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The Associated Press reports that after four failed attempts, the UN Security Council is trying for a fifth time to come up with a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, but it remains to be seen whether serious divisions can be overcome to produce a consensus on wording.
The current draft under negotiation would demand “immediate extended humanitarian pauses” throughout the Gaza Strip to provide civilians with desperately needed aid. It also would demand that “all parties” comply with international humanitarian law that requires protection for civilians, calls for special protections for children, and bans hostage-taking.
But the draft, proposed by council member Malta and obtained on Tuesday by The Associated Press, makes no mention of a ceasefire. It also doesn’t refer to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on 7 October that killed around 1,200 people and took some 240 others hostage. Nor does it cite Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes and ground offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza that the Gaza health ministry says has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.
Several council diplomats said the opposing sides were getting closer. Two said that a vote on the latest draft could come as early as Wednesday but that delegations were still checking with their capitals. The diplomats insisted on speaking anonymously because the negotiations are supposed to be private.
Here is our full report on the latest developments in Gaza:
Israel’s military has said it was carrying out a raid against Hamas in al-Shifa hospital early on Wednesday, conducting what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the medical complex.
Less than an hour earlier, around 1am local time, a Gaza health ministry spokesperson said Israel had told officials in the territory that it would raid the hospital complex “in the coming minutes”. Al-Shifa is Gaza’s biggest hospital.
Dr Munir al-Bursh, director-general of the Gaza health ministry, told Al Jazeera television that Israeli forces had raided the western side of the sprawling site. “There are big explosions and dust entered the areas where we are. We believe an explosion occurred inside the hospital,” Bursh said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza has told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces are searching the basement of the al-Shifa Hospital.
Here is more on the White House response to the IDF entering the al-Shifa hospital, in what it says is a “targeted operation”, via AFP:
Hospitals and the patients inside them “must be protected,” the White House said late Tuesday when asked about an operation by its ally Israel, which has sent troops into Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa.
The White House “won’t speak to the specifics of an ongoing Israeli military operation,” a spokesperson from the National Security Council said when asked about military move into Al-Shifa.
“As we’ve said, we do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire. Hospitals and patients must be protected,” the spokesperson continued.
The statement came after US President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Tuesday, apparently before the Israeli operation into Al-Shifa was announced.
The operation was not discussed during that call, which the White House said in an earlier statement had focused on efforts to free hostages held by Hamas.
Al-Shifa hospital has been the focal point of days of fighting and nearby aerial bombardments in Israel’s war with Hamas.
Thousands of patients, staff and displaced civilians are believed to be inside the hospital complex, according to local officials.
Witnesses have described conditions as horrific, with medical procedures taking place without anesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.
Summary
Here is a summary of the latest developments:
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said early on Wednesday it was “carrying out a precise and targeted operation” against Hamas in al-Shifa hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza.
Gaza’s health ministry has been quoted by Palestinian news agency Shebab as saying that “dozens of soldiers” have entered the al-Shifa emergency department building, and that tanks have entered the complex.
A witness inside al-Shifa told the BBC they saw six tanks and more than 100 soldiers inside the hospital complex, in the area around the emergency department. The Guardian has not been able to verify the claims.
Ahmed Mokhallalati, a surgeon at al-Shifa, has told Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks and bulldozers had entered the complex. ‘The firing is still heavy, and we are hearing explosions everywhere,’ he said.
Figures vary widely on how many people are at the site. On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) put the figure at about 1,500 displaced people, up to 650 inpatients and 200 to 500 health workers.
A White House official, speaking after the operation was announced, said it does not want to see a firefight in a hospital. A spokesperson for the National Security Council, who did not wish to be named, said: “We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire.
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke “at length” about ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, including many children and a number of Americans.
The IDF announcement of its operation came within an hour of Palestinian health officials in Gaza saying the IDF had told them it would raid the hospital “within minutes”. The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, told Al Jazeera that Israel “informed us that it will raid al-Shifa hospital complex in the coming minutes”.
On its Hebrew X account, the IDF appeared to signal that once inside the hospital, it would continue to have a presence there, saying, “in the continuation of the operation, incubators, medical equipment and baby food are expected to be transferred to the hospital”.
The White House has said it has intelligence supporting Israel’s claims that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip – including al-Shifa hospital – to conceal or support their military operations and to hold hostages. “That is a war crime,” national security spokesperson John Kirby said, adding that those actions by Hamas did not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in the course of its military operations.
Hamas said it strongly condemned and rejected the claims, adding that these statements “give a green light to the Israeli occupation to commit further brutal massacres targeting hospitals”.
The WHO has insisted that moving the most vulnerable patients from al-Shifa hospital has become an “impossible task”. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris, speaking to reporters in Geneva, said the “heroic” health workers have been “doing whatever they can to keep going” while the facility has been without power since Saturday and there was not enough food and clean water.
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza in the past 10 days, the UN has said. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) said on Tuesday that only one hospital in the northern half of the blockaded Gaza Strip, al-Awda, still had electricity and was able to receive patients, with other medical facilities in sprawling Gaza City now mostly functioning as shelters for those fleeing the violence.
Israeli authorities have said they have now identified the remains of 859 civilians killed during the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel. The work to identify bodies is ongoing, they said. On 10 November, Israel revised down the number of Israeli deaths on 7 October from the previously given figure of 1,400 to 1,200.
The families of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas have started a five-day march on Tuesday from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to demand the government does more to secure their release. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is coming under fierce criticism from some relatives for not doing more to secure their release, even as Israeli troops push further into the Gaza Strip and the region is bombarded by the Israeli air force.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Washington on Tuesday to support Israel, condemn antisemitism and demand the release of the hostages. US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke at the “March for Israel” event on the National Mall, as well as family members of the hostages.
White House: 'We don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital'
The White House has said it does not want to see a firefight in a hospital, Reuters has reported, with the official speaking after the Israeli military said it was carrying out an operation against Hamas inside the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, who did not wish to be named, said: “We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire.
“Hospitals and patients must be protected.”
On Monday, Biden said that hospitals there “must be protected”. “My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals,” Biden told reporters.
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu speak
The White House has said Joe Biden spoke to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon and discussed “ at length ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, including many children and a number of Americans”.
The statement does not mention al-Shifa hospital.
Gaza’s health ministry has been quoted by Palestinian news agency Shebab as saying that “dozens of soldiers” have entered the al-Shifa emergency department building, and that tanks have entered the complex.
Previously, Ahmed Mokhallalati, a surgeon at al-Shifa, has told Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks and bulldozers had entered the al-Shifa complex.
The Guardian has not been able to verify the claims.
The below satellite image – taken on 11 November – shows Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital complex. The specialised surgery department is housed in the multi-storey building to right and slightly above the plume of white smoke. This is where a witness reported seeing soldiers entering.
How many people are inside al-Shifa hospital?
Figures for the number of people sheltering inside the al-Shifa hospital complex differ widely.
Marwan Abu Sada, the head of surgery at al-Shifa,told the Guardian on Tuesday that an estimated 15,000 people were sheltering in al-Shifa as of Saturday morning, after thousands fled the intensifying bombardments.
The World Health Organization said that about 1,500 people were sheltering in al-Shifa. On Sunday the WHO said, “There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at al-Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there.”
On Wednesday, as the IDF announced that it had entered the hospital, Ahmed Mokhallalati, a doctor at al-Shifa, told Al Jazeera that there are 650 patients at the hopsital, with 100 in critical condition.
He said between 2,000 and 3,000 people were sheltering at the hospital and that 700 medics and administrators were there.
Eyewitness says troops have entered hospital - report
A witness inside al-Shifa has told the BBC’s correspondent in Palestine, Rushdi Abu Alouf, that soliders have entered the complex and “fired a smoke bomb that caused people to suffocate”, Khader Al-Zaanoun told Abu Aloud.
“I saw the soldiers entering the specialised surgical department,” Al-Zaanoun said before contact ended.
Al-Shifa surgeon says tanks, bulldozers in hospital complex, 'firing is still heavy'
Ahmed Mokhallalati, a surgeon at al-Shifa, has told Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks and bulldozers have entered the al-Shifa complex.
“We saw the tanks and the bulldozers on the centre’s campus,” he told the news organization, which reports:
He said he inspected the main building above the emergency room, and Israeli forces do not appear to have entered it. But he added that he does not know the state of other buildings that are also housing patients and displaced people.
‘The firing is still heavy, and we are hearing explosions everywhere,’ Mokhallalati told Al Jazeera.
Updated
Wafa also reports that Palestine’s minister of health, Mai Al-Kaila, said in a statement released early on Wednesday, “The Israeli occupation forces are committing a new crime against humanity, medical staff, and patients by besieging and bombing Al-Shifa Medical Complex, west of Gaza City.”
Updated
A correspondent for Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting from inside al-Shifa, the agency reports, saying that “a state of panic and fear prevailed” among patients, people sheltering at the hospital, and medical staff:
He gave this account:
[He said that] the occupation tanks were at the gates of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, surrounding it from all sides, and the past hours had witnessed intense shelling and gunfire in its vicinity.
Our correspondent explained that a state of panic and fear prevailed among patients, displaced people, and medical staff inside the hospital, after the occupation announced its intention to storm the hospital.
Those comments from Hamas saying “we hold the occupation and President Biden responsible for the occupation army’s storming of the Shifa complex” come after the White House said on Tuesday that it has intelligence supporting Israel claims that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip – including al-Shifa hospital – to conceal or support their military operations and to hold hostages.
Hamas said it strongly condemned and rejected the claims, adding that these statements “give a green light to the Israeli occupation to commit further brutal massacres targeting hospitals”.
Updated
Al-Shifa has become a strategic objective for Israel, which sees the hospital as the nerve centre of Hamas’ administrative and military capabilities.
For Hamas and its supporters, it has become a symbol of the organisation’s ability to fight against a militarily more powerful foe.
For millions across the world, it has come to epitomise the suffering of innocent civilians. More than 11,000 people, about 40% of them children, have been killed, according to Palestinian authorities, and more than half of the population of Gaza have been made homeless.
Hamas 'we hold President Biden responsible' for IDF 'storming' of al-Shifa
Al Jazeera reports that Hamas has said, “We hold the occupation and President Biden responsible for the occupation army’s storming of the Shifa complex.”
Updated
Hamas-affiliated news agency says IDF has stormed 'parts of al-Shifa medical complex'
The Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency says on X, citing Gaza’s director of health, that Israeli forces have stormed “parts of Al-Shifa Medical Complex from the western side”.
The Guardian has not confirmed this claim independently.
Updated
What are the competing claims about Hamas operations inside al-Shifa?
Israel claims that Hamas has built its headquarters in bunkers and tunnels under the hospital, effectively using the building, patients and staff as a human shield. Security officials have also said that, after the surprise attacks into Israel by Hamas which killed 1,200 Israelis, mainly civilians in their homes or at a dance party, the senior Hamas leaders have been based in a “command complex” under the hospital.
At a recent press conference an IDF spokesperson displayed a satellite photograph of the hospital site with military “command” elements marked on it, which it described as an illustration based on “the true material that we have in our hands”. In footage said to be from an interrogation, a Hamas militant captured last month described how Hamas had “hidden in the hospitals”. Israel has also released other evidence apparently showing tunnels close to or in other medical facilities in Gaza.
