Israel-Hamas war updates: Snipers targeting those sheltering in al-Shifa

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The WHO has shared an update from the Gaza Ministry of Health on the dire situation inside Al-Shifa Hospital.

The update received on November 12 said there were still thousands of people inside the hospital including:

• 600 to 650 patients.
• 200 to 500 health workers.
• Approximately 1,500 internally displaced people.

“There is no safe passage out of the hospital,” the message added.

Ministry of Health update about the dire situation at Al-Shifa Hospital – received on 12 Nov:
🔹600-650 inpatients, 200-500 health workers and approximately 1500 internally displaced people still inside the hospital.
🔹Lack of power, water and food, putting lives at immediate… pic.twitter.com/3MQfKdpqlY

— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) November 12, 2023

The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, is reporting that at least 11 people were killed, including women and children, following an Israeli air attack that hit the residence of the Al-Raqab family in the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis.

Wafa cited medical sources as saying that the bodies of those who were killed were taken to the Gaza European Hospital.

Two other people were also killed after Israeli forces bombarded a house belonging to the Al-Zoghbi family in the vicinity of the same hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.

It’s just before 1am on Monday (23:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel.

Here’s what’s happened in the last few hours:

• Israeli snipers are accused of firing at anyone near Al-Shifa Hospital, pinning thousands still trapped inside the besieged facility down without electricity, water, or food.
• The Palestine Red Crescent Society says Al-Quds Hospital, the second largest in Gaza, has ceased operations because of a fuel shortage as Israeli forces continue to bomb the besieged territory.
• Hamas denies it refused 300 litres (80 gallons) of fuel from Israel intended for medical use at Al-Shifa Hospital.
• Qatar’s Emir received a phone call from US President Biden to discuss the Gaza crisis.
• More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, took to the streets to protest rising anti-Semitism.

The Al-Quds Hospital, the second largest in Gaza, has ceased operations because of fuel shortages as Israeli forces continue to bomb and besiege the enclave.

Al-Quds Hospital joins Al-Shifa Hospital – the biggest healthcare facility. Authorities say hundreds of wounded under treatment could die as Israeli forces surround the facilities with snipers and tanks.

Read the full story here.

The United States attacked a “command and control” facility in Syria housing an Iran-backed militia. The strikes appear to be the latest response to a series of attacks against American forces in Syria and Iraq.

An unnamed US defence official told Reuters news agency another target was a weapons storage facility. The official said the strikes took place within the past few hours, adding a US review is under way to determine if any militia members were killed or wounded.

American forces are facing increased threats in the Middle East, raising concerns the Israel war on Gaza may spill over across the region. President Biden has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups and about 2,000 marines.

How exactly was Israel born on land that was already called Palestine?

Nearly three dozen Brazilians trapped inside Gaza for weeks – and whose predicament drove a diplomatic wedge between Brazil and Israel – crossed the border into Egypt.

“The group of 32 Brazilians and families are already in Egyptian territory, where they were received by a team from the Brazilian embassy in Cairo, which is responsible for the final step of the repatriation operation,” Brazil’s foreign ministry wrote on X.

The slow pace of release of the trapped Brazilians increased friction between Brazil and Israel, which erupted last week after the Israeli spy agency Mossad said it helped foil a Hezbollah attack in Brazil.

An appearance by Israel’s ambassador to Brazil with former President Jair Bolsonaro, a staunch Israel ally and longtime Lula political foe, also irked Brazilian officials.

More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, took to the streets to protest rising anti-Semitism after Israel’s attack on Gaza.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left, conservatives and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron’s party – as well as far-right leader Marine Le Pen – attended Sunday’s march in the French capital amid tight security.

Macron did not attend but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism”.

“For the Republic against anti-Semitism” was the slogan adopted nationally.

The leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stayed away from the march, saying it would be a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” in Gaza.

Hamas denied it refused 300 litres (80 gallons) of fuel from Israel intended for medical use at the besieged Al-Shifa Hospital.

“The offer belittles the pain and suffering of the patients who are trapped inside without water, food, or electricity. This quantity is not enough to operate hospital generators for more than 30 minutes,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas is not associated with Al-Shifa Hospital management, “nor is [Hamas] part of its decision-making structures”, it said.

“[The hospital] is completely subject to the authority of the Palestinian health ministry.”

Diseases are spreading among Gaza evacuees packed into schools and other shelters and surviving on tiny amounts of food and water, international aid agencies say.

“There are now contagious diseases that are running rampant,” Dr Alice Rothchild told Al Jazeera from Seattle.

“We’re seeing an increase in chickenpox, scabies, respiratory disease, diarrhoea. You have to remember there’s no clean water so all the diseases that go along with a sanitation system that’s not working are going to peak. We’re talking about an outbreak of cholera.

“And then you have women who are pregnant and not receiving prenatal care. This is happening right now.”

Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected growing international criticism for the more than 11,000 deaths in Gaza from his country’s war on the territory.

