GAZA/RAMALLAH/PARIS - Hamas said Saturday that the ongoing Israeli crimes, violations, and escalation against the Gaza Strip constitute a clear violation of the peace understandings and agreements brokered by mediators.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a press statement that "the understandings stipulated the withdrawal of the occupation forces and the prevention of imposing new realities on the ground."
Qassem called on the mediators and the parties that witnessed the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement as well as the US-led "Board of Peace", to "take urgent action to stop these dangerous violations, compel the occupation to fulfill its commitments, and halt its serious abuses".
Overnight, the Israeli army bombed two residential buildings in the central Gaza Strip, after issuing evacuation warnings to two entire residential blocks. On the ground, medical sources told Xinhua that eight Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire in several areas of the coastal enclave and were transferred to hospitals for treatment.
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Meanwhile, Israeli artillery targeted the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip with a number of shells, coinciding with the demolition of residential buildings in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City, causing large explosions, according to local sources and eyewitnesses.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on these incidents.
West Bank health system to brink of collapse
Also on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health warned that a severe medicine shortage is threatening the collapse of the West Bank health system, urging the international community to intervene.
The ministry said a financial crisis is straining government, private, and NGO hospitals, as well as medicine and medical supply vendors, due to accumulated debt and irregular payments.
Hundreds of vital medicines have reached critically low levels, including cancer drugs and dialysis supplies, the ministry said, posing a direct threat to health services.
The crisis has been compounded by reduced working hours and staff strikes, the ministry added.
It called for immediate action to ensure the delivery of medicines and prevent a health system collapse, saying the withholding of Palestinian funds amounts to collective punishment that violates patients' right to treatment.
Israel has withheld portions of clearance revenues -- taxes and customs duties collected by Israel on Palestinian imports under the Oslo Accords -- since 2019, citing payments made by the Palestinian Authority to prisoners and released detainees.
Ben-Gvir banned from entering France
In a post on social platform X, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had been banned from entering France effective immediately.
Barrot said the decision followed Ben-Gvir's "unqualifiable" actions toward French and European citizens aboard the Gaza-bound Global Sumud flotilla.
"We cannot tolerate French nationals being threatened, intimidated or subjected to violence in such a manner, especially by a public official," Barrot said.
He also called on the European Union to impose sanctions on Ben-Gvir.
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Hundreds of members from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla were brought to Israel's Ashdod Port on Wednesday, as Ben-Gvir released the video showing some of them shackled and forced to the ground.
In the video, released by Ben-Gvir on his social media channels, dozens of activists are shown kneeling on the floor, bent forward with their heads down and hands bound behind their backs with zip ties, as the Israeli national anthem is played loudly over speakers.
