The Spanish operation to remove Spanish-Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip has concluded. This Thursday, 139 people landed at the Torrejón de Ardoz airport after spending more than a month in the south of the Palestinian enclave waiting to be evacuated.. On Monday the doors of the Rafah crossing opened for the first Spaniards with dual nationality. Three days later they are already in Spain.

85 Spanish-Palestinians and 54 family members have traveled aboard the Airbus 330 of the Air Force. The group is made up of 67 minors, three of them less than one year old, 39 women and 33 men. Although 143 people were evacuated from Gaza, four of them have decided to stay in the Egyptian capital as they have family there.

They were received on the steps of the plane by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the Chief of the Defense Staff, Teodoro Esteban López. “This was a particularly complex evacuation, because it required authorizations from Israel and Egypt,” said Albares, who wanted to emphasize Qatar's role in the evacuation.. The Foreign Minister has acknowledged that the new arrivals have been able to tell them about the horror they have experienced in Gaza: “The situation there is terrible and we do not forget all the Palestinian civilians who continue to live through the unbearable horror.”

For her part, the Minister of Defense has also stressed “how difficult the evacuation has been due to the circumstances in the area.”. Robles stated that the arrival was “emotional”, especially when several of them “thanked them for what they are doing.”. The minister added that Spain is “committed to just causes” and that the new arrivals “will find here a new homeland in which to live.”

The departure of these Spaniards from Gaza occurred this week after several failed attempts. Initially the evacuation was scheduled for the first days of November, but problems arising from the conflict itself delayed it.. This Monday the Spanish Government managed to agree to the departure of the first group of 40 Spanish-Palestinians with their families, who were joined by another 74 on Tuesday and 29 more on Wednesday.

Although there is still another group of 45 people within the Strip who registered on the lists at the last moment, Foreign Affairs has concluded this first phase of the evacuation. The departure of the rest is being processed and the date on which they could arrive in Spain is still unknown.

Personnel from the 45th group in the Air Force, the air deployment support squadron, the Medical Evacuation Unit and the Combat Command have participated in the operation to bring this 139 people.

The Al Shifa hospital, the most important in the Gaza Strip, has been completely cut off, the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian enclave reported this Thursday, a day after the Israeli Army raided the medical center, when it still housed about 3,000 civilians. “Communication has been interrupted since this morning with all officials, doctors and those present at Al Shifa hospital,” the Ministry of Health, controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, which has de facto governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, said in a statement.

The Israeli Army announced on Wednesday the start of a “precise and selective” operation inside the Al Shifa hospital, where it says it has found “a command center, weapons and technological assets” of Hamas, and this Thursday a military spokesperson confirmed to EFE that His troops “continue to search the hospital.”

As of Wednesday, some 3,000 people, including patients – including 36 newborns -, medical personnel and displaced people, were staying in the hospital despite the fact that it had already run out of electricity, drinking water, food and medicine. Some 170 unrefrigerated corpses further threatened the health situation there.

“The occupation forces destroyed medical equipment during their assault on the Al Shifa medical complex and razed the hospital courtyards,” denounced the Gaza Ministry of Health, which released a video in which medical personnel are seen transporting patients on stretchers through of a cloud of dust inside the hospital, whose facilities showed considerable damage.

For its part, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported earlier that “bulldozers and occupation vehicles broke into the complex from its southern entrance, completely leveling the entrance and destroying all vehicles in the courtyards.”

Israeli soldiers “have placed facial recognition cameras and electronic gates in the courtyard of the medical complex, forced displaced people to remove their clothes, detained and interrogated doctors, patients and displaced people,” he added, citing Palestinian sources on the scene.

This morning, the Gaza Health Ministry said that “the Israeli occupation is waging a war against hospitals, especially in Gaza City and the northern Strip, including shelling and preventing wounded and displaced people from access medical care, water and food.

Furthermore, he described the Israeli incursion in Al Shifa as a “war crime” and denounced that, during the night, “the occupation forces were entrenched in the underground floors of the Shifa medical complex, taking medical personnel and displaced people as human shields.” “.

Israeli forces have carried out bombing raids that “hit patient rooms”, attacked the coronary artery care unit with a tank shell, “deliberately destroyed radiology machines”, rendering the CT machine and MRI, according to the ministry.

Denying that the hospital functions as a command and control center for Hamas, the Health Ministry assured that Israeli soldiers detained the only electrical generator technician and the only oxygen station technician present in Al Shifa.

Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7 after a massive attack by the Islamist group that included the launching of thousands of rockets and the infiltration into Israeli territory of some 3,000 militiamen who massacred some 1,400 people and kidnapped another 240.

Since then, Israel's air, naval and ground forces have relentlessly attacked the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 11,500 dead and almost 30,000 injured, in addition to 3,600 missing under the rubble and some 1.7 million Gazans displaced, more than two thirds of the total population.

