Gaza City medical facilities fear being ‘cut off from outside world’

The situation inside hospitals in besieged Gaza City is increasingly difficult. Over the past few months, we’ve been reporting on the dire conditions, but now we’re looking at double the suffering.

As the Israeli military advances its tanks and armoured vehicles, there is close to a total siege on Gaza City, with acute shortages of medical supplies in the two still-operating health facilities – al-Shifa Hospital and al-Ahli Hospital.

While these health centres are still operating somehow, they are barely offering the basic medical intervention needed. Inside the emergency wards, there are more people injured than beds available.

On top of lacking sufficient supplies and having exhausted staff, these medical facilities are in constant fear of being attacked. The fear now is that as the Israeli military’s ground offensive advances further, these facilities are going to be cut off from the outside world.

At that point, we’re looking at disaster taking place in Gaza City for the many wounded and sick.

UN denounces Israel’s ‘blatant disregard’ for civilians during Gaza air raids

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Palestine has condemned what it calls Israel’s “blatant disregard” for the distinction between combatants and civilians in its air attacks on Gaza.

In a post on X, OHCHR Palestine called on Israel to “take constant care to spare civilians from attack whether they leave or stay” in Gaza City, where Israeli forces have intensified a ground and air offensive.

“The Israeli military must comply with the IHL requirement to distinguish between civilians and combatants,” the post said, referring to international humanitarian law.

Humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘nothing short of cataclysmic’

Israel’s military assault on Gaza City has forced hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians south and the humanitarian disaster is increasing in intensity, the UN says.

The situation on the ground is “nothing short of cataclysmic”, Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Cherevko said there is a constant stream of people making their way from the north with many making the 22km (14-mile) journey to the Israeli-described al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” on foot, “adding to the already extremely difficult situation we had in the south”.

“The hygiene conditions are so dire that, of course, they lead to a massive spread of diseases, skin rashes, and all sorts of public health crises,” she said.

On the humanitarian situation, the volume of crucial supplies entering the Gaza Strip is “insufficient to meet people’s needs”, Cherevko said. “We cannot at the moment use our community-based mechanisms to scale up the systems and reach the people who need this assistance the most,” she added.

Israeli drone strike wounds many Palestinians near Gaza City hospital

An Israeli drone attack has hit the vicinity of al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, medical sources tell Al Jazeera.

The attack has wounded numerous people. The Israeli army has subjected Gaza City to its most punishing attacks in two years of war, sending tens of thousands of residents fleeing under bombs and bullets.

Many of the estimated one million Palestinians there pledged to stay in the early days of Israel’s takeover plan in August. But the military has accelerated the pace of its deadly campaign, turning high-rises, homes and civilian infrastructure into rubble.

Israeli ‘disinformation’ campaign seeks to erase Gaza atrocities: UNRWA

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), says Gaza has been “the battleground of a fierce and rampant information war”.

“Disinformation continues to be used as a tool to distract from the atrocities in the war-torn enclave,” he said, adding that UNRWA was the first target followed by other UN agencies, the media, and health facilities.

Lazzarini said the recent denial of famine in Gaza, as well as the dismissal of genocide findings by a UN commission of inquiry released this week, are examples of efforts to undermine expert assessments and “promote narratives denying atrocities and dehumanising Palestinians”.

He called for international journalists to be allowed into Gaza to support their Palestinian colleagues, whose reporting he described as “heroic”, adding their voices risk being “silenced” as Israeli attacks expand.

Israeli army says van with ultra-Orthodox draft evaders attacked

An Israeli military van transporting arrested ultra-Orthodox Jewish draft evaders was attacked overnight by protesters from the community, the army says.

Thousands of draft notices have been sent in recent months to ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have traditionally been largely exempt from military service.

“Several draft evaders were arrested today, tried in disciplinary proceedings and sent to military detention,” the military said in a statement late on Wednesday. “While en route to the prison … several demonstrators threw stones and sprayed tear gas at the vehicle.”

Calls within Israel to end the exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews have intensified, with some reservists serving hundreds of days since the war began nearly two years ago.

Gaza could be a ‘real estate bonanza’, Israel’s Smotrich says

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said there’s a “business plan” to turn the Gaza Strip into a “real estate bonanza”.

In comments that caused controversy, Smotrich told an urban renewal conference in Tel Aviv that he is discussing with the Trump administration how to share the proceeds.

His comments came as the European Commission called for asset freezes and visa bans on him and fellow far-right government minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over their “extremist” rhetoric.

US President Donald Trump last year caused outrage after floating the idea of taking control of Gaza and relocating the Palestinian population to transform it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”.

The proposal has faced fierce criticism from much of the international community, with Trump accused of “openly calling for ethnic cleansing”.

UK’s Gaza genocide position questioned in House of Lords

As we’ve been reporting, members of the UK’s House of Lords have been discussing the situation in Gaza, including the findings of the UN commission that determined this week that Israel is committing genocide.

Baroness Arminka Helic has asked Jenny Chapman, the UK’s international development minister, to clarify an apparent contradiction in the government’s position on whether it can determine if genocide is taking place. Chapman reiterated that the government leaves it to competent courts to determine genocide, saying it would be a “very dangerous move” for governments to begin making such determinations.

But Helic, a Conservative peer, pointed out that David Lammy, the former foreign secretary, wrote in early September that the government had not concluded Israel was committing genocide.

Helic said she agrees politicians shouldn’t determine whether genocide is occurring but added she was “slightly confused because only last week or two weeks ago, the foreign secretary [Lammy] wrote a letter to the international development committee saying Israel wasn’t acting with intent to commit genocide”.

She added: “Surely if the foreign secretary can assert that there is no genocide, then he is making a political determination.”

Israel’s army says it plans to attack southern Lebanon

The Israeli air force will attack “Hezbollah military infrastructure” in southern Lebanon “in response to its attempts to rebuild its activities in the area”, an army spokesperson says.

“Urgent warning to the residents of southern Lebanon – the [army] will attack, in the near future, military infrastructure belonging to the terrorist Hezbollah throughout southern Lebanon in order to confront its prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area,” Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces had been exchanging near-daily fire across the Lebanese border since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023. Israel’s widespread bombing campaign killed more than 3,000 people and displaced nearly one million civilians. A ceasefire with Hezbollah was signed in November 2024, but Israel has continued to bomb southern Lebanon repeatedly since.

Israel begins striking southern Lebanon

The Israeli army says its air force has begun striking “Hezbollah military sites” across southern Lebanon. The attacks came shortly after the military said it planned to attack southern Lebanon and called on residents in at least three areas to flee.