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Updated
More now on what a possible truce deal is expected to include: Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq told Al Jazeera that the conditions of the truce deal will include the release of Israeli women and children from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian women and children from “occupation prisons”.
Updated
Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq has told Al Jazeera that the details of the truce would be announced by Qatar when, and as far as we know, if, it was finalised.
Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq has told Al Jazeera that the ongoing talks are for a truce that would last “a number of days” and include arrangements for the entry of aid in to Gaza, and a deal, arrangements for entry of aid into Gaza, and a swap of hostages taken by Hamas for people imprisoned by Israel.
Two sources familiar with the truce talks have told AFP a tentative deal includes a five-day truce, comprised of a ceasefire on the ground and limits to Israeli air operations over southern Gaza.
In return, between 50 and 100 prisoners held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad – a separate Palestinian militant group – would be released.
They would include Israeli civilians and captives of other nationalities, but no military personnel.
Under the proposed deal, some 300 Palestinians would be released from Israeli jails, among them women and children.
The White House said the negotiations were in the “endgame” stage, but refused to give further details, saying it could jeopardise a successful outcome.
Reuters is now translating that statement as “close to”:
Hamas officials are “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.
Al Jazeera translates the Hamas statement slightly differently, saying that Hamas has said it is “close to reaching a truce agreement”.
This news is based off a statement released by Hamas, and it does not include more detail, with Reuters reporting, “there were no further details about the terms of the potential agreement”.
Updated
Israeli bombardment kill 17 Palestinians in Nuseirat camp in Gaza – Wafa
As we await more detail on that comment from Hamas, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa is reporting that seventeen Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza which took place at midnight.
Updated
Hamas chief says 'we are approaching a truce agreement'
Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh has told the Reuters news organisation that Hamas is “approaching a truce agreement”, and that the militant group has delivered its response to Qatari officials.
Qatar has been mediating with Hamas as it negotiates with Israel and the United States for the release of Israeli hostages.
Updated
Summary
It is just after 4.20am in Gaza. Here is where things stand:
Israeli forces continued their offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza, closing in on the Indonesian hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “appalled” by reports that 12 people, including patients, were killed in overnight shelling at the last hospital operating in northern Gaza. Some 200 patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian hospital on Monday, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health services in Gaza have suffered “catastrophic” damage, with most hospitals no longer functioning. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, warned that the thousands of injuries sustained by civilians across Gaza, combined with the growing public health crisis in the besieged enclave, is a “recipe for epidemics”. He also described Israel’s cooperation for humanitarian relief in Gaza as “subpar”.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said a clinic it operated in Gaza City was attacked on Monday morning. Part of the building was engulfed in flames, it said, and four marked MSF cars were burned while a fifth was found crushed by a heavy vehicle or a tank. The charity said it was not immediately aware of the status of one member of staff and 20 family members.
Twenty-eight premature babies were rescued from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken to Egypt on Monday. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 31 “very sick” babies were moved from al-Shifa hospital in a joint operation with the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and 12 of them had been flown to Cairo. Three babies remain in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Joe Biden on Monday said he believed a deal is near, and the White House later said the US is “doing everything we can” and that it believed “we’re closer than we’ve ever been”.
Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have clashed with far-right Israeli politicians who want to bring in the death penalty as a possible sentence for captured Hamas members. The families said on Monday that even talk of doing so might endanger the lives of their relatives. The row underlines the deep divisions in Israel over how to deal with the hostage crisis.
The UN secretary general has said it is clear that the war in Gaza has seen “a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict” since he began his role in 2017. At a press conference on Monday, António Guterres also said he did not believe a UN protectorate in Gaza would be a solution to the conflict and that war must “move in a determined, irreversible way to a two-state solution”.
Relief trucks originally from Jordan entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday with the intention of setting up a new field hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Jordanian state media said it hoped the facility would help ease some of the humanitarian crisis as Israel’s forces seize medical facilities in the north.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”. They have since released video footage reportedly showing armed men seizing a ship. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship.
Here are some recent photographs from Gaza:
Three people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports.
Several people are believed to be trapped under rubble.
Strikes in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps Monday killed at least 40 people, according to hospital officials, and residents said dozens more were buried in the rubble.
The Guardian has not verified these reports independently.
Repeated Israeli bombardment of Jabalia, an urban extension of Gaza City that grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, has killed scores of civilians, Palestinian medics say.
On Monday witnesses reported bouts of heavy fighting between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance into Jabalia.
Meanwhile Hezbollah and Israeli forces continue to trade fire over the border between Lebanon and Israel.
On Monday, the IDF shelled Saint George Church in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s news agency NNA. The shelling caused “significant damage”, according to NNA. No injuries were reported.
Hezbollah said it targeted troops in northern Israel with drones, artillery and missiles on Monday, claiming a string of new attacks.
Israel’s military said tanks, a fighter jet and a helicopter struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to what it said were missile launches from “a terrorist cell”.
A celebrated Palestinian poet and author, Mosab Abu Toha, has been arrested by Israeli forces while trying to leave Gaza, according to his friends and family.
Abu Toha had been told by US officials that he and his family would be able to cross into Egypt, as one of his children is an American citizen. They were on the way from north to south Gaza, heading for the Rafah crossing point on Sunday, when he was arrested along with other Palestinian men at an Israeli military checkpoint.
“The army took Mosab when he arrived at the checkpoint, leaving from the north to the south, as the army had ordered. The American embassy sent him and his family to go through the Rafah crossing,” the poet’s brother, Hamza, said on social media. “We have heard nothing from him.”
In breaking news, we’re seeing reports that the IDF is “storming” the city of Hebron in the West Bank. The Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency and Al Jazeera report that IDF forces have stormed the city, with Shehab also reporting arrests. The Guardian has not verified these reports independently.
“Israeli occupation forces storm the city of Hebron in the south of the West Bank and launch a campaign of raids and arrests,” Al Jazeera reports.
عاجل | مراسل #الجزيرة: قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي تقتحم مدينة الخليل جنوب الضفة الغربية وتشن حملة مداهمات واعتقالات
— الجزيرة - عاجل (@AJABreaking) November 21, 2023
The AP has this recent report from the West Bank:
When Israeli warplanes swooped over the Gaza Strip following Hamas militants’ deadly attack on southern Israel, Palestinians say a different kind of war took hold in the occupied West Bank.
Overnight, the territory was closed off. Towns were raided, curfews imposed, teenagers arrested, detainees beaten, and villages stormed by Jewish vigilantes.
With the world’s attention on Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there, the violence of war has also erupted in the West Bank. Israeli settler attacks have surged at an unprecedented rate, according to the United Nations. The escalation has spread fear, deepened despair, and robbed Palestinians of their livelihoods, their homes and, in some cases, their lives.
Before the Hamas assault, 2023 already was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in over two decades, with 250 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, most during military operations.
Over these six weeks of war, Israeli security forces have killed another 206 Palestinians, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the result of a rise in army raids backed by airstrikes and Palestinian militant attacks.
Updated
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports that the “northern part of Gaza City right now is under heavy bombardment and air strikes”.
Mahmoud is in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and writes, “Where we are reporting from, in Khan Younis, has also been a major target of Israeli air strikes. We are talking about both sides – the eastern side of Khan Younis and the western side of the city.”
Updated
In case you missed this earlier: the US believes that Israel and Hamas are getting closer to a deal that would secure the release of some hostages held in Gaza, even as the Israeli military’s deadly assault on Gaza City continued and rockets were being fired into Israel.
US President Joe Biden said on Monday he believed an accord was near. “We’re closer now than we’ve been before,” White House spokesman John Kirby said of a hostage agreement.
Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), met in Qatar on Monday with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to “advance humanitarian issues” related to the conflict, the Geneva-based ICRC said in a statement. She also met separately with Qatari authorities.
The organisation said it was not part of negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages. But as a neutral intermediary it was ready “to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to,” it said.
The Israeli military has barred 750 families in Hebron’s Old City from stepping outside except for one hour in the morning and one in the evening on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursday, residents and Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem have told the Associated Press.
