Bremer Acknowledges 'Mistakes’ in Disbanding Baath Party, Iraqi Army

Paul Bremer is seen next to US President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld during the announcement at the White House of the killing of Saddam’s sons in Mosul. (Getty Images)
Paul Bremer is seen next to US President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld during the announcement at the White House of the killing of Saddam’s sons in Mosul. (Getty Images)
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Bremer Acknowledges 'Mistakes’ in Disbanding Baath Party, Iraqi Army

Paul Bremer is seen next to US President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld during the announcement at the White House of the killing of Saddam’s sons in Mosul. (Getty Images)
Paul Bremer is seen next to US President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld during the announcement at the White House of the killing of Saddam’s sons in Mosul. (Getty Images)

When I was about to have this conversation with Ambassador Paul Bremer, an Iraqi-American friend whispered in my ear: “This is not just an ambassador. He is a president, who ruled Iraq for more than a year!”

In his capacity as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority after the war declared by the US President George W. Bush on the night of March 19, 2003 with the aim of overthrowing President Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq, the “Kissingerian diplomat” sat face to face at the White House with the president who assigned him two important tasks: get the ball the ball running for the economy, and paving a new path for good governance in Iraq.

He went there armed with this authorization, and fit with what he learned from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and in the private sector after graduating from Yale and Harvard Universities in the United States and the Institute of Political Studies in France.

Paul Bremer holds tight many secrets. He did not make much reference to the documents of the Iraqi state and the Baath Party after the complete collapse of Saddam's rule on April 9, 2003. He jokingly told me that after he "accomplished" his mission, which began on May 9, 2003 and ended on June 28, 2004, that he paid for American lawyers “more than I earned from my work in Iraq.”

It was an opportunity to share my funny story with the former German Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Christoph Heusegen, who was previously the National Security Adviser under Chancellor Angela Merkel and is currently serving as Chair of the Munich Security Conference.

I jokingly suggested that he reveal his secrets so that I could publish them. I said: “With this, our fame will fly … but in two different ways.” The American diplomat laughed before we actually started this conversation with Asharq Al-Awsat.

Bremer sometimes revealed very important details in the long interview with him, insisting on the “correctness” of the war decision, despite the American failure to obtain a mandate from the UN Security Council. He considered that the interests of the United States take precedence over its duties in international law.

He compared the Baath Party led by Saddam to that of the German Nazi Party under Hitler. He stressed that this is the reason that prompted him to issue his two famous orders, the first was devoted to “De-Baathification” and the other focused on “dismantling” the Iraqi army, admitting that he had committed “two mistakes” in implementing them.

He stated that Bush “ended a thousand-year rule of the Sunnis” in Iraq. Bremer coordinated with the Iraqi opposition: Jalal Talabani, Masoud Barzani, Ahmed Chalabi, Ayad Allawi, Abdulaziz al-Hakim, Mohammad Bahr al-Ulumm Ghazi al-Yawer, Adnan al-Pachachi, and other influential Iraqis who are still present in “American Iraq.”

Only one person, the most important and influential person in Iraq from then until today, refused to receive Bremer or meet with him, and that is Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

It is the 20th anniversary of the war in Iraq. How would you reflect now on that moment?

You know, a lot of people are talking about looking back 20 years. And so I've looked back. My bottom line is that I think it was the correct decision that Bush made to go in and remove Saddam from power. And I think secondly that despite the difficult situation that Iraqis find themselves in now, 20 years later on balance, Iraq is a better place now that Saddam is gone.

The price was so costly on the Iraqis, and on the Americans as well…

Yes, that's true. But the benefits are also very big for the Iraqis. They now can choose their own government. We in the United States are not faced with Saddam returning to get his weapons of mass destruction, which he planned to do. We know from the documents we captured after he was deposed, that he planned to resume the development of his weapons of mass destruction.

- ‘Nuclear’ Iraq and Iran -

And the region is better off? Do you believe this?

Actually, the region is better off because if Saddam had stayed in power, the region would now face, otherwise, a nuclear armed Iraq facing a nuclear armed Iran. There would be no Iranian agreement to stop nuclear program, which was done in the Obama administration. The Iranians would have to continue their nuclear (program) so the region would be much less stable, we would have two nuclear powers at least: Iran and Iraq.

And that would’ve maybe encouraged, in your opinion, Iran more to produce nuclear weapons?

When I was in Iraq, the American government intelligence agencies concluded that Iran had slowed down, if not stopped its program because they were worried. And we now know that the agreement that was reached by the Obama administration with Iran is being undermined every day by the Iranians. Now, we have a real threat of a problem there.

- UN approval -

The US failed to get a UN Security Council approval for the war. Therefore, the war was illegal. Do you see it this way, or do you have a different take?

I’ve been involved in foreign policy for 50 years. And as a general rule, it's always preferable to have broad international support. But I do not believe that the United States needs to get UN approval when American interests are at risk.

The Russians are using now what Secretary Powell showed to the Security Council to say there are weapons of mass destructions and other things in Ukraine. Nothing was there. You were in Iraq, you found nothing. Were you aware of all these circumstances?

No, I was not aware. It's important to be precise about matters here. The intelligence that suggested Saddam was actively pursuing weapons of mass destruction, apparently was not correct. But it's important to remember that it wasn't just the United States intelligence agencies that said that we were confident that he was developing these weapons, it was the French, the Germans, the British, and the Russian, all of their intelligence services agreed with the United States.

