The Israeli military on Thursday said it had targeted Lebanon's Hezbollah with a "broad assault" as the Iran-backed militant group claimed an attack on 19 Israeli positions. Earlier in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces broke Hamas’s first line of defence and pushed further past the outskirts of Gaza City, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Read our live blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
The latest news in brief:
- Israel's ground troops advanced past the outskirts of Gaza City on Thursday as US and Arab countries intensified diplomatic efforts to ease the siege of the Hamas-ruled enclave.
- Egypt will help evacuate some 7,000 foreigners and dual nationals from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The first foreign nationals and wounded Palestinians were able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday.
- Israel said it struck the Jabalia refugee camp for a second time in two days on Wednesday, prompting international outrage, with the UN warning of war crimes. Hamas said on Thursday that 195 people were killed in Jabalia refugee camp by Israeli strikes this week.
This live blog is no longer being updated. For the latest on the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
9:57pm: Jordan to tell Blinken that Israel must immediately stop war on Gaza
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi will tell US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman on Saturday that Israel must end its war on Gaza where he said it was committing war crimes by bombing civilians and imposing a siege.
In a foreign ministry statement, Safadi warned that Israel's unreadiness to end the war was pushing the region rapidly towards a regional war that threatened world peace.
8:47pm: France to send second helicopter carrier to Gaza coastline as part of aid effort
France will send a second French helicopter carrier off the coast of Gaza as it works with Israeli and Egyptian authorities to find a way to provide medical assistance to people affected by the bombings in the besieged area.
Paris has already sent the Tonnerre carrier to the eastern Mediterranean on what President Emmanuel Macron described as a mission to support Gaza hospitals. Egypt this week began admitting limited numbers of wounded across its Gaza border.
However, it is unclear what exactly the ships will do in the region as they are too small to work as field hospitals for the number of wounded coming from Gaza.
Speaking to France Info radio, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the helicopter carrier Dixmude would also now be heading to the region.
"It is being equipped to be transformed into a hospital vessel," Lecornu said.
7:07pm: Israel army hits Lebanon's Hezbollah with 'broad assault'
The Israeli military said it targeted Lebanon's Hezbollah with a "broad assault" on Thursday, as the Iran-backed militant group said it had attacked 19 Israeli positions simultaneously.
Israeli "warplanes and helicopters attacked in recent hours targets of the Hezbollah terror organisation in response to fire from Lebanese territory earlier today, together with attacks with artillery and tank fire", an Israeli military statement said.
6:19pm: Lebanon's Hezbollah says it attacked 19 Israeli positions simultaneously
Lebanon's Hezbollah said it attacked 19 Israeli positions along the border simultaneously Thursday, on the eve of a speech by the Iran-backed group's leader on the Israel-Hamas war.
At 3:30 pm (1330 GMT), Hezbollah fighters "simultaneously attacked 19 Zionist military positions and points with guided missiles, artillery shelling" and other weapons, the group said in a statement.
6:13pm: Blinken to talk with Israel on 'concrete steps' to minimise civilian harm
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday he would ask Israel to take "concrete steps" to minimize harm to civilians in Gaza as he left on a crisis trip.
"We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimise harm to men, women and children in Gaza," Blinken told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base as he flew out.
"This is something that the United States is committed to," he said.
6:02pm: Biden says 74 dual citizens have been able to leave Gaza
The United States has been able to get 74 dual citizens out of Gaza, President Joe Biden said at the White House on Thursday, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt.
5:58pm: Two wounded by barrage of rockets near Lebanon border, Israel medics say
A barrage of rockets wounded two people in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanese border Thursday, Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said.
One of the wounded was "a 25-year-old man in moderate condition who was injured by shrapnel", the medical service said.
An AFP photographer saw Israeli emergency crews checking the debris of burnt out vehicles following the strikes in Kiryat Shmona.
The Lebanese section of Hamas's armed wing said it fired a dozen rockets at the town "in response to the occupation (Israeli) massacres against our people in Gaza".
5:12pm: Time 'running out to prevent genocide' in Gaza, UN experts say
A group of UN human rights experts, including the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said Thursday that "time is running out to prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza".
"We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide," the experts said in a joint statement. "The time for action is now. Israel's allies also bear responsibility and must act now to prevent its disastrous course of action."
4:39pm: Israeli troops advance past Gaza City outskirts, PM Netanyahu says
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israeli forces had pushed further in than the outskirts of Gaza City in their assault on Hamas militants in the northern half of the Gaza Strip.
