Israel-Hamas war: UNRWA calls Gaza ‘hell on earth’ as fighting goes on

Israel-Hamas war: UNRWA calls Gaza ‘hell on earth’ as fighting goes on

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Israel Hamas war, Palestine, refugee children, The Gaza Strip

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Hamas: No hostage will leave Gaza ‘alive’ without ‘negotiations’

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades has announced that Israeli captives, taken during the attack on 7 October, will not be released by military force.

“We tell the Israelis that Netanyahu, Gallant, and others in the war cabinet cannot bring back their captives without negotiations. The latest killing of a captive they tried to take back by force proves that,” he said in a pre-recorded video message.

Gaza health ministry: 18,000 Palestinians killed since start of war

The Hamas-led Gaza health ministry has announced that some 18,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war broke out on 7 October.

That number is up from the figure of 17,700 reported yesterday.

The health ministry recorded a further 297 deaths and more than 550 injuries over the past 24 hours.

The ministry also added a total of 49,500 people have been injured since the start of the conflict.

The figures have not been independently verified. Israeli officials repeatedly say they believe the number to be significantly lower, accusing Hamas of inflating estimates.

Thousands of Moroccans take to the streets to denounce Gaza ‘genocide’

Several thousand of Moroccans have taken to the streets of Rabat, demonstrating to denounce a “genocide” in Gaza and demand a break in relations with Israel.

A large crowd marched in the centre of the capital, behind a large banner declaring “against the Holocaust in Gaza” and for “repealing normalisation”.

Since the end of 2020, the kingdom has established all-out relations with Israel in return for the recognition by the United States of Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs, demonstrators marched against “war crimes and genocide” in Gaza at the call of the “national action group for Palestine”, bringing together left-wing groups and the Islamist Party of justice and development.

UN: Food ‘used as weapon of war’ in Gaza

UNRWA’s commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini has claimed that, in Gaza, “humanitarian aid has been made conditional. Humanitarian assistance is withheld or delivered according to political and military agendas to which the United Nations is not privy”.

The head of the UN agency providing relief to Palestinian refugees was writing an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times.

He added that “food, water and fuel are being systematically used as weapons of war in Gaza, as is disinformation”.

“Attacking and trying to discredit humanitarian organisations such as [UNRWA] is yet another means of waging war and compromising the humanitarian response, further weakening the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure,” Lazzarini added.

In the article, he also wrote that “humanitarian aid is a strategic dimension of foreign policy and diplomatic competition – an instrument of power and war.  In Gaza, humanitarian assistance is being manipulated to serve political and military objectives, another breach among many in this war”.

Netanyahu expresses ‘dissatisfaction’ to Putin over Russian vote at UN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his “dissatisfaction” to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday after Russia voted in favour of a ceasefire between Palestinian Hamas and Israel in Gaza at the UN Security Council.

“The Prime Minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the anti-Israel positions adopted by Russian delegates at the UN and other forums,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said, following a telephone conversation between the two leaders.

The statement also added that Netanyahu “strongly criticised the dangerous cooperation between Russia and Iran”.

The comments come as Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, says “Hamas attacks do not justify punishment of Palestinian people”.

Saying it is not acceptable for Israel to use Hamas’s attack on 7 October as justification for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, he added that the offensive “did not happen in a vacuum”.

He also renewed calls for international monitoring on the ground in Gaza.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has blamed the war between Israel and Hamas on the apparent failure of years of US diplomacy in the Middle East on a frequent basis.

Experts say he’s keen to position Russia as an important player within the region.

Guterres deplores UN ‘paralysis’ over Gaza

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has deplored the “paralysis” of the United Nations in the face of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying he regretted that the Security Council had not voted in favour of a ceasefire.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Guterres said the Security Council was “paralysed by geostrategic divisions”, thus compromising its ability to find solutions to the war.

“The authority and credibility of the Security Council have been seriously compromised” by its late response to the conflict, a damage to its reputation aggravated by the veto opposed Friday by the United States to a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, he said.

The draft resolution was prepared after the UN Secretary General’s unprecedented invocation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, allowing him to draw the attention of the Security Council to a matter which “could endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.

“I reiterated my call to declare a humanitarian ceasefire… unfortunately, the Security Council failed to do so,” Guterres said, adding, “I can promise that I will not give up.”

The Americans, the closest allies of Israel, reiterated their hostility to a cease-fire on Friday.

“We are at serious risk of the collapse of the humanitarian system,” Guterres also warned at the Doha forum.

“The situation is rapidly evolving into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for the Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.”

War in Gaza is having ‘catastrophic’ impact on health – WHO boss

The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is having a “catastrophic” impact on health, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has said.

“The impact of the conflict on health is catastrophic” and health workers are “doing their best in unimaginable conditions”, he said, at the opening of a special WHO meeting on sanitary conditions in the Palestinian territories.

Fighting ramps up further still as US lends support

Heavy fighting raged into Sunday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more munitions to its close ally.

Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee.

The United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support. They have also pushed through an emergency sale of over $100 million (€93m) worth of tank ammunition to Israel.

The US has pledged unwavering support for Israel’s goal of crushing Hamas’ military and governing abilities in order to prevent any repeat of the 7 October attack that triggered the war.

Israeli forces continue to face heavy resistance, even in northern Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where troops have been operating for over six weeks.

In Khan Younis, where ground forces moved in earlier this month, residents said they heard constant gunfire and explosions through the night as warplanes bombarded areas in and around the southern city, Gaza’s second largest.

Situation in Gaza ‘hell on earth’ – UNRWA chief

Speaking at the Doha Forum currently taking place in Qatar, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has called for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire while decrying the devastating humanitarian toll in Gaza. He also warned that the region is akin to “hell on earth”.

“By any description, it is definitely the worst situation I have ever seen,” Philippe Lazzarini said.

“People are coming to the UN to seek protection, but even the blue flag is not protected anymore. By any account, the situation has reached a catastrophic nature,” he added.

Lazzarini said the world has failed the Palestinian people, also warning that the UNRWA is on the verge of collapse in Gaza..

Nowhere safe for Gazans to go?

Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people are believed to have remained there, fearing that the south would be no safer or that they would never be allowed to return to their homes.

With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying it uses civilians as human shields in dense residential areas. The military says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive. Palestinian militants have also continued firing rockets into Israel.

Israel says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it continues to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of the territory. Thousands have fled to the southern town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt in recent days – one of the last areas where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water.

Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an overnight temperature of around 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit).

Alleged antisemitic attack in New York sees Shtreimel stolen from Jewish man

A neighbourhood watch group – Boro Park Shomrim – in New York city has released footage appearing to show a motorcyclist snatching and stealing a shtreimel hat from a Hasidic man in Brooklyn, a district of New York City.

The group alleged the attack was an antisemitic incident and urge anyone with information to get in touch with the local police force.

Detentions of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers increase

In recent days, videos and photos have emerged showing the detention of dozens of men who were stripped to their underwear, bound and blindfolded. The Israeli military says it is detaining people as it searches for remaining pockets of Hamas fighters.

Israel’s Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear with their hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man could be seen slowly walking forward and placing a gun on the ground before returning to the group. Israeli media pointed to such scenes as evidence that Hamas was collapsing in the north.

Men from a separate group of detainees who were released on Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water.

Osama Oula said Israeli troops had ordered him and others out of a building in Gaza City before bounding their hands with zip ties, beating them for several days and giving them little water to drink. Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his hands, marked and swollen from the zip ties.

He said the troops asked if they were with Hamas. “We say ‘no,’ then they would slap us or kick us.” He said his 17-year-old son Amjad is still held by the troops.

The group was released after five days and told to walk south. Ten freed detainees arrived at a hospital in Deir al-Balah on Saturday after flagging down an ambulance. The Israeli military had no comment when asked about the alleged abuse.

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Israel-Hamas war: Gaza death toll rises as US ceasefire veto condemned

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza City, Hamas, Israel, Israel Hamas war, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Gaza death toll rises to 17,700 with a further 48,780 wounded

The health ministry in Gaza has announced that the death toll in the war-torn region has risen to at least 17,700.

They added that at least another 48,780 people have been wounded in ongoing Israeli attacks.

“The crimes and genocide against the people of Gaza are beyond any description… Ending Palestinian existence with American and European support is inhuman,” the ministry’s spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

UN aid official warns that half of all Gazans are starving

A senior UN aid official has indicated that the food and aid issues are getting significantly worse in Gaza.

Carl Skau, the deputy director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), warned during an interview with Reuters that some nine out of 10 people in the Palestinian territory are not able to eat every day – and added that half the population is starving.

In the interview, Skau explained that nothing had prepared him for the despair, chaos and fear he found when visiting Gaza.

He added that conditions on the ground are making deliveries near impossible and that just a tiny fraction of the food supplies needed are coming into the region.

