Israel-Hamas war live: Hamas leader says ‘we are close to reaching a truce’ but Israel yet to comment - The Guardian

It is noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …

• Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said early on Tuesday morning that Hamas is “close to” a truce agreement with Israel. “We are close to reaching a deal on a truce,” Haniyeh said, adding that the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators.

• Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq told Al Jazeera that ongoing talks were for a truce that would last “a number of days” and include arrangements for the entry of aid in to Gaza, and a swap of hostages taken by Hamas for people imprisoned by Israel.

• Two sources familiar with the truce talks told AFP a tentative deal includes a five-day truce, comprising a ceasefire on the ground and limits to Israeli air operations over southern Gaza. In return, between 50 and 100 prisoners held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad – a separate Palestinian militant group – would be released. They would include Israeli civilians and captives of other nationalities, but no military personnel.

• Qatar’s prime minister said on Sunday that a deal to free some of the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire hinged on “minor” practical issues.

• Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a statement Tuesday morning warning against a deal.

• Israel’s air force has posted to social media to claim that in the last 24 hours it has “struck approximately 250 Hamas terror targets”. The Israeli military also issued a video of its troops in action within the Gaza Strip, claiming that “division 162 completed the encirclement of Jabalia tonight and is ready for the continuation of the attack”.

• Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, has claimed this morning that Israeli airstrikes targeted the house of the deputy undersecretary of the health ministry, with at least 17 people killed.

• Israel’s military has issued a statement to say that fire is again being exchanged over the UN-drawn blue line boundary between Israel and Lebanon. There are unconfirmed media reports that two journalists and one other person have been killed in the region.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that three hospitals in Israeli-besieged Gaza had requested help with evacuating patients and that planning had started.

Reuters reports that Christian Lindmeier said in Geneva that evacuations were a last resort, and that the situation in Gaza was “robbing the entire population of the north of the means to seek health.”

He said the three hospitals were the al-Shifa, the Indonesian hospital, and al-Ahli hospital, adding “So far it’s only in planning stages with no further details.”

Unicef, the UN children’s agency, has said there is a serious threat of a mass disease outbreak in besieged Gaza.

“It’s a perfect storm for tragedy,” Unicef spokesperson James Elder said. “Without enough fuel, we will see the collapse of sanitation services. So we have then, on top of the mortars and the bombs, a perfect storm for the spread of disease.”

“We have a desperate lack of water, faecal matter strewn across densely populated settlements, an unacceptable lack of latrines, and severe, severe restraints on hand-washing, personal hygiene and cleaning.”

Speaking in Geneva via videolink from Cairo, Elder said the potential for wider loss of life in Gaza was being significantly exacerbated because an estimated 800,000 children are displaced from their homes.

“If children’s access to water and sanitation in Gaza continues to be restricted and insufficient, we will see a tragic yet entirely avoidable surge in the number of children dying,” AFP reports Elder said.

“It’s also important to note it’s starting to rain in Gaza. Now combined, children face a serious threat of mass disease outbreak. This, of course, would be lethal.”

A protest to highlight the number of children killed in Gaza since Israel began its military campaign has been taking place in Istanbul in Turkey. Childrens’ shoes and the photographs of victims of Israeli airstrikes have been left in Üsküdar Square. Health officials in Gaza have claimed that at least 5,000 children have been killed by the assault so far.

At the same time the Times of Israel reports that another protest is taking place in Tel Aviv, where Hadas Calderon, the mother of two children abducted by Hamas on 7 October, is protesting outside the IDF headquarters in Israel’s capital.

“We must not miss this chance for a deal,” she told reporters. “I call on all the mothers to come to the entrance to the Kirya [the name of the IDF HQ], and to stand alongside me. We must bring them home.”

Her children Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16 are believed to be in Gaza, among the 30 teenagers and young children thought to have been kidnapped.

Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen television says two of its staff were killed in an Israeli attack in the south of the country today. It named them as correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari.

The state-run national news agency in Lebanon has also reported “the death of three citizens – two journalists and another civilian – in enemy bombing” which it said occurred in the Tayr Harfa area, which is close to the UN-drawn blue line that marks the boundary between Israel and Lebanon.

