As
Israeli forces continue their attacks on hospitals in Gaza, doctors and medical
teams in the strip have been working under intense pressure, and with great
difficulty, to treat illnesses and injuries due to the lack of proper
medication and the rapid spread of bacteria.
“The
medical teams in Gaza are fighting a fierce battle against bacteria, which no
longer respond to most antibiotics,” said Izzedin Shaheen, a doctor in the
besieged enclave, via X on 21 November.
“Hardly
any person with a wound infection survives, no matter how hard the doctors try.
All the conditions are bad – no sterilization and no sufficient antibiotics. We
have even found E. Coli bacteria in bone tissue, which is unfamiliar in medical
books,” Shaheen added.
The
continued acceleration of the health crisis in Gaza coincides with Tel Aviv’s
Generals’ Plan, which Israel is unofficially implementing in the northern
strip, which has been besieged for nearly two months. The Israeli army has
expelled over 100,000 Palestinians from the north, aiming to transform the area
into an isolated military zone.
Former
Israeli general Giora Eiland, the man behind the Generals’ Plan, said on 17
November: “The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in
Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this, as difficult as
that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will
bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.”
International
organizations have repeatedly warned over the months that Israel’s war in Gaza
has resulted in a severe health crisis and the spread of numerous illnesses,
particularly due to forced displacement orders against Palestinians – which
crams the displaced into small areas that lack basic supplies and facilities
for hygiene.
The
Israeli army has subjected 90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population to forced
displacement.
As
the Generals’ Plan unfolds, Israel has tightened its siege and increased
attacks on the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza.
Beit
Lahia’s Kamal Adwan Hospital has been under heavy attack. Israel bombarded the
hospital late on 21 November, injuring six of its medical staff, including some
who are in critical condition. The hospital’s main generator was destroyed, and
its water tanks were punctured.
The
attack came less than a day after a massacre was committed by Israel on a
residential block in the hospital’s vicinity. At least 66 were killed and more
than 100 injured by the bombing. Around 200 people were present at the time of
the attack, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safia.
“The
health system is collapsing in northern Gaza. We cannot provide anything, and
all of our appeals are in vain," he said.
Abu
Safia has appealed for immediate intervention from the international community.
Around 80 people are at risk of death inside the facility, including eight who
are in intensive care.
An
Israeli quadcopter targeted medical staff at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza
early on Friday, hours after the latest attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Israel’s
Defense Ministry announced on 22 November the end of administrative detention
for illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank, as Palestinians – particularly
minors – continue to suffer under the controversial policy.
“In
a reality where the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is subject to
serious Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions are
taken against the settlers, it is not appropriate for the State of Israel to
take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements,” newly
appointed Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Friday.
“If
there is suspicion of criminal acts, the perpetrators can be prosecuted, and if
not, there are other preventive measures that can be taken other than
administrative detention orders,” the defense minister added.
He
also said he condemns “any phenomenon of violence against Palestinians and
taking the law into one’s own hands, and [he] also appeal[s] to the settlement
leadership to take a similar public position and express an unequivocal
position on the issue.”
Administrative
detention is, in the majority of cases, used against Palestinians but has, at
times, been applied to extremist Israeli settlers. Under the policy, people can
be held without charge for up to six months, and detention can be renewed
indefinitely.
The
policy is very commonly used against Palestinian children. According to a
report issued last month by Defense for Children International - Palestine
(DCIP), the number of Palestinian minors in Israeli administrative detention
has almost quadrupled since last year, standing at 85 as of 30 September.
This
represents 35 percent of all Palestinian children held in Israeli military
detention, according to DCIP.
“Israeli
forces are arbitrarily detaining Palestinian children without charge or trial
at a rate we have never seen before,” said the Accountability Program Director
at DCIP, Ayed Abu Eqtaish.
The
defense minister’s announcement comes as settler violence against Palestinians
continues on nearly a daily basis.
Israeli
forces also continue to invade cities and towns across the occupied West Bank,
causing massive destruction and casualties.
The
Israeli army withdrew from the city of Jenin on Wednesday after a two-day
military operation that left at least eight Palestinians dead and 19 injured.
The
troops left behind huge destruction of infrastructure and property in the
occupied city.
Resistance
factions in the territory have boosted their activity as the genocide in Gaza
continues, carrying out shooting operations against army checkpoints and
settlements, and fiercely confronting Israeli army raids in the West Bank.
