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Fifteen Palestinians were killed early on Sunday in Israeli air bombardments of the central and southern Gaza strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Thirteen people were killed in an attack on a home in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while a woman and her child were killed in southern Khan Younis city, WAFA said.
Updated
The Israeli army killed two Palestinians in incursions in the West Bank early on Sunday, according to a report by Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Israeli forces shot dead Issam Al-Fayed, a disabled 46-year-old, at the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp, the agency said.
Another man, Omar Laham, 20, was killed by a gunshot to the head in clashes with Israeli forces in Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem, it added.
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Throughout Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza there has been speculation and unconfirmed reporting about possible deals to release hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting. But at a press conference on Saturday evening the Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said no such deal had been reached.
Concerning the hostages, there are many unsubstantiated rumours, many incorrect reports. I would like to make it clear: as of now, there has been no deal. But I want to promise: when there is something to say, we will report to you about it.
It is not clear if Netanyahu was responding to any specific report. The Washington Post article saying Israel, the US and Hamas were close to reaching an agreement was published online in the last few hours, after Netanyahu’s press conference.
During his address, Netanyahu also acknowledged “increasingly heavy pressure” Israel was facing over its operations in Gaza – including both from within the US and around the world. However, he remained defiant.
I would like to share with you some of the pressures that we have rebuffed and are continuing to rebuff. Many people around the world demanded that we not enter the Gaza Strip – we did so. They pressured us not to enter Gaza City – we did so. They warned us not to enter [Al-Shifa hospital] even though it served as a central terrorist base for Hamas – we did so. They pressured us to agree to a full ceasefire – we refused. And I have made it clear: we will only agree to a temporary ceasefire and only in exchange for the return of our hostages. Together with my colleagues, I reject these pressures and say to the world: we will continue to fight until victory – until we destroy Hamas and bring our hostages back home.”
Late on Saturday, the World Health Organization gave a grim assessment of the situation Al-Shifa hospital, describing it as a “death zone”.
The White House has said that no deal has been reached yet between Israel and Hamas, Reuters has reported. This follows an article in the Washington Post which said that Israel, the US and Hamas were close to reaching an agreement that would free dozens of hostages, in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.
A White House spokesperson said the US is continuing to work hard to get a deal between the two parties involved in the conflict.
US National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson has also tweeted reiterating this.
We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal. https://t.co/rbSqcqfaKo
— Adrienne Watson (@NSC_Spox) November 19, 2023
Updated
The Washington Post has reported that Israel, the US and Hamas are close to reaching an agreement that would free dozens of hostages in Gaza, in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.
The Guardian has not verified the report, which cites unnamed sources said to be familiar with the agreement’s provisions.
According to the report, the release could lead to the release of 50 or more women and children hostages, and could allow an increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance.
A note of caution: Israel agreeing to anything like a ceasefire, especially one lasting days, would be a big development. During the week, the UN security council called for “urgent extended humanitarian pauses for [a] sufficient number of days to allow aid access”. The Israeli foreign ministry said at the time that it rejected the resolution.
Key event
Médecins Sans Frontières has strongly condemned a “deliberate attack” on a convoy evacuating its staff members and their families, which it said had resulted in one death and one injury.
The convoy was attacked on Saturday, as it was trying to evacuate 137 people, including both MSF Palestinian staff members and their families. They had been trapped for a week in MSF premises located near Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, the charity said. A relative of a staff member was killed, and another injured.
Médecins Sans Frontières released the following statement:
This morning, at 9:00 am local time, an MSF convoy composed of five cars, all clearly marked with MSF identification, including on the cars’ roofs, with 137 people, composed of MSF Palestinian staff members and families, among them 65 children, left the MSF premises (guesthouse, office, outpatient clinic located near Al-Shifa hospital) heading southern Gaza for a safer place. Since 11 November, they have been trapped under fire because of ongoing fighting and since then, MSF has repeatedly called to safely evacuate them.
MSF had informed both parties to the conflict of this movement, the charity said, and followed the itinerary indicated by the Israeli army.
The convoy reached the last checkpoint near Wadi Gaza, which was overcrowded at that time due to extensive screenings of Palestinians by Israeli forces. Despite the information shared with the Israeli army, they weren’t allowed to cross the checkpoint for hours. Shots were later heard by our staff, pushing them to turn back out of fear and to head back to MSF premises, located around 7 kms from the checkpoint.
On their way back, between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm local time, the convoy was attacked in Al-Wehda street near the junction of Said Al A’as Street, near the MSF office. Two of the MSF cars were deliberately hit, killing one MSF staff’s family member and injuring another.
MSF called for the urgent evacuation of its staff, as well as of thousands of other people, to be allowed. “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.
Here is some further detail from the World Health Organisation on the “very high risk” mission it led to Al-Shifa Hospital on Saturday, which aimed to assess the situation on the ground.
As reported earlier, the WHO has said it is urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the patients, staff and families who remain at Al-Shifa Hospital within the next 24–72 hours “pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict”. Patients will be moved from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza - though the WHO has warned these hospitals are already working beyond capacity.
The WHO earlier described desperate conditions at Al-Shifa:
Lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid over the last six weeks have caused Al-Shifa Hospital - once the largest, most advanced, and best equipped referral hospital in Gaza - to essentially stop functioning as a medical facility. The team observed that due to the security situation, it has been impossible for the staff to carry out effective waste management in the hospital. 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. Al-Shifa Hospital can no longer admit patients, with the injured and sick now being directed to the seriously overwhelmed and barely functioning Indonesian Hospital.
