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Here is a report on the protests sparked by the blast at al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza City:
Japan’s government has been criticised over its evacuation of citizens from Israel, after just eight people joined a flight that flew only as far as Dubai, with passengers charged a fee for boarding the plane.
Social media users and opposition politicians contrasted Sunday’s evacuation on a government-chartered commercial plane with an earlier flight on a South Korean military aircraft, whose passengers included dozens of Japanese nationals.
Passengers on the Japanese flight were charged ¥30,000 each (US$200), sparking anger on X, formerly known as Twitter, with some users accusing the government of being “stingy”. The South Korean government, by contrast, did not charge 51 Japanese nationals who boarded its flight – along with 163 South Koreans and six Singaporeans – from Israel to Seoul on Saturday.
Kenta Izumi, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic party, was similarly critical: “A Japanese government-chartered plane arrived in Dubai with eight Japanese on board for a fee,” he wrote on X. “The South Korean government transport plane carried not only South Koreans but also 51 Japanese, and arrived in South Korea, and for free.”
The Mainichi Shimbun said the tiny number of people aboard the Japanese flight had taken foreign ministry officials by surprise. “We hurried to avoid Japan being accused of responding too slowly, but with only eight people on board, it backfired on us,” the newspaper quoted a source close to the ministry as saying.
But another official defended the evacuation, saying the quickly changing situation in the Middle East meant the government wanted to fly its citizens out of Israel as soon as possible.
“The purpose of evacuating Japanese nationals was to get them out of the country, not to get them back to Japan,” the official told the Mainichi. “We are glad we did it, even with eight people.”
About 1,200 Japanese nationals were in Israel and Palestinian territories before the conflict broke out, and 1,000 were still there as of Saturday, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Protests in Libya over Gaza hospital blast
AFP: Several hundred people protested in Tripoli and other Libyan cities late Tuesday over the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital, according to AFP journalists.
In Tripoli, hundreds of demonstrators of all ages, brandishing Palestinian flags and some covering their faces with Palestinian keffiyehs, crisscrossed the streets of the city centre before converging on Martyrs’ Square.
They chanted slogans of support for the residents of Gaza and denounced the strike by the “Zionist enemy”.
“We give our blood and our souls for Gaza,” they chanted in Tripoli and similarly in Misrata, a city 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the capital.
The Israeli army said the explosion was a rocket misfired by the Gaza-based militant group Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas.
Earlier, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, the prime minister of Libya’s Tripoli-based internationally recognised government, condemned the hospital blast, calling it a “despicable crime”.
“We denounce this crime which exceeded all limits, and I call on all countries of the world and the great powers in particular, to put an end to these crimes and to open corridors to bring humanitarian aid into the besieged sector,” he said on X, formerly Twitter, late Tuesday.
“Targeting medical and civilian facilities is a war crime. This aggression must stop,” he said.
Updated
Wednesday’s Today in Focus episode is about the growing expectations that Israel will soon launch a ground assault on Gaza and the growing fears about what a ground invasion could mean for the trapped civilians:
UN chief to arrive in Egypt on Thursday
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will arrive in Cairo on Thursday, focused on reopening the Gaza border to allow in desperately needed aid for millions of Palestinians.
UN spokespersonStephane Dujarric, who made the announcement Tuesday, said the secretary-general will engage with Egyptian leaders including President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and speak at an international conference on Saturday hosted by the president.
“This situation is becoming more than critical,” he said. “We are at a time of extreme tension, where we’re calling to move away from further escalation and any possible miscalculation.”
US raises travel alert for Lebanon to 'do not travel', authorises voluntary personnel departures
The US State Department has raised its travel alert for Lebanon to “do not travel,” citing the security situation related to rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, Reuters reports.
The State Department authorised the voluntary, temporary departure of family members of US government personnel and some non-emergency personnel from the US Embassy in Beirut because of the unpredictable security situation in Lebanon.
Protests took place outside the US embassy near Beirut on Tuesday night and into the early hours of Wednesday following the blast at al-Ahli al-Arabi hopsital in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Reuters: Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said there were patients, healthcare workers and internally displaced people in the al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital when it was struck.
“The hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military,” he said.
“The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced,” he added.
Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said it was “inhumane” to leave Gaza’s health workers with the dilemma of caring for their patients or fleeing to save their own lives. He said doctors and nurses were choosing their patients over themselves.
“It is absolutely clear to all sides of this conflict where the health facilities are,” Ryan said.
“It is absolutely clear healthcare is not a target... That is enshrined in international humanitarian law. And we’re seeing this breached again and again and again over the last week. And it has to stop. It must stop.”
Updated
“This attack is unprecedented in scale,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the West Bank and Gaza, told Reuters.
“We have seen consistent attacks on healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory,” he said.
Peeperkorn said there so far have been 51 attacks against healthcare facilities in Gaza, with 15 health workers killed and 27 injured.
The Israeli military blamed the al-Ahli al-Arabi blast on a failed rocket launch by a Palestinian militant group.
Updated
The deadly blast has upended US diplomatic efforts aimed at fending off the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and thrown a dark shadow over president Joe Biden’s imminent visit to the region.
It was hoped that Biden’s trip to Israel would help to rein in reprisal attacks on Hamas in Gaza, which has been under constant bombardment while running out of water, food and medical supplies. The UN says more than 3,000 Palestinians have died in the days since the Hamas attack.
Protests broke out across the West Bank after the hospital blast, and in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, demonstrators threw rocks at the Palestinian security forces who fired on the crowds with stun grenades.
The outpouring of anger against Israel also fuelled a large rally on Tuesday near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, where police used teargas to disperse several thousand protesters who chanted slogans in support of Hamas and demanded the government close the embassy and scrap a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel is widely unpopular among many citizens.
Entire neighbourhoods have been razed in Gaza and survivors are left with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel.
The health ministry in Gaza said hospitals are at breaking point, with more than 30,000 people taking shelter at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City alone.
It said it was “extremely concerned” about disease outbreaks due to poor water supply and sanitation.
“There are corpses in the streets. Buildings are crashing down on their inhabitants,” Jamil Abdullah, a Palestinian-Swede, who was hoping to flee the blockaded enclave, told AFP.
“The smell of the dead is everywhere.”
AFP has spoken to a doctor working for Doctors Without Borders.
In chaotic scenes after the blast, those injured were taken from the al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in ambulances to other medical centres nearby, while medics and civilians covered rows of the dead in white plastic sheets or blankets, the agency reports.
“We were operating in the hospital. There was a strong explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room.” said Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor with medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
He added: “Hospitals are not a target. This bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough.”
Updated
A reminder that there are differing figures in the death toll after the blast at al-Ahli Arabi hospital.
The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, claimed that more than 500 people had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on the hospital which, if confirmed, would make it the deadliest single bombing of all the five wars Israel and Hamas have fought over Gaza.
But an official from the Gaza civil defence said more than 300 people had been killed in the blast.
Updated
UN chief ‘horrified’ by Gaza hospital strike
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “horrified” by what he called the “strike” on a hospital in Gaza, he said in post on X on Tuesday.
“My heart is with the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law,” Guterres said.
I am horrified by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza today, which I strongly condemn. My heart is with the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 17, 2023
In a statement released shortly after by his spokesman, Guterres also condemned an attack on a school run by the UN in a Gaza refugee camp that killed six people.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has blamed Israel for the hospital strike. Israel has said it was caused by a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza.
Russia has proposed adding condemnation of the blast at the hospital to the Brazilian-drafted resolution on which the United Nations Security Council is to vote on Wednesday. The proposed wording refers to it as a strike.
“Today we supplemented the amendment, which concerns the condemnation of the strikes on Gaza with the condemnation of the strike on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy envoy to the United Nations, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Iran’s Embassy in Damascus has posted a tweet with the words, in Arabic, “time is up”:
הזמן נגמר#طوفان_الأقصى
— السفارة الإيرانية - سورية (@IranembassyDam) October 18, 2023
Reactions to blast at Gaza City hospital
Here is what leaders have said about the blast at a hospital in Gaza city that has killed 500 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
US President Joe Biden:
“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted. Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and have directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened. The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy.”
World Health Organizaation:
“WHO strongly condemns the attack on al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. The hospital was operational, with patients, health and care givers, and internally displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries.
“The hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military. The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced.
“WHO calls for the immediate active protection of civilians and health care. Evacuation orders must be reversed. International humanitarian law must be abided by, which means health care must be actively protected and never targeted.
Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyehi:
“The hospital massacre confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his feeling of defeat,” he said, adding that the attack will be “a new turning point.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
“The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF. Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children.”
IDF Spokesperson
“An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the al-Ahli al-Arabihospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.”
Syrian Presidency
“Syria holds Western countries responsible especially the United States of America, for this massacre and others, since they are a partner of the Zionist entity across all organized operations designed to kill Palestinians.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan:
“I call on all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza.”
Updated
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has just posted a statement responding to what happened at al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital, sayng, “All civilians, Israeli and Palestinian, must be protected. Deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. As @POTUS said, “The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life.”
Updated
Islamic Jihad says IDF accusation over hospital blast is 'lies'
AFP: Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Wednesday described as “lies” the Israel army’s accusations that it was responsible for a strike on a Gaza hospital that left hundreds dead.
Between 300 and 500 people were killed in an air strike on a hospital compound that sheltered the wounded and displaced from Israeli bombing, local health officials said Tuesday, prompting global condemnation and fury.
The Hamas-run health ministry claimed that Israel was behind the attack on the al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in central Gaza but Israel’s military blamed a malfunctioning rocket fired by Islamic Jihad.
“The Zionist enemy is trying hard to evade its responsibility for the brutal massacre he committed by bombing the Baptist Arab National Hospital in Gaza through his usual fabrication of lies, and through pointing the finger of blame at the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine,” it said in a statement Wednesday.
“We therefore affirm that the accusations put forward by the enemy are false and baseless,” it added.
According to the statement, the hospital had been ordered to evacuate by Israel under threat of bombardment, and it was a bomb dropped by an Israeli army plane that caused the tragedy.
It said the hospital had “received public notice made global of evacuation under threat of bombing”.
The Israeli army, for its part, said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad Palestinian militants.
Spokesman Daniel Hagari told a press briefing that at the time of the strike, the Israeli army was not conducting air operations near the hospital and the rockets that hit the building did not match theirs.
He added that the army would also provide conversations in Arabic that indicate the strike was done by Islamic Jihad.
Updated
31 Americans killed in Hamas attack on israel
The number of Americans killed from the Hamas attack on Israel now stands at 31, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.
Kirby said the United States would continue to speak to Israel about the need to protect innocent civilian life.
President Joe Biden is on his way to Israel to show US support in the aftermath of the Hamas attack.
White House spokesperson John Kirby has told reporters on Air Force One that the “decision not to go to Jordan was mutual”, Reuters reports.
Following a blast at a Gaza hospital where hundreds of people were sheltering from Israeli air strikes, and patients were being treated, Jordan’s foreign minister canceled a regional summit scheduled for Wednesday in Amman, where Biden was to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Israeli and Palestinian authorities have each blamed each other for the hospital attack.
A short while after Jordan’s announcement, the White House announced that Biden would not visit Amman.
Biden is currently en route to Tel Aviv.
US 'getting close' to 'framework for aid' says White House
Kirby has told reporters that the US is ‘getting close to a framework for Aid to get into Gaza from Egypt”.
Updated
Meanwhile US president Joe Biden is on Air Force one en route to Tel Aviv.
He will ask “tough questions” during his visit with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli leaders, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters travelling on the plane.
Kirby said Biden wanted to get a sense from the Israelis about their objectives in the days ahead.
Kirby said the United States was optimistic that humanitarian aid would make it into Gaza.
Protests in at least eight cities in Middle East
Following the blast at a Gaza hospital where hundreds of people were sheltering and patients were being treated, protests have ignited in cities across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, Iran and Turkey.
Hundreds of Palestinians have flooded the streets of major West Bank cities including Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, where protesters hurled stones at Palestinian security forces who fired back with stun grenades.
Hundreds of demonstrators scuffled with Lebanese security forces outside the US embassy in the village of Awkar on Thursday night, where protesters hurled stones, according to AFP correspondents.
