Middle East

Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu rejects calls for ceasefire as battle continues with ‘full force’

UN aid chief describes fighting as ‘reprehensible’ and says hospitals ‘must be places of greater safety’

Israel-Hamas war: The number of Palestinians killed has risen above 11,000. Photograph: Khan Younis/AFP/Getty Images

Sat Nov 11 2023 - 20:54

Binyamin Netanyahu has rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel’s battle to crush Hamas militants will continue with “full force”.

A ceasefire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are released, the prime minister said in a televised address.

The Israeli leader also insisted that after the war, now entering its sixth week, Gaza would be demilitarised and Israel would retain security control there.

Such a position appears to run counter to the postwar scenarios floated by Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which has said it opposes an Israeli reoccupation of the territory.

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Asked what he meant by security control, Mr Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter Gaza when necessary to hunt down militants.

Earlier, Israel’s prime minister rejected calls from Western allies to do more to protect Palestinian civilians, as troops encircled Gaza’s largest hospital where doctors said five patients died, including a premature baby, after the last generator ran out of fuel.

Israel has portrayed Shifa Hospital as Hamas’ main command post, saying militants were using civilians as human shields there and had set up elaborate bunkers underneath it, claims Hamas and Shifa staff deny.

“There is no electricity. Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” said Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa, speaking by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions.

Médecins Sans Frontières warned that patients and medical staff in Gaza are “trapped in hospitals under fire”. In a statement released on Saturday the humanitarian organisation said the Al-Shifa hospital complex has been hit several times, including the maternity and outpatient departments, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries.

“Hospitals must be places of greater safety, not of war,” the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator said in a tweet on Saturday. The UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said: “There can be no justification for acts of war in healthcare facilities, leaving them with no power, food or water, and shooting at patients and civilians trying to flee. This is unconscionable, reprehensible, and must stop.”

Mr Abu Selmia said Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital”, and prevented movement between the buildings in the compound.

The claim that Israeli troops were the sole source of fire could not be verified independently.

Asked about reports of troops firing into the Shifa courtyard, the Israeli military would only say that troops are engaged with fighting Hamas in the vicinity and take all feasible measures to prevent harm to civilians.

It said soldiers have encountered hundreds of Hamas fighters in underground facilities, schools, mosques and clinics during fighting in Gaza.

[ ‘There’s no safe place and death is everywhere’: The Gaza residents defying Israel’s order to evacuate ]

At Shifa, five patients died after the generator shut down, including a premature baby, said Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the health ministry.

Mr Netanyahu said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas, repeating long-standing allegations that the militant group uses civilians in Gaza as human shields.

He said that while Israel has urged civilians to leave combat zones, “Hamas is doing everything it can to prevent them from leaving”.

His statement came after French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for a ceasefire and urged other leaders to join his call, telling the BBC there was “no justification” for Israel’s ongoing bombing.

Following Hamas’ deadly October 7th attack on Israel, in which at least 1,200 people were killed, Israel’s allies have defended the country’s right to protect itself.

But now into the second month of war, there are growing differences in how many feel Israel should conduct its fight.

The US has been pushing for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory where conditions are increasingly dire.

However, Israel has so far only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians are able to flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along the territory’s main north-south artery.

Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, more than 150,000 civilians have fled the north, according to UN monitors.

[ Israel is killing ‘far too many Palestinians’, says Blinken ]

On Saturday, the military announced a new evacuation window, saying civilians could use the central road and a coastal road.

On the main road, a steady stream of people could be seen fleeing southward, clutching children and bags of belongings, many on foot and some on donkey-drawn carts. One man pushed two children in a wheelbarrow.

Tens of thousands more remain in northern Gaza, many sheltering at hospitals and overcrowded UN facilities.

Palestinian civilians and rights advocates have pushed back against Israel’s portrayal of the southern evacuation zones as “relatively safe”, noting that Israeli bombardment has continued across Gaza, including air strikes in the south that Israel says target Hamas leaders, but that have also killed women and children.

Saudi Arabia hosted Muslim and Arab leaders in Riyadh on Saturday with the aim of devising their own cohesive strategy on Gaza.

Initially intended to be two separate gatherings, the country decided to merge them into one to expedite the process in response to the escalating violence, according to the Saudi foreign ministry. – PA, Guardian

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