Image source, Reuters

We posted earlier about the dozens of newborn babies being cared for at the Al-Shifa hospital and attempts to move them amid a near-complete power cut.

The babies had been on the maternity ward, where the incubators are located - but the building has reportedly been bombarded, and doctors say there's no longer enough electricity to power the incubators.

The situation in Gaza has made it difficult to get more information about what is happening in the hospital, but Reuters has reported more details about the care the newborns are receiving.

It says 10 of them are being cared for on a bed and that an air conditioner is being used to provide warmth. An image sent to Reuters shows two beds with rows of babies lying on them - some of them in swaddle blankets, others in only nappies.

Dr Ahmed, a doctor at the hospital, told Reuters that the conditions in which the babies were being kept could cause them to develop infections or sepsis.

“We are expecting to lose more of them day by day,” he said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did fire on people evacuating northern Gaza for the south, but this is because they were members of Hamas, IDF spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht has told the BBC.

Earlier this week, civilians fleeing the fighting in northern Gaza described seeing decomposing bodies and Israeli tanks along a designated "safe road".

Asked a short time ago by BBC News whether Israel was doing enough to protect Gazan civilians, Hecht said humanitarian corridors, tactical pauses in fighting and warnings to move south were indicators they were not at war with the people of Gaza.

"We've done, for the last four-plus weeks, everything we can," Hecht said.

Asked how he saw this conflict ending, Hecht said he was a "military man" and therefore could not speculate, only that "we cannot have this thing [the 7 October attacks by Hamas] happen to us again".

Marches against antisemitism are being held across France, amid a steep rise in anti-Jewish incidents since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The main event is in Paris, with most of France's main political parties represented.

BBC correspondent Hugh Schofield notes that it's the first time ever that a big demonstration will include the far right and not the far left.

The protest includes the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen, whose father was convicted of downplaying the Holocaust. The leader of the hard-left France Unbowed party is boycotting the event, calling it a gathering of unconditional support for the massacre of Palestinians.

• Read more of Hugh Schofield's analysis of the demo here

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

A spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says it has barely been able to get in touch with its staff at Al-Quds hospital for the past five days.

As we reported earlier, the PRCS says Al-Quds is out of service after fuel ran out. Israel has declined to comment on its alleged military activity at the site.

Speaking from the West Bank, Nebal Farsakh told CNN, external that "Israeli bombardments has resulted in the complete destruction of the comm and internet lines." She said the only way they could communicate was through VHF radio waves, which regularly encounter distortion.

The BBC, too, has had trouble contacting people in Gaza's hospitals, and the World Health Organization (WHO) says it has lost communication with its contacts at Gaza's main hospital, Al-Shifa.

Communications have been a challenge in Gaza ever since Israel began its retaliatory bombardment of the Palestinian enclave after Hamas's 7 October attacks. There have been at least two complete blackouts since then.

Much of the focus this weekend has been on Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital.

A short while ago, Al-Jazeera reported comments from a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza. He said that five wounded people at the hospital had died because doctors could not operate on them.

This was due to a lack of fuel at the hospital, Ashraf al-Qudra said, adding that the entire hospital was out of service because of Israeli attacks.

It is not clear when exactly the wounded people are claimed to have died.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the health ministry have said two premature babies have already died, with a risk to the lives of dozens of others.

But the situation at Al-Shifa - including the fuel situation - is a disputed point.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog earlier told the BBC that "everything is operating" at the hospital and that claims about a lack of power were "spin by Hamas".

The Israeli military has denied attacking the hospital, but says it is fighting Hamas near the facility. The World Health Organization says it has lost communication with its contacts inside.

Image source, Getty Images

The World Health Organization has reiterated that it has confidence in the death tolls being reported by the health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas.

The ministry says more than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel started bombarding the territory - in response to the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed about 1,200 people in Israel.

Speaking to BBC News a short while ago, a WHO spokeswoman said the ministry was no different to other health services around the world that the WHO assesses.

"We are confident of the numbers," Dr Margaret Harris said. "Right now, with such chaos and so much loss of life, any numbers we are hearing will not reflect anything more than a trend."

