DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The United Nations (UN) was forced to halt deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza on Friday and warned of a possible widespread famine after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged area. due to lack of fuel.
Israel announced that it would allow for the first time two fuel tankers per day to Gaza for the UN and communications system. That amount is about half of what the UN says it needs to carry out life-saving functions for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, including refueling its water system, hospitals, bakeries and trucks delivering aid.
Israel has blocked the entry of fuel since the start of the war, saying it would be diverted by Hamas for military purposes. It has also cut off food, water and other supplies except for a small amount of aid from Egypt that aid workers say is insufficient for what is needed.
The communications blackout, now in its second day, has largely cut off Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from each other and the outside world.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, was unable to bring in its aid convoy on Friday because of a communication breakdown and will not be able to do so for as long as it continues, spokeswoman Juliette Touma said.
“The prolonged blackout means the continued suspension of our humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip,” Touma told The Associated Press.
Palestinians rescue survivors after an Israeli attack on Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, Nov. 17. 2023.AP
The Israeli army has signaled that it may expand its offensive towards southern Gaza even while continuing operations in the north. The army has searched the largest hospital in the province to locate a Hamas command center which the army claims is located under the building.
The war, now in its sixth week, was sparked by a Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel, in which militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped some 240 men, women and children.
On Friday, the military said it found the body of another hostage, identifying him as Cpl. Noah Marciano. Marciano’s body was found in a building next to Shifa’s, the military said, as was another hostage found Thursday, Yehudit Weiss.
Palestinians search for survivors after the Israeli attack on Rafah, Gaza Strip.AP
More than 11,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 are reported missing, believed to be buried under the rubble. The count does not distinguish between civilians and militants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.
DRY HELP
After an American request, Israel agreed to allow two fuel tankers into the Gaza Strip each day – a quantity that national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi called “absolutely minimal.” COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian affairs, said it would amount to 60,000 liters (15,850 gallons) a day for the UN
A US State Department official said Israel also agreed to put in 10,000 liters a day (2,640 gallons) for communications networks.
Touma said UNRWA and other humanitarian groups need at least 120,000 liters (31,700 gallons) a day to carry out life-saving functions. It was not immediately known if the fuel for communications would be enough to revive the network.
Gaza receives only 10% of its daily food needs in shipments from Egypt. AP
Since the start of the war, Gaza has only received 10% of its daily food needs in shipments from Egypt. Broken water and sewage systems have caused 70% of the population to drink brackish or contaminated water, causing outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
Dehydration and malnutrition are on the rise, with almost the entire population in need of food, said Abeer Etefa, Middle East regional spokesman for the UN’s World Food Programme.
“People face the possibility of immediate starvation,” he said on Thursday from Cairo.
MARCH FOR OUTLOOK
Israeli officials have previously vowed that oil will not be allowed in until Gaza militants release the hostages. The government has been under heavy public pressure in Israel to show it is doing everything it can to bring back men, women and children kidnapped in Hamas attacks.
Palestinian gunmen shoot in the air during the funeral of three Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp.AP
Thousands of marchers – including the families of more than 50 hostages – began Friday the fourth leg of a five-day walk from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, chanting, “Bring them home!”
The marchers are marching 70 kilometers (45 miles) to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, calling on the unpopular leader and his War Cabinet to do more to save their loved ones. They urged the cabinet to consider a ceasefire or prisoner exchange in return for the hostages.
Hamas has offered to exchange all the hostages for the approximately 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which the cabinet has rejected.
CONDITIONS IN SHIFA
Speaking from Shifa Hospital on Friday, Dr Ahmad Mukhalalti told Al-Jazeera television that there was no electricity to run ventilators or provide oxygen to ICU patients. He said most of the 36 babies there had severe diarrhea because there was no clean water to give them.
Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier, Noa Marciano, in Modiin, Israel, Friday, Nov. 17. 2023.AP
Shifa’s director, Mohammed Abu Selmia, told Al-Jazeera that 52 patients had died since the oil ran out a week ago – up from 40 who were reported dead before Israeli forces moved in on Tuesday.
Many more were on the brink of death because their wounds were “open with maggots coming out of them,” said another doctor, Fiasal Siyam. Their accounts cannot be independently verified.
Abu Selmia said the Israeli army should either bring them fuel for power equipment or allow the evacuation.
“Hospitals have become giant prisons,” he said. “We are surrounded by death.”
The Israeli army said it sent 4,000 liters of water and 1,500 ready meals to Shifa. Abu Selmia said nearly 7,000 people were trapped there, including patients, staff and civilians who lost their homes.
As its forces continue to search for Shifa, Israel faces pressure to prove its claims that Hamas set up its main command center in and under the hospital. So far, Israel has mostly shown photos and videos of weapons caches it says its troops found inside,
Fetena, 20, was killed and six others were wounded in a shooting attack by three Palestinians at a checkpoint who were all shot dead at the scene.AP
On Thursday, the military released a video of a hole in Shifa’s yard that it said was the entrance to a tunnel. It also showed several assault rifles and RPGs, grenades, and ammunition clips said to have been found in a pickup truck in the yard. The AP cannot independently verify Israel’s claims.
The allegations are part of a broader Israeli accusation that Hamas is using Palestinians as human shields across the Gaza Strip, arguing that it is the reason for the large number of civilian casualties during weeks of bombing.
STRIKE IN THE SOUTH
Airstrikes continue to hit the southern sector of Gaza, where most of the region’s residents are now taking refuge. Among them are hundreds of thousands of people who are heeding Israel’s call to evacuate Gaza City and the north to get out of its ground offensive.
Palestinians walk on a damaged road following an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp.AP
In the Nusseirat refugee camp, a strike destroyed a building to rubble, killing at least 41 people, staff at a nearby hospital said. Residents said dozens more were buried in the debris.
A morning attack outside the town of Khan Younis killed 11 family members who had been evacuated from Gaza City. Dozens of injured, including infants and children, streamed to nearby hospitals.
In the morgue, Alaa Abu Hasira wept over the bodies of the strike, lined up side by side on the floor, including her son, daughter and several sisters. “Everyone I love is gone. Everyone I love is gone,” she sobbed.
So far, Israel’s ground offensive has been concentrated in northern Gaza as it vows to remove Hamas from power and destroy its military capabilities.
Mourners carry the bodies of three Palestinians draped in the flags of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad during their funerals.AP
Chief of Staff Lt. General Herzl Halevi said on Thursday, “We are about to dismantle the military system” in the north. “More and more regions” will be targeted to eliminate Hamas, he said.
If the attack moves south, it is not clear where the Palestinians could go. Egypt has refused to allow mass evacuations to its land.
As the war continued to fuel tensions elsewhere, Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian gunmen in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, killing at least three Palestinians. Fighting erupted late Thursday during an Israeli raid.
The Israeli military said five militants were killed. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said three people died. The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed three of the dead as members and identified one as a local commander.
Keath and Jeffrey report from Cairo. Associated Press writer Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Peninsula; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Edith M. Lederer in New York; and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this story.
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