November 20, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The head of the World Health Organization has condemned the attack on the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza which killed 12 people, including patients. 

In a post on X, Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “WHO is appalled by an attack on the Indonesian Hospital in #Gaza.”

Israel said on Monday it was responding to enemy fire targeting their troops from within the hospital and that, “in response, IDF troops directly targeted the specific source of enemy fire. No shells were fired toward the hospital.”

Twelve people died after Israeli tank fire hit the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, health authorities in the Hamas-run strip said earlier on Monday. Among the dead are patients who were being treated at the hospital and a member of medical staff, health officials said.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they responded to gunfire targeting their troops from within the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza overnight, according to a statement released on Monday. 

Twelve people died after Israeli tank fire hit the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave said earlier on Monday. Among the dead are patients who were being treated at the hospital and a member of medical staff, health officials said.

Palestinian journalist, Anas al-Sharif, who is inside the hospital, told CNN that Israeli tanks were outside the main hospital gates as well as other locations near the hospital. “We are under fire in the Indonesian Hospital, and we are trapped inside,” he said.

A short video clip shared by the Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry showed medical personnel inside the facility assisting an injured man on the floor, while another man held a dialysis tube hanging from the debris.

CNN’s Andrew Carey contributed reporting to this post.

Elham Maged speaks to CNN from inside Cairo's Nasser Medical Institute. 

When Rami Mahmoud left his family’s home to buy food, his wife, Elham Maged, stayed behind to pray. When he made his way back through the narrow, tightly packed nearby streets of northern Gaza’s Jabalya Refugee Camp, he returned to a scene of complete chaos. An Israeli airstrike had smashed into the center of the densely populated community, tearing a deep crater into its heart. Their apartment had vanished.

Scanning the devastation, Mahmoud suddenly noticed a single finger reaching up between the rubble; it was Elham. Miraculously she had survived. But his relief at finding her alive was brief. Two of their children, they would soon discover, were dead. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Two weeks on from the horror of that day, the couple are more than 200 miles southwest of Gaza City, inside Cairo’s Nasser Medical Institute in neighboring Egypt. The wreckage and chaos of their shattered home was replaced by the cleanliness and order of this foreign medical facility, the noise of rockets and explosions exchanged for the benign, insistent hum of traffic crawling through Egypt’s bustling capital.

But safety and care does not bring comfort; they are still haunted by grief. “My daughter, just an hour before she died, she called her best friend and said, ‘I feel like something is going to happen to me. Can you take care of my mother and visit her often?’” Elham told us.

Mahmoud shared family photos with us. Their daughter, just 15, her wide, clear eyes and delicate features framed by a headscarf; their son, 17, carrying a small boy on his back, a warm smile shining from beneath his tousled black hair.

“God created them, God took them,” his wife said. “I just want to go back to the rest of my children. There is no internet there, so I don’t know anything about them. I know they are with their grandfather somewhere safe, hopefully, but we have no way of reaching them.”

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed more than 12,000 Palestinians since October 7, including an estimated 5,000 children, according to the Hamas government press office. Israel says its airstrikes intend to target Hamas commanders and infrastructure, following the militant group’s October 7 terror attacks, which left 1,200 people dead in Israel and saw about 240 taken hostage.

Read more about this here.

Al Shifa hospital during the Israeli ground operation around the hospital in Gaza on November 12.

A mother whose premature baby was evacuated from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital to Egypt has called Egypt the “best place on earth.”

Lubna El-Seik told a media pool, run by Egyptian state media that “it never occurred to us that the hospital would be targeted and that those children would have to go through what they went through.”

After a “difficult birth” on September 28, El-Seik’s daughter was placed in an incubator in the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. 

“On the seventh of October, I was supposed to go and see my daughter. She was reliant on artificial respiration. Then they asked us to leave our house, then they bombed our house.”

El-Seik’s husband stayed with her daughter for 10 days in the hospital so she could receive oxygen and nourishment. 

“During the siege, there was no milk. Her condition worsened. She went back to zero, and she relied solely on artificial oxygen,” El Seik added. 

