UN security council to vote on ‘humanitarian pause’ resolution
The UN security council is due to vote later on Wednesday on a draft resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable aid access”, Reuters is reporting, citing diplomats.
Some of the diplomats said they expected the 15-member council to adopt the resolution, though some countries were likely to abstain.
A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no veto by any of the permanent security council members, which are the US, the UK, Russia, China and France.
Separately, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, is calling on Israel to open the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza for humanitarian aid.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, he said the crossing had been used to carry more than 60% of the truckloads going into Gaza before the conflict erupted last month. “Kerem Shalom, please Israel, give us that for our crossing point,” he said.
Currently, the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border is the only one open for the transport of aid into Gaza.
Key events
Reuters has more details on the draft resolution that the United Nations security council will vote on later Wednesday in pursuit of a humanitarian pause to the fighting in Gaza.
It will, the agency says, be the fifth attempt by the security council to take action since Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 240 people hostage on 7 October.
Four similar previous efforts were unsuccessful during a two-week period last month, twice when Russia failed twice to get the minimum votes needed, once when the US vetoed a Brazilian-drafted resolution, and again when Russia and China vetoed a resolution introduced by the US.
The stalemate, Reuters says, is largely centered on whether to call for a less formal and shorter humanitarian pause, or a formal ceasefire agreed by the warring parties.
Wednesday’s proposed resolution, drafted by Malta, “calls for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable… the full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access”.
It demands compliance with international law, specifically the protection of civilians, especially children, and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.
It does not condemn the actions of Hamas, a point of contention for Israel’s ally, the US. Still, some diplomats cited by Reuters said they expected the resolution to pass, albeit with a number of abstentions.
Israeli minister Sa’ar: Temporary ceasefire ‘will happen’
Israel’s former deputy prime minister Gideon Sa’ar has reportedly told the UK publication Jewish News that his country will agree to a temporary ceasefire in Gaza to facilitate the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Sa’ar, who was also Israel’s justice minister until 2022 and a former political opponent of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not say when he expected it to happen, and ruled out a lengthy ceasefire.
But Sa’ar, currently a minister without portfolio and member of the Israeli security cabinet, said talks had progressed for a shorter-term agreement:
[It will be] a temporary short ceasefire in order to get our hostages out. There are ongoing negotiations to achieve that. And it will be achieved. We will see a temporary ceasefire.
Sa’ar’s position would appear to contradict that of Netanyahu, who has frequently and vociferously ruled out a ceasefire. Early in the conflict with Hamas he ruled out a five-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages, and has pursued a hard line since.
Sa’ar, in the interview, added that Israel’s military “continue to execute their mission, killing terrorists and dismantling Hamas infrastructure in Gaza,” and he hailed “significant achievements” by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Regarding the ongoing “targeted operation” by the IDF at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, he told Jewish News they had “acted in the right moment.
“They waited for long days outside the hospital to avoid casualties,” he said.
Jewish graves in a German first world war military cemetery in France have been vandalised, authorities have said, reflecting a rise in antisemitic crimes across the country.
About 10 headstones at the cemetery in the Oise region, north of Paris, were broken or defaced, the local prefecture said, according to AFP. Prosecutors said they were investigating a racist or religious motive.
More than 1,500 antisemitic acts and comments had been recorded in France since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last month, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said.
The prefect of the Oise region, Catherine Seguin, called the defacing of the headstones “despicable”.
More than 20 Irish citizens left Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt on Wednesday, and more are expected to be able to leave in the next few days, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil, Ireland’s parliament.
He said arrangements were in place for staff from the country’s embassy in Cairo to provide consular assistance to them, including travel back to Ireland, according to a Press Association report.
“We expect additional Irish citizens and dependents in Gaza to be on the list in the coming days and we’re working tirelessly to ensure that all of those who wish to do so will be allowed to leave as soon as possible,” he said.
Twenty-three Irish citizens had crossed the border by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, of the 35-40 understood to be in Gaza.
France expresses ‘serious concern’ over Israel’s al-Shifa operation
France said on Wednesday it had “very serious concern” about Israel’s “targeted operation” inside the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, and that it was worried about the impact on the civilian Palestinian population.
“The Palestinian population should not be made to pay for Hamas’s crimes, even less so the vulnerable, injured or sick and the humanitarian workers who courageously continue their work in extremely dangerous conditions,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement, reported by AFP.
France “expresses its very serious concern about Israeli military operations in [the] al-Shifa hospital,” the ministry added.
It said the country recognised “the absolute necessity for Israel to comply with international humanitarian law, which particularly provides for the protection of hospital infrastructure”.
