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Updated
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are encircling Gaza City and operating inside it.
Remains of seven Thai nationals expected to arrive in Bangkok Thursday
The remains of seven Thai nationals killed in Israel are expected to arrive in Bangkok on Thursday afternoon, Thailand’s foreign ministry has said.
About 30,000 Thais were working in Israel before the Hamas attacks, and the Israeli government has said they make up the biggest group of foreign people killed or missing.
In total, 34 Thai people were killed in the violence, while four are being treated in hospital. A further 24 were abducted.
Thai officials have met with Hamas, as well as Qatar and Egypt in order to secure the hostages’ release. They have also received support from neighbouring Malaysia, a vocal supporter of Palestine.
About 8,000 Thais have now been repatriated.
In case you missed this earlier: an employee of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been killed in Gaza along with several family members, the group said Tuesday.
Mohammed Al Ahel, a laboratory technician, was killed in his home in the Shati refugee camp when the area was bombed and his building collapsed, MSF said in a statement.
“Today, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is mourning the loss of one of our team members in Gaza, Mohammed Al Ahel, who was killed along with several members of his family on November 6,” the medical charity said.
“It is clear that no place in Gaza is safe from brutal and indiscriminate bombing,” it said.
“Our repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire have gone unanswered, but we insist that it is the only way to prevent more senseless deaths across Gaza and allow adequate humanitarian aid into the Strip,” the charity said.
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More now on the Israeli strikes inside Lebanon in the last 24 hours.
Journalists for Lebanon’s National News Agency report that Israeli airstrikes have hit the outskirts of the Lebanese villages of Yater, Kafra and Shebaa, with artillery shelling landing near Ramyah and Ayta ash Shab. The reports were published by the agency between six and seven hours ago.
The agency reports that a strike hit a residential building in Yater and that residents were not injured.
Reuters: G7 foreign ministers discussed how to revitalise peace efforts in the Middle East and the “day after” in the Gaza Strip once the conflict there recedes as they met for a two-day summit in Tokyo.
The subject was brought up during a working dinner late on Tuesday, host Japan said in a statement, with the Group of Seven (G7) due to continue talks on Wednesday on the Israel-Gaza crisis, Russia’s war in Ukraine and issues related to China.
The statement gave no details of options being discussed if the Hamas militant group is ousted from Gaza as the result of an ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that Israel wants the territory to be under an international coalition, including the US, European Union and Muslim-majority countries, or administered by local Gaza political leaders.
Diplomats in Washington, the United Nations, the Middle East and beyond have also started weighing the options.
Discussions include the deployment of a multinational force to post-conflict Gaza, an interim Palestinian-led administration that would exclude Hamas politicians, a stopgap security and governance role for neighbouring Arab states and temporary UN supervision of the territory, Reuters reported this month.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled) has released an infographic showing the wave of protests worldwide trigged by the Israel-Hamas war.
Acled says protests related to the conflict account for 38% of all demonstrations globally. The organisation looked at demonstrations between 7-27 October 2023.
The graphic below shows nearly 1400 demonstrations in the Middle East and north Africa, where the organisation says protest activity is concentrated. It found that most events were reported in Yemen, Turkey, Iran and Morocco, in that order.
The United States had the highest number of counter-demonstrations involving opposing pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests, which Acled said reflected the significant divisions in public opinion.
More than a dozen demonstrations in Germany turned violent, Acled said.
The latest escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict has triggered a wave of protests around the world. So far, ACLED has recorded 4,200 demonstrations related to the conflict, accounting for 38% of all demonstrations globally.
— Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (@ACLEDINFO) November 7, 2023
New infographic ▶️ https://t.co/JTf1Is67Bn pic.twitter.com/JTB0S2p2yM
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Israel has struck Lebanese territory multiple times in the last 24 hours, according to statements from the IDF, in what the IDF said were responses to firing on Israel and “a suspicious aerial target” detected in Israeli territory.
Late on Tuesday evening in Israel, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that Israeli forces had struck what it said were Hezbollah targets in Lebanon “in response to firing from Lebanese territory earlier today”.
Israeli warplanes struck inside Lebanon multiple times, according to Hagari, on what it said were Hezbollah targets, including a “warehouse, launch positions, infrastructure for targeting terrorism and sites where technological means” are located.
מטוסי קרב של צה"ל תקפו מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה ביניהן מחסן אמל"ח, עמדות שיגור, תשתיות להכוונת טרור ואתרים בהם ממוקמים אמצעים טכנולוגיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה. התקיפה בוצעה בתגובה לירי משטח לבנון מוקדם יותר היום >> pic.twitter.com/R2RA5u0AVr
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 7, 2023
Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF said that “about 20 launches were detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon into Israel”.
Roughly 16 hours ago, the IDF said it fired into Lebanon in response to what it says was “a suspicious aerial target” intercepted near the blue line which marks the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire along the border between Israel and Lebanon since 8 October, the Associated Press reports, as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to turn into a wider conflict.
On Monday, Lebanese state media said that three children and their grandmother were killed in an Israeli air strike, an incident that prompted retaliatory rocket strikes on the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.
For Hezbollah, fully entering the Israel-Hamas war would risk dragging Lebanon, which is facing a devastated economy and internal political tensions, into a conflict it cannot afford, fuelling domestic opposition to the group.
But, the AP writes, “staying on the sidelines as Israeli troops take control of the Gaza Strip could compromise Hezbollah’s credibility, and a Hamas defeat would be a blow to Iran. Hezbollah’s steady pressure on Israel’s northern border shows support for Hamas and keeps open the threat of a wider intervention”.
AFP: Since 17 October US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted by drone or rocket attacks at least 40 times, injuring dozens of US personnel, according to the Pentagon.
Tuesday’s attack was claimed by a group known as “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” on Telegram channels affiliated with Iraqi factions close to Tehran. The same group has claimed most of the recent attacks.
Some 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq and another 900 in Syria, as part of the international anti-jihadist coalition that was established in 2014.
In Iraq, the coalition says its role is limited to advising and supporting local counterparts.
Drone attack targets US-led anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq
AFP: A drone attack on Tuesday targeted a military base at Arbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan that hosts troops from the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, officials said.
“At two different points, three drones attacked the international coalition” on Tuesday morning, the autonomous Kurdish region’s anti-terrorism service said in a statement.
In the first attack “on the military base at Arbil airport, two drones were shot down”, while a third subsequently crashed without exploding, the service said.
The Pentagon later confirmed that an attack had taken place in Iraqi Kurdistan without causing casualties or damage, but only mentioned one drone that failed to detonate on impact.
American and allied forces were also targeted in Syria on Tuesday, where rockets were fired at Mission Support Site Euphrates without causing casualties or damage, the Pentagon said.
Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October, a series of rocket and drone attacks have targeted military bases hosting US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria.
Here is our full story on Labour frontbencher Imran Hussain’s resignation to support a ceasefire in Gaza.
The shadow minister Imran Hussain has resigned from Keir Starmer’s Labour frontbench in order to “be able to strongly advocate for a ceasefire” in Gaza.
“Over recent weeks, it has become clear that my view on the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza differs substantially from the position you have adopted,” Hussain said in a resignation letter to Starmer published on social media.
“A ceasefire is essential to ending the bloodshed, to ensuring that enough aid can pass into Gaza and reach those most in need, and to help ensure the safe return of the Israeli hostages.”
He said he had been “proud” to work alongside Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner in developing a plan for employment rights, but could not “in all good conscience” push for a cessation of hostilities while remaining part of the frontbench.
The Bradford East MP, who was a shadow minister for work, said he had been “deeply troubled” by Starmer’s comments during an LBC interview on 11 October where said his party leader appeared to endorse Israel cutting off water and power to the Gaza Strip; and while Starmer had since clarified his remarks, “I believe the party needs to go further and call for a ceasefire”.
IDF says ground forces aiming to locate and disable Hamas tunnel network using explosive devices
Reuters: Israel’s ground forces in the Gaza Strip are aiming to locate and disable Hamas militants’ vast tunnel network, the next phase in an Israeli offensive that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
Israel has used ground troops to divide Gaza in two.
Gaza City, the territory’s largest town and Hamas’ main stronghold, is encircled. Israel says its troops have advanced to the heart of the city while Hamas says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses on the invading forces.
Chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Israel’s combat engineering corps were using explosive devices to destroy a tunnel network built by Hamas that stretches for hundreds of kilometres (miles) beneath Gaza.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel had “one target – Hamas terrorists in Gaza, their infrastructure, their commanders, bunkers, communications rooms”.
Israeli tanks have faced heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using the tunnel network to launch ambushes, two sources with Hamas and the separate militant group Islamic Jihad said.
It was not possible to verify the battlefield claims of either side.
Reuters: Israel previously said it had surrounded Gaza City, home to around a third of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people, and would soon attack it to annihilate Hamas fighters who assaulted Israeli towns across the border one month ago.
There was no indication on the ground that Israeli forces had thrust en masse further into the city, but a spokesperson for the military, Richard Hecht, suggested that the encircling troops could be making raids inside.
Asked whether such raids had taken place, he said: “I’m not going to talk about how we are operationally acting from within our encirclement around Gaza City. You are in the right direction, that’s all I can say.”
The military wing of Hamas said its fighters were inflicting heavy losses and damage on advancing Israeli forces.
Neither the Guardian nor Reuters have verified the battlefield claims of either side.
In case you missed this earlier, Israel said on Tuesday its forces were pushing deep into Gaza City, where residents said tanks were positioned on the outskirts for a potential storming of Gaza‘s urban heartland.
“For the first time in decades, IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza City. At the heart of terrorism,” Major General Yaron Finkelman, commanding officer of the Southern Command of the Israeli Defence Forces, told reporters near the Gaza border.
“Every day and every hour the forces are killing militants, exposing tunnels and destroying weapons and continuing onward to enemy centres.”
The problem for UK Labour is that the proponents of these two positions tend to see those of a dissenting view as failing to live up to the party’s purpose of promoting social justice. It is also the case that most of the far left of the party, who are blamed by the rest of the party for making Labour unelectable in the 1980s and in more recent years, support a ceasefire. A further complication is that the Muslim vote is important in a number of Labour constituencies. Starmer’s position is seen by some as an electoral risk.
There is no easy solution. Starmer has made some missteps, including when he appeared to support the cutting of water and energy to Gaza in an interview with LBC. He later clarified that this was not his position but it has made it all the harder for him to convince the totality of his party that his stance is truly that of a politician who believes in social justice – and that’s the crux of the problem.
What is UK Labour's position on the Israel-Hamas war?
Labour leader Keir Starmer has argued that a ceasefire in the current war would simply freeze the status quo and that Hamas’s murder of 1,400 people on 7 October, and the group’s stated intention to strike again and again, makes this untenable. Israel must, the argument goes, be allowed to defend itself. Starmer has followed the White House in calling for humanitarian pauses to allow aid to get into Gaza. It may be an unsatisfactory argument to some but it has a logic. Labour backs a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine but the immediate threat to life needs to be dealt with.
There is a suspicion in some parts of Labour, however, that Starmer has been led to this position by a desire to draw a line between him and his predecessor, Corbyn, who was recorded in 2009 describing Hamas and Hezbollah representatives as “friends”. Corbyn has spoken of his regret at that “inclusive” but inappropriate language, but in doing so he has argued that the way to peace will inevitably require all the warring parties to be brought together, and that there is no military solution.
