Gaza hospital hit as Israel tells UN aid agency ties to be cut

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry said Monday Israeli forces were bombarding the last partially functioning hospital in the territory's north, as Israel formally notified the UN it is cutting ties with the main aid agency for Palestinians.

Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza, Israel launched a major air and ground assault nearly a month ago, a year into its war against the Islamists.

Rescuers and UN agencies say hundreds of people have been killed and the area has been left desperately short of essential supplies.

"At this moment, occupation forces are continuing to violently bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital," Gaza's health ministry said.

Hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh said in a statement the situation was "catastrophic", with several staff injured.

"We do not understand the purpose behind this bombing that is targeting the hospital."

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said six child patients were injured in the strike on the hospital, which he described as "appalling".

Israel's military said it was checking the report. Separately, it said troops "are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the northern and central Gaza Strip".

- 'No alternative' -

Earlier Monday Israel issued formal notification that ties with UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, would be cut after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation vital to the occupied territories.

The ban sparked global condemnation and came after the United States in mid-October warned Israel it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to Gaza within 30 days.

WHO chief Tedros said in a video posted on X Monday: "Let me be clear: There is simply no alternative to UNRWA."

"This ban will not make Israel safer," he said.

Israel has accused a dozen of UNRWA's roughly 13,000 employees in Gaza of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas which triggered the Gaza war.

"On the instruction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA," a ministry statement said.

Katz was quoted as saying UNRWA was "part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution".

Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.

- 'Backbone' -

The letter sent by Israel to the president of the UN General Assembly, dated November 3 and seen by AFP, said the ban would come into effect "following a three-month period".

Jonathan Fowler, an UNRWA spokesman, told AFP the move would be disastrous.

"If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip -- an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone," Fowler said.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X that an average of just 30 trucks daily were allowed into Gaza last month.

The UN has said around 500 trucks entered every day before the war.

Gazans told AFP they were alarmed by Israel's move.

Abdul Karim Kallab from the southern city of Khan Yunis said the people "depend almost entirely on aid coming from abroad, especially from UNRWA", and without it they would starve.

Hamas said it showed that Israel was a "rogue state".

But Katz said aid would continue entering Gaza "in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel".

UNRWA fired nine employees after an internal probe found they "may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October".

The UN General Assembly, which originally set up UNRWA, will hold a session on Wednesday, scheduled before Israel sent the letter.

Gaza's civil defence chief Mahmud Bassal said Monday that "there is a severe blockade on medicine, water, and food" in north Gaza and more than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel's operation there.

- 'Systematic destruction' -

Hamas, meanwhile, said it had held talks with rival Palestinian faction Fatah in Cairo on "the war on Gaza and pathways for national action", adding such talks would continue.

Since late September, Israel has broadened the focus of its war to Lebanon, where it intensified air strikes and later sent in ground troops after nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah.

Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in a bid to push it back from the frontier, allowing residents to return to their homes in northern Israel.

Footage verified by AFP Monday showed massive detonations in the southern Lebanese border village of Mais al-Jabal, where the mayor accused Israel of "systematic destruction".

The war in Lebanon has killed more than 1,940 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

Hezbollah said it again fired rockets at Israel's northern city of Safed on Monday.

Israeli jets attacked several areas of southern Lebanon, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Iran-aligned groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria have also been drawn into the conflict, and Iran and Israel have attacked each other directly, heightening fears of a wider conflagration.

In Syria, at least two Hezbollah members were killed Monday near the Sayyeda Zeinab area south of Damascus, a Britain-based war monitor said.

Israel said its aircraft had hit the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah's Syrian branch.

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