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Israel’s military has said it is working to bring incubators into Gaza amid claims dozens of babies could die at the Shifa hospital because there is no power.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said 32 patients, including three babies, have died since the hospital’s emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday.

On Tuesday, a statement from the Israel Defense Forces was posted on social media with an image showing a soldier unloading incubators from a van after distress calls claimed 36 babies at Shifa were in danger due to a lack of electricity and dwindling supplies.

Follow updates: Israeli soldier appears in hostage video

The military did not make it clear if the incubators had been delivered or how they will be powered.

Shifa remains encircled by Israeli troops and tens of thousands of people have fled the hospital in the past few days – including large numbers of displaced people who had taken shelter there.

It is estimated about 650 patients and 500 staff remain in the hospital, which can no longer function, along with around 2,500 displaced Palestinians sheltering inside with little food or water.

On Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry released images of about a dozen premature babies wrapped in blankets together on a bed to keep them at a proper temperature.

Otherwise, “they immediately die”, the Health Ministry’s director general Medhat Abbas said.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that Shifa “must be protected”.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” Mr Biden added.

The UN humanitarian office, known as Ocha, has said fighting is continuing around hospitals and that only one in the north is able to receive patients.

All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting.

These confrontations have forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from what many saw as the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza.

This has left critically wounded patients, newborns and their caregivers with dwindling supplies and no electricity, health officials have said.

Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its fighters.

It has accused the militant group of setting up its main command centre in and beneath Shifa, which is Gaza’s largest hospital – a claim both Hamas and hospital staff have denied.

And on Monday, the military released footage of a children’s hospital that its forces moved into over the weekend, showing weapons it said it found inside, as well as rooms in the basement where it believes the militants were holding some of the around 240 hostages they abducted.

“Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the army’s chief spokesperson, standing in a room of the Rantisi Children’s Hospital.

Explosive vests, grenades and RPGs were displayed on the floor.

On Monday, the Red Cross began to evacuate around 6,000 patients, staff and displaced people from another hospital, Al-Quds, after it shut down due to a lack of fuel.

However the aid organisation said its convoy had to turn back because of shelling and fighting.

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As of 10 November, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

This figure is understood to include dead militant fighters.

About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

At least 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians in the Hamas attack on 7 October.

Palestinian militants are holding nearly 240 hostages seized in the surprise raid, including children, women, men and older adults.

The military says 44 soldiers have been killed in ground operations in Gaza.

Climate change is causing “hazard flips”, where areas that used to be prone to drought experience flooding, and vice versa. 

The “whiplash effect” of these erratic extremes affects millions of people living in poverty, research by WaterAid reveals.

Analysis of satellite imagery and climate data by WaterAid in partnership with the universities of Cardiff and Bristol shows commmunities are being exposed to extremes they are not equipped to deal with.

Climate change will not create the same hazards across the world despite globally warming temperatures, co-lead researcher Professor Katerina Michaelides from Bristol University said.

“Instead, the hazard profile for any region is likely to change in unpredictable ways,” she said.

In northern Italy, the number of intense dry spells has more than doubled since 2000 – but these have been punctuated by extreme flooding, including deadly floods in May and June this year.

Before that, a winter of little snowfall left a walkway in Lake Garda exposed and Venice battling dry canals.

The same climate patterns have been seen in the southern Shabelle region of Ethiopia.

By contrast, over the last two decades, areas in Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana – normally associated with hotter, drier conditions – have flipped to become increasingly wetter and flood-prone.

The research examined flooding and drought hazards over the last 41 years across six countries: Pakistan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique. Italy was included as a European comparison.

In general, the countries that used to experience frequent droughts that are now more prone to frequent flooding, while others historically prone to flooding now endure more frequent droughts.

Co-lead researcher, Professor Michael Singer from Cardiff University, warned these “hazard flips” are “something most places on the planet will have to address”.

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The consequences of the erratic extremes are “devastating” for communities, researchers warned – wiping out crops and livelihoods, damaging often-fragile water supply infrastructure, disrupting water supply services, and exposing people to disease and death.

Tim Wainwright, WaterAid’s chief executive, said: “For the world’s most vulnerable, this is a matter of life or death. We cannot let climate change wash away peoples’ futures.

“From drought-stricken farmlands to flood-ravaged settlements, communities in Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ethiopia are all experiencing alarming climate whiplash effects; Uganda is experiencing ever more catastrophic flooding and Mozambique a chaotic mix of both extremes.

