Relentless bombing, urban combat, countless deaths: Live Updates on Israel-Hamas war

20 November 2023

Israeli and Hamas negotiators, though US and Qatari mediators, are “closing in” on a deal to secure the release of some of the hostages taken during the October 7 attack, in exchange for a humanitarian pause in Israeli airstrikes and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, unnamed sources familiar with the talks told NBC News.

According to various media reports the deal, which has yet to be finalized, could involve the release of some 50 women and children held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli prisons, as well as a temporary ceasefire. Israel’s Channel 12 said that the Israeli war cabinet expressed willingness on Sunday to move forward with the talks.

That's all from Live Updates for now, but follow RT.com for continued coverage.

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 13,300, the enclave’s Health Ministry has announced. Among the dead are more than 5,600 children and 3,550 women, the ministry claimed, adding that a further 31,000 people have been wounded in the six weeks since Israel began bombarding the strip.

US President Joe Biden has told reporters that a deal to release some of the roughly 240 hostages held in Gaza by Hamas militants is close at hand. Asked whether an agreement would be struck in the near future, Biden responded “I believe so.” 

According to Reuters, Qatari mediators are working on a deal whereby 50 hostages would be freed in exchange for a three-day ceasefire that would allow essential humanitarian supplies into Gaza. On Sunday, Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, told ABC News that he was “hopeful we can have a deal in the coming days.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have released a video showing their seizure of an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Red Sea. The Galaxy Leader, a Bahamian-flagged car and truck carrier partially owned by Israeli tycoon Abraham Ungar, was seized while en route to India from Turkiye on Sunday.

The video shows a team of armed men landing on the ship via helicopter, before storming the bridge and holding the vessel’s crew at gunpoint. One of the militants can be heard chanting “Death to America, Death to Israel, Cursed be the Jews, Victory to Islam” over a megaphone, before a final shot shows a Palestinian flag raised over the ship as it is escorted away by speedboats.

The IDF has condemned the “hijacking,” stressing that the boat is not Israeli, and that no Israeli nationals were among its crew.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, has arrived in Israel for talks with Israeli government and military officials aimed at preventing the outbreak of war with Lebanon, Axios reported. According to the news site’s sources, American officials are concerned that Israel is trying to bait Lebanese Hezbollah militants into an open conflict, which would likely draw in US forces.

Hezbollah and the IDF have engaged in daily exchanges of fire along the Lebanese border for more than a month, with Hezbollah using rockets and drones to target Israeli military bases and population centers, and the IDF responding with artillery fire and airstrikes.

Hezbollah has thus far refrained from sending its fighters into Israel or using its long-range missiles. In a speech earlier this month, the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned that Israel would “commit the most foolish mistake in [its] existence” if it launched a full-scale assault on Lebanon.

Around 1,000 boats will set sail from Türkiye to Gaza this week in defiance of Israel’s naval blockade, Turkish news site Haber7 has reported. Claiming that the boats will carry 4,500 people from 40 different countries, Haber7 said that the organizers of the flotilla aim to stop in international waters off the Gazan coast and block shipping lanes into Israel to protest the Israeli military operation in the Palestinian enclave.

The sailing is being organized by the Mavi Marmara Freedom and Solidarity Association, which took part in a similar flotilla in 2010 to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The operation ended in tragedy when Israeli commandos stormed the ships, killing ten Turkish activists aboard the MV Mavi Marmara.

Organizer Volkan Okcu told Haber7 that participants in this week’s sailing would “strictly follow international rules” and would not carry “even a single pocket knife.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in an extraordinary video conference between the BRICS nations on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing escalation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Kremlin has said.

The event is to be chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and will involve the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, along with the usual BRICS members.

Read full story here.

The units observing the Palestinian territories had warned the IDF’s leadership that Hamas was preparing to attack Israel prior to the October 7 incursion, but those messages were ignored due to sexism and ageism, Haaretz paper has reported, noting that the observers are mainly “young girls and young commanders.”

“There’s no doubt that if men were sitting on those screens, things would look different,” a female IDF member, who survived the attack by the Palestinian militants, told the outlet.

Other women who serve in the unit said they had notified their superiors of preparations by Hamas along the border fence with Gaza, the group’s increased drone activity in the area, exercises during which the Palestinian fighters trained to attack the IDF’s outposts and tanks, as well as other suspicious activities. The female troops claimed they were accustomed to being “discounted” by the commanders over the years.

Read full story here.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting with Hamas in northern Gaza on Sunday, the IDF has said. This puts the overall losses of the Israeli military since the launch of its ground operation in the Palestinian enclave at 65 troops.

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged more humanitarian aid for Gaza. 

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, he said that a military plane will soon deliver more than 10 tons of medical supplies, including two mobile units capable of treating 500 seriously injured patients each.

Macron added the French military has already brought three shipments of aid intended for the Palestinians to Egypt. The Egyptian authorities are allowing groups of injured Palestinians to be transported in from the Gaza Strip. 

The Israeli army is surrounding the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City and bombarding the areas nearby, Al Jazeera reported in the early hours of Monday, citing local residents.

The Qatar-based channel suggested that the IDF is preparing to “storm” the hospital the same way it had seized the Al-Shifa hospital.

According to Al Jazeera, the Indonesian Hospital remains the only large functional medical facility in northern Gaza.

19 November 2023

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Corporal Noa Marciano, one of the hostages taken by Hamas, was wounded in an Israeli strike and later killed by Palestinian militants inside the Al-Shifa hospital complex in northern Gaza, according to the Times of Israel.

Marciano was abducted by Hamas on October 7. According to the IDF spokesman, she was held in an apartment near Al-Shifa and later taken to the hospital itself. “During the IDF strikes in Gaza, a Hamas terrorist who was holding her, was killed,” Hagari said.

Hamas said earlier that Marciano had been killed by Israeli strikes on November 9.

Another 120 Russian citizens and their Palestinian family members, earlier evacuated from besieged Gaza, have been flown to Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has announced.

A total of 558 out of some 900 Russian citizens have, through help from Moscow, so far been able to leave the Palestinian enclave, the ministry said. More than 400 of them have already been brought to Russia on Emergencies Ministry planes, it added.

“The situation around the Rafah border crossing [from Gaza into Egypt] remains difficult. The withdrawal of foreign citizens is carried out on a step by step basis, taking into account the ongoing clashes and the limited capacity of the checkpoint,” the ministry said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged Muslim states to “at least cut off political ties with Israel for a limited period of time,” Tasnim new agency has reported. Neither the energy or the goods of Muslim nations should be reaching the Israeli state while it continues its attacks on Gaza, Khamenei said, during his visit to an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force event in Tehran.

The supreme leader also praised the IRGC, saying that “it’s the largest counter-terrorism organization in all the world. It is a well-equipped military organization. It is an efficient, independent organization that is capable of doing things that many of the world’s greatest armies are incapable of doing.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah has insisted that the international community should push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to stop a humanitarian catastrophe caused by what he described as Israel’s “ugly war against civilians,” Reuters has reported.

During his talks with visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the monarch said that the world should put pressure on Israeli authorities so that they comply with international law to protect civilians and allow an uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The IDF has said that another three of its reservists were killed in the fighting with Hamas on Saturday. That brings the Israeli military’s overall losses in its ground operation in Gaza to 61 troops.

Some 30 premature babies have been evacuated from the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry Medhat Abbas has told AP. The babies are going to be transferred to hospitals in neighboring Egypt, according to Abbas.|

The Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of Gaza’s largest medical facility on Saturday. Some of the medics told Al Jazeera that they were forced to leave “at gunpoint.” The World Health Organization-led team, which arrived at the Shifa Hospital to facilitate the transfer of the babies, described what they saw there as a “death zone.”

Israel’s broader security cabinet has approved daily deliveries of a limited amount of fuel to Gaza for humanitarian needs, backing an earlier decision by the war cabinet, officials have told the Times of Israel newspaper. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, who earlier harshly criticized the move, all voted against it while another cabinet member abstained, the sources said.

According to a report by Kan Public Broadcaster, PM Benjamin Netanyahu explained to the ministers that without allowing the fuel deliveries, Israel would lose international legitimacy to continue its military operation in Gaza and could be suspected of committing war crimes.

The Houthi fighters in Yemen will target all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or carrying the Israeli flag, the group’s spokesman Yahya Sarea has announced. He called on all countries with citizens working on Israeli-linked vessels to withdraw them, Al Arabiya has reported. Yemen has a coastline of some 2,000 kilometers, providing the country with access to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Guardafui Channel.

The Israeli military has said that its naval forces hit Hamas fighters with “thousands of munitions,” assisting the IDF’s ground troops in Gaza with “fire and observation.” Israeli fighter jets also reportedly struck “many” Hamas targets in Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya, and Gaza City’s Zeitoun district. Over the past 24 hours, IDF troops fought with the Palestinian fighters on the outskirts of Jabaliya, “eliminating terrorists,” according to the IDF.

The White House has denied a report in the Washington Post claiming that Israel, the US and Hamas have agreed on the release of dozens of women and children held hostage by the Palestinian armed group in exchange for a five-day pause in the fighting in Gaza. “We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal,” US National Security Council Spokesperson said in a post X (formerly Twitter).

The Israeli military has said that its warplanes attacked and destroyed targets of the armed group Hezbollah inside Lebanon “a short time ago.” Earlier in the day, some ten mortar shells were fired into northern Israel from Lebanese territory, the military said, adding that IDF artillery was shelling the area from where the mortars came.

US President Joe Biden has told his administration to prepare visa bans and other sanctions against radical Israeli settlers attacking and displacing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Politico has reported, citing an internal document. The memo, sent to senior officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday, ordered their agencies “to develop policy options for expeditious action against those responsible for the conduct of violence in the West Bank,” it said.

According to the document, parts of which were read to the outlet by a senior US official, Biden considers the violence by Israeli settlers a “serious threat” to peace between Israelis and Palestinians and to stability in the Middle East as a whole. Washington is seeking to show that it is supporting Palestinian civilians in Gaza, even as it staunchly defends Israel’s retaliation against Hamas, Politico stressed.

Israel, the US and Hamas are close to agreeing a deal that could see dozens of women and children held hostage by the Palestinian armed group released in exchange for a five-day pause in the fighting in Gaza, the Washington Post has reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

According to a draft of the six-page agreement, negotiated with mediation by Qatar, an “initial 50 or more” out of some 240 hostages will to be released in small groups every 24 hours, the sources said. The halt in the IDF’s attacks on Gaza will also be intended to “significantly increase” the amount of humanitarian aid delivered to the besieged Palestinian enclave, they added.

The decision to accept the deal is “difficult” for Israel, one of WaPo’s sources stressed. While there is strong pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make sure that the captives are freed, many in Israel also insist that the government should not barter for their release with Hamas, he explained.

The IDF has announced the names of two more soldiers killed in the fighting with Hamas in northern Gaza. Another serviceman was seriously wounded, it added. This puts the overall losses for the Israeli military since the launch of its ground operation in the Palestinian enclave at 58 troops.

The World Health Organization-led team, which had visited the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, described what they saw there as a “death zone,” according to a statement.

UN officials said they saw a mass grave at the entrance of the Palestinian enclave’s largest medical facility and were told that more than 80 people were buried there. They said that 25 health workers and 291 patients, including 32 babies in “extremely critical condition,” remain in the hospital.

The Israeli army launched an operation on the premises of the Al-Shifa compound earlier this week, reporting that they had discovered weapons inside its wards and a Hamas tunnel underneath the facility.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, the Israeli prime minister reiterated his view that the Palestinian Authority in its present form is “not competent” to govern the Gaza Strip. 

“After fighting and pulling this whole thing, we’d give it to them?” Benjamin Netanyahu said, arguing that PA would not stop Islamist radicalism from resurging in the Palestinian enclave. 

Led by Mahmoud Abbas, PA has had no control over Gaza since the mid-2000s, when power in the territory was seized by Hamas.

18 November 2023

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him there was an “urgent need” to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Scholz emphasized that Berlin stands unwaveringly at Israel’s side, his office said. However, he “underscored the urgent need to improve the humanitarian situation for residents in the Gaza Strip.”

“Humanitarian ceasefires could contribute to a significant improvement in care for the population,” the statement reads.

Netanyahu gave details on his country’s efforts to protect civilians in Gaza, “which continue to be thwarted by Hamas,” it claimed.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), has said on X (aka Twitter) that he is “receiving horrifying images & footage of scores of people killed and injured in another UNRWA school sheltering thousands of displaced in the north of the Gaza Strip.”

The official did not specify which facility he was referring to. According to earlier reports, Israeli forces struck the UN-run Al-Fakhura school in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the north of the Palestinian enclave. “At least 50 people” were killed in the incident, an official from the Gaza Health Ministry told AFP news agency on Saturday.

“These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” Lazzarini said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it struck several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in what it claimed was as a response to repeated attacks by the group on northern Israel. According to an IDF statement on X (formerly Twitter), the sites included military compounds and observation posts belonging to the Lebanese armed group.

Earlier this week, the Hamas representative in Beirut, Ahmed Abdul Hadi, said Hezbollah was not yet prepared to enter the fight between Israel and the Palestinian armed group in Gaza, and would only escalate operations against Israel in the event of Hamas’ total defeat.

At least 15 people have been killed following an airstrike that hit a house west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Reuters reports, citing health officials from Nasser Hospital in the Palestinian enclave.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the military campaign in Gaza. Talking to journalists while on a plane returning from a trip to Germany, Erdogan said he believes Israel will “get rid of” Netanyahu.

“Hopefully, Israel will be saved from him, and all the Jews of the world will be saved from him. Currently, 60-70 percent of the people in his country are against Netanyahu because he is making both his country and the world pay a serious price,” he said, as cited by Turkish media.

Erdogan added that Turkey will seek to rebuild Gaza if a ceasefire is achieved.

“We will make efforts to rebuild the damaged infrastructure in Gaza and rebuild the destroyed schools, hospitals, water and energy facilities,” the president said.

“At least 50 people” were killed Saturday when Israeli forces struck a UN-run school being used as a shelter for displaced people, an official from the Gaza Health Ministry told AFP news agency.

The attack on the Al-Fakhura school in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza happened “at dawn,” the source was cited as saying.

There has so far been no confirmation or comments on the matter from the Israeli army or the UN United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Israeli opposition Leader Yair Lapid has joined the march of protesters heading to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem to demand the immediate release of hostages captured by Hamas, according to local media reports.

Earlier this week, the centrist politician suggested that “the time has come” to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Lapid, who briefly served as prime minister last year, Netanyahu “has lost the public’s trust,” as well as “the trust of the international community and most seriously – the trust of the security system.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have released video footage of its Duvdevan Unit raiding what it said was Hamas infrastructure in Gaza. During the raids on Saturday, Israeli forces killed “terrorists” and reportedly found a large amount of weapons and military equipment inside a high school in the Palestinian enclave, the IDF said on X (formerly Twitter).

The IDF has announced a humanitarian pause in northern Gaza to enable people to evacuate to the south. It will purportedly last until 4 pm local time on Saturday.

“To the residents of Tel el-Hawa, Sabra, west Zeitoun, Shuja’iyya, and Tuffah, the evacuation corridor will remain open until 16:00 for civilians through the Salah Al-Din route,” it said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The IDF implored residents to evacuate “urgently” as it was “dangerous” to remain in the area. It also said there would be “a local tactical pause of military operation for humanitarian purposes” in the Al-Shabura refugee camp near Rafah in southern Gaza between 10 am and 2 pm also on Saturday.

The five-day march from Tel Aviv to the prime minister’s office to demand the immediate release of hostages captured by Hamas has reached the outskirts of Jerusalem, according to the Times of Israel. The families of those missing and captured by the Palestinian militant group on October 7 are accompanied by thousands of Israelis. Later on Saturday, they are expected to hold a protest rally at Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

According to Channel 12, some 20,000 people are taking part in the march. Protest organizers reportedly said there are “tens of thousands” of participants.

Jordan’s foreign minister has described Israel’s war on Hamas as “blatant aggression” against Palestinian civilians, which could expand into a broader regional conflict.

“All of us have to speak loud and clear about the catastrophe that the Israeli war is bringing, not just on Gaza, but on the region in general,” Ayman Safadi told the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Manama Dialogue summit in Bahrain. “This is not a time for mincing words. This is a time to state facts as they are.”

“This is not self-defense. This is a blatant aggression, the victims of which are innocent Palestinians,” the diplomat added. According to the Jordanian official, “this war is not taking us anywhere, but towards more conflict,” and it must stop.

Safadi claimed that “Hamas did not create the conflict. The conflict created Hamas.” He said, “You cannot bomb an idea out of existence.” He also ruled out the possibility of the Israel-Hamas war turning into a regional conflict by saying, “There will be no Arab troops going to Gaza. None. We are not going to be seen as the enemy.”

Safadi said that Arab governments have agreed that any discussion of the Palestinian enclave’s future is currently impossible because no one knows in what state Gaza will be left after the war ends.

“By entertaining that, we are telling the Israeli government: ‘Do whatever you want. Go destroy Gaza. No one is stopping you, and once you are done, we will clean up your mess.’ No, we will not,” the Jordanian diplomat stated.

Hamas has confirmed in a statement the death of one of its senior members, Ahmad Bahar, in an Israeli strike on Gaza. On Friday, media reported that Bahar, 76, who served as vice president of the Palestinian Legislative Council, had been injured in an IDF strike and later died of his wounds.

The general manager of hospitals in Gaza, Mohammed Zaqout, has insisted that the Israeli military gave an explicit order for patients and doctors to evacuate from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City within one hour. “I categorically deny these false allegations” that the evacuation was only a request by the IDF, he told Al Jazeera. “Despite the difficult situation, the medical staff was working and operating… we were forced to leave at gunpoint,” Zaqout claimed.

The director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, Munir al-Barsh, earlier told the broadcaster that around 450 patients have evacuated from Shifa Hospital, while about 120 others remained at the facility due to being immobile. “We were forced to leave. Many of the patients were put on wheelchairs or rolling beds. Family members were forced to carry their wounded children or parents themselves. These are horrible, unprecedented scenes,” al-Barsh said.

The IDF has denied media reports that it has ordered the evacuation of patients and medical staff from al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the Israeli military, it only responded to a request from the director of the hospital to allow displaced Palestinians, who have been sheltering at the compound, to move to safer areas.

“At no point did the IDF ask to evacuate patients or medical teams,” the statement published by the military on X (formerly Twitter) read. “Medical teams will remain in the hospital for the benefit of the patients, who are unwilling or unable to evacuate,” it added. The IDF also said that, overnight, it had continued to provide food, water and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s largest hospital.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has said one of its planes carrying 30 tons of humanitarian aid for the residents of Gaza has landed in Egypt. The cargo, consisting of mattresses, pillows, personal hygiene products, food including baby food, will be handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, which will redirect it to the Palestinians.

Russia has already provided 190 tons of aid to Gaza since the start of the current Israeli-Palestinian escalation, the ministry said in post on Telegram.

The IDF has given those inside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City one hour to evacuate the compound, a medical source has told Al Jazeera. According to the source, there’s “a great state of panic and fear among the patients, medical staff and families” because the hospital lacks functioning ambulances to transfer people to the south of the Gaza.

Israeli forces raided the Shifa Hospital, which is the largest in Gaza, earlier this week, claiming that they have uncovered a Hamas command center and a cache of weapons and ammunition at the facility.

The Biden administration has said deliveries of fuel to Gaza “should continue on a regular basis and in larger quantities.” The statement follows Friday’s announcement by Israel that it would allow two fuel trucks per day to enter the besieged Palestinian enclave for the needs of the UN and the local water and sewage system.

“We are glad Israel agreed to fuel deliveries to Gaza at our strong request,” the White House said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). The US is “working closely” with Israel and other countries in the region “to ensure the continued delivery of fuel so lifesaving humanitarian aid can be delivered and essential services in Gaza can be restored,” it added.

Five people were killed and two more injured in an airstrike on a building in the Balata refugee camp near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent has said. According to the Palestinian media, the incident was an Israeli drone attack on the headquarters of the Fatah armed group in the camp. Some reports claimed that four of those killed were affiliated with Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

At least 26 people have been killed in a strike on a residential building in the Palestinian town of Hamad in the Khan Yunis region of southern Gaza, the director of the local Nasser hospital has told AFP. The facility had received 26 dead bodies and 23 people with serious injuries following the bombardment, he said.

According to the latest data from Gaza’s health ministry, the death toll from Israeli attacks on the enclave since October 7 has surpassed 12,000, including more than 5,000 children.

The owner of X (formerly Twitter) Elon Musk has warned the users “that anyone advocating the genocide of any group will be suspended from this platform.” Some slogans used by supporters of Palestine such as “decolonization, from the river to the sea and similar euphemisms necessarily imply genocide,” he said. “Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension,” the tech billionaire added.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei released a separate statement following the conclusion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco on Friday calling for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in the Gaza Strip. The three Muslim-majority countries underscored the need for an unimpeded access of aid into the embattled Palestinian enclave.

APEC consists of 21 states, including the US, China and Russia. The joint leaders’ declaration adopted at the California event does not mention Israel or Gaza due to the disagreements between members.

Israeli police revised the number of victims of the October 7 Hamas attack on a rave party to at least 350 people, according to i24NEWS. It was previously believed that some 260 festival attendees were killed.

The open-air festival held in the desert near Re’im was overrun my Palestinian militants who broke through the security fence on Israel’s de facto border with Gaza.

Speaking to MSNBC on Friday, Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated the call for the Palestinians in Gaza to flee the southern city of Khan Younis.

“We’re asking people to relocate. I know it’s not easy for many of them, but we don’t want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire,” Regev said. 

Israeli military aircraft previously dropped leaflets, which instructed the residents of four Khan Younis suburbs to leave the area. The population of Khan Younis has swollen from 400,000 to over a million thanks to the refugees from the northern part of the Gaza Strip, according to Euronews.

17 November 2023

Israel must stop any military action in Gaza immediately and agree to a ceasefire, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit to Berlin.

“President Erdogan stated that Israel’s attacks on Palestinian lands must end and that the reaction from the whole world against human rights violations is important,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement following Erdogan’s meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“A ceasefire should be established immediately,” it said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reports that its teams are currently under siege, with Israeli tanks positioned in the vicinity of the hospital amid intense gunfire.

“We demand immediate intervention to protect our teams that are now in danger,” the PRCS said.

The health agency had declared a day earlier that its teams were confined, with reports of explosions in the area around the hospital. It also conveyed this meant medics were unable to access numerous casualties in the facility’s courtyard.

Members of the Israeli government have lashed out at the country’s war cabinet after reports emerged that it had decided to allow two fuel trucks into Gaza per day amid the IDF’s blockade of the Palestinian enclave. The move was allegedly made at the request of Washington.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has claimed that the war cabinet, which consists of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Minister Benny Gantz and several observers, “is leading Israel to a wrong policy.” According to the Times of Israel paper, Ben Gvir insisted that “so long as our hostages don’t even get a visit from the Red Cross, there is no sense in giving the enemy humanitarian gifts.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the move “broadcasts weakness, gives oxygen to the enemy and allows [Hamas Gaza leader Yahya] Sinwar to sit comfortably in his air-conditioned bunker, watch the news and continue to manipulate Israeli society and the families of the abductees.” Smotrich demanded that the war cabinet be expanded to include the leaders of all parties that make the so-called “emergency unity government.” He also urged Netanyahu to “stop this scandal immediately and prevent the introduction of fuel.”

Transport Minister Miri Regev has claimed that the war cabinet didn’t have the authority to make the decision on fuel deliveries to Gaza and called on National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi to “immediately convene the security cabinet” to discuss the situation, Haaretz reported.

There has been another exchange of fire on the Israel-Lebanon border. The IDF claims Hezbollah fighters shot several missiles at its positions not far from the Israeli communities of Malkia and Menara. The Israeli military said it retaliated by shelling the sources of fire with artillery.

According to the IDF, its warplanes also hit a number of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including a weapons depot. Troops also engaged a group of Hezbollah operatives who were allegedly preparing an attack near the Israeli village of Arab al-Aramshe, it added.

Later, there were also reports of mortars being fired from Lebanon towards the communities of Adamit and Arab al-Aramshe. The IDF responded with artillery fire.

Israel has agreed to allow two fuel trucks per day into besieged Gaza for the needs of the UN and the enclave’s water and sewer systems, an unnamed Israeli official has told the Times of Israel paper. The country’s war cabinet made the decision in order “to enable the minimal maintenance necessary for water, sewer and sanitary systems to prevent pandemics that could spread to the entire area, hurting residents of the Strip as well as our own forces and potentially spreading into Israel as well,” the official explained.

The source suggested that the move “will offer Israel the necessary diplomatic maneuvering room to eliminate Hamas.” He also said that the IDF will be tracking the fuel trucks to make sure they won’t end up in the hands of the Palestinian fighters. AP reported on Thursday that aid agencies have been forced to halt deliveries of humanitarian supplies to Gaza because internet and phone networks were down in the enclave due to the lack of fuel.

The vice president of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one of the leaders of Hamas, Ahmad Bahar, has died of the wounds he suffered during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza, the Ma’an news agency has reported. The IDF has yet to mention Bahar, 76, among the targets of its attacks on the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli police have said they detained five people on suspicion of stealing the sound equipment that belonged to a man killed in the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival in southern Israel on October 7. The arrests were made in Qalansawe, Isfiya and Daliyat al-Karmel, which are all Israeli towns with a majority Arab population.

The equipment, worth some 2 million shekels (around $530,000), has been returned to the father of late Matan Lior, according to police. The suspects are believed to have arrived at the festival site shortly after the attack, taking advantage of the chaos in order to snatch the expensive gear that Lior had brought to the ill-fated rave party, at which some 260 people lost their lives.

Hamas has halted all talks with Israel on releasing some 240 hostages captured by the Palestinian armed group during its attack on the country on October 7, according to Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi. “Now, as far as I know, there are no negotiations. Hamas have stopped this on their own initiative,” the ambassador told Rossiya 24 channel.

“Despite all the requests, Hamas have never even presented a list of who is there [in captivity in Gaza], in what condition they are, whether they are alive or not, whether they are wounded. We don’t know what’s happening there,” Ben Zvi stressed.

The expansion of Israeli military operations to southern Gaza is only a matter of time, a senior IDF officer has told the Walla news outlet. “It’s not a question of whether there’ll be a move to the southern Gaza Strip, but when there’ll be a move to the southern Gaza Strip,” the officer said.

“The goal of the war is the destruction of Hamas. We know with full responsibility that many terrorists fled from the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City to the southern Gaza Strip, and in order to eliminate them, we must maneuver there,” the source added.

Israel previously told Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza due to the fighting and airstrikes in the north of the enclave, with hundreds of thousands heeding the call.

The IDF has said its troops killed at least five Palestinians while conducting a raid in the city of Jenin and the adjacent refugee camp in the occupied West Bank overnight. According to the military, its drone struck a group of gunmen who were shooting at the Israeli forces, and other Palestinians were killed after they hurled explosives at the troops. Israel Border Police also said that seven wanted Palestinians were arrested during the operation.

Al Jazeera reported earlier that some 80 armored vehicles were involved in the Israeli raid on Jenin. IDF soldiers surrounded and searched the local Ibn Sina Hospital, reportedly detaining some of the medics, the Qatari broadcaster said.

The Israeli government hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA) taking charge of Gaza after the war with Hamas, an unnamed Israeli official has told the Time of Israel newspaper. However, he stressed that the PA would “need to undergo significant reforms in order to do so.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel would maintain “security control” over Gaza after the current conflict ends. Those plans are facing resistance from the US, which insists that the re-occupation of Gaza by Israel would be “a mistake.” It has suggested that control over the enclave should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, which now rules the West Bank.

The IDF has said its warplanes continued airstrikes on Gaza overnight, hitting “many” Hamas targets, including weapons depots and Palestinian fighters who were resisting the Israeli forces.

Troops have also captured and destroyed an outpost of the Islamic Jihad group in northern Gaza, where many weapons were discovered, including what the IDF described as Iranian-made missiles.

In a separate incident, Israeli troops fought Hamas operatives holed up in a school building. Several gunmen were killed during the clashes, and a lot of weapons were later found at the site, according to the IDF.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “there can’t be a reoccupation by Israel of Gaza,” but agreed that “there may have to be a transitional period where… security is provided for Gaza.” In an interview with ABC News, Blinken reiterated Washington’s stance that “when it comes to the future of Gaza… it has to be under Palestinian governance and there has to be security provided as well.”

“It’s imperative, in our judgment, if there is going to be lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, that we actually move forward on ensuring that the Palestinians have political rights, that they have the ability to govern themselves, to make decisions for their own future in their own state,” he explained .

The IDF has said that it has recovered the body of Corporal Noa Marciano, who was among some 240 hostages captured by Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel. The troops found Marciano’s remains in a building adjacent to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, based on information provided by the Shin Bet security agency. The 19-year-old’s body was returned to Israel on Thursday and has already been identified, according to the military. The IDF stressed that its mission is “to locate those missing and return those abducted home,” adding that it “will not stop until its objectives are completed.”

Three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Reuters has reported, citing Palestinian medics. Several more people were wounded, with Wafa news agency claiming the the Israeli forces have been preventing local emergency services from reaching those in need of assistance.

Violent clashes were reported in the area as the IDF raided Jenin City and Jenin’s refugee camp overnight. According to Al Jazeera, 80 armored vehicles have been involved in the operation, which saw the Israeli troops surrounding Ibn Sina Hospital. The IDF soldiers searched the facility, and some of the medical personnel were reportedly detained, the broadcaster added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Hamas is to blame for the IDF being “not successful” in minimizing civilian casualties during its attacks on Gaza.

“Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn't have any because we're doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm's way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm's way,” Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS News. Israel has been encouraging the Palestinian to evacuate from the targeted areas through leaflets and phone calls, “and many have left,” he added.

“The other thing that I can say is that we'll try to finish that job with minimal civilian casualties. That's what we're trying to do. Minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we're not successful,” the prime minister acknowledged.

According to the latest data from the health ministry in Gaza, at least 11,470 people have been killed and many more injured in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave since October 7.

The IDF showed a video of what they said is a Hamas “terrorist tunnel” underneath the Al-Shifa hospital compound – the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army previously reported finding caches of weapons inside the hospital, including one hidden in its MRI unit.

The IDF began operations on the territory of the crowded compound on Wednesday, prompting fears that patients, doctors and refugees could be hurt in the crossfire.

Hamas, for its part, has denied using Al-Shifa and other hospitals for military purposes. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday that “supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza” and the enclave’s population is “facing the immediate possibility of starvation.”

Of the 1,129 trucks that have entered Gaza since the Rafah border crossing opened on October 21, only 447 carried food – enough to provide the daily minimum to only 7% of the enclave’s residents.

“There is no way to meet current hunger needs with one operational border crossing. The only hope is opening another, safe passage for humanitarian access to bring life-saving food into Gaza,” said WFP executive director Cindy McCain.

WFP said that the food supply chain in the enclave has collapsed and the last Gaza bakery that partnered with it closed earlier this week due to a lack of fuel.

16 November 2023

Israeli soldiers have launched a “major raid” on the city of Jenin and the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, Al Jazeera reported. IDF has “stormed the camp with dozens of vehicles, including massive bulldozers,” Deputy Governor Kamal Abu al-Roub told the outlet. Power is reportedly out in the camp and some parts of Jenin city.

Hamas has posted on social media that its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, is fighting “alongside all the other resistance groups in the camp” and targeting the IDF “with heavy fire and explosive devices.”

The IDF said they recovered the body of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old mother of five taken hostage from kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7 Hamas raid, from a building near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. No information was provided regarding Weiss’ cause of death.

Weiss’ body was brought to Israel for identification and her family has been informed, the military said in a statement. The 65-year-old’s husband, Shmulik Weiss, was reportedly killed during the Hamas raid.

IDF troops entered al-Shifa Hospital on Tuesday night after targeting the area with airstrikes and sniper fire for several days, claiming the hospital complex shields a major Hamas command center. Hamas has denied using al-Shifa or any other hospital for military purposes.

The heads of over a dozen UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs issued a statement pledging not to participate in the establishment of “safe zones” in Gaza without the consent of all parties involved in the conflict and unless conditions are in place to ensure safety and survival needs are met.

Legitimate “safe zones” require all of the combatants to agree to refrain from hostilities in and around the area, the provision of “the essentials for survival, including food, water, shelter, hygiene, health assistance, and safety,” and for displaced people to be allowed to travel freely and return home at the earliest possible time, the statement explains. Attempting to declare a “safe zone” without meeting these conditions may constitute a breach of humanitarian and human rights law.

The organizations concluded the statement with a plea for a “humanitarian ceasefire to ease the suffering and to help facilitate humanitarian operations,” as well as for the release of all hostages. Over 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced since Israel declared war on Hamas last month.

The pledge was signed by representatives from the World Health Organization, Save the Children, CARE International, the World Food Programme, UN-Habitat, UNICEF, United Nations Population Fund, UN Women, UN Development Program, Mercy Corps, the International Organization for Migration, the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, and InterAction, as well as the UN high commissioners for refugees and human rights, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, and the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs. It was also endorsed by the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA.

The Israel Defense Forces have finished the “capture and mopping up” of western Gaza City, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, adding that the military is moving into the “next phase” of its ground campaign in Gaza, without supplying further details.

Gallant claimed the IDF had made “significant findings” during its controversial raid on al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza, which Israel has alleged conceals a Hamas command center – something the militant group fervently denies. The operation at the hospital is ongoing and being carried out in “a selective and precise but very, very determined manner,” Gallant said.

The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza is “completely out of service,” its director, Atef al-Kahlout, told Al Jazeera. With some 500 patients currently inside, the hospital is at nearly four times capacity, and its departments are “unable to carry out their work,” he said, urging ambulances “not to bring any more wounded people” to the facility in Beit Lahiya. 

“We cannot offer any more services…we can’t offer patients any beds,” al-Kahlout said, acknowledging that there was nowhere else in the area to bring patients either. “All hospitals in Gaza City and the north have stopped operating.”

Israeli tanks have surrounded the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a post on social media, warning ambulance crews are unable to reach the injured who are in need of medical attention and that a “violent attack is underway.”

The US is “deeply concerned” over the fact that seven medical staff members at Jordan’s field hospital in northern Gaza were wounded in an Israeli airstrike, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), which did not mention who was responsible for the shelling. 

“We are profoundly grateful to medical professionals providing critical care to Palestinians in Gaza,” Sullivan stated, adding, “Their essential role in conflict must be protected.” 

A spokesman for Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed Israel for “exposing the hospital and its staff to danger during its bombing of our Palestinian brothers,” declaring the attack to be “a clear violation of international law” and vowing to take “necessary legal and political steps” in response.

The Tel Aviv Police Department will allow a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on Saturday night following a hearing on Thursday in which the Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice for a permit to hold the rally. 

While police had initially claimed they lacked the manpower to secure the event, which they said could trigger civil disturbances and hurt the feelings of Israelis evacuated from the south to Tel Aviv, the ACRI countered that the right to freedom of expression trumped concerns about disrupting public order and causing offense.

The two sides reached a compromise, with the protest set to take place at a different location than originally planned and with a limit of 700 protesters. Organized by the predominantly Arab Hadash party, the demonstration will call for a ceasefire and a “hostage exchange” agreement.

Israel has again denied a request from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to visit the country, AFP has reported. “Israel is not aware of any added benefit of the high commissioner’s visit at this time,” the Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva told the agency after being addressed on the issue.

Turk visited the Middle East last week, but Israel was not among his destinations. The Israeli government said it would not issue visas to United Nations officials in late October, after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres suggested that the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Moscow insists on an immediate end to the “bloodshed” and a resolution of humanitarian issues in both Gaza and the West Bank, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said during a briefing.

The Russian authorities “categorically condemn terrorism in all its forms, but we are also categorically opposed to countries fighting terrorism using methods that grossly violate international humanitarian law [such as] indiscriminate bombing of residential areas, hospitals, kindergartens, resulting in thousands and thousands of innocent citizens, including thousands of children, losing their lives,” Lavrov said.

“The fact that the UN Security Council yesterday shamefully asked to declare only a single humanitarian pause [in Gaza] and was unable to support the wording of the UN General Assembly, which called for the introduction of a humanitarian truce as a step towards a ceasefire, says a lot. In the first place, it says a lot about the stance of the US and its allies” regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the foreign minister said.

The IDF has announced the capture of Gaza’s main docks from Hamas fighters. “The forces eliminated ten terrorists and cleared all the buildings in the area of the docks,” the Israeli military said in a statement. According to the statement, Israeli troops also discovered at least ten tunnel shafts and destroyed them, while taking control of four buildings being used by Hamas to host its infrastructure.

The Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, has hit out at the organization for expressing concerns over the IDF’s continued attacks on Gaza. International law is “not a suicide pact,” she insisted. If a country is unable to defend itself “or is criticized for doing so in line with international law, inevitably terrorist organizations will become more and more emboldened to continue to deploy these methods, confident in continued international support,” Eilon Shahar said.

Saudi Arabia has condemned Israel for storming Al-Shifa Hospital and striking near the Jordanian Field Hospital in Gaza, saying that the IDF's actions constituted “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, all international norms and conventions, and the explicit targeting of civilians and medical personnel.”

“International accountability mechanisms” should be activated to address the violations committed by the Israeli forces in the besieged Palestinian enclave, the Saudi Foreign Ministry's statement read.

The IDF has said that its warplanes struck targets of Hezbollah movement inside Lebanon. Several posts used by the group have been hit, it said. A member of Hezbollah, who operated in the border area not far from the Israeli town of Shlomi, was also attacked, according to the military. Earlier on Thursday, there were reports of rocket sirens being heard in northern Israel due to attacks coming from the Lebanese territory. 

An “international investigation is called for” to look into alleged violations by the sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said. “Extremely serious allegations of multiple and profound breaches of international humanitarian law, whoever commits them, demand rigorous investigation and full accountability,” he stressed during a briefing.

Turk also warned that “massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable” in Gaza due to Israel’s continued attacks and its blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

The checkpoint between southern Jerusalem and the settlement of Gush Etzion in the occupied West Bank “has become a death trap because of the bottleneck it causes, which endangers the residents who wait” in line in their cars, the head of the Efrat Local Council, Oded Revivi has said. Earlier on Thursday, four people were injured in a shooting at the checkpoint. The three attackers were killed by security forces.

“The operational necessity of checks is clear. However, creating such a big traffic jam, which is a result of a lack of guards, a lack of inspection stations, and other issues, endangers lives and creates sitting targets for terrorists,” Revivi said, as cited by the Times of Israel.

Four people have been wounded, including one critically, in a shooting attack on an Israeli checkpoint on a highway between Jerusalem and the settlement of Gush Etzion in the occupied West Bank, the country’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service has said. Three people were also treated for “stress symptoms,” it added.

According to police, three gunmen arrived at the checkpoint by car and opened fire. All of the attackers were killed by the security forces. Officers and IDF troops have been carrying out searches in the area following the incident.

The IDF has published of a video of what it said was an airstrike on the home of the  chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Gaza. The building was “used as terror infrastructure and, among other things, as a meeting place for the senior officials of the organization,” the Israeli military said. Haniyeh isn’t in Gaza a the moment; he reportedly resides in Qatar.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has said that the country simply can’t leave Gaza unsupervised after the conclusion of the conflict with Hamas. “If we pull back, then who will take over? We can’t leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism,” Herzog told the Financial Times. “No one will want to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again,” he added.

In order to prevent attacks like the one launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7, “we have to have a very strong force to make sure that it’s committed enough and it doesn’t happen [again],” the president said. Many ideas regarding Gaza’s post-war future are currently being discussed by the Israeli government, Herzog stressed, adding that he assumes that the US and “our neighbors in the region” would have some involvement in it too.

US President Joe Biden has called on his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to use his influence to calm tensions in the Middle East, as the two leaders held a much-anticipated private meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco, AP has reported.

Among other things, Biden urged the Chinese president to try to pressure Iran not to widen the conflict between Israel and Hamas, it said. A US official told the agency that Biden did most of the talking on the issue, while Xi mostly listened. According to the source, it was too soon to tell what sort of message Beijing was sending to Tehran, and how it was being received by the Iranians.

The IDF has released the names of two more soldiers killed in the fighting with Hamas in northern Gaza. Another two servicemen were severely wounded during combat operations on Wednesday, it added. This puts the Israeli military’s overall losses since the launch of its ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave at 50 troops.

The Financial Times cited a person familiar with Israel’s conversations with Western allies as saying that the IDF may consider an operational “pause” after seizing the whole of Al-Shifa hospital compound.

Israel could use the pause for analyzing new intelligence and negotiating the release of more hostages held by Hamas, the report said.

15 November 2023

The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid to enter Gaza, as well as the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

The document, drafted by Malta, calls “for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable ... the full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access.”

The US and the UK abstained, saying they could not back a resolution that did not condemn Hamas for the October 7 attack on Israel. Russia abstained because the draft did not include a call for a ceasefire.

The Israel Defense Forces said they have discovered evidence that Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital was used as an operational headquarters by Hamas.  

“During searches inside one of the hospital’s wards, the troops located a room containing unique technological means, combat equipment, and military equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF said in a statement. 

The military released images and video of weapons, including assault rifles, grenades, and ammunition, as well as body armor and computer equipment. It claimed that the stash was found by the IDF's elite Shaldag unit and other members of the 36th Division inside the hospital’s MRI center. 

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated the troops found Hamas uniforms “thrown on the hospital floor so that the terrorists could escape in civilian guise,” arguing that the findings “unequivocally prove that the hospital was used for terror, in complete violation of international law.” 

Hamas has denied using Al-Shifa and other hospitals for military purposes.

The BBC apologized on Wednesday for claiming Israel was targeting medical staff and Arabic speakers during its raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. 

“This was incorrect and misquoted a Reuters report,” the broadcaster said. “What we should have said is that IDF forces included medical staff and Arabic speakers for this operation.” 

The BBC added that the correct version of events was aired minutes later. The channel has been criticized by both the IDF and Palestinian activists for what they say is biased coverage of the conflict.

The US Navy’s guided missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner shot down a drone launched from Yemen over the Red Sea on Wednesday, Pentagon officials told several news outlets. The drone was reportedly targeting the warship.

No group has claimed responsibility for the UAV, though Yemen’s Houthis shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Red Sea last week and warned on Tuesday that Israeli ships in the area and other Yemeni territorial waters may be targeted.

Israel blew up the headquarters of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza on Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesman Ofir Gendelman posted a video of the demolition on X, describing the action as “part of destroying the Hamas regime of oppression and terrorism.” 

Earlier this week, IDF soldiers posed inside the building with Israeli flags, a display Israeli media held up as a clear indicator that Hamas had lost control of Gaza. However, the building had seldom been used after the militant group took power in 2007 following its electoral victory, when Gaza’s government split from that of the West Bank.

The US denied giving Israel permission to bomb Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital on Wednesday after Hamas blamed President Joe Biden for the devastating onslaught. 

Washington “did not give an OK to their military operations around the hospital,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, claiming “These are Israeli military operations that they plan.”

Kirby acknowledged Biden had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ahead of the attack, but refused to say whether the president had been forewarned or provide any other details of the conversation. “There’s no expectation by the United States to map [Israeli actions] all out,” Kirby said, while maintaining the US had “certainly talked to them about concerns over civilians.” 

Hamas accused the US of giving the “green light to perpetrate further massacres against civilians,” declaring Biden was “wholly responsible” for the deadly strike on al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, where thousands of displaced civilians have sought shelter since Israel began its war on the Palestinian militant group last month. 

“We believe hospitals should be protected,” Kirby claimed, echoing Biden’s words from earlier in the week. While Israel has insisted there is a Hamas command center beneath the hospital complex, no proof of this claim has been produced.

Qatar is mediating a deal between Hamas and Israel that would see the Palestinian militants release 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in return for a three-day ceasefire and the release of some Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails, an official with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters on Wednesday.  

The deal would also require Hamas to hand over a complete list of the living civilian hostages, while Israel would have to allow a larger amount of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.  

Hamas has agreed to the outline of the deal, which is being coordinated in partnership with the US, but Israel has not and is still negotiating the details, according to the official. West Jerusalem has previously rejected discussion of freeing hostages as mere “psychological warfare” by Hamas, vowing there would be no halt in the fighting.

The UN released a ten-point plan to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza on Wednesday, warning “the carnage… cannot be allowed to continue.” 

The recommendations include facilitating aid agencies’ efforts to bring in a continuous flow of aid convoys safely, opening additional crossing points, expanding access to fuel for the UN and other humanitarian organizations, allowing those organizations to freely deliver aid throughout Gaza without interference, and improving a “humanitarian notification mechanism” to warn civilians and aid groups about incoming airstrikes. 

The plan also calls for allowing the UN to expand the number of safe shelters for displaced people in public facilities and to set up relief distribution hubs, permitting civilians to return to their homes or safer areas, and funding the humanitarian response, the cost of which has already run over $1.2 billion. 

The final point reiterates the international community’s longstanding call for a humanitarian ceasefire, explaining that it is critical not only for the delivery of aid and the safety of civilians, but also for the release of the Israeli and foreign hostages still held in Gaza.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir condemned the delivery of fuel to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, the first since the war began on October 7, with a post on social media stating “Diesel=weapon” after inspecting the truck on Wednesday. Transportation Minister Miri Regev, who also inspected the truck, wrote in a post on X that “fuel for UNRWA is fuel for Hamas.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly declare whether West Jerusalem has nuclear weapons, in an address to parliament on Wednesday, adding that the Israeli leader would soon be a “goner.”

Erdogan reiterated calls for Israeli leaders to be tried for war crimes at the International Court of Justice, declaring the country’s assault on Gaza included “the most treacherous attacks in human history,” enabled by “unlimited” backing from its Western allies. “Israel is a terror state,” he said.

While Israel is widely suspected to possess hundreds of nuclear warheads, it has never officially acknowledged their existence, operating under a policy of strategic ambiguity that has allowed it to escape key regulatory measures like the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and submitting to third-party inspections of its arsenal. 

However, Israeli Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu was relieved of his post earlier this month after telling a radio interviewer that nuclear weapons could be “one way” of dealing with Gaza, implying the country not only had nukes but was willing – even eager – to use them.

A fuel truck entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Wednesday, the first such delivery since Israel’s declaration of war on October 7. The fuel will be delivered to the UN “to facilitate the delivery of aid after trucks on the Palestinian side stopped operating for lack of fuel,” an Egyptian source told the Times of Israel.

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said in a post on X that it had received just 23,027 liters (6,083 gallons) of fuel – 9% of what it needs daily to continue providing needed aid. 

Approximately 2,100 commercial trucks laden with humanitarian aid entering Gaza between October 7 and October 20 via the Rafah crossing did not reach their destination, the UN revealed on Wednesday. The fate of the trucks is not known.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for Israel to stop its “killing of women, of children, of babies” in Gaza during a news conference on Tuesday. 

“I urge the government of Israel to exercise maximum restraint,” the PM said. “The world is watching, on TV, on social media – we’re hearing the testimonies of doctors, family members, survivors, kids who have lost their parents.” 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back in a post on X. “It is not Israel that is deliberately targeting civilians but Hamas that beheaded, burned and massacred civilians in the worst horrors perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust,” he wrote, demanding the “forces of civilization” back his country against “Hamas barbarism.” 

While Trudeau has repeatedly said he supports Israel’s right to self-defense, he urged the country to abide by international law, stating, “All wars have rules. All innocent life has equal worth, Israeli and Palestinian.” 

“The price of justice cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” he said.

Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila has denounced Israel’s storming of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as “a new crime against humanity, medical staff, and patients” while warning of a potential “massacre” inside the facility.

