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AS IT HAPPENED
Israel rejects US pressure for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza without hostage release
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s pressure for a “humanitarian pause” in its war on Hamas, conditioning it on the release of hostages taken from Israel to Gaza. France reacted to an Israeli strike on the French Institute in Gaza with “astonishment” and “incomprehension”, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday, demanding a full investigation. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that a wider conflict in the Middle East was a “realistic possibility”. Read our live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
Issued on: 03/11/2023 – 05:13
Modified: 03/11/2023 – 22:52
25 min
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on November 3, 2023, shows Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on November 3, 2023, shows Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. © Fadel Senna, AFP
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Today’s key events
The total death toll in Gaza rose Friday to 9,227 people, including 3,826 children, according to the latest figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
After meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they had discussed the idea of “humanitarian pauses” to secure the release of hostages and to allow aid to be distributed to Gaza’s beleaguered population. “We believe that each of these efforts would be facilitated by humanitarian pauses, by arrangements on the ground that increase security for civilians and permit the more effective and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Blinken told journalists.
Blinken also said that Israel will only gain security through the creation of a Palestinian state: “Two states for two peoples. Again, that is the only way to ensure lasting security for a Jewish and democratic Israel,” Blinken said after meeting Israeli leaders during a visit to Tel Aviv.
Shortly after US Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of “humanitarian pauses” in a televised statement. “I made clear that we are continuing full force and that Israel refuses a temporary ceasefire which does not include the release of our hostages.” According to estimations, Hamas took 241 Israeli and foreign hostages during its October 7 attacks.
Read more
Most wanted: The Hamas leaders on Israel’s radar
Israel struck an ambulance in Gaza City on Friday that it said was carrying militants, but which health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave said was evacuating wounded people from the besieged north to the south of the territory. The spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza said the ambulance was part of a convoy that Israel targeted leaving al-Shifa Hospital, adding that “a big number” were killed and wounded but without giving figures.
Israel’s military said it had identified and hit an ambulance “being used by a Hamas terrorist cell” in the battle zone. It said a number of Hamas fighters had been killed in the strike and accused the group of transferring both militants and weapons in ambulances. It gave no evidence to support its assertion that the ambulance was linked to Hamas but said in a statement it intended to release additional information.
Read more
The Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing explained: ‘It is not a normal border’
The French Institute in Gaza was hit by an Israeli airstrike, but no injuries were reported among staff at the site, the French foreign ministry said on Friday. The French ministry added it had asked Israeli authorities to explain the reasons behind the strike on the institute, and reiterated its “very strong concerns” over the number of civilian victims in Gaza.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also said 34 French nationals and their families crossed into Egypt from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Friday. President Emmanuel Macron told reporters during a visit to Brittany that France was starting to evacuate its citizens, and Macron also reiterated his calls for a humanitarian truce.
The Gaza office of news organisation Agence France-Presse (AFP) was also shelled by the Israeli army and seriously damaged on Thursday by a strike. None of the eight AFP staff members or permanent employees normally based in Gaza were on site at the time of the impact. All were evacuated to the south of the Gaza Strip on October 13, added the French news organisation. “AFP condemns in the strongest terms this strike on its office in Gaza City,” it said.
Read more
‘A war needs field reporting from both sides’: French media appeal for access to Gaza
In his first speech after weeks of silence, the leader of Lebanon’s Iran backed Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah said the possibility of a wider Middle-East “total war is realistic”, as the conflicts at the Lebanon-Israel border seem to escalate day by day. “America is entirely responsible for the ongoing war on Gaza and its people,” he said in a televised broadcast, accusing Washington of impeding “a ceasefire and the end of the aggression”.
“The cost of meeting the needs of 2.7 million people – that is the entire population of Gaza and 500,000 people in the occupied West Bank – is estimated to be $1.2 billion,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. On Oct. 12, OCHA had initially appealed for $294 million to support nearly 1.3 million people. “The situation has grown increasingly desperate since then,” it said.
Read the day’s events as they unfolded:
10:25pm: FRANCE 24’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip reports on the ‘catastrophic’ humanitarian situation
The UN on Friday launched an emergency aid appeal seeking $1.2 billion to help some 2.7 million people in Gaza and the West Bank. FRANCE 24’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip Maha Abu Al Kass reports on the humanitarian situation there.
