Here is the situation on Saturday, November 4, 2023:
Latest developments
- The Israeli army said on Saturday that its ground military operations in northern Gaza continued overnight and soldiers thwarted “many attempts” by Hamas fighters to attack Israeli troops from tunnel shafts and military compounds. The army said it killed “a number” of Palestinian fighters.
- A United States official briefing to reporters has said a “significant pause” in the fighting is needed to release captives in Gaza. Washington expects Israeli air strikes will slow down soon, with more emphasis expected to be put on the ground assault.
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he was left “horrified” when seeing the aftermath of a deadly Israeli strike on an ambulance convoy on Friday that killed at least 15 Palestinians.
Human impact and fighting
- At least 9,488 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which said 3,900 were children.
- Israel continued to bomb sites across the besieged Gaza Strip. Air raids have been registered in western Gaza’s al-Nasser, Jabalia, Beit Hanoon, Atatra, al-Sudaniya, and Beit Lahiya in the north, in addition to Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood.
- An air strike hit a school on Friday evening, killing at least 20, according to local reports. The Osama bin Zaid school, located in the Saftawi neighbourhood in northern Gaza, had been hosting internally displaced Palestinians.
- The vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital was also hit again, coming after a major deadly bombing of the entrance of the Al-Shifa Hospital, which killed 15 people and injured 16 others. The Israeli army said the ambulance convoy attacked was being used by Hamas fighters, a claim rejected by Palestinian authorities.
- The UN top aid official for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Thomas White, said the average resident in Gaza is living on two pieces of Arabic bread a day and is increasingly desperate for water. Israel has only allowed limited aid into Gaza, which started trickling in on October 21.
Diplomacy
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has completed his third visit to Tel Aviv since the start of the war, having met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. He is expected to meet with Arab leaders in Jordan on Saturday, where he is slated to hear more calls for an immediate ceasefire.
- Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah spoke on Friday for the first time since the war began. He said the war on the Gaza Strip must stop in order to prevent the conflict from spreading across the region, but did not announce any immediate expansion of Hezbollah military operations against Israel.
- On Friday, more people with dual nationalities managed to get out of Gaza and into Egypt through the crucial Rafah crossing, the only crossing in the enclave not controlled by Israel.
- The UN Security Council is expected to convene again to seek yet another resolution for Gaza. So far, in an effort to support Israel, the US has been voting against any resolutions that it hasn’t proposed itself or anything that has called for an immediate ceasefire.
Arrests and attacks in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli forces are conducting raids backed by air strikes across the occupied West Bank, including in the towns of Nablus, Jenin, Hebron and Bethlehem. More than 143 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the conflict last month.
- At least 41 Palestinians were detained in overnight Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, according to local reports. At least 25 Palestinians were detained from the al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron, and more raids were recorded in Tulkarm and Ramallah as well.
