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Israel-Gaza latest: ‘There’s no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,’ says Israeli ambassador – as US warns Israel against ‘big mistake’
Israel’s ambassador to the UK has suggested there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This as foreign nationals and aid are expected to be allowed through the Rafah crossing into Egypt today. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has warned Israel it would be a “big mistake” to occupy Gaza.
Monday 16 October 2023 10:27, UK
Israel-Hamas War
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Watch live coverage from Israel – interspersed with live shots from the Rafah border crossing
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Key points
Monday morning catch-up View post
Rafah border crossing expected to open for aid and for foreign nationals to leave View post
‘There’s no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,’ says Israeli ambassador View post
Fuel powering Gaza hospitals will likely run out in 24 hours – UN View post
Occupying Gaza would be ‘big mistake’, Biden warns Israel View post
Deborah Haynes:The ‘fake city’ where Israeli troops train View post
Stuart Ramsay:Recovered bodies show ‘bloodthirsty’ gunmen ‘took time over torture’ View post
Explained:Who controls Rafah border crossing? View post
Live reporting by Brad Young and Jess Sharp
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4m ago
05:27
Israel’s military suggests Hamas may have attacked convoy of Palestinians
One of the major flashpoints of this conflict over the weekend was the destruction of a convoy of evacuees from north Gaza – which Hamas says killed 70 Palestinians who’d been abiding by an Israeli instruction to flee.
Israeli’s initial response was to say it would look into the matter – but now, amid widespread condemnation of the attack (the aftermath of which can be seen in the video below), Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus has suggested, counterintuitively, that Hamas was responsible.
“We assess that it was Hamas who staged these explosions,” he told our partner network NBC, before going on to imply that Hamas’s motivation for attacking its own side would be seeing Israel blamed.
“But I want to be on the safe side and say, you know, things can happen in war. But there was definitely nothing purposeful.
“And I think that the investigation should be looking at who would stand to gain from such a convoy being attacked, specifically on the route that we made sure would be open for evacuation. And the answer is clear. The organisation that stands to gain from this is Hamas.”
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14m ago
05:16
Listen: The Week… Israel went to war
Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates has been analysing the British government’s response to what’s happening in the Middle East.
Sam says there is “almost certainly” a “big bunker of people” working on minute-by-minute developments on the situation in Israel and Gaza.
“The number one subject for those are the British hostages that are currently in Gaza held by Hamas. It will not be the subject of a lot of public conversation, but I think that will be at the top of the UK government’s agenda for what it wants to see if it can do anything about,” he adds.
You can listen to the latest episode of Politics at Jack and Sam’s here..
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15m ago
05:16
Israel accuses Iran of ordering Hezbollah attacks
The Israeli military has accused Iran of orchestrating Hezbollah attacks along the border with Lebanon.
Israel is prepared to fight a war on two or more fronts, said Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
Hezbollah attacked Israeli army posts and a border village, Shtula, yesterday, before Israel retaliated with strikes.
Rear Admiral Hagari said: “Hezbollah carried out a number of shooting attacks in order to distract from our war efforts in the south [Gaza], under Iranian instruction and with [Iranian] support.”
Hezbollah’s links to Iran: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982 to fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon.
Iran gives Hezbollah weapons and money. The US estimates Iran has allocated the group hundreds of millions of dollars annually in recent years.
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31m ago
05:00
Explained: What is the Rafah border crossing and who controls it?
By Nicole Johnston, Sky News journalist formerly based in Gaza
At the southern tip of Gaza on the border with Egypt is the dusty and chaotic Rafah border crossing.
Egypt is shortly expected to open it for a few hours for foreign nationals and Gazans who hold dual nationality.
It will mean an escape from the war for a limited number of Palestinians. But most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people will remain trapped inside the war-ravaged enclave.
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 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 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 would play 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.
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41m ago
04:50
Blinken arrives in Israel
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has landed in Israel once more for another round of shuttle diplomacy.
It follows a frantic six-country tour through Arab nations aimed at preventing the fighting from igniting a broader regional conflict.
The visits appeared to achieve some success, with a deal struck in Cairo expected to allow foreign nationals to exit Gaza through the Rafah crossing in return for humanitarian aid being allowed in.
The US has stressed its full support for Israel since Hamas’s attacks, but in recent days has urged its leaders to show restraint as they prepare to mount a ground offensive.