The young mother recounted the evacuation of the premature babies from Al Shifa, describing the coordination as “very good.”

“Within hours, we came over here and we were well received. Egypt is the best place on earth.” 

A visibly upset Al Seik said she wanted to remind the world that the evacuated babies were “innocent children.”

The babies will be treated at the Al-Arish Hospital in Sinai and the New Capital Hospital in Cairo, according to a CNN journalist at the Rafah crossing. 

Speaking to Egyptian state broadcaster, Al Qahera, a doctor named Ahmad working in the Al Arish Hospital described the extensive preparations that Egypt has put in place.

Medics transfer premature babies evacuated from Gaza to ambulances on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border on Monday, November 20.

Dozens of premature babies removed from the beleaguered Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza have now reached Egypt for medical treatment, while China has hosted talks with diplomats from Arab and Muslim majority nations focused on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

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The Israeli father of a suspected Hamas kidnap victim says he hasn’t been given any information about a possible hostage deal. 

Thomas Hand was initially told that his daughter Emily was killed during the Hamas attack on Israel. But weeks later, Hand said the Israel Defense Forces told him his daughter was believed to be alive and a Hamas hostage.

Emily’s birthday was last week. She turned nine.

Speaking at a news conference in London on Monday, Hand said the situation of not knowing is his “worst nightmare.”

Asked about reports of a possible hostage deal, Hand said he’d “believe it when I see it.”

Iris Haim is the mother of 28-year-old Yotam Haim, who was also taken hostage.

“We don’t know about any kind of deal. We don’t know anything,” she said at the news conference.

Haim acknowledged that given her son is not a child, it’s unlikely he would be part of any immediate hostage deal.

Twelve people have been killed after Israeli tank fire hit the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza on Monday, according to the health ministry in the territory, which is controlled by Hamas.

Among the dead are patients who were being treated at the hospital and a member of medical staff, the ministry said.

Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif, who is inside the hospital, told CNN that Israeli tanks were outside the main hospital gates, as well as other locations near the hospital.

A short video clip shared by the Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry showed medical personnel inside the facility assisting an injured man on the floor, while another man holds a dialysis tube hanging from the debris.

The electricity seems to have been cut off and the ceilings badly smashed up.

Israel’s military did not offer details about specific locations in its update on ground operations in Gaza on Monday morning, but it did say that warplanes had killed three Hamas company commanders in one strike.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, right, meets with European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, in Amman, Jordan, in this handout picture released on November 20.

The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II to discuss the situation in Gaza and call for “immediate humanitarian pauses”.

Josep Borrell wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, that he was “honoured to be received by His Majesty King Abdullah II.”

“We discussed the war in Gaza and [the] importance to end suffering of civilians,” he said.

Borrell said the “political process towards two states needs to be restored,” adding “the King’s role is crucial.”

Premature babies, who were evacuated from Al-Shifa hospital, lie in an ambulance before they are transported via the Rafah crossing into Egypt on November 20.

Ambulances evacuating premature babies from Gaza have arrived in Egypt through the Rafah crossing. The convoy was met by medical professionals waiting with incubators to take them into care.

According to an Egyptian government official, 28 babies were transported into Egypt. The four mothers and six nurses accompanying them will be sent to two separate hospitals for treatment, the government source added.

Some context: On Sunday, 31 babies were transferred from Al-Shifa Hospital to the Emirati Hospital in southern Gaza, a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) spokesperson told CNN on Monday.

On Monday, 28 were on their way to Egypt as one baby was discharged in Gaza and went home with his parents to their temporary shelter. Two other babies stayed at the Emirati Hospital’s ICU unit.

The newborn babies are being transferred from the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which has become a flashpoint in Israel’s war in the besieged territory.

The Israeli military alleges the facility is being used by Hamas as a shield for its operations and raided the hospital last Wednesday. Hamas and hospital officials have denied Israel’s claims.

CNN’s Eleni Giokos and Abeer Salman contributed to this reporting.

A still from CCTV video released by the Israel Defense Forces that it says shows Hamas fighters bringing hostages into Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7.

