Israeli attacks killed at least 16 Palestinians and sparked a fire in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza [Getty]
Israeli bombing killed at least 16 Palestinians overnight on Wednesday and into the morning of Thursday, including children and a doctor at a hospital, while Palestinian officials say that the main issues in a potential ceasefire deal have been ironed out.
The attacks on the north of the Strip also caused more damage to the Kamal Adwan hospital, igniting a fire in the intensive care unit. In recent days, the hospital has come under fierce attacks leaving it only partially functional.
The director of the hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, said “by some miracle, we managed to evacuate the patients from there as the fire broke out inside”.
According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, three Palestinians were killed by a quadcopter drone in the al-Zahour neighbourhood, north of the city of Rafah.
The attacks come as weather conditions have worsened an already dire situation in the Gaza Strip, with civil defence crews calling on people to try and seek protection from the strong wind and thunderstorms expected in the coming days.
Civil defence crews told Palestinians sheltering in displacement camps and near the sea to secure their tents well and to take extra steps to prevent them from being swept away.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric denounced the Israeli attacks, which have continued for over 14 months, noting that Israel has denied its requests to get aid to starving people in the north who are facing catastrophic levels of hunger.
The Palestinian UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, also called on the UN Security Council to take urgent action to stop Israel’s aggression on Gaza and the occupied West Bank”.
“Over a year ago, from this very chamber, we urged for a ceasefire that would reunite Palestinian and Israeli families in life, not in death,” he said, adding that Israel “continues to genocide, starve and forcibly displace people”.
A new report from the aid group Doctors Without Borders, known by their French acronym MSF, said they found “clear signs of ethnic cleansing in Gaza”.
The group said that the north of the Strip, which has been under an intensified siege for over 70 days now, has seen “Palestinian life being wiped off the area”.
The report adds that their “observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza”.
Ceasefire talks
The Israeli attacks come as officials say ceasefire negotiations have become more serious in recent days compared to previous rounds.
A Palestinian official close to the talks said on Wednesday that mediators have now narrowed the gaps on most of the agreement’s terms.
The official added that Israel introduced some last-minute conditions which Hamas rejected, without elaborating further on what they were.
Many are still approaching the potential deal with cautious optimism because Israeli attempts to add new terms have previously derailed an agreement.
Haaretz also reported that mediators are pressuring Israel to release high-profile Palestinian prisoners as part of a captive exchange deal.
Citing Palestinian sources familiar with the talks, the report states the issue has been a key sticking point in the talks.
A Hamas leader with knowledge of the negotiations told The New Arab’s Arabic language sister publication, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that ongoing negotiations have managed to resolve most of the points of contention, but there may be some final touches to come.
“Around 90 percent of the case has been resolved, but there are still some minor remarks” the leader said.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,097 Palestinians and wounded over 107,244 in the same time frame. The war has levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.
