Author: Steven Sahiounie

The healthcare system at hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip has “totally collapsed” due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave, the health ministry says. “Hospitals in Gaza have totally collapsed due to the Israeli war,” Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said on Tuesday. Al-Qudra further said 65 medics had been killed and 25 ambulances had been destroyed in Israeli strikes since October 7. “Twelve hospitals and 32 healthcare centers were forced out of service,” al-Qudra said. “We are afraid that many more will stop operations in the coming hours due to lack of fuel.” The spokesman…

Iran’s defense minister warns the country would give a decisive, strong response to any miscalculation or mistake by enemies. “The enemies know that should they make any mistake, they will be met with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strong and decisive response,” said Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani on Tuesday. Ashtiani made the remarks while touring the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, an Iranian defense ministry subsidiary tasked with developing emerging technologies for use by the country’s military forces. The minister said during the tour that Iran has to change its defense doctrine to be able to deal with complicated…

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riad Malki today told the United Nations Security Council that they should stop the Israeli killings and massacres against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. “We are here today to stop the killing, stop the massacres being committed against the Palestinian people,” said Malki on behalf of the State of Palestine before the Security Council Open Debate on the Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine Question. “The ongoing massacres – being deliberately and systematically and savagely – perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian civilian population under its illegal…

Iran’s Judiciary has urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold an emergency meeting on the Israeli atrocities in the besieged Gaza Strip, calling for a resolution against the Tel Aviv regime. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said the crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are defined as “war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to many international documents, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” In this regard, he noted that Tehran sent a letter to the UN secretary-general, the President of the Human…

“A residential building was levelled to the ground [with] civilians inside this house. “A number of casualties and even victims had turned up [to a nearby hospital]. … Ambulance vehicles, all kinds of ambulance vehicles, and even civil cars inside the hospitals rushed to evacuate the victims. “For more than 10 minutes, the process of evacuating victims … is still going. “It seems that maybe it could be more than one house. “There is no further confirmation about the final death toll of this air strike.” Source: AlJazeera

Denouncing the US’ push to adopt a resolution at the UN Security Council in favor of the Zionist regime, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Russia is expected to project influence, considering its place in the UNSC, to obstruct Washington’s sinister plans. The Iranian president held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Tehran on Monday. The top Russian diplomat was in Tehran to attend the 2nd meeting of the “3+3” Regional Platform about the South Caucasus developments. Slamming the intervention of outsiders as a source of crisis, Raisi expressed hope that the results of the Tehran meeting would lead…

The Prisoners’ Commission and the Prisoners’ Society said tonight that the detainee Arafat Yasser Hamdan, 25, from the town of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah, has died in Ofer detention center, the second prisoner to die while in custody in 24 hours. They said in a statement that Hamdan was arrested two days ago, accusing the Israeli authorities of beginning a systematic assassination process against detainees in its detention centers. Yesterday, administrative detainee Omar Hamza Daraghmeh, 58, from Tubas, detained on October 9, also died while in Megiddo prison. Source: WAFA

President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in the presence of visiting his French counterpart Macron, has called for an immediate end to the “aggression” on Gaza and for protection to be provided to the Palestinian people. Macron, for his part, said that the Hamas attack had been traumatic for Israel but that it also was a disaster for the Palestinian people. “Nothing can justify” civilian suffering in the Gaza Strip, Macron told reporters in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Source: AlJazeera

Cohen announces on social media that he will not go through with a planned meeting with the UN chief. The cancellation comes after Guterres said the October 7 attacks by Hamas did not happen “in a vacuum” and Palestinians had been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation”. He also voiced concern over the “clear violations of international humanitarian law” by Israel. Cohen wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I will not meet with the UN Secretary-General. After the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!” Source:…

The UN chief says it is important to recognise the attacks by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum”. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” he told UN Security Council members. “They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements, plagued by violence, their economy stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.” Guterres, however, said grievances by the Palestinians cannot justify the “appalling attacks” by Hamas, which in turn could not justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”. “At a…