Blinken meets Palestinian president in West Bank as blast hits Gaza refugee camp

Boris Johnson has made a surprise trip to Israel to “express solidarity and support” as the conflict in Gaza rages on.

The former prime minister is visiting alongside Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, his spokesman confirmed.

Medical Aid for Palestinians is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to “bring an end to the suffering” of Palestinians.

“The targeting of civilians is never acceptable. Urgent action is needed now to save lives,” the aid organisation said in a statement.

It is calling for people to contact their MPs to demand a ceasefire.

Patients arriving at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza who require a ventilator are being left to die so medics can work on those with a better chance of survival, a surgeon working there has said, Maira Butt reports.

“Let me tell you something horrible, that breaks my heart,” doctor Tayseer Hassan, told The Independent. “When the mass casualties arrive to the ER, and the type of injury that needs a ventilator, we leave it to die.

“As we can’t deal with it. Yes, horrible! But we have no option but to work on injuries with more chance of survival. “I cannot describe the look on family members when they know, that their loved ones will be left to die in a hospital.”

Injured patients at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza are being ravaged by “flies” and “worms” as hygiene breaks down across wards, Maira Butt reports.

Dr Tayseer Hassan, a surgeon, said she and her colleagues were working in squalid conditions, with patients sent back to corridor floors after being operated on.

“We are dealing with mass casualties, every hour we receive tens of injured and killed, as Israel is committing massacres,” she told The Independent.

“The type of injuries we see are people who survived airstrikes and were pulled from under the rubble. So all their bodies are scratched and bleeding and full of flies. We do surgeries while the injuries are covered with flies.

“And we have worms coming out of wounds, even after we do the surgery.

“Nothing is clean, nothing is sterile. Imagine the horrific consequences. The whole hospital is full of blood and insects

“I got infections myself, just from working with patients. We are on 24-hour shifts, and then 24-hour rest.”

Children make up the “majority” of casualties at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, where the situation has been described by a surgeon working there as “beyond catastrophic”, Maira Butt reports.

Dr Tayseer Hassan said there is no capacity at the hospital and that surgeons are treating people on the floor.

“The situation is beyond catastrophic, I don’t even know where to start explaining,” she told The Independent.

“We are seeing horrific injuries, and the majority are children. The type of injuries we are seeing is not something a human mind can accept or tolerate.”

Iran said that the United States would “be hit hard” if Washington did not implement a ceasefire in Gaza, the country’s minister of defence was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Sunday.

“Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire, otherwise they will be hit hard,” Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said.

After a surprise attack by Hamas against Israel on 7 October the Israelis have sought to defeat the militant group. Iran considers the US to be “militarily-involved” in the conflict.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas told US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Ramallah on Sunday that there must be an “immediate ceasefire” and humanitarian aid allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson has said.

Mr Blinken also met with the foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, in addition to the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization on Saturday.

The US has so far declined to back a ceasefire, saying it would benefit Hamas. It is – like other Western countries – calling for a humanitarian pause in the war.

Antony Blinken reiterated the US’s commitment to providing humanitarian aid to Gaza during talks with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.

The US secretary of state also made clear that Palestinians “must not be forcibly displaced”, US State Department spokesman Mathew Millar.

The pair also discussed the “realisation of the Palestinians’ legitimate aspirations for the establishment of a Palestinian state” and their desire to restore “calm and stability” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Some 3,760 children and 2,326 women have been killed in the Gaza Strip, representing 67 per cent of all casualties, the United Nations has said.

“Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities” in he conflict, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.

180 women are giving birth a day in the Gaza strip – with 15 per cent likely to need additional medical care, the group added.

14 hospitals and 45 health centres are closed – leaving some women to give birth in shelters, in their homes and in the streets amid rubble.

The area around a hospital in Gaza has been rocked by shelling and airstrikes, a humanitarian organisation has said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said there had been “powerful explosions” in the vicinity of the Al-Quds hospital.

“The intensity of the bombardment is causing the building to shake, and emergency response teams are unable to leave due to the severity of the attacks,” it said in a statement.