Key Points
- Multiple hospitals have been targeted by Israeli airstrikes, according to Gaza officials.
- Israel has said it will begin daily four-hour pauses in northern Gaza to allow Palestinians to evacuate.
- US President Joe Biden said he sought a longer pause in the bombardment of Gaza.
Gaza officials said Israel launched airstrikes on or near at least three hospitals on Friday, further endangering a health system swamped with thousands of casualties and people displaced by Israel's war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
"The Israeli occupation launched simultaneous strikes on a number of hospitals during the past hours," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra told Al Jazeera television.
Qidra said Israel targeted the courtyard of Al-Shifa, the biggest hospital in Gaza City, and there were casualties, but he did not provide details.
Israel said Hamas has hidden command centres and tunnels beneath Al-Shifa, allegations Hamas denies.
Israel's military did not immediately comment on Qidra's statement, which could not be independently verified.
An aerial view shows the compound of Al-Shifa hospital. Source: Getty / Bashar Taleb/AFP
Gaza's health ministry has said 18 of Gaza's 35 hospitals and 40 other health centres were out of service either due to damage from bombardment or lack of fuel.
"With ongoing strikes and fighting nearby (Al-Shifa), we are gravely concerned about the well-being of thousands of civilians there, many children among them, seeking medical care and shelter," Human Rights Watch said on social media site X.
Qidra said Al-Rantisi Pediatric Hospital and Al-Nasr Children's Hospital "have been witnessing a series of direct attacks and bombardments" on Friday.
He said strikes on the hospital grounds at Al-Rantisi set vehicles on fire but they had been partly extinguished.
Israel says it will start having daily pauses in bombardment on the Gaza Strip to allow Palestinians to flee. Source: AAP / Hatem Moussa/AP
Israel to start daily pauses for civilians to flee
Israel will begin daily four-hour pauses in the to enable Palestinians to flee hostilities in the coastal enclave, the White House says in what it calls a step in the right direction.
White House spokesman John Kirby announced the pauses and the opening of in northern Gaza to allow Palestinians to seek safety from Israel's military operations.
US President Joe Biden told reporters as he left the White House he had sought a longer pause than three days.
Asked if he was frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said, "It's taken a little longer than I hoped."
The pauses emerged from discussions between US and Israeli officials in recent days, including talks Biden had with Netanyahu, Kirby said.
"We understand that Israel will begin to implement four-hour pauses in areas of northern Gaza each day, with an announcement to be made three hours beforehand," Kirby told reporters.
during its military campaign against Hamas but will continue to allow brief, localised pauses to let in humanitarian aid, the Israeli military confirmed on Thursday.
"There's no ceasefire, I repeat there's no ceasefire. What we are doing, that four-hour window, these are tactical, local pauses for humanitarian aid," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said.
Israel has bombarded Gaza since Hamas' 7 October attack in which more than 1,400 people were killed, according to the Israeli government, and over 200 hostages taken.
, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
, which has gained power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
In Doha on Thursday, the CIA and Mossad chiefs met with in the Gaza Strip, a source briefed on the meeting told Reuters.
The outcome of the talks was unclear.
David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service, CIA Director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani held the meeting after Qatari mediators met officials from the Hamas political office on Wednesday night and discussed potential parameters of a deal.
The advantage of the trilateral meeting was to bring all three parties together at one table in real-time to speed up the process, the source said.
A source told Reuters on Wednesday the talks touched on a release of 10-15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day humanitarian pause in the war that is devastating Gaza.
The armed wing of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in Gaza is prepared to release two a woman and a boy, for humanitarian and medical reasons once appropriate measures are met, a representative for the al Quds Brigades said in a recorded message on Thursday.
Kirby said the pauses could help with transitions for any hostage release, as well as for humanitarian purposes.
"We've been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today," he said.
He called the news a step in the right direction.
"We think these are significant first steps here and obviously we want to see them continued for as long as they are needed," he added.
Humanitarian pauses criticised as 'cynical'
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, called Israel's decision to allow the four-hour humanitarian pauses a "cynical and cruel" move.
Albanese said the Palestinian people were being forcibly displaced from their homes amid an unrelenting air bombardment and land incursion by Israeli forces.
Albanese told Channel 7 an immediate ceasefire is needed. "There won't be any way back after what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip," she said.
"So four hours ceasefire, yes, to let people breathe and to remember what is the sound of life without bombing before starting bombing them again."
Kirby said a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants is not in order because it would help Hamas and "legitimise what they did on 7 October and we simply are not going to stand for that at this time".
Israel is also opening two humanitarian corridors in northern Gaza, Kirby said.
The first has been opened for a few hours for several days, allowing thousands of people to reach safer areas in the south, he said.
The second corridor, along a coastal road, will allow more people to reach safer areas in the south.