“It is the battle of civilisation against barbarism,” he told CNN. “Israel is fighting according to international law. The Israeli army is doing an exemplary job trying to minimise the civilian casualties.”

The international community must not give moral support “to evil”, Netanyahu added.

Israeli snipers continue to fire at anyone near Al-Shifa Hospital, pinning thousands still trapped inside the besieged facility down without electricity, water, or food.

“They are outside, not far from the gates,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a Gaza resident sheltering there, of Israeli troops.

The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, leading to the deaths of at least three premature babies and four other patients, according to the health ministry. It said another 36 babies in need of incubators are at risk of dying.

Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said snipers have deployed around Al-Shifa, firing at any movement inside the compound.

“There are wounded in the house and we can’t reach them,” he told Al Jazeera. “We can’t stick our heads out of the window.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross says the conditions under which civilians are evacuating in the Gaza Strip are “precarious and unsafe”.

“Men, women, and children, waving white flags, walk for dozens of kilometres past dead bodies lying on the streets and without necessities like food and water,” the organisation said in a statement.

“The southern area is not equipped to cater to the massive number of people arriving with nothing but the clothes they are wearing, and the quantity of humanitarian aid coming in is largely insufficient.”

🔴 On the evacuation of civilians from the North:

We are gravely concerned by the precarious and unsafe conditions under which civilians are evacuating from the north of Gaza.

Evacuations must be safe and people should not be put in more danger when they’re trying to escape.

— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 12, 2023

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says the Al-Quds Hospital, the second largest in Gaza, has ceased operations because of a fuel shortage as Israeli forces continue to bomb the besieged territory.

“The hospital has been left to fend for itself under ongoing Israeli bombardment, posing severe risks to the medical staff, patients and displaced civilians,” it said in a statement.

“This cessation of services is due to the depletion of available fuel and power outage. Medical staff are making every effort to provide care to patients and the wounded, even resorting to unconventional medical methods amid dire humanitarian conditions and a shortage of medical supplies, food, and water.”

Read more about this here.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to restore communication with health professionals at the besieged Al-Shifa facility.

“Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

WHO lost communication on Saturday and the health ministry in Gaza said medical operations at Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the war-battered enclave, were suspended after it ran out of fuel.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya says Israeli claims that the hospital refused fuel are “propaganda”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Abu Salmiya said: “Israeli officials reached out to me twice about providing the hospital with fuel: once to offer 2,000 litres [440 gallons] and then another to offer 300 litres [80 gallons]. Keep in mind the hospital needs from 8,000 [2,113 gallons] to 12,000 litres [3,170 gallons] per day.

“The same person called me at 2am and said the 300 litres can be picked up from a specific spot that is dangerous and susceptible to shelling. I told him to send it or a larger quantity so we can operate a generator via the Red Cross.

“Israel wants to show the world that it is not killing babies. It wants to whitewash its image with 300 litres of fuel, which barely last 30 minutes,” Abu Salmiya said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said Israel had offered fuel to Al-Shifa, which suspended life-saving operations after running out.

Netanyahu was asked in an interview if Israel has a plan to get fuel into Gaza to power hospitals. “We just offered Shifa hospital the fuel, they refused it,” Netanyahu said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says he spoke to his Egyptian counterpart about Cairo permanently opening the Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The two officials spoke on the sidelines of the Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh.

In a post on X, Amir-Abdollahian wrote: “In Riyadh, I told my Egyptian colleague Mr Sameh Shukri that this is our test period and it’s expected that Egypt opens Rafah crossing to send water, medicine, food and fuel to Gaza.”

He added: “The Israeli entity collapsed on October 7 and is now living on American artificial respiration. What the world is witnessing is a full-scale American war against Gaza.”

في الرياض، قلت لزميلي المصري السيد سامح‌شكري أن اليوم هو يوم اختبارنا والأمر المتوقع أن تفتح مصر معبر رفح لإرسال المياه والدواء والغذاء والوقود إلى غزة.
*لقد انهار الكيان الإسرائيلي في 7أكتوبر و الآن يعيش على التنفس الاصطناعي الأمريكي.ما يشهده العالم هو حرب أمريكية شاملة ضد غزة.

— H.Amirabdollahian امیرعبداللهیان (@Amirabdolahian) November 12, 2023

The United Nations says rebuilding Gaza will cost billions of dollars.

The human cost of Israel’s war on Gaza is beyond calculation – thousands of lives lost, families destroyed, tens of thousands injured.

But what about the economic cost – and who will pay?

Dr Nidal Abu Hadrous, a neurosurgeon working at Al-Shifa hospital, has pleaded for help to save patients and medical staff at the besieged facility.

“Still the same disastrous situation in Al-Shifa Hospital: no electricity. no water. No internet most of the time. Continuous bombing. There is still no safe corridor guaranteed by ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross].

“This can’t last long. Urgent intervention to save the staff and the patients is required,” Abu Hadrous told Al Jazeera.