Israel-Hamas war live: Israel to allow ‘very minimal’ quantity of fuel into Gaza; IDF says body of soldier taken hostage retrieved | Israel-Hamas war
Israel agrees to allow ‘very minimal’ quantity of fuel into Gaza
Israel’s national security adviser says the country’s war cabinet has agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day – a quantity he described as “very minimal”.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Tzachi Hanegbi said the fuel would be allowed for Gaza’s communications system and water and sewage services.
He said the aim is to prevent the spread of disease without disrupting Israel’s ability to continue its war against the Hamas militant group.
Hanegbi said the fuel amounted to roughly 2% to 4% of the normal quantities of fuel that entered Gaza before the war erupted on 7 October.
Key events
Death toll in Gaza passes 12,000, including 5,000 children, say Hamas officials
At least 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to Hamas officials.
Ismail Thawabta, the director general of the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza, said there were 3,750 missing persons, including 1,800 children, who are still under the rubble.
In an update on Friday, Thawabta also told reporters that at least 200 doctors, nurses, and paramedics have been killed since the start of the conflict, Al Jazeera reported.
Here’s more from Ashraf al-Qudra, the Palestinian health ministry spokesperson in Gaza, who is inside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Israeli forces have turned the Shifa complex into a “military base for its operations”, he told Al Jazeera today.
He said Israeli army vehicles have not moved from the vicinity of the complex “at all”, as large numbers of Israeli soldiers have been sweeping through the basement and the ground floor of the hospital, including the special surgical unit. He told the outlet:
Every now and then there are sounds of sporadic gunfire inside the complex, whether it’s from snipers or from the [army] vehicles.
“The reality here is cruel and painful,” al-Qudra added, as people lack the “most basic of life’s necessities”, including food and water.
Twenty four patients have died over the past two days at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital due to power outages caused by the lack of fuel, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
“Vital medical equipment has stopped functioning because of the power outage,” a spokesperson for the Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, said on Friday, AFP reported.
Israeli special forces continued to search the sprawling hospital complex on Friday, after first entering Gaza’s largest hospital in an early Wednesday morning raid that drew fierce condemnation from the head of the World Health Organization, who called it “totally unacceptable”.
The situation at Shifa is “catastrophic” for patients, displaced people and health workers who are crammed inside without electricity, water or food, the hospital’s director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told AFP.
Israel has defended its Shifa operation, with the military saying it had found weapons as well as “intelligence materials, military technologies and equipment, command and control centres, and communications equipment, all belonging to Hamas”, as well as a Hamas tunnel shaft.
Hamas and medical administrators have strenuously denied the allegation the hospital was a command centre, and the health ministry in Gaza said the Israeli military did not find any weapons in the hospital. A British doctor working at Shifa said the charge was an “outlandish excuse”.
Sirens have sounded in Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel warning of incoming rockets for the first time since Tuesday.
There have been no immediate reports of injuries or damage, the Times of Israel reported.
Several Iron Dome interceptor missiles have been seen over the area, it said.
UN official urges Israel to stop using water as a ‘weapon of war’
A UN human rights official has urged Israel to stop using water as a “weapon of war” and allow clean water and fuel into Gaza to restart the water supply network.
Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, UN special rapporteur on water and sanitation, said in statement on Friday:
Every hour that passes with Israel preventing the provision of safe drinking water in the Gaza strip, in brazen breach of international law, puts Gazans at risk of dying of thirst and diseases related to the lack of safe drinking water.
He reminded Israel that consciously preventing supplies of safe water from entering Gaza “violates both international humanitarian and human rights law”, adding:
The impact on public health and hygiene will be unimaginable and could result in more civilian deaths than the already colossal death toll from the bombardment of Gaza.
He added that children – particularly those under the age of five – would be the first affected by the water and sanitation crisis, along with women.
These frequently invisible casualties of war are preventable, and Israel must prevent them. Israel must stop using water as a weapon of war.
