A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington on Sunday afternoon, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. A U.S. Air Force spokeswoman, Ann Stefanek, confirmed Sunday evening that the man was an active-duty airman.

U.S. Secret Service officers extinguished the fire outside the embassy, ​​in northwest Washington, around 1 p.m., said Vito Maggiolo, a spokesman for the city’s fire department. The man was taken to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries and remains in critical condition.

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It was unclear where those leaving the complex could find safety, as the Israeli army has often bombed areas in Gaza that it had previously said were safe. Israeli leaders have also vowed to invade Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, which is home to more than a million people.

At the hospital, a number of medical staff were packing their belongings and preparing their families for the flight.

“We are all afraid,” said Dr. Mohammad Abu Moussa, a radiologist at Nasser. He added that while he was concerned about an attack on the hospital, he and his wife had made the difficult decision to stay put for the time being. They and their two surviving children – a third was killed in an airstrike in October – have been hospitalized for weeks.

“I have no other choice,” said Dr. Abu Moussa. “I can't go anywhere in Rafah, and I have young children and they can't walk such long distances.”

Hanin Abu Tiba, 27, an English teacher sheltering in the hospital, described the dire conditions inside, with food running out and aid convoys virtually unable to deliver supplies. In text messages that night, she said she saw an Israeli military vehicle outside the hospital gate.

“I'm terrified of leaving the hospital and being shot,” she said. But inside the complex, she said, “the electricity is out and water and canned food are running low. We don't know what to do.”

According to the Health Ministry, the Israeli army has stormed other hospitals in Gaza and detained medical staff during the four-month war.

“We are very concerned about the situation developing at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis,” said medical aid group Doctors Without Borders. said on social media Wednesday. It called on the Israeli Defense Forces “to ensure the safety of all medical personnel, patients and displaced persons.”

Rawan Sheikh Ahmad And Aaron Bokserman reporting contributed.

Israeli forces have ordered Palestinians sheltering in one of Gaza's last functioning hospitals to evacuate the complex, raising fears that troops will try to storm a facility packed with thousands of people, some of whom were shot at as they entered tried to flee. according to doctors there.

The Israeli military accused Hamas on Wednesday of carrying out military activities on the grounds of the hospital, the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, claiming the complex was “being used to hold hostages.”

Israel's claims could not be independently verified, but they indicated the increasing focus on the hospital as Israeli forces try to root out Hamas fighters from the southern city. Previous Israeli warnings to evacuate hospitals, including Al-Shifa, the largest in Gaza, often preceded military attacks on the facilities.

“We demand the immediate cessation of all military activities in the area of ​​the hospital and the immediate departure of military officers from it,” the Israeli army said. said in a statement. It called on civilians sheltering in the hospital to leave for “safer places” in southern and central Gaza. The statement did not call for patients or medical staff to leave the hospital.

Gazans have said Israeli forces regularly fire on areas where they have ordered people to flee, leaving nowhere in the enclave safe. Adding to the terror of those in the hospital, Israeli forces shot at people trying to leave the compound, killing or wounding some, according to two doctors interviewed on Tuesday.

“The situation is very dangerous,” said Khaled Al-Serr, general surgeon at the hospital. He said that just a day earlier the Israeli army had indicated that the hospital, which had been surrounded by Israeli ground forces for weeks, was safe.

Khan Younis was at the center of Israel's invasion of southern Gaza, in which airstrikes killed hundreds of civilians and soldiers and shot people in the streets, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian news media reports. Many Gazans who fled the Israeli military offensive in northern and central Gaza had sought shelter in Khan Younis, but were forced to flee again as Israeli forces moved deeper into the strip.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions about accusations that its forces shot at those who tried to flee.

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said Tuesday that “heavy fighting in Khan Younis, especially near the Nasser and Al Amal hospitals,” is endangering the safety of medical staff kept bringing.

The Israeli military says Hamas uses hospitals as fronts for its operations, a claim the group and medical officials have denied. Palestinians have sought shelter in hospitals, even as Israeli forces have regularly launched attacks on and around them and in some cases raided hospital complexes.

Nahed Abu Taeema, chief of surgery at Nasser Hospital, said explosions caused by airstrikes had moved closer to the hospital and intensified in recent days. “But we will not leave the hospital without our patients,” he said.

