As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the US President Joe Biden has said that hospitals in the Gaza Strip must be protected and he hoped for “less intrusive” action by Israel.
This is coming after Israeli tanks took up positions outside Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s main medical centre.
According to Isreal, the hospital sits atop tunnels housing a headquarters for Hamas fighters who are using patients as shields.However, Hamas has denied the Israeli claim.
Israel launched its war against Hamas after the Palestinian group’s Oct 7 rampage in southern Israel.
Around 1,200 people died in that attack and 240 were taken hostage, according to Israel’s tally.
The armed wing of Hamas said it was ready to free up to 70 women and children held in Gaza in exchange for a five-day truce in the war.
According to Gaza medical authorities, more than 11,000 people have been confirmed killed in Israeli bombardment, about 40 per cent of them children.
Roughly two-thirds of the people in the densely populated Mediterranean strip have been made homeless by Israel’s military campaign.
Israel has ordered the northern half of Gaza to be evacuated.
Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra, who was inside Al Shifa hospital, said on Monday 32 patients had died in the previous three days, including three newborns. He pointed out that this is because of the siege of the hospital in northern Gaza and a lack of power.
The Israeli military said early on Tuesday it had “initiated a humanitarian effort to coordinate transfer of incubators” from Israel to Al Shifa.
But it said none of the devices, often used to keep pre-mature newborns warm, had been received by the facility.
At least 650 patients were still inside Al Shifa hospital, desperate to be evacuated to another medical facility.
In his first comments since the weekend’s events, including patient deaths reported at Al Shifa, President Biden said hospitals must be protected.
“My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals and we remain in contact with the Israelis,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday.
“Also there is an effort to get this pause to deal with the release of prisoners and that’s being negotiated, as well, with the Qataris ... being engaged,” he added. “So I remain somewhat hopeful but hospitals must be protected.”
Israel is adamant that Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes.
Israel’s military on Monday released video and photos of what it said were weapons the group stored in the basement of Rantissi hospital, a paediatric hospital specialising in cancer treatment.
Hostages for ceasefire?
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, posted an audio recording on its Telegram channel saying the group was ready to release as many as 70 women and children hostages in return for a five-day ceasefire, an offer Israel is unlikely to embrace.
“We told the (Qatari) mediators that in a five-day truce, we can release 50 of them and the number could reach 70 due to the difficulty that the captives are held by different factions,” said al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubaida said, saying Israel had asked for 100 to be freed.
Israel, which effectively blockades Gaza, has rejected a ceasefire. It argues that Hamas would simply use it to regroup.
But Israel has permitted brief humanitarian “pauses” to allow food and other supplies to flow in and foreigners to flee.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Washington would “like to see considerably longer pauses - days, not hours - in the context of a hostage release”.