US made munitions killed 43 civilians in Israeli army attacks: Amnesty
An Amnesty International investigation has revealed that US-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) were used in two separate air attacks on civilian homes.
The rights watchdog has also called for the attacks that killed 19 children, 14 women, and 10 men to be investigated as war crimes. The two homes were in Wadi Gaza, where the Israeli military had ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate on 13 October.
“The fact that US-made munitions are being used by the Israeli military in unlawful attacks with deadly consequences for civilians should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration. The US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Two families have been decimated in these strikes, further proof that the Israeli military is responsible for unlawfully killing and injuring civilians in its bombardment of Gaza,” Callamard added.
Death toll in Gaza reaches 15,900
The death toll in Gaza from Israeli attacks has reached 15,900, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced.
Of those killed, more than 250 were health workers, Health Minister Mai al-Kaila stated while speaking in Ramallah, occupied West Bank.
Rockets hit building in Ashkelon
Israeli media reported that a rocket fired from Gaza has hit a building in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
According to the reports, a number of people were injured.
The Israeli army announced air raid sirens had been sounded in Ashkelon prior to the incident.
Israeli forces storm Jenin refugee camp
Israeli troops have stormed the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank after the discovery of special forces by residents, according to local media.
Exchanges of fire were reported shortly after the raid was launched, as more armoured Israeli vehicles were spotted rushing to the camp.
19 more UN workers killed in Gaza: Relief agency
The United Nations relief agency in Gaza — UNRWA – has confirmed the deaths of 19 more of its workers.
In total, “130 UNRWA colleagues have been killed since 7 October,” it said in a daily update.
UNRWA did not provide further details on where and when the additional 19 people had been killed.
The agency announced that nearly one million displaced people were sheltering in 99 of its facilities in central and southern Gaza, including the Khan Younis and Rafah areas.
It added one of its schools in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza had been damaged by a strike on Sunday, while another school in Khan Younis was damaged by a nearby strike, killing four internally displaced people.
Qatari PM: Primary goal is to stop Gaza war
Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has outlined key priorities at the Doha summit:
- Our primary aim is to stop the war in Gaza.
- We will continue to work towards restoring the truce [between Israel and Hamas] and securing the release of hostages and prisoners. Coordination with our partners is ongoing.
- Efforts are under way to deliver aid into Gaza in a smoother, more coordinated manner.
- It is unacceptable to use aid to try to bring the Palestinian people in Gaza to their knees.
- There’s a need to initiate a diplomatic process that will lead to a just and lasting peace for Palestinians on the basis of a two-state solution based on 1967 borders.
‘Netanyahu is gambling with the entire region’s future’: Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken at the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Qatar’s Doha.
Here is what he said about Israel’s war on Gaza:
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is gambling with the entire region’s future for his own political calculations.
- The killing of women and children constitutes a war crime and Israel must be penalised.
- Turkey hopes for a permanent ceasefire and an independent Palestinian sovereign state be established on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
- Turkey is prepared to act as a guarantor state.
Qatar’s ruler says self-defence principles don’t apply to Israeli occupation
Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani criticised Israel for its ongoing assault in Gaza on Tuesday, urging the United Nations Security Council to force it back to the negotiating table to reach a ceasefire.
Speaking at the opening session of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha, Al Thani accused Israel of committing “genocide” and said the principles of self-defence do not apply to its ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories.
“It is shameful that the international community is allowing the heinous crime to continue in Gaza,” he added.
“The issue that Palestinian people are facing cannot be marginalised, and security is not possible without a lasting peace and a just solution to the Palestinian issue.”
The emir renewed his “condemnation of targeting civilians of all nationalities, religions, and nationalities” and called for an international investigation into the “massacres committed by Israel”.
He added that temporary truces were not an alternative to a permanent ceasefire.
“The Gaza issue is not separate, nor is it an Israeli security matter, and the solution is to end the occupation and solve the Palestinian issue,” the emir said.
