The Ministry of Health in Gaza, administered by Hamas, announced on Thursday March 28 a new toll of 32,552 people killed since the start of the Israeli response to the October 7 attack by the Islamist movement. On Thursday morning, the Palestinian enclave was the scene of major air raids and fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas, while Israel said it was ready to discuss the situation with its American ally. Rafah.
Early Thursday, March 28, the Hamas health ministry reported at least sixty-six deaths in the Gaza Strip overnight, including in airstrikes, while a senior local official reported fighting near Gaza City (North) and Khan Younes (South). At the same time, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported clashes in different locations in the West Bank.
The Israeli army, which accuses Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals, continues its operation launched on March 18 in the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City. In Khan Younes, soldiers are carrying out operations in the area of the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals, approximately one kilometer apart, as well as in the Al-Qarara area.
The army said in a statement on Thursday that it had “eliminated around 200 terrorists in the Al-Shifa hospital area since the start of operations. Israeli soldiers came under fire “over the past day, from inside and outside the building housing the emergency room of Al-Shifa hospital,” the same source added.
Al-Amal Hospital “has stopped functioning completely,” the Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier this week, after the civilians there were evacuated. The Israeli army said Thursday it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists in the Al-Amal area,” where its troops “found explosive devices and mortar shells.”
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Israel to provide “urgent humanitarian aid” to Gaza, saying “famine is taking hold” in the Palestinian territory. According to the United Nations, the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants are at risk of famine.
Israel must “promptly ensure” the “unrestricted and large-scale provision by all interested parties of basic services and humanitarian assistance” in Gaza, the Hague-based ICJ said.
“Nothing has changed” since the adoption, Monday March 25, of the resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where bombings and fighting between Israel and Hamas continue to rage, regretted Thursday the international president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF). “We have not seen any change on the ground after this resolution”, neither for people in their daily lives, nor for deliveries of humanitarian aid, underlined Christos Christou, during an interview with AFP.
“The situation remains the same and our demands remain the same,” insisted the MSF official: an immediate and lasting ceasefire, an end to attacks on medical facilities and their personnel and “unhindered access to aid humanitarian”. The organization is still present with local and international teams in the few hospitals that still operate in the south of the territory.
The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, approved on Thursday the composition of the government presented by his new Prime Minister, Mohammed Mustafa, by an official decree. The 19th Palestinian government will have to be sworn in before Mr. Abbas on Sunday, according to the official Wafa agency.
This renewal comes at a time when the international community is pressing the president to undertake institutional reforms, particularly to prepare for the post-war period in the Gaza Strip. The government's priority will be to work to “reunify institutions, including taking responsibility for Gaza,” Mustafa said in a letter to the presidency on Thursday, outlining his roadmap.
The United Nations (UN) deplored, on Thursday, the “unacceptable” attacks against rescue workers in Lebanon, ten of whom have been killed since Tuesday by Israeli strikes in the south of the country, according to Lebanese state media.
For almost six months, daily violence has pitted the Israeli army against the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah and its allies who claim to want to support the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in its war with Israel in the Gaza Strip. “Attacks on medical infrastructure violate international humanitarian law and are unacceptable,” said UN coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza.
At least 346 people have been killed in Lebanon – most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 68 civilians – in clashes with Israel in nearly six months, according to a tally by Agence France-Presse (AFP). The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) called on Thursday for an “immediate” de-escalation on the border between Lebanon and Israel. The White House also said that a return to calm should be the “highest priority”.
