Oct-Dec
Oct 9, 2023: Tel Aviv imposes a “total blockade” on the Gaza Strip, declaring that no electricity, food, water or fuel would be permitted into the territory. Retaliatory strikes pick up pace, along with a complete siege.
“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime,” says Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir in a statement.
Israeli missiles target the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp, located in the north of Gaza City, killing dozens of people, according to Al Jazeera. Footage shows rescue workers pulling bodies from underneath the rubble. In another attack, Israel targets the Shati refugee camp, also known as Beach Camp.
Even hospitals aren’t spared. A Gaza health ministry spokesperson says six health workers were killed and four others injured, while eight healthcare facilities and nine ambulances were damaged.
Oct 10, 2023: Aid groups say more than 400,000 people in Gaza face disrupted services due to damage to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, Al Jazeera reports. According to the United Nations, over 187,000 of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced to leave their homes.
As the Israeli bombardment continues unabated, worries mount in Gaza. The enclave’s sole power plant can only operate for a maximum of two days. At the same time, Israel hits the headquarters of the private Palestinian Telecommunications Company, affecting landline telephone, internet and mobile phone services.
Oct 11, 2023: Palestinian news agency Wafa reports Israeli forces dropped white phosphorus bombs on the al-Karama neighbourhood in Gaza — a claim Israel denies. The claim is, however, corroborated by Human Rights Watch, which says it verified videos taken in the enclave showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port.
“White phosphorus, which can be used either for marking, signalling, and obscuring, or as a weapon to set fires that burn people and objects, has a significant incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire. The use of white phosphorus in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, magnifies the risk to civilians and violates the international humanitarian law prohibition on putting civilians at unnecessary risk,” HRW says.
Oct 12, 2023: The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns hospitals in Gaza are at a “breaking point”, highlighting that facilities are suffering acute medicinal shortages.
“Without the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza — especially health services, medical supplies, food, clean water, fuel, and non-food items — humanitarian and health partners will be unable to respond to urgent needs of people who desperately need it. Each lost hour puts more lives at risk,” it says.
Oct 13, 2023: Israel instructs residents of Gaza City, home to over a million of the strip’s inhabitants, to evacuate and move southwards “within 24 hours”, which the UN warns could have “devastating humanitarian consequences”. Meanwhile, the WHO says relocating severely ill people would amount to a “death sentence”.
Al Jazeera reports that the frequency of Israeli air attacks has increased in the northern part of the enclave where 30 airstrikes were conducted in just an hour. In the south, there are no shelter facilities. Separately, in a post on X, Unicef says victims of Israeli bombing include a large number of children.
Oct 14, 2023: The UN says an estimated one million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced in the first week of the war. On the other hand, the health ministry reports that at least 50 families in the enclave have been wiped out from the civil registry.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports dozens of Palestinians were buried in a mass grave in Gaza City due to the overwhelming number of casualties, caused by relentless Israeli bombing, and the lack of space in local cemeteries, that were brimming with the over 2,300 Palestinians killed.
Oct 15, 2023: WHO warns there are only “24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left” in the Gaza Strip, which has been blockaded and besieged by Israel following the Hamas attack. Amid the deteriorating conditions, Israeli bombardment continues unabated.
Oct 16, 2023: Al Jazeera reports a “massive fireball” in Gaza after multiple Israeli air strikes kill several people within the span of just a few hours. As Israel continues its ruthless campaign and the death toll rises, health authorities in the enclave are forced to store bodies of Palestinians in ice cream trucks because moving them to hospitals is “too risky” and cemeteries have no space.
Meanwhile, the UN’s humanitarian office says reserves of fuel at hospitals across Gaza are expected to last only around 24 hours, which is life-threatening for the strip’s few functional hospitals.
Oct 17, 2023: An explosion pierces the night, accompanied by flashes of red. A blast is reported at the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Baptist Hospital in central Gaza, where hundreds of injured and displaced Palestinians are seeking shelter.
According to health authorities, at least 500 people are killed. Social media is flooded with images of burning rooms and stretchers laden with mutilated bodies. Al Jazeera footage from the scene shows medics and families recovering bodies with bags and blankets.
The health ministry in Gaza says an Israeli air raid caused the blast. But Tel Aviv attributes the explosion to a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The group denies the allegation.
As the sun rises above the besieged enclave, smoke rises from the site of the late-night massacre. The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 1,300 people remain missing under the rubble, including 600 children.
Meanwhile, Israel continues with the bombardment, hitting a school — where Palestinians seek refuge — in Khan Younis. The Palestinian Red Crescent says Israel strikes were also carried out near the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.
Oct 19, 2023: As the bombing in Gaza continues, violence in the West Bank soars. Al Jazeera, quoting health ministry figures, reports that at least 75 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or troops since Oct 7.
Israeli authorities in the West Bank have arrested more than 600 people since the war broke out. Palestinians in East Jerusalem also warn about increasing harassment by Israeli settlers and security forces.
Oct 20, 2023: A Greek Orthodox church in the Gaza Strip, sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians is hit by an Israeli air strike overnight. According to health officials, 16 people are killed. There is no word on the death toll from the Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church though, reports Reuters.
“The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expresses its strongest condemnation of the Israeli air strike that has struck its church compound in the city of Gaza,” says the 12th-century church, where at least 500 Muslims and Christians are sheltering.
According to Al Jazeera, Saint Porphyrius, built in about 1150, is the oldest church in Gaza that is still used. It has offered sanctuary to people of various faiths over generations. But after the Israeli strike, hundreds of injured Palestinians are forced to leave the church, which further exposes them to life-threatening dangers.
Oct 21, 2023: Israel finally permits aid trucks to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. The amount allowed, however, is only a fraction of what the blockaded enclave needs.
To further exacerbate the humanitarian conditions, Israel says the aid will only go to the southern areas and the shipments will not include fuel. Without fuel, hospitals in Gaza are pushed to the brink, with most of them eventually shutting operations in the coming days. These instructions leave hundreds of Palestinians back in north Gaza hungry, without food and water. They also lead to the further overcrowding of the southern side of the enclave, where the bombing is soon coming.
Oct 22, 2023: Israel continues its unsparing attacks in various areas of Gaza, including the densely populated Al-Shati refugee camp, home to 90,100 registered Palestinian refugees. The Palestinian health ministry says dozens were killed in the attack, including women and children. Shelters, hospitals and even UN-run centres — no place is safe in Gaza anymore.
On the other hand, the Israeli army arrests over 50 Palestinians in the West Bank. It also launches an air raid on a mosque in the Jenin refugee camp, Al Jazeera reports. Footage on social media shows heavy damage to the mosque and medics rushing to the scene.
