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EU leaders eye call for ‘humanitarian pause’ in Gaza
AFP: EU leaders will on Thursday debate calling for a “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s war with Hamas.
The 27-nation bloc has long been split between more pro-Palestinian members such as Ireland and Spain, and staunch backers of Israel including Germany and Austria.
After days of negotiations, a draft statement for the summit calls “for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including a humanitarian pause”.
That statement – which could change when leaders meet in Brussels – falls short of demands from the United Nations for a “ceasefire”.
Germany, wary of urging a more definitive halt that could tie Israel’s hands, has mooted calls for humanitarian “windows” or “pauses” in the plural.
“Letters, commas, language matter, and that’s how you find agreements,” said a senior EU official.
But diplomats from some EU nations warn that delays over finding the right words as the death toll mounts are hitting the bloc’s global standing and leaving it flailing in the face of developments.
350,000 Palestinians still in northern Gaza
AP: Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have decided to stay in their homes in northern Gaza, despite Israeli warnings that they face grave danger if they don’t move south.
They say evacuation doesn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than one million residents of northern Gaza to seek refuge.
If they flee, they face appalling conditions in overcrowded shelters and persistent shortages of food and water in the south. It is estimated that 350,000 civilians have remained in the north, even as Israel edges closer to a planned ground offensive.
AFP: Cryptocurrency has become the latest front in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, analysts say.
Israeli and US authorities have intensified their financial hunt into Hamas in recent days as they track illicit funds via digital currencies.
Ari Redbord, global policy head at crypto tracking specialist TRM Labs, said there is now less crypto transfer activity on pro-Hamas support networks as a result.
“We are seeing a lot less activity in some respects since the war began,” Redbord told AFP.
This is “primarily because Israel has been very aggressive and successful in taking down these fundraising efforts”, he added.
Two weeks ago, Israeli police revealed they had located and frozen accounts linked to Hamas that sought “to solicit donations on social networks” via Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange.
A Binance spokeswoman said it “follows internationally recognised sanctions rules, blocking the small number of accounts linked to illicit funds”.
Redbord, formerly a senior US government adviser, said Hamas had adopted crypto from 2019 at the latest, to seek funding via the Telegram messaging network and even on its own website.
Hamas decided in April that it would no longer accept cash via Bitcoin due to increased global surveillance of the world’s biggest digital unit.
Crypto fundraising is now operated via a network of Hamas-linked support groups.
Here is the video of Biden’s speech earlier in which he called for end to attacks by West Bank settlers and accused Hamas of hiding behind civilians in Gaza.
He also said Israel also must follow the ‘laws of war’. Speaking at a joint press conference with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, the president said US support for Israel’s defence was ironclad, but criticised the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank by some Israelis:
Fuel may run out by Thursday, says UNRWA
UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment working.
If it continues doing all of that, fuel will run out by Thursday, so the agency is deciding how to ration its supply, UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told The Associated Press.
“Do we give for the incubators or the bakeries? Do we bump clean water or do we send trucks to the borders?” she said. “It is an excruciating decision.”
AP: More than half of Gaza’s primary health care facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.
At Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the lack of medicine and clean water have led to “alarming” infection rates, the group Doctors Without Borders said. Amputations are often required to prevent infection from spreading in the wounded, it said.
One surgeon with the group described amputating half the foot of a 9-year-old boy with “slight sedation” on a hallway floor as his mother and sister watched.
In a swath of Gaza City’s Yarmouk neighborhood reduced to splinters, a bleeding man hugged a child after both were dug out of the rubble. A bakery in Deir al-Balah was flattened. In a nearby hospital, medics treated a boy with a mangled, half-severed leg. One worker lifted a dead baby out of the shattered concrete and rebar of 15 homes hit in the southern city of Rafah.
Japan has called on Israel to temporarily suspend fighting to allow humanitarian assistance to the besieged Gaza Strip, its foreign ministry said.
The request was made in a meeting between Japan‘s State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Israel’s ambassador to Japan late on Wednesday to allow for humanitarian access to the enclave, according to a readout issued by the ministry on Thursday.
Russia and China on Wednesday vetoed a U.S. push for the United Nations Security Council to act on the Israel-Hamas conflict by calling for pauses in fighting which has claimed thousands of lives. A Russian-drafted text that called for a ceasefire also failed.
AFP: There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which once held significant territory in both countries but was pushed back by local ground forces backed by international air strikes in a bloody multi-year conflict.
US forces and other personnel from the international coalition against the jihadists are deployed at bases in Iraq and Syria that have been the target of the attacks, but the facilities are ultimately controlled by local forces rather than international troops.
American troops in Iraq are playing a training and advisory role following the official end of the coalition’s combat mission in December 2021, while those in Syria conduct frequent raids against IS.
Back to the recent increase in attacks on US forces deployed in Iraq and Syria.
The impact of the attacks has been relatively limited so far, but the possibility of escalation is high, AFP reports.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that 21 US personnel “received minor injuries due to drone attacks” in Iraq and Syria last week, but that all of them returned to duty.
And a US civilian contractor suffered a “cardiac episode” and died while sheltering at a base in Iraq after early warning systems indicated a threat was approaching, according to the Pentagon, which said an attack ultimately did not occur in that case.
There is significant potential for the situation to worsen, especially in the event that a drone or rocket directly kills American personnel.
“What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against US forces and personnel across the region in the very near term coming from Iranian proxy forces, and ultimately from Iran,” the Pentagon said.
Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents spiking in US
Reuters: Antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents including violent assaults and online harassment have spiked in the US since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on 7 October two advocacy groups said Wednesday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it received 774 complaints of incidents motivated by Islamophobia and bias against Palestinians and Arabs from 7 October to Tuesday. The group said this was the highest level since 2015.
The total was almost triple 2022’s average number of complaints for a period of the same duration.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said its preliminary data showed a 388% rise in antisemitic incidents in the US from 7 October to Monday over the prior year. The group reported 312 incidents including harassment, vandalism and assault. About 190 of those were directly linked to the war between Israel and Hamas, ADL said.
CAIR cited an 18-year-old Palestinian man allegedly assaulted in Brooklyn; death threats against a mosque and a fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois, who US authorities said was targeted for being Palestinian American.
ADL said complaints included violent messages, especially on online platform Telegram, and rallies where “ADL found explicit or strong implicit support for Hamas and/or violence against Jews in Israel.”
The US Justice Department has said it is monitoring rising threats against Jews and Muslims amid the conflict. President Joe Biden has condemned antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Here is our full story on Biden’s remarks earlier.
Biden has called for an immediate end to Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, as Israel kept up its strikes on Gaza in preparation for a long promised ground invasion.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, Biden said US support for Israel’s defense was ironclad, but added that the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank by some Israelis was “pouring gasoline on the fire.”
“They’re attacking Palestinians in places that they’re entitled, and … it has to stop now,” the president said.
Biden accused Hamas of “hiding behind” Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but said Israel must follow the “laws of war,” in its strikes on the besieged enclave.
More than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, according to the Hamas run health ministry, and there are fears the toll could further soar if Israel pushes ahead with a widely expected ground invasion.
Biden however cast doubt on civilian casualty figures put forward by the Palestinians.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s a price of waging war,” he said.
“But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
The Israeli military said late Wednesday that its aircraft struck at Lebanon in retaliation for the earlier launch of a surface-to-air missile.
“A short while ago, the IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon at an IDF UAV (drone),” the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement.
“In response, IDF aircraft struck the source of the launch,” it added.
What is “Islamic Resistance in Iraq"?
Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has claimed many of the recent attacks on US forces in Iraq is not one of the established militant groups operating in the region and has not publicly claimed affiliation with or backing from a specific government, AFP reports.
But its claims of attacks on US forces have appeared in Telegram channels used by pro-Iranian armed factions, and the Pentagon has said the organizations “conducting these attacks are supported by the IRGC and the Iranian regime” – a reference to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The White House has meanwhile said Iran is “actively facilitating” attacks on US forces in the Middle East.
Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told AFP the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a media claiming name, it’s not a group.”
It is the result of various existing Iran-backed groups in Iraq deciding “during the duration of this Gaza conflict to jointly claim all of their attacks,” he said.
US forces in Iraq, Syria face spike in attacks
American and allied forces deployed in Iraq and Syria as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition have been repeatedly targeted by drone and missile attacks this month, AFP reports.
Although the attacks have not been claimed by a known group with documented links to Iran, Washington says Tehran is involved and has threatened to respond “decisively” to strikes by its proxies.
The recent spike in attacks is linked to the latest war between Israel and Hamas.
Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack US interests over Washington’s support for Israel, with one of them – Ketaeb Hezbollah – demanding that American forces leave Iraq or “taste the fires of hell.”
The Pentagon said there were 10 attacks on American and allied forces in Iraq and three in Syria between 17 and 24 October, involving a “mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.”
