WORLD BRIEFING: November 12, 2023
Israel-Hamas War
Heavy fighting near Gaza’s largest hospital has left it in a “catastrophic situation,” with patients and staff trapped inside, ambulances unable to collect the wounded and life-support systems without electricity, health officials and aid agencies are reporting. Hostilities around the hospital, Gaza’s largest, “have not stopped,” according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, with constant bombardment preventing evacuations and making it too dangerous for ambulance journeys, according to the organization - CNN
Three newborn babies died after the hospital went “out of service” amid intense fighting in the area, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which claims the hospital is surrounded on all four sides by Israeli forces and under “complete siege.” The Israeli army told CNN it is engaged in “ongoing intense fighting” against Hamas in the vicinity of the hospital complex, but denies firing at the northern Gaza medical center and has rejected suggestions the hospital is under siege. Israel has said it is in touch with hospital leaders and has offered assistance with evacuations.
Late on Saturday, Netanyahu said that Israel “will not agree to give up security control of Gaza under any circumstances”. The statement prompted US officials to ask for clarification.
As I told Israel 24 channel afterwards, Netanyahu made no mention of an off-ramp as the cost of the war soars in terms of human lives and costs
The UN says its compound in Gaza City was shelled overnight, with “significant number of deaths and injuries.” “This is wrong on every count," the UNDO chief says. “Civilians, civilian infrastructure & the inviolability of UN facilities must be always protected."
The long awaited meeting between Chinese President X Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden at the APEC summit in San Francisco set for Wednesday. As I told i24 News last night Beijing is watching the US responses to Ukraine & Israel closely, to see how ironclad their security guarantees are. Part of their calculation for the timing of the Taiwan invasion, which is a strategic priority for Xi
Ukraine War
Ukrainian forces have retaken the village of Topoli in the Kharkiv region about 5 kilometers from the Russian border.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said earlier on November 11 that Russian forces for the day had launched 41 air strikes and 44 rocket launches against “positions of our troops and populated areas,” hitting private residential buildings and infrastructure sites. “Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded among the civilian population,” the General Staff said without being specific - RFE/RL
Ukraine is open to the possibility of attacking Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure if Moscow ramps up its targeting of Ukraine’s electric system this winter, Ukraine Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in an interview. Galushchenko, speaking with POLITICO in Washington, D.C., after meeting with Biden administration officials and lawmakers, said Russia has regularly perpetrated cyberattacks against Ukraine’s electric grid and is expected to ramp up physical attacks as temperatures fall and people depend more on energy to heat their homes.
Friday marked one year since the liberation of Kherson. It was a day the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated the regional capital and parts of the Kherson region on the right bank of the Dnipro river. The liberation was a culmination of the 2022 Kherson counteroffensive. As a result, the Russian Armed Forces, which occupied the city since March 2, 2022, retreated to the left bank of the Dnipro, where they remain stationed today and continuously shell liberated settlements across the river. “The entire south of Ukraine learned last year that Russia never comes “forever,” no matter how many times they repeat it. Because Ukraine always returns – always!” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address released on the occasion.
Elsewhere
Russia has been spreading "disinformation" about the situation in the Middle East, the president of Microsoft said on November 11, as tensions soar in the region. Brad Smith was asked about the role of the U.S. tech giant in promoting peace at an international forum in Paris. He said Microsoft and its competitors were fighting against disinformation. "We are getting very good at identifying a Russian campaign, like when they tried to tell people not to get the COVID vaccine," he said. "Or today, when we see Russian disinformation in the Middle East." - RFE/RL
Icelandic authorities said on Saturday they were preparing for a volcanic eruption in the southwest of the island in the coming days after a series of earthquakes and evidence of magma spreading rapidly underground. The Icelandic Meteorological Office said there was a "considerable" risk of an eruption on or just off the Reykjanes peninsula because of the size of the underground magma intrusion and the rate at which it was moving.