The Palestine Chronology

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers threw stones at Palestinians traveling near Nablus and Tulkarm. Israeli forces shot and killed 3 Palestinians after they shot and killed an Israeli soldier and injured 3 Israeli soldiers at the Tunnels checkpoint west of Bethlehem; Hamas took responsibility for the attack. Israeli forces also shot and injured 3 Palestinians, including 2 children during raids in Beita and Deir Nidham. Elsewhere, Israeli forces assaulted 2 Palestinians near Carmel, causing bruises. Israeli forces also demolished 2 homes and a marble factory in Wadi Fukin. 69 Palestinians were arrested during late-night raids in and around Ramallah, Hebron, Dura, Jenin, Kafr Ra’i, Qalqilya, Husan, Nablus, Jericho, and al-Fara’a refugee camp. In East Jerusalem, 2 Palestinians were arrested during a late-night raid in Isawiya. In Gaza, telecommunications broke down for the third time, this time due to a lack of fuel. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 19 people in Jabaliya refugee camp, al-Qarara, and al-Maghazi refugee camp. The number of fatalities was likely much higher since the Gaza Ministry of Health was unable to communicate with hospitals and civil defense members in northern Gaza and due to the telecommunications breakdown. Israeli forces continued to raid al-Shifa Hospital, stealing bodies of Palestinians who had not yet been buried. Israel also put al-Ahli Hospital under siege, preventing movement in and out of the hospital. Israel said the bodies of 2 of the Israeli captives were found in a building near al-Shifa Hospital. In South Lebanon, Israel attacked several sites and anti-tank missiles were fired at Israel. (AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AP, AX, HA, HA, NYT, NYT, NYT, REU, REU, REU, REU, UNOCHA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA 11/16; AJ, AP 11/17)

The Gaza Ministry of Health was not able to update the casualty figures due to a collapse in services and communications at hospitals in northern Gaza, leaving the death toll at 11,479, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women, and around 32,000 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 10/7. At least 3,250 people were missing in rubble, including 1,700 children. 190 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 10/7, including 47 children. More than 2,730 people have been injured. Israel reported that 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals had been killed and 5,431 have injured since 10/7. 51 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground invasion began on 10/27. Over 1.61 million Palestinians, around 70% of the population of Gaza, have been displaced since 10/7. There has been a complete electricity blackout in Gaza since 10/12 due to the Israel blockade. As of 11/6, at least 40,000 housing units have been destroyed and 220,000 have been damaged in Israeli airstrikes since 10/7, constituting 45% of all housing units. No aid entered Gaza due to UNRWA vehicles running out of fuel. Turkey said that 27 cancer patients from Gaza arrived in Turkey for treatment. The director of the Indonesian Hospital said its facilities were “completely out of service,” with 45 patients still awaiting surgery. The Gaza Ministry of Health said 9 out of 35 hospitals in Gaza were partially functioning while the rest were out of service. (AJ, AJ, AP, HA, REU, UNOCHA, WAFA 11/16)

The Palestinian Prisoners Society said Israel had arrested more than 2,760 Palestinians during raids in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 10/7. (AJ, WAFA 11/16)

The members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee at the UN said they will not participate in the establishment of a “safe zone” without an agreement of all parties, saying these ‘safe zones’ otherwise put Palestinians at risk. (UNOCHA 11/16)

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said he was confident in the resistance’s ability to outlast the Israeli war on Gaza. (AJ 11/16)

The Israeli military claimed to have found a tunnel and weapons at al-Shifa Hospital but refused to allow independent observers access to its findings. Israel had claimed that Hamas had a command-and-control center at the hospital but no longer appeared to make that claim. (AJ, REU, REU 11/16)

PA finance minister Shoukry Bishara sent a letter to Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich demanding that Israel pay the PA the full amount of tax revenue due from October. (HA 11/16)

Israeli interior minister Moshe Arbel informed 2 Palestinians, who he claims are Hamas operatives, that Israel has begun efforts to revoke their Jerusalem residency status. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should stop talks on a prisoner swap, saying Israel should only “talk with fire and brimstone.” (AJ, HA 11/16)

Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said Jordan will not ratify an agreement with Israel to exchange water for energy due to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. (AJ, HA, REU 11/16)

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel must ensure that food, water, and medical care is available at al-Shifa Hospital. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz, urging him to address the rise in settler violence and discussing humanitarian aid to Gaza. Blinken also told ABC News that he has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel cannot reoccupy Gaza. France called Israeli settler violence a “policy of terror.” (AJ, HA, REU 11/16; AJ, HA, WAFA 11/17)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Israel was violating the visa waiver agreement with the U.S. by preventing Palestinian Americans from entering the West Bank and flying into Ben-Gurion Airport. (AX, NYT 11/16)

Bloomberg News reported that the EU and U.S. were considering raising a UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in Gaza when a ceasefire is reached. (AJ 11/16)

U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called on Israel to “Stop the bombing NOW” in a tweet on X. (AJ, HA 11/16)

The Los Angeles Times editorial board called for a ceasefire. (AJ 11/16)

Protesters from Jewish Voice for Peace blocked traffic on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, calling for a ceasefire. (AJ, HA, REU 11/16)

Egyptian border police clash with 100s of Palestinians protesting Egypt’s refusal to allow a humanitarian aid convoy through the Rafah crossing into Gaza without Israel’s permission and Egyptian plans to build an underground steel wall to deter smuggling tunnels, leaving 1 Egyptian soldier fatally shot, 10s of Palestinians injured. In Gaza, a PRC mbr. injured in the 1/5 Israeli air strike on al-Qarara dies. The UN reports that since 12/23, 1 Palestinian has been killed in a smuggling tunnel collapse on the Rafah border. In the West Bank, the IDF makes a late-night incursion into Zabbuba village nr. Jenin, patrolling streets but making no arrests; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches n. of Jerusalem. Jewish settlers fr. Gilad nr. Qalqilya attack Palestinian farmers working their nearby land. (OCHA 1/6, 1/13; PCHR 1/14)

The UNSC passes (14–0, with the U.S. abstaining) res. 1860, calling for an “immediate, durable, and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza” but not outlining an implementation or enforcement mechanism (see Doc. A8). Israel says it will not halt its operations until a Hamas cease-fire can be guaranteed. Meanwhile, Egypt begins intensive bilateral talks with Israeli and Hamas envoys to mediate a cease-fire.

