Israel’s Gaza invasion - Day 403

  • Israel’s invasion of Gaza Strip, sparked by Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023 attack, surpasses 13 months

  • Hamas’ top leaders, Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran, while Yahya Sinwar killed in southern Gaza

  • Report suggests Israel seeking to carve out ‘buffer zones’ and has no reason to slow down until new US president takes office in Jan

  • Israel invades Lebanon, killing over 1,550 people and displacing 1m; assassinates Hezbollah’s Nasrallah, his likely successor

  • Iran launches missiles on Tel Aviv; Israel retaliates with strikes on military sites

Published 13 Nov, 2024 09:15am

65 killed across Gaza in a day as Israel’s offensive rages on: ministry

 Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City on October 26. — Reuters
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City on October 26. — Reuters

In Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed 13 people yesterday, Reuters quotes Palestinian medics as saying.

In its daily update, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli military strikes had killed 65 Palestinians across the enclave in the past 24 hours.

Palestinian health officials have said the new Israeli offensive has killed around 350 Palestinians in Jabalia and nearby areas.

Jabalia is home to one of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps.

Published 13 Nov, 2024 10:30am

US military says it striked ‘Iran-backed’ militia facility in Syria

The US military has said it had conducted strikes against an allegedly Iran-backed militia group’s weapons storage facility in Syria, Reuters reports.

“These strikes were in response to a rocket attack on US personnel at Patrol Base Shaddadi. There was no damage to US facilities and no injuries to US or partner forces during the attack,” the US military said in a statement.

Published 13 Nov, 2024 08:45am

MSF surgeon detained by Israel in north Gaza hospital raid

Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said that one of its doctors working in a north Gaza hospital has been detained by Israeli forces, Reuters reports.

Mohammed Obeid, an MSF orthopaedic surgeon working at Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza, was detained during an Israeli military raid on the site on October 26, MSF said.

“We are extremely alarmed by the detention of our colleague,” it said.

“We call for the safety and the protection of our colleague, and for all medical staff in Gaza who work under impossible conditions and are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”

Published 13 Nov, 2024 08:31am

North Gaza hospitals say food, medicines running out as Israel presses offensive

 Palestinians inspect the damage following Israeli bombardment which hit a camp for displaced people from other parts of northern Gaza inside the Al-Jazira Sports Club in Gaza City on November 12. — AFP
Palestinians inspect the damage following Israeli bombardment which hit a camp for displaced people from other parts of northern Gaza inside the Al-Jazira Sports Club in Gaza City on November 12. — AFP

Palestinian health officials have called for a humanitarian corridor to three hospitals in northern Gaza that have come close to collapse as Israeli troops have cut off the area during almost two weeks of offensive against Hamas, Reuters reports.

Doctors at the Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian hospitals have refused to leave their patients despite evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military at the start of a major push into the Jabalia area of northern Gaza 12 days ago.

“We are calling on the international community, the Red Cross and the World Health Organisation, to play their humanitarian role by opening up a corridor towards our healthcare system and allow the entry of fuel, medical, delegations, supplies and food,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

“We are talking about more than 300 medical staff working at Kamal Adwan Hospital, and we can’t provide even a single meal for them to be able to offer medical services safely.”

Published 12 Nov, 2024 11:55pm

Grave situation in north Gaza amid Israeli strikes: UN

The UN Human Rights office in the occupied Palestinian territory says the Israeli military’s repeated strikes have led to massive civilian deaths in north Gaza in the last five weeks while its siege has cut off the population from humanitarian aid, medical care and emergency rescue service, Al Jazeera reports.

Most of the incidents, the OHCHR said in a statement, were strikes on residential buildings where entire families were sheltering, resulting in a high number of fatalities

“The strikes have disproportionally affected women, older people and people with disability, many of whom are reportedly trapped due to restricted movement and attacks on escape routes,” it said.

It also said that the Israeli military has attacked the workers of the Palestinian civil defence department, forcing the department to suspend its operations on October 24, “depriving residents of North Gaza all support in recovering their loved ones who are left to die trapped under rubble”.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 11:07pm

Hezbollah targets Israeli logistics base

The Lebanese armed group says it attacked a logistics base east of the city of Nahariya with a “squadron of attack drones”, Al Jazeera reports.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it had intercepted an Israeli Hermes 450 drone in the airspace of the western sector, saying “we forced it to leave Lebanese airspace”.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 10:49pm

Israeli attack targets Palestinians waiting for aid in northern Gaza

Al Jazeera reports that Israeli forces bombed a residential building where Palestinians were waiting for aid, northwest of Gaza City, resulting in a number of casualties.

