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Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaks during a joint press conference with the Turkish foreign minister in Cairo on October 14, 2023. (AFP)
Cairo: Asharq Al Awsat
Egypt reiterated its rejection of an Israeli plan that calls for the forced displacement of millions of Palestinians in Gaza and their resettlement in Sinai.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry described the leaked Israeli intelligence ministry document as "ludicrous."
In the first official Egyptian comments on the document, he said: "I don’t think we would — anyone would — raise such a ludicrous proposition."
He made his remarks in an interview to CNN on Thursday.
"If that was the case, maybe the United States would also contemplate providing the same access to its southern border that might be expected for us in the Sinai," he added.
"States are sovereign and they are well-defined by their borders, by their populations. And the issue of displacement in itself is a matter that is in contravention, is in violation of international humanitarian law," Shoukry said. "So I think that nobody would undertake an illegal activity."
An Israeli government ministry had drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and worsening tensions with Cairo.
The document is dated Oct. 13, six days after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel and took over 240 hostage in an attack that provoked a devastating Israeli war in Gaza. It was first published by Sicha Mekomit, a local news site, and came to light this past week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise — a “concept paper.” But its conclusions revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.
“We are against transfer to any place, in any form, and we consider it a red line that we will not allow to be crossed,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said of the report. “What happened in 1948 will not be allowed to happen again."
A mass displacement, Abu Rudeineh said, would be “tantamount to declaring a new war.”
The document proposes moving Gaza’s civilian population to tent cities in northern Sinai, then building permanent cities and an undefined humanitarian corridor. A security zone would be established inside Israel to block the displaced Palestinians from entering. The report did not say what would become of Gaza once its population is cleared out.
Published: 04 Nov 2023 -
Hanine Hassan / X
Al Jazeera
Doha, Qatar: An Israeli attack destroyed a water tank in eastern Rafah. Gaza-based Al Aqsa TV reported that the public water tank was used to supply several neighbourhoods.
Witnesses, meanwhile, reported that fishing boats burned on shore of Rafah after being targeted by the Israeli army.
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Israel strikes target areas across Gaza overnight
Separately, Al Aqsa TV said on Telegram that the Israeli army also bombed a mosque at the centre of the densely populated Sabra neighbourhood in western Gaza.
Another Israeli attack disabled the primary electricity generator at the al-Wafa Hospital in the Gaza City, putting it out of service, an Al Aqsa TV correspondent reported.
UN Chief 'Horrified' by Israeli Strike on Gaza Ambulance Convoy
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Asharq Al Awsat
4 November 2023
The head of the United Nations was "horrified" by a strike by Israeli forces on a convoy of ambulances in Gaza on Friday, he said in a statement, adding that the conflict "must stop."
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said one of its ambulances was struck "by a missile fired by the Israeli forces" just feet from the entrance to the hospital in Gaza City, in an attack it says killed 15 people and wounded more than 60 others.
"I am horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al Shifa hospital. The images of bodies strewn on the street outside the hospital are harrowing," Antonio Guterres said in the statement.
An AFP journalist at the scene of Friday's attack saw multiple bodies beside the damaged ambulance outside the hospital, which is overcrowded with civilians seeking shelter from Israeli bombing as well as those wounded.
Israel's military said it had launched an airstrike on "an ambulance that was identified by forces as being used by a Hamas terrorist cell in close proximity to their position in the battle zone."
Insisting he did "not forget the terror attacks committed in Israel by Hamas," the UN chief added that "for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children and women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed, and bombed out of their homes.
"This must stop," he continued.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza was "horrific," he said.
There is "not nearly enough" food, water and medicine, while fuel to power hospitals and water plants was running out, he warned.
UN shelters in Gaza "are at nearly four times their full capacity and are being hit in bombardments," Guterres continued.
"Morgues are overflowing. Shops are empty. The sanitation situation is abysmal. We are seeing an increase in diseases and respiratory illnesses, especially among children. An entire population is traumatized. Nowhere is safe," he said.
Guterres called again for a ceasefire, and for hostages taken by Hamas in their initial attack on October 7 to be freed.
The Palestinian militant group killed more than 1,400 people in that attack, mainly civilians, Israeli officials say.
Israel has retaliated by bombarding the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas-run health ministry says more than 9,200 people have died, mostly women and children.
Guterres called again for all sides to respect international humanitarian law and protect civilians.
"All those with influence must exert it to ensure respect for the rules of war, end the suffering and avoid a spillover of the conflict that could engulf the whole region," he said.
