More than a month after the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Israel’s continued large-scale military response in Gaza has prompted condemnation from many parts of the world. Hamas’s attack led to the deaths of 1,200 people, and Israel’s continuing siege has resulted in more than 11,000 deaths in Gaza so ftar.
Protest marches have been held in cities such as London, New York, Paris, Brussels, and others, calling for a ceasefire. A popular slogan spotted here is ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, invoking the larger demand against the historical occupation of Palestinian territories. But it has also drawn criticism from a range of sources – from Israel’s official X account to the White House. Where did the slogan originate from, and who has invoked it over the years and why is it criticised? We explain. (Read more)
Images released by Israel of weapons it says it soldiers found inside Gaza's biggest hospital are not sufficient to justify revoking the hospital's status as protected by the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said.
"Hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law. Doctors, nurses, ambulances and other hospital staff must be permitted to do their work and patients must be protected," Human Rights Watch U.N. Director Louis Charbonneau told Reuters. "Hospitals only lose those protections if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises. The Israeli government hasn't provided any evidence of that.
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As concerns grow for patients stranded inside Gaza’s biggest hospital, experts warned that transporting vulnerable people, including babies, is a perilous proposition under even the best circumstances.
Dr. Irwin Redlener of Columbia University in New York told Reuters that moving newborns and premature babies with health problems is fraught but possible with trained personnel, proper equipment and a transportation plan.“Babies in incubators have complex health needs and there needs to be temperature control, hydration, medication for infections and breathing support,” said Redlener, a pediatrician and disaster response expert, who spoke before the raid.
After being evacuated from war-torn Gaza with the help of Indian missions in the region, Lubna Nazir Shaboo is now looking forward to her homeward journey from Cairo to Kashmir.
Lubna, an Indian from Jammu & Kashmir living in Gaza, and her daughter Karima had crossed the Rafah border on Monday evening and reached the Egyptian capital the next day. Lubna's one son and one daughter have been studying in Cairo.
Soon after the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out on October 7, Lubna reached out to PTI on October 10 seeking help.
“The situation was too bad in Gaza. We did not have water, electricity or internet and the telecommunication was too bad. We went through a very bad phase over there. The situation is worsening day by day. There are people who are dying every day and there are people who are injured and there are dead people who are also lying under the debris.”
The United Nations human rights chief said that outbreaks of disease and hunger seemed "inevitable" in Gaza after weeks of Israeli assault on the densely populated enclave. "Massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable," Volker Turk said at an informal briefing to states at the U.N. in Geneva following a visit to the Middle East.
Three suspected Palestinian assailants opened fire at a checkpoint on a main road between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem wounding six people, Israeli emergency services said today. Security forces opened fire at the assailants, police said.
"Three terrorists were neutralised by security forces stationed at the crossing. This occurred after they arrived in a suspicious vehicle and opened fire towards our forces," Israel police said. Israel's ambulance service said one person was critically wounded. (Reuters)
Two bullets fired in the tepid Mumbai winter dragged India’s financial capital into the heart of the age-old Israeli-Palestinian feud after the British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India was shot dead near his Flora Fountain office on November 27, 1984, by suspected Palestinian militants affiliated with Abu Nidal.
Abu Nidal, which means ‘Father of the Struggle’, was the nom de guerre for Sabri al-Banna, the leader of Palestine Liberation Organization, a renegade group allegedly responsible for a string of attacks across the world in the 1980s and 1990s. The US State Department had once termed this group as “the most dangerous terrorist organisation in existence”. In 2002, al-Banna was found shot dead under mysterious circumstances in a flat in Baghdad, according to Palestinian and other sources. (Read more)
The UN Security Council has adopted its first resolution since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to address the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians during Israel’s aerial and ground attacks.
Israel immediately rejected the resolution. The vote in the 15-member council was 12-0 with the United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstaining. The US and UK abstained because of the resolution’s failure to condemn Hamas’ surprise cross-border attacks into Israel on October 7, and Russia because of its failure to demand a humanitarian cease-fire, which Israel and the United States oppose.