700 radical Jewish settlers live among 34,000 Palestinians under heavy military protection in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
The AP reports, “Schools have closed. Work has stopped. Sick people have moved in with relatives in the Palestinian-controlled part of town. Israeli settlers often roam at night, taunting Palestinians trapped indoors, according to footage published by B’Tselem.”
Asked about the curfew, the Israeli military said that it had set up more checkpoints “as part of the security operations in the area.” Palestinian militant attacks have increased significantly since the war, it added.
Updated
If you’re just joining us, Israeli forces are fighting near Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks.
Health officials have managed to evacuate some of the wounded, but a medical worker inside the facility and the Health Ministry said a shell struck the second floor of the hospital, killing 12 people.
The health official blamed Israel, which denied shelling the hospital, saying its troops returned fire on militants who targeted them from inside the 3.5-acre (1.4 hectare) compound.
Meanwhile 28 premature babies were evacuated from Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital by the World Health Organization and transported to Egypt on Monday. Three others were transferred to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza, the Red Crescent said.
More than 250 critically ill or wounded patients remain stranded at the compound that Israeli forces stormed days ago.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be the best way of ensuring Israel’s security.
Borrell held a video meeting with foreign ministers from the EU’s 27 countries after touring the Middle East for talks on Israel’s war with Hamas.
The EU’s top diplomat said that he had drawn “a fundamental political conclusion” from his discussions across the region.
“I think that the best guarantee for Israel’s security is the creation of a Palestinian state,” Borrell said in a written summary of the EU meeting.
Borrell has insisted Israel should not occupy Gaza after the current conflict ends and that control of the territory should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
“Despite the huge challenges, we have to advance our reflections on the stabilisation of Gaza and the future Palestinian state,” he said.
In the short-term, Borrell said, after visiting a string of Arab states, that there was a “sense of urgency” over the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“The UN Security Council resolution calling for immediate humanitarian pauses is a big step forward, but we must ensure its rapid implementation,” he said.
This is Helen Sullivan taking over the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Israeli forces continued their offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza, closing in on the Indonesian hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “appalled” by reports that 12 people, including patients, were killed in overnight shelling at the last hospital operating in northern Gaza. Some 200 patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian hospital on Monday, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health services in Gaza have suffered “catastrophic” damage, with most hospitals no longer functioning. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, warned that the thousands of injuries sustained by civilians across Gaza, combined with the growing public health crisis in the besieged enclave, is a “recipe for epidemics”. He also described Israel’s cooperation for humanitarian relief in Gaza as “subpar”.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said a clinic it operated in Gaza City was attacked on Monday morning. Part of the building was engulfed in flames, it said, and four marked MSF cars were burned while a fifth was found crushed by a heavy vehicle or a tank. The charity said it was not immediately aware of the status of one member of staff and 20 family members.
Twenty-eight premature babies were rescued from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken to Egypt on Monday. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 31 “very sick” babies were moved from al-Shifa hospital in a joint operation with the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and 12 of them had been flown to Cairo. Three babies remain in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Joe Biden on Monday said he believed a deal is near, and the White House later said the US is “doing everything we can” and that it believed “we’re closer than we’ve ever been”.
Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have clashed with far-right Israeli politicians who want to bring in the death penalty as a possible sentence for captured Hamas members. The families said on Monday that even talk of doing so might endanger the lives of their relatives. The row underlines the deep divisions in Israel over how to deal with the hostage crisis.
The UN secretary general has said it is clear that the war in Gaza has seen “a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict” since he began his role in 2017. At a press conference on Monday, António Guterres also said he did not believe a UN protectorate in Gaza would be a solution to the conflict and that war must “move in a determined, irreversible way to a two-state solution”.
Relief trucks originally from Jordan entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday with the intention of setting up a new field hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Jordanian state media said it hoped the facility would help ease some of the humanitarian crisis as Israel’s forces seize medical facilities in the north.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”. They have since released video footage reportedly showing armed men seizing a ship. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship.
Updated
A celebrated Palestinian poet and author, Mosab Abu Toha, has been arrested by Israeli forces while trying to leave Gaza, according to his friends and family.
Abu Toha had been told by US officials that he and his family would be able to cross into Egypt, as one of his children is an American citizen. They were on the way from north to south Gaza, heading for the Rafah crossing point on Sunday, when he was arrested along with other Palestinian men at a Israeli military checkpoint.
The poet’s brother, Hamza, said on social media:
The army took Mosab when he arrived at the checkpoint, leaving from the north to the south, as the army had ordered. The American embassy sent him and his family to go through the Rafah crossing. We have heard nothing from him.
Abu Toha had been writing in the New Yorker magazine about his experiences under bombardment in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. A collection of his poetry published in English in the US was a finalist in the National Book Critics Circle award and won an American Book award this year.
Twenty-eight prematurely born babies evacuated from Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital were taken to Egypt for urgent treatment on Monday.
The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Sunday that 31 “very sick” babies were moved in a joint operation with the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The babies were transported to a hospital in Rafah, on the southern border of Gaza, so their condition could be stabilised ahead of transfer to Egypt.
Tedros said 12 had been flown on to Cairo.
Three babies remained in Gaza, two for family reasons and one because the family could not be identified.
Updated
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said at least 50 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began, updating a previous statement earlier today that put the death toll at 48.
The second-deadliest day occurred on Saturday 18 November, the CPJ said, with five journalists killed.
The deadliest day of the war was its first day, 7 October, with six journalists killed, it said.
As of November 20, in the #Israel-#Gaza war, CPJ has documented:
— Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) November 20, 2023
- 50 journalists and media workers dead: 45 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese
- 11 journalists injured
- 3 journalists missing
- 18 journalists arrested
- Multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship,…
Updated
Gaza health ministry says 200 patients evacuated from Indonesian hospital
Two hundred patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza on Monday with the help of the Red Cross, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP that the 200 people were evacuated from the hospital and taken by bus to Nasser hospital in the southern town of Khan Yunis. He told the news agency:
The Israeli army is laying siege to the Indonesian hospital.
An AFP reporter in Khan Yunis saw two buses arriving at Nasser hospital.
The ministry of health in Gaza earlier today said it believed 12 people had been killed in shelling overnight and that it feared a repeat of what happened at al-Shifa hospital complex, which was surrounded and raided by Israeli forces last week.
“We fear the same thing will happen there as it did in al-Shifa,” Qudra said, adding:
There are still 400 patients in the hospital and we are working with the ICRC to evacuate.
Israeli forces were closing in on the packed Indonesian hospital on Monday despite hopes that a ceasefire-for-hostages deal may be agreed.
Video broadcast on Al Jazeera TV on Monday showed damage to what were described as patient facilities, while daytime footage on social media appeared to show Israeli tanks close to the medical complex.
Updated
The WHO’s emergency response director, Michael Ryan, described Israel’s cooperation for humanitarian relief in Gaza as “subpar”.
He acknowledged that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had facilitated the entrance and exit of aid workers into al-Shifa hospital for the transportation of premature babies, “that has not been the case as a constant”, adding:
It has been exceptionally difficult to put in place a proper notification and deconfliction system and we have been operating for weeks without that system in place, and without that cooperation necessary to run humanitarian operations in a conflict zone.
Ryan specifically called out the Israeli defence ministry unit known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), NBC reported.
The engagement between the WHO and Cogat “has been subpar to say the least, and has not been efficient”, he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO)‘s emergency response director, Michael Ryan, warned that the thousands of injuries sustained by civilians across Gaza, combined with the growing public health crisis in the besieged enclave, is a “recipe for epidemics”.
Speaking to journalists at the UN headquarters in New York, Ryan said “so many children” remain in danger in Gaza, with up to 1,500 children missing – many likely under rubble.
He said following the evacuation of many patients at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital over the weekend, health staff remaining at the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza may also need to be evacuated in the next few days amid continued fighting there.
The ultimatum from Israeli forces to keep moving is creating a concentration of people sheltering in centres and schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) that “fuels epidemic risks”, he said. Combined with the recent cold rain, that could lead to a spike in child pneumonia, he said.
