EL PAÍS offers the last hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict for free.
If you want to support our journalism,
subscribe.
The Israeli army has reported that members of its “special forces” are operating in a “precise and limited” manner inside the Al Naser hospital, in Khan Younis, south of Gaza, after obtaining information that there are Hamas militiamen in its interior and also hostages or bodies of hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.
The center, the largest in the south of the Strip, was partially evacuated on Wednesday and Palestinian sources report that the soldiers have forced new transfers and evacuations and that there are hundreds of patients who cannot move.
Israel claimed this Wednesday to have killed a senior commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Ali Muhammad Aldbas, his deputy Ibrahim Issa and a third fighter.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces, Aldbas received help in orchestrating a roadside bomb attack in northern Israel last March.
Lebanese security sources assured on Wednesday that seven civilians, including three children, were killed in the attack against a multi-story building.
Go to start
New posts
The country
Israel says it killed three senior Hezbollah officials in Wednesday's attack on southern Lebanon
An Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese town of Nabatieh on Wednesday night killed a top commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Ali Muhammad Aldbas, his deputy Ibrahim Issa and a third fighter, the Israeli military said on Thursday.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces, Aldbas received help in orchestrating a roadside bomb attack in northern Israel last March and had been involved in cross-border fighting since October, he added.
Lebanese security sources assured on Wednesday that seven civilians, including three children, were killed in the attack against a multi-story building.
Hezbollah assured that Israel would “pay the price” for the attack.
(Reuters)
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 15:12
The country
The UN assures that rebuilding Gaza would cost $20 billion if the war “stops now”
The damage caused by the war in the Gaza Strip would amount to about $20 billion “if it stops now.”
This was stated this Thursday in Geneva by Richard Kozul-Wright, director of Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Kozul-Wright has claimed the damage was already four times greater than that suffered in Gaza during the seven-week war in 2014.
Kozul-Wright has indicated that the estimate is based on satellite images and other data and that a more accurate estimate would require researchers to be able to enter Gaza.
Reconstruction will require a new “Marshall Plan”, she has assured, referring to the US plan for Europe's economic recovery after World War II.
UNCTAD already said in a report last month that it could take until the last years of this century for Gaza's economy to recover to its pre-conflict size, and this only if hostilities in the Palestinian enclave ceased immediately.
(Reuters)
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 14:51
The country
Lebanon will present an “urgent complaint” against Israel to the UN Security Council
The acting Prime Minister of Lebanon, Nayib Mikati, announced this Thursday that Beirut will present “an urgent complaint” to the United Nations Security Council in the face of “persistent Israeli aggression”, following the death on Wednesday of 12 people, including ten civilians, in new bombings against the south of the country.
“Given the persistence of this Israeli aggression, the fall of martyrs and the massive destruction caused, I have discussed the situation with the Foreign Minister, Abdullah bu Habib, and have asked him to present a new urgent complaint against Israel before the Council of UN Security,” said Mikati.
"While we ask for calm and call on all parties to commit to avoiding an increase in hostilities, we consider that the Israeli enemy continues its aggression, which leads us to ask international actors for steps to respond to the enemy," he said. said, according to a statement published by his office through his account on the social network X. (EP)
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 13:34
The country
A Palestinian ambassador confirms the death of the girl Sidra, the last image of the horror of war
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Husam Zomlot, has confirmed that the girl whose body was found mutilated and suspended from a wall on February 12 after an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza, is Sidra Hassouna, 7 years old.
The photograph of this girl's body hanging by a piece of her clothing from a barbed wire on a wall has been the latest image of the horror of the Gaza war.
More than 70% of the more than 28,000 Gazans killed in Israeli attacks were women and children.
Ambassador Zomlot explains in his message that Sidra was the daughter of his wife's cousin and that she died when an Israeli missile hit the building where her family was taking refuge in that city next to the border with Egypt.
Along with Sidra, her twin sister, Suzan, and her 15-month-old brother, Malik, also perished, as well as her grandparents, her parents, and one of her uncles.
The children's family was displaced in Rafah, like more than a million of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Strip, where they had arrived at the beginning of the war seeking safety, from Gaza City, their place of residence before. of the beginning of the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 12:56
The country
The Gaza Health Ministry raises the death toll in the Israeli offensive to 28,663
The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, has raised this Thursday to 28,663 the death toll - most of them children and women - in the Strip since the Israeli offensive began on October 7, in response to the terrorist attack. against Israeli territory carried out that day by the Islamist militia Hamas, in which more than 1,100 people died, in addition to about 250 who were kidnapped and forcibly taken to the Palestinian enclave.
In the last 24 hours alone, 87 Palestinians have lost their lives in the Mediterranean enclave and 104 have been injured, up to 68,395, according to the ministry statement.
This figure refers to the victims who have arrived at area hospitals in the last few hours, but authorities estimate that there are many people under the rubble.
In fact, there are between 7,000 and 8,000 Palestinians trapped in the ruins of buildings demolished by the Israeli army's attacks.
