LAST UPDATE | 4 Nov 2023
ISRAEL HAS RESISTED US calls for a pause in fighting and continued its siege of Gaza City today, after deadly strikes hit an ambulance convoy and a school-turned-refugee shelter.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed pressure from visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to enact a temporary humanitarian pause, the nearly month-old bombardment of Gaza raged on unabated.
Elsewhere at the diplomatic level, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations due to Israel’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, although it stopped short of completely severing diplomatic ties.
Israeli ground forces have encircled Gaza’s largest city, trying to rout Hamas in retaliation for 7 October raids that killed an estimated 1,400 people inside Israel, most of them civilians.
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said today that at least 9,488 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel began its bombardment last month.
An Israeli airstrike has killed 15 people in a United Nations school where thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering, the Gaza health ministry said.
“The massacre at the Al-Fakhura school committed by the (Israeli) occupation this morning left 15 martyrs and 70 wounded,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told a press conference.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said its school is being used as a “shelter for displaced families”.
“At least one strike hit the school yard where there were tents for displaced families. Another strike hit inside the school where women were baking bread,” UNRWA said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about hitting the school in Jabalia refugee camp, and AFP was unable to independently confirm the toll.
Elsewhere, at the Osama bin Zaid Boys School north of Gaza City, AFP saw the aftermath of what Hamas authorities said was Israeli tank shelling that killed 20 people.
Ambulance teams rushed into the debris-littered building to aid the injured and remove the dead.
Stunned onlookers wept and wandered the scene with hands clasped above the head in horror and disbelief.
Israel’s military describes Gaza City as “the centre of the Hamas terror organisation” and says it is targeting Hamas operatives, weapons stores, tunnel complexes, drone launching posts and command centres there.
Spokesman Richard Hecht said forces were engaged in “very intense, close quarters combat” with Hamas fighters.
But with strikes and ground fighting taking place in densely populated urban areas, many civilians have died.
Speaking in Tel Aviv, Blinken accused Hamas of “cynically and monstrously” using civilians as “human shields”, and of deliberately locating military assets “beneath residential buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals.”
Netanyahu, who has made a political career out of hawkish security policies, warned that there could be no “temporary truce” in Gaza until Hamas releases the hostages.
Israel says it has struck 12,000 targets across the Palestinian territory since “Operation Iron Swords” began on 7 October, one of the fiercest bombing campaigns in recent memory.
In Gaza City’s centre, there was another strike yesterday, this one on the doorstep of the territory’s largest hospital Al-Shifa.
Israel’s military said it had targeted an ambulance which it claimed was being used by a “Hamas terrorist cell”, saying it had “neutralised” those inside.
“We emphasise that this area in Gaza is a war zone. Civilians are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southward for their own safety,” the Israel Defense Forces said.
A Hamas terrorist cell was identified using an ambulance. In response, an IDF aircraft struck and neutralized the Hamas terrorists, who were operating within the ambulance.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 3, 2023
We emphasize that this area in Gaza is a war zone. Civilians are repeatedly called upon to evacuate…
The Hamas government said 15 people were killed, mirroring figures released by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
An AFP journalist saw multiple bodies beside the blood-splattered Palestinian Red Crescent vehicle, which aligns with multiple videos posted on social media in the immediate aftermath of the strike.
A child was carried away and a dead horse lay nearby, still tethered to a cart.
The Red Crescent said a convoy of five vehicles had been destined for the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, when they were struck multiple times.
One vehicle had been transporting a 35-year-old woman with shrapnel wounds.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the attack in a post on X.
I am horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al Shifa hospital.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 4, 2023
Now, for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children & women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed & bombed out of their homes.
This must stop.
In response to the bombing, Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF) issued a statement saying:
“The deadly attack outside the gate of Al-Shifa hospital impacting an ambulance is horrendous. This is a lethal attack outside Gaza’s main and busiest hospital, where MSF staff work daily to provide lifesaving medical care.
“We have repeatedly called for an immediate and total ceasefire, for the protection of healthcare facilities, as well as medics, patients and people who are taking shelter there.
“This is a new low in an endless stream of unconscionable violence,” the statement said, describing Israel’s repeated strikes on hospitals, ambulances, densely populated areas and refugee camps as “disgraceful”.
“How many people have to die before world leaders wake up and call for a ceasefire?”
Dr Obaid, an MSF doctor at Al Shifa hospital, said:
“We were standing inside the hospital gate when the ambulance was directly hit in front of us. There were bloody bodies everywhere. Many were killed immediately, while we rushed others to the operating room for emergency care.”
