Israel deliberately destroyed all of Gaza’s hospitals with US approval and support

FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian civil defence officer injured in Israeli attacks is given CPR on a stretcher at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Strip, Gaza on October 16, 2023. © Ali Jadallah / Anadolu via Getty Images

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’.

While the United States government attempts to lecture the world about its supposed “rules based order,” it‘s aiding, arming and providing diplomatic cover for Israel’s unprecedented assault on Gaza’s already collapsed healthcare system. In fact, Israel’s attacks, justified by Washington in some cases, have resulted in the territory being left without a single functional hospital.

It was only two months into the war in Gaza that no functional hospital was left standing in the north of the territory. One month later, there were only seven out of 12 hospitals in southern Gaza that remained partially functional. Today, there is not a single functioning hospital in the entirety of Gaza, with some medics still trying to use the facilities that haven’t been destroyed by bombardment for shelter in which to treat patients with limited supplies, often to no avail.

After only five months of the now nine-month-long war, over 1,013 Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities were recorded in the occupied Palestinian territories, breaking UN records.

Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza since the beginning of the war. To put this in perspective, between 2011 and 2024, 949 medical professionals in total were said to have been killed during the Syrian war, with the worst year on record seeing the deaths of almost 200, according to Physicians for Human Rights. That means healthcare workers are being killed in Gaza at a rate around nine times greater than the yearly average during the war in Syria. According to the UN, “more healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since October than were reported killed in all conflicts globally in 2021 and 2022 combined.”

For those medical professionals who remain, Doctors Without Borders has reported a major mental health crisis, with some doctors being forced to choose between treating their own family members and other patients. In one horrifying case, Palestinian doctor Hani Bseiso was forced to amputate the lower part of his teenage daughter’s leg on a kitchen table without anesthetic and using little more than a pair of scissors and gauze. She miraculously survived. Another Palestinian doctor wasn’t as lucky, as he was forced to watch his son slowly die while amputating his leg without anesthetic.

Perhaps the most concerning fact, however, is that hospitals have openly been declared a primary target of the Israeli military’s ground offensive. In November, Israel built a case to invade Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the besieged coastal enclave. The Israeli army released a CGI video depicting a multi-layered tunnel system under Al-Shifa medical complex, claiming that it was the primary headquarters for Hamas. The US government then backed Israeli claims that the hospital was being used as a headquarters, as airstrikes repeatedly rained down upon civilians in the complex’s courtyard.

After Israel’s army had violently invaded the hospital, killing dozens of civilians in the process, an analysis published by the Washington Post found “no immediate evidence” that a tunnel complex had been used by Hamas under the hospital. Despite the US-Israeli claims having been debunked, Washington did not even issue an apology, as Israel moved on to invade the city of Khan Younis the next month, claiming it was the “real Hamas headquarters.” At the heart of the Israeli invasion of Khan Younis was the objective of taking over Gaza’s second-largest medical complex, Nasser Hospital.

Israel would then go on to re-invade both the Nasser Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital a number of times, ultimately putting both out of service and leaving behind mass graves containing more than 300 crudely buried bodies at both sites. The total number of dead, wounded and missing after the latest re-invasion of Al-Shifa Hospital was reported to be over 1,500, around 409 of which had been killed. In total, all 36 hospitals in Gaza have been either completely or partially destroyed in bombing attacks, or are unable to function as regular hospitals due to a lack of fuel, supplies, sanitation and damage to equipment or facilities.

Back in January, the United Nations had declared that the health system in Gaza was collapsing. We are long past that point now. In May, Doctors Without Borders reported that the healthcare system in Gaza had been “systematically dismantled” by Israel. On July 9, UN experts declared that famine had spread across the Gaza Strip, asserting that “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.”

The experts also attributed this to the collapse of the healthcare system, stating that the deaths of children “from malnutrition and dehydration indicates that health and social structures have been attacked and are critically weakened.”

