Live: Israeli army conducted overnight ‘targeted raid’ with tanks in Gaza

/ Middle East
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Live: Israeli army conducted overnight ‘targeted raid’ with tanks in Gaza
The Israeli army said Thursday its forces conducted a “targeted raid” using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip “as part of preparations for the next stages of combat”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is readying a ground war in Gaza, pressing ahead with plans that have troubled allies and threaten to worsen an already severe humanitarian crisis. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

Issued on: 26/10/2023 – 05:45

2 min
An Israeli Merkava tank is deployed with other armoured vehicles along Israel’s border with Gaza on October 24, 2023.
An Israeli Merkava tank is deployed with other armoured vehicles along Israel’s border with Gaza on October 24, 2023. © Aris Messinis, AFP
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FRANCE 24
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FRANCE 24
Speaking at the White House, US President Joe Biden denied reports he had asked Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza. He also urged Israel to protect innocent civilians in Gaza and offered a rare rebuke of “extremist settlers” targeting Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
Nearly 600,000 internally displaced Gazans are sheltering in 150 UN facilities in the enclave, according to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. Israeli operations have impacted at least 40 UNRWA installations, said the UN.
The death toll in Gaza rose to 6,546, including 2,704 children, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said Wednesday. The Israeli military put the number of people taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 at 222. The official number of people killed in the Hamas attack has not been revised since Saturday; it remains at 1,400.
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Key developments of Wednesday, October 25:
A “massive” Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip would be “a mistake”, French President Emmanuel Macron said in Cairo, warning it would harm civilians without ensuring Israel’s long-term security.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” at fierce Israeli criticism of a statement he made on Tuesday about the war between Israel and Hamas. After condemning Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack, Guterres said Tuesday it “did not happen in a vacuum”, and that “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation”.

The UN warned that it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the blockaded territory.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Palestinian militant group Hamas is not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group waging a battle to protect its land. In a speech to his party’s lawmakers in parliament, Erdogan said Israel had taken advantage of Turkey’s good intentions and that he would not go to Israel as previously planned.

And the UN Security Council failed again to address the Israel-Hamas war, rejecting rival resolutions by the United States and Russia.

Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)