There are 25 health workers and 291 patients remaining in Al-Shifa, with several patient deaths having occurred over the previous 2 to 3 days due to the shutting down of medical services. Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, two people in intensive care without ventilation, and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised.
The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, including many with complex fractures and amputations, head injuries, burns, chest and abdominal trauma, and 29 patients with serious spinal injuries who are unable to move without medical assistance. Many trauma patients have severely infected wounds due to lack of infection control measures in the hospital and unavailability of antibiotics.
The WHO has expressed deep concern about the situation for patients and health workers and has called for an immediate ceasefire and the flow of humanitarian assistance.
Updated
Summary
Here is where the day stands:
A Palestinian prisoner has died, bringing to 6 the number of prisoners who died in Israeli prisons since October 7, the Palestinian news Agency WAFA said late on Saturday, Reuters reports. Thaer Samih Abu Assab, who has been detained in 2005 and sentenced to 25 years in jail, died in the Negev desert prison, the agency said, quoting the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs.
The World Health Organization led a “very high risk UN assessment mission” to Al Shifa hospital on Saturday. “Given the current state of the hospital, which is no longer operational or admitting new patients, the team was requested to evacuate health workers and patients to other facilities,” the WHO said.
In a new op-ed in the Washington Post on Saturday, US president Joe Biden said that the Palestinian Authority should govern Gaza and the West Bank following the war between Israel and Hamas. “Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution,” he wrote.
In Joe Biden’s Washington Post op-ed, the US president also said that “extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop.” “Those committing the violence must be held accountable,” said Biden, adding: “The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.”
More than 20 members of the US Congress, New York state legislators and New York City council members penned a letter to Columbia University asking it to reinstate two pro-Palestine groups. The letter comes as the Ivy League school suspended the groups for hosting a peaceful but “unauthorized event” that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
There would be a “significant pause” in the Israel-Hamas war if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are freed, a US official said. Speaking at a security conference in Bahrain on Saturday, US president Joe Biden’s main Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, said: “The surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause ... will come when hostages are released.”
Thousands of demonstrators, including family members of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, marched into Jerusalem on Saturday in angry calls for the Israeli government to do more to bring their relatives home. The march capped a five-day trek from Tel Aviv and represented the largest protest on behalf of the hostages since they were dragged into Gaza by Hamas on October 7.
The head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said that Israel’s approval of “only half of the daily minimum requirements for fuel for humanitarian operations in Gaza … is far from enough.” In a statement on Saturday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: “This is far from enough to cover the needs for desalination plants, sewage pumps, hospitals, water pumps in shelters, aid trucks, ambulances, bakeries and communications networks to work without interruption.”
More than 80 people were killed on Saturday by double Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza’s health ministry said. “At least 50 people” were killed in an Israeli strike on early Saturday morning at the UNRWA-run al-Fakhouri school in the Jabalia refugee camp a Gaza health ministry official said. Another strike on a separate building in the camp killed 32 people of the same family, 19 of them children, according to the official.
Thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Saturday as part of state-sponsored marches to demonstrate against the Israeli killings of more than 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children, in Gaza. Reuters reports Iranian state television showing protestors carrying mock body bags to symbolize the children killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza ahead of World Children’s Day on Monday.
A Palestinian prisoner has died, bringing to six the number of prisoners who have died in Israeli prisons since 7 October, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said late on Saturday, Reuters reports.
Thaer Samih Abu Assab, who was detained in 2005 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, died in the Negev desert prison, the agency said, quoting the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires of pro-Palestine rallies that took place across Europe on Saturday in which thousands called for a ceasefire in Gaza where over 12,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the last six weeks:
The World Health Organization led a “very high-risk UN assessment mission” to Dar al-Shifa hospital on Saturday, the UN organization announced.
In a statement on X, the WHO said:
Due to time limits associated with the security situation, the team was able to spend only one hour inside the hospital, which they described as a ‘death zone,’ and the situation as ‘desperate.’ Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and were told more than 80 people were buried there …
Given the current state of the hospital, which is no longer operational or admitting new patients, the team was requested to evacuate health workers and patients to other facilities.
WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families. Over the next 24–72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza. However, these hospitals are already working beyond capacity, and new referrals from Al-Shifa Hospital will further strain overburdened health staff and resources.
WHO leads very high-risk joint humanitarian mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) November 18, 2023
18 November 2023 - Earlier today, a joint UN humanitarian assessment team, led by WHO accessed Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and conduct a rapid… pic.twitter.com/6kyXt6kPin
Updated
In Joe Biden’s Washington Post op-ed, the US president also said that “extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop”.
“Those committing the violence must be held accountable,” said Biden, adding: “The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.”
Since 7 October, there has been a surge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians living in the West Bank.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli settler violence has increased “significantly, from an already high average of three incidents per day thus far in 2023 to a current average of seven per day”.
Israeli settler violence against Palestinians includes threatening – and at times killing – Palestinians using guns, home demolitions, as well as livestock theft.
Updated
Joe Biden says Gaza and West Bank should be 'reunited' under Palestinian Authority
In a new op-ed in the Washington Post on Saturday, US president Joe Biden said that the Palestinian Authority should govern Gaza and the West Bank following the war between Israel and Hamas.
Biden writes:
As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.
Biden also said that a two-state solution is “the only way to ensure the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people”, adding that Gaza “must never again be used as a platform for terrorism”.
