‘Far too many Palestinians have been killed,’ Blinken says; Gaza health ministry says hospitals hit in strikes

“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.

He said later that at least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering.

Gaza officials said missiles landed in the courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave’s biggest hospital, in the early hours, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi pediatrics cancer hospital.

Israel’s military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.

The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated, and are full of displaced people as well as patients and doctors.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa hospital’s basement, which meant the hospital could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.

Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals, charges Hamas denies.

Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi hospital as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times.

“One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he said by phone. Videos verified by Reuters showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood.

— Reuters

Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the official death toll in Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 cross-border attack into Israel has been lowered to 1,200 people.

Israeli officials have previously estimated the death toll at 1,400.

The ministry gave no reason for the revision. But an Israeli official said the number had been changed after a painstaking weekslong process to identify bodies, many of which were mutilated or burned.

The official said the final death toll could still change. He said a number of bodies have not been identified and it is unclear whether all of the nearly 240 hostages believed to be held by Hamas are still alive.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official government announcement.

— Associated Press

The World Health Organization says 20 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a pediatric hospital that has stopped operations after a reported Israeli strike in the area.

WHO spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris said Friday that Rantisi Children’s hospital in the north of the enclave was no longer operating, and it was not immediately clear what has happened to the patients inside.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said earlier that Israeli forces had struck overnight the area around Shifa Medical Complex, the largest hospital in Gaza, killing six Palestinians, and bombed areas near several other hospitals including the Rantisi hospital.

Harris said WHO does not try to assign responsibility for strikes.

Harris said some children had been receiving care such as dialysis and life support which doesn’t allow for their safe evacuation.

She added that “hospitals never should be a target.”

“If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza,” the U.N. humanitarian agency spokesperson, Jens Laerke, told reporters in Geneva.

— Associated Press

Columbia University has suspended their student chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) through the end of the fall term, according to a statement.

“This decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” said Gerald Rosberg, Columbia’s senior executive vice president and chair of the Special Committee on Campus Safety.

This means that both groups will not be allowed to hold events on campus or receive university funding, according to Rosberg.

“Lifting the suspension will be contingent on the two groups demonstrating a commitment to compliance with University policies and engaging in consultations at a group leadership level with University officials,” Rosberg said.

— Associated Press

Palestinian families flee Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza toward the southern areas amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing heavy combat between Hamas militants and the Israeli military in Gaza City a month after Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip, entered southern Israel on October 7, in an unprecedented attack triggering a war declared by Israel on Hamas with retaliatory bombings on Gaza.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince called on Friday for an end to the war in Gaza.

“We condemn what the Gaza Strip is facing from military assault, targeting of civilians, the violations of international law by the Israeli occupation authorities,” Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said during an African-Saudi summit held in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh.

“We stress on the need to stop this war and the forced displacement of Palestinians.”

-Reuters

Peter Ricketts, former national security advisor for the U.K., discusses the prospect of an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, and how the conflict is impacting western intervention in the Ukraine war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his administration’s opposition to any forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, as Israel’s bombardment of the enclave in its declared war against Hamas continues.

“In terms of the longer-term conditions that we need to see, to try to get a real foundation for lasting peace, and lasting security, because that’s the objective for Palestinians and Israelis alike — I think there too we made some progress,” Blinken told press at a briefing during a visit to New Delhi.

“First in trying to establish some basic principles that can guide us in the effort; including among them, no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no use of Gaza as a platform for launching terrorism or other attacks against Israel, no diminution in the territory of Gaza, and a commitment to Palestinian-led governance for Gaza and for the West Bank, and in a unified way,” the secretary said.

“These and some other ideas that we put forward and that others share, I think can start to be the basis for what we need to do,” he said.

In late October, Israel’s Intelligence Ministry drafted a proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, inflaming tensions with Palestinians and Cairo. Israel dismissed the plans as a hypothetical “concept paper” after the document was seen by media.

