This blog is now closed, but our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war will continue in a new live blog. You can find it at the link below:
Summary of the day
It’s just coming up to 6am in Gaza – here’s a summary of the latest news from the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Joe Biden has said he thinks there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war. Responding to a preotester on Wednesday evening, the US president said that a pause means “time to get the prisoners out.” White House officials later clarified he meant hostages and humanitarian aid.
At least 195 Palestinians were killed in two rounds of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, a Hamas-run government media office said. Israel claims it killed senior Hamas officials both attacks. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, was targeted in Wednesday’s airstrike.
The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes. The agency said it had “serious concerns” given the “high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction” after the strikes. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the airstrikes were “just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza” and said the world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act”.
The scale of tragedy in Gaza is “unprecedented”, the commissioner general for the main UN agency in Palestine has said after visiting the besieged territory for the first time since 7 October. Philippe Lazzarini of the UNRWA described his visit to the Gaza Strip as “one of the saddest days in my humanitarian work” and urged a “meaningful” humanitarian response to prevent people in Gaza from dying.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the first time on Wednesday, after more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow.
The families of some British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, as the Foreign Office said the first UK nationals have made it through. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
An Australian minister confirmed that 20 Australian nationals had crossed the border at Rafah to exit Gaza on Wednesday. He went on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.
US citizens were able to exit Gaza on Wednesday as part of the first group of “probably more than 1,000” people, Joe Biden said. The US president said the opening of the Rafah border crossing to wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals came after “intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region”. Some American citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip and their families in the US have launched legal action after weeks of desperate and futile attempts to exit the war zone.
Fifteen Israeli soldiers have been killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza, in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the IDF in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza. The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.
The only cancer treatment hospital in Gaza has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference: “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities. The UN’s humanitarian office has reported that at least 123 Palestinians, including 34 children, have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.
New images have been released from the site of Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, which was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing 195 people according to Hamas.
Israel says the strikes on both days were targeting senior Hamas officials.
Satellite images from Maxar Technologies and the AP news agency show an overview of the camp before and after the airstrikes.
Rescuers have continued to search through the rubble for survivors. After more than three weeks of intense bombardment of Gaza, it’s become harder for heavy machinery to reach some bomb sites and people on the ground say fuel to operate machines is running out.
The below is an image from the centre of the rescue operation.
Israel says 'no damage' to drone over Lebanese border
The Israeli military has disputed a statment from Hezbollah, in which the group claimed to have destroyed an Israeli drone over south Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile.
Earlier we reported that Hezbollah had said in a statement that its fighters shot down the drone just after midnight over two villages on the Lebanese side of the frontier.
The Israeli military said that a surface-to-air missile was launched from Lebanon toward one of its drones.
“In response, the [military] struck the terrorist cell that fired the missile and the launch site,” the military said in a statement, adding that “there was no damage to the [drone]”.
Neither side provided evidence to back up its claims and the Guardian is unable to verify either account.
It was the second time this week that Hezbollah claimed to down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile. Cross-border clashes have escalated since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.
Reuters reports that Israel’s defence and finance ministers are at odds over whether some West Bank tax revenues should be transferred to the Palestinian Authority as fighting intensifies in Gaza.
The tax revenues are collected by Israel on behalf of Palestinians in parts of the West Bank which are under direct Israeli control. The tax is then transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) monthly. The PA has limited self rule in the occupied West Bank. The funds go to pay for public sector salaries and other government expenditure, but there have been constant wrangles over the arrangement.
The defence minister Yoav Gallant called for the money to be disbursed without delay.
“The funds should be transferred immediately so that these may be used by the operational mechanism of the Palestinian Authority and by the sectors of the Palestinian Authority that are dealing with the prevention of terrorism,” Gallant said in televised remarks.
There has been a sharp rise in violence in the West Bank since the war with Hamas began three weeks ago.
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose hardline religious nationalist party has strong support among Jewish settlers in the West Bank, responded that Gallant was making a “serious mistake”.
Smotrich has accused Palestinians in the West Bank of supporting the deadly Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. “I do not intend to let the State of Israel finance our enemies … who support the terrorism of Hamas and finance the 7/10 terrorists who murdered and massacred us,” he said in a statement.
All ten Japanese nationals and their eight Palestinian family members who wished to leave Gaza were able to evacuate through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, a top government spokesperson said on Thursday.
Speaking at a regular press conference, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno added that one Japanese national living in Gaza remains there with family.
A student from Cornell University who was accused of posting threatening messages against Jewish people on campus was held without bail after his first appearance in a US federal court on Wednesday.
He was charged with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. The graphic, anonymous messages posted online this weekend rattled Jewish students on the campus in upstate New York.
“While we take some measure of relief in knowing that the alleged author of the vile antisemitic posts that threatened our Jewish community is in custody, it was disturbing to learn that he was a Cornell student,” Cornell president Martha E. Pollack said in a message statement.
Pollack said the Ivy League university will not tolerate antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia or any other form of hatred.
Attorney general Merrick Garland cited the arrest as an example of the Justice Department’s priorities when it comes to fighting hate crimes.
“The Justice Department has no tolerance for violence or unlawful threats of violence fueled by antisemitism or Islamophobia,” Garland said in an online forum on hate crimes Wednesday.
A prominent Australian senator has called on the country’s government to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Independent senator David Pocock has released a statement calling on the Australian government to “speak with a louder voice and send a stronger message” on the issue.
He said “The world has been watching the heartbreaking stories and images coming out of Israel and Gaza. Mothers burying children.
The loss of life – civilian lives on all sides – is absolutely devastating. But we can’t look away. And we can’t stay silent.
I have written to the Foreign Minister … urging the Australian government to raise concerns about the unfolding tragedy. We need them to use all available channels to call for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian assistance. We can call for the immediate return of all hostages and at the same time call for the protection of civilians in Gaza”
Earlier, the Australian minister for foreign affairs Penny Wong said “I think the reality is [the] international community won’t accept ongoing civilian death. So when friends like Australia urge Israel to exercise restraint and protect civilian lives, it is really critical that Israel listens.”
Last month, Australia’s conservative opposition accused the governing Labor party of being divided over its position – after some Labor members broke ranks over Israel’s response to the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
The French government is “deeply concerned” by Israeli strikes on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp and has called for a humanitarian truce to allow aid through.
We reported earlier that Israeli strikes targeted the Jabalia refugee camp twice in two days. Hamas says at least 195 Palestinians were killed in the two attacks.
Israel says both strikes targeted senior Hamas officials.
The French government reiterated a call for “an immediate humanitarian truce so that aid can reach those who need it in a sustainable, safe and adequate way”.
France is deeply concerned about the very heavy toll on the Palestinian civilian population from the Israeli strikes against the Jabalia camp, and expresses its compassion for the victims.”
Joe Biden says there should be a humanitarian ‘pause’ in the Israel-Hamas conflict
Joe Biden has said he thought there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war, a subtle departure for the US president and his administration, who throughout the current crisis have been steadfast in stating they will not dictate how Israel carries out its military operations in response to the 7 October 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.”
“I think we need a pause,” Biden responded.
Biden said he understood the emotions motivating the demonstrator, who was quickly shouted down by others in the room and removed. He said that a pause means “time to get the prisoners out.” White House officials later clarified he meant hostages and humanitarian aid.
“This is incredibly complicated for the Israelis,” Biden went on. “It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well … I supported a two-state solution, I have from the very beginning.”
“The fact of the matter is that Hamas is a terrorist organisation,” he added.
The president has faced intensifying pressure from human rights groups, fellow world leaders and even liberal members of his own Democratic Party, who say that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza is collective punishment and that it is time for a ceasefire.
The difference between a ceasefire and pause may seem semantic, but a pause is generally considered less formal and shorter than a ceasefire.
The UN’s incoming special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Prof Ben Saul has said he worries the world is repeating the ‘same mistakes’ of the past in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Ben Saul, who is beginning his six-year tenure in the role, said “unfortunately, when 9/11 came, the same kind of pressure to take the gloves off became manifest pretty quickly … We know that overreach and exceeding the well-accepted limits of international law, human rights law and the law of armed conflict is a serious mistake, which does not make communities or the world safer.”
Gaza has been described as a “humanitarian catastrophe” by charity Save the Children, since Israel began the siege of the enclave after Hamas’s brutal attacks on 7 October.
“Deliberately starving a population of civilians is a war crime, yet many western states seem to be trying to demonstrate that they’re standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel,” Saul said.
Israel has linked the siege to the release of hostages taken by Hamas, though an Israeli defence official said this week it would allow a “dramatic increase” in aid to Gaza in the coming days.
Saul said there is a “place for absolutely condemning hostage-taking by Hamas and all of the other violence and undoubted war crimes” by Hamas, “but I don’t think it’s necessary to link those things when there’s an urgent humanitarian crisis that needs resolving”.
The Associated Press reports that Arab nations that have normalised or are considering improving relations with Israel are coming under growing public pressure to cut those ties because of the ongoing war with Hamas.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rabat and other Moroccan cities in support of the Palestinian cause. In Bahrain – a country that almost never allows protest – police stood by as hundreds of people marched last month, waving flags and gathering in front of the Israeli embassy.
In Egypt, which has had ties with Israel for decades, protesters rallied in cities and at universities, at times chanting “Death to Israel.” A parliamentary committee in Tunisia last week advanced a draft law that would criminalise normalization with Israel.
In Morocco and Bahrain, activists are demanding the reversal of agreements that formalise ties with Israel, underscoring discord between the governments and public opinion.
A long previewed agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia has become less likely due to the war, Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Associated Press.
“I think this dynamic of normalisation will likely slow down or come to a halt, at least for a period of time,” Cook said.
Israeli drone destroyed over south Lebanon, says Hezbollah
Hezbollah has said that it destroyed an Israeli drone over south Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile.
It’s the Iran-backed group’s second such claim this week, as tensions on the border grow. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.
There have been a number of clashes and some fatalities on Israel’s northern border since 7 October. Dozens of Israeli villages south of the border have been evacuated.
The White House has announced that it will develop a national strategy to battle Islamophobia, a plan that has been expected for months but which has gained momentum in the wake of the renewed conflict in the Middle East.
The Biden administration in May released a national strategy to combat antisemitism that also made a reference to countering hatred against Muslims.
“Today’s announcement is the latest step … to establish an interagency group to increase and better coordinate US government efforts to counter Islamophobia, antisemitism, and related forms of bias and discrimination within the United States,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Last month an Illinois man was charged with hate crimes for stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy to death and wounding his mother. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Recent polls have shown that president Joe Biden’s campaign for a second term in office could be losing Muslim and Arab American support over his staunch support of Israel.
A poll conducted by the Arab American Institute, released on Tuesday, shows for the first time since its inception in 1997, a majority of Arab Americans did not identify as Democrats. Thirty-seven percent said they now identify as Democrats, 32% as Republicans and 31% as independents.
No role for US peacekeeping troops in Gaza - White House
The United States will not put US troops on the ground in Gaza in any future peacekeeping role, the White House has said, as it discusses with allies what post-conflict Gaza will look like.
“There’s no plans or intentions to put US military troops on the ground in Gaza, now or in the future,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.
As the region prepares for a potential refugee crisis among the people living in Gaza, Kirby said the United States does not support a permanent settlement of Gaza civilians outside Gaza.
Kirby said Hamas could not stay in control of Gaza after the conflict.
We do believe that Hamas cannot be the future of governance in Gaza … What comes after the conflict, we don’t have all the answers yet but we are working with our partners in the region to explore what governance in Gaza can and should look like.”
Australia’s department of foreign affairs has said that 23 individuals that the government had been assisting successfully departed Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt on Wednesday.