He also said:
There must be no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockage, and no reduction in territory … After this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people and their aspirations must be at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza.
Biden’s words come in stark contrast with language used by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who last week told CNN that “there has to be a reconstructed civilian authority” in Gaza after the war with “an overriding and overreaching Israeli military envelope”.
Netanyahu appeared to reject the idea of the Palestinian Authority governing Gaza, saying:
A civilian authority has to cooperate in two goals – one is to demilitarize Gaza and the second is to deradicalize Gaza. I have to say, the Palestinian Authority has unfortunately failed on both counts.
Updated
Here are some images from the newswires of 15 Palestinians, including wounded children, traveling from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday for medical treatment as part of the UAE’s pledge to treat 1,000 Palestinians across its hospitals:
More than 20 members of the US Congress, New York state legislators and New York City council members penned a letter to Columbia University, asking it to reinstate two pro-Palestine groups after the Ivy League school suspended the groups for hosting a peaceful but “unauthorized event” that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The letter, whose signatories included New York Democratic representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, said:
On behalf of the Columbia community and our constituents, we, as elected officials from New York, urge you to reverse your decision to suspend Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as official student groups through the fall term.
We understand this ‘unauthorized event’ to be a reference to the peaceful student walk-out and art installation that occurred on the Low Steps of Columbia University, on November 9, 2023. As the Columbia Spectator described this event, it involved ‘hundreds of students’ engaging in a ‘silent gathering,’ followed by student speeches calling for a ceasefire that included remarks from a Palestinian refugee who had been shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier at the age of 15. The organizers were peacefully demonstrating for the basic human rights of Palestinians and should not be punished for their speech.
We support the University’s stated desire to maintain an atmosphere that is safe and free of hate; however, suspending these student groups based on the pretext of ‘safety’ does the opposite. Unfairly implying that JVP and SJP protesters engaged in ‘threatening rhetoric and intimidation’ at the November 9th event – a suggestion refuted by multiple sources, including the Columbia Spectator – aligns with the dangerous narrative that those who express empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians, or who speak about the historical context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, are antisemitic or inherently dangerous.
NEW: @AOC, @JamaalBowmanNY, @NydiaVelazquez and other progressive elected officials sent a letter to Columbia University calling on the Ivy League school to reinstate @ColumbiaSJP and @ColumbiaJVP.
— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) November 17, 2023
Read more @CityAndStateNY: https://t.co/5FD94ovvKz pic.twitter.com/c8aOw6Uu5b
Médecins Sans Frontières’ Canada director has written a letter to the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, urging the government to do “everything within its power” to bring an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The letter, which was penned by MSF Canada’s Joseph Belliveau, said:
Ending the indiscriminate violence is the only way to prevent more deaths and scale up desperately needed humanitarian assistance.
My colleagues and I, like so many Canadians, were aggrieved and outraged by Hamas’ deliberate and unconscionable attack on Israeli civilians. We are now horrified by Israel’s incessant and indiscriminate attacks on Palestinian civilians and civilian spaces, including hospitals, in Gaza …
IHL [international humanitarian law] remains the clearest expression of our global agreement to preserve a space for humanity in war. For governments committed to this principle and legal framework, including Canada, now is the time to defend it wholeheartedly and unequivocally …
Canada recently called for a humanitarian ‘pause’ in Gaza, but this is not a solution. A ‘pause’ implies that violence and bombing will resume. Thus far, the actions of world leaders, including in Canada, have been too weak and too slow to stem the relentless bloodshed, and atrocities are still being committed every day. A total and immediate ceasefire is the only humane option.
I call on you and the Canadian Government to do more than just remember healthcare workers and patients in Gaza when it is too late. Take action to uphold our shared humanity by demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Updated
There would be a “significant pause” in the Israel-Hamas war if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are freed, a US official said.
Speaking at a security conference in Bahrain on Saturday, US president Joe Biden’s main Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, said:
“The surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause ... will come when hostages are released,” Agence France-Presse reports.
He added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “horrific” and “intolerable”.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires of thousands of protesters, including family members of hostages taken by Hamas, marching into Jerusalem, where they are are voicing angry calls towards the Israeli government to do more to bring the hostages home:
Updated
Thousands of demonstrators, including family members of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, marched into Jerusalem on Saturday in angry calls for the Israeli government to do more to bring their relatives home.
The Associated Press reports:
The march capped a five-day trek from Tel Aviv and represented the largest protest on behalf of the hostages since they were dragged into Gaza by Hamas on Oct. 7 as part of the militants’ deadly attack in southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel on the day of the surprise Hamas assault.
On Saturday, the marchers carried Israeli flags and photos of the hostages as they finished the 70-kilometer (45-mile) walk to Jerusalem and slowly converged on Netanyahu’s office.
Netanyahu has not yet agreed to meet with them, provoking fury among the demonstrators. Other members of Israel’s war cabinet – former opposition leader Benny Gantz and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot – were set to sit down Saturday evening with representatives of the hostage families.
“We are here today with many families walking up to Jerusalem to keep the awareness of the hostage issue as a top priority for the government of Israel,” said Ruby Chen, whose 19-year-old son is a hostage.
“We are gathered here from all across the nation to support the families of the kidnapped and to send a direct message to the government,” marcher Hvihy Hanina said. “These hostages must be set free. They belong with us. They belong with their families.”
