Hospitals in Gaza struggle to provide adequate care for babies

In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General, 159 of the 225 members of Sri Lanka's parliament have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.

Members of all elected Sri Lankan political parties are represented among its signatories.

"The brutal Israeli onslaught on Gaza, the most recent being indiscriminate bombings in hospitals, amounts to a war crime under International Law and the Geneva convention, which should be condemned by all persons who believe in justice," the letter reads.

A group called The Solidarity Movement organised a pro-Palestine demonstration in the Indian capital to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.

Dozens turned up at the Lodhi Garden in New Delhi dressed in black and organised themselves into groups of four, reading out the names of those killed in the besieged territory since October 7.

"If you see it just as a human, keeping religion aside, it feels as if the humanity is dying. People's reaction is not humane. I am feeling terrible. I feel like breaking down at times, seeing how the children have been martyred," Taslima Batool, a student at Delhi University, told Al Jazeera.

Another student, Zehra Bano, said she was there to protest the killing of innocent children. "We stand with them. They [Palestinians] are fighting for their rights, for their land. We hope there is a ceasefire."

The demonstration comes after several people were detained in a number of Indian cities in the past few weeks during rallies organised to express solidarity with Palestinians.

The director of Gaza's largest hospital says 179 people have been buried in a "mass grave" in the complex, reports Al Jazeera.

"We were forced to bury them in a mass grave," said al-Shifa Hospital Director Mohammad Abu Salmiya, adding that seven babies and 29 intensive care patients are among those buried.

According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip since 7 October – equivalent to two nuclear bombs, reports Al Jazeera.

In comparison, the Little Boy nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima during World War II yielded 15,000 tonnes of high explosives and destroyed everything within a 1.6km (1-mile) radius.

Orthopedic surgeon Fadel Naim, based in the Gaza Strip, says patients with injuries "up to the moderate level" are having to undergo surgery without anesthesia because of a lack of medical supplies.

"[It's] to preserve the remaining supply of anesthesia, which is on the verge of depletion at any moment, for major and critical surgeries," he said on X.

"The pain experienced by the patients during the surgical interventions without anesthesia is beyond what humanity on this Earth can endure".

Two Qatari planes are heading to the Egyptian city of El Arish carrying equipment for a field hospital and special aid to support people in Gaza, Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said on X.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch says the Israeli military's "unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel and transport are further destroying Gaza's healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes".

The organisation urged the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the International Criminal Court to investigate, reports Al Jazeera.

"Despite the Israeli military's claims on November 5, 2023, of 'Hamas's cynical use of hospitals,' no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law," it said.

"Human Rights Watch investigated attacks on or near the Indonesian Hospital, al-Ahli Hospital, the International Eye Care Center, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, and the al-Quds Hospital between October 7 and November 7."

We reported earlier on the 10 people killed in Khan Younis, following Israeli air raids that targeted homes in the southern city.

The number of people killed in the attack has now risen to at least 13.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly says she is deeply alarmed by the United Nations' announcement that their assistance to Palestinian civilians is at risk of ending due to a shortage of fuel, reports Al Jazeera.

"This is not acceptable," she said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Civilians must be protected and enough food, fuel and water must get into Gaza so that their life-saving work can continue."

Israel and Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades, have been engaging in fierce urban combat around Gaza City.

Hamas has released a video showing its fighters hiding in bombed-out buildings and firing on Israeli tanks and soldiers with rocket-propelled grenades and bazookas.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said that "the international community should exert pressure on the Israeli regime to stop its military aggression on Gaza".

The top diplomat also called for putting pressure on Israel so that an unconditional humanitarian ceasefire immediately takes effect in the Gaza Strip and humanitarian aid is dispatched to the besieged territory, reports Al Jazeera.

Amirabdollahian made those comments on Monday night in a phone conversation with his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó as the two discussed developments in West Asia, particularly the Gaza war.

The Iranian foreign minister said that "the Israeli regime, in its bombardment and massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, has clearly violated all humanitarian and international law".

Some Indonesians are boycotting US businesses including McDonald's after the fast food chain's Israeli franchisee announced it had donated meals to the Israeli army.

The boycotts come as Indonesian President Joko Widodo is in the US where he will attend the APEC summit in San Francisco.

On Monday Widodo said a "ceasefire is a must for the sake of humanity" and that the US should "do more to stop the atrocities in Gaza" at a White House meeting with Joe Biden.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blasted Israel's "brutality and violence" as he personally welcomed home Brazilian and Palestinian nationals who were trapped in the Gaza Strip.

Lula greeted the evacuees on the runway as their plane landed.

"At 78 years old, I have seen a lot of brutality and violence," Lula wrote on social media later.

"But I have never seen such inhumane violence against innocent people. Hamas committed an act of terrorism but Israel's response is also lethal against innocent children and women," he said.

"Destruction of everything that was built with a lot of struggle, such as schools and hospitals. The Brazilian government will continue fighting for peace, demanding humanist behaviour from other presidents, for a ceasefire," he added.

"We will not leave anyone behind," Lula also said of Palestinian families of Brazilians who want to leave Gaza.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, Dr Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesman for Gaza's health ministry, said that due to fuel shortages, all of the besieged enclave's hospitals could shut down in 48 hours.

The spokesman said that healthcare has already been out of service, particularly in the northern part of Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.

The two largest medical facilities in Gaza, the al-Shifa and al-Quds hospitals, shut operations on Monday, citing a lack of fuel to keep medical equipment working.

UNRWA has described the situation in Gaza as "dire" and has called for a ceasefire and the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to the internally-displaced Palestinians.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has moved to address criticism from staff within the US State Department over the Biden administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza.

"I know that for many of you, the suffering caused by this crisis is taking a profound personal toll," Blinken said in an emailed letter to State Department staff obtained by the Reuters news agency.

"The anguish that comes with seeing the daily images of babies, children, elderly people, women, and other civilians suffering in this crisis is wrenching. I feel it myself," Blinken wrote, according to Reuters.

"I also know that some people in the Department may disagree with approaches we are taking or have views on what we can do better. We've organized forums in Washington to hear from you, and urged managers and teams to have candid discussions at posts around the world precisely so we can hear your feedback and ideas. I've asked our senior leadership to keep doing that," he said.

"We're listening: what you share is informing our policy and our messages," he added.

At least three internal cables criticising US policy on Gaza have been filed with the State Department's internal "dissent channel", which was established during the US war in Vietnam to allow officials and diplomats to raise policy concerns anonymously.