The 31 premature babies who were still in Gaza’s al-Chifa hospital were removed from the establishment, Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, announced to AFP on Sunday, November 19. According to him, “three doctors and two nurses accompany them” And “preparations are underway to evacuate them to Egypt” via the Rafah crossing, the only opening to the world of the Palestinian territory which is not in the hands of Israel, at war against the Islamist movement Hamas in power in the Gaza Strip. The al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, targeted by Israeli raids, has become a “death zone”, denounced the World Health Organization (WHO) which requested his evacuation.
Hundreds of people who had found refuge in the hospital left the premises on Saturday after receiving orders from the Israeli army, according to the director of the establishment and an AFP journalist on site. But Israeli soldiers denied ordering the evacuation. Follow our live stream.
“Very minor challenges” remain over the release of the hostages. The conclusion of an agreement on the release of hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian movement Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel now rests on practical questions “minors”, the Qatari Prime Minister said on Sunday, without providing a timetable. “The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor (…) They are more logistical, they are more practical”declared Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, during a press conference in Doha, alongside the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell.
The White House says it is “working hard” to reach an Israel-Hamas agreement. Washington affirmed on Saturday that it was doing everything possible to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas, with a view to freeing hostages and marking a pause in the fighting, but without obtaining the expected success for the moment. “We continue to work hard. We have not yet reached an agreement,” wrote the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council on X (ex-Twitter). Adrienne Watson thus denied information from Washington Post, which states that an agreement providing for the release of hostages in exchange for a five-day pause in the fighting was concluded between the belligerents.
Israel expands its operations in the Gaza Strip. As the war enters its 44th day on Sunday, the Israeli army “continues to expand its operations into new areas of the Gaza Strip”, she announced. It claims to have carried out operations on Saturday in the areas of Jabaliya and Zaytoun, in the north of the territory. Since October 9, Israel has vowed to“annihilate” Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, and cut off deliveries of food, water, electricity and medicine to the small Palestinian territory.
A silent march in Paris for the war to “stop immediately”. Some 500 cultural figures, including Isabelle Adjani, Sami Bouajila and Claude Lelouch, called for a “silent, united, humanist and peaceful march”, in Paris, so that “stop immediately” there “fratricidal war” between Palestinians and Israelis. This parade must start from the Institute of the Arab World towards the Museum of Art and History of Judaism, to go towards Arts and Crafts.