November 12, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

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.

Here are other headlines you should know:

French President Emmanuel Macron called on his people to stand up against "the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism," in a letter published Saturday night by French newspaper Le Parisien.

More than one thousand antisemitic acts were committed in France in one month, Macron wrote, adding that this number is three times more than the number of hate attacks executed against French Jews all of last year.

Macron emphasized that this in turn has caused the Jewish community to experience "legitimate anguish," saying they are going as far as to erase their names to protect themselves.

Macron went on to reiterate his belief that Israel has the right to defend itself, saying "putting Hamas out of harm's way is a necessity," while simultaneously stressing that "this defense must be accompanied by the resumption of political dialogue and ensure the protection of civilians and hostages in Gaza."

The letter was released on the eve of Sunday's historic march against antisemitism being held in the French capital. Macron addressed the march in his letter saying he sees it "as a reason for hope."

This comes a day after Macron called for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying it is "the only solution" to the war between Israel and Hamas.

At least 126 people were arrested in London on Saturday following a large pro-Palestinian rally and counter-protests, according to London’s Metropolitan Police.

Police intercepted a group of 150 people who were launching fireworks towards the end of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PCS) march that attracted over 300,000 people, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said in a statement issued Saturday afternoon. 

Arrests were made after some of the fireworks struck officers in the face, the statement read. 

A CNN team on the ground also heard shouts and observed a heavy police presence as a group of far-right protestors tried to storm a war memorial, the Cenotaph, on Armistice Day. 

Large groups of pro-Palestinian supporters had also marched pass the US embassy in London. Similar demonstrations were held in Brussels, where thousands took to the streets.

The English Defense League (EDL) is a far-right group founded by Tommy Robinson who, according to Robinson’s account on X, was at the Cenotaph to pay his respects on Saturday. 

"The extreme violence from the right wing protestors towards the police today was extraordinary and deeply concerning, " Twist wrote.

Nine officers were injured while confronting the violent crowd getting to the Cenotaph while a remembrance service was taking place, Twist explained. Two officers will require hospital treatment after sustaining a fractured elbow and a suspected dislocated hip. 

Several officers are still deployed across central London in case of anymore "outbreaks of disorder," Twist concluded. 

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the violent scenes seen in London on Saturday in a statement posted to social media, saying "all criminality must be met with the full and swift force of the law."