Netanyahu again rules out ceasefire until Hamas returns hostages from Gaza
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday again rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza until all of the more than 240 hostages captured by Hamas during its 7 October attack were returned.
“There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages, we say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them,” Reuters Netanyahu told air and ground crews at the Ramon air force base in southern Israel, reiterating the government’s position.
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Helena Smith has more details on the Cyprus plan for delivering aid to Gaza:
Authorities said once the situation on the ground permitted it and, if agreed, the sea corridor proposal would allow vital humanitarian aid to be transferred from the island’s main port of Limassol to the Gaza Strip.
A humanitarian pause in the fighting could offer the “window of opportunity” needed to deliver the assistance, officials in Nicosia say. The idea is believed to be backed by Cyprus’s fellow EU member states as well as Egypt, Jordan and other Arab nations.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was described as being onboard after speaking by phone with the Cyprus president, Nikos Christodoulides.
As the nearest EU member state to the conflict zone, Cyprus has sought to play a diplomatic balancing act, rushing to support Israel and expressing outrage over the 7 October Hamas assault, while also showing solidarity with Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza strip.
The US state department said Antony Blinken had also wanted to thank Christodoulides during his brief visit for the island’s role in temporarily housing US citizens who fled Israel in the first weeks of the Gaza war.
Cyprus, which is bracing for as many as 100,000 refugees if the conflagration spreads, has prepared a massive evacuation plan in the event of western civilians fleeing Israel and Lebanon.
Commando units and special forces from several Nato member states have already set up base on the island’s two sovereign British base areas in anticipation of the operation being enacted.
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You can watch a replay of the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari’s briefing in English here:
Special Media Briefing with RAdm. Daniel Hagari https://t.co/A97tei7XXg
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 5, 2023
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Cypriot officials have said that during Antony Blinken’s brief stopover in Larnaca, the US secretary of state discussed the Cypriot proposal to establish a maritime aid corridor to Gaza.
The US secretary of state met with the Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, during the unannounced trip.
Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a statement that during the meeting there was a discussion on unfolding developments in the Middle East as well as on Cyprus’s proposal for a dedicated, one-way maritime corridor of a sustained flow of humanitarian aid from Cyprus to civilians in Gaza.
Earlier on Sunday, Reuters reports the Cypriot president had said how aid could be delivered was still being worked out. “Ships cannot approach the sea area off Gaza so we are talking to the United Nations which will handle the aid and not Hamas,” Christodoulides told reporters.
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Reuters has issued a correction to the casualty figures in Gaza that was reported earlier. The figure stands at 9,770 Palestinians killed, including 4,008 children, not 4,800 as previously stated. Apologies.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, has posted an image to social media of his family reunited after his in-laws were trapped inside Gaza by the Israeli blockade and the closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
In the message he wrote:
I am pleased to say my in-laws are safe and back home, praise be to god. We are, of course, elated, but my father-in-law said, ‘My heart is broken in two, and with my mum, son and grandchildren in Gaza.’ He then broke down telling me how hard it was saying goodbye to them.
I am pleased to say my in-laws are safe and back home ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) November 5, 2023
We are, of course, elated, but my father-in-law said, "My heart is broken in two, and with my mum, son & grandchildren in Gaza." He then broke down telling me how hard it was saying goodbye to them. pic.twitter.com/rJxccT6SkQ
The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has demanded that Hamas stop using hospital facilities in Gaza, saying:
Hamas is at war with Hamas, not the civilians of Gaza. We will not accept Hamas’s cynical use of hospital to hide their terror infrastructure. I want to repeat – we will not accept Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals to hide their terror infrastructures. Hamas’s exploitation of hospital must come to an end.
Earlier, he had claimed that Hamas was launching missiles from within 75 metres of a hospital, knowing that if Israel struck it, it would cause damage to the hospital.
He also said, in response to a media question asking about Israel ordering civilians to move south in Gaza but also carrying out military strikes and operations in the south of the Gaza Strip:
I think it’s important that the world will understand that we did not start this war. On 7 October, we slept in our beds. In quiet homes. Babies, women, children.
And we had a massacre.
Thousands of terrorists entering into Israel, killing babies, burning families, burning young men. This is a war we did not start and we did not seek. But now we are at war.
We are going to defeat Hamas. We are going to free our hostages. And we’re going to free Gaza from Hamas.
