Israeli rights groups urge urgent medical evacuations for Gaza victims

Israeli human rights groups have petitioned the country’s Supreme Court to compel authorities to urgently resume medical evacuations for patients in Gaza to hospitals in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying thousands face life-threatening conditions.

In their filing, Gisha, HaMoked, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel warned that 16,500 people in Gaza – including children, women, and the elderly – are at immediate risk because the treatments they need are no longer available inside the bombarded enclave.

The petition argues Gaza’s health system has “completely collapsed” since the war began, and Israel, which controls all crossings and has exclusive authority over medical evacuations, bears direct responsibility for preventing patients from accessing life-saving care.

This is “not a political or security issue but a basic obligation to save lives”, the groups said.

_{Many wounded children need treatment for wounds outside of Gaza}

Gaza students refuse to let Israel’s war ‘erase their future’

Tens of thousands of Palestinian students took their exams after working hard to complete their studies in tents and online during two years of Israel’s genocidal war. And many have received near-perfect scores.

Gaza has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, despite restrictions on education caused by 18 years of Israeli military blockade and decades of occupation.

“Even in a warzone with no classrooms, no books and barely any internet, Gaza’s students are showing up, logging in and sitting their final exam, refusing to let war erase their future,” says Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum.

Palestinian groups say 19,000 children killed since Israel’s war began

Palestinian civil society groups say Israel has killed more than 19,000 children and wounded 28,000 others since it began its assault more than two years ago, marking World Children’s Day with a call for urgent international action.

In a statement, the Palestinian NGO Network said hundreds of schools and childcare facilities, mostly in Gaza, have been destroyed, and more than 56,000 children orphaned, having lost one or both parents in Israeli attacks.

Palestinian children face “every form of abuse and violence” including policies amounting to genocide, as well as the mass detention of minors in Israeli prisons, it said.

The groups urged the UN and humanitarian agencies to protect Palestinian children, ensure access to food, medicine and medical evacuation, and hold Israel accountable for grave violations of international law.

Palestinian PM says authority undertaking demanded reforms

Mohammad Mustafa, the Palestinian prime minister, is attending a Palestinian donor conference in Belgium.

There are some 60 delegations present here looking at how to bolster the Palestinian Authority (PA) financially. The EU believes the PA should be in charge of a unified Gaza and West Bank in the future.

The bloc is the biggest funder of the PA, but those donations are very much based on deep and major reforms the EU says the PA must make.

Mustafa said it is making those reforms and has been trying to undertake them for a while. He added one of the biggest obstacles to the economic stability and development for the Palestinian people is the ongoing Israeli occupation and the war on Gaza.

The Palestinian prime minister also noted Israel continues to bloc funds.

He is asking the international community to do more for the Palestinians financially and economically. Mustafa said the PA is working towards a two-state solution, which he believes is the future for the Palestinian people.

What are the demanded reforms? And to what goal, Palestinians don't support the PA, elections are needed. 

Palestine condemns Israeli bill to cut water, electricity to UN facilities

Palestinian authorities have condemned Israel’s Knesset for advancing a bill that would cut water and electricity to UNRWA facilities and allow the state to seize lands used by the UN agency.

In a statement carried by Wafa news agency, the refugee affairs department said the move is a blatant violation of international law, warning it aims to cripple UNRWA’s work in occupied East Jerusalem by shutting down 17 facilities serving more than 200,000 Palestinian refugees.

The legislation would give legal cover to confiscate key UNRWA sites, including its Sheikh Jarrah headquarters, as part of a wider effort to undermine the UN agency’s mandate and erase the Palestinian refugee issue, it said.

The department urged the UN to take action to ensure Israel respects UNRWA’s legal protections as stipulated by the International Court of Justice’s recent advisory opinion.

UN chief says Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza ‘needs to stop’

The spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he’s deeply concerned about ongoing Israeli attacks that killed 33 Palestinians over the last few hours.

