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

[JennieM]

26m ago

Israel's foreign minister acknowledges growing calls for ceasefire​

Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has acknowledged the growing international pressure for a ceasefire.

Speaking during a briefing to reporters today, Cohen said:

From a political point of view, we recognise that Israel has come under more pressure. The pressure is not very high, but it is increasing.

He estimated that Israel has a “diplomatic window” of between two and three weeks before pressure on the country seriously begins to increase, local media reported.

Israel-Hamas war: Brazil’s president accuses Israel of ‘killing innocent people’ – as it happened

This blog has closed. You can see all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here and see our latest full report on the conflict here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

18m ago

EU looking at maritime corridor to Israel​

Lisa O'Carroll

EU foreign ministers are looking at a Cypriot proposal to open up a maritime corridor for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza.

But its chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said one of the problems was the lack of any ports in Gaza.

Israel tightly controls the waters off the coast of Gaza as part of its routine security operation with fishers restricted to three nautical miles off shore.

The EU is currently looking at building jetties or pontoons to get around the problem but privately they admit they would still need the Israelis approval at least or allow the Israeli’s to manage the offshore ports.

Borrell said it was imperative aid got in. He said:

The UN is highlighting the lack of food and medicine and also the worrying lock of hospitals many of which have collapsed or are near collapse.
According to the WHO, 25 out of 35 hospitals have ceased to function, they are without fuel and without fuel they cannot function.

“There is a most acute lack of basic necessities, water, medicine and food,” he said with 1.5m internally displaced people in Gaza and hundreds of thousands without basic supplies.

We have got to get the humanitarian lorries through. We are currently talking about 40 lorries a day on the Rafa crossing [on the border with Egypt] and that is very little compared to the 500 lorries a day crossing before the war.

Israel-Hamas war: Brazil’s president accuses Israel of ‘killing innocent people’ – as it happened

This blog has closed. You can see all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here and see our latest full report on the conflict here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

46 min ago

Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah reports latest casualty figure in Gaza​

From CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Eyad Kourdi

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank has reported updated casualty figures in Gaza.

In its update Monday, the ministry, which is based in Ramallah, said that 11,180 Palestinians, including 4,609 children and 3,100 women, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, citing medical sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Injuries from the attacks have affected 28,200 individuals, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, 15 patients at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza have died in recent days, among them six newborns, due to power outages and a shortage of medical supplies. Previously health officials at the hospital had said three neo-natal babies had died.

Additionally, 202 health care workers have lost their lives, and 53 ambulances have been disabled, the ministry added.

The ministry did not issue a daily report on the death toll on Sunday, saying it was unable to update casualty figures due to Israeli attacks on hospitals.

The Ministry of Health in Ramallah draws data from medical sources in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

November 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, are "catastrophic" as essential units have collapsed, the facility's director told CNN.

edition.cnn.com

 

[JennieM]

4 min ago

UN agency says it will not be able to facilitate aid deliveries to Gaza on Tuesday due to lack of fuel​

From CNN’s Niamh Kennedy in London

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it has no fuel to fill its trucks in Gaza and will not be able to facilitate aid deliveries through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday.

Thomas White, director of UNRWA Affairs in the Gaza Strip, told a press briefing Monday that the agency had about 80 trucks in its fleet that have been transporting aid through the Rafah crossing, which connects Egypt to Gaza.

“We have no fuel to put in these trucks. We will not be receiving aid from Egypt tomorrow,” White told journalists.
More than 700 truckloads of aid need to enter Gaza every ten days to simply “keep the pace,” White said. The logistics are “not keeping pace with demand,” he said.

UNRWA had issued similarly bleak warnings regarding its dwindling fuel supplies on October 25. At the time it said that if it did not receive fuel deliveries within one day it would be forced to halt operations in Gaza.

During Monday’s briefing, White explained that for the past two and a half weeks, the agency had been using fuel from a strategic reservoir inside Gaza after brokering access with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). That reservoir, which receives fuel from a pipeline to Egypt and has a one-million-liter capacity, has now run completely dry, according to White.

UNRWA had been “signaling to various interlocutors” for the past few days that the reservoir’s supplies were set to run out, White said.