We are focusing on the north at the moment, but we will strike Hamas leaders wherever they are. It is going to take us a long time.
We are a country that follows international law [but] we are dealing with a murderous organisation that did a massacre. We will not forget the massacre. I hope the world will not forget the massacre of 7 October.
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IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has been giving his briefing in English rather than Hebrew, suggesting it is more intended for an international rather than domestic audience.
He said that so far the IDF has dropped 1.5m leaflets, made 20,000 phone calls and sent 6m recorded messages to civilians urging Palestinians to evacuate to the south of Gaza.
He is now taking questions from the media.
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So far in its briefing, the Israeli military has been using satellite imagery and intelligence reports to demonstrate its claims that hospital facilities in Gaza are concealing what it terms is “Hamas terror infrastructure”. The IDF has claimed that the Indonesia hospital in Bait Lahia was built over existing Hamas infrastructure that it had photographed in 2010.
More details soon …
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Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari is giving a briefing. We’ll bring you any new key lines that emerge.
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More than 300 US citizens have been evacuated from Gaza Strip but more remain
More than 300 US citizens have left Gaza, but there are still those who remain in the besieged Gaza Strip, Reuters reports White House official Jonathan Finer said on CBS show Face the Nation on Sunday.
Al Jazeera reports that within the last hour there has been a airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, which has “destroyed residential homes and killed a large number of people”.
More details soon …
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Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Cyprus. CBS News reports that on the unannounced visit Blinken met the Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, and foreign minister Constantinos Kombos, and they held a meeting on Blinken’s plane.
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The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum which is representing the families of some of those held by Hamas in Gaza since 7 October, has issued a strong condemnation of comments by the Israeli minister Amichai Eliyahu suggesting nuclear weapons could be used in Gaza by Israel.
It said:
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum vehemently condemns Minister Eliyahu’s concerning statement.
International law, along with fundamental principles of human morality and common sense, strictly prohibits the use of mass destruction weapons.
The Forum underscores that the utmost priority for Israel’s actions in Gaza must be the release of hostages held by Hamas, including women, children, infants, and the elderly.
Such a reckless and cruel statement, which does not represent the official position of the State of Israel or the families of the hostages, should never have been made.
Israel has never publicly conducted a nuclear test or said it is in possession of nuclear weapons, but international observers believe it possesses about 80-90 warheads.
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Patrick Wintour, our diplomatic editor, reports on a slight change of language from the US government over the weekend:
In a briefing with American reporters on Saturday, an unnamed senior White House official started to move the dial on a humanitarian pause saying it would take “a very significant pause in hostilities “to get a large number of hostages out. His remarks found echoes in Qatar, the country mediating between Hamas and Israel, which said a period of calm was needed to release hostages.
The US official briefing on Saturday said: “We are now speaking about a very significant pause in the fighting to get the hostages out.”
It is the first time the US government has spoken about a lengthy pause and goes some way to narrow the gap between the US and those Arab states calling for a full ceasefire.
The senior White House official said: “Any arrangement to get 200 hostages out of Gaza is going to require a fairly significant pause in hostilities. And the framework being discussed, should we get to that point, that would obviously go into place. And I think that is something that the president is briefed on regularly.
“And so, should that get into place, there would be a very significant pause in hostilities to make sure that that arrangement can actually be implemented.
The official added: “And the numbers that we’re talking about, it would take a very significant pause in the conflict, in the fighting to be able to do this.”
He said: “It is something that is under a very serious and active discussion, but there’s no agreement as of yet to actually get this done”.
Qatar, the country negotiating between Hamas and Israel, spoke of a period of calm required, but did not specify any length.
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Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia has condemned in the strongest terms the statements issued by the Israeli cabinet minister Amichai Eliyahu regarding dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip.
It said such statements show the penetration of “extremism and brutality” among members of Israeli government.
Israel’s prime minister has suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings in the wake of the remarks, amid calls for him to be fired.
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Here are some images from the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah where there was a protest against today’s surprise visit by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken.
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World Food Programme head: 'nowhere near' enough food currently entering Gaza
The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy McCain, said on Sunday that the aid entering Gaza was “nowhere near” enough to meet the needs of people there, which she added were growing exponentially.
“We need to continue to work together to get safe and sustained access to Gaza at a scale that aligns with the catastrophic conditions facing families there,” Reuters reports McCain said in a statement after visiting the Rafah border crossing through which a limited number of aid trucks have been allowed to enter Gaza.
