Israel-Hamas war updates: US says captive release deal ‘closer than ever’

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said a gunship targeted “individuals responsible” for launching a missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq, which houses US and coalition personnel.

“The gunship maintained visual confirmation of the individuals from the time of the launch to the time of engagement,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “This strike resulted in several enemy casualties.”

Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the gunship “conducted a self-defense strike against an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and a number of Iranian-backed militia personnel involved in this attack. This self-defense strike resulted in several enemy KIA [killed in action]”.

Further details on the casualties were not immediately available, and officials did not give the exact location of the strike.

US officials say bases housing US personnel in Syria and Iraq have been targeted dozens of times since the Israel-Hamas war began, raising the possibility of wider escalation in the fighting.

This live page is now closed. Please follow the latest updates on the Israel-Hamas war here.

For an update from the ground in Gaza, read our story about the heavy psychological toll Palestinian children have been forced to bear, here.

Or you can listen to our latest podcast on the continued catastrophe at al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, here.

For more context on the conflict, you can read about how the Yemen-based Houthi rebels seized a cargo ship in the Red Sea – and what it means for the important shipping route – here.

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We’ll soon be closing this live page. Here’s a recap of today’s main events:

• A Gaza health official says 100 patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian Hospital, which has been surrounded by Israeli tanks and was hit in an Israeli attack that killed 12.
• Twenty-eight newborns who had been trapped at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital – which remains occupied by Israeli troops – have been transferred to Egypt, with three others moved to southern Gaza for further treatment.
• WHO official Michael Ryan has warned of a “recipe for epidemics” in the Palestinian enclave as Gaza displacement figures mount, temperatures drop and food remains scarce.
• Amnesty International has urged the International Criminal Court to investigate two Israeli attacks in Gaza as war crimes.
• US President Joe Biden has said he believes a deal is “near” to secure the release of captives held in Gaza. The president of the Red Cross met with Hamas’s political leader in Qatar in another possible sign an agreement could be close.
• Families of captives have confronted far-right Israeli politicians at a Knesset committee hearing, urging the legislators to abandon discussions on expanding the use of the death penalty for Palestinian fighters until their loved ones are safe.
• Yemen’s Houthis have released a video of the Red Sea hijacking of a cargo ship they say is linked to Israel. Israel has said the ship is not Israeli, nor are the 25 workers on board.
• Fighting has continued across the Israel-Lebanon border, with Hezbollah fighters claiming a successful strike on an Israeli army barracks and Israel saying it hit an “operational headquarters” of the group.

There are more air strikes taking place right now at different locations in the Gaza Strip from north to south.

Literally the entire northern part of Gaza City right now is under heavy bombardment and air strikes. Confrontations with the Israeli military are also taking place right at the centre of Gaza at the axis where the Israeli military pushed their armoured vehicles.

Where we are reporting from, in Khan Younis, has also been a major target of Israeli air strikes. We are talking about both sides – the eastern side of Khan Younis and the western side of the city.

People from the eastern side who were told to move to the western side have found themselves the target of Israeli air strikes. We are talking about more residential homes and an apartment [which] was also targeted in one of the residential towers.

Palestinians living in tents and other makeshift shelters are bracing for a cold and wet winter, with the WHO warning rain could also further spread disease.

More than 1.7 million people – more than 70 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million – are estimated to have now been forced to leave their homes, according to the UN’s latest flash update.

The charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said that after six weeks of Israel’s siege on the territory, food is running out.

“We must stand together to protect Gaza’s children, who will go to bed tonight hungry,” the group said in a social media post, urging an immediate ceasefire.

After six weeks of Israel’s siege, food in Gaza is rapidly running out. There are severe shortages of fuel and clean water for cooking. We must stand together to protect Gaza’s children, who will go to bed tonight hungry.

Please take action and demand a #CeasefireNOW. pic.twitter.com/GNDDfg2w1P

— Medical Aid for Palestinians (@MedicalAidPal) November 20, 2023

Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor who worked at both Gaza’s al-Shifa and al-Alhi Arab hospitals, says Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health sector is part of a military strategy that aims to wipe out Palestinians.

“What has been different in this war than all the other wars I have been at – not just in Gaza, but all around the region, in Yemen, Iraq and Syria – is that the destruction of the healthcare system has been the main thrust of the [Israeli] military strategy,” Abu Sittah told Al Jazeera.

He said 800,000 people now do not have access to healthcare, including wounded Palestinians who are “only being bandaged up the best that they could be” due to a lack of supplies.

“We had over 500 wounded in the grounds of al-Ahli [Arab] Hospital when we ran out of medication,” he said.

“I honestly and truly believe that this is part of the military strategy. Those patients are going to die. Anybody who was lucky enough to survive the initial assault and the Israeli strategy was to destroy the healthcare system so that they do not survive their wounds.

“It is obvious that this is a genocidal war.”

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, who worked at both Gaza's Al-Shifa and Al-Alhi Baptist hospitals, tells Al Jazeera Israel's destruction of Gaza's health sector is part of a military strategy to wipe out Palestinians from the besieged enclave ?? pic.twitter.com/2paYX0lBxC

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 20, 2023

In an open letter published in The New York Review of Books, the scholars expressed their “dismay and disappointment at political leaders and notable public figures invoking Holocaust memory to explain the current crisis in Gaza and Israel”.

They pointed to recent comments from Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, who compared Hamas to Nazis, as well as US President Biden, who said the Palestinian group had “engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust”.

“It is understandable why many in the Jewish community recall the Holocaust and earlier pogroms when trying to comprehend what happened on October 7,” said the open letter’s signatories, which included professors in Canada, Germany, Israel, the US and the UK.

“However, appealing to the memory of the Holocaust obscures our understanding of the antisemitism Jews face today, and dangerously misrepresents the causes of violence in Israel-Palestine,” they said, adding that the Israeli occupation and blockade of Gaza are among those root causes.

“Israeli leaders and others are using the Holocaust framing to portray Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza as a battle for civilization in the face of barbarism, thereby promoting racist narratives about Palestinians,” the scholars wrote.

“There is no military solution in Israel-Palestine, and deploying a Holocaust narrative in which an ‘evil’ must be vanquished by force will only perpetuate an oppressive state of affairs that has already lasted far too long.”

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), said it was the second time a speaking arrangement had been cancelled by the US university.

He said the planned talk, which was organised by the activist group Students for Palestine, had been cancelled 30 minutes before it was set to start after Columbia said “security approvals not raised before were required”.

The incident comes as universities across the US have cracked down on pro-Palestine groups.

Columbia University previously suspended two student groups – Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace – saying they had violated university policies related to campus events.

In a post on social media, Shakir said the planned talk at Columbia would happen “soon”.

“Those suppressing discussion of Israeli apartheid are on wrong side of history,” he said.

For 2nd time, @ColumbiaLaw cancelled my talk in 30 mins—claiming that security approvals not raised before were required. But we'll hold this talk soon—as we did at Harvard, Yale, Stanford & elsewhere. Those suppressing discussion of Israeli apartheid are on wrong side of history https://t.co/Fs2lnShMnJ

— Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) November 20, 2023

As patients are being transferred from the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza to healthcare facilities in the south of the enclave, fears are growing that the already strained southern hospitals could collapse.

“Nasser Hospital for the past few weeks has been very overwhelming with the number of [injured people] coming from the city of Khan Younis,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from the city in southern Gaza.

He said Khan Younis remains under heavy Israeli bombardment.

“There is a fear here,” Mahmoud said, that the influx of new patients will speed up the collapse of Nasser Hospital, or force staff to cut down on medical services.

Samantha Nutt, a doctor and the founder of War Child Canada, says the psychological impact of war on the children of Gaza is profound.

“Children who live through this kind of aerial bombardment and witness, personally, the loss of a family member when there is shelling or gunshots around them, leaves them completely unsettled,” Nutt told Al Jazeera.

She explained that such trauma can manifest in different ways, including through recurring nightmares even after the armed conflict ends.

“We see issues with kids separated from their families and loved ones, which not only comes with a degree of psychological trauma but also makes them extremely vulnerable in the long term,” Nutt said.

“These are just a few of the ways which children who have experienced this kind of heavy conflict will wrestle with, not only in the short term, but in the long term as well. They become very fearful, anxious and depressed as well.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 45 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese journalist have been killed since October 7.

Three journalists remain missing, according to the media rights group.

The organisation identified the most recent journalist killed as Alaa Taher Al-Hassanat, a presenter at AlMajedat Media Network.

Al-Hassanat was killed with multiple family members when an Israeli strike hit her home in Gaza today, CPJ said.

Since our last roundup, we’ve published several new pieces of content covering various aspects of the conflict.

Here are a few highlights:

• From the ground: ‘No end in sight’ – Gaza’s traumatised children need psychological aid
• Analysis: Can the US, Israel stop Yemen’s Houthis from seizing more ships?
• Photo gallery: Dozens of premature babies evacuated from Gaza to Egypt
• Video: What’s the impact of the Houthis ship hijack in the Red Sea?
• Opinion: Israel, Gaza, and the mass production of myths for mass media

And there’s plenty more here.

Amber Alayyan, the deputy director of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF)’s Palestine programme, told Al Jazeera that a number of its staff remain in the al-Shifa Hospital area, unable to evacuate.

About 70 people, she said, including staff and their family members, are still sheltered in the organisation’s compound and the surrounding buildings, she said.

It is too dangerous to evacuate, she continued, with an attempt to do so on Saturday ending in the death of one person. Her colleagues are still trapped in the compound and are running out of food and water.

