November 29: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 54 Truce/prisoner update, humanitarian situation, West Bank killings, messages from Pope & President Biden, $18 Billion for Israel, and more [email protected] November 29, 2023 November 29: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 54 A Palestinian man cooks inside his damaged apartment in the Khezaa district on the outskirts of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, following weeks of Israeli bombardment. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (photo) ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: November 29 is the date that the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the partition of Palestine in 1947. Resolution 181 called for the creation of an Arab state and a Jewish state, but was never implemented on the ground. This vote was obtained through bribes and threats, was opposed by the U.S. State Department, and has no force of law. November 29 is also the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, an official observance adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1977. The date was chosen for its significance to the Palestinian people, who are still waiting for their inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly. Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here.**** Live broadcast news from the region is here. Latest statistics: Palestinian death toll: OCHA reports at least 14,571* (~14,329 in Gaza** (including at least 6,150 children and 4,000 women), and at least 242 in the West Bank). This does not include an estimated 7,000 more still buried under rubble. Euro-Med Monitor reports 20,360 Palestinian deaths. *IAK does not yet include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation. Israel killed more Palestinians in a little over a month after Oct. 7 than in all the previous 22 years combined. Palestinian injuries: 39,093** (including at least 36,000 in Gaza** and 3,101 in the West Bank). **NOTE: it is impossible to offer an accurate number of injuries in Gaza due to the ongoing bombardment and communication disruption. It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. in Gaza**, . About 1.8 million people have been displaced (nearly 80% of the population); 7,000 are missing (4,700 women and children) and presumed to be under rubble. Reported Israeli death toll ~1,200 (4 killed in West Bank, 75 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and ~5,400 injured, approximately 30 children). NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers. RECOMMENDED READING: Israel has lost control of the narrative – October 7 truths coming out Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org Truce/hostage/prisoner news: Hamas has released 86 prisoners so far, including 66 Israelis. Israel has released a total of 180 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children. Another group of captives is expected to be released on Wednesday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. 160 people, 100 of them Israeli civilians, are still being held captive in Gaza. 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners are still in Israeli prisons. 2,070 have not been charged or tried. As reportedly agreed upon by Israel and Hamas, the initial four-day pause has been extended for an additional 48 hours starting on 28 November. Al Jazeera reports on leaks coming out that there are negotiations between Israel and Hamas to release additional captives and extend the ceasefire by another five days. (07:50 GMT) Humanitarian update: At least 750 trucks have crossed the Rafah border into Gaza since Friday. That works out to roughly 150 trucks per day. Earlier this week, UNRWA officials told Al Jazeera that 200 trucks of aid would be needed daily for two months to meet the population’s basic needs. (09:25 GMT) Across the Gaza Strip, more than 46,000 homes have been destroyed and over 234,000 housing units have been otherwise damaged. These constitute over 60 per cent of the housing stock as of 24 November. Palestinians in Gaza are reporting being shot at by the Israeli army while visiting their destroyed homes in at least one part of Gaza City. There have been at least two other incidents today amid the ongoing truce between Israel and Hamas: Israeli forces opened fire on a Palestinian boat and shelled the coast of Khan Younis in southern Gaza at dawn. (11:00 GMT) Gaza’s civil defense team is facing difficulties digging bodies out from underneath rubble after weeks of Israeli army bombardments in Gaza. They have recovered 160 bodies, with reportedly at least 7,000 more buried underneath the rubble. They suffer from a lack of heavy machinery and fuel. (10:10 GMT) On 27 November, the MoH in Gaza announced that the Shifa Hospital in Gaza city has been able to reactivate its dialysis department. As of 28 November, an additional hospital resumed operating partially. Five hospitals are now operating in the north, albeit partially. On 28 November, the Gaza city municipality warned of the health and environmental ramifications of the accumulation of more than 35 tons of solid waste in the city. The solid waste cannot be transferred to the main landfill located in the vicinity of Gaza’s perimeter fence, due to prohibition by the Israeli military, the municipality stated. On 28 November, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) stated that Gaza suffers a US$1.6 million daily loss in farm production. The institution assesses the losses are likely higher considering the destruction of farm equipment and farmland, and damage caused to thousands of trees, especially olive trees. The economic impact is also significant, considering that 55 per cent of the Gaza’s agricultural products are exported, PCBS stated. RECOMMENDED VIEWING: My life as a Palestinian fighter Senate leader Chuck Schumer, who says God made him a “guardian of Israel,” said he’ll bring the emergency aid bill up for a vote next week. The bill includes over $14 billion for Israel, bringing the total amount of Americans’ tax money to Israel this year to $18 billion – $50 million per day. West Bank news: Raid on Jenin: The Israeli army has reportedly blown up two homes and also destroyed roads and water mains, as its raid on Jenin and its refugee camp continues for more than 12 hours. Dozens of armored military vehicles, hundreds of soldiers, and at least four bulldozers stormed Jenin, a town that has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance, Tuesday evening. Israeli forces also blocked the entrances of two main hospitals – and briefly of a third one. (09:15 GMT) Israeli forces have closed off the city and set up military checkpoints on all approach routes. Two children have been shot and killed by Israeli forces, the Palestinian Health Ministry said: a nine-year-old was shot in the head and a 15-year-old was shot in the chest. The total number of people arrested since October 7 is now more than 3,200, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said. (11:10 GMT) RECOMMENDED READING: Jenin: How the city became a symbol of Palestinian resistance Other news: Hamas invites Elon Musk to Gaza to witness ‘massacres and destruction’ The invitation from senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan came on Tuesday. The previous day, the tech billionaire, who owns social media platform X, had visited a kibbutz targeted by Hamas gunmen during the October 7 attack and declared his commitment to do whatever was necessary to stop the spread of hatred. “We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility,” Hamdan said. Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak has called for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, calling him “unfit to lead” in an opinion piece published in the Israeli publication Haaretz. Barak, who has also served as foreign minister and a military general, said that Netanyahu “can’t manage” the complexity of the current situation in the country, and he “must go before the consequences of his flaws become irreversible”. Barak called for the formation of a national unity government “without Netanyahu and the extreme right”. (03:50 GMT) President Biden tweeted: “Hamas unleashed a terrorist attack because they fear nothing more than Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace. To continue down the path of terror, violence, killing, and war is to give Hamas what they seek. We can’t do that.” – suggesting a call that Israel stop its attack. Hamas has said it was motivated to launch the attack essentially as the culmination of long-building anger over Israeli policy, including recent outbreaks of violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but more generally over the treatment of Palestinians and the expansion of Israeli settlements. Pope Francis has called for a continuation of the truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, according to Vatican News. He said, I hope that the truce in Gaza might continue so that all the hostages might be freed, and the necessary humanitarian aid might be able to enter. May we please continue to pray for the serious situation in Israel and Palestine. Peace, please, peace. ****Some people are led to be skeptical of the Al Jazeera news network. However, the network has won several Emmys, a Peabody and the Overseas Press Association’s Edward R. Murrow award, among many other honors. The New York Times reports that “its reporting hews to international journalistic standards and provides a unique view on events in the Middle East.” it’s important to remember that all news sources may potentially have bias. For example, CNN uses anchors who used to work for the Israel Lobby, who have lifelong attachment to Israel, and who often exhibit pro-Israel spin and omission in their broadcasts. Similarly, Fox News is strongly influenced by Rupert Murdoch, who has a similarly strong attachment to Israel, and who may have fired Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular host, in part due to the host’s opposition to war and his pattern of failing to exhibit sufficient devotion to Israel). RELATED: US poised to give Israel $18 billion in aid this year Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace Israel has lost control of the narrative – October 7 truths coming out Essential facts and stats about the Hamas-Gaza-Israel war What media reports fail to tell you about October 7 More Palestinians killed in past 34 days than in the past 22 years combined https://israelpalestinenews.org/november-29-todays-news-on-palestine-israel-day-54/

Casualties Leila WarahNovember 29, 2023 A tearful Palestinian boy hugs his friends and family after being released from Israeli prison in the Israel-Hamas hostage exchange agreement. A Palestinian child prisoner is welcomed by friends and family after being released from an Israeli jail, as part of a hostage swap deal between Hamas and Israel. 150 Palestinians women and children were released as part of the exchange, while 60 Israelis were released from Hamas captivity in Gaza. (APA Images) 15,000+ killed*, including 6,150 children, and 33,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 240 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *This figure has been confirmed by the government media office in Gaza. However, due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza), the Gaza Ministry of Health has not been able to regularly update its tolls. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 20,000. Key developments 8-year-old Adam Samer Al-Ghoul and 15-year-old Basil Suleiman Abu Al-Wafa were shot dead by Israeli forces during a large-scale raid in Jenin, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank. Israel is looking into another extension on the truce, which was expected to end on Wednesday, reported the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation. A source close to Hamas said the group is willing to extend the truce by an additional four days, reported AFP news agency. OCHA: The amount of aid entering Gaza is still “insufficient to meet the extensive needs.” Israel’s former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is calling for the removal of Netanyahu, calling him “unfit to lead” as he “can’t manage” the complexity of the current situation in the country, and he “must go before the consequences of his flaws become irreversible.” Israel is still denying Palestinians from returning to their homes in the north of Gaza or from visiting the sea in certain parts of the Strip. Following the release of 12 captives, including 10 Israelis from Gaza, thirty Palestinian prisoners were freed and returned to their homes in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Tuesday as part of the fifth prisoner swap. On Tuesday, the US said they airlifted 54,000 pounds of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. Following Elon Musk’s visit to Israel on Monday, Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan invited him to Gaza so he could “see the scale of the massacres.” Every day in Gaza, where 55% of the besieged enclave’s exports are agricultural products, they lose $1.6m in farm production as a result of Israeli bombardment, says the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Jordan cancels Christmas festivities in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, says the Jordan Council of Church Leaders. The Palestinian city of Bethlehem and the birthplace of Jesus Christ has also announced its plans to cancel Christmas celebrations in the city. Israel mulls over potential extension of truce While many of the people in Gaza are spending Wednesday, the last day of the temporary truce, trying to collect basic necessities like food and cooking oil in preparation for the Israeli bombardment to resume, political leaders are discussing yet another extension. Under the four-day truce deal, which began on Friday and has already been extended by two more days, Hamas has released 60 of about 240 captives from the Gaza Strip, and Israel has released 180 Palestinian political prisoners, all women and children. Another round of hostage exchanges is expected to take place on Wednesday evening. Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, says the group has been working “very hard” with the mediating countries to “reach a compromise” and “extend the ceasefire.” Hamas’s leadership was ready to enter deep negotiations about “a comprehensive deal” that would see the release of all the Palestinian prisoners for all the captives in Gaza, Hamad told Al Jazeera. On Wednesday, US lawmaker Rashida Tlaib similarly called for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and captives held inside Gaza. “Every innocent civilian should be released and reunited with their family, no matter their faith or ethnicity,” she said, “Failure to do so demonstrates their refusal to view Palestinians as equal human beings who deserve the same rights, freedom and human dignity.” Within Israel, families of Israeli hostages have been for weeks protesting for their government to do more to secure the release of their relatives in Gaza, including a permanent ceasefire and an “all for all exchange”, which would see the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, who now number over 8,000, in exchange for the release of all Israeli captives, both soldiers and civilians. However, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow Israeli forces to resume fighting in Gaza to “crush Hamas” in a post on x. ‘Everywhere you look, there is a child in need’ The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen as people die from a lack of medical care, risks of infection skyrocket, and nearly 80% of the population has been left homeless. Despite the increase of supplies entering Gaza since the ‘humanitarian pause’ began, the volume of incoming commodities is insufficient to meet the extensive needs, says the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Aid groups are calling for the immediate re-opening of more crossing points, including for the entry of commercial goods. “Everywhere you turn is a child incredibly in need,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told Al Jazeera while standing outside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. “Multiple children with amputations, little boys and little girls who six, seven weeks ago were playing football with their friends.” Elder praised the “incredible, brave, tireless health workers who are working around the clock” to tend “to every child they can.” However, “doctors are having to make decisions they shouldn’t have to make,” he said. “It will only be enough if these nail-biting pauses are extended into a ceasefire, into a lasting peace. We cannot possibly think that the destruction of Gaza and the killing of children is going to create peace in the region. That’s utterly nonsensical,” Elder concluded. In a video shared by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), plastic and reconstructive surgeon Hafez Abukhussa, based in Khan Younis, says he has been working “non-stop” since October 7. “Can you imagine receiving 100 to 200 patients a day, sometimes 500 patients a day?” he asked, adding that most of his patients are women and children. Despite the pressure and shortage of supplies at the hospital in Khan Yunis, Abukhussa said: “We know we are in danger at any time, but we will keep doing the same.” “We are calling for the increase of fuel supplies to the strip,” EU Commissioner Janez Lenarcic told journalists in Brussels. “The humanitarian access should be based on the needs and not on some restrictions.” “The ceasefire must be extended indefinitely,” Lenarcic said. Calls for ceasefire swell In light of the deteriorating circumstances in Gaza and continued disapproval from the American public about the role the US is playing in Israel’s war on Gaza, the US government narrative is ever so slightly shifting. Many social media users speculated that US President Joe Biden had indirectly called for an end to the war in a carefully crafted social media post on X on Wednesday. “Hamas unleashed a terrorist attack because they fear nothing more than Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace. To continue down the path of terror, violence, killing, and war is to give Hamas what they seek,” said Biden. “We can’t do that,” continued Biden, who has previously refused to call for a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, US Senator Peter Welch was the second senator to call for a ceasefire and an end to the war, adding to the mounting pressure on Biden to call for a permanent ceasefire. “I fully support Israel’s right to pursue those who ordered and carried out the attacks of October 7. But Israel must not do so in a way that leads to massive civilian casualties and the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza. This will only incite more enemies against Israel and the US,” Welch said in a statement calling for indefinite ceasefire. Similarly, Sheikha Alya Ahmed Saif Al Thani, the Qatari ambassador said she hopes “that this humanitarian truce will lead to a sustained and durable ceasefire that will put a stop to the war machine and the bloodshed,” while addressing the UN General Assembly. ‘For the Israeli government, the priority is not security’ Political analyst Mohammed Cherkaoui told Al Jazeera the Netanyahu government has not been able to achieve any of its military objectives but is still looking for a “zero-sum victory” against Hamas. “This is the debate in Israel now. After two months, nothing has materialized except massive Palestinian deaths. But there is zero gain in terms of a victory for Israel,” Cherkaoui, a professor of conflict resolution and diplomacy at George Mason University, continued. Similarly, Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan stated that Israel has “failed miserably” both militarily and politically in Gaza and that none of the state’s objectives have been reached, reported Al Jazeera. He also claimed that the number of Israeli soldiers killed and wounded during the ground invasion was higher than the Israeli military claims. When the fighting resumes, “enemy’s losses” will increase in the coming days, warned Hamdan. Addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour called on the UN to reaffirm its “permanent responsibility towards the question of Palestine” and for the end of the “grave and historic injustice [Palestinians] have borne for over 75 years, since the start of the Nakba”. “For the Israeli government, the priority is not security; it is the destruction of the Palestinian nation,” Mansour added. Two children killed in large-scale military raid in Jenin As the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel in Gaza continues, Israeli forces have continued their violent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Overnight on Tuesday and well into Wednesday, Israeli forces conducted a “massive arrest campaign” on Jenin Refugee camp, forcing citizens in the Damj neighborhood from their homes amid violent confrontations, reported Wafa news agency. So far, at least two children have been killed during the violent military incursion, 8-year-old Adam Samer Al-Ghoul and 15-year-old Basil Suleiman Abu Al-Wafa. CCTV footage released of the moment 8-year-old Adam was killed show the young boy turning and running away along with some other boys, when he is shot down with his back turned, before being dragged out of the street by another boy. Adam was reportedly shot in the head. Israeli forces also prevented an ambulance from evacuating an injured man in Jenin who was shot by Israeli forces for over 40 minutes before arresting him. Christos Christou, the international president of Doctors Without Borders, was at Khalil Suleiman Hospital in Jenin when Israeli forces launched a large-scale raid on the city. “It has already been two-and-a-half hours that we are trapped in our hospital here in Jenin,” Christou said in a video posted on x. “There is no way for any of the injured patients to reach the hospital and there is no way for us to reach these people,” he added that Israeli military vehicles blocked the entrances to the hospital and have prevented ambulances from leaving. “Two Palestinians died of wounds while ambulances could not reach them,” he said; it is unclear if he was referring to the two young boys reported killed by the Ministry of Health. The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) emergency services said that the Israeli army arrested an injured Palestinian from inside a PRCS ambulance at the entrance of Jenin Governmental Hospital. A message from Hisham Awartani Hisham Awartani, one of the three Palestinian university students who were shot and injured in Vermont in an apparent hate crime, released a statement saying that the “hideous crime” did not happen in a vacuum, calling attention to the worsening situation in the West Bank. “I am but one casualty in a much wider conflict,” he said in his statement, which was read at a vigil at Brown University, where he studies. “Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services which saved my life here would have likely been withheld by the Israeli army. The soldier who would have shot me would go home and never be convicted,” said Awartani, who is still in hospital, “Any attempt like this is horrific, be it here or in Palestine.” Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-54-two-children-killed-by-israeli-forces-in-jenin-amid-discussions-of-truce-extension/

