‘There could be’ potential deal to free hostages: Netanyahu
Israel’s Prime Minister says a deal may be close to free captives held in the Gaza Strip but declined to provide details.
“We heard there was an impending deal of this kind or of that kind and then we learned that it was all hokum. But the minute we started the ground operation, that began to change,” Benjamin Netanyahu told NBC News show Meet the Press.
Asked whether there is a potential deal to free more of the hostages being held, Netanyahu replied: “There could be.”
A Palestinian official briefed on the hostage talks told the Reuters news agency that Hamas suspended negotiations because of Israel’s attack and siege on the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Erdogan calls for US to stop Israel’s attack
The United States must use its influence to halt Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Turkey’s leader stated.
“The US should increase its pressure on Israel. The West should increase pressure on Israel… It’s vital for us to secure a ceasefire,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The most important country that needs to be involved is the United States, which has influence on Israel.”
Erdogan added the US must accept Gaza as Palestinian land.
“We cannot agree with Biden if he approaches [the war] by seeing Gaza as the land of occupying settlers or Israel, rather than the land of the Palestinian people.”
Occupied West Bank under Israeli military lockdown: PLO
Palestinian cities, towns and villages remain under blockade while Jerusalem is completely cut off and turned into a military barracks, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) says.
Severe restrictions on movement have been imposed to and from Jordan via the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge, the only connection to the outside world from the occupied West Bank, the PLO added.
‘Stay away from hospitals’: ICRC director
Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, says Gaza hospitals treating hundreds of wounded people cannot be targeted under any circumstances.
“Hospitals are to be absolutely protected at all times. The onus and the obligation are always on the parties of the conflict not to use hospitals as a battle zone,” Mardini told Al Jazeera.
“Even if a hospital is used by a party as a launching pad for attacks, it does not justify automatically that hospitals be targeted at a time when women, children and men are being treated. Those are sanctuaries to be protected. We reiterate our call for all parties to stay away from hospitals,” he added.
Al-Ahli only functioning hospital in north Gaza
Dr Fadel Naim, a surgeon at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, said the medical facility is the last functioning hospital in Gaza City and the northern areas.
He added the hospital is overwhelmed with casualties.
Medics and journalists among those killed in Gaza
The Palestinian fatality toll since 7 October includes:
- At least 192 medical staff, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Of them, at least 16 medical staff were killed on duty, according to the World Health Organization.
- 101 UNRWA staff have been killed, the highest number of UN personnel killed in a conflict in the history of the organisation.
- 18 Palestinian civil defense personnel.
- 44 Palestinian journalists have also been killed.
Gaza’s biggest hospital is completely out of service: Ministry
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, has told Al Jazeera that al-Shifa Hospital is completely out of service, and cannot provide any treatment even to the patients inside the facility, due to constant Israeli attacks.
Israeli bombing has been targeting the vicinity’s external surroundings as well as anyone walking inside the courtyard and between its various buildings, and those wanting to reach the gate of the complex.
“We have deaths in the nursery after the life support machines stopped working inside the section that includes 37 other children who may be on the verge of death,” al-Qudra said.
He added that there were five deaths among the wounded as the medical teams were unable to perform surgical operations on them due to the power outage and lack of fuel.
US does not want to see firefights in Gaza hospitals: Report
The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals in the Gaza Strip where civilians get caught in the crossfire, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has stated.
“The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire and we’ve had active consultations with the [Israeli army] on this,” Sullivan told CBS News’s Face the Nation programme.
650 patients in danger at al-Shifa Hospital: Director general
The director general of hospitals in Gaza has warned that the lives of hundreds of patients are at risk due to the catastrophic situation at al-Shifa Hospital.
About 650 patients, including 36 children, have their lives in danger, Muhammad Zaqout said at a press conference, calling on Egypt to save their lives.
Zaqout also confirmed the presence of “about 1,500 displaced people in the al-Shifa Medical Complex”, warning that “accumulation of garbage and medical waste, lack of water, and power outages threaten everyone’s life”.
