This blog is closing. We have launched a new blog at the link below with the latest:
If you’re just joining us: US President Joe Biden warned Iran against getting involved in Israel‘s conflict with Hamas amid fears of a wider regional conflict, while ongoing Israeli air strikes around the Gaza Strip drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Israeli jets have pounded Gazan targets for days in retribution for a weekend attack by Hamas militants who breached the border fence enclosing the enclave and rampaged through towns and villages, killing 1,200 people, injuring over 2,700, and taking scores of hostages, the Israeli military said.
At around 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, Israel’s military said it was conducting a “large-scale strike” on targets belonging to Hamas in Gaza. It did not provide details.
The death toll in Gaza has risen to 1,200, with around 5,600 wounded, Palestinian media reported, citing Gaza’s health ministry.
Biden despatched his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, to the Middle East to show Washington’s enduring support for Israel, seek to secure the release of captives, including Americans, and prevent a wider war from erupting.
Blinken will arrive on Thursday and will also visit Jordan, but will not visit the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where he ordinarily meets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Death toll of Thai citizens rises to 21
The death toll of Thai citizens in Israel has risen to 21, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin posted on social media platform X on Thursday.
Updated
China's special envoy to Middle East expected to talk to Israeli officials today
China’s special envoy on Middle East issues is expected to have a telephone conversation with Israeli officials on Thursday, Israel’s Ambassador to China, Irit Ben-Abba, told Bloomberg News.
China will likely talk about the meeting later in the afternoon, during a regular briefing held by the foreign ministry, the report said.
China’s foreign ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Here is more detail from the phone call between Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, via Reuters.
The pair discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Wednesday, in the first telephone call between the two leaders since a China-brokered deal between Tehran and Riyadh to resume ties.
The two leaders’ call came as Israel carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a deadly attack by Palestinian Hamas militants in Israel.
Raisi and the Saudi crown prince discussed the “need to end war crimes against Palestine,” Iranian state media said.
The Saudi crown prince, for his part, “affirmed that the Kingdom is making all possible efforts in communicating with all international and regional parties to stop the ongoing escalation,” Saudi state news agency SPA said.
He also reiterated Saudi Arabia’s rejection of targeting civilians in any way, SPA added.
Asked about Raisi’s call with the crown prince, a senior US State Department official said Washington, which staunchly backs Israel in its fight against Hamas, was in “constant contact with Saudi leaders”.
The official added that the US was asking its partners with channels or relations with Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah or Iran “to get Hamas to stand down from its attacks, to release hostages, keep Hezbollah out (and) keep Iran out of the fray.”
Israel’s bombing campaign has destroyed or rendered uninhabitable at least 2,540 housing units in Gaza, OCHA said, citing numbers from the Gaza Ministry of Public Works and Housing.
Another 22,850 housing units sustained moderate to minor damage, it said.
The UN agency also voiced alarm at the significant destruction of civilian infrastructure damaged in the shelling.
Among other things, it said sewage facilities serving more than a million people had been hit by air strikes, leaving solid waste accumulating in the streets, posing a health threat.
More than 338,000 people displaced in Gaza: UN
More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave.
“Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Thursday.
By late Wednesday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 75,000 people from the figure given 24 hours earlier, reaching 338,934, it said.
Israeli forces said 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the onslaught - the worst in the country’s history.
In Gaza, officials reported more than 1,100 people have been killed in Israel’s sustained campaign of air and artillery strikes.
OCHA said nearly 220,000 people, or two-thirds of the displaced people, have sought shelter in schools run by the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Another nearly 15,000 people fled to schools run by the Palestinian Authority, while more than 100,000 were being sheltered by relatives, neighbours and a church and other facilities in Gaza City.
“We have a long and very, very dangerous road ahead of us,” says Conricus as he ends the briefing.
IDF spokesperson says ground offensive will come 'when opportune and fit for our purposes'
A ground offensive will be launched on Gaza “when opportune and fit for our purposes”, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus has just said in a live update.
Ground forces are gathering at Israel’s southern border with Gaza.
IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus is giving a live update. He is discussing the tunnels under the Gaza strip, and says that the Air Force is trying to attack those.
He claims that the IDF is “prioritising striking Hamas commanders”.
Reports from Gaza suggest that hundreds of civilians, including children, have died in IDF strikes.
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus is speaking now. He says that 100 bodies, including those of children and infants, have been recovered in Kibbutz Be’eri. The total population of the kibbutz before the attack was about 1,200 people.
The IDF has posted to X, saying, “The IDF is now launching an extensive attack on many centers of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”
While we wait for that IDF update to begin, here is some analysis on where Saudi Arabi and Iran stand.
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and Iran’s president spoke by phone about the war between Israel and Hamas, Saudi state media said early Thursday,
Analysts say the war has dealt a heavy blow to a possible landmark normalisation deal between Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, and Israel.
That process has been driven by US President Joe Biden’s administration, with Riyadh bargaining hard for benefits from Washington including security guarantees and help developing a civilian nuclear programme.
Iran has long financially and militarily backed Hamas but insists it had no involvement in Saturday’s assault.
Saudi Arabia and Iran announced in March they had agreed to restore ties, ending a seven-year rupture in a deal brokered by China.
Prince Mohammed also spoke by phone on Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during which the 38-year-old Saudi leader said he was “exerting unremitting efforts through regional and international communication to achieve coordination that pushes for a halt of the current escalation”.
We are expecting a briefing from Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus to begin shortly and will bring you the key updates as they happen.
More now from the AP report on the hostages being held by Hamas:
The unique nature of the crisis does contain advantages for Israel, said Gershon Baskin, who helped to negotiate the 2011 release of an Israeli sergeant from Hamas, because there are so many captives, information about some of their locations might leak, even though they are likely dispersed around the territory in homes or underground, he said. That could favour rescue operations.
AP:
Israel has historically made big concessions to win freedom for hostages. The fate of prisoners is emotionally charged on the Palestinian side, too most Palestinians have either spent time in an Israeli jail or know someone who did.
But as Israel’s military strikes Gaza with unprecedented ferocity, it’s not clear whether the safety of hostages is playing a role in decision-making. At least one member of the government, the hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also plays a role in the Defense Ministry, was quoted as demanding Saturday that the military “hit Hamas brutally and not take the matter of the captives into significant consideration.”
Reports of Egyptian, Turkish and Qatari mediation efforts don’t appear to be going anywhere. More than 1,200 Israelis were killed in Hamas’s incursion, so Baskin doesn’t expect Israel to engage in a negotiated deal that would reward the militant group.
In Israel, he said, “no one has the appetite to give Hamas any kind of prize.”
As far as we know, Hamas has not made specific demands for the release of hostages, but the release of Palestinian prisoners may be one of the demands.
On 7 October, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel, Al Jazeera spoke to the deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, who said, “Our detainees in [Israeli] prisons, their freedom is looming large. What we have in our hands will release all our prisoners. The longer fighting continues, the higher the number of prisoners will become.”
By “what we have in our hands”, al-Arouri appeared to be referring to hostages.
Al Jazeera reported that, according to the latest figures by Addameer, a prisoners’ rights NGO, nearly 5,200 Palestinians are in Israeli jails.
What will rescuing hostages entail?
The Associated Press has taken a look at the logistics behind any potential rescue of hostages from Gaza.
It reports: The Hamas-run Gaza Strip is a tiny enclave, surveilled continually by Israel, surrounded by its guns. But rescuing — or even locating — more than 150 hostages hustled there by Palestinian militants who overran Israel’s southern border on Saturday will be a daunting task.
Gaza’s densely populated terrain, its network of underground tunnels and the sheer numbers of men, women and children taken captive present Israel with the most complex hostage crisis that the country has ever faced.
Mounting rescue operations in the midst of the massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza that followed the deadly Hamas rampage in southern Israel would only make an already difficult mission even more formidable.
“The situation is unprecedented,” said Gershon Baskin, who helped to negotiate the 2011 release of Staff Sergeant Gilad Schalit after more than five years of Hamas captivity. “I think Hamas was surprised at the ease it was able to take hostages. Israel was completely bewildered by everything that’s happened.”
White House: Biden's comments on beheading based on Netanyahu spokesperson's comments
The White House has clarified US president Joe Biden’s comments earlier, where he said, “I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
In comments reported by the Washington Post, a White House spokesperson said that neither US officials nor Biden had seen photographs or confirmed such reports independently and that Biden had “based his comments about the alleged atrocities on the claims from Netanyahu’s spokesman,” the Washington Post reports.
Clarification from the White House regarding Biden's remarks https://t.co/8fXafd5Bpn https://t.co/zsEf93bH0g pic.twitter.com/N7ci2jHXf2
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) October 12, 2023
Updated
51 killed 281 injured in Israeli air raids on Gaza, says Palestinian Health Ministry
51 people have died and 281 have been injured in Israeli air strikes on Gaza in the last hour, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Palestinian Health Ministry.
“The ministry said the strikes hit Sabra, Al Zaytoun, Al Nafaq and Tal Al Hawa. A separate report said Gaza’s Khan Younis was also hit by air strikes. Search and rescue operations are reportedly under way,” Al Jazeera reports.
Saudi prince, Iran president hold call on Israel-Hamas war
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and Iran’s president spoke by phone about the war between Israel and Hamas, Saudi state media said early Thursday, their first call since a surprise rapprochement in March, AFP reports.
Iranian state news agency IRNA also reported on the call, saying the two men discussed the “need to end war crimes against Palestine”.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a call on Wednesday from the Iranian leader, Ebrahim Raisi, during which they discussed “the current military situation in Gaza and its environs”, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
Prince Mohammed told Raisi that Riyadh is “communicating with all international and regional parties to stop the ongoing escalation”, SPA said.
He also stressed “the kingdom’s firm position towards supporting the Palestinian cause”, it said.
The US ABC news has spoken to a teenager who survived the siege by Hamas because his parents shielded him with their bodies. Both of his parents died.
The family lived on a kibbutz in southern Israel near the Gaza border. As the fighters invaded their home, they scrambled into a tiny room meant to protect them from rocket attacks. Then Debbie Mathias yelled at her son, Rotem, to get down. Then she was shot dead; the bullet traveled through her and hit him in the stomach.
