Fighting traps patients and medics in Gaza’s largest hospital
Patients and medics remain trapped in Gaza’s main hospital after days of fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas, as aid agencies warn that critically ill patients and babies are at risk of death due to lack of fuel and dwindling supplies of food and water.
Israel says Hamas’ headquarters are underneath the hospital, a charge Hamas and doctors at the facility have denied.
The Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Monday said that at least nine patients and six children had died at al-Shifa hospital, formerly the cornerstone of Gaza’s health system, as a result of the fuel shortages and department closures after the hospital was encircled by Israeli forces.
“We have no generators as those need fuel to run. There is no food, no water, no electricity and no fuel in Shifa and we are here dealing with casualties,” Munir al-Boursh, a doctor who is also a Palestinian health ministry undersecretary, speaking from inside Dar al-Shifa hospital.
“We can’t manage this huge number of cases. If people come, we can’t do anything for them.”
He said the facility had intended to dig a mass grave until Israeli tanks and snipers encircled the the complex on Friday, making movement around it impossible.
“There are 110 dead bodies in front of the hospital, some in the refrigerator which isn’t functioning, and some just in the open space in front of the emergency unit. This could become a source of disease,” he said.
Key events
Jacob Steinberg
The Football Association in England has suspended a council member who said “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Wasim Haq, who joined the FA as a BAME football communities representative in 2019, became the subject of an investigation after a post on social media about Israel’s war with Hamas led him to be accused of antisemitism.
There was increased pressure for action to be taken against Haq, who has denied being antisemitic, after the Lawn Tennis Association sacked him as an independent councillor on Monday. The FA confirmed on Tuesday that he had been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation. Haq is also being investigated by England Golf, where he holds a role similar to that at the FA.
Read more here: FA suspends council member over ‘Hitler proud of Netanyahu’ post
Bethan McKernan
Bethan McKernan is in Jerusalem for the Guardian. Here is her latest update:
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza in the past 10 days, the UN has said, as fierce fighting between Hamas militants and the Israeli army encroaches on hospitals where patients are dying due to energy shortages and dwindling supplies.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) said on Tuesday that only one hospital in the northern half of the blockaded Gaza Strip, al-Awda, still had electricity and was able to receive patients, with other medical facilities in sprawling Gaza City now mostly functioning as shelters for those fleeing the violence.
Hebrew-language media reported that both Israeli and Palestinian officials were trying to make arrangements for unconscious patients and those requiring dialysis and cancer treatment to be evacuated from al-Shifa to appropriate facilities in the southern half of the strip, but the reports were not immediately confirmed by medics on the ground. The Israeli military said it started an effort to transfer incubators to the hospital but it was not clear if they had been delivered or how they would be powered.
Civilians in the area said heavy gunfire could still be heard around the hospital compound.
Israel has accused Hamas of building command centres underneath medical infrastructure, accusations denied by both Hamas and medical staff. Israel says that al-Shifa, where fighting has reached the gates and trapped those inside, sits above the “nerve centre” of the Palestinian militant group’s operations. Israel has not provided conclusive evidence, but the group often fires rockets from densely crowded residential areas, and maintains a vast tunnel network.
Read more of Bethan McKernan’s report here: Another 200,000 people flee northern Gaza as fighting continues
Turkey’s foreign minister told his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, in a call on Tuesday that Israel’s targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an “open violation of international law”, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters.
Reuters reports that Hakan Fidan also emphasised the urgency of achieving a full ceasefire as soon as possible and the need for unhindered access of humanitarian aid into the enclave, the source said.
Wong has been involved in heated scenes in the Australian parliament, as Anthony Albanese’s government has stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The IDF has reported that an alert has been activated in Israel’s southern port resort of Eilat, which is being investigated.
While alerts are frequent near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip and near the UN-drawn blue line that marks the boundary between Israel and Lebanon, they are much rarer in Eilat, in Israel’s far south.
