Shaun
The Israeli military loosened its rules of engagement at the start of the Gaza offensive to enable commanders to order attacks on targets despite a heightened risk of civilian casualties.
Immediately after the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel by groups of Hamas-led gunmen, the military granted mid-ranking officers the authority to strike a wide range of military targets where up to 20 civilians risked being killed, the newspaper said.
In addition to raising the number of civilian casualties that could be risked in a single attack, the NYT said the military removed a limit on the cumulative number of civilians that its strikes could put at risk each day.
On a few occasions, the military high command approved strikes that they knew would put as many as 100 civilian lives at risk, the newspaper said.
The order meant for example that the military could target rank-and-file militants while they were at home surrounded by relatives and neighbours, instead of only when they were alone outside, the newspaper said.
As many as 50 people have been reported killed in an Israeli air strike on a building near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
Five members of staff from the hospital were also killed in the attack, according the hospital’s director and Gaza’s ministry of health.
The medical staff have been identified as:
Dr. Ahmed Samour, a paediatrician, and Israa Abu Zaida, a laboratory technician, both of whom were killed in the blast while trying to return to their homes from the hospital, according to a statement from the ministry and the hospital.
Health technologist Fares Al-Houdali was also killed while trying to rescue the injured following the attack.
Two paramedics, Abdul Majeed Abu Al-Aish and Maher Al-Ajrami, were killed near the hospital, and “their bodies are still in the street”, according to the statement.
The Egyptian foreign ministry has called Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit yesterday to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem dangerously provocative and “extremist”, Al Jazeera reports.
Despite Jewish religious rites being banned at the site, Israeli police provided security and prevented Palestinians from entering the compound as Ben-Gvir and others prayed and performed religious rituals.
Under long-standard legal conventions, people of multiple faiths are allowed to visit the site but only Muslims are allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa, which is Islam’s third holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity, Al Jazeera notes.
The Palestinian wire service Wafa reports that the statement from the Egyptian government warned that Ben-Gvir’s provocation would inflame Muslims worldwide and called on the UN Security Council to act to stop further violations at the site.
