This blog is closing. You can follow the Guardian’s new live blog on the Israel-Hamas war here.
An investigation has been launched in Los Angeles after a 69-year-old man died as a result of injuries sustained during a physical altercation between rival pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office have said.
In a statement identifying the man as Paul Kessler, the sheriff’s office said they had “not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime”.
It said that police were called to the City of Thousands Oaks on Monday afternoon after reports of a physical altercation during which Kessler fell back and struck his head on the ground. He died in hospital of his injuries.
It said an autopsy had been performed and the cause of death determined to be “blunt force head injury and the manner of death homicide” but also said the incident “appears to be isolated and not part of a large effort.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said he was an “elderly Jewish man” who was “struck in the head by a megaphone wielded by a pro-Palestinian protestor in Westlake Village.”
It said it was the fourth “major antisemitic crime” committed in Los Angeles this year and added: “Violence against our people has no place in civilized society. We demand safety.”
— Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles (@JFedLA) November 7, 2023
National security council spokesperson John Kirby has commented on the role Israel intends to have in Gaza after the war is over.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested in an interview with the US’ ABC broadcaster that Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends.
The broadcaster reports Kirby reacted to the line saying:
What we support is that Hamas can’t be in control of Gaza any more.
We are having conversations with our Israeli counterparts about what governance in Gaza should look like post-conflict and I don’t believe that any solutions have been settled upon one way or the other.
In light of Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments that Israel may govern Gaza indefinitely after the war has ended, take a look at Patrick Wintour’s piece from yesterday about what will happen in Gaza after the war has ended.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor looked at the various scenarios being floated, who supports them and the hurdles and opposition they face. Here’s a taster:
In a recent interview with the Guardian, the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, ruled out going into Gaza to replace Hamas without a comprehensive agreement that includes the West Bank and the birth of a Palestinian state.
Fatah fears that if it took over Gaza without a clear political horizon it would be seen as complicit in Israeli and US violence, once again being seen as Israel’s security sub-contractor.
Brian Katulis, from the Middle East Institute, has suggested that some of the exercises for constructing a “day after” regional security partnership to go into Gaza “sound like fantasy land because currently Arab states simply do not see eye to eye with America due to its support for the way the war is being conducted”.
The eventual realistic options available to the international community for the future governance of Gaza will depend in part on how Israeli politics responds to its trauma. Polls have shown personal support for Netanyahu draining away, with the main split over whether he should resign immediately or later.
Read on here:
It’s expected Israeli forces are preparing to move in on Gaza City. Associated Press reports that intense airstrikes on the strip are taking place before an expected push into the city’s dense confines. Here are some images ahead of that move.
Updated
An Arab Muslim student at Stanford University has been hospitalized after being struck in a hit-and-run that authorities are investigating as a hate crime, amid rising threats against Arab and Muslim people across the US.
The student, Abdulwahab Omira, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by an SUV.
“The driver is reported to have made eye contact with the victim, accelerated and struck the victim and then driven away while shouting ‘fuck you and your people’ out the lowered window of the vehicle,” according to the university’s department of public safety.
Omira called on others to “collectively denounce hatred, bigotry, and violence”, while also denouncing a slow response from the university.
Axios is reporting that the US will allow Israel to buy thousands of M16 rifles from US defense companies only after assurances the weapons won’t go to civilian teams in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli news outlet Haaretz also quotes White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby as saying “We received a commitment from the Israelis that these weapons will only end up in the hands of Israeli police units. The US state department did its homework and this is the commitment we received.”
The assurances come in the wake of the Biden administration expressing growing concern in recent weeks over a rise in settler-led violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The UN security council has once again failed to agree on a resolution on the conflict, with the US calling for “humanitarian pauses” and many others demanding a “humanitarian ceasefire”.
The Associated Press reported that after two hours of closed-door discussions differences still remained:
“We talked about humanitarian pauses and we’re interested in pursuing language on that score,” US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters after the meeting. “But there are disagreements within the council about whether that’s acceptable.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier Monday told reporters he wanted an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to the “spiral of escalation” already taking place from the occupied West Bank, Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen.
Guterres said international humanitarian law, which demands protection of civilians and infrastructure essential for their lives, is clearly being violated and stressed that “no party to an armed conflict is above” these laws. He called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages Hamas took from Israel to Gaza in its 7 October attack.
China, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, and the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council, called Monday’s meeting because of the “crisis of humanity” in Gaza, where more than 10,000 civilians have been killed in less than a month.
UAE ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said all 15 council members “are fully engaged” and efforts will continue to try to narrow the gaps and reach agreement on a resolution.
Israel may have 'security responsibility' for Gaza for 'indefinite period' after war ends, Netanyahu says
Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested in an interview with the US’ ABC broadcaster.
Noting that US President Joe Biden had previously said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza, interviewer David Muir asked Netanyahu who should govern the territory when the fighting ends.
The prime minister suggested Israel would have a role to play for an “indefinite period.”
Those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas … It certainly is not – I think Israel will, for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.
Last month, Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant said one key objective of Israel’s military campaign was to sever “Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip” and establish a “new security reality for the citizens of Israel.”
The US has also suggested the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, could take charge in Gaza while others have suggested a consortium of Arab states could take responsibility.
Updated
US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has hit back at criticism for a video she posted over the weekend that was deemed offensive to the Jewish community by some, saying her critics should focus less on the words she used than on saving civilian lives in the Middle East.
In the video posted last week, the Michigan Democrat accused Joe Biden of supporting the “genocide of the Palestinian people” and included a warning that she believes his stance on the war will hurt his re-election chances in 2024, as her state has a significant Arab American population.
In a statement sent to the Associated Press on Monday, she said:
My colleagues are much more focused on silencing me – the only Palestinian American voice in Congress – than they are on ending the horrific attacks on civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank right now. Instead of attacking me and distorting my words, they should listen to their constituents and call for a cease-fire to save innocent lives.
The video also included a clip of demonstrators chanting “from the river to the sea,” a chant that many Jews and Israelis view as calling for the eradication of Israel, though others say it can have a multitude of meanings.
The spat is the latest example of a public rift dividing Democrats in Michigan.
Updated
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have blocked traffic at the Port of Tacoma, south of Seattle, where a military supply ship had recently arrived. Associated Press reports:
Organisers say they were targeting the Cape Orlando vessel on Tuesday based on confidential information that it was to be loaded with weapons bound for Israel to be used in the war. Those claims could not immediately be corroborated. In an emailed statement, Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a spokesperson for the department of defense, confirmed that the vessel is under the control of the US navy’s military sealift command and is supporting the movement of US military cargo.
“Due to operations security, DoD does not provide transit or movement details or information regarding the cargo embarked on vessels of this kind,” McGarry said.
The Cape Orlando vessel drew similar protests in Oakland, California, on Friday before it sailed to Tacoma.
In Jerusalem, Israelis have been holding a vigil to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed, with a candle lit for each victim.
Relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall to mark a month of mourning. The holy site is considered the most sacred place Jews can worship. Prayers were held marking the first month of grief, in line with Jewish tradition. Agence France Press reported:
“We don’t have other ways to commemorate them except with prayers, lighting candles, and having them in our heart,” said Yossi Rivlin, who lost two brothers at a music festival massacre during the Hamas attack.
“This unity of the Israeli nation, we feel it not only in our house but all around the country. Too bad we had to wait for this moment,” the 26-year-old added.
“It’s a terrible time. I just hope we won’t forget and return to our routine.”
Standing before a giant Israeli flag, army chief cantor Shai Abramson gave a prayer for the departed, modified to include a blessing for security forces who “paid with their lives for the protection of Israeli land”.
The ceremony was the first religious commemoration organised at the Wailing Wall since 7 October.
It was attended by Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet formed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the attack, the deadliest the nation has suffered since its founding in 1948.
This is Helen Livingstone, taking over from my colleague Leonie Chao-Fong.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since 7 October, according to figures released by the health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
The deaths of scores of aid workers in airstrikes on Gaza over the past month has made the conflict the deadliest ever for UN workers. At least 88 people who worked for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been killed since 7 October, and 47 of its buildings have been damaged. Separately, at least 150 health workers have been killed in Gaza – 16 while on duty – and 18 emergency-service workers for Gaza’s civil defence, according to the UN. More than 100 health facilities have been damaged.
The Israeli military says it has completely encircled Gaza City after over a week of heavy fighting, in effect severing the territory into two, as Israeli ground troops appeared poised to enter the dense urban sprawl from the south. “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the territory. Residents in Gaza have said Sunday night was one of the heaviest bombardments since Israel began its bombing campaign.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it is carrying out airstrikes against sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The IDF said it had identified about 30 launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel earlier on Monday, and that it was “responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches”.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched a fresh drone attack against Israel which they claimed temporarily halted activity at Israeli military bases and airports. Last week, the Houthis declared they had fired drones and missiles at Israel, adding that there would be more such attacks to come “to help the Palestinians to victory”.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on Monday in the West Bank city of Tulkarm has risen to four, the Palestinian health ministry said. Previous reports said three people were killed and a fourth injured during an exchange with Israeli forces in the occupied territory.
A Hamas commander believed to be among those who ordered the 7 October attacks in Israel was killed overnight in an airstrike, according to reports. The reports named him as Wael Asefa, commander of Hamas’s Deir al-Balah battalion of the group’s central camps brigade.
UN-run shelters in Gaza are so crowded that it is impossible to count the people needing food, water, medicine and other basics, administrators have told the Guardian.
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu discussed “the possibility of tactical pauses” in Israel’s military operations in Gaza to facilitate humanitarian aid, according to a readout of a call between the leaders on Friday. According to the White House, the US president told Israel’s prime minister that the US was “steadfast” in its support of Israel.
The US is planning a $320m (£259m) transfer of precision bombs for Israel, according to reports. The Biden administration has informed congressional leaders of the planned transfer of spice family gliding bomb assemblies, a type of precision guided weapon fired by warplanes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has ended his tour of the Middle East admitting that his efforts to secure a sustained humanitarian pause and greater constraint in Israel’s assault on Gaza was still “a work in progress”.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said the protection of civilians “must be paramount” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming “a graveyard for children”. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, responded by saying: “Shame on you.”
Fuel reserves for generators powering the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City are at a critical level and will run out within 48 hours, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society warned on Friday. Meanwhile the head of al-Awda hospital in the northern Gaza Strip also warned on Friday that it could completely shut down by Wednesday night due to the lack of fuel.
More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, an international charity has warned.
About 80 dual nationals and 17 medical evacuees had left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing by early Monday evening, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources, after evacuations were suspended for two days after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Friday.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the EU was increasing its humanitarian aid to Gaza by another €25m, bringing total aid to €100m ($107m or £86.5m).
