US voices concern over killing of Palestinians as Gaza death toll tops 11,000

On Friday, the United States voiced increased worry about the mounting Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip, where health authorities reported that the number of Palestinians killed in an Israeli bombing that had been going on for five weeks had surpassed 11,000.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his most forceful statements to date on the misery of civilians caught in the crossfire in Gaza when he told reporters on a visit to India: “Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks.”

Blinken expressed gratitude for the four-hour humanitarian pauses that the White House announced on Thursday. Still, she told reporters that further action was required to safeguard the civilian population of Gaza.

During the last month that it has been at war with Hamas, Israel has been met with an increasing number of requests for it to exercise caution. However, Israel maintains that the militants who assaulted Israel on October 7 and abducted hostages would take advantage of a ceasefire to reorganize.

“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the director of Al Shifa Hospital, stated. “We will not stand for it.”

He subsequently reported that at least 25 people had been murdered when Israeli forces attacked the Al-Buraq school in Gaza City. The school served as a sanctuary for those whose homes had been demolished.

Officials in Gaza have stated that missiles struck the courtyard of the Al Shifa facility, which is the largest facility in the enclave, as well as the Indonesian Hospital and the Nasser Rantissi pediatric cancer hospital. In addition, the Indonesian hospital sustained damage.

After the fact, Israeli military officials stated that Palestinian terrorists in Gaza were responsible for the rocket that hit Shifa because it was fired erroneously.

The hospitals are located in northern Gaza, which is where Israel believes the Hamas terrorists who assaulted it a month ago are concentrated. In addition to patients and physicians, the hospitals are packed with residents who have been displaced from their homes.

Eylon Levy, a spokeswoman for the Israeli government, stated that the Hamas headquarters were located in the basement of Shifa Hospital, which indicated that the facility may lose its protected status and become a valid target.

Israel claims that Hamas conceals weapons in tunnels beneath hospitals, a claim that Hamas strongly refutes.

Israeli tanks, which have been marching into northern Gaza for over two weeks, have taken up positions outside the Nasser Rantissi Cancer Hospital as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical workers reported earlier, raising concern about the potential threat that this poses to the hospitals.

A representative for the Gaza Health Ministry named Ashraf Al-Qidra stated that Israel had struck the Shifa hospital facilities five times.

“One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he informed me by telephone. Reuters reviewed the videos and confirmed that they depicted scenes of chaos and people drenched in blood.

THE DEATH COUNT IN PALESTINIAN

Palestinian officials said on Friday that air and artillery assaults have resulted in the deaths of 11,078 Gaza Palestinians since October 7.

On October 7, Israel said that 1,400 people had been murdered, the majority of them civilians, and that Hamas had taken around 240 people hostage. Since then, Israel has reported that 39 soldiers have been killed in battle. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday that a revised dead toll from the strike remained at about 1,200.

According to the Palestinian Red Cross, Israeli soldiers opened fire on the Al-Quds hospital. There were also reports of violent skirmishes, which left one person dead and 28 people injured, the majority of whom were minors.

During an evening briefing, the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, stated that the Israeli military “does not fire on hospitals.” If we find terrorists from Hamas firing from hospitals, we will take whatever action is necessary. We are conscious of the delicate nature of the situation (in hospitals), but we reiterate that if we come across Hamas terrorists, we will kill them.

The White House stated on Thursday that Israel agreed to cease military operations in sections of north Gaza for four hours a day. The army said on Friday that Palestinians were permitted to escape for over seven hours along a corridor leading south. Still, there was no indication that the combat would stop.

Palestinians have stated that an Israeli missile targeted a route that people were using to evacuate to the south, and media outlets owned by Hamas have said that three people were killed.

During the last two days, Israeli soldiers have been conducting operations “deep in Gaza City,” according to the top military spokesperson Daniel Hagari. This has caused more than 100,000 civilians to flee to the south.

On Friday, however, according to reports, the evacuations from Gaza into Egypt of Palestinians holding foreign passports and of Palestinians in need of urgent medical treatment were halted. Both a Palestinian official and an Egyptian medical source pointed the finger of blame at difficulties in transporting medical evacuation from within Gaza to the Rafah border crossing.

The sounding of warning sirens gave people in Tel Aviv and the surrounding environs warning of Hamas rocket fire. According to the medical staff, a volley in Tel Aviv caused shrapnel wounds to two different ladies.

On Friday, the military branch of Hamas announced that it was continuing to fire rockets and mortars into Israel while also battling Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

THOUSANDS ARE ON THE RUN
Even before the crisis got closer, Gaza’s hospitals were having trouble keeping up with patient demand because they were running low on medical supplies, potable water, and fuel for their power generators.

A significant number of people ran away after the explosion that occurred at the Shifa hospital. Ayman Al-Masri, who had been injured early on in the conflict, revealed to Reuters that he had sought refuge there with his mother and sister ten days earlier.

“We desire a ceasefire, we desire a solution, and we desire a political solution. “Every single day, tens of our children are taken from us,” he stated.

According to the World Health Organization, several medical professionals have reported “intense violence” at Shifa and “significant bombardment” at the Rantissi hospital. After the event, the Palestinian Ministry of Health stated that there were reports of the Rantissi hospital being on fire after it had taken a direct strike.

“Israel targeted at dawn a number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila said in a statement. Someone who identified themselves on social media as a staff member at Nasser Children’s Hospital uploaded a message claiming they needed help since they were encircled.

Indonesia said that nighttime blasts in the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza had caused damage to several portions of the hospital.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the situation with Gaza’s healthcare sector has reached a “point of no return.”

According to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, more than one hundred United Nations personnel have been murdered in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza since it began. This makes it the bloodiest conflict in the history of the United Nations in such a short period.