Rotem Mathias, 16, stayed underneath his mother and played dead for about 30 minutes before running for shelter under a bed and eventually hiding under a blanket in adjacent laundry room, relatives told The Associated Press. Twice, Rotem Mathias managed to elude the fighters — some of them laughing — before he was rescued by Israeli soldiers.
“The last thing my dad said is he lost his arm. Then my mom died on top of me,” Rotem Mathias told ABC News in an interview from the hospital where he was being treated for gunshot and shrapnel wounds. He was released Tuesday.
“I just stopped my breathing. I lowered it down as much as I possibly could. I didn’t move and was terrified,” he said. “I didn’t make any noise. I prayed for any god. I didn’t really care which god. I just prayed for a god that they won’t find me.”
“Before I went to my house, Mom said, ’Bye. Have fun tomorrow,’” Shir Mathias said. “I was like, ‘Thank you, I love you.’ I gave her a hug and gave my dad a hug.” Hours later, they were gone.
Updated
Far-right protesters riot outside hospital in Tel Aviv
AP: Meanwhile more than a hundred far-right protesters rioted outside one of the main hospitals in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night after hearing reports that doctors there were treating a militant from Hamas, according to Hagai Levine, Chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians.
Protesters from La Familia — a group of notoriously racist Jerusalem fans of the “Beitar” soccer team — blocked the main entrance to the emergency room for three hours, according to videos circulated by doctors on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The ultranationalist soccer fans clashed violently with police and disrupted the passage of emergency crews into the hospital.
At the time of the riot, Sheba hospital was not treating any militants from Hamas, Levine said. It’s unclear if militants have been treated in Israel’s public hospitals since the Hamas rampage on Saturday.
The protest came on the heels of a letter circulated Wednesday by Israeli health minister Moshe Arbel that barred Israel’s public hospitals from treating militants. Arbel wrote that injured militants should be referred to the Israeli military or Israel’s intelligence services.
AP: When Israeli airstrikes pounded Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on 9 October, at least 50 people — including two entire families — were killed and much of the camp razed, health authorities and residents said.
The Israeli miliary said that the targets it struck “were only directed at Hamas situation rooms and operational apartments.”
One of the families killed were the Masouds — two public schoolteachers and their sons, ages 12 and 10 — according to neighbour Khalil Abu Yahia.
“They would sacrifice their lives to care for their children,” he said of parents Alaa and Atallah.
The morning of the strike, the family of four huddled close in the one room, far from the windows.
Abu Yahia knows this, he said, because that’s how all four bodies were found.
Updated
Shrapnel has hit seven hospitals and 10 UN shelters in Gaza
AP: Shrapnel has flown into seven other hospitals and 10 UN emergency shelters, according to the World Health Organization and United Nations. An Israeli airstrike hit one of Gaza’s biggest hospitals, in northern Beit Hanoun, rendering it inoperable.
At Shifa Hospital, doctors battled to keep the place running. Fuel supplies ran low, and panic ensued outside. As explosions crashed, women and children streamed into the streets with their belongings, some of them barefoot.
From the hospital corridor, Muhammad Al-Gharabli recalled four missiles crashing into a mosque in the seaside Shati refugee camp Monday, decapitating his 2-year-old son, Mohammed, and sending shrapnel into the leg of his 5-year-old son, Lotfi.
Al-Gharabli said that when he regained consciousness, he saw the bodies of dozens of neighbors strewn over the ruins of their homes. He recognized the still and bloodied face of his next-door neighbor, a car mechanic.
“I can’t sleep from the horror,” he said.
Updated
Gaza hospitals short of ‘everything’ says WHO official
The stark toll of Israeli strikes is palpable at Gaza hospitals, AP reports.
Even in ordinary times, they’re poorly supplied. Now, there’s a shortage of everything from bandages to intravenous fluids, beds to essential drugs, said Richard Brennan, regional director of the World Health Organization.
“It’s almost as bad as it gets,” Brennan said. “It’s not just the damage, the destruction. It’s that psychological pressure. The constant shelling ... the loss of one’s colleagues.”
US state department upgrades travel warning for Israel and West Bank
The US State Department upgraded its travel warning for Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday to Level 3, “reconsider travel”, the Associated Press reports. It kept its travel advisory for Gaza at the department’s highest warning level, Level 4, meaning “do not travel.”
The State Department cited extremists continuing to plot attacks, the possibility of violence erupting without warning, and increased demonstrations. The travel warning comes as five days of rocket fire and missile barrages between the Hamas militant group and Israel already have led many airlines to suspend commercial flights.
Here is a report from inside Gaza, via the Associated Press:
The Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, has only enough fuel to keep power on for three days, said Matthias Kannes, a Gaza-based official for Doctors Without Borders. The group said the two hospitals it runs in Gaza were running out of surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel and other supplies.
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a reconstructive surgeon at al-Shifa, said he had 50 patients waiting to go to the operating room.
“We’re already beyond the capacity of the system to cope,” he said. The health system “has the rest of the week before it collapses, not just because of the diesel. All supplies are running short.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent said other hospitals’ generators will run out in five days. Residential buildings, unable to store as much diesel, likely will go dark sooner.
Egypt and international groups have been calling for humanitarian corridors into Gaza. Convoys stood loaded with fuel and food Wednesday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, but were unable to enter Gaza, an Egyptian security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press.
In Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, rescue workers and civilians carried men covered with blood and soot toward ambulances after strikes toppled buildings. Streets were left blanketed with metal, chunks of concrete and thick dust.
Medical teams and rescuers struggled to enter other areas where roads were too damaged, including Gaza City’s al-Karama district, where a “large number” were killed or wounded, according to the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. Strikes have killed at least four Red Crescent paramedics, the organisation said.
Some US Republican lawmakers said on Wednesday they would oppose any funding request from Democratic President Joe Biden that combined military aid for Israel and Ukraine, Reuters reports, amid resistance from some Republicans to further assistance for Kyiv.
The White House has been weighing whether to make a request to Congress that would lump funding for Israel with that of Ukraine and Taiwan, an administration official said, to improve the chances of gaining passage of assistance for Ukraine’s fight to repel Russian invaders.
Biden and members of Congress from both parties have pledged to do everything possible to support Israel.
But Congress still must address the need to provide more funding for Ukraine. Biden asked Congress in August to approve $24bn for Ukraine and related international needs, but the request has not been approved.
A relatively small but vocal group of Republicans has criticised Ukraine assistance for months, accusing Kyiv of failing to sufficiently fight corruption, which Ukrainian and US officials deny.
Some Ukraine backers suggested that Biden should ask Congress for a new spending package combining assistance for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan as it faces increased pressure from China.
Two Qantas flights will begin evacuating Australians on Friday
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her department was working through the details of further action.
“I can indicate to Australians with friends and family in this role we are seeking to arrange a further flight likely to be early next week,” she told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
The Wong again condemned the indiscriminate killing of civilians and urged terrorist organisation Hamas to release hostages.
Among those killed in Israel was Australian grandmother Galit Carbone, 66, who died at the hands of the Hamas militants who attacked her village, just kilometres from the Gaza border.
With roughly 10,000 Australian residents and even more tourists stranded in Israel, Australian authorities are trying to ascertain their status and bring home those who want to leave.
This is Helen Sullivan taking over our live coverage.
Summary
It is 2:am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
Biden said the Hamas attack on Israel was the ‘deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust’. The US president addressed a round table of Jewish leaders in Washington on Wednesday, where he described the bloody assault on Israel by Hamas as “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust”. The US president said Saturday’s attack was “sheer evil” and a “campaign of pure cruelty against the Jewish people”.
Biden warned Iran to ‘be careful’. During his speech to a group of Jewish community leaders in Washington, Joe Biden warned Iran to “be careful”, adding that the US is sending more military assistance to help Israel fight Hamas militants. Biden’s remarks marked the first time he connected the US deployment of a carrier fleet near to Israel to concerns Iran might seek to become involved, Reuters reported.
Biden also said the US was “working on every aspect” of the hostage crisis in Israel, but that “the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre”.
Turkey is carrying out negotiations aimed at securing the release of Israeli civilians held by Hamas, according to reports. Talks were being carried out by Turkish officials after instructions from the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a senior Turkish official.
As Gaza’s sole power station ran out of fuel amid a tightening siege, hundreds of terrified people sought shelter in the entrance of the enclave’s largest hospital, huddling together as bombardments rained down. “The hospital is completely full and things have started to run low. And this is only day four,” said Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a surgeon at Gaza City’s main hospital, Al-Shifa.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has called for essential “life-saving” supplies of fuel, food and water to be allowed into Gaza. Guterres, in remarks to the press on Wednesday, said he will never forget the images of the “supercharged cycle of violence and horror”. He said he was in continuous contact with leaders in the region, and warned against any “spillover” of the conflict. “I appeal to all parties – and those who have an influence over those parties – to avoid any further escalation,” he said. Guterres called for the immediate release of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza, and urged that international humanitarian law to be upheld and civilians to “be protected at all times”.
Israel’s new war cabinet vowed to ‘wipe Hamas off the face of the earth’. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation alongside the opposition party leader, Benny Gantz, after the pair agreed to form an emergency government to direct war against Hamas. A new war cabinet has been formed, consisting of Netanyahu, Gantz, and Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. During the fighting with Hamas, the emergency government will not take up any unrelated policy or laws, Netanyahu and Gantz said in a joint statement.
The US has confirmed the deaths of at least 22 American citizens, a state department spokesperson said. They said. We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected. The number is up from 14 on Tuesday.
17 Britons missing and feared dead in Hamas attacks. Seventeen British nationals, including children, are feared dead or missing in Israel after attacks by Hamas, the Guardian understands. The atrocities have so far claimed at least 2,100 lives.
The Palestinian death toll since Saturday stands at 1,100, including 326 children, and there are 5,339 injured. At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of airstrikes overnight, a Hamas government official said. More than 260,000 people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continued, the UN said.
The Israeli death toll stands at 1,200. More than 2,700 are wounded. The jump in the death toll (up by 200) is “not because there is ongoing fighting,” an IDF spokesperson said, but because “now as the time has gone by we are discovering bodies of dead Israelis in the various communities that Hamas infiltrated and where they conducted their massacres”.
