Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila called on the international community to take measures to allow the entry of medicine and fuel for hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
"The international community and humanitarian organizations must intervene immediately to open the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and allow the entry of medicine and fuel for Gaza hospitals," the Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted her as saying.
According to Al-Kaila, Israel continues to target hospitals in Gaza. The minister described the Israeli authorities' accusations that the hospitals are used by radicals as "Israeli attempts to find excuses for bombing.".
Hamas calls on Egypt to provide Gaza with roaming services, Internet connection
Hamas has asked Egypt to provide roaming services to the Gaza Strip, where telephone communication and the Internet have been cut off, the movement's spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.
"The terrorist Zionist occupation has cut [telephone] services and the Internet in the Gaza Strip <...>. We call on Egypt to open roaming services on Egyptian networks," the spokesman said in a statement published on the group’s official Telegram channel.
On November 5, Palestinian provider Paltel reported that telephone and Internet services had again been disrupted throughout the Gaza Strip. A similar announcement was made by Jawwal, the second provider of telecommunications services in Gaza.
The complete shutdown of Internet, wireline and cellular services in the Palestinian enclave was first reported on October 27. Paltel and Jawwal said that services had become impossible due to damage to communications caused by Israeli airstrikes. Communications were restored on October 31, as international organizations expressed concern about the inability to reach those remaining in Gaza.
Bupati Kabupaten Halmahera Selatan, Maluku Utara Usman Sidik (50) meninggal dunia usai bermain sepak bola dalam ajang pembukaan Piala Bupati Cup, hari Minggu petang, 05/11/2023.
Di tengah laga bersama tim Persatuan Wartawan Indonesia (PWI) Halsel di Gelora Bahrain Kasuba, Bupati tiba-tiba ambruk tak sadarkan diri.
"Bupati meninggal dunia sekitar pukul 18.40 WIT, setelah menjalani perawatan di RSU Marabose usai bermain sepak bola di lapangan Gelora Bahrain Kasuba," kata Samsudin, Minggu petan, 05/11/2023, seperti dilansir Antara.
Tiba-tiba ambruk Usman Sidik, dalam laga pembukaan Piala Bupati Cup tersebut, dipercaya menjadi kapten kesebelasan bernomor punggung 18 dan memperkuat tim PWI Halsel Sedangkan Wakil Bupati Halsel Bassam Kasuba menjadi kapten di tim Pemkab Halsel.
Usman yang juga Wabendum DPP Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) tersebut tiba-tiba ambruk di tengah lapangan saat pertandingan.
Tiba-tiba ambruk
Usman Sidik, dalam laga pembukaan Piala Bupati Cup tersebut, dipercaya menjadi kapten kesebelasan bernomor punggung 18 dan memperkuat tim PWI Halsel.
Sedangkan Wakil Bupati Halsel Bassam Kasuba menjadi kapten di tim Pemkab Halsel.
Usman yang juga Wabendum DPP Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) tersebut tiba-tiba ambruk di tengah lapangan saat pertandingan.
Tim medis dan ambulans bergegas masuk ke lapangan untuk menolong Usman. Namun, setelah dilarikan ke rumah sakit, nyawanya tak tertolong.
Rencananya, Bupati Halsel akan dimakamkan di Kota Ternate, Maluku Utara.
Sosok bupati, mantan jurnalis
Ketua PWI Malut Asri Fabanyo mengungkap rasa dukacita mendalam.
Menurut dia, sebelum menjadi Bupati Halsel, Usman Sidik adalah seorang wartawan senior.
"Kami berbelasungkawa atas meninggalnya Bupati Halsel Usman Sidik, selain sebagai pejabat, Usman juga merupakan senior dari teman-teman wartawan, karena sebelum memulai kariernya di dunia politik, beliau merupakan wartawan senior berkiprah sebagai wartawan RCTI biro Maluku Utara," kata Asri.
Usman Sidik yang menjabat sebagai Bupati Halmahera Selatan periode 2021-2024 lahir di Orimakurunga Kayoa, Kabupaten Halmahera Selatan.
Dilansir dari Antara, semasa SMP, ia sudah bekerja sebagai buruh kasar dan semasa SMA Muhammadiyah Kota Ternate, ia menjadi buruh di Pelabuhan Bastiong.
Kemudian, ia bekerja di bagian penanaman pohon kayu di sebuah perusahaan.
Usman Sidik pun meneruskan pekerjaannya dengan menjadi kontributor sejumlah stasiun televisi nasional. Ia kemudian mendirikan media cetak harian di Maluku Utara.
Israel on Sunday rebuffed growing international pressure for a ceasefire and said its forces had encircled Gaza City as the top U.S. diplomat scrambled to contain a crisis that threatened to cause further escalation in neighbouring Lebanon.
Gaza was under "unprecedented bombardment" from Israel on Sunday, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, while Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said that all communications and internet services had once again been cut.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas joined international calls for an immediate ceasefire at a meeting with U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was making an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank.
But after Blinken repeated U.S. concerns that a ceasefire could aid Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled that out unless hostages held by Hamas were released: "There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. This should be completely removed from the lexicon."
Blinken arrived in Ankara late on Sunday for further talks on the Gaza conflict with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday. Hours earlier, police in southern Turkey used tear gas and water cannon as hundreds of people at a pro-Palestinian rally tried to storm an air base that houses U.S. troops.
GAZA CITY SURROUNDED
A military spokesperson said Israeli forces had surrounded the main city in Gaza: "They reached the coast in the southern part of Gaza City and they encircled Gaza City."
Tensions increased with Lebanon as an Israeli strike on a car in the south of the country killed three children and their grandmother, Lebanese authorities said.
