Closing summary
We’ll wrap up this blog now and continue our live coverage on a fresh blog here for all the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war. Thanks for reading.
As it turns 7.45am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv, here’s a snapshot of where things stand.
The White House has stepped back from Joe Biden’s comment apparently agreeing that Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, saying the US president did not fully hear the question. Reuters reported that late on Friday reporters shouted questions at Biden as he was climbing the stairs to board Air Force One. One of the questions was whether Israel should delay an invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, to which Biden replied: “Yes.” But White House communications director Ben LaBolt said later: “The question sounded like: ‘Would you like to see more hostages released?’ He wasn’t commenting on anything else.”
Two newly freed American hostages have been reunited with family inside Israel as relatives celebrated back home in Illinois, nearly two weeks after Hamas gunmen abducted them and dozens of others near Gaza. Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the Gaza Strip border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides. Their release was “a first step and discussions are ongoing for more releases”, Reuters cited a source familiar with the negotiations as saying. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country “will not relent in our effort to return all of the kidnapped and the missing”.
Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasons and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by [President Joe] Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”.
Israeli aircraft struck six homes in northern Gaza early on Saturday, killing at least eight Palestinians and injuring 45, Palestinian media reported. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought refuge, Reuters reported.
Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October aimed to disrupt a potential normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Joe Biden said on Friday. “One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel ... they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” the US president said.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described reports that a hospital in Gaza has been ordered to evacuate as “disturbing”. The Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier on Friday that its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City faced an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X/Twitter it was “impossible” for overcrowded hospitals to safely evacuate patients. Hospitals in Gaza “must be allowed to perform their lifesaving functions” and “must be protected”, he said.
Tensions flared in the West Bank as angry and sometimes armed confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces took place across the occupied territory after a deadly raid by Israeli troops. The Palestinian health ministry said 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank.
The US and the EU said they were “concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. “It is crucial to prevent regional escalation. We call for the immediate release of all hostages and emphasise our shared view that a two-state solution remains the viable path to lasting peace,” a joint statement said after talks between European Council president Charles Michel, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Joe Biden.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation. The PRCS posted in an “urgent appeal” on Friday saying that the hospital was “a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians”.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said “there’s going to be no break” in his country’s effort to destroy Hamas, amid reports that the US and European governments have been putting pressure on Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for secret talks under way to win the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, flew to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, with the first aid delivery expected “in the next day or two”. The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border had been due to open on Friday. When the crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal.
Joe Biden said on Friday that he believed trucks carrying much-needed humanitarian aid should enter Gaza “within the next 24-48 hours”. Separately, Rishi Sunak said the Rafah border crossing should reopen “imminently”.
Rishi Sunak and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi agreed world leaders needed to “do everything possible to avoid a contagion of conflict” in the Middle East during their talks in Cairo on Friday, Downing Street said. The UK prime minister praised Cairo’s efforts to allow movement through Rafah as he spoke about the need to ensure aid can get to Palestinians “as quickly as possible”.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
A candlelit vigil for Issam Abdallah, the Reuters visuals journalist killed last week while filming Israeli missile attacks at the Israeli-Lebanon border, was held in Beirut on Friday.
A-list Hollywood celebrities including Cate Blanchett, Joaquin Phoenix, Ramy Youssef and Andrew Garfield have penned a letter to US president Joe Biden urging him to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Updated
Where do the countries around the Israel-Hamas war stand on the conflict? Peter Beaumont looks into the complicated web of relationships that are strained as Israel bombards Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s attack.
Here are some more shots of family and relatives of the two American hostages newly freed by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the territory’s border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides.
Uri Raanan, the teenager’s father, has said he spoke with his daughter by phone and “she sounds very, very good, very happy – and she looks good”.
Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Updated
Israeli aircraft struck six homes in northern Gaza early on Saturday, killing at least eight Palestinians and injuring 45, Palestinian media reported.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought refuge.
Israel has told all civilians to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City. Many people have yet to leave, saying they fear losing everything and have nowhere safe to go with southern areas also under attack.
Asked if Israel had so far followed the laws of war in its response, US secretary of state Antony Blinken reiterated on Friday that Israel had the right to defend itself and make sure Hamas was not able to launch attacks again.
The UN humanitarian affairs office said more than 140,000 homes – nearly a third of all homes in Gaza – had been damaged, with nearly 13,000 completely destroyed.
From Reuters
Updated
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has acknowledged the emotional toll that the Israel-Hamas war has taken on US diplomats amid media reports of internal dissent over Washington’s handling of the conflict, Agence France-Presse reports.
Blinken sent a letter to all State Department employees noting the “challenging” circumstances affecting the US diplomatic corps, some of whom feel the “ripples of fear and bigotry” the conflict has generated.
US leaders including President Joe Biden and Blinken have pledged unwavering support for Israel, publicly blessing the country’s reprisals for Hamas’ surprise raid from the Gaza Strip on 7 October.
At least one State Department official has quit over the Biden administration’s approach to the conflict. The official, Josh Paul, said on LinkedIn that he left over “policy disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel”.
Blinken’s letter on Thursday night was not a response to the reports of frustrations within the department, a source familiar with the matter said.
In his letter, Blinken described his recent trip to the Middle East, which saw him move between Israel and several Arab countries, visiting some several times. He wrote:
I know that, for many of you, this time has not only been challenging professionally, but personally.
Updated
Attendance at pro-Palestine rallies around Australia is expected to surge on Saturday as the violence in the Middle East reverberates through communities.
Up to 10,000 people were expected to march through Sydney’s CBD on Saturday afternoon after police approved the event, and many more were set to attend events in the cities of Perth, Hobart and Brisbane as more information came from conflict-stricken Gaza.
Previous protests have been met with a heavy police presence after videos emerged of a group chanting anti-Jewish slogans at last week’s rally at the Sydney Opera House.
Sydney’s rally organisers have said they will not tolerate antisemitic chants or any other conduct that vilifies any race or religion at Saturday’s rally.
For the full story from Australian Associated Press and Guardian Australia’s Natasha May, click here:
The two newly freed American hostages have been reunited with family inside Israel as relatives celebrated back home in Illinois, nearly two weeks after Hamas gunmen abducted them and dozens of others near Gaza.
Reuters reports that Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the Gaza Strip border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides in the latest round of Middle East conflict.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the mother and daughter, from the Chicago area of Illinois, were “on their way to a meeting point at a military base in the centre of the country, where their family members are waiting for them”.
Reached by phone in Bannockburn, outside Chicago, Uri Raanan, the teenager’s father, said he spoke with his daughter by phone.
She sounds very, very good, very happy – and she looks good.
Natalie Raanan’s uncle Avraham Zamir said the family was joyful the pair had been safely released.
He added from his Illinois home:
But there are still many families whose loved ones are still being held hostage, and we will continue our efforts for their release.
Updated
White House walks back Biden comment agreeing Israel should delay Gaza ground assault
The White House has stepped back from Joe Biden’s comment apparently agreeing that Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, saying the US president did not fully hear the question.
Reuters reported that late on Friday, reporters shouted questions at Biden as he was climbing the stairs to board Air Force One, over the sound of the plane’s engines. One of the questions was whether Israel should delay an invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out.
But the White House said later that Biden did not fully hear the question.
“The president was far away. He didn’t hear the full question,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said, adding:
The question sounded like: ‘Would you like to see more hostages released?’ He wasn’t commenting on anything else.
Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the perimeter of Gaza for a planned ground invasion. Its bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 4,137 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, while more than 1 million have been displaced, according to Palestinian officials.
The bombings came after Hamas gunmen burst into Israel on 7 October, killing 1,400 people – mainly civilians – and taking about 200 hostages.
Updated
Two weeks of non-stop western shuttle diplomacy appear to have reached the brink of failure since, as it stands, the west can only point to 20 aid trucks crossing into Gaza as the visible fruit of its labour. At the same time, Israel’s neighbours are taking to the streets and acts of terrorism are returning to the capitals of Europe.
With more than 4,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis already dead, the only certainty is that Gaza’s depleted healthcare system will collapse if Israel launches a lengthy land invasion to wipe out Hamas.
The round of western diplomatic visits to Jerusalem had a dual purpose. They were public acts of solidarity in which the visit was the message, but there was also private questioning of the Israeli war cabinet, and what comes after an invasion.
In particular Joe Biden, for all the empathy that he showed to victims and the families of hostages, has been quite sharp in urging caution on Israel, though he was subtle in couching that counsel in terms of the lessons the US has taken from fighting terrorism.
To read all of diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour’s analysis of where things stand, click here:
A-list Hollywood celebrities including Cate Blanchett, Joaquin Phoenix, Ramy Youssef and Andrew Garfield have penned a letter to US president Joe Biden urging him to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Agence France-Presse reports that dozens of top-flight names from the entertainment world asked Biden to work to achieve an “immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost”.
Their letter on Friday, released by artists4ceasefire.org, said:
We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honour all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages.
Saving lives is a moral imperative.
The letter, which was also signed by Jon Stewart, singer Dua Lipa, Susan Sarandon and Channing Tatum, comes a week after hundreds of Hollywood figures signed an open letter condemning the “barbaric acts” committed by Hamas fighters in its attack on 7 October.
Updated
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country “will not relent” in its efforts to bring home all the hostages and people missing after Hamas’s attack.
Netanyahu said on X/Twitter in a tweet from his office after Hamas freed two US hostages:
Two of our kidnapped are home. We will not relent in our effort to return all of the kidnapped and the missing.
At the same time, we continue to fight till victory.
Biden agrees Israel should delay Gaza ground invasion
US president Joe Biden, when asked by a reporter on Friday whether Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, said “Yes”, Reuters reports.
A US mother and daughter who had been seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza were released on Friday after Qatar brokered negotiations with the militant group.
Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, 59, were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were met by Israeli security forces, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
They were then taken to an Israeli military base to be reunited with their relatives.
The US and European governments have been pressing Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for what a news report said was secret talks under way to win the release of more hostages held by Hamas.
The negotiations with Hamas via Qatar are delicate and may fail, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the efforts, as we posted earlier.
The sources told the outlet there were signs Hamas might agree to release at least some of its civilian hostages without demanding Israel release any prisoners in return.
Israel agreed under US pressure to hold off a huge military operation, they said.
Updated
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has spoken with Saudi prime minister and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the two expressed their “deep concerns with the humanitarian impact of the conflict in Gaza and stressed the importance that all parties protect civilians and ensure humanitarian access to the affected areas”, Trudeau’s office has said.
The leaders also discussed the regional security implications of the conflict and “efforts toward de-escalation to prevent further deaths of innocent civilians”, the office said in a statement, posted on X/Twitter.
Trudeau “condemned the horrific attack against Israeli civilians, as well as the bombing of Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza and the ongoing hostage situation”, it said.
He also “reiterated Canada’s longstanding support for a two-state solution and for the right of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security”.
Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, His Highness Mohammed bin Salman. The two leaders discussed the situation in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Details: https://t.co/TrjepY8EQv
— CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) October 20, 2023
Updated
Hamas’s attack on Israel that killed about 1,400 people aimed to disrupt a potential normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, US president Joe Biden has said.
“One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel ... they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Reuters reports Biden as saying on Friday at a campaign fundraiser.
Saudi Arabia, a Middle East powerhouse and home to Islam’s two holiest shrines, gave its blessing to Gulf neighbours United Arab Emirates and Bahrain establishing relations with Israel in 2020 under the previous US administration of Donald Trump. Riyadh has not followed suit, saying Palestinian statehood goals should be addressed first.
The potential normalisation of relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states was a top priority for secretary of state Antony Blinken during his June trip to Riyadh, although he acknowledged no progress should be expected imminently.
Blinken told CNN on 8 October – a day after Hamas’s attack on Israel – that “it wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation [for the attack] may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together”.
Biden told CBS’s 60 Minutes in an interview that aired last Sunday that the prospect of normalisation was “still alive – it’s going to take time”.
This is Adam Fulton taking over our rolling live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Stay with us for all the latest developments
Updated
WHO chief says reports of Gaza hospital evacuation order are 'disturbing'
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described reports that a hospital in Gaza has been ordered to evacuate as “disturbing”.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier on Friday that its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is “impossible” for overcrowded hospitals to safely evacuate patients in a statement posted to X.
Hospitals in Gaza “must be allowed to perform their lifesaving functions,” he posted to social media. “They must be protected.”
The WHO’s regional office for the eastern Mediterranean said the reports of evacuation orders sent to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza were “worrying”.
Sick and injured patients, as well as health workers, are inside the hospital it said.
Hundreds more — mostly women and children — are seeking shelter on the hospital’s grounds. The sanctity of health care must be respected at all times.
The US embassy in Jerusalem has shared a photo of Judith and Natalie Raanan speaking to President Joe Biden after their release earlier today.
.@POTUS spoke this evening with the two American citizens who had been held hostage by Hamas. We are so grateful that they are safe.
— U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (@usembassyjlm) October 20, 2023
We will continue to do everything we can to unite all hostages with their loved ones. pic.twitter.com/rp1YDtB8Zu
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Tensions flared in the West Bank as angry and sometimes armed confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces took place across the occupied territory after a deadly raid by Israeli troops. The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted on 7 October, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.
The US and the EU said they are “concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. “It is crucial to prevent regional escalation. We call for the immediate release of all hostages and emphasize our shared view that a two-state solution remains the viable path to lasting peace,” a joint statement said after talks between the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the US president, Joe Biden.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation. The PRCS posted in an “urgent appeal” on Friday saying that the hospital was “a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians”.
A mother and daughter from Chicago who were seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza have been released after Qatar brokered negotiations with the militant group. Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were met by Israeli security forces. They were then taken to an Israeli military base to be reunited with their relatives. Their release is “a first step and discussions are ongoing for more releases”, Reuters cited a source familiar with the negotiations as saying.
A Hamas spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by [President Joe] Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”.
Most of the 200 or so people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli military said on Friday. The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said “there’s going to be no break” in his country’s effort to destroy Hamas, amid reports that the US and European governments have been putting pressure on Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for secret talks under way to win the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited troops on the Gaza border on Thursday, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”
Gallant also said that after Israel destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli defence minister’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, flew to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, with the first aid delivery expected “in the next day or two”. The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border had been due to open on Friday. When the crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal.