Hamas and officials of the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza have denied the claims, saying they are propaganda used to justify attacks on health facilities. Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British doctor working at al-Shifa described the Israeli claim as an “outlandish excuse”. Human Rights Watch, the US campaign group, said it could not corroborate the Israeli allegation.
Updated
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has also just said on X that, “at this time, IDF forces are operating against the terrorist organization Hamas, in a certain part of the Shifa hospital.”
He adds, “The operation is based on intelligence information and operational need. The action was not intended to harm the patients, the medical staff and the citizens staying at the hospital,” and that, “In the continuation of the operation, incubators, medical equipment and baby food are expected to be transferred to the hospital.”
If you’re just joining us, this is what we know about the Israel Defence Force claim that it is operating inside al-Shifa hospital, which it announced shortly after 2am in Gaza City.
It is currently just after 3am.
The Israeli Defence Force said on X that it is “carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital”.
The announcement came within an hour of Gaza health officials saying that the IDF had said it would raid the hospital “within minutes”. The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, told Al Jazeera that Israel “informed us that it will raid Al Shifa hospital complex in the coming minutes.”
al-Qidra added: “The occupation did not specify whether (its forces) would enter the complex. But it said that within a few minutes it would raid the complex. We do not know how it will raid it or what mechanism will be used, nor do we know (Israel’s) intentions with the raid.”
On its Hebrew X account, the IDF appeared to signal that once inside the hopsital, it would continue to have a presence there, saying, ““in the continuation of the operation, incubators, medical equipment and baby food are expected to be transferred to the hospital”.
Three of the original 39 premature babies at al-Shifa have died since the hospital ran out of fuel at the weekend to power generators that had kept their incubators going, according to medical staff. The remaining 36 babies requiring neonatal care are still alive, Dr Ahmed El Mokhatallali, a surgeon, told NBC News on Tuesday.
Israeli forces have surrounded al-Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital, after waging fierce street battles with Hamas fighters they accuse of having a command post under the complex. The US on Tuesday cited intelligence backing Israel’s assertion, which Hamas denies.
The Guardian has not seen confirmation from Gaza health officials that the IDF have entered the complex. The IDF has said a short while that its forces are operating “at this time” in parts of the hospital.
We will bring you the latest as it emerges.
Amid widely differing figures for how many people are sheltering at the hospital a doctor at al-Shifa, Ahmed Mokhallalati, has told al Jazeera that there are 650 patients at the hopsital, with 100 in critical condition.
He said between 2,000 and 3,000 people are sheltering at the hospital and that 700 medics and administrators are there.
Updated
What are conditions like in the hospital?
Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa but health officials say remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. Life-saving equipment such as incubators cannot run without fuel to run generators. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died over the past three days, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at al-Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization, which was posted on Sunday on X.
The Israeli military said it was providing safe corridors for people to escape intense fighting in the north and move south, but Palestinian officials inside al-Shifa said the compound was surrounded by constant heavy gunfire and that Israeli snipers are all around.
Updated
The Dar al-Shifa (House of Healing) hospital is a sprawling complex of medical facilities in Gaza City, in the north of Gaza. Located about 500 metres from the coast and a major north-south road, it comprises a group of six-storey buildings that dominate the skyline.
With between 600 and 900 beds and thousands of staff, it was the mainstay of healthcare provision locally, with a range of services that few of the other hospitals in Gaza could offer. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, it has become a shelter for those displaced by the fighting and continuing Israeli bombardment.
How many people are sheltering at al-Shifa hospital?
Marwan Abu Sada, the head of surgery at al-Shifa,told the Guardian on Tuesday that an estimated 15,000 people were sheltering in al-Shifa as of Saturday morning, after thousands fled the intensifying bombardments.
The World Health Organization said on Sunday, “There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at al-Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there.”
Updated
IDF enters al-Shifa hospital: what we know
Here is what we know about the breaking news that Israeli forces have entered Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.
The Israeli Defence Force has just said on X that it is “carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital”.
The announcement came within an hour of Gaza health officials saying that the IDF had said it would raid the hospital “within minutes”. The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, told Al Jazeera that Israel “informed us that it will raid Al Shifa hospital complex in the coming minutes.”
al-Qidra added: “The occupation did not specify whether (its forces) would enter the complex. But it said that within a few minutes it would raid the complex. We do not know how it will raid it or what mechanism will be used, nor do we know (Israel’s) intentions with the raid.”
On its Hebrew X account, the IDF appeared to signal that once inside the hopsital, it would continue to have a presence there, saying, ““in the continuation of the operation, incubators, medical equipment and baby food are expected to be transferred to the hospital”.
Three of the original 39 premature babies at al-Shifa have died since the hospital ran out of fuel at the weekend to power generators that had kept their incubators going, according to medical staff. The remaining 36 babies requiring neonatal care are still alive, Dr Ahmed El Mokhatallali, a surgeon, told NBC News on Tuesday.
Israeli forces have surrounded al-Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital, after waging fierce street battles with Hamas fighters they accuse of having a command post under the complex. The US on Tuesday cited intelligence backing Israel’s assertion, which Hamas denies.
Updated
IDF signals 'continuation of the operation'
The IDF’s Hebrew account said, “in the continuation of the operation, incubators, medical equipment and baby food are expected to be transferred to the hospital”.
Three of the original 39 premature babies at al-Shifa have died since the hospital ran out of fuel at the weekend to power generators that had kept their incubators going, according to medical staff.
The remaining 36 babies requiring neonatal care are still alive, Dr Ahmed El Mokhatallali, a surgeon, told NBC News on Tuesday.
Updated
The Israeli Defence Force’s Hebrew account on X also says, “At this time, IDF forces are operating against the terrorist organization Hamas, in a certain part of the Shifa hospital. The operation is based on intelligence information and operational need”.
It goes on to confirm the reports from Gazan health authorities that they were informed shortly before IDF forces entered the hospital.
“The hospital management was informed ahead of time about the entrance to the compound,” the IDF writes in Hebrew.
IDF confirms it is carrying out operation in al-Shifa hospital
The Israeli Defence Force has just said on X that it is “carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital”.
The full post says:
Operational Update: IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital, based on intelligence information and an operational necessity. The IDF is conducting a ground operation in Gaza to defeat Hamas and rescue our hostages. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the civilians in Gaza.
The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields.
In recent weeks, the IDF has publicly warned time and again that Hamas’ continued military use of the Shifa hospital jeopardizes its protected status under international law, and enabled ample time to stop this unlawful abuse of the hospital.
Yesterday, the IDF conveyed to the relevant authorities in Gaza once again that all military activities within the hospital must cease within 12 hours. Unfortunately, they did not.
The IDF has also facilitated wide-scale evacuations of the hospital and maintained regular dialogue with hospital authorities. We call upon all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender.
Updated
The Hamas-run news agency Shehab says that the director-general of Gaza’s health ministry, Dr Munir Al-Bursh, has also said, “The occupation army told us that it would carry out operations inside Al-Shifa Hospital shortly.”
The agency posted this to X four minutes ago.
Updated
Here is what we know about reports that the Israeli health ministry has said it will raid al-Shifa hospital “in minutes”:
Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson warned on Wednesday of a potential Israeli raid on the al-Shifa hospital complex, saying Israel informed Gaza health officials that its forces would raid the facility, Reuters reports.
The Israeli military, asked for comment, said it was looking into the matter.
The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, told Al Jazeera that Israel “informed us that it will raid Al Shifa hospital complex in the coming minutes.”
But he added: “The occupation did not specify whether (its forces) would enter the complex. But it said that within a few minutes it would raid the complex. We do not know how it will raid it or what mechanism will be used, nor do we know (Israel’s) intentions with the raid.”
Neither Reuters nor the Guardian have been able to independently confirm the situation at al-Shifa.
Israeli forces have surrounded al-Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital, after waging fierce street battles with Hamas fighters they accuse of having a command post under the complex, Reuters reports.
The US on Tuesday cited intelligence backing Israel’s assertion, which Hamas denies.
Palestine’s Hamas-affiliated news agency Shehab says that Government media has responded to the warning, saying, “We hold the occupation and the United States responsible for the safety of medical personnel, the wounded, and the displaced.”
Health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra has informed the International Committee of the Red Cross of the Israel’s intention to raid al-Shifa hospital “in minutes”, and that the organisation has not yet responded, he told Al Jazeera.
“The ICRC must take a stance to ensure the safety of all the patients inside the al-Shifa medical centre,” Al-Qudra said.
Israel did not inform him of why or how it would enter the hospital complex, he told Al Jazeera. He also said, “The bombardment has not stopped for a moment. There’s shelling and heavy firing in the vicinity of the centre.
Channel 4 correspondent Secunder Kermani has just said on X that when he last spoke to a doctor at the hospital, there were 600 patients there.
Thousands more are reportedly sheltering at the hospital.
The Health Ministry said on Tuesday that 40 patients, including three babies, have died since Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday. Another 36 babies are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators, according to the ministry.
Updated
A Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, told Al Jazeera, that Israel told a Palestinian health official, “they will raid the hospital in the coming minutes”.
“And they told us to inform everybody not to be near the windows,” al-Qudra said.
Gaza health ministry says IDF will raid al-Shifa in coming minutes - report
Al Jazeera is reporting, citing the Gaza Health Ministry, that the IDF has informed officials it will raid al-Shifa hospital in the coming minutes.
The Guardian has not verified this breaking news – we will bring you more information as soon as possible.
The government of Belize suspended diplomatic ties with Israel on Tuesday, citing what it described in a statement as “unceasing indiscriminate bombing in Gaza”.
This is Helen Sullivan taking over the Guardian’s live coverage.
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 1am Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital are digging mass graves, with no means of keeping corpses from decomposing due to Israel’s siege, an official there said. A doctor at al-Shifa hospital told the BBC on Tuesday that 200 bodies have been buried in the hospital grounds. The hospital’s director had earlier said that 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, had been buried “in a mass grave” in the complex.
With Israeli forces at the gates of the al-Shifa complex, and fighting raging with Hamas militants in the streets of Gaza City, patients have been dying owing to energy shortages and dwindling supplies. Some of the hospital’s buildings have been bombed. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have said that bullets were fired into one of its premises near al-Shifa hospital.
The White House has said it has intelligence supporting Israel claims that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip – including al-Shifa hospital – to conceal or support their military operations and to hold hostages. “That is a war crime,” national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday, adding that those actions by Hamas did not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in the course of its military operations. Hamas said it strongly condemned and rejected the claims, adding that these statements “give a green light to the Israeli occupation to commit further brutal massacres targeting hospitals”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has insisted that moving the most vulnerable patients from al-Shifa hospital has become an “impossible task”. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris, speaking to reporters in Geneva, said the “heroic” health workers have been “doing whatever they can to keep going” while the facility has been without power since Saturday and there was not enough food and clean water.
The remaining patients, doctors and families have been evacuated from al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said. In a statement posted to social media, the PRCS blamed the Israeli army for bombarding around the hospital and firing at those inside.
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza in the past 10 days, the UN has said. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) said on Tuesday that only one hospital in the northern half of the blockaded Gaza Strip, al-Awda, still had electricity and was able to receive patients, with other medical facilities in sprawling Gaza City now mostly functioning as shelters for those fleeing the violence.
