It’s approaching 4.15am in Israel and Gaza and we’re going to pause the blog. In the meantime you can see all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here and see our latest full report on the conflict here. We’ll be back soon to bring you the latest developments.
Here’s a summary of the key events of the past day:
The Israeli military has reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died in the past three days, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women in Gaza by the Israeli military since 7 October, the health ministry said on Monday.
Joe Biden has said al-Shifa “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces. “It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” the US president said on Monday.
All of the hospitals in northern Gaza are “out of service” amid fuel shortages and intense combat, the health ministry in the besieged territory said on Monday. Two major hospitals in northern Gaza – al-Shifa and al-Quds – have closed to new patients due to Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators.
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA has warned that the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed into the besieged territory. UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza had run dry and would no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water.
UNRWA said that one of its schools in northern Gaza and a building designated as a residence for UN international staff in the Rafah area were directly hit by strikes. It did not say who was responsible for the strikes. The UN agency also said it had received “extremely concerning” reports that Israeli security forces had entered one UNRWA school and two UNRWA health centres in the Gaza Strip with tanks and used them for military operations. Earlier, it said one of its buildings in Rafah had been struck by Israel’s navy. Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip, within the area Israel has insisted Palestinians move to.
Trucks transporting desperately needed aid through the Rafah crossing from Egypt could stop operations on Tuesday due to a lack of fuel. “Humanitarian ceasefire, fuel supplies – all of these should be happening now. We are running out of time before really facing major disaster,” Andrea De Domenico, the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office in the occupied Palestinian territory, told journalists on Monday.
Israel claims it has uncovered a Hamas operations centre beneath the Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza City, and evidence suggesting that hostages taken on 7 October were held there. Separately, CNN reported that “a US official with knowledge of American intelligence” said that Hamas had “a command node” under the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
At least three Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured after an Israeli airstrike hit Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, health officials said on Monday.
The armed wing of Hamas says it discussed with Qatari mediators the release up to 70 women and children hostages in Gaza in exchange for a five-day Israeli ceasefire. Israel has rejected any possibility of a ceasefire until the release of all 240 of the hostages.
UN workers observed a minute’s silence on Monday for the more than 100 colleagues killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began last month, marking the deadliest conflict ever for UN workers. At least 101 employees of the UNRWA have been killed since 7 October.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has acknowledged the growing international pressure for a ceasefire. He also estimated that Israel has a “diplomatic window” of two to three weeks before pressure on the country seriously begins to increase, local media reported.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has urged Joe Biden to do more to stop the “atrocities” in Gaza and help bring about a ceasefire. Widodo, the leader of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, held talks with the US president on Monday at the White House.
The EU’s humanitarian aid chief called on Monday for “meaningful” pauses in the fighting and urgent deliveries of fuel to keep hospitals working in the territory. The EU’s 27 countries issued a statement on Sunday saying hospitals “must be protected” and condemning Hamas for using the medical facilities and civilians as “human shields”.
One hundred US government officials from the state department and international development agency have signed an internal memo criticising the White House for “disregarding the lives of Palestinians” and for showing an “unwillingness to de-escalate” in the Israel-Hamas war.
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot be “morally justified”.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has set out proposals for how Gaza should be run after the war between Israel and Hamas. EU foreign ministers are also looking at a Cypriot proposal to open up a maritime corridor for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has let it be known that he is available if needed to help in an effort to end the growing crisis in Israel and Palestine. His office, however, denied a report in the Israeli press that he had already been offered a specific job.
Updated
A photographer in Gaza has taken these images of relatives mourning for those killed in an Israeli attack on the al-Sharafi family’s apartment in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has confirmed that Washington, which has firmly backed Israel over its offensive against Hamas, has raised the issue of protecting Gaza’s hospitals with its ally. Agence France-Presse reports:
“We do not want to see firefights in hospitals,” he told a briefing. “We want to see patients protected, we want to see hospitals protected.”
He added: “We have spoken with the Israeli government about this and they have said they share that view that they do not want to see firefights in hospitals.”
Sullivan also said the US wanted to see “considerably longer pauses – days, not hours” in the fighting.
The White House said last week that Israel had agreed to daily four-hour humanitarian pauses in the fighting to let civilians out of northern Gaza and aid in.
Brazil’s president has accused Israel of “killing innocent people without any criteria” in the Gaza Strip, deeming its actions there “as grave” as the 7 October attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas, Agence France-Presse reports.
At an official ceremony in Brasilia, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said:
After the act of terrorism provoked by Hamas, the consequences, the solution of the state of Israel, is as grave as that of Hamas. They are killing innocent people without any criteria.
The leader of Latin America’s largest country also accused Israel of “dropping bombs where there are children, hospitals, on the pretext that a terrorist is there.”
“This is inexplicable. First you have to save the women and children, then you fight with whomever you want,” Lula said.
Representatives of Brazil’s Jewish community denounced these remarks as “erroneous”, “unfair” and “dangerous”, adding that they “put Israel and Hamas on the same level”.
They defended the “visible and proven” efforts of the Israeli authorities “to save Palestinian civilians”.
“Our community expects balance from our authorities,” added the Israeli Confederation of Brazil, which claims to represent some 120,000 Brazilian Jews, the second largest community in the region, in a statement.
Lula’s comments came as he welcomed to Brasilia 22 Brazilians and 10 members of their families who had been evacuated from Gaza on Sunday via the land border with Egypt, after more than a month of waiting in the conflict zone.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has written to employees to acknowledge disagreements within the state department, CNN reported on Monday, after reports that 100 US government officials have signed a memo criticising the White House for “disregarding the lives of Palestinians”.
In his message on Monday, Blinken wrote:
I know that for many of you, the suffering caused by this crisis is taking a profound personal toll. The anguish that comes with seeing the daily images of babies, children, elderly people, women, and other civilians suffering in this crisis is wrenching. I feel it myself.
He noted that “some people in the Department may disagree with approaches we are taking or have views on what we can do better” and added that forums for employee feedback had been organised in Washington. He continued:
We’re listening: what you share is informing our policy and our messages.
He said the US’ “overarching objective” remained the same:
To bring this terrible conflict to a close as quickly as possible, while standing by Israel’s right and obligation, in full accordance with international humanitarian law, to ensure a terrorist attack like October 7th never happens again.
He also repeated that “far too many Palestinian civilians have died” and said that “much more can and should be done to reduce their suffering.” He continued:
As I said in private and in public, we believe Palestinian people’s voices must be at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza. We believe in Palestinian-led governance of Gaza, with Gaza unified with the West Bank. Gaza’s reconstruction must be supported with a sustained mechanism.
Another UNRWA staff member has been killed in Gaza due to “strikes” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said in its latest update, bringing the total number of UNRWA staff killed in the conflict to 102. At least 27 have been injured.
The UNRWA death toll over the past month was already the highest number of UN aid workers to be killed in a conflict in the history of the UN.
UN workers observed a minute’s silence on Monday for their colleagues killed in Gaza, as we reported earlier.
The Israeli army has confirmed the identity of a soldier being held hostage by Hamas, after the armed wing of the Palestinian group published a video showing the young woman in captivity. The army said in a statement shortly after midnight on Tuesday:
Our hearts go out to the Marciano family, whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organisation.
We are using all means, both intelligence and operational, to bring the hostages home.”
It was the first time the army has officially confirmed a hostage’s identity since Hamas gunmen abducted about 240 people when they stormed across the militarised border from Gaza on October 7. AFP reports further:
On Monday night, Hamas’ Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades published a video of the soldier apparently reading a message in Hebrew in which she identified herself by name and identity card number and said she had been detained in Gaza for four days.
“An IDF (Israel Defense Forces) representative came to the family’s home and informed them of the video’s publication,” the army statement said.
“The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past.”
In one of his first acts as Britain’s new foreign secretary David Cameron has spoken to his US counterpart Antony Blinken about the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to a post on social media by his office.
Foreign Secretary @David_Cameron spoke to @SecBlinken this evening.
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) November 13, 2023
They discussed the conflict in the Middle East, Israel’s right to self defence and the need for humanitarian pauses to allow the safe passage of aid into Gaza.
They also expressed their continued support for…
Hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remain trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital as Israeli troops and Hamas militants take part in heavy fighting outside it. What is happening there and why?
Where is al-Shifa hospital and how important is it to healthcare in Gaza?
The Dar al-Shifa (House of Healing) hospital is a sprawling complex of medical facilities in Gaza City, in the north of Gaza. Located about 500 metres from the coast and a major north-south road, it comprises a group of six-storey buildings that dominate the skyline. With between 600 and 900 beds and thousands of staff, it was the mainstay of healthcare provision locally, with a range of services that few of the other hospitals in Gaza could offer. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, it has become a shelter for those displaced by the fighting and continuing Israeli bombardment.
What are the competing claims about Hamas operations there?
Israel claims that Hamas has built its headquarters in bunkers and tunnels under the hospital, effectively using the building, patients and staff as a human shield. Security officials have also said that, after the surprise attacks into Israel by Hamas which killed 1,200 Israelis, mainly civilians in their homes or at a dance party, the senior Hamas leaders have been based in a “command complex” under the hospital.
Read on for more from Jason Burke’s explainer about the battle around al-Shifa hospital:
Updated
Jordan’s King Abdullah has warned that any scenario which includes the reoccupation of parts of Gaza by Israel will worsen the crisis and that continued Israeli “violations” in the West Bank and Jerusalem would “push the region towards an explosion”.
In comments reported by official news agency Petra, the king said “a military or security solution” would not succeed and said the conflict had originated in the occupation and the deprivation of rights of Palestinian people.
At a meeting with senior Jordanian politicians including former prime ministrers and the Senate president, he said Gaza must not be separated from the rest of the Palestinian territories and called for an end to the war and the resumption of a political process based on a two-state solution.
“Any other path will end in failure and lead to further cycles of violence and destruction,” he said.
Others at the meeting “noted that the King has foreseen and repeatedly warned against the dangers witnessed today as a result of Israeli violations,” Petra reported.