The Gaza Health Ministry has also announced the intensive care unit (ICU) in al-Shifa Hospital has been badly damaged by Israeli army bombing for a second time.
‘No place safe for children in Gaza’: UNICEF
The situation inside hospitals across the Gaza Strip is a tragedy, UNICEF spokesperson Toby Fricker has said.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Jordan, he noted how premature babies inside al-Shifa Hospital are struggling to stay alive due to the lack of electricity and water.
“Imagine being a father or mother of those children and sort of watching helplessly. So it’s really catastrophic right now,” he stated.
“There is no safe place for children anywhere across the strip right now,” he added, highlighting the need for international actors to ensure children in Gaza are protected as the ferocious bombardment continues.
Patients forcibly evicted from hospitals facing ‘inevitable death’: Minister
Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila stated Israeli forces “are not evacuating people from hospitals; instead, they are forcibly evicting the wounded and patients onto the streets, leaving them to face inevitable death”.
“This is not evacuation but expulsion under the threat of arms,” she said in a press release, as cited by Palestinian news agency Wafa.
“There is a catastrophe unfolding in hospitals, with patients now dying without receiving their treatments, such as children and adults with kidney failure who are perishing at home without undergoing dialysis sessions.”
She added all 3,000 cancer patients who were receiving treatment at al-Rantisi and Turkish hospitals had been abandoned to face imminent death after Israeli forces forcibly evicted them.
Netanyahu should be arrested: South Africa’s FM
In an opinion piece published in South Africa’s Sunday Times, the country’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor says she expects the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister.
“We call on the prosecutor [of the ICC] to speed up the investigation and explore breaches of three of the four crimes under ICC jurisdiction: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” Pandor wrote.
“We expect that warrants of arrest should be executed for those most responsible as per the ICC principles of command and superior responsibility,” she continued, adding that these include Netanyahu and some of his cabinet members.
South Africa is one among several countries to have condemned Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, including recalling its ambassador from Israel.
Pope Francis calls for war to end
Pope Francis has called for the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip to end.
“May the weapons fall silent, they will never bring peace, and let the conflict not spread. Enough, enough brothers, enough!” he said while offering prayers at the Vatican.
The Pope also stated that the injured in Gaza should be helped and more humanitarian aid should be sent to the besieged enclave.
He added that the people taken as captives by Hamas on October 7 should also be released.
“Every human being, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, or whatever religion, every human being is sacred, is precious in the eyes of God, and has the right to live in peace,” he continued.
Number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks surpasses 11,100: Health ministry
The number of deaths in the ongoing Israeli military attacks since October 7 has surpassed 11,100, including more than 8,000 children and women, the government media office in Gaza announced on Sunday.
“Due to the targeting of hospitals and the prevention of entry of any of the bodies or wounded, the Ministry of Health was unable, on Saturday, to issue accurate statistics for the numbers of dead and injured during the past hours,” the media office said in a statement.
“We recall that the occupation [forces] committed more than 1,130 massacres, and the number of casualties reached more than 11,100 dead, including more than 8,000 children and women, and the number of wounded was more than 28,000,” it added.
Al-Ahli hospital has run out of blood: Surgeon
Palestinian surgeon based in Gaza, Ghassan Abu Sitta stated al-Ahli Arab Hospital has run out of blood.
“Our wounded are dying after surgery because we can’t transfuse them,” he wrote on X.
Palestinian Red Crescent says al-Quds hospital ‘out of operation’ in Gaza
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) said al-Quds hospital in Gaza is now out of service after running out of fuel.
“The cessation of services is due to depletion of available fuel and power outages,” the PRCS announced in a statement.
“Medical staff are making every effort to provide care to patients and the wounded, even resorting to conventional medical methods amid dire humanitarian conditions and a shortage of medicine, food and fuel.”
The PRCS added it had tried to reach out for humanitarian assistance from the international community which comes a day after al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, said it would be suspending services.
Israel renews shelling of al-Shifa hospital
Israel has shelled the al-Shifa hospital on Sunday after besieging the medical facility.
