Israel-Palestine live: Thousands in state of panic as Israel continues to strike hospitals

Al-Quds Brigades, the military branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has said it will release two hostages if conditions on the ground in Gaza permit it to do so. 

The two captives, an elderly woman and a young boy, would be released for humanitarian and medical reasons, a spokesperson for the group said on Thursday.

The White House said on Thursday that an announcement of four-hour pauses in hostilities in northern Gaza emerged after discussions between US and Israeli officials, including talks between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We've been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

Kirby added that Israel would announce the pauses three hours in advance. 

"We think these are significant first steps here and obviously we want to see them continued for as long as they are needed," he said.

The White House has announced that Israel has agreed to suspend fighting for four hours on a daily basis to allow for Palestinian civilians to flee from northern Gaza.

The pauses will start from today, in what the White House said is a step in the right direction.

The heads of Mossad and the CIA met with the Qatari prime minister in Doha on Thursday to discuss a deal to release hostages held in Gaza and a pause in the war, according to Reuters. 

Around 240 hostages were taken to Gaza during Hamas' surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October, which killed 1,400 Israelis. 

The outcome of the talks between David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence service, CIA director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani are so far unclear, a source briefed on the meeting told Reuters. 

A day earlier, Qatari mediators met officials from Hamas' political bureau to discuss the parameters of a deal.

The talks included discussion over the release of 10-15 hostages in exchange for a one- or two-day pause in the war, Reuters reported.

They also touched on allowing humanitarian imports of fuel into the beseiged Gaza enclave - which Israel has so far refused. 

Students at 28 universities across the UK are staging a walkout on Thursday and Friday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

They are also demanding the immediate lifting of the siege on Gaza.

Universities taking part include King’s College London, London School of Economics and Edinburgh University. 

Students walked out of their classes, seminars and lectures on Thursday, calling on their institutions to demand an “immediate ceasefire" and an “end to UK complicity in, and funding for, Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.

Thirty Palestine societies from universities across Britain released a joint statement saying that “the hostile environment that is being encouraged by university administrators has effectively banned Palestinians from their right to publicly grieve the catastrophe befalling their people in Gaza”.

Jasmin, a student at King’s College London taking part in the walkouts, said: “Today, we are mobilising outside King's College London to shed light on their active involvement in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

"The demand for an immediate ceasefire on British campuses and an end to UK complicity in Israel’s war crimes can no longer be ignored.

"The partnership between KCL and Technion University, a company which develops arms used to murder the Palestinian population, must come to an end," she added.

Fares, a medical student who is volunteering in Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital tells Middle East Eye’s contributor Ahmed Al Sammakk that the situation is “horrific and unspeakable” right now. 

“Two days ago, a bag of body parts was brought to the hospital. A man identified his niece from her hand and another relative from a leg. He was unable to identify other relatives by the other body parts,” he said. 

Fares says that roads to hospitals have been bombed, houses levelled, with hundreds trapped under the rubble.

“Most of the injuries are compounded fractures, especially in the pelvis, and second and third degree burns. Two days ago, I couldn’t identify the sex of a wounded person, because the burns were so severe,” he said. 

He also added that surgical procedures are only being carried out where lives can be saved, while those with non-life threatening wounds, including fractures, are postponed. 

All hospitals are operating above their full capacity, and many patients are unable to make it to hospitals due to the bombing and severity of their wounds. 

“In some cases, patients can’t come back and get their dressings changed, and some wounds rot. Some cases come back with worms coming out. One patient had to have his leg amputated twice because of infections due to poor hygiene,” he said. 

The total cutting of all water resources in the besieged enclave has made it almost impossible for residents to have access to clean water. Many have resorted to bathing in the sea, which causes skin irritation, or drinking contaminated water. 

“Hospitals are running out of medical supplies, including anaesthesia. One doctor was forced to perform an amputation surgery without anaesthesia in an infected environment. Even if the surgery is successful, the patient is likely to develop an infection,” Fares explained. 

Many people are also unable to call emergency services due to the unstable telecommunications networks. Some have resorted to using cars or donkeys to bring people to hospitals. 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health estimates that two main hospitals in the enclave will totally shut down in the next 24 hours if immediate aid is not delivered. 