Jordan is home to a large population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants who fear Israel could expel Palestinians en masse from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian inhabitants have surged since Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel.
This is Helen Livingstone, taking over from my colleague Leonie Chao-Fong.
Summary of the day
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women in Gaza by the Israeli military since 7 October, the health ministry said on Monday.
Israeli military has reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died in the past three days, Gaza’s health ministry said.
Joe Biden has said that al-Shifa “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces. “It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” the US president said on Monday.
All of the hospitals in northern Gaza are “out of service” amid fuel shortages and intense combat, the health ministry in the besieged territory said on Monday. Two major hospitals in northern Gaza – al-Shifa and al-Quds – closed to new patients due to Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators.
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA has warned that all of the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed into the besieged territory. UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and will no longer be able to re-artsupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water.
UNRWA said that one of its schools in northern Gaza and a building designated as a residence for UN international staff in the Rafah area were directly hit by strikes. In its latest update on Monday, it did not say who was responsible for the strikes. The UN agency also said it had received “extremely concerning” reports that Israeli Security Forces had entered one UNRWA school and two UNRWA health centres in the Gaza Strip with tanks and used them for military operations. Earlier, it said one of its buildings in Rafah has been struck by Israel’s navy. Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip, within the area Israel has insisted Palestinians move to.
Trucks transporting desperately needed aid through the Rafah crossing from Egypt could stop operations on Tuesday due to a lack of fuel. “Humanitarian ceasefire, fuel supplies – all of these should be happening now. We are running out of time before really facing major disaster,” Andrea De Domenico, the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office in the occupied Palestinian territory, told journalists on Monday.
Israel claims it has uncovered a Hamas operations center beneath the Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza City, and evidence suggesting that hostages taken on 7 October were held there. Separately, CNN reported that “a US official with knowledge of American intelligence” said that Hamas had “a command node” under the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
At least three Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured after an Israeli airstrike hit Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, health officials said on Monday.
The armed wing of Hamas says it discussed with Qatari mediators the release up to 70 women and children hostages in Gaza in exchange for a five-day Israeli ceasefire. Israel has rejected any possibility of a ceasefire until the release of all 240 of the hostages.
UN workers observed a minute’s silence on Monday for the more than 100 colleagues killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began last month, marking the deadliest conflict ever for UN workers. At least 101 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have been killed since 7 October.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has acknowledged the growing international pressure for a ceasefire. He also estimated that Israel has a “diplomatic window” of between two and three weeks before pressure on the country seriously begins to increase, local media reported.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has urged Joe Biden to do more to stop the “atrocities” in Gaza and help bring about a ceasefire. Widodo, the leader of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, held talks with the US president on Monday at the White House.
The EU’s humanitarian aid chief called on Monday for “meaningful” pauses in the fighting in Gaza and urgent deliveries of fuel to keep hospitals working in the territory. The EU’s 27 countries issued a statement on Sunday saying hospitals “must be protected” and condemning Hamas for using the medical facilities and civilians as “human shields”.
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot be “morally justified”.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has set out proposals for how Gaza should be run after the war between Israel and Hamas. EU foreign ministers are also looking at a Cypriot proposal to open up a maritime corridor for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has let it be known that he is available if needed to help in an effort to end the growing crisis in Israel and Palestine. His office, however, denied a report in the Israeli press that he had already been offered a specific job.
Updated
Indonesian president urges Biden to 'do more to end atrocities in Gaza'
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has urged Joe Biden to do more to stop the “atrocities” in Gaza and help bring about a ceasefire.
Widodo, the leader of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, held talks with the US president on Monday at the White House. He said:
Indonesia appeals to the US to do more to stop the atrocities in Gaza.
He added:
Ceasefire is a must for the sake of humanity.
Aid trucks could stop operations in Gaza from Tuesday due to fuel shortage, warns UN official
Trucks transporting desperately needed aid through the Rafah crossing from Egypt could stop operations on Tuesday due to a lack of fuel, a senior UN humanitarian official has warned.
Andrea De Domenico, the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office in the occupied Palestinian territory, told journalists in New York that “lives are hanging by a thread” in Gaza, including those of babies in incubators at hospitals that depend on fuel for electricity.
Humanitarian ceasefire, fuel supplies – all of these should be happening now. We are running out of time before really facing major disaster.
On Sunday, 76 trucks delivered aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing, he said, adding:
Actually, instead of a much-needed increase of this assistance, we have been informed by the colleagues of UNRWA that due to the lack of fuel, as of tomorrow the operations of receiving trucks will no longer be possible.
“Operational conditions in general are deteriorating by the hour,” he added.
Updated
A New York civil liberties group is suing Joe Biden for allegedly failing in his duty under international and US laws to prevent Israel committing genocide in Gaza.
The Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) complaint on behalf of several Palestinian groups and individuals alleges that Israel’s actions, including “mass killings”, the targeting of civilian infrastructure and forced expulsions, amount to genocide. The CCR said that the 1948 international convention against genocide requires the US and other countries to use their power and influence to stop the killing. The complaint argued:
As Israel’s closest ally and strongest supporter, being its biggest provider of military assistance by a large margin and with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II, the United States has the means available to have a deterrent effect on Israeli officials now pursuing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, asks the court to bar the US from providing weapons, money and diplomatic support to Israel.
It also seeks a declaration that the president, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, are required “to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel’s commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people of Gaza”. These include pressing Israel to end the bombing of Gaza, to lift its siege of the territory and to prevent the forcible expulsion of Palestinians.
UN says school and staff building 'directly hit' by strikes
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said that one of its schools in northern Gaza and a building designated as a residence for UN international staff in the Rafah area were directly hit by strikes.
In its daily update on Monday, the agency said UN international staff present in Rafah had left the building 90 minutes before the strike, and that no casualties were reported. The strike “is yet another indication that nowhere is safe in Gaza”, it said. It did not say who was responsible for the strikes.
The UN agency said the coordinates of the building were shared twice, including just days ago, adding:
UNRWA shares coordinates of all its facilities across the Gaza Strip with parties to the conflict.
UNRWA also said it had received “extremely concerning” reports that Israeli Security Forces (ISF) had entered one UNRWA school and two UNRWA health centres in the Gaza Strip with tanks and used them for military operations.
It cited reports that the ISF “conducted interrogations and arrests” of internally displaced people in the installations, adding:
According to the reports, IDPs were subsequently forced to leave the UNRWA installations and move south towards Wadi Gaza. Witnesses reported that Israeli Forces then struck the two health centres with artillery fire. UNRWA is further verifying these reports. If confirmed, the military use of UNRWA facilities raises serious concerns, as such use puts civilians at serious risk of harm.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that the only power generator at Al-Amal hospital in southern Gaza has stopped working.
In a statement posted to social media, the PRCS said the lives of 90 patients at the hospital are at risk, including 25 in the medical rehabilitation section “who now face the risk of death at any moment”.
It said the hospital is relying on a “very small” generator and that the remaining fuel is expected to run out within the 24 hours.
🚨⚠️Today, the sole power generator at Al-Amal Hospital, affiliated with the PRCS in Khan Younis, stopped working. This threatens the lives of 90 patients receiving treatment, including 25 in the medical rehabilitation section who now face the risk of death at any moment.… pic.twitter.com/0G8fpPTdfd
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 13, 2023
Journalists in southern Lebanon said they were targeted in Israeli strikes, which Al Jazeera said lightly wounded its photographer.
About a dozen journalists from several media outlets were on a tour around the town of Yaroun when the incident took place on Monday, AFP reported.
Al Jazeera said its photographer, Issam Mawasi, was “lightly wounded as a result of Israeli bombing”. Al Jazeera’s Lebanon bureau chief, Mazen Ibrahim, accused Israel of “directly targeting” the group, adding that the journalists were in an open area.
The mayor of Yaroun, Ali Qassem Tahfah, said two successive Israeli strikes on Monday “targeted the group of journalists”, hitting several metres from the teams’ vehicles and causing damage.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the incident.
Updated
The director of Gaza’s largest hospital has said Israel has not made any contact regarding the evacuation of patients or premature babies.
Dr Mohamed Abu Selmia of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City told the BBC:
[The Israeli army] haven’t reached out, instead we reached out to them ... but until now we have received no response. There are negotiations regarding evacuating premature babies but until now nothing has happened.
He said that 32 patients, including three premature babies, have died at the hospital over the past few days. Several other patients who need dialysis risk dying in “the next couple of days” as the treatment is no longer available, he said.
He repeated the call for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Red Cross to help evacuate patients, adding:
We don’t want any of the patients ... to die, we want them alive, we want them to receive the medical care they need in a place that can provide them.
Updated
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has posted to X, formerly Twitter, video of what it says is a “walkthrough” of a “subterranean terrorist tunnel” used by Hamas, emerging at the Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza city.
The footage could not immediately be independently verified.
EXCLUSIVE RAW FOOTAGE: Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari walk through one of Hamas' subterranean terrorist tunnels—only to exit in Gaza's Rantisi hospital on the other side.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 13, 2023
Inside these tunnels, Hamas terrorists hide, operate and hold Israeli hostages against their… pic.twitter.com/Nx4lVrvSXH
The IDF says it discovered a Hamas operations center beneath the hospital, where it believes it has evidence hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October were held.
Updated
The armed wing of Hamas says it discussed with Qatari mediators the release up to 70 women and children hostages in Gaza in exchange for a five-day Israeli ceasefire, Reuters reports.
Israel has rejected any possibility of a ceasefire until the release of all 240 of the hostages.
Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for al-Qassam brigades, said Hamas also wanted the release of 200 Palestinian children and 75 women it says have been “detained by the enemy”.
“The truce should include a complete ceasefire and allow aid and humanitarian relief everywhere in the Gaza Strip,” he said in an audio recording posted to the group’s Telegram channel.
He said Israel was “procrastinating and evading” over the proposed deal.
Updated
IDF: Hamas operations center discovered beneath hospital
Israel claims it has uncovered a Hamas operations center beneath the Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza City, and evidence suggesting that hostages taken on 7 October were held there.
