‘Panic, fear’ spreading across Gaza as Israeli forces step up attacks despite ceasefire

This is another reminder of how fragile this ceasefire is, and the fact that it happened with no prior warning whatsoever.

All of a sudden sounds of explosions, the presence of the drones in the skies, fighter jets that patrol the central and the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, were all indication that this was a military campaign.

The scope, the scale and duration of this military campaign is very limited to us. We don’t know much about what’s going to happen, and it’s not clear whether it’s the beginning of a wider military operation across the Strip.

The sites that were targeted … have been recently filled with displaced families.

These attacks all happened outside the area that the Israeli military is controlling and deeper into the Gaza Strip. The impact is immediate, it’s very severe, causing panic and spreading fear everywhere across the Strip.

There is sort of mayhem going on right now because of many of the people who just moved back to the northern part of Gaza City. They were hoping that they were going back to a quieter area, particularly in light of the resolution that was passed at the UN Security Council and the many talks that pushed for a more stable and more solid ceasefire.

Israel is ‘judge, jury and executioner’ of Gaza ceasefire

The Israeli army says that it has been responding to being fired on in Khan Younis by Hamas fighters. In response, it has waged several air strikes against targets across the Gaza Strip.

Some unnamed security sources also say they targeted and assassinated two Hamas commanders. We will have to wait and see if there is confirmation from Hamas on that.

But really, this pattern of behaviour follows how Israel has been carrying out and “enforcing” the ceasefire not just in Gaza, but also in Lebanon. It believes it can be judge, jury and executioner as far as the ceasefire is concerned.

Israel judges how Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon are adhering to the terms of the ceasefire, and if not, it believes it has the right to carry out air strikes, to assassinate commanders and that this wouldn’t be violating its obligations under the ceasefire.

That is the doctrine right now in the Israeli security establishment.

Death toll in today’s Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 28; casualties mostly women and children

Sources at Gaza hospitals tell Al Jazeera that at least 28 people have been killed in today’s surge of attacks on the enclave. Among those killed are 17 women and children. More than 77 others were wounded in a series of air raids and shelling that struck multiple areas in Gaza City and Khan Younis, the ministry said.

Recovery efforts under way in Gaza City’s Zeitoun after family of five killed in Israeli strike

Video posted on social media and verified by Al Jazeera shows rescue crews digging through the rubble of a destroyed home with their bare hands in the Gaza City neighbourhood.

In one video, deemed too graphic to include in this live page, the hair of a young boy can be seen emerging from the rubble, as his lifeless body is slowly dug out from under the ruins of his family’s home.

Israeli strikes killed him, his two siblings and their mother and father this evening.

Israel’s ceasefire violations a ‘real test’ for US, UNSC

Israel’s ceasefire violations in Gaza are a “real test” for the both United States and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a political analyst has said after Israeli attacks in the enclave killed at least 25 Palestinians today.

“Israel has a very different definition of what a ceasefire is than the rest of the world,” Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute, told Al Jazeera.

Speaking from Portland, Maine in the United States, he noted that Israel had established a precedent by bombing Lebanon, despite a ceasefire being in place there for more than a year.

“The same is happening in the Gaza Strip,” Elgindy said.

“Barely two days after the UNSC has codified the ceasefire essentially into international law, Israel seems to be testing both the international community and the limits of that resolution by continuing to bomb in Gaza,” he added.

Elgindy argued that the US and UNSC need to “send a very clear public message to Israel that this is not acceptable”.

Hamas decries latest Israeli air strikes, rejects Israeli claim of inciting attack

Hamas has released a statement condemning what it calls Israel’s “horrific massacre” in the cities of Gaza and Khan Younis.

The group said it regarded today’s Israeli air strikes on Gaza — which have killed at least 28 Palestinians, including women and children — as a “serious escalation”.

It also denied Israel’s claim that Hamas fighters had fired at Israeli troops first, prompting it to respond with air strikes.

