Friday, November 17, 2023
16:29 GMT — Israel's proposed so-called "safe zone" in Al Mawasi is "neither safe nor feasible," as civilians must be protected throughout Gaza wherever they are, the UN human rights chief says.
WHO chief also stated that it was a "recipe for disaster".
More updates 👇
16:17 GMT — 170 Israeli attacks on health facilities in West: WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that health care facilities in the occupied West Bank have faced more than 170 Israeli attacks since Oct. 7.
"WHO is concerned about the continued escalation of attacks on health care in the West Bank,” the UN agency said in a statement on X.
"Today, at least six paramedics (were) made to exit Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, after which they were searched and detained," the organisation said, adding that "three ambulances were also searched."
“Health care is not a target,” the WHO stressed, referring to international rules of war barring hospitals, schools, and other civilian facilities from being attacked.
The WHO called for “the active protection of health workers and health facilities.”
16:20 GMT — Six Saudi ambulances to reach Gaza: state media
Six ambulances given by Saudi Arabia will reach Gaza on Friday, Saudi state TV reported.
15:53 GMT — Academics in Istanbul march in protest against Israeli war on Gaza
Scores of academics and university staff in Istanbul have protested against the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza since Oct. 7.
The protest took place in front of Istanbul University and was organized by the Academics and Authors Association of Islamic Countries, the Jihan al Ummah Solidarity and Cooperation Association, and Egitim-Bir-Sen, a teachers’ union.
15:39 GMT — UN refugee agency needs 160,000 litres of fuel every day to run operations in Gaza
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, has said it requires 160,000 litres of fuel daily to conduct its essential operations in Gaza. “UNRWA needs 160,000 litres of fuel every day for basic humanitarian operations,” the agency said in a statement.
15:30 GMT — 1 killed, several injured as police in Nigeria’s pro-Palestine rally
Nigerian police have opened fire and used tear gas on pro-Palestine demonstrators in north-central Kaduna city, killing one person and injuring several others, the country’s Islamic organisation said.
A spokesperson for the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Aliyu Tirmiziy said police fired tear gas canisters and gunshots to disperse hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators who were staging a demonstration in Kaduna city on Thursday against Israel’s continued assault on Gaza.
15:23 GMT — WHO welcomes evacuation of cancer patients from Gaza
The World Health Organisation has welcomed evacuation of the cancer patients from Gaza after dozens arrived in Türkiye for treatment this week.
“WHO welcomes the evacuations of people needing treatment for cancer and emphasizes that sustained, orderly, unimpeded and safe medical evacuations of critically injured and sick patients into and via Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing are essential," the spokesperson for the UN health agency, Margaret Harris, said in response to a question by Anadolu.
15:01 GMT — Scores of Palestinians dead, wounded from Israeli bombing of Gaza school
There were scores of deaths and injuries from an Israeli bombing that targeted a Gaza City school sheltering displaced people, Palestine TV reported.
More than 20 people were killed and 100 others injured in the bombing of Al Falah School, which houses displaced people in Gaza City’s southern Zeitoun neighbourhood, said the Palestinian Authority-run channel, based in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
14:59 GMT — 24 dead in two days at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital due to power cuts
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has said that 24 patients have died in the past two days at Al Shifa hospital owing to power cuts, as Israeli forces search the facility for Hamas hideouts.
"Twenty-four patients in different departments have died over the last 48 hours as vital medical equipment has stopped functioning because of the power outage," said ministry spokesperson Ashraf al Qudra.
On Monday, the ministry said 27 adult intensive care patients and seven babies had already died as Gaza’s largest hospital ran out of fuel to run its generators.
15:01 GMT — Scores of Palestinians dead, wounded from Israeli bombing of Gaza school
There were scores of deaths and injuries from an Israeli bombing that targeted a Gaza City school sheltering displaced people, Palestine TV reported.