Earlier today the IDF said it had been exchanging fire with anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon.

Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting for Al Jazeera from Khan Younis in Gaza, has told the network: “In the last hour, new airstrikes targeted a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where several Palestinians were wounded. The same camp was targeted this morning in an attack that killed 20 Palestinians. In the north, attacks continued in the vicinity of the Indonesian hospital and Kamal Adwan hospital.”

Israel is again telling residents in northern Gaza to move to the south of the territory, saying that it is opening up a corridor via the Salah Al-Din Road until 4pm local time (2pm GMT).

The Israeli military Arabic spokesperson has also said that “a temporary tactical suspension of military activities” will operate until 2pm local time (noon GMT) in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood area, west of Rafah.

UN agencies estimate that 1.7 million Palestinians have fled their homes since Israel began its campaign against Hamas on 7 October. A small number of foreign nationals have been able to exit Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, but the vast majority remain internally displaced while the entire Gaza Strip is bombarded by Israel’s air force and resources are blockaded.

German authorities on Tuesday raided the homes of 17 people in the state of Bavaria accused of spreading antisemitic hate speech and threats targeting Jews online.

According to the Bavarian criminal police, the suspects were 15 men and two women, aged between 18 and 62, German news agency dpa reported. Police questioned the suspects and confiscated evidence from their homes, including mobile phones and laptops, the agency said.

The suspects were said to have celebrated the attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, and were accused of spreading hate speech against Jewish people on social media, using symbols of banned terrorist organisations, AP reports.

The police operation focused on Bavaria’s capital city of Munich.

“Unfortunately, antisemitism has an impact on the daily life of many Jews in Germany,” Michael Weinzierl, the Bavarian police commissioner against hate crime said, “the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel also has an impact on their lives in Germany”.

It is noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …

• Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said early on Tuesday morning that Hamas is “close to” a truce agreement with Israel. “We are close to reaching a deal on a truce,” Haniyeh said, adding that the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators.

• Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq told Al Jazeera that ongoing talks were for a truce that would last “a number of days” and include arrangements for the entry of aid in to Gaza, and a swap of hostages taken by Hamas for people imprisoned by Israel.

• Two sources familiar with the truce talks told AFP a tentative deal includes a five-day truce, comprising a ceasefire on the ground and limits to Israeli air operations over southern Gaza. In return, between 50 and 100 prisoners held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad – a separate Palestinian militant group – would be released. They would include Israeli civilians and captives of other nationalities, but no military personnel.

• Qatar’s prime minister said on Sunday that a deal to free some of the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire hinged on “minor” practical issues.

• Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a statement Tuesday morning warning against a deal.

• Israel’s air force has posted to social media to claim that in the last 24 hours it has “struck approximately 250 Hamas terror targets”. The Israeli military also issued a video of its troops in action within the Gaza Strip, claiming that “division 162 completed the encirclement of Jabalia tonight and is ready for the continuation of the attack”.

• Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, has claimed this morning that Israeli airstrikes targeted the house of the deputy undersecretary of the health ministry, with at least 17 people killed.

• Israel’s military has issued a statement to say that fire is again being exchanged over the UN-drawn blue line boundary between Israel and Lebanon. There are unconfirmed media reports that two journalists and one other person have been killed in the region.

Reuters has a quick snap that Lebanese state media is reporting two journalists and one other person have been killed in southern Lebanon near the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has already produced the deadliest month for journalists since statistics began more than three decades ago.

More details soon …

Interfax reports that the Russia’s ministry of emergency situations says it has delivered more humanitarian aid to Egypt for Gaza, with a plane departing for El-Arish airport at 6.20am Moscow time.

The ministry said it had sent seven previous shipments, including “mattresses, pillows, personal hygiene products, food and baby food.”

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, has spoken to Al Jazeera. It reports he told them:

Israeli airstrikes targeted the house of the deputy undersecretary of the health ministry this morning. There were 56 of his relatives in the house who were displaced from different areas of Gaza. Rescue teams managed to find 17 bodies while the rest are still under the rubble.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Israel’s military has issued a statement to say that fire is again being exchanged over the UN-drawn blue line boundary between Israel and Lebanon.

