Operation Iron Swords - Day 40 - 15 November 2023

The Palestinian State was established in exile on November 15, 1988. A month later, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution acknowledging the proclamation of the State of Palestine by the Palestine National Council. It also decided that "Palestine" should be used in place of "Palestine Liberation Organization" in the UN system.

Malta put forward a resolution that called for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to allow rapid and unhindered delivery of essential goods. Four previous votes related to the conflict have failed in the Security Council, where the Untied States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom wield veto power as permanent members of the 15-member body.

An initial Brazil-drafted resolution calling for humanitarian pauses was vetoed by the US for failing to “mention Israel’s right of self-defence”. A subsequent US-drafted resolution, which stated Israel’s “right to self-defence” but did not call for humanitarian pauses, was vetoed by Russia and China. Two subsequent Russian draft resolutions were not vetoed, but did not attain the nine votes needed to be approved by the council.

The issue for the Security Council had been what a ceasefire would look like. Some council members, the United States in particular, have been opposed to using the word “ceasefire”. They’ve agreed in the past to humanitarian pauses, but they also vetoed an earlier resolution that they felt was too restrictive. Russia, on the other hand, has been calling for an unequivocal ceasefire, a humanitarian ceasefire. So this is an attempt to find language that neither country would veto and that enough council members would support.

Speaking ahead of a vote on her country’s draft resolution, Malta’s ambassador to the UN said it “aims to ensure respite from the current nightmare in Gaza and give hope to the families of all victims”. Malta introduced the latest resolution, saying it was put together in extensive consultation with other members of the council. “This draft resolution we have in front of us today seeks to offer hope in this dark hour,” she said.

Twelve UNSC members voted in favour. None voted against. Three countries – the US, the UK and Russia – abstained.

A Russian ‘ceasefire’ amendment fails to get needed support at UNSC. The amendment called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce, leading to a cessation of hostilities”. Five members of the 15-member council voted in favor. One member – the United States – voted against. The nine other members abstained.

Palestinian armed group Hamas launched thousands of missiles at Israel and deployed its militants to infiltrate Jewish settlements near the country’s border with Gaza on 07 October 2023. The 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day would be the equivalent of 36,000 Americans killed in an attack, as a proportion to Israel’s population of 9.3 million people (compared to 332 million in the USA). Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated: “Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in one day". PM Netanyahu stated "On October 7th, Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis. Maybe more. This is in a country of fewer than 10 million people. This would be equivalent to over 50,000 Americans murdered in a single day. That’s twenty 9/11s. That is why October 7th is another day that will live in infamy."

It is the second largest loss inflicted on the Israeli forces after the 1973 war, as the Palestinian resistance killed more than 1,200, wounded more than 5,132 others, and captured more than 250, most of them military personnel, some of whom were high-ranking officers in the army.

Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs

Palestinian health authorities say that more than 11,500 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, more than four times the number killed in the six-week-long war in 2014. The death toll included 4,710 children [down from 4,800 children previously reported], 3,160 women, and 678 elderly people. These subtotals fluctuate inexplicably]. The average of children martyrs was six per hour, while female martyrs is five per hour.

In addition, the number of injured rose to 29,800 [though some earlier reports had totaled over 32,000 Palestinians injured since October 7th, including at least 6,360 children and 4,891 women]. More than 3,600 civilians, including 1,750 children, and presumed buried under rubble. On the West bank, at least 183 Palestinians had been killed, and more than 2,300 injured [a big jump from the previous 1,980 injured]. Palestinian health authorities have said it was becoming increasingly difficult to obtain accurate casualty figures from Gaza due to the collapse of the hospital and health system in parts of the Israeli-besieged enclave.

Alalam News Network, part of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, reported "War crimes committed in Gaza , affecting 42,000 Palestinians , who are direct victims of this war, including martyrs, wounded and missing, meaning about 2 percent of the total population of Gaza became direct victims as a result of this aggression, either martyrs or wounded, which means that the hospitals of the Gaza Strip are receiving an average One "

Israel revised down the death toll from the October Hamas attacks in southern Israel from 1,400 to 1,200. IDF had said previously it was holding 1,500 bodies of terrorists, a total that now would increas to about 1,700.

The Israel Police announced that the bodies of 859 civilians killed in the war against Hamas had been identified. The Israeli Police, The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Ministry of Health, the Pathological Institute for Forensic Medicine, and volunteer organizations all have been working on the task to identify bodies since the war's start. These officers and volunteers had been operating in shifts to identify bodies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The headquarters for these operations was established hours after the war started. The process of identifying soldiers is done more quickly thanks to the databases available to the IDF, including DNA samples, fingerprints, and photos of each soldier. But the identification of civilians is much more complex because this data is generally less complete and less accessible. The civilian biometric database in Israel, which is incomplete, does not allow sufficient verification of identity to allow for burial.

The body of Vivian Silver, a prominent resident of Kibbutz Beeri, was identified over a month after she was initially reported missing. What was initially defined as a kidnapping by Hamas on October 7 has now been confirmed as a murder. Vivian Silver, who held Canadian citizenship, was not just a resident of Beeri but also a leader in the "Women Making Peace" movement. This movement was dedicated to fostering Jewish-Arab partnership and harmony.

The Israeli army reported the death of 365 soldiers and officers, 52 of them were killed since the start of the ground operation in the besieged Gaza Strip. At least 7,771 Israelis were injured.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry released its first official casualty numbers in fighting, saying 77 people were killed and 251 wounded since the start of the war on Gaza.

Hostages

Some 240 hostages are being held by HAMAS in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said 03 November 2023. About 40 Israelis remained missing.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on Hamas’ telegram account that 23 bodies of the 60 missing Israel hostages were trapped under the rubble. “It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza,” he said.

Citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Israeli news outlet Walla! said the ceasefire duration was the main sticking point in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas. One source also said difficulties communicating with Hamas leaders in Gaza have slowed down the negotiations.

Israel’s Kan television station reported that the “children for children” proposal is being examined by Israel and Hamas in advanced talks mediated by Qatar and the US for the release of captives held in Gaza. Citing sources familiar with the negotiations, Kan said the proposal would see Israeli children held in Gaza released in exchange for the release of Palestinian children and youth imprisoned in Israel.

About a fifth of the hostages abducted from Israel could be part of a deal that would see a 3-day ceasefire and the release of Palestinian detainees Hamas agreed to release 50 civilian hostages abducted from Israel on October 7, an official briefed on the Qatari mediated negotiations told Reuters. This could potentially be the largest advancement in the negotiations for the hostages held by the terrorist organization, which has only seen four abductees released. It is unclear if the 50 civilian hostages were the same dual citizens that were part of a previous deal attempt coordinated by the Red Cross, in which Hamas demands were reportedly the stalling factor.

