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In an update on the 31 premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, health officials say they are in “extremely critical condition”.
The newborns had dehydration, hypothermia and sepsis in some cases, said Mohamed Zaqout, the director of Gaza hospitals.
Continue reading...Israeli army had released footage from day of Hamas attacks that it said showed foreign hostages inside al-Shifa hospital
A dozen people were reportedly killed at a second major medical facility in northern Gaza on Monday as Israeli forces closed in around the packed Indonesian hospital despite hopes that a ceasefire for hostages deal may be agreed.
Video broadcast on Al Jazeera showed damage to what were described as patient facilities, while daytime footage on social media appeared to show that Israeli tanks were close by the medical complex.
Continue reading...Relative ‘shocked’ by advice for family members who crossed into Egypt to split temporarily and apply for reunification from Britain
Relatives of British citizens recently evacuated from Gaza and those waiting to return to the UK have criticised the government’s repatriation guidance, as UK officials continue to support nationals crossing into Egypt.
Ahmad Abou-Foul’s family safely crossed from Gaza into Egypt on 3 November. He said they were “shocked” after arriving in Cairo when UK immigration officers advised the individuals with British passports to return to the UK with their children, and once there, start a reunification process for their Palestinian spouses.
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Some protests aimed at MPs have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said, also speaking to Sky’s Trevor Phillips programme.
Asked about recent protests outside MPs’ offices calling for a ceasefire, PA Media reports she said:
I believe in the right to protest, I don’t believe in the right to intimidate.
Some of those protests, I believe, over the last few days have crossed the line from protest to intimidation. Protesting outside people’s homes, putting pressure on them in that way, I think it’s totally unacceptable.
We recognise, and I’m afraid this morning’s news confirms, that there is an absolutely tragic loss of life on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side. But I think it is important to remember this started with horrific murders on October 7, and if Hamas are hiding in these hospitals then Israel has to do something about it. I think we can all just hope this situation resolves itself as quickly as possible.
Continue reading...Hundreds march through Keir Starmer’s constituency to protest against failure to back ceasefire
Some protests targeting MPs over their stance on the war in Gaza have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said.
Other MPs already voiced concern about their safety and that of staff ahead of a weekend on which more than 100 pro-Palestine events were planned across the UK as campaigners sought to put pressure on parliamentarians who failed to vote for a Scottish National party motion last week calling for a ceasefire.
Continue reading...Agreement could involve limited ceasefire in Gaza Strip and release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, although observers have cautioned that public statements during such negotiations are often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.
Continue reading...Israel says opening was discovered beneath floor of a garage within Gaza medical complex’s walls
The Israeli army has published video footage that it says shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath Gaza City’s Dar al-Shifa hospital complex.
In a statement on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops operating near the in-patients building at al-Shifa found a booby-trapped pickup truck in a garage inside the medical complex’s walls. When it was destroyed in a controlled explosion, a tunnel was exposed beneath the floor of the garage, the IDF said, providing photographs.
Continue reading...Images of distressed families walking south have been evocative of what Palestinians call the catastrophe of 1948
Umm Ghadeer’s earliest memories are of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel. She was three years old. Last month she was forced to abandon her home all over again, fleeing Shejaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
“I cried very hard because I relived the experience of displacement when we fled our homes in 1948. We fled. Some people were walking on the streets, some in cars, some screaming, some crying. We lost so many people,” she said. “So many awful things happened in 1948. I am now scared of the same thing.”
Continue reading...UN agency visits al-Shifa hospital after raid by Israeli forces who allege it is used by Hamas as a command centre
Dar al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, has become a “death zone”, the World Health Organization has said, with a mass grave at the entrance and only 25 staff left to care for 291 seriously ill patients after orders from the Israeli army to evacuate the complex.
The WHO managed to access the medical centre in Gaza City on Sunday after it was raided by Israeli forces earlier this week. Israel alleged the militant group Hamas used al-Shifa as a command centre, identifying it as a key target in its military operation despite international outcry.
Continue reading...PM’s speech at food summit comes as humanitarian crisis caused by Israel-Hamas war reaches crisis point
Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest aid charities are urging Rishi Sunak to use his opening speech at a global food summit in London on Monday to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza, which they say is causing 2 million people to go hungry and taking 1 million children to the brink of starvation.
The charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Islamic Relief, say the UK has an obligation to speak out at the summit since private diplomacy is not working and Britain is the guardian of the key UN resolution that forbids starvation as a “weapon of war”.
