People inspect the damage at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 17, 2023, as Israel relentlessly bombards the besieged enclave. (Credit: Mahmud Hams/AFP)
Here is a summary of today’s events.
In terms of aid for the besieged and battered Palestinian enclave, today was a day with some advancements. First, Saudi Arabia donated six ambulances which supposedly entered the Strip today. According to a Nov. 15 report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 55 ambulances have been damaged since Israeli bombardment began.
Israel’s war-time Cabinet approved the entry of two truckloads of fuel into Gaza per day. An Israeli official said that “the fuel is intended to provide minimal support” to water, sewage, and sanitation systems in Gaza, in order to prevent pandemics.
A child inspects the damage at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 17, 2023, amid Israel's relentless bombardment of the besieged enclave. (Credit: Mahmud Hams/AFP)
Cyprus announced that it was close to reaching an agreement with Israel about a humanitarian aid corridor between the Mediterranean island and Gaza. The plan is for aid to be collected, inspected, and packed in Cyprus and then sent to the Strip on ships checked daily by a joint committee including Israel.
However, this comes as the Rafah border crossing, the only opening by which aid has entered Gaza and people have fled it, was closed again today due to fuel shortages and the communications shut down, suspending much needed UN aid deliveries.
Palestinians queue as they wait to buy bread from a bakery, amid shortages of food supplies and fuel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip Nov. 17, 2023. (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)
The increase in aid could not come soon enough, with the Health Ministry in Gaza reporting 24 people have died at the besieged al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza in the last two days alone due to power outages there. Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, stationed at al-Shifa, spoke to Reuters about the unfolding events there, saying “the Israeli tanks and the Israeli troops have been moving within the hospital area, all over the hospital … They are shooting all the time, all the areas."
Compiled by Amelia Hankins.