The deal would include a three-day ceasefire and an undisclosed amount of Palestinian women and youth detained by Israel, as well as an increase of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the official told Reuters. Hamas agreed to the "general outline" of the deal, but Israel has not, and was still interested in negotiating, the official added. Furthermore, the deal would require Hamas to hand over a complete list of living civilian hostages held in Gaza. A more comprehensive release, however, was reportedly not on the table.

Israel is not showing the seriousness necessary to reach a truce in Gaza, says Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau. “Israel is still delaying the release of 50 women and children from the captives in exchange for a humanitarian truce, the release of a number of women and children detainees in prisons, and the entry of relief aid to all areas in the Gaza Strip,” he said on Telegram. Israel, al-Risheq said, is not serious about reaching an agreement, “but is stalling to continue its aggression and war against defenceless civilians”.

The spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, Abu Ubaida , had confirmed that the occupation entity was procrastinating in the prisoner exchange file. Sources familiar with the progress of the negotiations stressed that the resistance is running out of time, and that any new obstruction on the part of the entity may destroy the initiative altogether. The position of the Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziad al-Nakhalah, was noteworthy in this context, as he stressed that the movement might withdraw from the initiative and leave its prisoners to be exchanged for better conditions later.

Information indicates that the agreement collided with Israel submitting a list of 100 names that it said fit the status of civilians, including boys and women, while the resistance informed the Egyptian and Qatari mediators that it was not possible to verify the existence of all these names and that the matter needed time to research, collect, and count.

Operational Update

A video captured the moment an Israeli bulldozer destroyed a memorial to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. Scholars say the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage during conflict constitutes a war crime.

“They built al-Shifa Hospital into a kind of a Palestinian Pentagon,” said Mouin Rabbani, a Montreal-based Middle East analyst, expressed serious doubts over the Israeli army’s claims. “Israeli forces have invaded Shifa Hospital and been inside it for 12 full hours – having refused any independent party to accompany them – and now we’re supposed to believe that there were Hamas militants in there being pursued by the Israeli military but they somehow left their weapons behind?” Rabbani said to Al Jazeera.

“The fact of the matter is, 40 days into this war, their main achievement is raising the Israeli flag over a hospital which I think, to any serious military analyst, is laughable,” he said.

Rabbani added “I think part of it was elevating the status and symbolism of this hospital so that they can claim a major victory by having raised their flag over a hospital in the absence of other significant military achievements.”

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, questioned Israel’s “evidence” that al-Shifa Hospital was used as a Hamas operational command centre. “It’s kind of baffling. Why would Hamas leave the guns and not anything else?” said Bishara, speaking shortly after the Israeli military released photos of a handful of firearms, light military equipment, radios and other technology. The Israeli military, Bishara added, “doesn’t have anything to show as justification for the genocide that they’ve carried out against Gaza and for the bombings of the hospitals and other facilities and for the collective punishments”.

Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, said what had been happening at al-Shifa Hospital is “the mother of all scandals”. In Gaza’s al-Quds Hospital and the al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital, Israel failed to provide any evidence that hospitals are used for military purposes, Barghouti told Al Jazeera. “Now, they claim this [al-Shifa] is the headquarters of Hamas and that there are weapons there, and that Hamas fighters are holding people hostages. What did they find? Nothing,” he said.

Items shown in videos released by the Israeli army of a handful of firearms, among other things, could have been “easily” put there, Barghouti said. “This shows why Israel has rejected constantly, all the calls of the administration of the hospital for an independent, international, noncommission to come to the hospital and investigate the situation” he added. Instead, Israel is “consolidating this lie” and is continuing attempts to find evidence of something that “doesn’t exist”, Barghouti said.

Hamas official Bassem Naim tells Al Jazeera that the group expected what he called Israeli “skits” and “theatrics” at al-Shifa Hospital. His statement was in response to Israeli allegations that its forces found weapons in the complex. Naim called the Israeli claims “a farce”, adding that the group does not rule out the possiblity that the army brought in weapons and planted them at al-Shifa Hospital.

After carrying out a storming operation under heavy cover of fire on Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City , the Israeli army withdrew from the largest hospital in the Strip, according to what Al-Arabiya/Al-Hadath correspondent reported from inside the hospital, confirming that the siege on the hospital continued. He also said that there were about 15 tanks in the vicinity of the hospital, withdrawing after entering the complex, noting that the army blew up the basement of the surgical building in the place. He continued, "The Israeli army blew up important facilities in the hospital and medical equipment," noting that the army left the hospital without finding any people.

It is noteworthy that, hours after storming the Shifa compound and searching its rooms and basement, the Israeli forces did not find any indicators indicating the presence of prisoners underneath, or Hamas command centers or tunnels, according to what was reported earlier by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation.

Before the withdrawal, a senior Israeli army official said in statements to reporters earlier today that “his forces found weapons and infrastructure belonging to Hamas during an ongoing raid on one specific area inside the hospital.” He said: "We found concrete evidence that the Shifa complex was used as a Hamas headquarters, and we will present parts of it to public opinion in the coming hours."

The Israeli army said that its forces found in one of the hospital sections “a room containing technological equipment, in addition to military and combat equipment used by Hamas.” IDF spokesman for the Arab media Avijaa Adraei @AvichayAdraee reported "IDF forces reveal an operational command headquarters, combat means and technological equipment in the MRI building of Al-Shifa Hospital. The “Shaldag” commando unit and other special units under the command of the 36th Division continue their work in a precise manner in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, as they carry out combing work in search of infrastructure. And the terrorist methods of the Hamas terrorist organization. When the fighters entered the hospital grounds, they encountered a number of saboteurs and eliminated them. Later, during combing operations inside one of the hospital departments, the fighters found a room containing special technological means, combat equipment, and military equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization. In another section, an operational headquarters and technological means belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization were found, indicating that the terrorist organization used the hospital for terrorist purposes. The IDF continues to operate in the vicinity of the hospital based on available intelligence and in an effort to prevent harm to medical personnel and other civilians who have taken refuge in the hospital."

At dawn, the Israeli army stormed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in a military operation that eyewitnesses described as a “nightmare,” at a time when the complex contained patients, injured people, and displaced people, in addition to its outer courtyard being crowded with dozens of bodies of martyrs of the Israeli raids on Gaza. Sources from inside Al-Shifa Medical Hospital reported that the IDF forces arrested a number of displaced people and the families of the martyrs and wounded during their storming of the complex. A hospital source described the situation as "tragic."

The operation was preceded by an effort to evacuate the hospital from the sick and homeless and even opened a special passageway from it. The hospital management was informed ahead of time about the entrance to the compound. In the continuation of the operation, incubators, medical equipment and baby food are expected to be transferred to the hospital.

