Smoke billows from Israeli bombardment over Khan Yunis from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 16, 2023. Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP
Doha, Qatar: Israeli forces continue to attack several parts of the Gaza Strip, including the southern city of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, as the number of Palestinians killed rises each day. To date, nearly 19,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7.
The World Health Organisation describes the Al-Shifa Hospital Emergency department as a ‘bloodbath’ with hundreds of injured patients inside the facility as new patients arrive every minute. In a statement, WHO stated that the hospital is "in need of resuscitation".
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[2:44pm Doha Time] Gaza’s hungry, thirsty and traumatised residents ‘on survival mode’
The humanitarian situation has become very desperate, not only for the residents of Rafah city but also for the one million displaced Palestinians here who are becoming hungry, thirsty and traumatised as the war pounds on, said Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud, who is reporting from Rafah city in southern Gaza.
"Whatever the amount of aid has been let in, it is not enough," he said.
"People are without anything – without a home, without access to food, without water and without medical supplies.
So the scenes at Rafah crossing are a natural response; when people starve to death, when they are hungry, this is what we will see happening," he added.
"People are trying to survive, they’re on survival mode right now," he said.
[2:30 pm Doha Time] Crowd rushes aid truck arriving into Gaza
Live footage from the Rafah crossing in Gaza shows a large group of people jumping onto an aid truck to secure supplies.
Individuals can be seen tossing aid boxes out of the truck and into the waiting crowds below.
The Rafah crossing is located in the southern part of Gaza bordering Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
The UN has been warning that people in Gaza have become so “desperate for food” that they are stopping aid trucks and immediately eating what they find.
The deputy head of the UN World Food Programme on Thursday also confirmed that about half of all people in Gaza “are starving”, with no idea where their next meal is coming from.
[1:07 pm Doha Time] Israeli attack in Jabalia kills nearly two dozen Palestinians
At least 20 people have been killed and some 100 others injured following an Israeli air raid on a residential block in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The attack targeted the home of the Shehab family, causing extensive damage to neighbouring houses.
Footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows the arrival of those killed and injured, including children, in the attack at a medical facility in Jabalia.
Many of those wounded are seen lying on the floor waiting to be treated.
The WHO says only 11 out of 36 of Gaza’s hospitals remain partially functional.
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[12:00 pm Doha Time] Qatar continues efforts to renew Gaza pause
Qatar affirmed its ongoing diplomatic efforts to renew the humanitarian pause and expressed hope for building upon the progress made to accomplish a comprehensive and sustainable agreement that would end the war.
These diplomatic efforts are meant to stop the bloodshed of the Palestinian brethren leading to serious negotiations and the launch of a political process that yields a comprehensive, permanent, and just peace in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, based on a two-state solution, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and securing all the rights of the Palestinian people.
[9 am Doha Time] Kamal Adwan Hospital destroyed
Al Jazeera reported that according to witnesses and Gaza's Health Ministry, bulldozers were used to destroy a great deal of the hospital facility.
"A vast majority of the hospital’s infrastructure has been destroyed. They were also used to dig out bodies of people buried during the past nine days when the hospital was surrounded by the Israeli military," said Hani Mahmoud, an Al Jazeera corrrespondent in Rafah, southern Gaza.
He further added: "The bulldozers also crushed people sheltering in the tents inside the courtyard of the hospital. Some 20 people were found dead and buried under the rubble."
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[8:30 am Doha Time] More than 12,000 people per square kilometre in Rafah: UN
An ongoing blackout of telecommunications and internet services is making it difficult to access information from Gaza, the UN relief agency in the occupied Palestine Territory (OCHAoPT) has said it in its latest update.
The daily update also added:
“Heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea continued across Gaza on Saturday, with intense airstrikes reported in Khan Younis and Gaza city.”
There are now more than 12,000 people per square kilometre in Rafah, where many of the estimated 85 percent of people displaced in Gaza are seeking shelter.
Israeli forces, including tanks, have reportedly surrounded Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza, with two floors of the hospital reportedly hit.
The UN did not provide any update on the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, saying it has not been able to update its information since 4 December.
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[8:00 am Doha Time] Al-Shifa Hospital Emergency department ‘bloodbath’: UN
A joint UN-mission which travelled to Al-Shifa Hospital, once the most important & largest referral hospital in Gaza, have shared a report on what they saw.
“Patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor, and limited to no pain management is available at the hospital,” the UN said in a short report of the supply mission on Saturday, posted on X.
There were hundreds of injured patients in the emergency department and “new patients arriving every minute,” the UN added.
WHO staff said a “handful of doctors and a few nurses” were working in “unbelievably challenging circumstances.”
They said the hospital in northern Gaza is “in need of resuscitation.”
