On February 18, Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Russia has invited Palestinian factions to attend a conference in Moscow on February 26.
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Patients and residents at Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip. (Source: AFP) |
Stating that the PA is ready to cooperate with the Islamist Hamas movement, Prime Minister Shtayyeh stressed that at the upcoming meeting in Moscow, the PA delegation will assess Hamas' goodwill. He affirmed that Palestinians need to unite with each other, but to be part of that unity, Hamas needs to meet a number of specific conditions.
The news comes amid a bleak outlook for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip. The fighting, which has lasted since October 2023, has killed at least 28,985 people and injured about 68,880, according to the Gaza Health Authority.
Meanwhile, on February 18, the second largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, Nasser Hospital, was completely paralyzed, with only four medical staff left to care for patients. Located in the city of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital is an important facility in the health system in the southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza Health Authority spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the facility was paralyzed by a lack of fuel and fierce fighting around the hospital. The hospital's shutdown could affect hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been forced to flee their homes in Khan Younis and Rafah.
As of February 18, Nasser was also the largest hospital still operating in the Gaza Strip. This week, the hospital was surrounded and searched by the Israeli army.
The city of Khan Younis is also a key front in Israel's military campaign. The army announced that in the past 24 hours, it had killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen and seized a large amount of weapons in operations involving soldiers, tanks and air support.
The fighting near the hospitals has become increasingly fierce as Israel tightens its siege on Hamas and accuses it of placing its command posts near or under the hospitals as a shield. However, Hamas has always denied these accusations.
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