Even more concerning was a recent study conducted for the Lancet medical journal, which concluded that the true Gaza death toll, including indirect deaths, could plausibly be around 186,000. If this conservative estimate is true, that would mean that Israel’s war on the besieged territory has wiped out around 8% of the total civilian population.

The Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll currently sits at roughly 38,300, with around 88,300 reported injured and more than 10,000 reported missing under the rubble. Now that the health sector has collapsed, it has severely hindered the ability of healthcare professionals in Gaza to calculate the number of deaths each day, as there are no ways of recovering the remains of many who are frequently found scattered across the streets.

The true number of injuries is even more difficult to know, as most people do not have any access to proper treatment, not bothering to register their injuries with healthcare workers already burdened by an unthinkable number of serious and critical cases. In addition to this, more than 1 million cases of infectious disease have spread, affecting around half of the entire territory’s population. Due to the dismantling of the health and hygiene systems in Gaza, even basic illnesses are now potentially deadly. With 500,000 cases of diarrhea, and the return of diseases not seen in recent memory inside the enclave, the UN has warned that 1.1 million children could be at risk of dying due to the spread of disease.

Unprecedented is an understatement, and explaining what is happening to the people of Gaza due to Israel’s systematic targeting of hospitals and medical workers defies the English language. Yet, the US government continues to supply Israel with all the arms it seeks, protecting its actions in front of an international community in shock. Washington knows all of the details listed above and more, but it continues to aid and abet the horror story unfolding inside the Gaza Strip.

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Watch Russian Drones Snuff Out Over 10 Ukrainian Military Vehicles

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as drones, has seen a significant rise within the Russian military. These UAVs have proven to be invaluable for a range of missions, such as reconnaissance, surveillance, and combat operations.

The Russian Defense Ministry has released footage showing UAVs belonging to Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr airborne troops destroying more than 10 Ukrainian vehicles in one hour on the right bank of the Dnepr River along the Kherson front.

Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the Russian paratroopers' reconnaissance and attack drone operators, the transportation infrastructure and logistics chains of a unit within the Ukrainian Armed Forces were successfully incapacitated.

Ukraine Loses Up to 700 Soldiers in Battles With Russia's Battlegroup Yug - Moscow

The Ukrainian armed forces have lost up to 700 soldiers in battles with Russia’s Battlegroup Yug in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"The Ukrainian armed forces have lost up to 700 servicepeople, a tank, two Kozak armored combat vehicles, two cars, a UK-made 155-mm AS-90 self-propelled artillery unit, four 152-mm D-20 guns, two 122-mm D-30 howitzers, a US-made 105-mm M119 gun, two UK-made howitzers L-119," the ministry said.

Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr have repelled five Ukrainian counterattacks and taken control of the Voskhod settlement in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the ministry said.

"Enemy losses amounted to up to 335 military personnel, two infantry fighting vehicles, including a US-made Bradley BMP, two cars, a 152-mm Msta-B howitzer, a US-made 105-mm M119 gun, four 100-mm MT-12 Rapier guns, a US-made counter-battery radar station TPQ-36," the statement read.

Ukraine has lost up to 460 soldiers in battles with Russia's Battlegroup Zapad and another 335 in fighting with Russia's Sever (North) group of forces, the ministry said.

Scott Ritter: Ukraine an 'Open Target for Russia to Take Apart'

No matter how many and what kind of air defense systems NATO plans to donate to the Kiev regime, Russia will continue to pursue its military objectives while grinding through those weapons, underscored Scott Ritter. Fueling the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine will leave the West facing depleted stocks of its own air defense systems.

Russia is able to wipe out the military equipment provided to the Kiev regime, especially air defense, at a rate "far greater than the West can even replenish its own stocks," former US marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter said.

“This is a losing equation. And without air defense, Ukraine is literally an open target for Russia to take apart as it best sees fit,” said Ritter.