01:25
9:35pm WHO chief ‘utterly shocked by reports of strikes on ambulances evacuating patients’
World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post he was “utterly shocked” by a deadly Israeli strike on an ambulance near Gaza’s largest hospital on Friday.
An AFP journalist saw multiple bodies beside a damaged ambulance outside Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, which is overcrowded with civilians seeking shelter from Israeli bombing as well as those wounded.
Ghebreyesus said he was “utterly shocked by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients close to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, leading to deaths, injuries and damage”. “We reiterate: patients, health workers, facilities and ambulances must be protected at all times. Always,” the WHO chief wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
8:10 pm: Jordan says Gulf ministers, Egyptian FM, Palestinians to meet Blinken Saturday
Jordan said on Friday the kingdom will host a meeting on Saturday between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Saudi, Qatari, Emirati and Egyptian counterparts, along with participation of the Palestinians.
The ministers will stress during the talks the “Arab stance calling for an immediate ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region”, a foreign ministry statement said. A Jordanian foreign ministry statement Friday said a Palestinian Authority representative will also join the talks.
Blinken, who arrived on Friday after earlier meeting Israeli leaders, said the US was determined that there not be a second or third front in the conflict. He also appealed to Israel to take steps to protect civilians in Gaza.
8:15pm: Thai nationals welcomed home after evacuation from Israel
Thailand is the nation with the most foreign workers affected by the crisis in Israel, as 32 Thais have been confirmed dead, 19 injured, and 23 hostages are being held by Hamas. The Thai government is pleading for their release and has implemented a policy of paying for repatriation flights for migrant workers, who are often among the poorest. FRANCE 24’s reporters were at Suvnarbhumi Airport in Bangkok this morning to welcome a plane carrying Thais home from Israel.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the Thai government says it has repatriated over 7,000 Thais on 34 repatriation flights.
For many Thai farmers, working in Israel represented hope for a better life. Thirty thousand were working in Israel when the October 7 attack happened. Their migration was encouraged in the 1980s in an effort to decrease the number of Palestinians in the Israeli workforce.
02:03
7:50pm: Israel military confirms strikes on Gaza ambulance, claims it was being used by Hamas
The Israeli military confirmed it targeted an ambulance outside Gaza’s largest hospital Friday, claiming it was being used by Hamas militants while health officials said it was evacuating wounded people from the besieged north to the south of the territory.
Israeli “aircraft struck an ambulance that was identified by forces as being used by a Hamas terrorist cell in close proximity to their position in the battle zone”, a military statement said.
Palestinians check the damages after a convoy of ambulances was hit, at the entrance of Shifa hospital in Gaza City, November 3, 2023.01:59
Palestinians check the damages after a convoy of ambulances was hit, at the entrance of Shifa hospital in Gaza City, November 3, 2023. © Reuters / Stringer
It said a number of Hamas fighters had been killed in the strike and accused the group of transferring both militants and weapons in ambulances. It gave no evidence to support its assertion that the ambulance was linked to Hamas but said in a statement it intended to release additional information.
Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza, said the ambulance was part of a convoy that Israel targeted leaving al-Shifa Hospital, adding that “a big number” were killed and wounded but without giving figures.
Qidra said Israel had targeted the convoy of ambulances in more than one location, including at al-Shifa Hospital gate and at Ansar Square a kilometer away.
7:30pm: Israeli strike on French Institute in Gaza ‘incomprehensible’, French Foreign Minister Colonna says
France reacted to an Israeli strike on a French institute in Gaza with “astonishment” and “incomprehension”, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday, demanding a full investigation into why the building was hit.
“We made public today that the French Cultural Institute in Gaza was hit a few days ago in a way that caused astonishment, incomprehension and which led France to call for explanations from the Israeli authorities,” Colonna told French media on a visit to Nigeria’s capital Abuja. “(We seek) to understand how a French cultural institute can be the target of an Israeli strike. We are therefore in dialogue with our Israeli partners at different levels.”