A third group of 29 Spanish-Palestinians left Gaza this Wednesday through the Rafah crossing towards Egypt, completing the exit operation for the 143 registered at the Consulate who had expressed their desire to be evacuated and for whom authorization had been processed.

This was indicated by diplomatic sources, who added that all of them will concentrate in Cairo from where they will fly to Madrid in the next few hours.

Last Monday, a total of forty Spanish-Palestinian or their relatives left Gaza, and yesterday, Tuesday, another 74 did so.

The departure of these groups has occurred with prior authorization from Israel and with the approval of Egypt, since both countries must give their green light to the departure of these people through the Rafah crossing.

The presidents of the United States, Joe Biden, and of China, Xi Jinping, began their meeting near San Francisco this Wednesday with a cordial handshake while they posed smiling in front of the cameras that sought to immortalize the moment.. Before the meeting, Xi assured his counterpart through television cameras that “planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed” as powers.

The meeting, which began after 11:15 local time (8:15 p.m. Spanish peninsular time), takes place in a mansion known as “Filoli”, which served as the image for the popular television series Dinasty (Dynasty) and located in the town of Woodside, about 40 kilometers from downtown San Francisco.

Biden was waiting at the gates of the mansion for Xi, who arrived riding in a black car. They both stopped for a moment before entering the home to wave to the media, shake hands and pose. “We have not always agreed, which is not a surprise to anyone, but our meetings have always been frank, direct and useful,” said the US president at the beginning of the meeting with Xi, highlighting the fact that there is direct contact between the two powers.

This face to face on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit will be the first in a year between the two leaders, after the one they held for about three hours in November 2022 in Bali (Indonesia) during the G20 summit.

Biden attends the meeting with the aim of resuming communications between the Armed Forces of the two countries and getting China to take measures to control the departure from its territory of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, a powerful opioid that is charged the lives of almost 200 Americans a day.

For his part, Xi will want to extract from Biden a commitment that the US will not intervene in the January presidential elections in Taiwan and will not support an eventual declaration of independence for the island, which China claims as part of its territory and which Washington could defend. in case of armed conflict.

Neither side anticipates major agreements, but they do seek to reestablish lines of communication in different areas to prevent competition between the two powers from leading to open conflict.

Months of mistrust

The two leaders have not had any type of formal communication, not even a phone call, since the meeting in Bali. That face to face ended on a positive note and was then perceived as a new chapter in bilateral relations after the tensions during Donald Trump's mandate (2017-2021), when both nations engaged in a trade war with mutual imposition of tariffs.

However, the harmony was short-lived and relations soured again after the Biden Administration shot down an alleged Chinese “spy” balloon that flew over the United States at the beginning of the year.

After that incident, there were months of mistrust, but in June a complicated diplomatic dance began to revitalize bilateral relations with the trip to Beijing of several members of the US Government, including the visit in June of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. In addition, members of the Chinese Government traveled to the US in recent months, such as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who met with Biden at the end of October.

The United States Coast Guard reported this Wednesday that it is searching for a 30-year-old crew member of the MSC Seascape cruise ship who is believed to have fallen overboard near the municipality of Aguadilla, in western Puerto Rico.

According to the statement released by the authorities, the man fell overboard from a height of approximately 9.7 meters. According to the Coast Guard, the crew member was wearing a white shirt and red shorts.

The Coast Guard received the alert at nine pm on Tuesday, when the cruise ship was heading from San Juan to Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic. The cruise ship reported that it launched a life preserver, three lifebuoys and a rescue boat to search for the tourist.

The security guards coordinated the takeoff of a Coast Guard helicopter and diverted Coast Guard personnel to the scene. Once on scene, the Coast Guard crew deployed a self-locating data buoy that measures ocean currents to assist in the search.

At approximately 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard crew reported locating the three lifebuoys that were launched from the cruise ship.

“Remember when they told us we wouldn't invade Gaza? We did.”. They told us we would not reach Gaza City. We arrived. They told us that we would not enter Al Shifa. We go in”. After several days of siege at the Al Shifa hospital, Israeli troops are already inside the facilities. This has been confirmed by the Israeli Prime Minister himself, Benjamin Netanyahu, who wanted to remind from a training base in Zikim, near the Gaza border, that his Army is fulfilling its promises.. The siege on Gaza is getting tighter every day and this Wednesday Israel asked to evacuate some communities in the south of the Strip; where hundreds of thousands of people take refuge.

According to Tel Aviv, Israeli soldiers carried out a “selective operation” inside the hospital.. According to Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli Army, the troops “found explosive devices and terrorist cells” and confronted Hamas members whom they opened to death.. During the days of siege, clashes had occurred in the vicinity of the health center, since, according to Israel, the Islamist group has a command center in the hospital. At the moment they have only acknowledged having found weapons, although they assure that in the next few hours they will bring to light evidence that will demonstrate their use by Hamas, including a network of underground tunnels.