Continue reading...The raid on al-Shifa hospital by Israeli forces forced out thousands of patients and medical staff
In the early hours of Saturday morning, over piles of concrete and rubble, crowds of doctors and patients walked miles through the destroyed streets of Gaza City, forced to evacuate on foot from what remained of its hospitals. Medics said they feared leaving critically ill patients behind in a city now largely reduced to rubble and overtaken by Israeli forces, where hospitals had been operating without power, fuel, water or food.
“It’s basically hell on earth,” said William Schomburg, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, describing what remained of life inside the city.
Continue reading...Fears mount for Gaza refugees as nowhere is deemed safe for civilians in effort to destroy Hamas
Israel-Hamas war – live update
Airstrikes on crowded UN shelters in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp killed more than 80 people on Saturday, as Israeli plans to expand operations into south Gaza deepened fears for hundreds of thousands of civilians who have sought refuge there.
Underlining the reminder that there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s civilians, an airstrike outside the southern town of Khan Younis killed at least 26 people in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Continue reading...Thousands had marched for five days to demand action by the Israeli prime minister to bring home the 240 people captured by Hamas
“I am wounded and bleeding. Mummy, I think I’m going to die,” were some of the last words Romi Gonen, 23, said to her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen, after Hamas stormed southern Israeli towns and kibbutzim on 7 October.
Leshem Gonen, 54, could hear shooting during the frantic 40-minute phone call but tried to comfort her daughter, who was at the Supernova music festival, saying: “Everything will be OK” and “You’ll feel better. You are not alone, you are with me, my darling.”
Continue reading...Former Labour leader argues Hamas and Israel both guilty of targeting civilians, after he avoided term in TV interview
Jeremy Corbyn has described Hamas as a “terrorist group” in a magazine article after repeatedly refusing to use the term in a television interview earlier this week.
The former Labour leader has written an article accusing the Israeli army of being guilty of “acts of terror too”, arguing that the comparison was necessary because Israel had killed thousands of children in strikes on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s attacks.
Continue reading...Protesters march through Camden and gather outside Labour leader’s office amid anger over failure to call for ceasefire
Hundreds of people marched through Keir Starmer’s constituency and protested outside his Camden office on Saturday over the Labour leader’s failure to call for a ceasefire.
The action was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which planned more than 100 local demonstrations across the country on Saturday rather than holding a national march in the capital.
Continue reading...Apartment block bombed, killing 26, in area civilians were urged to flee to for their safety
Israel bombed an apartment block in southern Gaza early on Saturday, killing 26 people, soon after announcing plans to intensify operations in areas where the Israeli military had told civilians to flee for their safety.
In the north, a column of medics, patients and refugees trudged out of al-Shifa hospital, the biggest in Gaza, where Israeli troops spent a fourth day searching for evidence of a Hamas command node it claimed was buried below the wards.
Continue reading...Ayman Safadi says credibility of international law at stake as he clashes with senior US official over terms for humanitarian pause
Jordan’s foreign minister has said Arab troops will not go to Gaza as he delivered a blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.
Ayman Safadi clashed with Joe Biden’s senior Middle East adviser on Saturday, saying a humanitarian pause should not be conditional on the release of hostages held by Hamas. The US envoy, Brett McGurk, said the onus was on Hamas to release hostages as a pathway to humanitarian aid increasing and a pause in the fighting.
Continue reading...In Washington Post on Saturday, Biden writes: ‘After this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people … must be at the center of post-crisis governance’
A Tanzanian citizen missing since the 7 October raid by Hamas militants on southern Israel has been confirmed dead while a second remains unaccounted for, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dar Es Salaam said.
In a statement issued late on Friday, it said the family of farming student Clemence Mtenga had been notified of his death and talks were under way on repatriating his body. Searches continue for the second Tanzanian, Joshua Mollel, it added.
Continue reading...Groups behind ceasefire protests attended by hundreds of thousands say local action will replace London march this week
Organisers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets have planned smaller action in villages, towns and cities rather than holding a national march in the capital this Saturday.
More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK.
Continue reading...Footage to date fails to prove Gaza complex was nerve centre for attacks on Israel, as military has claimed
• Israel-Hamas war – latest updates
Prior to their capture of Dar al-Shifa hospital, the Israel Defense Forces went to great lengths to depict the medical complex as a headquarters for Hamas, from where its attacks on Israel were planned.
The evidence produced so far falls well short of that. IDF videos have shown only modest collections of small arms, mostly assault rifles, recovered from the extensive medical complex.
Continue reading...