Many - though not all - of the recent attacks have been claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”
Israeli airstrikes struck a bakery in the al Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Wednesday, killing 10 people, according to a statement released by the Gaza government press office. People could be seen sifting through rubble in a large crater as airstrikes continued across the besieged strip. Israel’s military said it had conducted airstrikes across Gaza on Wednesday, targeting Hamas infrastructure:
An Al Jazeera correspondent is mourning the loss of his entire immediate family after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, had fled with his family to the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza after Israel warned those in the northern half of the territory to leave immediately.
Al-Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in the airstrike late on Tuesday, which came amid an overnight surge of Israeli attacks reported to have killed hundreds of people.
Twenty-one other people died in the same airstrike, according to Palestinian health officials.
Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed al-Dahdouh crying as he saw his family’s bodies in the morgue of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on his way out of the hospital, al-Dahdouh said: “What happened is clear. This is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians. I was just reporting from Yarmouk about such an attack, and the Israeli raids have targeted many areas, including Nuseirat.
“We had our doubts that the Israeli occupation would not let these people go without punishing them. And sadly, that is what happened. This is the ‘safe’ area that the occupation army spoke of.”
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike, according to Reuters.
In a statement, al-Dahdouh’s employer, Al Jazeera, said: “Their home was targeted in the Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza, where they had sought refuge after being displaced by the initial bombardment in their neighborhood, following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call for all civilians to move south.
“The network strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, which has led to the loss of Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family and countless others.”
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Israel and Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, met senior international criminal court (ICC) officials in The Hague on Wednesday.
Maliki’s visit, which came a day after he deplored inaction by the UN security council, was not announced to the media.
In a video released by the ICC, the top Palestinian diplomat can be seen shaking hands with the court’s president Piotr Hofmanski, chief prosecutor Karim Khan and registrar Osvaldo Zavala Giler.
🎥 The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of #Palestine, H.E. Dr. Riyad Malki, visited the #ICC. @pmofa pic.twitter.com/Sz8pLBNMcQ
— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) October 25, 2023
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its air defense systems intercepted a surface-to-air missile launched from Lebanon at an Israeli military drone.
Another aircraft struck the source of the missile fire in Lebanon, it said.
A surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon toward an IDF UAV was intercepted by the IDF Aerial Defense System a short while ago.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 25, 2023
IDF aircraft responded by striking the source of the launch.
Amid the pomegranate groves of Kfar HaRif, a collective farm in southern Israel, hundreds of people gathered as the sun began to set for the funerals of Lianne Sharabi, a British-Israeli woman, and her teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel.
The family were murdered on 7 October after militants from the Palestinian group Hamas stormed their home in Kibbutz Be’eri. Their father, Eli, is missing, and his brother, Yosi, has officially been declared one of the 220 hostages taken back to the Gaza Strip. Be’eri suffered such destruction, and so many of its 1,000 residents are dead or missing, that the Sharabis can’t be buried there; instead, on Wednesday, they were laid to rest in a cemetery 25km (16 miles) away.
It was two weeks before all three were officially confirmed as dead, and the funerals brought little solace to those who gathered to honour loved ones taken away in an episode of such shocking violence.
Before the rites began, a message was broadcast instructing the mourners not to run or panic if an air raid siren sounded, but instead lie on the ground and cover their heads, and several military helicopters passed overhead during the ceremony. Many people were wearing T-shirts that read: “Lianne, Noiya and Yahel have been murdered. Bring back Eli and Yosi now.”
Through the grief and pain – as well as the outbreak of a new war that has already claimed thousands of Israeli and Palestinian lives – the Sharabis’ friends and family painted a picture of who they had lost.
The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution in support of Israel and calling on Hamas to immediately cease attacks and release every hostage.
The resolution was the first measure to come to the floor after Mike Johnson was elected to the speakership on Wednesday. Johnson said:
The first bill I’m going to bring to this floor in a little while will be in support of our dear friend Israel and we are overdue in getting that done.
The House backed the resolution by 412 to 10, with six members voting “present”. Nine Democrats and one Republican voted against it.
We reported earlier that the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah held talks with leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. We have some more details about this key meeting of the three primary groups currently fighting Israel.
Hezbollah’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala discussed what their alliance must do to “achieve a real victory for the resistance”, Hezbollah said in a statement.
An assessment was made of the international positions being taken and what the parties of the Axis of Resistance must do ... to realise a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestinian and to halt the brutal aggression.
“There was agreement on continuing the coordination,” it added. No other details were provided.
Updated
WHO urges Hamas to release all hostages on 'health grounds'
The World Health Organization has reiterated its call for Hamas to release all of the hostages it is holding “on humanitarian and health grounds”.
Hamas must “provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care and the immediate release” of all those abducted from Israel, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Many of the hostages, including children, women and the elderly, have pre-existing health conditions requiring urgent and sustained care and treatment. The mental health trauma that the abducted, and the families, are facing is acute and psychosocial support is of great importance.
The UN health agency would do “all we can to support the health and humanitarian needs of those being held captive”, he added.
Al Jazeera has released a statement saying the wife, son and daughter of one of its journalists in Gaza were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh appeared live on air holding the bodies of his family members in a hospital. The outlet said other members of his family are still missing.
The family, who lived in Gaza City, fled Israel’s bombardment to stay with relatives at the Nuseirat refugee camp while Dahdouh stayed behind to continue reporting, the outlet said.
Al Jazeera said:
The indiscriminate assault by the Israeli Occupation forces resulted in the tragic loss of his wife, son, and daughter, while the rest of his family is buried under the rubble. Their home was targeted in the Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza, where they had sought refuge after being displaced by the initial bombardment in their neighborhood, following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call for all civilians to move south.
Al Jazeera is deeply concerned about the safety, and well-being of our colleagues in Gaza and hold the Israeli authorities responsible for their security.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s midnight in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military is “getting prepared” for the ground invasion of Gaza with the goal of destroying Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities. In a televised statement on Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister said his war cabinet is “working around the clock” until it reaches victory.
Israel has agreed to a US request to get its air defences to the region before an expected ground invasion of Gaza, according to a report. The Pentagon is working to deploy a dozen air defence systems to the region to protect US troops serving in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from missiles and rockets, it said.
Relief efforts in Gaza will be forced to stop on Wednesday night unless fuel supplies reach the besieged territory, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned. Hospitals, bakeries and water pumps may also cease to function, compounding a humanitarian crisis that is worsening by the hour, it said. Oxfam accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against Gaza civilians, saying the enclave was receiving just 2% of its usual supply of food.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli airstrikes have killed 6,546 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, including 2,704 children. The figure includes 756 people – 344 of whom were children – killed in the last 24 hours. It said 17,439 had been wounded in total. The Guardian has not independently verified these figures.
A school sheltering Palestinians in Gaza sustained “severe collateral damage” due to a “close proximity strike”, UNRWA said. One civilian was killed and 44 more were injured, including nine children, it said. The UN says about 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now internally displaced. Nearly half of them have taken refuge in UN shelters, while the other half have found some floor space in other people’s homes, hospitals or public facilities. But that is no guarantee of safety.
A Red Cross mission to assess the state of Gaza’s hospitals has described scenes of chaos and exhaustion in the face of a total blockade, a critical fuel shortage and relentless Israeli bombing.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, was locked in a bitter row with Israel, saying he was “shocked” that the Israeli government had misrepresented remarks he had made to the UN to suggest he had justified the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October. Israel has called for his resignation and announced that it was withdrawing travel visas for UN officials.
Israel has “wholeheartedly” rejected Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s assertion that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was “not a terrorist organisation”. Erdoğan told a group of his party’s MPs on Wednesday that Hamas “is a liberation group, mujahideen, defending their lands.” Erdoğan also announced he had cancelled a planned trip to Israel, saying Benjamin Netanyahu had “misused our goodwill”.
The prime minister of Qatar has said he hopes there will soon be a breakthrough in negotiations led by the Gulf state to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, although his government has warned that an Israel invasion could jeopardise those efforts.
British prime minister Rishi Sunak has called for pauses to the fighting in Gaza to allow humanitarian aid to safely reach those without food, water or medicine. Sunak in Commons on Wednesday expressly avoided backing the suggestion of a total ceasefire.
Joe Biden made a fresh call for two-state solution after, at some point yet to appear on the war-torn horizon, the current Israel-Hamas battle is over, calling for Israelis and Palestinians to work out living in peace together. The US president added that he “did not demand” that Israel delay a ground invasion of Gaza.
Emmanuel Macron said he believed it would be an “error” if Israel launched a “massive” ground incursion into Gaza. The French president’s warning came as Macron held talks in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who also urged efforts “to avoid a ground invasion”.
Israel’s blockade hollowed out Gaza’s economy and left 80% of its inhabitants dependent on international aid even before the current crisis erupted, the UN has said. It said a “decades-long” blockade had left two-thirds of Gaza’s population living in poverty, while its unemployment rate of 45% was one of the highest in the world.
The US has expressed deep disappointment at the UN security council after Russia vetoed its latest draft resolution upholding the right of Israel to “collective self-defence” and for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid into Gaza.
The family of an Al Jazeera journalist has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the news outlet. Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael Dahdouh’s wife, daughter and son are reportedly among his family members who were killed in a strike on a house they were sheltering in.
