Israel-Hamas war updates: Israel bombs UN school, killing ‘at least 27’
Attack comes ahead of the expected beginning of a truce and release of captives and prisoners on Friday.
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- Four-day truce will start at 7am local time (05:00 GMT) on Friday and first 13 civilian captives will be released at about 4pm (14:00 GMT), Qatari foreign ministry says.
- Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails will also be released, while trucks carrying aid will enter Gaza from Rafah crossing, ministry spokesperson says.
- Israel’s defence minister says war expected to continue for two months after truce concludes.
- Gaza’s Health Ministry says will stop coordinating hospital evacuations with the WHO after Israel arrested the director of al-Shifa Hospital.
- More than 14,800 people killed in Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the official death toll from Hamas’s attacks stands at about 1,200.
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To read about the various reactions from Palestinians and Israelis ahead of the truce, see our story here.
For details on what exactly the upcoming four-day truce entails, read our explainer here.
And Palestinian leaders should come together to craft a clear strategy to reunify the Palestinian people, writes Assistant Professor Tamer Qarmout. Read more about the roadmap for Palestine in this opinion piece.
Here’s what happened today
We’ll soon be closing this live page. Here’s a recap of today’s main events:
- Israeli forces have struck the Indonesian Hospital’s main gates, power generators and administrative office, the Health Ministry said; About 200 people are inside and unable to leave.
- Qatar has announced the details of a four-day pause in fighting, which will begin at 7am (05:00 GMT) local time on Friday.
- The first group of captives held in Gaza will be released on Friday afternoon, with Palestinian prisoners also set to be released as part of the first phase of the deal.
- Ahead of the pause, Israel has stepped up attacks across Gaza, particularly in the north.
- Israeli forces shot and killed 12-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Fuad Edely in the town of Beita near Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
- Another Palestinian in the West Bank, Khader Alwan, was killed by Israeli forces in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah.
- Israel’s military has arrested the director of al-Shifa Hospital; The Health Ministry in Gaza said it will stop coordinating hospital evacuations with the WHO as a result of the arrest.
- Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said all Israeli units will remain in Gaza and will continue to move along the lines agreed to in the truce.
- At least 27 people have been killed in an Israeli attack on a UN-run school, Abu Hussein school, in Jabalia refugee camp, the Health Ministry says.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said the families of captives on the release list have been informed.
- Fighting across the Lebanon-Israel border has continued, with Israeli bombing reported to have struck areas in southern Lebanon.
WATCH: How Palestinians are using art as a form of resistance against Israel
With Israel’s war on Gaza, many artists are using their work to demand justice, freedom and an end to the bloodshed.
Throughout history, art has been a vital element of Palestinian resistance and an instrument to reaffirm political existence.
As Israel’s war on Gaza continues, artists across the world have been using their work to show support and solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Watch the latest episode of The Stream below:
Israeli air strikes in Gaza like a ‘sort of carpet bombing’
As the people of Gaza wait with anticipation for the start of the truce later today, Israeli forces appear to be engaged in a “sort of carpet bombing” of the Palestinian enclave ahead of the cessation of military operations, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports.
Israel had concentrated its attacks on Jabalia and Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip and in the past hour attacks had hit the central areas of Gaza, Mahmoud said from the southern city of Khan Younis.
“Four major, massive air strikes targeted more residential homes in the central part of the Gaza Strip. There are reports of multiple people who are injured and rushed to hospital,” he said.
“Air strikes continue to happen in densely-populated neighbourhoods in the eastern side of Gaza City,” he said.
Southern Gaza, which the Israeli military had described as a safe zone and ordered people from the north of the Strip to flee to avoid bombing, has seen multiple air strikes targeting Rafah and Khan Younis with resulting casualties and destruction, Mahmoud said.
Young girl’s parents killed in Gaza waiting for pause to begin
International pressure could influence what happens next in Gaza: Professor
Ibrahim Abusharif, a professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, says international pressure to end the Gaza war will dictate what comes after the four-day pause in fighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has promised to resume the offensive once the truce expires, and earlier we reported that Defence Minister Gallant had said the war could last two months.