Oct 23, 2023: The death toll in Gaza crosses 5,000, while over a million people are displaced. The Palestinian interior ministry says “massacres of unprecedented proportion” are taking place. No one is spared, as even hospitals — Al-Shifa and Al-Quds — are targeted.
Amid a dire need for medicines, diseases such as chickenpox and scabies now begin to spread across the enclave. Al Jazeera, quoting the Palestinian health ministry, says that there are about 155 “unsafe births” in the strip every day, with 5,500 women expected to give birth in the coming months.
Oct 24, 2023: Palestinian officials say more than 700 people were killed in overnight Israeli air raids on Gaza, the highest 24-hour death toll since Israel began bombing the besieged territory on Oct 7. It adds that the healthcare system in the enclave has collapsed.
Separately, the WHO says one-third of hospitals in the Gaza Strip are now out of service and some two-thirds of clinics are not functioning. This is a time when the medical burden is enormous, with swathes of patients, injured in Israeli bombings, coming in every hour. Children and women make up for 70pc of the victims.
But Israel is adamant not to let a drop of fuel inside Gaza.
Oct 25, 2023: More warnings follow as Gaza hospitals run out of the last of their fuel reserves. Al Jazeera quotes Shifa Hospital’s director, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, as saying that Israel may be using new deadly weapons — illegal as per the international humanitarian law — based on the kind of injuries he has been witnessing.
Oxfam, an international aid group, issues a statement, saying Israel is using starvation as a “weapon of war” against civilians in Gaza. “Just 2pc of the usual food has been delivered to Gaza since the siege was imposed,” it says.
“Children are experiencing severe trauma from the constant bombardment, their drinking water is polluted or rationed and soon families may not be able to feed them too,” Oxfam adds.
Oct 26, 2023: Another surgeon, Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta, says an “unfathomable” number of children in Gaza will need reconstructive surgeries as a result of the injuries caused by Israeli airstrikes.
On the other hand, the UN issues a stark warning, saying “nowhere is safe” in Gaza as Israel steps up air raids in preparation for a ground offensive, which is going to take place within a few hours.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed; when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities; when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” the agency’s humanitarian coordinator says.
Oct 27, 2023: Israel commences its ground offensive in Gaza. The bombardment has now reached Khan Younis in the south, where the Israeli forces have instructed Gazans to move.
UN says that it is not just Israeli bombardment that is wiping out Palestinians, but also Israel’s ongoing siege as basic services in the enclave are “crumbling”; medicines, food and water are running out and streets are flooded with sewerage water.
Oct 28, 2023: As the clock inches towards Oct 28, Gaza is pitch dark, only lighting up into a ghastly red from the intense Israeli bombing. Internet and mobile services have completely collapsed, cutting off the Palestinian enclave from the rest of the world. Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, says the bombardment has caused “complete disruption” of internet, cellular and landline services — only some satellite phones continue to function.
Even aid agencies fail to reach out to their workers, centres and ambulances. Inside crowded hospitals, bloodied patients are being treated on floors as Israel escalates attacks — which is termed the “heaviest night of bombing”. The strikes are soon targeting the vicinity of the Al-Shifa Hospital.
“The stench of death is everywhere, in every neighbourhood, every street and every house,” says a respiratory surgeon, who finds his injured relatives on stretchers.
Oct 29, 2023: Deaths in Gaza rise to 8,000 — of which over 3,000 are children — after Israel further intensifies its attacks. The toll, according to the Associated Press, is unprecedented.
Israeli military tells Palestinians to move south but continues to bomb there. Meanwhile, residents say warplanes carried out overnight strikes near Gaza’s largest Al-Shifa Hospital, which is packed with hundreds of patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter. They add that most roads leading to the facility have been destroyed, which cuts Gazans’ access to safety and forces family members to search for their loved ones under the rubble with mobile phones.
Similar attacks are also reported in the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital, where thousands of patients are receiving treatment, to which Israel has issued an evacuation order.
A breakdown in civil order puts four UN distribution centres and a storage facility out of action as hundreds of hungry Gazans — under an Israeli siege — break into these centres to steal flour. These are conditions that show Tel Aviv is causing serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians, as flagged in the genocide convention.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls the situation desperate. “I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations,” he says.
Oct 30, 2023: Palestinians in northern Gaza report fierce air and artillery strikes as Israeli troops, along with tanks, press into the enclave with a ground assault. Airstrikes also hit Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals, where hundreds of Palestinians are seeking shelter. Bombing is also taking place in the southern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah.
Combined with air attacks, Israeli forces are also using artillery shelling and flares — an aerial, infrared countermeasure against heat-seeking missiles, according to Al Jazeera.
Oct 31, 2023: An Israeli air strike on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp, located on the outskirts of Gaza City, kills dozens and leaves hundreds injured. Rescue teams search for survivors amid twisted metal and two huge caters, reports The Guardian.
The Palestinian health ministry calls the attack a “heinous” massacre. Unicef spokesperson James Elder terms the number of deaths “appaling”, adding that Gaza has become a “graveyard for thousands of children”. Authorities in Gaza say two main hospitals in the strip are just hours away from shutting down operations amid mounting injuries.
Nov 1, 2023: Israel attacks Jabalia camp for the second time in a row, again killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians. According to the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees, it is the largest of Gaza’s eight refugee camps, spread over 1.4 square kilometres and housing more than 100,000 refugees — most having fled villages in southern Palestine after the 1948 War.
In its second consecutive bombing of Jabalia — which the UN says could amount to a war crime — “whole families” were wiped out, AFP reports. The dearth of required machinery forces family members and volunteers to dig through piles of rubble with bare hands searching for those trapped under collapsed buildings — a trauma that Palestinians say would live with them forever. To make matters worse, another phone and internet blackout sweeps Gaza, Palestinian telecom provider Paltel says.
As the bombing continues unabated, Gaza’s only cancer hospital goes out of service after running short on fuel — which Israel has barred from entering the enclave.
Even outside the strip, Palestinians continue to suffer. The UN humanitarian affairs office says the incidence of settler violence in the West Bank has more than doubled since Oct 7, with an average of seven attacks per day, up from three, Al Jazeera reports.
Nov 2, 2023: Israeli military encircles Gaza City, where the Al-Shifa Hospital is located. Thousands of Palestinians also remain in the area, with some trying to flee south — which although declared safe by Israel is still being bombed as verified by BBC.
Inside the hospital, medics describe the situation as “beyond catastrophic”. Without fuel, it is almost impossible to tend to the hundreds of thousands of patients.
At the same time, 16 out of 35 hospitals in the strip are now out of service, while 23 hospitals have been ordered to evacuate in Gaza City and north Gaza — what WHO calls a “death sentence” for patients. Charity organisation Doctors Without Borders says more than 20,000 injured people in the enclave have limited access to healthcare due to Israel’s siege.
