It’s approaching 7am in Tel Aviv and Gaza now and we’re pausing the blog here. We’ll be back soon to bring you all the latest news.
In the meantime, you can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here and our full report on Joe Biden’s defence of his refusal to call for a ceasefire here.
In the meantime, here are the latest key developments:
The United Nations security council adopted a resolution calling for humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Gaza and the establishment of aid corridors to speed relief supplies to those in need. Russia, the UK and US abstained from the vote, which passed 12-0, the first global agreement since the conflict began last month. Israel dismissed the resolution as “detached from reality”, while the the permanent observer of Palestine to the UN said the body should hold Israel accountable if it ignores it.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza city almost 24 hours after an overnight raid it called a “precise and targeted operation” against Hamas. The IDF said it discovered military equipment including grenades, automatic weapons, ammunition and communications technology, confirming what it said was a Hamas command operations center beneath the hospital.
Hamas denied the claim, which it said in a statement was “nothing but a continuation of the lies and cheap propaganda, through which [Israel] is trying to give justification for its crime aimed at destroying the health sector in Gaza”.
Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the al-Shifa hospital, said that water, electricity and medical oxygen supplies were completely cut off within the facility, and that he was unable to communicate with doctors. “We cannot reach the pharmacy to treat patients as the occupation shoots everyone who moves. The smell of death wafts everywhere,” he told Al Jazeera.
Seven staff members at the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza were injured in what Jordan alleged was an Israeli airstrike on the emergency department. “Our field hospital staff rushed to the emergency section as they saw a number of Palestinians carrying wounded persons, and as our staff got to the emergency room, they got hit again,” foreign minister Ayman Safadi said, adding that “many other” Palestinians were killed or injured.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza did not update the death toll for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, due to the collapse in communications and in hospital services in the territory, the UN humanitarian relief agency OCHA noted. As of 10 November the death toll was 11,078, of whom 4,506 were said to be children and 3,027 women. Another 27,490 Palestinians have reportedly been injured.
Eight senior politicians from the Britain’s opposition Labour Party resigned or were fired for defying leader Keir Starmer’s demand they not support a resolution in the UK parliament calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Overall, 56 Labour MPs voted for an amendment to the king’s speech brought by the Scottish National party, a major blow to the party leader’s attempts to keep unity over the war.
The US navy warship Thomas Hudner shot down a drone that emanated from Yemen in the Red Sea early on Wednesday. It was only the second time the US had brought down projectiles near its warships since the Israel-Hamas conflict began last month.
Israel’s former deputy prime minister Gideon Sa’ar told the UK publication Jewish News that his country will agree to a temporary ceasefire in Gaza to facilitate the release of hostages held by Hamas. “It will be achieved. We will see a temporary ceasefire,” he said. His words contradict those of Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has frequently and vociferously ruled out a ceasefire.
Gaza’s two main telecommunications companies warned of a “complete telecom blackout in the coming hours” in the Gaza Strip. “Main data centres and switches are gradually shutting down due to fuel depletion,” the companies said in a joint statement.
The UN children’s agency says its top official visited children and their families in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the territory. “What I saw and heard was devastating. They have endured repeated bombardment, loss and displacement,” Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a statement. “Inside the strip, there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s one million children to turn.”
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, has said: “Our entire operation is now on the verge of collapse,” and that “by the end of today, around 70% of the population in Gaza won’t have access to clean water”.
Thomas White, the director of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has said that water pumps and sewage treatment in the south of the Gaza Strip have stopped due to lack of fuel.
Egypt’s state-run al-Qahera television station reported on Wednesday that the first fuel truck to enter the Gaza Strip since the war started on 7 October had crossed the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing. It is reported to be carrying 24,000 litres. “This is not enough for anything – not for hospitals, not even for aid deliveries,” an international source familiar with the operation told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Qatari mediators were on Wednesday seeking to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that includes the release of about 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in exchange for a three-day ceasefire, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters. The deal would also involve Israel releasing some Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails and increase the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza. Hamas has to date released four of the estimated 240 hostages seized from inside Israel’s borders on 7 October.
The family and friends of some of the 240 hostages believed to have been seized by Hamas on 7 October from inside Israel have begun the second day of their protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The trip is expected to last five days and will finish at Netanyahu’s office. The families have been critical of Netanyahu’s government for not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages.
Pressure is growing on the Labor government in Australia to take a stronger line on the defence of Palestinian civilians, as backbenchers broke with the cabinet to call for a ceasefire.
The Australian government has called for “humanitarian pauses” and urged Israel to follow the rules of war and prevent civilian deaths, but has stopped short of demanding a ceasefire.
On Thursday Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou spoke out against the “humanitarian disaster that is unfolding in Gaza” and also took aim at Israel as she said that thousands of Palestinian civilians including children were “being killed by a highly sophisticated army”.
“We have to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” she said as she stood with the Greens to receive petitions from more than 120,000 Australians who are demanding an end to the fighting.
