Netanyahu cancels plan for field hospital for Gaza children

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided on Thursday to cancel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's decision to establish a field hospital in Israel for children from the Gaza Strip. Gallant had announced the construction of the facility the day before, arguing that it was necessary because children suffering from various diseases could not be evacuated from Gaza.

Gallant's office said the field hospital in Israel was supposed to be a short-term solution that would meet urgent humanitarian needs until a permanent mechanism for evacuating and treating sick children is established. As reported earlier, the defense minister consulted the plan with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin.

Gallant's decision to build the hospital was in response to the situation in which his earlier proposal, made two weeks prior, to facilitate the evacuation of the severely ill, particularly children, through Israeli territory, was accepted by the prime minister. Still, the request got stuck in further levels of administration, reported the Times of Israel.

Blocking Gallant's request was politically motivated, an anonymous source in the Israeli government told the AFP agency.

The evacuation of the wounded and sick from the Gaza Strip to Egypt has been virtually blocked since the closure of the Rafah border crossing. The crossing was closed when Israeli forces took control of its Palestinian side in early May. Egypt refuses to open the crossing until Palestinian control is restored.

As a result of the armed conflict, the Gaza Strip is plunged into a humanitarian crisis on an enormous scale. International organizations warn that parts of the population face hunger and a shortage of drinking water. They also called on Israel to increase the flow of aid, which had previously been mainly reached through the Rafah crossing. Authorities in Jerusalem reject accusations of deliberately blocking aid and blame the problems with its distribution on organizations operating in Gaza and Hamas, which, in their view, intercept humanitarian transports.

The international humanitarian organization Oxfam released a report on Thursday accusing Israel of "using water as a weapon," which has "contributed significantly to the catastrophic deterioration of conditions of life in Gaza." As a result of being cut off from external sources and the destruction of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, water availability has dropped by 94% to an average of just over a gallon per person per day, less than one-third of the minimum recommended in emergencies, Oxfam emphasized.

The conflict in the Gaza Strip began with a Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, in which almost 1,200 people were killed and 251 were kidnapped, some of whom are still imprisoned. On the Palestinian side, more than 38,800 Palestinians have died, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which in this tally does not distinguish between civilian casualties and fighters.