Did Israel build a bunker under al-Shifa hospital? Ali Abunimah 16 November 2023 Israel’s ongoing assault on al-Shifa hospital – where 7,000 people are currently besieged in desperate conditions – may be part of its attempt to prove its claims that Hamas operates a sophisticated command bunker under the hospital. That James Bond villain-like lair was depicted in an animation released by the Israeli army last month. Israel has never offered any evidence for its claims. But as I explain in the video at the top of this article recorded on Wednesday, its assertions go back to at least 2009. That year, The New York Times reported that “The Israeli intelligence chief, Yuval Diskin, in a report to the Israeli cabinet, said that the Gaza-based leadership of Hamas was in underground housing beneath the No. 2 building of al Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza. That allegation cannot be confirmed.” Also in 2009, Haaretz reported that “Senior Hamas officials in Gaza are hiding out in a ‘bunker’ built by Israel, intelligence officials suspect.” “Many are believed to be in the basements of the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City, which was refurbished during Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip,” the Tel Aviv newspaper added. And in 2014, the pro-Israel publication Tablet asserted that “The Israelis are so sure about the location of the Hamas bunker … not because they are trying to score propaganda points, or because it has been repeatedly mentioned in passing by Western reporters – but because they built it.” “Back in 1983, when Israel still ruled Gaza, they built a secure underground operating room and tunnel network beneath al-Shifa hospital – which is one among several reasons why Israeli security sources are so sure that there is a main Hamas command bunker in or around the large cement basement beneath the area of Building 2 of the hospital,” Tablet added. Israel claims it destroyed underground infrastructure in 2021 During its assault on Gaza in May 2021, Israel heavily bombed the area around al-Shifa, perpetrating what came to be known as the al-Wihda Street massacre. “The air raids turned one of the busiest streets in Gaza, and the main access point to the strip’s chief hospital al-Shifa, into a crater-marked moonscape,” Britain’s The Independent reported at the time. “In place of apartment blocks are mangled heaps of concrete fringed with curls of iron rebar and scraps of belongings.” When challenged over the death and devastation its attacks caused to apartment buildings and their civilian residents near al-Shifa, the Israeli military claimed that it was attacking “underground military infrastructure” that was located under the road. “The underground military facilities collapsed causing the foundations of the civilian houses above them to collapse as well leading to unintended casualties,” the army added. Israel never presented any evidence to support these claims. But now, as it besieges and attacks the hospital again, Israel expects the world to believe that Hamas would keep its main command center in exactly the location Israeli and American newspapers have said it is in for years, and which Israel asserted in 2021 had been substantially destroyed. Still, given Israel’s propensity to lie, it may well “discover” an underground facility which Israel itself built, and try to present it to the world as vindication of its accusations. Israel releases more videos On Thursday evening, the Israeli military released a video showing a cache of weapons displayed on the ground in an outdoor area, that it claims was found in al-Shifa hospital. The military offered no evidence that the weapons – about a half dozen rifles, some magazines, hand grenades and what appears to be a drill – were found inside the hospital. It also released a video showing what it claims is the entrance to a tunnel near the hospital. The brief video shows a hole in the ground surrounded by overturned earth and rubble, making it difficult to discern what is depicted. Earlier this month, Israel claimed to have found the entrance to a Hamas tunnel near the Qatari-funded Sheikh Hamad hospital. The opening was in fact a water reservoir for the hospital. Biden admits “indiscriminate bombing” by Israel Trapped inside al-Shifa, some 7,000 people face a catastrophic situation and a slow death, without a water supply, food, medicine, medical oxygen, fuel or electricity. On Thursday, Israel continued to lay siege to al-Shifa as its troops ransacked buildings and bulldozers carried out excavations around the hospital and its grounds, including severing the main water line. This comes as US President Joe Biden continued to push Israel’s claims that Hamas uses the hospital as a command center. He also repeated previously debunked atrocity propaganda that Hamas fighters beheaded and burned dozens of Israeli babies on 7 October. And despite other comments Wednesday evening that show Biden to be out of touch with the realities of the situation, he did inadvertently admit that Israel has been bombing Gaza indiscriminately. Defending what he claimed was a careful Israeli assault on al-Shifa, the president said “this is a different story than I believe was occurring before, an indiscriminate bombing.” This admission means there can be no doubt that Biden has been arming Israel while knowing it is indiscriminately killing civilians, including thousands of children – a confession that will be of great interest to those trying to hold him legally accountable for war crimes and stop the slaughter in Gaza. Patients dying Speaking with Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday, al-Shifa hospital’s director Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya said that one dialysis patient had died earlier in the day and four others faced imminent death. In total the hospital is caring for 45 patients who require dialysis – something they can’t receive with no electricity to run the machines. Two of some 650 injured people had died because staff could not provide effective treatment. Wounds he said are becoming seriously infected, some with maggots. Of 39 premature babies in the hospital, three had died in recent days, according to Abu Salmiya. With no electricity or fuel, incubators have stopped functioning. Purified water to make special formula for the babies has run out, so staff are using ordinary water and some of the infants are now sick with diarrhea, infections and fever. Thousands of displaced people, many of them children, have no food and are suffering from worsening desperation and hunger. Meanwhile, according to Dr. Abu Salmiya, the hospital compound is besieged from all sides by tanks and bulldozers, but no one can see clearly what they are doing. He said that anyone who tries to move between hospital buildings is shot at by snipers or drones. Israelis refuse to speak According to Dr. Abu Salmiya, hospital administrators tried to send a delegation to speak with the Israeli military and ask for food, water, fuel, medicine and other urgent relief supplies. On Wednesday, Israel presented a few guns and other equipment it claims to have found in one al-Shifa hospital building. The so-called evidence did not corroborate Israel’s longstanding claims that Hamas has a sophisticated command bunker under the hospital. It was met with the same widespread skepticism and derision as the farcical “evidence” of Hamas activity that Israel offered after it raided the Rantisi children’s hospital days earlier. Over the 48 hours that Israeli forces have occupied parts of the al-Shifa compound, no shots have been fired at them, according to Dr. Abu Salmiya. Palestinian resistance groups have firmly denied they use hospitals for military activities and have regularly called for impartial international bodies to visit the hospitals and investigate Israel’s claims. “Israeli soldiers briefly exchanged fire with gunmen outside the hospital before going in, a senior military official said, but more than 12 hours after it began, the operation appeared more like a police raid than a pitched battle,” The New York Times reported on Wednesday. The newspaper quoted a witness inside the hospital recounting that the Israelis “are digging and excavating and breaking tiles and looking.” While there is a particular focus on al-Shifa, Israel is also now laying siege to al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City. Biden repeats Israeli lies On Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden repeated Israeli assertions that Hamas has a major command center located under al-Shifa hospital. “Here’s the situation,” Biden told reporters after meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in San Francisco. “You have a circumstance where the first war crime is being committed by Hamas by having their headquarters, their military hidden under a hospital. And that’s a fact. That’s what’s happened.” Administration officials have made similar assertions in recent days but have adamantly declined to offer any evidence for them. Nonetheless, they are a green light for Israel’s attack on al-Shifa. “We’ve discussed the need for them to be incredibly careful,” Biden added. “You have a circumstance where you know there is a fair number of Hamas terrorists. Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again like they did before, to where they were cutting babies’ heads off to burn – burning women and children alive.” Last month Biden notoriously stated that he had seen photos corroborating Israeli claims that Palestinian fighters had beheaded dozens of beheaded babies, before the White House had to admit the president had been shown no such photos. Israel has presented no evidence for that claim and many of its other assertions. Meanwhile there’s a growing body of evidence that Israeli forces killed many of their own civilians on and after 7 October. Defending Israel’s actions at al-Shifa, Biden asserted, “they’re also bringing in incubators. They’re bringing in other – other means to help the people in the hospital, and they’ve given the doctors and – I’m told – the doctors and nurses and personnel an opportunity to get out of harm’s way.” Were Biden well-informed, he would know that al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza do not lack incubators, but the electricity and fuel to power them. Notably, al-Shifa director Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera earlier that the Israelis had delivered no supplies to the hospital – in spite of propaganda by the Israeli army designed to market its attack on the hospital as a “humanitarian” operation. Abu Salmiya said that despite the dire circumstances, the medical staff would not abandon their patients and would stay there and die with them if it came to that. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood al-Shifa Hospital https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/did-israel-build-bunker-under-al-shifa-hospital 👇https://donshafi911.blogspot.com/2023/11/did-israel-build-bunker-under-al-shifa.html

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 44: WHO says Israel turned Al-Shifa Hospital into ‘death zone,’ thousands of Palestinians ‘humiliated’ as they flee to southern Gaza Mustafa Abu SneinehNovember 19, 2023 Palestinians pray during the funeral of their relatives, who were killed after an Israeli airstrike on the city of Deir al-Balah, at Al-Aqsa Hospital, November 19, 2023. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images) Palestinians pray during the funeral of their relatives, who were killed after an Israeli airstrike on the city of Deir al-Balah, at Al-Aqsa Hospital, November 19, 2023. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images) Casualties 12,012 killed*, including 4,900 children, and 32,300 wounded in Gaza 215 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 16. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza), the Gaza Ministry of Health has not been able to regularly update its tolls. Key Developments World Health Organization described Al-Shifa Hospital, which was raided by Israeli forces last week and was emptied of nearly all patients, medical staff, and displaced civilians, as a “death zone.” Doctors Without Borders said a convoy evacuating 137 of its Palestinian staff members and their families was targeted by Israeli forces, killing one relative and injuring another on Saturday. Palestinians who were injured, elderly, or have kids were forced to get out of vehicles and walk an average of 10 hours for 14 km to Salah Al-Deen Street’s checkpoint. Horrific stories spread of women harassed, young men stripped naked in front of the crowds, doctors and journalists detained and interrogated, and people sent into a hole dug in the ground at the Salah Al-Deen Street checkpoint. As of November 11, 807,000 Palestinians remained in the areas of the northern Gaza Strip, after an estimated 400,000 fled south of the Gaza Valley throughout the first month of the war. Jordan sets up a field hospital in the city of Nablus, which has raised alarm in anticipation of a further deterioration of the situation in the occupied West Bank. The Israel Prison Service imposes punitive measures against Palestinian prisoners, including poor-quality and insufficient food, denial of access to the exercise yard, daily power cuts, medical neglect and restriction on family visits. Al-Shifa Hospital turned into “death zone” as almost 400,000 Palestinians flee north of Gaza Strip The WHO described Al-Shifa Hospital, which was raided by Israeli forces last week and was emptied of nearly all patients, medical staff, and displaced civilians, as a “death zone.” “Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and was told more than 80 people were buried there,” the WHO team who spent an hour inside Al-Shifa said. On Sunday, Mohammed Al-Zaqout, the director of the Gaza hospital, told Al-Jazeera Arabic that four premature babies had died in Al-Shifa, which stopped receiving patients and directed them to be treated at the Indonesian Hospital. Zaqout said that medical staff at Al-Shifa are in talks with the WHO to evacuate the remaining 32 premature babies in the incubators. There are still 25 medical staff and 291 patients inside Al-Shifa as of Sunday morning, two of them in the ICU and 22 in the dialysis department. “Lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid over the last 6 weeks have caused Al-Shifa Hospital…to essentially stop functioning as a medical facility,” the WHO said. “Corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, increasing the risk of infection. Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation,” the organization added. Israel claimed that Hamas fighters had a command and control center and web of tunnels under Al-Shifa, while the U.S. said that, based on intelligence sources, the hospital functioned as a node for Hamas’s operations. Hamas and Palestinian resistance factions were adamant in denying these claims and repeatedly called for international investigation teams to inspect the facility. Almost a week after its brutal siege and raid on Al-Shifa on November 15, Israeli forces have yet to publish evidence of Hamas’ tunnels or weapons cache in Al-Shifa. The occupation forces released a video showing a few rifles, bullet magazines, and bullet-proof vests, claiming it was left behind at Al-Shifa by fighters of Hamas. The video was taken down and then reposted after removing a section in which a laptop was presented as evidence of Hamas’s presence at Al-Shifa. Al Jazeera political analyst Marwan Bishara commented on the Israeli forces’ video, saying, “I’m baffled as to why Hamas keeps ‘leaving behind’ guns for the Israeli military to ‘find’ as evidence for their presence under hospitals!” “Oh yea, leave the gun, take the cannolis,” he wrote in X, in a satirical reference to a scene from The Godfather. Doctors Without Borders convoy targeted The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced on Saturday evening that 12,012 Palestinians were martyred in the Israeli bombardments and airstrikes since October 7, and around 32,300 were wounded. Until October 17, there were 3,750 people reportedly missing or under the rubble, 1,750 of them children. Israeli bombardments killed 4,900 children, 3,155 women, and 690 elderly people. Two-thirds of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip have stopped operating, and medical organizations such as the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) are struggling to respond to calls to evacuate the wounded or rescue the trapped under the rubble. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said a convoy evacuating 137 MSF Palestinian staff members and their families was targeted by Israeli forces, killing one MSF employee’s relative and injuring another on Saturday. “MSF condemns in the strongest terms this deliberate attack,” the organization said. MSF informed the Israeli forces of their movement towards the southern Gaza Strip. The convoy was made of five cars, all marked with the MSF emblem on the roof, carrying 137 people, 65 of them children, who were stuck for almost a week in Gaza City. However, they could not cross the overcrowded Israeli checkpoint at Salah Al-Deen Street and had to drive back 7 km north into Gaza, when they were targeted in Al-Wehda Street. “MSF calls again to urgently allow the evacuation of our staff, as well as of thousands of other people, trapped by fighting and living in extremely dire conditions in northern Gaza. We are calling for an immediate ceasefire, which is the only way for corridors to be implemented in order to safely evacuate trapped civilians,” it said in a statement. Salah Al-Deen Street checkpoint: ‘The corridor of death and humiliation’ For the past week, Israeli tanks and forces were stationed on the east and west of Salah Al-Deen Street, which cut the northern Gaza Strip into two halves. Palestinians evacuating areas of intense fighting in Gaza City, Sheikh Ridwan, Beit Lahia, Jabalia, and Beit Hanoun had to pass through an Israeli military checkpoint. Wafa correspondent Aseel Al-Akhras, who left Al-Shifa Hospital over the weekend, was among the thousands of people who took the perilous journey to the south on foot. She described the “humanitarian route” that Israel designated for civilians to flee south as the “corridor of humiliation and death.” Akhras said that Palestinians who were injured, elderly, or have kids, were forced to get out of vehicles and walk an average of 10 hours the 14km south to Salah Al-Deen Street’s checkpoint, which was surrounded by tanks.” She said she was detained at the checkpoint for more than an hour and a half. “The displaced girls and women were harassed, and one of them had her gold stolen. Some of the displaced were forced to completely remove their clothes in the cold, in front of all of us,” she said. Akhras said that Israeli tanks caused a cloud of soil and dirt to cover people while waiting. They were asked to raise their IDs, while some of them were taken into a hole dug near the checkpoint. “We were interrogated by the occupation soldiers, and I was separated from my family. Doctors and Red Crescent employees were also interrogated and arrested…we saw them shooting a young man whose fate we do not yet know. They also forced six young men to kneel before the [Israeli] occupation flag at gunpoint,” she said. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, as of November 11, there were about 807,000 Palestinians living in the areas of the northern Gaza Strip. An estimated 400,000 fled to the south of Gaza Valley to the areas of Khan Yunis, Dier al-Balah, and Rafah. In the north of Gaza Valley, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that 183,000 forcibly displaced people are sheltered in 154 UNRWA facilities. On Sunday morning, Russia announced that it evacuated 550 people with Palestinian and Russian dual citizenship from Gaza, 230 of whom are children. In the past 24 hours, Israel bombed hospitals, schools, mosques, and family houses in various areas in Gaza. On Sunday, a shell targeted the children’s department at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. In Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza, Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike on a house on Saturday evening, while in the central Gaza Strip, at least 31 people were killed in bombardments. In Nuseirat camp and Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, 15 people were killed on Sunday morning. Al Jazeera Arabic reported that Israeli forces destroyed four mosques in Jabalia refugee camp, bringing the number of completely destroyed mosques to 76 and targeted churches to three. Jordan’s King Abdullah II called for a ceasefire in Gaza to put an end to the humanitarian crisis created by the “ugly war against civilians” during a meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “Israel’s continuation of its hideous war on Gaza and its illegal violations in the West Bank and Jerusalem will lead to an explosion in the situation in the entire region,” said King Abdullah. U.S. President Joe Biden stressed in an Op-ed in The Washington Post on Saturday that there will be no ceasefire before Hamas releases the Israeli captives taken on October 7. “As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a ceasefire is not peace,” Biden wrote. Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s Foreign Minister and former spy chief, warned of the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, asserting that Israel’s possession of nuclear capabilities could trigger an arms race in the West Asia region. “The ongoing possession of nuclear weapons by Israel, coupled with the failure to denuclearize the region, will escalate the nuclear arms race, leading to increased nuclearization in the area. This is not a favorable situation for both the region and the world,” Fidan said in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic. West Bank: sixth Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody, Israeli forces kill three Palestinians As tension intensified in the occupied West Bank, Jordan set up a field hospital in the city of Nablus, which alarmed Palestinians anticipating a further deterioration in the situation. Jordan had set up field hospitals in the West Bank’s cities of Ramallah in 2000 and Jenin in 2001 during the early days of the Second Intifada. As of Sunday morning, 215 Palestinians have been martyred in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers. In Jenin, Issam Al-Fayed, 46, a person with special needs, was killed on Sunday morning by Israeli fire near the “horse” roundabout at the entrance of Jenin refugee camp. Omar Al-Laham, 20, from Dheisheh refugee camp, was killed when Israeli forces stormed the camp. A third Palestinian was killed in Aida, another refugee camp near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank. On Sunday, Thaer Samih Abu Assab, 38, was the sixth Palestinian prisoner to die in Israeli custody since October 7. Qaddoura Fares, the head of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, told Wafa that Abu Assab is from the town of Qalqilya and died in the notorious Negev Desert Prison. Abu Assab was arrested in May 2005 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The Commission said Abu Assab’s death was a “premeditated assassination operation.” Last week, Ahmad Muhammad Mari, 33, died inside Megiddo prison. On November 6, Majed Ahmad Zaqoul, 32, from the Gaza Strip, also died in the prison. In October, prisoners Omar Daraghmeh, 58, from Tubas, and Arafat Hamdan, 25, from Ramallah, died in Israeli custody. Another Palestinian prisoner from the Gaza Strip, whose identity is yet to be identified by the Commission, was also announced dead. The Commission said that the Israel Prison Service has imposed punitive measures against Palestinian prisoners, including insufficient and low-quality food, denial of access to the exercise yard, daily power cuts, medical neglect, and restrictions on family visitation. There are 7,000 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails as of November 6, according to the Addameer prisoners’ rights group. Almost 2,070 of them are serving administrative detention terms, a policy used by Israel to detain Palestinians without charge or trial indefinitely. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-44-who-says-israel-turned-al-shifa-hospital-into-death-zone-and-thousands-of-palestinians-humiliated-as-they-flee-to-southern-gaza/

Why So Many Countries Followed China’s Lockdown Example Ron Brown A novel coronavirus that was 10 times deadlier than the flu had gripped the world in 2019. Without a compass to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, all lessons learned from previous viral pandemics were thrown out the window. The World Health Organization was adamant, “This is not the flu.” Tony Fauci terrified the US House of Representatives with forecasts of disaster. Global populations were defenseless without a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that no one had ever seen before. The only viable defense at the time was to shut down the world. China took the lead in lockdowns. Media exported from China showed people dropping dead in the streets. Caskets were piling up. Doors to buildings were sealed to lock in tenants. Throughout the panic, all reasonable alternative assessments of risks from the viral outbreak were ignored, censored, or rejected. Nevertheless, I wondered whether a video of a person falling down in the street was really representative of the entire population. Were caskets piling up largely due to families fearing to claim them because of contamination with the virus? I noticed that the front doors to my local mall in Ontario, Canada had also been sealed, just like in China apartment buildings, but this was only to control access through a single entrance to the building, not to seal in customers. My first clue that the emergency response to the outbreak of the coronavirus didn’t seem to make sense was when I heard Fauci tell television audiences that if our response seems to be overreacting, then we are probably doing the right thing. What? Since when is overreacting ever the right thing to do? Do generals win wars by overreacting? I looked at the numbers that Fauci had presented to the US House of Representatives concerning case and infection fatalities of the coronavirus. They were backwards! His 10-times deadlier prediction was simply a made-up number! This was in March 2020. By May 2020 it was obvious that people were NOT dying at the inflated rate Fauci had predicted. I published a paper on Fauci’s coronavirus mortality overestimations: Public Health Lessons Learned From Biases in Coronavirus Mortality Overestimation. But when I mentioned all this to my friends, they responded that the lower than predicted deaths just proved the lockdowns were working. Fauci was off the hook. Back to China. WHO/China Joint Mission on Covid-19 The answer to why countries followed China’s lockdowns is simple. They were told to do so by the World Health Organization (WHO). Why did the WHO tell them to do that? You might want to ask Dr. Bruce Aylward, the Director of the WHO/China Joint Mission on Covid-19 investigating the coronavirus outbreak. Aylward noticed a precipitous drop in novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) in China during February 2020. This was before China adopted WHO’s name of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Upon seeing China’s surveillance data, Aylward announced the spectacular findings to the world and told the world to do what China has done and lock down. But he appeared to make a fundamental epidemiological error by wrongly assuming that the association of China’s lockdowns with lower deaths proved the lockdowns were working (just like my friends had told me). Soon after in March 2020, China published its latest case definitions for NCP (Covid-19). In a nutshell, the definitions showed that no one could be declared to have died of the disease unless they had viral pneumonia (a severe acute respiratory illness), and only if no other virus normally associated with viral pneumonia was present, except SARS-CoV-2. Coinfections with the coronavirus were not acceptable criteria, and what should have been a broad surveillance case definition with high sensitivity to monitor the spread of the virus within the population narrowed down considerably into an overly specific diagnostic case definition. That pretty much sealed the deal to declare Covid-19 deaths in only single digits for many months during the pandemic throughout China. This super-low outcome impressed Dr. Bruce Aylward enough in February 2020 to implore the world to lock down. Did we ever! In the meantime, other countries used case and death definitions that went to the opposite extreme of China’s narrow diagnostic definitions, disseminating overinflated surveillance numbers without adjusting the numbers to remove bias. Even Fauci eventually admitted that reported cases and deaths counted WITH the coronavirus are much higher than cases and deaths counted FROM the coronavirus. Ironically, the WHO had previously published material on the correct use and interpretation of surveillance and diagnostic definitions in infectious disease outbreaks. Aylward didn’t appear to get the memo. There is more to the story. Was this even really a novel coronavirus, or just a novel genetic sequence of the coronavirus showing greater detail than previously available? China supposedly received updated genetic sequencing technology in late 2019. They had abandoned surveillance of SARS in 2003 for lack of technology. Now they were back in business again by the end of 2019. The team of virologists that reported the genetic sequence of the virus in Wuhan noted that it would be necessary to investigate the epidemiological evidence to guide infection control responses. Who has time for that? Shut it down! If the novel coronavirus isn’t really so novel, this would explain why the lockdowns didn’t work. We had already known that lockdowns don’t work in other viral pandemics. Even China eventually gave up its Zero Covid Policy after it was obvious that lockdowns weren’t working. My friends owe me some explanations to justify their lockdown views. Maybe Fauci isn’t off the hook after all. For more information on biases in Covid-19 case and death definitions, see my peer-reviewed article with cited references: Biases in COVID-19 Case and Death Definitions: Potential Causes and Consequences. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License For reprints, please set the canonical link back to the original Brownstone Institute Article and Author. Your financial backing of Brownstone Institute goes to support writers, lawyers, scientists, economists, and other people of courage who have been professionally purged and displaced during the upheaval of our times. You can help get the truth out through their ongoing work. https://brownstone.org/articles/why-so-many-countries-followed-chinas-lockdown-example/

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 42: Communications blackout obscures full picture of Israel’s devastation in Gaza Israel’s purported proof of Hamas command center under al-Shifa hospital is seen as ‘anticlimactic’ as bombardment continues across the Gaza Strip, leaving only 4 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants with access to safe drinking water. Mondoweiss Palestine Bureau November 17, 2023 People search through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air strikes a day earlier, in the southern Gaza Strip on November 16, 2023 in Nuseirat, Gaza. (Photo: Bashar Taleb/APA Images) People search through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air strikes a day earlier, in the southern Gaza Strip on November 16, 2023 in Nuseirat, Gaza. (Photo: Bashar Taleb/APA Images) Casualties 11,470 killed*, including 4,707 children, and more than 29,000 wounded in Gaza 197 Palestinians killed and 2,750 injured in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 16. Key Developments Due to the breakdown of communication services in northern Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says it has been facing “significant difficulties” in updating its data regarding death tolls for the past week. New numbers issued cannot take into account the full scope of devastation in northern Gaza and Gaza City, where untold numbers of dead are unable to be retrieved from the rubble given the presence of Israeli forces, with Israeli snipers reportedly shooting at anyone in the streets. Israeli forces continue to occupy al-Shifa hospital, as its purported proof of Hamas command center lying under the medical complex fails to convince Other hospitals in Gaza have also come under fire, amid continued Israeli airstrikes in both northern and southern Gaza Heads of major U.N. humanitarian agencies reject “unilateral” Israeli push for so-called ‘safe zones’ in Gaza Paltel says lack of electricity amid fuel shortages has led to a total telecommunications blackout across the Gaza Strip Telecom shutdown means international aid isn’t entering the Gaza Strip on Friday, UNRWA says, due to impossibility of coordination World Food Program warns of “immediate possibility of starvation” in Gaza Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics meanwhile says only 4 percent of people in Gaza currently have access to safe drinking water At least five Palestinians killed in the West Bank — three in Jenin and two in Hebron — amid confrontations between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces Israeli forces detain 35 Palestinians across the West Bank overnight Israeli forces fire tear gas at Palestinians seeking to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Armed man is arrested near the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan for allegedly planning an attack — a day after an alleged attack against the Israeli embassy in Japan. Jordan says it won’t sign a deal that had planned for Amman to provide energy to Israeli in exchange for water due to the “retaliatory barbarism carried out by Israel” in Gaza The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sues the state of Florida over its ban of pro-Palestinian student groups, calling the move a “dangerous… attack on free speech.” The International Center of Justice for Palestinians issues a notice of intention to seek prosecution of Canadian politicians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for “complicity in war crimes in Gaza.” Al-Shifa’ Hospital remains occupied by Israeli army War rages on in Gaza, and the situation at Al-Shifa’ hospital in Gaza City continues to be at the center of attention. Palestinian news agency WAFA says thousands of medical staff, patients, and civilians who had taken refuge in the biggest medical complex in the besieged Gaza Strip have been taken “hostage” by Israeli forces, which have seized Al-Shifa’ since Wednesday over claims that the hospital lies above an underground Hamas command center. Israeli forces have encircled the hospital with tanks, bulldozers, and snipers for more than a week and have stormed the premises at least three times in as many days, reportedly forcing staff and civilians to strip naked, interrogating and detaining a number of Palestinians, many whose whereabouts are currently unknown, as well as destroying medical equipment. Doctors at Al-Shifa’ said Israeli soldiers had also taken a number of bodies of deceased patients to an unknown location. The director of Al-Shifa’ told Al Jazeera on Friday that 22 people had died in the hospital overnight. It remained unclear whether an earlier statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which said some 40 patients, including three premature babies, had died at Al Shifa’ since November 11, included these 22. The bodies of two Israeli hostages — identified as Noa Marciano, 19, and Yehudit Weiss, 65 — captured by Palestinian armed resistance groups on October 7 were retrieved by Israeli forces in the vicinity of Al-Shifa’’, with both Hamas and Israel accusing the other of being behind their deaths. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted in an interview with CBS on Thursday that Israel had been “unsuccessful” in sparing civilians but blamed Hamas for making Israel kill thousands of Palestinian children. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the attack on Al-Shifa’ on Thursday, with the OIC calling the “collective punishment and genocide perpetrated against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip […] a war crime under international humanitarian law.” Amid growing international questioning over Israel’s repeated targeting of hospitals in Gaza in contravention of international law, Tel Aviv has gone into overdrive seeking to prove that Al-Shifa’ is used as a military base — producing some questionable evidence that has been debunked, including a supposed list of names of Hamas guards on duty that turned out to be a calendar with the names of the week. Al Jazeera has also cast doubts on claims that stashes of weapons were found beside an MRI machine, pointing out that the magnetic field of such machines means they are an unlikely hiding spot for any metal objects. Even Israeli media has raised questions about the “anticlimax” of Israeli forces’ raid on Al-Shifa’. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called on Friday for an international investigation into Israel’s “absurd claims” about Al-Shifa’. Israel has repeatedly questioned the credibility of Palestinian reports from within the Gaza Strip, all while restricting entrance to foreign observers and journalists and targeting the small Palestinian territory’s telecommunications network. Paltel Group, the largest provider of telecom services in Palestine, announced on Thursday evening that all landline, mobile, and internet services were disrupted across the Gaza Strip due to electricity shortages. “The Israeli army’s insistence on barring the media, international organisations, health officials, and non-governmental organisations’ presence in hospitals during the raids should raise great concern […] and casts doubt on any army narrative,” Euro-Med Monitor wrote. “Hospitals are not battlegrounds.” While the Israeli army claims it is “close to dismantling” Hamas in northern Gaza, and claimed to have killed a former senior Fatah operative, Khaled Abu Halal, on Friday, Palestinian armed resistance groups said on Telegram that fierce fighting was ongoing in Gaza City, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, and that a number of Israeli soldiers had been killed. Humanitarian situation further devolves as Israeli strikes continue pummeling Gaza Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, Israeli bombardments continued unabated. WAFA news agency reported deadly airstrikes since Thursday in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Radwan, Tuffah, Shujaa’ya, and Yafa Street in Gaza City, as well as Nuseirat and Jabalia refugee camps. At least 21 people were killed in several strikes across Jabalia, with Al Jazeera reporting that people were digging through the rubble “with bare hands” searching for survivors. Meanwhile, a school in the southern Gaza City neighborhood of al-Zaytoun was also hit, Al Jazeera reported. Israeli airstrikes also hit southern Gaza, including Rafah and Khan Younis, which Israel has continued to claim is a “safe zone” Palestinians should flee to to escape the combat zone in northern and central Gaza. The strikes in Khan Younis took place in the vicinity of al-Nasr hospital, in yet another endangering of medical facilities in Gaza, more than two-thirds of which have gone out of service. Israeli tanks were reportedly surrounding Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, preventing ambulances from going out to rescue any wounded, while seven staff members at the Jordanian Field Hospital were injured in a strike. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has meanwhile reported more than 1,000 Israeli strikes with white phosphorus in the span of 40 days. Humanitarian agencies and Palestinian organizations continue to raise the alarm about the calamitous situation in Gaza, with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics saying that Palestinians in Gaza had gone from using 82.7 liters of water per person per day before October 7 to between one to three liters per day now, adding that only 4 percent of people in Gaza are believed to currently have access to clean water. The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) meanwhile said on Friday that civilians faced the “immediate possibility of starvation” in Gaza. UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, reported aid would not cross from Egypt into Gaza on Friday, as the breakdown of communication networks prevented the coordination of humanitarian convoys. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told journalists on Thursday that he believed there was “a deliberate attempt to strangle our operation and paralyse the UNRWA operation,” adding that Israel’s continued refusal to allow the entry of fuel into Gaza threatened all humanitarian operations there. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the highest-level humanitarian coordination platform of the U.N., issued a statement on Thursday saying the leaders of the United Nations’ major agencies would not take part in “unilateral proposals to create ‘safe zones’” in Gaza — a rebuke of Israel’s ongoing pressure to push more and more civilians into a smaller and smaller portion of the already tiny Gaza Strip, without providing them actual safety. “Under the prevalent conditions, proposals to unilaterally create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza risk creating harm for civilians, including large-scale loss of life, and must be rejected. Without the right conditions, concentrating civilians in such zones in the context of active hostilities can raise the risk of attack and additional harm,” the statement said. “No ‘safe zone’ is truly safe when it is declared unilaterally or enforced by the presence of armed forces.” Five Palestinians killed in the West Bank Violence continued across the occupied West Bank overnight, with at least three Palestinian fighters confirmed to have been killed by Israeli forces during fierce armed confrontations in the flashpoint Jenin refugee camp. Four of the Jenin area’s five hospitals were reportedly out of service as Israeli forces besieged Ibn Sina hospital and interrogated staff. Two more Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces at one of the entrances to the city of Hebron on Friday morning. Israeli forces claimed the two Palestinians had fired at soldiers, while reporting no injuries on the Israeli side. This comes a day after three Palestinians killed one Israeli soldier and wounded five others at a Bethlehem-area checkpoint before being themselves killed. At least five Palestinians, including two children, were wounded by Israeli forces in the past day in Masafer Yatta, Deir Nidham, and Beita. Meanwhile, at least 35 Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank overnight — 28 of them in Nilin, a village well known for its regular anti-occupation protests. In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces fired tear gas at worshippers seeking to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque, newspaper Al-Quds reported. Meanwhile, two 14-year-old Palestinian citizens of Israel from the town of Umm al-Fahm were charged with attempted murder of an Israeli soldier on Friday. While Palestinian armed groups have continued to shoot rockets from Gaza into areas in southern Israel, the Lebanese Hezbollah movement has claimed to have hit a dozen locations in northern Israel since Thursday. Israeli forces have struck a number of areas in southern Lebanon, L’Orient Today reported. In Israel, Netanyahu reportedly canceled a visit to visit wounded soldiers in a Tel Aviv hospital, with Ynet reporting that the decision was likely due to concerns that “he would be met by protests from the families of the wounded,” as was the case with Transportation Minister Miri Regev. Thousands of Israelis have been marching for the past three days, calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, with another protest planned outside the Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday. Some families of hostages have expressed anger at the Israeli government for seemingly not prioritizing the safe return of their loved ones, while opposition leader Yair Lapid has publicly called on Netanyahu to resign because the public has lost trust in him. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-42-communications-blackout-obscures-full-picture-of-israels-devastation-in-gaza/

November 16: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 41 Humanitarian & fuel updates, hospital crises, evacuation update, West Bank & Israel news, international community actions, and more Kathryn Shihadah November 16, 2023 November 16: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 41 Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City (photo) Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live broadcast news from the region is here. Some people are led to be skeptical of the Al Jazeera news network. However, the network has won several Emmys, a Peabody and the Overseas Press Association’s Edward R. Murrow award, among many other honors. The New York Times reports that “its reporting hews to international journalistic standards and provides a unique view on events in the Middle East.” it’s important to remember that all news sources may potentially have bias. For example, CNN uses anchors who used to work for the Israel Lobby, who have lifelong attachment to Israel, and who often exhibit pro-Israel spin and omission in their broadcasts. Similarly, Fox News is strongly influenced by Rupert Murdoch, who has a similarly strong attachment to Israel, and who may have fired Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular host, in part due to the host’s opposition to war and his pattern of failing to exhibit sufficient devotion to Israel). Latest statistics: Palestinian death toll: 11,196* (10,999 in Gaza** (including at least 4,707 children and 3,155 women), and at least 197 in the West Bank). *IAK does not yet include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation. Palestinian injuries: 30,076** (including at least 29,000 in Gaza** and 2,750 in the West Bank). **NOTE: it is impossible to offer an accurate number of injuries in Gaza due to the ongoing bombardment and communication disruption. The Associated Press has reported ~32,000 in Gaza, while the UN number is somewhat lower. Our total for Gaza and the West Bank is based on the conservative figure. It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. About 1.6 million people have been displaced; 3,640 are missing (1,770 children) and presumed to be under rubble. Israel has now killed more Palestinians in a little over a month than in all the previous 22 years combined. Reported Israeli death toll has been reduced to ~1,200*** (The Israeli spokesman said the original figure of deaths on March 7 was an “initial estimate” – killed in West Bank, 53 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and ~5,400 injured). The names of the 1,175 identified (about 33 of them children) are here. ***NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers. Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org Humanitarian aid: Since 21 October, 1,139 trucks carrying mainly medicines, food and water have entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, representing a fraction of the needs. Due to the absence of fuel, on 14 November, UNRWA’s solid waste removal services began shutting down, posing an environmental hazard, with about 400 tons of rubbish per day accumulating in overcrowded camps and IDP shelters. Fuel to Gaza: On 15 November, some 23,000 litres of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt, the first such delivery since 7 October. The Israeli authorities have restricted the use of this fuel only to use for UNRWA trucks distributing aid. The entry of fuel for all other purposes remains banned including for hospital generators and water and sanitation facilities. Given UNRWA requires about 160,000 litres of fuel per day to run basic humanitarian operations, it has had to halt key services. The small amount that entered Gaza was too late in the day to refuel the trucks for aid delivery. Deadly attacks over the past 24 hours included: on 14 November, in the afternoon, airstrikes reportedly hit Al Mohophin School, in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Gaza city, killing 17 people; the same day, at about 20:30, airstrikes reportedly hit a residential building in As Saftawi area, north of Gaza city, killing 13 people, including six women; on midday 14 November, airstrikes reportedly hit a building in Al Qarara, east of Khan Yunis, killing nine people; on 15 November, at around midday, airstrikes reportedly hit As Salhi Towers area, in Nuseirat, killing 14 people. Propaganda photo, then a bullet to the head: The Israeli army released a propaganda photo of one of its soldiers helping an elderly Palestinian man with a walking stick in an attempt to showcase its “safe corridor” for civilians fleeing northern Gaza. Shortly afterwards, 79-year-old Bashir Hajji was executed in cold blood by Israeli soldiers, according to Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. Hajji’s granddaughter, Hala Hajji, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that he was executed after the photo was taken with one bullet to the head and back. “He died tired, cold, thirsty & hungry,” she wrote in a post on Instagram, confirming her grandfather’s death. OCHA reports arrests, beatings on evacuation route: Those fleeing to southern Gaza along the so-called safe “corridors” established by Israeli forces face arrest and the UN has received reports of beatings and people being stripped of their clothes by Israeli soldiers. (02:57 GMT) Palestinians fleeing south are “reporting the presence of dead bodies in the streets”. New evacuation orders in southern Gaza: The Israeli army dropped leaflets last night and in the early hours of this morning ordering residents on the eastern side of Khan Younis, close to the Israel border, to move to the western side because it is “safe.” Khan Younis is located in the southern half of the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of people displaced from the north have already sought refuge there in schools and tents, causing severe overcrowding amid shortages of food and water. RECOMMENDED READING: South Africa: World must urge Israel to stop ‘crime against humanity’ in Gaza Israeli troops brought boxes with them into Al Shifa Hospital, produced a weapons cache: When Israeli troops entered the hospital, they brought in boxes marked “baby food” and “medical supplies,” then later released a video it said showed some of the materials it allegedly recovered inside the hospital, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets. In one hospital department, “the soldiers [allegedly] located an operational command centre and technological assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organization uses the hospital for terrorist purposes,” an Israeli military statement said. According to a video released on X (see below), they found a laptop. There is no indication that Israeli troops’ boxes were inspected before they entered the hospital, or that any third party accompanied them on their inspection. Israeli army deletes, reposts video allegedly inside al-Shifa Hospital: According to the Israeli publication Haaretz, the Israeli military had taken down a social media post uploaded on X on Thursday, which showed what Israel claimed was proof of weapons being kept inside Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military did not publish any explanation for the deletion of the post. The video, showing Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, was later reposted by the Israeli army with some parts being blurred out, raising questions about the authenticity of the evidence being presented in the clip. RECOMMENDED READING: Israel fails to show evidence of Hamas command center at al-Shifa hospital Another raid at Al Shifa, including ‘strip searches’ of Palestinians: Israeli forces launched another raid at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the early hours of Thursday. The Israeli army has confirmed that it is conducting a military operation in the hospital. There are reports of some 200 people being blindfolded and interrogated and taken to unknown areas; their fate is unknown. An entire building at al-Shifa Hospital – the specialized surgeries building – has been completely damaged from the inside, in addition to Israeli forces blowing up a warehouse for medicine and medical equipment inside the hospital. Israeli bulldozers and vehicles also reportedly completely destroyed the southern entrance to al-Shifa Hospital and all vehicles in its courtyard. Medical sources told Wafa that the Israeli army installed facial recognition cameras and electronic gates in the hospital courtyard while strip-searching Palestinians in the medical complex. Israeli forces also reportedly arrested a number of displaced people and the families of those who were killed and wounded, who were seeking shelter there. The Red Cross and UNRWA are calling for the evacuation of the 650 patients at al-Shifa Hospital to other facilities. The patients would be put in tents or in a school near the European [Gaza] Hospital. The director-general of Gaza hospitals is demanding that patients be transferred to Egypt. Al Ahli Hospital targeted: Journalist Ismael al-Ghoul reported from near the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that Israeli air strikes have targeted the perimeter of the hospital. The attacks could be seen as an indicator of preparations for raiding the medical facility. Ahli Arab Hospital is only providing basic medical services, as it was targeted earlier in the war. This video shows the intensity of the bombing. Out of 24 hospitals with in-patient capacity in the north, only one, Al Ahli in Gaza city, is presently operational and admitting patients. Eighteen hospitals have shut down and evacuated since the start of hostilities, including three – An Nasr, Ar Rantisi and Al Quds – over the past three days. RECOMMENDED READING: What we know about the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital blast Gaza City will soon be “uninhabitable”: Ha’aretz reports on what Israeli troops are doing besides ransacking Al Shifa hospitals: [D]ozens of battalion combat teams…are going from house to house [in Gaza City]…They’re taking no risks, and as nearly all of the million-plus population who lived in the area just six weeks ago have now fled south [NOTE: sources like Al Jazeera report that “hundreds of thousands” still remain in Gaza City]…this means that any building that is any way suspected of harboring weapons or tunnel entrances is bombed or bulldozed, or both. We may be very near the point where there are more Israeli soldiers in Gaza City than Gazans, and the issue of trying to avoid more civilian casualties will no longer exist because all those who can will have left. Wide swaths of the city and its surroundings have already been destroyed, and it’s only a matter of weeks before the largest Palestinian city is rendered totally uninhabitable. The article does not say what will happen to those Gazans who have been unable or unwilling to leave their homes. 3 Palestinians killed in West Bank in alleged shooting attack: Three suspected Palestinian assailants allegedly opened fire at a checkpoint on a road between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, wounding six security force members before the assailants were shot dead. The suspects arrived in a vehicle from the direction of Bethlehem, Shabtai told reporters at the scene, and opened fire when the Israeli forces there began questioning them. They were killed when the Israeli forces shot back, he said. One of the soldiers has died of his wounds. RECOMMENDED READING: Reports of harsh conditions and abuse in Israeli security prisons where Palestinians are being held for social media posts Palestinian lawmaker in Israel sanctioned: The Israeli Knesset’s Ethics Committee has temporarily sanctioned two Palestinian lawmakers, citing “inflammatory remarks” made after the 7 October Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel. MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and MK Iman Khatib Yassin of the United Arab List were banned from taking part in Knesset hearings and votes for two months. They also face salary deductions. “Knesset Ethics Committee suspended me for 2 months for criticising the Israeli army’s action in Gaza,” Touma-Suleiman wrote on X. “Silencing of critical voices of Palestinian citizens and anti-war activists is rampant these days. The war must cease, persecution must end.” “Wake up. This is genocide”: Countries must “wake up” to the massive violations that Israel is committing in Gaza, a Palestinian ambassador told UN member states Thursday, insisting it was a “genocide.” “You should wake up in this room. This is a massacre, this is genocide, and we’re seeing it on TV. It cannot continue,” Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi told a gathering of UN member states in Geneva. US doesn’t use its veto: The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip” to allow for aid delivery and medical evacuations, after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war. It was adopted by 12 votes in favor, zero against and three abstentions – Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It additionally asked for the unconditional release of captives held in Gaza. “It is binding international law, but we know that there are many Security Council resolutions that are binding international law that Israel does not comply with. But I think it will add added pressure on Israel, particularly as the US allowed this resolution to go through – it could’ve used its veto,” said Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays. Int’l civil society answers call to challenge Israel: An international delegation of writers, lawyers, journalists, and activists arrived in Cairo, Egypt this week to exert pressure to secure the safe passage of food, water, fuel, & medical aid to 2.3 million Palestinians facing starvation and death as genocidal Israeli airstrikes continuously pound defenseless civilians. They have submitted a request to Egypt for permission to travel to Rafah. Their effort is in response to the Palestinian and Arab calls for civil society to challenge Israel’s “deadly occupation.” They add, We urge all peoples and governments to act urgently to end this horror. There are hundreds of aid trucks currently parked in the desert waiting to enter the Rafah Crossing. We demand they be allowed to reach Palestinians whose needs are dire and desperate. The Washington Post reports: Israel has killed more than 11,100 Gazans. That’s one out of every 200 people, 0.5% of the population. US distances itself from Al Shifa raid: The United States has denied giving Israel a green light for a raid on al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip after backing Israeli claims that the medical facility was being used for military purposes. Speaking on Wednesday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby countered accusations from Hamas that President Joe Biden’s administration was complicit in the raid. The US had previously stated that an intelligence assessment backed up Israel’s claims that al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, sat atop a large Hamas command center. Americans’ support for Israel, war reaches a new low: A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday shows that 32 percent of respondents said “the US should support Israel” when asked what role Washington should take in the war. This is down from the 41 percent who shared this opinion in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October. Meanwhile, 68 percent of respondents in the poll said they agreed with a statement that “Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate.” RECOMMENDED READING: How Israel and the West smear the Palestinians as antisemitic Many groups urge Biden administration to change Israel policy: More than 500 political appointees and staff members representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday protesting his support of Israel in its war in Gaza. A group of more than two dozen Democratic members of US Congress has signed a letter urging the Biden administration to agree to a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza. In the past 24 hours, two Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations to 53, according to official Israeli sources. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups towards Israeli population centres has continued over the past 24 hours, with no reported fatalities. (Information on rocket attacks is here.) It appears that the last time a rocket killed an Israeli was October 7, as reported by Ha’aretz. Ten Israelis were killed – 4 of them Palestinian Israelis. https://israelpalestinenews.org/november-16-todays-news-palestine-israel-day-41/