The Israel Defence Forces hit hundreds of targets in Gaza overnight, including 80 in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanon and over 450 targets in the Al-Furqan neighborhood in the last 24 hours, and 70 more “targets” were hit in the neighbourhood of al-Daraj. The targets included banks and places the IDF says were used by Hamas to directed attacks against Israel. Israel’s military aim is to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, a spokesperson said.
Lebanon’s national news agency said two rockets had been fired from southern Lebanese territory towards Israeli territory. The Israeli military said an anti-tank missile was launched towards the town of Arav Al-Amsha, which lies close to the “blue line” that demarcates northern Israeli territory from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said it was responsible for firing precision missiles on Israel.
The UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, was seen running for cover when sirens went off warning of incoming Hamas rocket fire during a visit to the town of Ofakim, in southern Israel.
British Airways has suspended flights to and from Israel due to safety concerns. A BA flight turned back to London after nearly reaching Tel Aviv.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told soldiers: “We will come from the ground,” in another clear sign that a ground offensive into Gaza is imminent. Speaking on Tuesday to soldiers near the Gaza fence, Gallant said, “Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground.”
The US has discussed brokering an aid corridor for civilians in Gaza as Israel’s air force continued to pound the territory. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday that talks on safe passage for civilians in Gaza were being held with Israel and Egypt.
The US president, towards the end of his remarks to Jewish community leaders in Washington, referred to reports that Hamas militants beheaded Israeli children in its surprise onslaught on the weekend.
Joe Biden said:
It is important for Americans to see what is happening. I have been doing this for a long time. I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
His comments come amid reports of beheadings in Israeli villages, but the Guardian has been unable to verify this independently.
Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy commander of Unit 71, the paratroopers who led the Israeli forces into Kfar Aza, told Reuters, “They killed them and cut some of their heads, it’s a dreadful thing to see.”
Updated
The US president, Joe Biden, reiterated that America “has Israel’s back” as he addressed a group of Jewish leaders on Wednesday.
Biden said his commitment to the safety of Israel and the Jewish people is “unshakeable”, both at home and abroad.
He said he had asked members of his team, including the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, and attorney general Merrick Garland to work “intensively” with Jewish community partners.
“We’re also going to continue to condemn and combat antisemitism at every single turn,” he said, adding that the last few days were a reminder that “hates never goes away”.
The US state department has raised its travel advisory level for Israel and the West Bank to level three, urging citizens to “reconsider travel” to the region.
The situation in Israel “remains dynamic; mortar and rocket fire may take place without warning,” the agency said.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with defence minister Yoav Gallant and opposition party leader Benny Gantz, said the leadership of the new national emergency government stands united.
Netanyahu said:
We have put aside every other consideration because the fate of our country is at stake. We will work together, shoulder to shoulder, for the citizens of Israel and for the State of Israel.
Israel is fighting “with full force on all fronts”, he said, adding that “every Hamas member is a dead man”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a joint statement with Defense Minister Yoav Galant and National Unity Chairman MK Benny Gantz:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 11, 2023
"Citizens of Israel, this evening we have formed a national emergency government. The people are united and today its leadership is also united. pic.twitter.com/0ffZ8CxTEI
Biden warns Iran to 'be careful'
During his speech to a group of Jewish community leaders in Washington, Joe Biden warned Iran to “be careful”, adding that the US is sending more military assistance to help Israel fight Hamas militants.
Biden’s remarks marked the first time he connected the US deployment of a carrier fleet near to Israel to concerns Iran might seek to become involved, Reuters reported. The US president said:
We moved the US carrier fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and we are sending more fighter jets to that region, and made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful.
US officials have said they have not been able to establish a direct link between the Hamas attack but are searching to see if they can find one.
Biden: Hamas attack on Israel 'deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust'
Joe Biden addressed a round table of Jewish leaders in Washington on Wednesday, where he described the bloody assault on Israel by Hamas as "the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust”.
The US president said Saturday’s attack was “sheer evil” and a “campaign of pure cruelty against the Jewish people”.
“Silence is complicity,” Biden said. “I refuse to be silent”. He said he had spoken again today with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and that the US is “surging” additional military assistance to the Israel Defense Forces.
He said the US was “working on every aspect” of the hostage crisis in Israel, but that “the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre”.
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from Israel and Palestine.
Avi Solomon cannot serve in Israel’s armed forces because he is blind, but he has about 20 close relatives who have been called up to fight. They include four brothers and more than a dozen nephews and cousins, and he accepts that they may not all come back.
“We feel like zombies anyway,” said the 39-year-old, an athlete and supermarket worker.
If we can’t feel safe in our own houses, if we can’t promise a future for our children, if any terrorist can come here and do the same thing to us, there is no point to be some kind of living dead.
Israelis are suspended between fear, grief and grim preparation for more losses, as details of massacres of families in their homes emerge from southern areas, and the country prepares for a major operation against Hamas in Gaza.
Normal life has been put on hold. Schools have been closed on a rolling basis, so parents are juggling full-time parenting with working from home, while trying to protect their children from both actual attacks and the corrosive trauma of fear.
The video shows a young boy in a black T-shirt apparently lying in a pool of blood on the ground. Above him is a camera, with a man shouting directions near him. Two men in kippahs, the Jewish skull caps, and men in green military fatigues similar to Israel Defence Forces (IDF) uniforms are gathered around him.
The clip has been viewed about 2m times on X, formerly known as Twitter. It was shared by a verified user with the caption:
Video showing Israel attempting to create fake footage of deaths.
In fact, the clip is a behind-the-scenes shot from a Palestinian short film, Empty Place, which focuses on the vacuum left by Palestinians who fled due to the Israeli occupation. It seems to have originated on TikTok before finding its way to X – but while the original TikTok post now appears to be unavailable, on X it has continued to circulate and gain traction.
It is far from a one-off. Since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Saturday morning, X has been flooded with disinformation and misinformation that has heightened tensions across the globe. Disinformation refers to the deliberate spread of false information, while misinformation is when someone unwittingly spreads or believes the false information to be true.
An Irish-Israeli citizen has been confirmed dead in Israel.
Kim Damti, 22, had been missing since Saturday when she was attending a music festival near the Gaza border.
In a statement, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said:
When news reached us over the weekend that an Irish citizen was one of the many hundreds missing after the repugnant terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel, we hoped against hope that she would be found safely. The news that this hope has now been extinguished is devastating.
Anyone looking at the photo of Kim in the media over the last few days will have been struck by the radiance and energy in her expression; a young 22-year-old woman with a whole life ahead of her, full of promise. For anyone to lose a child is devastating. To lose a child in such circumstances is indescribable.
Ireland’s premier Leo Varadkar said Damti’s death and the deaths of more than a thousand other citizens of Israel and from around the world was “senseless and barbaric”.
As a nation we are united in mourning for Kim Damti. This vibrant young Irish-Israeli woman was struck down in her prime, with her adult life ahead of her.
Turkey 'carrying out negotiations' with Hamas over release of Israeli hostages
Turkey is carrying out negotiations aimed at securing the release of Israeli civilians held by Hamas, according to reports.
Talks were being carried out by Turkish officials after instructions from the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a senior Turkish official, Reuters reported. The official said:
Turkey is carrying out negotiations regarding the civilian prisoners held by Hamas. Upon President Tayyip Erdogan’s orders, the relevant institutions are carrying out a process regarding the civilians held by Hamas.
Presidential spurces confirm to TRT's @YusufErim34: Erdogan ordered the start of a process for the release of the hostages in Gaza, an instruction was given to the relevant officials to deal with the issue
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) October 11, 2023
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, has said the total number of hostages seized was between 100 and 150.
Turkey has historically had contacts with Hamas, and Turkish politicians, including Erdoğan, have previously met with members of the militant group.
Israel's new war cabinet vows to 'wipe Hamas off the face of the earth'
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation alongside the opposition party leader, Benny Gantz, after the pair agreed to form an emergency government to direct war against Hamas.
A new war cabinet has been formed, consisting of Netanyahu, Gantz, and Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. During the fighting with Hamas, the emergency government will not take up any unrelated policy or laws, Netanyahu and Gantz said in a joint statement.
Netanyahu said they had put aside their differences “because the fate of our state is on the line”. Speaking alongside Gantz and Gallant, he compared the attack by Hamas with brutal killings carried out by Islamic State.
Gantz, a former Israeli defence chief and general, said it was a time to join together and win as the country faces “one of the toughest hours” it has ever known.
There is a time for peace and a time for war. Now is a time for war.
Gallant described the Hamas attack as “the worst terror attack the world has ever seen”. “There’s no situation in which you kill Israeli kids and we go about our business,” he added.
We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth. It will cease to exist.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said America “has Israel’s back” as he boarded a plane to Israel on Wednesday.
Blinken is due to meet senior Israeli officials, possibly including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to discuss further boosting military support. He will also work to try and secure the release of more than 100 people that Israel says Hamas holds captive, some of whom may be American citizens.
At least 22 Americans were killed during the attack, Blinken said, and “that number could still go up, and it probably will”.
Updated
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is “urgently seeking” $104m (£84m) to provide its humanitarian response to civilians impacted by the heavy escalation of violence in Gaza.
The agency is seeking funds to cover the immediate food, non-food, health, shelter and protection needs of up to 250,000 persons seeking safety in its shelters across the Gaza Strip and another 250,000 Palestine refugees within the community, it said in a statement.
“It is of utmost urgency that access to humanitarian assistance and protection be upheld for all civilians,” UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said.
What is unfolding is already an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy. Whatever the circumstances are, rules apply in times of conflict and this one is no exception. Aid to civilians who have nowhere to flee must be immediate: water, food, medicine.
Arab foreign ministers have urged Israel to meet its international obligations as an occupying power and return to negotiations on a two-state solution that provides a viable state for Palestine.
At an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on Wednesday, ministers underlined “the importance of resuming the peace process and starting serious negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.”
The move is part of a twin track – and largely Saudi-led – initiative designed to de-escalate the crisis, but also make Israel accept that its refusal to negotiate has led to the collapse in relations with Hamas.
The Biden administration has privately expressed disappointment that Saudi Arabia – far from condemning the brutal attacks by Hamas at the weekend – is maintaining that the violence would not have occurred if Palestinians had been granted the independent state they have demanded for decades.