The Israeli soldiers went from one building to another inside al-Shifa Hospital after they managed to completely search for any military existence inside the complex. They interrogated doctors and medical staff. They didn’t allow them to be evacuated. Israeli forces are preventing anyone from entering or getting out of the hospital. They withdrew from some buildings, but the Israeli artillery were still at the gates of the hospital, and they had full control over the facility.

The IDF reported that operational headquarters, munitions and technological equipment in the MRI building at Shifa Hospital - IDF forces under the command of Division 36 continue targeted activity at the hospital.

Israeli troops found weapons, combat gear and technological equipment in Al Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, and are continuing their search of the complex, chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. The military also released a video that they said showed some of the material recovered from an undisclosed building in the hospital, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets.

There were about 1,500 members of the medical team in the Shifa complex, about 700 patients, 39 premature babies, and 7,000 displaced people, according to the HAMAS government media office in Gaza. A senior IDF officer said that no battle took place inside the hospital wards, and that troops were not engaging with hospital staff or patients.

“We are starting small, and the operation will expand as necessary,” an unnamed Israeli security official told Army Radio. “The entry of troops into Al-Shifa is more of a challenge for media [optics] than operations.” They added that “the decision was that we enter Al-Shifa only if we know exactly what is there and where it is, as we did at Rantisi Hospital, which was only raided when we knew exactly what was in its basement.” The IDF's spokesperson Daniel Hagari reiterated: "We have soldiers trained specifically for this situation, and we are only at war with Hamas. We continue to do everything in our power to mitigate the risk to civilians."

The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. In recent weeks, the IDF has publicly warned time and again that Hamas' continued military use of the Shifa hospital jeopardizes its protected status under international law, and enabled ample time to stop this unlawful abuse of the hospital. Yesterday, the IDF conveyed to the relevant authorities in Gaza once again that all military activities within the hospital must cease within 12 hours. Unfortunately, it did not. The IDF also facilitated wide-scale evacuations of the hospital and maintained regular dialogue with hospital authorities.

The Israeli army claimed that its forces encountered explosive devices and what it described as terrorist cells before entering the hospital, and indicated that a fight took place and those it described as terrorists were eliminated. He said that he is still continuing his operations, which he described as focused.

A senior IDF official said that "the forces found weapons and infrastructure belonging to terrorists" inside Al-Shifa Hospital, adding that no fighting had occurred inside the hospital complex. The Israeli official did not specify which part of the hospital the forces were searching and inspecting, nor did he disclose the nature of what was found, but he said that evidence would be presented later.

Israeli Army Radio said that there were no indications of the presence of Israeli prisoners in Al-Shifa Hospital, even though the army claimed for weeks that there were Israeli prisoners there. For days, Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings, as well as other hospitals in the Gaza Strip, had been subjected to Israeli bombing and siege, claiming that there is a headquarters for the Palestinian resistance there. This is repeatedly denied by the Hamas movement and Palestinian officials in the Strip.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) demolished Hamas's parliament building in Gaza City, days after troops captured the site. The operation was carried out by the 7th Armored Brigade and Golani Infantry Brigade. The demolishing comes after Israeli troops took a photo inside Hamas's parliament that went viral. The military action serves as a strategic move following the capture, aiming to prevent any potential use or symbolism the structure might hold for the militant group.

The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) said that the Israeli occupation army’s claim that it found weapons in Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip is a “farcical farce.” The movement added - in a brief statement published on Telegram - that “the Zionist occupation’s claim that it found weapons and equipment in the Shifa Medical Complex is nothing but a continuation of the lies and cheap propaganda through which it is trying to give justification for its crime aimed at destroying the health sector in Gaza.”

The movement added, "These allegations are the same trivial propaganda that he made during his storming of Rantisi Children's Hospital, where the occupation placed weapons in the place and staged a farce that no longer deceived anyone."

Hamas continued in its statement, "We repeated more than once and two weeks ago our call to the United Nations and international organizations to form an international committee to review the conditions of hospitals, and to determine the falsehood of the occupation's narrative and its false claims, because we are aware of the level of lies and deception that the occupation is spreading to cover up its crimes against children, women, and defenseless civilians."

Earlier, the HAMAS Director General of Hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Muhammad Zaqout, told Al Jazeera that the occupation forces stormed the surgical and emergency buildings in the Shifa Complex, and searched the warehouse of the main building in the complex. He added in an interview with Al Jazeera that the occupation opened fire on the sick and displaced people who came out of the corridor that was claimed to be safe to exit the complex.

He stressed that not a single bullet was fired from inside Al-Shifa Hospital during the occupation forces’ storming, noting that the complex is a medical facility that provides medical service to patients and that there are no resistance fighters or detainees in it. For days now, Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings, as well as other hospitals in the Gaza Strip, have been continuously targeted by bombing by the Israeli army, claiming the presence of resistance men there. This is something that Hamas and Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip constantly deny.

The USS Thomas Hudner destroyer took a drone down over the Red Sea in the early morning. The drone had come from Yemen, US officials told Reuters, without providing details on whether it was armed or how close it came to the ship. The US Pentagon said last month that it had shot down several missiles and drones launched at Israel from Yemen. This would represent the second such incident. The Yemen-based Houthis have claimed several launches towards Israel amid the war.

A truck carrying 23,000 litres (6,075 gallons) of fuel has crossed from Egypt into Gaza, but a UN official says it is only 9 percent of what is needed. An Israeli rights group says Israel agreed to provide only 23,000 litres of fuel for 40 UN trucks to transport aid when it needs about 160,000 litres for humanitarian operations. Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, reiterated fuel is not entering the besieged coastal enclave. UNRWA’s Gaza chief Thomas White said earlier it received 23,027 litres of fuel from Egypt – half a tanker – “but its use has been restricted by Israeli authorities to only transporting aid from Rafah”.

“Diesel = weapon”, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on social media after inspecting the fuel truck that entered Gaza. Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev, who also inspected the truck, wrote on X that “fuel for UNRA is fuel for Hamas”. According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, 23,000 litres of fuel entered Gaza, but it is only 9 percent of what UNRWA needs to continue providing support to Palestinians.

At least three people were killed in an attack on Salhi residential towers in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. An Israeli air strike killed and injured a number of people in al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Israeli artillery shelling targeted flour silos in al-Qarara, which was the only source of flour production in Gaza, in addition to some flour that enters as international aid. Work has stopped at al-Salam Mill in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, after Israeli artillery bombed the only operating wheat mill.

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah announced multiple operations targeting Israeli-occupied territories in Lebanon and Palestine, carried out in support of "our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in solidarity with their valiant and honorable Resistance." At 2:00 pm, the Resistance targeted the Israeli "Ramim" barracks located in the Israeli-occupied Lebanese village of Hounin with rocket artillery. The official statement confirmed direct hits and casualties. At 2:10 pm, the Resistance targeted Roueissat al-Alam site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with appropriate weapons. The official statement confirmed direct hits. At 3:25 pm, the Resistance targeted Hadab Yaroun site in the occupied territories with precision-guided missiles, confirming direct hits. At 3:35 pm, the Resistance targeted an Israeli vehicle in the Tayhat triangle with precision-guided missiles, also confirming direct hits.