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 41: Israel ignores legally binding UNSC resolution, saying ‘it will not happen.’ Leila WarahNovember 16, 2023 Displaced Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and UNRWA schools in Khan Yunis, November 14, 2023. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) Displaced Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and UNRWA schools in Khan Yunis, November 14, 2023. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) Casualties 11,255 killed*, including 4,630 children, and 29,000 wounded in Gaza 196 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 14. Key Developments Israeli airstrikes have targeted the perimeter of the Ahli Arab Hospital on Thursday afternoon, reports Al Jazeera, who believes the attacks could be seen as an indicator of preparation to storm the hospital. Israeli forces violently stormed Al-Shifa Hospital twice within 24 hours, destroying the inside of the medical complex despite finding no Palestinian fighters inside. The UN Security Council passed a legally binding resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses,” unrestricted aid delivery, including fuel and medical evacuations, and the release of captives inside Gaza; however, Israel says “it will not happen.” UNOCHA: Those fleeing to the South using the Israeli force’s “so-called safe corridors” face arrest, and the UN has received reports of “beatings and people being stripped of their clothes by Israeli soldiers.” According to a police statement, Israeli security forces killed three people who arrived in a “suspicious vehicle and opened fire towards our forces,” shooting and injuring four people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on Thursday morning, according to Israeli media. Israeli forces have detained 69 Palestinians during overnight military raids on Palestinian homes across the occupied West Bank, including four siblings in Kufr Rai village near Jenin in an effort to force their brother to turn himself in, reported Wafa, UNOCHA: The Palestinian Red Cross is no longer able to respond to the hundreds of calls from people seeking assistance in evacuating people wounded or trapped under the rubble. As of November 10, about 2,700 people, including some 1,500 children, remain missing and presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza The Red Cross and UNRWA are calling for the evacuation of the 650 patients trapped by the Israeli military in al-Shifa Hospital to other facilities, including in Egypt, as the patients are beyond the capability of Gaza’s already collapsed healthcare system, reports Al Jazeera. On Wednesday, Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel warned that Gaza is expected to enter a communications blackout as the company’s data centers and equipment will shut down due to the lack of fuel. At least seven staff members at the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza were injured at the ER entrance as they tried “to tend to Palestinians who themselves had been injured in Israeli air strikes,” said a spokesperson for the Jordanian army, adding that Jordan is investigating the incident and holds Israel responsible for the protection of their faculty and staff. The Palestine Red Crescent Society has shared a distressing video showing Israeli forces targeting the organization’s paramedics as they shell the vicinity of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza last Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is publicly calling on the Prime Minister to resign because the public has lost trust in him. Bombing, shooting, detaining, and strip searching Palestinains Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, has been stormed twice by Israeli forces in the last 24 hours, even though they have only found civilians, including medical staff, patients, and displaced persons. Evidence of an alleged Hamas command center is also absent. The first military incursion started at dawn on Wednesday before soldiers withdrew in the evening, maintaining their siege on the medical complex as “the smell of death wafts everywhere,” Al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera. According to the Gaza government’s media office, Israeli forces expelled several children and patients, “depriving them of treatment and leaving them to face the threats of bombings, snipers and deadly drones” and even attacked several medical staff inside al-Shifa hospital during the incursion. “They forced them to take off their clothes, insulted and cursed at them. They asked medical staff to leave their stations so they could interrogate them under the threat of weapons,” the office said. Similarly, Wafa news reported that eyewitnesses saw Israeli forces forcing displaced people to strip naked and detaining and interrogating doctors, patients, and civilians. The Palestinian news outlet added that Israeli forces were also seen installing facial recognition cameras and electronic gates in the courtyard of the medical complex. As Israeli forces stormed Al Shifa hospital on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on X, “There is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach.” “We will arrive, we will eliminate Hamas, and we will return the hostages. These two goals are sacred…Yesterday, I spoke with President Biden again. We will be relentless. We will eliminate Hamas, achieve victory, and return the hostages,” he continued. After finding little to no verifiable evidence of al-Shifa Hospital being used as the central operations headquarters for Hamas, Israeli forces launched a second raid on the hospital in the early hours of Thursday, less than 24 hours later. Al Jazeera reported that the entire building had been damaged from the inside, stating that the Israeli military tore apart the walls and partitions between rooms and destroyed all the medical equipment. Israeli bombardment has also caused “material damage to the specialized surgeries department at the hospital,” the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Telegram. The World Health Organization described Israel’s assault on Al-Shifa hospital as “totally unacceptable.” “Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” the statement said. “Health workers have endured weeks of bombardment and siege and yet continue doing all they can to save lives. The international community must act now to end Israel’s systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system and secure an immediate ceasefire,” Melanie Ward, the CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a statement. “Apparently, no crime, no matter how grave, is enough for the international community, including the Security Council, to say to Israel: Stop,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer. “Calls for restraint are clearly not working,” he added. “The demands for respect of international law must be backed by immediate, serious, collective efforts to enforce the law.” According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces have complete control of the medical complex, and civilians are trapped inside the hospital and detained under Israeli custody. Israeli forces have taken some Palestinians to unknown locations, and their fate is still unknown. It is becoming increasingly difficult for anybody to reach any of the medical staff, patients, and displaced people still stuck inside the hospital. “I cannot even imagine … the panic among the patients, the panic among doctors and nurses. What they’re [going] through is really something that is unbelievable,” Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told Al Jazeera on Wednesday evening. Longa added that hospitals being forced to shut down due to the lack of fuel, among other essentials, is “something that is not acceptable” as thousands of Palestinians trapped in the besieged enclave no longer have access to healthcare. In a publicity stunt on Thursday, Israel gave UNRWA just over 23,000 liters of fuel to be used inside the Gaza Strip, which is about 9% of what the agency needs to provide support to Palestinians in the besieged enclave. “Much more fuel is needed. We need 160,000 liters of fuel every day for basic humanitarian operations,” he said, calling on Israel to “immediately authorize the delivery of the needed amount of fuel as is required under international humanitarian law.” Even worse, Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini says Israeli Authorities “restricted the use of this fuel “only to transport the little aid coming via Egypt,” meaning it cannot be used in hospitals or for water purification. “It is appalling that fuel continues to be used as a weapon of war,” he added in a statement on X. Meanwhile, Israeli politicians continue pushing back on allowing basic humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave, collectively punishing the 2.3 million people living in Gaza because of the possibility that Hamas will use the fuel. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared that “Diesel = weapon,” on Wednesday. Similarly, transportation Minister Miri Regev said that “fuel for UNRWA is fuel for Hamas.” However, the UN reiterated that “Fuel underpins access to and provision of all humanitarian services in Gaza. Without it, access by the people of Gaza to life-saving humanitarian assistance will all but cease.” “We are already seeing a cascading collapse in water, sewage, and sanitation services, telecoms, food shortages, and healthcare,” they added. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, highlighted that “Gaza is ‘occupied’ given Israel’s effective control, regardless of Hamas’ existence,” and that Israel “has a right to protect itself but not to wage war” on the Palestinian people who have been kept under Israel’s “belligerent occupation” since 1967. Meanwhile, in the South of Gaza, the Israeli army is once again demanding Palestinians to evacuate “immediately,” this time from eastern Khan Younis, including Al-Qarara, Khuza’a, Bani Suhaila, and Abasan. It is crucial to note that Israel has been gradually pushing Gaza’s inhabitants farther south, claiming it is for their safety, despite every area being as deadly as the other. Notches were dropped from the sky asking people to go to “known shelters,” Yousef Hammash, who works with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), tweeted. “Can someone tell me where these known shelters are?” Hammash stated. While most civilians have evacuated from Gaza City, those left in homes surrounding the al-Shifa hospital have been told by the Israeli military to leave, reported al Jazeera. However, there have been reports of families being targeted by snipers if they try to evacuate and are not being afforded safe passage. Questionable evidence As Israel’s operation in the hospital expands, the military has been releasing unverified claims about what its forces found within the medical complex. “The army is in the hospital and no one knows what they’re doing or what weapons they brought with them to claim they found them inside the complex,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said on Wednesday evening as Israel released videos claiming they have confirmed that Hamas used al-Shifa Hospital as an operational command center. Similarly, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, questioned Israel’s “evidence.” “It’s kind of baffling. Why would Hamas leave the guns and not anything else?” said Bishara. The Israeli military “doesn’t have anything to show as justification for the genocide that they’ve carried out against Gaza and for the bombings of the hospitals and other facilities and for the collective punishments,” he added. Hamas official Bassem Naim also told Al Jazeera the evidence presented by the army is “ridiculous” and “worthless.” Israel has previously claimed to uncover a Hamas tunnel underneath another medical facility in Gaza, which Al Jazeera quickly debunked. On Thursday, Israeli media reported the military taking down a video of Israeli spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus claiming to show proof of weapons being held inside al-Shifa Hospital. While the army has not commented on the deleted post, online commentators have pointed out various consistencies in the images posted by the military with reports from Fox News, who had a correspondent with them during the raid. The Israeli army later reposted the video with parts being blurred out, leading to even more public speculation on the authenticity of the clips. Calls for Netanyahu to resign As these military operations take place, captives are still being held in Gaza and subject to Israel’s ruthless bombardment of the area, which has led to an outcry among Israelis as Netanyahu puts off negotiations with Hamas. While Qatar has reportedly continued mediating negotiation efforts for a deal between Hamas and Israel, nothing has been agreed upon. “Israel is still delaying the release of 50 women and children from the captives in exchange for a humanitarian truce, the release of a number of women and children detainees in prisons, and the entry of relief aid to all areas in the Gaza Strip,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said on Telegram. Israel is not serious about reaching an agreement “but is stalling to continue its aggression and war against defenseless civilians,” Izzat al-Risheq continued. As Israel’s poorly woven narrative about Hamas unravels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is calling on the Prime Minister to resign because the public has lost trust in him. “We need a government that can be trusted,” said Lapid, suggesting that his own party could form a government with Netanyahu’s Likud and other political parties. The Times of Israel reported that Likud, Israel’s major right-wing political party, accused Lapid of “play[ing] politics in a time of war.” Lapid said, “This government isn’t functioning, we need change, Netanyahu cannot continue to be prime minister, we cannot allow ourselves to conduct a prolonged [military] campaign with a prime minister that the public has no faith in,” reported Al Jazeera, commenting that this is a significant shift in Israeli politics and the first time the opposition has publicly called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. According to Israeli media, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, believes that replacing the prime minister at this time is “nothing less than crazy.” “I hear the voices saying this is not the time. We waited 40 days, there is no more time. What we need right now is a government that will deal with nothing but security and the economy. We cannot afford another election in the coming year,” Lapid continued. UN Security Council Resolution passed: Israel does not care On Wednesday evening, the UN Security Council finally passed a resolution after four failed attempts to respond to Israel’s war on Gaza. Drafted by Malta, the resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses,” unrestricted aid delivery, including fuel and medical evacuations, and the release of captives inside Gaza passed with 12 votes in favor and 0 against. Three countries abstained from voting: Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The text also stressed the need to safeguard civilians, especially children, and called for “corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days,” yet it made no mention of a ceasefire. Malta’s ambassador to the UN said the resolution “aims to ensure respite from the current nightmare in Gaza and give hope to the families of all victims.” The fact that Washington “finally stopped paralyzing the Security Council on Israel and Palestine” demonstrates to Israel that “global concern, even among its allies, is strong,” said the UN director at Human Rights Watch, Louis Charbonneau. In response, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the resolution is “disconnected from reality” and has “no meaning.” Erdan said point blank, “It will not happen.” “Israel will continue to act until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned,” he continued, maintaining that Israel’s assault on Gaza is in keeping with international law despite the repudiation of several experts. Although Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays says the resolution is “binding under international law,” there have been “many” other binding Security Council resolutions “that Israel does not comply with.” “Israeli authorities, who have already lost their legitimacy in the conscience of humanity, will not be able to conceal the crimes they committed by bombing hospitals and killing women and children in front of the whole world,” the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-41-israel-ignores-legally-binding-unsc-resolution-saying-it-will-not-happen/

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 39: Health official says Israel ‘sentencing Al-Shifa hospital to death’ as doctors dig mass grave Mustafa Abu SneinehNovember 14, 2023 Atef Al-Helou (C), from Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City, stays with his relatives inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Atef has fractures in his feet, and due to the large number of injured people, there is no time to undergo an operation, and will to travel outside Gaza for treatment. Al-Helou and his family were injured after the Israeli army bombed the houses adjacent to Al-Quds Hospital, and they were forced to leave the hospital for southern Gaza in the city of Khan Yunis. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) Atef Al-Helou (C), from Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City, stays with his relatives inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Atef has fractures in his feet, and due to the large number of injured people, there is no time to undergo an operation, and will to travel outside Gaza for treatment. Al-Helou and his family were injured after the Israeli army bombed the houses adjacent to Al-Quds Hospital, and they were forced to leave the hospital for southern Gaza in the city of Khan Yunis. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) Casualties 11,180 killed*, including 4,609 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza 195 Palestinians killed* in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 12. Key Developments Gaza’s hospitals are lacking sufficient food and water, thousands of displaced people are reported to have sought shelter in them. Gaza health official: “[Israel] is sentencing everyone inside Al-Shifa hospital to death.” Al-Shifa Hospital medical staff and volunteers dug a mass grave to bury 170 bodies that started to decompose as mortuary refrigeration lost electricity. Al-Amal Hospital’s sole power generator stopped working in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza Strip, putting the lives of hundreds of patients and injured at risk of death. 