Joe Biden said on Friday that he believed trucks carrying much-needed humanitarian aid should enter Gaza “within the next 24-48 hours”. Separately, Rishi Sunak said the Rafah border crossing should reopen “imminently”.
Israel bombarded Gaza early on Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which was already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Greek Orthodox church compound in Gaza on Thursday. Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter in the church from Israeli bombardments. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike, which it said constituted a war crime.
Rishi Sunak and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi agreed world leaders needed to “do everything possible to avoid a contagion of conflict” in the Middle East during their talks in Cairo on Friday, Downing Street said. The UK prime minister praised Cairo’s efforts to allow movement through Rafah as he spoke about the need to ensure aid can get to Palestinians “as quickly as possible”.
Sunak also met with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, during his trip to Egypt on Friday. The two leaders “condemned Hamas’s terrorism and stressed that Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people”, a statement from Sunak’s office said.
More than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to an update from the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza on Friday. A total of 4,137 people have lost their lives, it said, while more than 13,000 people have been injured. More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
A candlelit vigil for Issam Abdallah, the Reuters visuals journalist killed last week while filming Israeli missile attacks at the Israeli-Lebanon border, was held in Beirut on Friday.
Protesters rallied across Egypt, including in Cairo, on Friday in support of Palestinian rights in Gaza.
Uri Raanan, whose daughter and granddaughter were released after being seized and held hostage in Gaza, said he has spoken to his daughter Judith Raanan and that he believes she will be home soon, AP reported.
“She’s doing good. She’s doing very good,” Uri, 71, who is based in Chicago, said.
I’m in tears, and I feel very, very good.
Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, 59, were seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. They were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were met by Israeli security forces, and then taken to an Israeli military base to be reunited with their relatives.
Uri said he believes the pair are on their way to Tel Aviv to reunite with relatives before returning to the US, meaning Natalie will be able to celebrate her 18th birthday next week with family and friends.
Former US congressman Justin Amash said several of his relatives were among those killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza.
Amash, a Republican-turned-independent from Michigan, said his family had been sheltering at the church “when part of the complex was destroyed as the result of an Israeli airstrike.”
The church compound was full of Christian families from the Gaza Strip when the airstrike took place on Thursday night, according to witnesses.
At least 18 people Christian Palestinians died in the attack, local health officials and the church said.
I was really worried about this. 😔 With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as… pic.twitter.com/w5k1xEeTgF
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 20, 2023
A joint statement by the US and the EU said they are “concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian crisis” in Gaza following a trilateral summit in Washington.
The White House released the statement after talks between the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the US president, Joe Biden.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms Hamas and its brutal terrorist attacks across Israel. There is no justification for terrorism. We affirm Israel’s right to defend itself against these heinous attacks, in line with international law, including international humanitarian law.
We will work closely with partners in the region to stress the importance of protecting civilians, supporting those who are trying to get to safety or provide assistance, and facilitating access to food, water, medical care and shelter. We are concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
It is crucial to prevent regional escalation. We call for the immediate release of all hostages and emphasize our shared view that a two-state solution remains the viable path to lasting peace.
Updated
Ilhan Omar, one of only two Muslim US representatives, says that she fears for her family’s safety after receiving an onslaught of threats for criticizing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
The Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota opened up in a statement about the increase in Islamophobic remarks and threats she has received, including threats directed at her family. NBC News first reported on the statement, which was later shared with the Guardian.
Omar said that she and other Muslim Americans have been negatively affected by a “dishonest smearing” that labels them as a threat for condemning Israel’s treatment of Palestine amid fighting in Gaza.
She specifically called out rhetoric used by several far-right lawmakers that equates her and other representatives with terrorist supporters.
“It directly endangered my life and that of my family, as well as subjected my staff to traumatic verbal abuse simply for doing their jobs,” Omar said in the statement, referring to the far-right rhetoric. “More importantly, it threatens the millions of American Muslims.”
In one voicemail to Omar’s office, an anonymous caller said that an extremist group had been spying on the congresswoman and her children. The caller also claimed that they had obtained all of Omar’s addresses and “handed them out to rapists”, NBC News reported.
Another message called Omar a “terrorist Muslim”. In a third voicemail shared with NBC News, a caller claimed to be part of a vigilante group and threatened to “rip your fucking rag off your head”, referring to Omar’s hijab.
“I hope the Israelis kill every fucking one of you,” the caller said.
Updated
The US president, Joe Biden, spoke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, today about plans to begin moving humanitarian assistance into Gaza from Egypt, the White House said.
The pair also discussed providing for “safe passage for US citizens and other civilians in Gaza”, a statement said.
The president reaffirmed the United States’ support for Israel’s right to defend itself and obligation to protect its citizens, while underscoring the importance of operating consistent with the law of war to include the protection of civilians in Gaza caught in the conflict launched by Hamas.
Updated
French intelligence assesses Israeli strike not behind Gaza hospital blast
The French military intelligence directorate (DRM) said the blast at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza was not the result of an Israeli missile strike, but probably caused by a misfiring Palestinian rocket.
The DRM ruled out various possibilities, including fragments from Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system or intercepted missiles being the cause, Reuters reported. It said:
There is nothing that allows us to say that it is an Israeli strike, but the most likely (scenario) is a Palestinian rocket that had a firing incident.
According to the DRM, the impact crater was too small to have been caused by an Israeli missile.
Part of the analysis was based on open-source material ranging from the light structural damage at the hospital, few destroyed vehicles and the relatively limited presence of civilian belongings at the blast site.
It could not provide the exact departing point of the failed rocket and did not place blame on any specific group. “The most likely hypothesis is a Palestinian rocket, which exploded with a charge of about 5 kilos,” it said.
On Thursday, the US intelligence community estimated there were probably 100 to 300 people killed in the Gaza hospital blast. The number is lower than the 471 deaths that health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave originally described.
The DRM declined to estimate the death toll, but said that it was likely to be fewer than 471 given the impact.
According to the US intelligence document, “Israel probably did not bomb [the] Gaza Strip hospital,” and the United States is continuing “to work to corroborate whether the explosion resulted from a failed PIJ [Palestine Islamic Jihad] rocket.”
Updated
‘Day of rage’ erupts across West Bank after Israeli forces attack refugee camp
Tensions flared in the West Bank on Friday as angry and sometimes armed confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces took place across the occupied territory after a deadly raid by Israeli troops.
The Palestinian health ministry said 13 people including five children were killed on Thursday in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm. Israeli media said Israeli troops used a drone before engaging in a prolonged gun battle with armed groups in the camp that left civilians and several militants dead.
The organisation Defence for Children International in Palestine said Israeli forces used an American-supplied Apache helicopter, which “fired a missile toward a group of Palestinian civilians, mostly children”, and prevented Palestinian ambulances from reaching the wounded.
Thousands from the camp attended funerals for those killed in the attack, including supporters of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a paramilitary offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood group. Crowds of supporters of the Islamic Jihad group chanted “revenge” and waved flags, an indication of the increasing prominence of armed groups in the West Bank.
Updated
Joe Biden has spoken with the family of Judith and Natalie Raanan, the two Americans released by Hamas on Friday.
A White House statement reads:
This afternoon, the President spoke by phone with the family of the two Americans released today after being taken hostage by Hamas during the horrific terrorist assault against Israel.
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is among those expected to attend an international conference in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the escalating war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
Others will include Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah and the Qatari Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
At the summit, Cleverly will emphasise the UK’s desire to prevent the regional spread of the conflict and mitigate the threat from Hamas. He will work with international partners towards a peaceful resolution that ensures Israel’s security and protects the rights of Palestinians.
Cleverly will also discuss urgent efforts to facilitate immediate, unimpeded and safe humanitarian access for lifesaving aid to reach civilians in Gaza.
Discussions 'ongoing' for more hostage releases – report
The release of two US hostages from Gaza on Friday was “a first step and discussions are ongoing for more releases”, Reuters cited a source familiar with the negotiations as saying.
Hamas has said it took about 200 hostages during its deadly attack on Israel on 7 October. It said 50 more captives are held by other armed groups in Gaza.
Updated
The Qatari ministry of foreign affairs confirmed its role and said it would continue to broker negotiations with an aim of securing the release of all hostages.
“Today’s breakthrough comes after many days of continuous communication between all the parties involved,” Majid Al-Ansari, Official spokesperson for Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.
We will continue our dialogue with both the Israelis and Hamas, and we hope these efforts will lead to the release of all civilian hostages from every nationality, with the ultimate aim of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace.
Updated
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has described the release of two American hostages in Gaza as “a sliver of hope”.
The ICRC helped facilitate the release of Judith and Natalie Raanan by transporting them from Gaza to Israel, it said in a statement.
ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said:
We are extremely relieved that they can be reunited with their family after two weeks of agony.
The organisation said it was ready to visit the remaining hostages and to facilitate any future release, adding that “many people are still desperately waiting for news of their loved ones.”
While held in captivity, hostages must be allowed to receive humanitarian assistance and medical care. They must be given the opportunity to contact their families. Families separated from their loved ones endure agony no matter what side of the divide they are on.
The statement called on all parties to “minimum of humanity even during the worst of war.”
We urgently call for a pause in the fighting and for humanitarian aid and first responders to be allowed in. Every hour that passes without increased assistance means more misery and suffering.
Here’s a clip from US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s earlier press conference confirming that two released American hostages are “safely in the hands of Israeli authorities in Israel”.
Summary of the day so far
It’s midnight in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation. The PRCS posted in an “urgent appeal” on Friday saying that the hospital was “a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians”.
A mother and daughter from Chicago who were seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza have been released after Qatar brokered negotiations with the militant group. Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were met by Israeli security forces. They were then taken to an Israeli military base to be reunited with their relatives.
A Hamas spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by [President Joe] Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”.
Most of the 200 or so people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli military said on Friday. The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said “there’s going to be no break” in his country’s effort to destroy Hamas, amid reports that the US and European governments have been putting pressure on Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for secret talks under way to win the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited troops on the Gaza border on Thursday, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”
Gallant also said that after Israel destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli defence minister’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, flew to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, with the first aid delivery expected “in the next day or two”. The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border had been due to open on Friday. When the crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal.
Joe Biden said on Friday that he believed trucks carrying much-needed humanitarian aid should enter Gaza “within the next 24-48 hours”. Separately, Rishi Sunak said the Rafah border crossing should reopen “imminently”.
Israel bombarded Gaza early on Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which was already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Greek Orthodox church compound in Gaza on Thursday. Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter in the church from Israeli bombardments. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike, which it said constituted a war crime.
The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted on 7 October, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.
Rishi Sunak and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi agreed world leaders needed to “do everything possible to avoid a contagion of conflict” in the Middle East during their talks in Cairo on Friday, Downing Street said. The UK prime minister praised Cairo’s efforts to allow movement through Rafah as he spoke about the need to ensure aid can get to Palestinians “as quickly as possible”.
Sunak also met with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, during his trip to Egypt on Friday. The two leaders “condemned Hamas’s terrorism and stressed that Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people”, a statement from Sunak’s office said.
More than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to an update from the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza on Friday. A total of 4,137 people have lost their lives, it said, while more than 13,000 people have been injured. More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
A candlelit vigil for Issam Abdallah, the Reuters visuals journalist killed last week while filming Israeli missile attacks at the Israeli-Lebanon border, was held in Beirut on Friday.
Hello from Washington. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong still here with all the latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war. You can contact me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
France has become the latest nation to conclude that a deadly blast at the al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza on Tuesday was not the result of an Israeli missile strike, but most likely a misfiring Palestinian rocket, Reuters reports.
The news agency cited the French military intelligence directorate. “There is nothing that allows us to say that it is an Israeli strike, but the most likely [scenario] is a Palestinian rocket that had a firing incident,” it said.
More than 470 people were reported killed in the blast, which Hamas blamed on Israel but which a growing number of countries and intelligence agencies are attributing to a failed missile launch from inside Gaza, possibly by Islamic Jihad.
Read more:
First image of released hostages
The first image reportedly of released US hostages Judith and Natalie Raanan in Israeli territory has been posted to X, formerly Twitter.
They are photographed either side of Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage envoy, wearing what appears to be a bulletproof jacket, and holding his hands, flanked by two members of the Israeli Defense Forces who have their faces blurred out.
First pic of the two American hostages in Israeli territory pic.twitter.com/XDocOCKrF0
— Yosef Yisrael (@yosefyisrael25) October 20, 2023
Updated
Blinken said he could not speak to the condition or health of the released US hostages Judith and Natalie Raanan, “first out of respect for their privacy, second because we haven’t had a chance yet”.
Reports earlier Friday suggested they were released by Hamas on humanitarian grounds because the mother was not in the best of health.
The secretary of state also expressed confidence that a humanitarian aid convoy of about 200 trucks stuck at the closed Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza would be able to enter Gaza shortly:
When some of us were traveling together in the region over the past week, getting assistance moving was among my top priorities. We worked very hard with the government of Israel, the government of Egypt, to do just that. And we secured an understanding that we would develop a plan to move assistance.
That understanding was cemented by President Biden when he was in Israel and also speaking to President [Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi of Egypt. We’ve been working relentlessly with ambassador David Satterfield on the ground, working with the United Nations, with Egypt, with Israel to put that into motion.
My expectation is that you’ll see that moving soon.
Read more:
Updated
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is speaking in Washington DC, telling reporters that released American hostages Judith and Natalie Raanan are “safely in the hands of Israeli authorities in Israel”.
He said staff from the US would see them soon, and that “they’ll receive support and assistance they need”.
He also pledged that the US would make every effort to free other US citizens currently being held in Gaza:
There’s still 10 additional Americans who remain unaccounted for in this conflict. We know that some of them are being held hostage by Hamas, along with an estimated 200 other hostages held in Gaza.
They include men, women, young boys, young girls, elderly people, from many nations.
It’s impossible to adequately put into words the agony, the feeling of not knowing the fate of loved ones.