She also condemned the silence of “some countries” about the raid, suggesting that they had “encouraged the Israeli occupation” of the compound in “flagrant violation of international law.”

Al-Shifa Hospital Director Mohammad Abu Salmiya earlier said that a total of 179 bodies had been buried in the facility's courtyard. He added that this number included seven babies and 29 patients who died after the complex ran out of fuel.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the conflict has so far claimed the lives of more than 11,000 Palestinians and more than 1,200 Israelis, with more than 1.6 million people displaced inside the enclave.

The Palestine Red Crescent has said it managed to evacuate “the patients, the wounded, their families, and the medical teams” from Al-Quds Hospital, the second-largest medical facility in Gaza. Local officials had previously said the compound had been put out of service due to a lack of fuel and electricity, with fighting taking place nearby.

The non-profit noted that “it became impossible to continue providing the necessary medical care under these conditions,” adding that patients were being transported to southern hospitals. However, medical facilities in that region are now suffering from the same problems as Al-Quds, it noted.

The Israel Defense Forces said its tank crews have successfully delivered incubators, baby food, and medical supplies to the Al-Shifa Hospital.

The military also claimed to have engaged Hamas operatives inside the complex, killing several militants. It added that Israeli soldiers found explosive devices in the area.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, insisted that there were no military personnel, but rather “only doctors, patients and displaced people” inside the al-Shifa hospital, which was stormed by Israeli troops. The official estimated the number of Israeli soldiers inside the facility at “dozens.”

“We have nothing to fear or hide,” he insisted.

Israeli officials have said that during the “precise and targeted operation against Hamas” in the area, they tried to “mitigate” the impact among civilians, noting that the raiding parties included medics and Arab speakers.

Still, Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner admitted in an interview with CNN that the conditions on the ground made the operations “challenging.”

Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the general director of hospitals in Gaza, claimed that Israeli soldiers had searched the basement of al-Shifa hospital after storming the facility.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, he said that some people in the compound were shot at as they tried to leave the hospital corridor, which had supposedly been declared safe. However, al-Bursh would not say whether any of those present had been killed or injured.

He also insisted that "not a single bullet" was fired from the hospital at IDF forces.

Hamas denounced the IDF raid, saying it was holding both Israel and the US “fully responsible for the repercussions of the occupation army’s storming of the Shifa Medical Complex.”

The militants accused the White House and Pentagon of peddling a “false narrative,” after US officials backed Israeli claims that Hamas is using the hospital for military purposes.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in the early hours of Wednesday that they are conducting “a precise and targeted operation” against Hamas in “a specified area” of Al-Shifa Hospital. 

The IDF said that it is in contact with the hospital staff and is seeking to avoid civilian casualties. The Israeli army reiterated its claim that Hamas has been using Al-Shifa for military purposes, which makes the facility a legitimate target. “We call upon all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender,” the IDF wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

14 November 2023

Israel has warned the Palestinian Health Ministry it intends to “raid” the al-Shifa Hospital complex within minutes, the ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said early on Wednesday.

“And they told us to inform everybody not to be near the windows,” al-Qudra said.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari reiterated on Tuesday evening that the Israeli army considers Gazan hospitals legitimate military targets, accusing Hamas of using them as bases of operations.

The New York Times disputed Israel’s claim that its forces were not involved in the strikes on Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital compound on Friday. 

At least three of the projectiles that hit the hospital appear to have been Israeli munitions, the newspaper wrote, citing its analysis of photos of munitions fragments found at the scene. The Times said that it also examined video footage to determine the trajectory.

The Israel Defense Forces said earlier that the hospital was hit by “a misfired projectile launched by terrorist organizations inside the Gaza Strip.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi discussed the war in the Middle East during their phone call on Tuesday.

The leaders voiced “their deep concern over the unprecedented rise in civilian casualties [in Gaza], including thousands of women and children,” and called for “an end to the bloodshed as soon as possible,” according to the Kremlin.

Belize suspended diplomatic relations with Israel on Tuesday, citing its “unceasing indiscriminate bombing in Gaza.”

“Wе hаvе арреаlеd tо Іѕrаеl tо іmрlеmеnt аn іmmеdіаtе сеаѕеfіrе, аnd tо аllоw unіmреdеd ассеѕѕ оf humаnіtаrіаn ѕuррlіеѕ іntо Gаzа,” the government said in a statement. “Dеѕріtе оur rеquеѕtѕ, Іѕrаеl hаѕ nоt ѕtорреd іtѕ vіоlаtіоnѕ оf іntеrnаtіоnаl humаnіtаrіаn lаw nоr аllоwеd rеlіеf wоrkеrѕ tо аllеvіаtе thе ѕuffеrіng оf mіllіоnѕ оf Gаzаnѕ.”

Last month, Bolivia cut diplomatic ties with Israel, condemning “the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive” in Gaza. Meanwhile, Colombia and Chile have recalled their ambassadors to the country.

A lawsuit against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleging genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Israel’s war in Gaza is being considered for submission to the International Criminal Court by the Turkish Ministry of Justice, the lawyers behind the suit told Russian state news outlet Tass on Tuesday.

“Today, representing the conscience of the citizens of the Republic of Türkiye, we filed a lawsuit at the International Criminal Court in The Hague against the 21st century Hitler, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who must stand trial for the genocide he committed in the Gaza Strip and all crimes against humanity,” lawyer Metin Kulunk wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), sharing the first page of the suit. 

While the 23-page suit has not yet been filed with the ICC, lawyer and co-plaintiff Burak Bekiroglu explained that it is being considered by the international anti-corruption law bureau of the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office and will reach The Hague “no later than next week.” As a non-party to the Rome Statute, Türkiye cannot officially file lawsuits with the ICC, but it can “inform the prosecutor’s office” about crimes via government bodies or NGOs, according to Turkish media.

The US and UK announced a third round of sanctions against senior members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Tuesday. “Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas’s financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement announcing the penalties.

The US sanctions named Mahmoud Khaled Zahhar, described as a “senior member and co-founder” of Hamas, along with the eponymous founder of Lebanese money exchange Nabil Chouman & Co., his son Khaled Chouman, and fellow Lebanese money-changer Reda Ali Khamis. Mu’ad Ibrahim Muhammed Rashid al-Atili was also sanctioned for affiliation with the militant group. Additionally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s representative to Iran, Nasser Abu Sharif, deputy secretary-general Akram al-Ajouri, and political official Jamil Yusuf Ahmad Aliyan were targeted. The sanctions freeze any US assets held by the named individuals and prohibit business deals with them.

The UK sanctioned four Hamas leaders — Yahya Sinwar, the group’s political leader in Gaza, Muhammed Deif, its military commander, Marwan Issa, deputy commander of the military arm, and Musa Dudin, a high-ranking official in the West Bank — as well as Chouman and Sudan-based financier Abdelbasit Hamza, according to a statement from the Foreign Office. The sanctions freeze the assets of the named individuals and forbid them from traveling to the UK.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen declared that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is not fit to lead the global organization, at a press conference at the UN headquarters on Tuesday. 

“Guterres does not deserve to be head of the United Nations. Guterres did not promote any peace process in the region,” Cohen claimed. “I think that Guterres like all the free nations should say clearly and loudly: free Gaza from Hamas. Everyone said Hamas is worse than ISIS. Why can he not say it?” 

Israel has repeatedly sought to equate the Palestinian militant group with the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist group in an effort to justify the intensity of its military campaign in Gaza, which it launched following the surprise Hamas attack on October 7. Over a month of unrelenting Israeli airstrikes have killed over 100 UN staff in addition to over 11,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza officials.

Israel’s attacks on hospitals, medical personnel, and ambulances in Gaza should be “investigated as war crimes,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday. The NGO warned that the IDF’s “apparently unlawful attacks” were devastating the enclave’s healthcare system when it was needed most, pointing to the unprecedented volume of casualties generated by over a month of Israeli bombardment.  

The World Health Organization had recorded at least 137 “attacks on healthcare” in Gaza as of Sunday, causing 521 deaths – including 16 medical workers. HRW itself investigated attacks on five healthcare facilities in the enclave in the first month of the war, finding Israeli forces had deliberately and repeatedly struck the Indonesian Hospital, the International Eye Hospital, and the al-Quds Hospital, as well as well-marked ambulances and other medical infrastructure.   

HRW challenged West Jerusalem’s claims regarding “Hamas’ cynical use of hospitals,” arguing that “no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law.” The group called for the International Criminal Court and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory to investigate Israel’s actions.

The IDF demolished multiple monuments to deceased Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat at the entrance to the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank on Tuesday. No reason was given for the destruction of the monuments, which were toppled with bulldozers. 

Under Arafat, the PLO had worked towards a two-state solution, in which the newly-formed Palestinian Authority would govern both Gaza and the West Bank as a unified, secular state. Following his death under questionable circumstances in 2004, Hamas gradually took prominence in Gaza, while the PA remained the governing authority in the West Bank.

Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have taken to the streets in Tel Aviv, demanding that the nation’s government do more to bring their loved ones home.

According to the Times of Israel, the protesters plan to march to Jerusalem in the near future and to gather outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

“We await the Israeli government to fulfill the basic contract that was broken. We already paid the price on October 7, now it’s your turn,” the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said in a statement quoted by CNN.

Videos posted on social media show hundreds of people carrying Israeli flags and photos of those abducted by the Palestinian armed group.

Netanyahu had earlier met with representatives of families of hostages, vowing to “exhaust every possibility” to secure their release. However, he would not commit to a possible prisoner-exchange deal with Hamas based on an “everyone for everyone” principle.

Since the start of the conflict, Hamas has taken more than 240 hostages.

Some 200,000 people in northern Gaza have been forced to flee south in the past ten days due to the fighting between Hamas and Israel, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said.

Meanwhile, an IDF spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, estimated the number of people fleeing the northern part of the territory at several hundred thousand, adding that this figure may have exceeded one million.

According to the UN data, a total of 1.6 million people have been displaced in the Palestinian enclave since the start of the conflict on October 7.

The two largest medical facilities in Gaza – Al-Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals – are out of service due to the lack of fuel and electricity, CNN reported, citing Palestinian officials.

Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa, described the situation as catastrophic, adding that essential units inside the facility have collapsed. According to the official, the situation became so dire that the doctors had to wrap premature babies in foil and place them near tanks of hot water to keep them alive.

He also noted that the facility had provided shelter to 7,000 people along with 1,500 patients and medical staff.

A similar crisis has also engulfed the Al-Quds Hospital, according to the Red Crescent Society. It also reported heavy gunfire as well as “violent explosions” near the facility.

Israel and Hamas are close to a hostage deal that could result in the release of most of the Israeli women and children captured by the Palestinian armed group since the start of the conflict, the Washington Post reported, citing a senior Israeli official.

According to the paper, the agreement, which could be announced within several days, may involve the release of Israeli prisoners in groups in exchange for the simultaneous freeing of Palestinian women and young people held by Israel.

Hamas had earlier indicated that it was ready to release 70 hostages in return for a five-day truce. The Post reported, citing an unnamed Arab official, that while it is unclear how many people will be set free as part of the deal, there are at least 120 Palestinian women and young people in Israeli prisons.

Since the start of the conflict on October 7, Hamas has captured more than 240 hostages.

Read the full story here.

At least 31 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Monday evening, adding that 12 homes were damaged.

The IDF has not commented on the allegations. The Israeli military confirmed striking targets in Jabalia in the past, saying that they were eliminating Hamas militants and their command posts in the area.

13 November 2023

Genocide lawsuit

The US human rights group Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on Monday announced a federal lawsuit against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for “their failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide” against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Defense for Children International – Palestine, and accused the top US officials of violating international law, including the 1948 Genocide Convention, and the Genocide Convention Implementation Act enacted by the US Congress in 1988.

Israeli soldiers have found evidence of Hamas' presence in Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital for children, IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in an English-language press conference.

“Underneath the hospital, in the basement, we found a Hamas command and control center, suicide vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs, and other weapons,” Hagari said. “We also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here.”

Hagari also claimed that the Israeli Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 unit and the 401st Armored Brigade found evidence that “Hamas terrorists came back from the massacre on October 7 to this hospital.”

Hamas has offered Israel the release of 50-70 hostages – all women and children – in exchange for a five-day truce, the spokesman for al-Qassam Brigades, the Palestinian group’s military wing, told Al Jazeera. The proposal also included the release of 75 Palestinian women and 200 children from Israeli prisons.

“The enemy had asked for the release of 100 captives,” Abu Obaida said. “But the enemy is evading and procrastinating.”

One woman taken into captivity was killed in an Israeli airstrike “a few days ago,” he said, accusing Israel of not caring for the hostages’ lives.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has rejected Israeli accusations that Hamas fighters were operating inside the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza. The RCS “strongly condemns the false claims by the occupying forces about armed individuals launching projectiles” from the hospital, and sees them as “a blatant attempt to incite further targeting and besieging of the hospital, constituting a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” it said in a statement.

“The PRCS confirms that there are no armed individuals inside the hospital, and no shots have been fired from within. Everyone within the hospital are patients, their families, and the medical staff,” the organization added, and called on “the international community to intervene immediately to protect its teams besieged inside the hospital, facing imminent danger with each passing moment.”

Israeli outlet i24NEWS has published a photo of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers of the Golani Brigade inside Gaza’s parliament building on Omar Al-Mukhtar street. A large group of soldiers posed with two Israeli flags inside the Palestinian parliament building “after conquering the area,” according to the outlet.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Monday evening that Hamas has “lost control of Gaza,” referring to Gaza City in the northern portion of the Palestinian enclave.

“There is no power that Hamas has capable of stopping the IDF. The IDF is advancing to every point. Hamas has lost control of Gaza, terrorists are fleeing south, civilians are looting Hamas bases, they have no confidence in the government,” Gallant said at a press briefing, according to Israeli media.

Norway has urged Israel to release the funding for Palestinian Authority, including the money intended to pay for medication and social assistance in Gaza.

“We call on Israel to maintain the agreed transfer of what is Palestinian,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told Reuters in an interview in Oslo, calling the money “critical” for Palestinian welfare.

The funding in question is from taxes and VAT which rightly belongs to the PA. Israel said it would transfer the funds on November 2, but withhold about 30% of it earmarked for Hamas-run Gaza, where it goes to public sector wages and electricity bills. The PA said on November 6 it would not accept a partial transfer.

Norway chairs the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, an international donor group for the Palestinian territories.

Russian evacuation flight lands

A special flight with Russians evacuated from Gaza has landed at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, the Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed on Monday. The Il-76 that took off from Cairo had about 70 civilians on board, accompanied by medical workers and psychiatrists.

President Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday that Moscow would evacuate Russian nationals – as well as those from CIS countries of the former Soviet Union – and their family members from the Palestinian enclave. The Russian Foreign Ministry thanked Egypt, Israel, Qatar and the Palestinian Authority for their “effective assistance” in the matter.

Jordan has rejected a plan for Israel to establish “security zones” within Gaza, according to state media.

Jordan’s King Abdullah reportedly told senior politicians that there will be “no military or security solution” to the current conflict, and that the “root of the crisis” was Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its denial of basic rights. “The solution starts from there,” King Abdullah said, arguing that “any other path is doomed to failure.”

More than 2 million Palestinian refugees are registered in Jordan. Amman fears that Israel may begin to expel Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, with which Jordan shares a border.

Last week, Jordan’s foreign minister said any Israeli attempt to displace Palestinians from the territory would cross a “red line” and be seen as a “declaration of war.”

US President Joe Biden has been blasted by 100 officials from the State Department and the International Development Agency, who signed an internal dissent memo accusing him of “disregarding the lives of Palestinians” and “spreading misinformation” about the Israel-Hamas conflict, Axios reported.

The US outlet said the “scathing” memo offered a glimpse into the “raw divisions” over Biden’s strategy on the war, which has entered its sixth week as humanitarian organizations call for a ceasefire amid the massive civilian death toll.

Some 3,117 students enrolled in Gaza schools have been killed by Israeli strikes since October 7, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. It added that 130 teachers and school administrators have also been killed, while 45 schools have been destroyed by the air strikes.

All schools in the enclave have been closed since the latest escalation of violence began over a month ago, leaving more than 600,000 students unable to study.

There are currently 70 government schools and 145 UNRWA schools that are instead being used as shelters for internally placed Gazans, the bureau said.

The IDF has claimed that it killed “21 terrorists” at the al-Quds hospital in Gaza. In an update on Telegram, the military said that a “terrorist squad” had embedded itself among civilians at the entrance to the hospital, but the group was “subsequently eliminated.”

According to the IDF, the terrorists fired RPGs before returning to hide inside the hospital.

“This incident is another example of Hamas’ continued abuse of civilian structures, including hospitals, to carry out attacks,” the IDF said.

Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said an evacuation attempt for patients at the al-Quds hospital had failed due to “continuing shelling and shooting,” adding that medical staff and patients were “still trapped inside the hospital without food, water or electricity.” 

The Israeli authorities have approved the banning of the Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen TV channel over its coverage of the conflict between West Jerusalem and Hamas.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who spearheaded the effort to shut down the station, claimed that its activities “serve the interests of Israel’s enemies.”

“Al-Mayadeen’s broadcasts and reporters serve the hateful terrorist organizations, and it is time to bring them to justice,” he added, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Al-Mayadeen has “basically become Hezbollah’s mouthpiece” and spreads “dangerous propaganda.”

Numerous Arab public figures have condemned the decision while expressing support for the channel. Former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called Israel’s move “the biggest badge of honor on the station’s chest.”

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Momen has urged the global community to boycott Israel and its products over its actions in Palestine. “Hold Israeli leadership accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he said, as quoted by the Dhaka Tribune, while describing the situation in Gaza as a classic example of ethnic cleansing.

Israel is ready to evacuate babies from the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has told Sky News. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had previously described the situation at the facility as “dire and perilous,” noting that it had been without electricity and water for three days and that there had been constant shelling and strikes in the area.

"We have no interest whatsoever in any harm coming to those babies," Regev stressed, denying reports that the hospital was completely surrounded. He added that Israel had been encouraging people to leave the facility and was ready to provide ambulances.

The adviser also pointed out that Israel had delivered two days’ worth of fuel to the hospital compound area to help alleviate the crisis, but claimed that Hamas had prevented the staff from collecting it.

Hamas had intended to strike “a blow of historic proportions” on Israel, with plans to advance deep into the country and spark a wider regional conflict, the Washington Post reported, citing intelligence sources in both the Middle East and the US. One Israeli official told the paper that the Palestinian militant group had planned to launch a “second phase” of the incursion in order to reach major Israeli cities and bases.

According to the WP, one Hamas unit had maps suggesting that they wanted to reach as far as the West Bank. The report also details the group’s meticulous reconnaissance activities prior to the October 7 attack, which relied on cheap drones, intel from Gazan workers who were allowed to enter Israel, and even the monitoring of real estate photos and social media posts.

The report also claimed that the militants had planned ahead for mass atrocities in Israel, with one order recovered from the body of a Hamas fighter reading, “Kill as many people and take as many hostages as possible”.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has warned his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, against escalating the situation on the country’s northern border with Lebanon, which is home to Islamist military group Hezbollah, Axios reported, citing US and Israeli officials.

According to the article, the White House is worried that Israel is trying to provoke Hezbollah, potentially sparking a wider regional conflict that could draw in the US and other countries. However, Gallant reportedly dismissed these concerns, insisting that Israeli policy is not to open a second front in Lebanon.

The American outlet also reported that the White House had dispatched Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, to Lebanon to deliver “a strong warning” to Hezbollah through local officials not to escalate the tensions.

Hamas has denied preventing medics from accepting fuel from Israeli troops, claiming the group is not associated with al-Shifa and that Gaza's largest medical complex is under the authority of the Palestinian health ministry. 

“The offer belittles the pain and suffering of the patients who are trapped inside without water, food, or electricity. This quantity is not enough to operate hospital generators for more than 30 minutes,” the group added in a statement cited by Al Jazeera.

The IDF has claimed that Israeli soldiers “risked their lives to hand-deliver 300 liters of fuel to the Shifa hospital for urgent medical purposes” for an emergency generator powering incubators for premature babies, but Hamas militants allegedly “forbade the hospital from taking it.”

12 November 2023

The US has carried out another round of airstrikes in Syria, allegedly targeting “a training facility and a safe house near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin, respectively,” in response to a series of attacks against illegal American outposts in the country.

“US military forces conducted precision strikes today on facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran-affiliated groups in response to continued attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday night.

The World Health Organization has restored communication with health professionals at the Al-Shifa facility, who described the situation as “dire and perilous.”

“It's been 3 days without electricity, without water and with very poor internet which has severely impacted our ability to provide essential care,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X. “The constant gunfire and bombings in the area have exacerbated the already critical circumstances.”

“Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” Ghebreyesus said, adding that the “world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair.”

Israeli warplanes and drones have struck “a number of terror targets” in Lebanon, including a “military compound containing a weapons storage facility” and other “military infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah, the IDF said, releasing a video of the latest raid.

French President Emmanuel Macron “does not and did not intend to accuse Israel of intentionally harming innocent civilians” in Gaza when he called for a ceasefire in the territory on Friday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office announced on Sunday, citing a phone call between the two leaders.

Macron also reiterated his support for Israel’s right to self-defense and his commitment to securing the release of the hostages held in Gaza, Herzog’s office said, adding that the French president had explained his comments were “made in reference to the humanitarian situation.” Herzog reportedly reassured his French counterpart that Israel was taking “all possible measures to prevent harm to uninvolved civilians” and shifted the blame for civilian deaths on Hamas.

Urging Israel to stop its bombardment of Gaza on Friday, Macron had said there was “no justification” for Israel’s bombing of “these babies, these ladies, these old people” – comments Herzog’s office said “caused much pain and upset in Israel.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Saturday that Macron had “made a mistake, factually and morally” by implying Israel, not Hamas, was preventing the evacuation of civilians from northern Gaza.

State-run arms manufacturer Israel Aerospace signed a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to supply air defense systems “for all theaters of operation, whether sea, ground, air or space,” the company announced on Sunday, citing the needs of Israel’s war with Gaza.

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman stepped up her condemnation of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), suggesting “further action is necessary” after nine police officers were injured in clashes with counter-protestors at a demonstration for Gaza on Saturday. 

Braverman, who has repeatedly denounced Palestinian solidarity protests as “hate marches,” decried the “sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march” as “a new low,” claiming “the streets of London are being polluted by hate, violence and antisemitism” and that innocent civilians – especially Jews – are being “mobbed and intimidated.”

While some 300,000 people reportedly turned out in support of the Palestinians on Saturday, right-wing counter-protestors from the English Defence League and affiliated groups were behind the attacks on police and constituted the majority of the 126 arrests made at the event, the assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan Police told Financial Times. Some Labour leaders, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, have called on Braverman to resign, claiming the violence was “the direct result” of her own inflammatory rhetoric.

French politicians, including Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, joined thousands of protesters marching against antisemitism in Paris. At least 70 similar demonstrations were reportedly held in other cities including Strasbourg, Lyon, and Marseille. 

While President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he called the “unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism” in France in a letter to Le Parisien on Sunday, he did not attend the demonstration, vowing instead to be present in spirit. Macron’s leading political opponent, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, participated despite condemnation from Macron’s government, while attending Socialist and Green Party MPs as well as Communist leader Fabien Roussel made a show of distancing their own participation from that of National Rally members.

Israeli forces have blown up more than 150 tunnels and underground complexes built by Hamas underneath Gaza, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus has said. The military is “hard at work on continuing” to destroy the Palestinian armed group’s underground infrastructure, he added. According to the spokesman, the tunnels are “tremendously important for Hamas” as they represent “the backbone of their combat capabilities.”

Regarding Israel’s incursion into Gaza, Conricus insisted that the IDF troops “advance according to plan, methodically, without rushing,” as avoiding unnecessary casualties among its servicemen remains a priority. During more than a week of fighting, the IDF has dismantled “many” Hamas strongholds and killed “more than hundreds” of the Palestinian armed group’s operatives, he stated.

The Israeli military has killed more than 60 fighters from the Lebanese group Hezbollah amid the current escalation in the region caused by the attack on Israel by Hamas, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus said at a briefing. There have been almost daily exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border since October 7.

“Hezbollah continue to walk a very, very thin line” by persisting with its attacks on Israeli territory, the spokesman warned, adding that the military is ready to “enhance” its response. Conricus also issued a warning to the government in Beirut, saying “Lebanon stands to lose a lot, perhaps everything, and they stand to gain absolutely nothing from allowing Hezbollah to escalate the situation and draw us all into war.”

The Israeli military said that on Sunday it will help evacuate babies from Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital.

“The staff of the Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow we help the babies in the pediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said on Saturday night.

The World Health Organization says it has lost communication with its contacts in Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza.

“As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” the WHO wrote on X.

The Israel Defense Forces repeatedly claimed that Hamas militants use the Al-Shifa Hospital as their main command center and have built an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers under the facility. According to some reports, the ground invasion is focused in part on surrounding the building, although the Israeli military refused to comment on the ongoing combat operation.

“The last reports said that the hospital was surrounded by tanks. Staff reported lack of clean water & risk of the last remaining critical functions, including ICUs, ventilators and incubators, soon shutting down due to lack of fuel, putting the lives of patients at immediate risk,” the WHO added. 

“There are reports that some people who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded and even killed,” the WHO added, expresing “grave concerns for the safety of the health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support and displaced people who remain inside the hospital.”

Jordan has conducted a second airdrop of critical medical supplies for its field hospital in the Gaza Strip to “enhance and develop the hospital's capabilities and increase the ability of medical personnel to provide health and treatment services to alleviate the burden of the people,” the Prime Ministry of Jordan announced on X early Sunday. 

The new relief operation was implemented in cooperation with the UAE and Qatar. After Jordan air-dropped its first medical aid package on November 6, the Israeli military said the unusual move had been a coordinated effort between the neighboring nations.

Israeli warplanes have carried out yet another airstrike in Syria, targeting “terror infrastructure sites,” the IDF said, claiming the raid came in response to an attack toward the occupied Golan Heights.

11 November 2023

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Hamas already lost all control of the northern Gaza Strip, and that once the war ends his country will never allow a new authority to emerge that educates its children to hate Israel.

“We will not stop until the mission is completed,” the Israeli leader stated during a Saturday night press conference in Tel Aviv, reassuring the families of the fallen Israeli soldiers that “we are doing everything to be worthy of their sacrifice and heroism.”

Netanyahu dismissed the possibility of the Palestinian Authority controlling Gaza after the war, insisting that the “will not be a civil authority there that educates their children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, or to eliminate Israel.”

“There cannot be an authority who didn't condemn the massacre. There will have to be something else, but in any case our security control. I stand by it and don't intend to give up,” he said.

Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a warning to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, echoing the Israeli defense minister’s statements earlier in the day.

“Don’t make the mistake of going to war. That would be the mistake of your life… Your entry into the war will seal the fate of Lebanon,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The IDF has said its fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, destroying “terrorist infrastructure and military positions.” The attack came in response to Saturday rocket launches directed toward Israeli territory, the IDF said, sharing a video of the latest air raids.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has warned that the Lebanese group Hezbollah is “close to making a grave mistake” that could lead to a scenario in which residents in Beirut may have to flee their homes should it continue carrying out attacks close to Israel’s northern border.

“Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war that may happen, and it is making mistakes,” Gallant said on Saturday during a visit to a military base in northern Israel. “If it makes mistakes of this kind, the ones who will pay the price are first all of the citizens of Lebanon.”

“What we are doing in Gaza we know how to do in Beirut,” Gallant warned.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has called on Islamic governments to designate Israel as a “terrorist organization” due to its ongoing military operations in Gaza.

“Islamic governments should designate the army of the occupying and aggressor regime as a terrorist organization,” Raisi said at the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Riyadh as Middle Eastern leaders convened to discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Raisi also called on Islamic countries to cut “any sort of political or economic relations” with Israel, as well as the introduction of a trade boycott “especially in the energy field.”

Raisi’s arrival in Riyadh on Saturday was the first time an Iranian head of state had visited Saudi Arabia since diplomatic ties between the two countries were normalized in a Beijing-brokered deal in March. Read the full story here. 

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of London to demand an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza. The march, believed to be the largest since the Hamas incursion into Israel on October 7, started near Hyde Park, taking the demonstrators to the US embassy in Vauxhall. People carried banners reading “Stop the War,” “End the Siege,” “Stop the Genocide” along with other messages. The crowd was also heard chanting “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire now.” According to police, some 2,000 officers have been deployed in the center of the British capital to provide security.

The pro-Palestinian rally began peacefully, but clashes broke out between the law enforcement officers and counter-protesters, allegedly from right-wing groups, near Westminster Bridge. Police said on X (formerly Twitter) that a “large number” of people were detained during the unrest.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called on the US to put pressure on Israel in order to end its “genocidal war” in Gaza, the occupation of the Palestinian lands and desecration of Muslim holy sites. In his speech at the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Riyadh, Abbas also insisted that “the UN Security Council must act quickly to stop Israeli aggression and allow humanitarian aid into the Strip, and to prevent the expulsion of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.” He reiterated that the PA “will not agree to any military or security solution to the Palestinian issue,” urging that an international conference be convened to find a political settlement.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has described the situation in Gaza as “a humanitarian catastrophe” as he delivered the opening speech at the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Riyadh. The events in the Palestinian enclave “proved the failure of the international community and the UN Security Council to put an end to Israel’s gross violations of international humanitarian laws, and prove the dual standards adopted by the world.”

The crown prince insisted that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be “the end of the Israeli occupation and illegal settlements, and restoration of the established rights of the Palestinian people and the establishment of the state on the 1967 border, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

The IDF has said its fighter jets and artillery struck a number of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Lebanese media reported that some projectiles landed near the coastal village of al-Zahrani, around 40km from the Israeli border, making it the deepest IDF strike inside the neighboring country since October 7.

According to the IDF, the bombardment was carried out in response to rocket attacks from Lebanon directed at northern Israel and attempts by Hezbollah to shoot down IDF drones operating in the border area earlier on the day. The exchange of fire comes ahead of an expected address by Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, later on Saturday.

“We are minutes away from imminent death,” Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of the besieged Shifa Hospital in Gaza has told Al Jazeera. “The hospital compound is cordoned off and the buildings of the hospital are targeted. Any moving person within the compound is targeted. The Israeli occupation forces are outside, preventing any person to move.”

The hospital has no electricity, water or internet and is lacking medical key supplies, according to the director. “We’ve started to lose lives. Patients are dying by the minute, victims and wounded are also dying – even babies in the incubators,” he said.

Palestinian witnesses have told the AP that Israeli troops are within view of Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza. IDF troops are “facing stiff resistance, but they are advancing,” said a man who lives in the area. “They are here. They are visible,” another person, who is among thousands still sheltering at the hospital, told the agency. The Israeli military claims that a major Hamas command center is located under the hospital, although medics and the Palestinian armed group have denied those allegations.

Sarbini Abdul Murad, the chairman of Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), a volunteer group that funds the Indonesian hospital in Gaza, has told RT that claims by Israel’s military, that Hamas tunnels are located under the facility, are groundless.

“The IDF said that the Indonesian Hospital was under Hamas control, and that the hospital was designed with special tunnels, and so on. We are of course very surprised by these accusations because we (MER-C) were the ones who built the hospital. All development resources come from us, we also provide the constructors. So, the hospital has absolutely nothing to do with Hamas or anything else. So, the accusation is completely unreasonable,” Sarbini said.

The chairman pointed out that “in the Geneva Convention it is clearly stated that hospitals, places of worship, ambulances, schools, churches, must not be damaged or disturbed [in conflict]. But for Israel, none of that matters. The important thing is that they will attack anything that is suspicious in their opinion.”

A senior Israeli official has told the Wall Street Journal that Hamas might be holding hostages underneath the Shifa hospital in Gaza, which complicates the IDF’s operations in the area. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported overnight that “the attacks against Al-Shifa Hospital have dramatically intensified.” 

The Israeli military says a key Hamas command center is located underneath the hospital, although the Palestinian armed group denies those claims. A Western security official told the WSJ that there was “no way to verify the truthfulness” of Israel’s allegations.

The IDF has said that overnight it continued its airstrikes against Hamas fighters, weapons depots and buildings used by the Palestinian armed group in the north of Gaza. The aerial attacks were directed by the Israeli troops on the ground, it added. An entrance to one of Hamas’s underground tunnels was discovered and destroyed, the IDF said.

The Israeli military also announced that it has been able to capture 11 Hamas strongholds in Gaza since start of its ground operation.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has departed from Tehran on a trip to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, to take part in the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit on the situation in Gaza, Reuters has reported. “Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action,” Raisi said before boarding the plane. “Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important,” he stressed.

The Israeli military has declined to comment on claims by the Palestinian medics that its tanks have surrounded the Al Nasr and Al Rantisi Pediatric Hospitals in Gaza. When approached on the issue by CNN, the IDF replied that “given that your question relates to specific military activity currently underway, we are unable to address or confirm specific queries.” It only said that the Israeli troops are “engaged in intense battle against Hamas” in northern Gaza.

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will host a Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Saturday in response to what it called “unprecedented circumstances in Gaza.” Riyadh initially planned to host emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation separately, but after consultations between the sides it was decided to combine the two events, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement. There is “a sense from the leaders of all countries of the importance of uniting efforts and coming up with a unified collective position that expresses the common Arab-Islamic will” on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the statement read.

The WHO is “extremely disturbed” by reported Israeli airstrikes near Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the organization’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X (formerly as Twitter) early Saturday. 

“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,” he wrote.

The Israeli military has denied responsibility, insisting that a “misfired projectile launched by terrorist organizations” was to blame.

The IDF is preparing for “a year of fighting” in Gaza, and is set to expand its ground operations currently focused in the north into other parts of the Palestinian enclave, according to a report by Israel's Channel 12.

“There is no pressure to hurry… a year of fighting to get to the fourth stage of this war: The entry of a new government in Gaza that is not Hamas and is not backed by the Iranians,” the report claimed, as cited by the Times of Israel. “That is the message army commanders are being told all the time: Work slowly and securely. Bring the results.”

“On average, a child is killed every 10 minutes in Gaza,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the UN Security Council on Friday, describing the Palestinian enclaves healthcare system as being “on its knees.”

“Nowhere and no one is safe,” he said. “Hospital corridors crammed with the injured, the sick, the dying. Morgues overflowing. Surgery without anesthesia. Tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering at hospitals.”

The WHO has verified more than 250 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7, and 25 attacks on healthcare in Israel, according to Ghebreyesus.

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan has argued that “Israel is doing far more for the well-being of Gazans than the WHO or any other UN body.” He explained that Israel had created a taskforce to establish field hospitals in southern Gaza, after ordering some 1.1 million people to leave the north before launching its ground invasion.

10 November 2023

The Israeli PM responded to Emmanuel Macron’s criticism by saying that Hamas was responsible for all the deaths in Gaza, because it was using “schools, mosques and hospitals as terror command centers” and civilians as human shields.

“These crimes that Hamas-ISIS is committing today in Gaza, will tomorrow be committed in Paris, New York and everywhere around the world. World leaders must condemn Hamas-ISIS and not Israel,” Netanyahu said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that even though Israel has a right to protect itself, there was “no justification” for the scale of the bombing and civilian suffering in Gaza. 

“De facto – today, civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop,” Macron told the BBC.

“We do share [Israel's] pain. And we do share their willingness to get rid of terrorism,” he said, while insisting that “it’s important for the mid-to-long run as well for the security of Israel itself, to recognise that all lives matter.”

“If there is a hell on earth, it is the north of Gaza,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva. He added that the UN humanitarian office could no longer deliver aid to the northern part of the enclave, where Israel is conducting a ground operation against Hamas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “far too many” Palestinian civilians have died in Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, as he urged West Jerusalem to minimize collateral damage.

“Much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them,” he told reporters in New Delhi on Friday. “Far too many Palestinians have been killed, far too many have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them.”

The Red Cross has warned that the healthcare system in Gaza has “reached a point of no return,” with even children’s hospitals not being “spared from the violence.”

“Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly unsafe, the healthcare system in Gaza has reached a point of no return risking the lives of thousands of wounded, sick and displaced people,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement.

Israel has revised the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack down to “around 1,200” people, from a previous estimate of “over 1,400.” The Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told AFP that the updated figure was “due to the fact that there were lot of corpses that were not identified and now we think those belong to terrorists,” not Israeli civilians.

Israel’s reaction to the October 7 attack by Hamas has played into the terrorist group’s hands, according to X CEO Elon Musk, who urged West Jerusalem to embrace a “counterintuitive” strategy that would be more beneficial in the long-term.

“If you kill somebody’s child in Gaza, you’ve made at least a few Hamas members who will die just to kill Israelis,” Musk said on the Lex Fridman podcast on Thursday. The Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) head argued that the goal of the Palestinian militant group was to “provoke an overreaction” by Israel by committing atrocities and then “leverage that aggressive response to rally Muslims worldwide for the cause of Gaza and Palestine, which they have succeeded in doing.”

“For every Hamas member you kill, how many did you create? And if you create more than you kill, you’ve not succeeded,” Musk said.

“The counterintuitive thing that should be done here, even though it is very difficult, is that I recommend Israel do the most conspicuous acts of kindness possible,” Musk added.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced that the Latin American country will seek to prosecute Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for atrocities committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva was scheduled to meet with International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors on Friday, to formally press charges against Netanyahu over “the massacre of the Palestinian people’s children and civilians he has caused,” according to Petro.

The president posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday that Colombia “will contribute to the complaint by the Republic of Algeria” for war crimes, filed before the ICC against Netanyahu.

Earlier this week, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called on the ICC to “take action” to stop Israel’s campaign against Gaza, and urged human rights organizations and other Arab nations to sue Netanyahu.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza has exceeded 11,000 people, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave has said. According to its latest data, 11,078 Palestinians have been killed and 27,490 others wounded during more than a month of bombardment by the IDF.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reiterated that the PA is ready to assume control of Gaza after the conflict between Israel and Hamas ends. “Gaza is an integral part of the State of Palestine, and we will assume our full responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution, encompassing both the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza,” Abbas said, during a speech marking the anniversary of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The military solution to the crisis being pursued by Israel “will not bring security and peace to anyone,” he insisted, adding that Palestinians “will not accept the reoccupation of Gaza or the annexation of any parts of it under any pretext.”

“Security and peace in our region will only be achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem, based on the 1967 borders,” the president stressed. Abbas also called for an international peace conference, which would provide guarantees and a timetable for this process.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has suggested that by launching its deadly attack on October 7, Hamas wanted to provoke an “aggressive response” from Israel to rally Muslims worldwide around the Palestinian cause. The group’s plan has “succeeded,” Musk claimed during an appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast.

“The counter-intuitive thing that should be done, even though it’s difficult is that: Israel should engage in the most conspicuous acts of kindness possible,” such as providing humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza or setting up a mobile hospital there, Musk added.

Airstrikes on the densely-populated Palestinian enclave will likely have the opposite effect to the one desired by the Israeli authorities, because “if you kill somebody’s child in Gaza – you’ve made at least a few Hamas members, who will die just to kill an Israeli. That’s the situation,” Musk argued.

However, the entrepreneur also stressed that “it’s appropriate for Israel to find the Hamas members and either kill them or incarcerate them... because they are going to keep coming otherwise.”

The IDF’s violent clampdown on Gaza isn’t going to bring stability to both the Israelis and Palestinians, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for the Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has said in an opinion piece. “Razing entire neighborhoods to the ground is not an answer for the egregious crimes committed by Hamas. To the contrary, it is creating a new generation of aggrieved Palestinians, who are likely to continue the cycle of violence,” he stressed.

Israel’s “collective punishment” of the Palestinians is being extended into the occupied West Bank, which “risks widening the war and setting the whole of the Middle East ablaze,” the UN official warned. “The carnage simply must stop,” Lazzarini said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reacted to Israel’s decision to allow daily four-hour humanitarian pauses in Gaza, saying that “some progress has been made.” Blinken stressed that it was “very clear that much more needs to be done in terms of protecting civilians and getting humanitarian assistance to them.” The US top diplomat was speaking to reporters in India’s capital New Delhi, the last stop on his marathon tour which included the Middle East, Türkiye and South Korea, as well as participation in the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Japan.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the one ultimately paying the price for Israeli “massacres” in Gaza, Anadolu news agency has reported. “Right now, between 60% and 70% of the Israeli people are against Netanyahu” and it’s only going to get worse for the PM, Erdogan told journalists aboard his presidential plane.

The Turkish leader also claimed that Hamas has no interest in holding the civilian hostages it captured during its incursion into Israel on October 7. The group is willing to set them free but, for this to happen, “the Palestinians in Israeli hands should be released,” he explained.

Erdogan also spoke about the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that is taking place in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday, insisting that the decisions made at the event “would become a big step toward stopping Israel’s oppression” of Palestinians.

More than 50% of housing units across Gaza have been damaged in the Israeli bombardment since October 7, the authorities in the besieged Palestinian enclave have said. Some 40,000 housing units in Gaza have been completely destroyed by airstrikes, they said. According to estimates by the Gaza authorities, the IDF has dropped 32,000 tons of explosives on the enclave in just over a month, causing material damage of around $4 billion.

The UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese has described Israel’s decision to allow daily four-hour-long humanitarian pauses amid its attacks on Gaza so that civilians could flee to the south of the enclave as “very cynical and cruel.”

“There has been continuous bombings, 6,000 bombs every week on the Gaza Strip, on this tiny piece of land where people are trapped and the destruction is massive. There won’t be any way back after what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip,” Albanese told journalists in Adelaide, Australia. “So four hours cease-fire, yes, to let people breathe and to remember what is the sound of life without bombing before starting bombing them again. It’s very cynical and cruel,” she said.

The IDF has claimed that its ground troops have eliminated several members of Hamas’ elite Nukhba forces, who took part in the group’s attack on Israel on October 7. Israeli soldiers conducted raids in northern Gaza based on information provided by Shin Bet security agency, the IDF said. Among those killed were Nukhba company commander Ahmed Musa and platoon commander Amr Alhandi, according to the Israeli military.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has told his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani that “the expansion of the scope of the war [between Israel and Hamas] has become inevitable,” Press TV has reported. It’s going to happen because of “the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza’s civilian residents” by the Israeli forces, Amir-Abdollahian explained during a phone call on Thursday.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, the death toll from IDF strikes on the enclave since October 7 has reached 10,812 people. Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, as well as some militias in Syria and Iraq have threatened Israel with a regional conflict if it does not stop its attacks on Gaza.

Gaza’s border service has said that 600 foreigners and Palestinians in urgent need of medical assistance are going to leave the enclave for Egypt through the Rafah border crossing on Friday. Egyptian sources told Reuters that the crossing has already opened and began letting people through. On Thursday, 695 foreigners were able to leave Gaza via Rafah, which remains the only way out of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The IDF has said that its losses in the ground operation in Gaza have reached 36 troops after a combat medic was killed in the fighting against Hamas in northern part of the Palestinian enclave.

Former US President Donald Trump has suggested that deep-rooted hatred on both sides has complicated long-running efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians “learn to hate the Jewish people in the earliest forms of school, whatever their form of school is, but you know, Israel hatred,” Trump said in an interview with Univision, the transcript of which had been seen by the Semafor news platform.

“There is no hatred like the Palestinian hatred of Israel and Jewish people. And probably the other way around also, I don’t know. You know, it’s not as obvious, but probably that’s it too. So sometimes you have to let things play out and you have to see where it ends,” the 2024 Republican frontrunner stressed. However, Trump said that he believes that a deal between the sides is still possible.

The IDF has carried out an airstrike in Syria in response to an alleged drone strike on Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat. “A short while ago, the IDF struck the organization in Syria that carried out the launch of a UAV toward Eilat yesterday (Thursday), which hit a school in the city,” the Israeli military said, promising to “respond severely to every aggression against Israeli territory.”

The IDF went on to claim that it “holds the Syrian regime fully responsible for every terror activity emanating from its territory,” even though parts of the country are still occupied by US-backed rebels supported by some 1,000 American troops.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that there won’t be a complete ceasefire in Gaza without the release of all Israeli hostages.

“A ceasefire with Hamas means surrender to Hamas, surrender to terror and the victory of Iran’s axis of terror,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday, noting the Israel only agreed to brief pauses in fighting “in specific locations for a given period, a few hours here, a few hours there” to “facilitate a safe passage of civilians away from the zone of fighting.”

“We don’t seek to conquer Gaza, we don’t seek to occupy Gaza, and we don’t seek to govern Gaza,” he claimed, sharing his “clear” vision of Gaza’s future: “Hamas will be gone, we have to destroy Hamas, not only for our sake, but for the sake of everyone. For the sake of civilization, for the sake of Palestians and Israelis alike.”

A large crowd of demonstrators swarmed the New York Times headquarters to protest the outlet’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, barging into the building and briefly occupying its lobby.

Protesters also condemned Washington’s staunch support for Israel, with some heard accusing President Joe Biden of “supporting genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. 

At one point, demonstrators passed out mock issues of the NYT dubbed “the New York Crimes,” which said the outlet had “blood…on its hands” for “inciting enthusiasm for war.” It went on to list the names of dozens of journalists killed in the latest bout of violence, with the parody headline “We killed our colleagues.”

09 November 2023

The number of people killed in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 10,812, according to the latest figures from the health officials in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave. Some 4,412 children are among the dead, while a further 26,905 people have been wounded in the Israeli retaliatory strikes after a deadly attack on southern Israel by Hamas claimed over 1,400 lives.

The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume a governance role in Gaza, but wants a full-fledged two-state solution “with a comprehensive political decision that would include the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the PA’s parent Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), told the New York Times.

Palestinian leaders were looking for “a serious American initiative that would force Israel to abide by it, to commit to it,” he said, adding that there is no confidence that the current Israeli government, which has pushed to annex large parts of the West Bank, would agree to those terms. “Where is the partner on the Israeli side?”

The Israeli warplanes have carried out airstrikes on multiple sites which the IDF described as “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” in Lebanon, including a “terrorist compound,” several “observation posts,” and “technological equipment used to terrorize Israeli civilians.” The attack came in response to launches directed toward Israeli territory, the IDF said.

US President Joe Biden has ruled out any hope of achieving a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“None. No possibility,” Biden told reporters outside the White House on Thursday when asked about the chances of a firm cessation in hostilities. Speaking to reporters separately later in the day as he was boarding the Air Force One, the president revealed he had been pushing for a “pause” in fighting “for a lot more than three days.”

The US, however, has not managed to secure even that long of a pause from Israel, which is apparently determined to continue its war on Hamas until the militant group is completely destroyed. Thus far, Israel has only agreed to implement daily humanitarian breaks.

Read the full story here.

Both Israelis and Palestinians would need new leadership if they are to make peace with each other, Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. The former American first lady, senator, secretary of state, and 2016 presidential front-runner was speaking via video link at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.

“Hamas is not a partner for any kind of peace or two-state solution,” Clinton told Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. She added that peace might be achieved by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and whoever ends up in charge of Gaza after the war with Israel.

When asked about Netanyahu’s potential to negotiate a two-state solution, Clinton replied, “I don’t think there is any evidence of that. I think the Israeli people will have to decide about his leadership.”

Danny Danon, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, has warned that photojournalists who captured images or videos of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel may be put on an Israeli elimination list, considering them participants in the assault. The threat followed a pro-Israeli outlet questioning the presence of journalists near the Israel-Gaza fence, suggesting their involvement. Israeli politicians, including Benny Gantz, have implied the journalists’ complicity. The accused reporters deny any prior knowledge, asserting they were just doing their jobs. The Associated Press and CNN cut ties with one freelancer without explanation. The New York Times defended another photographer, citing “vague allegations” and “no evidence” for the accusations, expressing concern about endangering freelancers and undermining public-interest work.

