‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 109: Israeli forces storm Al-Khair Hospital, bomb Palestinians sheltering in tents in Khan Younis

Casualties

• 25,490+ killed* and at least 63,354 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 387+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
• 552 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**

*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 32,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

** This figure is released by the Israeli military.

Key Developments

• Israeli forces storm Al-Khair Hospital in Khan Younis, arresting medical staff.
• Gaza’s Ministry of Health says, “Israeli occupation is preventing ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Younis.”
• Doctors without Borders says due to heavy Israeli bombardment near Nasser Hospital, MSF staff felt ground shaking underneath them.
• In the last 24 hours, Israeli forces kill 195 Palestinian martyrs and wound 354 people in 22 massacres across the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health.
• Israeli forces bomb tents for displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi neighborhood, west of Khan Younis, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens.
•  Israeli military announces 21 soldiers killed in Gaza in single day during armed battles with Palestinian resistance fighters.
• Axios reports Israel submitted proposal through Qatar and Egypt to pause war for two months in return for the release of all 130 Israeli captives in Gaza.
• Hamas releases two videos of attacking Israeli soldiers barricading inside building in Gaza and in Jabalia. Islamic Jihad releases video of sniping two Israeli soldiers stationed in Al-Bureij refugee camp.
• Israel’s Foreign Minister shares plans with EU officials to build artificial island off coast of Gaza and railway to India. EU representative dismiss plans as, “irrelevant.”
• Israeli settlers burn vehicles in showroom in Beitin village, while Israeli soldiers shoot and kill Palestinian teen in Arraba village.
• Israeli forces damage and cover up with dirt water well in Ras Atiya village, south of Qalqilya, serving 400 Palestinian farmers.

Israel bombs vicinity of Nasser Hospital, storms Al-Khair Hospital

Israel’s bombardment shook the ground nonstop underneath Palestinian medical staff and patients at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces also stormed the Al-Khair Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday afternoon and arrested medical staff, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

“The Israeli occupation is preventing ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Younis,” the ministry spokesperson, Dr. Ashar al-Qudra said.

Some Palestinian families buried their relatives in the yard of the Nasser Hospital, as anyone who attempted to enter or exit the medical complex was under the threat of Israeli fire. 

Israeli forces and tanks still surround the Al-Amal Hospital on Tuesday, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and are cutting direct contact with medical teams inside the facility.

The Al-Amal and Al-Khair Hospitals are relatively smaller than the Nasser Hospital. Yet, they are essential for Palestinians, who, under Israeli bombardment and siege, are lacking enough medical supplies.

On Tuesday afternoon, the PRCS, which runs the Al-Amal Hospital, said it was “working tirelessly to provide necessary care for the injured and displaced, despite the ongoing Israeli aggression attack on Khan Younis.”

Overnight, the situation in the Nasser Hospital, the only major facility operating in southern Gaza which has the capacity to treat thousands of injured patients, was horrific.

Doctors without Borders (MSF) said due to heavy Israeli bombardment nearby, MSF staff felt the ground shaking underneath them.

“There is a sense of panic among staff, patients and displaced people sheltering inside the building,” MSF wrote on X platform. 

Israeli bombs shrapnel, which could be deadly or cause an injury, fell in the yard of the Nasser Hospital, the last resort for thousands of displaced Palestinians to shelter.

“All the hospital wards at Nasser are full and there is no way to evacuate medical staff and patients safely due to exit routes from the facility being blocked,” MSF added.

Israeli forces have been inching closely to the Nasser Hospital for the past weeks. Palestinians burying their relatives in the hospital’s yards said that Israeli forces have been stationed near or atop of cemeteries in southern Gaza, desecrating and vandalizing graves in recent weeks. 

Medical staff are fearing an imminent storming of the Nasser Hospital, a policy Israel enacted in north and central Gaza when it raided the Al-Shifa Hospital, claiming that Hamas housed a command center underneath it, which proved false.