“It’s not for us, given our lack of participation as a guarantor, to say the ceasefire is holding or not holding … Our concern is the fragility of the ceasefire,” Stephane Dujarric said.

“People are getting killed – Palestinians are getting killed – and that needs to stop.”

Dujarric said the main focus now is getting crucial humanitarian relief to the suffering people of Gaza after two years of war.

“Mr Trump’s plan for the UN right now, this moment, is on delivering humanitarian aid. We are doing the very best that we can in using every space that is allotted to us to deliver that humanitarian aid,” he said.

Nearly 50 pro-Palestinian protesters detained in London

British authorities have arrested 47 people during a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Justice Ministry in London. Those detained gathered with banners reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

Controversially, the UK government proscribed Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group earlier this year, after some of its members vandalised two planes at a British air force base over what they said was the country’s military support for Israel.

The designation makes it illegal to show Palestine Action any support. More than 2,000 people have been arrested in connection with the ban introduced in July.

The Metropolitan Police announced on Thursday that 120 people had been charged over an August 9 demonstration in London, raising the total number of people charged for supporting the group to 254.

Huda Ammori, Palestine Action’s co-founder, is set to challenge the ban next week at a three-day trial against the Home Office.

Antiwar demonstrators rally against arms transfers to Israel

Activists are protesting Germany’s plans to resume weapons shipments to Israel, ending a partial ban.

Germany is Israel’s second-largest weapons supplier. In August, it announced a partial suspension of weapons exports to Israel.

Israel keeping ‘no war, no peace’ to avoid entering phase two of Gaza truce

Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, says Israeli attacks have been “more or less continuous” from the start of the latest ceasefire arrangement and will likely continue.

This strategy is about “keeping adversaries off balance and under pressure” in order to extract political concessions whether in Gaza, Lebanon, or Syria, Sayigh told Al Jazeera.

A key question is whether the ceasefire will ever move into phase two, he said.

“I think there’s a lot of reluctance in the Israeli government to ever move into phase two, which means basically letting go of a big chunk of Gaza to international protection and governance, and that potentially could lead to the Israeli army having to pull out of the rest of Gaza,” Sayigh said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are trying to “raise the political stakes” so provisions in the ceasefire have to be negotiated over, he added.

Netanyahu wants to maintain a situation of “no war, no peace” – not just with Gaza, but also in the occupied West Bank and neigbbouring countries, Sayigh said.

US-brokered Gaza truce allows Israel to ‘continue genocide by other means’

Israel’s intensified attacks on Gaza indicate it has no intention of ending the war on the Palestinian territory despite the US-brokered ceasefire, an analyst says.

“Until this moment, Israel has not given up on its plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza, the idea of reintroducing Jewish-only settlements in Gaza,” said Muhammad Shehada, visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations Middle East and North Africa programme.

“That’s why you see Israel dividing Gaza into east Gaza and west Gaza with an invisible ‘yellow line’ that is deadlier than the Berlin wall. East Gaza, nobody is allowed to live there except for the [Israeli army] and a few hundred gang members who are cultivated by Israel as proxy groups,” Shehada told Al Jazeera.

The biggest “red flag” during the start of the ceasefire should have been the reaction by the hardliners in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s far-right government, he added.

“Neither Ben-Gvir nor Smotrich resigned from Netanyahu’s government because both of those extremist ministers have repeatedly said if the war comes to an end, they would leave the government and collapse it immediately. But neither of them did because they understand this Trump deal is not going to end the war – it is allowing Israel to continue the genocide by other means.”