According to Alayyan, the wall of the compound was damaged earlier today amid heavy barrages of gunfire in the area, and the people there saw tanks and bulldozers. She also said that all five of the organisation’s vehicles were destroyed, leaving them with no means to evacuate.

The clinic compound, she said, is “clearly marked and clearly known as an MSF clinic”.

More from health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra, who spoke with Al Jazeera Arabic a short while ago.

He said that the Israeli military was firing nonstop at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and that drones were shooting at anyone who moved in the hospital courtyard. He added that, since Monday morning, no one had been allowed to leave or enter the hospital.

“What the Israeli occupation are doing to the Indonesian Hospital is exactly what they did to al-Shifa Hospital,” al-Qudra said. “We are concerned and worried that they commit a massacre there like they did at al-Shifa.”

“[The Israeli military] are ending the last hope that anyone in northern Gaza has for treatment. That means that 800,000 to 900,000 people will end up without any hospital. This will lead to the death of many people who are suffering from long-term diseases or are injured.”

Al-Qudra added that there were 700 people still at al-Shifa, including 259 patients.

The parliament in Saskatchewan, in the Canadian prairies, was cleared as a result of the protest.

A video shared on social media showed legislators leaving their seats amid chants of, “Ceasefire now!”

“We expect our government, provincially and federally, to represent us and we do not support genocide,” Valerie Zink, one of the protest organisers, told the Regina Leader-Post newspaper ahead of the action.

The moment the Saskatchewan legislature was cleared this afternoon as calls for "Ceasefire now" rained down on MLAs. pic.twitter.com/M3JX0JpdQz

— Alexander Quon (@AlexanderQuon) November 20, 2023

Gaza resident Omar says the besieged enclave is becoming a real-life version of Hollywood’s Hunger Games franchise.

Omar, who chose not to share his last name, says the 45-day-long war has made basic humanitarian necessities “very scarce” and, when available, extremely expensive.

“We walk miles to get water and buy it for triple the regular price,” Omar, who is currently residing in southern Gaza, told Al Jazeera. “We are lucky to be getting 0.5 litres [0.13 gallons] per day, per person. On the most amazing days, it’s up to 0.75 litres [0.2 gallons].

“With many bakeries either being bombed or over capacity, securing food on regular basis has also become cumbersome. Bread is also hard to come by. Many bakeries have been bombed or out of capacity.

“Wheat flour is like gold now, or even diamond. Very rare to find and expensive. Warm meals are available once every three days,” he said, adding that he cooked on a wooden fire with fuel unavailable for days on end.

Further exacerbating the situation, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the besieged territory have been forced to move south amid Israel’s ground invasion in northern Gaza. Carrying whatever few belongings they can, thousands travel every day on foot for hours in search of safety.

“So many people are staying in the streets after not finding any schools available to shelter in due to the continuous influx of people. The weather has been horribly cold the past few days with strong winds and rain making their lives even more horrible,” Omar said.

Democrat Jeff Merkley has joined Richard Durbin in calling for a ceasefire, becoming only the second legislator in the 100-member US Senate to do so.

Merkley, who represents Oregon, made his appeal in a post on X.

“I am calling for a ceasefire – a cessation of hostilities by both sides,” he said.

“To endure, the ceasefire and the following negotiations must accomplish other essential objectives, including the release of all hostages and a massive influx of humanitarian aid.”

The failure of most US lawmakers to call for a ceasefire in Gaza underscores the widespread support Israel enjoys in Congress.

There have been increasing calls for humanitarian “pauses” in the fighting, however, and for checks on additional military aid to Israel requested by the White House.

Forty-one members of the US House of Representatives – a chamber with 435 seats – have also called for a ceasefire, according to a tracker maintained by the progressive Working Families Party.

I am calling for a ceasefire—a cessation of hostilities by both sides. To endure, the ceasefire and the following negotiations must accomplish other essential objectives, including the release of all hostages and a massive influx of humanitarian aid. https://t.co/aaUdEKhfgM

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) November 20, 2023

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said the patients were evacuated with the help of the Red Cross just hours after the hospital was hit in an Israeli attack that killed 12.

“One hundred patients were evacuated from the Indonesian hospital with the help of the ICRC,” al-Qudra told the AFP news agency.

He said another 100 would be taken out overnight to another facility in the southern town of Khan Younis.

Zaher Jabareen, the head of the Hamas body responsible for prisoners held in Israel, says that a ceasefire must be “fully implemented” for a captive deal to be agreed.

However, in comments published by Hamas’s official Telegram channel, Jabareen accused Israel of stalling over a ceasefire, echoing reports that the details of how the ceasefire will be implemented are the main stumbling blocks for the deal at the moment.

He also said that one of the stipulations of the negotiations with Israel was returning the conditions Palestinians face in Israeli prisons to what it was before October 7.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has said there are a little more than 1,200 Americans, legal permanent residents and family members still in Gaza.

He added that about 800 Americans, legal permanent residents and family members had left Gaza via the Rafah crossing to Egypt since October 7.

In addition, he said that at least six US citizens have been killed, comprised of five Israeli troops – four killed in Gaza and one killed in northern Israel – as well as a national police border officer.

The Swiss government says it lends its unwavering support to the International Criminal Court, “which has jurisdiction over the situation in Palestine”.

In a statement, it said: “We call on all states to ensure full cooperation with the court”, which has been investigating alleged crimes since March 2021.

The court prosecutor’s probe is ongoing and extends to alleged crimes committed on October 7, the statement continued.

Accountability for the most serious crimes is essential for the international rules-based order. The ICC is a central pillar of it: Switzerland ?? gives it its full support, in every situation under investigation, including Palestine ?? . We call on all States to do the same. pic.twitter.com/m4hB71rH8B

— Botschafter Franz Xaver Perrez (@SwissIntLaw) November 20, 2023

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger has met with Ismail Haniyeh before separate talks with Qatari authorities, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says in a statement.

The organisation said the visit to Qatar, the main interlocutor in negotiations to try to secure the release of captives held in Gaza, was part of its “direct discussions with all sides to improve respect for international humanitarian law”.

It added that Spoljaric has also “met multiple times in recent weeks with families of hostages held in Gaza as well as senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders”.

The ICRC stressed it does not take part in “negotiations leading to the release of hostages” but said that as a “neutral humanitarian intermediary”, it remains ready to facilitate any future agreements on a release.

Spoljaric made her trip amid reports that a long-elusive deal to release captives may be getting closer, with the US president saying he believed a deal was near.

Israel and humanitarian groups have repeatedly called for the ICRC to be given access to captives being held by Hamas and other groups in Gaza.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington is demanding “the immediate release of the ship and its crew”.

“And we will consult with our allies and UN partners as appropriate on next steps,” he told reporters.

For more on whether the US and Israel can stop the Yemen-based Houthis from seizing more ships, read this analysis piece.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the Israeli war cabinet discussed on Sunday its willingness to move forward with negotiations over the release of captives held in Gaza, and wants to send a message to Qatar – which has been mediating between Israel and Hamas – that it is ready to reach a deal.

The report mentions the specifics of a deal that has already been reported by various media outlets, involving the release of 50 women and children held in Gaza, in exchange for a temporary ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners. Media reports have indicated that the released Palestinians would also be women and children – Israel is one of the only countries in the world to prosecute children in military courts, according to rights groups.

Channel 12 said that despite Israel’s attempts to push for the release of more captives, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has refused to budge. The report added that there was no agreement yet on whether Israeli drones would stop flying during any ceasefire, as Hamas has demanded.

“The Israeli government has not confirmed this, there is no official word from the war cabinet,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem. “[That’s] in line with their policy, of [only] once they have concrete news for the public… will [they] announce it.”

Qatar’s Ministry of Defence says the decision is “the least we can do for our brothers and sisters in Gaza suffering a genocide and crimes against humanity”.

pic.twitter.com/9PxJIwHMzs

— ????? ?????? – ???? ??? (@MOD_Qatar) November 20, 2023

France has sent helicopter carrier Dixmude, which will arrive in Egypt in the coming days, video from the French armed forces shows.

It also dispatched a military Airbus A400 with more than 10 tonnes of medical supplies and will contribute to European Union medical aid flights on November 23 and 30.

A first French helicopter carrier – the Tonnerre, which has about 60 beds and two operating blocks – has already been deployed to the region.

Turkey brought 61 patients and 49 companions to Ankara after evacuating them from Gaza for treatment, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

The total number of patients and their companions brought to Turkey is now 150, Koca said. Most of the patients need cancer treatment.

Koca said last week that Ankara wanted to bring back as many as possible of the nearly 1,000 cancer patients in Gaza – most of whom are former patients at a Turkish-Palestinian hospital that shut down due to Israeli attacks.

Earlier we reported on an Israeli army strike targeting a residential building in western Khan Younis that killed five members of the same family.

We’ve learned that the family members were evacuees from northern Gaza who fled the violence and bombs there. The strike that killed them targeted a different apartment in the Hamad residential compound, but it broke through the wall and into the place they were sheltering.

More air strikes are taking place as we speak in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and we will bring you more details as information comes in.

A report in the Israeli daily Haaretz says the US push aims to help revitalise the postwar Palestinian economy.

Biden’s top energy adviser, Amos Hochstein, is in Israel to discuss the issue, the newspaper said.

“We shouldn’t exaggerate its potential, but it can absolutely be a revenue stream for a Palestinian government and to ensure there is an independent energy system for Palestine,” Hochstein said, as reported by Haaretz.