The winter rains have finally arrived in Gaza, bringing new challenges for the besieged exclave’s 2.3 million people who have already suffered through six weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Initial relief at the rainfall on Tuesday morning quickly dissipated, however, as children began to shiver in wet clothes, while makeshift accommodation flooded and churned-up roads and open land turned to mud.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that its humanitarian operation in Gaza will soon be halted due to the lack of fuel. Communications are expected to start collapsing on Thursday, the agency said. “It is very simple. Without fuel, the humanitarian operation in Gaza is coming to an end. Many more people will suffer and will likely die,” UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said.
At least eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to Palestinian medics and local media, including seven people killed in clashes during a raid in the town of Tulkarm near the boundary with Israel. At least 190 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since 7 October, according to figures by the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.
Israeli authorities have said they have now identified the remains of 859 civilians killed during the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel. The work to identify bodies is ongoing, they said. On 10 November, Israel revised down the number of Israeli deaths on 7 October from the previously given figure of 1,400 to 1,200.
The families of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas have started a five-day march on Tuesday from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to demand the government does more to secure their release. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is coming under fierce criticism from some relatives for not doing more to secure their release, even as Israeli troops push further into the Gaza Strip and the region is bombarded by the Israeli air force.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has called on the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, to resign, saying he was not fit to head the organisation. Cohen and Israel’s health minister, Uriel Menachem Buso, also met with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva on Monday.
A senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said on Tuesday Gaza could not survive as an independent entity, and Palestinians there should agree to “voluntary emigration” and leave for other countries. The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said: “I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world … The state of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza.”
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have said they launched a batch of ballistic missiles on various Israel targets, including in the Red Sea city of Eilat. The Houthi statement came after the group’s leader said his forces would make further attacks on Israel and could target Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Human Rights Watch have called for an Israeli strike that killed three children and their grandmother in southern Lebanon to be investigated as an apparent war crime. “This attack by Israeli military forces that struck a car carrying a family fleeing violence shows a reckless disregard for civilian life,” a HRW researcher said. “Their killing is a violation of the laws of war.”
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Washington on Tuesday to support Israel, condemn antisemitism and demand the release of the hostages. US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke at the “March for Israel” event on the National Mall, as well as family members of the hostages.
The UK is considering using “air and maritime options” to get more aid into Gaza, including through its bases in Cyprus, a government minister has said.
Keir Starmer will resist pressure from his MPs to back a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday in a move that could trigger one of the most significant rebellions of his leadership.
Israel has given approval for 24,000 litres of diesel fuel to be used by trucks for UN operations in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported, citing a humanitarian source.
The fuel is only meant for UN trucks and not for hospitals, according to the source.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have said they launched a batch of ballistic missiles on various Israel targets, including in the Red Sea city of Eilat.
The launch came “after 24 hours of another military operation by drones on the same Israeli targets,” a Houthi military spokesperson said, Reuters reported.
The spokesperson added that the group “will not hesitate to target any Israeli ship in the Red Sea or at any other place” it could reach.
The Israeli military said that it intercepted a missile near the Red Sea.
The statement came after the Houthi leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, earlier today said his forces would make further attacks on Israel and could target Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The Houthis have launched several missile and drone attacks against Israel since 7 October.
UN agency warns Gaza humanitarian operation to end due to fuel shortage
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that its humanitarian operation in Gaza will soon be halted due to the lack of fuel.
The lack of fuel in Gaza means communications are expected to start collapsing on Thursday, the agency said on Tuesday.
In a statement, UNRWA said it set off alarm bells over the fuel situation three weeks ago, and that it has since heavily rationed the use of fuel.
UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza “is now empty”, adding:
It is very simple. Without fuel, the humanitarian operation in Gaza is coming to an end. Many more people will suffer and will likely die.
He said it was “unbelievable” that humanitarian agencies have to “beg for fuel and operate on life support”. He added:
Since the beginning of the war, fuel has been used as a weapon of war and this should stop immediately. I appeal to all parties to make fuel available now and stop using humanitarian assistance for political or military gains.
The remaining patients, doctors and families have been evacuated from al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.
In a statement posted to social media, the PRCS said the evacuation came after “more than ten days of siege, during which medical and humanitarian supplies were prevented from reaching the hospital.”
The group blamed the Israeli army for bombarding around the hospital and firing at those inside, as well the complete power outage and depletion of water and food for the patients.
It said that the wounded were being transported for care in hospitals in the south of Gaza.
🔴It was a challenging and perilous day. Today, we managed to evacuate the patients, the wounded, their families, and the medical teams trapped in 🏥Al-Quds Hospital, compelled by the tragic situation that had befallen the hospital. This comes after more than ten days of siege,…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 14, 2023
A PCRS spokesperson told AP earlier today that 300 people were trapped inside al-Quds hospital without food and electricity, unable to leave the facility.
Hamas denies US and Israeli claims that it is using al-Shifa as command centre
Hamas has said it will “strongly condemn and reject the claims” by the Biden administration and Israeli government that it is using Gaza’s largest hospital as a military command centre.
A White House spokesperson earlier today said that US intelligence supported Israel claims that Hamas was using al-Shifa as a military command centre and probably as a weapons store too.
Hamas said the statements “give a green light to the Israeli occupation to commit further brutal massacres targeting hospitals, with the goal of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system and displacing Palestinians”.
The statement continued:
We renew our call to the United Nations to form an international committee to roam and check all the hospitals to find out the lie that is the narrative of the occupation and its ally, Washington.
WHO says moving vulnerable al-Shifa patients 'impossible', hails 'heroic' hospital staff
The World Health Organization (WHO) has hailed the “heroic efforts” of staff at Gaza’s besieged al-Shifa hospital, and insisted that moving the most vulnerable patients from the hospital has become an “impossible task”.
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris, speaking to reporters in Geneva, said the “heroic” health workers at Gaza’s largest hospital have been “doing whatever they can to keep going” while the facility has been without power since Saturday and there was not enough food and clean water.
About 700 patients and more than 400 staff are still present at al-Shifa complex, in addition to about 3,000 displaced persons who had sought refuge there, the organisation said. Harris said that 20 patient deaths have been reported in the last 48 hours.
Asked about the possibility of evacuating patients, Harris said that all of those remaining at al-Shifa required critical support to stay alive.
Moving them “would be a very difficult thing to ask in the best circumstances”, she said, let along bombing, armed clashes and a lack of fuel for ambulances, adding:
The best way would be to stop the hostilities right now and focus on saving lives, not taking lives.
Her comments came after the Israeli mission in Geneva slammed the WHO, the UN humanitarian agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for criticising Israel’s month-long call for civilians and patients to leave al-Shifa hospital. It said that the international community “could have facilitated the transfer of patients, but they did nothing, except call out Israel and give Hamas a free pass.”
Harris said moving the most fragile patients would inevitably lead to deaths as those people were very vunerable. “Moving them was an impossible task,” she said.
She said it would be “asking doctors and nurses to move people knowing that that would kill them”, adding:
Why would you need to move them? A hospital should never be under attack. A hospital is a place a safe haven. This is agreed under international humanitarian law.
Harris said the organisation was “begging for a ceasefire to happen now”.
A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has urged Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement on releasing hostages held in Gaza, warning that the situation in the besieged enclave was worsening every day.
Speaking at a news conference in Doha, Majed bin Mohammed Al-Ansari said the “deteriorating” situation in Gaza was hampering mediation efforts, AFP reported.
We believe there is no other chance for both sides other than for this mediation to take place and to reach a situation where we can see a glimmer of hope in this terrible crisis.
Southern Gaza is becoming a “breeding ground for epidemics and disease” as heavy winter rains increase the risk of waterborne diseases amid Palestinian civilians already living in dire conditions, an international charity has warned.
Amid increased pressure on residents in northern Gaza to evacuate southwards, millions of people are at risk of starvation, dehydration, and waterborne diseases as dwindling fuel reserves threaten humanitarian operations entirely, ActionAid said on Tuesday.
On Monday, the head of UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza had run dry and that it would no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water within a few days.
Faatinah, who is staying in a UN shelter in southern Gaza, told ActionAid:
People are suffering from a lack of proper sanitation facilities and hygiene supplies. There is no suitable sleeping accommodation or blankets. People are sleeping on the ground and under the open sky. There is a severe shortage of clean drinking water and basic human necessities... The needs here are extensive and urgent.
She said the children at the shelter “cannot sleep due to relentless bombings”, and that many are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.
More storms are expected over the next week or so as temperatures drop to 17C and winter sets in. The weather is also likely to affect the fighting as mud hinders the movement of Israeli weaponry.
The British government appears to have withdrawn an assertion made by the former prime minister Boris Johnson that the international criminal court has no jurisdiction in Israel.
In a statement to MPs on Tuesday, the Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said:
It is not for ministers to seek to state where the ICC has jurisdiction; that is for the chief prosecutor. The chief prosecutor has not been silent on this matter, and I am sure he will continue to express his views.
At a different point he said: “It is not for me to fetter or speak in the place of its chief prosecutor.” Mitchell has been challenged repeatedly to say if he agreed withJohnson, who as prime minister in April 2021 wrote to the Conservative Friends of Israel:
We do not accept that the ICC have jurisdiction given Israel is not a signatory to the Rome statute, and Palestine is not a sovereign state.
Johnson added that an ICC inquiry into war crimes was a partial and prejudicial attack on a friend and ally of the UK.
The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, said the Labour party recognised the ICC’s jurisdiction. It comes amid a wider western shift to more pointed criticism of the way Israel is conducting its campaign to remove Hamas from Gaza.
At least eight Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank – reports
At least eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing Palestinian medics and local media.
Seven Palestinians were killed in clashes during a raid in the town of Tulkarm near the boundary with Israel, according to reports.
The Israeli army and police said their forces, sent into Tulkarm to detain suspected militants, came under fire and killed several Palestinian gunmen in the ensuing skirmish. An Israeli air strike hit a group of Palestinians who opened fire and threw a bomb at the forces, they said in a statement.
The air strike was carried out by a drone and killed three people, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said. The Tulkarm Brigades said it mourned the seven who were killed.
An eighth Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire in Beit Aynoun, north of the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank, medical officials said.
At least 190 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since 7 October, according to figures by the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.
Updated
US does not support strikes against hospitals, says White House
The White House has said it has unspecified intelligence that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip – including al-Shifa hospital – to conceal or support their military operations and to hold hostages.
The White House’s national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday that the US has “information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node”, referring to al-Shifa hospital. He added:
They have stored weapons there and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.
He said those actions constituted a war crime. When asked about evidence to support the claim, Kirby said “it comes from a variety of intelligence sourcing”, AP reported.
The Biden administration had downgraded the classification level of some of the data on Tuesday so it could share its conclusions with reporters, Reuters reported that he said.
Kirby underscored that the US does not support strikes against hospitals, and that Hamas’ actions in the hospitals “do not lessen Israel’s responsibilities to protect civilians”. He said:
To be clear, we do not support striking a hospital from the air. We do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care they deserve.
Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital are digging mass graves as Israeli troops and Hamas militants take part in heavy fighting outside it.
Medical staff have no means of keeping corpses from decomposing due to Israel’s siege, an official there has said. Health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, said:
We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside al-Shifa medical complex. The men are digging right now as we speak.