UN security council to vote on ‘humanitarian pause’ resolution
The UN security council is due to vote later on Wednesday on a draft resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable aid access”, Reuters is reporting, citing diplomats.
Some of the diplomats said they expected the 15-member council to adopt the resolution, though some countries were likely to abstain.
A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no veto by any of the permanent security council members, which are the US, the UK, Russia, China and France.
Separately, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, is calling on Israel to open the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza for humanitarian aid.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, he said the crossing had been used to carry more than 60% of the truckloads going into Gaza before the conflict erupted last month. “Kerem Shalom, please Israel, give us that for our crossing point,” he said.
Currently, the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border is the only one open for the transport of aid into Gaza.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Meirav Eilon Shahar, has tweeted the country’s “indignation” that UN officials are meeting with Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in Geneva and discussing the future of Gaza.
According to the Times of Israel, the “previously undisclosed” meeting was hosted by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which it said played a role in the dissolution of the Basque separatist group ETA five years ago.
Israel expresses its indignation that the foreign minister of Iran is in Geneva and meeting with UN officials and NGOs to talk about the “humanitarian situation in Gaza”.
Iran has no place in the future of Gaza. It is part of the problem, not the solution.
❌ It thrives on…
— Meirav Eilon Shahar 🇮🇱 (@MeiravEShahar) November 15, 2023
Eilon Shahar, in her post, said: “Israel expresses its indignation that the foreign minister of Iran is in Geneva and meeting with UN officials and NGOs to talk about the ‘humanitarian situation in Gaza’.
“Iran has no place in the future of Gaza. It is part of the problem, not the solution.”
In a statement to the Associated Press, the centre defended its involvement, saying it “routinely convenes closed-door consultations to support conflict mediation and resolution in various parts of the world”.
Summary of the day so far …
It is 5pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines from the Israel-Hamas war …
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Israeli troops entered al-Shifa hospital early on Wednesday, conducting what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the medical complex. A senior Israeli military official said on Wednesday that “weapons and other terror infrastructure” had been found during the ongoing operation “in one specific area” of the hospital.
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Hamas denied the claim, which it said in a statement was “nothing but a continuation of the lies and cheap propaganda, through which [Israel] is trying to give justification for its crime aimed at destroying the health sector in Gaza”.
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Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the al-Shifa hospital, said that water, electricity and medical oxygen supplies were completely cut off within the facility, and that he was unable to communicate with doctors. “We cannot reach the pharmacy to treat patients as the occupation shoots everyone who moves. The smell of death wafts everywhere,” he told Al Jazeera.
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A senior official with Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry called for the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to secure a safe corridor for patients, medical staff and displaced families trapped in the facility to leave.
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The UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said “Hamas must not, should not, use a place like a hospital as a shield for their presence”, but said the agencies’ chief concern was “protecting the people of Gaza from what’s being visited upon them”.
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Gaza’s two main telecommunications companies warned of a “complete telecom blackout in the coming hours” in the Gaza Strip. “Main data centres and switches are gradually shutting down due to fuel depletion,” the companies said in a joint statement.
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The UN children’s agency says its top official visited children and their families in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the territory. “What I saw and heard was devastating. They have endured repeated bombardment, loss and displacement,” Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a statement. “Inside the strip, there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s 1 million children to turn.”
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Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, has said: “Our entire operation is now on the verge of collapse,” and that “by the end of today, around 70% of the population in Gaza won’t have access to clean water”.
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Thomas White, the director of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has said that water pumps and sewage treatment in the south of the Gaza Strip have stopped due to lack of fuel.
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Egypt’s state-run al-Qahera television station reported on Wednesday that the first fuel truck to enter the Gaza Strip since the war started on 7 October had crossed the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing. It is reported to be carrying 24,000 litres. “This is not enough for anything – not for hospitals, not even for aid deliveries,” an international source familiar with the operation told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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Qatari mediators were on Wednesday seeking to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that includes the release of about 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in exchange for a three-day ceasefire, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters. The deal would also involve Israel releasing some Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails and increase the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza. Hamas has to date released four of the estimated 240 hostages seized from inside Israel’s borders on 7 October. The officials told Reuters the deal has been coordinated with the US, and Hamas has agreed to the general outline, but Israel has not.
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The family and friends of some of the 240 hostages believed to have been seized by Hamas on 7 October from inside Israel have begun the second day of their protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The trip is expected to last five days and will finish at Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. The families have been critical of Netanyahu’s government for not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages.
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Israel’s military has said that it is again firing across the UN-drawn blue line that marks the boundary between Israel and Lebanon after “a number of launches toward Israeli territory”. It claims to have struck “a Hezbollah observation post in Lebanon”. Earlier, the Israeli minister Benny Gantz threatened anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon, saying “what we are doing effectively in the south, can work even better in the north”.
