Gaza - In Gaza and Amman on November 5, the Hamas-led government reported that the Israeli military had launched an attack on a Gaza refugee camp the previous Saturday night, resulting in the deaths of at least 38 individuals. Calls for a ceasefire from Arab nations were met with rejection by both the United States and Israel.
As the death toll in Gaza continued to rise, pro-Palestinian demonstrators organized protests in cities worldwide on Saturday, demanding an end to the nearly month-long conflict.
According to Gaza health officials, over 9,488 Palestinians have lost their lives since the war began, initiated by a surprise attack from Hamas fighters on southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,400 people and the capture of over 240 others.
Israel maintained its offensive in the Gaza Strip through airstrikes, naval bombardment, and ground operations overnight. Gaza health officials reported that Israeli airstrikes destroyed a group of houses in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government's media office, informed Reuters that the Israeli strike in Maghazi had led to the deaths of at least 38 Palestinians and left 100 wounded. An earlier report from a Palestinian news agency had indicated 51 casualties. Marouf also mentioned that an unknown number of people remained missing, and rescue workers were struggling to locate them beneath the rubble of the destroyed homes. It's worth noting that Reuters couldn't independently verify his account, and the Israeli military had not yet responded to a request for comment. Israel consistently maintained that its targets were Hamas militants and not civilians, contending that the militant group was employing residents as human shields.
Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman on Saturday. They urged the United States to persuade Israel to accept a ceasefire. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, during a press conference with Blinken, emphasized that the ongoing war would only lead to more suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis and would further fuel hatred and dehumanization. He argued that it needed to stop.
Nevertheless, the top U.S. diplomat rejected the idea of a ceasefire, as he believed it would ultimately benefit Hamas, allowing the Islamist Palestinian group to regroup and launch attacks again. The United States had proposed localized pauses in fighting to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of residents from the densely populated Gaza Strip. However, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected this proposal during his meeting with Blinken in Tel Aviv.
Blinken is set to visit Turkey on Monday for discussions about the ongoing conflict, marking his second trip to the region since the resurgence of the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Meanwhile, Iran's first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, in Shanghai, referred to Israel's actions as "war crimes" and stressed the need to end the conflict immediately while providing more humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
The international community has expressed growing concern about the humanitarian situation in the densely populated Gaza Strip.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets in various cities on Saturday, including London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, Jakarta, and Washington, demanding a ceasefire.
In Washington, tens of thousands of people gathered to protest President Joe Biden's war policies and to call for a ceasefire. Many carried posters with slogans such as "Palestinian Lives Matter," "Let Gaza Live," and "Their blood is on your hands."
In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi reaffirmed the government's support for the Palestinian people's struggle and announced plans to send a second shipment of aid.
Concerns have arisen about escalating violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, raising the possibility of the territory becoming a third front in the larger conflict. This is in addition to clashes between Israeli forces and Lebanese Hezbollah along Israel's northern border.
Secretary Blinken acknowledged the seriousness of this issue, mentioning that he had raised it during his meetings with Israeli officials on Friday and emphasizing the importance of holding the perpetrators accountable.
This year has already marked the deadliest in at least 15 years for West Bank residents, with some 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed, according to U.N. data. Since the Gaza conflict began, 121 West Bank Palestinians have lost their lives. Daily attacks by Israeli settlers have more than doubled, as per U.N. figures, even though most of the deaths resulted from clashes with Israeli soldiers.
To further complicate the situation, Israel had ordered all civilians in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, to evacuate and move to the southern part of the enclave.
The Israeli military had encircled Gaza City and engaged in intense urban combat with Hamas militants.
Israeli planes dropped leaflets over Gaza City, instructing residents to evacuate to the south through the Salah Al-Deen Road between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (0800-1200 GMT) on Sunday. The statement urged people to seize the opportunity and evacuate their homes from the areas of fighting to preserve their lives.
U.S. special envoy David Satterfield, in Amman on Saturday, reported that between 800,000 and a million individuals had relocated to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, while 350,000 to 400,000 remained in and around Gaza City.
Living conditions in Gaza, already dire before the conflict, have continued to deteriorate. Food shortages are prevalent, and residents have resorted to drinking salty water. Medical services are on the verge of collapse.
The U.N. humanitarian office OCHA estimates that nearly 1.5 million of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been internally displaced.