A department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said that the group comprised 20 Australians, two family members and a permanent resident.
They were met at Rafah by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff, who provided assistance including onwards travel to Cairo. The group will be further supported with short term accommodation in Cairo and return flights to Australia on commercial airlines.
Australia is providing ongoing support to 65 individuals, including Australians and their family members, who remain in Gaza and who have told us they want help to depart.”
The US House of Representatives defeated a resolution to censure Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib after she spoke at a rally that called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The resolution was defeated in a bipartisan 222-186 vote.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced the resolution on 26 October, accusing Tlaib of “antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations, and leading an insurrection at the US Capitol Complex.”
Greene’s resolution refers to a peaceful demonstration in a House office building, during which hundreds of protesters were arrested. Tlaib did not participate in that demonstration.
Tlaib in a statement called the resolution “deeply Islamophobic,” adding:
I will continue to work for a just and lasting peace that upholds the human rights and dignity of all people, and ensures that no person, no child has to suffer or live in fear of violence.”
At least 195 Palestinians killed in strikes on Jabalia refugee camp - Hamas
At least 195 Palestinians were killed in two rounds of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, a Hamas-run government media office said.
About 120 were still missing under the rubble, and at least 777 more were wounded, the office said in a statement.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it targeted and killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in the strikes on Wednesday.
The IDF said it had targeted the camp on Tuesday to kill Ibrahim Biari – a key Hamas commander linked to the group’s 7 October attack on Israel who, it said, had taken over civilian buildings in Gaza City with his fighters.
On Wednesday the UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on the Jabalia camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will meet with Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the region on Friday. Blinken will voice solidarity with Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza, but also reassert the need to minimise Palestinian civilian casualties, his spokesperson has said.
Blinken’s trip, which includes a stop in Jordan, is his second to the Middle East in less than a month.
State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken will also discuss options on who will run Gaza if Hamas is defeated.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday that Washington did not believe Hamas could be involved in governing Gaza when the war is over.
Turkish diplomatic sources told the Reuters news agency that Blinken would also visit Turkey but Miller did not confirm the additional stop.
“We will make further announcements as they’re available in the coming days,” he said.
Updated
Here’s a little bit more information on the Australian nationals who have managed to leave Gaza.
Earlier the country’s assistant minister for foreign affairs, Tim Watts, told Australian media that 20 citizens had been allowed to exit through the Rafah crossing. He said 65 Australians remained trapped in Gaza.
Watts said he also “strongly encouraged” Australians in Lebanon to leave the country after deadly clashes between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
We can’t make any guarantees that Beirut airport will remain open if the conflict spreads to the south of Lebanon and departure options become much more complex and more difficult at that point. We don’t know what the situation is going to look like in the coming days and coming weeks.”
Watts said the government was not planning for more assisted flights at the moment as there were enough commercial options available. Since the conflict began on 7 October, the Australian government has conducted several repatriation flights.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where we stand:
The scale of tragedy in Gaza is “unprecedented”, the commissioner general for the main UN agency in Palestine has said after visiting the besieged territory for the first time since 7 October. Philippe Lazzarini of the UNRWA described his visit to the Gaza Strip as “one of the saddest days in my humanitarian work” and urged a “meaningful” humanitarian response to prevent people in Gaza from dying.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the first time on Wednesday in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow.
The families of British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, as the Foreign Office said the first UK nationals had made it through. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
An Australian minister confirmed that 20 Australian nationals had crossed the border at Rafah to exit Gaza on Wednesday. He went on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.
US citizens were able to exit Gaza on Wednesday as part of the first group of “probably more than 1,000” people, Joe Biden said. The US president said the opening of the Rafah border crossing to wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals came after “intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region”. American citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip and their families in the US are lawyering up after weeks of desperate and futile attempts to exit the war zone.
Israeli forces continued to bomb the Palestinian territory from land, sea and air as they pressed their offensive. Another blast shook Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed about 50 people and wounded 150 there. Israel claims it killed a Hamas commander in the attack. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it has killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Fifteen Israeli soldiers were killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the IDF in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza. The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.
The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes. The agency said it had “serious concerns” given the “high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction” following the strikes. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the airstrikes were “just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza” and said the world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act”.
The only cancer treatment hospital in the Gaza Strip has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference: “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”
A senior Hamas official said that several hundred Israeli and other hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were subject to the same risk of “death and destruction” that Palestinians have faced. The warning was made after Hamas said that seven hostages – including three foreign passport holders – were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that caused dozens of fatalities.
The health ministry in Gaza said 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities. The UN’s humanitarian office has reported that at least 123 Palestinians, including 34 children, have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.
The UN child rights committee has warned that “grave” human rights violations against children are “mounting by the minute” in the Gaza Strip, and called for an immediate ceasefire. “There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” the UN committee on the rights of the child said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pope Francis said on Wednesday that a two-state solution was needed for Israel and Palestine. The head of the Catholic church noted that Jerusalem should be given special status.
Jordan has told its ambassador to come back from Israel over the war in Gaza, the foreign ministry said. The ambassador would only return to Tel Aviv if Israel halted its war in Gaza and ended “the humanitarian crisis it has caused”, the ministry added.
Palestine solidarity protesters have gathered outside Downing Street as Kamala Harris arrived for a meeting with Rishi Sunak. The White House said on Monday that Harris would be visiting the UK and meeting Sunak to discuss matters including the Israel-Hamas conflict and “next steps in our support for Ukraine”.
The BBC has announced it is launching an emergency radio service for Gaza in response to the conflict in the region.
A US congressman has suggested there are no “innocent Palestinian civilians” in a speech in the House of Representatives where he compared Palestinian civilians to Nazis.
Brian Mast, a Republican congressman from Florida, spoke on the House floor on Wednesday as it debated a measure that would impose sanctions on people who support groups, such as Hamas, that the bill deems “terrorist organisations”.
The bill’s original text included a provision that exempted humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians from broader restrictions; it has been removed. The amended version would require Joe Biden to issue a case-by-case waiver to approve humanitarian aid. Mast said:
I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians, as is frequently said.
I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II.
The GOP congressman previously served as a volunteer with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Updated
Here are some of the latest photos we have received over the newswires from the Gaza Strip.
More than 3,600 Palestinian children have been killed since 7 October, according to Gaza’s health ministry. More children have been killed in just over three weeks in Gaza than in all of the world’s conflicts combined in each of the past three years, according to Save the Children.
A Unicef spokesperson said on Tuesday:
Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.
Earlier today, the UN child rights committee warned that “grave” human rights violations against children are “mounting by the minute” in the Gaza Strip.
Updated
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said 22 of its staff members were able to leave Gaza on Wednesday.
In a statement, the medical charity said all its international staff that had been unable to leave the territory have now “successfully crossed the Egypt border via the Rafah crossing”. It added:
A new team of international staff, including a specialised medical team, has already been identified and is ready to enter Gaza as soon as the situation allows, to support the humanitarian and medical response.
It said about 2 million Palestinians are still trapped in Gaza under shelling, including 300 Palestinian MSF staff and their families. More than 22,000 injured people remain in Gaza with limited access to healthcare, it added.
Many of our Palestinian colleagues continue to work and provide lifesaving care in hospitals and across the Gaza Strip, while the most basic protections for hospitals and medical personnel are not guaranteed.
Updated
'Scale of the tragedy is unprecedented', says UN commissioner after 'heart-wrenching' visit to Gaza
The scale of tragedy in Gaza is “unprecedented”, the commissioner general for the main UN agency in Palestine has said after visiting the besieged territory for the first time since 7 October.
Philippe Lazzarini of the UNRWA described his visit to the Gaza Strip as “one of the saddest days in my humanitarian work” in a statement on Wednesday. He wrote:
I have just returned from the Gaza Strip. This is the first time I have been allowed in since the beginning of this horrific war, almost four weeks ago. The scale of the tragedy is unprecedented.
He said he met with displaced Palestinians sheltering in one of the UN agency’s schools in Rafah. He said:
The place was overcrowded. The levels of distress and the unsanitary living conditions were beyond comprehension. Everyone was just asking for water and food. Instead of being at school, learning, children were asking for a sip of water and a piece of bread. It was heart-wrenching.
Above all, people were asking for a ceasefire. They want this tragedy to end.
In a statement, Lazzarini said each day “becomes bleaker” as the agency continues to lose colleagues. More than 70 UNRWA staff have been killed since 7 October, often along with their families, he said. He said the agency will continue to stand with Palestinian refugees and Palestinian communities.
Lazzarini urged a “meaningful” humanitarian response to prevent people in Gaza from dying because of the siege.
I call once again for urgent fuel deliveries. No fuel has come for nearly one month and this is having a devastating impact on hospitals, bakeries, water plants and our operations.
Our calls are falling on deaf ears. A humanitarian ceasefire is long overdue. Without it, more people will be killed, those who are alive will endure further losses, and the once vibrant society will be in grief, forever.
Updated
Rishi Sunak held talks with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, on Wednesday.
The UK prime minister welcomed the opening of the Rafah crossing earlier today and thanked Sisi for his efforts, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
The UK will continue “to work closely with Egypt and Israel to ensure all British citizens can leave Gaza safely”, a No 10 statement reads.
The leaders also spoke of “diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, prevent escalation in the wider Middle East and achieve long-term peace and prosperity for the Palestinian people”, it said.
Updated
On Tuesday afternoon, rescuers combed with their hands through surface layers of a tangled mass of concrete and steel, which hours earlier had been homes in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza.
They were searching for survivors, or the bodies of victims, which the immense force of an Israeli airstrike had left near the surface. Those trapped deeper may be entombed for months.
Body bags piled up with horrific speed at the morgue of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, and then outside the building. The wounded filled its beds or were raced to Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where medics from the Médicins Sans Frontiers aid group struggled to find space even for badly injured children.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said the attack had been authorised to assassinate a senior Hamas commander and destroy his base. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari named the target as Ibrahim Biari, commander of Central Jabaliya Battalion, who he said had been leading fighting in northern Gaza from a network of tunnels under the camp.
Hagari declined to comment on how many munitions, or which types, were used to target the camp, or identify which craters were caused by tunnel collapses. He said Israel would provide some of these details at a later date.
But a visual analysis by the Guardian has identified at least five craters in the densely populated refugee camp, which weapons experts said were left by the use of multiple JDAMs – joint direct attack munitions – in the airstrike.
The Guardian was able to analyse footage and videos that emerged in the aftermath to confirm the location and pinpoint the exact location of the strike to buildings at the intersection of Al Mouhawel and Al Almey streets.
Updated
American citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip and their families in the US are lawyering up after weeks of desperate and futile attempts to exit the war zone.
Nearly a dozen lawsuits have been filed or are set to be filed against the US state department, according to the Arab American Civil Rights League.
“It’s a matter of time until I hear that a client of mine has been killed,” said writer and immigration attorney Maria Kari, who is involved in three lawsuits in California and Texas.
I’ve never raced against the clock to file a lawsuit because it was life and death.
Kari is one of about 40 attorneys across 18 states who are working pro bono to file lawsuits based on the equal protection clause of the constitution, arguing their clients received disparate treatment in repatriation efforts when compared with efforts to evacuate US citizens in Israel.
We are simply asking the federal court to compel the Biden administration to do what it’s already done for a class of citizens.
Biden: 'Probably more than 1,000 people' will be able to leave Gaza
Here’s more from Joe Biden speaking in Minnesota, where he said Israeli has the right “to respond and a responsibility to defend its citizens from terror”. He added:
It (Israel) needs to do so in a manner that is consistent with international humanitarian law, that prioritises protection of civilians.
