Israel’s pounding of the Gaza Strip is merciless. IDF shelling of Jabalia refugee camp, Shabra and Khan Younis was overnight while hospitals and infrastructure were again hit.
A fire broke out at the Al Rantisi pediatric hospital north of Gaza, after a direct hit by Israeli warplanes. The missile or missiles hit the parking lot, which is located near the buildings, causing material damage.
At the same time, an undeclared war exists in the West Bank with the death toll at around 160 since October 7, while Israeli raids and arrests continue.
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05:28 The Belgian Prime Minister recommends sanctions against Israelis
Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre De Croix ruled on Thursday that the European Union should consider banning certain Israeli “extremists” who perpetrate or incite violence against Palestinians from entering its territory.
“I believe that our country should ensure that those who commit serious crimes, for example those who perpetrate violence in the West Bank, are banned from entering our country and the European Union,” said Mr De Cros.
He also called for personal sanctions to be imposed on “a minister who called for a nuclear weapon to be used against a population that can do nothing and today lives in appalling conditions” (more here).
05:04 Netanyahu is turning things around after the reactions to the occupation of Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday during his interview with the American television network Fox News that he has no intention to “rule”, nor “take over”, nor impose a new “occupation” on the Gaza Strip.
“We do not seek to rule in Gaza. We do not seek to impose occupation, but to obtain, like us, a better future”, he said.
Earlier this week, the statement by the head of the Israeli government that his country would assume “overall responsibility for security” in the Palestinian enclave “indefinitely” provoked a reaction from the US (more here).
03:50 Losses of Palestinians and Israelis by the United Nations-OCHA
The Palestinians mourn 10,818 people, including 4,412 children and 2,918 women. That is 68% of the population. 2,650 people are missing, 1,400 of them children. The injured amount to 26,905.
549 families have lost 2 to 5 people, 189 families have lost 6 to 9 people and 312 families have lost more than 10 people. The 6,120 dead come from 825 families.
More than 40,000 residential units have been completely destroyed and more than 222,000 have partial damage.
The Israelis have more than 1,200 casualties, with 1,162 of them acknowledged. The injured amount to 5,400.
The sources come from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza and the Israeli authorities, it has not yet been possible to confirm them from the UN.
03:25 Doctors Without Borders reiterates that hospitals are not targets
“Since October 7 we have seen a dramatic increase in violence by Israeli forces in Jenin. Since then, our team has treated over 30 patients with gunshot and blast injuries.
Today, there has been an upsurge in violence, with widespread shelling and shooting – leaflets were dropped in the Jenin refugee camp this morning, telling residents to evacuate, many of whom have nowhere safe to go.
This morning around 10:30 am. our team treated a paramedic who was shot while in an ambulance.
From 11 am this morning, Israeli military vehicles have blocked ambulances from entering hospitals, forcing them to refer patients to hospitals further away.
Last night, a soldier fired into the hospital’s emergency department, hitting the wall in full view of our colleagues standing outside.
Today, our team saw Israeli forces firing at the entrance to the hospital, with bullets hitting the wall directly above the door.
Hospitals are not targets and must remain safe spaces.”
03:00 Divided in two by Israel and the West Bank
On the main street of the West Bank Palestinian town of Huwara, where Route 60 leads north to Nablus, the shops are all closed.
Gas stations, bakeries, banks, businesses that sell stones from local quarries, confectioneries and mobile phone shops are closed by order of the Israeli army.
At the main crossing points between the west and east sides of the now-divided city, wary Israeli soldiers with machine guns guard a closed yellow metal gate.
On the road itself, the only cars moving belong to residents of the nearby hard-line Jewish settlements scattered in the surrounding hills.
Ultra-Orthodox nationalists whose residents have a reputation for promoting and perpetrating violence against Palestinians.