“It doesn’t seem that the [international] public opinion moves the needle very much,” Abusharif told Al Jazeera.
Still, he said there is widespread outrage around the world that can’t wholly be ignored. “In a way, public opinion has to put pressure on what happens on the ground.”
Israel says struck Hezbollah ‘targets’ in Lebanon
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the army struck “launch positions” and “military sites” used by the Lebanese group to attack Israel.
Hagari also said a number of launches were detected on Thursday afternoon from Lebanon, and Israeli forces attacked the sources of the shooting.
Ben-Gvir orders police not to deal with settler violence, says Israeli commander: Report
The explosive allegation comes from Israel’s Channel 12, which says that Major General Yehuda Fox, the head of the military’s Central Command, presented a secret document with the accusation to the military’s chief of staff.
In the document, Fox says that far-right National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, a settler himself and a champion of the settler cause – which calls for the growth of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank – had ordered the police not to deal with the violence towards Palestinians, which has increased since October 7.
Fox is reported as writing that security forces are unable to stop any flareup in the West Bank because of the settler violence.
The US has repeatedly criticised settler violence and has threatened to sanction settlers who attack Palestinians.
Israeli forces shoot Palestinian during occupied West Bank raids
A young man was shot in the abdomen during a raid on the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, local media reports.
He is on his way to the hospital.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces assaulted a driver during a raid on the city of al-Bireh, local media also reported.
More graves dug in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital
A video shared by Palestinian journalist Mohammed Qandeel on Instagram, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows people digging inside the al-Shifa Medical Complex, as they attempt to find any suitable location to bury bodies they have been unable to store.
With little power in the hospital, medical staff cannot keep the bodies refrigerated, leading them to decompose.
More than 100 bodies from al-Shifa were taken earlier in the week to southern Gaza to be buried there after they had been held by Israeli forces, who now control al-Shifa.
Pause in fighting a chance to reach people in Gaza’s north: UNRWA chief
In a statement after his second trip to Gaza since the war began, Philippe Lazzarini said he witnessed “the unspeakable suffering of people” in the enclave.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is now hosting more than one million people in schools and other facilities across Gaza, and the displacement continues, he said.
“As we all anticipate the beginning of the much-awaited pause, I reiterate my call for a longstanding humanitarian ceasefire,” Lazzarini said.
“People are exhausted and are losing hope in humanity. They need respite, they deserve to sleep without being anxious about whether they will make it through the night. This is the bare minimum anyone should be able to have.
“The pause is also an opportunity to reach people in need including in the north and to start repairing civilian infrastructure.”
He added that UNWRA is ready to receive more than 150 trucks of aid each day and called for deliveries to be ramped up.
I have just returned from my second visit to the #GazaStrip since the war began.
I bear witness to the unspeakable suffering of people.
As we all anticipate the beginning of the much-awaited pause, I reiterate my call for a long-standing humanitarian ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/VGZ1C866bT
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) November 23, 2023
Israeli army spokesman: No movement from south Gaza to the north during truce
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesman, says movement in Gaza will be restricted during the four-day pause in fighting.
“The movement of residents from the south of the Gaza Strip to the north will not be allowed in any way, but only from the north to the south,” he said in a post on X.
“Uncoordinated movement of trucks from the south of the Strip to the north will not be permitted,” the statement continued.
Adraee also said that Israeli troops will be stationed in “sparsely populated areas” on the truce lines, and will continue to move on the “Netzarim axis and the coastal road”.
WATCH: Bedouins held by Hamas – Families wait for news of relatives held captive
Netanyahu’s support plummets amid criticism from families of captives
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s numbers are the lowest they have ever been. Israeli society is not happy with how he’s conducted himself throughout this war.
The issue of the captives is perhaps the most important and also the most sensitive within Israeli society. Not only have the families of the captives been speaking out, but a lot of the Israeli public has been saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his government and his war cabinet are simply not doing enough.