US President Joe Biden has said that there are currently no expectations of a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. “None. No possibility,” Biden told reporters at the White House ahead of a trip to Illinois, when asked about the possibility of an agreement to suspend the conflict.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby added that Washington “doesn’t believe a ceasefire is appropriate at this time,” stating that it would give Hamas an opportunity to reorganize and would “legitimize what they did on October 7.”

Two journalists who have been reporting on the Israel-Hamas war from inside Gaza, have told RT about their experiences. One them suggested that the IDF “targets journalists intentionally, as part of their scare tactics to prevent information from spreading.” Another described the Israeli attacks on the enclave as “unprecedented” but insisted that he’s going to continue doing his job, despite the danger. The latest data from the the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) suggests that at least 44 media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

Read the full story here.

A senior Biden administration official has said the death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza could be higher than the 10,000 reported by the local health ministry. US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf told a House panel that it’s “very difficult” to accurately assess the numbers casualties in the Palestinian enclave amid the fighting between Israel and Hamas. “We think they’re very high, frankly, and it could be that they’re even higher than are being cited,” Leaf said.

Russia has criticized Israel after the country’s ambassador in Moscow, Ben Zvi, said agreeing the lists of Russian citizens to be evacuated from Gaza could take up to two weeks. “We were really shocked by the ambassador’s statement on Wednesday,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “Such logic is, of course, unacceptable.”

On Russia’s side, everything is ready for the evacuation of the country’s citizens, according to Zakharova. Moscow has compiled lists of Russians who are to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing on the enclave’s border with Egypt, and provided them to “everybody now involved in the issues of evacuation,” the spokeswoman said, adding that she couldn’t understand why this process hasn’t begun.

Photojournalists from leading international media outlets who took pictures on the day of the attack on Israel by Hamas are “accomplices in crimes against humanity [and] their actions were contrary to professional ethics,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed in a statement. It added that it had sent an urgent letter to the bureau chiefs of the media organizations that employ those photographers and demanded “immediate action be taken” against them.

Israel “views with utmost gravity that photojournalists working with international media joined in covering the brutal acts of murder perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7 in the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip,” it said. On Wednesday, Israeli monitoring group Honest Reporting questioned why Gaza-based journalists working for AP, Reuters, the New York Times and CNN were on the ground already in the early hours of the incursion by Hamas.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Muslim nations to speak out more actively against Israel’s attacks in Gaza. “If we... don’t raise our voices together as Muslims today, when will we raise them?” the Turkish leader said in his address at the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Muslims must act because the West is unable to call for a ceasefire due to its “weakness” and only watches the “massacres by Israel” against the Palestinians from afar, Erdogan claimed.

A former Knesset member from the Arab-majority Hadash party, Mohammad Barakeh, has been detained by Israeli police for trying to organize an anti-war protest in the city of Nazareth, Ynet has reported. Barakeh, who now heads the umbrella organization for the Arab community, the High Follow-Up Committee, only called upon local Arab leaders to take part in the rally, with members of the public not being invited to the event, according to the outlet.

Police said that the Arab politician had been held for questioning because he attempted “to organize a demonstration that could lead to incitement and damage public order” in violation of the instructions by the Israeli authorities. “These days, when Israel is in a state of war… every Israeli citizen is expected to respect the law and listen to the instructions of the police,” it said. Police warned that they “will not allow any attempt to disturb the public order or any attempt at incitement, and will take strong action against anyone who tries doing so.”

The Palestinian Authority has filed a formal complaint with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against Israel over a suggestion by the now suspended Israeli heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, that a nuclear bomb should be dropped on Gaza, the Wafa news agency has reported.

The statements by Eliyahu “are completely consistent with the prevailing discourse in Israel, and constitute an official recognition that Israel possesses nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said in the complaint. The IAEA must act on the matter because “the threat to use nuclear weapons against one country is a threat to all countries,” the diplomat insisted.

The IDF has claimed the capture of a major Hamas stronghold known as Outpost 17, in west Jabaliya, in the northern part of Gaza. The fortified position fell into the hands of the Israeli military after 10 hours of fighting, during which dozens of Palestinian fighters were killed, it said. The troops seized weapons, uncovered tunnel shafts and discovered “significant” Hamas battle plans at the outpost, it added.

Amnesty International has urged all countries participating in the international humanitarian conference in Paris on Thursday “to push for an immediate ceasefire by all parties” in Gaza. “For this ceasefire to be effective, states must ensure it covers the entire Gaza Strip and that it’s long enough to allow a substantive alleviation of suffering,” the human rights group’s chief, Agnes Callamard, said in a statement.

Callamard described the IDF’s military operation in the Palestinian enclave as “devastating,” saying that “more than two million people in the Gaza Strip are struggling to survive amidst Israel’s relentless attacks.” The humanitarian crisis is already “catastrophic” in Gaza, but “if action isn’t taken immediately, the situation will become unimaginably worse,” she warned.

EU’s top officials Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel as well as the prime ministers of Greece, Ireland and Luxembourg are expected to take part in the conference, hosted by France’s President Emmanuel Macron. The Palestinian Authority will be represented at the event by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, according to AFP news agency.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has rejected a US proposal for the North African country to manage security in Gaza until the Palestinian Authority can take over the exclave after Israel defeats Hamas, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the outlet, Sisi made his stance clear during his meeting with CIA Director William Burns in Cairo earlier this week. The Egyptian leader told Burns that his government wouldn’t play a role in eliminating Hamas, as it needs the Palestinian armed group to help maintain security on the border with Gaza, senior Egyptian officials told the WSJ.

The Israeli military has named another soldier killed in the fighting with Hamas in central Gaza. Four other troops were also seriously wounded in separate clashes inside the Palestinian enclave, it added.

The IDF’s overall losses have reached 34 troops since the launch of its ground operation in Gaza and 352 since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has outlined Washington's red lines and predictions for the future of the besieged Palestinian enclave after Israel ends its airstrikes and ground operations against Hamas.

“No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza,” Blinken said at a press conference in Tokyo, adding that after “some transition period” a post-war governance in Gaza must include Palestinian voices.

Negotiations are underway to secure the release of a dozen hostages, including six Americans, in return for a three-day ceasefire in Gaza to “enable Egypt an extended [period of time] to deliver humanitarian aid,” a source close to Hamas told AFP. Another anonymous source claimed that the negotiations are being “mediated by the Qataris in coordination with the US” to “secure the release of 10-15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day ceasefire.”

The World Health Organization has warned that the Gaza Strip faces an increased risk of disease, including bacterial infections like diarrhea, afterIsraeli air raids disrupted the Palestinian enclave’s healthcare system.

“As deaths and injuries in Gaza continue to rise due to intensified hostilities, intense overcrowding and disrupted health, water, and sanitation systems pose an added danger: the rapid spread of infectious diseases,” WHO said. “Some worrying trends are already emerging.”

CIA director William Burns has proposed that Egypt takes control of “security” in the Gaza Strip, after Israel defeats Hamas and until the Palestinian Authority can take over, Wall Street Journal reported citing unnamed senior Egyptian officials.

However, President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi rejected the offer, floated during Burns’ Middle East tour, reportedly arguing that Egypt “needs” Hamas to maintain border security and thus wouldn’t play any role in fighting the militant group.

The Israeli government has claimed that Mossad helped Brazilian security services and other agencies foil a planned terrorist attack on Jewish targets in the South American country, leading to the bust of a local cell linked to Hezbollah.

“Mossad thanks the security forces in Brazil for the arrest of a terrorist cell that acted on behalf of the terrorist organization Hezbollah to carry out an attack against Israeli and Jewish targets in the country,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.

Brazilian authorities arrested two unidentified people on terrorism charges in Sao Paulo, according to a statement by Brazil’s Federal Police, which made no mention of Hezbollah, Mossad or Israel. They also executed 11 search and seizure warrants in Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Minas Gerais states. Police said the crackdown aimed to prevent a terrorist attack and investigate the possible recruitment of Brazilians to carry out such plots in the country.

08 November 2023

Two US F-15 fighter jets have carried out yet another airstrike in eastern Syria, marking Washington’s latest response to drone and rocket attacks on its bases in the region.

US President Joe Biden ordered the airstrike against a weapons depot that is allegedly used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, the Pentagon said in a statement. 

Illegal US outposts in Syria and military bases in Iraq have come under attacks at least 38 times since October 17, reflecting rising tensions in the region amid the Israel-Hamas war. At least 45 US troops have been injured in the attacks, while a US contractor died of a heart attack at the al-Asad air base in Iraq on October 18, while sheltering from a strike that never came.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out airstrikes on several sites which they described as “terrorist infrastructures of the Hezbollah organization” on Wednesday, posting a video purporting to show one of the strikes on X (formerly Twitter).

The IDF claimed the attacks were retaliation for the previous day’s launches of missiles toward Israeli territory from the area and boasted they took out “buildings and military positions where the organization’s terrorists operated and a number of technological means that were used to direct terrorism against the State of Israel.”

Israeli airstrikes targeting southern Syria caused “material losses” at certain military sites on Wednesday, a Syrian military source told state news agency SANA. The strikes came from the direction of Baalbek in Lebanon, the source said. The IDF has yet to take responsibility for the strikes.

Children risk dying of starvation, disease, and dehydration in Gaza if they are not killed outright by Israeli bombardment, Alexandra Saieh of the NGO Save the Children said on Wednesday, warning the already shocking numbers of child casualties were likely to skyrocket without a ceasefire. 

“Last week, Save the Children warned that the total number of children killed in just a few weeks in Gaza is higher than the annual number of children killed in all conflicts combined since 2019,” Saieh told al-Jazeera, revealing that another 1,000 children had been killed in the enclave since the charity made that announcement. Yet another 1,000 are missing or thought to be buried in the rubble.

Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri offered to release the remaining hostages kidnapped on October 7 during the militant group’s raids on Israel in exchange for the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel in a televised speech on Wednesday. Hamas had conducted the surprise attack in order to secure the freedom of its political prisoners, among other reasons, he claimed.

“Take everyone we have and give us all of the prisoners you have,” he proposed, urging negotiators not to waste time. While Israel would rather “kill all of their hostages,” it “cannot escape from a comprehensive offer,” he argued. Hamas has previously claimed Israel rejected its attempts to release multiple hostages on humanitarian grounds, claims West Jerusalem rejected as propaganda.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed on Wednesday that Hamas “has lost control and is continuing to lose control” in northern Gaza. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari cited the mass migration of 50,000 Gazans from the northern part of the territory to the south as proof the fleeing civilians “understand that Hamas has lost control in the north.”

The IDF has continued to intermittently bomb the Jabalia refugee camp and other points of shelter in the north, leaving already-displaced residents with no choice but to head south - where many report they are also being bombed, sometimes while still in transit.

The high volume of civilians being killed in Gaza indicates there is “something that is clearly wrong” with Israel’s military operations in the enclave, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

“Every year the highest number of killing of children by any of the actors in all the conflicts that we witness is the maximum in the hundreds,” the UN chief continued. “We have in a few days in Gaza seen thousands of children killed.”

Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli military veterans critical of the occupation of Palestine, suggested in a thread on X that the IDF was using the “Dahiya doctrine,” a strategy allegedly devised by the IDF during its war against Lebanon that purports to justify the deliberate (and illegal) targeting of civilian infrastructure and homes as a valid military tactic, based on the extent of the destruction and loss of civilian life in Gaza.

Israel’s ground operations in Gaza have no definite time limit, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz told reporters on Wednesday. “The war here is for our existence and for Zionism, and so I can’t provide an estimate of the length of each stage in the war and the fighting that will continue after,” he said. 

Admitting Israel still does not have a concrete plan for Gaza after Hamas is defeated, Gantz promised that “we will sit down and review an alternative mechanism for Gaza” only once the area was “safe” and the occupied West Bank had “calm[ed] down.” He did not address earlier comments by Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel would maintain “security responsibility” over the enclave indefinitely.

Yemen shoots down US drone

Yemen said on Wednesday it had shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over its territorial waters, while it was on a “hostile, monitoring and spying” mission in support of Israel. The US military has yet to comment on the incident. Last month, the Houthi government in Sanaa endorsed the Palestinian cause and confirmed it had launched several waves of missiles and drones at Israel. 

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed a law prohibiting the systematic consumption of terrorist content, the Times of Israel has reported. Watching or reading materials from organizations classed by the Israeli authorities as terrorist, in a manner that indicates that a person identifies with those groups, could lead to a prison term of up to one year, according to the legislation. The law singles out groups such as Hamas and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The legislation states that it’s not applicable to someone who consumes terrorist content “randomly, in good faith, or for a legitimate reason including providing information to the public, preventing terror attacks, or for research purposes.” The law is set to remain in force for the next two years, but the Knesset can vote to prolong it at the end of that period.

The IDF has published a video showing huge crowds of Palestinian refugees leaving their homes in northern Gaza, walking to the southern part of the enclave. “Thousands of residents responded to repeated calls from the Israeli army to move south along the Saladin Highway,” it said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The IDF has claimed that “one of Hamas’ leading weapon developers” has been killed in an airstrike on Gaza. Mohsen Abu Zina had headed the weapons and industries division of the Palestinian militant group, specializing in manufacturing “strategic weapons and rockets,” the Israeli military said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said 214 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave in the past 24 hours, putting the overall death toll from Israeli attacks at 10,569, including 4,324 children. At least 2,550 Palestinians are missing, including 1,350 children, the ministry said. The number of wounded has reached 26,475 people, it added.

The UK Labour Party’s Shadow Minister for the New Deal for Working People, Imran Hussain, has announced his resignation from the party’s frontbench over its leader Keir Starmer’s refusal to call for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. “A ceasefire is essential to ending the bloodshed, to ensuring that enough aid can pass into Gaza and reach those most in need, and to help ensure the safe return of the Israeli hostages,” Hussain said in a letter addressed to Starmer, which he published on X (formerly Twitter).

The right of countries to self-defense should “never become a right to deliberately violate international law on protecting civilians or to commit war crimes,” he said, referring to Israel’s military campaign Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted that the conditions for “durable peace and security” must be established in Gaza after the conclusion of Israel’s ground operation against Hamas. They include “no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, not now, not after the war. No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks. No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempts to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza,” Blinken said during a press conference after the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Tokyo.

According to the US secretary of state, there should be “Palestinian governance, Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority… a sustained mechanism for reconstruction in Gaza, and a pathway [to a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict].” When asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to put Gaza under IDF control for an indefinite period of time, Blinken replied that “there may be a need for some transition period.”

The G7 countries are working together with partners in the Middle East on sanctions “to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out atrocities,” the group’s foreign ministers have said in a joint statement after their meeting in Tokyo.

The G7 is “working intensively to prevent the conflict [between Israel and Hamas] from escalating further and spreading more widely,” the statement read. The top diplomats from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US also said that they “support humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement [in Gaza] and the release of hostages,” held by the Palestinian armed group.

Israeli police say they have identified the remains of 843 civilians killed during the attack by Hamas on October 7. They added that work to identify the remaining victims continues.

According to estimates by the Israeli authorities, around 1,000 civilians and 400 members of the security forces were killed in the incursion by Palestinian militants.

The suggestion by the now suspended Israeli heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, that Gaza should be nuked is proof of Israel having nuclear weapons, Mohammad Eslami the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) has said. “Once again, an Israeli official has admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, and more importantly, by threatening the innocent people of Gaza, he challenged the basic principles of international law and the UN Charter,” Eslami told IRNA news agency. The UN and other international organizations should “break their silence and take serious decisions against this arrogance that poses a serious threat to international peace and security,” he stressed.

Israel is widely believed to be a nuclear power. However, the country maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity on the issue, never officially admitting or denying having atomic weapons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been “destroyed emotionally” by last month’s Hamas attack on Israel and is now overreacting by planning to put Gaza under IDF control for an indefinite period of time, the country’s former PM Ehud Olmert has told Politico.

“I mean, something terrible happened to him. Bibi [Netanyahu] has been working all his life on the false pretense that he is Mr. Security. He’s Mr. Bulls**t,” he said. “Every minute he is prime minister he is a danger to Israel. I seriously mean it. I am certain the Americans understand he is in bad shape.”

Olmert, who led the government between 2006 and 2009, suggested that “it’s not in Israel’s interests to oversee the security of Gaza.” The priority should be to negotiate a settlement to the crisis with the international community, involving a return to talks on the formation of a Palestinian state, he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said it is “deeply troubled” after its humanitarian convoy came under fire in Gaza City on Tuesday. According to a statement by the ICRC, two trucks were damaged and a driver lightly wounded in the incident. It didn’t specify which side was behind the attack.

“These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC delegation in Gaza, insisted. “We are here to bring urgent assistance to civilians in need. Ensuring that vital assistance can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.”

The US House of Representatives has voted to censure Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib over her criticism of the IDF’s attacks on Gaza and claims that US President Joe Biden is supporting the “genocide” of the Palestinians by backing Israel. The House voted 234 to 188 to slap its only Palestinian-American lawmaker with the hash punishment, which is just a step below expulsion.

Tlaib defended her stance ahead of the vote, insisting that “Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else.” She also stressed that her rhetoric had been targeted at Israel’s authorities, but not the Israeli people. “The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is anti-Semitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation,” the lawmaker said.

The Israeli military has announced the name of another soldier killed in the fighting with Hamas in northern Gaza. This puts the IDF’s overall losses since the launch of the ground operation in the Palestinian enclave at 31 troops.

US Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a House bill that would have provided emergency aid to Israel without funding to Ukraine, demanding the Republicans agree to President Joe Biden’s $106 bundle request instead. The Republican-majority House of Representatives passed a $14 billion standalone package for Israel last week.

“Time is of the essence and it's imperative that the Senate not delay delivering this crucial aid to Israel another day,” Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said on Tuesday, urging the Democrats to agree to the House bill.

“Our allies in Ukraine can no more afford a delay than our allies in Israel,” replied Patty Murray of Washington, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Meanwhile, the White House proposal has sought to combine the aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and migration policy – presented as “border security” – in order to overcome opposition by some Republicans to continued funding of Kiev. 

The White House has sounded alarms over the possible “reoccupation” of Gaza by Israel, after the country’s leader indicated Israeli forces would handle “overall security responsibility” in the area following the conflict with Hamas.

Asked to weigh in on the long-term plans for Gaza during an interview with CNN on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby urged Israel to reconsider a lengthy military deployment.

“The president still believes that a reoccupation of Gaza by Israeli forces is not good. It’s not good for Israel; not good for the Israeli people,” he said without elaborating.

“One of the conversations that Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken has been having in the region is what does post-conflict Gaza look like?” the spokesman added “What does governance look like in Gaza? Because whatever it is it can’t be what it was on October 6. It can’t be Hamas.”

The IDF says that its warplanes have carried out a series of airstrikes against multiple Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, including a warehouse, suspected rocket launch positions as well as “terrorist infrastructure and technological means.” The raid allegedly came in response to rocket fire from the Lebanese territory, the Israeli military said, releasing a video of its retaliatory strikes.

07 November 2023

A senior adviser to PM Benjamin Netanyahu, has clarified the Israeli leader’s statements, insisting that Israel will not re-occupy and control Gaza, but only plans to maintain a “security presence” in the Palestinian enclave.

“There will have to be an Israeli security presence, but that doesn’t mean Israel is re-occupying Gaza, that doesn’t mean that Israel is there to govern the Gazans,” Mark Regev told CNN. “When this is over and we have defeated Hamas, it is crucial that there won’t be a resurgent terrorist element, a resurgent Hamas.”

US President Joe Biden has reportedly urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause attacks against Hamas for three days, saying such a halt to the fighting in Gaza could enable negotiators to secure the release of more hostages.

Under a proposal being discussed between the US, Israel and Qatar, Hamas would release 10 to 15 hostages during a three-day pause and verify the identities of its remaining captives, Axios reported on Tuesday. The militant group also would deliver a list of those hostages, the outlet said, citing an unidentified US official.

Some 89 UN aid workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel began bombing the Palestinian enclave a month ago, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has announced. Another 26 were injured in the same period, the agency added.

This death toll is the highest recorded by the UN “in any comparable period in the history of our organization,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, after a collection of UN agencies issued a joint statement calling for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”

A spokesman for the IDF unit responsible for tracking aid deliveries to Gaza has claimed that there is no shortage of food, water, or other humanitarian supplies in the Palestinian enclave, the Times of Israel has reported.

Multiple aid agencies, including the UN, World Health Organization, and Palestine Red Crescent Society have argued otherwise, claiming that the trickle of aid entering Gaza via Egypt is insufficient to meet the needs of its 2.3 million people.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the average Gazan now subsisting on two pieces of bread per day and is drinking water fit only for irrigation.

“Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land,” US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel has told reporters. Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s earlier statement that Israel will take responsibility for security in the enclave for an “indefinite period” after the war, Patel said that “our viewpoint is [that] Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions.” 

“Generally speaking, we do not support reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel,” he added.

Hezbollah’s cross-border strikes on Israeli forces are intended to send “a clear message that if you expand there will be serious consequences,” the militant group’s deputy secretary general told NBC News.

Naim Qassem explained that Hezbollah “participates for the sake of lowering the pressure on Gaza.”

“Those in the Axis of Resistance have seen that the mastermind is America,” Qassem said, referring to a spate of recent attacks by Iran-aligned militias on US bases in Iraq and Syria. “So they strike America under the principle of sending a message to stop. Just as Israel should stop.”

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has canceled a planned trip to Israel after news of the visit was leaked last week, the Times of Israel reported.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported last Friday that the preparations were underway for the Ukrainian leader to travel to the Jewish state this week. Three weeks earlier, West Jerusalem rejected an offer by the Ukrainian president to visit, with officials reportedly telling him that “the time is not right.”

Diplomatic sources told the Times of Israel that Zelensky is still expected to make the trip, but at a later date.

The IDF will have “absolute freedom” of action inside Gaza when the war against Hamas concludes, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has claimed.

Questions over the future of the Palestinian enclave have arisen in recent weeks, and shortly before Gallant spoke to reporters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that the IDF will take responsibility for security in the enclave for an “indefinite period.” 

The Israeli military withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after nearly four decades of occupation. Israel has kept the region under a strict blockade ever since, forbidding all sea and air access and limiting the flow of food, medicine, and consumer goods.

Israel has no plans to deport Palestinians from Gaza, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lior Haiat has said, responding to Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh’s warning that doing so would be viewed as a “declaration of war.”

Haiat stated that “Israel’s objective is to eliminate Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure,” while claiming that the Palestinian armed group is responsible for the “harm caused to innocent people and for the situation in Gaza today.” He added that while the country’s relations with Jordan are of “strategic importance,” Israel “regret[s] the inflammatory statements from Jordan’s leadership.”

China and the United Arab Emirates have delivered a joint statement after the UN Security Council has once again failed to agree on a resolution on Monday night.

“We call for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire,” China’s Ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters. “We emphasize the need for the Security Council to act with urgency and adopt a meaningful and actionable resolution.”

“As we heard today, civilians in Gaza cannot even find safety in UN facilities, hospitals and refugee camps,” added UAE representative Lana Zaki Nusseibeh. “Wars have laws… And they must be upheld.”

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees says that five staffers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza “in the last 24 hours,” while several others were confirmed killed in earlier strikes.

“This brings the total number of confirmed UNRWA colleagues killed to 88 and at least another 25 injured since the hostilities began,” the agency said on Monday evening, adding that over the past month at least 48 UNRWA-operated facilities were damaged.

The Israeli forces will take “overall security responsibility” of the Gaza Strip for an “indefinite period” of time after the war with Hamas ends, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News on Monday.  

“When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine,” Netanyahu added.

Netanyahu also ruled out any “general ceasefire” until all hostages are released, but said that Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.

The IDF has accused Hamas militants of turning a mosque into a “rocket launching compound,” releasing a video that it said showed its ground troops uncovering spent missile containers.

06 November 2023

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh said that “any attempts or creating conditions to displace Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank are a red line and Jordan will consider it as a 'declaration of war',” according to the PM’s X social media account.

“The continuation of the sinful aggression against the Gaza Strip, with all its crimes, constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law,” the diplomat added during a meeting with the Jordanian President and other top officials on Monday. “It is necessary to stop the impunity and protection that gives Israel the license to kill Palestinian civilians. International humanitarian law prohibits and criminalizes targeting and killing civilians without exception.”

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reportedly talked about using tactical pauses in West Jerusalem’s military offensive in Gaza to enable more aid shipments to get into the Palestinian enclave and to negotiate more releases of hostages held by Hamas.

No decisions were made as a result of Monday’s talks, but the two leaders agreed to continue discussing the issue in the days ahead, Reuters reported, citing White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “You can expect that we’re going to continue to advocate for temporary and localized pauses in the fighting,” Kirby said. “We consider ourselves at the beginning of this conversation, not at the end of it.”

South Africa and Chad have joined the growing list of nations withdrawing their diplomatic staff from Israel, condemning West Jerusalem for killing thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip as it tries to destroy Hamas.

“A genocide under the watch of the international community cannot be tolerated,” South African Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Monday in Pretoria. “Another holocaust in the history of humankind is not acceptable.”

Chad recalled its charge d’affaires to Israel on Saturday, according to a government statement on Monday. “Chad condemns the loss of human lives of many innocent civilians and calls for a ceasefire leading to a lasting solution to the Palestinian question,” the statement said. The central African country restored diplomatic relations with Israel in 2019, more than four decades after ties between the two governments were severed.

A group of staffers at the US State Department have called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to publicly condemn Israel’s killing of civilians and demand that the Jewish state agree to a ceasefire, Politico has reported, citing a leaked memo.

“We must publicly criticize Israel’s violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets,” the message reportedly reads. “When Israel supports settler violence and illegal land seizures or employs excessive use of force against Palestinians, we must communicate publicly that this goes against our American values so that Israel does not act with impunity.”

The report comes several weeks after Blinken reportedly met with a group of dissenting employees who formally protested his support for Israel, and after a senior official at the department resigned over what he called the US’ “destructive, unjust, and contradictory” rush to arm the Jewish state.

Israel’s Foreign Minister has condemned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for warning that Gaza is “becoming a graveyard for children.”

“Shame on you Antonio Guterres,” Eli Cohen wrote on social media, adding that Hamas’ kidnapping of 30 children from Israel justifies “Israel’s actions to eliminate” the militant group.

Israel’s military operation in Gaza has killed more than 10,000 people, including 4,104 children, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.

The IDF has said that it is carrying out airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, after the militant group fired 30 rockets into northern Israel earlier on Monday. The uptick in activity on the border comes days after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that his fighters would continue to tie up Israeli forces on the border, and are prepared for any escalation.

Some 46 US personnel have been injured in attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since October 17, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a briefing. In the past 24 hours, six attacks on US bases were recorded, including three separate rocket barrages on the Al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, according to multiple sources.

A collective of Iran-aligned militia groups has claimed responsibility, and promised that more strikes would follow. The latest round of attacks came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Baghdad, where he warned that “the threats coming from the militia that are aligned with Iran are totally unacceptable and we will take every necessary step to protect our people.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to attend a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Iran’s Etemad newspaper has reported.

Earlier on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan spoke by phone, and agreed to hold “an extraordinary summit aimed at reviewing the developments in Palestine, stopping the war crimes against Gaza and the West Bank, and continuously sending in humanitarian aid to the region,” according to an Iranian readout of the call.

Earlier this year, Iran and Saudi Arabia restored their diplomatic relations after a seven-year freeze, following Chinese-brokered talks.

The number of people killed in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 10,022, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. Some 4,104 children are among the dead, while a further 25,000 people have been wounded and around 2,000 are trapped beneath rubble in unknown condition, the ministry added.

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of an immediate ceasefire last month, but Israel and the US have rejected the vote, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to “simply continue until we defeat [Hamas].”

Israel’s parliamentary Constitution Committee has approved in second and third readings a bill that would make it illegal to read the publications of organizations designated as terrorist in the country, including Hamas and the Islamic State.

Those who systematically consume such materials containing “words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for acts of terrorism” could face a year in prison. However, the legislation makes an exception for those who read such publications incidentally, in good faith, or for a legitimate purpose.

The EU will allocate another €25 million ($27 million) for humanitarian aid to Gaza. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement at the EU Ambassadors Conference on Monday in Brussels. She noted that with this, the total amount of aid provided by Brussels is now €100 million.

Several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar, have hit back at Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who had earlier suggested that the country could consider dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza.

The UAE Foreign Ministry condemned the comments as “disgraceful and unacceptable,” suggesting that they “constitute a violation of international law.” This statement was echoed by the Saudi Foreign Ministry, which pointed out that Eliyahu’s remarks “show the pervasiveness of extremism and brutality among members of the Israeli government.”

Jordan was also highly critical, saying the nuclear remarks were a “call for genocide and a hate crime that cannot be ignored, as well as incitement to murder and the commission of war crimes.” Meanwhile, Qatar said it considers the comments “a disregard for human and moral values and international laws.”

More United Nations workers have died in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war than during any other single conflict, several UN agencies said in a joint statement. 

“Scores of aid workers have been killed since October 7 including 88 UNRWA colleagues,” the statement said, referring to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Al Jazeera reported that at least five family members of the public relations chief of the Al-Najjar Hospital were killed in an Israeli airstrike near Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The Egypt-Gaza border crossing near Rafah serves as the only route to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave and evacuate civilians. 

The IDF has so far not commented on the airstrikes it conducted overnight. According to Palestinian media, 27 people were killed in Gaza on Monday.

The US dispatched an Ohio-class nuclear submarine to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Pentagon sent two carrier strike groups in the region last month following the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas. The US Navy said on Friday that the naval armadas were practicing flights between two aircraft carriers and conducting other training.

The Palestinian enclave remains under a communications blackout – for a third time in 10 days – the connectivity tracking website NetBlocks confirmed. 

The UN agency for Palestinians refugees (UNRWA) said that it is unable to contact “the vast majority” of its workers in Gaza.

The Jordanian military air-dropped medical supplies for the Jordanian field hospital in the Gaza Strip. 

“This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza. We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren,” King Abdullah II wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.

The delivery of aid to the Palestinian enclave is seriously hampered by the continuing Israeli blockade. Some convoys from Egypt were able to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which is currently the only available route for humanitarian supplies on the ground.

05 November 2023

The IDF continued to bomb Gaza on Sunday evening and the early hours of Monday, the Guardian reported, citing journalists on the ground.

Unverified videos posted to social media show huge explosions, with observers describing the blasts as the heaviest bombardment since October 7.

Israeli troops have pushed through central Gaza and reached the coast, splitting the narrow enclave in two, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters. Hagari’s claim cannot immediately be verified, and Hamas has refuted a similar statement made by the spokesman earlier this week.

“For more than an hour, intense bombings have been taking place around hospitals” in northern Gaza, Hamas press chief Salama Marouf told AFP. The aerial attacks, said by multiple sources to be some of the heaviest of Israel’s month-long campaign, took place after phone and internet connections between Gaza and the outside world were severed.

The IDF has alternated between denying attacks on hospitals – as it did in the case of a missile strike on a Christian-run clinic last month – and claiming that Hamas militants are operating out of healthcare facilities, as it did when it launched an airstrike on an ambulance convoy earlier this week.

The Israeli military has claimed that Hamas has built bunkers and tunnels under at least three hospitals in Gaza.

Israeli forces shelled a car in southern Lebanon, killing three children and their grandmother, Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen news outlet reported, citing Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadallah. Reuters confirmed the deaths of three people in the strike, but did not specify whether they were children.

Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have been trading cross-border fire since the Israel-Hamas war began, with the intensity of the border clashes ramping up over the last two weeks. Hezbollah forces launched multiple missile attacks on Israeli vehicles and installations on Sunday, claiming to have killed and wounded the crew of one vehicle.

The IDF did not confirm any casualties, but said that it responded to the attacks with airstrikes and artillery fire.

Palestinian telecom operator Paltel has said that all phone and internet connections have been severed amid a heavy Israeli bombardment on Gaza. A similar bombardment late last month broke all communications links between the enclave and the outside world, hours before the IDF sent tanks and infantry into the strip.

An Israeli airstrike has hit the al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. Around 20 Palestinians were killed in the strike, the network reported, noting that al-Bureji is the third refugee camp in the enclave to be hit in the last 24 hours, after similar strikes on the Maghazi and Jabalia camps.

Israeli warplanes bombed the Jabalia refugee camp three times in the last week, with the first two attacks killing almost 200 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The IDF claimed that it took out a Hamas commander in the first bombing, but the militant group denied that any of its members were present in the camp.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the PA is prepared to take part in governing Gaza “within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip,” Palestine’s Wafa news agency reported.

Israeli officials have vowed to wipe out Hamas, but have not elaborated on how a post-conflict Gaza will be run. During his meeting with Abbas on Sunday, Blinken told the Palestinian leader that the PA should play a key role in “what comes next in Gaza,” Reuters reported, citing a State Department official.

Muhammad al-Hindi, a senior official in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, signaled that all civilian prisoners held by the group will be released if a humanitarian truce is reached.

Since the start of the conflict, Hamas has captured around 240 hostages, including many foreign nationals, with only four released to date. The Palestinian armed group earlier claimed that more than 60 hostages were missing due to Israeli strikes.

According to several reports, the US advised West Jerusalem to delay its ground offensive in Gaza to allow time for hostage negotiations. Nevertheless, Israel “expanded” its ground operations in the enclave on October 27.

An Israeli airstrike on the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza has killed more than 30 people, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. Earlier, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that 51 civilians were killed in the attack. The spokesman for the Israeli military said the IDF is investigating whether it was active in the area at the time of the bombing.

Former US President Barack Obama urged to recognize the “complexity” of the Israel-Palestine conflict, both condemning the “horrific” attack of Hamas on Israeli civilians and acknowledging that “the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.”

“If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree,” Obama said on the Pod Save America podcast.

Tens of thousands of Palestine supporters marched in Washington, DC on Saturday night, demanding an immediate ceasefire and denouncing the “genocide” in Gaza. A group of activists then rallied outside the White House, with some shaking the front gate and smearing the security fence with red paint.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, however, said that an attempt to breach the gate was “handled without incident” and that no one was arrested.

04 November 2023

The IDF said that Hamas militants attacked Israeli troops operating near a corridor designated for the evacuation of civilians to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas attempted to prevent Gazan civilians from evacuating, including by firing at IDF soldiers sent to open the route and facilitate the secure movement of civilians,” the IDF wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

More than 60 hostages are missing as a result of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades has said. Obeida added that the bodies of 23 Israeli hostages are trapped under rubble.

“It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza,” he said.

Hamas fighters took around 240 hostages during their assault on Israel, according to the IDF. Five have been freed with the help of Qatari mediators, although Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Saturday that Israel’s continued bombing of Gaza “complicates securing their release.”

Israeli forces will find Hamas’ Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, “and eliminate him,” Defense MInister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday. Gallant added that “if the residents of Gaza get there ahead of us, that will shorten the war.”

The IDF claimed on Friday that its air and ground forces have killed 10 Hamas field commanders since the war began, while several members of the organization’s political bureau have died in Israeli airstrikes. 

The Pentagon has announced that a second US aircraft carrier group has arrived in the Mediterranean. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group consists of the eponymous carrier, two guided missile destroyers and a guided missile cruiser. Its deployment to the region follows that of the USS Gerald R. Ford, which was deployed immediately after Hamas’ attack on Israel.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that both carriers would “deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war.” 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared on Friday that the American ships “do not and will never scare us,” and will “prove of no use” if the war expands and the Lebanese militants join the fight against Israel.

The Israeli airstrike on an ambulance convoy outside Gaza’s largest hospital on Friday was “a new low in an endless stream of unconscionable violence,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. While the IDF claimed on Friday that one of the ambulances was being “used by a Hamas terrorist cell,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Saturday that the vehicle had been carrying a 35-year-old woman with critical shrapnel wounds to her chest and leg.

Israel is committing “war crimes” in Gaza that will create “a sea of hatred that will define generations to come,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said after a meeting with his American and Egyptian counterparts, Antony Blinken and Sameh Shoukry.

Jordan has recognized Israel since 1994 and generally enjoys good relations with the Jewish state. However, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry announced earlier this week that it was recalling its ambassador to Israel in protest of what Safadi called “the Israeli war that is killing innocent people in Gaza.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington and Arab leaders agree that Hamas cannot be allowed to remain in control of Gaza.

Speaking after meeting the foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Blinken broke with the Arabs by rejecting calls for a ceasefire, stating that such a decision by Israel would give Hamas militants time to regroup and rearm.

Blinken did not elaborate on how Gaza could be run after the conflict. However, he said earlier this week that the US and other countries are looking at "a variety of possible permutations" for the strip.

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades have said that their fighters killed five Israeli soldiers in an assault on “a Zionist force holed up in a building northwest of Gaza City.” The IDF has not confirmed the Hamas claim, which if true, brings to 28 the number of Israelis killed since the IDF’s ground operation in the enclave began last weekend.

Counting the latest claims by Hamas, a total of 342 IDF troops have been killed since Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel on October 7.

Türkiye has decided to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv for consultations, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has announced. It explained the move as a reaction to Israel’s “refusal of calls for a ceasefire and continuous and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid.”

Earlier in the day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is no longer someone we can talk to, we have crossed him out.” However, Erdogan stressed that Türkiye “is ready to act as a guarantor country for Gaza” once the fighting between Israel and Hamas ends.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat has slammed Honduras for recalling its ambassador from the country, saying that by making the move the government in Tegucigalpa “ignores Israel’s right to defend itself against the Hamas terrorist organization, which is worse than ISIS (Islamic State, IS).”

The fight against Hamas will continue until the Palestinian armed group is “eliminated from the Gaza Strip,” Haiat reiterated. Israel expects Honduras “not to take decisions that provide support to Hamas’ terrorism” and condemn the group’s actions, he stressed.

Honduras is the latest in a number of Latin American countries to recall their envoys from Israel over what Tegucigalpa called the “serious humanitarian situation suffered by the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip” amid IDF attacks.

Hamas has claimed that Israel allows itself to perpetrate “a heinous crime every single hour” in Gaza because it knows it has the backing of Washington. “We hold the US administration and President Biden himself fully responsible for this series of massacres following his open support that emboldened Israel and gave it the green light to commit a genocidal war against our vulnerable people in the besieged enclave,” the Palestinian group said in a statement on Telegram.

The accusations followed an alleged Israeli strike on the UN-affiliated Osama bin Zaid School. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 20 people were killed in the attack on the school, which currently hosts displaced Palestinian civilians.

French lawyer Francois Zimeray said on Friday that he was filing a genocide and war crimes complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on behalf of nine families of the victims of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. He also asked the ICC prosecutor to consider issuing an arrest warrant on Hamas leaders.

“The complaint states that the Hamas terrorists do not deny the crimes committed, which they have amply documented and broadcast, and that the … facts cannot therefore be disputed,” Zimeray said in a statement carried by Al Jazeera.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jordan on Friday evening. He will meet with Palestinian officials and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE on Saturday. 

The Arab states will reiterate the call for “an immediate ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and [finding] ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region,” the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said.

US President Joe Biden was due to attend a meeting with Palestinian and Arab officials in Amman on October 18. However, the event was abruptly canceled following an explosion outside the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, for which the IDF and Hamas blamed each other.

The US asked Israel for an explanation of its first strike on the Jabalia refugee camp, which took place on Tuesday, according to Politico magazine. The report said that Washington urged its ally to “do more to avoid civilian casualties.”

According to the IDF, the strike eliminated a senior Hamas commander responsible for the planning of the deadly October 7 attack on Israel. Local doctors, meanwhile, said that the strike claimed the lives of more than 50 people.

Tokyo will deliver $65 million in additional humanitarian aid to the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said during her trip to the Middle East on Friday.

“It is necessary for Israel and Palestine to be able to coexist peacefully in order to prevent the repeat of another tragic act of terrorism,” Kamikawa told reporters after visiting Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. 

Israel’s National Security Council issued a notice, recommending all citizens to reevaluate “the necessity of foreign travel” and take extra precautions during trips abroad.

Officials cited the sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents overseas since Israel launched its retaliatory operation against Palestinians militants in Gaza. “Jewish communities, religious and community establishments (synagogues, Chabad centers, kosher restaurants and Israeli businesses), Israeli delegations, and airports with flights to and from Israel are key targets for protests and attacks by anti-Semitic groups,” the government said.

03 November 2023

Some 420 children are killed or injured every day in Gaza, according to a statement by the UN’s relief agency in the enclave. As of Friday, more than 3,200 women and 3,760 children have been killed by Israeli forces, the agency added, noting that women and children represent 67% of all Palestinian casualties since the conflict began on October 7.

More than 9,200 people in the strip have been killed and 23,500 wounded, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israeli forces have killed ten Hamas brigade and battalion commanders since the beginning of the war last month, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters. According to him, the officers killed had “planned the terrible massacre on October 7."

Israel has lost 333 soldiers since October 7, including 18 killed in Gaza since Tuesday, the IDF announced on Thursday afternoon. Among the dead is Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, a senior tank battalion commander killed in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave on Thursday.

Honduras has become the latest Latin American country to recall its ambassador to Israel, with the Honduran Foreign Ministry citing Israel’s violations of humanitarian law in Gaza. Colombia and Chile have both recalled their ambassadors, while Bolivia has completely cut diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

Dozens of people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on an ambulance convoy outside Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that the ambulances had been returning from dropping injured people off at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, while the IDF has claimed that the vehicles were being used to “transfer terror operatives and weapons.”

The Shifa Hospital is the largest healthcare facility in Gaza, and is currently sheltering around 20,000 displaced Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera. The IDF claimed last month that Hamas had constructed an elaborate network of tunnels and bunkers beneath the hospital.

In his first public speech since the start of the war, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that his forces “entered the battle” on October 8, and have since played a vital role in keeping a third of Israel’s combat troops tied up on the Lebanese border.

While the border skirmishes have increased in frequency and intensity over the past week, Nasrallah did not announce any major new operation against Israel. Instead, he warned that any Israeli offensive into Lebanon would be a “grave mistake,” and that Hezbollah was prepared for any escalation.

Nasrallah has also warned that “there will be more actions” against Israel on multiple fronts in the coming days, and that Hezbollah and its allies will work to ensure Hamas emerges victorious in Gaza.

Israel’s reported plan to transfer people from Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula is “aimed at delaying, if not burying altogether, the UN Security Council’s decision on creating a Palestinian state,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. This idea “contradicts the interests of the Palestinians, of the Egyptians and of peace in the region,” he stressed. Russia is “very concerned by plans to destroy the prospects for a Palestinian state,” the foreign minister added.

AP reported earlier this week that Israel’s Intelligence Ministry had prepared a document on October 13, in which it proposed moving Palestinians from Gaza to tent cities in northern Sinai and then building permanent cities there. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was just a “concept paper,” which hasn’t been seriously considered by the cabinet.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza has reached 9,227 people, with 32,500 others wounded, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave has announced. Out of those killed, 3,826 are children, the ministry said. Some 1,200 children also remain trapped under the rubble of buildings destroyed in IDF airstrikes, it added.

Israeli forces have been placed on high alert ahead of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah scheduled for later on Friday, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said. Nasrallah’s first public address since the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel is to take place on the day when the Lebanese armed group’s ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza expires.

“We will be ready to respond on any front if needed. In the north, we are prepared, and we will continue to respond to any attack, today and in days to come,” Hagari assured. “Iran is encouraging proxies against Israel, we will retaliate on any front vis-a-vis any threat. There is high alert, also in the north,” where Israel borders Lebanon, he stressed.

Some of the IDF’s airstrikes on Syria have been carried out without prior warning to Russia since the conflict between Israel and Hamas was reignited in October, people familiar with the situation have told Bloomberg. Israel has lately stepped up its bombardment of what it says are Iran-backed militias in the neighboring country. According to the sources, those unannounced strikes are “worsening already-troubled relations between Israel and Russia.”

Hamas is eager to reach an agreement with Israel on the release of the hostages it has been holding since October 7, Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of the Palestinian armed group’s political bureau, has told NBC News. For this to happen, Israel should set free all Palestinian prisoners from its detention centers, he said.

“We want these people [hostages] to go home. And, also, we want our prisoners now to go home. So I think we are ready now to have complete compromise, complete a deal, in order to receive all the hostages, either military or civilians,” Hamad stressed. According to the latest figures from the IDF, Hamas is currently holding 241 captives inside Gaza.

Thousands of Gazan workers who were in Israel when Hamas attacked on October 7 have been sent back to Gaza, several outlets, including Reuters, AFP, and Al Jazeera, have reported. According to witnesses, the people returned to the Palestinian enclave through the Kerem Shalom crossing, east of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously announced that Israel is “severing all contact” with the besieged enclave, and that “there will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza” in the country.

Two Israeli troops were wounded after a drone launched by Hezbollah hit the IDF’s positions on the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military has said. One of the soldiers was in a moderate condition, while the other suffered a light injury, it added. The IDF said it carried out strikes inside Lebanese territory in response to the attack, destroying a Hezbollah compound and damaging the group’s infrastructure.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has landed in Israel for his third visit to the country since the start of the current Israeli-Palestinian escalation. Ahead of his departure, Blinken said that he was planning to discuss “concrete measures” on the part of Israel to reduce harm to civilians amid its attacks on Gaza. The Secretary of State is expected to meet with top Israeli officials before heading to an Arab summit in neighboring Jordan.

The situation in the Middle East “is approaching a boiling point” due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, UAE Foreign Minister Noura al-Kaabi has said during a conference in Abu Dhabi. “The risk of regional spillover and further escalation is real, as well as the risk that extremist groups will take advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in cycles of violence,” he warned.

According to al-Kaabi, the UAE, which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020, is working “relentlessly” to secure a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. “Every effort must be made to protect civilians and immediately put an end to this conflict,” he stressed.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has said it will provide another 28 tons of humanitarian cargo for the population of Gaza on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin. According to the ministry, two Il-76 aircraft will deliver medical supplies, including hemostatic agents and dressing materials, to the besieged Palestinian enclave, which remains under heavy Israeli bombardment.

The Russian aid will be handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent Society for further shipment to Gaza, it added. In October, Russia supplied Gaza with 27 tons of food products, the ministry noted.

The Israeli military has said that its troops “clashed with multiple terrorist squads” inside Gaza overnight. According to the IDF, Hamas fighters targeted the soldiers with anti-tank missiles and homemade bombs, while also attempting to climb atop of one of the IDF’s vehicles. The Israeli servicemen on the ground directed air- and artillery strikes, “neutralizing the terrorists and their threats,” it said.

The Israeli military has published the names of another four soldiers killed in the fighting with Hamas inside Gaza. This puts the IDF’s overall losses since it launched a ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave at 23 troops.

The US has been flying surveillance drones over Gaza in search of hostages taken by Hamas during its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, two American officials have told Reuters. One of the sources said that flights above the besieged Palestinian enclave have been underway for a week now. The officials expressed the belief that the ten American citizens who still remain unaccounted for could be among the more than 200 captives held by Hamas in the network of tunnels underneath Gaza.

Adnan Abu Hasna, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) told The Washington Post that around 79 of the agency’s staffers have been killed over the course of the conflict.

“There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip,” Hasna said, reiterating the call to protect civilians during the Israeli bombardment. He added that 50 sites used by the UNRWA have been targeted “directly or indirectly” by strikes. 

The US House of Representatives passed a Republican-backed bill on Thursday that would provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel. The legislation is set to be voted down in the Democrat-held Senate, however, because it ties the money for Israel with some spending cuts at home and leaves out additional funding for Ukraine.

The White House also vowed to veto the bill, arguing that it was “further politicizing our support and treating one ally differently from others.”

Israel has decided to cut “all ties” with Gaza, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday night. It added that work permits for Palestinians traveling from Gaza to Israel would be revoked and the workers already present in Israel would be “returned to Gaza.” 

Israel’s Security Cabinet also announced that it would remove all funds designated for the Gaza Strip from transfers to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Israeli government previously stated that the militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, uses the money to commit acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians.

