Around the world, officials marked the grim milestone. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said that while the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas was a day of “horror,” Israel’s war in Gaza had “brought relentless death & destruction.” He called for the release of remaining hostages and said “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official, said the end of the conflict “is so long overdue.”
The World Health Organization said that six months of conflict had led to the “destruction” of Gaza’s al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals, which “has broken the backbone of the already ailing health system.” Only 10a of Gaza’s 36 main hospitals remain functional, it said, adding that “the systematic dismantling of health care must end.” Israel has long maintained that Hamas was using some hospitals for their operations.
Cease-fire negotiations are expected to resume Sunday in Cairo, with Hamas confirming its participation in a Telegram statement. The director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, the head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and CIA chief William J. Burns are expected to join the talks. Negotiators have been pushing for a cease-fire of at least six weeks to free the remaining hostages from Gaza, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail and increased aid deliveries to Gaza. However, Hamas has been holding out for a permanent cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it recovered the body of an Israeli hostage, Elad Katzir, from Khan Younis in Gaza. Katzir, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel on Oct. 7, was killed in captivity, the Israel Defense Forces said. Katzir had been filmed alive twice in captivity, and his mother was released in November during a pause in fighting. Responding to the news of his death, his sister, Karmit Palti Katzir, accused the Israeli leadership of “abandoning” him and the remaining hostages in Gaza in a social media post. “It was possible to save him if a deal would’ve happened on time,” she wrote.
Here’s what else to know
Britain will send a Royal Navy ship to boost aid to Gaza through an international maritime corridor and an upcoming U.S.-led temporary pier, the Foreign Office said in a statement. “Gazans are facing a devastating humanitarian crisis and there needs to be a significant increase in the volume of vital supplies entering the territory by all routes,” the statement said.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza is “an empty shell with human graves” and “completely nonfunctional,” the WHO said, after its team visited the facility following a two-week siege by Israeli forces, who said they battled Hamas militants and recovered weapons at the complex. Inside the compound, “many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visible,” the WHO said, adding that patients were held in “abysmal conditions during the siege.”
World Central Kitchen demanded Saturday that an independent commission investigate the killing of seven of its aid workers in IDF airstrikes in Gaza. Earlier, the Israeli military dismissed two officers, reprimanded three commanders and apologized for the incident, after which WCK suspended its operations in Gaza.
At least 33,137 people have been killed and 75,815 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants and says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 260 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza