Gaza fighting ‘most intense’ since war began as IDF enters Khan Younis
The Israeli army has had its “most intense day” of war in Gaza so far, commanders said, as tanks entered the southern city of Khan Younis for the first time while surrounding the strip’s largest refugee camp in the north.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) believes Hamas leaders are holed up in Khan Younis, until recently a safe haven for civilians fleeing the fighting in the north during the first phase of the invasion.
Meanwhile, in the battered northern Gaza City, troops encircled the refugee camp in Jabaliya and raided what the Israeli military said was Hamas’s internal security headquarters, where weapons and various equipment were found.
“We’re in the heart of Jabaliya, in the heart of Shejaiya and starting [on Monday night], also in the heart of Khan Younis,” Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman, head of the IDF southern command, said on Tuesday.
“We are in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation - in terms of terrorists killed, the number of firefights, and the use of firepower from the land and air.”
Israel has restarted its operations in Gaza and troops are rapidly progressing south despite calls for restraint from Western allies and increasingly dire warnings about the humanitarian conditions.
Allies losing patience with Israel
Signs are emerging that the US is losing patience with its ally, and it said on Tuesday it would ban extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of recent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, signalled he was willing to order his army deeper into Gaza, saying it “may not be possible” to save all the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
The death toll in Gaza had reached more than 15,900 by Tuesday evening, the Hamas-run health authority said, with many more missing and feared dead under the rubble.
The authorities warned about an impending “massacre” at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza’s north, one of only six hospitals still operational in the besieged enclave, as Israeli troops reportedly surrounded the facility.
“Patients and those who took shelter here are gripped with fear and overwhelmed by horror,” Munir Al Bursh, head of Gaza’s health ministry, told Al Jazeera from inside the hospital.
“The Israeli forces are attacking with the aim of forcibly removing all those displaced inside the hospital. We, the medical staff, are holding our ground. We are standing by our patients.”
It follows Israeli takeovers at various medical facilities, which the IDF claim are used by Hamas to hide tunnels and weapons under human shields.
Israeli military ‘targeting’ ambulances
In Deir al Balah in the south, two ambulances attending to casualties were reportedly targeted by the Israeli military.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society shared footage showing what it said was an Israeli tank targeting the vicinity. The ambulance was seen racing away amid thuds of explosion, and blasts were seen striking the spot where it had been parked. Israel has said in the past that ambulances are used by Hamas fighters.
As casualties in Khan Yunis mounted on Monday night, a convoy apparently bringing a high-profile patient was seen pulling up at a hospital in the city. The footage from the scene showed uniformed officers trying to disperse the crowds and even beating several on-lookers with sticks after an unknown man stepped out of the ambulance for treatment.
Israeli media outlets including Channel 14 identified the man as Nizar Awadallah, a senior Hamas official who is believed to be close to Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar.
Meanwhile, the United Nations warned on Tuesday that Israel’s bombing campaign makes it impossible to set up safe zones anywhere in Gaza.
James Elder, UNICEF’s spokesman who just returned to Egypt from Gaza, told reporters: “The so-called safe zones are not scientific, they are not rational. They are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this.”
Linda Al Agha and her family fled Khan Yunis two days earlier following an IDF warning and moved to Qa’ al Qurein but the fighting was incessant even in that area, which is about a 15-minute drive from Rafah near the Egyptian border.
“Last night was terrible. We didn’t sleep at all: 12 hours of continuing shelling and bombing,” she said. “There is no safe place to go in the Gaza Strip. Frankly, I think they [the IDF] are forcing us out to Sinai.”
Israel on Tuesday denied asking the World Health Organisation (WHO) to vacate its warehouse in Gaza as it was apparently about to be caught in fighting.
The WHO’s chief earlier said his staff received 24 hour evacuation orders for a warehouse in the south and called on Israel to withdraw it. The Israeli Defence Ministry said on Tuesday it never asked the WHO to vacate the premises.
Richard Peeperkorn, a WHO representative in Gaza said on Tuesday “the situation is getting worse by the hour” as he lamented that the amount of aid allowed into the enclave was “way too little”.
“We are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster,” he said.
In a new report on Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the IDF for deliberately razing farmland, orchards and greenhouses in northern Gaza, compounding concerns of food security.
Satellite images reviewed by HRW showed IDF bulldozers carving news roads for Israeli military vehicles across the fields and orchards as large swathes of fertile land near Beit Hanoun were ruined in the initial weeks of the offensive.
In Israel, the families of the hostages who still remain in Hamas captivity met with the war cabinet later on Tuesday afternoon as some of them publicly urged the government to resume talks to secure the release of their relatives.
Mr Netanyahu was quoted as saying at the meeting “currently, it’s not possible to bring them all back”.
Danny Miran, father of Omri Miran who was kidnapped from a frontier kibbutz, told the Haaretz newspaper the meeting was a “disgrace” and that the family did not hear any solutions offered by the government to free the hostages in Gaza.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli official claimed that Hamas drugged hostages with tranquiliser pills before handing them over to the Red Cross for release during the seven-day cease-fire.
