Netanyahu will undergo surgery for hernia under full sedation after Israel’s War Cabinet meet, Prime Minister’s Office announce

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo hernia surgery under general anesthesia tonight after a meeting of his war cabinet.

The proceedings come as the war in Gaza continues after Hamas terrorists launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin will officiate during the 74-year-old prime minister’s operation, the prime minister’s office said.

Doctors discovered the hernia on Saturday during a routine check-up and after consultation it was decided that the prime minister would undergo surgery after completing his daily schedule, his office said.

Netanyahu previously underwent hernia surgery in 2013 and received a pacemaker last year.

Doctors discovered the hernia on Saturday during a routine check-up. He previously underwent hernia surgery in 2013

It comes as an Israeli airstrike hit a tent camp in a hospital complex in central Gaza, killing two Palestinians and wounding another 15.

The attack hit one of the many tents in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where thousands of people have sheltered for months after fleeing their homes elsewhere in the war-torn area.

Journalists worked from nearby tents and an Associated Press reporter witnessed the strike and its aftermath.

The Israeli army said it hit a command center of the militant group Islamic Jihad and claimed the hospital’s operations were not affected.

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gaza’s hospitals since the start of the war, considering them relatively safe from airstrikes. Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of operating in and around medical facilities, and troops have raided a number of hospitals.

Israeli forces have been raiding Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, for almost two weeks, saying they have fought heavy fighting with militants in and around the medical complex. The army says it has killed dozens of fighters, including senior Hamas operatives.

Palestinian families who have fled the area, including many displaced earlier in the war, say they have been ordered to march south by Israeli soldiers after days of heavy fighting.

Only a third of Gaza’s hospitals are even partially functioning, while Israeli attacks kill and injure dozens of people every day.

Doctors say they are often forced to treat patients on hospital floors because all beds are occupied, and to operate without anesthesia and other crucial medical supplies.

Wounded Palestinian men lie on the ground at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, after the Israeli bombardment on March 31

A Palestinian boy inspects his destroyed family home after an Israeli airstrike in the Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on March 31

An international team of doctors who recently visited Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where Sunday’s strike took place, said they were shocked by the horrific impact of the war on Palestinian children.

The war began when Hamas-led terrorists stormed the border on October 7 and rampaged through southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and dragging about 250 hostages back to Gaza. Last year, more than a hundred prisoners were released in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Israel responded to the attack with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, a campaign that has driven about 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes.

The United Nations and partners have warned as early as this month that famine could break out in the devastated, largely isolated northern Gaza.

Humanitarian officials say deliveries by sea and air are not enough and that Israel should allow much more aid by road. The UN’s top court has ordered Israel to open more land border crossings and take other measures to tackle the crisis.

Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday that at least 32,782 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, including 77 whose bodies were taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours.

An injured Palestinian man lies on a stretcher in a corridor of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, after the bombing of Israel on March 31.

A view of a destroyed house after an Israeli airstrike in the Al Maghazi refugee camp, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on March 31

Humanitarian aid falls through the air towards the Gaza Strip after being dropped from a plane on March 31

The ministry’s count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it does say women and children make up about two-thirds of the dead.

Israel says more than a third of the dead were militants, although it has provided no evidence to back that up, and it blames Hamas for the civilian casualties because the group operates in residential areas.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to broker a new ceasefire and the release of hostages since January. Hamas demands that such an agreement lead to an end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces.

Netanyahu has rejected these demands, saying Israel will continue fighting until it destroys Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.

But he is under increasing pressure to reach an agreement from the hostages’ families, some of whom have joined mass demonstrations calling for early elections to replace him.

Ceasefire negotiations resumed in Cairo on Sunday, but there are few expectations of a breakthrough.