According to the provider, communication networks in the Gaza Strip were restored in some parts of the coastal area on Friday night. The reason for this is that the United Nations Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has provided a limited amount of fuel to operate the company’s main generators, telecommunications provider Paltel said. The Palestinian company based in the West Bank had reported the collapse of its networks the night before.
Israeli media reported on Friday, citing the Israeli authority Cogat, responsible for contacts with the Palestinians, that fuel delivered to the Gaza Strip could also be used to operate mobile phone services there. Israel had already announced that two tankers per day would be authorized to transport diesel to the coastal strip in the future.
Israel wants to force Hamas out of the tunnel system
An Israeli representative confirmed on Friday that the war cabinet approved a corresponding recommendation from the military and national intelligence service. Israel wants to prevent fuel from falling into the hands of Hamas. Diesel needs this, including to use generators to maintain ventilation in the huge underground tunnel system. The aim is to increase pressure on Hamas fighters, who, according to Israeli speculation, often hide in tunnels. Fuel usage must be carefully monitored.
Gaza Strip: Living with War
The population of the Gaza Strip is at risk of starving, warns the United Nations. ORF correspondent Karim El Gawhary shows a family living in a tent in the south of the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA Alert
UNRWA had previously warned that humanitarian support for the people of Gaza would collapse due to fuel shortages. A UNRWA spokeswoman said the aid agency could no longer accept humanitarian aid goods into its fleet of vehicles in recent days. Furthermore, a breakdown of communications networks in the Gaza Strip would make coordination more difficult.
Accommodation heading to the USA
Israel’s authorization to import small quantities of diesel into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian purposes sparked outrage among members of the extreme right of the Israeli government. The decision was illegal, stressed the extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Friday on X (Twitter).
Israeli opposition politician Avigdor Lieberman also criticized the unilateral measure, while there was no humanitarian gesture from the kidnappers towards the hostages detained in the Gaza Strip. With the approval, Israel’s war cabinet is accommodating the US, which in turn has so far extensively supported Israel in the war against Hamas and has diplomatic support.
debate
Middle East: How to break the spiral of violence?
Netanyahu: Hamas headquarters found under hospital
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke explicitly to US media about the discovery of an underground Hamas command center at Al-Shifa Hospital. The army found a command and control center on the second basement floor, he told radio station NPR on Friday. The terrorists fled the clinic before soldiers arrived. The army also discovered weapons and bombs there. Hamas denies the existence of such a base beneath the clinic.
The Israeli Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, had announced an expansion of operations in the Gaza Strip hours earlier. “We are about to destroy the military system in the north of the Gaza Strip (…). We will continue in other areas,” Halevi said, according to a statement released on Friday during a visit to troops in Gaza.
In the evening, a military spokesman confirmed that the army would operate wherever Hamas exists, “including the southern Gaza Strip.” Hundreds of thousands of people who lived in the north fled there. Israel also recently asked people to leave parts of the southern city of Khan Yunis, which could indicate an imminent major aerial bombardment.
Significantly more people murdered at music festival
On Friday it was revealed that the number of music festival attendees murdered by Hamas on October 7 is much higher than previously thought. Although the death toll was previously estimated at between 260 and 270, Israeli media reported, citing police investigations, that the number is currently at least 350.
Bahrain calls for prisoner exchange
The leadership of the Gulf state of Bahrain called on Israel and Hamas for a prisoner exchange on Friday. Hamas should immediately release Israel’s kidnapped children and women, Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa demanded on Friday.
He does not believe that any Arab leader has ever asked Hamas to do this. So it’s time for clear words. At the same time, the Crown Prince demanded that Israel release women and minor Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. This is necessary to put an end to the conflict and the “unbearable situation” in the Gaza Strip.
Five states call for ICC investigations
Meanwhile, five states have appealed to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over the situation in the Palestinian territories. ICC contracting states South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti have requested investigations into the “situation in the state of Palestine”, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Chan said on Friday. The investigation into the situation in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, opened in 2021, would now be expanded to include the “escalation of clashes and violence” since the “attacks” of October 2023.
In early November, family members of several Israeli hostages detained by Hamas filed a criminal complaint with the ICC. According to their lawyer, François Zimeray, the families are calling for Hamas to be prosecuted for genocide and for arrest warrants to be issued against the leaders of the Palestinian group that governs Gaza.
Hamas publishes new video of hostages
The terrorist organization Hamas released another video of a hostage on Friday. According to the armed wing of the Islamic organization, the man seen there is already dead. The authenticity of the video, published on the Brigadas Kassam Telegram channel, could not initially be verified. Israel talks about the psychological terror of Hamas.
Fighting Again on the Lebanese-Israeli Border
Meanwhile, fighting on the border between Israel and Lebanon reignited. The Israeli military reported on Friday that it had attacked several “Hezbollah terrorist targets.” There was also a weapons depot there. Furthermore, a “terrorist cell identified in Lebanon was attacked” in the border area. The military identified several attacks coming from the border region. Pro-Iranian Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli targets with “appropriate weapons” and scored “direct hits.”