So, I think if you now say: “Well, wasn't it a mistake?” I think any American president after 9/11 - a major event and trauma to the American people, 3,000 Americans killed - including Al Gore, if he had won the election in 2000, would have looked at US intelligence, and would have said: “We have to do something about Saddam.”

Now, one final point, it is not true to say we found nothing. Charles Duelfer, who was a very able investigator, said: “Saddam has kept the plans, the people and the projects for weapons of mass destruction, and he intended to resume them.”

You’ve just said something remarkable, that the US interest is above the international law…

No, what I said was that the there is no international law that says we have to get a UN approval for defending American interests.

Then, what was the legal basis for the war?

Legal basis in the US was a presidential decision.

So President Bush was the architect of the war? You mentioned in previous interviews that this was done to overthrow not only Saddam, but to overthrow a Sunni rule that lasted a 1,000 years in Iraq. This will have deep ramifications, not only in Iraq, but also in the region.

First, the President makes the decisions. My review of the matter afterwards, long after I left Iraq, is that after the terrorist attacks of the 90s, and 9/11 attacks, any American president, Democrat or Republican, would have agreed with the intelligence that Bush was presented with. And it's interesting that if you look back the in the American Congress in both the Senate and the House by far the majority of the politicians approved of the attack on Iraq.

So, it was not a one man's decision.

No. No.

The US concluded that this is something you must do

Right, I think it's fair to say that there was political consensus across the country when Bush made the decision.

Tell me if I'm wrong, let me use this term, how you as a Kissinger diplomat, I mean, you believe in realpolitik, executed a plan for the neocons in the US. How come?

I didn't execute a plan for the neocons, or oldcons, or whatever. I executed a plan under a direction from the President of the United States, who said to me: “You have two jobs: job 1 is trying to get the economy going again for the Iraqi people, and job 2 is to help the Iraqis onto a path for representative government.” Those are my two commands from the president. And those are the two things that I did.

- The President and I -

Was that just an announcement?

No, that was not an announcement. The president invited me to lunch alone with him, in his little private dining room off the Oval Office for talking. Him and me, that's all, and there we're no note-takers, there was nobody else there…

But you're aware, the president was saying a lot about the “Greater Middle East”, about other issues in relation to the Iraq invasion. The president also said publicly that this will have ramifications for probably decades, not only in Iraq, but also in the region. Twenty years later, he is proving right.

I don't think the president made the decision lightly. I think he understood that would have ramifications. I understood it would have ramifications. But I also understood his goal. His goal was to help the Iraqis recover their country economically and politically.

You replaced Jay Garner, the general appointed to rule Iraq after the invasion, soon after the fall of Saddam. How did that come about? Why did he decide to leave?

I have great respect for General Garner, I thought he did a very good job under very difficult circumstances. My understanding is that (…) somehow my name arrived on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's desk…

You don't know how?

I do know that he had it. He had a list of 12 or 14 other people. And I don't know what process he went through. Anyway, he in the end recommended me to the president.

You may have mentioned this in your book “My Year in Iraq”. Garner wanted to organize elections within 90 days after the invasion. It did not seem realistic to me. Was it realistic to you?

No, no. In my meetings with the president, and with the National Security Council, and with the Vice President, with the Secretaries of Defense and State before I left, the one clear message from the president and the others, including Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary Powell was that we're going to have to take our time.

I was asked about that, and I said: “I agree it will take at a minimum a year, it might take a couple of years. It's going to take a long time, and we have to be patient.” I heard a broadcast on the radio that Garner had just told everybody he was going to appoint a government in 10 days. And I said in my book, I almost drove off the highway. I was so surprised…

You were rushed to go to Iraq. What was the best advice you received before you went?

The best advice that people gave was to focus first on trying to bring some economic benefits to the Iraqi people as quickly as you can (…) Saddam had effectively destroyed the Iraq economy anyway. When I got to Baghdad, just to give an example, in the entire country, they were producing only 300 megawatts of electricity. It's not enough to run, you know, a small village.

- From Spain to Angola -

The country was under embargo. So, this didn't happen overnight?

No. It had obviously suffered somewhat from the UN sanctions, although we learned quickly about the corruption in the Oil for Food Program. When Saddam came to power, the gross domestic product per capita in Iraq was higher than it was in Spain. The World Bank told us that in 2002, Iraq's per capita income had fallen below that of Angola. The second piece of advice to answer your question was to be sure we were talking to a broad range of Iraqis about what kind of government was possible and what kind of government they wanted.

You mentioned, of course, who you met then from the US side. Did you meet anybody from the Iraqi opposition who were here in the US?

No, I don't remember meeting anybody. I may have met one or two…

Do you know Kanan Makiya. He was critical of why the US decided to make this Coalition Provisional Authority, instead of holding elections and selecting a democratic body…

I have great respect for Mr. Makiya. The people who think there was an alternative could not tell me what it would be. There had been no census in Iraq since 1957. There was no constituent boundaries. There was no effective separation of power between the legislature and the executive. It was all a dictatorship. There was no way to hold elections in Iraq quickly.

So General Garner was wrong about this.

Garner, I think was misunderstood. He was not kept informed of the way Washington was thinking.

- Baathism and Nazism -

You went to Iraq and issued a long set of orders. The first two orders are the most important with far reaching implications, the De-Baathification and then disbanding of the Iraqi army. Why did you do that? The decisions left the country in a very bad situation.

I actually don't think either of those left Iraq in a bad situation at all. I think they were the right decisions.

But where did they come from? So the Department of State in early 2002, a year and a half before the invasion, had established a study group in Washington under a career Arabic speaking American diplomat: Brian Crocker, who ran a yearlong study called “The Future of Iraq”, in which he and his colleagues at the State Department, Defense Department, intelligence services, met with hundreds, actually maybe thousands of Iraqis, most of them obviously in exile, about what should be the future of Iraq.