Nov 3, 2023: An Israeli strike on an ambulance convoy near the Al-Shifa Hospital in the blockaded Gaza Strip has killed 15 people and wounded 60 others. The convoy, Al Jazeera reports, was transporting critically wounded patients from the facility to the Rafah border crossing.
“We informed the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (PRCS), we informed the world world, that those victims were lined up in those ambulances,” says the spokesperson of the health ministry in response to the attack. “This was a medical convoy.”
Israeli strikes also target a convoy of civilians in the north of Gaza seeking to evacuate. Fourteen Palestinians are killed. Even schools hosting displaced people are being attacked. The UN agency for Palestinians also reports similar attacks on and surrounding its schools and shelters across the enclave.
Attacks on schools and hospitals during conflicts are one of the six grave violations identified and condemned by the UN Security Council.
Nov 4, 2023: An average Palestinian in Gaza is now living on two pieces of bread a day, says Thomas White, director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The main refrain now being heard in the war-torn streets of the enclave is “water, water”, he adds.
A desperate food shortage is now choking Gaza as Israel only allows limited aid to trickle into the strip. In the meantime, it continues to attack hospitals and schools.
Nov 5, 2024: Israel bombs three refugee camps, housing mostly women and children, in Gaza within a span of 24 hours, Al Jazeera reports. At least 47 people are killed at the Al-Maghazi camp and dozens at the Jabalia and Bureji camps.
Israel once again gives civilians in the Gaza Strip merely four hours to flee to the south — which though dubbed safe is still being bombed — along with a map showing the designated road. On the same day, Gaza also witnesses its third major communications blackout since the war began as the Israeli military encircles Gaza City, dividing the strip into two. This prevents aid agencies from reaching out to workers across the enclave and thwarts rescue efforts.
Nov 6, 2024: The death toll in Gaza from Israeli bombing crosses 10,000, with one child killed every 10 minutes. Al Jazeera journalists, however, report that the death toll may be much higher as hundreds are still stuck under the rubble due to a lack of machinery and other equipment.
On the other hand, hospitals across the besieged Gaza Strip, including the largest Al-Shifa, are on the brink of shutting down due to a lack of fuel, which could put hundreds of thousands of injured at risk. Palestinians also have to queue for long hours at bakeries as the only operative mill in the enclave remains unable to grind wheat.
The UN humanitarian office says an estimated 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank need specialised mental health services to come to terms with the psychological trauma of the war.
Nov 7, 2024: A month of war and death. Gaza’s health ministry says over 2,500 people remain missing. About 70pc of the enclave’s population has been displaced due to relentless Israeli bombing and shelling. Bakeries in the strip are no longer functional. A Red Cross convoy carrying medical supplies is hit by gunfire.
Meanwhile, the International Labour Organisation says that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have lost 61pc and 24pc of their jobs, respectively, ever since the Israeli bombing began. These job losses amount to an estimated daily income loss of $16m — further pushing them into poverty and reducing their chances of a better life.
Back in Gaza, the situation at shelters housing displaced people is increasingly deteriorating. The UN agency for Palestinians says at least 600 people are sharing a single toilet. This is after Israel pushes thousands of Gazans out of their homes and into camps in the south, where there are not enough resources to sustain these many people. In the coming days, these appalling living conditions will result in widespread disease across the enclave.
Nov 8, 2024: In a heartbreaking sight, the children of Gaza hold a press conference outside the Al-Shifa Hospital, begging the world to stop Israel’s bombardment. “We want to live. We want peace. We want food, medicine and education. Not bombs,” they plead.
These are all children, barely over the age of 10, witnessing intense bombing and crying for help. They are seeing their parents, families, siblings and friends die. According to international agencies, the number of children killed in Gaza exceeds every other conflict.
On the same day, Israel launches deadly airstrikes on Al-Shifa and other hospitals, Al Jazeera reports. Meanwhile, calls begin to emerge regarding the dire need for urgent food assistance in the strip where Israel has allowed just a trickle of the aid needed.
Nov 9, 2023: The Salah al-Din road, leading out of Gaza City, is crowded with Palestinians marching towards the south. They trudge past Israeli tanks and decomposing corpses. Mothers carry babies throughout the long journey, children hold their pets close to their chests. Some carry white flags.
The visuals resemble that of the Nakba — the catastrophe of their mass dispossession in 1948. Israeli forces have told Gazans to move south, which it continues to bomb, igniting mass displacement in the strip for months to come.
Meanwhile, Israel strikes the vicinity of the Indonesian hospital with 11 missiles, damaging parts of the facility. Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital is also attacked twice. A huge blast is reported outside the Al-Shifa Hospital, where scores of Palestinians are seeking refuge and health supplies are far from sufficient.
In the West Bank, the UNRWA chief says the situation “is boiling”, as settler attacks on Palestinians and Israeli arrests peak. Amnesty International further highlights that Israeli authorities have “dramatically increased” the use of administrative detention of Palestinians in the territory and failed to investigate incidents of torture or deaths in custody.
Nov 10, 2023: Palestinians in Gaza are witnessing yet another horror. They are fleeing the strip’s biggest hospital Al-Shifa, where thousands are sheltering, after an Israeli strike targets the facility. It claims Hamas fighters have command centres around and under the facility.
Al Jazeera quotes the hospital’s director general as saying that the strike hit civilians in the facility’s yard. “This led to a lot of casualties, including critical injuries. It could have been a massacre in this place because of the number of people in this complex,” Abu Salmiya says, adding that heavy clashes and bombardment are taking place next to the hospital. This puts medics and patients in a perpetual state of fear.
“This is a war against hospitals and a war against all the [Palestinian] citizens,” he says. Alongside Al-Shifa, three other hospitals are also hit. Even along the evacuation route, declared “safe passage” by Israel, several fires are reported, the Human Rights Watch says.
Nov 11, 2023: Israel’s military brings the war to the front gates of the Al-Shifa Hospital, where operations have been suspended due to a shortage of fuel and medical supplies. Palestinian officials say two premature babies died and dozens more are at risk due to this.
“We are minutes away from imminent death,” Salmiya, the facility’s director, tells Al Jazeera. Palestinian health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qidra, says Israeli snipers on rooftops of buildings near the hospital were firing into the medical complex intermittently because of which a patient in intensive care was killed.
On the other hand, the hospital decides to dig a mass grave inside Al-Shifa to bury 100 bodies lying there. There is no other option, given Israel has not stopped its bombing of the vicinity in over three days.
Nov 12, 2023: As the sun rises, the WHO says it has lost contact with the Al-Shifa Hospital and expresses “grave concerns for the safety of health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients trapped, including babies on life support and displaced people who remain inside the hospital”.
