UNRWA workers: Stories from internally displaced Gazans ‘pierce the depths of human suffering’
Internally displaced Gazans arriving at a shelter in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, still carried white flags — symbols of surrender they hoped would protect them during thier mileslong journeys, often on foot, from northern to southern Gaza.
Their survival stories “would haunt anyone who hears them,” said Hussain, an aid worker for UNRWA, the U.N. humanitarian agency for Palestinians. In a blog post, he described children who had seen “chickens pecking at lifeless bodies,” and a man who had to bury his father who died during their evacuation south.
The IDF has repeatedly warned Palestinians living in the north of the Gaza Strip to move south, for their own safety. However, the military continues to bombard the south as well as the north, including densely populated cities such as Rafah and Khan Younis.
Possible deal to release 80 hostages, according to U.S. official
A Biden administration official has confirmed to NBC News that there is a possible deal for a hostage exchange between Hamas and Israel.
The official said that the deal being discussed involved the release of about 80 women and children in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and teenagers held by Israel.
The official said the U.S. is also exploring other options, and spoke with the caveat that there is no certainty that any proposed deal will succeed.
Dozens killed by sniper fire in Al-Shifa hospital, health ministry says
Snipers in buildings around Al-Shifa hospital target “anyone moving between buildings inside the hospital” Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Health Ministry, told NBC News via WhatsApp yesterday.
“We hear excessive shootings and explosions continuously,” said Al-Qudra, who added that because of the threat of sniper fire, they were unable to bury the bodies of 70 people. People who had been internally displaced from elsewhere in Gaza and using the hospital for shelter were shot. He said dozens were killed near the hospital gate as they tried to escape.
Fires in the artificial kidney unit had to be put out using sand instead of water, Al-Qudra said, as the hospital’s water supply had run out.
“We have no water, no food, no electricity, no internet, and we have become completely isolated from the world,” added the hospital’s director, Dr. Midhat Abbas. Four people died in the ICU, he said, and unmanned planes were also targeting anyone who tried to move within the hospital’s premises.
Gaza City’s Al Quds hospital is ‘out of service,’ officials say
The Al Quds hospital in Gaza City is now “out of service” and “no longer operational,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said today.
“This cessation of services is due to the depletion of available fuel and power outage,” the organization said in a statement.
It said medical workers were “making every effort” to provide care to patients and those injured in bombardments as Israel continues its offensive in Gaza. But the organization said those at the hospital face “dire humanitarian conditions and a shortage of medical supples, food, and water.”
Noting that it had made “repeated appeals for urgent international assistance,” the statement said that the hospital had been “left to fend for itself under ongoing Israeli bombardment, posing severe risks to the medical staff, patients, and displaced civilians.”
Photos: Scenes from a day of protests
Protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza gathered in cities around the world yesterday. In London, an estimated at 300,000 people marched through the streets.
Palestinian journalists in Israel say they face intimidation and harassment
Palestinian journalists working in Israel say they have faced increased intimidation and harassment since Hamas’ attacks, as authorities crack down on broadcasts, reports and social media posts that they consider to be a threat to national security.
Press freedom and human rights groups say the approach is stifling speech and freedom of the media.
Dalia Nammari, a journalist with Russia Today, said she was accosted by armed police as she tried to file a live report in southern Israel on Oct. 16. She and her camera crew had stopped by the side of the road in an agricultural area of no apparent military importance, Nammari said.
“One police car stopped, took our IDs. … Soon, another military police force came, six or seven armed men with rifles, live bullets and ammunition. They surrounded me and the cameraman,” she told NBC News.
Protesters in Tel Aviv call for cease-fire
Around 50 protesters gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to call for a cease-fire.
“We’re here to protest against the indiscriminate killing of civilians that we are seeing in the past weeks, by Hamas and IDF in the Gaza Strip,” Tal Mintic, an attendee, told Reuters.
“We are calling for a cease-fire now and release of the hostages and going towards a solution to this never-ending bloodshed,” he added.
Protesters held placards with slogans reading, “War has no winners!” as police watched from nearby cars.
However, in a televised address on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against growing international pressure for a cease-fire, saying “there is no alternative to victory.”
At a separate rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday, thousands gathered outside the Defense Ministry to call for the release of the hostages. Families and friends of those held captive in the Gaza Strip, and their supporters, held photos and signs that read “Now!”
IDF announces evacuation routes from 3 hospitals, including Al-Shifa
TEL AVIV — The Israel Defense Forces said the military will facilitate evacuation routes from three hospitals in Gaza City — Al-Shifa, Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr hospitals — so that people inside can move south.
