Israel-Hamas war, Day 42 updates | Bahrain calls for Hamas-Israel ‘hostage trade’

At least five Palestinians were killed and two more injured in an Israeli strike on a building in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said early on Saturday.- Reuters

The first delivery of fuel arrived in Gaza Friday after Israel’s war cabinet bowed to diplomatic pressure to let diesel back into the war-torn Palestinian territory, where aid schemes are shut down amid critical shortages.

As fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers rages for six weeks, the United Nations has warned hospitals, drinking water and sewage facilities are grinding to a halt as fuel reserves run dry.

Tzachi Hanegbi, national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel’s war cabinet agreed “to provide two tankers of fuel a day” after a “special request” from Washington.- AFP

Germany and Turkey’s leaders traded barbs Friday over Israel’s war on Hamas, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressing the country’s right to self-defence while Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded an end to Israel’s military operation.

Erdogan is on a highly controversial visit to staunch Israel defender Germany, made more tricky by his recent accusations directed at Israel. The Turkish leader has branded Israel a “terror state” and repeatedly defended the Hamas militants who rule Gaza as “liberators” fighting for their land.

“Shooting hospitals or killing children does not exist in the Torah, you can’t do it,” he said at a joint press conference ahead of dinner with Scholz.

In talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier earlier Friday, Erdogan had said that “Israel’s attacks on Palestinian lands must end and that the reaction from the whole world against human rights violations is important”, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

But Scholz voiced backing for Israel’s war on Hamas, saying that long-term peace could not be forged in the region unless Hamas lost its ability to launch attacks.

“There is a need to make Israel’s self-defence possible and not to call it into question,” he said. - AFP

ope Francis will meet next week with relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza, a source said on Friday.

The source spoke to Reuters as the Vatican’s number two, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Holy See believed their release and a ceasefire - which Israel has so far ruled out - were two “fundamental points” to resolve the crisis.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss papal plans, told Reuters 12 relatives would meet the pope early on Wednesday morning before his general audience.

The source said they would be a mix of relatives who met with Italian leaders last month and others who were not among the first group.

Parolin earlier told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Rome that the Vatican was working on a meeting between the pope and relatives of the hostages but said only that he hoped it could take place “as soon as possible”.

Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and second only to the pope in the Vatican hierarchy, however, gave no time frame for the meeting.- Reuters

The crown prince of Gulf Arab state Bahrain on Friday called for a “hostage trade” between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel in order to achieve a break in hostilities that he said could lead to an end to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa also said that security would not be realised without a two-state solution, in which he described the United States as “indispensable” in achieving.

“It is a time for straight talking,” he said, urging Hamas to release Israeli women and children held hostage in Gaza and for Israel in exchange to release from its prisons Palestinian women and children, who he described as non-combatants.

“The intention is to break so people can take stock, can bury their dead, people can finally start to grieve and maybe people can start to ask themselves about the intelligence failure that led to this crisis in the first place,” he said. - Reuters

The United Nations was forced to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza on Friday and warned of the growing possibility of widespread starvation after Internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel.

Israel announced that it will allow for the first time “very minimal” daily shipments of fuel into Gaza for use by the UN and communications system. It appeared the amount would be far less than what the UN has said is needed to fuel water systems, hospitals and trucks to deliver aid — not counting the communications network. Read more

Pope Francis is expected to meet with relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants and separately with a Palestinian delegation which includes some people from Gaza, sources said on Friday.

Two sources told Reuters about the planned visit with Palestinians after it reported earlier on Friday about the visit with the Israelis. Both are due to take place on Wednesday in the Vatican. - Reuters

Israeli air strikes killed two pro-Iranian fighters near the Syrian capital Damascus early on Friday during raids targeting a Hezbollah arms depot and other sites near Syria’s capital, a war monitor said.

Citing a military source, Syria’s state news agency SANA earlier reported “material damage” from the strikes. - AFP

The Hamas-controlled health ministry said on Friday that 24 patients at a hospital in war-torn Gaza had died within 48 hours due to power outages, as Israeli forces searched the complex for Hamas hideouts.

