UN calls Gaza hospital fighting ‘reprehensible’ as Israel denies attacks; anti-war protestors in Tel Aviv call for ceasefire and release of hostages
Anti-war protestors have gathered in Tel Aviv this evening in calls for a ceasefire and the release of hostages by Hamas. Many demonstrators carried signs reading “Israelis for ceasefire”, “War has no winners” and “Only peace talks with solve this”.
The UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator has released a statement saying: “Hospitals must be places of greater safety, not of war.” In a tweet on Saturday, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said: “There can be no justification for acts of war in healthcare facilities, leaving them with no power, food or water, and shooting at patients and civilians trying to flee.”
Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that patients and medical staff in Gaza are “trapped in hospitals under fire” and called on the “Israeli government to cease this unrelenting assault on Gaza’s health system”. In a statement released on Saturday, the humanitarian organization said: “MSF urgently reiterates its calls to stop the attacks against hospitals, for an immediate ceasefire and for the protection of medical facilities, medical staff and patients.”
The Israeli military will help evacuate babies trapped in Gaza’s Dar al-Shifa hospital on Sunday, the chief Israeli military spokesperson, R Adm Daniel Hagari, said on Saturday, Reuters reports. “The staff of the Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow we help the babies in the pediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” Hagari said at a news conference.
Two premature babies have died due to power cuts at Dar al-Shifa hospital, Physicians for Human Rights Israel said on Saturday. “As a result of the lack of electricity, we can report that the neonatal intensive care unit has stopped working. Two premature infants have died, and there is a real risk to the lives of 37 other premature infants” at Dar al-Shifa hospital, the group said, citing doctors at the hospital, Agence France-Presse reports.
The Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, warned Hezbollah on Saturday not to escalate fighting along the border. “Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war that might happen,” Gallant told troops in a video aired by Israeli television channels, Reuters reports.
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, called on Islamic governments to designate Israel’s military a “terrorist organisation”, citing its current operations in the Gaza Strip. “Islamic governments should designate the army of the occupying and aggressor regime as a terrorist organisation,” Raisi told the summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Saudi capital Riyadh, according to AFP.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), has urged the joint Arab-Islamic summit to “act now to change the trajectory” of the crisis in Gaza. Lazzarini called for support for a humanitarian ceasefire, a continuous flow of humanitarian aid and support for the UNRWA.