Police fired several rounds of teargas to disperse protesters, with medics rushing in to treat people affected.
The US embassy is a heavily fortified and sprawling compound 20 minutes north of Beirut, in the village of Awkar.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement on Tuesday called for a “day of rage” to condemn what it said was an Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza city. Israel’s army blamed a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based militant group.
Hundreds also gathered at the French embassy in Beirut, raising Hezbollah flags and also hurling stones which piled up at the embassy’s main entrance.
Protests were also staged at Israel’s embassies in Turkey and Jordan. Television footage showed protests in Yemen’s southwestern city of Taz, as well as in the Moroccan and Iraqi capitals.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the British and French embassies in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday.
Updated
US to announce new sanctions against Hamas leaders this week - report
The US Treasury Department is preparing to announce new sanctions against several leaders of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas this week after their attack on Israel earlier this month, Axios is reporting, citing US officials.
The Guardian has not confirmed this independently.
The US State Department will continue to offer government-sponsored charter flights to Europe from Tel Aviv to help Americans leave Israel through at least Sunday, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The department said about 1,500 US citizens and family members have departed Israel on the charter flights to Athens and other transport options since Friday after offering more than 5,000 seats.
The State Department has said flights have generally departed at half capacity or less. The department had previously only committed to offering charter flights through Thursday.
US President Joe Biden says that he spoke to Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “immediately upon hearing this news” of the hospital blasts.
“The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy,” Biden said.
Protests in Tehran
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the British and French embassies in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday, an AFP correspondent said, as regional anger grew over a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital.
“Death to France and England,” protesters shouted, throwing eggs at the walls of the French embassy compound in the Iranian capital.
Several thousand people also gathered in Palestine Square in central Tehran to voice their anger, according to an AFP photographer.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared a day of “public mourning” on Wednesday and said the strike on the hospital would turn against Israel and its US ally.
“The flames of the US-Israeli bombs, dropped this evening on the Palestinian victims injured at the... hospital in Gaza, will soon consume the Zionists,” Raisi said, according to the IRNA agency.
“Iran is in mourning,” he added.
Biden 'outraged' by Gaza hospital explosion
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was “outraged and deeply saddened” by a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital.
Biden had “directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened,” he added in a statement.
Hamas has blamed Israel for the strike, while Israel says a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad Palestinian militants was responsible.
Five Hezbollah fighters killed in clashes on Lebanon-Israel border
AP: Clashes erupted Tuesday along the Lebanon-Israel border that left five Hezbollah fighters dead, marking the largest number of casualties for the militant group in a single day as tensions with Israel escalate.
Israeli forces and armed groups in Lebanon have engaged in a series of low-level skirmishes since the outbreak of the latest conflict in Gaza between the Israeli military and the Hamas militant group. Hezbollah has announced the death of 10 militants since skirmishes began.
Israeli military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi threatened that Israel would retaliate aggressively should Hezbollah escalate.
“This is a war on the home,” Halevi said after meeting with Israeli troops near the northern border with Lebanon. “If Hezbollah makes a mistake, it will be annihilated.”
The escalation comes amid fears that the war could spread into Lebanon, where Hezbollah has expressed strong support to the militant Palestinian group Hamas. Israel considers the heavily-armed group in Lebanon an even bigger threat than Hamas. So far, artillery exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel have been limited to several towns along the border.
Israel has threatened that if Hezbollah opens a new front, all of Lebanon will suffer the consequences.
The United Arab Emirates, which has full diplomatic ties with Israel, has condemned the blasts at al-Ahli al-Arabi, which it said was a strike by the Israeli military.
The UAE “called on the international community to intensify efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire to prevent further loss of life, to avoid further fuelling the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory […] preventing the region from being pulled into new levels of violence, tension and instability.”
In a statement posted to X, Afra Al Hameli, the communications director at the UAU’s foreign affairs ministry, said:
#UAE strongly condemns the Israeli attack that targeted Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the #Gaza Strip resulting in the death and injury of hundreds of people.
[The Ministry of Foreign Affairs] expresses its deep regret for the loss of life and conveys its condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a swift recovery for all those injured. The Ministry also stressed the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and to ensure that civilians and civilian institutions are not targeted. The Ministry further underlined the importance of the protection of civilians, according to international humanitarian law, international treaties for the protection of civilians and human rights, and the need to ensure that they are not targeted in conflict. The United Arab Emirates called on the international community to intensify efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire to prevent further loss of life, to avoid further fuelling the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and to advance all efforts to achieve a comprehensive and just peace, while preventing the region from being pulled into new levels of violence, tension and instability.
Protests taking place in West Bank cities, Beirut and Amman
In the wake of the hospital blast, hundreds of Palestinians have flooded the streets of major West Bank cities including Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, where protesters hurled stones at Palestinian security forces who fired back with stun grenades.
Others threw stones at Israeli checkpoints, where soldiers killed one Palestinian, West Bank authorities said.
Hundreds of people joined protests that erupted in Beirut and Amman, where an angry crowd gathered outside the Israeli Embassy.
Summary
It is 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in a massive explosion at a crowded hospital in Gaza City, in the biggest single loss of life in the blockaded territory in all the five wars between Hamas and Israel since the militants took over the strip in 2007.
The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people were killed on Tuesday night in what it said was an Israeli airstrike on al-Ahli al-Arabi, also known as the Baptist hospital. A spokesperson for the Gaza civil defence put the number of killed at about 300.
The Israeli military reportedly said an initial investigation suggested the explosion was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch, before saying it was the result of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket barrage. Islamic Jihad denied the Israeli allegation, and the scale of the blast appeared to be outside the militant groups’ capabilities.
Reports said violence had erupted between protesters and Palestinian security forces in several cities in the West Bank. In central Ramallah, teargas and stun grenades were fired to disperse protesters throwing rocks and chanting against the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. Reuters reported anger was boiling over after the deadly attack on a Gaza hospital on Tuesday that the authority said was a “cold-blooded massacre” by Israel.
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK will work with allies to “find out what has happened” at the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza. Cleverly, posting to social media, described the destruction of the hospital as “a devastating loss of human life” and that the UK has been “clear” that the “protection of civilian life must come first”.
The White House announced that Joe Biden would no longer travel to Jordan. The decision came after Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said that Jordan was no longer holding a planned summit with the US president and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders that was scheduled to take place in Amman on Wednesday. Safadi, speaking to Al Jazeera, said the summit was cancelled because “there is no use in talking now about anything except stopping the war”.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said an Israeli air strike had killed at least six people after striking one of its schools that has been functioning as a shelter for displaced people. Several hospitals in Gaza have become refuges for hundreds of people hoping to be spared bombardment.
Health authorities in Gaza say at least 3,000 people have been killed in Israel’s bombardment since 7 October. At least 940 children and 1,032 women have been killed, the Hamas government media office said. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has declared three days of mourning following the deadly air strike on Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital.
Fears are growing that people in Gaza are beginning to dehydrate to death as clean water runs out, with Israeli airstrikes continuing to pound the Palestinian territory of 2.3 million residents amid a total blockade on food, electricity, medicine and fuel.
Germany’s duty is to “stand up for the existence of the state of Israel”, chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a joint press conference with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Berlin is “doing all it can to ensure that this conflict does not escalate” across the region, he added.
US president Joe Biden is expected to visit the Middle East on Wednesday, on a whirlwind tour of diplomacy that will take in meetings with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials in Tel Aviv. Biden will then move on to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Amman, Jordan.
The UN’s culture body, Unesco, warned that the Hamas attack on Israel has led to intense fighting that has resulted in the “deadliest week for journalists in any recent conflict”. Nine journalists have been confirmed killed in the line of duty since 7 October and “the death toll could rise further still”, the agency said.
The head of Israeli military intelligence said he bears responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to Hamas carrying out its surprise onslaught on 7 October. Maj Gen Aharon Haliva is the latest Israeli defence official to publicly state that they take responsibility for the Hamas attack, after the head of the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff made similar remarks in recent days.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is set to visit Israel, possibly as soon as Thursday, according to a Sky News report. Meanwhile, the UK foreign office said it has successfully brought back more than 900 people from Israel.
A British teenager is missing and feared kidnapped after Hamas targeted Israeli kibbutzim was murdered during the attack, relatives have confirmed. Yahel Sharabi, 13, was originally believed missing and possibly taken hostage after the raid on the Be’eri kibbutz two miles from the Gazan border in which her Bristol-born mother, Lianne, was killed. Her sister Noiya, 16, who is a British citizen like Yahel, and their Israeli father, Eli, are still missing.
The UN’s human rights office said Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians.
Hamas said a senior commander and member of its higher military council, Ayman Nofal, has been killed by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli air force also said he had been killed, stating: “He directed many terrorist attacks against Israel and the security forces, and he directed the targets of Hamas’s rocket fire, specifically targeting areas populated by uninvolved civilians.”
This is Helen Sullivan taking over our rolling coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. I’ll be with you throughout the night.
The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, confirmed he would not be meeting Joe Biden in Amman, adding that any talks about anything else rather than stopping the war is unacceptable.
Abbas said targeting the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza was a “hideous war massacre” that cannot be tolerated, Reuters reported. He added:
Israel has crossed all red lines ... We will not leave nor allow anyone to expel us from there.
The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, has claimed that an Israeli airstrike on the hospital killed hundreds of people.
The Israeli military has denied responsibility, suggesting the hospital was hit by a rocket barrage launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. Islamic Jihad also denied responsibility.
Updated
EU prime ministers have vowed to step up their efforts to mitigate a looming humanitarian crisis in Gaza in a bid to present a united diplomatic front after a week of dysfunction and mixed messages from leaders in Brussels.
After an emergency video conference to address the conflagration in the Middle East, the European Council leader, Charles Michel, stressed the need to present “a clear unified course of action that reflects the complexity of the unfolding situation”.
Tuesday’s talks were preceded by a statement by EU leaders on Sunday strongly condemning Hamas’s “terrorist attacks” while mentioning “the importance to ensure the protection of all civilians at all times” and the need for Israel to comply with international law.
Michel spoke of the need to use all the leverage the EU could muster to help the hostages held by Hamas and to persuade Egypt to approve a humanitarian corridor for aid and refugees.
After terrorist attacks in Belgium and France, a heightened concern about the return of hate crime and speech was also a priority, said Michel.
Michel made his remarks after a joint press conference with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who has been the subject of criticism over her failure to emphasize Israel’s obligation to comply with international law while defending itself.
Updated
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has called for humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip to be opened without delay.
Macron, in a statement posted to social media, wrote:
Nothing can justify striking a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians.
France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, which made so many Palestinian victims. Our thoughts are with them. All the light must be shed on the circumstances.
Nothing can justify striking a hospital.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 17, 2023
Nothing can justify targeting civilians.
France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, which made so many Palestinian victims. Our thoughts are with them. All the light must be shed on the circumstances.
White House statement on Biden's decision to cancel Jordan visit
A White House statement confirming Joe Biden’s decision to cancel a planned stop in Jordan said:
After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and President Sisi of Egypt.
He looks forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon, and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days.
Updated
Joe Biden’s decision to cancel a planned stop in Jordan after a visit to Israel comes after Jordan called off a four-way summit scheduled for Wednesday with the US president and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders.
The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, earlier dropped out of the planned meeting in Jordan. A senior Palestinian official said Abbas would instead return to Ramallah, the seat of his government in the occupied West Bank, following the blast on a Gaza hospital reported to have killed hundreds.
Joe Biden has boarded Air Force One for his flight to Israel, where he is scheduled to meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK will work with allies to “find out what has happened” at the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza.
Cleverly, posting to social media, described the destruction of the hospital as “a devastating loss of human life” and that the UK has been “clear” that the “protection of civilian life must come first”.
The destruction of Al Ahli hospital is a devastating loss of human life.
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) October 17, 2023
The UK has been clear.
The protection of civilian life must come first.
The UK will work with our allies to find out what has happened and protect innocent civilians in Gaza.
