Hundreds Trapped in Gaza’s Largest Hospital Amid Intense Fighting

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at intense fighting around Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, Britain’s surprise cabinet shake-up, and the United States hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“A Circle of Death”

Israeli troops reached the eastern gates of Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, on Monday, using sniper and drone fire as well as tanks to battle Hamas militants in the area. Israel has accused Hamas of maintaining a major command center and sheltering fighters underneath the hospital complex, which Hamas denies.

Thousands of Palestinians evacuated the facility over the weekend, but hundreds of civilians remain trapped inside Al-Shifa, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry estimated on Monday. “We are besieged and are inside a circle of death,” a ministry spokesperson said.

The intense fighting around the hospital has made it near-impossible to conduct safe evacuations and to get fuel and medical supplies inside, hindering patient care efforts. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 32 patients, including six newborns, have died in the past three days due to the dire situation. Nurses have wrapped premature infants in foil after the maternity ward lost power, doctors have been forced to perform surgeries without anesthesia, and the intensive care unit lost oxygen supplies. Israel said its soldiers left containers of fuel outside the entrance to the hospital on Sunday, but that Hamas had refused to allow hospital employees to retrieve them. The hospital staff said it was too dangerous to retrieve the fuel given the ongoing fighting.

On Sunday, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X that Al-Shifa is no longer a functioning hospital after three days “without electricity, without water and with very poor internet.” The organization also warned of increased risks of disease outbreak after reports indicated that dozens of bodies have been left decomposing outside of the hospital’s morgue.

Other major medical centers are also under fire, including Al-Quds, the second-largest hospital in Gaza. According to Israeli officials, the Israel Defense Forces killed approximately 21 fighters on Monday in response to shooting from the hospital entrance and released footage purportedly showing fighters wielding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher near the entrance. No Israeli casualties were reported.

At least 11,180 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 4,600 children, since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a strike on Israel that killed 1,400 people. Another 28,200 Palestinians have been wounded thus far, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday. These numbers are expected to worsen if the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees leaves the Gaza Strip. The organization announced on Monday that it will cease all aid operations in the next 48 hours unless Israel allows fuel to enter the territory.

Today’s Most Read

• This War Won’t Solve the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Steven A. Cook
• Israelis Struggle to Imagine a Possible Peace by Etan Nechin
• Lebanon’s Half-Formed Peace Plan May Be Gaza’s Best Chance by Justin Ling

The World This Week

Tuesday, Nov. 14: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

European Union defense ministers meet in Brussels.

Liberia holds a presidential runoff.

Wednesday, Nov. 15, to Thursday, Nov. 16: French President Emmanuel Macron visits Switzerland.

Thursday, Nov. 16: South African parliamentarians debate suspending diplomatic ties with Israel.

Madagascar holds a presidential election.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil.

Friday, Nov. 17: The International Court of Justice rules on Armenia’s request for provisional measures from Azerbaijan.

Scholz meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Sunday, Nov. 19: Argentina holds a presidential runoff.

Monday, Nov. 20: The Marshall Islands hold parliamentary elections.

What We’re Following

Out of retirement. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the surprise return of former Conservative Party leader David Cameron to politics on Monday by taking on the coveted foreign secretary job. Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, will fill the hole left by Foreign Minister James Cleverly, who is replacing Suella Braverman as home secretary.

Braverman was fired after writing an opinion article in the Times of London last week in which she alleged that the police were being too lax toward pro-Palestinian protesters, whom she called “hate marchers.” The op-ed caused controversy in Downing Street in part because she reportedly did not include changes to the text that the prime minister’s office had told her to make.

Kicking off APEC. Top U.S. and Asian officials are convening in San Francisco this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. This year’s agenda will focus on long-term fiscal sustainability as APEC members aim to boost participation in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the regional trade pact created after Washington left the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017. Like last year, neither Russia nor Taiwan’s presidents will attend the forum.

APEC’s most anticipated event will take place on Wednesday, when U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet. Ahead of the face-to-face talks, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the White House hopes to reestablish military ties with Beijing. This will be Xi’s first trip to the United States since 2017. Xi needs a more stable relationship with the West to “revitalize a flagging economy,” FP’s James Palmer explained in China Brief, but he also needs to use Washington as a scapegoat for China’s “domestic discontent.”

Airstrikes in Syria. The U.S. military on Sunday launched strikes against what it said were a training facility and safe house used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies in eastern Syria. A weapons depot and rocket launch platform were also destroyed. At least eight pro-Iranian militants were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and seven others were wounded.

This is just the latest such strike the United States has carried out in Syria in recent weeks in response to attacks on its forces in the region. U.S. Defense Department officials said last week that Iranian-backed militias have attacked U.S. bases and facilities in Iraq and Syria at least 41 times since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. As Israeli forces continue their offensive in Gaza, Iran will likely seek to escalate attacks on U.S. forces and Israeli targets by the various proxy groups that make up its so-called axis of resistance in the Middle East, with Syria serving as a prime battleground, Iran experts Kasra Aarabi and Jason M. Brodsky argued in Foreign Policy.

Odds and Ends

Break out the party hats. Indonesia celebrated the birth of a Sumatran elephant over the weekend, sparking optimism for the nation’s conservation efforts. According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are less than 2,800 Sumatran elephants in the world today. But Way Kambas National Park is hoping that the yet-to-be-named male calf is just the first of many births to turn the tide.