Closing summary
This is where we’ll wrap up this blog and continue our rolling live coverage on a new blog here. Thanks for reading. Here’s a look at the latest as it just passes 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv.
Israel knocked out the internet and communications across the Gaza Strip during a stepped-up bombardment on Friday night, largely cutting off the blockaded territory’s 2.3 million people from contact with the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday evening its air and ground forces were stepping up their operations in the Gaza Strip. IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets and warned residents of Gaza City to move south. A senior Israeli government adviser said Hamas “will feel our wrath tonight”. “Tonight we are starting payback,” Mark Regev said. “When this is over, Gaza will be very different.”
The IDF announcement came amid exceptionally heavy bombing of Gaza. After nightfall, frequent explosions from airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City. The Red Crescent, the World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières, Unicef and other aid groups said they had lost all contact with their staff in Gaza.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has cautioned that “many more will die” in Gaza from catastrophic shortages. “People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of [the] siege,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the agency chief.
Hamas said on Saturday its fighters in Gaza were ready to confront Israeli attacks with “full force” after Israel intensified its air and ground assaults. The Palestinian militant group said earlier that its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza’s north-eastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij.
The US said it sought to degrade ammunition supplies of Iranian-linked militias with strikes in eastern Syria but insisted it did not want to widen the Middle East conflict. The strikes on two sites followed attacks by Iran-linked groups against US forces in Iraq and Syria. US president Joe Biden said later in a letter to House speaker Mike Johnson on Friday that the US “stands ready to take further action”.
The near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza risks providing cover for mass atrocities, Human Rights Watch has said. A number of international agencies and NGOs said they had lost touch with their staff in Gaza on Friday, including the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly called for an “immediate, durable and sustainable humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas and demanded unhindered aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip. The motion drafted by Jordan is not binding but carries political weight, reflecting the degree to which the US and Israel are isolated internationally as Israel steps up its ground operations.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes and of turning them into “hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders”. While it is not possible to verify the precise details of the claims by the IDF, there is evidence that Hamas has in the past taken advantage of cover provided by civilian objects, including hospitals.
At least 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said in its latest update on Friday. The claims have not been independently verified.
The UN has said it is concerned that war crimes are being committed on both sides of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes,” a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said on Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its medics had entered Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of war. Six medical staff passed through the Rafah border crossing on Friday, alongside four other ICRC specialists and six aid trucks carrying urgently needed medical material and water-purification supplies, an ICRC spokesperson said.
The Egyptian military reported that two drones fired from the southern Red Sea had landed in two resorts on the Sinai peninsula, one of them falling on Taba, which sits on the border with Israel. Six people were reported hurt in the incident, in a worrying sign of the conflict’s potential to spread.
EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” in the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration was to be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels that wrapped up on Friday.
Updated
Aid trucks trickle into Gaza while Israel steps up attacks and the UN’s general assembly calls for an immediate truce – here’s a rundown of what happened each day during week three of the war.
Updated
A fifth of bakeries supported by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza have been bombed so far, as warnings have been issued of “catastrophic” food shortages due to a lack of fuel.
The UN Relief and Works Agency said 10 of the 50 bakeries it supplied with flour – helping to lower the soaring cost of bread – had been hit in airstrikes and fuel was running out for vehicles to transport flour to those that remained.
Bread has been desperately sought after, with long queues at bakeries, and has become the main food for many people in the shelters, which now house more than 600,000 people – triple their intended capacity.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said only two bakeries it had contracted had enough fuel to keep their ovens going and those that were operating were producing six times their capacity. The WFP had been supplying an average of 200,000 people a day with bread but that dropped to 150,000 on Wednesday, a spokesperson said.
Tens of thousands of people rely on small bakeries to find a loaf of bread to bring back to their families. People risk their lives and queue for hours, but they often go home empty-handed.
The full story from Kaamil Ahmed and Elena Morresi is here:
Updated
Joe Biden said in a letter to House speaker Mike Johnson on Friday that the US “stands ready to take further action” following attacks by Iran-linked groups against US forces in Iraq and Syria.
The US president’s comments in the letter, quoted by Reuters, came after US fighter jets carried out air strikes in eastern Syria on Friday.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has cautioned that “many more will die” in Gaza from catastrophic shortages.
“People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of [the] siege,” Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, said.
Agence France-Presse also reports that the first tranche of critically needed aid was allowed in last weekend but only 74 trucks have crossed since then. The UN says an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza every day before the conflict.
Lazzarini said:
These few trucks are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference.
A first team of six medics from the International Committee of the Red Cross entered Gaza on Friday via its Rafah crossing with Egypt, along with six aid trucks, the Red Cross said.
Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to “significantly reduce its operations”.
Hamas ready to confront Israeli attacks with 'full force', it says
Hamas said on Saturday its fighters in Gaza were ready to confront Israeli attacks with “full force” after Israel intensified its air and ground assaults, Reuters reports.
The Palestinian militant group said earlier that its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in areas near the Israeli border.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised news briefing on Friday evening that its “ground forces are expanding their operations tonight”, raising the question of whether a long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza might be starting. Israel’s air force was conducting extensive strikes on tunnels dug by Hamas and on other infrastructure, he said.
The armed wing of Hamas said late on Friday its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza’s north-eastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, said in a statement early on Saturday:
The Al-Qassam brigades and all the Palestinian resistance forces are completely ready to confront [Israel’s] aggression with full force and frustrate its incursions.
“Netanyahu and his defeated army will not be able to achieve any military victory,” Hamas said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Al Jazeera, which was broadcasting live footage overnight showing frequent blasts in Gaza, said Israeli air strikes had hit areas around the enclave’s main hospital.
Reuters could not verify the reports of the strikes near Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Israel’s military accused Hamas on Friday of using the hospital as a shield for its tunnels and operational centres, an allegation the group denied
Updated
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has said he is praying his family survive the night of heavy bombardment in Gaza as they mark the end of a third week “trapped in this war zone” .
The Scottish National party leader said on social media he has been unable to contact his wife’s mother and her husband after communications were cut off, PA Media reports.
Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband, Maged, travelled to the region before the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and have been caught since in the Israeli retaliation.
Yousaf said on X/Twitter:
How many more children have to die before the world says enough?
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, recognised that Israel was “expanding their military campaign against Hamas” and said the UK’s “top priority remains the safety of British nationals in Gaza and the region”.
Cleverly tweeted:
We support Israel’s right to self defence, in line with IHL [international humanitarian law], and continue to push for the protection of Palestinian civilians.
Updated
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to take to the streets of Britain on Saturday as Israel steps up its offensive on Gaza.
PA Media reports that police expect about 100,000 people to join a demonstration in London demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, with other rallies organised elsewhere in the UK, including in Manchester and Glasgow.
About 200 British nationals remain in Gaza, the UK government says.
Metropolitan police said officers were expected to intervene if protesters use the word “jihad” in chants in London over the weekend.
A video emerged of a pro-Palestinian protester chanting “jihad” at one event last week, but officers had said no offences were identified in the footage from the demonstration.
The Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, differed with government ministers this week over how to police pro-Palestine protesters using the phrase.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, signalled that police were unlikely to be given more powers to address chants deemed to be extremist after the comments at last Saturday’s rally.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images of Gaza coming in via news agency wires as Israel intensified its bombardment overnight on Friday.
Updated
The near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment risks providing cover for mass atrocities, Human Rights Watch says.
The group said in a statement on Friday:
Widespread phone and internet outages occurred in Gaza on October 27, 2023, amid a concerted Israeli bombardment, almost entirely cutting off the 2.2 million residents from the outside world
Agence France-Presse also reported the NGO’s senior technology and human rights researcher, Deborah Brown, as saying:
This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations.
A number of international agencies and NGOs said they had lost touch with their staff in Gaza on Friday, including the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Its humanitarian coordinator, Lynn Hastings, said in a statement that UN hospitals and humanitarian operations “can’t continue without communications”, alongside energy, food, water and medications.
The NGO Amnesty International said it had also lost contact with colleagues in Gaza, adding:
This communications blackout means that it will be even more difficult to obtain critical information and evidence about human rights violations and war crimes being committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Internet access and the phone network were completely cut across the Gaza Strip on Friday as Israel said it was expanding its military operation.
Updated
This video shows explosions flashing across the sky over Gaza overnight as Israel ramped up its aerial bombardment of the besieged territory.
The continuous explosions went for hours, but with communications cut off, the number of casualties and details of any ground incursions could not immediately be known.
Palestinians, aid groups, journalists and civil society organisations have said they have lost touch with staff and families in the Gaza Strip, after Israel knocked out the territory’s internet and communications.
NetBlocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and the internet, reported a collapse in connectivity in Gaza late on Friday.
The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused “complete disruption” of internet, cellular and landline services.
Shortly after reports of lost service, exceptionally heavy bombardment was heard in the territory and the Israel Defense Forces said their air and ground forces were intensifying their attacks in Gaza.
Already in darkness after most electricity was cut off and fuel for generators ran out, Gaza’s 2.3 million people were thrown into isolation from the rest of the world.