Negotiations to refuel the reservoir are currently “stalled” at the “highest level of the Israeli government,” he added.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli government for comment.

UNRWA’s aid operation in Gaza has been “strangled of resources,” White stressed, warning that the situation is “going to get exceptionally tough” in the coming days.

The agency will be forced to entirely halt some services, including desalination plants and waste removal, he said. There is a “real potential” that free-flowing waste in the streets will lead to a “devastating” cholera outbreak in Gaza, White warned.

November 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, are "catastrophic" as essential units have collapsed, the facility's director told CNN.

edition.cnn.com

 

[JennieM]

2m ago

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking to install the former UK prime minister, Tony Blair, as a “humanitarian coordinator” in Gaza, according to a report.

Netanyahu believes that Blair’s experience as a lead diplomat in the region could be leveraged to reduce international pressure over the civilian cost of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Israel’s Ynet news reported on Sunday.

The report indicated that Blair has been contacted over the matter and that talks have been ongoing in recent weeks. A spokesperson for the former British prime minister told the outlet that “he has not been given or offered a position,” but did not directly deny any contact.

The Financial Times reported that Blair is open to the role if he thought he could make a real difference. A spokesperson said:

As you know, Mr Blair has an office in Israel and has continued to work on issues regarding Israel and the Palestinians. He is discussing the situation obviously with a number of people in the region and elsewhere to see what can be done. But there is no ‘role’ offered or taken.

Israel-Hamas war: Brazil’s president accuses Israel of ‘killing innocent people’ – as it happened

This blog has closed. You can see all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here and see our latest full report on the conflict here

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

59 min ago

More than 560 foreign nationals departed Gaza for Egypt on Monday, border official says​

From Asmaa Khalil in Rafah and CNN’s Eyad Kourdi

Ten buses carrying 564 foreign nationals departed the Gaza Strip for Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Monday, an Egyptian border official told a journalist working with CNN at the crossing.

The official detailed that some 97 aid relief trucks also made their way into the Gaza Strip, loaded with essential supplies such as food, water, relief items, medical equipment, and medications.

Before the conflict, the United Nations reported that about 455 trucks on average would enter daily with aid supplies.

November 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, are "catastrophic" as essential units have collapsed, the facility's director told CNN.

edition.cnn.com

 

[JennieM]

1hr 34 min ago

Lebanese state news says media convoy struck by Israeli missiles; no reported injuries​

From CNN's Ben Wedeman, Sarah El Sirgany and Eyad Kourdi

Flames erupt next to a press car following reported Israeli shelling in Lebanon's southern border village of Yaroun on November 13. AFP/Getty Images

The Lebanese state-run news agency (NNA) said two Israeli missiles struck a convoy of media in the town of Yaroun on Monday near the Israeli-Lebanese border.

There were no reported injuries, according to NNA. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Journalists in the convoy were reporting on recent exchanges across the border between the Israeli military and Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

The Lebanese TV news channel Al-Jadeed was broadcasting live from the area when an explosion occurred, starting a fire nearby. Several vehicles in the convoy appeared to have been damaged, according to video from the scene.

In the aftermath of the explosion, media personnel were urgently advised to leave the area to "avoid further attacks," NNA reported.

Last month, Reuters cameraman Issam Abdallah was killed and others injured when a media convoy was hit in southern Lebanon.

Tensions rising: The incident on Monday comes amid rising cross-border exchanges. The IDF reported Monday that “in response to the launches over the past day, IDF fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah military sites and terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon. These targets included terror infrastructure, weapons storage compounds, and an operational command center used by Hezbollah.”

Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted a site in Al-Ramtha within the Shebaa Farms area, claiming a direct strike. It also said that one of its fighters had been killed, but did not say where or when.

Additionally, the Lebanese state news agency reported Monday that two civilians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli air strike that hit a house in the settlement of Eyeta.

November 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, are "catastrophic" as essential units have collapsed, the facility's director told CNN.

edition.cnn.com

 

[JennieM]

2 hr 33 min ago

Israeli electric worker killed in Hezbollah missile attack, company says​

From CNN’s Amir Tal

An employee of the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) was killed Sunday in Hezbollah’s missile attack on Dovev in northern Israel, the company said in a statement Monday.