The Saudi stance is being compared unfavourably by Washington with the willingness of the United Arab Emirates to explicitly denounce the crimes committed by Hamas. The UAE fully normalised ties with the Israel after the 2019 Abraham Accords, but Riyadh has not, despite dangling a potential rapprochement.
Talks are underway to allow US and Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip to leave the territory into Egypt ahead of any ground invasion of the territory by Israeli forces, a senior Israeli official told CNN.
Under the proposal being discussed, all US citizens would be permitted to pass through the Rafah border crossing if they present their US passports, according to the official. A maximum of 2,000 Palestinian civilians would be allowed to permitted to leave under the arrangement, they said.
Egypt will have final approval of the arrangement, as they control the Rafah crossing, the main exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel.
But Egyptian security sources rejected any move to set up safe corridors for refugees fleeing Gaza Strip, Reuters reported. Egypt has long restricted the flow of Gazans on to its territory, even during the fiercest conflicts.
Cairo, a frequent mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, has long insisted the two sides resolve conflicts within their borders.
The Britons missing and feared dead in Hamas attacks
Seventeen British nationals, including children, are feared dead or missing in Israel after attacks by Hamas, the Guardian understands. The atrocities have so far claimed at least 2,100 lives.
UN chief urges Israel to allow 'life-saving' supplies into Gaza
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has called for essential “life-saving” supplies of fuel, food and water to be allowed into Gaza.
Guterres, in remarks to the press on Wednesday, said he will never forget the images of the “supercharged cycle of violence and horror”.
He said he was in continuous contact with leaders in the region, and warned against any “spillover” of the conflict. “I appeal to all parties – and those who have an influence over those parties – to avoid any further escalation,” he said.
Guterres called for the immediate release of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza, and urged that international humanitarian law to be upheld and civilians to “be protected at all times”.
Since Joe Biden’s speech on Tuesday condemning the “sheer evil” of Saturday’s attack by Hamas on Israel’s south, the US president has been the subject of gushing compliments by Israelis who believed him when he said forcefully, “The United States has Israel’s back.”
“Joe Biden’s speech was the speech Israelis were waiting for,” said Axios’s Barak Ravid, writing for the Israeli news site Walla. “It’s no exaggeration to say that Joe Biden this week engraved his name in gold letters on Israel’s heart,” wrote another commentator. A newscaster with Kan, the public broadcaster, observed he was doing a more effective job communicating to Israel than its own prime minister.
Another compared the speech to Truman’s address recognizing Israel’s independence on May 14,1948. Ravid reported that 48% of Israelis watched the speech, in which Biden, with soaring references to Jewish and Israeli history, promised to support Israel with military aid and defend Jewish institutions in the US.
The outpouring came amid widespread anger at the Netanyahu government over its failure to defend the southern border ahead of the attack, or manage the response after it was underway. Residents hiding in their homes described a feeling of acute abandonment by the state as they listened to their neighbors being massacred and waited in agony for hours before the army appeared.
Some 70% of Israeli Jews said they supported Donald Trump over Biden in the 2020 election. During his presidency, Trump enjoyed higher ratings in Israel than in any other foreign country.
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said he saw “a glimpse of what millions experience every day” after he was forced to run for cover during his visit to Israel earlier today.
A social media post showed Cleverly running into a building in the town of Ofakim in southern Israel when sirens went off warning of incoming Hamas rocket fire.
“The threat of Hamas rockets lingers over every Israeli man, woman and child,” Cleverly posted to X.
This is why we are standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel.
Today I’ve seen a glimpse of what millions experience every day.
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) October 11, 2023
The threat of Hamas rockets lingers over every Israeli man, woman and child.
This is why we are standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel. https://t.co/bSifINdjBr
Here is video of buildings in Gaza being reduced to rubble following deadly Israeli airstrikes which have already killed at least 1,100 Palestinians, including 236 children.
“There are no ambulances, only Palestinian civilians helping other Palestinians,” said a journalist who began to cry after seeing a child be rushed to a hospital in a car.
The UN has condemned Israel’s seige on Gaza, with UN human rights chief Volker Turk saying Israel’s “imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
Egypt has discussed plans with the United States and others to provide humanitarian aid through its border with the Gaza Strip, but rejects any move to set up safe corridors for refugees fleeing the enclave, Egyptian security sources said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Gaza, the tiny coastal strip of land wedged between Israel in the north and east and Egypt to the southwest, is home to some 2.3 million people who have been living under a blockade since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas took control there in 2007.
Egypt has long restricted the flow of Gazans on to its territory, even during the fiercest conflicts. Cairo, a frequent mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, always insists the two sides resolve conflicts within their borders, saying this is the only way Palestinians can secure their right to statehood.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, said on Wednesday that crucial life-saving supplies, including fuel, food and water, must be allowed into Gaza.
We need rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access now,” he told reporters.
Guterres thanked Egypt:
For its constructive engagement to facilitate humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing and to make the El Arish airport available for critical assistance.”
The US had been holding consultations with Israel and Egypt about the idea of a safe passage for civilians from Gaza.
One of the security sources, who asked not to be identified, said Egypt rejected the idea of safe corridors for civilians to protect “the right of Palestinians to hold on to their cause and their land”.
Several Arab states still have camps for Palestinian refugees who are descendants of those who left their homes when Israel was created in 1948. The Palestinians and other Arab states have said a final peace deal needs to include the right of those refugees to return, a move Israel has always rejected.
Updated
The US government is discussing with international partners, including Qatar, efforts to rescue hostages taken into Gaza from southern Israel by Hamas militants.
US national security council spokesman John Kirby, who is based at the White House, chiefly addressed the topic of Americans among the hostages. It’s unclear at this time what international discussions are taking place in relation to all the hostages taken by Hamas at the weekend.
“We know that a number of those [17 missing] Americans are being held hostage right now by Hamas. I think we all need to steel ourselves for the very distinct possibility that these numbers will keep increasing and that we may find out that more Americans are part of the hostage pool,” Kirby said.
He added: “The Israelis have a very robust hostage recovery capability of their own … but we also have a lot of know-how, too, and we’re offering to share that with the Israeli Defence Forces.”
He did not rule out the US military becoming directly involved with hostage rescue but said it was too soon to talk about any decisions. Kirby said the government did not know exactly where the hostages were.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland right now ready to board a flight to Israel.
We stand together, as allies, and as common friends of Israel, to ensure Israel is able to defend itself. https://t.co/JzuGZXfbLw pic.twitter.com/W0LcyTOopI
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) October 11, 2023
Updated
The White House is now beginning its press briefing and in about 2.5 hours Joe Biden is meeting with Jewish-American community leaders, accompanied by Doug Emhoff, husband of the US vice-president, Kamala Harris.
The Biden administration is preparing to submit a supplemental funding request to Congress seeking money for Israel (also for Ukraine, Taiwan and the US southern border), NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed officials, and Reuters posted.
US national security spokesman John Kirby has just said during the briefing that the death toll of 22 US citizens killed during Hamas attacks on Israel was likely to rise again.
The figure of 22 was a big jump on the toll of 14 announced on Tuesday, with 17 Americans in addition unaccounted for, Kirby noted. Some of the missing are known to have been kidnapped by militants and taken to Gaza, but the White House does not know where hostages are or what situation they are in.
Joe Biden made further remarks about the Hamas attack on Israel during a separate event at the White House, a couple of hours ago, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
This attack has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by a millennium of antisemitism and genocide against the Jewish people. My commitment to Israel’s security and the safety of the Jewish people is unshakeable. The United States has Israel’s back.
Updated
IDF says 'no security incident' after reports of 'suspected infiltration' from Lebanon
There is “no security incident” in Israel’s north, a spokesperson for Israel Defense Forces said, following reports of a possible aerial infiltration from Lebanon.
The Israeli military is investigating what caused the drone alerts to sound across northern Israel earlier on Wednesday, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said.
Updated
Palestinians in Gaza fear impact of siege as sole power plant shuts down
As Gaza’s sole power station ran out of fuel amid a tightening siege, hundreds of terrified people sought shelter in the entrance of the enclave’s largest hospital, huddling together as bombardments rained down.
“The hospital is completely full and things have started to run low. And this is only day four,” said Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a surgeon at Gaza City’s main hospital, Al-Shifa.
“The situation continues to deteriorate, the number of patients, especially kids, that are coming in with horrendous injuries …” he said, his voice trailing off.
This morning there was a child, a young girl, with indescribable facial injuries whose mother is a doctor at Al-Shifa who was killed when their home was targeted. Last night, another 10-year-old boy with also devastating facial injuries who was taken out from the rubble of his home in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
A few hours after the Palestinian minister for energy said Gaza’s only power station had enough fuel to last another 12 hours at most, Gaza’s energy authority said the fuel had run out. The generators that many across Gaza have struggled to keep running in order to power homes and hospitals appeared set to die out without fuel, with no deliveries available due to the closure of Gaza’s southern border crossing with Egypt.
Gaza’s Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights warned:
Soon all services vital for the survival of the population, including hospitals, will no longer function.
Updated
Number of US citizens killed in Israel rises to 22
The US has confirmed the deaths of at least 22 American citizens, a state department spokesperson said. They said:
We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected.
The number is up from 14 on Tuesday.
Updated
Israel’s energy minister, Israel Katz, has confirmed the country is blocking water, electricity and fuel from entering Gaza, and warned that it would “continue to tighten the siege until the Hamas threat … is removed”.
In a post on X, Katz wrote:
For years we supplied Gaza with electricity, water and fuel. Instead of saying thank you, they sent thousands of human animals to slaughter, murder, rape and kidnap babies, women and the elderly.
That’s why we decided to stop the flow of water, electricity and fuel and now their local power station has collapsed and there is no electricity in Gaza.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from Israel and Palestine.
Updated
The US is watching developments on the Lebanon-Israel border closely, said the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby.
In an interview with MSNBC, Kirby said:
We have seen rocket fire coming from southern Lebanon … into northern Israel. We obviously are watching this with great concern. We don’t want to see this conflict widened or expanded.
The Israel Defence Forces said earlier that a report was received regarding a suspected “infiltration from Lebanon into Israeli airspace”.