See the full story from Hibaq Farah and agencies here:
Demonstrations have been held in New York City’s Grand Central Station calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
NYPD reportedly made arrests at the scene on Friday evening.
Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images
Updated
Gaza phone and internet cut off as Israel intensifies attacks
A recap on the situation in Gaza right now: Israel knocked out the internet and communications in the blockaded territory in a stepped-up bombardment during Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, Associated Press reports.
The Israeli military said it was “expanding” ground operations in the territory, in an announcement signalling it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza.
Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused “complete disruption” of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.
Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.
Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.
“I was so scared this was going to happen,” said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organisation based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadn’t heard for hours from family in central Gaza.
Updated
Before the White House’s latest comments on its strikes on Syrian sites it said were used by Iranian-linked militias, it said Joe Biden had relayed a direct warning to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, against militias striking US troops in Syria and Iraq.
The US forces are stationed as part of efforts against the Islamic State group, which also has clashed with Iran, Agence France-Presse reports.
There have been at least 14 attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq and six in Syria since 17 October, a period in which 21 US military personnel suffered minor injuries and one contractor died from a cardiac incident, according to the Pentagon.
The US strikes on Thursday were the first on Iranian interests since March, breaking a stretch of calm after the Biden administration opened quiet diplomacy with the US arch-enemy that led to a prisoner swap and conversations on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
The defense secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were “narrowly tailored” to protect US personnel and were “separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas”.
The Pentagon said on Friday evening that its current assessment was the strikes did not cause casualties.
Updated
The United States has said it sought to degrade ammunition supplies of Iranian-linked militias with strikes in Syria but insisted it did not want to widen the Middle East conflict.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Pentagon on Thursday announced air strikes on two sites in eastern Syria it said were used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after a string of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
John Kirby, the US national security council spokesman, told reporters on Friday:
The purpose for those two sites that we targeted was to have a significant impact on future IRGC and Iran-backed militia group operations
It went right at storage facilities and ammo depots that we know will be used to support the work of these militia groups, particularly in Syria.
The main goal was to disrupt that ability and also to deter – to prevent – future attacks.
This is Adam Fulton picking up our rolling live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. It’s now approaching 2.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv
Updated
Summary of the day so far
If you’re just joining us, here’s where we stand:
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have announced its air and ground forces are stepping up their operations in the Gaza Strip. IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets, and warned residents of Gaza City to move south, where there will be “better conditions”.
Hamas’s military wing said it was confronting Israeli forces in the areas of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza and Bureij in the centre of the territory – both entry points that have been used by IDF forces in previous conflicts. “Violent engagements” are taking place on the ground, the al-Qassam brigades said.
The Israeli military’s announcement came amid exceptionally heavy bombing and a communications blackout across the Gaza Strip. After nightfall, frequent explosions from airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City. The Red Crescent, the World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières, Unicef and other aid groups said they had lost all contact with their staff in Gaza.
A senior Israeli government adviser has said Hamas “will feel our wrath tonight”. “Tonight we are starting payback,” Mark Regev said. “When this is over, Gaza will be very different.” Israel is “beefing up the pressure” on Hamas and that pressure will continue to increase until it has achieved its goal, he said.
The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly called for an “immediate, durable and sustainable humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas and demanded unhindered aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip. The motion drafted by Jordan is not binding, but carries political weight, reflecting the degree to which the US and Israel are isolated internationally as Israel steps up its ground operations.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes and of turning them into “hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders”. While it is not possible to verify the precise details of the claims by the IDF, there is evidence that Hamas has in the past taken advantage of cover provided by civilian objects, including hospitals.
At least 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said in its latest update on Friday. The claims have not been independently verified.
“Many more will die” as a result of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) chief, Philippe Lazzarini, warned at a news conference on Friday that basic services in Gaza are “crumbling”, with medicine, food and water running out.
The UN has said it is concerned that war crimes are being committed on both sides of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes,” a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said on Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its medics had entered Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of war. Six medical staff passed through the Rafah border crossing on Friday, alongside four other ICRC specialists and six aid trucks carrying urgently needed medical material and water-purification supplies, an ICRC spokesperson said.
The Egyptian military reported that two drones fired from the southern Red Sea had landed in two resorts on the Sinai peninsula, one of them falling on Taba, which sits on the border with Israel. Six people were reported hurt in the incident, in a worrying sign of the conflict’s potential to spread.
US fighter jets launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” in the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels that wrapped up on Friday.
Antisemitic and Islamaphobic incidents have almost doubled in just over a week in London, according to police data on Friday.
Updated
Explosions seen across Gaza night sky as Israel steps up bombardment
Israel stepped up its air campaign across Gaza on Friday, after the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the country would expand its military operation.
Explosions could be seen across the night sky and Israel’s airstrikes were heard as Hamas fired rockets back.
Updated
An NBC News crew member in the Gaza Strip was able to message colleagues in London despite a communications blackout across the Palestinian territory.
“I’ve managed to get connectivity for a minute with a lot of difficulty and I wanted to let you know that all internet, electricity and everything has been cut off,” the news outlet reported him as saying.
The situation we’re in is difficult, so difficult and very dangerous. We’re being extensively shelled by artillery and by air.
Updated
Amnesty International said it has lost contact with its team in Gaza and called on the internet and telecommunications network to be restored “as a matter of urgency”.
Palestinian civilians are already besieged in the Gaza Strip and are now also trapped in a complete communications blackout, the human rights orgnisation said in a statement.
Rights groups have also found it increasingly difficult to document violations due to Israeli airstrikes and communications restrictions, it said. Amnesty added:
This communications blackout means that it will be even more difficult to obtain critical information and evidence about human rights violations and war crimes being committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and to hear directly from those experiencing the violations.
Updated
'Hamas will feel our wrath tonight,' says Israeli PM adviser
Israel is “beefing up the pressure” on Hamas and that pressure will continue to increase until it has achieved its goal, a senior adviser to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Mark Regev, in an interview with MSNBC, said he would not go into ongoing military operations but that Israel will be hitting Hamas hard with the goal of “destroying their military machine and to dismantle its control of Gaza”.
We’re beefing up the pressure and they’ll be feeling it more and more.
Asked about reports of a communications blackout across the Gaza Strip, Regev said the idea of blocking communications is “standard operational procedure” when other countries have been involved in military operations.
If we want to hit targets in Gaza. we want to see that their command and control is disrupted, I think that’s good military logic.
Updated
In a worrying sign of the conflict’s potential to spread, the Egyptian military reported on Friday that two drones fired from the southern Red Sea had landed in two resorts on the Sinai peninsula, one of them falling on Taba, which sits on the border with Israel. Six people were reported hurt.
Hizan al-Assad, a member of the Iran-backed Houthi rebel forces in Yemen, posted a one-word message on social media reading “Eilat” in an apparently threatening reference to the nearby Israeli resort city a few miles away on the other side of the frontier.
Last week, US forces shot down three drones launched by the Houthi rebels that had been fired in the direction of Israel.
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it has also lost contact with some of their Palestinian staff on the ground in Gaza.
The international organisation said it is “deeply concerned” about the situation in the Palestinian territory.
In a statement posted to social media, it said it was particularly worried about the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Dar al-Shifa hospital and other health facilities.
It comes after Israel Defense Forces accused Hamas of using Dar al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, as a shield for its tunnels and operational centres.
It added:
We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip.
We are deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza. We have lost contact with some of our Palestinian colleagues on the ground. We are particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities.
— MSF International (@MSF) October 27, 2023
Press freedom group 'highly alarmed' by communications blackout in Gaza
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it is “highly alarmed” by reports of a communications blackout in Gaza.
The world is “losing a window into the reality” of what is happening in Gaza, as news organisations lose contact with their correspondents on the ground, the CPJ said in a statement.
A communications blackout is a news blackout that can lead to “serious consequences” with an information vaccum that can be filled with “deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation”, it warned.
At this dark hour, we stand with journalists, with those truth seekers whose daily work keeps us informed with facts that shed light on the human condition and help to hold power to account.
Updated
In Gaza, the ever present fear of sudden death has prompted mothers to write their children’s names on their legs and hips, to help with identification if they are killed in an airstrike.
They have no control over the Israeli war waged against them, which is very much out of the 21st century – fought from the cockpits of jets and the control rooms of hi-tech naval ships. Yet, on the streets of southern Gaza, people’s lives have been bombed back decades.
On Friday night, that bombing intensified in the heaviest strikes of the war, turning the sky orange, as mobile phone networks, internet and even satellite phones stopped working, leaving Gaza almost entirely cut off from the world.
Even before then, families displaced from Gaza City and the cities further north, which have borne the worst of the Israeli strikes, numbering several hundred a day, were surviving by collecting broken furniture and scrap wood in the streets to use as fuel for cooking. There is very little cooking gas. And without power or internet, many had already abandoned phones and televisions, underlining an atmosphere of often brutal isolation. For those who have them, radios have become the sole link to the outside world.
