Gaza Strip. Numerous bombings, appeals from politicians and protests from families

The first plane carrying injured Palestinian children and their relatives arrived in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, media reported on Saturday. The government of this country plans to admit about a thousand women and children from the Gaza Strip in its hospitals.

The first cruise brought 15 people who had previously escaped from the Gaza Strip to Abu Dhabi Egypt through the border crossing in Rafah, including children and their relatives requiring urgent medical care, the BBC reported.

According to the Emirati news agency WAM, there were children on board with severe injuries, burns and cancer. The Associated Press emphasizes that some seats were removed from the plane to make room for the most seriously injured children who had to lie on stretchers.

Agency UN The United Nations Office for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed on Saturday that fuel had been delivered to the Gaza Strip. However, the regular supplies agreed to by the Israeli authorities are “far from sufficient” to carry out humanitarian activities in this territory, the statement emphasized.

Following pressure from the US, Israel’s war cabinet agreed to regular deliveries of very small amounts of fuel to the Gaza Strip for the first time since the beginning of the war. According to Reuters sources, 140,000 people were allowed to enter. liters once every two days.

On Saturday, UNRWA confirmed that it had received the first shipment of fuel, but much more was needed to continue humanitarian efforts, the BBC reported.

The Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip reported that at least 50 people died on Saturday in the Israeli bombing of a school in the north of this Palestinian territory, which the UN had transformed into a shelter for displaced persons, the AFP agency reported, citing PAP. The raid took place “at dawn in the al-Fakhur school,” the ministry said. Neither the Israeli army nor the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) commented on the information.

Health officials in the Gaza Strip also reported that six Palestinians were killed on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on a residential house in Dajr Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military also did not comment on this information. Tel Aviv maintains that Hamas militants use residential buildings in the densely populated Gaza Strip as cover for operational positions and weapons, something the Palestinian movement denies.

Earlier, Palestinian medical services reported that 26 people were killed and 23 seriously injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of three residential buildings in Khan Yunus in the southern Gaza Strip.

Reuters reported, citing the Palestinian news agency WAFA, that most of the fatalities in this attack were children.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that it did not request a quick evacuation of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza and said it was only responding to requests from the director of the medical center, who asked for a safe exit route for people wanting to leave the hospital, the Times reported. of Israel.

“This morning, the IDF agreed to the request of the director of Al-Shifa Hospital to allow safe passage for Gazans hospitalized and wishing to evacuate,” the IDF wrote in a statement.

READ ALSO: Israeli troops left the Al-Shifa hospital complex. Bulldozers destroyed part of the building

“At no time did the IDF order the evacuation of patients or medical teams and offered to facilitate any medical evacuation requests,” it said.

“Medical staff will remain at the hospital to care for patients who are unable to evacuate,” added the IDF statement, which also said that additional food, water and humanitarian aid had been delivered to the hospital overnight.

Earlier on Saturday, the AFP news agency reported that the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of al-Shifa Hospital, which is the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, using megaphones “within an hour.” As a result, hundreds of people left the complex on foot, and only 120 patients and premature babies remained on site.

According to the UN, Al-Shifa Hospital has so far housed 2,300 patients, caregivers and displaced persons. According to Israel, Hamas uses Al-Shifa hospital as a military base.

As the Institute for War Studies (ISW) reports on its profile on the X platform (formerly Twitter), Israeli forces continued to advance east of Al-Shifa hospital. As the institute points out, this may be related to Israeli efforts to create evacuation corridors for civilians moving from west to east in Gaza City.

The march of the families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas to the Gaza Strip reached Jerusalem on Saturday. The families of those kidnapped on October 7 demand the immediate release of the hostages, as previously emphasized “regardless of the costs.” About 20,000 people participated in the march. It started five days ago in Tel Aviv. The plan is to end it in front of the Prime Minister’s office Benjamin Netanyahu.

Many protest participants accuse the authorities of keeping the families of the kidnapped people in the dark and hiding information, including information about the negotiations taking place through Qatar and Egypt. The families demand that the authorities also consider a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip or the release of detained, arrested or serving Palestinians from prison in exchange for the release of those abducted. So far, the government has rejected these demands and justified the lack of information with the discretion necessary to conduct negotiations.

READ ALSO: Tens of thousands of people demonstrate support for Israel in Washington

“There are 240 kidnapped people and the government – our government – is not talking to the families, not telling them what is happening, what is the offer, what are the arguments for and against. Nothing,” one of the activists, Stevie Kerem, told Reuters.

Hamas, which at the beginning of the war threatened to execute hostages in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, has since claimed that some hostages were killed in attacks on Gaza.

In addition to conventional war tools and widely used technologies, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has a number of technical innovations tailored to the fight against Hamas fighters – an enemy hiding in densely built-up cities or in tunnels drilled under the Gaza Strip.

Israel has one of the best armed armies in the Middle East. Its air force has, among others, American F-35 fighters or Patriot missile defense batteries. Soldiers training at the special Urban Warfare Training Center, commonly known as “Mini Gaza”, make extensive use of drones and other technologies to support street fighting.

According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Israel usually has approximately 170,000. soldiers in active service, has drafted over 300,000 additional soldiers for the current phase of the conflict. reservists.

One of the new weapons in the IDF’s equipment are the so-called sponge bombs – “chemical grenades” without explosives. The contents of the “bomb” are two liquids separated in a plastic container by a metal partition. After its removal, the compounds mix, leading to a sudden explosion of rapidly hardening foam.

The “sponge bomb” can be especially effective in fights in tight tunnels. However, some complications arose during its development – as a result of improper handling of chemical compounds, several Israeli soldiers lost their sight.

The army has not yet officially confirmed the use of these weapons in the current phase of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Another technical innovation that could potentially increase the effectiveness of the Israeli ground invasion in the Hamas-controlled enclave is the IRIS robot – a small and light, remotely controlled robot. It can provide real-time intelligence information about traps or ambushes set up in Hamas’ many kilometers of tunnels.

Another “micro-tactical land robot” from Israel is the stair-climbing MTGR – particularly beneficial in urban or underground combat environments. Explosives can be attached to these robots and activated when an enemy approaches.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi sharply criticized Israel for its “overt aggression” against Palestinian civilians. In his opinion, the war with Hamas may spread to a larger area of ​​the Middle East.

Safadi, during the Manama Dialogue, an annual conference on foreign and security policy in the Middle East held in Bahrain, accused Israel of committing “war crimes” by besieging the Gaza Strip and cutting off supplies of food, medicine and fuel.

– We all must speak loudly and clearly about the catastrophe caused by the Israeli war, not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the region in general (…) This is not self-defense. This is a blatant aggression whose victims are innocent Palestinians, added the head of the Jordanian Foreign Ministry and warned that Jordan will do “everything necessary to stop the displacement of Palestinians.” “This war is taking us nowhere but towards greater conflict, greater suffering and the threat of becoming a regional war,” he concluded.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara would strive to rebuild Gaza if a ceasefire is reached. He also told reporters that his country is calling for nuclear weapons inspections in Israel “so that there is no doubt about this issue,” Reuters reported.

Israel, like Pakistan, India and South Sudan, has never joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and North Korea she withdrew from him.

On Wednesday, President Erdogan called Israel a “terrorist state,” escalating his rhetoric after initial offers of mediation between Israel and Hamas. In his earlier speeches regarding the war in the Gaza Strip, the leader accused the West of causing a catastrophe in this Palestinian area controlled by Hamas – an organization that is not recognized by Turkey as a terrorist.