Israel's chief military spokesperson said the military had attacked "terrorist targets of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon" in response to a missile attack against tanks that killed an Israeli citizen. He said a Hezbollah drone was also shot down.
Hezbollah said it responded by firing rockets at the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel. The group said it would never tolerate attacks on civilians and its response would be "firm and strong".
Smoke and flames rise during Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, in southern Israel, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun Acquire Licensing Rights
Sirens sounded across central Israel, with Israeli media reporting rockets struck areas in and around Tel Aviv. No casualties were reported.
Health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza said more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 hostage.
Israel said 31 of its soldiers have been killed so far.
'TORN-APART FLESH'
At the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people in an overnight strike, people searched for victims or survivors.
"All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh," said Saeed al-Nejma, 53, adding that he had been asleep with his family when the blast hit his neighbourhood.
Asked for comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were gathering details.
In a separate attack, 21 Palestinians from one family, including women and children, were killed in strikes overnight, the health ministry said. The IDF declined to comment.
A Palestinian man reacts, as people search for casualties, at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at the Magazi Refugee Camp, in central Gaza Strip, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Acquire Licensing Rights
We could not independently verify these accounts.
"We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately," Abbas told Blinken, urging an "immediate ceasefire" from Israel.
Palestinians were facing a war of "genocide and destruction", news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as saying.
CEASEFIRE CALLS
Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates met Blinken in Amman on Saturday and also urged him to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire. Blinken also visited Iraq on Sunday and held talks with Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani.
Anadolu news agency cameraman Mohammed El Aloul reacts after several of his children and siblings were killed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at a hospital in the central Gaza Strip, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Acquire Licensing Rights
Pope Francis joined calls for peace. "Stop in the name of God," he said, calling for humanitarian aid and help for the injured to ease the "very grave" situation in Gaza.
But Blinken says a ceasefire would benefit Hamas, allowing it to regroup and attack again. Instead, the U.S. wants localised pauses in fighting to allow in humanitarian aid and for people to leave Gaza.
"The Secretary reaffirmed the United States' commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza," spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Blinken said the Palestinian Authority should play a central role in the future of the Gaza Strip, a U.S. official said after the West Bank visit.
EVACUATIONS HALTED
Efforts were under way on Sunday to resume evacuations of foreign nationals and injured Gazans through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, suspended since Saturday after a deadly attack on an ambulance, Egyptian, U.S. and Qatari officials said.
Survivors of the Hamas attack on the Nova Festival on October 7, embrace each other, in a field near Netivot in southern Israel, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun Acquire Licensing Rights
The Rafah crossing to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is the only exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel. Aid trucks were still able to travel into Gaza, two Egyptian sources said.
Evacuations began on Wednesday under an internationally brokered deal. More than 300 Americans have left Gaza, but some remain, Jonathan Finer, deputy national security adviser, said.
Qatar's foreign ministry said that without a "period of calm" in Gaza, its mediators would not be able to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in the enclave.
The Gulf state has, in coordination with the U.S., led talks with Hamas and Israeli officials over the release of hostages.
The Gulf state has, in coordination with the U.S., led talks with Hamas and Israeli officials over the release of hostages.
Worsening violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has fuelled concerns it could become a third front in a wider war, in addition to Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
The daughter of Palestinian-Canadian Seham al-Batnejy looks on as she holds her passport while waiting at Rafah border crossing after evacuations were suspended following an Israeli strike on an ambulance, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip,... Acquire Licensing Rights
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the IDF were focussing on ground operations in the north of Gaza "to free our hostages and to free Gaza from Hamas".
"We will adapt our plan to stay with the goals, and it will take us a long time," he added.
He said the IDF has exposed a network of Hamas tunnels, command centres and rocket launchers beneath and adjacent to hospitals in northern Gaza.
"Hamas systematically exploits hospitals as part of its war machine," Hagari told reporters.
In a statement, Hamas called on the United Nations secretary general to form an international committee to visit hospitals to counter Israel's "false claims" that Hamas uses them to launch attacks.
'HORRIFIC NIGHTMARE'
The U.N. humanitarian office estimates that nearly 1.5 million of Gaza's 2.3 million people are internally displaced.
Aid currently entering Gaza is "nowhere near" enough to meet people's needs, World Food Programme head Cindy McCain said after visiting the Rafah crossing.
"People are living in a horrific nightmare," McCain said. "Food and water are running out. A steady flow of aid is needed to meet the desperate needs now."
The US will face grave consequences if hostilities in Gaza are not brought to an end, Iran’s defense minister warned on Sunday.
“Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire, otherwise they will be hit hard,” Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said, as cited by IRNA.
Iran has been actively calling for the end of the bloodshed in the Palestinian enclave and has repeatedly accused Washington of fuelling tensions in the Middle East since Israel began its military operations in Gaza following an unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas that left some 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, dead.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that Israel was committing “war crimes and genocide” with the “full support” of the US government.
“Israel’s criminal acts, fully supported by the United States, portray the arrogant spirit of Washington which incited hatred among nations across the world,” Kanaani said, according to Press TV.
Washington has refused to call for a full ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, opting for a “humanitarian pause” instead. The Pentagon has also shipped additional weapons to the IDF and dispatched a naval armada to the western Mediterranean Sea to show support for Israel.
Israel and the US, meanwhile, are accusing Iran of orchestrating Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and supplying the group with weapons. The Pentagon also said that Iran was backing militias, which conducted drone and rocket attacks on US bases in the Middle East. Tehran, for its part, has endorsed Hamas’ deadly October 7 incursion into Israel, but claimed that it was an “entirely Palestinian” raid.
Israel has responded to the October 7 incursion by imposing a nearly complete blockade on Gaza and striking what it says are Hamas-linked targets. More than 9,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and childrens, have been killed, according to the Hamas-run local authorities.