Blinken said he could not go into details about the nature of efforts to free them:
All I can say with regard to Qatar is in this instance, we very much appreciate their assistance. Beyond that I really can’t say because we want to focus on making sure that we’re getting those who remain hostage back home and with their loved ones.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has said “there’s going to be no break” in his country’s effort to destroy Hamas, an apparent rejection of moves by the US and governments in Europe to seek a delay in the apparently imminent ground invasion of Gaza.
Major Dorion Spielman was speaking on CNN following the release of the two American hostages earlier on Friday. Mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan are now in IDF hands, he said:
Hamas is trying to paint itself as a human rights organization now. [They’ve] given back two of the hostages but the real face of evil is still there. Rockets are raining down on Israel. You know, let’s get back all the hostages and then we can begin to speak with them.
Asked if he thought the Hamas release of American hostages was an attempt by Hamas to weaken US support for Israel, Spielman said:
This is right out of the Hamas playbook. It’s a very typical cycle. They attack and massacre and send rockets to Israel, then they run back to Gaza. In the past they hid under their own civilians waiting for us to kill them… and then they turn to America and the international community and claim human rights violations so we’ll stop, so they can regroup.
They want to have us pause on eliminating them… [but] we’re at war with them. There’s going to be no break. We’re going to eliminate them.
This is just another tactic for them to try to get us to stop. But they’re mistaken. Hamas is an evil that has to be stopped completely. And that’s what we’re going to do.
Updated
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said it received a warning from Israel to evacuate five schools “as fast as possible”, AFP reported.
Separately, the Palestine Red Crescent said it faces an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of Al-Quds hospital.
A statement from Unrwa said:
We did what we could to protest and reject this decision, but this means that from now these facilities are no longer safe.
❌ 12,000 displaced people, including 70% children and women, are in imminent danger after Israeli forces threatened to bomb Al-Quds Hospital and demanded evacuation. This place could turn to ashes if those threats are carried out.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) October 20, 2023
#GazaUnderAttack #NotATarget pic.twitter.com/0a7Zt2rPcm
Updated
The release of US hostages from Gaza comes “after many days on continuous communication” with all parties, Reuters reported that a Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Qatar hopes dialogue will lead to the “release of all civilian hostages from every nationality,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari added.
The US president thanked the governments of Qatar and Israel for their partnership in securing the release of the two American hostages.
The US has been working “around-the-clock” to free American hostages and it has not ceased its efforts for those who are still being held by Hamas, Biden said in a statement.
As I told those families when I spoke with them last week—we will not stop until we get their loved ones home. As president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans held hostage around the world.
Biden 'overjoyed' by release of US hostages
Joe Biden has confirmed the release of two Americans who had been held hostage by Hamas since 7 October.
A statement by the US president reads:
Today, we have secured the release of two Americans taken hostage by Hamas during the horrific terrorist assault against Israel on October 7. Our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days, and I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear. These individuals and their family will have the full support of the United States government as they recover and heal, and we should all respect their privacy in this moment.
Updated
A candlelit vigil for Issam Abdallah, the Reuters visuals journalist killed last week while filming Israeli missile attacks at the Israeli-Lebanon border, was held in Beirut today.
Friends and relatives gathered at a bar he co-owned in Beirut, holding candles and portraits of Abdallah, 37, who covered some of the biggest news stories of the past decade, ranging from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the conflict in Syria.
“You were everything to me,” Abdallah’s sister Abir said.
I will keep carrying this family, I swear. I’m happy that you’re in heaven.
Abdallah was nominated as Reuters Video Journalist of the year in 2020 for outstanding coverage of the Beirut port blast.
After a tough assignment last year in Ukraine, he wrote his editors:
I have learned through all the years of covering conflicts and wars with Reuters from around the region that the picture is not only front lines and smoke, but the untold human stories which touch us all inside.
He was buried on Saturday in his hometown of Khiyam in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s army has said Israel fired the missile that killed Abdallah, and another Reuters reporter at the scene said he was killed by projectiles fired from the direction of Israel. Israel’s military has said it will investigate.
Canada is still committed to a two-state solution to create peace in the Middle East, prime minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Toronto on Friday. He added:
The world and the region needs a peaceful, safe, prosperous, viable Palestinian state alongside a peaceful, prosperous, democratic, safe... Israel.
Israel confirms released hostages are 'on their way to' Israeli military base
A spokesperson for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has confirmed the release of two US hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan.
Gal Hirsch, the director of the kidnapped and missing persons, together with the IDF and the security forces, received them at the border of the Gaza Strip, and at the moment they are on their way to a meeting point at a military base in the center of the israel pic.twitter.com/yWQD1DLwnA
— Tal Schneider טל שניידר تال شنايدر (@talschneider) October 20, 2023
The mother and daughter were kidnapped by Hamas on Saturday, 7 October at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, in southern Israel.
Hamas armed wing spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued a statement earlier on Friday announcing the release, the first since the devastating attacks by the militant group on Israel.
Abu Ubaida said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it believes at least 203 people are being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army statement earlier today said a majority of the hostages were alive.
US and allies pressing Israel to delay Gaza invasion to get hostages out – report
The US and European governments have been putting pressure on Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for secret talks under way to win the release of hostages held by Hamas, according to a report.
The negotiations with Hamas via Qatar are delicate and may fail, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the efforts.
The sources told the outlet that there are signs that Hamas might agree to release at least some of its civilian hostages without demanding Israel release any prisoners in return.
Israel agreed under US pressure to hold off a massive military operation, they said.
Qatar led the negotiations with Hamas that led to the release of two American hostages earlier today, the Times of Israel reported, citing a senior diplomatic source.
The US also contributed to the effort, the source said.
The two hostages have been identified by Jewish media as mother and daughter, Judith and Natalie Raanan.
Prior to the announcement by Hamas that it had released two US hostages, the BBC reported that talks were ongoing to secure the release of many of the estimated 203 hostages held in Gaza.
The report says that Hamas has offered to release some of the hostages it took on 7 October in exchange for an immediate ceasefire. Israel has so far not agreed to this, it says.
As worshippers arrived for Friday afternoon prayers at the East London Mosque, they were met by an unusual welcoming party of three police officers by the main door on Whitechapel Road.
“No, it’s not normal,” said Nasim Ahmed, 49.
It’s a decision that was taken following Gaza. So last week, we had the police inspector here with two of his officers and it’s just really for reassurance.
What were described as “noises”, suggestive of a heightened risk of an incident at the mosque in light of the war between Israel and Hamas, had prompted a request for a police plan in case of a flashpoint.
Some women had already been verbally abused or had their head scarves tugged from their heads, said Sufia Alam, 52, head of programmes at the Maryam Centre next door, which hosts an advice service for women. The borough police commander had visited earlier on Friday to let Alam know they were alive to the risks.
The presence of the officers was not welcomed by everyone, of course, Alam said. One man had “kicked off”, questioning why the “pigs are here”, but for most the officers were a reassuring sight.
After all, the regulars at the vast red-brick building, visited by up to 10,000 people on a busy Friday, are not unused to facing down the angry faces of the far right, out to bring trouble to east London. Any excuse will do for some, but there has been a dramatic rise in intolerance since the atrocities of the 7 October when Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.
Biden: Aid trucks should enter Gaza 'within the next 24-48 hours'
The US president, Joe Biden, said he believed trucks carrying much-needed humanitarian aid should enter Gaza “within the next 24-48 hours”.
Asked about aid trucks getting through to Gaza, Biden said he “got a commitment” from the Israelis and the president of Egypt, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Biden said:
The highway had to be repaved because it was in very bad shape, and I believe that, within the next 24-48 hours, the first 20 trucks will come across with aid.
Updated
Two American-Israeli hostages who were held by Hamas since 7 October have been handed over to the Red Cross, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Judith and Natalie Raanan are “on their way out”, the paper cited a source familiar with the negotiations.
They are being released on “humanitarian grounds” because the mother is in poor health, the source said.
Greta Thunberg’s post met with a backlash from critics who pointed out she had made no equivalent statement recognising the Israelis killed in Hamas’s 7 October attacks on communities bordering Gaza.
An Israeli military spokesperson told Politico:
Whoever identifies with Greta in any way in the future, in my view, is a terror supporter.
Because what Greta is doing, that she is now showing solidarity with Gaza while not saying a word about the massacres of Israelis, shows that she is actually not in favour of the Palestinians, but that she is sweeping the terror of the Palestinians or Hamas and Islamic Jihad under the table as if it did not exist.
Others accused Thunberg of antisemitism after she appeared in an earlier version of the photo with a blue stuffed octopus toy. A blue octopus with a Star of David above its head and its tentacles encircling the globe was a motif used in a German propaganda cartoon invoking racist claims of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.
In a subsequent post, Thunberg said she was unaware of the trope and that the octopus was “a tool often used by autistic people as a way to communicate feelings.”
Greta Thunberg has come under attack after posting a photo of herself with fellow climate activists holding a handmade placard saying: “Stand with Gaza.”
The Swedish climate activist, 20, was in London this week, where she was arrested while taking part in protests against a fossil fuel industry conference. It was with activists from those protests that she appeared on Twitter/X on Friday afternoon.
The others held placards saying “Free Palestine”, “Climate Justice Now” and “This Jew stands with Gaza”. Alongside the photo, Thunberg wrote:
Today we strike in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza. The world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected.
Week 270. Today we strike in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza. The world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected.#FreePalestine #IStandWithPalestine #StandWithGaza #FridaysForFuture
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) October 20, 2023
Thread🧵 pic.twitter.com/0hVtya0yWO
Here’s the Reuters report on the announcement by Hamas that it has released two American hostages.
The Islamist group Hamas said on Friday it had released two U.S. hostages - a mother and daughter - for what it called “humanitarian reasons” following Qatari mediation efforts.
Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida issued a statement announcing the release, the first since gunmen from the Islamist militant group burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and taking around 200 hostages.
Israel’s Channel 13 News said Israel had confirmed the release of two hostages but gave no further details.
Hebrew media are reporting that the two hostages are in custody of the Red Cross, going through Egypt and then will be returned to Israel, according to Reuters’ Emily Rose.
Hebrew media now saying two hostages are in custody of the Red Cross, going through Egypt and then back to Israel. Families are being notified. https://t.co/Auvf5ua01I
— Emily Rose (@emilyarielrose) October 20, 2023
Updated
Palestine Red Crescent says Israeli army demanding evacuation of Al-Quds hospital
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation.
The PRCS posted in an “urgent appeal” to social media saying that the hospital is “a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians”.
We call the international community to act urgently, averting another catastrophe like Al-Ahli hospital.
Urgent Appeal🚨
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) October 20, 2023
PRCS faces an imminent threat. The IOF demands the evacuation of Al-Quds Hospital, a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians.
We call the international community to act urgently, averting another catastrophe like Al-Ahli Hospital
Updated
Israel has confirmed that Hamas has released two hostages, according to Israeli media reports.
Updated
Israeli officials have confirmed that two American hostages will be released by Hamas, Axios’ Barak Ravid writes.
BREAKING: Two American hostages are going to be released by Hamas, two Israeli officials confirm
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 20, 2023
The release was a unilateral step taken by Hamas and not made as part of a deal, according to an Israeli official.
From the BBC’s Michael Shuval:
Israeli official cited by Ch12 says this is a unilateral step taken by Hamas. Not part of a deal.
— Michael Shuval 🏳️🌈 (@MichaelShuval) October 20, 2023
Hamas says it has released two American hostages
Hamas has released two US hostages, according to a spokesperson for Hamas armed wing.
The hostages, a mother and her daughter, have been released “for humanitarian reasons” in response to Qatari mediation efforts, the statement by Al-Qassam Brigades said.
Sunak: Rafah border crossing to reopen 'imminently'
Rishi Sunak has said getting humanitarian aid to those in Gaza is an “immediate priority” and that the UK was in discussions with Egypt on how to provide “practical assistance on the ground”.
The UK prime minister, speaking to reporters after his meeting with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, said the Rafah border crossing should reopen “imminently”.
When this crisis unfolded, one thing we have prioritised consistently is getting the Rafah crossing, opening. It’s been a feature of all my conversations, and I’m very pleased that that will now imminently happen.
He also called on the need to “intensify dialogue, because we all have a shared interest in peace and stability in this region.”
The families of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October are planning to travel to London, Rome and elsewhere to urge the international community to step up efforts to free Israeli hostages.
The first delegation will leave for London on Sunday, and a second is due to depart next Tuesday for Rome, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, Amichai Chikli, said. Additional trips are planned for Brussels and the US. He wrote:
The purpose of the missions is to bring the testimonies and stories first hand to the senior decision makers in the countries of the world in order to help the effort to return the kidnapped and to deepen the support of the international community in Israel’s war against the terrorist organizations.
He added:
The battle for global public opinion is a difficult and complex battle, and we will win it too.
Israel’s army earlier on Friday said that most of the 200 or so people kidnapped by Hamas militants and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive.
The war in the Middle East could expand in unpredictable and dangerous ways if Israel further increases its attacks on Gaza, Iran’s most senior diplomat in the UK has warned.
Mehdi Hosseini Matin, the Iranian chargé d’affaires, said that if this happened it was possible that UK interests would be affected. But he insisted Iran had no control over the “resistance forces” in the region, who he said would make their own decisions independently of Tehran.
At a rare press briefing at the Iranian embassy, Matin said:
The situation in the Middle East is very dangerous and very volatile. Every movement by the Israeli regime including an attack against the people of Gaza definitely escalates the situation and will be expanded to other areas. No one can predict what will happen exactly.
The briefing underscores Iran’s efforts to show it is working in conjunction with Arab states and trying to publicly position Israel as the aggressor.
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, saying that it will “bring nothing but more pain, death and tears”.
In a social media post, Erdoğan called on the establishment of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible. He wrote:
I reiterate our call to the Israeli administration to never expand the scope of its attacks against civilians and to immediately stop its operations that amount to genocide.
He added:
Turkey will continue to do its part to prevent any more innocent blood from being shed, to prevent any more humanitarian tragedies, and to resolve the conflicts in Palestine before they reach a point of no return.
