November 11, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Staff and patients have been unable to leave the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as the hospital complex remains under "complete siege," according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza. 

The director-general of the ministry, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, told CNN there were more than 100 bodies wrapped in blankets on the ground within the hospital complex. 

“We can’t bury them,” he told CNN by phone. The sound of explosions could be heard as he spoke.

CNN is unable to verify the number of dead at Al-Shifa.

He said people who had been injured in Gaza were instead being transported to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, as Al-Shifa was inaccessible. He said there was no water, food or electricity at the hospital.

What Israel's military says: The Israeli army told CNN it is engaged in “ongoing intense fighting” against Hamas in the vicinity of the hospital complex but refused to comment further on its forces’ proximity to the complex because military activity was still underway.

Israeli army spokespeople in a separate telephone briefing with journalists Saturday did not address reports of shelling in the hospital vicinity.

Angelita Caredda, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Middle East director, said in a statement that the council was "horrified by reports of relentless attacks on Gaza’s hospitals."

"Patients, including babies, and civilians seeking relief are trapped under attack. It is an affront to wage war around and on hospitals," she said.

The people of Gaza are being "choked" by the continuous bombardment, a UN agency head warned on Saturday.

The head of UNRWA, the UN relief agency that works in the Gaza Strip, Philippe Lazzarini, made the comments at an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic states in Riyadh.

He continued that more than 700,000 women, children, and men now live in UNRWA schools and shelters.  

He said UNRWA staff were still operating some 150 UNRWA shelters. “They keep one-third of our health centers open and manage mobile clinics. They deliver medicines to hospitals.”

He also said that a meaningful and continuous flow of humanitarian aid is essential, but claimed that “the logistics and the verification of trucks by Israel are extremely cumbersome. They only allow a limited number of trucks into Gaza.”  

“We must increase the volume of aid and use other crossings, including those within Israel, like Kerem Abu Salem.”

Some context: A significant number of Arab leaders are attending the emergency gathering in Riyadh on Saturday, titled the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit.

The summit is being hosted by Saudi Arabia in response to the “unprecedented circumstances in Gaza,” according to a statement released by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has said that attendees at an emergency summit on the Israel-Hamas war in Saudi Arabia had gathered there on behalf of the Islamic world to "save the Palestinians."

Raisi said the story of Gaza is a “struggle between two axes,” and the world must determine which side it is on — the side of "nobility" or the side that “destroys human generations.”

The Iranian president criticized the United States for its support of the Israeli offensive, saying Washington is “the main partner in these crimes.” 

For context: Raisi's presence at the summit is significant. It is the first time an Iranian leader has visited Saudi Arabia in more than a decade and Iran also has close ties to Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israel.

Three babies have died in the neonatal unit of Gaza's largest hospital, which is surrounded and "out of service" following persistent Israeli fire in the vicinity, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, director-general of the ministry, estimated on Saturday that 400 people were being treated at the hospital, with around 20,000 displaced people seeking shelter in the complex.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is hosting a major summit on the "unprecedented circumstances in Gaza" attended by a host of Arab leaders.

Here are the key developments:

A hospital on the front line: Doctors in the neonatal ward at the Al-Shifa Hospital are now being forced to carry out artificial respiration by hand on the 36 babies that they are caring for, according to Bursh. Another official said the intensive care unit, pediatric department and oxygen devices have stopped working. Israel has confirmed it is fighting in the area as it bids to destroy Hamas following the October 7 attacks. It accuses the militant group of using hospitals for cover.

Health care system past "point of no return": "Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly unsafe" is how the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) described the health care system in Gaza in a statement Friday. The ICRC warned the system had "reached a point of no return risking the lives of thousands," with recent "attacks on medical facilities and personnel" having dealt the system a "heavy blow." 

Saudi summit: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is one of several leaders to have landed in the Saudi capital Riyadh for an emergency summit to discuss the conflict in Gaza. In his opening remarks, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the "summit is being held under exceptional and painful circumstances," adding that the Kingdom “categorically rejects” the war to which Palestinians are being subjected.

Israel claims victories: In an update Saturday, the Israeli military said it had gained control of 11 Hamas military posts in the Gaza strip and had destroyed a tunnel used by militants, as well as a vehicle packed with explosives that had been parked close to an area used by Israeli soldiers. 

Israel-Lebanon border exchanges: There have been further exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon on Saturday, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF said sirens had sounded in northern Israel “warning of a hostile aircraft intrusion." Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later issued a warning to Lebanese civilians about "Hezbollah's aggression" in the region. “What we’re doing in Gaza can also be done in Beirut," Gallant said.

Fresh evacuation window: A seven-hour window opened for Gazans to evacuate south along the Salah al-Deen street Saturday, according to the IDF, which said on social media that the corridor would "remain open between 09:00-16:00 (2 a.m. ET to 9 a.m. ET)."