Updated
Biden cancels visit to Jordan
The White House said Joe Biden will no longer travel to Jordan as part of his trip.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said earlier that Jordan was no longer holding a planned summit with the US president and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders that was scheduled to take place in Amman tomorrow.
Safadi, speaking to Al Jazeera, said the summit was cancelled because “there is no use in talking now about anything except stopping the war”.
Updated
A Palestinian protester has been shot dead by Israeli forces during confrontations in the Nabi Saleh village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Reuters reported that the Palestinian health ministry said.
Joe Biden has departed the White House en route to Joint Base Andrews for his trip to Israel and Jordan, the New York Times reported.
The US president is due to travel to Israel tomorrow, where he is scheduled to hold talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden was also scheduled to go to Amman for talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. As we reported just now, that summit has now been cancelled, according Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi.
Updated
Jordan cancels summit with Biden and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders
Jordan has cancelled a summit between the US president, Joe Biden, and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders in Amman tomorrow, Reuters reported that Jordan’s foreign minister said.
The summit was due to take place on Wednesday between Biden, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Jordan’s King Abdullah.
Updated
White House weighing US military response if Hezbollah attacks Israel – report
The US has discussed the possibility of using military force if the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah joins the war by attacking Israeli forces, according to an Axios report.
The report, citing three US officials and an Israeli official, came as Iran warned Israel on Monday that Hezbollah was close to entering the Hamas war.
The report writes:
Two US officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Arab leaders in the region, with whom he’d met in recent days, that the US “is not fooling around” by sending so many military assets to the region in support of Israel.
The scenario of using US military force if Hezbollah were to join the war “has come up in several White House meetings in recent days,” it says.
The two US officials stressed the administration is doing all it can to keep Hezbollah out of the war – but also is preparing for the opposite scenario.
Updated
In the UK, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said the scenes of hundreds killed at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi hospital are “absolutely devastating and cannot be justified”.
“International law must be upheld,” Starmer posted to X.
The scenes of hundreds killed at the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza are absolutely devastating and cannot be justified.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 17, 2023
International law must be upheld.
Hospitals and civilian lives must be protected.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, who has several family members trapped in Gaza, said the attack should be “unequivocally condemned in the strongest possible manner”.
“There can be no justification for this. None whatsoever,” Yousaf wrote in a statement.
There can be no justification for this. None whatsoever.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 17, 2023
If people can not be safe in a hospital, where can they?
This attack must be unequivocally condemned in the strongest possible manner
Ceasefire is needed now. Innocent men, women & children must be allowed to leave Gaza https://t.co/JYYWUBf5Bt
Updated
The mother of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman being held by Hamas, appealed for her release on Tuesday, calling her detention and that of an estimated 200 hostages “a crime against humanity”.
Keren Schem told journalists in Jerusalem:
I didn’t know if she’s dead or alive until yesterday. All I knew is that she might be kidnapped. I’m begging the world to bring my baby back home. She only went to a party, to a festival party to have some fun. Now she’s in Gaza.
Hamas had released a video of Schem, who was taken hostage during the devastating attack on Israel. In the footage, Schem, whose injured arm is shown being treated by an unidentified medical worker, asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible.
On Tuesday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described the video as “an odious act”. The Elysée said Macron, who is on an official visit to Albania, demanded her unconditional release.
Updated
Ismail Haniyeh, who is widely considered to be the overall leader of Hamas, has blamed the US for the attack on Al-Ahli Arabi hospital, which he described as “a new turning point”.
“The hospital massacre confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his feeling of defeat,” Haniyeh said in a televised speech late on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the news wires from Ramallah, where protesters have taken to the streets after the deadly strike on Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi hospital.
Updated
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it was “horrified” by the bombing of the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital, which it described as “absolutely unacceptable”.
Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, an MSF doctor in Gaza, was quoted as saying:
We were operating in the hospital, there was a strong explosion, and the ceiling fell on the operating room. This is a massacre.
We are horrified by the recent Israeli bombing of Ahli Arab Hospital in #Gaza City, which was treating patients and hosting displaced Gazans. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed. This is a massacre. It is absolutely unacceptable...
— MSF International (@MSF) October 17, 2023
Nothing justifies this shocking attack on a hospital and its many patients and health workers, as well as the people who sought shelter there. Hospitals are not a target. This bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough.
— MSF International (@MSF) October 17, 2023
Updated
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has denied it is responsible for the strike on the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza, Reuters reported.
Updated
The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people had been killed in the explosion at Al-Ahli Arabi hospital, and the death toll was likely to rise. A spokesperson for the Gaza civil defence put the number of killed at about 300.
Footage broadcast from the ground by Al Jazeera showed a huge fire engulfing the multi-storey building, with bodies, streaks of blood and widespread debris scattered around. The hospital, which is owned by the Anglican church, was reportedly struck without any prior warning. It was previously hit by a rocket on Saturday.
The hospital was hit at about 8.30pm local time on Tuesday. It was packed with people injured in Israeli strikes, as well as civilians seeking shelter, believing the hospital grounds to be safer than their homes after relentless Israeli attacks that have already killed more than 3,000 people.
The Israeli military reportedly said an initial investigation suggested the explosion was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch, but the scale of the blast appears to be outside the militant group’s capabilities.
The incident is already the biggest single loss of life in Gaza in the five wars between Hamas and Israel since the militants took over the strip in 2007.
Updated
Archbishop of Canterbury says hospital attack is 'appalling and devastating'
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the attack on the al-Ahli Arabi hospital where hundreds have reportedly been killed is “an appalling and devastating loss of innocent lives”.
The hospital is run by the Anglican church, he posted to social media.
This is an appalling and devastating loss of innocent lives.
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) October 17, 2023
The Ahli hospital is run by the Anglican church. I mourn with our brothers and sisters - please pray for them.
I renew my appeal for civilians to be protected in this devastating war.
May the Lord God have mercy. https://t.co/47Jl1X5pf2
Updated
Events are moving quickly following the earlier Gaza hospital attack. Israel now says intelligence shows a “failed rocket launch” by Islamic Jihad was responsible, according to Reuters.
“An analysis of IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.”
“We did not strike that hospital,” Jonathan Conricus, an international spokesperson for IDF, just told CNN.
“We do not intentionally strike any sensitive facilities, and definitely not hospitals. We are very much aware of the presence of civilians.”
Meanwhile, Russia and the United Arab Emirates have demanded a meeting of the United Nations security council on Wednesday to discuss the incident.
Updated
Teargas fired at West Bank protesters over hospital strike
Reports say violence has erupted between protesters and Palestinian security forces in several cities in the West Bank, Reuters is reporting.
In central Ramallah, teargas and stun grenades were fired to disperse protesters throwing rocks and chanting against the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas.
The news agency reported anger was boiling over after the deadly attack on a Gaza hospital on Tuesday that the authority said was a “cold-blooded massacre” by Israel.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), meanwhile, are suggesting the strike was a failed rocket launch by Hamas.
In Jordan’s capital Amman, protesters have reportedly overrun the Israeli embassy, according to video posted to X, formerly Twitter.
🔴◀️#عاجل المتظاهرون يقتحمون مبنى السفارة الإسرائيلية في عمّان؛ تنديداً بمجزرة مستشفى المعمداني بغزة.#مستشفى_المعمداني#غزة#غزة_تحت_القصف pic.twitter.com/EyWhhZzwSd
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) October 17, 2023
Jordan is denying that protesters breached the embassy, saying it was a “group of protesting people who gathered near the embassy trying to reach it” who were “dealt with and removed from its surroundings” by authorities, the Petra news agency said.
Updated
There’s been a wave of international condemnation of Tuesday’s deadly strike on a Gaza hospital, for which Israel is denying responsibility.
The foreign ministry of Turkey said in a statement that it was a “barbaric attack”. “We are deeply indignant that hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives and many more were injured as a result of the targeting of a hospital in Gaza today, and we condemn these barbaric attacks in the strongest terms,” the statement said.
Iran issued a similarly worded statement condemning deaths and injuries to hundreds of “unarmed and defenseless people”, Iranian state media reported. It was, Iran’s foreign ministry said, “a savage war crime”.
A statement from the foreign ministry of Qatar said: “The expansion of Israeli attacks over the Gaza Strip to include hospitals, schools and other population centers is a dangerous escalation.”
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, told reporters: “The news coming out of Gaza is horrific and absolutely unacceptable… international law needs to be respected in this and in all cases. There are rules around wars and it’s not acceptable to hit a hospital”.
Egypt and Jordan both issued statements saying they condemned the attack in “the strongest possible terms”.
Updated
Mahmoud Abbas cancels Biden meeting after Gaza hospital strike
The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, has canceled a planned meeting with Joe Biden following the strike on a Gaza hospital reported to have killed hundreds, a senior Palestinian official said.
The meeting was due to take place in Jordan during the US president’s visit to the Middle East beginning on Wednesday.
The Palestinian official said Abbas was returning to Ramallah, the seat of his government in the occupied West Bank, Reuters reports.
Updated
Summary
It’s just past 10pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Hundreds are feared dead or injured after a strike on a hospital in Gaza City, the Hamas-run health ministry said. Hundreds are still under the rubble, it said. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008. Israel’s military said it did not have any details on the reported bombing.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said an Israeli air strike had killed at least six people after striking one of its schools that has been functioning as a shelter for displaced people. Several hospitals in Gaza have become refuges for hundreds of people hoping to be spared bombardment.
Health authorities in Gaza say at least 3,000 people have been killed in Israel’s bombardment since 7 October. At least 940 children and 1,032 women have been killed, the Hamas government media office said. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has declared three days of mourning following the deadly air strike on Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi hospital.
Fears are growing that people in Gaza are beginning to dehydrate to death as clean water runs out, with Israeli airstrikes continuing to pound the Palestinian territory of 2.3 million residents amid a total blockade on food, electricity, medicine and fuel.
Germany’s duty is to “stand up for the existence of the state of Israel”, chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a joint press conference with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Berlin is “doing all it can to ensure that this conflict does not escalate” across the region, he added.
US president Joe Biden is expected to visit the Middle East on Wednesday, on a whirlwind tour of diplomacy that will take in meetings with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials in Tel Aviv. Biden will then move on to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Amman, Jordan.
The UN’s culture body, Unesco, warned that the Hamas attack on Israel has led to intense fighting that has resulted in the “deadliest week for journalists in any recent conflict”. Nine journalists have been confirmed killed in the line of duty since 7 October and “the death toll could rise further still”, the agency said.
The head of Israeli military intelligence said he bears responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to Hamas carrying out its surprise onslaught on 7 October. Maj Gen Aharon Haliva is the latest Israeli defence official to publicly state that they take responsibility for the Hamas attack, after the head of the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff made similar remarks in recent days.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is set to visit Israel, possibly as soon as Thursday, according to a Sky News report. Meanwhile, the UK foreign office said it has successfully brought back more than 900 people from Israel.
A British teenager missing and feared kidnapped after Hamas targeted Israeli kibbutzim was murdered during the attack, relatives have confirmed. Yahel Sharabi, 13, was originally believed missing and possibly taken hostage after the raid on the Be’eri kibbutz two miles from the Gazan border in which her Bristol-born mother, Lianne, was killed. Her sister Noiya, 16, who is a British citizen like Yahel, and their Israeli father, Eli, are still missing.
The UN’s human rights office said Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians.
Hamas said a senior commander and member of its higher military council, Ayman Nofal, has been killed by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli air force also said he had been killed, stating: “He directed many terrorist attacks against Israel and the security forces, and he directed the targets of Hamas’s rocket fire, specifically targeting areas populated by uninvolved civilians.”
Updated
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an initial investigation shows the explosion in Gaza’s hospital was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch, i24NEWS reported.
🔴BREAKING: Initial investigation by IDF shows explosion in hospital in Gaza was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 17, 2023
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has strongly condemned the attack on Gaza’s Al Ahli Arab Hospital.
In a statement posted to social media, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote:
We call for the immediate protection of civilians and health care, and for the evacuation orders to be reversed.
.@WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in north Gaza.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 17, 2023
Early reports indicate hundreds of deaths and injuries.