WHO official says health services in Gaza have suffered 'catastrophic' damage
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health services in Gaza have suffered “catastrophic” damage, with most hospitals no longer functioning.
Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, said 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza, “so we have twice or three times the population [in the south of Gaza], using one-third of the hospital beds in less than a third of the hospitals available”. He added:
Even if tomorrow morning, this were to end in terms of a ceasefire, we still have a huge problem on our hands.
Health services have been unable to provide care for more complex medical cases – including care for most cancer and kidney dialysis patients, he said. In addition, about 5,500 births are expected in the next month, which will likely overwhelm the system, he said.
The hospital situation – the primary health care system situation – in Gaza is catastrophic and it is the worst you can imagine [in the] north.
Updated
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has interrogated more than 300 members of Hamas and other militant groups arrested in Gaza during its ground invasion.
The interrogations have revealed the locations of underground tunnels, warehouses, weapons and Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure, AP reported a senior Israeli military official saying.
Each and every interrogation leads to the release of new locations and the human intelligence that emerges from the Gaza Strip.
Updated
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, has met with the head of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismaël Haniyeh, in Qatar today.
Spoljaric also met separately with Qatari authorities as part of the ICRC’s efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by the militant group, it said.
In a statement, the ICRC said it has insisted “that our teams be allowed to visit the hostages to check on their welfare and deliver medications, and for the hostages to be able to communicate with their families”, adding:
Agreements must be reached that allow the ICRC to safely carry out this work. The ICRC cannot force its way in to where hostages are held, nor do we know their location.
Spoljaric has also met multiple times in recent weeks with families of hostages held in Gaza, as well as Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen.
Updated
Israeli forces close in on Indonesian hospital sheltering thousands of people
Israeli forces continued their offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza, closing in on the Indonesian hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks.
A dozen people reportedly have been killed after a blast at the facility which Gaza’s health ministry blamed on Israeli forces. The Israel Defense Forces denied firing a shell but said it returned fire on militants inside the hospital compound.
Video broadcast on Al Jazeera showed damage to what were described as patient facilities, while daytime footage on social media appeared to show that Israeli tanks were close to the medical complex.
Here’s our video report:
Updated
Video of premature babies being evacuated to safety from Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital as part of a United Nations operation was posted to X, formerly Twitter, by Unicef Palestine.
31 babies were rescued from Al-Shifa hospital.
— UNICEF Palestine (@UNICEFpalestine) November 20, 2023
The operation was conducted as part of an interagency @UN effort, with @WHOoPt, @ochaopt, @UNRWA, @UNMAS and the Palestinian Red Crescent. pic.twitter.com/QELWO5hfeU
The tweet says 31 babies were “rescued”. The figure contradicts earlier reports that said 28 were evacuated and three babies remained in Gaza because the families of two of them wanted them to remain there for “personal reasons”, and because a third was unidentified.
A medical spokesperson told the BBC that the babies remaining in Gaza were in a stable condition.
Updated
Reporters at the White House briefing were also given logistical updates on humanitarian efforts under way in Gaza.
John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator to the national security council, said six trucks had crossed into the war-ravaged territory on Monday with about 18,000 gallons of fuel.
About 100 trucks carrying aid had been allowed into Gaza over the weekend, he added; and that the number of US citizens who have left Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt had reached 800:
We’re continuing to advocate for humanitarian pauses so that people can get out of harm’s way and that aid and assistance can get in.
We expect those deliveries to continue on a regular basis. And hopefully in larger quantities. I’m talking about the fuel specifically.
Kirby added the US had “made it clear” to Israel that it had obligations to safeguard civilians as it expanded its military operations in the south of Gaza, as well as allowing safe passage to hostages if a deal is struck:
If you’re going to secure the release of hostages, and we certainly hope we’re going to be able to do that soon, you’ve got to make sure they can get from where they are to safety, and do that as safely as possible.
Which means you’re gonna have to have at least a temporary localized stop in the fighting to allow them to move.
Kirby said Israel had been observing temporary humanitarian pauses in some areas of between four and seven hours at a time.
White House: 'Closer than we've ever been' to hostage deal
Joe Biden’s administration is “doing everything we can” to achieve an agreement to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, strategic communications coordinator for the national security council John Kirby has just told reporters at the White House.
He said the president was hopeful a deal could be reached to release all the hostages, “including young children, and of course Americans that are in that pool”:
We’re still working this hour by hour … we believe we’re closer than we’ve ever been.
So we’re hopeful. But there’s still work to be done. And nothing is done until it’s all done. So we’re gonna keep working on this.
Updated
South Africa will host a virtual summit of the so-called Bric group of nations on Tuesday to discuss the Israel-Hamas war, AFP reported. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, whose country is currently pursuing its own war in Ukraine, will attend.
Also participating will be the United Nations UN secretary general, António Guterres.
The Bric countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are a group of major emerging economies seeking to reshape the US and western-led global order.
Tuesday’s “Extraordinary Joint Meeting on the Middle East Situation in Gaza” will be hosted by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the hope of drawing up a common response to the more than six-week conflict, AFP said.
Leaders from Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates – who are all due to join the Brics group in January – will attend the meeting.
Updated
More than two dozen Bosnians and their Palestinian relatives who were stuck in Gaza arrived in Sarajevo on Monday, after evacuating through Egypt last week.
The group received medical check-ups at Sarajevo airport before being reunited with their families and friends, Reuters reported.
Those without relatives in Bosnia will be accommodated in a refugee center, officials said.
“I have been in the Gaza Strip for 40 days of war,” said Khaled Mosleh, a Palestinian with Bosnian residence who went to Gaza to visit his sick mother and got stuck there. Mosleh graduated from the Sarajevo medical school and lives in Bosnia with his wife and five children.
“The situation is very difficult,” he said of life in Gaza. “When you think that you will get killed two, three times a day, it is inconceivable. The humanitarian situation is non-existent, there is a smell of death at the streets of Gaza, the death is everywhere.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
A dozen people reportedly have been killed at the Indonesian hospital, the last hospital operating in northern Gaza. There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as Israeli forces closed in on the packed hospital. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “appalled” by reports that 12 people, including patients were killed, in the hospital attack. Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, condemned Israel’s reported attack on the hospital.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said a clinic it operated in Gaza City was attacked on Monday morning. Part of the building was engulfed in flames, it said, and four marked MSF cars were burned while a fifth was found crushed by a heavy vehicle or a tank. The charity said it was not immediately aware of the status of one member of staff and 20 family members.
Twenty-eight premature babies were rescued from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken to Egypt on Monday. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 12 of the premature babies have been flown to Cairo. Three babies remain in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday. Joe Biden on Monday said he believed a deal is near.
Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have clashed with far-right Israeli politicians who want to bring in the death penalty as a possible sentence for captured Hamas members. The families said on Monday that even talk of doing so might endanger the lives of their relatives. The row underlines the deep divisions in Israel over how to deal with the hostage crisis.
Israel’s military has released security camera footage it claims shows hostages being brought into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 October after being kidnapped. The first clip shows a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt being dragged through what looks like an entrance hall by five men. In the second, an injured man in underwear is wheeled in on a gurney by seven men. It has not been possible to verify the footage independently.
The UN secretary general has said it is clear that the war in Gaza has seen “a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict” since he began his role in 2017. At a press conference on Monday, António Guterres also said he did not believe a UN protectorate in Gaza would be a solution to the conflict and that war must “move in a determined, irreversible way to a two-state solution”.
The African Union (AU) has said that Israel’s response to Hamas’s attack last month was “inexcusable”. AU chairman, Azali Assoumani, at a press conference in Berlin on Monday, warned that civilian casualties would fuel further “extremism”.
China “opposes any forced displacement and relocation of Palestinian civilians” and calls on Israel to “stop its collective punishment of the people in Gaza”, foreign minister Wang Yi said. “A ceasefire should not be a diplomatic rhetoric. It is a matter of life and death for the people in Gaza. A ceasefire should be achieved as a top priority,” Wang said on Monday.
