International
The Israeli Army again besieges Jan Yunis’ Naser and Al Amar hospitals
The Israeli Army again besieged the Naser and Al Amal hospitals this Sunday, both in the city of Jan Yunis, in the south of the enclave, with “intense bombings and gunfire” around both medical centers, denounced the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Dozens of armored vehicles surround both hospitals and carry out excavation work in the surroundings, Palestinian sources indicate.
The new siege of the two main hospitals of Jan Yunis, which were already besieged for more than twenty days in February, occurs when Israeli troops carry out for the seventh consecutive day a hard military operation at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where they claim to have arrested 480 “terrorists.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent, which manages the Al Amal hospital, pointed out that Israeli armored vehicles are demolishing buildings and structures around the hospital and warned about the “extreme danger” run by their teams, which can neither enter nor leave the hospital.
A member of the Red Crescent emergency operating room, Amir Subhi Abu Aisha, died from a drone attack by Israeli troops while working in the hospital and had to be buried in the courtyard of the center, the organization reported.
Eyewitnesses cited by the official Palestinian agency Wafa also reported aerial bombardments on the southern and eastern flanks of the Naser medical complex, the most important in the southern Strip, as well as in the nearby neighborhood of Batn as Samin, in Jan Yunis.
“The continuous artillery bombardments relentlessly hit the buildings, in addition to helicopter and drone fire, which caused the death of several civilians and other wounded,” Wafa said of the attacks on the Naser, which houses thousands of Palestinians displaced by the hard fighting in the center and south of the enclave.
He also assured on Sunday that he had arrested about 480 members of Hamas organizations or Islamic Jihad, in addition to having located “numerous weapons and terrorist infrastructure,” in the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which is experiencing its seventh consecutive day of military siege today.
“The forces continue the precise operational activities in the area of the Shifa Hospital while avoiding damage to civilians, patients, health workers and medical equipment,” said a military statement.
The Ministry of Health of the Strip, controlled by Hamas, reported yesterday that five wounded who were treated at that center died as a result of the siege of Israeli troops, which began on Monday, and are in addition to the 13 intensive care patients who died in recent days due to lack of electricity and medical treatment.
Health also reported that 240 patients and relatives had been arrested by Israeli forces and a dozen health personnel; while the Israeli Army indicated that it had interrogated more than 800 suspects – it assures that 480 are “terrorists” – and killed 170 alleged fighters.
“We will end this operation only when the last terrorist is in our hands, alive or dead,” said last night the commander-in-chief of the Southern Command of the Israeli Army, Major General Yaron Finkelman, who praised the success of the “bold and impressive” operation.
The Army also pointed out that on the last day, its fighter planes attacked about 65 targets in the north and center of the Gaza Strip, including “a tunnel used to carry out attacks, military complexes where armed terrorists operated and additional military infrastructure.”
Both in the center of the Gaza Strip and in the Jan Yunis area, in the south, where fighting has not stopped for more than three months, the troops “eliminated several terrorists” on the last day by sniper fire.
“The troops also located and carried out a selective raid against a drone manufacturing laboratory belonging to terrorist organizations,” he added about the operations in the central area.
While in the Jan Yunis area, engineering forces attacked a projectile launch pit and fighter jets destroyed Hamas’ military infrastructure, including a complex used as a meeting point for militiamen.
The Israeli Army also reported on Sunday that during the early morning it bombed the Baalbek area, in northeastern Lebanon, where it attacks for the third time since the beginning of hostilities because it claims that there is military infrastructure of the Shiite militia Hizbulá, which responded with the launch of a stun of 50 rockets.
“This morning, fighter jets of the Israel Defense Forces attacked a weapons manufacturing site in Hizbulah, in the Baalbek area,” a military statement said.
It is the third time in two months that Israeli aviation has reached that point in Lebanon, more than 100 kilometers from the border, where he assures that Hezbollah has, among other military infrastructure, its air defense system; although most of the crossfire has been concentrated since October 8 in the communities bordering the divider.
The Army pointed out that Hizbulah carried out more than 50 launches to northern Israel in response, most of which were intercepted and the rest fell in depopulated areas.