The protest came amid widespread Israeli media speculation that the war cabinet is considering a Qatari-brokered deal to win the release of the women and children among the hostages. In exchange, Israel would agree to a cease-fire of several days and release several dozen of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners it is holding.
Updated
Describing the overcrowded environment and lack of medical suppiles at al-Awda hospital, Adnan Radi, the northern Gaza hospital’s head of obstetrics and gynecology, told the humanitarian organization ActionAid:
In the last [few] days, we have become the only hospital in the entire Gaza Strip and the north who receive obstetrics, cesarean sections and gynecology services. Because all hospitals in Gaza and the north, after the siege, lost any services for women and obstetrics.
Two days ago, we performed 16 caesarean sections under exceptional circumstances. There were cases of very severe bleeding and placental abruption as a result of difficulty in access, strikes etc … We did not have blood-transfusion services…
There are premature babies born at 30 or 31 weeks and we do not have anything to deal with [their cases]. There are no artificial respirators, there are none at all. We look at a child after birth, [their] weight is 1,200g, 1,300g, 1,400g or one and a half kilograms. We do not have anything to deal with them. We look at babies losing their life because we have nothing.
In addition, there are women who suffer from postpartum bleeding and bleeding after operations and there are no blood transfusions at all. Two days ago, had a placental abruption case, and it was opened two or three times. We were trying to find two units of blood to compensate for what was lost. With difficulty, her life was saved.
Updated
Médecins Sans Frontières has released the following update on Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities in the West Bank city of Jenin:
In the early hours of November 17, Israeli forces surrounded hospitals across Jenin, including MSF-supported Khalil Suleiman Hospital, while the military forces were conducting incursions into a refugee camp in the city.
An explosion and shooting were heard from the hospital compound. The MSF team inside the emergency room of Khalil Suleiman Hospital was unable to receive and treat any casualties from the camp, as ambulances were blocked by Israeli forces.
Around 6am, the Israeli forces ordered through megaphones everyone inside the hospital to come out; the staff did not leave the hospital out of fear. They then withdrew an hour later ...
Healthcare workers are regularly being attacked by the Israeli military while ambulances cannot move freely to reach the injured and ill. These attacks must stop now.
West Bank Update: Attack on health care in Jenin
— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) November 18, 2023
In the early hours of November 17, Israeli forces surrounded hospitals across Jenin, including MSF-supported Khalil Suleiman Hospital, while the military forces were conducting incursions into a refugee camp in the city. An…
Updated
Medical staff from Gaza’s Dar al-Shifa hospital have been forced to flee the strip’s largest hospital on foot with critically ill patients including premature babies, according to Medical Aid for Palestinians.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, the UK-based humanitarian organization said:
With two-thirds of hospitals in Gaza now shut down, there is no capacity to receive them …
Among those still to be evacuated are the surviving premature babies, who have been forced out of incubators by Israel’s denial of generator fuel. The last information MAP received indicated that four have died and 35 remained alive. Their lives are at immediate risk.
There can be no justification for forcing the closure of Shifa Hospital, with the devastating impact on civilian lives that this will bring. (4/7)
— Medical Aid for Palestinians (@MedicalAidPal) November 18, 2023
As an occupying power, it is Israel’s duty to ensure the proper functioning of Palestinian health facilities and the protection of medical personnel, the sick and the wounded.
— Medical Aid for Palestinians (@MedicalAidPal) November 18, 2023
Instead, Israel’s attacks and siege have forced the near-total collapse of Gaza’s health system. (5/7)
Updated
UN says far more fuel needed to meet "daily minimum requirements of ... humanitarian operations" in Gaza
The head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said that Israel’s approval of “only half of the daily minimum requirements for fuel for humanitarian operations in Gaza … is far from enough”.
In a statement on Saturday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said:
This is far from enough to cover the needs for desalination plants, sewage pumps, hospitals, water pumps in shelters, aid trucks, ambulances, bakeries and communications networks to work without interruption.
Fuel should not be restricted for these activities.
Without the full amount of fuel, people will have only two-thirds of their daily needs of clean drinking water; large parts of Gaza will continue to be flooded with sewage, further increasing risks of diseases; seventy percent of solid waste will not be removed, a major health hazard. We are forced to handle a reduced number of aid trucks crossing daily into Rafah.
Humanitarian organisations should not be forced to make tough decisions between competing lifesaving activities.
Updated
Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, met with the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, on the sidelines of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue in Bahrain and “reiterated our call for an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters, the minister said he also reiterated the “absolute necessity to provide humanitarian access immediately and to lift all restrictions for humanitarian goods”.
Foreign Minister HH @FaisalbinFarhan: we had a very intense discussion, focussed on the situation in Gaza. I reiterated our call for an immediate ceasefire and for the absolute necessity to provide humanitarian access immediately & to lift all restrictions for humanitarian goods. pic.twitter.com/g2eCVPuJe3
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) November 18, 2023
He went on to add:
We in the Arab world, we the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, still feel very strongly that we need an immediate ceasefire … We don’t feel that there is enough attention given to the need for an immediate ceasefire. If you want to call them pauses, call them pauses, but the guns have to stop. The suffering of the people of Gaza has to stop.
Foreign Minister HH @FaisalbinFarhan: we don't feel that there is enough attention given to the need for an immediate ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/zZzZwSeie6
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) November 18, 2023
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Jabalia refugee camp in which bodies, including those of children, are wrapped in white sheets. In others, Palestinian civilians and civil defense teams race to rescue survivors following double Israeli strikes on Saturday, which the Gaza health ministry said killed more than 80 Palestinians:
Updated
Six ambulances from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society have stopped working in Gaza due to fuel depletion, the PRCS announced on Saturday.