That argument also has a logic. It is posited that a two-state solution will not be furthered by the stirring up of more hate through the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza by the Israel Defence Forces.
Moving away from the UK for a moment, here is more detail on the evacuation of Canadians from Gaza.
Nearly 60 Canadian nationals, residents and their dependents have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, Canadian officials said Tuesday.
“The first group of Canadians have left Gaza. Our team of officials has met them on the Egyptian side of the border, providing them with support and care,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The first group of Canadians have left Gaza. Our team of officials has met them on the Egyptian side of the border, providing them with support and care. pic.twitter.com/Bc4CPerVew
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) November 7, 2023
The ministry said 59 Canadians, permanent residents and family members have crossed the Rafah border into Egypt, out of 400 nationals registered with Canada seeking to leave.
Thew will be taken to Cairo before heading to Canada or another country of their choice.
“As the situation is quite fluid and unpredictable, Canadians should be prepared for significant delays at the Rafah border,” the ministry said.
Around 80 Canadian citizens, residents and family members had been expected to leave Gaza on Tuesday, according to the ministry.
Hussain writes in his letter that he will “continue to press from the backbenches for a humanitarian ceasefire to protect civilians in line with the demands of the UN Secretary-General, and, beyond that, for the realisation of a lasting resolution that will deliver peace for Israelis and Palestinians as part of a two-state solution.”
In Hussain’s letter he writes: “It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to tender my resignation as Shadow Minister for the New Deal for Working People after eight years on the Labour Party frontbench.”
He writes that he has been “proud” to work alongside Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner in developing a plan for employment rights, but cannot “in all good conscience” push for a cessation of hostilities while remaining part of the frontbench.
As of 6 November, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as well as 16 Labour frontbenchers and a third of the parliamentary party, had either called for a ceasefire or shared others’ backing for one on social media.
Others, including Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, have suggested that Starmer has shown a lack of empathy for the cause of Palestinians in Gaza.
Hussain is the first Labour MP to resign over the conflict, ITV political correspondent Shehab Khan reports.
He says he has been told that at least five other Labour MPs are “on resignation watch”.
Imran Hussain’s resignation from Labour’s front bench makes him the first MP to go and massively increases the pressure on the 5/6 others who I’ve been told are on resignation watch
— Shehab Khan ITV (@ShehabKhan) November 7, 2023
They’d all been holding off - will they now follow?
Keir Starmer has refused to back calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Labour is far ahead of Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives in the polls and, with the UK seemingly crying out for change after 13 years of Tory rule, and for now, victory at the next general election seems likely.
However, in recent days Starmer has been urged to quit from people within his own party.
“The calls for Starmer to stand down when on the brink of power will not be heeded,” the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey wrote yesterday. “But the outrage voiced by some, including the leader of Burnley borough council, who announced on Monday that he had decided to resign from the party, highlights the tricky task Starmer faces in keeping something close to unity among his electoral coalition on a subject on which his party has a complicated history.”
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Hussain is the shadow minister for the Future of Work and Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government.
In his resignation letter he writes, addressing Labour leader Keir Starmer, “it has become clear that my view on the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza differs substantially from the position you have adopted”.
“I want to be able to strongly advocate for a ceasefire, as called for by the UN General Secretary. In order to be fully free to do so, I have tonight stepped down from Labour’s Frontbench,” he wrote in a tweet publishing the letter on X.
UK Labour MP Imran Hussain resigns from frontbench
In the UK, a Labour frontbencher has resigned in order to “be able to strongly advocate for a ceasefire”.
Imran Hussain, the member for Bradford East, posted his resignation letter to X a short while ago:
I want to be able to strongly advocate for a ceasefire, as called for by the UN General Secretary. In order to be fully free to do so, I have tonight stepped down from Labour's Frontbench.
— Imran Hussain MP (@Imran_HussainMP) November 7, 2023
My letter below: pic.twitter.com/u47KMVNhxt
Updated
AP: The Biden administration is warning US schools and colleges that they must take immediate action to stop Islamophobia and antisemitism on their campuses, citing an “alarming rise” in threats and harassment.
In a Tuesday letter, the Education Department said there’s “renewed urgency” to fight discrimination against students. The letter reminds schools of their legal duty to protect students and intervene to stop harassment that disrupts their education.
“The rise of reports of hate incidents on our college campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict is deeply traumatic for students and should be alarming to all Americans,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “Antisemitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of hatred go against everything we stand for as a nation.”
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are encircling Gaza City and operating inside it. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Netanyahu said there would be no ceasefire before hostages were released and urged people in Gaza to move south “because Israel will not stop”.
Netanyahu said Israel may consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli prime minister told ABC news in an interview broadcast on Monday night: “Israel will for an indefinite period … have the overall security responsibility [in Gaza] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
The US does not believe Israel should reoccupy Gaza, the White House said following Netanyahu’s comments that Israel will “have the overall security responsibility” in Gaza for an “indefinite period” after the war ends. National security spokesperson John Kirby added on Tuesday that “Hamas cannot be part of the equation” about who will administer Gaza.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, also said the IDF are operating in the heart of Gaza City and “tightening the chokehold” around the city. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Gallant rejected any humanitarian pauses without the return of hostages.
Joe Biden urged Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a three-day pause in fighting to allow progress in releasing some of the hostages held by Hamas, according to a report, citing two US and Israel officials. The US president and Israeli prime minister spoke in a call on Monday. In a readout of the call, the White House said the two leaders “discussed the possibility of tactical pauses”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a humanitarian convoy carrying lifesaving medical supplies came under fire in Gaza City on Tuesday. The convoy of five trucks and two Red Cross vehicles was carrying supplies to health facilities, including to Al-Quds hospital, when it was hit, an ICRC statement said. The ICRC did not specify who had fired at its convoy or from what direction the fire came. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) accused Israeli forces of targeting the convoy.
Waving white flags and holding their hands above their heads, Palestinian families fled past tanks waiting to storm Gaza City. Israel’s military gave civilians inside the encircled city a four-hour window to leave on Tuesday, as its forces prepared to retake the biggest city in the strip. The IDF said they would allow residents to leave from 10am until 2pm local time, and published a video of dozens of people along a main road. Hundreds of thousands of people are feared to still be trapped.
Israel’s military claims to have captured a Hamas military stronghold and detonated a Hamas weapons depot “in a civilian area” adjacent to al-Quds hospital. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using hospital buildings to carry out military operations. Israeli forces on Monday said they had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory.
The Israel Defence Forces military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that on Tuesday Israel again fired into Lebanon in response to an attack. The IDF also claimed it intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” near the blue line which marks the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
At least 10,328 Palestinians – including 4,237 children – have been killed within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday. The number of people wounded has risen to 25,965, according to the health ministry spokesperson Dr Ashraf al-Qudra. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued in Gaza.
A moment’s silence was held on Tuesday to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed. Vigils have been held around the world. Outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, a crowd gathered for a vigil to remember the dead and the estimated 240 hostages still held by Hamas.
A Palestinian journalist has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza and another was wounded, the official Palestinian news agency reported. Mohammad Abu Hasira was killed along with 42 members of his family “in an Israeli bombing that targeted his house located near the fishermen’s port west of Gaza City”, the WAFA news agency reported.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said one of its staff members in Gaza was killed along with his family in northern Gaza. Mohammed Al Ahel had been a laboratory technician for the organisation for two years and was at his home in Al-Shati refugee camp when the area was bombed and his building collapsed on Monday, MSF said.
At least 89 people who worked for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been killed since 7 October. A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that more than 160 healthcare workers had died while on duty in Gaza. It makes the conflict the deadliest ever for UN workers.
The level of death and suffering in the Israel-Palestine crisis is “hard to fathom”, a World Health Organization spokesperson (WHO) has said. “Every day, you think it is the worst day and then the next day is worse,” Christian Lindmeier told journalists on Tuesday. “Nothing justifies the horror being endured by civilians in Gaza.” The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged all parties involved to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and “work toward a lasting peace”. “History will judge us all by what we do to end this tragedy,” he said.
Civilians are Gaza are “drinking water from a swimming pool” and children are “crying for lack of bread”, the international humanitarian organisation Care said as it urged an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory. More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, ActionAid Palestine warned. The UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described the situation in Gaza as a “tragedy of colossal proportions”.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society groups on human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza. “It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Türk said in a statement.
At least 500 people, most of them foreigners or dual nationals and their dependents, were evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday. A dozen Palestinian children who have cancer were allowed to leave Gaza on Tuesday for treatment in Egypt. In total, more than 400 US citizens, lawful permanent residents and other eligible people have been evacuated from Gaza, and more than 100 French nationals and their dependents have crossed the Rafah border.
The British army is “posturing” itself for the prospect of a “non-combatant evacuation operation” in the Middle East in the event the Israel-Hamas conflict expands, the UK’s chief of the general staff told parliament’s defense select committee on Tuesday.
The German government has decided to release €91m (£79m) for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) after a review launched in response to the Hamas attacks on Israel.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has defied calls for a ban on a pro-Palestinian march through London on Armistice Day. Scotland Yard does not believe it has grounds to support a ban on the planned pro-Palestine demonstration, the Guardian has learned.
At least 500 people, mostly foreigners, leave Gaza through Rafah crossing on Tuesday
At least 500 people, most of them foreigners or dual nationals and their dependents, left the Gaza Strip through Egypt today, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources.
Jordan’s foreign ministry said 262 Jordanians were evacuated on Tuesday, out of a total of 569 that had been stuck in Gaza.
Canada said 59 of its citizens, permanent residents and family members had been evacuated.
A medical source said 19 Palestinians in Gaza needing medical treatment were also allowed through to join dozens of others who are being treated in Egyptian hospitals.
Other countries with citizens cleared to leave on Tuesday included Romania, Germany, Moldova, Ukraine, the Philippines and France, according to the Gaza border authority.
Egyptian security sources said Egypt was continuing to press for increased aid and fuel into the strip and security for ambulances.
US senator John Fetterman has said he has covered his front office with posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, adding:
They will stay up until every single person is safely returned home.
In my front office I have displayed the posters of the innocent Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 7, 2023
They will stay up until every single person is safely returned home. pic.twitter.com/qxCmvC97uY
The Democratic senator from Pennsylvania has been a vocal supporter of Israel and has publicly come out against a ceasefire in Gaza. In a statement in October, he wrote that “now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire,” adding:
We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralised.
As one of the US Senate’s leading progressives, Fetterman faced backlash for his remarks, prompting pro-Palestinian demonstrations outside his Philadelphia office and other Pennsylvania offices.
Updated
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said one of its staff members in Gaza was killed along with his family in northern Gaza.
Mohammed Al Ahel had been a laboratory technician for the organisation for two years and was at his home in Al-Shati refugee camp when the area was bombed and his building collapsed on Monday, MSF said.
Dozens of people were reportedly killed in the bombing, it said, adding:
It is clear that no place in Gaza is safe from brutal and indiscriminate bombing.
The organisation once again called for an immediate ceasefire, saying that it was “the only way to prevent more senseless deaths” across Gaza.
In this tragic moment, we continue to be gravely concerned for all our colleagues in Gaza, many of whom are still working in hospitals across the Strip to provide lifesaving care. We reiterate our call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Today, we are mourning the loss of one of our team members in Gaza, Mohammed Al Ahel, who was killed along with several members of his family on 6 November.
