Israel Hamas war Updates: Communication services down across Gaza due to lack of fuel

The United Nations is looking for ways to evacuate Al Shifa hospital in Gaza but options are limited by security and logistical constraints, a senior World Health Organization official said on Thursday.

One obstacle is that the Palestinian Red Crescent lacks sufficient fuel for its ambulances within Gaza to evacuate patients, WHO regional emergencies director Rick Brennan told Reuters. There are also not enough ambulances available, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jerusalem said.

Egypt was open to having its ambulances cross into Gaza to help evacuate people as long as security guarantees and safe passage could be provided, Brennan said in an interview from Cairo.

The WHO said there were still about 600 patients including 27 in critical condition at Shifa hospital, which Israeli forces entered this week following a days-long siege, Brennan said.

Reuters

Palestinian medics said on Thursday they are increasingly afraid for the lives of hundreds of patients and medical staff at Gaza's biggest hospital, cut off from all links to the outside world for more than a day after Israeli forces entered.

Israel said its commandos were still searching through Al Shifa hospital on Thursday, more than a day after they entered its grounds as part of an offensive Israel says aims to wipe out Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.

"The operation is shaped by our understanding that there is well-hidden terrorist infrastructure in the complex," an Israeli official said, declining to be identified.

Reuters

Israel President Isaac Herzog says, "We are not targeting hospitals. Hamas has placed command and control centres under the hospitals, and from there, they are shooting and killing our citizens. So we have the right to defend ourselves. They have missiles. They have missiles in living rooms. They have terror machines in all over the civilian premises. So what we do, we alert everybody in advance according to the rules of international humanitarian law, and we send millions of leaflets and millions of phone calls we are doing, and we're sending millions of text messages, and we are telling the people in the war zone, please leave your premise so that we can go in...I agree there are many civilians in Gaza who are innocent and not involved. But because this place was taken over, we have to remove that. In the hospitals what we are doing is, we are making sure that none of the patients, the doctors, or the crew, or the operations are even stopped. On the contrary, we brought in to the Shifa hospital a lot of equipment and food and fuel and whatever is necessary to operate the hospital...We have an aim to bring our citizens back, and we have an aim to rescue the hostages. And we have one big aim, to make sure Hamas will not be able to do it again.."

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) states that a number of UNRWA schools are being utilised for military purposes, with Israeli tanks reportedly present in UN schools, Reuters reports.

In an official statement, the Israeli military announced its control over Gaza's harbor following the elimination of 10 militants, Bloomberg reported.

The operation involved clearing surrounding structures and dismantling 10 tunnel shafts. The military also reported the destruction of additional military infrastructure at the port, located just off Gaza City. Accusations were made against Hamas, claiming the site was used for both training activities and launching attacks on Israel.

An Israeli military official reports that Hamas has actively concealed infrastructure and obscured evidence within Gaza hospitals, Reuters reports.

A group of United Nations experts said on Thursday there was "evidence of increasing genocidal incitement" against the Palestinian people in what it said were "grave violations" committed by Israel.

"We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire," the group of experts, which included several U.N. special rapporteurs, said in a statement.

"We are also profoundly concerned about the support of certain governments for Israel's strategy of warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide."

U.N. experts had previously warned that the Palestinian people were at "grave risk of genocide".

Reuters

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Israel on Thursday not to be consumed by rage in its response to last month's Hamas attack, declaring that "one horror does not justify another".

Borrell made his remarks on a visit to Israel, speaking alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen after the two men had visited Kibbutz Be'eri, a focal point of the Oct. 7 assault.

"I understand your rage but let me ask you not to be consumed by rage. I think that's what the best friends of Israel can tell you," he said.

Speaking at a regional council building a short drive from the kibbutz, Borrell stressed the EU's solidarity with Israel and its support for the country's right to defend itself in line with international law.

"But one thing is to defend Israel and another thing's to take care of the people in need," he added.

Reuters

Israeli forces seized control over a Hamas harbor base in central Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces announced on Thursday.

In the combined raid of the navy, armour and engineering forces, along with air force support, about ten tunnel shafts were destroyed, and four buildings of associated terrorist infrastructure were destroyed, the IDF said.

Israel Hamas war LIVE Updates: Three individuals believed to be Palestinian assailants carried out a gunfire attack at a checkpoint along a crucial route connecting Jerusalem and the West Bank's Bethlehem, injuring six individuals, as reported by Israeli emergency services. In response, security forces engaged the assailants, neutralizing them. Israeli police explained that the security forces took action when the suspects, traveling in a suspicious vehicle, opened fire toward them at the crossing.

Israel Hamas war LIVE Updates: "Massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable," Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

The United Nations Human Rights Chief said there is need for the termination of the Israeli occupation.

Israel Hamas war LIVE Updates: German authorities conducted raids on 54 locations, suspecting connections to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. This action follows Germany's ban on Hamas activities after the October 7 attack by the Islamist group in Israel.

Israel Hamas war LIVE Updates: Israel's inflation decelerated for the second consecutive month, contradicting earlier predictions of a surge due to the conflict with Hamas. October's consumer prices rose 3.7 per cent year-on-year and increased by 0.5 per cent monthly. Although the annual rate slightly dipped from September's 3.8 per cent, it still exceeds the official target range of 1-3 per cent.

Israel Hamas war LIVE Updates: The Israeli military conducted an airstrike on the residence of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, saying that the house was used by Hamas to coordinate attacks against Israelis.

US President Joe Biden said, he made clear to PM Benjamin Netanyahu that the best way to fix the Israel-Palestinian issue is through a two-state solution. He also said taking over Gaza would be a ‘big mistake’.

"If we pull back, then who will take over? We can't leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism; there are many ideas that are thrown in the air," Israeli president Isaac Herzog said in an interview with the FT.

"Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital. We continue to move forward," Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israeli military operations in Gaza, said in a social media post.

A vehicle collided with a barricade near the Israeli embassy in Tokyo on Thursday. While the police is probing the incident, a man in his 50s is arrested.

Israel Hamas war LIVE Updates: Police in Washington responded to a protest outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters, where demonstrators called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. U.S. Capitol Police reported that approximately 150 people were "illegally and violently protesting" near the DNC headquarters in Capitol Hill, leading to the evacuation of Members of Congress from the building.

Israel Hamas war LIVE: “Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again, like they did before — cutting babies heads off and burning women and children alive. And so the idea that they’re just gonna stop and not do anything is not realistic,” US President Joe Biden said Wednesday during a press conference near San Francisco, where he’s attending an Asia-Pacific leaders summit.