Palestinians wounded during Israeli bombardment are transported to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 5, 2023. Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP
Doha, Qatar: Israeli bombardment continues to intensify in the Gaza Strip, including the southern part of the besieged enclave. Attacks were also reported at nearby hospitals in Gaza as telecommunications and internet services continued to be disrupted.
The number of Palestinians killed continues to rise each day as the death toll stands to at least 15,899 killed since October 7.
Meanwhile, the UN has warned of an even more ‘hellish scenario’ unfolding in Gaza
The UN reports that Israel launched one of its heaviest air, land, and sea bombardments of the Gaza Strip over Sunday and Monday, killing at least 349 Palestinians and injuring more than 750, according to the territory’s health ministry.
With Israeli ground operations now focused on southern Gaza, conditions “do not exist” to deliver aid, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories Lynn Hastings said, warning that “an even more hellish scenario” is about to unfold in the Palestinian enclave, according to the UN’s latest Gaza assessment.
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[11pm Doha Time] 44th GCC Summit final communique condemns attack on Gaza, affirms support for Palestinian people
The Supreme Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council issued the concluding statement of the 44th Gulf Summit held today, December 5, in Doha. In this statement, the Council expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people, condemning the aggression against Gaza. Read more.
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[10:50pm Doha Time] Israeli air raid killed dozens in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza
Bombardment has grown fiercer across Gaza including the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah, just north of Khan Younis, reported Al Jazeera. Dozens were killed, including children, in an Israeli air raid on residences.
“We have received 45 martyrs from the Israeli bombing on the houses of three families in Deir el-Balah in the past hour,” said Eyad Al-Jabri, head of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah.
An injured Palestinian man is strechered onto an ambulance by Egyptian paramedics on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on December 5, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
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[7:36pm Doha Time] Displaced Palestinians in Rafah expected to rise to 1 million
Hundreds of thousands more internally displaced people are expected to arrive in Gaza’s southernmost city as Israel’s military calls on residents to evacuate further south from Khan Younis, where fighting is intensifying.
“Now Israeli forces are pushing people not only to the south, but pushing people to the south of the south,” Adnan Abu Hasna, a representative from the agency for Palestine refugees, told Al Jazeera. “We expect that we will have more than one million people in the coming days displaced to Rafah,” he said.
Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis to Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 4, 202.(Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP)
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[5:48pm Doha Time] Unable to provide aid for new displaced people in Rafah: UN
UNRWA’s Gaza chief Thomas White said that the Israeli army is telling people to leave Eastern Khan Younis, calling it a dangerous fighting zone. "They tell people to move to Rafah to receive assistance – but we are not able to provide for 100,000s of new IDPs [internally displaced people]," he said.
White said that "Rafah normally has a population of 280,000 and already hosting around 470,000 IDPs will not cope with a doubling of its IDP population.”
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[4:30pm Doha Time] Qatar's Amir rebukes Israel, slams ‘disgraceful’ inaction on Gaza genocide
The Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued a stinging rebuke of Israel, further criticising the international community ‘that does not sanction the genocide crimes committed by Israel’. The Amir made these statements in his opening remarks of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, which took place at the Sheraton Doha Hotel today, December 5, 2023. Read more.
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[4:06pm Doha Time] Greta Thunberg reiterates support for Palestinians in Gaza
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement reiterated their support for Palestinians in Gaza following criticism of their stance on the war. “We have always been political, because we have always been a movement for justice.”
Image: gretathunberg/Instagram
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[2:22 Doha Time] Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’: WHO
Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters via video link from Gaza that “the situation is getting worse by the hour”.
Palestinians mourn the death of loved ones following Israeli bombardment in the southern Gaza Strip on December 5, 2023, outside a hospital in Khan Yunis. (Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP)
“There’s intensified bombing going on all around, including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah.”
Overnight and into Tuesday morning, Israel ramped up attacks in the south of the enclave as it continues its ground offensive. Overnight attacks also occurred in the north of the Gaza Strip, including Jabalia al-Balad where more than 15 Palestinians were killed.
[1:14 pm Doha Time] Patients at Kamal Adwan Hospital ‘overwhelmed by horror’
Munir al-Bursh, director-general of the Health Ministry in Gaza, spoke to Al Jazeera from inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital and he says the hospital has been targeted by Israeli gunfire and shelling.
“The Israeli occupation forces have laid siege to the facility from all sides. Patients and those who took shelter here are gripped with fear and overwhelmed by horror.
“The Israeli forces are attacking with the aim of forcibly removing all those inside the hospital. These are patients, victims and displaced civilians.
“We, the medical staff, are holding our ground. We are standing by our patients. We will continue to serve our people by all means left here at Kamal Adwan Hospital.”
A Palestinian child wounded during Israeli bombardment is carried inside into Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 5, 2023. Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP
[12:38 pm Doha Time] Gaza health ministry warns of ‘massacre’ as Israeli forces surround Kamal Adwan Hospital
Gaza’s health ministry is warning of a “massacre” at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where Israeli tanks and snipers are reportedly surrounding the facility and “shooting at anyone who moves”.
Bodies are piling up outside the hospital, where some 7,000 Palestinians are sheltering inside, Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh said, adding that Israeli army attacks have already killed 108 civilians and injured dozens in the hospital’s vicinity.
“We fear a massacre inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, as happened in [al-Shifa Hospital] and the [Indonesian Hospital]”, al-Bursh said.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of only six hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip. The hospitals are struggling to treat hundreds of wounded per day with minimal resources and frequent power outages.
[10:35 am Doha Time] Video of a Palestinian child calling out for help from under the rubble
Alma, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl trapped under the rubble, asks the civil defense team to help her family members first before her.
Mahmoud Salem, the original source of this video, was killed in an Israeli airstrike yesterday, December 4, 2023, according to local Palestinian media.
Alma, a 13 year old Palestinian girl trapped under the rubble, asks the civil defense team to help her family members first before her.
— The Peninsula Qatar (@PeninsulaQatar) December 4, 2023
Mahmoud Salem, the original source of this video, was killed in an Israeli airstrike today according to local Palestinian media.#Palestine pic.twitter.com/dKXUGVmNDG
[10:21 am Doha Time] Disease spreading as 1.8 million people squeezed in area the ‘size of an airport’
Israel’s push to relocate Palestinians in Gaza to a small area in the south is making it impossible to deliver aid and driving up the risk of disease, Bushra Khalidi, a Ramallah-based legal expert and rights campaigner with Oxfam, warned.
Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis to Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 4, 2023. Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
“Squeezing people into a space that is basically as big as London’s Heathrow airport… is inhumane and makes it impossible to distribute aid to people,” Khalidi told Al Jazeera. “Gaza was already overpopulated… [now] we’re talking about 1.8 million people in an airport.”
Khalidi added that cholera and gastroenteritis is rapidly spreading due to the congested conditions.
“People are not getting better because conditions are not allowing them to get better,” she said.
[9:30am Doha Time] ‘Region witnessing great challenges’, Qatar Amir says ahead of GCC summit
The 44th GCC summit is set to take place in Qatar today with the war in Gaza expected to top the agenda.
While welcoming the officials to the summit, Qatar's Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said the summit was “being held at a time when our region and the world are witnessing great challenges in which our Gulf countries can play roles that contribute to resolving them and mitigating their impacts”. Read more