The PA, which is based in the West Bank, is estimated to spend 30% of its budget in Gaza, according to Reuters.

02 November 2023

A 29-year-old Israeli army reservist was killed in the northern part of the West Bank on Thursday, local authorities said. The man was shot in his car when driving to his home in the settlement of Einav.

According to the Times of Israel, the IDF described the incident as “a terror attack,” and are searching for the gunman. 

Israeli media cited reports that settlers responded to the reservist’s murder by setting fire to Palestinian property, including shops and olive groves, in the nearby village of Deir Sharf.

Despite the constant skirmishes along the Lebanese-Israeli border, the US doesn’t have “any indication yet specifically that Hezbollah is ready to go in full force” against Israel, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House press briefing on Thursday.

Israeli troops have reached Rashid Street, which runs along the coast of Gaza, thereby cutting the Palestinian territory in two, the local authorities have said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that calls by Israel for its citizens to leave Russia’s North Caucasus and refrain from trips to the area “are simply aimed against our country and have nothing to do with reality.” The recommendations followed heated anti-Israeli protests in Russia’s Republic of Dagestan on Sunday. Zakharova stressed that rallies decrying IDF attacks on Gaza have also been taking place in some NATO countries, but the Israeli authorities have not issued any travel warnings about them.

Bahrain has announced that it has recalled its ambassador to Israel and has halted all economic ties with the country. The move was made in support of “the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” according to a statement. Israel’s envoy to Manama has already left the island nation, it added.

Israel and Bahrain established diplomatic ties in 2020 as part of the so-called Abraham Accords. On Wednesday, Jordan said it had recalled its ambassador to Israel to protest against the “catastrophe” caused in Gaza by the IDF’s attacks.

Gaza’s health ministry has updated the death toll from Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave, saying that 9,061 people, including 3,760 children, have been killed and more than 32,000 wounded in area since October 7.

The implementation of Israel’s plan to resettle the Palestinians from Gaza in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula would have “catastrophic” consequences and worsen the situation in the region, warned Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. Such a move would affect not only the Palestinians and the Israelis, but the whole of the Middle East, she added.

AP reported earlier this week that Israel’s Intelligence Ministry had prepared a document on October 13, in which it proposed moving Gaza’s population to tent cities in northern Sinai and then building permanent cities there. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was just a “concept paper, the likes of which are prepared at all levels of the government and its security agencies.”

Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habaka has become the most senior Israeli military officer to be killed during the invasion of Gaza, the IDF has said. Habaka, who commanded the 188th Armored Brigade’s 53rd Battalion, died in the fighting with Hamas in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave, it added.

This brings the IDF’s losses to 18 soldiers during the ground offensive in Gaza and to 333 since the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7.

The further escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas could lead to a mild recession, a plunge in stock prices, and a loss of $2 trillion for the world economy, Gregory Daco, the chief economist at EY-Parthenon global consulting firm, has told the New York Times. He said this would only happen in a worst-case scenario, however, which would see fighting spread throughout the Middle East and lead to a spike in oil prices from the current $85 to $150 per barrel.

However, Jason Bardoff, the director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, assured the NYT that there’s “a recognition among most of the parties, the US, Europe, Iran, other gulf countries… that it’s in no one’s interest for this conflict to significantly expand beyond Israel and Gaza.”

Israel does not have the right to self-defense in the current conflict with the Palestinians, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said during the General Assembly special session on the crisis on Wednesday.

The US and its allies “keep speaking about Israel’s alleged right for self-defense, which – as an occupying state – it does not have, as was confirmed by the [UN] International Court consultative ruling in 2004,” Nebenzia stated in his address.

Russia recognizes Israel’s right to ensure its security, but “it could be fully guaranteed only in case of a fair resolution of the Palestinian issue based on recognized UN Security Council resolutions,” the envoy added.

British retailer Marks and Spencer has issued an apology following a backlash caused by its Christians advert, which some users claimed depicted the burning of the Palestinian flag. “We shared an outtake image from our Christmas Clothing and Home advert, which was recorded in August. It showed traditional, festive colored red, green and silver Christmas paper party hats in a fire grate,” the company said in a statement. According to Marks and Spencer, it only wanted to “playfully show that some people just don't enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats over the festive season.” The controversial post has been deleted from social media, with the company saying that it apologizes “for any unintentional hurt caused.”

US Representative Florida Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida, compared Palestinian civilians to Nazis during a debate at the House of Representatives on Wednesday. Mast defended Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, which, according to the Palestinian side, have claimed more than 8,800 lives, by saying that “when we look at this, as a whole, I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians. I don't think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’” during World War II.

The comment was made amid the discussion of the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act, which is aimed at imposing sanctions on those supporting groups deemed to be “terrorist organizations” by Washington. Mast, 43, is a military veteran, who lost his legs while serving as an explosive ordnance disposal technician during the American invasion of Afghanistan.

The IDF has said its troops were engaged in “prolonged battles” against Hamas in northern Gaza overnight. Israeli soldiers were targeted with missiles, explosive devices, and grenades, but fought back with the assistance of airstrikes, artillery, and tank shelling, according to a statement. “At the end of the clashes, dozens of terrorists were killed,” the Israeli military claimed.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has said that Cairo is going to help some 7,000 foreign citizens and dual nationals depart the besieged Gaza enclave. According to a statement issued by the ministry, Egypt’s Assistant Foreign Minister Ismail Khairat said during a meeting with foreign diplomats that the country was preparing “to facilitate the reception and evacuation of foreign citizens from Gaza through the Rafah crossing,” adding that they would “number at about 7,000” and represent more than 60 nationalities.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reiterated its call to protect civilians in Gaza, adding that over 400 children have reportedly been killed or injured per day over the course of 25 straight days of Israeli strikes.

“Attacks of this scale on densely populated residential neighborhoods can have indiscriminate effects and are completely unacceptable,” the agency said in a statement. UNICEF cited reports that more than 3,500 Palestinian children were killed and over 6,800 were injured since the conflict between Hamas and Israel broke out on October 7.

The Israel Defense Forces said in the early hours of Thursday that it carried out air and artillery strikes on Lebanon after its drone came under a missile attack. It added that the UAV was unharmed.

According to the IDF, projectiles were also launched from the Lebanese territory towards the Mount Dov and Mount Hermon areas. The Israeli army responded by hitting the “source of the rocket fire” with artillery.

Eleven bakeries have been struck or destroyed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its daily update on Wednesday.

It added that only nine bakeries remain operational and are supplying bread to shelters, mainly in the southern and middle parts of the Palestinian enclave. “Hours-long queues are reported in front of bakeries, where people are exposed to airstrikes,” the agency warned.

US President Joe Biden was heckled at a fundraiser in Minneapolis by an audience member who demanded that he “call for a ceasefire right now.”

“I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out,” Biden responded, according to The Hill.

The White House previously argued that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas, echoing the stance taken by the Israeli government.

The Israeli army published what it said was an intercepted call involving a senior Hamas commander and the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza. The IDF described the recording as evidence that the Palestinian militants were “stealing” fuel reserved for medical facilities.

“The representative from the ministry said so, in the night he told me to fill up 1,000 liters,” a person described as a hospital manager is heard saying in Arabic.

The UN previously warned that fuel shortages were impeding the efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

01 November 2023

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said that the Jewish state’s government should transfer frozen tax funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, in comments that could be construed as a criticism of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s decision to freeze Palestinian tax revenues to the PA.

Smotrich had on Sunday announced the step to pause the payments, claiming that Ramallah had supported Hamas’ incursion into Israel on October 7. Israel collects tax revenue from the West Bank, which it then transfers to the PA monthly, with the payments making up nearly 65% of the Palestinian annual budget.

Gallant said that the outstanding funds should be transferred to the PA “immediately” and that they “will be used by its forces that help prevent terrorism.”

The US is complicit in the deaths of children in Gaza, according to rights group Defence for Children International-Palestine “constituting the crime of genocide,” it said.

“President Biden’s statements over the last few weeks suggest he is completely unconcerned by the scope and scale of Palestinian civil harm – including the killings of 3,650 children – as a result of Israeli military attacks in Gaza,” the children’s rights organization said in a statement.

It added that Biden is “actively becoming evermore complicit in an Israeli military campaign where Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children with impunity, constituting the crime of genocide.”

Cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks has confirmed a telecommunications blackout in Gaza after the Palestinians’ largest provider, Paltel, said earlier today that there had been “a complete interruption of all communications and internet services” in the enclave.

It is the second such blackout since the start of Israel’s ground offensive, meaning that much of the territory’s more than two million residents are experiencing “a total loss of telecommunications,” Paltel said.

Paltel also stated on social media that its services were offline “due to international routes that were previously reconnected being cut off again.”

The UN’s children’s rights committee has said that violations against children in Gaza are “mounting by the minute” amid Israel’s bombardment of the coastal enclave, and has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

“There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” it said in a statement.

The UN committee added that “there have been devastating reports of acts that are forbidden by international humanitarian law, including maiming, injury, abduction, forcible displacement, deprivation of medical care, food and water.”

US President Joe Biden has commented on social media about the opening of the Rafah border to Gaza earlier today.

“Today, thanks to American leadership, we secured safe passage for wounded Palestinians and for foreign nationals to exit Gaza,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We expect American citizens to exit today, and we expect to see more depart over the coming days.”

Biden added that his administration “won’t let up working to get Americans out of Gaza.”

Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel, its foreign minister Ayman Safadi has confirmed. In a statement, Safadi said the diplomatic measure was being taken “as an expression of Jordan’s position rejecting and condemning the Israeli war raging in Gaza.”

Safadi also stated that Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, who is not presently in the Middle Eastern country according to the statement, is not currently welcome to return.

Safadi added that the Israeli ambassador would be permitted back only “upon Israel ceasing its war in Gaza, halting the humanitarian disaster, and refraining from actions that deny Palestinians their basic rights, including access to food, water, and medicine, as well as as a secure and stable life on their national soil.”

The IDF has said 15 of its soldiers have been killed in ongoing operations in Gaza since Tuesday, revising upwards figures reported earlier today.
 
It brings the number of Israeli troops to have died in the renewed conflict to 330, the Anadolu news agency said.

UN Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths has described the recent Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, in which “scores of civilians were killed,” as the “latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza.” The fighting in the Palestinian enclave “has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences,” the official, who is charge of the UN’s relief work, warned in a statement.

Griffiths called upon both Israel and Hamas “to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law” and spare civilians as they conduct their military operations. He also urged the international community to accelerate efforts to resolve the crisis. “The world seems unable, or unwilling, to act. This cannot go on. We need a step change,” he demanded.

The IDF has published a clip showing its Merkava main battle tanks and soldiers in action inside Gaza, as well as airstrikes on Hamas targets in the Palestinian enclave. In another post on X (formerly Twitter), it cited one of the commanders of the troops, who said the Israeli “attacks are of the strength that the Hamas terrorist organization hasn’t yet encountered.” He also said the expansion of the IDF’s ground operation was taking place simultaneously with the bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli Air Force and navy.

Hamas fighters have destroyed four Israeli military vehicles using 105mm ‘Al-Yassin’ anti-tank shells in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza, the Palestinian armed group has claimed on Telegram. It did not specify if the vehicles were tanks, APCs, or some other hardware.

Israel has so far confirmed the deaths of 13 of its troops in the fighting inside Gaza this week. The IDF also said that “numerous” Hamas gunmen have been killed as a result of the operation.

The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 has risen to 8,796, with 22,219 others wounded, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave has said. More than 3,640 children are among those killed in the bombardment, it added. According to the ministry, there are 2,030 reports of people missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, including 1,120 children.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Muslim states to cease oil and food exports to Israel over the IDF’s attacks on Gaza, Press TV has reported. “What Muslim states must insist on is the immediate cessation of [Israeli] crimes in Gaza… and stop the export of oil and other commodities to the Zionist regime,” Khamenei said during a meeting with students in Tehran. “The entire Muslim world must be mobilized” against Israel, ceasing any economic cooperation with the country and using international forums to draw attention to the Israeli actions in Gaza, he said.

Hamas political bureau member Ghazi Hamad has claimed that Israel is not concerned about “the safety of the prisoners in Gaza, regardless of their nationalities,” accusing it of “indiscriminate bombings” of the Palestinian enclave. “We confirmed our readiness to release foreign prisoners, but Israel is obstructing that,” Hamad told Al Jazeera.

Hamas said earlier that five hostages, including three foreigners, were killed in an IDF strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday. The group claimed last week that some 50 captives have lost their lives due to the Israeli bombardment since October 7. According to IDF estimations, Hamas took around 240 people hostage during its surprise attack on Israel more than three weeks ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed condolences to the families of 12 IDF soldiers, officially confirmed as killed during the fighting with Hamas inside Gaza this week. “We are all with you in your time of great sorrow,” he said in a statement published on social media.

“We are in a difficult war. It will be a long war. We have important achievements in it, but also painful losses… Our soldiers fell in an unjust war, the war for our home. I promise you citizens of Israel: we will complete the job. We will continue until victory,” the prime minister pledged.

The Rafah crossing into Egypt has opened from Gaza’s side for the first time since the start of the escalation between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Al Jazeera has reported. The Qatari broadcaster’s live footage from the scene shows dozens of people and vehicles, including ambulances, moving through the gates into Egyptian territory.

The authorities in Cairo earlier allowed the evacuation of 81 critically injured Palestinians – and hundreds of foreigners or Palestinians with dual nationality – through the Rafah crossing, Al Jazeera said. The foreign nationals were notified by their embassies through the Red Cross that they could leave the besieged Palestinian enclave, it added.

The decision by Bolivia to cut ties with Israel over its attacks on Gaza is “a surrender to terrorism and to the Ayatollah’s regime in Iran,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat has said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

By making this move, the government in La Paz “is aligning itself with the Hamas terrorist organization,” Haiat claimed. “Israel condemns Bolivia’s support of terrorism and its submission to the Iranian regime, which attest to the values the government of Bolivia represents,” he added.

According to the spokesman, relations between Israel and Bolivia “have been devoid of content” since the socialist government of President Luis Arce came to power in the Latin American country in 2020.

The IDF has said it sent additional missile boats to the Red Sea on Tuesday, following several missile and drone attacks on Israel from Yemen. The deployment was made “in accordance with the assessment of the situation, and as part of the increased defense efforts in the area,” the Israeli military said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). It also published a video clip of Israeli warships operating in the Red Sea.

The Houthi government in Yemen said on Tuesday that attacks on Israel will continue until it stops its military operation against Hamas in Gaza.

The US and Israel are discussing the possibility of American troops being deployed to Gaza as part of a multinational force after the IDF succeeds in eradicating Hamas, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg. This is one of three options currently being considered by the two countries, they claimed.

The second one is establishing a peacekeeping contingent modeled after the 13-nation Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), which had been set up as part of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. Another solution could be to place Gaza under temporary UN oversight, the sources said.

The people stressed that the conversations are still at an early stage and “much could change.” Some US officials who spoke to Bloomberg described the aforementioned options as premature or unlikely.

Read full story here.

Saudi Arabia has slammed Israel for its Tuesday airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza in which a Hamas commander and numerous Palestinian civilians were reportedly killed.

Riyadh “condemns in the strongest terms possible the inhumane targeting” of Gaza’s largest refugee camp, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The Kingdom condemns and totally rejects the repeated targeting by the Israeli occupation forces of densely populated civilian areas, and its continuing violation of international law and international humanitarian law,” it added.

Such attacks keep happening because of “the international community’s failure” to put pressure on Israeli authorities to agree to an immediate ceasefire and a humanitarian truce in Gaza, the ministry stressed.

The local Interior Ministry said that the Israeli bombardment “destroyed the entire residential neighborhood” in Jabalia, leaving 400 Palestinians dead or wounded. According to data from Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 50 civilians were killed and 150 others injured in the attack.

The Palestine Telecommunication Company (Paltel) has said that there is a “complete interruption” of communications and internet services with Gaza. The problems occurred due to “the international routes that were previously reconnected being cut off again,” the company explained in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Israel is using Internet blackouts as a “warfare tactic to induce more pain on the population” of Gaza, Marwa Fatafta of the Access Now international human rights organization told Al Jazeera. The move is aimed to “cover potential war crimes as they started their ground invasion,” Fatafta claimed.

The IDF has published the names of another nine Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting with Hamas in northern Gaza on Tuesday. Two troops from the the 77th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade lost their lives after their armored vehicle was hit by a guided missile. Another four soldiers were wounded in the same incident, including one seriously, it said.

Seven servicemen from the Tzabar Battalion of the Givati Infantry Brigade were killed and two others seriously wounded when their tank drove on a mine, according to the Israeli military. Yesterday, the IDF announced the names of two troops killed in the fighting in the same area.

The US Senate confirmed Jack Lew as the country’s new ambassador to Israel on Tuesday. Lew served as treasury secretary under 44th President Barack Obama.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described the procedure as “one of the most important and consequential nomination votes the Senate has taken in a long time.”

“We need to work together on strategy with Israel,” the senator said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke over the phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday. 

According to the White House, Blinken “reiterated US support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism consistent with international humanitarian law and emphasized the need to take feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians.” 

Herzog earlier told the BBC that Israel was putting “a huge focus” on reducing civilian deaths in Gaza.

Chile and Colombia are recalling their ambassadors to Israel for “consultations,” citing the continuing Israeli strikes on Gaza. 

Chilean President Gabriel Boric described Israel’s actions as “collective punishment of the civilian Palestinian population.”

“If Israel doesn’t stop the massacre of the Palestinian people, [our envoy] can’t remain there,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Lebanon accused Israel of using incendiary munitions during strikes on its territory. “I instructed the Lebanese mission to the UN to submit a new complaint to the Security Council to condemn Israel’s use of white phosphorus in repeated attacks on Lebanon,” Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Tuesday, as cited by Arab News.

Lebanese Agriculture Minister Abbas Al Hajj Hassan claimed that 40,000 olive trees have been burned down in the southern part of the country.

Israel has carried out strikes on Lebanese territory in response to cross-border attacks by the pro-Palestinian group Hezbollah. The IDF denies using white phosphorus munitions.

31 October 2023

Bolivia’s government has cut diplomatic ties with Israel, demanding “an end to the attacks on the Gaza Strip which have so far claimed thousands of civilian lives and caused the forced displacement of Palestinians,” Maria Nela Prada, a minister in the presidential administration of Luis Arce, told reporters on Tuesday. 

Arce had condemned the “war crimes being committed in Gaza” and expressed support for “international initiatives to guarantee humanitarian aid” in a post on social media on Monday after meeting with the Palestinian ambassador to his country.

Bolivia previously severed ties with Israel in 2009 under then-president Evo Morales, also in response to an invasion of Gaza that was widely condemned by the international community. Those ties were reestablished in 2020 under the right-wing regime of Morales’ successor, Jeanine Anez.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of crimes against humanity in Gaza and Western governments of enabling those crimes during a press conference on Tuesday. 

“The Israeli administration, backed with unconditional support by Europe and America, has been committing crimes against humanity in front of the entire world for exactly 25 days,” Erdogan said. Condemning the killing of women and children and bombing of hospitals – including, on Monday, the Friendship Hospital gifted by Türkiye to Gaza – he argued that Israel, having forgotten it was a state accountable to international law, “must be stopped immediately.”

The Turkish leader has called for an immediate ceasefire and suggested an “International Peace Conference on Palestine-Israel” to work out the details of a lasting peace for the region. This would be guaranteed by a new security mechanism as the previous entities, including the UN Security Council, have failed to hold Israel accountable for its atrocities, Erdogan said.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed to have killed one of the Hamas leaders responsible for the militant group’s October 7 attack, Central Jabaliya Battalion commander Ibrahim Biari, along with 50 more “terrorists” in a devastating airstrike on the Jabaliya refugee camp Tuesday. 

“The strike damaged Hamas’s command and control in the area, as well as its ability to direct military activity against IDF soldiers operating throughout the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said, adding that “underground terror infrastructure embedded beneath the buildings, used by the terrorists, also collapsed after the strike.”

At least 100 Palestinians were killed and over 150 wounded when Israel dropped six one-ton US-made bombs on a residential area of Jabaliya, one of the most densely-populated parts of Gaza - which is itself one of the most densely-populated places on Earth. The IDF did not mention the civilians killed in the attack.

Cyprus is working with European and Middle Eastern partners to set up a sea corridor for humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, a government official told the Times of Israel on Tuesday. The shipments would travel from Cyprus’ main port of Limassol to the Palestinian enclave during “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly “wasn’t opposed” to the idea, which Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides first proposed last week, so long as Israel can vet the contents of every container before it leaves Limassol. The two men were scheduled to discuss the matter further on Tuesday.

Craig Mokhiber, the United Nations’ Human Rights Office director in New York, resigned on Tuesday to protest Israel’s war in Gaza, describing the UN’s mission in Palestine as a failure and Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the enclave as a “textbook case of genocide” in a letter to UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk.

Mokhiber claimed the UN had “surrendered to the power of the US” and the “Israeli lobby,” abandoning both its moral high ground and its duty to protect the vulnerable. It had instead allowed its most powerful member states to provide “political and diplomatic cover” as well as economic and military support for West Jerusalem’s “horrific assault” on the Palestinian people, he said. 

Dismissing the “two-state solution” as a “total failure,” the human rights lawyer set out a ten-point plan aimed at creating a single democratic secular state. Following an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the UN must deploy the same resources against Israeli “apartheid” that it used in South Africa, compensate Palestinians for their displacement during the Nakba and Naksa, and facilitate their return, Mokhiber explained.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres repeated his demand for a ceasefire in Gaza in a statement on Tuesday, insisting humanitarian access be granted “to meet the urgent needs created by the catastrophe unfolding” in the Palestinian enclave.

Guterres urged restraint by both sides to avoid further escalation, calling on Hamas to release hostages and lamenting reports that two-thirds of those killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have been women and children. 

“International humanitarian law establishes clear rules that cannot be ignored,” the UN leader said, “It is not an a la carte menu and cannot be applied selectively.”

FBI director Christopher Wray warned that the threat of terrorism against the US had reached a “whole ‘nother level” following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, in testimony before the US Senate’s Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday. 

Acknowledging in written remarks accompanying his testimony that there was no evidence Hamas itself had either the capacity or intention to attack the US directly, Wray explained that the militant group’s surprise strike against Israel was likely to “serve as an inspiration” for both foreign terrorist groups and domestic violent extremists looking to target Americans on US soil.

The FBI director predicted that both cyber and “kinetic” threats would grow with Israel’s war in Gaza, warning lawmakers that restricting the agency’s power to spy on American citizens under the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act may open the door to terrorist attacks in the future.

Thirty-six American citizens have been killed in Israel and Gaza since Hamas’ October 7 attack, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified on Tuesday at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Joe Biden’s proposed $106 billion in funding to Israel and Ukraine.  

The Pentagon chief said he had “repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly raided the West Bank home of Nasser al-Laham, the Palestinian bureau chief of the Lebanese media outlet Al Mayadeen, on Tuesday morning. The journalist reported that Israeli troops had detained both of his sons before releasing one and confiscating the phone of the other. However, he said he hesitated to discuss the raid given the suffering of fellow Palestinians in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday was interrupted by the anti-war group Code Pink, which staged a protest demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. 

As Blinken attempted to make the case for “not shrinking back” from Washington’s global engagements, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin stood up with a sign reading “No more $$$ for Israel” and urged the assembled legislators to stop funding the “brutal massacre in Gaza,” arguing neither the international community nor the American people supported Israel’s bombardment of the enclave.

“Not one senator is calling for a ceasefire! Shame on you all!” Benjamin shouted as she was escorted out of the chamber by Capitol security, and over a dozen protesters silently raised their hands covered in red paint.

Israel may have violated international law in its bombardment of Gaza, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barthe Eide told Reuters on Tuesday, questioning whether the country was taking care to distinguish between combatants and civilians and avoid excessive harm to the latter.

“We believe that there have been cases where this proportionality and this distinction have not been fully respected,” he said, describing the situation in Gaza - whose inhabitants have been cut off almost entirely from water, electricity, and medical supplies in recent weeks - as “clearly problematic” from the viewpoint of international humanitarian law.

UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned that Gaza “has become a graveyard of children” during a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday. Spokesperson James Elder explained that children were dying not only because of Israeli airstrikes but also because they were not receiving necessary medical care, urging for an immediate ceasefire to deliver humanitarian aid.

At least 3,457 Palestinian children have reportedly been killed in Gaza since Hamas’ attack on Israel earlier this month, the enclave’s health ministry said on Tuesday - nearly half of the 8,306 total recorded Palestinian deaths.

The Houthi government in Yemen have claimed they’ve launched a “large number” of missiles and drones at Israel. The attacks will continue until “the Israeli aggression stops” in Gaza, Houthi militray spokesman Yahya Saree warned in a televised address.

Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF reported shooting down an unidentified “aerial target” over the Red Sea near the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

Sirens have been sounding in Tel Aviv and areas north of Israel’s largest city, including Ra’anana, Herzliya, Kfar Saba, Jaljulya, and Hod Hasharon, the Times of Israel paper has reported, with Hamas taking credit for the rocket attacks.

Earlier, Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said that a 29-year-old man had suffered light injuries after his car was hit with shrapnel from a rocket interceptor near the city of Beersheba in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

The IDF says Israeli troops have been engaged in “fierce battles” against Hamas deep inside the northern part of Gaza. It also shared several clips of the fighting, which showed IDF soldiers and tanks moving around devastated neighborhoods in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel can no longer be found on China’s leading online digital maps on platforms including Baidu and Alibaba, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing web users.

According to the outlet, Baidu’s Chinese language maps still show the borders of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as key cities in the region. However, they no longer identify Israel by name. Alibaba’s Amap also reportedly no longer displays the name of Israel on its maps.

Read full story here.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 8,525 people, including 3,542 children, the local health ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave has said.

“The Israeli occupiers continue to intentionally hit medical institutions,” the ministry’s spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, told journalists. A total of 57 medical institutions have been struck so far, with 130 doctors and nurses killed, he said. According to al-Qudra, some 32 medical centers in Gaza have also been rendered inoperable due to the lack of fuel, he added.

The Israeli military has published a video of the head of its Southern Command, Major General Yaron Finkelman, addressing Israeli troops and insisting that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will triumph in Gaza.

“Southern Command stations, commander is speaking. We are launching an attack on Hamas and the terror groups in the Gaza Strip. Our goal is one, victory. No matter how long the fighting will be, how difficult, there is no other result but victory,” Finkelman said in the clip, according to a translation by the Times of Israel paper.

“We will fight in the alleys, we will fight in the tunnels, we will fight where necessary. We will strike the terrible enemy that stands before us,” the commander added, in an apparent paraphrasing of one of the most famous World War II speeches by then UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The so-called “We shall fight on the beaches” address was delivered by Churchill to the British parliament in June 1940 shortly after the evacuation of more that 338,000 allied troops from France amid an advance by Nazi Germany.

Hamas has said its fighters have engaged an Israeli armored convoy in the al-Tawam area of northern Gaza. Two IDF vehicles were set on fire by rockets and one Israeli soldier was killed during the exchange of fire, the Palestinian group claimed in a Telegram post.

The Israeli military has updated the number of hostages held by Hamas armed group, with IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying the families of 240 people have been notified that their loved ones are being held in Gaza.

The number doesn’t include the four hostages released by Hamas or the Israeli soldier freed by the IDF on Sunday night. Hagari stressed that the figure isn’t final as the military keeps investigating information about missing persons.

The Israeli military has said that its warplanes struck some 300 targets in Gaza overnight, attacking anti-tank and rocket launching positions, tunnel shafts and suspected Hamas military compounds.

During ground operations, Israeli troops clashed with the Palestinian fighters, who employed missiles and heavy machine gun fire, the IDF said. “Numerous” Hamas fighters have been killed, it claimed. The statement gave no new information about the losses on the Israeli side.

Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum director Dani Dayan has said that a recent stunt by Israel’s envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, who addressed the UN Security Council on Monday while  donning a yellow Star of David, “dishonors both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel.”

“The yellow patch symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people and being at the mercy of others. Today, we have an independent country and a strong army,” Dayan said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “We are masters of our destiny. Today, we place a blue-white flag on the lapel, not a yellow patch,” he insisted. During the World War II-era, the Nazis forced Jews to wear yellow stars in public to distinguish themselves. It’s now one of the symbols of the Holocaust.

The Israeli hostages held by Hamas have criticized their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for not doing enough to set them free in a new video published by the militant group. “We know there was supposed to be a ceasefire. You were supposed to release us as you promised,” one of the women in the clip said, addressing the PM. She claimed that the captives are suffering from a “political, security, and military failure” by Netanyahu. “Release us now, release the Palestinian citizens, release the prisoners now,” the female hostage pled.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have allegedly demolished a home owned by the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, in the town of Aroura in the occupied West Bank, several media outlets have reported. The footage of what is said to be the controlled demolition of the building has also been published on social media.

According to Al Jazeera, the destroyed house had been empty for a long time. Al-Arouri, who is considered one of the main masterminds of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, is reportedly staying in Lebanon, the broadcaster said.

Women and children have accounted for about 70% of fatalities in Gaza since the start of the escalation between Israel and Hamas, the head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini has said in a statement. Nearly 3,200 children have lost their lives in the area in just three weeks, surpassing the number of minors killed annually across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, he stressed. “This cannot be considered ‘collateral damage’,” Lazzarini insisted. He described Israel's action in Gaza as “collective punishment” and called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Palestinian enclave.

The IDF has published footage of what it says were Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure. The "weapons, posts and sites" of the Lebanese armed group were destroyed in the attacks, it said.

A total of 31 journalists have been killed in the Israeli-Palestinian hostilities this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. According to the US-based NGO, 26 media workers were killed in Gaza, four lost their lives during the initial attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, and another one died in an alleged Israeli strike on Lebanon. Another nine journalists have been reported missing or detained, it added.

“Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict in the face of an Israeli ground assault on Gaza City, devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, and extensive power outages,” the CPJ stressed.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, meanwhile, urged the UN Security Council to intervene and end Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

“2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza face death every day and every night,” the diplomat said. “How many more days will you wait to say enough?” He called on the international community to help Palestinians, who had been driven from their homes by the Israeli airstrikes and are “sleeping in their cars, sleeping in the streets and still being killed wherever they go.”

The Palestinian Authority does not control the Gaza Strip, which since the 2000s has been solely governed by Hamas. 

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and his delegation wore a yellow Star of David with the words “Never Again” during the UN Security Council meeting on Monday.

He compared Hamas to Nazi Germany, urging everyone to condemn the militants for killing Israeli civilians. “I will wear the yellow patch until the Nazi Hamas is eliminated and until the Security Council stops being silent and condemns the October 7 massacre. Some of you have learned nothing in the last eighty years!” he said.

The yellow star is one of the symbols of the Holocaust. During the World War II-era, the Nazis forced Jews to distinguish themselves by wearing it in public.

The UN called on Israel to reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing in order to deliver humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“More than one entry point into Gaza is indispensable if we are to make a difference,” Lisa Doughten, director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the UN Security Council on Monday.  

Israel previously refused to reopen the crossing, but said that aid could be delivered to Gaza through Egypt.

30 October 2023

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Hamas “must be held accountable” for the death of Shani Louk, the German-Israeli woman whose body was paraded by the Palestinian militants during their incursion into Israel on October 7.

“This is terror, and Israel has the right to defend itself,” Scholz wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday shortly after the Israeli authorities confirmed Louk’s death.

Louk was kidnapped by Hamas during the group’s attack on an open-air music festival near the border with Gaza. Her fate had remained unkown for more than two weeks.

“We do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer right now,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has told reporters. “We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now,” Kirby added.

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Friday to adopt a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce,” between Israel and Hamas. The US and Israel were among 14 countries that voted against the resolution, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday that he would not heed the call, saying “this is a time for war.”

WikiLeaks has confirmed that an Israeli government document advocating the forced depopulation of Gaza and resettlement of its residents in Egypt is genuine. First published by Israeli news site Sicha Mekomit, the document calls on the government to establish a tent city in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, which would eventually be developed into a permanent settlement separated from the Israeli border by a “sterile zone of several kilometers.”

Under the proposed plan, Gaza would become Israeli territory.

The document was produced by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence, a department that prepares studies and policy papers for review by the government. The ministry is run by Gila Gamliel, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

Hamas political bureau official Izzat al-Rishq has cast doubt on the IDF’s claim that it freed a female Israeli soldier from captivity in Gaza. "No one believes the false Zionist narratives, and even Zionist society itself does not believe its leaders,” he said on the militant group’s social media accounts.

Hamas spokesperson Abdul Latif al-Qanou said earlier that Israeli tanks did not enter Gaza City during the supposed operation to free the soldier, claiming that they stuck to the outskirts of the enclave for a “photo opportunity to restore the prestige of their army.”

The US is sending shipments of weapons and ammunition to Israel on an almost daily basis, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters in Washington. Singh added that the US was “not putting any limits on how Israel uses weapons.”

The US has so far given Israel missiles for its Iron Dome air defense system, Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs for its warplanes, and 155mm shells for its artillery guns, among other weapons. Washington’s efforts to source 155mm shells has reportedly threatened the supply of this ammo to Ukraine, which has received more than two million 155mm rounds from the US since last year.

Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected any calls for a ceasefire with Hamas, Al Jazeera has reported. His comments came after Hamas released a video in which three captured Israelis appealed to Netanyahu to stop the hostilities.

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce,” between Israel and the Palestinian militant group, as well as the “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” supply of aid to Gaza.

Only 14 countries, including the US and Israel, voted against the resolution.

A female soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 was rescued during a ground operation in Gaza, the IDF has said in a statement. The soldier is named as Private Ori Magidish, and was found to be in good health by Israeli medics.

Hamas militants took 229 people to Gaza as hostages during their attack on Israel, according to the latest count by the IDF. Four have been released, and Hamas claims that around 50 have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that its warehouses in Gaza City suffered “severe damage” and are out of service due to Israeli strikes targeting the surrounding area.

US forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked 23 times in the last two weeks, a senior Pentagon official told reporters in Washington. Fourteen of these attacks took place in Iraq and nine in Syria, the official said, adding that a mix of drones and rockets had been used. The official did not report any casualties.

Iranian-linked militias have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, with one such group, the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, declaring on Thursday that it is willing to fight “a war of attrition against the enemy that will extend for years,” according to a report by Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen news network.

Israel’s ground forces are “directly engaging” Hamas militants in Gaza, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said at a media briefing. “Ground forces, tanks, infantry, and armored forces are maneuvering towards terrorists,” Hagari stated, adding that the military had eliminated dozens of Hamas fighters who had “barricaded themselves in buildings and attempted to attack the forces that were moving in their direction.”

Israeli tanks have been spotted on the edge of Gaza city amid the country’s “expanded” operation in the enclave, AFP News agency reported, citing an eyewitness. Israel’s military also reportedly managed to cut off a key road to the city.

Hamas is disappointed at the lack of support from the Arab community in the region, Mousa Abu Marzouk, a member of the group's political bureau, told Al Jazeera. He specifically blasted what he called the “shameful position of our brothers in the Palestinian Authority,” referring to the de jure government of Palestine in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is dominated by Fatah party and enjoys international recognition. It also used to control Gaza until its conflict with Hamas in 2006.

The official also suggested, citing unnamed “foreigners,” that some members of Palestinian Authority and some Arab countries “were secretly calling on the West to eliminate” Hamas.

However, Fatah denounced Marzouk’s statement, with its spokesman suggesting that the official “speaks from an ivory tower.” He stressed that Fatah continues to support “the forces and heroes of our people in their legitimate human resistance in the battle for liberation and defeating the [Israeli] occupation.”

He added, however, that “we call on our brothers in the Hamas movement to form a purely Palestinian front under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our Palestinian people.”

A 31-year-old Israeli soldier was killed, and two reservists seriously injured after a “tank overturned” in northern Israel on Sunday, the IDF said, without providing any further details of the incident.

The United Nations humanitarian organization OCHA said that 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies were allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Sunday.

“This is the largest delivery of humanitarian aid since 21 October, when limited deliveries resumed,” OCHA said in an update on the situation early Monday.

Prior to the blockade, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered Gaza daily, according to AP, but since Israel launched its war against Hamas, only 117 trucks were allowed into the Palestinian enclave of some 2.3 million residents.

The chief of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, has warned the country’s war cabinet and security officials about a possible “eruption” of hostilities in the West Bank, according to Israeli media.

“The specific warning notes a rise in violence by settlers [and] incidents between settlers and Palestinians that result in the deaths of Palestinians… These incidents are likely to set the area alight,” the Times of Israel reported Israel’s Channel 12 as saying.

Newly elected US House Speaker Mike Johnson has revealed that lawmakers will vote this week on a more “pressing and urgent” issue of helping to defend Israel in its war with Hamas, separately from any new funding for Kiev which will be put on the backburner for the time being.

“We’re going to move a stand-alone Israel funding bill this week in the House,” Johnson said on Sunday in a Fox News interview. “We believe that that is a pressing and urgent need… There are lots of things going on around the world that we have to address, and we will, but right now, what’s happening in Israel takes the immediate attention, and I think we have got to separate that and get it through.”

There have been a string of anti-Jewish incidents in Russia’s southern Muslim-majority regions, since the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas began, earlier this month.

Media sources in Moscow believe the unrest has been encouraged by Ukraine-based Telegram channels running information war operations. 

The latest major flashpoint took place on Sunday, when hundreds of anti-Jewish protesters breached the international airport of Makhachkala, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan.

Read full story here.

29 October 2023

The IDF has released a video of its latest strike against "military infrastructure in Syrian territory," which allegedly targeted a launch site following a missile attack on Israel on Sunday night.

US ally Jordan has asked Washington to deploy additional missile defense systems in the country, amid concerns that the Israel-Gaza war could spill over into the wider Middle East.

“We asked the American side to help bolster our defenses with Patriot air defense missile systems,” Brigadier General Mustafa Hiyari, Jordan's army spokesperson, told state television, according to Reuters.

Israeli warplanes have carried out a series of strikes against Hezbollah targets Lebanon, “in response to launches towards the territory of the State of Israel earlier today,” the IDF said, sharing a video of the raid.

The Israeli military also claimed “a number of launches from Syrian territory” towards Israel territory “fell in an open area,” prompting IDF to “respond by firing at the sources of the shooting.”

In a phone conversation with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden emphasized the need to “immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the call on Sunday. 

While reiterating that “Israel has every right and responsibility to defend its citizens from terrorists,” Biden emphasized that it should be done “in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law that prioritizes the protection of civilians.”  

The leaders also discussed “ongoing efforts to locate and secure the release of hostages, to include American citizens who remain unaccounted for and may be held by Hamas.”

US President Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, held a phone call to discuss “the significant acceleration and increase of assistance flowing into Gaza,” according to the American readout of the call. While Biden has pledged to support Israel’s military operation, he also held a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urging him to “immediately and significantly increase” the amount of aid allowed into Gaza.

Israeli officials said that they allowed a convoy of aid and food to enter the enclave from Egypt on Sunday, although the UN’s aid agency in Gaza has warned that much more is needed after “thousands” of rioters broke into one of its food warehouses earlier in the day to steal “wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies.”

Riot police have been deployed to an airport in Makhachkala, the capital city of Russia’s Dagestan Republic, to break up a crowd of angry protesters searching for “Jewish refugees.” The mob assembled after rumors on social media suggested that a flight from Israel was set to touch down in the majority-Muslim republic.

The flight was diverted and landed at an alternate airport, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has called on the current government not to commit more troops to a full-scale invasion of Gaza, where Hamas fighters will “exact a heavy blood price from us.” 

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Bennett recommended that Israel create a two-kilometer “security strip” around the enclave and maintain a complete blockade on fuel supplies until Hamas surrenders, all while continuing to pound Gaza with airstrikes.

“Hamas leadership will find itself in a dilemma,” Bennett wrote. “If [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar does not disarm he will go down in history as the one who destroyed his country and brought a historical disaster on his people.”

The UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said that one of its peacekeepers was injured when two mortar shells fell on one of its bases near the Israeli border. Two other UN bases in Lebanon were hit on Saturday.

“Attacking UN peacekeepers is a crime, a violation of international law and must be condemned,” the mission said in a statement, without blaming either Israeli forces or Lebanese Hezbollah militants.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah have exchanged fire daily since Israel’s conflict with Hamas broke out. The IDF published a video on Sunday showing one of its aircraft attacking a “terrorist cell” that it said had been firing missiles into Israeli territory earlier in the day.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must “rein in…extremist settler violence against innocent people in the West Bank,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has told CNN.

At least seven Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers since the conflict with Hamas began on October 7, the Associated Press reported on Sunday. Across multiple terms in office, Netanyahu has overseen a dramatic expansion in the construction of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, which the International Court of Justice deems illegal.

Israeli airstrikes destroyed most of the roads leading to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday morning, the Associated Press has reported. The Shifa Hospital is the largest medical facility in the Palestinian enclave.

The IDF claimed on Friday that Hamas had built an elaborate network of tunnels and bunkers under the hospital. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari refused to rule out bombing the hospital, declaring that “in this war, all options are on the table.”

Israel’s military has “improved and refined [its] plan” for the ground operation in Gaza after talks with top US officials, including Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, the New York Times reported, citing sources.

US officials interviewed by the outlet said the original plans “alarmed” Washington, which expressed concerns about Israel’s ability to achieve its stated objectives. However, after consultations with the US, the IDF’s ongoing operations appear to be more limited in scope than Israeli officials initially described to their American counterparts, the article says.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk insisted that no Starlink terminal operated by the company has attempted to connect from Gaza, and vowed to “take extraordinary measures to confirm that it is used only for purely humanitarian reasons.”

He also pledged that his company would “do a security check with both the US and Israeli governments before turning on even a single terminal” in the Palestinian enclave.

The billionaire’s comments came after Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Kahri, said his country would do its best to fight Starlink terminals providing internet access in Gaza. Musk previously said he would only provide “internationally recognized aid organizations” with Starlink services amid a communications blackout in the besieged enclave.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that Israel’s “crimes” in Gaza have “crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action,” in a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday morning.

“Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel. The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield,” the Islamic Republic’s leader added.

The UN Security Council is set to meet on Monday afternoon sometime after 7pm GMT to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after the UAE requested an emergency meeting in the wake of Israel’s “expanded ground operations” in Gaza.

The Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) has announced that landline, mobile and internet services are now “gradually being restored across Gaza,” following a major blackout on Friday night. The company said that its technical teams “are diligently addressing the damage to the internal network infrastructure under challenging conditions.”

Benjamin Netanyahu had never received any prior warnings about the October 7 Hamas assault, his office reiterated on Sunday after the PM was pressed on the issue at an earlier press conference.

“All the security hierarchies, including the head of the Shin Bet and the head of IDF military intelligence, assessed that Hamas was deterred and was interested in an arrangement… That was the assessment that was repeatedly presented to the prime minister and the cabinet by all security and intelligence hierarchies,” the office said in the statement on X.

The Israeli military has launched the “second stage” of war against Hamas militants in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address on Saturday night, while warning citizens to prepare for a long struggle ahead.

“We are only at the beginning of the road. The battle within the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long,” Netanyahu warned, while stressing that “this is our second War of Independence. This is our mission, our purpose in life, and together we will prevail.”

“Last night, additional ground forces entered Gaza, marking the beginning of the second stage of the war, whose goal is to destroy the military and political capabilities of Hamas and to bring our kidnapped citizens back,” Netanyahu declared.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group transited the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean sea on October 28, and will soon join the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in “support of the defense of Israel and to deter aggression throughout the region,” the US navy has announced.

“Our arrival in the Mediterranean, en route to CENTCOM, provides reassurance to our allies and partners that we are committed to ensuring their security and well-being,” said Rear Adm. Marc Miguez.

After Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, the US military scrambled to reinforce its presence in the region. The Pentagon has sent two aircraft carriers with supporting vessels to the area, as well as “activated the deployment” of THAAD and Patriot air defense systems.

Last week, it also said it had ordered more than 2,000 additional troops to prepare to deploy in support of Israel in its conflict with Hamas. On Thursday, it said that it would deploy 900 soldiers to the Middle East. US officials, however, insisted, that none of the troops would go to Israel, and are rather “intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities.” 

The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 8,000 people, “half of whom are children,” the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave told AFP early Sunday.

Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman is expected to visit Washington on Monday, where he will meet several senior US officials, including defense secretary Lloyd Austin, state secretary Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Axios reports citing three unnamed sources with knowledge of the trip.

Earlier on Saturday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that any “ground operation by Israel would threaten the lives of Palestinian civilians and result in inhumane dangers.”

28 October 2023

International humanitarian organizations Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC) are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to prevent more civilian deaths and desperately needed aid into the Palestinian enclave.

“It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza amid the massive bombardments, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible,” the head of the ICRC Mirjana Spoljaric wrote, describing the situation as a “catastrophic failing that the world must not tolerate.”

“The actions of world leaders are too weak, too slow, as a non-binding UN resolution for a ceasefire has done nothing to reign in the indiscriminate violence unleashed on a helpless people,” the MSF said in a separate statement, adding that it had “teams on standby ready to send medical supplies and to enter Gaza, as soon as the situation allows it.”

The IDF has refused to either confirm or deny whether it was behind a near-total communications blackout in Gaza, according to Reuters.

“We do what we have to do to secure our forces for as long as we must, temporary or permanent, as much as we need to and we will not say anything further about that,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday evening, when asked if Israel had intentionally knocked out cellular services as it “expanded” its ground operations against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli warplanes have struck “a number of military targets of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanese territory,” the IDF said, releasing a video of the air raids. Israel claims to have destroyed “terrorist infrastructure… including a military compound and observation posts” in its retaliatory strikes, with allegedly came in response to “launches from Lebanese territory in the past day.”

Tens of thousands of people joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday. Video footage from the rally showed protesters packing the streets of the British capital holding signs saying “Gaza, stop the massacre” and “Free Palestine, end Israeli occupation.”

London’s Metropolitan Police said that nine people were arrested throughout the day, with two accused of assaulting officers. “A number of the Public Order arrests are being treated as hate crimes,” the force said in a statement.

Similar protests took place in Berlin and Paris, with thousands of demonstrators in the French capital defying a ban on pro-Palestinian rallies.

“Israel will use all means at its disposal to fight” Elon Musk’s planned provision of Starlink internet access to Gaza, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Kahri wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“Hamas will use it for terrorist activities,” Kahri claimed, suggesting that the SpaceX CEO only provide Starlink service to Gaza if Hamas releases “our abducted babies, sons, daughters, [and] elderly people.” 

Earlier on Saturday, Musk said that he would open the Starlink satellite network to “internationally recognized aid organizations” working in Gaza, after a wave of Israeli airstrikes severed the enclave’s last phone and internet connections with the outside world.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has said that he presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a document in 2016 warning that Hamas would attack Israel “precisely the way it did” if the IDF did not intervene.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12, Liberman said that Netanyahu had to be persuaded to show the document at a meeting with security chiefs, where it was “waved away dismissively.”

Israel can only succeed in destroying Hamas if it continues ground operations in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said in a statement. “The objectives of the war require ground entry. There are no achievements without risks, and there is no victory without prices being paid,” he said. “In order to expose the enemy and destroy it, there is no other way but to enter its territory with great force.”

Israel is recalling its diplomats from Türkiye in light of “harsh statements” from Ankara, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has announced. It is unclear how many Israeli representatives are still in Türkiye, as officials from both countries told media outlets last week that Israeli ambassador Irit Lillian and other staff had left the country amid protests outside her residence.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Hamas militants as “freedom fighters” earlier this week, and on Saturday said that Türkiye would soon show the world evidence of Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza.