South Africa is recalling diplomats from Israel to assess its relationship with the country, its foreign minister has said, saying that Israel was involved in the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
The UK’s Labour party has issued its most direct criticism of the Israeli government since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, criticising the remarks of rightwing Israeli ministers over the West Bank and saying they have been responsible for “unacceptable and offensive rhetoric about Palestinians”.
Hundreds of protestors staged a sit-in demonstration at New York’s Statue of Liberty on Monday afternoon demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have gathered pace in recent days. On Saturday, tens of thousands attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Washington DC, while others marched in New York, Seattle and several other cities.
The Metropolitan police appeared to be on the brink of banning Saturday’s planned pro-Palestine march through London after claiming that a protest on Remembrance Day would be inappropriate and risked violence.
Updated
The head of al-Awda hospital in the northern Gaza Strip has warned that it could completely shut down by Wednesday night due to the lack of fuel.
Ahmed Muhanna, the director of the hospital, told Al Jazeera that there are 60 patients residing at the hospital, some of whom are in serious condition.
Some 80% of the patients in al-Awda – one of Gaza’s biggest hospitals – were women and children, he said. Muhanna added:
We are doing the impossible to continue working in the hospital, but we have no choice after the fuel runs out.
Updated
US state department employees have signed a dissent memo arguing that the Biden administration should be willing to publicly criticise the Israeli government, according to a report.
The memo, obtained by Politico, suggests a growing loss of confidence among US diplomats in Joe Biden’s approach to the Middle East crisis, the outlet writes.
The memo has two key requests: that the US support a ceasefire, and that it balance its private and public messaging toward Israel, including airing criticisms of Israeli military tactics and treatment of Palestinians that the US generally prefers to keep private.
The document argues that the US’s private and public messaging “contributes to regional public perceptions” that it is a “biased and dishonest actor, which … at worst harms US interests worldwide”. It goes on:
We must publicly criticize Israel’s violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets. When Israel supports settler violence and illegal land seizures or employs excessive use of force against Palestinians, we must communicate publicly that this goes against our American values so that Israel does not act with impunity.
Politico said it was unclear how many people had signed the memo, or if and when it was submitted to the department’s dissent channel.
Updated
The United Arab Emirates has announced it will establish a fully equipped field hospital in the Gaza Strip to treat wounded Palestinians, according to state media.
The state news agency reported that five aircraft carrying the equipment and requirements necessary for the establishment and operation of the field hospital departed from Abu Dhabi on Monday, heading to al-Arish airport in Egypt.
The agency said the hospital would have a capacity of 150 beds. There was no mention of whether the UAE had reached an agreement on the initiative with Israel.
Updated
Updated
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has once again rejected the idea of a ceasefire in Gaza unless hostages are released, but suggested a series of ‘tactical little pauses’ may be possible.
In an interview with ABC News, Netanyahu was asked about the Biden administration’s calls for temporary “humanitarian” pauses in the fighting to allow more aid into Gaza and for civilians to evacuate. Netanyahu said:
Well, there’ll be no ceasefire, general ceasefire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages. As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We’ve had them before, I suppose, will check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages to leave. But I don’t think there’s going to be a general ceasefire.
He said he believed a ceasefire “will hamper the war effort” and hamper the effort to get the hostages out “because the only thing that works on these criminals in Hamas is the military pressure that we’re exerting”.
Asked if he would agree to a ceasefire if Hamas agrees to the release of hostages, Netanyahu replied:
There will be a ceasefire for that purpose.
Updated
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim new drone attack on Israeli targets in 'occupied territories'
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched a fresh drone attack against Israel which they claimed temporarily halted activity at Israeli military bases and airports.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on social media that Yemeni armed forces “launched a batch of drones during the past hours at various sensitive targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied territories”, AFP reported. He added:
As a result of the operation, the activity at the targeted bases and airports stopped for several hours.
Israeli authorities did not immediately confirm the attack.
The Houthis are part of the Iran-aligned regional alliance hostile to Israel and the US, which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Reuters reported.
Last week, the Houthis declared they had fired drones and missiles at Israel. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Saree said the group had launched a “large number” of ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel, and there would be more such attacks to come “to help the Palestinians to victory”.
He added it was the Houthis’ third attack on Israel since the start of the conflict
Updated
The Metropolitan police have asked demonstrators planning to hold a pro-Palestine march through London on Remembrance Day to “urgently reconsider” their protest.
Organisers had raised fresh concerns that the protest, scheduled this Saturday, could be banned.
After a meeting between organisers of the protests and the Met, a statement was issued on Monday in the name of the deputy assistant commissioner, Ade Adelekan, claiming that “the risk of violence and disorder linked to breakaway groups is growing”.
“This is of concern ahead of a significant and busy weekend in the capital,” Adelekan said.
Our message to organisers is clear: please, we ask you to urgently reconsider. It is not appropriate to hold any protests in London this weekend.
On Monday night Suella Braverman welcomed the Met’s statement. “The hate marchers need to understand that decent British people have had enough of these displays of thuggish intimidation and extremism,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Saturday’s protest is scheduled to start at 12.45pm on Saturday 11 November – Remembrance Day – at Hyde Park Corner and end at the US embassy in south-west London, about two miles from the Cenotaph, where formal remembrance events will be held the next day.
Updated
Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher al-Khasawneh, has said “all options are on the table” for the country’s response to Israeli actions in Gaza.
Khasawneh, speaking to state media, accused the Israeli military of failing to discriminate between civilian and military targets in its intensifying bombardment of the Palestinian territory, Reuters reported. He said:
All options are on the table for Jordan in our dealing with the Israeli aggression on Gaza and its repercussions.
In response, Israel’s foreign ministry said its “relations with Jordan are of strategic importance to both countries and we regret the inflammatory statements from Jordan’s leadership”.
Last week, Jordan announced that Israel’s ambassador would not be allowed to return after leaving Amman shortly after the Hamas attack last month, effectively declaring him persona non grata.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has ended his tour of the Middle East admitting that his efforts to secure a sustained humanitarian pause and greater constraint in Israel’s assault on Gaza was still “a work in progress”.
Here’s a clip:
UN-run shelters in Gaza are so crowded that it is impossible to count the people needing food, water, medicine and other basics, administrators say, as the fighting and bombardments continue.
One UN official at a compound in the southern city of Khan Younis told the Guardian on Monday night:
It is a terrible, terrible situation. There is no room even to sleep on the floor. There is one toilet for 700 or 800 people. No bread, no stoves for cooking. We are drinking irrigation water.
The official, who was not authorised to speak to the media, added:
No one can get an accurate number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] here. We know nothing about what happens outside. Everyone is just concentrating on survival.
Nur Hatib, 33, a kindergarten teacher, said everyone in the compound, a vocational training centre that now houses about 25,000 people, was terrified by the continuing bombardment in Gaza. The constant noise of airstrikes and reports of attacks close to shelters have sown panic.
“Of course we are frightened. We have our babies and children with us. Every parent in the world wants to protect their children and we cannot,” Hatib said.
My six-year-old daughter wants to know when she will go home so she can go back to reading and writing, which she loves. I try to give her hope and I say, ‘Of course you will go back to school,’ but I don’t know how this will be possible.
A 37-year-old dentist who helps to run a basic primary healthcare station in the compound said she and others felt “totally lost”.
We have no homes. All the city is destroyed. Where will we go even if there is a ceasefire? We have lost everything and feel we have been abandoned here.
Updated
The Biden administration has informed the US Congress that it is planning a $320m (£259m) transfer of precision bombs for Israel, Reuters reported, citing a source.
As we reported earlier, the administration last week sent formal notification to congressional leaders of the planned transfer of spice family gliding bomb assemblies, a type of precision guided weapon fired by warplanes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing correspondence it viewed, the WSJ said weapons manufacturer Rafael USA would transfer the bombs to its Israeli parent company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems for use by the Israeli defense ministry.
Updated
Fuel reserves for generators powering the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City are at a critical level and will run out within 48 hours, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a tweet.
The organization is appealing to “international health and humanitarian organizations to swiftly provide vital assistance and essential supplies” for Gaza, especially the territory’s northern region, now reported to be cut-off from the south by Israeli forces.
The society also says two Israeli rockets landed close to the hospital’s gates Monday evening. There are no immediate reports of casualties.
🚨📢 The @PalestineRCS urgently appeals to international health and humanitarian organizations to swiftly provide vital assistance and essential supplies to the #Gaza governorate and the northern region.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 6, 2023
🔴The fuel reserves for Al_Quds Hospital's power generator are anticipated… pic.twitter.com/LVrI7EYY40
🚨🏥 A short while ago, the IOF aircraft targeted the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital with two rockets, approximately 50 meters from the hospital's gate.#Gaza_under_attack #AlQudsHospital #NotATarget
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 6, 2023
Updated
Hundreds of protestors staged a sit-in demonstration at the Statue of Liberty on Monday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
About 500 members and supporters of Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City waved flags and banners and sang pro-peace songs, according to a spokesperson for the group.
Those present included photographer, artist and activist Nan Goldin, who told the gathering: “As long as the people of Gaza are screaming, we need to yell louder, no matter who attempts to silence us.”
Happening now- Jewish voices for Peace at the Statue of a Liberty pic.twitter.com/QZAE7qquU3
— Stephanie Keith (@Steffikeith) November 6, 2023
The protest came the same day as the Palestinian health ministry announced the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza surpassed 10,000. More than 1,400 Israelis have also been killed.
It is the second mass demonstration in the last 10 days in New York City for the group. On 27 October, hundreds of protestors in black shirts showing pro-ceasefire messages gathered at Grand Central Station.
Sarah Koshar, a spokesperson for the group, said the Statue of Liberty was a symbolic venue for Monday’s demonstration:
My ancestors were greeted by the Statue of Liberty while escaping pogroms. While it is a symbol of refuge for my family, I am hauntingly aware that the US denied entry to Jewish refugees throughout the entirety of the Holocaust. From Ellis Island to Gaza, never again means never again – for anyone.
Updated
Biden and Netanyahu discuss possible 'tactical pauses' for Gaza
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu discussed “the possibility of tactical pauses” in Israel’s military operations in Gaza to facilitate humanitarian aid, according to a readout of a call between the leaders earlier today.
According to the White House, the president told Israel’s prime minister that the US was “steadfast” in its support of the country in the conflict that has so far seen more than 10,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
Here’s what Biden and Netanyahu talked about:
[They] discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, including many children and a number of American citizens. The two leaders welcomed the increase in humanitarian assistance over the past week and discussed the necessity to significantly ramp up deliveries over the coming week, including by increasing the capacity to screen and stage trucks going into Gaza.
The President reiterated his steadfast support for Israel and the protection of Israeli citizens from Hamas and all other threats while also emphasizing the imperative to protect Palestinian civilians and reduce civilian harm in the course of military operations.