Fridges do not work, and food- and water-borne disease is a daily anxiety. Those who can find accommodation with friends and family crowd into their homes. Others have overwhelmed the UN-run schools used as shelters in times of war in Gaza; more than 600,000 people have converged on 150 schools.
Yet more internally displaced people have converged on open areas around hospitals, believing them to be safer, and some families have taken to sleeping in their cars.
All the time, the Israeli strikes continue, scores each hour, a bombardment that has been relentless since the militant Islamist group Hamas massacred 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians, in a surprise attack earlier this month through the Gaza border fence.
Read the full report by Hazem Balousha in Nuseirat and Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem.
Updated
The military wing of Hamas, the Al Qassam Brigades, said it is confronting an Israeli military ground incursion in the Gaza Strip.
“Violent engagements” are taking place on the ground near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza and Bureij in the centre, it said in a statement.
In a separate statement, it said it had launched rockets towards Tel Aviv “in response to Zionist massacres committed against civilians”.
The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly called for an “immediate, durable and sustainable humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas and demanded unhindered aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip.
The motion drafted by Jordan is not binding, but carries political weight, reflecting the degree to which the US and Israel are isolated internationally as Israel steps up its ground operations.
The resolution does not name Hamas, which is holding around 220 civilian hostages who were seized during the devastating 7 October attacks. But it calls for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all civilians illegally held captive and demands their safety and humane treatment, and condemns attacks on both Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
It passed with 120 votes in favour, while 45 abstained, and 14, including Israel and the United States, voted against.
Following pressure from the US and Canada, an attempt to condemn Hamas by name, and demand an immediate release of hostages was passed by 88 to 55, but failed to win the required two-thirds majority.
Jordan had originally demanded an immediate ceasefire, but in a bid to maximise support, amended the draft by calling for an immediate durable and sustainable humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.
It is the first time the UN has come to a collective view on the Middle East crisis, after four attempts to reach a common position on the smaller 15-strong UN Security Council failed due to vetoes being wielded either by Russia or the US.
The head of the UN’s children’s agency said it has lost touch with its Gaza staff.
Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, said she was “extremely concerned” about the safety of her Gaza colleagues and about “another night of unspeakable horror” for the one million children in the Palestinian territory.
Posting to social media, she wrote:
All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected.
We have lost touch with our colleagues in Gaza.
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) October 27, 2023
I’m extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for 1M children in #Gaza.
All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires showing explosions in Gaza.
The UN has said it is concerned that war crimes were being committed on both sides of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
A spokesperson for the UN human rights office Ravina Shamdasani, at a press conference in Geneva on Friday, said:
We are concerned that war crimes are being committed. We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” she added, citing forcible transfer, collective punishment and the taking of hostages.
Israel’s use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas has caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of civilian lives that, by all appearances, is difficult to reconcile with international humanitarian law.
A humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding for the people inside Gaza who are “being collectively punished”. “Collective punishment is a war crime,” she said.
She said indiscriminate attacks by Palestinian armed groups had to stop, and that all civilian hostages held in Gaza must be “immediately and unconditionally” released. “The taking of hostages is also a war crime,” she said.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, said he cannot reach his family who have been trapped in Gaza since the beginning of hostilities, amid reports that Internet and mobile phone services have been cut off in the Palestinian territory.
Gaza is under intense bombing.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 27, 2023
Telecommunications have been cut.
We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks.
We can only pray they survive the night.
How many more children have to die before the world says enough?
Israeli military 'cannot guarantee safety of journalists in Gaza'
Israel’s military has told international news organisations Reuters and Agence France Presse that it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip.
In a letter to the two news agencies, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was “targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza”, adding that Hamas deliberately put military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians”.
It noted that its high-intensity strikes on Hamas targets could cause damage to surrounding buildings and that Hamas rockets could also misfire and kill people inside Gaza. The letter concluded:
Under these circumstances, we cannot guarantee your employees’ safety, and strongly urge you to take all necessary measures for their safety.
The IDF’s letter came after the news agencies had sought assurances that their journalists in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli strikes.
In response, Reuters said:
The situation on the ground is dire, and the IDF’s unwillingness to give assurances about the safety of our staff threatens their ability to deliver the news about this conflict without fear of being injured or killed.
AFP’s global news director Phil Chetwynd said:
We are in an incredibly precarious position and it’s important that the world understands that there is a large team of journalists working in extremely dangerous conditions.
At least 27 journalists have been killed since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war, the majority in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Here’s a clip from Israeli army spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari’s earlier statement where he announced that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would be expanding its military operations in Gaza.
Addressing reporters at a press conference, he said the air force was conducting “extensive” strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure. He added:
In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight. The military is operating powerfully on all dimensions in order achieve the goals of the war.
Updated
PBS correspondent Leila Molana-Allen has shared a clip of convoys of Israeli soldiers and artillery coming into the northeastern corner of Israel’s border with Gaza.
Convoys of Israeli soldiers and artillery pouring in on the northeastern corner of #Israel’s border with #Gaza tonight. Behind them, the relentless booms of outgoing airstrikes and artillery. pic.twitter.com/Sxk3noQ7UX
— Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) October 27, 2023
Hamas says it is 'ready' for Israeli ground invasion of Gaza
A top Hamas official said it was “ready” for an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, after the IDF announced it would step up its ground operations in the Palestinian territory on Friday night.
AFP reported that Ezzat al-Rishaq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, posted on Telegram:
If Netanyahu decides to enter Gaza tonight, the resistance is ready.
In a separate statement, Hamas said the cutting off of Gaza’s Internet and mobile network signalled Israel’s “intention to commit more massacres and genocides away from the eyes of the press and the world”, NBC reported.
Israel’s military said it had increased its strikes “in a very significant way”, and AFP captured intense bombardment of northern Gaza.
UN general assembly votes to call for immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza
The UN’s general assembly has overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza.
The resolution, drafted by Arab states, passed with 120 votes in favor, while 45 abstained and 14 – including Israel and the US – voted no.
BREAKING: UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution on “protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations” on the ongoing Gaza crisis
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) October 27, 2023
FOR: 120
AGAINST: 14
ABSTAIN: 45
LIVE COVERAGEhttps://t.co/MOnKoTdNsb pic.twitter.com/WG68GaxMMV
Updated
WHO chief says it has lost contact with Gaza staff
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the UN agency has lost touch with its staff in Gaza, with health facilities, health workers and its humanitarian partners on the ground.
Posting to social media, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
This siege makes me gravely concerned for their safety and the immediate health risks of vulnerable patients.
We have lost touch with our staff in Gaza, with health facilities, health workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 27, 2023
This siege makes me gravely concerned for their safety and the immediate health risks of vulnerable patients.
We urge immediate protection…
US supports pause in fighting to allow for hostage release, says White House
The US supports a pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians there, the White House has said.
The White House’s national security adviser, John Kirby, said that if getting hostages out of Gaza requires a “localised, temporary pause” in fighting, then the US would be “absolutely supportive” of that.
Speaking to reporters, Kirby said he had seen reports about Israel expanding its ground operations in Gaza but would not comment on that. He did not say if Israel had informed the US before the announcement, CNN reported.
I’m not going to talk about in getting into details of the conversations that we have with our Israeli counterparts and the information, the flow between us.
Kirby refused to comment on what a satisfactory long-term objective might be for the fighting. The US will “continue to support [Israel’s"] desire for capabilities", he said.
He added that 10 additional trucks filled with humanitarian aid had made it to Gaza, bringing the total to 84. The US is however aware that fuel there “is only anticipated to last a couple of days.”
Brazil’s foreign ministry has reportedly lost contact with about 30 Brazilian citizens who are in the Gaza Strip after communications were cut ahead of an anticipated Israeli offensive.
According to the Brazilian website UOL, the South American country’s diplomats had been unsuccessfully trying to contact their citizens since about 6.30pm UK time on Friday.
UOL reported that the Palestinian communications firm Jawwal sent a message to users apologising for the complete interruption of communications and internet services in Gaza due to the “aggression in progress”. Jawwal’s message reportedly said:
The heavy bombardments that have taken place in the last hour have destroyed the last international routes that connected Gaza to the outside world ... which has led to the interruption of all the services of the telecommunications companies in our dear Gaza Strip.
A journalist from the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said she had also lost contact with Brazilians at the Rafah Crossing Point who had been waiting to leave the territory.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said 14 additional staff members have been killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 53 staff killed since 7 October.
Among those killed were 13 staff members who were killed in their homes with their family members during strikes, it said in its latest update on Friday.
Vital humanitarian services in the Gaza Strip have been forced to halt due to fuel stocks running out, it added.
In addition, a 17-year-old boy was killed by live ammunition fired by the Israeli security forces during classes in proximity to an UNRWA school in Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, it said.
Israeli security forces tightened restrictions on worshippers attending Friday prayers at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, preventing men under 65 from entering the compound.
People held Friday prayers outside around the compound. Police could be seen turning Palestinian worshippers away, and using tear gas and skunk water.