The final draft watered down language from “demands” to “calls” for humanitarian pauses, and for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.” Still, the resolution, which was sponsored by Malta, managed to overcome the serious differences that had prevented the council from adopting four previous resolutions. (Read more)
Israeli fighter jets have struck the house of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, the Israeli military said today
Haniyeh's house was "used as terrorist infrastructure and often served as a meeting point for Hamas' senior leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers," the military said.
The night a blast struck his family's home in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed al-Naouq was more than 2,000 miles away but he still jolted awake, consumed with inexplicable panic. He reached for his cellphone to find that a friend had written — and then deleted — a message.
Al-Naouq called him from London. The words that spilled from the other end of the line landed like world-shattering blows: Airstrike. Everyone killed.
Four nights later, Ammar al-Butta was startled from sleep in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the wall of his bedroom collapsed over him. A missile had pierced his top-floor apartment and exploded one floor below. He lurched over the rubble, shining the light of his cellphone into the wreckage, calling out to his 16 relatives. “Anyone there?” he cried. There was only silence.
Entire generations of Palestinian families in the besieged Gaza Strip — from great-grandparents to infants only weeks old — have been killed in airstrikes in the Israel-Hamas war.
It would take many hours of horror and mayhem before the truth would settle like the ash from the Oct. 20 explosion that levelled al-Naouq’s family's home: 21 relatives killed. They included his 75-year-old father, two brothers, three sisters and their 13 children.
“I can’t believe this actually happened,” al-Naouq, a graduate student in London, told The Associated Press. “Because if I calculate what it means, I will be destroyed.” (AP)
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel cannot leave a vacuum in Gaza and would have to maintain a strong force there for the near future to prevent Hamas from re-emerging in the Palestinian enclave, the Financial Times reported today.
"If we pull back, then who will take over? We can't leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism; there are many ideas that are thrown in the air," Herzog said in an interview with the FT.
"But no one will want to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again", he added. (Reuters)
Video released by the Israeli military is said to show weapons and combat gear found in the embattled Al Shifa hospital complex in Gaza, where Hamas is also accused of hiding a command center.
US President Joe Biden said that Hamas was committing war crimes by having its military headquarters under the hospital. He said Israel had gone into Al Shifa with a limited number of troops with guns.
"They were told...we discussed the need for them to be incredibly careful," Biden told reporters. (Reuters)
Police in the nation's capital responded last night to a protest outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
US Capitol Police said about 150 people were “illegally and violently protesting” near the DNC headquarters building in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Washington. Members of Congress were evacuated from the building as the protest erupted.
Video posted on social media showed protesters shoving police officers and trying to grab hold of metal barricades as the officers moved in to make arrests. The videos also show officers shoving protesters. Many of the protesters were wearing black shirts that read “Cease Fire Now.” Protesters included members of If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace, who have organised other demonstrations in Washington. (AP)
A car crashed into a barricade near the Israeli embassy in Tokyo today and a man in his 50s was arrested on the spot, Fuji TV reported.
One police officer was injured, the broadcaster said. Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed a black compact car with damage to its front headlights and panel where it appeared to have crashed into the barrier on the side of the street.
The road nearby was strewn with cracked parts from the car that had broken off. The car's number plate was from Tama, western Tokyo, the footage showed. (Reuters)
The head of UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, confirmed yesterday that it has received 23,000 liters of fuel that crossed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, but called for more to be allowed to enter the besieged territory.
The aid group says Israeli authorities allowed the fuel to enter under the restriction that it can only be used to transport aid into besieged Gaza. “This fuel cannot be used for the overall humanitarian response, including for medical and water facilities or the work of UNRWA,” Philippe Lazzarini said in an online statement.
UNRWA needs 160,000 liters of fuel each day to complete “basic humanitarian operations,” he added. (AP)
US President Joe Biden has said he had made it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a two-state solution was the only answer to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that occupying Gaza would be a mistake.
