Why is it...when a family clan in Gaza is looking to kill Hamas members, the first place they go to find them is the local hospital. Inside Gaza’s last working hospital lies a shadow of Hamas control Under fire and full of wounded, evidence grows of punishment and torture https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/17/gaza-nasser-hospital-still-running/ The tracer bullets are unmistakable as they streak across the otherwise dark forecourt of Gaza’s Nasser hospital, with the deafening sound of automatic gunfire overhead. Around the corner, several white four-by-four vehicles are in flames, charring the building’s walls. Photos later emerged revealing devastation inside one of the Strip’s last functioning medical facilities, with the glass screen above the reception desk shattered by bullets. The gunfight is believed to have taken place between Hamas and one of southern Gaza’s powerful armed families, the so-called “clans”. It is believed that the terror group summarily executed a member of the Barbakh clan, whose fighters then chased the Hamas members into the hospital, looking for revenge. One report said six Hamas terrorists were killed in the fight. Tension – and indeed bloodshed – between Hamas and the southern clans has become increasingly common in recent weeks as both scrap for control over meagre aid supplies. However, the fact that the Barbakh gunmen’s first instinct was to look for their enemy in the grounds of a working hospital is arguably significant. Evidence has emerged in recent months of Hamas and affiliated groups in the medical facility. Sources inside Gaza have also alleged that the groups use the hospital for torture, filming some of the interrogation videos that they have published in the last month inside the medical complex itself. It comes as the hospital remains a crucial lifeline for Gazans caught in Israeli airstrikes, which the IDF says are targeting Hamas officials. Doctors have described harrowing scenes of wards overwhelmed with patients presenting with trauma injuries. However, with Hamas violence against civilians also evident in the Strip, there is mounting evidence that Hamas, when it chooses, exercises control over treatment decisions in the hospital, effectively deciding who lives and dies. One video seen by The Telegraph shows a public beating, staged by Hamas, of individuals alleged to have stolen food. Amid the screams of pain, a fighter can clearly be seen spray painting – in Hamas green – the Arabic word for thief on one of the tortured men’s naked backs. One source said: “This is to prevent him receiving treatment if he goes to the hospital.” When the group fired on a bus full of Palestinian staff going to work at one of the new US-backed aid centres earlier in June, witnesses who spoke to The Telegraph said the group then prevented doctors at Nasser from treating the survivors. This is believed to have raised the death toll from eight to 12. In another incident in June, the family of a man who had been badly tortured for alleged opposition to Hamas turned up at the Nasser hospital to complain that he was being refused treatment. Hamas arrived and allegedly killed five of them. Numerous Palestinian sources have since told The Telegraph that Hamas uses the hospital as a base where the terrorists hide from the families they attack. One source with first-hand experience of the hospital said: “They hide among patients, medical staff and hospital facilities without any responsibility for endangering patients and medical staff.” The sources who gave information to The Telegraph did not want to be named for fear of reprisals. Israel has long claimed that the hospital is used as a military command and control centre. However, The Telegraph has not seen evidence to verify this claim. The IDF has launched a number of controversial airstrikes on the hospital with that justification since the start of the war, one of which was caught during a live TV news broadcast. On that occasion in May, a munition was targeted at a precise room in an upper storey of the building. The IDF says their strikes have been precise and aimed at Hamas militants, although NGOs have said innocent civilians were killed. Attacking a hospital can be prosecuted as a war crime, as can using civilians as a human shield, a charge routinely levelled against Hamas. Whatever else is taking place there, the Nasser hospital is currently providing a medical lifeline to the people of southern Gaza. Only last week, the entire facility was described as a “trauma ward” given the number of casualties coming in from shootings related to the new US-backed aid distribution centres. However, following the battle on June 26, some Gazans have begun to complain openly on social media about Hamas’s presence in the hospital. One said the group has taken to sending letters to its opponents, summoning them for questioning at the site. The Telegraph has seen a copy of a document on social media that activists say is one of these summons. It is addressed from the interior ministry in Khan Younis. It instructs the recipient, whose name is blanked out, to “police investigations department, Nasser”. It also bears