The al-Aqsa compound is often a flashpoint for tensions between Israeli security forces and Palestinians. Security around the compound has tightened in recent days, as fighting in Gaza between Palestinian armed groups and Israel escalates.
The international charity ActionAid said it has lost all contact with its colleagues in Gaza after the Palestinian territory suffered an Internet and mobile service blackout.
In a statement, it said it was “gravely concerned” for the safety of its Gaza staff “as signs grow of a major land escalation”.
The charity called for the urgent restoration of communication channels.
The blackout isolates the population, making it nearly impossible for them to seek help, share their stories, or maintain contact with loved ones. This isolation deepens the suffering of those already enduring a dire humanitarian crisis amidst an increase in the aerial bombardment of civilians. A population that has already suffered so much is now under even more threat.
Jordan sought to maximise public support for the Palestinian cause at the UN general assembly before a late vote on Friday by asking other countries in the general assembly to back a motion calling for a durable and sustained humanitarian truce in Gaza rather than a fully fledged ceasefire.
Jordan also sought to broaden support within the assembly by demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all illegally held hostages.
By involving the general assembly – as opposed to the divided 15-strong security council – Jordan and other Arab states were trying to engineer a clear public condemnation of Israel, painting its response to the Hamas attack as being in breach of international humanitarian law.
Jordan’s draft resolution also calls for immediate access for humanitarian workers, and demands that Israel rescind its order that citizens in Gaza to move south for their own protection. It describes Israel as the occupying power. It states:
The delivery of food, water medicine and fuel needs to be sustained and at scale,” stressing “the imperative that under international humanitarian law citizens cannot be deprived of objects that are essential to survival.
US envoy to UN says Arab states ‘empowering Hamas’ with Gaza ceasefire motion
The US envoy to the UN has accused Arab states of empowering Hamas and turning a blind eye to evil by tabling a draft resolution at the general assembly calling for restraint from Israel but failing to name Hamas as the perpetrators of the massacres of 7 October.
Linda Thomas Greenfield, who faced successive attacks by member states for failing to condemn Israel’s use of violence in Gaza, insisted the US mourned every loss of civilian life but also hit back by claiming the draft motion tabled by Jordan gave cover to Hamas.
Speaking on the second day of an emergency debate at the UN general assembly, she said the Hamas goals were “single-minded and they’re sickening.
They are determined to destroy Israel and kill Jews. And let’s be clear, Hamas has never cared about the genuine needs or concerns or safety of the people it claims to represent. And Hamas has no respect for the rule of law or human life. To them Palestinian civilians are expendable.
She said:
We must not go back to the status quo where Hamas terrorises Israel and uses Palestinian civilians as human shields. And we must not go back to the status quo where extremist settlers can attack and terrorise Palestinians in the West Bank. The status quo is untenable, and it is unacceptable. This means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next.
Updated
Here are some images we have received over the newswires of Israeli army positions close the Gaza border.
It comes as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said ground forces were “expanding operations” in Gaza, amid reports of intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza by air.
Saudi Arabia is warning that a ground invasion of Gaza would be catastrophic, not just for Israel and the Palestinian territories but for the whole Middle East region, according to the New York Times.
The NYT cites sources familiar and says that Saudi officials have talked to US officials to communicate such a warning.
The outlet further reports of those officials:
They delivered that exhortation to senior U.S. officials in multiple conversations, according to a Saudi official and a second person with knowledge of the discussions.
One Biden administration official said it was evident that the Saudis did not want an Israeli invasion of Gaza. Saudi officials also conveyed the warnings about a ground war to American lawmakers. The U.S. official, as well as the two people familiar with the Saudi warnings, all asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Armed Services Committee, was one of 10 senators who met last weekend with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
“The Saudi leadership was hopeful that a ground operation could be avoided for reasons of stability as well as the loss of life” and Saudi officials warned it would be “extremely harmful,” Mr. Blumenthal told The New York Times on Thursday.
The US has asked Israel to delay any invasion of Gaza, although the Israeli military has conducted some raids and says their ground operation in Gaza is expanding.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have announced they are “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari. In a televised news briefing on Friday, he warned residents of Gaza City to move south, where there will be “better conditions”.
The IDF’s announcement came amid reports of heavy bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip, where internet and mobile phone services were cut off. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has completely lost contact with all of its teams in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said they conducted another limited ground raid in Gaza earlier on Friday, in what appeared to be the second such raid in as many days. The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes and of turning them into “hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders”. While it is not possible to verify the precise details of the claims by the IDF, there is evidence that Hamas has in the past taken advantage of cover provided by civilian objects, including hospitals.
Negotiations between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar, are accelerating to agree on a ceasefire and on the return of hostages held in Gaza, according to several reports.
Israel’s minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, said the ground offensive into Gaza will be long and difficult as it will require destroying what he described as a vast network of tunnels used by Hamas militants. The ground invasion, he added, would lead to another phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys ”pockets of resistance.”
At least 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said in its latest update on Friday. The claims have not been independently verified.
“Many more will die” as a result of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) chief, Philippe Lazzarini, warned at a news conference on Friday that basic services in Gaza are “crumbling”, with medicine, food and water running out.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its medics had entered Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of war. Six medical staff passed through the Rafah border crossing on Friday, alongside four other ICRC specialists and six aid trucks carrying urgently needed medical material and water purification supplies, an ICRC spokesperson said.
The UN’s World Food Programme has warned that just two of their contracted bakeries – compared to 23 at the start of the war – have enough fuel to produce bread at the moment. The dwindling supply meant that “tomorrow there might be none,” WFP Representative in Palestine Samer Abdeljaber said in a statement.
US fighter jets launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” in the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels that wrapped up on Friday.
Antisemitic and Islamaphobic incidents have almost doubled in just over a week in London, according to police data on Friday.
Here’s a bit more from Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, who has announced that Israeli air and ground forces are stepping up operations in the Gaza Strip.
“In the last hours, we have intensified the attacks in Gaza,” he said in a televised statement.
In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight.
He said the IDF is “working powerfully in all dimensions” to achieve its military goals.
Updated
IDF warns Gaza City residents to move south
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement that residents of Gaza City should move south after announcing that Israel’s ground forces are “expanding” their operations tonight. He said:
We will continue to attack in Gaza and its surroundings, and we keep calling upon the people in Gaza in the north that south from there, they have better conditions.
Hagari said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets. The IDF “is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war”, he said.
Updated
Israeli military to expand ground operations in Gaza tonight, says IDF
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced that Israel’s ground forces are “expanding their ground operations” tonight.
“We are prepared on all fronts to preserve Israel’s security,” Hagari said during a televised statement.
More details to follow.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has completely lost contact with all of its teams in the Gaza Strip following news that the mobile phone service and internet all over the territory has been cut off due to heavy bombardment.
A PRCS statement reads:
We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number “101” and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured.
We are also worried about the safety of our teams working in Gaza Strip as the continuous and intense Israeli airstrikes around the clock indicate that the Israeli authorities will continue to commit war crimes while isolating Gaza from the outside world.
We call on the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli authorities to provide immediate protection to innocent civilians, medical facilities and our teams.
Gaza's comms collapse amid reports of heavy bombardment
Two major Palestinian mobile networks, Jawwal and Paltel, said their phone lines and internet services have been cut off.
An Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from Gaza said internet and mobile phone networks all over the territory suddenly cut off about an hour ago.
Journalists such as Sky News’ Alistair Bunkall and Bel Trew from the Independent have reported struggling to reach Gaza residents:
I cannot reach anyone in Gaza right now - nothing is getting going through, I understand network is out across the strip. Reports of very heavy bombardment particularly in the north. Comes amid continued talk of a possible ground incursion.
— Bel Trew (@Beltrew) October 27, 2023
Also reports of a comms blackout in Gaza. All I can say is that I can’t currently reach any contacts there. https://t.co/M443xrpDUl
— Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) October 27, 2023
It comes amid reports that the Palestinian territory has reportedly come under heavier airstrikes than usual on Friday.
The Israeli military has begun a particularly intense round of strikes on Gaza, the New York Times reported, citing three military officers and an Israeli government official. The barrage includes missiles fired from warplanes as well as shells fired from artillery, it said.
CNN reported seeing a large series of explosions in Gaza City and hearing outgoing tank fire as well as “unusual, intense and sustained” military activity for the past couple of hours. Residents told CNN the airstrikes tonight were the most intense they have experienced since the beginning of hostilities nearly three weeks ago.
Updated
The Netblocks internet observatory has confirmed that internet connectivity in the Gaza Strip has broken down.
⚠ Confirmed: Live network data show a collapse in connectivity in the #Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel, amid reports of heavy bombardment; the company is the last remaining major operator to supply service as connectivity declines amid ongoing fighting with Israel 📉 pic.twitter.com/nDPf7HnjKF
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) October 27, 2023
Updated
Gaza appears to have been hit by a total internet and communications blackout this evening, amid heavier airstrikes than usual.
It is still unlikely, however, during Shabbat, that this is a prelude to a large ground offensive.
