November 14, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

A doctor in Gaza City’s only operational hospital says health care workers are caring for more than 500 patients — including some who are critically wounded — with very little access to medication as fighting rages nearby.

Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital’s Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah told CNN that they are "just overwhelmed and under-resourced."

The doctor painted a grim picture of conditions at the hospital, which he said only has two operating rooms, three surgeons, and a desperately low supplies of anesthetics to take care of a growing number of wounded people.  

“We started getting the wounded, initially from airstrikes but today also from sniper injuries. We have over 500 wounded in the hospital,” Abu-Sittah said. 

The doctor said his hospital does have access to running water and food, which is brought in by ambulances. 

He also said that while the hospital isn’t “physically surrounded,” he can “hear the building shake continuously” from nearby fighting. 

Earlier today, the United Nations said the hospital is the only medical facility reported to be able to receive patients, out of roughly 30 hospitals and clinics in the north of the Gaza Strip. 

The Israeli military has confirmed that a woman pictured in a video released by Hamas is dead. The video emerged on a Hamas social media channel and claimed that an Israeli woman held hostage in Gaza had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the woman as Israeli soldier Noa Marciano.

The clip — which is just over a minute in length — appeared Monday evening on the Telegram channel of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. 

Most of the video shows the woman speaking into the camera reading a short statement. She gives details of her father and mother, her hometown, and her Israeli ID. She gives her age as 19. 

After the spoken statement, the video shows an image of what appears to be the woman’s body, following what the video claims was her death in an Israeli airstrike on November 9.

In a short statement late Monday, the IDF said an army representative had visited the family home to inform them of the video. 

The IDF said on Tuesday that its forces have taken control of Al-Shati refugee camp, which is about three miles from the center of Gaza City. 

“The Nahal Brigade combined combat forces and the commando combat forces obtained operational control at Shati Camp in the last few hours,” the Israeli military said in a statement. 

"The IDF and the 162nd Division are dismantling Hamas' centers and capabilities it had built over the years," it added, claiming that the Israeli army has located more than 160 tunnel shafts and "struck approximately 2800 terrorist infrastructure" in the Gaza Strip since the war started last month.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Sunday in a press briefing that infantry and combat engineering forces had reached the outskirts of the camp, which is near Al-Shifa Hospital.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is “working relentlessly for the release of the hostages” held by Hamas in Gaza, indicating he believes increased pressure from Israel’s ground campaign inside the enclave is helping move things in the right direction.

Netanyahu is under intense pressure from Israelis to secure the safe release of the 239 people believed held in the Gaza Strip but has so far been reluctant to discuss details of negotiations – a position he stuck to in a short statement released Tuesday afternoon.

“If and when there will be something concrete to report – we will do so,” the statement concluded, which came shortly after US President Joe Biden said he believed a deal to release the hostages was “going to happen.”

Some context: A deal to secure the release of a large number of hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza appears elusive for now, despite active negotiations involving the US, Israel, Qatar and Hamas. The multi-party talks have been ongoing for weeks and have so far produced many ideas, but any kind of proposal involving hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting is not on the table, a US official and other diplomatic sources involved in the talks said.

US President Joe Biden said he believes a deal can be reached to release hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

"I’ve been talking with the people involved every single day. I believe it’s going to happen. But I don’t want to get into detail," Biden told reporters at the White House.

He said his message for families waiting for news on their captive loved ones is:

Where things stand: Biden and top US officials have been working with different leaders — including through talks brokered by Qatar — to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas and other terror groups.

A senior US official familiar with the talks told CNN on Tuesday that while the parties have inched closer to striking a deal, the talks remained volatile and could still break down.

The broad parameters that are currently being discussed entail Hamas releasing a large group of hostages at the same time Israel frees Palestinian prisoners. The hostages-for-prisoners exchange would take place in the course of a sustained, days-long pause in fighting that could last as long as five days, but many details, including the duration of a pause, remain in flux.

As CNN previously reported, in the deal currently being discussed, hostages would exit Gaza in stages on a rolling basis – with priority placed on extra vulnerable groups like children and women. The process is expected to take multiple days.

Israel recently asked for 100 hostages to be released, according to a Hamas spokesman and a source familiar with the negotiations.

