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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli troops target
ambulances, kill medic in Gaza City</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy"
moz-do-not-send="true">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-blog"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability"
moz-do-not-send="true">Rights and Accountability</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span
class="gmail-date-display-single">9 February 2024</span></span>
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<p>Slain Palestinians are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Hospital following Israeli airstrikes in Deir
al-Balah, central Gaza, 8 February.</p>
<small>
<span>APA images</span></small>
<p>Israeli troops deliberately targeted a Palestine Red
Crescent Society convoy, killing a paramedic and
wounding two others, the humanitarian group said on
Thursday.</p>
<p>The convoy was attempting to transfer patients from
al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to facilities in the
south when it was attacked on Wednesday. The mission
had been coordinated with the Israeli military, the
humanitarian group said.</p>
<p>Video of the targeted ambulance appears to show
bullet holes in its windshield:
</p>
Red Crescent paramedic Mohammed al-Omari, <a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1755644123753656487"
moz-do-not-send="true">father</a> to three children
aged between 8 and 14, was killed. He and the rest of
the crew were trapped for more than an hour while
bleeding, <a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1755611010357232006"
moz-do-not-send="true">according to</a> the Red
Crescent.
<p>The Red Crescent <a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1755545092306227596"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a> that 12 of its
colleagues, including al-Omari, have been “killed
while carrying out their humanitarian work since the
beginning of the war.”</p>
<p>The actual number may be higher. The fate of two Red
Crescent paramedics and a young girl they were <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/02/gaza-city-rescue-palestine-red-crescent/"
moz-do-not-send="true">attempting to rescue in Gaza
City</a> last week <a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1755682617456734717"
moz-do-not-send="true">remains unknown</a>.
</p>
Loay Elbasyouni, who helped engineer the NASA Mars
helicopter after being <a
href="https://www.unrwa.org/tags/loay-elbasyouni"
moz-do-not-send="true">educated</a> in UNRWA schools
in Gaza, said his parents were among the patients in the
convoy that was attacked on Wednesday.
<p>Elbasyouni <a
href="https://twitter.com/AstroLoay/status/1755385964875194842"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a> that his parents
survived “by a miracle” but remained stuck at <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-shifa-hospital"
moz-do-not-send="true">al-Shifa hospital</a> in Gaza
City.</p>
<h2>None of Gaza’s hospitals fully functional</h2>
<p>Al-Shifa was the largest and most advanced hospital
in Gaza before it was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-fails-show-evidence-hamas-command-center-al-shifa-hospital"
moz-do-not-send="true">besieged and raided</a> by
Israeli troops in November.</p>
<p>The hospital had resumed the provision of minimal
services in recent weeks. But the World Health
Organization <a
href="https://twitter.com/WHOoPt/status/1755659339807838620"
moz-do-not-send="true">said on Thursday</a> that the
intensification of hostilities in the area in recent
days has “undone progress.”</p>
<p>The UN health agency said that “we cannot let the
cornerstone of Gaza’s health system collapse again.”</p>
<p>None of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain fully functional
and only one-third of them are partially functional, <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-114"
moz-do-not-send="true">according to</a> the World
Health Organization.</p>
<p>A mere four out of 22 health facilities run by <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrwa"
moz-do-not-send="true">UNRWA</a> remain operational,
according to the embattled agency serving Palestine
refugees.</p>
<p>The destruction of the health sector has been a key
feature of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.</p>
<p>Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British Palestinian surgeon who
was working in Gaza during the first weeks of the war,
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/ghassan-abu-sitta-why-israel-attacks-gaza-hospitals"
moz-do-not-send="true">has said</a> that the
targeting of health facilities and medical workers is
aimed at making Gaza unlivable and to force the
expulsion of its population.</p>
<h2>Al-Amal Hospital under siege</h2>
<p>Israeli forces are besieging hospitals in Khan Younis
in southern Gaza, which has been the focus of its
operations in recent weeks.</p>
<p>The Red Crescent <a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1755578098878136708"
moz-do-not-send="true">reported</a> heavy artillery
shelling and gunfire in close proximity to Al-Amal
Hospital, which it administers, in Khan Younis on
Thursday. The hospital building was hit with shrapnel,
endangering staff and patients.</p>
<p>The hospital, which is adjacent to the Red Crescent’s
headquarters in Khan Younis, has been under siege for
18 days, according to the humanitarian group.</p>
<p><a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1755316988430176271"
moz-do-not-send="true">On Wednesday</a>, two
patients being treated at the hospital were injured by
Israeli troops positioned at the hospital gate.</p>
<p>That same day, the Red Crescent reported that a
77-year-old patient died at Al-Amal Hospital after the
depletion of the facility’s oxygen supplies.
</p>
Last week, Hedaya Hamad, a Red Crescent program
director, was <a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1753849364030599188"
moz-do-not-send="true">shot and killed</a> by Israeli
troops while attempting to rescue displaced people
sheltering at Al-Amal after they were shot by soldiers.
<p>Two Red Crescent volunteers were arrested while
attempting to evacuate Al-Amal, the humanitarian group
<a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1754862866304282793"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a> on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Some 8,000 displaced people sheltering at Al-Amal and
the Red Crescent headquarters were <a
href="https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1754571249257263121"
moz-do-not-send="true">evacuated</a> on Monday, with
only a few dozen elderly displaced people and 80
patients remaining, along with around 100 medical
staff.