7:05pm: US urges Hezbollah not to ‘take advantage’ of Gaza war
The United States called on Friday for Hezbollah not to “take advantage” of the Israel-Hamas war after the Lebanese militants’ leader said “all options” were open. “We and our partners have been clear: Hezbollah and other actors – state or non-state – should not try to take advantage of the ongoing conflict,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
“We will not engage in a war of words. The United States does not seek escalation or widening of the conflict that Hamas brought onto Israel. This has the potential of becoming a bloodier war between Israel and Lebanon than 2006. The United States does not want to see this conflict expand into Lebanon,” Jean-Pierre added.
6:57pm: 34 French nationals, 100 US citizens and family members evacuated from Gaza Strip
The White House said on Friday that 100 US citizens and family members left Gaza on Thursday and said another large group of Americans were expected to leave on Friday. Speaking to reporters as President Joe Biden flew to Maine, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said negotiations are intense on getting foreign nationals out of Gaza and that it is a fluid situation.
The French foreign ministry also announced that 34 French citizens had been evacuated from the Gaza Strip on Friday.
6:35pm: Israel-Hamas war ‘continuing at pace from the skies, as well as inside Gaza strip,’ FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent reports
As Israel’s “ground operations” enters “an intensive phase”, rockets have also hit the border city of Sderot, FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent reports from the city located one kilometre away from the Gaza Strip. “Fire came in not intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system,” with journalists throwing themselves to the ground to take shelter “as the rocket hit a desert kindergarten”.
“On the other side of the border, we are hearing rounds and rounds of artillery fire from Israel, we’ve been hearing warplanes, drones and plums of smoke,” Norris Trent reports, adding that “this war is continuing at pace from the skies, from the edges of Gaza, as well as from inside the Gaza strip”.
04:35
5:50pm: Israel ground assault on Gaza ‘clearly in an intensive phase’, FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent reports
Israel’s military said Thursday its forces have surrounded Gaza City in the Hamas-run and densely populated Palestinian territory as they pressed their assault against the Islamist group. According to FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent, reporting from Sderot, Israel, the new phase in “ground operations will involve intense urban warfare”.
04:08
5:27pm: France to host international conference for Gaza
France will host an international humanitarian conference for the civilian population in Gaza on November 9, three diplomatic sources said.
The conference, which will be at head of state, government and foreign minister level, will cover issues from mobilising funds, providing emergency assistance, re-establishing supply of water, fuel and electricity as well as assisting people wounded in Gaza through the possible use of maritime corridors, two diplomats said.
The Palestinian Authority would be present, but Israel was not set to be invited, the diplomats said.
France’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to request for comment.
5:24pm: Japan to provide $65 million in additional humanitarian aid to Palestinians
Japan will provide $65 million in additional humanitarian aid to Palestinians out of concern for the conflict in Gaza, foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa said on Saturday during a tour of Israel and Jordan.
She also met with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and called for a humanitarian pause to the deepening crisis in Gaza, she said.
5:07pm: Israel’s military says Gaza City is surrounded: What consequences for Hamas?
Israeli forces on Thursday encircled Gaza City in their assault on Hamas, the military said, but the Palestinian militant group resisted their drive with hit-and-run attacks from underground tunnels. What consequences are possible for Hamas in this situation? What firepower does Hamas have? FRANCE 24’s Wassim Nasr explains.
04:49
4:58pm: Blinken warns Israel that humanitarian conditions in Gaza must improve to have ‘partners for peace’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel on Friday that it risks destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acts swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.
In a blunt call for Israel to pause military operations in the territory to allow for the immediate and increased delivery of assistance, Blinken said the current situation would drive Palestinians toward further radicalism and effectively end prospects for any eventual resumption of peace talks to end the conflict.
“There will be no partners for peace if they’re consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight,” Blinken said.
The comments to reporters in Tel Aviv, following meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials, amounted to some of the Biden administration’s strongest warnings since the brutal October 7 rampage by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers. But the remarks were also tempered by Blinken’s continued support for Israel’s “right and obligation to defend itself, defend its people and take the steps necessary to try to ensure that this never happens again”.
4:41pm: US says flying unarmed drones over Gaza to aid hostage recovery
The United States is flying unarmed drones over Gaza to aid efforts to free the more than 240 hostages seized by the Hamas militant group when it attacked Israel, the Pentagon said Friday.
“In support of hostage recovery efforts, the US is conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, as well as providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement.