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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority should play a central role in what comes next in the Gaza Strip, a senior state department official has told Reuters.
The senior official added that the “future of Gaza was not the focus of the meeting but the Palestinian Authority seemed willing to play a role”.
Blinken made an unannounced visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to meet the Palestinian Authority president Abbas earlier. The pair spoke for an hour, but did not make a joint media appearance or issue a joint statement.
A read-out from the meeting from the office of Abbas said that he told Blinken there must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US has refused to call for one. On Saturday, Blinken said a ceasefire would allow Hamas time to regroup.
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Pope Francis made an urgent plea for a halt to the conflict in Gaza on Sunday, calling for humanitarian aid and help for those injured in order to ease the “very grave” situation.
“I keep thinking about the grave situation in Palestine and Israel where many people have lost their life. I pray you to stop in the name of God, cease the fire,” he said, speaking to crowds in St Peter’s Square after his weekly Angelus prayer.
“I hope that all will be done to avoid the conflict from widening, that the injured will be rescued and aid will arrive to the population of Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very grave,” Reuters reports he said.
The pontiff renewed his calls for a ceasefire and for the release of hostages, focusing on the children, who he said “must return to their families”.
People in the crowd at the Vatican could be seen holding banners calling for “peace” and “let’s stop the massacre”.
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Death toll in Gaza since 7 October rises to 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,008 children
It is reported that at least 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,008 children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
Reuters reports the new figure has been released by the spokesperson for the Hamas-run ministry of health in the Gaza Strip. Israel has been bombarding Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attack inside its borders which killed at least 1,400 Israelis.
In addition, the Palestinian Authority health ministry in the Israeli-occupied West Bank says that 152 Palestinians have been killed and 2,100 wounded since 7 October. The claims have not been independently verified.
The health ministry in Gaza has appealed to Egypt to allow Egyptian ambulances into the Gaza Strip to treat the wounded via the Rafah crossing. A limited number of people had been allowed to leave Gaza for hospitals in Egypt last week.
This block was corrected at 14.24 GMT to reflect the fact that 4,008 children are said to have been killed, not 4,800 children as originally published. Apologies.
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Reuters has some quotes from residents in Gaza, where Israel has cut off electricity and fuel supplies, while allowing in only a trickle of food and medicine. At the same time, Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip since 7 October, in attacks launched following the Hamas attack inside Israel that day.
Saeed al-Nejma, 53, said he had been asleep with his family in their single-storey house when the blast hit his neighbourhood of Maghazi refugee camp overnight.
“All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn apart flesh,” he said.
“Imagine you are in a prison and the prison guards are taking aim at one prisoner after another from a high tower, killing them one by one,” said Ismail, 43, an accountant in Gaza City describing how he felt under the bombardment.
“My father almost had a heart attack last night when a missile strike shook the building. We felt it was us being hit,” said Ismail, who did not give his name for fear of Israeli reprisals.
Several Gaza City residents Reuters did speak to said they were too frightened to attempt the crossing to the south of Gaza Strip, where they have been ordered to evacuate to by Israel’s military. Some pointed to recent accounts of deaths on the main roads connecting south and north.
“I want at least to send my family to the south and hope they can cross into Egypt through Rafah but I’m not sure I can. I am afraid their car might be shelled by Israeli tanks on the road,” said Abu Tamer in Jabalia refugee camp adjacent to Gaza City, refusing to give his full name for fear of reprisals.
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My colleague Emma Graham-Harrison has this analysis today on the difference between a “ceasefire” and a “humanitarian pause” in a conflict:
“The difference between the two is more political than legal,” said Helen Duffy, professor of international humanitarian law and human rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
“Ceasefire or cessation of hostilities suggests [an agreement] that is, or at least could be, a permanent end to hostilities, and ceasefire agreement suggests negotiation, of course,” Duffy said. “Whereas ‘humanitarian pause’ sends a clear message that it is temporary and for one purpose only.”
Those who oppose a ceasefire say Israel has an urgent need to defend itself against a group that has threatened more attacks on civilians, denies Israel’s right to exist and has been officially designated a terrorist organisation by countries including the US and UK. “A ceasefire now would leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on 7 October,” the US secretary of state, Blinken, said at a news conference on Saturday.