At least 84 Gazans have died in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours from Israeli attacks, including 19 who died yesterday in an attack on a group of people waiting for a humanitarian convoy in Gaza City, bringing the total number of fatalities in the war to 32,226.
“The Israeli occupation commits 8 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, including 84 martyrs and 106 injured during the last 24 hours,” said the Ministry of Health of the enclave, controlled by Hamas, in its latest count.
The total number of injuries since October 7, when the war broke out, rises to 74,518, while the Ministry has more than 7,000 bodies that are still trapped under the rubble, according to the source.
The Commissioner General of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Sunday that Israel has informed the UN that it will not approve more humanitarian convoys aimed at the north of the Gaza Strip, where famine is already a reality.
“Despite the tragedy that is unfolding under our surveillance, the Israeli authorities informed the UN that they will no longer approve any UNRWA food convoy to the north,” Lazzarini said in a statement.
The commissioner recalled that UNRWA, which provides services to almost 6 million Palestinians in different countries and is the main humanitarian actor in the Gaza Strip, is in the middle of the war “the main sustenance” for more than 2 million internally displaced persons in the enclave and the only one that can proportional “vital assistance” in the north.
“This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct assistance to save lives during a man-made famine. These restrictions must be lifted,” Lazzarini shouted.
International
Study finds COVID-19 vaccines prevented 2.5 million deaths worldwide
COVID-19 vaccines prevented an estimated 2,533,000 deaths worldwide between 2020 and 2024, according to an international study led by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy and Stanford University in the United States, published in the journal JAMA Health Forum. Researchers calculated that one death was prevented for every 5,400 doses administered.
The analysis also found that the vaccines saved 14.8 million years of life, equivalent to one year of life gained for every 900 doses given.
The study, coordinated by Professor Stefania Boccia, revealed that 82% of the lives saved were people vaccinated before becoming infected with the virus, and 57% of deaths avoided occurred during the Omicron wave. In addition, 90% of the beneficiaries were adults over 60 years old.
“This is the most comprehensive analysis to date, based on global data and fewer assumptions about the evolution of the pandemic,” explained Boccia and researcher Angelo Maria Pezzullo.
International
Trump administration blasts judge’s ruling reinstating TPS for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump criticized a federal judge’s ruling on Friday that reinstated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua, stressing that the immigration program was never intended to serve as a “de facto asylum system.”
On Thursday, Judge Trina Thompson extended protections for about 7,000 Nepalese immigrants, whose TPS was set to expire on August 5. The ruling also impacts roughly 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans, whose TPS protections were scheduled to end on September 8.
Immigrants covered by TPS had sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), alleging that the program’s termination was driven by “racial animus” and stripped them of protection from deportation.
DHS Deputy Undersecretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement saying the decision to end TPS was part of a mandate to “restore the integrity” of the immigration system and return the program to its original purpose.
“TPS was never conceived as a de facto asylum system; however, that is how previous administrations have used it for decades,” McLaughlin emphasized.
She also criticized Judge Thompson, calling the ruling “another example” of judges “stirring up claims of racism to distract from the facts.”
McLaughlin added that DHS would appeal the decision and take the legal battle to higher courts.
The Trump administration has also terminated TPS protections for approximately 160,000 Ukrainians, 350,000 Venezuelans, and at least half a million Haitians, among other immigrant groups.
International
Trump to build $200M ballroom at the White House by 2028
The U.S. government under President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that it will begin construction in September on a new 8,000-square-meter ballroom at the White House.
The announcement was made by Karoline Leavitt, the administration’s press secretary, during a briefing in which she explained that the expansion responds to the need for a larger venue to host “major events.”
“Other presidents have long wished for a space capable of accommodating large gatherings within the White House complex… President Trump has committed to solving this issue,” Leavitt told reporters.
The project is estimated to cost $200 million, fully funded through donations from Trump himself and other “patriots,” according to a government statement. Construction is scheduled to begin in September and is expected to be completed before Trump’s term ends in 2028.
The Clark Construction Group, a Virginia-based company known for projects such as the Capital One Arena and L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., has been selected to lead the project.
The new ballroom will be built on the East Wing of the White House, expanding the iconic residence with a space designed for state dinners, official ceremonies, and large-scale events.
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