The China Mail - Gaza hospital hit as Israel tells UN aid agency ties to be cut

Vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in northern Gaza, launched a major air and ground assault nearly a month ago, roughly a year into its war against the Islamists.

Rescuers and UN agencies say hundreds of people have been killed and the area has been left desperately short of essential supplies.

"At this moment, occupation forces are continuing to violently bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital," Gaza's health ministry said.

Hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh said in a statement the situation was "catastrophic", with several staff injured.

"We do not understand the purpose behind this bombing that is targeting the hospital."

Israel's military said it was checking the report. Separately, it said troops "are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the northern and central Gaza Strip".

Hamas said Monday it had held talks with rival Palestinian faction Fatah in Cairo on "the war on Gaza and pathways for national action".

- 'Part of the problem' -

Earlier Monday Israel issued formal notification that ties with UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, would be cut after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation vital to the occupied territories.

The ban sparked global condemnation and came after the United States in mid-October warned Israel it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to Gaza within 30 days.

Israel has accused a dozen of UNRWA's roughly 13,000 employees in Gaza of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the deadliest in Israeli history, which triggered the Gaza war.

"On the instruction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA," a ministry statement said.

Katz was quoted as saying UNRWA was "part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution".

Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.

- 'Backbone' -

The letter sent by Israel to the president of the UN General Assembly, dated November 3 and seen by AFP, said the ban would come into effect "following a three-month period".

Jonathan Fowler, an UNRWA spokesman, told AFP the move would be disastrous for aid efforts.

"If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip -- an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone," Fowler said.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X that an average of just 30 trucks daily were allowed into Gaza last month.

The UN has said around 500 trucks entered every day before the war.

Gazans told AFP they were alarmed by Israel's move.

Abdul Karim Kallab from the southern city of Khan Yunis said the people "depend almost entirely on aid coming from abroad, especially from UNRWA", and without it they would starve.

Hamas said it showed that Israel was a "rogue state".

But Katz said aid would continue entering the Gaza Strip "in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel".

UNRWA fired nine employees after an internal probe found that they "may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October".

The General Assembly, the body that originally set up UNRWA, will hold a session on the issue Wednesday, scheduled before Israel sent the letter.

The head of Gaza's civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said Monday that "there is a severe blockade on medicine, water, and food" in north Gaza and more than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel's operation there.

- 'Systematic destruction' -

On Friday the heads of UN agencies said the area is "denied basic aid and life-saving supplies".

Since late September, Israel has broadened the focus of its war to Lebanon, where it intensified air strikes and later sent in ground troops, following nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire with Hezbollah.

Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the frontier in a bid to push it away from the border and allow residents to return to their homes in northern Israel.

Footage verified by AFP on Monday showed massive detonations in the southern Lebanese border village of Mais al-Jabal. Similar scenes have been captured from several border villages.

Mail al-Jabal Mayor Abdul-Monhem Choukair accused Israel of "systematic destruction".

The war in Lebanon has killed more than 1,940 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

Hezbollah, armed and financed by Iran, said it again fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed on Monday.

Hezbollah has said it is acting in support of Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli jets on Monday attacked several areas of southern Lebanon, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Iran-aligned groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria have also been drawn into the fighting, and Iran and Israel have themselves attacked each other, heightening fears of even wider conflict.

At least two Hezbollah members were killed Monday near the Sayyeda Zeinab area south of Damascus, a Britain-based war monitor said.

Israel's military said its air force had struck the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah's Syrian branch.

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J.Thompson--ThChM