The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness
An Israeli armored vehicle moves near the Israeli-Gaza border on Thursday. (Leo Correa/AP)

Five patients die during outage in Nasser Hospital raid, Gaza officials say

clock iconUpdated 51 min ago
2 min

The Israeli military continued its raid on Nasser Hospital, the main hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, on Friday, calling it an operation to recover the bodies of hostages. The Gaza Health Ministry said five intensive care patients have died of a lack of oxygen during a power outage at the hospital and that the military was moving patients and entering buildings in the complex.

Skip to end of carousel
Hazem Bahlool, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, said at 7 a.m. local time Friday that the facility had been without water or electricity for more than three hours. The Israel Defense Forces said in a Thursday night update that it had not yet located any hostages in the hospital but had found weapons.
Egyptian and Israeli officials denied Friday that Palestinian refugees would be pushed out of Rafah and into Egypt. “The State of Israel has no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt,” Israel’s defense minister said. Satellite imagery obtained by The Post shows Egypt clearing and building a wall around a plot of land along its border with the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected “international dictates” for a peace plan and reiterated his opposition to a Palestinian state, a key part of the long-term plan being worked on by the United States and its Middle East partners.
Ministers and diplomats from across the globe, including Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where Israel’s plans for a potentially devastating ground assault on Rafah are expected to be discussed.
At least 28,775 people have been killed and 68,552 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel estimates about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says at least 234 of its troops have been killed since its offensive in Gaza began.
End of carousel
Skip to end of carousel
Hazem Bahlool, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, said at 7 a.m. local time Friday that the facility had been without water or electricity for more than three hours. The Israel Defense Forces said in a Thursday night update that it had not yet located any hostages in the hospital but had found weapons.
Egyptian and Israeli officials denied Friday that Palestinian refugees would be pushed out of Rafah and into Egypt. “The State of Israel has no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt,” Israel’s defense minister said. Satellite imagery obtained by The Post shows Egypt clearing and building a wall around a plot of land along its border with the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected “international dictates” for a peace plan and reiterated his opposition to a Palestinian state, a key part of the long-term plan being worked on by the United States and its Middle East partners.
Ministers and diplomats from across the globe, including Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where Israel’s plans for a potentially devastating ground assault on Rafah are expected to be discussed.
At least 28,775 people have been killed and 68,552 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel estimates about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says at least 234 of its troops have been killed since its offensive in Gaza began.
End of carousel

Israel-Gaza war

Israel-Gaza war: Footage and satellite imagery show that Egypt is clearing off, and building a wall around a plot of land along its border with the Gaza Strip, amid fears of an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Many Gazans are attempting to flee Rafah where about 1.4 million people are sheltering.

Middle East conflict: Tensions in the region continue to rise. As Israeli troops aim to take control of the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, officials in Cairo warn it would undermine the 1979 peace treaty. Meanwhile, there’s a diplomatic scramble to avert full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon.

U.S. involvement: U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria killed dozens of Iranian-linked militants, according to Iraqi officials. The strikes were the first round of retaliatory action by the Biden administration for an attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members.