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An Israeli air attack on an ambulance being used to evacuate the wounded from besieged northern Gaza killed 15 people and injured 60 others on Friday, the Hamas-controlled enclave's health ministry said.
Israeli “aircraft struck an ambulance that was identified by forces as being used by a Hamas terrorist cell in proximity to their position in the battle zone”, an Israeli military statement said.
The military claimed a number of Hamas fighters had been killed in the strike and that it had information that Hamas was using ambulances to transport fighters and weapons.
Palestinian health authorities in Gaza said had Israel struck a convoy of ambulances that was to leave Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city towards the south of the enclave to evacuate injured people.
Ashraf Al Qidra, the Gaza Health Ministry's spokesman, said the convoy was hit both at the hospital gate and at Ansar Square a kilometre away.
Hamas-run Al Aqsa television cited the ministry as saying scores of people had been killed or injured.
Video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, showed people lying in blood next to an ambulance with flashing lights on a city street as people rushed to help.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has condemned the attack on the convoy of ambulances.
The PRCS said early on Saturday that one of its ambulances was struck “by a missile fired by the Israeli forces”, about two metres from the entrance to the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians and wounded 60 other people, it said, mirroring figures released by the Hamas-run health ministry.
Another ambulance, belonging to the health ministry, was “directly targeted” by a missile around one kilometre from the hospital, causing injuries and damage, the PRCS said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was “horrified” by the strike, adding that the conflict “must stop”.
“I am horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al Shifa hospital. The images of bodies strewn on the street outside the hospital are harrowing,” he said in the statement.
Insisting he did “not forget the terror attacks committed in Israel by Hamas”, the UN chief added that “for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children and women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed, and bombed out of their homes.
“This must stop,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Al Qidra said ambulances would send critically injured Palestinians from Gaza city to the south of the enclave where they would cross over into Egypt for treatment.
Israel, which has accused Hamas of concealing command centres and tunnel entrances in Al Shifa Hospital, ordered all civilians to leave the north of Gaza last month. The military announced it had encircled the area on Thursday.
Hamas and Al Shifa Hospital authorities have denied the facility is used as a base by militant fighters.
World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “utterly shocked by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients close to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, leading to deaths, injuries and damage”.
“We reiterate: health workers, facilities and ambulances must be protected at all times,” Dr Tedros said in a post on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter.
Dozens Killed, Injured as Israel Targets Convoy of Ambulances Leaving Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza
Palestinians check the damage on an ambulance after a convoy of ambulances was hit, at the entrance of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, November 3, 2023. (Reuters)
17:01-3 November 2023 AD ـ 19 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1445 AH
16:29-3 November 2023 AD ـ 19 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1445 AH
At least 60 Palestinians were killed and injured on Friday after Israel targeted a convoy of ambulances leaving Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, reported the Palestinian Shehab News Agency.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israel targeted the convoy.
Israel's military said on Friday it was looking into the report. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
"We have informed the Red Cross in accordance with the international law about moving a convoy carrying injured people in ambulance vehicles from Al-Shifa hospital," Ashraf Al-Qudra, the health ministry spokesman, said in a statement.
"At the gate of the hospital and then at the Ansar square, the occupation targeted the convoy in more than one location outside Al-Shifa hospital."
Save The Children's Staff Testimonies From Gaza
Hasan-, a father of four and Save the Children staff member, is sheltering with his family in a facility hosting over 20,000 people. He continues to assist other affected civilians despite the ongoing situation. (Nov 1)
What does it mean to be a displaced person in a centre right now?
Displaced means there is no mattress or pillow. Your mattress is the floor or your car, and your cover is a sheet that has been sitting in a warehouse for years, it smells musty, and there is no way to wash it.
Your pillow is the only bag of clothes you left your house with. You have constant back and leg pain from sleeping in awkward positions. Stomach aches and throat pain from the cold, and a headache from the anxiety.
Displaced means there is no water at all. You do not wash your hands, do not wash your clothes.
Displaced means there is no clean water to drink… you might have to drink contaminated water, full of diseases. And you might even die of thirst or from drinking the water.
Displaced means that when you want to go to the bathroom, you have to wait in line behind 600 people until your turn comes. When your turn finally comes, there will be another 500 people knocking on the door for you to finish quickly, and of course, there is no water in the bathroom.
Displaced means there is no cooked food, no bread, no food at all, except for a few boxes of cheese, which smells from the heat. No drink.
