Israel-Hamas war LIVE: Thousands of Iranians rally in support of Gaza as death toll reaches 12,300

State television showed some protesters carrying bundled white shrouds symbolising the children killed in Gaza during the nationwide rallies.

Almost thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Saturday as part of state-sponsored marches to demonstrate against the Israeli killings of more than 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children in the Gaza war.

State television showed some protesters carrying bundled white shrouds symbolising the children killed in Gaza during the nationwide rallies.

In Tehran, crowds of demonstrators waved Palestinian flags while others held banners reading “Down with America” and “Down with Israel”.

Others burned Israeli flags while some waved the flags of Lebanese group Hezbollah, Iran’s ally, which has been engaged in border skirmishes with Israel since October 7.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami addressed a rally in Tehran, saying: “Palestine stands on the path of a war of attrition ... Israel will face a definitive defeat and end up in the dustbin of history,” Reuters reports.

He added: “The battle is not over. The Islamic world will do whatever it has to do. There are still great [unused] capacities left,” without referring to any possible moves by Iran to join the conflict.

On Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry called on the international community to help stop the “killing machine and organised terrorism of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and hold Zionist criminals accountable to justice and international law”.

UPDATES FROM DAY 44 OF THE WAR

Attacks on UN schools ‘horrifying’, ‘must stop’: UNRWA chief

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees on Saturday denounced strikes on UN-run schools in Gaza after the Hamas-run health ministry said at least 50 people had been killed in Jabalia.

“These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

Earlier, dozens died in the UN-operated al-Fakhoora school in northern Gaza in an Israeli strike. It was sheltering hundreds of war-displaced people.

Receiving horrifying images & footage of scores of people killed and injured in another @UNRWA school sheltering thousands of displaced in the north of the Gaza Strip.

These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer.

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) November 18, 2023

First planeload of wounded Palestinian kids arrive in UAE

A group of 15 Palestinians, including children and their families, successfully exited Gaza at the Rafah crossing on Friday and then took a flight to the Abu Dhabi, Reuters reports.

Some of the young had bandaged arms and legs. Some sat quietly next to their parents or relatives while others travelled alone.

Among those who travelled was Mohammed Abu Tabikh, 14, one of the more seriously wounded children on the plane. He suffered injuries to his neck and spine when a car he was travelling in was hit in an attack.

“When I got injured, I felt shock. And then I stopped moving,” he told Reuters.

READ FULL REPORT HERE

Medical personnel and officials move Mohammed Abu Tabikh, 14, who was wounded in the neck and spine during the Israel-Hamas war, from a plane to an ambulance on a stretcher in Abu Dhabi. (Photo | AP)

Al-Shifa hospital patients, staff and displaced leave the compound as Israel strikes targets in south

Health officials say many patients, medical staff, and those displaced by the ongoing war have left Gaza’s largest hospital, which was taken over by Israeli forces earlier in the week.

Palestinian officials and the Israeli military offered conflicting versions about what prompted the mass exodus from al-Shifa hospital, AFP reported.

Health officials say they received an evacuation order from the military on Saturday morning, while the military said it had offered safe passage to those hoping to leave.

Before the departure, several thousand people, including medical patients in serious condition, were trapped at Al-Shifa in dire conditions.

READ FULL REPORT HERE

Gaza communications blackout ends, giving rise to hope for the resumption of critical aid deliveries

Internet and phone service was partially restored to the Gaza Strip on Saturday, ending a telecommunications blackout that forced the United Nations to shut down critical humanitarian aid deliveries because it was unable to coordinate its convoys.

Meantime, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building on the outskirts of the town of Khan Younis, killing at least 26 Palestinians, according to a doctor at the hospital where the bodies were taken.

The Palestinian telecommunications provider said it was able to restart its generators after UNRWA donated fuel. The end of the communications blackout meant a return to news and messages from journalists and activists in the besieged enclave on social media platforms as service began to return late Friday night.

READ FULL REPORT HERE

Israeli forces order Shifa hospital evacuation in 'next hour': AFP

Israeli troops ordered the evacuation of the Al-Shifa hospital "in the next hour" over loudspeakers on Sunday, AFP has reported.

They called the hospital's director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, to instruct him to ensure "the evacuation of patients, wounded, the displaced and medical staff, and that they should move on foot towards the seafront", he told AFP.

This comes two days after the Israeli troops combed the hospital facility for Hamas hideouts and claimed to have uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft and a vehicle with weapons inside the complex.

The United Nations estimated 2,300 patients, staff and displaced Palestinians were sheltering at Al-Shifa before Israeli troops moved in on Wednesday.

The Hamas health ministry in Gaza has announced dozens of deaths there as a result of power cuts caused by fuel shortages amid intense combat.

Israel has made repeated calls for the hospital to be evacuated to the south, however medical professionals say the patients cannot be moved.

'Not asking for the moon': UN official pleads for Gaza ceasefire

A top United Nations official on Friday renewed calls for a "humanitarian ceasefire" to allow aid to reach the 2.2 million people trapped in the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas.

"Call it what you will, but the requirement, from a humanitarian point of view, is simple. Stop the fighting to allow civilians to move safely," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

"We are not asking for the moon," Griffiths said. "We are asking for the basic measures required to meet the essential needs of the civilian population and stem the course of this crisis."

Griffiths also called for the release of all hostages held in Gaza without condition.

Limited internet and phone access returns in Gaza after generators get fuel

The Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said Friday that phone and internet services were partially working again across Gaza, after fuel was delivered to restart generators that power the networks.

NetBlocks, a group tracking internet outages, confirmed that “internet connectivity is being partially restored” in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Paltel announced that all communication services, including landline connection, mobile network and Internet connection, dropped due to a lack of fuel.

The next day, Israel agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel, equaling 60,000 liters (15,850 gallons), into the Gaza Strip each day.

Thousands of bodies lie buried in rubble in Gaza. Families dig to retrieve them, often by hand

The wreckage goes on for block after devastated block. The smell is sickening. Every day, hundreds of people claw through tons of rubble with shovels and iron bars and their bare hands.

The search is particularly difficult in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, where Israeli ground forces are battling Hamas militants.

The Palestinian Civil Defense department, Gaza’s primary search-and-rescue force, has had more than two dozen workers killed and over 100 injured since the war began.

More than half its vehicles are either without fuel or damaged by strike.

In central Gaza, outside the northern combat zone, the area’s civil defense director has no working heavy equipment at all, including bulldozers and cranes.

“We actually don’t have fuel to keep the sole bulldozer we have operating,” said the aid workers.

Another baby dies at al-Shifa amid ongoing Israeli assault, 26 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis

According to reports in the Middle East Eye, At least 26 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis along with another baby.

Israeli forces are accused of ransacking Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza where thousands of patients, medics and displaced people are trapped.

According to reports in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on November 17, Israeli troops, accompanied by tanks, operated within the Shifa hospital compound in Gaza city.

According to hospital administrators, since 11 November, 40 patients, including four premature babies, have died in the hospital due to the lack of electricity.