“These UAV flights began after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel,” Ryder said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.
4:30pm: Gaza health ministry says scores killed in Israeli strike on ambulance convoy; Israel army looking into report
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Friday that Israel had targeted a convoy of ambulances leaving Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Israel’s military said on Friday it was looking into the report. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
“We have informed the Red Cross in accordance with the international law about moving a convoy carrying injured people in ambulance vehicles from Al-Shifa hospital,” Ashraf Al-Qudra, the health ministry spokesman, said in a statement. “At the gate of the hospital and then at the Ansar square, the occupation targeted the convoy in more than one location outside Al-Shifa hospital.”
The statement made no mention of any casualties. Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV had earlier quoted the ministry as saying scores of people had been killed and injured.
3:45pm: Netanyahu says ‘Israel refusing temporary truce’ in Gaza without hostage release’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday Israel would not agree to a “temporary truce” in its war on Hamas militants without the release of hostages taken from Israel to Gaza. “We’re continuing with all our force and Israel is refusing a temporary truce that doesn’t include the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu said following a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv.
Moments previously, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had discussed with Netanyahu potential “humanitarian pauses” in the war in Gaza. “We believe that each of these efforts (to protect Palestinian civilians and increase aid into Gaza) would be facilitated by humanitarian pauses, by arrangements on the ground that increase security for civilians and permit the more effective and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Blinken told journalists during a visit to Tel Aviv.
3:29pm: Blinken says ‘only way’ for Israel security is Palestinian state
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that Israel will only gain security through the creation of a Palestinian state.
“Two states for two peoples. Again, that is the only way to ensure lasting security for a Jewish and democratic Israel,” Blinken said after meeting Israeli leaders.
3:25pm: Hezbollah leader says wider Middle East ‘total war’ a ‘realistic possibility’
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, warned on Friday that a wider conflict in the Middle East was a “realistic possibility” in a speech that was expected to indicate whether his group would wage a full-fledged war against Israel. “We are ready for all possibilities,” Nasrallah said.
A formidable military force backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war with Israel in 2006. Hezbollah have been escalating day by day, forcing Israel to keep its forces near the Lebanese border instead of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, Nasrallah said in a televised address.
Nasrallah told the US that halting attacks on Gaza would prevent a wider regional war.
“What’s happening on the border might seem modest but is very important,” he added.
03:00
3:20pm: French Institute, AFP office in Gaza hit by Israeli air strike; France demands explanations from Israel
The French Institute in Gaza was hit by an Israeli air strike, but no injuries were reported among staff at the site, the French foreign ministry said on Friday, while the Gaza office of news organisation Agence France-Presse (AFP) was also hit.
The French ministry added it had asked Israeli authorities to provide the “tangible” reasons that motivated the strike on the institute “without delay”.
In a separate statement, the ministry also expressed “very strong concerns” over the number of civilian victims in Gaza.
AFP said on social network X that its office in the Gaza strip was shelled by the Israeli army and seriously damaged on Thursday by a strike.
None of the eight AFP staff members or permanent employees normally based in Gaza were on site at the time of the impact. All were evacuated to the south of the Gaza Strip on October 13, it added. “AFP condemns in the strongest terms this strike on its office in Gaza City,” it said.
3:05pm: Hezbollah chief warns operations against Israel at the Lebanese border ‘not the end’, ‘not sufficient’
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, warned that the attacks Hezbollah has been engaging against Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border “will not be the end, this will not be sufficient”.
“Those who want the Hezbollah to engage in a full war and who think our actions at the Lebanese border are not enough, I say this will not be the end, this will not be sufficient,” Nasrallah warned
A formidable military force backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.
“What’s taking place in our Lebanese front, it is unprecedented since 1948 and the illegal occupation of Gaza,” the militant group chief claims.
2:57pm: Hezbollah chief calls on ‘Arab, Muslim states’ to ‘cut gas, oil, food supplies to Israel’
The leader of the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah called on “Arab and Muslim states” to “spare no efforts to at least make this war end”.
“We cannot condemn and at the same time supply oil and gas to Israel,” he said.
“We are calling on the Arab states to cut all gas, oil and food supplies to Israel: stop your exports to Israel,” Nasrallah said in his first public speech since the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel.