Israel has “moved on to a new phase in the war,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced, declaring that “the ground shook in Gaza” on Friday night as Israeli forces “attacked above ground and below ground, attacking terrorists of all ranks, in all places.”

Friday night saw both the heaviest Israeli bombardment of Gaza since the beginning of the conflict and the first major incursion into the strip by Israeli troops and armor. Gallant said that the operation will continue in this manner “until new orders are given.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will make his Starlink internet service available to “internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,” he announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Phone and internet lines went down in the enclave after a heavy Israeli bombardment on Friday, leaving aid groups unable to communicate with their staff in the besieged territory.

Some 5,000 US troops took part in an Israeli ground assault on Gaza on Friday, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. Last week, the Pentagon said it had ordered more than 2,000 additional troops to prepare to deploy in support of Israel in its conflict with Hamas.

At the same time, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday that it was “expanding” both ground and air operations in the enclave.

Tasnim also reported, citing security sources, that Israel’s overnight assault involved three divisions and several brigades, with troops attempting to advance on several axes to divide Gaza into two or three sections.

Palestinian authorities are in talks to secure access to the Starlink satellite system operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, Communications Minister Ishaq Sidr said in an interview with Al-Hadath TV. The statement comes after Gaza suffered the complete severing of internet and landline services amid the Israeli siege.

The minister also noted that local authorities are in contact with neighboring Egypt to provide communications assistance.

Hamas says it has thwarted an attempted ground assault by Israel’s military on Gaza, adding that the country’s military sustained heavy losses, according to media reports. It claimed that Israeli forces were caught in ambushes set by the Palestinian resistance, and it had to use helicopters to evacuate the dead and wounded from the battlefield.

The Israeli military claims it has killed Asem Abu Rakaba, a top Hamas official in charge of air defense, aerial reconnaissance, and drones, in an airstrike. The IDF said he participated in “the massacre in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7” and directed militants who infiltrated Israel by paraglider.

The newly elected US House Speaker Mike Johnson has held a phone call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing “strong support” and saying that “the House of Representatives stands with Israel.”

The United States is “not drawing red lines for Israel,” and is going to continue to support its battle with Hamas militants, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday night. However,  “since the very beginning we have, and will continue to have, conversations about the manner that they are doing this,” he added.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has held yet another phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, in which he “underscored the importance of protecting civilians” during operations in Gaza, and emphasized the “urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza,” according to the Pentagon. “He also raised his focus on the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said.

A senior member of Hamas has said the Palestinian militant group was surprised by America’s reaction to recent violence in Gaza, suggesting the US would enter the fight after it sent thousands of troops and a pair of aircraft carriers to the region.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, Ali Barakeh, a member of Hamas’ political leadership based in Lebanon, said the group “didn’t expect this much of a response” from the United States.

“An Israeli response? Yes, we expected that,” he said. “But what we’re seeing now is the entrance of the US into the battle, and this we didn’t count on.”

The State Department was allegedly unaware about Israel’s plan to “expand” ground operations in Gaza before the official announcement on Friday, two US officials told ABC news. However, amid growing international pushback against a full-fledged ground invasion, Washington has been “pressuring Israel to adopt a narrower scope for its offensive and take a more incremental approach,” ABC News reported, citing two unnamed US officials.

A member of Hamas's political bureau, Ezzat El-Reshiq, has blasted Israel for “cutting off the phone network and internet” as well as “electricity, water, food, medicine and fuel,” calling it a “full-fledged war crime” aided by the West.

The militant’s group's political official added that the Qassam Brigades “and all Palestinian resistance forces” are ready to “thwart incursions.”

Clashes between the Israeli forces and Hamas militants have been taking place in at least three locations along the Gaza Strip border, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Safwat Kahlout who cited information from Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the group.

“After a few minutes of a relatively calm situation, now Israeli artillery resumed heavy bombardment across the border line,” the reporter claimed early Saturday morning, adding that from the rooftop of his building he could see the “flashes of Israeli artillery blowing up across the border line.”

The Israel Defense Forces is “expanding ground operations” against Hamas in the Gaza Strip while the air force has intensified its aerial bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari reiterated on Friday night, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“In the last few hours, we have severely increased our attacks in Gaza,” he said during an evening briefing, noting that attacks were taking place from the air, sea and land, according to the Jerusalem Post.

While Israeli soldiers and tanks have conducted several limited raids into the strip over the last days, no major offensive has been officially announced yet. A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Mark Regev, told CNN that the “expansion” of ground operations in Gaza means the IDF is “beefing up the pressure on Hamas.”

“That pressure will increase and continue to increase until we achieve our goal,” he added.

Amid the communication blockade on the Gaza Strip, the President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has confirmed that the organization also lost contact with its teams on the ground.  

“The blackout affects emergency medical services, but also we can’t know what is happening. Deeply concerned about civilians, healthcare workers and facilities,” Francesco Rocca said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent's media officer, Nibal Farsakh claimed that the “Israeli authorities have cut off landline, cellular, and internet communications, severely affecting our essential emergency medical services.”

The World Health Organization also lost contact with its staff in Gaza, as well as “health facilities, health workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground,” the UN agency’s director-general has confirmed.

“This siege makes me gravely concerned for their safety and the immediate health risks of vulnerable patients. We urge immediate protection of all civilians and full humanitarian access,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The number of United Nations staff who have lost their lives in Gaza amid the ongoing Israeli war with Hamas has increased to at least 53 since October 7, after another 14 humanitarian personnel were killed in the past 24 hours, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said in a statement on Friday.

27 October 2023

Amnesty International also lost contact with its team in Gaza, according to the organization's Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, Erika Guevara-Rosas.

“This communications blackout means that it will be even more difficult to obtain critical information and evidence about human rights violations and war crimes being committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and to hear directly from those experiencing the violations,” Guevara-Rosas said.

Multiple humanitarian organizations and international media and have lost contact with their colleagues on Friday night, as the Gaza Strip has suffered a near-total blackout of internet and cell phone services after Israel “expanded” its military operation against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.

Read full story here.

The UN children’s agency UNICEF has also lost contact with their colleagues in Gaza amid the reported near-total communications blackout.

“We have lost touch with our colleagues in Gaza. I’m extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for 1 million children in Gaza,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russel wrote on X, adding that “all humanitarians and the children and families they serve must be protected.”

The international healthcare charity Doctors Without Borders says that it has lost contact with some of their Palestinian colleagues on the ground in Gaza.

“We are particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities,” it said, expressing deep concern over over the situation around one Gaza’s biggest medical centers. “We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip.”

Israel previously accused Hamas of turning hospitals into “headquarters for their terror,” specifically one Al Shifa, and even published an “illustrative video” which supposedly points out the “different locations in and under the hospital which are being used to plan and implement terrorist activities.”

Amid the reported disruption of communications with Gaza, the head of RT Arabic, Maya Manna, said that contact has been lost with RT’s war correspondents and photographers operating in the Palestinian enclave on Friday evening. The sole message came from an RT stringer in the area, describing a “very violent bombing.”

“I don't know what to do with my children and my family. Everyone is afraid, everyone is terrified, and there is screaming everywhere in the Gaza Strip,” said Masoud, a local reporter.

The US State Department has urged American citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, citing an “unpredictable security situation.”

“There is no guarantee the US government will evacuate private US citizens and their family members in a crisis situation,” it said. “US military-assisted evacuations of civilians from a foreign country are rare… You should have a plan of action for crisis situations that does not rely on US government assistance.”

Israel has slammed the UN General Assembly for passing a non-binding resolution which urged a humanitarian truce in Gaza.

“This is a dark day for the UN and for mankind,” Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan said. “Today is a day that will go down as infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance.”

“We reject outright the UN General Assembly despicable call for a ceasefire. Israel intends to eliminate Hamas just as the world dealt with the Nazis and ISIS,” added Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

By cutting off communications from the Gaza Strip, Israel is attempting “to create an image of victory,” a senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera, accusing the IDF of “an attempt to cover up the crimes of the occupation without any oversight or accountability.”

There is a near-total blackout of internet and cell phone services across the Gaza Strip, according to service providers and global connectivity monitors. 

The largest telecommunications provider in Gaza, Paltel, announced on Friday "a complete severance of all communications and Internet services" due to intensified Israeli strikes. “The intense bombing in the last hour caused the destruction of all remaining international routes linking Gaza to the outside world, in addition to the routes previously destroyed during the aggression, which led to the interruption of all communications services from the beloved Gaza Strip.”

A company that tracks internet connectivity globally, Netblocks, confirmed that “live network data show a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel.”

“Today’s incident is the largest single disruption to internet connectivity in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict and will be perceived by many as a total or near-total internet blackout,” said Isik Mater, the director of research at NetBlocks.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the humanitarian system in Gaza is facing a “total collapse with unimaginable consequences for more than 2 million civilians,” according to a statement on Friday night. 

“As the bombing intensifies, needs are growing ever more critical and colossal,” he said. “Misery is growing by the minute. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering.” 

The IDF has told international news organizations that Israel “cannot guarantee your employees' safety, and strongly urge you to take all necessary measures for their safety,” according to a letter sent to Reuters and AFP, after they had sought assurances that their journalists in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli strikes.

“The IDF is targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza,” the letter stated, accusing Hamas of deliberately conducting military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians.”

US sources told ABC News that Friday night’s ground incursion into Gaza was not a “large-scale offensive,” while an IDF spokesman confirmed that it was not the planned (and repeatedly delayed) major ground offensive. Residents of Gaza report “heavily intensified” IDF airstrikes in the enclave, according to local media.

The UN General Assembly called for a humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in a Friday vote. Of those present, 120 countries supported the resolution, while 45 abstained and 14 – including the US and Israel – opposed it. 

The vote comes after a UN Security Council resolution that would have ordered “humanitarian pauses” for aid delivery to Gaza was vetoed by the US last week.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces urged reporters on Friday to ignore any rumors about a deal to release the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, insisting the IDF “will reach and present any credible information” regarding the captives to the families first and then inform the public.

“Until then, don’t surrender to Hamas’ manipulations of psychological terror,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has “completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza and all our teams operating there,” the organization said in a statement on Friday, warning that the unusually heavy IDF bombardment of the enclave had disrupted the operations of its central emergency ‘101’ line, preventing the dispatch of ambulances to those wounded and injured in the airstrikes.

The streets of Gaza are overflowing with sewage, exacerbating the massive public health hazard in the enclave, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA warned on Friday. “The last remaining public services are collapsing, our aid operation is crumbling, and for the first time ever, [our staff] report that people are now hungry,” agency director Philippe Lazzarini said, stressing that the amount of aid trickling in amounted to “nothing more than crumbs.” 

While aid deliveries have supplied some food, water and medicine, they have not included fuel, meaning the UNRWA is unable to collect and distribute the aid that does make it into the enclave and will soon be forced to “wind down” its relief efforts, Lazzarini explained.

The US State Department will not support a ceasefire in Gaza that would allow Hamas to “rest and refit, and continue launching terrorist operations against Israel,” spokesman Matthew Miller has said.  

Instead, he suggested a “humanitarian pause” to allow the delivery of aid to Gaza. However, Miller declined to address concerns that Americans may have been among the 50 hostages reportedly killed during Israeli airstrikes since October 7.

Hamas has called on Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Palestinian diaspora to “mobilize in support of Gaza and stop the aggression and war of extermination” being waged by Israel. In a statement, the militant group also called on Arab and Islamic countries to “take immediate action to stop the…massacres against our people.” 

In a separate statement on Friday, Hamas official Husam Badran called on Palestinians in the West Bank to take up arms against occupying Israeli troops, declaring “this is the time for weapons.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced they were “expanding ground operations” in Gaza on Friday, warning residents who were still in the city to move south as a series of massive explosions were reported in and around the vicinity on Friday night.

Israel “cut communications and most of the internet” to the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Hamas militant group has said. Netblocks confirmed that live network data showed a collapse in connectivity in the territory, with Gaza's last remaining service provider, Paltel, severely impacted.

Additionally, Palestinian telecom company Jawwal announced the “complete interruption of telecommunications services” to Gaza in a statement on Friday, explaining “the intense bombardment of the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international [communications] routes connecting Gaza with the outside world.”

Hamas “categorically” rejected the Israel Defense Forces’ claim that it situates its command centers or any other military assets under hospitals in Gaza in a statement posted to the militant group’s Telegram account on Friday. Warning that such “criminal and dangerous allegations” paved the way for the targeting of the Al-Shifa hospital, which it said houses more than 40,000 displaced Palestinians, Hamas urged the United Nations and the Islamic world to “intervene immediately to stop the madness of bombing and destroying the medical system” in the enclave.

Four people were wounded when a rocket hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv on Friday, according to emergency medical service Magen David Adom. None of the four was seriously injured, and all were taken to a nearby medical center for treatment.

Hamas reportedly took credit for firing the rocket on its Telegram channel.

The city of Ashkelon also came under rocket fire, with rockets hitting the 9th floor of one building, a construction site, and a ground-level house, resulting in an unknown number of casualties.

UNESCO, the United Nations’ educational division, has demanded protection for schools, teachers, and students in Gaza amid Israel’s bombardment of the territory. It said in a press release on Friday that about 40% of the schools in Gaza – 200 buildings – had been damaged since the latest round of hostilities began on October 7. Some 40 of those schools have been damaged very seriously, according to UNESCO. Many of these were operated by the UN’s Palestinian refugee organization, UNRWA, which has already lost 38 civilian employees in the bombing.

The IDF claims to have proof that Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest hospital in the enclave, is being used for “terror purposes,” alleging that hidden beneath the civilian complex was a network of “Hamas underground complexes,” “terror tunnels,” and even a “command and control center” used by the Palestinian militant group. At a press conference on Friday, an IDF spokesman stressed that hospitals lose their protection as civilian targets under international law when they are used for “terror purposes.”

Medics from the International Committee of the Red Cross have entered Gaza for the first time since the war began on October 7, the organization said on Friday. Six members of the group’s medical staff, along with four other Red Cross specialists and six aid trucks, entered the blockaded territory via the Rafah crossing in Egypt. The crossing – the only way into and out of Gaza for many years – had been shut for over a week due to constant aerial bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed they have killed the commander of Hamas’ Western Khan Yunis Battalion in an airstrike, according to a post by the military account on X (formerly Twitter). The IDF also took responsibility for strikes on over 250 “Hamas targets,” including an alleged tunnel network.

Nearly half (49%) of Israelis polled by the Panel4All Institute on Tuesday and Wednesday opposed an “immediate military ground invasion of Gaza,” according to the Israeli news outlet Maariv, which cited the poll results on Friday. Only 29% of poll respondents said the invasion should begin “immediately.” A similar poll last week found 65% supported a ground invasion, but did not specify when it would take place.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has insisted that the death toll provided by the health ministry in Gaza has always been reliable after US President Joe Biden claimed that he had “no confidence” in the numbers coming in from Palestinians. “In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no-one ever really challenged these figures,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem. According to the latest data from the Gaza health ministry, 7,028 people, including 2,913 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave since October 7.

Prominent Iraqi Shia cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has demanded that the government and parliament hold a vote to close the US Embassy in Baghdad over what he called Washington’s “unfettered support of Israel” amid the conflict with Hamas.

In a statement published on X (formerly Twitter), al-Sadr warned that if the authorities “do not abide by this demand, we will go for further actions which we will later announce.” Last week, hundreds of members of an Iraqi paramilitary group gathered on the border with Jordan to show support for the Palestinians and demand an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza.

The United Nations is “concerned that war crimes are being committed” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani has said at a press-conference.

Shamdasani stressed it was for an independent court of law to determine whether war crimes have taken place.

The Israeli military has raised the number of Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas to 233 people, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said. The previous figure announced on Thursday was 228.

The number does not include the four captives that were released by the Palestinian militants over the past week. The information is not final as the IDF continues its investigation, Hagari stressed.

The Israeli government is set to allow police to use live fire against Israeli citizens who block roads or entrances to towns during a “multi-front war” being waged by the country, public broadcaster Kan has reported. Police will only need permission from a senior officer before shooting to kill, it added. According to Kan, Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has already agreed to fast-track the legislation.

The measure had been proposed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir before the Hamas attack on October 7. Kan previously reported that police were concerned that Israeli Arab citizens could block army convoys in case of a military escalation. Ben Gvir said in early October that he believes it is “very important to change the instructions so that our policemen and soldiers can fill their role without risking their lives.”

The Israeli military has confirmed media reports that it conducted another raid inside Gaza. The IDF said that it sent ground forces into the central part of the Palestinian enclave, striking numerous Hamas targets, including anti-tank missile launch sites and command centers. The incursion was accompanied by airstrikes and artillery bombardment, it added. The troops safely exited the area after concluding the operation. There were no deaths or injuries among the servicemen, according to the IDF.

The IDF has launched yet another small-scale ground raid, sending infantry, tanks and engineering troops of the 36th Division into Gaza Strip “for several hours” on Thursday night, according to local media reports.

An unidentified missile has landed in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Taba, just across the border with Israel, damaging a hospital and injuring at least six people, according to local media reports.

The Israel Defence Forces is “aware of a security incident on the other side of the border with Egypt,” according to the Times of Israel, but it is not clear if it was related to the ongoing Gaza war.

Read full story here.

26 October 2023

The IDF claims to have eliminated three senior operatives from the “most significant brigade of the Hamas terrorist organization,” Daraj Tuffah Battalion, who had allegedly “played a significant role in the invasion and murderous attack against Israel on October 7.” Hamas has yet to respond to the Israeli military’s claim.

The US “will not be spared from this fire” if the “genocide in Gaza continues,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has told the UN General Assembly. “This is our home and West Asia is our region,” he said, adding: “We do not compromise with any party and any side and have no reservations when it comes to our home’s security.”

By providing military aid to Israel and refusing to surge adequate humanitarian assistance into Gaza, Amir-Abdollahian accused Washington of “managing the genocide in Palestine.” 

Hosting a high-ranking Hamas delegation is “an act of support of terrorism, and legitimizes the atrocities of Hamas terrorists,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said on Thursday, demanding the Russian government “expel the Hamas terrorists immediately.”

The delegation, led by Moussa Abu Marzouk, was in Moscow to negotiate the release of hostages taken on October 7 and the safe evacuation of Russian and other foreign nationals currently trapped in Gaza by the Israeli blockade.

The US military reported that American soldiers suffered minor injuries from drone attacks at Ain al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf base in Syria on October 17 and 18, as per Al Jazeera. All affected personnel have returned to their duties. These bases, housing US troops, have experienced repeated attacks recently, possibly drawing the US into the Israel-Hamas conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that if Iran or its allies target US personnel, the US will defend its people and security promptly and decisively.

Hamas has offered to release civilian hostages, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told the UN General Assembly on Thursday, urging the UN to support the release of 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as well. According to the Lebanon-based outlet Al-Mayadeen, the captives could be handed over to Iran with Turkish and Qatari help.

A Hamas representative has announced that approximately 50 hostages in Gaza have lost their lives due to Israeli airstrikes. Earlier in the day, the Israeli military reported that the number of individuals who were confirmed to be in captivity in Gaza following the cross-border raids by Hamas on October 7 had reached 224 and could potentially increase.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas has arrived in Moscow for negotiations. RIA-Novosti news agency reported earlier that the delegation was headed by a member of Hamas’ political bureau, Moussa Mohammed Abu Marzouk.

Seven people were injured after an IDF drone fell on the balcony of a home in the northern Israeli city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, not far from the country’s border with Lebanon, the Galilee Hospital has said. According to the hospital, its doctors tended to five adults and two children, aged 5 and 11, who suffered smoke inhalation and acute anxiety. Six patients have already been sent home, while a 66-year-old man had to be left at the facility for further treatment, it added. The IDF said that it was investigating the incident. The Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah had exchanged fire in the border area earlier that day.

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory strikes in Gaza has reached 7,028, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave has announced. Some 2,913 children were among the dead, along with 1,709 women and 397 elderly, it said.

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz has denied media reports that the government has been delaying a ground operation against Hamas in Gaza due to pressure from the US.

“We are making decisions only based on our own interests,” Gantz told reporters in Tel Aviv. “Only we will defend ourselves and every Jew.” Gantz stressed that Israel was grateful to the US for the support it has been providing, while warning that “tough times are expected for us,” although “the danger of being eliminated” is not Israel’s, “but its enemies.”

Another twelve aid trucks loaded with food, water and medicine has entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, the Palestine Red Crescent Society has said. This puts the number of trucks to have arrived in the Palestinian enclave over the past five days at 74. The UN said earlier that 100 trucks per day are required to meet the essential needs of the besieged enclave.

The FBI has warned the American public that it “has seen an increase in reports of threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities and institutions.” According to a statement issued by the agency, the escalation between Israel and Hamas has “increased the possibility of potential attacks against individuals and institutions in response to developments in the Middle East.” The FBI also claimed that foreign actors, including Iranian media outlets and terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), were using the conflict to stoke divisions and call for violent attacks in the US and other Western countries.

Israel has asked India to designate Hamas as a “terrorist” organization following the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented attack on October 7, Israeli Ambassador to New Delhi Naor Gilon has said. The Indian authorities should make the move because of the countries’ shared “war on terror,” Gilon explained, as quoted by the Hindustan Times.

Read full story here.

Israelis and Palestinians could use Russia as an example of peaceful co-existence between peoples of different faiths, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar said during a meeting of religious leaders with Russian President Vlaimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday.

“I have no doubt that Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, can live in peace, respect each other, and even help each other when necessary,” Lazar stated. “The fact that here, in Russia, we have peace between Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists – all religions and all peoples – could be taken as an example. In fact, this is an example for the whole world.”

The deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, has claimed that “the battles have not begun yet” with Israel. “If the enemy enters [Gaza] by land, it will be an unprecedented defeat [for the Israeli forces],” he said.

In an interview with Hezbollah-owned Lebanese broadcaster al-Manar, al-Arouri urged Palestinians in the West Bank to “escalate the resistance by any means.” He also spoke about the hostages being held by the group, describing them as “guests,” and stating that Israeli citizens would be swapped for Hamas detainees in Israel.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeated his nation’s calls for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas, and for the “resumption of negotiations aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state, which had been solemnly promised to the Palestinians almost 75 years ago.” 

Speaking at a security conference in Belarusian capital Minsk, Lavrov stressed that Moscow condemns terrorist acts and any other actions that contravene international humanitarian law and harm civilians.

The Russian diplomat said that a joint international effort would be required to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also described the US as “one of the leaders” among the countries interfering in the crisis.

The IDF has said that its warplanes have struck 250 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours. The Palestinian armed group’s underground tunnels, command centers and rocket launchers placed “in a civilian environment” were attacked, among other things, the Israeli military added.

Hamas has urged mass protests in Israel, the occupied West Bank and across the Muslim world to demand the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. “We call on our people throughout the homeland and outside, and on all the members of the Arab and Islamic nation, and the free people of the world, to intensify the popular mobilization in the coming days, and to demonstrate actively on Friday and Sunday under the slogan ‘Open the Rafah crossing’ and ‘Stop the genocidal war on Gaza,’” a statement from by the Palestinian militant group read.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged for the first time that he could also be held partly accountable for the security blunders that allowed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. “This failure will have to be investigated to the last degree. Everyone will have to give answers. Myself included,” Netanyahu said during a televised address on Wednesday. However, he made it clear that the time for the probe hasn’t come yet, saying that now the Israeli society should “join forces for one goal: to charge forward to victory.”

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Shin Bet internal security service head Ronen Bar have been among the top Israeli officials who have publicly accepted responsibility for the events of October 7. Even former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who led the government between June 2021 and June 2022, said that he shares in the blame.

The IDF is training its troops for a ground invasion of Gaza at a specially built replica of a generic Palestinian village nicknamed “Little Gaza” at a base in the Negev Desert, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Among other things, the Israeli soldiers have been practicing carrying injured troops to safety and spotting gunmen behind windows, it said.

Hamas “want us to come in” to Gaza, one of the servicemen suggested, describing the urban warfare that awaits the IDF inside the Palestinian enclave as “the mother of all fears.” The invasion is being delayed for now as Israel has agreed to the Pentagon’s request to give it more time to place air defenses in the region to protect US troops, American officials told WSJ.

The Palestinian death toll provided by the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip is “generally reliable,” Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) Omar Shakir has told Al Jazeera. The ministry bases its figures on the data it gets from hospitals and morgues, he added.

“Human Rights Watch has been working in the occupied Palestinian territories for three decades. We’ve covered rounds of escalations and hostilities, and we’ve always found the numbers from the Ministry of Health to be generally reliable,” Shakir stressed.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden said that he has “no confidence in the numbers that the Palestinians are using” as he was speaking about the fatalities in Gaza. According to the Health Ministry, at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed and 17,439 others wounded in Israeli strikes since October 7.

The IDF has conducted a “targeted raid using tanks” in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said, releasing a video of the overnight combat operation.

“During the activity, soldiers located and struck numerous terrorists, terror infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts, and operated to prepare the battlefield,” according to the IDF.

The raid was reportedly conducted “as part of preparations for the next stages of combat,” and the soldiers have since exited the Palestinian enclave and returned to Israeli territory.

An IDF drone was targeted by a surface-to-air missile from Lebanon, which was intercepted by the Israeli air defenses, according to the military. In response, Israel has struck the alleged missile launch site in the neighboring country.

25 October 2023

The Wall Street Journal claimed on Wednesday that about 500 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters took part in exercises organized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a month before the attack on Israel.

Iran has categorically denied any role in the attack. Speaking at the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Iran’s envoy to the UN Ami Saeid Iravani said Tehran “categorically rejects” the “groundless allegations” by the US of Iranian involvement in the events of October 7, which he described as “Palestinian anti-occupation.”

Read full story here.

US President Joe Biden has cast doubt over the accuracy of casualty numbers provided by health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza, saying he has “no confidence” in the latest reports that as many as 6,546 Palestinians were killed and 17,439 wounded in Israeli airstrikes since October 7.

“What they [casualty numbers] say to me is that I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden said during a join press conference with Australian PM Anthony Albanese. 

“I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it's a price of waging a war,” the US leader added. “I think we should be incredibly careful – not we – the Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they're focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel. It's against their interests when that doesn't happen, but I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.” 

Russia and China have vetoed a US-authored draft resolution at the UN Security Council, that condemns Hamas’ attack on Israel and calls for release of hostages, but does not urge a ceasefire. The text was supported by ten countries, with Russia, China and the UAE voting against it, while Brazil and Mozambique abstained.

“The US seeks to promote some new project, saturated with politicized and extremely inappropriate statements… The authors ignored almost all objections of other delegations regarding their project,” Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya said after the vote.

The UN Security Council also failed to adopt an alternative Russia-led resolution calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” and unhindered aid into Gaza. The Moscow-sponsored text was backed by China, UAE and Gabon, while the US and UK voted against it. The remaining 9 members abstained.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to lead the country to a “crushing victory” over the Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas “axis of evil” in a televised address on Wednesday evening. He also promised a ground invasion of Gaza when the time is right, and a reckoning for the “failures” of October 7 after the war, promising Israelis that the government will take care of them as it had during the Covid pandemic.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is urging the international community to prevent an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. He and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the potential for significant civilian casualties from such an incursion, pointing to the 6,600 civilian deaths, including many children, already reported in the last two weeks of Israeli attacks.

Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Cairo, emphasized that France did not apply double standards and upheld international law and humanitarian values. He emphasized the importance of compassion for all victims and a lasting commitment to a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East. Macron also emphasized the need for unhindered humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

Israel has temporarily agreed to a US request to set up air defenses to protect American troops in the region, in anticipation of a potential ground operation in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The Pentagon is working to deploy nearly a dozen air-defense systems to safeguard US troops in various locations, including Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, shielding them from missile and rocket threats. Israeli officials have reportedly agreed to hold off on their preparations until these defense systems can be positioned, possibly later this week. Israel is also said to be factoring in plans for providing humanitarian aid to Gaza’s civilians and diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, according to officials who spoke to the WSJ.

Amnesty International is calling on Israel to cancel forced evacuation orders in Gaza and stop spreading fear among civilians. 

According to Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser, declaring entire areas as military targets violates international humanitarian laws, and attackers must consistently differentiate between civilians, civilian property, and military targets. 

Amnesty also raised concerns about leaflets distributed by the Israeli army with evacuation orders, claiming they lack effective warnings, suggesting potential forced displacement of northern Gaza’s civilians. 

Israel had previously advised about 1.1 million northern Gaza residents to relocate south for their safety, a move Amnesty suggested might equal forcibly moving the civilian population.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Hamas is not a terrorist group. In response, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lior Haiat, said that Israel completely rejects Erdogan’s remarks and described Hamas as a reprehensible terrorist organization. He went on to say that Hamas engages in acts of violence, including intentionally harming civilians, using them as shields, and taking hostages. He also drew a comparison between Hamas and ISIS, emphasizing the terrible actions both groups are known for: “Even the Turkish president’s attempt to defend the terrorist organization and his inciting words will not change the horrors that the whole world has seen and the unequivocal fact: Hamas = ISIS.”

“How many more children have to die?” Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has tweeted, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. He’s been urging the UK to assist in humanitarian efforts. Yousaf’s wife’s parents are currently in the besieged area.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed his astonishment at the "misrepresentations" of his comments about Hamas, which were made during a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

The secretary-general said: "I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented October 7 acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing and kidnapping of civilians or the launching of rockets against civilian targets."

In his speech on Tuesday, Guterres stated that Hamas's attack did not occur "in a vacuum" and emphasized that the Palestinians have endured "56 years of suffocating occupation." His remarks drew a furious response from Israeli officials, who demanded his resignation.

The Israeli military has claimed it was able to identify the spokesman of Hamas’s military wing, who goes by the alias Abu Ubeida, and published a video allegedly showing his face. “This is Hudhaifa Kahlout, who hides behind the nom de guerre Abu Ubaida, and behind his red keffiyeh [scarf], just as Hamas hides behind civilian buildings to launch rockets towards Israel,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Hudhaifa Kahlout, you have been exposed. It is time to drop the cover,” Adraee added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a “somewhat skeptical view” of the Israeli military’s plans to invade Gaza, US officials have told Axios. Netanyahu, who has “always been risk-averse,” is delaying the ground operation as he’s “entertaining other opinions,” the sources claimed. The Israeli PM also wants to buy time to allow the release of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas and allow the IDF to better prepare for an invasion, the officials added.

The number of Russian citizens killed since the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7 has reached 23, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Another four Russians are missing, it added.

According to the ministry, a total of 250 foreigners have been confirmed dead so far and 81 are unaccounted for. Russia’s Ambassador in Tel Aviv Anatoly Viktorov said last week that 20 Russians had died.

The New York Times claims that footage cited by Israeli and US officials as proof that a deadly strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was the result of a failed rocket launch by Palestinian fighters has nothing to do with the incident.

“A detailed visual analysis by The New York Times concludes that the video clip, taken from an Al Jazeera television camera livestreaming on the night of October 17, shows something else. The missile seen in the video is most likely not what caused the explosion at the hospital,” the paper wrote.

According to the NYT, the projectile seen in the clip “detonated in the sky roughly two miles away... and is an unrelated aspect of the fighting.” The paper stressed that its finding “does not answer what actually did cause the Al-Ahli Arab hospital blast, or who is responsible.”

Israeli warplanes have targeted the runway at Aleppo International Airport in Syria, Lebanese broadcaster Al-Mayadeen has reported. The attack caused damaged and led to the shutdown of the airport, but did not result in any deaths or injuries, according to the outlet.

Syrian military sources previously told local media that eight Syrian troops were killed and seven others injured in Israeli strikes near the city of Daraa overnight.

Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzahi Hanegbi has praised Qatar for “becoming an essential party and stakeholder in the facilitation of humanitarian solutions” during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Qatar’s diplomatic efforts are crucial at this time,” Hanegbi said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Doha is reportedly involved in negotiations with Hamas on the release of more than 200 Israeli and foreign hostages captured by the Palestinian militant group during its attack on October 7.

The post caused an angry reaction from former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, wrote on X that “Qatar is not a crucial partner for humanitarian and diplomatic activities. Qatar is the enemy itself.” According to Bennett, Doha “assists and strengthens” Hamas and wants to save the group from destruction by Israel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that he won’t be traveling to Israel because of its “inhumane” war in Gaza. “We had a project to go to Israel, but it was canceled, we will not go,” Erdogan said during his AK Party’s parliamentary group meeting. The Turkish leader also stressed that in Ankara’s view, “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a group of mujahideen defending their lands.”

Erdogan urged both sides of the conflict to stop the fighting immediately, saying “Israel’s missile attacks and missile attacks on Israel should be ceased.” He also called upon Muslim countries to act together in order to achieve a lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine has slammed Israel for demanding resignation of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres over him saying that the “horrifying and unprecedented” attack by Hamas on October 7 didn’t happen “in a vacuum.”

Israeli diplomats have launched an “unprovoked attack” on the UN chief, the ministry said in a statement. This move was an “extension” of Israel’s “disrespect and lack of commitment” to the UN, its charter and UN resolutions regarding Palestine, it claimed.

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) has said that nearly 600,000 internally displaced people are sheltering at its 150 facilities in Gaza. “Our shelters are four times over their capacities. Many people are sleeping on the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed,” the organization said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).  According to the agency, 40 of its facilities have been “impacted” by Israeli airstrikes. The message also quoted UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini as saying “there is no safe place in Gaza today.”

The head of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has held a meeting with top officials from the Palestinian armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah-owned al-Manar TV has reported. According to the broadcaster, Nasrallah, the deputy leader of Hamas Saleh al-Arouri, and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala discussed what must be done for them to “achieve a real victory for the resistance” in Gaza.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that the country was spending around 1 billion shekels ($246 million) per day on the war with Hamas. Smotrich told Army Radio that he didn’t yet have an assessment of the indirect costs of the conflict on Israel’s economy, which has become partly paralyzed by the mass mobilization of reservists and frequent rocket attacks from Gaza.

Smotrich said that Israel’s 2023-2024 national budget was “no longer relevant” due to the war. He also reacted to S&P’s downgrade of Israel’s sovereign debt outlook to “negative,” describing the move as “alarmist.” The minister insisted that he didn’t anticipate major Israeli deficits despite the fighting.

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has accused Iran of providing assistance to Hamas in the run-up its attack on Israel on October 7. “Iran directly aided Hamas before the war, with training, supplying weapons, money, and technological know-how,” Hagari said during a press conference. “Even now, Iranian aid to Hamas in the form of intelligence and online incitement against the State of Israel, continues,” he added. Tehran has previously denied having any knowledge of Hamas preparing a large-scale operation against Israel, but voiced support for the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has published a message on X (formerly Twitter), clarifying his stance on the current escalation between Israel and Palestine. “The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas. Those horrendous attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres wrote.

Israel will deny visas to United Nations officials amid its spat with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has said. “Due to his remarks, we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives,” Erdan told Army Radio. “We have already refused a visa for Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson,” the envoy added.

On Tuesday, Erdan called for Guterres’ resignation after the UN chief suggested that Hamas’s “horrifying and unprecedented” attack on October 7 didn’t happen “in a vacuum,” referring to Israel's “56 years of suffocating occupation” of the Palestinians' land.

Eight Syrian troops were killed and seven others wounded in an Israeli airstrike overnight, a militry source told Syria’s state-run SANA news agency. At around 1:45am, “the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression... targeting a number of our military points in the countryside of Daraa,” the source said. The IDF announced earlier that its “fighter jets struck military infrastructure and mortar launchers belonging to the Syrian Army” in response to rocket launches from Syrian territory towards Israel the previous day.

Israel has dropped more than 12,000 tons of explosives on Gaza during its retaliatory strikes since October 7, the media office in the Palestinian enclave has said. Their joint explosive force was “equivalent to the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in Japan” by the US in 1945. “An average of 33 tons of explosives were dropped per square kilometer on the Palestinian enclave,” the statement said. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with some 2.3 million people living on an area of just 365 square kilometers.

International ratings agency S&P has lowered Israel’s credit outlook from stable to negative, citing a risk that the war with Hamas “could spread more widely or affect Israel’s credit metrics more negatively than we expect.” 

“We currently assume the conflict will remain centered in Gaza and last no more than three to six months,” the agency added. The move comes less than a week after Moody’s put Israel’s credit ratings on review for downgrade, while Fitch also put Israel on negative watch over risks from the conflict.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has conveyed to Russian diplomats its “displeasure” with Moscow’s position on the conflict with Hamas in Gaza, the public broadcaster Kan reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

“Russia’s conduct and the remarks against Israel don’t correspond with the severity of the situation Israel is in, which is a state of war,” Israeli diplomats reportedly told their Russian counterparts.

West Jerusalem also expressed “displeasure with the role Russia is playing” in the war against Hamas and hope that Moscow will take “more balanced” positions, another ministry official told the Times of Israel.

At least three Palestinians were killed and “possibly up to 20 people” injured during an IDF raid and drone strike in Jenin, according to a medical source cited by Al Jazeera. While Israeli forces have left Jenin, similar raids were also taking place in other parts of the West Bank, according to the channel.

The Israeli military has conducted a drone strike in the West Bank city of Jenin amid clashes with Palestinians during a raid to arrest “two wanted persons suspected of involvement in terrorist activity,” according to the IDF. “During counterterrorism activity in the Jenin Camp, armed terrorists fired and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces. In response, an IDF UAV struck the terrorists,” the Israeli military said.

24 October 2023

Israeli warplanes have struck “military infrastructure and mortar launchers belonging to the Syrian Army,” the IDF has confirmed, claiming that the attack came in response to several rockets that were launched from Syria earlier in the day and fell in open fields in the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel’s naval forces have destroyed a “cell of divers,” who allegedly attempted to breach into the country by sea north of Gaza, targeting the Mediterranean coast settlement of Zikim, the IDF said in a statement on X. “IDF fighter jets struck the military compound from which the terrorists departed in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF added.

In the last 18 days, some 2,360 children have been killed and 5,364 injured in Gaza from continuous attacks, UNICEF has reported. This translates to an average of over 400 children reportedly either killed or injured daily. Furthermore, over 30 Israeli children are reported to have lost their lives, and numerous others are still being held as hostages by Hamas.

The World Health Organization has once again called for the safe passage of fuel and other supplies for health facilities. 

“WHO remains unable to distribute fuel and essential, life-saving health supplies to major hospitals in northern Gaza due to lack of security guarantees. WHO calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire so health supplies and fuel can be delivered safely throughout the Gaza Strip,” it said. 

An Israeli army spokesperson has announced that fuel shipments will not be permitted to enter Gaza, in response to a statement from a UN agency indicating that its operations in the area will cease if fuel deliveries are not made by tomorrow night. On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released photos that purportedly depicted fuel storage tanks within Gaza, asserting that they had received information indicating that Hamas was stockpiling significant quantities of fuel in that area.

“These fuel tanks are inside Gaza. They contain more than 500,000 liters of fuel. Ask Hamas if you can have some,” the IDF said, responding to UNRWA. 

The United Nations has reported that 20 trucks scheduled to provide aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing have not yet reached the region, but UN aid spokesperson Eri Kaneko expressed hope they could arrive tomorrow. 

In an earlier statement to the Security Council, senior UN aid official Lynn Hastings mentioned that 20 trucks were expected to cross into Gaza on Tuesday. A total of 54 trucks have entered since Saturday, transporting essential supplies such as food, medicine, and water.

Israel’s permanent representative to the UN accused the organization’s secretary general of being “disconnected from reality” and called on him to “resign immediately,” following Guterres’ words about “56 years of suffocating occupation” of Palestinian people by Israel.  

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has announced on social media that he will not proceed with a scheduled meeting with UN chief Antonio Guterres.  

The cancellation follows Guterres’ statement that the October 7 attack by Hamas was not an isolated incident and that Palestinians have been living under a “suffocating occupation” for 56 years. He also expressed concern about Israel’s alleged violations of international humanitarian law. 

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Cohen wrote: “I will not meet with the UN Secretary General. 

“After October 7th, there is no room for a balanced approach,” he added. “Hamas must be erased from the world!”

IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi has said the Israeli military is ready for a ground invasion of Gaza and is only waiting for a political decision to launch the operation. “The IDF and the Southern Command have prepared quality offensive plans to achieve the goals of the war,” Halevi said during a press conference near the border with Gaza. “The IDF is ready for the [ground] maneuver, and we will make a decision with the political echelon regarding the shape and timing of the next stage,” he added.

While the ground offensive is being delayed by “tactical and even strategic considerations,” Israeli forces are “making use of every minute to be even more prepared,” Halevi said. “And every minute that passes on the other side, we strike the enemy even more. Killing terrorists, destroying infrastructure, collecting more intelligence for the next stage.”

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani has blamed the international community for giving Israel a “free license to kill” amid its escalation against Hamas. He condemned the violence on both sides, but claimed there were “double standards” when it comes to the treatment of casualties in Israel and Gaza. He said the world was “acting as if Palestinian children’s lives are not worth to be reckoned with as though they are faceless or nameless.”

“We are saying enough is enough. It is untenable for Israel to be given an unconditional green light and free license to kill, nor it is tenable to continue ignoring the reality of occupation, siege and settlement,” the monarch said in his speech at the opening of the annual session of the country’s Consultative Assembly.

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz, a key ally of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, has told German tabloid Bild that Israel’s campaign in Gaza is part of a “World War III against radical Islam.” He also suggested that if the US had been attacked by Mexico in the same way Israel was attacked by Hamas, the American response would have been so severe that “there would be no Mexico.” 

Read full story here.

A large barrage of rockets has been launched from Gaza towards Israel and the northern part of the occupied West Bank, according to Israel’s Tzeva Adom alert system, which is designed to detect incoming missiles and drones. Sirens were heard in Lod, Rehovot, Nes Ziona and elsewhere in central Israel as well as in Elkana and some other settlement in the West Bank.

The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7 has reached 5,791 after 704 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 houses, Gaza’s Health Ministry has said. A total of 16,300 people have been wounded, it added.

The Israeli military has said it dropped leaflets in Gaza asking Palestinians to contact it with information on the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for safety and a financial reward.

“If you want a better future for you and your children, take action and provide us with solid and useful information as soon as possible regarding the hostages in your area,” the flyers said in Arabic, according to a translation by the Times of Israel paper. “The Israeli army assures you that it will put forth maximum effort to provide you and your home with security, as well as a financial reward. We guarantee you complete confidentiality,” it added.

French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested that the international coalition fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) should be expanded to also take on Hamas. “I propose the coalition against Islamic State also fight Hamas. France is ready for the international coalition against Daesh (a pejorative Arabic term for IS), in which we are taking part for operations in Iraq and Syria, to also fight against Hamas,” he said during a joint press-conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The French leader also called for a “decisive relaunch” of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A “political approach to the conflict with the Palestinians” by Israel is the only way to achieve stability in the Middle East, Macron argued.

“Hamas must be destroyed,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted, speaking alongside visiting French President Emmanuel Macron. “We will dismantle its terror machine, we will dismantle its political structure. We will make every effort to release our hostages. And we will take every effort to keep Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way,” he pledged.

Netanyahu drew a comparison between the attack on Israel by the Gaza-based armed group and the Holocaust, saying: “Hamas butchered, Hamas beheaded, Hamas burned babies alive, Hamas raped, Hamas kidnapped hostages.”

“Hamas barbarism threatens the Jews, it threatens the Middle East, it threatens Europe, it threatens the world,” the PM said.

US officials are worried that Israel has no workable plan for sending ground forces into Gaza, and question whether its goal of annihilating the Hamas militant group is achievable, according to the New York Times. “The Biden administration is concerned… that the Israel Defense Forces do not yet have a clear military pathway to achieve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of eradicating Hamas,” the outlet said, adding that “in conversations with Israeli officials since the Hamas attacks on October 7, American officials said they have not yet seen an achievable plan of action.”

Read the full story here.

Hamas has 35,000 fighters ready to take on the IDF if it invades Gaza, Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Palestinian armed group’s political bureau, has told Lebanese television. “We know that if we want to fight the US- and European-backed Israeli army, we’ll have to be in high readiness, and we are,” Hamad insisted.

During a meeting with his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to conduct its planned ground offensive in Gaza in a way that will not see the conflict with Hamas “enlarging.”

According to Macron, the release of hostages held by the Palestinian armed group is “the first objective… because this is an awful crime to play with the lives of children, adults, old people, civilians and soldiers.”

Herzog said the situation with the hostages was “extremely complicated and fragile,” adding that the Israeli state is “demanding the full and immediate release of all our citizens.”

He also warned Lebanese authorities that if the local armed group Hezbollah “will drag us [Israel] into war, it should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price.” The government in Beirut cannot say that “they are not responsible” for what Hezbollah does, Herzog insisted.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has confirmed that Washington had sent its military instructors to Israel amid the escalation with Hamas. “There are a few relevant military officers with... the kinds of experience that that we believe is appropriate to the sorts of operations that Israel is conducting and may conduct in the future to go over there to share some perspectives from their own experience and to ask the hard questions,” Kirby told journalists during a briefing.

The Israeli military is “already stretched thin” as it prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza and works to contain the rising tensions in the occupied West Bank, Vice News has reported, citing IDF and US officials. “We face one-and-half fronts right now, this is part of why the Hamas terrorist operation was so successful” on October 7, an unnamed IDF official told the outlet. “Soldiers that were supposed to be outside Gaza were in the West Bank protecting settlements and chasing rock-throwing kids in Jenin.”

The IDF is “mobilized but even with the reservists, there’s going to be a massive, long-term operation in Gaza that will require more ground troops than we have ever deployed. The West Bank could explode at any time [into a major uprising] and the units on the northern border are enough for defensive operations,” the source said.

“Three fronts in open combat would stretch our resources,” he acknowledged, referring to the possible interference of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The threat of Hezbollah’s involvement alone “will keep multiple brigades of elite soldiers on the Blue Line (the withdrawal line between Israel and Lebanon), unable to help in Gaza or the West Bank,” the IDF official explained.

The Israeli Health Ministry has said that 278 people out of the more than 4,600 injured in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel remain hospitalized, including 40 patients in serious condition.

The ministry also announced plans to recruit additional mental health professionals to address what it called “an unprecedented mass casualty mental health event” cause by the current Israeli-Palestinian escalation.

French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Tel Aviv to express “full solidarity" with Israel amid the escalation with Hamas, AFP has reported. Macron has already met with the families of French nationals who were killed in the October 7 incursion by the Palestinian armed group or are being held hostage in Gaza. A total of 19 French citizens lost their lives in the attack, seven remain missing and one is confirmed to be among the captives.

Also on the French president’s agenda are talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defense minister Benny Gantz and opposition leader Yair Lapid. According to a statement made by his office, Macron plans to promote the restart of a “genuine peace process,” aimed at creating a viable Palestinian state in exchange for guarantees from regional powers regarding “Israel's security,” during those meetings.

Following his phone call with Palestinian Authority FM Riyad al-Maliki, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi also spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Beijing said. It was their first conversation since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Wang told Cohen that Beijing was “deeply saddened” by the large number of civilian casualties which had resulted from the current Israeli-Palestinian escalation. “Countries have the right to self-defense, but they should respect international humanitarian law and protect civilians,” he stressed.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang expressed hope that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be settled through the “two-state solution,” which will provide for “harmonious coexistence of Arab and Jewish peoples.” Beijing will “do its best” to help with finding a way to resolve the crisis, the Chinese FM assured.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held a phone call with his Palestinian Authority counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, Beijing has announced. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang expressed “deep sympathy” to the Palestinian people, especially those in Gaza, who have found themselves in a “difficult situation” amid the current escalation with Israel.

Beijing strongly condemns and opposes any actions that harm civilians and violate international law, and is calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the foreign minister stressed. He reiterated China’s stance that the “two-state solution” remains the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Wang has urged for a “more authoritative” international peace conference to be staged as soon as possible to promote the resumption of peace talks between the sides.

