Israeli troops have previously raided other medical facilities in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, the territory’s largest hospital. (AP pic)
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Israeli forces were raiding a hospital Tuesday in the north of the Palestinian territory.
“Israeli occupation forces are storming Kamal Adwan hospital after besieging and bombing it for days,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an AFP request to comment.
Al-Qudra said the troops were rounding up men in the hospital courtyard, including medical staff.
“We fear their arrest and the arrest of the medical teams or their killing,” the health ministry spokesman added, calling for international intervention.
The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said two mothers were killed when the maternity department of Kamal Adwan hospital was reportedly hit Monday.
“The hospital remains surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks, and fighting with armed groups has been reported in its vicinity for three consecutive days,” OCHA said.
It said the hospital was “currently accommodating 65 patients, including 12 children in the intensive care unit and six newborns in incubators.”
“About 3,000 internally displaced persons remain trapped in the facility and are awaiting evacuation with extreme shortages of water, food and power reported,” it added.
Israeli troops have previously raided other medical facilities in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, the territory's largest hospital.
There is currently only one hospital in northern Gaza able to admit patients, according to the UN.
Just 13 of 36 hospitals across the territory are functioning, providing limited healthcare while sheltering thousands of displaced people.
More than 18,200 Gazans have been killed and nearly 50,000 wounded since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than two months ago, according to the health ministry.
Around 1,200 people were killed in an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7, Israeli officials say, which sparked the blistering military response on Gaza.
A jury found that Google had maintained a monopoly in the smartphone app store market and engaged in anticompetitive conduct. Credit... Dado Ruvic/Reuters
A jury ruled on Monday that Google had violated antitrust laws to extract fees and limit competition from Epic Games and other developers on its Play mobile app store, in a case that could rewrite the rules on how thousands of businesses make money on Google’s smartphone operating system, Android.
After deliberating for a little more than three hours, the nine-person federal jury sided with Epic Games on all 11 questions in a monthlong trial that was the latest turn in a three-year legal battle.
The jury in San Francisco found that Epic, the maker of the hit game Fortnite, proved that Google had maintained a monopoly in the smartphone app store market and engaged in anticompetitive conduct that harmed the videogame maker.
Google could be forced to alter its Play Store rules, allowing other companies to offer competing app stores and making it easier for developers to avoid the cut it collects from in-app purchases.
Judge James Donato of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California will decide the remedies needed to address Google’s conduct next year. Google said it would appeal the verdict.
Throughout the trial, Google’s lawyers and executives had argued that it competed against Apple’s App Store, which is more popular in the United States, making it impossible to operate an Android monopoly.
The verdict provided a lift to Epic’s yearslong quest to weaken the power that Google and Apple have over the mobile app ecosystem, and it came two years after Epic mostly lost a similar case against Apple — a ruling that both sides are trying to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. That verdict was decided by a judge.
In pursuing the case against Google, filed in 2020, Epic had sought to keep more of the revenue it generates from in-app purchases and offer an app store that would compete with Play on the Android operating system.
Google was fighting Epic’s claims at the same time that it was defending itself in another antitrust trial in Washington, D.C. The Department of Justice and dozens of states have accused the company of illegally maintaining a search and advertising monopoly, in a landmark antitrust case that could reshape tech power when it is decided next year.
On the Play Store, Google charges app makers a 15 percent fee for customer payments for app subscriptions and up to 30 percent for purchases made within popular apps that are downloaded from the store. Google says 99 percent of developers qualify for a fee of 15 percent or lower on in-app purchases.
Google plans to appeal the verdict and will “continue to defend the Android business model,” Wilson White, a Google vice president of government affairs, said in a statement. He added that the trial had “made clear that we compete fiercely with Apple and its App Store, as well as app stores on Android devices and gaming consoles.”
Epic said in a blog post that the verdict was “a win for all app developers and consumers around the world” and “proved that Google’s app store practices are illegal and they abuse their monopoly to extract exorbitant fees, stifle competition and reduce innovation.”
Tim Sweeney, Epic’s chief executive, posted “Free Fortnite!” on X, formerly called Twitter, after the verdict.
Epic instigated the battle with Google, by allowing customers to make in-app purchases directly with Epic, bypassing Google and violating its rules. Google quickly banned Fortnite, and Epic responded by filing the lawsuit.
The jury found that Google had violated antitrust laws in two markets, the Android Play Store and the Android’s in-app billing system. It also found that Google willfully maintained monopoly power, allowing it to impose unreasonable restraints on other market players’ ability to compete.
The jury took issue with Google’s efforts to pay large developers to continue using the Play Store, in an initiative called Project Hug. Epic’s lawyers had painted the effort as “bribes” to major app makers, which Google had denied.
“Such a clear verdict is going to make it much harder for Google to beat it back in post-trial briefing and on appeal,” Paul Swanson, an antitrust lawyer at the firm Holland & Hard, said in an interview. He added that the district court process could wrap up in a few months, and Google’s appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit could take 12 to 18 months.
The jury also faulted Google’s agreements with Android phone makers like Samsung, which force them to pre-install Google applications on their devices and establish other rules by which they must abide.
During the trial, Epic’s lawyers said Google had deleted some internal chat messages that may have been relevant to the case, which undercut the search company’s credibility, Mr. Swanson said.
“Google’s concern was that a jury would look at all of these issues they’ve examined for several weeks and put it through a lens of ‘can I even trust Google?’” Mr. Swanson said. “The stark reality is that Google finally had to face its consumers in the court of law.”
