Archives for November 2023

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a dayslong stalemate in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group.

Shifa is Gaza’s largest and best-equipped hospital. Israel, without providing visual evidence, claims the facility also is used by Hamas for military purposes. It says Hamas has built a vast underground command complex center below the hospital, connected by tunnels, something Gaza health officials and Hamas deny.

Since Israel declared war against Hamas in response to a deadly cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, its forces have moved in on Shifa. While Israel says it is willing to allow staff and patients to evacuate, Palestinians say Israeli forces have fired at evacuees and that it is too dangerous to move the most vulnerable patients. Meanwhile, doctors say the facility has run out of fuel and that patients are beginning to die.

Shifa is the leading hospital in a health care system that has largely collapsed after years of conflict, chronic underfunding and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade aimed at weakening Hamas.

Shifa has over 500 beds and services like MRI scans, dialysis and an intensive care unit. It conducts roughly half of all the medical operations that take place in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

After the war erupted, tens of thousands crammed into the hospital grounds to seek shelter. As the war has moved closer to the hospital, most of those huddling there have fled south — joining some two-thirds of the territory’s 2.3 million residents who have left their homes.

But hundreds of people, including medical workers, premature babies and other vulnerable patients, remain, staffers say.

On Saturday, the hospital announced that its last generator had run out of fuel. Health officials say at least 32 patients, including three babies, have died. They say 36 other babies are at risk of dying because life-saving equipment can’t function.

The Health Ministry released a photo Monday showing about a dozen premature babies wrapped in blankets on a bed to keep them warm. “I hope that they will remain alive despite the disaster in which this hospital is passing through,” said ministry spokesman Medhat Abbas.

International law gives hospitals special protections during war. Hospitals can lose those protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Still, there must be plenty of warning to allow evacuation of staff and patients. If harm to civilians from an attack is disproportionate to the military objective, it is illegal under international law.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields. The group often fires rockets toward Israel from crowded residential areas, and its fighters have battled Israeli troops inside densely populated neighborhoods.

Throughout the war, Israel has released photos and video footage showing what it says are weapons and other military installations inside or next to mosques, schools and hospitals.

Late Monday, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, showed footage of what he said was a Hamas weapons cache found in the basement of Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital for Children.

Hagari said he entered the hospital with Israeli troops on Monday, a day after the facility’s last patients were evacuated. The hospital ran out of fuel last week, and Israel had ordered people to leave as it conducts its ground offensive.

Hagari entered a room decorated with a colorful children’s drawing of a tree, with weapons lying across the floor. He said they included explosive vests, automatic rifles, bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

“Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war,” he said.

He showed another area that he said appears to have been used to hold hostages.

It included what appeared to be a hastily installed toilet and air vent, a baby bottle and a motorcycle — scarred by a bullet hole and apparently used to carry hostages. One windowless room had curtains on the wall that he said could be used as a backdrop in a video. Hagari said forensic experts were examining the scenes.

“This is not the last hospital like this in Gaza, and the world should know that,” Hagari said.

The army has claimed that Hamas is operating inside Shifa and underneath it in bunkers, some of which it says are accessible from the hospital itself. It also claims hundreds of Hamas fighters sought shelter at Shifa after the Oct. 7 massacre, in which at least 1,200 people in Israel were killed.

Israel says these claims are based on intelligence. However, it has released no visual evidence to support the claims. Hagari last month unveiled maps showing where Israel believes Hamas’ underground command centers are located, including one next to hospital’s reception area and another next to the dialysis department.

He also showed off simulated illustrations of what these centers allegedly look like, but acknowledged: “This is only an illustration.”

Israel also released a video of what it said was a captured militant answering questions during an interrogation. The militant, speaking quietly but clearly under duress, says that most tunnels are “hidden in hospitals.”

“At Shifa, for example, there are underground levels,” the militant says. “Shifa is not small. It’s a big place that can hide things.”

The army also released a voice recording of what it says are two anonymous Palestinians in Gaza discussing the presence of a tunnel under Shifa. The recording could not be verified.

Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, rejected the Israeli claims about Shifa as “false and misleading propaganda.”

“The occupying forces have no evidence to prove it,” Hamad said. “We have never used civilians as human shields because it goes against our religion, morality and principles.”

Israel on Sunday said it had tried to deliver some 300 liters (about 80 gallons) of fuel to the hospital in plastic containers several hundred meters (yards) from the facility. But as of Monday, the fuel had apparently not been taken.

Israel accused Hamas of preventing medical workers from retrieving the containers. Hospital officials said the fuel should be delivered by the Palestinian Red Crescent and that the quantity of fuel was insufficient in any case.

Israel offered safe passage for people to leave. But those who tried to go described a terrifying experience.

Goudhat Samy al-Madhoun, a health care worker, said some 50 people left the facility on Monday, including a woman who had been receiving kidney dialysis. He said Israeli forces fired on the group several times, wounding one man who had to be left behind.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday said the hospital “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” Biden said in the Oval Office.

The Israeli army has said it is aware of the complexities, but says Hamas should not expect immunity.

