- Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza, killing five journalists in an attack on their vehicle in the central Nuseirat refugee camp, and five others in the bombing of a residential building in northern Gaza City. At least 30 people are reported missing in the latter assault.
- Doctors say three Palestinian babies have died of hypothermia in a displacement camp in southern Gaza as temperatures plummet and Israel’s blockade on food, water and essential winter supplies continues.
- Hamas accuses Israel of setting “new conditions” in ongoing ceasefire talks and delaying a truce deal, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office blames the Palestinian group for creating “new obstacles”.
- Israel’s military also intensifies its raid on the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, sending in reinforcements, a day after killing eight people there. The victims include two women and a teenager.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,361 Palestinians and wounded 107,803 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Gaza’s hunger crisis
Aid agencies say Israeli authorities are continuing to severely restrict the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, more than a month after global food security experts called for immediate action to avert famine in the war-torn enclave.Here’s what we know about Gaza’s hunger crisis:
- The Famine Review Committee, in an alert on November 8, said some 91 percent of Gaza’s 1.95 million people face “high levels of acute food insecurity”. These include an estimated 345,000 people facing famine.
- The UN’s food agency says some 68 percent of Gaza’s cropland, 52 percent of its agricultural wells and 44 percent of its greenhouse areas have been damaged.
- Some 70 percent of Gaza’s fishing fleet has been destroyedSome 95 percent of Gaza’s cattle have died.
Northern Gaza suffers ‘hell’ of Israeli military siege for almost 3 months: UNRWA
Juliette Touma, director of communications for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, has described northern Gaza as going through “the hell” of hells during Israel’s almost three-month-long siege.
In an interview with Irish state media, Touma told of Israel’s “heavy, heavy bombardment” of Gaza’s north. Touma also described the “loss of life among civilians and attacks on civilian infrastructure including hospitals and shelters” for civilians.
“The evacuation orders of hospitals and medical facilities – and attacks on them – have become commonplace in Gaza during the past 14 months since the war began,” Touma said.
“We shouldn’t become numb, though, to the fact that this happens all the time. Because, at the end of the day, this is a violation of international law. This is crossing a very thick red line and way too many times the rules of war have been broken in Gaza,” she said.
“Those responsible must be held accountable,” she added.
Israeli military to expand raids across the occupied West Bank
Israeli forces continue to intensify their raids across the occupied West Bank. On Wednesday, at least 25 Palestinians were arrested.
That comes after a raid that has lasted more than a day in the West Bank city of Tulkarem and the Nur Shams refugee camp, where Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians and tore up roads and other critical infrastructure with bulldozers as part of the raid.
Health officials say that they have been unable to evacuate those who’ve been injured and wounded because the Israelis are now blocking off roads in several different areas of Tulkarem.
This is a theme that we have seen throughout these raids.We are also seeing it around Ramallah, where locals said that Israeli authorities and the military blocked off roads for up to eight hours while they were conducting the raids.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society says that at least 12,000 Palestinians have been arrested since Israel’s war on Gaza began.
The Israeli military says that these raids across the occupied West Bank are only going to continue and, in fact, increase in both size and scale.
Israel admits to deadly air strike on Palestinian journalists in Gaza
The Israeli military has confirmed it carried out an attack on a clearly marked media vehicle in Gaza that killed five journalists working for Palestinian satellite TV channel Al-Quds Today, claiming its air forces had targeted a “terrorist cell”.
The military – which has systematically killed dozens of Palestinian journalists during its war on Gaza – said the targeted people belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group.
It provided no evidence to support its claim.The journalists were sleeping in the van in front of the al-Awda Hospital in the Nusierat refugee camp when it was targeted in an air strike in the early hours of this morning.
As we reported earlier, one of the victims, Ayman al-Jadi, was expecting the birth of a child before he was killed.