On the Telegram messaging app it wrote:

A short while ago, IDF aircraft identified and struck three armed terrorist cells in the area of the border with Lebanon. In addition, IDF fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah terror targets, including military infrastructure and structures used for directing terrorist activity. A short while ago, terrorists fired mortar shells at an IDF post in northern Israel. No injuries were reported. IDF artillery is currently striking the source of the fire.

Toby Fricker of Unicef has spoken to the BBC, saying the agency would act to bring in aid to Gaza if there was a deal on a truce. He told the broadcaster from Amman:

If there’s an immediate humanitarian ceasefire which Unicef and many others have been calling for, then yes, then we need to bring in the supplies as quickly as we can and to get them to shelters, to get them to people wherever they are inside the Gaza Strip, wherever they are in need, which is pretty much everywhere.

A newly formed group made up of senior officials from several Muslim countries will visit the UN security council’s five permanent members and others to urge an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a Turkish foreign ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday.

The group will meet British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and French president, Emmanuel Macron, during visits to Britain and France on Wednesday, the source said.

The group includes foreign ministers and representatives from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Organisation of Islamic cooperation (OIC) secretary general.

“The primary goal of the contact group is for a ceasefire to be announced as soon as possible and for humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza,” the source told Reuters.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMikgFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVndWFyZGlhbi5jb20vd29ybGQvbGl2ZS8yMDIzL25vdi8yMS9pc3JhZWwtaGFtYXMtd2FyLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy1oYW1hcy1sZWFkZXItaGFuaXllaC10cnVjZS1jZWFzZWZpcmUtdGFsa3MtZ2F6YS1xYXRhci1sYXRlc3QtbmV3c9IBAA?oc=5

2023-11-21 10:49:00Z
2599361480

Israel-Hamas war live: 200 people evacuated from Indonesian hospital in Gaza, says health ministry - The Guardian

Two hundred patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza on Monday with the help of the Red Cross, Gaza’s health ministry has said.

The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP that the 200 people were evacuated from the hospital and taken by bus to Nasser hospital in the southern town of Khan Yunis. He told the news agency:

The Israeli army is laying siege to the Indonesian hospital.

An AFP reporter in Khan Yunis saw two buses arriving at Nasser hospital.

The ministry of health in Gaza earlier today said it believed 12 people had been killed in shelling overnight and that it feared a repeat of what happened at al-Shifa hospital complex, which was surrounded and raided by Israeli forces last week.

“We fear the same thing will happen there as it did in al-Shifa,” Qudra said, adding:

There are still 400 patients in the hospital and we are working with the ICRC to evacuate.

Israeli forces were closing in on the packed Indonesian hospital on Monday despite hopes that a ceasefire-for-hostages deal may be agreed.

Video broadcast on Al Jazeera TV on Monday showed damage to what were described as patient facilities, while daytime footage on social media appeared to show Israeli tanks close to the medical complex.

If you’re just joining us, Israeli forces are fighting near Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks.

Health officials have managed to evacuate some of the wounded, but a medical worker inside the facility and the Health Ministry said a shell struck the second floor of the hospital, killing 12 people.

The health official blamed Israel, which denied shelling the hospital, saying its troops returned fire on militants who targeted them from inside the 3.5-acre (1.4 hectare) compound.

Meanwhile 28 premature babies were evacuated from Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital by the World Health Organization and transported to Egypt on Monday. Three others were transferred to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza, the Red Crescent said.

More than 250 critically ill or wounded patients remain stranded at the compound that Israeli forces stormed days ago.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be the best way of ensuring Israel’s security.

Borrell held a video meeting with foreign ministers from the EU’s 27 countries after touring the Middle East for talks on Israel’s war with Hamas.

The EU’s top diplomat said that he had drawn “a fundamental political conclusion” from his discussions across the region.

