Israel - Palestinian militants launch massive attack, 7 Oct 2023 #10

[JennieM]

2 hr 2 min ago

Doctors Without Borders says it has lost contact with staff at Gaza's largest hospital​

From CNN's Teele Rebane

Doctors Without Borders says it has lost contact with its staff inside Gaza's largest healthcare facility, Al-Shifa Hospital, amid reports of "heavy bombing" in the vicinity of the complex.

“Over the last few hours, the attacks against Al-Shifa Hospital have dramatically intensified. [Doctors Without Borders] staff at the hospital reported a catastrophic situation inside,” the humanitarian group said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, at 3:43 a.m. Gaza time (8:43 p.m. ET Friday).

The group said it was extremely concerned about the safety of staff and patients at Al-Shifa Hospital, some of whom were in critical condition and unable to move or evacuate.

[…]

November 11, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Hamas-run health ministry says Israel laid siege to Gaza's largest hospital Saturday. The IDF denies the claim, but acknowledged heavy fighting in the area.

edition.cnn.com

 

[JennieM]

1 hr 7 min ago

Iranian president calls for action on Gaza on way to Riyadh for summit​

From CNN's Adam Pourahmadi

Gaza should not be be an "arena for words" but for actions, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said while on his way to a summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

"Palestine is the most important issue in the Islamic world," Raisi said as he departed Tehran airport.

Raisi is calling on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to make a "decisive, actionable and implementable decision on Gaza.

November 11, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Hamas-run health ministry says Israel laid siege to Gaza's largest hospital Saturday. The IDF denies the claim, but acknowledged heavy fighting in the area.

edition.cnn.com

 

[JennieM]

UK​

Police brace for largest pro-Palestinian protest and impose Cenotaph exclusion zone​

The Metropolitan Police is preparing for an unprecedented security operation ahead of a pro-Palestinian demonstration in London later.

The force expects the march, which coincides with Armistice Day, to be the largest yet, and has warned there is a risk of clashes with far-right groups.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been told they could be arrested if they approach the Cenotaph.

[…]

The Met expects Saturday's demonstration to be the largest since weekly pro-Palestinian marches began in early October, and warned the situation in the capital could be "challenging" and "tense".

Organisers of the demonstration, which will call for a ceasefire in Gaza, claim around 500,000 could march from Hyde Park to the US embassy in Vauxhall.

An exclusion zone will be in place around the Cenotaph and a large swathe of Whitehall, which the Met says will "in effect" ban pro-Palestinian protesters from these locations and goes further than the security measures usually deployed around the key Remembrance site.

[…]

Police brace for largest pro-Palestinian protest and impose Cenotaph exclusion zone

Hundreds of thousands are due to take part in the march, while elsewhere commemorations take place for Armistice Day.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[JennieM]

NOW

Hospital said to have run out of fuel​

A spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry has been speaking to Reuters. They say Al-Shifa - the largest medical facility in Gaza - ran out of fuel.

"As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies," says Ashraf Al-Qidra.

BREAKING​

Al-Shifa hospital reportedly suspends operations​

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says operations have been suspended at the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza.

We don't have more information than that right now - but we'll keep you posted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67385263

 

[JennieM]

NEW

Al-Shifa surgeon says intensive care unit was hit​

In the last hour, our international editor Jeremy Bowen - who's currently in Israel - has received a voice note from Marwan Abu Saada, a surgeon currently inside Al-Shifa hospital.

Saada says the main intensive care unit (ICU) has been hit, and sounds of shooting and bombardments echo "every second".

He says no-one can get leave the hospital, and no-one can come in.

The doctor adds that there is now no water, food or electricity in the hospital.

Two patients who were on ventilators have now died, one of whom was a baby, Saada says.

As we mentioned […] the Hamas-run health ministry has also reported the death of a newborn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67385263

 

[JennieM]

'These hospitals will turn into graveyards'​

As the BBC's Rushdi Abualouf reported overnight, Israeli forces have Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital surrounded - and there's great concern for staff and patients who remain there.

If there's no ceasefire or medical aid, "all the patients who are remaining in these hospitals will just die, and these hospitals will turn into graveyards," says Dr Mohammad Abu Mughaiseb, the deputy medical coordinator for the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza.

He told the BBC World Service's Weekend programme that the intensive care unit of the main paediatric hospital in Gaza had been targeted by tanks, forcing MSF teams and other medical staff to leave and abandon patients.

“The paediatric hospital, the medical team left the hospital and there were five babies in the intensive care unit. These babies now are left alone in a hospital that is bombed, and these babies will die.”

Dr Abu Mughaiseb also said the shortage of drugs was so dire that surgeries were being performed without anaesthesia.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67385263

 

[JennieM]

Another night of bombardment for Gazan hospitals​

At least four major hospitals in Gaza are now effectively on the front line of the fighting. Thousands of patients – as well as Gazans seeking shelter inside medical centres - have endured another night of Israeli bombardment.