The Israel Defense Forces has released CCTV videos and still images it says show Hamas fighters bringing hostages into the Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari presented two short videos, along with several still images, which he said show Hamas fighters moving the hostages – one Nepali, one Thai – through the hospital, Gaza’s largest.

One of the CCTV videos shows a hostage being brought into the hospital through the main entrance, Hagari said. The hostage is being marched by force through the building.

Hagari, at a news conference Sunday, said the second CCTV video shows a second hostage – who has a bandaged hand and is clearly bleeding – being pushed on a gurney down a hallway and into a room.

Hagari did not spell out how the IDF had acquired the videos, although he did say Israeli intelligence officers were part of the operation inside the hospital to try to locate the hostages.

CNN cannot independently verify the content of the videos and the stills.

Opposing narratives: The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry responded to the IDF briefing by questioning the authenticity of the videos and stills — but it went on to say that, if true, the pictures showed that hospitals were providing medical care to anyone who needed it.

The IDF spokesman dismissed suggestions the hostages had been brought to the hospital because they were wounded, claiming one of the two hostages was not injured and did not need medical treatment. They had been brought to the hospital first, before being later moved to hiding spots, like nearby apartments, he said.

“If medical care had been given at the hospital, if the hostages had remained there, then the Red Cross would have come, and the people would have been released. None of these things happened,” he said.

In a statement issued Saturday before the release of the CCTV videos, Hamas said it had brought several hostages to hospitals for medical treatment after they were injured in Israeli airstrikes.

Hagari said the latest videos had been shared with diplomats of the hostages’ countries of origin, adding the IDF has not yet located the Nepali and Thai hostages in Gaza.

The Nepali Embassy in Israel and Nepal’s Foreign Ministry had confirmed with CNN before the publication of the video that one Nepali citizen remained missing after the October 7 attack and was believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas.

Ten Nepali citizens were killed and several others injured when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, Nepal’s ambassador to Israel told CNN after the attack.

More context: After raiding Al-Shifa Hospital last Wednesday, the IDF is under tremendous pressure to prove its long-standing assertion that Hamas uses Gaza’s largest medical center for combat and command purposes.

The military also released video Sunday from inside an exposed tunnel shaft at the Al-Shifa compound, showing an underground tunnel extending downward from the shaft opening. 

Premature babies which were evacuated from an incubator in Al Shifa Hospital receive treatment at a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza, on November 19.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has announced that 28 babies are being transported by ambulance to the Rafah crossing for their transfer to Egyptian hospitals.

“Urgent: Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance teams have just departed from the Emirati Hospital in Rafah to transport 28 injured neonatal babies to the Rafah crossing, in preparation for their transfer to hospitals in Egypt for treatment,” said the PRCS in a statement to CNN.

“This comes in coordination with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),” it added.

Some context: Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, has become a flashpoint in Israel’s war in the besieged enclave. The Israeli military alleges the facility is being used by Hamas as a shield for its operations and raided the hospital last Wednesday. Hamas and hospital officials have denied Israel’s claims.

Palestinians seek cover from a rainfall at a UN tent camp in the southern town of Khan Younis, Gaza, on November 19.

The UN’s main aid agency in Gaza says heavy rain has been falling in the region on Monday, causing “unliveable” conditions in shelters.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) posted a video on X showing crowds in Gaza stepping through puddles of rain. 

“Heavy rain is falling across the Gaza Strip. The situation in shelters is unliveable. People have no options,” the agency said in the post. 

Sewage is also flowing through the streets of Gaza, according to a top UNRWA official. 

Director of UNRWA Affairs Thomas White said in a post on X that there is only enough fuel to run sewage pumps at 55% capacity.

UNRWA has persistently highlighted the impact of Israel’s fuel restrictions in Gaza on key services, including sewage systems. 

Last week, Israel approved the entry of two fuel tanks into Gaza each day, sparking condemnation from UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who described the quantity as “far from enough.”

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (front row fourth right) poses for a group photo with officials from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia, as well as the Palestinian Foreign Minister and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General before the meeting in Beijing on November 20.

