Health care workers hold vigil in Millennium Park, call for cease-fire in Gaza
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Health care workers came together in Millennium Park Friday evening to remember the doctors and nurses killed and kidnapped in Gaza.
The group, Healthcare Workers for Palestine, is calling for a permanent cease-fire and an end to the blockade in Gaza.
The group said 200 health care workers had been killed by Israeli airstrikes. They held a vigil near the Christmas tree in Millennium Park.
According to the World Health Organization, 36 health facilities in Gaza – including 22 hospitals – have been damaged, with only a few still operational right now.
The temporary cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas ended Friday morning after a week and both parties confirmed that hostilities had resumed. Israel accused Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel consider a terror organization, of violating the terms of the truce as it was set to expire.
Israeli war planes hit targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 109 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in the Palestinian territory, as rocket warning sirens blared in southern and northern Israel. An estimated 137 hostages were still believed to be in captivity in Gaza after 105 were released during the temporary cease-fire. They were freed in exchange for Israel's release of 240 Palestinians from prisons in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.
As the cease-fire was set to expire at 7 a.m. local time (11 p.m. Thursday Central), the Israeli military said the country's missile defense system had detected and intercepted a rocket fired toward Israeli territory from Gaza. Air raid sirens were heard in southern Israel Friday morning and schools in central Israel were told to open only if they have bomb shelters. Otherwise, classes were to be held remotely.
The government of Qatar, where negotiations have been taking place for weeks and where the terms of the cease-fire were agreed, expressed "deep regret" at the resumption of hostilities. It said "negotiations between the the two sides are continuing with the aim of returning to a pause."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his third visit to Israel since the war began, met Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and cautioned Israel to protect civilians in Gaza.
"Israel has one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world," Blinken told reporters. "It is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by Hamas while minimizing harm to innocent men, women and children. And it has an obligation to do so."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he deeply regretted that fighting had resumed in Gaza.
"I still hope that it will be possible to renew the pause that was established," Guterres said on social media. "The return to hostilities only shows how important it is to have a true humanitarian ceasefire."
Hamas said negotiations had taken place throughout the night in an effort to extend the pause in fighting for a third time, and that it had made offers including returning the bodies of a mother and her two young children who had been among the hostages seized by the group during its unprecedented Oct. 7 terror attack.
"The occupation refused to deal with all these offers, because it had made a predisposed decision to resume the criminal aggression," Hamas claimed in a statement, attributing "full responsibility" for the resumption of the war to Israel and the Biden administration for its "absolute support for Israel."