Israel-Hamas War HIGHLIGHTS: PM Benjamin Netanyahu Visits Israeli Soldiers Near Gaza Border
Israel-Hamas War HIGHLIGHTS: Follow this space for all the live and latest updates on the Israel-Hamas war.
Iran's foreign minister called on Israel to halt its attacks on Gaza on Saturday, saying that if Hezbollah enters the fight, the conflict might spread to other regions of the Middle East, causing Israel to face "a huge earthquake," news agency Associated Press reported. Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon's Hezbollah organisation has considered all conflict scenarios and that Israel should cease attacking Gaza as soon as possible.
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a video and photographs from his visit to the front lines near the Gaza border, where he spoke with Israeli soldiers.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in the UAE, his fifth destination on an extensive global journey aimed at preventing the Israeli conflict from spreading further CNN reported.
The top US diplomat began his day in Saudi Arabia, where he met with the Saudi foreign minister and discussed civilian protection and conflict resolution. In Abu Dhabi, he will meet with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Blinken visited Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain before landing in Riyadh on Friday. He was in Israel on Thursday and will be in Egypt on Sunday before returning to the United States.
A six-hour window issued by the Israeli military ordering Palestinian civilians to finish evacuating from Gaza City to the southern part of the strip ended.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed Saturday that they were investigating an "incident with [a] Reuters journalist" who was slain in southern Lebanon, CNN reported.
Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah was murdered on Friday when Israel fired artillery into the area where he and other journalists were gathering, injuring at least six others. At the time of the incident, the journalists were wearing press jackets.
Lufthansa, the German airline, has cancelled all flights to Lebanon until October 16. “Due to the current situation in the Middle East, Lufthansa will suspend its flights to Beirut/Lebanon (BEY) up to and including October 16,” a company spokesperson said Saturday in a statement to CNN.
The United Nations has called the situation in Gaza "life and death," saying that the 2 million people there are running critically low on drinkable water. The UN also warned of the growing threat of waterborne infections. "It has become a matter of life and death. It is a must; fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for 2 million people,” Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Phillippe Lazzarini said in a statement quoted by CNN in its report.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that "Palestine is now in a critical situation," and that the continued violence "has caused heavy civilian casualties," CNN reported.
On Friday, China's top diplomat repeated Beijing's support for "fairness and justice" in the Israeli-Palestinian issue during a joint news conference with the European Union's foreign policy leader, Josep Borrell.
Since Israel launched war on Hamas and continues to bomb Gaza over the past week, violence has increased in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, CNN reported.
According to a Saturday morning update from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the dead toll has risen to 53, with over 1,100 people wounded.
Settlers are Israeli residents who have been accused of carrying out acts of violence against Palestinians, including physical assault, property destruction, and harassment, against international law.
A hospital in Gaza has been using ice cream trucks from local factories as makeshift morgues to supplement the overflowing hospital mortuaries.
Yasser Khatab, a forensic pathologist in al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said in a video message sent to CNN on Saturday that the Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah is unable to accommodate the increasing number of deceased.
Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 324 people in the past 24 hours alone, including 126 children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said. | AFP
Jordan’s King Abdullah is leaving on Saturday for a European tour to garner support from the region’s leaders for an end to the Israeli “war on Gaza”, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has told state media, as per Al Jazeera.
The city of Sderot in southern Israel was placed under red alert on Saturday morning after Hamas fired rockets on the city. In a post on Telegram Saturday, Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades said it had fired “rockets at the occupied city of Sderot.”
Israeli forces say, as of 9 am on Saturday, over 120 civilians are being held captive in Gaza by the Hamas terrorist organization.
Saudi pauses talks on normalisation with Israel, reports AFP citing a source.
173 rockets hit the city of Ashkelon since the start of Operation Swords of Iron since last Saturday, according to the city's municipality, reports Jerusalem Post.
Rocket sirens sound in a number of towns on the Gaza border. Times of Israel states that the renewed fire from the Strip comes after a lull of approximately 10 hours, a pattern that the Gaza terror groups have replicated over the past three days.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, says the group is “in intensive contact with our Arab brothers and many countries for an immediate ceasefire and opening humanitarian corridors for our people in the Gaza Strip”.
Due to the Israel-Palestine conflict, all the countries have started work of evacuating their citizens from Israel. Embassies of several countries such as the US, Denmark, Finland and France have set up counters at Tel Aviv airport to help people leave Israel
In an Arabic message, the Israel Defense Forces tells residents of the northern Gaza Strip that they should move to the southern part of the enclave using evacuation corridors between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
“If you care about yourself and your loved ones, go south as instructed,” the military says. “Rest assured that Hamas leaders have taken care of themselves and are taking cover from strikes in the region.”
An Israeli drone targeted and killed “a number of terrorists” who tried to infiltrate Israeli territory from Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday, reports CNN.
The IDF did not say exactly when the operation took place, but in an update released at 1:55 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday it said it happened “a short while ago.”
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has announced that three more citizens from his country have been killed following the Hamas attack, bringing to 24 the death toll of the citizens from Thailand.