“The conflict in Palestine is neither religious nor related to war on terrorism, but in essence, it is a national issue and a conflict against occupation.”
Families of Israeli captives to meet Netanyahu
The relatives of people held in Gaza are expected to meet the Israeli prime minister later today.
Since the truce expired last week, the families have sought to meet Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet.
During the truce, 105 hostages out of about 240 people who were taken during the October 7 Hamas attack were reunited with their families.
But the families say Netanyahu and other leaders have dodged their meeting requests.
They say they want to hear from Netanyahu that he has their families in mind as the country progresses in its military campaign.
Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp is surrounded by troops: Israeli military
Israeli troops have “completed the encirclement” of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Israel’s military said Tuesday, as it seeks to complete its offensive operations against Hamas militants in the north of the enclave.
The camp, Gaza’s largest, has been hit by renewed Israeli strikes in recent days following the end of a week-long pause in the conflict.
In a statement, the IDF announced it had “operated against Hamas strongholds in Jabalia; IDF and ISA [Security Agency] forces conducted a targeted raid on a Hamas command and control center.”
The IDF also added it “took control of key military posts from which attacks on IDF troops have been carried out.”
It said weapons and launchers had been located “in civilian compounds”, and it had “located and destroyed rockets found in the garden of a residence in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Jabalya is a densely populated refugee camp established shortly after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from territory that encompassed the newly established State of Israel, and later denied return. The camp is a crowded, built-up area, with houses, shops and apartment buildings jammed up against one another.
Health ministry warns of ‘massacre’ as Israeli forces surround Kamal Adwan Hospital
Gaza’s health ministry is warning of a “massacre” at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where Israeli tanks and snipers are reportedly surrounding the facility and “shooting at anyone who moves”.
Bodies are piling up outside the hospital, where some 7,000 Palestinians are sheltering inside, Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh said, adding that Israeli army attacks have already killed 108 civilians and injured dozens in the hospital’s vicinity.
“We fear a massacre inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, as happened in [al-Shifa Hospital] and the [Indonesian Hospital]”, al-Bursh stated.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of only six hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip. The hospitals are struggling to treat hundreds of wounded per day with minimal resources and frequent power outages.
Greenhouses and farmland in northern Gaza razed: HRW
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found that orchards, greenhouses and farmland have been razed due to Israel’s ground invasion in the north of Gaza.
In Beit Hanoon in northeast Gaza, what was once green agricultural land has now become “brown and desolate”, increasing concerns about food insecurity and the loss of livelihoods.
The rights group also said on X that the razing continued during the seven-day truce and that satellite imagery showed the destruction of farmland by Israel’s use of bulldozers to carve new roads for its armoured vehicles.
“World leaders should call on Israel to protect civilians. They should urgently act to prevent food insecurity, loss of livelihood and starvation of Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza,” HRW added.
NEW: Satellite imagery reviewed by HRW shows that orchards, greenhouses and farmland in northern Gaza have been razed since the beginning of Israel’s ground invasion, compounding concerns of dire food insecurity and loss of livelihood. 1/14 🧵⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Qrvbklro5d
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) December 4, 2023
Likud economy minister says he ‘won’t support Netanyahu again’
Israeli media reported that Israel’s economy minister aims to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership of the Likud party after the war ends.
Nir Barkat, a senior figure in the right-wing Likud party, said he “won’t support Netanyahu again” because the party “needs change”, Israel’s national broadcaster Kan reported.
“After the war, we must turn to the people and get its trust anew,” Barkat was quoted as saying.
The report added that Barkat confirmed his intention to vie for party leadership in private meetings.
Netanyahu has faced a storm of criticism for intelligence failures leading up to the October 7 attack. Even before the attack, Netanyahu was being investigated over corruption charges, a trial for which resumed on Monday.
Israeli military strikes kill dozens in Khan Younis, Nuseirat camp
At least 50 people have been killed by Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Dozens of wounded were reportedly rushed to the city’s Nasser hospital.