The Dar al-Shifa (House of Healing) hospital is a sprawling complex of medical facilities in Gaza City, in the north of Gaza. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, it has become a shelter for those displaced by the fighting and continuing Israeli bombardment.
Israel claims that Hamas has built its headquarters in bunkers and tunnels under the hospital, effectively using the building, patients and staff as a human shield. Security officials have also said that, after the 7 October attacks, the senior Hamas leaders have been based in a “command complex” under the hospital.
Hamas and officials of the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza have denied the claims, saying they are propaganda used to justify attacks on health facilities. Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British doctor working at al-Shifa described the Israeli claim as an “outlandish excuse”. Human Rights Watch, the US campaign group, said it could not corroborate the Israeli allegation.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is “deeply disturbed” by the “dramatic loss of life” in several hospitals in Gaza, according to his spokesperson. They added:
In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
White House says it has intelligence that Hamas was using Gaza hospital to run military operations
The White House has said it had its own intelligence supporting Israel claims that Hamas was using al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City to run its military operations, and probably to store weapons.
“We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node”, the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters aboard Air Force One:
They have stored weapons there and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.
He added:
That is a war crime.
He said those actions by Hamas did not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in the course of its military operations.
With Israeli forces at the gates of the complex of al-Shifa hospital, and fighting raging with Hamas militants in the streets of Gaza City, patients have been dying owing to energy shortages and dwindling supplies. Some of the hospital’s buildings have been bombed.
At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, died at the weekend, the health ministry in Gaza said, and another 36 babies and other patients at al-Shifa were at risk.
Updated
US state department supports evacuations from Gaza hospitals via third parties
The US state department has said it is having conversations with humanitarian organizations and third parties about evacuating hospitals in Gaza, Reuters reports.
The US thinks pauses that have been taking place in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in order to allow Palestinians to flee or be rescued “should be longer”, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing on Tuesday, adding that the US will continue to engage with the Israeli government on this topic.
The department will support an independent third party to conduct evacuations from Gaza hospitals and the US “doesn’t want to see any civilians, certainly not babies in incubators and other vulnerable people, caught in crossfire,” it said.
Updated
Interim summary
It is 9pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of the latest news from the Israel-Hamas war …
The winter rains have finally arrived in Gaza, bringing new challenges for the besieged exclave’s 2.3 million people who have already suffered through six weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. After a warm and dry autumn, a Mediterranean thunderstorm broke across the 25-mile by 7-mile (41km x 12km) strip early on Tuesday morning. Water consumption in Gaza has fallen by 90% since the conflict started, according to the latest data from the UN, and many families rushed outside to enjoy the respite from the unseasonable humidity.
US president Joe Biden said “Hang in there, we’re coming,” when asked whether he had a message to family members of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 and since held in Gaza. He added: “I’ve been talking with the people involved every single day. I believe it’s going to happen.” But like other US officials, he won’t elaborate, arguing that it could jeopardise negotiations. “I don’t want to get into detail,” he said in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.
Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has said the hospital is being forced to bury 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, “in a mass grave” in the complex. A journalist who has been working with AFP said the stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere in the facility. BBC reporter Rushdi Abualouf spoke to a source inside the hospital who said tanks are surrounding the hospital from all directions and that access in and out of the hospital is impossible. Israel has accused Hamas of building command centres underneath medical infrastructure, accusations denied by both Hamas and medical staff.
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza in the past 10 days, the UN has said, as fierce fighting between Hamas militants and the Israeli army encroaches on hospitals where patients are dying due to energy shortages and dwindling supplies. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) said on Tuesday that only one hospital in the northern half of the blockaded Gaza Strip, al-Awda, still had electricity and was able to receive patients, with other medical facilities in sprawling Gaza City now mostly functioning as shelters for those fleeing the violence.
The Israel Defense Forces claims to have struck 200 targets inside Gaza in the past 24 hours, “including terrorist operatives, weapon production sites, anti-tank missile launchers and operational command centres”. The claims have not been independently verified.
The UK is considering using “air and maritime options” to get more aid into Gaza, including through its bases in Cyprus, a government minister has said. Updating parliament, the foreign office minister Andrew Mitchell said: “We also are urging the Israeli government to increase humanitarian access including by Rafah and by opening up the Kerem Shalom crossing. He added that longer humanitarian pauses covering wider areas would be needed in order to deliver aid to the region”. On Tuesday Israel offered a four-hour cessation of hostilities in a limited area of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli authorities say they have now identified the remains of 859 civilians killed during the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel. The work to identify bodies is ongoing, they say. On Friday the initial estimated death toll from the 7 October attack was revised down to 1,200.
Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist believed to have been among the hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza on 7 October, was in fact killed in the initial attack, her family has told Canada’s CBC News.
Israel’s military has confirmed the death of Noa Marciano, a soldier seen in a hostage video posted by Hamas. Marciano, 19, was abducted by Hamas on 7 October. The al-Qassam Brigades claimed she was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 9 November. The IDF had condemned the video, saying “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past,” and this morning listed her as a “fallen soldier held captive by a terror group.”
A senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said on Tuesday Gaza could not survive as an independent entity, and Palestinians there should agree to “voluntary emigration” and leave for other countries. The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said: “I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty and danger. The state of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza.”
The leader of Yemen’s Houthis has said they will continue to attack Israel, and are looking to target Israeli vessels in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Humanitarian aid sent by Italy to Gaza is entering the area, the Italian foreign minister said.
The US on Tuesday, in coordination with the UK, imposed a third round of sanctions aimed at the Palestinian militant group Hamas since 7 October, targeting its leaders and financiers.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s accusation of fascism against Israel was “absurd”. Israel “is a democracy” and “a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly”, Scholz said.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in a call on Tuesday that Israel’s targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an “open violation of international law”.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza says that over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action since Israel began its campaign in Gaza. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
A dozen film-makers and artists have withdrawn their work from the world’s largest documentary festival, being held in Amsterdam, after its organisers strongly condemned the use of the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at an opening night protest.
The Football Association in England has suspended a council member who said “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu”. Wasim Haq, who joined the FA as a BAME football communities representative in 2019, became the subject of an investigation after a post on social media about Israel’s war with Hamas led him to be accused of antisemitism.
The 36 premature babies who lives are hanging in the balance at al-Shifa hospital are still alive, according to medical staff at Gaza’s largest hospital.
Three of the original 39 premature babies at al-Shifa have already died since the hospital ran out of fuel at the weekend to power generators that had kept their incubators going, according to medical staff.
The remaining 36 babies requiring neonatal care are still alive, Dr Ahmed El Mokhatallali, a surgeon, told NBC News on Tuesday.
The babies weigh less than 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) and some are as small as 700 to 800 grammes, Reuters reported.
They have been lying side-by-side on ordinary beds, exposing them to infection and without any individual adjustments to humidity levels and temperatures, according to medical staff.
Israel’s military said earlier today that it was working on coordinating the transfer of incubators into the Gaza Strip, but El Mokhatallali said he believes they will still need electricity the hospital cannot afford to give. He said:
We didn’t receive anything as a proper offer to evacuate the patients yet — the babies yet — no one has offered anything.
Keir Starmer will resist pressure from his MPs to back a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday in a move that could trigger one of the most significant rebellions of his leadership.
The UK Labour leader is backing an amendment to the king’s speech that will criticise how Israel has conducted its military campaign. But it will fall short of calling for the ceasefire that nearly a quarter of his parliamentary party wants.
Labour officials have told the party’s MPs to vote for their motion but to abstain on one from the Scottish National party calling for an outright ceasefire, making clear that they will sack any frontbencher who rebels by voting for the SNP amendment.
Sources say Starmer is braced for at least three and as many as 15 frontbenchers to resign over the issue, in what would be the biggest challenge to his internal authority since the early days of his leadership. A Labour source said:
We’re expecting resignations. The best we can hope for is that the Labour amendment does enough to reduce the numbers.
Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Washington on Tuesday for a “March for Israel” to support Israel, condemn antisemitism and demand the release of the hostages.
The rally, organised by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is expected to see 100,000 people at the event on the National Mall, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service.
In a statement, the organisers said:
The March for Israel will be an opportunity for all Americans to come together in solidarity with the people of Israel, to demonstrate our commitment to America’s most important ally in the Middle East, to condemn the rising trend of antisemitic violence and harassment, and to demand that every hostage be immediately and safely released.
Israeli police have launched an investigation into allegations of sexual violence against women by Hamas militants during the 7 October attacks.
Police have been gathering evidence about suspected sexual violence from eyewitnesses, surveillance footage and the interrogations of Hamas militants arrested in the aftermath of the attacks, Ch Supt David Katz of the national unit for serious and organised crime told reporters on Tuesday.
The investigation was complex and would likely take months because gun battles between Israeli forces and Hamas militants had gone on for days at some of the suspected crime scenes, he said, Reuters reported. Katz said:
It’s much more complicated because there is the matter of time that passed since the actions until we could reach the bodies, some of them were lying there for days. Second of all - the trauma for the victims.
“We have no living victims who said ‘we have been raped’,” he said, adding “we have multiple witnesses for several cases”, AFP reported.
US President Joe Biden’s top adviser on the Middle East, Brett McGurk, is heading to the region for talks with officials in Israel, the West Bank, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other nations, the White House said.
A statement from the White House reads:
In Israel, he will discuss Israel’s security needs, the imperative of protecting civilians in the course of military operations, as well as ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages, and the need to rein in violent extremist settlers in the West Bank.
While in Israel, McGurk will meet Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister Yoav Gallant and the heads of Israel’s security services and intelligence community, Axios reported on Monday.
Holding up posters of their loved ones, each had their own devastating story to tell.
Erez Adar, 63, wore a T-shirt bearing the smiling face of his 85-year-old mother, Yafa, who was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz. His wife, Adriana’s T-shirt featured her nephew, Tamir, 38. Adriana said:
He’s a father of two little boys, aged seven and four, and we want all of them back alive now. Tamir’s children are alone, waiting and praying. They don’t understand why their father is not with them.
We want the government to bring them home. I don’t know how but this is their job. There are people who are wounded and they don’t have time. There are a lot of old people, they don’t have a day more; they don’t have an hour.
Relatives of hostages taken by Hamas on its 7 October attack on southern Israel have begun a march from Tel Aviv to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem.
“They don’t have time any more,” Yuval Haran, who has seven relatives who were taken hostage, told the crowd as families gathered outside the Tel Aviv Museum Square at the start of the 40-mile route. Haran, 36, said he was consumed by pain as he added:
We will go to Jerusalem where the people who have the power to decide sit, where the prime minister and the war cabinet sit, where all of the Knesset is, and we will demand to meet with them. We will demand to hear why our families aren’t home yet.
Haran’s father, Avshalom, 66, and his aunt, Lilach Kipnis, and uncle, Eviatar Kipnis, were killed after Hamas stormed the Be’eri kibbutz. His mother, Shoshan, 67, and sister, Adi Shoham, along with her husband, Tal, their son, Naveh, eight, and daughter Yahel, three, were abducted. His aunt and her 12-year-old daughter were also kidnapped.
Haran told the Guardian:
For the past 39 days, we’ve been doing everything we can, and I decided I can’t sit around any more. I can’t just stay at home and sit and be on my phone and on my computer, I need to do something.
