Israel-Gaza war live: Israel’s bombardment of Gaza ‘narrowing the window’ for renewed hostage deal, says Qatar PM

“Every other patient in the clinic has a respiratory tract infection due to prolonged exposure to cold and rain,” said Gaza’s Médecins Sans Frontières emergency coordinator Nicholas Papachrysostomou, referring to Al Shaboura clinic in Gaza.

MSF added that in the southernmost area of the Gaza Strip where thousands of Palestinians have been forced to evacuate to due to deadly Israeli strikes, “health services are extremely limited.”

“People are living in extremely poor hygiene conditions. In some shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhoea. Often children are the worst affected,” the humanitarian organization added.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Ghebreyesus announced that the WHO and its partners in Gaza managed to deliver essential trauma and surgical supplies to Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital to cover the needs of 1,500 people, as well as transfer 19 critical patients.

“This was another very high-risk mission in the vicinity of active shelling and artillery fire.The hospital itself has been substantially damaged, and in acute need of oxygen and essential medical supplies, water, food and fuel. Critically, the hospital needs additional health personnel,” he said.

With winter arriving in Gaza, Palestinians are fearing the spread of diseases amid an already deteriorating humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel’s strikes that have killed over 17,900 Palestinians in the last two months.

The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont reports:

Winter is fast coming to Gaza. Rain storms and powerful winds have already swept through the coastal strip, scattering tents and soaking those with little shelter in a crisis in which about 1.8 million Palestinians have been displaced by Israel’s offensive.

And with the advent of winter, an already catastrophic situation in which almost all of Gaza’s healthcare has collapsed is quickly worsening.

Women are giving birth in tents in unsterile conditions. Smoke from the wood fires is exacerbating respiratory ailments. Those in need of medicine have been forced to go sometimes to up to 10 pharmacies in an often fruitless search.

“It’s so cold, and the tent is so small. All I have is the clothes I wear, I still don’t know what the next step will be,” said Mahmud Abu Rayan, displaced from the northern town of Beit Lahia to Rafah.

“We didn’t see anything good here at all. We are living here in a tough cold. There are no bathrooms. We are sleeping on the sand,” added Soad Qarmoot, a Palestinian woman who was also forced to leave Beit Lahia.

“I am a cancer patient,” Qarmoot said as children circled a wood fire for warmth. “There is no mattress for me to sleep on. I am sleeping on the sand. It’s freezing.”

Displaced Palestinians who spoke in Rafah in recent days, tell a similar story: a perfect storm of colder weather, hugely overcrowded and insanitary conditions and a lack of food and proper shelter.

Read the full story here:

Most Americans disapprove of Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Gaza war, CBS reports.

According to a new poll published by the US news outlet, 46% of Americans believe that the Biden administration is making “no impact” on a peaceful resolution in the war. Only 20% believe that the Biden administration is “more likely” to be making a peaceful resolution. 34% believe the US president is “less likely” to be making a peaceful resolution.

Meanwhile, among Democrats, 38% believe that Biden is showing “too much support” for Israel, a 10% jump from a poll conducted in October. Only 8% of Democrats believe that the Biden administration is not showing enough support, a 2% decrease from October. Fifty-four percent of Democrats believe that Biden is showing the “right amount of support”, an 8% decrease from October.

Benjamin Netanyahu called on Hamas to lay down their arms and “surrender now”.

In an address on Sunday reported by Agence France-Presse, the Israeli prime minister said:

“The war is still ongoing but it is the beginning of the end of Hamas. I say to the Hamas terrorists: It’s over. Don’t die for [Yahya] Sinwar. Surrender now,” Netanyahu said, referring to the chief of Hamas in Gaza.

“In the past few days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces,” Netanyahu added.

The military has, however, not released proof of surrendering, and Hamas has rejected such claims, Agence France-Presse reports.

“While they’re displaced in our UNRWA shelters, many continue to offer assistance,” UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai told Channel 4 News about the surviving employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza.

Alrifai said:

We have 13,000 staff members in Gaza. These are doctors, paramedics, engineers, teachers, social workers and sanitation workers. They are all Palestinians. They are part of the civilian population that should be protected. Those who were killed, were killed alongside the thousands and thousands of Palestinians who were killed.

But those who were not killed, believe it or not, are displaced themselves but while they’re displaced in our own shelters, the UNRWA shelters, many of them continue to do the rounds, to offer assistance, to check on the wounded, to check on the sick people, to distribute food …

The Joe Biden administration is under scrutiny after it circumvented Congress in its sale of nearly 14,400 tank rounds to Israel.

The Guardian’s Julian Borger reports:

The Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza has come under intensified scrutiny after it revealed it had bypassed Congress to supply tank shells, and was reported not to be carrying out continual assessments of whether Israel was committing possible war crimes.

Israeli tanks were reported to have reached the centre of Khan Younis on Sunday, after battling through stiff resistance in the southern city which is overcrowded by civilians who have fled fighting in the north. Israeli airstrikes pounded the city blocks west of the frontline.

Heavy fighting was also reported in the Jabaliya refugee camp and the Shejaiya area of Gaza City, in northern Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they were dealing with remaining pockets of resistance, but residents described some of the most intense combat of the war.

A spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed that it had partially or full destroyed 180 Israel tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers in battles.

