By Leila Warah / Mondoweiss
Casualties
14,100 killed*, including 5,840 children, and 32,850 wounded in Gaza Strip.
226 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200
*This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 22. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza), the Gaza Ministry of Health has not been able to regularly update its tolls.
Key developments
- Qatari-mediated four-day ceasefire delayed until Friday.
- Over 60 percent of Gaza’s buildings damaged by Israeli bombardment, says Gaza’s media office.
- Number of medical personnel killed since October 7 reaches 205, says Gaza government media office.
- Number of people displaced since October 7 reaches 1.5 million people, according to Gaza government media office.
- Five Hezbollah members killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Thursday evening, reports Reuters.
- Israeli forces arrest director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City along with several other healthcare workers, AFP reports, citing Khalid Abu Samra, a department chief at the hospital.
- Palestinian photojournalist Mohammad Moin Ayyash killed by Israeli airstrikes, along with a number of family members, according to Al Jazeera.
- Izz al-Din Mustafa al-Hafi, 18, shot dead by Israeli forces during raid in Balata refugee camp east of Nablus.
- Israeli forces kill 46-year-old Khaded al-Sayyeh Ulawn at entrance to the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, reports Wafa.
- Christmas in Bethlehem canceled “in mourning and in honor” of the Palestinians killed in Gaza, says city municipality.
- Obama-era deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, Stuart Seldowitz, arrested following viral video of him repeatedly harassing and threatening halal food vendor.
Hospitals: ‘an area of destruction and killing’
The four-day Qatar-mediated temporary ceasefire did not come into effect as expected on Thursday morning as Israeli bombardment continued across the Gaza Strip for the 48th consecutive day, killing tens of people.
As eyes are focused on the upcoming temporary ceasefire, Israel is continuing to “commit crimes” against the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, according to Ismail al-Thawabta, director general of the government media office in Gaza.
The Israeli military told everyone seeking refuge inside the hospital on Thursday morning to evacuate within four hours. Sarbini Abdul Murad, the head of the Indonesian charity, Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), explained to Al Jazeera that the hospital has since been emptied.
“The doctors and the wounded were moved to the European Hospital. Our volunteers are sheltering at a school with thousands of others,” Murad said.
Meanwhile, Al-Thawabta added that the Israeli military is still occupying al-Shifa Hospital and has turned it into a “military barracks, a mass grave, and area of destruction and killing.”
On Thursday, Israeli forces arrested the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City along with several other healthcare workers.
“Doctor Mohammad Abu Salmiya was arrested along with several other senior doctors,” Khalid Abu Samra, a chief of the department at the hospital, told the AFP news agency.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) evacuated 190 wounded and sick people, their companions, and several medical teams from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. However, the organization says many other injured along with their companions and medical staff are still in the hospital to this day.
Ambulances have also been a target of the Israeli military, especially those evacuating patients from northern hospitals to the south.
“The evacuation process lasted for almost twenty hours as the convoy was obstructed and subjected to careful inspection while passing through the checkpoint that separates northern and southern Gaza, hence putting the lives of the wounded and sick people in danger,” PRCS said.
Temporary ceasefire postponed
Despite the confusion regarding the temporary ceasefire due to its delay, Haaretz has clarified it is still scheduled to take place.
There would be “no halt to the fighting in the Gaza Strip as long as there is no finalized timeline for the agreement with Hamas,” the Israeli news outlet reported.
The agreement concerns a prisoner exchange that is set to take place during the ceasefire — 150 Palestinian women and children will be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for 50 captives held in Gaza.
Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, called the agreement a “complex process that may take time” and has many stages. In light of the confusion, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson clarified that the deal between Hamas and Israel “was agreed and remains agreed.”
She is “hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning,” Watson told CNN. “The parties are working out final logistical details, particularly for the first day of implementation.”
On Thursday afternoon, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majid al-Ansari told the Qatari News Agency that the exact time of the ceasefire would be announced “within hours” and that talks were “continuing in a positive way.”
