Israel-Hamas war updates: Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza schools

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It’s almost 2am (00:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

Here’s an overview of some of the key events that took place on Saturday:

• Israel attacked the Al Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp in the early hours of Saturday, followed by another attack on a second school in Tal al-Zaatar. Both schools in northern Gaza were run by UNWRA and were sheltering many people, with reports of dozens killed.
• Only a handful of people are left at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital after patients, health workers and people who had sheltered there were forced to leave.
• New details have emerged from an Israeli police report into Hamas’ deadly attack on a music festival on October 7, including that the attack was not preplanned, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting.
• Church leaders are concerned that Israeli settlers are attempting to seize land in the Armenian quarter in East Jerusalem.
• Netanyahu has rejected a proposal put forward by Biden that the Palestinian Authority (PA) should govern Gaza.

Heavy rain is raising new concerns for displaced Palestinians, many of whom are homeless and living in tents after weeks of Israeli bombardment.

Fears are growing that the densely-populated enclave’s sewage system will be overwhelmed and disease will spread.

“Gaza can expect showers on Sunday morning, turning heavier through the afternoon. These will then turn thundery in the evening and overnight. It will also be windy with gusts to 50-60km/hour [31-37 miles/hour]. Three-day rainfall totals are expected to be around 20-50mm,” said Al Jazeera meteorologist Everton Fox.

“The showers will die out Monday afternoon, but it will be a miserable couple of days before it clears through quickly as there will be flooding in places.”

Netanyahu challenged Biden’s plan for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern Gaza.

“I think the PA in its current form is not capable of accepting the responsibility for Gaza after we’ve fought and done all this, to pass it to them,” he said at a news conference in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu previously said Israel must maintain “overall military responsibility” in Gaza “for the foreseeable future”. The PA used to run both the occupied West Bank and Gaza but was removed from the latter in 2007 after a brief civil war with Hamas.

Netanyahu says the Israeli military will have “full freedom” to operate within the territory after the war. The comments again put him in conflict with US visions for a post-war era in Gaza.

Secretary of State Blinken says the US opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank as a step towards a Palestinian state – long opposed by Netanyahu’s government.

Behind the scenes of five years of negotiations through intermediaries on behalf of Hamas and Israel.

Biden has delivered two different messages on the Israel-Hamas war to pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel Americans, NBC News reported based on copies of official White House correspondence.

While one letter showcased Biden’s support for Israel against Hamas, the other focused on the US administration’s efforts to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.

According to NBC, the letter sent to pro-Israelis invoked the Holocaust in relation to the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. It also pledged continuous support to Israel.

Read the full story here.

As public pressure mounts over the captives, Netanyahu says Israel’s war cabinet will meet with representatives of the families on Monday.

“I am marching with you. The Israeli people are marching with you. I promise, when we have something to say, we will inform you,” he said.

The families of those taken to Gaza say they have had no news from the Israeli government about negotiations to secure their release.

Diplomatic sources this week said Qatar-mediated negotiations were under way to free some of the captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a temporary ceasefire. But the talks have so far yielded no result and the families say they have no idea what is being discussed.

Joe Biden’s rigid pro-Israel stance would have been considered convention in US policy 50 years ago.

“It’s not a mainstream position any more,” Jon Alterman, the director of the Middle East programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, said.

There will be no progress unless Israel makes way for a solution “that gives dignity and some sense of self-determination to the Palestinians,” Alterman added.

An estimated 20,000 demonstrators, including family and friends of about 240 captives, held a rally in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office.

The government has ignored their pleas to prioritise bringing their loved ones home, they said.

Noam Alon, 25, clutched a photograph of his abducted girlfriend, Inbar.

“We are expecting them to meet with us, we are expecting them to tell us how they are going to do it. We cannot wait any longer so we are demanding them to do that now – to pay any price to bring the hostages back.”

Read the full story here.

Video footage shows the aftermath of an attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip that hit the intensive care room in the children’s department.

Israeli forces fired “a missile or artillery shell into an intensive care room in the hospital’s children’s department and this is the fragment of the missile”, Dr Ahmed al-Kahlot, the hospital’s director, told Al Jazeera while holding up a piece of metal.

“Israeli criminality has exceeded the limit,” said al-Kahlot.

A clip also showed the shell penetrating the ceiling of the hospital room. It is unclear how many casualties it inflicted.

Updates from the al-Shifa Hospital and Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

OR

Thousands of protesters took part in rallies in cities across Europe demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

Several thousand people marched through central Paris in torrential rain behind a banner saying, “Halt the massacre in Gaza and West Bank, immediate ceasefire.”

“France must immediately call for a ceasefire so that the guns go silent,” said CGT union secretary general Sophie Binet. CGT estimated 60,000 people rallied in the capital and a further 40,000 in dozens of other towns across the country.

Elsewhere in Europe, organisers said 4,000 people marched in Geneva, lighting candles displayed as a map of Gaza in front of the United Nations’ European headquarters. One large banner read “Stop Genocide in Gaza,” and many shouted “Free, free Palestine!”

In the UK, the protest numbers were smaller, after more than 300,000 people staged a pro-Palestinian march in London last Saturday.

