Gaza hospital catastrophe, evacuation update, Israeli hostage update, West Bank news, UN Security Council war of words, and more
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live broadcast news from the region is here.
Some people are led to be skeptical of the Al Jazeera news network. However, the network has won several Emmys, a Peabody and the Overseas Press Association’s Edward R. Murrow award, among many other honors. The New York Times reports that “its reporting hews to international journalistic standards and provides a unique view on events in the Middle East.” it’s important to remember that all news sources may potentially have bias. For example, CNN uses anchors who used to work for the Israel Lobby, who have lifelong attachment to Israel, and who often exhibit pro-Israel spin and omission in their broadcasts. Similarly, Fox News is strongly influenced by Rupert Murdoch, who has a similarly strong attachment to Israel, and who may have fired Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular host, in part due to the host’s opposition to war and his pattern of failing to exhibit sufficient devotion to Israel).
Latest statistics:
NOTE: the UN reports, The “collapse of services and communications at hospitals in the north of Gaza” is delaying the Ministry of Health in Gaza from updating the latest numbers of people injured and killed. (03:45 GMT) The statistics listed here for Gaza are from November 10th, but will be updated when new numbers become available.
Palestinian death toll: 10,793* (10,607 in Gaza** (including at least 4,506 children and 3,027 women), and at least 186 in the West Bank). *NOTE: The official UN death toll includes 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast. IAK does not yet include those deaths since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation.
Palestinian injuries: 30,042** (including at least 27,490 in Gaza** and 2,552 in the West Bank). **NOTE: it is impossible to offer an accurate number of injuries in Gaza due to the ongoing bombardment and communication disruption. The Associated Press has reported ~32,000 in Gaza, while the UN number is somewhat lower. Our total for Gaza and the West Bank is based on the conservative figure.
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. About 1.6 million people have been displaced; 2,700 are missing (1,500 children) and presumed to be under rubble.
Israel has now killed more Palestinians in a little over a month than in all the previous 22 years combined.
Reported Israeli death toll has been reduced to ~1,200*** The Israeli spokesman said the original figure of deaths on March 7 was an “initial estimate” and said the numbers could continue “to fluctuate”. (3 recently killed in West Bank & 42 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and ~5,400 injured). The names of the 1,162 identified (31 of them children) are here.
***NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
Gaza healthcare news: Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, claims the Israeli military would help evacuate babies from Al Shifa Hospital, at the request of the hospital staff. Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said, “We have not been informed about any mechanism to get the babies out to a safer hospital. So far we are praying for their safety and not to lose more of them.” He said there were 45 babies in total; 2 more have already died. 500 patients remain in the hospital. Most of the staff and displaced persons sheltering there have left.
Palestinian surgeon based in Gaza, Ghassan Abu Sitta says al-Ahli Arab Hospital has run out of blood. “Our wounded are dying after surgery because we can’t transfuse them,” he said on X. (11:10 GMT)
A health official says an Israeli air attack has completely destroyed the two-story cardiac ward of Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, as fighting around the facility raged. “The occupier [Israel] completely destroyed the cardiac department of al-Shifa Hospital.” (09:56 GMT)
The Israeli army announced a humanitarian corridor for people to leave Al-Shifa Hospital and reach the main evacuation route to the south. (08:35) One doctor inside the hospital said the Israeli army’s announcement “is one big lie…I saw a family of five in front of my eyes who tried to move from the east yesterday and they were shot. So they came back injured.” (07:55 GMT)
Two doctors were killed and several displaced individuals injured, following an Israeli army bombing in the the vicinity of Mahdi Maternity Hospital in Nasr, western Gaza City. (07:45 GMT)
An official of the Jordanian armed forces says a Royal Air Force plane on Saturday dropped urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza for the second time using parachutes, Jordan News Agency has reported. (06:03 GMT)
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that “infants at Al-Quds Hospital are facing dehydration due to a shortage of breast milk alternatives.” (02:00 GMT)
RECOMMENDED READING: Israel is bombing hospitals in Gaza with Israeli doctors’ approval
Evacuation news: The Israeli army says civilians will be allowed to flee northern Gaza along the Salah al-Din highway from 9am to 4pm local time. “We call on residents to take advantage of this temporary suspension of fires and move south,” the army said on its Arabic page on X. (08:35 GMT) Many Palestinians are reluctant to follow these orders, knowing they may be attacked as they flee, may not find food, water, and shelter in the south, and/or may never be allowed to return to their homes, in a second ethnic cleansing by Israel.
A Palestinian journalist in Gaza City said the humanitarian pauses announced by the Israeli army are only on the main road going south, not on the streets leading to it, “Within the city, the fighting is ongoing, and all the roads in the city are destroyed,” he said, adding that there’s no way to get to the main road from downtown Gaza City. (06:50 GMT)
The Israeli army is not allowing cars to travel to southern Gaza, the UN reports. Palestinians traveling from the north to southern Gaza are arriving on foot or carts drawn by donkeys. (04:55 GMT)
Israel keeps targeting areas in southern Gaza despite telling civilians to move there. Earlier today, at least 18 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern city of Khan Younis.