For its part, Hamas denies having used the hospital and claims that this narrative “backed by the White House” has led to “a new massacre against civilians.” The press office of the Gaza Government, controlled by the Islamist group, has assured that Israeli troops entered with tanks, explosives, drones and heavily armed soldiers, “shooting inside”, which constitutes a “war crime.”. The general director of Health hospitals, Mohamed Zaqout, has indicated that the soldiers interrogated several hospital doctors “for hours” in side rooms and opened fire on those who left the complex.

The information coming out of the hospital is scarce and Israel's block on the entry of international media complicates verification from the field.. Palestinian media indicate that at least 200 people would be detained, including medical personnel and evacuees. Furthermore, the director of the Al Shifa medical complex, Mohamed Abu Salmiya, states that the Israeli Army is deployed in several buildings on the compound, including the dialysis department; and that medical staff cannot access the pharmacy to supply medications to patients, since “the occupation shoots at everything that moves.”

Al Shifa hospital ran out of electricity, drinking water and food days ago. It is estimated that there are about 2,000 displaced people and 650 patients, including 22 in intensive care and 36 premature babies.. Precisely this Wednesday morning, the Israeli Army shared photographs and videos delivering “incubators, baby food and medical supplies”. Likewise, its broadcast channels have claimed to have facilitated hospital evacuations.. Something that Hamas denies.

They ask to evacuate areas of the south of the Strip

While this is happening in the capital of Gaza, in the south about 2 million people are taking refuge from the ground offensive. Many of them had moved there at the request of Israel. This has not prevented daily Israeli bombings in this area; and this Wednesday the Jewish State has requested for the first time since the war began the evacuation of some communities in the south.

“For their safety, they must immediately evacuate their place of residence and go to known shelters,” the Army urged in leaflets dropped by air addressed to the eastern communities of the Khan Younis governorate: Al Qarara, Khuzaa, Bani Suheila and Abasan.

In one of the most densely populated places in the world, finding shelter has become almost impossible.. In addition, Palestinians living in Gaza cannot leave the Strip, since the borders are closed.. The only ones who have managed to escape from the enclave have been foreigners or people with dual nationality.. In fact, this Wednesday the third group of Spanish-Palestinians left through the Rafah crossing towards Egypt, made up of 29 people.. With these Spaniards on their way to Cairo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have considered the operation completed. In total there have been 143 evacuees from Gaza.

A 10-point plan to stop the conflict

The Israeli bombings – which began on October 7 after a massive attack by Hamas that left around 1,400 Israelis dead and 240 kidnapped – have caused more than 11,300 deaths and 29,200 injuries, according to the Islamist organization itself.. The humanitarian situation has become critical and the head of United Nations Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, presented this Wednesday a ten-point plan to put an end to what he considers “carnage.”

Some of the points of the document are to facilitate the efforts of aid agencies to deliver a continuous flow of aid convoys safely; open additional border crossings for the entry of commercial and aided trucks, including Kerem Shalom; and allow the UN, other humanitarian organizations and public and private entities to access fuel in sufficient quantities to deliver aid and provide basic services.

Likewise, Griffiths has called for “expanding the number of safe shelters for displaced people in schools and other public facilities in Gaza, as well as ensuring that they are safe areas during hostilities.” Finally, he called for “a humanitarian ceasefire to allow basic services and trade to restart.”

In this sense, the UN Security Council approved this Wednesday for the first time a resolution to establish pauses and humanitarian corridors.. The resolution had 12 votes in favor and three abstentions (United States, United Kingdom and Russia). The resolution calls for these pauses to last a “sufficient number of days” to allow organizations to enter with “a sufficient and unimpeded supply of essential goods and services.”. The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, has called the decision “regrettable” and has accused the UN of being “disconnected from reality”. “Hamas will not even read the resolution, much less abide by it,” he said.

One person was killed and seven others were injured this Wednesday in a Russian missile attack against an inhabited area in the Zaporizhzhia region, located in southeastern Ukraine.

“Between 9:50 and 10:18, Russian terrorists launched three missile attacks against civilian infrastructure in a residential area of the Zaporizhzhia district.. As a result, one person has died and seven others have been injured,” wrote the head of the military administration of the area, Yuri Malashko, on his Telegram channel.

The Russian missiles and the shock wave caused by their explosion have damaged several homes, two vehicles and the buildings of a farm in the area, as explained by this same source.

The province of Zaporizhia is currently partially occupied by Russia and is the scene of some of the bloodiest battles on the entire front line.. Towns and cities in the region are the target of constant bombing.