Al-Maliki thanked China for providing aid and “firmly standing on the side of the Palestinian people.” The Palestinian foreign minister also called for an immediate ceasefire and the swift the delivery of relief supplies to Gaza, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

The IDF has said that it struck some 400 targets in Gaza over the past day, and “eliminated a number of commanders in the terrorist organization Hamas,” releasing footage that purports to show some of the latest air raids. Among other things, the Israeli warplanes targeted multiple “operational headquarters,” as well as alleged “assembly points of the terrorist organization located inside mosques.”

US tech giants Google and Apple have reportedly disabled real-time traffic information features in their map services in Israel and the Gaza Strip, at the request of the IDF which is worried that such information could reveal the movements of Israeli forces ahead of a looming invasion, sources told Bloomberg and other media on Monday.

“As we have done previously in conflict situations and in response to the evolving situation in the region, we have temporarily disabled the ability to see live traffic conditions and busyness information out of consideration for the safety of local communities,” a Google spokesperson confirmed in a statement to the Hill.

US President Joe Biden has updated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Washington’s “ongoing efforts at regional deterrence” and “new US military deployments,” according to the White House. In a phone call on Monday, the US leader also “underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” and reaffirmed US “commitment to ongoing efforts to secure the release of all the remaining hostages taken by Hamas.”

Israel will not delay a possible ground offensive against Hamas to buy more time for hostage talks, the country’s energy minister told Germany’s Bild newspaper.

Efforts to bring home the more than 200 hostages held in the Gaza Strip “cannot hinder our actions, including the ground offensive, if we decide it,” Energy Minister Israel Katz said. He added, “Hamas wants us to deal with the captives and wants the military to not go in to eliminate their infrastructure. That will not happen.”

23 October 2023

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip face “catastrophic consequences” if emergency fuel supplies aren’t delivered within the next 48 hours, the territory’s health ministry told Al-Jazeera. The Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza has already run out of fuel, leaving it in “total darkness,” while several other hospitals could suffer the same fate in several days, according to the report.

Hamas released two hostages on Monday, the second such move in three days, amid media reports that President Joe Biden’s administration is urging Israeli officials to delay their ground offensive to allow more time for negotiations.

Read the full story here.

A top Israeli general has vowed to “bring Hamas to a point of disintegration” when a ground offensive begins in the Gaza Strip. “That is why we attack with great force,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told commanders in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter). “We are killing senior commanders, killing operatives, destroying infrastructure and acting with great determination.”

The IDF will take out Hamas leaders and the group’s military wing, Halevi said. Delays in the ground offensive gave Israeli forces more time to make their attack plans, so the IDF is “very well prepared,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces posted a video to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday purporting to show an IDF drone strike hitting a terrorist cell in southern Lebanon. The targets were allegedly preparing to launch rockets at the Mount Dov area, near the country’s northern border. The IDF has conducted several airstrikes on Lebanon, allegedly in response to rocket attacks by Hezbollah and its Palestinian allies.

Negotiations surrounding the release of 50 hostages were derailed over the issue of fuel supply to Gaza on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal. While the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has warned it only has three days worth of fuel left for the trucks it uses to bring in vital humanitarian aid and Gaza hospitals are having difficulty fueling their medical equipment, Israel has opposed allowing energy into the territory, arguing it will be used by Hamas.

Hamas has published a video showing the release of two elderly Israeli hostages, Nourit Yitshaq and Yokheved Lifshitz, who had been held captive in Gaza. Footage shows the militants transferring the two women to representatives of the International Red Cross (ICRC).

US President Joe Biden said he would be willing to “talk” about a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel only after the Palestinian militant group freed hostages being held in Gaza.

“We should have those hostages released and then we can talk,” Biden said during a press conference.

The International Red Cross (ICRC) said that it had “facilitated the release of two more hostages” held by Hamas in Gaza. While the humanitarian body did not name the hostages, it apparently referred to Nourit Yitshaq and Yokheved Lifshitz, two elderly Israelis, the Palestinian militant group said it had set free on humanitarian grounds.

Israeli officials have confirmed the release of two elderly hostages by the Hamas militant group, local media outlets report, adding that the move was not coordinated with Israel.

Earlier in the day, Hamas had announced that it had opted to set Nourit Yitshaq and Yokheved Lifshitz free for humanitarian reasons, citing their poor health and advanced age.

A Hamas spokesperson has said the group has released two elderly Israeli hostages, Nourit Yitshaq and Yokheved Lifshitz, following Egyptian and Qatari mediation. Previously, the militant group had said Israel had refused to take the two of them in. Israel, however, has dismissed such claims as “false propaganda,” insisting it has continued “to act in every way to return all the kidnapped and missing people home.”

Another six aid workers for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been confirmed killed in the Gaza Strip, the agency said in its latest status report. The new casualties bring the death toll for the agency staff to 35 since October 7.

Russia condemns both the attack of Hamas on Israel and the indiscriminate bombings of the densely populated Gaza area, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitriy Polyanskiy, has said.

“We cannot condemn some actions and pretend that other actions that violate international law are not happening,” Polyanskiy stated on Soloviev LIVE TV’s social media channel.

The Palestinian Authority will lodge a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the alleged “genocide” committed by Israel, personally citing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We will sue the Israeli prime minister, the chief of staff, and all the commanders who ordered the soldiers and officers to wage this war of aggression, commit genocide against defenseless people, and destroy civilian objects, hospitals, and homes,” Palestinian Justice Minister Mohammad Al-Shalaldeh told RIA Novosti.

Hamas’s armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, has claimed that it launched two drone attacks against the Israeli military. One of the UAVs targeted the Hatzerim base of the Israeli Air Force, while another took aim at the headquarters of the IDF Sinai Division at Taslim military base, the group said on its Telegram channel. Missiles were also fired at several locations within Israel, near the border with Gaza, it added. 

The IDF has confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that two drones, which arrived from Gaza, were spotted near the settlements of Nir Oz and Ein HaBesor in southern Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has blamed the UN Security Council for failing to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused continued Israeli airstrikes and the blockade of the enclave. The UNSC “is drowning in miserable double standards and lacks the minimum consensus on its duties and responsibilities towards the humanitarian catastrophe that has befallen our people,” the PA’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It stressed that it “strongly rejects the politicization of the continuous entry of all humanitarian relief aid into the Gaza Strip and considers it a blatant violation of international law and international human rights law.”

Last week, a Russian draft resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict was rejected by Western countries during a vote at the UN Security Council. Another text, prepared by Brazil, received support from most of the 12 UNSC members, but ended up being vetoed by the US.

A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute suggests that trust in the Israeli government is currently at a 20-year low, the Times of Israel paper has reported. According to the survey, only 20.5% of Jewish Israelis and 7.5% of Arab Israelis retain confidence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The figures stood at 28% and 18%, respectively, when a similar study was carried out by the independent Jerusalem-based pollster in June.

The death toll from Israel's retaliatory strikes on Gaza has climbed to 5,087, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave has said, with 15,270 others injured. At least 436 people have been killed in the last 24 hours, it added.

According to the ministry's data, 12 hospitals and 32 medical centers in Gaza have been rendered inoperable due to the bombardment, and fuel shortages caused by the Israeli blockade.

The Palestinians in Gaza are “exposed to… the Israeli murder and criminal machine,” the prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority Muhammad Shtayyeh has said. Speaking before a cabinet session in Ramallah, Shtayyeh warned that the lives of thousands of children and patients in Gaza’s hospitals were in danger amid shortages of fuel, electricity, water, medicine and food caused by the Israeli blockade. However, he insisted that no moves by Israel would stop the quest for freedom and independence by the Palestinian people, Al Jazeera has reported.

Egypt’s Red Crescent has said it has delivered the fourth batch of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which remains under an Israeli blockade. It also published a video of trucks carrying supplies for Palestinians on its Facebook page.

Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, who led the government between June 2021 and June 2022, has said he’s also to blame for the failures that allowed the attack by Hamas on Israel. “Of course, I also bear responsibility. I served as prime minister for 12 months. There were things I didn’t have time to do and then the government fell. Certainly, I bear responsibility,” he remarked, as quoted by the Times of Israel newspaper.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Shin Bet spy agency head Ronen Bar are among the top Israeli officials who have publicly accepted responsibility for the events of October 7. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn’t done so yet, despite a poll by Maariv paper last week suggesting that 80% of Israelis were adamant that he should also take responsibility for what had happened.

It’s “a bit premature” to talk about Britain accepting refugees from Gaza like it did with Ukrainians fleeing the conflict with Russia, UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told the BBC on Sunday. “I don’t think that the first step that the UK should do when there’s a conflict or a humanitarian disaster around the world is to reach for migration as a solution,” Jenrick said. According to the minister, London is now focused on working with Egypt and other parties to get UK nationals out of Gaza and make sure humanitarian aid reaches the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli military has struck 20 Hezbollah cells in southern Lebanon since the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said. There have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli forces since the start of the current escalation. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that if Hezbollah opens a new front in the Israel-Hamas war it will have “devastating” consequences for Lebanon.

At least 120 Palestinians, including 40 workers from Gaza, were detained during Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank overnight, Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, citing authorities and media. According to the agency, more than 1,200 people have been arrested in the area since the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7.

The IDF’s international spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, has told the Australian broadcaster ABC that “the war would end” in Gaza “if Hamas were to come out of their hiding places that they hide underneath the Israeli civilians, which is what they're doing now, return our hostages — all 212 of them — and surrender unconditionally.” If this doesn’t happen, “we will probably have to go in and get it done,” Conricus said, referring to a potential Israeli ground operation in the Palestinian enclave. The spokesman didn’t answer why the invasion hasn’t started yet, only saying that the IDF will “dismantle Hamas totally.”

The Israeli Education Ministry said that it will remove all references to Greta Thunberg from school curriculum due to the Swedish climate activist’s pro-Palestinian stance, the Jerusalem Post has reported. Thunberg, who posted a photo of herself with a sign reading “Stand with Gaza” on social media on Friday, “is no longer eligible to serve as an inspiration and educator for Israeli students,” the ministry said. It added that the activist’s stance “disqualifies her from being an educational and moral role model.”

The largest medical facility in Gaza, Al-Shifa hospital, is on the brink of a “real disaster,” as it may possibly run out of fuel within the next 48 hours, its director Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera. According to the director, his organization hasn’t yet received any UN aid amid the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian enclave. With its power cut off by Israel, the hospital is operating on generators that require fuel.

The IDF has said that it struck some 320 targets in Gaza overnight. The attacks focused on Hamas and Islamic Jihad group sites that could potentially endanger the Israeli forces once they launch their ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, it said. Among other things, tunnels where Palestinian fighters were hiding, observation posts, and mortar and anti-tank guided missile positions were hit, according to the Israeli military.

The US is advising Israel to delay its invasion of Gaza in order to buy time for talks on releasing the hostages held by Hamas, and to allow for more humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinian enclave, several American officials have told the New York Times. Washington also believes that it requires more time to prepare for attacks on US interests in the Middle East by Iran-backed groups, which are expected to intensify their activities once Israel moves its forces into Gaza, the sources said.

The Biden administration is not making any demands of Israel, and still supports an invasion of Gaza aimed at eradicating Hamas, the officials stressed. The advice to Israel not to rush with the ground operation is being conveyed through US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin, who holds near daily phone calls with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, they said.

Martin Griffiths, UN’s top relief coordinator, said that the aid delivered by the Egyptian Red Cross and the UN was “another glimmer of hope for the millions of people” in Gaza.

According to the UN, the 20 trucks that arrived in the Palestinian enclave through Egypt brought medical supplies, food and drinking water enough for 22,000 people for a day. Griffiths stressed that much more deliveries were needed to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Israel continued strikes on Gaza and southern Lebanon on Monday. The Palestinian media described the air raids over the past 24 hours as the “heaviest bombardment” since October 7, when Hamas launched its incursion into Israeli territory.

Overall, at least 400 people were killed across Gaza on Sunday, Al Jazeera said, citing local reports.

Israeli state broadcaster Kan 11 reported on Sunday night that, although the IDF is ready for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed the operation, “apparently due to political considerations.” According to the report, “operational” concerns may have also played a role in the government’s decision-making.

Several media outlets reported earlier that the US and European states were pressuring Israel to postpone the looming ground assault in order to negotiate the release of more hostages.

22 October 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden that “there will now be continued flow” of aid into Gaza, the White House said following a phone call between the two leaders. Two convoys of trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered the Palestinian enclave since Saturday, but UN and Palestinian Red Crescent officials say that far more supplies, including fuel vital for keeping hospitals and desalination plants operational, are needed.

The IDF has confirmed that one Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded when Palestinian militants attacked a tank and armored bulldozers operating in Gaza. An anti-tank missile was used to target the Israeli vehicles, the IDF said.

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas took responsibility for the attack, claiming to have destroyed a tank and two bulldozers and forced the IDF troops to retreat to Israeli territory on foot.

Hamas said that its fighters destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank that entered Gaza near the city of Khan Younis. “The soldiers of the Zionist force that fell into the Khan Younis ambush left their vehicles and fled east of the fence on foot,” the group said in a statement on social media.

The IDF did not confirm all of these details, stating only that “shots were fired at IDF soldiers operating west of the Gaza Strip security fence, in the area of Kissufim.” This location would have placed Israeli troops on the outskirts of Khan Younis in Gaza. The IDF said that one of its tanks “struck the terrorist cell who fired at the soldiers.”

The IDF launched raids into Gaza more than a week ago, but has yet to begin its anticipated ground operation in the enclave.

An Israeli tank “accidentally fired” on an Egyptian position near the intersection of the Israeli, Egyptian, and Gazan borders in Kerem Shalom, the IDF said in a statement. It is unclear whether the incident led to any casualties or serious damage. “The IDF regrets the incident,” the statement read.

A second humanitarian aid convoy has entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing on the enclave’s Egyptian border. Seventeen trucks passed through the crossing, a day after a convoy of 20 trucks brought food, water, and medicine to the besieged territory.

However, no fuel supplies have entered Gaza yet. “The key commodity for us right now is fuel,” said Thomas White, director of the UN’s refugee agency in Gaza. “This fuel runs desalination plants to provide drinkable water, provides food [by powering] bakeries, allows hospitals to keep running and for our big logistics operations here, it fuels our cars and generators.”

Hezbollah “will be making the mistake of its life” if it enters the Israel-Hamas war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops stationed near the Lebanese border. “We will strike it with unimaginable strength and the significance to it and to the country of Lebanon will be devastating,” he added.

Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces have engaged in tit-for-tat clashes along the border for more than two weeks, although the intensity of the fighting has increased in recent days. In a similar statement to Netanyahu’s, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi warned in a televised statement last week that war with Hezbollah would “de facto, bring about the destruction of Lebanon.”

Hamas militants have taken a total of 212 hostages since the start of the conflict with Israel, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has confirmed, as quoted by the Times of Israel. He added that their families have been notified, but said the number is not final as new information continues to come in.

An Israeli missile attack on Syria has put airports in Damascus and Aleppo out of service, according to SANA. The news agency, citing a military source, said the attack came from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea and the Golan Heights, a region internationally recognized as part of Syria but occupied by Israel since 1967.

The agency said the strike killed a civilian worker at the Damascus airport and injured another. The shelling also reportedly damaged the runways at both airports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office rejected the claim by Hamas that the militants had offered to release two Israeli captives without preconditions.

“We will not refer to false propaganda by Hamas,” the statement carried by Reuters said.

The US will deploy a THAAD air-defense battery and more Patriot anti-air missile systems to the Middle East, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday night. He added the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group will be dispatched to the region in addition to the armada led by the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which is currently operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

“These steps will bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for US forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel,” Austin said. 

Read the full story here.

Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed that Israel had rejected an offer to release two Israeli hostages – Nurit Ishak and Yohevid Efshitz – “on humanitarian grounds,” without preconditions, according to the Lebanese-based news channel Al Mayadeen.

Although Israel has not commented on this exact claim, the IDF released a statement on Saturday, blasting Hamas for trying to portray itself as “a humanitarian organization.”

Hamas previously released two American hostages, a mother and her 17-year-old daughter, whom the group captured on October 7.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency announced in the early hours of Sunday that they conducted an airstrike on a “terrorist compound” hidden inside the Al-Ansar Mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin. They said the facility was run by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The Palestinian Red Crescent, meanwhile, said that the IDF targeted a refugee camp in Jenin, killing two people and leaving several others wounded.

The French Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM) backed Israel’s claims about the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital blast. “The most probable hypothesis is that a Palestinian rocket exploded with a charge of about five kilos,” it said on Friday, refuting the allegations that on October 17 the compound in Gaza City was damaged by an Israeli strike. 

The US government, as well as analysis by CNN and the Associated Press, arrived at the same conclusion.

Other experts, however, argued that the available evidence indicates that the missile that hit the hospital came from the direction of Israel.

21 October 2023

Israel will intensify its airstrikes on Gaza ahead of a potential ground invasion of the enclave, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters.

“We will deepen our attacks to minimize the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the war,” Hagari said. “We are going to increase the attacks from today.”

He called on residents of Gaza City to move to the south of the strip for their own safety, although recent Israeli strikes have hit targets in this area too, including the city of Khan Younis and a refugee camp near the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border.

The number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza on Saturday “is totally insufficient compared to the desperate needs of the people,” Doctors Without Borders declared in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Prior to the siege, hundreds of trucks with supplies entered Gaza every day as the Strip is crucially reliant on external aid. Food, water and medicine are still desperately needed.”

After imposing a total blockade on the Palestinian enclave for almost two weeks, Israel allowed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to be briefly opened on Saturday so that 20 trucks carrying aid could enter. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society called the deliveries “a drop in the ocean” compared to Gaza’s needs. 

Around 100,000 people took part in a pro-Palestinian rally in London on Saturday, Reuters reported. The demonstrators marched through the streets of the British capital before gathering at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street residence.

Prior to the march, police cautioned participants that they could face arrest for displaying support for Hamas. Last week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman instructed police to treat “pro-Palestinian symbols” as potential endorsement of the militant group.

On a visit to Israel earlier this week, Sunak said that he was "proud" to support Israel in its "long war" against Hamas.

Hezbollah militants are paying “a heavy price” for their cross-border attacks on Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to troops stationed near the Lebanese border. Gallant added that the challenge posed by Hezbollah “will become greater,” and that Israeli forces should be prepared “for any situation.” 

Clashes along the border have escalated in recent days, with dozens of rockets fired into Israel on Friday. One Israeli soldier died in an anti-tank missile attack while another was seriously wounded by gunfire, the IDF said.

At least 4,000 Palestinians have been killed and 14,000 wounded in Gaza since the war with Israel began two weeks ago, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday. Another 84 Palestinians were killed and at least 1,400 were wounded in the West Bank in the same period, the ministry added.

The Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egyptian border has been closed after 20 trucks with humanitarian aid entered the Palestinian enclave, CNN reported, citing its stringer on the ground.

New aid trucks are expected to move through the checkpoint into Gaza again on Monday, according to the UN spokesperson quoted by the American network.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told the Cairo Peace Summit on de-escalating the Hamas-Israel conflict that he had reached an agreement with the US to operate the Rafah crossing “continuously” under the supervision of the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

A peace summit to de-escalate the conflict between Hamas and Israel has kicked off in Cairo, Egypt. The gathering involves dozens of top regional and Western officials, including the leaders of Qatar, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and the UAE, as well as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Israeli officials are not attending the summit.

Guterres is expected to say that while seeking to end the bloodshed the summit’s participants “cannot lose sight of the only realistic foundation for a true peace and stability: a two-state solution,” according to a UN spokesperson.

Trucks containing humanitarian aid have started entering Gaza from Egypt at the Rafah crossing, according to Al Jazeera.

The Hamas media center said the relief convoy includes 20 vehicles that “carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies.” Clips posted on social media show a line of trucks at the border, with one bearing the words “Egyptian Red Crescent.”

The Rafah crossing is the only land corridor between Egypt and the Palestinian enclave that found itself under an Israeli blockade.

The US and Israel are discussing the possibility of establishing an interim government in Gaza that would be backed by the UN and Arab governments, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

The talks are said to be in the early stages and hinge on future developments, including whether the Israeli ground assault on the Palestinian enclave is successful. The agency said that securing Arab participation in the plan, which would see Hamas effectively removed from power, will not be easy.

Read the full story here.

The Hebrew-language news website Ynet cited unnamed senior Israeli officials as saying that the release of two hostages by Hamas on Friday would not impact the planned ground operation in Gaza.

A total of 22 journalists – 18 Palestinians, three Israelis and one Lebanese – have lost their lives in the Israel-Gaza conflict so far, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Friday. 

All three Israeli victims were killed by Hamas during the militant group’s incursion into Israeli territory on October 7. The Palestinian victims were either shot by the IDF near the Gaza border or died in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the CPJ said.

The watchdog added that eight journalists were reported injured and three were reported missing or detained.

According to CNN, when US President Joe Biden was asked on Friday if Israel should delay a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip until more hostages are released, he replied “yes.” 

Biden was asked the question when he was boarding Air Force One ahead of a weekend in Delaware.

Hamas militants previously freed two American women who were captured during its incursion into Israel on October 7. Israeli officials have said that more than 100 hostages were held by the Palestinians.

20 October 2023

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib urged Israel to declare a 48-hour ceasefire. “Really we don't want war. The government does not want war,” the minister told CNN on Friday. “We are dialoguing with the various groups. But it is uncontrollable because it depends all on what happened in Gaza.”

Israeli troops have exchanged cross-border fire with the Lebanon-based pro-Palestinian militant group Hezbollah over the course of the week. The IDF said on Friday night that they had struck a Hezbollah post and intercepted “a target” heading from Lebanon toward Israeli airspace.

US President Joe Biden has confirmed the release of two American women held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, saying that he was “overjoyed” by the news. The pair, a mother and her daughter from Chicago, were handed over to Red Cross officials in Egypt earlier on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that ten Americans remain unaccounted for.

Israel has ordered the evacuation of the Quds Hospital in Gaza ahead of its bombardment, the Palestinian Red Crescent has claimed in a statement. The organization said that the hospital was currently treating 400 patients and sheltering 12,000 civilians on its grounds.

“We call upon the international community to take immediate and urgent action to prevent another massacre similar to what occurred at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital,” the organization stated, referring to the destruction of a hospital in Gaza earlier this week, which Israeli and Palestinian authorities have blamed on each other.

Hamas has released two American hostages in a deal brokered with the aid of Qatar, a spokesman for the militant group told Al Jazeera.

“In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens for humanitarian reasons,” Abu Obaida told the network, referring to Hamas’ military wing. He added that the move was intended “to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless.”

The two hostages are a mother and a daughter, the spokesman said. Neither the US nor Israel have confirmed their release, although the Red Cross told Israeli media that it had received the two women.

Israel will “remove all responsibility for life” in Gaza once its war with Hamas concludes, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said. Speaking at a meeting of the Israeli legislature's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Tel Aviv, Gallant said that the war will consist of three phases: an aerial campaign followed by a ground operation, a lower-intensity campaign to “eliminate pockets of resistance,” and finally “the creation of a new security regime in the Gaza Strip, the removal of Israel’s responsibility for day-to-day life in the Gaza Strip, and the creation of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel.”

Prior to the conflict, Israel supplied Gaza with much of its electricity and drinking water, while most shipments of food and medicine have entered the enclave via the Jewish state since 2007.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed deep concern over what it described as “Israel’s attempt to censor media coverage of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.” 

The statement came after the Israeli government approved regulations that could potentially allow it to ban the Qatari-based Al Jazeera network. Israeli officials have accused Al Jazeera of “propaganda,” “encouraging violence,” and helping Hamas.

According to the IFJ, Israel is “using national security as an excuse to restrict critical media that do not confirm its narrative of the war.”

Israeli authorities arrested Hamas spokesman Hassan Yousef during raids across the West Bank, the Shin Bet security agency has told CNN.

Earlier on Thursday, the IDF said that it had conducted a widescale counterterrorism operation in Judea and Samaria, detaining over 80 wanted suspects, including what it described as 63 Hamas terror operatives.

The Israeli government has approved emergency regulations allowing it to temporarily shut down foreign media outlets, paving the way for the closure of the local branch of Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based news outlet.

Commenting on the initiative, which still needs to be approved by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the security cabinet, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said since Israel is at war, “we will not allow in any way broadcasts that harm the security of the state.”

“The broadcasts and reports of Al Jazeera constitute incitement against Israel, help Hamas-ISIS and the terror organizations with their propaganda, and encourage violence against Israel,” he added, as quoted by The Times of Israel.

Israel has significantly altered its plans for a ground campaign in Gaza due to pressure and recommendations from Washington, Bloomberg reported, citing several Israeli officials. According to the report, the role and influence of the US in the Israel-Hamas conflict are “deeper and more intense than any exerted by Washington in the past.”

The US has reportedly grown increasingly concerned about the hostilities spilling over beyond Gaza and drawing in Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Islamist militant group which has close ties with Iran. In addition, while Washington wants to see Hamas military infrastructure in Gaza destroyed, it seeks to limit civilian casualties and prevent an escalation of the conflict that could throw the entire region into turmoil.

Read the full story here.

CNN cited a source as saying that the Rafah crossing, which will be used to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza through Egypt, is not expected to be reopened on Friday, despite earlier announcements.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Thursday that the Americans were still hammering out the details of the agreement with the Egyptians and Israelis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his government would not allow aid to be shipped to the Palestinian enclave through Israeli territory, but promised not to disrupt the deliveries from Egypt as long as they are not sent to Hamas.

Biden also said he had spoken to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and “reiterated that the United States remains committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and to self-determination.”

“The actions of Hamas terrorists don’t take that right away,” the US leader said. He stressed that Hamas “does not represent the Palestinian people.” 

In a televised speech on Thursday night, US President Joe Biden said he would ask Congress for additional aid to Israel and Ukraine. The requested package will reportedly be worth around $100 billion and also include funds for the countries in the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.

Biden reiterated his support for Israel during its war with Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. At the same time, he cautioned both Israel and the Palestinians against spreading anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Israel, in particular, should not be “blinded by rage,” Biden argued.

19 October 2023

American destroyer USS Carney shot down three missiles and several drones launched from the territory of Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said that the interception took place over the Red Sea on Thursday. Ryder added that the missiles were heading “potentially toward targets in Israel.”

The US will give Israel tens of thousands of 155mm artillery shells that were originally set aside for Ukraine, Axios reported on Thursday, citing Israeli officials. The shells will reportedly be used to refill an American stockpile in Israel that the US pulled ammunition from to send to Kiev earlier this year.

The shells will arrive in Israel in the coming weeks, Axios reported.

The IDF has said that it killed the head of the military wing of Gaza’s Popular Resistance Committees militant group, Rafat Abu Hilal, in an airstrike on Thursday. Separately, Palestinian media outlets reported the deaths of Jamila al-Shanti, the first woman elected to Hamas’ political bureau, and Major General Jihad Muheisen, Commander of the Palestinian National Security Forces in Gaza.

The National Security Forces is the successor organization to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLA) military wing, while the Popular Resistance Committees is the third-largest paramilitary group in Gaza behind Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The US State Department has issued a “worldwide caution,” urging American citizens anywhere in the world to stay alert in public places and monitor the department’s social media profiles for updates.

“Due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests, the Department of State advises US citizens overseas to exercise increased caution,” the statement reads.

The message replaces a previous worldwide caution notice put in place after the US killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri last July.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered near Gaza that they would soon see the Palestinian enclave “from inside,” Reuters reported, citing a statement from Gallant’s office.

While Gallant has said since last week that the IDF is prepared for a ground operation in Gaza, the Israeli government has yet to green-light such a maneuver. Gallant told troops on Thursday that “the command will come,” while the IDF’s southern commander, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman announced that “we are striking [Hamas] with tough blows, and the battle is shifting to their territory. We are determined to prevail on their own turf.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has thanked his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, for opening humanitarian routes into Gaza. Speaking at a joint press conference in Tel Aviv, Sunak praised Netanyahu for “taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians, in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas, which seem to put civilians in harm’s way.”

Palestinian authorities argue that Israel is waging a campaign of “deliberate genocide” against the people of Gaza, pointing to the killing of a claimed 500 people at a hospital on Tuesday and the deaths of almost 3,800 Palestinians since Israel’s air campaign against Gaza began nearly two weeks ago.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II have issued a joint statement condemning the “collective punishment” of Palestinians during the “Israeli aggression on Gaza.”

Both leaders stood by their policies of refusing refugees from Gaza, stating that to do so would enable the “displacement” of the Palestinian population.

Sisi and King Abdullah had been due to meet with US President Joe Biden and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan this week, until the Jordanian side canceled the summit after an airstrike killed nearly 500 people at a hospital in Gaza. Israeli and Palestinian authorities have blamed each other for the strike.

A shipment of American armored vehicles has arrived in Israel, the Israeli Ministry of Defense has announced. The vehicles will replace Israeli vehicles damaged during the war with Hamas, the ministry stated. 

The delivery is part of a larger arms procurement worth more than $100 million, the Times of Israel reported. Separately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that he had secured a “massive” and “unprecedented” military aid package from US President Joe Biden during the latter’s visit to Tel Aviv.

The commander of Gaza’s National Security Forces, Major General Jihad Muheisen, and several of his family members have been killed in an Israeli strike in the northern Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, the enclave’s Government Information Office has confirmed.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has announced that 14 health centers in the Gaza Strip have ceased operations due to power outages and a lack of fuel. It also said that hospitals were facing a shortage of medical supplies, while accusing Israel of deliberately targeting 23 ambulances.

According to the ministry, a total of 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured since the start of the conflict.

At least 203 Israeli military personnel are being held hostage by Hamas, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said, as quoted by the Times of Israel. He added that the Israeli authorities have informed the families of the hostages.

According to the IDF, at least 306 soldiers, security officers, and reservists have been killed since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who is now a member of the country’s emergency war cabinet, believes the conflict with Hamas “might take months,” while the reconstruction effort could take years.

“Our goal is not just to defeat Hamas, but to promise that the south will be 100% paradise,” he told the Times of Israel.

He added that Israel may have to engage in hostilities not only in Gaza, but also on the northern borders with Syria and Lebanon.

Read the full story here.

The Israeli military has said that over the past day, it has struck “hundreds of Hamas terror structures” in Gaza, including anti-tank missile launching posts, tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructure, and command centers.

The IDF claimed to have targeted more than ten Hamas operatives in a precision air strike, while also carrying out an attack on Rafat Harb Hussein Abu Hilal, who heads the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of Palestinian armed groups.

The news channel i24News cited an IDF spokesperson as saying on Wednesday that some Hamas militants are believed to be still hiding in Israel’s southern Negev desert.

The IDF also said that it had captured 120 Palestinian militants in relation to the surprise attack by Hamas and allied groups on October 7.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned Israel and called for “the immediate cessation of the barbaric aggression” against the Palestinians.

“Israel, the occupying power, bears full responsibility for the fate of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the real tragedy they are subjected to under bombardment, siege, and starvation, without electricity, food, or clean water,” the group of 57 Muslim-majority countries said in a statement following an emergency meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. 

18 October 2023

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will visit Israel on Thursday, his office said. He will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. 

According to the British media, Sunak is expected to urge for humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza as quickly as possible. At the same time, the PM has condemned Hamas for attacking Israeli civilians. “Too many lives have been lost following Hamas's horrific act of terror,” he said on Wednesday.

The US reiterated its support for Israel’s claim that the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City was struck by a rocket launched by the Palestinian militants. 

“While we continue to collect information, our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

US President Joe Biden said that Israel has agreed to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Egypt. The Israeli government confirmed shortly afterwards that “Israel will not thwart humanitarian supplies from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and medicine for the civilian population” that complied with its order to evacuate to the south of the enclave.

Both Biden and the Israeli government said that aid convoys would be inspected, and that the flow of assistance would be cut off if any supplies reach Hamas militants. Israel said that it would not allow any supplies into Gaza from its territory as long the roughly 200 hostages held by Hamas are not released.

Scores of demonstrators have staged a sit-down protest at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. The group was part of a larger demonstration organized by liberal Jewish groups, demanding that the US government push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. US Capitol police said that they arrested multiple protesters who refused to leave the building.

Any attempt to displace Palestinians from their homeland will be treated as “a declaration of war,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has said, according to Jordan’s Roya News outlet.

“This is an unwavering stance that will not change,” Safadi explained. “It is based on a history and a firm commitment that we will stand against any attempt to displace Palestinians from their homeland and attempt to shift the crisis created and exacerbated by the occupation to neighboring countries.”

Jordan and Egypt have both refused to take in refugees from Gaza, arguing that doing so would make them complicit in depopulating the Palestinian enclave.

“Everybody here believes that Israel is responsible” for the attack on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN. “The Israeli army is saying it’s not, but try and find anybody who’s going to believe that in this part of the world. People are used to this kind of denying things and then admitting them.”

The Israeli military claims that a wayward Palestinian rocket destroyed the hospital, pointing to supposedly intercepted audio recordings in which Hamas militants discuss the explosion. Hamas claims to have proof that Israel was responsible, which the group has not yet released.

Safadi called on Israel to allow an “independent international investigation” into the bombing, which Palestinian authorities say killed 471 people and wounded more than 314.

Israel has drafted hundreds of military reservists to produce PR content claiming that Palestinian militants were responsible for the strike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said. 

“We presented the truth to the whole world, and following the reliable and accurate reporting, the US president adopted our position,” Hagari said, referring to Israel’s claims that Islamic Jihad militants were behind the bombing, despite a prominent Israeli official initially taking credit for the attack. 

Hamas and the Israeli military both claim to have evidence that the other side committed the attack, but Hamas has not released its material, and the IDF has only released what it claims is an audio recording of Palestinian fighters discussing the explosion.

The US has vetoed Brazil’s UN effort to impose “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza and cancel Israel’s North Gaza evacuation order. In total, 12 countries voted in favor of the resolution. The UK and Russia abstained from voting. Moscow explained its decision by saying that the resolution lacked direct calls for a ceasefire. Earlier, the UN Security Council, specifically the US, UK, France, and Japan, rejected a Russian resolution on the matter, saying that the condemnation of Hamas in the proposed document was not strong enough.

Hamas will release proof that the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza had been “intentionally” struck by the Israeli forces, the Palestinian armed group’s spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, told Newsweek. “There’s a lot of evidence, eyewitnesses, and videos from Hamas about the occupation committing the Baptist Hospital massacre and the wreckage of rockets,” he insisted. Barhoum didn’t say when exactly this data will be made public.

US President Joe Biden was asked by reporters what made him support Israel’s claim that it had nothing to do with the deadly strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. “The data I was shown by my Defense Department,” Biden replied.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has evacuated the staff of the country's embassies in Rabat, Morocco and Cairo, Egypt, Ynet reported, due to the protests which rocked the two Muslim nations in response to the IDF's deadly airstrikes on Gaza. The move comes as West Jerusalem has placed all of its diplomatic missions around the globe on high alert, the news outlet added.

The latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry suggest that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and another 12,000 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on the enclave since October 7.

A total of 471 Palestinians were killed and more than 314 wounded in the strike on Al-Ahli hospital, Gaza Healthy Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra has said. He called the attack on the medical facility an “Israeli massacre.”

An Al Jazeera correspondent earlier reported from the scene that most of the victims were men and children, who were sleeping outside the facility when the missile hit the parking lot. Most of the women and babies were inside the building at the moment of the blast, he added.

The Foreign Minister of Iran Hossein Amirabdollahian has called on Muslim nations to slap restrictions on Israel over its continued bombardment of Gaza. During an urgent meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Amirabdollahian proposed “an immediate and complete embargo on Israel by Islamic countries, including oil sanctions, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors if relations with the Zionist regime have been established,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The US and its Western allies supporting Israel “hold full responsibility for the war against civilians in Gaza,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan has claimed, as quoted by Al Jazeera. Hamdan made the statement during a press conference in Lebanon, just hours after US President Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv. Biden said he came to Israel “for the people of the world to know where the US stands.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged that civilians have been dying in the IDF’s airstrikes on Gaza, but claimed that Hamas was ultimately responsible. “While Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties, Hamas seeks to maximize civilian casualties,” he said ahead of the war cabinet’s meeting. The Palestinian fighters “perpetrate a double war crime – targeting our civilians, while hiding behind their civilians, embedding themselves in the civilian population, and using them as human shields,” Netanyahu insisted. According to the prime minister, it’s Hamas that “should be held accountable for all civilian casualties” during the conflict.

The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since October 7 has risen to 3,300 people, with more than 13,000 others wounded, the local Health Ministry has announced.

The strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza is a “terrible incident,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. “Hundreds of dead and wounded, of course, this is a catastrophe... especially in a humanitarian place,” the Russian leader added. Putin said the tragedy should become “a signal that this conflict should end as soon as possible” and lead to the “start of some kind of contacts and negotiations” between Israel and Hamas.

Read the full story here.

The first ever visit of a US president to Israel during wartime is “deeply, deeply moving,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a meeting with Joe Biden in Tel Aviv. He thanked the US head of state for standing with Israel “today, tomorrow and always.” Netanyahu told Biden that “for the people of Israel, there’s only one thing better than having a true friend like you standing with Israel, and that is having you standing in Israel.”

By making the visit, the US president has “rightly drawn a clear line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism,” the prime minister insisted, adding that “the civilized world must unite to defeat Hamas.”

During its incursion into Israel, Hamas has “committed evils and atrocities that make ISIS look somewhat more rational,” US President Joe Biden said in comments made alongside Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after landing in Tel Aviv. “Hamas doesn’t represent all the Palestinian people and has brought them only suffering,” Biden insisted. The US will make sure Israel has what it needs as it responds to the attack by the Palestinian armed group, he added.

The US leader also praised the Israeli people for their conduct amid the crisis, saying that “their courage, their commitment, their bravery is stunning.”

US President Joe Biden said he believes that the IDF wasn’t responsible for the deadly strike on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. Based on what I’ve seen, it appears it was done by the other team, and not you,” he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as cited by the Times of Israel paper. The Israeli military claims that the medical facility was struck as a result of a failed missile launch by the Islamic Jihad armed group, while Hamas blames the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for the attack.

Biden also explained that he came to Israel amid an escalation with Hamas “for a simple reason – I want the people of Israel and the people of the world to know where the US stands.”

The US accepts the Israel’s version of the events regarding the deadly attack on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, according to a report by Ynet citing American and Israeli sources. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claim that the hospital was hit as a result of “a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization,” while Hamas insists that the medical facility had been targeted by the Israeli military.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog published a photo of him greeting US President Joe Biden at the Tel Aviv airport on his account on X (formerly Twitter.) “Welcome Mr. President, God bless you for protecting the nation of Israel,” he said in the caption to the image.

Four Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded by an anti-tank guided missile fired from Lebanon, the Israeli military has said. Fire exchanges between IDF troops and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on the the two countries’ border have been happening almost on a daily basis since the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas. Hezbollah has declared Wednesday a “day of rage” against Israel in response to a deadly attack on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City.

US President Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv, with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog meeting him at the airport.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that he was “horrified” with the death of hundreds of people in the strike on Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. “Deep grievances of the Palestinian people after 56 years of occupation... cannot justify the acts of terror against civilians committed by Hamas on October 7 that I immediately condemned. But those attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said in a statement. The UN chief has also reiterated that hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international law.

The Lebanese political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah has declared Wednesday a “day of rage the enemy” after the deadly strike on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City. In a statement, the group blamed the attack on Israel, describing it as a “massacre” and a “brutal crime.” Hezbollah called upon Muslims worldwide to “move immediately to streets and squares to express intense anger.”

The latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry suggest that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and another 12,000 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on the enclave since October 7.

US President Joe Biden will be asking Israel’s government “some tough questions” when he arrives in the country on Wednesday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby has told the reporters aboard Air Force One. However, he clarified that Biden will not be doing so in an “adversarial” manner, but “in the spirit of a true, deep friend of Israel.”

The president is “going to get a sense from the Israelis about the situation on the ground, and, more critically, their objectives, their plans, their intentions in the days and weeks ahead,” Kirby said. Biden will “make it clear that we continue to want to see this conflict not widen, not expand, not deepen,” he added.

According to Kirby, Biden will also be discussing the situation with the hostages held by Hamas, deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the needs of Israel, making it clear “that we will do everything we can to meet those needs.”

The Israeli military has denied responsibility for the deadly attack on Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, claiming it was caused by “a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.” It published drone footage on X (formerly Twitter), showing the parking lot of the hospital before and after the strike. In the clip, the IDF argued that the fire resulting from the attack was not characteristic of its munitions, which leave large craters after detonating.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that she’s following the reports from the Middle East where hundreds of people have been killed in the attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza “with horror.”

“I… recall the claim repeatedly made by [former US President Barack] Obama that, thanks to US policy, the world has become a much safer place. Now we all see how much safer it actually became,” Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

The IDF has announced the creation of a humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area, near the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The move follows days of talks between Israel, Egypt, the US and other parties. “International humanitarian aid will be provided as needed” for the Palestinians inside the zone, the Israeli military said. It also reiterated its calls for the residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south of the enclave.

Appearing on the BBC, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus accused the channel of “double standards in reporting,” arguing that the British public broadcaster had blamed Israel for the strike on the hospital in Gaza City “based solely on what terrorist Hamas claims.” 

Citing intercepted communications and radar data, the Israeli army maintains that the rocket that hit the hospital on Tuesday was fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The militant group has denied the allegations, accusing Israel of trying to “evade responsibility” for the tragedy.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president, said that the strike on the hospital in Gaza was “clearly a war crime.”

He stopped short of naming the perpetrator, but argued that the US “ultimately bears the responsibility” for the tragedy because Washington had been “cynically profiteering off of wars in different countries and on different continents.” 

Pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to storm the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon and the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan. They were driven back by police, who used tear gas and water cannons. Similar clashes occurred outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul.

Israel urged its citizens to immediately leave Türkiye and avoid traveling there “in light of the evolving threat landscape.” In its notice, Israel’s National Security Council warned about potential “terrorist actors and lone assailants.” 

An angry crowd has been protesting outside Israel’s consulate building in Istanbul in the wake of the missile strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip, which killed around 500 people, according to Palestinian officials.

17 October 2023

Jordan has made the decision to cancel a summit scheduled to take place in Amman on Wednesday with US President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for discussions regarding the situation in Gaza. The announcement was made by Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi. Earlier, Abbas canceled his meeting with Biden. The US president planned to meet with these Arab leaders following his “solidarity” visit to Israel. He is currently en route to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, the United States.

Earlier today, air raid sirens were activated at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was preparing to board a flight to leave Israel. In accordance with established safety protocols, the entire delegation, Scholz included, had to get off the aircraft and lay down on the tarmac, covering their heads.

Hezbollah released a statement in the wake of the deadly hospital bombing in Gaza, saying that words of condemnation are not enough and calling on Arabs to take “immediate action in the streets and squares to express intense anger and put pressure on governments and states wherever they are.”

“Let tomorrow, Wednesday, be a day of unprecedented anger against the enemy and its crimes and against Biden’s visit to the Zionist entity to cover and protect this criminal entity,” it said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attributing the deadly hospital explosion in Gaza to Palestinian “terrorists.” 

“So the whole world knows: The barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the Gaza hospital, not the IDF,” he said in a statement. “Those who cruelly murdered our children, murder their children as well.”

Hamas and many around the world have pointed to an Israeli airstrike as the cause of the blast, which is reported to have resulted in hundreds of deaths.

During pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Amman, Jordanians set the Israeli embassy on fire.

People in Türkiye also protested in front of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul and its embassy in Ankara. Demonstrators also took to the streets in Beirut, Lebanon, where schools are closing tomorrow in solidarity with Gaza.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has, in the wake of the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital massacre, laid the blame on the US for the incident. 

“The Americans who gave unlimited cover bear responsibility for the Baptist massacre. Whoever supports Israel is responsible for its violations in Gaza,” he said. 

"This massacre will constitute a turning point and a flood added to the flood of Al-Aqsa,” Haniyeh added.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, said after at least six people were killed in an attack that hit the agency’s school in Gaza, that “no place is safe in Gaza anymore.” 

“Not even UNRWA facilities,” he added.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari has stated that a series of rockets fired from Gaza "passed in the vicinity" of the al-Ahli Arab hospital when it was hit. He attributed the attack on the hospital to the Islamic Jihad group, based on "intelligence information" gathered from multiple sources. Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from southern Israel, mentioned that Israel has used this explanation in the past when striking targets in Gaza, including places like schools in similar situations.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas canceled his meeting with Biden, which was planned for tomorrow, in the wake of tonight’s mass casualty incident in Gaza. Abbas also declared three days of mourning for the victims of alleged Israeli airstrikes on Al-Ahly Hospital and “for all Palestinian martyrs.”

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has strongly criticized the devastating attack on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he has called for the "immediate protection of civilians" and for the reversal of Israel's "evacuation orders." 

It's worth noting that the al-Ahli Hospital was not the sole civilian target in Gaza that came under attack. A UN-operated school, which was accommodating thousands of war-displaced individuals, was struck earlier, resulting in the loss of at least six lives.

According to the Palestinian Civil Defence, the alleged Israeli assault on the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City represents the most lethal Israeli airstrike in the five wars that have taken place since 2008. 

“The massacre at al-Ahli Arab Hospital is unprecedented in our history. While we’ve witnessed tragedies in past wars and days, but what took place tonight is tantamount to a genocide,” spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.

The Health Ministry of Gaza has reported that an alleged Israeli airstrike on a hospital in the besieged coastal enclave has resulted in the deaths of at least 500 individuals. The ministry had said earlier that there are "hundreds of victims" buried beneath the debris of a Gaza hospital complex that was struck by an Israeli air attack.

German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz had to hide in a shelter at the embassy during the recent rocket surge from Gaza, as per the DPA news agency. Israeli media said one of these rockets landed in the southern city of Sderot. At this time, there have been no immediate reports of casualties resulting from this barrage, and the extent to which Israel's Iron Dome air defense system intercepted the incoming rockets remains uncertain.

According to Palestinian medical sources, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood resulted in the deaths of 14 family members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Among the casualties, reportedly, are Haniyeh's brother and nephew. Haniyeh himself is in Qatar at present.

Israel's national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi stated on Tuesday that the United States would become "involved" if the Gaza conflict escalated to the point where Iran and Hezbollah joined forces with Hamas. During a televised briefing, Hanegbi highlighted US President Joe Biden's expressions of support, including US naval deployments in the Mediterranean and a public warning to both the Lebanese group and Tehran against getting involved in the conflict.

"He is making clear to our enemies that if they even imagine taking part in the offensive against the citizens of Israel, there will be American involvement here," Hanegbi said.

"Israel will not be alone ... A US force is here and it is ready," he added, without elaborating.

The Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, consisting of over 4,000 sailors and marines, will be added to an expanding US fleet near the Israeli coast, according to two anonymous American defense officials who spoke with the Washington Post on Monday. This fleet will also comprise two aircraft carriers and their accompanying escort vessels.

The head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Major General Aharon Haliva, has said he bears full responsibility for Hamas being able to carry out its surprise attack on Israel. The events of October 7 were “an intelligence failure” on the part of the Israeli security services, Haliva acknowledged. The agency “under my command, failed to warn of the terror attack carried out by Hamas… and as the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, I bear full responsibility for the failure,” the spy chief stressed. 

On Monday, the head of Shin Bet security agency Ronen Bar also said that he was responsible for his organization being “unable to generate a sufficient warning” about what Hamas planned. The attack by the Palestinian armed group resulted in more than 1,400 people being killed and more than 4,000 being wounded. Some 200 Israelis and foreigners have also been taken hostage.

