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Jerusalem, Nov 13, 2023 (AFP) – Fighting raged in Gaza on Monday, more than five weeks after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack sparked a furious response from Israel which has vowed to destroy the Palestinian militant group.

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel and around 240 hostages taken, according to Israeli officials.

In Gaza, more than 11,100 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed, health officials in the Hamas-run territory have said.

Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:

– Hospitals ‘out of service’ –

The deputy health minister in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Youssef Abu Rish, told AFP that all hospitals in the north of the territory are “out of service”, amid fuel shortages and intense combat.

Abu Rish said seven premature babies and 27 patients had died in recent days in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, the Palestinian territory’s largest.

The hospital has been at the centre of intense fighting between Hamas and Israel, which charges the militants with hiding in tunnels beneath the facility. Hamas denies the accusation.

The European Union’s humanitarian aid chief, Janez Lenarcic, called for “meaningful” humanitarian pauses in the fighting and urgent fuel deliveries to keep hospitals running.

– UN aid work risks ‘halt’ –

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned its Gaza operations might shut down due to fuel shortages.

“The humanitarian operation in Gaza will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed to enter,” UNRWA’s Gaza chief Thomas White wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Gaza has been under near-total Israeli siege and is short of food, fuel and other basic supplies.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the European Union and the United Nations to “parachute aid” into Gaza.

– Pressure on Israel –

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the human cost of its war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers but is working to expand its “window of legitimacy”, its top diplomat.

“We have two or three weeks until international pressure really steps up but the foreign ministry is working to broaden the window of legitimacy, and the fighting will carry on for as long as necessary,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said, as quoted by his spokesman.

– Cross-border violence –

Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group continued to trade fire again with near-daily border skirmishes since October 8 that have heightened fears of a regional conflagration.

A group of journalists in southern Lebanon said they were targeted in Israeli strikes, which Al Jazeera network said lightly wounded one of its photographers. The Israeli army did not immediately comment the reports.

Lebanese state media and a local mayor corroborated the journalists’ account of the cross-border incident, exactly a month after deadly strikes blamed on Israel hit a press group near Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.

The Israel Electric Corporation said a worker was killed Sunday by an anti-tank missile strike across the Lebanese border “during his work in the Dovev area” — just half a mile (800 metres) from the frontier.

– 550 leave for Egypt –

More than 550 foreigners and dual nationals as well as nine wounded Palestinians left Gaza via Rafah, the Palestinian border authority said.

The Rafah crossing into Egypt is the only crossing out of Gaza not controlled by Israel. Hundreds were evacuated through it on Sunday, after it was closed on Friday and Saturday.

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