“MSF staff fear the fighting, shelling and bombing will get worse and closer to Nasser hospital. There has been heavy ongoing bombing mainly in the southern and northern parts of Khan Younis since [Sunday] evening,” the MSF said.

Israeli forces bomb Palestinians sheltering in tents in Khan Younis

In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces killed 195 Palestinian martyrs and injured 354 people in 22 massacres in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health. Since October, Israel killed 25,490 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, and injured 63,354 people. Thousands remain buried under the rubble.

Wafa news agency reported that Israeli forces bombed tents for displaced Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi neighborhood, west of Khan Younis, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens.

Israel bombed entire Palestinian families sheltering in Al-Mawasi school, alongside four other sheltering sites, housing nearly 30,000 Palestinians, in Khan Younis in the past 24 hours. 

Rescue teams who could reach the area transferred the injured to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Israeli forces also bombed a car driving on Khan Younis seaside road on Monday.

In north Gaza, Israel bombed the house of the Dahnoun family in Beit Lahia, killing at least one person, while attacking Al-Shati refugee camp with several airstrikes and shelling. 

Israeli artillery also attacked the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, in the southeast of Gaza, while it attacked Tel Al-Zaatar in Jabalia. Al-Jazeera documented the first moments of the bombing aftermath, where several Palestinians injured and covered in blood were lying amid the rubble in Tel Al-Zaatar.

Palestinians in Gaza lived under an internet blackout for the second day on Monday due to Israeli aggression, and the tenth time since October, Wafa reported.

Israeli military announces 21 soldiers killed in Gaza in single day

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday morning that 21 soldiers were killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours during armed battles with Palestinian resistance fighters. 

This is the heaviest combat loss the Israeli military has suffered since December, when eight soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed in Al-Shuja’iya refugee camp, east of Gaza City.

Haaretz reported that the 21 soldiers were ambushed and killed while preparing mines and explosives to demolish a building 600 meters away from Kissufim, an Israel kibbutz to the east of the Gaza Strip’s fence.

Hamas fighters appeared to surprise the Israeli unit inside a two-story building in central Gaza, designated for demolition and launched an attack using the 105mm Al-Yaseen anti-tank shells.

One of Hamas’s anti-tank grenades hit the explosives and mines being set up by the Israeli unit inside the building, which led to a massive explosion, killing the 21 soldiers and the collapse of the building, Haaretz added. 

Since December, the Israeli military demolished several houses and residential buildings along the Gaza fence in a bid to create a “buffer zone” and further push Palestinian neighborhoods to the west away from Israeli towns.

Daniel Hagari, the military spokesperson, said that 19 of the killed soldiers served in the 261st Brigade in central Gaza and that army rescue teams spent hours recovering the bodies of soldiers. 

The total number of Israeli soldiers killed since October is now 552, more than 200 have been killed since the ground invasion began in late October.

“Yesterday we experienced one of the most difficult days since the outbreak of the war,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X platform on Tuesday morning. 

“The IDF has launched an investigation into the disaster. We must draw the necessary lessons and do everything to preserve the lives of our warriors,” he added.

Israelis storm Knesset meeting 

The momentum in Israel calling Netanyahu’s government to resign is growing, while frustration for failure to release Israeli captives is rampant.

On Monday, dozens of Israeli captives’ families held by Hamas stormed a meeting at the Knesset demanding their return, and chanting: “Release them now, now, now!”

Axios reported that Israel submitted a proposal through Qatar and Egypt to pause the war for two months in return for the release of all the 130 Israeli captives in Gaza.

However, the proposal is not a permanent ceasefire. Hamas is yet to comment. The movement made clear in the past months that it won’t accept any deal without a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

In January, Hamas and Israel were engaged in non-direct talks to reach a deal through Qatari-Egyptian mediation, however, that was halted when Israel assassinated Hamas deputy political leader Saleh Al-Aruri, along with other Hamas commanders and cadres, in Beirut.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad release videos of targeting Israeli forces

Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters are still combating Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, and are able to launch mortar shells and volleys of rockets on Israeli towns, some of them as far as Tel Aviv metropolitan area, known as Gush Dan.