Relief trucks originally from Jordan entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday with the intention of setting up a new field hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Jordanian state media said it hoped the facility would help ease some of the humanitarian crisis as Israel’s forces seize medical facilities in the north.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 48 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war. The conflict has led to the deadliest month for journalists since it first began gathering data in 1992, the CPJ said on Monday.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”. They have since released video footage reportedly showing armed men seizing a ship. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship.
Updated
Israel has recalled its ambassador to South Africa for consultations following the “latest statements from South Africa”, according to its foreign ministry.
It comes after South Africa’s ruling party said it would support a parliamentary motion calling for the Israeli embassy in South Africa to be closed.
In a statement on Thursday, the African National Congress (ANC) also welcomed a call from Cyril Ramaphosa, the president, for the international criminal court to investigate Israel for war crimes. The ANC statement said:
Given the unfolding atrocities in occupied Palestine, the African National Congress will agree to a parliamentary motion which calls upon the government to close the Israeli embassy in South Africa and suspend all diplomatic relations with Israel until it agrees to a ceasefire.
Updated
Hostages’ families clash with Israeli politicians over talk of death penalty
Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have clashed with far-right Israeli politicians who want to bring in the death penalty as a possible sentence for captured Hamas members.
The families said on Monday that even talk of doing so might endanger the lives of their relatives.
“I beg you not to capitalise on our suffering now … when the lives of our loved ones are at stake, when the sword is at their necks,” Gil Dickmann, whose cousin is a hostage, told Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, according to Haaretz.
Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is among the hostages, told Ben-Gvir and his far-right party colleagues during a parliamentary panel that the proposal to introduce potential capital sentences for convicted militants would mean “playing along with [the] mind games” of Hamas. She said:
And in return we would get pictures of our loved ones murdered, ended, with the state of Israel and not them [Hamas] being blamed for it … Don’t pursue this until after they are back here. Don’t put my sister’s blood on your hands.
When confronted by relatives of the hostages opposing such a change, far-right politicians shouted that they did not have “a monopoly of pain” in comments that appalled many Israelis.
Updated
The families of the hostages in Gaza are fuming after some of them were not allowed to attend a meeting with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanayahu, and his war cabinet.
Some representatives of the families were told there was not enough space to accommodate everyone, despite the families having provided a list of 107 representatives ahead of time, the Times of Israel reported.
The families who could not enter are planning to protest at the gate to the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv where the meeting is taking place, Haaretz reported.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have released video footage reportedly showing armed men dropping from a helicopter and seizing a cargo ship in the Red Sea.
NEW VIDEO: Yemen’s Houthi rebels hijack a cargo ship in the Red Sea over the weekend pic.twitter.com/pkkUJpbe5c
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) November 20, 2023
The footage was released a day after Houthi rebels said they had seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, warning that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”.
Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 12 of the premature babies rescued from Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital have been flown to Cairo.
In an effort coordinated by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 28 premature babies were rescued from al-Shifa hospital and taken to Egypt earlier today. Three babies remained in Gaza.
Posting to social media, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
All babies are fighting serious infections and other conditions, and need specialised medical care.
Today, 28 of the 31 premature babies, who were evacuated from the Al-Shifa hospital yesterday, were safely transferred in Al-Arish to receive medical treatment in #Egypt. From there, 12 babies were flown to Cairo.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 20, 2023
Three babies continue to receive treatment at the Emarati… pic.twitter.com/SZjKbRUojJ
Updated
Biden says he believes a hostage deal will come soon
Joe Biden has said he believes a deal to secure the release of hostages being held by Hamas is near.
The US president was answering a question by a reporter while at a turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House on Monday.
When asked how soon, the president was seen crossing his fingers.
Reporter: “Mr. President, is a hostage deal near?”
— The Recount (@therecount) November 20, 2023
Biden: “I believe so.”
Reporter: “You believe so?”
Biden: “Yes!” pic.twitter.com/sqUma6KylN
Updated
Guterres says war must lead in 'irreversible way to a two-state solution'
António Guterres, at a press conference on Monday, said he did not believe a UN protectorate in Gaza would be a solution to the conflict.
The UN secretary general said it was “important to be able to transform this tragedy into an opportunity”, which was to “move in a determined, irreversible way to a two-state solution”, adding:
I believe it to be important after the war to have a strengthened Palestinian Authority to assume responsibilities in Gaza.
He said a humanitarian ceasefire was a crucial first step, along with unrestricted access for humanitarian aid and the release of hostages.
He added the Palestinian Authority could clearly not return to Gaza while Israeli tanks remain, meaning there must be a “transition period”. He said:
I think we need a multi-stakeholder approach in which different countries, different entities, will cooperate. For Israel, of course, the US is the main guarantor of its security. For Palestinians, the neighbouring and Arab countries of the region are essential.
So everybody needs to come together to make the conditions for a transition, allowing for a strengthened Palestinian Authority, to assume responsibility in Gaza and then, based on that, to finally move ... in a determined and irreversible way to a two-state solution based on the principles that have been largely established by the international community and which I have time and time again outlined.
Updated
World is witnessing an 'unparalleled and unprecedented' killing of civilians in Gaza, says UN chief
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said it is clear that the war in Gaza has seen “a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict” since he began his role in 2017.
Guterres, in a press conference on Monday, said: “What is clear is that we have had in a few weeks thousands of children killed.”
His remarks came as Gaza authorities said at least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October. The death toll, published by Gaza’s government media office on Monday, includes 5,600 children and 3,550 women.
Guterres said:
This is what matters. We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since I have been secretary general.
Updated
Spain’s newly re-elected prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, will travel to Israel and Palestine on Thursday, his office has said.
Sánchez will travel alongside his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo, according to a statement from his office.
Both leaders will meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s president Isaac Herzog and the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the statement added.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said it transferred 28 premature babies into Egypt in ambulances, after 31 were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.
A total of 28 premature babies were rescued from Shifa hospital and taken to Egypt in an effort coordinated by the PRCS. Three babies remained in Gaza, two for family reasons, and one because the family could not be identified.
They were evacuated after Gaza’s biggest hospital was no longer able to function after an IDF raid. Israel has said Hamas has command centres underneath hospitals in Gaza but Hamas has denied this.
Some mothers of the premature babies were present at the crossing, one woman described the ordeal of having to leave her baby inside al-Shifa while she evacuated south.
Updated
A dozen people were reportedly killed at a second major medical facility in northern Gaza on Monday as Israeli forces closed in around the packed Indonesian hospital despite hopes that a ceasefire for hostages deal may be agreed.
Video broadcast on al-Jazeera showed damage to what were described as patient facilities, while daytime footage on social media appeared to show that Israeli tanks were close by the medical complex.
One medical worker, Marwan Abdallah, said the tanks were clearly visible from the hospital windows. “Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire,” he added.
The ministry of health in Gaza said it believed 12 had been killed in shelling overnight and that it feared a repeat of what happened at the al-Shifa hospital complex, which was surrounded and raided by Israeli forces last week.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces, although in the past the Israeli military has said that it believed that a Hamas tunnel entrance is near to the Indonesian hospital and that missiles were launched into Israel from nearby.
Here’s more from China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who held talks with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Indonesia on Monday.
China has “firmly stood on the side of justice and fairness” and has been “working hard to de-escalate the conflict” in Gaza, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.
A ceasefire should not be a diplomatic rhetoric. It is a matter of life and death for the people in Gaza. A ceasefire should be achieved as a top priority.
Beijing “opposes any forced displacement and relocation of Palestinian civilians”, Wang said, calling on Israel to “stop its collective punishment of the people in Gaza” and for humanitarian corridors to be opened “as soon as possible to prevent a wider humanitarian disaster”.
Updated
Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein has arrived in Egypt to oversee the planning of a field hospital in Gaza, the first since the war began on 7 October.
The director general of Gaza hospitals has said the field hospital will be established in Khan Younis, in the south, “to receive the wounded and the sick”.
The hospital has a 41-bed capacity, according to the Jordanian royal palace. It was accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid, the head of medical aid in Gaza said.
