Israel-Gaza updates: Nasser Hospital no longer 'functional,' WHO chief says
Israel Defense Forces turned the hospital into military barracks.
ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: February 19, 2024, 4:03 AM EST
More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel's founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
Feb 15, 2024, 4:50 PM EST
Egyptian authorities preparing for influx of refugees from Gaza: Source
Egyptian authorities are preparing for a large influx of refugees from Gaza in a worst-case scenario event where negotiations between Israel and Hamas break down and a large number of refugees are forced to cross from Gaza into Egypt, a source familiar with the talks told ABC News.
The preparations are a preemptive measure to prevent any potential repetition of chaos caused when Palestinians poured into Egypt in 2008.
But, there is a sense of optimism after the Hamas delegation visited Cairo this week to discuss results of the quartet Cairo meeting and there is a chance a deal can be reached but things will be clearer on Friday, according to the source.
-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy
Feb 15, 2024, 12:59 PM EST
Israel claims it killed senior Hezbollah commander
The Israel army claims it killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Ali Muhammad Aldbas; his deputy commander, Ibrahim Issa; and an operative in airstrikes on Nabatieh, Lebanon, that targeted Hezbollah military structures.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed Aldbas was among those who directed the terrorist attack at the Megiddo Junction in Israel in March 2023 and claimed he led, planned and carried out terrorist activity against Israel during this war.
Lebanese state media reported that 10 civilians died in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, in what was the deadliest day in over four months of border exchanges.
Smoke billows following Israeli bombardment in the village of Shihin in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on February 13, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Kawnat Haju/AFP via Getty Images
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah vowed to retaliate for Wednesday's strikes, which hit in the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon, just hours after projectiles from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier. Hezbollah did not officially claim responsibility for the strike that killed the soldier.
The IDF also claimed it struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Blida and a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Maroun al-Ras on Thursday.
"We have no interest in war but we must prepare," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday. "The planes that are currently flying over the skies of Lebanon have targets -- and they know how to change the attack from place to place. In the event of a war, the prices for the State of Israel are heavy, but they are catastrophic for Lebanon and Hezbollah."
-ABC News' Will Gretsky and Nasser Atta
Feb 15, 2024, 7:12 AM EST
IDF storms southern Gaza's main hospital
Israeli soldiers stormed the main hospital of the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, hours after Israeli forces killed a patient while wounding six others inside the complex, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The Israel Defense Forces announced in a statement on Thursday morning that it is conducting a "precise and limited operation" inside Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, "because Hamas terrorists are likely hiding behind injured civilians inside the hospital right now" and appear to have used the hospital to hide hostages.
Palestinian patients arrive in Rafah after they were evacuated from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis due to the Israeli ground operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 15, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Earlier Thursday, before the IDF's announcement of a full-scale raid, videos were posted to social media by doctors and journalists inside the hospital showing extensive damage to the orthopaedic department overnight.
One compilation of videos shows dust hanging in the air and parts of the ceiling hanging down as medical staff guide patients down the halls. Doctors are seen trying to maneuver hospital beds through rubble and carrying injured away.
In other videos, extremely loud sounds of fighting outside the hospital can be heard as people are seen returning to the entrance, afraid to leave.
Doctors Without Borders said Nasser Hospital was shelled, "despite Israeli forces having told medical staff and patients they could remain in the facility." It said an undetermined number of people were killed or injured, and one Doctors Without Borders staffer was unaccounted for. The staff has fled the hospital.
Currently, Nasser Hospital is the only fully functioning medical center in war-torn Gaza.
-ABC News' Victoria Beaulé, Jordana Miller, Edward Szekeres, Morgan Winsor and Samy Zayara
Feb 14, 2024, 5:50 PM EST
Biden defers removal of most Palestinians in the US for 18 months
President Joe Biden issued a memo Wednesday deferring the removal of most Palestinians in the United States for an 18-month period, citing the “deteriorated” humanitarian conditions in Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, and Israel’s retaliatory military operations.
“While I remain focused on improving the humanitarian situation, many civilians remain in danger,” Biden wrote in the memo.
President Joe Biden speaks about the aid package for Ukraine, from the State Dining Room of the White House, in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 13, 2024.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The president added that this move is "in the foreign policy interest of the United States."
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement this will give Palestinians in the U.S. "a temporary safe haven."
The so-called deferred enforced departure status Biden granted would not apply to convicted felons, Palestinians who are subject to extradition or those who voluntarily leave the country, according to the memo.
