Emmanuel Macron calls on Israel to end the bombing of Gaza

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French President Emmanuel Macron: "No justification" for the bombing

Photo: IMAGO/Eliot Blondet / Pool / Bestimage / IMAGO/Bestimage

French President Emmanuel Macron calls on Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip. In addition, Israel must stop killing civilians, Macron said in an interview with the BBC. There was "no justification" for the bombing. In addition, Israel would benefit from a ceasefire.

Asked if he wanted other leaders – including in the United States and Britain – to join his calls for a ceasefire, Macron said: "I hope they will." Israel, however, fears that the Islamist Hamas would take advantage of a ceasefire to regroup.

WHO: 20 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip no longer active

In the Gaza Strip, 20 of the 36 hospitals are no longer operational due to heavy bombing, destruction and lack of medical supplies. This was reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. Even the hospitals that are still functioning are only running in emergency mode because many do not have enough disinfectants and anesthetic preparations or electricity to provide normal care for patients. The hospitals that are still functioning sometimes have twice as many patients as beds, said WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris.

According to the report, the WHO received reports of intense fighting around the Shifa hospital on Friday. "But we don't have any information on damage," Harris said. The Schifa hospital is the only one with a children's ward. There are children in intensive care and others who need dialysis. An interruption of their care would be life-threatening for them.

Palestinian media and the terrorist organization Hamas reported on Friday that there was fighting near several hospitals, including in the area of Shifa Hospital. Mohammad Abu Salamiya, director of the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip, spoke of "Israeli attacks" and "bombardments" of the clinic's buildings, where emergency services were being treated and refugees had found refuge. There are dead and injured.

Israel's army, on the other hand, blamed Hamas for the direct fire. According to the report, a misfired Hamas projectile, which was said to have been aimed at Israeli troops nearby, hit Shifa Hospital. Initially, the information provided by both sides could not be independently verified.

On Thursday, the Israeli military reported attacks in the Hamas "military quarter" near the Shifa clinic. Soldiers were fighting dozens of terrorists in the area, it said. Tunnel shafts and factories for rocket production were destroyed there. According to the army, the area is "the heart of Hamas' intelligence and operational activities."

Israel: Hamas Misuses Shifa Clinic as Command Center

The October 7 massacre in the Israeli border area was also planned there. According to Israeli intelligence services, Hamas, which rules the coastal area, is also abusing the Shifa clinic as a command and control center. Again, this information cannot be independently verified at present.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed alarm about the state of the health system in the Palestinian territory. The lives of "thousands of injured, sick and displaced" are endangered, the organization warned. The destruction of hospitals is "intolerable and must stop," the ICRC said. It stressed that, according to international law, hospitals are specially protected facilities.

UNRWA: Call for an end to the "bloodbath"

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, called for an end to the "bloodbath." Razing entire neighborhoods to the ground is not an answer to the monstrous crimes of Hamas," he said, addressing Israel. According to Lazzarini, more than 100 UNRWA employees have already been killed since the war began about five weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government revised down the death toll from the Hamas attack, saying that about 1200,1400 people were killed in Israel, not 11,000 as previously thought, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said. Israel declared war on Hamas after its attack. Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have since killed more than 4500,<> people, including <>,<> children, according to Hamas. This information cannot be independently verified.

In order to allow civilians to flee from the particularly embattled north to the south of the Gaza Strip, Israel on Thursday agreed to daily four-hour ceasefires, according to the US government.

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