According to the Geneva Convention , the protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled “shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy”. “Protection may, however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit, and after such warning has remained unheeded,” it says. “The fact that sick or wounded members of the armed forces are nursed in these hospitals, or the presence of small arms and ammunition taken from such combatants which have not yet been handed to the proper service, shall not be considered to be acts harmful to the enemy.”

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that “the Israeli government has put forward no evidence that would justify stripping hospitals of their special protections under international humanitarian law”. Even if Israel’s justifications for attacking hospitals are taken at “face value”, Shakir said “international humanitarian law only allows attacking hospitals if room is made for safe evacuation”. He added: “The reality here is there is no safe place to go in Gaza.” Shakir also said that there is a higher risk of attacks on hospitals being “disproportionate” considering that “even a relatively minor attack could have life-altering consequences for the treatment of patients”.

Andreas Krieg, a professor of security studies at King’s College London, said Israel’s “absurd” strategic endgame beyond the siege of al-Shifa is to completely destroy Hamas’s “infrastructure”. “Hamas is an idea, a movement. But if they wanted to annihilate their military capabilities they would have to kill every single fighter. So they’re going literally house by house – whether it’s a civilian house, a hospital or any other infrastructure – and making sure that no fighters are in there.”

Krieg told Al Jazeera the strategy is not only “very disruptive” but also counterproductive. “You’re basically being pulled into firefights and potentially killing more civilians – which again is something that you’re trying to avoid if you’re fighting an insurgency.”

Krieg said Israel’s allegations of al-Shifa Hospital being a Hamas command centre have been “going around for a decade”. “Israel has always pushed that narrative and now it’s the time of truth. They have boots on the ground and now they have to come up with evidence that this is actually true,” Krieg told Al Jazeera.

“Evidence presented over the last couple of days from other hospitals has not only been inconclusive but to a great deal has been inconsistent and showed a lot of flaws and misinformation, which also makes it difficult to trust their word. “From an intelligence point of view, I’d say the Americans are just copying the Israelis instead of actually presenting their own evidence. So there isn’t a lot out there.”

“It is very plausible to believe that Hamas might have a weapons cache and they might have tunnel access underneath [Al Shifa],” said Dr Marina Miron, researcher in the War Studies Department at King’s College London. “However, to demonstrate that will be very difficult.” The “alleged evidence” that Israel has provided so far is simply not enough, Miron added. “We have seen in the past that such evidence can be doctored.”

Ardi Imseis, a professor of international law at Queen’s University, said Israel has a long history of presenting unverifiable evidence. “In respect to what’s happening at al-Shifa right now, it’s hard to say. What we can say is the hospital is a civilian object. And until such time as the Israelis provide proof that it’s been converted into a military object, the civilian nature of that object does not change,” Imeseis told Al Jazeera.

“The obvious thing to do is to allow a third party into the hospital. The Israelis control the area, and given the heightened sensitivity of the their claim that this hospital has been used and abused by Palestinian paramilitaries, they should, reasonably, invite third parties in. Given the historical record, Israeli claims of this sort have never been proved.”

Tamer Qarmout, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said it’s time for the international community to question Israeli “intelligence” used to justify the raid. “Let’s go back to their officially declared goals and statements right from the beginning of this war: Israel has made it clear it wants – at least at this stage – to have full control of the north of Gaza. As we talk now, this is happening slowly, of course, it’s not an easy war for Israel, it’s not a picnic, Hamas is resisting but civilians are paying the utter price of this genocidal war,” Qarmout told Al Jazeera. He added Israel will keep making “false narratives, accusations, with the help of the US” to buy more time so it can take full control of Gaza City and the north.

Palestinian analyst Thabet Al-Amour played down the military significance of the Israeli raid on al-Shifa, stressing that the hospital is an easy target. He said a single Israeli warship could besiege al-Shifa, which sits no more than 400 metres (437 yards) from Gaza’s shores, with its firepower. “The occupation army said, ‘We have a specific mission of eliminating Hamas’,” Al-Amour told Al Jazeera. “Did they think the leaders of Hamas and the leaders of the resistance will be waiting for them in the main lobby of al-Shifa Hospital – with the captives alongside them?” He added: “This is madness, absolute madness … It’s a hospital.”

Israeli occupation forces lack the ability to conduct wide-scale ground maneuvers past the Palestinian-Lebanese borders, Israeli media outlets reported. The effectiveness of the occupation's air force against Hezbollah's anti-tank units has decreased in the past few days, Israeli Channel 13 reported following several operations conducted from South Lebanon, targeting various Israeli positions alongside the Lebanese-Palestinian border.

The Israeli broadcaster noted that the number of red alerts in northern occupied territories exceeded those that originated from the Gaza Strip. The occupation is "in a defensive situation in the north, where we receive hits and injuries," and Hezbollah's tactics have become more effective in the face of Israeli airstrikes, Channel 13 reported.

More importantly, the Israeli broadcaster revealed that Hezbollah has figured out the tactics used by the Israeli Air Force to target its positions, which means that the Resistance party's operations on the Northern Front have become more effective. Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant had previously admitted that the majority of "Israel's" aerial capabilities were transferred to the Northern Front, further testifying to the pressure that Hezbollah has exerted on the occupation's military apparatus, as its aggression on Gaza ensues.

Director of the Al-Ittihad Center for Research, Hadi Qubaisi, predicted the scenario of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip until the end of this month, considering that the Israeli army has not achieved anything to date and that the Israeli administration is greatly confused and confused. World - specific to the world.

Qubaisi said in an interview with Al-Alam Channel during its continuous coverage of the Israeli aggression against Gaza: "I believe that at the end of this November, the Israeli entity will reach a state of despair over its aggression in the Gaza Strip, meaning that it will reach the stage that no matter what it does, it will not achieve more than what happened."

He added: "If the people of Gaza can be patient until the end of the month, the Israeli entity and the United States will kneel and admit defeat. In fact, Israeli journalists and analysts have begun to wonder about the achievements their army has achieved to date."Qubaisi continued: "The Israeli army, 15 days after the ground operation, did not achieve anything, and today the Israeli entity cannot commit massacres as before, because there is international pressure and massacres are no longer acceptable in the world. The presidents of France, America, Brazil, and China announced their rejection of the killing of children, as well as the prime ministers of Britain and Canada, so that entity The Israeli has his hands tied and will not be able to accomplish anything."

An observer of Israeli affairs Nabih Awada said in an interview with Al-Alam Channel of Iran as part of its 40-day coverage of the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip : "It is clear that the field is speaking today in Gaza. There is no balance between the great propaganda ability provided by the Israeli media, which controls all the details, and the reality on the ground."

