Israel-Hamas war updates: ‘Catastrophic’ situation at Gaza hospital as attacks ramp up; Pro-Palestinian march due in London

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Saturday press conference that after the war, Israel will maintain security control in Gaza but will demilitarize the region.

He also doubled down on his position that there will be no cease-fire until Hamas releases all of its over 200 hostages.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Power outages have hit the intensive care unit and the pediatric ward at Gaza’s main hospital, Palestinian health officials said Saturday.

An infant was among two people who died at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City “because we did not have electricity,” Dr. Marwan Abusada, a surgeon at the hospital who is also head of international cooperation at the Hamas-run Ministry of Health told NBC News in a telephone interview.

NBC News was not immediately able to independently confirm the situation on the ground.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military in a statement to NBC News said that there was “ongoing intense fighting against Hamas in the vicinity” of Al-Shifa hospital.

— Melodie Warner

The United Nations has not been able to make food deliveries in over eight days, according to a Friday statement from the Secretary-General’s office.

In northern Gaza, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that “the deteriorating food situation is continuing,” said a spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General.

In the south of Gaza as well, the lack of access to electricity and ingredients has limited the capacity of bakeries to make bread, making it difficult to supply shelters.

“People are lining up for hours in front of bakeries and are exposed to airstrikes,” the Secretary-General’s office said.

Grocery shops are sold out of and unable to restock flour, mineral water, eggs and dairy products.

On Thursday, 65 aid trucks entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, bringing the total since Oct. 21 to 821. The U.N. said that the pace of aid deliveries is “wholly inadequate” and that another entry point for aid convoys is necessary.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Officers arrested 82 people who were attempting to counter-protest the pro-Palestine march in central London on Saturday, the United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police reported.

The arrests came as an effort to “prevent a breach of peace,” the police said in a Saturday social media post.

“They’re part of a large group of counter protestors we have been monitoring who have tried to reach the main protest march,” the police force added. “We will continue to take action to avoid the disorder that would likely take place if that happened.”

For the fifth weekend in a row, thousands gathered in London on Saturday to call for a cease-fire and protest the violence against civilians, especially Palestinians in Gaza. The Metropolitan Police said that it expected a particularly large turnout this weekend — Nov. 11 is Remembrance Day in the U.K., which commemorates those who have served to defend the country. The police force deployed roughly 2,000 officers to monitor the situation.

Officers became aware of and started tracking counter-protesters earlier in the day, which they said “are not one cohesive group.”

“If their intention is to confront the main protest departing later today from Park Lane, we will use all the powers and tactics available to us to prevent that from happening,” the police said.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to criticism from French President Emmanuel Macron who said that Israel should stop killing civilians.

“The responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas – ISIS and not with Israel,” Netanyahu said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.

In a Friday interview with the BBC, Macron said that he condemns the Oct. 7 Hamas attack but there is “no reason” and “no legitimacy” for Israel’s killing of innocent women, children and elderly people in Gaza. He also called for a cease-fire.

The Israeli Prime Minister responded that Israel is in the war because of the Oct. 7 attack and because Hamas still has over 200 hostages. Netanyahu has previously said that if Hamas releases its hostages, Israel will call a cease-fire. The Israel Defense Forces also said it would temporarily pause bombardment during certain time windows on Saturday to allow for the safe evacuation of civilians.

“The crimes being committed today by Hamas – ISIS in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and all over the world,” Netanyahu said in his statement. “The leaders of the world should be condemning Hamas – ISIS, not Israel.”

Netanyahu has equated Hamas with the ISIS terrorist organization. It is important to note that they are different groups.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Crowds gathered in London Saturday ahead of a “National March For Palestine” which is expected to be attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

The protesters are demanding a “cease-fire now” in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has seen many thousands of people killed and with no end in sight.

London’s Met Police have launched a major operation to oversee the march, with 2,000 officers on duty.

— Katrina Bishop

Al Shifa — the largest hospital in Gaza — has no electricity or water, according to local health officials, who said it has “stopped working.”

In a Saturday news conference, Palestinian Ministry of Health Spokesman Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said the hospital was “besieged.” The Ministry of Health is an agency within the Hamas-controlled government.

“We can say that the Al-Shifa Medical Complex has stopped working and is out of service due to the occupation’s targeting of everything that moves inside the complex,” he said, according to an NBC translation.

Al-Qudra said the Israeli military was currently bombing an area of the hospital, and those inside were unable to move location “due to the intensity of the bombing and the intensity of the fire.”

Also speaking at the press conference, Dr. Muhammad Qandil said there were many dead bodies both inside and outside of the hospital, which is “collapsing totally.”

“We are now calling the whole world, if there is any conscience still there, please [act] … Any politician in the world now who cannot put pressure to stop this war crimes against hospitals his hands are bloodied,” the emergency consultant said, according to an NBC translation of his comments.

Israel’s military says Hamas uses hospitals as operational bases and hides weapons in tunnels underneath them, although Hamas denies these charges. Last week, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “Hamas systematically exploits hospitals as part of its war machine.”

— Katrina Bishop

The Israel Defense Forces announced its Saturday evacuation windows. The military has for days been telling citizens in northern Gaza to move southward, as fighting intensifies in the region.

“The evacuation corridor will remain open between 09:00-16:00 for civilians through the Salah al-Din axis toward south of Wadi Gaza,” the IDF said on social media. 9 a.m. in Gaza is 2 a.m. ET.

“There will be a tactical pause of military operation in the the area of Jabalia camp today between 10:00-14:00 to encourage evacuation southward via Saladin Axis.”

