There is no excuse for what is going on. The figures are sufficiently clear: more than 8,000 Palestinians dead and well over 20,000 wounded.

A very sad tally, published by the Qatar-based international news channel Al Jazeera yesterday afternoon at 15:05 GMT, is one that shows what can only be seen as the deliberate targeting of Palestinian medical facilities and vehicles (ambulances) by Israel’s military:

Israeli attacks on healthcare sector in Gaza and West Bank

Since October 7, the World Health Organization has documented several Israeli attacks on the healthcare sector in the occupied West Bank:

    99 attacks affecting ambulances

    67 involving obstruction to delivery of healthcare

    61 involving physical violence against medical teams

    19 involving the detention of medical staff and ambulances

    12 involving armed searches of health assets

Since October 7, the Ministry of Health has documented several Israeli attacks on the healthcare sector in the Gaza Strip:

    124 medical personnel killed

    More than 100 wounded

    50 ambulances attacked – 25 are no longer in service

    12 out of 35 hospitals in Gaza are no longer in service due to fuel shortages and/or Israeli bombardment

    46 out of 72 primary healthcare clinics are no longer in service for the same reasons as above

    24 hospitals were requested to evacuate in the northern Gaza Strip (containing 2,000 beds).

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/30/israel-hamas-war-live-palestinian-death-toll-gaza-rises-above-8000

 
Yesterday, so only two days after Turkey’s president Erdogan’s harsh condemnation of Israeli war crimes, a hospital funded by Turkey was shelled. From the statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye, it is pretty clear that the Turks consider the shelling to have been intentional:

No: 279, 30 October 2023, Press Release Regarding Israel’s Attack on the Gaza Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital

We condemn in the strongest terms Israel’s attack on the Gaza Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital today (October 30).

As all necessary information, including the coordinates of the institution in question – which is the only cancer hospital in Gaza – was shared with the Israeli authorities in advance, there is no explanation for such an attack.   [my emphasis]

The siege and these inhumane attacks, which aim to deprive the Palestinian people in Gaza of their most basic rights, clearly violate international law.

Israel must stop targeting Gaza residents en masse, without discrimination.

Source:  https://www.mfa.gov.tr/no_-279_-israil-in-gazze-turk-filistin-dostluk-hastanesi-ne-yonelik-saldirisi-hk.en.mfa

 
Personally, I have no doubt that the criminal government of Netanyahu is intent on having all hell break loose in the region so that Israel (with the help of the USA and its vassal states) may become the regional powerhouse and achieve its long-wished territorial expansion ambitions, and thus fulfil some verses from the Old Testament, namely Genesis 15:18, Deuteronomy 11:24, as well as re-enact 2 Samuel, Chapter 8.

Interestingly, on 22 September 2023, whilst speaking in front of the UN General Assembly [https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1141302], Netanyahu exhibited a new of map of the region whose contours roughly correspond to the passages in the Torah mentioned in my previous sentence and are in fact displayed on the country’s national flag.

Let me point out that on that day Netanyahu used a red marker to indicate the boundaries of his map of the ‘new Middle East’, red also being the colour of blood as well as the colour used by editors/proofreaders or teachers to correct proofs or essays...

It is indeed dangerous times when ‘the best lack all conviction [and] the worst are full of passionate intensity’ (William Butler Yeats, ‘The Second Coming’).