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🔴 Israeli PM Netanyahu calls for world unity against Hamas: ‘Our war is your war’
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called for world unity against Hamas in an address to the Knesset. The Israeli military said Monday that Hamas and other Palestinian militants are holding 199 hostages in Gaza, a figure higher than previous estimates. Read our live blog for all the latest updates. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
Issued on: 16/10/2023 – 05:04
Modified: 16/10/2023 – 19:33
19 min
A screen capture of Israeli PM Netanyahu addressing the Knesset as US Secretary of State Blinken visits for crisis talks.
A screen capture of Israeli PM Netanyahu addressing the Knesset as US Secretary of State Blinken visits for crisis talks. © FRANCE 24
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7:32pm: Putin speaks to Netanyahu over conflict with Hamas, Kremlin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time since the deadly Hamas attack, and briefed him on several talks he’d had with leaders from the region and the Palestinian Authority.
“The Israeli side was in particular informed of the essential points of telephone correspondences that took place today with the leaders of Palestine, Egypt, Iran and Syria,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
7:06pm: EU to launch humanitarian air corridor to Gaza, von der Leyen says
The European Union will launch a humanitarian air corridor to Gaza through Egypt with the first flights expected this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday.
“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, where she attended a regional Balkan summit.
6:59pm: Colombia demands Israel envoy leave amid spat over war with Hamas
Colombia on Monday demanded that Israel’s ambassador leave the South American country in the midst of a spat over President Gustavo Petro’s remarks on the war with Hamas.
Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva said the envoy should “at a minimum, apologise and leave” after he criticised President Gustavo Petro’s comparison of Israeli attacks on Gaza with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
6:37pm: Rafah crossing remains closed as Israel and Hamas deny agreement
Hopes of a deal touted by Egyptian officials early Monday regarding the opening of the Rafah crossing, which is located on the Gaza-Egypt border, were dashed after Israel and Hamas denied that an agreement had been reached, FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Tel Aviv Luke Shrago said.
Please click on the video player below to watch the report.
01:56
6:22pm: French foreign minister urges the opening of Gaza border crossings
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas on a visit to Beirut on Monday, saying: “Hamas cannot take a whole population hostage.”
Earlier in the day, Colonna urged the opening of crossing points controlled by Israel and the one at Rafah, controlled by Egypt.
“Those who want to leave Gaza must be able to do so,” she said.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna © France 24 screen grab
Cairo’s top diplomat, Sameh Shoukry, told reporters on Monday that Egypt had “repeated its request to Israeli authorities for humanitarian aid to pass through” the Rafah crossing. On Monday afternoon it remained closed, locking aid convoys on one side of the border and fleeing Palestinians and foreigners on the other, according to AFP correspondents and witnesses.
Colonna told the press conference that no group “should take advantage” of the situation, urging Lebanon not to be dragged into the conflict, notably by Hezbollah. “Lebanese officials have a responsibility … to do everything possible to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into a spiral,” she said.
5:32pm: ‘The price will be high, but we are going to win’, Israeli defence minister tells Blinken
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a joint press conference that Israel is determined to win the war against Hamas.
Blinken said the US remains deeply committed to Israel’s “obligation to defend itself and to defend its people”, adding that Tel Aviv will “always have the support of the United States”.
Blinken has returned to Israel on Monday following a diplomatic tour of a number of Arab states including Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.
02:12
5:11pm: What is the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border?
As food, water and medicine supplies dwindle in the Gaza Strip, all eyes are on the Rafah crossing located between Gaza and Egypt, where trucks carrying much-needed aid have been waiting for days as mediators press for a ceasefire that would allow them to enter the enclave.
Please click on the video player below to watch the report.
01:27
4:59pm: UK raising Palestinian aid by a third with extra $12 million
The UK will increase its humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people by a third, sending an extra £10 million ($12 million), Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Monday.
“An acute humanitarian crisis is unfolding to which we must respond. We must support the Palestinian people because they are victims of Hamas too,” he told parliament.