In a statement, the IDF said soldiers “opened and secured a passage which enables the civilian population to evacuate, on foot and by ambulances” from the three hospitals.
The military shared a recording of a phone call it said was held between an officer from Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration to Gaza and a manager at Al-Shifa hospital. In the call, the hospital manager seems to express concern about the route due to “airplanes” in the area. The officer says “no, no, no — they aren’t ours” and says “anybody who wishes to move” can do so.
The IDF’s announcement came after the Palestinian Health Ministry said that three premature babies receiving care at Al-Shifa hospital and five people in its intensive-care unit had died. The medical complex faces a spiraling humanitarian crisis amid heavy bombardment and fighting near its grounds.
Front against Israel will ‘remain active,’ says Hezbollah
The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Saturday that its armed wing had used new types of weapons and struck new targets in Israel, and pledged that its front would “remain active.”
In his second televised address, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah had shown “a quantitative improvement in the number of operations, the size and the number of targets, as well as an increase in the type of weapons.”
The group had used weaponized drones for the first time, he said, and carried out new attacks on the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.
Shortly after, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops near the border with Lebanon that Hezbollah was dragging Lebanon “into a war that might happen” and that it would be Lebanese citizens who would “pay the price.”
“What we are doing in Gaza we can do in Beirut,” he added.
3 babies and 5 ICU patients die at Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza health officials say
TEL AVIV — Three premature babies and five intensive-care patients have died at Al-Shifa hospital since it went “out of service” amid heavy bombardment and intense fighting outside the facility, the Palestinian Health Ministry said this morning.
The health ministry said the ICU patients died “due to a lack of oxygen yesterday.” Health officials also warned that at least 35 more babies born premature and receiving care at the hospital were at risk of death.
NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the situation on the ground. Doctors at the hospital could not immediately be reached, and the World Health Organization said it had lost communication with its contacts at Al-Shifa.
The Israel Defense Forces said they would facilitate an evacuation route from the hospital today.
Arab and Muslim leaders make demands of Israel
CAIRO — Leaders of Arab and Muslim states across the Middle East today announced a list of demands for Israel as the war with Hamas threatens to draw allies on both sides into conflict.
Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — the 57-member group of nations that organized the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Riyadh — called for an end of “Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people,” according to an OIC statement.
“The Secretary-General called for an immediate, durable, and comprehensive cessation of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, for opening humanitarian corridors to deliver aid and essential needs to the Gaza Strip in an adequate and sustainable manner; and for providing international protection for the Palestinian people,” the OIC said.
Among the summit’s other demands: that war crimes investigations into actions by Israeli forces be completed, that nations stop sending weapons to Israel, and that the world recognize the “state of Palestine” as a sovereign country.
The OIC calls itself “the collective voice of the Muslim world.”
Gaza health minister says 37 premature babies at risk of death amid fuel embargo
TEL AVIV — Thirty-seven babies born premature and receiving care at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City are at risk of death because Israel’s fuel embargo has left the hospital and its medical devices without sufficient power, Gaza health ministry officials said today.
The office of the health ministry initially released a higher number of at-risk babies, then said one of them died today.
The office said the remaining babies at Al-Shifa, which has been a focus of the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza because they claim Hamas militants are using subterranean tunnels below it as a headquarters, could die at any moment.
Fuel was expected to run out tonight, after which incubators will stop working, the office said.
Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, said five people died at Al-Shifa amid a previous power outage.
NBC News has been unable to verify Israel’s claim that Hamas was using space beneath the facility. U.S. officials said they have no reason to doubt it. Israeli officials have not responded to the statement that 37 babies were at immediate risk of death.
WHO says it lost communication with contacts at Al-Shifa hospital
The World Health Organization said in a statement that it has lost communication with contacts at the embattled Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City as the facility has come under fire and appeared surrounded by Israeli forces.
The United Nations agency said Gaza’s largest hospital, under repeated attack in the last 48 hours and expecting its last ration of fuel to be used tonight, was surrounded by tanks.
“Staff reported lack of clean water and risk of the last remaining critical functions, including ICUs, ventilators and incubators, soon shutting down due to lack of fuel, putting the lives of patients at immediate risk,” the WHO said.
The statement further called for a cease-fire as well as “the sustained, orderly, unimpeded and safe medical evacuations of critically injured and sick patients.”
It was not immediately clear why the communication was lost. Al-Shifa officials have been warning that the medical complex was critically low on fuel and other supplies, and that the situation would affect the health and survival of patients.
The Israel Defense Forces said Hamas militants have been occupying tunnels beneath the hospital, a claim NBC News has been unable to confirm.