Israel and Hamas at war, day 35 | Hospitals in northern Gaza targeted

Hamas officials and representatives of humanitarian organizations say the Israeli army targeted several hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, including the large al-Chifa hospital complex, as the Israeli army says it is trying to reach a Hamas command post hidden under this infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in the southern Gaza Strip, the Rafah border crossing was closed again, so no one could enter Egypt, including a contingent of 266 Canadians.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, hospitals were not spared by Israeli troops.

“We are under siege by tanks,” Mustafa al-Kahlout, director of al-Nasr Hospital and al-Rantisi Pediatric Center, told CNN, while asking for urgent help from the Red Crescent to evacuate the area.

Early in the day, several Israeli shots reportedly hit the large al-Chifa hospital complex in Gaza City, where there are not only the sick and wounded, but tens of thousands of people trying to find refuge from the bombs. The place is becoming less and less secure as Israeli armor advances from all sides.

According to The New York Times, the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry says at least one Israeli shot hit al-Chifa hospital on Friday, killing one person. Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations increased calls for a ceasefire.

Stopping the “carnage”

Thus, the Commissioner General of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, called on Friday for an end to the “carnage” in the Gaza Strip and an end to the siege imposed by Israel on this territory.

UNRWA also announced that more than 100 of its employees had died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict.

For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Friday that 20 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were no longer functioning. “If there is hell on earth today, its name is the northern Gaza Strip,” the UN humanitarian agency’s spokesman, Jens Laerke, told reporters in Geneva.

During the day, Israeli Armed Forces authorities claimed to have captured key Hamas command posts in Gaza City, killing some 150 Hamas fighters in the process.

Furthermore, Global Affairs Canada confirmed mid-afternoon that none of the 266 Canadian nationals registered on the list of foreigners authorized to leave the Gaza Strip had been able to cross into Egypt during the day on Friday.

No specific reason was cited by authorities for what happened. Remember that on Thursday, 32 Canadians, permanent residents and members of their families crossed the border, in addition to 75 others who crossed on Tuesday.

Blinken raises his voice

As the fighting continued, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with mayors of towns near the Gaza Strip to talk about reconstruction and his desire to place the Palestinian territory under the control of the Israeli army.

“The IDF forces will maintain control of the Gaza Strip, we will not cede it to international forces,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his spokesperson, without specifying whether he would do so in the short or long term. .

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments come as more and more voices are being raised around the world calling for a ceasefire.

Visiting New Delhi on Friday morning, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, more insistently renewed his call for Israel to slow down its shelling of Gaza.

While he maintains that Israel has the right to defend itself and congratulates the Netanyahu government for agreeing to observe humanitarian military pauses of four hours a day to give civilians a chance to escape the bombs, Mr. Blinken does not. asserts no less that “there are more things that can and must be done to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”

Rafaël Jacob, associate researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair, sees a “gradual evolution” in American discourse since the start of hostilities.

“The more time goes on, the more it is obvious that the pressure is very strong within the Democratic Party to take a pro-Palestinian stance,” said Mr. Jacob. We saw this, in particular, last weekend when thousands of demonstrators converged on the White House. And from a foreign policy perspective, there is a huge contrast between the American position toward Israel and that of the rest of the world. »

Hostages: more Israelis want negotiations

A poll conducted on behalf of the Israel Democracy Institute indicates that the number of residents of the Jewish state in favor of negotiating for the release of hostages held by Hamas, without interrupting its offensive, is increasing.

The poll, carried out on November 5 and 6 and published on Friday, indicates that 38% of respondents want the immediate start of negotiations while continuing the war. This rate was 32% in a survey conducted October 18-19 and 22% during a first survey conducted October 15-17.

Friday’s results also show that 22% of respondents reject any form of negotiation.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry also indicated that the death toll from the Hamas terrorist attacks carried out on October 7 had been revised downwards, from 1,400 to 1,200 dead. Many of the bodies unidentified since the attacks were those of Hamas members. Remember that 239 people kidnapped following these attacks are still in the hands of Hamas.

Sources: CNN, The New York TimesAl Jazeera, Agence France-Presse, The Times of IsraelAssociated Press and Reuters