Latest update February 9th, 2026 12:35 AM
37 killed as Israel pummels Gaza; support for Palestinian state grows
(AL JAZEERA) At least 37 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave since dawn, including 30 in Gaza City.
Israeli air raids are continuing to pound Gaza City, where at least seven more people were killed and many wounded in the central Samer area. Two were killed in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood and one in a drone strike in the al-Sahaba area.
A boy sits next to the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli attacks, at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City [File: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]
Gaza’s Health Ministry says al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and the St John Eye Hospital in Gaza City are out of service due to Israeli bombing of their surrounding areas.
Israeli forces have tightened restrictions on movement in several areas west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and the St John Eye Hospital in Gaza City were out of service due to Israeli bombing of their surrounding areas on Monday.
It added that the al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital was directly bombed a few days ago, causing extensive damage.
“The occupation is deliberately and systematically destroying the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip as part of its policy of genocide against the Strip,” the ministry said.
In the latest update on its website on September 15, the St John Eye Hospital Group said its branch in Gaza would have been fully evacuated within the following 72 hours after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order of Gaza City.
The Wafa news agency reported that soldiers closed the gates at the entrances to Ni’lin, Shuqba and Deir Ammar, blocking Palestinians from crossing.
Troops also restricted the movement of vehicles and individuals across at least 10 other towns and villages in the area, creating long queues and disrupting daily life.
Israeli forces have increased the use of military gates, barriers and concrete blocks to isolate West Bank cities and governorates from one another.
Military restrictions have been accompanied by settler attacks aimed at displacing Palestinians from their land.
Israel now operates about 898 checkpoints and gates across the West Bank, including 18 installed since the start of the year and 146 added after October 7, 2023, when the war in Gaza started, Wafa reported.
The restrictions have been implemented amid threats from Israeli ministers, including Netanyahu, to annex the West Bank in response to the moves by the UK, Canada and Australia to recognise a Palestinian state.
An Australian anaesthesiologist working at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital says medical staff are working to the sound of constant explosions and are risking their lives to show up to work.
Speaking from the hospital, where she had been based for less than a week, Dr Saya Aziz said there was a skeletal staff operating at the hospital, where she had experienced three bombings close to the hospital in as many days.
“The [staff] who have turned up are essentially risking their lives to come,” she said.
She said one anaesthetic assistant had walked four hours from southern Gaza to show up for work. “He worked a 24-hour shift, kept going all night, with a foot that he’d hurt because he was digging his tent for his family and children that he’d left in the south,” she said.
“He couldn’t bring it upon himself to not come back to work because he said if it wasn’t him, who is going to turn up for these patients? Every soul to them matters.”
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 65,344 people and wounded 166,795 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.
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