Many international leaders are relieved to see the temporary truce and hope it will be extended, including U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who “strongly supports” the brief pause in fighting in Gaza.
Warren urged all parties “to extend this agreement and work to achieve an enduring end to this fighting,” calling for a possible extension of the ceasefire.
“We need unfettered access to humanitarian aid and security guarantees throughout Gaza to support a long-term recovery,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norweigan Refugee Council, in a statement. “A sustained ceasefire is needed to prevent further civilian deaths and provide safety for people in need of vital humanitarian assistance.”
Support our Independent Journalism — Donate Today!
“Children are traumatized, and many face a future without their parents and siblings. They need urgent, long-term help. This can only happen through a sustained ceasefire,” Egeland added, describing Gaza as the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Nebal Farsakh, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, told Al Jazeera that while the distribution of aid will finally be possible during the pause, the amount of fuel that enters the Gaza Strip, if any, will be limited.
“We have not been notified that fuel will be allowed to get in, particularly to…hospitals,” Farsakh said. “What we have been told, a number of trucks that have fuel will be allowed to get into the work of water and sanitation networks, but not for hospitals.”
Around 400 trucks will be allowed in during the four-day humanitarian pause, according to Faraskh — an increase from the 42 convoys per day but still less than the 500 trucks per day that entered Gaza before October 7.
“A pause will have little worth if the killing resumes in a few days. The international community must use this brief window of opportunity to work towards a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege,” warned Islamic Relief, a Canadian humanitarian group.
Despite hopes for a permanent ceasefire, top Israeli politicians made it clear they have no intention to end their war on Gaza, during a press conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
“The war continues. We will continue this war until all our objectives have been met, including the return of our captives and the elimination of Hamas and ensuring that the day after Hamas, Gaza will not be under the control of any party that engages in terrorism or teaches terrorism,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Israel’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, vowed to continue fighting following the truce. Gallant said Israel would “ deepen our operations and we will do everything that is necessary” to increase pressure on Hamas and liberate more captives.
“The operation is very delicate, the operation is resolute, and the operation is lethal,” he asserted, adding that Israel was “succeeding in dismantling Hamas as a fighting force.”
“We are winning, and we will pursue the fight until complete victory,” Netanyahu added.
Hamas official Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera that while the group is seeking a permanent ceasefire, they are prepared to deal with all situations imposed by Israel.
Palestinian political prisoners
On Wednesday, the Israeli government released a list of 300 Palestinian political prisoners eligible for release. The list mainly comprises boys aged 16 to 18, although a handful are as young as 14, and there are about 33 women.
While Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI) said it “welcomes the release of Palestinian children,” it called for “an end to the Israeli military detention system that has imprisoned children for decades.”
Israel is the only country in the world to prosecute children in military court, DCI said.
“Israeli forces detain, interrogate, prosecute and imprison 500-700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 each year,” the organization continued, describing the arrest of children as “business as usual” in a thread on X.
Hamas official Marzouk told Al Jazeera that there are no guarantees Israel will not target the Palestinians who are released from their prisons.
Netanyahu told reporters that the Palestinian political prisoners to be released are “not murderers,” but are still “bad people,” promising Israel will do everything it can to ensure those released will not be a risk to Israelis.
The 300 eligible prisoners are among the 8,300 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs, told CNN.
According to Fares, over 3,000 of them are being held under what Israel calls “administrative detention,” a practice of indefinitely detaining Palestinians without charge or trial based on “secret evidence” that is not presented to the legal team of the accused.
Meanwhile, the identities of the captives being released from Gaza are still unclear, and neither is the timeline for their release.
Israeli news outlets have reported that Mossad chief David Barnea has received the list of captives to be released. However, Israeli officials have said they will not publish the list or notify the families until after the captives are released.
Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi announced that “the start of the release will proceed according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday.”
Leila Warah
Leila Warah is a freelance multimedia journalist based in Palestine.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
