Israel-Hamas war live: 50 killed in Gaza during morning attacks – Ministry

Dr Hani Hamada, director of operations at the Ministry of Health and Coordinator of Field Hospitals in Gaza, spoke to Al Jazeera about the health system breakdown in the Gaza Strip.

“Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis is now besieged and cannot be reached to provide all services,” Hamada said from the Indonesian field hospital in Rafah. “And in the central area, there is only the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, while the European Hospital is all beds full of cases and waiting lists are high for this purpose.”

He said that about 1.6 million people in Rafah need medical care and health services. He added that cancer patients have had scheduled operations interrupted.

“The situation is very dangerous and needs rapid and urgent intervention, and we appeal to all international institutions and Arab and foreign countries to save the residents of the Gaza Strip from this fierce Israeli attack.”

Israel, via the United States, has proposed a new prisoner exchange deal to mediator Qatar, according to Israel’s Channel 13.

The deal would first see Israel withdraw its troops from densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip and allow far more aid to enter the enclave, the channel reports.

In the second phase, Hamas would release female Israeli captives, including female soldiers and the bodies of dead Israelis, as Israel retreats further into areas to be hashed out via Qatari and US mediation.

The media outlet said Hamas has “so far rejected this proposal” as it does not call for a full ceasefire while hostages are exchanged.

It’s day 83 of the war, and this is where things stand:

• A large fire broke out in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah after an Israeli strike targeted tents with displaced people in the Tal az-Zohour neighbourhood.
• Raids continued all over the occupied West Bank, with fierce clashes reported at al-Manara Square in the centre of Ramallah.
• At least seven civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in Israeli shelling on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
• The UN reported that 22 Israeli soldiers were killed over Tuesday and Wednesday in Gaza, bringing the total number of Israeli forces killed in the Palestinian territory to 162 since the outbreak of violence.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler, drawing parallels between the Gaza war and the genocide in Nazi Germany.

A video from the Palestinian Red Crescent shows the aftermath of a strike near El Amal City Hospital in Khan Younis that killed at least 10.

Among those wounded is a child who is seen being rushed into an ambulance for treatment.

UN rights chief Volker Turk has said that the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is rapidly deteriorating, citing a new UN report that details Israeli violence in the Palestinian territory.

“The use of military tactics and weapons in law enforcement contexts, the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and the enforcement of broad, arbitrary and discriminatory movement restrictions that affect Palestinians are extremely troubling,” he said in a statement.

The statement also said the UN Human Rights Office had verified the deaths of 300 Palestinians from October 7 to December 27 – including 79 children – in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Of these, Israeli military forces killed at least 291 Palestinians, illegal Israeli settlers killed eight, and one Palestinian was killed either by Israeli troops or settlers.

Prior to October 7, 200 Palestinians had already been killed in the area this year – the highest number in a 10-month period since the UN began keeping records in 2005.

Israel’s military used the wrong type of munition to strike the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza earlier this week, compounding the death toll, The Times of Israel quoted an Israeli military official as saying.

“The type of munition did not match the nature of the attack, causing extensive collateral damage which could have been avoided,” said the official.

At least 90 people were killed late Sunday when Israel struck the small refugee camp in Deir el-Balah, in one of the war’s deadliest attacks.

An Al Jazeera correspondent has reported that at least one Palestinian has been killed and a number of others injured in an Israeli bombing in the al-Wafiya neighbourhood in Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, huge explosions were heard in the northern suburbs of Gaza City amid continued Israeli artillery shelling, a correspondent said.

Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/12/28/israel-hamas-war-live-israel-kills-palestinians-in-central-gaza-attacks