Combat notes: The IDF carries out another 60 air strikes across Gaza, with heavy bombing of the Rafah border. Targets include more than 18 homes of senior IQB members (all believed to be in hiding), “a number of armed operatives” assassinated (not named), several groups of armed men, 15 tunnels (including some homes believed to be covering entrances to tunnels), 11 suspected weapons depots (including 1 mosque in n. Gaza), 15 rocket-launching sites, the PASF headquarters and PA Youth and Sports Min. offices in Rafah, and an Islamic Jihad office in Abasan. Target areas include Abasan, Bani Suhayla, Bayt Hanun, Bayt Lahiya, al-Bureij r.c., Dayr al-Balah, Gaza City (city center, al-Nasser), Jabaliya town and r.c., Khan Yunis, al-Nasser (n. of Rafah), Nussayrat, Rafah. Heavy naval shelling of Dayr al-Balah and the nearby al-Qur’an area of c. Gaza is also reported. As ground operations continue, the IDF begins moving a small number of reservists into the Strip for the 1st time since OCL began. Heavy artillery and ground fire is reported in Abasan, Gaza City (al-Sha‘af, al-Shuja‘iyya, Tal al-Hawa, alZaytun), al-Qarara. Late in the evening, IDF troops withdraw from al-Qarara; residents report at least 20 homes destroyed since the IDF took up positions in the city on 1/6.

Palestinians fire at least 15 rockets and 1 mortar into Israel, lightly injuring 4 Israelis. Areas hit by rockets include Ashdod, Ashqelon, Beersheba (4 Grads), Ofakim.

The Palestinian toll, including bodies recovered during the humanitarian lull today (see below), reaches at least 758 dead and more than 3,100 injured. In addition, a Ukrainian woman (married to a Gazan) and her toddler are killed by an IDF shell in Gaza City, becoming the 1st foreign casualties inside Gaza (1 Egyptian was killed on the Rafah border on 12/28). Today, 3 IDF soldiers are killed and 14 are wounded (1 seriously, 1 moderately, 12 lightly) during clashes inside Gaza, bringing the Israeli toll to 13–14 dead and more than 100 injured.

Humanitarian notes: IDF soldiers fire on relief workers in 3 incidents in which the UN and ICRC had fully coordinated their movements with the IDF in advance (providing the IDF with the license plates of the vehicles, giving precise times and routes of travel, and using clearly marked vehicles) and received IDF assurances that travel would be safe. One UN driver is killed and 2 other UN employees and 1 ICRC employee are wounded. The UN and other groups scale back or suspend aid deliveries to Gaza, citing security concerns.

During the humanitarian lull, the IDF allows ICRC workers back into a heavily damaged residential block of al-Zaytun (see 1/7), where they rescue 103 injured Palestinians who have been stranded since 1/5 and report finding 40–50 bodies, fearing that more dead and injured may be trapped under demolished homes. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports (WP 1/9) new evidence that IDF soldiers stationed outside the destroyed houses were aware people were trapped but denied aid. UN Undersecy. Gen. for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes urges Israel to investigate, calling (WP 1/9) it “a particularly outrageous incident” and “absolutely horrifying.”

Israel allows 223 Palestinian dual nationals to exit Gaza via the Erez crossing for Jordan (see 1/2).

The UN estimates that 20,000 Gazans have been internally displaced by the fighting. (AP, HA, IDF, IHY, JP, MA, NYT, UNIS, YA 1/8; AFP, Daily Star, IDF, IFM, ITARTASS, MET, NYT, RFM, UNIS, WP, WT 1/9; AFP, AP, NYT, WT 1/12; AYM, JP, NYT, WT 1/13; IHY, MM 1/14; PCHR 1/15; WJW 1/16; NYT 1/17; ITIC 1/18; JPI 1/23)

In the West Bank, the IDF fatally shoots a Palestinian who allegedly attempts to set fire to a gas station outside the Ma’ale Adumim settlement e. of Jerusalem; fires live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians demonstrating against OCL in al-Fawar r.c. nr. Hebron, seriously wounding 2 (including a 12-yr.-old boy); fires live ammunition at Palestinians protesting against the separation wall in Bil‘in, wounding 1; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Qabatya nr. Jenin. (PCHR 1/15)

The PFLP General Command fires 4 rockets fr. s. Lebanon into Israel, 3 of which explode near Nahariya, lightly wounding 4 Israelis (5 others are treated for shock). The IDF fires 5 shells the border as a “measured response” and intensifies surveillance overflights of s. Lebanon. Hizballah, the Lebanese government, and Fatah and Hamas reps. in Lebanon condemn the fire, assuring Israel they have no intention of opening a 2d front. The Lebanese army and UNIFIL pledge to step up surveillance in s. Lebanon (ITV, MM, MNR, RFM 1/8; Guardian, HA, MM, NYT, WP, WT, SFR, al-Watan, YA 1/9; YA 1/10; AFP, AP, NYT, WT 1/12; HA, MM 1/15; JPI 1/23)