Palestinians inspect a house hit by an Israeli strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 16, 2024. Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Israeli PM says international recognition of a Palestinian state is a reward for terrorism as IDF troops raid biggest hospital in Gaza. Israel will continue to oppose international recognition of a Palestinian state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, warning that it could prevent the settlement of the conflict in Gaza.
Netanyahu was responding to a report on Wednesday by the Washington Post, which cited diplomatic sources as saying that the US and several Arab nations were discussing a plan for long-term peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The proposal reportedly involves a ceasefire, the release of hostages held by Hamas and “a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, that could be announced as early as the next several weeks,” the paper said. The Israeli leader took to X (formerly Twitter) early on Friday to clarify his stance on what he described as “talk of imposing a Palestinian state on Israel.”
“Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” he wrote in Hebrew. Gaza’s largest functioning hospital was under siege on Friday in Israel’s war with Islamist group Hamas, leaving patients and doctors helpless in the chaos, as warplanes struck Rafah, the last refuge for Palestinians in the enclave, officials said.
Israeli forces said on Thursday they had raided the medical complex as footage showed shouting and gunfire in dark corridors in an incursion that raised fresh alarm over the fate of hundreds of patients and medical workers and the many displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter there from the fighting.
Israel’s military called the raid on Nasser Hospital “precise and limited” and said it was based on information that Hamas militants were hiding and had kept hostages in the facility, with some bodies of captives possibly there.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said on Friday that five patients at the hospital died in intensive care as a result of power outages and the cessation of oxygen supply.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday it was trying to reach Nasser Hospital, after the Israeli raid. The Israeli military said troops had detained more than 20 Palestinians it said had been involved in the Oct. 7 attack in the raid and detained dozens of others for questioning. It said soldiers had also found ammunition and weapons in the hospital.
“There are still critically injured and sick patients that are inside the hospital,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said. “There is an urgent need to deliver fuel to ensure the continuation of the provision of life-saving services… We are trying to get access because people who are still in Nasser medical complex need assistance.”
The Gaza Health Ministry said earlier this week that there were 10,000 people sheltering at the hospital, but many had left because they feared the Israeli raid was imminent. The war began when Iran-backed Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has since devastated tiny, Gaza, killing 28,775 people, also mostly civilian, according to Palestinian health authorities, and forcing nearly all of its more than 2 million inhabitants from their homes.
Officials and witnesses say Israel has hit schools, universities, state institutions and mosques in its bombardment of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs the enclave where its leaders — whom Israel has vowed to hunt down — are believed to be hiding, possibly in a complex underground tunnel network.
Gaza’s health authorities said Israel had forced out dozens of staff, patients, displaced people, and families of medical staff sheltering in the Nasser hospital. Power generators have stopped, and electricity has been completely cut off from the compound.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli forces inside Nasser Hospital forced women and children to go into the maternity department, which it had turned into a military area. Women were not allowed to take in any of their belongings.
Source: X/RT/Reuters