Mohammed Barakeh, the head of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, has been released following his arrest by Israeli forces in Nazareth, according to Al Jazeera. 

Barakeh was arrested with four others, for planning an anti-war protest.

Barakeh said after his release that the police wanted to silence any voices against the war.
 

Israel’s early morning raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin has killed at least 10 people and wounded 14 others, the Palestinian Ministry of Health stated. 

According to Al Jazeera Arabic, there was a near-total communications blackout earlier today, while video footage showed dark plumes of smoke rising from buildings. 

According to Al Jazeera Arabic, violent clashes are taking place on the ground, while Israeli snipers can also be spotted around the city. Witnesses are also reporting explosions from Israeli drones. 

Photos and videos also showed Jenin’s hospital surrounded by Israeli forces and armed vehicles. Some people are reporting that Israeli police are preventing ambulances from transporting wounded people into the hospital and have stormed the entrance.

Israeli forces also raided the al-Amari camp in Ramallah early on Thursday morning, with one Palestinian later succumbing to his wounds.

At least 164 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war on 7 October. 
 

Palestine’s Government Media Office announced that Israel is carrying out a "war of extermination and ethnic cleansing" in a statement on Thursday, and said that people in Gaza have reached the final stages before all services completely collapse.

“The next few hours are crucial in terms of the medical system stopping completely; all will cease to work. People will have no water or place to remove waste. We appeal to people around the world, those who still have humanity left in them, to take urgent and immediate action to save Gaza,” it added.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health also highlighted the dire need in Gaza in a televised press conference, saying that many hospitals and intensive care units have already stopped working due to the full siege imposed by Israel on 9 October. 

“The Kamal Adwan Hospital and Indonesian hospital will also stop working in 24 hours,” he said.

He also denounced Israel’s targeting of hospitals, ambulances and medical staff.
 

A Palestinian has succumbed to their wounds after an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank al-Amari refugee camp on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.. 

Early reports state that explosions were heard in the port city of Eilat, Israel, on Thursday, according to Israeli media. 

Israeli police said they are operating in Eilat "due to fear of a security incident", while Israeli emergency services reported that an explosion occurred in the courtyard of a building in the city. No injuries were reported. 

The UN refugee agency Unrwa has announced that 99 of its staff members have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October. 

Following the arrest of the head the High Follow-Up Committee, Mohammed Baraka, this morning in Nazareth, Israeli police have also detained others. 

Others who were arrested include politicians Sami Abu Shehadeh, Mtanes Shehadeh, Yousef Tartour and Haneen Zoabi.
Baraka was arrested while taking part in planning a protest against the war in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire. 

Earlier this month, leading voices amongst Palestinian citizens of Israel and members of the committee denounced what they called "punitive policies" by authorities enforced against them in the aftermath of the war in Gaza. 

MPs and members of the High Follow-Up Committee accused police of silencing dissenting voices against Israel's bombing of Gaza.
 

Israeli authorities are currently holding more than 2,000 Palestinians without charge or trial, with mounting evidence of torture, with detainees stripped, beaten and humiliated, Amnesty International said in a statement on 8 November. 

According to the rights organisation, some detainees are made to sing Israeli songs, and to praise Israel and curse Hamas. 

“The mounting evidence points to multiple incidents of the severe beating and humiliation of detainees - including by forcing them to keep their heads down, to kneel on the floor during inmate counts, and to sing Israeli songs,” the statement read. 

“In one image analysed by Amnesty, three Palestinian men - blindfolded and stripped of their clothes - can be seen beside a soldier wearing a green olive uniform such as those worn by Israeli ground forces,” the statement added. 

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director, said: “Over the last month we have witnessed a significant spike in Israel’s use of administrative detention - detention without charge or trial that can be renewed indefinitely - which was already at a 20-year high before the latest escalation in hostilities on 7 October.

“We urge Israel to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to conduct urgent visits to prisons and detention facilities, and to monitor conditions for Palestinian detainees,” she added. 

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Thursday that he rejects any attempt to displace Palestinians from Gaza.

Speaking at an aid conference in Paris, Shoukry also said that what Israel was doing went beyond self-defence.