We call for the immediate protection of civilians and health care, and for the evacuation orders to be reversed.#NotATarget
Fears grow people are dehydrating to death in Gaza as clean water runs out
Fears are growing that people in Gaza are beginning to dehydrate to death as clean water runs out, with Israeli airstrikes continuing to pound the Palestinian territory of 2.3 million residents amid a total blockade on food, electricity, medicine and fuel.
Unrwa, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Tuesday that Gaza’s last seawater desalination plant had shut down, bringing the risk of further deaths and waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Six water wells, three water pumping stations, and one water reservoir – which collectively served more than 1.1million people – are also out of action, it said.
After 16 years of a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade, imposed after the Palestinian militant group Hamas seized control of the exclave in 2007, clean water was already one of the most pressing concerns in the 41km by 12km strip. Almost 97% of the water in Gaza’s sole aquifer is not potable; without proper maintenance and with Israeli restrictions on imports and electricity, sewage treatment plants were overwhelmed years ago. Untreated waste has flowed directly into the Mediterranean for more than a decade.
But now, desperate civilians find themselves consuming the contaminated tap water, or digging new wells too close to the sea to drink and use dirty, salty water. Jamil al-Meqdad, a writer and researcher in Gaza City, said:
People are trying to fetch water out of dangerous places, like the wells at mosques. In fact, children were killed [by airstrikes] while trying to drink water at a mosque a week ago.
Access to at least 50 litres of water per person is the minimum level set by the World Health Organization. Most people in Gaza are now believed to be surviving on three, the UN says.
Read the full report by The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan.
A senior Hamas official has told NBC News that Hamas is willing to release all civilian hostages in one hour if Israel stops its bombing of Gaza.
UK flies more than 900 citizens back from Israel
The UK foreign office has successfully brought back more than 900 people from Israel, it said on Tuesday.
It said it was closing the booking portal for UK government flights tomorrow Wednesday at 10am UK time / noon Israel time.
It encouraged any British nationals who want to leave Israel to register their presence and book a flight before the portal closes.
Any remaining British nationals who wish to fly must be prepared to travel within the next 24 hours.
The foreign office said:
The safety of British nationals is our priority and we will keep the ongoing security situation under review.
Land routes and some commercial flight options remain available.
Updated
Hundreds of people killed in Gaza hospital blast, according to Gaza health ministry
The casualty figures from the blast at Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital are very fluid as reports come out of Gaza.
Between 200 and 300 people were killed in the explosion on the hospital compound, according to a statement from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. “Hundreds of victims are still under the rubble,” it added.
A Gaza civil defence chief told Al-Jazeera that more than 300 people were killed. At least 500 people were killed and injured, a Gaza health ministry official said. Both departments are under the Hamas-run government.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari would not immediately confirm its forces bombed the hospital.
Earlier today, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said at least six people were killed after a strike on a school in Gaza’s al-Maghazi refugee camp.
Updated
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has declared three days of mourning following the deadly air strike on Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital, state media reported.
The strike on Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital, which Gaza authorities said killed at least 500 people, comes as the US president, Joe Biden, prepares to travel to Israel on Wednesday.
The US president will also go to Amman for talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, in an attempt to fend off an even greater humanitarian disaster and a regional war that could draw in Iran and the US.
Biden’s trip was announced by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, after more than seven hours of talks with Netanyahu and his national security cabinet on Monday.
It comes after the US said it had reached agreement with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on the provision of humanitarian relief and safe areas to the more than 2 million people in Gaza who are under fire and in urgent need of water, food and medical help.
Updated
The Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza City is “still burning” after the reported airstrike, Al Jazeera reported.
An Al Jazeera journalist reporting on the ground writes:
The situation here is really catastrophic. There are still people under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Medical teams are trying to evacuate the victims, but there is an increasing number of victims across different areas in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds and thousands.
Updated
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it does not have details yet on the reported attack on Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza City.
From the BBC’s Michael Shuval:
Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra says number of people killed in Ahli Al Arabi hospital in Gaza has reached 500.
— Michael Shuval 🏳️🌈 (@MichaelShuval) October 17, 2023
Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari says cause is still unknown, army was looking into details, and will update once he has more information.
Hundreds of victims under rubble of Gaza hospital, says health ministry
There are “hundreds of victims” under the rubble of the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza after it was struck by an airstrike, the Gaza health ministry said.
The health ministry said at least 500 people have been killed. If confirmed, the attack on the Gaza hospital would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008, AP reported.
Updated
At least 500 casualties after Gaza hospital strike, says health ministry
Gaza’s health ministry said the strike on Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in the centre of Gaza City has resulted in at least 500 casualties.
The Hamas-run ministry said at least 500 people have been killed in an explosion that it says was caused by an Israeli airstrike.
The hospital was struck without any prior warning, Al Jazeera reported.
Updated
Hundreds feared dead in strike on Gaza hospital
An airstrike has struck the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in the centre of Gaza City, according to Palestinian authorities.
Initial estimates indicate that between 200 and 300 people were killed in the bombing that targeted the hospital, a Gaza health ministry spokesperson said.
Many of the wounded appeared to be women and children, Al Jazeera reported. The hospital was sheltering families amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza.
• This post and the two above were amended shortly after publication on 17 October 2023 to more clearly reflect throughout that the claim about the cause of the explosion at the hospital comes from the Gaza health ministry. Subsequently, as later posts report, the IDF has denied responsibility for the strike.
The Government Media Office: #Israel committed a war crime, targeting the courtyard of the Baptist Hospital.
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 17, 2023
Hundreds of displaced Gazans had been taking shelter in the courtyard of the hospital thinking that it would be safe because it is a hospital sponsored by Christian… pic.twitter.com/PiZin8jqDH
Updated
An Italian-Israeli citizen who has been missing since the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel has been confirmed dead.
Eviatar Moshe Kipnis, 65, went missing following the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri about 3 miles (5km) from Gaza, which was one of the first hit by Hamas, according to an Italian foreign ministry statement.
Two Italian-Israeli citizens are still unaccounted for, Reuters reported that the Italian ministry said.
Rishi Sunak to visit Israel – report
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is set to visit Israel, possibly as soon as Thursday, according to Sky News.
The visit could be part of a wider trip to the region to include Jordan and Egypt, the report says.
Updated
A British teenager missing and feared kidnapped after Hamas targeted Israeli kibbutzim was murdered during the attack, relatives have confirmed.
Yahel Sharabi, 13, was originally believed missing and possibly taken hostage after the raid on Be’eri kibbutz two miles from the Gazan border in which her Bristol-born mother, Lianne, was killed.
Her sister Noiya, 16, who is a British citizen like Yahel, and their Israeli father, Eli, are still missing.
Yahel was described as “full of adventure and mischief”. In a statement to BBC News on Tuesday, relatives said:
Beautiful Yahel. A bundle of unbridled energy and joy, with a cheekiness that you could not help but smile at and a brain which was sharp as a tack. Full of adventure and mischief, we will forever miss her, but are grateful for the light she brought into our lives in the too short time she was with us.
Updated
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called on the world to stand united behind his country to defeat Hamas during a joint press conference with visiting German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
Netanyahu accused Hamas of wanting to “hold the citizens of Gaza as human shields”. He said:
The savagery that we witnessed perpetrated by the Hamas murderers coming out of Gaza were the worst crimes committed against Jews since the Holocaust.
Updated
At least six people killed in strike on school in Gaza
At least six people have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a school run by the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in Gaza’s al-Maghazi refugee camp, the agency said.
Dozens were injured, including UNRWA staff, in the airstrike, as well as “severe” structural damage to the school, it said in a statement. The numbers are likely to be higher, it added.
This is outrageous, and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians. No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities.
It said at least 4,000 people had taken refuge in the school turned shelter in al-Maghazi refugee camp, in Gaza’s middle area. “They had and still have nowhere else to go,” it said.
🛑 At least 6 people were killed this afternoon when an @UNRWA school was hit in al-Maghazi refugee camp.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 17, 2023
This is outrageous & it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians.
No place is safe in📍#Gaza anymore, not even @UN facilities.
⬇️https://t.co/9yh38bCqvk
Updated
The UN’s culture body, Unesco, has warned that the Hamas attack on Israel has led to intense fighting that has resulted in the “deadliest week for journalists in any recent conflict”.
Nine journalists have been confirmed killed in the line of duty since 7 October and “the death toll could rise further still”, the agency warned. The deaths took place during the Hamas attack and the Israeli military response in Gaza, but also on the Israeli-Lebanese border, it said.
Unesco’s director general, Audrey Azoulay, said in a statement:
This is a dramatic toll. Never in a recent conflict has the profession had to pay such a heavy price in such a short space of time.
I call on regional and international actors to take immediate action to ensure that international law is respected. Journalists should never, under any circumstances, be targeted. And it is the responsibility of all actors to ensure that they can continue to exercise their profession safely and independently.
At least 940 children and 1,032 women have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October, Reuters reported that the Hamas government media office said.
The latest Palestinian death toll in Gaza stands at 3,000 people and a further 12,500 injured.
Updated
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about how to get humanitarian aid “as quickly as possible” to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“We want to protect civilians and prevent civilian deaths,” he said during his press conference in Tel Aviv.
Berlin is “doing all it can to ensure that this conflict does not escalate” across the region, he added.
I explicitly warn any actor to refrain from external intervention in this conflict. It would be a serious, unforgivable mistake. In recent days, we have addressed this message via various channels to those to whom it concerns.
Scholz: Germany's place is 'by Israel's side'
Olaf Scholz said Germany’s duty is to “stand up for the existence of the state of Israel” during a joint press conference with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The German chancellor, who is visiting Tel Aviv to show solidarity with Israel, said he was on “a visit to friends in difficult times”, Deutsche Welle reported.
As I said in parliament last week, there can only be one place for Germany in difficult times: by Israel’s side. The security of Israel and its citizens is Germany’s reason of state. And the German parliament supports this stance unanimously.
Scholz noted that the history of Germany and its role “in the wake of the Holocaust, means it is our duty to stand up for the existence of the state of Israel”. He added:
We condemn the bloodthirsty attacks by Hamas terrorists in the strongest terms. The brutal terror against innocent civilians, the execution of defenseless citizens, the murder of babies, the abduction of women, men and children, the humiliation and presentation of Holocaust survivors – it makes our blood run cold.
Updated
The head of Israeli military intelligence said he bears responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to Hamas carrying out its surprise onslaught on 7 October.
“The Military Intelligence Directorate, under my command, failed to warn of the terror attack carried out by Hamas,” Maj Gen Aharon Haliva wrote in a letter shared by Israeli media.
We failed in our most important mission, and as the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, I bear full responsibility for the failure. What needs to be investigated, we will investigate in the deepest and most poignant way and draw conclusions.
Haliva is the latest Israeli defence official to publicly state that they take responsibility for the Hamas attack, after the head of the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff made similar remarks in recent days.
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza and Israel.
Updated
Number of people killed in Gaza rises to 3,000
About 3,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, according to the latest update from the Palestinian health ministry.
A further 12,500 people had been injured, it said.
In the West Bank, 61 people had been killed and more than 1,250 wounded.
Updated
Gaza's only oncology hospital forced to close due to fuel blockade
Health officials in Gaza said the only oncology hospital in the Palestinian territory will shut down in 48 hours at the latest.
A statement from Dr Sobhi Skik, the director general of the Turkish Friendship Hospital, said fuel shortages were impacting the facility’s ability to provide care to cancer patients.
The hospital will stop “large parts of its services”, and the remaining part will shut down “within 48 hours at the latest”, leaving all cancer patients in Gaza without critical health care, the statement said.
Hospitals in Gaza have “entered a stage of virtual collapse”, a spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday.
Hello. This is Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. You can contact me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
Joe Biden’s high-stakes visit to the Middle East to avert an all-out war raises serious questions about the level and nature of the president’s previous engagement in the region.
Just as Israel suffered a total intelligence breakdown over the horrific Hamas attacks, diplomats stand charged with their own collective system failure, at the heart of which was treating the Palestinian issue as best managed, not solved.
While the EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said “the world has failed miserably” in the Middle East, the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was forced to deny the Biden team took its eye off the ball when asked about his claim three weeks ago that the region was “quieter” than it had been in two decades.
