Israel-Hamas war live updates: 31 babies evacuated from Gaza’s Al-Shifa; Biden says he believes a hostage deal will come soon

President Joe Biden, at today’s White House turkey pardoning ceremony, was asked by a reporter if a deal is near to release hostages taken by Hamas.

“I believe so,” he said.

When asked again if he believes so, Biden responded by crossing his fingers and said, “Yes.”

— NBC News

The World Health Organization is trying to establish contact with the Indonesian Hospital following reports of bombings and gunfire in the area.

“We are trying to get a communication line into the hospital to find out the status of the patients,” Rob Holden, the WHO’s senior emergency officer, told a news briefing at the United Nations from Gaza.

The organization has “no direct information from anybody inside the hospital of the current status,” he said.

“We currently know that there are 700 patients and staff within that hospital,” Holden said.

— NBC News

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said via social media on Monday that the United Nations health agency “is appalled by the attack on the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.”

In a post via X, formerly known as Twitter, Tedros said the attack on the medical complex in northern Gaza had reportedly resulted in 12 deaths, “including patients, and tens of injuries, including critical and life-threatening ones.”

“Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital,” he added.

CNBC could not independently verify the figures.

— Sam Meredith

Abu Siraj Al-Shaer, who made a living as a construction worker before, starts producing clay ovens and selling them to people at low prices due to the cessation of work and Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, Gaza on Nov. 20, 2023.

The demand for clay ovens has increased as a result of people making bread by lighting fires with the cardboards and woods they can find due to the ongoing gas crisis in Gaza. 

— Belal Khaled | Anadolu | Getty Images

EDITORS NOTE- Graphic Content: This post contains an image depicting death in Khan Younis, Gaza.

More than 13,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the media office of the Hamas-controlled government.

That figure includes 5,500 children and 3,500 women, the media office said. Over 6,000 people have been reported missing, including 1,800 children who are thought to be under the rubble.

— Sam Meredith

The 28 premature babies evacuated from the Al-Shifa hospital have now safely reached Egypt for treatment at local hospitals, a World Health Organization spokesperson told CNBC by email.

The infants, along with three other babies who remain in the Gaza Strip, were removed from the Al-Shifa medical complex on Sunday through a joint effort between the WHO, the U.N. human rights office and the Palestine Red Cross Society and first taken for immediate care at the Emarati hospital in Rafah, in the south of the enclave.

All babies were in stable condition as of Monday. Two remained in Gaza Strip at the preference of their parents, while one was held back in the absence of any parents identified to give parental consent for their travel.

The infants were removed from the besieged and resource-deprived Al-Shifa hospital, where fuel shortages took offline the life support machines required for their care. They are fighting serious infections and continue to need health care, the WHO told CNBC.

— Ruxandra Iordache

An aid convoy transporting a Jordanian field hospital arrives in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2023, after crossing through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

— Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

Negotiations between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas over the release of hostages are ongoing, a senior Hamas official told NBC News on Monday.

“We were several times close and they undermined the whole process,” spokesperson Osama Hamdan said.

Several U.S. officials have, in recent days, signaled that a breakthrough on the release of the 237 captives held by Hamas could be reached in the coming days, although concrete terms remained elusive.

“We think that we are closer than we have been, perhaps at any point since these negotiations began weeks ago,” U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. have previously been influential in brokering humanitarian aid and hostage release agreements between Hamas and Israel.

The two sides remain contradictory in purpose, however: Israel refuses to discuss a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip before the hostages are returned, while Hamas officials have previously said such an amnesty is a pre-requisite for the release of captives.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said they exchanged fire on Monday.

Hezbollah said it achieved “direct hits” to Israeli positions west of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, according to a Google-translated news flash carried by Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar.

The Israel Defense Forces on Telegram reported sirens blaring in northern Israel, without specifying the reason. It said that earlier on Monday, it had struck several locations in Lebanon, following launches from the country into the Israeli areas of al-Aramshe, Biranit and Bar’am.

Later, the IDF said that it identified 25 launches from Lebanon, and said it struck a “terrorist cell” in the country that attempted to launch anti-tank missiles.

CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Three of the 31 premature babies evacuated over the weekend by U.N. and health groups are staying behind in the Gaza Strip because one infant has not been identified and the parents of two others refused to send them abroad, BBC News reports.

Earlier on Monday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said that ambulance teams were transporting the remaining 28 babies to Egypt for treatment.

All three babies who are remaining behind in the Gaza Strip, where they have been moved to Al-Ahli Emirates hospital in the southern part of the enclave, are in stable condition, a local doctor told BBC News.

The 31 infants were removed from the besieged Al-Shifa hospital by a combined effort of the U.N. human rights agency, the World Health Organization and the PRCS on Sunday. Fuel shortages at Al-Shifa had depowered the life support equipment necessary to sustain them, with two out of an initial 33 babies dying as a result.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israel’s rate capturing the unemployed and those who were temporarily absent from work surged to 9.6% in October, compared with 3.6% in September, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics showed Monday.

This meant that a combined 428,400 people were fully or temporarily absent from work in October, up from 163,600 people in September.

The country’s main unemployment rate was steady at 3.4%, unchanged on the month.

Last month saw the brutal Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, which killed hundreds of people in Israel and led to the abduction of over 240 hostages. Israel has since summoned roughly 360,000 reservists to take up arms against the Palestinian militant group, in one of the largest mobilizations in the country’s history.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Ambulance teams are transporting 28 rescued premature babies from the Gaza Strip for onward treatment at Egyptian hospitals, the Palestine Red Cross Society said on social media.

It comes after the PRCS, World Health Organization and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs orchestrated the weekend evacuation of 31 premature babies from the Al-Shifa health facility, once the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, now reduced to basic care and no longer able to operate as a hospital.

The babies — who are all fighting infections, according to a WHO assessment — had to be removed from life support at Al-Shifa that no longer functioned as a result of fuel shortages. Following their evacuation, they were first taken to the neonatal intensive care unit at Al-Helal Al-Emarati Maternity Hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The staff carrying the infants will traverse the Rafah crossing that bridges Egypt and the Gaza Strip — the only land route out of the enclave that is not controlled by Israel.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants have captured what they called an Israeli ship in the Red Sea and taken it to the Yemeni coast, the group’s spokesperson Yahya Saree said on social media on Sunday.

“The Yemeni armed forces reiterate their warning to all ships belonging to or dealing with the Israeli enemy that they will become a legitimate target for armed forces,” he added, urging the international community to avoid working with Israeli ships or owned by Israeli individuals.

“Yemeni armed forces confirm that they will continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops,” the spokesperson said.

On Monday, Japan’s top government spokesperson confirmed the capture of the Nippon Yusen-operated ship, Galaxy Leader, according to Reuters. Tokyo is now appealing with the Houthis for the release of the vessel and seeking the help of Saudi, Omani and Iranian authorities.

“The hijacking of a cargo ship by the Houthis near Yemen in the southern Red Sea is a very grave incident of global consequence,” the Israeli military said on social media.

“The ship departed Turkey on its way to India, staffed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis. It is not an Israeli ship.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office qualified the vessel as owned by a British company and operated by a Japanese business, stating no Israeli people were present on the vessel.

“This is another act of Iranian terrorism which expresses a leap forward in Iran’s aggression against the citizens of the free world, and creates international implications regarding the security of global shipping lanes,” Netanyahu said, according to a Google translation.

Iran, which supports the Houthis and Hamas groups that are inimical to Israel, rejected claims of involvement in the ship’s capture, according to Google-translated comments by Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani, carried by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Thirty-one babies were evacuated on Sunday from the Al-Shifa hospital to a medical facility in the south of the Gaza Strip, in a joint mission between the World Health Organization and the U.N., working in collaboration with the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Born prematurely with low birthweight, these infants had previously been moved from the neonatal unit of the Al-Shifa hospital to a safe area on site, because of electricity shortages to power their life support and security risks at the facility.

Two other babies passed away before the evacuation took place.

Eleven of the infants who were removed are in critical condition, and all the babies are fighting “serious” infections because of a lack of supplies, the WHO said. The children are not accompanied by family members, who could not be found.

