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Israel-Gaza live updates: 3 premature babies die at Al-Shifa Hospital, doctor says

The hospital has been treating thousands of wounded people.

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: November 10, 2023, 5:58 PM EST

Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.

Click here for updates from previous days.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 1, 6:03 am

What we know about the conflict

The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.

Nov 10, 2023, 5:58 PM EST

ICRC chief surgeon in Gaza: 'Relentless' stream of burn victims

Dr. Tom Potokar, the International Committee of the Red Cross' chief surgeon who is currently working in the European Gaza Hospital, detailed the challenges they are facing in a phone interview with ABC News Live on Friday.

Potokar, who specializes in burn treatments, said they have seen "many, many" burn cases, adding that the number of burn patients is "relentless" and "not slowing down at all." The patients with burn injuries have been all ages, with the youngest they've seen just 4 months old, he said.

"A lot of them have burns involving the face as well, and the limbs," Potokar said. "These could be quite deep burns, as I say, so will lead to significant scarring potentially in the future if they actually survive."

Potokar, who has been a war surgeon in Gaza before, said the damage is "far, far" worse and in a "completely different stratosphere from how I've ever come across it before."

He said the way they are treating burns is "not ideal" under the current circumstances due to limited medical supplies.

"The way we're treating burns is really stepping back 40, 50 years," he said.

-ABC News' Josh Ascher, Kelly Johnstone, Casey McShea and Michelle Stoddart

Nov 10, 2023, 3:07 PM EST

IDF denies strike at Gaza hospital

The Israel Defense Forces denied carrying out a strike that hit an outpatient clinic at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital Friday morning, stating it was a "misfired projectile launched by terrorist organizations inside the Gaza Strip."

There were two incidents at the hospital Friday morning, according to videos verified by ABC News. In one incident, a shell hit the refugee encampment outside of the hospital entrance. In the second incident, a strike hit the outpatient clinic where people were sheltering.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry blamed the Israeli military for the strike that hit the outpatient clinic.

Patients and internally displaced people are pictured at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Nov.10, 2023.
Khader Al Zanoun/AFP via Getty Images

Nov 10, 2023, 1:41 PM EST

Northern Gaza is 'hell on earth': UN

As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen by the day, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office, said, "If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza."

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, Gaza Strip, Nov. 10, 2023.
Hatem Moussa/AP

"People who remain there, the corners of their existence are death, deprivation, despair, displacement, and literally, darkness," Laerke said. "The entire Gaza Strip has been plunged into darkness. … What do you tell your children in such a situation? It's almost unimaginable."

Nov 10, 2023, 1:19 PM EST

Mass exodus from Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital

People are fleeing Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, sources confirmed to ABC News, in the wake of a strike on the exterior area of the hospital's outpatient clinic. One surgeon told ABC News "everyone" has fled, calling it a "nightmare."

The hospital has been treating thousands of wounded people and housing as many as 80,000 displaced residents, according to The Associated Press.

Patients and internally displaced people are pictured at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Nov.10, 2023.
Khader Al Zanoun/AFP via Getty Images

A Palestinian woman, who was injured in an Israeli strike and was staying at Al Shifa hospital, moves southward after fleeing north Gaza, Nov. 10, 2023.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

The hospital's head of plastic surgery, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, told ABC News he is among the roughly 15% to 20% of staff members still there on Friday.

Although many patients have evacuated, he said, "There is no hospital in Gaza that can accommodate this number of ICU patients -- around 100 ICU patients."

This comes as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad releases new images that appear to show two hostages alive in Gaza.
23:19

ABC News Live: Explosions near a hospital in Gaza

This comes as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad releases new images that appear to show two hostages alive in Gaza.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said occupation snipers fired on Gaza's Al-Quds Hospital, killing at least one and injuring at least 28.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Richard Hecht said, "The IDF does not shoot at hospitals. If there are Hamas terrorists in the hospitals, the IDF will do what it needs to, but we are aware of the sensitivity. We tell Hamas to move the sick southward."

"Slowly we are closing in on them and taking every precaution not to harm the innocent," he said.

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