Israel-Hamas war updates: Israeli strike hits Gaza medical convoy

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For the latest live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, follow along here.

For some more context on the conflict, read our analysis of how much Israel is paying to fund the fighting here. Check out how Lebanon has responded to the first speech of the war by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah here.

We are going to bring our live coverage to an end soon. Here’s a summary of today’s main events:

• An Israeli strike on a medical convoy near Al-Shifa Hospital that killed 15 people was just one of three attacks near a medical facility in Gaza City today, according to local health authorities.
• Israel says its military targeted an ambulance being used by Hamas fighters near Al-Shifa.
• Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra rejected that claim, saying two ambulance vehicles were struck and that the convoy was transporting patients.
• Separate Israeli strikes in the north of Gaza also targeted a convoy of civilians seeking to evacuate via the al-Rashid road, killing at least 14; At least 20 were killed in an Israeli attack on a school hosting displaced people in the Saftawi neighbourhood.
• Amid the violence, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said it can no longer provide safety at shelters under the UN flag; UNRWA also said at least 38 people have died in UN facilities since the war began, with five facilities directly hit in bombardments.
• Top US diplomat Antony Blinken has said he stressed the need for “concrete” steps to protect civilians during meetings with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv.
• Immediately after meeting the US secretary of state, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ruled out a temporary ceasefire despite growing pressure for “humanitarian pauses”, including from Washington.
• Breaking his silence for the first time since the war began, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a speech said those who want to prevent a regional escalation must stop the war on the Gaza Strip.
• Nasrallah added that the Lebanon-based group is ready for all possibilities, as firings across the Israel-Lebanon border continued.
• More people have been able to leave Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, including family members of Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf.

Since our last roundup earlier today, we’ve published several new pieces of content covering all aspects of the conflict.

Here are a few highlights:

• From the ground: ‘Unsafe in own home’ – Israeli settlers spread terror in South Hebron Hills
• Analysis: Israel’s Gaza bombing campaign is proving costly for Israel
• Photo gallery: Israel sends thousands of cross-border Palestinian workers back to Gaza
• Video: Where does the world stand on Gaza?
• Podcast: What is the risk of wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah?

And there’s plenty more here.

"It's a massacre."

Filmmaker Bisan Owda documents the moments after an Israeli air strike hit an ambulance convoy carrying wounded Palestinians leaving al-Shifa Hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/ss7TxVdj0E

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 3, 2023

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has released a statement on today’s attack on the medical convoy in Gaza City.

Here’s what it said:

• Around 4:05pm local time, a convoy of ambulances left the Al-Shifa Hospital in a decision that was coordinated with the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.
• The convoy, which was headed towards the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, included five ambulance vehicles: four belonged to the Health Ministry and one belonged to PRCS.
• The convoy travelled about four kilometres from the hospital to the al-Rashid coastal road, but found it was impassible due to rubble and rocks resulting from shelling in the area.
• The vehicles returned towards the Al-Shifa Hospital; When they were about one kilometre from the facility, the first ambulance at the head of the convoy – which belonged to the Health Ministry – was “directly targeted by a missile”.
• The other vehicles continued towards the hospital. When the PRCS ambulance reached the gate of the Al-Shifa Hospital, it was “struck by a missile fired by the Israeli forces”.
• This attack on the PRCS ambulance killed 15 people and injured more than 60 others at the hospital’s entrance.

Eight Red Crescent ambulances have been “rendered inoperable due to Israeli targeting” since the war in Gaza began, the statement said.

“PRCS emphasizes that the deliberate targeting of medical teams constitutes a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions, a war crime,” it said.

🔴 PRCS Statement on The Israeli Occupation Forces shelling of the Ambulance Convoy transporting the injured from the aggression on #Gaza towards Rafah crossing border on November 3rd 2023. pic.twitter.com/pzVEMeOo23

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 3, 2023

The 10 elected countries on the UN Security Council say they haven’t given up on the possibility of the council acting, and they have been working on yet another draft resolution.

This would be the fifth one to go to a vote before the council, but a vote has yet to be scheduled.

We do know that the Security Council is holding special meetings this week. They’ve been having an off-site retreat to welcome new elected members of the council who will be joining in the new year.

