A majority of 153 nations voted for the resolution during the emergency special session, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained.
While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution.
The vote, hailed as “historic” by Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, comes as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, and as medics and aid groups sound alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza.
Here are other headlines you should know:
Humanitarian crisis: Diseases including chicken pox, meningitis and upper respiratory tract infections are spreading in Gaza, Palestinian and international medical authorities said. One emergency aid coordinator told CNN there are barely “living conditions” for the people. And an intense downpour Tuesday displaced families who are struggling to keep water and mud out of their makeshift tents in southern Gaza. More than 18,000 people have been killed in the enclave since fighting broke out, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Monday.
Aid movement: There is currently no plan to allow aid to enter Gaza directly from Israel, an official at Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told CNN. But the US is pressuring Israel to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing to allow trucks to go directly into Gaza on an emergency basis, US officials told CNN. On Tuesday, 197 humanitarian aid trucks were screened and transferred to Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Israeli officials said.
Israeli losses: Seven Israeli soldiers, including a battalion commander, have been killed in a single incident in northern Gaza, Israel's military said Tuesday. Details of the incident, which marks one of the biggest losses of life for Israeli forces during their ongoing offensive, were not immediately made public. A total of 112 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, according to the military.
Flooding tunnels: Israel has told the US it has begun “carefully testing out” flooding some of Gaza's tunnels with seawater “on a limited basis” to test the ability to degrade Hamas's underground network on a larger scale, a US official told CNN Tuesday. Separately, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said troops inside Gaza are operating deep underground. Also, the Israel Defense Forces said 13 soldiers have been killed by friendly fire since the beginning of the ground operation in the enclave.
Medics detained: Dozens of medical staff at a northern Gaza hospital were taken to an undisclosed location by the Israeli military, a senior doctor said, as the enclave’s wider health care system teeters on the edge of collapse. More than 70 staff including the hospital's director were "arrested and taken to an unknown area," according to Abu-Safia head of pediatrics at Kamal Adwan Hospital. His claim was echoed in a statement by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
International relations: Rifts between the US and Israel spilled into public view as Biden warned that Israel was losing international support for its campaign against Hamas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected American plans for post-war Gaza. The divides, which until now had mostly been contained behind the scenes, reflected growing differences between the two staunch allies as the civilian death toll in Gaza mounts. A pair of top US officials will travel to Israel this week for key meetings during this critical moment for the war.
Wider conflict: Israeli forces struck targets in Syria and Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the military said Tuesday, the latest in cross-border exchanges that have raised fears Israel's war with Hamas could spark a wider regional conflict. Meanwhile, an IDF spokesperson claimed that more than 100,000 people had recently fled their homes in southern Lebanon and moved north inside the country.
40 min ago
7 Israeli soldiers killed in single incident in northern Gaza, military says
From journalist Tamar Michaelis in Tel Aviv
Seven Israeli soldiers, including a battalion commander, have been killed in a single incident in northern Gaza, Israel's military said on Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, commander of the 13th battalion of the Golani Brigade, was among those killed, it said.
Details of the incident, which marks one of the biggest losses of life for Israeli forces during their ongoing offensive in the enclave, were not immediately made public.
Another soldier was killed in a separate incident in Gaza Tuesday, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the strip to 112, the military said.
At least 18,412 people have been killed in Gaza during Israeli attacks since October 7, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the enclave said Tuesday.
49 min ago
Israel strikes targets in Syria and Lebanon amid cross-border exchanges
From CNN's Andrew Carey
Israeli forces struck targets in Syria and Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the military said Tuesday, the latest in cross-border exchanges that have raised fears Israel's war with Hamas could spark a wider regional conflict.
In Syria, Israeli warplanes and tanks struck several Syrian army posts and other military infrastructure in response to three launches from Syrian territory, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Only one launch from Syria landed inside open ground in Israel, the IDF added.
It marks the first time in five days that Israel has reported incoming fire from Syrian territory.
By contrast, cross-border exchanges between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants based in southern Lebanon having been taking place daily for weeks.
In Lebanon, Israel said one of its fighter jets hit what it called military infrastructure and a Hezbollah launch post on Tuesday, after identifying incoming anti-tank missile and mortar fire launched across its northern border.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari accused Hezbollah of continuing to “operate from within the villages and urban areas of southern Lebanon,” saying their actions “put Lebanese territory at risk.”