The two leaders discussed the possibility of tactical pauses to provide civilians with opportunities to safely depart from areas of ongoing fighting, to ensure assistance is reaching civilians in need and to enable potential hostage releases.
The President also discussed the situation in the West Bank and the need to hold extremist settlers accountable for violent acts.
The pair agreed to speak again in the coming days. The readout did not indicate if Netanyahu was receptive to any so-called tactical pause, but he has ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire and US secretary of state Antony Blinken left the Middle East today with no progress towards a humanitarian pause in the fighting.
Read more:
Updated
US planning $320m transfer of precision bombs for Israel – report
The US is planning a $320m (£259m) transfer of precision bombs for Israel, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The Biden administration sent formal notification on 31 October to congressional leaders of the planned transfer of spice family gliding bomb assemblies, a type of precision guided weapons fired by warplanes, the paper reported, citing sources.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s nearly 10pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where we stand so far:
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since 7 October, according to figures released by the health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
The deaths of scores of aid workers in airstrikes on Gaza over the past month has made the conflict the deadliest ever for UN workers. At least 88 people who worked for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been killed since 7 October, and 47 of its buildings have been damaged. Separately, at least 150 health workers have been killed in Gaza – 16 while on duty – and 18 emergency-service workers for Gaza’s civil defence, according to the UN. More than 100 health facilities have been damaged.
The Israeli military says it has completely encircled Gaza City after over a week of heavy fighting, in effect severing the territory into two, as Israeli ground troops appeared poised to enter the dense urban sprawl from the south. “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the territory. Residents in Gaza have said Sunday night was one of the heaviest bombardments since Israel began its bombing campaign.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it is carrying out airstrikes against sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The IDF said it had identified about 30 launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel earlier on Monday, and that it was “responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches”.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on Monday in the West Bank city of Tulkarm has risen to four, the Palestinian health ministry said. Previous reports said three people were killed and a fourth injured during an exchange with Israeli forces in the occupied territory.
A Hamas commander believed to be among those who ordered the 7 October attacks in Israel was killed overnight in an airstrike, according to reports. The reports named him as Wael Asefa, commander of Hamas’s Deir al-Balah battalion of the group’s central camps brigade.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has ended his tour of the Middle East admitting that his efforts to secure a sustained humanitarian pause and greater constraint in Israel’s assault on Gaza was still “a work in progress”.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said the protection of civilians “must be paramount” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming “a graveyard for children”. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, responded by saying: “Shame on you.”
More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, an international charity has warned.
About 80 dual nationals and 17 medical evacuees had left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing by early Monday evening, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources, after evacuations were suspended for two days after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Friday.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the EU was increasing its humanitarian aid to Gaza by another €25m, bringing total aid to €100m ($107m / £86.5m).
South Africa is recalling diplomats from Israel to assess its relationship with the country, its foreign minister has said, saying that Israel was involved in the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
The UK’s Labour party has issued its most direct criticism of the Israeli government since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, criticising the remarks of rightwing Israeli ministers over the West Bank and saying they have been responsible for “unacceptable and offensive rhetoric about Palestinians”.
Organisers of pro-Palestine marches that have brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of London have raised fresh concerns that a major protest planned for Saturday could be banned.
Updated
Labour party in UK issues most direct criticism of Israeli government since Hamas attacks
Labour has criticised the remarks of rightwing Israeli ministers over the West Bank, saying they have been responsible for “unacceptable and offensive rhetoric about Palestinians”.
In a letter to the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, that puts policy daylight between the government and Labour on the crisis in the Middle East, David Lammy demanded to know what had been done to press the Israelis to curb the violence in the West Bank by settlers and government forces.
The shadow foreign secretary urged the UK government to tell Israel to reverse its plans to reduce funding to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority that administers the West Bank. He also called for settlers deemed to be inciting hatred or acting unlawfully to be banned from entry to the UK.
The Labour frontbench has faced sharp internal criticism for failing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The letter does not change that stance but it does mark the end of the bipartisan unalloyed support for Israel that has been on display since the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
Describing those attacks as “appalling”, Lammy then cited the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din’s claim that since 7 October “Israeli security forces and settlers have killed at least 144 Palestinians in the West Bank and more than 900 adults and children have been forcibly driven from their homes following extremist settler violence”. He said:
There has been a troubling rise in dangerous and extremist rhetoric among far-right politicians. There have also been attacks on Israelis, including a man shot and killed while driving on 2 November, as well as a number of planned terror attacks that have reportedly been foiled.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has ended his tour of the Middle East admitting that his efforts to secure a sustained humanitarian pause and greater constraint in Israel’s assault on Gaza was still “a work in progress”.
His comments on Monday followed a meeting with Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, in Ankara. He will now head to a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Japan where he will brief colleagues on the US approach to the crisis.
Over four days of talks, which started in Jerusalem, diplomatic progress appears, if anything, to have gone into reverse. Blinken was unable to persuade the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to adopt a humanitarian pause, while talks on hostages stalled over the sequencing and length of the pause in hostilities required for their release.
In a further bombardment on Sunday night, Israel also imposed another temporary communication blackout in Gaza, despite US requests not to do so.
The number of aid trucks crossing the Egyptian border into Gaza at the Rafah crossing went down from 100 on Friday to closer to 30 in the following days.
Updated
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has criticised the UN chief, António Guterres, who earlier called for a humanitarian ceasefire and described Gaza as a “graveyard for children”.
“Shame on you,” Cohen posted to social media.
Shame on you @antonioguterres! More than 30 minors - among them a 9 month-old baby as well as toddlers and children who witnessed their parents being murdered in cold blood - are being held against their will in the Gaza Strip.
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) November 6, 2023
Hamas is the problem in Gaza, not Israel's actions…
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More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, an international charity has warned.
In a statement on Monday, ActionAid said that a “near-total depletion” of food and water supplies is endangering the lives of civilians trapped in northern Gaza who have barely survived nearly a month of intense bombardment.
Riham Jafari, coordinator of advocacy and communication for ActionAid Palestine, said:
Cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly. Hospitals, which have remained over capacity for weeks on end, can offer no solace to those on the brink of starvation as medical supplies run low, fuel is scarce, and bombs are indiscriminately dropped across Gaza including on the footsteps of hospitals.
US President Joe Biden has today spoken with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a White House official said.
The two leaders discussed the potential for tactical pauses in strikes on Gaza during their phone call, according to national security spokesperson John Kirby.
Biden and Netanyahu also discussed the situation in the West Bank, he said.
Updated
Organisers of pro-Palestine marches that have brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of London have raised fresh concerns that a major protest planned for Saturday could be banned.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, held a meeting with senior Metropolitan police officers on Monday to finalise details of the route – but there is growing anxiety that the home secretary, Suella Braverman, will intervene.
The protest is scheduled to start at 12.45pm on Saturday 11 November – Remembrance Day – at Hyde Park Corner and end at the US embassy in south-west London, more than a mile from the Cenotaph, where formal remembrance events will be held the next day.
The prime minister’s spokesperson earlier on Monday described the planned event as “provocative” and “disrespectful”.
The marchers are calling for a ceasefire in the war that broke out last month after Hamas killed 1,400 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostages. Thousands of civilians in Gaza have been killed in the Israeli military operation since.
The Met police could apply to the home secretary for a ban under section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986 on the grounds that there is a risk of serious disorder.
“I would say now, there are absolutely no legitimate grounds for doing that,” Jamal said.
Some time ago, we indicated that on the 11th, we would not be going anywhere near [the Cenotaph] … We knew that would be … inappropriate.
Jamal added:
We’ve not had that information [of an imminent ban] from the police. But what I’m aware of is the police are under immense pressure.
Updated
About 80 dual nationals and 17 medical evacuees leave Gaza into Egypt – report
Dozens of foreign passport holders and some medical evacuees passed through the Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Monday, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources.
Evacuations resumed following a two-day suspension after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Friday. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said 15 people were killed and 60 others wounded after Israeli forces targeted a convoy of ambulances transporting injured people. The Israeli military said, without showing evidence, that the vehicle was carrying Hamas militants.
About 80 dual nationals and 17 medical evacuees had left through Rafah by early Monday evening, according to Egyptian security sources.
The Gaza border authority had said earlier that only Egyptians and foreign citizens already on pre-approved lists issued since last Wednesday would be allowed through the crossing.
Egypt had been seeking guarantees for the safety of ambulances used for evacuations, including escorts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Egyptian security sources said.
The ICRC said it had escorted a four-ambulance convoy of patients from the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City to the Rafah border on Monday.
Updated
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it is carrying out airstrikes against sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The IDF statement came after it said it had identified about 30 launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel earlier on Monday.
The Israeli army said it was “responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches”.
Approximately 30 launches were identified from Lebanon toward northern Israel over the last hour. The IDF is responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 6, 2023
Updated
UN chief António Guterres said the humanitarian aid that is coming through the Rafah border crossing is not nearly enough for the 2.7 million people in Gaza.
“The trickle of assistance does not meet the ocean of needs,” he said.
Just over 400 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza in the past two weeks, compared with 500 each day before the conflict, he said. Those trucks that have gone into Gaza have not included fuel, he added.
Without fuel, babies in incubators and patients on life support will die. Water cannot be pumped or purified. Raw sewage could soon start gushing on to the streets, further spreading disease.
Updated
UN chief says Gaza is becoming a 'graveyard for children'
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that “no one is safe” in Gaza as he reiterated his urgent call for a humanitarian ceasefire.
The situation in Gaza is “more than a humanitarian crisis, it is a crisis of humanity”, Guterres said during a briefing at the UN’s headquarters on Monday.
Israeli ground operations and bombardments are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and UN facilities including shelters, he said. The protection of civilians “must be paramount”, he said.
I’m deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing. Let me be clear, no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law.
He said Gaza was “becoming a graveyard for children” with hundreds of boys and girls reportedly killed or injured every day, he said.
More journalists have reportedly been killed over a four-week period than in any conflict in at least three decades. More United Nations aid workers have been killed than in any comparable period in the history of our organisation.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said its ambulances are being impeded by road closures around al-Quds hospital in Gaza City.
The closure of roads is affecting the organisation’s ability to reach the wounded, it said.
🚨🚑 PRCS ambulances in #Gaza face significant difficulties in reaching the wounded due to the closure of all roads leading to Al-Quds Hospital, where the ambulance vehicles are located.#Gaza_under_attack #NotATarget
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 6, 2023
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Here are some of the latest images we have received over the news wires from Gaza.
Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has said he does not regret describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “something more approaching revenge”.
The Irish taoiseach, speaking to journalists during a visit to South Korea last week, said:
I strongly believe that ... Israel has the right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas, that they cannot do this again.
But he added:
What I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self defence. It looks, resembles something more approaching revenge. That’s not where we should be. And I don’t think that’s how Israel will guarantee future freedom and future security.
