November 24: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 49
Humanitarian news: According to the UN humanitarian office, 75,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza via Egypt on Wednesday, after Israel announced last week that it would allow small amounts into the enclave for humanitarian operations. According to the Petroleum Public Commission of the Palestinian Finance Ministry, the Gaza Strip needs 12 million liters of fuel on a monthly basis. Gaza also needs 12 million liters of industrial fuel for its power plant and hospitals.
More than half of Gaza’s housing units have been destroyed or damaged, with dozens of places of worship also hit.
Air strikes on residential buildings in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis areas on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon killed at least 28 people and wounded many others. (03:10 GMT)
On 21 November, 111 Palestinian bodies, including children and women, were buried in a mass grave in Khan Younis. The bodies seem unidentified.
Journalist Amal Zuhd and her family were killed early on Friday morning in an Israeli air attack on their home in Gaza City, the Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 54 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began on October 7. (02:20 GMT)
While some 200 aid trucks are expected to enter Gaza today under the truce agreement, Farsakh says it’s still a “drop in the ocean” compared to the 500 trucks that were entering the besieged enclave daily before the war broke out. (14:07 GMT)
In recent days, UNRWA, in cooperation with the ‘Humanity and Inclusion’ NGO, has provided 3,830 persons with disabilities, injured people, children and the elderly with hygiene kits, assistive devices, eyeglasses, first aid kits and baby kits.
Since 11 October, the Gaza Strip has been under an electricity blackout, after the Israeli authorities cut off the electricity supply, and fuel reserves for Gaza’s sole power plant depleted.
RECOMMENDED READING: Humanitarian pause in Gaza reveals humanitarian catastrophe, destruction
Hospital news:
Dr Sarbini Abdul Murad, head of the Indonesian charity Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), confirmed an attack on the medical facility overnight had caused extensive damage. He said,
Last night, Israeli forces attacked the hospital with tanks and destroyed all of the first floor. The damage was very bad.
Previously, they had attacked the third floor. They arrested at least three people. This is their way of taking over the hospitals before the ceasefire today. (04:30 GMT)
Dr Munir al-Bursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told Al Jazeera Arabic that one woman was killed while three others were wounded after Israeli forces stormed the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.
An infant in an incubator was among three children who died at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area on Wednesday due to a lack of electricity, while there were “dozens of fatalities” from Israeli bombing in the vicinity of the hospital. (03:10 GMT)
Of 24 hospitals operating in the north before the war, 22 are either out of service or unable to admit new patients.
Evacuation news: The Israeli army has been opening fire to stop displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza. (13:00 GMT) At least two people were shot and killed by Israeli troops and another 11 were wounded in the legs, according to AP. A journalist with the news agency saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital. (11:10 GMT)
Israel has dropped leaflets in southern Gaza demanding that no one return to the north, that it is unsafe to walk around in the north, and tat the war is not over. (11:06 GMT)
There is a sense of frustration for those who did not manage to go back to their houses, check on them or at least pull their loved ones from the rubble. (10:05 GMT)
The OCHA monitoring team noted more people, including women, being detained while crossing on November 23 through the ‘corridor’ compared with previous days. The monitoring team has documented family accounts indicating that women had been detained for several hours and others for days before being released. The movement of unaccompanied children and separated families has also been observed in recent days. Humanitarian actors are assisting these children.
West Bank news:
While there is a pause in fighting in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have continued their raids across the occupied West Bank. Between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, Israeli forces killed a 14-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank’s Nablus and shot and killed a Palestinian man traveling in his vehicle in Ramallah. (03:10 GMT)
At least 231 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, including six prisoners who died in Israeli custody. (09:30 GMT)
Israel news:
The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups towards Israeli population centers has continued over the past 24 hours, with no reported fatalities. (Information on rocket attacks is here.) It appears that the last time a rocket killed an Israeli was October 7-8, as reported by Ha’aretz and the Times of Israel. 15 Israelis were killed – 10 of them Palestinian Israelis who reportedly had no access to bomb shelters. Rockets have killed a total of 35 Israelis over the 22 years they’ve been fired,.
Media bias: Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has proposed that Haaretz be penalized for its critical coverage of the Israeli military operation in Gaza. A member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party accused the newspaper of “sabotaging Israel in wartime” and acting as an “inflammatory mouthpiece for Israel’s enemies”. In a statement, Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken said: “If the government wants to close Haaretz, that’s the time to read Haaretz.”
Israeli apathy: Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy says the current sentiment within Israeli society is united on the release of as many captives as possible. He said,
Israeli media is hardly showing what’s going on in Gaza and Israelis don’t want to know what’s going on in Gaza.
The Israelis, almost all of them are concentrated only on their own mourning and agony and hopes, and nobody cares about Gaza. I’m afraid to say it in a very clear way – nobody in Israel cares about Gaza, and caring about Gaza is almost illegitimate. (08:00 GMT)
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