"We're at the height of the battle. We've had impressive successes and have passed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
Israel's IDF spokesperson earlier told reporters that Israeli forces have breached Hamas's first line of defence, FRANCE 24 senior correspondent Catherine Norris Trent reported from Tel Aviv, adding that details on the Israeli ground operation in Gaza remain scarce.
As the Israeli army pushes on, the humanitarian situation is becoming "extremely difficult for civilians remaining there", Norris Trent said.
4:19pm: Israel strikes Gaza, ground troops advance on Gaza City
Israeli tanks and troops pressed towards Gaza City on Thursday but met fierce resistance from Hamas militants using mortars and hit-and-run attacks from tunnels as the Palestinian death toll from nearly four weeks of bombardment mounted.
The war is closing in on the Gaza Strip's main population centre in the north, where the Islamist group is based.
FRANCE 24's Irris Makler reports from Jerusalem.
3:52pm: Fuel shortage puts 14 out of 36 Gaza hospitals out of operation, WHO chief says
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday said the current fuel shortage in Gaza has put 14 out of 36 hospitals and 2 specialty centres in Gaza out of operation.
Underlining the severe humanitarian crisis in the enclave, Ghebreyesus said that "the hospitals that remain open are overloaded with 40% more patients than they are designed to manage", as he called for urgent access to humanitarian aid for Palestinians.
3:46pm: Gaza hospital evacuations put hundreds of patients at risk
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday the forced evacuation of hospitals in the Gaza Strip put the lives of hundreds of patients at risk.
"Twenty-three hospitals have been ordered to evacuate in Gaza City and north Gaza, and forced evacuation in these circumstances would put the lives of hundreds of patients in a life threatening situation," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
3:40pm: UN says 70 staff members killed in Gaza
The United Nations said on Thursday that 70 staff members working for the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) have been killed since October 7.
"This is the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short time," the UN said in a post on X.
3:20pm: 'We're fighting for our land': West Bank Palestinians decry deadly Israeli raids
As Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza rages on, the other part of the Palestinian Territories, the West Bank, is also witnessed deadly violence.
Israeli army raids and settlers have killed around 130 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, according to local authorities. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been arrested.
Please click on the video player below to watch the report.
3:07pm: Spain to evacuate 140 to 170 citizens, relatives from Gaza
Spain plans to evacuate between 140 and 170 Spanish citizens and their family members from the Gaza Strip on Thursday or Friday, acting Defence Minister Margarita Robles told reporters on Thursday.
2:58pm: Hamas-run health ministry says 27 killed in Israel strike near UN Gaza school
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday at least 27 people were killed in an Israeli strike near a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp.
"The bodies of 27 martyrs were recovered and a large number of wounded," said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra in a toll FRANCE 24 was unable to independently verify. AFP footage from the incident showed several casualties as crowds of people rushed to rescue the injured.
2:21pm: Gaza civil emergency services say 15 people killed in Israeli strike on Bureij refugee camp
Civil emergency services in the besieged Gaza Strip said on Thursday that 15 people were found dead in the rubble after an Israeli strike on Bureij refugee camp.
1:39pm: UK's Sunak and UN's Guterres agree on need to scale up humanitarian aid to Gaza
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agreed on the need to scale up delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the prime minister's office said on Thursday.
"The leaders ... discussed the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and agreed on the importance of urgently scaling up the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
"The Prime Minister and the Secretary-General agreed on the need to reinvigorate international efforts to reach a lasting resolution to the conflict and progress work towards a two-state solution."
The two leaders met as they attended talks on the final day of the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in England
1:05pm: Lebanon says fires from Israeli shelling have destroyed 40,000 olive trees
Fires caused by Israeli shelling in south Lebanon have burned some 40,000 olive trees and torched hundreds of square kilometres of land, dealing a serious blow to a major Lebanese crop, the agriculture minister said.
Fires on Lebanon's side of the border have flared daily since Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging fire last month after war between Israel and Gaza's ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas erupted.
"Forty-thousand trees mean 40,000 histories. People are connected to olives spiritually. Our ancestors planted them, and we are losing them today," Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan told Reuters.
He accused Israel of starting the fires by using shells containing white phosphorous to destroy wooded areas that Hezbollah fighters – who began firing into Israel in support of Hamas in what has become the worst flare-up of border hostilities since a 2006 war – could use as cover.
The Israeli army denied the accusation and said the types of smoke-screen shell it uses do not contain white phosphorus.
12:52pm: Three Palestinians, one Israeli killed in West Bank violence
Three Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, and an Israeli was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, according to first responders.
In El-Bireh, near the seat of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, two Palestinians were killed when Israeli troops opened fire during a raid on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
A 19-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces during a raid on Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, according to the ministry. The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the incidents.