3,250 people reportedly still missing or under the rubble, including 1,700 children, according to Gaza Ministry of Health. Israeli forces storm hospital in the West Bank and fired tear gas at another. Eight Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours in Tulkarm and Hebron. Abdulrahman Ahmed Muhammad Marei, 33, is the fifth prisoner to die inside Israeli jails since October 7. Mass grave dug in Al-Shifa Hospital as Israel lays siege All of the Palestinian hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip have gone out of service in the sixth week of Israel’s war on Gaza, including Al-Shifa, the largest medical complex. Hundreds of lives are at risk of death, and thousands of civilians remain trapped inside the hospitals’ premises, Gaza’s Deputy Health Minister Yousef Abu el-Rish told AFP. “We cannot reach the dozens of women who will give birth. We received reports of cases in which women gave birth in the street or at home without a midwife. Snipers shoot at anyone moving from building to building inside the hospital,” Abu el-Rish explained. He said that they were forced to evacuate patients and medical staff over the weekend from Al-Rantisi Hospital, after receiving threats from the Israeli forces. Hospitals are lacking sufficient food and water, and there are unconfirmed numbers of thousands of displaced people who sought shelter in them. Al-Shifa Hospital, northern Gaza’s largest medical facility, has been under fire and siege from Israeli tanks and forces for the past week. Abu el-Rish said Israel is “sentencing everyone inside [Al-Shifa] hospital to death.” On Tuesday morning, Munir al-Bursh, the Health Ministry’s General Director, told Al-Jazeera Arabic in a phone call, that Israeli forces prevented the burial of bodies in a nearby cemetery, which forced the staff to dig a mass grave for 170 bodies inside the Al-Shifa complex. Al-Bursh said medical staff and volunteers dug the grave with shovels and their hands when bodies started to decompose as the hospital has no electricity to run mortuary refrigeration. A member of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) inside Al-Shifa Hospital said Monday that they “need a guarantee that there is a safe corridor because we saw some people trying to leave Al-Shifa, [Israeli forces] killed them, they bombed them, the sniper killed them.” MSF tweeted the testimony of the member, who also said that there were a number of bodies and injured people outside Al-Shifa complex, which ambulances and paramedics could not reach due to Israel snipers’ fire and bombings. They currently have no food and water, and internet and phone communication are not stable. “The medical team agreed to leave the hospital only if patients are evacuated first: we don’t want to leave our patients,” MSF’s member said. Al-Shifa is not the only hospital to be attacked or under siege. On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera reported that almost 100 patients and medical staff are trapped inside Al-Hilo Hospital in Gaza City after Israeli tanks encircled the area. Since October 7, 25 out of Gaza’s 35 hospitals have completely stopped working, the majority of them are in the northern Gaza Strip. The only hospital operating in Gaza on Tuesday morning was Al-Ahli in the Al-Zaytoun area, according to Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). In the early days of the war, hundreds were killed when Israeli bombed the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital where thousands of people were sheltering. However, the PRCS said that Al-Ahli was only handling mild and moderate cases to ease pressure on the emergency department after the PRCS-affiliated Al-Quds Hospital went out of service. PRCS said Al-Amal Hospital’s sole power generator stopped working in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, putting the lives of hundreds of patients and injured at risk of death. “Around 9,000 displaced individuals have sought refuge in the PRCS premises and [Al-Amal] Hospital,” the PRCS said. “The hospital is currently relying on a very small generator to supply electricity to light the maternity ward and emergency department. It’s important to note that the remaining fuel is expected to run out within the next 24 hours,” it added. For the past few days, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has not been updated by the Ministry of Health due to the disruption of communication services. But on Monday evening, the latest figure released by the ministry and reported by Wafa news agency, was 11,180 martyrs, 4,609 children, 3,100 women, and 678 elderly people. The figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 12. There are reports of 3,250 people still missing or under the rubble, including 1,700 children. On Monday, the United Nations paid tribute to 101 members of staff killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the highest record of casualties in the UN history. “Today, the UN family observed a moment of silence to mourn & honour our colleagues killed in Gaza,” Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said. “They will never be forgotten,” he added on X. West Bank: hospitals attacked as dozens of Palestinians are killed, injured, and arrested The Israeli assault on Palestinian hospitals has extended to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces are continuing the mass arrest campaign that began on October 7. On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Health reported that dozens of civilians and medical staff suffered from severe eye and respiratory pain when Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters at Thabet Thabet government-run hospital in the city of Tulkarm. The ministry released a video on Telegram showing the emergency department at Thabet Thabet Hospital engulfed with a cloud of tear gas smoke. On Monday night, Israeli forces stormed Hugo Chavez Eye Hospital in the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, Wafa reported. Turmus Ayya’s residents have routinely suffered from Jewish settlers’ attacks. In June, almost 400 settlers attacked the village, killing a Palestinian man and burning 30 vehicles and 30 properties. Wafa reported that Israeli forces conducted a “field investigation” and questioned workers at Hugo Chavez Hospital. “The interrogation of medical staff is a blatant violation of medical and health institutions,” said the Ministry of Health. In the past 24 hours, eight Palestinians were killed in the cities of Tulkarm and Hebron. On Monday night, three Palestinians were killed and three were injured in a missile attack launched from an Israeli drone in the Al-Ghanem neighborhood in Tulkarm refugee camp. Thabet Thabet Hospital announced that the three martyrs were identified as Saeed Suleiman Youssef Abu Tahoun, 24, Jihad Khaled Muqbil Ghanem, 27, and Musab Omar Ahmed Al-Ghoul, 21. The Ministry of Health said that four others were killed in Tulkarm after being shot by Israeli forces who stormed the city. Mahmoud Ali Hadayda, 25, and Hazem Muhammad Hosri, 28, were were shot by live bullets in the chest. Four people were injured by snipers bullets who were deployed on the houses’ roofs, Wafa reported. Israeli forces blocked ambulances from entering Tulkarm camp. Medhat Abu Amsha was arrested from inside an ambulance while being transported to the hospital, Wafa said. The health ministry announced that two people succumbed to their wounds on Tuesday morning. Israeli forces had bulldozed Al-Madares Street at the entrance of Tulkarm camp and part of Al-Quds Open University Street, damaging infrastructure. At least 32 Palestinians have been killed in Tulkarm since October 7, Wafa reported. In total since October 7, 195 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank and at least 2,700 injured. In Hebron, Muhammad Abd al-Majid Halayqa, 20, succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday after being shot by Israeli forces near the town of Beit Ainun, northeast of Hebron. On Tuesday, the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Prisoners’ Club said that Abdulrahman Ahmed Muhammad Marei, 33, is the fifth prisoner to die inside Israeli jails since October 7, accusing Israeli authorities of a “new premeditated assassination.” Marei is from Qarawat Bani Hassan, northwest of Salfit, and was detained in Megiddo prison since February. The number of Palestinians arrested since October 7 in occupied West Bank and Jerusalem rose to 2,750. In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces arrested 28 people from Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem, and Qalqilya. Israeli captive killed in Israeli airstrike, Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv Abu Obaida, the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesman, said on Monday evening that an Israeli captive held by Hamas was killed during the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Abu Obaida said also that Israel rejected a Qatari-mediated five-day truce in which Hamas would release a total of 70 captives in return for the freeing of all Palestinian children and women prisoners inside Israeli jails. Hamas also announced that it destroyed 20 military vehicles in the Gaza Strip since Saturday, and also launched rockets at the Tel Aviv metropolitan area on the 38th day of the war. Fighting is still ongoing in the Al-Shat refugee camp in Beit Hanoun, and the triangle of Al-Twam, Al-Karameh Towers, and Al-Mukhabarat Towers. Hamas said on Tuesday morning that it attacked an Israeli force barricaded inside a building in north Gaza, and that it attacked two “Zionist tanks” west of Gaza City with 105mm Al-Yaseen shells and the 114mm Rajum rocket launcher. Islamic Jihad’s armed wing announced on Tuesday morning that it launched mortar shells at Israeli forces stationed near the kibbutz of Kissufim. Sirens went off in a number of settlements near the Gaza Strip and the town of Askalan on Tuesday. The Israeli army said that an air defense missile was fired at an “aerial target” near Eilat. Sirens went off in the upper Galilee, and Israel said it bombed targets in the Lebanese town of Aita Al-Shaab. The Hezbollah movement also announced that it targeted the Israeli sites of Al-Malkia and Al-Burj. Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned on Monday of an Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip. He said that there is “no military or security solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The root of the crisis is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its denial of Palestinians’ legitimate rights.” The monarch added that “the solution starts from there, and any other path is doomed to failure and more of a cycle of violence and destruction.” Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, suggested on Tuesday that “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza could be “the only solution.” “This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region,” Smotrich wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “The reception of refugees by the countries of the world that really want their best interests, with the support and generous financial assistance of the international community, and within the state of Israel is the only solution that will bring to the end of the suffering and pain of Jews and Arabs alike.” “The State of Israel will no longer be able to put up with the existence of an independent entity in Gaza,” he added. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-39-health-official-says-israel-sentencing-al-shifa-hospital-to-death-as-doctors-dig-mass-grave/

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 37: Al-Shifa Hospital no longer functioning as Israeli ground troops surround the hospital Thousands of lives are at risk as Al-Shifa Hospital becomes non-operational, with ICUs and incubators shutting down due to lack of fuel, and medical staff and patients trapped waiting to die. Israeli forces continue to shell hospitals in north Gaza. Mustafa Abu SneinehNovember 12, 2023 Israeli troops conducting ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. (Photo: © Chen Junqing/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/APA Images) Israeli troops conducting ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. (Photo: © Chen Junqing/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/APA Images) Casualties 11,078 killed*, including 4,506 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza 184 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *The casualty numbers from Gaza have not been updated in at least 2 days, as the “collapse of services and communications” has made it nearly impossible for the health ministry to document and update the numbers Key Developments Israeli heavy fire targeting Al-Shifa trapped thousands of people who were displaced, wounded, sick, and medical staff inside it, without electricity, food, water, or fuel. Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces are located approximately 700 meters from the Al-Shifa hospital’s gates, and firing, and armed clashes could be heard in the distance. WHO: “There are reports that some people who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded and even killed.” Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely after running out of fuel to generate electricity. Doctors at al-Ahli Arab Hospital say it is now the last functioning hospital in Gaza City and the northern areas and that it is “overwhelmed” with casualties. Israeli forces are surrounding the medical quarter in the center of Gaza City, where three major hospitals are located, including Al-Nasr Medical Complex, Al-Rantisi, and St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital. Israel said 43 soldiers were killed since October 28, and Hamas released footage of targeting tanks in Gaza. Hamas’s Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson said that fighters documented the destruction, completely or partially, of 160 Israeli military vehicles, which includes tanks, bulldozers and personnel carriers. The Israeli army said that it killed 150 Hamas fighters last week during battles in the Al-Shati refugee camp northwest of Gaza City, and claimed that it captured a station of Hamas’s Badr unit. Thousands protest worldwide while Israel carries on arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank. Al-Shifa Hospital ‘completely out of service’: Patients dying, bodies piling up outside Following days of relentless attacks from the air and land on northern Gaza’s hospitals, the healthcare system in the north has seen a near-complete collapse, with only one hospital, the previously-bombed Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, remaining functional. Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa Hospital, is“completely out of service”, Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Al Jazeera. Several people, including at least two premature infants and five ICU patients, have already died due to a lack of oxygen, medical supplies, and the inability of doctors and medical staff to perform life-saving surgeries as a result of power outages and no fuel. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson Mai al-Kaila released a statement on Sunday detailing the desperate conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital. “The Israeli occupation army does not evacuate hospitals, but rather throws the wounded and sick into the street to certain death,” al-Khaila said, referring to reports and eyewitness testimony that Israeli forces were shooting at people inside the hospitals, as well as those attempting to evacuate. “This is not an evacuation, but an expulsion at gunpoint,” she said. Among the patients dying or facing imminent death, al-Kaila said, are children and adults on kidney dialysis who “die in their homes without receiving dialysis sessions.” Al-Kaila confirmed the death of 12 patients inside the Al-Shifa Medical Complex so far. She added that all 3,000 cancer patients who were being treated at the Al-Rantisi and Al-Turki Hospital in Gaza “have now been left to die” after they were forcibly expelled from the hospitals due to Israeli bombardment. “All pregnant women and those with dangerous pregnancies are at risk, as women do not find anyone to provide them with treatment and medical services in Gaza. Every woman about to give birth will not find anyone to provide her with any medical service,” Al-Kaila went on to say. Early on in Israel’s bombardment, medical officials reported that there were an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, including around 5,000 expecting mothers due to deliver at any moment. Over the weeks, several reports have emerged of pregnant women among those killed by Israeli airstrikes, causing doctors to have to cut out their unborn fetuses in an attempt to save the babies. In addition to sick patients in the hospital who can’t be treated, as well as chronically ill patients being left to die, hundreds of Palestinians who are becoming wounded and sick as a result of Israeli bombardment cannot reach the hospital itself. Over the past month of Israeli bombardment, Gaza’s infrastructure, including roads around hospitals, have been decimated, making it nearly impossible for ambulances to move to and from the hospital to reach bombed-out buildings and the wounded. Additionally, medical staff inside the hospital cannot physically move inside the hospital, as Israeli drones and ground forces “fire at everyone who moves inside the complex.” Doctors and staff, as well as the sick and displaced, have little to no food, while water has been completely cut off in the complex. Medical waste is piling up inside the departments, while the hospital’s blood reserves have spoiled due to power outages, meaning that needy patients can no longer receive life-saving blood transfusions. Outside the hospital, bodies of Palestinian martyrs are piling up, with medical teams unable to reach them safely without coming under Israeli fire. According to al-Kail, the bodies have begun to decompose in the hospital courtyard. She added that stray dogs have “mauled” some of the bodies. Wafa news agency’s correspondent reported Sunday that dozens of martyrs’ bodies were still lying in the hospital’s courtyard and the surrounding area. Paramedics could not reach them due to the intensity of Israeli fire, and since 9 p.m. local time on Saturday, up until 9 a.m. on Sunday, no ambulances were seen leaving or arriving at Al-Shifa Hospital. Patients, medical staff unable to evacuate al-Shifa Al-Shifa Hospital saw a mass exodus of Palestinians over the weekend, including patients, their families, some medical staff, and thousands of Palestinians who were seeking shelter at the hospital. It remained unclear exactly how many people, including patients, medical staff, and internally displaced persons, remained inside the hospital, but several reports put that number around several thousand. Mondoweiss’ Gaza Correspondent Tareq Hajjaj, who is currently in Khan Yunis, reported that the majority of the tens of thousands of people who were inside Al-Shifa hospital fled over the weekend. Those who have remained have found it an impossible task to leave due to constant Israeli shelling in the area. On Sunday morning, Israel targeted the water wells of Al-Shifa and shot at 40 people when they tried to flee the premises, Al-Jazeera reported. The World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement saying it was left in the dark about the conditions of Al-Shifa after losing communications with contacts inside the medical facility. “As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” WHO said. “There are reports that some people who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded and even killed,” it added. Gaza ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Al Jazeera on Sunday that it was “absolutely impossible to evacuate those wounded.” Al-Qudra said the only safe way to evacuate the 650 patients at al-Shifa would be to Egypt, not to southern Gaza, as the hospitals there are overwhelmed and are also under imminent threat of shutting down due to fuel shortages. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, among the patients still at Al-Shifa are nearly 60 patients in ICUs, dozens of premature babies in incubators, and more than 500 patients in the dialysis department. Calling for an immediate ceasefire, the WHO said: “Patients seeking health care should never be exposed to fear, and health workers who have taken an oath to treat them should never be forced to risk their own lives to provide care.” Over the past month, Israel has bombed the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital several times, killing and injuring hundreds of people and damaging the solar panels on the roof, which added to the brunt of operating the facility amid a lack of fuel to generate electricity. In recent days, Israeli forces encircled Al-Shifa from southwest of Gaza City, turning it into a “combat zone.” Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces are located approximately 700 meters from the hospital’s gates. The medical staff could hear Israeli military vehicles and armed clashes in the distance. Al-Shifa became the heartbeat of rescue and paramedic efforts during the Israeli war on Gaza, a refuge for thousands of Palestinians, and a platform for health and government officials to update the media about casualty figures and the latest developments in the Gaza Strip. Israel is attempting to capture Al-Shifa after nearly destroying all major government offices, in addition to some press offices, in the first days of the war. It claims that Hamas’s main command center lies underneath it, which Palestinians deny and which Israel has yet to provide concrete evidence of. Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely On Sunday morning, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely after running out of fuel to generate electricity. Israeli tanks and ground troops were 20 meters away from Al-Quds Hospital on Saturday, one of the many medical facilities in Gaza that had been threatened by Israeli forces several times since October 7. PRCS said earlier that infants at Al-Quds Hospital “are facing dehydration due to a shortage of breast milk alternatives.” There are 14,000 displaced people sheltering in Al-Quds Hospital, which is treating almost 500 patients, according to Wafa. Israeli forces are surrounding the medical quarter in the center of Gaza City, where three major hospitals are located, including Al-Nasr Medical Complex, Al-Rantisi, and St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital. At least 198 medical staff and 36 Civil Defense staff have been killed and 130 injured since Israel began its war on the Gaza Strip. Nearly 60 ambulances have also been damaged, while 53 have gone completely out of service. Israeli forces shell UN agency headquarters as thousands of Palestinians take shelter On Sunday morning, Israeli forces shelled the compound of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip. UNDP said that it was “deeply distressed” upon hearing the development. It vacated its staff from the location on 13 October. “The shelling has reportedly resulted in a significant number of deaths and injuries,” the UNDP said in a statement. Wafa reported that at least five were killed till Sunday afternoon. An eyewitness told Al-Jazeera Arabic on Sunday that people are in panic and terrified after they thought they were sheltering in a safe ground protected by the UN. On November 6, thousands of people rushed into the UNDP’s compound to seek shelter following Israel’s ground invasion north of the Gaza Valley areas on October 28. “The ongoing tragedy of death and injury to civilians ensnared in this conflict is unacceptable and must stop. Civilians, civilian infrastructure, and the inviolability of UN facilities, must be respected and protected at all times,” the statement added. In the past 24 hours, Israel warplanes and tanks bombed neighborhoods of Sheikh Radwan, Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Karama Towers, Al-Maqousi, Sheikh Ejleen, Al-Rimal, and Al-Nasr of Gaza City. At least eight people were killed and 20 injured on Sunday morning in a bombing of the Al-Najar family house in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. Wafa reported that the Hamdan family’s house in the Al-Sabra neighborhood was hit by a missile strike on Sunday morning. In Deir al-Balah, three people were killed and dozens injured when the house of Abdullah al-Adini was bombed. Israel says 43 soldiers killed, Hamas releases footage targeting tanks in Gaza The Israeli army announced on Saturday the death of five soldiers, raising the number of its casualties to 43 since it launched the ground invasion of Gaza on October 28. The army said in a statement that the deceased soldiers were from an “elite reserve force.” Ynet reported that four were killed in Beit Hanoun by an explosion at an entrance to a booby-trapped tunnel. Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, is one of the areas that is seeing intense clashes between Israeli forces and resistance fighters. The triangle of Al-Twam, Al-Karameh Towers, and Al-Mukhabarat Towers, north of Gaza City, are also battlegrounds. On Saturday, Hamas’s Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson said that fighters documented the destruction, completely or partially, of 160 Israeli military vehicles, which includes tanks, bulldozers, and personnel carriers. The Israeli army said that it killed 150 Hamas fighters last week during battles in the Al-Shati refugee camp northwest of Gaza City and claimed that it captured a station of Hamas’s Badr unit. Since October 28, Israeli and foreign journalists embedded in the Israeli forces have had to submit video footage to the army to be checked and censored before being used. On Sunday, Qassam Brigades announced that it destroyed two tanks south of Gaza City with 105mm Al-Yaseen shells. Hamas released a compilation of videos in the past few days, showing fighters firing shells at Israeli military tanks stationed amid the rubble and destruction in Gaza. On Sunday, the Israeli army radio said that a shell was fired from Lebanon into the Galilee, and Israeli warplanes bombed “terrorist infrastructure” in Syria following a shelling into the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Thousands protest worldwide while Israel carries on arrest campaign in occupied West Bank Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Europe’s major cities and in the U.S., calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and showing their support and solidarity with the Palestinians. Pro-Palestine protests rallied near U.S. President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, as frustration grew at his administration’s failure to call for a ceasefire and the unwavering support of Israel. Protestors shouted: “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” In London, at least 300,000 protestors marched from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy near Vauxhall Bridge, though reports from organizers estimated the crowds reached up to 800,000 people, saying it was one of the largest marches in British history. The UK government had attempted to pressure the Metropolitan Police to cancel the protest as it coincided with Armistice Day, or Veterans Day as it is known in the U.S. However, the Met Police gave a green light for the march as its route was away from the Cenotaph, where the occasion of Armistice Day is commemorated. The two-minute silence was followed by clashes between Met police and far-right activists who attempted to break into the excluded zone to reach and confront the pro-Palestine march. “This group were largely football hooligans from across the UK and spent most of the day attacking or threatening officers who were seeking to prevent them being able to confront the main march,” the Met Police said in a statement. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tweeted on Saturday that “the relentless bombardment of hospitals and civilians in Gaza is intolerable. It’s against international humanitarian law – it must stop and stop now.” Other protests took place in Paris, Rotterdam, Cape Town, Paris, and Brussels, among other cities. Arrests continue in the West Bank In the occupied West Bank, Israel has continued its mass arrest campaign. On Sunday, at least 25 people were arrested from towns and cities in the Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and Jerusalem districts. Wafa published a list of the names of the detainees in the past 24 hours. Montaser Muhammad Amin Saif, 34, succumbed to his wounds on Sunday morning after he was shot and then arrested during an Israeli raid of Burqa village, north of Nablus. His house was vandalized by soldiers, Wafa said. The Commission for the Affairs of Ex-Prisoners said that Saif’s killing was an “execution crime.” “The act of assassinating and executing the freed prisoner Saif is part persecuting freed prisoners, attacking them and their families, and part of a policy of systematic abuse against them, targeting their stability, whether by arrest or killing,” the commission said. Wafa reported that Israeli forces raided several houses in Burqa and blew up the car of Mahmoud Hajjah, a resident of the village, after arresting him. Shadi Abu Omar, a leader in the Fatah movement, and Omar Shabib were also arrested and their houses raided. Since October 7, Israel has arrested 2,470 Palestinians in the West Bank and killed 184 people. The occupied West Bank has also remained under near complete lockdown since the start of the Israeli military operation, with Palestinian towns and villages cut off from each other by Israeli checkpoints and barriers. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-37-al-shifa-hospital-no-longer-functioning-as-israeli-ground-troops-surround-the-hospital/

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 37: Al-Shifa Hospital no longer functioning as Israeli ground troops surround the hospital Thousands of lives are at risk as Al-Shifa Hospital becomes non-operational, with ICUs and incubators shutting down due to lack of fuel, and medical staff and patients trapped waiting to die. Israeli forces continue to shell hospitals in north Gaza. Mustafa Abu SneinehNovember 12, 2023 Israeli troops conducting ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. (Photo: © Chen Junqing/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/APA Images) Israeli troops conducting ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. (Photo: © Chen Junqing/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/APA Images) Casualties 11,078 killed*, including 4,506 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza 184 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *The casualty numbers from Gaza have not been updated in at least 2 days, as the “collapse of services and communications” has made it nearly impossible for the health ministry to document and update the numbers Key Developments Israeli heavy fire targeting Al-Shifa trapped thousands of people who were displaced, wounded, sick, and medical staff inside it, without electricity, food, water, or fuel. Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces are located approximately 700 meters from the Al-Shifa hospital’s gates, and firing, and armed clashes could be heard in the distance. WHO: “There are reports that some people who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded and even killed.” Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely after running out of fuel to generate electricity. Doctors at al-Ahli Arab Hospital say it is now the last functioning hospital in Gaza City and the northern areas and that it is “overwhelmed” with casualties. Israeli forces are surrounding the medical quarter in the center of Gaza City, where three major hospitals are located, including Al-Nasr Medical Complex, Al-Rantisi, and St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital. Israel said 43 soldiers were killed since October 28, and Hamas released footage of targeting tanks in Gaza. Hamas’s Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson said that fighters documented the destruction, completely or partially, of 160 Israeli military vehicles, which includes tanks, bulldozers and personnel carriers. The Israeli army said that it killed 150 Hamas fighters last week during battles in the Al-Shati refugee camp northwest of Gaza City, and claimed that it captured a station of Hamas’s Badr unit. Thousands protest worldwide while Israel carries on arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank. Al-Shifa Hospital ‘completely out of service’: Patients dying, bodies piling up outside Following days of relentless attacks from the air and land on northern Gaza’s hospitals, the healthcare system in the north has seen a near-complete collapse, with only one hospital, the previously-bombed Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, remaining functional. Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa Hospital, is“completely out of service”, Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Al Jazeera. Several people, including at least two premature infants and five ICU patients, have already died due to a lack of oxygen, medical supplies, and the inability of doctors and medical staff to perform life-saving surgeries as a result of power outages and no fuel. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson Mai al-Kaila released a statement on Sunday detailing the desperate conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital. “The Israeli occupation army does not evacuate hospitals, but rather throws the wounded and sick into the street to certain death,” al-Khaila said, referring to reports and eyewitness testimony that Israeli forces were shooting at people inside the hospitals, as well as those attempting to evacuate. “This is not an evacuation, but an expulsion at gunpoint,” she said. Among the patients dying or facing imminent death, al-Kaila said, are children and adults on kidney dialysis who “die in their homes without receiving dialysis sessions.” Al-Kaila confirmed the death of 12 patients inside the Al-Shifa Medical Complex so far. She added that all 3,000 cancer patients who were being treated at the Al-Rantisi and Al-Turki Hospital in Gaza “have now been left to die” after they were forcibly expelled from the hospitals due to Israeli bombardment. “All pregnant women and those with dangerous pregnancies are at risk, as women do not find anyone to provide them with treatment and medical services in Gaza. Every woman about to give birth will not find anyone to provide her with any medical service,” Al-Kaila went on to say. Early on in Israel’s bombardment, medical officials reported that there were an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, including around 5,000 expecting mothers due to deliver at any moment. Over the weeks, several reports have emerged of pregnant women among those killed by Israeli airstrikes, causing doctors to have to cut out their unborn fetuses in an attempt to save the babies. In addition to sick patients in the hospital who can’t be treated, as well as chronically ill patients being left to die, hundreds of Palestinians who are becoming wounded and sick as a result of Israeli bombardment cannot reach the hospital itself. Over the past month of Israeli bombardment, Gaza’s infrastructure, including roads around hospitals, have been decimated, making it nearly impossible for ambulances to move to and from the hospital to reach bombed-out buildings and the wounded. Additionally, medical staff inside the hospital cannot physically move inside the hospital, as Israeli drones and ground forces “fire at everyone who moves inside the complex.” Doctors and staff, as well as the sick and displaced, have little to no food, while water has been completely cut off in the complex. Medical waste is piling up inside the departments, while the hospital’s blood reserves have spoiled due to power outages, meaning that needy patients can no longer receive life-saving blood transfusions. Outside the hospital, bodies of Palestinian martyrs are piling up, with medical teams unable to reach them safely without coming under Israeli fire. According to al-Kail, the bodies have begun to decompose in the hospital courtyard. She added that stray dogs have “mauled” some of the bodies. Wafa news agency’s correspondent reported Sunday that dozens of martyrs’ bodies were still lying in the hospital’s courtyard and the surrounding area. Paramedics could not reach them due to the intensity of Israeli fire, and since 9 p.m. local time on Saturday, up until 9 a.m. on Sunday, no ambulances were seen leaving or arriving at Al-Shifa Hospital. Patients, medical staff unable to evacuate al-Shifa Al-Shifa Hospital saw a mass exodus of Palestinians over the weekend, including patients, their families, some medical staff, and thousands of Palestinians who were seeking shelter at the hospital. It remained unclear exactly how many people, including patients, medical staff, and internally displaced persons, remained inside the hospital, but several reports put that number around several thousand. Mondoweiss’ Gaza Correspondent Tareq Hajjaj, who is currently in Khan Yunis, reported that the majority of the tens of thousands of people who were inside Al-Shifa hospital fled over the weekend. Those who have remained have found it an impossible task to leave due to constant Israeli shelling in the area. On Sunday morning, Israel targeted the water wells of Al-Shifa and shot at 40 people when they tried to flee the premises, Al-Jazeera reported. The World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement saying it was left in the dark about the conditions of Al-Shifa after losing communications with contacts inside the medical facility. “As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” WHO said. “There are reports that some people who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded and even killed,” it added. Gaza ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Al Jazeera on Sunday that it was “absolutely impossible to evacuate those wounded.” Al-Qudra said the only safe way to evacuate the 650 patients at al-Shifa would be to Egypt, not to southern Gaza, as the hospitals there are overwhelmed and are also under imminent threat of shutting down due to fuel shortages. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, among the patients still at Al-Shifa are nearly 60 patients in ICUs, dozens of premature babies in incubators, and more than 500 patients in the dialysis department. Calling for an immediate ceasefire, the WHO said: “Patients seeking health care should never be exposed to fear, and health workers who have taken an oath to treat them should never be forced to risk their own lives to provide care.” Over the past month, Israel has bombed the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital several times, killing and injuring hundreds of people and damaging the solar panels on the roof, which added to the brunt of operating the facility amid a lack of fuel to generate electricity. In recent days, Israeli forces encircled Al-Shifa from southwest of Gaza City, turning it into a “combat zone.” Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces are located approximately 700 meters from the hospital’s gates. The medical staff could hear Israeli military vehicles and armed clashes in the distance. Al-Shifa became the heartbeat of rescue and paramedic efforts during the Israeli war on Gaza, a refuge for thousands of Palestinians, and a platform for health and government officials to update the media about casualty figures and the latest developments in the Gaza Strip. Israel is attempting to capture Al-Shifa after nearly destroying all major government offices, in addition to some press offices, in the first days of the war. It claims that Hamas’s main command center lies underneath it, which Palestinians deny and which Israel has yet to provide concrete evidence of. Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely On Sunday morning, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely after running out of fuel to generate electricity. Israeli tanks and ground troops were 20 meters away from Al-Quds Hospital on Saturday, one of the many medical facilities in Gaza that had been threatened by Israeli forces several times since October 7. PRCS said earlier that infants at Al-Quds Hospital “are facing dehydration due to a shortage of breast milk alternatives.” There are 14,000 displaced people sheltering in Al-Quds Hospital, which is treating almost 500 patients, according to Wafa. Israeli forces are surrounding the medical quarter in the center of Gaza City, where three major hospitals are located, including Al-Nasr Medical Complex, Al-Rantisi, and St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital. At least 198 medical staff and 36 Civil Defense staff have been killed and 130 injured since Israel began its war on the Gaza Strip. Nearly 60 ambulances have also been damaged, while 53 have gone completely out of service. Israeli forces shell UN agency headquarters as thousands of Palestinians take shelter On Sunday morning, Israeli forces shelled the compound of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip. UNDP said that it was “deeply distressed” upon hearing the development. It vacated its staff from the location on 13 October. “The shelling has reportedly resulted in a significant number of deaths and injuries,” the UNDP said in a statement. Wafa reported that at least five were killed till Sunday afternoon. An eyewitness told Al-Jazeera Arabic on Sunday that people are in panic and terrified after they thought they were sheltering in a safe ground protected by the UN. On November 6, thousands of people rushed into the UNDP’s compound to seek shelter following Israel’s ground invasion north of the Gaza Valley areas on October 28. “The ongoing tragedy of death and injury to civilians ensnared in this conflict is unacceptable and must stop. Civilians, civilian infrastructure, and the inviolability of UN facilities, must be respected and protected at all times,” the statement added. In the past 24 hours, Israel warplanes and tanks bombed neighborhoods of Sheikh Radwan, Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Karama Towers, Al-Maqousi, Sheikh Ejleen, Al-Rimal, and Al-Nasr of Gaza City. At least eight people were killed and 20 injured on Sunday morning in a bombing of the Al-Najar family house in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. Wafa reported that the Hamdan family’s house in the Al-Sabra neighborhood was hit by a missile strike on Sunday morning. In Deir al-Balah, three people were killed and dozens injured when the house of Abdullah al-Adini was bombed. Israel says 43 soldiers killed, Hamas releases footage targeting tanks in Gaza The Israeli army announced on Saturday the death of five soldiers, raising the number of its casualties to 43 since it launched the ground invasion of Gaza on October 28. The army said in a statement that the deceased soldiers were from an “elite reserve force.” Ynet reported that four were killed in Beit Hanoun by an explosion at an entrance to a booby-trapped tunnel. Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, is one of the areas that is seeing intense clashes between Israeli forces and resistance fighters. The triangle of Al-Twam, Al-Karameh Towers, and Al-Mukhabarat Towers, north of Gaza City, are also battlegrounds. On Saturday, Hamas’s Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson said that fighters documented the destruction, completely or partially, of 160 Israeli military vehicles, which includes tanks, bulldozers, and personnel carriers. The Israeli army said that it killed 150 Hamas fighters last week during battles in the Al-Shati refugee camp northwest of Gaza City and claimed that it captured a station of Hamas’s Badr unit. Since October 28, Israeli and foreign journalists embedded in the Israeli forces have had to submit video footage to the army to be checked and censored before being used. On Sunday, Qassam Brigades announced that it destroyed two tanks south of Gaza City with 105mm Al-Yaseen shells. Hamas released a compilation of videos in the past few days, showing fighters firing shells at Israeli military tanks stationed amid the rubble and destruction in Gaza. On Sunday, the Israeli army radio said that a shell was fired from Lebanon into the Galilee, and Israeli warplanes bombed “terrorist infrastructure” in Syria following a shelling into the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Thousands protest worldwide while Israel carries on arrest campaign in occupied West Bank Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Europe’s major cities and in the U.S., calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and showing their support and solidarity with the Palestinians. Pro-Palestine protests rallied near U.S. President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, as frustration grew at his administration’s failure to call for a ceasefire and the unwavering support of Israel. Protestors shouted: “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” In London, at least 300,000 protestors marched from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy near Vauxhall Bridge, though reports from organizers estimated the crowds reached up to 800,000 people, saying it was one of the largest marches in British history. The UK government had attempted to pressure the Metropolitan Police to cancel the protest as it coincided with Armistice Day, or Veterans Day as it is known in the U.S. However, the Met Police gave a green light for the march as its route was away from the Cenotaph, where the occasion of Armistice Day is commemorated. The two-minute silence was followed by clashes between Met police and far-right activists who attempted to break into the excluded zone to reach and confront the pro-Palestine march. “This group were largely football hooligans from across the UK and spent most of the day attacking or threatening officers who were seeking to prevent them being able to confront the main march,” the Met Police said in a statement. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tweeted on Saturday that “the relentless bombardment of hospitals and civilians in Gaza is intolerable. It’s against international humanitarian law – it must stop and stop now.” Other protests took place in Paris, Rotterdam, Cape Town, Paris, and Brussels, among other cities. Arrests continue in the West Bank In the occupied West Bank, Israel has continued its mass arrest campaign. On Sunday, at least 25 people were arrested from towns and cities in the Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and Jerusalem districts. Wafa published a list of the names of the detainees in the past 24 hours. Montaser Muhammad Amin Saif, 34, succumbed to his wounds on Sunday morning after he was shot and then arrested during an Israeli raid of Burqa village, north of Nablus. His house was vandalized by soldiers, Wafa said. The Commission for the Affairs of Ex-Prisoners said that Saif’s killing was an “execution crime.” “The act of assassinating and executing the freed prisoner Saif is part persecuting freed prisoners, attacking them and their families, and part of a policy of systematic abuse against them, targeting their stability, whether by arrest or killing,” the commission said. Wafa reported that Israeli forces raided several houses in Burqa and blew up the car of Mahmoud Hajjah, a resident of the village, after arresting him. Shadi Abu Omar, a leader in the Fatah movement, and Omar Shabib were also arrested and their houses raided. Since October 7, Israel has arrested 2,470 Palestinians in the West Bank and killed 184 people. The occupied West Bank has also remained under near complete lockdown since the start of the Israeli military operation, with Palestinian towns and villages cut off from each other by Israeli checkpoints and barriers. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-37-al-shifa-hospital-no-longer-functioning-as-israeli-ground-troops-surround-the-hospital/

The death of Al-Shifa Hospital, the last bastion of humanity in northern Gaza People are dead on the streets as hospital staff hear people crying for help after being shot at. When medical workers attempt to go out and save them, they are also targeted and killed. No one is left to document the scale of the genocide. Tareq S. HajjajNovember 13, 2023 Shifa hospital NICU, as premature babies are grouped together to keep them warm, November 2023 (Photo: Social Media) Shifa hospital NICU, as premature babies are grouped together to keep them warm, November 2023 (Photo: Social Media) This dispatch was relayed by Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent Tareq Hajjaj via voice note. Two days ago, the injured left Al-Shifa Hospital with wounds still bleeding, some on wheelchairs, some pulled by cart. Those who arrived in the south a few days ago reported that Al-Shifa Hospital’s administration had urged them to flee since it would soon no longer be operational. By now, it has completely closed down. These directives did not come out of nowhere. They were based on the hospital administration’s expectation of what would transpire during the ground invasion, given Israel’s systematic policy of targeting medical facilities. In the days leading up to the Al-Shifa exodus, Israel’s forces continued to close in, bombing and shelling the neighboring buildings and outer parts of the hospital and launching missiles into the hospital’s courtyard where refugees were sleeping, cutting them up into pieces. The tanks continued to approach Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, until they were right at its gate. Ministry of Health spokespeople remain at Al-Shifa, in the hopes that injuries and dead bodies would reach the hospital, where they could be documented and tallied. These hopes have since been dashed, as no one is allowed to move outdoors or reach the hospital for treatment or refuge. The past few hours have been the most catastrophic for Gaza’s northern hospitals, which include Al-Shifa, Al-Quds Hospital, Rantisi Hospital for Pediatrics, and Nasr Hospital in Gaza City, and the Indonesian Hospital in the north, which was targeted last week with shelling and “firebelts” meant to force medical staff, patients, and refugees to evacuate. Medical workers have suffered the most during the recent rounds. But many medical teams refused to leave the hospitals, staying behind to take care of patients in ICUs and NICUS who could not move without dying. This includes 48 premature babies whose incubators and respirators have since failed. Only yesterday, it was announced that two of these infants have died due to the lack of oxygen and heating. Photos began circulating of remaining hospital staff swaddling the remaining infants and laying them close to one another to conserve heat and keep them warm. ‘We can see injured people. We hear them crying for help, but we cannot do anything.’ The Palestinian Authority Minister of Health, Mai Keileh, said that medical staff are no longer able to move between buildings to carry out their work. Attack drones hovering over the medical complex target anything that moves. It has led to the pile-up of corpses in the hospital’s courtyard, and anyone who tries to go out to collect them is also killed. Keileh stated that medical staff has been unable to bury over 100 martyrs, and their bodies have begun to rot in the courtyard, while stray dogs are now beginning to eat at their flesh. A Gaza government spokesperson yesterday said that Israeli army snipers stationed in nearby buildings have shot a patient in his bed through the window, in addition to a maintenance worker who tried to rewire hospital electrical lines in an attempt to restore power to a part of the hospital. The same government source stated that a group of medical staff attempted to leave the hospital while waving white flags and made their way to the hospital’s main entrance, but that drones also targeted them directly, killing most. Those who survived the initial blast lay on the ground for hours, bleeding to death and screaming for help, until they, too, died. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported a similar incidents, quoting the testimony of Dr. Mohammed Obeid at Al-Shifa: “We’re on the fourth floor. There’s a sniper who attacked four patients inside the hospital. One of the patients has a gunshot wound directly in his neck, and he is a quadriplegic, and the other one [was shot] in the abdomen. ” MSF also confirmed government reports of the injured left to bleed to death in the courtyard. One MSF staff member described the scene: “There are dead people on the streets. We see people being shot at. We can see injured people. We hear them crying for help, but we cannot do anything. It is too dangerous to go outside.” The Mahdi maternity hospital in northern Gaza was also targeted with bombardment and shelling. People who stood near windows were shot by Israeli snipers, while Israeli drones hovering overhead targeted anything that moved in the hospital’s courtyard, even medical teams, who were trapped inside. Dr. Basel Mahdi, who works at the hospital, wrote online that “No one dies before their time. But there are many who die without dignity.” “May God never forgive you,” his letter said, addressing Arab heads of state. “You betrayed us. You betrayed your Arab identity.” Half an hour after posting the message, Dr. Mahdi was killed when he tried to leave the hospital. No one left to document the genocide The medical system in northern Gaza has subsequently collapsed. No hospital or medical center is operational. The likely hundreds of thousands of civilians who have remained in the north now have no place to seek treatment for their wounded, which pile up daily. And they have been met with the same treatment as the hospital staff. When someone attempts to move and flee south, they are shot or bombed where they stand. In addition, the invasion of the Israeli troops and the raiding of homes with residents still inside has opened the door for further violations. Dr. Muhammad Nizam Ziyara wrote a post on social media about his family’s ordeal in the al-Nasr neighborhood: “Yesterday, Israeli occupation forces entered our home in the Nasr neighborhood in Gaza after blowing up our house’s front door. They gathered the entire family in a single room, and then proceeded to beat and abuse everyone, and turned the house into a military base. The soldiers then separated the women and young children the men and boys, who they continued to beat before taking them to the nearby UNRWA school. We haven’t received word of their fate for the past 24 hours. The women and children were taken out of the house and used as human shields, forcing them to walk in front of the military tanks and head to the southern part [of the Nasr neighborhood]. As of now, we do not have any word of their fate either.” Dr. Ziyara concluded his post by asking anyone who might have information about his family’s whereabouts to contact him. Israel’s claims that it is targeting these hospitals because Hamas is allegedly using them for military purposes have been repeatedly denied by hospital administrations, who have said that they are prepared for an international delegation to conduct a search of the hospitals and their grounds for evidence of such alleged underground tunnels and command centers. The only Israeli response has been more shelling and bombardment, murdering anyone who attempts escape. Perhaps when it becomes clear that Israel’s claims about Al-Shifa are baseless, it will find an excuse to level and destroy this remaining bastion of humanity in Gaza. Along with it, it seeks to kill the remaining staff of the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is responsible for documenting and tallying the fatalities and the wounded. In doing so, Israel seeks to silence the Ministry as well as the journalists still embedded in the hospital, causing a complete information blackout so that Israel can commit its massacres with no one to see. As more people are killed and left to decompose out in the open, no one will be left to document the scale of the unfolding genocide. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/the-death-of-al-shifa-hospital-the-last-bastion-of-humanity-in-northern-gaza/

Al Shefa is the main hospital in besieged Gaza! The Zionist terrorists have no mercy! #IsraelWarCrimes https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/8/why-is-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-at-the-heart-of-israels-war Why is Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital at the heart of Israel’s war? It’s Gaza’s largest hospital, sheltering and treating thousands of Palestinians even as Israel attacks it. Lorraine Mallinder An injured Palestinian boy is carried from the ground following an Israeli airstrike outside the entrance of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City For Palestinians in Gaza, it’s the “house of healing”. For Israel, it’s Hamas’s main command centre. Al-Shifa, the biggest hospital in the enclave, is now at breaking point, battling to treat thousands of patients as it comes under direct attack from the Israeli military. Last week, the Israeli army bombed an ambulance outside the hospital, part of a convoy that was meant to carry patients from Gaza City to the Rafah border crossing, so they could be treated in Egypt. Fifteen people were killed in the attack, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which had coordinated the journey with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the attack, which killed people inside and around the ambulance, should be investigated as a possible war crime. On Monday, it was reported that Israeli forces had again targeted the hospital, this time hitting a solar panel system that provided electricity to its main departments. With barely any fuel left in its tanks to keep its one generator running, it’s now only a matter of time before the hospital is forced to switch off vital equipment like ventilators and dialysis machines, leaving patients to die. Here’s what you need to know about al-Shifa and why is it being targeted: What is al-Shifa? Dar al-Shifa, literally translated as “house of healing”, is the largest and most extensive medical complex in the strip, comprising three specialised facilities: surgical, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynaecology. Sign up for Al Jazeera Week in the Middle East Located in the northern Remal neighbourhood, close to the port, the site originally housed British Army barracks. It became a hospital in 1946, undergoing successive expansions under Egyptian rule and during the Israeli occupation in the 1980s. The hospital has become a lifeline for people seeking urgent medical intervention. Like all hospitals in the besieged strip – bar the Jordanian field hospital, which received an airdrop of medical aid at midnight on Sunday – it has been denied urgently needed supplies of medicine and fuel. It has the capacity to treat 700 patients, but right now doctors are treating approximately 5,000, according to a recent report by Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. Thousands of people who have lost their homes are living in the hospital corridors and in the courtyard. INTERACTIVE_GAZA_al-Shifa_NOV8_2023-1699442409 Already overwhelmed, the hospital has been flooded with bodies and wounded patients since last week’s bombing of the Abu Assi school, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Casualties mounted on Sunday, following one of the heaviest nights of bombardment seen so far, which saw the Israeli military hit 450 targets in the north – including the nearby Shati refugee camp. Dr Marwan Abusada, the hospital’s head of surgery, said that al-Shifa can offer 210 beds on normal days. Currently, 800 patients are waiting to be admitted, he said in a statement relayed to Al Jazeera by NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). The hospital is also low on personnel. Israeli air attacks have killed 150 medical staff in the strip. What are conditions like right now? “At all levels, we are dealing with a health disaster,” said Dr Abusada. MSF, which supplied al-Shifa with the medicines and equipment that it still has in its stock, has reported that surgeons at the hospital are operating on patients without painkillers. Short on beds, surgeons have amputated limbs as patients lie on the floor. With nowhere to keep patients in the unhygienic conditions, patients who have undergone surgical procedures run a high risk of infection. “We have a type of worm, called white flies, covering the wounds after the surgery. They appear after one day,” said Dr Abusada. Running on empty, the hospital is barely able to deliver needs, conserving its electricity supply for its emergency unit, intensive care and operating rooms. “We are trying hard to continue delivering services to the patients who need kidney dialysis, urgent catheterisation and … incubators, but we are delivering the bare minimum,” said the doctor. On Monday, an Al Jazeera report depicted scenes of chaos outside and inside the hospital, with bloodied patients lining the corridors. Having just pronounced a man dead, surgeon Sara Al Saqqa spoke of living, sleeping and waking at the hospital, working as many as 72 consecutive hours. “Every day, we say today was the worst ever, then the next day is worse,” she said, adding later that there aren’t enough freezers to keep the corpses. At the weekend, the hospital was forced to transfer its maternity ward to the private Al Helou International Hospital in Gaza City. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women are caught up in the conflict, according to the United Nations Population Fund in Palestine. Premature births and miscarriages are on the rise, owing to the fear and panic caused by bombardment. In northern Gaza, where the hospital is located, the main sources of water – a desalination plant and the pipeline from Israel – have been shut down since the start of the war. At present, the hospital only receives salty groundwater, unsuitable for drinking and hygiene. According to the UN, only 5 percent of Gaza’s water needs are being met. A Palestinian man mourns A Palestinian man mourns as civil defense teams and residents conduct a search and rescue operation for Palestinians stuck under the debris of a demolished building following Israeli airstrikes hit al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on October 24, 2023. [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images] Why is it under attack? Al-Shifa is a prime target for Israeli forces, which claim the hospital is located above the headquarters of Hamas, the armed group that has governed Gaza since 2007. Last month, the Israeli military released a video that used a combination of satellite imagery and animated graphics to claim that it had intelligence-based proof of Hamas’s purported use of the hospital below ground, with tunnels, facilities and meeting rooms. Hamas has rejected those claims, which it said is sheltering more than 40,000 displaced people. It’s not the first time that links have been drawn between Hamas and al-Shifa. Following Israel’s 2014 ground offensive in Gaza, Amnesty International accused Hamas of committing “spine-chilling” atrocities against political rivals in abandoned areas of the hospital to extract confessions of collaboration. In an earlier report, the rights group had also accused Israel of war crimes during its incursion, which killed more than 2100 people. Back then, too, the hospital had come under attack. Israel and Hamas traded blame for an explosion at the hospital that reportedly killed at least 10 children. Hamas blamed the blast on an Israeli drone attack, while Israel claimed it had been caused by a failed Palestinian rocket. The episode had shades of a similarly disputed, but much deadlier explosion at al-Ahli Arab Hospital last month. In the current conflict, Israel has accused Hamas of storing fuel for its own operations, preventing more supplies from entering in the limited number of humanitarian convoys crossing into the strip. With no power, 16 out of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip have stopped working. Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza City, November 7 Smoke rises following Israeli attacks, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in Gaza City, November 7, 2023 [Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters] What next for al-Shifa? As Israeli forces close in, the outlook is bleak for al-Shifa. At the time of writing, Israeli troops had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the enclave and were engaging Hamas fighters in the heart of Gaza City. Israel has insisted that it wants to rout Hamas, destroy the alleged headquarters below the hospital and hunt down the group’s fighters. It has also said it wants to assume control of the strip’s security for the foreseeable future.

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