The death toll in Gaza is now at 11,000 but the UN says there is a delay in updating the numbers due to the collapse of services and communications at the hospital. At the Al-Quds Hospital, babies are suffering from dehydration amid ongoing Israeli strikes in the vicinity of the facility, which has stopped functioning.
Meanwhile, the cardiac ward of Al-Shifa is now in ruins due to incessant bombing. Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila says Israeli forces “are not evacuating people from hospitals; instead, they are forcibly evicting the wounded onto the streets, leaving them to face inevitable death”.
Towards the southern part of the enclave, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled in recent days, Israeli forces continue bombing. This leaves no safe space for the 2.3m residents of Gaza, 70pc of whom are now displaced.
Nov 13, 2023: The head of WHO says Gaza’s largest Al-Shifa Hospital has ceased to function and the number of fatalities is significantly increasing, reiterating that there is no safe passage out of the facility. The 600-650 inpatients, 200-500 health workers and approximately 1,500 internally displaced people inside the hospital are now helpless, forced to wait for death.
Scenes from inside the hospital show premature Palestinian babies lined up on ordinary beds after incubators stop working. Of the 45 babies, six have already died. It is feared the number will rise. Premature babies, who weigh less than 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) each and in some cases only 700 or 800 grams, should be in incubators where the temperature and humidity can be regulated according to their individual needs. Doctors say they are not just dying, these babies are being slowly “killed”.
Elsewhere in Gaza, Israel amps up its attacks. At least 31 people are killed in the Jabalia refugee camps in northern Gaza due to bombing, Al Jazeera quotes Palestinian news agency Wafa as reporting. Air raids are also reported in Khan Younis, where Palestinians are fleeing.
Nov 14, 2023: Israel has informed officials in Gaza it will raid the Al-Shifa Hospital complex, says the health ministry spokesperson, adding that the facility is in a “circle of death”. Doctors report “continuous shooting, continuous bombing” around the hospital.
Al-Shifa buries 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, in a “mass grave” at the complex amid an Israeli siege.
Separately, health ministry officials say all of Gaza’s hospitals may shut down within 48 hours, adding that Israel “bears full responsibility for its actions” against these hospitals.
An investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists reveals the war, which began on Oct 7, has been marked as the most deadly period for media workers since 1992. UN experts have repeatedly warned that attacks and killing of journalists constitute a war crime and hinder information from getting out of Gaza.
In the southern part of the enclave, heavy rainfall floods shelters and makeshift camps set up by Palestinians. Amid a shortage of food, fuel and other necessities, Gazans say children, who are lucky enough to escape the bombing, may just die from cold and hunger.
Nov 15, 2023: After laying siege to Gaza’s largest medical facility for days, Israeli forces raid the Al-Shifa Hospital in the early hours of the day, trapping thousands of patients and displaced inside. Doctors at the facility tell Al Jazeera that they can hear shots being fired from all directions. Meanwhile, journalists say Israeli forces have tried to “kill anyone moving inside”.
WHO calls the military incursion into the hospital “deeply concerning”. The UN aid chief says hospitals are not supposed to be battlegrounds and expresses concerns for the Palestinians stuck inside the facility. But none of these condemnations stops Israel from doing what it does next.
Meanwhile, the UN agency for Palestinians says 24,000 litres of fuel was allowed into Gaza, which can only run 9pc of its daily operations. But Israel isn’t allowing it to be used for water, sewage pumps or hospitals. Israeli forces are also telling residents of Khan Younis in the south to move to “known shelters”. This comes after the military forced millions of Gazans to flee the north for the south.
Nov 16, 2023: The dawn of the new day comes, but at the Al-Shifa Hospital, raided by the Israeli forces, “catastrophe” continues to unfold. A journalist, trapped inside the facility, in contact with AFP says masked Israeli soldiers shot in the air and ordered young Palestinian men to surrender.
About 1,000 men, hands above their heads, are in the courtyard, some of them stripped naked by Israeli forces checking them for weapons or explosives, he adds.
In other parts of Gaza, shelters, schools and even mosques continue to get bombed. In the south, the main water plants have stopped working. Telecommunication companies in the Strip have once again gone out of service as Israel does not allow any fuel inside Gaza to support operations. This means that the 2.3m people in the enclave have been now cut off from the world, agencies are unable to reach out to their workers and ambulances cannot reach the wounded anymore.
On the other hand, the World Food Programme warns that the Gaza Strip is facing “widespread hunger”, with almost the entire population in desperate need of food assistance. “Supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza and only a fraction of what is needed is arriving through the borders,” it says in a statement. Unprecedented air attacks by Israel have hit bakeries and mills across the enclave.
Nov 17, 2023: Gaza’s health ministry says the number of premature babies who have died at the Al-Shifa Hospital has increased, while 24 patients have lost their lives in the last two days due to power cuts. This is reported as Israeli forces continue to occupy the facility, where thousands of Palestinians remain trapped.
On the other hand, the UN calls the mass movement of Gazans, who were forced to flee north on Israel’s orders, the largest displacement witnessed since 1948. Separately, the WHO expresses concerns over the spread of disease in the enclave after Israeli bombardments force Palestinians to live in dire conditions, in shelters and without food or water.
Amid these concerns, whatever little aid was trickling into Gaza has stopped. The confirmed death toll in the strip now stands at 12,000.
Nov 18, 2023: The Israeli military finally says it out loud; no place is safe in Gaza. “We are determined to advance our operation. It will happen wherever Hamas exists, including in the south of the strip,” announces Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “It will happen at the time, place, and conditions that are best for the military.”
Residents are now told to evacuate the southern city of Khan Younis, where many of them came after fleeing the north. Once again, they gather whatever is left and relocate amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Back in the north, Israel targets two schools sheltering hundreds of Palestinians. Dozens are killed in the attacks, with the casualties feared to rise. At the Al-Shifa Hospital, which is now in ruins, medics and patients are told to leave within an hour. “We were forced to leave by gunpoint,” Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in Gaza, tells Al Jazeera.
Many people leave on foot. But “patients who cannot move, amputees and those with critical conditions” were forced to remain behind with a handful of medical staff, the director of Al-Shifa says. These patients also include premature babies.
Nov 19, 2023: The WHO declares Al-Shifa Hospital a death zone and decides to evacuate the facility. Following a visit to the facility along with UN officials, the organisation says its team found a mass grave at the entrance and nearly 300 patients left inside with 25 health workers.
Meanwhile, the most vulnerable patients, 31 premature babies trapped at the hospital without life-sustaining equipment during the Israeli raid, are evacuated in “one of the most compelling images during this conflict”. The health ministry says they will be taken to a hospital in the south and then transferred out of Gaza into Egypt. These newborns do not include eight of their peers who couldn’t make it out alive from Israel’s barbarous raid.
The death toll in Gaza, meanwhile, is now 13,000 after Israel kills dozens of people, including children, in airstrikes targeting northern, central and southern Gaza.