You go to the bakery to get bread for your family… you stand in line for seven hours, sometimes the bread might finish before your turn comes. Even if your turn comes, you are given just one bundle, not even enough for one meal - that is if you don’t get hit by an airstrike while you are waiting.
Displaced means the loaf of bread is split between two, or possibly four; whatever it is, it’s never enough. The important thing is that you ate and that is a great achievement.
Displaced means you look up to the sky 30 times every minute, imagining that a new massacre will happen to you, and the latest breaking news will be about you and your family.
Displaced means taking a shower is a dream that is difficult to achieve. Taking a bath is an impossible luxury.
Displaced means you always hear the bombing around you, and you see it, but you never know where it's coming from.
Displaced means that there is no electricity except by chance or luck, there is no mobile phone battery, there are no calls or messages, there is no internet, there is no communication with the world. You may die and no one in your family would know that you died.
Displaced means oppression, anxiety, tension, hunger, sweat, distress, delusion, sadness, darkness, anticipation, fear for the children, fear for the family, fear for the friends, fear for the future.
Please, when you read the word "displaced," give it deep thorough thinking.
Amjad-, Save the Children staff, a father to three children, all under 12 years old. He travelled outside of Gaza a week before the conflict started: (Nov 1)
"My little daughter told me that she hugs the pillow, kisses it, and says: "Why did you travel and leave me here?" What can I do? My young son tells me: "You told me that you would travel on Thursday and come back the following week, why didn’t you come home? If the crossing opens and the war is not over, will you come back?".
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticised the 'terrorism' of Hamas that started the war, but he has also criticised Israel for its 'insane' bombardment of Gaza that has killed hundreds of children. — Reuters pic
Saturday, 04 Nov 2023
BRASILIA, Nov 4 — Brazil’s ruling Workers Party criticised the Israeli government yesterday for not allowing 34 Brazilians to leave Gaza, saying Israel is playing favourites when deciding who should be allowed to evacuate the besieged Palestinian territory.
In three days since the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened to allow nationals of other countries to leave Gaza, Brazilians waiting to leave were not on the list approved by Israel, despite diplomatic efforts to include them.
“For the third time, the Israeli government denied the departure of Brazilian citizens threatened by the massacre against the civilian population in the Gaza strip,” Workers Party president Gleisi Hoffmann said in a social media post.
She said the Israeli government has not provided any explanation for what she said was discrimination. Brazil tried to find a negotiated solution to the conflict when it presided over the UN Security Council in October, Hoffmann said.
“Unfortunately, the Israeli government signals that it has established a political hierarchy for the release of civilians, favouring some countries over others,” Hoffmann said.
“We cannot allow that Brazilian civilians remain threatened in a region under military massacre,” she added.
Hundreds of foreign passport holders and gravely injured Palestinians have been evacuated from Gaza via the Rafah crossing to Egypt since Wednesday in a deal brokered by Qatar between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, after the militant group killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in an October 7 assault in southern Israel. Israel’s retaliation by air and ground assault has killed more than 9,250 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say.
A diplomatic source briefed on Egyptian plans said some 7,500 foreign passport holders would be evacuated over two weeks.
Brazilian officials said they have no explanation for the failure to let their citizens out of Gaza. Some local media have speculated it is due to positions taken by Brazil at the United Nations and comments by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula has criticised the “terrorism” of Hamas that started the war, but he has also criticised Israel for its “insane” bombardment of Gaza that has killed hundreds of children. — Reuters
Strike on AFP’s Gaza Bureau Causes Significant Damage
This picture taken on November 3, 2023 shows a gaping hole following a strike on the Hajji building, which houses several offices including those of Agence France Presse (AFP) in Gaza City amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Agence France-Presse's Gaza City bureau was significantly damaged by a strike on the building, according to a staff member who visited Friday as the Israeli military relentlessly pounds the territory.
AFP is the only one of the world's three major international news agencies currently operating a live video feed from Gaza City, which has not been interrupted despite the damage.
The unmanned AFP camera broadcasting live 24/7 captured the moment of the strike, a few minutes before midday (1000 GMT) on Thursday.
An AFP employee who visited the office on Friday said an explosive projectile appeared to have entered the technician's office in the bureau horizontally from east to west.
The strike destroyed the wall opposite the window and caused significant damage to the adjacent room and other doors. It also punctured water tanks on the roof.
An Israeli military spokesman said the force had "checked (the report) multiple times".
"There was no IDF (Israeli military) strike on the building" in Gaza, he told AFP.