He evoked what he called “devastating images from Gaza, Palestinian children crying out for lost parents, parents writing their children’s names on their hands and legs to be identified if the worst happens”. He added:
The loss of innocent life is a tragedy. We grieve for those deaths and continue to grieve for the Israeli children and mothers who were brutally slaughtered by Hamas terrorists.
Biden said the opening of the Rafah border crossing to wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals came after “intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region”. The US citizens who were able to leave on Wednesday are part of the first group of “probably more than 1,000” people, he said.
President Biden touts diplomacy efforts “to get Americans out of Gaza as soon and as safely as possible”:
— The Recount (@therecount) November 1, 2023
“The American citizens who are able to exit today as part of the first group of probably over 1,000. We’ll see more of this process going on in the coming days.” pic.twitter.com/2cvABQT92w
Updated
People sifted through the rubble and debris of flattened buildings with their bare hands in Khan Younis, as fighting between Israel and Palestinian groups passed its 12th day.
In Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, a refugee camp was struck by an Israeli airstrike, destroying several makeshift houses. Footage showed neighbourhoods in other parts of the city levelled.
Rafat al-Nakhala, who had sought shelter there after heeding Israel’s order for civilians to flee Gaza City in the north, said:
We came from Gaza City, they told us to come to the south so we came to the south. We found that the strikes intensified in the south … There’s nowhere safe in Gaza.
Updated
20 Australians cross the border at Rafah
The assistant minister for foreign affairs, Tim Watts, has announced that 20 Australians, and 23 individuals overall who had been registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have crossed the border at Rafah to exit Gaza.
Speaking on ABC News, Watts said the individuals were met with Australian consular officials in Egypt who organised travel arrangements.
Crossings like this are the result of an enormous effort from Australian consular officials and diplomats in the region. So many conversations at the ministerial level, foreign minister Wong spoke with her counterparts in the region and we’re grateful that this initial cohort has made the crossing from Gaza to Egypt.
Watts went on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.
We know this is an incredibly distressing time for Australians in Gaza and their families and we are providing all possible support we can, communicating through all available channels the best information and options we have about their safety in a very difficult situation.
The circumstances on the ground are incredibly challenging and they are changing on a day to day basis. This is a conflict zone. It is a very difficult operating environment so we do the best job we can in the circumstances.
Updated
The families of British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The UK Foreign Office said on Wednesday evening that the first British nationals had been allowed across. A spokesperson said:
We have agreed a list of British nationals that want to leave Gaza with Egyptian and Israeli authorities. We will be informed in advance when those on the list can use the crossing to ensure we can provide assistance.
But the relatives of some of the 200 British or dual nationals trapped in the Palestinian territory have described scenes of chaos and desperation at the border. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
The list included Abdel Hammad, a transplant surgeon from Liverpool who was working for a charity in Gaza. But his son, Salim Hammad, told the Guardian on Wednesday afternoon that the border was closed before his father and the other Briton, who works for a non-governmental organisation, were able to get through.
The 34-year-old doctor, who lives in Oxford, said:
It’s just frustrating. Another day of getting your hopes up then having to spend it there again, but hopefully tomorrow will be another day.
Lalah Ali Faten said she was living in a “waking nightmare” after her daughter, Zaynab Wandawi, 29, an English teacher from Manchester, was turned away on Wednesday morning. She said Wandawi had made the perilous journey to the crossing after receiving a “vague” message from the foreign office on Tuesday evening to say it “may open”.
“They saw other foreign nationals leaving, but when they approached, they were informed that their names were not on the list, and they were turned away,” the 52-year-old said.
It is devastating to hear that the borders are opening, foreign nationals are leaving, but my family, my daughter, is not allowed to leave because she’s a British national.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 10.30pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where we stand:
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow.
The families of British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, as the Foreign Office said the first UK nationals had made it through. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
Israeli forces continued to bomb the Palestinian territory from land, sea and air as they pressed their offensive. Another blast shook Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed about 50 people and wounded 150 there. Israel claims it killed a Hamas commander in the attack. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it has killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Fifteen Israeli soldiers were killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the IDF in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza. The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.
The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes. The agency said it had “serious concerns” given the “high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction” following the strikes. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the airstrikes were “just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza” and said the world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act”.
The only cancer treatment hospital in the Gaza Strip has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference: “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”
A senior Hamas official said that several hundred Israeli and other hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were subject to the same risk of “death and destruction” that Palestinians have faced. The warning was made after Hamas said that seven hostages – including three foreign passport holders – were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that caused dozens of fatalities.
The health ministry in Gaza said 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities. The UN’s humanitarian office has reported that at least 123 Palestinians, including 34 children, have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.
The UN child rights committee has warned that “grave” human rights violations against children are “mounting by the minute” in the Gaza Strip, and called for an immediate ceasefire. “There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” the UN committee on the rights of the child said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pope Francis said on Wednesday that a two-state solution was needed for Israel and Palestine. The head of the Catholic church noted that Jerusalem should be given special status.
Jordan has told its ambassador to come back from Israel over the war in Gaza, the foreign ministry said. The ambassador would only return to Tel Aviv if Israel halted its war in Gaza and ended “the humanitarian crisis it has caused”, the ministry added.
Palestine solidarity protesters have gathered outside Downing Street as Kamala Harris arrived for a meeting with Rishi Sunak. The White House said on Monday that Harris would be visiting the UK and meeting Sunak to discuss matters including the Israel-Hamas conflict and “next steps in our support for Ukraine”.
The BBC has announced it is launching an emergency radio service for Gaza in response to the conflict in the region.
Updated
US citizens will be able to exit Gaza, says Biden
American citizens will now be able to exit Gaza, Joe Biden said, Reuters reported.
The US president, speaking at a family farm outside Minneapolis, said the administration will work hard to get additional Americans out of the region in the days ahead, the New York Times reported. He said:
We’ll see more of this process going on in the coming days, working nonstop to get Americans out of Gaza as soon and safely as possible.
US citizens were able to exit Gaza on Wednesday as part of the first group of “probably more than 1,000”, the BBC reported that Biden said.
The president also thanked Qatar, a country that has “worked so closely with us” to support negotiations and facilitate the departure of citizens.
Updated
The EU has welcomed the evacuation of some foreign nationals and injured people via the Rafah border crossing.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said:
I would like to warmly thank the Egyptian authorities for their admirable efforts to help foreign citizens, staff of international organisations and their families, including European citizens, to safely enter their country. It has been an important request we have made to our partners. We must keep working together to further intensify our efforts to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Palestine solidarity protesters have gathered outside Downing Street as Kamala Harris arrived for a meeting with Rishi Sunak.
As the US vice president’s motorcade arrived at the prime minister’s residence on Wednesday evening it was met by a crowd of several hundred protesters chanting “ceasefire now” and “shame on you”.
The US and the UK have been steadfast in their support for Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza, citing the country’s right to defend itself against Hamas, even as the UN, human rights organisations and states around the world have denounced it for alleged war crimes.
HAPPENING NOW: Kamala Harris arrives for meeting with Rishi Sunak to cries of “ceasefire now” and “shame on you”.
— Georgie Robertson (@_GeorgieBlaise) November 1, 2023
We only found out an hour ago but hundreds mobilised. We will follow politicians wherever they go demanding an end to complicity in Israel’s genocide. #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/w8dXB6netE
The White House said on Monday that Harris would be visiting the UK and meeting Sunak to discuss matters including the Israel-Hamas conflict and “next steps in our support for Ukraine”. She is also due to attend a summit on AI hosted by the British government this week, where she will deliver a speech, Reuters reported.
Georgie Robertson, who was among the crowd of protesters, told the Guardian, the protest had been called at short notice after activists had seen information on the meeting posted on a news forward planning service. She said:
There’s hundreds of people stood outside Downing Street chanting … We were here when the motorcade arrived and everyone is chanting very loudly, being very disruptive.
Masses of people mobilised at really short notice.
The protest included activists from the Palestinian Youth Movement, Black Lives Matter UK, Queers for Palestine, Stop the War, SOAS Detainee Support and Sisters Uncut, Robertson said. Many of the same groups had helped to organise a sit-in protest at Liverpool Street station in London’s financial district on Tuesday night.
As Kamala Harris meets Rishi Sunak, both get the reception that they deserve. pic.twitter.com/rLOQlBrwg4
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) November 1, 2023
The United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has said that 70 aid workers have been killed since 7 October, according to a post to X in a Wednesday update.
The UNRWA said that at least 70 people have been killed, and 22 UNRWA employees injured as fighting continues in the region.
The agency added that an estimated 1.4 million people have been displaced in the Gaza strip.
🔺 It's estimated that 1.4 million people are currently displaced in the📍#GazaStrip
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 1, 2023
🔺 Since 7 October, 70 @UNRWA colleagues have been killed and at least 22 injured. This is the highest number of @UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short timehttps://t.co/9QSqnxsMF4 pic.twitter.com/KdQcdoEreL
Updated
Pope Francis said on Wednesday that a two-state solution was needed for Israel and Palestine, Reuters reported.
The head of the Catholic church noted that Jerusalem should be given special status, in his latest remarks about the fighting during an interview on Wednesday with Italy’s RAI broadcaster.
Pope Francis said: “[Those are] Two peoples who have to live together. With that wise solution, two states. The Oslo accords, two well-defined states and Jerusalem with a special status … ”
Updated
UN human rights office says Jabalia refugee camp airstrike could amount to war crimes
The United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday that Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp could amount to war crimes, Reuters reported.
The UN human rights office said that it had “serious concerns” that Israel’s airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp could be considered “war crimes” given the amount of high civilian casualties and the scale of destruction, in a post on X, formally known as Twitter.
“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 said in a post.
#Gaza – 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. pic.twitter.com/ky2jYVrhJq
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) November 1, 2023
At least six airstrikes hit the Jabalia refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City on Tuesday.
More than 50 people were killed and at least 150 were injured, the territory’s health ministry said.
Updated
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, has told Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza and ensuring humanitarian aid were critical, AFP reported.
In a Wednesday phone call, Scholz reaffirmed “Germany’s unwavering solidarity with Israel”, Scholz’s office said in a statement following the call.
“He underlined the importance of protecting civilians and humanitarian supplies for the people of the Gaza Strip,” the press release stated.
Thousands of Palestinians, including children, have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, the territory’s health ministry reported on Wednesday.
Updated
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it has killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said on Thursday A’sar was “responsible for all of Hamas’s anti-tank missile units throughout the Gaza Strip, commanded the units in routine times and assisted their activity in emergencies”, the Times of Israel reported.
Under his command, “numerous” missile attacks were carried out against Israeli civilians and soldiers, the IDF said.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the Israeli army’s statement.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the Rafah border crossing, where some injured Palestinians and foreign passport holders were able to flee Gaza on Wednesday.
The Rafah crossing will be opened again on Thursday to allow those on approved lists out of Gaza, border officials said earlier.
Updated
The UN’s humanitarian chief has denounced Israeli airstrikes that killed dozens of people at a refugee camp in northern Gaza yesterday.
In a statement, Martin Griffiths said:
This is just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza where the fighting has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences.
The world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act,” he said, adding: “this cannot go on. We need a step change.”
At least six airstrikes hit residential areas in the Jabalia refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and injuring about 150, Hamas officials said.
The Israeli military said it had targeted the camp to kill Ibrahim Biari – a key Hamas commander linked to the group’s 7 October attack on Israel who, it said, had taken over civilian buildings in Gaza City with his fighters.
Updated
First Britons leave Gaza via Rafah crossing
The first British nationals have crossed the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt, the UK’s Foreign Office has confirmed.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) official added:
We are regularly updating all British nationals registered with us.
