Israel at war: What happened on Day 38?

The UN Palestinian refugee agency's fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and within a few days UNRWA will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water, its chief said on Monday.

UNRWA is sheltering nearly 800,000 people, or about half of the total population of Gazans who have fled their homes since an Israeli military campaign began over a month ago in response to deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.

The agency chief, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, told donors on Monday that it had been slowly emptying a fuel depot on the Israeli border containing strategic reserves.

A request to the Israeli military to replenish it had gone unanswered, he said.

"That reservoir is now empty," Lazzarini said.

Smoke rises as displaced Palestinians take shelter at Al Shifa hospital, amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, November 8, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/DOAA ROUQA)

'The situation is very dire now and it's about to get much worse'

"If we project out a couple of days, by the 14th of November this will severely impact ambulances and major hospital operations. Some of them (hospitals) have a bit of solar but it is marginal, so those hospitals cease functioning," he said.

Already, many hospitals have had to close in Gaza due to war damage or lack of fuel, including al-Quds, one of the major hospitals in the north of Gaza that has been the focus of Israel's ground invasion.

Israel's military has so far refused imports of fuel into Gaza, saying they could be diverted to Hamas for military purposes.

UNRWA's fuel is also used to remove hundreds of tons of solid waste from increasingly overcrowded camps in southern Gaza, and Lazzarini said these services would soon halt.

Without fuel, desalination plants in the narrow, densely populated coastal strip used to provide drinking water to support at least 290,000 people will also stop on Nov. 15, he added.

"So the situation is very dire now and it's about to get much worse," Lazzarini told donors.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry announced that 69 Jordanian citizens living in Gaza are being evacuated from the strip today through the Rafah border crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border. Once in Egypt they will be received by the representatives from Jordanian embassy in Cairo, receive medical assistance, and then be transported to Amman.

The spokesman announced that the remaining Jordanian citizens in Gaza would continue to be monitored as the government works to secure their evacuation as soon as possible.

Troops from the Israeli Defense Forces' 188th Brigade eliminated a terrorist squad operating in the area of the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, an IDF statement said on Monday, after an anti-tank missile was shot at IDF soldiers.

Several terrorists with two RPG launchers shot at IDF soldiers from the midst of civilians in front of the hospital, the statement said. The combat brigade, which included armor, engineering, and infantry forces, responded with live fire and shell fire, with the assistance of the air force. About 21 terrorists were killed, the IDF said, with no Israeli casualties. 

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for wounding 20 Israelis in multiple incidents of anti-tank and mortar fire on Sunday.

In one incident, 14 civilians were wounded by anti-tank fire in Dovev, including one seriously and another in critical condition. In a separate incident, seven soldiers were wounded by mortar fire in the Manara area.

Israeli citizen Shalom Abudi was murdered on Sunday by anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah at northern Israel, it was announced Monday.

Abudi was an employee of Israel Electric Corporation.

Fifteen October 7 massacre survivors were forcibly hospitalized due to their unstable mental condition since the beginning of Operation Swords of Iron, Justice Ministry official attorney Daniel Raz told the Knesset's Health Committee on Monday.

Those forcibly hospitalized consisted of partygoers who survived the Re'im music festival massacre. Others, Raz said, are residents of Gaza border communities who survived a mass infiltration of Hamas terrorists into their towns and homes.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir "wants to execute Palestinian security prisoners," Hamas representative for jailed Palestinians Zaher Jabarin claimed on Monday.

"The occupation is committing heinous crimes against prisoners in jails, and Ben-Gvir has included plans to execute prisoners, there is a real massacre in prisons," Jabarin said.

Jabarin, a former prisoner released as part of the 2011 deal for Gilad Schalit, claimed that four prisoners were killed by "torture and daily attacks."

Earlier on Monday, a Palestinian security prisoner in Megiddo Prison died on Monday after feeling unwell, the Israel Prison Service announced. The prisoner, 33 years old from the West Bank, was imprisoned in February.

Sirens sounded across the Upper Galilee region near the Lebanese border on Monday amid a suspected hostile aircraft infiltration.

This is a developing story.

A Czech citizen and a family member left Gaza and were in Egypt, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on Monday.

"I can confirm that one Czech citizen and one family member have successfully crossed the border crossing from Gaza and are in Egypt at the moment," he said before a meeting of European Union ministers in Brussels.