A look at the top developments from Israel’s war on Gaza:

  • The Israeli military surrounded the al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday with tanks and artillery as it continued its ground invasion, reported Al Jazeera. “No one is able to move around the compound, snipers are stationed all over the place in addition to the drones that target and kill any moving person,” Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya said. “A few families tried to leave but they were targeted; now they are lying dead outside the hospital. We cannot get to them.We are totally stranded, we are cut off from the outside world, and above all, we are left without any medical resources. We cannot even bury the dead.” Al Shifa is the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip and was targeted by airstrikes before Saturday’s ground invasion. 
  • Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila has alleged that Israeli forces used white phosphorus, which burns the skin to the bone, to shell the hospital, reported Al Jazeera. “This is an internationally banned weapon,” she said, sking who will hold Israel responsible for the act. 
  • This comes as the World Health Organization said on Saturday that in the last week alone, it recorded five attacks on five hospitals in one day in Gaza. “In the past 48 hours alone, four hospitals have been put out of action,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet. “WHO is very concerned about the safety of patients, health workers and those sheltering in hospitals. They need immediate protection.” Since October 7, the global health agency has has verified more than 250 attacks on hospitals, clinics, patients and ambulances in Gaza and West Bank. 
  • On Friday, Israel revised downwards the toll from the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas to approximately 1,200 against a previous government estimate of over 1,400, AFP reported. “It is due to the fact that there were a lot of corpses that were not identified and now we think those belong to terrorists...not Israeli casualties,” spokesperson of Israel’s foreign ministry said.
  • This comes as Palestinian toll crossed 11,000 on Friday. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said on Friday that 101 of its workers have been killed since October 7. “This is the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations,” the UN said. The war has displaced more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million since the war began, reported the Associated Press. The Palestinians have fled to the south where supplies of food, water, and fuel continues to deplete as the war entered its second month.
  • India and the United States on Friday shared a joint statement expressing “support for humanitarian pauses” by Israeli forces in Gaza, reported. This came after Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met with their US counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd J Austin for the Indo-US ministerial dialogue. The ministers reiterated that the their countries stand with Israel against terrorism and called for adherence to international humanitarian law. 
  • Arab leaders and the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will be meeting in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Saturday to demand an end to war in Gaza, reported Reuters. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, will also attend the event. “Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action,” Raisi said reported Reuters. “Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important.”