🚨6 PRCS ambulances🚑stopped operating in the Gaza Strip due to fuel depletion.#Gaza#NotATarget #HumanitarianAid
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 18, 2023
Earlier today, the PRCS announced that its emergency medical teams remain trapped at al-Ahli Baptist hospital amid heavy bombardment and gunfire by Israeli soldiers.
🚨🚑PRCS emergency medical teams remain trapped at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, amidst heavy bombardment and gunfire by Israeli soldiers.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 18, 2023
🔊We demand immediate intervention to protect our teams that are now in danger⚠️#Gaza#NotATarget #SaveGazaHospitals
Updated
Gaza's health ministry: more than 80 killed in double Israeli strikes on refugee camp
More than 80 people were killed on Saturday by double Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza’s health ministry said.
“At least 50 people” were killed in an Israeli strike on early Saturday morning at the UNRWA-run al-Fakhouri school in the Jabalia refugee camp where displaced Palestinians are sheltering, a Gaza health ministry official said, Agence France-Presse reports.
Another strike on a separate building in the camp killed 32 people of the same family, 19 of them children, according to the official.
The ministry released a list of 32 members of the Abu Habal family it said had been killed in Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Agence France-Presse reports.
Various UN officials have responded to the deadly strikes, with UN aid chief Martin Griffiths saying: “Shelters are a place for safety. Schools are a place for learning. Tragic news of the children, women and men killed while sheltering at al-Fakhouri school in northern Gaza. Civilians cannot and should not have to bear this any longer.”
Shelters are a place for safety.
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) November 18, 2023
Schools are a place for learning.
Tragic news of the children, women and men killed while sheltering at Al Fakhouri school in northern Gaza.
Civilians cannot and should not have to bear this any longer.
Humanity needs to prevail.
Meanwhile, Unicef head Catherine Russell wrote: “We’re seeing horrifying images of children and civilians killed in Gaza – yet again – as they shelter in a school which must always be protected. The carnage must end. The suffering must end.”
We're seeing horrifying images of children and civilians killed in Gaza-yet again-as they shelter in a school which must always be protected.
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) November 18, 2023
The carnage must end.
The suffering must end.
This nightmare for children must end NOW!
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also responded to the attacks, saying: “Receiving horrifying images & footage of scores of people killed and injured in another UNRWA school sheltering thousands of displaced in the north of the Gaza Strip. These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop.”
Receiving horrifying images & footage of scores of people killed and injured in another @UNRWA school sheltering thousands of displaced in the north of the Gaza Strip.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) November 18, 2023
These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer.
Updated
Thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Saturday as part of state-sponsored marches to demonstrate against the Israeli killings of more than 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children, in Gaza.
Reuters reports Iranian state television showing protestors carrying mock body bags to symbolize the children killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza ahead of World Children’s Day on Monday.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami addressed a rally in Tehran, saying: “Palestine stands on the path of a war of attrition ... Israel will face a definitive defeat and end up in the dustbin of history,” Reuters reports.
He added: “The battle is not over. The Islamic world will do whatever it has to do. There are still great [unused] capacities left,” without referring to any possible moves by Iran to join the conflict.
On Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry called on the international community to help stop the “killing machine and organised terrorism of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and hold Zionist criminals accountable to justice and international law”.
Updated
Afternoon summary
At least 15 people were killed on Saturday following an airstrike that hit a house west of Khan Younis, health officials from Gaza’s Nasser hospital said. Gaza health authorities raised their death toll on Friday to more than 12,000 with 5,000 of them children. The United Nations deems those figures credible, though they are now updated infrequently due to the difficulty of collecting information.
The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Saturday it had received “horrifying” images and footage of scores of people killed and injured in an attack on an UNRWA school in the north of Gaza. “These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” the UNRWA commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said on social media platform X.
Health officials say many patients, medical staff and those displaced by the ongoing war have left Gaza’s largest hospital, which was taken over by Israeli forces earlier in the week. Palestinian officials and the Israeli military offered conflicting versions about what prompted the mass exodus from al-Shifa hospital, AP reported.
Hospital officials say they received an evacuation order from Israel’s military on Saturday morning, but the military said it had offered safe passage to those hoping to leave.
Jordan’s foreign minister has said Arab troops will not go to Gaza as he delivered a blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Turkey will make efforts to rebuild damaged infrastructure, hospitals and schools in Gaza if a ceasefire is achieved there, Turkish media on Saturday reported the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as saying. “If a ceasefire is reached, we will do whatever is necessary to compensate for the destruction caused by Israel,” Erdoğan told reporters on his plane returning from a trip to Berlin, where he held talks with German leaders.
Israel issued a fresh warning to residents in the southern city of Khan Younis to move out of the line of fire and closer to humanitarian aid, in the latest indication that it plans to attack south Gaza after subduing the north.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. My colleague Maya Yang will be taking over this blog shortly.
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The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Saturday it had received “horrifying” images and footage of scores of people killed and injured in an attack on an UNRWA school in the north of Gaza.
“These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” the UNRWA commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said on social media platform X.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment, Reuters reported.