Israel argues that Hamas fighters – by constructing bases under the buildings – have made these legitimate military targets. Hamas denies that it’s built command and control bases under hospitals.

Overnight, we’ve seen updates from charities focussing on two of the hospitals in northern Gaza.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) warned that the Al-Quds hospital may have to shut because of a lack of fuel and medical supplies. It claimed 500 patients were at risk with those in intensive care and babies on incubators likely to die.

And Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said their staff at the Al-Shifa hospital reported a "catastrophic situation" in the early hours before their communications went down. Power is now reported to have resumed, but the director of the hospital has told the BBC as many as 15,000 people remain within the complex.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67385263

 

[JennieM]

34m ago

Operations suspended in al-Shifa hospital, says Gaza health ministry​

The spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said that operations in al-Shifa hospital complex, the largest in the enclave, were suspended on Saturday after it ran out of fuel.

“As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies,” Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for the health ministry told Reuters.

Al-Shifa hospital, hit by missiles on Friday, is the largest in the 360sq km Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks, Israel has said Hamas militants have hidden command centres and tunnels beneath it and other hospitals.

Hamas, health authorities and Shifa directors have denied the group is concealing military infrastructure in or under the complex and have said they would welcome an international inspection, according to Reuters.

1h ago

'We are minutes away from imminent death,' warns al-Shifa hospital director​

The al-Shifa hospital director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, has warned “we are minutes away from imminent death” with patients dying “by the minute”.

Speaking from inside the besieged facility in Gaza City to Al Jazeera, he said:

All I can say is that we’ve started to lose lives. Patients are dying by the minute, victims and wounded are also dying – even babies in the incubators.
We lost a baby in the incubator, we also lost a young man in the intensive care unit.
The hospital compound is cordoned off and the buildings of the hospital are targeted. Any moving person within the compound is targeted. The Israeli occupation forces are outside, preventing any person to move…
We are totally cut off from the whole world, we are minutes away from imminent death.

He added that the hospital has been left without power, internet and water and medical supplies. His comments were translated by Al Jazeera.

Strikes have reportedly been increasing near al-Shifa hospital, where it is said more than 50,000 people may have taken shelter.

Israel-Hamas war: UN calls Gaza fighting ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

7m ago

Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has arrived in Saudi Arabia for a summit on Gaza (see earlier post at 07.02), state-affiliated media has reported.

Middle East leaders have called for a ceasefire while warning the conflict risks drawing in other countries, a threat Raisi on Saturday blamed on Washington’s staunch support for Israel, AFP reports.

“The war machine in Gaza belongs to the US,” he said before departing for Riyadh. “The US has prevented the ceasefire in Gaza and is expanding the scope of the war.”

Footage aired on the Al-Ekhbariya channel showed Raisi, wearing a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, greeting Saudi officials at the airport after disembarking from his plane.

Israel-Hamas war: UN calls Gaza fighting ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

2h ago

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called on Israel to stop killing babies, women and elderly people in Gaza, as the country comes under mounting international pressure, including from its main ally, the US, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.

Israel-Hamas war: UN calls Gaza fighting ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

2h ago

Doctors Without Borders alarmed at 'catastrophic situation' in al-Shifa hospital​

The aid agency Doctors Without Borders has quoted a surgeon in the agency’s series of tweets expressing concern at the “catastrophic situation”inside the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City amid intensifying strikes.

“Over the last few hours, the attacks against al-Shifa hospital have dramatically intensified. Our staff at the hospital have reported a catastrophic situation inside just few hours ago,” the aid agency posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

A surgeon is quoted as saying:

There is a patient who needs surgery. There is a patient who’s already asleep in our department. We cannot evacuate ourselves and [leave] these people inside. As a doctor. I swear to help the people who need help.

Doctors Without Borders said it was currently unable to contact any of its staff in the hospital. Caretakers were still inside the facility as well.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1723154416654516375

The agency added:

We urgently reiterate our calls to stop the attacks against hospitals and for the protection of medical facilities, medical staff and patients.

Israeli has claimed the al-Shifa hospital has acted as a shield for military infrastructure, which Hamas denies.

Israel-Hamas war: UN calls Gaza fighting ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

30s ago
BBC News’ international editor, Jeremy Bowen, has received a voice notefrom Marwan Abu Saada, a surgeon inside al-Shifa hospital, saying the main intensive care unit has been hit.

He told Bowen, who is in Israel, that sounds of shooting and bombardments echo “every second”.

Israel-Hamas war: UN calls Gaza fighting ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

2h ago

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday is the first by an Iranian head of state since Tehran and Riyadh ended years of hostility under a China-brokered deal in March.

“Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action,” Raisi said at Tehran airport before departing for the summit of Arab and Islamic nations in the Saudi capital, as we posted a short while ago.

Raisi added:

Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important.

Reuters also reported that Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who is accompanying Raisi, was quoted by the Padolat government website as saying:

The summit will send a strong message to warmongers in the region and result in the cessation of war crimes in Palestine.

