Pro-Palestine march: Police say they will ‘likely have to use force’

The executive director of Israeli media advocacy group HonestReporting has said he accepts as “adequate” denials by four major media organisations that they had no previous knowledge of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, adding he was “so relieved”.

Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times issued adamant denials after HonestReporting published an article on Thursday questioning whether Palestinian photojournalists had tipped off the four outlets, which had used their images.

HonestReporting’s Gil Hoffman told Reuters his organisation had not claimed to know that there had been any prior knowledge by the news groups of the Hamas attack.

“I was so relieved when all four of the media organisations said they didn’t have prior knowledge,” Mr Hoffman said. “We raised questions, we didn’t give answers,” he added. “I still very much think that the questions were legitimate and the answers were adequate from the media organisations themselves.”

The Canadian wing of Doctors Without Borders said it had lost contact with its medical staff at the Al Shifa hospital following an air strike.

“We are currently unable to contact any of our staff inside Al Shifa hospital. We are extremely concerned about the safety of patients and the medical staff,” the non-profit wrote in a post on X.

“Patients are still in the hospital, some in critical condition and unable to move, there are caretakers still inside the facility.

“We urgently reiterate our calls to stop the attacks against hospitals and for the protection of medical facilities, medical staff and patients.”

Journalist Ash Sarkar said she and her friends were forced out of a pub by men who were threatening them with violence for wearing a Palestinian scarf and carrying a Palestinian flag.

“Just been forced out of a pub by men threatening me and my friends with violence, and hurling abuse,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Staff were very apologetic about it, but the fact is the media and politicians have whipped up a frenzy of hate.”

She said one of the men threatening them had been “waving around a copy of the Evening Standard which had an image of a poppy at odds with a Palestinian flag”.

“When he saw my friends, he accused them of spitting in the face of people who fought for this country,” she said.“

Others joined in. There was also a distinct undertone of racism,” she added.

Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, Emmanuel Macron has told the BBC in an interview published late on Friday.

The French president said there was “no justification” for the bombing and saying a ceasefire would benefit Israel.

He said that France “clearly condemns” the “terrorist” actions of Hamas, but that while recognising Israel’s right to protect itself, “we do urge them to stop this bombing” in Gaza.

When asked if he wanted other leaders – including in the United Sates and Britain – to join his calls for a ceasefire, Macron said: “I hope they will.”

The last month of Israel’s invasion of Gaza has been the deadliest yet for journalists in more than 30 years.

Retaliatory strikes in the wake of Hamas attacks on 7 October have killed at least 35 Palestinian journalists and media workers, as of 10 November, marking the deadliest period for the press since the Committee to Protect Journalists began documenting the killing of journalists in 1992.

Within the past month, Gaza journalists have also reported violent threats, arrests and cyberattacks, while Israel’s ongoing bombardments have destroyed offices and homes, and food and water shortages and power and communications outages have compounded a growing humanitarian crisis in the region.

More than 11,070 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, with two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Another 2,650 people have been reported missing.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Friday that “far too many” Palestinians have died and suffered. While recent Israeli steps to try to minimise civilian harm are positive, he said, they are not enough.

Assistant secretary of state Barbara Leaf told American lawmakers this week that it was “very possible” the death toll was even higher than the Gaza health ministry’s tally.

At least 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mainly in the initial Hamas attack, and 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, Israeli officials said.

The foreign ministry had previously estimated the civilian death toll at 1,400, and gave no reason on Friday for the revision.

The World Health Organisation said that 20 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a pediatric hospital that stopped operations after a reported Israeli strike in the area. “If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza,” the UN humanitarian agency spokesperson, Jens Laerke, told reporters in Geneva. More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began. In the south, they’re crowded into shelters with dwindling supplies of food and water as the war enters its second month.

A missile landed in the courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave’s biggest hospital, in the early hours of Friday, damaging the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly setting fire to the Nasser Rantissi paediatric cancer hospital.

Israel’s military said that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.

“We are extremely disturbed by reports of airstrikes in the vicinity of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza,” wrote Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation.

He continued: “Many health workers we were in contact with have been forced to leave the hospital in search of safety.“

Others report being unable to move due to grave insecurity. Many of the thousands sheltering at the hospital are forced to evacuate due to security risks, while many still remain there.”

The UN body documented five attacks on five hospitals in one day in Gaza, he said, adding that in “the past 48 hours alone, four hospitals have been put out of action”.