Israel-Hamas war: Israeli officials say bombardment to ‘intensify’ before ceasefire
Israel says their bombardment of Gaza will “intensify” in the final hours before a four-day ceasefire which begins at 4pm AEDT as a UN school is bombed. Follow latest updates. Warning: Graphic
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Israeli military officials have revealed that their bombardment on Gaza may “intensify” ahead of the ceasefire on Friday morning local time.
“[It’s] business as usual,” Lt. Col Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told reporters.
Hours ahead of the truce, Israel bombed a UN school, killing at least 30 people in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The deadly strike on the Abu Hussein School run by the UN was housing displaced Palestinians fleeing violence and intense bombardment in other parts of Gaza.
Israel’s relentless bombing and a ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 14,200 people, mostly women and children.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant has said the military will resume fighting “with intensity” for at least two more months once the “short” temporary pause ends.
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It comes as the first hostages are to be released around nine hours later, after nearly seven weeks of fighting, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman said.
“The pause will begin at 7am (4pm AEDT) on Friday … and the first batch of civilian hostages will be handed over at approximately 4pm (1am AEDT) on the same day,” Majed Al-Ansari said.
Thirteen people would freed initially, all women and children from the same families, Mr Ansari said.
“Obviously every day will include a number of civilians as agreed to total 50 within the four days,” the spokesman added.
150 Palestinian prisoners will also be released from three jails in Israel, mainly women and underage children, and taken to the Ofer military camp on buses, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that they were expected to be freed in the evening.
Most are from the West Bank but five are from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The agreement for four days entailed a “complete ceasefire with no attacks from the air or the ground” and the skies clear of drones to “allow for the hostage release to happen in a safe environment”, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said.
The ceasefire deal is also intended to provide aid to Gaza’s 2.4 million residents struggling to survive with shortages of food, water and fuel.
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WOMAN KILLED AT INDONESIAN HOSPITAL
One woman has been killed and three others wounded after Israeli forces raided the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza.
“Last night, Israeli forces attacked the hospital with tanks and destroyed all of the first floor. The damage was very bad,” head of the Indonesian charity Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, Dr Sarbini Abdul Murad, said.
“Previously, they had attacked the third floor. They arrested at least three people. This is their way of taking over the hospitals before the ceasefire today.
“Our volunteers were moved to Rafah along with doctors and people who were wounded, but around 200 people stayed behind at the Indonesian Hospital because there was no transport to take them to Rafah.”
Israeli forces surrounded the Indonesian hospital with tanks earlier this week, with doctors reporting that staff and patients were terrified.
WHOLE WORLD ‘SHOCKED’ AT IMAGES COMING FROM GAZA
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has urged Israel to rethink its offensive in Gaza, telling its president and prime minister the number of dead Palestinians is “truly unbearable”.
“Israel must abide by international law, including international humanitarian law, in its response … The whole world is shocked at the images that we see coming from Gaza every day,” Mr Sánchez said.
“The number of Palestinians killed is truly unbearable. I believe that all civilians must be protected at all costs.”
Mr Sánchez said “a serious and credible prospect for peace” was more necessary than ever.
“Without a political settlement, we are bound to run again into a never-ending cycle of violence,” he said.
CEASEFIRE ‘TOO LATE’
It is hoped the truce may offer Palestinians in Gaza some relief from the relentless bombardments they have endured over the past six weeks.
But for many families, it comes too late.
Fida Zayed, whose 20-year-old son Udai was killed in a recent air strike, told AFP: “The living here are the ones who are dead.
“The last thing he [my son] said to me was that he was waiting for the truce on Friday.
“He asked me to prepare him a feast of rice and chicken.I hope me and my children die here so we don’t have to mourn each other.”
ISRAEL’S HAARETZ NEWSPAPER THREATENED BY GOVERNMENT
Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has proposed that Haaretz be penalised for its critical coverage of the Israeli military operation in Gaza.
In a post on X, Mr Karhi – a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party – accused the newspaper of “sabotaging Israel in wartime” and acting as an “inflammatory mouthpiece for Israel’s enemies”.
The proposed penalty includes banning Haaretz from publishing government notices and immediately halting any payments to Haaretz from any state entity that advertises with the news outlet.
In a statement, Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken said: “If the government wants to close Haaretz, that’s the time to read Haaretz.”
‘DOGS EATING CORPSES’
Amidst the carnage, stray dogs have reportedly begun feeding on dead bodies strewn amongst the ruins of Gaza City, Qatar officials said in a grave assessment of the state of affairs on the ground.
“Dogs are eating the corpses of dead people on the streets,” Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told the Independent.
“We are facing a humanitarian situation that is unparalleled,” Mr Al-Ansari said.
The apocalyptic scene echoes recent testimony from the head of UK-based non-profit Medical Aid for Palestinians.
“Dozens of bodies are piled up in the hospital forecourt, decomposing and being eaten by wild dogs as the morgue has shut down – and nobody can move them for burial,” chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, Melanie Ward, testified to the UK Parliament’s international development committee earlier this month.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES CONTINUE AHEAD OF TRUCE
Israeli fighter jets hit the Sheikh Nasser neighbourhood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least five people and wounding dozens, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
It also reported that at least 10 people were killed when Israeli forces attacked a residential home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in northern Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, 12-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Fuad Edely was shot and killed by Israeli forces.
The incident has brought the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7 to 229, 52 of them children.
And in southern Gaza, which the Israeli military had described as a safe zone and ordered people from the north of the Strip to flee to avoid bombing, has seen multiple airstrikes targeting Rafah and Khan Younis with resulting in shocking deaths and destruction.
