102023- November” Aljazeera
- Israeli tanks surround several hospitals in Gaza, health officials say, as al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City comes under attack five times in less than 24 hours.
- At least 50 killed after Israeli missiles and artillery hit Gaza school sheltering internally displaced people. People fleeing on the main road towards southern Gaza also come under attack, witnesses say.
- The relentless Israeli bombardment has damaged more than 50 percent of housing units across Gaza, according to officials.
- The UN’s humanitarian office issued statement saying if there is a hell on Earth, it is northern Gaza.
- At least 11,078 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the death toll stands at more than 1,400.
Israeli forces attacking vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital: Ministry of Health
“There are also snipers firing from all directions around the complex and its vicinity,” Ashraf al-Qudra, the ministry spokesperson, told Al Jazeera. “There is panic inside the complex, there is no movement in the grounds of the complex. Ambulances cannot move due to the direct strikes.”
“There is panic inside the complex, there is no movement in the grounds of the complex.
New war crime’: Colombia’s president slams Israeli attacks on hospitals
Gustavo Petro has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza over the past weeks.
Amid Israel’s continuing attacks on Gaza hospitals today, the Colombian president also slammed governments in the US and Europe for allowing Israel to commit what he described as “crimes against humanity”.
He called on countries in the Global South to refuse to buy weapons from “any country that supports this genocide”.
Read more about why Petro and other left-wing leaders in Latin America are taking a stand against Israel, here
Ambulances cannot move due to the direct strikes.”
Hamas decries mass arrests of Palestinians in occupied West Bank
Hamas has decried Israel’s crackdown on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as dozens are being arrested in daily overnight raids.
Since October 7, at least 1,740 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
Most are being held under laws and military orders that allow detention without trial or charge.
Israel is escalating the rate of “arbitrary detention … and is carrying out all horrific forms of torture and degrading treatment against them,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli prisons are also “intensifying violations” committed against male and female prisoners in a “desperate attempt at revenge”, it said.
Hamas called on human rights organisations to “expose these crimes”
Vicinity of Al-Shifa hospital under attack, Interior Ministry says
Israel has launched “a series of violent raids” in the vicinity of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the Interior Ministry says.
The hospital already came under attack five times in less than 24 hours.
The raids are also being launched in al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, it said.
The attacks include the launching of “phosphorous bombs”, it added.
More than 100 UN workers killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began, agency says
At least 101 employees of the main United Nations agency working in the Palestinian territories have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the agency said Friday.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it was “devastated” by the deaths of more than 100 colleagues in a post on social media Friday.
“Mothers, fathers, teachers, nurses, doctors, guards, logisticians, support staff, all at the service of their community,” UNRWA said. “We honor their memory and their service.”
Earlier Friday, UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini also said he was “devastated” by the deaths of colleagues and called for a humanitarian ceasefire.
The UN agency has more than 10,000 people working in its Gaza Field Office, according to the UNRWA website.
More background: UNRWA runs the largest humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip and provides assistance and protection for registered Palestinian refugees
Israel says more than 100,000 Palestinians have fled southwards
More than 100,000 residents of the Gaza Strip have fled southwards over the last two days as Israeli forces operate “deep in Gaza City,” chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
Palestinians fleeing south have come under Israeli attack several times, the latest an attack against civilians using Salah al-Din Street earlier today, which Israel promised would be a safe route.
Survivors say many people have been injured and killed, and that no ambulances have been able to reach Salah al-Din road.
While many Palestinians families have chosen to make their way south, others remain trapped and unable to flee from the northern and central areas due to continuing Israeli bombardment.
Inhumane’: Top Belgium officials criticise Israeli bombing of Gazae
Belgian politicians and officials are increasingly questioning the scale and legality of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, as more civilians are killed and a humanitarian disaster unfolds in the densely populated enclave.
On Monday, at a conference in Brussels, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, a liberal democrat, described Israel’s campaign in Gaza as “disproportionate”.
“If you bomb an entire refugee camp with the intention of eliminating a terrorist, I don’t think it’s proportionate,” he said, but insisted that “Belgium will not take sides”.
And on Wednesday, Belgium’s deputy prime minister made a rare European call for sanctions against Israel.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blockade military suppliers in UK, US
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the entrances to the facilities of military suppliers in the United Kingdom and the United States on Friday, demanding an end to arms sales to Israel.
They were joined in their rallies by trade unionists, holding banners and Palestinian flags outside a BAE Systems factory in southeastern England on Friday, targeting the United Kingdom’s biggest military supplier.
“Stop arming Israel”, read one sign at the protest at BAE’s Rochester, Kent, site, where the firm tests and assembles electronic equipment used on military aircraft and in surveillance systems.
Read more here.
About 200,000 people have lost homes in Gaza, where 45% of housing is damaged or destroyed, UN office says
At least 45% of Gaza’s housing has been destroyed or damaged as of November 4, and as many as 200,000 people no longer have homes, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with more than 500 people per 100 square meters in many areas, according to the European Commission.
Israel has carried out multiple airstrikes about a kilometer from the Rafah crossing — the only way in and out of Gaza that isn’t controlled by Israel. The crossing, which is controlled by Egypt, has been mostly closed since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
