Israel-Hamas war live: more than 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, says Gaza’s health ministry; Unicef says ‘the carnage must end’ | Israel-Hamas war

Here are some images from the newswires of 15 Palestinians, including wounded children, traveling from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday for medical treatment as part of the UAE’s pledge to treat 1,000 Palestinians across its hospitals:

More than 20 members of the US Congress, New York state legislators and New York City council members penned a letter to Columbia University, asking it to reinstate two pro-Palestine groups after the Ivy League school suspended the groups for hosting a peaceful but “unauthorized event” that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The letter, whose signatories included New York Democratic representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, said:

On behalf of the Columbia community and our constituents, we, as elected officials from New York, urge you to reverse your decision to suspend Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as official student groups through the fall term.

We understand this ‘unauthorized event’ to be a reference to the peaceful student walk-out and art installation that occurred on the Low Steps of Columbia University, on November 9, 2023. As the Columbia Spectator described this event, it involved ‘hundreds of students’ engaging in a ‘silent gathering,’ followed by student speeches calling for a ceasefire that included remarks from a Palestinian refugee who had been shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier at the age of 15. The organizers were peacefully demonstrating for the basic human rights of Palestinians and should not be punished for their speech.

We support the University’s stated desire to maintain an atmosphere that is safe and free of hate; however, suspending these student groups based on the pretext of ‘safety’ does the opposite. Unfairly implying that JVP and SJP protesters engaged in ‘threatening rhetoric and intimidation’ at the November 9th event – a suggestion refuted by multiple sources, including the Columbia Spectator – aligns with the dangerous narrative that those who express empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians, or who speak about the historical context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, are antisemitic or inherently dangerous.

Médecins Sans Frontières’ Canada director has written a letter to the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, urging the government to do “everything within its power” to bring an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The letter, which was penned by MSF Canada’s Joseph Belliveau, said:

Ending the indiscriminate violence is the only way to prevent more deaths and scale up desperately needed humanitarian assistance.

My colleagues and I, like so many Canadians, were aggrieved and outraged by Hamas’ deliberate and unconscionable attack on Israeli civilians. We are now horrified by Israel’s incessant and indiscriminate attacks on Palestinian civilians and civilian spaces, including hospitals, in Gaza …

IHL [international humanitarian law] remains the clearest expression of our global agreement to preserve a space for humanity in war. For governments committed to this principle and legal framework, including Canada, now is the time to defend it wholeheartedly and unequivocally …

Canada recently called for a humanitarian ‘pause’ in Gaza, but this is not a solution. A ‘pause’ implies that violence and bombing will resume. Thus far, the actions of world leaders, including in Canada, have been too weak and too slow to stem the relentless bloodshed, and atrocities are still being committed every day. A total and immediate ceasefire is the only humane option.

I call on you and the Canadian Government to do more than just remember healthcare workers and patients in Gaza when it is too late. Take action to uphold our shared humanity by demanding an immediate ceasefire.

There would be a “significant pause” in the Israel-Hamas war if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are freed, a US official said.

Speaking at a security conference in Bahrain on Saturday, US president Joe Biden’s main Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, said:

“The surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause … will come when hostages are released,” Agence France-Presse reports.

He added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “horrific” and “intolerable”.

Here are some images coming through the newswires of thousands of protesters, including family members of hostages taken by Hamas, marching into Jerusalem, where they are are voicing angry calls towards the Israeli government to do more to bring the hostages home:

Thousands of demonstrators, including family members of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, marched into Jerusalem on Saturday in angry calls for the Israeli government to do more to bring their relatives home.

The Associated Press reports:

The march capped a five-day trek from Tel Aviv and represented the largest protest on behalf of the hostages since they were dragged into Gaza by Hamas on Oct. 7 as part of the militants’ deadly attack in southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel on the day of the surprise Hamas assault.

On Saturday, the marchers carried Israeli flags and photos of the hostages as they finished the 70-kilometer (45-mile) walk to Jerusalem and slowly converged on Netanyahu’s office.

Netanyahu has not yet agreed to meet with them, provoking fury among the demonstrators. Other members of Israel’s war cabinet – former opposition leader Benny Gantz and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot – were set to sit down Saturday evening with representatives of the hostage families.

“We are here today with many families walking up to Jerusalem to keep the awareness of the hostage issue as a top priority for the government of Israel,” said Ruby Chen, whose 19-year-old son is a hostage.

“We are gathered here from all across the nation to support the families of the kidnapped and to send a direct message to the government,” marcher Hvihy Hanina said. “These hostages must be set free. They belong with us. They belong with their families.”