Nov 20, 2023: The 31 premature babies evacuated from the Al-Shifa Hospital a day earlier are fighting severe infections, the WHO says, adding that none were accompanied by family members. Of them, 28 are sent to Egypt while three remain behind in a southern Gaza hospital.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have found their next target: the Indonesian Hospital, which is the only facility trying to cater to Palestinians in the north despite running out of fuel. The hospital has been incessantly bombarded in recent days.
In the south, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the situation of shelters is “unlivable”. Another aid group warns that over 2m people in Gaza are going hungry with Israel allowing barely a tenth of necessary food supplies to enter the enclave since Oct 7.
Nov 21, 2023: Hospitals in northern Gaza are now completely out of service, the Palestinian health ministry says. Meanwhile, the occupancy of patients at these facilities has reached 190pc, Al Jazeera reports. According to the WHO, 164 Israeli attacks have been recorded on health complexes across the enclave since Oct 7, resulting in forced mass evacuations, dozens of fatalities and casualties among patients and their families.
Israel continues intense bombardment across Gaza, with the death toll now rising to 14,128. Of these, 5,000 are children — described as a “horrifying milestone” by the Unicef. The United Nations adds that almost 160 children in Gaza are killed every day and the numbers are likely to surge amid the dire humanitarian situation created by Israel in the enclave.
At a distance of 93.2km from Gaza, the situation in the West Bank is escalating with each passing day. The total number of Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since Oct 7 is now 3,000.
Nov 22, 2023: After days of relentless bombing, finally some good news: Hamas and Israel agree to a four-day temporary pause in the war following efforts led by mediator Qatar. It entails releasing 50 women and children captives in Gaza in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children in Israeli prisons. The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours.
But even with just a few hours remaining before the truce comes into effect, Israel continues to launch heavy air strikes and artillery shelling in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. It has also ordered the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital, situated in the north of the enclave, and killed dozens in a raid on another medical facility in Wadi Gaza.
Nov 23, 2023: The date and time for the temporary pause are finally announced; it will begin tomorrow, 7am. Israel has, until then, stepped up its attacks on Gaza. At least 27 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a UN-run school, Abu Hussein school, in Jabalia refugee camp, the health ministry says.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces struck the main gate, power generators and administrative building of the Indonesian Hospital, where at least 200 people are stranded, unable to leave. “This hospital is considered to be the main central hospital that is still operating in the north of the Gaza Strip, alongside another two central hospitals,” reports Al Jazeera.
The Israeli military has also arrested the director of the Al-Shifa hospital — which has now become a “big prison” after the Israeli raid — for “questioning” while he was travelling in a WHO convoy with other medics and patients.
On the other hand, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warns of an outbreak of waterborne diseases in Khan Younis, where thousands of displaced Gazans are seeking shelter in tents. Skin diseases are also on the rise given unhygienic sanitary conditions due to overcrowding.
In a statement, Oxfam says the number of premature births has risen by almost a third in the Israel-besieged Gaza strip as mothers suffer from trauma and stress. It adds that at least one newborn has died in 13 shelters for displaced people in north Gaza over the past month.
Nov 24, 2023: A four-day pause in Gaza finally begins. However, journalists in Gaza say Israeli forces have “killed two Palestinians” since the truce began and “shot at dozens of displaced people trying to go back to their homes”.
On the other hand, in the West Bank, Israeli forces shoot a 12-year-old Palestinian boy. According to the Associated Press, the Israeli military said Palestinians threw stones when soldiers entered the village and that troops responded with live fire.
Nov 25, 2023: Israeli police raid homes of prisoners in Jerusalem before their release, Reuters reports, putting their families through mental stress. On the other hand, Palestinians released from jail recount humiliating conditions behind bars. They were not given clean drinking water or food.
In Gaza, where there is some relief, photos and videos show the extent of damage and losses caused by unending Israeli bombardment before the truce came into effect. “Our home is destroyed, nothing remains standing,” one woman says. Meanwhile, the health ministry says Israeli forces shot at medical teams who went to the “so-called safe corridor” during the truce.
Nov 26, 2023: Israeli forces carry out deadly raids in the West Bank, killing eight Palestinians. Palestinian news agency Wafa reports Israeli forces stormed Jenin “from several directions, firing bullets and surrounding government hospitals and the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society”.
In Gaza, AFP reports a Palestinian farmer is killed and another injured in a targeted Israeli attack on the Maghazi refugee camp despite the ongoing truce.
Nov 28, 2024: On a visit to Gaza, where tense calm prevails following an extension in the temporary pause, a Unicef spokesperson says every single child in the enclave will need “some kind of mental support”. The conditions created by the Israeli offensive in the strip have left thousands of Palestinians traumatised.
“Hospitals are full. There are overflowing emergency wards with boys and girls with shrapnel wounds, horrendous burns,” he says.
The Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza says it urgently needs fuel to continue operations, warning that hundreds of lives will otherwise be lost, including those of premature babies. Despite the truce, delivery of fuel to northern Gaza, where the hospital is located, remains restricted by Israeli forces.
In the West Bank, the Israeli military conducts one of its largest raids in Jenin, surrounding hospitals and refugee camps.
Nov 29, 2023: As rescue officials in Gaza now have the safety to recover bodies stuck under buildings — reduced to rubble during Israeli bombardment — the UN says the death toll has risen to 15,000. On Nov 27-28, 160 bodies were recovered, it adds.
At the same time, Israeli forces stop Gazans, 80pc of whom are displaced, from going back home to the north despite the extension in the truce. They also open fire on Palestinian boats going into the open sea.
Nov 30, 2023: “Partially decomposed” bodies of five premature babies are found at Gaza’s Al-Nasser Children’s Hospital — which was under Israeli siege before the truce came into effect — the Palestinian foreign ministry says.
Meanwhile, journalists share videos of Palestinians being shot by Israeli snipers stationed on the roofs of buildings. This takes place while the truce is still ongoing and only one-third of hospitals in Gaza are functional.
Dec 1, 2023: Palestinians wake up to loud explosions in north, central and southern Gaza, as Israel announces it is resuming the war. The constant buzzing of drones has returned. The health ministry says nearly 180 Gazans have been killed in renewed and amped-up Israeli bombardments. The forces have also prevented aid trucks from entering Gaza via the Rafah border crossing.
Israel is dropping leaflets in Khan Younis warning civilians to evacuate further south towards Rafah — which too has been targeted by air raids. This shows that Israel is now planning to further target areas in the south of Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians fled from the north on its orders.
Amid these attacks, the WHO says Gaza is now facing an “absolutely gargantuan public health and health delivery challenge” and the situation is likely to worsen in the days to come. As the number of Palestinians wounded in Israeli strikes continues to rise, the remaining few hospitals in the strip are overcrowded, with injured people lying on the floors.