The Israeli claim was “a weak and exposed attempt to justify their ongoing crimes and violations”, said Hamas, who noted that more than 300 Palestinians have now been killed since the Gaza ceasefire was signed last month.

“The policy of demolishing and blowing up houses, and the closure of the Rafah land crossing, has continued, in blatant Israeli defiance of the American and regional guarantor,” it added.

Israel’s Knesset approves first reading of bill to cut UNRWA’s electricity, water access

Israel’s parliament has advanced a government bill that would prevent water and electricity providers from offering their services to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The Knesset today approved the first reading of the bill by a margin of 28 to 8 votes. It will next be brought before the relevant parliamentary committee, according to the Wafa news agency.

Israeli state authorities are already prohibited from having any connection with UNRWA. However, the latest legislation goes further, aiming to prevent water and electricity from being supplied to properties registered to UNRWA, while also allowing the Israeli state to seize land the UN agency has registered with the Israel Land Authority.

The proposal is seen as the latest attempt by Israel to undermine the work of UNRWA.

Germany withholds support for UNRWA extension for first time

At a preliminary vote in a UN General Assembly subcommittee in New York, the German representative abstained, for the first time withholding support for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees.

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in Berlin that the government expects “consistent and verifiable reforms within UNRWA” before backing another mandate renewal.

The resolution passed with 144 votes in favour, 11 against and 16 abstentions. A final vote in the full General Assembly, which is set to extend UNRWA’s current mandate from mid-2026 to mid-2029, is scheduled for December.

Wadephul said there had been unacceptable cooperation in some cases with groups hostile to Israel that had fuelled tensions.

Israel has long maintained that several staff members of UNRWA were Hamas operatives. Last month, the International Court of Justice became the latest body to reject that claim, saying Israel has not offered enough proof.

Israel’s top court orders gov’t to explain failure to conduct independent probe into October 7 attacks

Israel’s High Court has ordered the government to explain why it has not established an independent state commission of inquiry into Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.

The conditional order comes in response to multiple petitions arguing that only a state commission can credibly examine the intelligence, military and political failures surrounding the attack.

Netanyahu’s government has instead established a nonstate inquiry with limited authority, a decision that has drawn criticism from families of Israeli captives as well as former officials.

The court has given Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and the government until January 4 to submit their responses, Haaretz said.

Syria, Israel’s UN envoys clash after Netanyahu’s ‘provocative’ visit to Israeli-occupied territory

The Syrian and Israeli ambassadors have had a testy exchange at a meeting of the UN Security Council, just hours after Benjamin Netanyahu visited an Israeli military outpost inside Syria.

Ibrahim Olabi, Syria’s UN envoy, said his government “strongly condemns this provocative tour, which epitomises Israel’s ongoing aggression against Syria and its people”. “We renew our calls on the UN and this council to take firm and immediate action to halt these violations, ensure their non-recurrence, end the occupation and enforce relevant resolutions, particularly the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.”

In response, Israel’s Danny Danon did not directly address Netanyahu’s trip to the part of southern Syria that his country occupies. Instead, he lectured his Syrian counterpart on what his country should do. “This council has heard Syria’s pledge of reform and reconciliation, but promises alone do not rebuild nations,” Danon said, adding that it was up to Damascus to prove it would protect minorities like the Druze and end what he called “the cycle of indiscriminate killing”.

Olabi retorted that it was actually Israel who had to prove itself before the international community. “You have struck Syria more than a thousand times. And we have responded with requests for diplomacy. … We have responded with zero signs of aggression towards Israel,” he said, after switching to English to deliver his follow-up remarks.

“We have engaged constructively and we still wait for you to do the same,” he concluded.

The countries are currently negotiating a security pact.

Israeli forces beat young men in occupied West Bank

The Palestinian Red Crescent says two young men were beaten by Israeli soldiers during a raid on Abu Ubaida Street in the city of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army continues to raid cities and towns across the occupied West Bank, including Beit Ummar, where a major raid with dozens of detentions has been going on all day.