Those demanding a ceasefire say a humanitarian pause will not offer the time and security needed to meet even basic civilian needs, given the scale of damage, death and deprivation in Gaza after a month of intense fighting. “It is our position that a ceasefire is imperative to deal with the humanitarian consequences of this crisis,” said Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, speaking to journalists alongside Blinken.
Read more of Emma Graham-Harrison’s analysis here: Ceasefire or humanitarian pause? The bitter debate on the best route to peace
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The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, discussed the situation in Gaza with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts in separate phone calls, a Turkish diplomatic source told Rueters on Sunday.
Fidan had exchanged views on “stopping the attacks targeting the civilian population in Gaza” and on achieving an urgent ceasefire, the source said.
Fidan also discussed efforts to guarantee the unimpeded and continuous provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza with the Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, the source added.
Yesterday, Turkey recalled ambassador Şakir Özkan Torunlar from Tel Aviv to Ankara, with the foreign ministry saying it was “in view of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza caused by the continuing attacks by Israel against civilians”, and citing Israel’s refusal to accept a ceasefire.
Fidan is expected to meet the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, for talks on Gaza in Ankara on Monday.
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Iran said that the US would “be hit hard” if Washington did not implement a ceasefire in Gaza, Reuters reports the country’s minister of defence was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire, otherwise they will be hit hard,” Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani reportedly said.
Iran has previously said that it considers the US to be “militarily involved” in the conflict.
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Reuters reports that Antony Blinken and Mahmoud Abbas met for an hour. There was no joint press briefing afterwards.
Israel’s military claims to have successfully intercepted a drone flying towards Israel from “deep inside Lebanon”.
In a post to the Telegram messaging app, it added:
Earlier today, several launches from Lebanon to Avivim in northern Israel and a fire toward the area of Malkiya in northern Israel were identified. The IDF responded with artillery fire toward the sources of the fire.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 1pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, made an unannounced visit to meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah after meeting with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan. A spokesperson for Abbas said after the meeting that the Palestinian president had called for an immediate ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Al Jazeera reported small protests against the visit took place.
The US said Blinken reaffirmed the US commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced. It has refused to back calls for a ceasefire, arguing that it would allow Hamas to regroup.
Israeli jets struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip killing at least 38 people and wounding dozens, officials from Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry said. Israel has not confirmed it had hit Al-Maghazi camp, and a military spokesperson said they were looking into whether forces were operating in the area at the time of the bombing.
Israel says that in the combined activities of its ground, air and naval forces in the Gaza Strip, “over 2,500 terror targets have been struck”. Israel launched the campaign on 7 October after the surprise Hamas attack inside Israel’s borders that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, and during which at least 240 people were abducted and taken into Gaza as hostages. The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip puts Palestinian casualty figures since 7 October at 9,488, with a large proportion of them being women and children.
Evacuations for civilians and heavily wounded Palestinians from Gaza have been suspended since Saturday, according to Egyptian security and medical sources said, following an Israeli strike on ambulances near the entrance to Gaza City’s main Dar al-Shifa hospital. Israel later claimed Hamas was using an ambulance to move it fighters.
More than 100 Britons have been evacuated from Gaza and the government hopes more will be able to leave, the UK’s deputy prime minister said on Sunday, as he urged the reopening of the Rafah crossing. Oliver Dowden said “The first thing we are doing is trying to make sure we get the Rafah crossing open again and I’m hopeful we will make progress on that today. Secondly, we are seeking to have these temporary pauses to allow humanitarian aid in and to get our people out”. The UK government has also refused to back calls for a ceasefire.
The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said on Sunday there had been “false” reports on negotiations to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Qatar’s foreign ministry said efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza required a “period of calm”, and that leaks from the negotiations are “harmful” and make it difficult for mediators to do their jobs.
The French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said in Doha on Sunday that too many civilians had died in Israeli strikes on Gaza. Colonna added that an international humanitarian conference, to be hosted by France on 9 November, would cover respecting international law, basic needs such as health, water, energy and food, and would call for concrete action to help civilians in Gaza.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has said that more media workers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war than in any other conflict in the area since it started monitoring in 1992. As of Friday, 36 media workers – 31 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese – have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, according to the group.
The World Health Organization in Palestine has issued an updated bulletin in which it says it has documented 102 attacks on healthcare facilities within the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
An Israeli drone struck near two ambulance on their way to pick up casualties from overnight strikes in southern Lebanon, wounding four paramedics, local officials have claimed.
Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to distance himself from comments by a minister in his government that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza is “one of the possibilities” and that the Palestinian population can “go to Ireland or deserts”. Heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit party made the comments in a radio interview. Netanyahu said the statements “are not based in reality” and suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings. Opposition leader Yair Lapid called for him to be fired, saying the comments harmed Israel’s international standing.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul, Sydney and Washington on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
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State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on an unannounced visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, reaffirmed the US commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced.
Blinken and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, discussed efforts to restore calm and stability in the West Bank, including the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible, Miller said, in reference to violence being committed by Israeli settlers.
Abbas told Blinken there must be an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, a call the US has consistently resisted making.
The health ministry in the West Bank says 152 Palestinians have been killed and 2,100 wounded by Israeli actions there since 7 October.
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Abbas tells Blinken there must be 'immediate ceasefire' in Gaza
The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, told the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Ramallah on Sunday that there must be an “immediate ceasefire” and humanitarian aid allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.
The US has resisted calls for a ceasefire, arguing that it would allow Hamas time to regroup.
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Al Jazeera reports that its correspondents in Ramallah say small protests against the visit of the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, are taking place.
It quotes the activist Fadi Quran saying “Blinken is currently acting against the majority of the US public and US interest. So continued public pressure will force the US to either decide to be complicit with the mass murder of Palestinians or to force Israel to go for a ceasefire.”
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Qatar: hostage negotiations require 'period of calm', and leaks about them are 'harmful'
The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said on Sunday that there had been “false” reports on negotiations to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza, without elaborating.
Reuters reports Al-Thani said during a news conference in Doha alongside the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, that there were complexities in the field due to “Israeli military practices” in Gaza.
In addition, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza required a “period of calm”.
Leaks from the negotiations were “harmful” and made it difficult for mediators to do their jobs, ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said during a press conference in Doha.
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Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in cities around the world on Saturday to take part in pro-Palestine solidarity protests as the war between Hamas and Israel passed its 30th day. Demonstrators were seen in central squares from Santiago to Berlin, calling for a ceasefire and for Israel’s siege on Gaza to be lifted. Here is our video report.
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Blinken meets Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in unannounced visit to Ramallah
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has met with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The unannounced visit forms part of Blinken’s tour of the region, Reuters reports.
Blinken has previously suggested an “effective and revitalised Palestinian Authority” would make the most sense to run the Gaza Strip in the future, but has said other countries and international agencies would probably play a role in security and governance in the interim.
Blinken has argued that in the current circumstances a ceasefire would only allow Hamas to regroup.
Ramallah is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since Israel’s war with Hamas began on 7 October. The UN has recorded more than 170 attacks on Palestinians involving Jewish settlers, and Israel has made repeated arrests within the West Bank.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported 46 arrests overnight, with three Palestinians killed and six wounded by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Abu Dis. The health ministry in the West Bank says that 152 Palestinians have been killed and 2,100 wounded since 7 October.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza.
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The French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said in Doha on Sunday that too many civilians had died in Israeli strikes on Gaza.
Colonna said during a joint press conference with Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, that schools, hospitals, humanitarian workers and journalists must be protected, Reuters reports.
Colonna added that an international humanitarian conference, to be hosted by France on 9 November, would cover respecting international law, basic needs such as health, water, energy and food, and would call for concrete action to help civilians in Gaza.
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UK says more than 100 Britons have left Gaza, hopes Rafah crossing will reopen
More than 100 Britons have been evacuated from Gaza and the government hopes more will be able to leave, the UK’s deputy prime minister said on Sunday, as he urged the reopening of the Rafah crossing.
Speaking on BBC television, PA Media reports Oliver Dowden said:
It is the case that over 100 UK nationals were able to cross out of Gaza into Egypt through the Rafah crossing.
It is very disappointing that the crossing was closed yesterday. We are engaging very closely and we are hopeful that the crossing will reopen again today, enabling further UK nationals to leave the situation.
The first thing we are doing is trying to make sure we get the Rafah crossing open again and I’m hopeful we will make progress on that today. Secondly, we are seeking to have these temporary pauses to allow humanitarian aid in and to get our people out.
Reuters notes the Rafah crossing was opened for limited evacuations for three days earlier this week under a Qatari-brokered deal aimed at letting some foreign passport holders, their dependants and some wounded Gazans out.
