November 12, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Israel Defense Forces has said they are enabling passage from three hospitals in northern Gaza, and have opened an additional route for civilians to evacuate southwards.

It named the hospitals as Al-Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser.

The IDF also said that in recent days Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza (CLA) “spoke with the manager of the Shifa Hospital multiple times and presented him with possible passages from the hospital.”  

The IDF released an audio recording of one purported conversation that took place late Saturday, in which a CLA officer tells the manager of a secure route east from the hospital via Al Wahda street. The conversation was in Arabic.

The hospital manager asks whether ambulances can also leave and is told, “No problem at all.”

CNN is seeking comment from the hospital, but communications are difficult.

The Israeli army acknowledged that there was “ongoing intense fighting” around the vicinity of Al-Shifa hospital Saturday, but denied claims it was directly firing at the complex.

A witness inside the hospital complex, freelance journalist Mustafa Sarsour, told CNN Sunday that there had been further shelling in the vicinity.

A nurse working for Doctors Without Borders – who was evacuated from the nearby Al-Nasser hospital Saturday – said he had seen Israeli tanks and soldiers in the vicinity as he left.

It is unclear how many people have been able to leave Al-Shifa complex in recent days. Thousands of displaced civilians are still thought to be in the hospital compound, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society and hospital officials.  

The Israeli military has said several civilians in northern Israel have been injured after anti-tank missiles were launched from across the Lebanon border on Sunday. 

The IDF said it struck what it described as a "a terrorist cell embedded in a civilian area in Lebanon" which the IDF said had "intended to open fire toward Israeli territory." 

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted a military logistical team that was about to start setting up communication towers and surveillance equipment.

Hezbollah – which has fired anti-tank missiles across the border on multiple occasions over the past month – claimed in its statement that the attack had killed and injured an unspecified number of individuals.

The militant group's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a rare speech Saturday that his group will keep pressure on Israel as the country seeks to "impose submission" on the region.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has announced that Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City – the second largest in the territory – is now out of service.

“Medical staff are making every effort to provide care to patients and the wounded,” despite “dire humanitarian conditions and a shortage of medical supplies, food, and water,” it added.

The PRCS said it “deeply regrets reaching this critical point despite efforts to prevent it. Repeated appeals for urgent international assistance, given the week-long siege and a five-day communication and internet blackout, have been unsuccessful.”

The PRCS claimed that hospitals were under siege, an allegation that has been repeatedly rejected by the Israel Defense Forces.

On Saturday, the PRCS said in a statement that fighting around the al-Quds hospital had caused “panic and extreme fear” amongst the people inside.

Nibal Farsakh, director of the PRCS media unit in Ramallah, told CNN the organization's medics were trapped in the hospital, at which there was "heavy direct fire" and "which was "surrounded by tanks from all sides."

Asked about the situation at Al-Quds Saturday, the IDF said: “The IDF is in the midst of ongoing intense fighting against Hamas in the vicinity of the area in question, and unlike Hamas, adheres to the law by taking all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.”

Fears over hospitals: Intense fighting has also been reporting around Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa.

The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said there was no food, water or electricity, and that patients and staff were unable to leave. Israel's military has denied laying seige to Al-Shifa, and would help anyone who wants to leave safely.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said it is “deeply distressed” by reports that shelling has resulted in significant casualties at a UN compound in Gaza City.

In a statement Sunday, the UNDP said the compound had been managed by its Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People until October 13, when UN staff vacated the premises.  

“On 6 November UNDP reported that several hundred people seeking refuge had entered the compound, and there are indications that this number has since increased significantly,” it added.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that a seven-hour window is currently in place for Gazans to evacuate south along the Salah Al-Deen street, the same route tens of thousands have been using in recent days to flee.

The corridor is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time (2 a.m. ET to 9 a.m. ET) for residents to move south beyond Wadi Gaza.

A self-evacuation corridor will operate from Al-Shifa Medical Complex, Gaza's largest, which has seen fierce fighting in the area and is the focus of escalating alarm from aid agencies.