The case for the diplomats’ defence will be that their hands were tied once the dominance of the Hamas military wing in Gaza came to be mirrored by the election of Israel’s most right-wing government in history. Coupled with that was Donald Trump’s focus on bribing Arab states to make peace with Israel while ignoring the political crisis, which only further sidelined Palestinians while emboldening their occupiers.
Read the full story by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, here.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is 6pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a round-up of the latest headlines …
US president Joe Biden is expected to visit the Middle East Wednesday, on a whirlwind tour of diplomacy that will take in meetings with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials in Tel Aviv. Biden will then move on to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Amman, Jordan.
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians. “We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said.
Ministry of health officials in Gaza said the overnight death toll was “at least 80 people”, and people were trapped in rubble after a night of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip. The heaviest bombardments occurred in three areas in the south of Gaza: Khan Younis, Rafah and Deir el-Balah, and many of those killed were reported to be families who had evacuated from Gaza City in the north, as the Israeli military had instructed.
A spokesperson for the UN’s relief and works agency (UNRWA) has said “supplies are dwindling” in Gaza, amid fears “waterborne diseases are going to start spreading”. Juliette Touma, the UNRWA director of communications, said: “Our staff are also very, very tired. They have been impacted themselves by the war. Many of them lost loved ones, we have sadly at UNRWA lost 14 staff members and these numbers continue to increase. No place is safe in the Gaza Strip at the moment as the bombardments continue.”
Hamas has said a senior commander and member of its higher military council, Ayman Nofal, has been killed by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli air force also said he had been killed, stating: “He directed many terrorist attacks against Israel and the security forces, and he directed the targets of Hamas’s rocket fire, specifically targeting areas populated by uninvolved civilians.”
More than a week on from Hamas’s massacres in Israel, more than 350 bodies of suspected civilian victims still have not been identified, according to Dr Chen Kugel, the director of Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine. Some bodies were burned beyond recognition and others had decayed badly before they were found.
The IDF has said 199 families have now been notified that their loved ones are being held hostage. It is an increase of 40 families, from 155 notified at the time of the last update.
Hamas has demanded the release of “6,000 male and female prisoners in Israeli prisons” in exchange for the hostages. A Hamas spokesperson said there were “about 200-250” Israeli captives in Gaza, a number higher than that recognised by Israeli authorities.
Hamas has released a video of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman taken hostage on 7 October. In the footage, Schem, whose injured arm is shown being treated by an unidentified medical worker, asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible. The Israeli military issued a statement saying it was in constant touch with Schem’s family and condemning Hamas as a “murderous terrorist organisation”. It said it was using “all intelligence and operational measures” for the return of the captives. France’s foreign ministry described the video as “vile”.
Turkey has said it is in talks with Hamas on the release of foreigners, civilians, and children held hostage by the group.
A World Health Organization (WHO) official has said it believes there have been 2,800 deaths in Gaza, with 11,000 wounded. It says half are women and children. The WHO said there had been 115 attacks on health facilities in Gaza.
Israel’s health ministry has stated that 4,229 Israelis have been wounded since Hamas launched its attack on 7 October.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Tuesday that the status of the Gaza Strip after Israel’s planned ground assault would be a “global issue” for discussion by Israel’s politicians and with other countries. The spokesperson said the military had “presented an operational plan” to the Israeli cabinet but did not elaborate, adding: “Gaza borders other countries … so when we say things on the final status, they will combine the orders of the political level and the military.”
Spain has dismissed Israel’s claims that some members of the acting coalition government have aligned themselves “with Isis-style terrorism” by criticising Netanyahu’s response to Hamas’s atrocities and suggesting Israeli forces are committing genocide and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. I will be back with you tomorrow. I’m handing over to my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong to continue our coverage.
Updated
The Israeli air force has posted to social media about the death of Ayman Nofal, which Hamas appears to have confirmed. The air force wrote:
Air Force fighter jets, under joint intelligence guidance with the Shin Bet, killed one of the senior members of the Hamas terrorist organization, Ayman Nofal, who served as the commander of the Hamas central camps brigade in the Gaza Strip, and as the former head of Hamas’s military intelligence.
By virtue of his duties, he directed many terrorist attacks against Israel and the security forces, and he directed the targets of Hamas’s rocket fire, specifically targeting areas populated by uninvolved civilians.
In the past, he was involved in the production and development of weapons, promoted and was a partner in many terrorist attacks, and was even a partner in planning the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.
Updated
Reuters reports that Hamas has said a senior commander and member of its higher military council, Ayman Nofal, has been killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Updated
The spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces has posted to social media to say that “an alert was activated in the north of the country” and it is under review.
Updated
UK lawmaker Layla Moran has told of her fears for relatives in the Gaza Strip, who she said were unable to move to safety inside what she described as an “open-air prison”.
Moran is a member of parliament for the Liberal Democrat party, the fourth largest in the House of Commons, and the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson. She became the UK’s first MP of Palestinian heritage when she was elected in 2017, and said extended family had been forced to seek sanctuary in a church after their house was hit by an Israeli bomb following the Hamas attacks.
Making a plea for the opening of humanitarian corridors, Moran said it was impossible for her elderly relatives to move to a place of safety where they would not be caught up in Israeli strikes on Hamas targets.
“That’s the problem with the geography of Gaza as a whole. It’s essentially an open prison, so you wouldn’t be able to move easily from one place to another,” she said. “They have heard that there are convoys of people trying to move that have also been hit and they just don’t feel it’s safe to move.”
Moran, whose immediate family are Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, and who has extended family in Gaza, said she and her sister were attempting to get news of their relatives every day. Her family were running out of food and had already been reduced to drinking dirty water.
Read more of Ben Quinn’s report here: UK lawmaker Layla Moran fears for relatives in Gaza Strip
Updated
A British man has spoken of the agony of waiting for news of relatives still missing after the Hamas attack in Israel 10 days ago, after they came under attack during a morning walk.
Arad Haggai, a surveyor based in Epping Forest, Essex, does not know if his uncle and aunt are alive, kidnapped or dead after Hamas attacked the Nir Oz kibbutz where they lived.
Gad Haggai, 73, a retired chef and talented musician, and his wife, Judih Weinstein Haggai, 72, an English teacher and puppeteer originally from Toronto, Canada, were on their regular early morning walk when they messaged relatives to say they were under attack.
The couple, US citizens who have four adult children, had left the kibbutz at about 6.30am on Saturday 7 October, their nephew said.
“At about 6.50am Israel time, they sent a text to the kids, my cousins, that they were under rocket fire and they have to try to hide somewhere in the fields. There is a possibility that on Saturday morning, at 11am or 11.30am, there was a signal from Gaza, the phone was in Gaza. But we are not sure. We can’t verify it 100%.”
Haggai said the family had not heard from the Israeli authorities whether the couple were among the 199 identified hostages taken by Hamas.
They had not been located at any hospital, and the family could not be certain whether they were moved to Gaza as they could not discount the possibility Hamas had taken the couple’s phones.
Read more of Caroline Davies’s report here: ‘Nobody knows where they are’: British man tells of helpless wait for news of Israeli aunt and uncle
The charity ActionAid has criticised the lack of access to water in Gaza, emphasising that it poses a particular risk for mothers with young children. In a statement, Soraida Hussein-Sabbah, who is based in Ramallah in the West Bank, said:
With water nearly running out throughout Gaza, the situation is critical, particularly for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Unable to access water – and amidst the continuous bombardments and displacement – dehydrated women will struggle to produce the milk they need to feed their babies and keep them alive.
Access to water is universally recognised as a basic human right, meaning that the continued blockade of Gaza is a denial of the rights of women and children across Gaza. We’re urgently calling for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza and the full and uninterrupted restoration of the water supplies from Israel into Gaza.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that security sources in Lebanon say four people have been killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli shelling.
France condemns Hamas video of French-Israeli hostage as 'vile'
The mother of 21-year-old Mia Schem spoke to journalists in Tel Aviv after Hamas’s military wing released a video showing her kidnapped daughter having her arm wrapped with bandages and asking to be returned to her family as soon as possible.
The family confirmed it was Schem who was taken from the Reim kibbutz, where she was attending the Supernova festival. “I didn’t know if she’s dead or alive until yesterday,” said her mother, Keren Schem.
The release of the video of the hostage has been condemned as “vile” by the French foreign ministry. Reuters reports the ministry said in a statement that 11 French nationals were still missing and that “several are very likely hostages of Hamas. [Mia Schem] is the case of a national whose vile staging by Hamas in a video France condemns.”
Updated
This map shows the direction that Gaza’s citizens have been told to evacuate in by the Israeli authorities ahead of what is widely expected to be a ground operation from Israel into the Gaza Strip.
Earlier Al Jazeera reported that the brunt of the overnight barrage from Israel into Gaza had been directed at Khan Younis, Rafah and Deir al-Balah in the south, and that many of those killed were reported to be families who had evacuated from Gaza City in the north, as the Israeli military had instructed them to do.
Updated
Reuters reports the Hamas-run government media office said on Tuesday that the overnight death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza had risen to 80.
Earlier the World Heath Organization stated that there have been 2,800 deaths in Gaza, with 11,000 wounded, since 7 October, when Israel began retaliatory strikes for the attack Hamas launched on southern Israel.
Updated
The actors Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes, Maxine Peake and the director Mike Leigh are among more than 2,000 artists who have signed an open letter calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, and accusing western governments of “not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them”.
The letter says in part:
Gaza is already a society of refugees and the children of refugees. Now, in their hundreds of thousands, bombarded from air, sea and land, Palestinians whose grandparents were forced out of their homes at the barrel of a gun are again being told to flee – or face collective punishment on an unimaginable scale. Dispossessed of rights, described by Israel’s minister of defence as ‘human animals’, they have become people to whom almost anything can be done.
Our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them. There will come a time when they are held to account for their complicity. But for now, while condemning every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them, our obligation is to do all we can to bring an end to the unprecedented cruelty being inflicted on Gaza.
We call for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of Gaza’s crossings to allow humanitarian aid to enter unhindered.
Artists for Palestine UK, which has organised the letter, was launched in 2015. It can be read in full here.
Updated
Biden to meet leaders of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine on trip to Middle East
Reuters has more detail of what is expected to happen on the US president, Joe Biden’s, diplomatic mission to the Middle East. He is expected to leave Washington this evening.
Biden is expected to spend part of Wednesday in Tel Aviv for talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has already made two trips to Israel since the Hamas attack on 7 October.
Biden is then expected to fly to Amman in Jordan for talks about accelerating humanitarian assistance to Gaza, where he will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Reuters reports that the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said: “He’ll make it clear that we want to continue working with all our partners in the region, including Israel, to get humanitarian assistance in and provide some kind of safe passage for civilians to get out.”
Earlier today Jordan’s King Abdullah said it was a red line for his kingdom that there should be no displacement of Palestine’s population into Egypt and Jordan as refugees.
Updated
The UK prime minister’s office has urged Israel to allow water into Gaza, while still refusing to clarify whether it believes the tactic to shut off the supply was in line with international law.
PA Media reports the prime minister’s official spokesperson told journalists: “We continue to urge Israel as a democracy we work closely with to act within international law in their actions, I think they are taking steps to do that.
“We are in discussions and are keen to see water restored to the area.
“We want to do everything possible to relieve the unfolding humanitarian issues in Gaza. Water is an important part of that.”
Earlier a spokesperson for the UN human rights office said it was concerned that the Israeli military’s evacuation order combined with a complete siege of Gaza may amount to the crime against humanity of “a forcible transfer of civilians”.
In another development in the UK, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is said to have told his cabinet that Hamas was responsible for the “murder and suspected abduction of British nationals”.
Asked if it is believed that some of the 10 missing British citizens may have been kidnapped, the PM’s official spokesperson said: “It’s a dynamic situation. I think, sadly, the full details of this attack are still becoming clear.”
Updated
Citing Jordan’s state media, Reuters reports that Jordan on Wednesday will host a four-party summit in Amman with the US president, Joe Biden and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders to discuss the “dangerous” repercussions of the war in Gaza in the region and finding a political resolution.
