Sunday 22 October
Fourteen more aid trucks crossed the border from Egypt to Gaza, joining the 20 aid trucks that had entered the previous day, which was the first aid convoy to arrive in the territory since Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October.
Israel said it was intensifying attacks on northern Gaza and warned that anyone who stayed risked being considered as “an accomplice in a terrorist organisation”.
Benjamin Netanyahu told Hezbollah not to try to open a second front with Israel. “If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will long for the second Lebanon war,” he said. “It will be making the mistake of its life.”
Read more:
‘An atmosphere of fear’: free speech under threat in Israel, activists say
Monday 23 October
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 400 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza in the previous 24 hours.
Hamas released two more hostages from Gaza on “humanitarian and poor health grounds”. Nurit Cooper, also known as Nurit Yitzhak, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, were kidnapped along with their husbands from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border on 7 October. Their release followed that of a US-Israeli mother and daughter on Friday.
The UN’s humanitarian agency, Ocha, said about 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population were now displaced and the shortage of clean drinking water as well as overcrowding had become a “major concern”.
Read more:
‘Like a terrible dream’: tense wait for Israeli soldiers near Gaza border
Tuesday 24 October
Israel called for the resignation of the UN secretary general, António Guterres, after he appealed for an immediate ceasefire and said Hamas’s “appalling attacks” could not justify “the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”. Israel’s ambassador to the UN said the secretary general’s words constituted “a justification for terrorism and murder”.
The Israeli military said it had struck more than 400 terrorist targets in the previous 24 hours and its forces were “ready and determined” for the next stage in the war.
Doctors, health administrators and international aid organisations said hospitals in Gaza were ceasing to function because they were running out of water and fuel for generators.
Read more:
‘The West Bank will ignite’: Israel’s operations spark anger in the territory
Wednesday 25 October
Guterres said he was shocked by “the misrepresentations” of his remarks on Tuesday, saying it was false to suggest he had justified “acts of terror by Hamas”. Israel said it had refused a visa to the head of UN humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, because of Guterres’ comments.
As officials revised the number of hostages confirmed to be held by Hamas to 224, the World Health Organization called on the group to provide proof the hostages were alive and to release them all on health grounds.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) warned that relief efforts in Gaza would be forced to stop unless fuel supplies reached the besieged territory. Unrwa said hospitals, bakeries and water pumps could also cease to function, compounding the rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis.
Read more:
‘Extinguished too soon’: hundreds mourn at funeral of British-Israeli family
Red Cross witnesses ‘utter chaos’ at Gaza hospitals as supplies run critically low
Thursday 26 October
Israeli infantry, backed by tanks and armoured bulldozers, launched an overnight ground raid into the northern Gaza Strip between Wednesday and Thursday. The Israeli military said the operation was designed to search for tunnel systems and test Hamas’s responses, such as possible teams equipped with guided anti-tank missiles.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry released a 212-page document listing the names and identification numbers of the 7,028 Palestinians – including 2,913 children – who it said had been killed by Israeli bombardments since 7 October.
Read more:
The US has deployed troops in the Middle East. Can it avoid a ‘commitment trap’?
Friday 27 October
Israel stepped up its air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, saying its ground forces were “expanding their activity” and “acting with great force”.
As the Israeli airstrikes continued, the Red Crescent, Unicef and other aid groups said they had lost all contact with staff inside the territory. The Palestinian phone service provider, Paltel, said its phone connections and internet services had been cut off.
The intensification came as the UN’s general assembly voted overwhelmingly for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza. The resolution, drafted by Arab states, passed with 120 votes in favor, while 45 abstained and 14 – including Israel and the US – voted no.
Hours earlier, Israeli forces, backed by warplanes and drones, had staged another brief ground incursion into central Gaza, carrying out what military sources described as a “targeted raid”.
The military also announced that the number of hostages held by Hamas stood at 229, up five from Wednesday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that 10 of its experts, including a war surgery team, had entered Gaza alongside six trucks of medical aid and water purification tablets. “This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it’s not enough,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director said.
Read more:
‘It will be slow, very hard’: can Israel achieve its aims in Gaza invasion?