Palestinians, human rights activists and leaders of other Arab states have expressed fears over the idea that Israel could attempt to push some or all of Gaza’s Palestinians into another country — most likely neighboring Egypt — and not permit them to return.

Such an action would echo what Palestinians call the “Nakba,” or “Catastrophe,” of 1948, when following the creation of the Israeli state, some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from or fled their villages and became refugees, denied the right of return. Today, some 70% of Gaza’s population are registered as refugees, and descendants of refugees, from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Forced displacement of civilians can be classified as a war crime, according to the United Nations.

— Natasha Turak

The group did not specify when its operatives died and whether they were killed during the same strike. CNBC could not verify the report.

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged strikes since the first days of Israel’s conflict with Palestinian militant group Hamas. Both it and Hezbollah are supported by Iran.

Hezbollah claims it is acting out of solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people. Increasing hostilities between Israel, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon have mounted concerns that the war currently confined to Israel and Gaza territories could spill into the broader Middle East region.

— Ruxandra Iordache

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said more progress is necessary in preventing the deaths of Palestinian civilians and supplying humanitarian assistance to these people.

“This is a process, and it’s not always flipping a light switch. But we have seen progress, we just need to see more of it, and we need to maximize every effort to prevent Palestinian deaths and to advance the humanitarian assistance that’s getting to them,” he said during a press briefing in New Delhi, where he traveled for broader diplomatic talks. “There is more that can and should be done to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”

Blinken added: “Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered these past weeks.” He praised the pauses Israel announced yesterday which included three-hour notice in specific areas.

A close ally of Israel, the U.S. has recently shifted gears and began to tout the possibility of a so-called humanitarian pause in the fighting with Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives as collateral damage, according to Gaza authorities. Israel cites its right to self-defense and says its purpose in the Gaza Strip is to demilitarize Hamas, not target civilians.

The White House is also focusing on increasing humanitarian deliveries to the besieged Gaza enclosure, Blinken said, after human rights groups decried that current flows of assistance represent a “trickle” compared to the U.N.-assessed 500 trucks of supplies that the strip received daily prior to the conflict.

“We have a concrete way forward that would allow more trucks to get in on a regular, sustained basis, as well as to make sure there’s an adequate supply of fuel, so that, for example, the trucks themselves can be fueled up to distribute the assistance, hospitals have what they need, desalination plants have what they need,” Blinken said Friday.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israeli forces arrested 41 “wanted” Palestinians overnight in the West Bank, saying that 14 of those were Hamas operatives.

The news came in a joint statement from the Israeli Defense Forces, Israel’s Border Police, and the Shin Bet security service. It described Israeli forces finding and destroying Hamas equipment and propaganda material in a warehouse on Hebron, and arresting Palestinians in refugee camps.

The IDF says its troops have arrested 1,540 Palestinians designated as “wanted” across the West Bank since Oct. 7, and says that more than 930 are linked to Hamas. CNBC could not verify the information.

At least 176 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since that date, according to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.

Videos posted to social media, and geolocated by NBC News, show two tanks near the al-Rantisi Hospital for Children in Gaza City.

The tanks, located in alleys in the vicinity of the hospital, suggest that Israeli forces are pushing deeper into the city.

The Hamas-run government media office told NBC News, “The occupation is present in the vicinity of the hospitals square in central Gaza and is demanding its evacuation.”

CNBC has approached the IDF for comment.

— Katrina Bishop

More than 100 staff members of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees were killed in one month during the Israel-Hamas conflict, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on social media on Friday.

“UNRWA is mourning, Palestinians mourning, Israelis mourning. Ending this tragedy needs #Humanitarianceasefire now,” he said.

Active in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA has repeatedly called for safer conditions for local civilians and its shelters, as well as for its personnel to receive and distribute humanitarian aid to Palestinian people.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Hamas-affiliated Gaza Ministry of Health, said the Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in Gaza City is being “repeatedly targeted at this time.”