Dec 2, 2023: Hell on Earth has returned to Gaza, the UN says, as heavy bombing and artillery attacks are reported across the enclave. The UN aid chief says men, women and children in the strip have nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on.
Al Jazeera reports Israel has launched more than 400 attacks on Gaza in a single day, unwilling to spare civilians. The incessant Israeli bombardment has also halted trucks carrying aid from crossing into Rafah, keeping hundreds of starving Palestinians without food and water.
Dec 3, 2023: The Gaza media office says more than 700 Palestinians have been killed over the last 24 hours in Israel’s “petrifying” bombardment. According to the WHO, the Nasser Medical Hospital in the south is packed with patients thrice its capacity, with patients receiving care on the floor and “screaming in pain”.
At one of the UN-run schools in the strip, there is a Hepatitis A outbreak. “Sanitation is an issue. People are jammed in very congested classrooms … the risk of disease is very much present in Gaza,” says the director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. This comes as humanitarian aid, including medical supplies and food, remains “largely halted” in Gaza due to Israeli attacks.
Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson of the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, says dozens of Palestinians are being killed in every single Israeli airstrike, adding that rescuers in the strip do not have resources to reach all those trapped underneath the rubble. He adds that Israeli jets are firing multiple missiles at a singular target, leading to more destruction and casualties.
Dec 4, 2023: Israeli forces kill and wound hundreds of Palestinians in their first big ground assault in southern Gaza, where it had earlier told people to take shelter. The military’s tanks advance towards Khan Younis. International organisations warn this escalation will drastically worsen the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
“For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on,” a UN spokesperson says. Meanwhile, Palestinian journalists say houses are being bombed and people are being killed “minute by minute” in Gaza. Two ambulances are also targeted by Israeli forces in northern Gaza. Hospitals across the strip are flooded with bodies, the health ministry says, adding that Israel is deliberately targeting health facilities to create a “circle of death”.
At the same time, communication services have once again been cut off in the strip, largely hampering aid efforts across the enclave. The UN says middle and northern areas of Gaza have been disconnected from the south, halting delivery of essential aid.
Dec 5, 2023: Dozens are killed in Israeli air attacks on central and southern Gaza as the military says it is engaging in ground operations in Khan Younis. With humanitarian aid grinding to a halt due to intensified Israeli bombing, the UN warns a “hellish scenario” looms over the enclave.
The Israeli forces’ push into the “heart of” Khan Younis has forced tens of thousands of Palestinians into “increasingly compressed spaces, desperate to find food, water, shelter and safety”, a UN official says, adding that there is “nowhere left to go” in Gaza. This is giving rise to the risk of diseases such as cholera and gastroenteritis. Even hospitals and UN-run schools in the southern part of the enclave are being bombed. The WHO says the situation is getting worse by the hour.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Israeli jets targeted the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza with bombs raining down early morning while residents were still sleeping. The death toll in the enclave tops 16,000.
Dec 6, 2023: Every ward at Khan Younis’ main Nasser Hospital is brimming with wounded patients lying on blood-splattered floors, Reuters reports. More injured Palestinians are being brought in, some on donkey carts, others on flatbed trucks as ambulances have either been bombed or can’t run due to the Israeli blockade of fuel. The wounded say Israeli forces just struck a school-turned-shelter, where hundreds were seeking refuge. Bombing continues even in areas where Israel tells people to move.
The health ministry in Gaza says 70pc of those who have lost their lives are women and children. “The Israeli occupation wants to kill hope, it wants to kill our youths, our children and women,” says Munir al-Bursh, the ministry’s director-general. He adds that the wounded are dying of bleeding.
“They [Israeli forces] emptied hospitals of their supplies and left them as morgues to large numbers of bodies. All we do is count bodies,” Bursh says.
Dec 7, 2023: The Israeli bombardment on Gaza enters one of its heaviest phases of the war. Air strikes and “targeted raids” kill 22 family members of an Al Jazeera correspondent. Four UN-run schools in the enclave are hit in a single day. The death toll has now crossed 17,000. In Rafah, Palestinians spend a tough night due to a lack of tents. While aid managed to enter Gaza, Israeli attacks are hampering its distribution, forcing people to live in dire food and hygiene conditions.
Meanwhile, images from north Gaza on social media show mass detention by the Israeli military of Palestinian men who were made to strip to their underwear, kneel on the street, wear blindfolds and pack into the cargo bed of a military vehicle, CNN reports. The Israeli Defence Forces call the men Hamas members, while the latter says the victims are “a group of displaced Palestinians”.
The Associated Press quotes UN monitors as saying that Israeli troops reportedly detained men and boys from the age of 14 in a school-turned-shelter.
In an interview with Al Jazeera in the coming days, Palestinian men and boys — who were rounded up by Israeli forces and stripped of their dignity — recall how they endured five days of torture and degradation.
Dec 8, 2023: Israel continues to bomb Gaza’s largest cities, killing hundreds of Palestinians in a single day. Among the deceased is poet Refaat Alareer, one of the leaders of a young generation of authors in the enclave who chose to write in English to tell the world stories of Palestinians. He edited books on Gaza and regularly posted updates from the war on his X account. The strike also killed his brother, sister and her four children.
On the other hand, Palestinian journalists claim Israeli artillery is throwing white phosphorous bombs on Khan Younis and Deir al Balah — a violation of international human rights laws. Palestinians standing in queue for water are also targeted in “bloody and shockingly graphic” scenes by Israeli tanks.
The bombing has also caused widespread destruction to the enclave’s medieval-era Omar Mosque — a Christian and Muslim holy site since at least the 5th Century. Gazans say these Israeli actions are aimed at “wiping out our memories”.
According to a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, international humanitarian law protects civilian sites and cultural property, including places of worship and other religious sites, from being targeted for destruction or used for military purposes by state or non-state actors during armed conflict.
Dec 9, 2023: Israeli attacks in north and south of Gaza kill at least 310 Palestinians in the last 24 hours, authorities say. Palestine Red Crescent hospitals are also targeted. Reuters journalists report seeing dead and wounded swamping the main Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where there is no room for arriving patients sprawled across bloodied tiles. Aid agencies mention traumatised Palestinians in the enclave, some of whom arrive at shelters carrying their dead children.
An Israeli study reveals that the aerial bombing campaign by Tel Aviv in Gaza is the most indiscriminate in terms of civilian casualties in recent years. It states that in the first three weeks of the offensive, the civilian proportion of total Palestinian deaths in the enclave rose to 61pc, in what it describes as “unprecedented killing”. The ratio is significantly higher than the average civilian toll in all the conflicts around the world from the Second World War to the 1990s, in which civilians accounted for about half the dead, it adds.
