Four Gaza patients dead as oxygen cut off during Israel raid on Nasser hospital, doctors say - latest

Gaza will need a new “Marshall Plan” to recover from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a United Nations trade body official said on Thursday, adding that the damage from the conflict so far amounted to around $20 billion.

Speaking on the sidelines of a UN meeting in Geneva, Richard Kozul-Wright, a director at trade body UNCTAD, said the damage was already four times that endured in Gaza during the seven-week war in 2014.

“We are talking about around $20 billion if it stops now,” he said.

Kozul-Wright said the estimate was based on satellite images and other information and that a more precise estimate would require researchers to enter Gaza.

The reconstruction will require a new “Marshall Plan”, he said, referring to the U.S. plan for Europe’s economic recovery after World War Two.

Reports of antisemitic incidents in the UK reached an all-time high last year with two-thirds of them happening after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel and the bombing of Gaza. But, says Ben Judah, this says little about Jewish people and more about the way we live now – and the golden age the Jewish diaspora has enjoyed since the Holocaust is coming to an end because of it.

A third Labour politician who attended a now notorious council meeting which sparked renewed antisemitism concerns within the party has been spoken to by party officials as they investigate what happened.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party has been pitched into a deepening row about the handling of antisemitism allegations, with parliamentary candidate Graham Jones suspended on Tuesday, only a day after Labour was forced to suspend and withdraw its backing for Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali.

Israel has formally complained after a senior Vatican official spoke of “carnage” in Gaza and what he termed a disproportionate Israeli military operation following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The Israeli Embassy to the Holy See called the comments by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, “deplorable.” In a statement Wednesday, the embassy said Parolin hadn’t considered what it called the relevant facts in judging the legitimacy of Israel’s actions.

If all the reverberations, large and small, from the Hamas massacres of 7 October last year, one took me by surprise; another did not.

The surprise was how quickly the near-universal sympathy for Israel was eclipsed by militant expressions of support for Palestinians. In the UK, or so it seemed to me, popular sentiment had turned against Israel within 24 hours – almost as soon as its prime minister vowed to destroy Hamas, but long before Israel mounted its first military assault on Gaza.

The Israeli flag, hoisted on UK government buildings just hours after the Hamas killings, was lowered within a day, in favour of the Ukraine flag it had displaced.

For years, the cause of Palestinian statehood seemed to have been forgotten internationally, along with the murderous spectaculars mounted by the PLO. Yet here it was, being espoused by whole new generations of demonstrators, not just in the occupied West Bank, but in many parts of Europe and the United States.

Condemnation of Israel solidified when it launched its military attack – but much sympathy had evaporated long before. That was the biggest surprise.

Mary Dejevsky writes.

Four patients in intensive care died because their oxygen supply was cut off when Israeli troops stormed Gaza’s main hospital, doctors have said.

Troops were searching the facility, where the Israeli military said it believes the remains of hostages abducted by Hamas might be located.

The raid came after troops had besieged Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis for nearly a week, with staff, patients and others inside struggling under heavy fire and dwindling supplies, including food and water.

Hours before troops seized the hospital Thursday, Israeli fire killed a patient and wounded six others inside the complex, staff said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday pushed back against the US vision for after the war - particularly its calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.

After speaking overnight with US president Joe Biden, Mr Netanyahu said that Israel will not accept "international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians".

He said that if other countries unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state, it would give a "reward to terrorism". Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the creation of a Palestinian state.

Mr Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive and expand it to the Gaza city of Rafah, near Egypt, until Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken during the militants' 7 October attack are freed.

Egypt is preparing an area at the Gaza border that could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier, according to reports.

Egypt, which denied making any such preparations, has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel's devastating Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai - something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable- echoing warnings from Arab states such as Jordan.

A source told Reuters that Egypt was optimistic that talks to clinch a ceasefire could avoid any such scenario, but is establishing the area at the border as a temporary and precautionary measure.

Three security sources said Egypt had begun preparing a desert area with some basic facilities which could be used to shelter Palestinians, emphasising this was a contingency step.

Israel has said it will mount an offensive to take out Hamas's "last bastion" in Rafah, where well over one million Palestinians have sought sanctuary from its devastating Gaza offensive.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said it was trying to get access to the biggest functioning hospital in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital, after an Israeli raid.

“There are still critically injured and sick patients that are inside the hospital,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said.

“There is an urgent need to deliver fuel to ensure the continuation of the provision of life-saving services... We are trying to get access because people who are still in Nasser medical complex need assistance.”.