Here is the situation on Wednesday, October 11, 2023:
Fighting
- The Israeli military said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets overnight in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
- On Saturday, Hamas fighters from the Gaza Strip rampaged through parts of southern Israel, in the deadliest Palestinian attack in Israel’s history.
- “Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on, we will also come from the ground,” said Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to soldiers near the fence with Gaza.
- Israel has called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists, as Israeli airlines added flights to bring reservists back to the country.
- The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israeli strikes had since Saturday destroyed more than 22,600 residential units and 10 health facilities and damaged 48 schools.
- Two members of Hamas’s political office were killed in an air strike in Khan Younis, a Hamas official said. They were the first senior Hamas members killed since Israel began pounding the enclave.
- On Israel’s northern border, a salvo of rockets was fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel, prompting Israeli shelling in return, three security sources said.
- More shells launched from Syrian territory landed in open areas in Israel, prompting Israel to return fire, the military said, further raising fears that the violence could lead to a wider war.
- Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said it fired missiles against an Israeli military position earlier in the morning in response to the killing of three of its fighters.
- The Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting that Israeli forces dropped white phosphorus bombs on the al-Karama neighbourhood in Gaza earlier in the night.
Israeli warplanes and artillery use internationally #prohibited_white_phosphorus, destroying #Al_Karama neighborhood in the northwest of Gaza City with a continuous series of airstrikes. There are casualties and wounded, while ambulances and civil defense vehicles are unable to… pic.twitter.com/ym7zfKqIBH
— State of Palestine – MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) October 10, 2023
Diplomacy
- US President Joe Biden called the attacks by Hamas “an act of sheer evil” and added that at least 14 Americans were killed. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Israel on Thursday, in a show of solidarity.
- Egypt is moving to prevent a mass exodus south from the Gaza Strip, as Israeli bombardments halted crossings.
- European Union foreign ministers met to try to resolve divisions over whether to continue aid payments to Palestinians.
- European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel was breaking international law by imposing a total blockade against the Gaza Strip in retaliation against the Hamas attack.
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran was not involved in the Hamas attack, though he “kissed the hands” of those doing damage to Israel.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin is blaming US policy failures for the Israel-Hamas war.
- The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations described Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip and its vow to impose a complete siege on the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave as “nothing less than genocidal”.
- EU industry chief Thierry Breton told Elon Musk to tackle the spread of disinformation on his X social media platform about the Hamas attack.
Casualties and humanitarian situation
- The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said at least 1,055 people have been killed and 5,184 wounded in the crowded coastal enclave.
- On the Israeli side, more than 1,200 people have been killed, and at least 3,000 wounded according to the Israeli medical services.
Market and business
- Investors are on guard for an oil price spike amid Middle East turmoil.
- Global stocks rose, but violence in Israel made for nervy trading.