Relatives of hostages taken by Hamas in its 7 October attack on Israel embarked on their fourth leg of a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem as they plead for the release of their loved ones held captive in Gaza.
The march began on Tuesday and is 40 miles long. The marchers, who include relatives of more than 50 hostages, have been camping in tents along the way and expect to complete the march outside Netanyahu’s office on Saturday.
Family members have called on Israel’s war cabinet for more information on the whereabouts of their loved ones and to consider a ceasefire deal or prisoner exchange, nearly six weeks after they were abducted and taken into Gaza.
Hamas has offered to release all the hostages in exchange for some 6,000 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails, but the cabinet has rejected the proposal.
There have been reports in Israeli and Arabic media on negotiations to secure the release of at least some of the hostages, but there has been no confirmation from any side of an imminent deal.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6.30pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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The UN has warned that Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation, and that overcrowding and lack of clean water are speeding the spread of diseases as winter approaches. Deliveries of already scarce food and other supplies have been halted in recent days because of shortages of fuel for trucks and a communications blackout, now in its second day, that has made it impossible to coordinate deliveries, aid agencies said.
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The Israeli military has said it has retrieved the body of a soldier, Noa Marciano, who had been held captive by Hamas in a building near Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. It comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday they had found the body of Yehudit Weiss, one of about 240 hostages taken on 7 October, in a building near the hospital.
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A doctor at Shifa has said Israeli forces had “found nothing” during searches of the hospital complex, and that food and water were running out. “It’s a totally terrifying situation,” Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters. “They are shooting all the time, all the areas.”
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Israeli security forces have mounted a major raid in the city of Jenin, destroying roads and killing between three and five Hamas militants in the latest instance of surging violence across the occupied West Bank. Hamas said three of its fighters had died in the raid, which began late on Thursday night and lasted about eight hours. Israeli military officials said their forces had killed at least five militants.
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At least 11,470 Palestinians, including 4,707 children and 3,155 women, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the Israel-Hamas war broke out six weeks ago, according to the Palestinian health authorities on Thursday. The vast majority have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. In recent days, the Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank has started updating the Gaza death toll, AP reported, after the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza stopped publishing updates after ministry officials based in Shifa hospital lost electricity and connectivity. The conflict was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October that killed more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
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Israel’s national security adviser has said the country’s war cabinet had agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day – a quantity he described as “very minimal”. Tzachi Hanegbi said the fuel would be allowed for Gaza’s communications system and water and sewage services, and that the aim was to prevent the spread of disease.
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Civilians in parts of south-east Gaza have been told in leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft to move into a smaller “safe zone” in the coastal town of Mawasi, which covers just 14 sq km (5.4 sq miles), prompting warnings from the heads of 18 UN agencies and international aid groups. There are already 1.6 million displaced people in Gaza, more than two-thirds of its population. Most fled the north after similar warnings that nowhere in or around Gaza City would be safe for civilians.
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Greece’s foreign minister, George Gerapetritis, has said talks on opening a humanitarian aid corridor into north Gaza could soon yield results. “I am relatively optimistic that we could have some positive results soon,” he said on Friday after meeting his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts.
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The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has urged the Middle East not to “go back to 20 years ago” with repeated cycles of violence and conflict as he continued his four-day diplomatic push to get a plan under way for enduring peace. On Thursday, he called on Israel not to be “consumed by rage” in its response.
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More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK this weekend, but there will be no large-scale national march in London, according to organisers. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend vigils, protests, petitions, fundraisers and marches across London boroughs and cities, including Birmingham, Cambridge, Liverpool and elsewhere on Saturday.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Fears are growing for people crowded into the south of the Gaza Strip, as Israel’s military consolidates its control of the northern areas around Gaza City, and appears to be preparing to step up operations elsewhere.
Civilians in parts of south-east Gaza have been told in leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft to move into a smaller “safe zone” in the coastal town of Mawasi, which covers just 14 sq km (5.4 sq miles), prompting warnings from the heads of 18 UN agencies and international aid groups.