Haaretz concluded in a report that Israel’s declared objective to destroy Hamas tunnels will be hard to achieve.

“A day will come when the Israeli security establishment will have to admit that destroying the tunnel networks was never a realistic objective,” Anshel Pfeffer wrote in Haaretz.

“The IDF can perhaps deal with the prospect of a threat from underground, but the tunnels will remain beneath Gaza,” he added.

Similarly, the Wall Street Journal reported that Hamas fighters remain resilient and have enough munitions to fight for months, despite Israel’s announcement that it killed 20 to 30 percent of Hamas combat forces.

“[Hamas] fighters have adjusted their tactics, operating in smaller groups and hiding between ambushes on Israeli troops, while individual fighters are likely taking on more tasks to pick up the slack from their dead comrades,” WJS reported citing U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion. 

On Tuesday morning, Hamas armed wing Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades said that it detonated an explosive in an Israeli infantry unit, killing three soldiers and injuring a number of others, west of Khan Younis. It added that it also attacked an armed personnel carrier in Khan Younis with Al-Yaseen 105mm anti-tank shell.

Yesterday, it released two videos of attacking Israeli soldiers barricading inside a building in Gaza, and another of attacking soldiers in Jabalia. The Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades released a video of sniping two Israeli soldiers stationed in Al-Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister proposes building artificial island off Gaza coast 

As Israel fails to achieve any of its goals in Gaza, some of its politicians are becoming more imaginative about plans for where Palestinians in Gaza should live or should do.

Israel Katz, the Israeli Foreign Minister, came up to an EU meeting in Brussels on Monday with plans to build an artificial island off the coast of Gaza and a railway to India.

“We had had the pleasure of watching two very interesting videos, one about an artificial island project to serve as a port … and another one about a project to build a railroad line linking the Middle East with India,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief told media on Monday.

“I think the [Israeli] minister could have made better use of his time to worry about the security of his country and the high number of deaths in the Middle East and the high death toll in Gaza,” he added.

EU foreign ministers confirmed in a meeting on Monday that establishing a Palestinian state is the “only credible way to achieve peace in the Middle East.” However, Israel’s Netanyahu was clear about rejecting this idea altogether over the weekend.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen, settlers burn Palestinian car showroom

The past 24 hours saw Israeli settlers and soldiers rampaging and storming Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli settlers burned cars in a showroom in Beitin village, east of Ramallah. Palestinians woke up to see dozens of scorched cars, a scene reminiscent to the rampage and pogrom of Huwara in March 2023, when hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the village, burned and vandalized properties and vehicles.

On Monday, Israeli forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in Arraba village near Jenin, north of the occupied West Bank.

Yamen Muhammad Hasiti succumbed to his wounds later in the hospital after being shot with live bullets in the abdomen, when Israeli forces stormed the village. Hasiti was left to bleed as Israeli forces shot at ambulances attempting to rescue him.

On Tuesday, Some Palestinian houses in Tulkarem were flooded with rain and sewage water following weeks of Israeli forces endless storming of the town and the destruction of its urban infrastructure, amenities and bulldozing roads. 

Israeli forces damaged and covered up with dirt a water well in Ras Atiya village, south of Qalqilya, on Tuesday morning.

The well is a lifeline to Palestinians in Ras Tira, Al-Dabaa and Wadi Al-Rasha, and it is run by Ras Attia Agricultural Society, Wafa reported. 

Wafa said that around 400 farmers who tend at least 1,500 agricultural dunums, are reliant on this water well.

Israeli forces also destroyed two Palestinian houses in Lasifar village, in Masafer Yatta and in Khirbet Khallet Al-Farn, in Birin village, both are in the environs of Hebron.