He added: "But there are some very important indicators related to the field itself. Simply saying that there is a launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Palestine occupied in 1948, specifically to the Tel Aviv, Negev, and Ashkelon region, and the continued firing of rockets and mortar shells into the areas surrounding Gaza despite the claim. Several days ago, one of the Israeli officers expressed that the resistance’s ability had been paralyzed and that a kind of calm had prevailed regarding the launching of missiles. These missiles came and confirmed that the resistance was still capable of launching its missiles, and thus this practically undermined the Israeli theory."

Awada continued: "The second issue has to do with the nature of the field. Al-Shifa Hospital is not more than 600 meters away from the Gaza coast, and it is considered, from a military and geographical standpoint, a soft and very close area. It is not located within the solid cement block that forms the depth of the Gaza Strip, and therefore it does not constitute a large barricade which cannot be penetrated."

He added: "The Israelis were waiting until the last moments for some achievement, but the issue is not here. As the Hebrew Channel 13 reported today, there is a great disappointment at the Israeli intelligence level, that what was said about Al-Shifa Hospital turned out to be that there are no prisoners nor any military headquarters, and therefore this is a failure. It is a major intelligence service for the Israeli army , and this in itself is an achievement for the resistance, as what was promoted by the Israeli media was practically fake."

The following is a list of operations carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades against the Israeli forces penetrating the Gaza Strip during the day:

• targeted a Zionist bulldozer east of the city of Deir al-Balah with an “Al-Yassin 105 ” missile.
• fired rocket salvoes towards the occupied territories
• targeted a gathering of enemy forces in the axis south of Gaza City with a 114 mm short-range “Rajum” missile system.
• bombed “Ashkelon” with a missile barrage
• targeted a Zionist troop carrier northwest of Gaza City with an “Al-Yassin 105 ” missile.
• targeted two Zionist tanks and bulldozers northwest of Gaza City with two “Tandum ” shells.
• bombed the gathering of incursive vehicles east of the city of Deir al-Balah with mortar shells
• bombed the occupied city of Sderot with a missile barrage
• renewed the bombardment of the occupied city of Sderot with a missile barrage
• targeted a Zionist tank northwest of Gaza City with an “Al-Yassin 105 ” missile.
• targeted a Zionist tank west of Gaza City with an “Al-Yassin 105 ” missile.
• targeted a Zionist tank southwest of Gaza City with an “Al-Yassin 105 ” missile.
• targeted a military bulldozer west of Gaza City with an “Al-Yassin 105 ” shell.
• Mujahideen of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Al-Quds Brigades, and Al-Nasser Brigades were able to target two Zionist tanks with “Tandum” and “Al-Yassin 105” shells, southwest of Gaza City.

A major piece of news came in the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth saying that the next mission for the Israeli army is a huge area of land, a million Palestinian refugees, and the majority of the Israeli prisoners and fighters from the Hamas movement. This is the next goal for the Israeli army in the southern Gaza Strip.

The correspondent of Al-Alam News Channel in the occupied West Bank, Fares Al-Sarfandi, added: "Therefore, when the Israeli army asked the Palestinians to head towards the south of the Gaza Strip and leave the northern and central area of the Strip, it was completely clear that it differed from what the Israeli press is now reporting, which says that the next targets will be in the south of the Gaza Strip." The correspondent continued: "This means that the goal is not, as they said, control of the north and center of the Gaza Strip, but rather the goal is to control the entire Gaza Strip and displace the Palestinians from Gaza to the Sinai region."

The Yemeni Armed Forces confirmed that they will not hesitate to target any ship belonging to the Israeli occupation entity in the Red Sea or any other place. The Armed Forces explained in a statement read by the official spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, that a batch of ballistic missiles were launched at various targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Palestinian territories, including sensitive targets in the Umm al-Rashrash area (Eilat).

The statement indicated that the launching of ballistic missiles came only 24 hours after another military operation carried out by the armed forces using drones on the same Zionist targets. The statement also confirmed the start of taking all practical measures to implement the directives issued regarding the appropriate dealing with any Israeli ship in the Red Sea. The statement noted that "operations against the Israeli enemy will not stop until the Israeli aggression against our brave brothers in Gaza stops.""

Bystanders

Jennifer Cassidy, a legal expert from the University of Oxford, says targeting medical facilities is a war crime “plain and simple”. “Even if we take everything the Israeli government is saying to be true [about Hamas using al-Shifa], it is still a war crime because the proportionality and the outcome effect in relation to the gains they are achieving still is breaking international law. And they’re actually providing that evidence in realtime. They’re essentially making a case against themselves,” Cassidy told Al Jazeera. But she added: “Getting the Israeli government to stand before a tribunal will be extremely difficult.”

Israel is justifying its mass killing of civilians in Gaza by declaring the “law of military necessity”, she noted. Asked why world powers have not stepped in to stop the carnage, she said it is “diplomacy being utterly hypocritical and having the most double standards we have ever seen regarding political crises”. “Diplomats are not acting with principle or morality.”

WHO’s director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “One thing is clear: Under international humanitarian law, health facilities, health workers, ambulances and patients must be safeguarded and protected against all acts of war”. He said “Even if health facilities are used for military purposes, the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality always apply”.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights said, “The allegations of using Al-Shifa Hospital for military purposes do not require all this time for combing and raiding,” and that “the length of time the army spends inside the complex raises fears of preparing a scene for a scene.” artificial". The Observatory said, “Israel is turning the buildings of the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza into a center for detention and torture,” adding, “We fear that killings will occur as sporadic shooting continues inside the Shifa Complex since it was stormed.”

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, said that “hospitals are not a battlefield.” In a tweet on the “X” platform (formerly Twitter), Griffiths said, “I am terrified by the news of the military storming of Al-Shifa Hospital (in Gaza). Hospitals are not a battlefield.” Griffiths stressed the need for the protection of newborns, patients, medical personnel and all civilians to be a priority over all other concerns.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, wrote "[The US has] been parroting Israel’s official lines – I should say, official lies – from the very, very outset, and they have not stopped doing that since. And even when in the past few days some daylight between the two has appeared … on the question of no occupation of Gaza, no bombing of hospitals, at the same time, it was giving Israel the excuse, it was giving Israel the support and basically the backing to bomb hospitals by saying that Hamas is in and within and under and above perhaps, hospitals and schools. So while the United States pretends to be an outsider to this – and in fact some American officials said, “You know Israel is the one that’s waging the war, we’re just advising” – that’s humbug."

The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF ), Catherine Russell, denounced the horrific scenes she saw during a visit she made to the Gaza Strip in the midst of the war between Israel and Hamas, calling for "this horror to stop." Russell, who visited the south of the Strip, said, "What I saw and heard was heartbreaking. They have endured repeated bombing, loss, and displacement. Inside the Strip there is no safe place for Gaza's million children to take refuge," adding, "Only the parties to the conflict can truly stop this horror."