According to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO team saw a hospital no longer able to function. There was no water, food, electricity, fuel or medical supplies.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting Hamas fighters didn’t know a dance party with thousands of revellers was under way when it launched its October 7 attack, and likely discovered it from the air through drones or paragliders.

A police probe found a military helicopter opened fire on the assailants, but also hit some people attending the music festival. No further details were provided.

“An investigation into the incident revealed an [Israeli military] combat helicopter that arrived at the scene from the Ramat David base fired at the terrorists and apparently also hit some of the revelers there,” the news report cited an unnamed police official as saying.

About 364 people were killed at the music festival. Some 4,400 were present earlier but organisers quickly cancelled the event after Hamas launched a rocket barrage and the vast majority fled before attackers arrived, it said.

The Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib called for the release of hostages and adherence to international law.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel’s forces have begun operating in eastern Gaza City while continuing its mission in western areas.

“With every passing day, there are fewer places where Hamas terrorists can operate,” he said, adding fighters will learn that in southern Gaza “in the coming days”.

His comments were the clearest indication yet the military plans to expand its offensive to the southern areas of Gaza, where Israel told Palestinian civilians to flee early in the war.

The evacuation zone is already crammed with displaced civilians, and it is not clear where they would go if the offensive moves closer.

The advocacy organisation for public health professionals in the US has added its name to the growing global movement of individuals and organisations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“APHA calls upon President Biden and Congress to urgently demand an immediate ceasefire and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of hostages and those detained; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the association said in a statement.

AJ+’s Dena Takruri spends a day in Hebron retracing the footsteps of her father who was born and raised in the occupied West Bank.

She talks to Palestinians who are subjected to daily harassment from the Israeli military and settlers. And she is guided through the city by former Israeli soldiers, who tell her why their conscience is now forcing them to speak out against the occupation:

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, the US president says Gaza and the occupied West Bank “should be reunited under a single governance structure” – a revitalised Palestinian Authority.

“Gaza must never again be used as a platform for terrorism. There must be no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, and no reduction in territory. And after this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people and their aspirations must be at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza,” he wrote.

Biden also said the international community must commit resources to rebuild Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the war, “including interim security measures”.

“And it is imperative that no terrorist threats ever again emanate from Gaza or the West Bank.”

Biden also said the United States is prepared to issue visa bans against “extremists” who carry out attacks in the occupied West Bank.

About 4,000 demonstrators rallied in Berlin to protest attacks by Israeli forces on the Gaza Strip, according to police.

The people in the crowd carried Palestinian flags and some wore the keffiyeh. Calls were made for “Freedom for Gaza” and “Freedom for Palestine.” Other chants included “Germany finances, Israel bombs” and “Stop the genocide.”

Organisers used a loudhailer to announce: “We want to live peacefully with the Jews.”

US President Joe Biden’s main adviser on the Middle East says there will be a “significant pause” in the Gaza war if hostages held by Hamas are freed.

“The surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause … will come when hostages are released,” Brett McGurk told a security conference in Bahrain.

The release of “all women, children, toddlers and babies” would result in “a significant pause … and a massive surge of humanitarian relief”, he added.

About 240 people are believed to be held in Gaza by Hamas, which says some captives have died in Israel’s incessant bombing over the past six weeks.

Witnesses describe being ordered out of al-Shifa Hospital, despite Israel’s contention that patients, medical staff, and war-displaced people left voluntarily.

“We left at gunpoint,” Mahmoud Abu Auf said after he and his family fled the crowded hospital. “Tanks and snipers were everywhere inside and outside.” He said he saw Israeli forces detain three men.

Palestinian health officials say evacuees from al-Shifa were left to fend for them themselves on foot along dangerous, bombed-out roads in areas repeatedly under air attack.

“We were forced by the occupation authorities to leave al-Shifa,” said Dr Ramez Rudwan as he and his daughter, also a doctor, arrived in south Gaza.

With the war entering its seventh week, there is no sign of a let-up despite international calls for “humanitarian pauses”.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation and its local member association – the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association – are working to deliver “dignity kits” to women in the occupied West Bank who are unable to return to Gaza.

The group is working in partnership with UNFPA – the UN reproductive health agency – on delivering packages that include soap, underwear and menstrual products, among other items.

The group has not been able to distribute these kits to women in the besieged coastal enclave.

Witnesses say Israel’s air raids caused massive destruction at the UN-run Al Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp.

“The scenes were horrifying. Corpses of women and children were on the ground. Others were screaming for help,” wounded survivor Ahmed Radwan said by phone. Photos from a local hospital showed more than 20 bodies wrapped in bloodstained sheets.

The Israeli military, which warned Jabalia residents and others in a social media post in Arabic to leave, said only its troops are active in the area “with the aim of hitting terrorists”.

Israel rarely comments on individual attacks saying only it targets Hamas.

Attacks on healthcare personnel and facilities have intensified since October 7, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says.

On November 17, Israeli forces surrounded hospitals across Jenin, including MSF-supported Khalil Suleiman Hospital, while military forces raided a refugee camp in the city.

Soldiers also stopped ambulances from reaching the hospital.

“Healthcare workers are regularly being attacked by the Israeli military while ambulances cannot move freely to reach the injured and ill. These attacks must stop now,” said Renzo Fricke, MSF head of mission in the occupied Palestinian territories.