Dr Hagar Mizrahi, told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that the hostages were given clonazepam, which is used to help with anxiety and OCD among other mental health disorders, before they were handed over to the aid group.
She did not say whether the drugging had been confirmed through blood tests.
Hamas has not yet commented on the claims.
03:59 PM GMT
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03:59 PM GMT
An even more hellish scenario is about to unfold in Gaza, warns UN
International aid organisations have warned that civilians in the densely populated Strip are running out of places to flee to.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza and there is nowhere left to go,” said Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.
“If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold, one in which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond,” Hastings said in a statement.
Ambulances, trucks and other vehicles delivered more bloodied, dust-covered casualties to Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital, including children.
03:45 PM GMT
Pictured: Palestinians migrate towards Rafah due to intense Israeli attacks in Khan Younis
03:26 PM GMT
Hamas 'tranquilised hostages' before releasing them, claims Israel
Hamas drugged hostages with tranquiliser pills before handing them over to the Red Cross for release, an Israeli health official has claimed.
Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that the hostages were given drugs before they were handed over to the aid group.
The head of the Health Ministry’s medical division said Clonazepam, which is used to help with anxiety and OCD among other mental health disorders, was the drug administered.
She did not say whether the drugging had been confirmed through blood tests.
Hamas has not yet commented on the claims.
02:47 PM GMT
Gaza reaching 'humanity's darkest hour,' says WHO
The situation in the Gaza Strip is getting worse all the time and approaching humanity’s “darkest hour”, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group’s October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and which saw around 240 hostages taken back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and secure the release of all the hostages. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the war has killed nearly 15,900 people in the territory.
02:36 PM GMT
Watch: Israel 'raids' Hamas strongholds in Jabaliya
02:20 PM GMT
Female hostages remain captive to silence reports of Hamas sexual violence
Hamas militants likely held back on freeing female hostages because it did not want the women to speak publicly about sexual violence, the US has said.
Fighting resumed on Friday after the truce broke down. So far, 78 Israeli women and children have been released but Israeli officials believe that 18 women are still being held in Gaza, the majority believed to have been taken when Hamas raided the music festival.
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the US Department of State said: “It seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage and the reason this pause fell apart is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”
Read more here
01:55 PM GMT
Defence Secretary will look at new ways of getting aid into Gaza
Grant Shapps will look at new ways of getting aid into Gaza as he told MPs he would visit the Middle East this week.
Responding to a question from Labour about how to ensure more aid gets into the Palestinian territory, the Defence Secretary said: “He asks about humanitarian aid. This country has provided now £60 million worth of additional aid made available for Palestinians.
“There have been four flights that have taken off so far.
“He... will realise that the problem is not just providing the aid, it is getting it into Gaza and the Rafah crossing presents a very considerable barrier to that for all sorts of security reasons, so I am actively looking at different routes and he will understand that is one of the reasons why I am going to the region this week.”
01:30 PM GMT
IDF 'raids' Hamas' general security HQ
Israel claims it has raided Hamas’ general security headquarters in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the operation was carried out after troops completed an encirclement of the area’s refugee camp in recent days.
The camp was heavily bombed early in the war.
IDF forces reportedly found weapons, equipment and intelligence during the raid, jointly carried out with the Shin Bet security agency.
01:14 PM GMT
Hamas tunnels in pictures:
12:37 PM GMT
Mobile phone services and internet cut across Gaza again
The main telecom company in the Gaza Strip said Monday that mobile telephone services and internet connections had been cut across the territory.
“We regret to announce that all telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost due to the cut-off of main fibre routes from the Israeli side,” Paltel said in a message on social media.
“Gaza is... blacked out again.”
12:25 PM GMT
UN says 'not possible' to create 'safe zones' in Gaza
The United Nations warned that it was impossible to create so-called safe zones for civilians to flee to inside the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s bombing campaign.
Israel had initially focused its offensive on the north of the territory, but the army has now also dropped leaflets on parts of the south, telling Palestinian civilians there to flee to other areas.
“The so-called safe zones... are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Cairo.
11:57 AM GMT
Situation in Gaza 'getting worse by the hour,' says WHO
A World Health Organisation official in Gaza said the situation was deteriorating by the hour as Israeli bombing has intensified in the south of the Palestinian enclave around the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“The situation is getting worse by the hour,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters via video link. “There’s intensified bombing going on all around, including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah.”
Mr Peeperkorn said the humanitarian aid reaching Gaza was “way too little” and said the WHO was deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the densely populated enclave as more people move further south to escape the bombing.
“We will witness the same pattern of what happened in the north,” he said, referring to an area of northern Gaza that was heavily bombed and nearly cut off from humanitarian supplies.
“That cannot happen ... I want to make this point very clear that we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster.”