Also found inside the hospital, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, was a motorcycle it believes Hamas used during its assault, and a tunnel from the hospital linking it with a house used by Hamas leaders.
Lt Col Peter Lerner of the IDF has just been on CNN explaining what he says the military found:
The hospital has most definitely been used for terrorist activities. This is a hospital that we’ve been evacuating over the last few days. The civilians and the terrorists escaped from the hospital … and hostages taken with the terrorists out of the hospital premises.
We found a motorcycle in the hospital itself. The motorcycle has a bullet hole in its fuel tank, that looks like one of those motorcycles we’ve seen in all of those videos coming out of the 7th of October.
We also found a tunnel that appears to connect a senior terrorist house [of] a commander … to the hospital, so this is a merciless network putting the people of Gaza at risk. This is what we’ve been saying throughout the last 38 days.
He said hairbands, diapers and baby bottles found under the hospital suggest that children and babies were among the hostages who may have been held there.
The claims could not immediately be independently verified.
Separately, CNN reports that “a US official with knowledge of American intelligence” said that Hamas had “a command node” under the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
According to the network, the official claims fuel intended for the hospital is used by Hamas, and that Hamas fighters “regularly cluster in and around Gaza’s largest hospital”.
Earlier Monday, Joe Biden said the hospital, Gaza’s largest, where hundreds of patients are trapped, “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces.
Updated
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said Hamas has “lost control” of Gaza and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “is advancing to every point” to capture Gaza City.
The Times of Israel reported Gallant saying on Monday:
There is no force of Hamas capable of stopping the IDF. The IDF is advancing to every point. The Hamas organisation has lost control of Gaza. Terrorists are fleeing south. Civilians are looting Hamas bases. They have no confidence in the government.
Israeli forces are advancing “according to plans and carry out the tasks accurately, lethally”, he said, adding:
We work according to tasks. We don’t have a stopwatch. We have goals. We will achieve our goals.
Biden says al-Shifa hospital 'must be protected'
Joe Biden has said that Gaza’s largest hospital “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces.
Hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remain trapped inside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, in the north of Gaza, as Israeli troops and Hamas militants take part in heavy fighting outside it.
At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died over the past three days, Gaza’s health ministry said.
The US president, speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, said:
It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action.
The Israeli military has said it was providing safe corridors for people to escape intense fighting in the north and move south, but Palestinian officials inside Shifa have said the compound was surrounded by constant heavy gunfire.
Dozens of corpses lay in the courtyard outside Gaza’s largest hospital, covering the ground next to a blue refrigerated truck that had long ceased to be able to keep the bodies cool.
Most of the bodies were shrouded in blankets originally meant for the living, after the hospital ran out of white bodybags. A severely burnt arm protruded from one of the blankets. Elsewhere, according to video footage seen by the Guardian, the charred body of a child was visible among the soft folds of the material.
“We are under siege,” said Munir al-Boursh, a doctor who is also a Palestinian health ministry undersecretary, speaking from inside Dar al-Shifa hospital. The hospital had intended to dig a mass grave, until Israeli tanks and snipers encircled the the complex on Friday, making movement around it impossible.
There are 110 dead bodies in front of the hospital, some in the refrigerator which isn’t functioning, and some just in the open space in front of the emergency unit. This could become a source of disease.
Six hundred patients as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people are seeking shelter at the hospital, according to information shared with the World Health Organization. Six bombardments struck the hospital complex in recent days, including the intensive care unit, doctors have said. Boursh said:
No one can get out or come inside, it’s too risky. Israeli forces said there was a safety corridor through the eastern gate so people could exit and some people did try to get out that way. But there was shooting right in front of them, and they were so scared that they turned back.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s nearly 9.30pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women, within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Monday.
Israeli military has reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died over the past three days, Gaza’s health ministry said.
All of the hospitals in northern Gaza are “out of service” amid fuel shortages and intense combat, the health ministry in the besieged territory said on Monday. Two major hospitals in northern Gaza – al-Shifa and al-Quds – closed to new patients due to Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators.
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA has warned that all of the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed into the besieged territory. UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water.
UNRWA said one of its buildings in Rafah has been struck by Israel’s navy. Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip, within the area Israel has insisted Palestinians move to. In a statement, UNRWA said there had been no casualties. It added that UN buildings and facilities in Gaza were hosting nearly 780,000 displaced people and said “they should be protected at all times”.
At least three Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured after an Israeli airstrike hit Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, health officials said on Monday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had conducted 4,300 strikes on Gaza to date. In an update on Monday, it claimed to have struck “approximately 300 tunnel shafts” and “approximately 3,000 terrorist infrastructure sites”.
UN workers observed a minute’s silence on Monday for the more than 100 colleagues killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began last month, marking the deadliest conflict ever for UN workers. At least 101 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have been killed since 7 October.
A vessel from Turkey carrying materials for field hospitals arrived on Monday in Egypt’s port of El Arish, near the Rafah border crossing. A Turkish health official told AFP that the vessel was carrying “materials, generators, ambulances to establish eight field hospitals”.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has acknowledged the growing international pressure for a ceasefire. He also estimated that Israel has a “diplomatic window” of between two and three weeks before pressure on the country seriously begins to increase, local media reported.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has set out proposals for how Gaza should be run after the war between Israel and Hamas. EU foreign ministers are also looking at a Cypriot proposal to open up a maritime corridor for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza.
The EU’s humanitarian aid chief called on Monday for “meaningful” pauses in the fighting in Gaza and urgent deliveries of fuel to keep hospitals working in the territory. The EU’s 27 countries issued a statement on Sunday saying hospitals “must be protected” and condemning Hamas for using the medical facilities and civilians as “human shields”.
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot not be “morally justified”. “The killing must stop,” Justin Welby said, adding that the call for a ceasefire was a “moral cry”.
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has let it be known that he is available if needed to help in an effort to end the growing crisis in Israel and Palestine. His office, however, denied a report in the Israeli press that he had already been offered a specific job.
British Palestinians with relatives in Gaza have demanded a meeting with the prime minister to press the UK government into backing a ceasefire, saying its current position is “putting our loved ones in danger”.
100 US government officials from the state department and international development agency have signed an internal memo criticizing the White House for “disregarding the lives of Palestinians” and for showing an “unwillingness to de-escalate” in the Israel-Hamas war.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington with all the latest from the war between Israel and Hamas. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
About 40 Spanish citizens were evacuated from Gaza on Monday through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, the acting foreign minister José Manuel Albares said, according to Reuters.
Albares said in a press briefing:
I confirm that 33 Spanish-Palestinians to be precise and seven family members have already crossed the Egyptian checkpoint at the border between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah.
He added that Spain had received authorisation from Israel for a second group of about 80 people to leave Gaza on Tuesday.
Updated
All hospitals in northern Gaza out of service, says health ministry
All of the hospitals in northern Gaza are no longer functioning amid fuel shortages and intense combat, the Hamas-run health ministry in the besieged territory has said.
Youssef Abu Rish, the deputy health minister, told AFP on Monday that all hospitals were “out of service” in the territory’s north.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that at least 2,300 people – patients, health workers and people fleeing fighting – were inside Dar al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest facility.
Updated
Here are some of the latest news wire images from Gaza.
Updated
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has let it be known that he is available if needed to help in an effort to end the growing crisis in Israel and Palestine.
Blair has strong contacts with the Gulf states. In an earlier period, he played a role behind the scenes encouraging Hamas to change its stance towards Israel, but he has always been implacably opposed to the direction of the Iranian leadership.
Blair admitted to the journalist Donald Macintyre, the author of a study of Gaza, in 2017 that he regretted the western decision not to engage with Hamas after it won legislative elections in the Palestinian territories in 2006, leaving Hamas largely ostracised and short of political, as opposed to military, options. He said in retrospect the West should have tried to pull Hamas into dialogue.
Blair was appointed special envoy for the Quartet – a body which is made up of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia – immediately after leaving No 10 in 2007, and resigned in 2015. His job was not general peacemaking, but a more narrow focus on technical topics such as increasing humanitarian aid, strengthening the Palestinian economy, and bolstering governance in the occupied territories, including the Palestinian Authority.
In the role he found himself fighting relatively small battles with Israel to remove dozens of Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, ease the movement of workers, and free the transport of Palestinian products to markets. He also helped boost tourism in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, and helped secure thousands of permits for Palestinian labourers to work in Israel.
Ultimately the scale of the Israeli blockade, born out of Israel’s security fears, made the job untenable since without political coexistence, there was little chance of economic progress on the West Bank.
Updated
United Nations workers observed a minute’s silence on Monday for the more than 100 colleagues killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began last month, marking the deadliest conflict ever for UN workers.
Staff at UN offices in Geneva bowed their heads as a candle was lit in memory of the 101 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) killed since 7 October.
Tatiana Valovaya, director general of the UN office in Geneva, said:
We are gathered here today, united in this very symbolic location, to pay respect to our brave colleagues who sacrificed their lives while serving under the United Nations flag.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, shared a photo of him marking a moment of silence in the organisation’s headquarters in New York.
Today, the @UN family observed a moment of silence to mourn & honour our colleagues killed in Gaza.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 13, 2023
Since the start of this conflict, more than 100 @UNRWA staff have lost their lives - the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short time.
They will… pic.twitter.com/O9ZBy92Xu0
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot not be “morally justified”.
“The killing must stop,” Justin Welby said, adding that the call for a ceasefire was a “moral cry”.
In his opening address to the Church of England synod, meeting in London, Welby said:
As a religious leader I can say that the killing of so many civilians, the extensive damage to civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified.
I do not have military or political answers to this crisis. I do not speak from those perspectives. But the call for a ceasefire is a moral cry that we are hearing from people of many faiths and none.
Our common humanity must find another way to achieve justice, security and peaceful co-existence for Israelis and Palestinians from now, for the future,” he added. “In Christ’s name, we cry out from our hearts: No more. The killing must stop.
Welby also called for Israeli hostages being held by Hamas to be released, and said aid must be allowed to reach people in Gaza.
