November 19, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said 31 neo-natal babies have been evacuated from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.

The PCRS said in a short statement Sunday that its ambulance crews, working alongside the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), were "able to evacuate 31 premature babies from Al-Shifa Hospital.”

“They were transported by Red Crescent ambulances to the south, in preparation for their transfer to the Emirates Hospital in Rafah," the statement said.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza confirmed the evacuation.

Dr. Medhet Abbas, a spokesman for the ministry, told CNN in a message Sunday that “30 premature babies were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza by the United Nations team.”

It is unclear why the ministry's figure differed from that given by the PCRS – the WHO earlier said there were 32 babies remaining at Al-Shifa.

The hospital and its immediate vicinity have seen heavy shelling in the past week, and it has been unable to run incubators for the babies for lack of fuel. Several neo-natal babies in Al-Shifa have died.

Israeli airstrikes and shelling hit south Lebanon on Sunday, the country's National News Agency reported.

The network said Al-Tayba and Al-Qal’iya, in the eastern sector of the border area, as well as Al-Naqoura ad Al-Labouba in the west, were among the places shelled, and said there had been an airstrike Sunday morning near Aita Al-Shaab in the western sector.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that air defense fighters successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon. It said IDF aircraft had destroyed infrastructure belonging to the militant organization Hezbollah.

“In addition, about ten launches of mortar bombs were detected towards a peaceful area that fell in an open area [near Shlomi]. The IDF is attacking the source of the shooting in Lebanese territory,” it said.

The IDF later said more suspicious “aerial targets” had crossed the border from Lebanon on Sunday, but said no injuries were reported.

Isreal's warning: Intense shelling and exchanges of fire have taken place almost daily along the border for weeks, with Hezbollah acting in solidarity with Hamas and Israeli officials pledging to repel the militant group’s strikes. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese armed group earlier this week “not to test Israel,” saying that it would be the "mistake of their lives."   

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health has said there are plans to evacuate more than 30 neo-natal babies from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday.

A spokesperson from the ministry told CNN that the World Health Organization, using ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent, planned to carry out the evacuation of the babies on Sunday, adding that they were waiting for Israeli military bulldozers to open the way.

The WHO told CNN that it could not confirm the evacuation would take place but Richard Brennan, the WHO emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean region, said that the agency was working on a detailed plan with partners including the Palestine Red Crescent and the UN relief agency in Gaza, UNRWA, as well as UNICEF.

“I can't go into details on that plan right now but we hope to have some more encouraging news later in the day,” Brennan told CNN. He added that moving the babies was a major priority.

After an assessment mission led by WHO that visited Al-Shifa Saturday, the agency said that “over the next 24–72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza. Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition.”

Brennan also told CNN: "We expect to have a series of convoys over the coming days to bring patients down to two main hospitals in the south, the European hospital and Nasser hospitals."

The Israel Defense Forces has updated the number of soldiers killed in operations since October 7, when Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel.

The IDF said on Sunday two soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, adding to the six deaths it announced on Saturday.

It brings the total number of soldiers killed to 58 since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza.

Including those soldiers killed in the initial Hamas assault on October 7, the total IDF losses stand at 380.

Many women and children were among those killed when a blast rocked a United Nations school in northern Gaza on Saturday, a UN relief agency confirmed. Video from the scene shows bloodied bodies in a series of rooms on two floors of the building, which had been used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.

Saturday’s incident was the second time in 24 hours that a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees had been hit, the agency said. It did not have any further details about what caused the explosion or who was responsible.

Here are other headlines you should know:

A group of United Nations humanitarian workers visited the Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday, the World Health Organization said in a post on the social media platform X.

The group spent one hour inside the hospital, during which time there was heavy fighting in close proximity to the facility, the WHO said.

UN staff described the hospital as a “death zone” where “signs of shelling and gunfire” were evident.

The WHO said several patients had died over the past two to three days due to the lack of medical services.

"There are 25 health workers and 291 patients remaining in Al-Shifa, with several patient deaths having occurred over the previous two to three days due to the shutting down of medical services," it said.

It added: "Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, two people in intensive care without ventilation, and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised."

Staff and patients who spoke to UN workers were “terrified for their safety and health," WHO said, adding that they "pleaded for evacuation."

The WHO says it is “urgently developing plans” to evacuate staff and patients to two hospitals in southern Gaza.

"The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, including many with complex fractures and amputations, head injuries, burns, chest and abdominal trauma, and 29 patients with serious spinal injuries who are unable to move without medical assistance," WHO said.

Some context: Israel launched a “targeted” operation against Hamas early Wednesday morning inside Gaza’s largest hospital, where thousands of displaced Palestinians had been sheltering alongside patients and medical staff.