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “utterly shocked” by the strike.
“We reiterate: patients, health workers, facilities and ambulances must be protected at all times. Always”, he said.
“WHO condemns the attacks on 3 November near Al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City and North Gaza governorates,” a statement from the organisation read.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed to The Journal that no Irish citizens are on the list of people due to depart Gaza through the Rafah crossing today.
“There are an estimated 8000 foreign and dual nationals and immediate dependants in Gaza who are seeking to leave. The evacuations are being managed country by country on a phased basis. It will take some time for this process to be completed,” a spokesperson said.
“Irish citizens are not included in today’s list, but we continue to urgently seek to have Irish citizens included on the list in the coming days,” they said.
“Our Embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv are in regular communication with the authorities in Egypt and Israel. We also remain in ongoing communication with Irish citizens on the ground.”
Inside Israel, authorities began forcing thousands of Palestinian workers to return to Gaza.
“Thousands of workers who were blocked in Israel since 7 October have been brought back,” the head of Gaza’s crossings authority, Hisham Adwan, told AFP.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said it was “deeply concerned” about the expulsions.
Before the war started, about 18,500 Gazans held Israeli work permits, according to Israeli defence officials, but it was not clear how many were in the country on 7 October.
Today, US secretary of state Antony Blinken held talks in Amman with the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
That meeting comes amid mounting Arab anger over the civilian death toll from war, and increasing fears that the conflict could spread.
Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries seek an immediate ceasefire.
“The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come,” Safadi said.
Blinken, however, said “it is our view now that a ceasefire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7.”
He said the US believes humanitarian pauses can be a “critical mechanism in protecting civilians, in getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas”.
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated.
They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages held by Hamas, suggestions Israel seems unlikely to accept.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the press on the discussions.
Turkey said today it was recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations due to Israel’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Turkish foreign ministry said Sakir Ozkan Torunlar was being recalled “in view of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza caused by the continuing attacks by Israel against civilians, and Israel’s refusal (to accept) a ceasefire.”
Press Release Regarding Recalling of Our Ambassador in Tel Aviv, H.E. Mr. Şakir Özkan Torunlar, to Ankara for Consultations https://t.co/POmJwwXVg6 pic.twitter.com/KiRf0XqTfi
— Turkish MFA (@MFATurkiye) November 4, 2023
Israel had earlier withdrawn all diplomats from Turkey and other regional countries as a security precaution.
The Israeli foreign ministry said last weekend it was “re-evaluating” relations with Ankara because of Turkey’s increasingly heated rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that Turkey could not afford to entirely break off diplomatic contacts between the sides.
“Completely severing ties is not possible, especially in international diplomacy,” Erdogan said.
He said the country’s MIT intelligence agency chief Ibrahim Kalin was spearheading Turkey’s efforts to try and mediate an end to the war.
“Ibrahim Kalin is talking to the Israeli side. Of course, he is also negotiating with Palestine and Hamas,” Erdogan said.
But he said Netanyahu bore primary responsibility for the violence and had “lost the support of his own citizens”.
“What he needs to do is take a step back and stop this,” Erdogan said.
The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, yesterday broke weeks of silence to warn Israel that the possibility of “total war is realistic”.
Israel’s Netanyahu warned Hezbollah it would “pay an unimaginable price” for any misstep.
Today’s six-nation talks in Amman also touched on the question of Gaza’s future beyond the war.
The United States has renewed calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, but few expect success now after decades of failure and the United State’s consistent backing of Israel.
In Tel Aviv, Blinken said the two-state solution – a Palestinian state that sits alongside Israel – was “best viable path – indeed, the only path” to peace and security for both communities.
Netanyahu has spent decades vehemently opposing that vision.
The United States has also urged the Palestinian Authority, which ceded power to Hamas in Gaza more than 15 years ago, to retake control.
A representative of the Palestinian Authority led by president Mahmud Abbas attended the meeting in Amman.
Thousands of protesters rallied across Iran today against the United States and Israel and in support of Palestinians.
“Down with USA” and “Down with Israel”, chanted demonstrators gathered in front of the former US embassy in Tehran, an AFP journalist reported.
They set ablaze an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu as well as the US and Israel flags in front of flag-waving crowds.
Tensions between Iran and the United States, which were already high, have worsened since the 7 October attacks.
With reporting from © AFP 2023
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