The crossing will be open for controlled and time-limited periods to allow specific groups of foreign nationals and the seriously wounded to leave.
We have agreed a list of British nationals that want to leave Gaza with Egyptian and Israeli authorities. We will be informed in advance when those on the list can use the crossing to ensure we can provide assistance.
Updated
Turkey is waiting for approval from the Egyptian authorities to set up field hospitals near Gaza for those fleeing the Palestinian territory, Fahrettin Koca, Turkey’s health minister, wrote on social media.
“We have made all preparations to establish 20 field hospitals at El Arish airport, in the area close to the Rafah border gate” in Egypt, AFP reported Koca writing in a statement.
He added:
We are in close dialogue with the Egyptian and Palestinian health ministries on all these issues. We are waiting for security to be ensured and permissions to be granted.
“Filistin için Sahra Hastanesi kurulacak mı?” Bir gazeteci arkadaşımızın sorusuna verdiğim cevap: Gazze için bir gemi hastanemiz hazır bekliyor. 40'a yakın ambulans planladık ve göreve hazırlar. 8 Koca Yusuf uçakla kuvözler, ventilatörler, çok sayıda jeneratör gönderdik. İki…
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) November 1, 2023
Updated
A Cornell student who allegedly made threats to his university’s Jewish community is expected in federal court in Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday.
In the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israelis on 7 October and Israel’s subsequent retaliation on Palestinians in Gaza, concerns of a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia persist, especially on college campuses.
Patrick Dai, 21, a junior at Cornell, has been charged with threatening to kill or injure using interstate communications, according to federal prosecutors in New York’s northern district. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Prosecutors claimed Dai said he would “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you”, threatened to “stab” and “slit the throat” of Jewish men, rape Jewish women and throw their bodies off a cliff, and behead Jewish bodies. He is said to have specifically targeted the campus’s Center for Jewish Living. The threats were discovered on an online discussion board by tracing Dai’s IP address.
“Dai admitted, after receiving Miranda warnings, that he was the person who used the internet to post the threatening messages described above,” the federal complaint against Dai said.
In a statement to the Guardian, the Center for Jewish Living said it “is relieved to hear that an arrest has been made in connection with the horrific antisemitic posts that threatened our complex. It deeply saddens and pains us to learn that the threats were made by a Cornell student, and that such hate exists among our peers. We firmly believe that if found guilty, this student must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is no place for antisemitism anywhere in this world, and terrorizing actions must be punished.
While we are thankful this student is in custody, we understand that this incident does not stand alone. It represents the growing trend of rising antisemitism worldwide that we must continue to fight in all forms. As a community and as a people, we are proud to be Jewish. There will always be those who hate us, but as long as we come together in the face of adversity, we will persevere.
Updated
A senior UN official who sent a letter denouncing the organisation’s failure to protect civilians in Gaza had been subject to a review into allegedly biased social media posts after a pro-Israel lobby group complained.
Craig Mokhiber, director of the New York office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, wrote on 28 October to the UN high commissioner in Geneva, Volker Türk, accusing Israel of committing genocide and his employer of failing to stop it. “This will be my last communication to you,” he said.
A complaint about both Mokhiber’s social media output and broadcast interviews had been under review since March by the UN’s investigations division office of internal oversight services.
After an assessment as to whether there may have been merit in further action, the case was passed on earlier this month to the high commissioner for human rights, as the “responsible official” to make his own assessment.
Mokhiber said he had not been made aware of the review. He said:
Israel lobby groups regularly harass and complain about UN officials who speak out on Israeli violations, but the UN is used to this tactic, so I would be surprised if any such ‘complaint’ went anywhere.
Indeed, as I said, I never heard of it. And, indeed, a complaint that a UN human rights official had criticised a country’s human rights violations is unlikely to go anywhere. If it did, it would be quite extraordinary indeed.
Updated
We reported earlier that the deal to release foreigners from Gaza into Egypt was not linked to other issues under negotiation.
Talks on the release of hostages being held by Hamas are continuing, and a US official told CNN they would caution against drawing any comparisons between the two parallel missions.
The outlet also cited a senior US official as saying that the talks to secure the release of foreigners from Gaza included Hamas demanding that some of its own fighters be let out as part of the list of injured people. That request was rejected, the source said.
Updated
Human rights violations against children 'mounting by the minute in Gaza', says UN committee
The UN child rights committee has warned that “grave” human rights violations against children are “mounting by the minute” in the Gaza Strip, and called for an immediate ceasefire.
“There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” the UN committee on the rights of the child said in a statement on Wednesday.
It expressed “outrage” at the “profound suffering” of children caught in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and urged for “an end to the devastating harm being wreaked on children’s lives in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
Armed conflict “harms children first and foremost” and has lifelong effects on their physical and mental health, their development and the enjoyment of all their rights, it said.
There have been devastating reports of acts that are forbidden by international humanitarian law, including maiming, injury, abduction, forcible displacement, deprivation of medical care, food, and water.
The committee also urged the immediate release of child hostages and for the necessary medical and protective support to be provided.
The ceasefire should be the beginning of discussions aimed at establishing a just and lasting peace in the region so that all children can fully enjoy all their rights and the conditions for their development that respond to their intrinsic dignity as human beings.
Updated
The Rafah crossing will be opened again on Thursday to allow foreign passport holders out of Gaza, border officials have said in a Facebook post.
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian, recounts another day in Gaza for his diary in the Guardian:
Tuesday 31 October: 4pm I am talking to my sister when she refers to an incident that happened before the situation started as “in the good times”. I say we have never had any “good times”.
Even when things were relatively stable, Gazans suffered. We did not have a reliable electricity supply; we couldn’t travel easily and some could never travel at all; unemployment was very high and life was far from normal. It is just that we have bad circumstances and deadly ones. I might be exaggerating, but this is how I see things.
We also talk about how many things we had bought since we evacuated. I joke with my sister and say that all we need now is a carpenter to put up a couple of shelves in our room to give us more space.
My sister does not laugh.
8pm The news is not good. The situation is getting worse – horrible and terrifying things are happening. The level of our fear is beyond normal. Nothing shows any sign of hope. I tell my friends that I am not sure we will see another morning.
10pm I hear Ahmad outside, reciting a poem I love. I am not sure what prompted him, but hearing it warmed my heart:
When you prepare your breakfast, think upon others / Don’t forget to feed the pigeons.
When you engage in your wars, think upon others / Don’t forget those who demand peace.
And when you return home to your house, think upon others / Such as those who live in tents.
When you fall asleep counting planets, think upon others / Who cannot find a place to sleep in.
Is anyone thinking of us? And are we going to end up living in tents, or worse, become one of those who cannot find a place to sleep in?
Updated
Australians trapped in Gaza might have a short window to evacuate through Rafah border crossing after negotiations between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, after the intervention of Qatar, which mediated in the talks.
A department of foreign affairs and trade spokesperson said the Australian government was helping 88 people in Gaza, which included Australians and their family members, AAP reported. They said:
We understand the situation is extremely distressing for them and their loved ones.
The department said it was in contact with people about departure options, including the “possibility of the opening of the Rafah border on 1 November”.
It comes after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, earlier today.
Updated
Fifteen Israeli soldiers killed as fighting intensifies in Gaza
Fifteen Israeli soldiers were killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the Israel Defence Forces in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza.
The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.
In a separate incident, a number soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a mine. In another reported incident, two soldiers were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the building they were in.
As the names of those killed were announced on Wednesday, after families had been informed, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to press on with the ground offensive in Gaza. Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office on Wednesday evening:
We are in a difficult war. It will also be a long war. We have important achievements, but also painful losses.
The latest fatalities bring to 320 the number of IDF soldiers who have been killed since Hamas launched its surprise assault on Israel on 7 October, with most being killed in fighting with Hamas on 7 October and the immediate days following.
The mounting losses for Tuesday emerged piecemeal as it was disclosed that several more soldiers who had been badly injured had died from their wounds.
The conflict in Gaza follows the killing by Hamas of 1,400 Israelis and other nationals in a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October, with the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza saying 8,796 people have been killed, two-thirds of them women and children.
Boxes of live rodents have been released at three McDonald’s restaurants, apparently as part of pro-Palestine protests.
Police said they were investigating after the first incident, in Birmingham on Monday, in which what appeared to be mice painted red, black, green and white – the colours of the Palestinian flag – were released into a McDonald’s in the north of the city.
Other videos posted on social media showed what appear to be two similar protests at different McDonald’s branches.
In one video, staff can be seen trying to contain dozens of rodents under a plastic box, with one onlooker saying they had been “dropped off”. Another video appeared to show a group of masked men enter a McDonald’s while chanting “Free Palestine” and throwing a box of rodents on the ground near to staff.
West Midlands police said:
We’re investigating after live rodents were thrown into a restaurant off Watson Road, Nechells. We understand the distress this will have caused and it’s not acceptable in any circumstances.
This is currently being treated as a public nuisance offence and we’ve active lines of inquiries to identify, and then arrest, who was involved.
Updated
Biden: Some US citizens to leave Gaza today
Some US citizens will leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Thursday, Joe Biden said.
The US president, posting on X, formerly Twitter, said more American citizens are expected to be evacuated from Gaza over the coming days. He added:
We won’t let up working to get Americans out of Gaza.
Today, thanks to American leadership, we secured safe passage for wounded Palestinians and for foreign nationals to exit Gaza.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 1, 2023
We expect American citizens to exit today, and we expect to see more depart over the coming days.
We won't let up working to get Americans out of Gaza.
Updated
At least 320 foreign passport holders leave Gaza
At least 320 foreign passport holders have crossed to Egypt from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing today, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources and a Palestinian official.
Another 76 injured people have been transferred into Egypt, AFP reported, citing an official from the country.
The crossing opened on Wednesday for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders.
A first list of about 500 foreigners or dual nationals had been cleared to leave Gaza, and evacuations are expected to continue in the days to come.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can contact me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
The US should place “no limit” to civilian casualties Israel might inflict in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October, a senior US Republican senator said.
Speaking to CNN, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was asked:
Is there a threshold for you, and do you think there should be one for the United States government, in which the US would say, ‘Let’s hold off for a second in terms of civilian casualties?’
Graham said:
No. If somebody asked us after world war two, ‘Is there a limit what would you do to make sure that Japan and Germany don’t conquer the world? Is there any limit what Israel should do to the people who are trying to slaughter the Jews?’ The answer is no. There is no limit.
Graham said Israel should “be smart” and “try to limit civilian casualties the best we can. Let’s put humanitarian aid in areas that protect the innocent. I’m all for that.”
He appeared on CNN on Tuesday night, in the aftermath of airstrikes on a Gaza refugee camp which killed dozens. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander. Hamas said hostages, including foreign passport holders, were killed.
Updated
Reuters has said that “at least 320 foreign passport holders” had crossed from Gaza to Egypt so far on Wednesday.
UN agencies estimate that to date 1.4 million people living in Gaza have been displaced since Israel began military action on 7 October in response to the Hamas attack.
More details soon …
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. Video footage at the border on the Gaza side showed scores of people and cars hurrying to get through the gates towards the Egyptian side through the damaged terminal area, some carrying their belongings. AP reports that 110 foreign passport holders were allowed to exit Gaza as of Wednesday afternoon.
The evacuations began as a senior Hamas official on Wednesday said that several hundred Israeli and other hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were subject to the same risk of “death and destruction” that Palestinians have faced. The warning was made after Hamas said that seven hostages – including three foreign passport holders – were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that caused dozens of fatalities.
Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, claimed on Wednesday that seven civilian hostages were killed in Israeli strikes on the camp, including three foreign passport holders. Hamas seized more than 240 hostages during its murderous rampage inside Israel on 7 October, including children, women and elderly people. Since then it has released four civilians, the Israeli army claims to have rescued one of its soldiers who was a hostage, and Shani Louk, who was thought to be a hostage, has been declared dead.
There are reports the Jabalia camp has been struck for a second consecutive day.
The only cancer treatment hospital in the Gaza Strip has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”
Israel has said that the total number of IDF soldiers killed in combat in Gaza has risen to 13. Earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home. I promise the citizens of Israel: we will complete the work – we will continue until victory.”
The health ministry in Gaza says 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions in response to the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities.
Jordan has told its ambassador to come back from Israel over the war in Gaza, the foreign ministry said. The ambassador would only return to Tel Aviv if Israel halted its war in Gaza and ended “the humanitarian crisis it has caused,” the ministry added.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has issued a strongly worded statement stressing that he is “appalled” by casualties at the Jabalia camp and “laws of war and humanity must always apply”. The comments have been echoed by the foreign ministers of Portugal, Spain and Ireland.
A closed-doors screening has taken place in the Knesset of the 43-minute-long video produced by the IDF spokesperson’s office made of footage from the 7 October Hamas attacks that was previously shown to foreign journalists.
The BBC has announced it is launching an emergency radio service for Gaza in response to the conflict in the region. In a statement, the BBC said: “It will provide listeners in Gaza with the latest information and developments as well as safety advice on where to access shelter, food and water supplies.” The service will initially consist of one bulletin a day on medium wave broadcast at 1500 GMT from Friday.
Austria’s main Jewish leader said on Wednesday that a fire was set during the night in the Jewish section of Vienna’s central cemetery and that swastikas were sprayed on external walls.
Updated
Rushdi Abualouf, a reporter for the BBC, is at the Rafah border crossing, and has said that “so far, 150 [people] have been transported over the border in buses.”
He reports:
There is no electronic system or stamping of passports – everything is down. There is only a civilian Palestinian officer checking passports and then allowing through those on a list of people cleared to leave.
Updated
After weeks of intense violence, including home invasions and threats from Israeli settlers in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, entire villages in the south Hebron hills in the occupied West Bank have made a collective decision to leave.
According to B’Tselem, a human rights organisation, in the last three weeks 858 Palestinians from 32 communities, including 13 entire communities, have been forcibly displaced. The numbers increase every day.
Here is our video report …
Updated
110 foreign passport holders allowed to enter Egypt from Gaza – reports
AP reports that 110 foreign passport holders were allowed to exit Gaza as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Wael Abu Omar, a spokesperson for the Palestinian crossings authority.
The authority said the plan was for more than 400 foreign passport holders to be permitted to leave for Egypt.
Egypt had earlier said that more than 80 Palestinians – out of many thousands wounded in the war – would also be brought into the country for treatment. But Dr Mohamed Zaqout, a health ministry official in Gaza, told the Associated Press that ten of the patients died before they could be evacuated. The criteria for medical evacuation were not immediately clear.
Updated
Jordan recalls ambassador from Israel over Gaza war
Jordan has told its ambassador to come back from Israel over the war in Gaza, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
The ambassador would only return to Tel Aviv if Israel halted its war in Gaza and ended “the humanitarian crisis it has caused,” Reuters reports the ministry added.
Israel’s ambassador in Jordan, who left two weeks ago, would only be allowed to return on the same conditions, the ministry added.
Updated
Jordan has recalled its ambassador from Israel, according to state media in Jordan.
More details soon …
Updated
The UN’s humanitarian office has reported that at least 123 Palestinians, including 34 children, have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.
Earlier, the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, raised the death toll in the Gaza Strip to 8,796.
Updated
The IDF has issued the names of four more soldiers it said “fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip” as part of the Givati Brigade. The IDF has in total issued the names of 11 soldiers it said were killed on 31 October.
Updated
The Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has said those supporting Israel in its war against the group are “choosing the wrong side of history”, and blamed Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the war.
In a televised address, Haniyeh said Netanyahu wanted “to turn the world’s eyes from his guilt”, and said the US should stop supporting “this fascist government and … stop obstructing international efforts” to bring a humanitarian ceasefire.
Al Jazeera quoted him saying “You are choosing the wrong side of history. The region will not be safe or stable as long as our people don’t get their freedom and independence and return.”
Reuters reported that he called on people to continue protesting, particularly in the west, to mount pressure on decision makers.
He also said that Israeli hostages held in the besieged Gaza Strip were subject to the same “death and destruction” that Palestinians have faced.
Israel’s airstrikes and campaign inside Gaza began after Hamas fighters carried out a murderous rampage inside Israel on 7 October, leaving more than 1,400 Israeli dead and capturing at least 240 people to then hold hostage in Gaza.
Al Jazeera also reported that Hamas claimed its fighters had destroyed four Israeli military vehicles with anti-armour shells in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Ireland’s foreign minister, Micheál Martin, has said in a statement that he is “deeply shocked” by the number of casualties caused yesterday by an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Martin wrote:
I am deeply shocked by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel yesterday of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. Ireland has made clear on many occasions that Israel’s right to defend itself must be within the parameters of international humanitarian law. We now urgently need a humanitarian ceasefire and a significant scaling up of humanitarian access to get vital supplies to civilians. We cannot wait any longer.
His comments follow earlier similar statements by Martin’s counterparts from fellow EU countries Portugal and Spain, and by the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell.
Updated
Wilfred Chan reports for the Guardian from the US:
While sympathy for Palestine has long been a minority position in the United States, supporters are being punished for speaking out at a disturbing new level as Israel pummels Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians in the weeks following the 7 October Hamas attacks.
A Philadelphia sports writer was fired after tweeting “solidarity with Palestine” in criticism of a 76ers post that offered support to Israel after Hamas’s initial attack. In another high-profile incident, a University of California, Berkeley, professor was sacked as editor-in-chief of the scientific journal eLife after he retweeted an Onion article that, he said, “calls out indifference to the lives of Palestinian civilians”.
A spokesperson for Palestine Legal, a civil rights group, says it has responded to more than 260 “incidents of suppression” against Palestinian rights activists over two weeks of October – more than it did in all of last year. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), a civil rights non-profit, says it received 774 complaints between 7 October and 24 October – the largest wave of complaints it has handled since Donald Trump announced his “Muslim ban” in 2015.
This wave has targeted professional activists as well as ordinary people who have spoken in defence of Palestinians. It has reportedly escalated into death threats, assaults, and visits from the FBI to Muslim individuals and mosques.
Read more of Wilfred Chan’s report here: ‘The Palestine exception’ – why pro-Palestinian voices are suppressed in the US
Updated
Officials in Portugal and Spain have echoed Josep Borrell’s comments about civilian casualties caused by Israel’s attack on a refugee camp in Gaza. [See 12.03 GMT]
Portugal’s foreign minister, João Cravinho, wrote on social media:
News of the civilian deaths from the Israeli attack on the refugee camp in Jabalia is shocking. The EU requested a humanitarian pause to avoid tragedies such as this. The right to self-defence must be coupled with international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians.
His Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, said:
Appalled by the civilian victims of the bombing in Jabalia. International humanitarian law must always be respected. We ask for the unconditional release of hostages and humanitarian truce to avoid more innocent victims. We want peace and security for everyone in the Middle East.
Updated
A spokesperson for Germany’s foreign ministry has said it has informed its citizens about the possibility of leaving the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Reuters reports the spokesperson said they would be brought to Cairo initially, adding that there had been no concrete indications so far of German citizens leaving.
A closed-doors screening is taking place in the Knesset of the 43-minute-long video produced by the IDF spokesperson’s office made of footage from the 7 October Hamas attacks that was previously shown to foreign journalists.
Israel showed the footage to reporters on 23 October, to counter what Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson, said was a “Holocaust denial-like phenomenon” about the scale of atrocities.
The footage, captured by security cameras, body cameras worn by the Hamas attackers, vehicle dashboard cameras, social media accounts and videos from mobile phones includes the killing of children and the decapitation of some victims.
Updated
The World Health Organization has welcomed Egypt’s decision to accept 81 injured and sick people from the Gaza Strip for treatment, and reiterated its call for “urgent, accelerated access for humanitarian aid – including fuel, water, food and medical supplies – into and throughout the Gaza Strip.”
Updated
Gaza's only cancer hospital has gone out of service after running out of fuel
The only cancer treatment hospital in the Gaza Strip has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday.
Reuters reports that the director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference aired by Al-Jazeera TV that the hospital, which mainly treats cancer patients, had used up its fuel and was now out of service.
“We tell the world don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service,” Subhi Skaik added.
Mai al-Kaila, the Palestinian health minister, confirmed the director’s remarks in a statement.
After the Hamas attacks inside Israel on 7 October, Israel has tightened its blockade on Gaza, preventing food, medical supplies and fuel entering the Gaza Strip except for a limited number of aid trucks that have been allowed to cross in from Egypt.
Updated
First group of foreign passport holders evacuated through Rafah crossing – reports
The first group of foreign passport holders have been evacuated from the Gaza strip and have reached the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, two sources at the border have told Reuters.
More details soon …
Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces, said the military are again firing into Lebanon after claiming that a “terrorist squad” was “trying to launch anti-tank missiles from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The first injured Gazans have been evacuated to Egypt through the Rafah crossing since the conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas on 7 October.
Nahed Abu Taeema, director of the Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip, told Reuters that 19 critically injured patients from his hospital would be among the 81 being evacuated to Egypt.
“Those require advanced surgeries that can’t be done here because of the lack of capabilities, especially women and children,” said Abu Taeema.
Egypt has prepared a field hospital and also plans to direct some patients to permanent hospitals nearby.
A precise timeline of the limited evacuations has not been confirmed.
Updated
EU's Borrell 'appalled' by high number of Jabalia casualties, says obligation to protect civilians is moral and legal
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has issued a strongly worded statement stressing that he is “appalled” by casualties at the Jabalia refugee camp and “laws of war and humanity must always apply.”
In a thread posted to social media he wrote:
Building on EU Council’s clear stance that Israel has the right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law and ensuring the protection of all civilians, I am appalled by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel of the Jabalia refugee camp.
UNSG António Guterres reminded that IHL [international humanitarian law] cannot be applied selectively, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. The right to self-defence should always be balanced by the obligation to spare civilians to the greatest extent possible.
Laws of war and humanity must always apply, including when it comes to humanitarian assistance. With the unfolding tragedy in Gaza, the European Union has been calling since last week for humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs.
With each passing day, as the situation becomes more and more dire, this is more urgent than ever. The safety and the protection of civilians is not only a moral, but a legal obligation.
Updated
Israel: 13 IDF soldiers have been killed in combat in Gaza
Israel has said that the total number of IDF soldiers killed in combat in Gaza has risen to 13, Haaretz reports.
Earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home. I promise the citizens of Israel: We will complete the work – we will continue until victory.”
Two British nationals are expected to be among the first group of foreign passport-holders to evacuate through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, opening for the first time on Wednesday in more than three weeks since the brutal conflict began.
British nationals Abdel Hammad, a transplant surgeon from Liverpool, and Charles Birch, who was working with the United Nations in Gaza, are expected to be among the first foreign passport holders to be evacuated, the Guardian understands. It is understood that the Rafah border crossing today will open “for limited exits”, primarily for seriously wounded Palestinians and a first group of foreign nationals.
On Wednesday morning, the Foreign Office said the Israeli and Egyptian authorities will determine “who is allowed to cross, at which time” and that a full list of names of British nationals and dependants in Gaza has been provided to the Israeli and Egyptian authorities. Messages will be sent from the Foreign Office requesting individuals travel to the border crossing once they receive confirmation that individuals are permitted to cross.
