After convoy attack – Hamas stops people leaving Gaza Strip

“No foreign passport holder will be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip until the wounded who need to be evacuated from hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip can be transported to the Rafah terminal,” said the official, who declined to be named. According to US information, Hamas tried to expel its own fighters from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, which was temporarily open.

Israel: Terrorists killed
According to Israeli information, several terrorists were killed in the attack on the ambulance. However, the Hamas Health Ministry said injured people had been transported to the border crossing so they could be treated in Egypt. According to Palestinian sources, the attack on the five-vehicle convoy took place in front of the entrance to Shifa Hospital in Gaza city. 13 people were killed and 26 others were injured.

UN Secretary General António Guterres and the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, were “shocked” by the ambulance shelling. Both called for a ceasefire. Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan then accused Guterres of “completely ignoring the fact that Hamas is deliberately using ambulances for terrorist purposes.” Referring to the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, Erdan wrote: “Where was your horror when Hamas fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli ambulances and executed paramedics in cold blood?”

The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom also criticizes Guterres:

Reports: Hamas wanted to smuggle fighters into Egypt
US media reported that Hamas was trying to smuggle wounded members of its military wing out of Egypt through the Rafah crossing. This delayed the evacuation of foreigners from the Gaza Strip, the New York Times wrote, citing a senior US government official. The US official said Hamas had previously provided Israel, the United States and Egypt with lists of injured Palestinians to leave along with US citizens and other foreigners. However, research has shown that many of these people were Hamas fighters.

Command centers under hospitals?
Israel has long accused the terror group Hamas of deliberately placing its command centers, weapons depots and rocket launch pads in civilian facilities such as hospitals and schools or in tunnels beneath them – so they are not bombed from the air.

According to Palestinian sources, Israel also attacked a school in the town of Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip. At least 15 people were killed in the area controlled by militant Islamists on Saturday, the health authority said. Dozens of others were injured. The Israeli military initially made no comment. In recent days, the Israeli air force has attacked Jabalia several times because they believe important Hamas structures are hidden there.

“Bomb hit schoolyard”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) confirmed the attack. “At least one bomb hit the schoolyard where there were tents for displaced families. Another bomb hit the school where women were baking bread,” UNWRA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told Reuters. According to Hamas, two women have been killed in an Israeli rocket attack outside a children’s hospital. At least 9,488 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting broke out on Saturday, according to the Gaza Health Authority.

Hamas: 60 hostages missing after airstrikes
According to Hamas, more than sixty hostages are missing as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military organization, said 23 Israeli hostages alone were under the rubble. The number of hostages held by Hamas was recently estimated at around 240.

Israel reiterated its call for the population to evacuate the north of the Gaza Strip due to a threatened intensification of the offensive. On Saturday afternoon there was a ceasefire of several hours in the vicinity of a main road. “If you want to protect yourself and your loved ones, follow our instructions to go south,” said a social media post in Arabic.

At least 800,000 people fled
US Special Envoy David Satterfield said in Amman that between 800,000 and a million people have already moved to the south of the Gaza Strip. Between 350,000 and 400,000 were still in northern Gaza City and the surrounding area.