This is where we’ll close this blog. Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war continues here. Thank you for reading.
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Summary
It’s just turned 5.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a roundup of the latest major developments:
Palestinian medics have evacuated 31 premature babies from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken them to a hospital in southern Gaza for assessment and treatment, the World Health Organisation has said. Doctors found that “all the babies are fighting serious infections due to lack of medical supplies and impossibility to continue infection control measures in al-Shifa hospital”, it said. Preparations were under way for the babies to enter Egypt, said the director general of hospitals in Gaza, Mohammed Zaqut.
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, although observers have cautioned that public statements during such negotiations are often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.
A senior Israeli source and a senior member of Hamas rejected a report quoting an unnamed Hamas source as saying an agreement was reached on Sunday to start a ceasefire on Monday and release a number of hostages, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.
Japan’s top government spokesperson says the country is appealing to Yemen’s Houthis who have captured a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea and is seeking the help of Saudi, Omani and Iranian authorities to work towards the swift release of the vessel and its crew. Twenty-two crew were onboard, including Bulgarians and Filipinos, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper said.
The Israel military has published video footage it says shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath the al-Shifa hospital complex. It said on Sunday that its troops “exposed a 55-metre-long terror tunnel 10 metres deep” under the hospital complex. Hamas dismissed Israel’s claim, while the director of the Gaza health ministry, Mounir el-Boursh, reportedly called it “pure lie”.
At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday. Nearly 884,000 internally displaced persons were sheltering in 154 installations in Gaza run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the agency said.
France will send a warship to provide medical aid to Gaza, President Emmanuel Macron has said.
The head of a prominent media institution in the Gaza Strip and two other journalists were killed over the weekend in Israel’s offensive in the territory, their relatives have said. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the weekend deaths raised to 48 the number of journalists and media workers it had confirmed killed in the region since 7 October.
The World Health Organisation, which led a second assessment visit to al-Shifa hospital on Sunday, commended the healthcare personnel working at the facility, which the WHO declared to be a “death zone”.
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Umm Ghadeer’s earliest memories are of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel. She was three years old. Last month she was forced to abandon her home all over again, fleeing Shejaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
“I cried very hard because I relived the experience of displacement when we fled our homes in 1948. We fled. Some people were walking on the streets, some in cars, some screaming, some crying. We lost so many people,” she said.
So many awful things happened in 1948. I am now scared of the same thing.
For Bethan McKernan’s full story on how images of distressed families walking south in the Gaza Strip have been evocative of what Palestinians call the catastrophe of 1948, see here:
Japan appeals to Houthis for return of captured ship
Japan’s top government spokesperson says the country is appealing to Yemen’s Houthis who have captured a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea and is seeking the help of Saudi, Omani and Iranian authorities to work towards the swift release of the vessel and its crew.
Israel said on Sunday that Houthis had seized a British-owned and Japanese-operated ship, describing the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security, Reuters reports.
The Houthis said they had seized a ship in that area but described it as Israeli. “We are treating the ship’s crew in accordance with Islamic principles and values,” a spokesperson for the group said, making no reference to the Israeli account.
Japan’s top government spokesperson, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, on Monday confirmed the capture of the Nippon Yusen-operated ship, Galaxy Leader. “We strongly condemn such acts,” he told a news conference.
No Japanese nationals were among the crew, he said.
Galaxy Leader is owned by a company registered under Isle of Man-headquartered Ray Car Carriers, which is a unit of Tel Aviv-incorporated Ray Shipping, according to London Stock Exchange Group data. Ray Car Carriers and Ray Shipping could not immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesperson for Japan’s Nippon Yusen said it was gathering further information and could not immediately confirm the nationality or size of the crew. Japan’s Nikkei newspaper said there were 22 crew onboard, including Bulgarians and Filipinos.
The Houthis, an ally of Tehran, have been launching long-range missile and drone salvoes at Israel in solidarity with the Hamas militants fighting in Gaza.
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The director of the Gaza health ministry has dismissed Israel’s claim that it found a Hamas tunnel at the al-Shifa Hospital, according to an Al Jazeera report.
Mounir el-Boursh described the claim as a “pure lie”, the report said.
The Israeli army had said on Sunday that its troops “exposed a 55-metre-long terror tunnel 10 metres deep” under the hospital complex, running under the hospital and ending at a blast door.
The military also published video footage that it said showed the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network under the hospital in Gaza City.
Hamas dismissed the footage. Agence France-Presse quoted senior political bureau member Izzat al-Rishq as saying it had repeatedly said it had taken several captives to hospital for treatment, “particularly because some had been wounded in airstrikes” by Israel.
His statement added:
We have released images of all that and the army spokesman is acting as if he has discovered something incredible.
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The Jerusalem Post is reporting that a senior Israeli source and a senior member of Hamas have rejected a report quoting an unnamed Hamas source as saying an agreement was reached on Sunday to start a ceasefire on Monday and release a number of hostages.
The Post said the Jordanian newspaper al-Ghad reported that the source from Hamas had said a five-day ceasefire would start at 11am on Monday and that 50 hostages held by Hamas would be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
A senior Israeli source was quoted as saying: “There is nothing as of now.”
According to the Post, Izzat al-Risheq, a senior member of Hamas, said early on Monday: “There is no truth to what the media reported, attributed to sources in Hamas, regarding an exchange deal starting today.”
Our report by Jason Burke and Patrick Wintour earlier today says Israel and Hamas appeared to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
The report says senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, while observers cautioned that public statements during such negotiations were often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.
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Holding olive branches and white banners, French performers from different religious and ethnic backgrounds have led thousands of people on a silent march through central Paris to call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and unity in France.