“It’s such a relief the last three weeks have just been really surreal, like a bit of a bad dream really, waiting to hear from him,” said Abdel’s son, Salim Hammad, a 34-year-old doctor in Oxford.
“When communications have been coming and going especially this morning when communication was cut and there was a chance he might be able to leave but there’s no way we can tell him he can get to the border – yeah, that was stressful,” said Salim.
“We’re really just looking forward to be able to get him back, hopefully,” he said.
Abdel, a transplant surgeon from Liverpool, arrived in Gaza a day before the conflict began on 7 October with a transplant charity endorsed by the World Health Organization.
Updated
Al Jazeera reports that in the last hour “telecommunications company Jawwal announced … internet connections and mobile networks in the Gaza Strip are gradually being restored”.
Updated
Palestinian authorities have said on social media that “dozens of Palestinians were martyred and many others were injured” in the strike today on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The BBC has announced it is launching an emergency radio service for Gaza in response to the conflict in the region.
In a statement, the BBC said: “It will provide listeners in Gaza with the latest information and developments as well as safety advice on where to access shelter, food and water supplies.” The service will initially consist of one bulletin a day on medium wave broadcast at 1500 GMT from Friday.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Updated
On reports of the Jabalia refugee camp being struck by Israel for the second consecutive day, Al Jazeera’s Safwat Kahlout, who is in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, has reported:
The al-Falouja area [where the strike is reported to have been] is one of the most crowded in the Jabalia refugee camp. We are trying to contact sources and our relatives in Jabalia but because of the communications blackout we cannot get more information at this time.
Hamas-run health ministry raises Palestinian death toll in Gaza to 8,796
The health ministry in Gaza says 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions in response to the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October.
The figures from the Hamas-run ministry have not been independently verified.
It is believed that 1.4 million people in Gaza have been displaced from their homes. The Rafah crossing has been opened for the first time since 7 October today, and it is expected that up to 500 foreign nationals and 81 seriously wounded people may be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip.
Updated
Italy’s foreign minister said he hoped the first Italian citizens could leave Gaza on Wednesday.
Citing the Ansa newswire, Reuters reports Antonio Tajani said: “The first corridor in Rafah has been opened and people have started to leave. I hope that the first Italian can start leaving. Our embassy in Cairo is ready to welcome our fellow Italians that will leave.”
Updated
With the earlier reported communications blackout in Gaza it is difficult for journalists to report what is happening on the ground, but at the moment Al Jazeera is carrying news that Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip has been struck again.
Wael Dahdouh reported for the network that buildings had been levelled after the camp was targeted by Israeli warplanes in what was described as “intense, indiscriminate shelling”.
Al Jazeera reports that hundreds of people are feared to be trapped and buried under the rubble, and that Israel had earlier dropped leaflets telling Palestinians to leave the refugee camp.
Haaretz reports that “footage from the area shows smoke billowing over a compound containing several buildings.”
Israel yesterday said it struck the camp in an attempt to kill the local Hamas battalion commander Ibrahim Biari, who it believes was involved in the militant group’s 7 October attacks. AFP witnessed at least 47 bodies being recovered from the scene yesterday.
More details soon …
Updated
Austria’s main Jewish leader said on Wednesday that a fire was set during the night in the Jewish section of Vienna’s central cemetery and swastikas were sprayed on external walls.
AP reports that the president of the Jewish community of Vienna, Oskar Deutsch, wrote on social media that the fire burned the entrance lobby to a ceremonial hall but did not cause any injuries. The fire service and police were investigating, he said.
Updated
British nationals expected to leave Gaza in stages over coming days
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Western officials said they expected the Rafah crossing to be open for “controlled and time-limited periods” to allow specific groups of foreign nationals and the seriously wounded to evacuate Gaza.
The list of those evacuating has been agreed between Egypt and Israel, with embassies from the relevant countries being informed in advance to ensure they can prepare to receive their nationals.
As a result, it is likely the departure of British nationals from Gaza will take place in stages over the coming days.
The UK Foreign Office has said it sent a Border Force team to Cairo and has forward-deployed a team of consular officials to Arish, close to Rafah, to ensure it can provide the necessary medical, consular and administrative support needed.
The team said it had set up a reception centre to welcome British nationals who have left and have arranged accommodation.
Indonesia’s foreign ministry has said it has started its efforts to evacuate its nationals from Gaza, some of whom could leave “possibly today”.
In a press conference, the foreign affairs minister, Retno Marsudi, said the movement of Indonesians out of the beseiged Gaza Strip could not be done at once and must be gradual, with safety the priority.
Updated
A list of people with foreign passports who can leave Gaza via the Rafah crossing has been agreed between Israel and Egypt and relevant embassies have been informed in advance, a western official has told Reuters.
Reuters has more information on the healthcare provision being made at the Rafah crossing as Egypt prepares to receive some wounded people from inside the Gaza Strip.
It reports medical sources in Egypt’s Sinai region, which borders Gaza, told Reuters a field hospital of four tents, each containing 20 beds, and 12 medical caravans had been set up in Sheikh Zuweid, 15km (9 miles) from Rafah.
Hospitals in Sheikh Zuweid and Al-Arish, a town a little further away, were also preparing to admit patients from Gaza, with more difficult cases expected to be sent further out to Ismailia, the sources said.
A source at the border said 40 ambulances were at the crossing to take part in the evacuation operations.
Reuters added that 70 aid trucks were in the Rafah area, going through the process of checks required before they can go into Gaza.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
The Rafah border border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of Palestinian injured requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport-holders. Live pictures from television crews at the border on the Gaza’s side showed scores of people and cars moving through the gates towards the Egyptian side through the damaged terminal area, some carrying their belongings.
The opening of the crossing was negotiated between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, after the intervention of Qatar, which mediated in the talks. There is no indication for how long the Rafah crossing would remain open. The border authority in Gaza added that Egypt had agreed to let in 81 of the most badly wounded on Wednesday, seeking evacuation. A security source told Reuters up to 500 people may be able to leave.
Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, claimed on Wednesday that seven civilian hostages were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, including three foreign passport-holders. Hamas seized more than 240 hostages during its murderous rampage inside Israel on 7 October, including children, women and elderly people. Since then it has released four civilians, the Israeli army claims to have rescued one IDF soldier who was a hostage, and Shani Louk, who was thought to be a hostage, has been declared killed.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday roundly condemned the deadly Israeli bombing of Gaza’s largest refugee camp that killed dozens of people. Israel claimed it had targeted a Hamas tunnel complex under the densely populated Jabalia camp, killing local battalion commander Ibrahim Biari, who it believes was involved in the militant group’s 7 October attacks. AFP witnessed at least 47 bodies being recovered from the scene.
Benjamin Netanyahu has mourned the loss of Israeli soldiers inside Gaza, saying “We are in a difficult war”. In a statement, he said “This will be a long war. We have so many important achievements but also painful losses. Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home”. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israel was prepared for “a long and complex campaign”. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in Gaza.
Internet and phone networks were down across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Palestinian telecommunications agency said. It is the second such blackout in Gaza in less than a week.
Israel’s military has said it has deployed missile boats in the Red Sea. On Tuesday, it said it had intercepted a surface-to-surface missile and “hostile targets” in the Eilat region, which were later claimed by Yemen’s Houthis.
Just a third of primary healthcare facilities are functioning in Gaza. The hospitals remaining open have substantially reduced services, the World Health Organization has said.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on Muslim states to cease oil and food exports to Israel in order to stop the bombardment of Gaza during a speech on Wednesday.
In the UK, at least 330 Labour party councillors have signed a letter urging Keir Starmer to back a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the Labour leader’s attempts to reassure the party over the issue in a speech on Tuesday. The councillors, two-thirds of whom the Guardian understands are not Muslim, have criticised the party’s refusal to back the policy, which they say is “harming communities across the UK”.
Updated
Dubai airline Emirates has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until 30 November, Reuters reports it said in a statement.
Netanyahu: long and difficult war ahead, soldiers have fallen in 'most just of wars'
Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a statement addressing the loss of Israeli soldiers during the IDF campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
He said:
We are in a difficult war. This will be a long war. We have so many important achievements but also painful losses. We know that every soldier of ours is an entire world. The entire people of Israel embrace you, the families, from the depth of our heart.
We are all with you during your heavy sorrow. Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home. I promise the citizens of Israel: We will complete the work – we will continue until victory.
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 1, 2023
We are in a difficult war. This will be a long war. We have so many important achievements but also painful losses.
We know that every soldier of ours is an entire world. The entire people of Israel embrace you, the families, from the depth of our heart pic.twitter.com/aqlvz8wvdU
The social media account of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has posted a message in the last few minutes to say:
This war isn’t a war between Israel and Gaza. It’s a war between falsehood and truth, a war between the arrogant powers and faith.
The world of imperialism has come forward with bombs, military pressure, tragedies, and crime, but you should know that the power of faith will overcome all of these, with God’s grace.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy has already responded on social media to the first part of the post, saying “The first truth to come out of this man’s mouth”, presumably framing for Israel the “arrogant powers” and “faith” in the opposite direction.
Updated
Hamas claims seven hostages were killed in Israeli strike on Jabalia refugee camp
Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, claimed on Wednesday that seven civilian hostages were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, including three foreign passport-holders, Reuters reports.
Hamas seized more than 240 hostages during its murderous rampage inside Israel on 7 October, including children, women and elderly people. Since then it has released four civilians, the Israeli army cliams to have rescued one IDF soldier who was a hostage, and Shani Louk, who was thought to be a hostage, has been declared killed.
Updated
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on Muslim states to cease oil and food exports to Israel in order to stop the bombardment of Gaza during a speech on Wednesday, Reuters reports, citing Iranian state media.
Updated
Israel’s airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, which it claims targeted a Hamas commander, are part of the “terrible nature” of the conflict in the Middle East, the UK’s deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, has said.
PA Media reports, asked by Sky News, whether Israel had broken international law with the strikes, Dowden said: “This is the reality of the conflict with an organisation like Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organisation that has murdered in cold blood over 1,000 innocent Israeli men, women and children, and now seeks to hide amongst the civilian population. This is a very difficult conflict.
“We continue to urge the Israeli government to abide by international law. I believe that the Israeli government is continuing to do so against an enemy that hides among civilians. It is the terrible nature of this appalling conflict.”
Updated
Just a third of primary care facilities are functioning in Gaza, while the hospitals remaining open have substantially reduced services, the World Health Organization has said.
Issuing a new update on the situation in Gaza via social media, it said:
The crisis in Gaza is having a devastating impact on access to health care for patients with long-term needs. Patients with cancer, diabetes, heart disease and mental ill health face medicine stockouts and have been cut off from health services. Just a third of primary care facilities are functioning, while the 66% of hospitals remaining open have substantially reduced services to cope with massive casualties. Before 7 October, around 100 patients each day needed health care outside Gaza because of lack of availability of health care.
The crisis in Gaza is having a devastating impact on access to health care for patients with long-term needs.
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) November 1, 2023
Patients with cancer, diabetes, heart disease and mental ill health face medicine stockouts and have been cut off from health services.
Just a third of primary care… pic.twitter.com/D4gW7KLGFN
An Egyptian security source has told Reuters that up to 500 foreign passport-holders will pass the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt on Wednesday.
About 200 people were waiting at the Palestinian side of the border on Wednesday morning, the source said.
A second source with knowledge of the deal and evacuations said there was a list of up to 500 who would leave the Gaza Strip, but, Reuters reports, not all were expected to make it out on Wednesday.
Updated
Earlier this morning, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israel was prepared for “a long and complex campaign”.