China welcomed officials from Arab and Muslim majority countries on Monday for talks on “de-escalating” the Israel-Hamas conflict as Beijing steps-up its efforts to play a role in establishing a ceasefire.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian National Authority, Indonesia, as well as the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in the capital Monday.

Beijing described the visit as an opportunity for “in-depth communication and coordination” on de-escalating the “current Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” protecting civilians, and “justly resolving” the Palestinian issue.

The meeting comes as sources tell CNN that a possible deal to secure the release of some hostages held by Hamas may be in sight, following weeks of negotiations between the United States, Israel and the militant group, mediated by Gulf state Qatar.

Beijing and Washington – an Israeli ally and long a major power broker in the region – have been at odds over their approach to the conflict. In particular, Beijing has criticized Israel’s retaliation and failed to condemn Hamas or name the group in its statements, sparking backlash from Israeli officials.

Read the full story here:

Israeli soldiers walk at the Al Shifa hospital complex in this still image from handout video obtained on November 15.

A doctor inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital has spoken to CNN about conditions inside the facility, accusing Israeli forces of pushing around staff and questioning them about Hamas.

“The common question [staff keep being asked]: Do you know anything about the Hamas groups? Do you know anything about the tunnels within the hospital?” Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, the head of the hospital’s burns unit told CNN, adding that staff movements around the complex were being restricted.

Israeli forces have been inside the hospital complex for days, looking to uncover what they say is a major Hamas underground base.

Many patients and staff members were evacuated over the weekend, including more than two dozen premature babies, who were transported to the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in southern Gaza Sunday.

El Mokhallalati said two adults and two babies died overnight Saturday, leaving the hospital with about 259 patients, seven doctors and five nurses.

He told CNN the hospital is running out of urgent requirements, including anesthetics, oxygen tanks, medicine and blood banks.

Israel’s Defense Ministry says it delivered over 6,000 liters of water and over 2,300 kg of food — including fish, canned food, bread, spreads and dates — over the weekend.

Appealing for more international support, El Mokhallalati said Israeli forces had only made a single delivery of water and food to the hospital.

“The whole world should stop this, and we need more and more involvement of the international community and organizations to help us,” he said.

El Mokhallalati also told CNN that Israeli forces had removed about 200 bodies from the hospital’s mortuary as well as from mass graves recently dug on the site.

“They brought two trucks and they have taken all the dead bodies out of the hospital,” he said.

Several days ago Israel’s army spokesman Daniel Hagari dodged a question about whether Israel had taken bodies out of the hospital complex as part of its efforts to determine the fate of hostages kidnapped from communities in southern Israel on October 7.

Some context: Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, has become a flashpoint in Israel’s war in the besieged enclave. The Israeli military alleges the facility is being used by Hamas as a shield for its operations and raided the hospital last Wednesday. Hamas and hospital officials have denied Israel’s claims.

A recent draft of a possible deal to secure the release of hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza proposes a four- to five-day pause in fighting for the initial release of 50 hostages, two sources familiar with the talks told CNN.

An agreement has yet to be struck, and the text of a deal has been traded back and forth for weeks. But negotiators from various countries, including senior Biden administration officials, are expressing rare optimism about the progress. Gaps in some of the major sticking points have begun to close, sources say, and while the talks could still break down, an agreement may now be days away.

“We think that we are closer than we have been perhaps at any point since these negotiations began weeks ago,” deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday. Finer did not get into details of the talks and stressed that there is no final deal in place.

Here’s what else you need to know:

The newly exposed tunnel shaft at the Al-Shifa hospital complex.

Even in the darkness, the utter devastation in northern Gaza is clear as day. The empty shells of buildings, illuminated by the last shreds of light, lurch out of the landscape on the dirt roads across the Gaza Strip. At night, the only signs of life are the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) vehicles that rumble the landscape, tightening the military’s grip on the northern sector.

On Saturday night, we traveled with the IDF into Gaza to see the newly exposed tunnel shaft discovered at the compound of Al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest medical facility.