Israel issues demolition orders for four Palestinian homes in Jerusalem’s old city

Israel has handed demolition orders to four Palestinian families living in Jerusalem’s Old City, claiming their houses are not fit for purpose. The families, who have lived in Aqabat al-Khalidiya district for almost 60 years, have expressed their shock at the development, Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli authorities have for many years denied them permits to fix their ageing properties, they said, adding that this forced neglect has now been used as a pretext for demolition.

The families confirmed that they will use lawyers to challenge the demolition orders. If their homes are destroyed, it would be yet another Israeli violation against Palestinian residents in the Old City, they added.

Israel issues new demolition orders across Masafer Yatta

Israeli forces delivered a series of demolition notices targeting homes, tents and animal structures in the village of Jinba and nearby Khirbet al-Halawa in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.

Local activist Osama Makhamra said troops entered Jinba and handed residents orders to demolish a mosque, a public park, two agricultural structures and a tent. Additional notices were issued for two other structures and a livestock shelter, he added.

Separately, the army ordered the demolition of three homes, a tent and two sanitation units.

In Khirbet al-Halawa, Israeli forces issued further notices to tear down a tent belonging to one person as well as a shelter and kitchen belonging to another resident.

Residents say the army has been photographing villages across Masafer Yatta in recent weeks as demolition orders intensify. It is part of what they describe as ongoing efforts to forcibly displace communities from their land.

Israeli forces raid Palestinian towns in occupied West Bank

Israeli troops carried out two separate raids in the occupied West Bank, targeting the village of al-Labban al-Sharqiya south of Nablus and the town of Hizma northeast of Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reported.

In al-Labban al-Sharqiya, residents said soldiers opened fire at a Palestinian vehicle and threw stun grenades in front of several shops in the village. In Hizma, the Jerusalem governorate said Israeli forces stormed the town and fired live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas canisters extensively. No injuries were reported.

Such raids have become an almost daily occurrence across the West Bank, where Israeli forces routinely carry out arrest campaigns and incursions into Palestinian towns and villages.

Almost daily? It feels like groundhog day reporting on the West Bank.

Main events on November 19th

• Israel’s air strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis today killed at least 28 Palestinians, including women and children, and injured 77 others, with Hamas saying it marked a “serious escalation”.
• Israeli warplanes carried out attacks on towns in southern Lebanon, including Aynata and Tair Filsi, shortly after its earlier air strikes killed at least 14 people in the country.
• UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to an Israeli military outpost inside Syria, describing the “very public” trip as “concerning”.
• The situation for families and children in Gaza remains “catastrophic” amid heavy flooding and severe rains, the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) has said, while the global body’s World Food Programme (WFP) noted that many families in the enclave are bracing for another winter spent without proper shelter.
• The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has called for more funding, saying its current shortfall “risks the rights, lives and future” of millions of Palestinians.
• Germany has withheld its support for an extension of UNRWA’s mandate for the first time, claiming it requires “consistent and verifiable reforms”.

UN resolution on Gaza imposes 'illegal trusteeship' over Palestinians, says top legal expert

The UN Security Council resolution that endorses US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza is in breach of the fundamental norms of international law, and is therefore legally invalid, a top international law expert told Middle East Eye.

On Monday, the Security Council approved Security Council Resolution 2803, which backs the creation of an international stabilisation force and places Trump in supreme control of Gaza. It also names his "board of peace" as the entity that will oversee the implementation of the plan for a period of two years. The involvement of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in this has been widely touted.

Ralph Wilde, a leading international law academic and practitioner, told MEE that the resolution attempts to codify "trusteeship" over Gaza, a colonial arrangement that breaches the Palestinians' right to self-determination.

"Trusteeship conducted by individual states in the colonial era was a self-serving sham invoked in bad faith, serving as an alibi to rationalise colonial rule, which could be justified as a 'civilising mission'," Wilde said, speaking from Ramallah in the occupied Palestinian territories.

