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In Gaza, where communications have been all but impossible in recent days, the reporter Hazem Balousha tells Michael Safi on Today in Focus that the intensifying assault is making everywhere in Gaza unsafe. As he speaks, the boom of aerial attacks plays out behind him and at one point he is able to catch a leaflet dropped by the Israeli Defence Forces warning him and others to evacuate the area.
In Jerusalem, the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Bethan McKernan, reports on the latest Israeli offensive and how the latest actions are being explained to Israelis and the wider world:
AP: A watchdog group advocating for press freedom said that the strikes that hit a group of journalists in southern Lebanon earlier this month, killing one, were targeted at the area, rather than accidental, and that the journalists were clearly identified as press.
Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, published preliminary conclusions Sunday in an ongoing investigation, based on video evidence and witness testimonies, into two strikes that killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six journalists from Reuters, AFP and Al Jazeera as they were covering clashes on the southern Lebanese border on 13 October.
The head of RSF’s Middle East desk, Jonathan Dagher, said there is not enough evidence at this stage to say the group was targeted specifically because they were journalists.
However, the report noted that the journalists wore helmets and vests marked “press,” as was the vehicle, and cited the surviving journalists as saying that they had been standing in clear view for an hour and saw an Israeli Apache helicopter flying over them before the strikes.
The first strike killed Abdallah, and the second hit a vehicle belonging to an Al Jazeera team, injuring journalists standing next to it. Both came from the direction of the Israeli border, the report said, but it did not explicitly name Israel as being responsible.
“What we can prove with facts, with evidence for the moment, is that the location where the journalists were standing was explicitly targeted...and they were clearly identifiable as journalists,” Dagher told The Associated Press Monday. “It shows that the killing of Issam Abdallah was not an accident.”
Japan has imposed a fresh set of sanctions on individuals and a company connected to the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, according to a statement released by the Japanese foreign ministry on Tuesday.
The sanctions consist of freezing the assets of individuals and a company that have helped fund Hamas, and is in line with new sanctions announced by the United States government earlier this month.
It is the first set of sanctions Japan has imposed on Hamas since 7 October.
Individuals including Hamas operatives Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah and Ayman Nofal were newly added to the list of people and organisations deemed as terrorists by Japan.
Hamas claims it is 'firing machine guns and anti-tank missiles' towards Israeli forces in Gaza
Reuters: Hamas said its militants fired machine guns and anti-tank missiles toward Israeli forces in north and south Gaza early on Tuesday as Israel’s tanks and infantry attacked the enclave’s main city, raising concerns about the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Israel has expanded ground operations in Gaza as it seeks to punish Hamas for a deadly gun rampage three weeks ago that Israeli authorities say killed over 1,400 people.
Witnesses said Israeli forces targeted Gaza’s main north-south road on Monday and attacked Gaza City from two directions.
The al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement, said militants clashed early on Tuesday with Israeli forces “invading the southern Gaza axis, (including) with machine guns, and targeted four vehicles with al-Yassin 105 missiles,” referring to locally produced anti-tank missiles.
The militants also targeted two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in northwest Gaza with the missiles, al-Qassam said.
Neither Reuters nor the Guardian were able to confirm the reports of fighting. Israel’s military had no immediate comment.
US ambassador to UN repeats calls for humanitarian pause
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield has urged the divided UN Security Council to come together, saying “the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is growing more dire by the day.”
Stressing that all innocent civilians must be protected, she said the council must call “for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, address the immense humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, affirm Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism, and remind all actors that international humanitarian law must be respected.”
She reiterated President Joe Biden’s call for humanitarian pauses to get hostages out, allow aid in, and safe passage for civilians.
In a sign of increasing US concern at the escalating Palestinian death toll, Thomas-Greenfield told the council Biden reiterated to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday “that while Israel has the right and responsibility to defend its citizens from terrorism, it must do so in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law.”
“The fact that Hamas operates within and under the cover of civilians areas creates an added burden for Israel, but it does not lessen its responsibility to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians,” she stressed.
US House Republicans plan to give Israel $14.3bn by cutting IRS funds
Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Monday introduced a plan to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel by cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, setting up a showdown with Democrats who control the Senate.
In one of the first major policy actions under new House speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Joe Biden’s request for a $106bn package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security.
Johnson, who voted against aid for Ukraine before he was elected House speaker last week, had said he wanted aid to Israel and Ukraine to be handled separately. He has said he wants more accountability for money that has been sent to the Kyiv government as it fights Russian invaders.
“Israel is a separate matter,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News last week, describing his desire to “bifurcate” the Ukraine and Israel funding issues.
Johnson has said bolstering support for Israel should top the US national security agenda in the aftermath of the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.
Democrats accused Republicans of stalling Congress’ ability to help Israel by introducing a partisan bill.
Here are some recent images out of Gaza, where nearly 3,200 children have been killed in three weeks:
AAP: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the government is working with international counterparts to provide humanitarian access to Gaza and establish a safe corridor at the Rafah crossing into Egypt to allow citizens to get to safety.
Asked whether he supported a statement from six former prime ministers who called for an end to religious hatred amid rising tensions over Israel’s response against Hamas in Gaza, Mr Albanese said his position had been clear.
“It is important that we recognise that the attacks from Hamas on Israel are worthy of absolute condemnation in an unequivocal way,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Bundaberg on Tuesday.
“It’s also important to recognise that Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does that matters.
“We need to make sure, as well, that every civilian life is valued, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian - every innocent loss of life is a tragedy.”
Summary
It is almost 2.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza, declaring “this is a time for war”. In a press conference conducted in English on Monday, the Israeli prime minister said the army’s advance through Gaza opened opportunities to free hostages, which he said Hamas would do only under pressure.
Nearly 70% of those reported killed in Gaza are children and women, said the UNRWA chief. The head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees has warned that the level of destruction across Gaza “is unprecedented, the human tragedy unfolding under our watch is unbearable”. Philippe Lazzarini, addressing the UN security council on Monday, said nearly 3,200 children have been killed in Gaza in three weeks, citing figures by the territory’s health ministry.
The US does not believe a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is “the right answer” right now, the White House’s national security council spokesperson said. “We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now,” John Kirby said on Monday.
Hamas has released a video of three Israeli hostages in Gaza in an apparent effort to increase the pressure on Netanyahu’s government. Netanyahu’s office named the hostages as Daniel Aloni, Rimon Kirsht and Elena Trupanov. Their families held a press conference in Tel Aviv urging the Red Cross to demand to see all of the hostages held in Gaza, and for the US president, Joe Biden, to “do any and everything in your power to bring everyone home”.
An Israeli soldier captured by Hamas has been rescued from Gaza in an overnight operation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Ori Megidish, an army private, was freed on Sunday night, three weeks after she was abducted with more than 220 other hostages. After a medical check declared her healthy she was reunited with her family.
Israeli forces appear to be advancing on Gaza City in two directions. In the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli armour was operating close to the Mediterranean coast. Witness reports described Israeli tanks cutting the main north-south Salah al-Din road south of Gaza City and operating on the outskirts of the Zaytun district and Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City. The cutting of the key road, if confirmed, would suggest that Israeli forces are attempting to cut off Gaza City from the south, effectively isolating and laying siege to the urban sprawl that extends north all the way to Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia.
A total of 26 trucks containing food supplies and medical equipment have passed through the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Red Crescent said on Monday. Just 144 trucks have delivered supplies to the Palestinian humanitarian organisation since 7 October, it said.
Hundreds of patients are trapped inside al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza amid intense constant bombardment around the hospital, ActionAid warned. More than 12,000 displaced people are taking shelter in the hospital’s corridors and courtyards in addition to hundreds of patients who would not survive the journey south, it said.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continued to worsen, with insufficient water, food, medicine and fuel, aid agencies said. The international criminal court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said impeding aid could constitute a war crime and urged Israel to allow more trucks to enter.
The deepening IDF incursion into Gaza came amid dwindling Israeli public enthusiasm for a prolonged occupation. Support has fallen from 65% on 10 October to 46% now, according to a study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which has monitored the same sample of 1,774 people, with a 4.2% margin of error.
Israeli forces struck targets in Syria and Lebanon, in response to launches from those areas into Israel, the military said. In separate tweets, the IDF said an aircraft had attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory, including “infrastructures for directing terrorism and military infrastructures of the organisation”, and that a fighter jet had attacked launchers in Syrian territory.
Israel said it carried out an operation to “thwart terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which it claimed led to 51 people being arrested, of which it claimed 38 were operatives of Hamas.
The family of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli woman initially believed to have been kidnapped alive during Hamas’s assault on a music festival in Re’im, have said she died.
A Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli police officer before being shot dead in annexed East Jerusalem, close to the green line. Guardian correspondents about 200 metres from where the shooting took place heard two bursts of gunfire in quick succession and saw armed police, horses and sharp shooters on motorbikes converging on a nearby petrol station.
The Kremlin has said a mob that stormed a Dagestan airport in search of Jewish passengers from Israel on Sunday did so due to “outside influence”. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “ill-wishers” had used widely seen images of suffering in Gaza to stir up feeling in the predominantly Muslim region in the north Caucasus. Local health authorities said 20 people were injured in the incident in Makhachkala.
A British Conservative MP, Paul Bristow, has been sacked from his government job after breaking ranks to publicly urge Rishi Sunak to back a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian American boy and his mother pleaded not guilty on Monday after his indictment by an Illinois grand jury. Joseph Czuba, 71, is charged in the fatal stabbing of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and the wounding of his mother, Hanaan Shahin, on 14 October. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith.
Civil rights groups in the US have warned of a “wave of McCarthyite backlash” against criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza after Americans expressing support for the Palestinians have been sacked, faced threats of violence and hounded by pro-Israel groups.
Here is our video report after Israel forces announced the liberation of a hostage in Gaza. Ori Megidish, an Israel Defence Forces soldier, was freed during an escalating offensive in Gaza, the IDF said on Monday night. It said she had undergone medical checks and was doing well:
Aid system 'geared to fail' says UN
More now from Philippe Lazzarini.
