Israel’s incursion into Gaza — Live Updates
PM Benjamin Netanyahu promised harsh retaliation after Hamas, a leading Palestinian armed group, unleashed a major attack on the Jewish state
Israel’s incursion into Gaza — Live Updates
Israeli army Merkava battle tanks on the border with the Gaza Strip. © AFP / Aris Messinis
Palestinian armed group Hamas launched thousands of missiles at Israel and sent its militants across the border from Gaza on October 7. At least 1,300 Israelis were killed and thousands injured as a result of the surprise incursion, according to local authorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the country was “at war” and promised retaliation against Hamas that they “have never known before.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded by sending warplanes to strike targets in Gaza, ordering a blockade of the Palestinian enclave, and announcing plans for a ground invasion of the densely populated territory.
02 November 2023
03:13 GMT
Eleven bakeries have been struck or destroyed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its daily update on Wednesday.
It added that only nine bakeries remain operational and are supplying bread to shelters, mainly in the southern and middle parts of the Palestinian enclave. “Hours-long queues are reported in front of bakeries, where people are exposed to airstrikes,” the agency warned.
01:22 GMT
US President Joe Biden was heckled at a fundraiser in Minneapolis by an audience member who demanded that he “call for a ceasefire right now.”
“I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out,” Biden responded, according to The Hill.
The White House previously argued that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas, echoing the stance taken by the Israeli government.
00:32 GMT
The Israeli army published what it said was an intercepted call involving a senior Hamas commander and the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza. The IDF described the recording as evidence that the Palestinian militants were “stealing” fuel reserved for medical facilities.
“The representative from the ministry said so, in the night he told me to fill up 1,000 liters,” a person described as a hospital manager is heard saying in Arabic.
The UN previously warned that fuel shortages were impeding the efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
01 November 2023
19:49 GMT
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said that the Jewish state’s government should transfer frozen tax funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, in comments that could be construed as a criticism of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s decision to freeze Palestinian tax revenues to the PA.
Smotrich had on Sunday announced the step to pause the payments, claiming that Ramallah had supported Hamas’ incursion into Israel on October 7. Israel collects tax revenue from the West Bank, which it then transfers to the PA monthly, with the payments making up nearly 65% of the Palestinian annual budget.
Gallant said that the outstanding funds should be transferred to the PA “immediately” and that they “will be used by its forces that help prevent terrorism.”
19:07 GMT
The US is complicit in the deaths of children in Gaza, according to rights group Defence for Children International-Palestine “constituting the crime of genocide,” it said.
“President Biden’s statements over the last few weeks suggest he is completely unconcerned by the scope and scale of Palestinian civil harm – including the killings of 3,650 children – as a result of Israeli military attacks in Gaza,” the children’s rights organization said in a statement.
It added that Biden is “actively becoming evermore complicit in an Israeli military campaign where Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children with impunity, constituting the crime of genocide.”
18:37 GMT
Cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks has confirmed a telecommunications blackout in Gaza after the Palestinians’ largest provider, Paltel, said earlier today that there had been “a complete interruption of all communications and internet services” in the enclave.
It is the second such blackout since the start of Israel’s ground offensive, meaning that much of the territory’s more than two million residents are experiencing “a total loss of telecommunications,” Paltel said.
Paltel also stated on social media that its services were offline “due to international routes that were previously reconnected being cut off again.”
18:03 GMT
The UN’s children’s rights committee has said that violations against children in Gaza are “mounting by the minute” amid Israel’s bombardment of the coastal enclave, and has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
“There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” it said in a statement.
The UN committee added that “there have been devastating reports of acts that are forbidden by international humanitarian law, including maiming, injury, abduction, forcible displacement, deprivation of medical care, food and water.”
17:33 GMT
US President Joe Biden has commented on social media about the opening of the Rafah border to Gaza earlier today.
“Today, thanks to American leadership, we secured safe passage for wounded Palestinians and for foreign nationals to exit Gaza,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We expect American citizens to exit today, and we expect to see more depart over the coming days.”
Biden added that his administration “won’t let up working to get Americans out of Gaza.”
16:57 GMT
Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel, its foreign minister Ayman Safadi has confirmed. In a statement, Safadi said the diplomatic measure was being taken “as an expression of Jordan’s position rejecting and condemning the Israeli war raging in Gaza.”
Safadi also stated that Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, who is not presently in the Middle Eastern country according to the statement, is not currently welcome to return.
Safadi added that the Israeli ambassador would be permitted back only “upon Israel ceasing its war in Gaza, halting the humanitarian disaster, and refraining from actions that deny Palestinians their basic rights, including access to food, water, and medicine, as well as as a secure and stable life on their national soil.”
15:57 GMT
The IDF has said 15 of its soldiers have been killed in ongoing operations in Gaza since Tuesday, revising upwards figures reported earlier today.
It brings the number of Israeli troops to have died in the renewed conflict to 330, the Anadolu news agency said.