Tens of thousands take to London’s street to protest war

For the eighth week in a row, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of the UK, protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza in London and other cities in the nation.

Most are chanting ‘ceasefire now’ and the majority of the grounds are angry with the government, moreso still since they abstain from voting at the UN Security Council on an immediate ceasefire.

Hamas hostage killed – Haaretz report

It has been reported that Hamas hostage Sahar Baruch has been killed.

The 25-year-old was among the hostages kidnapped by the Hamas militant group on 7 October.

In a joint statement issued to Haaretz, Kibbutz Be’eri and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said: “It is with great sadness and a broken heart that we announce the murder of Sahar Baruch who was kidnapped from his home by Hamas terrorists to Gaza on Black Saturday and murdered there”

“His brother Idan was murdered by Hamas on 7 October. We share in the unbearable grief of his parents, Tami and Roni, his brother, Guy and Niv, his family and all his loved ones,” they added.

“We will demand the return of his body as part of any hostage return deal. We will not stop until everyone is at home.”

The death comes following Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades announcing on Friday via Telegram that a number of its fighters had discovered a special forces unit mounting a rescue attempt and attacked it.

In the process, they say they killed and wounded several soldiers, including one Israeli soldier – named as Sahar Baruch.

Man arrested at pro-Palestine march in London, accused of racially aggravated public order offence

A man has been arrested in London on suspicion of an apparently racially aggravated public order offence during a pro-Palestine march in the capital city.

London’s Metropolitan police force say the man was carrying a placard which made comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.

Thousands are expected to attend the march in the city. An exclusion zone has been put in place prohibiting any protesters from assembling around the Israeli embassy.

UN veto: Abbas holds US ‘responsible for bloodshed’ in Gaza

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he holds the United States “responsible for the bloodshed” in Gaza, after their veto of a UN resolution for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in the Palestinian territory.

The Americans, allies of Israel, reiterated their hostility to a cease-fire on Friday.

Describing the American position as “immoral”, President Abbas said he held Washington “responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and elderly people in the Gaza Strip at the hands of Israeli occupying forces.”

According to a statement from his office, the United States is “partners” with Israel in its “crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war”, whether committed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

“This policy is becoming a danger for the world and a threat to international security and peace,” added Mr. Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by Israel.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh had already described the failure at the UN as a “shame” and “a new licence given to the occupying state to massacre, destroy and displace”.

Palestinian death toll rises to 17,487

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry has announced that the death toll from the start of the conflict on 7 October has risen to 17,487.

In a statement, spokesman Dr Ashraf Al-Qedra said that 70% of those killed were children and women.

Al-Qedra added that in the past 24 hours 71 fatalities had arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Arab-Islamic committee calls on US to step up ceasefire pressure on Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with the Arab-Islamic Summit Ministerial Committee in Washington DC.

Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs says the Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani were also in attendance.

“During the session… members of the ministerial committee stressed their call for the United States to play a broader role in pressuring the Israeli occupation for an immediate ceasefire,” the ministry said in a statement on X – formerly Twitter.

It also added that members of the committee also expressed “their disappointment at the failure of the UN Security Council, for the second time, to vote on a resolution for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for humanitarian reasons, after the United States used its veto power.”

‘Relentless’ bombardments hit Gaza Strip

Israeli warplanes struck parts of the Gaza Strip overnight into Saturday in relentless bombardments, including some of the dwindling slivers of land Palestinians had been told to evacuate to in the territory’s south.

The latest strikes came a day after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, despite it being backed by the vast majority of Security Council members and many other nations. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining.

“Attacks from air, land and sea are intense, continuous and widespread,” UN

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said before the vote. Gaza residents “are being told to move like human pinballs – ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival.”

Guterres told the council that Gaza was at “a breaking point” with the humanitarian support system at risk of total collapse, and that he feared “the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region.”

In response to the US vetoing the resolution, Hamas branded the nation’s decision ‘inhumane’.

No escape for many Palestinians

Gaza’s borders with Israel and with Egypt are effectively sealed, leaving Palestinians with no option other than to try to seek refuge within the territory.

The overall death toll in Gaza since the start of the war has surpassed 17,400, the majority of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, accusing the militants of using civilians as human shields, and says it’s made considerable efforts with its evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm’s way.

On Saturday, Gaza residents reported airstrikes and shelling in the northern part of the strip as well as in the south, including the city of Rafah, which lies near the Egyptian border and where the Israeli army had ordered civilians to evacuate to.

The main hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 71 people killed in bombings in the area over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said Saturday morning. The hospital also received 160 wounded, the ministry said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the bodies of 62 people and another 99 wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

Why has there been no ceasefire – or renewed truce agreement?

More than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed since the collapse of the truce on 1 December.

About two-thirds of that number were women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Despite growing international pressure, the Biden administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to survive and pose a threat to Israel.

Officials have expressed misgivings in recent days about the rising civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis, but have not pushed publicly for Israel to wind down the war, now in its third month.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has argued a cease-fire would be a victory for Hamas. “A cease-fire is handing a prize to Hamas, dismissing the hostages held in Gaza, and signalling terror groups everywhere,” he said.

As fighting resumed after a brief truce more than a week ago, the US urged Israel to do more to protect civilians and allow more aid to besieged Gaza. The appeals came as Israel expanded its blistering air and ground campaign into southern Gaza, especially the southern city of Khan Younis, sending tens of thousands more fleeing.

Airstrikes were reported overnight in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where resident Omar Abu Moghazi said a strike hit a family home, causing casualties.

There were also airstrikes and shelling in Gaza City and other northern parts of the strip.

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Israel Hamas war: Israel widens evacuation orders as strikes intensify

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza attack, Hamas, Israel Hamas war, Kamala Harris, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel’s military has ordered more areas in and around Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis to evacuate, as it shifted its offensive to the southern half of the territory where it says many Hamas leaders are hiding.

Heavy bombardments were reported overnight and into Sunday in the area of Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, as well as parts of the north that had previously been the focus of Israel’s blistering air and ground campaign.

Many of the territory’s 2.3 million people are crammed into the south after Israeli forces ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the 2-month-old war.

With the resumption of fighting, hopes have receded that another temporary truce could be negotiated. A weeklong cease-fire, which expired on Friday, had facilitated the release of dozens of Gaza-held Israeli and foreign hostages and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

“We will continue the war until we achieve all its goals, and it’s impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address on Saturday night.

UK to carry out flights over Gaza to locate hostages

The United Kingdom will carry out surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza to help locate hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the British Ministry of Defence has announced.

“Since the terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, the British government has been working with partners across the region to secure the release of hostages, including British nationals, who were kidnapped,” the ministry wrote in a statement.

“The safety of British nationals is our top priority,” it adds.

“To support hostage rescue operations, the UK Ministry of Defense will carry out surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean, including airspace over Israel and Gaza,” the statement said.

These planes “will not be armed” and “will not have a combat role”. Their sole mission will be to locate the hostages. “Only information relating to the release of hostages will be transmitted to the competent authorities responsible for the release of hostages.”

Some 240 people were kidnapped on 7 October during Hamas’ unprecedented deadly attack in southern Israel, then taken to the Gaza Strip.

A seven-day truce allowed the release of around a hundred hostages in the hands of Hamas and 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

But nearly 140 people are still detained in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.

Evacuation orders step up

On Sunday, the Israeli military widened evacuation orders in and around Khan Younis, asking residents of at least five more areas and neighbourhoods to leave for their safety.

Residents said the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering residents to move south to Rafah or to a coastal area in the southwest.

“Khan Younis city is a dangerous combat zone,” the leaflets read.

UN monitors said in a report issued before the latest evacuation orders that the residents who were told to leave make up about one-quarter of the territory of Gaza. The report said that these areas were home to nearly 800,000 people before the war.

Ahead of a resumption of fighting, the United States, Israel’s closest ally, had warned Israel to avoid significant new mass displacement.

New targets hit by IDF

The Israeli military said on Sunday that its fighter jets and helicopters “struck terror targets in the Gaza Strip, including terror tunnel shafts, command centres and weapons storage facilities” overnight, while a drone killed five Hamas fighters.

In northern Gaza, rescue teams with little equipment scrambled Sunday to dig through the rubble of buildings in the Jabaliya refugee camp and other neighbourhoods in Gaza City in search for potential survivors and dead bodies.

“They strike everywhere,” said Amal Radwan, a woman sheltering in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp. “There is the non-stop sound of explosions around us.”

Mohamed Abu Abed, who lives in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City, also said there were relentless airstrikes and artillery shelling in his neighbourhood and surrounding areas.

“The situation here is imaginable,” he said. “Death is everywhere. One can die in a flash.”

