Israel's military withdraws from Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital

By Nathan Morley

Israeli troops left behind a scene of widespread destruction. The military said they had killed around 200 militants and detained about 900 suspects.

Last night, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Al Shifa hospital had become a ‘terrorist lair’ and Israeli forces surprised Hamas with precise and surgical action there.

Elsewhere, hundreds of Israeli protestors spent the night in tents outside the parliament in Jerusalem pressing their demand for Netanyahu to step down.

They accuse him of mishandling the response to the Hamas attack in October, whilst he argues that holding elections now would paralyze Israel.

On Sunday, thousands of demonstrators took part in what they claimed was the biggest anti-government demonstration since the war in the Gaza strip erupted.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in a new government of technocrats headed by his long-term economic advisor, Mohamud Mustafa. The Prime Minister, who will also serve a Foreign Minister, has been tasked with reforming the Palestinian Authority which exercises limited rule in the Israeli occupied West Bank.

The United States welcomed the new cabinet saying a revitalized Palestinian Authority was essential.