More than 30 premature babies were evacuated from the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital on Sunday for transfer to Egypt, as the Israeli army “continues to expand its operations” against Hamas with intense fighting and bombings which exact a heavy toll on the population of the territory.
WHAT THERE IS TO KNOW
- Reaching an agreement on the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas is based on “minor” practical issues, according to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani.
- The 31 premature babies who were still in al-Chifa hospital after its evacuation on Saturday have been evacuated from the establishment, said Gaza Strip Hospitals Director General Mohammed Zaqout.
- Three Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip, bringing to 62 the number of soldiers killed since the start of the Israeli offensive, the army announced.
- According to the latest report from the Hamas government, 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
- The Hamas attack left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians killed on October 7, according to Israeli authorities.
- The Israeli military estimates that around 240 people were taken hostage.
Furthermore, negotiations continue to obtain the release of hostages held by Hamas, in 44e day of the war triggered by the bloody attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, October 7, on an unprecedented scale in the history of the country. According to the authorities, 1,200 people were killed that day, the vast majority civilians.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” the movement, its army relentlessly shelling the small Palestinian territory where it launched a ground operation on October 27. But the scale of the destruction arouses criticism from part of the international community.
The 31 premature babies who were still in al-Chifa hospital were transported to a facility set up by the United Arab Emirates in Rafah, southern Gaza, to receive “urgent care in the neonatal intensive care unit” , indicated on X the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
An evacuated premature baby is fed while receiving treatment at a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on November 19.
“Preparations are underway to evacuate them to Egypt” via the Rafah crossing, said the director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Zaqout.
“These babies suffered a lot” and suffered “significant after-effects,” he explained to the press, because “the water used for their milk was contaminated” and the bottles “were not properly sterilized.” Eight of them died before their transfer, including two on Sunday morning, he added.
“Very concrete evidence”
On Saturday, the WHO chief described al-Chifa hospital as a “death zone” where the situation was “desperate” due to lack of water, electricity, medicines, food and equipment medical.
According to the WHO, patients, medical staff and 2,500 displaced people who had taken refuge in the hospital, a huge complex in the west of Gaza City, left on foot on Saturday to take refuge in the south of the territory, less affected by the war.
The UN organization added that it was preparing the evacuation to other hospitals in Gaza of 291 patients unable to move without medical assistance who were still in al-Chifa.
France is ready to welcome up to 50 “injured or sick children from Gaza who need urgent care” if this is “useful and necessary”, for his part announced French President Emmanuel Macron.
The al-Chifa hospital is still besieged by Israeli tanks and soldiers are there, Marwan Abou Saada, head of the surgery department, who remained on site, told AFP on Sunday.
“I have heard at least two explosions since the morning,” he said.
According to the army, which invaded the hospital complex on Wednesday, it houses a Hamas hideout, installed in particular in a network of tunnels. She announced on Sunday that she had discovered a 55 meter long tunnel under the hospital.
“We have very concrete evidence that Hamas is using al-Chifa hospital and others as a command and control center,” Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog assured Sunday on ABC News. The Islamist movement, in power since 2007, denies these allegations.
Violent fighting
The fighting between Israel and Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, is concentrated in the north of the territory.
The Israeli army claimed to continue “to expand its operations in new areas of the Gaza Strip”, indicating that it had carried out operations on Saturday in the areas of Jabaliya and Zaytoun.
Violent fighting broke out on Sunday between Israeli ground troops and Palestinian fighters in the center of Gaza City, transformed into a field of ruins, noted an AFP journalist.
PHOTO KENZO TRIBOUILLARD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This photo taken from southern Israel shows Israeli flags flying over destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on November 19.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 41 members of the same family died in an Israeli strike on their house in this neighborhood.
The army announced the death of five soldiers, bringing to 64 the number of soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
On Saturday, Hamas claimed that Israeli strikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp, managed by the UN, had left more than 80 dead, including at least 50 in a school housing displaced people. Israel has not confirmed these strikes.
In total, 13,000 people had been killed in Israeli bombings since October 7, including more than 5,500 children, according to the Islamist movement.
“The horrific events” that have occurred over the past 48 hours in Gaza “beyond comprehension,” declared the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Sunday.
“The killing of so many people in schools turned into shelters,” the evacuation of al-Chifa hospital and the forced displacement of thousands of residents in southern Gaza “go against the basic protections that the international law must grant to civilians,” he said.
According to the UN, more than two thirds of the 2.4 million Gazans have been displaced by the war in the territory subjected since October 9 to a “complete siege” by Israel, which has cut off deliveries of food, water , electricity and medicines.
PHOTO MOHAMMED SALEM, REUTERS
Palestinian children are housed in a tent in Khan Younes, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 19.
At the American request, however, Israel agreed to deliver fuel. Around 120,000 liters arrived on Saturday, according to the UN, which considers these deliveries insufficient.
Most of the displaced Palestinians have fled to the south of the territory and are living in precarious conditions as winter approaches.
“Closer than ever”
At the same time, negotiations are progressing on the release of hostages among the 240 people kidnapped and brought back to Gaza on the day of the Hamas attack.
On Sunday, Qatar, which is leading mediation, said only “very minor” obstacles remained to an agreement. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani spoke of “more logistical challenges […] more practical”, without providing a timetable.
US President Joe Biden’s deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, told NBC that the agreement was “closer than ever” and included the release of “several dozen” hostages in exchange for a “extended extended period of pause, several days” in fighting.
In Israel, pressure is increasing on the government, which has so far refused any ceasefire without releasing the hostages.
Their relatives will meet Monday evening with “the entire Israeli war cabinet,” according to the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons.
Tensions are also high in the occupied West Bank where at least two people were killed by the army on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Since October 7, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the territory, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In a column published by the Washington Post On Saturday, Joe Biden threatened to ban visas to the United States from “extremist” settlers who attack civilians in the West Bank.