“The system in place to allow aid into Gaza is geared to fail unless there is political will to make the flow of supplies meaningful, matching the unprecedented humanitarian needs,” Lazzarini said, calling for the Security Council to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies entered Gaza through Rafah on Sunday.
Prior to the war, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered Gaza every day.
In this opinion piece, addiction and trauma specialist Diane Young gives some advice for how to stay informed about this conflict while looking after your mental health.
The ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza has once again brought to the forefront the grim realities of war and its impact on innocent civilians. As we’re flooded with images and stories of destruction, suffering, and loss, it’s natural to feel a deep sense of sadness, empathy, helplessness and, of course, anger and dismay at what we are witnessing. Many are finding it increasingly challenging to balance their desire to stay informed with the emotional toll this crisis can take. Unfortunately, this can lead to secondary trauma.
Secondary trauma, also known as vicarious trauma, is a phenomenon where individuals experience symptoms of trauma as a result of witnessing or hearing about traumatic events happening to others, even if they aren’t directly involved. In the context of the Israel-Gaza crisis, secondary trauma can manifest as feelings of grief and extreme sadness, anxiety and depression, helplessness, and even physical symptoms like headaches or stomach aches.
For those trying to stay informed, the distressing images and videos can take a toll on their mental and emotional wellbeing. The line between being an informed and empathic global citizen and subjecting oneself to secondary trauma can be quite thin, and many of us find it difficult to turn away from the images flashing on our screens. We are in a state of disbelief.
So, how can you navigate this difficult terrain while staying informed without succumbing to secondary or vicarious trauma? Here are some strategies:
Lazzarini added that there is no place is safe in Gaza, and warned that a further breakdown of civil order in the territory would make it “extremely difficult if not impossible” to deliver more aid.
“Most of the people of Gaza felt abandoned. They feel the world is equating all of them to Hamas. This is dangerous – an entire population is being dehumanised. The atrocities of Hamas do not absolve the state of Israel from its obligations under international humanitarian law. Every war has rules and this one is no exception,” he said.
Updated
64 UNRWA staff among the thousands of people killed in Gaza
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general for the UN relief and works agency (UNRWA), has accused Israel of “collective punishment” of the people of Gaza, and of forcing their displacement from the north of the territory to the south – where they are still not safe.
More than 8,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel’s attack, who Lazzarini said included 64 UNRWA staff.
He said that a UN worker named Samir, as well Samir’s wife and eight children, were killed just hours before the meeting.
The Swiss-Italian official said:
My UNRWA colleagues are the only glimmer of hope for the entire Gaza Strip … but they are running out of fuel, water, food and medicine and will soon be unable to operate
Updated
Entire population of Gaza becoming ‘dehumanised’ says UN commissioner
The entire population of Gaza is becoming “dehumanised” the commissioner general for the main UN agency in Palestine has told the UN security council, adding that a ceasefire has become a matter of life and death for millions.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general for the UN relief and works agency (UNRWA) was one of three speakers to starkly describe the scale of the damage being inflicted on Gaza, as UN agencies piled pressure on the security council to set aside its divisions and back some form of immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The speakers detailed a breakdown in civil order, the loss of clean water and a death rate of children that matches the total number of children killed in conflict in the last four years.
The debate called by the United Arab Emirates was intended to build on the momentum created by Friday’s vote by the UN general assembly calling for a humanitarian truce, a vote seen as a way of shaming the superpowers to abandon their arguments for not backing a form of ceasefire.
Four previous draft UN security council resolutions on the crisis have been vetoed either by Russia or the US. Efforts are now being made by the 10 elected members of the security council – including Brazil, the current security council president – to frame a resolution that the five permanent members would feel forced to adopt.
Updated
Israel’s expansion of its ground operations in Gaza has complicated US efforts to secure the release of hostages being held in the Palestinian territory, according to a report.
A senior US official told CNN on Monday that they believed the prospects of getting hostages out could be described as “50/50”.
“The parameters are all there,” the official said about a potential deal, but efforts to negotiate with Hamas have been slow, they said.
A spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry told the outlet that Israel’s escalation on the ground is making the situation “considerably more difficult”.
Ongoing talks involving Israel, Qatar, Egypt, the US and Hamas have centered on freeing hostages in exchange for prisoners being held by Israel, according to a source.
They have also included getting Hamas to open the Rafah gates for dual nationals to get out of Gaza, they said.
Updated
Cyprus is doubling the capacity of its main migrant reception camp in preparation for a potentially large influx of people if the Israel-Gaza conflict escalates, according to authorities, Associated Press reported.
The Pournara reception camp on the outskirts of the capital, Nicosia, currently has a capacity of 1,153 people.
It will also receive an increase in staffing to adequately provide needed care to new arrivals and expedite asylum application processing, Cyprus’ interior minister Constantinos Ioannou said in a statement.
Updated
Turkey’s foreign ministry has condemned “in the strongest terms” what it said was an Israeli attack on a hospital in Gaza on Monday, Reuters reported.
In a statement, it said it had shared with Israeli authorities all of the “necessary information, including the coordinates” of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital. It added:
The siege and these inhumane attacks, which aim to deprive the Palestinian people in Gaza of their most basic rights, clearly violate international law.
It has not been possible to independently verify the Turkish ministry’s claims.
Updated
What is a human shield and how has Hamas been accused of using them?
In an audio recording released by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), a member of the military intelligence directorate can be heard calling a Palestinian man in Gaza to persuade him and his family to evacuate south towards Khan Younis.
But the recipient of the call complains that it is hard to comply with the Israeli warning because Hamas is blocking roads on the route south, and “just sending people back home”. The man adds that Hamas is shooting at Palestinians attempting to leave the area.
The audio is just one of numerous pieces of alleged evidence released by the IDF to support its claims that Hamas uses the civilian population of Gaza as human shields or operates in a way that shows flagrant disregard for civilian safety.
Here’s what you should know about Israel’s claim that Hamas is using human shields as a tactic in the current conflict, and in the previous war in 2014:
Updated
Three Palestinian rights groups have called on the prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC), Karim Khan, to issue arrest warrants for Israeli authorities and military personnel.
A joint statement by Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) came a day after Khan made an unannounced visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
Speaking after his visit on Sunday, Khan said Israel must make “discernible efforts, without further delay to make sure civilians receive basic foods, medicine”, adding that impeding relief supplies to Gaza’s population may constitute a crime under the ICC’s jurisdiction.
The three Palestinian rights groups said the decision to cut off supplies of water, food, electricity, medicine and fuel and the use of starvation as a method of war to collectively punish the people of Gaza “are both clear and blatant international crimes”.
These crimes were ordered and authorized by the Israeli government, including by the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and the Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water, Israel Kantz.
They said:
Accordingly, we call on the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to immediately issue arrest warrants for Israeli authorities and military personnel, and particularly for individuals responsible for perpetrating international crimes against children, in conformity with the OTP’s explicit policy.
Updated
Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip intensified on Monday, with Israeli tanks and infantry advancing on Gaza City from two directions in an apparent effort to cut the strip into two.
Updated
The UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) chief, Philippe Lazzarini, outlined a dire humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip, with medicines, food, water and fuel running out.
Lazzarini’s remarks at the UN security council came after an UNRWA official said four UN aid distribution centres and storage facility in Gaza had been put out of action due to “a breakdown of civil order”.
Tom White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, also said that a logistics base at the Rafah border crossing vital to aid distribution had become increasingly difficult to operate because 8,000 people were sheltering at it. He told Reuters:
Every day now we’ve got hundreds of people trying to get into the warehouses to steal flour. Right now people are in survival mode. It’s about getting enough flour and it’s about getting enough water.
Thousands of Gaza residents broke into UN warehouses on Sunday to seize flour and other items. Lazzarini said a communication blackout over the weekend had accelerated the breaking down of civil order in Gaza.
If that breakdown worsened, it “will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible” for the UN to continue operating in Gaza, he said.
Updated
Nearly 70% of those reported killed in Gaza are children and women, says UNRWA chief
The head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has warned that the level of destruction across Gaza “is unprecedented, the human tragedy unfolding under our watch is unbearable”.
Philippe Lazzarini, addressing the UN security council on Monday, said the “forced displacement” of people in Gaza as they are told to evacuate south by Israeli authorities has left more than 670,000 in overcrowded UNRWA schools and basements.
I have said many times and I will say it again: no place is safe in Gaza.
He noted that nearly 70% of those reported killed are children and women. Nearly 3,200 children have been killed in Gaza in three weeks, he said, citing figures by the territory’s health ministry. That number surpasses the number of children killed annually across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, he said.
“This cannot be ‘collateral damage’,” he said, adding that Israel is carrying out “collective punishment”.
Updated
Israeli tanks and infantry have advanced on Gaza City from two directions, with tanks reported to be on the main north-south road, in an apparent effort to cut the strip into two.
Here’s our video report:
Summary of the day so far
It’s nearly 11.30pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza, declaring “this is a time for war”. In a press conference conducted in English on Monday, the Israeli prime minister said the army’s advance through Gaza opened opportunities to free hostages, which Hamas would do only under pressure, he told a news conference.
The US does not believe a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is “the right answer” right now, the White House’s national security council spokesperson said. “We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now,” John Kirby said on Monday.
Hamas has released a video of three Israeli hostages in Gaza in an apparent effort to increase the pressure on Netanyahu’s government. Netanyahu’s office named the hostages as Daniel Aloni, Rimon Kirsht and Elena Trupanov. Their families held a press conference in Tel Aviv urging Red Cross to demand to see all of the hostages held in Gaza, and for the US president, Joe Biden, to “do any and everything in your power to bring everyone home”.
An Israeli soldier captured by Hamas has been rescued from Gaza in an overnight operation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Ori Megidish, an army private, was freed on Sunday night, three weeks after she was abducted with more than 220 other hostages. After a medical check declared her healthy she was reunited with her family, giving Israelis a rare image of joy.