UN Security Council Resolution On Gaza Is An 'Atrocity' w/ Craig Mokhiber

On Monday November 17, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution endorsing Donald Trump’s so-called ‘peace plan’ for Gaza. The resolution approves the creation of a U.S.-led “peace board” to supervise the Gaza Strip, calls for the ‘demilitarization’ of Gaza without imposing any restrictions on the arming of Israel, and authorizes an "international stabilization force" to police and disarm Palestinian resistance groups.

Worst of all, the resolution does not provide for the creation of a Palestinian state. It merely expresses a vague aspiration that Palestinians might one day have discussions with Israel about a Palestinian state.

In this episode of R2R, Dimitri Lascaris analyzes the UNSC resolution with fellow attorney, Craig Mokhiber. Craig is an American former UN human rights official who resigned from the UN in late 2023 over its failure to stop what he described as a "textbook genocide" in Gaza. According to Craig, the Security Council's resolution is an "atrocity".

Unbelievable the kind of mental gymnastics on display here

Fmr Obama Official: Holocaust Education HURTS ISRAEL

Ryan and Emily discuss a fmr Obama official lamenting Holocaust education because it hurts Israel.

Israeli attack near Khan Younis kills 3 people

Palestinians in Gaza ‘terrified’ as deadly attacks continue this morning

It was definitely a horrifying night for Palestinians across Gaza. Attacks are still ongoing. Minutes ago, a man was killed in Abasan al-Kabira. Earlier, three Palestinians were killed in a house in Bani Suheila near Khan Younis. Among those killed was a baby.

Palestinians are terrified. The sound of explosions again is traumatising for many families. They’re scared that the war is going to resume. Palestinians are also reporting that Israeli forces are putting more yellow blocks in areas in eastern Gaza, taking more land.

Gaza death toll rises

Israel has killed 32 Palestinians, including 12 children and eight women, and injured 88 others in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. One body was also recovered from the rubble from previous Israeli attacks, the ministry added in a statement published on Telegram.

Since the October 10 ceasefire, Israel has killed 312 people and injured 760 others, it said. The total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023 has risen to 69,546, with 170,833 people injured, the ministry concluded.

Palestinian children deserve protection ‘like children everywhere else’: Hamas

The Palestinian group has issued a statement on Universal Children’s Day, saying Palestinian children are being denied the rights guaranteed to children under UN conventions.

“The United Nations commemorates Universal Children’s Day on November 20th, while Palestinian children endure a tragic reality,” Hamas said.

It claimed Israel’s attacks in Gaza have “destroyed the very foundations of life – food, medicine, clean water, healthcare, education and psychological support – in violation of international conventions and humanitarian values, and in disregard of UN resolutions guaranteeing the rights of Palestinian children”.

Hamas called for Israeli leaders to face international prosecution for the “crimes against children” and demanded “the protection of our children, and the empowerment of their legitimate rights, just like children everywhere else in the world”.

_{Palestinian children look on at the site of an Israeli strike in Gaza City, on November 20}

People feel ‘squeezed’ as Israeli forces advance in Gaza City

According to local sources, Israeli forces have advanced 300 metres [984 feet] into eastern Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, expanding the yellow line and changing the boundaries of its markers.

Israeli soldiers were seen putting yellow blocks and signs to identify the line. But the entire boundary has not been marked, so many Palestinians do not know exactly where it is.

With this latest advancement in Gaza City’s Shujayea, more Palestinians are unable to reach their homes. People say this is a cage, as they’re being pushed and squeezed into the western parts of Gaza.

Israel has advanced 300m beyond yellow line in eastern Gaza City, violating ceasefire: Media Office

Gaza’s Government Media Office has condemned new Israeli “ceasefire violations” today, following Israeli attacks yesterday that killed dozens of people.