“I think that the best guarantee for Israel’s security is the creation of a Palestinian state,” Borrell said in a written summary of the EU meeting.

Borrell has insisted Israel should not occupy Gaza after the current conflict ends and that control of the territory should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

“Despite the huge challenges, we have to advance our reflections on the stabilisation of Gaza and the future Palestinian state,” he said.

In the short-term, Borrell said, after visiting a string of Arab states, that there was a “sense of urgency” over the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“The UN Security Council resolution calling for immediate humanitarian pauses is a big step forward, but we must ensure its rapid implementation,” he said.

This is Helen Sullivan taking over the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of today’s developments:

• Israeli forces continued their offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza, closing in on the Indonesian hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “appalled” by reports that 12 people, including patients, were killed in overnight shelling at the last hospital operating in northern Gaza. Some 200 patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian hospital on Monday, Gaza’s health ministry has said.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health services in Gaza have suffered “catastrophic” damage, with most hospitals no longer functioning. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, warned that the thousands of injuries sustained by civilians across Gaza, combined with the growing public health crisis in the besieged enclave,is a “recipe for epidemics”. He also described Israel’s cooperation for humanitarian relief in Gaza as “subpar”.

• The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said a clinic it operated in Gaza City was attacked on Monday morning. Part of the building was engulfed in flames, it said, and four marked MSF cars were burned while a fifth was found crushed by a heavy vehicle or a tank. The charity said it was not immediately aware of the status of one member of staff and 20 family members.

• Twenty-eight premature babies were rescued from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken to Egypt on Monday. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 31 “very sick” babies were moved from al-Shifa hospital in a joint operation with the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and 12 of them had been flown to Cairo. Three babies remain in Gaza.

• Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Joe Biden on Monday said he believed a deal is near, and the White House later said the US is “doing everything we can” and that it believed “we’re closer than we’ve ever been”.

• Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have clashed with far-right Israeli politicians who want to bring in the death penalty as a possible sentence for captured Hamas members. The families said on Monday that even talk of doing so might endanger the lives of their relatives. The row underlines the deep divisions in Israel over how to deal with the hostage crisis.

• The UN secretary general has said it is clear that the war in Gaza has seen “a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict” since he began his role in 2017. At a press conference on Monday, António Guterres also said he did not believe a UN protectorate in Gaza would be a solution to the conflict and that war must “move in a determined, irreversible way to a two-state solution”.

• Relief trucks originally from Jordan entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday with the intention of setting up a new field hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Jordanian state media said it hoped the facility would help ease some of the humanitarian crisis as Israel’s forces seize medical facilities in the north.

• Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”. They have since released video footage reportedly showing armed men seizing a ship. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship.

A celebrated Palestinian poet and author, Mosab Abu Toha, has been arrested by Israeli forces while trying to leave Gaza, according to his friends and family.

Abu Toha had been told by US officials that he and his family would be able to cross into Egypt, as one of his children is an American citizen. They were on the way from north to south Gaza, heading for the Rafah crossing point on Sunday, when he was arrested along with other Palestinian men at a Israeli military checkpoint.

The poet’s brother, Hamza, said on social media:

The army took Mosab when he arrived at the checkpoint, leaving from the north to the south, as the army had ordered. The American embassy sent him and his family to go through the Rafah crossing. We have heard nothing from him.

Abu Toha had been writing in the New Yorker magazine about his experiences under bombardment in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. A collection of his poetry published in English in the US was a finalist in the National Book Critics Circle award and won an American Book award this year.

Twenty-eight prematurely born babies evacuated from Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital were taken to Egypt for urgent treatment on Monday.

The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Sunday that 31 “very sick” babies were moved in a joint operation with the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The babies were transported to a hospital in Rafah, on the southern border of Gaza, so their condition could be stabilised ahead of transfer to Egypt.

Tedros said 12 had been flown on to Cairo.

Three babies remained in Gaza, two for family reasons and one because the family could not be identified.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said at least 50 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began, updating a previous statement earlier today that put the death toll at 48.

The second-deadliest day occurred on Saturday 18 November, the CPJ said, with five journalists killed.