On the opening day of the recent NATO summit in Washington, US President Joe Biden pledged to provide Ukraine with five new strategic air defense systems and dozens of smaller, strategic anti-air batteries over the coming year. In remarks delivered at the opening of the summit, Biden said that to donate the Patriot systems, the US would join forces with Germany, Romania, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The announcement came two days after a missile strike hit a children's hospital in Kiev, with the Zelensky-led neo-Nazi regime and its Western allies groundlessly accusing Russia of targeting the building.

Photographs and videos taken in Kiev confirm that a building on the grounds of the Okhmatdet hospital was hit by a surface-to-air missile fired from the Western-made NASAMS air defense system during a Russian attack on military targets in Kiev, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. The ministry linked the Kiev regime's accusations to the then-upcoming NATO summit set to discuss Ukraine's potential membership among other issues, and new arms deliveries to Kiev.

Indeed, the well-timed announcement from Washington comes as Ukraine seems to have “a particular desire” for the Patriot air defense system, noted Ritter, but “it'll take whatever it can get.”

According to the ex-marine intel officer, even after Ukraine gets the promised air defenses, it will face a big problem reconstructing an integrated air defense umbrella.

Back when Ukraine was initially provided with the NATO air defense systems such as the Patriots, NASAMs, IRIS-T, French (SAMP/T) Mamba - they had a Soviet era air defense umbrella that consisted primarily of the S-300 air defense system, the Buk, others, he explained. However, in the months of the proxy conflict this air defense umbrella became nonexistent, underscored Ritter, adding:

“And when Ukraine brings in their air defense systems, they have to do so in a very makeshift, haphazard manner. They aren't able to use them the way they were designed. This requires trickery, you know, turning on and off radars, firing missiles before radar lock is taking place. It's a very inefficient way to use air defense systems. And because Russia is able to put an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance umbrella over Ukraine, anytime Ukraine uses air defense, it's detected."

Since Russia’s Armed Forces are able to in very short order locate and destroy the systems, Kiev is in “one of these vicious cycles where there simply isn't enough weapon systems available to allow Ukraine to build the air defense umbrella it needs,” remarked the expert.

“This is one of the detrimental consequences of the attritional warfare that's being waged today in Ukraine... And it's one of the issues that this NATO summit has not been able to resolve in favor of Ukraine. Indeed, no issue has been resolved in favor of Ukraine. That's the reality of NATO today,” concluded Scott Ritter.

Final Day of 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum Gets Underway

The 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum is being held in St. Petersburg on July 11-12. The theme of the session is "The BRICS Parliamentary Dimension: Prospects for Strengthening Interparliamentary Cooperation".

Sputnik comes to you live as the final day of the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum begins in St. Petersburg gets underway.

The Russian delegation, led by Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko and Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, is joined by delegates from China, Brazil, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, India, and other countries at the event.

During the Forum, the participants engage in discussions regarding the significance of parliaments in enhancing the effectiveness of the international relations system and ensuring its democratization. They also address issues related to countering the fragmentation of the multilateral trade system, the impact of global crises, and the importance of inter-parliamentary collaboration in the areas of humanitarian aid and culture.

Orban and Putin discuss ‘shortest way out’ of Ukraine conflict

©Sputnik / Valery Sharifulin

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who surprised many with his visit to Moscow.

The talks revolved around issues such as the Ukrainian conflict, with the two leaders discussing the “shortest way out” of it, Orban revealed during a joint press conference with Putin following the closed-doors negotiations.

Moscow’s and Kiev’s positions remain very “far apart,” Hungary’s PM admitted, citing his recent trip to Kiev to meet the Ukrainian leadership.

“A lot of steps have to be taken to get closer to a resolution of the war. Still, we’ve already taken the most important step—establishing the contact, and I will continue to work on this in the future,” Orban stated.

The enduring conflict between Russia and Ukraine is affecting the broader European region, Orban noted, adding that the continent has enjoyed the most rapid and sustainable development only during peacetime.

“As I’ve already told Mr President, Europe needs peace. Yet this peace will not emerge by itself, we must work to reach it,” the visiting premier said.

