Israel-Hamas war live: WHO calls al-Shifa a 'death zone'

More than 30 premature babies have been evacuated from Gaza's largest hospital and are now in the south of the territory.

 

Preparations are underway to use Cyprus as a launching pad for European countries to send humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The island nation in the Mediterranean Sea is already home to a command center used by 21 countries to evacuate their citizens from crisis areas. This facility could be used to dispatch aid.

The government of Cyprus said Israel will not oppose the plan, so long as its officials can check what is loaded onto ships.

"Now we have proceeded from the political to the technical part of it," Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a spokesperson for the presidency of Cyprus, told DW.

The main technical barrier is that the only port in Gaza has not been fully functional since the beginning of Israel and Egypt's blockade of the strip in 2007.

One proposal involves creating a floating, temporary port off the coast of Gaza.

The Red Cross said it is in communication with the Cypriot government and can move quickly.

"We are ready at any time," said Christina Kapartis, secretary general of the Cyprus Red Cross.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has shared footage of what it said was a Hamas tunnel underneath the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

Hamas maintains a network of tunnels in Gaza but denies that they are located under hospitals or other civilian sites.

"IDF troops exposed a 55-meter-long terror tunnel 10 meters deep underneath the al-Shifa hospital complex," the Israeli military said on social media on Sunday.

The IDF statement said its forces found weapons and munitions inside the tunnel, which led to a blast-proof door but did not provide further information on what was beyond the door.

Yemen's Houthi rebels hijacked a cargo ship in the Red Sea on Sunday, days after the Iranian-backed group threatened to target Israeli vessels over Israel's war against the Gaza-based militant group Hamas.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was not an Israeli ship, after an unnamed Houthi official claimed it was in a statement.

Netanyahu's office said the ship is owned by a British company and operated by a Japanese firm, and added that the crew were of various nationalities, including Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Filipino and Mexican.

"There were no Israelis on the ship," the prime minister's office said in a statement on social media.

"This is another Iranian act of terrorism that represents an escalation in Iran's belligerence against the citizens of the free world, with concomitant international ramifications vis-a-vis the security of global shipping routes."

Israel's military also condemned the incident.

"The hijacking of a cargo ship by the Houthis near Yemen in the southern Red Sea is a very grave incident of global consequence."

"The ship departed Turkey on its way to India, staffed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis."

A Houthi military spokesperson later said on social media that "military forces will continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes... against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop."

The Red Sea, where Yemen has a coast line, is one of the world's major shipping thoroughfares.

Top foreign policy officials from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and four Muslim-majority countries are set to visit China on Monday and Tuesday, Beijing announced.

"During the visit, China will have in-depth communication and coordination with the joint delegation of foreign ministers of Arab and Islamic countries to promote a de-escalation of the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, protecting civilians, and justly resolving the Palestinian issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Sunday.

The other officials in the delegation will come from from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, according to the ministry.

The Palestinian Authority, which is internationally recognized, controls parts of the occupied West Bank but has no control over Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU, Germany and others.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has released a statement condemning the scale of violence and destruction in the Gaza Strip.

"The horrendous events of the past 48 hours in Gaza beggar belief," he said.

"The killing of so many people at schools turned shelters, hundreds fleeing for their lives from al-Shifa Hospital, amid continuing displacement of hundreds of thousands in southern Gaza, are actions which fly in the face of the basic protections civilians must be afforded under international law," he said.

He said that "nowhere is safe in Gaza" despite orders from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for residents to evacuate southward.

In Khan Younis, Türk said that the IDF "are dropping leaflets demanding residents go to unspecified 'recognized shelters,' even as strikes take place across Gaza." 

The UN rights chief called for an immediate cease-fire "on humanitarian and human rights grounds."

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged Muslim countries to "at least cut off political ties with Israel for a limited period of time," reported Reuters news agency, quoting the semi-official Tasnim news agency in Iran.

The latest remarks come several weeks after he called for an Islamic oil and food embargo on Israel.

During a joint summit between members of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League in Saudi Arabia on November 11, Muslim states did not agree to a request by Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi to impose wide-ranging sanctions on Israel.

Israel launched a military operation in Gaza last month after Hamas militants launched attacks in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people. Iran backs Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US, Germany and other governments. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent and UN agencies said all 31 prematurely born babies at al-Shifa hospital had been evacuated from the facility which the WHO has described as a "death zone."