Biden told reporters he was doing everything in his power to free hostages held by the Hamas militant group in Gaza, but that did not mean sending in the US military. (Reuters)
Only a quarter of Gaza’s hospitals are still functioning, with about 26 out of 36 institutions now closed — either because they have been damaged or because they ran out of fuel, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
The U.N. health agency has lost contact with health workers at Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva. He said the Israeli military raid of the institution is “totally unacceptable.”
Approximately 82 bodies from Shifa were buried in a mass grave Wednesday, with another 80 bodies left unburied, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative in the West Bank and Gaza. He said about 45 patients were receiving dialysis and that there were no central supplies of oxygen, water or fuel.
Peeperkorn said several organisations, including the WHO, were “urgently exploring the possibility of an evacuation of patients and medical staff.” He called for a plan to evacuate about 2,000 critically ill patients out of Gaza over the next three months, possibly to Egypt. (AP)
Qatari mediators were seeking to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that includes the release of around 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in exchange for a three-day ceasefire, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.
The deal, under discussion, which has been coordinated with the U.S., would also see Israel release some Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails and increase the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza, the official said. Hamas has agreed to the general outlines of this deal, but Israel has not and it is still negotiating the details, the official said.
It is not known how many Palestinian women and children Israel would release from its jails as part of the agreement under discussion.
Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu met members of the Israeli Defence Forces and said that "there is no hiding for the Hamas killers". "We will eliminate them all and return the kidnapped" he said.
Israeli troops found weapons and "terror infrastructure" during an on-going raid within Al Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, a senior military official said. He did not spell out what had been found or provide any visual evidence, but said this would be presented later.
"IDF soldiers have already found weapons and other terror infrastructure. In the last hour, we saw concrete evidence that Hamas terrorists used the Shifa hospital as a terror headquarter," the official said.
Hamas denied this.
Here is what Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said about the Israel's operation at Al Shifa hospital
Italy said Turkey had a crucial role in efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading to the rest of the region, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for a rapid de-escalation of the conflict.
"The prime minister called for a rapid de-escalation of the conflict, which must not spread to the rest of the region, and emphasised the crucial role Turkey plays in this context," a statement from Meloni's office said, following her call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
"Reports of military incursion into Al Shifa hospital are deeply concerning," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X. "We've lost touch again with health personnel at the hospital. We're extremely worried for their and their patients' safety."
UNITED NATIONS AID CHIEF
"The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns," U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths wrote on X, adding he was "appalled" by reports of the raids. "Hospitals are not battlegrounds."
DOCTOR AT AL SHIFA HOSPITAL
"Bombardment. Shooting around the hospital and within the hospital. It's really horrible you can feel that it's very near to the hospital. And then we realised that the tanks are moving around the hospital," Doctor Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters by phone. "They just parked in front of the hospital emergency department. All kinds of weapons were used around the hospital," and staff avoided being near the windows.
He said he felt relief when troops finally entered the complex, despite concerns among staff, as the fear of being bombarded from outside had been immense.
UNITED STATES
"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire," a White House National Security Council spokesperson said. "Hospitals and patients must be protected."
CANADA
"I urge the government of Israel to exercise maximum restraint," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, before the raid. "The world is witnessing this killing of women, of children, of babies. This has to stop." He also said Hamas needed to stop using Palestinians as human shields and should release all its hostages.
ISRAEL
Based on intelligence information, "IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas" at the hospital and the intention was not to harm civilians, the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement. Israeli troops found weapons and "terror infrastructure" at one specific location within Al Shifa hospital, a senior IDF official said.
There was no fighting inside the hospital complex after troops arrived during the night, and medical staff and patients were in a different area of the site, he said.
HAMAS
"The White House and the Pentagon's adoption of the false (Israeli) narrative, claiming that the resistance is using Al Shifa medical complex for military purposes, was a green light for the occupation (Israel) to commit more massacres against civilians," Hamas said.
As severe fuel shortage impacts hospital generators, provision of water, sewage treatment, communications and even bakeries in Gaza, Tom White, director of the U.N. relief agency in Gaza, said it is only 9% of what they need daily to sustain lifesaving activities.
The Israeli military spokesperson their operation us going on in one specific area of the. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, adding that troops found weapons and other militant infrastructure in the premises.
