Hand-to-hand fighting in Gaza

More than a month has passed since the day it started hammering of Israeli forces in Gazawhere at night its sky is lit up by the red glow of rockets that spread death to the 2.3 million inhabitants. The same happens during the day, only the colors are different, as black clouds of smoke rise from the flattened houses.

The Israeli military says its forces are in control of a Hamas stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip after overnight fighting. IDF forces battled Hamas fighters among damaged buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, approaching two major hospitalsas the situation of civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory worsens.

Thousands more Palestinians were fleeing from north to south along a dangerous front line after Israel ordered evacuations, residents said, according to Reuters.

Many Palestinians, however, remain in the north, crowded into the Al Shifa Hospital and Al Quds Hospitalas ground fighting rages around them and more Israeli airstrikes rain down from the air.

Refugee camps as well as hospitals are often among the targets bombed by Israel, which claims its raids are aimed at Hamas fighters.

Israel says it has been hit at least 12,000 targets across the besieged Palestinian territory from October 7 to November 1, making it, as Al Jazeera notes, one of the largest-scale bombing operations in recent history.

After ongoing negotiations to bring about humanitarian pauses intensified at the international level, with the head of the Mossad and the CIA meeting today with the prime minister of Qatar, there appears to be a new development as, as the US claims, Israel will begin a four-hour pauses in northern Gaza starting today.

US: Israel will begin four-hour ceasefire in northern Gaza

Specifically, Israel took a step in the right direction, as the White House described it, announcing that Israel will begin four-hour pauses in northern Gaza starting today so that the world can escape hostilities.

The spokesman for the White House National Security Council John Kirby said the pauses came after discussions between US and Israeli officials in recent days, including talks US President Joe Biden had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kirby said the pauses they will enable the world not to be on the path of evil and distribute humanitarian aid and may be used as a way to free hostages.

“We were told by the Israelis today that there will be no military operations in those areas during the pause, and that that process begins today,” Kirby said.

“We understand that Israel will begin implementing a four-hour ceasefire in northern Gaza with the announcement being made three hours in advance,” he said.

He called the news a step in the right direction.

“We believe that these are important first steps and obviously we want to see them continue for as long as necessary,” he added.

Kirby also said a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas fighters is off the table because it would help Hamas and “legitimize what they did on October 7th, and we’re just not going to support that at this time.”

Shelling in the Jenin refugee camp

On Thursday morning (9/11), Israeli forces carried out successive airstrikes on Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank, resulting in at least 10 Palestinians being killed and 16 injured.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that “significant force of the army of occupation” raided Jenin. The Israeli army, for its part, pointed out that its forces are operating in Jenin, without giving further details.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, one of her rescuers, Sabrin Obeidi “wounded by bullets in the back”. “This happened when Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance was targeted during a raid by the occupying forces on the Jenin refugee camp”the agency reported on the X platform.

At least 173 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7 and the bloody attack by Hamas against Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, during the same period, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied Palestinian territory on suspicion of being linked to Hamas.

Local sources said one of the dead was Ayham al-Amer, an officer of the Palestinian Security Services. The IDF added that activity in the camp continues.

According to an Al Jazeera correspondent in the area, despite the fact that raids are common in Jenin, the news is that the Israeli army came and left behind special forces that were searching for Palestinian fighters. Once they were spotted, special forces called in reinforcements and since then this big gun battle has been going on.

Israel: 50 Hamas fighters killed in Gaza City

The Israeli military claims to have killed 50 Hamas militants during operations in recent days.

In his announcement he states that these fighters were killed during fighting in Gaza City near Al Shifa Hospital. He called this area the “core” of Hamas intelligence and operational activity.

The military also claimed to have discovered Hamas tunnels, intelligence documents and weapons, which it says were destroyed.

Reports of an attack on a building in Eilat, southern Israel

A drone struck a civilian building in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, the Israeli military said on Thursday. Emergency services said there were no injuries and only minor damage was reported.

“The identity of the drone and the details of the incident are being investigated”the army said in a statement.

900,000 Gazans are without shelter, medicine or protection

According to a statement by Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health outside Al Shifa Hospital, the Israeli military has escalated its targeting of medical personnel in Gaza. All services at al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and al-Nasr Hospital have been suspended.

900,000 inhabitants of Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip are left without shelter, medicine or protection, while the process of removing the wounded from Gaza hospitals outside the Strip through the Rafah crossing continues at a very slow pace.

So far, only 99 wounded have been evacuated through the rapha passage, which is out of proportion to the large number of severe cases for which no treatment is available.

At the end of the briefing, he reiterated the urgent call for an immediate safe humanitarian route for the entry of medical supplies and fuel and the exit of thousands of wounded, while accusing Israel of uses hunger as a weapon against the wounded and sick in hospitals.

The heads of the Mossad and the CIA meet with the Prime Minister of Qatar

A tripartite meeting was held in Doha on Thursday between the heads of the CIA and the Mossad and Qatar’s prime minister to discuss the parameters of a agreement on the release of hostages and a halt to the attack on Gaza, a source briefed on the meeting told Reuters.

The aim of the tripartite meeting was to bring all three parties to a table in real time to speed up the process, the source said. The talks also included a discussion on allowing fuel imports into Gaza for humanitarian reasons.

NATO is in favor of humanitarian pauses

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that NATO allies support humanitarian pauses in the war between Israel and Hamas so that aid can reach Gaza.

International law must be respected and civilians in the conflict must be protected, he told reporters in Berlin as he addressed the media ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“The war in Gaza must not turn into a major regional conflict. Iran and Hezbollah must stay out of this battle.”he added.