— MSF International (@MSF) November 7, 2023
Mohammed had been a laboratory technician for MSF for over two years and was at his home in Al Shate Refugee Camp when the area was bombed and his building collapsed, reportedly killing dozens of people.
— MSF International (@MSF) November 7, 2023
We reported earlier that Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, spoke with Kamala Harris on a call on Tuesday.
The White House has published its readout of the call, in which it said the US vice-president “reiterated her support for Israel’s right to defend its citizens and combat terrorism” and underscored the Biden administration’s focus on securing the release of hostages being held by Hamas.
Harris also “emphasised the importance of protecting civilian lives and respecting international humanitarian law” as well as “the imperative to further increase the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza”, the White House said.
Harris also “raised the need to increase stability and security in the West Bank and hold extremist settlers accountable for violent acts”.
The White House also said:
The Vice President underscored the importance of setting conditions now for a durable and sustainable peace and security with equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians.
Updated
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has defied calls for a ban on a pro-Palestinian march through London on Armistice Day amid intense government pressure to act.
In a statement in which he acknowledged the demands for him to stop Saturday’s procession, Rowley insisted on the independence of his force and said there was currently insufficient intelligence that there would be a risk of serious public disorder.
He stressed the importance of an “independent police service … focused simply on the law and the facts in front of us”, despite a chorus of cabinet ministers – including the home secretary and the justice secretary – insisting that the march should not go ahead.
While vowing “at all costs” to stop any disruption linked to the march, which falls on 11 November when the nation will hold a two-minute silence in commemoration of those who have died in conflict, Rowley said he would not act outside the law.
Under section 13 of the 1986 Public Order Act, a chief constable can apply to the home secretary to prohibit public processions to avoid serious public disorder. Rowley said:
Many have called for us to use this power to ban a planned march by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Saturday.
But the use of this power is incredibly rare and must be based on intelligence which suggests there will be a real threat of serious disorder and no other way for police to manage the event …
Over recent weeks we’ve seen an escalation of violence and criminality by small groups attaching themselves to demonstrations, despite some key organisers working positively with us.
But at this time, the intelligence surrounding the potential for serious disorder this weekend does not meet the threshold to apply for a ban.
The organisers have shown complete willingness to stay away from the Cenotaph and Whitehall and have no intention of disrupting the nation’s remembrance events. Should this change, we’ve been clear we will use powers and conditions available to us to protect locations and events of national importance at all costs.
The Michigan Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, defended her criticism of the country and urged lawmakers to join in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In remarks on the House floor minutes after Democrats failed to block an effort to censure her for remarks her detractors say disparaged Israel, Tlaib said:
I will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words. No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.
Tlaib, who was first elected in 2018 and is a prominent member of “the Squad” of progressive female lawmakers, grew emotional as she said:
I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) chokes up while condemning the resolution to censure her that the House is considering:
— The Recount (@therecount) November 7, 2023
“Speaking up to save lives, Mr. Chair, no matter faith, no matter ethnicity, should not be controversial in this chamber.” pic.twitter.com/4ob7W6NZIB
She continued by saying she was against attacks on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike:
The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. What I don’t understand is why the cries of Palestinians sound different to you all. We cannot lose our shared humanity, Mr Chair. I hear the voices of advocates in Israel and Palestine across America and around the world for peace.
I’m inspired by … the courageous survivors in Israel who have lost loved ones, yet are calling for a ceasefire and the end to violence. I am grateful to the people in the streets for the peace movement with countless Jewish Americans across the country standing up and lovingly saying ‘not in our name’.
We will continue to call for a ceasefire, Mr Chair, for the immediate delivery of critical humanitarian aid to Gaza, for the release of all hostages and those arbitrarily detained and for every American to come home. We will continue to work for real, lasting peace that uphold human rights and dignity of all people and centers … peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians and censures no one – no one – and ensures that no person, no child has to suffer or live in fear of violence.
Updated
Israeli forces 'targeted humanitarian convoy carrying medical supplies' in Gaza City, says Palestine Red Crescent Society
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has accused Israeli forces of targeting a humanitarian convoy in Gaza City on Tuesday.
The convoy of five trucks was carrying “lifesaving medicals supplies” to health facilities including al-Quds hospital when it was hit by fire, the PRCS said in a social media post. Two trucks were damaged, and a driver was lightly wounded, it said.
Today IOF targeted the ICRC humanitarian convoy in #Gaza city.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 7, 2023
🚨 The convoy of five trucks was carrying lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities, including to #AlQuds Hospital of PRCS when it was hit by fire. Two trucks were damaged, and a driver was lightly wounded.… pic.twitter.com/3lSB6QJhBU
In a separate statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a humanitarian convoy of five trucks and two ICRC vehicles came under fire in Gaza City on Tuesday.
The humanitarian convoy was carrying “lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities including to Al Quds hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, when it was hit by fire”, it said.
The ICRC did not specify who had fired at its convoy or from what direction the fire came.
Updated
Israel has “an elaborate plan” to protect its northern border and confront rockets and other threats from militant groups in Lebanon, an Israeli commander has said.
Lt Col Dotan of the 300th regional brigade, a commander for Israel’s forces on its northern border, told NBC News that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) “have multiple forces, tanks, infantry, artillery ready”.
We have an elaborate plan. Some of it is digging holes, and waiting in the bush for anybody to attack. Some of it is a pillar of fire. But we’re ready.
He said he didn’t “see the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas” when he looked through his binoculars, adding:
Whoever fires at the northern part of Israel will get shot.
Updated
Israel fell silent on Tuesday, observing a minute’s silence to mark one month since the Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 and injured many more.
Outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, a crowd gathered for a vigil to remember the dead and the estimated 240 hostages still held by Hamas.
Updated
Israel-Hamas war is deadliest ever for UN aid workers, with at least 89 killed
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said one additional staff member has been killed in the Gaza Strip in the past day.
It brings the total to 89 UNRWA staff killed and at least 26 injured in Gaza since 7 October, the agency said in its latest update.
It marks the highest number of UN aid workers killed than in any comparable period in the organisation’s history, the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, posted on social media.
More @UN aid workers have been killed in recent weeks than in any comparable period in the history of our organization.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 7, 2023
I join in the mourning of 89 of our @UNRWA colleagues who have been killed in Gaza – many of them with members of their family.
Updated
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has thanked Kamala Harris for a phone call in which she expressed her “heartfelt condolences” to the people of Israel on Tuesday.
Israel “deeply appreciates” the “steadfast” support of the Biden administration and its right to self-defense, Herzog posted to social media.
He reiterated that Israel’s main objective is the unconditional immediate release of hostages held by Hamas.
I want to thank @VP Harris for calling to express her heartfelt condolences to the Israeli people on the one month anniversary of Hamas’s barbaric terror attack.
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) November 7, 2023
Israel deeply appreciates her solidarity and support for Israel’s right to self-defense, and the steadfast support of…
In a readout of the call by the Israeli president’s office, Herzog stressed that there will be no ceasefire without the release of the hostages held by Hamas.
The US vice-president noted the importance of dealing with the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while Herzog said Israel is “committed to international humanitarian law, while it is defending itself against an enemy that hides among the civilian population”, the Times of Israel reported.
Herzog added that Israel is committed to allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, and accused Hamas of preventing the Red Cross from visiting the hostages.
Updated
Biden urged Netanyahu to agree to three-day pause in fighting - report
Joe Biden urged Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a three-day pause in fighting to allow progress in releasing some of the hostages held by Hamas, according to an Axios report, citing two US and Israel officials.
The US president and Israeli prime minister spoke in a call on Monday. In a readout of the call, the White House said the two leaders “discussed the possibility of tactical pauses”.
Citing the US official, Axios reported that under a proposal that is being discussed between the US, Israel and Qatar, Hamas would release 10 to 15 hostages. They would also use the three-day pause to verify the identities of all the hostages and deliver a list of names of the people it is holding, the official said.
During the call on Monday, Netanyahu told Biden that he does not trust Hamas’ intentions and does not believe they are ready to agree to a deal regarding the hostages, the two US and Israeli officials said.
Netanyahu added that Israel could lose the current international support it has for the operation if the fighting stops for three days, the officials said.
At least 240 people were kidnapped during the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israel, according to Israeli officials. Hamas has released two Israeli women and an American mother and daughter.
Updated
Israel fell silent on Tuesday to observe a minute’s silence to mark one month since the Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians at home and at a festival, and injured many more.
At 11am, people stood silently on the street and at schools, businesses and in cafes in Jerusalem and elsewhere, heads bowed. Some wept, others prayed or held hands.
Throughout the day thousands attended ceremonies held by public organisations and institutions. Schools, universities and youth movements arranged special lessons, lectures and other activities.
“Now there is a coming together, and you feel you belong to a community that cares and that is how I feel today,” said Nava Ben-Or, a retired judge at a memorial outside the president’s official residence in Jerusalem.
This is not just for the bereaved but for everybody. We are all grieving.
Outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, a crowd gathered for a vigil to remember the dead and the estimated 240 hostages still held by Hamas, the Islamist organisation that governs Gaza and was responsible for the attacks a month ago.
Ayaleth Katzit, 54, said she had come to show solidarity:
We are grieving. We are disappointed by our government which doesn’t know how to do its job in these hard times. The government is trying to divide us … but most Israelis are not like this.
Updated
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians fled south in Gaza on Tuesday by foot or on donkey carts.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli ground forces backed by relentless airstrikes have encircled Gaza City since the weekend.
The army has been urging civilians to move south, but tens of thousands of civilians have remained in the north, many sheltering in hospitals or UN facilities as the south, too, was barraged by airstrikes and some people killed as they travelled.
Here’s our video report:
Updated
Red Cross says humanitarian convoy came under fire in Gaza City
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a humanitarian convoy carrying lifesaving medical supplies came under fire in Gaza City on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports.
The convoy of five trucks and two Red Cross vehicles was carrying supplies to health facilities, including to Al-Quds hospital, when it was hit, an ICRC statement said, adding that two trucks were damaged and a driver lightly wounded.
The ICRC did not specify who had fired at its convoy or from what direction the fire came.
“These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” said William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza.
“We are here to bring urgent assistance to civilians in need. Ensuring that vital aid can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.”
After the gunfire, the convoy altered its route and reached Al-Shifa hospital, where it delivered the medical supplies, the ICRC said.
Later the ICRC convoy accompanied six ambulances with critically wounded patients to the Rafah crossing to Egypt, it added.
Updated
At the White House, national security spokesman John Kirby said moments ago that the US does not want Israel to reoccupy Gaza and, ultimately, future control of the Palestinian territory cannot include Hamas, the fundamentalist group that controls Gaza.
“Reoccupation of Gaza [by Israel] is not the right thing to do,” Kirby said.
But he added that, in the future, “Hamas cannot be part of the equation” about who will administer Gaza, saying “we cannot go back to October 6”, ie the day before Hamas fighters broke across the border into southern Israel and killed more than 1,400 Israeli citizens and, in addition, taking more than 200 hostages back into Gaza, where they are still held.
The White House is sticking to its line that it is urging Israel to pick its targets in Gaza carefully, while acknowledging that “many thousands” of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the blockaded territory.
The Biden administration continues to refuse to publicly endorse the death toll stated by the health ministry in Gaza, while saying the US does not have a verified death toll to talk about as a counterclaim.
