Live
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip [Eyad Baba/AFP]
By Lyndal Rowlands, Tamila Varshalomidze, Zaheena Rasheed, Stephen Quillen, Mersiha Gadzo and Farah Najjar
Published On 20 Nov 2024

This live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage here.

20 Nov 2024 - 23:59
 (23:59 GMT)

Thank you for joining us

This live page is now closed.

To learn more about the latest ceasefire resolution vetoed by the US at the UN Security Council, go here.

To learn more about the looting of 97 trucks in a UN aid convoy near the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom for Israelis) crossing in southern Gaza, go here.

20 Nov 2024 - 23:45
 (23:45 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a brief overview of the day’s main events.

  • Israeli attacks on northern Gaza have killed at least 88 Palestinians, including 66 near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya and 22 in Gaza City, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.
  • The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has said that the facility received 17 children suffering from malnourishment but has few resources to treat them as Israeli forces fire on the medical facility and block most people and supplies from entering.
  • Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health says Israel’s bombing of Tyre has killed at least nine people and wounded 65.
  • Uncertainty continues to surround the prospects of a ceasefire deal that could end Israel’s war in Lebanon, with the armed group Hezbollah insisting that such an agreement must mean an end to the fighting and “protection of Lebanon’s sovereignty”. Israel has previously said it must maintain the ability to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory when it pleases.
  • The United States Senate is preparing for a vote that could block the transfer of billions of dollars in offensive weapons to Israel, prompting an effort by pro-Israel groups and officials to stop it from passing. Under US law, the government is required to suspend arms transfers to countries that block access to humanitarian aid.
20 Nov 2024 - 23:30
 (23:30 GMT)
Houthi

Death toll from Israeli attack on Beit Lahiya rises

More on the attack near the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that the death toll has risen to 66, most of them women and children.

More than 100 others were wounded.

20 Nov 2024 - 23:20
 (23:20 GMT)

WATCH: Lebanon ceasefire talks – US envoy in Tel Aviv to convey Lebanon’s proposal

The US envoy, who is trying to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, has arrived in Tel Aviv.

Amos Hochstein said negotiations were making progress after two days of talks in Lebanon.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem reports from the Lebanese capital Beirut.

20 Nov 2024 - 23:05
 (23:05 GMT)

Bernie Sanders says US cannot ‘turn a blind eye’ to Israeli rights abuses

Progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders, who is spearheading an effort to block a massive arms transfer to Israel, has said that the US will lose credibility on issues of human rights if it continues supporting Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza.

A UN committee recently said that the US ally is using starvation as a weapon of war and systematically blocking humanitarian aid.

“A lot of folks come to the floor to talk about human rights,” Sanders said in remarks on the Senate floor. “But you cannot condemn human rights around the world and then turn a blind eye to what the US government is now funding in Israel. People will laugh in your face.”

20 Nov 2024 - 22:50
 (22:50 GMT)
Houthi

Israeli attack kills 30, wounds 100 near Kamal Adwan Hospital

Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip reports that 30 people have been killed and more than 100 others wounded, in an Israeli attack on a residential neighbourhood in Beit Lahiya near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip.

More soon.

20 Nov 2024 - 22:45
 (22:45 GMT)
Developing

Death toll from attack on Gaza City rises to 22, including 10 children

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that 22 people have been killed in an Israeli bombing in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of the city in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Earlier, we reported that Gaza’s civil defence said its teams were rushing to a house that had been bombed there.

20 Nov 2024 - 22:35
 (22:35 GMT)

Israel says three soldiers killed in Lebanon in updated toll

The Israeli military has said that three soldiers, including a 70-year-old, have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli authorities announced that a 22-year-old soldier “fell during combat in southern Lebanon”.

Israeli authorities have updated that figure to include two more deaths, including a 70-year-old reservist named Ze’ev “Jabo” Hanoch Erlich.

The Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, said that Erlich was a “pioneer of research in geography, archaeology and Jewish history of Judea and Samaria” and lived in the settlement of Ofra.

Another soldier was injured in the same incident and has been taken to a hospital for treatment.

20 Nov 2024 - 22:20
 (22:20 GMT)

Israeli forces shoot, arrest young man in Qalqilya

Special forces soldiers stormed the occupied West Bank city before opening fire on a young Palestinian man, the Wafa news agency reports.

The Israeli soldiers then prevented an ambulance from reaching the young man until military reinforcements arrived and arrested him, Wafa added.

Israeli forces have arrested at least 11,700 people in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

20 Nov 2024 - 22:00
 (22:00 GMT)

Lebanese Health Ministry offers preliminary toll of Israeli strikes on Tyre

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health has said that a preliminary toll of Israel’s bombing of Tyre shows nine people killed and 65 injured.

