• Hospital comes under attack during strike on Red Crescent office
• ICJ to hear case against Tel Aviv on 11th • World should be ‘absolutely horrified’, UN agency says

BEIRUT: A newborn baby was among five Palestinians killed in the Israeli attack on a hospital in Khan Yunis, it emerged on Wednes­day after details of the overnight strike unfolded, drawing severe condemnation from UN agencies.

“The world should be absolutely horrified. The world should be absolutely outraged. […] There is no safe space in Gaza,” said a harrowing message from Gemma Connell, leader of the UN humanitarian team on the ground after the El Amal City Hospital, run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), was pounded by the Israeli forces.

“Today’s bombardments are unconscionable. Gaza’s health system is already on its knees, with health and aid workers continuously stymied in their efforts to save lives due to the hostilities,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“This on top of widespread deaths, suffering and decimation of homes, roads and other infrastructure across this tiny coastal strip of land. If the conditions for a cease-fire in hostilities have not been met by now, I do not know what it will take,” he said.

“No child in the world should be killed, let alone one sheltering under the emblem of a humanitarian organisation; this has to end,” said Connell, the Gaza team leader from the UN Office for the Coor­di­nation of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Al Jazeera reported.

She condemned the Israeli attack on Khan Yunis which killed five people, including the newborn baby, who were sheltering at the El Amal City Hospital.

In Khan Yunis, the PRCS said, Israel twice struck its headquarters, resulting in “five casualties and three injuries” among the displaced people who had sought refuge there and at a nearby hospital.

“They told us to go to the south that is safe, but they are liars,” shouted Fathi al-Af, pointing to his daughter on a stretcher on the floor of Nasser Hospital after the Red Crescent strike. “The entire Gaza Strip is not safe.”

The health ministry said that 70 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the previous 24 hours during Israeli raids. United Nations agencies have repeatedly voiced alarm over Gaza’s spiralling humanitarian crisis, which has left 2.4 million people under siege, most of them displaced and crowded into shelters and tents during winter rains.

The WHO has also warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only a minimal amount of aid entering.

ICJ hearing

Separately, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hold public hearings in proceedings launched by South Africa against Israel over the Gaza conflict on Jan 11 and 12, it said on Wednesday.

South Africa had asked the ICJ on Friday for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its crackdown against Hamas.

Israel had said it would appear before the court to contest the accusations.

The court usually takes one or two weeks to issue a decision on emergency measures after the hearings.

The court’s rulings are final but it has no authority to enforce them.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2024