On Monday, Varadkar was asked whether he believed the comment had hampered diplomatic relations with Israel over the exit of Irish citizens from Gaza.
He replied that he did not believe that it had, PA news agency reported.
Asked if he regretted using the word revenge, he replied: “I don’t, no.” He later added:
When the tánaiste [Micheál Martin] and I take the positions that we do, we do so because we think it’s the right thing.
Ultimately, this is about civilians. Israeli civilians who died and were injured, and also Palestinians who are now experiencing a very difficult situation.
We’ve always taken a view since day one that we condemn Hamas’ attack unequivocally, no excuse for it whatsoever.
Israel has a right to defend itself, but it has to do so in a way that’s proportionate and in line with humanitarian law.
Updated
Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander De Croo, has said that “what is happening in Gaza today is no longer proportionate”.
He stressed the Belgian government’s condemnation of the 7 October massacre by Hamas and Israel’s right to defend itself.
But he said in Brussels:
If one bombs an entire refugee camp with the intention of eliminating one terrorist, then I don’t think that is proportionate anymore. Something like that is a bridge too far.
De Croo added it was “completely logical” that “a solution” was sought for Hamas, but “the question is how the solution should be found” during political dialogue, a pause in the fighting and the release of all hostages.
Several Belgian media reported him as saying:
Our country does not take sides. What we do choose is an end to violence and thousands of civilian victims.
Updated
Israel-Hamas war is deadliest ever for UN aid workers, with at least 88 killed
The deaths of scores of aid workers in airstrikes on Gaza over the past month has made the conflict the deadliest ever for UN workers.
At least 88 people who worked for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been killed since 7 October. Forty-seven of its buildings have been damaged.
Separately, at least 150 health workers have been killed in Gaza – 16 while on duty – and 18 emergency-service workers for Gaza’s civil defence, according to the UN. More than 100 health facilities have been damaged.
UN agency leaders called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access to the territory. They called for both Israel and Hamas to respect international law.
In a joint statement, signatories including the UN human rights commissioner, Volker Turk; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization; and the UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said:
It’s been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now.
Civilians and the infrastructure they rely on – including hospitals, shelters and schools – must be protected. More aid – food, water, medicine and of course fuel – must enter Gaza safely, swiftly and at the scale needed, and must reach people in need, especially women and children, wherever they are.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on Monday in the West Bank city of Tulkarm has risen to four, the Palestinian health ministry said. Previous reports said three people were killed and a fourth injured during an exchange with Israeli forces in the occupied territory.
Earlier, the ministry said Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man and seriously injured three others in the town of Halhul, in the south of the West Bank. It says more than 150 Palestinians have been killed there since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October, AFP reports.
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A number of rockets fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon landed harmlessly in the sea, the Times of Israel reports.
The newspaper says several long-range rockets were targeting central Israel. Residents heard some blasts, it said, but no air raid sirens sounded. Hamas claimed responsibility for launching the rockets, the Times added.
Updated
IDF: Key Hamas commander killed in targeted airstrike
A Hamas commander believed to be among those who ordered the 7 October attacks in Israel was killed overnight in an airstrike, according to the Israel Defence Forces, and reported by the Jerusalem Post.
The source named him as Wael Asefa, commander of Hamas’s Deir al-Balah battalion of the group’s central camps brigade.
The newspaper reported he was killed in a targeted strike by the Israeli air force on Sunday night, acting on information provided by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, and the military intelligence directorate.
Asefa was imprisoned from 1992 to 1998 for his involvement in terrorist attacks against Israeli communities and IDF personnel, the IDF said, and was one of those who helped plan the attack and ordered Hamas fighters from the Gaza Strip into Israel last month.
The Post did not say where the airstrike took place.
Updated
Israel responds to Lebanon rocket attack
Israel says it’s responding with artillery fire towards the source of a rocket barrage it says was launched from Lebanon.
Reuters reports about 30 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon “within the last hour”. It is not clear yet how many rockets found a target, or if there were any casualties.
LIVE UPDATES: Rockets fire from Lebanon to the Krayot near Haifa, longest distance rockets from north reached so far in the warhttps://t.co/QL99xqBl2g
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) November 6, 2023
In a Telegram post, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed it had launched 16 rockets from Lebanon towards Israel’s city of Nahariyya and southern Haifa.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is 5pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of the latest headlines:
Over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since 7 October, according to new figures released by the Hamas-controlled health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
Israel’s military announced late Sunday it had encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two. “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the territory.
In its latest situational update, Israel’s military claims that Israeli jets struck 450 Hamas targets, and claims to have killed Jamal Mussa, who it says “was responsible for the special security operations in the Hamas terrorist organisation”. The IDF claims have not been independently verified.
The leaders of the UN’s major humanitarian agencies as well as international charities have called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, calling the situation “horrific” and “unacceptable” in a rare joint statement. The signatories included the heads of OCHA, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the WHO, Save the Children and CARE International. They said “An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable.”
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said his discussions in Turkey on Monday had a focus on “efforts to significantly expand the humanitarian assistance to people in need”, and claimed that his visit to the region had helped prevent escalation of the conflict. Blinken told the media at the airport before departing Turkey “We discussed … efforts to significantly expand the humanitarian assistance to people in need, and efforts to prevent the conflict expanding to other parts of the region. He added “Sometimes the absence of something bad happening may not be the most obvious evidence of progress, but it is.”
The border authority in Hamas-controlled Gaza has said that the Rafah border crossing is open only for evacuations by Egyptians and foreigners listed since 1 November. The authority’s statement added that those who were not listed will not be able to cross the border.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was increasing its humanitarian aid to Gaza by another €25m, bringing total aid to €100m ($107m / £86.5m).
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said in a speech this morning that the situation in the Middle East is “the outcome of a collective political and moral failure” due to “a real lack of willingness to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem.”
Ireland’s justice minister, Helen McEntee, has said the government is doing everything it can to support the family of an Irish-Israeli girl believed to have been abducted by Hamas. Emily Hand was originally feared dead after the assault on kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October. However, it was reported in Israel on Sunday that the eight-year-old’s family have been informed she may still be alive and being held hostage.
Three Palestinians were killed and another seriously wounded after Israeli forces shot at their car in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Lisa O’Carroll is in Brussels for the Guardian:
A humanitarian pause in the shelling in Gaza in exchange for hostages would only work if the Red Cross were first authorised to enter Gaza to help secure their release from Hamas hideouts, a senior EU source has said.
That would be the minimum first step needed to deliver further temporary cessation in the conflict to boost the humanitarian aid arriving in the Gaza strip, they said.
Foreign ministers from the G7 are due to meet in Japan this week to discuss the Middle East but US secretary of state Anthony Blinken was met with tepid, if any, support for his efforts to contain the fallout from the conflict.
Senior EU sources believe Hamas’s estimates that 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October is the “bare minimum”. “Nobody knows how many civilians have been killed,” they said.
Residents in Gaza have said last night was one of the heaviest bombardments since Israel began its bombing campaign after the 7 October Hamas attacks inside Israel.
“We stayed up all night. We survived the night, but what about tonight or the coming nights?” said a 35-year-old woman called Nisreen, who told Reuters her 14-year-old son was killed on Friday in an Israeli air strike on an ambulance.
“Last night with the intensive bombing around al-Shifa, smoke and dirt came into the facility and some were freaking out saying Israeli tanks were getting closer,” said Nisreen, who did not want to give a family name for fear of Israeli reprisals.
Outside al-Shifa, displaced woman Haneed Abdelhakim Saad said her family would not leave Gaza City despite the Israeli demands for civilians to go. She fears that if they head to the south they will never be allowed back home.
“They can cut off the water, the electricity, the food but we are staying,” she said. “This is what we want: to live in peace, to have our children go out without worrying about them.”
In the south, where Israel has ordered all Gaza civilians to go, saying this would be for their own safety, hundreds of thousands of displaced people, many now living in makeshift shelters, also endured a night of heavy bombardment under a communications blackout.
Outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, a tent city has emerged around parked vehicles, with plastic sheeting spread from car roofs to provide shade, Reuters reports. People sleep or sit, charging phones from car batteries if they have fuel or from solar panels if they do not. Children play in between.
“The first moment I can’t forget is when I saw our house. It was targeted, destroyed and razed to the ground. That place where we used to be comfortable and secure was gone in a second,” said Minna al-Qassas, 18, whose family is now living in their car.
“We came here hoping to find safety and security but it doesn’t exist. When you sleep you hear rockets overhead … People are scattered in the streets, some injured,” she said, adding that she had fled Gaza City then stayed with relatives in Khan Younis, whose house was also bombed.
Updated
Haaretz reports that an Israeli police officer, Elisheva Rose Ida Lubin, who was stabbed by a Palestinian on Monday in Jerusalem, has died of her wounds.
Families of hostages held in Gaza and their supporters are protesting outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem.
Associated Press journalists have been at the scene of an airstrike in the densely populated al-Amal district of Khan Younis city in southern Gaza, and report seeing at least two people killed, and a teenage boy pulled out of the rubble.
“There were no grownups, the house was full of children,” said local resident Soliman al-Faqawi told AP, pausing momentarily from the communal dig.
AP reports the boy was pulled from the rubble alive, wincing in pain, his body completely covered in soot and dust. He was quickly placed on a stretcher and carried away for treatment.
Khan Younis is in the area of Gaza where the Israeli military has been directing people to evacuate to. The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip states that more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since 7 October.
Updated
Laura Kadar Blajman has revisited the Supernova music festival site where she hid inside a caravan for six hours with her husband and friends on 7 October. In this video report she recounts how Hamas militants tried to break in to the van: “At this point we all said goodbye to each other”.
Noam Alon also visited the site in search of the car his girlfriend drove to the event before being taken hostage. Alon has called on the Israeli government to do all it can to free the hostages, including in an exchange with Palestinian prisoners.
South Africa: 'We believe nature of Israel's response has become one of collective punishment'
South Africa is recalling diplomats from Israel to assess its relationship with the country, its foreign minister has said, saying that Israel was involved in the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
Calling the return of diplomats a “normal practice”, Naledi Pandor said the recall was to determine “whether there is any potential for you to be of assistance and whether the continued relationship is actually able to be sustained in all terms.”
The country is “extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians” in the Palestinian territory, Reuters reports the foreign minister said.
“We believe the nature of response by Israel has become one of collective punishment,” she said, adding the country would continue to call for a comprehensive ceasefire in Palestine.
South Africa does not have an ambassador in Israel.
During the Cairo Peace Summit last month, president Cyril Ramaphosa called on countries to not supply weapons to either side of the conflict while its foreign ministry has previously urged the UN to deploy forces to protect civilians in Gaza.
Turkey, Jordan, Bolivia, Honduras, Colombia, Chile and Bahrain have all also reduced diplomatic contact with Israel since 7 October.