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Tamal Sikurel pats her belly, swollen with her sixth child, and smiles. “It is part of the war effort,” she says. Behind her is a school empty of pupils and homes empty of their former inhabitants. Beyond the buildings are dry hills sloping down to the Jordan valley.
“For thousands of generations we have always had to fight to justify our existence … I feel the power of that history every day. We have all the biblical rights, historical rights and moral right to keep ourselves safe here,” Sikurel said.
The 35-year-old and the other 500,000 Jewish settlers on the West Bank are now at the centre of a growing storm of violence and controversy as the war between Israel and Hamas moves into its seventh week. Some are motivated by religious or nationalistic reasons, and others by the cheaper cost of living. What was once seen as a pioneer lifestyle is now often very comfortable: some early settlements, once tiny rudimentary “wildcat” outposts, are now well established and wealthy, with security guards at the entrance and fences topped with cameras and barbed wire. Their population has surged 16% in the last five years.
Israeli human rights groups say settlers, already empowered by the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, have exploited the conflict to pursue their own agenda, intensifying efforts to force Palestinians out of their homes on the West Bank.
Airstrike west of Khan Younis kills 15 Palestinians
At least 15 people were killed on Saturday following an airstrike that hit a house west of Khan Younis, health officials from Gaza’s Nasser hospital said.
Gaza health authorities raised their death toll on Friday to more than 12,000 with 5,000 of them children. The United Nations deems those figures credible, though they are now updated infrequently due to the difficulty of collecting information.
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Turkey will make efforts to rebuild damaged infrastructure, hospitals and schools in Gaza if a ceasefire is achieved there, Turkish media on Saturday reported President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as saying.
“If a ceasefire is reached, we will do whatever is necessary to compensate for the destruction caused by Israel,” Erdoğan told reporters on his plane returning from a trip to Berlin, where he held talks with German leaders.
“We will make efforts to rebuild the damaged infrastructure in Gaza and rebuild the destroyed schools, hospitals, water and energy facilities,” he was cited as saying by broadcaster A Haber on its website.
Earlier this week Erdogan called on Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to announce whether Israel had nuclear weapons and he returned to the issue in his comments to reporters, calling for nuclear weapons inspections there.
“As Turkey, we are making this call. Israel’s nuclear weapons must be inspected beyond doubt before it is too late. We will follow up on this,” he said.
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Here are some of the latest images coming through from Israel and Gaza:
Summary
It’s coming up to 3pm in Gaza. Here are the day’s main developments so far:
Health officials say many patients, medical staff and those displaced by the ongoing war have left Gaza’s largest hospital, which was taken over by Israeli forces earlier in the week.
Hospital officials say they received an evacuation order from Israel’s military on Saturday morning, but the military said it had offered safe passage to those hoping to leave.
Jordan’s foreign minister has said Arab troops will not go to Gaza as he delivered a blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.
Israel issued a fresh warning to residents in the southern city of Khan Younis to move out of the line of fire and closer to humanitarian aid, in the latest indication that it plans to attack Hamas in south Gaza after subduing the north.
Updated
The first planeload of Palestinian children wounded in the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip reached the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, part of a pledged relief effort by the country to aid 1,000 children.
The group of 15 people, including children and their family members, made it across the Gaza Strip’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Friday. They then took a flight to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, AP reported.
Young children lay asleep on their mothers’ laps as the plane finally landed at Abu Dhabi international airport. Some of the seats of the plane were removed to make room for the most critically wounded children, who needed to lie on stretchers.
Some of the young had bandaged arms and legs. Others sat quietly next to their parents or relatives. Some travelled alone. The mood was sombre and quiet inside the plane. Many of the mothers said they were exhausted.
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Jordan’s foreign minister has said Arab troops will not go to Gaza as he made a blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.
Ayman Safadi clashed with Joe Biden’s senior Middle East adviser on Saturday, saying a humanitarian pause should not be conditional on the release of hostages held by Hamas. The US envoy, Brett McGurk, said the onus was on Hamas to release hostages as a pathway to humanitarian aid increasing and a pause in the fighting.
The pair were addressing the IISS Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain, where Arab anger towards Israel’s refusal to negotiate a two-state solution was repeatedly voiced.
Speaker after speaker advised Israel that it would not find security through force.
At the same event, the EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, indicated he believed Israel could face charges at the international criminal court, adding: “One horror does not justify another.”
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Patients, staff and war evacuees 'leaving al-Shifa hospital'
Health officials say many patients, medical staff and those displaced by the ongoing war have left Gaza’s largest hospital, which was taken over by Israeli forces earlier in the week.
Palestinian officials and the Israeli military offered conflicting versions about what prompted the mass exodus from al-Shifa hospital, AP reported.
Health officials say they received an evacuation order from the military on Saturday morning, while the military said it had offered safe passage to those hoping to leave.
Before the departure, several thousand people, including medical patients in serious condition, were trapped in al-Shifa in dire conditions.
Updated
The newly appointed British foreign secretary, David Cameron, has spoken with the Israeli foreign minister, it has been confirmed.
Lord Cameron, who served as UK prime minister from 2010 to 2016, spoke to his counterpart, Eli Cohen, on Friday.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, he posted: “I spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister @EliCoh1 yesterday and shared my condolences for the Israeli civilians killed in Hamas’ brutal October 7th terror attack.
“We discussed the situation in Gaza and the need for humanitarian pauses. We are committed to preventing wider regional instability.”
"I spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister @EliCoh1 yesterday and shared my condolences for the Israeli civilians killed in Hamas’ brutal October 7th terror attack.
