Smoke rises after artillery strikes in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, Nov. 20, 2023. (Credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
Here is a summary of today’s events.
Today saw an array of developments and difficulties — the delivery of the first field hospital to Gaza, while another hospital in the north is under attack; premature babies escape the enclave, while the death toll there rises to 13,300 including 5,600, children.
Medics transfer premature Palestinian babies evacuated from Gaza to ambulances on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border, earlier today, in this handout picture, courtesy of the Egyptian Health Ministry. (Credit: The Egyptian Health Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
US Envoy to the Middle East Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel to encourage the containment of violence at the Lebanon-Israel border. Hochstein visited Beirut earlier this month with similar intentions. His current trip is a continuation of diplomatic attempts on the part of the US to prevent regional escalation.
Around 9 p.m., reports came in hinting at advancements in mediation talks between Hamas and Israel. The Israeli public broadcasting corporation mentioned a “green light” from Israel for a hostage deal. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that a hostage deal “is closer than it’s ever been.”
A Palestinian man wounded in an Israeli strike is rushed into Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip Nov. 19, 2023. (Credit: Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
Twenty-eight of the surviving 31 premature babies evacuated from the besieged al-Shifa Hospital made it over the border and into Egypt from Gaza today. In a statement, the World Health Organization said that “all babies are fighting serious infections and continue needing health care," and called al-Shifa under Israeli occupation a “death zone.”
A field hospital sent by Jordan entered Gaza today and is set to be established in Khan Yunis. The hospital, the first of its kind to make it into the Strip, has a 41-bed capacity, Jordan said, and was accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says there are around 30,000 wounded people across the Strip, and in their Nov. 19 report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) declared that 25 of 35 hospitals in Gaza are out of service, and 55 ambulances damaged, with “almost all hospitals in Gaza City and North Gaza governorates reportedly not operational, except one.” The Indonesian Hospital in North Gaza is under Israeli fire and surrounded by tanks, with 700 people stuck inside, according to Gaza Health Ministry Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra.
Palestinians pick up bottles of drinking water that reportedly ended up on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip following a windy and rainy night, last night. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)
Two announcements came out from Qatar today, one saying ticket revenues for the 2023 Asian Cup, the football tournament to be hosted there in January, will be donated for Palestinian relief efforts; and a second condemning “in the strongest possible terms the Israeli shelling of the Indonesian hospital,” and calling on “the international community to act urgently to deter Israel from committing more massacres.”
Compiled by Amelia Hankins.