More than 20 people were killed and 100 others injured in the bombing of Al Falah School, which houses displaced people in Gaza City’s southern Zeitoun neighbourhood, said the Palestinian Authority-run channel, based in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
14:15 GMT — Connection with Palestinian Health Ministry, health workers in Gaza remains ‘sparse’: WHO
With communications with Gaza crippled, the World Health Organisation has said its connection with the Palestinian Health Ministry and health workers in Gaza remains “sparse.”
Richard Peeperkorn, a WHO representative in occupied Palestinian territories, told a UN press briefing in Geneva that for the past four days, the UN agency has not received updated data on injuries and deaths from the Health Ministry.
13:26 GMT — Food and water running out at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital: doctor
A doctor at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital has said that food and water were running out and that supplies provided by the Israeli military were “very, very minimal”.
Doctor Ahmed el Mokhallalati told Reuters by telephone that Israeli forces were pressing on with searches of the hospital complex, but had “found nothing”.
13:20 GMT — Israel bombs school housing displaced people — Palestinian media
Casualties have been reported in a bombing of a school housing displaced people in the Al Zaytoun neighbourhood, south of Gaza City, according to Palestine TV.
12:55 GMT — Israel must ‘stop’ its attacks, and especially halt any push into south Gaza: UN
The UN human rights office has said that Israel should “stop” its attacks in Gaza, and pushed for a ceasefire, especially if it is pushing its operations into southern Gaza.
Taking questions from Anadolu in Geneva, Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights office, said that international humanitarian law must come first and foremost.
“The protection of civilians, their property, their livelihoods, everything has to come first,” he urged.“If they’re pushing now into the south of Gaza, (the) ultimate call is for this just to stop.”
“The ceasefire has to happen,” he reiterated, calling the current death toll in the tens of thousands “madness.”
12:19 GMT — Thousands of Jordanians join Gaza solidarity events
Thousands of Jordanians have joined several events held in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
The events included marches, vigils, funeral prayers in absentia and a blood donation campaign.
The protesters chanted slogans against the US for what they consider a biased position of Washington toward Israel in its war on Gaza. They also chanted slogans supporting the Palestinian resistance.
12:04 GMT — Hezbollah targets Israeli army in three separate attacks at Lebanon border
Hezbollah has said that it had successfully targeted three Israeli military gatherings in different areas opposite the southern Lebanese border.
Lebanon-based Hezbollah said in a statement that its members targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the Rameem barracks in the occupied Lebanese village of Houla “with appropriate weapons” and achieved results.
Hezbollah fighters targeted another gathering of Israeli soldiers near the Al Marj site, opposite the Lebanese town of Markaba, the group said in a separate statement, without specifying casualties or damage to the Israeli military.
In another statement, Hezbollah said it “targeted a group of Israeli soldiers near the Tiyahat Triangle opposite the town of Meiss al Jabal.”
12:00 GMT — Muslim worshippers blocked from prayers at Al Aqsa for 6th consecutive Friday
For the sixth consecutive week, Israeli authorities imposed tight restrictions on Palestinians, banning them from entering Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem for Friday prayers, leaving the mosque all but empty.
An official with the Waqf Department in Jerusalem told Anadolu that only around 4,000 Palestinians, most of them elderly, had managed to reach the venerated mosque to perform Friday prayers – down sharply from the usual 50,000.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that Israeli forces have been heavily deployed across occupied East Jerusalem, particularly in the Old City and the entrances leading to the mosque.
11:54 GMT — Israel to allow two fuel trucks a day into Gaza: official
Israel’s war cabinet has approved letting in two fuel trucks a day into Gaza to help meet UN needs, an Israeli official has said.
The official, who declined to be identified, said the decision came after a request from Washington. Allowing the fuel in, the official said, gives Israel extra room to maneuver in the international arena for its offensive in Gaza.
11:42 GMT — Israeli police try to block Turkish journalists, use gun to break their camera
Israeli police has tried to obstruct Turkish journalists from covering events in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, with one police officer breaking the journalists’ video camera.
The journalists from national broadcaster TRT Haber were reporting on Israeli forces blocking and using force against Palestinians heading to Al Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers. The Israeli police physically interfered with the TRT Haber team, breaking their camera with the barrel of a gun as they were working to cover events in the volatile region.