There’s some hope from UN officials that we’ve spoken to that this grouping will encourage discussion and compromise and that maybe the council will finally be able to come together given the gravity of the situation and speak with one voice.

Gunness has said there is a very real prospect of communicable diseases spreading in Gaza amid widespread displacement and the lack of clean water and other critical supplies.

“That’s the prospect, and let’s be clear, this is a matter of political choice,” he told Al Jazeera.

“This is a humanitarian catastrophe which world leaders in giving Israel a green light to continue … the war, they are responsible for this.”

Earlier we reported on a series of sit-ins taking place at the offices of several US senators in Washington, DC.

The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights advocacy group says dozens of activists were arrested after the sit-ins were held at eight senators’ offices.

The activists “were arrested after engaging in civil disobedience in defense of the human rights of the Palestinian people”, the group’s executive director, Ahmad Abuznaid, said in a post on social media.

“The US government is arresting human rights defenders protesting genocide while arming the war criminals.”

Capitol Police arrested activists in @SenWarren's, @SenMarkey's, @SenSanders's, @SenJeffMerkley's, and @SenBrianSchatz's offices.

180 human rights activists held sit-ins at 8 senators' offices at risk of arrest. They took a stand to stop Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza pic.twitter.com/EBQ4dkxaUQ

— #DefendMasaferYatta USCPR (@USCPR_) November 3, 2023

As we reported earlier today, Hezbollah leader Syed Hassan Nasrallah delivered his first comments since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.

Read the key takeaways from the speech here.

Former UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness pointed to the fact that more than 70 UNRWA staff have been killed and more than 40 facilities have been hit by Israeli strikes.

“Whether or not UNRWA is being targeted, I can’t answer that, but the fact is UNRWA staff are being killed, [and] UNRWA facilities are being hit,” he said.

“They [the Israeli military] know the GPS coordinates. Draw your own conclusions.”

In the meeting, Blinken said he also reiterated Washington’s commitment to Israel’s “right to defend itself, as well as work to secure the release of hostages and further a two-state solution”.

Blinken also met with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and Benny Gantz, a member of the war council. However, the meeting with Yair Lapid appeared to show Blinken seeking to appeal to a wider swathe of the Israeli political spectrum.

Former defence minister Gantz’s Blue and White party formed an emergency government with Netanyahu at the beginning of the war.

Lapid declined to join, criticising Netanyahu for empowering far-right members of his cabinet and for the structure of the special war cabinet.

I met with Israeli Opposition Leader @yairlapid to reiterate the United States’ commitment to Israel and its right to defend itself, as well as work to secure the release of hostages and further a two-state solution. pic.twitter.com/yybB7j9fRF

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) November 3, 2023

Optimists had hoped that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Israel on Friday would bring some kind of respite for Palestinians. Perhaps an agreement to allow fuel into Gaza, or a reduction in air attacks that lead to civilian casualties – maybe even one of the “humanitarian pauses” that the US administration has pushed over the last week.

Indeed, after his meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken said that more needed to be done to protect Palestinian civilians and that they should not “suffer the consequences for [Hamas’s] inhumanity”.

Blinken even appeared to hint at a more robust tone being adopted with the Israelis, and that more pressure had been put on them.

If Israel’s actions in Gaza today were a response to Blinken’s visit, then the message is obvious.

Israel hit an ambulance convoy outside a hospital – at least 15 were reported killed, amid horrific scenes. At least 14 were killed in an attack on Palestinians fleeing south on what the Israelis have termed ‘safe routes’, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. And at least 20 died in an attack on a school providing shelter for the displaced, also according to the ministry.

Whether Blinken is in town or not, the Israelis have made it clear: Their tactics aren’t changing, no matter how many civilians are killed.

A woman who survived today’s attack on al-Rashid Street, a major road on the Gaza coast, said she and her family were travelling in hopes of leaving the Palestinian territory when their bus was hit.

“We are US citizens,” the woman says in a video posted on social media by American Muslims for Palestine, a US advocacy group.

Speaking from the floor of a Gaza hospital, the woman says her 17-year-old daughter lost her hand in the attack, which killed at least 14 Palestinians who were trying to flee south, according to local authorities.