4:38pm: France foreign minister urges aid to Gaza through Rafah
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on Monday called for the opening of crossing points between Egypt and Gaza.
“Those who want to leave Gaza must be able to do so,” Colonna said.
“The blockade doesn’t respect humanitarian law,” she said. “Humanitarian aid must be permitted to enter Gaza, because it’s unacceptable to leave women, men, children who aren’t responsible for Hamas’s crimes suffering like this.”
00:41
Colonna also accused Hamas of preventing people from leaving Gaza. “It’s unacceptable,” she said. The minister reiterated that France is worried that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to other parts of the region, warning “the situation is serious, even dangerous”.
Colonna was scheduled to hold more talks later Monday with officials in Lebanon.
4:35pm: Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it is targeting Israeli positions
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it targeted five Israeli positions in northern Israel on Monday, as a security source in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported Israeli shelling into northern Lebanon.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli frontier for days, in violence touched off by the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas.
4:31pm: Hamas armed wing says it fired ‘barrage of missiles’ at Jerusalem, Tel Aviv
The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Monday it fired a “barrage of missiles” on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Al Qassam Brigades said in a statement that its attack came in response to Israel’s “targeting of civilians”.
4:00pm: Rockets alert sirens sound in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
Rocket alert sirens blared Monday in Jerusalem and several blasts were heard in the city, AFP correspondents said, amid the war raging with Hamas militants in Gaza.
The army confirmed “sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem”, Israel’s biggest cities, while a parliament meeting starting the legislative winter session was interrupted by the rocket alarm.
3:55pm: Only 24 hours left for aid to enter Gaza before ‘catastrophe’, says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned there were only “24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left” in the Gaza Strip before “a real catastrophe” sets in.
WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari said the bombarded, besieged territory must be allowed to receive convoys of aid, currently stuck at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
If assistance does not arrive, doctors will have to “prepare death certificates for their patients”, he told AFP.
3:38pm: Israeli PM Netanyahu calls for world unity against Hamas in his address to the Knesset.
Israeli PM Netanyahu gave a speech in the Israeli Knesset on Monday in which he said the world needed to unite to defeat Hamas. He said “our war is your war,” and he compared Hamas to the Nazis.
Please click on the video player below to watch the full speech.
08:38
Netanyahu also warned Iran and Hezbollah not to “test” Israel in the north. Israel’s IDF has exchanged fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah over the past several days following Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The Israeli army on Sunday said it was ready to launch a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.
3:13pm: Cairo summit on ‘Palestinian cause’ to be held Saturday
Leaders in Qatar and Kuwait received invitations Monday for a summit in Cairo to be held on Saturday to “discuss developments and the future of the Palestinian cause and the peace process”.
State media in both countries announced the invitations a day after Cairo announced its intention to host “a regional and international summit on the future of the Palestinian cause”, during a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
2:36pm: Ship evacuating US nationals leaves Israel for Cyprus
A ship evacuating US nationals from Israel left for Cyprus from the Israeli port of Haifa Monday, an AFP correspondent reported, as a war raged between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
With Israel now moving towards a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the US embassy had on Sunday urged its “citizens and their immediate family members with a valid travel document” to depart from Haifa on Monday.
2:34pm: Putin speaking Monday to Israeli, Iranian, Arab leaders, Kremlin adviser says
Russian President Vladimir Putin will be speaking later on Monday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, an aide said.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov was also quoted by Russian agencies as saying that Putin had already spoken to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi earlier on Monday.
2:33pm: Russia calls for ceasefire in Israel-Gaza conflict
Russia on Monday renewed calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Israel-Gaza conflict, urging leaders to start negotiations on ending hostilities.
“The main thing now in this environment is to immediately cease fire and start the process of political settlement,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
12:51pm: Egypt, France foreign ministers urge aid to Gaza through Rafah
Egypt and France’s foreign ministers urged Monday the delivery of humanitarian aid and the exit of foreign nationals from the bombarded Gaza Strip, on the tenth day of war between Israel and Hamas.