Updated
Talks on ceasefire and prisoner exchange 'quickly progressing' - reports
Negotiations between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar, are accelerating to agree on a ceasefire and on the return of hostages held in Gaza, the BBC has reported.
Talks are “quickly progressing”, Al Jazeera also reported.
There has been “significant progress” on negotiations to release hostages but issues still remain, diplomatic sources have told CNN. “We remain hopeful,” they said.
Updated
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, has written to UK political leaders urging them to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to allow a humanitarian corridor to open.
In the letter, Yousaf, whose in-laws have been trapped in Gaza since the beginning of hostilities, wrote:
The abhorrent terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October must be unequivocally condemned, and I will continue to join you in doing so. Hamas must release immediately and unconditionally all hostages and cease its missile attacks on Israel.
The killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, wherever it occurs. Israel, like every other country, has a right to protect itself from attack, but in doing so it must comply with international law.
He urged leaders to help stop “the staggering humanitarian disaster we are witnessing” in Gaza before it becomes “cataclysmic”.
'Soon many more will die' from Gaza siege, says UN head
“Many more will die” as a result of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) chief, Philippe Lazzarini, warned at a news conference on Friday that basic services in Gaza are “crumbling”, with medicine, food and water running out. He said:
As we speak, people in Gaza are dying. They are dying only from bombs and strikes. Soon, many more will die from the consequences of siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Updated
For around 10 days, US military bases in eastern Syria and western Iraq have been hit by rockets and drones. There have been 22 such attacks, although details are sketchy and some may not have been counted. More than 20 US servicemen have been injured, though not seriously, and a civilian contractor died of cardiac arrest.
Earlier this week, Joe Biden promised a reaction if the attacks continued. On Thursday, there were more. This led to the air strikes, carried out by F-16 jets with precision munitions, on a warehouse and a bunker that reportedly contained weapons stored by the groups responsible. No casualties were reported.
Here’s what you should know about why the US launched air strikes on Syria, and what happens next.
Israel has made the claims about Dar al-Shifa hospital – and other hospitals before – not least during the 2014 conflict in Gaza.
While it is not possible to verify the precise details of the claims by the IDF, which included the presence of underground command centres, there is evidence that Hamas has in the past taken advantage of cover provided by civilian objects, including hospitals.
During the 2014 conflict, armed men were visible in some Gaza hospitals, while Hamas officials including leaders and security officers were present in al-Shifa at various times.
However, it is also clear that both during the 2014 conflict and the present war, the main buildings of the al-Shifa hospital complex operated primarily as a civilian healthcare facility making those buildings a protected civilian location.
Updated
We reported earlier that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its medics had entered Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of war.
Six medical staff passed through the Rafah border crossing, alongside four other ICRC specialists and six aid trucks carrying urgently needed medical material and water purification supplies, an ICRC spokesperson said.
The ICRC shared a clip of its trucks entering Gaza on Friday:
Our convoy passed Rafah crossing into #Gaza.
— ICRC (@ICRC) October 27, 2023
We are bringing in medical staff, including a war surgery team, alongside 6 trucks with urgent humanitarian aid:
📦 Medical materials
🏥 War surgery kits for 1000 to 5000 people
🚰 Water purification for 50,000L of drinking water pic.twitter.com/JvWVhZnPZ0
Antisemitic and Islamaphobic incidents have almost doubled in just over a week in London, according to police data on Friday.
There have been 408 recorded antisemitic offences in the capital so far this month, compared with 28 in the same period last year, the Metropolitan police said.
There have been 174 Islamophobic offences in that same time period, compared with 65 in the same period last year, it said.
The force has also made 75 arrests linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Cmdr Kyle Gordon said. He added:
My colleagues continue to ruthlessly deal with any acts of hate crime that they encounter.
Updated
IDF claims Hamas using Gaza's hospitals to 'wage war'
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes and of turning them into “hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders”.
“Hamas wages war from hospitals” in Gaza, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari told a news conference on Friday.
Hagari made specific reference to Dar al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip. He said the hospital was being used to hide a variety of command posts and entry points into a sprawling network of tunnels under Gaza. He added:
There is fuel in hospitals and Hamas is using it for its terror infrastructure.
The allegation was swiftly denied by Hamas. A senior member of the Hamas political bureau, Ezzat El-Reshiq, wrote on Telegram:
There’s no basis in truth in what the spokesman of the enemy army stated.
The Guardian has not been able to verify the IDF’s statements. Earlier, the commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, denied that any aid was being diverted. He said:
We have solid monitoring mechanisms … UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands.
Updated
A rocket hit an apartment in Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon, injuring three people, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s Red Cross.
Footage reportedly from the scene showed damage to the upper floor of an apartment building, with smoke rising from it, the Jerusalem Post reported.
From Amichai Stein of Kann News:
Rocket launched from Gaza hits an apartment building in Tel Aviv: 3 injured pic.twitter.com/vIIVGQIrDU
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) October 27, 2023
Emanuel Fabian from the Times of Israel:
More footage from the scene of the rocket impact in Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/3ThTkYmL7V
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 27, 2023
And Bild’s Paul Ronzheimer:
Parts of the rockets Hamas fired on Tel Aviv today in the afternoon, damaging apartment building, injuring three. pic.twitter.com/hYsPe7H9oE
— Paul Ronzheimer (@ronzheimer) October 27, 2023
Updated
A German foreign ministry spokesperson expressed “caution” over death tolls published by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Christian Wagner was quoted by AFP as saying at a government press conference in Berlin:
We cannot independently verify Hamas information, which is why a certain degree of caution is needed.
On Friday, the health ministry in Gaza said the Israeli bombing of Gaza had killed 7,326 Palestinians, including more 3,000 children, in the nearly three weeks since Hamas killed about 1,400 Israelis and abducted more than 200 others in its cross-border attack.
“Hamas is not a source of information for us,” a spokesperson for Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said at the same press conference, describing Hamas as a “terrorist organisation”.
On Wednesday, Joe Biden questioned the reliability of Gaza’s health ministry, saying that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.””
In response, the Hamas-run ministry issued a 212-page list of the names and identity numbers of every Palestinian it says has been killed in the Israeli bombardment.
On Friday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that the tolls had proved to be “credible” in previous conflicts.
Hello. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can contact me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
Ron DeSantis is receiving pushback from Israeli diplomats, Florida Democrats and the White House after he falsely claimed credit for a gun-running operation to assist Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
The Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful declared on Thursday that he had worked with Israel’s consul general in Miami to send military equipment, including drones, body armor and helmets.
His office, according to Reuters, said it had worked to “get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties” as part of his high-profile “rescue operation”. The operation involved sending humanitarian supplies on chartered planes and returning from Israel hundreds of US citizens who wanted to come home following the Hamas attacks.
His boast, however, started to unravel when Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, Israel’s consul general, told the news agency he had not asked for DeSantis’s help, and that the governor’s involvement was limited to smoothing paperwork requirements for a previously arranged shipment of “rifle parts” ordered by his government.
DeSantis has made hardline support of Israel a prominent part of his flailing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, pledging to turn away Palestinian refugees if he was in the White House, and expelling pro-Palestinian student groups from Florida’s university campuses.
Unesco has said that more than 200 schools have been damaged in the Gaza Strip — around 40% of all schools there.
“Following the terrorist attacks committed against Israeli civilians by Hamas on 7 October, the operations of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip have caused a serious humanitarian crisis affecting all aspects of civilian life, including education,” it said in a statement.
“Today, more than 625,000 pupils and more than 22,500 teachers in the area are in an extremely vulnerable situation,” it added.
Updated
Among the 220 empty seats at a carefully laid table for Shabbat, were five highchairs representing the babies and children held hostage by Hamas.
Baby bottles, plastic cutlery and beakers lay nestled among the dinner plates, bottles of red wine, challah bread and candles on top of a white tablecloth.
Photographs of nine-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother, Ariel, were among the faces on the posters strapped to empty chairs to represent the hundreds of people who have been held hostage in Gaza since 7 October.
The poignant installation at JW3, a Jewish community centre in Finchley, north London, follows symbolic events held around the world to serve as a reminder of the horror of the Hamas terror attacks.
Key event
In London, more than 200 balloons have been released next to Tower Bridge in solidarity with the more than 220 people taken hostage by Hamas.
The Israeli military said today that the confirmed number of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip since the 7 October cross-border raids by Hamas has risen by five to 229.
Summary of the day
It’s just past 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s what we’ve been following:
The Israel Defence Forces have said they conducted another limited ground raid in Gaza, in what appears to be the second such raid in as many days. The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets.
US fighter jets launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” in the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels that wrapped up on Friday.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has described the trickle of aid entering Gaza as “crumbs” as it called for “meaningful and uninterrupted” aid flow into the territory. “Basic services are crumbling. Medicine is running out. Food and water are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage,” Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general for the UN agency, told reporters. “Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risk of diseases is looming.”
The confirmed number of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip since the 7 October cross-border raids by Hamas has risen by five to 229, Reuters reports, citing the Israeli military.