“They bombed our bus,” the woman shouts, waving US passports in front of the camera. “Look what they’re doing to American citizens.”

She adds: “They bombed our bus. The bus caught on fire while we were inside. We fled the area and walked on foot until we reached the hospital.”

🚨American citizens in Gaza targeted by Israeli forces while traveling to the crossing after given instructions by the U.S. Embassy. #Ceasefirenow pic.twitter.com/kKmFkd6rNy

— American Muslims for Palestine (@AMPalestine) November 3, 2023

Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a US policy fellow at Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, says Israel is intensifying its atrocities against Palestinians as international pressure to end the war mounts.

“Israel is getting the message that with each passing day and as the Palestinian death toll rises they continue to lose international support,” Kenney-Shawa told Al Jazeera in an email.

“What minuscule pressure the Biden Administration is putting on them is proof that unconditional support cannot go on forever. I think they’re trying to kill as many Palestinians as possible in this window of opportunity they have where they’re confident that the US is going to go to bat for them no matter what they do.”

The Israeli military bombed ambulances and areas around several Gaza hospitals today as Blinken was visiting Israel for meetings with officials.

It’s 11pm (21:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. Here’s a recap of some of the latest developments over the past few hours:

• Israeli attacks have struck near at least three hospitals in Gaza, according to local health authorities, including one that hit a medical convoy near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
• Israel says its military targeted an ambulance being used by Hamas fighters.
• Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra rejected the Israeli military’s claims, saying two ambulance vehicles were struck. Al-Qudra said 15 people were killed in one of those attacks and 16 others injured.
• Other Israeli strikes in the north of Gaza targeted a convoy of civilians seeking to evacuate via al-Rashid Road, killing at least 14.
• A school hosting displaced people in the Saftawi neighbourhood also was hit in an Israeli attack that killed at least 20 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
• Amid the violence, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said it can no longer provide safety at shelters under the UN flag; UNRWA also said at least 38 people have died in UN facilities since the war began.

Al-Qudra told reporters that two ambulance vehicles were targeted today.

The first vehicle was targeted at Ansar Roundabout in Gaza City, he said. The driver of this ambulance was injured and a paramedic also suffered critical injuries and is still in the operating room, al-Qudra said.

The medical convoy then turned back, the spokesperson said, and a second ambulance was targeted when it arrived at the gate of the al-Shifa Hospital complex.

Fifteen people were killed in the attack on the second ambulance, al-Qudra said. Sixteen others were injured.

Ashraf al-Qudra, the Health Ministry spokesperson in Gaza, is holding a news conference outside al-Shifa Hospital.

He has rejected the Israeli military’s claim that Hamas was using an ambulance, which the army bombed earlier today.

We’ll bring you more from the news conference shortly.

Survivors of the Israeli attack on Osama Ben Zaid school are attempting to help who they can, and find the bodies of their loved ones.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Shareef is at the scene, where blood is splattered on the walls of the school. He says people had been sleeping when the attack took place.

“My family and our cousins were all sleeping and the next thing we know is a missile landing on us,” one man said to al-Shareef. “Look at them now. They’ve been destroyed [and left] in pieces, all of them.”

The gathered survivors condemned the attack and called on Arabs and Muslims to step in to stop Israeli attacks on Gaza, which show little sign of abating.

“Oh Arabs, we are Muslims, we believe in God … where are the two billion Muslims?” one survivor said. “Where’s the Arab pride and dignity, where is your blood? They’re even attacking schools. May God be with us.”

The head of charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, Melanie Ward, made the comments just hours after Israeli attacks struck near three Gaza hospitals, including the largest in the enclave, al-Shifa.

“Attacks on hospitals and ambulances must end,” Ward said.

“They are sanctuaries for the wounded, places where lives are saved and suffering is alleviated. If even hospitals are not protected, then there truly is no safe place anywhere in Gaza.”

“Attacks on hospitals and ambulances must end. They are sanctuaries for the wounded, places where lives are saved and suffering is alleviated. If even hospitals are not protected, then there truly is no safe place anywhere in Gaza,” said @melanie_ward, MAP’s CEO. (4/5)

— Medical Aid for Palestinians (@MedicalAidPal) November 3, 2023