“Those who want to leave Gaza must be able to do so,” French foreign minister Catherine Colonna said, urging the opening of crossing points.
Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing, the only passage in and out of Gaza not controlled by Israel.
Cairo’s top diplomat Sameh Shoukry told reporters Monday that Egypt had “repeated its request to Israeli authorities for humanitarian aid to pass through”. Shoukry said there was “nothing new, which is a dangerous matter considering the new needs that the Palestinian people in Gaza are being exposed to”.
As diplomatic overtures yield little success, Colonna said Monday that Paris “welcomes Egypt’s initiative” for an international summit on the conflict. She said it would “show that there is a political horizon that can take into account Israel’s right to security and the Palestinians’ right to a state”.
12:43pm: Hamas says Israel has not resumed water supplies for Gaza, warns of ‘health crisis’
Israel has not resumed water supplies for Gaza, spokesman of Hamas interior ministry Eyad Al-Bozom said on Monday.
“The residents drink unhealthy water, posing a serious health crisis threatens the lives of the citizens,” he added.
12:29pm: Germany warns Iran not to ‘pour oil on the fire’ of Israel-Hamas war
Germany on Monday warned Iran not to further inflame the conflict between Israel and Islamist militant group Hamas after the country’s foreign minister met with high-ranking Hamas officials.
“Anyone who wants to play with fire in this situation and pour oil on the fire or ignite it in any other way should really think twice because we are facing a potentially major regional conflict,” foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said.
11:54am: UN aid chief to travel to region to assist in Israel Gaza aid negotiations
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday he would be travelling to the Middle East to support negotiations on getting aid into the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Griffiths said his office was in “deep discussions” with Israel, Egypt and other actors.
“I shall be going myself tomorrow to the region to try to help in the negotiations, to try to bear witness and to express solidarity with the extraordinary courage of the many thousands of aid workers who have stayed the course and who are still there helping the people in Gaza and in the West Bank,” he said in a statement.
The fate of aid deliveries and limited evacuations through the only entry to Gaza not controlled by Israel remains in doubt after Egyptian sources said a temporary truce was struck but Israel and Hamas said no deal was in place.
11:49am: Arab League chief demands end to Gaza military operations
The Arab League chief on Monday called for an immediate end to military operations in the Gaza Strip and for aid to be allowed into to the impoverished Palestinian enclave.
“We demand the immediate end of military operations and the opening of safe corridors to bring aid to the population,” Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said during a meeting with Arab justice ministers in Baghdad.
11:40am: 11 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel air strikes, union says
Eleven Palestinian journalists have been killed in the war in Gaza since Israel launched its blistering air campaign on the coastal enclave, the Palestinian journalists’ union said Monday.
Twenty other journalists have also been injured in the conflict since it erupted on October 7 after Hamas militants carried out a deadly attack on Israel that triggered a devastating war.
10:49am: Germany’s Chancellor Scholz to visit Israel on Tuesday
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to Israel on Tuesday to show solidarity in the wake of the deadly attack by Hamas militants on October 7, German media reported Monday.
It would be the first visit by a foreign head of state to Israel since the assault, which has sparked a war between Israel and Hamas.
Scholz has pledged full support for Israel, saying last week that Germany’s “only place” right now “is at Israel’s side”.
10:25am: Israeli military says Palestinian militants are holding 199 hostages
The Israeli military says Hamas and other Palestinian militants are holding 199 hostages in Gaza, higher than previous estimates.
“We have updated the families of 199 hostages,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told a media briefing, revising up an earlier number of 155 captives.
He did not specify whether that number includes foreigners, or say who is holding them. Most are believed to be held by the Hamas militant group which rules Gaza.
01:42
10:11am: Israeli army avoids targeting two north-south routes in Gaza for limited time period
The Israeli army pledged to refrain from striking routes within Gaza designated for evacuating people from the enclave’s north to the south during a limited time window, from 8:00am to noon (5:00 – 9:00am GMT).
