National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted last night on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that he had decided to “further ease conditions so that even a discharged soldier with basic rifle training who lives in an eligible locality, even if he has not completed his full military service, will be included in the new criteria and will be able to receive license to carry a weapon.”
After taking up the position of National Security Minister, Ben-Gvir said he would make easing the restrictions on obtaining gun licenses one of his top policy priorities. According to the National Security Ministry some 25,000 gun licenses have been issued in 2023, a record number.
Hundreds of victims under rubble of Gaza hospital, says health ministry
There are “hundreds of victims” under the rubble of the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike, the Gaza health ministry said.
The health ministry said at least 500 people have been killed. If confirmed, the attack on the Gaza hospital would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008, AP reported.
From imagery from the scene it appears the main hospital wasn’t hit but somewhere nearby. Appears to be hundreds of people all around the area so any bombing nearby would be bad.
While this article’s caveat seems unlikely to me since afaik, Hamas’ rockets don’t have very powerful explosives, I suppose it bears mentioning:
The IDF has not commented on the incident as of yet. The explosion was reported at the same time that heavy rocket barrages were fired from Gaza toward central Israel.
Rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian factions often fall short and hit buildings in Gaza, with dozens of deaths reported in such incidents in past rounds of conflict. During Operation Breaking Dawn in August 2022, two people were killed after a rocket fired from Gaza fell next to a clinic.
Given that I have seen, on Irish TV, the necessary “balance” from an IDF spokesperson after seeing footage of an apartment block being hit by Israeli artillery, that it in fact didn’t happen, I believe nothing from the IDF media fronts. Nothing.
If I did other I would be ignoring the evidence of my life.
I very much hope the numbers suggested are a vast overestimation based on the amount of destruction and fear counting.
The Diagnostic Cancer Treatment Centre of al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza has been hit by an Israeli rocket. Two upper floors of the centre, which houses the ultrasound and mammography wards, were severely damaged.
How can we stop such horror? There is pain everywhere right now. I too feel it. In the last few days, a celebrated Gazan poet I know has lost 30 members of his family to Israeli bombs. A gifted Palestinian American doctor, poet and translator I know has spoken powerfully about his grief after Israeli airstrikes killed 17 members of his family in Gaza. A highly respected colleague of mine in California has told us that his niece and her husband, residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz, have been abducted by Hamas, also clearly a war crime and an atrocity. Each one of these experiences matter. Our suffering is human, and grief has no nationality.
I can’t actually endorse that. It’s not how you get a peace deal done.
FWIW I don’t want the brutal apartheid enforcing leaders of the terrorist army of Israel wiped out either, not the racist, murderous leadership.
I want peace, not murder, not revenge, not ethnic cleansing.
I want restorative justice and reconciliation and the messy shit that never is done but is always a thing you do.
Ugh now there are dueling videos and dueling accusations they are fake about al-Ahli. Hamas claims it was IDF. IDF claims it was a misfire by Islamic Jihad. Waiting for some OSINT or someone independent to weigh in, but I fear this was a firecracker thrown at a pile of ammonium nitrate and we’re about to see an explosion of violence in the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries demanding blood regardless of who caused it.
Edit: Riots have started
Edit 2: Clarification/spelling
