Live Updates: 36 premature babies at risk in Gaza hospital, 3 already dead

13:32 GMT — 36 premature babies at risk in Gaza hospital, 3 already dead

The lives of 36 babies at Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital were hanging in the balance, according to medical staff there who said there was no clear mechanism to move them despite an Israeli effort to supply incubators for an evacuation.

Three of the original 39 premature babies have already died since Gaza’s biggest hospital ran out of fuel at the weekend to power generators that had kept their incubators going.

"Luckily they are still 36, we didn’t lose any of them overnight," Dr Ahmed El Mokhatallali, a surgeon, told Reuters by telephone from Al Shifa. "But still the risks are really high ... We have still the risk of losing them."

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13:25 GMT — Hezbollah strikes Israeli military sites

Lebanese Hezbollah has said that it struck Israeli military sites near the border, inflicting injuries.

13:21 GMT— Palestinians call for evacuation of newborns from Gaza's hospital

Palestinian authorities proposed a Red Cross-supervised evacuation of a hospital beset by fighting in Gaza on Tuesday, as health officials warned that the only way to save three dozen newborns trapped there would be to call a cease-fire and transport them out of the besieged territory.

After days of battles with Hamas fighters, Israeli forces have encircled Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people are trapped with dwindling supplies and without electricity to run incubators and other equipment.

Tuesday, 14 November 2023

13:20 GMT — The Israeli army claimed to captured the parliament and other government institutions in Gaza, as its forces deepened their offensive in the Palestinian territory.

Military units "took over the Hamas parliament, the government building, the Hamas police headquarters and an engineering faculty that served as an institute for the production and development of weapons," the army said in a statement.

Hamas has not responded to Israeli claims.

13:17 GMT — Hardline Israeli minister backs 'voluntary immigration' of Palestinians

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has suggested that "voluntary immigration" of Palestinians in Gaza is a "right humanitarian solution" to end the ongoing conflict.

In a statement on X, Smotrich backed an initiative by hardline Israeli lawmakers, who called for expelling residents of Gaza to countries worldwide as a solution to the conflict between what he said was "Arabs and Jews."

"This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region," the far-right minister added.

12:55 GMT — 'Best way' to ensure safety of patients, civilians at Al Shifa Hospital not evacuation but 'stopping hostilities': WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the "best way" to ensure the safety of patients as well as civilians taking shelter at Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital is not evacuation but "stopping hostilities now."

Taking Anadolu’s question at a UN press conference in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said the hostilities should be stopped for the sake of "saving lives, not taking lives."

On the Israeli army’s order to evacuate the hospital, Gaza's largest, Harris said that it would not be possible to evacuate 700 at-risk patients, underlining it would be "very hard," even if they have to move if and when the hospital stops working due to lack of fuel, as most in Gaza have. She noted that the WHO still defines Al Shifa Hospital as a functioning hospital due to "heroic efforts."

13:42 GMT — Israel’s targeting of Gaza hospitals violates international law: Türkiye

Turkey’s foreign minister told his Australian counterpart in a call that Israel’s targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an "open violation of international law", a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Hakan Fidan also emphasised the urgency of achieving a full ceasefire as soon as possible and the need for unhindered access to humanitarian aid into the enclave, the source said.

12:35 GMT — 179 buried in 'mass grave' in Gaza hospital compound: official

The director of Gaza's biggest hospital has said that 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, had been buried in a "mass grave" at the complex.

"We were forced to bury them in a mass grave," said Al Shifa Hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiyah, adding that seven babies and 29 intensive care patients were among those buried after the hospital's fuel supplies ran out.

12:15 GMT — Israeli hospital attacks 'should be investigated as war crimes': HRW

In a new report, Human Rights Watch says the Israeli military's "unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel and transport are further destroying Gaza's healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes".

The organisation urged the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the International Criminal Court to investigate.

"Despite the Israeli military's claims on November 5, 2023, of 'Hamas's cynical use of hospitals,' no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law," it said.