The spokesman for the Red Cross in Gaza, Hisham Muhanna, said that they are ready to exercise their role to be a neutral mediator, adding, “But we lack the security measures that enable us to do that.” The spokesman stated that they had communicated with all parties to prevent a disaster in the Al-Shifa complex, noting that the Red Cross was unable to deliver aid and reach the areas of northern Gaza. Due to the extreme danger and targeting of main roads.

The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed - yesterday, Tuesday - that it is continuing its efforts to secure the release of detainees in Gaza, especially through direct contacts with Hamas and other individuals who have influence with the parties concerned.

In the Arab world, Jordan held Israel responsible for protecting civilians and medical staff working in Al-Shifa Hospital, and said that the storming “is a violation of international humanitarian law, especially the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.” This came in a statement by the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry stressed that the dangerous conditions in Gaza "require the Security Council to bear its legal responsibility." It called on the international community "to assume its moral responsibilities and work to pressure Israel, the occupying power, to stop its continued aggression, war, and targeting of civilians, especially women and children, which cannot be justified under any justification or pretext."

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for urgent international intervention to provide protection for medical staff, patients and displaced persons in the Shifa Medical Complex. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the storming represents “a flagrant violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and the Geneva Conventions, and an extension of all the violations and crimes committed by the occupation against our people.” The Palestinian Foreign Ministry held the Israeli government "full responsibility for the safety of medical teams and thousands of sick, wounded, and children, including premature infants and displaced people...in the complex."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez demanded an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza and called on Israel to put an end to the "indiscriminate killing of Palestinians" during his inauguration speech to the Chamber of Deputies. He then assured that he plans "to stand with Israel (...) in its response to the terrorist attack (...) in October", but promised that his new government would "work in Europe and of course in Spain to recognize the Palestinian state.”

"Let there be no doubt, we are with Israel in the rejection and responses to the terrorist attack that this country suffered in October” and “we demand the immediate release of the hostages” kidnapped by the Hamas after the October 7 attack, Mr. Sánchez added. “But with equal clarity, we reject the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” he said.

The world has seen enough of the tragedy in Gaza and it is time for countries to use their influence over Israel to put a stop to “this real crime against humanity”, South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor said. Pandor told Al Jazeera her government may refer Israel to the International Criminal Court.

There are “very clear similarities” between the apartheid system in South Africa and Israel’s occupation of Palestine, she added. “We know people cannot own property and it can be seized without any compensation, which is what we experienced in our own country. People have to carry identity documents that reflect their ethnicity rather than citizenship. All of this is part of the apartheid feature,” Pand or explained. South Africa is one of the few countries that cut ties with Israel in response to its attack on the Gaza Strip.

America’s adversaries had often criticized US foreign policy for interfering with the domestic affairs of other countries. However, Washington’s approach, as ordered by President Joe Biden and which paved the way for Israel to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, put what some believed a permanent stain on US claims to being a champion of human rights.

Randa Slim, a program director at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said US policy toward Israel has resulted in a renewed pan-Arab sentiment. This sentiment, she said, was “driven by anger at US double standards in their approach to the conflict and disregard for the Palestinians’ suffering.”

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to discuss the ongoing Israeli military operation inside Gaza. Countries within the OIC have differing opinions of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group. Nonetheless, they have all agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire and the protection of innocent civilians.

Slim said each Arab country was approaching the conflict in terms of its own security and political priorities. Arab countries have accused the international community, including the US without naming it, of having double standards when it comes to human rights as it relates to Arabs and Palestinians.

The Riyadh meeting was a “rejection of the American-centric Western discourse,” said Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi analyst specializing in Gulf-Israel ties. Alghashian said this was no longer about Palestine and Israel. “This notion of US hypocrisy has always been salient in the social discourse,” he told Al Arabiya English. “What this war is doing is eliciting historical grievances that Saudi and Arab states have with the West. This war is a very critical juncture in our history,” he added.

Current and former US officials previously told Al Arabiya English that based on the approach by President Biden, they felt as if Israeli lives mattered more than Arab lives. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said their colleagues at US embassies around the world were having a tough time. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior US officials have held listening sessions with those working in the administration, with several dissent cables being passed to the top US diplomat.

The State Department’s former special envoy for Syria criticized the price being paid by Palestinian civilians in Gaza for the Hamas attacks as “unjustifiable and unacceptable.” “Although he may pay a politically steep price for doing so, President Biden must do all he can to bring this abomination to an end,” Fred Hof wrote in a recent article.

While Hof said Israel had a right to defend itself, he added that Biden needed to press Israel to act in a manner that reflects respect for human life. “He [Biden] would likely pay a high political price for doing the right thing, but it must be done. American interests are at stake. And American values – the values of all democracies – are on the line,” Hof wrote.

French President Emmanuel Macron harshly condemned the bombardment of civilian infrastructure in the war raging between Israel and Hamas, while defending France's "balanced" approach to the conflict. He was answering a question about the Israeli military raid Wednesday on Gaza's main hospital, Al-Shifa, as part of their war on Hamas, sparking fears for thousands of patients and other civilians said to be trapped inside. Macron did not mention the hospital by name, but stressed that the obligations under international law to protect civilian infrastructure referred "not only to the buildings, but to the health workers inside", recalling that dozens of workers for humanitarian agencies had been killed in just over a month of fighting in Gaza.

Macron also rejected criticism that France had lacked clarity in its position on the war. He acknowledged that France's approach might not be to everyone's liking, pointing out that the country had faced criticism from both sides. Macron had faced rare diplomatic dissent at home over his stance, with a dozen French ambassadors in Middle Eastern and North African countries signing a joint memorandum this week deploring what they allege is his pro-Israeli bias.

Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko agreed with her counterparts in Egypt and Jordan to push for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Kamikawa spoke separately on the phone with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi early on Wednesday, Japan time. She told them that the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations had adopted a joint statement in Tokyo last week, saying they would support humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Gaza. She agreed with Shoukry and Safadi on the need to take all possible measures to prevent civilian casualties and work toward de-escalating the situation. Kamikawa also thanked Shoukry for Egypt's help in evacuating Japanese nationals and their families from Gaza.

In the the UK House of Commons, a Scottish National Party-proposed motion backing a ceasefire in Gaza was rejected. The amendment calling for “all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire” failed in a vote of 125 in favour and 293 against. The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has come under pressure after 56 Labour lawmakers, including several on his policy team, voted for a ceasefire. The backing of so many Labour lawmakers showed levels of disquiet in the party over the war in Gaza.

