamas accused Israel of imposing "new conditions," that it said were delaying a ceasefire agreement.
Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, began in Doha last week— despite Israel’s consistent strikes in Gaza.
The accusation comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel’s parliament that progress has been made on a deal to reach a ceasefire and free captives in Gaza—at the time he offered no timeline.
According to Al Jazeera, Hamas’s armed wing said the safety of some captives depends on Israeli army activity in areas of Gaza witnessing “aggression”.
Related: What Palestinians in Gaza Would Do First If a Ceasefire is Called
🇵🇸 THE PAST 24 HOURS: Over 50 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air attacks across the Gaza strip in the past 24-hours, including one on a building near the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Of the 59 people killed, at least five were medical staff, sources told Al Jazeera. Nine others were killed in a house overnight in Gaza City.
A new report, released last week, titled “Gaza death trap” by Doctors Without Borders said there are “clear signs of ethnic cleansing” by Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory.
🗞️ ISRAEL CONTINUES TARGETING JOURNALISTS
Five Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in central Gaza, local media outlet Al Quds Today said. Identified as Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed al-Lada’a— the journalists were sleeping in their broadcasting truck, marked as press, when it was targeted in a direct strike by the Israeli military, witnesses told Palestinian media.
Several other investigations have reported Israel intentionally killing journalists, many of which killed by airstrike while sleeping in areas where no fighting was occurring.
Since October 7, 2023, more than 45,399 Palestinians have been killed and 107,940 injured, with over 18,000 identified as children, according to the enclave’s health ministry— several of the deaths include journalists, media and healthcare workers.
SEE THE UPDATED LIST OF JOURNALISTS KILLED HERE
🇸🇾 JUDGE NOTORIOUS FOR DEATH PENALTIES ARRESTED
The new Syrian administration under Ahmed al Sharaa arrested a military justice who issued death sentences for people held in Saydnaya prison under the government of Bashar Assad, a Syria war monitor said Thursday.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Mohammed Kanjo Hassan was arrested in the Tartus province, along with 20 members of his entourage, for issuing "thousands" of sentences, including the death penalty.
The arrest coincided with the new administration’s announcement that alleged supporters of ousted Assad had killed 14 interior ministry troops in an "ambush.”
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✈️ WHO CHIEF CAUGHT IN STRIKE ON YEMEN AIRPORT The United Nations denounced the “escalation” in violence between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel, calling IDF strikes on targets including an airport in Sana’a “especially alarming.”
The comments came after the airport became under attack while the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a plane.
Head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on X Thursday that he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under fire. A crew member on the plane was injured and at least two killed in the incident, he said.
🇩🇪 GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKET ATTACKER WAS A ZIONIST: Local German media identified 50-year-old Taleb A as the suspect who drove into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing five and injuring more than 200 on Dec. 20.
According to authorities, Taleb A. is a heavy supporter of the far-right and Israel. He not only believes in Zionism, but is an ex-Muslim, who has often shared his criticism of German authorities, saying they did not do enough to combat the “Islamism of Europe” on X.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters: “the perpetrator was evidently Islamophobic – we can confirm that. Everything else is a matter for further investigation and we have to wait.”
🚫 SETTLERS TRESPASS: Israeli settlers set fire to the Bar al-Walidain mosque in the occupied West Bank and spray painted “Death to Arabs.”
Security footage taken from the scene depicted a masked and hooded person spray-painting the walls of the mosque. At least two others joined the person, one of them carrying what appears to be a large jug or container as they headed into the building.
The incident follows similar reports of settlers crossing the northern border into Lebanon, which the Israel Defense Force confirmed Wednesday. They initially denied all claims. Those settler activists set up tents in what they claimed was southern Lebanon holding banners that read: "Lebanon is ours."
Per The Times of Israel, the group was led by the Uri Tzafon Movement, a Religious Zionist organization that has called for settlement in areas it claims belong to Jewish people. Whether or not the incident in the West Bank was by the same group of settlers is unclear at this time.
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