Summary
As the time approaches 3pm in Tel Aviv, Israel, here’s a roundup of today’s news in the Middle East.
A UN report has said Israel’s attacks on hospitals in and around Gaza have led the area’s healthcare system to the brink of “total collapse”. The UN Human Rights Office says its report raises concerns about how much Israel is complying with international law.
Meanwhile The head of Unrwa – the UN agency for aid in Gaza – Philippe Lazzarini says “horrors continue unabated” 15 months since the war broke out between Israel and Gaza, triggered by the Hamas terror attack.
More than 250 members of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (Unrwa) had been killed since the start of the conflict, and more than two-thirds of Unrwa buildings have been damaged or destroyed, he said.
The president of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ola Awad, said the Gaza Strip’s economy crumbled this year during the continued Israeli operations in the territory.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported: “By the end of 2024, estimates indicate that the unprecedented sharp contraction in the GDP in the Gaza Strip will continue by more than 82%, accompanied by an increase in the unemployment rate to 80%.”
The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said it has received hundreds of distress calls from displaced people whose tents and shelters have been flooded by rainwater after heavy rain.
Palestinian health authorities say 45 people have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip for general hospital treatment in the United Arab Emirates. They include a 10-year-old boy suffering from kidney failure.
French aircraft have bombed Islamic State positions in Syria, the country’s defence minister Sebastien Lecornu has announced. The strikes are the first on Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Syria’s new rulers have confirmed the appointment of Murhaf Abu Qasra as defence minister in the new interim government, according to a statement released on Tuesday.
The new Syrian government has reportedly appointed former foreign fighters to its armed forces, Reuters has reported.
The new figures include Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turk as Damascus tries to shape a patchwork of rebel groups into a professional military, two Syrian sources told the news agency.
Israel has warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they face the same “miserable fate” as Hamas and Hezbollah if they continue with rocket attacks.
Gaza's healthcare system on brink of 'total collapse', says UN report
A UN report has said Israel’s attacks on hospitals in and around Gaza have led the area’s healthcare system to the brink of “total collapse”.
The report by the UN Human Rights Office, titled Attacks on hospitals during the escalation of hostilities in Gaza, examines attacks between October 2023 and June 2024 and said successive attacks raise “serious concerns” about the extent to which Israel is complying with international law.
It says there had been 136 strikes on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, leading to “significant” casualties among doctors, nurses, medics and other civilians.
It warns that under international law, the “deliberate” destruction of healthcare facilities may constitute a war crime.
The UN high commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said it had led to hospitals becoming a “death trap”.
He said: “As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap. The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times.
“This report graphically details the destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza, and the extent of killing of patients, staff, and other civilians in these attacks in blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law.”
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