His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein arrives in El Arish, Egypt, to oversee the preparation and dispatch of the special Jordanian field hospital/2 for southern #Gaza which has the capacity of 41 beds#Jordan pic.twitter.com/1h9549oaD6
— RHC (@RHCJO) November 20, 2023
Palestinian medics hope field hospitals sent by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar will soon follow.
Updated
Doctors without Borders (MSF) has said its clinic in Gaza City came under fire this morning, and part of the building was “engulfed by fire” as heavy fighting took place all around it.
A member of staff and 20 family members are in the clinic and in “extreme danger”, the medical organisation said in a statement, as it urgently called for a stop to the fighting in the area.
More than 50 other people, including other MSF staff, are in nearby buildings, it said, as well as a wounded person requiring medical attention.
It said that four of its cars were burned, and a fifth was “broken in two pieces as if crushed by a heavy-duty vehicle or a tank.” It added that “an Israeli tank was seen in the street”.
All the cars and the clinic were clearly identified as being part of the charity, it said, adding:
The cars destroyed are the same that were used to attempt the aborted evacuation of MSF staff and their families on 18 November, resulting in the killing of one of their family members. They were the only means of transport they had to facilitate their evacuation.
An MSF staff member and 20 relatives are in the clinic and in extreme danger. We don’t know their status. We urgently call for a stop to the fighting in the area. Over 50 other people, including MSF staff, are in nearby buildings, with a wounded person needing medical attention.
— MSF International (@MSF) November 20, 2023
Updated
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said he is “appalled” by the reports of an attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.
The attack killed 12 people, including patients, he posted to social media on Monday, citing unspecified reports. He added:
Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital.
.@WHO is appalled by an attack on the Indonesian Hospital in #Gaza, reportedly resulting in 12 deaths, including patients, and tens of injuries, including critical and life-threatening ones.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 20, 2023
Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and…
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
African Union chief says Israeli actions in Gaza are 'inexcusable'
The African Union (AU) has said that Israel’s response to Hamas’s massive attack last month was “inexcusable”, warning that civilian casualties would fuel further “extremism”.
AU chairman, Azali Assoumani, at a press conference in Berlin, said:
The acts (of Hamas) are reprehensible... but the response is inexcusable.
Imagine a child who has seen his mother, who has seen his father killed ... it creates extremism.
Updated
48 journalists killed in Israel-Hamas war, rights body says
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has provided an update on the journalists and media workers killed by the war.
CPJ says the conflict has led to the deadliest month for journalists since it first began gathering data in 1992.
As of 20 November, CPJ found:
48 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 43 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese.
9 journalists were reported injured.
3 journalists were reported missing.
13 journalists were reported arrested.
The deaths include Bilal Jadallah, director of Press House-Palestine, a non-profit which supports the development of independent Palestinian media. He was killed in his car in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, Al Qahera News, and the Cairo-based Youm7.
The communal dining hall in Kibbutz Be’eri – which was devastated during the 7 October Hamas assault – has reopened for the first time, according to Israeli broadcaster, Kann.
אחרי 45 ימים: חדר האוכל של קיבוץ בארי נפתח מחדש@Itsik_zuarets pic.twitter.com/WLMqqjDigm
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 20, 2023
Here are more details on the Jordanian field hospital that is being set up in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to the AFP news agency:
The field hospital has a 41-bed capacity, the Jordanian Royal Palace said.
Aed Yaghi, head of medical aid in Gaza, said it was accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid.
Mohammed Zaqout, director-general of Gaza hospitals, said the field hospital would help ease the pressure on existing health services, but added: “The number of medical personnel is limited and there aren’t (enough) ambulances.”
He said hospitals in the area were experiencing “catastrophic” conditions and could no longer accept women who needed to give birth by caesarean section.
Palestinian medics hope field hospitals sent by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar will soon follow.
Israel imposed what it calls a “complete siege” on Gaza during the war, but has recently accepted the delivery of limited supplies via the Gaza border crossing with Egypt.
Cairo, a US ally, has a peace treaty with Israel and the two countries have maintained a blockade on Gaza for years.
Updated
Some of the families of those believed to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza have been speaking in a press conference at the Israeli embassy in London.
Iris Haim spoke about her 28-year-old son Yotam. She said:
We are really worried. As a mother I cannot explain what I feel that my son is not with me. This evil isn’t against Jewish people but it’s against the world. It starts in Israel but it will continue to harm every person in the free world if you do not open your eyes. It is monsters against children.
She told the media: “We lost contact with him at 10.44am that day, and since then we only have the basic clues that he is in Gaza now. He left his room healthy and not wounded, which gave us little comfort. But he has a chronic disease, he needs a vaccine every month.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is 3.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
28 premature Palestinian babies that had been evacuated from the al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza have been transported via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt where they will receive further medial aid. Three babies remained in Gaza, two reportedly because of family personal circumstances, and one because their family has not been identified. The move was coordinated by the Palestine Red Crescent Society with the World Health Organization and the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA).
There are reports of heavy fighting around the Indonesian hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker there, said Israeli tanks were visible from the windows. “You can see them moving around and firing,” he told AP. “Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire.” Health ministry officials in Gaza say 12 people have been killed, including doctors and patients. The claims have not been independently verified.
Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, on Monday condemned Israel’s reported attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza. “The attack is a clear violation of international humanitarian laws. All countries, especially those that have close relations with Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities to urge Israel to stop its atrocities,” she said in a statement
Dozens of trucks entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt on with equipment from Jordan to set up a field hospital. Jordan’s state-run media said the hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis would be up and running within 48 hours.
Relatives of some of the estimated 240 people held by Hamas in Gaza urged far-right Israeli lawmakers on Monday not to pursue proposed capital punishment for captured Palestinian militants, saying that even talk of doing so might endanger the hostages. Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is among the hostages, told national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and his party colleagues during a parliamentary panel: “It would mean playing along with their mind games. And in return we would get pictures of our loves ones murdered, ended, with the state of Israel and not them [Hamas] being blamed for it. Don’t pursue this until after they are back here. Don’t put my sister’s blood on your hands.”
Israel’s Haaretz says it has been told by a source “involved in the negotiations with Hamas” that the organisation is considering increasing the number of hostages it is willing to release. The newspaper says the source told it that talks were in continuation and that more patience was needed.
Israel’s military has released security camera footage it says shows hostages being brought into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 October after being kidnapped during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel. The first clip shows a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt being dragged through what looks like an entrance hall by five men. In the second, an injured man in underwear is wheeled in on a gurney by seven men. It has not been possible to verify the footage independently.
Israel’s military has named two more soldiers killed in its campaign against Hamas. It stated that Eitan Dishon and Yanon Tamir were killed during action in the northern Gaza Strip today. The IDF now says it has lost 66 soldiers in total during the war since 7 October. At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.
Iran on Monday dismissed as “invalid” Israel’s accusations that Yemen’s Houthi rebels were acting on Tehran’s guidance, after the rebels said they had seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship and described the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will host a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza with foreign ministers from members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic cooperation.
Updated
The World Health Organization has confirmed that the 28 premature babies evacuated from the al-Shifa hospital have arrived safely in Egypt.
In a statement emailed to Reuters, it said “The 28 babies have now safely arrived in Egypt. Three babies still remain at the Emarati hospital [in Gaza] and continue to receive treatment. All babies are fighting serious infections and continue needing health care.”
The IDF has issued an update on the tense situation that continues on Israel’s boundary with Lebanon.
In a message posted to Telegram, Israel’s military said:
Earlier today, a terrorist cell attempted to launch anti-tank missiles in the area of Marwahin in Lebanon. The IDF struck the cell. Additionally, in response to the launches toward Israeli territory earlier today, IDF tanks, a fighter jet, and a helicopter struck Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Lebanon.
Furthermore, 25 launches were identified from Lebanon toward several locations adjacent to the border. The IDF Aerial Defence Array intercepted a number of the launches and the rest fell in open areas. Moreover, three UAVs were identified striking adjacent to an IDF post. No injuries were reported. The IDF struck the sources of the launches.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Earlier, Israeli journalist Fadi Amun posted a video which he said showed “An IDF post in the north that was hit by Hezbollah rocket fire this morning”. He added that the videos had been cleared for release by the authorities.