01 November 2023
14:31 GMT
UN Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths has described the recent Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, in which “scores of civilians were killed,” as the “latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza.” The fighting in the Palestinian enclave “has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences,” the official, who is charge of the UN’s relief work, warned in a statement.
Griffiths called upon both Israel and Hamas “to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law” and spare civilians as they conduct their military operations. He also urged the international community to accelerate efforts to resolve the crisis. “The world seems unable, or unwilling, to act. This cannot go on. We need a step change,” he demanded.
13:55 GMT
The IDF has published a clip showing its Merkava main battle tanks and soldiers in action inside Gaza, as well as airstrikes on Hamas targets in the Palestinian enclave. In another post on X (formerly Twitter), it cited one of the commanders of the troops, who said the Israeli “attacks are of the strength that the Hamas terrorist organization hasn’t yet encountered.” He also said the expansion of the IDF’s ground operation was taking place simultaneously with the bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli Air Force and navy.
13:38 GMT
Hamas fighters have destroyed four Israeli military vehicles using 105mm ‘Al-Yassin’ anti-tank shells in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza, the Palestinian armed group has claimed on Telegram. It did not specify if the vehicles were tanks, APCs, or some other hardware.
Israel has so far confirmed the deaths of 13 of its troops in the fighting inside Gaza this week. The IDF also said that “numerous” Hamas gunmen have been killed as a result of the operation.
12:36 GMT
The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 has risen to 8,796, with 22,219 others wounded, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave has said. More than 3,640 children are among those killed in the bombardment, it added. According to the ministry, there are 2,030 reports of people missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, including 1,120 children.
RT
Palestinians mourn by the bodies of relatives killed by Israeli bombardmen in Gaza. © AFP / Mahmud Hams
11:34 GMT
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Muslim states to cease oil and food exports to Israel over the IDF’s attacks on Gaza, Press TV has reported. “What Muslim states must insist on is the immediate cessation of [Israeli] crimes in Gaza… and stop the export of oil and other commodities to the Zionist regime,” Khamenei said during a meeting with students in Tehran. “The entire Muslim world must be mobilized” against Israel, ceasing any economic cooperation with the country and using international forums to draw attention to the Israeli actions in Gaza, he said.
10:55 GMT
Hamas political bureau member Ghazi Hamad has claimed that Israel is not concerned about “the safety of the prisoners in Gaza, regardless of their nationalities,” accusing it of “indiscriminate bombings” of the Palestinian enclave. “We confirmed our readiness to release foreign prisoners, but Israel is obstructing that,” Hamad told Al Jazeera.
Hamas said earlier that five hostages, including three foreigners, were killed in an IDF strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday. The group claimed last week that some 50 captives have lost their lives due to the Israeli bombardment since October 7. According to IDF estimations, Hamas took around 240 people hostage during its surprise attack on Israel more than three weeks ago.
09:53 GMT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed condolences to the families of 12 IDF soldiers, officially confirmed as killed during the fighting with Hamas inside Gaza this week. “We are all with you in your time of great sorrow,” he said in a statement published on social media.
“We are in a difficult war. It will be a long war. We have important achievements in it, but also painful losses… Our soldiers fell in an unjust war, the war for our home. I promise you citizens of Israel: we will complete the job. We will continue until victory,” the prime minister pledged.
08:57 GMT
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has opened from Gaza’s side for the first time since the start of the escalation between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Al Jazeera has reported. The Qatari broadcaster’s live footage from the scene shows dozens of people and vehicles, including ambulances, moving through the gates into Egyptian territory.
The authorities in Cairo earlier allowed the evacuation of 81 critically injured Palestinians – and hundreds of foreigners or Palestinians with dual nationality – through the Rafah crossing, Al Jazeera said. The foreign nationals were notified by their embassies through the Red Cross that they could leave the besieged Palestinian enclave, it added.
08:29 GMT
The decision by Bolivia to cut ties with Israel over its attacks on Gaza is “a surrender to terrorism and to the Ayatollah’s regime in Iran,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat has said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
By making this move, the government in La Paz “is aligning itself with the Hamas terrorist organization,” Haiat claimed. “Israel condemns Bolivia’s support of terrorism and its submission to the Iranian regime, which attest to the values the government of Bolivia represents,” he added.
According to the spokesman, relations between Israel and Bolivia “have been devoid of content” since the socialist government of President Luis Arce came to power in the Latin American country in 2020.
08:07 GMT
The IDF has said it sent additional missile boats to the Red Sea on Tuesday, following several missile and drone attacks on Israel from Yemen. The deployment was made “in accordance with the assessment of the situation, and as part of the increased defense efforts in the area,” the Israeli military said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). It also published a video clip of Israeli warships operating in the Red Sea.
The Houthi government in Yemen said on Tuesday that attacks on Israel will continue until it stops its military operation against Hamas in Gaza.