The IDF had promised “concrete evidence” that Hamas was using the hospital complex above ground as cover for what it called terror infrastructure underneath, including a command and control hub.

Standing on the edge of the tunnel shaft, it was apparent that the structure itself was substantial. At the top, the remains of a ladder hung over the lip of the opening. In the center of the round shaft, a center pole looked like a hub for a spiral staircase. The shaft itself extended down farther than we could see, especially in the meager light of our headlamps.

Video released by the IDF from inside the shaft is arguably the most compelling evidence thus far that the IDF has offered that there may be a network of tunnels below the hospital. It does not establish without a doubt that there is a command center under Gaza’s largest hospital, but it is clear that there is a tunnel down below. Seeing what connects to that tunnel is absolutely critical.

Hamas has repeatedly denied that there is a network of tunnels below Shifa Hospital. Health officials who have spoken with CNN have said the same, insisting it is only a medical facility.

As is so rarely the case in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this answer truly is black and white. Either there is an underground series of tunnels below the hospital. Or there is not.

Some context: CNN reported from inside Gaza under IDF media escort at all times. As a condition for journalists to join this embed, media outlets had to submit footage filmed in Gaza to the Israeli military for review and agreed not to reveal sensitive locations and soldiers’ identities. CNN retained editorial control over the final report. 

Read more about the tunnel shaft in the Al-Shifa Hospital compound.

Clarification: The headline on this post has been updated to reflect that the tunnel shaft was discovered on the grounds of the Al-Shifa hospital complex. 

Neonatal babies receive treatment after being transferred from Al-Shifa Hospital to Emirates Maternity Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on November 19.

Doctors from Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza who are treating 31 neonatal babies who were evacuated from Gaza City say all the babies are fighting serious infections, according to a statement from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday.

Eleven of the young babies are in “critical condition,” the WHO said in its statement.

The WHO said the babies had fallen ill due to a lack of medical supplies at Al-Shifa Hospital and the difficulty of continuing infection control measures in Al-Shifa Hospital amid an ongoing Israeli assault.

Dr. Mohammad Salamah at the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital told CNN: “We are conducting tests on all those babies and they were given fluids and needed medication according to their condition. For now, they are in a difficult, stable condition, but this condition might deteriorate, especially given that we might run out of electricity at any time now as long as fuel doesn’t get into Gaza.”

“Six health workers and 10 of their family members, who had been sheltering at the hospital, were also evacuated,” WHO said.

It was hoped that the parents of the newborns would be able to travel to safety with their children, but the WHO said very few of the infants were accompanied by family members.

This was because Gazan officials were not easily able to find close family members due to the intense fighting between Israel and Hamas and communications blackouts.

CNN spoke to one father, Ali Sbeiti, who managed to be reunited with his young son, Anas, who was born three days before the war. 

“Thank God. We now feel that our son is safe after not seeing him for more than two weeks. We didn’t know whether he was dead or alive, especially when communications were disconnected with the doctors,” Sbeiti said.

Palestinians fleeing Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza, carry some belongings as they walk along a road leading to the southern areas of the enclave on November 18.

The killing of civilians in Gaza schools and large evacuations from Al-Shifa Hospital are actions that fly in the face of basic protections civilians are afforded under international law, the United Nations’ top human rights official said Sunday.

The Israeli military has previously pushed back against accusations of war crimes, saying its strikes on what it says are Hamas targets follow international law and that it seeks to minimize civilian casualties.

Türk called the events of the past two days horrendous, saying they beggar belief.

He said hundreds of people have fled Al-Shifa Hospital and were seen heading south, but warned, “nowhere is safe in Gaza.”

He also said that in Khan Younis in southern Gaza — where hundreds of thousands of Gazans have fled — the IDF has been dropping leaflets, telling residents to go to unspecified shelters, but he stressed, “Irrespective of warnings, Israel is obliged to protect civilians wherever they are.”

Türk again called for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian and human rights grounds.

“The pain, dread, and fear etched on the faces of children, women and men is too much to bear,” he said. “How much more violence, bloodshed and misery will it take before people come to their senses? How many more civilians will be killed? This must stop.”