Elsewhere, an Israeli was killed after his car came under fire near the settlement of Einav, said Israel's Magen David Adom emergency response organisation. Israeli officials have not identified the fatality.
Violence has surged across the West Bank for months and intensified further since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
12:45pm: Israel has asked for foreign hospital ships for Gaza wounded, ambassador says
Israel has asked foreign countries to send hospital ships for the proposed treatment of wounded Palestinians allowed to leave the war-torn Gaza Strip to neighbouring Egypt, the Israeli ambassador to Germany said on Thursday.
Interviewed on Israel's Kan radio, Ron Prosor said such a request had been made of Germany and other countries. He described a scenario outlined by Kan, whereby wounded Gazans would board such ships in Egypt's Al Arish port, as accurate.
11:48am: More than 9,000 killed in Gaza, health ministry says
The total death toll in Gaza rose to 9,061 people and 32,000 others injured, the official spokesperson for the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said on Thursday.
The dead include 3,760 children and 2,326 women, the spokesperson said.
FRANCE 24 was not able to independently verify the figures.
11:30am: Israeli fire kills two Lebanese shepherds, state media says
Lebanon's army on Thursday retrieved the bodies of two shepherds killed by Israeli fire, official media said, raising to 66 the number killed in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to an AFP tally.
Lebanon's southern border has seen tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah, since Hamas militants launched an unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The two shepherds, aged 20 and 22, had been reported missing on Wednesday as they herded their flock through Wazzani, their home village near the border, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
"They were found dead after the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire in their direction," the NNA said.
Most of those killed in the cross-border violence have been Hezbollah fighters but the number also includes seven civilians, one of them a journalist.
On the Israeli side, nine people have died – eight soldiers and one civilian, the army says.
11:05am: UAE says it plans to treat 1,000 Palestinian children from Gaza
The United Arab Emirates said on Thursday it planned to treat 1,000 Palestinian children from Gaza, without saying how they would leave the Israeli-besieged enclave for the Gulf state.
Gaza's border with Egypt – the only exit point apart from the closed border crossings with Israel – has largely been shut since October 7 although several hundred foreign nationals and a small number of wounded Palestinians have crossed into Egypt since Wednesday under a deal brokered by Qatar.
UAE state news agency WAM reported President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had directed hospitals to treat 1,000 Palestinian children "accompanied by their families" from Gaza.
WAM reported the Palestinian children would "return home" after they had received medical care.
It was not immediately clear whether those children and their families would be able to leave Gaza under the Qatar deal.
11:04am: France’s minister of armed forces to visit Lebanon-Israel border
Sébastien Lecornu, France's minister of the armed forces, met with officials in Lebanon on Wednesday in a bid to keep the Middle Eastern country out of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The trip comes amid rising border tensions between crisis-shaken Lebanon and its southern neighbour Israel since the start of the Gaza conflict earlier this month.
Lecornu will visit the Lebanon-Israel border on Thursday, FRANCE 24's Rawad Taha reports from Beirut, Lebanon.
10:51am: Group of 100 foreign passport-holders depart Gaza for Egypt
A day after dozens of wounded Palestinians and hundreds of foreign passport-holders crossed into Egypt from Gaza, more arrived at the Rafah border crossing on Thursday.
Wael Abu Mohsen, a Gazan official at the crossing, told AFP: "Two buses carrying 100 passengers holding foreign passports" entered the terminal during the morning.
Egyptian and Palestinian officials both said 400 foreigners and dual nationals were expected to cross on Thursday, alongside between 60 to 100 of the sick and wounded.
A list of those approved to travel Thursday shows hundreds of US citizens and 50 Belgians along with smaller numbers from various European, Arab, Asian and African countries.
FRANCE 24's Eduard Cousin reports on the crossings from Cairo, Egypt.
10:29am: Israel's ground force ‘at the gates of Gaza City’, commander says
Israeli tanks and troops pressed towards Gaza City on Thursday despite fierce resistance from Hamas militants using mortars and hit-and-run attacks from tunnels.
"We are at the gates of Gaza City," Israeli military commander Brigadier General Itzik Cohen said Thursday. The urban hub is Gaza Strip's main population centre in the north where the Islamist group is based.
"They never stopped bombing Gaza City all night, the house never stopped shaking," said one man living there, asking not to be identified by name. "But in the morning we discover the Israeli forces are still outside the city, in the outskirts and that means the resistance is heavier than they expected."
Fighters of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad were emerging from tunnels to fire at tanks, then disappearing back into the network, residents said and videos from both groups showed, in guerrilla-style operations against a far more powerful army.
