KHAN YUNIS: Seventy-six Palestinian patients and their companions voluntarily went back to the Gaza Strip on Monday, having been unable to return to the embattled territory for more than two years.
The Gazan patients had been receiving medical care in two hospitals in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem in October 2023, when Hamas launched the attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war and saw access to the territory blocked.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it had organized their transfer to the coastal territory in buses, in cooperation with Al-Mutlaa and Al-Makassed hospitals in Jerusalem, “after they completed their treatment.”
Hatem Nassar was one of dozens of people who gathered around the buses carrying the patients as they arrived at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. His mother was one of the patients onboard.
“This was a moment we had been waiting for, we were finally reunited with our mother after two years and two months of suffering, loss, and worry during the war, bombing, and destruction,” he told AFP.
“Her heart ached for us, but thank God, she returned to her homeland safely.”
Kifah Hussein spent the two years of the war at Al-Makassed hospital, and expressed her gratitude for the treatment she received while her native Gaza was devastated.
“They provided us with everything: accommodation, food, and clothing,” she told AFP.
Both Palestinian and Israeli authorities said that the patients’ return was voluntary.
“They expressed their desire to return to the Gaza Strip, as they had been there prior to October 7, 2023,” the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said in a statement on Sunday.
COGAT, the Israeli body that runs civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that “due to the closure of the crossings, their return was not possible until now, despite having completed their medical care.”
It added that their repatriation to Gaza was with their “full consent.”
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Palestinian patients stranded in Jerusalem hospitals return to Gaza
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Palestinian patients stranded in Jerusalem hospitals return to Gaza
- The Gazan patients had been receiving medical care in two hospitals in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem in October 2023
- Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it had organized their transfer to the coastal territory in buses, in cooperation with the two hospitals in Jerusalem
Syria gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’: ministry
DAMASCUS: Syria’s interior ministry said on Sunday that the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism.
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by IS during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”
US President Donald Trump called the incident “an Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by IS during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”
US President Donald Trump called the incident “an Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”
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