Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 21, 2024. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua)
Doha, Qatar: Gaza's health situation is "catastrophic and painful" amid the ongoing conflict said the Health Ministry spokesperson.
"The Israeli army deliberately strangles and destroys the health system," the ministry's Spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qedra said in a press statement.
Meanwhile, the occupation army continued to bombard Khan Yunis, the new epicentre of war in Gaza as witnesses reported deadly strikes overnight.
UN agencies also warned of famine and disease as Gazans, 1.7 million of whom are displaced, struggle with shortages of water, medical care, and other essentials during daily bombardment.
Watch this page for more live updates:
[4:10pm Doha Time] EU pushes for Palestinian statehood, rejecting Israeli leader's insistence it's off the table
European Union foreign ministers argued Monday that the creation of a Palestinian state is the only credible way to achieve peace in the Middle East, and they expressed concern about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s clear rejection of the idea.
"The declarations of Benjamin Netanyahu are worrying. There will be a need for a Palestinian state with security guarantees for all,” French Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Sejourne told reporters in Brussels, where the EU ministers met to discuss the war in Gaza. Read more
[3:45pm Doha Time] Palestinian Premier calls for imposing sanctions on Israel over persistent aggression
The Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh stressed that the international consensus on the establishment of the State of Palestine must be translated into practical steps that embody the state on the ground to end the occupation, calling on the international community to start thinking about imposing sanctions on Israel for its relentless aggression, colonization, and occupation and for rejecting peace.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh attends a cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on January 22, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP)
Addressing the meeting of the Palestinian government Monday, Shtayyeh added that there is a significant global action on the two-state solution, indicating that the world should ignore the position of the prime minister of the Israeli entity Benjamin Netanyahu and his government that rebuffs the two-state solution.
The world should end the occupation and recognize the State of Palestine bilaterally, in addition to voting for granting Palestine a membership in the United Nations, he said, pointing out that the criminal Israeli killing machine still claims the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza Strip.
There is very little assistance arriving and does not satisfy the people with festering diseases, such as hepatitis with thousands reported cases, let alone the cold winter and shortage of adequate shelters, he said.
He stated that water and electricity are still cut off, with fluctuating communications networks, and the international press is still prohibited from entering the Gaza Strip, as well as the Palestinian press, affirming that the number of victims, including martyrs, wounded, missing persons, and detainees, has reached nearly 100,000, 70 percent of whom are children, women, and the elderly, adding that 18 graves were exhumed in Gaza Strip.
[1:45pm Doha Time] ‘Only way out’: Israel defies two-state solution – Jordan
Jordan’s foreign minister has lambasted the Israeli government’s “radical racist agenda”, saying it’s defying the world in its refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi speaks to the media at the EU headquarters in Brussels on January 22, 2024. (Photo by John Thys / AFP)
“The only way out of this misery is a two-state solution,” Ayman Safadi told reporters at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
“They are defying the whole international community and it is about time the world took a stand.”
[11:35am Doha Time] Health situation in Gaza catastrophic, painful: Health Ministry
The Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Sunday that the health situation in the Strip is "catastrophic and painful" amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
"The Israeli army deliberately strangles and destroys the health system," the ministry's Spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qedra said in a press statement. Read more
[11:15am Doha Time] ‘Could not be worse’: EU chief diplomat says only two-state solution
The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip “could not be worse”, European Union chief diplomat Josep Borrell says.
“Certainly Israel’s way of trying to destroy Hamas is wrong. From now on I will not talk about the peace process, but I want a two-state-solution process’, Borrell told journalists ahead of a EU foreign ministers’ meeting.
“Which are the other solutions do they have in mind? To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill off them?”
[11am Doha Time] Israeli attack in Khan Younis intensifies
Khan Younis was once designated a “safe zone” by Israel, and thousands of thousands of people fled here from the north. Now it’s just a scene of devastation and suffering as Israeli forces push deeper into the city, reported Al Jazeera.
Intense bombing campaign is ongoing near the Nasser hospital and also El Amal City Hospital in the western part of the city. Attacks are also targeting Gaza’s largest university where thousands of people are sheltering. The area is being bombed by land, air and sea – there’s no safe corridor for them to escape.
Attack drones are hovering everywhere over Khan Younis shooting at moving objects. So far 12 people have been killed overnight.
[10:30am Doha Time] China’s ambassador to the UN calls for two-state solution
Responding to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Zhang Jun has called for “concrete steps” towards a two-state solution, including full membership for Palestine at the UN.
In December, Zhang said “enough is enough” when asked by reporters if he had a message to nations that opposed a ceasefire in Gaza. His comments came after Beijing called Washington’s decision to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire “disappointing and regrettable”.
[10am Doha Time] Red Crescent lost contact with team in Khan Younis
The Palestine Red Crescent Society says Israeli tanks are nearing El Amal City Hospital in Khan Younis and it lost all contact with its team in the area.
Despite growing international pressure for a respite, Israel continues to surround and bombard Gaza’s health infrastructure. The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza has been repeatedly targeted, reported Al Jazeera.
[9am Doha Time] Israel killed 94 professors in war on Gaza, rights group says
Israel has killed 94 university professors, hundreds of teachers and thousands of students during its war in Gaza, a rights group has said.
The Israeli military has targeted academics and intellectuals “in deliberate and specific air raids” on their homes without prior warning, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement on Saturday.
These figures appear to have been targeted with “no justification or clear reason”, the monitor said.
“The targeted academics studied and taught across a variety of academic disciplines, and many of their ideas served as cornerstones of academic research in the Gaza Strip’s universities,” the Geneva-based group said.
[8:30am Doha Time] Israeli forces arrest six people during raids near Hebron
Local media reported that Israeli forces have arrested six Palestinians during raids in the Al-Fawwar camp and the town of Sa’ir near the city of Hebron.
Israeli forces also arrested a man during the storming of the Shuafat camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem.
Raids have also been reported in the following locations across the occupied West Bank:
A man was shot during a raid on the village of Kafr Ain, northwest of Ramallah
The town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron
The town of Beitunia, west of Ramallah
The towns of Al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya, Silwad, Deir Jarir and Al-Taybeh, east of Ramallah
The Kafr Saba neighbourhood in Qalqilya
The Satah Marhaba and Jabal Al-Tawil neighbourhoods in el-Bireh