We don’t know if the hostages have food. We don’t know if they have water. We don’t know how they’re being taken care of. We don’t even know if they are alive.
I want to shout and I want the entire world to hear the families of those being held hostage and I want people who have the power to make decisions to bring them home.
Winter rains bring further suffering to besieged people in Gaza
The winter rains have finally arrived in Gaza, bringing new challenges for the besieged exclave’s 2.3 million people who have already suffered through six weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
After a warm and dry autumn, a Mediterranean thunderstorm broke across the 25-mile by 7-mile (41km x 12km) strip early on Tuesday morning.
The rain washed away the grey rubble dust from airstrikes that clings to buildings in every neighbourhood, and dispersed the smoke and fire from the most recent overnight bombings.
Water consumption in Gaza has fallen by 90% since the conflict started, according to the latest data from the UN, and many families rushed outside to enjoy the respite from the unseasonable humidity.
“It cleared the smoke from the air and the sky was beautiful … Today is a new day,” Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon, said in a post on X.
Initial relief at the rainfall quickly dissipated, however, as children began to shiver in wet clothes, while makeshift accommodation flooded and churned-up roads and open land turned to mud.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have said that bullets were fired into one of its premises near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City earlier today.
More than 100 people, including 65 children, were sheltering in the premise, MSF posted to social media.
The charity appealed to the Israeli army and Hamas for a safe passage for them to leave the “epicentre of intense fighting”. It added:
Thousands of civilians, medical staff and patients are currently trapped in hospitals and other locations under fire in Gaza city; they must be protected and afforded safe passage if they wish to leave. Above that, there must be a total and immediate ceasefire.
🚨 This morning in #Gaza, bullets were fired into one of three MSF premises located near Al-Shifa hospital and sheltering MSF staff and their families – over 100 people, including 65 children, who ran out of food last night.
— MSF International (@MSF) November 14, 2023
Nasser Hamid Said and his family spent five weeks trapped in the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza before finally making it across the border to safety last Monday.
They returned to their home in west London on Sunday but are still suffering the trauma of what they experienced.
Hamid Said, 52, still dreams he is in the conflict that has claimed the lives of members of his family. His sons are terrified by the sound of fireworks and the family is trying to forget weeks of Israeli bombardment, surviving on scarce food supplies, dirtied water and without electricity.
“I had to leave. We didn’t have any choice,” he said, recalling their journey south to the Rafah border crossing.
The British embassy couldn’t do anything, nobody could help us. If you’re not [going] to die from a bomb you will die from hunger.
While the family is among the hundreds of foreign nationals who have escaped Israel’s airstrikes and the spiralling humanitarian crisis, more than 2 million people in Gaza, nearly half of whom are children, remain under siege after Hamas militants killed at least 1,200 people and abducted 240 hostages in a surprise attack on 7 October.
Read the full story: ‘Nobody could help us’: families tell of Gaza trauma after return to UK
Here’s more from Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen’s press conference after his meeting with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Cohen and Israel’s health minister, Uriel Menachem Buso, met with ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric in Geneva on Monday. AFP reported that Cohen said:
Until today, none of our hostages met the Red Cross. We don’t have any proof of life.
“We asked for information … about the whereabouts of the hostages,” Buso said.
The wounded ones, the babies, any information that they can give us regarding proof of life.
In a statement issued before the meeting, Spoljaric said the ICRC had persistently been advocating on behalf of the hostages held in Gaza, including through direct contacts with Hamas and with others holding influence over the parties. She said:
Families of hostages are living through an incredibly heart-wrenching time and I want to underscore how hard we are advocating on behalf of their loved ones.
The ICRC stood ready to facilitate the release of hostages but “we cannot do this alone; agreements must be reached that allow the ICRC to safely carry out this work”, she said.
ICRC cannot force its way in to where hostages are held. We can only visit them when agreements, including safe access, are in place.
But Cohen said this was not enough, insisting that the ICRC “should be more loud and clear with their statements and with the pressure”.
Biden says 'hang in there, we're coming' to hostages
“Hang in there, we’re coming,” Joe Biden said when asked whether he had a message to family members of hostages held in Gaza.
The US president was speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday after his meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Biden said he is engaged in daily discussions to secure a release of hostages being held by Hamas.
I’ve been talking with the people involved every single day. I believe it’s going to happen, but I don’t want to get into detail.
At least 200 people buried in mass grave at al-Shifa hospital, reports say
We reported earlier that al-Shifa hospital had been forced to bury 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, “in a mass grave” in the complex, according to the hospital’s director.
Dr Adnan al-Bursh, the head of the orthopaedic surgery department, has since told the BBC that 200 bodies have been buried in the hospital grounds. He told the outlet that it took 100 of the hospital’s medical team six hours to bury the bodies.
He said bodies “have been left for days until decomposed” and medics were left with little choice but to make a mass grave.
Hospital staff “were not able to open the windows in the buildings because of the bad smell coming out of the courtyard”, he said, adding that there were about 120 dead bodies out there before they were buried.
Another 80 were in the morgue, mostly consisting of women and children, he said.
Updated
Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen’s latest comments mark an intensification of the country’s criticism of the UN.
Israel’s representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, last month called for António Guterres to resign after the UN chief urged a humanitarian pause and said that “it is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” pointing to “56 years of suffocating occupation” suffered by the Palestinian people.
Guterres had “lost all morality and impartiality”, Erdan said in a press briefing. “When you say those terrible words that these heinous attacks did not happen in a vacuum, you are tolerating terrorism, and I think that the secretary-general must resign.”
On Monday, the UN head observed a minute of silence in memory of the more than 100 staff who have been killed in Gaza since 7 October. UN flags also flew at half-mast at UN facilities across the world.
Today, the @UN family observed a moment of silence to mourn & honour our colleagues killed in Gaza.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 13, 2023
Since the start of this conflict, more than 100 @UNRWA staff have lost their lives - the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short time.
They will… pic.twitter.com/O9ZBy92Xu0
Israel's foreign minister calls on UN chief to resign
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has called on the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, to resign, saying he was not fit to head the organisation.
Cohen, at a press conference inside the UN building in Geneva, said:
Guterres does not deserve to lead the United Nations. Guterres did not promote any peace process in the region… Guterres, like all the free nations, should say clearly and loudly: ‘Free Gaza from Hamas’.
The Israeli minister also held meetings with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Times of Israel reported.
Cohen demanded that the ICRC “work through all channels” to secure visits to the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. He said:
We expect the Red Cross to put the issue at the top of the organization’s priority list, to use all levers of pressure, and not rest until it visits all the hostages, assesses their condition, and makes sure they are receiving the medical care they need.
Living in Gaza, we wake up feeling grateful every morning to have survived for one more day, writes Ibrahim Muhtadi.
For more than 30 days, we have lived surrounded by death, devastation and desperation. To say that the situation is exceptional does not begin to describe the reality of nonstop Israeli bombardments, huge missile strikes from air, land, and sea, and the collective struggle to stay alive. Nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe. More than 11,000 people have been killed – over 4,500 of them children.
When I hear the phrase “humanitarian pause”, it sounds like a farce. How can it be that when we are in the worst imaginable crisis, some leaders call for a pause and not a ceasefire?
A “humanitarian” pause will only prolong our suffering. A humanitarian pause is nothing but a small bandage on an open wound and a way to draw this horror out longer. There is nothing humanitarian about starving, being made homeless, living in rubble. When the fighting resumes, we are forced to wonder: what good is a humanitarian pause for aid if the killing doesn’t stop? If you want to give aid and be humanitarian then the killing must stop, through an immediate ceasefire.
Read the full opinion piece: A ‘humanitarian pause’ in Gaza will just prolong our suffering
Updated
Human Rights Watch have called for an Israeli strike that killed three children and their grandmother in southern Lebanon to be investigated as an apparent war crime.
The strike by Israeli military forces on 5 November hit the family in a car as they travelled from south Lebanon to Beirut, the rights group said.
Inside the car were the three adolescent girls –Rimas, 14, Taline, 12, and Liane, 10, Chour – their grandmother, Samira Ayoub, and their mother, Hoda Hijazi Chour. Only the mother survived and was in stable condition.
The Israeli military admitted carrying out the strike, telling the Times of Israel that it struck a vehicle “that was identified as a suspicious vehicle containing several terrorists”. According to the NGO’s research, they provided no further evidence to justify their claim.
“This attack by Israeli military forces that struck a car carrying a family fleeing violence shows a reckless disregard for civilian life,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at the organisation.
Three young girls and their grandmother have lost their lives, our investigations show, as a result of the Israeli military’s failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Their killing is a violation of the laws of war, and Israel’s allies, like the US, should respond to this apparent war crime by demanding accountability for this unlawful strike.
Pro-Palestine protesters twice interrupted the ceremony for a prestigious Canadian literary award held on Monday night.
The event for the C$100,000 Scotiabank Giller prize was first disrupted when protesters jumped onstage with signs that read “Scotiabank funds genocide”. Event host Rick Mercer attempted to rip one of the signs from a protester’s hands.
Video footage shows another protester standing in the audience area shouting that Scotiabank “currently has a $500m stake in Elbit Systems” and that “Elbit Systems is supplying the Israeli military’s genocide against the Palestinian people”.
Elbit Systems is an Israel-based arms manufacturer that has long been criticised by activists for supplying the Israeli military. In April, American investigative news outlet the Intercept reported that Scotiabank’s stake in the company was estimated to be $500m, making it the largest foreign shareholder.
“We will not be silent any more,” a protester added. The group was quickly escorted out by police and later arrested, Giller spokesperson Robyn Mogil said, according to the Globe and Mail.
The families of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas have started a five-day march on Tuesday from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to demand the government does more to secure their release.
The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is coming under fierce criticism from some relatives for not doing more to secure their release, even as Israeli troops push further into the Gaza Strip and the region is bombarded by the Israeli air force.
“I demand from Benjamin Netanyahu and the cabinet to give us answers and actions,” said Shelly Shem Tov, whose 21-year-old son Omer was dragged into Gaza five weeks ago.
“Where are you? Where are you?” Reuters reports that she said, addressing the government in an impassioned plea at the start of the march.
Hamas fighters are believed to have seized about 240 hostages during their 7 October attack on southern Israel, with the captives ranging in age from nine months to 85-years-old.
“I don’t feel like we are in good hands. We don’t feel like we get enough information. We fell into the darkness. We want answers,” said Amit Zach, the nephew of 72-year-old hostage Adina Moshe.
“I don’t have a solution, but it’s not my job to get a solution. It’s my job to demand my family back,” he added.
Holding up pictures of the captives, the crowd chanted: “Bring them home now!”
Hamas has so far released four hostages.
Updated
Andrew Mitchell, the UK minister of state for development and Africa, has said in parliament in London that he will be going to Egypt this evening.
PA Media reports that answering a question about the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, he told MPs: “Discussions are going on with Jordan and also Egypt on that very point, and I can tell him that I will go tonight to Egypt to try and further those discussions.”
Updated
It has just gone 4.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of the latest news from the Israel-Hamas war …
Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has said the hospital is being forced to bury 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, “in a mass grave” in the complex. A journalist who has been working with AFP said the stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere in the facility. BBC reporter Rushdi Abualouf spoke to a source inside the hospital who said tanks are surrounding the hospital from all directions and that access in and out of the hospital is impossible. Israel has accused Hamas of building command centres underneath medical infrastructure, accusations denied by both Hamas and medical staff.