The announcement came shortly after Israel agreed to a U.S. request to allow two fuel trucks a day into Gaza, following a UN warning that the shortages had halted aid deliveries and put people at risk of starvation. - AFP

The United States on Friday issued sanctions targeting Iran-aligned militia group Kata’ib Hizballah in Iraq, accusing the group of being behind recent attacks against the United States and its partners in Iraq and Syria.

U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 58 times in Iraq and Syria since October 17 as regional tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas war. At least 59 U.S. military personnel have been wounded in the attacks, though all have returned to duty so far. - Reuters

With Al Ahli hospital shaking from Israeli tank fire and no more anaesthetics left to operate, British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta told his team it was time to leave the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City.

“It has been a living nightmare - leaving 500 wounded knowing that there’s nothing left for you to be able to do for them, it’s just the most heartbreaking thing I ever had to do,” Abu Sitta told Reuters on Friday, a day after leaving the hospital and walking to Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

In a post on X, he wrote: “No longer able to provide surgeries at Ahli Hosp. The hospital is now effectively a first aid station. Hundreds of wounded now at hospital with no access to surgery. They will die from their wounds.”

Israel’s national security adviser says the country’s War Cabinet has agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day — a quantity he described as “very minimal”.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Tzachi Hanegbi said the fuel would be allowed for Gaza’s communications system and water and sewage services. He said the aim is to prevent the spread of disease without disrupting Israel’s ability to continue its war against the Hamas militant group.

Hanegbi said the fuel amounted to roughly 2% to 4% of the normal quantities of fuel that entered Gaza before the war erupted on October 7. - AP

The World Health Organization called on Friday for a regular flow of patients to be allowed out of Gaza for treatment in Egypt, to relieve the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals.

Twenty-five out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are not functioning and the remainder are struggling to provide services.

“This is clearly not enough to support the endless needs arising due to the hostilities,” said Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories. - AFP

Israel’s war cabinet has approved letting in two fuel trucks a day into Gaza to help meet U.N. needs, an Israeli official said on Friday.

The official, who declined to be identified, said the decision came after a request from Washington.

Allowing in the fuel, the official said, gives Israel extra room to maneuver in the international arena so it can continue its campaign to eradicate Hamas in Gaza.

- Reuters

Israel’s war cabinet has approved letting in two fuel trucks a day into Gaza to help meet U.N. needs, an Israeli official said on Friday.

The official, who declined to be identified, said the decision came after a request from Washington. - Reuters

German leaders host Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on Friday, in a highly controversial visit made more explosive by Mr. Erdogan’s branding of Israel as a “terror state”.

Mr. Erdogan has been increasingly critical of Israel’s war against Gaza-rulers Hamas, triggered after the Islamist gunmen’s deadly attack on October 7 that Israel said killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. - AFP

The Israel-Hamas war is now in its sixth week. Like the proverbial landlord, West Asians and much of the world, are currently in suspended animation wondering when and where the “second shoe” will drop and how big a crater it would cause on regional and global geopolitics and the economy.

​Read the opinion piece by Mahesh Sachdev here.​

Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the head of the Palestinian ambulance service said.

The Israeli Army confirmed it had carried out an airstrike, saying it had killed at least five militants during fighting in Jenin, a focus of repeated recent clashes as tensions soar against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

At least 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the October 7 attack on Israel by gunmen of the Islamist movement Hamas operating out of Gaza.

“An armed terrorist cell that fired at Israeli security forces was struck by an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) aircraft. Additional terrorists who fired and hurled explosive devices at the security forces were neutralized,” the military said.

Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad said they had engaged Israeli forces for several hours in the streets of Jenin, unleashing heavy fire and laying ambushes with explosives.

The military said that gunmen then fled in vehicles and ambulances toward Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital, and that troops stopped one of the vehicles at the entrance to the hospital. - Reuters

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), quoting data from the Palestinian public works and housing department, said Israeli attacks had destroyed more than 41,000 housing units and damaged more than 222,000 housing units. In all, it said at least 45% of Gaza’s housing units had reportedly been damaged or destroyed.