Dowden urged Britons stuck in Gaza to get into contact with the Foreign Office as the UK government was trying to “facilitate them in getting to the border and crossing” to Egypt.
He added it was a “very difficult situation in Gaza”, with “Hamas terrorists hiding among the civilian population and a conflict going on in a very small area”.
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WHO: 102 documented attacks on health care in the Gaza Strip since 7 October
The World Health Organization (WHO) in Palestine has issued an updated bulletin in which it says it has documented 102 attacks on healthcare facilities within the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
In a post accompanied by an infographic on social media, it said:
Since 7 October, WHO has documented 102 attacks on health care in the Gaza Strip. Attacks have resulted in 504 fatalities, 459 injuries, damage to 39 facilities and affected 31 ambulances.
Over half of health attacks and over a half of hospitals damaged were in Gaza City. Health care is #NotATarget. WHO calls for the active protection of civilians and health care.
Since 7 October, WHO has documented 102 attacks on health care in the Gaza Strip.
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) November 5, 2023
Attacks have resulted in 504 fatalities, 459 injuries, damage to 39 facilities and affected 31 ambulances.
Over half of health attacks and over a half of hospitals damaged were in Gaza City.… pic.twitter.com/tcxgfcdUln
Israel launched its military campaign on Gaza on 7 October after the Hamas attack, which killed at least 1,400 people inside Israel, and during which Hamas abducted at least 240 people as hostages.
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An Israeli drone struck near two ambulance on their way to pick up casualties from overnight strikes in southern Lebanon, wounding four paramedics, local officials have told the AP.
It was claimed that the drone “directly targeted” the two ambulances that were heading south to attend several people wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a house overnight.
Local and medical officials told AP that the Lebanese army and the Red Cross transported the wounded paramedics to a hospital in Tyre, as Israeli strikes reportedly did not stop. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. The claims have not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has called for Benjamin Netanyahu to fire heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu over the latter’s comments that nuclear weapons were an option for Israel to use on Gaza.
On social media, former prime minister Lapid wrote:
A shocking and crazy statement by an irresponsible minister. He harmed the families of the abductees, harmed Israeli society and harmed our international standing. The presence of the extremists in the government endangers us and the success of the war goals – the victory over Hamas and the return of the kidnapped. Netanyahu must fire him this morning.
Netanyahu has reportedly suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings over the comments.
In the UK, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden has compared the reaction to the Hamas attack of 7 October with that of the reaction to the killing of George Floyd in the US, saying the response had lacked the “same kind of moral clarity”, and said the British Jewish community were “fearful”.
PA Media reports that in comments made on Sky News, Dowden said:
We shouldn’t see this just as a matter for the Jewish community. We should see this is as a matter for all of British society.
And I have to say to you that I am a bit disappointed that if you look at the moral indignation and the clarity that we saw after the murder of George Floyd in the US with the Black Lives Matter movement, we haven’t seen, across civic society, the same kind of moral clarity showing that Jewish lives matter.
I think that is a cause of hurt to the Jewish community and it is something that disappoints me as well. I see it, whether it is on our campuses or elsewhere, we need to send a very clear signal that Jewish people are safe in this country, not just for the sake of Jewish people but for the sake of British society.
People need to understand that antisemitism is racism, full stop. And the same abhorrence that we show to other forms of racism, we should show towards antisemitism.
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Israel claims it has struck 'over 2,500 terror targets' in war on Hamas
Israel says that in the combined activities of its ground, air and naval forces in the Gaza Strip, “over 2,500 terror targets have been struck”.
Israel launched the campaign on 7 October after the surprise Hamas attack inside Israel’s borders that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, and during which at least 240 people were abducted and taken into Gaza as hostages.
In an update posted to its Telegram channel, the Israeli military said:
IDF troops are continuing to eliminate terrorists in close quarter combat and direct aircraft to strike Hamas terrorist infrastructure, weapons depots, observation posts, and command and control centres in the Gaza Strip.
Overnight, IDF troops directed aircraft to strike a Hamas military compound containing command and control centers, observation posts, and additional terrorist infrastructure.
During the combined activities of ground, air and naval forces in the Gaza Strip, over 2,500 terror targets have been struck.
The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip puts Palestinian casualty figures since Israel began its attacks at 9,488, with a large proportion of them being women and children.
The claims of the IDF and the health ministry in Gaza have not been independently verified.