Many doctors and nurses, along with their relatives sheltering in the hospital, had begun packing and preparing to flee, said Dr. Al-Serr, even though the departure brought its own dangers.

There are about 8,000 people in Nasser, he said, including seriously injured patients who have injuries to their limbs and are difficult to transport.

The situation in the hospital has become increasingly dire. Israeli attacks nearby caused fires that spread to the medical equipment storage facility and the hospital's supply warehouse, leaving both almost completely engulfed in flames, said Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry. Sewage has spilled into the emergency department, hampering the treatment of patients and threatening the further spread of disease, he said.

Aaron Bokserman, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad And Farnaz Fassihi reporting contributed.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported “intense shelling” on Wednesday near the Al-Amal hospital, which it runs, and said three people had been killed in a strike outside its offices in a neighboring building. Israeli forces “surrounded” their teams and “enforced restrictions on movement” around the offices and hospital, the group said.

Gaza's Health Ministry said in a statement that the Nasser Hospital had been effectively cut off by “continuous bombardments,” preventing injured people from getting there and blocking the transfer of patients to a nearby Jordanian field hospital. This was reported by the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office his daily update Tuesday that the Jordanian hospital was also included in the evacuation area.

The three hospitals, with a total of more than 600 beds, account for a fifth of the remaining functional hospital capacity in Gaza, according to the UN. It said the evacuation area housed 88,000 residents and an estimated 425,000 displaced people, crammed into about 1.5 square meters. miles.

“The Israeli occupation is isolating the Nasser Medical Complex and endangering the lives of staff, patients and displaced persons,” Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said Late Tuesday it was reported that Nasser's staff could hear bombs and heavy gunfire, and that 850 patients and thousands of others sheltering there could not leave because the roads from the hospital were inaccessible or too dangerous. The group said it was “deeply concerned” for the safety of people.

The evacuation orders came around the same time the army said it had surrounded Khan Younis after weeks of intense fighting and bombardment. The Israeli military has said it was focusing on the hunt for Hamas leaders in the city, which is densely packed with displaced civilians who fled the northern half of the territory at the army's behest.

A Palestinian who fled Khan Younis on foot on Wednesday morning, Yafa Abu Aker, recounted a terrifying and dangerous journey under heavy bombardment.

“Our last night in Khan Younis felt like judgment day,” she said from Rafah. “We actually felt like judgment day might have been easier,” she added.

Ms. Abu Aker said she had fled three times since the war began and ended up in a refugee camp in Khan Younis because “Israel said it was a safe zone.”

But over the past three days, she said, “we are seeing violent clashes and more than 200 military aircraft flying overhead, intensively dropping dozens of bombs in all directions, along with tank shelling and gunfire.”

Ultimately, Ms. Abu Aker said she realized she had no choice but to evacuate again. “We will die if we stay and we will die if we leave,” she said, but at least by leaving she thought she could avoid the situation. 'buried under the rubble'.

In a statement on Wednesday, Israel accused Hamas of exploiting the civilian population and said the operation in Khan Younis would continue until it completed “dismantling the Hamas military framework and Hamas strongholds.”

As many as 7,000 people were believed to have sheltered on the grounds of the Nasser hospital last week, many of whom fled as the fighting intensified. The Israeli army has said mortar fire was fired at its troops from the hospital, which is the largest in southern Gaza. Her claim could not be independently verified. Israel has long said Hamas uses hospitals to hide militants and weapons.

The World Health Organization said last week that Nasser Hospital had treated 700 patients in one day alone and was struggling to care for the growing number of wounded amid escalating violence in Khan Younis.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported “intense shelling” on Wednesday near the Al-Amal hospital, which it runs, and said three people had been killed in a strike outside its offices in a neighboring building. Israeli forces “surrounded” their teams and “enforced restrictions on movement” around the offices and hospital, the group said.

Gaza's Health Ministry said in a statement that the Nasser Hospital had been effectively cut off by “continuous bombardments,” preventing injured people from getting there and blocking the transfer of patients to a nearby Jordanian field hospital. This was reported by the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office his daily update Tuesday that the Jordanian hospital was also included in the evacuation area.