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) November 18, 2023
We discussed the situation in Gaza and the need for humanitarian pauses. We are committed to preventing wider regional…
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Organisers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets have planned smaller action in villages, towns and cities rather than holding a national march in the capital today.
More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend vigils, protests, petitions, fundraisers and marches across London boroughs and cities including Birmingham, Cambridge, Liverpool and elsewhere on Saturday, according to organisers.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said the rallies were organised to show that “ordinary people” support a ceasefire.
A top foreign policy adviser to the United Arab Emirates president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said on Saturday that statements from Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about a longer-term presence in Gaza were worrying.
“We hear now from the Israeli prime minister and indeed the Israeli president about the sort of longer term Israeli connection to Gaza. They are very worrying,” Anwar Gargash said at the IISS Manama Security summit in Bahrain.
“This indicates that perhaps the lesson that we as the majority of people in region are taking away from the Gaza crisis which is the need to go back to the two state solution, we need to go back to an Israeli and Palestinian state living side by side. That lesson has perhaps not been the same.”
Updated
A Tanzanian citizen missing since the 7 October raid by Hamas militants on southern Israel has been confirmed dead while a second remains unaccounted for, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dar Es Salaam said.
In a statement issued late on Friday, it said the family of farming student Clemence Mtenga had been notified of his death and talks were under way on repatriating his body. Searches continue for the second Tanzanian, Joshua Mollel, it added.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, Reuters reported.
Some 240 people were dragged into the Gaza Strip by Hamas, which also killed around 1,200 civilians and soldiers in the raid that sparked a now six-week-old war with Israel. Dozens of people were unaccounted for in the immediate aftermath.
Prior to their capture of Dar al-Shifa hospital, the Israel Defence Forces went to great lengths to depict the medical complex as a headquarters for Hamas, from where its attacks on Israel were planned.
The evidence produced so far falls well short of that. IDF videos have shown only modest collections of small arms, mostly assault rifles, recovered from the extensive medical complex.
That suggests an armed presence, but not the sort of elaborate nerve centre depicted in animated graphics presented to the media before al-Shifa was seized, portraying a network of well-equipped subterranean chambers.
Even the videos produced so far have raised questions under scrutiny. A BBC analysis found the footage of an IDF spokesperson showing the apparent discovery of a bag containing a gun behind an MRI scanning machine, had been taped hours before the arrival of the journalists to whom he was supposedly showing it.
In a video shown later, the number of guns in the bag had doubled. The IDF claimed its video of what it found at the hospital was unedited, filmed in a single take, but the BBC analysis found it had been edited.
Israeli forces say they are still carefully exploring the site. The video presentation of al-Shifa did show the main facilities lay deep underground, and it is quite possible the Israeli soldiers have not reached them yet, so there could be much more to come. But the attempt to present what has been found so far as significant is bound to fuel scepticism about whatever is presented later.
There are questions over how much of its graphic presentation of the network under al-Shifa was based on what Israel knew already; its own architect had built an extensive basement area there the last time Israel directly occupied Gaza, up to 2005.
Updated
Israeli troops order evacuation of hospital 'in the next hour' over loudspeakers - AFP
Israeli troops ordered the evacuation of al-Shifa hospital “in the next hour” over loudspeakers on Saturday, an AFP journalist at the scene reported, as troops combed the facility for Hamas hideouts.
Al-Shifa hospital – Gaza’s biggest – has become the focus of the Israel-Hamas war, now entering its seventh week after the October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
Israel claims Hamas operates a base underneath al-Shifa, a charge the militants deny. The United Nations estimated 2,300 patients, staff and displaced Palestinians were sheltering at Al-Shifa before Israeli troops moved in on Wednesday.
The Hamas health ministry in Gaza has announced dozens of deaths there as a result of power cuts caused by fuel shortages amid intense combat. Israel has made repeated calls for the hospital to be evacuated to the south, however medical professionals say the patients cannot be moved.
The hospital director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told AFP Israeli troops instructed him to ensure “the evacuation of patients, wounded, the displaced and medical staff, and that they should move on foot towards the seafront”.
Updated
Only the Palestinian Authority can run Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war is over, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Saturday.
“Hamas cannot be in control of Gaza any longer,” Borrell told the Manama Dialogue, an annual conference on foreign and security policy in Bahrain.
“So who will be in control of Gaza? I think only one could do that – the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
Updated
Jordanian foreign minister casts doubt on wiping out Hamas
Jordan’s foreign minister has said he does not understand how Israel’s goal of obliterating the Palestinian militant group Hamas could be achieved, Reuters reports.
Ayman Safadi said on Saturday:
Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There’s a lot of military people here, I just don’t understand how this objective can be realised.
He warned that Jordan would do “whatever it takes to stop” the displacement of Palestinians, amid heavy Israeli bombardment of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
“We will never allow that to happen,” Safadi told at the IISS Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain.
In addition to it being a war crime, it would be a direct threat to our national security. We’ll do whatever it takes to stop it.
The Israel-Hamas war has reawakened longstanding fears in Jordan, home to a large population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. They fear that Israel could expel Palestinians en masse from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have surged since 7 October attack.
Safadi said:
This war is not taking us anywhere but towards more conflict, more suffering and the threat of expanding into regional wars.
Updated
The US president’s top adviser on the Middle East said on Saturday that the release of hostages held by Hamas would lead to a surge in the delivery of humanitarian aid and significant pause in fighting in Gaza.