‘DOCTORS CAN’T STOP BOMBS’
Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnes Callamard shared a video of Doctors Without Borders describing the “brutal annihilation” of Gaza’s healthcare system as something “beyond what humanitarian aid can fix”.
In a post on X, Ms Callamard said: “It stretches way beyond what a humanitarian pause can achieve.”
The Amnesty International chief previously urged all the parties involved in negotiating the four-day truce in Gaza to work to extend it into a “sustained ceasefire”.
"This brutal annihilation of an entire populations health system stretches beyond what humanitarian aid can fix. Doctors can’t stop bombs. "
— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) November 23, 2023
It stretches way beyond what a humanitarian pause can achieve. #CeasefireNowhttps://t.co/D5ROXtkNIV
PEOPLE IN GAZA ARE ‘LOSING HOPE IN HUMANITY’
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said a temporary truce in Gaza will allow the agency to reach people in need in northern Gaza, as he renewed a call for a longstanding humanitarian ceasefire.
UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement that he had just returned from his second visit to the Gaza Strip since the war began.
“I bear witness to the unspeakable suffering of people. Since my first visit two weeks ago, the humanitarian situation has already become far worse,” he said.
“People are exhausted and are losing hope in humanity. They need respite, they deserve to sleep without being anxious about whether they will make it through the night. This is the bare minimum anyone should be able to have.”
CUBA PRESIDENT LEADS PRO-PALESTINE MARCH
Tens of thousands of Cubans marched through the country’s capital, Havana, on Thursday to denounce Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel led the march, which also went past Havana’s seaside drive, the Malecon, where the US embassy is located.
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro — now dead — was famous for staging similar, but much larger demonstrations to protest US sanctions and meddling in Cuban affairs.
PROTESTERS DISRUPT NYC THANKSGIVING PARADE
A pro-Palestinian group of protesters have disrupted a Thanksgiving parade in New York.
The group of about 30 people were met with police as they spray-painted the words “Free Palestine” on the pillars of the front of the building. They also spray-painted what appeared to look like bloody handprints on the base of the building.
Several then pretended to be dead on the ground while others walked around pouring fake blood over their heads.
Floats, marching bands and the parade’s iconic balloons had to navigate around the protesters as cops moved in.
No arrests were made.
HAMAS COMMANDER KILLED AHEAD OF TRUCE
The commander of Hamas’s naval forces has been killed in an air strike in Gaza, according to the Israeli Defense Force.
Amar Abu Jalalah was killed in Khan Younis along with another member of the Hamas naval forces.
Israel’s military said Jalalah was “a senior operative in Hamas’s naval forces and was involved in directing several terror attacks by sea that were thwarted.”
JEWISH GRAVES DAMAGED IN BELGIAN
At least 85 Jewish graves in the Belgian city of Charleroi were attacked with anti-Semitic vandalism and objects stolen.
A gravedigger in a cemetery in the Marcinelle neighbourhood of the southern city discovered the damage in plots for Jewish tombs on Wednesday. An investigation has since been opened.
“The place chosen and the theft of many Stars of David leave little doubt on the anti-Semitic nature of the intentions,” Charleroi mayor Paul Magnette said.
“In the name of the city, I fully condemn these abject acts,” he added, saying he asked the city’s administration to notify each family.
Only the cemetery’s Jewish section was affected, suggesting the anti-Semitic nature of the vandalism.
50 HOSTAGES TO BE FREED
The armed wing of Hamas said a total of 50 hostages - females, and males aged 18 or under -- would be freed, with three Palestinian prisoners to be released for each of them.
At least 13 mothers are being held hostage in Gaza along with their 22 children aged 18 or under, according to an AFP tally.
At least 19 others aged 18 and under, who were either kidnapped alone, with their fathers or with other family members, are also being held.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was in contact with the families of the hostages after receiving “a first list of names” of those due to be released.
It did not specify who was on it.
“We’ve already been on an emotional roller coaster for 47 days and today is no different,” said Eyal Kalderon, a cousin of Ofer Kalderon, who is among those held captive in Gaza.
Asked if he expected kidnapped American toddler Abigail Mor Idan to be in the first batch of hostages to be released, US President Joe Biden said: “I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”
AIR STRIKES ON GAZA CONTINUE
Israel’s aerial bombardment continued overnight on targets in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, sending red and yellow fireballs and immense columns of black smoke into the air.
Homes shook several kilometres away in Rafah.
“I think there are still about 20 people under the rubble,” said one Palestinian looking for survivors under a destroyed building east of Khan Yunis.
Thousands of children have been killed in Gaza, “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child”, said Catherine Russell, executive director of the UN children’s fund, UNICEF.
Youngsters are among the estimated 1.7 million Gazans who, according to the UN, have had to flee their homes during the fighting.
ISRAEL TROOPS ON ALERT AFTER PREVIOUS TRUCE’S BROKEN
The Israel Defence Force said troops on the battlefield were in a heightened state of alert with memories of a similar internationally recognised truce in the 2014 which Hamas broke with an assault, killing an officer whose body was then snatched and hidden somewhere in Gaza.
IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said it was all part of Hamas’ psychological warfare and the threat they could do it again remained real.
“We have to take everything they say with great care and caution and be very vigilant on the ground because we know they are conducting psychological warfare against Israeli civilians, against the families of the hostages, we know they want to manipulate every single part of information … we know they also have absolutely no respect for human life and dignity,” he said.
“We have to be careful, hopefully it will get accomplished and we will get the safe return of Israeli civilians but of course we have to be vigilant on the ground and be prepared for Hamas to try to perhaps surprise us on the battlefield.”
– with AFP
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Originally published as Israel-Hamas war: Israeli officials say bombardment to ‘intensify’ before ceasefire
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