Israel-Palestine live: Israel and Palestinians agree to truce, hostage deal

A doctor at the al-Shifa hospital has told Reuters that the Israeli military has opened fire outside the hospital during the raid, and have forced staff to stay away from windows.

The doctor denied all Israeli accusations that the hospital was used as a Hamas command centre. 
 

In a recorded conversation broadcast on Al Jazeera Arabic, al-Shifa Hospital director Munir al-Barsh is heard telling Israeli forces not to cause “hysteria and panic” in the hospital during the raid.

“There are many wounded patients inside and lots of people who are dead or close to death…if you enter the hospital it will terrify people, there are children and elderly, my primary concern is the patients,” he said.

“The hospital is filled with people from the first floor to the sixth, there are dialysis patients, patients who have burns,” he added.

The raid on the al-Shifa hospital has now been ongoing for around eight hours, with doctors interrogated and rooms search. 
Patients and displaced people sheltering in the hospital have been forced out, regardless of their condition. 

The Israeli military is maintaining that they are carrying out an operation against Hamas, however, no evidence has been presented to suggest Hamas is operating from the hospital. 
 

Israel’s National Security Ministry said that around 1,700 weapons licences are issued to Israelis on average every day since the war started on 7 October.

The Israeli army has raided and is interrogating medical staff inside the al-Shifa hospital, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. 

Soldiers are reportedly inside the hospital and searching every room and ward. 

Patients, doctors, and those sheltering inside the hospital have been told to leave the hospital under heavy gunfire.

Many doctors have said they will stay inside with wounded patients, because if they are left alone they will die.

Checkpoints have been established at various entries to the building, with anyone entering or existing stopped and interrogated. 

The raid started at midnight, and left patients, health workers and displaced people afraid.
 

For children in Gaza there is “nowhere safe,” Catherine Russell, the Unicef executive director said after a rare visit to the besieged enclave.

“The parties to the conflict are committing grave violations against children; these include killing, maiming, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access – all of which Unicef condemns,” she said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“Many children are missing and believed buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings and homes...Meanwhile, newborn babies who require specialised care have died in one of Gaza’s hospitals as power and medical supplies run out, and violence continues with indiscriminate effect," she added. 

Russell called on the parties to the war to implement an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, to safely release all abducted and detained children, and to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers.

Palestinians trying to flee al-Shifa hospital during an Israeli raid on the facility were fired on, Munir al-Bursh, the director general of hospitals in Gaza told Al Jazeera.

Bursh said Israeli forces had searched the surgical and emergency buildings within the hospital complex, but didn’t discover any armed fighters.

The Israeli military has said it is conducting a “precise and targeted operation” at the hospital to target Hamas fighters.

Hamas has denied using the hospital as a military base and accused Israel of committing war crimes by raiding the medical facility.

Israel announced the names of two soldiers killed yesterday fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the total killed since its ground-invasion to 48.

Captain Omri Yosef David, 27, a deputy company commander in the Negev Brigade’s 9217 Battalion and Captain Yedidya Asher Lev, 26, a deputy company commander in the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion were killed.

Additionally, the military said four soldiers were also seriously injured during fighting in Gaza yesterday.

US military aid to Israel extends well beyond Iron Dome interceptors and precision missiles for warplanes, according to a Pentagon document reported by Bloomberg.

The military aid Washington is surging to its ally also includes laser-guided missiles for Apache attack helicopters, 155mm artillery shells, night-vision devices, bunker-buster bombs, and new army vehicles. 

According to the document, which is labelled “Israel Senior Leader” and dated late October, the arms are already being shipped or will soon be made available from stockpiles in the US and Europe. 

The Biden administration has provided unconditional support to Israel amid the war, but has been relatively quiet on the type of armaments it is sending, acknowledging mainly the delivery of Iron Dome interceptors.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration informed Congress it plans to transfer precision guided Spice Bombs to Israel for its warplanes.