“The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will refrain from targeting the designated axis from 8:00 am (0500 GMT) until 12:00 (0900 GMT),” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, formerly Twitter.
“For your safety take advantage of this short period of time to move south from the north of the strip and Gaza City.”
Earlier reports had said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be opened for several hours Monday in a one-off move to allow foreign nationals to flee and aid goods to enter, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had not agreed to such a deal.
Aid convoys have waited on the Egyptian side but, according to witnesses, had not left the town of El-Arish, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Rafah on Monday.
FRANCE 24’s Andrew Hilliar, reporting from Tel Aviv, had more.
FRANCE 24’s Andrew Hilliar reports from Tel Aviv, Israel. 01:13
FRANCE 24’s Andrew Hilliar reports from Tel Aviv, Israel. © FRANCE 24
9:49am: 1,000 Palestinian dead trapped under rubble, says Hamas interior ministry
More than 1,000 Palestinians are trapped under the rubble in Gaza, Eyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry said on Monday in a statement warning of a humanitarian and environmental crisis.
Palestinians search for survivors after Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza, Monday, October 16, 2023.
Palestinians search for survivors after Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza, Monday, October 16, 2023. © Fatima Shbair, AP
9:13am: Gaza death toll rises to 2,750, says Hamas health ministry
The death toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to around 2,750 since Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel last week, the Gaza health ministry said Monday.
Some 9,700 people have also been injured as Israel continued its withering air campaign on targets in the Palestinian coastal enclave, the Hamas-controlled ministry added.
8:39am: Israel denies Gaza humanitarian truce under way to allow foreigners out
Israel appeared to deny on Monday that a truce was under way in southern Gaza, half an hour after security sources in neighbouring Egypt said such a deal was due to be implemented.
“There is currently no truce and humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out,” a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
8:08am: Israel moves to evacuate villages near Lebanon border
Israel has activated a plan to evacuate residents of 28 villages within 2 km (1 mile) of the Lebanese border, the military said on Monday following hostilities with Hezbollah in parallel to the spiralling war in Gaza.
One of the villages, Shtula, came under a Hezbollah missile attack on Sunday. Israeli media said a civilian was killed.
01:48
8:01am: South Gaza ceasefire, re-opening of border crossing confirmed for Monday, Egyptian security sources say
Egypt, Israel and the US agreed to a ceasefire in southern Gaza to begin at 6:00 GMT coinciding with the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing, two Egyptian security sources said on Monday.
The sources said the ceasefire would last for several hours but were not clear on the exact duration. They also said the three countries had agreed that Rafah would be open until 2pm GMT on Monday as a one-day initial re-opening.
Asked for confirmation, the Israeli military and the US Embassy in Israel had no immediate comment. This was not immediately confirmed by officials with Gaza’s governing Hamas either.
6:33am: Blinken to return to Israel on Monday
The US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would return to Israel on Monday after completing a frantic six-country tour through Arab nations aimed at preventing the fighting from igniting a broader regional conflict.
President Joe Biden is also considering a trip to Israel, though no plans have been finalised.
5:23am: More than 1 million have fled homes in Gaza, UN agency says
More than a million people have fled their homes in the besieged Gaza Strip in the past week, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said, as water supplies dwindle and hospitals warn they are on the verge of collapse.
About 500,000 people, nearly one quarter of Gaza’s population, were taking refuge in United Nations schools and other facilities across the territory, where water supplies were dwindling, said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for UN agency. “Gaza is running dry,” she said.
Palestinians line up to fill water canisters in Gaza City on October 16, 2023.
Palestinians line up to fill water canisters in Gaza City on October 16, 2023. © Dawood Nemer, AFP
4:53am: Biden calls killing of Muslim boy ‘horrific act of hate’
President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the deadly stabbing attack against a six-year-old Muslim boy, which police have linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, as a “horrific act of hate.”