מוצב צה״ל בצפון שנפגע מירי רקטה של חיזבאללה הבוקר.
— Fadi Amun | فادي أمون | פאדי אמון (@FadiAmun) November 20, 2023
*הסרטונים עברו אישור הצנזורה.
סרטון 1 pic.twitter.com/9q6fplvPkB
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has issued an Arabic-language video on social media which shows the transportation of 28 premature babies from Gaza into Egypt for medical aid. The babies, along with three others who have remained in Gaza, were evacuated from the al-Shifa hospital.
🔴🚑 الزميل محمد أبو مصبح من أمام معبر رفح يحدثنا عن عملية إجلاء ال ٢٨ طفلاً من الأطفال الخدج، إلى المشافي المصرية.#غزة #Gaza pic.twitter.com/MTxKpIY5mo
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 20, 2023
If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the video footage released by Israel which it claims shows foreign hostages inside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
AP reports that dozens of trucks entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Monday with equipment from Jordan to set up a field hospital. Jordan’s state-run media said the hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis would be up and running within 48 hours.
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian in Gaza, has been writing a diary for the Guardian during Israel’s campaign against Hamas. Here is an excerpt from today:
Every morning, thousands of people are in the streets looking for what they need: food, medicine, blankets, heavy clothes. I saw a mother screaming at her young son in the middle of the street. It turned out that he got distracted and she had been looking for him for almost an hour.
“How would I find you if you got lost?” she screamed. Other women were calming her down.
These days we hear many stories about parents who lost their children, whether while fleeing or in public places. Most of the evacuating people are in these new areas for the first time, they may have passed by them before, or visited, but knowing the area is really difficult when most people have lost their ability to focus due to fear, stress or lack of sleep.
I remember talking to my friend who had a new baby girl months ago. “I know this will sound scary, but please, write on your daughter’s body all the identification information in marker, just in case,” I said. He was silent for a second, then he told me that he agreed with me.
I have witnessed several times the same situation, a group of boys go out to play with a ball, and the parents, usually fathers, would go out angry and tell them to get back inside. “If a bombing happens now, what will happen to you?! Go inside, immediately.”
Read more of Ziad’s diary from Gaza here: Gaza diary part 23 – ‘Really? The whole world is unable to solve this situation and you think we know the answer?’
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will host a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza with foreign ministers from members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic cooperation, Reuters reports, citing the RIA news agency.
A powerful rightwing pressure group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), is engineering pledges of unconditional support for Israel’s attack on Gaza by state legislatures across the US.
Alec is promoting a model resolution expressing “support for Israel’s right to pursue without interference or condemnation the elimination of Hamas”. A version has been accepted by legislatures in at least eight states, including Pennsylvania, Nebraska and North Dakota.
The resolution adopts Israeli claims that Hamas uses “civilians as human shields” and names Iran as giving logistical support to the group.
Some state legislatures have also denounced calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Although state legislatures have limited direct influence over Washington’s policy on Israel, Alec and allied groups have long been instrumental in mobilising political pressure by pushing local legislation and resolutions in support of the Jewish state. They include laws to block and punish support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.
Read more of Chris McGreal’s report here: Rightwing group pressures states to pass pro-Israel resolutions
28 premature babies evacuated from Gaza into Egypt – reports
A picture has been issued showing the ambulances carrying premature Palestinian babies who have been evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in the process of crossing into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.
Egypt’s Qahera news channel appears to have shown four ambulances on the Egyptian side of the border.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society had earlier posted images of the babies being prepared for transportation.
🚨 A few moments ago, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams departed from in front of the Emirati Hospital in Rafah to transport 28 premature infants to the Rafah Crossing, in preparation for their transfer to receive medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 20, 2023
📌This comes… pic.twitter.com/PiXNuIAF2T
Thirty-one babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital. Reportedly three of the babies have remained in Gaza because the families of two of them want them to remain there for “personal reasons”, and because a third is unidentified. A medical spokesperson told the BBC that the babies remaining in Gaza were in a stable condition.
Updated
Relatives of some of the estimated 240 people held by Hamas in Gaza urged far-right Israeli lawmakers on Monday not to pursue proposed capital punishment for captured Palestinian militants, saying that even talk of doing so might endanger the hostages.
Israel’s justice ministry said on 7 November that a taskforce was discussing how to try the Palestinians who had been detained and secure “punishments befitting the severity of the horrors committed” for those convicted. The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for the death penalty, which is dormant on Israel’s law books, Reuters reports.
Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is among the hostages, told Ben-Gvir and his party colleagues during a parliamentary panel: “It would mean playing along with their mind games. And in return we would get pictures of our loves ones murdered, ended, with the state of Israel and not them [Hamas] being blamed for it.
“Don’t pursue this until after they are back here. Don’t put my sister’s blood on your hands.”
Some of the relatives of the people held captive by Hamas in Gaza worry that the publicity around the capital punishment debate could invite reprisals even as hopes of a deal to free some of them is growing. A number of suspected Palestinian gunmen were detained in Israel after members of Hamas breached the Gaza Strip border on 7 October.
Gonen was one of the relatives of the hostages who took part in a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last week. She told the Guardian on Saturday that the families felt neglected by the government. “We need to see that they’re doing everything in their power to get the hostages back home,” Yarden said. “And we’re not going to back down.”
Updated
The BBC is reporting that only 28 of the 31 premature babies are being transferred because one baby has no identified parents to sign consent forms for the transfer, and that for “personal circumstances” two of the babies’ families preferred them to stay in Gaza.
Ethar Shalaby, of the BBC Arabic Service, spoke to Dr Mohamed Salama, the head of the neo-natal unit at al-Ahli Emirates hospital where the babies were being cared for. Salama said the three babies staying behind were in a stable condition.
Updated
A picture has been issued of some of the premature babies being transported out of Gaza and into Egypt today. They are seen in the back of an ambulance.
Thirty-one premature babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza after it was raided by Israeli forces. Twenty-eight of them are now in transit to the Rafah crossing, according to a statement earlier from the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Updated
Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, on Monday condemned Israel’s reported attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.
“The attack is a clear violation of international humanitarian laws. All countries, especially those that have close relations with Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities to urge Israel to stop its atrocities,” she said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Updated
The IDF reports on its Telegram channel that sirens are sounding in northern Israel. Earlier today Israel’s military said it had again exchanged fire with anti-Israeli forces on the Lebanese side of the blue line.
Al Jazeera reports that it has spoken to Munner al-Bursh, the general manager of the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, who gave it an outline of what he said was happening at the Indonesian hospital in north Gaza.
He told them that Israeli forces were continuing to attack the hospital, after an artillery barrage that started overnight. He claimed that some bodies of those killed during the attack were still lying on the ground outside the hospital, and that nobody had been able to reach them to bury them. He said the hospital was using a small power generator that runs on vegetable oil.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Israel’s military has named two more soldiers killed in its campaign against Hamas. It stated that Eitan Dishon and Yanon Tamir were killed during action in the northern Gaza Strip today.
The IDF now says it has lost 66 soldiers in total during the war since 7 October.
At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
28 premature babies being moved to Rafah crossing
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has posted to social media to say 28 of the 31 premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in the north of Gaza are now being taken to the Rafah border crossing.
In the statement, it said:
A few moments ago, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams departed from in front of the Emirati hospital in Rafah to transport 28 premature infants to the Rafah crossing, in preparation for their transfer to receive medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals. This comes in coordination with the World Health Organization and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
It is not clear at present whether the three other babies will also be moved.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
There are reports of heavy fighting around the Indonesian hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker there, said Israeli tanks were visible from the windows. “You can see them moving around and firing,” he told AP. “Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire”. Health ministry officials in Gaza say 12 people have been killed, including doctors and patients. The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel’s Haaretz says it has been told by a source “involved in the negotiations with Hamas” that the organisation is considering increasing the number of hostages it is willing to release. The newspaper says the source told it that talks were in continuation and that more patience was needed.
