GAZA STRIP: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday that Israeli forces have opened fire at hospital rooms, raising fears for the safety of 12 children in paediatric care.
“The occupation (Israeli) forces have tightened the siege and the targeting of Kamal Adwan hospital, firing at patient rooms and courtyards,” ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement.
“We fear the death of 12 children in paediatric care who are already deprived of milk and are without life support equipment.”
The Israeli army did not offer an immediate comment, while AFP was unable to confirm the situation at the hospital independently.
On Tuesday Qudra said that Israeli forces had stormed the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of the Palestinian territory and were rounding up men in the courtyard.
The previous day, the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said two mothers were killed when the maternity department of Kamal Adwan hospital was reportedly hit.
In Wednesday’s statement, Qudra said that Israeli forces had detained hospital director Ahmed Al-Kahlot and other staff members who were “tortured and deprived of food and drink.”
Several of them were later released, he said.
Qudra said the Israeli forces were also targeting Al-Awda hospital and tightening the siege of the facility, “depriving it of water, food and electricity.”
Forces were also “preventing the wounded and sick from reaching” the hospital, he added.
Israeli troops have previously raided other medical facilities in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, the territory’s largest hospital.
The military accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command centers to plan and launch attacks against Israeli forces, a charge denied by the militant group.
There is currently only one hospital in northern Gaza able to admit patients, according to the UN.
Just 14 of 36 hospitals across the territory are functioning, providing limited health care while sheltering thousands of displaced people, the World Health Organization said Sunday.
More than 18,600 Gazans have been killed and almost 50,600 wounded since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than two months ago, according to the health ministry.
Around 1,200 people were killed in an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7, Israeli officials say, which sparked the blistering military response on Gaza.
The majority of war casualties in Israel and Gaza have been civilians.
Israeli army opens fire at hospital wards: Gaza health ministry
https://arab.news/pm748
Israeli army opens fire at hospital wards: Gaza health ministry
- Israeli “forces have tightened the siege and the targeting of Kamal Adwan hospital, firing at patient rooms and courtyards,” ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said
Ankara city hall says water cuts due to ‘record drought’
- Dam reservoir levels have dropped to 1.12 percent and taps are being shut off for several hours a day in certain districts on a rotating schedule in Ankara
ANKARA: Water cuts for the past several weeks in Turkiye’s capital were due to the worst drought in 50 years and an exploding population, a municipal official told AFP, rejecting accusations of mismanagement.
Dam reservoir levels have dropped to 1.12 percent and taps are being shut off for several hours a day in certain districts on a rotating schedule in Ankara, forcing many residents to line up at public fountains to fill pitchers.
“2025 was a record year in terms of drought. The amount of water feeding the dams fell to historically low levels, to 182 million cubic meters in 2025, compared with 400 to 600 million cubic meters in previous years. This is the driest period in the last 50 years,” said Memduh Akcay, director general of the Ankara municipal water authority.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the Ankara municipal authorities, led by the main opposition party, “incompetent.”
Rejecting this criticism, the city hall says Ankara is suffering from the effects of climate change and a growing population, which has doubled since the 1990s to nearly six million inhabitants.
“In addition to reduced precipitation, the irregularity of rainfall patterns, the decline in snowfall, and the rapid conversion of precipitation into runoff (due to urbanization) prevent the dams from refilling effectively,” Akcay said.
A new pumping system drawing water from below the required level in dams will ensure no water cuts this weekend, Ankara’s city hall said, but added that the problem would persist in the absence of sufficient rainfall.
Much of Turkiye experienced a historic drought in 2025. The municipality of Izmir, the country’s third-largest city on the Aegean coast, has imposed daily water cuts since last summer.
