The biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip came under bombardment on Friday, the World Health Organization said, adding that more than half of Gaza’s hospitals were now out of action. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has welcomed an Israeli agreement to mark daily “pauses” in the fighting, but stressed that “more can and should be done” to spare civilian lives in the Palestinian enclave. Follow our live blog for the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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Key developments from Thursday, November 9:
Israel has agreed to daily four-hour military pauses in northern Gaza, the White House said Thursday, even as President Joe Biden said there was no chance of a full ceasefire. The report came as the Israeli military said its troops had advanced into the heart of Gaza City, Hamas’s main bastion and the biggest city in the coastal enclave.
French President Emmanuel Macron opened a humanitarian aid conference for Gaza in Paris, stating that there must be a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip and that countries must “work for a ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Israeli military said its latest hypersonic ballistic missile interceptor had destroyed a “target” headed toward Israel from the Red Sea, highlighting potential attacks from Yemen. The announcement of the landmark launch of the Arrow 3 interceptor came shortly after Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they had fired “a barrage of ballistic missiles” at Israel.
The French foreign ministry accused Russian online networks of attempting to “exploit international crises to sow confusion” in France and in Europe by sharing photos of the Stars of David appearing around Paris, graffiti that has been widely suspected of being an anti-Semitic statement.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the enclave, receives data from every hospital in the strip. Hospital administrators say they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every body arriving at a morgue. The ministry collects data from other sources also, including the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)