"Human Rights Watch investigated attacks on or near the Indonesian Hospital, al Ahli Hospital, the International Eye Care Center, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, and the Al Quds Hospital between October 7 and November 7."

11:45 GMT — China, other nations condemn Israeli minister's statement on nuclear option

China, many Arab nations and Iran condemned an Israeli minister’s statement that an option in Israel’s war on Gaza could be to drop a nuclear bomb on the enclave.

At Monday’s opening of a UN conference whose goal is to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, speaker after speaker said the Israeli statement posed a threat to the region and the wider international community.

The condemnations and criticisms were in response to comments by Israel’s Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu on the possible use of nuclear weapons in Gaza.

China’s deputy UN ambassador Geng Shuang said Beijing was “shocked” at what “Israeli officials said about the use of nuclear weapons in Gaza,” calling the statements “extremely irresponsible and disturbing” and saying they should be universally condemned.

11:30 GMT — China backs calls for Middle East free of nuclear arms

Backing calls for a nuclear arms-free Middle East, China at the UN has voiced opposition against the presence of such weapons in the region as a major destabilising factor.

"Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have been a major factor causing a trust deficit in the Middle East, undermining regional peace and stability," China's deputy chief at the UN, Ambassador Geng Shuang said, addressing a UN conference in New York.

The top issue at the conference was the establishment of a zone in the Middle East free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, a cause, Geng said China supports.

At the event, Beijing also launched a broadside at Israeli officials who recently proposed the use of nuclear arms in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which, China said, "has caused an uproar."

11:22 GMT — Gaza hospitals out of service: OCHA

Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since Nov. 5, the UN humanitarian office said, as Israeli ground forces are around hospitals where patients, newborns and medics are stranded with no electricity and dwindling supplies.

The humanitarian office, known as OCHA, says only one hospital in the north is capable of receiving patients.

All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting, including Gaza’s largest, Al Shifa, which is surrounded by Israeli troops and where 36 babies are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators.

11:16 GMT — Israel says supplying incubators for possible baby transfer from Gaza hospital

The Israeli military has said it was coordinating the transfer of incubators into Gaza, in a possible measure to enable the evacuation of newborn babies from the Palestinian enclave's biggest hospital.

The statement, posted on social media with an image of a soldier unloading incubators from a van, followed distress calls from Al Shifa Hospital regarding its neonatology patients as Israeli ground forces closed in and generator fuel ran out.

10:44 GMT — Palestinian death toll in West Bank surges to 194

At least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks overnight in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and Palestinian media have said.

Five Palestinians were killed in Tulkarem city in an Israeli air strike, which also left nine others injured – including three in critical condition, according to the Wafa news agency.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed near Hebron city by the Israeli army, which claimed he attempted to carry out a stabbing attack.

At least 194 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces in the West Bank since Oct. 7 in addition to over 2,700 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

10:25 GMT — Last generator at Al Amal hospital stopped working

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that the only power generator at Al Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza has stopped working.

“Today, the sole power generator at Al Amal Hospital, affiliated with the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Khan Younis, stopped working. This threatens the lives of 90 patients receiving treatment at the hospital, including 25 patients in the medical rehabilitation department who are now facing the risk of death at any moment,” it said.

The statement confirmed that around 9,000 displaced people have sought refuge in the society's headquarters and the hospital.

It added that “the hospital now relies on a small generator for limited electricity in the maternity ward and emergency department with the remaining fuel expected to run out within 24 hours.”

10:22 GMT — US Senator Sanders calls for immediate action on Gaza

US senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says the humanitarian situation in Gaza must be addressed immediately “or thousands of people may die,” following a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“The goal now is to do everything we can to save lives — get the humanitarian aid in as quickly as possible,” he said.

10:20 GMT — UN: fuel shortage hampers aid delivery inside Gaza

The fuel crisis in Gaza is so dramatic that trucks filled with aid arriving through the Rafah crossing from Egypt won’t be unloaded because there is no fuel for the forklifts, or for vehicles to deliver the food, water and medicine they’re carrying to those in desperate need, a senior UN humanitarian official has said.