Updated
Summary
It’s 7.30pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
The Palestinian death toll since Saturday stands at 1,100, including 326 children, and there are 5,339 injured. At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of airstrikes overnight, a Hamas government official said. More than 260,000 people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continued, the UN said.
The Israeli death toll stands at 1,200, an overwhelming number of them civilians. More than 2,700 are wounded. The jump in the death toll (up by 200) is “not because there is ongoing fighting,” an IDF spokesperson said, but because “now as the time has gone by we are discovering bodies of dead Israelis in the various communities that Hamas infiltrated and where they conducted their massacres”.
Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, forcing it to shut down after Israel cut off supplies, the energy ministry said. That leaves only generators to power the territory – but they also run on fuel that is in short supply within Gaza.
Israel formed an emergency unity government on Wednesday. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, agreed to form a war cabinet with the former defence minister and centrist opposition party leader Benny Gantz and to focus entirely on the conflict, a joint statement said.
A report was received regarding a suspected “infiltration from Lebanon into Israeli airspace,” the Israel Defence Forces said on Wednesday. Sirens wailed across northern Israel and the IDF ordered residents to take shelter until further notice.
The Israel Defence Forces hit hundreds of targets in Gaza overnight, including 80 in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanon and over 450 targets in the Al-Furqan neighborhood in the last 24 hours, and 70 more “targets” were hit in the neighbourhood of al-Daraj. The targets included banks and places the IDF says were used by Hamas to directed attacks against Israel. Israel’s military aim is to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, a spokesperson said.
Lebanon’s national news agency said two rockets had been fired from southern Lebanese territory towards Israeli territory. The Israeli military said an anti-tank missile was launched towards the town of Arav Al-Amsha, which lies close to the “blue line” that demarcates northern Israeli territory from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said it was responsible for firing precision missiles on Israel.
A British man has been confirmed dead in Israel. Jake Marlowe, 26, went missing after Hamas militants attacked a music festival near the village of Re’im on Saturday morning. Seventeen British nationals, including children, are feared dead or missing in Israel after an attack by Hamas.
The UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, was seen running for cover when sirens went off warning of incoming Hamas rocket fire during a visit to the town of Ofakim, in southern Israel.
British Airways has suspended flights to and from Israel due to safety concerns. A BA flight turned back to London after nearly reaching Tel Aviv.
The families of the 150 people thought to have been seized by Hamas militants and taken to Gaza to be held as hostages continue an agonising wait for news of their loved ones as retaliatory Israeli missile strikes continue to pound the enclave.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told soldiers: “We will come from the ground,” in another clear sign that a ground offensive into Gaza is imminent. Speaking on Tuesday to soldiers near the Gaza fence, Gallant said, “Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground.”
The US has discussed brokering an aid corridor for civilians in Gaza as Israel’s air force continued to pound the territory. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday that talks on safe passage for civilians in Gaza were being held with Israel and Egypt.
Updated
The US is continuing to monitor the situation in Israel, Joe Biden said, adding that he had spoken with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, earlier on Wednesday.
Biden is expected to deliver more extensive remarks later today during a meeting with Jewish American leaders.
Updated
Palestinian death toll rises to 1,100
At least 1,100 Palestinians, including 326 children, have been killed since Saturday, Gaza’s health ministry said.
The total number of people injured stands at 5,339.
A previous update from the Gaza health ministry on Wednesday morning put the death toll at 1,055 Palestinians and 5,184 wounded.
British man missing after music festival attack confirmed dead
A British man who had been missing since Saturday has been found dead in Israel, his family confirmed.
Jake Marlowe, 26, went missing after Hamas militants attacked a music festival near the village of Re’im on Saturday morning.
He was “now confirmed dead in southern Israel”, an Israeli embassy spokesperson told Sky News.
A statement released by Lisa and Michael Marlowe said:
We are heartbroken to have to inform you the crushing news that our son Jake has been confirmed dead in southern Israel.
Marlowe had been working for the security team at the festival, his mother told Jewish News.
He was doing security at this rave and called me at 4.30am to say all these rockets were flying over. Then, at about 5.30am, he texted to say ‘signal very bad, everything OK, will keep you updated I promise you’, and that he loves me.
She said she had moved to the city of Ma’alot in northern Israel two years ago.
Seventeen British nationals, including children, are feared dead or missing in Israel after an attack by Hamas.
Updated
Reports of 'suspected infiltration' of Israeli airspace from Lebanon
The Israel Defence Forces have said they have received a report regarding a “suspected infiltration” from Lebanon into Israeli airspace.
🚨A report was recieved regarding a suspected infiltration from Lebanon into Israeli airspace.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 11, 2023
Updated
Israeli media said a number of aircraft – with some reports referencing hang gliders – entered northern Israel from Lebanon.
Sirens wailed across the region and the IDF ordered residents to take shelter until further notice.
חדירת כלי טיס עוין (11/10/2023 18:20-18:21): אזורים קו העימות, גליל עליון, דרום הגולן, צפון הגולן, גליל תחתון pic.twitter.com/bCEeRyV3ZJ
— צופר - צבע אדום (@tzevaadom_) October 11, 2023
Updated
CCTV and dashcam recordings captured Hamas militants travelling on motorbikes in southern Israel.
Officials with the UN’s relief and works agency (UNRWA) confirmed 11 colleagues had been killed since Saturday in the Gaza Strip.
Among those killed were five teachers, one gynaecologist, one engineer, one psychological counsellor and three support staff, the agency said in a statement. It said:
UN staff and civilians must be protected at all times during conflict.
We call for the fighting to come to an end to spare more civilian lives lost.
Updated
British Airways has suspended flights to and from Israel due to safety concerns, the airlines has announced.
A BA spokesperson said:
Safety is always our highest priority and following the latest assessment of the situation, we’re suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv.
We’re contacting customers booked to travel to or from Tel Aviv to apologise for the inconvenience and offer options including a full refund and rebooking with another airline or with British Airways at a later date.
We continue to monitor the situation in the region closely.
Flight BA165 is returning to Heathrow after nearly reaching Tel Aviv this afternoon.
UK foreign secretary runs for cover as sirens sound during Israel visit
The UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, was visiting the town of Ofakim in southern Israel when sirens went off warning of incoming Hamas rocket fire.
In a video clip shared by the Israeli government on social media, Cleverly was seen running for cover into a building.
Watch: while UK FM @JamesCleverly visits Ofakim in southern Israel, a siren goes off warning of incoming Hamas rocket fire.
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) October 11, 2023
This is the reality Israelis live with every day. pic.twitter.com/QF4C4tReqL
Updated
Israel continues its bombardment of the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’s deadly incursion over the weekend in which more than 1,000 Israelis were killed.
Similar numbers have since been killed in Gaza and more than 260,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion of the besieged territory.
Updated
British Airways flight turns back to London while en route to Tel Aviv
A British Airways flight from London to Tel Aviv has turned back and will return to Heathrow.
“Safety is always our highest priority and we’ve taken the decision to return our Tel Aviv flight to Heathrow,” a spokesperson for the airline said.
A spokesperson for Israel’s airports authority said the decision was made by the pilot.
They said rockets were flying around Tel Aviv at the time but were not an immediate threat to the flight or to Ben Gurion airport.
Updated
François Conradie, an analyst at the Oxford Economics Africa consultancy, writes:
“The conflict in Gaza has put an uncomfortable spotlight on Egypt’s bilateral relations in the region. Pro-Palestinian sentiment has intensified criticism of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s good relations with Israel, and there is pressure on the former military man to stand up against Israeli warnings regarding humanitarian assistance.
“Mr Sisi’s government’s good relations with Israel are a political liability at times of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” he writes, but he says Sisi does not want an influx of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.
“The risk of a serious anti-government protest movement [in Egypt] is trending higher, as is the risk of disunity and factionalism within the military-political elite.”
Updated
Spain’s foreign ministry has confirmed the death of Maya Villalobo Sinvany, a 19-year-old Spanish-Israeli woman who was undertaking military service in Israel.
Villalobo Sinvany, whose family had not heard from her since 9.30am on Saturday, is one of two Spanish citizens known to have been caught up in the attacks. The other is a man in his 40s from the Basque country who is married to an Israeli woman and lives on a kibbutz close to the border with Gaza. He remains missing.
The ministry said: “The Spanish government once again forcefully condemns Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel and sends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Maya Villalobo Sinvany.”
Villalobo Sinvany’s family released a tribute that read: “It is with great sadness and love that we say goodbye to our beloved Maya. She will always be in our memory as a happy little girl who was full of love, as a teenager who longed to discover the world, and as a young woman who loved Spain and her parents.”
The family added: “We wish to share our sorrow and our solidarity with all those who are suffering. That’s what Maya would have wanted.”
Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, offered his condolences. “The Spanish government reiterates its energetic condemnation of Hamas’s attacks on Israel,” he said. “Nothing justifies a terrorist attack.”
There have been no updates as yet on the missing Spanish man.
Updated
Israeli forces and settlers have shot dead three Palestinians in Qusra village, near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian official news agency said.
Eleven other Palestinians were wounded by live rounds, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Updated
The French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, has told the senate that 10 French people were killed in the Israel attacks and 18 are missing, including several children who have probably been taken hostage.
Updated
Key member of Israeli opposition agrees to form emergency government with Netanyahu
Israel’s former defence minister Benny Gantz, a key member of the opposition, has agreed to join an emergency government.
Benjamin Netanyahu has sought expansion of the government to include politicians in the opposition.
The idea of an emergency national government would be to unify a country with deep domestic political fractures during a crisis.
Updated
There are reports in Israeli media that parts of the opposition will join the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in an emergency “unity government”.
Updated
The US has discussed brokering an aid corridor for civilians in Gaza as Israel’s air force continued to pound the territory.
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday that talks on safe passage for civilians in Gaza were being held with Israel and Egypt. “We are focused on this question. There are consultations going on. But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time,” he said.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was due to arrive in Israel on Thursday to discuss support in the war.
There have been pleas from humanitarian groups and EU officials for the creation of corridors to allow aid into Gaza and warnings that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded people were running out of supplies.
Updated
Three Canadians have died in the violence in Israel and three more are missing, the Canadian foreign minister, Melanie Joly, said on Wednesday.