The spokesperson further said there has been friction with the medical staff or civilians during the operation.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Israel was a "terror state" committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza, while repeating his view that Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation.
Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Erdogan also called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce whether Israel had nuclear bombs or not, and added that the Israeli premier was a "goner" from his post. He said Hamas was a political party that had been elected by Palestinians.
The head of the World Health Organization said that the organisation has lost touch with health personnel at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza after Israeli forces began raiding the facility. "Reports of military incursion into Al-Shifa hospital are deeply concerning," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
The Bank of Israel said that proposed amendments to the state budget were insufficient and that the government needed to show more fiscal responsibility.
The central bank statement came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on Tuesday gave initial approval to changes in the budget meant to help cover the impact of the war in Gaza. Among its concerns, the central bank said proposed budget cuts are limited and that the government needed to further curb new continuous expenditures unrelated to the war.
Heavy rain in Gaza on Tuesday brought new concerns and challenges for Palestinians, many of whom are homeless and living in makeshift tents after weeks of Israeli bombardment.
The start of the rainy season and the possibility of flooding increased fears that the densely populated enclave’s sewage system will be overwhelmed and disease will spread.
At a UN shelter in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the rain brought dismay for displaced people who woke to find the clothes they put out to dry the night had been drenched by rain. (Read more)
The first truck to deliver fuel to the Gaza Strip since Israel imposed a total siege on the enclave in its war with Hamas began crossing from Egypt, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
Witnesses said two other trucks were lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing waiting to enter Gaza.
The United Nations had warned in recent days that it would have to halt humanitarian operations, including the distribution of aid within Gaza, as its fuel stocks became fully depleted.
US-backed Central American country Belize has suspended diplomatic relations with Israel due to its "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza since early October.
Belize adds to the list of Western Hemisphere countries voicing their frustration over Israel's war conduct throughout the conflict in Gaza, CNN reported.
"The Government of Belize has repeatedly condemned the actions of the IDF in Gaza. We have appealed to Israel to implement an immediate ceasefire and to allow unimpeded access to humanitarian supplies into Gaza. Despite our requests, Israel has not stopped its violations of international humanitarian law nor allowed relief workers to alleviate the suffering of millions of Gazans," a November 14 statement from Belize government stated.
"Belize renews its call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, unimpeded access to humanitarian supplies into Gaza and the release of all hostages," the Prime Minister Johnny Briceno-led government statement read. (ANI)
Israeli soldiers killed several Hamas militants at the outset of a raid on the Al Shifa hospital today, where thousands of Palestinian civilians - patients, displaced people and medical staff - have been trapped during weeks of fighting.
Israel said it launched the raid because Hamas has a command centre underneath Al Shifa and uses connected tunnels to conceal military operations and to hold hostages. Hamas denies it.
"Before entering the hospital our forces were confronted by explosive devices and terrorist squads, fighting ensued in which terrorists were killed," the Israeli military said, without specifying exactly where the firefight took place. Israeli Army Radio said five militants had been killed and that weapons were found inside the Al Shifa compound. (Reuters)
A doctor at the Gaza Strip's Al Shifa hospital told Reuters today that gunfire outside the compound forced staff to stay away from windows for their safety after an Israeli raid.
Israeli forces said they were raiding the complex because Hamas has a command centre underneath it and uses connected tunnels to hold hostages, an allegation that doctor Ahmed El Mokhallalati denied.
The Israel-Gaza conflict is a "worrying manifestation" of geopolitical challenges for the US-backed multinational economic corridor, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.
"It (the corridor) is not without its geopolitical challenges and the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza is a worrying manifestation of these," Sitharaman said during a conference, reported the news agency Reuters.
The Israeli soldiers are inside Al Shifa Hospital's emergency and reception buildings today as the military operation inside the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital continues.
The Times of Israel, quoting Youssef Abul Reesh, an official from the Hamas-run health ministry who is inside the hospital, said that Israeli tanks are inside the complex and “dozens of soldiers and commandos [are] inside the emergency and reception buildings.”
