Israeli troops carried out building-by-building searches at Gaza’s main hospital, as a new communications blackout in the territory on Friday compounded fears for Palestinian civilians trapped inside the facility. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
- Israel ordered civilians to leave four towns in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
- The Israeli army said its troops had taken “operational control” of Gaza port.
- Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday for lack of fuel.
- UN rights chief Volker Turk urged an international investigation into war violations and rang the “loudest possible alarm” over the occupied West Bank in a briefing.
- Israeli troops have renewed their search at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital for evidence of Hamas in a complex sheltering more than 2,000 civilians.
- The Israeli military displayed what it claims are Hamas weapons and military equipment it uncovered in Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, but its search showed no signs of a command centre.
- Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said Thursday that Israeli bulldozers had “destroyed parts of the southern entrance” of the hospital.
Gaza communications down as Israel searches main hospital
Israeli troops carried out building-by-building searches at Gaza’s main hospital, as a new communications blackout in the territory on Friday compounded fears for Palestinian civilians trapped inside the facility.
Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza since soldiers raided the complex on Wednesday, hunting for a command centre they say militant group Hamas operates there.
Hamas and hospital managers deny that charge, and there has been international concern about several thousand people — including wounded patients and premature babies — believed to be trapped inside
Key developments from Thursday, November 16:
- Hamas’s armed wing claimed responsibility for a gun attack near Jerusalem that killed a soldier, saying it was in response to the ongoing bloodshed in Gaza.
- Jordan announced it was dropping a planned deal with Israel to exchange solar energy for desalinated water, saying the Gaza war had made it unthinkable.
- The Israeli military said it uncovered what it alleged to be a Hamas tunnel shaft and a vehicle with weapons at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital complex.
- At least 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack. Palestinian militants are holding nearly 240 hostages seized in the raid.
- The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza on Wednesday said the death toll in the Gaza Strip had topped 11,500, including 4,710 children.
Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the enclave, receives data from every hospital in the strip. Hospital administrators say they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every body arriving at a morgue. The ministry collects data from other sources also, including the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
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Sources from: FRANCE24.COM
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