At least 51 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing of Maghazi camp
At least 51 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed and scores of others were wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza’s Maghazi camp on Saturday night, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The bombing is the latest mass killing of Palestinians to take place in recent days. Earlier this week, Israeli air strikes killed hundreds of Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the majority of those killed and wounded on Saturday night were women and children.
At least 51 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed and scores of others were wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza’s Maghazi camp on Saturday night, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa pic.twitter.com/ooXBfdHlUW
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 5, 2023
Trudeau calls for release of hostages and humanitarian aid for Gaza in talks with Netanyahu
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his continued support for Israel’s right to defend itself in its war against Hamas when he spoke with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.
Trudeau also called for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and stressed the need to provide humanitarian aid to those in Gaza, according to a readout from his office.
The Canadian leader received assurances that “Canadians in Gaza will be able to leave in the coming days,” the readout said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) informed Canadian officials Saturday “that more than 400 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and eligible family members will be able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing” as they make their way back to Canada. There are currently 5,755 Canadians registered with the Registration of Canadians Abroad in Israel and 453 Canadians registered in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the latest update from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
Canadian officials are in contact with 69 Canadians, permanent residents, and family members in the West Bank, 516 in Gaza and 51 in Israel, according to GAC.
Trudeau highlighted his deep concerns over the increasingly dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to the readout, and reiterated Canada’s position on the immediate need to create conditions for urgent and necessary humanitarian aid to flow into the region.
He also expressed “the importance of upholding international humanitarian law and making every effort to protect Palestinian civilians,” the readout added.
Biden says progress made on ‘humanitarian pauses’
When asked on Saturday whether progress had been made on “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict, President Joe Biden replied “Yes” and gave reporters a thumbs up.
The president did not provide any further details, as he left a church in Delaware.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected the idea of a permanent ceasefire during a meeting with his Arab counterparts in Amman, reiterating Washington’s desire for “pauses”.
Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah warns of catastrophic lack of medical resources and fuel in Gaza
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah warned Saturday of a “catastrophe within Gaza hospitals”, adding that wounded people are “taking their last breaths” due to the lack of medical resources and fuel.
Palestinian Health Minister Dr. Mai al-Kaila also called on the international community to provide fuel to Gaza hospitals to prevent the shutdown of services.
As of midday on Saturday, more than 150 health care professionals in Gaza have been killed, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.
The ministry also added “16 hospitals and 32 primary healthcare centers have been taken out of service”.
“The continued Israeli shelling of the vicinity and entrances of Gaza hospitals in the north aims to force medical personnel to abandon their patients and leave the hospitals. This constitutes a complex massacre against the wounded and patients,” al-Kaila added.
Organizations outside of Gaza are also raising an alarm about the dire situation in the enclave’s hospitals.
At least seven killed by Israeli air strike on Jabalia camp
At least seven Palestinians were killed and many others were wounded from an Israeli air strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Wafa news agency.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded the camp – home to over 100,000 people – in recent days.
More Palestinians from Gaza arrive in Egypt for medical treatment: Egyptian official
A total of 84 Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment have entered Egypt through the Rafah border crossing so far as of Saturday, an Egyptian government official told CNN.
The injured Palestinians all had injuries sustained from airstrikes, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity since they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Most are currently receiving treatment in hospitals across the country, and more are expected to arrive in the coming days, the official added.
According to an Egyptian border official, more Palestinians were expected to arrive in ambulances on Saturday, but the border was shut for a few hours out of caution following an Israeli airstrike that targeted an ambulance on Friday.
Located in Egypt’s north Sinai, the Rafah crossing is the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. It falls along an 8-mile (12.8-kilometer) fence that separates Gaza from the Sinai desert.
Up to a million people have fled to southern Gaza, placing stress on humanitarian response: US envoy
The number of people who have fled from north of Wadi Gaza to the southern part of the enclave is estimated to be 800,000 “to perhaps a million”, the US special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues said Saturday — a mass relocation that has exacerbated humanitarian issues, which are only expected to grow as more people flee.
The envoy, David Satterfield, stated there needs to be the “secure, sustained movement” of aid not only from the Rafah crossing in Egypt to Gaza, but “into points of need in the south.”
“And those points of need are growing as individuals come increasingly to the south,” he added.
The ability to move assistance has scaled up exponentially, particularly in the last week, from “pretty much zero in terms of ability to move humanitarian assistance through the Rafah corridor into Gaza”, Satterfield continued, but reiterated that even the current number of aid trucks getting through the crossing per day is not sufficient.
Although the US believes the current daily flow of trucks into Gaza is sustainable, “it’s challenged by the environment on the ground in south Gaza,” Satterfield said, noting United Nations warehouses with basic supplies and food had been broken into early in the week.
“There was … an environment in Gaza, which allowed more normal commercial life, cooking gas, cooking oil, provisions, necessities of life to move in. That’s not the situation now,” he added.
Shelter is also a problem, he continued.
“You’ve got 350,000 or 400,000 still in the north. If those individuals — some portion of them — come to the south, that’s going to increase the load, increase the demand even more.”
Israeli’s military has called for civilians in Gaza to move south as it intensifies its air and ground assault on Gaza City and northern Gaza. International aid and rights groups have criticized Israel’s calls for residents to evacuate the north without a pause in fighting and while roads and other infrastructure are badly damaged.
