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latest developments:
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There was no immediate Israeli military confirmation of the report; According to the Palestinian News Agency, the hospital was hit by artillery fire.
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At least 14 Palestinians killed in two Israeli air strikes on homes in the southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt
By Clauda Tanios and James McKenzie
GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Israeli tanks were deployed around a hospital complex in northern Gaza, where 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, the enclave’s health ministry said on Monday in signs of an imminent pause in hostilities. The fighting has intensified.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli military of the reports from the Indonesian hospital, but Palestinian news agency WAFA said the facility was hit by artillery fire.
Like many other health facilities in crisis-hit Gaza, the Indonesian hospital, established in 2016 with funding from Indonesian organisations, has ceased operations. But health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said there were about 700 people inside the facility, including medical teams and the injured.
At the other end of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, at least 14 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli air strikes on homes in the city of Rafah near the border with Egypt, health officials said.
The Israeli military released a statement accompanied by videos of airstrikes and soldiers going door-to-door, saying without giving specific locations that it killed three Hamas company commanders and a squad of Palestinian fighters.
Despite continued fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces, US and Israeli officials said a deal to free some hostages held in the Palestinian territory is moving closer.
Some aid is arriving through the Rafah commercial crossing with Egypt, where 40 trucks carrying equipment for the Emirati field hospital were expected to arrive later, according to a statement from Gaza’s General Authority for Crossings and Borders.
Nearly 240 hostages were taken during a deadly cross-border attack into Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, prompting Israel to invade the tiny Palestinian territory to crush the Islamist movement after several inconclusive wars since 2007. Was inspired for.
According to Israeli figures, about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack, the deadliest day in the country’s 75-year history.
Since then, Gaza’s Hamas-run government said at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombing and airstrikes, including at least 5,500 children.
The Israeli military says Israeli tanks and troops swept into Gaza late last month and have since captured the north and wide areas to the northwest and east around Gaza City.
But Hamas and local witnesses say militants are waging a guerrilla-style war in parts of Gaza City and areas of the crowded, urbanized north, including the vast Jabaliya and Beech refugee camps.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, a militant group affiliated with Hamas, said its fighters attacked seven Israeli military vehicles during clashes in the northern neighborhoods of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and al-Saftawi, and west of Jabaliya.
In Beijing, the Arab and Muslim minister joined international calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as his delegation visited major world capitals to call for an end to hostilities and allow humanitarian aid delivery to suffering civilians.
Israel said Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis seized a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship in the southern Red Sea, calling the incident an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.
Houthi forces are launching long-range missiles and drones at Israel in a show of solidarity with Hamas.
hope for a deal
Despite fighting continuing on the ground in Gaza, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that Israel expected to free a large number of hostages held by Hamas “in the coming days.” can be released.
On Sunday, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told a news conference in Doha that the main obstacles to the deal were now “very minor”, with mainly “practical and logistical” issues remaining.
A White House official said “very complex, very sensitive” talks were progressing.
They coincide with Israel preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas into the southern part of Gaza, signaled by increased airstrikes on targets Israel views as dens of armed terrorists.
However, Israel’s main ally the United States cautioned it on Sunday against launching combat operations in the south unless military planners take into account the safety of Palestinian civilians.
Gaza’s traumatized population has been seeking refuge in hospitals or fleeing from north to south since the war began and, in some cases, in a desperate attempt to stay out of the line of fire again.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres renewed his appeal on Sunday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saying the civilian death toll in Gaza is “shocking and unacceptable.”
Witnesses reported heavy fighting between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance into Jabaliya, which is home to 100,000 people and is, according to Israel, a key militant stronghold.
Palestinian doctors say scores of civilians have been killed in repeated Israeli bombardments of Jabaliya, an urban extension of Gaza City that developed from a camp for Palestinian refugees during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.
Via social media in Arabic, Israel’s military on Sunday urged residents of several neighborhoods of Jabaliya to evacuate south “to maintain their security” and said it would halt military operations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Will give.
After the “cease” ended, 11 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabaliya, the enclave’s health ministry said.
Palestinians say Israel’s repeated bombings of southern Gaza make Israeli promises of security redundant.
According to the latest military count, a total of 64 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the conflict.
(Reporting by Clouda Tanios, James McKenzie; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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