Israel welcomes deployment of US nuclear submarine in region as 'deterring, stabilising factor'
An Israeli army spokesperson has has welcomed the deployment of a US nuclear missile submarine in the region.
Late on Sunday, US Central Command, which covers the Middle East, said an Ohio-class nuclear missile submarine had arrived in the region – an unusual public announcement of a nuclear submarine’s position that was seen by many as a direct message to Iran.
“It’s always good news to see that the Americans are moving in more assets,” military spokesperson Lt-Col Richard Hecht told the media on Monday, Reuters reports. “We see this as sort of a deterring, stabilising factor in the region.”
Blinken: tour has prevented escalation, and US working 'very aggressively' on more humanitarian aid for Gaza
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said his discussions in Turkey earlier today had a focus on “efforts to significantly expand the humanitarian assistance to people in need”, and claimed that his visit to the region had helped prevent escalation of the conflict.
Blinken spent two-and-a-half hours meeting Turkey’s foreign secretary Hakan Fidan in Ankara, a meeting which sparked demonstrations on the street of Turkey’s capital city.
Reuters reports Blinken told the media at the airport before departing Turkey “We discussed … efforts to significantly expand the humanitarian assistance to people in need, and efforts to prevent the conflict expanding to other parts of the region and what we can do to set the conditions for a durable, sustainable, lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians.”
“We are working very aggressively on getting more humanitarian assistance in Gaza. And we have very concrete ways in doing that. And I think we’ll see in the days ahead that assistance can expand in significant ways,” he said.
A Turkish foreign ministry source informed Reuters that during the meeting Fidan told the US secretary of state that a ceasefire needed to be declared urgently in Gaza, and Fidan also told Blinken that Israel had to be prevented from targeting civilians and displacing people in Gaza.
There was no joint media appearance after the meeting.
Asked at the airport what concrete progress had been made during his tour of the region, Blinken pointed to efforts to avoid a regional escalation and said: “Sometimes the absence of something bad happening may not be the most obvious evidence of progress, but it is.”
Updated
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian, has been writing a diary in Gaza during the war. Here is an extract from the latest entry:
People in the area we’re staying in are hanging big sheets between buildings on the opposite sides of small streets. This means there is more shade for people to sit under, especially boys and men, leaving more space for women to be comfortable at home.
On my way to the pharmacy this morning, I see a group of teenage boys trying to get their ball, which is stuck above the hanging cover. They throw their slippers at the cover, hoping it will move the ball. They are laughing out loud as they try to retrieve it. I guess, for few minutes, these young boys have forgotten about the misery we are going through and are enjoying the moment.
I always ask myself what the future holds for the next generation. My life, and that of those my age, has never been easy, but we have had some few better experiences than the younger generations, who have not enjoyed a healthy childhood at all.
Read more of Ziad’s diary here: Gaza diary part 16: ‘I want to die peacefully, at a very old age, having achieved all my dreams’
Egypt-Gaza Rafah crossing reopens for limited evacuation of foreign nationals
The border authority in Hamas-controlled Gaza has said that the Rafah border crossing is open only for evacuations by Egyptians and foreigners listed since 1 November.
Reuters reports the authority’s statement added that those who were not listed will not be able to cross the border as per notification from the Egyptian authorities.
Updated
Over 10,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza – health ministry
Over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since 7 October, according to new figures released by the Hamas-controlled health authority in the territory.
The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children.
The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
Earlier, leaders of the UN’s major humanitarian agencies as well as international charities called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, saying the situation is “horrific” and “unacceptable” in a rare joint statement.
UN secretary general António Guterres has previously said Hamas’s attacks cannot “justify collective punishment” of the Palestinian people.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip followed the 7 October attack inside Israel, during which Hamas fighters killed over 1,400 Israelis and abducted at least 240 hostages back into Gaza.
Updated
A foreign ministry source in Turkey appears to have confirmed to Reuters the readout from the Turkish side of Hakan Fidan’s meeting with Antony Blinken earlier today in Ankara.
It reports the source said Fidan told the US secretary of state that a ceasefire needed to be declared urgently in Gaza, and Fidan also told Blinken that Israel had to be prevented from targeting civilians and displacing people in Gaza.
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric urged state officials on Monday to shield Lebanon from the war between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reports.
Maronite Christian Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai called on Lebanese state officials to work to keep Lebanon away “from the scourge of this war … and to carry out its political and diplomatic role in support of the Palestinian cause”.
“That is more effective,” he said.
Updated
Bulgaria’s prime minister, Nikolay Denkov, is in Jerusalem where he has met Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Times of Israel reports that in a joint appearance, the Israeli prime minister said Hamas was the “most savage enemy we have seen since the Holocaust”, and told Denkov “We think we are not only fighting our war, we think we are fighting the battle of civilisation against barbarism. If civilisation doesn’t prevail, barbarism will. It’s your battle as well.”
Denkov told Netanyahu that Hamas “should be eradicated”, but also said “we are concerned with what happens in the Gaza Strip”.
The Hamas-run health authority in the Gaza Strip has claimed that nearly 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli action since 7 October. The number of casualties has not been independently verified.
Updated
CNN is carrying a report from journalists in Gaza, explaining how the communications blackout and conditions there have been making it extremely difficult for them to get the story of what is happening in the besieged territory out to the world.
It quotes Hassan Elsayeh, who in a video message shows himself and other journalists standing on a rooftop trying to get a stronger signal to send out footage. He says
Gaza has had no internet since yesterday. We try as much as possible but with great and unimaginable difficulty to get out what’s happening in Gaza. A few journalists and I have come to the top of this rooftop to film the scenes, it’s a struggle.
CNN reports that another journalist in the clip, Motaz Azaiza, says “Instead of taking what should be one minute to post a photograph online, it takes 10 minutes.”
Earlier today the Palestinian communications company Paltel said internet access was gradually being restored to the Gaza Strip after communications were “disconnected from the Israeli side”. It is the third such blackout since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza on 7 October, following the surprise Hamas attack inside Israel which killed over 1,400.
Updated
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has claimed the UK is playing a “key role” to get aid to Gaza, and reiterated his government’s calls for a humanitarian pause.
PA Media reports Sunak told the press during a visit to Norfolk in the east of England:
We have been very clear and consistent that we support humanitarian pauses, which are there specifically to allow aid to get into Gaza and hostages and foreign nationals to come out. I’m pleased that over 100 British nationals have now been able to leave Gaza thanks to our diplomatic engagement. I spoke to both the Egyptian president and the Israeli prime minister about this specific issue last week.
Updated
Ruth Michaelson is in Istanbul, and has this analysis of reactions to Antony Blinken’s visit in Turkey:
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was hardly given a warm welcome in Turkey this morning, starting with a snub by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was visiting his family’s hometown of Rize.
Instead Blinken met with Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, and was greeted by protests outside the foreign ministry in Ankara, and amid news of demonstrators attempting to storm an air base in southern Turkey housing US troops.
Outside the foreign ministry, a group of protestors from Turkey’s youth union gathered to yell “murderer Blinken, get out of Turkey,” according to state news agency Anadolu.
The protest, although small, provided the latest indication that Turkish officials are content to channel anti-American public sentiment and allow an outpouring of public sentiment on this issue.
Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a conservative NGO that attempted to send three ships to Gaza in 2010 to breach the Israeli blockade of the strip, organised a protest outside the southern Incirlik air base housing US troops hours before Blinken landed in Turkey on Sunday night.
Despite pleas from the organisers that demonstrators shouldn’t clash with police, scenes from the aftermath suggest these went unheard, after protestors attempted to storm the air base and were met with water cannon, teargas and police in full riot gear.
Blinken’s meeting with Fidan appears unlikely to warm sentiment towards Washington either among the Turkish public or Turkish officials. The pro-government outlet Yeni Şafak even ran a video they claimed showed Fidan awkwardly dodging a hug from Blinken at the start of their meeting, and there was no press conference planned for after the talks.
Erdoğan has been outspoken on his support for a ceasefire in Gaza, condemning the Israeli assault and demanding the US as well as other world powers begin talks intended to provide lasting solutions following an end to the fighting.
He also organised a rally at the end of October, gathering thousands to accuse the west of being “the main culprit behind the massacres in Gaza”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest pictures sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Lili Bayer is in Brussels for the Guardian:
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said today that the EU was increasing its humanitarian aid to Gaza by another €25m, bringing total aid to €100m ($107m / £86.5m).
In a speech to European ambassadors, Von der Leyen said:
We’re working with Israel, Egypt and the UN to let more convoys into Gaza, including through corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs. Aid is now entering through the Rafah border crossing, but the volumes remain too small to match the massive humanitarian needs in Gaza.
Our priority is to work with partners to reinforce Rafah’s logistic capacities, and at the same time, we’re working on complementary routes - a maritime corridor from Cyprus, for example - that would guarantee a sustained, regulated and robust flow of aid.
The commission chief also addressed the issue of hostages held in Gaza, stressing that “every single hostage matters.”.
Europe, Von der Leyen said, “must do everything in our power to avoid a regional conflict”.
Speaking of the future, Von der Leyen underscored that “Gaza can be no safe haven for terrorists” and “different ideas are being discussed on how this can be insured, including an international peace force under UN mandate”.
“This implies that the terrorist organisation Hamas cannot control or govern Gaza. There should be only one Palestinian Authority and one Palestinian state,” von der Leyen said.
Von der Leyen also stressed that “there can be no longterm Israeli security presence in Gaza”, “no forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza” and “no sustained blockade of Gaza.”
Updated
Resul Serdar at Al Jazeera has an early readout of the meeting between Turkey and the US in Ankara, with discussion taking place between foreign minister Hakan Fidan and US secretary of state Antony Blinken.
Serdar reports:
As of now, there has been no joint statement. The US side tried to convince Turkish officials to put more pressure on Hamas and make it release the captives. But the Turkish position was very clear on this matter. They said that the prisoner release should be mutual, where Hamas releases captives and Israel releases Palestinian prisoners. Turkey also asked for an unconditional ceasefire.
Norway’s foreign minister said on Monday Oslo was exploring ways to revive a diplomatic channel between Israel and the Palestinians to find a political solution to the decades-long conflict.
“We hear now from very many sides - the American, the European and Arab, and from many among the parties, who want to see whether it can be relevant as a channel again,” Reuters reports Espen Barth Eide told public broadcaster NRK.
“This war has reminded everyone that there is no other lasting solution to this than having a two-state solution, which one had hoped to see after the Oslo Accords 30 years ago.”
Barth Eide said it was possible that out of this “terrible dramatic situation” happening in Gaza today, “we could see a political process back on track”, on the condition that the war in Gaza does not spread to other countries in the Middle East.
Norway served as a facilitator in the 1992-1993 talks between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) that led to the Oslo Accords in 1993.
Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store has called for a ceasefire, and said that Israel’s reponse to the Hamas attack of 7 October “must happen in line with the rules of the international law of war.”
