Israel-Hamas war: Outcry grows over crisis as hospitals collapse in Gaza and conditions worsen

Israel has bombed a residential neighbourhood killing nearly 30 people, the majority children, as conditions worsen with another baby dying at al-Shifa hospital. Follow updates. Warning: Graphic.

Israel has continued to bomb locations across the entirety of Gaza, including in the southern part of the enclave, which was deemed a “safe area” for displaced Palestinians to travel to.

At least 26 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of children, after Israel bombed a residential neighbourhood in an area in the southern Gaza Strip.

There are already 1.6 million Palestinians internally displaced while trying to escape Israel’s bombardment and ground assault, with tens of thousands fleeing to the south after they were forced to leave their homes in the north and central areas of the enclave.

The health system has also collapsed across the Gaza Strip, with 26 hospitals shut down out of 35 due to damage from bombardment or a lack of fuel. And of the 72 primary health care clinics, 52 have also been forced to close.

At Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, over 40 patients, including four premature babies, have died in less than a week.

“Doctors are compelled to perform surgeries without anesthesia, including for those wounded by Israeli bombardment and women undergoing C-sections,” the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health said.

A man evacuates a wounded girl after Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

The heads of 20 international aid agencies and the UN have said the south was already too crowded since the first northern eviction notices and with the border with Egypt closed, millions of displaced people had literally nowhere to go.

“Under the prevalent conditions, proposals to unilaterally create “safe zones” in Gaza risk creating harm for civilians, including large-scale loss of life, and must be rejected,” the heads of the aid organisations including Save the Children said in a joint communique.

“Without the right conditions, concentrating civilians in such zones in the context of active hostilities can raise the risk of attack and additional harm.”

At least 12,000 Palestinians, including 5000 children,have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7. However, the death toll is expected to be much higher with people stuck under the rubble.

The death toll has also been delayed due to the collapse of the enclave’s health system, which collected data.

FOLLOW THE UPDATES BELOW:

FIVE PALESTINIANS KILLED IN ISRAELI AIR ATTACK IN WEST BANK

At least five Palestinians were killed and two others injured in a blast at a building in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service has said.

At least 197 Palestinians, including 48 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.

Eight Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli settlers, according to the UN, and more than 1100 people have been displaced from their homes.

About 24,000 people live in the Balata refugee camp, in the northern West Bank, and several Palestinian armed groups operate inside, AFP reports.

STOP USING WATER AS A ‘WEAPON OF WAR’: UN

A UN human rights official has urged Israel to stop using water as a “weapon of war” and allow clean water and fuel into Gaza to restart the water supply network.

UN special rapporteur on water and sanitation Pedro Arrojo-Agudo reminded Israel that consciously preventing supplies of safe water from entering Gaza “violates both international humanitarian and human rights law”.

The UN has warned that Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation, and that overcrowding and lack of clean water are speeding the spread of diseases as winter approaches.

US CAN’T PASS ISRAEL SPENDING UNTIL BOMBING STOPS

Bernie Sanders has emerged one of only a handful of US legislators who have said conditions should be applied to the Biden administration when requesting for more military funding for Israel.

“There is a horrific humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Israel must stop the bombing now and allow for massive amounts of humanitarian aid, including fuel, to reach those who need it,” Mr Sanders posted on X. “Congress cannot pass a supplemental spending bill that allows these actions to continue.”

On Friday, Mr Sanders released details of conditions he said should be put on the bill approving more aid for Israel, which also included “the right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes; no long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza; an end to settler violence in the West Bank and a freeze on settlement expansion; and a commitment to broad peace talks for a two-state solution in the wake of the war.”

There is a horrific humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Israel must stop the bombing now and allow for massive amounts of humanitarian aid, including fuel, to reach those who need it. Congress cannot pass a supplemental spending bill that allows these actions to continue.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 17, 2023

An injured Palestinian child lies in an ambulance. Picture: AFP

Egyptian paramedics transfer an injured Palestinian boy to an ambulance. Picture: AFP

‘INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW HAS BEEN TURNED ON ITS HEAD’

The United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths has warned a ceasefire needs to be urgently called and continuous aid given in response to Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.

“In many respects, international humanitarian law appears to have been turned on its head. … It is without doubt a humanitarian crisis that, by any measure, is intolerable and cannot continue,” Mr Griffiths said as he addressed the General Assembly on Friday.

“Call it what you will, but the requirement, from a humanitarian point of view, is simple. Stop the fighting to allow civilians to move safely.

“Do it for as long as possible, to facilitate an unimpeded humanitarian response. Give the people of Gaza a breather from the terrible, terrible things that have been put on them these last few weeks. And, without condition, release all the hostages.

“We are not asking for the moon. We are asking for the basic measures required to meet the essential needs of the civilian population and stem the course of this crisis.

A Palestinian family who survived an Israeli bombardment, rest at a house after receiving treatment at a nearby hospital. Picture: Mahmud Hams

ISRAEL TOOK PALESTINIAN BODIES AWAY FROM AL-SHIFA

General director at the Ministry of Health Dr Munir al-Burs has accused Israeli forces of taking 18 unburied bodies from the courtyard of the hospital to an unknown location.

