The situation at a glance: Operation in Gaza clinic ended – Netanyahu before operation

Israel’s armed forces have ended their three-day major operation in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip – and say they have captured 240 suspected Hamas fighters. The army announced that the director of the affected clinic in Beit Lahia, Hussam Abu Safeia, was among those arrested. He is suspected of being a “terror cadre” of the Islamist Hamas.

Israeli forces attacked the hospital on Friday morning. According to the army, a Hamas command center was active in the clinic. Among those arrested were fighters from the Hamas-allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Some militia members disguised themselves as patients, others resisted. The information could not be independently verified.

The army had emphasized that its actions spared civilians, patients and employees of the clinic and treated them in accordance with international law. Medical circles in the Gaza Strip said that several people were injured in the operation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is undergoing prostate surgery today. This was announced by his office in Jerusalem. The 75-year-old was examined last Wednesday at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The doctors discovered an infection that was caused by a benign enlargement of the prostate. The head of government has since been treated with medication.

The government’s cabinet meeting planned today will take place, the statement continued. It was not clear whether with or without Netanyahu. The head of government has often been in hospital for health problems in the past. He was most recently operated on under general anesthesia at the end of March for a hernia. He had a pacemaker inserted last summer.

Hostage mother: “I have a dream”

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Einav Zangauker, the mother of a hostage, urged participants to close their eyes in her speech, the Times of Israel reported. “I have a dream,” she cried. “I dream that my Matan and the other 99 hostages return to us. In the dream I see the Prime Minister (Netanyahu) signing the deal that will bring all the hostages home.”

“Now open your eyes wide,” she continued. “Open them wide: Our prime minister doesn’t want to bring the hostages home and doesn’t want to end the war (in Gaza).” Boos rang out from the crowd. “Netanyahu, don’t forget: history doesn’t forget,” Zangauker concluded her speech.

In the terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7th of the previous year, Hamas and its allies killed 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 to the Gaza Strip. Around 100 of them are still in the hands of their captors, and many of them are probably already dead. The Islamist massacre triggered the Gaza war.

Months of negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages and ending the war have so far produced no results. Critics of Netanyahu largely blame him for this. From their point of view, the head of government has no interest in ending the war because it would endanger his position of power in Israel.

Report describes gruesome torture of hostages

Israel’s Health Ministry submitted a report to the UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, describing the severe mistreatment of the hostages by their captors. It is based on the findings of doctors who treated more than 100 hostages who were either released or freed.

Among them were men, women and children. Almost all of them were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence. Methods of breaking the willpower of the abductees are typical, such as solitary confinement, starvation, sleep deprivation, violence, threats and non-treatment of injuries and chronic illnesses.

Beatings, sexual violence, food and sleep deprivation

Hostages were beaten, tied up and pulled by their hair, denied food and water, and burned by their captors. They were often held in the worst hygienic conditions. Sometimes painful medical procedures were performed without anesthesia. Women were exposed to sexual attacks, such as having to undress in front of their male captors and endure being touched.

Hostage-taking and imprisonment were traumatic experiences for those affected. “The medical and psychosocial teams believe that substantial resources and tailored therapies are needed to achieve the rehabilitation and reintegration of the returned hostages,” the report says.