Associated Press reports that the crowd, which included actors Isabelle Adjani and Emmanuelle Beart as well as singers and other cultural figures, marched from the Arab World Institute towards the Museum of Art and History of Judaism, located across the Seine River.
Nadia Fares said:
We have a blue sky on top of our head today and in Israel, in Palestine, they’re having bombs, they’re having war. We’re not helping the situation by choosing sides or throwing hate on one side or another.
The silence at Sunday’s march “will balance, hopefully, the cacophony we have all over the world”, she said.
France, home to significant Jewish and Muslim populations, has seen weeks of protests and tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.
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Belal Jadallah, a journalist and head of the board of the Press House-Palestine, a non-governmental organisation, was killed on Sunday and his pharmacist brother-in-law was seriously wounded, his sister and other relatives said.
Jadallah told his sister earlier on Sunday he was heading out of Gaza City towards the south, Reuters reports. He was killed in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, said his sister, who added that people who found him said he had been killed by an Israeli tank shell.
In addition, two freelance journalists, Hassouna Sleem and Sary Mansour, were killed on Saturday in an Israeli assault on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, their relatives and Palestinian health officials said. Seventeen people died in the incident, the officials said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the three journalists’ deaths.
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Three more journalists killed in Gaza
The head of a prominent media institution in the Gaza Strip and two other journalists were killed over the weekend in Israel’s offensive in the territory, their relatives have said.
The deaths add to the dozens of reporters who have died in the conflict, Reuters reports.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the weekend deaths raised to 48 the number of journalists and media workers it had confirmed killed in the region since the 7 October attack on southern Israel and the subsequent Israeli offensive.
The CPJ, whose list covers journalists killed on both sides of the conflict, although most have been in Gaza, said it sought at least two sources to verify each death. Its list of those killed comprised 43 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese, it said.
“Journalists across the region are making great sacrifices to cover this heart-breaking conflict,” Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in an email to Reuters.
Those in Gaza, in particular, have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll and face exponential threats.
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The Israel military has published video footage it says shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath the al-Shifa hospital complex.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said troops operating near the in-patients building at the Gaza City hospital – the largest in the Gaza Strip – found a booby-trapped pickup truck in a garage inside the medical complex’s walls.
When it was destroyed in a controlled explosion, a tunnel was exposed beneath the floor of the garage, the IDF said.
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Israel claims hostages taken to al-Shifa hospital on day of Hamas attacks
Israel’s military has released security camera footage it said showed hostages being brought into the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 October after being kidnapped during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel, Agence France-Presse reports.
The first clip, which appears to be time-stamped 10.53 am on 7 October, shows a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt being dragged through what looks like an entrance hall by five men, at least three of whom are armed.
In the second, seemingly time-stamped 10.55 am, an injured man in underwear is wheeled in on a gurney by seven men – at least four of them armed – as several men in blue hospital scrubs look on.
AFP was not immediately able to verify the footage.
“Here you can see Hamas taking a hostage inside... they’re taking him inside the hospital,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, describing the two men as hostages from Nepal and Thailand.
We have not yet located both of these hostages. We do not know where they are.
Hamas did not immediately comment on Hagari’s statements. The Palestinian Islamist group, which runs Gaza, has previously said it took some hostages to hospitals for treatment.
The released CCTV footage appears to have been shot on the morning that Hamas gunmen began storming southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping some 240 others, according to Israeli authorities.
Since then, Israel has pounded Gaza relentlessly from the air, land and sea, with officials in the Hamas-run territory saying 13,000 people have been killed.
Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israel’s subsequent military operations, with the army repeatedly saying Hamas uses it as a base – a claim the military has been under pressure to back up.
Hamas, as well as medical staff, have denied the accusations.
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Continuing on al-Shifa, more than 250 patients and 20 health workers are still at the hospital and plans are being made to evacuate them, the World Health Organisation has said, but it will take “several days” to do so completely.
“Priority will be given to the 22 dialysis patients and 50 patients with spinal injuries,” the UN agency said.
Agence France-Presse also reports that a WHO team’s initial visit to the hospital on Saturday came after hundreds fled the facility following what al-Shifa’s director said were Israeli army orders for it to be emptied. Israel denied ordering the move.
The hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations, with the army claiming Hamas uses it as a base. Hamas, and medical staff, have denied the accusations.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw crowds of sick, injured and displaced people walking towards the seafront, with the health ministry saying 120 patients had stayed behind, among them a number of premature babies.
Since 11 November 11, when fuel supplies ran out at al-Shifa, eight babies died due to the lack of electricity to run incubator units, the health ministry has said.
Evacuated premature babies set to enter Egypt, says Gaza hospitals chief
More is in on the evacuation of 31 premature babies from the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City: the director general of hospitals in Gaza has said “preparations are under way” for the babies to enter Egypt.
Mohammed Zaqut also said that “all 31 premature babies” had been evacuated, Agence France-Presse reports.
The infants were taken in Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulances to a hospital in southern Gaza for assessment and treatment, the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement, with 11 in critical condition.
Doctors found that “all the babies are fighting serious infections due to lack of medical supplies and impossibility to continue infection control measures in al-Shifa Hospital”, it said.
None were accompanied by family members as the health ministry in Gaza had been unable to locate them, WHO added, and two babies had died at al-Shifa while awaiting the transfer.
Palestinian medics evacuated the 31 babies from al-Shifa hospital – Gaza’s largest – on Sunday in a high-risk operation, the UN said, pledging to also move patients and staff who remain there.
The WHO sent a team to visit the hospital on Saturday and later described it as a “death zone”.
This is Adam Fulton picking up the blog as it approaches 1.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Stay with us for the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war as they unfold
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Here are some images coming through the newswires of pro-Palestine rallies that took place across the world over the weekend, in which thousands called for a ceasefire in Gaza where over 13,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the last six weeks:
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The leader of New Zealand’s Labour party, Chris Hipkins, has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel “so that a journey to a lasting peace can begin”.