Israeli intelligence possesses data on whereabouts of remaining hostages: Army spokesman
Israeli intelligence services have information on the presumed location of the remaining hostages, reserve Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus stated at a briefing.
“The short answer would be yes, we have [data],” Conricus said when asked by reporters if the IDF had any information on the purported whereabouts of the remaining hostages.
“But as you said, as you correctly suggested, I’m not free to share those details because of the sensitivity of the issue, and of course that would jeopardize our efforts in the future. But I can say that this is a key priority,” he added.
Conricus pointed out that the release of the hostages is a top priority for Israeli intelligence, including IDF Military Intelligence. He also noted that Israel intends to return all hostages.
“If it can be done through negotiations, that’s great. And if it can’t be done through negotiations, then we will act in other, kinetic ways,” the spokesman emphasized.
Earlier, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari announced that Hamas fighters continue to hold 137 Israelis hostage.
Israel expects ‘difficult’ fight in next stage of war
Fighting in the “second stage” of war is expected to be difficult, the Israeli government spokesperson said on Tuesday.
According to Reuters, he added that Israel sees eye-to-eye with US on the strategic objectives of war.
When asked about reports that Israel is considering flooding Gaza tunnels with seawater, he stated the military was employing a range of engineering measures but did not provide further comment.
3 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza military operation: IDF
Three Israeli soldiers have died in combat in Gaza, bringing the total number of deaths in the strip to 72 since the ground offensive began, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Tuesday.
The IDF on Sunday announced it is expanding its ground operations to all of Gaza as it bombards the enclave following the collapse of a truce with Hamas last week.
50 armoured vehicles stream into Jenin in massive Israeli assault
Israel launched a fresh assault on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, deploying a massive force that included 50 armoured vehicles and four bulldozers, according to Palestinian news agency, Wafa.
As Israeli forces assaulted Jenin gunfire erupted as a result of “confrontations” between Palestinians and the Israeli forces, Wafa reported.
A video on social media showed a bulldozer destroying infrastructure in the city of Jenin.
Israeli dozers were spotted while destroying the infrastructure of Jenin city, in the West Bank. pic.twitter.com/6iYN7FnU1y
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 4, 2023
Israel deployed a reconnoissance plane over the city and positioned snipers on the rooftops of several houses, Wafa reported.
Israeli forces deployed near Al-Amal Hospital and also positioned snipers near the medical facility as they stopped and searched ambulances, according to Wafa.
Israeli military says objective in northern Gaza “nearly completed”
The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) objectives in northern Gaza are “nearly completed”, the head of the Israeli military’s Armored Corps said Monday.
“The war objective in the northern Gaza Strip is nearly completed,” Brig. Gen. Hisham Ibrahim told Israeli Army Radio on Monday.
The comments were echoed by the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a visit to the Israeli border with Gaza on Monday.
“This action that is happening now, in the north of the Gaza Strip, will soon lead to the breaking of the entire area of Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip,” Gallant stated.
It is not the first time Israeli officials have claimed that the military was close to achieve its objectives in northern Gaza. On November 16, before a since-expired temporary truce with Hamas went into effect, the Chief of the IDF General Staff Herzi Halevi claimed, “We’re quite close to destroying the military system that [Hamas] had in the northern Gaza Strip.”
WHO says Israeli military ordered withdrawal of medical supplies from southern Gaza warehouse
The World Health Organization on Monday announced the Israeli military has told it to remove medical supplies from a southern Gaza warehouse as ground operations will render them useless.
“We appeal to Israel to withdraw the order, and take every possible measure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and humanitarian facilities,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on X.
The director-general updated his statement on X to reference only one southern Gaza warehouse — not two, which he said in an earlier post.
The Israeli military rejected the WHO statement, claimingg it didn’t ask the organization “to evacuate” a southern Gaza warehouse.
“The truth is that we didn’t ask you to evacuate the warehouses and we also made it clear (and in writing) to the relevant UN representatives,” the Israeli military’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) wrote on X.
“From a UN official we would expect, at least, to be more accurate.”