The director-general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza made the announcement a day after the al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex, shut down services because it had run out of fuel.
Israel’s security minister says ‘occupation [of Gaza] is a must’
Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hinted at the idea of re-establishing settlements in Gaza that Israel dismantled in 2005 and said it was necessary to re-occupy the besieged enclave.
“Occupation [of the Gaza Strip] is a must. Every time our enemies lost territory, they lost the war,” Ben Gvir told Israeli news outlet Reshel Bet.
“We need to be in full control – that’s what will deter our enemies, convey a message of victory and allow the residents of [Israeli towns near Gaza] to return home,” he added.
“I’m not afraid of renewing the settlements in Gush Katif [inside Gaza].”
Several killed after UN development office in Gaza bombed
The office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Gaza was bombed on Saturday night, the head of the UNDP wrote on X on Sunday.
Achim Steiner said that there were reports of deaths and injuries “among those who sought safety in our compound”.
“This is wrong on every count,” Steiner continued, adding, “Civilians, civilian infrastructure & the inviolability of UN facilities must be always protected.”
Israeli attacks have already killed more than 100 staff members working at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Palestinian cancer patients have died due to lack of treatment: Report
A number of cancer patients in Gaza have died due to a lack of the necessary medical supplies to treat them, according to a report from Al Jazeera Arabic.
The healthcare system in Gaza is in collapse, according to the health ministry in the besieged enclave.
Israel’s military is currently circling several hospitals in northern Gaza. Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the enclave, is currently under Israeli siege.
‘Bring them home now’: Hostage families tell Israeli government
The families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government to do more to bring the hostages and missing persons home.
“We await the Israeli government to fulfill the basic contract that was broken. We already paid the price on October 7, now it’s your turn,” said a press release from the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum headquarters.
Families of the hostages held a rally on Saturday in Tel Aviv, Israel, which also included in attendance the former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
More than 200 hostages were taken into Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7.
The families are demanding that the international community and the Red Cross ensure medical assistance for the hostages, “as they do for Hamas”, the press release added.
“Our family members are imprisoned underground in Gaza. Bring them home now,” the statement read.
“Two hundred and thirty nine innocent people went to sleep on the night of October 6 and within less than 24 hours we lost all contact with them, without a drop of information. Where is the Red Cross, the organization that is supposed to care for human rights? Why haven’t they demanded to see the condition of the infants,” said Maayan Zin, mother of Dafna (15) and Ella (8) who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz in Israel with their father.
Noam Perry, whose 79-year-old father, Haim Perry, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel stated there can be no healing until the release of all the hostages.
“The living hostages can still be returned and we must not stop until they come home. My father is alive and only God knows how he endures in the underground tunnels at age 80. They are waiting for us to save them. We await the prime minister to fulfill the most basic contract he has with Israel’s citizens that was violated,” Perry continued.
Rivlin added he joins the families in the demand to return all hostages home, and urged world leaders to get information and act within all arenas to free the hostages.
The former president said he also contacted the Red Cross this week and asked them, “How should we respond to your demand to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza when you do not compel Hamas to allow you to visit all the hostages?”
Orly Gilboa, mother of 19-year-old Daniela Gilboa, who was kidnapped from a party in Re’im, Israel stated, “I’ve finished the stage of hugs and empathy. I want to see actions that will bring my daughter and the rest of the hostages home now.”
Reports say people fleeing Al-Shifa Hospital shot and killed: WHO
The WHO has announced in a post on X that there are reports that some people who fled Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital “have been shot at, wounded and even killed”.
Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said on X, “WHO is gravely concerned about the safety of health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support, and displaced people who remain inside the hospital.”
“WHO again calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza as the only way to save lives and reduce the horrific levels of suffering,” he added.
“WHO also calls for the sustained, orderly, unimpeded and safe medical evacuations of critically injured and sick patients.”
Senior Biden adviser to visit Israel, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia: Report
Brett McGurk, the Joe Biden administration’s top adviser on the Middle East, is expected to travel to Israel, Qatar, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia this week to discuss the war in Gaza and the efforts to secure the release of the hostages held by Hamas, Axios reported citing US and Israeli officials.