</p>
<h2>Nurse shot in hospital operating theater</h2>
<p>The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on
Thursday that a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding
at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.</p>
<p>Some 300 medical staff, 450 patients and 10,000
displaced people are present at the facility “amid a
severe shortage of fuel, anesthesia, as well as
intensive care and surgical supplies,” UN OCHA <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-114"
moz-do-not-send="true">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Citing the health ministry, OCHA added that “the
Israeli military has prevented the movement of
ambulances, the disposal of medical and non-medical
waste, and the arrival of the wounded and sick to
Nasser hospital.”</p>
<p>A nurse was reportedly shot and critically injured
while in the hospital’s operating theater on Thursday
and a woman was reportedly shot and killed while
fetching water from the facility on Wednesday,
according to OCHA.</p>
<p>The nurse who was shot in the operating theater was
directly targeted with a bullet to his chest and is in
critical condition, according to a medical worker at
Nasser Medical Complex.
</p>
While OCHA said that the person who was shot by a sniper
while attempting to collect water at Al-Amal was a
woman, Al Jazeera <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/2/8/israeli-sniper-kills-palestinian-girl-in-front-of-gaza-hospital"
moz-do-not-send="true">identified her</a> as
14-year-old Ruwa Qdeih.
<p>Video shows people recovering her lifeless body from
the street, her blood staining the road, and then
using a pulley system to move a container of water
from one side of the road to the other.</p>
<h2>“Nowhere left for people to flee to”</h2>
<p>After laying waste to northern and central Gaza, Khan
Younis in the south has been the focus of Israel’s
ground operations after the collapse of a temporary
truce in late November.</p>
<p>A senior Israeli military officer <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-army-peeling-back-khan-younis-believes-hamas-gaza-chief-is-there-2024-02-08/"
moz-do-not-send="true">said on Thursday</a> that its
forces were “peeling back” Hamas infrastructure in the
area, where they say they believe Yahya Sinwar, the
head of Hamas in Gaza, is hiding.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime
minister, <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-netanyahu-rejects-gaza-ceasefire-offer-pledges-defeat-hamas-2024-02-07/"
moz-do-not-send="true">rejected</a> a ceasefire
proposal put forward by Hamas, insisting that “only
total victory will allow us to restore security in
Israel, both in the north and in the south.”</p>
<p>The majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million
people are now concentrated in Rafah, along the
southern boundary with Egypt. It is also the point of
entry for most of the very limited aid being brought
into Gaza.</p>
<p>The Norwegian Refugee Council <a
href="https://www.nrc.no/news/2024/february/gaza-israels-military-operation-in-rafah-would-be-fatal-for-displaced-civilians-and-humanitarian-aid/"
moz-do-not-send="true">said on Thursday</a> that an
assault on overcrowded Rafah would “risk the aid
system in Gaza coming to a halt.”</p>
<p>Angelita Caredda, a regional director for the
humanitarian group, said that it could “turn Rafah
into a zone of bloodshed and destruction that people
won’t be able to escape.”</p>
<p>“There is nowhere left for people to flee to,” she
said.</p>
<p>“Disease and starvation already persist among the
displaced population” in Rafah, the Norwegian Refugee
Council said. Hepatitis A, gastroenteritis, diarrhea,
smallpox, lice and influenza were reported in each of
the nine shelters hosting 27,400 people in Rafah that
were assessed by the group.</p>
<h2>Aid missions denied and obstructed</h2>
<p>The UN secretary-general <a
href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-02-07/secretary-generals-remarks-the-general-assembly-priorities-for-2024-scroll-down-for-bilingual-delivered-all-english-version"
moz-do-not-send="true">said on Wednesday</a> that he
was “alarmed by reports that the Israeli military
intends to focus next on Rafah – where hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians have been squeezed in a
desperate search for safety.”</p>
<p>António Guterres added that “such an action would
exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian
nightmare with untold regional consequences.”</p>
<p>The Biden administration also says it opposes an
Israeli incursion into Rafah. White House national
security spokesperson John Kirby, who has fiercely
defended Israel’s operations throughout the war, <a
href="https://twitter.com/dannyctkemp/status/1755665863225549103"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a> on Thursday that it
“would be a disaster for those people and we would not
support it.”</p>
<p>At least 27,840 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza
since 7 October, <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-114"
moz-do-not-send="true">according to</a> the health
ministry in Gaza, with another 67,300 injured.
Thousands of others remain missing, many of them
feared to be dead under the rubble or in Gaza’s
streets.</p>
<p>An untold number of Palestinians have died from
hunger and disease in a secondary wave of mortality
resulting from Israel’s military offensive and siege.</p>
<p>“The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing by the day,
particularly for hundreds of thousands of people in
northern Gaza who have been predominantly cut off from
assistance,” the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-114"
moz-do-not-send="true">said on Thursday</a>.
</p>
Since the beginning of the year, only “seven out of 28
planned humanitarian aid missions to deliver food to the
north … were facilitated by the Israeli authorities,”
the UN added.
<p>One of the aid missions “was partially facilitated,
eight were impeded, seven were denied, and five were
postponed due to internal operational constraints,”
according to the UN.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, at least 13 Palestinians were reported
killed and others injured when people gathered at a
water distribution truck in Gaza City came under fire.</p>
<p>That same day, “multiple casualties were reported”
when a group of people awaiting humanitarian aid
trucks west of Gaza City were fired upon, according to
OCHA.</p>
<p>“This is reportedly at least the sixth incident
involving casualties among people waiting for
humanitarian aid in Gaza City,” the UN office said.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, six Palestinian police officers were
reported killed when a vehicle guarding an aid truck
in eastern Rafah <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-113"
moz-do-not-send="true">was struck</a>.</p>
<h3>
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