Kirby acknowledged it was “horrible to see the images of children being pulled out of rubble in Gaza”, many of whom have not survived Israel’s bombardment of the territory.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are encircling Gaza City and operating inside it. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Netanyahu said there would be no ceasefire before hostages were released and urged people in Gaza to move south “because Israel will not stop”.
Netanyahu said Israel may consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli prime minister told ABC news in an interview broadcast on Monday night: “Israel will for an indefinite period … have the overall security responsibility [in Gaza] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, also said the IDF are operating in the heart of Gaza City and “tightening the chokehold” around the city. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Gallant rejected any humanitarian pauses without the return of hostages.
Waving white flags and holding their hands above their heads, Palestinian families fled past tanks waiting to storm Gaza City. Israel’s military gave civilians inside the encircled city a four-hour window to leave on Tuesday, as its forces prepared to retake the biggest city in the strip. The IDF said they would allow residents to leave from 10am until 2pm local time, and published a video of dozens of people along a main road. Hundreds of thousands of people are feared to still be trapped.
Israel’s military claims to have captured a Hamas military stronghold and detonated a Hamas weapons depot “in a civilian area” adjacent to al-Quds hospital. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using hospital buildings to carry out military operations. Israeli forces on Monday said they had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory.
The Israel Defence Forces military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that on Tuesday Israel again fired into Lebanon in response to an attack. The IDF also claimed it intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” near the blue line which marks the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
At least 10,328 Palestinians – including 4,237 children – have been killed within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday. The number of people wounded has risen to 25,965, according to the health ministry spokesperson Dr Ashraf al-Qudra. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued in Gaza.
A moment’s silence was held on Tuesday to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed. Vigils have been held around the world. In Jerusalem on Monday night a vigil was held with a candle lit for each victim and relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Western Wall to mark a month of mourning.
A Palestinian journalist has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza and another was wounded, the official Palestinian news agency reported. Mohammad Abu Hasira was killed along with 42 members of his family “in an Israeli bombing that targeted his house located near the fishermen’s port west of Gaza City”, the WAFA news agency reported.
The level of death and suffering in the Israel-Palestine crisis is “hard to fathom”, a World Health Organization spokesperson (WHO) has said. “Every day, you think it is the worst day and then the next day is worse,” Christian Lindmeier told journalists on Tuesday. “Nothing justifies the horror being endured by civilians in Gaza.” The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged all parties involved to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and “work toward a lasting peace”. “History will judge us all by what we do to end this tragedy,” he said.
Civilians are Gaza are “drinking water from a swimming pool” and children are “crying for lack of bread”, the international humanitarian organisation Care said as it urged an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory. More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, ActionAid Palestine warned. The UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described the situation in Gaza as a “tragedy of colossal proportions”. A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that more than 160 healthcare workers had died while on duty in Gaza.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society groups on human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza. “It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Türk said in a statement.
At least 320 foreign nationals and dependents were evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday, as well as 100 Egyptians and 262 Jordanians and the first group of Canadian nationals. A dozen Palestinian children who have cancer were also allowed to leave Gaza on Tuesday for treatment in Egypt. In total, more than 400 US citizens, lawful permanent residents and other eligible people have been evacuated from Gaza, and more than 100 French nationals and their dependents have crossed the Rafah border.
The British army is “posturing” itself for the prospect of a “non-combatant evacuation operation” in the Middle East in the event the Israel-Hamas conflict expands, the UK’s chief of the general staff told parliament’s defense select committee on Tuesday.
The German government has decided to release €91m (£79m) for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) after a review launched in response to the Hamas attacks on Israel.
Scotland Yard does not believe it has grounds to support a ban on the planned pro-Palestine demonstration through central London on Armistice Day, the Guardian has learned. The UK government has been pressing the Metropolitan police to use their powers to ask for a ban of the proposed protest on Saturday.
Updated
Waving white flags and holding their hands above their heads, Palestinian families fled past tanks waiting to storm Gaza City.
Israel’s military gave civilians inside the encircled city a four-hour window to leave on Tuesday, as its forces prepared to retake the biggest city in the strip.
Men, women and children, some carrying their belongings on donkeys, fled their homes past Israeli troops out of the city.
In an Arabic-language message, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said they would allow residents to leave from 10am until 2pm local time, and published a video of dozens of people along a main road.
Posting online, one resident, Adam Fayez Zeyara, said the walk on Tuesday was the most dangerous of his life.
We saw the tanks from point blank. We saw decomposed body parts. We saw death.
Hundreds of thousands of people are feared to still be trapped. Hamas, which has long used the tactic of hiding among civilians, has been accused of blocking people from leaving their homes.
Israel has repeatedly told civilians to move south for their own safety but continued to bomb the entire strip, striking the southern city of Khan Younis on Tuesday, killing 23 people according to Palestinian health officials.
Scotland Yard does not believe it has grounds to support a ban on the planned pro-Palestine demonstration through central London on Armistice Day, the Guardian has learned.
Sources say the legal threshold needed, which requires intelligence pointing to a risk of serious disruption, has not yet been met.
The government has been pressing the Metropolitan police to use their powers to ask for a ban of the proposed protest on Saturday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, told Sky News he did not believe the pro-Palestine march should proceed.
Those attending the marches in recent weeks have been calling for a ceasefire in the war that broke out last month after Hamas killed 1,400 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostages. Thousands of civilians in Gaza have been killed in the Israeli military operation since, according to Gaza’s health authority, which is run by Hamas.
Saturday’s protest is scheduled to start at 12.45pm at Marble Arch and end at the US embassy in south-west London, about two miles from the Cenotaph, where formal remembrance events will be held the next day.
Ministers had been raising the prospect of disorder on Armistice Day – Saturday, 11 November – for days.
Home office sources said the risks included that of groups splintering off from the main procession, the danger of counterprotests clashing with pro-Palestine protesters and the unusual route of the march.
On Monday the Met pleaded with organisers to postpone the protest, claiming there was a risk of violence, a request that was declined.
Updated
Netanyahu urges people in Gaza to move south 'because Israel will not stop'
Netanyahu says he is in “continuous contact” with Joe Biden and that Israel appreciates the support from him and the US.
The Israeli leader says he is bringing leaders from around the world to show them “the horror of horrors committed by Hamas”.
Netanyahu vows to “completely destroy” the abilities of Hamas to control the Gaza Strip. He adds:
I’m calling on the citizens of Gaza: please go south. I know you’re already doing that. Complete the move to the south because Israel will not stop. There’s no entry of workers and there will be no ceasefire without our hostages being back home.
Updated
Netanyahu: No ceasefire without release of hostages
Netanyahu says Hezbollah is “starting to take part in this war”, warning that they will be “making the mistake of a lifetime” if they do so.
The Israeli prime minister says he will not accept a reality where Hamas and Hezbollah from Lebanon will be “hurting our citizens” in northern Israel, and vows to “retaliate with fire”.
He says he has spoken with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross about the hostages held in Gaza, and demanded that the Red Cross immediately visit the hostages to make sure that they are healthy and well. He added:
I am reiterating and I’m telling both my friends and my enemies: we will not have a ceasefire without the hostages back home.
Israel is “acting with every means possible on every front possible” to bring the hostages home, he said, adding that military action is “an essential part of that effort”.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is making a televised address to provide an update regarding the war in Gaza.
He described the war as going “intensely”, and said the Gaza City is now “surrounded”.
Israeli forces “are acting within the city” and “deepening the pressure” on Hamas, he said.
“So many” Hamas terrorists have been killed, he said, adding that Israeli forces have destroyed many Hamas headquarters, tunnels and bases.
Updated
A dozen Palestinian children who have cancer were allowed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border on Tuesday for treatment in Egypt.
The 12 children were transferred to specialised cancer hospitals, AP reported, citing Egyptian’s health ministry.
Authorities did not say whether the children travelled alone or if any family members or guardians were allowed to accompany them.
Analysis: Netanyahu’s vague vision for Gaza after war may open up new chapter of violence
The last time Israeli troops had a permanent security role inside Gaza, Israel’s prime minister was Ariel Sharon. Twenty-one Israeli settlements were scattered across the Gaza Strip, connected to Israel through a bypass road, used by Israeli surfers at the weekend to reach the coast.
Soldiers manned checkpoints and metal-clad towers. At night, Palestinian children would approach the towers under cover of darkness to throw crude pipe bombs that could be bought for pocket money.
For their part, the armed factions in Gaza, Hamas among them, would attempt serious attacks including shootings and suicide bombings.
Now Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has suggested what many Israelis thought unthinkable: a return of security in Gaza to the Israeli administration, a place already half in ruins, with a population of 2.3 million.
![‘Israel will for an indefinite period have the overall security responsibility [in Gaza] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility,’ said Netanyahu.](https://media.guim.co.uk/4befe5380a0d2a4ba1f15e4e4ce27b6b6d86431a/0_417_5500_3300/1000.jpg)
“Israel will for an indefinite period have the overall security responsibly,” Netanyahu told ABC news on Monday, “because we have seen what happens when we do not have it.”
Exactly what Netanyahu has in mind remains unclear. Indeed, his comments appear to run contrary to assessments in the US and elsewhere that Israel – which militarily controlled Gaza from 1967 to 2005 – planned to reoccupy Gaza in any fashion and in any case would be opposed by Washington.
Updated
Israeli defence minister says IDF ‘tightening chokehold’ around Gaza City, rejects pause until hostages freed
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are operating in the heart of Gaza City and “tightening the chokehold” around the city.
In a televised statement on Tuesday, Gallant described the Gaza Strip as “the biggest terror base mankind has ever built” and said IDF ground forces have stormed terror strongholds in Gaza “from all directions, in perfect coordination with maritime and aerial forces”, the Times of Israel reported.
On the subject of international demands for humanitarian pauses, he said:
Humanitarian pauses, to me, means first and foremost the captives held by animals. There will be no humanitarian truce without [the return of] the hostages.
He said neither Israel nor Hamas would govern the Palestinian enclave once the war was over, Reuters reported.
Updated
Israeli forces 'fighting in the heart of Gaza City', says IDF
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said it is fighting in “significant centres” of the Gaza Strip during a “complex and difficult” war with Hamas militants.
Israel’s southern command has been fighting non-stop for a month to “strike the core of Hamas’ capabilites”, Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman said in a statement on Tuesday.
He said Israeli soldiers are “eliminating terrorists, discovering tunnels, destroying weapons and continuing to advance into the center of the enemy”. He added:
We are fighting at this very hour in significant centers of the Gaza Strip. I have just returned from there. For the first time in a decade, the IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza City. In the heart of terror. This is a complex and difficult war, and unfortunately, it has costs.
Updated
Civilians are Gaza are “drinking water from a swimming pool” and children “crying for lack of bread”, an international humanitarian organisation said as it urged an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
In a statement on Tuesday, CARE International warned that “a rapidly escalating humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes” in Gaza and risks spreading beyond.
It has called for the release of hostages, an immediate ceasefire by all parties, the free flow of humanitarian aid inside Gaza and the evacuation of the sick and wounded.
Hiba Tibi, the organisation’s West Bank and Gaza country director, said:
My colleagues in Gaza speak of drinking water from a swimming pool, of their children crying for lack of bread, and of nights that are something out of a horror film amid incessant bombardment and airstrikes.
Like the 2.3 million Gazans around them, they don’t know if they will still be alive the next morning, or even the next hour. This conflict is killing children and robbing millions of their dignity.