2:47pm: Israeli claims of ‘beheaded babies’ are ‘false’, claims Hezbollah chief, accusing US of ‘standing in the way of a ceasefire’
In his first public speech since the Hamas October 7 attack, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Israel can get back the captives held in Gaza through negotiations. The Hezbollah leader said that Israeli claims that Hamas had “beheaded babies” were false, saying that Israel was “failing to provide proof”.
The United States are “totally responsible” for what is happening in Gaza, Nasrallah said, with Washington “standing in the way of a ceasefire”.
Speaking at the same time as Nasrallah delivered his speech, US secretary of state Antony Blinken was holding a press conference in Tel-Aviv. The US chief of diplomacy said he had discussed “humanitarian pauses” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
2:35pm: October 7 Hamas attack was ‘100% Palestinian’, says Hezbollah chief
The decision to launch the October 7 Hamas attack was “100% Palestinian”, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah said Friday in his first public statements since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The Lebanese militant group leader praised Hamas’s decision to launch the attack as “right, wise and courageous”. Nasrallah also thanked groups in Yemen and Iraq for taking part in the battle against Israel.
Hezbollah has previously said it was in “direct contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistance” on October 7. The Lebanese militant group has deep ties to Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction backed by Iran.
1:27pm: Gaza prepares for ‘bloody next stage of the fighting’
The Israeli army has said its troops have encircled Gaza City, with Hamas militants warning Gaza would be a “curse” for Israel, whose soldiers would go home “in black bags”.
Gaza City is an urban area densely populated with civilians, says FRANCE 24’s senior correspondent Catherine Norris Trent. “It is likely to be a very bloody next stage of the fighting,” she said.
02:30
1:13pm: Scottish First Minister Yousaf’s family have left Gaza
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf’s in-laws have left Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.
“We’re hugely relieved that Nadia’s parents have been able to leave Gaza. We thank everyone for their messages of comfort over the past few weeks,” Yousaf said in a post on social media platform X on Friday.
1:06pm: Blinken says Israel has ‘right’ and ‘obligation’ to defend itself
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Friday that Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself as it continues to pummel the Gaza Strip with an air and ground assault.
“Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself … to make sure that this October 7 never happens again,” Blinken told journalists as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
11:18am: UN rights office raises alarm over situation in West Bank
The United Nations rights office on Friday described the situation in the West Bank as “alarming”, saying Israeli forces were increasingly using military tactics and weapons in law enforcement operations there.
“While much attention has been on the attacks inside Israel and the escalation of hostilities in Gaza since the 7th of October, the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is alarming and urgent,” said Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
She added that at least 132 Palestinians, including 41 children, were killed in the West Bank, 124 of those by Israeli forces and some eight by settlers. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed.
10:31am: Humanitarian needs in Gaza, West Bank estimated at $1.2 billion: UN
The United Nations humanitarian office said on Friday the cost of meeting the needs of people in Gaza and the West Bank was estimated at $1.2 billion.
“The cost of meeting the needs of 2.7 million people – that is the entire population of Gaza and 500,000 people in the occupied West Bank – is estimated to be $1.2 billion,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
On Oct. 12, OCHA had initially appealed for $294 million to support nearly 1.3 million people.
“The situation has grown increasingly desperate since then,” it said.
8:50am: Israel actions in Gaza resemble ‘something approaching revenge’, says Irish PM
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Friday described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “something approaching revenge”, in some of the strongest criticism of Israel by a leader of a European Union member state.
“I strongly believe that … Israel has the right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas, that they cannot do this again,” Varadkar told journalists during a visit to South Korea, according to comments broadcast by state radio RTE.
“What I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defence. It looks, resembles something more approaching revenge,” Varadkar said. “That’s not where we should be.”
8:17am: Eight Palestinians killed in separate incidents in West Bank
Palestinian medical sources said on Friday that eight Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in the West Bank overnight.
8:09am: Thousands of Gazan workers sent back from Israel
Thousands of cross-border Gazan workers and labourers in Israel and the occupied West Bank were sent back to Gaza on Friday, witnesses said.
Some of the Gazan workers returned through the Kerem Shalom crossing east of the Rafah border crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt, the witnesses said.