A member of the Hamas delegation visiting Moscow has said that it needs time to locate all of the hostages who have been taken to Gaza by various Palestinian factions, Reuters reported, citing Russia’s Kommersant newspaper. Kommersant also reported a member of the Hamas delegation saying that the hostages could not be released until a ceasefire was agreed.
Updated
A British-Israeli lawyer is holding out hope of being reunited with family members held hostage by Hamas after being told the gunmen had murdered his sister.
Ahal Besorai said his sister Yonat Or, 50, her husband, Dror, 50, and two of their three children, who are 15 and 13, were spotted being dragged out of the safe room of their burning home in Be’eri kibbutz by Hamas militants on 7 October.
The 60-year-old spent hours trawling through Hamas propaganda videos online in the hope of spotting his family alive after Yonat’s phone was traced to Gaza.
But Besorai, who lived in London for 25 years, said he was told on Friday that his sister’s body had been identified among the 120 people murdered in the kibbutz. The rest of the family remains missing.
Key event
The Council of the European Union will hold a peace conference in about six months to renew the push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said, according to Reuters.
In a meeting of the bloc’s 27 governments, Spain had pressed for the EU to demand an immediate ceasefire, but the language was opposed by some countries, Sánchez told reporters in Brussels.
Member states had instead agreed to Spain’s proposal for a peace conference along with the call for “humanitarian pauses” and the opening of aid corridors for the Gaza civilians, Sánchez said.
His remarks came after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said several European countries were looking to build a “humanitarian coalition” regarding Gaza and talks were being held with Cyprus and Greece over this.
“Cyprus could serve as a base for humanitarian operations,” Macron said, according to Reuters.
Updated
Drone footage published by the Guardian’s video team shows people in Gaza lining up on Friday outside a United Nations Development Programme water station to fill up canisters and bottles with fresh water.
On Friday the UN warned that water is running out in Gaza.
Israel’s minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, has spoken to a small group of foreign reporters in Tel Aviv, the Associated Press reports.
Gallant said the ground offensive into Gaza will be long and difficult as it will require destroying what he described as a vast network of tunnels used by Hamas militants.
The ground invasion, he added, would lead to another phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys ”pockets of resistance.”
His remarks came after the UN sounded the alarm over rapidly dwindling fuel supplies amid resistance by Israel to allow fuel into Gaza. Speaking to reporters, Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters.
Gallant said that Israel believes Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometres of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he described as a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.
The Associated Press noted that it was not able to independently confirm Gallant’s claims and that little is known about the use of tunnels and other infrastructure by Hamas.
Speaking earlier on Friday, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general for UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for Palestinian people, said the agency had a “solid monitoring mechanism” in place to ensure that aid is not diverted.
Earlier this week, Israel argued that Hamas had stolen fuel from the UN to use for military purposes.
“UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands,” Lazzarini insisted.
Can Israel achieve its aims in Gaza invasion?
Israel has had a full invasion force massed on Gaza’s borders for over a week. Its military leaders insist they are ready, and Benjamin Netanyahu has his finger on the trigger, but so far has not pulled it.
The Israeli prime minister gave a speech on Wednesday night that sounded like a rallying cry for a ground assault, but it was carefully drafted, committing to nothing specific and saying the place and manner of any attack would be “determined unanimously” by the war cabinet and the army commanders.
Whatever happens, Netanyahu – down in the polls and widely blamed for allowing the 7 October attack by Hamas to happen – is making sure he does not take sole responsibility for whatever comes next. He knows there is no unanimity in the Israeli leadership.
Updated
Earlier we reported on the American airstrikes on Iran proxies in Syria, which come amid fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could escalate into a regional conflict.
We’ve now heard from the White House national security spokesperson. Speaking to ABC’s Good Morning America, John Kirby said the strikes were targeting storage and weapons facilities and were in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
“These strikes were in self-defence,” said Kirby, in comments reported by the Associated Press.
When asked if Iran will retaliate, Kirby said, “It’s not uncommon for them to strike back. If they do, we’ll absolutely do what we have to do to protect our troops and our facilities.”
“We’ll be ready for that,” he added.
Speaking about the Israel-Hamas war and the timing of the ground offensive announced by Israel, Kirby said that “we’re not dictating terms to” the Israelis.
But he echoed earlier comments from the US president, Joe Biden, in saying that if “we can take some time to get more hostages out, that’s something we all want to be looking at.”
In Israel, the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Friday that the ground offensive into Gaza will be long and difficult, with the aim to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territory’s militant Hamas rulers.
Updated
Here are some of the most recent images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel:
Updated
At least 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza has said. The claims have not been independently verified.
Earlier this week the US president, Joe Biden, questioned the reliability of the ministry’s reporting – because the health ministry is run by Hamas. Biden did not offer any further evidence to explain his stance.
The Gaza health ministry responded with a 212-page document listing out the names and identification numbers of thousands of Palestinians that the Hamas authorities, which control Gaza, said had been killed in the Israeli bombardment.
Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said he saw no evidence that the numbers were being manipulated. “We have been monitoring human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip for three decades, including several rounds of hostilities. We’ve generally found the data that comes out of the Ministry of Health to be reliable,” he said.
The war erupted on 7 October after Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking at least 229 people hostage.
Updated
Hamas is holding ‘at least some’ of France's nine missing nationals, says foreign minister
France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, has said that at least some of the nine French citizens who have been missing since Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October are being held hostage.
“We have no specific news [of them] but some of them we know have been taken hostage,” Colonna said in an interview with the French radio station RTL and cited by the Associated Press.
“We demand the release of all hostages and not just French hostages,” she added.
On Thursday France’s foreign ministry said that 35 French citizens were killed in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza are believed to have taken hostage at least 229 people, including an unconfirmed number of foreigners and dual citizens.
Updated
The Kremlin has defended its decision to invite a Hamas delegation to Moscow, Reuters reports.
Russia’s decision prompted Israeli anger, with Israel describing the invitation as “deplorable” and urging Russia to expel the delegation.
On Friday the Kremlin said Russia believes it is necessary to maintain contacts with all sides in conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the delegation had met with representatives of Russia’s foreign ministry but had had no contact with the Kremlin.
The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth, covered the delegation’s visit earlier this week:
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that 10 of its experts, including a war surgery team, have entered Gaza alongside six trucks of medical aid and water purification tablets.
The medical supplies are enough to treat between 1,000 and 5,000 people while the water purification tablets can treat 50,000 litres of drinking water, it said.
“This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it’s not enough,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director said in a statement.
The surgical team and medical supplies will help to relieve the extreme pressure on doctors and nurses in Gaza, he added. “But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed. This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour.”
Sadiq Khan adds to pressure on Keir Starmer over Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Keir Starmer has come under further pressure to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as one of Labour’s most senior Muslim politicians said it was the best way to avoid further “devastating loss of life”.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said the “terrible situation” in Gaza looked set to deteriorate further and that a “substantial military escalation” was brewing.
“I join the international community in calling for a ceasefire,” he said, arguing it would avoid more civilian casualties, allow aid to reach those in need and allow more time to avoid the conflict growing in the Middle East.
Khan said Israel had a right to defend itself, target those responsible for what he called the terror attack on 7 October and seek to free hostages, but added: “No nation, including Israel, has the right to break international law.”
Here is our full story on the second ground raid by Israeli troops into Gaza:
Fuel shortages risk worsening 'catastrophic conditions' in Gaza – World Food Programme
The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that just two of their contracted bakeries – compared to 23 at the start of the war – have enough fuel to produce bread at the moment.
The dwindling supply meant that “tomorrow there might be none,” WFP Representative in Palestine Samer Abdeljaber said in a statement. “This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries.”
The lack of fuel supplies has had a ripple effect through the supply chain, as fuel is also needed for supply trucks and food distribution. WFP said essential food commodities are rapidly running out across Gaza, and about 10% of the WFP-contracted shops had already run out of supplies.
Earlier this week, Israel insisted it will not allow fuel in, arguing that Hamas had stolen fuel from the UN to use for military purposes.
The WFP’s Abdeljaber said continuous aid delivery was needed. “To ease the suffering and enable the delivery of life-saving assistance, we echo the secretary general’s appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire.”
Updated
IDF says it struck more than 250 'Hamas targets' in 24 hours
In a post on social media, Israel Defense Forces said it struck a “terrorist tunnel network in Gaza” as well as eliminated the commander of Hamas’s western Khan Younis battalion.
Madhath Mubashar—Commander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis Battalion—was eliminated by an IDF aerial strike.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 27, 2023
Furthermore, the IDF struck 250+ Hamas targets including a terrorist tunnel network in Gaza that detonated the secondary explosions. pic.twitter.com/qaB5J0np2G
Updated
Blasts hit two Egyptian Red Sea towns, Israel points to 'aerial threat'
Projectiles have hit two Egyptian Red Sea towns, sources and officials told Reuters, injuring six people and laying bare the risk of regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Egyptian army spokesperson Colonel Gharib Abdel-Hafez said an “unidentified drone” crashed into a building adjacent to a hospital in Taba, on the border of Israel, in the early hours. Six people were injured.