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AP is reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu has suspended heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu from cabinet meetings until further notice, after Eliyahu said dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza would be an option for Israel.
Netanyahu earlier said the remark was “divorced from reality”, and defence minister Yoav Gallant also criticized Eliyahu, saying: “It’s a good thing that people like this are not in charge of Israel’s security.”
AP notes the move to suspend Eliyahu “has no practical effect”, as he was not a member of the decision-making war cabinet formed in the wake of the Hamas 7 October surprise attack inside Israel.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to distance himself from comments by a minister in his government that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza is “one of the possibilities” and that the Palestinian population can “go to Ireland or deserts”.
Heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit party is quoted by the Times of Israel as saying in an interview with Radio Kol Berama that the Palestinian people “can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves”, adding that those who wave a Palestinian or Hamas flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth”.
It quotes him saying that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip “is one of the possibilities”, and that humanitarian aid to the population should be restricted, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid. There is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza.”
On social media, Israel’s prime minister said:
Minister Amihai Eliyahu’s statements are not based in reality. Israel and the IDF are operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents. We will continue to do so until our victory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 5, 2023
Minister Amihai Eliyahu's statements are not based in reality. Israel and the IDF are operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents. We will continue to do so until our victory.
Eliyahu is part of the broader coalition government, but the heritage minister does not sit in the wartime security cabinet.
Humanitarian groups including the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all suggested that war crimes may be taking place in the region.
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The Palestine Red Crescent society has posted a series of videos to its social media channels of paramedics working to remove injured people from the site of a strike. It writes:
A building located approximately 50 metres away from the Al-Quds hospital and the association headquarters in Tal Al-Hawa area has been targeted, resulting in its destruction and causing a number of injuries and martyrs.
The location and time of the accompanying videos has not been independently verified.
On its Telegram channel, Israel’s armed forces have claimed that “following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, an interceptor was launched toward a suspicious target that crossed from Lebanon into Israel”.
The Telegram channel announced the warning sirens about 30 minutes ago. The claims have not been independently verified.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has put the death toll from what it says were Israeli airstrikes on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza at 33 or more, with 42 wounded, Associated Press reports.
A ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, said first responders – aided by residents – were still searching the rubble for dead or possible survivors after the attack early on Sunday.
The camp – a built-up residential area – is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive in the northern areas.
Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across the territory, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere and accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
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In case you missed it earlier: the United States and its Arab allies appeared divided over calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s military offensive against Hamas as the US pushed for a more temporary pause in fighting amid growing global anger over the rising death toll among Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, several Middle East foreign ministers urged the US to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire in a meeting with the secretary of state, Antony Blinken. The top US diplomat, however, dismissed the idea, saying such a halt would only benefit Hamas, allowing the militant organisation to regroup and attack again.
The diplomatic wrangling came as the conflict entered week five, with reports that more than 30 people were killed in a strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
You can read the full wrap of the war’s latest developments here:
Pro-Palestinian rallies around world call for ceasefire
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul, Sydney and Washington on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and castigate Israel after its military intensified its assault against Hamas, Reuters reports.
In London, television footage showed large crowds holding sit-down protests blocking parts of the city centre, before marching to Trafalgar Square. Police said they made 29 arrests.
Thousands of protesters marched down the streets of Washington waving Palestinian flags, some chanting “Biden, Biden you cannot hide, you signed up for genocide”, before congregating at Freedom Plaza, steps away from the White House.
In central Paris, thousands marched to call for a ceasefire with placards reading “Stop the cycle of violence” and “To do nothing, to say nothing is to be complicit”. It was one of the first, big gatherings in support of Palestinians to be legally allowed in Paris since the Hamas attack of 7 October.
In Berlin, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, demanding a ceasefire. One woman marched with her arm in the air, her hand covered in fake blood.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Istanbul and Ankara, a day before a visit to Turkey by US secretary of state Antony Blinken for talks on Gaza.
In Sydney, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in the city’s Hyde Park, some carrying placards or Palestinian flags.
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The United Nations has warned of a “catastrophic” situation for children in Gaza, as Israeli bombs hit a school being used as a shelter and landed outside a hospital and Israel came under mounting pressure over the civilian suffering caused by its campaign.
More than 40% of the dead in Gaza after nearly four weeks of war were children, the UN said, with 3,900 reported child victims, and another 1,250 missing and presumed buried under bombed buildings.