Injured people flood hospitals in southern Gaza as IDF attacks intensify
Scores of wounded people were seen being taken from rubble and to hospitals in southern Gaza throughout the day Monday, according to footage from the scene.
In a Reuters video, a baby is seen being rushed from a civilian car into the Nasser Hospital.
The 2-month-old baby is seen laying on a stretcher, apparently unconscious, as doctors remove the baby’s clothes and connect the infant to an oxygen supply.
Israel has been intensifying its aerial bombardment of southern Gaza in recent days. On Sunday, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson stated Israel was expanding its ground operations to the whole of the Gaza Strip.
“They told us to leave Gaza, there’s a war in Gaza, so we left (to the north) and came here to the south just like they asked. But this is what we’ve found in the south”, Ibrahim Esbeitan, the baby’s father, said in the video while pointing at the child.
“What can we do? This is my son, he was born on the second day of the war and we haven’t been able to register his birth yet (at the civil registry),” he added.
In another video, a child walks into the same medical center with his head wrapped in a big yellow bandage. More injured people are seen being taken to the emergency room covered in dust — many of whom were brought in civilian cars, carts pulled by donkeys or ambulances.
In Salah Al-Arja, in Rafah, residents were seen trying to rescue their loved ones with their bare hands.
“We were asleep and safe, they told us it was a safe area, Rafah and all, but at twenty past ten, they stuck it with barrels, destroying all the block, there were children, women, and martyrs. There is no safe area, neither Rafah, nor Khan Younis, nor Gaza, nor Dier, they are all liars, they say it is a safe area, they let us seek refuge, they evacuated Khan Younis and Gaza and still they bomb,” an unnamed local resident told Reuters.
“They tell you it is a safe area, but there is no safe area in all of the Gaza strip, it is all lies and manipulations,” he stated.
US issues guarded approval for Israel as it calls for more fuel deliveries
The US said Monday it had seen some improvement by Israel in narrowing targets in its Gaza offensive, issuing a guarded approval, if Israel were to accelerate its offensive into southern Gaza.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller added that “the numbers of displaced persons will hopefully be lower in southern Gaza than it was in the north”.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to see a forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, which Arab states have said is a red line.
“We’ve seen a much more targeted request for evacuations” than in the earlier campaign in the north, Miller added, ”so that is an improvement on what’s happened before.”
Miller said that the US was urging Israel to take additional steps to protect civilians, but said that civilian casualties were “sadly true in all wars”.
The most notable sign of criticism came when Miller stated that Israel had stopped allowing fuel into Gaza early on Friday after the breakdown of the truce.
“We had some very frank conversations with them about the need for fuel to come in and saw some fuel going in Friday,” he continued, adding, “We saw additional fuel go in Saturday, but it’s at the level of fuel that we were at before the pause began.”
“We’ve made clear we want to see it back up not just to the level of fuel that went in during the pause, but actually higher.”
At least 63 journalists killed during Israel-Hamas conflict since October 7: CPJ
At least 63 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon during the latest Israel-Hamas conflict since October 7, according to a statement by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday.
The death toll includes 56 Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese journalists, CPJ announced.
“Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages and extensive power outages,” the statement added.
The journalist advocacy group said the conflict has led to the deadliest month for journalists since it started tracking in 1992.
“CPJ is investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing in the war,” the group added.
Five Palestinians killed in occupied West Bank in one day
Israeli forces killed at least five Palestinians on Monday in the occupied West Bank, in a particularly bloody day, even as they continued their offensive in Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death late Monday evening local time of Muhammad Saadi al-Faroukh, 22, and Anas Ismail al-Faroukh, 23, as a result of gunfire by Israeli forces in Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron.
The deaths came as the Israeli military ramped up attacks in the occupied West Bank. Earlier in the day they assaulted the Qalandia refugee camp near the city of Ramallah, injuring dozens of Palestinians, the Palestinian Red Crescent announced.
Middle East Eye reported earlier the death of one Palestinian man in Qalandia by Israeli troops and two other Palestinian men in Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.