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55m ago
04:36
Watch: Survivor ‘held onto lock’ to stop Hamas
A survivor has described how he escaped Hamas fighters by hiding in a small room and “holding onto a lock”.
Tasanapoom Ruecha said he was stuck in the room with 11 other people, and could “hardly breathe”.
“We were running out of air. We took turns breathing through a small hole,” he added.
A short time later, three or four Hamas fighters returned and tried to unlock the door, he said.
You can listen to his story below…
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1h ago
04:25
At least 199 people being held hostage, says Israel
At least 199 people are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, Israel’s military has said.
Reports had suggested between 100 and 120 people had been captured by the militant group.
Yesterday, the UK’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly indicated around 10 British people were being held hostage, telling Sky News that such a figure was “not an unreasonable estimate”.
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1h ago
04:15
In pictures: Palestinians search rubble for survivors
In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Palestinians are searching for survivors following Israeli airstrikes.
Some 1,000 Palestinians are trapped under the rubble across Gaza, said Eyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry.
The site of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis
The site of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis
AP
AP
Elsewhere in the city, those who fled their houses were photographed taking shelter at a UN-run school.
More than one million civilians in Gaza’s north were told to move south by the Israeli military ahead of a potential ground offensive.
UN-run school
UN-run school
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1h ago
03:56
There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, says Israeli ambassador
Israel’s ambassador to the UK has suggested there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Asked by Kay Burley what her view was on the humanitarian crisis that we’ve been reporting on in this blog over the last week, Tzipi Hotovely said: “There is no humanitarian crisis.
“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.
“People [in Israel] weren’t given opportunity to be safe… they were slaughtered in their beds,” she said.
Ms Hotovely said families had been “destroyed”, saying: “[Hamas] executed children in front of their parents, they fired on babies and beheaded them, they hurt pregnant women, raped young women.
“Those atrocities are the type that no Western leader can stand and say ‘we can just carry on’.”
Burley pressed the ambassador on images this morning showing desperate evacuees in Gaza, where water, food and fuel are in low supply or have run out.
Ms Hotovely replied: “Can I ask you something – are you a mother? What would you think if your children had been executed in front of your eyes?
“Would you expect your government to think about those Nazis committing those crimes and then say ‘first of all we need to protect the enemy, and then we need to protect your children’?”
“What is happening is there is a war in Gaza that Hamas started by committing a horrible massacre,” she said.
“When America started this fight against ISIS together with coalition forces, over 100,000 civilians got caught in the crossfire. Israel is trying to prevent that.”
She said Israel was “better than any other army in the world” and had been alerting civilians in advance.
Burley responded: “I’m asking you about the innocent civilians losing their lives at the moment, and now you’re saying it’s not a humanitarian crisis – how can you say that?”
Ms Hotovely replied: “The humanitarian crisis at the moment is in Israel.”
Then Burley asked: “Are you saying they’re subhuman?”
“No, actually they made the Jews subhuman, they treated them as subhuman,” Ms Hotovely said.
“When you are taking babies, cutting them and tying them together and burning them, you’re treating them less than human. Just the Nazis treated Jews like that.”
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2h ago
03:26
Hamas denies border crossing will open
Following on from our last post, and the situation at the Rafah border crossing is becoming complex.
Despite Egyptian security forces and the Embassy of Palestine representative for Rafah saying the border was set to open for aid and foreign nationals, possibly with a temporary ceasefire, doubt has now been cast on both points.
Hamas official Izzat El Reshiq has said there was no truth to the reports.
And earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said there was currently “no truce and humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out”.
Palestinians with dual citizenship gather outside Rafah border
Palestinians with dual citizenship gather outside Rafah border
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2h ago
03:19
Border crossing still expected to open ‘very soon’
Aid truck drivers are “on standby” 60km from the Rafah crossing, ready to transport hundreds of metric tonnes into Gaza, said Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir.
They are “just waiting for the word” and there is “an expectation that will happen very soon”.
al-Arish
al-Arish
A deal was struck between the US and Egypt to allow American citizens and other foreign nationals to flee through Egypt in return for enabling aid to enter Gaza.
Rafah is the only viable exit for civilians and the only entrance for aid not under Israeli control.