Just a couple of days ago, the prime minister and his war cabinet met with representatives of all of the families of these captives to try and give them information for the first time. The families have been increasingly frustrated trying to apply the pressure, organising demonstrations and marches.
They’ve come out and said that their frustration comes from the lack of communication from the government about their loved ones – that they learn a lot of this information from the media and from leaks from Israeli officials. It is not communicated to them directly.
Jordan denounces Geert Wilders’ ‘racist’ positions on Palestine
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi condemned the “abominable racism” of Holland’s Geert Wilders in a post on X, and Jordan’s Foreign Ministry released a statement slamming the “right-wing Dutch extremist”.
Dutch politician Wilders’ Party for Freedom won big in the Netherlands’ elections last night, securing the most seats in their parliament.
In his long career as an MP, Wilders has made his anti-Islam and anti-immigration positions clear, even going so far as to suggest that a solution to Palestinian statehood would involve Jordan changing its name to Palestine and moving all Palestinians there, according to Israeli media.
“We condemn racist positions of a Dutch radical parliamentarian [Wilders] adopting [the] illusion of solving [the] Palestinian issue at [the] expense of Jordan. ” Safadi said on X. “His position has no impact.”
“Our ties with [The Netherlands] are old & strong & we expect clear [government] condemnation,” his post continued.
US personnel targeted in new spate of attacks in Iraq and Syria
There have been dozens of attacks in recent weeks on bases that house US personnel.
Today, a US military official told Reuters news agency two bases in Syria and two bases in Iraq were attacked in quick succession with rockets and armed drones. No casualties or major damage were reported.
The attacks come the day after the US struck an Iran-aligned armed group south of Baghdad in an attack the Pentagon said resulted in enemy fatalities. The group later said eight of its members were killed.
The US has repeatedly said it will respond to threats towards its personnel.
The US officials told Reuters there have so far been 36 attacks on bases in Iraq housing US personnel and 37 in Syria since the Israel-Gaza war began.
Israel pounds northern Gaza before truce: AJ correspondent
Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in northern Gaza, Emad Zaqout, has described the situation there as “extremely difficult” as Israel continues to pound the area in advance of the truce.
Here is a roundup of attacks that took place in northern Gaza over the last few hours:
- Jabalia refugee camp and surrounding areas.
- Vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia.
- The main gates, power generators, and main administrative office of the Indonesian Hospital.
- Tal al-Zaatar neighbourhood.
- Abu Hussein school; run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees housing internally displaced people fleeing violence and bombardment in other parts of Gaza
What you need to know about Israel’s detention of Palestinian children
Most of the 150 Palestinian prisoners expected to be released as part of the Gaza truce deal between Israel and Hamas will be children.
The Israeli authorities have detained thousands of Palestinian kids from across the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, over the past decades and subjected them to Israel’s military court system.
“The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison,” explains Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner support and advocacy group.
According to Defense for Children International’s Palestine branch (DCI-Palestine), between 500 and 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 are detained, interrogated, prosecuted and imprisoned by Israel every year.
Here’s what you need to know about the treatment of Palestinian children in Israel’s military detention system, as detailed in a DCI-Palestine survey of more than 760 kids detained in the occupied West Bank between 2016 and 2022:
- Israeli forces detain most Palestinian children during nighttime raids on their homes, and “Most are blindfolded, hand-tied, and beaten by Israeli soldiers at the time of arrest.”
- Eighty percent of Palestinian child detainees are strip-searched by Israeli soldiers before their interrogations.
- Two-thirds of Palestinian children are not informed of their rights during Israeli interrogations.
- One in four Palestinian children was held in “stress positions” during interrogation; Twenty-three percent were held in solitary confinement “for 2+ days” to elicit confessions.
- “During the interrogation, my hands were tied. My legs were tied to the chair. The interrogator told me he might keep me in the cell for hundreds of days. He told me I won’t see my family if I don’t confess,” a Palestinian boy interrogated in an Israeli military detention centre at age 16 told DCI-Palestine.