Israeli forces appear to be advancing in two directions on Gaza City. In the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli armour was operating close to the Mediterranean coast. Witness reports described Israeli tanks cutting the main north-south Salah al-Din road south of Gaza City and operating on the outskirts of the Zaytun district and Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The cutting of the key road, if confirmed, would suggest that Israeli forces are attempting to cut off Gaza City from the south, effectively isolating and laying siege to the urban sprawl that extends north all the way to Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia.
A total of 26 trucks containing food supplies and medical equipment have passed through the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Red Crescent said on Monday. Just 144 trucks have delivered supplies to the Palestinian humanitarian organisation since 7 October, it said.
More than 8,300 Palestinians have been killed in the bombardment in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. One child is now being killed every 10 minutes in Gaza, according to Save the Children. The head of the UN’s children agency (Unicef) said more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day – “a number which should shake each of us to our core”.
Hundreds of patients are trapped inside al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza amid intense constant bombardment around the hospital, ActionAid warned. More than 12,000 displaced people are taking shelter in the hospital’s corridors and courtyards in addition to hundreds of patients who would not survive the journey south, it said.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continued to worsen with insufficient water, food, medicine and fuel, aid agencies said. The international criminal court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said impeding aid could constitute a war crime and urged Israel to allow more trucks to enter.
The deepening IDF incursion into Gaza came amid dwindling Israeli public enthusiasm for a prolonged occupation. Support has fallen from 65% on 10 October to 46% now, according to a study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which has monitored the same sample of 1,774 people, with a 4.2% margin of error.
Israeli forces struck targets in Syria and Lebanon, in response to launches from those areas into Israel, the military said. In separate tweets, the IDF said an aircraft had attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory, including “infrastructures for directing terrorism and military infrastructures of the organisation”, and that a fighter jet had attacked launchers in Syrian territory.
Israel said it carried out an operation to “thwart terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which it claimed led to 51 people being arrested, of which it claimed 38 were operatives of Hamas.
The family of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German Israeli woman initially believed to have been kidnapped alive during Hamas’s assault on a music festival in Re’im, have said she died.
A Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli police officer before being shot dead in annexed east Jerusalem, close to the green line. Guardian correspondents about 200 metres from where the shooting took place heard two bursts of gunfire in quick succession and saw armed police, horses and sharp shooters on motorbikes converging on a nearby petrol station.
The Kremlin has said a mob that stormed a Dagestan airport in search of Jewish passengers from Israel on Sunday did so due to “outside influence”. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “ill-wishers” had used widely seen images of suffering in Gaza to stir up feeling in the predominantly Muslim region in the north Caucasus. Local health authorities said 20 people were injured in the incident in Makhachkala.
A British Conservative MP, Paul Bristow, has been sacked from his government job after breaking ranks to publicly urge Rishi Sunak to back a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian American boy and his mother pleaded not guilty on Monday after his indictment by an Illinois grand jury. Joseph Czuba, 71, is charged in the fatal stabbing of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and the wounding of his mother, Hanaan Shahin, on 14 October. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith.
Civil rights groups in the US have warned of a “wave of McCarthyite backlash” against criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza after Americans expressing support for the Palestinians have been sacked, faced threats of violence and hounded by pro-Israel groups.
Updated
Unicef executive director Catherine Russell, at the UN’s security council on Monday, said the lack of clean water and safe sanitation is on the verge of becoming a catastrophe in Gaza.
More than two million people are in “dire need” as what little clean water remains in Gaza is quickly running out, she said.
We estimate that 55% of the water supply infrastructure requires repair or rehabilitation. Only one desalination plant is operating at just 5% capacity, while all six of Gaza’s water-waste treatment plants are now non-operational due to a lack of fuel or power.
She said her agency was doing its best to reach all children in need, but that the delivery of humanitarian aid is now “extremely challenging”.
Some of her staff have lost close family members, including spouses and children, she said. She added that she was also grieving with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), who have said that 63 of their staff have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.
The situation grows worse by the hour, and without an urgent end to the hostilities, I am deeply afraid for the fate of the region’s children.
More than 420 children killed or injured in Gaza every day, says Unicef
The head of the UN’s children agency (Unicef) said the “true cost” of the latest escalation in Gaza will be measured in children’s lives.
Unicef executive director Catherine Russell, addressing the UN’s security council on Monday, said:
More than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day – a number which should shake each of us to our core.
The number is “quickly adding up” with “rampant grave violations” being committed against children, she said. More than 3,400 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza and more than 6,300 children injured since 7 October, according to the territory’s health ministry.
In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, at least 37 children have reportedly been killed, she said.
US does not believe ceasefire is 'the right answer', says White House
The US does not believe a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is “the right answer” right now, the White House’s national security council spokesperson said.
Asked about the US position on a ceasefire after it voted against a motion calling for a sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, John Kirby said:
We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now.
The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith, reports:
Kirby: "We do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer right now. We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas and Hamas is the only one that would gain... What we have said is temporary localised humanitarian pauses."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) October 30, 2023
The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency visited Qatar to meet with senior officials to discuss Qatari efforts in trying to secure the release of hostages in Gaza, according to a report.
David Barnea travelled to Doha over the weekend to resume hostage talks after Israel’s war cabinet gave the green light to an expanded ground operation in Gaza, Axios reported, citing sources.
The talks were described as positive and constructive but have not resulted in a breakthrough, the report said. Progress had been made, according to one source.
Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza, declaring “this is a time for war”, as he hailed the rescue of a hostage as evidence that Israel’s military offensive can free Israeli captives while delivering crushing blows to Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister congratulated the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and security agency Shin Bet for freeing Ori Megidish, an army private, but Israeli joy was tempered by a Hamas video of three other captives that remain in captivity.
Megidish was freed on Sunday night, three weeks after she was abducted with more than 220 other hostages, amid Israel’s escalating ground operation in Gaza. After a medical check declared her healthy she was reunited with her family, giving Israelis a rare image of joy.
The moment Ori Megidish, who was kidnapped by Hamas on 7/10 was reunited with her grandmother ❤️
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) October 30, 2023
We will do everything we can to bring the rest of our families home. #BringThemHomepic.twitter.com/ir4h3a86Up
The rescue of Megidish bolstered the government’s claim that it can simultaneously wage war and free hostages. However many hostage relatives favour accepting a Hamas offer to swap them for around 5,000 Palestinians, including Islamist militants, in Israeli prisons.
The Israeli government has rejected the offer. The strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, said if there was a proposal to release the hostages the government would consider a “temporary pause” in hostilities to extract them safely.
Canada’s foreign minister reiterated a call for a humanitarian pause in Gaza in order to get Canadians and hostages out.
About 400 Canadians are trapped in Gaza “living in fear and despair”, Mélanie Joly said in a speech in Toronto on Monday, Reuters reported.
Time is running out. We need an agreement from all parties to get foreign nationals out, including Canadians. To release all hostages. And to allow food, fuel and water into Gaza.
One child is now being killed every 10 minutes in Gaza, according to Save the Children.
Out of the 20,000 civilians that had been injured, one in three of them was a child, the charity’s Palestine director, Jason Lee, told the BBC. He said:
Surgeons are doing surgeries without anaesthetic, people are using mobile phones as flashlights to have lights in health facilities.
Overcrowded conditions and a lack of hygiene practices were resulting in a rise in communicable diseases, he added, citing a concern over the spread of influenza.
Updated
The UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, has described the demonstrators taking to the streets in support of a ceasefire in Gaza as being involved in “hate marches”.
In words that will anger some peace campaigners, Braverman said “tens of thousands of people” had taken to the streets and had “chanted for the erasure of Israel from the map”.
Speaking after a Cobra meeting chaired by Rishi Sunak, Braverman said:
We’ve seen now tens of thousands of people take to the streets following the massacre of Jewish people, the single largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, chanting for the erasure of Israel from the map. To my mind there is only one way to describe those marches: they are hate marches.
Her words appear to be a reference to the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. The slogan has been used for decades by pro-Palestinian campaigners and refers to the territory between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea in historic Palestine. Some supporters of Israel have said it, in effect, calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Israelis.
Benjamin Netanyahu was photographed visiting an Israeli police unit at an undisclosed location on Monday.
The Israeli prime minister, speaking in a press conference earlier today, ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza and said “this is a time for war”.
Putin accused Ukraine and western people of being behind an anti-Israel riot at Dagestan’s Makhachkala airport on Sunday, with the US calling the accusation ridiculous, AFP reports.
Putin accused “social networks” from Ukraine and “western special services” of instigating Sunday’s riot.
“The events in Makhachkala last night were instigated through social networks, not least from Ukraine, by the hands of agents of western special services,” Putin said during a televised address on Monday.
“Who is organising the deadly chaos and who benefits from it today, in my opinion, has already become obvious ... It is the current ruling elites of the US and their satellites who are the main beneficiaries of world instability,” Putin added.
More than 80 people in Dagestan were detained after attempting to surround an airplane that had flown in from Israel.
US officials have called such allegations “absurd”.
“I’ve seen their comments about blaming Ukraine. That is absurd,” a state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said to reporters on Monday.
Miller added that Putin should publicly denounce the riots.
Updated
Pregnant women are being forced to go without anaesthesia for emergency procedures as medical supplies in Gaza are running out, a spokesperson with Care West Bank reports.
Hiba Tibi, Care West Bank’s Gaza country director and a spokesperson for the humanitarian organization, said she was “devastated” by reports of declining medical care in Gaza.
“I am completely devastated by the reports we are receiving from the doctors we work with in Gaza. Pregnant women are being forced to undergo emergency C-sections without anaesthetics,” Tibi said in a statement.
“I can only imagine how afraid these women are, for themselves and their babies, all while suffering in unbearable pain,” she said.
Tibi added that over 100 infants are in incubator machines, but the fuel needed for hospital generators is running out.
“Due to the electricity blackout, hospitals rely on fuel for their generators, but now this is running out too. There are around 130 newborn infants in incubators and these cannot operate without electricity,” Tibi said.
Other critical supplies including clean water, blood and infant formula are running out as well, Tibi addd.
“Over one-third of hospitals in Gaza and nearly two-thirds of primary healthcare clinics have shut down due to damage or lack of fuel,” she said.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke with the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Monday about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to a state department spokesperson.