The deadliest day of the war was its first day, 7 October, with six journalists killed, it said.

Two hundred patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza on Monday with the help of the Red Cross, Gaza’s health ministry has said.

The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP that the 200 people were evacuated from the hospital and taken by bus to Nasser hospital in the southern town of Khan Yunis. He told the news agency:

The Israeli army is laying siege to the Indonesian hospital.

An AFP reporter in Khan Yunis saw two buses arriving at Nasser hospital.

The ministry of health in Gaza earlier today said it believed 12 people had been killed in shelling overnight and that it feared a repeat of what happened at al-Shifa hospital complex, which was surrounded and raided by Israeli forces last week.

“We fear the same thing will happen there as it did in al-Shifa,” Qudra said, adding:

There are still 400 patients in the hospital and we are working with the ICRC to evacuate.

Israeli forces were closing in on the packed Indonesian hospital on Monday despite hopes that a ceasefire-for-hostages deal may be agreed.

Video broadcast on Al Jazeera TV on Monday showed damage to what were described as patient facilities, while daytime footage on social media appeared to show Israeli tanks close to the medical complex.

The WHO’s emergency response director, Michael Ryan, described Israel’s cooperation for humanitarian relief in Gaza as “subpar”.

He acknowledged that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had facilitated the entrance and exit of aid workers into al-Shifa hospital for the transportation of premature babies, “that has not been the case as a constant”, adding:

It has been exceptionally difficult to put in place a proper notification and deconfliction system and we have been operating for weeks without that system in place, and without that cooperation necessary to run humanitarian operations in a conflict zone.

Ryan specifically called out the Israeli defence ministry unit known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), NBC reported.

The engagement between the WHO and Cogat “has been subpar to say the least, and has not been efficient”, he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO)‘s emergency response director, Michael Ryan, warned that the thousands of injuries sustained by civilians across Gaza, combined with the growing public health crisis in the besieged enclave,is a “recipe for epidemics”.

Speaking to journalists at the UN headquarters in New York, Ryan said “so many children” remain in danger in Gaza, with up to 1,500 children missing – many likely under rubble.

He said following the evacuation of many patients at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital over the weekend, health staff remaining at the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza may also need to be evacuated in the next few days amid continued fighting there.

The ultimatum from Israeli forces to keep moving is creating a concentration of people sheltering in centres and schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) that “fuels epidemic risks”, he said. Combined with the recent cold rain, that could lead to a spike in child pneumonia, he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health services in Gaza have suffered “catastrophic” damage, with most hospitals no longer functioning.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, said 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza, “so we have twice or three times the population [in the south of Gaza], using one-third of the hospital beds in less than a third of the hospitals available”. He added:

Even if tomorrow morning, this were to end in terms of a ceasefire, we still have a huge problem on our hands.

Health services have been unable to provide care for more complex medical cases – including care for most cancer and kidney dialysis patients, he said. In addition, about 5,500 births are expected in the next month, which will likely overwhelm the system, he said.

The hospital situation – the primary health care system situation – in Gaza is catastrophic and it is the worst you can imagine [in the] north.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has interrogated more than 300 members of Hamas and other militant groups arrested in Gaza during its ground invasion.

The interrogations have revealed the locations of underground tunnels, warehouses, weapons and Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure, AP reported a senior Israeli military official saying.

Each and every interrogation leads to the release of new locations and the human intelligence that emerges from the Gaza Strip.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS93b3JsZC9saXZlLzIwMjMvbm92LzIwL2lzcmFlbC1oYW1hcy13YXItbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLWhvc3RhZ2VzLWFsLXNoaWZhLWhvc3BpdGFsLWdhemEtaGFtYXMtYXR0YWNr0gF9aHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL3dvcmxkL2xpdmUvMjAyMy9ub3YvMjAvaXNyYWVsLWhhbWFzLXdhci1saXZlLXVwZGF0ZXMtaG9zdGFnZXMtYWwtc2hpZmEtaG9zcGl0YWwtZ2F6YS1oYW1hcy1hdHRhY2s?oc=5

2023-11-20 22:06:55Z
2574209220

Israel-Hamas war live: 28 premature babies ‘moved to Egypt’ from Gaza; Israel warns Palestinians to leave Jabaliya refugee camp - The Guardian

A picture has been issued showing the ambulances carrying premature Palestinian babies who have been evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in the process of crossing into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.