Humza Yousaf said legislators had “the chance to put humanity before politics” but failed to do so by voting against his SNP’s amendment. “A ceasefire would enable a humanitarian corridor and the crucial delivery of immediate aid to those in desperate need,” Yousaf said in a video shared on social media. “I am beyond angry that Scottish Labour MPs and others refused to back the calls for an immediate ceasefire. They are on the wrong side of history, which is unforgivable.”

Axis of Resistance

Iran’s supreme leader delivered a clear message to the head of Hamas when they met in Tehran in early November, according to three senior officials: You gave us no warning of your October 7 attack on Israel and we will not enter the war on your behalf. Reuters reported 15 November 2023, according to Iranian and Hamas officials with knowledge of the discussions who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely. Ali Khamenei told Ismail Haniyeh that Iran - a longtime backer of Hamas - would continue to lend the group its political and moral support, but wouldn’t intervene directly. The supreme leader pressed Haniyeh to silence those voices in the Palestinian group publicly calling for Iran and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah to join the battle against Israel in full force. Hamas said that it holds the occupation and US President Joe Biden fully responsible for the occupation army’s storming of the Shifa complex. The movement added that the White House’s adoption of Israel’s narrative that the movement is using the Shifa complex for military purposes was a green light for the storming.

In turn, the Islamic Jihad movement said that the occupation is unable to achieve any military goals in Gaza, so it is taking control of civilians and patients in Al-Shifa Hospital.

The HAMAS government media office in Gaza held the Israeli occupation, the international community, and the United States of America fully responsible for the safety of thousands of medical teams, the wounded, and the displaced. The office described the storming of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex as a war crime, a moral crime, and a crime against humanity. He reported that the occupation imposed a tight siege on Al-Shifa Hospital, bombed more than 5 buildings, and fired fire and shells on the wounded, displaced, and medical staff.

The HAMAS government media office in Gaza accused the occupation army of committing a premeditated crime by targeting Al-Shifa Medical Complex. He stressed that hospitals and medical teams have been the focus of targeting since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

A group of lawyers representing Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) arguing Israel’s actions amount to the crime of genocide. Gilles Devers, a veteran French lawyer and the victims’ representative before the ICC, submitted the complaint to the prosecutor as part of a four-person delegation. “It is clear for me that there are all the criteria for the crime of genocide,” Devers told Al Jazeera, adding cases such as the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda set the precedent. “So this is not my opinion, it’s the reality of law.”

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, issued some of his strongest words yet against the war on Gaza. “We are facing together a barbaric war of aggression and an open war of genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank,” he said in a speech marking the 35th anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in Ramallah. “It is a war against the existence of the Palestinians, against the Palestinian national identity, the identity of the land and the identity of its inhabitants.”

He went on to say the dead in Gaza “will be a curse to the occupation and to those who stand behind it or remain silent about the war crimes it commits against our people” – in a clear sign of exasperation at the silence of some in the international community. “Palestine is our only homeland and we will not accept an alternative, and if there is anyone who must leave our land it is the occupation – and only the occupation.”

Member of the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in the Lebanese Parliament, MP Hassan Ezzedine, said to Iran's Al-Alam news channel on Tuesday: "Greetings full of pride and honor to all those who are steadfast in Gaza in the face of the criminal military machine of the Zionist enemy, and all the souls of the martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Flood, the martyrs of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon, and all those who are still steadfast."

He added: "There is no doubt that the Al-Aqsa flood is a new history, and it has repercussions, results, and effects that the enemy cannot bear. That is why he is looking for any illusionary victory to be an excuse and a false conviction to get out of the impasse he and his American masters and those who came with them fell into to tempt this criminal and give him time for a period of two weeks. From the start of the ground operation to its end."

He continued: "He is trying to achieve even a simple achievement, no matter how modest, but he has not announced anything until this moment, no military location for the Hamas movement, nor the killing of Hamas leaders, field commanders, or fighters, and we have not seen any real military progress with which he could convince public opinion and make... The world believes in it."

Representative Ezzedine explained: "When he fails to do so, he will certainly go to misinformation and fabricate news that does not convince even those who fabricate it, referring to the video published by the occupation about its discovery of the resistance tunnels under the Rantisi Children’s Hospital in Gaza, and the leader of the Hamas movement, Osama Hamdan, refuted it."

He stressed: "What he wants is to get down from the tree, but time from now on will not be on his side, because the shift in global public opinion, especially Western opinion, has begun to put pressure on this entity, because for all its deceptions and deceptions and what it has used in its media, despite the fact that the Western media is on its side, it has not been able to So far, no one has been convinced of the Zionist narrative."

The political office of the Ansar Allah movement in Yemen confirmed that the storming of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex is a brutal and cowardly crime and is evidence of the extent of the military and security failure that the enemy army suffered in the face of the resistance. The Ansar Allah Political Bureau added: "We renew our call to the peoples of the region and the world to support the Palestinian people and to continue all forms of solidarity until the aggression stops." He continued: "We affirm our continued support for the Palestinian people, and we congratulate our armed forces for announcing the expansion of their operations against Israeli targets in Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea."

Allied for Democracy

“People believe that we are now involved in an existential war. They only compare this to the Holocaust.” Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, author and journalist, said Israeli public opinion is “not really ready to accept a narrative that doesn’t fit” its own perceptions of who is the victim, and who is the “terrorist”.

“We are dealing with unprecedented post-traumatic situation in Israel,” Eldar told Al Jazeera. “There are 360,000 Israelis now in [the army] reserves … and [if] you include family members … we are looking at one million people now involved in this war.” When asked what the Israeli public’s reaction was to the shocking images of premature babies in Gaza hospitals, Eldar said many “liberal and progressive” people say they “don’t have more room for compassion”. He said “We are in the blame game”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared that he had spoken with President Biden who reaffirmed the U.S.'s commitment to eliminating Hamas and returning hostages. In a visit to the home base of the rescue and training brigade in Zikim, Netanyahu expressed unwavering confidence in the capabilities of the fighters and conveyed a resolute message to terrorists in Gaza. During the visit, Prime Minister Netanyahu received a detailed overview of the heroic battle that unfolded on October 7th at the Zikim base, where the rescue and training brigade engaged in multiple arenas simultaneously.

Reflecting on the progress made in the ongoing conflict, Netanyahu recalled challenges that were initially doubted but eventually overcome. "There is no place in Gaza that we will not reach. There is no hiding, no shelter, no refuge for the murderers of Hamas," asserted the Prime Minister. "We broke through. We arrived at the outskirts of Gaza City. We entered Shifa. And in this spirit, we say a simple thing – we will eliminate Hamas and return our abductees; these are two sacred missions," declared the Prime Minister.

For the first time since the war began, opposition leader Yair Lapid called on the Israeli prime minister to step down. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news, the Israeli opposition figure said Netanyahu should resign because he has lost the trust of the public. “We need a government that can be trusted,” said Lapid, who suggested that his own party could form a government with Netanyahu’s Likud and other political parties. The Times of Israel reported that Likud slammed Lapid’s comments, accusing him of “play[ing] politics in a time of war”.

