Dozens of patients and the wounded have been evacuated for treatment outside the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where the United Nations says Israel’s attacks on and around hospitals have pushed health care to the brink.
The 45 patients left the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis early Tuesday and traveled through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Israel, Palestinian health officials said. They will receive treatment in the United Arab Emirates.
Among them was a 10-year-old boy, Abdullah Abu Yousef, suffering from kidney failure. He was accompanied by his sister after the Israeli authorities rejected his mother’s application to join him. Israel says it screens escorts for security.
“The boy is sick,” said his mother, Abeer Abu Yousef. “He requires hemodialysis three to four days a week.”
The Health Ministry says several thousand Palestinians in Gaza need medical treatment abroad. Israel has controlled all entry and exit points since capturing the southern city of Rafah in May. Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack has gutted the territory’s health care system and forced most of its hospitals to close. Those that remain open are only partially functioning.
Here’s the latest:
NICOSIA, Cyprus — World Central Kitchen said an Israeli security check of its employees in Gaza has prompted the charity to make changes so that it can continue feeding people in the Palestinian territory.
The charity said it “felt this step was necessary to protect our team and operations” following a Nov. 30 Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza that killed five people, including a WCK worker. Israeli authorities said the WCK worker took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.
After the airstrike, Israel publicly demanded an investigation into WCK’s hiring practices in Gaza, including security checks through COGAT, the Israeli department in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
WCK said it made “changes in Gaza” after Israeli authorities handed over the results of their security check. WCK didn’t explicitly say if it has terminated any employee who Israeli authorities had flagged.
The charity said that prior to receiving the COGAT results, “we had no reason for concern regarding any of these individuals and, because Israel does not share intelligence with aid organizations, we do not know the basis for Israel’s decision to flag these individuals.”
TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Israel’s parliament Tuesday for an emergency vote on a portion of the budget less than two days after his prostate surgery, after parts of his coalition refused to support the measure.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu took his seat in the Knesset despite doctors’ objections in an effort to pass the budget measure.
The coalition was able to achieve a majority in a last-ditch attempt. The vote was critical because Tuesday is the last day of the 2024 tax year, and if the vote had not passed, the government would have had to find another funding source to plug an approximately 10 billion Israeli shekel ($2.7 billion) deficit.
Also, if the budget does not pass in full by March, it will force snap elections.
Far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has instructed his party not to support the critical budget measure, which attempts to address a massive budget deficit. At least three others also said they would vote against the measure over their displeasure over forced enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the military.
On Monday, the hospital said Netanyahu’s recovery was proceeding well after undergoing prostate surgery Sunday night.
CAIRO — The U.S. military has launched airstrikes targeting military facilities belonging to Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the capital, Sanaa.
U.S. Navy ships and aircraft targeted a Houthi command and control facility and advanced conventional weapon production and storage facilities that included missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles, the Central Command said.
It said the facilities that were hit were used in attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft also destroyed a Houthi coastal radar site, seven cruise missiles and an UAVs over the Red Sea, it said.
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