Residents reported mortar fire throughout the night in areas around Gaza City and said Israeli tanks and bulldozers were sometimes driving over rubble and knocking down structures rather than using regular roads as planes bombed from overhead.
9:49am: IDF says Hamas is holding 242 confirmed hostages in Gaza
The Israeli military said Thursday that there are 242 confirmed hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
The militant group has been holding the hostages since it launched a deadly attack on Israel on October 7.
8:43am: Hamas says 195 killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza refugee camp
Hamas said on Thursday that 195 people were killed by Israeli strikes this week on Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp.
"The victims of the first and second massacres in Jabalia exceed 1,000" including "martyrs and wounded", said the Hamas press office in a statement referring to strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday. "We have recorded 195 martyrs, 120 missing under the rubble, and 777 wounded."
FRANCE 24 could not independently verify the figures.
8:29am: Israel says it killed dozens of Palestinian militants overnight
The Israeli army said Thursday its forces had killed "dozens" of Palestinian militants in overnight battles in the northern Gaza Strip.
Troops on the ground were aided by "artillery fire and tanks" as well as "an aerial strike from a helicopter and a missile strike from a naval boat", the army said.
8:19am: Egypt says it will help evacuate 'about 7,000' foreign passport-holders from Gaza
Egypt will help evacuate "about 7,000" foreigners and dual nationals from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
In a meeting with foreign diplomats, assistant foreign minister Ismail Khairat said Egypt was preparing "to facilitate the reception and evacuation of foreign citizens from Gaza through the Rafah crossing", adding they "number at about 7,000" representing "more than 60" nationalities.
7:33am: Hundreds of foreign passport-holders leave Gaza for Egypt through Rafah crossing
FRANCE 24 correspondent Eduard Cousin reported from Cairo Thursday morning on the first wave of foreign passport-holders and wounded Gazans allowed through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
Around 350 foreigners and dual nationals entered Egypt yesterday, having been included in a list of some 500 names.
“The first thing that’s going to happen today is that the remainder of that list can leave Gaza – there are still around 150 people on that list who didn’t get out yesterday who can get out today,” Cousin said.
6:16am: Thailand held direct hostage talks with Hamas in Iran: negotiator
Thai officials held direct talks with Hamas in Iran last week over the fate of 22 of the kingdom's nationals taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group in its attack on Israel, the head of the Thai delegation said.
Negotiators met Hamas officials in Tehran on October 26 and were given a pledge that the Thais would be released at the "right time", Areepen Uttarasin told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday.
"I asked them to release them because they are innocent," he said. "They assured me that they were taking good care of them, but they couldn't tell me the release date ... They were waiting for the right time."
6:14am: MSF says more than 20,000 injured still in Gaza
More than 20,000 wounded people are still trapped in the Gaza Strip, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), despite initial evacuations of foreign passport-holders and badly injured Palestinians across the border to Egypt.
MSF noted the evacuations of "a number of severely injured" people in a statement on Wednesday, saying that its 22 international staff members in Gaza had also been among those who left the territory via the Rafah border crossing.
"However, there are still over 20,000 injured people in Gaza with limited access to healthcare due to the siege," it said.
2:11am: Biden calls for 'pause' in Israel offensive
President Joe Biden said he thought there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war, after his campaign speech Wednesday evening was interrupted by a protester calling for a ceasefire.
“I think we need a pause,” Biden said.
The call was a subtle departure for Biden and top White House aides, who throughout the crisis have been steadfast in stating they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas.
On Wednesday evening, Biden was speaking to a crowd of supporters in Minneapolis about his reasons for running for president in 2020 when a woman got up and yelled: “Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire."
Key developments from Wednesday, November 1:
Hundreds of foreign passport-holders and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians have been allowed to leave Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began more than three weeks ago.
Israel accused Bolivia on Wednesday of "capitulation to terrorism and to the ayatollah regime in Iran" after the South American nation cut ties in protest at civilian casualties from Israel's war with Tehran-backed Hamas in Gaza.
Thirty-four journalists have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas, an international media freedom group said Wednesday, accusing both sides of committing possible war crimes. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors to investigate the deaths. The organisation said it already filed a complaint regarding eight Palestinian journalists it said were killed in Israel’s bombardment of civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, and an Israeli journalist killed during Hamas’s October 7 surprise attack in southern Israel.
The United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday it was concerned that Israeli air strikes on Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp could amount to war crimes. "Given the high number of civilian casualties & the scale of destruction following Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia refugee camp, we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes," the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote on X.
Read our blog to see how yesterday's events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