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza in the past 10 days, the UN has said, as fierce fighting between Hamas militants and the Israeli army encroaches on hospitals where patients are dying due to energy shortages and dwindling supplies. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) said on Tuesday that only one hospital in the northern half of the blockaded Gaza Strip, al-Awda, still had electricity and was able to receive patients, with other medical facilities in sprawling Gaza City now mostly functioning as shelters for those fleeing the violence.
The Israel Defense Forces claims to have struck 200 targets inside Gaza in the past 24 hours, “including terrorist operatives, weapon production sites, anti-tank missile launchers and operational command centres”. The claims have not been independently verified.
The UK is considering using “air and maritime options” to get more aid into Gaza, including through its bases in Cyprus, a government minister has said. Updating parliament, the foreign office minister Andrew Mitchell said: “We also are urging the Israeli government to increase humanitarian access including by Rafah and by opening up the Kerem Shalom crossing. He added that longer humanitarian pauses covering wider areas would be needed in order to deliver aid to the region”. On Tuesday Israel offered a four-hour cessation of hostilities in a limited area of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli authorities say they have now identified the remains of 859 civilians killed during the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel. The work to identify bodies is ongoing, they say. On Friday the initial estimated death toll from the 7 October attack was revised down to 1,200.
Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist believed to have been among the hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza on 7 October, was in fact killed in the initial attack, her family has told Canada’s CBC News.
Israel’s military has confirmed the death of Noa Marciano, a soldier seen in a hostage video posted by Hamas. Marciano, 19, was abducted by Hamas on 7 October. The al-Qassam Brigades claimed she was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 9 November. The IDF had condemned the video, saying “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past,” and this morning listed her as a “fallen soldier held captive by a terror group.”
A senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said on Tuesday Gaza could not survive as an independent entity, and Palestinians there should agree to “voluntary emigration” and leave for other countries. The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said: “I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty and danger. The state of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza.”
The leader of Yemen’s Houthis has said they will continue to attack Israel, and are looking to target Israeli vessels in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Humanitarian aid sent by Italy to Gaza is entering the area, the Italian foreign minister said.
The US on Tuesday, in coordination with the UK, imposed a third round of sanctions aimed at the Palestinian militant group Hamas since 7 October, targeting its leaders and financiers.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s accusation of fascism against Israel was “absurd”. Israel “is a democracy” and “a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly”, Scholz said.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in a call on Tuesday that Israel’s targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an “open violation of international law”.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza says that over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action since Israel began its campaign in Gaza. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
A dozen film-makers and artists have withdrawn their work from the world’s largest documentary festival, being held in Amsterdam, after its organisers strongly condemned the use of the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at an opening night protest.
The Football Association in England has suspended a council member who said “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu”. Wasim Haq, who joined the FA as a BAME football communities representative in 2019, became the subject of an investigation after a post on social media about Israel’s war with Hamas led him to be accused of antisemitism.
Updated
Israel has identified 859 civilian victims of 7 October Hamas attack
Israeli authorities say they have now identified the remains of 859 civilians killed during the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel. The work to identify bodies is ongoing, they say.
The Times of Israel reports that the number is an increase of 16 on the last figure given in public.
On Friday 10 November, Israel revised down the number of Israeli deaths on 7 October from the previously given figure of 1,400 to 1,200. As well as Israeli civilians and IDF casualties during Israeli efforts to repel the attack, the aftermath of the pogrom has left the authorities with the bodies of approximately 1,500 Hamas fighters.
It is estimated that Hamas seized about 240 hostages during the murderous rampage in southern Israel.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza says that more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action since Israel began its campaign in Gaza, and an additional number of Palestinians have also been killed in the occupied West Bank.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that the leader of Yemen’s Houthis has said they will continue to attack Israel, and are looking to target Israeli vessels in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait.
Earlier there were reports of an alert in the southern Israeli post city of Eilat, which the Houthis have previously targeted.
Updated
The UK’s minister of state for development, Andrew Mitchell, said on Tuesday that longer humanitarian pauses covering wider areas would be needed in the Israel-Hamas conflict in order to deliver aid to the region.
He told MPs in the House of Commons: “Longer pauses that cover wider areas will be needed. We are discussing with the UN and other partners how best to achieve this.” Mitchell said that all deaths of civilians “were to be profoundly regretted”.
The opposition shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, said the current pauses offered by Israel were not enough, adding: “Gaza is in a humanitarian catastrophe, more than 1.5 million people have been displaced, there are desperate shortages of basic essentials, does the minister agree that the short pauses in the north are clearly not enough?”
Earlier today the Israeli military announced a four-hour cessation of hostilities covering a limited area in the Gaza Strip.
Updated
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s accusation of fascism against Israel was “absurd”, days before the German leader is to host the Turkish president for talks in Berlin.
Israel “is a democracy” and “a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly. Therefore, the accusations against Israel are absurd,” Scholz told a press conference.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza says that more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action since Israel began its campaign in Gaza.
Scholz was responding to a question about Erdoğan’s comment on Friday that Israel’s legitimacy was “being questioned due to its own fascism”.
AFP reports Erdoğan first visit to Germany since 2020 is proving controversial over the Turkish leader’s accusations against Israel and his characterisation of Hamas as “liberators” fighting for their land.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Israel and Gaza.
Updated
UK considering 'air and maritime options' to get more aid into Gaza
The UK is considering using “air and maritime options” to get more aid into Gaza, including through its bases in Cyprus, a government minister has said.
Updating parliament, the foreign office minister Andrew Mitchell said: “We also are urging the Israeli government to increase humanitarian access including by Rafah and by opening up the Kerem Shalom crossing.
“At this point we assess that land presently offers the most viable and safe way to get humanitarian aid into Gaza in the quantities needed, but we are also considering air and maritime options, including through our bases in Cyprus.”
PA Media reports Mitchell also told MPs more British nationals had left Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, but did not give exact numbers.
He said: “Since I spoke to the House last week more British nationals and their families have left, and we will continue to offer all the support we can to those British nationals still in Gaza so that they too can cross into Egypt.”
Unusually, the UK’s newly appointed foreign secretary, David Cameron, is not an MP, and so cannot appear in the House of Commons to address lawmakers directly himself. Cameron sits in the UK’s unelected second chamber.
Updated
The US on Tuesday imposed a third round of sanctions aimed at the Palestinian militant group Hamas since 7 October, targeting its leaders and financiers.
Reuters reports the US Treasury department said the action, taken in coordination with the UK, targeted key Hamas officials and the mechanisms through which Iran provided support to Hamas and the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Updated
Philip Oltermann is the Guardian’s European culture editor:
A dozen film-makers and artists have withdrawn their work from the world’s largest documentary festival, after its organisers strongly condemned the use of the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at an opening night protest.
During a speech by the artistic director of the International Documentary festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Orwa Nyrabia, at the start of the event last Thursday, three activists took to the stage holding a sign with the slogan, which some say is a call for a secular state in historic Palestine, but which others note is used by radical Islamist groups to promote the eradication of Israel.
Nyrabia reportedly joined sections of the audience in applauding the intervention, but later said he could not see the words on the banner from where he sat on stage. “I clapped to welcome freedom of speech, and not to welcome the slogan,” he said, adding that the slogan was “a triggering statement and an offensive declaration for many, regardless of who carries it”.
The organisers of the IDFA, which runs until 19 November, said the use of the words went against their aim to provide a safe space for civic debate. Before the film festival issued its statement, 16 leading figures from the Israeli film industry had signed an open letter expressing their “uttermost dismay, disappointment and concern” at the opening-night protest and reports of its positive reception.
The IDFA’s statement in turn prompted protests from the Palestine Film Institute (PFI). As of Tuesday morning, 12 film-makers had followed the PFI’s call to withdraw their films from the festival.
Read more of Philip Oltermann’s report here: Film-makers pull out after Amsterdam festival condemns Palestine protest
Updated
The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is meeting London’s police chief Sir Mark Rowley, following last Saturday’s far-right unrest around the Cenotaph in central London, which was billed as a counter-demonstration to a much larger march calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “The public rightly expect that the full force of the law is used to bear down on some of the shocking scenes of criminality we saw over the weekend, whether it was [far-right group] English Defence League protesters or those seemingly supporting Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation.”
PA Media reports he said that Sunak would be speaking to Rowley to “get a shared understanding of how to approach these protests should there be significant protests in the future”.
There have been pro-Palestinian demonstrations in central London every Saturday since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October. The Metropolitan police said about 300,000 people had attended on 11 November, when the march was scheduled to take place a couple of hours after Armistice Day commemorations at the Cenotaph.
Met assistant commissioner Matt Twist said the violence from rightwing protesters towards the police “was extraordinary and deeply concerning”. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, pinned the blame for the violence on former home secretary Suella Braverman, who he claimed had stoked the tension and stirred up people on the far right. Sunak sacked her on Monday.
Humanitarian aid sent by Italy to Gaza is entering the area, the Italian foreign minister said on Tuesday.
“Italy has sent two C130 military aircraft carrying 16 tonnes of humanitarian aid, which are in transit towards Gaza in these hours,” Antonio Tajani told the Italian parliament’s joint foreign affairs and defence committees, Reuters reports.
Updated
Israeli minister says Israel no longer able to accept existence of Gaza, calls for 'voluntary emigration'
A senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said on Tuesday Gaza could not survive as an independent entity, and Palestinians there should agree to “voluntary emigration” and leave for other countries.
The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said: “I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty and danger. The State of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza.
Reuters reports Smotrich, who heads one of the religious nationalist parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, was speaking after a call by two members of the Israeli parliament who wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that western countries should accept families from Gaza who expressed a desire to relocate.
His comments underscore fears across the region that Israel wants to drive Palestinians out of Gaza, repeating the mass dispossession of Palestinians when Israel was created in 1948, referred to as the Nakba.
In the Wall Street Journal opinion piece, two Israeli Knesset members, Danny Danon of Likud, a former ambassador to the UN, and Ram Ben Barak of Yesh Atid, a former deputy director of the Mossad, said:
It is imperative that the international community explore potential solutions to help civilians caught in the crisis. One idea is for countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate. Europe has a long history of assisting refugees fleeing conflicts.
Countries around the world should offer a haven for Gaza residents who seek relocation. Members of the international community can collaborate to provide one-time financial-support packages to Gazans interested in moving to help with relocation costs and to ease refugees’ acclimation to their new communities.
We simply need a handful of the world’s nations to share the responsibility of hosting Gazan residents.
Updated
The Football Association in England has suspended a council member who said “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu”.
Wasim Haq, who joined the FA as a BAME football communities representative in 2019, became the subject of an investigation after a post on social media about Israel’s war with Hamas led him to be accused of antisemitism.
There was increased pressure for action to be taken against Haq, who has denied being antisemitic, after the Lawn Tennis Association sacked him as an independent councillor on Monday. The FA confirmed on Tuesday that he had been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation. Haq is also being investigated by England Golf, where he holds a role similar to that at the FA.