“While we will all pay a price for global water stress, it’s those living on the frontline of the climate crisis who are paying for it now – their lives hanging in the balance.”

Read more:
The climate refugees forced to flee the Shabelle and other regions
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In Uganda, the data showed the eastern region of Mbale was showing a significant tendency towards much wetter conditions, with unprecedented flooding over the last three years.

WaterAid spoke to retired primary school teacher Okecho Opondo, 70, who said the change in weather patterns was creating “total confusion”.

“The months that used to be rainy are now dry. When the rains come, they can be short yet heavy, leading to floods.

“On other occasions the rainy periods are too long, leading to destruction of infrastructure and crop failure. And then the dry periods can be very long, further leading to crop failure and hunger.”

In Mozambique, a 14-year-old called Kiequer said the floods had affected their education.

“I was traumatised by that February rain. When the sky gets cloudy, I always get scared. I don’t think that day of the floods will ever leave my imagination.”

Health facilities and ambulances have protected status under international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch affirms.

Israel’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, health personnel and ambulances in Gaza should be “investigated as war crimes”, international NGO Human Rights Watch has said.

The Israeli military’s “apparently unlawful attacks” are further destroying Gaza’s healthcare system at a time when medics have unprecedented numbers of severely injured patients, and hospitals have run out of medicine and basic equipment, the group said on Tuesday.

“Despite the Israeli military’s claims on November 5, 2023, of ‘Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals’, no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law,” HRW added.

A war crime is a serious violation of international humanitarian law, committed with criminal intent. HRW urged the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel’s actions.

Healthcare system ‘devastated’

As of November 10, two-thirds of primary healthcare facilities and half of all hospitals in Gaza are not functioning, according to the United Nations. And as of November 12, at least 521 people, including 16 medical workers, have been killed in 137 “attacks on health care” in Gaza, the World Health Organization said.

“Israel’s repeated attacks damaging hospitals and harming healthcare workers, already hard hit by an unlawful blockade, have devastated Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure,” said A Kayum Ahmed, special adviser on the right to health at HRW. “The strikes on hospitals have killed hundreds of people and put many patients at grave risk because they’re unable to receive proper medical care.”

Between October 7 and November 7, HRW said it investigated attacks on or near five healthcare facilities in Gaza.

It found that Israeli forces struck the Indonesian Hospital multiple times between October 7 and 28, killing at least two civilians; the International Eye Hospital was struck repeatedly and completely destroyed on October 10 or 11;  the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital was forced to close on November 1, days after air raids on or near the facility; a man and a child were injured after repeated attacks on the al-Quds Hospital; and Israeli forces struck well-marked ambulances on several occasions – at least a dozen people were killed or wounded in one incident outside al-Shifa Hospital on November 3.

“These ongoing attacks are not isolated. Israeli forces have also carried out scores of strikes damaging several other hospitals across Gaza,” HRW said.

‘Special protections’

“Intentionally directing attacks against … medical units and transport” is prohibited as a war crime under the ICC’s Rome Statute, HRW noted.

“Hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that have special protections under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war. Hospitals only lose their protection from attack if they are being used to commit ‘acts harmful to the enemy’, and after a required warning,” it said.

Israel claims that Hamas fighters have set up command centres beneath hospitals like al-Shifa and the Indonesian Hospital – claims Hamas and the hospital staff deny.

“These claims are contested,” HRW said. “Human Rights Watch has not been able to corroborate them, nor seen any information that would justify attacks on Gaza hospitals.”

HRW also criticised the “sweeping nature” of Israel’s evacuation orders, which did not take into account specific requirements for hospitals and patients. The group said there was no way to ensure safe compliance as “there is no reliably secure way to flee or safe place to go in Gaza”, which raised concerns that “the purpose was not to protect civilians, but to terrify them into leaving”.

“The Israeli government should immediately end unlawful attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and other civilian objects, as well as its total blockade of the Gaza Strip, which amounts to the war crime of collective punishment,” HRW said.

It added that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups should also take feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control.

The president of the United States and two of his cabinet members are being sued for failing to prevent and aiding and abetting “genocide” in Gaza.

A federal complaint (PDF), filed on Monday against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, accuses them of “failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide”.

