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Added on the 20/11/2023 21:21:51 - Copyright : France 24 EN
After four weeks of war, one and a half million Gazans, out of an estimated 2.7 million have now been displaced.
Israeli forces battled Hamas militants in Gaza's main southern city on Wednesday in some of the most intense combat of the two-month-old war sparked by the October 7 attacks. The focus of the conflict has shifted into the besieged territory's south following fierce fighting and bombardment that reduced much of the north to rubble and forced 1.9 million people to flee. The civilian mass casualties in Gaza have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages brought by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and free 138 hostages still held after scores were released during a short-lived truce. As Israeli forces battle Hamas in main southern Gaza, FRANCE 24's Mark Owen is joined by Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute (AGSIW) in Washington. He is also a weekly columnist for The National (UAE) and a regular contributor to The New York Times and The Daily Beast.
Trial resumes for Benoit Feuillu and four other alleged organisers of two banned demonstrations in western rural France. The activists argue they fight to preserve water and are opposing large artificials reservoirs or "bassines" which they see as a way to monopolise water resources for the farming industry. in October 2022 and specially, in March 2023, the protests turned into violent clashes with police with many protesters injured. SOUNDBITE
Israeli troops carried out building-by-building searches at Gaza's main hospital on Friday, after a communications blackout in the Palestinian territory compounded fears for civilians trapped inside the facility. Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza since soldiers raided the complex on Wednesday, hunting for a command centre they say militant group Hamas operates at the site. Hamas and hospital managers deny that charge, and there has been international concern about thousands of people -- including wounded patients and premature babies -- believed to be inside. As Israeli forces search Gaza hospital, FRANCE 24's Will Hilderbrandt is joined by Dr Rob Geist Pinfold, Lecturer in Peace and Security in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University.
Thousands of displaced Palestinians looked to Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, as a safe haven, but with Israeli strikes intensifying and the fighting reaching the gates of the compound, there seems nowhere for them to escape. Doctors without Borders (MSF) denounced the intense battles around the facility as the "death warrant of civilians currently trapped in Al-Shifa Hospital signed by the Israeli military". "We cannot leave. If I am not here or the other surgeon, who will take care of the patients?" said MSF doctor Mohammed Obeid.
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