November 18, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Several doctors from Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital told Al Jazeera on Saturday morning they had left the medical facility after the Israeli military ordered them to evacuate. The Israeli military disputes issuing such an order.

Dr. Munir Al-Bursh said the order had come from a phone call to the hospital director, instructing him to evacuate the entire hospital, with those leaving told to wave white flags or white handkerchiefs.

 The Israeli army has insisted it did not order people to leave. 

Dr. Bursh told Al Jazeera that 120 patients remained inside the hospital, along with five doctors to coordinate the remaining evacuations.

What’s happening at Al-Shifa: 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.

Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has become a flashpoint in Israel’s war in the enclave, which began when Hamas militants crossed the border into Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people.

Palestinians and humanitarian agencies say the current fighting in and around Al-Shifa is proof of Israel’s wanton disregard for civilian life in Gaza, while Israel accuses Hamas of using the medical center as a shield for its operations.

Pressure is mounting on Israel to prove its claims of a large-scale Hamas command control center it has alleged there. The United Nations has called for access to the site for an independent investigation into the competing allegations, warning that hospitals should not be used as battlegrounds for any side.

“This is precisely where you need an independent international investigation, because we have different narratives,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “You cannot use civilian, especially hospitals, for any military purposes. But you also cannot attack a hospital in the absence of clear evidence.”

Since launching its operation at Al-Shifa this week, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed it found a tunnel shaft and military equipment, but has yet to show proof of the large-scale command center.

While CNN is unable to verify either side's claims, we've been piecing together what we know about the raid on the hospital. Read more here.

The first plane carrying 15 people from Gaza, including children and their families, arrived in the UAE Saturday, according to the country's state-run WAM news agency.

The flight is part of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's initiative to provide medical treatment in UAE hospitals for 1,000 children accompanied by their families from the Gaza Strip.

The plane left El Arish International Airport in Egypt and arrived in Abu Dhabi carrying children with urgent medical needs, including severe injuries, burns and cancer patients, according to WAM.

Some context: Worries over deteriorating conditions for children in Gaza continue to mount as a humanitarian crisis marked by the lack of clean water and fuel deepens. More than 12,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began airstrikes on Gaza on October 7, the Hamas government press office said in a statement Friday. Among those killed, an estimated 5,000 were children.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari has said Israeli troops will advance to anywhere Hamas is found, including the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

In recent days, there have been growing indications that a ground offensive into the southern part of the enclave could be imminent.

Israeli leaders have declared the northern part of Gaza, including Gaza City, is now under Israel’s control. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered little information about his post-military operation plan for Gaza. 

Meanwhile, more fuel was allowed into Gaza Friday as water and sewage systems are on the verge of collapsing, Israel's national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said. Lack of fuel has also contributed to the dire situation in hospitals, where doctors said ICU patients have died and surgeries have stopped due to the lack of electricity.

Also, negotiating parties are grinding away to try to reach an agreement to release hostages in Gaza. It comes as at least two hostages were found dead in the enclave over the past two days, the Israeli military said.

Here are the key things to know:

Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic and disturbing accounts of sexual violence.

Israeli police are using forensic evidence, video and witness testimony and interrogations of suspects to document cases of rape amid the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Women and girls caught in the rampage were brutalized sexually, as well as physically tortured and killed, witnesses to the aftermath say.

Police Superintendent Dudi Katz said officers have collected more than 1,000 statements and more than 60,000 video clips related to the attacks that include accounts from people who reported seeing women raped. He added that investigators do not have firsthand testimony, and it is not clear whether any rape victims survived.

About 1,200 Israelis were killed and more injured that day in villages and farms near Gaza when Hamas militants struck across the border in coordinated attacks, taking more than 240 hostages and precipitating the current war. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Police Commissioner Shabtai Yaakov said the investigation could potentially lead to prosecutions, but for now, documentation is the primary mission.

Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a human rights law expert at Hebrew University, has formed a civil commission with colleagues to document evidence of the atrocities, fearing that as the war devastates Gaza and the lives of thousands of Palestinians, the world seems willing to look over the violence against Israeli women and girls.

She pointed to a United Nations statement just a week after the terror attacks that did not mention sexual violence.

“It’s much worse than just silence or an insult to us as Israeli women and to our children and to our people,” she said of the UN. “When they are failing to acknowledge us, to acknowledge what happened here, they are failing humanity.”

Read more about the harrowing accounts given to CNN.

Israeli police believe at least 364 people were killed by Hamas gunmen at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, according to Israeli media.

Previously, officials had put the number killed at 270. 

Israel’s Channel 12 News said it had obtained a copy of the first police report into the attack and presented some of the report’s findings on its main news bulletin Friday evening. It did not show a copy of the report.

Seventeen of the dead were police officers, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported, citing the police report. The news outlet said 40 festival goers were kidnapped and taken into Gaza. 

The music festival was the location of the highest number of deaths on October 7 but police say interrogations of captured militants lead them to believe Hamas had no knowledge of the music festival when it launched its assault.

The report said the first alarm was received at 6:22 a.m., according to Channel 12 News, but it is clear first responders had no idea of the scale of what was unfolding. Initial word of the attack suggested just dozens of terrorists had crossed the perimeter fence from Gaza — the real number is believed to be well over a thousand.

The report said Israeli security forces finally had the festival site locked down at 3:30 p.m., more than nine hours after the shooting rampage began, according to the Israeli media outlet.

It is not clear if the updated number of people killed at the festival affects the total death toll, which officials have said is about 1,200 people killed.

Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain on Friday condemned both the October 7 attacks and Israel's subsequent retaliation. He emphasized the release of hostages as a requirement for breaking the cycle of violence.

During his remarks, the prince set up the conditions necessary for “breaking the cycle of violence, a feat that will only be made possible through the release of innocents and non-combatants.” He stressed that “the release of hostages is a prerequisite to a pause in hostilities.” 

He made the remarks during the 19th Manama Dialogue, the region's premier security and defense conference.

He went on to say that Bahrain opposes forced displacement, reoccupation or reduction of Gaza's territory. Simultaneously, he condemned “terrorism directed from Gaza against the Israeli public,” outlining these as non-negotiable red lines. 

The prince called for the full implementation of international law to ensure Gazans' access to humanitarian aid.

Out of the 35 hospitals in Gaza, 26 have shut down due to damage from bombardment or a lack of fuel, according to a report published by the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health in Ramallah on Friday, citing medical sources from the Hamas-controlled enclave. Of the 72 primary health care clinics, 52 have also been forced to close, it added.

At Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City: Over 40 patients, including three premature babies, have died at Gaza's largest hospital in the last six days, according to the health ministry.

At Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis: The situation is also increasingly dire as the main generator at the hospital in southern Gaza has shut down for the third consecutive day, lacking the necessary fuel to operate. The hospital is now relying on a small generator, which only supplies electricity to the labor room and the reception area's lights, the ministry added. 

Israeli government ministers will meet Saturday night to discuss a decision made by the emergency war management cabinet to allow the daily entry of fuel trucks to Gaza. 

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in an interview on Israel’s Channel 13 Friday night that he believed the decision to lift the fuel blockade — made late Thursday — should be taken by the full cabinet. The emergency war cabinet is a smaller group consisting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, the former chief of general staff and former defense minister. 

Earlier, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had also raised objections.  

Netanyahu had agreed to call a cabinet meeting after speaking to Smotrich, according to Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel's national security adviser. 

The United Nations needs 200,000 liters (52,834 gallons) of fuel each day in order to “meet the minimum of our humanitarian responsibilities in Gaza,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday. The lack of fuel has meant that “communications and other essential functions such as water desalination are progressively dropping offline,” Griffiths told the UN General Assembly. 

Fuel is “essential for keeping people alive,” Griffiths said.