Andrea De Domenico, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said: “lives in Gaza are hanging by a thread due to the bleeding of fuel and medical supplies.”

He also said that since Israeli troops arrived in the Gaza City centre five days ago, it has been too dangerous for the UN to coordinate any operation in the north.

10:15 GMT — US Yellen: APEC agrees on need to contain Israel-Palestine conflict

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that finance ministers from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries agreed to do everything they could to prevent the Israel-Palestine war from expanding into a regional conflict.

Yellen told a press conference that while human suffering was top of mind, it was "critical" that the conflict not expand, and "that if it does, it could pose risks to the global outlook that all of us would be concerned about."

10:05 GMT — Brazil's Lula says Israel response 'as grave' as Hamas attack

Brazil's president accused Israel of "killing innocent people without any criteria" in Gaza, deeming its actions there "as grave" as the October 7 attacks by Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

After the Hamas' Oct. 7 surprise attack "the consequences, the solution of the state of Israel, is as grave as that of Hamas. They are killing innocent people without any criteria," said Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at an official ceremony in Brasilia.

The leader of Latin America's largest country also accused Israel of "dropping bombs where there are children, hospitals, on the pretext that a terrorist is there."

"This is inexplicable. First, you have to save the women and children, then you fight with whomever you want," Lula said.

09:54 GMT — Palestinian victims file ICC complaint over Israel’s Gaza massacres

Lawyers for the Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Dutch city of The Hague.

The victims’ representative before the ICC, Gilles Devers, and a four-person delegation that accompanied him submitted the complaint to the court’s prosecutor.

Addressing the press, Devers asserted that Israeli acts in Gaza constitute factors of the crime of genocide.

“The ICC is currently investigating the war crimes in a related investigation. The crime of genocide should also be included in this,” he said, adding that forcing over one million people to be displaced and cutting access to water, energy, food and medicine indicates that Israel wants total annihilation of the population in Gaza."

09:52 GMT - Battles between Israel and Palestinian fighters around hospitals forced thousands of civilians to flee from some of the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza, stranding critically wounded patients, newborns and their caregivers with dwindling supplies and no electricity, Palestinian health officials said.

Gunfire and explosions raged around Gaza City's main hospital, Al Shifa, which has been encircled by Israeli troops for days.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the hospital in the past few days and headed to the southern Gaza, including large numbers of displaced people who had taken shelter there, as well as patients who could move.

4:36 GMT - Red Crescent denies Israeli claims that gunmen are present inside Al Quds Hospital

The Palestine Red Crescent Society issued a statement denying Israeli claims of the presence of Palestinian gunmen inside Al Quds Hospital in Gaza.

The Red Crescent condemned the Israeli army’s "false allegations of gunmen firing from inside Al Quds Hospital."

It also considered the claims "incitement to target the hospital" in a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

4:00 GMT - Israeli defense minister says Hamas has lost control over Gaza City

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the Hamas has lost control over Gaza City as his army continues to advance inside Gaza.

In a statement cited by the Times of Israel news website, Gallant said following an army assessment session that "there is no force of Hamas capable of stopping" the Israeli army.

He added that the Israeli army is advancing inside Gaza “according to plans and carry out the tasks accurately, lethally.”

3:06 GMT - EU foreign policy chief says international community failed to find solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The international community has failed to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as shown by its continuation, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said.

"This dramatic crisis, with its very high cost in terms of Israeli and Palestinian human lives, shows the political and moral failure of the international community in failing to find a solution to this conflict,'' Josep Borrell told a press conference after an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.

''This tragedy should be an occasion for everyone to understand that a solution must be sought that can only be based on the construction of two states," he added.

2:30 GMT - Israeli army confirms identity of soldier held hostage by Hamas

The Israeli army confirmed the identity of a soldier being held hostage by Hamas, after the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group published a video showing the young woman in captivity.

The army expressed sympathy for the Marciano family, stating that their daughter, Noa, was abducted by Hamas.

"We are using all means, both intelligence and operational, to bring the hostages home," the army said in a statement released shortly after midnight.

For our live updates from Monday (November 13), click here.