From state department spokesperson Matthew Miller:
… Secretary Blinken and Prime Minister Al Thani discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza amid Israeli military operations following Hamas’s horrific and ongoing terrorist attacks.
The secretary reiterated his thanks to the Qatari government for its work to secure the exit of US citizens and foreign nationals from Gaza, the release of hostages held by Hamas, including two American citizens, and continued efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading.
The secretary and the prime minister discussed the vital importance of protecting all civilian lives and providing sustained humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people.
Updated
26 aid trucks cross Rafah border
A total of 26 trucks containing food supplies and medical equipment have passed through the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Red Crescent said on Monday.
Just 144 trucks have delivered supplies to the Palestinian humanitarian organisation since 7 October, it said.
Updated
During the Tel Aviv press conference held by the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza, a man who said he was friends with Elena Trupanov said the hostages video released by Hamas was the first proof of life her family had received since she was taken.
“We are so happy that Elena is alive,” he said. He urged the Red Cross to conduct a medical check on her immediately.
At the same time, there are still 239 people that are being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza right now … 24 days have already passed. How is that possible? How are they not freed?
He urged the US president, Joe Biden, to “do any and everything in your power to bring everyone home.”
They are not just hostages … They are real people with beating hearts waiting to be freed. Time is running out, but it’s not too late to save lives.
Updated
The US is suspending charter flights for Americans out of Israel on Tuesday due to a lack of demand, a state department spokesperson said.
The last planned charter flight out of Israel will leave on Tuesday from Tel Aviv, Matt Miller said.
Hundreds of patients are trapped inside al-Quds Hospital in northern Gaza amid intense constant bombardment around the hospital, an international charity has warned.
More than 12,000 displaced people are taking shelter in the hospital’s corridors and courtyards in addition to hundreds of patients who would not survive the journey south, ActionAid said.
“How can people – babies on incubators, the elderly, and those on mechanical ventilation - be expected to evacuate a hospital that has been under constant bombardment?” Riham Jafari, communications and advocacy coordinatory at ActionAid Palestine, said in a statement.
How can doctors, working around the clock to keep patients alive be expected to follow these orders? With patients’ lives on the line, doctors do not want to leave thousands of patients without lifesaving care. Leaving Al-Quds would mean life support machines would lose power and many lives would be lost.
She welcomed the scaling up of aid into Gaza but said that that the air “that is trickling inn is not keeping up with the pace that is needed”.
Under constant bombardment, aid supplies cannot get to hospitals as roads have been destroyed. Once again, we’re calling for a ceasefire so that hospitals and life support machines can keep running.”
Updated
Avital Kirsht Buchshtov, the mother of Rimon Kirsht, another of the women seen in the Hamas hostage video, said she was worried to see her daughter was without her glasses in the video. “She needs her glasses,” she said. “She cannot see anything.”
Speaking in a press conference from Tel Aviv, she said:
I do not wish upon any mother to go through what we’ve been going through over these past 24 days.
She appealed to the Israeli prime minister and government to do everything they can “until the whole world know what’s being done … to our children and all the other hostages”.
Updated
Families of hostages in Hamas video condemn 'crime against humanity'
The families of three Israeli hostages who appeared in a video released by Hamas held a press conference in Tel Aviv after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the video as “cruel psychological propaganda”.
The women who appeared in the video have been named as Danielle Aloni, Rimon Kirsht and Elena Trupanov. They were likely to have done so under duress.
Remus Aloni, father of Danielle, said his heart “nearly stopped beating” when he saw her picture on television. His other daughter, Sharon, and three of his grandchildren were also taken hostage.
He appealed to the Red Cross to demand to see all of the hostages held in Gaza, and to demand for a doctor to see them all. He urged the Emir of Qatar to “make every possible effort to bring them home”, adding that holding women, children and the elderly captive “is a crime against humanity”.
I’d like to say to Danielle and Sharon – girls, we see you. We love you. We hear you. We are thinking about you every minute, every second. Everything we do, we’re constantly thinking about you and we’re going to bring you back home.
Updated
A British Conservative MP has been sacked from his government job after breaking ranks to publicly urge Rishi Sunak to back a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Paul Bristow was dismissed as a ministerial aide at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on Monday after writing to the prime minister to call for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas to save lives.
Sunak last week urged a pause in fighting in Gaza to allow more humanitarian aid to safely reach those without food, water or medicine but he has stopped short of pushing for a full ceasefire.
Bristow, who No 10 said had been sacked because his comments “were not consistent with the principles of collective responsibility”, becomes the first frontbencher on either side of the Commons to lose their job over calling for an end to hostilities.
In a two-page letter to the prime minister last week, Bristow said Palestinian civilians in Gaza were facing a “collective punishment” as a result of Israel’s siege and airstrikes in the wake of the Hamas attack on 7 October that killed more than 1,400 Israelis. He wrote:
A permanent ceasefire would save lives and allow for a continued column of humanitarian aid [to] reach the people who need it the most.
Asked if Israel is inflicting collective punishment on the people of Palestine, Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas is preventing civilians in northern Gaza from leaving and forcing them into areas of conflict.
“Not a single civilian has to die,” the Israeli prime minister says. He adds:
We’re going out of our way to prevent civilian casualties, not only by asking civilians to move, calling them to move, arranging a place for them to be which is safe, also putting in humanitarian support, providing them with the means with food, with water, with medicine.
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Netanyahu says the 'only thing he will resign is Hamas'
Benjamin Netanyahu is asked if he has considered stepping down as Israel’s prime minister, amid waning public support.
“The only thing that I intend to resign is Hamas,” he replies.
We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history. That’s my goal. That’s my responsibility. That’s what I’m leading the country to do. This is my responsibility now.
Updated
Netanyahu: Israel 'committed to getting all the hostages back home'
Benjamin Netanyahu says the Israeli military and security forces have reached a common assessment that Hamas will not release hostages “unless they are under pressure”.
The Israeli prime minister says ground action “actually creates the possibility” of getting hostages out because Hamas “will only do it under pressure. This creates pressure.” He adds:
We’re committed to getting all the hostages back home. We think that this method stands a chance. It’s a goal that we’re committed to.
Netanyahu: Israel will not agree to ceasefire in Gaza, adding 'this is a time for war'
Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking now at a briefing, where he describes the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October as a “turning point” for leaders and nations.
The Israeli prime minister, speaking in English, says it is time “to decide if we are willing to fight for a future of hope and promise, or surrender to tyranny and terror”.
Israel “did not start this war” but it will win this war, he says. “Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory,” he says.
He says he wants to make clear Israel’s position regarding a ceasefire in Gaza:
Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 911, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7.
Calls for a ceasefire are a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen.
The Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war.
Updated
As Israel launched its heaviest bombardment of the war so far over the weekend, a communications blackout in Gaza meant Palestinians could not communicate via phone or internet with each other, aid groups or the rest of the world.
Paltel Group, a Palestinian company that is a major internet provider in the region, said in a post on X on Sunday that landline, mobile and internet services were gradually being restored in the Gaza Strip as its technical teams worked to address the “damage to the internal network infrastructure under challenging conditions”.
Mona Shtaya, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy focusing on digital rights, said the communications shutdown “aims to control the narrative, but Israel’s control of services contributes to silencing Palestinian voices”.
The communication blackout is not the start of Gaza’s connectivity crisis but rather the most recent example in decades of challenges for communications in the region.
The information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure in Palestine largely relies on the Israeli government. Restrictions placed by the Israeli authorities on Palestinian cellular providers upgrading their networks has meant that for years Palestinians have had to rely on much slower connections than those in Israel. To get around this, many Palestinians use Israeli sim cards to get service.
According to a report by 7amleh, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, since the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, Israel has taken complete control of ICT infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza, which has prevented Palestinians from being able to independently to run their own services.
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian woman, recounts another day in Gaza in her diary for the Guardian:
3.55am I am barely able to sleep. My body is aching. I cannot even determine which part is in more pain than the other. I am just exhausted.
“The connection is back! The connection is back!” I hear these words coming from my sister who is sleeping on the couch. In less than two seconds, I am up, my phone in hand, checking to see if what she says is correct. The connection is really back.
My adrenaline kicks in and suddenly my sister and I – and the host family members outside – start sending messages and calling our loved ones.
“I thought I would never hear your voice again,” my friend tells me, crying. She says my call is the best one she has ever received in her whole life. I know she has received better ones, but I can imagine the fear she and all our loved ones must have felt.
Checking my WhatsApp, I find many messages starting with: “Even though I know you cannot read my message, I want to tell you that … ” from many people. Some mention how much they love me, others how scared they are, and others speak of seeing me after the whole thing is over. I reply to all of them.
My other friend, even after talking over the phone, keeps sending me messages. We speak about how worried we are feeling. Then, at the end, I send her a message: “Regardless of everything. I am extremely grateful that the connection is back. The situation hasn’t changed, and our misery is ongoing … but the connection is back!”
Updated
A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian American boy and his mother pleaded not guilty on Monday after his indictment by an Illinois grand jury.
Joseph Czuba, 71, is charged in the fatal stabbing of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and the wounding of his mother, Hanaan Shahin, on 14 October. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith.
Shahin told police that Czuba, her landlord in Plainfield, in Will county, was upset over the Israel-Hamas war and attacked them even as she urged him to “pray for peace”.
Shahin, 32, is recovering from multiple stab wounds. Hundreds of people attended her son’s funeral on 16 October.
Updated
The office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has released a photograph of an Israeli soldier, Ori Megidish, who it said was released from captivity after a military operation in Gaza.
She is home.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 30, 2023
PVT Megidish was abducted by Hamas on October 7. Tonight, she was released during IDF ground operations.
Ori is now home with her family. pic.twitter.com/ZiEs3UrWMI
Updated
Israeli soldier hostage rescued from Gaza, says IDF
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet security agency have said a soldier captured by Hamas has been rescued from Gaza in an overnight operation.
The military said the soldier, named as Ori Megidish, had been kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.