the stamp of the Gaza interior ministry. A photo of the document was posted on a free Gaza Telegram account. A photograph of a different document, dated 2024, which was posted on a different social media channel, instructs a named individual to present themselves at the “Nasser Medical Centre”. A source said that some letters suggest that coming to the hospital would result in “free food parcels”, exploiting people’s need and then luring them into punishment or investigation. They alleged: “It’s become a tool for controlling aspects of life in Khan Younis.” Another pointed to the white off-road vehicles pictured outside the hospital, alleging that they are the same as used during the hostage handover ceremonies in January and February. However, it was not possible to verify this claim. In April, Dr Mohammed Saqer, the director of nursing at the site, posted on social media that armed men had come to his office and directly threatened him. He also showed a photograph of a piece of paper warning him that he had “crossed the red line… wait”. That was signed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group allied to Hamas. The battle from a fortnight ago has caused a ripple effect of retaliatory violence in an area that is already traumatised by 21 months of war. Hamas subsequently issued a wanted list of those they claimed were responsible for the attack, demanding that they be turned in within 24 hours. At least one video purporting to show the murder of a man allegedly involved in the battle has been circulated online by prominent pro-Hamas accounts. Israel is accused of laying siege to various hospitals in the Strip, and in some cases firing on people leaving. According to the World Health Organisation, 94 per cent of hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. At Nasser hospital, doctors warned on Friday of an impending disaster because of a shortage of fuel. It was forced to stop admitting patients the previous day after Israeli tanks advanced to within 200 metres of the complex. (Article has videos and pictures)
Poor @gwb-trading has no reliable habit of mental hygiene. Mental hygiene is like dental hygiene, it prevents rot. Also we don't like giving clicks to trash sites as it helps keep them in business. A man should take the effort to say, sorry about X source or provide the link to the reputable source they claim is quoted from a newswire or other.
A friend electric wanted to say this to you: "Look, saying ‘Hamas are brutal’ over and over again doesn’t balance or excuse the scale of what’s happening in Gaza. It’s not a counterpoint — it’s a deflection. We all know Hamas aren’t kittens and flowers. That’s not new information. What’s new is 58,000+ dead, entire families gone, infrastructure gone, children starving, and a civilian population being collectively punished on a genocidal scale. If you’re trying to be balanced, repeating ‘Hamas are bad’ like a mantra while refusing to reckon with the actual human cost of Israel’s actions isn’t balance — it’s just laundering atrocity through moral distraction. Balance would mean acknowledging that war crimes can be committed by both sides — but if one side has overwhelming force and is using it to kill tens of thousands, that has to be confronted head-on. Not buried under well-worn disclaimers."
@themickey, have you ever been to the States? Want to go to North Carolina and meet @gwb-trading at a Bad Daddy Burger Bar? The only rule is: hands above the table at all times, GWB has home-field advantage and might bring a gun. I’ll be the one who looks like he can kick GWB under the table if his hand moves for his waist band. He will show up in a generic white or metallic silver car, reverse parking for a quick getaway. You’ll have the Australian accent. No chance we miss each other I remember seeing the name Bad Daddy Burger Bar and I'm a martyr for places with funny names, even though that's the only good thing about them.
Yeah, spent nearly 2 weeks there on a sales business trip years ago, was very enjoyable. I think many these days would prefer to avoid the place, the airport customs agents aren't exactly accomodating. But regarding @gwb-trading constant return postings on this thread, it obvious a red herring ploy in an attempt to take the topic away to distract the reader from Israeli bad behavior, hence why now at page 576 as I keep needing to post examples to get the subject back of the mistreatment which is going on.
Too many typos, in a taxi.. fixed.. I'd rescue you from South Sudan, no worries But getting to South Sudan might be no fun. American girls love Aussie accents. Like a really weird amount. Yep when I made my trip to surprise my daughter after she announced she was expecting, my wife wanted to come but she could literally lose here sight without her very precise medical regime. We could not risk her getting put in holding for a fortnight. If G, you know his name, was being fair he would be Steelmanning our arguments but he just blanks anything not comfortable for him. Then repeats, broken record. I imagine he developed a thick skin working for years in corporate tech. The movie Office Space is a documentary really.