And there were two conclusions of this study; the first conclusion was that there can be no place in a post-Saddam Iraq for the Baath Party. Why? Because the Baath Party was Saddam's political instrument of control and terror over his own people. The Baath Parties in the Arab world, as you very well know, were modeled on the Nazi Party. But Saddam was in power three times as long as Hitler. So, the conclusion was there can be no place in post-Saddam Iraq for a Baath Party. I was handed, literally the day before I left for Iraq, a draft order.

Handed by who?

By Doug Feith, who was the number three man in the Pentagon (served as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy) under Rumsfeld. It was completely consistent with the conclusion of the State Department's study. Feith handed me this thing and said: “We're thinking of issuing this tomorrow. A Sunday.”

I said: “Wait a minute, I want to get out and talk to some of the people who are working for Garner (in the Office for Construction and Humanitarian Assistance) for Iraq (ORHA).”

It was not issued until I got out there. Then I issued (…) the Baath directive, which was loosely modeled on the decisions that were made by America, the occupying power in Germany in 1945, at the end of the Second World War. They had a program of De-Nazification, which was across the board, anybody with anything to do with the Nazi Party could not have anything to do from the top to the bottom. In contrast, the De-Baathification that was worked by the United States government was aimed only at the top 1% of the Baath Party members.

Now, I made a mistake here in turning the implementation of the very narrow order over to the Iraqi politicians, because it then became an instrument of battle between various factions among the Iraqis, who tried to broaden the implication, to throw many more Baathists, for example teachers, out of their jobs.

What I should have done was I should have turned the implementation over to a carefully selected competent group of Iraqi judges. What I should have done, was pick a panel of five Iraqi judges and said: “You oversee the De-Baathification.” But I turned it wrongly over to the politicians, and when I heard that they were throwing hundreds, thousands of teachers out of jobs, the Minister of Education came to me. So, I had to pull back the authority. So, it was a mistake.

- Two mistakes -

And disbanding the Iraqi army, I heard one time that you made a mistake about it.

Yes and no. So, The Future of Iraq study that we discussed, also looked at the question of the Iraqi military force. Iraq's army, the modern army, which was introduced after the Second World War, played a respectable, responsible role until the Baathists and Saddam came to power.

Then the Iraqi army became the primary instrument of forceful control of the Iraqi people. And again, The Future of Iraq study said the same thing: there can be no place in post-Saddam Iraq for the army. Well, there was no army there at the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003.

The Pentagon, the American generals said, General John Abizaid said there is not a single unit of the Iraqi army standing to arms anywhere in Iraq. The army went home.

And that army had conducted what the UN considered a genocidal war against the Kurds in the 1980s, including the use of weapons of mass destruction at the town of Halabja in 1988. The same army, the Republican divisions were used by Saddam to put down the uprising of the Shiites in the South after the first Gulf War. Less than a week after I got the Baghdad, they found the first of the mass graves due to these mass killings, which was outside of Hilah, south of Baghdad. In a way if you said: what was the mistake? It was the choice of the verb disband.

Some American officers apparently were talking about maybe we can recall the army. When the Kurds heard that, both leaders of the Kurds, Barzani and Talabani, said to me: If you recall the Iraqi army, we will secede from Iraq.” That would bring on a civil war. The Shiites, who were cooperating with the coalition, under guidance from Ayatollah Al-Sistani also heard the same rumor, and Sheikh Abdul Aziz Abdulaziz Al-Hakim told me: “We will not cooperate if you bring back that army.”

- Democracy or civil war? -

Ambassador, you meant to build a democratic Iraq.

Right.

Instead, the country plunged into a civil war under your control. I don't know the extent of the mistakes that you were describing. But that's what happened.

No, it was not a civil war. What happened was the emergence of al-Qaeda. We know for a fact because it was written down by Zarqawi in a letter he wrote to Osama bin Laden. The intention of al-Qaeda was just to provoke a tribal war between Shiites and Sunnis. And he said that's why they had done the vicious attacks that took place, first on the UN headquarters that killed Sergio de Mello, and then a major attack on the on the mosque in Najaf on August 30, 2003, which killed several hundreds of Shiites.

So, the intention of al-Qaeda was to provoke a civil war. And you say they didn't have democracy. That's not true. They held elections, the first would be held about a year and a half after the liberation of Baghdad in early January 2005, and the Iraqis have held six elections, five national elections and one referendum to approve the Constitution. And Iraq has had six peaceful transfers of power since we left. No other Arab country can say they've done that.

- American model -

Ambassador, you mentioned several very important things, De-Baathification built on De-Nazification. This pretext is being used now by Russia in their invasion to Ukraine.

Any president, and I can say I'm sure President Bush in this case, has to consider the whatever decision he's facing in the context of its impact on the rest of American interests. And I'm sure Bush did that. And he decided, I think correctly, that we could not tolerate letting Saddam continue. And so, he took the difficult decision to invade to get rid of Saddam, which in my view, succeeded. The impact on what American policy in Bangladesh or in Ukraine might be is a separate matter.

No, that's why some Americans, including presidents, said that the Iraq war was a disaster.

I will stand by what I just said to you about the success we had politically, the success we had economically.

So, your conclusion still is that Iraq is better off?

Absolutely. Iraq is better off on any metric… The Arab Spring started in Tunisia, where did they go? Look at Tunisia today.

Nowhere.