The electric supplier said that “an anti-tank missile hit a team of employees of the electric company while they were working, in coordination with the security forces, in the area of Moshav Dovev to repair power lines damaged by previous firing.”

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack with anti-tank missiles on northern Israel on Sunday, saying it was aimed at a military logistical team setting up communication towers. The group, which has fired anti-tank missiles across the border on multiple occasions over the past month, claimed in its statement that the attack killed and injured an unspecified number of individuals.

Israel responded to the attack by striking what it described as "a terrorist cell embedded in a civilian area in Lebanon."

November 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, are "catastrophic" as essential units have collapsed, the facility's director told CNN.

edition.cnn.com

 

[MyBelle]

Bodies 'decomposing in Al-Shifa courtyard'​

Doctors in Gaza have told the BBC that dead bodies are piling up and beginning to rot inside and around Al-Shifa hospital.

Dr. Marwan Al-Barsh who is the director-general of the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said there were, "more than a hundred corpses" piled up in the courtyard, with the situation exacerbated by a lack of fuel to power the mortuaries.

"The electricity was cut off by the Israeli occupation forces that targeted the generators, which led to the decomposition and rotting of the corpses as we see worms coming out of them", Al-Barsh said on BBC Arabic's Gaza Lifeline programme.

Al-Bursh said they were struggling to bury their dead because of threats from the IDF.

“We tried to co-ordinate with the occupation forces so that we would be allowed to bury the dead bodies inside the hospital, yet anyone who attempts to get out of the hospital is directly shot."

Israel asserts that there is a Hamas command centre underneath Al-Shifa - IDF spokeswoman Libby Weiss said: "We know that with certainty. We've shared significant information that speaks to that."

It has shared a 3-D representation of what it claimed were a network of tunnels under the hospital, and recordings it says are of Hamas fighters discussing them.

Hamas denies it is using the hospital or that it has an operations centre underneath. Doctors inside insist there is no Hamas presence there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67400490

BBM. And that is exactly what the world is seeing for ourselves. Israel cut off the electricity intentionally. The direct result is the annihilation of civilians in those hospitals. Disgusting beyond words.

JMO

 

[JennieM]

Gaza's biggest hospital becoming a cemetery, says WHO​

As we've been reporting, the situation in hospitals in Gaza continues to be desperate.

At Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital, the largest in the territory, power cuts and a lack of fuel are causing severe difficulties, with particular international concern for the fate of dozens of premature babies no longer able to stay in their incubators.

Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, told the BBC that as well as the premature babies, the hospital is unable to carry out kidney dialysis for 45 patients who need it. He said 600 patients remained in the hospital, and other people sheltering in the hallways.

Doctors in Gaza say dead bodies are beginning to pile up both inside and outside the hospital, and Lindmeier also described this, saying the hospital was functioning more like a cemetery.

“Around the hospital there are dead bodies which cannot be taken care of or not even be buried or taken away to any sort of morgue...The hospital is not working at all anymore as well as it should. It's nearly a cemetery."

Christian LindmeierSpokesman, World Health Organization

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67400490

 

[JennieM]

What's been happening?​

ReutersCopyright: Reuters
A Palestinian man holding a child flees northern Gaza where the most intense fighting is taking place

It's just past 18:45 in Gaza and Israel, and 16:45 here in London. If you're just joining us or need a recap, here's where things stand:

• Concerns are growing about the situation in Gaza's largest hospital Al Shifa, where doctors warn more than 30 premature babies could die without fuel to power incubators
• The Israeli military says Hamas rejected fuel it offered to support the babies, denying claims by staff that they would be attacked if they collected it
• The head of the Hamas-run ministry of health has told the BBC that more than 100 corpses were piled up in the courtyard at Al Shifa, with no fuel to power the mortuaries

• The World Health Organization says Al Shifa is "not functioning as a hospital anymore" while the deputy health minister has told AFP news agency all hospitals in the north were out of service
• The Israeli military says Hamas has a command centre under Al Shifa and hides its operations in civilian sites
• The UN's refugee agency, UNRWA, says the depot it's been using for fuel has run dry and from tomorrow it will no longer be able to deliver fuel to medical facilities and pick up aid supplies arriving from Egypt
• A Palestinian woman has told the BBC Israeli forces entered a clinic west of Gaza City and told 800 displaced people who had been sheltering there to leave, separating out the young men - the Israeli military says it's looking into the allegation
• A Turkish ship has arrived bringing equipment and supplies to set up field hospitals on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67400490

 

[Vern]

11m ago
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has issued a statement on social media claiming that heavy gunfire has continued in the vicinity of the al-Quds hospital. It says that a convey intended to evacuate patients has had to stop.