Israel bombs the Gaza church that late pope called every day By Wafaa Shurafa and Melanie Lidman July 18, 2025 — 6.57am https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle...te-pope-called-every-day-20250718-p5mfv9.html Deir al-Balah: An Israeli shell slammed into the compound of the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including the parish priest, prompting US President Donald Trump to call his Israeli counterpart to express his frustration. The late Pope Francis, who died in April, had spoken to the priest there – Reverend Gabriel Romanelli – daily about the war’s toll on civilians. Reverend Gabriel Romanelli was wounded when Israel shelled the Holy Family Church in eastern Gaza City. The priest became well known after it was revealed the late Pope Francis would call him every evening during the war in Gaza.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images The shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church on Thursday, Gaza time, also damaged the church compound where hundreds of Palestinians have been sheltering from the 21-month Israel-Hamas war. Israel expressed regret over what it described as an accident and said it was investigating. Pope Leo XIV renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire on Thursday in response to the attack on the church in Gaza City. In a telegram of condolences for victims, Leo expressed “his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region”. The pope said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack”, and expressed his closeness to the wounded Romanelli and the entire parish. A Mass is held for those who lost their lives after an Israeli strike hit the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his frustration over the strike on the church, the White House said. Netanyahu later released a statement saying Israel “deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church”. The church compound was sheltering both Christians and Muslims, including a number of children with disabilities, said Fadel Naem, acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the casualties. Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem said the parish’s 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman receiving psychosocial support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound were killed in the attack. Romanelli was lightly wounded. “We were struck in the church while all the people there were elders, innocent people and children,” said Shady Abu Dawood, whose mother was wounded by shrapnel to her head. “We love peace and call for it, and this is a brutal, unjustified action by the Israeli occupation.” The Israeli military said an initial assessment indicated that “fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly”. It said it was still investigating. The military said it only struck militant targets and made “every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them”. Israel has repeatedly struck schools, shelters, hospitals and other civilian buildings, accusing Hamas militants of sheltering inside and blaming them for civilian deaths. Palestinians say nowhere has felt safe since Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni blamed Israel for the strike on the church. “The attacks on the civilian population that Israel has been demonstrating for months are unacceptable,” she said. The church is just a stone’s throw from Al-Ahli Hospital, Naem said, noting that the area around both the church and the hospital has been repeatedly struck for more than a week. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which also has a church in Gaza that previously sustained damage from Israeli strikes, said the Holy Family Church was sheltering 600 displaced people, including many children, and 54 people with disabilities. It said the building suffered significant damage. Targeting a holy site “is a blatant affront to human dignity and a grave violation of the sanctity of life and the inviolability of religious sites, which are meant to serve as safe havens during times of war”, the church said in a statement. Three people were killed in the strike, and 10 others were injured.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images In the last 18 months of his life, Francis would often call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war. The Washington Post reported that Francis used to ring Romanelli every evening. Francis had repeatedly criticised Israel’s wartime conduct, and last year suggested that allegations of genocide in Gaza – which Israel has rejected as a “blood libel” – should be investigated. The late pope also met the families of Israeli hostages and called for their release. Only 1000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly Muslim territory, said the US State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2024. Most are Greek Orthodox. The Holy Land’s Christian population has dwindled in recent decades as many have emigrated to escape war and conflict or to seek better opportunities abroad. Local Christian leaders have recently denounced attacks by Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists. Separately, another person was killed and 17 were wounded on Thursday in a strike against two schools that sheltered displaced people in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike. The Gaza Health Ministry said that over the past 24 hours, local hospitals had received the bodies of 94 people killed in Israeli strikes and another 367 wounded. Meanwhile, there has been little visible progress from months of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas aimed at a new ceasefire and hostage release agreement, after Israel ended an earlier truce in March. AP, Reuters
Israelis probably prefer Muslims to Christians as ethnically and culturally they are closer. The Copt Christian family of my daughter's friend were wiped out along with other copts. In the birthplace of Christianity, churches and communities are coming under attack from Jewish settlers Israeli settlers “feel that everything belongs to them,” Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, told NBC News. TAYBEH, West Bank — The gleaming white ruins of Taybeh’s fifth-century Church of St. George Al Khidr stand as a testament to just how long the faith has endured in the occupied West Bank’s last majority-Christian town. But after centuries of perseverance, the Christian community now faces a modern existential threat only a few miles from where its members’ faith was forged: regular, violent harassment by Jewish settlers who would like to force them and Palestinians of other faiths to leave, and an Israeli government that often turns a blind eye to the settlers’ crimes, according to rights groups and church leaders. Earlier this week, the ruins were fringed with ashes left from recent fires that scorched olive orchards abutting the church grounds and its next-door cemetery — blazes town leaders say were deliberately ignited by Israeli Jews during an anti-Palestinian arson attack on July 7.NBC News has asked the Israel Defense Forces and the country’s police force for comment but did not receive any response. The settlers “feel that everything belongs to them,” Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, told NBC News on Monday. “Unfortunately, it seems to me that the [Israeli] government is silent, if not supporting them, as we saw. So they feel free to behave as they want,” he added.