With the Iraqis, even under ISIS, even under all of the problems they've had, have selected their own government six times in a row.

So, you don't have good feelings about the Arab Spring?

I'm sorry, it didn't succeed. Iraq suffers now greatly from corruption. No question.

Did you model the new Iraq on the Lebanon model?

No.

Iraq was a secular country under Saddam. When you say that the Sunnis were ruling for a thousand years, but then you pulled Iraq from the Arab neighbors to throw it into the hands of Iran?

I can only talk with confidence about the time when I was there. The Iranians were really not present.

At least, al-Hakim and other figures from the Iraqi opposition were based there.

Well, and some were in Syria, and some of them had been in London, a few had been in Germany with a couple of them in France. It was up to them to figure out what to put in the Constitution, which is what they did. And they established a federal system, not at our suggestion.

Why did you boast on several occasions that Iraq was for a thousand years ruled by the Sunnis? You have stopped that.

That was just a statement of fact.

- Syrian Baath -

It was pretty clear that the Syrian Baathist government was supporting the so-called Iraqi resistance to fight the coalition forces in Iraq. Did you try to talk to the Syrian government?

I'm not aware of any specific discussions between American officials and the Syrians. I do know that the coalition forces in Iraq were more and more concerned about the Syrian support, in particular, the infiltration of people sometimes often recruited in North Africa, particularly in Libya, and trained in Syria and then infiltrated across the border of Al-Qaim.

And Iran played a role.

During my time, there was, as I said, no evidence of the Iranians playing a role.

- Iranians got scared -

Not even what we discovered later on, and it is all over the news nowadays that they harbored some of al-Qaeda members in Iran.

This was not part of the information we had at that time. The most important was the Zarqawi letter, which we intercepted in January 2004. That was clearly established. But he was Jordanian. He wasn't Iranian.

But you worked on fighting terrorism just before, so you were fully aware of the dangers.

Oh, yes. And well Iran. Iran was designated when I was in charge of counter-terrorism in the Reagan administration, Iran was already described as a terrorist state because of the bombings that Hezbollah did in Beirut in 1983.

So, there wasn't any doubt that it was a terrorist state. But the question that I was answering was, was Iran actively meddling or doing stuff. And the answer is: I never saw any convincing information that confirmed that. But there's certainly problems in Iran.

But if you think in terms of the people in Tehran in the fall of 2003, you know, they had an American army on their eastern border and their western border. They got two armies. And it's precisely in 2003, that the intelligence community, apparently, according to what you can read in the press, concluded that Iran had stopped its active nuclear program.

While the situation was unraveling in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan, you rid the Iranians of two archenemies at the borders. The Americans did them something huge. Did you meet with the Iranians?

No, there were no Iranians to talk to.

- Disagreement with Al-Sisatani -

But you didn't feel that you needed to talk to them.

The only Iranian I would like to talk to was Al-Sistani. But he wouldn't see me. That's fine. I understood. I didn't press. I didn't even really ask. I had a very good intense correspondence with Al-Sistani while I was there.

Through whom?

Various intermediaries. I looked at it. In 13 months, 48 exchanges with Al-Sistani.

Were they oral? Just messages?

Usually oral. Sometimes written.

So you have letters from him.

He has letters from me (laughter).

But do you have letters from him?

I have messages. He didn't put things in writing. That’s not the way somebody does at his level. But my view is that having looked at the whole question on the whole, he played a helpful role in the effort. He very much supported having elections, having the Iraqis choose their government. That was his sort of fundamental belief. And that was of course my job.

But there were periods of tension between you and him?

Given his importance in Iraq, but also in the broader region, I wanted to be sure that he understood what we were trying to do, which was to establish a political process with the Iraqis to choose their government. Here's the problem. The problem came about because Sergio de Mello, who was the UN Special Representative, went to see Al-Sistani shortly after he got to Iraq in early June of 2003.

He came and called on me. We had two meetings, one is in my office and one in his office, he went to Najaf to see Al-Sistani. I later heard from somebody who heard it from Al-Sistani in Najaf that de Mello had said to Al-Sistani that the Americans are going to write a constitution to structure the political body the way they did in Japan (through the Commander of allied forces Douglas MacArthur in 1945), which was completely wrong.

We had no intention of writing a constitution. What we intended was that the Iraqis, if they wanted a constitution, should write it, which is what in the end happened. So most of the communications with Al-Sistani from my side were directed at keeping him closely informed of our discussions, and I'm sure there were other people also, you know, in the Iraqi government were keeping him informed of our discussions about what we wanted, and trying to make clear that we had no intention of writing a constitution.

And a second thing: he wanted immediate elections. And for all the reasons we discussed earlier, it was simply not possible, and the UN agreed that it was not possible. De Mello understood that. So, the content of my communications with Al-Sistani were almost entirely based on wanting him to understand the broad view of what we were trying to accomplish politically, which was a constitution that the Iraqis would write, not us, and elections, and the difficulty of getting that done. In the end, he understood.

It took six or seven months. Really not until January of 2004 did it become clear that Al-Sistani understood that we could not hold immediate elections. We had to get the constitution written. And then that's the sequence we followed. The constitution was written in January and February 2004, and the first elections were held in January 2005.

Did you get his blessing in the end?

I wasn't looking for a blessing. First of all, I was simply trying to keep him informed. My view is that his role was helpful.

- Saddam’s capture -

I want to ask about Saddam. How were you informed about his capture?

The military had the job of trying to capture him. And we coordinated obviously. We all heard rumors, people would come to me, and they'd say where Saddam is. I would pass it to the military. They would go and he wasn't there. You know, they’d say: they saw him driving a taxi cab…

Was it true?