The Gaza marine field, nearly 32km (20 miles) off the coast of the besieged enclave, has remained undeveloped despite holding an estimated 28 billion cubic metres (1 trillion cubic ft) of natural gas, the Haaretz report said.

Several family members of captives held in Gaza have spoken out against Israeli legislation that would allow the death penalty to be used against Palestinians accused of being involved in the October 7 attacks.

The relatives spoke at a contentious committee hearing in the Israeli parliament, which at times devolved into shouting between legislators and the speakers.

The family members told far-right Israeli politicians that even discussing such a law could prove fatal for their loved ones still held by Hamas and other groups in Gaza.

“It would mean playing along with their mind games, and in return, we would get pictures of our loves ones murdered … with the state of Israel and not [Hamas] being blamed for it,” said Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is among those held captive.

“Don’t put my sister’s blood on your hands,” she said.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin is being held captive, also said: “Please, please, there will be time to argue but later.

“Please stay with us on the side of life not death. I beg you to remove this from the agenda if you have a heart and if you see us,” he said.

White House spokesperson John Kirby says Washington is “hopeful” a deal can be reached but nothing is finalised.

“But there’s still work to be done, and nothing is done until it’s all done, so we’re going to keep working on this,” Kirby told reporters.

He added that President Joe Biden’s administration is calling for international law to be respected in Gaza and an increase of humanitarian assistance to the enclave, including through “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting.

The US has not called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The newly re-elected prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, will travel with his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo, his office says in a statement.

Both leaders will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the statement added.

Samuel Ramani of the Royal United Services Institute calls the Houthi hijacking of a ship the group says is linked to Israel and the subsequent release of video of the attack “unsurprising”.

Instead, Ramani told Al Jazeera that it is?the latest effort by the Yemen-based group to show solidarity with Hamas and Hezbollah.

“[The Houthis] were warning not just Israeli ships but any ship with even remote linkages to Israel that they would be legitimate targets,” he said.

“They’ve also been really bragging about their military capabilities, including the showcasing of an 800km [500-mile] range Sayyad missile recently at their parade in Sanaa.”

Ramani added:?“So the Houthis are basically saying in their official propaganda that in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, no Israeli vessel is safe.”

AJ+ followed Hidaya while she was in labor in Gaza, where 50,000 pregnant women are under constant bombardment.

Many of them are giving birth in the streets or in overcrowded shelters. This is Hidaya’s story. pic.twitter.com/HvSrEELQb2

— AJ+ (@ajplus) November 20, 2023

Michael Luo, an editor at The New Yorker magazine, said on X that the US publication had lost touch with Abu Toha and later learned of his arrest.

Luo also posted a thread of the detained Palestinian poet’s work.

“Two days before Israel escalated attacks in the Gaza Strip, my family bought some bread. After we evacuated, I biked home to get it,’ reads the tagline for his most recently published piece in The New Yorker.

David Remnick sent a note to staff this morning abt the worrisome news on Mosab Abu Toa, the Palestinian poet and essayist from Gaza, whose work we have been publishing. We had lost touch w/ him and learned he was arrested in central Gaza. Here's a thread of his @newyorker work.

— Michael Luo (@michaelluo) November 20, 2023

The spokesman for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades says the group believes the Israeli military fired at its own forces in Gaza, “thinking that some had been captured”.

Former Israeli soldiers have previously spoken about the so-called Hannibal Directive, a former controversial Israeli military policy aimed at preventing the capture of its soldiers by enemy forces at any cost.

In a previously recorded message, Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida also said that:

• Israel’s goal in this war is to destroy infrastructure and kill civilians.
• Clashes with Israeli forces are ongoing in several areas of the Gaza Strip.
• Qassam Brigades fighters destroyed 60 Israeli military vehicles in the last three days, including 10 personnel carriers.
• Qassam fighters ambushed foot soldiers southwest of Gaza City on Saturday.
• Qassam fighters also targeted a troop carrier and killed three Israeli soldiers.

Cosme Felippsen’s nephew was 17 years old when he was killed by Brazil’s military police in a Rio de Janeiro alley nicknamed the Gaza Strip.

“Almost every favela in Rio has an area residents call Gaza,” Felippsen said, pointing to the bullet holes along the alley walls. Residents have used the name for at least 15 years, he added. “It designates the area where most of the gunfire is concentrated at any given time.”

The neighbourhood where Felippsen’s nephew, Jose Vieira, died in 2017 is called Morro da Providencia. It is one of hundreds of impoverished communities — or favelas — strewn across the city.

Activists and residents say the violence they have seen in the favelas has given them unique insight into the urban warfare currently unfolding in Gaza. And the parallels they perceive are motivating them to take action.

Read our story here.

The video was released shortly after emergency sirens again sounded in northern Israel. The military said a projectile was detected and fell into an open area in Misgav Am.

Two separate launches were detected in Israel’s central area, the military said. They were intercepted using the Iron Dome and David’s Sling air-defence systems.

Hezbollah earlier said it had fired at several targets and “directly hit” Kibbutz Hanita in Israel. Lebanese media later reported Israeli strikes in the southern town of Khiam.

The Lancaster House conference venue in London was picketed by Medical Aid for Palestinians, whose members are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza to get urgently needed food and humanitarian aid into the besieged coastal enclave.

“It is good that they are talking about addressing food and security in the world. But if they’re going to do that seriously, they cannot ignore the situation in Gaza, where 2.2 million people are at risk of starvation,” said the group’s chief executive, Melanie Ward.

“Because of the siege that’s been imposed on Gaza, the amount of aid that’s gotten in the last month is only enough for about two normal days in Gaza. So less than 10 percent of the food needed to keep people in Gaza alive is actually getting in.”

This morning @MedicalAidPal was outside the Global Hunger Summit, urging UK Govt to uphold its role as custodian of UN Security Council Resolution 2417, which prohibits starvation as a weapon of war.

2.2 million people in #Gaza are going hungry due to deliberate denial of food. pic.twitter.com/yYot2HTdVf

— Melanie Ward (@melanie_ward) November 20, 2023

The World Health Organization’s chief has confirmed that 12 of the newborns evacuated from al-Shifa Hospital have been transported to Cairo.

“All babies are fighting serious infections and other conditions, and need specialised medical care,” said Tedros.

Today, 28 of the 31 premature babies, who were evacuated from the Al-Shifa hospital yesterday, were safely transferred in Al-Arish to receive medical treatment in #Egypt. From there, 12 babies were flown to Cairo.

Three babies continue to receive treatment at the Emarati… pic.twitter.com/SZjKbRUojJ

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 20, 2023

Michael Ryan says overflowing Gaza shelters, a lack of access to food, as well as rain and colder temperatures in the enclave have created an “absolute recipe for large-scale epidemics”.

“As a public health risk, this will begin to approach the same level as the injury crisis that we have and the crisis in the hospitals,” Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, told reporters.

“Our biggest fear at the moment is also a shift or another movement of patients – 1.7 million people have already been displaced,” he said.

“There is a real risk that many of them will be displaced again, and the further concentration of people in ever smaller areas, pushing out to the west coast, is only increasing and increasing and increasing the risks to those populations – be it from injury, or more importantly, be it from the public health risks.”

Asked at a White House event whether he believes a “hostage deal” is near, the US president said, “I believe so … yes” and crossed his fingers.

There have been a growing number of media reports about a possible Qatari-mediated prisoner exchange that would see the release of women and children held by Israel and Hamas, respectively.

The deal would also include a days-long pause in the fighting, the reports have said, but just how long the pause would be remains unclear.

The Biden administration says securing the release of captives held in Gaza – including some US citizens – is one of its top priorities.

Al-Mezan, a Gaza-based human rights centre, has called on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue warrants for Israeli officials responsible for crimes against Palestinian children.

More than 5,500 children in the Gaza Strip have been killed since October 7, according to aid group Save the Children.

In 45 days in #Gaza: some 5,350 Palestinian children killed, 1000s missing under rubble, over 1 million are at risk of starvation.

We urge the @KarimKhanQC to immediately issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials responsible for flagrant crimes affecting Palestinian children. https://t.co/18NkIzysAl

— Al-Mezan ??????? (@AlMezanCenter) November 20, 2023

A video released by the Yemen-based group showed a small helicopter landing on the Galaxy Leader cargo ship.

Men carrying guns are then seen taking control of the bridge of the ship as workers hold their hands behind their heads.

A wider shot released by the group showed several speedboats flying the Palestinian and Yemeni flags surrounding the ship. The flags were also shown flying on the cargo ship itself after the takeover.

About 25 people were believed to be on board the ship, which was taken to the coast of Yemen.

The Houthis have said the ship is Israeli, but Israel described it as a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo vessel with no Israeli nationals on board.

PEN America raised concerns over the detention of Mosab Abu Toha, winner of the Palestine Book Award and founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, by Israeli forces.

The organisation called for the protection of Abu Toha, an essayist and a poet who has written for the New York Review of Books and the New Yorker.

His brother, Hamza, said on social media?that he was arrested at an Israeli military checkpoint when he was leaving the northern Gaza Strip heading south.

PEN America is concerned by reports that poet Mosab Abu Toha, the founder of Gaza's only English language library, has been taken into custody by Israel's?Defense Forces in Gaza.?We are seeking more details and call for his protection.

Our 2022 interview: https://t.co/rn1szUZVCR

— PEN America (@PENamerica) November 20, 2023

This is the first rocket attack since Friday.