It wrote:


It added that it would not be able to continue due to conditions around the hospital.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1724004744174191002

Israel-Hamas war: Brazil’s president accuses Israel of ‘killing innocent people’ – as it happened

This blog has closed. You can see all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here and see our latest full report on the conflict here

www.theguardian.com

Same Palestinian Red Crescent that is allowing it's ambulances to be used for transporting Hamas Terrorists between locations?

Demanding that Hospital Evacuation Convoy must STOP!!??

THAT would be a war crime. IAW The LoAC and Geneva Conventions the IDF MUST allow for hospital evacuation before they can go in an eliminate the Hamas Terrorists that are hiding in and under it. The fact that those terrorists are there mean that the hospital is no longer a "conventionally protected structure" from IDF action, but the law requires they do their utmost to evacuate it first.

The Red Crescent has had over a month now of warnings to make that happen and now that the IDF coming in to deal with Hamas is imminent, they are going to call on the world to prevent it's evacuation. Just wow!! Hamas AND the Palestinian Red Crescent SUCK if you are an innocent Palestinian!!

Really makes me wonder whose side the Palestinian Red Crescent is actually on. Hint: it's not the side of innocent Palestinians. Once the footage comes out (and it will) of their terrorist infrastructure within and under it ... theres going to be a whole feast of crow to be eaten by a lot of people and "news" organizations ... and supposedly "unbiased" humanitarian organizations too.

 

[Wishbone]

46 min ago

Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah reports latest casualty figure in Gaza​

From CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Eyad Kourdi

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank has reported updated casualty figures in Gaza.

In its update Monday, the ministry, which is based in Ramallah, said that 11,180 Palestinians, including 4,609 children and 3,100 women, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, citing medical sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Injuries from the attacks have affected 28,200 individuals, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, 15 patients at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza have died in recent days, among them six newborns, due to power outages and a shortage of medical supplies. Previously health officials at the hospital had said three neo-natal babies had died.

Additionally, 202 health care workers have lost their lives, and 53 ambulances have been disabled, the ministry added.

The ministry did not issue a daily report on the death toll on Sunday, saying it was unable to update casualty figures due to Israeli attacks on hospitals.

The Ministry of Health in Ramallah draws data from medical sources in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

November 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, are "catastrophic" as essential units have collapsed, the facility's director told CNN.

edition.cnn.com

How many more are buried beneath the rubble? And how many more will die in the bombings yet to come?

 

[JennieM]

All hospitals in north Gaza 'out of service' - Hamas-run health ministry​

The deputy health minister in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Youssef Abu Rish, has told the AFP news that all hospitals in the north of Gaza are "out of service".

Fighting has been taking place in recent days close to several key hospitals. Some have been largely evacuated - others are struggling with shortages of fuel, water, food and medical supplies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67400490

 

[Momoffourboys]

#IDF, Shin Bet eliminated the head of the anti-tank system in the Khan Yunis Brigade In addition, IDF, Shin Bet eliminated the former head of military intelligence of the Hamas terrorist organization

https://twitter.com/x/status/1724095173259342291

 

[Momoffourboys]

Israel Police officers foil a stabbing attack in central Tel Aviv after they arrested two suspects residents of West Bank's Umm al-Fahm

https://twitter.com/x/status/1724068183223459923

 

[JennieM]

Same Palestinian Red Crescent that is allowing it's ambulances to be used for transporting Hamas Terrorists between locations?

Demanding that Hospital Evacuation Convoy must STOP!!??

THAT would be a war crime. IAW The LoAC and Geneva Conventions the IDF MUST allow for hospital evacuation beofre they can go in an eliminate the Hamas Terrorists that are hiding in and under it. The fact that those terrorists are there mean that the hospital is no longer a "conentionally protected structure" from Israel action, but the law requires they do their utost to evacuate it first.