Earlier in the conflict the city did come under attack from a long range missile fired from within Gaza, and the Israeli military repelled attacks claimed by Yemen’s Houthis.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the wires from Gaza and Israel.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 12.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines in the Israel-Hamas war …
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Israel’s military has confirmed the death of Noa Marciano, a soldier seen in a hostage video posted by Hamas. Marciano, 19, was abducted by Hamas on 7 October. The al Qassam Brigades claimed she was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 9 November. The IDF had condemned the video, saying “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past,” and this morning listed her as a “fallen soldier held captive by a terror group.”
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Patients and medics remain trapped in Gaza’s main hospital after days of fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas, as aid agencies warn that critically ill patients and babies are at risk of death due to lack of fuel and dwindling supplies of food and water. Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has said the hospital is being forced to bury 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, “in a mass grave” in the complex. A journalist who has been working with AFP said the stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere in the facility. BBC reporter Rushdi Abualouf spoke to a source inside the hospital who said tanks are surrounding the hospital from all directions and that access in and out of the hospital is impossible. Israel has accused Hamas of using the hospital as a base, a claim which the group has denied.
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Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since 5 November, the UN humanitarian office said on Tuesday. OCHA says only one hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip is capable of receiving patients. All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting. In all, about 1.5 million Palestinians, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes.
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At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women in Gaza by the Israeli military since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday. About 1,200 Israelis have died in the conflict, most on 7 October.
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Israel’s military said it would again open a corridor for people to move south within the Gaza Strip from 9am (7am GMT) to 4pm, and would also pause hostilities for a limited period of time between 10am and 2pm “in the neighbourhoods of al-Daraj and al-Tuffah”.
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Al Jazeera is reporting that 13 people have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, which is located in the south of the Gaza Strip, and is one of the areas that Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate to by the Israeli military.
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The Israel Defense Forces claims to have struck 200 targets in the past 24 hours, “including terrorist operatives, weapon production sites, anti-tank missile launchers and operational command centres”. The claims have not been independently verified.
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Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians in Tulkarm, although the precise number remains unclear. The Israeli army and police said their forces, sent in to detain suspected militants, came under fire, and that an Israeli airstrike hit a group of Palestinians who shot and threw a bomb at the group. Medics and local media put the death toll at seven.
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Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist believed to have been among the hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza on 7 October, was in fact killed in the initial attack, her family has told Canada’s CBC News.
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Canada’s foreign minister said overnight that 346 Canadians and their immediate families have so far been able to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
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More than 1,500 antisemitic acts and comments have been recorded in France since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said.
More than 1,500 antisemitic acts and comments have been recorded in France since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said.
AFP reports Darmanin told broadcaster Europe 1 in an interview: “There have been 1,518 antisemitic acts or remarks. These are mainly tags and insults, but there are also assaults and injuries.”
Those acts resulted in 571 arrests, the ministry told AFP.
Darmanin said there had also been anti-Muslim incidents, saying some mosques had received threats of violence, adding: “But they are not on the scale of what we are seeing in terms of antisemitism.”
Israel confirms death of soldier seen in Hamas hostage video
Isreal’s military has confirmed the death of Noa Marciano, a soldier seen yesterday in a hostage video posted by Hamas.
Shortly after midnight last night, the Israeli military had confirmed her identity, saying “Our hearts go out to the Marciano family, whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organisation. We are using all means, both intelligence and operational, to bring the hostages home.”
On Monday Hamas’ Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades published a video of the soldier apparently reading a message in Hebrew in which she identified herself by name and identity card number and said she had been detained in Gaza for four days. The al Qassam Brigades claimed Marciano was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 9 November. Marciano was 19.
The IDF had condemned the video, saying: “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past.”
This morning the IDF spokesperson confirmed her death, with the military website listing her as a “fallen soldier held captive by a terror group”.