Updated
In a second vote at the UN security council, a draft resolution presented by Russia calling for a permanent ceasefire was voted down, with Russia being joined by three other members. Two delegations voted against, and nine abstained.
In a concession from the failed draft put forward by Russia last week, the latest resolution added that it “rejects and condemns the heinous attacks by Hamas”.
The failure of both US and Russian resolutions underlined the deeply divided nature of the world over the Israel-Hamas war. There is speculation that the 10 nonpermanent members of the security council might put forward their own compromise proposal, though they too would face an uphill climb.
The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said she regretted that the US resolution had not been adopted. It would have “unequivocally condemned Hamas terrorist attacks” and ensured that humanitarian aid reach Gaza.
Updated
The US has expressed deep disappointment in the UN security council after Russia vetoed its latest draft resolution upholding the right of Israel to “collective self-defence” and for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid into Gaza.
Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council meeting in New York that she was “deeply disappointed” by the Russian veto. She called the US resolution “strong and balanced” and said it had been forged after extensive consultation with other council members. She said:
Though today’s vote was a setback, we must not be deterred … as we work to build a more peaceful and stable future for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
The US resolution was amended from previous iterations by including a reference to “humanitarian pauses” to provide a space for desperately-needed food and water to be trucked into Gaza. But it did not go far enough for Russia or China; both voted against the draft citing the lack of a ceasefire demand.
The Russian UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, denounced the text as “politicised”, saying it served only the “geopolitical interests” of the US. He said it was “plumped full of politicised, irrelevant and dubious provisions”.
Ten of the 15 members of the UN security council voted in favour of the resolution, three against, and two abstained. For it to have passed, it would have needed at least nine positive votes with no vetoes from the permanent members, which include Russia and China.
Updated
Keir Starmer has conceded to Muslim Labour MPs that his visit to a south Wales mosque could have been handled better, the Guardian understands, as he faces mounting pressure from all wings of the party to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The shadow women and equalities minister, Yasmin Qureshi, publicly broke Labour ranks on Wednesday and urged Rishi Sunak to call for a ceasefire during the British prime minister’s questions. She said the people of Gaza were subject to “collective punishment” for “crimes they did not commit”.
Many in Labour feared that Qureshi risked losing the whip for her comments. But in a sign that the leadership has acknowledged the deepening fractures across the party, a Labour spokesperson said:
If I heard the question correctly … she was asking the prime minister what the conditions were that would lead the prime minister to support a ceasefire.
The Labour leader and his deputy, Angela Rayner, met more than a dozen Muslim politicians on Wednesday afternoon, who stressed that his positioning on the Israel-Hamas conflict was causing distress to many in the party.
Those in attendance were said to have argued that the disappointment felt by many in the party amounted to much more than a “Jewish-Muslim community issue”, the Guardian understands.
Sources described the meeting as “constructive” and “robust”, with Starmer and Rayner said to be in “full listening mode”.
Updated
Joe Biden has called into question the civilian death toll in Gaza being reported by the Palestinian authorities there.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, AFP reported.
But the US president cast doubt on the figure being presented from Gaza:
‘I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s a price of waging war. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using,’ he said at the White House earlier today.
Updated
Joe Biden further said at the White House earlier that he “did not demand” that Israel delay a ground invasion of Gaza, Agence France-Presse reported.
The agency said that Biden told reporters in the Rose Garden:
Israel has a right and I would add responsibility to respond to the slaughter of its people.
Biden accused Gaza’s rulers Hamas of “hiding behind” Palestinian civilians, as Israel bombards the enclave, but said Israel must follow the “laws of war”. At the joint press conference with visiting Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, he said:
Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians. It’s difficult.
US media have reported that Biden has pushed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on a ground invasion of Gaza while Hamas still holds hostages, but Biden denied it:
What I have indicated to him is that if that’s possible to get these folks out safely, that’s what he should do. It’s their decision. But I did not demand it. I put it out to him, if it’s real, it should be done.
Here’s a clip of part of those remarks:
REPORTER: "In your conversations with PM Netanyahu...have you sought assurances from him that he would hold off on a ground invasion...until the safe release of the hostages can be assured?"
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 25, 2023
BIDEN: "No...It's their decision. But I did not demand it."
REPORTER: "Aren't these… pic.twitter.com/J0TsETNgN5
Updated
Biden makes fresh call for two-state solution after Israel-Hamas war
Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, the Associated Press reports.
The US president also said he was redoubling his commitment to working on a two-state solution to end the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict.
Biden said that the attacks by “extremist settlers” amounted to “pouring gasoline” on the already burning fires in the Middle East.
‘It has to stop. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,’ Biden said at the start of a news conference with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, who was being honored with a state visit to Washington DC.
Settler violence against Palestinians has intensified since the Hamas attack, and settlers have killed Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities. Rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing them to evacuate to other areas.
Biden again condemned the brutality of the Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis and said that he was convinced that Hamas was driven in part by a desire to undo US-led efforts to normalize Israeli relations with some of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.
Biden also said that after the Israel-Hamas conflict comes to an end, Israelis, Palestinians and their partners must work toward a two-state solution:
Israelis and Palestinians equally deserve to live side by side in safety, dignity and peace. When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next. And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution.
Updated
Switzerland has suspended financial support to 11 Palestinian and Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in light of ongoing hostilities in the region.
A statement from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) reads:
In view of the new situation that has prevailed since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the resumption of hostilities in the Middle East, the FDFA has decided to suspend its financial support to eleven local NGOs (six Palestinian and five Israeli).
The organisations are mainly active in the field of human rights, it said.
The department said the suspension would allow an “in-depth analysis” of whether these organisations’ communications comply with the FDFA’s code of conduct and anti-discrimination clause.
The FDFA’s cooperation activities in the Middle East must adapt to the new context that has prevailed since the resumption of hostilities. The relevance and feasibility of programmes will therefore have to be analysed in general terms.
Updated
'Massive' ground operation in Gaza would be 'an error for Israel', says Macron
French president Emmanuel Macron said he believed it would be an “error” if Israel launched a “massive” ground incursion into Gaza.
The warning came as Macron held talks in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who also urged efforts “to avoid a ground invasion” in the Palestinian territory.
Speaking to reporters in Egypt, Macron said:
France recognises Israel’s right to defend itself. Regarding a ground intervention, if it is entirely targeted against terrorist groups, that is a choice that it has, but if it is a massive operation that would endanger civilian populations, in that case I think it would be an error for Israel.
The French leader said: “It would also be a mistake for Israel because it would be unlikely to offer long-term protection and because it is incompatible with protecting the civilian population or respecting international humanitarian law and the rules of war.”
Macron said France would be sending a navy ship to support Gaza’s hospitals within the next 48 hours.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he asked Qatar’s prime minister to tone down the state-owned Al Jazeera’s rhetoric about the war in Gaza, according to a report.
Blinken, speaking to a group of US Jewish community leaders on Monday, said he asked the Qatari government to change its public posture towards Hamas, Axios reported, citing people who attended the meeting.
Blinken said he asked the Qataris to “turn down the volume on Al Jazeera’s coverage because it is full of anti-Israel incitement”, according to one source.
Updated
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue to carry out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip to “improve” the army’s situation for the upcoming ground offensive, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said.
In a statement, Hagari said the war “will be long, and to achieve the goals of the war, resilience, trust and patience are required” from the Israeli public.
We will continue to strike in Gaza to achieve the goals of the war. Every strike improves our situation for the next stages.
The US has agreed to send two Iron Dome missile defence systems to Israel, according to multiple reports.
“The US will be flowing additional Iron Dome support to Israel,” a defense department official told the Hill.
The Department of Defense is currently engaged in planning to support the provision of U.S. Iron Dome batteries to Israel.
It is unclear when the two systems will be sent, or if they have already been shipped.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised statement, said Israel will carry out “soul-searching” and find out what took place during the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
The events of that day will be “fully examined” and “everyone will need to give answers”, the Israeli prime minister said. He added:
I, as the prime minister, am responsible to secure the future of this country. My role is to lead this country and its people to all-out victory over our enemies.
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Netanyahu: Israel preparing for ground invasion of Gaza
Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas is “doomed” during a televised statement on Wednesday.
Israel’s military are “getting prepared” for the ground invasion with the goal of destroying Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities, the Israeli prime minister said. The country’s war cabinet are “working around the clock” until it reaches victory, he said.
Netanyahu said he would not provide any details about the ground invasion to “secure the lives of our soldiers”. However, he said the timing of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation will be “unanimously” determined by Israel’s war cabinet.
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The family of an Al Jazeera journalist has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the news outlet.
Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael Dahdouh’s wife, daughter and son are among his family members who were killed in a strike on a house they were sheltering in, Al Jazeera’s managing editor Mohamed Moawad said.
Aljazeera' s brave veteran journalist Wael Dahdouh's wife, son and daughter were killed in an Israelis airstrike which targeted a shelter house they had fled to. Wael received the news while on air covering the nonstop Israeli strikes on Gaza! pic.twitter.com/yT7jYdG8jn
— Mohamed Moawad (@moawady) October 25, 2023
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Footage shows the moment emergency services pulled a family from under the rubble after an airstrike hit their home in Gaza City.
The Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, including 2,704 children.
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A doctor at one of Gaza’s biggest hospitals said the situation is “critical” with just hours to go before the facility is forced to close due to a lack of fuel.
Khaled, a doctor in al-Awda hospital, the main maternity provider in northern Gaza, said the hospital lacks medicines, especially emergency and anaesthesia drugs. In a statement through the charity ActionAid, he said:
The Israeli army called us six days ago to ask us to evacuate the hospital and evacuate the patients and the staff. They gave us two hours for evacuation. We told them that we would not evacuate the hospital.
We cannot evacuate. We have patients, critical patients. And some of them need special care and close observation. All the hospitals around here are overcrowded. I cannot move any patients.
“We are delivering babies here, during the attacks,” he added.
The organisation warned that many women are giving birth without any pain medication, and children are undergoing intensive surgery with no anaesthetic.
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Hamas has stopped people from approaching the Rafah crossing, a US state department spokesperson said.
Speaking to CNN, Matthew Miller said the sporadic presence of Hamas at the crossing has made the situation “extremely difficult”.
At times, Hamas has had no one there manning the border station. At other times, we have seen Hamas militants actively there with guns preventing people from approaching the crossing.
He said there has been a problem getting people through Gaza into “the no man’s land” where they can ultimately get across to the Egyptian side. He added:
The Egyptians are — on their side — ready, they say, to accept people, foreign nationals, United States citizens, if they can get to Egyptian processing.
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The prime minister of Qatar has said he hopes there will soon be a breakthrough in negotiations led by the Gulf state to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, although his government has warned that an invasion by Israel could jeopardise those efforts.
“There is some progress and some breakthrough and we remain hopeful,” said Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who is also the foreign minister, at a press conference in the Qatari capital.
“If they are able to get along between the two parties I think we will see some breakthroughs hopefully soon,” he added.
Officials from Qatar’s foreign ministry have said an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza would complicate efforts to free the hostages.
Majed Al-Ansari, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson, said:
Obviously a land incursion into Gaza would make it difficult to maintain the safety of the hostages, and in our efforts at mediation with both sides we urge all parties in this conflict to de-escalate immediately.
After the release of four hostages in recent days, Qatar is now discussing a larger release of civilians, according to diplomatic sources. The talks do not include Israeli soldiers who are being held hostage.
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Gaza school severely damaged in 'close proximity strike', says UN agency
A school sheltering Palestinians in Gaza sustained “severe collateral damage” due to a “close proximity strike”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said.
One civilian was killed and 44 more were injured, including nine children, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip had been sheltering 4,600 internally displaced people, it said. More than 613,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in UNRWA facilities across Gaza, the agency said.
Another three UNRWA staff members have been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 38 staff killed since 7 October, it said.
The agency said last night that it would be forced to halt its operations in Gaza due to a lack of fuel as of Wednesday night.
UNRWA’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, had already warned on Sunday that the organisation’s fuel would run out on Wednesday.
Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach those in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance. No fuel will further strangle the children, women and people of Gaza.
In response to last night’s warning, Israel’s military posted a picture of what it said were fuel tanks inside Gaza. “They contain more than 500,000 liters of fuel,” it wrote. “Ask Hamas if you can have some.”
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A Royal Air Force plane carrying humanitarian supplies for Gaza has landed in Egypt.
Humanitarian aid “must continue to reach those who need it most”, Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, posted on X.
The C-17 aircraft that left RAF Brize Norton on Wednesday morning carried 21 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including medical equipment and water filters, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
The will be distributed by the Egyptian Red Crescent.
UK aid to support civilians in Gaza has landed in Egypt.
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) October 25, 2023
Humanitarian aid must continue to reach those who need it most. pic.twitter.com/9JnqmZGtnw
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Israel agrees to delay Gaza invasion so US can get air defences to region - report
Israel has agreed to a US request to get its air defences to the region before an expected ground invasion of Gaza, according to a report.
The Pentagon is working to deploy a dozen air defence systems to the region to protect US troops serving in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from missiles and rockets, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US and Israeli officials.
Israel is also taking into account the effort to supply humanitarian aid to civilians inside the Palestinian territory, as well as diplomatic efforts to free more hostages held by Hamas, it said.
Hello. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
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After Keith and Adrienne (known as Aviva) Siegel were dragged off to Gaza by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, the couple’s four children sat down with their own children, aged three to nine, to try to explain the calamity that had fallen on their grandparents.
“How do you tell children that someone can just come and grab you out of your home, your safe place? It’s every child’s worst nightmare, and this nightmare came true,” said Yuval Baron, the Siegels’ son-in-law and uncle to the five grandchildren.
We try to keep them away from the horrors but still somehow explain to them the situation, and share with them our hope. But it’s very difficult.
The Siegels, aged 64 and 62, woke up to the sound of sirens on the morning of 7 October. Grabbing a phone, they rushed to their safe room in their pyjamas, expecting to be there for 10 minutes or so. The couple have lived at Kfar Aza, a kibbutz close to the frontier with Gaza, for almost 40 years and they were “used to rockets and missiles flying about”, said Baron.
The Siegels kept in touch with their family over WhatsApp, explaining they had been advised in a message on the kibbutz’s WhatsApp group not to speak aloud and warning that their battery was running low. At about 10am, the messages stopped.
“We were getting more information about what was going on – there were terrorists on the kibbutz slaughtering people. But we had no idea about Keith and Aviva; we were in the dark,” said Baron.
When the Israeli military finally regained control of the kibbutz after about 30 hours, there was no trace of the Siegels. “We started thinking we had two very bad options – either they were kidnapped or killed.”
Later, the Israeli authorities confirmed to the family that the couple were among 220 people being held hostage in Gaza.
“That was 18 days ago, and since then nothing, zero, nada,” said Baron, who lives in the north of Israel.
We don’t know if they are together or if they have their medication. We are running out of tears, running out of hope.
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Here’s a clip from the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, saying that he was “shocked” by misinterpretations of his statement to the UN security council in which he described Israel’s bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip as the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people” and “clear violations of international humanitarian law”.
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Israel rejects Erdoğan assertion that Hamas is 'not terrorist organisation'
Israel on Wednesday rejected Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s assertion that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was “not a terrorist organisation”.
“Israel wholeheartedly rejects the Turkish president’s harsh words about the terrorist organisation Hamas,” the foreign ministry spokesperson, Lior Haiat, wrote on social media.
“Even the Turkish president’s attempt to defend the terrorist organisation and his inciting words will not change the horrors that the whole world has seen,” Haiat wrote.
Speaking earlier to a group of his party’s MPs, Erdoğan said Israel “can view Hamas as a terrorist organisation along with the west. The west owes you a lot. But Turkey does not owe you anything. Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, it is a liberation group, mujahideen, defending their lands.”
He urged Israel to heed calls for peace and said it must stop attacks on Gaza, saying that Israel’s action in Gaza was one of the “bloodiest, most disgusting and most savage attacks in history”.
Erdoğan also announced he had cancelled a planned trip to Israel, saying the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had “misused our goodwill”.
Italy’s deputy prime minister has also condemned Erdoğan’s words, suggesting that the Italian foreign ministry should summon Turkey’s ambassador to Rome to lodge a protest.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Gaza, Israel and Egypt.
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The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, have made a joint appearance in Cairo in which the pair said they had agreed to work to contain the crisis in Gaza, introduce aid and seek to prevent other parties from entering the conflict.
Reuters reports Sisi said Macron understood that any displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip towards Egyptian territory would be “extremely dangerous”.
“We condemn all actions that affect all civilians and this should be addressed with one standard,” Sisi added.
Macron said it was essential to get fuel supplies to hospitals, adding that a French navy ship would arrive soon to help bring support to Gaza hospitals and a plane will arrive in Egypt with key supplies.
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Guterres 'shocked' by 'misrepresentations by some of my statement' on Gaza
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has said he has been shocked by misinterpretations of his statement to the UN security council. Israel has called for his resignation over the speech.
“I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statement … as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite,” Reuters reports. “I believe it’s necessary to set the record straight – especially out of respect for the victims and their families.”
On Tuesday in New York, having said no injustice to the Palestinians could justify the appalling attacks by Hamas, the UN chief continued: “It is important to … recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
The UN secretary general had created fury in Israel and among some Republicans in the US by describing Israel’s bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip as the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people” and “clear violations of international humanitarian law”.
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The acting prime minister of Spain – which now holds the EU presidency – has also offered his support to António Guterres.
“I add my voice to all those – particularly the secretary general of the UN – calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza so that the necessary aid can reach the Palestinian population,” Pedro Sánchez wrote on social media.
“All my support to António Guterres. We have to find a diplomatic way out of this conflict.”
In comments to reporters, Sánchez added: “I’d like to offer the Spanish government’s full support – and doubtless the support of the majority of Spaniards – to our UN secretary general, Portugal’s António Guterres.
“I think what he’s doing is speaking out on behalf of the great majority of societies around the world who want a humanitarian pause and humanitarian aid, who want this humanitarian disaster to end, and who want this indiscriminate death to end.
