GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Shell-shocked Palestinians who returned Thursday to part of Khan Yunis where Israeli soldiers have carried out extensive military operations took stock of the outcome: dead bodies, toppled buildings and destroyed landmarks.
Across the grey ruins of central Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s largest city, the streets were filled with thousands of residents who piled whatever they could salvage onto cars, donkey-carts and even their own heads.
The authorities stressed that much had been lost for ever.
As of Thursday afternoon, six bodies had been retrieved and “dozens of missing citizens are still under the rubble,” the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said in a statement.
One municipal official in Khan Yunis offered a detailed rundown of the destruction.
“The occupation (Israel) destroyed thousands of residential units in Khan Yunis, causing massive destruction and damage,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
“It destroyed markets, stores, clinics, medical centers, dozens of restaurants and stalls,” he said.
“It destroyed hospitals, destroyed all roads, water networks, electricity, communications and the Internet. It dug up all the roads and changed the shape of the city.”
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by Hamas’s surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s resulting military campaign to destroy the Islamist Hamas movement has killed at least 30,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
The Israeli military has yet to respond to an AFP request to confirm a withdrawal from central Khan Yunis, but both the army and Hamas authorities said military operations were continuing in the city’s west.
Israel’s military also did not immediately respond to AFP’s request to comment on the destruction reported in central Khan Yunis.
As residents picked through the rubble, some of them wearing surgical masks to try to keep out the dust, Wajih Abu Zarifa struck a defiant tone even though his own house was among those destroyed.
“Israeli warplanes... destroyed thousands of houses, toppling them and turning them into rubble, but they were unable and will be unable to defeat memory and recollections,” the 55-year-old said.
Jamil Agha, 49, said he would stay with his family in what remained of their house.
“What do we do? Crying is useless,” he said.
“Sadness covers our lives.”
‘Crying is useless’: Gazans take stock in battered Khan Yunis
https://arab.news/c76ny
‘Crying is useless’: Gazans take stock in battered Khan Yunis
- The streets were filled with thousands of residents who piled whatever they could salvage
- The authorities stressed that much had been lost for ever
WHO alarmed by health workers, civilians ‘forcibly detained’ in Sudan
- The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency
GENEVA: The World Health Organization voiced alarm Tuesday at reports that more than 70 health workers and around 5,000 civilians were being detained in Nyala in southwestern Sudan.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million more and devastated infrastructure.
“We are concerned by reports from Nyala, the capital of Sudan’s South Darfur state, that more than 70 health care workers are being forcibly detained along with about 5,000 civilians,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the detainees are being held in cramped and unhealthy conditions, and there are reports of disease outbreaks,” the UN health agency chief said.
The RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction allied earlier this year, forming a coalition based in Nyala.
“WHO is gathering more information on the detentions and conditions of those being held. The situation is complicated by the ongoing insecurity,” said Tedros.
“The reported detentions of health workers and thousands more people is deeply concerning. Health workers and civilians should be protected at all times and we call for their safe and unconditional release.”
The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency.
In total, the WHO has recorded 65 attacks on health care in Sudan this year, resulting in 1,620 deaths and 276 injuries. Of those attacks, 54 impacted personnel, 46 impacted facilities and 33 impacted patients.
Earlier Tuesday, UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “alarmed by the further intensification in hostilities” in the Kordofan region in southern Sudan.
“I urge all parties to the conflict and states with influence to ensure an immediate ceasefire and to prevent atrocities,” he said.
“Medical facilities and personnel have specific protection against attack under international humanitarian law,” Turk added.
