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

Good afternoon, 

Here is your midday update on the situation unfolding in Gaza as Israel continues its bombardment of the besieged enclave.

• The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that the al-Quds hospital had suspended all services after running out of fuel. 
• Palestinian health officials in Gaza said an Israeli strike had killed at least 13 Palestinians after striking a house in the Khan Younis neighbourhood of southern Gaza. 
• Israel's Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he would consider a new occupation of Gaza and push for Israel to rebuild the settlements Israel had dismantled under former prime minister Ariel Sharon when the Israelis left the Strip. 
• UN officials confirmed that several Palestinian workers seeking shelter in its compound in Gaza had died after Israel struck the facility. 
• Israel's military said Hezbollah's missiles in the Lebanon-Israel border area hit several civilians. 

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Israeli strikes on a house in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killed more than a dozen Palestinians. 

A health official confirmed on Sunday morning that the Israeli strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians, with several more injured.

Images posted on the wires showed the area's residents sifting through rubble, trying to find loved ones and possessions. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) said al-Quds hospital in Gaza is now out of service after running out of fuel.

"The cessation of services is due to depletion of available fuel and power outages," the PRCS said in a statement.

"Medical staff are making every effort to provide care to patients and the wounded, even resorting to conventional medical methods amid dire humanitarian conditions and a shortage of medicine, food and fuel."

The PRCS said it had tried to reach out for humanitarian assistance from the international community which comes a day after al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest, said it would be suspending services.

Israel has begun shelling the al-Shifa hospital this morning after besieging the medical facility. 
 

The director-general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza made the announcement a day after the al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest medical complex, shut down services because it had run out of fuel. 

Israeli forces shelled the United Nations compound in Gaza on Saturday night. 

UN administrator Achim Steiner said the Israeli blast killed and injured Palestinians seeking refuge inside the compound.

Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hinted at the idea of re-establishing settlements in Gaza that Israel dismantled in 2005 and said it was necessary to re-occupy the besieged enclave. 

"Occupation [of the Gaza Strip] is a must. Every time our enemies lost territory, they lost the war," Ben Gvir told Israeli news outlet Reshel Bet.

"We need to be in full control - that's what will deter our enemies, convey a message of victory and allow the residents of [Israeli towns near Gaza] to return home.

"I'm not afraid of renewing the settlements in Gush Katif [inside Gaza]."

“

The Palestinian health ministry’s director-general in Gaza, Dr Munir al-Borsh, provided an update on the situation in al-Shifah hospital to Al Jazeera.

Here’s what he had to say: 

• Around 40 displaced people in the hospital attempted to leave through the main gate. They were shelled by an Israeli tank stationed on the adjacent road. Their bodies are strewn on the street. Ambulance and staff, who are less than 100 metres away, can't get to them as Israeli forces shoot anyone that moves. 
• Israeli forces bombed the water wells in the Shifa medical complex overnight. Only one well is operating at the moment, providing equivalent of 12 cups a water per hour for 15,000 people trapped inside. 
• The intensive care unit was hit again after being struck 24 hours earlier.

Israeli forces killed a 34-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank town of Burqa. 

The Israeli Coordination and Liaison Office informed the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah that Israeli forces shot Muntasar Sif in the early hours of Sunday.

Gaza's border authority announced on Saturday that the Rafah land crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders.

Evacuations from the Gaza Strip into Egypt for foreign citizens and Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment were suspended on Friday, three Egyptian security sources and a Palestinian official told Reuters.

The Palestinian official and an Egyptian medical source said the suspension was due to problems bringing medical evacuees to Rafah from inside Gaza.

Good morning MEE readers.

In the early hours of Sunday, al-Shifa hospital remains under Israeli siege, and reports have emerged that dozens of dead bodies are inside the hospital with nowhere to be taken.

The healthcare infrastructure in Gaza is in collapse as Israel continues to target hospitals in the northern part of the enclave. One report from Al Jazeera Arabic stated that a number of cancer patients have died due to a lack of medical supplies.

A spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza has said that al-Shifa hospital doesn't have the capacity or resources to treat the sick or wounded.

In case you're just tuning in, here is what you missed over the last several hours:

• In remarks on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would maintain security control over Gaza, and expressed opposition to the idea that the Palestinian Authority would govern Gaza in a post-war scenario. This prompted US officials to request a clarification, which has shown the growing divide between Israel and the US over the war.

• Senior White House official Brett McGurk is going to visit the Middle East this week, where he will travel to Israel, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

• The World Health Organisation lost touch with its contacts inside al-Shifa hospital.

• Several people were killed after the UN Development Programme office in Gaza was bombed.

• The pro-Palestinian march in London was attended by up to one million people, organisers say. At least 126 people, mostly right-wing counter-protesters, were arrested by London police.

A number of cancer patients in Gaza have died due to a lack of the necessary medical supplies to treat them, according to a report from Al Jazeera Arabic.

The healthcare system in Gaza is in collapse, and Israel's military is currently circling several hospitals in northern Gaza. Al-Shifa hospital, the largest medical complex in the enclave, is currently under Israeli siege.

The office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Gaza was bombed on Saturday night, the head of the UNDP said on X, formerly Twitter.

Achim Steiner said that there were reports of deaths and injuries "among those who sought safety in our compound".

"This is wrong on every count," Steiner said. "Civilians, civilian infrastructure & the inviolability of UN facilities must be always protected."

Israeli attacks have already killed more than 100 staff members working at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa).

In the early hours of Sunday, Israeli forces raided a number of cities in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli raids were reported near the cities of Hebron and Nablus. Israeli forces also stormed Tulkarm, a city near the border with Israel. Confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians were reported in Tulkarm.

According to a tally by the Palestinian prisoners' rights NGO Addameer, more than 2,300 Palestinians have been detained during Israel's raids in the West Bank since 7 October.

A Jordanian plane dropped medical supplies to its field hospital in Gaza, the office of the country's prime minister said on X, formerly Twitter.

This is the second time Jordan has sent medical supplies since 7 October, and Jordan said that it was done in cooperation with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.