The protest came amid widespread Israeli media speculation that the war cabinet is considering a Qatari-brokered deal to win the release of the women and children among the hostages. In exchange, Israel would agree to a cease-fire of several days and release several dozen of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners it is holding.

Describing the overcrowded environment and lack of medical suppiles at al-Awda hospital, Adnan Radi, the northern Gaza hospital’s head of obstetrics and gynecology, told the humanitarian organization ActionAid:

In the last [few] days, we have become the only hospital in the entire Gaza Strip and the north who receive obstetrics, cesarean sections and gynecology services. Because all hospitals in Gaza and the north, after the siege, lost any services for women and obstetrics.

Two days ago, we performed 16 caesarean sections under exceptional circumstances. There were cases of very severe bleeding and placental abruption as a result of difficulty in access, strikes etc … We did not have blood-transfusion services…

There are premature babies born at 30 or 31 weeks and we do not have anything to deal with [their cases]. There are no artificial respirators, there are none at all. We look at a child after birth, [their] weight is 1,200g, 1,300g, 1,400g or one and a half kilograms. We do not have anything to deal with them. We look at babies losing their life because we have nothing.

In addition, there are women who suffer from postpartum bleeding and bleeding after operations and there are no blood transfusions at all. Two days ago, had a placental abruption case, and it was opened two or three times. We were trying to find two units of blood to compensate for what was lost. With difficulty, her life was saved.

Médecins Sans Frontières has released the following update on Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities in the West Bank city of Jenin:

In the early hours of November 17, Israeli forces surrounded hospitals across Jenin, including MSF-supported Khalil Suleiman Hospital, while the military forces were conducting incursions into a refugee camp in the city.

An explosion and shooting were heard from the hospital compound. The MSF team inside the emergency room of Khalil Suleiman Hospital was unable to receive and treat any casualties from the camp, as ambulances were blocked by Israeli forces.

Around 6am, the Israeli forces ordered through megaphones everyone inside the hospital to come out; the staff did not leave the hospital out of fear. They then withdrew an hour later …

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.

Medical staff from Gaza’s Dar al-Shifa hospital have been forced to flee the strip’s largest hospital on foot with critically ill patients including premature babies, according to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, the UK-based humanitarian organization said:

With two-thirds of hospitals in Gaza now shut down, there is no capacity to receive them …

Among those still to be evacuated are the surviving premature babies, who have been forced out of incubators by Israel’s denial of generator fuel. The last information MAP received indicated that four have died and 35 remained alive. Their lives are at immediate risk.

UN says far more fuel needed to meet “daily minimum requirements of … humanitarian operations” in Gaza

Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, met with the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, on the sidelines of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue in Bahrain and “reiterated our call for an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

Speaking to reporters, the minister said he also reiterated the “absolute necessity to provide humanitarian access immediately and to lift all restrictions for humanitarian goods”.

He went on to add:

We in the Arab world, we the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, still feel very strongly that we need an immediate ceasefire … We don’t feel that there is enough attention given to the need for an immediate ceasefire. If you want to call them pauses, call them pauses, but the guns have to stop. The suffering of the people of Gaza has to stop.

Here are some images coming through the newswires from Jabalia refugee camp in which bodies, including those of children, are wrapped in white sheets. In others, Palestinian civilians and civil defense teams race to rescue survivors following double Israeli strikes on Saturday, which the Gaza health ministry said killed more than 80 Palestinians:

Six ambulances from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society have stopped working in Gaza due to fuel depletion, the PRCS announced on Saturday.

Earlier today, the PRCS announced that its emergency medical teams remain trapped at al-Ahli Baptist hospital amid heavy bombardment and gunfire by Israeli soldiers.

Gaza’s health ministry: more than 80 killed in double Israeli strikes on refugee camp

Thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Saturday as part of state-sponsored marches to demonstrate against the Israeli killings of more than 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children, in Gaza.

Reuters reports Iranian state television showing protestors carrying mock body bags to symbolize the children killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza ahead of World Children’s Day on Monday.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami addressed a rally in Tehran, saying: “Palestine stands on the path of a war of attrition … Israel will face a definitive defeat and end up in the dustbin of history,” Reuters reports.

He added: “The battle is not over. The Islamic world will do whatever it has to do. There are still great [unused] capacities left,” without referring to any possible moves by Iran to join the conflict.

On Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry called on the international community to help stop the “killing machine and organised terrorism of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and hold Zionist criminals accountable to justice and international law”.

Afternoon summary

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Saturday it had received “horrifying” images and footage of scores of people killed and injured in an attack on an UNRWA school in the north of Gaza.

“These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” the UNRWA commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said on social media platform X.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, Reuters reported.

Airstrike west of Khan Younis kills 15 Palestinians