WHO: Planning Underway to Evacuate Three Gaza Hospitals 

Smoke rises after an explosion on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, 21 November 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises after an explosion on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, 21 November 2023. (EPA)
TT

WHO: Planning Underway to Evacuate Three Gaza Hospitals 

Smoke rises after an explosion on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, 21 November 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises after an explosion on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, 21 November 2023. (EPA)

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that three hospitals in Israeli-besieged Gaza had requested help with evacuating patients and said that planning was underway.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that the three hospitals were Al Shifa, from which a group of babies has already been rescued, Indonesian Hospital and Al Ahli Hospital.

He said such an event was a last resort.

"It's robbing the entire population of the north of the means to seek health (care)," he told a Geneva press briefing.



Muscat Hosts New Round of Yemeni Consultations for Release of Prisoners

The delegation of the Yemeni government and the joint negotiating team of the coalition countries before the start of consultations with the Houthi group on Sunday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The delegation of the Yemeni government and the joint negotiating team of the coalition countries before the start of consultations with the Houthi group on Sunday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT

Muscat Hosts New Round of Yemeni Consultations for Release of Prisoners

The delegation of the Yemeni government and the joint negotiating team of the coalition countries before the start of consultations with the Houthi group on Sunday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The delegation of the Yemeni government and the joint negotiating team of the coalition countries before the start of consultations with the Houthi group on Sunday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Under the auspices of the office of the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Muscat hosted on Sunday consultations between the internationally-recognized Yemeni government and the Houthi group over the exchange of prisoners, detainees and forcibly disappeared persons.
Majed Fadael, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Rights and the official spokesman for the government delegation, expected that the consultations would continue for about 10 days.
In exclusive statements to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said: “Our basic demand is the release of all prisoners and abductees without discrimination...”
He continued: “We have clear and frank directives from our political leadership regarding this, and that the government delegation deal with full responsibility and commitment to this humanitarian file.”
During the past years, the United Nations, in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, succeeded in completing two exchange deals between the two warring sides. More than a thousand persons were released in the first swap deal and around 900 in the second.
For his part, Abdul Qadir Al-Murtada, head of the Houthi delegation, expressed his hope that the round of consultations would be “successful, and that a new exchange deal would be agreed upon.”
He wrote on his X account: “We arrived in the Omani capital, Muscat, to attend a new round of negotiations on the prisoner file, under the auspices of the United Nations, and we hope that it will be successful and that a new exchange deal will be reached.”
In turn, the Presidential Leadership Council affirmed its keenness and support for the efforts and endeavors aimed at ending the suffering of detainees, kidnapped and disappeared persons.