Gazze’ye yönelik saldırıların genişlemesi daha fazla acı, ölüm ve gözyaşından başka hiçbir şey getirmeyecektir.
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) October 20, 2023
Çocukları, kadınları, sivilleri katlederek; hastaneleri, okulları, camileri, kiliseleri bombalayarak güvenliğin sağlanamayacağı açıktır. Zulümle âbâd olunmaz.…
Rishi Sunak and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi agreed world leaders needed to “do everything possible to avoid a contagion of conflict” in the Middle East during their talks in Cairo today, Downing Street said.
A No 10 spokesperson said:
The leaders said that the loss of life in Israel and Gaza over the last few days was truly tragic. They agreed that global leaders should do everything possible to avoid a contagion of conflict in the region, and that every effort must be made to stop terrorism and protect civilians.
The two leaders agreed on “the importance of keeping up dialogue” to prevent regional escalation, the statement continued.
The Prime Minister welcomed efforts by Egypt to reopen the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza as soon as possible. He said that the UK was committed to playing its part in helping the civilians of Gaza and alleviating the dire humanitarian situation there.
The Prime Minister said that £10 million uplift to the UK’s humanitarian aid to the region was the first manifestation of that commitment. As a next step, the leaders agreed to work together to ensure the process of getting aid into Gaza is as efficient and effective as possible.
I am in Egypt as part of wider efforts to prevent the spread of violence following the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) October 20, 2023
All leaders must work together to avoid any regional escalation and ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza.
The UK stands ready to help.
Rishi Sunak also held talks with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in Cairo on Friday.
The UK prime minister, in comments to the Egyptian leader ahead of their bilateral talks, praised Cairo’s efforts to allow movement through Rafah as he spoke about the need to ensure aid can get to Palestinians “as quickly as possible”.
Sunak told Sisi that the pair shared “a vision for the Palestinian people where they can live with security and opportunity and dignity”.
A spokesperson for Sunak said Britain’s “priority” is to focus on the opening of the Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian aid to enter, and for British nationals to leave Gaza.
Sunak met with the Amir of Qatar in Saudi Arabia earlier on Friday before flying to Egypt, the third stop on his tour of the region as part of a diplomatic effort to stop the Israel-Hamas war from escalating.
Rishi Sunak meets Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas
Rishi Sunak met with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, during his trip to Egypt on Friday.
The two leaders “condemned Hamas’s terrorism and stressed that Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people”, a statement from Sunak’s office said.
The UK prime minister also expressed his “deep condolences for the loss of civilian lives in Gaza” and reiterated Britain’s “long-standing commitment to the two-state solution,” it said.
The Downing Street statement reads:
The prime minister expressed his deep condolences for the loss of civilian lives in Gaza, including the terrible destruction of the al-Ahli hospital earlier this week.
The leaders agreed on the need for all parties to take steps to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and minimise the loss of innocent lives.
They condemned Hamas’s terrorism and stressed that Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people.
The prime minister underscored his commitment to opening up humanitarian access to Gaza to alleviate the suffering of thousands of people who desperately need food, water and medicine. He updated on his conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Sisi on this subject.
The prime minister reiterated the UK’s long-standing commitment to the two-state solution and to achieving a future where Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 6.45pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited troops on the Gaza border on Thursday, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”
Gallant also said that after Israel destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli defence minister’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
Any escalation of military activities in the Gaza Strip would be “catastrophic” for people there, the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said on Friday.
Israel bombarded Gaza early on Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which was already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, flew to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, with the first aid delivery expected “in the next day or two”. The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border had been due to open on Friday. When the crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal.
More than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to an update from the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza on Friday. 4,137 people have lost their lives, it said, while more than 13,000 people have been injured. More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave.
At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Greek Orthodox church compound in Gaza on Thursday. Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter in the church from Israeli bombardments. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike, which it said constituted a war crime.
The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted on 7 October, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
The Egyptian foreign ministry has accused “western media” of targeting the country about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
An Israeli airstrike on Friday targeted three Hezbollah militants near the Lebanese border, Israel’s military said.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said two more of its staff have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total number to 16 since the war began.
Most of the 200 or so people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli military said on Friday. The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60. There are also between 100 and 200 people considered missing since the Hamas attacks, the army added.
Joe Biden has drawn a direct, provocative link between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel in only the second Oval Office address of his presidency. The White House on Friday asked Congress for nearly $106bn to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and US border security, but offered no strategy for securing the money from a broken Congress.
Western officials are voicing mounting concern over the risk of a regional “spillover” from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as US forces in the region come under repeated drone attack, including in Iraq.
Police in London say they have recorded a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared with the same period last year, while Islamophobic offences were up 140% after the attack by Hamas on Israel.
The UK government has said that pro-Palestine marchers attending demonstrations scheduled to take place around the UK this weekend have a right to protest but should “be mindful” of the “fear and distress felt by many families in this country”.
Hello. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can contact me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
The world’s biggest network of climate change campaign groups has issued a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the end to the occupation of Palestine.
Climate Action Network International, a coalition of more than 1,900 civil society organisations campaigning on the climate crisis in 130 countries, said it condemned “all killing, indiscriminate attacks, civilian hostage taking and arbitrary detention of any civilians”.
Insisting the network stood “in solidarity with Palestinian, Israeli and all families who have lost loved ones in this latest conflict”, the statement, issued on Friday, said:
Our work is motivated by our deep commitment to achieve climate and social justice, and the certainty that this can only be achieved if human rights, everyone’s human rights, are upheld. There can be no climate justice without human rights.
We join the calls for an immediate ceasefire, respect for international humanitarian and human rights’ law, the provision of humanitarian access and support.
There can be no peace without justice. The end of the occupation of Palestine is a precondition to ensure a sustained and long-lasting solution.
CAN’s statement comes nearly a week after Friends of the Earth International released a statement denouncing Israel’s occupation and ongoing assault on Gaza, saying:
This attack on the civilian population of Gaza is a war crime and must stop immediately.
Updated
Western officials are voicing mounting concern over the risk of a regional “spillover” from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as US forces in the region come under repeated drone attack, including in Iraq.
Amid indications that Israel may be poised to launch a major ground offensive into Gaza, and escalating tensions on Israel’s boundary with Lebanon, Iranian proxies in particular appeared to be stepping up their threats.
The Ain al-Asad airbase, which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, was targeted by drones and missiles on Thursday evening, according to security sources. Multiple blasts were reportedly heard inside the base.
The Iraqi military said it had closed the area around the base and started a search operation. It was not clear yet whether the attacks had caused casualties or damages.
The assault came after rockets hit another military base hosting US forces near Baghdad’s international airport on Thursday, according to Iraqi police.
US military forces in Iraq were also targeted on Wednesday in two separate drone attacks, with one causing minor injuries to a small number of troops even though the US military managed to intercept the armed drone.
On Wednesday, a drone hit US forces in Syria, resulting in minor injuries, while another one was brought down.
Earlier on Thursday, the USS Carney, a navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen.
A Pentagon spokesperson told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the US had not finished its assessment of what they were targeting. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the US military in the defence of Israel in this conflict.
Lebanon’s national carrier says it is cutting more than half of its flights as tensions along the border with Israel prompt more western countries to warn against travel to Lebanon.
On Friday, Mohammad El-Hout, chairman of Middle East Airlines (MEA), said only eight of the company’s 22 planes would operate as of next week, with the rest of the fleet relocated to other airports.
“More than half of the company’s flights will be cancelled,” Hout said during a televised interview from Beirut’s airport, which was knocked out during the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group.
The decision came after changes to the company’s insurance coverage after the 7 October Hamas attack, he said.
Other airlines, including Swiss International Air Lines and Germany’s Lufthansa, have already temporarily suspended Beirut flights, as western countries urge their nationals to leave Lebanon.
On Friday, Belgium became the latest country to issue a Lebanon travel advisory, following similar moves by the US, Britain, France, Australia, Canada and other nations.
Updated
White House asks Congress for $106bn (£87.3bn) for Ukraine and Israel
The White House on Friday asked Congress for nearly $106bn to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and US border security, but offered no strategy for securing the money from a broken Congress.
President Joe Biden’s request for the funding comes days after he visited Israel and pledged solidarity as the country bombards Gaza following an attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel.
By grouping Israel funding with Ukraine, border security, refugee assistance, measures to counter China and other hotly debated priorities, Biden is hoping he has created a must-pass national security spending bill that can win support in a chaotic House of Representatives.
The chamber, which Republicans won control of last year, has been without a leader for more than two weeks.
Some Republican lawmakers have grown skeptical of the need to fund Ukraine’s war with Russia, and have threatened to halt government altogether to put an end to debt-fuelled fiscal spending.
“The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities,” said Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, in a letter to the acting House speaker, Patrick McHenry. “I urge Congress to address them as part of a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement in the weeks ahead.”
Updated
Police in London say they have recorded a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared with the same period last year, while Islamophobic offences were up 140% after the attack by Hamas on Israel.
Police in the British capital have ramped up patrols amid growing tensions, but said there had been 218 antisemitic offences between 1 October and 18 October, compared with 15 in the same period in 2022. Islamophobic offences were up to 101, from 42.
“Regrettably, despite the increased presence of officers we have seen a significant increase in hate crime across London,” the Metropolitan police said in a statement.
“This includes abuse directed at individuals or groups in person or online, racially or religiously motivated criminal damage and other offences.”
Officers have made 21 arrests for hate crime offences, including a man detained for defacing posters of missing Israelis and another over Islamophobic graffiti on bus stops.
The Community Security Trust, a charity that advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said it had recorded 457 antisemitic incidents across the UK between Hamas’s attack on 7 October and 18 October.
TellMama, which monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said it had received 200 cases up to 16 October.
“The conflict is having a direct impact on London and Londoners, with increasing cases of abhorrent Islamophobia and antisemitism seen in the capital,” said the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
Updated
Pro-Palestine marchers have a right to protest but should “be mindful” of the “fear and distress felt by many families in this country”, says the British government
The British government has said that pro-Palestine marchers attending demonstrations scheduled to take place around the UK this weekend have a right to protest but should “be mindful” of the “fear and distress felt by many families in this country”.
The comments by a spokesperson for Rishi Sunak are a subtle shift in the government’s tone from last week, when the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said there should be a “pause” in such protest after the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
“We’re clear that people must remain free to peacefully express their views, and protest is an important part of our democracy, but we also recognise that this is clearly a deeply distressing time for many,” a Downing Street spokesperson told reporters on Friday.
“And we would appeal to everyone across the country and those who are considering joining these protests to be mindful of that – and to consider the fear and distress felt by many families in this country over the distressing events that we’ve seen.”
The comments came as the Metropolitan police said 1,000 officers would be deployed in London for what is expected to be a major protest in the city organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
In a statement, the force said that anyone wearing, carrying or otherwise displaying symbols that are supportive of a banned organisation could be arrested, adding that the same would be true for chanting.
“One particular chant that has been the subject of extensive discussion is: ‘Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.’ This is a chant that has been frequently heard at pro-Palestinian demonstrations for many years. We are well aware of the strength of feeling in relation to it,” it added.
“While we can envisage scenarios where chanting these words could be unlawful, such as outside a synagogue or Jewish school, or directly at a Jewish person or group intended to intimidate, it is likely that its use in a wider protest setting, such as we anticipate this weekend, would not be an offence and would not result in arrests.”
Updated
Board of Deputies of British Jews meets BBC director general
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has put out a statement after a meeting today with Tim Davie, the BBC director general.
The broadcaster has been criticised in recent days for describing Hamas as militants rather than terrorists, and for its initial coverage of Tuesday’s blast at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza.
The statement reads:
The BBC confirmed it was committed to continued dialogue. It also confirmed it is no longer BBC practice to call Hamas militants. Instead, the BBC describes the group as a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK government and others, or simply as Hamas.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the board of deputies, said:
We emphasised our outrage at the refusal of the BBC to describe Hamas’ barbaric actions as terrorism and the damaging, false report of the rocket which killed innocent civilians. We will both continue dialogue as well as pursuing legal avenues.
Updated
German interior minister calls for deportation of Hamas supporters
Germany’s interior minister says Hamas supporters should be deported from the country where possible, adding that authorities would keep a close eye on potential Islamist attackers.
“If we are able to deport Hamas supporters, we must do this,” Nancy Faeser told reporters following talks with officials at the Federal Criminal Police Office.
“Our security authorities have currently placed an even stronger focus on the Islamist scene,” Faeser added, pointing to a recent attack in Brussels as an indication of the threat relating to tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Updated
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has flown to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, as Israel’s bombardment continued ahead of a looming ground offensive.
The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border was due to open on Friday under an agreement Joe Biden believed he had brokered on his one-day visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. But the US state department said on Thursday that the “modalities” of opening the gate were still being negotiated, and the Egyptian government said it needed more time to repair the bomb-damaged road.
Guterres called for significant deliveries of aid to be let through and for security checks to be speeded up. “We are actively engaging with all parties to make sure conditions for delivering aid are lifted,” he said.
Thousands of Jordanians rally in support of Hamas
Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to intensify their strikes on Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital and around the country on Friday to protest against Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.
More than 6,000 people took part in the protest in downtown Amman arranged by opposition parties and tribal groups in a kingdom where passions are running high since the escalation of violence between Palestinians and Israel.
“Oh Hamas, hit them with al-Qassam rockets ... Bring the suicide bombers to Tel Aviv,” they chanted, referring to the military wing of Hamas.
In Amman on Friday, several thousand people also gathered near the Israeli embassy, a common spot for anti-Israel protests at times of turmoil in the Palestinian territories.
“No Jewish embassy on Arab land!” protesters chanted.
Riot police blocked roads leading to the fortified embassy complex to keep back demonstrators who gathered around the nearby Kaloti mosque in the capital.
Authorities in Jordan earlier this week quelled rioting around the Israeli embassy and said they would not tolerate any attempt by mobs who sought to exploit anger against Israel to create havoc.
On the outskirts of the capital, hundreds of anti-riot police blocked all roads leading to Jordan Valley opposite the West Bank, where activists had called for large protests.