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The IDF has also claimed that during its operations in Gaza it has “secured an outpost of the Hamas terrorist organisation” in the north of the territory.
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Israel’s Knesset has passed a law granting honorary citizenship to people killed by Hamas on 7 October who were not Israeli citizens at the time of their deaths.
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Protesters have been removed from the House of Commons public gallery in the UK parliament in London after holding up “ceasefire now” signs.
The initial delivery of 24,000 litres of fuel that has arrived in Gaza today was intended to be split over two days, with 12,000 litres allocated for each day, an international source with knowledge of the operation has told Reuters.
“This is not enough for anything – not for hospitals, not even for aid deliveries,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s meant to be enough only to bring some of the aid that has been outside – and got rained on for example – indoors to the warehouses.”
On Tuesday, 91 trucks carrying food, medicine, bottled water, blankets and tents entered Gaza from Egypt, but the UN says deliveries since 21 October – 1,187 trucks in total – can meet only a fraction of needs. Distribution of the aid had largely come to a halt because of lack of fuel, it said.
After the first truck carrying fuel entered Egypt’s Rafah crossing headed for Gaza on Wednesday, witnesses said two other trucks were lined up on the Egyptian side, but it was unclear when they would enter.
Jason Burke and Emine Sinmaz are in Jerusalem for the Guardian. Here is their latest report:
Israeli troops entered al-Shifa hospital early on Wednesday, conducting what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the medical complex.
A senior Israeli military official said on Wednesday that “weapons and other terror infrastructure” had been found during the ongoing operation “in one specific area” of the hospital.
The official told reporters that four militants had died in a clash outside, but that there had been no fighting inside the hospital complex, and no friction with medical staff or patients, who he said were in a different section of the site.
“IDF soldiers have already found weapons and other terror infrastructure. In the last hour, we saw concrete evidence that Hamas terrorists used the Shifa hospital as a terror headquarter,” the official said, declining to be named. He did not specify what had been found, but said the evidence would be presented later.
Hamas denied the claim, which it said in a statement was “nothing but a continuation of the lies and cheap propaganda, through which [Israel] is trying to give justification for its crime aimed at destroying the health sector in Gaza.”
Fighting has raged around the hospital compound for many days, trapping around 1,200 patients and staff. Al-Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital, has become a strategic objective for Israel.
The Israeli military said it had provided evacuation routes for civilians. It said it had delivered humanitarian equipment to the hospital, publishing photos of a soldier standing beside cardboard boxes marked “baby food” and “medical supplies” in English.
Read more of Jason Burke and Emine Sinmaz’s report here: IDF says it has entered Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital in ‘targeted operation’ against Hamas
Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the al-Shifa hospital has told Al Jazeera that water, electricity and medical oxygen supplies are completely cut off within the facility, and that he is unable to communicate with doctors.
He told the news network:
The occupation army is in the dialysis building without bothering to bring fuel to help patients. We cannot reach the pharmacy to treat patients as the occupation shoots everyone who moves. The patients’ wounds began to rot significantly after all services in the hospital stopped. The smell of death wafts everywhere.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the accounts coming out of the al-Shifa hospital.
Protesters has been removed from the House of Commons public gallery in the UK parliament in London after holding up “ceasefire now” signs, PA Media reports.
Israel’s military has said that it is again firing across the UN-drawn blue line that marks the boundary between Israel and Lebanon after “a number of launches toward Israeli territory”.
It claims to have struck “a Hezbollah observation post in Lebanon”.
In response to a number of launches toward Israeli territory, IDF artillery is currently striking the sources of the fire in Lebanon.
Additionally, IDF tanks struck a Hezbollah observation post in Lebanon.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 15, 2023
Earlier, Israeli minister Benny Gantz threatened anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon, saying “what we are doing effectively in the south, can work even better in the north”.
Here are some more of the latest images being sent to us over the news wires from inside Gaza and Israel.
Israel’s military has claimed that during its operations in Gaza it has “secured an outpost of the Hamas terrorist organisation” in the north of the territory.
In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, the IDF said:
The outpost was used by the Hamas terrorist organisation as a training base where the terrorists prepared to attack Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. Although it was disguised as a training facility, terrorist activities originated from the outpost. In addition, the IDF soldiers uncovered terror tunnels, explosives and mines intended to harm IDF soldiers.
During the brigade’s activity, dozens of terrorists were eliminated and dozens of anti-tank and mortar launch posts, observation posts and significant control infrastructure were destroyed.
The claims have not been independently verified.