There are already 1.6 million displaced people in Gaza, more than two-thirds of its population. Most fled the north after similar warnings that nowhere in or around Gaza City would be safe for civilians.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that more than 800,000 internally displaced people were staying in at least 154 shelters run by UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency.
The Reuters news agency reports that talks on opening a humanitarian aid corridor into north Gaza could soon yield results.
The claim comes from Greece’s foreign minister, George Gerapetritis, after his meeting with Israeli and Palestinian counterparts.
He said:
I am in constant communication with both parties and I am relatively optimistic that we could have some positive results soon.
With world powers anxious to coordinate help for Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s bombardment and siege, Gerapetritis said he believed Israel was considering allowing increased aid and was keen to hear all possible options.
Cyprus has made a proposal, which Greece endorses, to open a maritime corridor to expand capacity for relief into the Palestinian enclave beyond the Rafah crossing from Egypt.
Another alternative is via a port in Israel then a northern entry point into Gaza, Gerapetritis said.
Here are some of the latest images coming though from Israel and Gaza:
Emma Graham-Harrison
Earlier, the UN said Gaza’s civilians faced the “immediate possibility” of starvation, and overcrowding and the lack of clean water were speeding the spread of disease as winter approaches.
Deliveries of already scarce food and other supplies have been halted in recent days because of shortages of fuel for trucks and a communications blackout that made it impossible to coordinate deliveries, aid agencies said. Palestinian network operators said they had no fuel to power phone and internet systems.
You can read our full report on the situation for civilians in Gaza here:
As we reported earlier, Israeli security forces have mounted a major raid in the city of Jenin, destroying roads and killing between three and five Hamas militants in the latest instance of surging violence across the occupied West Bank.
Hamas said three of its fighters had died in the raid, which began late on Thursday night.
You can watch our video report here:
Israel agrees to allow ‘very minimal’ quantity of fuel into Gaza
Israel’s national security adviser says the country’s war cabinet has agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day – a quantity he described as “very minimal”.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Tzachi Hanegbi said the fuel would be allowed for Gaza’s communications system and water and sewage services.
He said the aim is to prevent the spread of disease without disrupting Israel’s ability to continue its war against the Hamas militant group.
Hanegbi said the fuel amounted to roughly 2% to 4% of the normal quantities of fuel that entered Gaza before the war erupted on 7 October.
A doctor al-Shifa hospital in Gaza said on Friday Israeli forces had “found nothing” during searches of the hospital complex, and that food and water were running out.
Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters by telephone that despite the “difficult” conditions at the hospital, no babies had died there since Israeli troops entered it on Wednesday.
Israel says Hamas has a command centre underneath the hospital, an assertion the Palestinian militant group denies. Reuters has been unable to verify the situation at the hospital independently.
“It’s a totally terrifying situation, here the Israeli tanks and the Israeli troops have been moving within the hospital area, all over the hospital,” said Mokhallalati, a surgeon born in Ireland who trained in Cairo and practiced in London.
“The situation is totally difficult. They are shooting all the time, all the areas.”
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft and a vehicle with weapons at al-Shifa. It also made public videos and photographs to support its statement.
Speaking in English, Mokhallalati said: “They have found nothing. They have found no single resistance. No single gunshot, against them within the hospital area.”
The hospital, packed with patients and displaced people and struggling to keep operating, has become a focus of global concern.
Israel kills Hamas militants in Jenin raid
Jason Burke
Israeli security forces have mounted a major raid in the city of Jenin, destroying roads and killing between three and five Hamas militants in the latest instance of surging violence across the occupied West Bank.
Hamas said three of its fighters died in the overnight raid, which began late on Thursday night and lasted about eight hours. Israeli military officials said their forces had killed at least five.
The raid underlined the high tensions in the West Bank since the attacks launched by Hamas into southern Israel last month which prompted a massive Israeli military offensive into Gaza.
The mounting death toll in the West Bank has underscored fears that the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war could spiral out of control amid the conflict in Gaza.
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