An overnight statement from the Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, said negotiations were focusing on the possible release of 70 women and children in exchange for a pause in the fighting of five days.

A senior Israeli official acknowledged Hamas is looking to release as few people as possible in exchange for the longest possible ceasefire but said Israel would agree to one if there were a "serious deal" offered.

CNN reported in October that release efforts have been further complicated by Israel’s expansion of its ground operations into Gaza. Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has said there would be “no ceasefire” without the release of hostages. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday stressed hospitals' protected status under international humanitarian law as concerns mount that medical centers in Gaza are being targeted for military action. 

Hospitals are "especially protected" under international humanitarian law due to the "lifesaving function" they provide for wounded and ill people, ICRC Chief Legal Officer Cordula Droege said in a video that was posted Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.

Droege also pointed to the fact that, under international humanitarian law, hospitals may lose this protective status if they are “used outside of their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy.”  

If a hospital has lost its protective status, a warning must be given to "stop the act harmful to the enemy," Droege said. If it persists, there is an obligation to allow for the "safe evacuation of patients and medical staff." And while that's not always feasible, it doesn't give "free license to attack."

Some context: The Israeli military has accused of Hamas of operating command centers from civilian infrastructure like hospitals — a claim Hamas has denied.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces claimed the Al-Rantisi hospital's basement was being used to store weapons and potentially hostages taken during the October 7 attacks. 

The hospital's director, Mohammed Zarqout, rejected those accusations, telling CNN he failed "to understand why they consider ‘discovering’ diapers and children's bottles as a great accomplishment.” 

Abdulhaleem Awad, the head of public relations at Gaza's largest flour and wheat manufacturing mill, Al-Salam Mills, told CNN on Tuesday that they are witnessing a “severe crisis,” operating with a capacity of 25% due to electricity and fuel shortages.

Al-Salam Mills is the only one out of five mills still in operation in southern Gaza, Awad said. Before the war, the mill could produce 480 tonnes of wheat per day or 300 tonnes of flour, Awad added, explaining they are now limited to 75 tonnes daily. He also warned production would stop if they don't get fuel in a few days.

Videos obtained by CNN show hundreds of people standing outside the mill hoping to get flour. People can be seen screaming and asking for flour, and crying women were desperately asking to feed their families. Awad claimed around 90% of bakeries in Gaza are now closed due to airstrikes.

Palastine Hakmat, a mother of seven children, was filmed saying she had been waiting outside the mills for hours, hoping to get some flour for her sick husband and her kids.

Ibrahim al-Najar, a father of six kids, said his family is running out of food. 

“It's my third day waiting outside the mills. Every day I wait for hours but could not get any flour. Where shall we go? What are we going to eat?” al-Najar said.

Last week, the United Nations said all bakeries were forced to close in northern Gaza.

Here's a look at the vital services affected by Gaza's fuel shortage:

The United Kingdom and the United States imposed targeted sanctions on half a dozen Hamas leaders and financiers to hobble the organization’s operations in Gaza and elsewhere, according to a statement released Tuesday by Britain’s Foreign Office. 

The UK and the US have hit four of Hamas’ senior leaders and two of its financiers with travel bans, asset freezes and arms embargoes, according to the statement. The UK and the US had already designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. 

According to the statement, the six individuals sanctioned are: 

The statement also reiterated the UK government’s support for “humanitarian pauses” to let “significantly more lifesaving aid to reach Gaza.” 

The US State Department on Tuesday also labeled Akram al-Ajouri, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s militant wing, as a specially designated global terrorist, while the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on “key Hamas officials and the mechanisms by which Iran provides support to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).”

An estimated 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since November 5, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

“An estimated 200,000 have moved since 5 November through a “corridor” opened by the Israeli military, according to OCHA monitoring,” the organization said in a situation report published Tuesday. 

The Israeli military has been operating a series of humanitarian corridors which, it says, are enabling people in northern Gaza to move safely to the south. 

The OCHA highlighted that those who have moved to the south have been grappling with ”overcrowding and limited access to shelter, food and water,” creating “increasing concern.” 

According to the OCHA, “hundreds of thousands” of people “who are either unwilling or unable to move to the south remain in the north.”