Egypt’s Qahera news channel appears to have shown four ambulances on the Egyptian side of the border.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society had earlier posted images of the babies being prepared for transportation.

Thirty-one babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital. Reportedly three of the babies have remained in Gaza because the families of two of them want them to remain there for “personal reasons”, and because a third is unidentified. A medical spokesperson told the BBC that the babies remaining in Gaza were in a stable condition.

Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein has arrived in Egypt to oversee theplanning of a field hospital in Gaza, the first since the war began on 7 October.

The director general of Gaza hospitals has said the field hospital will be established in Khan Yunis, in the south, “to receive the wounded and the sick”.

The hospital has a 41-bed capacity, according to the Jordanian royal palace. It was accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid, the head of medical aid in Gaza said.

Palestinian medics hope field hospitals sent by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar will soon follow.

Doctors without Borders (MSF) has said its clinic in Gaza City came under fire this morning, and part of the building was “engulfed by fire” as heavy fighting took place all around it.

A member of staff and 20 family members are in the clinic and in “extreme danger”, the medical organisation said in a statement, as it urgently called for a stop to the fighting in the area.

More than 50 other people, including other MSF staff, are in nearby buildings, it said, as well as a wounded person requiring medical attention.

It said that four of its cats were burned, and a fifth was “broken in two pieces as if crushed by a heavy-duty vehicle or a tank.” It added that “an Israeli tank was seen in the street”.

All the cars and the clinic were clearly identified as being part of the charity, it said, adding:

The cars destroyed are the same that were used to attempt the aborted evacuation of MSF staff and their families on 18 November, resulting in the killing of one of their family members. They were the only means of transport they had to facilitate their evacuation.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said he is “appalled” by the reports of an attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.

The attack killed 12 people, including patients, he posted to social media on Monday, citing unspecified reports. He added:

Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital.

Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.

The African Union (AU) has said that Israel’s response to Hamas’s massive attack last month was “inexcusable”, warning that civilian casualties would fuel further “extremism”.

AU chairman, Azali Assoumani, at a press conference in Berlin, said:

The acts (of Hamas) are reprehensible... but the response is inexcusable.

Imagine a child who has seen his mother, who has seen his father killed ... it creates extremism.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has provided an update on the journalists and media workers killed by the war.

CPJ says the conflict has led to the deadliest month for journalists since it first began gathering data in 1992.

As of 20 November, CPJ found:

• 48 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 43 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese.

• 9 journalists were reported injured.

• 3 journalists were reported missing.

• 13 journalists were reported arrested.

The deaths include Bilal Jadallah, director of Press House-Palestine, a non-profit which supports the development of independent Palestinian media. He was killed in his car in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, Al Qahera News, and the Cairo-based Youm7.

The communal dining hall in Kibbutz Be’eri – which was devastated during the 7 October Hamas assault – has reopened for the first time, according to Israeli broadcaster, Kann.

Here are more details on the Jordanian field hospital that is being set up in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to the AFP news agency:

• The field hospital has a 41-bed capacity, the Jordanian Royal Palace said.

• Aed Yaghi, head of medical aid in Gaza, said it was accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid.

• Mohammed Zaqout, director-general of Gaza hospitals, said the field hospital would help ease the pressure on existing health services, but added: “The number of medical personnel is limited and there aren’t (enough) ambulances.”

• He said hospitals in the area were experiencing “catastrophic” conditions and could no longer accept women who needed to give birth by caesarean section.

• Palestinian medics hope field hospitals sent by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar will soon follow.

Israel imposed what it calls a “complete siege” on Gaza during the war, but has recently accepted the delivery of limited supplies via the Gaza border crossing with Egypt.

Cairo, a US ally, has a peace treaty with Israel and the two countries have maintained a blockade on Gaza for years.