RECOMMENDED READING: Israel-Palestine war: One family’s treacherous journey through Gaza’s ‘safe corridor’
Hostage update: Israel’s three major TV news channels, without quoting named sources, said there was some progress toward a deal to free captives held by Hamas in Gaza. Israeli PM Netanyahu said he would not discuss details of any possible deal, which according to N12 News would involve 50 to 100 women, children and elderly people being released in stages during a three-to-five-day pause in fighting. According to the reports, Israel would release women and minor Palestinian prisoners and consider letting fuel into Gaza, while reserving the right to resume fighting. (09:03 GMT)
The Hamas resistance group is currently holding about 240 prisoners, captured on October 7th for the purpose of a prisoner swap. Israel currently holds 7,000 Palestinians as political prisoners, and has agreed to such a swap in the past.
Lebanon front: Israeli army says that “several” civilians were injured in an antitank missile attack launched from Lebanon. The army said it responded by shooting at the source of the fire. Skirmishes between Israeli forces and Shia group Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border have been ongoing since the start of the war on October 7. While they have remained confined in geography and scope most of the time, they appear to be gradually escalating. (11:25. GMT)
Hezbollah has promised that the front against its enemy will remain “active.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has warned Hezbollah to not enter the conflict, suggesting that if they did, Beirut could look like Gaza. (08:15 GMT) He said that in Gaza, the Israeli Air Force is actually only using one-tenth of its power, so it has the ability to point the noses of those planes north and strike targets in Lebanon. (00:45 GMT)
Syria also hit: Israeli’s military has announced that its fighter jets carried out strikes against “terror infrastructure” inside Syria. Israeli officials said the strikes were carried out in response to fire directed at the Golan Heights, which borders Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, on Saturday. (02:25 GMT)
West Bank: Israeli forces continue to exponentially intensify their raids in the occupied West Bank. Sources in the Palestinian Authority have told Al Jazeera that the number of raids has increased to about 40 per day in the past week. Throughout 2023, they had become an almost daily occurrence. Even before October 7, 2023 was already the deadliest year on record for Palestinians killed either by the Israeli military or by settlers across the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces have killed another Palestinian in the West Bank, taking the death toll in the occupied territory since October 7 to 186, the Health Ministry has said. (08:05 GMT)
RECOMMENDED READING: Israel is now using drones regularly in West Bank
UN Security Council: Tense and difficult negotiations over the Israel-Hamas war continue at the United Nations Security Council after weeks of deadlock. Russia and China have vetoed a US resolution calling for a “pause”: most of the members want the word “ceasefire,” but the US will not accept it. (US actions are heavily influenced by the Israel lobby.) The choice of a single word – pause or ceasefire – has meant an impasse in the UN’s top body, empowered with the maintenance of international peace and security.
Even if a resolution is passed, Israel is not likely to abide by it. The next step would be for the Council to agree on a follow-up resolution, which addresses the breach and calls for action.
RECOMMENDED READING: A history of the US blocking UN resolutions against Israel
RECOMMENDED READING: US poised to give Israel $18 billion in aid this year
Re-occupation of Gaza? Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is known for his Jewish supremacist views, says that Gaza should be occupied, according to Israeli media. “What’s needed here is an occupation…When you have presence out on the ground, you have intelligence and control; you’re the landlord,” he said.Israel withdrew illegal settlements from the strip in 2005. (10:05 GMT)
Profiting from war: Israel’s weapons makers will be displaying their lethal products at a fair in Paris next week. Israeli weapons manufacturer Smartshooter tests out many of its new products on Palestinians. One of them, a remote-controlled “crowd dispersal system,” was tested at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
France is one of many EU countries assisting Israel at a time when it is flattening Gaza and ramping up its oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank. As well as buying Israel’s arms, EU governments are authorizing large-scale shipments of weapons and their components to Israel. During the first week of November alone, Germany approved weapon deliveries to Israel worth approximately $324 million. That was almost 10 times the value of all German arms export licenses to Israel during 2022 in its entirety.
RECOMMENDED READING: Israel is selling arms to fellow human rights abusers, including Myanmar
Call for arrest warrant for Netanyahu: In an opinion piece published in South Africa’s Sunday Times, the country’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister for “breaches of three of the four crimes under ICC jurisdiction: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” Pandor wrote. (10:30 GMT)
@PalestineRCS announces Al-Quds Hospital out of service and no longer operational.
🚨✋The cessation of services is due to the depletion of available fuel and power outage.
🛑 PRCS holds the international community and signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention accountable… pic.twitter.com/SPg69Zv7GH
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 12, 2023
RELATED: Essential facts about the Hamas-Gaza-Israel war
NOW — Hundreds of Pro-Palestine Protesters Are Outside Biden's Delaware Home Chanting “No Ceasefire, No Vote” and “In November, We Remember” pic.twitter.com/lyscEsXCE2
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 11, 2023
Electricity in a hospital is a lifeline and we know without it patients die. If action isn't taken right now, if we do not stop this bloodshed immediately with a ceasefire or at the bear minimum a medical evacuation of patients these hospitals will become a morgue. #Gaza
— Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (@MSF_canada) November 11, 2023
There are reports that some people who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded and even killed.
— WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (@WHOEMRO) November 12, 2023