Israel’s military has released security camera footage it says shows hostages being brought into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 October after being kidnapped during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel. The first clip shows a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt being dragged through what looks like an entrance hall by five men. In the second, an injured man in underwear is wheeled in on a gurney by seven men. It has not been possible to verify the footage independently.
Thirty-one premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday. Health officials say they are in “extremely critical condition”. The newborns had dehydration, hypothermia and sepsis in some cases, said Mohamed Zaqout, the director of Gaza hospitals. The babies are receiving urgent care in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and preparations are in hand for them to be taken to Egypt.
Arab and Muslim ministers called on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as their delegation visited Beijing on the first leg of a tour to push for an end to hostilities and to allow humanitarian aid into the territory. The delegation, which is due to meet officials representing the permanent members of the UN security council, is also piling pressure on the west to reject Israel’s justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defence.
Iran on Monday dismissed as “invalid” Israel’s accusations that Yemen’s Houthi rebels were acting on Tehran’s guidance, after the rebels said they had seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship and described the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.
The Israeli military has issued a statement to say there have been further exchanges of fire across the UN-drawn blue line that marks the border between Israel and Lebanon.
More than 100 evacuees from Gaza are due to arrive in Turkey on Monday, including dozens of people who will receive medical treatment there, Turkey’s health minister and a foreign ministry source have told Reuters.
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has posted to social media to say 31 people, including Australian citizens, left Gaza via the Rafah crossing earlier today.
This is Martin Belam on the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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Al Jazeera has carried some updates from reporters it has on the ground in Gaza.
Hisham Zaqout reports that Israeli airstrikes targeted a house in Rafah, where many were killed and injured, and that Israeli tanks and vehicles moved from Beit Hanoon to the Indonesian hospital.
Meanwhile, from Khan Younis, Tareq Abu Azzoum has reported that “the situation on the ground for civilians and the humanitarian conditions have been exacerbated” by rain, noting that “the rain is expected to continue with a noticeable temperature drop in the coming weeks”.
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Iran on Monday dismissed as “invalid” Israel’s accusations that Yemen’s Houthi rebels were acting on Tehran’s guidance when they seized a Red Sea ship owned by an Israeli businessman.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said the Israeli accusations were “invalid” and a “projection meant to escape from the situation they are facing”, AFP reports.
“We have repeatedly announced that the resistance groups in the region represent their countries and make decisions and act based on the interests of their countries,” he said.
The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had said the ship “was hijacked with Iran guidance by the Yemenite Houthi militia”.
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The Israeli military has issued a statement to say there have been further exchanges of fire across the UN-drawn blue line that marks the border between Israel and Lebanon.
In a message on the Telegram app, the IDF said:
This morning, IDF artillery struck in several locations in Lebanon. A number of launches were then identified from Lebanon into Israeli territory. No injuries were reported. As a result of the launches toward the area of Biranit, a fire broke out. IDF and Israel fire and rescue services are at the scene. The IDF also struck the sources of the launches.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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In the UK, Sky News international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn has had this to say about talks over a hostage deal, telling viewers:
There still seems to be differences about the number of hostages, but also the logistics of how they are found in the various bits of Gaza and how they are brought in.
The deal is still thought to be focused on the women and children. Israel wants all women and children [hostages] out of Gaza and in return it is prepared to hand over a greater number of Palestinian women and children they are holding in their jails.
There is still hesitation among some in the Israeli government. They believe they are still pressing home an advantage against Hamas and will worry about the chances of their enemy regrouping.
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AP reports “heavy fighting” around the Indonesian hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. It quotes Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker there, as saying Israeli tanks were visible from the windows.
“You can see them moving around and firing,” he told the news agency. “Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire.”
Abdallah said the hospital had received dozens of dead and wounded in airstrikes and shelling overnight. He said medical staff and displaced people feared Israel would besiege the hospital and force its evacuation.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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Israel’s Haaretz says it has been told by a source “involved in the negotiations with Hamas” that the organisation is considering increasing the number of hostages it is willing to release.
The newspaper says the source told it that talks were in continuation, and says “indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas have already collapsed twice” and that more patience is needed.
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Al Jazeera is reporting that the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza has come under Israeli attack. It quotes health ministry officials in Gaza as saying that the death toll is 12, and that those killed include doctors and patients.
Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry, described the situation to Al Jazeera as “catastrophic”. He claimed there were about 700 people inside the hospital, including medical staff and the injured.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the claims.
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More than 100 evacuees from Gaza are set to arrive in Turkey on Monday, including dozens of people who will receive medical treatment there, Turkey’s health minister and a foreign ministry source have told Reuters.
Sixty-one patients, accompanied by about 49 relatives, arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Sunday evening and were scheduled to fly to Ankara on Monday morning after spending the night in a hospital, the health minister Fahrettin Koca said.
He said last week that Ankara wanted to bring as many of the nearly 1,000 cancer patients from Gaza to Turkey as possible. The first 27 patients arrived in Ankara last Thursday.
Separately, a group of 87 people, consisting of Turks, Turkish Cypriots and their relatives, arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Sunday and were due to fly to Istanbul on Monday evening, a foreign ministry source said.
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Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has posted to social media to say 31 people, including Australian citizens, left Gaza via the Rafah crossing earlier today.
In her message, she said: “They are being supported by our consular staff in Egypt. The Australian government has facilitated the departure of a total of 62 people from Gaza. We are working with partners as part of international efforts to allow for the safe passage of foreign nationals from Gaza.”
Wong added: “Australia has been clear in our calls for safe, sustained and immediate humanitarian access so essential assistance can reach people in need and civilians can reach safety. We all want to take the next steps towards a ceasefire, but it cannot be one‑sided.”
31 people including Australian citizens, permanent residents and family members left Gaza via the Rafah crossing this morning.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) November 20, 2023
They are being supported by our consular staff in Egypt.
The Australian Government has facilitated the departure of a total of 62 people from Gaza. pic.twitter.com/2yWqzmwgCv
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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Our First Edition newsletter today features Archie Bland speaking to Kaamil Ahmed, a reporter on the Guardian’s global development desk, who has been using his contacts in Gaza to tell of the plight experienced by those on the ground:
As Kaamil has heard these stories, he’s been struck by the impossibility for the residents of Gaza of looking beyond their most immediate needs. “Every day is a new battle,” he said. “To find water, to find bread, to charge phones. It takes hours to get to a market, because there’s no fuel for cars. It takes hours to queue for supplies or to use the bathroom, and you can’t cook more food than you need for the next day, because you don’t have a fridge. It doesn’t matter who you are, or who you were before this: everything takes a long time, and there’s nothing to spend your money on. The cycle starts again constantly, for everyone.”
Most people Kaamil speaks to have loved ones who’ve been killed since the war began. That is the context for how they perceive Israel’s campaign: “I hear the word genocide a lot more now,” Kaamil said. “That is a very complicated and contested term, but it’s what people there feel.”
Because of the unique misfortune of their geopolitical circumstances, people in Gaza are quite often treated as if they see everything through a political lens; an answer to whether they support Hamas, even before 7 October, was far more likely to be how they would be heard by the wider world than the equivalent question to somebody living in Europe or the US.
“But if you ask somebody a question like that, it doesn’t mean they were thinking about it before you asked them,” Kaamil said. “My experience of Gaza is as a place full of people finding creative ways to get by, and to enjoy their lives. I don’t know anybody who visited Gaza who didn’t enjoy it, and find it, despite everything, actually a nice place to be. That’s part of why it feels so important to show how people are surviving, or trying to survive, now.”
Read more here: Monday briefing – the Palestinians determined to get the word out on life inside Gaza
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In an update on the 31 premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, health officials say they are in “extremely critical condition”.
The newborns had dehydration, hypothermia and sepsis in some cases, said Mohamed Zaqout, the director of Gaza hospitals.
Four other babies died in the two days before the evacuation, Associated Press quoted him as also saying.
The babies from the hospital, where power was cut and supplies ran out while Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants outside, were receiving urgent care in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Zaqout said preparations were under way for them to enter Egypt.
A World Health Organization team that visited al-Shifa hospital said most of the remaining patients had amputations, burns or other trauma. Plans were being made to evacuate them in the coming days.
