“I was in the schoolyard, trying to cheer myself up, when I heard some devastating news,” writes Batoul Mohamed Abou Ali from Gaza. “Israel had destroyed our home.”

• The Electronic Intifada

The heads of several UN agencies and international organizations made a rare joint call demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza. The statement notes that 88 employees of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, have been killed since 7 October — “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.”

The UN said that seven water facilities across Gaza “were directly hit and sustained major damage” on 4 and 5 November. These included sewage pipelines in Gaza City, water reservoirs in various areas and water wells in Rafah, southern Gaza. The Gaza City municipality “warned about the imminent risk of sewage flooding,” the UN added.

The World Food Program warned that stocks of certain essential foods in Gaza, “including rice, vegetable oil and pulses, are about to be depleted” in the next few days. “Additionally, retailers are facing significant challenges when restocking available items from wholesalers due to widespread destruction, insecurity and lack of fuel,” the UN added. Food aid entering from Egypt — mainly canned tuna and date bars — are primarily being distributed to displaced people and host families in the southern half of Gaza. Distribution of food aid in the northern half of the territory has almost completely halted with the intensification of Israeli military ground operations.

The Israeli military called on Palestinians in the northern half of Gaza, including Gaza City, to move south during a four-hour window midday. The UN said that according to its monitoring, fewer than 2,000 people moved due to “the heavy damage sustained by the two main traffic arteries; fear of being hit and potentially killed, as has reportedly happened to people traveling southwards; and lack of information due to the limited connectivity to cellular networks and internet.” Human rights experts say that Israel’s evacuation orders in Gaza amount to forcible transfer and a crime against humanity and that civilians must be protected at all times.

According to the daily report from UN OCHA, at least 65 people were killed in airstrikes targeting residential buildings in three refugee camps: al-Bureij and al-Maghazi in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza (at least 51 fatalities) and Jabaliya in northern Gaza (14 fatalities) between noon on 4 November and early afternoon 5 November. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that most of those killed were women and children.

Jodie Ginsberg, the president of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told the BBC that “this is the most dangerous conflict for journalists” that the press freedom watchdog has ever documented. She noted that “no international crews are able to get into Gaza, the only people able to report from Gaza are Gazan journalists and there is literally nowhere in Gaza currently that is safe” for any civilians. Her organization has documented the deaths of 31 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, four in Israel and one in Lebanon since 7 October.

Hamas called on the UN secretary-general to form an international delegation to visit hospitals in Gaza to refute what it said was Israel’s “lies and blatant fabrications” to justify targeting civilians. Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’ politburo, said that Israel was targeting hospitals in an attempt to further displace Palestinians.

Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’ politburo, told Al Jazeera that at the end of last week, “we were on the verge of an agreement” to swap civilians and foreign nations held in Gaza since 7 October for imprisoned Palestinian women and children but Israel backed out of an exchange at the last minute. Al-Hayya accused Israel of exploiting negotiations over the captives to prolong the war and placate the Israeli public.

Minister Amichai Eliyahu was suspended from cabinet meetings after appearing to confirm in a radio interview that Israel has nuclear weapons and that they could drop one on Gaza. Israel has had nuclear weapons since the 1960s, but maintains an official policy of ambiguity.

Communications and internet services are once again down in Gaza. The Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said that all services in Gaza will be shut down in a week if no fuel enters the territory. “A telecommunications blackout would both cut Gaza’s communication with the outside world, as well as suspend phone and internet services within the enclave itself,” The New Arab reported. Israel cut the supply of electricity to Gaza after Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, announced a complete siege on the territory on 9 October and has banned the transfer of fuel since then.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected growing calls for a ceasefire until captives held by Hamas in Gaza since 7 October are returned, Reuters reported. “We say this to our friends and to our enemies. We will simply continue until we defeat them. We have no alternative,” Netanyahu said.

Turkey and Egypt agreed to transfer some 1,000 cancer patients and injured people requiring urgent care from Gaza to Turkey for treatment, the health minister in Ankara said. The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in northern Gaza, the only cancer treatment center in Gaza, was forced to shut down after running out of fuel to power emergency generators on 1 November.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Blinken pushed for the widely loathed PA to play a central role in a hypothetical post-Hamas Gaza. “Abbas told Blinken there should be an immediate ceasefire and that aid should be allowed into Gaza,” Reuters reported, citing the Ramallah leader’s spokesperson.

Israel perpetrated 24 massacres, killing more than 240 people, in recent hours, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said. The latest strikes bring the number of Palestinians killed in the territory to nearly 9,800, including more than 4,000 children, since 7 October. The actual number of fatalities is likely much higher, with 2,260 people, among them 1,270 children, missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Nearly 25,000 Palestinians have been injured, the ministry added.