US Vice President condemns death toll rise

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that the overall death toll in the strip since the 7 October start of the war had surpassed 15,200 – a sharp jump from the previous count of more than 13,300 on 20 November.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but it said 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people had been wounded since the war began.

US appeals to protect civilians came after an offensive in the first weeks of the war devastated large areas of northern Gaza.

The territory itself, bordering Israel and Egypt to the south, is sealed, leaving residents with the only option of moving around within Gaza to avoid the bombings.

“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,” US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Saturday during the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Netanyahu, said Israel was making “maximum effort” to protect civilians and the military has used leaflets, phone calls, and radio and TV broadcasts to urge Gazans to move from specific areas. He added that Israel is considering creating a security buffer zone that would not allow Gazans direct access to the border fence on foot.

Israel say they are targeting Hamas hideouts, allegedly among civilians

Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighbourhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says at least 78 of its soldiers have been killed in the offensive in northern Gaza.

Bombardments on Saturday destroyed a block of about 50 residential buildings in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City and a six-story building in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya on the northern edge of the city, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

More than 60 people were killed in the Shijaiyah strikes and more than 300 buried under the rubble, the monitors said, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense, said rescuers lack bulldozers and other equipment to reach those buried under the rubble, confirming the Red Crescent estimate of about 300 people missing. He said the block had housed over 1,000 people.

“Retrieving the martyrs is extremely difficult,” he said in video comments from the site of the attack.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in a meeting that “under no circumstances” would the US permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders, according to a US summary.

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Israel-Hamas war: Bombing of Gaza intensifies as death toll grows

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza attack, Hamas, Israel Hamas war, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Further truces are unlikely to go ahead – reports

In the clearest sign yet that a return to negotiations for further truces is unlikely, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed negotiators to return to Israel from Qatar.

They had been continuing discussions in Qatar on a new truce with Hamas but were called back to Israel because the dialogue was “at an impasse”, according to Netanyahu’s office.

Kamala Harris speaks out on ongoing conflict

US Vice President Kamala Harris, in Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, has said in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that “under no circumstances” would the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza or redrawing of its borders.

Harris was expected to outline proposals with regional leaders to “put Palestinian voices at the centre” of planning the next steps for Gaza after the conflict, according to the White House. President Joe Biden’s administration has emphasised the need for an eventual two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting.

Israelis call for Benjamin Netanyahu to resign

Thousands of Israeli protesters in Caesarea are protesting outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for him to step down.

Over the past few weeks, demonstrators have been gathering in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Caesarea to protest what they believe is Netanyahu’s mishandling of the case of hostages being held in Gaza.

On Saturday, at the same time the demonstration was going on outside Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea, another was taking place in Tel Aviv, also demanding that the Israeli prime minister resign his post.

Gaza says fatalities surpass 15,200 – 70% of them women and children

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza has announced the death toll has surpassed 15,200 and that 70% of those killed were women and children.

The figure was announced on Saturday by ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra, who did not provide further details.

The previous toll given by the ministry was more than 13,300 dead. Al-Qidra did not explain the sharp jump. However, the ministry had only been able to provide sporadic updates since 11 November amid problems with connectivity and major war-related disruptions in hospital operations. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

More than 40,000 people have been wounded, al-Qidra said.

Aid trucks enter Rafah crossing for first time since truce ended

A fresh batch of aid trucks has entered through the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing for the first time since the seven-day truce in Gaza ended, the Palestinian Red Crescent has announced.

“The Palestine Red Crescent crews have now received aid trucks through the Rafah crossing from our partners in the Egypt Red Crescent,” PRCS posted on X – formerly Twitter.

No aid trucks were able to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday as Israel immediately renewed its attacks on the besieged enclave following the conclusion of the truce.

Israel resumes heavy bombing post-truce

Israel has been pounding targets in the southern Gaza Strip, intensifying a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas and giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties.

At least 400 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed on Friday morning, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, even as the United States urged ally Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians.

“This is going to be very important going forward,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai, wrapping up his third Middle East tour since the war started. “It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.”

Many of Israel’s attacks on Saturday were focused on the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, where the military said it had struck more than 50 Hamas targets with airstrikes, tank fire and its navy.

Leaflet drops resume – but nowhere for Gazans to go

The IDF dropped leaflets on Friday warning residents to leave but, as of late on Friday, there had been no reports of large numbers of people leaving, according to the United Nations.

“There is no place to go,” lamented Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from the northern town of Beit Lahia a month ago to seek refuge in Khan Younis.

“They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south.”

Israel’s military said it also carried out strikes in the north, and hit more than 400 targets in all across the Gaza Strip.

Some 2 million people – almost Gaza’s entire population – are currently crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war’s start.

Unable to go into north Gaza or neighbouring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometre area.

UN criticises IDF’s evacuation ‘plan’

In response to US calls to protect civilians, the Israeli military released an online map, but it has done more to confuse than to help.

It divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered, haphazardly drawn parcels, sometimes across roads or blocks, and asks residents to learn the number of their location in case of an eventual evacuation.

“The publication does not specify where people should evacuate to,” the UN office for coordinating humanitarian issues in the Palestinian territory noted in its daily report. “It is unclear how those residing in Gaza would access the map without electricity and amid recurrent telecommunications cuts.”

Egypt has expressed concerns the renewed offensive could cause Palestinians to try to cross into its territory. In a statement late on Friday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the forced transfer of Palestinians “is a red line.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris, who was in Dubai on Saturday for the COP28 climate conference, was expected to outline proposals with regional leaders to “put Palestinian voices at the centre” of planning the next steps for the Gaza Strip after the conflict, according to the White House. US President Joe Biden’s administration has been emphasising the need for an eventual two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting.

What will become of the remaining hostages?

The renewed hostilities have also heightened concerns for 136 hostages who, according to the Israeli military, are still held captive by Hamas and other militants after 105 were freed during the truce. For families of remaining hostages, the truce’s collapse was a blow to hopes their loved ones could be the next out after days of seeing others freed.

The Israeli army said on Friday it had confirmed the deaths of four more hostages, bringing the total of known dead to seven.

During the truce, Israel freed 240 Palestinians from its prisons. Most of those released from both sides were women and children.

A halt on humanitarian aid

Hundreds of thousands of people fled northern Gaza to Khan Younis and other parts of the south earlier in the war, part of an extraordinary mass exodus that has left three-quarters of the population displaced and facing widespread shortages of food, water and other supplies.

Since the resumption of hostilities, no aid convoys or fuel deliveries have entered Gaza, and humanitarian operations within Gaza have largely halted, according to the UN

The International Rescue Committee, an aid group operating in Gaza, warned the return of fighting will “wipe out even the minimal relief” provided by the truce and “prove catastrophic for Palestinian civilians.”

Up until the truce began, more than 13,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s assault, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The toll is likely much higher, as officials have only sporadically updated the count since 11 November.

The ministry says thousands more people are feared dead under the rubble.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighbourhoods. Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive in northern Gaza. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.

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Israel-Hamas war: Further hostage swaps expected as ceasefire holds

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Hostages, Israel Hamas war, Palestine, The Gaza Strip

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

PRCS: Palestinian killed in refugee camp Gaza despite truce

The Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) says a Palestinian farmer has been killed and another injured in the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza strip.

It appears they were targeted by Israeli forces but there has been no immediate comment from Israel about the incident.

The death comes during an ongoing four-day truce deal agreed by Hamas and Israel, which began on Friday.

That day, at least two Palestinians are thought to have been killed by Israeli forces while they were making the journey to northern Gaza.

Israel tells Palestinians not to move north in Gaza amid truce

Israel’s military has asked Palestinians not to move to the north of the Gaza Strip during the ongoing four-day truce.

Following its start on Friday, the IDF took to social media to warn civilians that they must not move to the north of the Strip, but tells them they are “allowed to move south”, specifically south of Wadi Gaza.

The IDF also added that both getting within one kilometre of the Israeli border is also prohibited as is entering the sea.

Hamas confirms death of top military leader and three commanders

The armed wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas has announced the death of the military commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade and three other senior figures during the Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory.

Ahmed al-Ghandour was also a member of the Hamas Military Council and was considered a “terrorist” by American authorities. Among the three other executives named in the press release is Ayman Siam, Hamas’ head of the rocket firing array.

New exchange of hostages for prisoners planned for the third day of truce

A new exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinian prisoners is planned for Sunday, the third day of the truce between Israel and the Islamist movement in power in Gaza, after two previous swaps.

As a sign of the fragility of the truce, Saturday’s releases were delayed by several hours, with Hamas accusing Israel of not respecting the terms of the agreement concluded on Wednesday with the backing of Qatar and the support of the United States and Egypt.

The Israeli government said it had a list of those kidnapped who were to be released on Sunday, but did not reveal their identity, number or expected time.