Updated
More than 400 US citizens, lawful permanent residents and other eligible people have evacuated from Gaza, Reuters reported that a US state department spokesperson said.
Updated
'Nothing justifies the horror being endured' in Gaza, says WHO
The level of death and suffering in the Israel-Palestine crisis is “hard to fathom”, a World Health Organization spokesperson (WHO) has said.
“Every day, you think it is the worst day and then the next day is worse,” Christian Lindmeier told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday, quoting a colleague in Gaza.
He noted Gaza’s health ministry figures that show that an average of 160 children are killed every day in the territory and the total death toll has passed 10,000. The WHO is also mourning the 16 health workers who have been killed while on duty, he said.
What is needed now is “the political will to at least grant a humanitarian pause and access to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population as well as the hostages in Gaza”, he said.
Nothing justifies the horror being endured by civilians in Gaza.
The WHO spokesperson reiterated the UN’s calls for “unhindered, safe and secure access” for some 500 trucks of aid a day, not only across the border but also “all the way through to the patients in the hospitals” where he said surgeries including amputations were being performed without anaesthesia.
Hundreds of truckloads of aid are waiting for access at the Egypt-Gaza border and humanitarians on the ground in Gaza are on standby to facilitate the distribution of relief items, he said, adding:
Access, access, access is necessary.
In Israel, people are “frightened, traumatised and anguished for their loved ones”, he said, calling on Hamas to release the hostages. Many of those held captive need urgent medical attention, he stressed.
Updated
At least 320 foreign nationals and dependents, 100 Egyptians, and 262 Jordanians were evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing today, Reuters reported, citing an Egyptian security source and Jordan’s foreign ministry.
However, only four injured Gazans were allowed through the crossing into Egypt, according to a medical source.
Evacuations through the Rafah crossing resumed on Monday after it was closed on Saturday and Sunday following an Israeli strike on an ambulance in Gaza.
Updated
The German government has decided to release €91m (£79m) for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) after a review launched in response to the Hamas attacks on Israel.
On 8 October, Germany suspended its development aid to the Palestinian territories pending a review.
The review had not yet been fully completed “due to the fragile situation in the region”, the development ministry said on Tuesday.
But it said the review focused on continuing support for UNRWA, and “as a first partial result” it had decided to release €71m already earmarked for the UN agency and to add €20m in new funding.
The UNRWA activities funded by Germany would focus on the permanent provision of drinking water as well as hygiene and sanitation in emergency shelters for internally displaced people in Gaza, the ministry said.
Updated
A Palestinian journalist has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza and another was wounded, the official Palestinian news agency reported.
Mohammad Abu Hasira “was killed in an Israeli bombing that targeted his house located near the fishermen’s port west of Gaza City”, WAFA news agency reported.
He was killed along with 42 members of his family, including his sons and brothers, it said.
The Hamas-run news press service in the Gaza Strip said the bombardment took place overnight between Sunday and Monday but his body had only been found in the rubble on Tuesday.
Abu Hasira is one of at least 37 journalists killed since 7 October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Those figures include 32 Palestinians, four Israelis, and one Lebanese citizen.
Updated
Rishi Sunak has been updating the House of Commons on the situation in the Middle East.
The UK prime minister started by talking about Israel and Gaza, stressing the UK’s support for Israel’s right to defend himself.
He said more than 100 Britons had now left Gaza.
And he said the government would “not stand for the hatred and antisemitism we have seen on our streets”. He went on:
It sickens me to think that British Jews are looking over their shoulder in this country, that children are going to school covering up their school badges for fear of attack.
This government will do whatever it takes to keep the Jewish community safe.
For more live updates from the UK, do follow our UK politics live blog here.
Updated
The British Army is “posturing” itself for the prospect of a “non-combatant evacuation operation” in the Middle East in the event the Israel-Hamas conflict expands, the UK’s chief of the general staff has said.
Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, appearing before parliament’s defence select committee, was asked about the readiness of the armed services and the steps taken in light of the fighting, the PA Media news agency reported. He said:
I don’t think it’s likely that we are going to find ourselves drawn into combat or conflict in the region, or certainly we would seek to avert that.
He added:
At the moment, the role we’re playing is a combination of exploiting the network we have, so for example we have our special operations forces, the rangers, in Lebanon.
They have been there for many years and they have built up a very close relationship with Lebanese armed forces and through that, that provides an insight and influence on to Lebanese decision-making and seeing things from the other side of the northern border which clearly concerns Israel.
Discussing “contingency” options, he said:
Clearly there is a prospect, if the conflict does expand, of a non-combatant evacuation operation in some parts of that region. We’re posturing ourselves for that.
Updated
The first group of Canadian nationals has been evacuated out of Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, according Canada’s international development minister, Ahmed Hussen.
He told reporters on Tuesday:
They are now safe and sound in Egypt and we’re very, very happy.
An approved evacuation list from Gaza’s border authority included about 80 people connected to Canada who had been granted permission to cross into Egypt, the Canadian Press reported.
Updated
'History will judge us all': WHO chief urges humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all parties involved to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and “work toward a lasting peace”.
Posting to social media, the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said 10,000 people had been killed over the course of a month of “intense bombardment” in Gaza, more than 4,000 of them children, adding:
How long will this human catastrophe last?
He reiterated his call for a humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate release of hostages held in Gaza, adding:
History will judge us all by what we do to end this tragedy.
It has been a month of intense bombardment in #Gaza.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 7, 2023
10,000 people have died. Over 4,000 of them were children.
How long will this human catastrophe last?
We urge all parties to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire and work toward lasting peace. We again call for the immediate…
On Monday, Tedros joined the heads of several major UN bodies in a united call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. “Enough is enough. This must stop now,” a joint statement said.
An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable.
Updated
More than 100 French nationals and their dependents have been evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, according to the French foreign ministry.
“Two groups of French nationals, officials and rights holders were able to leave” on Monday and Tuesday and were now “in safety in Egypt”, the ministry said in a statement, Agence France-Presse reported.
The departures “bring the number of exits organised by France to more than 100 people”, the ministry said, adding:
In the coming days, we will continue our efforts so that all our countrymen, our officials and their families who want to leave Gaza are able to do so.
Hundreds of foreign passport holders were seen waiting for evacuation at the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, the agency reported.
Updated
The UK government is set to hold an emergency response meeting on the impact of the Israel-Hamas war in the UK.
Britain’s deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee “to coordinate the government’s response to the situation in Israel and Gaza”, a No 10 spokesperson said. They added:
It will look at a wide range of areas but it’s obviously particularly focused on the impact of the terrorist attack on the UK domestically and how we can address some of the importance around community cohesion particularly.
The meeting comes amid concerns from ministers about pro-Palestinian marches planned for Armistice Day, as well as a huge rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in Britain.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is 5pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are today’s headlines from the Israel-Hamas war:
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel may consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages from the Gaza Strip, but he again rejected calls for a ceasefire. When asked who should govern the territory after fighting ends, the Israeli prime minister told ABC news in an interview broadcast on Monday night: “Israel will for an indefinite period … have the overall security responsibility [in Gaza] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
On Tuesday a moment’s silence was held in Israel to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed. Vigils have been held around the world. In Jerusalem on Monday night a vigil was held with a candle lit for each victim and relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Western Wall to mark a month of mourning.
Israel’s military claims to have captured a Hamas military stronghold and detonated a Hamas weapons depot “in a civilian area” adjacent to al-Quds hospital. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using hospital buildings to carry out military operations. Israeli forces on Monday said they had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has claimed that 10,328 Palestinians have been killed within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October. The number, it says, includes 4,237 children. The number of people wounded has been increased to 25,965, according to the health ministry spokesperson Dr Ashraf al-Qudra. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued in Gaza.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society groups on human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza. “It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Türk said in a statement.
More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, an international charity has warned. Riham Jafari, the coordinator of advocacy and communication for ActionAid Palestine, said: “Cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly.” UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described the situation in Gaza as a “tragedy of colossal proportions”. A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that more than 160 healthcare workers had died while on duty in Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that on Tuesday Israel again fired into Lebanon in response to an attack. The IDF also claimed it intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” near the blue-line which marks the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
A Hezbollah lawmaker said on Tuesday that the Lebanese militant group would respond “double” to any Israeli attacks on civilians after a strike at the weekend that killed three children and their grandmother in south Lebanon.
The Foreign Press Association has issued a statement criticising the Israeli military for harassing reporters while they are working in the occupied West Bank.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Japan for a meeting of G7 foreign ministers expected to be dominated by the Israel-Hamas war.
The Kremlin called on Tuesday for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, and it described the humanitarian situation there as “catastrophic”. Russia would continue contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to help ensure that humanitarian supplies could be delivered into Gaza, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed nearly 22,000 civilians, according to UN figures.
The British government has said it is to hold an emergency committee to consider the impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the UK. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said it would address important issues around “community cohesion”.
Turkey’s parliament has removed Coca-Cola and Nestlé products from its restaurants over their alleged support for Israel, according to a parliament statement and a source who named the two companies to Reuters.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. I will be back with you tomorrow. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Updated
Reuters reports from the south of the Gaza Strip on the impact of an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis, which is within the area that Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate to.
Its reporter witnessed a man carrying the lifeless body of a tiny child, dressed in what looked like pink pyjamas, from the flattened ruin of a home, and saw a young girl who had survived, but who was trapped by a slab of concrete that had fallen on her legs.
“I swear we are waiting for death. It will be better than living. We are waiting for death at each moment. It’s a suspended death,” a middle-aged resident of Khan Younis, who gave his name as Abu Jihad, told Reuters.
At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Reuters witnessed a row of corpses wrapped in white shrouds that had been placed on the ground outside the door. From the length of the bodies, it was clear that some of the dead were adults and some were children.
After a time, a group of men including medical staff in surgical scrubs and plastic aprons knelt down to pray alongside the bodies.
Updated
The Jerusalem Post has quoted the commander of the IDF’s southern command as saying that Israel is striking at the heart of Hamas’s capabilities.
It quotes Yaron Finkelman saying: “For the first time in recent decades, the IDF is fighting deep in the heart of Gaza City, the heart of terrorism. This is a complex and difficult war and, sadly, there are costs.”
Updated
The British government has said it is to hold an emergency committee to consider the impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the UK.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson, who in the UK traditionally speaks on the record but remains anonymous, said “it will look a wide range of areas but it’s obviously particularly focused on the impact of the terrorist attack on the UK domestically” and how to address important issues around “community cohesion”.
A row has been brewing in the UK over plans for a pro-Palestinian march through London on Saturday 11 November, which is scheduled to take place after an 11am silence is observed for Armistice Day.
PA Media reports that the prime minister’s official spokesperson said that prime minister Rishi Sunak considered the scheduling of the march “provocative and disrespectful”.
Pro-Palestinian marches have been taking place every Saturday in London since the latest escalation in the conflict began. London’s Metropolitan police has advised organisers to cancel the one scheduled for Saturday 11 November.
The Foreign Press Association has issued a statement criticising the Israeli military for harassing reporters while they are working in the occupied West Bank.
In the statement, it writes:
The Foreign Press Association is alarmed by several incidents in which reporters on assignment in the West Bank were harassed by soldiers. We call on the Israeli army to ensure the safety of reporters and to facilitate and not impede the access of GPO accredited journalists working in the area.