11:16 AM GMT
Gaza children rushed to hospital after Israeli strikes
10:55 AM GMT
Mapped: Israeli advance into Gaza
10:39 AM GMT
Israel 'open to constructive feedback' on how to target Hamas and minimise civilian harm
Israel has said it is open to any “constructive feedback” on how it should target Hamas while minimising harm to civilians.
Israeli forces have begun operating in the southern area of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where the population has been swollen by around 1 million refugees from northern areas and has faced heavy international pressure, including from Washington, to limit civilian casualties.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson, said “We’re moving ahead with the second stage now. A second stage that is going to be difficult militarily.
“Any constructive feedback that we get, any serious military strategic advice about how to target Hamas while minimizing harm to civilians, we will of course mention.”
10:18 AM GMT
No place is safe in Gaza, says UNRWA
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza (UNRWA), said the resumption of Israel’s military operation was repeating “horrors from past weeks” by displacing people who had been previously displaced, overcrowding hospitals and further strangling the humanitarian operation due to limited supplies.
“We have said it repeatedly. We are saying it again. No place is safe in Gaza, whether in the south, or the southwest, whether in Rafah or in any unilaterally so-called ‘safe zone’,” he said.
The Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated calls for Israel to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure including hospitals.
09:58 AM GMT
Traders with prior knowledge of Hamas attacks made millions shorting Israel, claims report
Investors with prior knowledge of the Oct 7 Hamas massacre earned at least tens of millions of pounds short-selling Israeli stocks in the days before, according to a report.
Traders with potential links to Hamas put huge bets against the Israeli economy in the run-up to the attack and could have made more than $100 million (£79.3 million), said the 60-page study by Robert Jackson Jr, of New York University School of Law, and Joshua Mitts, of Columbia Law School.
While the report did not name the investors, the report said they were understood to be “informed traders anticipating and profiting from the Hamas attack”.
Read more here
09:49 AM GMT
Britain to conduct surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza
Britain’s Ministry of Defence will conduct surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean, including operating in the airspace over Israel and Gaza, the government confirmed on Tuesday.
The aircraft will be unarmed, will not have a combat role, and will be tasked solely to locate hostages, the government said, adding that only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities responsible for hostage rescue.
09:31 AM GMT
France sanctions Hamas leader
France imposed asset freezes on Hamas’ Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the latest leader from the terror group to be added to its national sanctions list, according to a decree published in the country’s official journal.
France on Nov. 13 imposed sanctions at a national level on Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Marwan Issa.
It is working with partners to impose sanctions on Hamas individuals and its financing network at European Union level, diplomats have said.
09:20 AM GMT
Lord Cameron meets with relatives of hostages
Today I held meetings with families whose loved ones have been murdered and taken hostage by Hamas.
I spoke to Stephen Brisley, Sharon Sharabi, and other families.
I offered my sincere condolences for the appalling acts of terror and violence of October 7th and we discussed… pic.twitter.com/LiQ6wbNe6x— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 4, 2023
08:57 AM GMT
British teenager killed while fighting for Israel in Gaza
A British teenager has been killed in Gaza while fighting for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Binyamin Needham, 19, who was of dual nationality, moved to Israel with his family 10 years ago, Mail Online reported.
He is believed to be the second British national after Nathanel Young to have been killed whilst serving in the IDF since the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Read more from Max Stephens here
08:48 AM GMT
Palestinians wounded during Israeli bombardment are carried into Nasser hospital
Ambulances and private cars came racing into the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, carrying people wounded in a bloody new phase of the war in Gaza.
“Where is the Red Cross? … where is the United Nations?” a woman screamed outside the emergency department. “My children, since 10 p.m., are still under the rubble.”
08:42 AM GMT
Hamas did 'not want women hostages to reveal treatment,' says US
A US official said that Hamas likely held back on freeing female hostages, ending a pause in Israel’s offensive, because they did not want the women to speak publicly about sexual violence.
Israel had paused its offensive in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, as part of a US- and Qatari-brokered truce deal to free around 240 hostages seized during the October 7 attacks, which Israeli authorities say killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
“It seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage and the reason this pause fell apart is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Mr Miller, citing sensitivities in discussing the treatment of captives, declined to give details on the treatment of the women.
But he said that the United States had “no reason to doubt” reports of sexual violence by Hamas.
“There is very little that I would put beyond Hamas when it comes to its treatment of civilians and particularly its treatment of women,” Mr Miller said.
08:40 AM GMT
Israel intensifies southern Gaza offensive
Israeli forces pressed ahead with their air and ground bombardment of southern Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians.
Residents and journalists on the ground said the intense Israeli air strikes in the south of the densely populated coastal enclave included areas where Israel had told people to seek shelter.
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel to avoid further action that would make the already dire humanitarian situation in Hamas-run Gaza worse, and to spare civilians from more suffering.
“The Secretary-General is extremely alarmed by the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas... For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