Hassan Barari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University, says Israel’s goal in its war on Gaza is to push Palestinians out of the region in “an expansionist project”. “The United States has given Israel maybe two weeks from now. The United States and Europe recognise public opinion is shifting there now against Israel because it can’t tolerate this amount of crimes being committed with the blessing of the American and European Union leaders,” Barari told Al Jazeera.

“The target now is to force people to leave Gaza. Netanyahu has another objective here personally because he is seen as the one who failed in protecting Israel. He wants to protect his political future and public opinion is turning against him. So he wants to achieve something militarily considerable so he can use it in his own internal battle for survival.”

Israel’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz says Israel will hunt down Hamas leaders “in Gaza and around the world”. “There will be no sanctuary cities, no sanctuary houses. We will go wherever we need to in order to eradicate [Hamas] above and below ground. In Gaza and around the world,” he said. “We will reach the heads of government just as we reached the centres of government,” the former defence minister added.

The Biden administration is concerned about an Israeli plan to establish a buffer zone in northern Gaza and considers it unacceptable. US President Joe Biden's administration officials expressed concern about the idea put forward by former Israeli officials to establish a fortified "buffer zone" in northern Gaza to protect Israel from any future attack.

The American NBC network quoted former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as saying: “What we want to do is maintain a security strip after the war, a buffer zone, to keep them away from Israel, one kilometer deep for example. There will be some kind of transitional period.” "And then there will be a form of autonomy that suits them."

In response to a question about whether the buffer zone would mean seizing the lands of the Palestinian Strip, Bennett said: “There is a price that must be paid when you go and kill innocent civilians... We are not doing that because we want to seize the land.” As I said, we have no desire for that. But we have to protect our people."

Biden administration officials said that the Israeli-controlled buffer zone inside Gaza would mean reducing the area of the Strip, which the White House considers unacceptable. The United States has said in principle that there should be no Palestinian displacement from Gaza, and another senior administration official said: “We are not convinced that this is the best path forward.”

The Biden administration also expressed concern about the escalation of violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and the State Department said that when Secretary Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month, he told the prime minister and his war cabinet that the events “ Unacceptable".

Human rights lawyer and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Zaha Hassan, said such a proposal would violate international law and “would effectively mean annexing Gaza territory.” She added that establishing a security zone on Gaza territory would mean displacing a Palestinian community consisting mostly of refugees into a “smaller area,” which reinforces fears in the region that Israel is planning to permanently expel Palestinians from northern Gaza. “It is neither legal nor morally acceptable,” said Hassan, who was a member of the Palestinian delegation to exploratory peace talks in 2011 and 2012.

After abstaining from the UNSC vote, Washington’s envoy to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield condemned council members that she said still have not condemned Hamas. “I want to say that I’m horrified that a few members of this council still cannot bring themselves to condemn the barbaric terrorist attack that Hamas carried out against Israel on October 7,” she said. “What are they afraid of?” Thomas-Greenfield asked. “There’s no excuse for failing to condemn these acts of terror.”

She added that Hamas’s actions “do not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect innocent people in Gaza … At the end of the day, this all comes down to one clear, urgent goal to save innocent lives”. The US is one of five permanent members with veto power on the council. It had previously vetoed an earlier Security Council resolution calling for humanitarian pauses because it did not affirm “Israel’s right to self-defence”.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Washington “did not give an okay to [Israeli] military operations around the hospital”. He said “These are Israeli military operations that they plan … The United States is not involved in those procedures”. Kirby’s comments come after Hamas on Tuesday accused Washington of giving Israel the “green light to perpetrate further massacres against civilians” after it endorsed Israel’s claims that the Palestinian group was using Gaza hospitals, including al-Shifa, for its operations.

Hamas has repeatedly rejected the accusations and said it would welcome the UN setting up an international committee to inspect all hospitals in the bombarded enclave. Kirby also told reporters: “We don’t want to see hospitals attacked from the air. We don’t want to see innocent civilians, patients, medical staff become victims of crossfire … We believe hospitals should be protected.”

A new report by Bloomberg said the White House is getting increasingly frustrated with Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza as the civilian death toll mounts. Quoting several people familiar with conversations, the publication reported a widening rift between the close allies. It said US administration officials were having difficult conversations with their Israeli counterparts but their calls have been going unheeded. The sources said the administration has ramped up its private messaging to Israel as impatience has grown. At the same time, President Joe Biden’s administration is still fulfilling Israel’s weapons requests, and so far hasn’t threatened any consequences against Israel.

Israel’s war on Gaza is upsetting many Americans who think it must follow growing demands for an immediate ceasefire, according to a new poll. The Reuters/Ipsos survey found only 32 percent of respondents said “the US should support Israel”. That is down from 41 percent from a poll conducted on October 12-13 – just days after the war broke out.

About 68 percent of respondents said they agreed with the statement, “Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate.” Some 39 percent supported the idea “the US should be a neutral mediator”, compared with 27 percent a month earlier. Only 4 percent of respondents said the United States should support Palestinians, while 15 percent said the US shouldn’t be involved at all in the war.

While the US has been a significant Israeli ally, just 31 percent of respondents said they supported sending Israel weapons. The plunge in support follows weeks of heavy bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 11,200 people, and could be a worrying sign for Israel.

Two dozen US lawmakers called for ceasefire in a letter to Biden. The lawmakers signed a letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and expressing concern about Palestinian civilians under Israeli attacks, particularly children.The letter – addressed to US President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken – was led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and signed by 23 other Democrats.

It called on the US administration to clarify the objectives of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, as well as its potential effects on captives held by Hamas and “threats to American citizens in the region”. The lawmakers also decried Israeli attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, and “restrictions on food, water, fuel, and other humanitarian assistance”.

“International norms require that all parties to an armed conflict protect children and prevent the commission of grave violations against them, including killing and maiming, attacks on schools and hospitals, recruitment and use of children, abduction of children, and denial of humanitarian access,” it read.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the US city of San Francisco to demand an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. Videos shared on social media showed large crowds of protesters marching through the Californian city holding Palestinian flags and placards calling for the US to cease its support for Israel while chanting “Ceasefire now”. The demonstration coincides with President Biden’s attendance at the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in San Francisco, where the US leader is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Tens of thousands of pro-Israel supporters [possibly as many as 300,000] attended the “March for Israel” rally at the National Mall in the heart of Washington, DC. When political analyst Van Jones – who condemned anti-Semitism and voiced support for Israel and peace – called for the war on Gaza to end in remarks to the assembled crowd, he was booed. The jeering of Jones soon turned to chants of “no ceasefire” from the crowd, which had gathered to show support for Israel’s bombing of Gaza and to call for the release of more than 200 captives held by the Palestinian group Hamas.