Israeli soldiers withdrew this Monday, April 1 from the al-Chifa hospital complex in Gaza. The Israeli army announced that it had “completed” operations in the area of the al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, and withdrew from this sector, two weeks after entering it. The army added in a statement that it had “killed terrorists during clashes”. Earlier in the day, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip also announced that the Israeli army had withdrawn its tanks and other vehicles from al-Chifa hospital.
Information to remember
⇒ Sister of Hamas leader arrested in Israel as part of “terrorism” investigation
⇒ Three seriously injured in Israel in knife attack
⇒ Israeli strike on Gaza hospital leaves four dead and 17 injured
Israel: sister of Hamas leader arrested by police
Israeli police announced this Monday that they had arrested the sister of Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh, in Israel where she lives, as part of an investigation for “terrorism” led by the police and the Shin Bet (internal security). Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, aged 57 and who has Israeli nationality, is “suspected of having contacts with Hamas agents and of identifying with the organization, while inciting to commit acts of terrorism in Israel and supporting them,” a police spokesperson told AFP.
During a search of the suspect’s house in Tel-Sheva, in the south of the country, police said they discovered documents, telephones and “evidence (showing that she was) linked to the commission of “serious offenses against the security of the State of Israel”, according to the same source.
Israel: three seriously injured in knife attack
Three young men were seriously injured in a stabbing attack on Sunday near Ashdod, in central Israel, according to emergency services. “A knife attack took place at the Friendly shopping center in Gan Yavne,” said Zaki Heller, spokesperson for Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, late in the evening. “Rescuers treated three seriously injured people,” who were hospitalized, he continued.
In a second press release, the organization specifies that it is “a man of around 25 years old, a young man of around 20 years old and a teenager of around 17 years old”. The police confirmed that a “terrorist” had “stabbed three people” with “two knives” before being “neutralized” by municipal police. She added that he was from Dura, near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. Aged 19, he was in Israel illegally, according to the same press release. Several similar attacks have taken place in Israel in recent weeks.
Gaza: a virtual meeting between Israelis and Americans on the Rafah offensive
A videoconference meeting will take place this Monday between Israeli and American officials on the subject of Israel’s planned offensive in Rafah, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip, a week after Israel canceled a visit of delegation to Washington.
“The meeting is scheduled for today online. There may be an in-person meeting later in the week,” an Israeli source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Israel’s announcement of an upcoming offensive in Rafah, where there are 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced, has caused great concern within the international community.
Gaza: four dead and 17 injured after Israeli strike on hospital
An Israeli strike on the Al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza left four dead and 17 injured, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday on X. According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a WHO team was on site “when an encampment inside the hospital compound was hit today by an Israeli airstrike. Four people were killed and 17 injured.” He did not give details of the casualties, but said WHO staff were safe.
In a post on the region of Deir al Balah. “The Al-Aqsa Hospital building was not damaged and its function was not affected,” the message continued.
Israel: thousands of demonstrators again demand Netanyahu’s departure
Thousands of demonstrators gathered Sunday evening in front of the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Police used water cannons to clear a road blocked by angry protesters waving hundreds of Israeli flags and lighting fires.
“Elections!”, Netanyahu “must go!” and “Bring back (the hostages) now!”, shouted the protesters amid yellow smoke bombs, the color associated with hostages held in the Gaza Strip. This is the second demonstration in two days.
Israeli army announces that 600 soldiers have been killed since October 7, 2023
The Israeli army announced on Monday that 600 of its soldiers have been killed since October 7, 2023, the date of the start of the war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “Nadav Cohen, 20 years old, from Haifa […] fell in combat in the south of the Gaza Strip,” announced the spokesperson for the Israeli army on its official website, bringing to 600 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Israel and the Palestinian Territories since start of the war on October 7.
Of the 600 soldiers, at least 256 have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 27, the start of the ground military operation, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. More than half of the 600 people who died were killed in the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. Other soldiers were killed in the occupied West Bank, or on the border with Lebanon where exchanges of fire have been almost daily since October. Furthermore, more than 1,523 soldiers have been injured in the Palestinian territory since the start of the ground operation, according to the Israeli army.