Some of the families of those believed to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza have been speaking in a press conference at the Israeli embassy in London.

Iris Haim spoke about her 28-year-old son Yotam. She said:

We are really worried. As a mother I cannot explain what I feel that my son is not with me. This evil isn’t against Jewish people but it’s against the world. It starts in Israel but it will continue to harm every person in the free world if you do not open your eyes. It is monsters against children.

She told the media: “We lost contact with him at 10.44am that day, and since then we only have the basic clues that he is in Gaza now. He left his room healthy and not wounded, which gave us little comfort. But he has a chronic disease, he needs a vaccine every month.”

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.

It is 3.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …

• 28 premature Palestinian babies that had been evacuated from the al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza have been transported via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt where they will receive further medial aid. Three babies remained in Gaza, two reportedly because of family personal circumstances, and one because their family has not been identified. The move was coordinated by the Palestine Red Crescent Society with the World Health Organization and the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA).

• There are reports of heavy fighting around the Indonesian hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker there, said Israeli tanks were visible from the windows. “You can see them moving around and firing,” he told AP. “Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire.” Health ministry officials in Gaza say 12 people have been killed, including doctors and patients. The claims have not been independently verified.

• Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, on Monday condemned Israel’s reported attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza. “The attack is a clear violation of international humanitarian laws. All countries, especially those that have close relations with Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities to urge Israel to stop its atrocities,” she said in a statement

• Dozens of trucks entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt on with equipment from Jordan to set up a field hospital. Jordan’s state-run media said the hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis would be up and running within 48 hours.

• Relatives of some of the estimated 240 people held by Hamas in Gaza urged far-right Israeli lawmakers on Monday not to pursue proposed capital punishment for captured Palestinian militants, saying that even talk of doing so might endanger the hostages. Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is among the hostages, told national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and his party colleagues during a parliamentary panel: “It would mean playing along with their mind games. And in return we would get pictures of our loves ones murdered, ended, with the state of Israel and not them [Hamas] being blamed for it. Don’t pursue this until after they are back here. Don’t put my sister’s blood on your hands.”

• Israel’s Haaretz says it has been told by a source “involved in the negotiations with Hamas” that the organisation is considering increasing the number of hostages it is willing to release. The newspaper says the source told it that talks were in continuation and that more patience was needed.

• Israel’s military has released security camera footage it says shows hostages being brought into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 October after being kidnapped during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel. The first clip shows a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt being dragged through what looks like an entrance hall by five men. In the second, an injured man in underwear is wheeled in on a gurney by seven men. It has not been possible to verify the footage independently.

• Israel’s military has named two more soldiers killed in its campaign against Hamas. It stated that Eitan Dishon and Yanon Tamir were killed during action in the northern Gaza Strip today. The IDF now says it has lost 66 soldiers in total during the war since 7 October. At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.

• Iran on Monday dismissed as “invalid” Israel’s accusations that Yemen’s Houthi rebels were acting on Tehran’s guidance, after the rebels said they had seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship and described the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.

• Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will host a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza with foreign ministers from members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic cooperation.

The World Health Organization has confirmed that the 28 premature babies evacuated from the al-Shifa hospital have arrived safely in Egypt.

In a statement emailed to Reuters, it said “The 28 babies have now safely arrived in Egypt. Three babies still remain at the Emarati hospital [in Gaza] and continue to receive treatment. All babies are fighting serious infections and continue needing health care.”

The IDF has issued an update on the tense situation that continues on Israel’s boundary with Lebanon.

In a message posted to Telegram, Israel’s military said:

Earlier today, a terrorist cell attempted to launch anti-tank missiles in the area of Marwahin in Lebanon. The IDF struck the cell. Additionally, in response to the launches toward Israeli territory earlier today, IDF tanks, a fighter jet, and a helicopter struck Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Lebanon.