In a joint statement, the IDF and Shin Bet said Megidish had undergone medical checks and was “doing well”. It did not give details on the circumstances of her release.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s nearly 7pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where we stand:
Hamas has released a video of three Israeli hostages in Gaza in an apparent effort to increase the pressure on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The women who appeared in the video are likely to have been filmed under duress. Netanyahu’s office named the hostages as Daniel Aloni, Rimon Kirsht and Elena Trupanov.
Israeli forces appear to be advancing in two directions on Gaza City. In the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli armour was operating close to the Mediterranean coast. Witness reports described Israeli tanks cutting the main north-south Salah al-Din road south of Gaza City and operating on the outskirts of the Zaytun district and Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The cutting of the key road, if confirmed, would suggest that Israeli forces are attempting to cut off Gaza City from the south, effectively isolating and laying siege to the urban sprawl that extends north all the way to Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia.
More than 8,300 Palestinians have been killed in the bombardment in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. More children have been killed in Gaza in the past three weeks than the total killed in conflicts around the world in every year since 2019, Save the Children said.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continued to worsen with insufficient water, food, medicine and fuel, aid agencies said. The international criminal court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said impeding aid could constitute a war crime and urged Israel to allow more trucks to enter.
The UK is working on a humanitarian pause to get aid to the people of Gaza, the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said on Monday. “We’re working extensively with the Egyptians, with the Israelis and others to try and have a humanitarian pause, a temporary pause so that we can get that humanitarian aid to the people that need it,” he said during a visit to Abu Dhabi.
Another 33 aid trucks were allowed to pass into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, according to a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing. It was the largest number of aid trucks to cross in a day since the conflict began, but humanitarian workers said the assistance still fell desperately short of what was needed.
The deepening IDF incursion into Gaza came amid dwindling Israeli public enthusiasm for a prolonged occupation. Support has fallen from 65% on 10 October to 46% now, according to a study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which has monitored the same sample of 1,774 people, with a 4.2% margin of error.
Israeli forces struck targets in Syria and Lebanon, in response to launches from those areas into Israel, the military said. In separate tweets, the IDF said an aircraft had attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory, including “infrastructures for directing terrorism and military infrastructures of the organisation”, and that a fighter jet had attacked launchers in Syrian territory.
Israel said it carried out an operation to “thwart terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which it claimed led to 51 people being arrested, of which it claimed 38 were operatives of Hamas.
The family of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German Israeli initially believed to have been kidnapped alive during Hamas’s assault on a music festival in Re’im, have said she died.
A Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli police officer before being shot dead in annexed east Jerusalem, close to the green line. Guardian correspondents about 200 metres from where the shooting took place heard two bursts of gunfire in quick succession and saw armed police, horses and sharp shooters on motorbikes converging on a nearby petrol station.
The Kremlin has said a mob that stormed a Dagestan airport in search of Jewish passengers from Israel on Sunday did so due to “outside influence”. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “ill-wishers” had used widely seen images of suffering in Gaza to stir up feeling in the predominantly Muslim region in the north Caucasus. Local health authorities said 20 people were injured in the incident in Makhachkala.
Civil rights groups in the US have warned of a “wave of McCarthyite backlash” against criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza after Americans expressing support for the Palestinians have been sacked, faced threats of violence and hounded by pro-Israel groups.
France’s interior ministry said this weekend that 719 antisemitic acts had been recorded in the three weeks since 7 October, the date of the Hamas attacks on Israel, compared with 436 for the whole of 2022.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. You can contact me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
The 76-second clip released by Hamas shows the three Israeli hostages seated together on plastic chairs in front of a tiled wall, facing the camera. They bear no visible signs of injury.
Only the one in the centre speaks. Gazing directly at the camera, she says they have been in captivity for 23 days, suggesting the video was filmed on Sunday or Monday, just over three weeks since Hamas militants stormed southern Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people and abducting more than 220.
Addressing Netanyahu directly, the woman accuses the Israeli government of leaving her community defenceless during the Hamas attack. “We are getting punished for your political, national neglect,” she says. “Nobody came. Nobody heard us.”
She says there was supposed to be a ceasefire.
We are innocent citizens. Citizens who pay taxes to the state of Israel. You want to kill us all. You want to kill us all using the IDF.
She pleads for an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Let their citizens go, let their prisoners go. Free us. Free all of us. Let us return to our families now!
At the end, she screams “now” several times.
The other two remain largely silent. One avoids looking at the camera and the other casts sporadic glances at it.
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an estimated 5,000 Palestinians incarcerated in Israel. Netanyahu has rejected an immediate swap and said the offensive in Gaza would put pressure on Hamas to make concessions.
The prime minister condemned the video and vowed to do everything possible to bring hostages homes. In a comment addressed to the three women, he said: “Our heart is with you.”
Updated
Hamas releases video of hostages to ‘send message’ to Netanyahu
Hamas has released a video of three Israeli hostages in Gaza in an apparent effort to increase the pressure on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The group’s military wing disseminated the clip via social media on Monday as the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) continued to bomb the territory and advanced on Gaza City.
The women who appeared in the video were likely to have been filmed under duress. The Geneva convention prohibits the taking of hostages.
The video description provided by Hamas said:
A number of Zionist prisoners held by Al-Qassam send a message to Netanyahu and the Zionist government.
Netanyahu condemned the video as “cruel psychological propaganda”. His office named the women as Daniel Aloni, Rimon Kirsht and Elena Trupanov. “I embrace you,” said the prime minister.
Our hearts are with you and the other captives.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an umbrella group for families of abductees, said the three women’s relatives would give a press conference in Tel Aviv later on Monday.
Updated
Amos Yadlin, a former head of Aman, the IDF intelligence directorate, spoke earlier on BBC radio and suggested that any Israeli plan for an incursion into Gaza would cause significant damage. In words that might also be taken as a warning for other capital cities in the region, he said:
Everybody in the Middle East will understand that if you will kill Israeli children and women, its capital is going to be destroyed, and the organisation that controls this capital is going to not exist. This is what Israel is planning.
Updated
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said the death of the German-Israeli woman Shani Louk showed what he called the barbarism of Hamas and the need to hold them to account.
“For me, this news is terrible,” Scholz said, according to Reuters. “This shows all the barbarism that lies behind Hamas.”
Updated
Here is a map from our graphics team illustrating where Israeli tanks were sighted by witnesses on Monday morning inside the Gaza Strip.
Updated
AP reports that the Lebanese army says its troops have discovered 21 launchers on its side of the blue line near northern Israel, and dismantled them. It said one of them was equipped with a rocket ready to be fired.
The army’s statement came as the militant Hezbollah group said its gunmen had attacked two Israeli posts on Monday, including one on the edge of the town of Metula, destroying “technical equipment”.
The Israel Defence Forces earlier said they were again returning fire into Lebanon after coming under attack.
The blue line has marked the boundary between Israel and Lebanon since it was drawn by the UN in 2000.
Updated
Civil rights groups in the US have warned of a “wave of McCarthyite backlash” against criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza after Americans expressing support for the Palestinians have been sacked, faced threats of violence and hounded by pro-Israel groups.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has warned of the “continued criminalisation of advocacy for Palestinian rights” and described an “increasing tide of anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab attacks in the US” following the Hamas cross-border attack in which about 1,400 Israelis were killed and more than 200 abducted.
Palestine Legal, a Chicago-based civil rights group, said it had received hundreds of requests for legal assistance from people who have lost their jobs, been threatened with dismissal or faced other sanctions for speaking out in support of Palestinians.
Read more of Chris McGreal’s report here: ‘McCarthyite backlash’ – response to criticism of Israel alarms rights groups
Updated
The president of Russia’s Federation of Jewish Communities has called on the authorities to find and harshly punish the participants and organisers of an antisemitic riot in Dagestan on Sunday.
In a statement, Rabbi Alexander Boroda said a riot that greeted the arrival of a plane from Tel Aviv at Makhachkala airport “undermined the basic foundations of our multicultural and multinational state”.
Reuters reports that Boroda said Dagestani authorities had not been prepared for the riot, in which 60 people were arrested and at least 20 injured. Earlier today, the Kremlin blamed “outside influence” for the incident.
Updated
The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said Israel is again returning fire into Lebanon after Israeli positions in northern Israel were fired upon. He reported there were no Israeli casualites.
Here are some images from the scenes today in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where funerals have been taking place for four men killed by Israeli forces.
The Palestinian health ministry said the four people, aged 23 to 28, were killed during an early morning raid on the Jenin refugee camp. The AP reports that Israel said its warplanes carried out airstrikes on Monday against militants clashing with its forces in the Jenin refugee camp. Hamas said four of its fighters were killed there.
Updated
Israeli forces reported to be advancing in two directions around Gaza City
Peter Beaumont is in Jerusalem for the Guardian:
Israeli forces appear to be advancing in two directions around Gaza City, according to reports in the Hebrew media, statements from Hamas and Palestinian witness accounts.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli armour was reported to be operating close to the Mediterranean coast, while Hamas said it was engaged in “heavy fighting … with the invading occupation force” in northern Gaza.
Separately, witness reports from inside Gaza described Israeli tanks cutting the main north-south Salah al-Din road south of Gaza City and operating on the outskirts of the Zaytoun and Shajaiya neighbourhoods of Gaza City.
Palestinian witnesses told the AFP news agency that tanks were seen in the Zaytun district on the outskirts of Gaza City.
“They have cut the Salah al-Din road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it,” said one resident.
If confirmed, the cutting of the key road would suggest that Israeli forces are attempting to cut off Gaza City from the south, in effect isolating and laying siege to the urban sprawl that extends north all the way to Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia.
Updated
Peter Beaumont is in Jerusalem for the Guardian and has this report on the confirmed death of Shani Louk:
A young Israeli-German woman whose fate became indelibly associated around the globe with the Hamas massacre and mass kidnapping rampage of 7 October died during the attack, her family has said.
Shani Louk, 22, was initially believed to have been kidnapped alive during Hamas’s assault on a music festival in Re’im, after she was paraded semi-naked through Gaza, apparently unconscious on the back of a pickup truck.
On Monday, however, Louk’s sister Adi confirmed that Shani had died, probably during the attack, after the discovery of human remains that suggested injuries that would not have been survivable.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of my sister, Shani Nicole Z.L. , who was on October 7, 2023, at the party massacre in Re’im,” Adi wrote on Instagram.