Read more here: FA suspends council member over ‘Hitler proud of Netanyahu’ post
Updated
Bethan McKernan is in Jerusalem for the Guardian. Here is her latest update:
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza in the past 10 days, the UN has said, as fierce fighting between Hamas militants and the Israeli army encroaches on hospitals where patients are dying due to energy shortages and dwindling supplies.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) said on Tuesday that only one hospital in the northern half of the blockaded Gaza Strip, al-Awda, still had electricity and was able to receive patients, with other medical facilities in sprawling Gaza City now mostly functioning as shelters for those fleeing the violence.
Hebrew-language media reported that both Israeli and Palestinian officials were trying to make arrangements for unconscious patients and those requiring dialysis and cancer treatment to be evacuated from al-Shifa to appropriate facilities in the southern half of the strip, but the reports were not immediately confirmed by medics on the ground. The Israeli military said it started an effort to transfer incubators to the hospital but it was not clear if they had been delivered or how they would be powered.
Civilians in the area said heavy gunfire could still be heard around the hospital compound.
Israel has accused Hamas of building command centres underneath medical infrastructure, accusations denied by both Hamas and medical staff. Israel says that al-Shifa, where fighting has reached the gates and trapped those inside, sits above the “nerve centre” of the Palestinian militant group’s operations. Israel has not provided conclusive evidence, but the group often fires rockets from densely crowded residential areas, and maintains a vast tunnel network.
Read more of Bethan McKernan’s report here: Another 200,000 people flee northern Gaza as fighting continues
Updated
Turkey’s foreign minister told his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, in a call on Tuesday that Israel’s targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an “open violation of international law”, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters.
Reuters reports that Hakan Fidan also emphasised the urgency of achieving a full ceasefire as soon as possible and the need for unhindered access of humanitarian aid into the enclave, the source said.
Wong has been involved in heated scenes in the Australian parliament, as Anthony Albanese’s government has stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Updated
The IDF has reported that an alert has been activated in Israel’s southern port resort of Eilat, which is being investigated.
While alerts are frequent near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip and near the UN-drawn blue line that marks the boundary between Israel and Lebanon, they are much rarer in Eilat, in Israel’s far south.
Earlier in the conflict the city did come under attack from a long range missile fired from within Gaza, and the Israeli military repelled attacks claimed by Yemen’s Houthis.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the wires from Gaza and Israel.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 12.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines in the Israel-Hamas war …
Israel’s military has confirmed the death of Noa Marciano, a soldier seen in a hostage video posted by Hamas. Marciano, 19, was abducted by Hamas on 7 October. The al Qassam Brigades claimed she was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 9 November. The IDF had condemned the video, saying “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past,” and this morning listed her as a “fallen soldier held captive by a terror group.”
Patients and medics remain trapped in Gaza’s main hospital after days of fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas, as aid agencies warn that critically ill patients and babies are at risk of death due to lack of fuel and dwindling supplies of food and water. Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has said the hospital is being forced to bury 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, “in a mass grave” in the complex. A journalist who has been working with AFP said the stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere in the facility. BBC reporter Rushdi Abualouf spoke to a source inside the hospital who said tanks are surrounding the hospital from all directions and that access in and out of the hospital is impossible. Israel has accused Hamas of using the hospital as a base, a claim which the group has denied.
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since 5 November, the UN humanitarian office said on Tuesday. OCHA says only one hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip is capable of receiving patients. All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting. In all, about 1.5 million Palestinians, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes.
At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women in Gaza by the Israeli military since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday. About 1,200 Israelis have died in the conflict, most on 7 October.
Israel’s military said it would again open a corridor for people to move south within the Gaza Strip from 9am (7am GMT) to 4pm, and would also pause hostilities for a limited period of time between 10am and 2pm “in the neighbourhoods of al-Daraj and al-Tuffah”.
Al Jazeera is reporting that 13 people have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, which is located in the south of the Gaza Strip, and is one of the areas that Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate to by the Israeli military.
The Israel Defense Forces claims to have struck 200 targets in the past 24 hours, “including terrorist operatives, weapon production sites, anti-tank missile launchers and operational command centres”. The claims have not been independently verified.
Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians in Tulkarm, although the precise number remains unclear. The Israeli army and police said their forces, sent in to detain suspected militants, came under fire, and that an Israeli airstrike hit a group of Palestinians who shot and threw a bomb at the group. Medics and local media put the death toll at seven.
Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist believed to have been among the hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza on 7 October, was in fact killed in the initial attack, her family has told Canada’s CBC News.
Canada’s foreign minister said overnight that 346 Canadians and their immediate families have so far been able to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
More than 1,500 antisemitic acts and comments have been recorded in France since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said.
Updated
More than 1,500 antisemitic acts and comments have been recorded in France since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said.
AFP reports Darmanin told broadcaster Europe 1 in an interview: “There have been 1,518 antisemitic acts or remarks. These are mainly tags and insults, but there are also assaults and injuries.”
Those acts resulted in 571 arrests, the ministry told AFP.
Darmanin said there had also been anti-Muslim incidents, saying some mosques had received threats of violence, adding: “But they are not on the scale of what we are seeing in terms of antisemitism.”
Updated
Israel confirms death of soldier seen in Hamas hostage video
Isreal’s military has confirmed the death of Noa Marciano, a soldier seen yesterday in a hostage video posted by Hamas.
Shortly after midnight last night, the Israeli military had confirmed her identity, saying “Our hearts go out to the Marciano family, whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organisation. We are using all means, both intelligence and operational, to bring the hostages home.”
On Monday Hamas’ Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades published a video of the soldier apparently reading a message in Hebrew in which she identified herself by name and identity card number and said she had been detained in Gaza for four days. The al Qassam Brigades claimed Marciano was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 9 November. Marciano was 19.
The IDF had condemned the video, saying: “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past.”
This morning the IDF spokesperson confirmed her death, with the military website listing her as a “fallen soldier held captive by a terror group”.
הודעת דובר צה"ל בנושא שמה של חללת צה״ל אשר הודעה נמסרה למשפחתה: https://t.co/qSsfUhn4b5
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2023
בנוסף, מצורף קישור לאתר צה"ל, בו מפורסמות ומתעדכנות פרטיהם ותמונותיהם של החללים: https://t.co/gOhLUiE9ad
Haaretz reports that Marciano’s mother last spoke to her on the morning of 7 October. Adi Marciano is quoted as saying “She told me she was in a protected space and that there had been an infiltration. She said that she had to end the call. I didn’t hear shots or screams. Half an hour later, I sent her a message, but she didn’t reply.”
Updated
A Lebanese journalist was interrupted by a missile strike while reporting live on the escalation of cross-border hostilities between Israeli forces and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
Rif Akil of the Lebanese channel Al Jadeed was with a group of journalists in Yaroun, within sight of the Israeli border, when the missile struck. She escaped without injury, according to reports. Israel’s military has not commented on the incident. Here is the video clip.
Updated
There are conflicting reports still about events overnight in Tulkarm, where Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians. [See 6.09 GMT]
The Israeli army and police said their forces, sent in to detain suspected militants, came under fire and killed several Palestinian gunmen in the skirmish that followed.
An Israeli airstrike hit a group of Palestinians who shot and threw a bomb at the group, an army and police statement claimed. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said the airstrike was carried out by a drone and killed three people.
Reuters reports that there was no word of any Israeli casualties and no Palestinian armed faction said it had lost members in the incident. Medics and local media put the death toll at seven.
Updated
AFP is reporting that a journalist inside al-Shifa hospital who has been working with them has said that the stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere in the facility, but night-time fighting and airstrikes from Monday into Tuesday had been less intense than previous nights.
Updated
Rushdi Abualouf reports for the BBC from inside Gaza that he has spoken to someone inside al-Shifa hospital this morning. He writes:
He said the tense situation around the hospital remains the same, and that he heard a few explosions and exchanges of fire overnight.
He also told me tanks are surrounding the hospital from all directions and that access in and out of the hospital is impossible.
Even moving from one building to another inside the hospital compound itself is a big risk, as he described it to me.
He said people have died in the hospital because there is no electricity, no water and not enough medicine.
My colleague Patrick Wintour has flagged up a comment piece in the Wall Street Journal, in which two senior Israeli figures suggest that third-party countries should be taking Palestinians out of Gaza as refugees.
Danny Danon of Likud, former ambassador to the UN, and Ram Ben Barak of Yesh Atid, ex deputy director of the Mossad, in Wall Street Journal call for a voluntary transfer of parts of the population from the Gaza Strip to countries that agree to accept them.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) November 14, 2023
They write "Even if…
Updated
Al Jazeera reports that al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has said the hospital has been forced to bury 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, “in a mass grave” in the complex.
The claim has not been independently verified.
Updated
Israel’s military claims in a message posted to its Telegram channel that “the IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted a suspicious target that was identified off the coast of the city of Acre”, which is located in north-west Israel.
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since 5 November, the UN humanitarian office said on Tuesday.
AP reports that the humanitarian office, known as OCHA, says only one hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip is capable of receiving patients. All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting.
In all, about 1.5 million Palestinians, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes. UN-run shelters in the south are severely overcrowded, with an average of one toilet for 160 people.
Updated
Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, has said overnight that 346 Canadians and their immediate families have so far been able to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
The Rafah border crossing is the only place Palestinians can exit the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel.
In a statement Joly added that it was “not acceptable” that the UN was warning that work supporting Palestinians would end in 48 hours due to a fuel shortage. “Civilians must be protected,” she said, adding that “enough food, fuel and water must get into Gaza so that their life-saving work can continue”.
She reiterated Canada’s call for Hamas to release all the hostages it seized during its 7 October attack inside Israel’s borders.
My comments on the current situation in the Middle East: pic.twitter.com/isygf2Ekjd
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) November 14, 2023
Updated
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in the UK, has used an appearance on Sky News to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, accusing Israel of causing a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
He told viewers:
We need an immediate ceasefire. If we are going to stop the humanitarian catastrophe that Israel is causing, then we need to stop the bombing. There is an imminent threat to the hospitals. More than a third of the hospitals in Gaza are already out of commission because of attacks.
Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses hospitals as control and command centres, which the group has denied.
Updated
Israel’s military has said that it again will open a corridor for people to move south within the Gaza Strip from 9am (7am GMT) to 4pm, and will also pause hostilities for a limited period of time between 10am and 2pm “in the neighbourhoods of al-Daraj and al-Tuffah”.
The message implores residents of Gaza “Please, for your safety, join the hundreds of thousands of residents who have moved south in recent days,” adding: “Residents of Gaza, do not surrender to Hamas, which has lost control over the northern Gaza Strip area and is trying to do everything it can to prevent you from moving south and protect yourselves.”
It specifically warns Palestinians that there is heavy fighting near the beach in the south of the strip.
#عاجل يا سكان غزة، وخاصة سكان شمال القطاع أودّ إخطاركم بالرسائل التالية:
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 14, 2023
🔴 أولاً، يظل الممرّ الآمن مفتوحاً اليوم ما بين التاسعة صباحاً (09:00) والرابعة عصراً (16:00) لأغراض إنسانية عبر محور صلاح الدين باتجاه المنطقة الواقعة إلى الجنوب من وادي غزة. والرجاء، حفاظاً على سلامتكم،… pic.twitter.com/bYj5P8D4fa
Israel has continued to launch airstrikes on the south of the Gaza Strip, with a reported 13 people killed this morning in the city of Khan Younis.
