Employees at the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip fear a catastrophe as fuel reserves dwindle. “The bottom line is that Shifa Hospital will become a mass grave if it runs out of power,” said Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a doctor at the clinic in Gaza, to the US broadcaster CNN on Monday evening (local time).
There is already a lack of basic medical supplies such as special bandages for burn wounds, there are already power outages and the water pressure is no longer sufficient to operate the sterilization machines for surgical instruments, he said.
But the worst thing is the lack of space, said the doctor. The hospital, which actually has a capacity of up to 700 beds, is currently caring for 1,700 people who are lying in the hallways with mattresses. “The situation is horrific and we are just at the very end of the system, which is slowly collapsing,” said Abu-Sittah.
Terrorists on behalf of Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7th. More than 1,400 people died during and in the following days. According to the Israeli army, at least 222 others were forcibly taken into the Gaza Strip, including several Germans. Since then, Israel’s army has been bombing targets in the Gaza Strip and preparing a ground offensive in the sealed-off coastal area. According to the army, several units are currently training for this.
Army spokesman: Hamas denies Gaza clinics hoarded fuel
According to the Israeli military, the Islamist Hamas is denying hospitals in the Gaza Strip the fuel it has hoarded. Hamas has stored “more than” a million liters of fuel, “but is not giving it to hospitals in need,” said Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus that night on the X platform (formerly Twitter). “Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza, not Israel,” the spokesman said. United Nations aid organizations complain that the first aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip have so far failed to bring any fuel into the area.
“The fuel we want to bring in is the fuel that (Palestinian relief agency) UNRWA needs. It will be for our operations. And of course there also needs to be fuel for the hospitals and so on,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday in New York. He did not answer the question as to whether it was Israel that had so far refused permission.
In the past few days, several dozen trucks have crossed the border from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. However, the United Nations made it clear that deliveries of medicines, among other things, only accounted for four percent of the normal volume at the Rafah border crossing. The number of deliveries must be increased.
The responsible Cogat authority in Israel accused Hamas of using the approximately one million liters of fuel it had stored to “light up its terror tunnels, fire rockets and use it for their own homes” instead of for the civilian population. On Tuesday morning, Cogat also distributed images on X that were said to show a dozen Hamas fuel tanks in the southern Gaza Strip. They are said to contain “hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel”. The information could not initially be independently verified. The contents of the tanks and a possible fill level were not visible in the images.
Ceasefire or ceasefire? Debate continues
The United Nations is now calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, but this is controversial. “Any ceasefire would give Hamas the opportunity to rest, rearm and prepare to carry out further terrorist attacks against Israel,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in Washington yesterday. When asked about the difference between calls for a humanitarian pause and calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also stated that for him a ceasefire is much more than just one Cease fire.
A ceasefire requires an agreement between the parties, explained Borrell in Luxembourg. A ceasefire, on the other hand, could be implemented more quickly. At the same time, there is only a temporary cessation of attacks. Something like this is needed in order to be able to safely bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Borrell assumes that the heads of state and government of the EU states will unite behind calls for a limited ceasefire on aid deliveries at their next summit.
China called on the conflicting parties to hold peace talks. It is necessary to prevent the situation from escalating further and resulting in an even greater humanitarian catastrophe, said China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen, according to the Beijing Foreign Ministry.
Israel continues to support hostages
Meanwhile, Israel is ready to launch a ground offensive in the fight against Hamas attackers in the Gaza Strip and is at the same time pushing ahead with efforts to release the hostages. The order is: “to eliminate Hamas, its infrastructure as a military, as an organization, as a government. And: to free those who have been kidnapped,” Israel’s Energy Minister Israel Katz told the “Bild” newspaper. Meanwhile, Hamas released two more women, the Israeli government confirmed last night.
Israel remains firm: We are going in
“Hamas wants us to deal with the abductees and not have our military go in to eliminate their infrastructure. That’s not going to happen,” Katz said. His government thanked Egypt and the International Red Cross for their contribution to the release of two more hostages. The 79 and 85-year-old women had been handed over to Israel’s army, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said overnight. Last Friday, Hamas surprisingly released an American mother and her daughter through Qatar’s mediation.
“We are acting with every actor to free those abducted,” said Israel’s Energy Minister Katz. “We’re doing everything we can to get her home.” Israel also tries to “distinguish between Hamas and the civilian population, despite the cruel enemy.” There is enough space in the south of Gaza that is not bombed: “Whoever stays there remains unharmed.” However, a BBC reporter in the south reported attacks there that night too.
Israel is again bombing hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip
The Israeli Air Force said it once again bombed hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip, killing several commanders of the Islamist Hamas. As the Israeli military announced on Telegram this morning, more than 400 “terror targets” had been hit over the past day. In a “large-scale operation to dismantle Hamas’s terrorist capabilities,” dozens of Hamas fighters were hit as they prepared to fire rockets and carry out terrorist attacks against Israel.
Fighting continues on Israel’s northern border
Meanwhile, violent incidents continue to occur on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Israel has strongly warned Lebanon not to enter the war with Hamas. Israel’s army said it had attacked “terror cells” that wanted to fire rockets from Lebanon. Pro-Iranian Hezbollah confirmed it attacked Israeli troops yesterday. Israel then shelled targets in the south of Lebanon.
Macron visits Israel
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Israel for a visit more than two weeks after the start of the war. “We are united with Israel through grief,” Macron wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after his arrival this morning. 30 French citizens were murdered in the massacre by the Islamist Hamas. Nine others are still missing or held hostage. In Tel Aviv, he expressed the nation’s solidarity at a meeting with relatives.
According to media reports, further meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Izchak Herzog are planned during the day.