The Israeli army has resumed artillery shelling from gunboats and tanks on the eastern and western Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera.
The Israel Defense Forces says it has killed a senior member of the Hamas terror group in an overnight airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is trying to stop Palestinian civilians from evacuating northern parts of Gaza, turning them into "human shields," Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Saturday.
Last rites of Israeli soldiers, who lost their lives in conflict with Hamas, were held in Jerusalem yesterday.
A group of people stages protest in support of Palestine at New York’s Times Square amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
UN says the order to evacuate 1.1 million people is "outrageous" and defies "rules of war and basic humanity"
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says that a plan by Israel to evacuate more than one million people out of northern Gaza in a single day was “utterly impossible to implement.”
President Joe Biden spent about 45 minutes Friday speaking to family members of missing Americans in Israel, according to the father of missing American Sagui Dekel-Chen, reports CNN.
More than 110 Jewish organizations and communities from 40 countries around the world sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the ambassadors of the UN member states, reports The Jerusalem Post.
Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Jonathan Conricus says, "Extremely sad and worrying to see that Hamas actively undermines and tries to stop Palestinian civilians from evacuating the area...according to the reports by international media"
The Israeli military says it has struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon after one of its drones was fired on.
The move came in response to "the infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel and fire on an IDF UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]," the Israeli military said in a statement Saturday morning local time, adding that it intercepted both the aerial objects and the fire.
Tens of thousands of people left their homes in Gaza on Friday after Israel's military warned over one million people living north of Wadi Gaza to move south, according to a statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Saturday.
Prior to the warning, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced, the statement added.
US President Joe Biden says that it’s a priority of his administration to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The military early Friday warned Gaza residents in the northern part of the strip to evacuate within 24 hours, amid preparations for a likely ground incursion or a stepped-up offensive. The area is home to about 1 million people.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations held a solidarity event for hostages held by Hamas in Gaza following its shock assault in Israel last Saturday, his office says, reports Times of Israel.
Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton speaks on Congress CWC resolution backing Palestine.
He says, "Congress has taken a stance of supporting Palestine, which shows that they are supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization that has killed thousands of innocent women and children in Israel...This is why in Nagaland, we have stopped voting for Congress. And this is why not a single Congress candidate who contested elections in the last 15 years could get elected..."
Operation Ajay: Second flight carrying 235 Indian nationals from Israel, lands at Delhi airport. MoS MEA Rajkumar Ranjan Singh is present at the airport to receive the Indian nationals evacuated from Israel.
The Israeli military says another “unidentified object” that penetrated into Israeli airspace in the north was shot down by aerial defense forces after a warning alert was activated near the Arab-majority city of Shfaram.
Militant group Hamas said in a statement Saturday morning (local time) that it welcomes "Russia's tireless efforts" aimed at stopping Israel's aggression against the territory.
"[We] appreciate Russian President Vladimir Putin's position regarding the ongoing Zionist aggression against our people and his rejection of the Gaza siege, the cutting of relief supplies, and the targeting of safe civilians there," the statement read.
Hamas press office says 70 people, mostly women and children, killed in Israeli airstrike on convoys fleeing Gaza City, reports AP
Israel is conducting drone attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, as per CNN.
The White House claimed Friday that Israel did not communicate with the US before issuing an evacuation warning to more than a million residents in northern Gaza, CNN reported.
Cutting off power, water, gasoline, and food to 2 million Gaza residents is a "breach of the most fundamental human rights," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.
The US is continuing to push the Egyptian and Israeli governments on "the importance of the Rafah crossing being open for American citizens and foreign nationals of other countries who want to leave and have the right to leave to be able to do so," according to a senior State Department official, CNN reported.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,799 Palestinians, CNN reported.
According to the government, 583 children and 351 women have died.
According to the ministry, an additional 7,388 persons were hurt, including 1,901 children and 1,185 women.
Following the devastating Hamas attack, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin vowed steadfast US support for Israel, emphasising that "this is not the time for neutrality, false equivalence, or excuses for the inexcusable," CNN reported.
Israeli fire kills 5 in West Bank as Palestinians rally for Gaza: ministry (AFP)
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) defended remarks made Thursday concerning the war between Israel and Hamas during a phone discussion between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a senior advisor to Brazil's President, CNN reported.
When asked about the remarks on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated the Foreign Minister's statement from the day before, adding, "I would like to emphasise that China has no self-interest in the question of Palestine and has always stood on the side of peace, fairness, and justice."
Sirens are now sounding in northern Israel, warning of possible rocket fire.
Images on social media showed the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) dropping flyers from planes into Gaza, urging Palestinians to abandon their homes and go south, CNN reported. Earlier, news outlets broadcast live images of leaflets falling from the skies.
“For your safety, you should not return home until further notice from the IDF,” the leaflet said.
“All public shelters known in Gaza have to be vacated,” the leaflet added.
“It is forbidden to get close to the security border fence. Every person who approaches the fence is subjecting themselves to death.”