In a message posted to social media, Gallant wrote:
The fall of IDF fighters in the battles against Hamas terrorists in Gaza is a hard and painful blow. Our hearts and thoughts are with their dear families.
The significant achievements of the powerful fighting in the depths of the Gaza Strip unfortunately exact a heavy price. We are prepared and ready for a long and complex campaign that requires courage, determination and perseverance – we will win.
Updated
Here is a video clip which appears to show ambulances and some of an aid convoy this morning moving through the Rafah crossing.
#فيديو | دخول مركبات إسعاف إلى معبر رفح لنقل جرحى إلى مصر. pic.twitter.com/KeHF7f4eNV
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) November 1, 2023
Rafah crossing open for limited evacuation of foreign and dual nationals from Gaza to Egypt
The Rafah crossing has opened to allow a limited number of people to cross from beseiged Gaza into Egypt. It is expected that foreign nationals, dual-passport holders and some of the most seriously injured will be allowed through by Egyptian authorities, in a deal said to be brokered by Qatar.
Images showed families and vehicles queueing up to exit Gaza, amid reports that Egypt would allow in 81 seriously injured people. A line of ambulances was seen waiting to take the sick and injured.
AFP reports it was not immediately clear how many people managed to leave via Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, but live footage from the scene showed crowds of people entering the Palestinian side of the terminal. It said 400 foreigners and dual nationals were expected to make the crossing.
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said on social media: “The Rafah crossing is likely to open today for a first group of foreign nationals. UK teams are ready to assist British nationals as soon as they are able to leave. It’s vital that lifesaving humanitarian aid can enter Gaza as quickly as possible.”
It would mark the first time people have been allowed to leave Gaza since Israel began its latest aerial bombardment, which has killed thousands of Palestinians, on 7 October. Israel launched the attacks after the Hamas massacre inside Israel.
The move comes as the telecoms providers Paltel and Jawwal reported a “complete disruption” of communications and internet services in Gaza, the second major cut in five days. Humanitarian aid agencies have warned that such blackouts severely disrupt their work in an already dire situation in Gaza.
Updated
Here is a short video clip purporting to show the first foreign nationals and dual-passport holders being able to exit through the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt.
خروج الدفعة الأولى من الأجانب ومزدوجي الجنسية من غزة إلى مصر عبر معبر رفح البري pic.twitter.com/xuEIZFSTC4
— جريدة القدس (@alqudsnewspaper) November 1, 2023
AFP reports that its images show long lines of ambulances and several people in wheelchairs at the Rafah border crossing. Egypt said it would let in 81 of the most seriously injured.
Egypt also announced the first foreigners could exit Gaza.
Video footage from the crossing shows people and vehicles moving to exit Gaza for the first time since the escalation of violence following the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October.
Rafah crossing open to people for limited evacuation from Gaza
The video stream of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt shows people and cars beginning to move through.
A limited evacuation of foreign nationals and sick people is expected, in a deal brokered by Qatar.
More details soon …
Reuters has a quick snap that the UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has also said that the Rafah crossing is expected to open today for limited travel by foreign nationals.
A source has told Reuters that Qatar has mediated an agreement between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, which will allow limited evacuations of foreign passport holders and some critically injured people.
There are small groups of people waiting at the crossing.
Updated
Israel has accused Bolivia of “aligning itself with the Hamas terrorist organisation” after the South American state broke off diplomatic ties with Israel yesterday.
In a message posted to social media, the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson Lior Haiat said:
The government of Bolivia’s decision to cut diplomatic ties with Israel is a surrender to terrorism and to the Ayatollah’s regime in Iran.
By taking this step, the Bolivian government is aligning itself with the Hamas terrorist organization, which slaughtered over 1,400 Israelis and abducted 240 people, including children, women, babies and the elderly.
Israel condemns Bolivia’s support of terrorism and its submission to the Iranian regime, which attest to the values the government of Bolivia represents.
Since the change of government in Bolivia, relations between the countries have been devoid of content.
The decision by Bolivia was announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “We demand an end to the attacks on the Gaza Strip which have so far claimed thousands of civilian lives and caused the forced displacement of Palestinians,” a government minister told reporters in her country’s de facto capital, La Paz.
The governments of Chile and Colombia have also recalled their ambassadors from Israel.
Updated
Israel’s military has said it has deployed missile boats in the Red Sea. Yesterday, it said it intercepted a surface-to-surface missile and “hostile targets” in the Eilat region, which were later claimed by Yemen’s Houthis.
In a post on the Telegram messaging app, the Israel Defence Forces said:
In accordance with the situational assessment and as part of defensive efforts in the area, yesterday, Israeli Navy missile boats arrived in the area of the Red Sea.
It issued images of the ships on patrol in the region.
Eilat is Israel’s southernmost city, near Israel’s borders with Egypt and Jordan. It also came under fire from a long-range missile attempt from the Gaza Strip in recent days.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
The Qatar agreement is not linked to other items under negotiation including hostage releases or humanitarian pauses, Reuters reports.
Rafah crossing to open on Wednesday to critically injured and foreign passport holders – report
Reuters reports that Qatar has mediated an agreement between Egypt, Hamas and Israel, in coordination with the US, to open the Rafah crossing on Wednesday to allow foreign passport-holders and some critically injured civilians out of Gaza.
Reuters cites an unnamed source briefed on the deal.
Updated
Australians in Gaza advised to travel to Rafah
Australia’s ABC news reports that Australian consular officials have sent emails to citizens in Gaza advising them to travel to Rafah amid reports that the crossing may soon open to allow foreign nationals to enter Egypt.
The email, seen by the ABC, tells recipients to “seize this opportunity to depart Gaza” provided that they “deem it safe to do so”.
The Rafah border crossing will be opened Wednesday for a number of Palestinians who were injured in Gaza to complete their treatment in Egyptian hospitals,Reuters reports, citing Egyptian medical and security sources as well as a Palestinian border official.
Meanwhile the US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday it was “intensely focused” on getting the Rafah crossing opened for Americans and foreigners to leave Gaza, adding Washington had made good progress even in the past few hours.
“We are intensely focused on getting the gate open … We have made good progress on this even in the past few hours and hope to keep making progress to get those American citizens out,” Miller told reporters.
Updated
Hundreds of UK Labour councillors urge Keir Starmer to back Gaza ceasefire
At least 330 Labour councillors have signed a letter urging Keir Starmer to back a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the Labour leader’s attempts to reassure the party over the issue.
The councillors, two-thirds of whom the Guardian understands are not Muslim, have criticised the party’s refusal to back the policy, which they say is “harming communities across the UK”.
Starmer detailed his position on the crisis on Tuesday after mounting criticism from MPs over his stance on the suffering of Palestinians.
But the councillors have urged him to go further and “unequivocally condemn” all acts of violence against civilians.
Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli strike on Gaza camp ‘in strongest terms’
AFP: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday roundly condemned a deadly Israeli bombing of Gaza’s largest refugee camp that killed dozens of people.
Israel said it had targeted a Hamas tunnel complex under the densely populated Jabalia camp on Tuesday, killing local battalion commander Ibrahim Biari, who it believes was involved in the militant group’s 7 October attacks.
AFP witnessed at least 47 bodies being recovered from the scene.
Saudi Arabia denounced the strike “in the strongest terms possible”, decrying the “inhumane targeting” of the refugee camp “by the Israeli occupation forces”.
The attack, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said, had “caused the death and injury of a large number of innocent civilians”.
Updated
Pakistan condemns Israeli strikes on refugee camp
Pakistan’s interim prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, on Wednesday denounced the latest Israeli airstrikes on a refugee camp near Gaza City, urging the international community to play its role in ending such strikes.
“Yesterday’s air raid on Jabalia camp, where hundreds of lives were lost, including women and children, was a stark reminder of ongoing Israeli brutalities and war crimes in Gaza,” Kakar said in a statement.
He said that “such reprehensible acts can never be condoned or forgotten. The world must act now to end this carnage”
Updated
Gaza internet cut off, says Paltel
Jawwal has also confirmed the communication blackout in Gaza, the AP reports.
In an email to the AP, internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org confirmed that Gaza “is in the midst of a total or near-total telecoms blackout consistent with” the weekend blackout.
Connectivity was previously cut from late Friday to early Sunday, coinciding with the entry of large numbers of ground troops into Gaza in what Israel at the time described as a new stage in the war. Attempts to reach Gaza residents by phone were unsuccessful early Wednesday.
Humanitarian aid agencies have warned that such blackouts severely disrupt their work in an already dire situation in Gaza.
The IDF has posted a short update to X in which it says that “ground activity in the Gaza Strip continues” and that it has struck 11,000 “targets” in Gaza in less than a month.
“Combined forces of the IDF attacked many terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip during the night, including operational headquarters and squads of Hamas terrorists,” it said.
Is the 'axis of resistance' interested in all-out war?
All-out war would mark a total break in strategy. Michael Knights from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said the two sides have played a deadly game since about 2019 when Iraqi Shia militias were provided with drones by Tehran, so long as they did not kill too many Americans. “What the Iranians have done is perfect a way of prodding the Americans and demonstrating resistance to their regional presence without drawing heavy US military retaliation.” All-out war would end this strategy.
The former Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, in a talk last week said Israel had in a sense already lost since the myth of the country’s invincibility has been destroyed. With Iran aligned with the previously divided Arab world, Iran is in a stronger position than before, claiming it is the US and Israel that have lost popular support.
Whether it was the intention, or a by-product, the planned normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel is on hold. Zarif thinks Israel’s number one priority now is trying to lure the US into a war against Iran, but the US does not want this.
Who are Tehran’s proxies?
Lebanon
Hezbollah is often described as the jewel in the crown, with its longtime spiritual leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah has both a political party and a military force that has, over three decades, built a relationship with Iran founded on trust and mutual interest. Its campaign of attacks, bombings, hijackings and direct military confrontations with Israel in the 1990s and 2000s has served Tehran’s strategic objectives in the Middle East without any direct military confrontations with Israel. Since 7 October the rocket fire from southern Lebanon has increased, and Hezbollah fighters have been killed. But Iran would be reluctant to commit to a second war such as the one in 2006 that devastated Lebanon.
Yemen
At little cost to itself, Iran has been providing weapons to the Shia Houthi rebel forces known as “Ansar Allah” that has tied down Saudi Arabia, and to a lesser extent the United Arab Emirates, for years.
Syria
Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, owes his survival to Iran since Tehran supplied the ground forces – as many as 80,000 men, many from Hezbollah – that in conjunction with the Russian air force crushed the uprising. A study by the Joosor Centre showed Iran had 98 military sites in eastern Syria.
Iraq
The powerful Iran-backed Shia paramilitary Nujaba Movement has criticised the opposition of the Iraqi prime minister, Muhammad Shia’ Al-Sudani, to attacks on US military bases in the country – claiming there “is sufficient legal and religious authorisation for resistance”. But there is a strong constituency inside Iraq – mainly a younger generation – that want Iranian influence to end.
How Iran uses proxy forces across the region
Iranian leaders have warned the world is closer to a regional war in the Middle East and that Israel has crossed red lines, which, in the words of President Ebrahim Raisi, “may force everyone to take action”.
But Iran is walking a tightrope, keen to avoid a direct confrontation and therefore blurring its red lines to avoid walking into a trap. Instead, it leans on proxy militias around the region from its “axis of resistance” to launch limited strikes aimed at Israel and US military bases in Iraq and Syria.
The use of proxy forces, chief among them Hezbollah in Lebanon but also Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, has been a trademark of Iranian foreign policy. Iran says that while it supports such “resistance forces”, they act independently.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has spoken with Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the first time since the latest conflict erupted in Gaza.