Another projectile later fell near an electricity plant in a desert area of the town of Nuweiba about 70 km (43 miles) from the border, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters, adding that they were still gathering more information.
There was no claim of responsibility.
Without specifying the location, Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday that combat helicopters were scrambled when “an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region”.
“To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat,” he added in a televised briefing. “Israel will work with Egypt, and the United States, and bolster regional defences against threats from the Red Sea region.”
Updated
US puts new sanctions on Hamas, members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard
The US has issued a second round of sanctions on what it described as key Hamas-linked officials and financial networks.
The US Treasury Department linked the measures, which target assets in a Hamas investment portfolio as well as those accused of helping Hamas evade sanctions, to the attacks on 7 October.
“Today’s action underscores the United States’ commitment to dismantling Hamas’s funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system,” the deputy secretary of the treasury, Wally Adeyemo, said in a statement.
Gaza's services are crumbling and streets are overflowing with sewage, warns UNRWA
More from Philippe Lazzarini’s press conference in Jerusalem. Lazzarini is the commissioner general for UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for Palestinian people.
“Basic services are crumbling. Medicine is running out. Food and water are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage,” he told reporters. “Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risk of diseases is looming.”
Earlier this week, Israel insisted it will not allow fuel in, arguing that Hamas had stolen fuel from the UN to use for military purposes.
Lazzarini said that UNRWA had been forced to “drastically” limit the consumption of fuel. “Our team had to make tough decisions that no humanitarian workers should do,” he said. “What needs more support? Bakeries, water station? Life support machines in the hospital? All this needs fuel to function.”
Lazzarini insisted that the agency had a “solid monitoring mechanism” in place to ensure that aid is not diverted. “UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands.”
He denied that Hamas had stolen fuel from the UN, adding: “It pains me that humanitarian aid, a very basic right for people, is constantly questioned, while at the same time despair is livestreamed on our watch.”
On 7 October, Hamas gunmen poured from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping more than 220, according to Israeli officials.
In retaliatory Israeli air and artillery strikes, at least 7,028 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, including 2,913 children, according to figures released by the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
On Friday Lazzarini said that 57 of the UN agency’s staff had been killed during the war.
Updated
UN agency calls for ‘meaningful and uninterrupted’ aid into Gaza
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for Palestinian people, has described the trickle of aid entering Gaza as “crumbs”.
He said he had been closely tracking the discussions over the number of trucks entering Gaza. “Many of us saw in these trucks a glimmer of hope. This is, however, becoming a distraction,” he said during a press conference in Jerusalem.
“These few trucks are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference for the two million people in the street. We should avoid conveying the message that a few trucks a day means the siege is lifted for humanitarian aid. This is not true.”
He continued: “The current system in place is geared to fail. What is needed is meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow. And to succeed, we need a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need.”
Negotiations underway to find faster mechanism for aid - UN
Detailed negotiations are taking place with Israel in hopes of securing more humanitarian crossings into Gaza Strip, a senior United Nations official has said, adding that a combination of technical, political and security issues were hindering deliveries.
The comments came as Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters that another eight trucks carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday.
So far around 74 trucks have made it in, she said.
“In addition to the technical issues and the security issues, there are political issues as well,” Hastings said, according to Reuters. “And there’s a certain amount of pressure on the government of Israel in terms of its domestic politics.”
There is still no agreement to get fuel into Gaza, and the UN Palestinian refugee agency has said the absence of fuel was jeopardising life-saving humanitarian operations there. Israel has expressed concerns that fuel deliveries could be used by Hamas for military purposes.
Hastings said officials are also grappling with the issue of deciding how to distribute the scant aid. “We are aware of the 1,000 patients that require dialysis and over 100 children and babies that are in incubators, so we do our best to try and make the prioritisation in accordance with the greatest needs.”
US airstrikes in Syria targeted locations tied to Iran-backed fighters, activists tell AP
The US airstrikes on Syria’s eastern province of Deir ez-Zor targeted two locations where Iran-backed fighters are based, Syrian opposition activists have told the Associated Press.
Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet, claimed the main target was an area known as the farms just outside the town of Mayadeen.
The second strike early on Friday hit an area known as the “green belt” in the Boukamal area that borders Iraq, he added.
Abu Layal described the farms area as an important point where weapons brought from Iran are stored and then shipped to other areas in Lebanon.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, also reported strikes on the farms area near Mayadeen and Ashara near the border with Iraq, AP noted. The Observatory said ambulances were seen rushing to the area, but it was not clear if there were casualties.
Summary of the day
It’s just past 11am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s what we’ve been following:
The Israeli Defence Forces have said they conducted another limited ground raid in Gaza, in what appears to be the second ground raid in as many days. The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets.
US fighter jets launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” during the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels.
Aid is ‘barely trickling’ into Gaza, says UN humanitarian chief. The UN’s humanitarian chief said aid is “barely trickling” into Gaza despite the agency’s “best efforts”. In a statement posted to social media, Martin Griffiths said bombardments on Gaza “are getting worse, even in areas supposed to be safer”.
The Gaza health ministry has issued a 212-page document with lists of names and identification numbers for 7,028 Palestinians that the Hamas authorities, which control Gaza, say have been killed by Israel’s bombardments there since 7 October.
Joe Biden has questioned the reliability of the ministry’s reporting of the number of people killed and wounded during the Israeli assault on Gaza – because the health ministry is run by Hamas. In the past, the US state department’s annual human rights report indirectly relied on the same ministry’s casualty figures in quoting UN statistics drawn from Palestinian data. The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Biden to apologise for his “shocking and dehumanising” remarks. Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said he saw no evidence that the numbers were being manipulated. “We have been monitoring human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip for three decades, including several rounds of hostilities. We’ve generally found the data that comes out of the ministry of health to be reliable,” he said.
Updated
Eight more aid trucks expected to cross into Gaza on Friday - UN official
Another eight trucks carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official has said.
“We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. We’re expecting another eight or so today,” Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.
Aid workers have said repeatedly that the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory’s mounting humanitarian needs. Prior to the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to the Associated Press.
Number of Gaza hostages rises to 229, Israeli military says
The confirmed number of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip since the 7 October cross-border raids by Hamas has risen by five to 229, Reuters reports, citing the Israeli military.
More on the limited ground incursion carried out by the Israeli Defence Forces in the last 24 hours:
The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets. In a statement it said that IDF ground forces, accompanied by fighter jets and UAVs, carried out a “targeted raid in the central Gaza Strip.”
It added that “IDF aircraft and artillery struck terror targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Shuja’iyya area.”
It appeared to be the second ground raid in as many days. The IDF reported an earlier raid into northern Gaza early Thursday, saying ground forces battled militants and struck anti-tank missile firing positions in an operation that lasted hours.
The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties.
Updated
British lawyers call on government to press for ceasefire in Gaza
More than 250 British lawyers, including eminent KCs and professors of law, have called on the UK government to press for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying serious breaches of international law are being committed.
The lawyers have written to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak; James Cleverly, the foreign secretary; and Grant Schapps, the defence secretary, setting out what is in effect legal advice regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
The 10-page letter provides detailed analysis of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza since Hamas launched its deadly assault on Israel on 7 October.
The atrocities committed by Hamas were a serious breach of international law, it says, but the letter adds: “The commission by one party to a conflict – including an armed group – of serious violations of international humanitarian law does not, however, justify their commission by another party.”
UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for Palestinian people, has said that around 629,000 internally displaced people are being sheltered at UNRWA sites across the Gaza Strip.
The figure is nearly three times the capacity of the shelters, the agency noted in its latest update. “The current overcrowding conditions remain of concern and represent a health and protection risk,” it added.
The agency said its current stocks of fuel are almost completely exhausted, jeopardising life-saving services such as the supply of piped water, health care and bakeries.
A member of the Hamas delegation visiting Moscow has said that it needs time to locate all of the hostages who have been taken to Gaza by various Palestinian factions, Reuters is reporting, citing Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
Kommersant also reported a member of the Hamas delegation saying that it could not release the hostages until a ceasefire was agreed and that Israeli bombing of Gaza has killed 50 of the hostages seized during raids by Palestinian militants.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims, the Associated Press noted.
My colleague Andrew Roth has more on the visit by the senior Hamas delegation to Moscow – the organisation’s first high-profile international visit since it launched a raid in southern Israel on 7 October, killing an estimated 1,400 people and taking more than 200 people hostage.
Updated
Newly released satellite images reveal how cities and towns in Gaza have been destroyed by almost three weeks of Israeli bombardments on the besieged enclave.
Apartment buildings are crumpled and entire neighbourhoods lie in ruins in pictures taken after Israeli airstrikes and provided by Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for the 7 October attacks in which they killed 1,400 people and took more than 200 people hostage.
Since then, Israel has continuously struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 7,000 people – many of them civilians – have been killed in the Israeli bombardment.