Israeli forces kill at least 8 Palestinians in surging West Bank violence – despite truce

Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank have killed at least eight Palestinians in a 24-hour period, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday, as a fragile pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip entered its third day.

Violence in the West Bank has surged in the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.

Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians and arrested hundreds in the West Bank. Jewish West Bank settlers have also stepped up attacks.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed in the militant stronghold of Jenin, while three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning – despite the truce. One of those killed, in al-Bireh in the central West Bank, was a teenager, the ministry said.

The Israeli military said forces entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest a Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli father and son at a West Bank car wash earlier in the year. In its statement on Sunday, the military made no mention of clashes, nor of the Palestinian deaths, but said forces were still operating in the area.

Second day of hostage swap goes ahead in tense exchange

Hamas militants have released 17 hostages – including 13 Israelis – from captivity in the Gaza Strip, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage of a four-day cease-fire.

The late night exchange on Saturday was held up for several hours after Hamas accused Israel of violating their agreement. The delay underscored the fragility of the cease-fire, which has halted a war that has shocked and shaken Israel, caused widespread destruction across the Gaza Strip, and threatened to unleash wider fighting across the region.

The ceasefire, brokered by Qatar and the United States, is the first extended break in fighting since the war began. Overall, Hamas is to release at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners. All are women and minors.

Israel has said the truce can be extended by an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed, but has vowed to quickly resume its offensive and complete its goals of returning all hostages and destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.

The plight of the hostages has gripped the Israeli public’s attention. Thousands of people gathered in central Tel Aviv on Saturday in solidarity with the hostages and their families. Many accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring the hostages home. The releases have triggered mixed emotions: happiness, coupled with angst over the scores of hostages who remain in captivity.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced early on Sunday that it had received a new list of hostages slated to be released later in the day in the third of four scheduled swaps.

In the West Bank, hundreds of people burst into wild celebrations for a second night as a busload of Palestinian prisoners arrived early Sunday. Teenage boys released in the deal were carried on the shoulders of well-wishers in the main square of the town of Al Bireh. But the mood of celebration was dampened by scenes of destruction and suffering in Gaza.

The start of the pause brought quiet for 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, who are reeling from relentless Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands, driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and levelled residential areas. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel also went silent.

The United Nations said the pause enabled it to scale up the delivery of food, water, and medicine to the largest volume since the resumption of aid convoys on Oct. 21. It was also able to deliver 129,000 litres (about 35,000 gallons) of fuel – just over 10% of the daily pre-war volume – as well as cooking gas, a first since the war began.

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Israel-Hamas war: IDF claim tunnel discovery under Shifa hospital

Post By World Al Shifa hospital, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Israel, Israel Hamas war, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels hijack an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea, taking crew members hostage

Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in a crucial Red Sea shipping route on Sunday, officials said, taking over two dozen crew members hostage and raising fears that regional tensions heightened over the Israel-Hamas war were playing out on a new maritime front.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel and took the crew as hostages. The group warned that it would continue to target ships in international waters that were linked to or owned by Israelis until the end of Israel’s campaign against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

“All ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets,” the Houthis said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had blamed the Houthis for the attack on the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier affiliated with an Israeli billionaire. It said the 25 crew members had a range of nationalities, including Bulgarian, Filipino, Mexican and Ukrainian, but that no Israelis had been on board.

The Houthis said they were treating the crew members “in accordance with their Islamic values,” but did not elaborate on what that meant.

Netanyahu’s office condemned the seizure as an “Iranian act of terror.” The Israeli military called the hijacking a “very grave incident of global consequence.”

Israeli officials insisted the ship was British-owned and Japanese-operated. However, ownership details in public shipping databases associated the ship’s owners with Ray Car Carriers, which was founded by Abraham “Rami” Ungar, who is known as one of the richest men in Israel.

Ungar told The Associated Press he was aware of the incident but couldn’t comment as he awaited details. A ship linked to him experienced an explosion in 2021 in the Gulf of Oman. Israeli media blamed it on Iran at the time.

The complex world of international shipping often involves a series of management companies, flags and owners stretching across the globe in a single vessel.

Two US defence officials confirmed that Houthi rebels seized the Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea on Sunday afternoon local time. The rebels descended on the cargo ship by repelling down from a helicopter, the officials said, confirming details first reported by NBC News. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the matter.

Twice in the last month, US warships have intercepted missiles or drones from Yemen that were believed to be headed towards Israel or posing a threat to the American vessels.

The Red Sea, stretching from Egypt’s Suez Canal to the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait separating the Arabian Peninsula from Africa, remains a key trade route for global shipping and energy supplies. That’s why the US Navy has stationed multiple ships in the sea since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.

Since 2019, a series of ships have come under attack at sea as Iran began breaking all the limits of its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. As Israel expands its devastating campaign against Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip following the militant group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel, fears have grown that the military operations could escalate into a wider regional conflict.

The Houthis have repeatedly threatened to target Israeli ships in the waters off Yemen.

Israeli army claims it has discovered 55-metre-long tunnel under Shifa hospital

The Israeli army has said that it has discovered a 55 metre long tunnel used “for terrorism” by Hamas under the besieged Shifa hospital in Gaza.

The IDF says it has been searching since Wednesday to find a Hamas military base.

Posting a video of the discovery on X – formerly Twitter – they claim the tunnel is ten metres deep, with a steep staircase leading to the entrance. The IDF also added in a press release that the tunnel is equipped with several means of defence including an armoured door.

“This type of gate is used by Hamas organisation terrorists to prevent Israeli forces from entering command centres,” the IDF claimed.

The tunnel was apparently discovered in an area of the hospital under a hangar containing weapons, including “grenade launchers, explosives and Kalashnikov rifles”, the army said.

Israeli forces have besieged the hospital since Wednesday, leading to the evacuation of a large number of its patients.

The army claims that Hamas has a hideout there, which the movement denies.

Volker: ‘Horrific events’ in Gaza ‘beyond comprehension’

The “horrific events” that have taken place in Gaza over the past 48 hours “are beyond comprehension”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said on Sunday.

“The killing of so many people in schools turned into shelters, hundreds fleeing al-Shifa hospital to save their lives while thousands of others continue to be displaced in southern Gaza, are actions that run counter to the basic protections that international law must afford civilians,” he warned in a statement.

France to send Dixmude helicopter carrier for hospital support

France is preparing to send the Dixmude helicopter carrier to the Middle East “in the coming days”, configured to offer “hospital support” to Gaza, the Elysée declared on Sunday.

The Dixmude will set off “at the beginning of the week” and “will arrive in Egypt in the coming days”, a spokesperson for the French president said.

“A new charter of a plane carrying more than 10 tonnes of medical cargo for the start of the week” was also announced.

“France will also contribute to the European effort with medical equipment on board European flights on November 23 and 30,” the Elysée said, adding, “France is mobilising all the means at its disposal to help evacuate injured or sick children from the Gaza Strip to its hospitals who need urgent care.”

Emmanuel Macron met with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on Saturday.

They discussed the pressing situation of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and the ongoing negotiations.

Macron and his Egyptian counterpart are said to have agreed on: “the need to increase the number of trucks entering Gaza and to strengthen coordination for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the treatment of the wounded.”

Palestinian Authority will meet with Muslim leaders in China on Monday

A delegation of foreign ministers from the Palestinian Authority and four predominantly Muslim countries will visit China on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza, Beijing announced on Sunday.

The foreign ministers of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia – a non-Arab country but with the largest Muslim population in the world – as well as the secretary general of the The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will be part of the delegation.

“During the visit, China will maintain in-depth communication and coordination with the delegation… to promote de-escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, protection of civilians and a fair settlement of the Palestinian issue,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan against Israel’s bombing in Gaza

Tens of thousands of supporters from Pakistan’s main religious political party have rallied in the eastern city of Lahore against Israel’s bombing of Palestinians in Gaza and what it said is the world’s failure to protect Gazans.

Amid anti-Israeli and anti-American slogans the emotionally charged crowd also called for jihad, or holy war.

Earlier this month, Jamaat-e-Islami held massive rallies in the port city of Karachi and the capital, Islamabad.

Supporters, including women and children, marched for several kilometres to reach the location of the rally, holding banners and posters with slogans opposing Israel and the United States and in support of the Palestinians.

Senator Sirajul Haq, the JI chief, said the ongoing rallies in support of Palestinians around the world awaken world governments and give a voice to the innocent.

He said the resolutions and words issued by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation will not work, and that Muslim rulers have to rise and to stop the hand of the aggressor.

Qatar: ‘minor’ obstacles before an agreement on hostages

The conclusion of an agreement on the release of hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian movement Hamas during its attack on 7 October against Israel now rests on “minor” practical questions, the Qatari prime minister said on Sunday, without providing a timetable.