The meeting between US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan has concluded after 2 hours and 30 minutes, a US state department official has told Reuters.
Blinken is currently on a whistle-stop diplomatic tour of the region, yesterday making unannounced visits to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Cyprus and Iraq.
The US embassy in Turkey was the site of a demonstration against the visit yesterday.
The social media channel of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has this morning been issuing messages about Gaza aimed at the US.
It posted:
The Muslim world must increase political pressure on the US and the Zionist regime to end the massacre of people in Gaza.
As an important country in the region, Iraq can play a major role in putting political pressure on the US and the occupying regime to stop the massacre of people in Gaza and also in starting a new approach in the Arab and Muslim world.
The US is the Zionist’s accomplice in the crimes against Gaza. If their weapon supplies and political support stops, the Zionist regime will be incapable of continuing.
The longer the current war goes on, the evidence showing the direct role of the US in directing the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza becomes more pronounced.
Updated
Ireland’s justice minister, Helen McEntee, has said the government is doing everything it can to support the family of an Irish-Israeli girl believed to have been abducted by Hamas.
Emily Hand was originally feared dead after the assault on kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October.
However, it was reported in Israel on Sunday that the eight-year-old’s family have been informed she may still be alive and being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Emily’s father, Thomas, is originally from Dublin.
PA Media reports Fine Gael’s McEntee told RTÉ: “This is a hugely traumatic situation for her family and for every family who finds themselves with their loved one held hostage.
“We are doing everything that we can to support this family and others to make sure that people can be returned home safely to their families.
“We have called from the very beginning for Hamas to release any hostages that they might have. And, of course, where Irish citizens are involved here every effort has been made to support them.”
Updated
The United Nations office in Geneva has posted to social media to outline the scale of the attack on Gaza, citing UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees.
It writes:
On average, one child is killed and two children are injured every 10 minutes during the war in Gaza, reports UNRWA. Children are #NotATarget.
On average, one child is killed and two children are injured every ten minutes during the war in #Gaza, reports @unrwa.
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) November 6, 2023
Children are #NotATarget. pic.twitter.com/DV8eYN40d4
Updated
Damien Gayle is an environment correspondent for the Guardian:
Climate justice activists blockaded the offices of an energy company in London on Monday morning in protest at its corporate links to Israeli settlements.
Supporters of Fossil Free London protested outside the offices of Ithaca energy in Hanover Square, Mayfair. The oil and gas company, which owns the controversial Cambo oil field in the North Sea, is a subsidiary an Israeli company which provides services to settlements in the West Bank.
“Hey Itaca,” they chanted. “Get with the times. Dump the oil and free Palestine.”
In 2020, Delek Group, Ithaca’s parent corporation was included in a United Nations database of 112 companies helping to further Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in the occupied Golan Heights.
Climate justice activists from @fossilfreeLDN protest outside Ithaca energy in central London over the fossil company’s links to Israeli settlements pic.twitter.com/Vw0hqjgBAn
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) November 6, 2023
“This is about making those links, that climate struggles and Palestinian struggles are inextricably bound,” said Ashok Kumar, professor of political economy at Birkbeck, who had joined the protest.
“Ithaca Energy is a subsidiary of an Israeli company that is on the list of companies that the UN put out that are operating in the occupied territories ... There is a direct link between natural resource exploitation and colonialism, climate change and what’s happening in Gaza.”
Ithaca Energy are part owners of the controversial Rosebank and Cambo oil fields, as well a subsidiary of Delek group which provides services to illegal settlements in the West Bank, @fossilfreeLDN says pic.twitter.com/PSuGlthYzZ
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) November 6, 2023
The protest highlighted growing links between activism around the recent flare-up of the crisis in Palestine and the demands of climate justice groups.
Police looked on as protesters chanted: “One struggle one fight, climate justice human rights”, “No ethno-nations, climate justice liberation, no more bombs”, and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. Fossil Free London said it would continue to target companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine.
Joanna Warrington, from Fossil Free London, said: “The demand for climate justice and liberation come hand in hand. We know that the same corporations that are profiteering from the oppression of the Palestinians are also those that are extracting fossil fuels and driving climate breakdown. Our fight for climate justice must be rooted in anti-colonial struggles and liberation for oppressed peoples.”
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
A former Downing Street chief foreign policy adviser under David Cameron has accused the UK of posturing, not leading, in the debate about Palestine’s future.
John Casson said the UK was not shaping events but following them adding the UK has a responsibility to set out an exit plan given “the risks to the UK at home and abroad and given the chilling loss of civilian life”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 he said the UK has “a responsibility to set out a description of the exit from the cycle of violence and what would happen on the day after.”
He is the most senior former diplomat to challenge the UK’s approach. In words addressed both to government and opposition parties in the UK he argued he did not believe a solely military solution existed.
He said “if this is a never again movement, if the Israelis are never again to have to face the barbaric things happening to them, then we also have to say never again will we leave the Palestinians under occupation without any credible hopeful future.”
Calls for a ceasefire were necessary, but not a sufficient policy, he said.
Urging a discussion about Gaza’s future, he said he saw no solution in Gaza’s governance but Israel governing, combined with a political reset that saw Israel regress settlements and the Palestinian Authority reformed.
He likened the quality of the UK debate to before Iraq 2003, when those who spoke about a comprehensive policy approach as opposed to a purely military solution were vilified.
A former ambassador to Egypt, he said there “was a lack of breadth depth and realism in the debate in the UK.”
He added “I hope we can serve the Israelis and Palestinian better than we served Iraq and America”
He said “Where Britain has a role to play is to start to name some of the realities that will need to be addressed - to open up the range of things that are on the table for discussion - because as long as we simply say we stand with Israel, we are actually following behind whatever the Americans and Israelis choose to do rather than having a role in finding a solution “
He said the US was beginning to assemble a political offer, but they cannot do it in their own. The reality, he said, is that five million Palestinians believe their lives matter less to the west than others.
The Israel Defence Force has said on its Arabic language social media channels that it is again allowing the movement of civilians from north Gaza to the south of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Accompanied by a map, it posted:
I would like to inform you that although Hamas is harming the ongoing humanitarian efforts on behalf of the people of Gaza and is using you as human shields, today the IDF will once again allow passage on the Salah al-Din Road between 10am and 2pm. For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza. If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions. Rest assured that Hamas leaders have already taken care of defending themselves.
It is currently approaching midday in Gaza.
#عاجل أيها سكان غزة،
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 6, 2023
أود أن أعلمكم أنه على الرغم من أن حماس تضر بالجهود الإنسانية الجارية لمصلحة سكان غزة وتستخدمكم كدروع بشرية، إلا أن جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي سيسمح مرة أخرى اليوم بالمرور على طريق صلاح الدين بين الساعة العاشرة 10:00 صباحًا والثانية 14:00 بعد الظهر. من أجل… pic.twitter.com/H7BpiUqyTf
Borrell: situation in Middle East is 'outcome of collective political and moral failure'
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said in a speech this morning that the situation in the Middle East is “the outcome of a collective political and moral failure” due to “a real lack of willingness to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem.”
“I think that, we Europeans, we have the moral and political obligation to be involved - not only by providing aid but contributing to a durable solution,” he said.
“I think that we have three responsibilities. We must continue sticking to a firm and balanced position, and to avoid importing in Europe this conflict at all costs,” Borrell said, pointing to rising anti-Semitism and stressing that “anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiments are totally unacceptable.”
The second responsibility, according to Borrell, is a “humanitarian solution.”
International humanitarian law needs to be respected, the foreign policy chief said, adding that that “a humanitarian pause” counterbalanced by access to hostages could be a “first step”.
Borrell also said that “a massive increase in humanitarian support” as well as the evacuation of third country nationals and a “proportionate Israeli response” are all necessary.
“But the important thing is to think about a comprehensive and definitive settlement which is clearly out of reach today,” he added.
The Palestinian Authority will not accept a partial transfer of tax funds from Israel that withholds sums earmarked for administration expenses in Gaza, Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday.
Reuters reports he said he hoped international pressure would bring a speedy transfer of the funds, which are collected by Israel in areas of the occupied West Bank, and paid to the Palestinian Authority.
France is in talks with Egypt to establish a military medical facility which would include surgical capacities for people seriously wounded in the neighbouring Gaza Strip, France’s defence minister said in remarks published on Monday.
Reuters reports armed forces minister Sébastien Lecornu made the comments in an interview with Lebanon’s L’Orient le Jour newspaper. He said “There are also still discussions with Egypt in order to preposition a French military health offering on the ground, particularly providing surgery for war injuries.”
The French military is currently equipping a helicopter carrier with advanced medical facilities that is set to sail to the region in the next 10 days.
Paris will host an international humanitarian conference for the civilian population in Gaza later this week as it looks to coordinate international efforts for the besieged territory.
Al Jazeera reports 70 Palestinians were arrested in overnight Israeli raids inside the occupied West Bank.
Citing the Palestinian prisoner’s commission and the prisoner’s society, it reports more than 2,000 people have been detained in raids since 7 October. The figure is reported to include 49 women and 17 journalists.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 11am in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Israel’s military announced late on Sunday it had encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two. “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” R Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the territory.
In its latest situational update, Israel’s military claims that Israeli jets struck 450 Hamas targets, and claims to have killed Jamal Mussa, who it says “was responsible for the special security operations in the Hamas terrorist organisation”. The claims have not been independently verified.
The leaders of the UN’s major humanitarian agencies as well as international charities have called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, calling the situation “horrific” and “unacceptable” in a rare joint statement. The signatories included the heads of OCHA, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the WHO, Save the Children and CARE International. They said “For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives lost and torn apart … An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable.”
The Hamas-run ministry of health in the Gaza Strip says that at least 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,008 children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza since 7 October. It is not been possible to independently verify casualty figures from inside Gaza. The Israeli campaign began after the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October that killed at least 1,400 Israelis, and during which Hamas seized and abducted at least 240 hostages.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Turkey amid volatile scenes ahead of talks on Gaza as the US military took the rare step of announcing it had sent a nuclear-powered submarine to the region. Police in Turkey used teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters who marched on an airbase housing US forces in Turkey’s south-east hours before Blinken’s arrival.
Thailand’s prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, has told local media that the country’s chief of defence forces has informed him of a photograph that shows Thai people held by Hamas, saying it was understood this showed the hostages were still alive.
Palestine telecommunications company Paltel posted to Facebook to say that communications are gradually being restored in the besieged Gaza Strip after a third Israeli-imposed blackout of the conflict.
The Palestinian health ministry said that one Palestinian was killed and three were wounded by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank village of Halhul, north of Hebron.
Two Israeli police officers have been seriously injured in a stabbing and shooting attack in Jerusalem. The attacker was killed at the scene by Herod’s Gate in the Old City by officers who responded.
