Here’s how things stand on Thursday, February 15, 2024:
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
- Dozens of Palestinians were seen leaving the besieged Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis after Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of the medical centre, but health officials said thousands, including critically ill patients, remain inside.
- Heavy tank and machine gun fire were reported as the Israeli army entered the hospital.
- The Israeli military described the attack as “precise and limited”, adding it was based on “credible information” that Hamas fighters were hiding in the facility and keeping captives there. A spokesperson for Hamas denied the allegations, calling them “lies”. Israel has made similar claims in the past but has not offered evidence.
- Al Jazeera correspondents reported that at least 11 people were killed in an intense bombardment on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths warned that the 1.4 million Palestinians who have sought shelter in Rafah might be forced into Egypt if Israel launches its planned military operation against the border town.
- “The possibility of a military operation in Rafah with the possibility of the crossing closing down, with the possibility of spillover, … a sort of Egyptian nightmare, … is one that is right before our eyes,” Griffiths said.
- Separately, the United States military’s Central Command, or CENTCOM, said its forces have seized advanced conventional weapons and other lethal aid from Iran that were bound for Houthi-held areas of Yemen on a vessel in the Arabian Sea on January 28.
- In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes carried out a wave of at least 12 strikes in the Wadi Saluki area of Lebanon, according to an Israeli military statement posted on social media.
Occupied West Bank
- Israel arrested at least 20 Palestinians in the West Bank, including a child and a former prisoner, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said.
- The arrests took place in Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Jenin and Jerusalem. The total number of arrests since October 7 now stands at 7,040.