New York civil liberties group the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the suit on behalf of Palestinian human rights organisations, Palestinians in Gaza and US citizens with relatives in the besieged enclave that has faced more than a month of relentless bombardment by Israel, which receives funding and weapons from the US government.

More than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched attacks on October 7. This followed a Hamas attack in Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

“Numerous Israeli government leaders have expressed clear genocidal intentions and deployed dehumanizing characterizations of Palestinians, including ‘human animals’,” the CCR wrote in the introduction to its complaint.

It said those “statements of intent”, when combined with the “mass killing” of Palestinians, reveal “evidence of an unfolding crime of genocide”.

Numerous legal scholars, rights groups and humanitarians have also called Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide.

‘I paid for Israel to kill my cousins’

“Immediately after the launch of Israel’s unprecedented bombing campaign on Gaza, President Biden offered ‘unwavering’ support for Israel, which he and administration officials have consistently repeated and backed up with military, financial, and political support, even as mass civilian casualties escalated alongside Israeli genocidal rhetoric,” the CCR said.

The complaint noted that the US is Israel’s closest ally and strongest supporter, as well as its biggest provider of military assistance – with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II. Because of this, it said, the US could have a “deterrent effect on Israeli officials now pursuing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people”.

Instead, the group said, Biden, Blinken, and Austin “have helped advance the gravest of crimes” by continuing to provide Israel with unconditional military and diplomatic support while undermining efforts by the international community to stop Israel’s bombardment.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Astha Sharma Pokharel, a lawyer at the CCR, said: “They have a significant responsibility under customary international law, under federal law, to prevent this genocide, to stop supporting this genocide. At every step of the way, at every opportunity, they have failed. They have continued to provide cover to Israel; they have continued to provide material support to Israel; and currently, they intend to send more money and more weapons to Israel.”

Laila al-Haddad, a US citizen and one of the plaintiffs in the case, has lost five relatives in Gaza since Israel launched its attacks.

“I paid for Israel to kill my cousins and my aunt, there’s no two ways around it,” she told Al Jazeera. “It was my tax dollars that did that, that sent those bombs to Israel to kill my family. And so I feel I and all other American taxpayers have a very unique responsibility to hold our government and our elected officials responsible.”

The lawsuit also calls for an end to the $3.8bn in annual military support the US sends to Israel.

The White House has not yet responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the case.

Incumbent president and former footballer, George Weah, is facing off against political veteran Joseph Boakai.

Liberians are heading to the polls to vote in a tight run-off that will decide the next president after two leading candidates finished the initial round of voting in a dead heat.

Polls opened at 08:00 GMT for the country’s fourth post-war presidential election, the first one without the presence of the United Nations mission which previously provided support to the country’s electoral commission.

President George Weah, a former footballer, is seeking a second term in office. He is facing off against former Vice President Joseph Boakai, an elder statesman who is critical of Weah’s rule.

The two candidates took 43.83 percent and 43.44 percent of the vote in the first poll, respectively — a difference of just 7,126 votes — building anticipation for a closely contested run-off on Tuesday.

Controversial first term

Weah, who is more popular with the youth, has asked for more time to come through on his promises to crack down on corruption and improve livelihoods in one of the world’s poorest countries. Liberia is still struggling from the aftermath of two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, and the 2013-16 Ebola epidemic that killed thousands of people.

Weah says he has supported education, built roads and hospitals, and brought electricity into homes.

However, his detractors, including rival Bokai, point to a poor record on corruption, high youth unemployment, and general economic hardship.

“There is a mismatch between words and action,” said Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei, director of Monrovia-basedDucor Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Boakai, who served as vice president from 2006 to 2018, has significant public and private experience, but at 78 years old, his age is considered a handicap.

Weah and Boakai have received endorsements from candidates who lost in the first round.

A decisive factor could be how the 6 percent of voters whose ballots were invalidated in the first round decide in the second round.

Turnout could also be key, said Lawrence Yealue, who runs the civil society group Accountability Lab Liberia.

He expects a lower turnout than the record 79 percent on October 10, when the presidential vote was coupled with parliamentary elections.

Although generally peaceful, several clashes between vying factions took place in the lead-up to the elections. Any alleged irregularities in the final poll could lead to more unrest.

Liberia’s economy grew 4.8 percent in 2022, driven by gold production and a relatively good harvest, but more than 80 percent of the population still faces moderate or severe food insecurity, the World Bank said in July.