Author: Web Desk

The number of deaths in the ongoing Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has surpassed the grim figure of 11,100, including more than 8,000 children and women, the government media office in Gaza said on Sunday.

The media office in a statement said: ‘Due to the targeting of hospitals and the prevention of entry of any of the bodies or wounded, the Ministry of Health was unable, on Saturday, to issue accurate statistics for the numbers of dead and injured during the past hours.’

‘We recall that the occupation (forces) committed more than 1,130 massacres, and the number of casualties reached more than 11,100 dead, including more than 8,000 children and women, and the number of wounded was more than 28,000,’ it said.

The previous toll, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza on Friday, was 11,078 dead, including 4,506 children, 3,027 women, and 678 elderly people, as well as 27,490 injured.

Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health, said on Saturday that all hospita
ls in northern Gaza are out of service, with the exception of Baptist Hospital, which offers limited services.

The Israeli death toll is nearly 1,200, according to official figures.

The Center for Combating Disinformation of Trkiye’s Communications Directorate debunked a video of a woman claiming that Hamas attacked the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza and stole medicines.

‘The claims in some images shared by Israeli propaganda accounts, such as ‘I am a doctor at Al-Shifa Hospital. Hamas attacked the hospital and stole our medicines’ are not true,’ the center said on X.

‘According to information gathered from Al-Shifa Hospital by members of the press and regional healthcare organisations, the woman in the photographs circulated by Israel is not an employee of Al-Shifa. Many Al-Shifa Hospital doctors and nurses remarked that they had ‘never seen this person before’,’ it said.

‘It was also established that the woman’s Arabic accent was poor and that she could not pronounce some Arabic sounds such as ‘ayn’ and ‘he’,’ the center added.

Trkiye’s president on Sunday welcomed the Arab-Islamic summit resolution proposing to hold a denuclearization conference in the region due to Israel’s nuclear weapons.

“For the first time, we are proposing a ‘Denuclearization Conference’ in the region due to Israel’s nuclear weapons,” Erdogan told reporters aboard the presidential plane on his way back from the Saudi capital Riyadh, where he attended the Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Saturday.

The resolution “condemned the hateful, extremist and racist acts and statements made by ministers in the Israeli occupation government, including the threat by one of the ministers to use nuclear weapons against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, being a serious threat to global peace and security, which requires supporting the conference to establish a zone free of nuclear weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, held within the framework of the United Nations and its objectives to confront this threat.”

Last Sunday, Israeli Heritage Minister A
mihai Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, told Israeli media that dropping a “nuclear bomb” on the Gaza Strip was “an option.”

Erdogan said that the issue of denuclearization is very important in terms of revealing which actors are supporting Israel.

‘All the topics we planned before going to the summit were included in the final text. The (resolution) text contains many action points, that have never been said before, that define (Israeli) settlers as terrorists and even produce geostrategy,’ he added.

‘Now, it is of great importance that both the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League came together and took this step (resolution) because this is the first time in the history of the two organizations that such a meeting took place,’ he added.

For the resolution, he said they used a phrase called ‘breaking the siege,’ adding: ‘An action-oriented definition was introduced rather than the diplomatic definition.’

Underlining the importance of the ‘break the siege’ articl
e in the resolution, he said it requires the immediate entry of Arab, Islamic, and international humanitarian aid convoys containing food, medicine, and fuel into the Gaza Strip.

As there are shortages of fuel, water, and food, Erdogan said that the most important country that needs to be involved is the US, which has an influence on Israel.

‘Gaza is, first of all, the land of the Palestinian people. The US needs to accept this. If (US President Joe) Biden has the approach of saying ‘No, this is the land of the occupying settlers or Israel, rather than the land of the Palestinian people’, we can’t reach an agreement,’ he added.

Regarding French President Emmanuel Macron’s approach, Erdogan said Macron first fully supported Israel and visited the country, but now he has changed his rhetoric.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship.

At least 11,100 Palestinians have been killed, including 8,000 children and women.

The
Israeli death toll is nearly 1,200, according to official figures.