Harris reiterated the WHO's demand for a ceasefire and sustained humanitarian access into Gaza, and described the situation in Gaza as "horrific".

There have been more Israeli strikes on Gaza today. Hamas says 13 people were killed when a house was hit in Khan Younis in the south. Israel is yet to comment.

Here are some of the latest pictures to reach us from Gaza.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Anadolu Agency

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokeswoman Libby Weiss has denied that IDF forces are targeting civilians in Gaza, and says Hamas are operating from places like hospitals for protection.

“We absolutely know that Hamas is using these civilian locations," she told the BBC World Service's Weekend programme earlier. "We know that with certainty. We’ve shared significant information that speaks to that."

The Hamas-run health ministry has accused the IDF of "besieging" Al-Shifa hospital, which is Gaza's largest medical complex. Asked about operations in the area, Weiss said: "The IDF is not targeting the Shifa hospital. We are responding to fire that is being launched by Hamas adjacent to the hospital."

Weiss added that Israel was "expending significant resources" to avoid civilian casualties, repeating that "they are absolutely not our target".

Image source, Vatican City handout

Pope Francis has called for the wounded in Gaza to be taken care of immediately and for more humanitarian aid to be allowed to enter the territory.

Speaking from Vatican City at his weekly Angelus prayer, the Pope said his thoughts go daily to the "suffering" and the "serious situation" in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"May the wounded in Gaza be helped immediately. Civilians should be protected, and more humanitarian aid should be delivered to that exhausted population," the Pope added.

Pope Francis also called for the hostages taken by Hamas from Israel on 7 October to be released.

The UN report of a peacekeeper being shot comes amid ongoing fighting on the border with Israel and southern Lebanon, where the well-armed Shia Islamist group Hezbollah is based.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said anti-tank missiles had been fired by Hezbollah on Sunday and hit a number of civilian targets.

The IDF said it was retaliating with artillery fire.

An Israeli ambulance service spokesperson told Israel's N12 News one person was critically wounded and between three to five others injured.

Footage showed cars on fire on a road near an open area.

On Saturday, Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said it would continue to fight Israel close to the border.

Image source, Reuters

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Beirut

Image source, Getty Images

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifil, says a peacekeeper was hit by a bullet in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, overnight.

The peacekeeper – who has not been identified – is recovering and currently stable, the force said, external.

Unifil added that the origin of the gunfire was unknown and that it had launched an investigation.

The Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Israeli military have frequently exchanged fire along the Lebanon-Israel border.

Image source, Getty Images

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that half of Gaza's 36 hospitals were not functioning. Here's an update on what we know about some of the main hospitals in the north:

Al-Shifa

The WHO last night said it had lost communication with its contacts at Gaza's largest hospital, and expressed its "grave concerns" for the safety of staff and patients there. A surgeon earlier told the BBC that a lack of fuel meant Al-Shifa was out of service.

This morning, an official from the Hamas-run health ministry added that the cardiac ward had been destroyed.

Israel has repeatedly denied accusations its forces have attacked the hospital, but has acknowledged clashes with Hamas fighters in the area.

Al-Quds

This morning, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Al-Quds hospital had run out of fuel and was no longer operational. It said medical staff were still trying to treat patients without electricity.

The PRCS previously said the hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks, and reported shooting. The Israeli military told us it could not comment on the specifics of "military activity currently under way".

Indonesian Hospital

This morning, the Reuters news agency shared video of doctors at the hospital in northern Gaza trying to treat a baby injured in an air strike. Doctors at the hospital also say they have no electricity or oxygen reserves and have had to use manual resuscitators.

Rantisi and Al-Nasr

Yesterday, the Israeli military said all but a handful of staff and bedridden patients had evacuated the facilities of these children's hospitals.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had received reports of Rantisi being surrounded by Israeli tanks.

Image source, .

Netanyahu opposes future role in Gaza for Palestinian Authoritypublished at 11:45 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2023

11:45 GMT 12 November 2023

Paul Adams
Reporting from Jerusalem

During his press conference last night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said something that will have caused alarm in Washington.

Asked about the future governance of the Gaza Strip, he said he opposed the return of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), led by the ageing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“There will have to be something else,” he said.