Images published by AFP on Friday show a gaping hole in the wall of the 11-storey building in the west of Gaza's Rimal neighborhood, near the port.
"AFP condemns in the strongest possible terms this strike on its Gaza City bureau," said Fabrice Fries, AFP chairman and chief executive.
"The location of this bureau is known to everyone and has been pointed out several times over the past few days, precisely to prevent such an attack and to allow us to continue to provide images on the ground.
"The consequences of such an attack would have been devastating if the AFP team on the ground had not evacuated the city," said Fries.
'Dangerous conditions'
None of AFP's eight staff usually based in Gaza City were in the bureau at the moment of the strike.
The team was evacuated to southern Gaza on October 13, following an Israeli military order directed at residents in the north of the Hamas-run territory.
Asked about the attack during a news conference in Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that journalists in Gaza must be protected as they report on the war.
"It's vitally important how Israel does this (conducts the war), including with the highest regard for the protection of civilians, and that of course includes journalists," Blinken told journalists.
He said journalists were "doing extraordinary work under the most dangerous conditions to tell the story to the world".
In May 2021, during a previous Hamas-Israel war, the Israeli military completely destroyed a 13-floor building which hosted the US agency Associated Press (AP) and Qatar's Al Jazeera.
Israel at the time said targeting the building was "perfectly legitimate" as it was based on information from its intelligence service.
The ongoing war erupted when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
More than 9,200 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes unleashed to "crush" Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory says.
Palestinians wait at the Karem Abu Salem crossing for the arrival of Palestinian laborers being sent back to Gaza by Israeli authorities, in the southern Gaza Strip, 03 November 2023. (EPA)
-3 November 2023
They arrived at the border crossing with the Gaza Strip in a constant stream, many of them exhausted and still bearing the scars of time spent in an Israeli jail.
Some had raw wrists from being handcuffed and still had prison numbers tied round their ankles.
On Friday, Israel began to forcibly repatriate to the besieged and battered Palestinian territory thousands of Gazans who had been working in Israel.
They were some of the 18,500 Gaza Palestinians who had visas to work in Israel, but whose right to do so was rescinded three days after the Hamas attacks of October 7.
On that day, hundreds of militants streamed across the border and attacked border communities, killing more than 1,400 people and abducting at least 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
In response to the bloody cross-border attacks, Israel pledged to eradicate the Hamas movement ruling Gaza, and began a blistering bombardment of targets in the territory.
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says 9,227 people have been killed in Israel's bombardment, most of them civilians.
The coastal strip packed with 2.4 million people has been cut off from drinking water, electricity and food.
On Friday, some of the Palestinian workers being sent back there said they did not know if their families were alive or if their houses still stand.
'They tortured us'
"For 25 days we've been in prison and today they brought us here," Nidal Abed told AFP.
"We had no idea what was happening in Gaza, or what the situation is."
At the border post of Karem Abu Salem -- called Kerem Shalom on the Israeli side -- the returnees stood in line.
None carried belongings other than the clothes they wore.
Yasser Mostafa said he only had time to pull on a cardigan when he was detained during the opening days of the war.
"The police came to where we were sleeping and took us," he said, his face drawn.
"They put us in a camp that wouldn't even be good enough for animals," he said, alleging that "they tortured us with electricity and set dogs on us".
Further down the line, some men held out their hands to show open wounds, their ankles still bearing blue plastic bands stamped with numbers.
One read "061962", another "062030".
A man held out his wrists that still bore traces of cuts and bruising from restraints.
Ramadan al-Issawi said he had spent "23 days in Ofer", an Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank.
"I was in a detention center with hundreds of other prisoners," he told AFP in a shaking voice.
"We told ourselves that we could die at any moment."
'A horror movie'
"They gave us just enough to eat and drink to survive, but we knew nothing about what was going on outside," Issawi said.
"We're destroyed psychologically -- we don't know if our families are alive or dead."
The pain on his face was visible, his forehead dripping with sweat.
"If we had at least been here during the war, we could have died with our children," he added.
An emaciated-looking Sabri Fayez, who was heading for the center of devastated Gaza to join relatives he last saw weeks ago, said he felt as if he was emerging from a horror movie.
"It was a horror film that never ended and replayed incessantly -- intelligence services, interrogation, dogs set on us, the machine guns...
"We're just workers, and were only trying to make a living," he said, waving his hands.
"Every minute, we prayed to die and be done with it."
Behind Fayez, more expelled workers kept on coming.
In front of them, a few men sitting on a horse-drawn cart edged further into Gaza towards the sound of explosions.
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