Updated
We’ve published a full report on the Israeli military releasing video footage that it says shows hostages being taken into Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital on 7 October, the day Hamas launched its devastating attacks on Israel.
The CCTV video aired by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson appeared to show a group of men frog-marching an individual into a hospital, to the surprise of medical staff. A second clip showed an injured man on a gurney. Another man nearby, in civilian clothes, had an assault rifle.
Separately, the IDF claimed one hostage, a 19-year-old Israeli army conscript named Noa Marciano, had been killed by Hamas at the hospital.
Hamas has previously blamed an Israeli airstrike for her death.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said it was not able to confirm the authenticity of the footage of the two hostages aired by the IDF, according to the BBC. Hamas’s leadership did not immediately comment on the claims. It has previously said it took some hostages to hospitals for treatment.
Our full report is here:
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Israel 'expanding' operation in Gaza, says military
The Israeli military said it was expanding its operation in the Gaza Strip, Agence France-Presse is reporting.
Israel warned residents of Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabaliya, and a nearby coastal camp to evacuate, while the military said on Sunday it was “expanding its operational activities in additional neighbourhoods” of Gaza.
After intense bombardment, an AFP journalist in the territory saw columns of smoke rising from Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, on Sunday.
A Hamas health official said more than 80 people were killed in twin strikes on Jabaliya on Saturday, including on a UN school sheltering displaced people.
Social media videos verified by AFP showed bodies covered in blood and dust on the floor of a building, where mattresses had been wedged under school tables.
Israel’s military has said Jabaliya is among the areas of focus as troops “target terrorists and strike Hamas infrastructure”.
Without mentioning the strikes, the Israeli army said that “an incident in the Jabaliya region” was under review.
The UN rights chief, Volker Turk, on Sunday condemned the purported strike on the school as “horrifying”, adding that “the horrendous events of the past 48 hours in Gaza beggar belief”.
On Monday, Palestinian news agency Wafa said the Indonesian hospital near Jabaliya had also come under shelling.
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Reuters has posted a video report on belongings left behind after Hamas’s attack on a music festival in southern Israel on 7 October.
The post on X (formerly Twitter) says that at a trauma centre in the Israeli city of Caesarea, “survivors reclaimed their lost possessions, while families of the dead reunited with the things their loved ones left behind”.
These are the belongings left behind after Hamas attacked a music festival in southern Israel. At a trauma center in the city of Caesarea, survivors reclaimed their lost possessions, while families of the dead reunited with the things their loved ones left behind pic.twitter.com/0VbIwRtMhZ
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 20, 2023
An Israeli police investigation into the attack on the Supernova music festival in Kibbutz Re’im on 7 October updated the death toll to 364, according to Israeli media reports last week.
That figure would make up nearly a third of all of those killed during the onslaught in Israel on 7 October, the Times of Israel reported, citing Channel 12.
Earlier counts had placed the death count from the festival attack at 270.
The Israeli police reportedly believe that Hamas did not know about the festival before carrying out the attacks.
Here’s our explainer from last month on the assault:
Updated
Iran’s supreme leader says Israel has suffered a “defeat” in its war against Iran-backed Hamas and that it is “a fact”.
In a speech at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace force centre in the capital of Tehran, quoted by Agence France-Presse, Khamenei said that “the defeat of the Zionist regime [Israel] in Gaza is a fact”.
Advancing and entering hospitals or people’s homes is not a victory, because victory means defeating the other side.
Khamenei said Israel “has so far failed” in achieving its declared goal of destroying Hamas “despite the massive bombings” of Gaza.
“This incapacity reflects the inability of the United States and western countries” which back Israel, he added.
Iran, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has called the 7 October attacks a “success” but denied any direct involvement.
We’ve just published a full report on Yemen’s Houthi rebels saying they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warning that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”.
Houthi forces would “continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes … against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop”, a spokesperson for the group, Yahya Saree, said on X (formerly Twitter).
Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship and described the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.
Here’s the full report:
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World must act urgently to end 'humanitarian disaster' in Gaza, says China
The international community must take urgent action to stop the “humanitarian disaster” unfolding in Gaza, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has told visiting diplomats from Arab and Muslim-majority nations.
“Let us work together to quickly cool down the situation in Gaza and restore peace in the Middle East as soon as possible,” Wang told foreign ministers in opening remarks in Beijing on Monday, Agence France-Presse reports.
“A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Gaza,” Wang told the delegates, including the secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
A delegation of foreign ministers of the Palestinian Authority, Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are in Beijing this week for talks aimed at a “de-escalation” of the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Wang said:
The situation in Gaza affects all countries around the world, questioning the human sense of right and wrong and humanity’s bottom line.
Wang also said China fully supported the call for a two-state solution in Gaza by the recent Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, said the international community needed to shoulder responsibility to stop Israel.
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Arab and Muslim ministers call for immediate Gaza ceasefire at China meeting
Arab and Muslim ministers called on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as their delegation visited Beijing on the first leg of a tour to push for an end to hostilities and to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.
Reuters reports that the delegation, which is set to meet officials representing the permanent members of the UN security council, is also piling pressure on the west to reject Israel’s justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defence.
The officials holding meetings with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Monday are from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, among others.
The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh this month also urged the international criminal court to investigate “war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing” in the Palestinian territories.
Saudi Arabia has sought to press the US and Israel for an end to hostilities in Gaza, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, gathered Arab and Muslim leaders to reinforce that message.
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Here are some recent images from the Gaza Strip, this time of the funeral of freelance journalists Hassouna Sleem and Sary Mansour.
The two were killed on Saturday in an Israeli assault on Bureij refugee camp, in the centre of the Gaza Strip, their relatives and Palestinian health officials said.
Health officials said 17 people died in the attack.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Adam Fulton.
Israel’s military has released security camera footage it says shows hostages being brought into the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 October after being kidnapped during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel.
The first clip, which appears to be time-stamped 10.53am on 7 October, shows a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt being dragged through what looks like an entrance hall by five men, at least three of whom are armed.
In the second, seemingly time-stamped 10.55am, an injured man in underwear is wheeled in on a gurney by seven men – at least four of them armed – as several men in blue hospital scrubs look on.
It was not possible to verify the footage independently. More on that soon.
In other key developments as it approaches 6.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
Palestinian medics have evacuated 31 premature babies from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken them to a hospital in southern Gaza for assessment and treatment, the World Health Organisation has said. Doctors found that “all the babies are fighting serious infections due to lack of medical supplies and impossibility to continue infection control measures in al-Shifa hospital”, it said. Preparations were under way for the babies to enter Egypt, said the director general of hospitals in Gaza, Mohammed Zaqut.
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, although observers have cautioned that public statements during such negotiations are often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.
A senior Israeli source and a senior member of Hamas rejected a report quoting an unnamed Hamas source as saying an agreement was reached on Sunday to start a ceasefire on Monday and release a number of hostages, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.
Japan’s top government spokesperson says the country is appealing to Yemen’s Houthis who have captured a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea and is seeking the help of Saudi, Omani and Iranian authorities to work towards the swift release of the vessel and its crew. Twenty-two crew were onboard, including Bulgarians and Filipinos, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper said.
The Israel military has published video footage it says shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath the al-Shifa hospital complex. It said on Sunday that its troops “exposed a 55-metre-long terror tunnel 10 metres deep” under the hospital complex. Hamas dismissed Israel’s claim, while the director of the Gaza health ministry, Mounir el-Boursh, reportedly called it “pure lie”.
At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday. Nearly 884,000 internally displaced persons were sheltering in 154 installations in Gaza run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the agency said.
France will send a warship to provide medical aid to Gaza, President Emmanuel Macron has said.
The head of a prominent media institution in the Gaza Strip and two other journalists were killed over the weekend in Israel’s offensive in the territory, their relatives have said. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the weekend deaths raised to 48 the number of journalists and media workers it had confirmed killed in the region since 7 October.
The World Health Organisation, which led a second assessment visit to al-Shifa hospital on Sunday, commended the healthcare personnel working at the facility, which the WHO declared to be a “death zone”.
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