Raisi said in televised comments at Tehran airport:

America says it doesn’t want an expansion of the war and has sent messages to Iran and several countries [to this effect]. But these statements are not consistent with America’s actions.
The war machine in Gaza is in the hands of America, which is preventing a ceasefire in Gaza and expanding the war. The world must see the true face of America.

3h ago

Iranian president says 'action' not words needed on Gaza​

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that time had come for action over the conflict in Gaza rather than talk as he headed to Saudi Arabia to attend a summit on the crisis, Reuters reports.

“Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action,” Raisi said at Tehran airport before departing for Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important.”

Israel-Hamas war: UN calls Gaza fighting ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

Delegates arrive at Saudi summit​

We're starting to see delegates arrive at for an emergency gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - as previewed by our security correspondent Frank Gardner a bit earlier.

It's expected the leaders will spend the day working towards a unified statement to call for an end to the war. We'll bring you more as it gets under way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67385263

 

[JennieM]

9:58

Surgeon says people shot outside hospital​

More from those voice notes from a surgeon at Al-Shifa hospital.

"The people who tried this morning to evacuate from the hospital, they have been shot in the streets," Marwan Abu Saada says.

He says an engineering team went to check on the generators powering the ICU and neonatal unit, but were also shot at, leaving one member of the team paralysed.

The BBC hasn't been able to verify this, and it's not clear who fired the shots. We've approached the Israeli military for comment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67385263

 

[JennieM]

Posted at 10:1210:12

Medics says attempts to dig hospital mass grave were thwarted​

Surgeon Marwan Abu Saada continues in his voice notes to the BBC by saying attempts were made yesterday to dig a mass grave at Al-Shifa hospital. But he says efforts were thwarted by Israeli attacks.

Saada explains that "we don't want to have any outbreaks due to these dead bodies, who are outside the main refrigerator".

That refrigerator is "not working because we don't have fuel to run this generator", he adds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67385263

 

[JennieM]

Updated 1:56 AM GMT, November 11, 2023

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing northern Gaza as Israel’s military pushed deeper into dense urban neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas militants. Officials in the besieged enclave said the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 11,000 people.

The search for safety in Gaza is growing more desperate as combat intensifies. Residents who escaped to the south and Palestinian health officials reported strikes in and around Gaza City’s main hospital overnight. Israel said at least one was the result of a misfired Palestinian rocket.

The World Health Organization said Friday that 20 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a pediatric hospital that stopped operations after a reported Israeli strike in the area.

“If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza,” the U.N. humanitarian agency spokesperson, Jens Laerke, told reporters in Geneva.

More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began. In the south, they’re crowded into shelters with dwindling supplies of food and water as the war enters its second month.

Live updates | Fighting near hospitals in north Gaza, as Palestinians flee to overcrowded shelters

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing northern Gaza as Israel’s military pushed deeper into dense urban neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas.

apnews.com

 

[JennieM]

12m ago

The joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh is expected to strongly condemn Israel’s campaign in Gaza and call for a halt to forced displacement of Palestinians there, Reuters reports.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Qatar’s Emir sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, who was welcomed back in the Arab League earlier this year, are among those who will be attending.

Israel-Hamas war: UN calls Gaza fighting ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

Israel-Hamas fake news thrives on poorly regulated online platforms​

Disinformation has flourished across a range of online platforms in the month since Hamas launched its bloody attack on Israel, fuelled by weak content regulation on X, formerly Twitter, and Telegram and at times propelled by state actors.

Widely shared faked news and false claims include efforts to downplay the horror of Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October through to distasteful allegations that Palestinians, already under heavy bombardment, are faking scenes of violence.

[…]

Israel-Hamas fake news thrives on poorly regulated online platforms

Claims on X and Telegram include downplaying 7 October Hamas attack and allegations Palestinians are faking scenes of suffering

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

1 min ago

Israeli army says 11 Hamas military posts in Gaza now under its control​

The Israeli military said it now had control of 11 Hamas military posts in the Gaza strip in an update Saturday.

A statement from the military said Israeli forces had also destroyed a vehicle packed with explosives that had been parked close to an area used by Israeli soldiers.
It also said it had destroyed a tunnel used by militants.

In addition, the military said naval forces had struck what it said were military targets inside the Al Shati refugee camp, which is located on the seafront just north of Gaza City.

There was no reference in the statement to operational activity around al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest, and the military has not responded to repeated CNN requests for comment on reports from al-Shifa medics that the hospital complex has been hit by artillery fire.

Fighting has been reported close to hospitals in northern Gaza amid an Israeli ground offensive aimed at destroying the Hamas militants who carried out the deadly October 7 attacks.

November 11, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Hamas-run health ministry says Israel laid siege to Gaza's largest hospital Saturday. The IDF denies the claim, but acknowledged heavy fighting in the area.

edition.cnn.com