His message to the Israeli prime minister remains unknown, but Albanese told a press conference on Wednesday that the government remained concerned about humanitarian issues and civilian lives in Gaza, and that while he believed Israel has a right to defend itself, “how it defends itself matters”.
Police on Wednesday also removed protesters outside the Geelong office of deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, after a demonstration of anti-Zionist Jewish activists picketed against the government’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
The demonstration, which lasted several hours, included several protestors using bike locks to secure themselves to the building. The group called on the government to withdraw diplomatic, economic and military support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Reuters: Power generators in Al Shifa Medical complex and the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza will run out of fuel in a few hours, Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza said. He called on petrol stations owners in the enclave to urgently feed the two hospitals with fuel if possible.
After the attack on Jabalia, dozens of bodies lay shrouded in white, lined up against the side of the Indonesian Hospital, footage obtained by Reuters showed.
Juggling dwindling supplies of medicines, power cuts and air or artillery strikes that have shaken hospital buildings, surgeons in Gaza have worked night and day trying to save a constant stream of patients.
“We take it an hour at a time because we don’t know when we will be receiving patients. Several times we’ve had to set up surgical spaces in the corridors and even sometimes in the hospital waiting areas,” Dr. Mohammed al-Run said.
Iran-backed Hamas has told mediators it will release some foreign captives in coming days, Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of the group’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said in a video on the Telegram app on Tuesday. He gave no further details on the number of captives or their nationalities.
Nine Israeli soldiers reportedly killed in Gaza
Nine soldiers have been killed in fighting in Gaza, AFP reports, citing the Israeli military. We will have more detail as it emerges.
A little more detail on the internet and phone networks being cut off in Gaza, via AFP.
Internet and phone networks were down across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Palestinian telecommunications agency said, in the second such blackout in GAza in less than a week.
“To our good people in the beloved country, we are sorry to announce that communications and internet services have been completely cut off in Gaza,” the Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) said on X.
Internet and the phone network were completely cut last week, but were restored at the weekend.
The government of Palestinian militant group Hamas had at the time accused Israel of causing the shutdown in order to “perpetrate massacres” in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian telecoms provider Jawwal had blamed Israel‘s “heavy bombardment” of the territory for the blackout.
Top Biden officials urge Congress to pass funding for Israel and Ukraine
The Biden administration took its quest for emergency military aid for Israel and Ukraine to Capitol Hill on Tuesday in an all-out effort to overcome House Republican attempts to decimate a $106bn package while cutting key parts of the White House’s domestic policy.
In a stormy session interrupted several times by demonstrators, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and defense secretary Lloyd Austin, told a Senate hearing that assistance to both countries was closely linked and should not be decoupled, as demanded by leading Republicans who are keen to back Israel but oppose any further help for Ukraine.
Blinken and Austin said this after Mike Johnson, the new right-wing speaker of the House of Representatives, introduced a bill proposing that aid be limited to $14.3bn for Israel and linked to budget cuts for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US tax authority, which the Biden administration has beefed up as part of its Inflation Reduction Act.
The legislation would also make no provision for continuing to help Ukraine as it tries to repel Russian forces.
Blinken to visit Israel as US seeks ‘urgent’ steps to ease regional tensions
AFP: Top US diplomat Antony Blinken will begin a new Middle East trip this week, a spokesperson announced Tuesday, as President Joe Biden seeks “urgent mechanisms” to reduce regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.
“Secretary Blinken will travel to Israel on Friday for meetings with members of the Israeli government, and then will make other stops in the region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, without further details.
The White House said later that Biden had spoken Tuesday with the leader of key US partner Jordan, where Blinken has visited multiple times since 7 October.
Biden and King Abdullah II “discussed urgent mechanisms to stem violence, calm rhetoric, and reduce regional tensions,” a White House statement said.
It added that the two leaders “agreed that it is critical to ensure that Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza” and that Biden had “confirmed unwavering US support for Jordan and His Majesty’s leadership.”
Blinken on Tuesday also spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog to reiterate US support for Israel’s right to defend itself and to call on the nation “to take feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians,” the State Department’s Miller said in a separate statement.
Gaza internet cut off, says Paltel
Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel says that there is another “complete interruption of all communications and Internet services with the Gaza Strip.”
Writing on twitter it said that international routes have been cut off.
The tweet reads: “Dear people in our beloved homeland, We regret to announce a complete interruption of all communications and Internet services with the Gaza Strip, due to international routes that were previously reconnected being cut off again. May God protect you and protect our country.”
Gaza’s internet access was cut off on Friday, plunging Palestinains into a communications blackout and creating an information vacuum amid was then the heaviest aerial bombardment of the war so far.
A handful of reports that emerged from the enclave on Saturday depicted chaos and anguish as paramedic teams and aid agencies struggled to coordinate rescue and relief efforts and families sought news about relatives.
Egypt condemns Jabalia strikes amid reports Rafah may open to wounded
Egypt on Tuesday condemned the Israeli strikes on Jabalia camp “in the strongest terms”, warning against “the consequences of the continuation of these indiscriminate attacks that target defenceless civilians” in a foreign ministry statement.
Egypt is preparing to treat wounded Palestinians from the bombarded Gaza Strip starting Wednesday, with the opening of a border crossing to people after weeks of war, medical and security sources told AFP.
Egypt is reportedly preparing to receive wounded Palestinians from the Gaza through the Rafah border crossing for medical treatment, medical and security sources said on Tuesday.
“Medical teams will be present tomorrow (Wednesday) at the crossing to examine the cases coming (from Gaza) as soon as they arrive... and determine the hospitals they will be sent to,” a medical official in Egypt‘s city of El Arish told AFP.
An AFP photographer on Tuesday saw a large number of ambulances gathered at the Egyptian side of the crossing.
The border authority in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said that Egypt had agreed to let in 81 of the most badly wounded on Wednesday through Rafah, the only crossing not controlled by Israel.
A security source at the Rafah crossing confirmed the information, which was earlier reported by the state-affiliated Al-Qahera news channel.
The medical official added that a field hospital with an area of 1,300 square metres (about 14,000 square feet) would be built to receive the wounded Palestinians in the city of Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Rafah.
Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top stories this morning:
Egypt on Tuesday condemned the Israeli strikes on Jabalia camp “in the strongest terms”, warning against “the consequences of the continuation of these indiscriminate attacks that target defenceless civilians” in a foreign ministry statement.
Egypt is reportedly preparing to receive wounded Palestinians from the Gaza through the Rafah border crossing for medical treatment, medical and security sources said on Tuesday.
“Medical teams will be present tomorrow (Wednesday) at the crossing to examine the cases coming (from Gaza) as soon as they arrive... and determine the hospitals they will be sent to,” a medical official in Egypt‘s city of El Arish told AFP.
An AFP photographer on Tuesday saw a large number of ambulances gathered at the Egyptian side of the crossing.
And Palestine Telecommunication Company, or Paltel, said on Wednesday in a post on messaging platform X that communications and internet services have been completely cut off in the Gaza Strip due to international access being disconnected again.
Paltel is Gaza’s largest telecommunications provider.
Other key recent developments include:
Bolivia said on Tuesday it had broken diplomatic ties with Israel because of its attacks on the Gaza Strip, while neighbours Colombia and Chile recalled their ambassadors to the Middle Eastern country for consultations. The three South American nations lambasted Israel’s attacks on Gaza and condemned the deaths of Palestinian citizens.
Israeli airstrikes have destroyed apartment blocks and killed dozens of people at a refugee camp in northern Gaza. At least six airstrikes hit residential areas in the Jabalia refugee camp on Gaza City’s outskirts on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and injuring about 150 people, Hamas officials said. Médecins Sans Frontières said it was “horrified” by the news.
The Israeli military said it had targeted the camp to kill Ibrahim Biari – a key Hamas commander linked to the group’s 7 October attack on Israel who, it said, had taken over civilian buildings in Gaza City with his fighters.
At least 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, have been killed in bombardments in Gaza, according to Hamas health ministry figures issued before the strikes on Jabalia. Gaza has become “a graveyard for thousands of children,” a Unicef spokesperson said.
The United States has made “real progress” in the last few hours in negotiations to secure a safe passage for Americans and other foreigners who wish to depart Gaza, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. “While I can’t make an announcement today, we do think we’ve made very real progress on this as I said in just the past few hours,” Miller told a news briefing.
Qatar’s foreign ministry has “strongly condemned” the Israeli strike on Jabalia refugee camp, warning that the expansion of Israel’s attacks is a “dangerous escalation” that would “undermine mediation and de-escalation efforts”.
Two French children have been killed in the north of the Gaza Strip, France’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry reiterated its call for a humanitarian pause in the fighting and demanded that French nationals and foreign citizens to be allowed to leave Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces and Hamas reported fresh clashes on Tuesday, especially around Gaza City, where Israeli tanks and infantry targeted tunnel entrances and rocket launch positions. Hamas fighters responded with machine guns and missiles. The IDF said they struck about 300 targets since Monday, hitting Hamas military compounds and killing “numerous” militants, including Nisam Abu Ajina, the commander of Hamas’s Beit Lahiya battalion.
The Israeli military is making “significant” achievements during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip but it is also “paying a heavy price”, said the defence minister, Yoav Gallant. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) separately said that two soldiers had been killed and another two seriously wounded during clashes with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
The US and Israel are considering the possibility of a multinational force that could include American, UK, French troops in the Gaza Strip, in the event that Israeli forces are successful in ousting Hamas, according to a report. US and Israeli officials have also reportedly discussed a second option that would establish a peacekeeping force or a third option that would see Gaza put under temporary UN oversight.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said they have launched a “large number” of ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel. The group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement on Tuesday that this operation is the third targeting Israel, with more to come.
The conflict has claimed the lives of 67 workers from the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), complicating efforts to run 150 shelters that are overwhelmed with more than 670,000 displaced people. About 8,000 people are sheltering at – and clogging – a logistics base at Rafah.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire and urged all sides to respect international humanitarian law. He said he was “dismayed by reports that two-thirds of those who have been killed are women and children.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has ruled out a ceasefire and said the campaign to eradicate Hamas could last months. Israeli forces sought to avoid civilian casualties and encouraged civilians to relocate to “protected areas” in the south where they could receive food, water and medicine, said Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser.
The Rafah border crossing will be opened on Wednesday for a number of injured Palestinians to complete their treatment in Egyptian hospitals, according to reports. Eighty-one Gazans with serious injuries will enter Egypt to receive treatment, the General Authority for Crossings and Borders in Gaza said.
The US state department has confirmed that the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will visit Israel on Friday for meetings with members of the government. Earlier this month, Blinken visited Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
A World Health Organization (WHO) official said a “public health catastrophe” was imminent in Gaza amid overcrowding, mass displacement and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure. At the same press briefing, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency warned of the risk of infant deaths due to dehydration with just 5% of normal water supplies available.
Hamas’s armed wing said on Tuesday that it would release a number of the foreign hostages in its captivity “in the next few days”. The Israeli military has raised the number of hostages it says are confirmed to be being held in Gaza by Hamas to 240. Hamas has so far released four hostages back to Israel.
The head of Israel’s national security council has said that he does not see a deal for the release of hostages being close. Tzachi Hanegbi also said that “the day after the war is not close” and that Hamas “must cease to exist”.
The director of the New York office of the UN high commissioner for human rights has resigned from his post, protesting that the UN is “failing” in its duty to prevent what he categorises as genocide of Palestinian civilians in Gaza under Israeli bombardment and citing the US, UK and much of Europe as “wholly complicit in the horrific assault”.
The attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October will inspire the most significant terror threat to the US since the rise of Islamic State (IS) nearly a decade ago, FBI director Christopher Wray said at a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday.