Hipkins is acting as prime minister under the country’s caretaker convention, until the incoming administration forms a government. In a departure from the caretaker convention – which requires the outgoing government to act in accordance with the wishes of the incoming government – Hipkins said on Sunday:
I want to acknowledge that this is an unusual period for New Zealand. While we wait for a government to be formed, we will continue to uphold the caretaker convention and as prime minister I will work within what can be agreed with the incoming government.
However I speak today as the Labour leader. I, and the Labour party, cannot stand by any longer in the face of the horrific scenes we are witnessing without calling for a ceasefire.
Hipkins said he is “appalled by the devastation and loss of life” in the region and encouraged all parties to act in accordance with international law. He urged Hamas to release all hostages immediately and work towards peace, and added:
While we recognise the right to self-defense, we are particularly concerned that the actions of the Israeli Defense Force are disproportionate and indiscriminate.
We remain very concerned about the humanitarian impact of the conflict and the blockade preventing essential services reaching people in Gaza. We are calling on Israel to allow movement of supplies and all parties to support the departure of those who choose to leave.
Hipkins’ statements came as thousands of protestors marched through Auckland and Wellington, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, a Talbot Mills poll conducted last week found that 60% of New Zealanders agreed the government should call for an immediate ceasefire.
The incoming centre-right National party accused Labour of “playing politics” with Gaza, and said while it wanted an end to hostilities, it was not yet in favour of calling for an absolute ceasefire. National’s foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee told One News the party was seeking advice from the ministry of foreign affairs and trade, and wanted to move in “lockstep” with Australia and Canada.
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Israel and Hamas appear to be close to a hostage release deal, according to senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister.
The Guardian’s Jason Burke and Patrick Wintour report:
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, although observers have cautioned that public statements during such negotiations are often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.
The Qatari prime minister said that only minor differences between Hamas and Israel remained to be resolved. The Israeli ambassador to Washington said Israel hoped a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas. “I’m hopeful we can have a deal in the coming days,” Michael Herzog said in an interview on ABC on Sunday.
Qatar has been at the centre of mediation efforts to reach an agreement that would lead to the release of large numbers of hostages, starting with children and women. A humanitarian pause lasting as long as five days would be agreed to allow the transport of the hostages and some supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Read the full story here:
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French president Emmanuel Macron told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that there were “too many civilian losses” in Israel’s war against Hamas.
Macron’s call with Netanyahu comes amid the Gaza health ministry announcing on Sunday that over 13,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the last six weeks, including 5,500 children.
According to Macron’s office, the French president also reaffirmed to Netanyahu the “absolute necessity to distinguish terrorists from the population” and the “importance of achieving an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Marcon also condemned violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank during his call with Netanyahu, his office said, adding that Macron expressed his “great concern over the escalation in violence against Palestinian civilians” in the West Bank.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 200 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.
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UNRWA: nearly 884,000 internally displaced Palestinians sheltering across 154 UNRWA shelters
Nearly 884,000 internally displaced persons are sheltering in 154 UNRWA installations across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees announced on Sunday.
“Just getting into one of the shelters makes you burst into tears,” an UNRWA employee said.
“Children looking for food and water and standing in queues for over six hours just to get a piece of bread or a bottle of water. People are literally sleeping on streets here in Khan Younis as thousands keep escaping from the north,” the UNRWA employee added.
According to the UN, the food security situation is “catastrophic and World Food Programme stocks inside Gaza are running out”.
In total, 1.7 million Palestinians have become displaced in the last six weeks. Only nine out of the 22 UNRWA health centers are operational, the UN said on Sunday.
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“People in Gaza have got nowhere to go,” Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs told ABC on Sunday.
White’s comments come amid Israel’s forced evacuations of Palestinians from Gaza’s northern part to its southern part which Israel has also repeatedly bombed, despite dropping leaflets warning Palestinians to flee to southern Gaza towns.
He said:
It’s unlike other conflicts where there’s fighting in one city and you move to another city. In Gaza, there is nowhere to go. Houses are being hit all across the Gaza strip. People are worried about if they’re in the north or in the south, are they safe?
We’ve had 13 of the UNRWA shelters, people sheltering under a UN flag, that have been directly hit. There’s countless other shelters, over 30 shelters, that suffered collateral damage, Many of them are actually in the south …
The reality is, Gazans have got nowhere to go for safety. They are all exposed to the threat of fighting and particularly airstrikes.
"This is the reality of this conflict - people in📍#Gaza have got nowhere to go"@TomWhiteGaza tells @ABC that Gazans have got "nowhere to go for safety" and they are all exposed to the threat of fighting and particularly strikes. pic.twitter.com/vftXkRGlO1
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 19, 2023
Here is the latest update from UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza where nearly 2 million Palestinians have become internally displaced:
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Tens of thousands of supporters from Pakistan’s main religious political party rallied in Lahore against Israel’s strikes on Gaza that have killed over 13,000 Palestinians.
The Associated Press reports:
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 kilometers (miles) 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 Organization for Islamic Cooperation will not work, and that Muslim rulers have to rise and to stop the hand of the aggressor.
The Israeli army has published footage of what it says is a Hamas tunnel at al-Shifa hospital.
The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports:
In a statement on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops operating near the in-patients building at al-Shifa found a booby-trapped pickup truck in a garage inside the medical complex’s walls. When it was destroyed in a controlled explosion, a tunnel was exposed beneath the floor of the garage, the IDF said, providing photographs.
