Gaza Hospital….
Israeli soldiers stormed and burned a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcibly removing staff and patients on Friday, Health Ministry officials said. The Israeli military said the hospital was being used by Hamas fighters as a base, although it did not provide evidence.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital, including the lab and surgery department. Israel’s military said there was only a small fire in an empty hospital building, and was unaware of any Israeli gunfire causing the blaze.
Meanwhile in Israel, an 83-year-old woman was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian from the West Bank, and police say the suspect was arrested.
Early Saturday, Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile fired toward the country by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, as sirens woke Israelis yet again. On Thursday, Israeli warplanes bombed key infrastructure in Yemen. The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea corridor — attacks they say won’t stop until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip….
…
Gaza humanitarian situation worse
Even as mediators try to secure a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, Palestinians and human rights organizations say the humanitarian situation is getting more desperate.
In the 14 months since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza in response to the Hamas-led terror attack on Israel, military bombardments have turned cities into rubble-filled wastelands and 90 percent of the population of about 2.1 million has been displaced at least once. Winter is adding to the misery. A doctor at a hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said that four infants in tent encampments had died from the cold in the past week.
Israel says that its target is Hamas and that it does everything possible to limit the loss of civilian life. But the increasingly dire humanitarian situation has prompted a particularly scathingchorus of condemnation from the United Nations and international human rights organizations….
…
Syria Update….
Syria’s embassy in Lebanon suspended consular services Saturday, a day after two relatives of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assadwere arrested at the Beirut airport with allegedly forged passports.
Also on Saturday, Lebanese authorities handed over dozens of Syrians — including former officers in the Syrian army under Assad — to the new Syrian authorities after they were caught illegally entering Lebanon, a war monitor and Lebanese officials said.
The embassy announced on its Facebook page that consular work was suspended “until further notice” at the order of the Syrian foreign ministry. The announcement did not give a reason for the suspension.
Two Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the suspension was ordered because the passports belonging to Assad’s relatives — the wife and daughter of one of his cousins — were believed to have been forged at the embassy…..
…
Regional countries have been quick to establish ties with Syria’s new rulers. Delegations of Libyan and Bahraini officials arrived in Damascus on Saturday on official visits…
…
There have also been ongoing tensions and clashes in northeastern Syria between Kurdish-led forces and armed groups backed by Turkey. Many Kurds have viewed the new order in Damascus, which appears to have strengthened Turkey’s hand in Syria, with anxiety.
Ankara sees the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — a key U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group — as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which it classifies as a terrorist organizatio
An explosion from a former SAA position in Homs City suggests that HTS does not yet have full control on the ground and that local groups and individuals can access and repurpose unexploded ordinance.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.