The US Department of Defense has confirmed media reports that around 2,000 military personnel are on alert due to the security situation in the Middle East. However, Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh clarified that so far no decision has been taken to send them into action.

The Israeli military is preparing for an upcoming operation in Gaza, but it might not be the “imminent ground offensive” many expect, according to army spokesperson Lt Colonel Richard Hecht. “We are preparing for the next stages of war. We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different,” Hecht stated.

The status of Gaza will become a “global issue” for discussion after Israel concludes its operation against Hamas, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a briefing. “We’ve had all kinds of endgames,” Hagari replied, when asked about the possibly of an Israeli occupation of the Palestinian enclave. “The cabinet is also discussing what that could look like… this is also a global issue, what the situation will look like in this region,” he said. US President Joe Biden, who is expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday, warned earlier that an Israeli occupation of Gaza is going to be a “big mistake.”

Some 1,200 people, including 500 minors, could be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings as result of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, Mohammed Abu Selmia, head of Gaza’s largest medical center, Shifa Hospital, has told AP. According to  Abu Selmia, this estimate is based on the number of distress calls received by emergency services. “So many times medics say they hear victims scream, but they cannot do anything about it,” he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has issued an ultimatum to Hamas fighters, saying they “have two options: either die in their positions or surrender unconditionally.” 
“Our planes will reach everywhere… every missile has an address. We will reach each and every one of the members of Hamas,” Gallant told Israeli Air Force pilots during a visit to the Nevatim airbase. “We will wipe out the Hamas organization and dismantle it of all its capabilities,” the minister vowed.

The Israeli Health Ministry has said that 344 people out of the 4,229 injured as result of the October 7 Hamas attack remain hospitalized, adding that 82 patients are in serious condition. The death toll from the attack has surpassed 1,400.

According to the latest data from the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 2,800 people have been killed and almost 10,800 were wounded in IDF’s retaliatory strikes on the Palestinian enclave.

RT Arabic has published footage of a convoy of UN peacekeeping armored vehicles moving towards southern Lebanon, where the country borders Israel. Tensions in the area remain high, with exchanges of fire between the IDF and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah happening almost daily since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7. The UN has maintained around 10,000 peacekeepers in Lebanon since 1978. Their mandate was renewed again on September 1.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has urged Israel to stop its “provocations” along the border between the two countries. “We are not pro-war. We really want calm in the region,” Habib said, accusing Israel of “pouring oil on the fire.” The IDF and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have exchanged fire on several occasions since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7.

Moscow’s ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov has updated the number of Russian citizens killed in the attack by Hamas on October 7. A total of 16 Russians lost their lives and nine remain missing, he said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has insisted that “there will be no refugees [from Gaza] in Jordan and no refugees in Egypt.” During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, the monarch said the whole Middle East “is on the brink of falling into the abyss” due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“All our efforts are needed to make sure we don’t get there,” he stressed.

Scholz added that “we have a common goal to prevent a conflagration in the region” and again urged Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Iran against intervening in the conflict.

Egypt has threatened to send Palestinian refugees to Europe in response to pressure from the West to take in civilians from Gaza, the Financial Times has reported. A European official told the paper that the authorities in Cairo are “really, really angry” about calls coming from Western capitals. The source recalled a conversation with a high-ranking Egyptian official, who told him: “You want us to take 1 million people? Well, I am going to send them to Europe. You care about human rights so much — well you take them.”

The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has said that “concerns over dehydration and waterborne diseases are high given the collapse of water and sanitation services” in Gaza amid the Israeli siege. Parts of southern Gaza are now receiving water for just three hours on Tuesday, the  UNRWA said, adding that only 14% of the Palestinian enclave’s population benefit from it. Videos obtained by RT have captured residents of Gaza trying to stock up on water, using horses and mules to transport filled barrels.

Three people have been wounded by an anti-tank guided missile fired from Lebanon at the Israeli town of Metula, according to a statement from Ziv Medical Center. The Lebanon-based broadcaster Al Mayadeen said that the paramilitary group Hezbollah was responsible for the incident. Videos published on social media suggest that the Israeli military has been shelling Lebanese territory in response to the attack.

The release of a hostage video is “psychological terror by Hamas against the citizens of Israel,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said. “In this video, Hamas tries to present itself as a humanitarian organization, while it’s in fact a murderous terror group,” Hagari insisted, adding that he expects more such clips to be published in the coming days.

The footage released by Hamas overnight captured a doctor treating the injured arm of 21-year-old Mia Schem, who was among the Israelis and foreigners captured during the surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian fighters. The IDF says the group is holding 199 hostages, while Hamas puts the number of prisoners at around 250.

According to Gaza Health Ministry officials who spoke with Al Jazeera, Israeli airstrikes overnight resulted in the tragic loss of at least 71 lives in the Palestinian enclave. The most intense bombardment occurred in the regions of Khan Younis, Rafah, and Deir el-Balah, situated to the south of Gaza City, as reported by the broadcaster.

In addition to the lives lost, hundreds of individuals sustained injuries and were promptly transported to Gaza’s already overwhelmed hospitals. There were also reports of people trapped beneath the debris of collapsed buildings, as relayed by Al Jazeera’s on-site correspondent.

The Israeli military doesn’t expect US President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to the country to complicate or delay its ground invasion of Gaza, the IDF’s international spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told CNN. “I think the president also said that ‘Hamas needs to be destroyed,’ and that is exactly our military aim,” Conricus said.

Biden, who is expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday, said earlier that the IDF’s ground operation in Gaza was a “necessary requirement” to ensure the security of the Jewish state. However, he stressed that an Israeli occupation of the Palestinian enclave after Hamas is dealt with with would be a “big mistake.”

The IDF says it has killed four infiltrators, who tried to cross into Israeli territory from Lebanon; they were allegedly planning to plant an explosive device in the border area.

Malaysia’s Education Ministry has pulled out of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and is accusing the organizers of adopting “a pro-Israeli position.” The ministry said in a statement that it “won’t compromise with Israel’s violence in Palestine, which clearly violates international laws and human rights.” The move is made in line with the Malaysian government’s stance “to always stand in solidarity and give full support to Palestine,” it added.

Several publishing organizations from the Middle East had earlier withdrawn from the annual book fair, which opens on Wednesday, after the German organizers said that they’ve decided to postpone a ceremony to honor Palestine-born author Adania Shibli due to the attack on Israel by Hamas.

The UN Security Council has rejected a Russian resolution condemning the violence in Gaza. Russia, China, UAE, Gabon and Mozambique supported the draft during a vote on Monday, while the US, UK, France and Japan voted against it. The other members abstained. Western countries said they turned down the Russian text because it did not condemn Hamas for its surprise attack on Israel.

Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said that despite its failure, the resolution “has contributed to launching a substantive discussion in the Security Council on this topic. Without our encouragement, everything would probably have been limited to empty discussions.” A second draft proposed by Brazil, which contains criticism of Hamas, is expected to put to a vote in New York on Tuesday evening, diplomats told AFP.

The head of the US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, has arrived in Israel amid the escalation with Hamas, CENTCOM said in a statement. Kurilla will meet with IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to “gain a clear understanding of Israel’s defense requirements, outline US support efforts to avoid expansion of the conflict, and reiterate the Department of Defense’s ironclad support for Israel,” the statement read.

US President Joe Biden announced that he would visit Israel on Wednesday. 

Biden will “make it clear that we want to continue to work with all our partners in the region, including Israel, to get humanitarian assistance and again to provide some sort of safe passage for civilians to get out,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday evening.

Hamas released a video of 21-year-old Mia Schem, one of the hostages captured during the group’s incursion into Israel. The short clip shows an unidentified medical worker treating the woman’s injured arm.

The IDF said that Schem’s family was notified of the woman’s abduction last week. Hamas “tries to present itself as a humanitarian organization, while in fact it is a murderous terror group, responsible for the murders and kidnappings of babies, women, children and the elderly,” the Israeli army said. 

The Israeli Air Force posted a video of the airstrike it said killed Osama Mazini, the head of the Shura Council of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Iran warned Israel about consequences if it launches a ground invasion into Gaza. “The possibility of pre-emptive action by the resistance axis is expected in the coming hours,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday, as quoted by AFP. 

The diplomat added that “the resistance leaders” would not allow Israel “to do whatever it wants in Gaza.”

In a meeting on Monday night, the UN Security Council rejected a Russian-sponsored resolution calling for an immediate “humanitarian ceasefire” between Hamas and Israel. 

Five countries backed the draft document, while four members, including the US, voted against. Six countries abstained.

16 October 2023

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths reiterated that providing the access to humanitarian aid in Gaza remains an “overwhelming priority.”

Griffiths stressed that all countries, including the US, Britain, the EU, and the Arab states “all have obligations” to ensure that Gazans “get the aid they need and make sure that there are corridors which allow them some respite from the relentless attacks that are happening upon them.”

During their meeting on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefly sought shelter in a bunker when air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has said. After leaving the bunker, everyone participating in the meeting resumed their discussions and were in the process of relocating to a command center at Israel's defense ministry to continue their talks.

The spokesperson for Hamas’ military arm, Al Qassam Brigades, stated that there are around 250 prisoners in Gaza, including both Israeli and foreign individuals, with 200 of them exclusively under their custody. He mentioned their intention to release all foreign prisoners at the earliest opportunity. Additionally, he reported that 22 prisoners, both Israeli and foreign, had lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes, with the most recent casualty being the Israeli artist Guy Oliver.

During an interview with Sky News, the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, asserted that there is no humanitarian emergency in Gaza and questioned, “would you expect your government to think about those Nazis committing those crimes?”

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a conversation by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he expressed his condolences for Israeli casualties but condemned any actions harming civilians, including women and children. He also reiterated Moscow’s willingness to stabilize the situation and prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Finally, he briefed Israel on his talks with Palestinian, Egyptian, Iranian, and Syrian leaders, reaffirming Russia's commitment to pursuing a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday that the EU plans to initiate a humanitarian air link to Gaza via Egypt, with inaugural flights anticipated later this week.

"Palestinians in Gaza are in need of humanitarian help and aid. That is why... we are launching an EU humanitarian air bridge to Gaza through Egypt. The first two flights will start this week," von der Leyen told a press conference in the Albanian capital Tirana.

Colombia is demanding the expulsion of Israel's ambassador following a heated diplomatic dispute over Israel's intensive bombardment of Gaza. President Gustavo Petro drew a parallel between Israel's actions in Gaza and those of Nazi Germany, declaring “we do not support genocides.” He also accused Mossad of creating Hamas.

“Those who previously said that I support the FARC (former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are now saying the same about Hamas. Hamas was conceived by Mossad under the pretext of dividing and punishing the Palestinian people. The dialogue between honorable people has been replaced by apartheid, oppression, despair, and bloody terrorism. What they really want is to expel and destroy the Palestinian people from their ancient lands,” Petro said.

Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva expressed the view that the ambassador should, at the very least, issue an apology and leave the country. Israeli envoy Gali Dagan has been one of the harshest critics of the president.

The US military has selected around 2,000 soldiers for possible deployment to assist Israel in anticipation of a ground invasion of Gaza, according to sources in the defense sector who spoke with the Wall Street Journal. According to officials, the troops have been assigned non-combat roles such as advising and providing medical assistance, and they represent various branches of the US armed services. There are reportedly no plans to deploy infantry troops at this time. 

The selected US troops are currently stationed in different locations, both within the Middle East and outside, including Europe, according to WSJ sources. The exact conditions for their potential deployment and their eventual destination remain uncertain.

The leader of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency has acknowledged responsibility for failing to provide an early alert on Hamas's deadly assault in southern Israel on October 7.

“Despite a series of actions we carried out, unfortunately on Saturday we were unable to generate a sufficient warning that would allow the attack to be thwarted.”

“As the one who heads the organization, the responsibility for this is mine,” Bar says. “There will be time for investigations. Now we are fighting.”

During his opening speech at the winter session of the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern warning to Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, saying, “Don't test us in the north, don't repeat the mistake you made once. Today the price you will pay will be much heavier.”

In its latest update, the Palestinian health ministry reports that over 2,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 10,800 injured due to Israeli airstrikes. In the past day, 254 Palestinians died. The majority of these are women and children. Additionally, 37 medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics, have lost their lives.

Israeli lawmakers were filmed being evacuated from the Knesset during a retaliation missile barrage that targeted Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The missiles were launched in response to massive Israeli attacks that damaged civil defense offices and ambulances in Gaza.

Vladimir Putin’s schedule for Monday includes five phone calls with the main parties related to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said. He added that Putin has already talked to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi. Conversations with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are planned for later in the day, Ushakov said. During the calls, Putin will express Russia’s stance on the conflict and listen carefully to the views of all parties, Ushakov added.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has stressed that “many of our citizens are present in the area of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict on both sides.” Considering that “the civilian population is suffering” because of the fighting between the IDF and Hamas, “the issues of humanitarian assistance to all those in need in the region are arising,” Putin said.

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship evacuating US citizens from Israel has departed for Cyprus from the port of Haifa, CNN has reported. The US embassy in Israel said earlier that the journey to the Cypriot port of Limassol is expected to take approximately ten to 12 hours. It warned the evacuees that “you will be responsible for arranging your own accommodations and onward travel from Cyprus.”

Israel has reportedly declined Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s request for a solidarity visit amid the ongoing tensions with Hamas, as per a report by Ynet. Sources with knowledge of the situation indicated that Zelensky had hoped to visit alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is currently in Israel. However, he was informed that “the timing is not right.” Nonetheless, the sources noted that Zelensky might still consider the trip at a later date.

Following the unexpected Hamas attack on October 7, Zelensky expressed unwavering support for Israel and even drew parallels between this event and Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. However, he also voiced concerns that the Middle East conflict might divert international attention from the ongoing hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, which he believes “will have consequences” for Ukraine.

RT Arabic has published footage of a large group of people of various nationalities waiting for the opportunity to flee Gaza outside the closed Rafah border crossing into Egypt. Earlier, the Israeli government denied media reports that it had agreed to stop strikes in southern Gaza in order to allow for foreign nationals to leave and for humanitarian aid to be delivered to the Palestinian enclave.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has said that Israel needs to stop its attacks on Gaza for Hamas to be able to release the hostages. The officials from the Palestinian armed group “stated that they are ready to take necessary measures to release the citizens and civilians held by resistant groups, but their point was that such measures require preparations that are impossible under daily bombardment by the Zionists [Israel] against various parts of Gaza,” Kanaani said during a briefing.

IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari has said that Sunday’s attacks by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on the border between Israel and Lebanon were carried out “under Iranian instruction and with [Iranian] support.” It was done “to distract from our war efforts in the south [Gaza],” the spokesman added. He didn’t provide any proof to his claim.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in an interview with Al Jazeera that it was “highly probable that many other fronts will be opened” if Israel doesn’t stop its strikes on Gaza. Iran’s mission to the UN also told Reuters the Iranian military will “not engage” Israel, provided that “the Israeli apartheid doesn’t dare to attack Iran, its interests, and nationals.” Tehran had earlier denied any involvement in the surprise attack on Israel which Hamas launched on October 7.

Pope Francis’ representative in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, has offered to swap himself for Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas. “I am ready for an exchange, anything, if this can lead to freedom, to bring the children home. No problem. There is total willingness on my part,” Pizzaballa said. According to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, releasing the captives is the only way to stop the current escalation between the Israelis and the Palestinians. When asked if his office could contact Hamas with the proposal, Pizzaballa replied that one “can’t talk to Hamas. It is very difficult.” The latest figures from the IDF suggest that the Palestinian armed group is currently holding 199 Israelis.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has called upon Israel to stop its attack on Gaza and alleviate its blockade of the Palestinian enclave. “We demand the immediate end of military operations and the opening of safe corridors to bring aid to the population,” Aboul Gheit said during a meeting with Arab justice ministers in Baghdad, Iraq.

The bodies of more than 1,000 Palestinians remain under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli retaliatory strikes on Gaza, putting the Palestinian enclave at risk of a humanitarian and environmental disaster, Hamas’ Interior Ministry spokesman Eyad al-Bozom has warned.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said earlier that the number of casualties in Gaza was so high that “there are not enough body bags for the dead.”

The Israeli military has notified the families of 199 people who have been taken hostage by Hamas due to its surprise attack on Israel, Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), has said. “We are making valiant efforts to try to understand where the hostages are in Gaza, and we have such information,” Hagari said. The IDF “will not carry out an attack that would endanger our people,” he vowed. Hamas had earlier claimed that several captured Israeli troops had been killed in the IDF’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza. The fresh number of hostages appears to be significantly higher than the figure of 155 that had been voiced by Israeli authorities previously.

China’s special envoy on Middle East affairs, Zhai Jun, is going to visit the region next week to promote peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, CGTN has reported. Zhai told the broadcaster that he believed the failure to arrive at a “two-state solution” to be the root cause of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Beijing has been in contact with all relevant parties since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that provoked the current escalation, the envoy added.

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz has spoken out against deliveries of aid to Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing. “I strongly oppose the opening of the blockade and the introduction of goods into Gaza on humanitarian grounds,” Katz wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Israel’s “commitment is to the families of the murdered and the kidnapped hostages – not to the Hamas murderers and those who helped them,” he insisted.

Israeli police have released the names of two additional officers who lost their lives in the clashes since October 7, bringing the total police casualties to 54 in a little over a week.

Egypt attempted to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza for foreigners, but swiftly shut it down after large crowds of Palestinians tried to use the opportunity to flee, high-profile sources involved in mediation between Israel and the Palestinians have told RT.

The sources blamed the Israeli authorities for not allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza. They also claimed that Israel had ruled out the possibility of talks with Hamas on exchanging prisoners or the bodies of those killed.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has stated that he refused multiple requests from Western countries to condemn Hamas during its recent escalation with Israel. “I said that we, as a policy, have a relationship with Hamas from before, and this will continue,” Anwar said during his appearance at the country’s parliament. Malaysian authorities “don't agree with their pressuring attitude, as Hamas too won in Gaza freely through elections and Gazans chose them to lead,” he added.

The Gaza Health Ministry has said that the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave has reached at least 2,750, with around 9,700 others wounded.

The Israeli government has denied media reports by Reuters and some other outlets that it had agreed to stop attacks on southern Gaza in order to allow for the Rafah border crossing into Egypt to open.

“At the moment, there is no ceasefire for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and the exit of foreigners,” the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israeli Defense Ministry said that its going to evacuate 28 communities, located within 2km from the country’s border from Lebanon. The move is being made amid intensification of fire between Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and the IDF since the attack on Israel by Hamas more than a week ago. The ministry said that the residents of the evacuated settlements will be moved to state-funded guesthouses. The heads of the local administrations have already been notified about the decision, it added.

Israel will put its strikes on hold in southern Gaza from 9am local time to allow for the Rafah border crossing into Egypt to open, Reuters has reported, citing Egyptian security sources. The move, likely aimed at allowing for humanitarian aid to be delivered to the besieged Palestinian enclave, has been agreed upon between US, Egypt and Israel, the sources said. Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya has claimed that the only crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain operational for five hours.

The policies of the internationally-recognized Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) “are what represent the Palestinian people... and not the policies of any other organization,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said, apparently referring to Hamas.

During his phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Abbas decried the killing of civilians by both Israel and Hamas and urged both sides to release prisoners and detainees, the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) reported. He called upon the Israeli authorities to “immediately stop” the attacks on Gaza and provide the people in the Palestinian enclave with medical supplies, water, electricity and fuel.

Maduro supported the peaceful stance of the head of the Palestinian Authority, and said that Caracas has decided to send urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to WAFA.

The IDF has released the names of two more soldiers killed in the fighting with Hamas, bringing overall Israeli military losses since October 7 to 291 troops.

Israeli envoy to the UN Gilad Erdan has responded to comments by US President Joe Biden, who suggested earlier that it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza after “taking out” Hamas.

“We have no interest to occupy Gaza or to stay in Gaza, but since we are fighting for our survival and the only way, as the president (Biden) himself defined, is to obliterate Hamas, so we will have to do whatever is needed to obliterate their capabilities,” Erdan told CNN.

The US State Department said that the border crossing into Egypt in southern Gaza is expected to open at 9am local time (06:00 GMT), but “ the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable and it is unclear whether, or for how long, travelers will be permitted to transit the crossing.”

“If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing – there may be very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time,” it said in a travel advisory. 

The crossing in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula will open “only for a few hours” and only for foreigners, but not the vast majority of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

The US president has vowed to provide Israel with “everything they need” to eliminate Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, but does not expect American troops to join any combat operations.

“I don't think that's necessary. Israel has one of the finest fighting forces in the country. I guarantee we're gonna provide them everything they need,” Biden told CBS 60 Minutes.

Biden said he does not support any long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza, but believes that “going in” and “taking out the extremists… is a necessary requirement.”

“I think it'd be a big mistake. Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don't represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that… It would be a mistake to… for Israel to occupy… Gaza again,” he said.

US President Joe Biden has acknowledged that there is “no clear evidence” of any Iran’s involvement in the deadly raid on Israel carried out by Hamas militants.

“I don't want to get into classified information. But to be very blunt with you, there is no clear evidence of that,” Biden said in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday. Pressed again on whether there was any indication that Tehran knew about or helped plan the attack, the US leader reiterated there was no evidence “at this point.”

15 October 2023

The Israeli military conducted another strike against the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah. “A short while ago, the IDF struck Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon in response to the shooting yesterday (Sunday) toward Israeli territory,” the IDF said in a statement, sharing a video of the strike.

The IDF claims UNICEF humanitarian aid is being used for terrorism after first aid kit bags were spotted in Southern Israel. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a new video purported to show their bombing of targets in Gaza. According to them, the commander of the southern district of Hamas' national security was eliminated. During the day, the IDF says it attacked about 250 military targets, most of them in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon doesn't want war, as Hezbollah has "its own regional calculations," Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said, as cited by Asharq News. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised that Lebanon would pay a heavy price for every activity outside its borders.

The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, says that his country is going to start providing Israel with intelligence information, according to Sky News Arabia. 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the official news agency WAFA, told Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over a phone call that the actions and policies of Hamas do not speak for the Palestinian people. He also stated that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In response, Maduro promised to send 30 tons of humanitarian aid to Palestine in the coming days.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Hamas to immidiately free their captives and appealed to Israel to allow the immediate distribution of essential humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, emphasizing that the situation in the region was teetering “on the verge of the abyss.”

Guterres conveyed in a statement that the UN has strategically positioned reserves of provisions, including food, water, medical resources, fuel, and various essential items, readily deployable within a matter of hours.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, has reported that its base in southern Lebanon was struck by a rocket. A statement from UNIFIL said the "headquarters in Naqoura was hit with a rocket and we are working to verify from where. Our peacekeepers were not in shelters at the time. Fortunately, no one was hurt.”

IDF Chief-of-Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, addressed troops in the South, saying "Our role is to go into Gaza, to go to the places where Hamas is stationed, acting, planning, and firing, and to strike them very hard, in every place, every officer, every low-ranking functionary, to destroy infrastructure."

The EU released a statement condemning Hamas and urging the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza without precondition, reaffirming its support for Israel’s right to self-defense within the confines of international law. The bloc reiterated its support for peace and a two-state solution, insisting the continued provision of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza was needed to prevent further escalation of the war.

US President Joe Biden has said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the international community “must not lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas’s appalling attacks, and are suffering as a result of them.”

Qatar and the US are working to finalize an agreement on the release of civilian hostages held by Hamas, a person briefed on the talks has told the Financial Times. “There were positive meetings yesterday [on Saturday] and Hamas seems willing to release the civilian hostages, but Hamas say they can’t do so while the bombing continues,” the source said. The deal would require Israel to halt its airstrikes on Gaza to allow Hamas to set the captives free and for humanitarian aid to be delivered safely to the Palestinian enclave, he added.

The Israeli military has confirmed that 126 people are currently being held as hostages by Hamas, IDF spokesman Richard Hecht has said. It was initially estimated that some 150 Israelis and foreigners could’ve been captured by the Pestilential armed group. The figure had been revised down as bodies of victims from the surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel have been found and identified, Hecht explained.

The number of Israeli troops killed in more than a week of fighting has reached 286, the spokesman added.

A ship for Americans looking to flee Israel will be departing from the port of Haifa on Monday morning, the US Embassy in Israel has announced. Seats on the boat bound for Limassol, Cyrus, will be available for “US nationals and their immediate family members with a valid travel document,” the embassy said. No pets are allowed aboard, it added.

Israel’s actions in Gaza since the surprise attack by Hamas represent “an obvious example of war crimes and genocide,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said during a phone call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Saturday. The IDF is “seeking to avenge their humiliating and historic defeat on the battlefield [to Hamas] on the defenseless people of Gaza by cutting off water and electricity, preventing the entry of food and medicines, and using prohibited weapons such as phosphorous bombs,” he claimed, as cited by the state-run Press TV broadcaster. The US and its allies turning a blind eye to such conduct by Israel is “clear proof of the contradictory and hypocritical positions of Westerners, who are claiming to defend human rights,” he added.

Israel has prolonged its deadline for the evacuation of Palestinians from the north to the south of Gaza. The Israeli military announced on social media that a safe corridor would remain open from 10am till 1pm. “The IDF will not carry out any operations along this route,” it said. The Israeli military has urged residents of Gaza to use this window and move south, stating that “your safety and that of your families matters.”

Health officials in the Gaza said on Friday that Israeli airstrikes have hit civilian cars in three separate locations since the start of the evacuation, killing 70 people and injuring up to 150 others. The IDF has denied responsibility, stressing that any information coming from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave should be treated with “extreme caution and suspicion” as it serves “propaganda purposes.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said Israel’s response to the surprise attack by Hamas has gone “beyond the scope of self-defense.” The Israeli authorities should stop “the collective punishment of the population of Gaza,” he insisted.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang urged both sides to refrain from further escalation and return to the negotiating table. He again stressed Beijing’s commitment to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that “the historical injustice against Palestine has lasted for more than half a century and can’t be continued.”

The Chinese foreign minister made the remarks during a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. Wang said Beijing is ready to work with Riyadh and other Arab countries to find a way to settle the crisis.

At least 2,329 Palestinians have been killed and 9,714 wounded in the IDF’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave has said. Last week’s surprise attack on Israel by Hamas left around 1,300 people dead, according to Israeli authorities.

The Israel Defense Forces has denied allegations that its airstrikes might have killed dozens of civilians who were trying to flee Gaza, arguing that any information coming from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave should be treated with “extreme caution and suspicion,” because it serves their “propaganda purposes.”

While not completely ruling out the possibility of a “freak accident” on behalf of the Israeli forces, IDF spokesperson Lt. Colonel Jonathan Conricus insisted on Sunday that “there was no targeting of vehicles, there was no targeting of civilians” in at least one of the areas where dozens of people were injured and killed on Friday.

“I’m not a forensic expert, I won’t be able to say if this is a roadside IED or if this is a strike from above. But what I am able to say with confidence, because we have asked, is that the IDF did not purposely strike in that area,” Conricus said.

Israel has been “very, very generous with the time” it has given Gaza residents to flee their homes, IDF spokesperson Lt. Colonel Jonathan Conricus told CNN on Saturday. 

“I cannot stress more than enough to say now is the time for Gazans to leave,” he added. “Take your belongings, go south. Preserve your life, and do not fall into the trap that Hamas is setting up for you.”

The spokesman further claimed that the IDF “will commence significant military operations only once we see that civilians have left the area.”

The IDF has “loosened” its rules of engagement ahead of the looming ground invasion into Gaza, “to allow soldiers to make fewer checks before shooting at suspected enemies,” the NYT reported, citing three Israeli officers.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 2,228 people have been killed and 8,744 injured by Saturday night since October 7. 

“Many casualties are still trapped beneath the rubble, with the Palestinian Civil Defense and medical teams unable to access areas due to safety concerns, equipment shortages and severe damage to streets,” the UN humanitarian body OCHA said in its latest flash update on the conflict.

Moscow has requested a vote on its draft resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to be held on October 16, first deputy permanent representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said. “We circulated it among the members of the Security Council yesterday and asked for a vote on Monday,” Polyansky said, urging colleagues from other UN member states to support and co-sponsor the measure.

“We need to send a clear message to the parties of the conflict,” Polyansky added. The Russian draft calls for an immediate ceasefire and “strongly condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism,” according to the text of the document seen by Russian media.

Israel had initially planned to launch its ground invasion into Gaza this weekend, but the operation was “delayed by a few days at least in part because of cloudy conditions that would have made it harder for Israeli pilots and drone operators to provide ground forces with air cover,” the New York Times reported on Saturday night, citing information relayed by unnamed Israeli officers.

The Pentagon has announced that a second aircraft carrier group – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrying nine aircraft squadrons, as well as two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser – will soon join the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group in the Eastern Mediterranean to “deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas's attack on Israel.”

The US administration has so far ruled out sending military personnel into Gaza as part of any Israeli ground invasion or attempt to free American hostages, only aiding the IDF with intelligence and operation planning.

14 October 2023

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas categorically rejected the removal of Gaza’s inhabitants from their land in a phone call with US President Joe Biden on Saturday, Abbas’ office confirmed in a statement.

Biden pledged to support the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to bring much-needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, according to a White House summary of the call.

The US president also claimed his administration has been working with the UN, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel “to ensure humanitarian supplies reach civilians in Gaza,” according to the summary, though Israel itself has pledged no electricity, water, or food will enter Gaza until the hostages taken by Hamas last Saturday are returned.

The IDF has accused Hamas of “forcefully preventing their civilians from relocating to southern Gaza for their own safety.” It shared a pixelated picture of a traffic jam, as well as a photo of what appears to be a roadblock, without clarifying where and when the photos were taken.

On Friday, health officials in the Hamas-governed Palestinian enclave said that dozens of people, mostly women and children, were injured and killed in Israeli airstrikes on evacuation convoys fleeing Gaza City. “These incidents prompted many people to abandon their evacuation efforts and return home,” the UN humanitarian body OCHA said, as “heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has held a phone call with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, in which he denounced “Hamas’ abhorrent taking of civilian hostages,” but also emphasized the “importance of adhering to the law of war, including civilian protection obligations, and addressing the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza while Israel continues its operations to restore security,” according to a Pentagon readout of the conversation. 

Austin also reiterated the US’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security, and “provided updates on Department of Defense efforts to continue flowing air defense capabilities and munitions to the Israel Defense Forces.”

The leader of Pakistan’s religious political party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUIF), pledged its financial support to Hamas and vowed to join the Palestinian militant group “on the frontlines” in the fight against Israel during a massive rally in the city of Peshawar on Saturday, local media reported.

“If the Islamic countries allow us passage, we are ready to join the fight on the frontlines,” JUIF head Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the crowd at the Mufti Mahmoud Conference. He revealed that Hamas had requested financial assistance and said he had promised that the party would provide it. 

The Iranian mission to the UN has warned that if Israel's “war crimes and genocide” against Palestinian people in Gaza are “not halted immediately, the situation could spiral out of control,” adding that the responsibility for far-reaching consequences would lie “with the UN, the Security Council, and the states steering the Council toward a dead end.”

The IDF published yet another video of its air raids on Gaza, insisting that it only strikes “military targets of the terrorist organization Hamas.”

The Israeli military said it spotted and “eliminated” multiple militants, as well as “a number of Hamas operatives coming out of a tunnel shaft in Gaza.” The IDF also reportedly destroyed a “military headquarters and dozens of mortar launchers.”

The Israeli Air Force allegedly carried out an airstrike on Aleppo airport for the second time in a week, according to Syrian state media. 

“At approximately 11:35pm on Saturday, October 14, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, which led to material damage to the airport and it being out of service,” a military source told SANA.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with a senior political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Qatar on Saturday evening. According to IRNA, it was the first meeting of Iranian and Hamas officials since the militant group launched its deadly raid against Israel a week ago.

The details of the meeting have yet to be disclosed. Over the past days, the top Iranian diplomat also visited Iraq, Syria and Lebanon for talks with regional leaders about the ongoing Israeli retaliatory military operation against Hamas and a dire humanitarian situation of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli troops are attacking a suspected rocket launch site in Syria with artillery fire, the IDF announced.

Israel and Syria are separated by the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau that is recognized under international law as Syrian territory, yet has been occupied by Israel since the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.

The area has seen only occasional exchanges of fire since the war began last Saturday, although Israeli jets launched airstrikes on civilian airports in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo on Thursday, temporarily taking both facilities out of operation.

Israel’s repeated orders to evacuate 22 hospitals in northern Gaza places 2,000 patients at risk of complications or death, the World Health Organization said in a statement.

“Forcing more than 2,000 patients to relocate to southern Gaza, where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number of patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence,” the WHO said.

Israel has ordered around a million residents of Gaza City to migrate to the south of the enclave ahead of a ground invasion. The UN has warned that the relocation of so many people is “impossible.”

Iran reportedly warned Israel that it would intervene in the conflict if the latter goes ahead with a ground invasion of Gaza, according to two anonymous diplomatic sources cited by Axios. The warning was passed from the Iranian Foreign Ministry through UN envoy to the Middle East Tor Wennesland on Saturday, Axios claimed.

The nature of Iran’s response was not explained further. The US and NATO have repeatedly warned Tehran to stay out of Israel’s war with Hamas, and Tehran has largely complied, save for some sporadic rocket and shell fire into Israel from Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Two German Air Force (Luftwaffe) A400M transport planes will bring “materials” to Israel on Saturday night and transport German citizens home in the early hours of Sunday morning, a spokesperson for the country’s Defense Ministry said.

The spokesperson did not disclose what kind of materials would be brought to Israel, and stressed that Berlin has not ordered a full evacuation of its citizens, as commercial routes are still available.

French satellite operator Eutelsat has taken the Gaza-based Al Aqsa TV off the air, the Hamas-linked channel said.

“This is a violation of the freedom of speech and of international laws that guarantee freedom of expression and the right to carry the voice of our people to the world,” Al Aqsa TV said in a statement.

Lebanese news network Al Mayadeen claimed that the decision to ban Al Aqsa was made under pressure from the French government. France has ordered Eutelsat to suspend Al Aqsa before, and it complied in 2010 and 2016, but subsequently restored the channel each time.

Hezbollah’s entry into the Israel-Hamas war would “bring about the destruction of Lebanon,” Israeli National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi said in a televised statement. “Our goal is not to be pulled into a two-front war,” Hanegbi said, adding that Israeli officials have “passed messages” to the Shia militants urging them to stay out of the conflict.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah forces have traded sporadic artillery and rocket fire along the Israel-Lebanon border in recent days. Although the IDF said that some Hezbollah fighters entered Israel, the group has avoided any large-scale attacks on the Jewish state.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it is completing preparations for a “significant ground operation,” which will include a “joint and coordinated attack from the air, sea and land” in Gaza.

“IDF battalions and soldiers are deployed all over the country and are prepared to increase readiness for the next stages of the war, with an emphasis on a significant ground operation,” the Israeli military said in a statement carried by local media.

More children have been killed in one week of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza than during the entire conflict in Ukraine, according to figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry and the UN.

Some 724 children have been killed in Israeli bombing raids since last Saturday, the ministry said in a statement. In Ukraine, 560 children were killed between February 2022 and last Saturday, according to the most recent figures from the UN’s human rights office.

Gaza is the world’s third-most-densely populated territory. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 60% of Gazans killed over the week-long Israeli air campaign have been women and children.

The US State Department has authorized non-emergency US government personnel and their families to leave the US embassy in West Jerusalem and branch office in Tel Aviv, citing “the unpredictable security situation in Israel.” 

The US began flying its citizens out of Israel on Friday, six days after Hamas militants attacked the Jewish state and ahead of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. The UK has been pulling family members of embassy staff out of Israel since Thursday, while the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv advised all its nationals to leave the country on Friday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged “solidarity” with the Palestinian cause and called for a two-state solution to the conflict.

“As people and an organisation that has struggled against an oppressive system of apartheid, we do pledge solidarity with the Palestinians," Ramaphosa told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Ramaphosa added that his government offered condolences to Israel for those killed by Hamas militants, and that South Africa would help negotiate a ceasefire if needed.

Egypt has opened the Rafah border crossing until 5pm on Saturday, but only for Palestinians with American citizenship, the Washington Post reported. There are between 500 and 600 Palestinians with US citizenship in Gaza, and the decision to let them flee came following talks between American and Egyptian diplomats.

The Rafah crossing is the only way in or out of Gaza since Israel placed the enclave under blockade. Egypt shut the checkpoint after it was bombed by Israeli warplanes earlier this week, then refused to re-open it, with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declaring it “important that [Gaza’s] people remain standing and on their land.”

Hamas has claimed to have destroyed several Israeli armored vehicles to the east of the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis. The militant group said its fighters breached the border fence, crossing into Israel and attacking a military camp in the area.

The IDF has claimed that it killed the commander of Hamas’ Nukhba special forces unit, which it said spearheaded the Palestinian group’s surprise attack on Israel last Saturday. Ali Qadhi was eliminated in a drone strike after his location was discovered through the joint efforts of the Shin Bet security agency and the Military Intelligence Directorate, it said.

The Israeli military stated earlier that it hit dozens of facilities belonging to Nukhba during its overnight strikes on Gaza.

The Israeli military is “very sorry” for the death of Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed in the shelling in southern Lebanon on Friday, IDF spokesman Richard Hecht stated. He did not, however, acknowledge Israeli responsibility for the incident, in which six other journalists, including those from AFP and Al Jazeera, were wounded. “We are looking into it,” Hecht said.

At least 2,215 Palestinians, including 724 children, have been killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes on Gaza since last Saturday, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave has said. The number of those wounded has surpassed 8,700, it added.

The Israeli military will “attack with great force in the areas that have been evacuated” in Gaza, IDF’s top spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, has said. “We are deployed and strongly prepared for the next stages of the war,” he stressed. According to Hagari, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled northern Gaza after warnings by the IDF. “There are still citizens who have not yet evacuated. Anyone who chooses not to evacuate puts himself and his family in danger,” he said.

More than 1,300 buildings in Gaza have been destroyed by Israel’s retaliatory strikes over the past week, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA has said. The buildings included 5,540 destroyed housing units, and nearly 3,750 more homes were damaged so badly that they became uninhabitable, according to the agency.

The Biden administration says it fears that the Israeli authorities have no plan for what to do with Gaza after an anticipated invasion into the Palestinian enclave by the IDF, people familiar with the discussions at the White House told Bloomberg. The US is pressing Israel to think beyond its immediate goal of eradicating Hamas, according to the sources.

“The desire to support Israel versus the fear about what might come next underscores the delicate balancing act Biden faces. A punishing campaign in Gaza and no clear endpoint risks fanning Israel’s worst crisis in 50 years in to a regional conflagration the US and its allies would struggle to contain,” Bloomberg said.

The Israeli military has published footage showing hundreds of thousands of leaflets calling for Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza being dropped from the skies.

“Terrorist organizations have started a war against the State of Israel, the City of Gaza has become a battlefield. You must evacuate your home immediately and leave for the southern Gaza Wadi area,” the leaflets read, according to the IDF.

Israel and its backers in the US are in a conspiracy to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from Gaza, Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told Afshin Rattansi on ‘Going Underground’.

Watch the full interview here.

Israel has told the Palestinians living in the northern part of Gaza to move to the south of the enclave between 10am and 4pm local time on Saturday through special evacuation corridors. “If you care about yourself and your loved ones, go south as instructed,” Avichay Adraee, the head of the Arab media division of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, wrote on X (Twitter). “Rest assured that Hamas leaders have taken care of themselves and are taking cover from strikes in the region,” Adraee said, addressing Gaza residents in Arabic.

The announcement comes as Israel is apparently preparing for a ground offensive in Gaza in response to a surprise attack by Hamas a week ago.

US writer and journalist Robert Bridge has drawn parallels between the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas and 9/11 in an opinion piece for RT. According to Bridge, in both cases, “a serious lack of imagination” on the part of the authorities was what prevented them from anticipating the moves by the perpetrators and preventing the deadly attacks.

Read the full story here.

The IDF claims that its strike killed senior Hamas official Murad Abu Murad, who was in charge of the group’s aerial activities. Abu Murad “took a big part” in directing the Palestinian fighters during the surprise attack a week ago, it said. The operation by Hamas saw some of the gunmen making their way into Israeli territory on hang gliders.

The Israeli bombardment overnight also targeted dozens of facilities belonging to Hamas’ special forces unit, Nukhba, the IDF said. According to Israeli security forces, the unit spearheaded the infiltration of the country last Saturday.

The IDF has specified the number of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in their surprise attack of one week ago, saying the militants currently hold more than 120 people.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas political bureau member based in Doha, told the New Yorker on Friday that the Palestinian group has “a big number” of hostages. According to Abu Marzouk, it is too early to discuss prisoner swaps with Israel. “Let us stop the war and everything can be discussed on this issue,” he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Israel to reconsider its evacuation order for northern Gaza, saying that relocating “more than one million people across a densely populated warzone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory of Gaza is under siege, is extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible.”

The UN chief insisted that “even wars have rules,” telling all sides of the conflict that international humanitarian and human rights laws must be “respected and upheld.”

“All hostages in Gaza must be released immediately,” he said. “Civilians must be protected, and also never used as shields.”

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled south after Israel gave Gaza residents 24 hours to evacuate from the north to “save their lives” ahead of an expected ground offensive, the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza (OCHA oPt) said in its latest flash update on the situation in the enclave on Friday night.

However, several “vehicles of those evacuating the north were hit, killing more than 40 people and injuring 150 others,” the UN humanitarian body said, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health. “These incidents prompted many people to abandon their evacuation efforts and return home,” the UN agency added, as “heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted.”

The Israel Defence Forces have denied using white phosphorus munitions in their military operations, saying that the “accusation… regarding the use of white phosphorus in Gaza is unequivocally false.” 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) previously reported having “verified” videos of Israel deploying controversial munitions, in the border area of Lebanon and over Gaza City, amid the ongoing confrontation with Hamas.

The World Health Organization has appealed to Israel to “immediately rescind orders for the evacuation of over 1 million people living north of Wadi Gaza,” saying that a “mass evacuation would be disastrous – for patients, health workers and other civilians left behind or caught in the mass movement.”

“With ongoing airstrikes and closed borders, civilians have no safe place to go,” the WHO said in a statement. “The Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed WHO that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients without endangering their lives… Moving them amid hostilities puts their lives at immediate risk.”

The IDF has attacked a “Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon” in response to the “infiltration of unidentified objects” into the Israeli airspace, which had been intercepted by the Israeli drones around 1am on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Force said it had managed to recover several bodies of missing Israelis during a “localized” incursion into Gaza on Friday, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“Infantry and armored forces searched and gathered in the area for findings that may help in the effort to locate the missing and thwarted terrorist infrastructure and terrorist cells found in the area,” the Israeli military added.

Israeli air defenses intercepted two unidentified targets above the city of Haifa and another object near Shfar'am, which had penetrated the airspace in the country’s north near the border with Lebanon, according to the IDF.

13 October 2023

The Middle East is on the brink of “a full scale war and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya warned on Friday, claiming that the “responsibility for the looming war in the Middle East, to a large extent, lies on the United States.”

The Russian envoy stressed that Moscow unequivocally condemns “extreme brutality, killings and the horrifying scale of violence,” adding that any crimes “against peaceful civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian citizens, is inadmissible.”

Russia has proposed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict which calls for an immediate ceasefire and “strongly condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism,” according to the text of the document circulated among the 15-member body during a closed-door meeting on Friday.

The draft further calls “for the unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment, as well as creating conditions for the safe evacuation of civilians in need,” as cited by TASS.

RT’s Middle East bureau chief Maria Finoshina found herself putting on a gas mask as Israeli security forces unleashed tear gas on rock-throwing Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem on Friday.

Finoshina and her crew were in Wadi al-Joz, an Arab neighborhood north of the Old City, filming a Palestinian demonstration in solidarity with the people of Gaza. As rocks flew at Israeli police, the riot-armored officers brought out the tear gas grenades and a truck with a water cannon.

At least 1,900 Palestinians, including 614 children and 370 women, have been killed in Gaza over the past week, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry. Some 7,696 were injured, the ministry added.

The death toll in Israel stood at over 1,300 people, with nearly 3,500 injured as of Friday night, according to Israeli officials.

The Israeli forces have postponed the demand to evacuate Al Awda Hospital in the Gaza Strip until 6am local time, after initially giving the patients and staff just two hours’ notice to leave the medical facility, according to the Doctors Without Borders charity.

The IDF has sent tanks and foot soldiers into Gaza to conduct what it termed “localized raids” ahead of a likely invasion of the Palestinian enclave. IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the raids targeted “anti-tank guided missile squads that intended to infiltrate into Israeli territory.”

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said also on Thursday that his forces were “preparing for a ground maneuver,” but added that the government had yet to give the final order for the operation.

Hamas’ attack on Israel was an act of “unprecedented cruelty,” Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. However, the Russian president urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties and condemned its siege on Gaza as “unacceptable.”

“More than two million people live there. Not everyone supports Hamas, by the way, not everyone, yet everyone must suffer, including women and children. Of course, hardly anyone will agree with this,” Putin remarked.

Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza “is just the beginning” of a wider campaign aimed at eradicating Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in a televised address.

“Our enemies have only started paying the price,” he said. “I will not detail now what is yet to come, but I would like to tell you this is just the beginning.”

The Israeli military has called up some 360,000 reservists, and planning for a ground offensive into Gaza is believed to be underway. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said on Thursday that his forces were “preparing for a ground maneuver,” but added that such an operation has not yet been green-lit by the government.

Saudi Arabia has suspended plans to normalize relations with Israel under a US-brokered deal, Reuters has reported. With Palestinian casualties mounting, Riyadh put the deal on ice in order to avoid backlash from the wider Islamic world, the news agency stated, citing sources close to the Saudi monarchy.

Prior to Hamas’ surprise attack, US officials said that the landmark agreement was close at hand. In exchange for recognizing Israel, Saudi Arabia stood to gain a formal defense pact with the US and access to more advanced American weapons.

The IDF said its troops responded with tank and artillery fire to shooting from Lebanese territory. While Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have not joined Hamas’ war with Israel in earnest, sporadic rocket launches and shootouts have taken place on the Israel-Lebanon border in recent days.

Earlier on Friday, an explosion was reported at a border fence, although no incursion into Israeli territory took place, the IDF said.

The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has risen to 1,800, the enclave’s Health Ministry said, adding that another 6,388 have been wounded.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also claims that Israeli troops killed 1,500 Hamas fighters in Israel, although the militant group said that its attack on the Jewish state involved fewer than this number.

Around 1,300 Israelis have been killed and 3,400 wounded since Saturday, according to the latest Israeli figures.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned Israel’s decision to order more than a million Palestinians to leave their homes in Gaza City and move to the south of the densely populated enclave ahead of a possible Israeli ground operation.

“Forcing the…people of Gaza – who have been subjected to indiscriminate bombing for days and who have been deprived of electricity, water and food – to migrate in an extremely limited area is a clear violation of international law and has no place in humanity,” the ministry said in a statement.

“We expect Israel to immediately reverse this grave mistake and urgently halt its merciless acts against civilians in Gaza,” the statement concluded.

An Israeli diplomat in Beijing has been stabbed, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which said that the victim had been taken to a hospital for treatment and is in stable condition.

The identity of the attacker is unclear, as is his motivation. However, the stabbing took place after former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal called on Muslims across the world to make Friday a day of protest and “jihad” in support of Hamas’ war on Israel.

A second delivery of US military aid will arrive by air in Israel on Friday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a joint press conference with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The plane will drop off “essential munitions to the [Israel Defense Forces],” Gallant added.

One day earlier, Austin said that American officials “have not placed any conditions” on how Israel uses US military aid, stating “this is a professional military… and we would hope and expect that they would do the right things in the prosecution of their campaign.”