Trkiye entirely rejects ‘unfounded’ allegations and ‘unfair’ criticisms in the latest EU report on the candidate country, especially in the sections on political criteria and the judiciary and fundamental rights, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. ‘Although the 2023 Trkiye Report is the 25th report prepared by the Commission for our country, the fact that the EU maintains its unfair and biased approach towards our country is a cause for concern for the future of our continent, which is currently facing numerous challenges,’ said a ministry statement. As existing high-level dialogue and cooperation mechanisms with candidate country Trkiye on foreign policy, regional developments, security, defense and sectoral issues are blocked, it is inconsistent to claim that Trkiye’s compliance with EU policies in these critical areas has decreased, the ministry said. ‘We consider the assessment in the text, which criticizes our country’s stance on the Hamas-Israel conflict as entirely incompatible with the EU, as a form of praise,’ it said. ‘In the face of a civilian massacre that has re-emerged from the Middle Ages in the 21st century, we feel the need to remind the EU, which is in the wrong place in history, that policies based on universal values, international law, and humanitarian principles should be applicable not only to Ukraine or another region of Europe but also to the entire world, including the Middle East,’ the statement added. The European Commission on Wednesday released its annual report on EU candidate country Trkiye as part of its 2023 Enlargement Package. Oliver Varhelyi, the neighborhood and enlargement commissioner, announced the package, which includes the EU Commission’s latest evaluations on Trkiye and six other candidate countries for membership in the bloc. The report repeated criticisms of Trkiye from previous years’ reports on issues such as democracy, fundamental rights, and the judiciary, criticisms that Turkish officials reject.

Source: EN – Anadolu Agency

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced plans Wednesday to continue a counteroffensive for the remainder of 2023 and 2024. “We have a plan, concrete cities, concrete directions, we have a goal where we will go, in which direction will we lead the offensive,” he said at a video news conference on YouTube. The Ukrainian president admitted difficulties on the frontlines and said Ukraine did not succeed because it received fewer weapons from the West than expected. “We will try to show results this year,’ he said. ‘We have a plan for next year, but I can’t share its details,” he said. Zelenskyy also said that “some people” expected “rapid success” for the Ukrainian counteroffensive, apparently referring to remarks by Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi who told the media earlier that the Ukrainian conflict is currently at a “stalemate.”

Source: EN – Anadolu Agency

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of striking a civilian vessel under the flag of Liberia while it was entering the port of Odesa. A crew member was killed and three were injured in the attack, as well as an employee of the port, Ukraine’s army southern operational command said in a statement. The vessel was hit with an X-31 anti-radar missile, according to the Ukrainian military.

Source: EN – Anadolu Agency

The Gaza Health Ministry announced Wednesday that 172 injured Palestinians and their companions have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt for medical treatment since the beginning of November. Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qedra, who made the announcement did not specify the locations of treatment. ‘We lose dozens of critical and severe cases daily due to the Israeli occupation’s prevention of the wounded from leaving,’ he added.??????? Israel targeted ambulances Friday that were carrying injured Palestinians after they had left the Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The attack resulted in 15 fatalities and 60 injuries. Israel claimed the ambulances were carrying members of Hamas. The Gaza Health Ministry denied the claims. Al-Qedra pointed out that ‘thousands of critically and severely injured cases do not have access to treatment in Gaza hospitals.’ In early November, the first group of dozens of war-wounded Palestinians from Gaza and hundreds with dual nationalities, began entering Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, according to Palestinian and Egyptian statements.

Source: EN – Anadolu Agency

The initiative of the Republic of Cyprus to create a maritime corridor for the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza will be among the issues to be discussed at the international conference in Paris on Gaza, which has been convened by French President Emmanuel Macron and President Nikos Christodoulides has been invited, said Government Spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis. Asked after the Cabinet meeting, chaired by the President of the Republic, whether there had been any new telephone communication with the head of another state on the issue, Letymbiotis said that “the President of the Republic and the Foreign Minister (Constantinos Kombos) as well as the diplomatic office of the President of the Republic are in constant contact with the leaders of the states of the region and with the EU member states”. He said that “the initiative presented by the President of the Republic for the creation of a maritime corridor for the unimpeded, safe delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza is recognised as necessary and useful and we are working towards the implementation of this initiative”. Tomorrow, during the conference in Paris on humanitarian aid to Gaza, which “has been convened by French President Emmanuel Macron and has invited the President of the Republic, one of the issues that will certainly be discussed is the initiative of the Republic of Cyprus”, he concluded. He said that “the initiative presented by the President of the Republic for the creation of a maritime corridor for the unimpeded, safe delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza is acknowledged as necessary and useful and we are working towards the implementation of this initiative”. Tomorrow, during the conference in Paris on humanitarian aid to Gaza, which “has been convened by French President Emmanuel Macron and has invited the President of the Republic, one of the issues that will certainly be discussed is the initiative of the Republic of Cyprus”, he concluded.

Source: Cyprus News Agency