His speech took a tough line, and followed his post on X, formerly known as Twitter, at the weekend, when he said the “relentless bombardment of hospitals and civilians in Gaza … must stop, and stop now”.
The relentless bombardment of hospitals and civilians in Gaza is intolerable. It’s against international humanitarian law - it must stop and stop now. The misuse of hospitals by Hamas does not justify attacks by Israel. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) November 11, 2023
The situation facing staff…
Updated
Israel has claimed that Hamas has built its headquarters in bunkers and tunnels under Dar al-Shifa hospital, effectively using the building – and its patients and staff – as a shield.
Security officials have also said that, after the surprise attacks in Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis who were mainly civilians in their homes or at a dance festival, the senior Hamas leaders have been based in a “command complex” under the hospital.
At a recent press conference an IDF spokesperson displayed a satellite photograph of the hospital site with military “command” elements marked on it, which it described as an illustration based on “the true material that we have in our hands”.
In footage said to be from an interrogation, a Hamas militant captured last month described how Hamas had “hidden in the hospitals”. Israel has also released other evidence apparently showing tunnels close to or in other medical facilities in Gaza.
Hamas and officials of the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza have denied the claims, saying they are propaganda used to justify attacks on health facilities.
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British doctor working at al-Shifa described the Israeli claim as an “outlandish excuse”. Human Rights Watch, the US campaign group, said it could not corroborate the Israeli allegation.
Updated
Thousands flee Gaza's main hospital amid heavy fighting outside but hundreds of patients still trapped
Hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remain trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital as Israeli troops and Hamas militants take part in heavy fighting outside it.
Dar al-Shifa hospital is a sprawling complex of medical facilities in Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Located about 500 metres from the coast and a major north-south road, it comprises a group of six-storey buildings that dominate the skyline.
The hospital, which has between 600 and 900 beds and thousands of staff, was the mainstay of healthcare provision locally, with a range of services that few of the other hospitals in Gaza could offer.
Since the beginning of the war, it has become a shelter for those displaced by the fighting and continuing Israeli bombardment.
Updated
Death toll in Gaza rises to 11,240 including 4,630 children – health ministry
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said 11,240 Palestinians have been killed within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October.
That number includes 4,630 children and 3,130 women, it said.
Updated
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking to install former UK prime minister Tony Blair as a “humanitarian coordinator” in Gaza, according to a report.
Netanyahu believes that Blair’s experience as a lead diplomat in the region could be leveraged to reduce international pressure over the civilian cost of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Israel’s Ynet news reported on Sunday.
The report indicated that Blair had been contacted over the matter and that talks had been ongoing in recent weeks. A spokesperson for the former British prime minister told the outlet that “he has not been given or offered a position”, but did not directly deny any contact.
The Financial Times reported that Blair was open to the role if he thought he could make a real difference. A spokesperson said:
As you know, Mr Blair has an office in Israel and has continued to work on issues regarding Israel and the Palestinians. He is discussing the situation obviously with a number of people in the region and elsewhere to see what can be done. But there is no ‘role’ offered or taken.
Updated
EU looking at maritime corridor to Israel
EU foreign ministers are looking at a Cypriot proposal to open up a maritime corridor for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza.
But its chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said one of the problems was the lack of any ports in Gaza.
Israel tightly controls the waters off the coast of Gaza as part of its routine security operation, with fishers restricted to three nautical miles offshore.
The EU is looking at building jetties or pontoons to get around the problem but privately it admits it would still need Israel’s approval at least or allow it to manage the offshore ports.
Borrell said it was imperative aid got in. He said:
The UN is highlighting the lack of food and medicine and also the worrying lack of hospitals, many of which have collapsed or are near collapse.
According to the WHO, 25 out of 35 hospitals have ceased to function, they are without fuel and without fuel they cannot function.
“There is a most acute lack of basic necessities, water, medicine and food,” he said with 1.5 million internally displaced people in Gaza and hundreds of thousands without basic supplies.
We have got to get the humanitarian lorries through. We are currently talking about 40 lorries a day on the Rafa crossing [on the border with Egypt] and that is very little compared to the 500 lorries a day crossing before the war.
Updated
Israel's foreign minister acknowledges growing calls for ceasefire
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has acknowledged the growing international pressure for a ceasefire.
Speaking during a briefing to reporters today, Cohen said:
From a political point of view, we recognise that Israel has come under more pressure. The pressure is not very high, but it is increasing.
He estimated that Israel has a “diplomatic window” of between two and three weeks before pressure on the country seriously begins to increase, local media reported.
Updated
On the Palestinian issue, David Cameron, the UK’s newly appointed foreign secretary and former prime minister, is an enthusiast for the state of Israel, but capable of telling Israel that Gaza as an open-air prison is in no one’s interest.
Cameron tried in a speech to the Knesset in 2014 to avoid the weeds of an eventual peace deal and instead gave Israel a vision of the benefits of peace and compromise. He will be a friend of Israel, but a more critical friend than his predecessor, who largely went through the motions of supporting a two-state solution.
Knowing Cameron, he will also be asking his former foreign policy adviser in No 10, John Casson, how Britain can insert itself into the debate about what happens in Gaza if Hamas is ever defeated. Casson was recently deeply critical about the banality of British debate.
Cameron is also likely to echo Joe Biden, the US president, in suggesting to Netanyahu that lessons have to be learned from the West’s flawed response to 9/11.
One of the leitmotifs of Cameron’s premiership was the threat of radicalised terrorists returning from Syria, and the sources of extremism. Given that experience, he will have to make a judgment whether a purely military solution in Gaza is a chimera, and how to tell the Israelis as much. Many foreign policy analysts think the west has not yet understood the whirlwind it could reap for its perceived double standards over Ukraine and Israel.
Updated
The EU’s chief diplomat has said that the bloc has been “far too absent” and left the onus on the US to develop a Middle East solution.
Josep Borrell outlined a roadmap he said was urgently needed to develop a “day after” solution for Gaza.
The plan was discussed by foreign ministers in Brussels today.
Borrell told reporters:
We have been far too absent. We have delegated this solution to the US, but now EU must be more involved because if we don’t find a solution we will experience a perpetual cycle of violence from generation to generation and funeral to funeral.
The press conference is continuing, but Borrell outlined six conditions for an enduring peace plan.
Must involve no “forced displacement of Palestinian people outside Gaza”
Must involve Arab states not just their money on reconstruction but their “strong commitment”
Must involve no reduction of territory in Gaza
Must involve a single Palestinian authority
Must involve a greater involvement of the EU in the solution
Must involve the removal of Hamas
Updated
The International Rescue Committee has called for the protection of civilians and hospitals in Gaza amid reports of heavy gunfire around al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
The organisation urged an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for medical facilities to be able to “exercise their humanitarian, lifesaving function without interference” in a statement.
Bob Kitchen, the IRC’s emergencies director, said:
Preserving the protection and functioning of hospitals and safety of civilians with nowhere safe to flee is not just a legal obligation; it’s a moral imperative. Our collective humanity demands that we protect all those not participating in war and work to save lives, even in the midst of chaos.
UN refugee agency to shut down all operations in Gaza 'in 48 hours' unless fuel allowed in
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that all of the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed into the besieged territory.
UNRWA’s Gaza chief, Thomas White, posted on X, formerly Twitter, earlier on Monday:
The humanitarian operation in Gaza will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed to enter Gaza.
“No fuel has entered Gaza since October 7,” he added.
The humanitarian operation in Gaza will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed to enter Gaza.
— Thomas White (@TomWhiteGaza) November 13, 2023
more updates to follow#Gaza @UNRWA
A tough decision – fuel for a hospital or fuel to produce drinking water – both save lives
— Thomas White (@TomWhiteGaza) November 13, 2023
Unfortunately, this is not a hypothetical…
# Gaza @UNRWA
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner general, has also spoken about the fuel shortage, warning donors that the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and that within a few days UNRWA will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water.
Updated
British Palestinians with relatives in Gaza have demanded a meeting with the prime minister to press the UK government into backing a ceasefire, saying its current position is “putting our loved ones in danger”.
A letter sent to Rishi Sunak on behalf of members of the Palestinian community in the UK said their “voices as British citizens with friends and family under attack in Gaza” had been ignored.
Six people spoke about losing relatives in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip at a press conference in central London on Monday. They all appealed to the government to back calls for a ceasefire.
Omar Mofeed, an accountant who has lived in London since 2013, has lost more than 40 members of his family. His brother, the only plastic and reconstruction surgeon in Gaza, and who trained and worked at St Thomas’ hospital in London until February, was trapped in al-Shifa hospital, which is surrounded by Israeli troops. There was no power, water or food, and there was no way of burying dead bodies, he said.
He read the names of his relatives who had been killed, saying: “These people are not just numbers”.
Wafa Shamalakh, a medical interpreter and nutritionist, said she had experienced “unimaginable misery” as 30 members of her family, including seven children, had been killed. Her “beloved, vibrant family was wiped out in a matter of seconds”. She added:
We will not be silenced. We will keep fighting and speaking for all the innocent people murdered by the Israeli occupation. We are the voices of the voiceless. I will not let my family or anyone die in vain.
Updated
At least three Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured after an Israeli airstrike hit Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, health officials have said, according to Reuters.
Updated
Dr Mohamed Tabasha, head of the paediatric department at al-Shifa hospital, has spoken to Reuters in a telephone interview. He told the news agency:
Yesterday I had 39 babies and today they have become 36. I cannot say how long they can last. I can lose another two babies today, or in an hour. I never expected in my life that I would put 39 babies side by side on a bed, each with a different disease, and in this acute shortage of medical staff, of milk.
He told Reuters that the infants are too cold, and the temperature is not stable because of power cuts. In the absence of infection control measures, they are transmitting viruses to each other and they have no immunity, he said.
He said there was no longer any way of sterilising their milk and bottle teats to the required standard, and as a result, some had contracted gastritis and were suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting, which meant an acute risk of dehydration.
Al Jazeera reports that a broadcast vehicle was damaged and photographer Issam Mawasi slightly injured by an Israeli attack inside Lebanon.