“We’re not looking to take control of hospitals. We’re looking to dismantle their infrastructure,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, another Israeli army spokesman.

“We’ll go in, we’ll do what we have to do and leave,” he said. “What it’s going to look like, it’s hard to say.”

NEW DELHI: A thick layer of smog engulfed the national capital after people burst crackers on Diwali night, leading to heavy pollution all across the city, which is already battling with its deteriorating air quality.

The Delhi Fire Service received 100 calls of fire-related incidents on the evening of Diwali, officials said here. These calls were recorded between 6 pm and 10.45 pm on Sunday, Delhi Fire Service (DFS) chief Atul Garg said.

“The total number of small, medium, and major fire-related incident calls is 100 from 6 pm to 10.45 pm,” he said, adding that his department was prepared to help.

Officials said the Delhi Police was also on alert and helping fire personnel. The firecracker ban was violated in several areas of Delhi as the city celebrated Diwali.

Visuals from various parts of Delhi showed thick haze covering the roads, significantly reducing visibility and making it difficult to see beyond a few hundred metres.

What is important to note is that the national capital has already been struggling with pollution for the last few weeks. The AQI at many places peaked in the severe’ category and continued to remain toxic for several days, but after Diwali, it is now very likely that the national capital will once again witness a rise in pollution levels, making it difficult for the people inside the city to breathe.

Last week, the Supreme Court said its order banning firecrackers containing barium binds every state and is not just limited to the Delhi-NCR region, which is reeling under severe air pollution.

Recently, the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi imposed a complete ban on firecrackers. In the wake of the pollution situation, the government even considered the idea of ‘artificial rain’ to tackle the foul air in the city, until sudden rainfall brought a major respite, lowering the pollution level.

The latest posts shared on social media sites and reports have shown that a large number of people at different places have taken part in the burning of firecrackers. Sunday night’s visuals from Lodhi Road, RK Puram, Karol Bagh, and Punjabi Bagh showed intense fireworks lighting up the night sky across several areas in the national capital.

Previous data related to pollution shows that since the last week of October, the national capital’s air quality has been at its worst. The concentration of PM 2.5 in the city has been recorded at 20 times the limit prescribed by the World Health Organisation, prompting the city government to order the closure of all primary classes and restrict the entry of trucks.

Despite the Delhi government’s ‘Diya Jalao, Patakhe nahi’ campaign and the Supreme Court’s order on firecrackers, rising pollution is likely to dim the light in the city after festivity ends.

OTTAWA: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has underlined that a “fight” with India was not something Canada wanted to be having right now but reiterated his allegations and said Ottawa wants to “work constructively” with New Delhi on this “very serious matter”.

Addressing the media on Friday, Trudeau also alleged that India violated the Vienna Convention as over 40 Canadian diplomats were shifted from India after New Delhi threatened to strip them of their diplomatic immunity.

India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.

India rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”.

In his fresh remarks, Prime Minister Trudeau said that his government reached out to India to ask them to work together in getting to the bottom of this matter.

“From the very beginning when we learned of credible allegations that agents of the Indian govt were involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, we reached out to India to ask them to work with us in getting to the bottom of this matter,” he said while addressing the media.

He said Canada also reached out to its friends and allies like the United States and others to work on “this really serious violation of international law and of the sovereignty of a democracy” and added that this is something that we are taking “very seriously.”

“We will continue to work with all partners as law enforcement and investigative agencies continue to do their work. Canada is a country that will always stand up for the rule of law because if might starts to make right again, if bigger countries can violate international law without consequences, then the whole world gets more dangerous for everyone,” he added.

Prime Minister Trudeau said that Canada wants to “work constructively” with India on this “very serious matter”.

“From the very beginning, we shared the real allegations that we are deeply concerned about but we have reached out to the Indian govt and to partners around the world to get to the bottom of this, to take it seriously. That’s why we were so disappointed when India violated the Vienna Convention and arbitrarily revoked the diplomatic immunity of over 40 Canadian diplomats in India,” he said.

He reiterated that there were “serious reasons to believe that agents of the government of India could have been involved in the killing” of Nijjar.

“India’s response is to kick out a whole bunch of Canadian diplomats by violating their rights under the Vienna Convention. That is of concern to countries around the world because if a given country can just decide that their diplomats of another country are no longer protected, that makes international relations more dangerous and more serious,” he added.

“But every step of the way, we have tried to work constructively and positively with India, and we will continue to and that means continuing to work with Indian government diplomats. This is not a fight we want to be having right now but we will unequivocally always stand up for the rule of law,” he added.

His remarks came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New Delhi on Friday urged India to cooperate with an investigation by Canada into the killing of Nijjar.

Last week, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said New Delhi conveyed to the US side its serious concerns over increasing activities of pro-Khalistani elements in Canada.

“Insofar as Canada is concerned, we have been having very consistent conversations with all our friends and partners. Our position on this matter has been enunciated and explained in full detail on multiple occasions,” Kwatra said.

Days after Trudeau’s allegations in September, India temporarily suspended the issuance of visas to Canadian citizens and asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country to ensure parity.

India resumed some visa services in Canada last month, more than a month after they were suspended.