“We call on the United Nations and the International Committee to be present in Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr Children’s Hospitals, protect them, and make room for ambulances to evacuate the wounded,” he added.

It followed an earlier statement from al-Qudra that a number of hospitals in Gaza City had been targeted in Israeli strikes Friday.

Separately, Dr. Mustafa Al-Kahlot, director of the Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr Hospital for Children, said Friday that Al-Nasr had been bombed twice.

“There was major damage to the hospital, oxygen was cut off in the intensive care units, and electricity was cut off except for the care department … If the electricity is cut off in [intensive care], patients will die,” he said in a video, translated by NBC News.

“The situation is very bad. We are trapped inside the hospital. Ambulances cannot reach us.”

CNBC was unable to verify the situation on the ground. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said it “did not target civilians and operates in accordance with international law,” NBC reported.

— Katrina Bishop

Israeli authorities announced a new limited-time humanitarian corridor on Friday for the southward evacuation of civilians out of Gaza City.

In a Google-translated social media post, Avichay Adraee, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson for Arab media, said the free movement of civilians is once again allowed on the main Salah al-Din road from Gaza City between the local hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories — a unit of the Israeli Defense Ministry — said on social media that the evacuation window will span a wider timeframe between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Israel, which has come under immense international pressure to shield civilian lives in the conflict, has been providing humanitarian corridors since the weekend and will continue to do so on a daily basis, according to the U.S.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against the suggestion that his country could end up occupying the Gaza Strip, following its war campaign in the enclave.

Asked in an interview with Fox News how long the war might last and whether it would become an Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu replied, “Well first of all we don’t seek to govern, we don’t seek to occupy it, but we seek to give it and us a better future and the entire Middle East. And that requires defeating Hamas.”

“I’ve set goals, I didn’t set a timetable, because you know it can take more time,” the prime minister added. “I wish it’ll take little time, but we’re proceeding step by step.”

Israel occupied the Gaza Strip from 1967 to 2005, and later imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the tiny coastal enclave when Palestinian militant organization Hamas took control of its government in 2007.

A major question mark over Israel’s war against Hamas is what will happen to the Gaza Strip and its 2.3 million residents after — or if — Hamas is defeated. Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israel plans to take “overall security responsibility” of Gaza indefinitely after the war, but has ruled out re-occupation.

It remains unclear what “overall security responsibility” would look like.

— Natasha Turak

The Israel Defense Forces said it has killed several senior Hamas commanders in the past several days, including agents involved in the terror attacks of Oct. 7.

In a Telegram update, the Israeli military said among those killed were Hamas company commander Ahmed Musa and platoon commander Omar Al-Hindi, both located in western Jabalia.

The Israeli forces also said the head of the sniper array of Hamas’ northern brigade, Mohammed Kahlout, was killed.

CNBC could not verify the information.

The IDF has reported killing multiple senior Hamas commanders since the start of the conflict, and names this, along with the release of hostages and the complete demilitarization of the Palestinian militant group, as the objectives of its war campaign in the Gaza Strip.

— Ruxandra Iordache

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk again called for a cease-fire in the Israeli-Hamas war and for the release of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group, while urging Israel to protect civilians in the West Bank.

“What is needed, urgently … is for the parties to agree to a ceasefire on the basis of critical human rights imperatives – to deliver food, water and other essential goods to people who desperately need them and where they need them, throughout Gaza; for all hostages to be released; and to open a path to a sustainable way out of this nightmarish situation in Gaza,” he said, in a speech delivered in Jordan.

“I also appeal, as a matter of urgency, for Israeli authorities to take immediate measures to take steps to ensure protection of Palestinians in the West Bank – who are being on a daily basis subjected to violence from Israeli forces and settlers, ill treatment, arrests, evictions, intimidation and humiliation.”