Read more
Man kills Muslim boy near Chicago in hate crime related to Israel-Hamas war, officials say
“This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are,” Biden said in a statement, adding he was praying for the recovery of the boy’s mother, who was also severely wounded in the attack.
2:36am: Biden says Hamas doesn’t ‘represent all the Palestinian people’
Any move by Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip again would be a “big mistake,” US President Joe Biden said in an interview released on Sunday, as Israeli troops prepared for a ground invasion.
Israel, seeking vengeance for an attack by Hamas on October 7, has declared war on the militant group, launching a relentless bombing campaign and warning more than a million people in northern Gaza to move south ahead of the operation.
Asked by CBS news program 60 Minutes if he would support any occupation of Gaza by the American ally, Biden replied: “I think it’d be a big mistake.”
Hamas “don’t represent all the Palestinian people,” he continued.
But invading and “taking out the extremists” is a “necessary requirement” he added.
1:51am: Gaza border crossing set to reopen as Israeli troops prepare ground assault
An Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza is expected to reopen amid diplomatic efforts to get aid into the Hamas-controlled strip.
“Rafah will be reopened. We’re putting in place with the United Nations, with Egypt, with Israel, with others, a mechanism by which to get the assistance in and to get it to people who need it,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
Veteran US diplomat David Satterfield, appointed on Sunday as a special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, will arrive in Egypt on Monday to work out the details, Blinken said.
NBC News, citing a Palestinian official, reported the Rafah border crossing would open at 9 a.m. on Monday. Citing a security source, ABC News reported the crossing would open for a few hours on Monday, without providing details. France 24 was not immediately able to confirm either report.
Hundreds of metric tons of aid from several countries have been held up in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing.
12:57am: Israel halts ‘security exports’ over Colombian ‘anti-Semitism’
Israel, one of the main providers of arms to Colombia’s military, said Sunday it was “halting security exports” to the South American country after taking umbrage at its president’s remarks on the war with Hamas.
Since the militant group’s vicious attack on Israel a week ago, President Gustavo Petro has posted numerous comments on X, formerly Twitter, supporting the people of Gaza.
In one post, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president compared Israel’s retaliatory targeting of Gaza to the Nazi persecution of Jews.
On Sunday, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said Colombia’s ambassador to Israel Margarita Manjarrez had been summoned over Petro’s “hostile and anti-Semitic statements.”
Colombia’s foreign ministry has issued a statement to “vehemently condemn the terrorism and attacks against civilians that have occurred in Israel” and expressing solidarity with the victims.
12:31am: Gaza hospitals’ fuel expected to last 24 more hours, UN says
Reserves of fuel at all hospitals across the Gaza Strip are expected to last only around 24 more hours, the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Monday.
“The shutdown of backup generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at risk,” OCHA said on its website.
12:17am: Blinken says Palestinians should not be expelled from Gaza
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has categorically rejected the idea floated of expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, saying they should be able to stay as Israel battles Hamas.
“I’ve heard directly from Palestinian Authority President (Mahmud) Abbas and from virtually every other leader that I’ve talked to in the region that that idea is a nonstarter, and so we do not support it,” Blinken said in an interview in Cairo with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television network.
“We believe that people should be able to stay in Gaza, their home. But we also want to make sure that they’re out of harm’s way and that they’re getting the assistance they need,” he said.
Key developments from Sunday, October 15:
The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,670 Palestinians have been killed and 9,600 wounded since the fighting erupted, more than in the 2014 Gaza war, which lasted over six weeks. That makes this the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for both sides.
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Medics in Gaza warned Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people run desperately low on fuel and basic supplies.
More than 1,400 Israelis have died, the vast majority civilians killed in Hamas’ October 7 assault. At least 155 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel, making it the deadliest for Israel since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a crisis tour of the Middle East, met Sunday with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, which has put on hold normalisation with Israel.
Read yesterday’s blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