“They want a diplomatic route that will lead to a solution to this grave crisis, whose clear origin was Hamas’s attack on Israeli soil, which deserves the full condemnation of Spanish society, the Spanish government and of the international community.”
Israel has called for the resignation of Guterres over comments he made yesterday at the UN.
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Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused the US of “directing” Israel’s attack on Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
It quotes him speaking in Tehran, saying: “America is a definite accomplice of criminals. The US is in some way directing the crime that is being committed in Gaza.”
He added that the US was “tainted with the blood of the oppressed, children, patients, women and others”.
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Portugal’s Lusa news agency has published the following comments by the foreign minister, João Gomes Cravinho, in which he defends António Guterres’s recent remarks on Israel and Gaza.
Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister who was for 10 years the UN high commissioner for refugees before becoming secretary general six years ago, said Hamas’s “appalling attacks” could not justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people” who, he added, “have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation”.
His words drew a furious response from Israel’s ambassador to the UN, who called for Guterres to resign, saying his words “constitute a justification for terrorism and murder”.
Gomes Cravinho told Lusa: “We fully understand and share the position of António Guterres, who was unequivocal when he condemned Hamas terrorism, which is absolutely unacceptable. He was absolutely crystal clear in his analysis.”
The minister added that there was “no way it could be said that António Guterres is in any way excusing terrorism”. Any such assertion, Gomes Cravinho said, “is an absolute error that cannot be allowed to go unnoticed”.
Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, also backed his predecessor. A source within his administration told Lusa that the prime minister had sent Guterres a message of solidarity, adding that the secretary general had been “exemplary” in his defence of international law in the face of the “humanitarian tragedy”.
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Summary of the day so far …
It is approaching 4.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of the latest news in the conflict between Israel and Hamas …
Israel says it has refused a visa to the UN humanitarian affairs chief, Martin Griffiths, as a result of comments at the UN by the secretary-general, António Guterres. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said on army radio: “Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”
Israel called on UN secretary general Guterres to resign after he said the “appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, and spoke of “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza”.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 6,546 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, including 2,704 children. The figure includes 756 people – 344 of whom were children – killed in the last 24 hours. It said 17,439 had been wounded in total. It has not been possible for media organisations to independently verify the casualty figures being issued from Gaza.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told a group of MPs from his Justice and Development party (AKP) that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, Israel’s actions in Gaza are “savage”, and that he has cancelled a planned trip to Israel. Turkey’s president was swiftly criticised for the comments, which the Italian deputy PM labelled as “disgusting”.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani of Qatar expressed the hope that there might be some movement on the release of hostages “soon”. He condemned what he termed “the collective punishment policy” inflicted by Israel on Gaza, saying the only way to reach a peaceful solution in Gaza is to keep communication channels open.
Eight Syrian military personnel have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Deraa, Syrian state media has reported. The strikes targeted the Daraa countryside overnight, and came from the direction of the Golan Heights. Syrian state TV also reported an Israeli air attack targeted Aleppo international airport.
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You will have spotted frequent references to UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees. If you wondered how it came about and what it does, my colleague Rafqa Touma has this explainer:
Here is the latest instalment of the Gaza diary from Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian:
When the whole situation started, I made a decision not to write. But then a man who I consider a mentor encouraged me to do so. I am grateful that I did.
During this period, writing has been my therapy, reflecting on the ongoing crazy events, taking a moment to absorb what is going on and putting things into perspective. With time, it has become my own shelter, the secret friend with whom I can’t wait to share the chaos of my heart, soul and mind.
But I haven’t had the energy to write lately, I just decided not to. I did not write anything yesterday, and was not planning to do it today. However, I found myself, late at night, writing.
Writing means that I am trying my best to survive. It means that I have hope that one day I will look back at these diaries and think of how long I have gone on. Because writing means that my heart is still beating … and my voice deserves to be heard.
Read more of Ziad’s diary here: Gaza diary part nine: ‘Writing this means my heart is still beating’
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The charity Oxfam has claimed that ‘starvation is being used as a weapon of war against Gaza civilians’ by Israel.
It has produced a study which suggests that since Israel tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October, just 2% of food that would normally have been delivered has entered Gaza.
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s regional Middle East director, said: “The situation is nothing short of horrific – where is humanity? Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world, there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war. World leaders cannot continue to sit back and watch, they have an obligation to act and to act now.”
Oxfam called upon the UN security council and UN member states to act immediately to prevent the situation from deteriorating even further.
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Here is what the UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said in parliament in London today, when asked “How much worse does this situation have to get before he will join us in calls for a humanitarian ceasefire?” by the Scottish National party’s deputy Westminster leader, Mhairi Black.
Sunak replied:
From the start we have said that the first and most important principle is that Israel has the right to defend itself under international law – our support for that position is absolute and unchanged.
But from the start we have also said that we do want British nationals to be able to leave Gaza, and that we want hostages to be released and for humanitarian aid to get in.
And we recognise that for all of that to happen there has to be a safer environment, which of course necessitates specific pauses as distinct from a ceasefire.
And we discussed this with partners yesterday evening at the United Nations, and we have also been consistently clear that everything must be done to protect civilians in line with international law and continue getting more aid flowing into Gaza.
Sunak’s Downing Street office has subsequently gone further on why the UK government is backing a pause, not a ceasefire, saying: “A wholesale ceasefire would only serve to benefit Hamas. Humanitarian pauses, which are temporary, which are limited in scope, can be an operational tool.”
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said on social media that a plane delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians is en route to Egypt.
UK delivers humanitarian aid to support Palestinian civilians: https://t.co/QXNfam3Oso
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 25, 2023
A @RoyalAirForce C-17 aircraft is en route to Egypt to deliver vital humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, including 76,800 wound care packs, 1,350 water filters and 2,5560 solar lights. pic.twitter.com/rpqOfXiDZn
In a statement, the government said it would deliver supplies including “76,800 wound care packs, 1,350 water filters and 2,560 solar lights”.
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The German government has confidence in the UN secretary general, António Guterres, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN has called for Guterres to resign, after the secretary general’s address in New York yesterday raised the issue of “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza. He said the “appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
Earlier, a UK government minister said he did not agree with Guterres’s assessment.
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In the last few minutes Hamas has claimed to have launched a rocket at the southern Israeli city of Eilat. At 220km from the Gaza Strip, it would represent the longest-range attack by Hamas since the current war began on 7 October.
An IDF spokesperson said “one launch was detected from Gaza towards the Eilat region, which fell in an open area”. There were no reports of any damage or casualties.
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Hamas-run Gaza health ministry: more than 6,500 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has issued updated casualty figures. It says 6,546 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, including 2,704 children.
The figure includes 756 people – 344 of whom were children – killed in the last 24 hours. It said 17,439 had been wounded in total.
It has not been possible for media organisations to independently verify the casualty figures being issued from Gaza. Israel began the latest wave of air bombardments after Hamas staged its attack in Israel on 7 October, which killed at least 1,400 Israelis.
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According to Reuters, Syrian state TV is reporting that an Israeli air attack has targeted Aleppo international airport. It would mark the fourth such attack in the last couple of weeks.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.
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Here is a round-up from our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour on the Israeli response to remarks yesterday by the UN secretary-general António Guterres:
Israel says it is banning United Nations representatives from visiting Israel “to teach them a lesson” after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the 7 October attacks by Hamas had to be seen in the context of decades of occupation of the Palestinian people.
Speaking at a UN general debate on the Middle East in New York, Guterres created fury when he said: “It is important to … recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
He also said no injustice to the Palestinians could justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said on army radio: “Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”
Erdan has already demanded Guterres’ resignation and described his remarks as blood libel. The response reflects a long-running Israeli belief that UN agencies, especially the UN human rights council, has an anti-Israeli agenda.
It is not clear how far the visa ban extends within the UN hierarchy. A large number of UN workers, for instance, are employed by UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for Palestinian people.
Griffiths, a former British diplomat and special envoy on Yemen, has been forthright in warning that levels of UN aid into Gaza are woefully inadequate. He has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to allow aid into the territory.
Read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here: Israel says it will ban UN staff after secretary general’s comments
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The World Health Organization in Palestine has posted to social media to say that since 7 October it has “documented 171 attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
It claims that “493 people have been killed in health attacks including 16 health workers on duty”.
🚨Since 7 October, @WHO has documented 171 attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territory.
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) October 25, 2023
493 people have been killed in health attacks including 16 health workers on duty.
Health care and civilians must be protected now.#NotATarget pic.twitter.com/MtR9X60hjp
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Jordan’s King Abdullah on Wednesday told the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that ending the war in Gaza was an urgent necessity and warned that there could otherwise be an “explosion” in the region.
Reuters reports that in a royal court statement, the monarch told Macron that global powers should put pressure on Israel to stop its bombing campaign against civilians in the territory and end its siege of its over two million residents.
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Reuters has a quick snap that there has already been diplomatic reaction to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s words describing Hamas as a liberation group rather than a terrorist organisation. Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has described the words as “disgusting” and said he will suggest that Italy summons the Turkish ambassador to lodge a protest.
The Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October left over 1,400 Israelis dead – chiefly civilians – and Hamas fighters took at least 222 hostages back into Gaza with them. Described as a pogrom by the UK’s prime minister, the targets for the Hamas rampage included a music festival, and led to scenes described by first responders as a massacre.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has posted to social media to say Israeli forces are again returning fire into Lebanon after, he claims, “an anti-tank missile” was launched at an Israeli tank in northern Israel. He said there were no casualties on the Israeli side.
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Here are more of the quotes from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has told a group of MPs from his Justice and Development party (AKP) that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, Israel’s actions in Gaza are “savage”, and that he has cancelled a planned trip to Israel.
AP reports Erdoğan said he had canceled plans to visit Israel as part of his country’s policy of normalising its relations with the Jewish state, adding that Israeli the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had “misused our goodwill”.
Erdoğan also described Israel’s action in Gaza as one of the “bloodiest, most disgusting and most savage attack in history”.
“We have no problem with the Israeli state, but we never have, and never will, accept the atrocities committed by Israel and the fact that it acts as an organisation rather than a state,” he said.
The Times of Israel quotes him saying Israel “can view Hamas as a terrorist organisation along with the west. The west owes you a lot. But Turkey does not owe you anything. Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, it is a group of mujahideen defending their lands.”
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Israel’s blockade hollowed out Gaza’s economy and left 80% of its inhabitants dependent on international aid even before the current crisis erupted, the UN has said.
In a report outlining conditions in the Palestinian territory last year, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said two-thirds of Gaza’s population was living in poverty, while its unemployment rate of 45% was one of the highest in the world.
Unctad said a “decades-long” blockade had taken a heavy toll on Gaza’s economy, and that the aid flows that had helped underpin living standards for a population of just over 2 million people had dried up.
The report was prepared by the Geneva-based body before Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli communities on 7 October, killing 1,400 people and taking 222 hostages into Gaza. The subsequent Israeli bombardment of the territory has damaged infrastructure and led to fresh economic disruption, while the Hamas-run local health authority claims more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Read more of our economic editor Larry Elliot’s report here: UN report – 80% of Gaza inhabitants relied on international aid before war
Erdoğan cancels planned trip to Israel, calls Hamas liberation group waging battle to protect land
Turkey’s president has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israeli and Palestinians forces. He said Turkey will continue to use all political, diplomatic and military means necessary, and said that Hamas is not a terrorist group, and has cancelled a planned trip to Israel.
He urged Israel to heed calls for peace and said it must stop attacks on Gaza. He called for attacks on Israel to stop too.
In words likely to inflame opinion in Israel, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described Hamas as a liberation group waging a battle to protect its land. He said Israel had taken advantage of Turkey’s good intentions and that he will not go to Israel as previously planned.
Erdoğan said he had no problem with the Israeli state, but with Israeli policies. He said non-regional actors should stop adding fuel to the fire with support of Israel, and said Muslim countries should work together towards a ceasefire and lasting peace.
Reuters reports that in a speech to his party’s lawmakers in parliament, Erdoğan said the Rafah border gate must be kept open for humanitarian aid and that prisoner exchanges should be concluded urgently.
More details soon …
Speaking in Doha, Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani has criticised what he said were the double standards of the west, saying:
There is growing anger amongst everyone in this region questioning the reaction of the international community for the crimes happening against Palestinian people.
The number of children killed in this war has exceeded the number of children killed in the war between Ukraine and Russia, yet we don’t see the same reaction.
The UN has recorded more than 550 deaths of children in Ukraine. The Hamas-run health authorities in the Gaza Strip have said that more than 2,000 children have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
In a joint press conference with Turkey’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani of Qatar expressed the hope that there might be some movement on the release of hostages “soon”.
The prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar said: “If we can keep going between both parties, we should see some sort of breakthrough, hopefully soon.”
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Turkey’s foreign minister has warned the world that the only possible outcomes for Israel and Palestine are “a lasting peace or a world war”.
In comments made in Doha, Al Jazeera quotes Hakan Fidan saying:
We are at a turning point in history. Either we reach a lasting peace or a world war will break out. We call on all parties, regional and international stakeholders, to listen to the voice of reason. And those who are encouraging Israel to continue its crimes are also liable. If we don’t act fast, we will have darker days to come.
Israel must realise it cannot have peace and security with violence. Today’s victory might lead to future defeat. The only solution is to have an independent Palestinian state established on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Qatar condemns 'collective punishment policy' on Gaza, says diplomacy only way to reach peaceful solution
Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has condemned what he termed “the collective punishment policy” inflicted by Israel on Gaza, while saying that the only way to reach a peaceful solution in Gaza is to keep communication channels open.
Reuters reports al-Thani, who is Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, was speaking in Doha in a press conference with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan. Al-Thani said Qatar will continue coordinating with Turkey and regional partners to de-escalate the crisis.
Fidan said that an Israeli ground operation into Gaza would turn the fighting there into a massacre. He said that those supporting Israel’s actions under the pretence of solidarity are “accomplices to its crimes”.
The Israeli national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, this morning welcomed Qatar’s intervention on humanitarian issues, saying on social media: “I’m pleased to say that Qatar is becoming an essential party and stakeholder in the facilitation of humanitarian solutions.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Israel says it has refused a visa to the UN humanitarian affairs chief, Martin Griffiths, as a result of comments at the UN by secretary-general António Guterres. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said on army radio: “Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”
Israel called on UN secretary general Guterres to resign after he said the “appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, and spoke of “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza”.
Guterres had said: “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”
Addressing the UN, the secretary-general went on to say the attack on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum” and followed “56 years of suffocating occupation” for the Palestinian people by Israel, adding: “They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Erdan said Guterres should resign, calling the speech “shocking”, saying “he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner”.
The UN’s agency for the relief of Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) last night warned it would be forced to halt its operations in Gaza due to a lack of fuel as of Wednesday night. UNRWA also said that its shelters are now four times over-capacity, with more than 600,000 internally displaced people sheltering in 150 facilities. It said “many people are sleeping in the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed”. In response, Israel’s military posted a picture of what it said were fuel tanks inside Gaza. “They contain more than 500,000 litres of fuel,” it wrote. “Ask Hamas if you can have some.”
Israel’s ambassador to Australia has insisted the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “fair” after the Australian foreign minister Penny Wong’s warning that the besieged strip had “nowhere near enough” access to aid supplies.
The rate of death and injuries of children in Gaza is “simply staggering”, Unicef’s regional director for the Middle East and north Africa has said. The UN’s children’s organisation said that a reported 2,360 children had been killed in Gaza due to “unrelenting attacks”. Adele Khodr said the number of child casualties were a “growing stain on our collective conscience”.
Eight aid trucks were allowed into Gaza late Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said as the US President, Joe Biden, said efforts to deliver help via a crossing from Egypt were “not fast enough”. The UN had earlier said about 20 trucks had been unable to cross into Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing.
Eight Syrian military personnel have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Deraa, Syrian state media has reported. The strikes targeted the Daraa countryside overnight, and came from the direction of the Golan Heights.
Three people were killed in the West Bank, medics have said, after the Israeli military launched a drone attack on what it said was a group of armed Palestinians who “fired and hurled explosive devices”.
The Israeli military has accused Iran of having ordered recent attacks by Tehran-backed militias in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon. It also claimed Iran was providing Hamas in Gaza with intelligence, and helping stoke anti-Israel sentiment globally with an online messaging campaign.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the 2023-24 national budget was “no longer relevant” given the war against Hamas and would be amended. He put the direct cost of the war at $246m a day (£202m/€232m).
French president Emmanuel Macron will meet today the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo. Czech prime minister Petr Fiala and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer are to arrive in Israel. Commentators have speculated that the stream of international leaders arriving in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem may also be partly aimed at delaying the expected ground invasion of Gaza.
Pope Francis has renewed his calls for the release of hostages held by Hamas and for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has written to prime ministers and presidents across the EU ahead of a summit tomorrow afternoon to express “grave concern” at the growing crisis in Gaza.
UK immigration minister Robert Jenrick has suggested that visitors to the UK will be removed if they incite antisemitism, even if their conduct falls “below the criminal standard”.
A Palestinian American woman whose six-year-old son was killed in a Chicago suburb in what police called a hate crime has asked the public to “pray for peace” as she recovers from her injuries.
Updated
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will meet the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Cairo today, Reuters reports.
Updated
The Israeli military has accused Iran of having ordered recent attacks by Tehran-backed militias in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon.
Reuters reports the IDF spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, also claimed Iran was currently providing Hamas in Gaza with intelligence, and was helping stoke anti-Israel sentiment globally with an online messaging campaign.
Updated
The UK immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, has suggested that visitors to the country will be removed from the UK if they incite antisemitism, even if their conduct falls “below the criminal standard”.
Jenrick said he could not get into “specific cases” of visa-holders whose conduct is being reviewed, saying there was a “legal process that must be followed properly”, but noted some people had been seen “glorifying” terror activities and “praising Hamas”.