Interestingly, this has happened just before some schools are meant to return to full functionality in Tel Aviv. What we have understood so far is that there have been no casualties reported and authorities are still trying to find out where those rockets were heading exactly.

Tel Aviv is a huge city and has been to some degree functioning as normal, especially as things have quieted down in the last few days.

But contrary to what the Israeli forces have been putting out in terms of daily statements, in terms of daily videos – sometimes almost hourly – of their achievements in the north of Gaza and certainly in Gaza City itself, the fact that those rockets are still being fired is showing that Hamas still is going strong.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, are certainly trying to send the message that nothing so far has been able to quash their capabilities in terms of those rockets heading over to this side.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza cannot accommodate a large number of aid trucks and calls for the opening of other border crossings.

Karem Abu Salem or Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel is the only crossing equipped to take enough trucks, UNRWA said, but it has been closed since October 7.

"The scarcity of aid has been a major impediment to effectively provide humanitarian aid" @TamaraAlrifai tells @BBCNews that the Rafah crossing does not have the logistics for large numbers of aid trucks- other border crossings need to open NOW to allow humanitarian aid through pic.twitter.com/R0LsEsh0mb

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 20, 2023

It’s 6:30pm (16:30 GMT) in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• More than 5,500 children in the Gaza Strip have been killed since October 7, the aid group Save The Children says.
• Israeli forces besieged and shelled the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, killing at least 12 people and damaging wards.
• An Israeli parliamentary committee discusses expanding the use of the death penalty for Palestinian fighters.
• At least 28 infants evacuated from al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City have arrived in Egypt, but three have been left behind in southern Gaza to receive further treatment.
• Amnesty International urges the International Criminal Court to investigate two Israeli attacks in Gaza as war crimes.
• Muslim and Arab League foreign ministers are to meet on Tuesday in Moscow.
• Crown Prince Al Hussein arrived in Egypt to oversee the establishment of a Jordanian field hospital bound for southern Gaza.
  

  

Speaking during a visit to Berlin, Comoros President and African Union Chairperson Azali Assoumani called for greater diplomatic pressure on Israel to end its operations in Gaza.

“What was carried out from Gaza [on October 7] is to be condemned, but the answer was not proportionate,” Assoumani said. “We condemn all measures, all actions, everything that harms children and that then leads to extremism when they experience something like that.”

Representatives of the African Union have already decried Israel’s “collective punishment” in Gaza and have called for a ceasefire. Still, these latest comments are significant, coming during a news conference with German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz.

Germany has been one of the staunchest defenders of Israel’s policies since the October 7 Hamas attacks.

“The world is a village. We are all partners. We all have a responsibility that we have to fulfill, so that these hostilities would come to an end,” Assoumani said.

Earlier, we reported on Jordan’s Crown Prince Al Hussein arriving in El Arish, Egypt, to oversee the establishment of a field hospital in southern Gaza.

Photojournalist Ahmed Daraa said a 40-truck convoy has crossed into the besieged coastal enclave through Rafah, transporting the equipment necessary to establish the field hospital.

“The convoy was accompanied by about 180 medical, administrative and technical personnel, who will work to build and operate the hospital,” Daraa reported.

The hospital will be located in the city of Khan Younis near Nasser Hospital.

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza-based hospital is “an extension of its policies to target hospitals, schools and residential communities in the Strip”.

The ministry said in a statement that Israel’s attacks are in violation of international laws and agreements.

“Qatar reiterates its call for an international committee to investigate the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against civilians in the Gaza Strip, and urges the international community to move quickly to stop Israel from perpetrating more massacres,” it added.

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— ???????? ??????? (@MofaQatar_AR) November 20, 2023

The head of the UN’s health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has responded to an attack on the Gaza City hospital, which remains besieged by Israeli tanks.

In a post on X, he wrote: “Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital.”

At least 12 Palestinians were killed in an artillery attack on the hospital, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said.

.@WHO is appalled by an attack on the Indonesian Hospital in #Gaza, reportedly resulting in 12 deaths, including patients, and tens of injuries, including critical and life-threatening ones.

Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 20, 2023

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says heavy fighting has taken place around the clinic and an Israeli tank was seen on the street.

“Four MSF cars were burned. A fifth car, parked across the street, was broken in two pieces as if crushed by a heavy-duty vehicle or a tank. All the cars and the clinic were clearly identified with the MSF logo,” the medical aid group said.

An MSF staff member and 20 relatives are in “extreme danger” inside the clinic, and the organisation said their status was uncertain.

“We urgently call for a stop to the fighting in the area. Over 50 other people, including MSF staff, are in nearby buildings with a wounded person needing medical attention.”

In #Gaza City, our clinic came under fire this morning. Our colleagues saw that a wall was torn down and part of the building was engulfed by fire, as heavy fighting took place all around it. An Israeli tank was seen in the street.

— MSF International (@MSF) November 20, 2023

Israeli forces raided a cell in Ketziot Prison on Saturday in Israel’s southern Naqab/Negev desert and physically assaulted 10 Palestinian detainees, including Thaer Abu Asab, a witness says.

A released prisoner told the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the PA Commission for Detainees that Abu Asab, a 38-year-old from Qalqilia in the occupied West Bank, was brutally beaten.

“When his condition deteriorated, prison authorities initially refused to call for medical assistance. After about 90 minutes, a nurse inspected him, and he was then taken away. We did not know what his fate was,” the released prisoner said in a statement.

The prisoners groups said Abu Asab, who had been detained since 2005 and sentenced to 25 years in jail, was “assassinated” by the Israel Prison Service.

“This is part of Israel’s systemic assassinations against our prisoners, and it is premeditated,” the groups said, adding that five other detainees have died in jail since October 7.

The difficult conditions have affected Palestinian children on a psychological, social and educational level, says Farha Abu al-Hija, head of the Lest We Forget Association in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, an association specialised in children and women’s affairs.

“The children of Jenin camp are subject to Israeli raids on their homes and schools. Even children in kindergartens and nurseries are also exposed to Israeli incursions, which creates fear, tension, terror, lack of security, lack of sleep and violence,” said Abu al-Hija, who is also a member of the Popular Committee for Jenin Camp Services.

Jenin refugee camp has been subject to almost daily Israeli military raids, and the war on Gaza has only exacerbated the heavy toll on children’s wellbeing.

“They watch other children being bombed and killed in media outlets, and this has created adverse psychological issues: the inability to sleep, constant fear and the child’s insistence on staying close to the parents,” Abu al-Hija told Al Jazeera.

Responding to a question from Al Jazeera, Antonio Guterres has decried the loss of thousands of civilian lives in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

The UN boss said it is “clear” that thousands of children have been killed in just a few weeks.

“This is what matters,” he said at a press briefing held at the UN. “We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since I am secretary-general.”

Guterres’s first five-year term began in January 2017.

More than 13,000 people, including at least 5,500 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to officials in the besieged territory.

The UN’s humanitarian office says that in the northern Gaza Strip, livestock are facing death due to the shortage of fodder and water.

Crops are being increasingly abandoned and damaged because of the lack of fuel, which is required to pump irrigation water, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

“Across Gaza, farmers have begun slaughtering their animals due to the immediate need for food and the lack of fodder. This practice poses an additional threat to food security as it leads to the depletion of productive assets,” the agency said.

The Israeli Knesset approved draft legislation on November 8 that bans the consumption of what it calls “terrorist publications”.

The law stipulates that the consumption of material published by a “terrorist organisation”, including publications that contain words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for acts of “terror”, is punishable by up to one year in prison.

The Arab Centre for Social Media Advancement, or 7amleh, said the new law will “have far-reaching implications for freedoms and rights as well as contribute towards fear and intimidation”.

It added that the new legislation “paves the way for the preemptive criminalisation of people who have neither committed nor planned any crime and increases the Israeli authorities’ surveillance of Arab Palestinian citizens while infringing on their rights to privacy, freedom of expression and the right to access information”.

The proceeds will support Palestinian relief efforts, the football tournament’s local organising committee says.

“We will be certain that this corporate social responsibility initiative will benefit those most affected and that football fulfils its role as a support mechanism for people during the most difficult of times,” committee chairperson Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said.

The Asian Cup will kick off in Qatar on January 12 and run until February 10.

The Kremlin says?Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in an extraordinary summit of the BRICS group of nations on Tuesday to discuss the war in Gaza.

The BRICS bloc also includes Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

The group L’chaim, Jews Against the Death Penalty, has expressed alarm over the possible expansion of the use of capital punishment, which could see Palestinian assailants being sentenced to death.

Earlier, we reported on a Knesset committee hearing about the legislation.

“We urge the Knesset to reject any such proposals. Purely as a practical matter, enshrining capital punishment beyond how it already exists in Israeli law is unnecessary and will be an enticement to more terrorism and murder,” the group said.

“Acceptance of judicial executions as an Israeli norm is irresponsible and will cost innocent Israeli lives,” it said in a statement.

Relatives of some of the approximately 240 captives taken by Hamas on October 7 told the Knesset not to hold the hearing over concerns that it could derail chances of getting their relatives back.

Crown Prince Al Hussein arrived in Egypt to oversee the establishment of a Jordanian field hospital bound for southern Gaza.

The hospital, which will be set up in Khan Younis, has a 41-bed capacity, the Royal Hashemite Court said on X.

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein arrives in El Arish, Egypt, to oversee the preparation and dispatch of the special Jordanian field hospital/2 for southern #Gaza which has the capacity of 41 beds#Jordan pic.twitter.com/1h9549oaD6

— RHC (@RHCJO) November 20, 2023

About 25 percent of industrial and commercial enterprises have been closed in the occupied West Bank this past week due to restrictive Israeli military measures, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Economy says.