7:29am: Blinken arrives in Israel in bid to curb civilian harm in Gaza war
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Friday on a trip reportedly focused on measures to minimise harm to civilians in the war in Gaza.
Prior to his departure for Israel, Blinken said he would seek “concrete measures” from Israel to ensure that harm to Palestinian civilians is reduced, as US President Joe Biden also called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict.
FRANCE 24’s Vedika Bahl has the details.
01:36
7:04am: Most wanted: The Hamas leaders on Israel’s radar
Since the deadly attacks on October 7 that killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel, Israeli authorities have been targeting Hamas leaders. The militant Islamist group, founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian intifada, has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
FRANCE 24’s Marc Daou took a look at some of the key figures now at the top of Israel’s hit list.
Click here to read the full article.
7:01am: Israeli troops fighting in Gaza City
Israeli ground troops encircled Gaza City on Friday, with some now operating inside the city proper, according to Israel’s military. This news comes after close ally the United States urged “concrete steps” to minimise civilian casualties.
FRANCE 24’s correspondent Irris Makler is in Jerusalem with the update.
01:50
5:53am: UAE warns against risk of regional spillover from Gaza war
The United Arab Emirates warned on Friday that there was a real risk of a regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, adding that it was working “relentlessly” to secure a humanitarian ceasefire.
“As we continue working to stop this war we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point,” Noura al-Kaabi, a minister of state for foreign affairs, told a policy conference in the capital, 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,” she said.
3:26am: Hezbollah chief to break silence on crisis
Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday will break weeks of silence since war broke out between Hamas and Israel, in a speech that could impact the region as the Gaza conflict rages.
Nasrallah’s highly anticipated speech will be broadcast as part of an event in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, at 3pm (1pm GMT) on Friday, in memory of fighters killed in Israeli bombardments.
On the Lebanese side, more than 70 people have been killed – at least 50 of them Hezbollah fighters but also other combatants and civilians, one a Reuters journalist, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, nine people have died – eight soldiers and one civilian, the army says.
2:19am: Israel to sever ‘all contact’ with Gaza and return labourers
Israel will return Gazans working inside the country to the besieged Palestinian territory, the government said, almost four weeks after it began its bombardment of the coastal enclave in response to a deadly cross-border attack.
“Israel is severing all contact with Gaza. There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza,” the Israeli security cabinet announced in a statement late Thursday.
“Those workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day of the outbreak of the war will be returned to Gaza,” it added, without specifying how many people would be sent back.
Before the Israel-Hamas conflict started, Israel had issued work permits to some 18,500 Gazans, according to COGAT, the Israeli defence body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs.
12:17am: Two Palestinians killed in West Bank: Palestinian health ministry
Two people were killed during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement early Friday, as fighting there continues alongside the conflict in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military told AFP in a statement that the Israel Defense Forces were “currently conducting counterterrorism activities in the area”, without elaborating.
The latest deaths in the West Bank come on top of three Palestinians killed by Israeli fire on Thursday and an Israeli killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, according to first responders.
12:02am: Republicans advance Israel funding without Ukraine, defying Biden
The Republican-led lower chamber of US Congress passed a $14 billion aid package for Israel on Thursday, defying President Joe Biden’s request to also include more money for Ukraine and other pressing priorities.
The bill, which diverts funding budgeted to the US tax collection agency, is almost certain to fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate, while Biden has also threatened to veto it.
Key developments from Thursday, November 2:
A group of UN human rights experts, including the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said Thursday that “time is running out to prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”. “We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide,” the experts said in a joint statement. “The time for action is now. Israel’s allies also bear responsibility and must act now to prevent its disastrous course of action.”
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France will send a second French helicopter carrier off the coast of Gaza as it works with Israeli and Egyptian authorities to find a way to provide medical assistance to people affected by the bombings in the besieged area.
The Israeli military said it targeted Lebanon’s Hezbollah with a “broad assault” on Thursday, as the Iran-backed militant group said it had attacked 19 Israeli positions simultaneously.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday he would ask Israel to take “concrete steps” to minimize harm to civilians in Gaza as he left on a crisis trip. “We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimise harm to men, women and children in Gaza,” Blinken told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base as he flew out.
Read our blog to see how yesterday’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