Axios reported that McGurk is expected to visit Israel on Tuesday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and top intelligence officials.
The expected trip comes after US Secretary of Antony Blinken and CIA director Bill Burns have taken similar trips across the region in the past several weeks.
Israel says it struck infrastructure in Syria
Israeli’s military has announced that its fighter jets carried out strikes against “terror infrastructure” inside Syria.
Israeli officials stated the raids were carried out in response to fire directed at the Golan Heights, which borders Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, on Saturday.
“A short while ago, in response to the attack toward the Golan Heights yesterday [Saturday], IDF [Israel’s army] fighter jets struck terror infrastructure sites in Syria,” Israel’s army wrote in a post on Telegram.
UNICEF calls for protection of Gaza hospitals and children amid “deeply worrying” reports of situation in Al-Shifa
UNICEF called for the protection of hospitals and children in Gaza amid “deeply worrying reports” of the situation in the biggest hospital in the strip.
The UN agency, responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children worldwide, called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“Al Shifa hospital in Gaza is without power and we are seeing deeply worrying reports of premature babies dying in incubators,” UNICEF said in its statement released early Sunday local time.
The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza also reported early Sunday shelling in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa Hospital, warning that it is endangering the lives of patients and the displaced people sheltering inside.
Earlier, three newborn babies died in the Al-Shifa Hospital after it went “out of service” amid intense fighting in the area, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
WHO “gravely concerned” over Al-Shifa Hospital after losing communication with contacts
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has lost communication with its contacts in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital.
“We assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” it announced in a statement early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the reports on the situation at Gaza’s biggest hospital as “deeply worrisome and frightening.”
“WHO is gravely concerned about the safety of health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support, and displaced people who remain inside the hospital,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
Several hospitals ‘directly hit’: UN
The UN has announced that several hospitals have been “directly hit” as Israel intensified its shelling and ground attacks around hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza.
The report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territories also notes:
- Power at the Al-Shifa and the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza was reportedly cut off after fuel for generators ran out. Generators at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City failed and could not be repaired due to the bombardment and fighting.
- Tens of thousands of people evacuated towards southern Gaza on Saturday, while hundreds of thousands of people who remain in the north are struggling to get the essentials they need to survive.
- People are drinking water from “unsafe sources” which “raises serious concerns about dehydration and waterborne diseases”.
PRCS warns babies at al-Quds Hospital face dehydration
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that “infants at Al-Quds Hospital are facing dehydration due to a shortage of breast milk alternatives”.
According to MSF Canada, there more than 600 patients needing medical care trapped in the besieged hospital.
The hospital’s director has stated that this includes 37 premature babies who are struggling to survive after the hospital was forced to abandon its neonatal intensive care unit.
Half a million Palestinian children affected by Israel’s bombs: Report
Around half a million Palestinian children have been affected by Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement.
The estimated figure includes those who have been killed, injured, or whose family homes have been damaged or destroyed.
The Geneva-based human rights organisation reported that 6,100 children have been killed or reported missing under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel’s intense air and artillery attacks on the Strip, stating that chances for their survival diminishes with each passing day.
More than 15,500 children have been injured, the group reported, with dozens of them in critical condition.
Other children have suffered limb amputations, while hundreds more have suffered severe burns to their bodies, the group added.
Five Israeli soldiers killed in heavy fighting: Military
The Israeli army confirmed five soldiers were killed during battles in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Ynet news website cited a military statement saying four soldiers were killed in a booby-trapped tunnel in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza while the fifth died in fighting elsewhere.
The number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of ground operations on October 27 rose to 43.
The army is facing fierce battles from armed Palestinian groups in different areas across Gaza.
Palestinian Red Crescent says less than half its ambulances still functioning in Gaza
After more than a month of fierce fighting in the Gaza Strip, only seven out of 18 ambulances run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) are still working, according to a statement from the PRCS on Saturday.
