Israeli strikes have killed at least 4,137 and injured over 13,000 Palestinians and imposed a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip, cutting supplies of food, water and fuel, according to Palestinian officials.
Speaking at a press briefing, Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, said that of the 4,137 people killed so far on Gaza Strip, 1,661 were children.
“There were 13,260 people wounded. Officials have received 1,400 inquiries on missing people, including 720 children. Operations are being done on the floor, A spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Nebal Farsakh, said an Israeli demand to evacuate the al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City was impossible.
“We have around 500 patients; many are in the intensive care unit and most of them are children,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Many are in critical conditions and they are connected to life support machines. There’s no way to evacuate them safely.
“This will put their lives in danger. Even the World Health Organisation has announced that evacuation orders for hospitals are impossible to implement. They constitute a death penalty for all the patients,” she added.
In another development, the US and European governments have put pressure on Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to “buy time for secret talks underway via Qatar” to secure the release of captives, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
The negotiations with Hamas “are delicate and may fail,” the sources told Bloomberg.
“But they said there were signs that the group might agree to let at least some of the civilians its fighters captured in the deadly October 7 raid go without demanding Israel release any prisoners in return,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has called for investigation into “indiscriminate” Israeli attacks on Gaza as war crimes, saying air raids have caused mass civilian casualties and “wiped out entire families.”
The rights group added in a report that Israel violated international humanitarian law with its campaign, including through attacks directed against civilian objects.
“Testimonies from eyewitness and survivors highlighted, again and again, how Israeli attacks decimated Palestinian families, causing such destruction that surviving relatives have little but rubble to remember their loved ones,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general stated in the report.
Thousands of demonstrators march in Iraq, Egypt, Turkey
Pro-Palestine protests have broken out worldwide, with demonstrators taking to the streets to denounce Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Hundreds of Iraqi protesters gathered at the western Trebil border crossing near Jordan in a demonstration organised by the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iran-backed Shia political groups and militias in Iraq.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted “No to Israel” before praying in the presence of religious leaders.
In Egypt, thousands of people demonstrated in cities and towns across the North African country in an expression of solidarity with Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Groups of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square. In a rare move, the Egyptian government approved and even helped organise 27 locations for demonstrators to gather. Since coming to power in 2013, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government has outlawed large public protests.
Hundreds gathered in the courtyard of the Al-Azhar Mosque, the Sunni-Muslim world’s foremost religious institution in central Cairo.
“Oh Al-Aqsa, do not worry, we will redeem you with our soul and blood,” they chanted in unison after completing Friday’s midday prayer. The Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, is the third-holiest site in Islam.
In Turkey, where the government has declared three days of mourning for Gaza, thousands of people staged protests outside mosques following Friday prayers in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.
In Istanbul, protesters waved Turkish and Palestinian flags, held up placards and chanted slogans denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“Stop the genocide, get out of Palestine” some of the placards read.
In Qatar, people of different nationalities gathered at Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque in Doha to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and protest against Israel’s relentless attacks on the besieged enclave.
After Friday prayers, they waved flags, carried banners and shouted slogans calling for a “Free Palestine” and an end to Israeli occupation.
Israelis blame PM for failure to prevent war
Nearly 80 per cent of Israelis blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the failure to prevent the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, according to a recent poll.
The survey also showed 65 per cent of Israelis support a ground offensive against the Gaza Strip, while 21 per cent oppose it.
Only 8 per cent of those asked did not hold Netanyahu responsible for the attacks in southern Israel near the besieged Gaza Strip, which killed at least 1,400 people.
The Lazar Institute conducted the survey on October 18-19, and it was commissioned by Israeli newspaper Maariv.