In a series of incidents, reporters were stopped at checkpoints, barred from crossing despite showing their press cards, and harassed and threatened by settlers, some of whom wore army uniforms. These incidents have taken place despite repeated pleas to the army spokesperson for assistance during the current Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The media outlets include: CNN, Germany’s ARD, Austrian ORF team, Netherland’s NOS team and an Al Jazeera team.
The military spokesperson’s office has made promises to ensure the safety of journalists. While we welcome such pledges, we urge the military to turn those words into action.
As well as issues gaining access to the occupied West Bank, journalists have repeatedly been prevented from reporting on the Israeli war against Hamas within Gaza by communications blackouts imposed on the Gaza Strip by Israel.
Updated
A Hezbollah lawmaker said on Tuesday that the Lebanese militant group would respond “double” to any Israeli attacks on civilians after a strike that killed three children and their grandmother in south Lebanon.
“The resistance will respond double to any aggression that targets civilians,” Reuters reports Ali Fayyad said at the funeral of the four Lebanese people killed in the south on Sunday.
At the funeral, the family cried over four coffins draped in the flags of Lebanon and of a local scouts organisation. A banner of the three girls, who were aged between 10 and 14, said they were martyrs and featured the emblem of Hezbollah.
Lebanese authorities claim an Israeli strike hit the car the family was travelling in on Sunday. Israel’s military claim its troops engaged a vehicle in Lebanon which was “identified as a suspected transport for terrorists” and it was looking into reports there were civilians inside.
Israel and anti-Israeli forces have repeatedly exchanged fire over the blue-line that marks the UN-drawn boundary between the two countries since the Hamas attack inside southern Israel on 7 October.
Lebanese security officials say more than 60 Hezbollah fighters and ten civilians have been killed in the skirmishes across the blue line, with at least seven Israeli soldiers and one civilian having been killed on the Israeli side.
Death toll in Gaza rises to 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children – health ministry
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has claimed that 10,328 Palestinians have been killed within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October. The number, it says, includes 4,237 children.
The number of people wounded has been increased to 25,965, according to the health ministry spokesperson Dr Ashraf al-Qudra.
In the statement, the health ministry also said that it appealed for international intervention to prevent the bombing of hospitals. Al-Qudra also claimed that Israel had turned the evacuation corridors it had announced into traps for the displaced.
The Israeli military has repeatedly called for Gazan residents to move to the south of the territory, while continuing to bombard the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued in Gaza.
Updated
Al Jazeera reports that the Al-Qassam brigades Telegram channel has published a message claiming that Hamas was ready to release 12 hostages that hold foreign nationalities, but that “the occupation obstructed that”, referring to Israeli military action on the ground within the Gaza Strip. The Al-Qassam brigades is the armed wing of Hamas.
Israel has repeatedly stated that there will be no ceasefire in Gaza until all of the hostages are released. Hamas seized at least 240 people during its rampage on 7 October.
Turkey’s parliament has removed Coca-Cola and Nestlé products from its restaurants over their alleged support for Israel, according to a parliament statement and a source who named the two companies to Reuters.
“It was decided that the products of companies that support Israel will not be sold in restaurants, cafeterias and tea houses in the parliament campus,” said a parliamentary statement, without naming the companies.
A parliamentary source told Reuters that Coca-Cola beverages and Nestlé instant coffee were the only brands removed from the menu. The source said the decision had been taken in response to public demand.
The two companies did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
Updated
Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian diplomatic mission to the UK, has republished a video shared earlier by one of Israel’s military spokespeople, which appears to show a column of Palestinian residents of Gaza walking south through an evacuation corridor, which Israel said it would open between 10am and 2pm today.
Accompanying the video, Zomlot writes:
Invading Israeli tanks are in Gaza to force the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. We have warned repeatedly that Israel is planning for and implementing a second Nakba. And the world is still debating whether to call for a ceasefire for Gaza?
Invading Israeli tanks are in #Gaza to force the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. We have warned repeatedly that Israel is planning for and implementing a 2nd #Nakba. And the world is still debating whether to call for a #CeasefireForGaza? pic.twitter.com/w3boDCXRZk
— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) November 7, 2023
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza.
Updated
The Israel Defence Forces have claimed they intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” near the blue-line which marks the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
In a message posted to Telegram the IDF said
A short while ago, the IDF aerial defence array intercepted a suspicious aerial target that was identified in the area of the border with Lebanon before it crossed into Israeli territory.
Furthermore, a short while ago, terrorists fired at an IDF post in the area of Aramshe in northern Israel. No injuries were reported.
IDF soldiers responded with artillery fire toward the origins of the shooting in Lebanon.
The IDF and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon have repeatedly exchanged fire since the Hamas attack on 7 October. Israel has ordered multiple communities near the blue line to evacuate.
Updated
In a television interview, the Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy has reiterated Israel’s position that there will be no ceasefire until Hamas has returned the more than 240 hostages it seized on 7 October.
He posted a clip to social media of his interview with DW News, saying:
There will be no ceasefire that leaves our hostages in Gaza and Hamas in power. Forget about it. We will fight to wipe out the perpetrators of the 7 October massacre and to bring our hostages home.
There will be no ceasefire that leaves our hostages in Gaza and Hamas in power. Forget about it.
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 7, 2023
We will fight to wipe out the perpetrators of the October 7 Massacre and to bring our hostages home.
My interview with @dwnews pic.twitter.com/XeiEGOxQEd
Elaborating on Israel’s reasoning against calls for a ceasefire, he said:
There was a ceasefire on the 6 October. Hamas broke it. Brutally murdered 1,400 people and then retreated back to the Gaza Strip.
A ceasefire would literally let Hamas get away with murder.
It would leave it free to do it again, this time with 240 hostages inside Gaza.
And Hamas is threatening to do a second 7 October. And a third. And a fourth. As many as it takes in order to wipe out the state of Israel and murder every man, woman and child in this country.
So we will not ceasefire until we achieve our war goals to destroy Hamas, so it can never again hurt our people, and never again perpetrate what it did on 7 October.
Updated
Antony Blinken has said that the G7 summit in Japan is an important moment for the group to come together in the face of the crisis in Israel and Gaza.
The US secretary of state, meeting his Japanese counterpart, Yoko Kamikawa, said: “This is a very important moment as well for the G7 to come together in the face of this crisis and to speak, as we do, with one clear voice.”
Kamikawa said Japan “unequivocally condemns” Hamas’s attack on Israel and supported US efforts to find a way forward. She added that “solid unity between Japan and the US is especially critical at this point”.
“We appreciate the diplomatic efforts of the US in the recent situation between Israel and Palestine,” she said, according to an Associated Press report. “You have our utmost support.”
Blinken also had talks with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida.
Updated
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Israel’s attempt to wipe out Hamas in response to the attacks of 7 October is likely to breed only more radicalisation, besides being unlawful, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Francesca Albanese also said the international community was “reaping the whirlwind” of failing to heed the concerns of those, including herself, who had criticised Israel’s “systematic repression of Palestinian human rights”.
“We raised the alarm in the international community, the human rights community, but no one has really listened,” Albanese said. “Now it has reached a dangerous point of no return where the chances of peaceful coexistence have dropped vertically off a cliff. In fact we are staring into an abyss.”
Albanese, an Italian academic, has often been accused by Israel of displaying pro-Palestinian bias, a charge she denies.
She challenged Israel to consider what is in its own self-interest. “Half the infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed. 9,000 people have been killed, 3,500 of them are reported to be children, over 1,000 of them are still under the rubble. How on earth is that going to lead to peace?”
She doubted it was possible to eradicate Hamas, which she described as “not just a military presence but a political reality”.
Read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here: Israel’s attempt to destroy Hamas will breed more radicalisation, UN expert says
Updated
Here are a couple of pictures from Jerusalem this morning, where people have been marking a month since the 7 October Hamas massacre inside Israel which killed at least 1,400 people.
Updated
A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that more than 160 healthcare workers had died on duty in Gaza and called for a lifting of restrictions on medical aid, saying some doctors were performing operations, including amputations, without anaesthetic.
“Over 160 of the healthcare workers have died on duty while taking care of those injured and diseased. These are the people keeping the health system going through the dedication they have somehow found a way to keep some level of service going,” Reuters reports that Christian Lindmeier told a press briefing.
The news agency notes he did not cite the source of information.
Updated
Masafer Yatta, a collection of shepherding hamlets, is in Area C, the sparsely populated 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control and under threat of annexation.
Palestinian water cisterns, solar panels, roads and buildings are frequently demolished on the grounds that they do not have building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain, while surrounding illegal Israeli settlements flourish.
One Palestinian resident, Alaa Hathleen, told the Guardian he and his neighbours were under threat. Over the past three weeks, he says, settlers have burned down homes and attacked Palestinians residing there, as violence from Israeli settlers and IDF forces has intensified in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.
Here is the video report:
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines:
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel may consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages from the Gaza Strip, but he again rejected calls for a ceasefire. When asked who should govern the territory after fighting ends, the Israeli prime minister told ABC news in an interview broadcast on Monday night: “Israel will for an indefinite period … have the overall security responsibility [in Gaza] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
Israel’s military claims to have captured a Hamas military stronghold and detonated a Hamas weapons depot “in a civilian area” adjacent to al-Quds hospital. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using hospital buildings to carry out military operations. Israeli forces said they had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with intense airstrikes on Monday.
On Tuesday a moment’s silence was held in Israel to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed. In Jerusalem on Monday night a vigil had been held with a candle lit for each victim. Relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall to mark a month of mourning.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza. “It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Türk said in a statement.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the protection of civilians “must be paramount” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming “a graveyard for children”. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, responded by saying: “Shame on you.”
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza in response to the 7 October attacks, according to figures released by the health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
The Israel Defence Forces military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that on Tuesday Israel has again fired into Lebanon in response to an attack.
Haaretz reports that a Palestinian woman has been shot this morning in the occupied West Bank after allegedly approaching Israeli forces with a knife and a Hamas flag.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Japan for a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers expected to be dominated by the Israel-Hamas war.
The Kremlin called on Tuesday for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, and it described the humanitarian situation there as “catastrophic”. Russia will continue contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to help ensure that humanitarian supplies can be delivered into Gaza, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed nearly 22,000 civilians, according to UN figures.
Russia’s foreign ministry said a statement by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to voice openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised many questions. Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said “it turns out that we are hearing an official statement about the presence of nuclear weapons? Accordingly, the next questions that everyone has are – where are the international organisations, where is the IAEA, where are the inspectors?” Israel has never conducted a public nuclear test or stated in public that it has possession of nuclear weapons. However, international observers believe it has a stockpile of 80-90 warheads.
Updated
IDF fires into Lebanon
The Israel Defence Forces military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that Israel has again fired into Lebanon in response to an attack. He wrote:
A short time ago, an IDF tank attacked a terrorist squad in Lebanese territory that tried to launch an anti-tank missile towards Israeli territory near the Shatula area. Also, earlier today IDF forces attacked a position of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, in order to remove a threat.
טנק של צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר בשטח לבנון חוליית מחבלים שניסתה לשגר טיל נ"ט לעבר שטח ישראל סמוך למרחב שתולה.
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 7, 2023
כמו כן, מוקדם יותר היום כוחות צה"ל תקפו עמדה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, על מנת להסיר איום.