“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor… They are more logistical, they are more practical,” Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani during a press conference in Doha alongside Josep Borrell.

Negotiations for a deal have been “up and down over the last few weeks. I think I’m more confident now that we are close enough to reach an agreement that will allow these people (the hostages) to return home safely,” he added.

Evacuation of 31 premature babies from Shifa hospital announced

31 premature babies who were still in Gaza’s Shifa hospital after its evacuation yesterday have been removed from the establishment, Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, told AFP

According to him, “three doctors and two nurses are accompanying them” and “preparations are underway to evacuate them to Egypt” via the Rafah terminal, the only opening to the world from the Palestinian territory which is not in the hands of Israel.

Three Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, bringing total to 62 since war began

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said in a statement on Sunday, bringing to 62 the number of soldiers killed since the start of the war.

The three new victims were all reservists and were killed in the north of the Gaza Strip, said the army, which is relentlessly shelling the Palestinian territory and has launched a ground offensive there to “eradicate” the Islamist Hamas movement.

Scores of patients left at beseiged Shifa Hospital after mass evacuation

A United Nations team has said that some 291 patients are left at Gaza’s largest hospital after Israeli troops made all others evacuate.

Those left include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, trauma patients with severely infected wounds and others with spinal injuries who are unable to move.

The team was able to tour Shifa Hospital for an hour after about 2,500 displaced people, mobile patients and medical staff left the sprawling compound Saturday morning, said the World Health Organisation, which led the mission.

It added that 25 medical staff remained, along with the patients.

“Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation,” the agency said, describing Shifa as a ‘death zone’.

It said more teams will attempt to reach Shifa in the coming days to try to evacuate patients to southern Gaza, where hospitals are also overwhelmed.

Israel has long alleged that Hamas maintains a sprawling command post inside and under Shifa. It has portrayed the hospital as a key target in its war to end the militants’ rule in Gaza following their wide-ranging attack into southern Israel six weeks ago, which triggered the war.

Hamas and hospital staff deny the allegations. Israeli troops who have been based at the hospital and searching its grounds for days claim they have found guns and other weapons and showed reporters the entrance to a tunnel shaft.

Saturday’s mass departure was portrayed by Israel as voluntary, but the WHO said the military had issued evacuation orders, and some of those who left described it as a forced exodus.

“We left at gunpoint,” Mahmoud Abu Auf told The Associated Press by phone after he and his family left the crowded hospital. He said he saw Israeli troops detain three men.

Strikes continue – in north and south

Elsewhere in northern Gaza, dozens of people were killed in the urban Jabalia refugee camp when what witnesses described as an Israeli airstrike hit a crowded UN shelter Saturday.

The Israeli military, which has repeatedly called on Palestinians to leave northern Gaza, said only that its troops were active in the area “with the aim of hitting terrorists.” It rarely comments on individual strikes, saying only that it targets Hamas while trying to minimise civilian harm.

In southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building near the town of Khan Younis on Saturday, killing at least 26 Palestinians, according to a doctor at the hospital where the bodies were taken.

Doctors Without Borders, an international aid group, said a convoy of staff members and their families tried to evacuate northern Gaza in a clearly marked convoy on Saturday but turned back after shots rang out at a crowded Israeli checkpoint. On their way back to Gaza City, the convoy was attacked and a staffer’s family member was killed, it said. It was not immediately clear who attacked the convoy.

More than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants; Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.

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Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital and people trapped inside say they cannot flee

Post By World Antony Blinken, Benjamin Netanyahu, Doctors Without Borders International, gaza hospital

Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate on November 12, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed urgent calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war.

Also Read | Israel Hamas war Day 38 Live Updates

A day after Mr. Netanyahu said Israel was bringing its “full force” to end Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling, including around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.

“They are outside, not far from the gates,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident sheltering there.

The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry. It said another 36 babies are at risk of dying.

Israel’s military asserted it placed 300 liters (79 gallons) of fuel near Shifa overnight for an emergency generator powering incubators for premature babies and coordinated the delivery with hospital officials. But the military said Hamas prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.

A Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, disputed the account and also told Al Jazeera the fuel would not be enough to operate the generator an hour. “This is a mockery towards the patients and children,” Al-Qidra said.

Speaking to CNN, Mr. Netanyahu asserted that “100 or so” people had been evacuated from Shifa and that Israel had created safe corridors.

But Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said Israeli snipers have deployed around Shifa, firing at any movement.

“There are wounded in the house, and we can’t reach them,” he told Al Jazeera. “We can’t stick our heads out of the window.”

The military said troops would assist in moving babies on Sunday. But Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity that has supported Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit, said transferring critically ill infants is complex. “With ambulances unable to reach the hospital … and no hospital with capacity to receive them, there is no indication of how this can be done safely,” CEO Melanie Ward said.

The only option is for Israel to stop its assault and allow fuel into the hospital, Ward said.

The Health Ministry said there are 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter.

The president of Doctors Without Borders International, Christos Christou, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” it would take weeks to evacuate the patients.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the X social media platform that Shifa has been without water for three days and “is not functioning as a hospital anymore.” Several humanitarian groups told The Associated Press they weren’t able to reach the hospital on November 12.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds, is “no longer operational” because it was out of fuel with 6,000 people trapped there. Gaza’s sole power plant shut down a month ago, and Israel has barred fuel imports to prevent Hamas from using them.

One woman fleeing northern Gaza, Fedaa Shangan, said she’d had a cesarean section at Al-Quds: “The wound is still fresh.” She said the Israeli army near the hospital “did not care about the presence of patients, children, women and the elderly. They did not care about anyone.”

Alarm was growing. “We do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, people seeking medical care are caught in the crossfire,” President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told ABC’s “This Week.”

“Decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian cease-fire” amid attacks on health care, the U.N. regional directors of the World Health Organization and others said in a statement, adding that more than half of Gaza’s hospitals are closed.

Muhammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza, said the Health Ministry has been unable to update the death toll since Friday as medics are unable to reach areas hit by Israeli bombardment.

About 2.3 million Palestinians remain in the besieged territory.

Mr. Netanyahu has said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas. Israel has long accused the group, which operates in dense residential neighborhoods, of using civilians as human shields.

The U.S. has pushed for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the territory, where conditions are increasingly dire.

But Israel has only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians can flee ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along two main roads. Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets across southern Gaza, often killing women and children.

Hospital officials said at least 13 were killed after an Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Khan Younis.

The war has displaced over two-thirds of Gaza’s population.

Wael Abu Omar, spokesperson for Gaza’s border crossings, said 846 people left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing Sunday. Nearly all were foreigners while a few were patients from Gaza’s hospitals and their caretakers.

He said 76 aid trucks entered Gaza. The U.N. and partners have said much more were needed daily.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X that he asked European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to apply the same “legal, moral grounds” for EU support of Ukraine to “define its stand on Israel’s war crimes.”

More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

At least 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack. Forty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.

About 250,000 Israelis have evacuate d from communities near Gaza, where Palestinian militants are still firing barrages of rockets, and along the northern border with Lebanon.

Mr. Netanyahu has begun to outline Israel’s postwar plans for Gaza, which contrast sharply with the vision of the United States.

He said Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain the ability to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants. He rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would at some stage control Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the U.S. opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward a Palestinian state, long opposed by Netanyahu’s government.

The war threatens to trigger a wider conflict, with Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon trading fire along the border. Attacks by Hezbollah on November 12 wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 others, Israel’s military and rescue services said.

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Israel-Hamas war: Hostage release talks fail as Netanyahu again dismisses calls for ceasefire

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza attack, Hamas, Israel Hamas war, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Gaza Strip

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli strikes pounded Gaza City overnight and into Sunday as ground forces battled Hamas militants near the territory’s largest hospital, where health officials say thousands of medics, patients and displaced people are trapped with no electricity and dwindling supplies.

In a televised address on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected growing international calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the 7 October rampage that triggered the war, saying Israel was bringing its “full force” to the battle.

Israel has vowed to end Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza and crush its military capabilities, while blaming the militants for the war’s heavy toll on the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the besieged territory.

Israel has come under mounting international pressure, even from its closest ally, the United States, as the war enters a sixth week.

A 57-nation gathering of Muslim and Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for the war to end, and an estimated 300,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched peacefully through London – the biggest demonstration in the city since the war began.

Israel-Hamas hostage release talks break down over Shifa hospital situation

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has raised the possibility of a potential deal to free hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip during an interview with NBC.

Netanyahu was asked about the possibility of an agreement concerning the women, children and elderly people taken hostage.

“Is there a potential agreement?” the journalist asked him. “There could be,” he replied, “but the less I express myself on the subject, the more I increase the chances that it will materialise,” he added, specifying that things were progressing thanks to Israeli military pressure.

