Israel-Hamas war live: Israel warns Gazans to leave Jabaliya refugee camp; 28 premature babies moved to Rafah crossing
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Israel ‘expanding’ operation in Gaza, says military
The Israeli military said it was expanding its operation in the Gaza Strip, Agence France-Presse is reporting.
Israel warned residents of Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabaliya, and a nearby coastal camp to evacuate, while the military said on Sunday it was “expanding its operational activities in additional neighbourhoods” of Gaza.
After intense bombardment, an AFP journalist in the territory saw columns of smoke rising from Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, on Sunday.
A Hamas health official said more than 80 people were killed in twin strikes on Jabaliya on Saturday, including on a UN school sheltering displaced people.
Social media videos verified by AFP showed bodies covered in blood and dust on the floor of a building, where mattresses had been wedged under school tables.
Israel’s military has said Jabaliya is among the areas of focus as troops “target terrorists and strike Hamas infrastructure”.
Without mentioning the strikes, the Israeli army said that “an incident in the Jabaliya region” was under review.
The UN rights chief, Volker Turk, on Sunday condemned the purported strike on the school as “horrifying”, adding that “the horrendous events of the past 48 hours in Gaza beggar belief”.
On Monday, Palestinian news agency Wafa said the Indonesian hospital near Jabaliya had also come under shelling.
Key events
Chris McGreal
A powerful rightwing pressure group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), is engineering pledges of unconditional support for Israel’s attack on Gaza by state legislatures across the US.
Alec is promoting a model resolution expressing “support for Israel’s right to pursue without interference or condemnation the elimination of Hamas”. A version has been accepted by legislatures in at least eight states, including Pennsylvania, Nebraska and North Dakota.
The resolution adopts Israeli claims that Hamas uses “civilians as human shields” and names Iran as giving logistical support to the group.
Some state legislatures have also denounced calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Although state legislatures have limited direct influence over Washington’s policy on Israel, Alec and allied groups have long been instrumental in mobilising political pressure by pushing local legislation and resolutions in support of the Jewish state. They include laws to block and punish support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.
Read more of Chris McGreal’s report here: Rightwing group pressures states to pass pro-Israel resolutions
28 premature babies evacuated from Gaza into Egypt – reports
A picture has been issued showing the ambulances carrying premature Palestinian babies who have been evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in the process of crossing into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.
Egypt’s Qahera news channel appears to have shown four ambulances on the Egyptian side of the border.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society had earlier posted images of the babies being prepared for transportation.
🚨 A few moments ago, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams departed from in front of the Emirati Hospital in Rafah to transport 28 premature infants to the Rafah Crossing, in preparation for their transfer to receive medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals.
📌This comes… pic.twitter.com/PiXNuIAF2T
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 20, 2023
Thirty-one babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital. Reportedly three of the babies have remained in Gaza because the families of two of them want them to remain there for “personal reasons”, and because a third is unidentified. A medical spokesperson told the BBC that the babies remaining in Gaza were in a stable condition.
Relatives of some of the estimated 240 people held by Hamas in Gaza urged far-right Israeli lawmakers on Monday not to pursue proposed capital punishment for captured Palestinian militants, saying that even talk of doing so might endanger the hostages.
Israel’s justice ministry said on 7 November that a taskforce was discussing how to try the Palestinians who had been detained and secure “punishments befitting the severity of the horrors committed” for those convicted. The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for the death penalty, which is dormant on Israel’s law books, Reuters reports.
Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is among the hostages, told Ben-Gvir and his party colleagues during a parliamentary panel: “It would mean playing along with their mind games. And in return we would get pictures of our loves ones murdered, ended, with the state of Israel and not them [Hamas] being blamed for it.
“Don’t pursue this until after they are back here. Don’t put my sister’s blood on your hands.”
Some of the relatives of the people held captive by Hamas in Gaza worry that the publicity around the capital punishment debate could invite reprisals even as hopes of a deal to free some of them is growing. A number of suspected Palestinian gunmen were detained in Israel after members of Hamas breached the Gaza Strip border on 7 October.
Gonen was one of the relatives of the hostages who took part in a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last week. She told the Guardian on Saturday that the families felt neglected by the government. “We need to see that they’re doing everything in their power to get the hostages back home,” Yarden said. “And we’re not going to back down.”