Israel has reportedly arrested Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian activist who made global headlines as a teenager in 2018 when she was arrested and later jailed for slapping and kicking IDF soldiers. Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, praised Tamimi’s arrest in a post on Twitter, calling her a “terrorist”.
Jordan has airdropped a medical aid package to a hospital in Gaza, King Abdullah II has said in a social media post. Jordan’s military said in a statement that the medical supplies were dropped via parachutes from a Jordanian Air Force plane.
The UK’s Foreign Office said on Monday it was temporarily withdrawing some British embassy staff from Lebanon. It had already advised Britons against all travel to Lebanon due to the conflict between neighbouring Israel and Gaza, and encouraged any Britons still in the country to leave while commercial flights remain.
China has said it will do its utmost to restore peace in the Palestinian territories as it takes over the presidency of the UN security council.
Updated
Here is a short video clip showing the air drop of aid to Gaza by Jordan’s air force.
Palestine telecommunications company Paltel has posted to Facebook to say that communications are gradually being restored in the besieged Gaza Strip.
It wrote:
We would like to announce the gradual return of the communication services (landline, cell and internet) to work in different regions of the sector after being disconnected from the Israeli side.
China has said it will do its utmost to restore peace in the Palestinian territories as it takes over the presidency of the UN security council.
“China will do its utmost to encourage the security council to fulfil its responsibilities, play its role, build consensus and take responsible and meaningful actions as soon as possible to ease the current crisis and safeguard the safety of civilians in order to restore peace,” Reuters reports foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular news conference.
Haaretz reports that the Palestinian health ministry said that one Palestinian was killed and three were wounded by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank village of Halhul, north of Hebron.
A former UK ambassador to Lebanon has described the decision to withdraw some staff and their families from the embassy there as “troubling”.
In an interview on Sky News in the UK, Tom Fletcher said:
It is troubling. It is worrying. These decisions are very difficult to take. The fact that they are reducing the staff levels and asking Brits to leave if they can indicates a level of concern.
Here is a little more on that announcement that the British Foreign Office is temporarily withdrawing some staff and family members from the UK embassy in Lebanon.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said:
There are ongoing mortar and artillery exchanges and air strikes in South Lebanon, on the boundary with Israel. Tensions are high and events could escalate with little warning, which could affect or limit exit routes out of Lebanon.
There is also a risk of civil unrest. There have been large protests outside embassies, including outside the US and French embassies on 17 October. Further protests are expected. British nationals should exercise caution and avoid areas where demonstrations may be held.
Due to the security situation, some staff at the British embassy and all family members of staff have been temporarily withdrawn. The embassy continues with essential work including services to British nationals.
In its latest situational update, Israel’s military claims that Israeli jets struck 450 Hamas targets, and claims to have killed Jamal Mussa, who it says “was responsible for the special security operations in the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
In a post on the Telegram messaging app, the IDF wrote:
Overnight, IDF ground troops took control of a Hamas military compound in the Gaza Strip. The compound contains observation posts, training areas for Hamas operatives and underground terror tunnels. During the operation, several Hamas terrorists were killed.
Over the last day, IDF fighter jets struck over 450 Hamas targets, including tunnels, terrorists, military compounds, observation posts, anti-tank missile launch posts and more.
Moreover, IDF naval soldiers struck command centres, anti-tank launch posts and additional observation posts belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation.
As part of the activities to target Hamas terrorists, based on ISA and IDF intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck and killed additional Hamas terrorists, including Jamal Mussa who was responsible for the special security operations in the Hamas terrorist organisation. In 1993, Jamal Mussa carried out a shooting attack on IDF soldiers who were patrolling the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, IDF soldiers killed Hamas battalion commanders in battles on the ground.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel’s military announced late on Sunday that it had encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two. The Hamas-run ministry of health in the Gaza Strip says that at least 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,008 children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
Updated
Borne: French death toll from 7 October Hamas attack has risen to 40
The French death toll from the Hamas attacks in Israel has risen to 40 deaths, the French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, said on Monday.
Borne also told France Inter radio that there were eight French citizens still missing, with some believed to be hostages, Reuters reports.
Updated
For today’s First Edition newsletter, Archie Bland spoke with Peter Beaumont about the situation between Israel, Hezbollah and Lebanon. Here is an extract:
“The fact is that regardless of what happened on 7 October and what’s happened since in the south, the biggest perceived threat to Israel is from Hezbollah,” Peter Beaumont said. “You have to ask yourself: if Israel says it can’t live with the threat of Hamas, what does that suggest about future security questions about Hezbollah? I don’t know what the answer is, but the question is clearly being asked.”
When Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah finally broke his silence after the Hamas attack with a speech shown on large screens across Lebanon on Friday, he praised the 7 October attack estimated to have killed more than 1,400 Israelis and taken hundreds as hostages as “a greatly successful” operation that had exposed “the frailty, weakness and total fragility of Israel … it’s more fragile than a spider’s web”. He also suggested that Hezbollah retained the option of expanding its cross-border attacks “at any time”. But he stopped short of any declaration of war – and emphasised that the Hamas attack had been carried out without Hezbollah’s knowledge.
Peter is cautious of any interpretation that treats Nasrallah’s speech as a cause for relief. “Understanding the messaging is not straightforward,” he said. “I think it’s still an open question what Hezbollah will do. As they play this game of incremental escalation, all it would take is a strike that kills X number – and we don’t know what that number is – for the logic of the situation to no longer be under control. And as Nasrallah does this very careful tightrope walk, that doesn’t mean that other people in the organisation wouldn’t prefer to be more proactive.”
Read more in First Edition here: How Hezbollah is fuelling fears of a new front in the Israel-Hamas war
Rebecca Ratcliffe is the Guardian’s south-east Asia correspondent:
The Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, has told local media that the country’s chief of defence forces has informed him of a photograph that shows Thai people held by Hamas, saying it was understood this showed the hostages were still alive.
The details of the photograph, including when it is believed to have been taken or how many people are present in the image, is unclear.
Thousands of Thais work in Israel’s agricultural sector, and the Israeli government has said they make up the biggest group of foreign people killed or missing in the Hamas attacks.
According to the Thai authorities, 24 Thai nationals are believed to have been abducted, 34 have been killed and 19 injured.
Srettha said on Monday that military chief Gen Songwit Noonpakdee had given him the update on Sunday night, according to a report by Thai News Agency. Negotiations to secure their release were ongoing, he said. Were there to be a temporary ceasefire, this could be used as an opportunity to evacuate the hostages, he said.
The Thai authorities have met with Hamas, as well as Qatar and Egypt in an effort to secure the hostages’ release. They have also received support from neighbouring Malaysia, a vocal supporter of Palestine.
Late last week, Srettha said that he had been told by the Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, that a group of 12 Thai hostages, and a second group of eight Thai hostages, had been moved to the same location to wait for the right time to be released. Two or three other Thai hostages were still missing, Anwar told him.
Updated
UK says it is temporarily withdrawing some British embassy staff from Lebanon
The UK’s Foreign Office said on Monday it was temporarily withdrawing some British embassy staff from Lebanon.
Reuters notes it had already advised Britons against all travel to Lebanon due to the conflict between neighbouring Israel and Gaza, and encouraged any Britons still in the country to leave while commercial flights remain.
In its travel advice, the Foreign Office says:
Events in Lebanon are fast moving. The situation has potential to deteriorate quickly and with no warning.
In the event of deterioration in the political or security situation, the British embassy may be increasingly limited in the assistance that it can provide. Do not rely on the Foreign Office being able to evacuate you in an emergency.
Lebanon is to the north of Israel. Since 7 October there have been frequent exchanges of fire between Israel’s military and what it claims are Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists over the UN-drawn blue line which marks the boundary between the two countries. Israel has ordered the evacuation of communities directly south of the blue line.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Two Israeli police officers have been seriously injured in a stabbing and shooting attack in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Post is reporting.
The attacker was killed at the scene by Herod’s Gate in the Old City by officers who responded, the Post said citing police.
The Israeli military says it “took control of a Hamas outpost in Gaza” last night in which the organization had observation posts, training facilities and “terrorist tunnels”.
“A number of terrorists” were also “eliminated” in the operation, it said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier the military said it had split the territory in two while Israeli media reported late Sunday that the Israel Defence Forces were expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Turkey amid volatile scenes ahead of talks on Gaza as the US military took the rare step of announcing it had sent a nuclear-powered submarine to the region.
Police in Turkey used teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters who marched on an airbase housing US forces in Turkey’s south-east hours before Blinken’s arrival on Sunday before Monday’s talks in Ankara with Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself plans to travel across Turkey’s remote north-east on Monday in an apparent snub of Washington’s top diplomat. Blinken has supported Israel while trying to assure regional players that Washington is focused on relieving humanitarian suffering amid the ongoing ground offensive in Gaza.
Erdoğan said on Sunday it was “Turkey’s duty” as a supporter of an independent Palestinian state to immediately stop the violence.
Late on Sunday, US Central Command, which covers the Middle East, said an Ohio-class nuclear missile submarine had arrived in the region – an unusual public announcement of a nuclear submarine’s position that was seen by users of the platform as a message to Iran.
Here’s our full report on the latest from the Israel-Hamas war:
Updated
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have reportedly arrested Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian activist who made global headlines as a teenager in 2018 when she was arrested and later jailed for slapping and kicking IDF soldiers.
Tamimi was arrested in the village of Nabi Salih near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday.
The Jerusalem Post reported last week that she had called for the murder of West Bank settlers in an Instagram post.
Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, praised Tamimi’s arrest in a post on Twitter, calling her a “terrorist”.
Updated
As US secretary of state Antony Blinken holds talks in Turkey in his bid to stop the conflict from spreading across the region, other US officials are also busy.
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to hold phone calls with foreign leaders on increasing the flow of aid into the territory on Monday, the White House said.
And various media outlets have reported that CIA director Bill Burns arrived in Israel on Sunday, and will hold talks with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief David Barnea among others.
He is then expected to travel to other countries in the region where he will meet intelligence counterparts to discuss issues “including the situation in Gaza, support for hostage negotiations, and the US commitment to continuing to deter state and nonstate actors from widening the conflict between Israel and Hamas,” the Wall Street Journal cited a US official as saying.
Israeli military encircles Gaza City
Israel’s military announced late Sunday it had encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two, as the territory came under the third total communications outage since the start of the war. Associated Press reported:
“Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the enclave.
Israeli media reported that troops are expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours. Strong explosions were seen in northern Gaza after nightfall.
But the “collapse in connectivity” across Gaza reported by internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel made it even more complicated to convey details of the new stage of the military offensive.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesushas said he was “very concerned” about the reports of connectivity outages in Gaza, as well as “heavy bombardments” of the territory and called for all channels of communication to be restored “immediately”. He said:
Without connectivity, people who need immediate medical attention cannot contact hospitals and ambulances.