Joly told a press conference that more than 4,700 Canadian citizens and permanent residents in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank had registered with the government. She did not say how many wanted to be evacuated.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has commented on the escalating violence between Israel and Hamas, blaming the US for failing to pursue a solution.
Reuters reports Putin said the conflict could not be resolved without addressing issues such as the establishment of a Palestinian state.
He accused the US on Wednesday of sidestepping an established process of settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of trying to take matters into its own hands without resolving the fundamental issues.
“Part of the lands that the Palestinians consider and have always considered part of the original Palestinian lands is occupied by Israel at different times and in different ways. Mainly, of course, with the help of military force,” Tass quotes Putin saying.
Earlier Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: “We maintain our contacts with the parties to the conflict,” adding that Russia “continues to carefully analyse the situation” and that it “retains its position as a country that has the potential to participate in settlement processes”.
Updated
Gaza's only power plant runs out of fuel – energy ministry
Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, forcing it to shut down after Israel cut off supplies, the energy ministry said.
That leaves only generators to power the territory – but they also run on fuel that is in short supply within Gaza.
The chargé d’affaires ad interim representing the US in Israel, Stephanie Hallett, has visited the site of an attack near the Gaza border inside Israel, she said, “to bear witness to the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists”.
In a video posted to social media from the scene, she said: “It’s really unbelievable. As a mother … and just as a human being … to see and know what happened here. It is really important to say that we’ve been, we’ve seen it, and it is evil. And we stand with Israel. All of us. We stand with Israel.”
Today I came to bear witness to the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists. The United States stands with Israel. pic.twitter.com/rBVSD5XxU2
— Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Stephanie Hallett (@USAmbIsrael) October 11, 2023
The US does not currently have an ambassador to Israel as Republican politicians in Washington have so far declined to meet and approve Joe Biden’s nomination for the role, Jack Lew.
Updated
France has expelled three foreign nationals for antisemitic acts or comments since the weekend, a government spokesman has confirmed.
The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said on Wednesday that any non-national accused of antisemitic acts would have their resident permit cancelled and be immediately expelled.
Darmanin said there had been about 50 antisemitic acts recorded across France since the weekend, and 20 people had been arrested. The acts included people gathering in large numbers in front of synagogues shouting threats, drones with cameras entering school playgrounds, graffiti, verbal abuse and threatening letters.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that a spokesperson for Germany’s government has said it currently has no valid evidence of Iranian direct involvement in the Hamas attack against Israel.
Updated
There are reports that the sole power station in Gaza has stopped working.
Earlier, authorities said the plant had 10 to 12 hours’ worth of fuel left.
Israel cut off its own electricity supply to Gaza on Monday as part of what it called a “complete siege” in response to the Hamas attack.
Apart from the grid, some Palestinians in Gaza rely on generators. However, these will also be lacking fuel.
Updated
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has arrived in Israel and will meet survivors of the Hamas attack.
“The foreign secretary has arrived in Israel today to demonstrate the UK’s unwavering solidarity with the Israeli people following Hamas’ terrorist attacks,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said.
“He will be meeting survivors of the attacks and senior Israeli leaders to outline UK support for Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Updated
Germany’s foreign ministry says 5,000 German citizens have registered to leave Israel.
The spokesperson did not say how many had already left using their own means.
Israeli airstrikes have killed nine United Nations workers so far, UN says
Here is a post from the UNRWA, the main UN aid agency responsible for Palestinians and operating in the Gaza Strip.
9 of our @UN staffers have been killed in airstrikes in📍#GazaStrip since Saturday.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 11, 2023
“The protection of civilians is paramount, including in times of conflict. They should be protected in accordance with the laws of war.” @JulietteTouma @AP https://t.co/Bt87Djf4GM pic.twitter.com/Vxy170Y3pH
Updated
Our correspondent Sam Jones has spoken to a man whose Israeli family is missing:
Yotam Kipnis hasn’t heard from his parents since 8.30am on Saturday, when he rang his mother and she told him they were hiding inside the shelter of their home on the Be’eri kibbutz and could hear gunfire outside.
“I tried to call her again at 10 o’clock and she didn’t answer,” said Kipnis, 29, a human rights worker who grew up on the kibbutz in southern Israel, four miles (6.5km) from the Gaza border.
“But I’ve heard from other relatives and friends of the family that they spoke to her around 9.30am and she told them that someone was entering the shelter. They heard shouting down the phone. I haven’t been able to contact my parents since then.”
Although more than 100 bodies have been recovered from the kibbutz in the aftermath of the murderous attack by Hamas gunmen, Yotam said his mother and father, Lilach, 60, and Eviatar, 65, had yet to be found.
Read more here:
Updated
More than 1,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, health ministry announces
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip has said Israeli attacks have killed 1,055 Palestinians and wounded 5,184.
Updated
The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said 20 arrests had been made in France over antisemitic acts and threats since the weekend. Visiting a Jewish school in Sarcelles, north of Paris, on Wednesday morning, he said: “It’s important that all French Jewish people know they are protected.”
France has stepped up security around 500 sites including Jewish schools, synagogues and cultural centres. Darmanin said police protecting those sites had reported 50 antisemitic attacks, “which shows both the efficiency of the measures, but also the threat which weighs on French Jewish people.”
He had previously said the antisemitic attacks in France since the weekend included people gathering in large numbers in front of synagogues shouting threats, drones with cameras entering school playgrounds, and graffiti, verbal abuse and threatening letters.
Updated
Here is our full report on the killings in Kfar Aza:
In Kfar Aza, no one was too old, too young or too weak for slaughter. It took the Israeli army half a day to reach the kibbutz of 750 people in southern Israel, and fighting continued there for three days. In that time, Hamas gunmen killed and mutilated dozens of civilian residents.
“Mothers, fathers, babies, young families killed in their beds, in the protection room, in the dining room, in their garden,” Maj Gen Itai Veruv, of the Israel Defence Forces, told the BBC as his troops searched homes for bodies of victims. “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre.”
The kibbutz was one of the first Israeli settlements reached by Hamas militants when they launched an assault early on Saturday morning.
The community had a security team, and houses had safe rooms, but they – like the highest echelons of the Israeli army and government – were not prepared for the wave of attackers racing out of the breached Gaza.
Updated
Seventeen British people killed or missing in the violence, BBC reports
The BBC is reporting that after the weekend’s attack by Hamas, there are 17 dead or missing UK nationals, with children among them. The news site quotes an “official UK source”.
The previous estimate was “more than 10” British nationals dead or missing.
The Philippines embassy in Tel Aviv has said it is verifying reports that a third Filipino has been killed in the conflict between Hamas and Israel. Three others remain missing.
Earlier on Wednesday, Philippine authorities announced that two deaths had been confirmed: a 33-year-old woman who had worked in Israel for six years and was originally from Pangasinan, in Northern Luzon, and a 42-year-old man from Pampanga. They were both killed on Saturday during Hamas’s attack. Both of their families asked for their identities to be kept confidential.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement: “My heart is heavy upon hearing confirmation of the deaths of two Filipinos in Israel. The Philippines condemns these killings and stands firmly against the ongoing terror and violence.”
There are abour 30,000 Filipinos in Israel.
Col Medal Aguilar, a spokesperson for the Philippine armed forces, said the Philippines was ready to evacuate citizens and their families from Israel if necessary.
Updated
Hezbollah claims missile attack on Israel
Hezbollah has said it was responsible for firing precision missiles on Israel on Wednesday, saying it was in response to Israeli attacks this week that left three of its fighters dead.
The Israeli military had said it had been targeted with anti-tank fire on Wednesday and had begun attacking Lebanon in return.
Israel says anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon in the north
Lebanon’s national news agency said two rockets had been fired from southern Lebanese territory towards Israeli territory, although there was no claim of responsibility.
The Israeli military said an anti-tank missile was launched toward the town of Arav Al-Amsha, which lies close to the “blue line” that demarcates northern Israeli territory from southern Lebanon.
Israel “struck targets” in southern Lebanon in response, according to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency. NNA said the southern Lebanese town of Al-Dhahira was shelled.
Israeli forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have exchanged fire repeatedly in recent days along the “blue line”, while militants from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad attempted to enter Israeli territory. Hezbollah has also repeatedly targeted a strip of contested territory in the Golan Heights, raising concerns about an escalation.
The strike on the town of Arav Al Amsha, however, suggests a broadening list of targets and a potential further escalation.
Updated
Pope calls for release of all hostages held by Hamas
Pope Francis has called for the release of all hostages held by Hamas.
He said he was very worried by the “total siege” imposed by Israel on Gaza.
Here is a video report on the killings in Be’eri and Kfar Aza, two Israeli communities devastated by the Hamas rampage on Saturday.
Outside the Brussels headquarters of Nato, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has condemned the Hamas attack on Israel and called for international support:
“I remember the first days of our full-scale war. It began from terroristic attacks from Belarus by missiles, then the Russian army. That was the biggest tragedy. We had so many deaths, so many. And it was very important not to be alone. Very important, and it can help to save your nation. Save the lives of people. So my recommendation to the leaders [of the world] is to go to Israel and support people. Just people. I’m not speaking about any institutions. Just to support the people who have been under terroristic attacks. The people who are dying now. It’s very important. Unity is more important than to be alone, it is stronger.”
Updated
The Israel Defence Forces have just posted on Kfar Azaz:
“On Saturday morning, Hamas terrorists charged across the fields. Some landed in paragliders. The terrorists went house to house, massacring babies, mothers and fathers in their bedrooms. Hamas will pay for this crime,” it said.
This is Kibbutz Kfar Aza. In the background is Gaza City.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 11, 2023
On Saturday morning, Hamas terrorists charged across the fields. Some landed in paragliders.
The terrorists went house to house, massacring babies, mothers and fathers in their bedrooms.
Hamas will pay for this crime. pic.twitter.com/GxTwYYeR7o
Updated
Gaza's only power plant has 10 to 12 hours of fuel left
The Gaza Strip’s sole power plant and only current provider of electricity will run out of fuel in 10 to 12 hours, the Palestinian Energy Authority chair, Thafer Melhem, told Voice of Palestine radio on Wednesday.
Israel cut off its own electricity supply to Gaza on Monday as part of what it called a “complete siege” in response to the Hamas attack.