Earlier, an Israeli air raid hit the area of the Gaza Sports Club in Gaza City, causing several injuries.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 10:40pm

More than 40 killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon yesterday

At least 44 people were killed and 88 wounded across Lebanon in Israeli attacks on Monday, the country’s health ministry says, Al Jazeera reports.

It added that at least 3,287 have been killed and 14,222 wounded in Israeli attacks since last year.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 10:30pm

Israeli military still obstructing aid delivery to Gaza: Norwegian Refugee Council

Israel is obstructing the delivery of aid to Gaza in several ways in violation to its obligations under international law, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said.

“First and foremost, they are obstructing aid from entering through the crossings,” Shaina Low, NRC’s communications adviser, told Al Jazeera. “Aid is arbitrarily rejected and essential supplies are not allowed in, including timber to help people build shelters as they face winter.

“Sometimes the requests to access those crossings are denied for over a month.”

Once the aid enters Gaza, aid workers must request safe routes through which they can safely distribute the aid.

“Israel often denies requests to move from place to place in order to reach Palestinian families that are in desperate need,” Low said.

A truck carries humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel on November 11. — Reuters
A truck carries humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel on November 11. — Reuters

Published 12 Nov, 2024 10:06pm

Palestinian dies after being shot by Israeli forces near Nablus

A man was shot near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank has died, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, the ministry identified him as 18-year-old Waleed Ashraf Mohammed Hussein.

The Israeli army claimed Hussein was “armed with a knife” and “attempted to stab” soldiers at a military checkpoint near the town of Deir Sharaf, northwest of Nablus.

No injuries were reported to Israeli soldiers.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 09:36pm

France summons Israeli envoy demanding no repeat of Jerusalem incident

France’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Israel’s ambassador to tell him that an incident in Jerusalem that saw armed Israeli security forces entering a property administered by France should never be repeated, Reuters reports.

The French foreign ministry said in a statement the ambassador had been told the presence of armed Israeli security forces and the arrest of the French officials at the site were “unacceptable”, especially between allies with strong ties.

“Measures will be put in place to ensure that such acts do not recur,” it said without elaborating.

Israel’s foreign ministry has said that every visiting foreign leader is accompanied by its security personnel, a point that had been “clarified in advance in the preparatory dialogue with the French Embassy in Israel”.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 08:05pm

Amsterdam attacks on Israeli fans ‘poisonous cocktail’: mayor

The attacks against Israeli fans after a football match in Amsterdam last week was a “poisonous cocktail” of anti-Semitism and hooligan behaviour, the city’s mayor said, AFP reports.

“The incident was a poisonous cocktail of anti-Semitism and hooliganism,” Femke Halsema said, adding that “injustice has been done to both Jews in our city as well as people of minorities who sympathise with the Palestinians.”

Halsema was speaking at an emergency meeting of the Amsterdam city council days after the Dutch capital was rocked by violence between Israeli football fans and men on scooters in several areas of the city.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof has described the men as “with a migration background”.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 07:35pm

5 killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon: health ministry

Lebanon’s health ministry has said an Israeli strike killed five people in the mountains east of Beirut, after a security official said a house sheltering displaced people was hit, AFP reports.

“The Israeli enemy strike on Baalshmay killed five people,” the ministry has said in an initial report.

The security official, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the “Israeli strike targeted a house where displaced people lived, including women and children”.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 07:15pm

Israel’s ‘ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza’ aimed at illegal settlement building, activist says

Alon-Lee Green, co-director of Standing Together says the Israeli army is “implementing ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza” with the aim of building illegal Israeli settlements, Al Jazeera reports.

“In other words, colonisation. Yes, our army is forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza to flee south by starving them, bombing them, killing dozens daily, leaving no choice,” he said in a video posted on X.

“Then, they claim people chose to leave, but the reality is they’re forced out to make way for new Israeli settlements,” Green charged.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 07:00pm

Qatar slams Israeli minister’s call for annexation of occupied West Bank

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has blatantly violated international law with his statements, “which included directives to prepare the necessary infrastructure for the annexation of the occupied West Bank”, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says, Al Jazeera reports.

“Qatar considers these statements a blatant violation of international law and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, as well as a dangerous escalation that undermines the prospects for peace in the region, particularly amid the ongoing brutal war on the Gaza Strip and its horrific consequences,” it said in a statement.

