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WORLD NEWS Monday 16 october 2023
Water runs out at UN shelters in Gaza. Medics fear for patients as

Israeli ground offensive looms

By NAJIB JOBAIN and SA- borns in the intensive care
MYA KULLAB unit would die, he said. And
Associated Press even if they could move
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip them, there is nowhere for
(AP) — Water has run out at them to go in the 40-kilo-
U.N. shelters across Gaza as meter-long (25-mile-long)
thousands packed into the coastal territory. "Hospitals
courtyard of the besieged are full," Abu Safiya said.
territory's largest hospital as The wounded stream in ev-
a refuge of last resort from ery day with severed limbs
a looming Israeli ground of- and life-threatening inju-
fensive and overwhelmed ries, he said.
doctors struggled to care Other doctors feared for
for patients they fear will the lives of patients de-
die once generators run pendent on ventilators and
out of fuel. those suffering from com-
Palestinian civilians across plex blast wounds need-
Gaza, already battered ing around-the-clock care.
by years of conflict, were Doctors worried entire hos-
struggling for survival Sun- pital facilities would be shut
day in the face of an un- down and many would die
precedented Israeli op- as the last of fuel stocks
eration against the territory powering their generators
following a Hamas militant Palestinians search for survivors in the building of the Zanon family, destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in came close to running out.
attack on Oct. 7 that killed Rafah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. United Nations humanitar-
1,300 Israelis, most of them Associated Press ian monitors estimated this
civilians. er Jake Sullivan told CNN on said it was not flowing. who works at Nasser Hos- could happen by Monday.
Israel has cut off the flow of Sunday that Israeli officials Relief groups called for the pital in the southern Khan At Shifa Hospital in Gaza
food, medicine, water and told him they had turned protection of the over 2 mil- Younis area. City, the heart of the evac-
electricity to Gaza, pound- the water back on in south- lion civilians in Gaza urging Doctors in the evacuation uation zone, medical of-
ed neighborhoods with air- ern Gaza. Israel's minister an emergency corridor be zone said they couldn't re- ficials estimated at least
strikes and told the estimat- of energy and water, Israel established for the transfer locate their patients safely, 35,000 men, women and
ed 1 million residents of the Katz, said in a statement of humanitarian aid. so they decided to stay as children crammed into the
north to flee south ahead that water had been re- "The difference with this es- well to care for them. large open grounds, in the
of Israel's planned attack. stored at a "specific point" calation is we don't have "We shall not evacuate the lobby and in the hallways,
The Gaza Health Ministry in Gaza, but did not give medical aid coming in hospital even if it costs us hoping the location would
said more than 2,300 Pal- further details. Aid workers from outside, the border is our lives," said Dr. Hussam give them protection from
estinians have been killed in Gaza said they had not closed, electricity is off and Abu Safiya, the head of the fighting. "Their situation
since the fighting erupted yet seen evidence the wa- this constitutes a high dan- pediatrics at Kamal Adwan is very difficult," said hos-
last weekend. ter was back and a Gaza ger for our patients," said Hospital in Beit Lahia. pital director Mohammed
U.S. national security advis- government spokesperson Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, If they left, the seven new- Abu Selmia.q

Powerful earthquake shakes west Afghanistan a week after

devastating quakes hit same region

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A pow- collapsed. Several villages ple killed a week ago were
erful 6.3 magnitude earth- have been destroyed, ac- women and children, U.N.
quake struck western Af- cording to the aid group. officials reported Thursday.
ghanistan on Sunday, just Authorities have given lower Taliban officials said the ear-
over a week after strong casualty numbers. lier quakes killed more than
quakes and aftershocks Sayed Kazim Rafiqi, 42, a 2,000 people across the
killed thousands of people Herat city resident, said he province. The epicenter was
and flattened entire villages had never seen such dev- in Zenda Jan district, where
in the same province. astation before with the ma- the majority of casualties
The U.S. Geological Survey jority of houses damaged and damage occurred.
said the latest quake's epi- and "people terrified." Rafiqi The initial quake, numerous
center was about 34 kilome- and others headed to the aftershocks and a second
ters (21 miles) outside Herat, hospital to donate much- 6.3-magnitude quake on
the provincial capital, and needed blood. Wednesday flattened vil- In this handout photo released by MSF Afghanistan, injured
eight kilometers (five miles) "We have to help in any way lages, destroying hundreds people received treatment after a powerful earthquake in Herat
below the surface.Save the possible," he said. of mud-brick homes that province, western of Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023.
Associated Press
Children said four people The earthquakes on Oct. 7 could not withstand such
have died and that Herat flattened whole villages in force. Schools, health clin- was little left of the villages and in many places, living
Regional Hospital has re- Herat, in one of the most ics and other village facili- in the region's dusty hills. residents are outnumbered
ceived 153 injured. Every- destructive quakes in the ties also collapsed. Survivors are struggling to by volunteers who came to
thing in the Baloch area country's recent history. Besides rubble and funerals come to terms with the loss search the debris and dig
of Rabat Sangi district has More than 90% of the peo- after that devastation, there of multiple family members mass graves.q