Israel at War: What happened on day 39?

The IDF is currently undergoing operations on Al-Shifa Hospital early Wednesday morning, according to an IDF statement.

"Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Al-Shifa Hospital," the IDF statement said.

"The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians," the statement continued.

"The operation was preceded by an effort to evacuate the hospital from the sick and homeless and even opened a special passageway from it. The hospital management was informed ahead of time about the (IDF) entrance to the complex... Incubators, medical equipment, and baby food are expected to be transferred to the hospital," the statement continued.

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike near the Indonesian Hospital that ran out of fuel and electricity, in the northern Gaza Strip, November 12, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Anas al-Shareef)

Gaza's health ministry spokesperson warned early Wednesday morning of a potential Israeli raid on the enclave's Al Shifa hospital complex, saying Israel informed Gaza health officials that its forces would raid the facility – something the IDF statement seemed to confirm.

Al-Shifa Hospital's terror infrastructure

United States National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have used some Gaza hospitals to store weapons, hold hostages, and are prepared to fight the IDF from medical facilities.

“We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” Kirby said.

“Hamas and the PIJ members operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City. They have stored weapons there and they are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility," Kirby continued.

A Bedouin physician who works on the staff of Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center was accosted by a Hamas terrorist 17 minutes before thousands of others invaded the south on October 7. Dr. Tarek Abu Arar of the village of Arara near Dimona who has for the last four years been a volunteer with United Hatzalah (UH), got a call from his wife at 6.13 a.m. who said that there was a war. He returned to their home to take his UH ceramic vest and helmet. 

On the way to his hospital, he saw a man lying in the road and thought at first that he had been involved in a car accident. Abu Arar naturally rushed in his direction to help him. 

Britain has added six new designations to its counter-terrorism sanctions list, including four individuals related to Gaza's ruling Islamist group Hamas, an update to the UK government website showed on Tuesday.

The United States on Tuesday imposed a third round of sanctions aimed at the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas following its attack last month on Israel, targeting leaders and financiers of the group.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement the action, taken in coordination with Britain, targeted key Hamas officials and the mechanisms through which Iran provides support to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

In a powerful trend, individuals throughout the country are choosing to commemorate the tragic attack that occurred in southern Israel on October 7 with meaningful tattoos. This surge in tattoo requests has sparked conversations about the ways people cope with and remember traumatic events.

“It's how I express myself. If you see me, I'm all tattooed,” said Miki Cohen, who recently got a tattoo in memory of the victims, and as a lasting way to immortalize the tragedy. “We really can't forget what happened. No one can forget what happened, and it's a way of putting it there forever for everyone to see.”

Ophthalmologists at Soroka-University Medical Center in Beersheba who have been treating soldiers wounded in the war against Hamas terrorists have produced a short video to raise the military’s awareness of the need to wear protecting goggles at all times to prevent harm to the eyes during combat.

Dr. Liron Kravitz and Dr. Ana Bunin of the ophthalmology department say in the video that in these past weeks, they have treated more than 20 soldiers who suffered harm to their eyes in various degrees of severity. One soldier even lost his sight. The injuries are caused by either blunt or penetrating objects.

The damage is caused by blast waves from weapons and from shrapnel, they said. The goggles should be worn all the time, like eyeglasses. They added that the US Army reduced damage to the eyes during combat from 16% to half a percent by ensuring that soldiers wore protective goggles.

Humanitarian aid sent by Italy to Gaza is entering the area in these hours, the Italian foreign minister said on Tuesday.

"Italy has sent two C130 military aircraft carrying 16 ton of humanitarian aid, which are in transit towards Gaza in these hours," Antonio Tajani told parliament's joint Foreign Affairs and Defense committees, adding the aid travelled through the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt.

World powers met on Thursday in Paris with the broad aim of mobilizing financial resources and finding ways to get aid into the enclave, while also getting those seriously wounded out given Gaza's medical infrastructure is fast collapsing.

The IDF issued an urgent warning to residents of the Sabra, Tel al-Hawa, and Zeitoun neighborhoods of Gaza City to evacuate the area and head south by 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, as the IDF continued its operations in the Gaza Strip.

#عاجل بلاغ مهم الى سكان أحياء تل الهوا والصبرة والزيتون الغربي في مدينة غزة:

يقوم جيش الدفاع بابلاغكم ضرورة اخلاء مناطق سكنكم بشكل عاجل حفاظًا على سلامتكم وذلك عبر طريق صلاح الدين الذي تم فتحه من أجلكم للحركة، سيرا على الاقدام وبالسيارات حتى الساعة الرابعة (16:00) مساء للوصول… pic.twitter.com/gut8H9QLye

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 14, 2023

"The IDF informs you of the necessity of evacuating your residential areas urgently in order to preserve your safety, via the Salah al-Din Road, which has been opened for you to move, on foot and in cars, until 4 p.m., to reach the southern Wadi Gaza and the humanitarian zone," wrote IDF spokesperson for Arabic media, Avichay Adraee, on X (formerly Twitter).

"Do not surrender to the dictates of Hamas. Staying in Gaza City and those neighborhoods puts you at risk."

Turkey's foreign minister told his Australian counterpart in a call on Tuesday that Israel's targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an "open violation of international law," a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Hakan Fidan also emphasized the urgency of achieving a full ceasefire as soon as possible and the need for unhindered access of humanitarian aid into the enclave, the source said.

People trapped inside Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital plan to start burying bodies within the hospital compound on Tuesday without Israeli approval because the situation has become untenable, two sources at the hospital said.

Dr. Ahmed Al Mokhallalati, a surgeon, and Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said in separate telephone interviews from within the compound that more than 100 bodies had accumulated there, creating an acute sanitary crisis.

"We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don't have any cover or protection from the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), but we have no other options, the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose," said Qidra. "The men are digging right now as we speak."

Qidra put the number of bodies that had accumulated at Al Shifa at about 100. Mokhallalati said it was about 120.