The IDF also called on residents to move south during a temporary halt to military activities in the village of Jabalia and Ezbet while humanitarian supplies are moved.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the "flight of tens of thousands of internally displaced persons from the north southwards through a 'corridor' opened by the Israeli military" continued Saturday.

But it cautioned that "hundreds of thousands of people" who remain in the north are struggling to get essentials to survive, such as safe drinking water.

Babies at Al-Shifa hospital were moved to a different part of the complex overnight after the neonatal unit ran out of oxygen, a senior health official in Gaza tells CNN. 

The babies were moved without incubators and carried by hand to the hospital’s operating theatres where oxygen supplies are still running, Dr. Munir Al Bursh, Director-General of the health ministry, told CNN from inside Al-Shifa.

The oxygen in the neonatal unit had earlier run out after a generator was damaged due to a nearby strike, Al Bursh added, which led to the deaths of three babies since Friday night.

Staff say they are under siege from Israeli forces and unable to leave the hospital, though an Israeli military spokesperson has denied that.

At a briefing Saturday evening, Daniel Hagari said hospital staff had requested assistance to move the babies out of Al Shifa altogether, to a safer hospital. 

As of 9 a.m. Sunday (2 a.m. ET) it was unclear whether any such transfer was likely to take place.

Al-Shifa is the largest hospital in Gaza.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Sunday said she wanted “to take the next steps towards a ceasefire” in Gaza but maintained it “cannot be one-sided.”

“We all want to take the next steps toward a ceasefire, but it cannot be one-sided. Hamas still holds hostages, Hamas is still attacking Israel,” Wong said on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘Insiders’ program.

“We do call on Israel to cease the attacking of hospitals,” she added.

Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas has used civilians in Gaza and places like hospitals and schools as human shields.

Wong’s comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire in Gaza, describing it as "the only solution" to the war between Israel and Hamas.

The families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government to do more to bring the hostages and missing persons home.

Families of the hostages held a rally on Saturday in Tel Aviv, Israel, which also included in attendance the former Israeli president Reuven Rivlin.

More than 200 hostages were taken into Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7.

The families are demanding that the international community and the Red Cross ensure medical assistance for the hostages, “as they do for Hamas,” the press release said.

"Two hundred and thirty nine innocent people went to sleep on the night of October 6 and within less than 24 hours we lost all contact with them, without a drop of information. Where is the Red Cross, the organization that is supposed to care for human rights? Why haven't they demanded to see the condition of the infants,” said Maayan Zin, mother of Dafna (15) and Ella (8) who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz in Israel with their father.

Noam Perry, whose 79-year-old father, Haim Perry, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel said there can be no healing until the release of all the hostages.

Rivlin said he joins the families in the demand to return all hostages home, and urged world leaders to get information and act within all arenas to free the hostages.

The former president said he also contacted the Red Cross this week and asked them, "How should we respond to your demand to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza when you do not compel Hamas to allow you to visit all the hostages?”

Orly Gilboa, mother of 19-year-old Daniela Gilboa, who was kidnapped from a party in Re'im, Israel said, "I've finished the stage of hugs and empathy. I want to see actions that will bring my daughter and the rest of the hostages home now.”

Heavy fighting near Gaza’s largest hospital has left it in a “catastrophic situation,” with patients and staff trapped inside, ambulances unable to collect the wounded and life-support systems without electricity, health officials and aid agencies are reporting.

Hostilities around the hospital, Gaza’s largest, “have not stopped,” according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, with constant bombardment preventing evacuations and making it too dangerous for ambulance journeys, according to the organization.

A freelance journalist told CNN the situation is dire, with medics working by candlelight, food being rationed, and other resources dwindling.

Three newborn babies died after the hospital went “out of service” amid intense fighting in the area, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which claims the hospital is surrounded on all four sides by Israeli forces and under “complete siege.”

The Israeli army told CNN it is engaged in “ongoing intense fighting” against Hamas in the vicinity of the hospital complex, but denies firing at the northern Gaza medical center and has rejected suggestions the hospital is under siege. Israel has said it is in touch with hospital leaders and has offered assistance with evacuations.

CNN has been unable to confirm whether anyone was able to leave the hospital complex over the past day.

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