More than 2,000 protesters who were prevented from heading to the border called on the authorities to allow them to join the fight alongside Hamas.
In the southern city of Karak, hundreds of protesters gathered at a checkpoint on a highway leading to the border chanting pro-Hamas slogans.
Many of Jordan’s 10 million citizens are of Palestinian descent. They or their parents were expelled or fled to Jordan in the fighting that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.
They have close ties with family on the other side of the Jordan River in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. (Via Reuters)
Egyptian foreign ministry blames Israel for blocking aid to Gaza
The Egyptian foreign ministry has accused “western media” of targeting the country about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
On the social media site X, formally known as Twitter, the Egyptian foreign minister said the media were “Promoting displacement scenario, holding Egypt responsible for the Crossing closure despite Israeli targeted attacks and refusal of aid entry and recently insinuating Egypt responsibility for obstructing third-country nationals exit.”
It added: “Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible for obstructing third-country nationals exit.” A subsequent tweet said: “The opportunity is available tomorrow to change course and awaken the conscience.”
Targeting 🇪🇬 in Western media is clear in the current crisis ! Promoting displacement scenario, holding 🇪🇬 responsible for the Crossing closure despite 🇮🇱 targeted attacks & refusal of aid entry & recently insinuating 🇪🇬 responsibility for obstructing third-country nationals exit
— Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) October 20, 2023
Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible of obstructing third-country nationals exit….
— Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) October 20, 2023
The opportunity is available tomorrow to change course and awaken the conscience!!! pic.twitter.com/XJCqYGCJIc
— Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) October 20, 2023
Updated
Russia advises its citizens to avoid Israel and adjacent territories
Russia is urging its citizens to refrain from travelling to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon or Jordan, the foreign ministry said on its website on Friday.
It added in a statement:
We continue to work closely with the Egyptian and Israeli authorities to ensure the exit from the Gaza Strip of Russian citizens who have asked for assistance in evacuating.
(Reuters)
French president, Emmanuel Macron, speaks to the families of hostages
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has spoken by video link-up to families of the French hostages held by Hamas.
He said he, along with every service of the French state, was fully mobilised to obtain their liberation. The Elysée said Macron had told the families of the hostages: “Everything will be done for them to come back safe and sound to France.”
J'ai pu échanger à l’instant avec des familles d’otages français retenus par le Hamas.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 20, 2023
Je le dis ici à tous : la France n'abandonne pas les siens. Nous faisons tout notre possible pour obtenir la libération et le retour de nos compatriotes.
La Nation se tient à leurs côtés.
Updated
More than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to the latest update from the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza. They said that 4,137 people have lost their lives, while more than 13,000 people have been injured.
Updated
Israel doesn’t plan to control ‘life in Gaza’ after destroying Hamas, says defence minister
Israel’s defence minister has said that after the country destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”.
Yoav Gallant’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
Gallant said Israel expected there to be three phases to its war with Hamas. He said the first would be an attack on the group in Gaza with airstrikes and ground operations, then it would defeat pockets of resistance and finally it would cease its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip”. (Via AP)
Israel will also “establish a new security regime”, he said.
“October 7 is the day that started the process of destroying Hamas,” Gallant said, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. He added that the war will be divided into three phases, the first of which is “a military campaign by fire and later by tactical manoeuvre, the purpose of which will be to assassinate operatives and damage infrastructure” to destroy Hamas.
After that, Gallant said, the fighting will continue “at a lower intensity.” The final stage of the campaign will include “the creation of a new security regime in the Gaza Strip, the removal of Israel’s responsibility for life in the Strip and the creation of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel,” the defense minister said.
Updated
Most of the 200 or so people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli military said on Friday.
“The majority of the hostages are alive. There were also dead bodies that were taken … to the Gaza Strip,” an army statement said.
The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60.
There are also between 100 and 200 people considered missing since the Hamas attacks, the army added.
My colleagues Angelique Chrisafis, Ashifa Kassam, Kate Connolly and Angela Giuffrida have written this piece about the fears of some Jewish communities around Europe in the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel:
In the usually bustling “Little Jerusalem” area of Sarcelles, north of Paris, the popular falafel and grill restaurant was eerily quiet. “People are not going out,” said Jérémy, the 33-year-old restaurant owner.
Lunchtime and evening crowds are common in one of the largest Jewish communities on the Paris outskirts. But many thought it wiser to stay home, fearing a growing number of antisemitic incidents in France and across Europe since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.
Updated
UN chief visits Egypt’s Rafah crossing ahead of Gaza aid delivery
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza to oversee preparations for the delivery of aid to the war-torn territory.
Cargo planes and trucks have been bringing humanitarian aid to Rafah for days, but so far none has been delivered to the Gaza Strip, which Israel has besieged and bombed for 13 days.
“We are actively engaging with all the parties, with Egypt, Israel, the United States... in order to have these trucks moving as soon as possible,” Guterres told journalists on Friday.
Rafah is the only crossing into the blockaded Palestinian territory that is not controlled by Israel, which agreed to allow aid to enter after a request from the US.
Earlier on Friday, the UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the first aid delivery via the Rafah crossing should take place “in the next day or so”.
Guterres said there was an “absolute need to have these trucks moving as soon as possible and as many as necessary”, adding that “this must be a sustained effort”.
“We are not looking for one convoy to come but we are looking for convoys to be authorised in a meaningful number to have enough trucks to provide support to Gaza’s people,” the UN chief said.
Updated
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says two more of its staff have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total number to 16 since the war began.
🔺We are devastated to confirm that two more @UNRWA colleagues have been killed in📍#Gaza. The entire Agency is grieving
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 20, 2023
🔺@UNRWA continues to advocate for adherence to international humanitarian law - @UN staff & civilians must be protected at all timeshttps://t.co/jqfilNjW9N pic.twitter.com/ZHlAPGo96R
An Israeli air strike on Friday targeted three Hezbollah militants near the Lebanese border, Israel’s military said.
“Three Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the area of the border with Lebanon. Israel Defence Forces aircraft struck the terrorists,” it said.
“In addition, a short while ago, IDF snipers opened fire toward gunmen that were identified operating in the area of the border with Lebanon.”
Here's a summary of what we know so far today:
At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Greek Orthodox church compound in Gaza.
The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank.
The Israeli military says it attacked more than 100 operational targets in the Gaza Strip overnight.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
The first delivery of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt should take place “in the next day or so”, the UN has said.
The UN has also warned that any escalation of military activities in the Gaza Strip would be “catastrophic” for people there.
The Dutch government has joined other countries in advising its citizens against any travel to Lebanon and also urged those still in the country “to leave Lebanon as soon as possible”.
Updated
Biden comment comparing Putin to Hamas is unacceptable, says Kremlin
The Kremlin has said that yesterday’s remarks by Joe Biden comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Palestinian militant group Hamas were “unacceptable”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters the current time was a potentially dangerous moment on the international agenda, and that the threat to Russian citizens would grow exponentially once Israel started its expected ground operation to try to oust Hamas from Gaza.
Peskov declined to say who would represent Russia at a peace summit for the Palestinian conflict in Cairo on Saturday, referring the query to the foreign ministry.
Updated
French police arrest 16-year-old pupil over bomb threat
Police say a 16-year-old pupil has been arrested over a false bomb threat outside Paris, as French authorities scramble to halt a week of bomb scares at airports, schools and landmarks.
The spate of empty bomb threats has hit a country on high alert since the Hamas assault on Israel, the ensuing war in Gaza and the fatal stabbing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras last week.
The teenager was arrested Thursday over an emailed bomb threat in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, a town northwest of Paris. Around 1,200 people including around a thousand pupils had been evacuated from the Jean Perrin high school the suspect attended. No explosives were found following an examination of the site, and the teenager’s exact motive remained unclear.
The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said authorities had made 18 arrests over false bomb threats on Wednesday and Thursday.
Most of France’s major airports outside Paris were targeted, leading to evacuations, hours-long delays and dozens of cancelled flights.
On Friday, France’s Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said that 22 probes had been launched in connection with the false alarms.
“There will obviously be convictions, we cannot let this happen,” Dupond-Moretti told broadcaster RTL.
He reiterated his pledge to crack down on “little jokers who have no sense of responsibility.”
Offenders risk two years in prison and a €30,000-euro (£26,000) fine.
All of us at @WHO have been shocked, appalled and saddened by the conflict in Israel and Gaza.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 20, 2023
We continue to ask for access to deliver lifesaving supplies.
We hope the Rafah crossing will open today.
More delays will result in more suffering and more deaths. pic.twitter.com/1acEg5qTbz
Hundreds of Indonesians protest against US support for Israel
Protesters marched from several mosques to the heavily guarded US embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Friday to denounce the staunch American support for Israel and demand an end to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Similar protests also took place in front of the United Nations mission, a few miles from the embassy, and in the compound of the Indonesian ministry of foreign affairs. Authorities estimated that about 1,000 people participated in the rallies across Jakarta following Friday prayers in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
The protesters who marched to the embassy halted traffic along the way as they chanted “God is great!” and “Save Palestinians!”
Waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and signs reading, “We are proud to support Palestine,” more than 100 noisy demonstrators gathered along a major street in Jakarta that runs outside the embassy.
“The US actually know this war and violence occurred because Palestinians want [freedom] from Israel’s occupation, but they close their eyes and pretend to be deaf,” a speaker told the crowd. “We call for a two-state solution for Palestinians to end the war.”
Some protesters voiced their anger by burning portraits of the US president, Joe Biden, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
About 1,000 police office were deployed around the embassy, the nearby presidential palace and the UN mission
Indonesia does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, and there is no Israeli embassy in the country. It has long been a strong supporter of the Palestinians. (Via AP)
Updated
First aid delivery to Gaza expected 'in next day or so'
The first aid delivery to the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt should take place “in the next day or so”, the UN has said.
“We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation in Gaza starts as quickly as possible … a first delivery is due to start in the next day or so,” the UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said, quoted by his spokesman Jens Laerke in Geneva.
Laerke told reporters: “I do not have an exact time for when these movements will take place, of course, with the hope that they can begin as soon as possible, in a way that is safe, secure and hopefully sustained.
“We need to have the mechanism in place whereby this can be driven into southern Gaza. That does not take away from our call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
Desperately needed international aid piled up in Egypt on Friday, with Palestinians in dire need of food and water after heavy bombing by Israel, which is still reeling from the bloodiest attack in its history.
The UN says more than 1 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced and that the humanitarian situation is worsening by the day. (Via AFP)
Updated
Israeli airstrike on Greek Orthodox church compound killed 18 – Gaza authorities
Reuters has more on last night’s Israeli airstrike on the compound of the church of St Porphyrius in Gaza.
Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office said 18 Christian Palestinians were killed. There was no word from the church on any final death toll.
Video from the scene at the church compound showed a wounded boy being carried from rubble in the nighttime.
A civil defence worker said two people on upper floors had survived. Those on lower floors had been killed and were still in the rubble, the worker said.
“They felt they would be safe here,” one man shouted. “They came from under the bombardment and the destruction, and they said they would be safe here but destruction [followed] them.”
The Hamas-run health authority in Gaza said the attack on the church claimed lives and wounded many others. Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter in the church from Israeli bombardments.
Gaza’s 2.3 million population includes an estimated 1,000 Christians, most of whom are Greek Orthodox.
Updated
UN refugee chief says further military escalation would be ‘catastrophic’ for Gaza
Any escalation of military activities in the Gaza Strip would be “catastrophic” for people there, the UN high commissioner for refugees said on Friday.
“[I] can tell you with certainty that any further escalation or even continuation of military activities will just be catastrophic for the people of Gaza,” Filippo Grandi told reporters in Japan.
While stressing that the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has no formal mandate in the Palestinian territories or Israel, Grandi said he “shares the extreme worry and anguish that has been expressed by many of my colleagues including the UN secretary general” about the conflict.
He called the Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October “appalling” and said the consequences of the conflict spreading into Lebanon and elsewhere would be “incalculable”.
Updated
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, has just put out these remarks on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel:
With over 3,700 people killed in Gaza and 1,000 more presumed under the rubble, as well as 1,300 people killed in Israel, and a further one million Palestinians – half of them children – reportedly displaced, we implore all parties to allow the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for all civilians in need, wherever they are.
At the same time, we remain very concerned that Israeli forces’ heavy strikes are continuing across Gaza, including in the south. The strikes, coupled with extremely difficult living conditions in the south, appear to have pushed some to return to the north, despite the continuing heavy bombing there.
We are also concerned about continued indiscriminate rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel.
Shamdasani reiterated calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages and said the UN human rights chief was “extremely alarmed” by the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied West Bank.
Since 7 October, our office has received reports that 69 Palestinians, including at least 15 children and one woman, have been killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank.
Yesterday, 14 Palestinians were reportedly killed, most of them in a drone strike. Settler violence has also further increased: six Palestinians have been killed by armed settlers, and a number of Palestinian communities have been forced from their land.
There has also been an increase in arbitrary arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and of Arab Israelis in Israel, including Palestinian activists and Palestinian workers that were previously working in Israel, with reports of ill-treatment and lack of any due process. This must cease.
For the past 13 days, many Palestinians in the West Bank have been denied freedom of movement, including being prevented from reaching hospitals to receive life-saving care. Restrictions on freedom of movement must be necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate aim.
Updated
Could the West Bank become a third front in the conflict?
Reuters has a very useful piece here on what the increase in violence in the West Bank could mean for the Israel-Hamas conflict:
Violence in the occupied West Bank has surged since Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip and clashing with Hezbollah at the Lebanon border, fuelling concerns that the flashpoint Palestinian territory could become a third front in a wider war.
Western countries supporting Israel fear a wider war that would open up Lebanon, with its Iran-backed group Hezbollah, as a second front and the West Bank as what Israeli media call a potential third front.
Clashes between Israeli soldiers and settlers and Palestinians have already turned deadly. More than 80 Palestinians have been killed in West Bank violence since 7 October and Israel has arrested more than 900 people. It conducted fresh overnight and dawn raids on Friday and detained scores more.
