‘Do not test us’: Israeli PM warns Iran as 28 towns are evacuated on northern border
White House officials are hoping the Rafah crossing can be opened to allow some people to leave Gaza before an expected Israeli invasion in the coming days.
Monday 16 October 2023 19:10, UK
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Israeli military releases Hamas bodycam video of attack
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran and Hezbollah not to “test us” in the north of the country after 28 towns were evacuated near the border with Lebanon.
The evacuations in northern Israel follow a spike in clashes between the country’s military and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, since Hamas’s surprise incursion in Israel on 7 October.
Speaking in parliament in Jerusalem, Mr Netanyahu also called for the world to unite to defeat Hamas, saying “this war is also your war” as he compared the gunmen to the Nazis.
His speech comes as Israel is expected to invade Gaza in the coming days in a mission to wipe out Hamas, which governs the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israel-Gaza latest: Hospital power running out ‘within 24 hours’
Meanwhile, a crossing between Gaza and Egypt has remained closed today despite diplomatic efforts to open it and let in humanitarian aid.
The Rafah border had been expected to open hours ago to allow foreign passport holders to leave and aid to be brought into the Palestinian enclave, where the humanitarian situation is worsening.
But the border, where lorries carrying the aid have been waiting for days, remained closed as Israel kept up its strikes in retaliation for the Hamas’s surprise attack.
US officials are hoping the Rafah crossing can be opened for a few hours later today to allow some people to leave Gaza before the expected Israeli ground offensive, White House spokesman John Kirby said in an interview with CNN.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Monday that 199 hostages were being held in Gaza – a higher figure than previously estimated.
It came before Iran, the main sponsor of Hamas in its fight against Israel, said the militant group may be prepared to release the hostages if Israel stops its campaign of airstrikes on the Palestinian territory.
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Other key developments include:
• Hamas denies Israel’s claim it has resumed water supplies to Gaza
• Netanyahu earlier vowed to “demolish Hamas” during an expanded emergency cabinet meeting
• US secretary of state Antony Blinken returns to Israel after completing six-country tour
• The UN is warning fuel at all hospitals across the Gaza Strip will only last for another 24 hours
• The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says it has killed a commander of the Hamas militant group in an airstrike
• Rishi Sunak urges Netanyahu to ‘minimise impact on civilians’
• Vladimir Putin to speak separately to leaders of Israel, Iran, Syria, Egypt and Palestinian Authority President Abbas
• Kremlin calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ and start of ‘political settlement process’
Explainer:
What is the Rafah border crossing and who controls it?
Mohammad Shtayyeh0:35
Play Video – Palestinian PM: ‘We are not animals’
Palestinian PM: ‘We are not animals’
Earlier, in a speech to his cabinet, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied territory of the West Bank, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said: “We are people of a civilisation, we are not animals like they are painting us and our people will not surrender.”
Speaking from his base in Ramallah he added: “We are appealing to the prime minister of Israel to stop the aggression.
“Our people will not migrate and will not leave their land.”
The Palestinian prime minister’s comments come after US President Joe Biden said in an interview that Hamas should be eliminated, but warned it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza, calling instead for a “two-state solution”.
Palestinians wait to cross to the Egyptian side at Rafah border, Gaza Strip
Pic:AP
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Palestinians wait to cross to the Egyptian side at the Rafah border in the Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
Palestinians with dual citizenship gather outside Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rafah
Image:
Palestinians with dual citizenship gather outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza
Mr Biden said Israel has “to go after Hamas” but said he would not support Israeli occupation.
“I think it’d be a big mistake,” he said.
A two-state solution would involve the creation of an independent nation next to Israel for five million Palestinians who live in Gaza and the West Bank.
“What happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people,” Mr Biden said in an interview on CBS News’ 60 Minutes programme.
He added: “Going in but taking out the extremists, the Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down south. It is a necessary requirement.”
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The president also warned Iran not to escalate the situation after the country’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said “significant damages” would be inflicted upon America if the war expanded.
Palestinian children look at the building of the Zanon family, destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip
Pic:AP
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A building which has been destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
Missing people believed to be buried under Gaza rubble
Gaza’s health ministry has said 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and another 9,700 have been wounded in Israeli retaliatory attacks.
The figure is 80 more than the ministry’s previous update, when it said a quarter of those who died were children.
At least 1,000 people are missing and believed to be under rubble, according to the Palestinian civil defence team.
In Israel, more than 1,400 people have been killed – the vast majority in the series of attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October.
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Palestinians with dual citizenship gather outside Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip October 16, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
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Palestinians with dual citizenship gather outside Rafah border crossing
Reports of truce denied
On Saturday, the deadline passed for up to 1.1 million people in the Gaza Strip to be offered safe passage south of the Wadi Gaza river by the IDF.