It was struck by Israeli airstrikes last week, and reconstruction was taking place yesterday to fix the crossing, Sky News Arabia reported.
Hopes of a temporary opening of the crossing remain despite Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying no deal is in place.
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2h ago
03:10
Minister does not know how many British hostages alive
Armed forces minister James Heappey has said “we don’t know” what the latest information is on British hostages held in Gaza.
It is reported that up to 10 Britons have been held by Hamas following the attacks in Israel.
“We can’t confirm an exact number because, to be quite frank, we don’t know who is alive and who is not,” said Mr Heappey.
He said the Israeli Defence Forces were prioritising the recovery of hostages and the government “would expect the recovery of the British nationals too”.
Turning to the potential Israeli ground offensive, he said combat in densely populated Gaza would be “horrendous”.
“I think that Israel is doing everything that it reasonably can to tell the civilian population to move.
“I have every confidence that Israel will be precise in its targeting and have good intelligence about where it needs to target.
“But nobody should pretend that this is going to be anything other than horrific. I’m afraid we’re going to see some awful things over the next few days.”
He said: “It is entirely understandable that Israel is setting itself to destroy Hamas but it is going after an adversary that deliberately hides among the civilian population.”
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2h ago
02:57
2,750 Palestinians killed
This is an increase of 80 from yesterday.
Another 9,700 people have been wounded in Israeli strikes, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
In Isreal, 1,400 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Hamas’s attacks.
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2h ago
02:45
No truce to let foreign nationals out of Gaza, says Netanyahu
Israel has denied there is a truce under way in southern Gaza to allow foreign nationals to flee across the Egyptian border.
Earlier today, security sources in Egypt said such a deal was being implemented.
“There is currently no truce and humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
The Rafah border crossing was expected to be opened 45 minutes ago (7am).
Kamel Khatib, the Embassy of Palestine representative for the Rafah border, said yesterday foreign nationals would be allowed to cross this morning and that humanitarian aid would be allowed in.
We’ll have more on the situation at the crossing when we have further clarity.
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2h ago
02:32
Stuart Ramsay: Something has changed within Hamas
Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay has been interviewing victims of Hamas’s bloody assault over the past week – and has seen and heard enough to suggest that something has changed among its militants.
His latest video report contains powerful testimony of what he says is a new level of depravity from the group. Have a watch…
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3h ago
02:26
Israel evacuates 28 towns on Lebanese border
Israel has announced the evacuation of residents living in 28 towns near the border with Lebanon.
Israelis residing within just over a mile (2km) of Lebanon have been asked to leave for guesthouses elsewhere, according to Israel’s defence ministry.
Border clashes appear to have escalated between Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli army, UN peacekeepers have warned.
Hezbollah attacked Israeli army posts and a border village, Shtula, yesterday, while Israel retaliated with strikes.
Why is Hezbollah involved? The Iran-backed group is heavily armed and holds some sway over the Lebanese state.
It fought years of guerrilla warfare against Israeli occupying forces in the south of Lebanon until they withdrew in 2000, followed by a five-week war in 2006.
In 2021, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had 100,000 fighters.
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3h ago
02:04
Analysis: Egypt concerned about ‘dangerous scramble’ at border crossing
The opening of the Rafah crossing is “a small piece of good news” but Egypt is concerned about the chances of a “dangerous scramble” to leave Gaza, according to Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall.
Plans are in place to allow dual nationals, rather than all Palestinians in Gaza, to leave via the crossing, as the Egyptians remain worried about the number of refugees should the border open fully, he said.
Some humanitarian aid will be allowed into Gaza via the same route, but “not nearly enough for what is needed”, Bunkall said.
Yet it “shows that the diplomatic moves behind the scenes are having some effect”.
Bunkall said that in previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas, there was greater international pressure for a ceasefire by day 10.
But in this instance, there has been “absolutely none of that and we are 99% certain we’re only in the first phase of it [the conflict]”.
“There’s much more to come – and that is why this is so different”.
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3h ago
01:45
In pictures: Explosions in Rafah
Israel struck the border city of Rafah yesterday evening, as foreign nationals learned they will be allowed to leave via its crossing into Egypt this morning.
Meanwhile, rockets continued to be launched from Gaza towards Israel.
News photographers caught both on camera, as well as the sight of Israeli armoured personnel carriers heading toward the border with Gaza.