The few remaining ambulances still working are at risk of “completely ceasing operations in the coming hours” due to a lack of fuel, the statement said.
“Our teams are witnessing numerous casualties and wounded individuals, yet they face challenges reaching them due to Israeli military targeting of ambulance vehicles approaching the affected areas,” the PRCS said.
On November 4, Israel claimed responsibility for an attack on a convoy of ambulances outside Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, according to CNN at the time.
The PRCS said one of its ambulances was damaged in that attack when a shell fell near the convoy.
Israel said it had targeted the ambulance convoy because it was being used by Hamas, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at the time of the attack.
“Acts of war” in Gaza hospitals “unconscionable, reprehensible and must stop”: UN’s top humanitarian chief
The UN’s top humanitarian aid chief Martin Griffiths on Saturday condemned attacks on healthcare facilities after recent strikes in the Gaza Strip.
“Hospitals must be places of greater safety, not of war,” Griffiths wrote in a post on X.
“There can be no justification for acts of war in healthcare facilities, leaving them with no power, food or water, and shooting at patients and civilians trying to flee,” he added.
Griffiths also said that people using and working at Gazan healthcare facilities “must trust that they are places of shelter and not of war.”
At least 40 journalists killed in five weeks of conflict: Committee to Protect Journalists
The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict since October 7 has increased to 40, according to a statement by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Saturday.
The most recent to lose his life was photojournalist Ahmed Al-Qara who was killed in a strike near Khan Younis on Friday, the CPJ said, citing the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and the Cairo-based Al-Dostor newspaper.
The death toll of journalists is comprised of 35 Palestinians, four Israelis, and one Lebanese, according to the CPJ.
The journalism advocacy group announced the conflict since October 7 has been the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ starting tracking in 1992.
“CPJ is also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes,” the statement added.
Hostage negotiations are moving in a positive direction, but situation remains fluid: Qatari officials
Negotiations to release more hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attacks are moving in a positive direction, but the situation remains fluid — and the continued bombardment of Gaza isn’t helping matters, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Saturday.
Qatar, a key US ally in the Middle East, has a close relationship with Hamas, and has emerged as a broker of sorts as negotiations over the release of hostages and humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip continues.
During a Saturday call, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Qatar to press Hamas on allowing more dual nationals to leave Gaza — particularly US dual nationals, according to a source familiar with the call. Al-Thani told Blinken that Qatar will continue to negotiate with Hamas to make that happen.
Hostilities around Al-Shifa Hospital “have not stopped”: Doctors Without Borders
Hostilities around Al-Shifa Hospital Saturday “have not stopped”, according to Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders.
“The ambulances can no longer move to collect the injured, and non-stop bombardment prevents patients and staff from evacuating,” the organization said in a statement.
A freelance journalist based at the hospital told CNN there were still dozens of bodies at the hospital awaiting burial, but that people feared going outside to bury them.
“The situation is very difficult and dire. After a slowdown in shelling this afternoon, the shelling and gunfire resumed, heavily targeting anything that moves,” Mustafa Sarsour stated.
Medics inside the hospital are working by candlelight, Sarsour added. Other resources are also getting scarce.
“We are running out of canned food. The food is being rationed on patients and medical crews, and I have even seen doctors and nurses giving their own food to patients. … Now the electricity is cut off, people (have) started drinking the pipe water,” the journalist continued.
The health ministry in Gaza said the hospital was under “complete siege” Saturday, and that a floor of the complex’s surgery building was heavily shelled. The ministry added three newborn babies died at the hospital after it “went out of service” due to heavy damage.
53 aid trucks enter Gaza Saturday: Palestine Red Crescent
The Palestine Red Crescent Society received 53 aid trucks packed with vital supplies —including food, water, relief items, medical equipment and medications, but no fuel — the group said Saturday.
“Since October 21, 2023, a total of 904 trucks have been received, averaging around 41 trucks per day,” the aid organization added.
“Unfortunately, the Israeli occupying authorities have not permitted the entry of fuel so far.”