It was impossible to independently verify the numbers, but, in Gaza, the destruction is on a huge scale. An Israeli reporter who was taken to see the Gazan town of Beit Hanoun by the Israeli military reported that “barely a single inhabitable building remains standing”. More than 52,000 people had lived there before the war. - Reuters

The World Health Organization said on November 17 it was very concerned about the spread of disease in Gaza as weeks of Israeli bombardments have caused the population to crowd in shelters with scarce food and clean water.

“We are extremely concerned about the spread of the disease when the winter season arrives,” said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

He said that more than 70,000 cases of acute respiratory infections and more than 44,000 cases of diarrhoea had been recorded in the densely populated enclave, figures higher significantly higher than expected. - Reuters

Beijing faces a moral dilemma weighing its deep economic ties with Israel and its historic pro-Palestine stance as Tel Aviv lays siege to Gaza in a bid to eliminate Hamas.

​Read the explainer on China’s stance here.​

(SAN FRANCISCO) At least 50 protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza were detained and arrested after shutting down all lanes of a major bridge into San Francisco.

The protest comes as United States President Joe Biden, world leaders and CEOs gathered in the city for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ conference.

At least 15 vehicles were towed after protesters parked on the bridge and threw their keys into the sea shortly before 8 a.m., disrupting the morning commute, said California Highway Patrol Division Chief Ezery Beauchamp at a news conference on Bay Bridge. He said more arrests were expected. - AP

(COPENHAGEN, Denmark) Another 60 Norwegian citizens will be able to leave Gaza, the Foreign Ministry in Norway said, with Scandinavian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre saying that they have received information from relatives that a citizen from the Nordic country was killed in Gaza.

Mr. Gahr Støre said that “many countries have several of their citizens in Gaza,” and it’s estimated that of the approximately 250 people with ties to Norway in Gaza, more than half of them are children. Those able to leave Gaza will be able to enter into Egypt via the border crossing at Rafah. - AP

In total, 11,078 Palestinians have been killed as of November 10. Due to communication loss, the Ministry of Health of Gaza has not updated the death toll and the number of injuries since November 10, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Out of the 11,078, 4,506 or around 41% of the fatalities were children, while 27% were women. The number of children killed in just three weeks of the conflict in the Gaza Strip is more than the number killed in armed conflicts globally - across more than 20 countries - over the course of a whole year, for any of the last three years.

Read the story here.

(UNITED NATIONS) Nearly every single person in the Gaza Strip doesn’t have enough food, and more than two out of every three people don’t have clean drinking water, the United Nations said on November 16.

“Humanitarian aid deliveries to the besieged territory through the Rafah border crossing will not take place on November 17 because internet and telephone services have collapsed across Gaza for lack of fuel,” the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said.

“We have seen fuel and food and water and humanitarian assistance being used as a weapon of war,” Juliette Touma, UNRWA communications director, told reporters in Amman, Jordan. “Children are pleading for a sip of water and a piece of bread” at the 153 UNRWA facilities now jammed with 8,00,000 displaced Palestinians,” she said.

“Ms. Touma said UNRWA can’t operate because it has no fuel. Israel did provide UNRWA with limited fuel this week but only for the delivery of food,” she said. “We have just witnessed in the past week the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948,” Ms. Touma said.

Abeer Etefa, a Mideast regional spokesperson for the U.N. World Food Program, said dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly with only 10% of needed food supplies entering Gaza, and the “massive food gap” is growing. - AP

Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration denounced the ongoing Israeli strikes in Gaza, including the raid on Shifa Hospital. In an overnight statement, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israeli forces were continually breaking all rules of war.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan called on the United Nations and other human rights bodies, saying that “if they genuinely believe in their stated values, they must prevent the ongoing brutalities by adopting an honest, transparent & just position vis-a-vis crimes against humanity carried out by the zionists against the people of Gaza,” the statement read, referring to Jews who seek to regain and retain their biblical homeland.

It also asked Arab and Islamic countries “to respond to the cries of the oppressed Muslims of Gaza, & to fulfill their religious & human responsibility through effective & meaningful positions & steps.” - AP

A spokesperson of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) explains the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, and the critical need for continued humanitarian aid flow.