— Katrina Bishop

In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces and security agency Shin Bet (or ISA) said a Hamas commander, who was holding 1,000 Gaza civilians hostage at the Rantisi Hospital, had been killed.

“Based on precise IDF and ISA intelligence, and with the direction of IDF ground troops, IDF aircraft struck Ahmed Siam, a company commander of the Naser Radwan Company of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the statement said.

In an additional post on social media, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said Siam had been preventing people from leaving the hospital complex to evacuate southward — as instructed by Israel’s military.

“Ahmed Siam demonstrates once again that Hamas uses the civilians of the Gaza Strip as human shields for terror purposes,” Hagari said. Hamas denies these claims.

CNBC was unable to verify the reports.

— Katrina Bishop

Israel’s military issued an update on its recent activities Saturday, saying it had taken control of 11 Hamas positions.

In an update Saturday on social media, the Israel Defence Forces said that in the past 24 hours it had “neutralized” terrorist cells, taken over a number of Hamas posts, and destroyed an underground tunnel, along with a number of other activities. The post was translated via Google.

In a separate update, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military had been targeting a specific Hamas battalion, killing its commander.

“In recent days, fighters from the Golani Brigade and Battalion 53 have eliminated many terrorists and damaged the infrastructure and combat equipment of the ‘Zabra Tel Elhua’ battalion of the terrorist organization Hamas,” Hagari said on X, according to a Google translation.

“The fighters carried out raids that included battles in the south of the Sheikh Ejlin neighborhood in the west of Gaza City, in which there were significant battles with Hamas terrorists.”

— Katrina Bishop

Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said a child is killed every 10 minutes, on average, in Gaza.

“WHO continues to call for unfettered access to delivery humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza, who are not responsible for this violence, but are suffering in ways that we in this room cannot imagine,” he added in a video posted on social media.

— Katrina Bishop

The situation at Al-Shifa Hospital is worsening, according to the Doctors Without Borders charity, which called for an end to the attacks and for the protection of “medical facilities, medical staff and patients.”

“Over the last few hours, the attacks against Al-Shifa Hospital have dramatically intensified. MSF staff at the hospital reported a catastrophic situation inside just a few hours ago,” the aid agency (which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontière) said in a social media post.

It added that it is unable to contact its staff inside the hospital — the biggest in the Gaza Strip.

A further tweet cited Dr. Mohammed Obeid, an MSF surgeon in Al-Shifa, who said he would not leave his patients.

“There is a patient who needs surgery. There is a patient who’s already asleep in our department. We cannot evacuate ourselves and [leave] these people inside. As a doctor. I swear to help the people who need help,” he said, according to the tweet.

— Katrina Bishop

French President Emmanuel Macron said Israel must stop killing babies and women in Gaza. Speaking to U.K. broadcaster the BBC, he said there was “no justification” for the bombings.

“De facto — today, civilians are bombed — de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop,” he said in an exclusive interview.

Read the full report here.

— Matt Clinch

London’s Met Police said that 2,000 officers will be on duty across central London this weekend as part of a major policing operation, with hundreds of thousands expected to join a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday.

The march coincides with Armistice Day and has drawn criticism from some U.K. politicians.

“We know the cumulative impact continued protest, increasing tensions, and rising hate crimes are having across London and the fear and anxiety our Jewish communities in particular are feeling. They have a right to feel safe in their city, knowing … they can travel across London without feeling afraid of intimidation or harassment,” the Met said in a statement Friday.

-Matt Clinch

“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.

He said later that at least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering.

Gaza officials said missiles landed in the courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave’s biggest hospital, in the early hours, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi pediatrics cancer hospital.

Israel’s military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.

The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated, and are full of displaced people as well as patients and doctors.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa hospital’s basement, which meant the hospital could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.

Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals, charges Hamas denies.

Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi hospital as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times.

“One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he said by phone. Videos verified by Reuters showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood.

— Reuters

Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the official death toll in Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 cross-border attack into Israel has been lowered to 1,200 people.

Israeli officials have previously estimated the death toll at 1,400.

The ministry gave no reason for the revision. But an Israeli official said the number had been changed after a painstaking weekslong process to identify bodies, many of which were mutilated or burned.

The official said the final death toll could still change. He said a number of bodies have not been identified and it is unclear whether all of the nearly 240 hostages believed to be held by Hamas are still alive.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official government announcement.

— Associated Press

The World Health Organization says 20 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a pediatric hospital that has stopped operations after a reported Israeli strike in the area.

WHO spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris said Friday that Rantisi Children’s hospital in the north of the enclave was no longer operating, and it was not immediately clear what has happened to the patients inside.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said earlier that Israeli forces had struck overnight the area around Shifa Medical Complex, the largest hospital in Gaza, killing six Palestinians, and bombed areas near several other hospitals including the Rantisi hospital.

Harris said WHO does not try to assign responsibility for strikes.

Harris said some children had been receiving care such as dialysis and life support which doesn’t allow for their safe evacuation.

She added that “hospitals never should be a target.”

“If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza,” the U.N. humanitarian agency spokesperson, Jens Laerke, told reporters in Geneva.

— Associated Press

Columbia University has suspended their student chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) through the end of the fall term, according to a statement.

“This decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” said Gerald Rosberg, Columbia’s senior executive vice president and chair of the Special Committee on Campus Safety.

This means that both groups will not be allowed to hold events on campus or receive university funding, according to Rosberg.

“Lifting the suspension will be contingent on the two groups demonstrating a commitment to compliance with University policies and engaging in consultations at a group leadership level with University officials,” Rosberg said.

— Associated Press