Although the camera was damaged, the TRT reporter said they would continue covering ongoing attacks in Palestine. During the live broadcast, Israeli police threw tear gas into the area where the mosque is located.
11:29 GMT — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced
Palestinian Bureau of Statistics has said 400,000 Palestinians were forced to flee towards southern Gaza due to Israeli bombardments, while 800,000 Palestinians remain in Gaza and northern areas.
11:17 GMT — Aid deliveries halt in Gaza due to communication blackout
Aid agencies have said they had to stop deliveries of food and other basic necessities to Gaza, warning of the possibility of starvation a day after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave with the lack of fuel due to Israel's total blockade on the territory.
The communications blackout largely cuts off Gaza's 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world — and paralyses the coordination of aid, which humanitarian groups were already struggling to deliver because of the fuel shortage.
10:56 GMT — Israeli army kills seven Palestinians in occupied West Bank
The Israeli army has said it killed at least seven Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in two separate incidents.
Occupation forces raided the Jabal Abu Zaheer and Al Jabriyat neighbourhoods, the outskirts of the Jenin camp, the vicinity of the district security headquarters, the ‘cinema roundabout,’ the city centre, and the vicinity of Jenin Governmental Hospital,” the official Palestine news agency WAFA reported.
10:12 GMT — The Israeli army claims control over the western area of Gaza City, the country's defence minister said, announcing the start of the “next phase” of ground invasion.
Speaking to soldiers at the 36th Division's command centre in southern Israel, Yoav Gallant said: "During the past 24 hours, we took operational control of the western area of Gaza City, and the next phase of ground operations has begun."
He added: "The more we continue this operation, the more pressure we will put on Hamas and the more we will succeed in eliminating its infrastructure, including its headquarters and tunnels."
Israel's bombardment of Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack, accompanied by a ground invasion, has killed over 11,000 Palestinians, more than half of them being women and children.
09:00 GMT — Israeli army kills 3 Palestinians, injures 9 others in airstrike on Jenin camp
The Israeli army has killed three Palestinians in an air strike on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Israeli air strike also left nine others injured, including two critically.
The Israeli army, meanwhile, pushed more than 80 military vehicles including bulldozers into Jenin city and the Jenin refugee camp, raided Palestinian homes and detained several Palestinians.
08:35 GMT — Israeli military says it retrieved the body of a captive soldier near Gaza's Al Shifa hospital
The Israeli military has said it retrieved the body of a soldier, who had been held captive by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, in a building near Gaza's Al Shifa hospital.
The Israeli military confirmed the death of the soldier after Hamas issued a video of her alive followed by images of what the Palestinian group said was her body after she was killed in an Israeli strike.
08:20 GMT — 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike on southern Gaza
At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in the Al Qarara area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Several others were injured in the attack, Palestine TV reported.
"Israeli warplanes also targeted a residential apartment west of Rafah in southern Gaza, while intense airstrikes were reported in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City," said the official WAFA news agency.
This came after Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee renewed his warning to the people of Gaza, calling on them to move south for their safety.
The government media office in Gaza has repeatedly reported attacks on roads that Israel declared “safe” towards the south of Gaza.
07:10 GMT — US statements on Gaza hospitals 'repetition of blatantly false narrative': Hamas
American allegations about the use of hospitals and schools in Gaza as military sites are a "repetition of a blatantly false narrative" provided by the Israeli army, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said, holding the US "politically and legally responsible" for Israel’s crimes in the enclave.
"The Pentagon's claim that Hamas used Al Shifa Hospital for military purposes... and the US State Department's claim that Hamas used hospitals and schools as military sites is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative," Hamas said in a statement published on the group's Telegram account.
It added that this "was exposed by the flimsy and ridiculous theatrics of the spokesperson for the occupying army, after their raid on Al Rantisi and Al Shifa hospitals and threatening the safety of patients and medical staff.”
