“We continue to work hard.” The White House reiterated on Saturday, November 18, that it was doing its best to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to release hostages and bring about a lull in the fighting. but without initially achieving the expected success. “We have not yet reached an agreement,” wrote the spokesman for the White House National Security Council on X (ex-Twitter). Adrienne Watson therefore denied information from the Washington Post that an agreement had been reached between the belligerents that provided for the release of hostages in exchange for a five-day break in fighting. Follow our live stream.
The WHO wants to evacuate the Al-Chifa hospital. The Al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip and the target of Israeli attacks, has become a “death zone”, condemned the World Health Organization (WHO) and called for its evacuation. Hundreds of people who had taken refuge in the hospital left the site on Saturday on orders from the Israeli army, according to the facility’s director and an AFP journalist at the scene. But Israeli soldiers refused to order the evacuation.
Israel is expanding its operations in the Gaza Strip. As the war enters its 44th day on Sunday, the Israeli army “continues to expand its operations into new areas in the Gaza Strip,” it said. It claims to have carried out operations in the Jabaliya and Zaytoun areas in the north of the territory on Saturday. Since October 9, Israel has vowed to “destroy” Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, and to cut off deliveries of food, water, electricity and medicine to the small Palestinian territory.
A march for the hostages arrives in Jerusalem. In Israel, relatives of about 240 people kidnapped on October 7, the day of the Hamas attack, arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday after several days of walking to maintain pressure on their government and secure the release of the hostages demand. “Take her home now. Everyone,” proclaimed demonstrators leaving Tel Aviv on Tuesday amid a sea of Israeli flags.