Main events on November 20th

• An Israeli air strike on a house in southern Gaza killed three people, including a baby girl, and wounded 15 others, according to Palestinian medics.
• Palestinian civil society groups said Israel has killed more than 19,000 children and wounded 28,000 others over the past two years of war.
• Israeli settlers wounded at least two people in the latest attacks against Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank.
• Hamas accused Israel of shifting the so-called “yellow line” truce demarcation in Gaza – forcing a new wave of displacement – with the group calling it a “flagrant breach” of the ceasefire agreement.
• The United Nations said Israel has carried out about 7,500 airspace violations and a further 2,500 ground incursions in Lebanon during its yearlong truce with Hezbollah.
• A Human Rights Watch report said the Israeli military’s displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• British authorities arrested 47 people during a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Justice Ministry in London as the crackdown on “terrorist” supporters continues.

Shocking truth about pro-Israel lobbying in UK politics exposed by leaked emails

The historic relationship between top Tories and the Israeli government has been laid bare in a remarkable cache of leaked emails seen by Declassified. Over several years, senior figures within the party exchanged strikingly friendly correspondence in private with Ron Prosor, the former Israeli ambassador to the UK.

In one email, a Conservative lord wrote simply: “If you don’t call me while you are here, I will cry.” Another Tory grandee told Prosor: “You still have friends close to number ten!!!”

The correspondence was discovered by Declassified after thousands of Prosor’s private emails were published by the file sharing website Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS).

Israel’s PR CRISIS—Ex-UN Official DETAINED After Nazi Comparison

95 year old legal scholar Richard Falk was detained by Canadian authorities for his views on Israel. Katie talked to him about the backlash he's received as a United Nations Special Rapporteur.

Richard Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the author or coauthor of 20 books and the editor or coeditor of another 20 volumes. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations.

In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

Free Speech Under Attack: The Law Punishing Teachers for Talking About Palestine

Jenin Younes, National Legal Director at the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), joins the show to discuss the ADC’s lawsuit against California Governor Gavin Newsom over Assembly Bill 715 (AB 715), signed into law in October, which threatens to punish teachers for discussing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Younes will explain how the law undermines free speech in schools by censoring discussions in public school about Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East, and why the ADC is asking the court to block it before it takes effect.

From 'Never Again' To 'Never Question Israel'

The Congress switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. You can use this number to connect with either the US Senate or the House of Representatives.

Two Palestinians killed in occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian teenagers in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab, according to the Wafa news agency.

The report said Palestinian Red Crescent Society crews treated two serious injuries from live ammunition during the forces’ raid on Kafr Aqab, and they were transferred to the hospital. Later, the Ministry of Health announced the two teenagers, Amr Khaled Ahmed Al-Marbou, 18, and Sami Ibrahim Sami Mashayekh, 16, had died of their injuries.

The Israeli forces had stormed Kafr Aqab, deployed their foot patrols in its streets, and their snipers climbed onto the roofs of several buildings and opened fire on the young men in the town, which led to the killings, Wafa said.

Israeli forces raid occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem, Salfit, Qalqilya

In addition to the deadly raid in Kafr Aqab, Israeli forces have carried out several more raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank. According to the Wafa news agency, they:

Israeli settlers assault Palestinians, torch property in West Bank: Report

Israeli settlers have carried out several attacks on Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank last night and this morning, according to the Wafa news agency.

In one of the latest attacks, in the village of Khirbet Abu Falah near Ramallah, settlers set fire to a Palestinian’s agricultural storage room and spray-painted racist slogans on it, reports Wafa. In the town of Deir Sharaf, near Nablus, Israeli settlers also vandalised a Palestinian’s plant nursery, says the agency.

Last night, a group of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian homes in the village of al-Majaz, near Hebron, and assaulted residents with batons and stones, according to Wafa.

_{A Palestinian flag flies over the Roman historical site in the West Bank town of Sebastia, on November 20}

Israeli settlers torch more Palestinian properties in West Bank

Israeli settlers have set fire to six tourist villas in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports. The Palestinian-owned properties were under construction on a hill between the villages of al-Lubban Asharqiya and Ammouriya to the south of the city of Nablus. Sources told Wafa that the site’s guard suffered burn injuries while attempting to extinguish the flames.

A plant nursery in the town of Deir Sharaf, west of Nablus, was also vandalised by Israeli settlers, the agency said.