In a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the Israeli foreign ministry said Louk had experienced “unfathomable horrors”.
Louk was seen in footage shared on the day of the attack lying motionless in the back of a vehicle after being seized and brought into Gaza.
Initially, Louk’s mother, Ricarda, said she believed her daughter was alive and being held in a hospital in Gaza, but she informed German television on Sunday that her daughter was no longer alive.
According to reports in the German and Israeli media, a cousin of Louk’s said the family received an official notice from the Israel Defence Forces and the voluntary emergency response organisation Zaka that a bone from the base of Louk’s skull had been found and matched with Louk’s DNA.
Doctors determined that a person could not live without the found bone and concluded that Louk could not possibly still be alive. The determination of death was conducted by the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Read more of Peter Beaumont’s report from Jerusalem here: Family of Shani Louk, who was caught up in Hamas rampage, confirm she is dead
Updated
A Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli police officer before being shot dead in annexed east Jerusalem, close to the green line.
Guardian correspondents about 200 metres from where the shooting took place heard two bursts of gunfire in quick succession and saw armed police, horses and sharp shooters on motorbikes converging on a nearby petrol station.
“A terrorist from east Jerusalem armed with a knife arrived at the Mandelbaum gas station in Jerusalem,” police said later in a statement.
“The terrorist stabbed a border police officer, and after grabbing his gun and trying to shoot it, fled the scene.
“Border police officers at the scene neutralised the terrorist with gunfire,” they said, without giving the attacker’s identity.
Shaare Zedek hospital said it received a man in his 30s who had sustained “stab wounds to the torso”, describing his condition as “serious but stable”.
Updated
Rory Carroll reports from Jerusalem:
Israeli tanks have reached the outskirts of Gaza City and cut off a road that connects north and south of the territory, signalling a potential effort to surround its main city.
Witnesses said tanks entered the Zaytun district on Monday morning and posted footage of what appeared to be the shelling of a car. “They have cut the Salah al-Din road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it,” said one resident, Agence France-Presse reported.
Hamas fighters were attempting to block the incursion, Hazem Qasem, a Hamas spokesperson, told reporters. “The Palestinian resistance attacked the Israeli tanks in Salah al-Din street.” The area is about 2 miles from the Gaza fence.
The Israel Defence Forces were “gradually moving ahead according to plan”, the IDF’s chief military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, told a press briefing, adding that the IDF had killed dozens of Hamas militants in overnight clashes and struck more than 600 “terror targets”, including weapons depots and anti-tank missile launching positions, in recent days.
The bombardment has killed more than 8,300 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. More children have been killed in Gaza in the past three weeks than the total killed in conflicts around the world in every year since 2019, Save the Children said.
Read more of Rory Caroll’s report here: Israeli tanks on outskirts of Gaza City with key road cut
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 2pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of the main news so far today …
Israel is “gradually moving ahead according to plan” in the Gaza Strip, the chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said during a regular press briefing on Monday. The Israeli air force said it had struck 600 targets in the last day.
Israeli forces also struck targets in Syria and Lebanon, in response to launches from those areas into Israel, the military said. In separate tweets, the IDF said an aircraft had attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory, including “infrastructures for directing terrorism and military infrastructures of the organisation”, and that a fighter jet had attacked launchers in Syrian territory.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has issued updated casualty figures, claiming that since Israel began its strikes on 7 October it has killed 8,306 Palestinians, including 3,457 children. Israel began its latest military campaign after the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October which killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
Shani Louk, a German-Israeli who was captured from a music festival in southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas, has been confirmed dead by Israel’s foreign ministry. In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted her mother as saying that her daughter’s body had not yet been found but a splinter of a skull bone had been found and a DNA sample taken that had led to the identification. A widely seen video from 7 October had shown Louk unconscious in the back of a truck.
Israel said it carried out an operation to “thwart terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which it claimed led to 51 people being arrested, of which it claimed 38 were operatives of Hamas.
Another 33 aid trucks were allowed to pass into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, according to a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing. It was the largest number of aid trucks to cross in a day since the conflict began, but humanitarian workers said the assistance still fell desperately short of what was needed.
The Kremlin has said a mob that stormed a Dagestan airport in search of Jewish passengers from Israel on Sunday did so due to “outside influence”. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “ill-wishers” had used widely seen images of suffering in Gaza to stir up feeling in the predominantly Muslim region in the north Caucasus. Local health authorities said 20 people were injured in the incident in Makhachkala. Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting on Monday that the Kremlin said was to “discuss the west’s attempts to use events in the Middle East to split Russian society”.
South Africa called for the UN to deploy a rapid protection force to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip from further bombardment.
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said on Monday that the UK was working on a humanitarian pause to get aid to the people of Gaza. “We’re working extensively with the Egyptians, with the Israelis and others to try and have a humanitarian pause, a temporary pause so that we can get that humanitarian aid to the people that need it,” he said during a visit to Abu Dhabi.
France’s interior ministry said this weekend that 719 antisemitic acts had been recorded in the three weeks since 7 October, the date of the Hamas attacks on Israel, compared with 436 for the whole of 2022.
Updated
The French interior ministry said this weekend that 719 antisemitic acts had been recorded in France in the three weeks since 7 October, the date of the Hamas attacks on Israel, compared with 436 for the whole of 2022.
The ministry said 389 arrests had been made between 7 and 27 October. It gave no further details on the people involved or the nature of the acts, which can include verbal aggression.
France, which has Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, has deployed 7,000 additional troops and stepped up security at hundreds of Jewish schools, synagogues and other places across the country since the start of the conflict.
Violence in the Middle East has frequently led to an uptick in antisemitic acts in France since the year 2000 and the start of the second intifada, authorities say, with surges recorded in 2004, 2014 and 2015.
The Guardian’s Europe live blog today with Lili Bayer in Brussels is looking at antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe. You can find that here:
Updated
Israel’s foreign ministry has deleted the message it posted earlier stating that Shani Louk had been confirmed dead [See 10.41pm], replacing it with one that still confirms her death but no longer mentions her body being found. German media reports earlier had suggested that her remains had been identified via DNA.
We are devastated to share that the death of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani Luk was confirmed.
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 30, 2023
Shani who was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, experienced unfathomable horrors.
Our hearts are broken 💔.
May her memory… pic.twitter.com/svSArX3XSx
Updated
South Africa calls for UN to deploy rapid protection force to protect civilians in Gaza
South Africa on Monday called for the UN to deploy a rapid protection force to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip from further bombardment as Israel steps up its attacks.
“Entire generations of families have been wiped out in Gaza over the last three weeks,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “The numbers of non-combatants killed, especially the numbers of children killed, requires that the world show that it is serious about global accountability,” it continued.
Reuters notes that in calling for a protection force, South Africa has gone further in its support for the Palestinians than most nations, some of which have called for a ceasefire, some of which have called for a “humanitarian pause” in hostilities.
The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is among those who have previously offered to help mediate in the conflict. South Africa also said earlier this month that its foreign minister had held a call with the leader of Hamas about getting aid into Gaza, while underlining that it did not support the group.
Updated
Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says 8,306 Palestinians killed by Israel, including 3,457 children
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has issued updated casualty figures, claiming that since Israel began its retaliatory strikes on 7 October it has killed 8,306 Palestinians, including 3,457 children.
Israel began airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October which killed more than 1,400 Israelis, chiefly civilians, including at a music festival and in kibbutz communities near the border with Gaza. Hamas seized more than 220 hostages during the attack.
The Hamas claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Israel confirms German-Israeli Shani Louk has been confirmed dead, murdered by Hamas
Shani Louk, a German-Israeli who was captured from a music festival in southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas, has been confirmed dead by Israel’s foreign ministry.
In a message posted to social media, it wrote:
We are devastated to share that the body of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani Luk was found and identified. Shani who was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, experienced unfathomable horrors. Our thoughts and prayer are with Shani’s friends and family during this unimaginable nightmare. May her memory be a blessing.
We are devastated to share that the body of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani Luk was found and identified.
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 30, 2023
Shani who was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, experienced unfathomable horrors.
Our thoughts and prayer are with… pic.twitter.com/prvcHPOif3
In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung had earlier today quoted her mother, Ricarda Louk, as saying that her daughter’s body had not yet been found but a splinter of a skull bone had been found and a DNA sample taken that had led to the identification. Louk said she now assumed that her daughter had been dead since 7 October.
Initially, the paper reports, Louk’s family assumed the young woman was seriously injured but alive and a hostage of Hamas. Her family has been actively campaigning for the release of all hostages.
Louk had attended the Supernova festival, and on the day of the attack her mother told the media “This morning my daughter, Shani Nicole Louk, a German citizen, was kidnapped with a group of tourists in southern Israel by Palestinian Hamas. We were sent a video in which I could clearly see our daughter unconscious in the car with the Palestinians and them driving around the Gaza Strip.”
UPDATE: Israel’s foreign ministry subsequently deleted this message, and posted one which no longer mentioned her body as being found [See 11.37 GMT]
Updated
Kremlin: 'outside influence' to blame for Dagestan mob, Putin to hold meeting on 'west's attempts to split Russian society'
The Kremlin appears to be positioning itself to say that the mob that stormed a Dagestan airport in search of Jewish passengers from Israel on Sunday did so due to “outside influence”.
Reuters reports that in his daily call with reporters, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “ill-wishers” had used widely seen images of suffering in Gaza to stir up people in the predominantly Muslim region in the north Caucasus.
Local health authorities said 20 people had been injured in the incident in Makhachkala, including two who were critical. The RIA news agency said nine police officers had received injuries. Sixty people were later detained, according to media reports.
Tass reports that following the events in Makhachkala, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will hold a meeting to “discuss western attempts to split Russian society”.
It quotes Peskov as saying: “Putin plans to hold a large representative meeting today at approximately 7pm Moscow time and discuss the west’s attempts to use events in the Middle East to split Russian society. A detailed conversation will take place.”
Peskov said the head of the intelligence services and the defence minister would attend.