This post has been updated with remarks from the Israeli defense minister on the cross-border fire with Hezbollah.

The Israeli army has told CNN it is engaged in “ongoing intense fighting” against Hamas in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City but refused to comment further on its forces’ proximity to the complex because military activity was still underway.

Medics at the hospital say the complex has been hit by artillery fire, but Israeli army spokespeople in a separate telephone briefing with journalists on Saturday did not address those reports.

In his opening remarks at the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Riyadh on Saturday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom “categorically rejects” the war to which Palestinians are being subjected.

Saudi Arabia is hosting the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Saturday in response to the "unprecedented circumstances in Gaza."

He said thousands of civilians had been killed by Israeli airstrikes, and hospitals and places of worship had been destroyed.

“What we have in front of us is a humanitarian catastrophe that is testament to the failure of the UN Security Council and the international community to put an end to the blatant Israeli violations of international laws and norms and international humanitarian law,” he said.

Bin Salman said that events in Gaza call for a “coordinated collective effort to take effective action,” and demanded the opening of humanitarian corridors to provide aid for civilians.

The crown prince said the only way to find “lasting peace” is to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and to establish a Palestinian state under the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

There have been further exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces said that sirens had sounded in northern Israel “warning of a hostile aircraft intrusion. No aircraft [was] identified infiltrating Israeli territory.”

The IDF said that overnight “a launch was identified toward an IDF aircraft operating in the area of the border with Lebanon, [and] an IDF UAV struck the launcher from which the launch was carried out.”

For its part, Hezbollah claimed a series of strikes on Saturday morning, "in support of the Palestinian people."

It claimed there had been four strikes in a two-hour period which had caused Israeli military casualties.

Israel has reported no casualties along the northern border Saturday.

Some context: Clashes across the border have escalated since Israel began its war in Gaza. Some communities in northern Israel fled southward earlier this week, leaving "ghost towns" behind with only Israeli troops staying to battle Hezbollah militants.

Gaza's healthcare system has passed the "point of no return," the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement Friday.

"Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly unsafe, the healthcare system in Gaza has reached a point of no return risking the lives of thousands of wounded, sick and displaced people," the ICRC warned.

Recent "attacks on medical facilities and personnel" have dealt a "heavy blow" to the healthcare system in Gaza, “which is severely weakened after more than one month of heavy fighting," according to the group.

The ICRC highlighted the situation at the "largest referral hospital in the Gaza Strip," the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said in a statement sent to CNN Saturday that al-Shifa was now “out of service”, with the fifth floor of the surgery building heavily shelled and medical staff unable to move within the complex.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for comment on the situation at al-Shifa. The IDF has previously accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure such as hospitals as bases for launching attacks.

The UN children's rights organization UNICEF said Friday that the lives of the one million children in Gaza are currently "hanging by a thread" citing two other hospitals in northern Gaza.  

"Over the past 24-hours, medical care at Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr children’s hospitals has reportedly almost ceased, with only a small generator powering the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units," UNICEF said. 

Hospitals on the frontline: On Friday, the director of the Al Nasr hospital and Al Rantisi Pediatric hospital, told CNN on Friday that his hospital complexes had been "completely surrounded" by Israeli tanks.

“We do not have electricity, no oxygen for the patients. We do not have medicine and water,” Mustafa al-Kahlout said.

With fighting raging in Gaza City, other hospitals reported strikes in their vicinity.

As well as providing medical services, hospitals are sheltering thousands of Palestinians .

Three babies in the neonatal unit of Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza have now died, after the hospital went “out of service," according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health on Saturday amid persistent Israeli fire in the vicinity.

Doctors in the neonatal ward are now being forced to carry out artificial respiration by hand on the 36 babies that they are caring for, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health told CNN Saturday. Doctors have covered the babies with soft lining and blankets as part of this effort, he said.

Bursh also said the hospital was "surrounded from all four directions," estimating that 400 people were being treated at the hospital and around 20,000 displaced people seeking shelter in the hospital complex.

The spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra said he was trapped inside the Al-Shifa complex.

Dr. Qidra said in a statement to CNN Saturday the complex is currently “out of service” after repeatedly being targeted by Israeli fire.

"The intensive care unit, pediatric department, and oxygen devices have stopped working," Dr. Qidra said.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the situation in the vicinity of the hospital.

The IDF has regularly said that Hamas is using Gaza hospitals and other civilian infrastructure as cover for its military operations. It has also warned civilians in northern Gaza to move south.

Growing alarm: The Director General for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), Robert Mardini, said the organization was "shocked and appalled by the images and reports coming from Al Shifa hospital in Gaza." 

"The unbearably desperate situation for patients & staff trapped inside must stop. Now," Mardini said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly before 5.30aET Saturday.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said it had lost contact with staff inside the hospital while the World Health Organization said it was “extremely disturbed” about reports of Israeli attacks nearby.