Israel claims Hamas is using the hospital complex for military purposes and has built a command center under the facility – allegations repeatedly rejected by both Hamas and hospital officials. CNN has not verified the claims of either Israel or Hamas.

The intervening days have seen the hospital turn from civilian sanctuary to battlefield, with heavy fighting taking place in and around the complex, amid an already rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure to prove its claims about Hamas’ infiltration of the hospital, in order to justify some of its military decisions, which could otherwise constitute a possible serious violation of international humanitarian law.

CNN spoke to some of the hundreds of Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza for the south on Saturday. 

Crowds of people — women, children, the elderly and wounded — made their way down Salah al-Din street, carrying bags, food and water. Most were on foot. A few moved by donkey and cart.

Some said their journey would be more than 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) long.

Israeli tanks could be seen at the side of the road and at times the sound of gunfire sent people running, with parents separated from their children amid the chaos.

At one point, the evacuees put cardboard over blankets that appeared to cover bodies on the street.

Among the evacuees were those who had sought refuge at Al-Shifa hospital, including Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra and journalist Ibrahim Shaqoura.

“The Israeli soldiers bombed the intensive care unit at Al-Shifa hospital, and they threatened us to bomb the lower floor, so we decided to leave,” Shaqoura told CNN.

A woman who was carrying her child recalled the moment when the school they were sheltering in, in Jabalya, collapsed.

“Three [other] girls and three women also lost their lives. I managed to pull this child out from under the rubble. All my children are barefoot. I grabbed them and we just ran away."

Um Muhammad Hamada, a mother from Sheikh Radwan, sat by the roadside with her three children and two bird cages.

The crack of gunfire made her flinch and her daughter cover her ears.

"These birds mean a lot to me. They are like spirits that God saved, just like we were saved," she said.

"I couldn't leave them behind."

The United Nations confirmed one of its schools in northern Gaza, which was being used as a shelter, was hit on Saturday.

Video from the scene shows bloodied bodies in a series of rooms on two floors of the two-story building. Many women and children are among the dead. 

One room appears to contain about a dozen bodies lying on the floor covered in dust. Desks are strewn and smashed up, and a huge hole can be seen in one of the room’s walls. In the courtyard of the building, a canopy roof across a metal structure appears to have been torn off, and there is debris on the ground as well.

A spokesperson for the main UN relief agency in Gaza, which runs the schools in Palestinian refugee camps, confirmed the building as the al-Fakhoura School in Jabalya.

The spokesperson, Juliette Touma, said the relief agency – the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – was not able to confirm the number of casualties as information was still coming in.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, who called the images “horrifying” on X, formerly known as Twitter, said that thousands of displaced people had been sheltering there at the time of the incident. 

Touma said the UN did not know what caused the incident, nor who was responsible. 

The Israeli military told CNN it was aware of the incident and that it was under review but had no further comment to make.

Egypt and Qatar have already blamed Israel. The Egyptian foreign ministry called it a “bombing,” and said it was the latest in a series of Israeli violations against civilians in Gaza.

Qatar said independent investigators from the UN needed to go to Gaza to examine what it said was the “ongoing targeting of schools and hospitals.” The UN has already called for independent access to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Another school hit: Saturday’s incident was the second time in 24 hours an UNRWA school in northern Gaza had been hit, the agency said.

A school in Zaitoun — which was being used by 4,000 people as a shelter — had been struck multiple times on Friday, Touma told CNN. She said ambulances had reportedly been unable to get to the school, which she said was most likely due to the fighting and the communications blackout.

Lazzarini posted that dozens of people were believed to have been killed in the Friday incident.

US President Joe Biden has rejected the mounting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying in an op-ed published Saturday that it would not achieve peace.

Biden also called for Israel to respect humanitarian law and minimize the loss of civilian life, saying he counseled Israeli officials during his trip to Tel Aviv “against letting their hurt and rage mislead them into making mistakes we ourselves have made in the past.”

Biden said a two-state solution is the only solution to the enduring conflict in the region, and that, in the meantime, there should be governance under the Palestinian Authority.

Eyes on the West Bank: Biden also took aim at extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank — which has been a concern among officials — saying the US is prepared to issue visa bans against the perpetrators.

"I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable," the president wrote.

The warning came amid concerns over Israel violating the Visa Waiver Program — which allows eligible travelers to apply to enter the US without a visa, and went into effect in late October.

More background: Biden's op-ed is the latest example of efforts from the White House to remind Americans that conflicts abroad also affect US national security, as the administration’s supplemental funding request remains stalled.

Last month, the Biden administration requested more than $105 billion from Congress as part of a package it said will provide security assistance for the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel. At the time, Biden made his own impassioned plea for the funding in a primetime Oval Office address to the nation, calling the moment “an inflection point” in American history.

The president closed with condemning the rising antisemitism and Islamophobia since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began.