The three hospitals, with a total of more than 600 beds, account for a fifth of the remaining functional hospital capacity in Gaza, according to the UN. It said the evacuation area housed 88,000 residents and an estimated 425,000 displaced people, crammed into about 1.5 square meters. miles.

“The Israeli occupation is isolating the Nasser Medical Complex and endangering the lives of staff, patients and displaced persons,” Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said Late Tuesday it was reported that Nasser's staff could hear bombs and heavy gunfire, and that 850 patients and thousands of others sheltering there could not leave because the roads from the hospital were inaccessible or too dangerous. The group said it was “deeply concerned” for the safety of people.

The evacuation orders came around the same time the army said it had surrounded Khan Younis after weeks of intense fighting and bombardment. The Israeli military has said it was focusing on the hunt for Hamas leaders in the city, which is densely packed with displaced civilians who fled the northern half of the territory at the army's behest.

A Palestinian who fled Khan Younis on foot on Wednesday morning, Yafa Abu Aker, recounted a terrifying and dangerous journey under heavy bombardment.

“Our last night in Khan Younis felt like judgment day,” she said from Rafah. “We actually felt like judgment day might have been easier,” she added.

Ms. Abu Aker said she had fled three times since the war began and ended up in a refugee camp in Khan Younis because “Israel said it was a safe zone.”

But over the past three days, she said, “we are seeing violent clashes and more than 200 military aircraft flying overhead, intensively dropping dozens of bombs in all directions, along with tank shelling and gunfire.”

Ultimately, Ms. Abu Aker said she realized she had no choice but to evacuate again. “We will die if we stay and we will die if we leave,” she said, but at least by leaving she thought she could avoid the situation. 'buried under the rubble'.

In a statement on Wednesday, Israel accused Hamas of exploiting the civilian population and said the operation in Khan Younis would continue until it completed “dismantling the Hamas military framework and Hamas strongholds.”

As many as 7,000 people were believed to have sheltered on the grounds of the Nasser hospital last week, many of whom fled as the fighting intensified. The Israeli army has said mortar fire was fired at its troops from the hospital, which is the largest in southern Gaza. Her claim could not be independently verified. Israel has long said Hamas uses hospitals to hide militants and weapons.

The World Health Organization said last week that Nasser Hospital had treated 700 patients in one day alone and was struggling to care for the growing number of wounded amid escalating violence in Khan Younis.

Israel wants to demolish many of the Palestinian buildings close to the border to create a “security zone,” said the three officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Two of the officials said Israel's goal was to create a buffer of about six-tenths of a mile along the entire length of Israel's roughly 36-mile border with Gaza. At its narrowest point the area is less than six kilometers wide.

Their aim is to make it harder for militants to repeat an attack like the one on October 7, which, according to Israeli estimates, killed and kidnapped around 1,400 people and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents of southern Israel. One of Israel's war aims is to create conditions that will convince Israeli evacuees that it is safe to return home. Some of the demolished areas are within a few hundred meters of the Israeli neighborhoods that were attacked.

When asked about the establishment of a buffer zone, the military said its forces “located and destroyed terrorist infrastructures embedded in buildings, among other things,” which they said was necessary to implement a defense plan for southern Israel .

The military's chief spokesman, Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that the fallen soldiers were involved in an operation to “create the security conditions for the return of the residents of the south to their homes.” '

The idea of ​​a buffer zone gained as much momentum in Israeli discourse as the Foreign Ministry spoke out against this in December, because it would effectively reduce the size of Gaza, a process that the US government opposes.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, echoed that objection Tuesday, when asked at a White House news briefing about Israel's moves to create a buffer zone. “We don't want to see Gaza's territory diminished in any way,” Mr. Kirby said. “We will not support that.”

However, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said during a visit to Nigeria that the United States is open to a temporary buffer zone, but only to allow Israelis who fled their homes along the Gaza border after October 7 to return to turn.

“If there are transitional arrangements needed to make that happen, then that's one thing that needs to happen,” Mr. Blinken said. “But when it comes to Gaza's permanent status in the future, we have been clear, we will remain clear about not invading its territory.”