Aftermath of Israeli settler attack in West Bank town of Huwara

_{A Palestinian man stands near cars burned in an attack by Israeli settlers, in Huwara in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on November 21}

Israeli forces fire towards mosque near Ramallah: Report

Israeli forces have fired shots towards a group of Palestinians departing a mosque in al-Mughayyir village, near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency. The report, citing local sources, did not list any casualties.

Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian journalist in Huwara

A Palestinian journalist has been arrested by Israeli troops at a checkpoint in the town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank, according to the official Wafa news agency. Hisham Abu Shaqra and his wife, Sundus Shakani, were stopped by the soldiers for more than two hours. Abu Shaqra was then held while his partner was released.

Palestinian activist detained by Israeli army is hospitalised

A Palestinian activist who documented settler violence in the occupied West Bank has been detained and hospitalised. Lawyer Riham Nasra said activist Ayman Ghrayeb Odeh was taken to a hospital after his detention at a military base in the Jordan Valley.

“Israeli authorities refuse to reveal where he is, what his condition is, or why he has been hospitalised,” she said.

Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency, confirmed the activist was detained on incitement charges. Odeh could face indefinite administrative detention, a punishment without charge or a trial based on secret evidence.

His brother, Bilal Ghrayeb, said he spoke briefly with Odeh shortly after his detention while he was visiting a Palestinian family in the Jordan Valley. His brother said the military confiscated Odeh’s phone, and he has not heard from him since.

“He is an activist who posts photos and writes on social media about what is happening. He is not inciting. He is not hiding anything; nothing is secret. He is only saying and posting what he sees about the lives of people in the Jordan Valley,” Ghrayeb said.

Posting photos of what's happening is a national security threat to Israel.

Israeli army raids occupied West Bank town

Israeli forces have stormed the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, Wafa news agency reports. It was the latest incursion by Israeli troops as they continue to step up detentions of Palestinians in the occupied territory.

Netanyahu says Israel will not accept Palestinian state, even to gain Saudi normalisation

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again reiterated his staunch opposition to a Palestinian state, saying Israel would not shift on the issue even to secure normalisation with Saudi Arabia.

Asked about the prospect during an interview with Israeli news outlet Abu Ali Express, Netanyahu said: “There will be no Palestinian state. As simple as that … It’s an existential threat to Israel.”

However, the Israeli leader said he still has “cautious optimism” about potential Saudi normalisation, which he claims was set back by the Gaza war. “It’s possible that the conditions could come to be, but the conditions would have to be acceptable to both sides, good for both sides,” he said. “If it comes together, great, and if not, we’ll protect our vital interests.”

Netanyahu says ‘worst of Gaza war over’, but Israel ‘may still act’

Continuing his interview with Abu Ali Express, Netanyahu said he believes the war in Gaza, “or at least the worst of it, is apparently behind us, although we may still have to act there”. “The war in the broader sense, with the seven parallel fronts, is behind us,” he said.

His comments come despite a wave of deadly Israeli attacks in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Yesterday, the UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed concern over the “fragility of the ceasefire” in Gaza and called for a halt to killings in the enclave.

Israeli attack kills displaced person near Khan Younis

An Israeli military attack has killed a displaced person to the south of Khan Younis, according to a Nasser Hospital report cited by our colleagues on the ground. It follows several similar attacks in the area yesterday, where at least two people were killed by Israeli military fire.

Israeli artillery attacks, air raids hit central, southern Gaza

Israel’s military has carried out a wave of attacks across central and southern Gaza, including in eastern Khan Younis, central Gaza’s Bureij and Maghazi camps and the southern city of Rafah, report our colleagues on the ground.

Israeli forces waged artillery attacks near Bureij camp, while firing from aircraft and tanks near Khan Younis, where they also demolished residential buildings, our colleagues report. Israeli air raids took place in Rafah, they said, without reporting additional casualties.