The violence poses a challenge to Israel and to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the only Palestinian governing body recognised internationally, which is headquartered there.
The Israeli military said it was on high alert and bracing for attacks including by Hamas militants in the West Bank.
Hamas was trying to “engulf Israel in a two- or three-front war”, including the Lebanese border and the West Bank, the Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col Jonathan Conricus told Reuters. “The threat is elevated,” he said.
In Ramallah, rare chants this week supporting the military wing of Hamas – a rival of the PA’s ruling Fatah party – showed a growing appetite for armed resistance.
“Give people weapons. Let them clash. We’ll show what we can do,” said Salah, a 20-year-old demonstrator who gave only his first name.
Mowafaq Sehweel, a Fatah official, told Reuters: “We should let go of the reins and use whatever means to fight occupation.”
Palestinian officials and Israeli analysts say a number of factors are helping to ignite tensions but conversely also limiting their scope – for now. One is the hundreds of arrests Israel has made. Hamas cited attacks on West Bank Palestinians and arrests this year as part of its reason for attacking on 7 October.
But the arrests have also limited West Bank violence, said Salah al-Khawaja, 52, an anti-settlement activist.
“In Gaza, there’s enough time [for Hamas] to organise militarily,” he said. “Here, the occupation [Israel] can clamp down on a daily basis. It leaves no space to build up military or political forces.”
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The Dutch government has advised its citizens against any travel to Lebanon and also urged those still in the country “to leave Lebanon as soon as possible”, joining other European countries who have put out similar advice for their nationals.
“As a consequence of unpredictable developments between Israel and the Palestinian territories, there are heightened tensions in Lebanon,” the government said in statement. (Via Reuters)
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More than 1,000 Chinese nationals have left Israel amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.
According to preliminary statistics, the Chinese nationals who have left have either returned to China or gone to a third country, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing.
Mao said that 280 Chinese nationals who had been stranded in the southern Israeli city of Sderot when the conflict first broke out had all been evacuated. (Via Reuters)
Egypt ‘clearing path for Gaza aid’
Egypt has removed concrete blocks near the border with Gaza, an Egyptian security source told AFP on Friday, raising hopes that desperately needed aid could soon begin flowing to Palestinians trapped inside.
Israel has refused to open its borders with Gaza but Joe Biden brokered a deal to allow aid in via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only path into the territory not controlled by the Israelis. Aid is piling up, but nothing has yet crossed into Gaza.
The Egyptian state-linked broadcaster al-Qahera News had said the Rafah crossing would open on Friday, but Cairo said it needed more time to repair roads.
Egypt is still repairing these roads and on Friday “vehicles and Egyptian equipment went in to repair the road on the Palestinian side”, witnesses told AFP.
Biden clinched a deal to allow in 20 aid trucks, but the deal came with strict conditions from Israel – aid must only go to civilians and not fall into the hands of Hamas militants. It should also only be distributed in the south of the Gaza Strip where Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate.
The WHO’s emergencies director, Michael Ryan, described Biden’s deal as “a drop in the ocean of need”, saying 2,000 trucks were needed.
The UN has described the situation inside Gaza as “beyond catastrophic” as Israel pounds the enclave from the air in reprisal for a Hamas attack that was the bloodiest in its 75-year history.
According to the UN, more than a million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced and that the humanitarian situation is worsening by the day, with no green light yet to send in the trucks lined up at the border. (Via AFP)
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The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has expressed its “strongest condemnation” and accused Israeli forces of committing a “war crime” after an airstrike at a church compound in Gaza was reported to have killed several displaced people sheltering there.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled interior ministry said the strike on Thursday left a “large number of martyrs and injured” at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius church in Gaza City, which is the oldest church still in use in the territory.
Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the place of worship where many Gaza residents had taken refuge as the war raged in the Palestinian enclave. They said the attack had damaged the facade of the church and caused an adjacent building to collapse, adding that many injured people were evacuated to hospital.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike, which it said constituted a war crime.
“Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” the patriarchate said in a statement.
The church is not far from al-Ahli Arab hospital, which was hit by a deadly blast on Tuesday.
Contacted by AFP, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said their fighter jets had hit a command and control centre involved in launching rockets and mortars toward Israel.
“As a result of the IDF strike, a wall of a church in the area was damaged,” the IDF said, adding: “We are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review.”
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Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs has released this photo today, showing the coffins of Thai workers killed in the Hamas attacks of 7 October, which have now been repatriated to Bangkok.
At least 30 Thais are reported to have been killed and another 17 are missing, believed to have been abducted.
A quick overview of where things stand on Friday morning
AP has this useful snapshot of where things stand as of this morning:
Israel bombarded Gaza early on Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety, and it began evacuating a sizeable Israeli town in the north near the Lebanese border, the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil.
Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which was already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
On Thursday, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered ground troops to prepare to see Gaza “from the inside,” hinting at a ground offensive aimed at crushing Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers nearly two weeks after their bloody incursion into Israel. Officials have given no timetable for such an operation.
More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave.
Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals are rationing their dwindling medical supplies and fuel for generators, as authorities work out logistics for desperately needed aid delivery from Egypt that has yet to enter. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza performed surgeries by the light of mobile phones and used vinegar to treat infected wounds.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through Rafah, the territory’s only crossing not controlled by Israel, remained fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would “thwart” any diversions by Hamas. More than 200 trucks and 3,000 tonnes of aid were positioned at or near Rafah, but work has not yet begun on repairing a road on the Gaza side that was damaged by airstrikes.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon, putting residents up in hotels elsewhere in the country in a state-funded programme. On Friday, the defence ministry announced evacuation plans for Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
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Five children reported dead after clashes in the West Bank
Thirteen people, among them five children, have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The Palestinian Red Crescent also said 13 people had been killed.
“The Israeli occupation army committed a massacre from Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem during its attack yesterday, with the death toll reaching 13 martyrs, among them five children,” the ministry said in a statement.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike which killed “a number of terrorists” in Nur Shams.
“Exchanges of fire with armed gunmen, which included explosive devices being thrown at Israeli security forces, took place,” an army statement said.
At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted on 7 October, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.
(Via Reuters, AFP and AP)
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IDF claims to have attacked over 100 operational targets overnight
The Israel Defence Forces have posted an update to X saying: “During the night, fighter jets attacked over a hundred operational targets of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, destroying tunnel shafts, munitions warehouses and dozens of operational headquarters. During the attacks, the IDF and the Shin Bet eliminated a terrorist who was in the naval force of the terrorist organization Hamas, the terrorist took part in the murderous terrorist operations in the Gaza Strip.”
The IDF said that “a terrorist squad associated with the terrorist organization’s air force that planned to launch missiles at an aircraft was foiled”.
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Sunak visited Jerusalem on Thursday to show support for Israel and to try to negotiate a way to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas and ease the provision of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza.
Later on Thursday, he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, where he encouraged the leader to use Saudi’s leadership in the region to support stability, underlining the fear that the Hamas attack and Israel’s response could ignite regional unrest.
In the talks in Egypt, Sunak will stress “the imperative of avoiding regional escalation and preventing the further unnecessary loss of civilian life”, his office said.
Sunak to travel to Egypt on Friday
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will travel to Egypt on Friday where he will hold talks with counterparts in the region to discuss the situation in Israel and Gaza, his office said.
In the talks, Sunak will stress “the imperative of avoiding regional escalation and preventing the further unnecessary loss of civilian life”, his office said.
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Summary
It is 8.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
Biden used his second ever Oval Office address to appeal to Americans for their support for tens of billions of dollars of funding for Israel and Ukraine. Biden said he would send an urgent funding request to Congress, which is expected to be roughly $100bn over the next year. The proposal, which will be unveiled on Friday, includes money for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, humanitarian aid and border management.
Throughout the address, Biden made comparisons between Israel and Ukraine, Hamas and Putin. He stressed that Israel should not make the same “mistakes” made by the US after 9/11 when, he said, Americans were “blinded by rage”. Biden said: “As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace, we cannot give up on a two-state solution.” He added: “The US remains committed to Palestinians’ right to dignity and to self-determination. The acts of Hamas don’t take that away.” Biden said: “Hamas and Putin represent different threats. But they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy.”
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has told troops gathered at the Gaza border that they will soon see the Palestinian territory “from the inside”. Gallant urged the forces to “get organised, be ready” for an order to move in, suggesting an Israeli ground invasion could be nearing.
Israel is likely to launch a ground assault on the Gaza Strip in the coming days, the former prime minister Ehud Barak said in an NBC interview. The Israeli military had a “green light” to move into Gaza whenever it was ready, Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, said in an interview with the US’s ABC network.
Gaza hospitals have ‘hours’ of fuel, says doctor. The Gaza health ministry pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospitals and a UN agency donated some of its last fuel. The agency’s donation to Gaza City’s Shifa hospital, the territory’s largest, would “keep us going for another few hours,” the hospital’s director, Mohammed Abu Selmia, said. With the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza’s second largest hospital deteriorated further, said Dr Mohammed Qandeel, of Nasser hospital, in the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most of the hospital and medical staff were using mobile phones for light.
In a late-night interview with CNN, the IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus was asked to comment on how soon a ground offensive may begin. “The IDF is deployed along the Gaza Strip. The reserves are ready, equipped and standing by,” he said. But he would not “advertise” when activities would begin. “Ground activity is one of the options, one of the tools at our disposal,” he added.
The US intelligence community has estimated there were probably 100 to 300 people killed in the blast at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, but added that the assessment may evolve, according to excerpts of a document seen on Thursday by several media outlets. The number is lower than the 471 deaths that health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave originally described.
China is ready to maintain communication and coordination with Russia to cool down the Israel-Palestinian crisis, its Middle East special envoy said after meeting with his Russian counterpart this week. The remarks were reported in Chinese state media.
Western officials are warning that the risk of regional “spillover” from the Israel-Hamas war is real, after US forces in the region faced increasing threats and American bases in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by drone attacks. A Pentagon spokesperson told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the US had not finished its assessment of what they were targeting. The action potentially represented the first shots by the US military in the defence of Israel in this conflict.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid will enter Gaza from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula in the coming days, according to the White House, after Joe Biden’s whirlwind visit to Israel on Wednesday. Biden said Israel had agreed to allow the opening of the Egypt-Gaza Rafah crossing to deliveries of desperately needed food, water and medical supplies on condition that the humanitarian assistance was not diverted by Hamas for its own use.
The Rafah crossing is not expected to open Friday for a convoy of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, CNN reported, citing multiple sources. “I would not put money on those trucks going through tomorrow,” one source told the news outlet. US officials now expect the first convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid will cross into Gaza from Egypt this weekend, possibly Saturday, the report says. Egyptian state media earlier reported that the Rafah crossing with Egypt would be opened on Friday to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. It comes after Israel, the White House and Egypt confirmed that limited aid will be allowed to travel into Gaza through the crossing. The source told CNN that the situation was “really volatile” and that there were a lot of other details to make sure the aid was sustained and not a one-off.
Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II have condemned the “collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza as they met in Cairo for talks on the Israel-Hamas war. Sisi and King Abdullah also warned of the dangers of a regional spillover.
The US state department has issued a worldwide caution alert advising American citizens overseas “to exercise increased caution”. The US state department cited “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests”.
The US and British embassies in Beirut have advised their citizens to leave Lebanon while flights “remain available” as border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah intensify over the Israel-Hamas war. Both countries had already warned citizens against travel to Lebanon.
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Kiryat Shmona, the town near Israel’s border with Lebanon that the Israeli defence ministry has announced it will evacuate, has a population of more that 20,000 and is 2km from the border fence, Reuters reports.
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Israel to evacuate town on Lebanon border
The Israeli defence ministry reports that Israel will evacuate residents from the town of town Kiryat Shmona, near its border with Lebanon.
Cross-border fire has increased since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, and the order may be a response to this. More soon.
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What do we know about the Hamas hostages?
Reuters: An estimated 203 people, including 30 minors and young children and 20 people over the age of 60, are being held hostage in Gaza, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said on Thursday, citing military sources.
Hamas says it has between 200 and 250 people. It said more than 20 hostages have been killed by Israeli air strikes, but has not given any further details.
Israel says the hostages were taken to Gaza but their exact whereabouts within the enclave are unknown, making their rescue more complicated. It is believed many could be held in the warren of tunnels under Gaza that Israeli troops call the “Gaza Metro”.
Hamas on Monday released a video of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman captured at a dance party. In the video, she was shown being treated for an injury to her arm by an unidentified medical workers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a retired general, Gal Hirsch, as Israel’s coordinator on hostages and missing persons.
Qatari mediators have said they have tried to negotiate freedom for Israeli women and children seized by Hamas in return for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israel’s prisons, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters. So far, there has been no indication a deal might be at hand.
Turkey is also talking with Hamas to secure the release of foreigners, civilians and children, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday. He told state-run Andalou news agency that countries including the U.S. and Germany have asked for help from Turkey on winning the release of their citizens.
US President Joe Biden said his administration is “workin’ like hell” to find American hostages held by Hamas. The US has sent a small team of special operations forces to Israel to help with intelligence and planning for any eventual operations to rescue the hostages.
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This week, Joe Biden travelled to Israel – becoming the first US president to visit the country at war. He set out to show United States support for Israel, ease the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza, win the freedom of hostages held by Hamas, and prevent a wider regional conflict that might draw in the US. So with stakes this high, how did he perform? And what does this mean for Biden politically?
Western officials are warning that the risk of regional “spillover” from the Israel-Hamas war is real, after US forces in the region faced increasing threats and American bases in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by drone attacks.
A Pentagon spokesperson told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the US hasn’t finished its assessment of what they were targeting. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the US military in the defense of Israel in this conflict.
On Thursday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the risk of regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war is “real.”
Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, Von der Leyen also said dialogue between Israel and its neighbours must continue.
“We have seen the Arab streets fill with rage all across the region. So the risk of a regional spillover is real,” she said, adding “Iran, Hamas’ patron, only wants to fuel the fire of chaos.”
The US has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighbouring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries.
In Iraq, tension over the war in Gaza had already been high. The country’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week condemned Israel and called on the world to stand up to the “terrible brutality” in besieged Gaza.
Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful armed faction with close ties to Iran, accused the US of supporting Israel in “killing innocent people” and said it should leave Iraq.
In past years, Iranian-backed militias in Iraq regularly targeted US forces in Iraq. Such attacks had abated under a truce in place since last year, and Iraq has had a period of relative calm.
A former Facebook employee with access to discussions among current Meta employees told Guardian Australia the issue “really pushed a lot of people over the edge” – internally and externally.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Meta has been accused of censoring posts in support of Palestine on its platforms, saying that Meta had been shadow-banning accounts posting in support of Palestine, or demoting their content, meaning it was less likely to appear in others’ feeds.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Meta said new measures had been brought in since the Israel-Hamas war began to “address the spike in harmful and potentially harmful content spreading on our platforms” and that there was no truth to the suggestion the company is suppressing anyone’s voice.
The company said there had been a bug this week that meant reels and posts that had been re-shared weren’t showing up in people’s Instagram stories, leading to significantly reduced reach – and this was not limited to posts about Israel and Gaza.
Meta also said there was a global outage of its live video service on Facebook for a short time.
Meta has apologised after inserting the word “terrorist” into the profile bios of some Palestinian Instagram users, in what the company says was a bug in auto-translation.
The issue, which was first reported by 404media, affected users with the word “Palestinian” written in English on their profile, the Palestinian flag emoji and the word “alhamdulillah” written in Arabic. When auto-translated to English the phrase read: “Praise be to god, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.”
TikTok user YtKingKhan posted earlier this week about the issue, noting that different combinations still translated to “terrorist”.
Instagram users accuse platform of censoring posts supporting Palestine.
“How did this get pushed to production?” one person replied.
“Please tell me this is a joke bc I cannot comprehend it I’m out of words,” another said.
After the first video, Instagram resolved the issue. The auto-translation now reads: “Thank God”. A spokesperson for Meta told Guardian Australia the issue had been fixed earlier this week.
“We fixed a problem that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations in some of our products. We sincerely apologise that this happened,” the spokesperson said.
Although commentators are likely to question whether the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts are comparable, for Biden it was a way of entreating Congress not to walk away from either.
He said: “American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with. To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine, we turn our backs on Israel, it’s just not worth it.”
The president added that on Friday he would send an urgent budget request to Congress to fund support for partners including Israel and Ukraine. “It’s a smart investment that is going to pay dividends for American security for generations.”
The sweeping emergency funding request is reportedly likely to total around $100bn, including $60bn for Ukraine and $10bn for Israel. But it comes at a moment when the House of Representatives is paralysed with Republicans, who hold a narrow majority, unable to elect a new Speaker.
The conflict in Israel has heightened tensions further in the US with protests and counter-protests across the nation. Biden has faced criticism from activists and some in his own Democratic party for tying America’s fortunes to those of Israel while underplaying humanitarian concerns for the more than two million people in Gaza.
Joe Biden has drawn a direct, provocative link between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel as he urged Americans not to walk away from their role as “a beacon to the world”.
In only the second Oval Office address of his presidency, Biden said he would ask Congress to provide aid for both Israel and Ukraine and denounced the scourge of antisemitism and Islamophobia at home.
The president’s 15-minute address sought to weave the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts together to convince war-weary voters and hardline Republicans of America’s obligations. It is a conflation that will make some uneasy, especially as Israel, with vastly superior military power, prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza.
“Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,” said Biden, sitting at the Resolute desk with flags, family photos, gold curtains and a darkened window behind him.
The duelling crises are providing a daunting diplomatic test for the former chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee who, at 80, is older than the state of Israel itself. That did not prevent him making a whirlwind trip to the country on Wednesday.
Reuters: China’s special envoy for the Middle East has said that the cause of the Israel-Gaza crisis on the lack of guarantee for the rights of Palestinians, as he met with his Russian counterpart in Qatar, a key diplomatic go-between in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
In the first leg of his tour in the region, China’s envoy for Middle East issues Zhai Jun landed in Qatar on Thursday where he reaffirmed with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Bogdanov Beijing’s alignment with Moscow in their efforts to help de-escalate the Gaza crisis.
China and Russia share the same position on the Palestinian issue, Zhai was quoted saying after meeting with Bogdanov in Doha, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with his “dear friend” President Xi Jinping in a rare meeting in Beijing.
“The fundamental reason for the current situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people have not been guaranteed,” Zhai said.
In a late night interview with CNN, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus was asked to comment on how soon a ground offensive may begin.
“The IDF is deployed along the Gaza strip. The reserves are ready, equipped and standing by,” he said. But he would not “advertise” when activities would begin.
“Ground activity is one of the options, one of the tools at our disposal,” he added.
Missiles reportedly fired at Israel from Yemen, the prospects of ground maneuvers and the readiness of the IDF. That and more on @cnni with @ErinBurnett pic.twitter.com/97MoVjo4xh
— Jonathan Conricus (@jconricus) October 20, 2023
Australian repatriation flight lands in Dubai
AAP: Almost 100 people have landed in Dubai from Israel on an Australian repatriation flight.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Friday wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that a government-arranged flight arrived from Tel Aviv overnight with 99 passengers onboard.
“We are planning an assisted-departure flight from Dubai to Perth tonight,” she said.
“Onward domestic travel is being provided to those passengers by Qantas free of charge.”
The government also helped Australians leave on a commercial Emirates flight from Dubai to Sydney.
Senator Wong said due to “diminishing demand for dedicated assisted-departure flights, we do not have immediate plans for any further flights from Tel Aviv”.
“We continue to work with partners to assist the departure of Australians who want to leave Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories,” she said.
Commercial flights departing Tel Aviv remained available, the foreign minister said.
More than 1650 previously registered Australians have left Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The government has previously said there are 46 Australians in Gaza, and their safety remains unknown.
As apprehension spread across the region of a major war, the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said: “All the indications are that the worst is coming. The catastrophe will have painful consequences in coming periods.”
Diplomatic efforts, Safadi added, had failed to fend off the conflict. Even this modest delivery was not entirely guaranteed. The state department said on Thursday that the new US special envoy for humanitarian issues, David Satterfield, was still trying to “negotiate the exact modalities” of the agreement, while Egyptian workers started repairing the road running through the Rafah crossing.
Aid agencies have warned that the life-saving assistance, if and when it arrived, was in danger of being too little too late in view of the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The emergencies director of the World Health Organization, Michael Ryan, said aid needed to get in “every day”, and called the initial convoy of 20 trucks a “drop in the ocean of need right now”.
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza coming in over the wires:
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100 to 300 killed in Al-Ahli Arab hospital blast, US intelligence estimates
The US intelligence community has estimated there were likely 100 to 300 people killed in the blast at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, but added that the assessment may evolve, according to excerpts of a document seen on Thursday by several media outlets.
The number is lower than the 471 deaths that health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave originally described.
An unclassified US intelligence assessment, provided to the AFP news agency by a Capitol Hill source, estimates the number of people killed at the hospital on Tuesday night at the “low end of the 100-to-300 spectrum.”
“We are still assessing the likely casualty figures and our assessment may evolve, but this death toll still reflects a staggering loss of life,” the document said.
“The United States takes seriously the deaths of all civilians, and is working intensively to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the document said.
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On a visit to Cairo, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said: “We need food, water, medicine and fuel now. We need it at scale and we need it to be sustained, it is not one small operation that is required.”
The threat of a ground assault on top of the constant airstrikes, now threatens to cut off even this slim lifeline to Gaza at any moment.
“There will be many injured who will lose their lives if sufficient fuel, medical supplies and life-saving aid is not delivered to hospitals in Gaza which are full of injured civilians from the continuous bombing and Israeli airstrikes,” said Riham Jafari, the communications and advocacy coordinator at ActionAid Palestine.
“Insufficient aid will cause health disasters and starvation as patients with chronic diseases and pregnant women and their infants will be unable to receive the medical care and nutrition they need, and this will endanger their lives. We know that the 20 trucks of aid currently promised is simply not enough.”
Gaza hospitals have ‘hours’ of fuel, says doctor
Israel’s consent for Egypt to let in food, water and medicine provided the first possible opening in its seal of the territory. Many Gaza residents are down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water, the AP reports.
Egypt and Israel were still negotiating the entry of fuel for hospitals. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas has stolen fuel from UN facilities and Israel wants assurances that won’t happen. The first trucks of aid were expected to go in Friday.
The Gaza Health Ministry pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospitals and a UN agency donated some of its last fuel.
The agency’s donation to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, would “keep us going for another few hours,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
With the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza’s second-largest hospital deteriorated further, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel of Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most of the hospital and medical staff were using mobile phones for light.
At least 80 wounded civilians and 12 dead flooded into the hospital after witnesses said a strike hit a residential building in Khan Younis. Doctors had no choice but to leave two to die because there were no ventilators, Qandeel said.
“We can’t save more lives if this keeps happening,” he said.
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Latest death tolls
These are the most recent death tolls from Gaza and Israel:
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority women, children and older adults. Nearly 12,500 were injured, and another 1,300 people were believed buried under rubble, authorities said.
This toll includes 477 people it said were killed in a hospital explosion. This figure is disputed by US intelligence, which estimates the toll was between 100 and 300 people.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion. 203 others were abducted, and between 100 and 200 are missing, the IDF said.
““We do not know if they are dead and their body is somewhere in Israel or somewhere in the Gaza strip whether in the hands of Hamas or other terrorist organisations or not in the hands of anybody, or if they are held hostage,” IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said.
Humanitarian agencies have stockpiled life-saving supplies on the Egyptian side of the border, waiting for the crossing to open. The UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, told the UN security council on Wednesday that the organisation sought to bring aid deliveries to Gaza back to 100 trucks a day, the level before the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Griffiths told the security council: “There is simply nowhere to go for civilians to escape the destruction and privation, both of which grow by the hour as missiles continue to fly and essential supplies, including fuel, food, medical items, water run low.
“Due to the scarcity of water, UNRWA [the UN relief agency] in some locations … is being forced to ration down to providing one litre of water per person per day. Bear in mind that the minimum by international standards should be 15 litres, and they’re getting one – and they’re the lucky ones.”
203 Israeli hostages, says IDF; up to 100-200 unaccounted for
In an interview with CNN, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus has said that 203 Israelis are being held hostage by Hamas.
He added that there are “between 100 and 200 Israelis that are still unaccounted for.”
“We do not know if they are dead and their body is somewhere in Israel or somewhere in the Gaza strip whether in the hands of Hamas or other terrorist organisations or not in the hands of anybody, or if they are held hostage,” he said.
Israel preparing for 'prolonged' Gaza campaign
Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited troops on the Gaza border on Thursday, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”
“I am tasked with leading us to victory,” Gallant told the soldiers. “We will be precise and forceful, and we will keep going until we fulfil our mission.”
Soon after Gallant’s statement, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, broadcast a video of himself with troops near the border also promising victory. At a meeting with his visiting British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, Netanyahu said: “This is our darkest hour.”
Israeli officials are adamant that they have no choice but launch a massive assault, codenamed Operation Swords of Iron. Over the past 16 years since the militant movement seized power in Gaza, they argue, Israel has fought three significant conflicts with Hamas, but they said those campaigns were aimed at keeping Hamas in check rather than destroying it.
“The strategy was to have a longer gap every time between the different conflicts, but it failed and it cannot happen any more,” a senior Israeli security official said. “So the only conclusion is that we have to go in, we have to go in and clean it and to eliminate Hamas from the roots, not only militarily, but also economically, its administration. Everything should go away.”
“That’s the idea now and we are getting prepared for that,” the official said, and warned: “It won’t be clear cut and it won’t be as short as we would like as Israelis. It will be a prolonged campaign. It will take time.”
Updated
Navy warship shot down missiles appearing to head toward Israel
US forces in the Middle East are facing increasing threats.
Earlier, the Associated Press reported that a Navy warship shot down missiles appearing to head toward Israel on Thursday.
The USS Carney, a Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the US military in the defense of Israel in this conflict, the AP reports.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the US hasn’t finished its assessment of what they were targeting.
A US official said they don’t believe the missiles — which were shot down over the water — were aimed at the US warship. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations that had not yet been announced.
But an array of other drone attacks over the past three days did target US bases, including one in southern Syria on Thursday that caused minor injuries and the drones and rockets that targeted Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq.
Rockets, drones hit Iraqi bases housing US forces – security sources
Reuters: Drones and rockets targeted on Thursday evening the Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, and multiple blasts were heard inside the base, two security sources said.
The Iraqi military said it closed the area around the base and started a search operation. It was not clear yet whether the attacks caused casualties or damages, said the sources.
Rockets have hit another military base hosting US forces near Baghdad’s international airport, Iraqi police said on Thursday, without providing further details.
The latest attacks take to four in the past 24 hours targeting Iraqi military bases that hosts US forces in Iraq.
US military forces in Iraq were targeted on Wednesday in two separate drone attacks, with one causing minor injuries to a small number of troops even though the US military managed to intercept the armed drone.
Last week, Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran threatened to target US interests with missiles and drones if Washington intervened to support Israel against Hamas in Gaza.
The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighbouring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries.
Ain al-Asad air base is located in the western Anbar province.
In his speech a short while go, as he sought to convince the American public of the need for $100bn in funding for Israel, Ukraine and other countries, Biden appealed to America’s national pride.
“American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with,” he said.
“America is a beacon to the world. Still. Still,” he said.
Putin and Hamas both want to 'annihilate' neighbouring democracies, Biden said
In his address Biden sought to link Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip who attacked Israel to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” he said.
Some more analysis, via Reuters: By lumping the priorities together in one package, Biden is testing whether Republican lawmakers can be persuaded to set aside their opposition and go along with spending on Ukraine, whose 20-month-old war with Russia has absorbed billions of dollars already in US weapons with no end in sight.
Any funding measure must pass both the Democratic-led US Senate, where additional aid has bipartisan support, and the Republican-led House, which has not had a speaker for 17 days.
Conservative Jim Jordan, an ally of former President Donald Trump, vowed to continue his bid for House speaker after failing to win majority support among Republicans.