More details soon …
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Israel and Gaza.
Updated
Reuters reports that a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Ali Fadavi, has said on Iranian state media that: “The resistance front’s shocks against the Zionist regime will continue until this ‘cancerous tumour’ is eradicated from the world map. Another shockwave is on the way, if Israel does not end atrocities in Gaza.”
Updated
Madrid has dismissed Israel’s claims that some members of Spain’s acting coalition government have aligned themselves “with Isis-style terrorism” by criticising Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Hamas’s atrocities and suggesting Israeli forces are committing genocide and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Ione Belarra, who serves as Spain’s social rights minister and is the leader of Podemos, the junior partners in the socialist-led coalition, suggested the Spanish government should bring Netanyahu before the international criminal court to face war crimes charges.
Belarra’s views were echoed by her Podemos colleague Irene Montero, who is acting equality minister, and by Alberto Garzón, Spain’s acting consumer affairs minister.
Although Israel’s embassy in Madrid did not refer to any of the ministers by name, it put out an angry statement on Monday evening, accusing “certain elements” in the Spanish government of aligning with Hamas and of putting Spain’s Jewish communities in danger. It called on the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to intervene and condemn his colleagues’ “shameful” comments.
“These remarks are not only absolutely immoral, they also endanger the safety of Jewish communities in Spain, exposing them to the risk of a greater number of antisemitic attacks and incidents.”
Spain, which holds the presidency of the EU council, responded with a strongly worded statement that accused the Israeli embassy of “spreading falsehoods” about some cabinet members.
Read more of Sam Jones’s report from Madrid: Spain rejects Israeli claims of its officials aligning with Hamas
Spain will increase its humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip with a package worth €1m (£870,000/$1.06m) and is prepared to send more, Reuters reports the country’s acting foreign minister told a news conference on Tuesday.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 1pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is the latest round-up of headlines from the Israel-Hamas war …
The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians. “We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said.
Ministry of health officials in Gaza have told Al Jazeera that the overnight death toll stands at “at least 71 people”, and that people are trapped in rubble after a night of Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip. The heaviest bombardments occurred in three areas in the south of Gaza: Khan Younis, Rafah and Deir el-Balah, and many of those killed were reported to be families who had evacuated from Gaza City in north, as the Israeli military had instructed.
A spokesperson for the UN’s relief and works agency (UNRWA) has said that “supplies are dwindling” in Gaza, amid fears “waterborne diseases are going to start spreading”. Juliette Touma, the UNRWA director of communications, said “Our staff are also very, very tired. They have been impacted themselves by the war. Many of them lost loved ones, we have sadly at UNRWA lost 14 staff members and these numbers continue to increase. No place is safe in the Gaza Strip, at the moment as the bombardments continue.”
US president Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, in a significant show of US support. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, concluded hours of talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv early on Tuesday by saying that Biden would visit Israel. “The president will hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” Blinken told reporters. Blinken said the US and Israel had agreed to develop a plan to get humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas.
More than a week on from Hamas’s massacres in Israel, more than 350 bodies of suspected civilian victims still have not been identified, according to Dr Chen Kugel, the director of Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine. Some bodies were burned beyond recognition and others had decayed badly before they were found.
The IDF has said 199 families have now been notified that their loved ones are being held hostage. It is an increase of 40 families, from 155 notified at the time of the last update.
Hamas has demanded the release of “6,000 male and female prisoners in Israeli prisons” in exchange for the hostages. A Hamas spokesperson said there were “about 200-250” Israeli captives in Gaza, a number higher than that recognised by Israeli authorities.
Hamas has released a video of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman taken hostage on 7 October. In the footage, Schem, whose injured arm is shown being treated by an unidentified medical worker, asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible. The Israeli military issued a statement, saying it was in constant touch with Schem’s family and condemning Hamas as a “murderous terrorist organisation”. It said it was using “all intelligence and operational measures” for the return of the captives.
Turkey is in talks with Hamas on the release of foreigners, civilians, and children held hostage by the group, foreign minister Hakan Fidan said in Beirut on Tuesday.
A World Health Organization (WHO) official has said it believes there have been 2,800 deaths in Gaza, with 11,000 wounded. It says half are women and children. The WHO said there had been 115 attacks on health facilities in Gaza.
Israel’s health ministry has stated that 4,229 Israelis have been wounded since Hamas launched its attack on 7 October.
A British teenage girl said to be missing with her sister after the Hamas attacks has been murdered, her family has told the BBC. They said on Tuesday morning that 13-year-old Yahel was now confirmed as having been killed in the attack.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Tuesday that the status of the Gaza Strip after Israel’s planned ground assault would be a “global issue” for discussion by Israel’s politicians and with other countries. The spokesperson said the military had “presented an operational plan” to the Israeli cabinet but did not elaborate, adding “Gaza borders other countries … so when we say things on the final status, they will combine the orders of the political level and the military,”
Haaretz reported that “two people were wounded and many mortars hit the town” of Metula in northern Israel. The IDF said it had returned fire into Lebanon.
The Israeli airforce has posted on social media to claim that it has killed four people who were approaching the country’s perimeter fence from the direction of Lebanon.
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency took responsibility for the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,400 people on 7 October. “There will be time for investigations. Now we fight,” the Shin Bet director, Ronen Bar, said in a statement.
Egypt will host a summit of state leaders to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Saturday.
Jordan’s King Abdullah warned against trying to push Palestinian refugees into Egypt or Jordan, adding that the humanitarian situation must be dealt with inside Gaza and the West Bank. “That is a red line, because I think that is the plan by certain of the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground. No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt,” the king said at a news conference after a meeting with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin. Scholz called for preventing an escalation in the Middle East, and said: “I expressly warn Hezbollah and Iran not to intervene in the conflict.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said bombardments in Gaza must stop immediately. He said Israeli officials should be tried for their crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza, and claimed no one would be able to stop Muslims around the world and resistance forces if Israel’s crimes in Gaza continue.
A 12th Palestinian journalist has been reportedly killed by an Israeli airstrike since it began its retaliatory bombing campaign. Mohammad Balousha, who worked for Palestine Today, was in the al-Saftawi neighbourhood in northern Gaza. On Sunday the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said 11 journalists had been killed. Israel’s military has said it is still looking into the killing of a Reuters journalist in Lebanon near the border with Israel.
Jewish parents in the UK should continue to send their children to school, Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely has said, after security fears have led to a number closing their doors.
Israel has a “moral and practical responsibility” to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, the UK’s development minister Andrew Mitchell has said.
This is Martin Belam with you on the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Turkey says it has held talks with Hamas over release of Israeli hostages
Turkey is in talks with the Palestinian militant group Hamas over the release of foreigners, civilians, and children held hostage by the group, its foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports a foreign ministry source told it that on Monday, Fidan spoke with the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, to discuss the issue,
Updated
Egypt to host summit to discuss Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Saturday
The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said on Tuesday that Egypt would host a summit of state leaders to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Saturday.
Reuters reports he was speaking at a joint news conference with his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut.
Updated
Israel’s military is still looking into the killing of a Reuters journalist in Lebanon near the blue line marking the boundary with Israel, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“The Reuters event, we’re still looking into it. I’m looking at the footage and we’ll come out with an answer when we’re ready. A tragic event,” Reuters reports Lt Col Richard Hecht told a regular press briefing.
Issam Abdallah, a Reuters visual journalist, was killed on Friday when rocket fire hit a group of reporters who had been covering cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters. Several other journalists were wounded.
Updated
A few hours after the killing of two Swedish football fans in Brussels on Monday by a suspected terrorist, Italian authorities carried out a counter-terrorism operation that led to the arrest of an Egyptian citizen and an Italian citizen of Egyptian origin accused of being members of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
According to the police, the two suspects were active in propaganda activities, were trying to recruit potential affiliates online and were financing support initiatives for IS, the Milan prosecutor’s office said.
“This morning two people were arrested on charges of terrorism,” the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, told RAI-Radio Anch’io, citing that the alert level had already been raised and authorities were working to prevent potential threats.
Following the war between Israel and Hamas, Italy has warned of potential terrorist attacks in Europe.
“Italy is doing everything that needs to be done to guarantee the safety of our citizens, starting with those who are Jewish,” Tajani told RTL radio.
“There is no imminent risk but nothing should be underestimated,” the defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said on Saturday, adding that Italy must prepare for the security consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas and that he was considering cancelling the celebrations for Italian Armed Forces Day on 4 November this year due to heightened security risks.
The interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said that “difficult, complicated months are certainly ahead of us, which make it right to maintain a high level of attention”.
Early on Tuesday, a 30-year-old of north African origins armed with a knife was arrested in Turin near a synagogue, causing panic among those present.
Updated
UN human rights office: Israel evacuation order may be illegal 'forcible transfer of civilians'
The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians.
“We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law,” Reuters reports Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said.
The term “forcible transfer” describes the forced relocation of civilian populations and is a crime against humanity punishable by the international criminal court.
Updated
Jewish parents in Britain should continue to send their children to school, Israel’s ambassador to the UK has said, after security fears have led to a number closing their doors.
Tzipi Hotovely said there had “obviously” been a rise in antisemitism in the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel, but she added: “This is my message: send your children to school and support Israel.”
The ambassador also told the LBC news radio station in the UK that most of those killed in the Hamas attacks had been tortured before they died, making the recognition process more difficult.
“Those atrocities we’ve seen just in the dark times in the Jewish history, like under the Nazi regime in the Holocaust. And this is why everyone is so shocked from this barbarism,” she added.
Pressed on whether the Israeli government owed people an apology over the lack of awareness and security arrangements that allowed the attacks to take place on such a scale, Hotovely replied: “Well, no doubt that everyone should take a serious investigation about those events. I mean, there is no doubt that there will be a serious investigation.”
Updated
Here is our latest report on the hostage video released by Hamas, with the identity of the kidnapping victim now known:
Hamas has released a video of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman taken hostage during the devastating attack on Israel on 7 October.
In the footage, Schem, whose injured arm is shown being treated by an unidentified medical worker, asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible.
A representative of the family, who were among a group of French families that appealed last week to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to help free their missing relatives, confirmed her identity to Reuters.
The Israeli military issued a statement, saying it was in constant touch with Schem’s family and condemning Hamas as a “murderous terrorist organisation”. It said it was using “all intelligence and operational measures” for the return of the captives.
“In the video, Hamas is trying to portray itself as a humane organisation, while it is responsible for the murder and abduction of babies, women, children and elderly,” it said.
In the 78-second video, which was broadcast on Hamas’s Telegram channel, Schem says she is in Gaza, is being given medicine and wants to go home. It is unclear when it was filmed.
Read more here: Hamas releases video of French-Israeli woman held hostage
Updated
Al Jazeera is reporting that a 12th Palestinian journalist has been killed by an Israeli airstrike since it began its retaliatory bombing campaign after the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel.
It reports Mohammad Balousha, who worked for Palestine Today, was in the al-Saftawi neighbourhood in northern Gaza.
On Sunday the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said 11 journalists had been killed.
Updated
Iran’s supreme leader: Israeli officials should be tried for actions against Palestinians in Gaza
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said bombardments in Gaza must stop immediately in a speech on Tuesday, Reuters reports, citing Iranian state media.
He said Israeli officials should be tried for their crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza, and claimed no one would be able to stop Muslims around the world and resistance forces if Israel’s crimes in Gaza continue.
Updated
A World Health Organization (WHO) official has said it believes there have been 2,800 deaths in Gaza, with 11,000 wounded. It says half are women and children.
Reuters reports the WHO said there had been 115 attacks on health facilities in Gaza.
Israel’s health ministry has also issued new casualty figures. It states that 4,229 Israelis have been wounded since Hamas launched its attack on 7 October.
The breakdown of injuries has been given as 26 people in critical condition with 312 in serious condition. 725 people are said to be in a moderate condition and 2,817 are classified as mild. 219 people have been hospitalised for anxiety with a further 130 said to be under medical evaluation.
Updated
The Israel Defence Forces spokesperson has posted to social media that Israeli tanks are now attacking “the area from which the shooting was carried out at Metula from Lebanon”.