From November 12 to Thursday, businesses were subject to either complete or partial closure because of Israeli military raids and movement restrictions on individuals and goods, the ministry said.

It added:

• Eight percent of economic establishments were subject to direct attacks by the Israeli army and/or settlers, causing damage to their products or premises.
• The monthly revenue of businesses declined on average by 75 percent – namely restaurants, hotels, the tourism industry and the transportation sector.
• Seventy-eight percent of establishments said they had difficulty moving and distributing goods between cities due to Israeli lockdowns, checkpoints and raids.
  

  

The UN’s health agency has confirmed that 28 prematurely born babies have been evacuated into Egypt but three have been left behind in southern Gaza at Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital to receive further treatment.

“The 28 babies have now safely arrived in Egypt. Three babies still remain at the Emirati Hospital and continue to receive treatment,” a WHO spokesperson said in an emailed response to Reuters.

Asked about the babies’ condition, he said: “All babies are fighting serious infections and continue needing healthcare.”

Heba Hagrass has emphasised the importance of ensuring unconditional and unrestricted humanitarian aid access for people with disabilities.

“This region has increasing disability rates among the population because of exposure to repeated armed conflicts in addition to the current bombardment of the Gaza Strip,” said Hagrass, who was recently appointed the UN special rapporteur on the rights of people with disabilities.

“People with disabilities have difficulty accessing safe places, and the denial of vital services such as electricity, water and food exposes [them] to heightened risks, including the risk of loss of life,” Hagrass said.

The special rapporteur urged parties to the conflict to consider the situation of people with disabilities when conducting attacks, including warnings of attacks, especially because safe and accessible means of transportation are lacking and they might not have equipment to assist their movement.

“People with disabilities must not be left behind because their families and relief teams are unable to give them the necessary support,” Hagrass added.

Foreign ministers from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will meet in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza, according to a report by the Russian news agency RIA that cites a Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson.

The report did not specify which countries would attend the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Russia has held a pro-Palestinian position, condemning Israel for the rising number of civilian casualties and restating its?longstanding support for a Palestinian state.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, have discussed the war on Gaza in a phone call and agreed “to avoid a more serious humanitarian crisis”, according to the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

“The two heads of state exchanged views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and both believe that the top priority is to avoid further deterioration of the situation between Palestine and Israel, especially to avoid a more serious humanitarian crisis,” CCTV said.

Xi and Macron both agreed a “‘two-state solution’ is the fundamental way” to solve the conflict and said they would maintain communications on international and regional issues.

The phone call came days before a delegation – including French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and diplomats from the Palestinian Authority, Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan – meet in Beijing for talks aimed at a “de-escalation” in Gaza.

We earlier reported that 29 premature babies were transferred to Egypt from Gaza through the Rafah crossing for treatment, based on reports from local Egyptian media outlets.

The Palestinian Red Crescent, however, said its medical services teams moved 28 babies across the border.

The reason for this discrepancy was not immediately clear.

A member of the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit party yelled at a family member of a captive who showed opposition to a bill that would introduce the death penalty for captured Palestinian fighters.

“Stop talking about killing Arabs; start talking about saving Jews,” said a relative of one of the about 240 captives, according to Israeli media. His fear, shared by the Missing Families Forum, is that the legislation, if approved, could endanger the lives of their family members held in Gaza.

“You have no monopoly over pain,” Almog Cohen shouted back.

“You are silencing other families,” said Limor Son Har-Melech of the same party.

The UK-based rights group says it has determined that two Israeli strikes last month that killed 46 people in Gaza “were indiscriminate attacks or direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects, which must be investigated as war crimes”.

The incidents probed by Amnesty were an attack on Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City on October 19 and another on a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp the following day.

“These deadly, unlawful attacks are part of a documented pattern of disregard for Palestinian civilians and demonstrate the devastating impact of the Israeli military’s unprecedented onslaught has left nowhere safe in Gaza, regardless of where civilians live or seek shelter,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty director of global research, advocacy and policy.

“We urge the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to take immediate concrete action to expedite the investigation into war crimes and other crimes under international law opened in 2021,” Guevara Rosas added.

During its investigation, Amnesty said it spoke to more than a dozen people, including survivors, and reviewed satellite imagery and open-source audio-visual material.

Israeli tanks close in on a Palestinian hospital. Doctors and medical staff are warned that they must leave – with or without patients. Artillery assaults follow, even if thousands of people are still inside.

On Monday, it was the turn of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza. At least 12 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the facility, as armoured vehicles edged closer and closer.

But it was only the latest medical centre to face the wrath of the Israeli army.

Six weeks into its war on Gaza, Israel’s attacks on hospitals have emerged almost as a motif of the conflict, even though?refugee camps,?schools?and?churches?have not been spared either.

Read our story here.

Commentator Taghreed El-Khodary has told Al Jazeera that Israel “convinced” the world that al-Shifa Hospital was the headquarters of Hamas because it was the easiest route for them to invade Gaza.

“They know it is the safest part to go and impose a kind of military headquarters for them in Gaza City. They couldn’t come from the east. Now this is what they’re doing, going to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia to also impose another headquarters for them to attack and kill more civilians,” El-Khodary said.

Hamas has repeatedly denied the Israeli claims that it uses hospitals for military purposes.

She added that what’s happening in Gaza is “maddening”, referring to the increasing number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks.

Israeli attacks on the Indonesian Hospital have now been condemned by Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi who said that it was a “clear violation of international humanitarian laws”.

“All countries, especially those that have close relations with Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities to urge Israel to stop its atrocities,” Retno added.

At least 12 people have been killed in the attacks, and Israeli tanks have surrounded the hospital.

We can now bring you some more updates on what’s happening at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.

Munner al-Bursh, general manager of the Health Ministry in Gaza, has told Al Jazeera that:

• Israeli forces are continuing to attack the hospital.
• Israeli artillery started in the middle of the night and targeted the surgical department, wounding the doctors working there and killing 12 civilians who were taking refuge.
• Israeli forces then targeted people who were leaving the hospital by shooting them near the hospital. Their bodies are still lying on the ground, and nobody has been able to bury them.
• The al-Kuwait UN school was burned down by the Israeli forces. People were taking refuge there, and we don’t have any information on the death toll there.
• In addition to around 700 patients and 5,000 refugees before the attack, there were 10,000 people in the shelter centres around the hospital.
• We are using a small power generator that runs on vegetable oil, manufactured by some creative individuals who sacrificed some of their food supply to run the generator.

The Israeli National Security Committee has convened to discuss a bill for the introduction of the death penalty against Palestinian fighters.

The proposal was advanced by the party of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“The death penalty law for terrorists is no longer a matter of left and right … [it’s] a moral and essential law for the State of Israel,” said Ben-Gvir on X.

The proposal was met with great concern by family members of those taken captive during Hamas’s attack on October 7.

In a moving speech, Gil Dilkma, a cousin to one of the about 240 captives, pleaded with the minister to drop the legislation which could put at risk the lives of those taken captive in Gaza.

“Remove the law, if you have a heart,” he said, holding back tears.

Striking a similar note, the Missing Families Forum said in a statement that such discussion “endangers the lives of our loved ones, without promoting any public purpose”.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif has described the scenes inside Indonesian Hospital as “chaotic”.

“There is an overwhelming state of panic among patients,” he said, walking through the different floors of the hospital. “Victims are piling up on the floor.”

He said the hospital was now “besieged” by Israeli forces, and anyone moving outside was a target.

Extensive damage to the ceilings of the hospital and other areas can be clearly seen in the footage. Hundreds of displaced people were also present, taking refuge at the hospital to escape Israel’s bombardment of the enclave.

At least 14 people have been killed in two Israeli air attacks on homes in Rafah, in southern Gaza, according to health officials.

Celebrated annually on November 20, World Children’s Day is a global initiative promoting children’s rights, safety, education, health and happiness.

This year, it comes amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

About half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people are children.?Since October 7, Israeli attacks have killed at least 5,500?children, according to Palestinian officials. That is one Palestinian child killed every 10 minutes.

An additional 1,800 children are missing under the rubble, most of them presumed dead. A further 9,000 children have been injured, many with life-changing consequences. Many of these children have lived through the trauma?of multiple wars.

Al Jazeera has created an infographic listing the names and ages of less than half of those children killed over the past six weeks.?You can read the names in our story here.

Following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, Netanyahu’s government was calling for vengeance.

But on the fringes of the Israeli public discourse, anti-war voices were persisting.

Al Jazeera’s Listening Post interviews journalist and human rights activist Orly Noy on the isolation that comes with being on the political left in Israel today.

Watch the video below:

Demonstrators have rallied across the world in solidarity with Palestinians, donning the emblematic black-and-white Palestinian headdress known as the keffiyeh.

They have also been carrying large keys, a cartoon portraying a child with their back turned, and even an image of a watermelon, each representing a different way of supporting the Palestinian cause.

In an infographic series, Al Jazeera showcases eight symbols that represent Palestinian identity and resistance to Israeli occupation.

You can view the story here.

Due to rain, the situation on the ground for civilians and the humanitarian conditions have been exacerbated, especially for those forced to flee.

The rain is expected to continue with a noticeable temperature drop in the coming weeks.

The situation inside the Gaza Strip is worsening. With the disruption to the sewage system and water shortages, there are concerns about bacterial diseases and diarrhoea, especially among children.

