‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 141: Israel attacks civilian shelter in Deir el-Balah as ceasefire talks continue in Paris

Casualties

• 29,606+ killed* and at least 69,737 wounded in the Gaza Strip
• 406 Palestinians killed and 4,600 wounded in the Occupied West Bank
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll from 1,400 to 1,139
• 576 Israeli soldiers killed since ground invasion**

*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 38,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”

Key Developments

• An Israeli airstrike hits Rafah, killing at least seven people
• Israel attacks a shelter in Deir el-Balah, killing at least 24 people
• UNRWA can no longer provide services in northern Gaza
• Reports that Israel will withhold more West Bank tax revenues
• Israeli Army says it struck several Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon
• Ceasefire talks are currently underway in Paris
• U.S. military claims that it destroyed Houthi missiles in the Red Sea
• Houthis demand “ban” on Israel, U.S. and UK-linked ships in the Red Sea
• Brazilian President Lula da Silva denounces Israel’s actions as a “genocide”

Israel attacks shelter in Deir el-Balah as families in northern Gaza “forage for leaves and food left behind by rats”

An Israeli airstrike just hit Rafah, killing seven people, showing that even Rafah, where the majority of displaced Palestinians are sheltering, is no longer safe.

The attack comes following a bloody night where Israeli forces attacked a building in Deir el-Balah, where more than 120 people were sheltering. At least 24 Palestinians were killed in the attacks, the majority of whom were women and children. 

“You can see for yourself the bodies. All the dead were women and children. There is no peaceful place for us to go. We were all displaced, we’ve all lost our homes. Where do you want us to go? The whole world is watching us. Have mercy on us,” one woman told Al Jazeera.

Medical staff at the nearby Al Aqsa Hospital are reportedly still receiving wounded civilians, and the hospital is struggling to deal with the influx of wounded civilians.

“We expect to receive many more by the ambulances that are still at the site,” Dr Khalil al-Degran, a doctor at Al Aqsa Hospital told Al Jazeera.

“We are not equipped to receive such large numbers of victims,” he said, adding that the strike was part of Israel’s “genocide against our people.”

Even though the Al-Aqsa Hospital is barely functional, it remains one of the only functional medical facilities in the Gaza Strip—especially with the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis under siege. One Palestinian doctor, currently working at the Al Aqsa Hospital, compared his experiences as a doctor in Gaza to those he had in Ukraine–where he was a medical student, during the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“I served almost one year at Ukrainian hospitals,” Dr. Musa Abdul Khaliq told Al Jazeera.“The situation in Gaza is totally different. From day one of this war to this hour, the Israeli forces are wreaking, killing, and destroying Gazans. We are flooded with dead bodies and critically wounded Palestinians,” he continued, explaining that he has to make life or death choices every day, including whether or not to administer anesthetic. 

“If we draw a quick comparison, hospitals in Ukraine are many in number and large in size and well-equipped. That’s why survival odds for both medical staff and the wounded are high. In Gaza, it is the opposite.”

Meanwhile, UNRWA—the UN agency tasked with delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees—can reportedly no longer work in northern Gaza, citing staff shortages and a “collapse of social order,” given the ongoing military assault on civilians, as well as the restrictions on food and access to humanitarian aid. 

Now, half of Gaza’s population faces daily shortages of bread, clean water, and the basic necessities for daily life—and the humanitarian situation is even worse in the north, where 90 percent of children under two and pregnant and breastfeeding women are facing food poverty. According to aid agencies, families are forced to forage for leaves and eat food left behind by rats, as starvation becomes an acute risk.

Organizations such as OCHA are calling for safe, unfettered access to deliver emergency humanitarian aid and avoid the looming catastrophe.

Raids continue in the West Bank, arresting one journalist and two children

At least 22 Palestinians were detained in Israeli military raids across the Occupied West Bank last night, including one journalist and two children. Now, the total number of Palestinians who have been arrested since October 7 is 7,210 people, a total of 10 of whom have died in Israeli custody.

Meanwhile, Israel has announced that it will withhold even more Palestinian Authority (PA) tax revenues from the West Bank than usual, which could lead to the PA running out of money.

Ceasefire talks are underway in Paris, as Houthi group vows to continue attacks in the Red Sea

Ceasefire talks are currently underway in Paris, where Israel’s head of the Mossad agency is meeting with Egyptian, Qatari, and U.S. mediators separately following a similar series of meetings earlier this week in Cairo with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Meanwhile, U.S. Centcom claims to have destroyed several anti-ship cruise missiles in the Red Sea, as the Ansar Allah (Houthi) group orders a “ban” on Israel, U.S., and UK-linked ships and vows to continue attacks.

“Operations in the Red and Arabian Seas, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden are continuing, escalating, and effective,” said Ansar Allah Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthiadded in a televised speech

Brazilian President Lula da Silva emphatically addressed a crowd in Rio De Janeiro, condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide,” as it is targeting women and children. “This is genocide. Thousands of dead children, thousands missing. It’s not soldiers who are dying, but women and children in hospitals,” he said. 

“If this is not genocide, I don’t know what genocide is!”

Despite growing international condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza, crackdowns on international solidarity with Palestinians continue, as two Singaporean influencers were advised by the government against posting about their support for the Palestinian cause publicly, lest it disturb the public order. 

Nevertheless, solidarity protests around the world continue, notably in London where the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is defending the right to lobby MPs in large numbers, following a protest on Wednesday where demonstrators were denied entry to parliament.