Updated
IDF conducted limited ground incursion in last 24 hours
The Israeli Defence Forces have released more details about a limited ground incursion conducted in the last 24 hours.
On Thursday, the IDF announced what appears to be a separate raid into the coastal strip, in what was described as a probing action in preparation for a more sustained ground offensive.
In an update on Friday morning, the IDF said that ground troops “exited the area and no injuries were reported” .
The post on X continued:
IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck:
Anti-tank missile launch sites
Command & control centres
Hamas terrorist operatives
For the past two weeks, Lebanese citizens have been asking themselves and their neighbours: will there be a war?
Skirmishes of attrition have been going on along the Lebanese-Israeli de-facto boundary, a UN blue line. Hezbollah fighters have fired a number of rockets at Israeli military positions and settlements, while Israel has fired missiles and sent armed drones to target Hezbollah fighters. The group says 40 people have died in the past two weeks.
The tempo of the attacks and counterattacks has escalated sharply in the past few days, and Hezbollah has threatened to back Hamas if Israel launches its promised ground war in Gaza. The fears of a wider regional conflict have been preoccupying people in Lebanon since the first news broke of the Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October.
During the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, in the densely populated Dhahiye neighbourhood – Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s suburbs – Israeli jets turned whole residential blocks into piles of concrete, twisted metal and broken furniture. Hundreds of people were killed, and most residents fled, seeking refuge in neighbouring Syria or in other parts of Lebanon.
How does Gaza’s health ministry calculate casualty figures?
In case you missed this earlier: On Thursday, the Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas, said the Israeli bombing of Gaza had killed 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 children, in the nearly three weeks since Hamas killed about 1,400 Israelis and abducted more than 200 others in its cross-border attack.
The ministry also issued a 212-page list of the names and identity numbers of every Palestinian it says has been killed in the Israeli bombardment.
The list came as Biden cast doubt on the figures. But experts say the ministry has a track record of reliable casualty figures and that it has fallen victim to the propaganda war as Israel seeks to minimise the consequences of its hundreds of bombing raids on Gaza.
In the past, the US state department’s annual human rights report indirectly relied on the same ministry’s casualty figures in quoting UN statistics drawn from Palestinian data.
Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said he saw no evidence that the numbers were being manipulated.
“When we have done our own independent investigations around particular strikes, and we’ve compared those figures against those from the health ministry, there haven’t been major deviations, he said.
“Their numbers generally are consistent with what we’re seeing on the ground in recent days. There have been hundreds of airstrikes per day in one of the most densely populated areas of the world.
“We’ve looked at satellite imagery. We’ve seen the number of buildings, and the numbers that are coming out are in line with what we would expect with what we’re seeing on the ground. So you put all those things together and we’re quite confident in the overall casualty numbers.”
49% of Israelis want to hold off on Gaza invasion
Reuters: Almost half of Israelis want to hold off on any invasion of Gaza, according to a poll published on Friday, in what may indicate a dip in support for the planned next stage of the counter-offensive against Hamas militants holding some 200 hostages.
Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas in response to the Palestinian Islamists’ killing and kidnapping spree in its southern communities on 7 October, and has been stepping up tank and infantry raids in concert with heavy shelling of the enclave.
Asked if the military should immediately escalate to a large-scale ground offensive, 29% of Israelis agreed while 49% said “it would be better to wait” and 22% were undecided, the poll published in the Maariv newspaper said.
The daily said the results contrasted with its 10 October poll that found 65% support for a major ground offensive.
“From a breakdown of the answers, it emerges that there is no division in accordance with political camp or demographics, and that it is almost certain that the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is now topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift (in opinion),” Maariv wrote.
Maariv polled a representative sample of 522 adult Israelis. The margin of error was 4.3%, the newspaper said.
Here is our full story on the US strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria:
EU calls for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza
Leaders of the 27 EU member states have unanimously called for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” of the shelling in Gaza to allow food, water and medical supplies to reach Palestinians.
An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels.
The agreement was reached late on Thursday after further concessions to Spain, which sought mention of a “ceasefire” – considering this to be a stronger message from the EU. But the demand for a ceasefire from the Spanish president was also a strategic move designed to extract other concessions in the text.
Pedro Sánchez persuaded other EU leaders to agree to support a peace conference on a two-state solution – a call that is now in the formal declaration. The member states also agreed specific language on the killing of civilians in Gaza and Israel.
“The European Council reiterates the importance of ensuring the protection of all civilians at all times in line with international humanitarian law. It deplores all loss of civilian life,” read the additional paragraph.
US strikes Iran-linked targets in Syria
The US military has launched airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps the Pentagon has said, amid growing fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could escalate into a regional conflict.
The strikes hit a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage facility used by the IRGC and militia it backs, senior US officials told Reuters, saying it was unclear if Iranian nationals were killed.
The strikes took place at about 4.30am on Friday near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, one of the officials said.
In a statement, defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the “precision self-defence strikes” early on Friday were a response to a slew of drone and missile attacks by Iranian-backed militia groups against US bases and personnel in Syria and Iraq that began last week.
He said President Joe Biden had directed the narrowly tailored strikes “to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests”.
There have been at least 12 attacks on US bases and personnel in Iraq and four in Syria since 17 October, according to the Pentagon. More than 24 US soldiers sustained minor injuries while one contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.
Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top stories this morning:
US fighter jets launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
And EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” during the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels.
The agreement was reached late on Thursday after further concessions to Spain, which sought mention of a “ceasefire” – considering this to be a stronger message from the EU.
Here are the other key recent developments:
Aid is ‘barely trickling’ into Gaza, says UN humanitarian chief. The UN’s humanitarian chief said aid is “barely trickling” into Gaza despite the agency’s “best efforts”. In a statement posted to social media, Martin Griffiths said bombardments on Gaza “are getting worse, even in areas supposed to be safer”.
The Gaza health ministry has issued a 212-page document with lists of names and identification numbers for 7,028 Palestinians that the Hamas authorities, which control Gaza, say have been killed by Israel’s bombardments there since 7 October.
Joe Biden has questioned the reliability of the ministry’s reporting of the number of people killed and wounded during the Israeli assault on Gaza – because the health ministry is run by Hamas. In the past, the US state department’s annual human rights report indirectly relied on the same ministry’s casualty figures in quoting UN statistics drawn from Palestinian data. The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Biden to apologise for his “shocking and dehumanising” remarks. Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said he saw no evidence that the numbers were being manipulated. “We have been monitoring human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip for three decades, including several rounds of hostilities. We’ve generally found the data that comes out of the ministry of health to be reliable,” he said.
Israeli infantry backed by tanks and armoured bulldozers have attacked Hamas targets in an hours-long overnight ground raid into the northern Gaza Strip. The military said the operation was “preparation for the next stages of combat” and that “the soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory”.
Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, has said “almost 50” hostages held in the Gaza Strip have been killed due to Israeli strikes.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed the deputy head of Hamas’s intelligence directorate, Shadi Barud, in a strike in the Gaza Strip.
Leaders of the 27 EU member states have unanimously called for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” of the shelling in Gaza to allow food, water and medical supplies to reach Palestinians. In a compromise text, agreed after hours of discussions, heads of state and government from the EU’s 27 members declared that the EU “reiterates the importance of ensuring the protection of all civilians at all times in line with international humanitarian law” and “deplores all loss of civilian life”.
Arab nations have linked hands with the Global South to challenge Israel and its western backers to end the bombing in a Gaza at the start of a rare two-day emergency debate at the UN general assembly. In a fierce warning on Thursday the Iranian foreign minister said that if what he described as the genocide did not stop the US would “not be spared from this fire”.
Fifty-four Thai nationals are among the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to new figures released by the Israeli government.
A joint statement signed by the foreign ministers of nine Arab countries has condemned what it described as the targeting of civilians and violations of international law in Gaza.
Hamas delegation travels to Moscow for talks on foreign hostages in Gaza. A senior Hamas delegation has travelled to Moscow to meet Russian foreign ministry officials in the organisation’s first high-profile international visit since it launched a raid in southern Israel on 7 October. The delegation was led by Mousa Abu Marzook, a founder and political leader of Hamas, who met the Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov.
An Israeli diplomat in Miami on Thursday pushed back against an assertion by the administration of Ron DeSantis that they had coordinated to facilitate the shipment of ammunition and weapons to Israel. Earlier on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Florida governor said the governor’s office had contracted cargo planes to send drones, body armor and helmets to Israel and worked to “get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties”.
The confirmed number of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip since the 7 October cross-border raids by Hamas has risen by two to 224, according to the Israeli military. So far, four hostages have been released.
Rishi Sunak has said that UK border force teams are “pre-positioned” in Egypt to assist British citizens trying to leave Gaza.
The EU is set to call for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” of the shelling in Gaza to allow food, water and medical supplies to reach Palestinians, according to its latest draft text.
The UN relief and works agency for Palestinian people has said that it expects its fuel supply to run out today. The agency has been sharing its supplies in order to allow trucks to distribute aid, bakeries to feed people in shelters, water to be desalinated, and so that hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment running.