The Delhi Police have heightened security measures in the national capital in response to the intelligence reports suggesting the potential for disruptions amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, IANS reported. We have bolstered our presence at key locations and are maintaining constant vigilance to prevent any untoward incidents, said a senior police official.Furthermore, the police have stationed their personnel around Jewish establishments in the city. In the Central district's Jama Masjid area, a flag march was conducted by the police to ensure public safety.
Hamas claims to have launched missiles towards Ben Gurion International Airport and the Israeli city of Sderot in the south, CNN reported.
In a statement issued Friday, the militant group claimed that 50 rockets were fired towards Sderot.
Hamas also claimed to have used two explosive drones to strike Israeli soldiers in Kfar Sa'ad.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Friday that hospitals in Gaza are "at breaking point" and that "time is running out" to avert a humanitarian disaster.
Israeli diplomat in China stabbed in possible terrorist attack, diplomat's condition believed to be stable, as reported by i24 News
13 hostages, 'including foreigners', killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, says Hamas, as reported by the news agency AFP.
The IDF is calling for the evacuation of all civilians of Gaza City from their homes southward for their own safety and protection. Hamas is telling Gaza residents to ignore our safety instructions.
Israeli Air Force jets hit 12 high-rise buildings in Gaza where Hamas terrorist military infrastructure was operational, as reported by 124 News. According to the IDF, the 12 buildings were attacked in full synchronization between the fighter jets, in just one minute.
Four Patriot missiles were reportedly launched from Israeli territory, with three of them exploding in the airspace of southern Lebanon and the fourth falling in one of the plains in the area, as reported by the news agency IANS.
UN asks Israel to rescind northern Gaza evacuation order to avoid 'devastating' consequences, as reported by the news agency AFP.
Members of the Houthis group gather in support of Palestine in Sana'a, Yemen amid conflict between Israel and Hamas.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has directed UK military assets to be deployed to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel, reinforce regional stability and prevent escalation, Downing Street announced in London on Thursday.
As the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas rages on, former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal called for protests across the Muslim world in support of the Palestinians and for the peoples of neighbouring countries to join the fight against Israel, as reported by the news agency Reuters.
Meshaal currently heads Hamas's diaspora office. "[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday,", he said in a recorded statement sent to Reuters. Meshaal urged for support from Jordan and said, "Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan... This is a moment of truth, and the borders are close to you, you all know your responsibility," as quoted by Reuters.
The United States will arrange for charter flights to evacuate its citizens from Israel, the White House said Thursday. So far, 27 American citizens have died in the attacks by Palestinian militant group, Hamas and 14 remain unaccounted for. India is the first country to evacuate its citizens from Israel after Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7.
Flight carrying the first batch of Nepali students evacuated from Israel arrived in Nepal's capital Kathmandu.
Background
Israel-Hamas War HIGHLIGHTS: The escalation between Israel and Hamas entered its seventh day on Friday with attacks and counter-attacks from both the sides. On the sixth day, the Israeli military said more than 1,300 people, including 222 soldiers, were killed in Israel, a staggering toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria that lasted weeks. In Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, at least 1,417 people, including women and children, have been killed, according to authorities there.
On Thursday, Israel's Energy Minister has warned that no humanitarian aid or any essential resources will be allowed into Gaza until Hamas releases all hostages, Al Jazeera reported.
"Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home," Energy Minister Israel Katz said. Hamas has reportedly taken around 150 Israelis, foreigners, and Israeli dual nationals, as hostages back to Gaza during Saturday's surprise attack.
Israel has retaliated to the surprise attack by declaring war to destroy Hamas' capability, relentlessly pounding the densely populated and impoverished Gaza Strip. Thousands of people on both sides have died -- most of them civilians. British-based relatives of Israelis believed taken hostage made emotional pleas on Thursday for their safe release.
The family members displayed posters in London of some of those missing alongside the words: "Bring them home." One of the photos was of a six-month-old baby, another of a three-year-old boy. "They need to be back home now," said Noam Sagi, who says his mother Ada Sagi was Kidnapped from her home when the group rushed to the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border, reported AFP.
Operation Ajay
On Wednesday, Jaishankar announced the launch of Operation Ajay to to facilitate the return of those Indians who wish to come back home.
"Launching #OperationAjay to facilitate the return from Israel of our citizens who wish to return. Special charter flights and other arrangements being put in place," Jaishankar wrote. "Fully committed to the safety and well-being of our nationals abroad," the external affairs minister said.
Ben Gurion International Airport is the main international airport of Israel. It is situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod. While Israel's retaliatory offensive on Gaza continued unabated, there has been a total lull in rocket attacks coming from Gaza. The first charter flight to facilitate the return of Indian citizens wishing to return from Israel left Thursday evening from the Ben Gurion airport carrying 211 adults and an infant living in the war-battered region.
The passengers were chosen on a "first come first serve" basis after a drive launched by the Indian embassy for all Indians to register at the mission's database. The government is bearing the cost of their return. The flight, which took off at 22:14 local time, was arranged to facilitate the return of those who were unable to do so because Air India had immediately suspended its flight on the day fighting began on October 7, and its commercial operation remains suspended till now.
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