The Russian president has reiterated Moscow’s readiness to resolve the hostility through negotiations. The Ukrainian leadership, however, appears to be still incapable of abandoning its idea of waging a war “until the end,” Putin noted.

Moscow is seeking to reach lasting, sustainable peace rather than opting for a temporary ceasefire or a “frozen conflict” of any sort, the Russian president warned.

There should not be a “ceasefire or some kind of pause that the Kiev regime could use to recover losses, regroup, and rearm. Russia is in favor of a complete and final end to the conflict,” he stressed.

Russia Sees That Ukraine Not Ready to Reject Waging War Until the End - Putin

We can see that Kiev is not ready to give up waging war until the end, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement to the press after holding talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"The way we see the situation, including what the prime minister said today, Kiev is still not ready to give up waging the war until the ‘victorious’ end," the president told the press.

Putin added that implementing Russia’s peace initiatives would allow the cessation of hostilities and the start of the negotiation process.

"Our [Russia's] peace initiatives have been recently presented at my meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. We believe that its implementation would make it possible to cease the hostilities and start negotiations," he noted.

Russia stands for completely ending the conflict in Ukraine, and not for a ceasefire or a pause so the Kiev regime can rearm itself, Putin emphasized.

"It should not just be a truce or a temporary cease-fire, not some kind of pause that the Kiev regime could use to recover losses, regroup and rearm itself. Russia stands for a full and final end to the conflict," he said.

According to Putin, Kiev is rejecting the ceasefire proposals because they will lose the pretext for extending the martial law. Ukraine will have to hold a presidential election in the absence of the martial law, and the current rulers will have a low chance for reelection, Putin said.

The Russian president shared that he had discussed possible ways to resolve the Ukrainian conflict with Prime Minister Orban and that Orban had told him about the details of his recent visit to Kiev.

"There was certainly a fairly direct and thorough exchange of views on relevant international issues, including the Ukrainian conflict, and we talked about possible ways to resolve it... Mr. Prime Minister spoke about his recent meetings in Kiev, where he had made a number of proposals and, in particular, a call for a ceasefire to create conditions for the start of negotiations with Russia," Putin told the briefing.

Russia sees Ukraine's unwillingness to resolve problems through negotiations, the Russian president added.

"Ukraine's sponsors continue to try to use this country and its people as a ‘battering ram,’ a victim of confrontation with Russia," Putin said.

Russia and Hungary Continue Cooperation, Primarily in Energy

"Russia and Hungary continue cooperation in a number of areas, primarily in the energy sector," Putin added. The countries also continue cooperation in medicine and pharmaceuticals, he said. The president added that joint work on the Paks II nuclear power plant in Hungary was moving forward.

"Only advanced engineering and technological solutions are being used in the construction of new units, and physical safety and environmental requirements are being fully ensured," he noted, commenting on the progress of the construction.

In late 2014, Russia and Hungary signed an agreement on the construction of two additional advanced reactors at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Rosatom said that construction was set to begin from late 2024 to early 2025.

Possible European Security Architecture Discussed at the Talks

President Putin said he had discussed possible security architecture in Europe with Orban.

"We also talked about possible principles of the future — possible too — security architecture in Europe," Putin told the briefing.

The two leaders also exchanged views on the state of affairs in relations between Russia and the European Union, "which are currently at their lowest point," the Russian president added.

Moscow appreciates Orban's visit and views it as an attempt to restore the dialogue between Russia and the EU and give it an additional momentum, Putin said.

Death Toll From Israeli Terrorists Strikes on Gaza Strip Tops 38,000

Bodies of the Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Gold Market (Qissariya Market) are brought to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on July 4, 2024

The death toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since October 7 has risen to 38,011, with 87,445 people injured, the enclave's health ministry said on Thursday.

"The number of victims of the Israeli aggression since last October 7 has reached 38,011, with 87,445 injured," the ministry said in a statement.

"Israeli forces killed 58 people and injured 179 others in four ‘massacres’ against families in the last 24 hours," the ministry said.

