GAZA: The Zionist entity said it had taken 100 people into custody at one of Gaza’s main hospitals Saturday after troops raided the facility, with fears mounting for patients and staff trapped inside. The deadly bombardment of Gaza continued overnight with another 100 people killed in Zionist strikes, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis, according to the health ministry. The Zionist entity has for weeks concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.

Intense fighting has raged around the Nasser Hospital — one of the Palestinian territory’s last major medical facilities that remains even partly operational. The power was cut and the generators stopped after the raid, leading to the deaths of six patients due to a lack of oxygen, according to Gaza’s health ministry. “Newborn children are at a risk of dying in the next few hours,” the ministry warned Saturday.

The Zionist army said troops entered the hospital on Thursday, acting on what it said was “credible intelligence” that captives seized in the Oct 7 attack had been held there and that the bodies of some may still be inside. The raid has been criticized by medics and the United Nations. The army has insisted it made every effort to keep the hospital supplied with power, including bringing in an alternative generator. A witness, who declined to be named for safety reasons, told AFP Zionist forces had shot “at anyone who moved inside the hospital”.

World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic slammed the operation Friday, saying “more degradation to the hospital means more lives being lost”. “Patients, health workers and civilians who are seeking refuge in hospitals deserve safety and not a burial in those places of healing,” he said. Doctors Without Borders said its medics had been forced to flee and leave patients behind, with one employee unaccounted for and another detained by Zionist forces.

The Zionist entity’s assault on Gaza has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children. The UN Human Rights Office said the Nasser Hospital raid appeared to be “part of a pattern of attacks by (Zionist) forces striking essential life-saving civilian infrastructure”. High-level negotiations to pause the war were held this week in Cairo, but their outcome is still unclear.

A day after US President Joe Biden called for a “temporary truce” to secure the release of hostages, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh reiterated the group’s demands, including a complete pause in fighting, the release of Hamas prisoners and the withdrawal of Zionist troops. Qatar-based Haniyeh said Hamas would “not agree to anything less”.

Biden has also urged Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch an offensive in Rafah without a plan to keep civilians safe — but Netanyahu insisted he would push ahead with a “powerful” operation there to defeat Hamas. Around 1.4 million displaced civilians are trapped in Rafah after taking refuge in a makeshift encampment by the Egyptian border, with dwindling supplies. In northern Gaza, many are so desperate for food they are grinding up animal feed. “We need food now,” said Mohammed Nassar, 50, from Jabalia in northern Gaza. “We’re going to die from hunger, not by bombs or missiles.”

As a much-needed delivery of supplies arrived in southern Gaza Saturday, the UN warned that Gazans are close to famine while the head of its agency for Palestinian refugees accused the Zionist entity of waging a campaign to “destroy” it. The Zionist entity has called for UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to resign following claims a Hamas tunnel was discovered under its Gaza City headquarters. Lazzarini told Swiss media Tamedia that UNRWA didn’t have the capabilities to be examining what was 20 m underground in Gaza.

Hamas’ armed wing has warned captives in Gaza are also “struggling to stay alive” as conditions deteriorate due to relentless Zionist bombardments. “The wounded and sick enemy prisoners are going through very difficult conditions and are struggling to stay alive,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a televised statement. “This is not surprising because everything that our people are suffering from, be it hunger, thirst and lack of medical help, is also what the enemy prisoners are suffering from.” Abu Obeida said it was the Zionist entity’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip that was responsible for the situation. “Time is running out fast,” he said. – Agencies