Updated
Al Jazeera is reporting that 13 people have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, which is located in the south of the Gaza Strip, and is one of the areas that Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate to by the Israeli military.
Updated
In its latest operational update on the Telegram messaging service, the Israel Defense Forces claims to have struck 200 targets in the past 24 hours. It wrote:
During ground operations, IDF troops uncovered a terror tunnel shaft located in a mosque in the Gaza Strip. Following the guidance of ground troops, IDF fighter jets and helicopters struck a terrorist cell that launched anti-tank missiles at the soldiers.
Over the past day, the Israeli air force struck 200 terror targets, including terrorist operatives, weapon production sites, anti-tank missile launchers and operational command centers.
Overnight, Israeli naval soldiers struck a military camp used by Hamas’ naval forces for training and weapons storage.
The claims have not been independently verified.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
It has become increasingly difficult to contact people in Gaza, particularly in the north where Gaza City and al-Shifa hospital are located. On Monday morning, the aid group Doctors Without Borders (MDF) said they had managed to contact one doctor, an MSF surgeon, at al-Shifa by phone. He told them:
We don’t have electricity. There’s no water in the hospital.
There’s no food. People will die in a few hours without functioning ventilators. In front of the main gate, there are many bodies, there are also injured patients, we can’t bring them inside.
When we sent the ambulance to bring the patients, a few metres away, they attacked the ambulance. There are injured people around the hospital, they are looking for medical care, we can’t bring them inside.
There’s also a sniper who attacked patients, they have gunshot wounds, we operated on three of them. The situation is very bad, it is inhuman. It’s a closed area, no one knows about us.
We don’t have an internet connection, you managed to call me now, maybe you’ll try 10 times before you can reach me again. The medical team agreed to leave the hospital only if patients are evacuated first: we don’t want to leave our patients.
There are 600 inpatients, 37 babies, someone who needs an ICU, we can’t leave them. We need a guarantee that there is a safe corridor because we saw some people trying to leave Al-Shifa, they killed them, they bombed them, the sniper killed them.
🔴Update:
— MSF International (@MSF) November 13, 2023
MSF surgeon in Al-Shifa
recorded at 8:10 AM local time on 13 November 2023#Gaza #AlShifa this morning, we were able to speak to a member of MSF staff still inside Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city.
“We don’t have electricity. There’s no water in the hospital.
Israel and Hamas, and their supporters, have increasingly been waging their war online and misinformation is circulating widely. The Associated Press news agency has been looking at some of the claims and delving in to the facts behind them – here’s one such example.
CLAIM: A video shows a makeup artist applying dirt and fake blood to a young girl on a stretcher, proving that people in Gaza are faking injuries in the latest Israel-Hamas war.
THE FACTS: The video is behind-the-scenes footage from a short film made in Lebanon, and was not made to mislead people, the director confirmed to the Associated Press.
In recent weeks, social media users have repeatedly misrepresented videos to falsely accuse Palestinians of being “crisis actors” in the war, as part of a conspiracy theory dubbed “Pallywood”.
In the latest example, people are sharing a clip that begins with a child who appears to be wounded being treated on a stretcher as protesters wave Palestinian flags. As the video goes on, however, a makeup artist can be seen applying makeup to the girl to depict blood and wounds, and the child smiles at the camera.
The video was shared on multiple social media platforms including X, formerly known as Twitter, claiming it shows how Palestinians “fake injuries”.
“The Palestinians are fooling the international media and public opinion. DON’T FALL FOR IT,” reads one post on X, which garnered more than 10,000 likes. “Pallywood gets busted again.”
However, the video is actually behind-the-scenes footage of a short film. The director, Mahmoud Ramzi, first uploaded the actual film, “The Reality,” to his Instagram account on 28 October. The movie is clearly not intended to look like real footage of the conflict.
Ramzi confirmed to the Associated Press that the short film was shot in Lebanon and said it was to show the “pain that Gaza’s people endured”.
“It was not filmed to mislead people or to fabricate any truth, because what’s happening in Gaza don’t need any form of fabrication, the videos are all over the media,” Ramzi wrote in an Instagram message.
Updated
A photographer in Gaza, Belal Khaled, has taken these images of relatives mourning for those killed in an Israeli attack on the al-Sharafi family’s apartment in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Monday.
Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist believed to have been among the hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza on 7 October, was in fact killed in the initial attack, her family has told Canada’s CBC News.
Silver’s son Yonatan Zeigen confirmed to the broadcaster that his mother’s remains had been among those found at kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived, but had only now been identified.
At least 120 other men, women and children were killed in the community of about 1,100 people located just kilometres from the Israel-Gaza border.
Many of the bodies found after the Hamas attack were badly burned or damaged and experts including forensic anthropologists have faced the difficult and lengthy process of trying to identify them. Some of them may never be identified, they have warned.
Five Palestinians killed in West Bank clashes, Israeli drone strike
At least three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinians’ official news agency Wafa has reported, citing a hospital in the western city of Tulkarm.
Another two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops during earlier clashes at a refugee camp in the city, Reuters reports citing Wafa.
AFP reported that five men, aged 21 to 29, had been killed during an Israeli military operation in Tulkarm, also citing a hospital director. It was not immediately clear if the five dead reported by AFP were the same as those reported by Wafa and Reuters.
AFP wrote:
Witnesses reported violent confrontations in the area and a massive deployment of Israeli soldiers seeking to make arrests.
The Israeli army confirmed to AFP that an operation had taken place in the same part of the occupied West Bank, but it did not give a reason or comment on any Palestinian casualties.
On Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said that 14 people were killed in an Israeli operation in the city of Jenin - the highest West Bank death toll from a single raid since at least 2005, according to United Nations records.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its troops regularly launch raids across the Palestinian territory.
At least 180 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed across the West Bank since October 7, according to officials on both sides.
Fighting traps patients and medics in Gaza's largest hospital
Patients and medics remain trapped in Gaza’s main hospital after days of fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas, as aid agencies warn that critically ill patients and babies are at risk of death due to lack of fuel and dwindling supplies of food and water.
Israel says Hamas’ headquarters are underneath the hospital, a charge Hamas and doctors at the facility have denied.
The Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Monday said that at least nine patients and six children had died at al-Shifa hospital, formerly the cornerstone of Gaza’s health system, as a result of the fuel shortages and department closures after the hospital was encircled by Israeli forces.
“We have no generators as those need fuel to run. There is no food, no water, no electricity and no fuel in Shifa and we are here dealing with casualties,” Munir al-Boursh, a doctor who is also a Palestinian health ministry undersecretary, speaking from inside Dar al-Shifa hospital.
“We can’t manage this huge number of cases. If people come, we can’t do anything for them.”
He said the facility had intended to dig a mass grave until Israeli tanks and snipers encircled the the complex on Friday, making movement around it impossible.
“There are 110 dead bodies in front of the hospital, some in the refrigerator which isn’t functioning, and some just in the open space in front of the emergency unit. This could become a source of disease,” he said.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Livingstone.
Medics and critically injured patients in Gaza’s main hospital remain trapped with no fuel and dwindling supplies of food and water while fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas militants rages outside.
Israeli tanks have taken up positions outside al-Shifa hospital, Gaza City’s main medical centre, which Israel says sits atop tunnels housing a headquarters for Hamas fighters who are using patients as shields. Hamas denies the Israeli claim.
The situation inside the hospital has become increasingly desperate, aid agencies have said. “There is continuous shooting and bombing around,” Nidal Abuhadrous, the head of neurosurgery at al-Shifa, said in a text message sent to the organisation Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Doctors at the facility say there are also bodies decomposing outside which they are unable to bury.
Meanwhile at least three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinians’ official news agency Wafa has reported, citing a hospital in the western city of Tulkarm.
Israeli troops shot dead two other Palestinians during earlier clashes in a refugee camp in the city, Wafa reported according to Reuters.
Tensions have been escalating in the West Bank since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. Activists say moves to drive Palestinians and Bedouins from their land have accelerated since the attack. At least 180 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed across the West Bank since 7 October, according to officials on both sides.
Here are the most recent developments:
The Israeli military has reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died in the past three days, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women in Gaza by the Israeli military since 7 October, the health ministry said on Monday. About 1,200 Israelis have died in the conflict, most on 7 October.
Joe Biden has said al-Shifa “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces. “It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” the US president said on Monday.
All of the hospitals in northern Gaza are “out of service” amid fuel shortages and intense combat, the health ministry in the besieged territory said on Monday. Two major hospitals in northern Gaza – al-Shifa and al-Quds – have closed to new patients due to Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators.
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA has warned that the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed into the besieged territory. UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza had run dry and would no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water.
UNRWA said that one of its schools in northern Gaza and a building designated as a residence for UN international staff in the Rafah area were directly hit by strikes. It did not say who was responsible for the strikes. The UN agency also said it had received “extremely concerning” reports that Israeli security forces had entered one UNRWA school and two UNRWA health centres in the Gaza Strip with tanks and used them for military operations. Earlier, it said one of its buildings in Rafah had been struck by Israel’s navy. Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip, within the area Israel has insisted Palestinians move to.
Trucks transporting desperately needed aid through the Rafah crossing from Egypt could stop operations on Tuesday due to a lack of fuel. “Humanitarian ceasefire, fuel supplies – all of these should be happening now. We are running out of time before really facing major disaster,” Andrea De Domenico, the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office in the occupied Palestinian territory, told journalists on Monday.
Israel claims it has uncovered a Hamas operations centre beneath the Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza City, and evidence suggesting that hostages taken on 7 October were held there. Separately, CNN reported that “a US official with knowledge of American intelligence” said that Hamas had “a command node” under the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
At least three Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured after an Israeli airstrike hit Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, health officials said on Monday.
The armed wing of Hamas says it discussed with Qatari mediators the release up to 70 women and children hostages in Gaza in exchange for a five-day Israeli ceasefire. Israel has rejected any possibility of a ceasefire until the release of all 240 of the hostages.
UN workers observed a minute’s silence on Monday for the more than 100 colleagues killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began last month, marking the deadliest conflict ever for UN workers. At least 101 employees of the UNRWA have been killed since 7 October.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has acknowledged the growing international pressure for a ceasefire. He also estimated that Israel has a “diplomatic window” of two to three weeks before pressure on the country seriously begins to increase, local media reported.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has urged Joe Biden to do more to stop the “atrocities” in Gaza and help bring about a ceasefire. Widodo, the leader of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, held talks with the US president on Monday at the White House.
The EU’s humanitarian aid chief called on Monday for “meaningful” pauses in the fighting and urgent deliveries of fuel to keep hospitals working in the territory. The EU’s 27 countries issued a statement on Sunday saying hospitals “must be protected” and condemning Hamas for using the medical facilities and civilians as “human shields”.
One hundred US government officials from the state department and international development agency have signed an internal memo criticising the White House for “disregarding the lives of Palestinians” and for showing an “unwillingness to de-escalate” in the Israel-Hamas war.
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot be “morally justified”.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has set out proposals for how Gaza should be run after the war between Israel and Hamas. EU foreign ministers are also looking at a Cypriot proposal to open up a maritime corridor for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has let it be known that he is available if needed to help in an effort to end the growing crisis in Israel and Palestine. His office, however, denied a report in the Israeli press that he had already been offered a specific job.