In the past 24 hours, 58 dead and 179 injured were admitted to Gaza hospitals, the statement added.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel terrorists has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

Over eight months into the Israeli terrorists war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel terrorists stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

Casualties as Israel bombs UN schools

Multiple casualties are reported after the Israeli military directed airstrikes against a UN-run school housing displaced in northern Gaza.

The Israeli terrorists military confirmed the attack on this school, along with another also in Gaza City, claiming they were used by Hamas as “hideouts and operational bases”.

Footage shows aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza City

Earlier, we reported on an Israeli attack on a market in the centre of Gaza City, in the north of the Strip, that killed at least four people.

Video posted to social media by a local Palestinian activist shows the destruction caused in the aftermath of the attack.

It also shows the rescue of an injured child, and the recovery of a body.

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A post shared by سائد حسبو (@k_saed.gaza)

Qassam Brigades reports ambush on Israeli soldiers in Shujayea

The armed wing of Hamas has claimed multiple attacks on Israeli terrorists troops and vehicles in the past few hours in northern Gaza, specifically the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shujayea that was invaded last week.

Hamas on Wednesday said it presented new “ideas” to Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish mediators on how to reach a ceasefire and captive-exchange deal. Israel confirmed it is “evaluating” Hamas’s “comments”, which it did not detail.

The development comes as Israel hammers southern Khan Younis – Gaza’s second-largest city – from where it ordered an estimated 250,000 Palestinians to flee, killing at least seven people in an air strike near its main hospital.

American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera news of the revived talks is hopeful but key sticking points remain – including whether the agreement will end the war “completely” and how many Palestinian prisoners will go free in exchange for Israeli captives.

Political analyst Omar Baddar said there is “serious division” between Israel’s military and political establishment over how to proceed.

Military leaders, he told Al Jazeera, realise there is “no path to a better future for Israel out of this entire mess, and that it is time to simply end this war”.

The country’s political leaders, however, “have absolutely no interest in doing that”, he said.

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Hezbollah fires over 200 rockets towards Israel

Smoke rises above northern Israel, after Hezbollah claimed it launched more than 200 rockets targeting Israeli military positions in northern Israel July 4, 2024. (Reuters)

The Lebanese Hezbollah group said it launched over 200 rockets on Thursday at several military bases in Israel Terrorists in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its senior commanders.

The attack by Hezbollah was one of the largest in the monthslong conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border, with tensions escalating in recent weeks.

Israel terrorists on Wednesday acknowledged that it had killed Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who headed one of Hezbollah’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon, a day earlier.

Hours after the killing, Hezbollah launched scores of Katyusha rockets and Falaq rockets with heavy warheads into northern Israel terrorists and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. It launched more rockets on Thursday and said it had also sent exploding drones into several bases.

Numerous fires broke out across the Galilee region and the occupied Golan Heights following Hezbollah’s attack

"As a result of UAVs and shrapnel from the interceptions falling in the area, fires broke out in a number of areas in northern Israel,” the Israeli terrorists military said, adding that firefighting and rescue services had been sent.

, Nasser was of great importance to Hezbollah, which said he took part in battles in conflicts in Syria and Iraq from 2011 until 2016 and fought in the group’s last war with Israel in 2006. Two other senior Hezbollah commanders have also been killed.

Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, speaking at an event in Beirut commemorating Nasser, indicated his group would widen its targeting.

“The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit,” Safieddine said.

At around the same time as the Hezbollah strikes, residents of Beirut reported that Israeli jets breached the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital, with buildings shaking.

Mohammed Nimah Nasser became the latest senior Hezbollah commander to be assassinated by Israel on Wednesday when an air strike hit his car near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.

A senior Lebanese security source told The National he was the commander of the Aziz unit, a regional division responsible for a section of the southern Lebanon border area.

Hezbollah said it will not end its attacks until Israel stops its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where about 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas launched a deadly raid into southern Israel on October 7.

But with a ceasefire proving elusive in Gaza, fears have continued to rise that the Israel-Hezbollah conflict could escalate into a full-on war.