No, we heard rumors like that. I'm just saying that it was crazy. So, the military got a tip in December, that he was somewhere near Tikrit, which was his family place. You know the story that they found a hiding hole that he was in. I was not informed about the search when it took place. But I was called to go back from my room to my office at about 2 am on December 13, 2003, by the commanding officer General Abizaid, the CENTCOM commander.

He said: “We think we have Saddam.” He told me the story and said he looks like him. He's got a scar, or a mole, or something on one leg, and we think it's him. But we have to do a DNA check to be sure. We had some DNA from his sons who had been killed in Mosul in July. But it'll take two days, because the DNA is not here. It's in Germany.

I said: “You're never going to hold this story for two days.” Abizaid said: “Well, we're going to fly him back to Baghdad, and have some of the high value prisoners, particularly Tariq Aziz, to see him, and tell us if that's Saddam.” Several of them saw him and said that it's got to be Saddam. So, I found out at that time, whatever it was 2:00 in the morning. It was great, great news.

How did he look? How was he underground?

The problem we faced was this. His two sons attacked our forces in Mosul in July 2003, and they were killed. We needed to announce that, but we wondered if the Iraqis would believe us. So, the military, Rumsfeld and his people, organized a group of pathologists to go and see the bodies, and confirm whether or not these were Saddam's sons. Because in the Geneva Convention, you're not supposed to show pictures of dead soldiers.

Until we had the Iraqi forensic officials, who do the autopsies, and confirm it, at which time, celebratory gunfire took place all over in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, and Kirkuk. So, we faced the same dilemma again about Saddam. The conclusion was we should take a group of Iraqis to see him where he's being held, which was at the Baghdad airport. I issued an invitation to the members of the governing council, anybody who wants to come.

In the end there were only a few: Adnan Pachachi, Ahmed Chalabi, Mowaffak al-Rubaie and Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Saddam was there, and they immediately knew him by his voice and everything else. So there was no question. Therefore, I felt it was important that Pachachi, who in that month was chairman of the Governing Council, should also be at the announcement. And that's how the announcement came about.

Had you seen Saddam before or spoken to him?

No, I said nothing. He didn't have any idea. I stood at the door.

Before that?

No, I didn't speak a word to him.

Did you have good relations with Ahmed Chalabi and Ayad Allawi?

I talked to them all, often… Talabani, Barzani, of course Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Abdulaziz al-Hakim, and Diaa Jubaili, the author of “The Lion of Basra”. I spent a lot of time with them.



UNRWA Chief Says Israel Blocks Him from Gaza

 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speak to the media, amid the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Cairo, Egypt, March 18, 2024. (Reuters)
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speak to the media, amid the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Cairo, Egypt, March 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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UNRWA Chief Says Israel Blocks Him from Gaza

 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speak to the media, amid the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Cairo, Egypt, March 18, 2024. (Reuters)
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speak to the media, amid the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Cairo, Egypt, March 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel denied the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) entry to the Gaza Strip on Monday, UNRWA and Egypt said, calling it an unprecedented move at a time of massive need.

Philippe Lazzarini, whose organization has been in crisis since Israel accused 12 of its staff of taking part in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, said he meant to go to the Gaza city of Rafah but was informed: "My entry into Rafah is declined".

Speaking with him at a Cairo news conference, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said: "You were declined by the Israeli government, refused the entry which is an unprecedented move for (a) representative at this high position."

The Israeli prime minister's office and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UNRWA is by far the largest relief body in Gaza, where the depth of the humanitarian crisis was underlined on Monday when a UN-backed report warned of imminent famine in the north.

"On the day new data is out on famine in #GAZA, the Israeli Authorities deny my entry to Gaza," Lazzarini wrote on X, adding that his visit was intended to improve humanitarian operations.

"This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity."

Israel's ground and air offensive has laid waste to the Gaza Strip over the last five months, killing more than 31,000 people, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza.

The offensive was triggered when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel in an attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in another 253 being taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Funding crisis

Israel alleged in January that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack. The Israeli accusations led 16 countries including the United States to pause $450 million in funding, throwing UNRWA operations into crisis.

UNRWA fired some staff members, saying it acted in order to protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, and an independent internal UN investigation was launched.

Australia is one of several states which subsequently resumed funding. Its foreign minister said last week that Australia had consulted with UNRWA and other donors and was satisfied the agency was not a terrorist organization.

UNRWA has condemned the Oct. 7 attacks, saying the Israeli allegations against the agency - if true - are a betrayal of UN values and of the people UNRWA serves.

UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters Lazzarini had visited the Gaza Strip four times during the war, and numerous occasions before that.

"We were ready to leave this morning on an Egyptian plane from Cairo to El Arish," Touma said.

Lazzarini has previously warned of a campaign to end UNRWA operations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said UNRWA must be shut down.

In Cairo, the UNRWA head warned of a "race against the clock" to reverse the spread of hunger and avert famine. With political will, Gaza could be "flooded" with food via land crossings, he added.

He also said that more than 150 of UNRWA's facilities in Gaza have been hit, damaged or completely destroyed.

"We also know that a number of staff that have been arrested have gone through very tough investigation, ill-treatment and humiliation," Lazzarini said.


Biden, Israel’s Netanyahu Discussed Rafah, Gaza Aid, Says White House

 A girl holds a Ramadan lantern as Palestinians line up to fill containers with water in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A girl holds a Ramadan lantern as Palestinians line up to fill containers with water in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Biden, Israel’s Netanyahu Discussed Rafah, Gaza Aid, Says White House

 A girl holds a Ramadan lantern as Palestinians line up to fill containers with water in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A girl holds a Ramadan lantern as Palestinians line up to fill containers with water in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and discussed the situation in Rafah and efforts increase aid to Gaza, the White House said.