Dec 10, 2023: Nearly 300 Palestinians have been killed and more than 550 wounded in the past 24 hours, the health ministry says, as Israeli raids continue across besieged Gaza, where air strikes have flattened entire neighbourhoods from north to south. The death toll in the strip now stands at 18,000 — a majority of them women and children.
Israeli forces have laid siege to the Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza with tanks, shooting people who try to enter or leave the facility.
Palestinian journalists say mass exodus continues in the enclave, where Israel has directed people to move further south to Al-Mawasi near the coastline, an area that lacks infrastructure including access to food, water or toilets. Those fleeing northern Gaza describe the ordeal as a “journey to death”, Al Jazeera reports.
On the other hand, the UN agency for Palestinians says “food, water and fuel” are being used as “weapons of war in Gaza”, while the WHO states that relentless Israeli bombardment is having a “catastrophic impact” on health in the enclave where the medical system is “on its knees and collapsing”.
Dec 11, 2023: Several casualties as Israel strikes neighbourhoods in the south of Gaza in the early morning hours. The Palestinian health ministry says “a large number” of victims remain stuck under the rubble as Israeli forces are blocking ambulances from reaching these areas. It adds that the situation at hospitals in southern Gaza is “catastrophic” as medics are struggling to cope with the huge number of casualties amid a shortage of supplies.
Meanwhile, Palestinian authorities say Israel is holding 142 female Palestinian prisoners, including children and elderly, arrested during the ground assault in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. Rights advocate Defence for Children International says Israel has been using a “heavier hand” against Palestinian children behind bars since Oct 7.
Dec 12, 2023: Israeli forces are surrounding and entering the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, opening fire on people inside the facility. A surgeon, affiliated with the aid agency Doctors Without Borders, has been shot.
Israel is also bombing Rafah, killing at least 20 people in one instance. Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to Rafah — where diseases are cropping up due to food shortages — after evacuation orders by the Israeli army but the city has been subjected to heavy bombing in recent days. The UN estimates that 1.9m of the strip’s 2.3m population has been displaced because of the Israeli assault.
Dec 13, 2023: Gazans in Rafah say they witnessed some of the heaviest Israeli shelling overnight. According to health officials in the strip, 22 Palestinians including children were killed during these attacks. A similar situation is also reported in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city.
In the north, Israeli forces continue their siege of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, where health officials say movement is being prevented and Palestinians inside are being deprived of electricity, food and water.
On the other hand, reports emerge that the Israeli military has begun pumping seawater into underground tunnels across the enclave, which it claims is used by Hamas. However, analysts say this does not have any “military value” and will instead contaminate fresh water for Gazans. “It is detrimental for the civilians to have all this flood under their knees by the Israelis who are very much aware of what they are doing but they really don’t care,” says military and political analyst Elihah Magnier.
Dec 14, 2023: At least 26 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s population is crammed after Israel’s evacuation orders, Al Jazeera reports. Gaza’s health ministry says at least 179 people have been killed and over 300 wounded in attacks in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Palestinian telecommunication firms report yet another blackout across the enclave preventing rescue and aid agencies from contacting their teams. Heavy rain and cold weather are also exacerbating Gazans’ problems, who are forced to flee their houses and even camps now to protect themselves from indiscriminate Israeli bombing.
Dec 15, 2023: Israeli bombs pound southern Gaza overnight through dawn, resulting in several casualties. Among the dead is Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Samer Abudaqa, who was reporting at Farhana school in Khan Younis when he was hit by an Israeli strike.
The UN’s humanitarian office says 70 medical staff at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has been besieged by Israeli forces for the last several days, have been detained in an unknown location outside of the facility. Medical Aid for Palestinians, an aid agency, says fewer than a third of hospitals are still functioning in Gaza, adding that Israel is “systematically dismantling” the healthcare system in the enclave.
Dec 16, 2023: As Gaza witnesses yet another night of intense Israeli strikes, the health ministry says some 8,000 Palestinians are missing under the debris of bombed buildings, 70pc of whom are women and children. It also claims that witnesses have reported Israeli bulldozers “buried people alive” at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza and calls for an inquiry.
Anadolu Agency reports streets in Gaza have become open-air gravesites due to difficulty in reaching cemeteries because of the ongoing Israeli aggression. Watching their entire families being killed in Israeli strikes is leaving a severe psychological on the youth in Gaza, reports the Financial Times. Children were witnessing death first-hand, while adults, the very people to whom children turn to for protection, are lost in despair, it said.
Dec 17, 2023: At least 90 Palestinians have been killed and over 100 injured in the latest Israeli strikes on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camps, the health ministry says. The death toll in the enclave now stands at 19,000, with only eight of its 36 hospitals functioning.
At the Nasser Hospital in the south, an Israeli attack on the maternity ward kills at least one child and injures three others. The WHO says the Al-Shifa Hospital, once the cornerstone of the strip’s healthcare system, now resembles a “bloodbath”, with hundreds of patients receiving basic treatment on the floors. The Kamal Adwan Hospital, on the other hand, has been destroyed by bulldozers.
Meanwhile, catholic authorities accuse the Israeli military of killing two women sheltering at a church in Gaza “in cold blood”.
Dec 18, 2023: Israeli warplanes attack residential buildings and refugee camps across the enclave. Among the casualties is Palestinian journalist Haneen Ali al-Qutshan. She is the 95th Palestinian journalist or media worker to be killed since Oct 7.
On the other hand, the health ministry in Gaza says the renewed spate of Israeli attacks on hospitals shows Tel Aviv is trying to “eliminate” the enclave’s health sector. Al Jazeera reports the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza is increasingly becoming a war zone as bombings are reported in the vicinity of the hospital. The building hosting the maternity ward is believed to be housing thousands of evacuees and displaced Palestinians who came from different parts of Khan Younis to seek shelter.
In a statement, Human Rights Watch says Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza by blocking water, fuel, and food. “For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water … reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” it states.
Dec 19, 2023: At least 29 people are killed in an Israeli strike on a residential area in Rafah — previously declared a safe zone — while the Al-Awda hospital is raided in north Gaza and 13 people are killed in an attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in that part of the enclave, Al Jazeera reports.
The Al-Ahli Hospital, one of the last remaining medical facilities in northern Gaza, has stopped working after being stormed by Israeli forces, AFP reports.
Dec 20, 2023: The death toll in Gaza has now reached 20,000. But it will increase within just a few hours as Israel continues its unabated attacks in Gaza. Meanwhile, rights group Euro-Med Monitor says over 71pc of the population in the enclave is facing extreme hunger and aid delivery is difficult due to the ongoing shelling.
At the same time, the UN human rights office says it has received “disturbing information” that Israeli forces summarily executed at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in Gaza City.