In footage dated 16 and 17 November taken by army robots, a tunnel shaft about 10 metres long is navigated by a rickety circular staircase, before it reaches a 55-metre-long tunnel. The tunnel contains electricity wires and slopes downwards until it ends at a blast-proof door, with a small slot through which to fire weapons. The IDF says it is yet to reach beyond the door.
Read the full story here:
The World Food Programme is working alongside the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster to establish independent communications systems across Gaza amid frequent blackouts by Israel.
In a video posted to Twitter/X, David Pickering, an emergency telecommunications coordinator, said:
These blackouts are disrupting the entire humanitarian system, preventing responders from reaching families caught in this conflict … We [are] work[ing] tirelessly to establish the lifeline for Gaza, solar panels, solar connectivity solutions and radios.
With the frequent communication blackouts in #Gaza, families can't ask for help, and humanitarians can't know who needs what, when, or how to deliver assistance.
— World Food Programme (@WFP) November 19, 2023
The @ETCluster and WFP are working to establish independent communications systems. pic.twitter.com/v8Y5gljlY0
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Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza, where over 13,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, including 5,500 children, as thousands others flee south under Israel’s orders despite facing continued bombardment by Israel in the southern part of the strip:
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In a new interview with CBS on Sunday, Jordanian ambassador to the US, Dina Kawar, said a ceasefire is “the only way forward” to stop the war between Israel and Hamas.
Speaking to CBS host Margaret Brennan, Kawar said:
The Jordanian government is asking for a ceasefire. And His Majesty [King Abdullah II) has spoken about the importance of going to a ceasefire, not because we want to think differently from the rest of the world, but because we feel that with the Arab countries and with the Islamic countries, this is the only way forward – to stop this war and to sit around the table and go back to negotiations.
She went on to add:
Our worry is that this violence is going just to breed violence and is putting pressure in the region. And if we cannot talk to the moral compass of the world, not to the humanitarian feelings, let’s talk strategic – strategic thinking. And that’s where we’re going.
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Here are additional updates from Reuters on reports of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis seizing a cargo ship in the Red Sea on Sunday, which Israel has described as an “Iranian act of terrorism”:
Israel said on Sunday that Yemen’s Houthis had seized a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship in the southern Red Sea, describing the incident as an ‘Iranian act of terrorism’ with consequences for international maritime security.
A US defense official said ‘we’re aware of the situation and are closely monitoring it.’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a ship – which it did not name – had been seized, “There were no Israelis on the ship,” and Israel was not involved in its ownership or operation, it added.
“This is another Iranian act of terrorism that represents an escalation in Iran’s belligerence against the citizens of the free world, with concomitant international ramifications vis-à-vis the security of global shipping routes.”
Earlier on Sunday the Houthis said all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies, or carrying the Israeli flag could be targeted.
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Gaza's health ministry: at least 13,000 Palestinians killed and 30,000 injured
At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 have been injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry announced on Sunday.
Out of the 13,000 killed by Israeli strikes, 5,500 of those are children and 3,500 are women, Reuters reports the statement adding.
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France to send warship with medical aid to Gaza
France will send a warship to provide medical aid to Gaza, Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday.
The French Dixmude helicopter carrier will set sail “at the start of the week and arrive in Egypt in the coming days”, the French president said in a statement, adding that the Dixmude is “configured for hospital support with a capacity for 40 beds”.
Macron added:
This ship is intended to treat the most serious cases and allow injured civilians to be taken into account in order to have them treated in surrounding hospitals, if necessary.
He also said that France is “mobilizing all the means at its disposal, particularly air” so that patients can be treated in France. Arrangements have been made to receive up to 50 patients in French hospitals, he added.
Macron said that he has also decided to charter a new Air Force plane that will transport over 10 tons of medical cargo next week. “In particular, it will carry two mobile health stations to treat around 500 seriously injured people each.”
Urgence pour la population de Gaza : l’aide humanitaire doit pouvoir arriver le plus rapidement et le plus sûrement possible. Pour cela, il nous faut obtenir une trêve humanitaire immédiate conduisant à un cessez-le-feu.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 19, 2023
La France fait tout pour y parvenir.
Point de situation.…
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Houthis in Yemen said they have seized an Israeli ship in the southern Red Sea and brought it to a Yemeni port.
“We are treating the ship’s crew in accordance with Islamic principles and values,” a spokesperson of the group’s military said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Earlier on Sunday, Israel said that the Iran-backed group seized a ship on a Red Sea shipping route with no Israeli owners or crew onboard.
Russia and Iran’s foreign ministers on Sunday called for a ceasefire in Gaza and said that urgent assistance must be given to the civilian population there.
Reuters reports:
Russia said foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian at the request of Tehran.
‘During the conversation, main attention was focused on the current situation in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,’ Russia’s foreign ministry said.
‘General concern was expressed about the ongoing armed confrontation in the Gaza Strip,’ he said. ‘The need for an early ceasefire and urgent assistance to the affected civilian population was stressed.’
Russia, which has relationships with Iran, Hamas and major Arab powers as well as with the Palestinians and with Israel, has repeatedly accused the United States and the west of ignoring the need for an independent Palestinian state within 1967 borders.
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WHO hails al-Shifa hospital healthcare workers as 'heroic' amid 'death zone'
The World Health Organization (WHO), which led a second assessment visit to al-Shifa hospital on Sunday, commended the healthcare personnel working in Gaza’s largest hospital which the WHO declared as a “death zone”.
Addressing several healthcare workers, a WHO assessment crew member said:
I am absolutely humbled by the work of you and your teams, the heroic efforts that you’ve made … The organization that I represent are immensely proud to call ourselves healthcare professionals, to look at the work you’ve done, to look at the work that you continue to do under the conditions that you continue to deliver the best possible care for your patients and their families is nothing short of heroic.