About two-thirds of people in the south fled their houses and could not take essential items to protect themselves from the cold or the rain.

People in the Gaza Strip are suffering from the war, and with rain, the situation is worsening.

Following a meeting of the Israeli war cabinet on Sunday, a source told the Israeli Broadcasting Authority that “there was progress in negotiations to release some of the captives, but nothing is closed yet”.

The source said that children and women were expected to be released in exchange for a ceasefire of several days and for the release of female and minor detainees from Israeli prisons.

The release would take place in phases during the halt in hostilities, it said. The length of the ceasefire would be determined by the number of captives to be released, the source added.

The report comes after Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that only “minor” changes remain for a final deal.

More than 5,500 children in the Gaza Strip have been killed since October 7.

According to aid group Save the Children, the number of children killed has exceeded the annual figures in war zones since 2019.

Malaysia’s PM Anwar Ibrahim has called out the global hypocrisy in being asked to condemn the Russian aggression in Ukraine with some leaders remaining “muted” on the “atrocities inflicted on Palestinians”.

During an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on Monday, Ibrahim said: “Stop these atrocities, stop the killing of women and children, now. Because every day means more babies will be killed.”

Malaysia has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and has backed a two-state solution.

Israel is trying to draw the Fatah party into the ongoing Gaza war in light of attacks on remarks by President Mahmoud Abbas and his Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the attack at the music festival on October 7, a Palestinian official said.

“That’s Netanyahu’s comfort zone,” Ahmad Majdalani, a Palestinian Authority (PA) member, said. “They’ll say they’re all terrorists and not deserving of a state … they want this to be the last war.”

On Sunday, Netanyahu accused the PA and Abbas of denying that Hamas fighters killed Israelis at a concert near the Gaza fence.

The statements follow a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Saturday which said there was a “growing assessment in Israel’s security establishment” based on the police investigation and interrogations of captured Hamas members that the group had not planned to target the event.

Hisham Zaqout, our colleague at Al Jazeera Arabic, has shared these updates from Gaza:

• Israeli air strikes targeted a house in Rafah, where many were killed and injured.
• The Indonesian Hospital is under an Israeli army siege. Some of the medical staff who evacuated al-Shifa Hospital moved to the Indonesian Hospital.
• Israeli tanks and vehicles moved from Beit Hanoon to the Indonesian Hospital and are targeting it with artillery shells and shooting anybody that moves around the area.
• Heavy rain and winds are making it harder for the people to live in tents after Israeli air strikes destroyed their houses.

As Israeli tanks continue to surround the Indonesian Hospital, Ismail al-Ghoul, a journalist based in Gaza, has given Al Jazeera these updates from the ground:

• Israeli forces shoot whoever tries to leave the hospital.
• The situation in the hospital is catastrophic.
• The hospital is full of people. There are more than 6,000 people, including staff, patients and those taking shelter.
• It has been difficult to transfer patients from northern Gaza because Israeli forces are targeting anyone who approaches the area.

Israel sees this latest Houthi incident [seizing of a vessel] as part of a continuum that links rocket fire from Hezbollah and to a slightly lesser extent, the October 7 attack, as all part of Iran’s efforts to move its proxies around in the region.

Iran has denied it had a role in the hijacking of this cargo ship, but that’s not going to change the Israeli perspective.

The Israelis don’t want a regional conflict at the moment. They have their hands full with Gaza.

There are concerns in Israel and beyond that this is a very combustible situation, and at some point, there could be a misstep, by any of the parties, which explodes what’s going on in Gaza at the moment into a wider regional conflict.

More than 100 evacuees from Gaza are set to arrive in Turkey, including dozens of people who will receive medical treatment there.

Sixty-one patients, accompanied by some 49 relatives, arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Sunday evening and were scheduled to fly to Ankara on Monday morning, Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

He said last week that Ankara wanted to bring as many of the nearly 1,000 cancer patients from Gaza to Turkey as possible.

The first 27 patients arrived in Ankara on Thursday.

Separately, a group of 87 people – Turks, Turkish Cypriots and their relatives – arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Sunday and was set to fly to Istanbul on Monday evening, a Foreign Ministry source said.

Leaders from the Arab and Muslim worlds were welcomed with open arms in Beijing in a sign that China is stepping up its international role by filling up a power vacuum left by the US, according to political analyst Ibrahim Fraihat.

“The US has shot itself in the foot by throwing all of its weight behind Israel’s side, and by doing so, it has diminished its role as a credible third-party intervener,” Fraihat, of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.

“They [Chinese authorities] are very interested in this role – they have strong ties with Israel, they have the trust of the Palestinians and weight in the international system,” he added, referring to China’s veto power at the UN Security Council.

As we reported earlier today, Yemen’s Houthis say they have taken control of a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.

Israel said the incident was an “Iranian act of terrorism” but Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the assertions were aimed at shifting attention from its “irreparable defeat” in the war in Gaza.

“We have said multiple times that resistance groups in the region act independently and spontaneously based on their interests and that of their people,” Nasser Kanaani said at a news conference.

What happened in northern Gaza is now happening in the south.

In eastern Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Israeli forces are dropping leaflets telling residents to leave for safer areas.

Eleven-year-old Asif Abu Mahadi is a resident of the Gaza Strip.

His dream was to become a footballer, but one of his legs was amputated after an Israeli bombing targeted a house near the Nuseirat refugee camp.

In the video below, Asif tells us his story:

Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra has provided Al Jazeera with these updates on the latest developments:

• We fear Israeli forces will repeat what they did at al-Shifa Hospital.
• The situation is catastrophic and Israeli forces are only intensifying their attacks.
• The Indonesian Hospital staff are insisting they will stay to treat the wounded.
• There are about 700 people, including medical staff and injured people, inside the hospital.

Massive shelling on & around Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. Injuries have been reported among people who’ve taken shelter in its courtyard.

This small hospital is the only remaining hospital in the entirety of northern Gaza, and takes in 100s of victims every day. pic.twitter.com/Kz9Ja2g4P6

— Mohammad Alsaafin (@malsaafin) November 20, 2023

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Indonesian Hospital in Gaza has gone up from eight to 12, according to Health Ministry officials in the enclave.

We reported earlier that those killed included doctors and patients.

The update comes as Israeli tanks continue to surround the hospital.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki says Israel is seeking to “bring to an end the Palestinian people’s presence on what remains of its historical land”.

He made his comment during a summit of diplomats from Arab and Muslim-majority nations in Beijing.

There, leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are discussing ways to end the fighting in Gaza and raise pressure on Western countries to reject Israel’s characterisation of its military campaign in the strip as self-defence.

Japan says it is “communicating with Israel … in addition to directly approaching the Houthis” to push the Yemeni rebels to release the ship seized by them.

“We are also urging Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and other countries concerned to strongly urge the Houthis for the early release of the vessel and crew members,” Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said.

“Our government will continue to take necessary measures in cooperation with the countries concerned while taking into account the situation.”

Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian has called on Russia to play a more active role in securing peace in the region.

“Resistance will undoubtedly determine the final result,” Amirabdollahian told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in a phone call.

According to a readout of the exchange, the two diplomats mostly discussed the war in Gaza, with Amirabdollahian accusing the US of inflaming the war.

They also stressed the need for a ceasefire and urgent assistance to the affected civilian population.

Displacement [of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip] will threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, adding that Israel’s policy of blocking the entry of aid to Gaza is systematically aimed at pushing Palestinians to leave the Strip under the weight of bombardment and siege.

“Unfortunately, the grave Israeli violations of Israeli war crimes are not called by some by their real names,” Sameh Shoukry said during a meeting with the Chinese foreign minister in Beijing.

“Egypt is making every effort to bring aid into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, but Israel’s policy of obstructing the entry of aid is a systematic policy aimed at pushing the Palestinians to leave the Strip under the weight of bombing and siege.”

We earlier reported that Israeli forces conducted raids across the occupied West Bank, including in the city of Hebron.

Here are the latest developments:

• Israeli forces have raided homes in ash-Shuweika suburb in the city of Tulkarem, Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera.
• Fighting also broke out between Palestinian groups and Israeli forces after the latter raided the Far’a camp in Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank.
• Israeli forces also raided the Aqbat Jabr camp in Jericho city, the Umm ash-Sharayet neighbourhood in Ramallah, the town of Tuqu in Bethlehem, and Hebron.

The Israeli army says two more of its soldiers have been killed during fighting in northern Gaza.

It identified them as Yinon Tamir and Dvir Barazani, both 20 years old.

At least 387 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the war, according to the army.

The main operation room inside the Indonesian Hospital has been damaged and is no longer available for surgeries, a source inside the hospital has told us.

A number of people, including doctors and patients, have been killed and injured as a result of the latest Israeli attacks that have been hitting the hospital since early morning.

Israeli tank shells also hit the nearby Kuwaiti school where hundreds of families have been sheltering.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told a visiting delegation of Muslim officials that Beijing is willing to help “restore peace in the Middle East”.

“Let us work together to quickly cool down the situation in Gaza and restore peace in the Middle East as soon as possible,” Wang told visiting diplomats from Arab and Muslim-majority nations on Monday.

Wang also said a humanitarian disaster was unfolding in Gaza that affects all countries around the world, questioning the human sense of right and wrong and humanity’s bottom line”.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the international community needs to shoulder the responsibility to stop Israel.

Officials from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are in China as part of a tour that is calling for an end to fighting in Gaza and the delivery of more humanitarian aid into the territory.

The delegation, which plans to meet officials from the permanent members of the UN Security Council, is also seeking to raise pressure on Western countries to reject Israel’s characterisation of its military campaign in Gaza as self-defence.