The Israeli military said 600,000 Gazans had left the northern half of the territory, ahead of what is expected to be an all-out offensive by land, sea and air.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was expected to open today from 9am local time (7am UK time), allowing aid deliveries and the evacuation of foreign national Palestinians, according to Sky News’s US partner NBC.
Kamel Khatib, the Embassy of Palestine representative for the Rafah border, told NBC that foreign nationals were expected to fly to Cairo from Al Arish airport, 30 miles from Rafah, and then on to their final destinations.
Dozens of foreign nationals have massed at the Rafah border after news spread that an agreement was reached to allow foreigners to exit Gaza via the crossing – but they were left stranded as it remained closed.
But after the deadline had expired and the border stayed shut, Israel denied a humanitarian truce to allow foreigners out was under way.
Israel has evacuated 28 towns along the Lebanese border
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Israel has evacuated 28 towns along the Lebanese border
Hamas official Izzat El Reshiq has also said there was no truth to reports the border would open or a truce had been agreed.
William Schomburg, the head of the sub-delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, has said civilians in the territory lack the food, electricity and water needed to meet their basic needs.
William Schomburg from The Red Cross says people in a makeshift camp near the Egyptian boarder need food, water, and lack electricity. He says the ICRC 'stands ready to help Gazan communities' but stressed the need for supplies.1:01
Play Video – ‘Lack of food’ in Gaza makeshift camp
‘Lack of food’ in Gaza makeshift camp says ICRC.
Hamas doesn’t confirm Iran’s hostage claim
It comes as Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Hamas officials “stated 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 against various parts of Gaza”.
However, Hamas has not acknowledged Iran’s claim.
The militant group has previously said it will trade the 199 captives it holds for thousands of Palestinians being kept in Israeli prisons.
Israel has said it won’t lift its siege of Gaza until the hostages are freed.
EGYPT DOESN’T WANT THE PEOPLE OF GAZA TO BECOME THEIR PROBLEM
By Nicole Johnston, Sky News correspondent formerly based in Gaza
Rafah is Gaza’s only gateway to the rest of the world that’s not directly controlled by Israel. It is under the control of Egypt as part of an agreement with Israel and the European Union.
However, it has never been a normal fully open border crossing.
Over the years it has been closed for days, weeks and months at a time. When it does open it’s often intermittent and can suddenly close again.
The people of Gaza never know when it will open or for how long so it’s impossible for them to plan their lives.
If you are stuck outside Gaza when Rafah closes there is no chance to get back in again.
Even under the best of conditions the crossing is unreliable and unstable.
What always struck me when reporting from Rafah was the sheer despair and desperation of Gazans waiting to travel. When it was open the crossing would be packed with people, sometimes thousands, all unsure if they would actually make it.
Women would sit for hours on suitcases, children playing in the dirt, a cacophony of taxis, cars and donkey carts all jostling for space. And in the middle of it all the reunions and farewells of families who didn’t know when they’d see each other again. Never sure when the border would be open or closed.
Egypt tightly controls the Rafah crossing and Palestinians accuse it of being complicit in the siege on Gaza by refusing to keep the border permanently open 24 hours a day.
There is no incentive for Egypt to now open this crossing and allow hundreds of thousands of Gazans to escape from the war.
If it did, the people of Gaza would become Egypt’’s problem and that’s the last thing Cairo wants.
Israel ambassador denies there is a humanitarian crisis
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was working with Egypt, Israel and the United Nations to get assistance through the border.
Until now, a blockade had prevented fuel, food and water from entering Gaza and hundreds of tonnes of aid has also been stockpiled in Egypt, waiting for confirmation of its safe delivery into the area.
Smoke billows from buildings in Rafah after Israel airstrikes. Pic: AP
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Smoke billows from buildings in Rafah after Israel airstrikes. Pic: AP
But Mr Netanyahu said he had agreed with President Biden to resume water supplies to parts of southern Gaza.
The United Nations humanitarian office warned on Monday that reserves of fuel at all hospitals across the Gaza Strip were expected to last only around 24 hours more, placing “the lives of thousands of patients at risk”.
Israel's Uk Ambassador to the UK – Tzipi Hotovely speaks to Sky's Kay Burley. 12:41
Play Video – ‘Time for Hamas to pay the price’
‘Time for Hamas to pay the price’ – ambassador
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the UK has told Sky News there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Tzipi Hotovely said: “Israel is in charge of the safety of Israelis, Hamas is in charge of the safety of the Palestinians.
“This is the time that Hamas need to pay the price.”
She argued Hamas was now preventing its own people from evacuating, and that Palestinians had been given the chance to leave by Israel.
