Israeli government instructs hospitals to prepare to receive thousands of casualties Six Israeli soldiers killed in an factory explosion

Israel's Health Ministry given the escalation of tension on the border with Lebanon has instructed hospitals to prepare to receive thousands of victims and work in emergency mode.

Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov has instructed all hospitals in Israel to be ready to go into emergency mode within 24 hours, if necessary, Kan TV and Radio reported.

This involves moving medical staff and patients to secure facilities, immediately discharging those being treated who can be discharged, and being ready to receive the many wounded, the broadcaster explained.

In addition, major hospitals in the northern cities of Nahariya and Safed have been instructed to prepare to operate in total isolation, when they will not be able to receive necessary equipment, medicine and food for several days, and to be ready to receive thousands of wounded and transfer them to other hospitals.

The health ministry is also working out scenarios in case of casualties among medical staff, with the possibility of calling in medics from abroad being considered. According to the broadcaster, about 7,000 Jewish medics have already volunteered to come to Israel to help.

Meanwhile, the Hezbollah movement has confirmed information that the head of the organization's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) team was killed in an Israeli attack.

According to Anadolu, Hezbollah's statement on the matter mentioned that the head of the UAV group, Ali Hussein Barji, was killed.

The Times of Israel previously reported that a senior Hezbollah commander responsible for dozens of drone attacks on northern Israel in recent months was killed in a reported Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.

Ali Hussein Barji, the commander of Hezbollah’s aerial forces in southern Lebanon, was struck in a car in the town of Khirbet Selm, moments before the nearby funeral of senior Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil, who was killed on January 8.

The IDF has not issued an official comment on the strike.

Furthermore, six Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed in an explosion at a rocket factory used by the radical Palestinian group Hamas in al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the explosive detonation occurred after an IDF tank fired at the rocket manufacturing facility. The explosion, which killed six Israeli soldiers, destroyed the workshop, which also had underground infrastructure.

With these figures, the number of soldiers killed since the start of the IDF ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has reached 185. The number of Israeli military deaths since the start of a new escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has already totalled 519, according to the army press office.

In the meantime, the international non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders has reported that Israeli security forces have arrested a total of 38 Palestinian journalists since the radical Hamas movement attacked Israelis on October 7, 2023, according to TASS.

The organization claims that the arrest of these journalists was clearly carried out with the deliberate aim of "silencing the Palestinian media."

The situation in the Middle East escalated on October 7, 2023, when thousands of armed Hamas supporters infiltrated into Israel from the Gaza Strip, attacked civilians and kidnapped more than 200 hostages. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the country was at war. A ground operation was launched, its goal was the return of hostages and the complete destruction of Hamas.

Israel decided to cut off the supply of water, food, goods, electricity and fuel to the Gaza Strip and began massive shelling.

On November 22, 2023, Israel and Hamas agreed on a humanitarian pause and the release of some hostages. During the week of the truce, Hamas returned 110 captured hostages.

On December 5, the IDF began the third part of the ground operation in the Palestinian enclave and surrounded the town of Khan Younis.