Updated
Countries around the world have been scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Israel after the deadly attack launched by Palestinian militants at the weekend, while some foreigners, faced with cancelled flights, have pleaded for help from their governments.
People from the US, Australia, Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Nepal, Thailand, Russia, the UK, Ukraine and France and elsewhere are confirmed to be among those killed in the violence.
Many airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have cancelled or delayed flights from Israel.
Canada said on Tuesday it would send military aircraft to Tel Aviv “in the coming days” for citizens and permanent residents as well as their spouses and children.
Updated
The New York Times has spoken to a woman who survived the attack with her baby. She says she waited 27 hours for help to arrive.
She said she ran and hid in a storeroom, covering herself and her baby, Shaya, with sacks of soil she found there. When that shelter was no longer safe, she ran across a lawn, under fire, and knocked on doors until a family let them in. In all, she said, they waited for 27 hours until they were rescued. Her partner, Yahav Wiener, is missing, Ms Atari said.
‘I really don’t know where our state was,’ she said, echoing the anger and bewilderment of many Israelis over how the country, with its vaunted military and intelligence capabilities, could have been caught so off-guard and unprepared.
‘They abandoned us,’ she said, adding bitterly: ‘They were on Twitter. That’s where they were’.”
Updated
The BBC reports that every house in the community had reinforced safe rooms, but that people had never imagined Hamas would be able to breach Israel’s defences.
Near the bodies of Hamas gunmen were “the motorcycles they used to storm into the kibbutz after they broke through the border wire. The wreckage of a paraglider, used to fly over Israel’s defences, is there too, pushed off a path on to a flower bed.”
Updated
Reports of 'massacre' at Kfar Aza kibbutz
Journalists from the BBC and the New York Times have been allowed into Kibbutz Kfar Aza, an Israeli community on the border with Gaza where people were killed when Hamas broke through the border on Saturday. Infants and children were among the dead, the New York Times reports.
“Soldiers who spent much of the day in the ruins recovering bodies of civilians said that there had been a massacre. It seems likely that much of the killing happened in the first hours of the assault on Saturday,” the BBC reports.
The Israeli army took 12 hours to reach the community, Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy commander of Unit 71, an experienced team of paratroopers who led the assault, told the BBC, and fighting continued until Tuesday morning.
“Thank God we saved many lives of many parents and children,” he said. “Unfortunately, some were burned by molotov [cocktails].”
Ben Zion told the BBC that Hamas gunmen who killed families, including babies, were “just a jihad machine to kill everybody, [people] without weapons, without nothing, just normal citizens that want to take their breakfast and that’s all”.
The New York Times reported:
Past the village dining hall, kindergarten and culture center, the tidy rows of one-story beige houses came into view. And the scale of the horror began to unfold …
After days of stunned national numbness and chaos, the dimensions of the atrocity that took place here were now coming into clear focus. In all, more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in Israel. Nobody could say how many of them were lying here, in Kfar Azza, but it is emerging as one of the worst sites of the bloodshed. Soldiers and rescue workers said scores, possibly hundreds, had been slaughtered here, including grandparents, infants and children.”
Updated
At least 30 killed in Gaza overnight
At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of air strikes overnight, a Hamas government official told AFP on Wednesday.
Dozens of residential buildings, factories, mosques and shops were hit, said the head of the government’s media office, Salama Marouf.
The Israeli military confirmed it had struck several Hamas targets during the night.
It said fighter jets destroyed “advanced detection systems” that Hamas used to spot military aircraft.
They also hit 80 Hamas targets in the Beit Hanoun area of the north-eastern Gaza Strip, including two bank branches used by the Islamist group to “fund terrorism” in the enclave, the military said.
Airstrikes also hit a weapons storage facility, and an operational command centre used by the Islamic Jihad militant group, it added.
Updated
AFP: Thousands of people gathered in New York on Tuesday for a show of solidarity with Israel, the city with the largest number of Jews in the world outside of the Jewish state.
“New York stands in solidarity with Israel and the Jewish community,” New York state governor Kathy Hochul told the crowd.
“We stand together to protect every one of you. We will continue to protect you,” said Hochul, who has directed the police to increase patrols and outreach.
American Jewish groups organised the pro-Israel gathering of thousands of people close to the United Nations headquarters, and invited New York leaders and representatives of Israel‘s rightwing government to speak.
Israel‘s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, was applauded when he proclaimed that “the Jewish people are not divided”.
“Our enemies sought to exploit our division. They aimed to butcher us when they thought we are weakest, but they made a mistake,” the diplomat said.
“The Jewish people are not divided. The free world is not divided. We are all standing together on a united front, one people, one heart, to battle the forces of evil,” he shouted to the crowd-waving Israeli flags.
The New York mayor, Eric Adams, a former police officer who was recently in Israel, also affirmed that “Israel has the right to defend itself. Your fight is our fight.”
Updated
Australian government-assisted flights will depart from Israel on Friday to evacuate Australian citizens, prime minister Anthony Albanese has said.
Updated
Summary
It is 9.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
More than 260,000 displaced in Gaza, says UN. Over 260,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continue to hit the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations said. “Over 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes,” said UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in an update Tuesday, warning that “this number is expected to rise further”.
Overnight, the Israeli Defence Force hit hundreds of “targets” in Gaza, including 80 in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanon, a city on the northeast edge of Gaza and over 450 targets in the Al-Furqan neighborhood in the last 24 hours, including 200 strikes overnight, and 70 more “targets” were hit in the neighbourhood of al-Daraj. The targets included banks and places the IDF says were used by Hamas to directed attacks against Israel.
Israel’s military aim to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, says spokesperson. Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Conricus has said in that update, that the Israeli military’s mission is, “to make sure that Hamas, at the end of this war, won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians.”
The Israeli death toll jumped by 200 people to 1,200, with an IDF spokesperson saying it is “not because there is ongoing fighting”. Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Conricus has just given an update in which he confirms the death toll of 1,200 Israelis killed. They are “overwhelmingly civilians,” he said. More than 2,700 are wounded. The jump in the death toll is “not because there is ongoing fighting,” but rather because, “now as the time has gone by we are discovering bodies of dead Israelis in the various communities that Hamas infiltrated and where they conducted their massacres,” Conricus said.
The most recent Palestinian toll from the Gaza health authority has put the death toll in the enclave at 900 since Saturday. Among the dead are 260 children and 230 women, it said. Frightened residents of Gaza described bombardments striking residential buildings, hospitals and schools across the enclave amid growing concern over destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoavv Gallant has told soldiers “we will come from the ground,” in another clear sign that ground offensive into Gaza is imminent. Speaking on Tuesday to soldiers near the Gaza fence, Gallant said, “Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground.”
The US is talking with Israel and Egypt about the idea of a safe passage for Gaza civilians as Israel strikes the enclave after a deadly Hamas attack over the weekend, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday. “We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House. “But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time,” Sullivan said.
Israeli Air Force claims to have destroyed Hamas “advanced detection system”. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) claims to have “destroyed an advanced detection system developed by [Hamas], which was used to detect aircraft over the Gaza Strip.” In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the IAF said, “For years, Hamas established a network of high-quality cameras, hidden inside solar heaters throughout the Gaza Strip, with the aim of identifying and tracking aircraft.”
The Australian government has asked Qantas and Virgin for urgent help to repatriate Australians from Israel as the death toll in the region mounts. The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, directed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) on Monday to commence contingency planning for “assisted-departure flights”, meaning government-backed flights.
Security is being boosted at Jewish schools, hospitals, aged care facilities and synagogues across Sydney in response to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war and the resulting tensions in Australia that police warned would have a “long tail”.
Fiji’s Defence Minister said on Wednesday a Fiji Airways flight has left Tel Aviv with almost 200 Fijian religious pilgrims, plus citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States on board.
Fourteen Thai nationals taken hostage. Thailand said it received reports that three more of its nationals had been taken hostage in the ongoing violence in Gaza, bringing the total abducted to 14, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. It said 20 of its citizens were killed and 13 injured in the conflict. Thailand is one of the biggest sources of migrant workers to Israel.
The Danish government said on Wednesday it will offer to evacuate its citizens from Israel and Palestinian territories. Around 1,200 Danes are currently believed to be in Israel and another 90 in Palestinian territories, the Danish foreign ministry said in a statement. Planes will be sent to the region and the evacuation will start in the coming days, it added.
Updated
Israeli air force claims to have destroyed Hamas 'advanced detection system'
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) claims to have “destroyed an advanced detection system developed by [Hamas], which was used to detect aircraft over the Gaza Strip”.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the IAF said: “For years, Hamas established a network of high-quality cameras, hidden inside solar heaters throughout the Gaza Strip, with the aim of identifying and tracking aircraft.”
The post was accompanied by video footage showing strikes.
“Yesterday, in a matter of minutes, with an aircraft targeted at several targets, aircraft attacked all the locations associated with this network and deprived Hamas of its ability to produce a wide sky image in an attempt to attack aircraft,” the IAF said.
Updated
Fiji Airways flight leaves Tel Aviv
Fiji’s Defence Minister said on Wednesday a Fiji Airways flight has left Tel Aviv with almost 200 Fijian religious pilgrims, plus citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States on board.
Updated
Denmark to evacuate citizens from Israel and the Palestinian territories
The Danish government said on Wednesday it will offer to evacuate its citizens from Israel and Palestinian territories.
Around 1,200 Danes are currently believed to be in Israel and another 90 in Palestinian territories, the Danish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Planes will be sent to the region and the evacuation will start in the coming days, it added.
Updated
Overnight, the Israeli Defence Force hit eighty “targets” in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanon, a city on the northeast edge of Gaza. The strikes are in addition to over 450 targets in the Al-Furqan neighborhood in the last 24 hours, including 200 strikes overnight, and 70 more “targets” were hit in the neighbourhood of al-Daraj, the Defence Force said.
The targets included banks and places the IDF says were used by Hamas to directed attacks against Israel.
More than 260,000 Gazans have fled their homes, according to the UN, and more than 900 have been killed according to the most recent figures, though this toll is expected to rise.
Amid mounting expectations that Israel will launch a ground invasion of Gaza within days, the air force continued to batter the enclave with deadly strikes late on Tuesday, using dozens of fighter jets to hit more than 70 targets, according to Israeli military officials.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), said on Wednesday morning that 300,000 reservists had been sent south, close to Gaza, and were getting ready “to execute the mission we have been given by the Israeli government … to make sure that Hamas, at the end of this war, won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians”.