For Palestinians, the practice is cruel and would prevent Gazans in an already overcrowded enclave from returning to their homes. Critics of Israel's policy say the practice is part of a broader disregard for civilian homes and property. According to United Nations estimates, the majority of Gaza's buildings have been damaged during the war and more than 25,000 Gazans have been killed, according to Gaza officials.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said the systematic demolition of Palestinian border homes could constitute a war crime because they do not pose a direct threat to Israel.

“There is simply no provision in the Geneva Conventions about what Israel does along the border, which is some kind of pre-emptive eviction of property,” Mr. Rajagopal said in a telephone interview.

“On a specific ownership basis, Israel can take action — but not on a widespread basis across the border,” Mr. Rajagopal said. “Israel, as an occupying power, has a duty not to engage in what is called wanton destruction of property.” The military did not respond to a request for comment on the claims.

Although Israel has never formally announced the demolition of Palestinian border homes, the concept of a buffer zone along the Gaza border has been widely discussed in the Israeli news media since early December, when the idea was reported by Reuters.

Israeli ministers have also suggested since the first weeks of the war that there are plans to create such a buffer zone. Eli Cohen, then the secretary of state, said that after the war “the territory of Gaza will also decrease.”

Days later, Avi Dichter, the Minister of Agriculture, spoke of creating “a margin” along the Gaza border. “No matter who you are, you will never be able to get close to the Israeli border,” Mr. Dichter said.

Gabby Sobelman, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Erica L. Green And Michael Crowley reporting contributed.

Children were heard screaming and pleading for their lives as bright flames licked the exterior of the Japan Airlines plane that collided with a coast guard jet on the Haneda Airport runway yesterday.

But the crew of JAL Flight 516, an Airbus A-350 carrying 367 passengers that turned into a fireball on impact, had to remain level-headed and composed to save as many lives as possible.

Their exemplary work in saving every person on board stunned the world, and experts have praised the crew for calmly using their rigorous training to save hundreds of lives.

But experts also praised the passengers for “behaving well” in the face of sheer terror.

“I don’t see a single passenger on the ground carrying their luggage in any of the videos I’ve seen,” said Professor Ed Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich. the BBC.

“If people try to take their carry-on luggage with them, it’s really dangerous because it would delay the evacuation.”

The inferno quickly engulfed the aircraft, making evacuation extremely difficult.

Only three of the inflatable slides could be used, but even these could not be deployed properly as the aircraft’s nose collapsed.

But video footage of the crash shows passengers hurling themselves down the slide without much fuss, allowing everyone to get off quickly.

The crew were also forced to use a megaphone to give calm but clear instructions to terrified passengers after the on-board tannoy system broke down during the fire.

Video shows two crew members trying to get the tannoy system working again, as children whimper and beg for their lives.

Several current and former aviation industry experts told the BBC on Tuesday that Japan Airlines’ strict training measures have saved lives.

New crew members would have to undergo evacuation and rescue training for up to three weeks before being allowed to operate commercial flights.

This training is repeated once a year to ensure that it remains fresh in the minds of the crew members.

‘We go through a written exam, case study discussions and practical training using different scenarios, such as when the aircraft has to make a water landing or if there is a fire on board. Maintenance staff are also involved in such training,” said a former flight attendant who left the company a decade ago, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Nowadays, for a passenger aircraft to be internationally certified, aircraft manufacturers must prove that it is possible for anyone to exit a plane within 90 seconds, sometimes requiring tests with real passengers.

Air accidents have often been one of the main drivers for innovations in safety technology and procedures.

A 1985 crash involving a Japan Airlines plane that killed 520 people. To date, it is the deadliest aircraft accident in history.

The crash shook up the Japanese aviation industry, and Japan Airlines in particular wanted to ensure that something like this would never happen again.

In 2005, the company realized that many joined the deadly crash without even being alive, so the following year it opened a museum near Haneda Airport displaying wreckage from the incident, with the aim of remembering employees to the fatal consequences of the crash. do a bad job.

‘Faced with the pain and grief of the relatives and the public distrust in the safety of airlines [after the 1985 crash]we promised that we would never allow such a tragic accident to happen again,” Japan Airlines wrote on the facility’s web page.

“Each staff is reminded that valuable lives and property are entrusted to us in our work.”