We are humbled by the heroic work of health workers in #Gaza.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 19, 2023
I also continue to be impressed by my @WHO colleagues, who serve and support the people of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/6pgJvkfn4O
Earlier today, the WHO helped evacuate 31 “very sick” babies, along with six health workers and 10 staff family members from the hospital, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus announced.
The babies were taken to al-Helal al-Emirati maternity hospital where they are “receiving urgent care in the neonatal intensive care unit”, said Ghebreyesus.
More than 13,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the last six weeks, Gaza’s health ministry announced on Sunday. Out of the 13,000 killed, 5,500 are children and 3,500 are women.
Additionally, 30,000 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli airstrikes since October 7, the ministry said.
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In an interview with ABC on Sunday, Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the US, maintained that al-Shifa hospital “continues to function”, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) visiting the hospital on Saturday and declaring it “no longer operational”.
Speaking to ABC host Martha Raddatz, Herzog said:
There are patients being treated in the hospital … The hospital continues to function but underneath there’s a city of terror.
Herzog added that the Israeli military has been “very careful” and “allowed people who wanted to evacuate to evacuate”. Herzog’s language and claims that such evacuations have been voluntary starkly contrast the WHO’s warning that forcing patients to flee hospitals are a “death sentence”.
Herzog also claimed that there “was no shootout” at the hospital, contrasting the WHO’s description of Al Shifa hospital on Saturday as a “death zone” and that “signs of shelling and gunfire were evident”.
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Humanitarian agencies, both NGOs and government-run agencies, are preparing to rush emergency aid into Gaza if a three to five day humanitarian pause is agreed shortly, but the agencies admit they face huge difficulties since they do know how long the pause may extend, or how many crossings will be open.
The logistical difficulties, given the needs and the indefinite brief pause, are described as a nightmare.
The supervisor general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRELIEF), Dr Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, for instance, is flying to Egypt on Tuesday to discuss how aid convoys could operate. He is flying both to the aid collection base at El Arish airport and then onto the Rafah crossing 45 miles away. Rafah is the one route into Gaza from Egypt.
He told the Guardian:
The Rafah crossing is packed with trucks, and it is taking a long time for everything to be checked. We need other corridors that will ease the passage to get aid in. Even if we get as long as five days with one crossing I don’t think we can get enough aid in to salvage the lives that need saving. I am hoping another crossing will open, perhaps from Jordan.
He said top priorities during a three to five days pause will be medical supplies, water, and nutrition for children,
But he added:
As the rainy season has started, shelter is an increasing priority, so we have been asked to send blankets and tents. We are in a big race with time. It is a nightmare for all of us. We don’t want to see families, especially children in the middle of the winter thrown into the desert in the middle of nowhere. Whatever we provide it is not going to be more than a primitive life.
He also added the Saudis were preparing 20 ambulances for the Palestinian Red Crescent to replace those destroyed by Israel defense forces.
“The centre is ready to prepare medical volunteer convoys and our doctors are ready to go if the situation allows,” he said, adding that like other Gulf states, Saudi Arabia was ready to establish pop-up field hospitals capable of containing between 50 and 80 beds. The location of these hospitals – should be in a safe place near Gaza and this needs a resolution, he said, adding:
We, as an international community, need an undertaking from Israel that they will not target field hospitals. We are trying to negotiate this so the hospitals can be placed in a grey zone.
The Saudi Arabian public has raised more than $140m in addition to government support, through KSRELIEF and has airlifted 14 planes of aid.
Aid by sea from Jeddah to Port Said in Egypt has also started.
He admitted:
In a crisis of this magnitude there are going to be some challenges with coordination between different countries. There will be some duplication, but frankly the need is so high it does not matter … I am a humanitarian but it is a crime when you kill children and women whether it is by Israel or any other country.
Updated
A cargo ship partially owned by an Israeli businessman was hijacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea on Sunday, Israel confirmed on Sunday, accusing Iran of directing the maritime piracy, the Jerusalem Post has reported.
It said that the cargo ship, Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader, was leased from a British company partly owned by Israeli Rami Unger to a Japanese company. The ship left a port in Turkey headed for India and sailed under the flag of the Bahamas.
Earlier today, a spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi military, Yahya Sarea, said the group would target all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or carrying the Israeli flag, according to the group’s Telegram channel, according to a Reuters report. The spokesperson called on all countries to withdraw their citizens working on the crews of any such ships.
The Israel Defense Forces posted on X:
The hijacking of a cargo ship by the Houthis near Yemen in the southern Red Sea is a very grave incident of global consequence.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 19, 2023
The ship departed Turkey on its way to India, staffed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis. It is not an Israeli ship.
Updated
Israel is hopeful that a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas “in coming days”, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, said in an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
“I’m hopeful we can have a deal in the coming days,” Herzog said.
Hamas took about 240 hostages during its deadly raid into Israeli communities on 7 October.
The deal outlined in an unconfirmed report in the Washington Post this weekend indicated it would involve a freeze in combat operations for five days.
Reuters on 15 November reported that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire, citing an official briefed on the talks. At the time, the official said general outlines had been agreed but Israel had still been negotiating details.
On Sunday, the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said his confidence was growing that a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas would be reached, adding that challenges that remained were “very minor” and were practical and logistical. His comments were made at a joint press conference with the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in Doha, Reuters said.
Updated
Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has described how his brother-in-law, a hospital doctor in the Gaza strip, has witnessed “death and destruction” and is in a “terrible way” as he continues to treat patients in the south of Gaza in the ongoing war.
The parents of Yousaf’s wife, Nadia El-Nakla were trapped in Gaza after visiting relatives when the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. They returned to Scotland earlier this month after being permitted to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
Yousaf said he had exchanged messages with his brother-in-law, who has been working almost non-stop, on Saturday.