The Israel Defence Forces, in its latest update, said that the military operation inside the Al-Shifa Hospital is ongoing and that they have delivered incubators, baby food and medical supplies.
The Israeli operation at Al-Shifa Hospital will be widened if necessary, reported The Times of Israel, quoting an unnamed security official.
“We are starting small, and the operation will expand as necessary,” the official told Army Radio, as per the report. “The entry of troops into Al-Shifa is more of a challenge for media [optics] than an operations.”
“The decision was that we entered Al-Shifa only if we know exactly what is there and where it is, as we did at Rantisi Hospital, which was only [raided] when we knew exactly what was in its basement,’ the official says.
Heavy rain in Gaza brought new concerns and challenges for Palestinians, many of whom are homeless and living in makeshift tents after weeks of Israeli bombardment.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday responded to his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau's calls for putting a stop to the "killing of women, of children, of babies" in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, arguing that it is Hamas who is responsible for the atrocities.
Tagging Trudeau in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Netanyahu wrote: "It is not Israel that is deliberately targeting civilians but Hamas that beheaded, burned and massacred civilians in the worst horrors perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust."
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals get special protections during war. However, they lose their protections in case combatants use the premises to hide fighters or store weapons, according to the ICRC. In such a situation, there has to be a number of warnings before attacks to allow for the safe evacuation of patients and medical workers, ICRC legal officer Cordula Droege told The Associated Press.
Jessica Wolfendale, an expert in military ethics at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said if Israel successfully proves that al-Shifa is used as a command centre by Hamas, even then the principles of international law will remain in place.
“It doesn’t license an instant attack,” she said. “Steps need to be taken to protect the innocent as much as possible.” (Read more)
Israel’s defense minister says the military is making great progress in its war against Hamas militants, but that the campaign will take many months to complete.
In a nationally televised press conference last night, Yoav Gallant said that Hamas has “lost control” of the northern Gaza Strip and that Israel has also made great gains in Gaza City, the militant group’s stronghold.
“This entire city is one terror stronghold that the army is able to manoeuvre and operate in very well,” he said. But asked about the timeframe for the war ahead, Gallant said: “We’re talking about long months, not a day or two. (AP)
Several hundred protesters gathered outside the Israeli parliament last night to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he is unfit for office.
The protesters carried signs blaming Netanyahu for the Oct. 7 attack that left at least 1,200 people killed.
“Go, go, go!” protesters chanted. “Any moment that our prime minister is in his role is dangerous for the citizens, for the soldiers, and he needs to quit and let us win the war and reunite our people,” said protester Nir Weintroub. (AP)
Al Shifa is a sprawling complex of buildings and courtyards a few hundred metres from Gaza City's fishing port. Buildings on the western side of the complex, which the Gaza official said was the site of the raid, include the internal medicine and dialysis departments.
Hamas says 650 patients and 5,000 to 7,000 other civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from Israeli snipers and drones. Amid shortages of fuel, water and supplies, it says 40 patients have died in recent days.
Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed. (Reuters)
In the 39th day of the Israel-Hamas war, recent events have escalated tensions and exacerbated humanitarian crises. Israeli forces' actions in the West Bank resulted in the deaths of six Palestinians, while an airstrike in Gaza led to three fatalities and numerous injuries.
About 650 patients and 5,000-7,000 displaced civilians are trapped inside al-Shifa, and they are under constant fire from snipers and drones, according to Hamas. The militant group added that 40 patients have died, including three premature babies whose incubators were shut down when electricity went out.
Currently, there are 36 premature babies at the hospital who need incubators to survive. Israel on Tuesday said it was offering portable, battery-powered incubators so the babies could be evacuated. But Ashraf al-Qidra, Gaza’s health ministry spokesman, said so far no arrangements had been made to move out the babies. Medics had to wrap babies in cellophane to keep them alive, Mohamed Abu Silmeyeh, director of al-Shifa hospital, said on Saturday.
Al-Qidra also added that there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and the hospital staff had failed to get them out.
“We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the al-Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don’t have any cover or protection from the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), but we have no other options as the corpses of the martyrs have begun to decompose,” he told Reuters.