The ministry emphasised “the urgent need for the international community to firmly oppose the Israeli occupation’s settlement, colonial and racist policies”.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 06:43pm

Israeli army warns residents of 14 villages in southern Lebanon to flee

The Israeli military has told the residents that it intends to launch a military operation against Hezbollah in their villages, Al Jazeera reports.

The affected villages include Chaqra, Hula, Majdal Selem, Taloussa, Meiss el-Jabal, as-Sawana, Qabrikha, Yahmour, Arnoun, Blida, Muhaibib, Barashit, Fron and Ghandouriya, according to Avichay Adraee, an Israeli army spokesperson.

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali River. To ensure your safety, you must evacuate without delay,” he said on X.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 06:40pm

Israel says it is pushing to get aid into Gaza before US deadline as fighting persists

The Israeli military said it had delivered hundreds of packets of food to cut-off areas of northern Gaza as fighting raged ahead of a US deadline for Israel to get more aid into the Palestinian enclave or face cuts in military assistance.

Palestinian medics said at least 37 people had been killed in Israeli strikes in several parts of the Gaza Strip overnight and into Tuesday, including 10 people killed in a house in Beit Hanoun and two others in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, the military said.

Later, an Israeli strike killed 11 Palestinians in Rafah, medics said. A strike on a house in the Gaza City suburb of Sabra killed a Hamas leader in the city, Waleed Aweida, and his granddaughter. Three other people including his wife were still under the rubble.

Read the full Reuters story here.

Displaced Palestinians make their way after fleeing the northern part of Gaza amid an Israeli military operation, in Gaza City on November 12. — Reuters
Displaced Palestinians make their way after fleeing the northern part of Gaza amid an Israeli military operation, in Gaza City on November 12. — Reuters

Published 12 Nov, 2024 05:33pm

Israeli airstrikes pound Beirut suburb, no sign of ceasefire

The Israeli military pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs with airstrikes, mounting one of its heaviest daytime attacks yet on the area after the defence minister ruled out a ceasefire until Israeli goals were met, Reuters reports.

Smoke billowed over Beirut as at least 10 blasts were heard across the city.

The strikes followed an Israeli army warning identifying 12 sites in the southern suburbs and saying it would take action against them soon. The warning, posted on social media, told residents they were near Hezbollah facilities.

In northern Israel, people were forced to take shelter as attack drones were launched from Lebanon, the military said. One hit the yard of a kindergarten in a Haifa suburb, where the children had been rushed into a shelter, meaning none were hurt, rescue workers said. TV footage showed damage to the building.

Read the full Reuters story here.

Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon on November 12. — Reuters
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon on November 12. — Reuters

Published 12 Nov, 2024 04:27pm

Israel says opens Gaza aid crossing, ahead of US deadline

Israel’s army announced the opening of an additional aid crossing into Gaza, on the eve of a US-imposed deadline to improve humanitarian conditions for Palestinians in the besieged territory, AFP reports.

“As part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid to the Gaza Strip, the ‘Kissufim’ Crossing was opened today,” the army said in a joint statement with COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry agency responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.

“The operation… includes the delivery of food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment to central and southern Gaza,” they said, adding it involved the military, COGAT and defence ministry.

“The IDF (Israeli army), through COGAT, will continue to operate in accordance with international law to facilitate and ease the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.”

Published 12 Nov, 2024 04:15pm

At least 6 people killed in Israeli attack near mosque in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah

An Israeli air strike has targeted an overcrowded area near Al Noor Mosque in the western part of Deir el-Balah city in central Gaza, killing at least six people, Al Jazeera reports.

At least 10 critically injured people were received by the American field hospital, the report added.

The latest killings brought the death toll in the Israeli attacks carried out across the Gaza Strip since dawn to 25.

Published 12 Nov, 2024 03:08pm

Israeli air raids continue in densely built-up Beirut suburbs

Strikes have resumed in Beirut’s southern suburbs after evacuation orders for 11 buildings, Al Jazeera reports.

“There aren’t many people left but the area is very densely built up, so the strikes do not just damage the buildings that are directly targeted but those around them, too,” the report said.

This morning, there were videos of people fleeing the scene as plumes of smoke were rising. Most people have evacuated the area, but many go back during the day to check on their houses, so this may have been what happened earlier, according to the report.

“Israel yesterday hit Ain Yaaqoub, the northernmost town that has been hit so far, which has no known Hezbollah presence,” the report added.