Updated
The Kremlin called on Tuesday for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, and it described the humanitarian situation there as “catastrophic”.
Russia will continue contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to help ensure that humanitarian supplies can be delivered into Gaza, Reuters reports that the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing.
In its latest bulletin, the UN has recorded just under 22,000 civilian casualties, including 7,481 killed, in areas of Ukraine controlled by the Kyiv government since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. You can follow our live coverage of the Ukraine-Russia war here.
Updated
The IDF has reported that sirens are sounding in Ashkelon in southern Israel. Ashkelon has come under repeated rocket fire from Gaza during the last month.
Israel’s military has said that it has again opened a corridor for people to travel from the north of Gaza to the south.
The IDF has once again opened an evacuation corridor today for civilians in northern Gaza to move southwards: https://t.co/Q3LHbDqAwS
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 7, 2023
On its Arabic language channel, it wrote:
Residents of Gaza, join the many who are heading to the south of Wadi Gaza at this hour. I would like to inform you that although Hamas continues to undermine the ongoing humanitarian efforts on your behalf and uses you as human shields, today the IDF will once again allow passage on the Salah al-Din Road between 10am and 2pm. For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza. Many of you are doing this at this hour, as you can see in the attached photos that were taken a short while ago. If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions. Rest assured that Hamas leaders have already taken care of defending themselves.
#عاجل أيها سكان غزة، انضموا الى الكثيرين الذين يتوجهون الى جنوب وادي غزة في هذه الساعة!
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 7, 2023
🔴أود أن أعلمكم أنه على الرغم من أن حماس تواصل المساس بالجهود الإنسانية الجارية لمصلحتكم وتستخدمكم كدروع بشرية، إلا أن جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي سيسمح مرة أخرى اليوم بالمرور على طريق صلاح الدين… pic.twitter.com/9hxL6e8gfn
It is currently approaching 11.30am in Gaza, meaning residents have about two and a half hours left to move.
Despite the repeated calls for Gazan residents to move south for safety, Israel has continued to bombard cities like Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Updated
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza.
“It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Reuters reports Türk said in a statement. “Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain.”
Türk is in Cairo on Tuesday and will visit Rafah, located on the border with Gaza, on Wednesday, before he travels to the Jordanian capital of Amman on Thursday, his office said.
Updated
Israel is currently marking a month since the 7 October Hamas attacks with a moment of silence.
Haaretz reports that a Palestinian woman has been shot this morning in the occupied West Bank after allegedly approaching Israeli forces with a knife and a Hamas flag.
It reports the woman approached the Qalandia checkpoint into Jerusalem, “and advanced towards security guards”.
The report continues that security forces responded by shooting her, and that she has been arrested and is receiving medical attention.
Updated
In the UK, the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has been appearing in a series of interviews on radio and television which is known as the “morning media round”, where the government puts up a minister to answer any questions put to them by broadcasters.
PA Media reports that Chalk said: “We think there are three British hostages who are there [in Gaza].”
Chalk also commented on a controversy that has been brewing in the UK, on the proposals for a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday 11 November in London. It would take place on the same day that the country marks the end of the first world war at 11am, known in the UK as Armistice Day.
The Metropolitan police force in London have advised that the protest, calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, be cancelled, a request that is widely expected to be ignored. Chalk said:
Of course, there is the right to protest, which is important, but also concerns about public safety. We think that it’s wise advice. We think it takes account of all the competing considerations and that it should be followed.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman – the equivalent of an interior minister – has previously described pro-Palestinian marches in the UK as “hate marches”. Chalk echoed her words, saying: “The home secretary is absolutely correct when she says that there is hate on these marches.”
Updated
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described on social media the situation in Gaza as a “tragedy of colossal proportions”.
It writes:
For one month, people across Gaza Strip have been denied aid, killed and bombed out of their homes. Daily struggles to find bread and water. Blackouts cut people off from loved ones and the rest of the world. This is forced displacement and humanitarian tragedy of colossal proportions.
For 1 month, people across📍#GazaStrip have been denied aid, killed & bombed out of their homes.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 7, 2023
Daily struggles to find bread & water. Blackouts cut people off from loved ones & the rest of the world.
This is forced displacement & humanitarian tragedy of colossal proportions. pic.twitter.com/J12Z4w0hqw
Updated
Here is the video clip of Benjamin Netanyahu saying on US television that Israel “for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility” for Gaza.
In the clip, Netanyahu also reiterates Israel’s position that there can be no overall ceasefire with Hamas until it has released all of the hostages it seized from Israel on 7 October.
Updated
Israeli leaders have been commenting about the death in California of Paul Kessler, which Ventura County sheriff’s department says it hasn’t ruled out being a hate crime. Kessler died Monday at a hospital a day after he reportedly was battered after a confrontation between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Thousand Oaks, north-west of Los Angeles.
Describing it as a murder, the war cabinet minister Benny Gantz posted to social media to say:
The murder of Jewish-American Paul Kessler should serve as a stark warning sign to the whole world. Israel stands today at the forefront of the global fight against the murderous antisemitic ideology behind the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October. I call on world leaders and the international community to be unequivocal and proactive in their condemnation of terror and antisemitism.
The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said:
Paul Kessler was killed in Los Angeles because he was a Jew. It is not because of Gaza, it is because of antisemitism. This is what happens when protesters glorify Hamas and call to “globalise the intifada.” They don’t love Palestinians, they hate Jews.
Paul Kessler was killed in Los Angeles because he was a Jew.
— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) November 7, 2023
It is not because of Gaza, it is because of antisemitism.
This is what happens when protesters glorify Hamas and call to “globalize the intifada.”
They don’t love Palestinians, they hate Jews. pic.twitter.com/ZDxkngPE47
Updated
Reuters spoke to a man rescued from the rubble of a house in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip who said Israel would be “taught a very tough lesson”.
The news agency quotes him saying: “This is the bravery of the so-called Israel, they show their might and power against civilians, babies inside, kids inside, and elderly.” He gave his name as Ahmed Ayesh.
Palestinian health officials said 11 people had been killed in the strike on Khan Younis, which is inside the area where the Israeli military have told the Gazan population to evacuate to.
Updated
Eylon Levy, the Israeli government spokesperson, has posted to social media some images of people working to identify human remains from the destruction caused by Hamas fighters inside Israel on 7 October. In the accompanying message, he writes:
On 7 October, Hamas incinerated its victims so badly that the IDF has recruited archaeologists to sift through the rubble and find human remains. They’ve found “certain evidence” of the remains of ten people.
On October 7, Hamas incinerated its victims so badly that the IDF has recruited archaeologists to sift through the rubble and find human remains.
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 7, 2023
They’ve found “certain evidence” of the remains of ten people. pic.twitter.com/tOcBMiqV2R
The Hamas attack on 7 October killed at least 1,400 people. The death toll of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its campaign against Hamas now stands, according to the health ministry there, at more than 10,000. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty claim from Gaza.
Updated
Israel’s military has issued its latest operational update, in which it claims to have captured a Hamas military stronghold and detonated a Hamas weapons depot “in a civilian area” adjacent to al-Quds hospital. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using hospital buildings to carry out operations.
In a statement posted to Telegram, the Israeli military said:
Over the past day, IDF troops secured a military stronghold belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in the northern Gaza Strip. Anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons, and various intelligence materials were located in the compound by the troops.
In coordination with soldiers on the ground, an IDF fighter jet struck a cell of approximately ten terrorists. Following this, IDF ground troops identified an anti-tank missile cell operating in their vicinity. The troops directed an IDF aircraft that struck the terrorist cell.
Dozens of Hamas mortar shell launchers were also struck overnight.
In addition, IDF naval forces struck with precise ammunition strategic targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation, including posts containing technological assets.
Furthermore, IDF troops located a number of Hamas terrorists who barricaded themselves in a building adjacent to the al-Quds Hospital, and planned to carry out an attack on the forces from there. IDF soldiers directed an aircraft to strike the Hamas terrorists. The attack led to significant secondary explosions which indicate the presence of a Hamas weapons depot in a civilian area.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a statement by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to voice openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised many questions, Reuters reports.
The heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu, part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, made the remarks in a radio interview, and has been suspended from the Israeli cabinet.
In comments also carried by Tass, the foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on the Soloviev Live TV channel:
This raised a huge number of questions. Question number one – it turns out that we are hearing an official statement about the presence of nuclear weapons? Accordingly, the next questions that everyone has are – where are the international organisations, where is the IAEA, where are the inspectors?
Israel has never conducted a public nuclear test or stated in public that it has possession of nuclear weapons. However, international observers believe it has a stockpile of 80-90 warheads.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages from the Gaza Strip, but he again rejected calls for a ceasefire, as Israel marked a month since Hamas’s deadly attacks killed 1,400 people.
When asked who should govern the territory after fighting ends, the Israeli prime minister told ABC news in an interview broadcast on Monday night: “Israel will for an indefinite period … have the overall security responsibility [in Gaza] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
Having encircled the densely populated Gaza City in the north of the enclave, where the Hamas Islamist group is based, Israel’s military said it had taken a militant compound and was set to attack fighters hiding in underground tunnels.
Read our full report on the latest news from the Israel-Hamas conflict here:
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Fresh pictures have been coming in from Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military has been carrying out airstrikes.
The Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has expressed grief over the death of a 69-year-old Jewish man during an altercation between opposing protesters in the city of Thousand Oaks on Monday (which we reported here).
In a statement, the body’s executive director, Hussam Ayloush, said it was “deeply saddened by this tragic and shocking loss” and said its thoughts were with his family and the Jewish community.
Ayloush also urged the public to wait for the results of the police investigation into the death before drawing any conclusions.
We join local Jewish leaders in calling on all individuals to refrain from jumping to conclusions, sensationalizing such a tragedy for political gains, or spreading rumors that could unnecessarily escalate tensions that are already at an all-time high …
While we strongly support the right of political debate, CAIR-LA and the Muslim community stand with the Jewish community in rejecting any and all violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia, or incitement of hatred.
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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Japan for a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers expected to be dominated by the Israel-Hamas war.
Blinken made no public comment as he arrived for the two days of discussions in Tokyo after a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, where he pushed for humanitarian “pauses” in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and attempted to contain the conflict.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Calls have been mounting for a ceasefire, including from UN agencies and several countries.
A key ally of Israel, the US has not backed these calls, insisting that Israel has the right to respond – though Washington has called for pauses in the fighting.
In Turkey on Monday, Blinken said Washington was working “very aggressively” to expand aid for trapped civilians.
“I think we will see in the days ahead that the assistance can expand in significant ways,” Blinken added, without providing details.
The ministers from the G7 – the US, Japan, France, Britain, Italy, Germany and Canada – were also set to discuss the conflict in Ukraine as well as relations with China.
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The first orders went out before 4am: anyone who had been attending the regular training sessions and was not planning to attend dawn prayers at their usual mosques must go to pray.
An hour later, as the sky began to lighten over Gaza and the congregations began to disperse, new instructions were issued. These too were straightforward and passed mainly by word of mouth: bring your weapons and any ammunition you have and assemble at specific landmarks.
But still no one was told what was about to happen. Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the most ambitious operation launched by Hamas since the extremist Islamist organisation had taken control of Gaza in 2007, was still a secret.