Read the full story here:

Bernie Sanders, the US’s independent senator of Vermont, said that it would be “irresponsible for the United States to give [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu another $10 billion to continue to wage this awful war”.

In a new interview with CBS, Sanders added:

Israel is losing the war in terms of how the world is looking at this situation.

In reference to the UN security council resolution on a humanitarian ceasefire which the US vetoed on Friday, Sanders said:

I strongly support and wish and hope that the United States will support the United Nations resolution.

However, Sanders also said the he does not know “how you could have permanent ceasefire with Hamas who have said before October 7, and after October 7, that they want to destroy Israel. They want a permanent war. I don’t know how you have a permanent ceasefire with an attitude like that.”

The World Health Organization’s executive board on Sunday adopted a resolution on tackling the worsening health situation in the Gaza Strip, calling for immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access.

Agence France-Presse reports:

After the UN security council declined Friday to demand a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group, the 34 countries on the WHO’s executive board adopted by consensus a resolution calling for the ‘immediate, sustained and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief’ into Gaza.

The resolution, proposed by Afghanistan, Morocco, Qatar and Yemen, called for the granting of exit permits for patients.

It seeks the supply and replenishment of medicine and medical equipment to the civilian population and for all persons deprived of their liberty to be given access to medical treatment.

It also expressed ‘grave concern’ for the humanitarian situation and the ‘widespread destruction,’ and urged protection for all civilians.

Despite agreeing to the resolution, some countries expressed reservations about the resolution.

The United States’ representative said Washington agreed not to oppose the consensus on the text but had ‘significant reservations,’ saying it ‘regrets the lack of balance in the resolution.’

Canada said it considered the text a ‘compromise resolution’ that could have gone further with additional language acknowledging role of Hamas in the conflict, such as its taking of hostages and ‘use of human shields.’

Australia said it took issue with the fact that the resolution did not make specific reference to the October 7 attacks, which were ‘the catalyst for the current devastating situation.’

Médecins Sans Frontières has criticized the US following its veto of a UN security council resolution on Friday that called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

In a statement released on Sunday, MSF said:

“The US veto stands in contrast to the values it professes to uphold. By continuing to provide diplomatic cover for the atrocities in #Gaza, the US is signaling that international humanitarian law can be applied selectively – that the lives of some people matter less than others.”

Israeli forces have invaded the area near the UNRWA clinic in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, where a group of emergency medical service staff are operating a medical post, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

According to the PRCS, the emergency team consists of nine doctors, nurses and volunteers.

Qatar’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that Qatar is “not going to give up” on peace efforts with Gaza.

Speaking at the Doha Forum, al-Thani said that Qatar knows that “there are a lot of complications and … what happened in the fallout of this pause, actually we feel disappointment that the parties didn’t give a chance for further efforts to be taking place”.

He went on to add:

For the way forward, we are going to continue, we are committed to have all the hostages being released but also we are committed to stop this war, to stop the bombardment of innocent Palestinians.

It always takes two parties to be willing to [agree to] such an engagement. Unfortunately we are not seeing the same willingness that we have seen in the weeks before in … both parties.

In his interview with CNN on Sunday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken also said: “We’re not going to have durable security for Israel unless and until Palestinian political aspirations are met.”

Blinken added:

When the major military operation is over … we have to make sure that we’re on a path to a durable and sustainable peace. From our perspective, I think from the perspective of many around the world, that has to lead to a Palestinian state …

What happens the day after in Gaza itself once military operations, major military operations, are over, that’s also hugely important and urgent to make sure that governance, security, reconstruction, all of that is in place, so that there’s no vacuum.

In a new interview with CNN, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that it is “imperative that civilians be protected” in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.

Speaking to CNN host Jake Tapper, Blinken said:

We think there needs to be a premium put on protecting civilians and making sure that humanitarian assistance can get to everyone who needs it. And, as I said, I think the intent is there, but the results are not always manifesting themselves …

Israel needs to be able to deal with this to protect itself, to prevent October 7 from happening again. But, as it does that, it’s imperative that civilians be protected.

In the last two months, Israel has killed over 17,700 Palestinians including over 7,100 children.

Summary of the day so far …

Residents in Gaza have told Associated Press there is still heavy fighting under way in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shijaiyah and the Jabaliya refugee camp, a dense urban area housing Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.

“They are attacking anything that moves,” said Hamza Abu Fatouh, a Shijaiyah resident. He said the dead and wounded were left in the streets as ambulances could no longer reach the area, where Israeli snipers and tanks positioned themselves among the abandoned buildings.

“The resistance also fights back,” he added.

In central Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians waited for flour outside an UN distribution centre. The price of food has soared as much of the territory faces severe shortages. Abdulsalam al-Majdalawi said he has come every day for nearly two weeks, hoping to get food for his family of seven.

“Every day, we spend five or six hours here and return home (empty handed),” he told AP. “Thank God, today they drew our name.”

Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Gaza and Israel over the news wires.

CNN reports that the IDF has told the network that Israel believes Hamas had about 30,000 fighters in Gaza before the war began on 7 October.

The IDF believed the fighters were divided into five brigades, 24 battalions and approximately 140 companies.

On Saturday national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said that Israel had killed at least 7,000 combatants.

It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.