הודעת דובר צה”ל בנושא שמה של חללת צה״ל אשר הודעה נמסרה למשפחתה: https://t.co/qSsfUhn4b5
בנוסף, מצורף קישור לאתר צה”ל, בו מפורסמות ומתעדכנות פרטיהם ותמונותיהם של החללים: https://t.co/gOhLUiE9ad
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2023
Haaretz reports that Marciano’s mother last spoke to her on the morning of 7 October. Adi Marciano is quoted as saying “She told me she was in a protected space and that there had been an infiltration. She said that she had to end the call. I didn’t hear shots or screams. Half an hour later, I sent her a message, but she didn’t reply.”
A Lebanese journalist was interrupted by a missile strike while reporting live on the escalation of cross-border hostilities between Israeli forces and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
Rif Akil of the Lebanese channel Al Jadeed was with a group of journalists in Yaroun, within sight of the Israeli border, when the missile struck. She escaped without injury, according to reports. Israel’s military has not commented on the incident. Here is the video clip.
There are conflicting reports still about events overnight in Tulkarm, where Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians. [See 6.09 GMT]
The Israeli army and police said their forces, sent in to detain suspected militants, came under fire and killed several Palestinian gunmen in the skirmish that followed.
An Israeli airstrike hit a group of Palestinians who shot and threw a bomb at the group, an army and police statement claimed. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said the airstrike was carried out by a drone and killed three people.
Reuters reports that there was no word of any Israeli casualties and no Palestinian armed faction said it had lost members in the incident. Medics and local media put the death toll at seven.
AFP is reporting that a journalist inside al-Shifa hospital who has been working with them has said that the stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere in the facility, but night-time fighting and airstrikes from Monday into Tuesday had been less intense than previous nights.
Rushdi Abualouf reports for the BBC from inside Gaza that he has spoken to someone inside al-Shifa hospital this morning. He writes:
He said the tense situation around the hospital remains the same, and that he heard a few explosions and exchanges of fire overnight.
He also told me tanks are surrounding the hospital from all directions and that access in and out of the hospital is impossible.
Even moving from one building to another inside the hospital compound itself is a big risk, as he described it to me.
He said people have died in the hospital because there is no electricity, no water and not enough medicine.
My colleague Patrick Wintour has flagged up a comment piece in the Wall Street Journal, in which two senior Israeli figures suggest that third-party countries should be taking Palestinians out of Gaza as refugees.
Danny Danon of Likud, former ambassador to the UN, and Ram Ben Barak of Yesh Atid, ex deputy director of the Mossad, in Wall Street Journal call for a voluntary transfer of parts of the population from the Gaza Strip to countries that agree to accept them.
They write “Even if…— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) November 14, 2023
Al Jazeera reports that al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has said the hospital has been forced to bury 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, “in a mass grave” in the complex.
The claim has not been independently verified.
Israel’s military claims in a message posted to its Telegram channel that “the IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted a suspicious target that was identified off the coast of the city of Acre”, which is located in north-west Israel.
Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since 5 November, the UN humanitarian office said on Tuesday.
AP reports that the humanitarian office, known as OCHA, says only one hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip is capable of receiving patients. All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting.
In all, about 1.5 million Palestinians, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes. UN-run shelters in the south are severely overcrowded, with an average of one toilet for 160 people.
Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, has said overnight that 346 Canadians and their immediate families have so far been able to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
The Rafah border crossing is the only place Palestinians can exit the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel.
In a statement Joly added that it was “not acceptable” that the UN was warning that work supporting Palestinians would end in 48 hours due to a fuel shortage. “Civilians must be protected,” she said, adding that “enough food, fuel and water must get into Gaza so that their life-saving work can continue”.
She reiterated Canada’s call for Hamas to release all the hostages it seized during its 7 October attack inside Israel’s borders.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in the UK, has used an appearance on Sky News to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, accusing Israel of causing a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
He told viewers:
We need an immediate ceasefire. If we are going to stop the humanitarian catastrophe that Israel is causing, then we need to stop the bombing. There is an imminent threat to the hospitals. More than a third of the hospitals in Gaza are already out of commission because of attacks.
Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses hospitals as control and command centres, which the group has denied.