With little rescue machinery, and hospitals overcrowded and running out of supplies, the chances of survival for those trapped in rubble are painfully low.
“Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden” of a month of fighting in the tiny territory, agencies supporting children, women, health services and Palestinian refugees said in a joint statement.
The full story from Emma Graham-Harrison and Jason Burke is here:
More than 30 killed in Israeli airstrikes of Maghazi refugee camp, says Gaza ministry
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says more than 30 people were killed in an Israeli bombing of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza late on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports.
“More than 30 [dead] arrived at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the massacre committed by the occupation in al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip,” a health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a statement.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa earlier said 51 Palestinians had been killed and scores wounded in the bombardment.
Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram that Israel had “directly” bombed citizens’ homes, adding that most of the dead were women and children.
“An Israeli air strike targeted my neighbours’ house in al-Maghazi camp, my house next door partially collapsed,” said Mohammed Alaloul, 37, a journalist working for the Turkish Anadolu Agency.
Alaloul told AFP his 13-year-old son, Ahmed, and his four-year-old son, Qais, were killed in the attack, along with his brother. His wife, mother and two other children were injured.
An Israeli military spokesperson said it was looking into whether the Israel Defence Forces had been operating in the area at the time of the bombing.
Opening summary
Welcome to our rolling live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, now on day 30. This is Adam Fulton and here’s an overview of the latest to bring you up to speed as it turns 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv.
More than 30 people were killed in an Israeli bombing of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza late on Saturday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that Israel had “directly” bombed citizens’ homes, adding that most of the dead were women and children.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa earlier put the death toll at 51, with scores wounded.
An Israeli military spokesperson said it was looking into whether Israel forces were operating in the area at the time of the bombing.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests on Saturday in cities around the world – including London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, Washington and Sydney – to demand a ceasefire.
More on those stories shortly. In other news:
US president Joe Biden signalled there were small signs of progress being made towards a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war on Saturday. US officials have been pushing for a pause but so far with little impact.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society received 30 aid trucks that entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Saturday. Three were handed to the Red Cross and 19 to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Eight trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent were delivered to the Palestine Red Crescent.
Gaza’s Hamas-run government suspended the evacuation of foreign passport holders to Egypt on Saturday after Israel refused to allow some wounded Palestinians to be evacuated to Egyptian hospitals, a border official said.
Israeli military clashes with Palestinians were reported across the occupied West Bank overnight on Saturday, including in Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm.
Hamas’s armed wing said more than 60 hostages were missing due to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, also said on Hamas’s Telegram account that 23 bodies of Israeli hostages were trapped under the rubble. Reuters could not immediately verify the statement.
Protesters gathered outside the residence of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid growing anger at government failures in the lead-up to Hamas’s deadly attacks against Israel on 7 October. Protesters also gathered in Tel Aviv, with many holding signs that said “Ceasefire” and others that read “Release the hostages now at all costs”.
Agence France-Presse has called on Israel to provide “an in-depth and transparent investigation” into the exact involvement of its army after a strike severely damaged its offices in Gaza City. “A strike on the offices of an international news agency sends a deeply troubling message to all the journalists working in such difficult conditions in Gaza,” the news agency’s chairman and CEO, Fabrice Fries, said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has reaffirmed US support for “humanitarian pauses” in the Israel-Hamas war. In an address in Amman, Jordan, about sparing civilians and speeding up aid deliveries entering into Gaza, Blinken said: “The United States believes that all of these efforts will be facilitated by humanitarian pauses.”
Four police officers were injured and 29 people were arrested after thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. They were arrested for inciting racial hatred, other racially motivated crimes, violence and assaulting a police officer, the Metropolitan Police said. It was the fourth consecutive week of London demonstrations in support of Palestinians.
Turkey has announced it is recalling its ambassador to Israel and cutting contact with Netanyahu. Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat called Saturday’s move “another step by the Turkish president that sides with the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
Israel will locate and kill Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said. “We will find Sinwar and will eliminate him,” Gallant said on Saturday as Israeli forces fought street battles with Hamas in the Palestinian territory.
Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Washington DC on Saturday to protest against the Biden administration’s support of Israel and its continued military campaign in Gaza. The demonstrators wore black and white keffiyehs as an enormous Palestinian flag was unfurled by a crowd that filled Pennsylvania Avenue, the street leading up to the White House.
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