It comes after he told the UK’s parliament on Tuesday that the process of revoking visas and expelling foreign nationals who spread “hate and division” had already begun “in a small number of cases”.
Updated
Pope Francis has renewed his calls for the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants and for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
“I am always thinking about the grave situation in Palestine and Israel. I encourage the release of hostages and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Reuters reports he said during his weekly audience.
Francis said that on Friday he will lead special prayers for peace in St Peter’s Basilica in a “a day of fasting, prayers, penance”.
UN refugee agency: displaced Palestinians being forced to sleep in Gaza streets
The UN agency for refugees in Palestine (UNRWA) has said that its shelters are now four times over-capacity, with more than 600,000 internally displaced people sheltering in 150 facilities.
On social media it wrote that at least 40 UNRWA installations have been affected by airstrikes. It said “many people are sleeping in the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed”.
🔺Nearly 600,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 150 @UNRWA facilities.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 25, 2023
🔺Our shelters are FOUR times over their capacities - many people are sleeping in the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed.
🔺At least 40 @UNRWA installations have been impacted. pic.twitter.com/2nHuZBSN7T
Updated
The UK government has said it does not agree with the assessment of the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, that there have been “clear violations of international humanitarian law” by Israel in Gaza, where more than 5,700 civilians are reported dead since 7 October.
Minister Robert Jenrick told Sky News:
We don’t agree with that. If he is referring to what has happened over the course of the last two weeks, we don’t believe Israel has broken international law. There is a clear right in international law for a nation to defend itself, and that is what Israel is doing.
We do want to see Israel, wherever practical – and it is immensely difficult to do – to surgically degrade and eradicate Hamas. That is what they are trying to do and we obviously hope they succeed because the world will be a better place … it will be a blessing if we can rid the world of Hamas.
The Israeli military has ordered the civilian population to evacuate south below the Wadi Gaza, and Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip. It has continued to bombard the southern area of Gaza where it has told civilians to relocate to.
Updated
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has written to prime ministers and presidents across the EU ahead of a summit tomorrow afternoon to express “grave concern” of the growing crisis in Gaza. He said:
The deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be of grave concern. We need to discuss, firstly, how to urgently ensure the effective delivery of humanitarian aid, and access to the most basic needs. Secondly, we must engage, in a united and coherent front, with partners to avoid a dangerous regional escalation of the conflict. Furthermore, relaunching the peace process based on the two-state solution is the only way forward. Lastly, we should address the effects of this conflict in the EU – this includes looking at its implications for the cohesion of our societies, our security, and migratory movements.
Updated
The UK government minister Robert Jenrick said he was “not going to comment directly” on remarks made by the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, but said no comparison should be made between Israel and Hamas.
PA Media reports that asked on Sky News about Guterres saying it is important to recognise “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum”, Jenrick said:
I don’t think you should be comparing Israel to Hamas and neither should you be suggesting in any way that innocent Israeli civilians are to blame or have any culpability for what happened.
The events of two weeks ago were exclusively the responsibility of Hamas, one of the most evil and murderous, barbaric organisations in the world.
So whether it is the secretary-general or anyone else, the blame for the tragedy we are currently seeing in Palestine and Gaza and Israel lies squarely with Hamas.
They are the enemy of the Gazan population because they are using people in Gaza as human shields and they are subjecting civilians in Gaza, as in Israel, to the most appalling and tragic consequences of their actions.
Israel has called for Guterres to resign over the comments, in which he said he was concerned about “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza”.
The Hamas-run health ministry in the territory claims that Israel has killed more than 5,700 Palestinians, including more than 2,000 children, in an aerial bombardment launched after Hamas made its surprise attack inside Israel on 7 October.
Updated
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said 2023-24 national budget was “no longer relevant” given the war against Hamas and would be amended. Reuters reports he put the direct cost of the war at $246m a day (£202m/€232m).
Updated
AP has a little more detail on Israeli strikes on Syria which Syrian state media has said have killed eight Syrian soldiers and wounded seven others.
Citing the Sana state-run news agency, AP reports the strikes targeted the Daraa countryside overnight, and came from the direction of the Golan Heights.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas started on 7 October, Israel has carried out several reported strikes in Syria including two on the Damascus airport and three on Aleppo’s airport.
Israel has targeted airports and seaports in the government-held parts of Syria in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Earlier the Israeli military said its fighter jets struck “military infrastructure and mortar launchers” of the Syrian army “in response to rocket launches from Syria toward Israel yesterday”.
Updated
Israel says it has refused visa to UN official to 'teach them a lesson'
Israel says it has refused a visa to UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths as a result of comments at the UN by secretary-general António Guterres.
Israeli media reports that Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said on army radio:
Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.
Israel has called on UN secretary general Guterres to resign after he said that the“appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, and spoke of “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza.”
Guterres had said “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”
Addressing the UN, the secretary-general then went on to say the attack on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum” and followed “56 years of suffocating occupation” for the Palestinian people by Israel, adding “They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said Guterres should resign, calling the speech “shocking”, saying that “he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner”.
Updated
Reuters reports that the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah met with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to a report on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV.
The meeting grouped Hezbollah’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, with Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri, and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala, al-Manar reported.
Our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour recommends reading António Guterres’ speech at the UN in full. Israel has called on Guterres to resign after the address in New York.
In particular, my colleague highlights that Gutterres said “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas”, “I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel”, and “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.”
Worth reading UN Secretary General’s full remarks to UN for which he is facing calls by Israel to resign.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) October 25, 2023
It included a statement “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas”.
He also said “I have condemned unequivocally the…
Daniel Hurst is Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent:
Israel’s ambassador to Australia has insisted the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “fair” after Penny Wong’s warning that the besieged strip had “nowhere near enough” access to aid supplies.
The Australian foreign minister called on Wednesday for “humanitarian pauses on hostilities, so food, water, medicine and other essential assistance can reach people in desperate need, and so civilians can get to safety”.
The Israeli ambassador, Amir Maimon, pointed to the recent entry of aid trucks from Egypt to the Gaza Strip when asked about Wong’s comments.
“With all due respect, the minister for foreign affairs represents Australia and I represent Israel,” he said. “According to our information and my knowledge, the humanitarian situation is fair.”
Maimon said there was “no moral equivalence” between Israel and Hamas: “We are the victims, we are not the aggressors.”
Maimon made the comments after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for an immediate ceasefire to ease the “epic suffering” in Gaza, after more than 700 people were reportedly killed in a single day and hospitals began to shut down for lack of fuel.
Read more of Daniel Hurst’s report here: Israel ambassador claims his country is the victim as Penny Wong warns of ‘desperate need’ in Gaza
Eight Syrian military personnel have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Deraa, Syrian state media has reported, according to Reuters.
The Israeli military had earlier said it had launched airstrikes on “military infrastructure and mortar launchers belonging to the Syrian Army” in response to rocket launches from Syria on Tuesday.
Czech prime minister Petr Fiala and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer are set to arrive in Israel on Wednesday to show support for Israel, following in the footsteps of leaders from France, Germany, the US and the UK, among others.
Commentators have speculated that the stream of international leaders may also be aimed at delaying the expected ground invasion of Gaza.
The leaders will hold talks with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, spokespeople for both governments said, according to Reuters.
Nehammer will also meet with the family of an Austrian-Israeli national who is currently being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Austrian government said in a statement.
Updated
A Palestinian American woman whose 6-year-old son was killed in a Chicago suburb in what police called a hate crime has asked the public to “pray for peace” as she recovers from her injuries, Associated Press reports.
Hanaan Shahin thanked authorities, doctors and others and remembered her son Wadea Al-Fayoume as an intelligent and funny child who cared about the planet and liked to join her in prayers.
She said she felt comforted “remembering her son as an angel on earth, and knowing that he is now an angel in heaven.” She added, “He was my best friend.”
The written statement marked her first public comments since the 14 October attack in which her son was killed and which left her with more than a dozen stab wounds.
Authorities said the family’s suburban Chicago landlord singled them out because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Updated
UNRWA says operations will halt on Wednesday night due to lack of fuel
The UN’s agency for the relief of Palestinian refugees last night warned it would be forced to halt its operations in Gaza due to a lack of fuel as of Wednesday night.
In response, Israel’s military posted a picture of what it said were fuel tanks inside Gaza. “They contain more than 500,000 liters of fuel,” it wrote. “Ask Hamas if you can have some.”
UNRWA’s director general Philippe Lazzarini had already warned on Sunday that the organisation’s fuel would run out on Wednesday.
“Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach those in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance. No fuel will further strangle the children, women and people of Gaza,” he said.
🛑@UNRWA warning: If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the📍#GazaStrip as of tomorrow night.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 24, 2023
🆘 @UN agency says its #Gaza operation will end tomorrow 'if we don't get fuel'@JulietteTouma @BBCNews https://t.co/JfQLPwmSGb
A bit more from Australia’s National Press Club, where Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon has been answering questions from journalists.
Guardian Australia’s Daniel Hurst asked Maimon about a “pathway to peace”.
Hurst asked:
How do you see hope to be given to the people of Israel and the Palestinian people, to be able to live in security behind secure borders?