Furthermore, 25 launches were identified from Lebanon toward several locations adjacent to the border. The IDF Aerial Defence Array intercepted a number of the launches and the rest fell in open areas. Moreover, three UAVs were identified striking adjacent to an IDF post. No injuries were reported. The IDF struck the sources of the launches.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Earlier, Israeli journalist Fadi Amun posted a video which he said showed “An IDF post in the north that was hit by Hezbollah rocket fire this morning”. He added that the videos had been cleared for release by the authorities.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has issued an Arabic-language video on social media which shows the transportation of 28 premature babies from Gaza into Egypt for medical aid. The babies, along with three others who have remained in Gaza, were evacuated from the al-Shifa hospital.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the video footage released by Israel which it claims shows foreign hostages inside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

AP reports that dozens of trucks entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Monday with equipment from Jordan to set up a field hospital. Jordan’s state-run media said the hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis would be up and running within 48 hours.

Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian in Gaza, has been writing a diary for the Guardian during Israel’s campaign against Hamas. Here is an excerpt from today:

Every morning, thousands of people are in the streets looking for what they need: food, medicine, blankets, heavy clothes. I saw a mother screaming at her young son in the middle of the street. It turned out that he got distracted and she had been looking for him for almost an hour.

“How would I find you if you got lost?” she screamed. Other women were calming her down.

These days we hear many stories about parents who lost their children, whether while fleeing or in public places. Most of the evacuating people are in these new areas for the first time, they may have passed by them before, or visited, but knowing the area is really difficult when most people have lost their ability to focus due to fear, stress or lack of sleep.

I remember talking to my friend who had a new baby girl months ago. “I know this will sound scary, but please, write on your daughter’s body all the identification information in marker, just in case,” I said. He was silent for a second, then he told me that he agreed with me.

I have witnessed several times the same situation, a group of boys go out to play with a ball, and the parents, usually fathers, would go out angry and tell them to get back inside. “If a bombing happens now, what will happen to you?! Go inside, immediately.”

Read more of Ziad’s diary from Gaza here: Gaza diary part 23 – ‘Really? The whole world is unable to solve this situation and you think we know the answer?’

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will host a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza with foreign ministers from members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic cooperation, Reuters reports, citing the RIA news agency.

A powerful rightwing pressure group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), is engineering pledges of unconditional support for Israel’s attack on Gaza by state legislatures across the US.

Alec is promoting a model resolution expressing “support for Israel’s right to pursue without interference or condemnation the elimination of Hamas”. A version has been accepted by legislatures in at least eight states, including Pennsylvania, Nebraska and North Dakota.

The resolution adopts Israeli claims that Hamas uses “civilians as human shields” and names Iran as giving logistical support to the group.

Some state legislatures have also denounced calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Although state legislatures have limited direct influence over Washington’s policy on Israel, Alec and allied groups have long been instrumental in mobilising political pressure by pushing local legislation and resolutions in support of the Jewish state. They include laws to block and punish support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

Read more of Chris McGreal’s report here: Rightwing group pressures states to pass pro-Israel resolutions

A picture has been issued showing the ambulances carrying premature Palestinian babies who have been evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in the process of crossing into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.

Egypt’s Qahera news channel appears to have shown four ambulances on the Egyptian side of the border.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society had earlier posted images of the babies being prepared for transportation.

Thirty-one babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital. Reportedly three of the babies have remained in Gaza because the families of two of them want them to remain there for “personal reasons”, and because a third is unidentified. A medical spokesperson told the BBC that the babies remaining in Gaza were in a stable condition.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS93b3JsZC9saXZlLzIwMjMvbm92LzIwL2lzcmFlbC1oYW1hcy13YXItbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLWhvc3RhZ2VzLWFsLXNoaWZhLWhvc3BpdGFsLWdhemEtaGFtYXMtYXR0YWNr0gF9aHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL3dvcmxkL2xpdmUvMjAyMy9ub3YvMjAvaXNyYWVsLWhhbWFzLXdhci1saXZlLXVwZGF0ZXMtaG9zdGFnZXMtYWwtc2hpZmEtaG9zcGl0YWwtZ2F6YS1oYW1hcy1hdHRhY2s?oc=5

2023-11-20 15:44:00Z
2574209220