Updated
The Israeli air force has posted to social media with additional details of the operation it says it carried out to “thwart terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp”.
It wrote:
At the end of an extensive arrest operation to thwart terrorism and confiscate weapons tonight, 51 wanted persons were arrested in Judea and Samaria, of which 38 were operatives in the terrorist organization Hamas.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Israel was “gradually moving ahead according to plan” in the Gaza Strip, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said during a regular press briefing on Monday.
Reuters reports Hagari said the forces killed dozens of Gaza militants overnight but refused to confirm the location of the ground forces.
He also said that forces were deployed in the north of Israel and ready for any scenario. He claimed that aircraft had killed several militants in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Updated
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reports:
UK foreign secretary James Cleverly is back in the Middle East holding talks with his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates to push for humanitarian pauses and allow vital aid to teach Gaza. He said there needed to be a significant increase in the flow of aid, adding he expected Israeli army to behave with professionalism and restraint.
He is also to continue to urge the UAE’s foreign minister, Abdulah bin Zayed Al Nayham, to use his influence to prevent a regional escalation, something he also urged Iran to do. There is growing concern that the fighting on the Israel Lebanon border is escalating,
The UAE has been sending cargoes of aid into Israel and Egypt, and all sides are waiting to see if Israel is going to allow an increased flow of aid through the Rafah crossing in Egypt. The US president, Joe Biden, spoke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday to urge him to speed the flow of trucks into Gaza.
On Sunday, the international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan, after visiting the Rafah crossing, warned preventing access to humanitarian aid may constitute a crime.
The UAE, a member of the security council, is leading the diplomatic calls for an emergency debate at the UN on Monday to discuss the gathering humanitarian crisis. Attempts to pass a UN security council resolution is under way, but it is thought a consensus resolution that will not attract a veto either by the US or Russia cannot be crafted in the next 24 hours. The so-called elected 10 on the 15 strong security council have been working on a resolution for some days.
The UK opposition shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, is also in the region meeting foreign ministers in Jordan, Qatar and Egypt. The Labour briefing said Lammy “will restate Labour’s support for humanitarian pauses and immediate unimpeded access for food, water, electricity, medicine and electricity in Gaza”.
Updated
The Guardian’s southern Italy correspondent Lorenzo Tondo reports:
Italy’s best-selling Italian cartoonist Zerocalcare said he was pulling out of a comics and games festival because Israel’s embassy to Italy is among the event’s sponsors, sparking a row in the country.
“Unfortunately, the Israeli embassy’s sponsorship is a problem for me,” said the 39-year-old cartoonist. “When 2 million people are stuck in Gaza, coming to celebrate there is impossible for me.
“I am sorry for my publishing house, for the readers and for myself too”. The decision sparked a row with many people attacking his decision, and accusing the cartoonist of supporting Hamas. “I was in Syria to support the Kurds when they were fighting against Isis,” he replied.
“I visited Gaza several years ago, I know people who still live there, and people who have gone there to build projects of solidarity, sports, hip hop, and writing. When these people ask me how it is possible that a cultural event of such importance does not question the opportunity to collaborate with the representation of a government that is perpetrating war crimes in defiance of international law, I honestly cannot provide an explanation. I can’t even tell them how sorry I am for not being there and how much this tears me apart.”
The Lucca Film Festival, is an annual event and one the most popular comic books’ festivals in Europe, offering screenings, exhibitions, conferences, and performances, ranging from mainstream to art-house cinema.
Zerocalcare’s real name is Michele Rech and his graphic novels are a form of gonzo journalism – inspired by his own adventures as a protester on the frontlines of police violence in Italy, and in Syria, where he was embedded with Kurdish forces.
His Netflix cartoon series last year topped the streaming charts in Italy, ahead of South Korea’s hit show Squid Game and his comic books are Italy’s best-selling books.
Updated
Israel’s media are reporting that rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have hit an apartment in a building in the southern town of Netivot. There are no reports of any casualties.
Updated
Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari is giving a briefing at the moment. I’ll bring you any key lines that emerge.
More details soon …
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said on Monday that the UK was working on a humanitarian pause to get aid to the people of Gaza.
“We’re working extensively with the Egyptians, with the Israelis and others to try and have a humanitarian pause, a temporary pause so that we can get that humanitarian aid to the people that need it,” Cleverly told Reuters at the UK ambassador’s residence in Abu Dhabi.
“It’s trickling through but we need a significant increase in the volume,” he added.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday the US should refrain from blaming Tehran for Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza, Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Updated
In the UK, the education minister Robert Halfon has reiterated calls for Israel to “follow international law” in its strikes on Gaza.
He told Times Radio in the UK:
Britain has always made it clear, the government has always made it clear, that Israel should follow international law, but we do have to remember that the Israelis suffered a horrific pogrom on 7 October, a horrific attack by Hamas on innocent men, women and children.
They have every right to defend themselves. They have to go into Gaza in order to dismantle the Hamas tunnels. Remember there are over 200 hostages from across the world stuck in Gaza.
I think Israel has the right to take the necessary measures in order to defeat Hamas. If Britain had suffered a similar attack, Britain would be doing everything possible.
International criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan has said the ICC has “active investigations ongoing” into alleged war crimes in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and last week the UN secretary general, António Guterres, spoke of “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza”.
Updated
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud has told the network that it has been “another night of heavy bombardment” in Gaza.
He reports from Khan Younis that “at least 14,000 people” have sought shelter at Al-Quds Hospital, saying that “all the residential buildings around Al-Quds hospital have either been destroyed or suffered significant damage as they were targeted by Israel. We are talking about more than 10 residential buildings.”
He notes “most of these people have already lost their homes in the Israeli bombardment. It’s hard to see where they could evacuate to next.”
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
Summary
The Israeli air force says it has struck 600 targets in the last day, as the IDF expands its assault on Gaza. Among the targets was somewhere “in the area” of Al-Azhar university, from where it said an anti-tank missile was about to be launched
Israeli forces also struck targets in Syria and Lebanon, in response to launches from those areas into Israel, the country’s defence force has said. In separate tweets, the IDF said an aircraft had attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory, including “infrastructures for directing terrorism and military infrastructures of the organisation”, and that a fighter jet had attacked launchers in Syrian territory.
There have been further reports of another raid by Israeli forces on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, with at least two Palestinians believed to have been killed
Another 33 aid trucks were allowed to pass into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, according to a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing. It is the largest number of aid trucks to cross in a day since the conflict began, but humanitarian workers have told the Associated Press that the assistance still falls desperately short of what’s needed
International criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan said the ICC had “active investigations ongoing” into alleged war crimes in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The prosecutor added: “There should not be any impediment to humanitarian relief supplies going to … civilians.”
Local health authorities said about 20 people were injured, including two critically, after crowds stormed an airport in Dagestan, in search of Jewish passengers from Israel. Authorities said 60 people had been arrested.
Jordan has asked the US to deploy Patriot air defence systems to bolster its border defence amid increased regional tensions, Reuters reports a Jordanian army spokesperson saying on Sunday. “We asked the American side to help bolster our defence system with Patriot air defence missile systems,” Brig Gen Mustafa Hiyari, Jordan’s army spokesperson, told state television.
Israel has summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest at Moscow’s hosting last week of a delegation from Hamas following its 7 October attacks against Israel. Inviting Hamas “sends a message legitimising terrorism against Israelis”, Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement, quoting its senior staff as telling ambassador Anatoly Viktorov, Reuters reports.
Joe Biden spoke by phone with Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning, the White House said. “The president reiterated that Israel has every right and responsibility to defend its citizens from terrorism and underscored the need to do so in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law that prioritizes the protection of civilians,” the White House said in a press statement.
Joe Biden also spoke with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the White House said. “President Biden and President Sisi affirmed their commitment to work together to set the conditions for a durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East to include the establishment of a Palestinian state,” it said.
Thousands of Gaza residents broke into UN warehouses on Sunday, grabbing flour and other essential items in a sign they had reached “breaking point”, said the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), Reuters reports. “This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza,” UNRWA said in a statement.
“We are going to move a standalone Israeli funding bill,” the US’s new House speaker, Mike Johnson, said in an interview on Fox News. In a response to a question on separating Israeli aid from Ukrainian aid, Johnson said: “Our Republican colleagues in the Senate have a similar measure. We believe that that is a pressing and urgent need.”
Médecins Sans Frontières has sent 26 tons of medical supplies on a World Health Organization plane to Egypt. “The medical supplies can cover the needs for 800 surgical interventions and are destined for healthcare facilities in Gaza in collaboration with the local health authorities,” MSF said.
The number of children killed in Gaza in last three weeks surpassed annual number of children killed in war zones since 2019, Save the Children said on Sunday. “With a further 1,000 children reported missing in Gaza assumed buried under the rubble, the death toll is likely much higher,” it added.
Faculty from New York City’s Columbia University and Barnard College have signed an open letter in support of their students expressing solidarity with Palestine, noting that such expressions of solidarity and the historical contextualisation of the ongoing war is not antisemitic. “One could regard the events of October 7th as just one salvo in an ongoing war between an occupying state and the people it occupies, or as an occupied people exercising a right to resist violent and illegal occupation,” the letter said.
Updated
Israeli troops backed by tanks have expanded their operations inside Gaza amid reports of fierce air and and artillery strikes in the enclave’s north. Below, you can read the Guardian’s wrap of the latest developments, including the three dozen trucks able to enter through the territory’s southern border on Sunday.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged Israel to “listen” when its friends ask it to protect innocent lives in Gaza and warned that the world “will not accept continuing civilian deaths”.
Wong’s comments reflect a strengthening of the Labor government’s calls for Israel to minimise civilian deaths in Gaza. The foreign minister said civilians on both sides had been “murdered” in the “dreadful, tragic conflict”.
“It is a dreadful, tragic conflict. We are seeing loss of life. We are seeing civilians on both sides [who] have been murdered,” Wong told Radio National.
“We have seen civilians up on both sides in a lot of pain, and obviously, we still have Israeli hostages who have been taken, that Hamas is still holding.”