06:40 GMT - Thousands at Al Shifa Hospital 'fighting death'
Over 7,000 displaced people, patients, and medical staff at Al Shifa Hospital are "fighting death due to a lack of water and food" caused by the Israeli military blockade, besieged Gaza media office reported.
According to a statement released on Telegram, the office emphasised the critical situation, stating that there is "no food, water, or milk for infants at Al Shifa Hospital."
"We may lose a number of malnourished children at the hospital due to the power outage, leaving them without incubators," it said.
The media office highlighted "the dire conditions at Al Shifa Hospital, which houses 650 patients and approximately 7,000 displaced individuals.
Medical teams, patients, and displaced individuals are struggling for survival due to the absence of life's essentials."
The statement pointed out that "Israeli forces have destroyed all vehicles in the hospital compound and refuse to allow medical staff or patients to leave."
The Gaza media office "appealed for urgent international intervention to rescue those present in the compound."
It reported that "the Israeli army conducted search and inspection operations inside Al Shifa Hospital, transferring the bodies of martyrs to an unknown location.
The occupying forces have converted the facility into a military barracks."
06:10 GMT — Israeli forces raid Jenin refugee camp in occupied West Bank
The Israeli army stormed the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank and besieged the Jenin refugee camp, leading to clashes with Palestinian fighters.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that large numbers of Israeli military vehicles entered the city accompanied by bulldozers.
They said the army approached from several directions and targeted several neighborhoods while imposing a siege on the Jenin camp.
Electricity was cut off in the camp and the Al Jabriyat neighborhood while military helicopters and drones flew over the area.
05:50 GMT — Pro-Palestinian protesters slam UK Labour Party for opposing ceasefire
Pro-Palestinian protesters held a rally in East London to denounce the Labour Party over its stance against calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Gathering outside the party's office in Tower Hamlets, they also called on Labour Party lawmaker Rushanara Ali to resign after she abstained from a vote supporting a motion calling for a cease-fire in the besieged enclave.
The crowd carried signs and Palestinian flags, chanting "Labour Party, shame on you. Rushanara Ali, shame on you."
05:40 GMT — PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel not successful in bid to minimise civilian casualties
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said attempts to minimise casualties in besieged Gaza were "not successful."
US television's CBS News asked Netanyahu whether Israel's killing of thousands of Palestinians would fuel a new generation of hatred.
"Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn't have any because we're doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm's way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm's way," Netanyahu said.
"So we send leaflets, [we] call them on their cell phones, and we say: 'leave'. And many have left," Netanyahu said.
"The other thing I can say is that we'll try to finish that job with minimal civilian casualties. That's what we're trying to do: minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we're not successful."
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of the blockaded enclave has left at least 11,500 Palestinians killed, over 4,700 of them children.
05:20 GMT — Blinken urges Israel to take action against settler violence in occupied West Bank
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on Israel to take "urgent" action to stop settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Blinken, in San Francisco for an Asia-Pacific summit, made the plea in a telephone call with Benny Gantz, an opposition leader who joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wartime cabinet.
Blinken "stressed the urgent need for affirmative steps to de-escalate tensions in the [occupied] West Bank, including by confronting rising levels of settler extremist violence," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
On the war front, Blinken with Gantz "discussed efforts to augment and accelerate the transit of critical humanitarian assistance into Gaza," Miller said.
05:10 GMT — Heads of UN agencies reject unilateral proposals to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza
The leaders of a number of UN agencies and humanitarian organisations said that they will not take part in any "safe zones" in Gaza declared by Israel, which is only one side in the conflict.
"As humanitarian leaders, our position is clear: We will not participate in the establishment of any 'safe zone' in Gaza that is set up without the agreement of all the parties, and unless fundamental conditions are in place to ensure safety and other essential needs are met and a mechanism is in place to supervise its implementation," the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the highest-level humanitarian coordination forum of the UN system, said in a statement.
Under the current circumstances, any proposals to unilaterally establish "safe zones" are likely to harm civilians, including potentially causing significant casualties, and should be rejected, the committee said.
For our live updates from Thursday (November 16), click here