Israeli attack injures four children in northern Gaza: Report

An Israeli drone attack has injured four children in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya area, reports the Wafa news agency. The children have been brought to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, according to the report.

Israel claims to have killed six Palestinian fighters, arrested five others in Rafah

Israel has killed six Palestinian fighters and detained five others after they emerged from underground infrastructure east of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to the Israeli army. In its statement, the Israeli military said that about 15 Palestinian fighters had appeared above ground at two separate places there east of the so-called yellow line.

The Israeli army has been working with the Shin Bet security agency to dismantle underground infrastructure in that part of southern Gaza, it noted. The detained Palestinian fighters have been taken to Israel for questioning, the army added.

Must be part of those trapped behind the yellow line. I guess negotiations about their departure failed and now they have the choice between death and torture...

Israeli forces fire artillery in southern Gaza

The Israeli army has shelled the eastern areas of Khan Younis city with artillery, sources on the ground tell Al Jazeera. After the attack, Israeli military vehicles could be seen entering the south of Gaza’s second-largest city.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded in about 400 Israeli ceasefire violations recorded by Gaza’s Government Media Office since the October 10 truce.

Israeli military’s advance in Gaza City causing more displacement, disrupting aid routes

Just minutes ago, I clearly heard the sound of machineguns and explosions from the eastern part of the city.

The same scenario keeps unfolding: Israel’s military is advancing beyond the yellow line. Over the past few days, they advanced 300 metres past the yellow line, pushing their armoured vehicles and tanks into areas Palestinians had returned to.

The move is not just tactical; it carries humanitarian and psychological consequences for a population already living under extreme instability. People who were hoping for quieter days now fear a new wave of displacement. Some have been forced to flee again, seeking safety in what is left of the western part of Gaza City.

The Israeli military’s advance has also disrupted critical access routes and pathways used by international aid agencies. They are forced to reassess the safe corridors on the ground, slowing down the delivery of much-needed aid to people across Gaza.

Amount of aid getting in ‘nowhere near enough’

Aid is still just trickling into the Gaza Strip. It’s nowhere near enough to meet the population’s growing demands. We’re not just talking about [a shortage of] food and water supplies, but also medical supplies.

The alternative [to humanitarian aid] is [goods brought in by] approved business owners and traders, who are forced to pay a sum of money each time to bring in commercial trucks. Most of the time, these trucks are not carrying essentials; they’re carrying non-essentials while urgent items are left behind and hospitals are left without medical supplies.

Meanwhile, all of Gaza’s borders, including Karem Abu Salem, are still under Israeli military control. The military controls all the items that get into Gaza, making it very difficult for aid agencies to properly coordinate the entry of aid and respond to emergencies across the Strip.


Aid ‘scale-up’ in Gaza challenging because of Israeli restrictions: UN

The “ongoing humanitarian scale-up” in Gaza remains constrained, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says, as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on goods and limits access to land crossings. Dujarric cited restrictions “affecting visas and import approvals, too few crossing points operating, and limited facilitation of humanitarian movements inside Gaza”.

“Between 12 and 18 November, the UN and our partners tried to coordinate more than 50 humanitarian movements with the Israeli authorities. Most were to collect cargo from the three crossings that were open. Over a third were either denied or initially approved but then impeded on the ground.”

Dujarric noted even with the opening of the Zikim crossing, overall aid levels remain unchanged because “we’re only allowed to offload and collect cargo at Zikim and Kissufim [al-Karara] on an alternating schedule.”

‘A massacre in slow motion’

Even as Israel’s bombardment has slowed during the ceasefire, its severe restrictions on humanitarian assistance means famine will keep killing Palestinians, an analyst warns.

Alex de Waal has spent more than 40 years studying famine and war crimes. He spoke to AJ+ about how Israel purposely kept Gaza on the edge of famine for months on end. Israel’s starvation will be felt by Palestinians for generations – physically, biologically and societally, de Waal said.