Updated
British teenager missing after Hamas attack has been murdered, family say
A British teenage girl said to be missing with her sister after the Hamas attacks has been murdered, her family has told the BBC.
They said on Tuesday morning that 13-year-old Yahel was now confirmed as having been killed in the attack.
Her mother, Lianne, was also killed. Her sister, Noiya, 16, and father, Eli, are still missing.
More details soon …
Updated
Haaretz is reporting that “two people were wounded and many mortars hit the town” of Metula in northern Israel. The town is adjacent to the UN-drawn blue line which has divided Israel and Lebanon since 2000.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Tuesday that the status of the Gaza Strip after Israel’s planned ground assault would be a “global issue” for discussion by Israel’s politicians and with other countries.
“We’ve had all kinds of end games,” Daniel Hagari told media during a news briefing, in response to a question about whether Israel’s military planned to stay and govern Gaza after its ground invasion.
“The cabinet is also discussing what that could look like … this is also a global issue, what the situation will look like in this region,” he said.
Hagari said the military had “presented an operational plan” to the Israeli cabinet but did not elaborate.
“Gaza borders other countries … so when we say things on the final status, they will combine the orders of the political level and the military,” Reuters reports Hagari said.
Jordan’s King Abdullah: there must be 'no refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt' from Palestine
Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday warned against trying to push Palestinian refugees into Egypt or Jordan, adding that the humanitarian situation must be dealt with inside Gaza and the West Bank.
“That is a red line, because I think that is the plan by certain of the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground. No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt,” Reuters reports the king said at a news conference after a meeting with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin.
During a joint press conference, Scholz called for preventing an escalation in the Middle East, and said: “I expressly warn Hezbollah and Iran not to intervene in the conflict.”
Updated
On its social media feed the Israel Defence Forces have reported further shooting into Israel from Lebanon.
More details soon …
Updated
Israel has a “moral and practical responsibility” to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, the UK’s development minister has said.
Andrew Mitchell also described the situation in the territory as a “looming humanitarian crisis” as he said “all of us must hope” that the US and the Israelis are able to reach an agreement that paves the way for the opening of the Rafah crossing into Egypt from Gaza.
“If there is a plan, I’m sure that it will be possible for the Egyptians to agree to it opening,” the minister told Times Radio.
He also said that some form of “safe zone” in southern Gaza would be required to deliver the aid that was needed, though he warned that such initiatives had a “chequered past”, recalling Rwanda and Srebrenica.
His comments come 24 hours after the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, told Sky News in the UK that there is “no humanitarian crisis”.
Asked by the Sky News presenter Kay Burley on whether Israel had a right to “cross any border” and go so far as targeting Hamas leaders who are in Qatar, Mitchell said: “The Hamas leaders are guilty of the most heinous crime and the Israeli government will either hunt them down and bring them to justice or they will be killed during the course of the military action that takes place.”
Updated
King Abdullah II of Jordan and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, are giving a joint press conference at the moment. I’ll bring you any key lines that emerge.
Updated
Overnight death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza now stands at 'at least 71' people
Ministry of health officials in Gaza have told Al Jazeera that the overnight death toll now stands at “at least 71 people”, and that people are trapped in rubble after a night of Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera reports that the heaviest bombardments occurred in three areas in the south of Gaza: Khan Younis, Rafah and Deir el-Balah, and that many of those killed are families who had evacuated from Gaza City.
The government media office in Gaza told the news outlet:
The losses of the current Israeli aggression exceed all the wars that Gaza has been exposed to in recent years.
The catastrophic humanitarian reality in Gaza is unprecedented. The international community must take serious and immediate steps to stop the crime of ethnic cleansing.
We demand a quick response to distress calls by bringing relief aid to citizens and humanitarian aid to the service sectors.
A spokesperson for the UN’s relief and works agency (UNRWA) told the BBC that “supplies are dwindling” in Gaza, amid fears “waterborne diseases are going to start spreading”.
Asked what her colleagues in southern Gaza are currently able to provide, Juliette Touma, the UNRWA director of communications, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “They continue to provide assistance wherever possible. UNWRA is overwhelmed. We are overwhelmed. Our supplies are dwindling and running out fast.
“Our staff are also very, very tired. They have been impacted themselves by the war. Many of them lost loved ones, we have sadly at UNRWA lost 14 staff members and these numbers continue to increase.”
Asked if they are operating out of facilities that are reasonably safe from Israeli bombardment, she said: “So no place is safe in the Gaza Strip, at the moment as the bombardments continue.”
She said UNRWA teams were operating from an “overcrowded” warehouse in southern Gaza with “hundreds of people sharing one toilet”, adding: “Our own staff have had to ration drinking water to one litre.”
She said: “In some parts of southern Gaza there was running water as of last night but the water situation is a huge concern. Most of Gaza in fact, the vast majority of Gaza, does not have running water. We are fearful that, waterborne diseases are going to start spreading and are going to start spreading soon.”
She said that “UNRWA has not been able to bring in any supplies, including fuel into the Gaza Strip”.
Updated
The Israeli airforce has posted on social media to claim that it has killed four people who were approaching the country’s perimieter fence from the direction of Lebanon. It wrote:
The airforce a short time ago thwarted an attempted infiltration by a terrorist squad, which was identified by IDF surveillance approaching the perimeter fence from Lebanese territory and planting a bomb. Four terrorists were eliminated.
It attached a video to the message which it claimed showed the incident. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Gaza’s interior ministry: at least 49 Palestinians killed by overnight Israeli strikes
At least 49 Palestinians were killed in an overnight Israeli strike that hit homes in Khan Younis and Rafah, Reuters reports Gaza’s interior ministry said on Tuesday. The claims have not been independently verified.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
Summary
It is almost 9am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
US president Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, in a significant show of US support. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, concluded hours of talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv early on Tuesday by saying that Biden would visit Israel. “The president will hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” Blinken told reporters.
Blinken said the US and Israel had agreed to develop a plan to get humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas. Blinken made the announcement after hours of negotiations with Netanyahu that stretched into the early hours of Tuesday.
600,000 Gazans have been evacuated from the Gaza City area, following warnings from Israel’s military on Friday, according to Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus. In a daily update, Conricus said more than 600,000 people had been evacuated from the Gaza City area, but that 100,000 people still had not left. Israel has warned people to leave the Gaza City area ahead of what it says will be “enhanced military operations” in the coming days. Conricus said the operations would start “when the timing suits the goal”.
More than a week on from Hamas’s massacres in Israel, more than 350 bodies of suspected civilian victims still have not been identified, according to Dr Chen Kugel, the director of Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine. Some bodies were burned beyond recognition and others had decayed badly before they were found.
An emergency meeting of the heads of EU member states has been called on Tuesday in an effort to “harmonise” the bloc’s response to the conflict in Israel and Gaza after a week of dysfunction and division.
The IDF said 199 families have now been notified that their loved ones are being held hostage. It is an increase of 40 families, from 155 notified at the time of the last update, he said. He did not say how many hostages this translates to. The increase is not because more hostages have been taken but because new information came to light allowing people to be taken off the list of missing and confirmed as hostages.
Asked whether Biden’s visit will delay ground operations, Conricus said that he does not know, but that he does not think it will. The aim of Biden’s visit is not to “hinder” Israeli operations, he said. “It is to minimise the chances of a regional escalation.” Conricus also said he does not believe there is any plan for Israel to ultimately “hold on to the Gaza Strip”.
The IDF spokesperson was asked during that briefing what there is to stop Hamas fighters going south, too. He said this is “very difficult” and is “one of the downsides” of Israel advertising that it is going to commence enhanced military operations and telling civilians where to go.
Hamas demanded the release of “6,000 male and female prisoners in Israeli prisons” in exchange for hostages it took during its attacks on 7 October. The group’s captives include “high-ranking officers” of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas’s diaspora office, said. A Hamas spokesperson said there were “about 200-250” Israeli captives in Gaza, a number higher than the earlier statement from the Israeli military that said it had confirmed 199 hostages.
Hamas released a video on Monday showing a statement from one of the captives seized in last week’s attack. In the footage, the woman, whose injured arm is shown being treated by an unidentified medical worker, asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible.
Iran warned on Monday of a possible “pre-emptive action” against Israel “in the coming hours”, as Israel readies for a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip. Tehran has repeatedly warned that a ground invasion of the long-blockaded Gaza would be met with a response from other fronts – prompting fears of a wider conflict that could draw in other countries. “The possibility of pre-emptive action by the resistance axis is expected in the coming hours,” Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a live broadcast to state TV, as he referred to his meeting with the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Saturday.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, on Monday spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, and reiterated the US’s commitment to avoiding an escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict and emphasised civilian safety, the Pentagon said in a readout.
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency took responsibility for the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,400 people on 7 October. “There will be time for investigations. Now we fight,” the Shin Bet director, Ronen Bar, said in a statement.
Updated
More now from Gaza’s main hospital:
For over a decade, the grounds of the hospital have largely been spared from bombardments, apart from a strike that hit Shifa’s outpatient clinic in 2014. Instead, a wide area outside the doors to the emergency room welcomes the television crews, local politicians, healthcare workers and civilians who gather there, amid the sound of ambulance sirens and the constant sight of patients arriving on stretchers.
But this time, despite recent efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to renovate Shifa’s emergency room, the current crisis has tested the hospital to its limits.
Last week, Israeli officials ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, cutting off supplies of water, food, and fuel, meaning Shifa risks losing not just losing mains power to the hospital but also the diesel supplies needed for its backup generators. Days later, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for all 1.1 million people north of the Gaza River including Gaza City, demanding that they flee south. Shifa hospital, along with several other medical facilities, said evacuating would be impossible. The World Health Organization called the order to evacuate hospitals a “death sentence” for the thousands of sick and injured.
White House officials bristled about whether Biden would ask Netanyahu and Israel officials to show restraint or set any conditions on any new US military aid that could be in the pipeline.
“We are not putting conditions on the military assistance that we are providing to Israel,” Kirby said. “They have a right to defend themselves. They have a right to go after this terrorist threat.”
Israel is also preparing for the potential of a new front opening on its northern border with Lebanon, where it has exchanged fire repeatedly with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group. The military ordered residents of 28 Israeli communities near the border to evacuate.
European Union leaders will hold an emergency summit on Tuesday as concern mounts that the war between Israel and Hamas could fuel tensions in Europe and bring more refugees in search of sanctuary.
AFP: The Israel-Hamas war is set to overshadow the Frankfurt book fair this week after the postponement of a Palestinian author’s award ceremony sparked condemnation from top writers and the withdrawal of several Arab groups.
The world’s biggest publishing trade event begins on Wednesday, just over a week since Hamas launched the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, prompting Israel to respond with a relentless bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip.
Organisers swiftly denounced the Palestinian militants’ “barbaric” assault and rushed to reorganise the schedule, pledging Israeli voices would feature prominently.
The fair “stands with complete solidarity on the side of Israel”, its director, Juergen Boos, said in a statement.
But the run-up to the five-day event has been overshadowed by a backlash after an award ceremony for the Palestinian author Adania Shibli was postponed.
She was due to receive the LiBeraturpreis, a German award, for her book A Minor Detail, based on the real events of a 1949 rape and murder by Israeli soldiers.
It is organised by Litprom, which gives out the honour each year at the fair, but the group said they had decided not to go ahead with the ceremony “due to the war started by Hamas”.
It said in a statement that it was looking for a “suitable format and setting for the event at a later point”, while insisting that “awarding the prize to Adania Shibli was never in question”.
However, in an open letter released on Monday, more than 600 signatories including high-profile authors, publishers and literary agents, condemned the move.
Updated
With the stakes so high, member states are increasing their efforts to keep foreign policy coordinated and on track and will meet by video on Friday afternoon to progress plans for humanitarian support and other issues.
Insiders say there would have been no emergency summit were it not for a series of missteps in the last week in Brussels.
There have been criticism of the European Commission president Von der Leyen’s forthright statements on Israel. She repeatedly defended the country’s right to defend itself in the fact of a terrorist attack but it was days before she also called on Israel to respect international law in its defence.