“He says he’s never seen death and destruction like it. He told me he doesn’t know how he’s going to recover from it.
“He said one of his early jobs, when the conflict began, was to try to match body parts with the correct body. He’s in a terrible way.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest pictures from the news wires relating to the Hamas-Israel war.
Photograph: Shir Torem/Reuters
Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Updated
The director-general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has confirmed that 31 “very sick babies” were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital, along with six health workers and 10 staff family members. He also said further missions were being planned to evacuate other remaining patients and health staff out of the hospital, pending guarantees of safe passage.
.@WHO has led a second @UN and @PalestineRCS mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in #Gaza today, under extremely intense and high-risk security conditions.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 19, 2023
31 very sick babies were evacuated, along with 6 health workers and 10 staff family members.
6 Palestine Red Crescent ambulances… pic.twitter.com/YJc25M0vnc
France will send more medical supplies and a second hospital ship to Gaza, Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a statement on Sunday.
France will send an airplane with more than 10 tonnes of medical supplies at the start of the week, and will contribute to European Union medical aid flights on 23 November and 30 November.
France is also preparing a second hospital ship, the helicopter-carrier Dixmude, which will arrive in Egypt in coming days, Reuters reports.
A first French helicopter carrier – the Tonnerre, which has about 60 beds and two operating blocs – has already been deployed in the region.
France will also deploy civil and military planes to evacuate sick or injured children from Gaza, the statement added.Earlier this month, French planes delivered 54 tonnes of aid for Gaza via Egypt.
Updated
Only minor differences between Hamas and Israel remain to be resolved before a hostage deal can be struck, the Qatari prime minister has said.
Qatar has been at the centre of mediation efforts to reach an agreement that would see large numbers of hostages released, starting with children and women. A humanitarian pause lasting as long as five days would be agreed to allow the transport of the hostages.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, at a joint press conference in Doha with Josep Borrell, the EU’s external affairs chief, said: “The challenges facing the agreement are just practical and logistical. There has been good progress in the past few days.”
“The deal is going through ups and downs from time to time throughout the last few weeks,” he said. “But I think that you know I’m now more confident that we are close enough to reach a deal that can bring the people safely back to their home.” He gave no timetable.
A staged release would be the first de-escalatory step since Hamas launched a bloody assault on Israel on 7 October, during which it captured more than 200 hostages and took them to Gaza.
You can read the full report here:
Updated
Summary
Here is a summary of key events so far today.
At least 30 premature babies are said to have been evacuated from al-Shifa hospital to be transferred to hospitals in Egypt. The Palestinian Red Crescent evacuated 31 premature babies from the hospital on Sunday in coordination with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the group said, Reuters reports. The babies were transferred to the south of Gaza “in preparation for their transfer to the Emirates hospital in Rafah” the group added.
A World Health Organization team that visited al-Shifa hospital on Saturday said 32 babies were among scores of critically ill patients stranded at the hospital, where Israeli forces have been operating since last week. WHO has described the hospital as a “death zone” following a visit on Saturday.
The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said his confidence was growing that a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas would be reached, adding that challenges that remained were “very minor” and were practical and logistical. His comments were made at a joint press conference with the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in Doha, Reuters said.
A Washington Post report that a tentative deal has been struck for Israel to pause its attacks for five days, in return for Hamas releasing hostages, cited unnamed sources familiar with the supposed deal. There has been no official confirmation of this from any of the parties involved in negotiations. White House national security council spokesperson Adrienne Watson posted on X: “We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get a deal.”
Fifteen Palestinians were killed early on Sunday in Israeli air bombardments of the central and southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. Thirteen were killed in an attack on a home in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while a woman and her child were killed in southern Khan Younis city, WAFA said.
At least two Palestinians were killed on Sunday during Israeli army raids in the West Bank, the Red Crescent said, AFP reported.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Sunday the international community should push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to stop a humanitarian catastrophe caused by what he termed Israel’s “ugly war against civilians”. Reuters reports in remarks made during a meeting with the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, the monarch said global powers should force Israel to comply with international law to protect civilians and ensure Israel heeds calls to allow uninterrupted flow of aid into Gaza.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Muslim states to “at least cut off political ties with Israel for a limited period of time” on Sunday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, weeks after calling for an Islamic oil and food embargo on Israel, Reuters reports.
The Israeli air force has attacked and destroyed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, an Israeli military spokesperson said, adding that mortar shells had been fired into Israel from across the border. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported earlier on Sunday morning that the sound of rocket sirens had been heard in northern Israel.
Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday evening that he rejected what he described as “increasingly heavy pressure” from the international community, including some in the US, saying Israel refused to agree to a “full ceasefire”. He said: “Many people around the world demanded that we not enter the Gaza Strip – we did so ... They warned us not to enter [al-Shifa hospital] even though it served as a central terrorist base for Hamas – we did so. They pressured us to agree to a full ceasefire – we refused. And I have made it clear: we will only agree to a temporary ceasefire and only in exchange for the return of our hostages.”
The head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has warned that Israel’s approval of “only half of the daily minimum requirements for fuel for humanitarian operations in Gaza … is far from enough.” In a statement on Saturday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: “This is far from enough to cover the needs for desalination plants, sewage pumps, hospitals, water pumps in shelters, aid trucks, ambulances, bakeries and communications networks to work without interruption.”
Thousands of demonstrators, including family members of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, marched into Jerusalem on Saturday in angry calls for the Israeli government to do more to bring their relatives home. The march capped a five-day trek from Tel Aviv and represented the largest protest on behalf of the hostages since they were dragged into Gaza by Hamas on 7 October.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post on Saturday, US president, Joe Biden, said that the Palestinian Authority should govern Gaza and the West Bank after the war between Israel and Hamas. “Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalised Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution,” he wrote. He also said that “extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop.”
