Gaza’s Largest Hospital Revealed by WHO and the UN, and a Possible State of Emergency in the U.S.
There is a lot of waste in the corridors of Gaza’s largest hospital, according to the World Health Organization. There are at least 80 bodies in the mass grave by the hospital entrance.
The UN and the WHO got the first outside access to the hospital on Saturday, and saw the bad condition of the facility. The team was only able to see the hospital for one hour.
In that time, they found that several patients have died in the previous two to three days due to medical services shutting down in the facility, according to the WHO. Some premature babies are in critical condition and there are just 25 health workers to care for them.
The reported deaths at the Indonesian Hospital came after Israel’s military released video it says proves that the Hamas extremist group was using Al-Shifa hospital as a base of operations. Israel says Hamas was holding some hostages at Al-Shifa, which is now controlled by Israeli forces, and that it had recovered the bodies of two of the captives near the facility.
The Israeli military has told Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate further south along a so-called safety corridor. Evidence shows that Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire occur daily in the very areas Israel has said are “safer” for civilians. The attacks hit schools and overcrowded U.N. shelters.
More than 200 people were kidnapped as a result of the attacks in Israel. Negotiations over a possible cease-fire that would allow people in Gaza to move about safely and for hostages to be handed over back to Israel is still in the works.
White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson disputed a report by The Washington Post that said a deal between the U.S., Israel and Hamas had been reached.
Palestinian Hospitals in Gaza and Jordan: Prospects for a Hostage-Releease Agreement and a Possible Emergency Medical Evacuation
Meanwhile, more than two dozen premature infants that had been at Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, which was damaged in fighting and has been without electricity to run its incubators, were transported to hospitals in Egypt on Monday.
The hostage-release deal under discussion could come in exchange for the freedom of scores of Palestinian prisoners and a temporary pause in hostilities in the ongoing war that has killed some 1,200 Israelis and nearly 13,000 Gazans, according to Palestinian officials.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a moderator in the talks, described the remaining obstacles to a hostage deal as “minor.” He said at a joint news conference with the European Union’s foreign policy chief that there were more practical sticking points.
U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, also sounded cautiously optimistic, saying the sides were “closer than we have been” to a deal and that the “gaps have narrowed.” However, Finer noted that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
The Israeli media is reporting that there is an exchange of 50 to 100 women and children between the two warring sides along with a pause in the fighting.
Any deal would first need to be greenlit by Israel’s cabinet after an involved approval process, which could take up to 72 hours, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper.
In northern Gaza on Monday, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said at least a dozen people were killed at another hospital during Israeli shelling. NPR was unable to independently verify the casualties at the Indonesian Hospital.
The army said it took gunfire from inside the building. The statement sent to NPR states that there were no shells fired toward the hospital.
Israel, which says hospitals in Gaza are being used as covert Hamas command posts, has faced intense international criticism for military strikes on medical facilities there.
Jordan says it is sending a field hospital to Gaza to replace those damaged or destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. Palestinian officials said it would be the first field hospital to arrive since the beginning of the war began last month.
Also, in a statement on Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” at Saturday’s killing of “dozens of people — many women and children” at two schools run by UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency that oversees Palestinians. At least one of the schools was being used as a shelter by civilians in Gaza, the U.N. says.
Up First Briefing: Remembering Rosalynn Carter; Sam Altman heads to Microsoft (with an excerpt from the Up First podcast)
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Former first lady Rosalynn Carter died yesterday at her home in Plains, Georgia. She was 96. Carter was remembered as a mental health advocate and humanitarian for his lifetime of work. Jimmy Carter has been in hospice care since February, at 99 years old.
Milei was overwhelmingly elected as the country’s next president. The populist won the election over the economy minister. Milei’s style has parallels to that of Donald Trump.
Ziva Jelin’s Living in the Dead Sea: A New View on Open AI and Artificial Intelligence Applied to Black Artists
The influential creator of the chatgputt. Microsoft will be home to a new artificial intelligence team. The announcement comes after Altman was abruptly ousted from OpenAI by its board of directors over an apparent rift over balancing AI safety with the push to release new tools.
Billy Porter is the first openly gay Black man to win an Emmy. He has won a number of awards including a Tony. Porter was told in 1992 that his queerness was a liability. Now, the artist is singing on his own terms for his newest album, Black Mona Lisa.
Artist Ziva Jelin was living in Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. She didn’t have her artwork important when her family was evacuated to the Dead Sea. Now, her work takes on new meaning at a special display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
