BEIRUT: Hostilities on the southern Lebanese front escalated on Friday, as Israeli shelling for the first time reached the Mays Al-Jabal Governmental Hospital, damaging it and injuring a doctor.
Imran Riza, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, called on “all parties to adhere to international humanitarian law throughout their military operations strictly, and to protect civilians, including humanitarian and medical workers, wherever they are.”

GENEVA: The Red Cross has called for medical facilities and workers in war-ravaged Gaza to be protected, warning the health system there had “reached a point of no return.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that its teams in recent days had distributed critical supplies to medical structures across Gaza, and had seen “horrendous images that have now gotten worse due to sharpened hostilities.”
This was severely affecting hospitals and ambulances and taking a heavy toll on civilians, patients, and medical staff, it said in a statement.

GAZA: Al-Shafaa Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip has become a refuge for more than 50,000 displaced Palestinians. Many of them are in makeshift tents outside, others have squeezed into the corridors and waiting rooms, even though the hospital is a target for the ongoing Israeli onslaught that started over a month ago.

Al-Shafaa, the largest medical center in Gaza, has been stretched to the limit. Doctors are battling to treat thousands of serious injuries despite severe shortages of medical resources, clean water and power.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Israel on Friday revised down the death toll of last month’s Hamas attacks to about 1,200 as it pursued its assault on Gaza despite new calls for a halt to the bombing of civilians.
Palestinians reported deadly strikes or sniper fire at two hospitals and a school.
The Israeli army, which has agreed to some pauses in shelling to allow civilians to flee northern Gaza, has accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of using hospitals as command centers and hideouts. Hamas denies the accusations.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s culture minister reiterated the Kingdom’s condemnation of the ongoing “unjustifiable” attacks on civilians in Gaza and facilities, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
“We strongly condemn the continuous attacks on civilians and the destruction of schools, hospitals, and cultural properties in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories,” Prince Badr bin  Farhan said in a speech at UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris.
 He described these actions as “unjustifiable violations that are contrary to international norms and laws.”