An Arab-Islamic summit hosted by?Saudi Arabia earlier this month demanded an end to the siege of Gaza, access to humanitarian aid, and a halt to the sale of arms to Israel while condemning “Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, war crimes and barbaric and inhumane massacres by the occupation government”.

Hila Fenlon, a survivor of Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, has described hiding in a safe room with the four children of her household in an interview with Australia’s national broadcaster.

Fenlon, a resident of Netiv Haasara close to the Gaza border, said she could hear people screaming and asking to be saved during the attack.

“They said they are in our house,” Fenlon said in an interview aired by the ABC on Monday. “They are throwing grenades, they are shooting at us, they are trying to kill us. Not all of the people who were screaming in the early minutes of the day are still with us. This community lost 20 members.”

Fenlon likened the attack to a “second holocaust”.

“It’s not something easy to wake up to,” she said. “But the only strength we can show is about overcoming. If we surrender and we continue to be in this broken situation, it means they’ve won and they can’t win.”

According to the Wafa news agency, Israeli forces stormed Deir al-Ghusun and the neighbouring town of Attil, in the northwest part of the occupied West Bank, arresting at least 30 Palestinian workers who were originally from Gaza.

Wafa also said that Israeli forces arrested Birzeit University student Dania Hanatsheh during a raid of her family’s home in Ramallah.

A Palestinian citizen named Issam Fuqaha from the Shweika suburb north of Tulkarem was also detained, Wafa said.

It’s just after 7am (05:00 GMT) on Monday in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

If you’re just catching up, here are some of the key recent events:

• Staff at the Indonesia hospital in north Gaza are appealing for urgent help after an Israeli strike killed eight people inside the hospital, which is now surrounded by the Israeli army.
• All 31 of the premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa Hospital are fighting serious infections, according to a WHO report.
• At least 122 people arrived at Nasser Hospital within minutes of a November 18 Israeli bombing in Khan Younis, MSF has said, including many who were treated for severe burns and 70 who were dead on arrival.
• Only “minor” challenges remain to a deal to release some of the more than 200 people taken captive into Gaza, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said.
• Japan’s government has condemned the seizure of a Japanese-operated ship by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
• France will send more medical supplies and a second hospital ship to Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Wafa has identified the 21-year-old man as Muhammad Adel Muhammad Al-Sarahin from the town of Beit Ula, northwest of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Wafa said that Sarahin was driving his vehicle near the Arroub refugee camp north of Hebron when Israeli forces opened fire at him and a companion.

According to Wafa, Israeli forces also prevented emergency medical workers from treating Sarahin, detaining the injured young man until he died.

He was later handed over by the Israeli forces to the Red Crescent staff, who took his remains to a hospital.

The identity and medical condition of the other young man in the vehicle was not immediately known.

The Palestinian Authority has expressed “gratitude” to Malaysia and Turkey for exempting students from Gaza from tuition fees.

Malaysian Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said on Wednesday that fees for more than 600 Palestinians studying at public universities in the country would be waived for the academic year 2023-2024.

Mohamed Khaled said that the government was also considering providing monthly allowances to 800 Palestinian students enrolled at public and private universities over the period.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Thursday that his government would cover the cost of the year’s second semester for students from Gaza pursuing bachelor’s and diploma degrees in the country.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates expresses gratitude and appreciation for #Malaysia's position in exempting #Palestinian students from Gaza Strip from tuition fees for the academic year 2023-2024 ?? ?? @MalaysiaMFA #Gaza_under_attack#CeasefireNow#Palestine… pic.twitter.com/cdhGb23Lz8

— State of Palestine – MFA ???? (@pmofa) November 19, 2023

Sunday, November 19 – Babies evacuated, critically injured remain

• Thirty-one of the 39 babies who had been left without incubators after Israel raided the hospital on Wednesday are evacuated. Eight of the babies had already died.
• About 250 critically injured patients who were unable to evacuate and around 25 health workers remain inside the hospital,
• Israel claims it found a Hamas tunnel under the hospital, Mounir el-Boursh, the Gaza health ministry director, calls the claim a “pure lie”.

Saturday, November 18 – WHO calls al-Shifa a ‘death zone’

• A WHO mission finds a mass grave and describes the hospital as a “death zone”.
• A doctor says Israel gave the hospital just one hour to evacuate; Israel claims people left voluntarily.
• Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the hospital’s director who remained, says Israel is in “total control” of the “deserted” hospital and that food is running out.

Wednesday, November 15 – Israeli raid begins

• Dr Ahmad Mokhallalati, a surgeon working at the hospital told Al Jazeera gunshots could be heard from all directions. Within the hospital compound, he says there are:
  • 650 patients, including about 100 in critical condition.
  • 700 medical staff.
  • As well as 2,000 to 3,000 displaced Palestinians seeking shelter.
• The Israeli army posts, deletes and reposts a video it films inside the hospital.

Saturday, November 11 – Israeli siege begins

• Salmiya, told Al Jazeera that snipers are firing at anyone who moves within the hospital compound.

Staff at one of northern Gaza’s largest hospitals are appealing for urgent help from the UN and the Red Cross after Israeli forces surrounded the medical facility and bombarded the area, killing at least eight people in the hospital complex.

At least two doctors at the hospital were also injured during the repeated strikes.

The medical team told Al Jazeera that the hospital was targeted overnight without prior warning.

Earlier, one of our Gaza correspondents, Safwat al-Kahlout, said that it looks like Israeli forces are going to repeat what happened at al-Shifa Hospital and will also occupy the Indonesian Hospital.

Power has been shut at the hospital after its generator was hit by a strike, forcing its medics to operate on patients while using light from mobile phones, even as the bombardment went on.

Wafa also reported that Israeli artillery fire damaged the second floor of the hospital.

Aside from the estimated 150 wounded patients being treated at the hospital and about 100 medical workers, thousands of Palestinians are also sheltering at the hospital after being displaced by Israeli bombardments.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will send more medical supplies and a second hospital ship to Gaza.

France will send an aeroplane with more than 10 tonnes of medical supplies this week as well as contributing to EU-operated medical aid flights on Thursday and November 30, Macron’s office said in a statement on Sunday.

The French helicopter carrier Dixmude, which has 40 beds, will arrive in Egypt in the coming days, following the earlier deployment of the Tonnerre, the presidential office said.

Civil and military planes will also be deployed to evacuate sick or injured children from Gaza, according to the presidential office.

In a post on X, Macron said that France is “mobilizing all the means at its disposal” so that up to 50 children could be flown for treatment in hospitals in France if necessary.

Urgence pour la population de Gaza?: l’aide humanitaire doit pouvoir arriver le plus rapidement et le plus s?rement possible. Pour cela, il nous faut obtenir une trêve humanitaire immédiate conduisant à un cessez-le-feu.

La France fait tout pour y parvenir.

Point de situation.…

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 19, 2023

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that only “minor” challenges remain to a deal to release some of the more than 200 people taken captive into Gaza after Hamas’s attack on Israel last month.

“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor compared to the bigger challenges. They are more logistical; they are more practical,” Sheikh Mohammed told a joint press conference with the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Qatar has been acting as an intermediary in negotiations to free those taken captive in Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, in which at least 1,200 people were killed.

You can read more here.

Dr Sarbini Abdul Murad, the head of the Indonesian charity the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), which helped fund the construction of the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza, has called on Israel to withdraw its troops from around the hospital.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Jakarta, Dr Sarbini said that he was aware of reports that Israeli forces were surrounding the hospital and bombarding the areas nearby.

“This is an inhumane attack that should be condemned because this is a place that must be protected,” he said from Jakarta. “We ask Israel not to turn hospitals into war zones.”

“We ask Israel to withdraw its troops from around the Indonesia Hospital so that it can be a safe place for citizens seeking medical assistance.”

Dr Sarbini says MER-C currently has three Indonesian medical volunteers, Fikri Rofiul Haq, Reza Aldilla Kurniawan and Farid Zanjabil Al Ayubi, based at the hospital.

MER-C has been unable to contact them for the past nine days because communications have been cut across the Gaza Strip, Dr Sarbini said.

On Friday, MER-C?held a communal prayer vigil with medical workers across Indonesia for the hospital and medics on the ground as well as to call for a ceasefire and an end to the “genocide” in Gaza.

Japan’s government has condemned the seizure of a Japanese-operated ship by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on Monday confirmed that the Galaxy Leader, operated by Nippon Yusen, was seized while navigating in the Red Sea off Yemen.

“We strongly condemn such acts,” Matsuno told a news conference.

Japanese authorities have said that there are 25 people on board the vessel, none of whom are Japanese.

According to LSEG data, the Galaxy Leader is owned by a company registered under a unit of Ray Shipping, which is incorporated in Israel.

A spokesperson for the Iran-backed Houthis earlier confirmed it had taken control of what it described as an Israeli-owned vessel.

Israel has condemned the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism”.

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said Israel has yet to produce evidence showing Iran is behind the hijacking.

In a statement posted on its website, the Israeli army said that its forces also confiscated weapons and shut down what it described as production laboratories for explosives.

Israel said operations targeted refugee camps in Nablus and Jenin.

During the operation, the Israeli military claimed that it “uncovered” ready-to-use explosives and searched for weapons, among them,? M16 rifles, as well as cartridges and other weapons parts.

Australia’s national broadcaster is reporting that 31 more Australians left Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt on Monday morning.

Australian officials have assisted a total of 62 people to leave Gaza, including Australian citizens, permanent residents and family members, the ABC said.