The news network said the incident occurred in Yaroun, and that Israel targeted the town while a group of journalists were touring the area.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says that at least 40 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.
Updated
One hundred US government officials from the state department and international development agency have signed an internal memo criticizing the White House for “disregarding the lives of Palestinians” and for showing an “unwillingness to de-escalate” in the Israel-Hamas war.
The memo, obtained by Axios, gives a glimpse of the intense internal opposition to Joe Biden’s strategy in the war. The US president has maintained firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself following the 7 October Hamas attack while urging greater humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in the besieged enclave.
The memo, which Axios reports was organized by a “junior diplomat” within the state department, blames Biden for failing to counter Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza. It says that the Biden administration has “doubled down on our unwavering military assistance to the [Israeli government] without clear or actionable redlines”.
According to Axios, the memo was sent to the policy office of the state department on 3 November. It was sent through an approved channel within the agency that allows for the expression of private misgivings about official government policy in what are known as “dissent cables”.
The cables are intended to allow diplomats to raise objections to state department strategy without fear of reprisals. They were set up in the wake of the Vietnam war as a form of internal checks and balances, but they are meant to remain private.
Read more of Ed Pilkington’s report here: US officials sign memo criticizing White House for ‘unwillingness to de-escalate’ Israel-Hamas war
Updated
Israel’s military has said it was engaged in a firefight with Hamas fighters at the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City.
Releasing footage which it claims shows a fighter armed with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, in a message posted on the Telegram messaging app, the IDF said:
RPG fire and small arms fire were directed at the soldiers from the direction of the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City. The shooting was carried out by a terrorist squad that had embedded itself within a group of civilians at the entrance of the hospital. The soldiers identified a terrorist squad with two RPG launchers amongst the civilians. As a result of the shooting carried out by the terrorists, a tank was damaged.
The soldiers fired toward the terrorists. During the exchange of fire, civilians were seen leaving the hospital building, and other terrorists who came out of adjacent buildings hid among them and joined the attempted attack. After the terrorists fired RPGs, they returned to hide in the hospital.
The IDF claims that in the incident it killed “approximately 21 terrorists” and that there were no Israeli casualties.
The statement went on to say “This incident is another example of Hamas’s continued abuse of civilian structures, including hospitals, to carry out attacks.”
Sharing the footage on social media, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy described the actions of Hamas as “sick”, writing: “They fired at our troops and then retreated back into the hospital. We killed them.”
The location and timing of the footage has not been independently verified.
Updated
If you missed it, yesterday my colleague Jason Burke wrote an analysis piece from Jerusalem arguing that the battle for al-Shifa hospital in Gaza is fraught with diplomatic risk for Israel. Here is an excerpt:
Establishing control over al-Shifa hospital is a key Israeli objective for military and political reasons. The sprawling complex dominates the centre of Gaza City, where Hamas has much of its administrative infrastructure, and is close to the main north-south road that runs along the coast. Destroying the ability of Hamas to govern Gaza is one of the stated aims of the Israeli offensive.
Israeli officials have said they do not target medical facilities and repeatedly claimed the headquarters of Hamas is sited in bunkers under al-Shifa and that the militant Islamist organisation is using patients, medical staff and thousands displaced by the fighting as “human shields.” Hamas rejects the claims.
Writing in the mass-market newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, columnist Avi Issacharoff said that, despite the mounting Israeli casualties in Gaza, something that began as the biggest military failure in Israel’s history had become a relatively successful military campaign. But, he added: “One cannot ignore the fact that before our very eyes this is turning into one of the biggest diplomatic disasters we have ever known.”
Israeli military planners are well aware that international pressure has halted Israeli offensives or counterattacks in a series of previous wars.
You can read more here: Battle for al-Shifa hospital in Gaza fraught with diplomatic risk for Israel
The EU’s humanitarian aid chief called on Monday for “meaningful” pauses in the fighting in Gaza and urgent deliveries of fuel to keep hospitals working in the territory.
“It is urgent to define and respect humanitarian pauses,” Janez Lenarčič, European commissioner for crisis management, told a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels.
“Fuel needs to get in. As you could see, more than half of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip stopped working, primarily because of lack of fuel, and fuel is desperately needed.”
The EU’s 27 countries issued a statement Sunday saying hospitals “must be protected” and condemning Hamas for using the medical facilities and civilians as “human shields”.
The bloc demanded “immediate humanitarian pauses” to allow desperately needed aid into the besieged territory.
“These pauses have to be meaningful,” AFP reports Lenarčič said.
“First of all, they have to be announced well in advance of the implementation so organisations can prepare to exploit them. Second, they have to be clearly defined time-wise.”
Updated
The UN Palestinian refugee agency’s fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and within a few days UNRWA will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water, its chief said on Monday.
The agency chief, commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini, told donors on Monday that it had been slowly emptying a fuel depot on the Israeli border containing strategic reserves.
A request to the Israeli military to replenish it had gone unanswered, he said. “That reservoir is now empty,” Reuters reports Lazzarini said.
“If we project out a couple of days, by 14 November this will severely impact ambulances and major hospital operations. Some of them have a bit of solar, but it is marginal” he said.
UNRWA says it is sheltering nearly 800,000 people, or about half of the total number of Palestinians who have fled their homes since the Israeli military campaign began on 7 October.
UNRWA’s fuel is also used to remove hundreds of tonnes of solid waste from increasingly overcrowded camps in southern Gaza, and Lazzarini said these services would soon halt.
Without fuel, desalination plants used to provide drinking water to support at least 290,000 people will also stop on 15 November, he added.
“So the situation is very dire now and it’s about to get much worse,” Lazzarini told donors.
Summary of the day so far
It has just gone 3pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines from the Israel-Hamas war:
Israeli forces have reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying as a result of energy shortages amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died over the past three days, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people sheltering there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have repeatedly said that Hamas operates from bunkers underneath Shifa. This has been denied by Hamas and hospital staff.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that an attempt to reach al-Quds hospital from Khan Younis in order to evacuate patients had been abandoned because of continuing shelling and shooting. A convey accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross was forced to return as a result of the dangerous conditions.
The IDF issued an update on its military operation in Gaza, saying its forces had conducted 4,300 strikes to date. It claims to have struck “approximately 300 tunnel shafts” and “approximately 3,000 terrorist infrastructure sites”. Israel’s campaign was launched on 7 October after the Hamas massacre inside Israel in which 1,200 Israelis were killed. The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza has said that Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures.
The UN’s refugee mission in Palestine has reported that one of its buildings in Rafah has been struck by Israel’s navy. Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip, within the area that Israel has insisted that Palestinians move to. In a statement, UNRWA said there had been no casualties. It added that UN buildings and facilities in Gaza were hosting nearly 780,000 displaced people and said “they should be protected at all times”.
Haaretz reports that an Israeli civilian hit by anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon in northern Israel on Sunday has died of their wounds. Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said fire was again being exchanged Monday between Israel and forces in Lebanon. On Sunday, 18 Israelis were injured after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia fired anti-tank missiles into Israel.
The US carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria on Sunday in response to attacks on American forces, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.
Sweden’s foreign ministry said it could confirm some that Swedes had left Gaza via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Monday, but it was unable to give an exact number.
A vessel from Turkey carrying materials for field hospitals arrived on Monday in Egypt’s port of El Arish, near the Rafah border crossing. A Turkish health official told AFP that the vessel was carrying “materials, generators, ambulances to establish eight field hospitals”. We will set up these hospitals to the areas shown by the Egyptian authorities,” they said.
Authorities in France on Monday detained eight minors over antisemitic chants on the Paris metro that were filmed and widely shared on social media, prosecutors said.
Police in Brazil on Sunday arrested another man suspected of links to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, bringing the number of detainees suspected of involvement with the group to three.
In the UK, former prime minister David Cameron has unexpectedly been appointed foreign secretary in a reshuffle of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet. Cameron replaces James Cleverly, who visited Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and southern Israel on 11 October, just days after the Hamas attack. The switch comes after the UK’s home secretary, Suella Braverman, the equivalent of an interior minister, was sacked for her controversial comments critical of London’s police ahead of demonstrations held in the capital at the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Lord Walney, the UK government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, has said that he believes the majority of the UK’s Jewish population are “living a life of fear at the moment” and it should be treated as “a national emergency”.
Ireland’s deputy premier has announced he is to travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories later this week. Micheál Martin, who is also foreign affairs minister, will travel to Egypt too.
The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie visited Israel on Sunday, becoming the first Republican attempting to become the next president of the US to visit the country since the 7 October Hamas attack. Rejecting calls for a ceasefire, Christie said: “We can’t ask Israel to stand down if they believe there is still a legitimate violent threat against them and their people, and I think there’s no question that there is.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest news wire images from Israel and Gaza.
Updated
Brazilian police on Sunday arrested another man suspected of links to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, bringing the number of detainees suspected of involvement with the group to three, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The name of the detainee, arrested in Brasilia, was not revealed, but his alleged link to the Iranian-backed group was already under investigation, sources said.
Brazil arrested two people in São Paulo last week in an operation to break up a suspected Hezbollah cell allegedly planning attacks on Jewish targets in the country.
Updated
Reuters reports Sweden’s foreign ministry as saying it can confirm that some Swedes left Gaza via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Monday, but it was unable to give an exact number.
Updated
French authorities on Monday detained eight minors over antisemitic chants on the Paris metro that were filmed and widely shared on social media, prosecutors said.
The eight, none of whom live in Paris, are being interrogated by transport police, a source close to Paris prosecutors who asked not to be named told AFP.
The chanting took place on 31 October. More than 1,250 antisemitic incidents have been recorded in France since the start of the war sparked by the 7 October attack by Hamas inside Israel, according to authorities.
Updated
Israeli forces at gates of Gaza’s main hospital with hundreds trapped
Emine Sinmaz is in Jerusalem for the Guardian. Here is her report on the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war:
Israeli forces have reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside.
Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.
Lifesaving equipment such as incubators cannot run without fuel to run generators. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died over the past three days, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
The Israeli military said it was providing safe corridors for people to escape intense fighting in the north and move south, but Palestinian officials inside Shifa said the compound was surrounded by constant heavy gunfire.