Dec 21, 2023: Not a single functioning hospital remains in northern Gaza amid fuel shortages and Israeli attacks on medical facilities. Patients abandoned at these hospitals are in an “unbearable” condition, WHO says.
Meanwhile, a UN-backed report warns hunger levels in Gaza have reached crisis levels and the risk of famine in the enclave is rising. “The proportion of households in Gaza affected by high levels of acute food insecurity is the largest ever recorded globally,” it states. Amid these conditions, Israel has ordered more evacuations in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, which will go on to impact more than 150,000 Palestinians.
Meanwhile, a New York Times investigation shows Israel routinely used “one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians”.
“The video investigation focuses on the use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area of southern Gaza where Israel had ordered civilians to move for safety. While bombs of that size are used by several Western militaries, munitions experts say they are almost never dropped by US forces in densely populated areas anymore,” the report says.
Dec 22, 2023: The health ministry in Gaza says over 400 Palestinians have been killed in the last 48 hours while communication services remain suspended across the strip. Among the wounded is a large number of children. All of these Israeli actions have left people in Gaza “desperate, hungry and really scared”, the UN says.
On the other hand, Oxfam says Israel’s aggression is pushing Gaza into famine and a staggering 90pc of the people there are on the brink of starvation. “Gaza’s shocking descent into starvation was so predictable as to be premeditated, an ongoing war crime by the Government of Israel,” says the organisation’s regional director.
Dec 23, 2023: The health ministry in Gaza says over 200 people have been killed in 24 hours as Israeli bombardments continue, with 70pc of them being women and children. The number of Palestinian journalists killed since Oct 7 now stands at 100, according to Gaza’s media office.
Meanwhile, Unicef warns at least 10,000 children under the age of five will suffer the “most life-threatening form of malnutrition” in the coming weeks. It also expresses concerns for the health of more than 155,000 pregnant and breast-feeding Palestinian women, as well as more than 135,000 children under the age of two, who are inside the besieged Gaza Strip where food and health systems are in the process of “complete collapse”.
Dec 24, 2023: An Israeli “massacre” on Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp kills more than 70 Palestinians, the health ministry says. According to the Palestinians Red Crescent Society, nights in the enclave have become “hellish” due to relentless bombing and shelling.
The WHO says Gaza’s health system is being decimated and destroyed while around 50,000 pregnant women are currently living in Gaza, with more than 180 births taking place every day as per the UN.
Dec 25, 2023: The world is celebrating Christmas but in Gaza, the stench of death prevails with 250 Palestinians killed and 500 injured in the past 24 hours. The health ministry says Israeli bombardments that began hours before midnight persisted into Christmas Day. These attacks take place across the enclave including the southern areas.
Separately, a UN humanitarian team leader, who has been in Gaza for several weeks, says displaced Gazans have little space left. She describes it as a “human chessboard” in which thousands of people, displaced many times already, are on the run again and there is no guarantee a destination will be safe.
Dec 26, 2023: The death toll in Gaza nears 21,000 with the health ministry saying 241 people were killed in the past 24 hours as Israel pounded several parts of the territory overnight. Bureij refugee camp once again becomes the site of massive, relentless air bombardment.
Aid agencies say the current conditions in the enclave created by Israel are unsuitable for children, including newborns, as they have been exposed to extremely traumatic episodes and have no sense of security. So far, over 8,000 children have been killed in the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
In the early hours of the morning, a residential home in central Rafah — a very busy area full of displaced Palestinians — is destroyed. According to Al Jazeera, the bombardment and artillery shelling are concentrated in the central part of the enclave, feeding the narrative that Israel is making the entire strip uninhabitable. Meanwhile, Gaza reports its fourth telecommunications breakdown.
Dec 27, 2023: Israel renews its attacks around Khan Younis, the main city in southern Gaza, overnight with the Nasser Hospital being the main focus. People sheltering at the facility fear a repeat of the raid at the Al-Shifa Hospital. Attacks are also reported in Rafah where entire residential blocks have been bombed into rubble. Amid this situation, the Palestinian health minister says only eight hospitals are partially functioning in southern Gaza.
The Gaza media office says Israel has delivered the bodies of 80 Palestinians. It claims they are “mutilated” with “vital organs removed from them”.
Dec 28, 2023: An Israeli strike hits a residential building in Rafah, killing at least 20 Palestinians. A large fire also breaks out in the tents. “There is nowhere safe in Gaza. This is the general sentiment among Gazans in the south as Israel’s unrelenting bombing does not stop,” says Al Jazeera correspondent who witnessed the strike.
Dec 29, 2023: As Israeli bombardment continues, the UN humanitarian chief describes how difficult it is to get aid into Gaza, highlighting a destroyed commercial sector, roads damaged by shelling, shootings on convoys and delays at checkpoints. “This is an impossible situation for the people of Gaza, and for those trying to help them,” he says.
Unicef says over 9,000 children in the enclave have been injured in intense Israeli bombing. Of these, 1,000 have been amputated without anaesthesia because Tel Aviv has blocked the entry of essential supplies into the strip.
On the other hand, the Palestine Red Crescent says Israeli shelling near the Al-Amal Hospital in southern Gaza has killed at least 41 Palestinians over the past two days. A similar situation persists in Rafah as well where 20 people, mostly women and children, are killed at the Shaboura camp. AFP footage shows bloodied people rushing through the streets to nearby hospitals where medical staff race to treat a flood of wounded patients.
Dec 30, 2023: At least 165 Palestinians are killed and 250 injured in Israel strikes over the last 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry says. The UN humanitarian office says the reason behind the mounting death toll is that the Israeli army is targeting residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the southern Khan Younis and Rafah areas. It adds that those killed are in areas where Palestinians were ordered to relocate from northern Gaza by Israeli forces.
In a report, the Wall Street Journal says nearly 70pc of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. It adds that by mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip which not only affected residential areas but also Byzantine churches, ancient mosques, factories, malls, hotels, theatres and schools.
Further, the report says the damaged infrastructure including water, electricity, communication and health facilities can no longer be repaired.
Dec 31, 2023: It is New Year’s Eve and pro-Palestine protesters across the world have taken to the streets to protest Israel’s actions against Palestinians. In Gaza though, the situation is now worsening as Israeli forces have killed at least 100 people in the last 24 hours, the health ministry says.
According to Gaza’s media office, Israeli attacks have resulted in nearly 30,000 people killed or missing, including 9,100 children in the past 85 days.
On the other hand, reports of Israel hacking the Voice of Palestine Radio station emerge, which is condemned by the Palestine Public Broadcasting Corporation. Al Jazeera quotes it as saying that Israel broadcast “threatening messages directed at the people of Gaza” on the station’s 100.1 FM frequency, further traumatising them.
Header image: Palestinian woman Buthayna Abu Jazar reacts as she holds the hand of her son Hazma, in Rafah. — Reuters