“There cannot be an authority who didn’t condemn the massacre [on 7 October by Hamas].”

He also repeated his insistence that Israel would maintain security control over Gaza. “I will not compromise on security control under any circumstances.”

During his recent trip to the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Abbas that Washington saw the PA as “playing a central role” in Gaza after the defeat of Hamas.

Netanyahu has made it clear who he does not want to rule Gaza in the future: Hamas or the PA. But he has so far offered no alternative.

Along with growing international unease at the cost in Palestinian lives of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Netanyahu’s rejection of a role for the PA puts him at odds with Israel’s principal ally, the US.

Despite today's reopening of the Rafah border crossing, there's no new list of foreign nationals who are now eligible to make the crossing from the Gaza Strip into Egypt.

Instead, only those who have been on previously published lists will be allowed to leave Gaza.

When asked by the BBC if a new list would be published soon, Hisham Adwan, a spokesman for Gaza’s General Authority for Crossings, said: “Rafah crossing has been open from 1st Nov, to Egyptians and foreign nationals and a small number of critically injured Palestinians. We are constantly updating and publishing (the) list of evacuees.”

Around 175 Britons were included on previous lists last week. It’s thought there might be around 20 more who are still awaiting permission to leave.

A report by the Reuters news agency says a group of civilians have today evacuated Gaza, passing through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Reuters cites unnamed Egyptian security sources.

That would mean the crossing would have successfully opened for the first time in three days. We don't have any details as to who these evacuees are yet.

A short time ago on this page, we brought you a dramatic first-hand account from the BBC's reporter in Gaza, Rushdi Abualouf.

He had been going for a cup of tea in the village of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, when four bombs suddenly fell around him.

This video shows the aftermath.

A short time ago, the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg asked Israeli President Isaac Herzog whether his country had gone too far in its response to the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Watch their exchange in the video above.

The UK's main opposition party, Labour, has said the short pauses in fighting Israel has agreed to in Gaza are not enough to allow in sufficient aid and humanitarian support.

Earlier this week, Israel said it had agreed to four-hour pauses in fighting in Gaza. Earlier, it confirmed that another was under way today.

Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, Labour's shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the short pauses were not enough.

"It is absolutely devastating what's happening and we've seen some of the consequences too, with the hospitals not having fuel - it's why we've called for some kind of immediate suspension of hostilities to get the humanitarian pause in place," Cooper said.

"The short pauses are just not enough," she added. She called for humanitarian aid including fuel to be allowed into Gaza, and for "civilian protection measures" to be put in place.

Israel has barred fuel from being brought into Gaza over concerns it would be used by Hamas rather than by hospitals.

Palestinian civilians have been photographed evacuating the north during the daily short pauses announced by Israel late last week, but so far these pauses are confined to certain areas while fighting continues elsewhere.

Let's bring you a bit more from Laura Kuenssberg's interview with Israel's President, Isaac Herzog.

Asked about what his country's "endgame" for the region is, Herzog does not spell out what arrangements might be in place once the conflict ends.

Instead, he says the first step to peace is to stop "terror" in the region - a reference to Israel's pledge to "destroy" Hamas.

Herzog says it is terror attacks that have derailed attempts to achieve peace in the region.

Israel-Palestinian peace talks were held on and off between the 1990s and 2010s, interspersed with outbreaks of violence, but finally stalled in 2014.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says the Al Quds hospital in northern Gaza is no longer operational as its fuel reserves have run out.

Medical staff are still attempting to treat patients without electricity, the PRCS says in a statement, "amid dire humanitarian conditions and a shortage of medical supplies, food, and water".

"The hospital has been left to fend for itself under ongoing Israeli bombardment, posing severe risks to the medical staff, patients, and displaced civilians," the statement on to X (formerly Twitter) says, external.

It adds that the Israeli presence has intensified, and it has been prevented from from sending ambulances to affected areas - resulting in "numerous unclaimed bodies".

Asked by the BBC yesterday about reported activity at Al-Quds hospital, the Israeli military said it was "unable to address or confirm specific queries" relating to ongoing military operations. But it has denied accusations of other strikes on hospitals.