“After
contact was restored with one of our combat formations, they confirmed to us
that at exactly 8:11 pm yesterday, they detonated a heavy explosive … against a
military vehicle and damaged it on the municipality street axis in Anabta. Our
heroes were also able to shower military vehicles with heavy volleys of bullets
on the municipality street axis in Anabta, east of Tulkarem,” the Tulkarem
branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades said on
22 November.
Increased
tensions in the West Bank follow the recent victory of Donald Trump in the US
presidential elections earlier this month.
Hebrew
newspaper Haaretz reported in June that Trump received a pledge from Miriam
Adelson, the widow of late US businessman Sheldon Adelson, to support his
presidential campaign with millions of dollars. She seeks, in exchange, US
support for Israeli annexation of the West Bank and recognition of Israeli
sovereignty over the occupied territory, according to Haaretz.
US
investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported this week, citing an official
in Washington, that Israel will soon officially annex the West Bank, which was
illegally occupied in 1967.
“I
was told this week by a well-informed Washington official that the Israeli
leadership will formally annex the West Bank in the very near future – perhaps
in two weeks – in the hope that the decisive step will end, once and for all,
any talk of a two-state solution and will convince some in the skeptical Arab
world to reconsider financing the planned reconstruction of Gaza,” Hersh wrote
in his article on Substack on 20 November.
Israel's
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the Defense Ministry’s Settlement
Directorate and Civil Administration earlier this month to prepare the
groundwork for annexing the West Bank.
Benjamin
Netanyahu's government has rapidly expanded illegal settlements in the
territory over the past two years.
The Yemeni Armed Forces announced on
22 November the launch of a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile toward the
Israeli Nevatim Air Base in the Negev Desert.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces, in
response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy in Gaza and Lebanon, will continue
their military operations, and these operations will not stop until the
aggression stops, the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted, and the aggression on
Lebanon stops,” officials in Sanaa said.
According to reports by the Israeli
Home Front Command, sirens sounded overnight on Thursday in settlements south
of occupied Jerusalem. Officials told local media that the reported launch of a
ballistic missile from Yemen triggered the sirens.
This marks the second launch of a
Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile toward the strategic air base in
Israel's south since the start of November.
Thursday's attack came hours after
Ansarallah leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi pledged that Yemen would continue its
operations to disrupt Israeli shipping in West Asian waters and protect Yemen's
sovereignty against US and British attacks.
“Yemen has challenged America with
its warships and fleets at sea after it declared aggression against us, and
Yemen has stood firm and never retreated from its position … Yemen targeted
[US] aircraft carriers, which terrorize many countries, regimes, and
governments, using them to intimidate those who compete with it
internationally,” the Yemeni resistance leader said.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon
revealed that the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier exited the Red Sea mere days
after coming under attack by the Yemeni Armed Forces.
Houthi also called on all Muslim
nations to “join forces and engage in jihad” to support the Axis of Resistance.
“Fighters in Gaza are steadfast and
continue to inflict painful blows on the Israeli enemy. Hezbollah is gaining
remarkable achievements and is standing firm in the face of the unprecedented
aggression against Lebanon. Muslim nations should take the right path by
supporting combatants in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen,” the Ansarallah
leader said.
Hezbollah fiercely confronted the
Israeli army in southern Lebanon on 22 November as troops advanced deeper into
the country.
Hebrew reports said the Israeli army
has taken control of the Tal al-Nahas village between Khiam and Deir Mimas.
Israeli forces have reportedly imposed a siege on the southern town of Naqoura,
while continuing attempts to advance on the towns of Khiam and Kfar Kila.
According to video footage, Israeli
troops have also set up a checkpoint west of the village of Deir Mimas.
Al-Akhbar newspaper’s correspondent
reported earlier on Friday afternoon that “some Israeli troop concentrations
and vehicles moving between Tel al-Nahas, Deir Mimas outskirts, and Qleiaa,
south Lebanon were targeted.”
Hezbollah carried out several
operations against invading forces on 22 November.
The resistance’s military media said
its fighters “targeted, at 4:30 pm today … a gathering of Israeli enemy army
forces on the eastern outskirts of the city of Khiam, for the sixth time, with
a rocket salvo.”