“Nine martyrs and 65 wounded in the preliminary toll of the raids on Tyre district,” the agency said in a social media post.

20 Nov 2024 - 21:45
 (21:45 GMT)

Turkiye condemns Houthi strike on Red Sea vessel

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has released a statement following a Houthi strike on a cargo ship in the Red Sea, where the Yemen-based group has targeted shipping in what it says is a campaign of solidarity with Gaza.

“We condemn the missile attacks by the Houthis on the Panama-flagged dry cargo ship Anadolu S, owned by a Turkish company, while sailing off the coast of Yemen,” Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Necessary initiatives are being taken to prevent the recurrence of a similar incident,” it added.

20 Nov 2024 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

WATCH: ‘Halt to hostilities is now in Israel’s hands’ – Hezbollah chief

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem says his group has reviewed the US-drafted ceasefire proposal to end fighting with Israel and that a “halt to hostilities is now in Israel’s hands”.

Qassem also said that Israeli strikes on Beirut would be met with strikes “on central Tel Aviv”.

20 Nov 2024 - 21:15
 (21:15 GMT)

Maarakeh death toll rises to 5

We earlier reported on an Israeli attack that struck the town of Maarakeh near Tyre.

The death toll now stands at five, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), and 23 people have been wounded.

Other attacks on areas in the Tyre district today killed at least nine other people, NNA said.

20 Nov 2024 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

Israel army says soldier killed in combat in Lebanon

The Israeli military has said that a soldier was killed in south Lebanon, where its troops have waged war since late September after a year of cross-border exchanges of fire.

The death brings to 50 the military’s losses in Lebanon since the start of ground operations and comes amid a US-led push to secure a truce.

20 Nov 2024 - 20:45
 (20:45 GMT)

China’s Xi calls for Gaza ceasefire: Report

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a ceasefire in Gaza during a visit to Brazil’s capital, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports.

Xi expressed concerns about the spread of the conflict in Gaza and “called for a ceasefire and an end to the war at an early date” as he met with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the agency said.

20 Nov 2024 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

Israeli strike near southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre kills four

Another three have been wounded in an Israeli strike on the town of Maarakeh near Tyre, NNA said, adding that the figure was an initial toll.

Civil defence teams are currently working on evacuations amid the destruction, NNA said.

We’ll bring you more soon.

20 Nov 2024 - 20:15
 (20:15 GMT)

Demonstrators protest in Tel Aviv as US Senate to vote on blocking arms sales to Israel

Demonstrators have protested outside the US embassy’s branch office in Tel Aviv, calling for the United States to block arms sales to Israel.

Protesters blocked the road and held signs reading, “Arms Embargo Now” and “Stop the Genocide in Gaza.” One person yelled into a megaphone: “Not a nickel, not a dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes.”

The US Senate is due to vote later today on legislation that would block arms sales to Israel. It is backed by lawmakers who say Israel is obstructing aid shipments desperately needed by Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The “resolutions of disapproval” were filed by Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

Strong bipartisan support for Israel means the resolutions are not expected to pass, but backers hope they will encourage Biden’s administration to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.

People demonstrate outside the US embassy’s branch office in Tel Aviv before a vote by the US Senate on legislation that would block US weapons sales to Israel [Ammar Awad/Reuters]
20 Nov 2024 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)

Israeli forces strike Gaza City neighbourhood, Civil Defence says

Gaza’s Civil Defence says its teams have rushed to the scene of the attack in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, where a residential building has been targeted.

We’ll bring you more soon.

20 Nov 2024 - 19:45
 (19:45 GMT)

US defends veto of UN Security Council resolution on Gaza ceasefire

The State Department has defended the US veto of a UN Security Council resolution on a Gaza ceasefire.

“The resolution does call for the release of hostages. What it doesn’t do is link the release of hostages to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said during a news briefing.

Its fellow members, all of whom voted for the resolution, roundly criticised the US for blocking the measure put forward by the council’s 10 elected members.

France’s ambassador, Nicolas de Riviere, said the resolution “very firmly” required the release of captives.

After blocking earlier resolutions on Gaza, Washington in March abstained from a vote that allowed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire to pass.

20 Nov 2024 - 19:30
 (19:30 GMT)
Analysis

US sees potential ceasefire as means to release captives, not as permanent truce

Chris Hedges, a political commentator and author, says the US vetoed the latest Security Council resolution on Gaza because it does not perceive a potential ceasefire as permanent but as one in which the captives leave Gaza.

“All of the hostages could have been freed on October 8 [2023],” Hedges told Al Jazeera. “Those hostages were taken to release the some 10,000 Palestinians who were held in Israeli prisons, many without due process.”

“You could make a pretty strong argument” that Israel killed most of the captives who have lost their lives in Gaza, Hedges said.

“That’s an Israeli decision,” he said.