I would like you to ask you to reflect on prime minister Netanyahu at the UN in September who held up a map of the new Middle East, and it just showed Israel without any Palestinian territories.
Maimon answered:
I am young enough to remember the 1960s and the 1970s and they were times where we were very, very close, the Palestinians and the Israelis. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were working in Israel, in construction, in tourism and many other sectors. We were very close.
I believe that the past experience proved that there is a possibility that at the end of this war or in the not too far future the two parties will find a way to bridge the gap.
Once again, it is not going to take place in a week’s time, it is a very long process and a process in which we need to build bridges. Human bridges. We need to talk about the role of education, we need to talk about children, we need to talk about women and, yes, I am still very optimistic that it is doable. Because as I said before, I don’t think that we have any other alternative.
On Tuesday the friends and family of Dana Bachar and her son Carmel mourned their loss at Gan Shlomo cemetery. The pair were killed during Hamas’ 7 October attack on kibbutz Be’eri.
The Israeli ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, has been addressing the country’s National Press Club in Canberra.
Guardian Australia’s Daniel Hurst asked:
I want to take you to a statement made a few days after the inexcusable, horrific attacks by Hamas. The IDF spokesperson said on October 10 that hundreds of tons of bombs had already been dropped on the Gaza Strip, adding that the emphasis is on the damage, not on accuracy.
The same day, the defence minister said that he ordered a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and there will be no electricity, food, fuel, everything is closed. ‘We are fighting human animals and are acting accordingly’. I want to draw you out on how those statements are consistent with international humanitarian law?
Maimon replied:
I just reviewed the current situation and I think the current situation is in line and in full compliance with the international law …
I attended a military briefing yesterday and received updated information and I’m sharing with you information I received yesterday.
Hurst:
And to be clear, you are saying that Israel is fully compliant with international humanitarian law?
Maimon:
Absolutely.
Florida’s university system, working with Governor Ron DeSantis, has ordered colleges to shut down a pro-Palestinian student organization, marking the first US state to outlaw the group whose national leadership backed Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Reuters reports:
The State University System of Florida said chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) had to be dismantled as part of a “crack down” in the Republican-led state on campus demonstrations that provide “harmful support for terrorist groups.”
“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” the system’s Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote in a memo to university leaders.
SJP is active in at least two Florida universities, Rodrigues said.
The University of North Florida in Jacksonville and Florida State University in Tallahassee have SJP chapters, based on Instagram sites. The National SJP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students have led to harassment and assaults at US universities since Hamas’ 7 October attack and Israel‘s siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Administrators at some US universities criticized the National SJP after it called Hamas’ attack “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance” and called for a “day of resistance” on 12 October with demonstrations by its chapters at over 200 colleges in America and Canada.
Here are some of the latest images coming to us from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where people have been taken after Israeli strikes on the area:
Three killed in Israeli drone attack on West Bank refugee camp, medics say
Three people were killed, medics have said, after the Israeli military launched a drone attack on what it said was a group of armed Palestinians who “fired and hurled explosive devices”.
More than 20 others were injured in the attack, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing Wissam Bakr, director of Jenin governmental hospital. It said at least two missiles were fired at the group.
AFP reports further:
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had carried out “counterterrorism activities” in the area, but did not mention casualties.
It said it was responding to an attack from what it called “armed terrorists”, who “fired and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces”.
In response, it said, one of its attack drones had “struck the terrorists. Hits were identified.”
“No injuries to Israeli security forces were reported.”
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA says at least 95 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza earlier this month.
Child casualties in Gaza a 'stain on our collective conscience,' Unicef says
The rate of death and injuries of children in Gaza is “simply staggering,” Unicef’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa has said, urging both sides to agree to an immediate ceasefire and to allow aid in to the enclave.
Adele Khodr said the number of child casualties were a “growing stain on our collective conscience”, adding:
The killing and maiming of children, abduction of children, attacks on hospitals and schools, and the denial of humanitarian access constitute grave violations of children’s rights.
UNICEF urgently appeals on all parties to agree to a ceasefire, allow humanitarian access and release all hostages. Even wars have rules. Civilians must be protected – children particularly – and all efforts must be made to spare them in all circumstances.
In its statement, the UN’s children’s organisation said that a reported 2,360 children had been killed in Gaza and a reported 5,364 injured due to “unrelenting attacks” since the conflict erupted on 7 October after Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Death tolls from Gaza are provided by the Hamas-run health ministry and are difficult to verify.
It also noted more than 30 Israeli children have reportedly lost their lives, and that dozens remain in captivity within the Gaza Strip, after they were taken hostage by Hamas.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict with me, Helen Livingstone.
Three Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, medics have said, after the Israeli military launched a drone strike on a group it said were armed and “hurling explosive devices”.
The strike was at least the third use of Israeli air power in the West Bank since violence in the territory surged after Hamas’ rampage in southern Israel on 7 October and comes amid fears that violence in the territory may further ignite.
The Israeli air force meanwhile intensified airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday, launching 400 over the past day, up from 320 the day before, including on the south where it had told civilians to evacuate.
Unicef said the huge number of child casualties in the enclave was “growing stain on our collective conscience” and called for an immediate ceasefire and for all crossings into Gaza to be opened to allow aid in.
“The rate of death and injuries of children [is] simply staggering,” Adele Khodr, Unicef’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa said.
In other developments:
Israel has called on UN secretary general António Guterres to resign after Guterres said that the“appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”. The attack on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum” and followed “56 years of suffocating occupation” for the Palestinian people by Israel, he said.
Guterres warned that the situation in the Middle East is getting more dire by the hour. In remarks made at a UN security council meeting Tuesday in New York, Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire and warned that conflict could spill out into other parts of the region.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said Guterres should resign, calling the speech “shocking”. He said it showed that the UN leader was “completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner”.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki, a rival of Hamas, denounced inaction by the UN security council. “The ongoing massacres being deliberately and systematically and savagely perpetrated by Israel – the occupying power against the Palestinian civilian population under illegal occupation – must be stopped. It is our collective human duty to stop them,” he said.
The US and Russia put forward rival plans at the United Nations to help Palestinian civilians. Both countries seek UN security council resolutions to address shortages of food, water, medical supplies and electricity in Gaza. But the US, which opposes a ceasefire, has called only for pauses to allow aid to enter Gaza, while Russia wants a humanitarian ceasefire.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said Israeli airstrikes killed hundreds of people over the past day, mostly women and children. A spokesperson for the ministry, Ashraf al-Qidra, said they had received 1,550 reports of missing people, including 870 children, and suggested that those missing could still be under the rubble of collapsed buildings. The claim could not be independently verified.
Israel further intensified airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday, launching 400 over the past day, up from 320 the day before, including on the south where it had told civilians to evacuate. It said it killed Hamas commanders, and hit militants as they prepared to fire rockets into Israel as well as striking command centers and a Hamas tunnel shaft. The Israeli military also said it thwarted an assault by a group of Hamas underwater divers who tried to infiltrate Israel on a beach just north of Gaza.
Hospitals in Gaza are ceasing to function because they are running out of water and fuel for generators, while being overwhelmed by huge numbers of casualties and civilians seeking shelter from Israeli bombing. Doctors, health administrators and international aid organisations described nightmarish conditions, including doctors forced to operate with little or no anaesthesia, or by the light of mobile phones, and using vinegar in some cases in place of antiseptic
Eight aid trucks were allowed into Gaza late Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said as US President Joe Biden said efforts to deliver help via a crossing from Egypt were “not fast enough”. The UN had earlier said about 20 trucks had been unable to cross into Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said countries should still send humanitarian aid to Palestine during remarks made at the UN security council. “We call on all countries” to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, he said. “A civilian is a civilian is a civilian,” Blinken said, adding that Palestinian civilians “must be protected”.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the military was “ready and determined” for the next stage in the conflict, adding that they are awaiting further political instruction.
In a joint media appearance with the French president, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened “horrible consequences” for Hezbollah in Lebanon if it decided to join the war in a meaningful way. Netanyahu said Hamas must be destroyed and warned that the war may take some time. He said that after it was finished, nobody would live “under Hamas tyranny”.
Emmanuel Macron called for the release of hostages and said terrorism was a common enemy of Israel and France. He said terrorism must be fought without mercy but with rules.
The Australian government is sending a “significant contingent” of aircraft and supporting troops to the Middle East on standby in the event “this gets worse”, the acting prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, said, without giving exact details about how many troops would be sent or where they would be based.
US officials are developing a contingent plan to evacuate Americans from the Middle East in case conflict spreads to the broader region amid fighting in Gaza. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby stressed that while there are no “active efforts” to evacuate Americans outside charter planes flying out of Israel, it would be “irresponsible” not to plan for a broad range of possibilities.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, who was released by Hamas on Monday after being kidnapped in the 7 October attack on Israel said she had “been through hell” at a press conference. She told reporters she was captured by Hamas fighters on motorbikes, beaten with sticks and forced to walk. She went on to describe conditions in the tunnels where she had been held, where she said people treated her “gently” and “looked after our needs”.