Six health workers and 10 of their family members, who had taken shelter at the hospital, were evacuated alongside the children. The mission was “deconflicted with the Israel Defense Forces and with the defacto authorities,” the WHO said. Israeli military last week raided and has since been inspecting the Al-Shifa hospital on suspicion that the hospital is used for Hamas operations.

Over 250 patients and 20 health workers remain at Al-Shifa and request immediate evacuation, the WHO said, noting that such a procedure would take several days because of the “complex security and logistics constraints.”

The organization reiterated it is “deeply concerned about the safety and health needs of patients and health workers who remain at Al-Shifa Hospital” and said the medical complex is no longer able to function because of a lack of clean water, fuel, medical supplies and food, along with active hostilities.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Securities Authority said they killed three further company commanders of Palestinian militant group Hamas during ground operations, according to an IDF update on Telegram.

The military did not name the deceased or state when they were killed.

IDF troops also identified and killed Hamas operatives in a cell, as well as striking a weapons depot in which they took shelter, the military said.

CNBC could not independently confirm the report.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Sewage pumps in the Gaza Strip can only run at 55% capacity amid ongoing fuel shortages, according to Thomas White, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine.

“Some difficult decisions have had to be made about what lifesaving aid is prioritised – sewage will continue to follow in the streets,” White said.

White and UNRWA previously drew alarm bells over the critical state of fuel-deprived infrastructure and services in the Gaza enclave, with sanitation, water desalination and medical equipment slipping offline. The World Health Organization has repeatedly warned of the health and infection risks if these services no longer function.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israeli military has released further details of its findings following its ground incursion at the Al-Shifa hospital, including what it says is footage of a tunnel beneath the medical complex proving Hamas carried out operations on the premises.

In an operational update delivered by Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, the IDF showed a clip of what appeared to be a tunnel it said spans over 50 meters and is located beneath the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. In addition to weapons, vests, intelligence and communication resources, the military said it found a car similar to those deployed in the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7 on the site of the hospital, adding that the vehicle was boobytrapped.

“What does it mean to boobytrap a car that is at the center of the hospital complex? They did not only want to kill Israeli soldiers that they knew were coming there. They were willing and deliberately wanting also the patients and staff that is in the hospital to get hurt in that event,” Shefler said.

He added that the military was able to carry out its raid of Al-Shifa without “any kind of friction with the medical team” and to “facilitate” what hospital staff required. He added that the IDF brought medical equipment and supplies to Al-Shifa — but did not clarify how these resources will be powered, amid severe fuel and electricity shortages that have rendered unusable the previous equipment of Al-Shifa, according to local health officials.

CNBC could not independently verify the video footage and report.

The IDF has been subject to intense pressure to provide evidence of Hamas using the Al-Shifa hospital as a command center and justify its ground incursion on a civilian site. Hamas and the Al-Shifa staff have previously denied the Palestinian militant group carries out operations from the medical site.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israel Defense Forces have released video footage they say show hostages being brought into the Al-Shifa hospital on the day of the Oct. 7 terror attacks carried out by Hamas.

CNBC has not independently verified the videos.

A first clip appears to show an individual forcibly marched into a hospital’s premises. The second footage shows a heavily wounded individual with a blurred-out face transported on a gurney, while one of the men who brought the patient in carries a rifle.

The IDF say that the two individuals are a Nepalese and Thai civilian, who were taken captive by Hamas.

“These findings prove that the Hamas terrorist organization used the Shifa Hospital complex on the day of the massacre as terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF said.

Israeli military has justified its widely criticized siege of the Al-Shifa hospital on the basis that the medical complex has been utilized as a Hamas compound and has faced mounting international pressure to prove that claim.

— Ruxandra Iordache

NBC News reported Sunday, citing sources familiar with the negotiations, that U.S., Israeli and Hamas negotiators are closing in on a deal to release some hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack.

That would be in exchange for a pause in fighting, NBC News reported, with the sources cautioning that nothing was finalized.

“We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal,” spokesperson Adrienne Waston posted on X in response to a Washington Post report about a possible agreement.

Read the NBC report here.

— Matt Clinch