Here is our report of the last 24 hours or so of the conflict:
The US is discussing the possibility of creating a safe passage for Gaza’s civilians as Israel’s air force continued to pound the enclave and the Israeli death toll from the Hamas offensive – the deadliest militant assault in its history – reached 1,200.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday talks on safe passage were being held with Israel and Egypt. “We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on. But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time.”
It follows pleas from humanitarian groups for the creation of corridors to get aid into Gaza and warnings that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded people were running out of supplies. Israel has stopped entry of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt, at Rafah, shut down on Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing.
Fourteen Thai nationals taken hostage
Thailand said it received reports that three more of its nationals had been taken hostage in the ongoing violence in Gaza, bringing the total abducted to 14, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
It said 20 of its citizens were killed and 13 injured in the conflict.
Thailand is one of the biggest sources of migrant workers to Israel, as my colleague Rebecca Ratcliffe reports in her story about the Thais hoping to hear from their loved ones:
Al Jazeera journalist Maram Humaid lives in Gaza, where she reports the sounds of bombs are “getting closer and louder”.
This is torture. Sound of bombing are getting closer and louder. The smell of gunpowder is everywhere and the dust fills the air. What a morning in Gaza?
— Maram Humaid (@MaramGaza) October 11, 2023
In a tweet 50 minutes later, she wrote, “A huge bombing hit very close to our home without warning. I woke up to the shattered glass smashing on my head. I immediately covered my 2-month baby with my body, picked him up and ran away.”
After I shared my latest tweet. A huge bombing hit very close to our home without warning. I woke up to the shattered glass smashing on my head. I immediately covered my 2-month baby with my body, picked him up and ran away. STOP the War. We’re dying. #Gaza
— Maram Humaid (@MaramGaza) October 11, 2023
Updated
Meanwhile in France, the leftist New Anti-Capitalist Party is being investigated for glorifying “terror” over comments following the deadly Hamas raids on Israel, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday.
AFP: Darmanin told a TV news show prosecutors referred the case to police after the far-left NPA affirmed “its support for the Palestinians and the means of struggle they have chosen to resist”.
The party’s statement concluded with the word “intifada” which means uprising, AFP reports.
The NPA said Israel’s strategy, which it said was known as the “lawnmower”, consisted “of physically and regularly eliminating new generations of activists and opponents of the occupation, in an endlessly repeating cycle”.
“This time, the offensive is on the side of the resistance,” it said.
Darmanin said he had made “several reports” to the courts about similar incidents.
Later, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne stressed that France will not tolerate “any anti-Semitic act or comment” in the country.
Two pro-Palestinian demonstrations due to take place in Paris on Thursday have been banned, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said.
The police ban was imposed “in view of the risk of disturbing public order”.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was reluctant to be specific when asked on Tuesday whether the government had evacuation plans in place to assist Australian citizens and residents in the coming days. “We are working on a range of contingency arrangements that I won’t detail publicly for obvious reasons, but we do work on these contingencies,” he told ABC TV.
“It is a priority to keep Australians safe. And the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are working on a 24-hour basis to ensure that whatever support can be given is there. Australia believes in looking after our citizens and that is just what we do.”
Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong later on Tuesday urged people not to wait for government-backed repatriation flights if they found a commercial option to leave the region.
It is understood at least 122 Australians have left the region since the crisis began at the weekend. Comment is being sought from Qantas and Virgin Australia.
The government confirmed on Wednesday that an Australian woman living in Israel, Galit Carbone, had been killed in the Hamas attack, with Wong saying “there is no excuse for the deliberate killing of innocent civilians”.
Israel's military aim to destroy Hamas's military capabilities, says spokesperson
Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Conricus has said in that update, that the Israeli military’s mission is, “to make sure that Hamas, at the end of this war, won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians.”
IDF spokesperson: increased death toll is 'not because there is ongoing fighting'
Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Conricus has just given an update in which he confirms the death toll of 1,200 Israelis killed. They are “overwhelmingly civilians,” he said.
More than 2,700 are wounded.
The jump in the death toll is “not because there is ongoing fighting,” but rather because, “now as the time has gone by we are discovering bodies of dead Israelis in the various communities that Hamas infiltrated and where they conducted their massacres,” Conricus said.
Qantas and Virgin airlines asked to plan repatriation flights for Australians in Israel
The Australian government has asked Qantas and Virgin for urgent help to repatriate Australians from Israel as the death toll in the region mounts.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, directed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) on Monday to commence contingency planning for “assisted-departure flights”, meaning government-backed flights.
Guardian Australia understands the minister for transport, Catherine King, has since spoken with the chief executives of both airlines to “convey the government’s sense of urgency and ask them to work with Dfat on options for repatriation flights”.
It is believed about 12,000 Australians are in Israel, although many of these are dual nationals who may not necessarily wish to leave.
The Israel-Hamas war is likely to result in Australian organisations being targeted online by ideologically motivated threat actors, a leading cybersecurity organisation has warned.
CyberCX’s intelligence update on 10 October states that analysis of the activity of threat groups since Israel formally declared war on 8 October had noted at least 30 groups ideologically aligned with Russia, Ukraine, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh had shifted their messaging on social media.
Many groups that had previously been focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine had refocused on to the Israel-Hamas war in the past few days, CyberCX said.
“It is likely that pro-Russia groups already known to target AUNZ will use the conflict and political responses to it – including physical protests in Australia – as a pretext to increase their campaigns in AUNZ,” the analyst briefing noted.
More than 260,000 displaced in Gaza, says UN
Over 260,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continue to hit the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations said.
Fierce fighting has left thousands dead on both sides since Hamas launched a surprise assault on Saturday, spurring Israel’s reprisal bombing campaign.
“Over 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes,” said UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in an update Tuesday, warning that “this number is expected to rise further”.
It said that around 3,000 people had been displaced “due to previous escalations”, prior to Saturday.
Israel defence minister: 'We will also come from the ground'
Reuters reports that Israeli Defence Minister Yoavv Gallant, speaking on Tuesday to soldiers near the Gaza fence, said, “Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground.”
The statement is another clear sign that a ground offensive into Gaza is imminent.
My colleagues Bethan McKernan and Quique Kierszenbaum reported that on Monday night that Israelis were told by the Home Front to prepare a safe place to shelter and enough food, water and other supplies to last 72 hours.
Israel death toll climbs to more than 1,200
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reports that the Israeli death toll had passed 1,200. The vast majority of deaths were civilians. It was an increase of 200 people since the last toll. Four days after Hamas rampaged through southern Israeli towns, killing hundreds of people, Israeli soldiers are still discovering and collecting the bodies of the dead.
The most recent Palestinian toll from the Gaza health authority has put the death toll in the enclave at 900 since Saturday. Among the dead are 260 children and 230 women, it said. Frightened residents of Gaza described bombardments striking residential buildings, hospitals and schools across the enclave amid growing concern over destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Updated
US, Israel and Egypt discussing possible safe passage corridor
The US is talking with Israel and Egypt about the idea of a safe passage for Gaza civilians as Israel strikes the enclave after a deadly Hamas attack over the weekend, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday.
“We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House.
“But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time,” Sullivan said.
“We do not deliberately target civilians,” Sullivan said of the US and Israel, when asked about civilian casualties in Gaza in the Tuesday press briefing.
“We work to make sure that our military operations are conducted consistent with the rule of law and the law of war,” he added.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 900 Palestinians were killed and up to 4,600 wounded in Israeli air strikes on the blockaded enclave since Saturday. Gaza is 40km (25 miles) long by 10km (6 miles) wide and is home to 2.3 million people.
Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest.
In recent developments:
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reports that the Israeli death toll had passed 1,200. The vast majority of deaths were civilians. It was an increase of 200 people since the last toll. Four days after Hamas rampaged through southern Israeli towns, killing hundreds of people, Israeli soldiers were still discovering and collecting the bodies of the dead.
The most recent Palestinian toll from the Gaza health authority has put the death toll in the enclave at 900 since Saturday. Among the dead are 260 children and 230 women, it said. Frightened residents of Gaza described bombardments striking residential buildings, hospitals and schools across the enclave amid growing concern over destruction of civilian infrastructure.
And the US is talking with Israel and Egypt about the idea of a safe passage for Gaza civilians as Israel strikes the enclave after a deadly Hamas attack over the weekend, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday.
“We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House.
“But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time,” Sullivan said.
Here is where things stand:
A massive Israeli military buildup was continuing along Gaza’s border on Tuesday, amid mounting expectations that Israel would launch a ground invasion of Gaza within days. The Israeli military said it had mostly secured its border with Gaza after a night of intensified airstrikes across the enclave that destroyed infrastructure and displaced thousands of people. Israel’s defence minister said he had “released all restraints” on his troops, adding that Gaza “will never return to what it was”.
Two Palestinians were fatally shot in East Jerusalem by Israel’s border police, in a sign of increasing violence that is disproportionately targeting youth across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A salvo of rockets from Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon was fired at northern Israel, in a sign of the rapidly escalating crisis. Israeli forces responded with fire in the third consecutive day of violence along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The Israeli military also shelled Syria from the Golan Heights after mortar rounds were fired into the territory.
The UN’s human rights council warned there is already “clear evidence” that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza. It said it had been collecting evidence of “war crimes committed by all sides” since Saturday.
Israel is believed to have identified most of the hostages abducted by Hamas and has started notifying their families. Officers from the Israel Defence Forces were to tell about 100 families on Tuesday that their loved ones were in Gaza.
Joe Biden declared support for Israel, calling the assault by Hamas militants that left nearly 1,000 people dead an “act of sheer evil”. At least 14 Americans were killed in last weekend’s attack and an as yet unknown number of Americans are being held hostage, Biden said from the White House. The first plane carrying US ammunition landed in Israel on Tuesday.
EU foreign ministers have reversed the decision by the European Commission to suspend payments to the Palestinian Authority, after an emergency meeting in Oman.
The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk over the alleged disinformation about the Hamas attack on Israel, including fake news and “repurposed old images”, on X, which was formerly known as Twitter.