The Hamas attack on Israel was “unprecedented in its brutality” and the Jewish state “certainly has the right for defense, to protect its peaceful existence,” Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. A two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem is the only viable way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he argued. 

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin landed in Israel on Friday. He is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the Israeli war cabinet. The Pentagon is providing weapons from its stockpile to assist the Israeli operation in Gaza. Austin arrived in Israel a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed issuing an evacuation order, calling it a “humanitarian step.” It did not mention any specific deadline, with a spokesperson acknowledging it would take “some time.” 

“The IDF calls on all residents of Gaza City to evacuate their homes, move south for their protection and settle in the area south of the Gaza River,” the military said in a post on X. “This evacuation is for your personal safety. It will be possible to return to Gaza City only after a notification confirming this.”

The IDF vowed to “continue to operate significantly in Gaza City in the coming days” and has urged civilians to “distance yourself from the Hamas terrorists who use you as a human shield.”

The Israeli military has allegedly ordered over 1 million people in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to evacuate to the southern part of the enclave within the next 24 hours, a UN spokesperson told Axios, adding that it is “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities – including schools, health centers and clinics,” the spokesperson said. “The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ordered the deployment of UK military assets – including two Royal Navy ships, P8 surveillance aircraft, three merlin helicopters and a company of Royal Marines – to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel and “track threats to regional stability such as the transfer of weapons to terrorist groups,” according to a government press release early Friday morning. 

As of Thursday night, the death toll in Gaza stood at 1,537 people, including some 500 children, with another 6,612 injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

“The patients and wounded in Gaza's hospitals are laying on the floor as there are no beds in the ICU units, with patients piling up in front of the operation rooms,” health ministry's spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra told Al Mayadeen, adding that the Palestinian health sector was on the brink of collapse.

12 October 2023

The number of people who were forced to flee their homes amid the ongoing Israeli airstrikes has increased to some 423,378, or roughly 21% of the entire population of the Gaza Strip, according to the latest flash update by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Thursday night.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Thursday that nobody in the region needs or seeks Tehran’s “permission to open a new front” against Israel, warning that everything is “dependent” on the Israeli government’s next moves.

“In a situation where the Zionist regime has imposed a complete siege on Gaza, cutting off its water, electricity, and fuel supply, and preventing the delivery of food and medicine, the United States and some parties are sending weapons to Israel and allowing this criminal regime to continue its ruthless massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” he said, adding that “in such circumstances, anything is possible, and we may witness new events in the region.”

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes against “five houses used by operatives of the terrorist organization Hamas,” the IDF said, sharing a video of the strikes. The latest attacks allegedly destroyed a “monitoring center” and an “operational house,” killing several senior Hamas operatives, including a brother of the group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

The ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has claimed more than 2,700 lives as of Thursday, and is the most serious escalation in the region in decades. Six days into the conflict, RT looks at the key events so far.

Two police officers have been injured, one seriously, in a shooting near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City. Police say that a lone “terrorist” armed with a makeshift submachine gun opened fire on the officers, who opened fire on the attacker and "neutralized" him.

While Jerusalem has largely been spared the bloodshed of southern Israel in recent days, the shooting came hours before midnight, when former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal has called for Muslims across the world to begin a day of protest and “jihad” in support of Hamas’ war against Israel.

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Damascus and Aleppo international airports in Syria, a source in the Syrian military told the SANA news agency. The strikes reportedly damaged runways at both airports, putting them out of service.

Israel conducts semi-frequent airstrikes in Syria, typically on Syrian government or Iranian forces, as well as on Syria-aligned militia targets. Thursday’s strikes are the first of their kind since the current war between Israel and Hamas militants broke out on Saturday, however, and came a day before Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was due to touch down in Damascus.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has acknowledged that the IDF “did not handle” Hamas’ surprise attack adequately. “We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war,” he said in a televised statement.

Hamas fighters stormed Jewish settlements near Israel’s border with Gaza on Saturday, with Israeli forces taking up to three days to retake some towns and villages. According to an Israeli source cited by American journalist Seymour Hersh, two thirds of the IDF troops normally stationed at the Gaza border had been pulled to the West Bank to provide security for an Orthodox Jewish festival.

The conflict in Israel is “a religious war,” and Israel should “do whatever the hell [it has] to do,” US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Fox News on Wednesday night. Graham recommended that Israel “level the place,” referring to the densely-populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

Graham’s sentiment has been echoed by other pro-war voices within the GOP, with presidential candidate Nikki Haley calling on Israel to “finish them,” and Florida Senator Marco Rubio declaring that “Israel must respond disproportionately” to Hamas’ assault.

In a statement on Wednesday, the pro-Palestinian Jewish Voice for Peace organization condemned American politicians who “are spreading racist, hateful, and incendiary rhetoric that will fuel mass atrocities and genocide.”

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has urged Israel to stop bombing the Rafah Border Crossing so that residents of Gaza can flee the besieged enclave, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. The Rafah crossing is the only means of escape for Palestinian civilians in Gaza but has been shut since Israeli airstrikes hit it on Tuesday.

Egypt denies closing its side of the border. However, on Tuesday, Egyptian government sources told Reuters that Cairo is pressing Israel to allow safe passage of civilians from Gaza to avert a wholesale exodus into Egypt through the Rafah crossing.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman John Kirby said that the US is working with Egypt and Israel to establish a safe evacuation route for civilians.

The families of British diplomats have been instructed to leave Israel as a “precautionary measure,” the UK Foreign Office announced. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv will continue to function as normal.

The Foreign Office continues to advise against all non-essential travel to Israel and repatriation flights for British nationals began on Thursday. London has also confirmed that 17 British nationals are dead or missing amid Hamas’ attack.

In a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that “there will be many difficult days ahead,” but that Israeli forces will “crush” the “barbarians” of Hamas.

Blinken pledged US support to Israel for “as long as America exists.” Noting that the first shipments of US military aid have already arrived in Israel, he vowed to work with lawmakers in Congress to ensure that they are followed by additional arms packages.

Russia hopes that after the ongoing escalation of violence in the Middle East is resolved, “everyone would take responsibility for implementing the decisions of the UN Security Council on the creation of a Palestinian state,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

He was speaking after meeting with foreign ministers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, an intergovernmental organization made up of countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, in Kyrgyzstan. The officials were united in believing that de-escalation was a priority at the moment, he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel to meet senior government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. Before boarding his plane at Joint Base Andrews, the top diplomat reiterated US support for Israel and said Washington was working to ensure no additional parties become involved in the hostilities.

On Friday, Blinken is scheduled to travel to Amman, where he will meet senior Jordanian officials and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

The IDF says it has conducted airstrikes across Gaza targeting a Hamas unit called Nokhba, adding that the unit spearheaded last week’s incursion into Israel. It also claimed it killed Mohammed Abu Shamala, a senior Hamas naval forces official, during an attack on his home.

Egypt wants to avert a mass exodus of Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula, Reuters reports, citing officials in Gaza and an Egyptian security source. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the only one available to people in Gaza, remained closed on Wednesday.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on Tuesday that the situation should not be resolved at the expense of others, which was widely understood as hinting at a scenario in which Palestinians would be pushed into Sinai en masse.

US officials have backtracked after President Joe Biden claimed to have seen “confirmed pictures” of Palestinian militants “beheading children” in Israel, with White House officials explaining that he had seen no images and was merely relaying claims from the Israeli government and media reports.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has held his first phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since the countries resumed ties in a China-brokered deal. According to Tehran, the leaders discussed the “need to end war crimes against Palestine.” According to Riyadh, Salman said “the Kingdom is making all possible efforts... to stop the ongoing escalation.”

The death toll in Gaza has “approached 1,200 and there are approximately 5,000 injured,” deputy health minister Yusuf Abu al-Reesh said on Thursday morning, claiming that most of the dead and wounded are women, children and the elderly. The Palestinian Health Ministry previously said that Gaza's hospitals were already at full capacity amid the ongoing Israeli strikes.

Israel has launched yet another “extensive” attack on multiple suspected Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the IDF confirmed around 3:40am local time.

At least 263,934 people were forced to flee their homes amid the ongoing Israeli airstrike campaign in Gaza as of Wednesday night, with over two thirds of them taking shelter in UNRWA schools, according to the latest flash update by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. At least 752 buildings with 2,835 housing units were completely destroyed, while over 30,000 flats were partially or severely damaged, the agency said, citing date from the Gaza Ministry of Public Works and Housing.

Germany has allowed Israel to use two Heron TP combat drones in its retaliatory strikes on Gaza, according to Spiegel and Reuters reports citing defense sources. Germany has leased five drones from Israeli arms manufacturer IAI, with two of them being used for training German drone pilots in Israel. However, after the Hamas attack, Berlin decided to send its operator back home, while Defense Minister Boris Pistorius reportedly approved a request by Israel to keep and use the drones.

Saudi Arabia “is making unremitting efforts” to stop the escalation of violence in Gaza, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressing firm support of the Palestinian cause and efforts to achieve a just peace. 

Riyadh has denounced “targeting civilians in any way and taking the lives of innocent people,” while “stressing the need to observe the principles of international humanitarian law, and the need to stop the attack on the Gaza Strip,” according to Saudi state-run SPA news.

11 October 2023

The US State Department has urged Americans to “reconsider travel” to Israel, warning in a new advisory that “individuals should follow the instructions of security and emergency response officials.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that “international humanitarian law must be respected and upheld” and “civilians must be protected at all times” in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also reiterated his call “for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza.”

The UN Palestinian refugee agency is urgently seeking some $104 million “to enable its multi-sectoral humanitarian response” in Gaza. “The requested funds will cover the urgent immediate food, non-food, health, shelter and protection needs of up to 250,000 persons seeking safety in UNRWA shelters across the ravaged Gaza Strip and another 250,000 Palestine refugees within the community,” the agency said in a statement.

The IDF has released several videos of its recent air raids on Gaza, saying that the Israeli air force continues to strike Hamas targets in the Palestinian exclave.

US President Joe Biden has decried Hamas attack on Israel as the “deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust,” and “one of the worst chapters in human history.”

The number of US citizens killed in the ongoing violence had risen to 22, and a “handful” Americans are among dozens of hostages captured by Hamas, according to the Department of State. Biden said that he has “not given up hope of bringing these folks home,” but refused to clarify what exactly the US was doing to secure their release, saying “if I told you, I wouldn't be able to get them home.”

Israel’s new war-management cabinet has pledged to “wipe Hamas off the face of the earth,” in a joint statement on Wednesday night.

“There’s a time for peace and a time for war. Now is a time for war,” said opposition leader Benny Gantz, standing shoulder to shoulder with PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who explained they had put aside their differences “because the fate of our state is on the line.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallan added that “this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza... will cease to exist.”

Around 220,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Gaza and are sheltering in facilities operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at a briefing.

Some 20 UNRWA facilities, including two schools, have been hit in Israeli airstrikes, the agency announced earlier on Wednesday evening. The Israeli government has long accused Hamas of hiding weapons and ammunition in UNRWA buildings.

The US, Israel, and Egypt are “actively discussing” the establishment of a “safe passage” for civilians to flee Gaza, White House spokesman John Kirby has told reporters. “Civilians are protected under the laws of armed conflict and they should be given every opportunity to avoid the fighting,” Kirby said, adding that no exact route or corridor has been agreed on yet.

Israeli warplanes bombed the only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday, prompting the Egyptian side to shut the checkpoint.

At least 1,100 Palestinians, including 326 children, have been killed since Saturday, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 5,300 are injured, the ministry added.

These figures are likely to increase as Israel continues launching airstrikes in the densely-populated territory of Gaza, which has also been placed under a total blockade by Israeli forces.

On the Israeli side, 1,200 people have been killed and nearly 3,200 injured since Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its large-scale assault on the Jewish state on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it received reports of a “suspected infiltration” of Israeli airspace from Lebanon. The IDF has ordered civilians near the site of the incident into “protected areas” until further notice.

Incoming drone alerts have sounded in multiple towns and villages near the Lebanese border for much of Wednesday morning. Israeli media have reported sightings of both drones and motorized hang-gliders entering the country from Lebanon. The IDF has not confirmed these reports.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has arrived in Israel to “demonstrate the UK’s unwavering solidarity with the Israeli people” and meet the survivors of a Hamas attack on the southern town of Ofakim.

Ofakim was occupied by Hamas militants on Saturday and although cleared by the Israeli military, has since come under sporadic rocket fire. An air raid siren sent Cleverly’s delegation running for cover on Wednesday – an incident that the Israeli government publicized on social media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared Palestinian militant group Hamas to be “worse than ISIS.” Netanyahu made the statement on X (formerly Twitter), accompanied by a photo of what appeared to be a child’s bed soaked in blood. The prime minister did not provide any further context.

Hamas fighters have killed more than 1,200 Israelis since Saturday, including multiple children at the Kfar Aza kibbutz near the Gaza border. Although pro-Israel pundits and reports claimed that 40 babies were beheaded at Kfar Aza, an Israeli military spokesperson told Turkish media that it has not seen evidence to back up this claim.

Gaza’s sole power plant has run out of fuel, the Palestinian enclave’s Energy Ministry announced on Wednesday evening. Backup generators are now the only source of electricity in Gaza, and with Israel’s siege preventing further fuel supplies from reaching the territory, essential services will soon shut down.

“The fuel stock to operate the generators in the Gaza Strip hospitals will end tomorrow, Thursday, which will exacerbate the disastrous conditions,” Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila told the Voice of Palestine radio station.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz have agreed to form a unity government for the duration of Israel’s war with Hamas.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Netanyahu and Gantz said that they would form a five-member “war-management” cabinet consisting of Netanyahu, Gantz, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, with former military General Gadi Eisenkot, and Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer participating as “observers.”

No legislation or resolutions except those directly related to the war will be passed by the government, the two politicians said.

Russia will play a part in the eventual settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

“We maintain a dialogue with both parties to the conflict,” Peskov said. “We have long-standing historical ties with the Palestinians. We have long-standing historical ties with the Israelis,” he continued, adding that Russia has citizens on both sides and considers their safety its “number one priority.”

“We have to maintain an equal distance, only this will give us the right to participate in the settlement process in the future, and Russia can and will play a role in the settlement process,” he said.

Nine UN staffers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since Saturday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a social media post on Wednesday.

“The protection of civilians is paramount, including in times of conflict. They should be protected in accordance with the laws of war,” UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said.

Speaking to Canada’s CBC News on Wednesday, Touma said that one of her agency’s schools and its largest office in Gaza were hit by Israeli bombs in recent days.

Israeli warplanes have attacked an observation post of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, the IDF has said. Artillery also shelled an area inside Lebanon from where an anti-tank missile had been fired at an Israeli border post earlier in the day, it added.

The IDF said that it is carrying out strikes on Lebanese territory in response to an attack that came from the neighboring country. It said earlier that an anti-tank missile had been launched from Lebanon towards an Israeli military post in the settlement of Arab Al-Aramshe on the border between the two states. There have been several exchanges of fire in the area in recent days, with the Lebanese movement Hezbollah expressing full support for Palestinian armed group Hamas after its surprise attack on Israel.

At least 260 children are among the 950 Palestinians killed in Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave has said.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the attacks by the IDF since Saturday have destroyed more than 22,600 residential units and ten health facilities. According to the ministry, 48 school buildings were damaged.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people, has said that it asked for food and medical supplies to be delivered to the besieged Gaza, “but Israel refused” the request. PLO official Hussein al-Sheikh wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that Gaza is facing “a major humanitarian catastrophe,” calling upon the international community to “intervene urgently to stop the aggression and allow the entry of relief materials and restore electricity and water.”

The power plant supplying electricity to Gaza could shut down “within hours” as it is “running out of fuel,” the authorities in the Palestinian enclave have said. Gaza has experienced widespread power interruptions in recent days amid continuing IDF airstrikes and the Israeli siege of the enclave in response to the attack by Hamas.

The Israeli military has published the names of another 14 troops killed in the fighting with Hamas. This puts the overall losses by the IDF since Saturday at 170 soldiers.

The death toll for Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza has reached 950, with another 5,000 wounded, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave has said. The ministry accused the IDF of “deliberately targeting” civilians and health workers.

Israeli warplanes hit the home of the father of Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen reported. Deif’s brother, his son, and his brother’s granddaughter are said to have been killed in the overnight strike. There was an unknown number of relatives of the Hamas military commander in the building and some of them could have been trapped in the rubble, according to Al Mayadeen. On Tuesday, the IDF said that Hamas’ economy minister, Jawad Abu Shamala, and another senior member of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, Zakaria Abu Ma’amr, were killed during the bombardment of Gaza.

US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties in Israel’s retaliatory strikes in Gaza during a ten-minute call on Tuesday, American officials told NBC news. The US leader was “more direct” in conveying this message compared to his previous conversations with the Israeli prime minister, they said.

According to the sources, Biden assured Netanyahu that the US stands with Israel and will provide the country with military aid to protect itself from future attacks by Hamas. Washington has also been working with other nations on a plan that would offer safe passage into Egypt for residents of Gaza, the official said.

Israel has deployed some 300,000 soldiers – including infantry, armored soldiers, artillery corps and reservists – near the Gaza Strip, all of whom are “getting ready to execute the mission… that we have been given by the Israeli government,” IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus said. “And that is to make sure that Hamas, at the end of this war, won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians,” he stated.

The death toll in Israel has jumped “not because there is ongoing fighting,” but because “as the time has gone by we are discovering bodies of dead Israelis in the various communities that Hamas infiltrated and where they conducted their massacres,” IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said in a situational update on Wednesday morning.

The death toll in Israel has climbed to at least 1,200 people, as authorities continue to recover and identify the bodies of those killed in the first days of the Hamas assault, according to public broadcaster Kan. The number of those injured has reportedly risen to 3,000.

At the same time at least 830 Palestinians were killed and 4,250 injured in retaliatory strikes, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Dozens of Israeli warplanes have carried out yet another air raid against Gaza, hitting “over 200 targets throughout the Al Furkan neighborhood,” the IDF confirmed early Wednesday morning, calling the area “a terror nest for Hamas and from where many activities against Israel are carried out.”

Earlier on Tuesday night, the Israeli Air Force jets hit 70 targets in the Al-Daraj district of Gaza's Old City.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s headquarters in Gaza “sustained significant damage” as a result of Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, forcing its international staff present to take shelter in another building, the organization said. The agency reported damage to at least 18 of its facilities, including schools sheltering displaced civilians, while two staff members and five students have been killed since October 7.

In its latest update, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that over 263,934 people have been displaced within Gaza as of Tuesday night, and thenumber is expected to rise further.

The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, has accused Israel of waging a “genocidal” military campaign against civilians in Gaza, according to a letter to the UN Security Council seen by Reuters on Tuesday. “Such blatant dehumanization and attempts to bomb a people into submission, to use starvation as a method of warfare, and to eradicate their national existence are nothing less than genocidal,” Mansour wrote.

The IDF has shared several graphic videos showing Palestinian militants attacking Israeli civilians, calling it “further proof that Hamas is committing war crimes.”

10 October 2023

The Israeli forces have destroyed at least 2,294 “terrorist targets” in Gaza in response to the deadly attack by Hamas militants in the country's south, which claimed over 1,000 Israeli lives and left at least 2,800 people injured, according to the IDF.

The first US military plane carrying “advanced ammunition” landed at the Nevatim air base in Israel, the IDF has confirmed, praising Washington for the backing. The Israeli military said the US military assistance will allow it to inflict “significant blows” to Hamas, as well as prepare for “additional scenarios.”

Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said that Gaza will never go back to what it was, declaring that the IDF is moving to a “full offense” against Hamas militants.

“I have released all the restraints, we have [regained] control of the area, and we are moving to a full offense,” Gallant said in an address to troops on Tuesday. “Hamas wanted a change in Gaza – it will change 180 degrees from what it thought. They will regret this moment… Whoever comes to decapitate, murder women, Holocaust survivors, we will eliminate him with all our might, and without compromise.”

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be resolved by people with political will, not extreme “hotheads,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Tuesday. “The situation is more than alarming, as it potentially risks spilling beyond the current zone of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Peskov noted, urging all parties to “show restraint.”

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group with eight squadrons of attack and support aircraft and four guided missile destroyers has arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, in order to send a “strong signal of deterrence should any actor hostile to Israel consider trying to take advantage of this situation,” according to General Michael "Erik" Kurilla of the US Central Command.

The US is discussing the establishment of a safe passage for the besieged civilians of the Gaza Strip, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli military spokesman urged civilians to flee Gaza for Egypt. However, Israeli warplanes proceeded to bomb the border area, prompting Egyptian authorities to close the crossing point.

In a follow-up statement, the Israel Defense Forces revised the spokesman’s comments, saying that Gazans should “distance themselves from designated areas” rather than “exit[ing] into Egypt."

Israeli troops fired artillery shells and mortars at targets in Syria on Tuesday night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said in a statement. The IDF said that it was responding to “a number of launches” from the Syrian side, which it claimed landed in “an open area” on Israeli soil.

Israel and Syria are separated by the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau that is recognized under international law as Syrian territory, yet has been occupied by Israel since the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. 

Unconfirmed reports on Tuesday night suggested that Israel also launched airstrikes against Syrian and Hezbollah positions on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel on Wednesday to meet senior leaders, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday. 

“It will be a message of solidarity and support,” Miller said, adding that Blinken will ask the Israelis “about what they need and how we can best support them.”

The US has already sent its largest aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel, while a Pentagon official said on Monday that American planes have already landed in Israel carrying weapons and ammunition.

A Palestinian rocket struck the Regina Goren hotel in the coastal city of Ashkelon on Tuesday, according to reports from the scene. A crew from India’s NDTV network said that they were at the hotel when the rocket hit, and that nobody was hurt.

Located just 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Gaza Strip, the Regina Goren is a popular hotel for foreign journalists.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hamas warned residents of Ashkelon to flee by 5pm local time or face bombardment “in response to the enemy’s crime of forcing our people to leave their homes in several areas of the Gaza Strip.”

US President Joe Biden has condemned Hamas’ assault on Israel as “an act of sheer evil,” and declared his support for a “swift, decisive, and overwhelming” Israeli response.

Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Biden also confirmed that at least 14 Americans have been killed in Israel since Saturday, and that an unknown number are being held as hostages by Hamas militants.

Israel is preparing for a “months-long ground campaign” in Gaza, an Egyptian official has told the Times of Israel.

The official said Cairo has so far been rebuffed by Israel in its attempts to mediate a de-escalation to the situation, and that Israel intends to deal a “knockout blow” to Hamas before it accepts any talks aimed at securing a ceasefire.

It was reported by Axios on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden that a ground operation featuring Israeli troops in Gaza was forthcoming. Netanyahu indicated on Monday that his response to the Hamas attack will “change the Middle East.”

US President Joe Biden and other senior officials in his administration have concluded a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Biden said that he and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Netanyahu and received a “situation update on the terrorist attack in Israel” before discussing the “next steps.”

Biden added: “We connected with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss coordination to support Israel, deter hostile actors, and protect innocent people.”

The US president is expected to make further comments later on Tuesday.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said that it would be a mistake for the bloc to end support for the Palestinian Authority.

“The overwhelming majority of the member states considered that we have to continue our support to the Palestinian Authority and the payments due should not be delayed,” Borrell told reporters following a meeting with European foreign affairs ministers.

Borrell’s comments come amid conflicting announcements on Monday regarding the potential suspension of aid in the wake of the Hamas attack.

Washington is considering deploying a second aircraft carrier to waters close to Israel, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing US defense officials. The move, the newspaper notes, would be part of a US military effort to deter a further escalation of the Israel-Hamas situation by other powers in the region.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, along with its supply vessels, were scheduled several months ago to sail to the Middle East and the armada is expected to arrive in the region in about two weeks, the WSJ said. The USS Gerald R. Ford, and its accompanying ships – some of which contain a nuclear arsenal – is expected to arrive in the region in the coming hours.

The Pentagon has yet to decide if the Eisenhower is to relieve the Ford from its post, or if both would remain, the WSJ’s defense sources said.

Turkish Airlines has announced a suspension of its flights due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas violence. “Our flights have been suspended until further notice due [to] the current situation in Israel,” the air carrier’s helpdesk said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter.

It adds on its website that passengers who have bookings with Turkish Airlines or Anadolu Jet could experience difficulties in traveling “due to [the] current situation that affects our Tel Aviv flights.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that he does not foresee the conflict between Israel and Hamas ending in the next two weeks, Türkiye’s Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday.

Erdogan said earlier that Türkiye is ready to mediate between both sides, adding that he has stepped up contact with Israeli and Palestinian officials in recent days.

The Turkish president also condemned the US for moving the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to the Mediterranean Sea, warning that the vessel could “carry out very serious massacres there by striking, destroying Gaza,” Anadolou reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its tanks shelled two Hezbollah observation posts on the Lebanese border on Tuesday after a salvo of 15 rockets were fired into Israel from the neighboring territory. The exchange was announced by the IDF earlier on Tuesday, although it did not initially state how many rockets had been fired or what kind of targets in Lebanon had been hit in retaliation.

The Israeli Air force claimed that four of the 15 rockets had been intercepted, while the remaining 11 fell in open areas.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates has ordered that $20 million in humanitarian aid be donated to the Palestinian people, the Emirates News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The aid will be distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The UAE has maintained diplomatic relations with Israel since 2020 and, on Sunday, condemned Hamas’ recent attacks on the Jewish state as “a serious and grave escalation.”

The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command has extended Covid-era restrictions amid the ongoing war with Hamas.

Businesses south of Netanya and north of the central Negev desert can only be opened if there are bomb shelters nearby, the command announced on Tuesday, adding that gatherings are being restricted to ten people outdoors and 50 people indoors in these areas.

In towns near the border with Lebanon, gatherings are being limited to 30 people outdoors and 300 people indoors, the command stated.

Additionally, schools across the entire country will remain closed until Thursday evening at the earliest.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Tuesday evening that it was responding with artillery fire to attacks from Lebanese territory. Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported that a salvo of rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.

The Lebanon-based Shiite militant group Hezbollah said on Monday that it would “respond in accordance with the rules of deterrence” after one of its fighters was killed in an Israeli attack.

Despite Hamas’ initial successes, RT commentator Mikhail Khodarenok has warned that the Israeli military’s ongoing operation in Gaza could result in permanent Israeli control of the Palestinian exclave.

“In any case, there has to be the temptation to inflict such losses on Hamas formations that the movement forgets about any armed struggle for many years,” Khodarenok wrote.

Read his full analysis here.

More than 1,000 Israelis have been killed since Hamas launched its full-scale attack on Saturday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss told reporters on Tuesday evening. More than 2,400 Israelis have been wounded, according to the most recent count.

Rocket strikes have been reported in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Earlier on Tuesday, Hamas warned residents of the city to flee by 5pm local time or face bombardment “in response to the enemy’s crime of forcing our people to leave their homes in several areas of the Gaza Strip.”

Shortly after the deadline passed, air raid sirens sounded in Ashkelon and blasts were heard throughout the coastal city. Several cars and buildings were hit in the barrage, according to witness reports.

Israel is working to recruit prominent social media influencers to promote the country’s message amid the conflict with Hamas, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has said on X (formerly Twitter). He thanked several content creators, who have already “agreed to join voluntarily and assist the actions of the Foreign Ministry to strengthen Israeli advocacy around the world.”

The medical facilities in Gaza are in a “very complicated” situation due to the Israeli bombardment and siege of the Palestinian exclave, Medhat Abbas, the director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry, has told Al Jazeera. “We have a shortage of medication, medical supplies, and reagents required to operate the labs,” Abbas said. According to the latest Health Ministry data, at least 770 Palestinians have been killed and over 4,000 others wounded in the IDF’s retaliatory strikes since Saturday.

“Human animals must be treated as such,” Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian has said, referring to residents of Gaza. “There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell,” warned Alian, who serves as the coordinator of government activities in the territories. “Hamas has turned into ISIS (Islamic State, IS), and the residents of Gaza, instead of being appalled, are celebrating,” he said in a video message.

The IDF has claimed that Hamas’ Minister of Economy, Jawad Abu Shamala, was killed in its overnight airstrike on Gaza. “As part of his role, he managed the funds in the organization and earmarked the funds for financing and directing terrorism inside and outside the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Israel’s largest supermarket chain, Shufersal, has said it’s limiting the purchase of essential goods in its stores. Customers will only be able to buy up to two six-packs of 1.5-liter water bottles, a rack of 30 eggs, three units of milk, and two loaves of bread. The company said the restrictions are being introduced “out of responsibility towards all customers and due to heavy demand, supply difficulties, and a partial lack of products in the stores.” The IDF has earlier recommended the public to stock up on water, food, and other supplies to last at least three days amid the attack by Hamas on Israel.

There’s “clear evidence” that war crimes have been committed during the ongoing outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has said. According to the Commission, it has been collecting and preserving proof of war crimes perpetrated by “all sides” since Saturday, when the Palestinian armed group launched its attack from Gaza on Israeli territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the flareup between Israel and Hamas is a “clear example of failure” of the US policies in the Middle East. The Americans “tried to monopolize the settlement [between the Israelis and the Palestinians], but, unfortunately, they weren’t concerned with finding compromises acceptable to both sides and, on the contrary, promoted their own ideas about how this should be done and put pressure on both sides,” the Russian leader explained. Putin said that he thought that “many” would agree with his evaluation of the reasons for the current crisis.

Read RT’s full story here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted a video of IDF strikes on what looks like residential buildings in Gaza with a caption, reading: “Keep it up with all the strength.” The message, apparently addressing the Israeli military, was made in Hebrew and not translated into English.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, has said any discussions on prisoner swaps with Israel will take place only after the end of the conflict. “The parties that have contacted us” offering mediation in facilitating such exchanges have been informed of this decision by the group, Haniyeh said. Hamas is believed to be holding some 150 Israelis hostages, including both soldiers and civilians.

Israeli police have published a video of an intense shootout that occurred between the border police and Hamas fighters on Saturday, the day of the group’s initial attack on Israel. The clip shows officers evacuating injured IDF troops from a tank despite being under heavy fire from Palestinian gunmen.

Israel has again bombed the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the Palestinian border authority has said. The strike targeted a stretch of road between the Egyptian and Gazan sides, injuring two Palestinian employees and leaving a “deep hole obstructing the movement of travelers to and from the Egyptian side,” it said. Egyptian sources and witness have confirmed to Reuters that there was an attack in the area.

Earlier in the day, IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht advised Palestinians to flee for Egypt amid Israeli retaliatory strikes on Gaza. However, Hecht later clarified that he did not know if the only checkpoint on the border between Gaza and Egypt was actually working. The Rafah crossing was also targeted by IDF warplanes on Monday.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, has called upon all Palestinians to join the group’s battle against Israel. “The destruction and brutality practiced by the [Israeli] government against our people in Gaza reflect the resounding results caused by the strikes of Al-Qassam [Hamas’s military wing] and the resistance factions,” he said. Haniyeh warned that “the enemy will pay a heavy price for its crimes and terrorism.”

At least 770 people have lost their lives and 4,000 others have been wounded in Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza, the health ministry in the Palestinian exclave has said. There are 140 children among the dead, it added.

The World Health Organization has called for a humanitarian corridor to be established into and out of Gaza. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic explained that the move is necessary “to reach people with critical medical supplies.” The UN health watchdog is also calling for an end to the violence, he added. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered “a complete siege” of Gaza, saying that the Palestinian exclave will be deprived of electricity, food, fuel, and other essentials.

US Senator Josh Hawley has insisted in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that “any funding for Ukraine should be redirected to Israel immediately.” According to the Republican politician, this should be done because the Israeli state is facing an “existential threat” due to the attack by Hamas.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has warned that there is “a threat of escalation and destabilization” due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Moscow is maintaining “intensive contact” with all the parties involved, he said. According to Ryabkov, Russia has not yet discussed the crisis with the US, but contact is possible should it be of mutual interest.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has reminded Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law “to take constant care to spare the civilian population and civilian objects” amid its strikes on Gaza. He also called on Hamas to “immediately and unconditionally release all civilians who were captured and are still being held” by the group. There’s currently “an explosive powder-keg situation” in the region, Türk warned. “We know how this plays out, time and time again – the loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives and incalculable suffering inflicted on both communities,” he stressed.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that those who claim that Tehran was somehow involved in the attack by Hamas on Israel are wrong. “We kiss the forehead and hands of thoughtful and intelligent masterminds [behind the attack], but those who say this latest epic is done by non-Palestinians suffer from miscalculations. They have not known the Palestinian nation and have underestimated them,” Khamenei stressed. The attack by Hamas has delivered an “irreparable defeat” to Israel’s military and intelligence services, he claimed. The supreme leader added that Tehran continues to “back Palestine and its fighting” against Israel.

The death of a second Russian citizen amid the escalation between Israel and Hamas has been confirmed, Russia’s ambassador in Tel Aviv Anatoly Viktorov has said. “Unfortunately, I must update the information. There is already verified data about the death of not one, but two Russian citizens,” the diplomat told Russia’s Channel One.

The United Arab Emirates has urged Syrian President Bashar Assad not to intervene in the conflict between Israel and Hamas or allow attacks on Israeli territory from Syria, sources have told Axios. The UAE has briefed the Biden administration about its contact with Damascus, the sources added. Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes inside Syria in recent years, targeting Iranian forces and members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, who have been assisting Damascus in fighting terrorism.

The Israeli Air Force airlifted hundreds of Israeli reservists from Europe on Monday, the IDF said. Heavy transport C-130 and C-130J planes flew to various European countries to pick up the off-duty soldiers. Israel said previously that it was mobilizing 300,000 inside the country following the attack by Hamas.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has accused the IDF for “taking revenge” on Hamas for its attack on Israel “by committing mass killing crimes against civilians.” The NGO insisted that the Israeli military should “adhere to provisions of international humanitarian law” with its airstrikes on Gaza.

Israeli police have released the names of four more officers killed in the fighting with Hamas. It puts the overall police losses since Saturday at 41 officers.

IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht has told Palestinians to flee for Egypt as Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continue. “Rafah crossing is still open. Anyone who can get out, I would advise them to get out,” he said during a call with foreign journalists.

Later, Hecht clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that he had made the call without knowing whether the only crossing between Gaza and Egypt was actually open. “I said they should check if Rafah is possibly open. And that I’m not aware if it’s still open,” he wrote. The spokesman noted that “the IDF is not in charge of that crossing.”

Reuters reported on Monday that operations at the Rafah crossing had been temporarily disrupted due to Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

The IDF has published a video of its latest retaliatory strikes on X (formerly Twitter). The Israeli military said more than 200 targets in Gaza were hit overnight, including a mosque and a high-rise building, which, it claimed, were used by Hamas.

The bodies of 1,500 Hamas fighters have been found in Israel, in the area near Gaza, IDF spokesman Richard Hecht has told journalists. The Israeli forces had “more or less restored control over the border,” he claimed. According to Hecht, there have been no new incursions by Hamas gunmen into Israeli territory “since last night.” However, he warned that “infiltrations can still happen.”

Hamas did not give Iran advance notice of its large-scale attack on Israel on Saturday, the Palestinian group’s director of national relations abroad Ali Baraka has told NBC News. “It was a surprise to everyone, including Iran ... We didn’t inform them that there was an operation that would happen at dawn on October 7,” he said. Hamas contacted Tehran and told them what was going on only after the attack had already started, Baraka added. Iran had previously rejected speculation that it had assisted the Palestinian group in preparing their operation against Israel.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby almost burst into tears when discussing footage of Hamas’ attack on Israel during his interview with CNN. Kirby needed a few seconds to regain his composure and then said: “Sorry… excuse me... it’s very difficult to look at those images, the human cost… these are human beings.”

Two Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza early on Tuesday, Turkish news agency Anadolu has reported, citing hospital sources. The incident allegedly happened when Saeed Al-Taweel and Mohammad Sobh were filming attacks by IDF warplanes on the Rimal district in western Gaza, according to the agency. Several other media workers are also said to have been wounded in the same strike. Reporters Without Border (RSF) said earlier that Palestinian photojournalists Ibrahim Lafi and Mohammad al-Salihi had been killed while covering the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas on Saturday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that 187,518 people were forced to flee their homes in Gaza as of Monday evening, marking the highest number of people displaced by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the 50-day Gaza War in 2014.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has accused the IDF of targeting ambulances in southern Gaza, claiming early Tuesday morning that four vehicles have been “put out of service” so far. In a separate statement, the ministry called for the opening of a “safe corridor” to allow the entry of urgent medical aid to local hospitals, which “suffer from a severe shortage in the basic list of medicines and medical consumables” as a result of the Israeli blockade.

Hamas is ready to fight a protracted war with Israel, and will “bring life to a stop in the Zionist entity if the aggression does not stop on Gaza,” a senior member of the militant group’s exiled leadership, Ali Barakeh, told the Associated Press.

The attack on Israel was planned in such secrecy that even the group’s closest allies were not informed, Barakeh claimed, denying speculations of any involvement by Iran or the Lebanese Hezbollah. However, Barakeh expects Tehran and Hezbollah to “join the battle if Gaza is subjected to a war of annihilation.”

Hamas allegedly only expected to make limited gains and take prisoners to exchange them for Arabs held in Israeli prisons, and was “surprised by this great collapse” of the IDF, Barakeh said, calling the Israeli army a “paper tiger.”

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Q. Brown Jr, said that the US decision to move a carrier strike group closer to Israel was meant to send a clear message to Iran “not to get involved.”

“We want to send a pretty strong message. We do not want this to broaden and the idea is for Iran to get that message loud and clear,” Brown said.

At least 687 Palestinians have been killed, including 140 children and 105 women, in the Gaza Strip since Israel first launched its retaliatory strikes against Hamas militants on October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry’s statement on Monday night. Some 3,726 people were injured, with roughly 10 percent of them said to be minors.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that “there is no intention to put US boots on the ground,” but if need arises for “additional funding support for Israel, we will absolutely do that.”

09 October 2023

At least one Russian citizen was killed in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, has confirmed. The official said that Moscow has yet to establish the exact circumstances of the incident, and is working with the Israeli authorities to determine the whereabouts of another nine Russians who are still missing.

The IDF has published several videos of its strikes against Hamas militants, weapons warehouses, underground tunnels and other targets, including a mosque that allegedly housed an “operational headquarters of the terrorist organization.”

The head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has urged the leaders of Muslim countries and the entire international community to protect Palestinian civilians and push for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

“I am appealing to the leaders of Muslim countries: Form a coalition and call on those you call friends, Europe and the entire West, not to bomb civilians under the pretext of destroying militants. We support Palestine. And we are against this war, which, unlike other conflicts, can escalate into something bigger,” Kadyrov said in a video address on Telegram.

“Therefore, I call for a halt to both the war and any form of escalation. If necessary, our units are ready to act as peacekeeping forces to restore order and counter any disturbers,” Kadyrov added.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued an operational recap, saying that by 11pm Monday it had struck at least 1,290 Hamas targets across the Gaza strip. The military said that at least 900 Israelies were killed and 2,616 injured over the course of the conflict, while at least 30 people are being held hostage by the Palestinian militants.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered his nation’s services as a mediator in talks between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, adding that attempting to resolve the conflict through military means would only further exacerbate the people’s suffering and provoke a “spiral of violence in the region.” 

“Türkiye … is ready for all kinds of mediation, including prisoner exchange, if the parties request it,” Erdogan wrote in a lengthy statement on X (formerly known as Twitter), following a phone conversation with his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog.

The United States is “surging” military supplies to Israel, and the first  planes supposedly carrying air defenses and munitions “have already taken off,” an unnamed senior US defense official said on Monday, according to Reuters. 

“We remain in constant ongoing contact with our counterparts in Israel to determine and then support their most urgent requirements,” the official added, without detailing the extent of assistance requested by Israel.

The Lebanon-based Shiite militant group Hezbollah has confirmed the death of at least one of their fighters in the Israeli strikes targeting its facilities amid a recent escalation. The group told Lebanon’s al-Jadeed TV that it would respond to the shelling of the Ayt al-Shaab area in the south of the country “in accordance with the rules of deterrence that it has imposed,” without clarifying what exact measures it planned to take.

US President Joe Biden has issued a statement in response to the killing of at least 11 American citizens in Israel, emphasizing that the “United States and the State of Israel are inseparable partners,” and that Washington  “will continue to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself and its people.”

“We also know that American citizens still remain unaccounted for, and we are working with Israeli officials to obtain more information as to their whereabouts,” Biden said, adding that he has directed US security services “to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis.”

Israel’s military has begun to cut the water supply to Gaza, Israeli public broadcaster Kann has reported. A video posted by the outlet on X (formerly Twitter) appears to show soldiers turning off the supply.

A senior Pentagon official has compared Hamas’s attacks on Israel to “ISIS-level savagery” and warned other adversaries in the region to “think twice” before getting involved.

The official said the US is quickly assessing what kind of weaponry it can make available to Israel. Asked if Washington could manage to support both Ukraine and Israel, the official said the Pentagon is confident it will be able to do both.

Meanwhile, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has said that the US believes Iran is “complicit” in the Palestinian attacks, but admitted there was no “specific evidence” of Tehran’s involvement.

Hamas rocket fire on Israel has reportedly come to a complete halt in recent hours after three days of barrages. The reprieve comes after a senior Hamas official told Al Jazeera that the militant group had “achieved its objectives” and was open to some form of truce.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have continued amid warnings from another Hamas official that hostages would be executed every time Israel launched an unannounced airstrike in Gaza that targets civilians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has requested the immediate intervention of the United Nations amid “ongoing Israeli aggression, especially in Gaza,” Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reported.

During a phone called with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Abbas said the world body must help avert a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip after Israel announced a “complete siege” of the exclave on Monday, blocking all essential supplies including food, fuel, and electricity.

Earlier in the day, Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by Israel's plans. Human Rights Watch also condemned Israel’s response on Monday, saying that depriving the population of food and electricity is "collective punishment, which is a war crime."

US news website Axios has reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Joe Biden on Sunday that Israel plans to launch a ground operation in Gaza.

“We have to go in. We can't negotiate now,” Netanyahu said, according to Axios, citing three Israeli and US sources with knowledge of the phone call.

Biden did not try to convince Netanyahu to abandon plans for a ground operation, according to the report.

Israeli supermarkets have been overrun with panicked shoppers seeking to stock up on essential supplies after the military urged people to make sure they had enough food and water to last for at least three days.

One grocery store manager told Channel 13 that sales are up 200% since the advice was given and that water had already sold out hours earlier, the Times of Israel reported.

RT spoke with local Israelis about the recent surprise attacks by Hamas that began on Saturday morning and have sparked a massive response by the Israel Defense Forces.

David Michalowsky, one resident of the southern town of Sderot, recalled that he woke to the sound of air-raid sirens which is usually “quite normal.”

“We ran into the shelter and waited for the attack to pass but, this time, it didn’t,” he said.

Read RT’s full story here.

The EU appears to have quickly backtracked on its announcement earlier on Monday that it was suspending all development aid to Palestine amid ongoing fighting between Hamas and Israel.

“There will be no suspension of payments” right now, a Commission statement said, noting that this is because there were “no payments foreseen.”

Hours earlier, EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said all payments were being “immediately suspended.” Instead, the EU is “launching an urgent review” of its assistance to Palestine, according to the latest statement.

The governments of Ireland and Spain had questioned the EU’s move, with Ireland in particular announcing that it saw “no legal basis” for the “unilateral decision” made by Brussels.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that there are still Hamas fighters inside Israel following its surprise attack and incursion into Jewish settlements near Gaza on Saturday.

Speaking from Tel Aviv on Monday night, the PM said that Israel's strikes against Gaza are “just the beginning” of its response to the attacks.

“Hard days are coming” for Israel, he warned, comparing Hamas to the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

“We have always known what Hamas is. Now the whole world knows. Hamas is ISIS.”

Netanyahu also called on opposition parties to form a national unity government with “no preconditions.”

Hamas has “achieved its targets” and is reportedly open to a possible truce with Israel.

In a phone interview with Al Jazeera, senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said the militant group is open to “something of that sort.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has instructed citizens to stock up on food, water and other supplies for at least 72 hours. It also said people should be aware of where their nearest bomb shelter is and that its campaign against Hamas “may be long.”

The Israeli death toll following surprise Hamas attacks has reached 900, while almost 700 have been killed on the Palestinian side, according to the latest reports from media and authorities.

Around 100 Israelis have also been taken hostage by Hamas and taken to Gaza, Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen said on Monday.

The Irish government has rejected the EU’s decision to suspend aid to Palestine, saying it believes there is “no legal basis” for the commissioners' “unilateral decision.”

Earlier on Monday, the EU announced the “immediate” suspension of aid and development assistance to Palestine in response to the “terror and brutality” of Hamas' surprise attacks on Israel.

“We do not support a suspension of aid. We are formally requesting the Commission to clarify the legal basis for this announcement,” Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It added that its funding “provides emergency humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable” and “supports the Palestinian Authority to deliver basic public services.”

Spain's foreign ministry has also announced that it “disagrees” with the EU decision.

A spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing has said the group will begin executing one Israeli hostage for every new unannounced airstrike in Gaza that targets civilians, Israeli media is reporting.

The executions will be “broadcast with video and audio,” the spokesperson reportedly said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has claimed that more than 100 Israelis have been taken captive by Hamas and brought to Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari has said that troops are still searching homes in towns near the Gaza border for Hamas militants. He told a press conference that there are now “no terrorists crossing the fence from Gaza into Israel.” 

Hagari said IDF forces had “a few encounters with terrorists” on Monday morning, but have had “none at all in the last few hours,” the Times of Israel reported.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate end to the Israel-Palestine violence and urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

While acknowledging the “legitimate grievances” of the Palestinian people, Guterres condemned Hamas for its "abhorrent" attacks on Israel, which began on Saturday.

He also said he was “deeply distressed” by Israel's announcement on Monday of a “complete siege” on Gaza, barring crucial supplies from entering the exclave. Guterres called the situation ”extremely dire” even before the latest violence.

“The reality is that this grows out of a long-standing conflict with a 56-year-long occupation and no political end in sight. It’s time to end this vicious cycle of bloodshed, hatred and polarization,” Guterres urged.

A Doctors Without Borders (MSF) official has warned that Gaza’s health system could collapse within a few days following Israel’s announcement of a “complete siege” of the exclave, cutting off food, fuel and electricity.

Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb, a doctor with MSF, told Al Jazeera that “the situation will collapse in the hospitals” if things don’t calm within a few days, or unless there is a “humanitarian truce.”

Abu Mughaiseeb said there is currently “no safe place” in Gaza and that civilians are just becoming “added numbers” to the death toll.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that he will discuss the ongoing Israel-Palestine violence with the leaders of France, the UK, and the US on Monday evening.

Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who is currently on a trip to Hamburg, Scholz said Germany, Britain, France, and the US are “united” and that the latest violence “must not be allowed to become a conflagration in the region.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted a video of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, captioning the footage: ”We have begun. Israel will win.”

Israeli officials have estimated that more than 700 people have been killed in the Hamas assault since Saturday, with over 2,200 injured. Meanwhile, at least 560 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched massive air strikes in response.

Prominent Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has issued a statement saying Israel cannot claim the moral high ground following its response to the surprise Palestinian attack which began on Saturday.

“Israeli government ministers now calling to kill, destroy, crush and even starve the residents of Gaza forget that this is already Israeli policy,” the group said, adding that many of the victims are women, children and the elderly.

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel and electricity.

B’Tselem also condemned what it called Hamas’ “shocking crime,” accusing the militants of indiscriminate killing.

Hamas has reportedly fired a barrage of rockets towards an Israeli settlement in Jerusalem. According to the Haaretz newspaper, at least nine people have been wounded in the rocket fire. Videos posted to social media show panic as air raid sirens sound.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has called for an “increase of the intensity of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip” to “eliminate all” Hamas targets.