House Republican lawmakers in recent weeks nearly brought government to a halt over chronic budget deficits and $31.4tn in debt, threatening to slash government spending across the board.
About four in 10 respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week said the US should support Israel’s position in the conflict when given a range of options. Nearly half said Americans should remain neutral or not be involved.
In a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month, roughly the same proportion agreed with a statement that Washington “should provide weapons to Ukraine.”
Biden described the funding he is going to request on Friday as, “a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations.”
The 80-year-old Democrat was delivering just the second speech of his presidency from behind the historic Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
“American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with,” he said.
“America is a beacon to the world. Still. Still,” he said.
Fresh from a whirlwind trip to Israel this week, Biden wants to win over war-weary voters and hardline Republicans as he ramps up his 2024 reelection bid, AFP reports.
The White House is said to be teeing up a huge request to Congress for a $100bn package that would include funding for Israel in its war with Hamas and also for Ukraine’s battle against Russian invasion.
Tying together two conflicts an ocean away from the United States is a bid by Biden to frame them as part of a bigger struggle to shape the world order and protect Americans at home.
China ready to play a 'positive role in resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks'
Meanwhile China is ready to maintain communication and coordination with Russia to cool down the Israel-Palestinian crisis, its Middle East special envoy said after meeting with his Russian counterpart this week.
The remarks were reported in Chinese state media.
China and Russia share the same position on the Palestinian issue, Zhai Jun said after meeting with Russia’s special representative for Middle East and African countries in Doha, Qatar on Thursday.
He said China is saddened by the humanitarian crisis, and is ready to play a “positive role in the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks”, as well as the “genuine implementation” of the two-state solution, state media said.
Some analysis from the Associated Press: Ahead of his address, Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to stress that the US remained committed to backing Kyiv, the White House said.
And a senior White House official said Biden continued to develop his remarks on Thursday after working with close aides throughout the week, including on his flight home from Israel. The official declined to be identified ahead of the president’s speech.
Biden faces an array of steep challenges as he tries to secure the money. The House remains in chaos because the Republican majority has been unable to select a speaker to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted more than two weeks ago.
In addition, conservative Republicans oppose sending more weapons to Ukraine as its battle against the Russian invasion approaches the two-year mark. Biden‘s previous request for funding, which included $24 billion to help with the next few months of fighting, was stripped out of budget legislation last month despite a personal plea from Zelenskiy.
Biden urges Americans to support funding for Israel in rare Oval Office address
That speech is now over. Let’s recap:
As expected, Biden used his second-ever Oval Office address to appeal to Americans for their support for tens of billions of dollars of funding for Israel and Ukraine.
Biden said he would send an urgent funding request to Congress, which is expected to be roughly $100bn over the next year. The proposal, which will be unveiled on Friday, includes money for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, humanitarian aid and border management.
Throughout the address, he made comparisons between Israel and Ukraine, Hamas and Putin. He stressed, however, that Israel should not make the same “mistakes” made by the US after 9/11 when, he said, Americans were “blinded by rage”.
Biden said, “As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace, we cannot give up on a two-state solution”, and that, “The US remains committed to Palestinians’ right to dignity and to self-determination. The acts of Hamas don’t take that away.”
“Hamas and Putin represent different threats,” Biden said. “But they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy.”
Biden said:
That’s why tomorrow I’m going to send to Congress and urgent budget request to fund America’s national security needs to support our critical partners including Israel and Ukraine. It’s a smart investment that will pay dividends for American security for generations.
Help us keep American troops out of harm’s way. Help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful, more prosperous for our children and grandchildren. In Israel, we must make sure that they have what they need to protect the people today and always.
The security package I’m sending to Congress and asking Congress to build is an unprecedented addition to our security that will sharpen Israel, qualitatively wonderful qualitative military edge that we have committed to, that military edge.
Updated
Biden signals that his address is ending. He is telling the story of his secret visit to Ukraine earlier this year, on a train from Poland with “blacked out windows”.
“As I walked through Kyiv with President Zelenskiy with air raid sirens sounding in the distance, I felt something,” he says, that he has felt before – which is that, “America is a beacon to the world still, still.”
Biden is now stressing that many of the weapons sent to Ukraine are manufactured in the US.
Updated
A fuller quote from earlier in Biden’s speech: he said that, Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin “represent different threats but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy”.
'We made mistakes' after 9/11
Biden says that the US was “blinded by rage” after 9/11 and “made mistakes”. He urges Israel not to do the same.
He says that he knows “how many of you in the Muslim-American community, the Arab-American community” are hurting, are saying “here we go again, with Islamophobia.”
He mentions the killing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, an eight-year-old boy, in an alleged hate crime.
It is at times like these that, “We have to work harder than ever to hold onto the values that make us who we are,” Biden says.
'We cannot give up on a two-state solution', says Biden
“As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace, we cannot give up on a two-state solution,” Biden says.
Updated
Biden's funding request to be sent to Congress tomorrow
“In Israel we must make sure they have what they need to protect their people today and always,” he says.
The funding request will be sent to Congress tomorrow.
The funding will be used to, “Sharpen Israel’s qualitative military edge,” he says. It will make sure the Iron Dome defence system continues to function, and will “sent a message to other hostile actors in the region.”
'Making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America's national security'
Biden says, “Making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America’s national security.”
Walking away from Ukraine or Israel increases the risk of global chaos, he says.
He wants to use funding to make the Middle East, “more stable, connected to its neighbours … [with] more predictable markets, more employments, less grievances, less war, he says.”
Updated
Hamas wants to “annihilate a neighbouring democracy”, Biden says.
The militant group uses civilians as human shields, he says.
He is switching between Ukraine and Israel as he speaks – the funding Biden wants approved will be for both countries, with the bulk going to Ukraine.
“The US remains committed to Palestinians’ right to dignity and to self-determination. The acts of Hamas don’t take that away,” Biden says.
Biden: We’re pursuing every avenue to bring hostages home
Biden says, “We’re pursuing every avenue to bring hostages home”. He says there is no higher priority.
Oval Office address begins
“We’re facing an inflection point in history,” Biden says as he opens his speech. What we do today will determine outcomes for decades to come, he says.
Updated
Hardline Republicans, and a growing number of voters, are strongly opposed to adding to the $43.9bn in security assistance that the United States has committed since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Biden hopes to break the logjam by hitching it to funding for Israel, Taiwan and the southern border with Mexico. He said in Tel Aviv he would ask Congress for an “unprecedented” package for Israel’s defence this week.
US media reported that the package will include $14bn in emergency assistance for Israel and $60bn for Ukraine, although fuller details may not be released until Friday.
Oval Office address about to begin
Biden is about to begin his second-ever Oval Office address.
US Presidents traditionally reserve speeches from the solemn setting of the Oval Office for moments of key national significance, Reuters explains.
Biden’s only previous address from there was in June when he hailed a deal with Congress to avert what would have been a catastrophic US default.
But Congress has now been paralysed for more than two weeks as divided Republicans struggle to elect a House speaker – in turn holding up aid.
Updated
Biden Oval Office address: livestream
You can watch Biden’s speech live below – the speech is set to start in five minutes’ time.
US intelligence estimates between 100 and 300 people killed in Gaza hospital explosion
As we wait for that address to start, Agence France-Presse reports that the US intelligence community has estimated there were likely 100 to 300 people killed in the blast at the Al-Ahli Al-Arab hospital in Gaza, according to excerpts of a document seen Thursday by AFP.
The toll estimate is lower than the nearly 500 deaths that health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave originally described.
An unclassified US intelligence assessment, provided to AFP by a Capitol Hill source, estimates the number of people killed at the hospital Tuesday night at the “low end of the 100-to-300 spectrum.”
“We are still assessing the likely casualty figures and our assessment may evolve, but this death toll still reflects a staggering loss of life,” the document said.
“The United States takes seriously the deaths of all civilians, and is working intensively to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the document said.
Biden expected to unveil funding request including $14bn for Israel – report
The White House said Biden will unveil a new funding request this week believed to be as much as $100 billion.
It may include $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, sources told Reuters, as well as billions for Asia and US border security.
Speech is Biden's second ever prime-time Oval Office address
It is only the second prime-time Oval Office address in the Democratic president’s nearly three years in office; in June he cheered the end of a debt ceiling standoff.
The speech comes as Israeli officials signal their readiness for a ground offensive.
Biden to address nation on Israel-Hamas war
US president Joe Biden is expected to use his primetime address, which starts in a few minutes’ time, at 8pm Eastern Time, to try to sell Americans on the need to spend billions more dollars on Israel and Ukraine, even as the US House of Representatives, without a leader, cannot approve new spending on the two wars, Reuters reports.
“Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel,” Biden wrote in a social media post listing topics for his White House speech. “The need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine.”
He added: “We are at a global inflection point that is bigger than party or politics.”
We’ll bring you the latest from that speech as it happens – stay tuned.
Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Sullivan.
The US president, Joe Biden, is set to deliver a primetime address on Thursday night, in half an hour’s time, at 8pm Eastern Time (0000 GMT on Friday) in which he will discuss the US response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Biden’s remarks follow a brief visit to Tel Aviv in which he met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden is expected to use the speech to sell Americans on the need to spend billions more dollars on Israel and Ukraine, even as the US House of Representatives, without a leader, cannot approve new spending on the two wars.
We’ll bring you that address live as it happens, as well as other news throughout the day.
Here are the other key recent developments:
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has told troops gathered at the Gaza border that they will soon see the Palestinian territory “from the inside”. Gallant urged the forces to “get organised, be ready” for an order to move in, suggesting an Israeli ground invasion could be nearing.
Israel is likely to launch a bloody ground assault on the Gaza Strip in the coming days, the former prime minister Ehud Barak said in an NBC interview. The Israeli military has a “green light” to move into Gaza whenever it’s ready, Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, said in an interview with the US’s ABC network.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid will enter Gaza from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula in the coming days, according to the White House, after Joe Biden’s whirlwind visit to Israel on Wednesday. Biden said Israel had agreed to allow the opening of the Egypt-Gaza Rafah crossing to deliveries of desperately needed food, water and medical supplies on condition that the humanitarian assistance was not diverted by Hamas for its own use.
The Rafah crossing is not expected to open Friday for a convoy of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, CNN reported, citing multiple sources. “I would not put money on those trucks going through tomorrow,” one source told the news outlet. US officials now expect the first convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid will cross into Gaza from Egypt this weekend, possibly Saturday, the report says. Egyptian state media earlier reported that the Rafah crossing with Egypt would be opened on Friday to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. It comes after Israel, the White House and Egypt confirmed that limited aid will be allowed to travel into Gaza through the crossing. The source told CNN that the situation is “really volatile” and that there are a lot of other details to make sure the aid is sustained, not a one off.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has said Gaza “needs aid at scale and on a sustained basis”.
Lack of access to water is one of the biggest challenges in Gaza, according to the international charity Action Against Hunger, which is warning of “a health crisis on the brink of explosion”. The UN estimates that there are fewer than 3 litres of water per person each day for the 2.3 million people living in Gaza, half of whom are children who are most at risk from water shortages and diarrhoeal infections.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said its trucks were “loaded and ready to go” as soon as the Rafah crossing was opened – “hopefully tomorrow”. The WHO director, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the agency was “gravely concerned about the health and wellbeing of civilians in Gaza, who are suffering from bombardment and siege” and about the attacks on healthcare in both Gaza and Israel.
Eight Palestinians were killed in an ongoing Israeli military operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israel’s police said an officer was also killed during clashes.
At least 21 journalists have been killed since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war, the majority in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The CPJ reported that, as of this Thursday, 17 Palestinian, three Israeli, and one Lebanese journalist had died since Hamas militants attacked Israel on 7 October, followed by the ongoing bombardments of Gaza by Israel.
Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II have condemned the “collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza as they met in Cairo for talks on the Israel-Hamas war. Sisi and King Abdullah also warned of the dangers of a regional spillover.
The US state department has issued a worldwide caution alert advising American citizens overseas “to exercise increased caution”. The US state department cited “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests”.
The US and British embassies in Beirut have advised their citizens to leave Lebanon while flights “remain available” as border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah intensify over the Israel-Hamas war. Both countries had already warned citizens against travel to Lebanon.
Israel is counting on the UK’s “continuous support” in what will be a “long war” with Hamas, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told Rishi Sunak, as the two leaders met in Tel Aviv. Sunak flew to Saudi Arabia later on Thursday in efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and prevent a wider regional conflict.
Sunak and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “agreed to coordinate action” to avoid any further escalation in the region, Downing Street said after a meeting. The UK prime minister “encouraged” Saudi Arabia to use its influence to “support stability” in the region, a No 10 spokesperson said.
At least nine British nationals are confirmed to have died and a further seven are missing after the attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, a Downing Street spokesperson has said.
The US state department said 32 Americans have been killed in Israel. Eleven US citizens remain unaccounted for, Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the state department, said at a news conference on Thursday. The Philippines embassy in Tel Aviv has confirmed the death of another Filipino national, bringing the country’s death toll to four.
The US president, Joe Biden, will address the nation later today to discuss the US’s response to the Israeli-Gaza conflict and the war in Ukraine, less than 24 hours after returning from Tel Aviv to offer Israelis support and aid for Palestinians in a trip upended by a hospital blast in Gaza.
A second plane of humanitarian aid from the EU was due to land in Egypt on Thursday afternoon to help people in Gaza, a spokesperson for the European Commission said. Together with a flight yesterday, it will amount to 54 tonnes of humanitarian aid including hygiene and sanitation products, food, water and shelter.
More than 60 international charities – including Action Aid UK, Bond, Cafod, Christian Aid, Islamic Relief, Médecins Sans Frontières UK, Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK – have signed a statement calling on the UK government to step up its efforts to secure an urgent ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.
The US intelligence community assesses that there likely were between 100 and 300 people killed in the blast at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday, according to unclassified intelligence. The US National Security Council said on Wednesday that the US government assessed that Israel “was not responsible” for the Gaza hospital blast.
The Israeli government has accused the BBC of perpetuating a “modern blood libel” in its reporting of the catastrophic explosion at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza.