Read the interview here.

The United States on November 17 said it had “deep concern” over a strike on a Jordanian military hospital in Gaza that wounded seven people, voicing opposition to hitting health facilities, but without directly blaming Israel.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi “to share his deep concern for the Jordanian medical personnel injured outside the Jordanian Field Hospital while providing critical medical care in Gaza,” the State Department said.

Read the story here.

A former top Lebanese security official who has served as a conduit between the United States and Hezbollah said Thursday that at this stage the Lebanese militant group is not interested in widening its limited cross-border conflict with Israel.

Abbas Ibrahim, a former head of Lebanon’s General Security, said that as long as Hamas is able to confront the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, “the situation will remain at the current level of tension” on the Lebanese front.

-AP

The Israeli military said on Friday it retrieved the body of a soldier, who had been held captive by Palestinian militant group Hamas, in a building near Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital.

The Israeli military on Tuesday confirmed the death of the soldier after Hamas issued a video of her alive followed by images of what the Palestinian faction said was her body after she was killed in an Israeli strike.

-Reuters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India strongly condemns the loss of civilians in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Mr. Modi was speaking at the inaugural session of the 2nd Voice of Global South Summit.

“We all are seeing new challenges emerging from events in the West Asia region. India has condemned the terrorist attack in Israel on October 7. We have exercised restraint as well. We have given emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy. We also strongly condemn the deaths of civilians in the conflict between Israel and Hamas,” he said.

Israeli troops for a second day searched Shifa Hospital in the north for traces of Hamas. They displayed what they said were a tunnel entrance and weapons found in a truck inside the compound.

On Thursday, the military released video of a hole in the hospital courtyard it said was a tunnel entrance. It also showed several assault rifles and RPGs, grenades, ammunition clips and utility vests laid out on a blanket that it said were found in a pickup truck in the courtyard.

-AP

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed “grave concern” over the collapse of internet and phone networks in Gaza and called on Egypt and Israel to allow fuel to enter the besieged territory.

“By withholding fuel from Gaza, the Israeli government is preventing journalists in Gaza from providing the world with updates on the war, leaving the international community vulnerable to deadly propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.

-AP

Three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike in Jenin in the West Bank, the head of the Palestinian ambulance service told Reuters on Friday.

- Reuters

Iran will not allow Israel to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the head of Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force wrote in a message to Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of the Hamas military wing in Gaza.

However, Gen. Esmail Ghaani stopped short of saying that Tehran will join the battle in order to rescue Hamas.

-AP

German leaders host Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks Friday, in a highly controversial visit made more explosive by the Erdogan’s branding of Israel as a “terror state”.

While Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Israel to offer Germany’s unconditional and unwavering support after the Hamas attack, Erdogan has doubled down on his defence of the Islamists as “liberators” fighting for their land.

“We have always had difficult partners whom we have to deal with,” said Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, acknowledging that it is a visit “that will be challenging given the current circumstances”. “But it’s not just about telling each other what we think, it’s about moving forward on numerous issues... and for that, we need these talks.”

-AFP

Waterborne infectious diseases like cholera and typhoid will soon start spreading though Gaza because people don’t have access to clean water, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

“The lack of clean water is resulting in ‘grave concerns’ by public health experts of an imminent infectious disease outbreak in Gaza,” the group said in a statement.

-AP

The Syrian Army said it has shot down Israeli missiles fired from the Golan Heights towards the surroundings of the capital Damascus on Friday morning.

Most of the Israeli missiles were intercepted but some caused material damage, the army said in a statement.

-Reuters

The U.N.’s World Food Program warned of “the immediate possibility of starvation” in Gaza as the food supply has broken down under Israel’s seal and too little is coming from Egypt.

The World Food Program said the 447 trucks that have brought food into Gaza from Egypt — out of 1,129 relief trucks total since Oct. 21 — provide less than 7% of the population’s daily caloric needs. Bread is “scarce or non-existent” after fuel shortages shut down most bakeries, and food supply chains have collapsed, it said.

-AP

Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday for lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider said, bringing a potentially long-term blackout of communications.

The communications breakdown largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from each other and the outside world.

-AP