Updated
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Muslim states to “at least cut off political ties with Israel for a limited period of time” on Sunday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, weeks after calling for an Islamic oil and food embargo on Israel, Reuters reports.
During a joint summit between members of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League in Saudi Arabia’s capital on 11 November, Muslim states did not agree to impose wide-ranging sanctions on Israel as requested by Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, Reuters said.
Updated
More on the evacuation of premature babies from al-Shifa hospital. Ambulance crews of the Palestinian Red Crescent evacuated 31 premature babies from the hospital on Sunday in coordination with the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the group said, Reuters reports. The babies were transferred to the south of Gaza “in preparation for their transfer to the Emirates Hospital in Rafah” the group added.
Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest aid charities are urging Rishi Sunak to use his opening speech at a global food summit in London on Monday to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza, which they say is causing 2 million people to go hungry and taking 1 million children to the brink of starvation, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reports.
The charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestine and Islamic Relief, say the UK has an obligation to speak out at the summit since private diplomacy is not working and the UK is the guardian of the key UN resolution that forbids starvation as a “weapon of war”.
The summit, designed to look at improving food productivity and distribution in some of the world’s poorest countries, comes as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza reaches crisis point.
You can read the full report here:
Updated
Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Sunday the international community should push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to stop a humanitarian catastrophe caused by what he termed Israel’s “ugly war against civilians”.
Reuters reports in remarks made during a meeting with the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, the monarch said global powers should force Israel to comply with international law to protect civilians and ensure Israel heeds calls to allow uninterrupted flow of aid into Gaza.
Updated
Gaza’s health ministry says 30 premature babies have been evacuated from al-Shifa hospital and will be transferred to hospitals in Egypt.
Medhat Abbas, a spokesperson for the ministry, said they were evacuated from the hospital on Sunday, the Associated Press reports.
A World Health Organization team that visited al-Shifa hospital on Saturday said 32 babies were among scores of critically ill patients stranded at the hospital, where Israeli forces have been operating since last week.
Updated
The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said on Sunday his confidence was growing that a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas would be reached, adding that challenges that remained were “very minor”.
“The challenges facing the agreement are just practical and logistical,” Sheikh Mohammed said at a joint press conference with the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in Doha, according to Reuters.
Updated
At least two Palestinians were killed on Sunday during Israeli army raids in the West Bank, the Red Crescent said, as violence surges in the occupied territory in tandem with the Israel-Hamas war, AFP reports.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, a 45-year-old man was killed in Jenin, a stronghold of armed groups in the northern West Bank, and another person was killed in Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem farther south.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment.
Updated
Some protests aimed at MPs have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said, also speaking to Sky’s Trevor Phillips programme.
Asked about recent protests outside MPs’ offices calling for a ceasefire, PA Media reports she said:
I believe in the right to protest, I don’t believe in the right to intimidate.
Some of those protests, I believe, over the last few days have crossed the line from protest to intimidation. Protesting outside people’s homes, putting pressure on them in that way, I think it’s totally unacceptable.
\In a democracy we elect our MPs and they make decisions. They represent their constituents, but they also listen to all of the evidence. Anything that would attempt to intimidate an MP to vote in a certain way or to put pressure on them – it is anti-democratic in my view.
I would urge those people who are conducting those protests – I understand why you call for a ceasefire – but do things in a responsible way, and don’t intimidate or put pressure in that way on elected representatives, or anyone else for that matter.”
On Saturday, hundreds of people marched through Keir Starmer’s constituency and protested outside his Camden office over the Labour leader’s failure to call for a ceasefire.
Updated
UK chancellor says there 'is tragic loss of life on both Palestinian and Israeli side'
The UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, interviewed by Sky’s Trevor Phillips this morning, was asked for his thoughts on the World Health Organization report that said al-Shifa hospital was a “death zone”, and Israel’s claims Hamas was using the building as a command centre.
Hunt said:
We recognise, and I’m afraid this morning’s news confirms, that there is an absolutely tragic loss of life on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side. But I think it is important to remember this started with horrific murders on October 7, and if Hamas are hiding in these hospitals then Israel has to do something about it. I think we can all just hope this situation resolves itself as quickly as possible.
Updated
A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi military, Yahya Sarea, said on Sunday the group would target all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or carrying the Israeli flag, according to the group’s Telegram channel, Reuters reports.
The spokesperson called on all countries to withdraw their citizens working on the crews of any such ships.
Updated
After the Washington Post’s unconfirmed report that Israel, Hamas and the US have struck a tentative deal for Israel to pause its attacks for five days in return for Hamas releasing hostages, White House national security council spokesperson Adrienne Watson posted on X:
We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal. https://t.co/rbSqcqfaKo
— Adrienne Watson (@NSC_Spox) November 19, 2023
Updated
The raid on al-Shifa hospital by Israeli forces forced out thousands of patients and medical staff, report Ruth Michaelson and Kaamil Ahmed.
They write:
In the early hours of Saturday morning, over piles of concrete and rubble, crowds of doctors and patients walked miles through the destroyed streets of Gaza City, forced to evacuate on foot from what remained of its hospitals. Medics said they feared leaving critically ill patients behind in a city now largely reduced to rubble and overtaken by Israeli forces, where hospitals had been operating without power, fuel, water or food.
“It’s basically hell on earth,” said William Schomburg, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, describing what remained of life inside the city.
You can read their full report here:
The Israeli air force has attacked and destroyed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israeli military spokesperson said, adding that mortar shells had been fired into Israel from across the border.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported earlier on Sunday morning that the sound of rocket sirens had been heard in northern Israel.
Updated
Here are some images from the newswires, taken across Gaza over the past 24 hours.