Fighting has been concentrating in a tightening circle around Shifa’s gates since Israeli ground forces entered Gaza, after Hamas militants killed at least 1,200 people and abducted 240 hostages in Israel in a surprise attack on 7 October.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have repeatedly said that Hamas operates from bunkers underneath Shifa. This has been denied by Hamas and hospital staff.
There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization, which was posted on X.
As the war entered its sixth week, fresh clashes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and more US airstrikes on Iran-linked militia targets in neighbouring Syria renewed fears of a wider regional conflagration.
The EU’s 27 countries issued a statement on Sunday demanding “immediate humanitarian pauses” in Gaza and condemning Hamas for using medical facilities and civilians as “human shields”.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, the Gaza health ministry spokesperson who was inside Shifa on Monday, said an Israeli tank was stationed at the hospital gate. “The tank is outside the gate of the outpatient clinic department, this is how the situation looks this morning,” he said.
Read more of Emine Sinmaz’s report from Jerusalem here: Israeli forces at gates of Gaza’s main hospital with hundreds trapped
Updated
A Turkish vessel carrying materials for field hospitals arrived on Monday in Egypt’s port of El Arish, near the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, a port official said.
A Turkish health official told AFP that the vessel was carrying “materials, generators, ambulances to establish eight field hospitals”.
They added that Ankara had requested Cairo’s approval to build the field hospitals in El Arish, which lies about 40km (25 miles) from the Rafah border, the only crossing to Gaza not controlled by Israel.
“We received the green light from Egyptian authorities. We will set up these hospitals to the areas shown by the Egyptian authorities,” they said.
Updated
Haaretz reports that an Israeli civilian hit by anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon inside Israel’s north on Sunday has died of their wounds.
More details soon …
Dr Ahmed al-Mokhallalati has spoken to the media again from inside al-Shifa hospital. He told the Reuters news agency by telephone:
The tanks are in front of the hospital. We are under full blockade. It’s a totally civilian area. Only hospital facility, hospital patients, doctors and other civilians staying in the hospital. Someone should stop this.
They bombed the [water] tanks, they bombed the water wells, they bombed the oxygen pump as well. They bombed everything in the hospital. So we are hardly surviving. We tell everyone, the hospital is no more a safe place for treating patients. We are harming patients by keeping them here.
Updated
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie was in Israel on Sunday, in the process becoming the first Republican attempting to become the next president of the US to visit the country since the 7 October Hamas attack.
Speaking to the media at the Kfar Azza kibbutz that was targeted during the attack, he said:
I want the people of Israel to know that there are hundreds of millions of Americans who stand with them, who understand the atrocities that were committed, and why in the future we need to stand absolutely shoulder to shoulder with Israel.
Rejecting those who are calling for a ceasefire, Christie said
We can’t ask Israel to stand down if they believe there is still a legitimate violent threat against them and their people, and I think there’s no question that there is.
During the trip Christie also visited Tel Aviv, where he met with the families of some of those who are still being held hostage by Hamas inside Gaza after it seized and abducted them on 7 October.
Updated
Palestine Red Crescent Society: evacuation attempt at al-Quds hospital fails due to 'continuing shelling'
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has reported on social media that an attempt to reach al-Quds hospital from Khan Younis in order to evacuate patients has been abandoned due to “continuing shelling and shooting”.
It posted to social media to say:
The Red Crescent evacuation convoy, accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross, returned after setting off today from Khan Younis towards al-Quds hospital. The convoy was forced to return due to the dangerous conditions in the Tal al-Hawa area, where the hospital is located, in light of the continuing shelling and shooting, and the medical staff, patients and their companions are still trapped inside the hospital without food, water or electricity.
🚨⚠️عاجل: قافلة الإخلاء التابعة للهلال الأحمر برفقة اللجنة الدولية للصليب الأحمر عادت أدراجها بعد أن انطلقت اليوم من خانيونس باتجاه مستشفى القدس.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 13, 2023
اضطرت القافلة للعودة بسبب خطورة الأوضاع في منطقة تل الهوى حيث يقع المستشفى، في ظل تواصل القصف واطلاق النار ، ولا يزال الطاقم الطبي…
Al Jazeera is reporting that Mohammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza, has said that about 650 patients, 500 healthcare workers, and an estimated 2,500 displaced people remain inside the al-Shifa hospital compound.
The figures are lower than those issued at the weekend, when it was reported that 1,500 patients, 1,500 medical workers, and 7,000 displaced people were there.
CNN has spoken to Khader al Zaanoun, who is a reporter for Al Arabiya. They told the US news network they were in al-Shifa hospital, saying:
Communication is very bad and almost impossible for us to report what is happening in the hospital and its yards, we barely have cell lines but no internet.
No one can move or dare to go out of the hospital, the staff here are aware of many strikes that are happening around the hospital, we see smoke coming up from those strikes and we know that there are people in some of those buildings but ambulances do not make their way out of the hospital because … during the last days an ambulance was hit on its way out of the hospital.
In the UK, former prime minister David Cameron has unexpectedly been appointed as the new foreign secretary in a reshuffle of Rishi Sunak’s government.
In a statement posted to social media, Cameron said: “We are facing a daunting set of international challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East. At this time of profound global change, it has rarely been more important for this country to stand by our allies, strengthen our partnerships and make sure our voice is heard.”
Cameron replaces James Cleverly, who has moved to the role of home secretary – the equivalent of an interior minister. Cleverly visited Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and southern Israel on 11 October, just days after the Hamas attack. It would be anticipated that Cameron would make a trip to Israel high on his agenda.
Updated
IDF: Israel has 'conducted 4,300 strikes' on Gaza Strip during military campaign against Hamas
The Israel Defence Force has issued an update on its military operation in Gaza, where it says its forces have conducted 4,300 strikes to date. It claims to have struck “approximately 300 tunnel shafts” and “approximately 3,000 terrorist infrastructure sites.”
In a statement published to the Telegram messaging app, it said:
IDF troops are continuing to operate in the Gaza Strip. IAF aircraft and ground forces have conducted 4,300 strikes, struck hundreds of anti-tank missile launch posts, approximately 300 tunnel shafts, approximately 3,000 terrorist infrastructure sites, including over 100 structures rigged with explosives, and hundreds of Hamas command and control centres.
Israel’s campaign was launched on 7 October after the Hamas massacre inside Israel’s border which killed 1,200 Israelis.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza has claimed that Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued from Gaza, and the health ministry has said it has not been able to give an updated death toll since Friday due to conditions on the ground.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has issued a statement on social media claiming that heavy gunfire has continued in the vicinity of the al-Quds hospital. It says that a convey intended to evacuate patients has had to stop.
It wrote:
Heavy gunfire continued in the vicinity of al-Quds hospital in the Tal Al-Hawa area in Gaza City, and the sounds of shelling and violent explosions were heard in the area. The convoy of vehicles that set off from the southern Gaza Strip towards the hospital, accompanied by the Red Cross to secure the evacuation of patients and medical staff, stopped.
It added that it would not be able to continue due to conditions around the hospital.
🚨⚠️الهلال الاحمر : استمرار اطلاق النار الكثيف في محيط مستشفى القدس في منطقة تل الهوى في مدينة غزة و سماع اصوات قصف وانفجارات عنيفة في المنطقة، وقافلة المركبات التي انطلقت من جنوب قطاع غزة باتجاه المستشفى برفقة الصليب الأحمر لتأمين عملية إخلاء المرضى والطواقم الطبية توقفت في…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 13, 2023
Updated
The UN’s refugee mission in Palestine has reported that one of its buildings in Rafah has been struck by Israel’s navy.
Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip, within the area that Israel has insisted that Palestinians move to.
In a statement, UNRWA said:
Yesterday, an UNRWA guesthouse in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip sustained significant damage from Israeli Force naval strikes.
UN international staff present in Rafah had left the building 90 minutes before the strike. No casualties were reported among the staff though the guesthouse was severely damaged.
“This recent attack is yet another indication that nowhere in Gaza is safe. Not the north, not the middle areas and not the south. The disregard for the protection of civilian infrastructure including UN facilities, hospitals, schools, shelters and places of worship is testament to the level of horror that civilians in Gaza are living every day,” said UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini.
The statement added that UN buildings and facilities within Gaza currently host nearly 780,000 displaced people, saying “they should be protected at all times”.
A group of 80 Swedish citizens have been given permission to leave Gaza on Monday, Swedish authorities said.
Sweden’s ministry of foreign affairs said it had contacted those who were part of the first group of Swedish citizens to be given permission to leave by text message, email and phone.
But they urged Swedish citizens not to go to the Rafah border crossing until they have received a foreign office notification that they have permission from local authorities to cross.
While the foreign office said it expects more of its citizens to be given permission to leave soon, they cannot confirm the number who have left until they have passed through the border crossing.
Haaretz reports that residents of eight Israeli towns in Upper Galilee have been instructed to enter protected areas until further notice. All roads in the area have been closed. The IDF earlier reported fire into Israel from Lebanon.
Ireland’s deputy premier has announced he is to travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory later this week.
Micheál Martin, who is also foreign affairs minister, will also travel to Egypt as part of the visit.
Speaking at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels this morning, PA Media reports Martin said: “The situation in the region is at a critical point, with a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and continued risks of regional escalation.
“I have been engaging intensively with regional counterparts since 7 October and will return to the region this week, following my visit in September, to continue that engagement.”
It has just gone 11am in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Two major hospitals in northern Gaza have closed to new patients amid Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities, as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators. Intense clashes are continuing around Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, and another major facility, al-Quds, as Israel presses its offensive against Hamas in the territory.
On Sunday, witnesses at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City told AFP that “violent fighting” raged throughout the night. The Palestinian Red Crescent said the al-Quds hospital across Gaza City was also out of service due to lack of generator fuel. Twenty of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “no longer functioning”, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency.
The World Health Organization said al-Shifa hispital in Gaza “is not functioning as a hospital any more.” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair.”
Muhammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza, said on Sunday that the health ministry has been unable to update the death toll since Friday as medics are unable to reach areas hit by Israeli bombardment. The latest figures had claimed that more than 11,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli military action since 7 October. Israel launched the campaign after the Hamas massacre inside Israel’s borders which killed 1,200 Israelis.
There are reports of renewed bombing of the city of Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has repeatedly instructed Palestinians to flee to. Al Jazeera reported it was the third time within the past 24 hours that the region has been targeted.
Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has posted to social media to say that fire is again being exchanged between Israel and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon. On Sunday, 18 Israelis were injured, one critically, after the Iranian backed Hezbollah militia fired anti-tank missiles from southern Lebanon in a further sign that the skirmishes along the border are steadily escalating.
The US carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria on Sunday in response to attacks on American forces, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.
A statement by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet said it had authorised action against Lebanese pro-Iranian channel Al Mayadeen for “making wartime efforts to harm (Israel’s) security interests and to serve the enemy’s goals”.
The 27 EU member states have called for “immediate humanitarian pauses” to allow humanitarian aide to get in to Gaza, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell said. Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said it was vital to keep “hope alive” in the “unbelievable situation where so many people are currently losing hope” in Gaza.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said the world must “distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian citizens” and mourn all civilian deaths, as he defended his government’s response to the escalating crisis in Gaza.
The president of Indonesia, home to the world’s biggest Muslim population, called for a ceasefire ahead of meeting US President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday.
UK’s home secretary Suella Braverman – the equivalent of an interior minister – has been sacked after controversy over her comments ahead of demonstrations in London at the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Lord Walney, the UK government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, has said that he believes the majority of the UK’s Jewish population are “living a life of fear at the moment” and it should be treated as “a national emergency”.
Updated
Belgium’s foreign minister has described the situation in Gaza as “intolerable”.
Arriving at the EU summit, Hadja Lahbib said:
The level of suffering we are witnessing so far in Gaza is intolerable. I am going to ask that we deploy all possible diplomatic efforts to put an end to it. For Belgium it is essential to obtain a humanitarian ceasefire and respect for international law. With several European countries, we have decided to increase our humanitarian aid. But without the opening of new access points to Gaza, it is obvious that this aid cannot be an intervention.
A statement by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet said it had authorised action against Lebanese pro-Iranian channel Al Mayadeen for “making wartime efforts to harm (Israel’s) security interests and to serve the enemy’s goals”.
After the Israeli security cabinet decision, Reuters reports communications minister Shlomo Karhi was working with police on a proposed blocking of Al Mayadeen websites and seizure of equipment linked to the station.
Karhi also asked the Israeli military chief in the occupied West Bank to shut down Al Mayadeen offices there, a ministry spokesperson said.
Reuters notes that mooted action by Israel against the Al Jazeera network was not mentioned in the statement.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has arrived at the EU summit in Brussels warning that it was vital to keep “hope alive” in the “unbelievable situation where so many people are currently losing hope” in Gaza.
She said it was vital that the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza is contained and that the non-stop threat to Israel from Hamas, from the terrorist actors, is stopped so that Israel and its people can live in security and peace, just like Palestinians.”
But she added that the “bitter reality” was progress could only be made step by step.
“Because the suffering is so immense in Gaza at the moment, it does not help to follow impulses. The bitter reality is that we can only make progress in the smallest of steps. And that’s why we have to think about these small steps every minute of every day, around the clock, to see how we can achieve this together.
“It is clear that, with a view to the future, this can only be achieved within the framework of a two-state solution.
“Even if it seems a long way off, the discussion about it, the political horizon, it is more important than ever these days, in this almost unbelievable situation where so many people are currently losing hope, to keep hope alive,” she said.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires of the Israeli military operation in Gaza.
Hani Mahmoud, who is in Khan Younis for Al Jazeera, has reported for the network that “within the past thirty minutes, airstrikes have renewed in the eastern part of Khan Younis. This is the third time within the past 24 hours that the region has been targeted.”
Khan Younis is in the south of the Gaza Strip, and is one of the cities that Palestinians have been told to move to by Israeli authorities.
The 27 EU member states have called for “immediate humanitarian pauses” to allow humanitarian aide to get in, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell said this morning.
On his way into the EU summit he said: “These 27 member states have asked for immediate humanitarian pauses, that is in plural, not single but several ones.”
“The objective is immediate pauses and humanitarian corridors to be established in order for the dire situation to be [addressed],” he said.
He said they “condemned Hamas’s uses of hospitals as human shields” but said action to get to civilians was urgent.
“Yesterday the ministers asked for immediate pauses, this is common position of the 27,” he added.
Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, has called on the bombing of hospitals in Gaza to stop.
Arriving at an EU summit of foreign ministers he said: “These are not battlefields. Patients who are in intensive care [don’t] stand a chance. There is no more oxygen, no more water, no more medicine. So these people are going to die.
“I think we know that Hamas is using its hospitals to hide the insurgents. But in any case, in my opinion, all the misery and terror we saw in Israel on 7 October must not be repeated in Gaza.
“We really must stop this and try to find a solution. You can’t negotiate with Hamas, but you can negotiate with Qatar, for example.”
Updated
Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has posted to social media to say that fire is again being exchanged between Israel and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon.
He wrote:
Further to the alert that was activated in the Galilee area, two mortar launches from Lebanese territory were detected that crossed into Israeli territory and fell in an open area. There are no casualties. The IDF attacks the sources of the fire with artillery. During the night, IDF forces attacked an armed terrorist cell identified in Lebanese territory in the area of Birnit, a hit was detected.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Lord Walney, the UK government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, has said that he believes the majority of the UK’s Jewish population are “living a life of fear at the moment” and it should be treated as “a national emergency”.
Speaking to the BBC, PA Media reports independent peer John Woodcock said:
The problem you have seen over recent weeks is the police grappling with the public order regulations and deciding in this last week, for example, that they didn’t think there was sufficient probability of serious public disorder to be able to ban the march [calling for a ceasefire in Gaza].
I think that seems to be a fine decision and we should probably dig more into whether they are making the right call. What the police are unable to take into account is the explosion of antisemitism that is being recorded in the capital and across the UK … the marches are clearly a factor in that.
The right for people to protest is really important and there are clearly very strong feelings on this matter. However, I think if you look at the scale of intimidation which Jewish people in London and across the UK are feeling, we should be treating this as a national emergency.
I think for the overwhelming majority of Jewish people, as represented by organisations like the Board of Deputies, like the Community Security Trust, they are living a life of fear at the moment in the UK, which is not something we should ever tolerate here.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said the world must “distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian citizens” and mourn all civilian deaths, as he defended the government’s response to the escalating crisis in Gaza.
Albanese said he had told Israeli and Palestinian leaders that every life on both sides matter, including “every child, every baby, every innocent civilian”, raising concerns about international law as well as social cohesion in Australia.
“We have said that we want humanitarian pauses as a necessary first step. We have said that any step on a path to ceasefire can’t be one-sided. Hamas is still bombing Israel, it’s still using human shields and it’s holding more than 200 hostages,” he said.
“I said really consistently that Hamas has contempt for international law. They’re a terrorist organisation. But Israel as a democratic nation has a responsibility to uphold international law and protect innocent lives and to protect civilians, including children.”
Read more of Daniel Hurst and Josh Butler’s report here: Albanese says world must ‘distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian citizens’ amid pressure over response
Updated
Our First Edition newsletter today looks back at events in London over the weekend, where a large pro-Palestinian rally was held – and there was violence from the far right:
There is no doubt that there were incidents of antisemitism and disorder on the march and among breakaway groups. On Sunday, the Met released photos of six people it said it was seeking to identify in relation to a hate crime, including one woman holding a banner depicting a swastika intertwined with the star of Israel. There was footage of another woman at Victoria station shouting “death to all the Jews”, and another of a man on the march telling an interviewer that “Hitler knew how to deal with these people”.
The police also temporarily detained about 150 people who broke away from the main march and set off fireworks. And the Campaign Against Antisemitism said families leaving a synagogue in St John’s Wood were escorted away by police after men waving Palestinian flags shouted at them from cars outside.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), said he had counted ten incidents pictured on social media. Others may emerge in the coming days, but among 300,000 people, according to police estimates, or 800,000 according to organisers, it is hard to see those incidents as characteristic.
There was no sense, in contrast, of a moderate mainstream to the counter-protest, which was almost exclusively made up of white men who appeared to have come to London in search of trouble.
The police said the vast majority of arrests were of the counter-protesters, despite their relatively small numbers – estimated at about 1,000. Videos abound of large groups seeking confrontation with the police, chanting “you’re not English any more” at officers in Chinatown or throwing glass bottles. One video shows a group of men at Waterloo station calling someone a “terrorist” and saying “we were born in this country”. Another video showed a group chanting “who the fuck is Allah” at the protesters, many of whom were Muslims.
Assistant Met commissioner Matt Twist said that they had committed “extreme violence” and were found in possession of weapons including a knife, a baton and a knuckleduster, as well as class A drugs. Nine officers were injured in clashes with counter-protesters, and at least two are in hospital.
Updated
The Israeli military Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee has posted to social media details of what Israel claims to have found in the al-Shati camp in the Gaza Strip.
In a message accompanied by several photographs, Adraee wrote:
Forces of the 401st armoured brigade continue to conduct raids on the outskirts of al-Shati camp, focusing on terrorist infrastructure located in major authoritarian institutions among the civilian population, including schools, universities, mosques and the homes of subversive elements.
Hamas infrastructure was deliberately established inside civilian buildings, such as al-Quds university and the Abu Bakr mosque, where forces found extensive explosive materials, which contained flammable materials and numerous explosive devices. During the activity, forces confiscated dozens of weapons, combat equipment, and operational plans affiliated with the Hamas terrorist organization.
The forces also entered the house of an official of Islamic Jihad, where they found many weapons inside his house. In another operation, forces found in a civilian area in the town of Beit Hanoun a tunnel opening, intelligence materials belonging to terrorist organizations, and combat weapons.