Nico Grant is a technology reporter covering Google from San Francisco. Previously, he spent five years at Bloomberg News, where he focused on Google and cloud computing.
Israel used controversial US-provided white phosphorus munitions to attack Dheira, a small village in southern Lebanon, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing its own analysis of shell fragments recovered from the scene.
The incident reportedly occurred on October 16, when the Israeli military targeted the village with artillery fire. A reporter working for the newspaper discovered fragments of three 155-mm artillery shells fired into Deira. The attack left at least four homes burned down and injured at least nine civilians.
The shells turned out to be so-called ‘smoke’ or ‘marker’ M825 rounds, packed with felt wedges saturated with white phosphorus. The chemical ignites on its own when in contact with air and produces thick white smoke, which is useful for obscuring troop movement. The smoke, however, is also toxic, and while white phosphorus itself burns very hot – and is hard to extinguish – the ‘smoke’ shells effectively double as incendiary rounds if used without the necessary precautions.
The recovered fragments of shells contained production codes that “match the nomenclature used by the US military to categorize domestically produced munitions,” the WaashingtonPost stated, citing arms experts. The shells were manufactured by ammunition depots in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1989 and 1992, according to their markings, and their light green body color, and the ‘WP’ inscriptions were consistent with US standard-issue white phosphorus rounds. The US origin of the shells was also verified by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the report noted, with the latter group suggesting the incident should be investigated as a war crime.
“The fact that US-produced white phosphorus is being used by Israel in south Lebanon should be of great concern to US officials. [Congress] should take reports of Israel’s use of white phosphorus seriously enough to reassess US military aid to Israel,” Tirana Hassan, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, told the newspaper in a written statement.
The White House has reacted to the matter, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby expressing “concerns” while stating that white phosphorus is a legitimate military use for illumination and producing smoke.
“We’ve seen the reports, certainly, we’re concerned about that. We’ll be asking questions to try to learn a little bit more,” Kirby told reporters while en route to Philadelphia. “Anytime that we provide items of white phosphorus to another military, it is with the full expectation that it’ll be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes and in keeping with the law of armed conflict,” he added.
At least one of the shells recovered apparently originated from the same batch, as most of the white phosphorus shells used by Israel in its Gaza campaign back in 2009. Since then, Israel has pledged to shift to other, less destructive types of smoke rounds, yet has apparently been widely using them amid the new conflict. Over the past two months, Israel has used the shells more than 60 times in Lebanon’s border area alone, the WaPo noted, citing data by ACLED, a war monitor group.
Apart from that, unverified footage circulating online suggests the white phosphorus munitions have been actively used in Gaza as well, with multiple videos appearing to match the distinctive airburst pattern of such rounds.
Menteri Luar Negeri Indonesia Retno Marsudi berbicara dalam pertemuan Khusus Dewan Eksekutif Organisasi Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) di Jenewa, Swiss, Minggu (10/12/2023). ANTARA/HO-Kemlu RI/am.
Menteri Luar Negeri Retno Marsudi mengatakan Israel telah mengubah Gaza menjadi bagaikan neraka setelah jumlah korban tewas akibat konflik Israel dengan Hamas, terus bertambah.
Dalam pertemuan Khusus Dewan Eksekutif Organisasi Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) di Jenewa, Swiss, pada Minggu (10/12), Retno mengungkapkan rumah sakit-rumah sakit di Gaza digempur hebat, termasuk RS Indonesia yang dipaksa berhenti beroperasi pada 16 November.
"Perintah Israel Defence Force (angkatan bersenjata Israel) agar suplai medis dipindahkan dari Khan Younis ke gudang yang lebih kecil di Rafah merupakan pelanggaran berat hukum internasional dan hak asasi manusia,” kata Retno ketika menyampaikan keterangan pers secara daring.
Retno menyoroti kondisi fasilitas kesehatan di Gaza yang sangat memprihatinkan di mana hanya 13 dari 36 rumah sakit yang masih beroperasi, dan semuanya kelebihan kapasitas hingga 2-3 kali lipat.
Retno menyebutkan 71 persen fasilitas pelayanan kesehatan di Gaza tidak berfungsi, sementara perlengkapan medis, obat-obatan, makanan, air bersih, bensin, dan listrik semakin terbatas.
"Ratusan pekerja medis terbunuh semenjak Israel menyerang Gaza," tutur dia.
WHO sendiri melaporkan penyebaran penyakit menular yang semakin tinggi di Gaza. WHO menemukan hampir 130 ribu kasus infeksi pernafasan akut, lebih dari 94 ribu kasus diare, dan lebih dari 2.700 kasus cacar air.
"Oleh karena itu, penting bagi Indonesia untuk hadir (dalam pertemuan WHO ini) agar dapat langsung berkontribusi, mendesak pentingnya perbaikan fasilitas kesehatan, perlindungan terhadap fasilitas dan tenaga kesehatan, termasuk tentunya fasilitas kesehatan Rumah Sakit Indonesia," kata Retno.
Dewan Eksekutif adalah organ eksekutif WHO di bawah World Health Assembly yang beranggotakan 34 negara.
Indonesia terakhir menjadi anggota Dewan Eksekutif WHO pada 2018-2021.
Israel melanjutkan serangan militer di Jalur Gaza pada 1 Desember setelah jeda kemanusiaan selama seminggu berakhir.
Hampir 18 ribu warga Palestina tewas dan lebih dari 49.229 lainnya luka-luka, sedangkan Israel kehilangan 1.200 orang akibat konflik ini.
