Medical officials in Gaza say more than 11,000 people are confirmed dead from Israeli strikes

Despite Israel’s announcement that it would deploy portable incubators, Palestinians confined inside Gaza’s largest hospital said they had no plan in place to evacuate newborns and were excavating a mass grave on Tuesday to bury patients who passed away while under Israeli encirclement.

More than 11,000 people are officially dead from Israeli strikes, with around 40% of them being minors, according to medical officials in Gaza. Countless more are buried under debris. About two thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants are now homeless as a result of their inability to leave the densely populated area, where supplies of fresh water, food, fuel, and medical equipment are running low.

Israeli forces have surrounded Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital, claiming it is the top floor of a Hamas militant organization’s underground headquarters.

According to Hamas, 650 patients and 5,000–7,000 additional displaced civilians are stuck inside the hospital grounds and are continuously being fired upon by drones and snipers. Hamas disputes the presence of fighters. Forty patients are said to have passed away in the last several days, including three premature babies whose incubators were turned off due to a power outage.

When contacted by phone inside the hospital compound, Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry, stated that around one hundred bodies were inside rotting and that there was no way to remove them.

“We intend to bury them in the Al Shifa medical complex today in a mass grave. We don’t have any cover or protection from the ICRC, so it will be extremely risky, but we don’t have any other choice because the martyrs’ corpses have already started to decay,” he told Reuters.

“The men are digging right now as we speak.”

New IDF footage from the occupation of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/CzDk8SRFWm

— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 14, 2023

Thirty-six infants remain in the neonatal ward following the deaths of three. The infants were arranged eight to a bed and kept as warm as possible since there was not enough gasoline for generators to run the incubators.

On Tuesday, Israel declared that it was providing battery-operated, transportable incubators to enable the newborns to be relocated. However, Qidra stated that no plans had been made as of yet to execute any kind of evacuation.

“We do not object to the newborns being sent to any hospital—in Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, or even the occupied hospitals. The health and lives of those babies are the things that matter most to us,” he declared.

“The hospital is still under siege by the occupiers, and they occasionally fire into the yards. Although we are still immobile, doctors occasionally take a chance in order to care for their patients.”

Israel asserts that its forces are allowing people inside the hospital to escape while denying that it is under siege. This is untrue, according to hospital administrators and medics, and anybody attempting to leave have faced resistance.

Surgeon Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters from Al Shifa hospital that the major danger at the moment is the decomposition of deceased bodies within.

“We have no doubt that one will spread all types of illnesses. There was a little rain today. Nobody could even open a window or simply stroll around the hallways due to the awful stench “It was awful,” he remarked.

“It takes a lot of equipment to bury 120 bodies; one person cannot accomplish the task by hand. “It will require numerous hours to properly bury all of these corpses.”

He said that doctors had operated without oxygen on Monday, making general anesthesia unfeasible.

After beginning a ground invasion of Gaza at the end of October, Israeli forces have subsequently closed in on Al Shifa. Even Israel’s closest friends seem uneasy about the hospital’s encirclement in recent days.

In return for a five-day ceasefire, the armed wing of Hamas declared that it was prepared to release up to seventy women and children detained in Gaza.

According to Al-Qassam Brigade spokesman Abu Ubaida, Israel had requested the release of 100 prisoners, but the group had volunteered to release 50, and the total may reach 70, including detainees held by other factions.

Israel claims it may consent to short humanitarian “pauses,” but it has refused a ceasefire, claiming that Hamas would use it to reorganize.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Washington would “like to see considerably longer pauses – days, not hours – in the context of a hostage release.”

‘Hospitals must be protected’

US President Joe Biden said hospitals in the Gaza Strip must be protected and he hoped for “less intrusive” action by Israel as Israeli tanks advanced to the gates of the besieged enclave’s main hospital.

Journalists recorded the moment an aerial bomb landed near a film crew in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/rwA8Wbjo1y

— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 13, 2023

“Also, there is an effort to get this pause to deal with the release of prisoners and that’s being negotiated, as well, with the Qataris … being engaged,” he said. “So, I remain somewhat hopeful but hospitals must be protected.”

Israel, which essentially blocksades Gaza, has rejected a ceasefire, claiming that Hamas would only use it to regroup. Nevertheless, it has agreed to short humanitarian “pauses” that let foreigners escape and supplies and food enter the area.

“Also, there is an effort to get this pause to deal with the release of prisoners and that’s being negotiated, as well, with the Qataris … being engaged,” he said. “So, I remain somewhat hopeful but hospitals must be protected.”

Israel, which essentially blocksades Gaza, has rejected a ceasefire, claiming that Hamas would only use it to regroup. Nevertheless, it has agreed to short humanitarian “pauses” that let foreigners escape and supplies and food enter the area.

New Hamas footage from Gaza showing clashes and strikes on IDF targets. pic.twitter.com/KgyUq29t0j

— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 13, 2023

News reporters were informed by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan that the United States would “like to see considerably longer pauses – days, not hours – in the context of a hostage release.”

An unidentified senior Israeli official was cited by a Washington Post opinion writer on Tuesday as stating that Israel and Hamas are nearing an agreement to liberate the majority of the abducted Israeli women and children, in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian women and youths detained in its prisons. If all the specifics are sorted out, an agreement may be declared in a matter of days.

On Monday, there was also fighting at al-Quds, a second large hospital in northern Gaza that is no longer operational.

A convoy intended to transport patients and staff was unable to pass through due to the heavy shooting surrounding the hospital, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israel said that after fighters fired from the hospital entrance, it retaliated by killing “approximately 21 terrorists” at al-Quds. It unveiled video purportedly showing men approaching the hospital gate, one of them seemingly holding a launcher with rocket-propelled grenades.

Additionally, Mohammed Khamis Dababash, the group’s former head of military intelligence, was among the Hamas commanders and officials that Israel’s military and security services claimed to have killed in the past day.

An Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza resulted in over thirty fatalities and several injuries, according to Hamas media. According to a spokesman for the Israeli military, the army was investigating the Jabalia report.