Displacement claim: Hagari also claimed that more than 100,000 people had recently fled their homes in southern Lebanon and moved north inside the country amid the cross-border exchanges. It is the first time Israel’s chief military spokesman has made such a claim about people leaving the region.
Hagari appeared to suggest they were fleeing escalating tensions, though he offered no direct explanation for the move and was not asked about it when taking questions from reporters.
4 hr 3 min ago
Israel begins flooding Gaza tunnels with seawater "on a limited basis," US official says
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand
Israel has told the United States it has begun “carefully testing out” flooding some of Gaza's tunnels with seawater “on a limited basis” to test the ability to degrade Hamas' underground network on a larger scale, a US official told CNN on Tuesday.
The Israelis are still unsure of whether it will work, the official said, but they assured the US they are being careful to only test it in tunnels where they do not believe hostages are being held.
CNN has asked the IDF for comment.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said it believes 135 hostages are still being held by Hamas, some of whom are believed to be US citizens.
The Israeli military said earlier this month that it destroyed at least 500 tunnel shafts in Gaza and located more than 800 around the Palestinian enclave. The IDF said last week that many of the tunnel shafts "were located in civilian areas" and inside civilian structures.
In 2021, Hamas claimed to have built 500 kilometers (311 miles) of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing.
3 hr 9 min ago
UN General Assembly demands immediate ceasefire in Gaza
From CNN's Caitlin Hu
The United Nations General Assembly votes on Tuesday. Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, in a rebuke to the United States which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls in the UN’s Security Council.
A majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly’s emergency special session Tuesday, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained.
While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution. The US last week vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the smaller Security Council, which had been approved by a majority of the powerful 15-member body.
Tuesday’s brief resolution calls for a ceasefire, for all parties to comply with international law, and for humanitarian access to hostages as well as their “immediate and unconditional” release. It notably contains stronger language than an October vote in the assembly that had called for a “sustained humanitarian truce.”
The vote, hailed as “historic” by Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, comes as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, and as medics and aid groups sound alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza. More than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza since fighting broke out, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Monday.
Israel has said it will not stop its military campaign until it eradicates Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza, following its October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities. Over 100 hostages are thought to remain in captivity in Gaza.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan described the resolution as a “disgraceful” attempt to bind Israel’s hands, warning that “continuing Israel’s operation in Gaza is the only way any hostages will be released.”
Israel has rejected previous calls for a ceasefire, though it agreed to a seven-day truce for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Israel voted against Tuesday’s resolution along with the US, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Austria, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia and Nauru.
Aid worker on Gaza crisis: "It can barely be described as living conditions anymore"
From CNN’s Catherine Nicholls
There are barely “living conditions” for the people of the Gaza Strip, the emergency coordinator of operations for Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said Tuesday.
“Living conditions…I mean it can barely be described as living conditions anymore. People are displaced once, twice, sometimes more. They just don’t know where to go anymore,” Marie-Aure Perreaut, who is based in the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, told CNN’s Isa Soares.
People sheltering in hospitals in Gaza are living in “horrendous conditions” without access to health care, she said.
While Gazans traveled to hospitals in search of safety, Perreaut said, they know “this is just not the case.”
She described a lack of food and water, cold temperatures, overcrowding, and widespread diseases in hospitals, saying the situation is "very, very tough."
Many people are suffering from respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, and skin diseases such as scabies, she said.
"All of these are clear illustrations of the extremely tough and precarious living conditions,” Perreaut said, adding that, since health care centers were ordered to evacuate, people “just don’t have access to health care anymore.”
Half of the patients that MSF was treating were children under the age of 5, she said.
“All those children are still living in those conditions, facing multiple evacuation orders in the south, and now, just do not have access to health care on top of it," Perreaut said.
Several hospitals in northern Gaza have ceased operations in recent weeks, saying they received orders from the Israeli military to evacuate. The Israeli military disputes issuing such an order.
Fuel shortages have forced several hospitals in Gaza to close, while others have shut down due to airstrike damage, the World Health Organization has reported.
The Israeli military says it only carries out operations in and around hospitals where they are being used by Hamas and other armed groups.
4 hr 18 min ago
Israeli troops are operating deep underground to destroy Hamas infrastructure, defense minister says
From journalist Tamar Michaelis
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that troops inside Gaza are operating deep underground.