Hamas, though, say they have suspended hostage negotiations over Israeli forces’ handling of Shifa hospital, according to a Palestinian official briefed who spoke to Reuters news agency.

There are 239 hostages still being held in Gaza – and Israel has refused to call a ceasefire until they are released.

Officials at the Shifa hospital say they have been forced to suspend operations dure fierce fighting in the area.

Palestinian authorities also say that 12 people – including babies – have died due to a lack of supplies and electricity.

Netanyahu has maintained that Israel offered fuel to the hospital but Hamas refused to receive it – a claim which has not yet been verified.

Gaza hospital patients ‘forced’ onto streets

Patients “are in the streets without care” after the “forced evacuations” of two paediatric hospitals, the director of hospitals in the Hamas-held Gaza Strip has said, while the Israeli army claims it has “secured” passages for civilians.

“The forced evacuations of al-Nasr and al-Rantissi paediatric hospitals have left sick people on the streets without care” in Gaza City, Mohammed Zaqout said. “We have completely lost contact with the caregivers” at the two hospitals, he added.

Across Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu has assured that troops would assist in moving babies to safety on Sunday and that the IDF was in contact with hospital staff.

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, though, has denied claims of evacuees and safe corridors.

Gaza deputy health minister: Israeli strike destroys Shifa hospital building

The deputy health minister of the Hamas government in Gaza has told AFP that an Israeli airstrike had “completely destroyed” the heart disease department building at Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip shelled and besieged by Israel.

“The two-story building of the heart disease department was completely destroyed in an airstrike,” said Youssef Abou Rich, blaming the strike on the Israeli army.

The AFP was not able to confirm this strike on site but at least one witness present in the hospital confirmed raids and damage.

The Israeli army has not immediately reacted

“There was a new strike on the surgery department and the outpatient surgery department,” added the Palestinian official, reporting “five shells fired since the morning into the complex.”

“The (Israeli) tanks are completely besieging the Shifa hospital,” he said while the Israeli army describes as “false” the reports according to which its troops are “surrounding and hitting” al-Chifa.

“They shoot at everyone who tries to leave all the buildings in the hospital complex,” Abou Rich also claimed.

Erdogan calls for Washington to stop Israeli offensive

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the United States to stop Israel’s offensive in Gaza, while stressing that there would be no agreement until Washington considers the territory as Palestinian land.

“We should talk with Egypt and the Gulf countries and put pressure on the United States,” Erdogan told Turkish journalists aboard his flight back from the Riyadh leaders summit.

“The United States should increase its pressure on Israel. The West should increase its pressure on Israel… It is vital for us to achieve a ceasefire,” he said.

“The most important country that needs to be involved is the United States, which has influence over Israel,” Erdogan insisted.

However, he clarified that he would not call on US President Joe Biden.

“We cannot agree with Mr. Biden if he approaches [the conflict] by considering Gaza as the land of the occupying settlers or of Israel, rather than the land of the Palestinian people,” he said.

“The European Union thinks exactly the same thing as Israel regarding Hamas. But we do not think like them,” Erdogan continued.

“I consider Hamas to be a political party that won the elections in Palestine. I don’t see things the same way as them,” he added.

Meeting at a summit in Riyadh, the leaders of Arab and Muslim countries condemned on Saturday the “barbaric” actions of Israeli forces in Gaza, but refrained from announcing punitive economic and political measures against Israel.

The results of the summit, bringing together the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), highlighted regional divisions over how to respond to the conflict, amid fears of an escalation in the region.

Evacuations from Gaza to Egypt have resumed, 500 dual nationals evacuated

Some 500 foreigners and dual nationals, as well as wounded Palestinians, have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, reports from both sides of the border confirm.

“Five hundred foreign passport holders from 15 different countries entered Egypt,” an Egyptian security service official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Alqahera News channel reported that “seven injured Palestinians” had also been authorised to cross the terminal, which was closed on Friday and Saturday.

The authority in charge of the borders within the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip had called on Saturday evening “all holders of foreign passports and people registered on the evacuation lists” to present themselves at the terminal, located at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip and which leads towards the Egyptian Sinai.

Since 1 November, dozens of wounded Palestinians have been evacuated to Egyptian hospitals. Hundreds of dual nationals and foreigners, notably Americans, French, and Germans have also crossed through Rafah.

The terminal, however, has not been able to open every day, with Hamas demanding security guarantees for ambulances carrying wounded people to be evacuated after the bombing of one of them by the Israeli army.

Among the people evacuated on Sunday from Gaza via Rafah were Poles whose number was not specified as well as 101 Romanians and 60 Russians.

UN agency announces ‘significant number’ of casualties in strike on Gaza headquarters

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has announced “a significant number of deaths and injuries” in the “bombing” late on Saturday of its headquarters in Gaza City, evacuated by its employees and now occupied by hundreds of displaced Palestinians.

“The ongoing tragedy of civilian deaths and injuries trapped in this conflict… must end,” the UNDP said in a statement. “Civilians, civilian infrastructure and the inviolability of UN premises must be respected and protected at all times.”

AFPTV images on Sunday also show a crater in the middle of the courtyard of a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

UNRWA announced on Friday that more than 100 of its employees had died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.

Civilians injured after shooting from Lebanon – army

Several civilians have been injured in Israel by an anti-tank missile that fell in the north of the country, the Israeli army has announced, saying they responded by targeting the origin of the missile in southern Lebanon.

According to the army, it hit a vehicle near the border town of Dovev and “a number of civilians were injured”.

“The artillery hits the source of the fire,” it added in a statement.

Israel Electric Corporation said the missile “hit workers” who were repairing power lines damaged by other recent strikes in the area.

Exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and armed groups in Lebanon have been almost daily for weeks, while on the country’s southern border, Israeli troops are waging war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Quds Hospital no longer operational – Palestine Red Crescent Society

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has announced that al-Quds Hospital in Gaza city is no longer operational due to a lack of fuel and a power outage.

“PRCS holds the international community and signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention accountable for the complete breakdown of the health system and the resulting dire humanitarian conditions,” PRCS wrote on X – formerly Twitter.

The situation in and around Shifa hospital worsens

In Gaza City, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling overnight, including in the area around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the hospital compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.

“We spent the night in panic waiting for their arrival,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident taking shelter in the hospital. “They are outside, not far from the gates.”

The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, causing the death of a premature baby, another child in an incubator and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

It says another 37 babies are at risk of death because there’s no electricity.

Health Ministry under-secretary Munir al-Boursh said Israeli snipers have deployed around Shifa, firing at any movement inside the compound. He said airstrikes had destroyed several homes next to the hospital, killing a doctor, his son and son-in-law.

“There are wounded in the house, and we can’t reach them,” he told Al Jazeera television in an interview from the hospital.

Israel’s military had earlier confirmed clashes outside the hospital and said that on Sunday, troops will assist in moving babies to a safer location. The military says it is in contact with hospital staff.

The Health Ministry says there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter. Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals that have come under attack, but physicians said it’s impossible for everyone to get out.

Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli tanks were 20 metres (65 feet) from al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, causing “extreme panic and fear” among the 14,000 displaced people sheltering there.

Netanyahu rejects US post-war vision

Benjamin Netanyahu has said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas. Israel has long accused the group, which operates in dense residential neighbourhoods, of using civilians as human shields.

The Israeli military said that during a battle in Gaza City, its forces helped clear a corridor for civilians to exit a building before coming under fire. The troops returned fire, killing the militants, it said.

On Saturday, Netanyahu began to outline Israel’s postwar plans for Gaza, which contrast sharply with the vision put forth by the United States.

Netanyahu said Gaza would be demilitarised and that Israel would retain security control, with the ability to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants. He also rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would at some stage control Gaza. Hamas drove the PA’s forces out of Gaza in a week of street battles in 2007.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in both Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward Palestinian statehood. Even before the war, Netanyahu’s government was staunchly opposed to that prospect.

In another sign of international frustration with Israel, Saudi Arabia welcomed Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday in the first such visit since the two countries mended ties this year. Israel views Iran as its main enemy and had sought to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia before the outbreak of the war.

Evacuation windows – but still no pauses

Israel’s allies have defended the country’s right to protect itself after the Hamas attack, which killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians. But now into the second month of war, there are growing differences over how Israel should conduct its fight.

The US has pushed for temporary pauses which would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory where conditions are increasingly dire. However, Israel has only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians can flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along two main north-south roads.

Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, tens of thousands of civilians have fled the north. Israel is still striking what it says are militant targets across central and southern Gaza as well, often killing women and children.

The war has displaced over two-thirds of Gaza’s population, with most fleeing south. Egypt has allowed hundreds of foreign passport holders and medical patients to exit through its Rafah crossing. It has also allowed hundreds of trucks loaded with food and medicine – but no fuel – to enter, but aid workers say it’s nowhere near enough to meet the mounting needs.