Such an omission caused anger in some countries, while others complained in phone calls to Michel’s team about overreach and the commission’s failure to consult it on such an important foreign policy topic as Israel.
Leaders to meet as EU struggles to put on united front over Israel-Hamas war
An emergency meeting of the heads of EU member states has been called on Tuesday in an effort to “harmonise” the bloc’s response to the conflict in Israel and Gaza after a week of dysfunction and division.
As fears grow over the risk of a wider war and a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, EU member states admit they have struggled to put on a united front as they did in February 2023 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
The European Council president, Charles Michel, issued a joint statement on Sunday after a weekend of frantic calls to all 27 member states, but after a week of rows over funding for Palestine and Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Israel, insiders say the lack of coordination in the past week cannot continue.
There are concerns that the conflict in Israel and Gaza will weaken the coalition of support that the EU had built in the global south involving countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It could also impede efforts to advance the Ukrainian peace process.
Japan will provide $10 million in emergency aid for civilians in Gaza, foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa said on Tuesday.
Japan is the current president of the Group of 7 developed nations and Kamikawa said it was monitoring the situation in Gaza “with concern”, adding that Japan expects the situation to be calmed down as soon as possible.
Kamikawa said she was also making final preparations for talks with her Iranian counterpart.
More from that AP analysis now:
In Cairo this weekend, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi was one of a succession of Arab leaders to warn Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is scrambling through Middle East capitals to try to contain the conflict, that the Israel-Gaza war threatens the stability of the entire Middle East.
Biden is likely to hear the same as he meets with leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in Jordan on Wednesday, after he travels to Israel.
Sissi, who fears the Israeli military offensive will push Gaza’s 2.3 million people across the border into Egypt, cast blame on the near-disappearance of any international pressure on Netanyahu’s government and Palestinians to return to negotiations.
Sissi cited “a buildup of outrage and hatred for more than 40 years” and the lack of any “horizon to solve the Palestinian cause; one that gives hope to the Palestinians” for a state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
Arab leaders “are very aware this is going to keep blowing up. And they might ride it out this time, they might ride it out next time, as they have in the past,” said Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon.
“But it’s not actually a comfortable position for them to be endlessly living in,” with endless cycles of Israeli and Palestinian wars that threaten the region’s peace and economies, said Sayigh, who accused the US of encouraging Netanyahu to think there was no need to address Palestinian concerns.
The Associated Press has spoken to experts and academics about what the conflict says about Biden’s diplomacy in the Middle East:
From its first months in office, the Biden administration made a distinctive decision on its Middle East policy: It would deprioritise a half-century of high-profile efforts by past US presidents, particularly Democratic ones, to broker a broad and lasting peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Since Richard Nixon, successive US administrations have tried their hands at Camp David summits, shuttle diplomacy and other big-picture tries at coaxing Israeli and Palestinian leaders into talks to settle the disputes that underlie 75 years of Middle East tensions. More than other recent presidents, Joe Biden notably has not.
Instead, administration officials early on sketched out what they called Biden’s policy of quiet diplomacy. They advocated for more modest improvements in Palestinian freedoms and living conditions under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government, which has encouraged settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and which includes coalition partners that oppose the US-backed two-state solution.
The less-ambitious approach fit with Biden’s determination to pivot his foreign-policy focus from Middle East hotspots to China.
But the long-term risks of sidelining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have exploded back into view.
More now on Biden’s upcoming visit to Israel:
Biden will travel to Israel for talks with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as concerns grow that the Israel-Hamas war could spiral into a regional conflict.
The US president’s plans to travel to Tel Aviv were announced by US secretary of state Antony Blinken as the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip grows more dire and as Israel prepares for a ground attack on the enclave to root out Hamas militants behind what US and Israeli officials have called the most lethal assault against Jews since the Holocaust.
“He is coming here at a critical moment for Israel, for the region and for the world,” Blinken said early on Tuesday, after more than seven hours of talks with Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials. During those talks, he was forced to shelter in a bunker for five minutes when sirens went off.
Hamas releases first hostage video as senior figure says it has ‘what it needs’ to free all Palestinian prisoners
Read more
Israel would brief Biden on its war aims and strategy, said Blinken, and on how it will conduct operations “in a way that minimises civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas.”
Gaza’s main hospital overflows with the living and the dead
At Gaza City’s Dar Al Shifa hospital, the living sleep between beds filled with patients, in corridors, and even in the grounds, while the dead overflow the morgue.
The name Dar Al Shifa translates as “house of healing”, and tens of thousands have sought not just healing but shelter from the bombardments that rained down on Gaza City every hour, praying the hospital might provide some protection. Printed blankets have been hung from the entrance courtyard’s iron handrails to provide shade, while some people have gathered around the stairwells with their children and all that remains of their belongings.
Shifa is not just Gaza’s largest medical facility, but the nerve centre of its entire healthcare system, and the Israeli assault on the territory has brought it to breaking point. Local authorities and aid groups in Gaza estimate that between 35,000 and 40,000 people are sheltering there.
“The doctors have brought their families into the hospital for safety. I slept on an operating room table last night,” said Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, one of the surgeons, speaking to the Guardian by phone.
Hundreds of Israeli bodies still unidentified
More than a week on from Hamas’s massacres in Israel, over 350 bodies of suspected civilian victims still have not been identified, according to Dr Chen Kugel, the director of Israel’s national institute of forensic medicine. Some bodies were burned beyond recognition and others had decayed badly before they were found.
Thousands of people are desperately waiting for news of loved ones and for remains they can bury, a particularly urgent concern as Jewish tradition requires a rapid burial, and formal mourning can begin only after the funeral.
Kugel, speaking nine days after the attacks, fears that the rate at which they can give families answers may slow as they reach the most damaged bodies, and some victims may never be identified.
“We did a lot of work in the past nine days … Now we are at a peak, the rate of identification will decline as we are reaching the hard cases,” he said. “I’m afraid there will be some [victims] that we will never find, and we will never be able to identify … People have to be prepared for this.”
The scale of the work is overwhelming, with dozens of bodies – or in some cases collections of human remains so damaged they are barely recognisable – arriving at the forensic institute on Monday in a refrigerated truck.
Meanwhile Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa is in the final process of arranging a telephone discussion with her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Tuesday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Japan maintains a friendly relationship with Iran. In September, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in New York and told that Japan will continue its diplomatic efforts toward easing tensions and stabilising the situation in the middle east.
100,000 people remain in Gaza City, says IDF
600,000 Gazans have evacuated the Gaza City area, following warnings from Israel’s military on Friday, according to Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.
In a daily update, Conricus said that more than 600,000 people have evacuated the Gaza City area, but that 100,000 people still had not left.
Israel has warned people to leave the Gaza City area ahead of what it says will be “enhanced military operations” in the coming days. Conricus said the operations will start “when the timing suits the goal”.
UNRWA said 170,000 people were sheltering at its schools in the north when the order to leave came early on Friday. But it couldn’t evacuate them and doesn’t know if they remained. More than 40,000 have crowded in the grounds of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital and surrounding streets, hoping it will be safe from bombardment.
UNRWA said Monday it received reports that the Hamas-run Ministry of Health removed fuel and medical equipment from its evacuated compound in Gaza City.
Hamas urged people to ignore the evacuation order. The Israeli military on Sunday released photos it said showed a Hamas roadblock preventing traffic from moving south.
Updated
Biden to visit Tel Aviv on Wednesday
US President Joe Biden will visit to Israel on Wednesday, in a significant show of US support.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv early on Tuesday by saying that Biden would visit Israel.
“The president will hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” Blinken told reporters.
Biden would meet with Netanyahu, reaffirm Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security, and receive a comprehensive brief on its war aims and strategy, Blinken said.
“(The) president will hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas,” Blinken added.
Blinken also said he and Netanyahu had agreed to develop a plan to get humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians. He did not provide details.
US officials said that a new US coordinator on humanitarian aid, David Satterfield, would work with Israel to develop more concrete plans.
Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Sullivan.
The top developments:
US President Joe Biden will travel to Israel and on to Jordan Wednesday to meet with both Israeli and Arab leadership, as concerns increase that the raging Israel-Hamas war could expand into a larger regional conflict. Biden said on X, “On Wednesday, I’ll travel to Israel to stand in solidarity in the face of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack.”
Biden is looking to send the strongest message yet that the US is behind Israel. Blinken made the announcement early Tuesday after more than seven hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials.
Blinken said that the United States also secured assurances from Israel on working to bring foreign assistance into the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip as Israel prepares a ground offensive against the Hamas-ruled territory.
US officials said that a new US coordinator on humanitarian aid, David Satterfield, would work with Israel to develop more concrete plans.
Meanwhile 600,000 Gazans have evacuated the Gaza City area, following warnings from Israel’s military on Friday, according to Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.
In a daily update, Conricus said that more than 600,000 people have evacuated the Gaza City area, but that 100,000 people still had not left.
Israel has warned people to leave the Gaza City area ahead of what it says will be “enhanced military operations” in the coming days. Conricus said the operations will start “when the timing suits the goal”.
Here is a summary of other recent developments:
US President Joe Biden will visit to Israel on Wednesday, in a significant show of US support. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv early on Tuesday by saying that Biden would visit Israel. “The president will hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” Blinken told reporters.
Blinken said the United States and Israel had agreed to develop a plan to get humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas. Blinken made the announcement after hours of negotiations with Netanyahu that stretched into the early hours of Tuesday.
600,000 Gazans have evacuated the Gaza City area, following warnings from Israel’s military on Friday, according to Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus. In a daily update, Conricus said that more than 600,000 people have evacuated the Gaza City area, but that 100,000 people still had not left. Israel has warned people to leave the Gaza City area ahead of what it says will be “enhanced military operations” in the coming days. Conricus said the operations will start “when the timing suits the goal”.
More than a week on from Hamas’s massacres in Israel, over 350 bodies of suspected civilian victims still have not been identified, according to Dr Chen Kugel, the director of Israel’s national institute of forensic medicine. Some bodies were burned beyond recognition and others had decayed badly before they were found.
An emergency meeting of the heads of EU member states has been called on Tuesday in an effort to “harmonise” the bloc’s response to the conflict in Israel and Gaza after a week of dysfunction and division.
The IDF said that 199 families have now been notified that their loved ones are being held hostage. It is an increase of 40 families, from 155 notified at the time of the last update, he said. He did not say how many hostages this translates to. The increase is not because more hostages being taken but because new information comes to light allowing people to be taken off the list of missing and confirmed as hostages.
Asked whether Biden’s visit will delay ground operations, Conricus said that he does not know, but that he does not think it will. The aim of Biden’s visit is not to “hinder” Israeli operations, he said. “It is to minimise the chances of a regional escalation.” Conricus also said he does not believe that there is any plan for Israel to ultimately “hold onto the Gaza strip”.
The IDF spokesperson was asked during that briefing what there is to stop Hamas fighters going south, too. He said this is “very difficult” and is “one of the downsides” of Israel advertising that it is going to commence enhanced military operations and telling civilians where to go.
Hamas demanded the release of “6,000 male and female prisoners in Israeli prisons” in exchange for hostages it took during its attacks on 7 October. The group’s captives include “high-ranking officers” of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’s diaspora office, said. A Hamas spokesperson said there were “about 200-250” Israeli captives in Gaza, contradicting an earlier statement from the Israeli military that said it had confirmed 199 hostages.
Hamas released a video on Monday showing a statement from one of the captives seized in last week’s attack. In the footage, the woman, whose injured arm is shown being treated by an unidentified medical worker, asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible.
Iran warned Monday of a possible “pre-emptive action” against Israel “in the coming hours”, as Israel readies for a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip. Tehran has repeatedly warned that a ground invasion of the long-blockaded Gaza would be met with a response from other fronts – prompting fears of a wider conflict that could draw in other countries. “The possibility of pre-emptive action by the resistance axis is expected in the coming hours,” Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a live broadcast to state TV, as he referred to his meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, and reiterated the United States’ commitment to avoiding an escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict and emphasised civilian safety, the Pentagon said in a readout.
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency took responsibility for the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,400 people on 7 October. “There will be time for investigations. Now we fight,” Shin Bet director Ronen Bar said in a statement.
Updated