Speaking from inside the medical complex, Dr Al-Bursh said that hospital staff had been forced to dig mass graves inside the walls of the complex because it had become too dangerous to venture outside the walls as Israeli forces approached.

At least 82 corpses were buried there, but once the Israelis entered the complex, it then became too dangerous to bury more of the dead.

He added that Israeli forces were “wandering around the whole hospital, and have blown up the MRI and CT scan machines”.

“The [Israeli] occupation has failed to provide any evidence [for its claims] in al-Shifa,” Dr Al-Bursh said.

“So they now fool the world, and tell it that they have found weapons in the MRI room. Does it make sense for an MRI machine – which not one piece of metal can be present near – to have weapons next to it?.”

This satellite picture released shows a crowd of people fleeing toward the southern part of the Gaza Strip, gathered along the Salah Al-Din road. Picture: AFP

People search through buildings, destroyed during Israeli raids. Picture: Ahmad Hasaballah

FOUR PREMATURE BABIES DEAD, FIVE EXPECTED TO DIE

Medical staff at the Al-Shifa Hospital say that four premature babies have died, with another five suffering from severe fatigue and expected to die.

Doctors have said that they are unable to save the babies without fuel and oxygen for the incubators they need to be placed in.

And while Israel has previously said that it had offered to provide incubators, they haven’t given the amount of fuel necessary to run the hospital generators. Doctors at the hospital also denied the reports that incubators had been offered.

Meanwhile, medical aid group Doctors Without Borders have said they’ve been trying to evacuate 137 members of its staff and their family – including 65 children – from Al-Shifa Hospital complex for six days to no avail.

The group said that on Tuesday, bullets were fired into its guest house, with no injuries reported. On Thursday, its office building was hit by shrapnel and the water tank on its guest house was shelled.

“Our colleagues hear the constant sounds of gunfire, shelling, and drones. We can hear it when we speak with them on the phone. The evacuation route to southern Gaza remains unsafe,” MSF country director in Palestine Ann Taylor said in a statement.

“They are terrified, they ran out of food several days ago and children have now started getting sick from drinking salty water, they must be evacuated now.”

“They are terrified, they ran out of food several days ago and children have now started getting sick from drinking salty water, they must be evacuated [from #Gaza] now." shares Ann Taylor, Country Director in #Palestine.

More from our teams below. https://t.co/fvAzBLjteW

— Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (@MSF_canada) November 17, 2023

DEAD HOSTAGE REMAINS FOUND IN GAZA

The Israeli army has confirmed the discovery of the bodies of two people taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas when it attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1200 people.

The army said it had recovered the remains of Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old woman soldier whose death was announced a few days ago by both Israel and Hamas.

Soldiers also found the body of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman abducted from the Beeri kibbutz community.

It is unclear yet if the hostages were killed by the airstrikes in Gaza.

FIVE COUNTRIES ASK ICC TO INVESTIGATE CRIMES IN PALESTINE

Five countries submitted a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague to investigate whether crimes may have been committed in Palestinian territories.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti submitted the referral of the situation in the region.

“In accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, a State Party may refer to the Prosecutor a situation in which one or more crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court appear to have been committed requesting the Prosecutor to investigate the situation for the purpose of determining whether one or more specific persons should be charged with the commission of such crimes,” Mr Khan said in a statement.

He noted that his office is already conducting an investigation on the situation in the Palestinian territories which began on March 3, 2021, over possible crimes that may have been committed since June 2014 in Gaza and the West Bank.

“It is ongoing and extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on 7 October 2023,” Mr Khan said. “In accordance with the Rome Statute, my Office has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of a State Party and with respect to the nationals of States Parties.”

ISRAEL TO ALLOWS ‘MINIMAL’ FUEL INTO GAZA

Israel’s war cabinet has allowed the delivery of two tankers of diesel fuel daily to the embattled Gaza Strip, a quantity they described as “very minimal”.

In response to a US request, the Israeli war cabinet unanimously approved “the entry of two diesel fuel tankers per day for the needs of the UN to support water and sewer infrastructure … provided that it does not reach Hamas”, Israeli officials said in a statement.

“This action allows Israel the continued international manoeuvring space necessary to eliminate Hamas,” the statement added.

The deputy head of Israel’s legislature criticised the decision to allow a limited amount of fuel into Gaza for humanitarian needs and said Israel should “burn Gaza now”.

Deputy speaker of the Knesset and a member of the ruling Likud party Nissim Vaturi said Israel is being “too humane”.

“Burn Gaza now no less! Don’t allow fuel in, don’t allow water in until the hostages are returned back!,” he posted.

UN’S WARNING FOR GAZA FOOD SUPPLY

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) warned of “the immediate possibility of starvation” in Gaza as the food supply has broken down and aid trucks are stranded either on the border or in the south with no fuel for onward delivery.

“With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.

IDF forces continue to operate and locate terrorist infrastructures in hospitals used by the terrorist organisation Hamas; at the Shifa hospital. Picture: IDF/Twitter

Internet and telephone services on Friday collapsed across the Gaza Strip for lack of fuel, the main Palestinian Palnet telecommunications provider said.

The service provider warned it might be the start of a long term communications blackout.