The call was the first between the two leaders since Feb. 15 and comes amid sharp tensions between Israel and its most steadfast ally over Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza that followed Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack inside Israel.

"President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, including the situation in Rafah and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza," the White House said.

Separately, Netanyahu said the two men had discussed Israel's commitment to achieve all the targets it had set out for the war: eliminating Hamas, releasing all the hostages and ensuring Gaza would no longer pose a threat to Israel.

This would be done "while providing the necessary humanitarian aid that helps achieve those goals," he said in a statement.

In a speech on Thursday, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, a longtime supporter of Israel and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official, called for new elections in Israel and said Netanyahu was an obstacle to peace.

Biden praised the speech the following day and said that Schumer had echoed the concerns of many Americans.

Netanyahu responded harshly on Sunday, telling CNN in an interview that Schumer's speech was "totally inappropriate".

Netanyahu reaffirmed to a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israeli forces would thrust into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave, despite international pressure for Israel to avoid further civilian casualties.


US Must Make Clear to Israel Consequences of Rafah Operation, Says Egypt FM 

Children play in the rubble of Al-Faruq Mosque, that was destroyed during Israeli bombardment, in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Children play in the rubble of Al-Faruq Mosque, that was destroyed during Israeli bombardment, in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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US Must Make Clear to Israel Consequences of Rafah Operation, Says Egypt FM 

Children play in the rubble of Al-Faruq Mosque, that was destroyed during Israeli bombardment, in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Children play in the rubble of Al-Faruq Mosque, that was destroyed during Israeli bombardment, in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on March 17, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The United States must make clear to Israel what the consequences of a military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would be, as the US has voiced opposition to such a move, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said on Monday.

"It is not enough for rhetoric, it is not enough to state opposition, it is also important to indicate what if that position is circumvented, what if that position is not respected," Shoukry said at a news briefing with United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini in Cairo.

He also warned that the humanitarian consequences and the loss of lives that would result in the situation would be "catastrophic".


Famine Imminent in Northern Gaza, Says UN-Backed Report

Boys sit with empty pots as displaced Palestinians queue for meals provided by a charity organization ahead of the fast-breaking "iftar" meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 16, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Boys sit with empty pots as displaced Palestinians queue for meals provided by a charity organization ahead of the fast-breaking "iftar" meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 16, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Famine Imminent in Northern Gaza, Says UN-Backed Report

Boys sit with empty pots as displaced Palestinians queue for meals provided by a charity organization ahead of the fast-breaking "iftar" meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 16, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Boys sit with empty pots as displaced Palestinians queue for meals provided by a charity organization ahead of the fast-breaking "iftar" meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 16, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Famine is imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, a UN-backed report said on Monday, after more than five months of war which have shattered the Palestinian territory and cut off supplies.

Malnutrition and food insecurity have probably exceeded famine levels in Gaza's north, and hunger-linked death rates were likely to do so soon, the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said.

The assessment - a scale used by UN agencies, regional bodies and aid groups that sets the global standard on measuring food crises - comes amid global pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave of 2.3 million people.

Some 300,000 have been cut off by fighting in the north.

The European Union accused Israel on Monday of provoking famine and using starvation as a weapon of war - claims that Israel rejects, saying it does not target civilians and is only interested in eliminating the Hamas movement.

The IPC uses a complex set of technical criteria. Its most extreme warning is Phase 5, which has two levels, catastrophe and famine.

Famine is assessed as at least 20% of the population suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

In northern Gaza, "the upward trend in non-trauma mortality is also expected to accelerate, resulting in all famine thresholds likely to be passed imminently," the IPC said.

"The window is shutting, and it is shutting very, very fast," Arif Husain, chief economist of the World Food Program, told Reuters.

The study said the number of people projected to experience "catastrophic hunger" across the besieged enclave between now and mid-July had nearly doubled to more than 1.1 million, or about half the population, since the IPC last reported in December, when there was already record hunger.

Under a worst case scenario, central and southern Gaza also face a risk of famine by July, the IPC said.

Skipping meals

Famine has been declared just twice in the past 13 years: in parts of Somalia in 2011 and in parts of South Sudan in 2017.

Some humanitarians voice frustration with the criteria, since assessing famine thresholds can be particularly difficult in a war zone due to a lack of access and reliable data.

Gaza health authorities have reported children dying of malnutrition or dehydration, but UN officials say the health system has basically collapsed and the situation is hard to monitor.

"It's impossible to find the data to meet their criteria in northern Gaza as people aren't dying in hospital so it's unrecorded," said one aid worker who asked not to be named.

The IPC said that because of a lack of aid, almost all households were skipping meals every day and adults were reducing their meals so children could eat.

In northern Gaza, in nearly two thirds of households, people went entire days and nights without eating at least 10 times in the last 30 days, it added. In southern areas, that applied to one third of the households.

The IPC analysis said famine could still be avoided if Israel and Hamas stop fighting and aid organizations gain increased access.

Israel has said it plans to assault Rafah, the southern Gaza city bordering Egypt, to root out Hamas fighters, but it is also involved in mediation talks about a possible truce.

"We must act and we must act now," said Husain. "When famine happens, people have already starved, children are already wasted, and many, many, many lives are already lost." 


