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

Doctor Munir al-Bursh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health, said that 550 patients trapped in the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza by Israeli forces will not be able to get any treatment as the siege continues.

The spokesperson made the comments to Al Jazeera Arabic on Tuesday, as Israeli tanks continue to encircle the hospital. 

“There are many wounded patients inside with no tools or equipment to help them at all,” he added.

Live fire is being used against anyone who moves inside the hospital, while the electricity has been totally cut off for days. 

Around 120 patients have already been transferred to the al-Nasser Hospital. 
 

Israel has recalled its ambassador to South Africa back to Jerusalem “for consultations” ahead of a parliamentary vote in the African country to decide the fate of the Israeli embassy on Tuesday.

“Following the latest South African statements, the ambassador of Israel to Pretoria has been recalled to Jerusalem for consultations,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday on social media platform X. 

The parliament vote will be held over a motion to shut down the Israeli embassy and cut all ties with Israel until a ceasefire is implemented in Gaza.
 

A newly formed group made up of senior officials from several Muslim countries will visit the United Nations Security Council's five permanent members and others to urge an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a Turkish foreign ministry source said on Tuesday.

The group includes foreign ministers and representatives from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Palestinian Authority, as well as the OIC Secretary General.

The source said the group had started talking with the permanent UN Security Council members - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France - with a visit to Beijing on Monday, and would also visit other countries.

"The primary goal of the contact group is for a ceasefire to be announced as soon as possible and for humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza," the source said.
 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that all hospitals in north Gaza are now totally out of service.

“There are no medical services or help to anyone in north Gaza now,” Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the ministry said. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said Israel’s killing of civilians is “unparalleled and unprecedented” since his time as Secretary-General.

The Palestinian health ministry said Israel killed at least 13,300 Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October
 

The Israeli army encircled and bombed a residential area in Jabalia, north Gaza on Monday evening into Tuesday morning.

Israeli air strikes also targeted homes near the Kamal Adwan Hospital. 

Videos and images showed widespread destruction online, with rescue workers searching for bodies with their bare hands and flashlights.

The number of people killed and wounded is yet to be announced.
 

Israel conducted overnight what local Arabic media has reported as a “massive arrest campaign" in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli troops arrested at least 35 Palestinians in raids on Jenin, Nablus, Hebron, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, according to Palestinian media. 

Early Tuesday morning, Israeli special forces were seen laying siege to a house in Jericho.

Meanwhile, another video from the occupied West Bank showed heavily armed Israeli troops next to an armoured vehicle marching in Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The troops were supported by rooftop snipers, according to Palestinian media. 

Gunfights were also reported in Jenin refugee camp between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters.

The Israel-Palestine war has become the deadliest war on record for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

As of 20 November, 50 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead, according to CPJ: 45 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese.

Fighting broke out after Hamas’ deadly 7 October attack which was followed by Israel’s brutal retaliatory bombing campaign and subsequent ground-invasion of the Gaza Strip. 

The details of a potential truce agreement between Israel and Hamas will be released “in the coming hours,” senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq told Al Jazeera.

Rishq hinted at more details of the potential truce, telling Al Jazeera that talks are underway for a truce that would be multiple days and see the entry of aid into Gaza as part of a hostage for prisoner swap deal. 

Hamas had floated releasing 50 women and children it is holding in exchange for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, according to media reports. The group also wants more aid to enter the besieged enclave. 

Rishq told Arabic media earlier that Egypt and Qatar, two traditional mediators between the group and Israel, would announce more details of the potential truce.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said early on Tuesday that the group was close to reaching a deal on a truce with Israel. 

Hamas is nearing a ‘truce agreement’ with Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the group, has said.

Haniyeh told Reuters in a statement that the group was  "close to reaching a truce agreement" with Israel and that its response had been delivered to Qatari officials, who are brokering the indirect negotiations.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden told reporters that he believed Israel and Hamas were close to brokering a deal to release hostages. In exchange for their release, Hamas has demanded a ceasefire for some days, according to multiple media reports.

The UN said it had “grave concerns” about dehydration and waterborne diseases particularly in northern Gaza, with more than 1.7 million Palestinians now displaced from their homes. 

On average, there is now one shower unit for every 700 people and a single toilet for every 150 people at UN facilities, the office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said in its latest update. 

The UN also noted a sharp increase in Palestinians walking from northern to southern Gaza with injuries as Israel continues to pound the enclave. 

One woman who had come from Jabalia refugee camp was seen walking south while pressing a towel against wounds in her abdomen. She attempted to receive treatment at the besieged Indonesian hospital, but was not admitted.

Scores of Palestinians have been killed as Israel pounds the Gaza Strip and fierce fighting is reported between the Israeli military and Hamas.

In Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip, 17 Palestinians were killed and several more wounded, including women and children, during Israeli strikes early on Tuesday, according to Arabic media.

Meanwhile,  at least three Palestinians were killed and several more wounded by strikes on Jabalia refugee  camp according to Arabic media.

Two Palestinian journalists were also killed earlier on Monday in the Israeli bombardment.

Alaa Taher Al-Hasanat was killed during a strike on his home in Gaza City and Ayat al-Khadura was killed in a strike on  Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

A retired senior Israeli general has said that Israel should not ‘shy away’ from permitting the outbreak of severe epidemics amongst Palestinians in southern Gaza as it will bring Israel ‘closer to victory.’

“The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics,” retired Major General Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council, wrote Sunday.

“We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.”

Eiland went on to say that the Israeli government must take a “harder line” against the US and rule out discussions about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza until all the hostages held in the besieged enclave are released.

The opinion article elicited an endorsement from far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said, “I agree with every word.”

Smotrich has been positioning for a seat on Israel’s three-member war cabinet made up of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition politician Benny Gantz.

Jeff Merkley has become the second US senator to call for a ceasefire to the Israel-Palestine war after saying Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip had resulted in “mass carnage.”

“I am calling for a ceasefire—a cessation of hostilities by both sides," Merkely, a Democratic senator from Oregon said in a statement Monday.

"To endure, the ceasefire and the following negotiations must accomplish other essential objectives, including the release of all hostages and a massive influx of humanitarian aid."

Merkley said that while he defended Israel’s right to attack Hamas, he was ‘deeply disturbed’ by the way Israel had responded to the 7 October attack, which he said had inflicted a “shocking level of civilian carnage rather than a targeted campaign against Hamas.”

“Israel has unleashed a bombing campaign on Gaza of phenomenal ferocity. Israel defends this campaign as necessary to strike Hamas wherever necessary. But the impression the world has been left with is one of indiscriminate bombing,” he said.

At the same time, Merkley called on Hamas to surrender its weapons and immediately release all hostages. He reaffirmed the Biden administration’s demand that Hamas no longer control the Gaza Strip, but didn't say how the group would be convinced to give up governing the besieged enclave. 

Dick Durbin, a senior Democratic senator from Illinois, has also called for a ceasefire, along with 40 members of the House of Representatives. 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be the best way of ensuring Israel's security.

The EU's top diplomat told a meeting of foreign ministers from the EU that he had drawn "a fundamental political conclusion" from his discussions across the Middle East.

"I think that the best guarantee for Israel's security is the creation of a Palestinian state," Borrell said in a written summary of the EU meeting.

Borrell insisted Israel should not occupy Gaza after the war.

”Despite the huge challenges, we have to advance our reflections on the stabilisation of Gaza and the future Palestinian state," he said. 

He added that “increased extremists and settlers’ violence against Palestinians” in the occupied West Bank raised the possibility of escalation in fighting outside of the Gaza Strip.