“They are locating Hamas infrastructure and destroying it,” he said.
On a visit to a divisional headquarters in southern Israel, Gallant also said the IDF located the two brothers of Ahmed Randor, the commander of Hamas’ Northern Brigade in Gaza killed by Israeli forces.
“After the IDF eliminated Randor, the Northern Gaza Brigade commander, his brothers surrendered and now they are providing information to the IDF and ISA," Gallant said.
Hamas’ infrastructure in Gaza City and northern Gaza was on the verge of collapsing, he said. IDF operations were being conducted above and below ground, he added.
“Our troops also descend deep underground to locate [Hamas] bunkers, command centers, communication rooms and weapon storages," Gallant said.
Separately, IDF spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the areas of Khan Younis in the south, as well as Jabalya and Shejaiya in the north, were the epicenters of the fighting.
4 hr 2 min ago
More than 70 medical staff at northern Gaza hospital arrested by Israeli military, doctor says
From CNN's Ibrahim Dahman and Tim Lister
The Israeli military arrested dozens of medical staff at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Tuesday, a senior doctor told CNN.
Dr. Hossam Abu-Safia, head of pediatrics, said the hospital's director was among those taken to an unknown destination. Separately, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said the Israelis had detained the director, Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot.
The situation was “very dangerous” and the bombing became more intense Tuesday around the hospital, Abu-Safia told CNN in a phone interview. Then the Israeli military arrived and asked for all men between the ages of 16 and 65 to leave the building to be searched.
“Then it was the medical staff’s turn. Many of the medical staff have been arrested and taken to an unknown area, more than 70 medical staff,” he said.
Abu-Safia and five other doctors were allowed to stay in the hospital to look after the intensive care unit and premature babies, he said.
“They asked us to gather in only one section or building [and] close all the doors and windows, and not to be near doors or windows,” he said.
Abu-Safia said the hospital was without water or power. “We are working with primitive flashlights to follow up on the patients left in the hospital,” he said.
He said displaced women, children and the elderly remained at the hospital.
Asked about the alleged arrests at the Kamal Adwan hospital, the Israeli military said it continues “to act against Hamas strongholds" in northern Gaza, among them the area of Beit Lahia.
The military was taking precautions "to mitigate harm to non-combatants," it said.
The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to demand an immediate Gaza ceasefire in a rebuke to the United States, which last week blocked a similar Security Council resolution. While politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, the vote is nonbinding.
Israel told the US it has begun "carefully testing out" flooding some of Hamas' Gaza tunnels with seawater "on a limited basis" to see if it will work to degrade them on a larger scale, a US official told CNN.
Rifts between the US and Israel spilled into public as President Joe Biden warned that Israel was losing international support for its campaign against Hamas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected US plans for post-war Gaza.
Dozens of medical staff at a northern Gaza hospital were taken to an undisclosed location by the Israeli military, a senior doctor said, as the enclave’s wider health care system teeters on the edge of collapse.
A majority of 153 nations voted for the resolution during the emergency special session, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained.
While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution.
The vote, hailed as “historic” by Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, comes as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, and as medics and aid groups sound alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza.
Here are other headlines you should know:
Humanitarian crisis: Diseases including chicken pox, meningitis and upper respiratory tract infections are spreading in Gaza, Palestinian and international medical authorities said. One emergency aid coordinator told CNN there are barely “living conditions” for the people. And an intense downpour Tuesday displaced families who are struggling to keep water and mud out of their makeshift tents in southern Gaza. More than 18,000 people have been killed in the enclave since fighting broke out, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Monday.
Aid movement: There is currently no plan to allow aid to enter Gaza directly from Israel, an official at Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told CNN. But the US is pressuring Israel to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing to allow trucks to go directly into Gaza on an emergency basis, US officials told CNN. On Tuesday, 197 humanitarian aid trucks were screened and transferred to Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Israeli officials said.
Israeli losses: Seven Israeli soldiers, including a battalion commander, have been killed in a single incident in northern Gaza, Israel's military said Tuesday. Details of the incident, which marks one of the biggest losses of life for Israeli forces during their ongoing offensive, were not immediately made public. A total of 112 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, according to the military.