EU's Borrell: Israel is Provoking Famine in Gaza

FILE PHOTO: European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference presenting plans to boost the European Union's arms industry in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference presenting plans to boost the European Union's arms industry in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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EU's Borrell: Israel is Provoking Famine in Gaza

FILE PHOTO: European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference presenting plans to boost the European Union's arms industry in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference presenting plans to boost the European Union's arms industry in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, the EU's foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels.

"This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would keep on with the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where aid agencies say famine is looming, while ceasefire talks were set to resume.
Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that Israel would push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war, despite international pressure for Israel to avoid civilian casualties.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz in a response on Monday urged Borrell to "stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas' crimes.”

Katz in a post on X said Israel allowed "extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help,” but that help was "violently disturbed" by Hamas militants with "collaboration" by the UN's aid agency UNRWA. 
 


Egyptian-European Agreement to Elevate Ties to Level of Strategic Partnership

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian, Greek, Austrian and Belgian prime ministers, and the Cypriot president. (Egyptian Presidency)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian, Greek, Austrian and Belgian prime ministers, and the Cypriot president. (Egyptian Presidency)
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Egyptian-European Agreement to Elevate Ties to Level of Strategic Partnership

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian, Greek, Austrian and Belgian prime ministers, and the Cypriot president. (Egyptian Presidency)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian, Greek, Austrian and Belgian prime ministers, and the Cypriot president. (Egyptian Presidency)

Egypt and the European Union said Sunday they have mutually agreed to elevate their relationship to the level of a strategic and comprehensive partnership.

Accordingly, Egypt and the EU decided to formulate and sign an inclusive document on the comprehensive and “strategic partnership,” during the first quarter of 2024.

The agreement was unveiled as a delegation of EU leaders visited Cairo. It is designed to boost cooperation in areas including renewable energy, trade and security, while delivering grants, loans and other funding over the next three years to support Egypt's economy.

A proposed funding includes 5 billion euros in concessional loans and 1.8 billion euros of investments, according to a summary published by the EU. Another 600 million euros would be provided in grants, including 200 million euros for managing migration.

The EU delegation included EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian, Greek, Austrian and Belgian prime ministers, and the Cypriot president.

“Egypt has always accorded special importance to the distinguished relations it shares with the European Union and its countries, stemming from our firm belief in the centrality of the partnership with the European Union to achieve the common political, economic, and security interests of both sides, and therefore supports the achievement of security, peace, and stability in the region,” said Sisi in his opening statement in the meeting with the EU leaders.

As for Von der Leyen, she said that "today we elevate the relationship between the EU and Egypt to a strategic and comprehensive partnership and we agree on a package ranging from trade and investment to low carbon energy, managing migration, and education, culture and youth".


Algeria Condemns Morocco’s Attempt to Confiscate its Embassy Properties in Rabat

 The Algerian Foreign Ministry (APS)
 The Algerian Foreign Ministry (APS)
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Algeria Condemns Morocco’s Attempt to Confiscate its Embassy Properties in Rabat

 The Algerian Foreign Ministry (APS)
 The Algerian Foreign Ministry (APS)

Algeria on Sunday condemned a Moroccan plan to confiscate its embassy’s properties in Rabat, describing the move as “a new phase of escalation” from its North African neighbor.
In a statement, the Algerian Foreign Ministry said the plan is also a “flagrant violation” that is inconsistent with civilized international practices.
“This project represents a flagrant violation of the obligations that are enshrined in both international law and custom, which necessitates the protection of diplomatic missions regardless of the circumstances,” the Ministry said.
“Algeria condemns in the strongest terms the comprehensive robbery operation and strongly denounces its illegitimacy and incompatibility with the duties and obligations that any member state of the international community should bear,” it added.
According to the Ministry, Algeria plans to utilize “all legal means available” to defend its interests, including recourse to the United Nations.
Morocco had issued a decree last week in the country’s Official Gazette ordering the expropriation of the Algerian Embassy’s buildings in Rabat, part of a plan to expand the administrative buildings of its Foreign Ministry.
The decree says the expansion project falls under a law which gives the government power to confiscate infrastructure for public sector projects.
The expropriation decision includes three properties belonging to Algeria.


Abbas: Our Priority is to Stop Israeli Military Assault on Rafah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. dpa
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. dpa
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Abbas: Our Priority is to Stop Israeli Military Assault on Rafah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. dpa
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. dpa

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the Palestinian leadership’s priority was to stop a potential Israeli military push into the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas made the comment on Sunday during a meeting with visiting Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in Ramallah.

About 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Abbas told Vieira.

“Our priority is to stop an assault by Israeli occupation forces on Rafah,” he said, warning that a military operation there would cause a “humanitarian disaster.”

Abbas urged the international community to exert bigger efforts to prevent such an assault, force Israel to immediately stop its aggression on the Palestinian territory, and allow humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.

Despite his call, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would keep on with the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that Israel would push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war, despite international pressure for Israel to avoid civilian casualties.

"We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen," he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin in weeks.


Egypt Condemns Israel’s Ongoing Assaults Against Civilians in Gaza

Egyptian Red Crescent volunteers prepare meals for refugees I Gaza. Photo: Red Crescent
Egyptian Red Crescent volunteers prepare meals for refugees I Gaza. Photo: Red Crescent
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Egypt Condemns Israel’s Ongoing Assaults Against Civilians in Gaza

Egyptian Red Crescent volunteers prepare meals for refugees I Gaza. Photo: Red Crescent
Egyptian Red Crescent volunteers prepare meals for refugees I Gaza. Photo: Red Crescent

Egypt has condemned Israel's ongoing assaults against defenseless Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement issued Sunday, the Foreign Ministry called on Israel to stop its policies “of collective punishment against the residents of the Gaza Strip, including siege, starvation, indiscriminate targeting of civilians, and the destruction of infrastructure,” which represent a violation of the provisions of international law and international humanitarian law.