Ministers from Arab and Islamic countries will visit China on Monday, the first stop of a tour aimed at ending the war in Gaza, Saudi Foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said.
The tour will be the first step in carrying out decisions reached at a joint Arab and Islamic summit held in Riyadh this month, Prince Faisal said on the sidelines of a conference in Bahrain in comments posted by his ministry on the social media platform X on Friday.
“The first stop will be in China, then we will move to other capitals to convey a clear message that a ceasefire must be announced immediately, and let in aid,” the minister said. “We have to work on ending this crisis and the war on Gaza as soon as possible.”
Foreign Minister HH Prince @FaisalbinFarhan announces the start of the work of the ministerial committee in charge of the Arab-Islamic summit concerned with formulating an international action to stop the war on Gaza and the first stop is China. pic.twitter.com/Wn9rxZNsUE
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) November 18, 2023
32 babies in critical condition at Gaza's main hospital, says WHO, calling it a "death zone"
Here is some more detail from the World Health Organisation’s statement, released overnight, about the situation for patients who remain at Al-Shifa Hospital.
There are now 25 health workers and 291 patients at Al-Shifa, according to the WHO. Patients include 32 babies in “extremely critical condition”, two people in intensive care without ventilation, and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised.
The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, WHO said, including many with complex fractures and amputations, head injuries, burns, chest and abdominal trauma, and 29 patients with serious spinal injuries who are unable to move without medical assistance.
Many trauma patients have severely infected wounds due to lack of infection control measures in the hospital and unavailability of antibiotics. WHO’s team described the corridors as being filled with medical and solid waste, due to the collapse of basic services.
Several patients have died over the past two to three days due to the shutting down of medical services, WHO said. Its team reported seeing a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital, where they were told more than 80 people were buried.
WHO and its partners are forming plans to move these patients to other hospitals in the south of Gaza over the next 24–72 hours, “pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict”.
About 2,500 displaced people who were sheltering at the hospital had already moved by the time WHO’s team arrived on Saturday, after the Israeli military issued a evacuation order.
Updated
Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s continuing coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
As we open this blog, there has been a Washington Post report that a tentative deal has been struck for Israel to pause its attacks for five days, in return for Hamas releasing hostages. The Post cites unnamed sources familiar with the supposed deal.
At the moment, there has been no official confirmation from any of the parties involved in negotiations. The White House said there is no deal yet, but work continues towards producing one. The Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu said a few hours before the Post’s story was published that “as of now there has been no deal”.
We will continue to monitor the situation closely; in the meantime here is a summary of recent developments.
Fifteen Palestinians were killed early on Sunday in Israeli air bombardments of the central and southern Gaza strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. Thirteen were killed in an attack on a home in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while a woman and her child were killed in southern Khan Younis city, WAFA said.
The World Health Organization has described Al-Shifa hospital - once the largest, most advanced, referral hospital in Gaza - as a “death zone” following a visit on Saturday. Lack of clean water, fuel, medicine, food and other essentials means it was no longer functioning as a medical facility, WHO said, adding that corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste. The WHO’s team also reported signs of shelling and gunfire, and a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital, where they were told more than 80 people were buried.
There are 25 health workers and 291 patients still in Al-Shifa, including 32 babies “in extremely critical condition”, WHO said. It is urgently developing plans for the evacuation of the patients, staff and families who remain at Al-Shifa Hospital within the next 24–72 hours. However, Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza, where they will be transferred, are already working beyond capacity.
Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday evening that he rejected what he described as “increasingly heavy pressure” from the international community, including some in the US, saying Israel refused to agree to a “full ceasefire”. He said: “Many people around the world demanded that we not enter the Gaza Strip – we did so... They warned us not to enter [Al-Shifa hospital] even though it served as a central terrorist base for Hamas – we did so. They pressured us to agree to a full ceasefire – we refused. And I have made it clear: we will only agree to a temporary ceasefire and only in exchange for the return of our hostages.”
Netanyahu also rejected what he described as “unsubstantiated rumours” and “incorrect reports” regarding a possible deal to release hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting during the press conference on Saturday night.
US national security council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said US officials “continue to work hard to get to a deal”, but said no agreement had yet been made. She said this in response to a Washington Post report saying Israel, the US and Hamas were close to reaching an agreement that would free dozens of hostages, in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting that could allow greater flow of humanitarian assistance.
The head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, earlier warned that Israel’s approval of “only half of the daily minimum requirements for fuel for humanitarian operations in Gaza … is far from enough.” In a statement on Saturday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: “This is far from enough to cover the needs for desalination plants, sewage pumps, hospitals, water pumps in shelters, aid trucks, ambulances, bakeries and communications networks to work without interruption.”
More than 80 people were killed on Saturday by double Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza’s health ministry said. “At least 50 people” were killed in an Israeli strike on early Saturday morning at the UNRWA-run al-Fakhouri school in the Jabalia refugee camp a Gaza health ministry official said. Another strike on a separate building in the camp killed 32 people of the same family, 19 of them children, according to the official.
Médecins Sans Frontières strongly condemned a “deliberate attack” on a convoy evacuating its staff members and their families, which it said had resulted in one death and one injury. The convoy was attacked on Saturday, as it was trying to evacuate 137 people, from MSF premises located near Al-Shifa hospital.
Thousands of demonstrators, including family members of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, marched into Jerusalem on Saturday in angry calls for the Israeli government to do more to bring their relatives home. The march capped a five-day trek from Tel Aviv and represented the largest protest on behalf of the hostages since they were dragged into Gaza by Hamas on 7 October.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post on Saturday, US president Joe Biden said that the Palestinian Authority should govern Gaza and the West Bank after the war between Israel and Hamas. “Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution,” he wrote. He also said that “extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop.”
Updated