In a statement, the office said Israeli forces and tanks have advanced in eastern Gaza City, moving yellow markers that delineate the yellow line they were supposed to withdraw behind under the ceasefire by about 300 metres (984 feet).

The incursion – in “blatant disregard” for the ceasefire deal – has left dozens of families who live in the area “besieged”, said the office. “The fate of many of these families remains unknown amidst the shelling that targeted the area,” it said.

The statement urged international mediators, predominantly US President Donald Trump, to intervene to “stop these crimes” and compel Israel to respect the ceasefire deal. It said “the silence of mediators and guarantors” amid Israel’s violations “is no longer acceptable”.

Hamas, Red Cross resume search for captive’s body in Gaza City

Our colleagues on the ground report that Hamas and the Red Cross have resumed searching Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood for the body of a deceased Israeli captive.

The bodies of three captives are believed to remain in Gaza. Hamas has already transferred the bodies of 25 out of 28 of the captives sought by Israel at the start of the ceasefire.


_{Hamas members escort Red Cross members towards an area within the so-called yellow line, to which Israeli troops withdrew under the ceasefire, as Hamas continues to search for the bodies of deceased captives, in Gaza City, on November 20}

Gaza’s Civil Defence, Red Cross to begin recovery of Palestinian bodies on Saturday

Gaza’s Civil Defence and the International Committee of the Red Cross will begin the first phase of recovering bodies buried under rubble in the GazaStrip.

The operation starts on Saturday at 9am (07:00 GMT) in the Barakat al-Waz area of central Gaza’s Maghazi camp, where 64 people have been missing for months following Israeli strikes on residential buildings.

Civil Defence, police forensic teams, Egyptian representatives, and families of the missing will participate in the search, the Civil Defence said in a statement.

Officials said the Red Cross has provided one excavator, though each governorate needs five excavators operating continuously to address the scale of recovery required, it added.

Israeli drone attack kills second Palestinian in Abasan al-Kabira

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have quoted a source from Nasser Hospital as saying that an Israeli drone attack in Abasan al-Kabira, near Khan Younis, has killed another Palestinian, marking the second such death in the area today.

This brings the total number of people killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza today to five, including three in the Bani Suheila area, east of Khan Younis.

US ambassador says Israeli settler violence in West Bank amounts to ‘terrorism’

“Let’s just be blunt, that’s what it is: Israelis can carry out terrorism as well,” said US Ambassador Mike Huckabee on the surge in Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking to NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas, Huckabee, himself a staunch supporter of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, acknowledged there has been an “escalation” of settler violence, but claimed it is being perpetrated by a “very small number” of people, most of whom don’t live in the area.

“It is a very tense time. We don’t want to pretend that it isn’t,” he said, adding that the Israeli government should harshly punish the violence.

The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission says Israeli forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the West Bank in October in an “ongoing cycle of terror”, which has been taking place in the shadow of the war in Gaza.

Very small number, over 260 attacks by Settlers in one month... Don't live in the area? None of them should live in the area, they're all illegal settlers. Classic deflection, it's just a few bad apples.

US Democratic lawmakers urge Trump to act on West Bank settler violence

Senator Cory Booker and Representative Dan Goldman have called on President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to prevent settler violence in the occupied West Bank and hold perpetrators accountable.

In a letter sent last night, the Democratic lawmakers said such violence occurs “on a near daily basis” yet perpetrators are rarely held accountable.

“This vigilante violence is not isolated. It is systemic and aims to impede a viable two-state solution,” the letter said.

The UN said more “settler attacks were recorded in October than in any month since 2006 – over 260 attacks”. The lawmakers urged the US administration to reinstate sanctions against settlers if Israel fails to act.

Booker, a Democratic senator from New Jersey who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, co-signed the appeal with Goldman, a New York congressman.

The letter cited Israeli military data showing a surge in settler attacks this year, including the July killing of Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet by settlers previously sanctioned under the Biden administration.