تواصل قوات لواء 401 مدرعات في القيام بعمليات مداهمة في ضواحي مخيم "الشاطئ" مع التركيز على البنى التحتية الإرهابية الواقعة في مؤسسات سلطوية رئيسية وسط السكان المدنيين منها المدارس، والجامعات، والمساجد ومنازل العناصر التخريبية.
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 13, 2023
وتم إنشاء البنى التحتية الحمساوية عمدًا داخل مبانٍ… pic.twitter.com/pPbJ1q7JJH
The claims have not been independently verified.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Here is our full story on the situation at Gaza’s hospitals:
Two major hospitals in northern Gaza have closed to new patients amid Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities, as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators.
Intense clashes are continuing around Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, and another major facility, al-Quds, as Israel presses its offensive against Hamas in the territory.
Flags flew at half-mast at United Nations compounds in Asia and Africa on Monday, as staff observed a minute’s silence in memory of colleagues killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict, AFP reports.
The blue and white UN flag was lowered at 9.30am local time at offices in Bangkok, Tokyo and Beijing, a day after the world body reported “a significant number of deaths and injuries” in strikes on a facility in Gaza.
Events were also held in Kathmandu and Kabul, where the UN secretary general’s special representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, led about 250 people in observing the minute’s silence. Flags also flew at half-mast in Nairobi.
The UN agency for supporting Palestinians (UNRWA) announced on Friday that more than 100 of its employees had died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
Updated
Palestine’s culture minister, Atef Abu Saif, was visiting Gaza with his son, Yasser, when Israel started bombarding the strip in response to Hamas’s 7 October attacks. He has been sending his diary entries via WhatsApp to his publisher, Comma Press, in Britain.
On Tuesday 31 October, he wrote:
Last night I tried to go to sleep early. Winter is hard upon us and the nights are long, and what with the shelling and bombing right now, they currently seem endless. During daylight hours, you can see people, talk with them, assess the damage around your house, but once the sun sets you become imprisoned in whatever building you’ve taken refuge: no electricity, no TV, no internet. All you hear are the explosions, the never-ceasing buzz of the drones, and the roar of F-16s careering past. Everyone’s favourite time, right now, is when the sun rises: it’s the moment you realise you’re still alive.
Updated
At least 20 of Gaza's 36 hospitals no longer functioning
In case you missed this earlier, hundreds of patients were trapped and thousands of people sought shelter around Gaza’s largest hospital on Monday, as Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battled near the compound.
On Sunday, witnesses at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City told AFP that “violent fighting” raged throughout the night.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the Al-Quds hospital across Gaza City was also out of service due to lack of generator fuel.
Twenty of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “no longer functioning”, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency.
Updated
Her vibrant paintings of Jerusalem’s holy sites and Palestinian women wearing traditional embroidered dresses were a way to send a message to the “outside world”, the Palestinian artist Heba Zagout said in a video about her work posted online in late September.
Two weeks later, the 39-year-old was killed with two of her children, Adam and Mahmoud, in an Israeli air strike. Her husband and two other children survived.
Zagout is one of an unknown number of artists, writers and musicians – part of Gaza’s surprisingly once thriving arts scene – among more than 11,000 deaths in the coastal strip since 7 October.
Zagout, who studied fine art at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa university, painted scenes of Jerusalem’s Old City, Al-Aqsa mosque – the third holiest site in Islam – and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, precious to Christians as the site of Jesus’s birth.
She also painted images of women, some holding a dove or a key or an oud, symbolising peace, the return to home and ancient culture, respectively.
Here is our full report on the latest US strikes in Syria:
The United States carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria on Sunday in response to attacks on American forces, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.
It is the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted locations in Syria it said were tied to Iran, which supports armed groups that Washington blames for a spike in attacks on its forces in the Middle East.
“US military forces conducted precision strikes today on facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran-affiliated groups in response to continued attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria,” Austin said in a statement.
“The strikes were conducted against a training facility and a safe house near the cities of Albu Kamal and Mayadeen, respectively.
“The president has no higher priority than the safety of US personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.”
The US targeted a Tehran-linked weapons storage site in Syria on Wednesday, and also hit two Syrian facilities on 26 October that it said were used by Iran and affiliated organisations.
It was Washington’s assessment that none of the previous strikes resulted in casualties.
The US says the strikes are aimed at deterring attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria. The US says there have been more than 45 attacks on its troops in the region since 17 October, wounding dozens of US personnel.
More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, marched peacefully on Sunday to protest against rising antisemitism.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left, conservatives and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron’s party as well as far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended Sunday’s march in the French capital amid tight security.
Macron did not attend, but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism.”
The interior ministry said at least 182,000 people marched in several in French cities in response to the call launched by the leaders of the parliament’s upper and lower houses. No major incident has been reported, it said.
Indonesian president calls for ceasefire ahead of meeting with Biden
The president of Indonesia, home to the world’s biggest Muslim population, called for a ceasefire ahead of meeting US President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday.
“A ceasefire must be implemented soon, we also must accelerate and increase the amount of humanitarian aid, and we must begin peace negotiations,” President Joko Widodo said in a video recorded after he took part in an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh.
He said the world seemed “helpless” in the face of the suffering of the Palestinians. The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate “war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing” in the Palestinian territories.
Three nurses killed at al-Shifa, says UN
In case you missed this earlier: the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory says that three of al-Shifa’s nurses have been killed
“Bombardments and armed clashes around the Shifa hospital in Gaza city intensified since the afternoon of 11 November. Critical infrastructure, including the oxygen station, water tanks and a well, the cardiovascular facility, and the maternity ward, was damaged, and three nurses killed,” the UN office reports in its most recent daily update.
Updated
Gaza death toll has not been updated since Friday
Muhammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza, said on Sunday that the Health Ministry has been unable to update the death toll since Friday as medics are unable to reach areas hit by Israeli bombardment.
UNOCHA confirmed this in its update on Sunday, writing, “On 12 November, for the second consecutive day, following the collapse of services and communications at hospitals in the north, the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza did not update casualty figures.
US strikes two locations in eastern Syria
The US military conducted airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria involving Iranian-backed groups, hitting a training location and a weapons facility, according to the Pentagon and US officials. It marks the third time in a bit more than two weeks that the US has retaliated against the militants for what has been a growing number of attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at a news conference in Riga, Latvia on 10 August 2022.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes targeted sites near Abukama and Mayadin and were used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as Iran-backed militias.
“The President has no higher priority than the safety of US personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests,” Austin said.
A US official said one site also included weapons storage. The official spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a military operation.
Al-Shifa hospital ‘no longer functioning’, says WHO
Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate Sunday, the Associated Press reports, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the X social media platform that Shifa has been without water 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 Sunday.
The 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, the WHO said.
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.
A Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, 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.
Updated
Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top story this morning: Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate Sunday, the Associated Press reports, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the X social media platform that Shifa has been without water 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 Sunday.
Meanwhile the US military conducted airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria involving Iranian-backed groups, hitting a training location and a weapons facility, according to the Pentagon and US officials. It marks the third time in a bit more than two weeks that the US has retaliated against the militants for what has been a growing number of attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria.
Here are the other key recent developments:
The World Health Organization said al-Shifa hispital in Gaza “is not functioning as a hospital any more.” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society announced Sunday that the al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip was “out of service and no longer operational”. It states that “the cessation of services is due to the depletion of available fuel and power outage”. The health authority in Gaza has said it is unable to issue updated casualty statistics in the Gaza Strip “due to the targeting of hospitals”.
Hamas on Sunday said it was suspending hostage negotiations because of Israel’s handling of the al-Shifa hospital, a Palestinian official briefed on the hostage talks has told Reuters. Israel’s three major TV news channels, without citing named sources, had reported there was some progress toward a deal, which would involve 50 to 100 women, children and elderly being released in stages during a three- to five-day pause in fighting.
Thirty-six babies are at risk of dying at al-Shifa hospital after fuel ran out on Saturday. Israel military spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht said plans to try to evacuate babies from the al-Shifa hospital were still being developed. On Saturday Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said “We will provide the assistance needed” to remove the babies from the hospital.
Eighteen Israelis have been injured, one critically, after the Iranian backed Hezbollah militia fired anti-tank missiles from southern Lebanon in a further sign that the skirmishes along the border are steadily escalating.
The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party said its armed wing had used new types of weapons and struck new targets in Israel, and pledged that the front against its sworn enemy would remain active. In a televised address, only his second speech since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began in October, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah had shown “a quantitative improvement in the number of operations, the size and the number of targets, as well as an increase in the type of weapons”.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah not to escalate fighting along the boundary. “Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war that might happen,” Gallant told troops in a video aired by Israeli television channels.
The US military conducted airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria it said were linked to Iranian-backed groups, hitting a training location and a weapons facility. It marks the third time in just over two weeks that the US has retaliated against the militants for what has been a growing number of attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria.
Brett McGurk, Biden’s senior Middle East adviser, will visit Israel on Tuesday and meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with further visits planned in Brussels, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar, a US official told Reuters.
The regional directors of Unicef, the UN Population Fund and the World Health Organization have called for “immediate action to halt attacks on healthcare in Gaza”. They added: “Attacks on medical facilities and civilians are unacceptable and are a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and conventions … The right to seek medical assistance, especially in times of crisis, should never be denied.”
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US does not believe Israel intends to re-occupy Gaza after its ongoing war with Hamas. “This is not our understanding of the Israel government’s position,” said Sullivan, his words in apparent contrast to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who told separately CNN, “The first thing we … will do … [is] destroy Hamas. The second thing we have to understand is that there has to be an overriding and overreaching Israeli military envelope.”
Egyptian security sources told Reuters that on Sunday at least seven injured Palestinians arrived on Egyptian soil through the Rafah border crossing, and that 32 Egyptians crossed over, alongside 80 foreign nationals and dependents. Russians and Poles were among those said to have crossed. Egyptian security sources also told the news agency that at least 80 aid trucks had moved from Egypt into Gaza by Sunday afternoon.