Heads of UN agencies call for ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ in rare joint statement
The leaders of the UN’s major humanitarian agencies as well as international charities have called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, calling the situation “horrific” and “unacceptable” in a rare joint statement.
The signatories included the heads of OCHA, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the WHO, Save the Children and CARE International. They said:
For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives lost and torn apart.
The statement noted that 1,400 people had been killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, as well as more than 200 hostages taken, while rockets continue to be fired on Israeli communities and tens of thousands of people have been displaced, saying “this is horrific”. It continued:
However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel.
In Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health, nearly 9,500 people have been killed, including 3,900 children and over 2,400 women. More than 23,000 injured people require immediate treatment within overstretched hospitals.
An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable.
It also said that scores of aid workers had been killed over the past month including 88 UNRWA colleagues, which it said was the highest number of UN fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.
France has recorded more than a thousand antisemitic acts since the deadly 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said.
He told France 2 that 486 people had been arrested for such offences, including 102 foreign citizens. France’s Jewish population, estimated at over 500,000, is the largest in Europe and the third-biggest in the world, after Israel and the US.
Updated
A compilation of the Guardian’s explainer articles that aim to answer the deeper questions about the current conflict and give historical context, as well as provide some simple definitions, can be found here.
On Sunday Israeli warplanes struck two refugee camps, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens in central Gaza, the zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge, health officials said.
At least 40 people were killed in the Maghazi refugee camp and dozens injured. Here are some of the latest images coming to us from Maghazi:
The UK government has been accused of separating British children in Gaza from their mothers after it was revealed that citizens without passports had been left off its safe passage list.
The names of British citizens allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt via the Rafah crossing have been added to a list but, some have said their dependants have not been included by the Foreign Office.
The policy contrasts with the decisions made during the evacuation of Ukraine, when any family member of a British citizen would be provided with a visa, a group representing them said.
“We have been in touch with organisations and lawyers who work to support people who have a right to come to the UK through different visa schemes. They have been quite clear that British Palestinians are being treated very differently to people fleeing the Ukraine conflict,” said Louise Harkin of Support Families in Gaza.
“Gaza is currently the least safe place on the planet. Almost 10,000 people are confirmed dead, almost half of whom are children, yet the government now wants to separate British children from their mothers and families.
“We call upon the government to allow British citizens to bring their families with them.”
Updated
Blinken to hold talks in Turkey in next leg of diplomatic tour
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is in Turkey, on the next leg of his diplomatic blitz of the region, on which he is trying to contain the conflict between Israel and Hamas and push or humanitarian pauses to allow aid in to Gaza.
Agence France-Presse has written a good backgrounder with plenty of context on recent relations between the US, Israel and Turkey.
Blinken’s first visit [to Turkey] since Israel went to war with Hamas in reprisal for the militants’ October 7 attack comes with fury at both Israel and the West boiling over on the streets of Turkey and inside the palace of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters who marched on an air base housing US forces in Turkey’s southeast hours before Blinken‘s arrival Sunday.
Erdogan himself plans to travel across Turkey’s remote northeast Monday in a seeming snub of Washington’s top diplomat.
Blinken’s talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan were set to be packed with problems even before Israel launched a relentless bombing and expanding ground campaign aimed at eradicating Hamas.
The war threatens to have broad repercussions on Washington’s relations with Turkey – a Nato member with a muscular foreign policy and stakes in conflicts across the Middle East.
Washington is anxious to see Turkey’s parliament finally ratify Sweden’s stalled drive to join the US-led Nato defence organisation.
The United States has also been tightening sanctions against Turkish individuals and companies that are deemed to be helping Russia evade sanctions and import goods for use in its war on Ukraine.
And Ankara is upset that Congress is holding up the approval of a deal backed by US President Joe Biden to modernise Turkey’s air force with dozens of US F-16 fighter jets.
Turkey further has longstanding reservations about US support for Kurdish forces in Syria that spearheaded the fight against Islamic State group jihadists - but which Ankara views an offshoot of banned PKK militants.
Blinken‘s visit follows a whirlwind tour of the Middle East that included an unannounced visit to the West Bank for talks with Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday.
The US diplomat has been facing a chorus of Arab calls to support an immediate ceasefire.
Israel says it could accept a humanitarian pause to allow in additional shipments of aid once Hamas frees the hostages.
Blinken has supported the Israeli position while trying to assure regional players that Washington is focused on relieving humanitarian suffering.
Erdogan said on Sunday it was “Turkey’s duty” as a supporter of an independent Palestinian state to immediately stop the violence.
He said Ankara was “working behind the scenes” with regional allies to secure an uninterrupted stream of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
But he has cut off contacts with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called back Ankara’s ambassador to Israel in protest.
Erdogan has also accused the west of double standards and losing its moral authority.
“Those who shed crocodile tears for the civilians killed in the Ukraine-Russia war are now quietly watching the killing of thousands of innocent children,” Erdogan said last month.
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Jordan airdrops medical supplies to Gaza hospital
Jordan has airdropped a medical aid package to a hospital in Gaza, King Abdullah II has said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Jordan neighbours the West Bank and is home to many Palestinian refugees. The king’s wife, Queen Rania, was born to Palestinian parents and has been outspoken in her criticism of Israel in the conflict.
Our fearless air force personnel air-dropped at midnight urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza. This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza. We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren pic.twitter.com/HOWI2VL7hL
— عبدالله بن الحسين (@KingAbdullahII) November 5, 2023
The US news website Axios reported that the airdrop was done in conjunction with the Israeli military.
Given Israel’s blockade and intense bombardment of the strip it is hard to imagine it could have been done otherwise.
Jordan’s military said in a statement that the medical supplies were dropped via parachutes from a Jordanian Air Force plane, according to Axios.
Aid has been trickling into the territory via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt but the UN has said it is woefully inadequate for what is needed. Israel has cut off water, fuel and medical supplies to Gaza even as thousands of civilians are killed and injured in its attacks.
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas with me, Helen Livingstone.
Jordan says it has airdropped medical supplies to a Gaza hospital overnight as Israel cut off communications in the territory on Sunday and stepped up its bombardments once again. The Israeli military said it had cut the strip in two late Sunday and Israeli media reported that the army was expected to enter Gaza City within the next 48 hours.
Meanwhile US secretary of state Antony Blinken is in Turkey on Monday, as he continues his lightning round of diplomacy in the Middle East in a bid to contain the conflict and push for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to allow aid into Gaza.
He is due to meet Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, in Ankara a day after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters tried to storm an air base that houses US troops in southern Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself plans to travel across Turkey’s remote northeast Monday in an apparent snub of Washington’s top diplomat.
In other developments:
Gaza was rocked by a series of huge explosions on Sunday evening and communications with the coastal strip were cut, as violence also escalated on Israel’s northern boundary with Lebanon. The strikes on Gaza came as the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) indicated that its troops were planning to enter Gaza in force perhaps within the next 48 hours, according to reports in Israeli media.
Israel stopped firing in northern Gaza for several hours two days in a row to create safe passage for civilians to move to the south, a military spokesperson told CNN on Sunday, amid pressure for a humanitarian pause. “Yesterday and today, for many hours with prior notice and warning, we facilitated, we stopped firing in certain areas of northern Gaza, which is the main combat area, and we called on Palestinians to move south,” Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday following his earlier trip to the West Bank and a brief stop in Cyprus. Iraq’s prime minister, Mohamed Shia al-Sudani, met the US secretary of state, the premier’s office said, according to Agence France-Presse. It comes as American forces in the region face a surge of attacks by Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere. US forces shot down another one-way attack drone on Sunday that was targeting American and coalition troops near their base in neighbouring Syria, a US official said. In the West Bank, neither Blinken nor Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas spoke as they greeted each other in front of cameras and their meeting ended without any public comment.
Blinken met the president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, on Sunday to discuss a maritime aid corridor from the island to Gaza. Their conversation included “a dedicated, one-way maritime corridor of sustained flow of humanitarian aid from Cyprus to civilians in Gaza”, Cyprus government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said.
A senior Israeli cabinet minister on Sunday called on Benjamin Netanyahu to retract a comment he was reported to have made about the need to check if a pre-war protest among army reservists pushed Hamas to carry out its attack last month. Israel’s Channel 12 and other news outlets reported that Netanyahu said there may be a need to examine whether months of protests against his government, including by reservists who said they would no longer report for regular duty, added to Hamas’ motivation to carry out the 7 October rampage through southern Israel that triggered the current war. Benny Gantz, who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet from the opposition as part of an emergency government, said Netanyahu must retract his comment. “Avoiding responsibility and slinging mud at the time of war is a blow to the country,” Gantz wrote on social media platform X.
The leaders of the UN’s major humanitarian agencies as well as international charities have called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, calling the situation “horrific” and “unacceptable” in a rare joint statement. While condemning the Hamas attack of 7 October, the agency head said: “The horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel.”
In a new interview with CNN, Jordan’s Queen Rania criticised Israel’s evacuation orders to Palestinians living across the Gaza Strip. She said: “The evacuation orders are sent online or on television, knowing that there’s no electricity in Gaza since the beginning of this war … [They], I do not believe, are for the benefit of the Gaza civilians. They are not the target audience, the rest of the world is. It is Israel’s attempt to try to minimise their actions.”
A total of 48 installations belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have been damaged across Gaza since 7 October. In an update released on Sunday, UNRWA added that nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced across Gaza since the war broke out nearly a month ago.
Hezbollah said it fired multiple grad rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona on Sunday, in retaliation for an Israeli strike in south Lebanon that it said had killed a woman and three children, Reuters reported. In a statement, the Lebanese militant faction said its attack came in response to Israel’s “heinous and brutal crime”. Three children and their grandmother were killed in the Israeli strike, a Hezbollah lawmaker from the area said, calling the attack “a dangerous development” that would have repercussions. “The enemy will pay the price for its crimes against civilians,” lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters, adding that the children were aged between eight and 15.
The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on only two pieces of bread every day, according to a UN official. Associated Press reports: “The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour the United Nations had stockpiled in the region, yet the main refrain now being heard in the street is ‘Water, water’, the Gaza director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday.”
Palestinian telecoms firm Paltel said that Israel has once again cut internet and phone lines across Gaza on Sunday night. Paltel said in a statement: “We regret to announce the complete shutdown of communications and internet services in Gaza after the Israeli side disconnected the servers.” Shortly after the blackout, Israel launched an intense bombardment on Gaza and other nearby zones in the north of the strip. The blackout was confirmed by connectivity monitor NetBlocks.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has issued an appeal for urgent expanded access to Gaza as food supplies run “dangerously low”. In a statement on Sunday, WFP head Cindy McCain said: “Right now, parents in Gaza do not know whether they can feed their children today and whether they will even survive to see tomorrow.”