The new document suggests military support is even broader, and that it is holding up as  the administration comes under increasing pressure to call for a ceasefire within the Democratic party.

The White House said it doesn’t want to see a “firefight” in Gaza hospitals after Israeli troops raided al-Shifa hospital.

When asked about the Israeli raid on Tuesday, the White House said patients inside hospitals “must be protected,” but did not condemn Israel for the raid.

“As we’ve said, we do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire. Hospitals and patients must be protected,” A White House spokesperson said.

Israel has said Hamas fighters are operating inside and beneath al-Shifa hospital where hostages may be located. 

On Wednesday, the US said it had intelligence that backed up the Israeli claim and said that by operating within a hospital, Hamas itself was committing a war crime.

Hamas has denied the allegations. The US and Israel haven’t provided specifics to support their claims that fighters are located at al-Shifa.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have been suspended from hosting and participating in on-campus activities at George Washington University after holding a protest in support of Palestine on campus.

Members of the group were suspending for using a projector to display phrases on the wall of a campus library that included “End the siege on Gaza” and “GW the blood of Palestine is on your hands.”

SJP activities have been suspended for three months and will continue to be restricted after.

The group says it plans to challenge the ban. 

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed “at length” efforts to free hostages held by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups in Gaza, according to the White House. 

Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Tuesday, just hours before Israeli soldiers raided al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza.

The call follows a report in the Washington Post on Monday that Israel and Hamas were nearing a hostage deal.

According to the report, Hamas would release between 70-100 hostages in return for Israel releasing Palestinian women and children held in its jails and agreeing to a ceasefire up to five days.

"Dozens" of Israeli soldiers have entered the emergency department building of al-Shifa hospital, Arabic media is reporting, citing a Palestinian health official. 

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks have moved into the al-Shifa hospital complex, according to eyewitnesses. 

A doctor at the hospital has said fear is permeating the scene. 

“We don’t know what they will do to us. We don’t know whether they will kill people or terrorise them. We know all the propaganda is lies, and they know as well as we do that there is nothing at al-Shifa Medical Centre,” Doctor Ahmed Mokhallalati, told Al Jazeera.

Hamas has said US President Joe Biden provided Israel a ‘green light’ for Israel’s raid on al-Shifa hospital.

Hamas said it held Israel and Biden responsible for the fallout from what it said where attacks that amounted to a “barbaric crime against a medical facility protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention”.

“The Israeli occupation and everyone who colluded with it to kill children, patients and innocent civilians will be held accountable,” the group said in a statement.

“The White House and Pentagon’s adoption of the false Israeli narrative claiming that the resistance uses the al-Shifa Medical Centre for military reasons constituted a green light for [Israel] to commit more massacres against civilians, and to forcibly remove them from the north to the south to continue the occupation’s plan of displacing our people," it added. 

Israel has said Hamas fighters are operating inside and beneath al-Shifa hospital where hostages may be located. 

On Wednesday, the US said it had intelligence that backed up the Israeli claim and said that by operating within a hospital Hamas itself was committing a war crime.

The US and Israel haven’t provided specifics to support their claims that fighters are located at al-Shifa.

Israel’s military said it had entered al-Shifa hospital on Wednesday. 

"Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital," the Israeli military said. 

The military said the troops conducting the attack included medical teams and Arabic speakers trained to prepare for“complex and sensitive” environments.

Hamas has denied US and Israeli allegations that it has fighters based in the hospital.

Israel has informed health officials in Gaza that it intends to raid the besieged al-Shifa hospital in the coming minutes, according to Al Jazeera.

Israel instructed Palestinian health workers by phone not to approach the windows or doors of Al-Shifa Hospital, Ashraf al-Qudra, the Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza told Al Jazeera. 

Israeli military vehicles have been encircling al-Shifa hospital from all directions throughout the day. There has been continuous artillery shelling and heavy gunfire around the hospital, Palestinian authorities in Gaza say.