Flooding tunnels: Israel has told the US it has begun “carefully testing out” flooding some of Gaza's tunnels with seawater “on a limited basis” to test the ability to degrade Hamas's underground network on a larger scale, a US official told CNN Tuesday. Separately, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said troops inside Gaza are operating deep underground. Also, the Israel Defense Forces said 13 soldiers have been killed by friendly fire since the beginning of the ground operation in the enclave.
Medics detained: Dozens of medical staff at a northern Gaza hospital were taken to an undisclosed location by the Israeli military, a senior doctor said, as the enclave’s wider health care system teeters on the edge of collapse. More than 70 staff including the hospital's director were "arrested and taken to an unknown area," according to Abu-Safia head of pediatrics at Kamal Adwan Hospital. His claim was echoed in a statement by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
International relations: Rifts between the US and Israel spilled into public view as Biden warned that Israel was losing international support for its campaign against Hamas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected American plans for post-war Gaza. The divides, which until now had mostly been contained behind the scenes, reflected growing differences between the two staunch allies as the civilian death toll in Gaza mounts. A pair of top US officials will travel to Israel this week for key meetings during this critical moment for the war.
Wider conflict: Israeli forces struck targets in Syria and Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the military said Tuesday, the latest in cross-border exchanges that have raised fears Israel's war with Hamas could spark a wider regional conflict. Meanwhile, an IDF spokesperson claimed that more than 100,000 people had recently fled their homes in southern Lebanon and moved north inside the country.
Seven Israeli soldiers, including a battalion commander, have been killed in a single incident in northern Gaza, Israel's military said on Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, commander of the 13th battalion of the Golani Brigade, was among those killed, it said.
Details of the incident, which marks one of the biggest losses of life for Israeli forces during their ongoing offensive in the enclave, were not immediately made public.
Another soldier was killed in a separate incident in Gaza Tuesday, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the strip to 112, the military said.
At least 18,412 people have been killed in Gaza during Israeli attacks since October 7, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the enclave said Tuesday.
Israeli forces struck targets in Syria and Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the military said Tuesday, the latest in cross-border exchanges that have raised fears Israel's war with Hamas could spark a wider regional conflict.
In Syria, Israeli warplanes and tanks struck several Syrian army posts and other military infrastructure in response to three launches from Syrian territory, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Only one launch from Syria landed inside open ground in Israel, the IDF added.
It marks the first time in five days that Israel has reported incoming fire from Syrian territory.
By contrast, cross-border exchanges between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants based in southern Lebanon having been taking place daily for weeks.
In Lebanon, Israel said one of its fighter jets hit what it called military infrastructure and a Hezbollah launch post on Tuesday, after identifying incoming anti-tank missile and mortar fire launched across its northern border.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari accused Hezbollah of continuing to “operate from within the villages and urban areas of southern Lebanon,” saying their actions “put Lebanese territory at risk.”
Displacement claim: Hagari also claimed that more than 100,000 people had recently fled their homes in southern Lebanon and moved north inside the country amid the cross-border exchanges. It is the first time Israel’s chief military spokesman has made such a claim about people leaving the region.
Hagari appeared to suggest they were fleeing escalating tensions, though he offered no direct explanation for the move and was not asked about it when taking questions from reporters.
Israel has told the United States it has begun “carefully testing out” flooding some of Gaza's tunnels with seawater “on a limited basis” to test the ability to degrade Hamas' underground network on a larger scale, a US official told CNN on Tuesday.
The Israelis are still unsure of whether it will work, the official said, but they assured the US they are being careful to only test it in tunnels where they do not believe hostages are being held.
CNN has asked the IDF for comment.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said it believes 135 hostages are still being held by Hamas, some of whom are believed to be US citizens.
The Israeli military said earlier this month that it destroyed at least 500 tunnel shafts in Gaza and located more than 800 around the Palestinian enclave. The IDF said last week that many of the tunnel shafts "were located in civilian areas" and inside civilian structures.
In 2021, Hamas claimed to have built 500 kilometers (311 miles) of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing.
The United Nations General Assembly votes on Tuesday. Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, in a rebuke to the United States which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls in the UN’s Security Council.
A majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly’s emergency special session Tuesday, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained.
While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution. The US last week vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the smaller Security Council, which had been approved by a majority of the powerful 15-member body.
Tuesday’s brief resolution calls for a ceasefire, for all parties to comply with international law, and for humanitarian access to hostages as well as their “immediate and unconditional” release. It notably contains stronger language than an October vote in the assembly that had called for a “sustained humanitarian truce.”