“The hostages are released, you will see a significant, significant change,” Brett McGurk said at the IISS Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain.
Reuters also reports that Bahrain’s crown prince, speaking at the summit on Friday, called on Hamas to release Israeli women and children held hostage and for Israel in exchange to release from its prisons Palestinian women and children who he said were non-combatants.
Updated
Israeli strike on southern Gaza house kills six – report
Six Palestinians were killed on Saturday in an Israeli air strike on a house in Deir al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, Reuters has just quoted health officials as saying.
Attack on Khan Younis residential building kills 26, says hospital chief
Twenty-six people were killed in a strike in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, a hospital director said on Saturday.
Agence France-Presse quotes the director of the Nasser hospital as saying on Saturday it had received the bodies of 26 people, as well as 23 people with serious injuries, after an airstrike on a residential building in the region’s Hamad Town.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Updated
Israel reiterates warning to leave Khan Younis
Israel issued a fresh warning to Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to move out of the line of fire and closer to humanitarian aid, in the latest indication that it plans to attack Hamas in south Gaza after subduing the north, Reuters reports.
“We’re asking people to relocate. I know it’s not easy for many of them, but we don’t want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire,” Mark Regev, an aide to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC on Friday.
Such a move could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south from the Israeli assault on Gaza City to relocate again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, worsening a dire humanitarian crisis.
Israel dropped leaflets over Khan Younis telling people to evacuate to shelters, suggesting military operations there were imminent.
Regev said Israeli troops would have to advance into the city to oust Hamas fighters from underground tunnels and bunkers but that no such “enormous infrastructure” exists in less built-up areas to the west.
“I’m pretty sure that they won’t have to move again” if they moved west, he said, referring to people in the area.
We’re asking them to move to an area where hopefully there will be tents and a field hospital.
Because the western areas are closer to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, humanitarian aid could be brought in “as quickly as possible”, Regev said.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome to our rolling live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a look at the latest to bring you up to speed.
Israel has issued a fresh warning to Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to relocate west to avoid crossfire and be closer to humanitarian aid amid indications that Israeli military operations there could be imminent.
The warning, from an aide to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south from the Israeli assault on Gaza City to relocate again, worsening a humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, a hospital director said 26 people had been killed in a strike on a residential building in Hamad, a neighbourhood in the Khan Younis area.
More on those stories shorty. In other news as it turns 8.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
A first consignment of fuel has entered Gaza after Israel bowed to US pressure for limited deliveries to allow wastewater treatment and the resumption of communications after a two-day blackout. Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Friday the country’s war cabinet had agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day, a quantity he described as “very minimal”.
The White House said fuel should be allowed into the Gaza Strip “on a regular basis and in larger quantities”, while welcoming the Israeli move.
A top UN official has renewed calls for a “humanitarian ceasefire” to allow aid to reach the 2.2 million people trapped in the Israel-Hamas war, saying: “We are not asking for the moon.”
Israeli troops will advance to anywhere Hamas exists, including the southern part of the Gaza Strip, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said. It comes amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations in parts of the south where people have sought refuge from fighting. Civilians in parts of south-east Gaza were told in leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft to move into a smaller “safe zone” in the coastal town of Mawasi, which covers just 14 sq km (5.4 sq miles), prompting warnings from the heads of 18 UN agencies and international aid groups.
At least 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to Hamas officials on Friday.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it has been trying to evacuate some of its staff and their families currently trapped inside the organisation’s facilities near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Since last Saturday, MSF staff and families – 137 people, 65 of them children – have not been able to go outside because of ongoing fighting, it said.
Gaza’s main telecommunications companies, Paltel and Jawwal, have confirmed the “partial restoration” of telecom services in various parts of Gaza.
At least five Palestinians were killed and two others injured in a blast at a building in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said early on Saturday.
A UN human rights official has urged Israel to stop using water as a “weapon of war” and allow clean water and fuel into Gaza to restart the water supply network. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, UN special rapporteur on water and sanitation, said consciously preventing supplies of safe water from entering Gaza “violates both international humanitarian and human rights law”. The UN says Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation.
An Israeli police investigation into the Hamas attacks at a music festival on 7 October has updated the death toll to 364, according to Israeli media reports. Earlier counts had placed the death count from the attack at Supernova music festival in Kibbutz Re’im at 270.
The Israeli military has said it has retrieved the body of a soldier, Noa Marciano, who had been held captive by Hamas in a building near Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. It comes after the Israel Defence Forces said on Thursday they had found the body of Yehudit Weiss, one of about 240 hostages taken on 7 October, in a building near the hospital.
Bahrain’s crown prince says a “hostage trade” between Hamas and Israel could achieve a break in hostilities he believes might end the conflict in Gaza. Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa also said security in the region would not realised without a two-state solution, in which he described the US as “indispensable” in achieving.
The deputy head of Israel’s legislature has criticised the decision to allow a limited amount of fuel into Gaza for humanitarian needs. Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Knesset and a member of the ruling Likud party, said Israel was being “too humane” and that it should “burn Gaza now”.
Five countries have submitted a referral to the international criminal court (ICC) for an investigation of “the situation in the state of Palestine”, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said. Khan confirmed his office was already conducting an investigation into the situation in the state of Palestine which began in March 2021.
The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis will meet next week with relatives of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza. The pope will separately meet with a delegation of Palestinians with family members in Gaza, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said.
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