“When Israel’s friends urge Israel to protect civilian life, as we have, it is critical that Israel listens.”
Her comments followed a letter signed by six former Australian prime ministers, expressing solidarity with both the Jewish and Palestinian communities and suggesting that terrorists would win “if our hearts are filled with hatred”.
Australia was among 45 countries – including the UK, Germany, India and Canada – that abstained from voting on a UN general assembly motion calling for an immediate humanitarian truce. Australia argued the motion was “incomplete” because it did not directly condemn Hamas for the 7 October attacks.
Updated
Israel says it has attacked 600 targets in a day
The Israeli air force says it has attacked about 600 targets in the last day, including “in the area of Al-Azhar university” from where it said an anti-tank missile was about to be launched. It also said “weapons warehouses, hiding places and gatherings of Hamas operatives and anti-tank positions” were targeted.
The Al-Azhar university is a public university near the Gaza City centre.
צה"ל המשיך במהלך הלילה בהרחבת הפעילות הקרקעית ברצועת עזה.
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) October 30, 2023
בהיתקלויות עם מחבלים ברצועת עזה, חיסלו לוחמי צה"ל עשרות מחבלים אשר התבצרו במבנים וניסו לפגוע בכוחות. במהלך אחד מהאירועים, כלי טיס בהכוונת הלוחמים בשטח תקף מבנה כינוס של ארגון הטרור חמאס ובו מעל ל-20 מחבלים. pic.twitter.com/1sNuI7WxPe
Updated
In the last few hours there have been further reports of another raid by Israeli forces on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, with at least two Palestinians believed to have been killed. Available details are limited, and at times conflicted.
The director of Jenin governmental hospital, Wissam Bakr, released the names of two men allegedly shot and killed by Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reported.
The Jerusalem Post also appeared to confirm clashes, reporting that “the IDF and Palestinian terrorists exchanged fire overnight in the Jenin refugee camp”.
An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that families in a residential building in Jenin had been forced to evacuate their homes by Israeli forces, and that electricity had been cut off.
Palestinian media, WAFA, said about 100 military vehicles and at least one bulldozer had entered the city, and an Israeli drone had carried out an air strike.
The IDF has not commented on Jenin operations.
Updated
Sixty people were detained after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport in Russia’s predominantly Muslim Dagestan region on Sunday, the RIA news agency reported on Monday.
RIA said the identity of 150 of what it called the most active protesters had been identified. It said nine police officers had received injuries in the incident, two of whom were being treated in hospital.
The protesters stormed the airport on Sunday, where a plane from Israel had just arrived, forcing security forces to close the airport and remove the demonstrators.
Syrian state TV said on Monday that Israeli air strikes targeted two army posts in Daraa, Reuters has reported.
The raids led to “some material losses”, according to Syrian media.
The Guardian has not independently verified the report, and it wasn’t immediately clear if the reports referred to the same strikes which the Israeli Defence Forces said they had conducted earlier today.
Palestinians in northern Gaza are reporting an uptick in air and artillery strikes in the early hours of Monday morning, according to Reuters.
Israeli airstrikes hit areas near Gaza City’s Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals, and Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli forces in a border area east of the city of Khan Younis, in the enclave’s south, the news agency reported, citing Palestinian media.
Reuters notes that there was no comment from Hamas or the Israeli military on the fighting on Monday and the agency was not able to confirm the reports.
However, the reports come hours after Israel released images of battle tanks on Gaza’s western coast, signalling a potential effort to surround Gaza’s main city two days after the Israeli government ordered expanded ground incursions across its eastern border.
Israel’s self-declared “second phase” of its three-week war against Hamas militants has largely been kept from public view, with forces moving under darkness and a telecommunications blackout cutting off Palestinians in Gaza.
The phone and internet cuts appeared to ease on Sunday, but telecoms provider Paltel said that Israeli airstrikes again had knocked out internet and phone service in parts of the enclave’s northern sections, where Hamas has command centres. The outages have severely hampered rescue operations for casualties of Israeli barrages.
Updated
More information about the unrest at the Makhachkala airport in Dagestan has come through.
We reported earlier that a mob in the Russian region has stormed the airport in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel, after reports emerged that a flight from Tel Aviv was arriving in the city.
Local authorities have said that 20 people were injured before security forces contained the protest, but the passengers on the plane were safe. The Dagestani government has said that it is strengthening security measures across the republic, which is home to about 3 million people.
Sergei Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said the incident was a gross violation of the law, even as Dagestanis “empathize with the suffering of victims of the actions of unrighteous people and politicians, and pray for peace in Palestine”.
“There is no courage in waiting as a mob for unarmed people who have not done anything forbidden,” Melikov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Israel has urged Russian authorities to protect Israelis and Jews after a recent spate of violence against Israeli and Jewish targets.
In the past few days, a Jewish centre under construction in Nalchik, the capital of the nearby Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, was set on fire, emergency officials said.
There were also reports on social media of small anti-Israeli gatherings over the weekend in Dagestan and across the North Caucasus in Russia’s south.
Some more details on those aid trucks that were allowed through. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the 33 trucks contained beds, food, medical and hygiene supplies. The OHCA said 12 trucks were carrying medical supplies and three carrying medical supplies and other items. Another two were carrying water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies.
“All humanitarian agencies and personnel have faced significant constraints in providing humanitarian assistance, due to ongoing hostilities, movement restrictions and shortages of electricity, fuel, water, medicines, and other essential items. Humanitarian partners cannot safely access people in need and warehouses where aid supplies are stored.”
Of the total number of trucks to have made it across the border since the conflict began, (reports vary around 117 or 118), at least 13 carried water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, and at least 70 carried medical supplies.
“While limited in volume, these supplies play a crucial role in bolstering trauma response and sustaining essential healthcare services,” said the OCHA on Sunday.
“The ongoing hostilities have displaced most of the medical professionals in Gaza, forcing the hospitals to operate with less than one-third of their normal staffing levels, according to MoH in Gaza. The hospitals continue to suffer from a severe fuel shortage, leading to stringent rationing and limited use of generators for only the most essential functions. Moreover, maintaining and repairing backup generators, originally not intended for continuous operation, is growing increasingly challenging due to the scarcity of spare parts.”
On a live feed of the Israel-Gaza border, the sound of explosions, jets and other aircraft is near constant. The vision of a distant Gaza City, provided by Reuters, shows a dark sky occasionally lit up by explosions, some quite large.
Palestinians in northern Gaza have reported fierce air and artillery strikes in the last few hours.
Palestinian media reported Israeli air strikes had hit areas near Gaza City’s Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals, and that Palestinian militants and Israeli forces had fought in southern border areas east of Khan Younis.
Summary
Here is where the day stands:
Israeli forces have struck targets in Syria and Lebanon, in response to launches from those areas into Israel, the country’s defence force has said. In separate tweets, the IDF said an aircraft had attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory, including “infrastructures for directing terrorism and military infrastructures of the organisation”, and that a fighter jet had attacked launchers in Syrian territory.
Another 33 aid trucks were allowed to pass into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, according to a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing. It is the largest number of aid trucks to cross in a day since the conflict began, but humanitarian workers have told the Associated Press that the assistance still falls desperately short of what’s needed
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said that the ICC has “active investigations ongoing” into alleged war crimes in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The prosecutor added: “There should not be any impediment to humanitarian relief supplies going to … civilians.”
Local health authorities said about 20 people were injured, including two critically, after crowds stormed an airport in Dagestan, in search of Jewish passengers from Israel.
Jordan has asked the US to deploy Patriot air defense systems to bolder its border defense amid increased regional tensions, Reuters reports a Jordanian army spokesperson saying on Sunday. “We asked the American side to help bolster our defence system with Patriot air defence missile systems,” Brigadier General Mustafa Hiyari, Jordan’s army spokesperson, told state television.
Israel has summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest at Moscow’s hosting last week of a delegation from Hamas following its 7 October attacks against Israel. Inviting Hamas “sends a message legitimising terrorism against Israelis”, Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement, quoting its senior staff as telling ambassador Anatoly Viktorov, Reuters reports.
Russian authorities closed an airport in the city of Makhachkala in the northern Caucasus region and diverted flights, including one from Israel, after media reports showed demonstrators denouncing Israeli actions in Gaza had gathered at the facility, Reuters reports. The authorities said the airport would remain closed pending “normalisation” of the situation. Russia’s Investigative Committee ordered a criminal probe into the incident, Reuters added.
Joe Biden spoke by phone with Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning, the White House said. “The president reiterated that Israel has every right and responsibility to defend its citizens from terrorism and underscored the need to do so in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law that prioritizes the protection of civilians,” the White House said in a press statement.
Joe Biden also spoke with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the White House said. “President Biden and President Sisi affirmed their commitment to work together to set the conditions for a durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East to include the establishment of a Palestinian state,” it said.
Thousands of Gaza residents broke into UN warehouses on Sunday, grabbing flour and other essential items in a sign they had reached “breaking point”, said the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), Reuters reports. “This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza,” UNRWA said in a statement.
“We are going to move a standalone Israeli funding bill,” the US’s new House speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview on Fox News. In a response to a question on separating Israeli aid from Ukrainian aid, Johnson said: “Our Republican colleagues in the Senate have a similar measure. We believe that that is a pressing and urgent need.”
Médecins Sans Frontières has sent 26 tons of medical supplies on a World Health Organization plane to Egypt. “The medical supplies can cover the needs for 800 surgical interventions and are destined for healthcare facilities in Gaza in collaboration with the local health authorities,” MSF said.
The number of children killed in Gaza in last three weeks surpassed annual number of children killed in war zones since 2019, Save the Children said on Sunday. “With a further 1,000 children reported missing in Gaza assumed buried under the rubble, the death toll is likely much higher,” it added.
Faculty from New York City’s Columbia University and Barnard College have signed an open letter in support of their students expressing solidarity with Palestine, noting that such expressions of solidarity and the historical contextualization of the ongoing war is not antisemitic. “One could regard the events of October 7th as just one salvo in an ongoing war between an occupying state and the people it occupies, or as an occupied people exercising a right to resist violent and illegal occupation,” the letter said.