Türk condemned the “atrocious attacks” of Hamas on Oct. 7, which should “outrage each and every one of us,” as well as the “indiscriminate effects” of Israeli attacks in densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip.

He said the U.N. human rights agency continues to monitor strikes against hospitals in the Gaza enclave, adding, “Considering the predictable high level of civilian casualty and the wide scale of destruction of civilian objects we have very serious concerns that these amount to disproportionate attacks in breach of international humanitarian law.”

Israel has repeatedly said it does not target civilians and sets out to demilitarize Hamas positions.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Turkey has broached the possibility of increasing humanitarian aid flows to the Gaza Strip with the United States, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to Google-translated comments reported by state-run news agency Anadolu.

During U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting in Turkey with his counterpart Hakan Fidan earlier this week, Ankara proposed increasing the number of trucks bearing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip to at least 500 per day — close to the number of truck deliveries that the U.N. assesses took place before the conflict.

“In addition to all these, the ambulance shortage must also be eliminated,” Erdogan said. “We will also take steps by cooperating with some countries on medicine, food, etc.”

Ankara has been critical of Israel’s retaliatory campaign in the Gaza Strip, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration of a disproportionate response to the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7.

Erdogan stressed that Turkey’s primary goal in the conflict remains a cease-fire. Referring to Western countries, he added, “We need concrete steps, not heroic rhetoric and empty humanitarian shows. They say, ‘We are striving for a better road map.'”

He went on, “If you are sincere about the ceasefire, put pressure on Israel to implement the U.N. resolutions. Because people are dying, mothers are losing their babies, children are losing their parents. We are trying to do something to stop this bleeding wound.”

— Ruxandra Iordache

Hospitals in Gaza City have been subject to attack by Israeli forces since early Friday morning, Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which falls under the Hamas administration, said.

Spokesman Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra said “simultaneous raids on a number of hospitals” had been conducted, according to a NBC News translation. “The Israeli occupation’s continued targeting of hospitals in Gaza causes a major disaster.”

Al-Qudra added that the Israeli military had targeted the grounds of the al-Shifa Medical Complex, where injured people were sheltering.

CNBC is unable to independently verify the information.

Earlier, NBC News reported that health officials and residents of Gaza City had observed blasts and battles near a number of hospitals.

Humanitarian groups say medical facilities throughout the Gaza enclave are at breaking point, overcrowded and desperately lacking food, water, energy and medical supplies. Earlier this week, the U.N. and World Health Organization described conditions at al-Shifa — Gaza’s largest hospital — as “disastrous.”

— Katrina Bishop

Iran coordinates and cooperates with so-called resistance groups — which it has previously said includes Palestinian militant group Hamas — but does not order their operations, Tehran’s envoy to the U.N. said Thursday, according to a Google-translated report from the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s representative to the United Nations, stressed “we have clearly said that Iran is not involved in any of the attacks against the American forces in the region,” positioning Tehran at some distance from recent attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

Touching on the Israel-Hamas war, Iravani said Tehran has also “emphasized that we do not intend to expand this war front,” but noted that, if the conflict continues, it could spread to the broader Middle East region.

Iran supports Palestinian militant group Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi, Lebanese Hezbollah and the Syrian administration of Bashar al-Assad — all of which Israel has accused of attacks since Oct. 7.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israel Defense Forces said they struck an organization in Syria that on Thursday launched a drone attack toward southern Israeli port city of Eilat, allegedly hitting a school.

CNBC could not independently confirm developments on the ground.

The Israeli military did not identify the organization or explicitly name it as the Iran-backed government of Bashar al-Assad, but said on Telegram that it “holds the Syrian regime fully responsible for every terror activity emanating from its territory. The IDF will respond severely to every aggression against Israeli territory.”

The latest hostilities add to a spate of shelling and drone attacks between Israel and nearby countries in the Middle East that have taken place since Oct. 7. Israel has also been trading fire— it says, from a defensive position — with Yemeni Houthi and Lebanese Hezbollah, which, like Hamas, are also sponsored by Iran.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israeli military has criticized Hamas’ use of civilian garments and facilities while fighting, which blurs the lines between civilian and military positions.