Although Israel has denied that al-Shifa is under siege and said its forces allow routes for those inside to exit, medics and officials inside the hospital claim those trying to leave have come under fire. (Read more)
Israeli forces are searching the basement of Al Shifa hospital, Gazan health ministry spokesperson has told Al Jazeera.
The White House said it does not support striking a hospital from the air and does not want to see a firefight in a hospital after the Israeli military said it was carrying out a raid against Hamas at the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire," said a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, who did not wish to be named. "Hospitals and patients must be protected," the spokesperson said. (Reuters)
Israeli forces have alleged that al-Shifa sits atop an underground headquarters of Hamas militants, who have been using the building, patients, and staff as human shields. Hamas and officials of Gaza’s health ministry, however, have denied the claims, saying Israel is making baseless accusations to justify attacks on health facilities.
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British doctor working at al-Shifa described the Israeli claim as an “outlandish excuse”, a report by The Guardian said. Human Rights Watch, the US campaign group, said it could not verify the Israeli allegations.
US President Joe Biden on Monday said Gaza’s hospitals “must be protected”. He added, “My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals and we remain in contact with the Israelis”. (Read more)
As Alind Chauhan writes in an explainer, Al-Shifa used to be the cornerstone of Gaza’s healthcare system before the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
Located in Gaza City, in the north of the tiny Palestinian enclave, the hospital comprises a group of six-storey buildings. It had between 600 and 900 beds and thousands of staff, and provided a range of services that almost no other hospital in Gaza offered. Since the start of the war, al-Shifa has also been serving as a shelter for those displaced by the fighting and incessant Israeli bombing. (Read more)
The A-Shifa Hospital is a sprawling complex of buildings and courtyards a few hundred metres from Gaza City's small fishing port, sandwiched between the Beach refugee camp and the city's Rimal neighbourhood, says the news agency Reuters.
Its name comes from the Arabic word "healing" — common for hospitals in the Middle East.
More than a month after the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Israel’s continued large-scale military response in Gaza has prompted condemnation from many parts of the world. Hamas’s attack led to the deaths of 1,200 people, and Israel’s continuing siege has resulted in more than 11,000 deaths in Gaza so far.
Protest marches have been held in cities such as London, New York, Paris, Brussels, and others, calling for a ceasefire. A popular slogan spotted here is ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, invoking the larger demand against the historical occupation of Palestinian territories. But it has also drawn criticism from a range of sources – from Israel’s official X account to the White House. Where did the slogan originate from, and who has invoked it over the years and why is it criticised? We explain. (Read more)
The satellite image of the hospital, taken on November 11, shows the Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings in Gaza City. A Guardian report said that as per a witness, Israeli soldiers are entering the specialised surgery department housed in the multi-storey building to the right, above the plume of white smoke.
In the West Bank, a separate Palestinian enclave not controlled by Hamas, Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai Alkaila said Israel was "committing a new crime against humanity, medical staff and patients by besieging" Al Shifa.
"We hold the occupation forces fully responsible for the lives of the medical staff, patients and displaced people in Al Shifa," Alkaila said in a statement. (Reuters)
Israel has said that Hamas has a command centre underneath Al Shifa and uses the hospital and tunnels beneath it to conceal military operations and to hold hostages. Hamas denies it.
Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told CNN the hospital and compound were for Hamas "a central hub of their operations, perhaps even the beating heart and maybe even a centre of gravity."
The US said on Tuesday that its own intelligence supported Israel's conclusions.
Hamas said on Wednesday that US announcement had effectively given a "green light" for Israel to raid the hospital. The group said it held Israel and US President Joe Biden fully responsible for the operation. (Reuters)
The Israeli military said it was carrying out a raid today against Palestinian Hamas militants in Al Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital, and urged them all to surrender.
Less than an hour earlier, around 1 am local time (2300 GMT), a Gaza health ministry spokesman said Israel had told officials in the enclave that it would raid the Shifa hospital complex "in the coming minutes."
In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: "Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa hospital."
The military added: "The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians." (Reuters)