Israeli troops in the Deir Mimas
triangle were also targeted with artillery shells, Hezbollah confirmed.
The Israeli army was targeted by the
Lebanese resistance movement's rockets in several other areas of south Lebanon
on 22 November, including troops in Armis Hill west of Shamaa, Shamaa itself,
the outskirts of Khiam, the outskirts of Kfar Kila, and Yarin.
Merkava tanks were targeted near
Khiam and the Shamaa fortress, with Hezbollah reporting “the deaths and
injuries” of their crewmembers.
During a speech earlier this week,
Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem explained that the resistance
movement is not a traditional army and does not focus its efforts on trying to
prevent the Israeli military from entering and advancing in Lebanon.
Instead, Hezbollah fighters wait for
troops to advance, ambushing them and inflicting heavy losses on them wherever
they enter. Qassem also said he expected the first phase of Israel’s ground
operation to last longer than it did.
Tel Aviv announced the expansion of
its ground operation in Lebanon last week.
Four Italian soldiers were injured
in the clashes on Friday when two 122-millimeter rockets struck a UNIFIL base
in southern Lebanon, Rome said in a statement. An investigation is underway,
Italian sources told Reuters. An Israeli position is located around the
facility, according to Al-Akhbar newspaper’s correspondent. Israel has targeted
UNIFIL forces in Lebanon several times since the war expanded in September.
The Lebanese resistance has
maintained heavy rocket and drone fire against Israeli military sites and
settlements along the border, as well as deeper near Haifa, Nahariya, and Acre.
Earlier this week, Hezbollah struck Tel Aviv with a ballistic missile that made
direct impact following deadly attacks on central Beirut.
“The Islamic Resistance fighters
targeted the Shraga base (the administrative headquarters of the Golani Brigade
Command) north of the occupied city of Acre, at 4:30 pm on Friday, 11-22-2024,
with a rocket salvo,” Hezbollah announced on Friday afternoon.
A Hezbollah rocket made impact in
Kiryat Ata east of Haifa. Israeli army radio reported 30 rockets launched from
Lebanon toward the Galilee and Haifa Bay within 20 minutes.
Israel continued to indiscriminately
bombard Lebanon on 22 November, targeting across the country, including the
southern suburb of the capital, Beirut.
Massive Israeli bombs struck several
areas across the Beirut suburb. The raids were ongoing for hours.
“The raids that targeted Galerie
Semaan, Chiyah, and Bir al-Abed caused huge fires, the collapse of buildings,
and widespread destruction of shops and roads,” Lebanon’s National News Agency
(NNA) reported.
The
Islamic Republic of Iran announced on 22 November plans to activate a “series
of new and advanced centrifuges” in response to a resolution adopted by the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a day earlier.
“After
the resolution, we immediately started our remedial measures. We will
significantly increase enrichment capacity,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for
the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said in a televised interview on
Friday.
“Our
compensatory actions began immediately after this resolution,” Kamalvandi
added, stressing that Iran's “infrastructure will be strengthened, and security
measures will be improved through other actions.”
Kamalvandi
said the UN nuclear watchdog was informed of the measures Tehran would take in
response to the US-backed resolution before IAEA officials had left the Board
of Governors’ meeting.
A
joint statement from the AEOI and the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued on Friday
night confirms that “technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA will
continue, as in the past” and within the framework of agreements made by Iran.”
The Islamic Republic recently agreed to an IAEA demand to cap its stock of
high-enriched uranium up to only 60 percent purity, well below weapons-grade 90
percent purity.
On
Thursday, the IAEA Board of Governors voted 19 to three, with 12 abstentions,
to approve a resolution put forth by the US, France, Germany, and the UK
ordering Iran to “urgently improve cooperation” with the agency and requesting
a “comprehensive” report into Iran’s nuclear activities.
Western
media reports say the US-led alliance “hopes” the report, due by spring 2025,
“will pressure Iran into negotiations on fresh restrictions on its nuclear
activities.”
Thursday's
session marked the least number of votes in the Board of Governor resolutions
against Iran in the past 21 years. China, Russia, and Burkina Faso voted
against the text, diplomats in the meeting said.
Iranian
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier this week condemned efforts by the
US-led alliance to pass their fourth resolution since 2020, saying it would
“complicate” nuclear talks.
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