THREAD: Israeli authorities have agreed to release 150 Palestinian prisoners, including children, as part of a four-day truce agreement with Hamas.
Israeli forces detain, interrogate, prosecute, and imprison 500-700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12-17 each year. pic.twitter.com/Ihqhwz3dYP— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) November 22, 2023
Israeli military says it killed Hamas commander
The military said it killed Amar Abu Jalalah, who it described as a commander in Hamas’s naval force, in Khan Younis.
It said Abu Jalalah and another fighter were killed in an air strike.
Hamas, however, does not have a navy or any ships under its command, although it has used divers to attack Israel in the past.
Israel has upped its bombardment of Gaza just hours before a pause in fighting is set to begin as part of a captive release agreement.
Released Israeli captives advised not to make press statements: Report
Israel’s Channel 12 says there will be coordination between the Israeli health ministry and the army spokesperson to keep control over the statements released by the captives.
That may be an attempt to ensure that there is no repeat of the scene after the release of Yocheved Lifshitz in late October, when the 85-year-old told the media that she was treated well in captivity.
That led to a backlash, and a spokesperson for the hospital where Lifshitz was treated who arranged the press conference resigned this week.
Indonesian Hospital under ‘intense bombardment’, Gaza Health Ministry says
We reported earlier that Israeli forces launched fresh attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, targeting the hospital’s main entrance, as well as power generators there.
Ashraf al-Qudra, Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson, has confirmed the reports, saying the hospital has come under “intense bombardment”.
“Large parts of the building” are being targeted as well, al-Qudra said.
More than 200 patients, medical staff, and internally displaced people are currently at the hospital in Beit Lahiya, which has been under siege for a week.
If you’re just joining us
Here’s a recap of the latest events
- Qatar has announced the details of a four-day break in fighting, which will begin at 7am (05:00 GMT) local time on Friday, the day when the first group of captives held in Gaza – 13 women and children – will be released, with some 39 Palestinian prisoners also set to be released in the first phase of the deal.
- The agreement has sparked mixed emotions among both Palestinians and Israelis. In Gaza, residents will be unable to return to their homes in the north. Meanwhile, those released from Gaza are only a small portion of the people being held there.
- Ahead of the pause, Israel has stepped up fighting across Gaza, with Israeli forces launching fresh attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, and at least 27 people killed in an attack on a United Nations school, according to the Ministry of Health.
- Israel’s military has taken into custody the director of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for questioning, after saying tunnels at the facility were “proof” Hamas had been operating there. Hospital staff have repeatedly denied that claim.
- Western diplomats have warned that a long-feared disease outbreak among the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Gaza may have already begun, according to the Haaretz newspaper.
- In the latest violence in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry has said that 12-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Fuad Edely was fatally shot by Israeli forces in the town of Beita near Nablus.
What makes a truce lead to lasting peace?
Al Jazeera takes a closer look at previous conflicts to see what can be learned from them and whether the pause between Israel and Hamas can lead to lasting peace.
Israeli forces strike Indonesian Hospital’s main gates, power generators: Reports
Israeli forces have launched fresh attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, local media reported.
The attacks struck the hospital’s main entrance, as well as power generators there.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the reports.
The hospital in Beit Lahiya has been under siege for weeks, with medical staff and patients inside unable to leave.
Captive deal must lead to peace negotiations: Former UNRWA rep
Chris Gunness said the captive release deal, which is set to go into effect tomorrow, shows that Hamas and Israel are able to negotiate when the proper interlocutors are involved and pressure is applied.
He said it is imperative that it is not a one-off.
“This pause can be extended into something positive,” he told Al Jazeera. “The momentum can be taken out of the conflict and that will afford an opportunity for confidence-building measures, for the two sides to talk to each other, because … there can be no military victory.”
“We have to see this hostage negotiation as something which will lead to a further negotiation, something which ultimately, could perhaps, lead to more substantive peace talks,” he said.
“That has to be the hope tonight because the alternative is too appalling to consider.”