Although the figures are from the Gaza Ministry of Health - this organization has published them in a statement collected by Reuters - the UN has validated the death toll published daily by the ministry.
The more than 27,800 deaths represent more than 1% of the enclave's population.
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 12:37
The country
Palestinians evacuated from Al Naser hospital arrive in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza.
/ MOHAMMED SALEM / REUTERS
What has happened in the last few hours
These are the latest news on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza at 12:00 this Thursday, February 15:
Israeli soldiers storm the Al Naser hospital in Khan Younis.
The Israeli army has reported that members of its “special forces” are operating inside the Al Naser hospital, in Khan Younis, south of Gaza.
The center was evacuated on Wednesday.
Hamas conditions a ceasefire on the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah has conditioned any new ceasefire and exchange of prisoners and hostages with Israel on the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Gaza.
At least 11 dead in Lebanon in Israeli attacks.
At least 11 people were killed on Wednesday, including six children, in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon.
Israel has justified the attack as a response to a Hezbollah rocket bombardment that killed one of its soldiers.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand join the international rejection of the offensive.
The heads of government of Canada, Australia and New Zealand have asked Israel, in an unusual joint statement, for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, in which they also express their "concern" about the possible Israeli military operation in Rafah.
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 12:39
The country
Hamas political chief conditions new ceasefire on withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyah has conditioned any new ceasefire and exchange of prisoners and hostages with Israel on the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Gaza.
This was stated in a statement while a new agreement is being negotiated in Qatar that could lead to the release of more hostages by the Palestinian militia in exchange for the handover of prisoners in Israeli prisons, within a ceasefire framework that allows the entry of more humanitarian aid.
This morning, the mediators between Israel and Hamas - Egypt, Qatar and the United States - stated that they were waiting for the Israeli response to Hamas' latest proposal, while the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed to have not received any. new offer from the Palestinian group.
For weeks, a new ceasefire has been negotiated in Qatar that, according to the US president this week, would last for “six weeks.”
The only stoppage achieved so far, in December, lasted a week.
(Reuters)
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 11:53
The country
Israeli soldiers enter the Al Naser hospital in Khan Younis, south of Gaza
The Israeli army has reported that members of its “special forces” are operating inside the Al Naser hospital, in Khan Younis, south of Gaza.
According to a statement, they entered after obtaining intelligence information about “terrorist activity” inside and about the alleged hiding of hostages inside the hospital, where there could also be bodies of people kidnapped in the Hamas attacks on October 7.
Although the army assures that the assault was preceded by an evacuation "effort" to reduce the damage, Palestinian sources denounce that the soldiers have entered "by force" after intense bombings and have forced new evacuations and transfers of people in serious condition.
According to the Israeli statement, the soldiers entered after obtaining "intelligence information indicating terrorist activity by Hamas in the hospital and their objective is to reach terrorist agents, including those suspected of being involved in the October 7 massacre."
He claims that his troops have detained “several suspects” inside the clinic.
According to the Israeli version, “the operation was preceded by an effort to evacuate the residents of the hospital to reduce the damage to those who were not involved,” for which they claim to have opened “a special passage” to evacuate the civilians it housed. the center towards “a humanitarian zone.”
Finally, he denounces that Hamas “operates from hospitals and civilian infrastructure” in a “systematic and cynical” way.
According to the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, Ashraf al Qudra, Israeli soldiers have stormed the complex and forced new evacuations.
“The Israeli occupation attacks the Al Naser Medical Complex and turns it into a military barracks after demolishing its southern wall,” Al Qudra reported, adding that the Army has also attacked the ambulance department and tents for internally displaced people in the medical facility.
“At dawn today and under bombardment,” the soldiers imposed “by force” the evacuation of part of the displaced people and relatives of the medical personnel who remained in the center, he indicated.
They also ordered the medical teams to transfer all patients, “including those in intensive care and pediatrics,” to move to a specific hospital building, an almost impossible task for six patients who require assisted breathing. Hours before, in the middle of the siege of the center, one Palestinian was killed and several wounded in an Israeli attack on the hospital.
For more than 25 days, health authorities have denounced the siege of Israeli forces around Al Naser, and last Tuesday the Army ordered the evacuation of 10,000 Gazans who were taking refuge in the compound.
According to Health, as of this Thursday, some 1,500 displaced people were still in the hospital, where the situation is "catastrophic", in addition to some 190 members of health personnel and some 300 of their relatives.
Among the patients admitted, "there are 273 patients who cannot move", 18 of whom are in intensive care and 35 on dialysis, which made their evacuation difficult due to the Israeli order.
The Naser Hospital is the largest medical center in southern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a ground offensive since the beginning of December, which also involved the siege of the city's other hospital, Al Amal.
The UN has denounced that Israeli soldiers have surrounded the hospital for days and that their snipers have fired on the center, endangering the lives of doctors, patients and refugees.
ACT.15 FEB 2024 - 12:17