“The point here being no distinction between military and civilian, abuse of civilian facilities, and the fact that they are not fighting in uniform,” said Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus in an overnight update.

The Israeli military previously reported finding weapon stocks and entryways to the underground network of Hamas near civilian Palestinian sites.

Conricus also asked whether the Gaza Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled territories — whose published death tolls Israel has questioned — would add the killing of a Hamas operative in civilian clothing to its count of civilian casualties.

CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees on Thursday launched a $481 million humanitarian appeal for the occupied Palestinian territories.

The funding seeks to address the humanitarian needs of the people stranded in the besieged and resource-deprived Gaza Strip and in the West Bank until the end of this year.

“One month into a tight siege and a brutal war, the humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip are colossal. They grow by the hour. Last week in Gaza, children asked me if I had a piece of bread or a sip of water. It was one of the saddest moments,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini at the Paris humanitarian conference on Thursday.

UNRWA has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and for higher flows of humanitarian aid, which is currently largely being supplied by slowly progressing trucks traversing the Rafah crossing — the only exit route out of the Gaza enclosure not controlled by Israel.

“Our abilities are stretched to the limits, as our staff themselves are displaced, enduring huge losses and mourning 99 UNRWA colleagues killed,” Lazzarini added.  

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israel’s military said a drone exploded Thursday in the yard of a house in the Red Sea city of Eilat, causing no injuries, and a long-range surface-to-surface missile was intercepted before entering Israeli airspace.

Later, Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they fired a batch of ballistic missiles at Israeli targets, some of which were heading for Eilat, acording to Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sare’e.

Thursday’s round of missile fire is one of at least five ariel attacks the Houthis have launched against southern Israel since Oct. 7. The Iran-backed force, who control Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, are staunch enemies of Israel and have vowed to continue their military operations in support of Palestinians.

— Associated Press

The U.S. humanitarian envoy for the war described improving aid delivery for central and southern Gaza, but described no such effort in the northern battle zone other than to help civilians flee the intensifying Israeli assault there.

Envoy David Satterfield said Thursday that the international community had been able to get fuel to turn back on water desalination plants in the south, and that aid into the south was averaging 100 trucks a day. Two pipelines supplying clean drinking water to the south from Israel had been turned back on.

“We do see the ability in the coming days we hope to meet the minimum requirements of the population in the south,” he said.

Satterfield also said in the online briefing that agreements being worked out would include a way to move wounded from the north.

The U.N. estimated on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of people were still in northern Gaza, but could not immediately provide an updated figure.

— Associated Press

The Israeli military emphasized that there is no cease-fire in Gaza as the White House said Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in northern Gaza.

“There are tactical, local pauses for humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians,” the Israel Defense Forces said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “These tactical pauses are limited in time and area. We are also providing humanitarian corridors for civilians in Gaza to temporarily move south to safer areas where they can receive humanitarian aid.”

In a separate statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, “The fighting continues and there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages.”

— Michele Luhn

The White House said Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in norther Gaza starting on Thursday, as the Biden administration said it has secured a second pathway for civilians to flee fighting.

President Joe Biden had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to institute the daily pauses during a Monday call.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the first humanitarian pause would be announced Thursday and that the Israelis had committed to announcing each four-hour window at least three hours in advance.

Biden also told reporters that he had asked the Israelis for a “pause longer than three days” during negotiations over the release of some hostages held by Hamas, though he ruled out the chances of a general cease-fire.

— The Associated Press

At least 10,812 Palestinians — 4,412 of them children — have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Thursday in its latest update.

At least 1,400 have been killed and more 7,198 have been wounded in Israel, the Israeli government said on Nov. 7.

CNBC could not independently verify the figures.

— Karen Gilchrist