02:35 Israel has agreed to humanitarian pauses, President Biden claims
US President Joe Biden confirmed on Thursday in a series of posts on the social networking platform X (formerly Twitter) that Israel had agreed to suspend military operations in parts of northern Gaza for four hours a day to allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors.
He also reiterated that Israel has “an obligation to distinguish between terrorists and civilians and to fully comply with international law.”
02:10 Complaint about use of R9X Hellfire at Al Shifa Hospital
According to reports, a missile (identified as an R9X Hellfire which does not have an explosive charge) was fired at journalists at Al Shifa Hospital. The missile has blades that rotate at high speed leaving maims around and little damage to buildings.
There are civilian casualties, while the journalists’ tent was nearby.
01:45 Fire at Al Rantisi Children’s Hospital
A fire broke out at the Al Rantisi pediatric hospital north of Gaza after a direct hit by Israeli warplanes.
The missile or missiles hit the parking lot which is located near the buildings causing minor material damage.
One of the burnt out cars in the parking lot.
01:20 Asked to comment on the news about the four-hour pauses, the UN press representative spoke with his experience
Stefan Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, was asked Thursday about an earlier announcement by the White House that Israel had agreed to four-hour pauses in northern Gaza.
He commented that: “The answer is that the answer that will be given by the government is that the government should be able to answer such a question:
How any such cessation of hostilities, and how it will work for humanitarian purposes, should be coordinated with the United Nations, particularly in terms of timing and location.”
Closing with the obvious “And obviously to do this safely for humanitarian purposes, it would have to be agreed upon by all parties to the conflict to be truly effective.”
00:55 46% of Democrats disapprove of Biden’s handling of the conflict
Nearly half of Democrats disapprove of Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll.
According to the poll, 50% of Democrats approve of the US president’s handling of the conflict, compared to 46% who disapprove.
Of those who disapprove of Biden’s handling of the conflict, 65 percent said the U.S. supports Israel too much. By comparison, nearly 7 in 10 Democrats who approve think the U.S. is providing the right amount of support to Israel currently.
00:29 Israeli press officer tried to prove that Palestinians are faking injuries and edited a Lebanese video clip
An Israeli government spokesman shared footage from a Lebanese short film, which he tried to pass off as evidence that Palestinians are faking injuries in Gaza.
Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted a video on social media Thursday that showed a young girl covered in fake blood as part of a larger film set that also included emergency workers. Gendelman wrote along with the video : “See for yourself how (Palestinians in Gaza) fake injuries and evacuate ‘injured civilians’, all in front of cameras.”
But the director and the child actor wrote the truth on instagram and the press representative lost his credibility.
00:15 The Palestinian Red Crescent shows the damage caused to two of its ambulances in Gaza
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has shared images and a short video of two ambulances it says have been disabled by an Israeli attack near al-Awda Hospital in Gaza.
A volunteer paramedic was also injured, PRCS said.
23:50 Islamophobic and anti-Arab incidents in the US doubled during the war
The advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said there were 1,283 complaint requests and reports of bias between October 7 and November 4.
This is a 216% increase on the same period last year according to the council.
“Both Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism are out of control in a way we haven’t seen in nearly a decade,” CAIR director of research and advocacy Corey Saylor said in a statement.
“The Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric that has been used both to justify violence against Palestinians in Gaza and to silence Palestinian human rights advocates here in America has contributed to this unprecedented wave of bigotry,” Saylor said.
23:30 About 5,500 women are expected to give birth in Gaza in the next two weeks according to the UN
The figure is a stark reminder of the ongoing medical emergency in Gaza, where critical shortages of fuel and other supplies have left overcrowded hospitals either forced to close or run on bare bones.
The UN Population Fund said there are a total of 50,000 pregnant women in the enclave.
“If you have 180 women giving birth every day in these conditions, food, water, medicine, access to C-sections and care for newborns, all depend on fuel,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, the organization’s executive director.
Tags: Live Fierce fighting shelling heart Gaza West Bank bleeding
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