The Red Crescent has had over a month now of warnings to make that happen and now that the IDF coming in to deal with Hamas is imminent, they are going to call on the world to prevent it's evacuation. Just wow!!

Really makes me wonder whose side the Palestinian Red Crescent is actually on. Hint: it's not the side of innocent Palestinians.

To be fair it doesn’t look like ANYONE is on the side of innocent Palestinians who have been slaughtered whilst we all watch.

And no empathy to boot it seems.

 

[JennieM]

'It's really scary here': Life for Gazan girls in Khan Younis​

Deirdre Finnerty
Live reporter

Ezzeldin AlbornoCopyright: Ezzeldin Alborno

Jana Alborno, 13 and her sister Farah, 11 tell me they fled their three-bedroomed apartment in the Rimal district of Gaza City when the war began.

“It was really a rush,” Jana says. “I didn’t want to leave but we had to.”

Along with their parents and two younger siblings, the girls say they took shelter in their grandmother’s house before their home was destroyed.

Later, when Israel told people living in the north to head south ahead of the ground invasion, the family ended up in a farmhouse owned by family friends on the outskirts of Khan Younis.

In Khan Younis, the girls live with 90 others, 30 of whom are children under 18. They sleep on mattresses upstairs - a big change from the bedroom they shared in Gaza City with K-Pop posters on the walls and Hello Kitty bedspreads. They tell me they sometimes get frightened by the sounds of strikes.

“It’s really scary here and sometimes I even cry,” Farah says. “The noises are really traumatising to hear.”

Farah wishes she had more crochet yarn, her Harry Potter books and clothes and Jana misses swimming and playing basketball. She longs for the freedom she had before the war started.

"I could do everything I wanted," Jana says.

Ezzeldin AlbornoCopyright: Ezzeldin Alborno
Before the war, the girls shared a bedroom

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67400490

 

[Vern]

6m ago

UNRWA to shut down all operations in Gaza 'in 48 hours' unless fuel allowed in​

The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that all of the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed into the besieged territory.

UNRWA’s Gaza chief, Thomas White, posted to social media earlier today:


“No fuel has entered Gaza since October 7,” he added.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1724042036456669499

Israel-Hamas war: Brazil’s president accuses Israel of ‘killing innocent people’ – as it happened

This blog has closed. You can see all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here and see our latest full report on the conflict here

www.theguardian.com

By their own accounts, they needed to shut down operations way back on ... what was it .... 14 Oct, 16 Oct, anyone of those dates. It's been an "emergency" for weeks saying they are facing "next day" shutdown of operations per their own statements. They are not very predictable at accounting for their fuel or consumption as they are still going all these weeks later apparently.

No wonder they are costing the western nations BILLONS per year in operating costs. Have they called on Hamas yet to bring back all that fuel it stole out of their compound in the south??

 

[Momoffourboys]

Exclusive: UAE plans to maintain ties with Israel despite Gaza outcry, sources say​

ABU DHABI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates plans to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel despite international outcry over the mounting toll of the war in Gaza and hopes to have some moderating influence over the Israeli campaign while safeguarding its own interests, according to four sources familiar with UAE government policy.

Abu Dhabi became the most prominent Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with Israel in 30 years under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020. That paved the way for other Arab states to forge their own ties with Israel by breaking a taboo on normalising relations without the creation of a Palestinian state.
…
While criticising Israel's conduct of the war, Abu Dhabi has also condemned Hamas for its attack. The UAE sees the Palestinian militant group and other Islamists as a threat to the stability of the Middle East and beyond.

"Hamas is not their favourite organisation," said one of the sources. "It is Muslim Brotherhood after all."

The UAE has led the charge against Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamist organisation in the Arab World.

It helped Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi topple Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in a military takeover in 2013 that followed mass protests against his rule. The UAE provided Egypt with billions of dollars in support following Mursi's ouster.

Abu Dhabi also abandoned Sudan's former Islamist president Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019, ultimately leading to the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood's grip on power there after it had dominated Sudanese politics for decades. The UAE had previously pumped billions of dollars into Sudan's coffers.



More:Exclusive: UAE plans to maintain ties with Israel despite Gaza outcry, sources say