Canberra is continuing to support 130 people who remain in Gaza and wish to leave, according to the ABC.

According to the Wafa news agency, the young man was shot by Israeli forces during the storming of Wadi Al-Fara’a area near Tubas in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The injured man was taken to the Turkish Tubas Governmental Hospital for treatment but his condition remains unclear.

Wafa reported some heavy fighting during the raid.

According to Wafa, Israeli forces also deployed a bulldozer during the operation.

Israel has accused Hamas of killing captive Noa Marciano inside Gaza’s largest hospital, rejecting claims she died in an Israeli air strike.

Israel military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Sunday that “solid intelligence information” showed the 19-year-old army conscript was taken by Hamas to al-Shifa Hospital and killed inside the facility.

“There, she was murdered by a Hamas terrorist,” Hagari said.

Hagari said that a pathology report determined that although Marciano was injured in an Israeli strike, she was not hurt “in a life-threatening way”.

Hamas last week said that Marciano had been killed in an Israeli air strike and released a video appearing to show her corpse with no visible marks apart from a head wound.

Hamas did not immediately respond to Hagari’s comments but has previously said it took some captives to hospitals for treatment.

Hamas earlier rejected as “misleading and false” an Israeli statement that the group used Al-Shifa Hospital to hold a Nepalese and Thai national captive.

CCTV video released by the Israeli military appeared to show a group of men frog-marching a man into a hospital, surprising medical staff.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has said that attacks on UN shelters in Gaza are “painful to see”.

She said the attacks were “especially” concerning “as they shelter mostly women and children who are left with nowhere to go”.

The UN independent human rights expert added that governments “must call for ceasefire now and ensure its respect”.

Many people were killed in Israeli attacks on two UN-run schools where thousands of people were sheltering on Saturday.

Painful to see UNRWA premises being hit, especially as they shelter mostly women & children who are left with NOWHERE to go. States must call for #ceasefireNow & ensure its respect. Time to consider diplomatic, political & economic measures to end the violence & restore legality. https://t.co/UUZpJuf4uW

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) November 20, 2023

We spoke to some people living near the area and they told us that the Israeli forces are now surrounding the Indonesian Hospital, and they are bombarding the vicinity of the hospital.

From what we have gathered from witnesses, it looks like the Israeli forces are going to repeat what happened at al-Shifa Hospital. It looks like there will be an attempt to storm the Indonesian Hospital.

This is what is happening now.

At the same time, the generator has also been shut down at the hospital, which is the only one still trying to offer medical services in Gaza City and north of Gaza, together with a smaller medical facility.

Palestinians stood in long lines waiting for water in wet conditions at a UN tent camp in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on Sunday.

The WHO has warned that infectious diseases including diarrhoea are already spreading and that winter rains and floods will only make the conditions in crowded camps worse.

There are number of people, about 250, who are critically injured at al-Shifa Hospital, who were not able to to leave the hospital despite the Israeli order to evacuate the medical facility.

Those who managed to leave made it out of the hospital through a very difficult journey, including those premature babies and all those who were injured.

We know that in the early hours of yesterday, the newborn babies were evacuated with the help of the Save the Children humanitarian organisation, who transferred them to the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, in preparation for their evacuation to a field hospital on the Egyptian side of the border.

But those who who are critically injured remain in the hospital due to the seriousness of their condition and their fate now is unknown because there is no food and medical supplies reaching al-Shifa Hospital.

Their condition is worsening every passing day. They need help. But none of that is available at this time.

It is unclear how they can be evacuated when there’s not even enough ambulances to transport them.

Their fate is unclear for us.

Here’s a look inside al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.

We are getting reports from our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza has sustained a direct hit from artillery fire in the last half hour.

A source from the Gaza health ministry told Al Jazeera that a doctor was injured as a result of the strike.

Sources also told Al Jazeera that the nearby al-Awda Hospital was also hit by Israeli gunfire and shelling.

We have more information on the 31 premature and low birth-weight babies that have been evacuated from al-Shifa Hospital.

The babies are now being cared for at Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in southern Gaza, where they are being assessed and stabilised, according to an update shared by the WHO, which helped evacuate the babies.

“Sadly, none of the infants were accompanied by family members, as the Ministry of Health has only limited information, and is not currently able to find close family members,” the WHO update said.

Here are some more details about the babies:

• All 31 of the surviving babies are fighting serious infections due to the impossibility of infection control at al-Shifa Hospital.
• Eleven of the babies are now in critical condition.
• Two babies died the night and day before the evacuation could take place.

A video clip posted by Al Jazeera Arabic on X shows a huge fire erupting near Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital as a string of loud explosions are heard in the background.

According to the post, Israeli forces continue to bombard the northern part of Gaza and the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital, which has already gone out of service but is still housing Palestinians who have fled their homes.

We are also following up on reports that Israeli tanks have approached the vicinity of the hospital.

?????? ????? ?? ???? ???????? ?????????? ???? ??? ???????? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ???#???_??? #????? pic.twitter.com/eEQb0H7F49

— ??????? ?????? (@AJA_Palestine) November 20, 2023

[Translation: Fires broke out in the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital as a result of continuous Israeli bombing of the northern Gaza Strip.]

Here are some highlights from our recent reporting from the occupied Palestinian Territories and around the world:

• From the Central Gaza Strip – ‘Saw death in every colour’: Palestinians fleeing north Gaza recount horror
• From Deir el-Balah, Gaza – ‘Giving up is not an option’: Volunteer doctors at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
• From Cairo, Egypt – ‘Boycott Israel’ breathes new life into 100-year-old Egyptian soda brand
• Watch – Could Israel’s war on Gaza provoke regional instability?
• Opinion – When it comes to the Israeli-led ‘war on terror’, follow the money
• News – Hamas had not planned to attack music festival, Israeli report says

The number of people killed in the Israeli raids on the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip has risen to 22, according to the Wafa news agency.

This followed a strike on three residential buildings in the area, according to Wafa.

Those who were injured were reportedly transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Dozens of Palestinians were also killed and injured following separate strikes on several homes in the Jabalia area and its refugee camp on Sunday night, according to Wafa.

Wafa said that women and children were among the casualties. Several people are also believed to be still trapped under the rubble of the collapsed buildings.

Israeli forces also hit a home in the Bishara neighbourhood in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza as well as a home east of Khan Younis in the south. The number of casualties is still unclear.

According to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), at least 122 people arrived at Nasser Hospital within minutes of the November 18 Israeli bombing in Khan Younis.

“While 70 people were dead upon arrival, dozens of injured, including many children, arrived in critical conditions with severe burns,” said MSF, which has doctors at the hospital.

“The medical needs are huge and MSF is ready to scale up its activities, but we need basic guarantees of safety and unrestricted access of medical and humanitarian supplies into Gaza,” said Christophe Garnier, an MSF project coordinator in southern Gaza.

“A ceasefire is a must, now more than ever, to stop the bloodshed that is happening.”

The head of a prominent media institution in Gaza and two other journalists were killed during the weekend, their relatives told the Reuters news agency, adding to the dozens of reporters who have died in the six-week conflict.

On Sunday, Belal Jadallah, a journalist and head of the board of the Press House – Palestine, a non-governmental organisation, was killed and his pharmacist brother-in-law was seriously wounded, his sister and other relatives told Reuters.

In addition to Jadallah, two freelance journalists – Hassouna Sleem and Sary Mansour – were killed on Saturday in an Israeli assault on the Bureij refugee camp, in the centre of the Gaza Strip, their relatives and Palestinian health officials said. The health officials said 17 people died in the incident.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the weekend deaths raised to at least 48 the number of journalists and media workers it has confirmed killed in the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli offensive.

The CPJ, whose list covers journalists killed on both sides of the conflict although most have been in Gaza, said it seeks at least two sources to verify each death.

It’s just after 2am on Monday (00:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel.

Here’s a recap of the developments over the last few hours.

• Mounir el-Boursh, the Gaza health ministry director, has dismissed an Israeli statement on a tunnel allegedly found at al-Shifa Hospital as a “pure lie”.
• Israel’s military said earlier it had found a 55-metre-long (180ft) and 10-metre-deep (32 ft) tunnel?under Gaza’s?largest medical facility.
• 31 newborns evacuated from al-Shifa to Tal al-Sultan Hospital in Rafah will be taken to Egypt on Monday, according to Mohamed Zaqout, the director of Gaza hospitals.
• The Committee to Protect Journalists has said 48 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas conflict on October 7, adding that 37 were Palestinians, four were Israelis and one was Lebanese.
• The US has told Houthi rebels to release the captured ship and crew of the vessel Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea, calling the seizure a “flagrant violation of international law”.
• Israel has described the seizure of the vessel as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.
• Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel has said the international community should support “voluntary resettlement” of Palestinians from Gaza, instead of contributing money to rebuild the besieged enclave.
• Osama Hamdan, the Beirut-based Hamas representative, has accused Israel of carrying out “atrocities with the aim of accelerating Palestinian displacement”.
• Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also foreign minister, will visit Russia and the UK starting on Tuesday to press for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
• French President Emmanuel Macron has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were “too many civilian losses” in Israel’s war.
  

  

Thank you for joining us for updates on the Israel-Hamas war.

Stay with us as we provide round-the-clock coverage of the latest developments on the 45th day of the conflict, including the evacuation of more patients from al-Shifa Hospital and the seizure by Yemen’s Houthi rebels of an Israeli-linked cargo ship.

You can find the updates from November 19 here.