"They were transported by PRCS ambulances to the south, preparing for their transfer to the Emirates Hospital in Rafah," the Red Crescent said. 

Separately, Mohammed Zaqut, director general of hospitals in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, told the AFP news agency "preparations are under way" for the babies to be taken to Egypt.

Only "very minor" issues are holding up a deal to free hostages seized by Hamas in its October 7 terror attack on Israel, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Sunday.

"The challenges facing the agreement are just practical and logistical," he said a joint press conference with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Doha.

"The deal is going through ups and downs from time to time throughout the last few weeks. But I think that you know I'm now more confident that we are close enough to reach a deal that can bring the people safely back to their home," Sheikh Mohammed said.

Hamas' political leadership operates out of Qatar, and Doha has been mediating between Israel and Hamas.

Borrell, meanwhile, said the UN Security Council resolution calling for "humanitarian pauses and corridors" in Gaza must be implemented

"The decisions of the Security Council are not just words ... They have to be implemented," Borrel said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday morning that its warplanes have destroyed Hezbollah infrastructure inside Lebanese territory.

It also said it was engaging further targets in response to "about ten mortar attacks" which it said were launched against "peaceful" areas.

Skirmishes between the Lebanese militant group and the IDF in northern Israel are raising fears that the conflict in Gaza could spread to another front.

Several countries, including the United States and Germany, have designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The European Union designated its armed wing one in 2013.

Following a report in the Washington Post that Israel and Hamas have tentatively agreed a five-day ceasefire in return for the liberation of dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza (see below), both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US officials have insisted that no deal has yet been reached.

"Concerning the hostages, there are many unsubstantiated rumors, many incorrect reports," Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday evening, adding: "I would like to make it clear: As of now, there has been no deal. But I want to promise: When there is something to say – we will report to you about it."

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson also played down the report, writing on X, formerly Twitter: "We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal."

A second US official also said no deal had been reached, according to the Reuters news agency.

Israel, the United States and Hamas are close to a deal that could see dozens of women and children held hostage by the Islamist militant group in Gaza freed in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

The release of the hostages could begin within the next several days, the US daily reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations.

The agreement, should it materialize, could lead to the first sustained pause in the ongoing conflict in besieged Gaza, the report said. 

Israel has not immediately responded to the publication's report.

A White House spokesperson said no deal has been reached yet and that the US is continuing to work to get a deal between Israel and Hamas.

Israel, the United States, Germany and the European Union designate Hamas as a terror organization. Hamas militants took some 240 people hostage and killed 1,200 during terror attacks in southern Israel on October 7.

Israel's military campaign against the militants has killed some 12,300 people, including about 5,000 children, according to Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

The Post reported that the agreement was sketched out during weeks of talks in Doha, Qatar, among Israel, the United States and Hamas, indirectly represented by Qatari mediators, according to Arab and other diplomats. 

However, it was unclear until now that Israel would agree to pause its offensive in Gaza temporarily, provided the conditions were right, the Washington Post said. 

The paper said the six-page deal calls for all parties to the conflict to halt combat operations for at least five days while an initial 50 or more hostages would be released in smaller groups every 24 hours.

The Post said it was not clear how many of the hostages would be released under the agreement. 

The report said that overhead surveillance would monitor movement on the ground to regulate the pause.

The freeze in fighting is also intended to allow a crucial increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance, including fuel, to enter the Palestinian enclave from Egypt, the report said.

The World Health Organization said it had led an assessment mission to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and determined it was a "death zone" and pushed for a full evacuation of the facility.

"WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families," the United Nations health agency said in a statement, adding that 291 patients and 25 health workers remained inside the hospital.

WHO said this was a high-risk operation in an active conflict zone, with heavy fighting ongoing in close proximity to the hospital. Its team was able to spend only one hour inside the hospital.

According to WHO, the team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and was told more than 80 people were buried there.

WHO called for "an immediate cease-fire, the sustained flow of humanitarian assistance at scale, unhindered humanitarian access to all of those in need, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the cessation of attacks on health care and other vital infrastructure."

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas militants of operating from tunnels beneath the vast hospital complex.

The White House, relying on US intelligence, has supported Israel's claims, saying that Hamas was storing weapons and operating a command node from the hospital in Gaza.

Hamas has denied having any military presence at the hospital.

dvv/sms (AFP, AP, Reuters)