The Ministry also called on Israel to “shoulder its responsibilities as the occupying power, refrain from targeting civilians, and provide urgent aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.”

Concerning the Israeli plans to launch a ground assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, the Ministry renewed its warning against the dangers of carrying out any military operations in the city, where Palestinian civilians have take refuge as the last safe haven inside Gaza.

“Egypt considers such action, despite the warnings and international rejection, as a disregard for the lives of innocent civilians and a serious violation of international law and humanitarian law,” stated the Ministry.

It also renewed its call to influential international parties and the United Nations Security Council to assume their legal and humanitarian responsibilities by demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The Foreign Ministry statement then called on these parties to work on preventing the scenario of forcibly displacing Palestinians from Gaza, putting an end to continuous Israeli violations against civilians, and urgently delivering humanitarian aid in all possible ways to the Palestinian enclave.

In a related development, a delegation from the World Health Organization, led by Regional Director of the WHO Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, visited Arish city in north Sinai, the humanitarian services center of the Egyptian Red Crescent and WHO in the Al-Sabil neighborhood, in addition to the Rafah border crossing.

Secretary General of North Sinai Governorate Osama el-Ghandour met with the delegation and outlined Egypt’s efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip along with receiving the Palestinians patients and injured for treatment at Egyptian hospitals.

The Egyptian official news agency, MENA, said Balkhy lauded Egypt’s efforts in delivering humanitarian aid to the war-torn Gaza Strip.

“The WHO is committed to providing all the necessary aid and support to the Palestinians in the enclave,” Balkhy added.


Israeli Forces Kill 20 Gunmen in Raid at Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, Army Says

Tents and shelters used by displaced Palestinians stand at the yard of Al Shifa hospital during the Israeli ground operation around the hospital, in Gaza City November 12, 2023. Ahmed El Mokhallalati/via REUTERS
Tents and shelters used by displaced Palestinians stand at the yard of Al Shifa hospital during the Israeli ground operation around the hospital, in Gaza City November 12, 2023. Ahmed El Mokhallalati/via REUTERS
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Israeli Forces Kill 20 Gunmen in Raid at Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, Army Says

Tents and shelters used by displaced Palestinians stand at the yard of Al Shifa hospital during the Israeli ground operation around the hospital, in Gaza City November 12, 2023. Ahmed El Mokhallalati/via REUTERS
Tents and shelters used by displaced Palestinians stand at the yard of Al Shifa hospital during the Israeli ground operation around the hospital, in Gaza City November 12, 2023. Ahmed El Mokhallalati/via REUTERS

Israeli troops raided the compound of Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital early on Monday, saying they killed 20 gunmen, in an operation Palestinian health authorities said caused multiple casualties and set off a fierce fire in one of the buildings.

The Israeli military said soldiers and special forces had conducted a "precise operation" based on intelligence that the hospital was being used by senior Hamas leaders, and were fired upon when they entered the compound.

"Twenty terrorists have been eliminated at the Shifa hospital thus far in various engagements, and dozens of apprehended suspects are currently in questioning," it said in a statement.

Al Shifa, the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital before the war, is now one of the only healthcare facilities that is even partially operational in the north of the territory, and is also housing hundreds of displaced civilians.

"Suddenly, we started to hear sounds of explosions, several bombings, and soon tanks started to roll, they came from the western road and headed toward Al Shifa, then sounds of gunfire and explosions increased," Mohammad Ali, 32, a father of two, who lives around one kilometer from the hospital, told Reuters via a chat app.

"We don't know what is happening, but it looked as if it was a re-invasion of the Gaza City," he added, saying that the military activities began at around 1:00 a.m. (2300 GMT Sunday).

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said a fire broke out at the entrance of the hospital complex, causing cases of suffocation among displaced women and children sheltering in the hospital. It said communication had been cut off, with people trapped inside the surgery and emergency units of one of the buildings.

"There are casualties, including deaths and injuries, and it's impossible to rescue anyone due to the intensity of the fire and targeting of anyone approaching the windows," the ministry said.

The Israeli army dropped new leaflets around the hospital in Gaza City.

"To all those who exist or are displaced in Rimal and the displaced in Al Shifa and its vicinity: you are in a dangerous combat zone. The IDF is operating hard in its residential areas to destroy terror infrastructure," said the statement, which ordered the people to take the coastal road towards Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip.

The military issued footage of the overnight operation showing soldiers in the hospital compound engaged in gunfights. Reuters could not independently verify the video.

Footage circulated on social media appeared to show an Israeli tank blocking the main gate of Al Shifa.

The military said troops had been instructed on the importance of operating cautiously as well as on measures to be taken to avoid harm to patients, civilians, medical staff and medical equipment, and said patients were not required to evacuate.

Not far from Al Shifa, Israeli army forces raided a school where displaced families were sheltering, and detained several men there, residents and Hamas media said. Residents reported tanks were also operating on the edge of the Beach refugee camp and said tanks fired shells at some buildings nearby.

Hamas said in a statement the Israeli military had committed a new crime by directly targeting the hospital buildings without caring about patients, medical staff or displaced people in it.

Israel came under fierce criticism last year when troops first raided the hospital, where they uncovered tunnels they said were used as command and control centers by Hamas. Hamas and medical staff deny the hospital has been used for military purposes or to shelter fighters.