The BBC is reporting that only 28 of the 31 premature babies are being transferred because one baby has no identified parents to sign consent forms for the transfer, and that for “personal circumstances” two of the babies’ families preferred them to stay in Gaza.
Ethar Shalaby, of the BBC Arabic Service, spoke to Dr Mohamed Salama, the head of the neo-natal unit at al-Ahli Emirates hospital where the babies were being cared for. Salama said the three babies staying behind were in a stable condition.
A picture has been issued of some of the premature babies being transported out of Gaza and into Egypt today. They are seen in the back of an ambulance.
Thirty-one premature babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza after it was raided by Israeli forces. Twenty-eight of them are now in transit to the Rafah crossing, according to a statement earlier from the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, on Monday condemned Israel’s reported attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.
“The attack is 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,” she said in a statement, Reuters reports.
The IDF reports on its Telegram channel that sirens are sounding in northern Israel. Earlier today Israel’s military said it had again exchanged fire with anti-Israeli forces on the Lebanese side of the blue line.
Al Jazeera reports that it has spoken to Munner al-Bursh, the general manager of the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, who gave it an outline of what he said was happening at the Indonesian hospital in north Gaza.
He told them that Israeli forces were continuing to attack the hospital, after an artillery barrage that started overnight. He claimed that some bodies of those killed during the attack were still lying on the ground outside the hospital, and that nobody had been able to reach them to bury them. He said the hospital was using a small power generator that runs on vegetable oil.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel’s military has named two more soldiers killed in its campaign against Hamas. It stated that Eitan Dishon and Yanon Tamir were killed during action in the northern Gaza Strip today.
The IDF now says it has lost 66 soldiers in total during the war since 7 October.
At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
28 premature babies being moved to Rafah crossing
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has posted to social media to say 28 of the 31 premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in the north of Gaza are now being taken to the Rafah border crossing.
In the statement, it said:
A few moments ago, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams departed from in front of the Emirati hospital in Rafah to transport 28 premature infants to the Rafah crossing, in preparation for their transfer to receive medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals. This comes in coordination with the World Health Organization and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
It is not clear at present whether the three other babies will also be moved.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
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There are reports of heavy fighting around the Indonesian hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker there, said Israeli tanks were visible from the windows. “You can see them moving around and firing,” he told AP. “Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire”. Health ministry officials in Gaza say 12 people have been killed, including doctors and patients. The claims have not been independently verified.
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Israel’s Haaretz says it has been told by a source “involved in the negotiations with Hamas” that the organisation is considering increasing the number of hostages it is willing to release. The newspaper says the source told it that talks were in continuation and that more patience was needed.
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Israel’s military has released security camera footage it says shows hostages being brought into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 7 October after being kidnapped during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel. The first clip shows a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt being dragged through what looks like an entrance hall by five men. In the second, an injured man in underwear is wheeled in on a gurney by seven men. It has not been possible to verify the footage independently.
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Thirty-one premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday. Health officials say they are in “extremely critical condition”. The newborns had dehydration, hypothermia and sepsis in some cases, said Mohamed Zaqout, the director of Gaza hospitals. The babies are receiving urgent care in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and preparations are in hand for them to be taken to Egypt.
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Arab and Muslim ministers called on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as their delegation visited Beijing on the first leg of a tour to push for an end to hostilities and to allow humanitarian aid into the territory. The delegation, which is due to meet officials representing the permanent members of the UN security council, is also piling pressure on the west to reject Israel’s justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defence.
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Iran on Monday dismissed as “invalid” Israel’s accusations that Yemen’s Houthi rebels were acting on Tehran’s guidance, after the rebels said they had seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship and described the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.
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The Israeli military has issued a statement to say there have been further exchanges of fire across the UN-drawn blue line that marks the border between Israel and Lebanon.
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More than 100 evacuees from Gaza are due to arrive in Turkey on Monday, including dozens of people who will receive medical treatment there, Turkey’s health minister and a foreign ministry source have told Reuters.
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Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has posted to social media to say 31 people, including Australian citizens, left Gaza via the Rafah crossing earlier today.
This is Martin Belam on the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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