The plan had been formulated by a handful of hardened, veteran Hamas leaders and was still unknown to the men whose violence was about to shatter any passing sense of calm or progress towards a new stability in the Middle East. It was unknown, too, to Israel’s much vaunted military and intelligence services.
The decision to pass instructions verbally to thousands of Hamas militants scattered among Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants was the latest in a series of measures designed to deceive one of the most potent surveillance systems in the world and keep any word of what might be about to happen from a network of spies.
Read Jason’s full report on how Hamas delivered its instructions to the men who carried out the brutal attack in Israel on 7 October:
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said two Israeli rockets hit around 50 metres from the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City overnight.
🚨🏥 A short while ago, the IOF aircraft targeted the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital with two rockets, approximately 50 meters from the hospital's gate.#Gaza_under_attack #AlQudsHospital #NotATarget
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 6, 2023
Earlier it had issued an urgent appeal to international relief organisations saying the hospital would run out of fuel within 48 hours, meaning “life saving equipment, neonatal incubators and intensive care units will cease to function”.
It said the hospital was also housing 14,000 people displaced by Israeli airstrikes and evacuation orders.
Hospitals including al-Quds had been “continusously shelled” over the past week, with strikes hitting no more than 50 metres away, it said. At least 60 hospital staff, patients and displaced people had been injured in the attacks, while hospital buildings and ambulances had also sustained “significant damage”. It continued:
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the northern region is worsening day by day due to the increased intensity of military attacks and airstrikes by the Israeli occupation forces ….
The situation is exacerbated by the ongoing and indiscriminate targeting and destruction of residential homes infrastructure and public facilities.
A month after Hamas went on a murderous rampage in Israel, prompting 30 days of devastating airstrikes on Gaza by Israel, the Associated Press has looked back at some of the most striking images captured during the period. Here are a selection:
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As fears grow over escalating violence in the West Bank, a German broadcast journalist has described how he and his team were detained and threatened by Israeli soldiers as they were reporting from the area.
ARD correspondent Jan-Christoph Kitzler, a Palestinian and a German colleague were returning from an interview when they were stopped by Israeli soldiers south of the West Bank city of Hebron, the network said in its report from Sunday.
The soldiers were “extremely aggressive” and pointed weapons at the group several times, ARD said: “The soldiers repeatedly filmed the ARD team at close quarters – for Kitzler and the team it was a clear attempt to intimidate them.”
Christian Limpert, head of ARD’s studio in Tel Aviv, said it was an attempt to prevent reporting from the West Bank and that other international media outlets were also affected:
It was the second incident for us within a week. Our team identified themselves clearly as accredited members of the press and were far away from military secure zones. We cannot accept the actions of the Israeli military.
“The soldiers threatened us with weapons and asked us whether we were Jewish. Our colleague was called a traitor,” Kitzler said. He posted pictures on X, formerly Twitter, of the soldiers pointing their weapons inside the journalists’ vehicle.
Das kann einem in diesen Tagen passieren, wenn man über die stark angestiegene Siedlergewalt im besetzten #Westjordanland im Schatten des Krieges in #Gaza berichten will. Viele der Soldaten dort sind selbst Siedler. Journalisten sind eher nicht willkommen. #Israel pic.twitter.com/StIwblkpNE
— JCKitzler (@JCKitzler) November 4, 2023
The situation was resolved after more than an hour after further Israeli soldiers and police officers became involved, ARD said.
It added that the soldiers appeared to be settlers from the area who had been called up as reservists, noting that they were using a private vehicle and wore civilian headwear.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in a fresh wave of violence by Israeli settlers since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and hundreds have been forced from their homes.
Indonesia’s foreign ministry has said that the purpose of the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza is to “fully” serve Palestinians in response to an accusation by the Israeli military that it has been used by Hamas to launch attacks. Reuters reports:
Israeli military’s has said that Hamas “systematically exploits hospitals as part of its war machine” as it exposed a network of tunnels, command centres and rocket launchers beneath and adjacent to hospitals in northern Gaza.
Hamas denies doing so and has accused Israel of spreading lies.
“Indonesia Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by Indonesians fully for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement, adding the hospital is run by Palestinian authorities, helped by a few Indonesian volunteers.
The hospital “is currently treating patients in the amount that far exceeds its capacity”, the ministry added.
Sarbini Abdul Murad, the chairman of MER-C, a voluntary group which funded the Indonesia hospital, told Reuters on Tuesday the hospital had run out of fuel, and had “collapsed”.
On Monday, Sarbini denied Israel‘s accusations, adding that it was a “precondition so that they can attack the Indonesian hospital in Gaza”.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has called for an immediate ceasefire and has sent humanitarian aid to Gaza.
In Jerusalem, Israelis held a vigil on Monday evening to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed, with a candle lit for each victim.
Relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall to mark a month of mourning. The holy site is considered the most sacred place Jews can worship. Prayers were held marking the first month of grief, in line with Jewish tradition. Agence France Press reported:
“We don’t have other ways to commemorate them except with prayers, lighting candles, and having them in our heart,” said Yossi Rivlin, who lost two brothers at a music festival massacre during the Hamas attack.
“This unity of the Israeli nation, we feel it not only in our house but all around the country. Too bad we had to wait for this moment,” the 26-year-old added.
“It’s a terrible time. I just hope we won’t forget and return to our routine.”
Standing before a giant Israeli flag, army chief cantor Shai Abramson gave a prayer for the departed, modified to include a blessing for security forces who “paid with their lives for the protection of Israeli land”.
The ceremony was the first religious commemoration organised at the Wailing Wall since 7 October.
It was attended by Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet formed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the attack, the deadliest the nation has suffered since its founding in 1948.
An investigation has been launched in Los Angeles after a 69-year-old man died as a result of injuries sustained during a physical altercation between rival pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office have said.
In a statement identifying the man as Paul Kessler, the sheriff’s office said they had “not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime”.
It said that police were called to the city of Thousands Oaks on Monday afternoon after reports of a physical altercation during which Kessler fell back and struck his head on the ground. He died in hospital of his injuries.
It said an autopsy had been performed and the cause of death determined to be “blunt force head injury and the manner of death homicide” but also said the incident “appears to be isolated and not part of a large effort.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said he was an “elderly Jewish man” who was “struck in the head by a megaphone wielded by a pro-Palestinian protestor in Westlake Village.” Police did not immediately confirm those details.
It said it was the fourth “major antisemitic crime” committed in Los Angeles this year and added: “Violence against our people has no place in civilized society. We demand safety.”
Rabbi Michael Barclay of Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village, near Thousand Oaks, urged people to avoid jumping to conclusions about what happened, according to the Associated Press.
“I just got off the phone with the Chief of Police,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “They have conflicting reports of what happened, and they did interview the suspect that is identified in social media at the event. They have no video.”
He said police are being cautious before making accusations. “We need to do the same; and not let this become a spark that starts an inferno,” he wrote.
It is not clear yet exactly what happened other than an elderly Jew was counter protesting at a Gazan demonstration, hit the ground, and died. We DO NOT KNOW at this time if he fell, was pushed, or was attacked. Please do not spread rumors. We will know soon what happened
— Rabbi Michael Barclay (@Rabbi_Barclay) November 7, 2023
Israel may have 'security responsibility' for Gaza for 'indefinite period' after war ends, Netanyahu says
Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested in an interview with the US’ ABC News.
Noting that US President Joe Biden had previously said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza, interviewer David Muir asked Netanyahu who should govern the territory when the fighting ends.
The prime minister suggested Israel would have a role to play for an “indefinite period.”
Those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas … It certainly is not – I think Israel will, for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.
Last month, Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant said one key objective of Israel’s military campaign was to sever “Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip” and establish a “new security reality for the citizens of Israel.”
The US has also suggested the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, could take charge in Gaza while others have suggested a consortium of Arab states could take responsibility.
Asked about Netanyahu’s comments, US national security council spokesperson John Kirby said:
What we support is that Hamas can’t be in control of Gaza any more.
We are having conversations with our Israeli counterparts about what governance in Gaza should look like post-conflict and I don’t believe that any solutions have been settled upon one way or the other.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Livingstone.
Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends, Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested.
Asked in an interview with the ABC who should govern the territory after the war ends, the Israeli prime minister said suggested Israel could have “the overall security responsibility” for an “indefinite period.”
“Because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it,” Netanyahu said. “When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
US President Joe Biden had previously said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza, while last month Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said one key objective of the military campaign was to sever “Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip”.
Meanwhile, Israel is marking one month since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, in which 1,400 people were killed.
In other key developments:
In Jerusalem, Israelis held a vigil to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed, with a candle lit for each victim. Relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall where army chief cantor Shai Abramson gave a prayer for the departed, modified to include a blessing for security forces.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza in response to the 7 October attacks, according to figures released by the health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
Israeli forces said they had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with intense airstrikes on Monday, setting the stage for an expected push into the dense confines of Gaza City and an even bloodier phase of the month-old war.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the protection of civilians “must be paramount” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming “a graveyard for children”. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, responded by saying: “Shame on you.”
More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, an international charity has warned. Riham Jafari, coordinator of advocacy and communication for ActionAid Palestine, said “Cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly.”
Fuel reserves for generators powering the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City are at a critical level and will run out within 48 hours, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a tweet. The head of al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip also told Al Jazeera that it could completely shut down by Wednesday night due to the lack of fuel.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, ended his tour of the Middle East admitting that his efforts to secure a sustained humanitarian pause and greater constraint in Israel’s assault on Gaza was still “a work in progress”.
US state department employees have signed a dissent memo arguing that the Biden administration should be willing to publicly criticise the Israeli government, according to a report. The memo, obtained by Politico, suggests a growing loss of confidence among in US diplomats in President Joe Biden’s approach to the Middle East crisis, the outlet writes.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said it is carrying out airstrikes against sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The IDF said it had identified about 30 launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel earlier on Monday, and that it was “responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches”.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched a fresh drone attack against Israel which they claimed temporarily halted activity at Israeli military bases and airports. A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on social media that Yemeni armed forces “launched a batch of drones during the past hours at various sensitive targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied territories”.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on Monday in the West Bank city of Tulkarm has risen to four, the Palestinian health ministry said. Previous reports said three people were killed and a fourth injured during an exchange with Israeli forces in the occupied territory.
Netanyahu has once again rejected the idea of a ceasefire in Gaza unless hostages are released, but suggested a series of “tactical little pauses” may be possible. In an interview with ABC News, Netanyahu said: “There’ll be no ceasefire, general ceasefire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages. As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We’ve had them before, I suppose.”
A Hamas commander believed to be among those who ordered the 7 October attacks in Israel was killed in an airstrike, according to reports. The reports named him as Wael Asefa, commander of Hamas’s Deir al-Balah battalion of the group’s central camps brigade.
About 80 dual nationals and 17 medical evacuees had left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing by early Monday evening, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources, after evacuations were suspended for two days after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Friday.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was increasing its humanitarian aid to Gaza by another €25m, bringing total aid to €100m ($107m / £86.5m).
South Africa is recalling diplomats from Israel to assess its relationship with the country, its foreign minister has said, saying that Israel was involved in the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
The UK’s Labour party has issued its most direct criticism of the Israeli government since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, criticising the remarks of rightwing Israeli ministers over the West Bank and saying they have been responsible for “unacceptable and offensive rhetoric about Palestinians”.
Organisers of pro-Palestine marches that have brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of London have raised fresh concerns that a major protest planned for Saturday could be banned.