Forty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, and Palestinians have continued firing rockets into Israel. Hamas is still holding 239 captives – men, women and children – after releasing four women last month. A fifth captive was rescued by Israeli forces.

Late on Saturday, thousands of Israelis participated in a rally in Tel Aviv, calling for the return of hostages. In Caesarea, hundreds of protesters gathered near Netanyahu’s home, calling for his removal from office.

About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have traded fire repeatedly.

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Gaza will be demilitarised, Israel will continue to control security: Netanyahu

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza demilitarisation, Gaza humanitarian crisis, Gaza Strip, Israel Hamas war, Israel invasion into Gaza, Israel-Palestine conflict, Middle East crisis, Middle East peace process

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Saturday, November 11, 2023 against growing international calls for a cease-fire, saying Israel’s battle to crush Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants will continue with “full force”.

A cease-fire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by militants in Gaza are released, Mr. Netanyahu said in a televised address.

The Israeli leader also insisted that after the war, now entering its sixth week, Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain security control there. The position appears to run counter to post-war scenarios floated by Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which has said it opposes an Israeli reoccupation of the territory.

Asked what he meant by security control, Mr. Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter Gaza when necessary to hunt down militants.

Pressure was growing on Israel after frantic doctors at Gaza’s largest hospital said the last generator had run out of fuel, causing the death of a premature baby, another child in an incubator and four other patients.Thousands of war-wounded, medical staff and displaced civilians were caught in the fighting.

In recent days, fighting near Shifa and other hospitals in northern Gaza has intensified and supplies have run out. The Israeli military has alleged, without providing evidence, that Hamas has established command posts in and underneath hospitals, using civilians as human shields. Medical staff at Shifa have denied such claims and accused Israel of harming civilians with indiscriminate attacks.

Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said the facility lost power Saturday.

“Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” he said by phone, with gunfire and explosions in the background. He said Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital” and prevented movement between buildings.

Israel’s military confirmed clashes outside the hospital, but Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari denied Shifa was under siege. He said troops will assist Sunday in moving babies treated there and said “we are speaking directly and regularly” with hospital staff.

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told broadcaster Channel 12 that as Israel aims to crush Hamas, taking control of the hospitals would be key but require “a lot of tactical creativity”, without hurting patients, other civilians and Israeli hostages.

Six patients died at Shifa after the generator shut down, including the two children, spokesmen with the Hamas-run Health Ministry said.

The “unbearably desperate situation” at Shifa must stop now, the International Committee of the Red Cross director general, Robert Mardini, said on social media. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths posted that “there can be no justification for acts of war in health care facilities, leaving them with no power, food or water”.

Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli tanks were 20 metres (65 feet) from al-Quds hospital in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, causing “a state of extreme panic and fear” among the 14,000 displaced people sheltering there.

Israel’s military released footage which it said showed tanks operating in Gaza. The footage showed shattered buildings, some on fire, and rubbled streets empty of anyone but troops.

A 57-nation gathering of Muslim and Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia called in their communique for an end to the war in Gaza and the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid. They also called on the International Court of Justice, a UN organ, to open an investigation into Israel’s attacks, saying the war “cannot be called self-defense and cannot be justified under any means”.

Mr. Netanyahu has said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas.

A Hamas official denied that their fighters opened fire at residents trying to leave Gaza City or its hospitals. Speaking by phone, Ghazi Hamad called such assertions by Israel lies and said Hamas doesn’t have guards at hospital gates to prevent people from entering or leaving.

The spokesman of the Hamas military wing said militants were ambushing Israeli troops and vowed that Israel will face a long battle. The Qassam Brigades spokesman, who goes by Abu Obaida, acknowledged in audio aired on Al-Jazeera that the fight is disproportionate “but it is terrifying the strongest force in the region”.

Israel’s military has said soldiers have encountered hundreds of Hamas fighters in underground facilities, schools, mosques and clinics during the fighting. Israel has said a key goal of the war is to crush Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years.

Following Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel, in which at least 1,200 people were killed, Israel’s allies have defended the country’s right to protect itself. But now into the second month of war, there are growing differences over how Israel should conduct its fight.

The US has been pushing for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory where conditions are increasingly dire. However, Israel has only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians can flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along the territory’s main north-south artery.

Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, more than 150,000 civilians have fled the north, according to UN monitors. On Saturday, the military announced a new evacuation window, saying civilians could use the central road and a coastal road.

On the main road, a stream of people fled southward, clutching children and bags, many on foot and some on donkey-drawn carts. One man pushed two children in a wheelbarrow.

“I am diabetic, and I have blood pressure issues. Where to go, and what do they want from us?” said Yehia al-Kafarnah, one fleeing resident.

Palestinian civilians and rights advocates have pushed back against Israel’s portrayal of the southern evacuation zones as “relatively safe”. They note that Israeli bombardment has continued across Gaza, including airstrikes in the south that Israel says target Hamas leaders but that have also killed women and children.

Demonstrations and outrage continued. Police said 300,000 Palestinian supporters marched peacefully in London, the largest such event there since the war started. Right-wing counterprotesters clashed with police.

Fear grows inside Shifa

“Shelling and explosions never stopped,” said Islam Mattar, one of thousands sheltering at Shifa. “Children here are terrified from the constant sound of explosions and the scenes they are watching.” The Health Ministry told Al Jazeera there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter.

Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals that have come under attack, but physicians said it’s impossible for everyone to get out.

“We cannot evacuate ourselves and (leave) these people inside,” a Doctors Without Borders surgeon at Shifa, Mohammed Obeid, was quoted as saying by the organization.

Casualties rise

More than 11,070 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are thought to be possibly trapped or dead under the rubble.

At least 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mainly in the initial Hamas attack, Israeli officials say. The military on Saturday confirmed the deaths of five reserve soldiers; 46 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.

Nearly 240 people abducted by Hamas from Israel remain captive.

About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have traded fire repeatedly.

“Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a possible war,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said after meeting with soldiers stationed along the border.

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Israel-Hamas war: Gaza hospitals at breaking point as Iran says Israel is ‘terrorist organisation’

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza attack, Gaza City, Hamas, Israel Hamas war, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Iran asks Muslim countries to label Israeli army a ‘terrorist organisation’

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has called on Muslim countries to qualify the Israeli army as a “terrorist organisation” because of its armed operations in the Gaza Strip.

In a speech to Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in the Saudi capital, Raisi also asked Muslim countries to “arm the Palestinians” if “the attacks continue” in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian march under heavy surveillance in London

Hundreds of people began to gather in London for a pro-Palestinian march organised under heavy police surveillance on this weekend of commemorations of the First World War armistice.

The police said they expected the presence of more than 100,000 demonstrators in the capital, who came to demand a ceasefire, five weeks after the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned London police chief Mark Rowley that he will hold him “responsible”, particularly if protesters disrupt Armistice Day commemorations, planned at the same time in the capital.

“It is thanks to those who fought for this country and for the freedom we cherish that those who wish to demonstrate can do so, but they must do so in a respectful and peaceful manner,” Downing Street said in a statement.

The route of the march carefully avoids the Whitehall area, where the main Armistice ceremony is due to take place.

Nearly 2,000 police officers were mobilised to ensure the security of both the commemorations and the demonstration. The Metropolitan police stressed that this weekend would be “particularly tense and difficult”.

Fighting intensifies around Gaza hospitals – reports

Israel is facing increasing calls to protect civilians in Gaza, as fighting with Hamas intensified around hospitals in the small Palestinian territory where residents are seeking refuge to escape intense bombardment.

On the 36th day of the conflict triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil, half of the 36 hospitals in Gaza which have been constantly bombed since 7 October are no longer functioning “at all” according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

On Saturday morning, clouds of smoke rose into the sky over Gaza City and numerous gunshots could be heard.

The al-Chifa hospital, located in Gaza City, was the target of fire according to its director. “Al-Chifa was targeted all night by intense artillery fire, like other hospitals in Gaza City,” Mohammed Abou Salmiya said.

The director specified that the ambulances had not been able to pick up “dozens of dead” and “hundreds of injured” because of “the strikes and projectiles”.

According to Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, “one person was killed and many others were injured in strikes on the intensive care building of al-Shifa hospital” on Saturday morning, the day after a bombing which left 13 dead in this same hospital complex, according to Hamas.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on these claims. On Friday, they said they would “kill” Hamas fighters “who shoot from hospitals” in Gaza and said in the evening that they had eliminated “around 150 terrorists.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli snipers fired on al-Quds hospital on Friday.

Arab and Muslim leaders will demand end to violence in Gaza

Arab leaders and Iran’s president will meet in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for a joint summit that is expected to highlight the urgency of ending Israel’s attacks on Gaza before conflict engulfs the region.

Emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are being held in Riyadh, five weeks after the start of the war.

Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombed the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, killing more than 11,000 people, including at least 4,500 children, according to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry.

The Arab League and the OIC were initially scheduled to hold their meetings separately, but the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced early on Saturday that the two summits would be held jointly.

The Arab League will discuss “the way forward on the international stage to end the aggression, support Palestine and its people, condemn the Israeli occupation and hold it accountable for its crimes,” the deputy secretary general of the Arab League said.

Islamic Jihad, Hamas’ ally in Gaza, said, however, that it expected “nothing” from this meeting. “We do not place our hopes in such meetings” which have never produced results, Mohammad al-Hindi, deputy secretary general of the group, said on Friday at a press conference in Beirut.

“The fact that this conference is being held after 35 days (of war) is a clear indication,” he added.

Israel and its main ally, the United States, have so far rejected demands for a ceasefire, a stance that is expected to draw sharp criticism at Saturday’s meetings.

According to Saudi analyst Aziz Alghashian, fingers should not only be pointed at Israel, but also those who “make it easier… that is to say essentially the United States and the West” .

The differences in position were clearly displayed during the latest visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region, and that of British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Thursday in Riyadh, where he met some of his counterparts.

“What we have said is that it is understandable to ask for a ceasefire, but we also recognize Israel’s right to take measures to ensure its own stability and security,” Cleverly said.

Red Cross: ‘Point of no return’ for hospitals in North Gaza

Hospitals, healthcare workers and patients in northern Gaza must be protected as intense fighting rages, the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) has said.

“Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly unsafe, the healthcare system in Gaza has reached a point of no return risking the lives of thousands of wounded, sick and displaced people,” the organisation said.

The statement, which did not specifically name either the Israeli military or Palestinian militants, came after several reported strikes on or near at least four hospitals in northern Gaza. Tens of thousands of people had crowded into hospital grounds, believing they would be safe.

The ICRC noted that children’s hospitals had sustained major damage from the fighting. The Nasr Hospital was heavily damaged by fighting and Rantisi Hospital had to completely shut down, the statement said. It also added that Al-Quds Hospital is fast running out of supplies.

Macron ‘urges Israel to stop’ bombings killing civilians in Gaza

French President Emmanuel Macron “urges Israel to stop” the bombings killing civilians in Gaza, in an interview with the BBC.

“We share (Israel’s) pain. And we share their desire to get rid of terrorism.” But “de facto, today, civilians are being bombed. These babies, these women, these elderly people are being bombed and killed.” There is “no justification” and “no legitimacy for this. We therefore urge Israel to stop,” he stressed.

The Hamas Ministry of Health announced that 11,078 people, including 4,506 children, have been killed in Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip since the start of the war triggered by the bloody attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel on 7 October.

This “reaction in the fight against terrorism, because it is led by a democracy, must be consistent with the international rules of war and international humanitarian law,” said the French president.

Asked about a possible violation of international law by Israel, Emmanuel Macron stressed that he was “not a judge”, but “a head of state”.

He also expressed concern that the “massive bombing” of Gaza would create “resentment” in the region.

“There is no other solution than a humanitarian pause first” to move towards a “ceasefire, which will protect all civilians who have nothing to do with the terrorists,” he insisted.

“It is impossible to explain that we want to fight against terrorism by killing innocent people,” the French president further underlined.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to Macron’s remarks by emphasising that “responsibility for any harm done to civilians lies with Hamas”, which started the war with the massacres of 7 October and which uses civilians as “human shields”.

More than 250 attacks on Gaza health care system – WHO

The World Health Organisation has verified more than 250 attacks on hospitals, clinics, patients and ambulances in Gaza since Hamas’ incursion into Israel on 7 October – as well as 25 attacks on health care in Israel.

In Gaza, the “health system is on its knees” and the situation on the ground “is impossible to describe,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

“As we speak, there are reports of firing outside the al-Shifa and Rantisi hospitals,” he said, adding that Palestinian health workers were still saving lives despite being “directly in the firing line.”

Last week saw attacks on five hospitals in one day in Gaza, Ghebreyesus said, and in the past 48 hours four hospitals with some 430 beds were put out of action.

He said half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary health care centres are not functioning, and facilities that are functioning “are operating way beyond their capacities.”

Israel lowers 7 October death toll to 1,200 people

Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the official death toll in Hamas’ 7 October cross-border attack into Israel has been lowered to 1,200 people.

Israeli officials have previously estimated the death toll at 1,400.

The ministry gave no reason for the revision. But an Israeli official said the number had been changed after a painstaking weeks long process to identify bodies, many of which were mutilated or burned.

The official said the final death toll could still change. He said a number of bodies have not been identified and it is unclear whether all of the nearly 240 hostages believed to be held by Hamas are still alive.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official government announcement.

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Cart

Hamas: No hostage will leave Gaza ‘alive’ without ‘negotiations’

Gaza health ministry: 18,000 Palestinians killed since start of war

Thousands of Moroccans take to the streets to denounce Gaza ‘genocide’

UN: Food ‘used as weapon of war’ in Gaza

Netanyahu expresses ‘dissatisfaction’ to Putin over Russian vote at UN

War in Gaza is having ‘catastrophic’ impact on health – WHO boss

Fighting ramps up further still as US lends support

Situation in Gaza ‘hell on earth’ – UNRWA chief

Nowhere safe for Gazans to go?

Alleged antisemitic attack in New York sees Shtreimel stolen from Jewish man

Detentions of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers increase

Gaza death toll rises to 17,700 with a further 48,780 wounded

UN aid official warns that half of all Gazans are starving

Tens of thousands take to London’s street to protest war

Hamas hostage killed – Haaretz report

Man arrested at pro-Palestine march in London, accused of racially aggravated public order offence

UN veto: Abbas holds US ‘responsible for bloodshed’ in Gaza

Palestinian death toll rises to 17,487

Arab-Islamic committee calls on US to step up ceasefire pressure on Israel

‘Relentless’ bombardments hit Gaza Strip

No escape for many Palestinians

Why has there been no ceasefire – or renewed truce agreement?

UK to carry out flights over Gaza to locate hostages

Evacuation orders step up

New targets hit by IDF

US Vice President condemns death toll rise

Israel say they are targeting Hamas hideouts, allegedly among civilians

Further truces are unlikely to go ahead – reports

Kamala Harris speaks out on ongoing conflict

Aid trucks enter Rafah crossing for first time since truce ended

Israel resumes heavy bombing post-truce

Leaflet drops resume – but nowhere for Gazans to go

UN criticises IDF’s evacuation ‘plan’

What will become of the remaining hostages?

A halt on humanitarian aid

PRCS: Palestinian killed in refugee camp Gaza despite truce

Israel tells Palestinians not to move north in Gaza amid truce

Hamas confirms death of top military leader and three commanders

New exchange of hostages for prisoners planned for the third day of truce

Israeli forces kill at least 8 Palestinians in surging West Bank violence – despite truce

Second day of hostage swap goes ahead in tense exchange

Yemen’s Houthi rebels hijack an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea, taking crew members hostage

Israeli army claims it has discovered 55-metre-long tunnel under Shifa hospital

Volker: ‘Horrific events’ in Gaza ‘beyond comprehension’

Palestinian Authority will meet with Muslim leaders in China on Monday

Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan against Israel’s bombing in Gaza

Qatar: ‘minor’ obstacles before an agreement on hostages

Evacuation of 31 premature babies from Shifa hospital announced

Three Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, bringing total to 62 since war began

Scores of patients left at beseiged Shifa Hospital after mass evacuation

Strikes continue – in north and south

Israel-Hamas hostage release talks break down over Shifa hospital situation

Gaza hospital patients ‘forced’ onto streets

Gaza deputy health minister: Israeli strike destroys Shifa hospital building

Erdogan calls for Washington to stop Israeli offensive

Evacuations from Gaza to Egypt have resumed, 500 dual nationals evacuated

UN agency announces ‘significant number’ of casualties in strike on Gaza headquarters

Al-Quds Hospital no longer operational – Palestine Red Crescent Society

The situation in and around Shifa hospital worsens

Netanyahu rejects US post-war vision

Evacuation windows – but still no pauses

Fear grows inside Shifa

Casualties rise

Iran asks Muslim countries to label Israeli army a ‘terrorist organisation’

Pro-Palestinian march under heavy surveillance in London

Fighting intensifies around Gaza hospitals – reports

Arab and Muslim leaders will demand end to violence in Gaza

Red Cross: ‘Point of no return’ for hospitals in North Gaza

Macron ‘urges Israel to stop’ bombings killing civilians in Gaza

More than 250 attacks on Gaza health care system – WHO

Israel lowers 7 October death toll to 1,200 people