The vote, hailed as “historic” by Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, comes as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, and as medics and aid groups sound alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza. More than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza since fighting broke out, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Monday.
Israel has said it will not stop its military campaign until it eradicates Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza, following its October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities. Over 100 hostages are thought to remain in captivity in Gaza.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan described the resolution as a “disgraceful” attempt to bind Israel’s hands, warning that “continuing Israel’s operation in Gaza is the only way any hostages will be released.”
Israel has rejected previous calls for a ceasefire, though it agreed to a seven-day truce for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Israel voted against Tuesday’s resolution along with the US, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Austria, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia and Nauru.
There are barely “living conditions” for the people of the Gaza Strip, the emergency coordinator of operations for Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said Tuesday.
“Living conditions…I mean it can barely be described as living conditions anymore. People are displaced once, twice, sometimes more. They just don’t know where to go anymore,” Marie-Aure Perreaut, who is based in the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, told CNN’s Isa Soares.
People sheltering in hospitals in Gaza are living in “horrendous conditions” without access to health care, she said.
While Gazans traveled to hospitals in search of safety, Perreaut said, they know “this is just not the case.”
She described a lack of food and water, cold temperatures, overcrowding, and widespread diseases in hospitals, saying the situation is "very, very tough."
Many people are suffering from respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, and skin diseases such as scabies, she said.
"All of these are clear illustrations of the extremely tough and precarious living conditions,” Perreaut said, adding that, since health care centers were ordered to evacuate, people “just don’t have access to health care anymore.”
Half of the patients that MSF was treating were children under the age of 5, she said.
“All those children are still living in those conditions, facing multiple evacuation orders in the south, and now, just do not have access to health care on top of it," Perreaut said.
Several hospitals in northern Gaza have ceased operations in recent weeks, saying they received orders from the Israeli military to evacuate. The Israeli military disputes issuing such an order.
Fuel shortages have forced several hospitals in Gaza to close, while others have shut down due to airstrike damage, the World Health Organization has reported.
The Israeli military says it only carries out operations in and around hospitals where they are being used by Hamas and other armed groups.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that troops inside Gaza are operating deep underground.
“They are locating Hamas infrastructure and destroying it,” he said.
On a visit to a divisional headquarters in southern Israel, Gallant also said the IDF located the two brothers of Ahmed Randor, the commander of Hamas’ Northern Brigade in Gaza killed by Israeli forces.
“After the IDF eliminated Randor, the Northern Gaza Brigade commander, his brothers surrendered and now they are providing information to the IDF and ISA," Gallant said.
Hamas’ infrastructure in Gaza City and northern Gaza was on the verge of collapsing, he said. IDF operations were being conducted above and below ground, he added.
“Our troops also descend deep underground to locate [Hamas] bunkers, command centers, communication rooms and weapon storages," Gallant said.
Separately, IDF spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the areas of Khan Younis in the south, as well as Jabalya and Shejaiya in the north, were the epicenters of the fighting.
The Israeli military arrested dozens of medical staff at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Tuesday, a senior doctor told CNN.
Dr. Hossam Abu-Safia, head of pediatrics, said the hospital's director was among those taken to an unknown destination. Separately, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said the Israelis had detained the director, Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot.
The situation was “very dangerous” and the bombing became more intense Tuesday around the hospital, Abu-Safia told CNN in a phone interview. Then the Israeli military arrived and asked for all men between the ages of 16 and 65 to leave the building to be searched.
“Then it was the medical staff’s turn. Many of the medical staff have been arrested and taken to an unknown area, more than 70 medical staff,” he said.
Abu-Safia and five other doctors were allowed to stay in the hospital to look after the intensive care unit and premature babies, he said.
“They asked us to gather in only one section or building [and] close all the doors and windows, and not to be near doors or windows,” he said.
Abu-Safia said the hospital was without water or power. “We are working with primitive flashlights to follow up on the patients left in the hospital,” he said.
He said displaced women, children and the elderly remained at the hospital.
Asked about the alleged arrests at the Kamal Adwan hospital, the Israeli military said it continues “to act against Hamas strongholds" in northern Gaza, among them the area of Beit Lahia.
The military was taking precautions "to mitigate harm to non-combatants," it said.
