India launches Operation Ajay to facilitate return of Indians who wish to come back home; charter flight carrying 212 Indians departs from Israel

The United Nations on Thursday issued an emergency appeal for $294 million to address “the most urgent needs” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The funds would be used to help more than 1.2 million people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, stressing that aid groups do not have “the resources required to adequately respond to the full range of needs of vulnerable Palestinians.” - AFP

More than 423,000 people have now been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave.

As of late Thursday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 84,444 people and reached 423,378, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Friday. - AFP

The U.S. and Qatar have reached an agreement that the Qataris will not act on any request from Tehran for the time being to access $6 billion in Iranian funds that were unblocked as part of a prisoner swap last month, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The move, which stops short of a full refreezing of Iranian funds in Qatar’s banking system, follows the deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel and continued Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s deal with Iran, in which $6 billion was unfrozen in exchange for the release of five detained Americans. The official who outlined the understanding between the U.S. and Qatar was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials have strenuously pushed back against the criticism, noting that the money had yet to be spent by Iran and can only be used for humanitarian needs.

“None of the funds that have now gone to Qatar have actually been spent or accessed in any way by Iran,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Israel on Thursday when asked about the funds. “Indeed, funds from that account are overseen by the Treasury Department, can only be dispensed for humanitarian goods — food, medicine, medical equipment — and never touch Iranian hands.” - AP

The presidents of the European Commission and Parliament, Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola, will visit Israel on Friday in the wake of Hamas’s bloody assault on Israeli communities.

A statement from the commission said the senior Brussels officials would “express solidarity with the victims of the Hamas terrorist attacks, and meet with Israeli leadership”.

Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 mainly civilian people and took about 150 hostages in a shock onslaught launched from the Palestinian territory of Gaza on Saturday.

Israel has responded by raining air and artillery strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza for six days, claiming more than 1,400 Palestinian lives.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel on Thursday and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will arrive on Friday to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The EU chiefs programme of visits has not been finalised.

The European Union and its member states have expressed horror at Hamas’s killings and endorsed Israel’s right to defend itself within “the limits of international law”.

Some European officials have expressed concerns about Israel’s new siege of Gaza.

But von der Leyen and Metsola have been outspoken in their support for Israel, accusing Hamas of carrying out an anti-Semitic massacre of innocent civilians.

“October 7 is a day that will go down in global infamy,” Metsola said on Wednesday at a Brussels tribute ceremony to the Israeli dead.

“The world has witnessed Jews being murdered simply because they were Jewish. Again. In Israel,” she said.

Earlier, von der Leyen had told her commission colleagues: “These innocents were killed for one single reason. For being Jewish and living in the State of Israel.

“It is an ancient evil, which reminds us of the darkest past and shocks all of us to the core,” she said. - AFP

Iran’s foreign minister, whose government supports Hamas and other Middle East militant groups, said on Thursday opening a “new front” against Israel would depend on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Although Tehran has been a long-term backer of Hamas, Iranian officials have been adamant that the country had no involvement in the militants’ attack against its arch enemy Israel on Saturday.

Nevertheless, the United States fears the opening of a second front on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon if Hezbollah, another heavily armed Islamist group backed by Iran, were to intervene.

“Officials of some countries contact us and ask about the possibility of a new front (against Israel) being opened in the region,” said Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

“We tell them that our clear answer regarding future possibilities is that everything depends on the actions of the Zionist regime in Gaza,” he said, according to a statement from the Iranian foreign ministry. - AFP

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that 1,537 Palestinians, including 500 children and 276 women, were killed and 6,612 wounded in Israeli air strikes on the blockaded enclave since Saturday. - Reuters

First charter flight carrying 212 Indians, including an infant, wishing to leave Israel departs from Ben Gurion Airport.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Thursday that Gazans must “stay steadfast and remain on their land”, amid calls for Cairo to allow safe passage for civilians stuck in Gaza.

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza is the only passage in and out of the coastal enclave not controlled by Israel.

Israel has bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since Saturday in reprisal for a shock Hamas attack on Israel that has killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and looks poised to send ground troops into Gaza where official have reported over 1,400 deaths.

Egypt is committed to ensuring the delivery “of aid, both medical and humanitarian at this difficult time”, Sisi said, affirming Cairo’s “firm position” of ensuring Palestinians’ “legitimate rights”.

But he stressed, in a speech at a military ceremony, that Gazans must “stay steadfast and remain on their land”. - AFP

Jordan said Israel’s denial of entry of aid to Gaza was a breach of humanitarian law and called for a lifting of the siege, saying that ending it was the responsibility of the international community.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said in comments on state media on Thursday that Israel’s siege of the enclave where it has cut water, fuel and electricity and prevented aid deliveries across border crossings was a breach of “humanitarian values and principles”. - Reuters

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin plans to visit Israel on Friday, the second high-level U.S. official to visit Tel Aviv in two days, in a deliberate show of support and an effort to determine what additional military aid is needed in the war with Hamas.

Austin is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive travel details Austin’s arrival comes just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited and vowed American support for Israel in a meeting with Netanyahu.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Austin said the U.S. is “working urgently to get Israel what it needs to defend itself, including munitions and our iron Dome interceptor interceptors.” - AP

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday vowed that France would do everything to ensure the release of the dozens of hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas after its attack on Israel.

“I want to say that we will do everything to ensure that these hostages, whatever their nationality, are released,” he said in an address to the nation, adding that France would work to this end both with “our partners” and the Israeli authorities. - AFP

Hungary has evacuated a further 65 of its citizens from Israel and they are en route by ship to Cyprus, from where they will be flown back to Hungary, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement on Thursday.

Earlier this week Hungary had evacuated 325 people including 46 children from Israel by air. It said 15 of the 325 evacuees were foreign citizens. - Reuters

Israeli lawmakers Thursday swore in an “emergency government” in a 66-4 vote, parliament said, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a war-time partnership with a rival.

Benny Gantz and four members of his party were sworn in as ministers, while opposition chief Yair Lapid has announced he would not join the government. - AFP

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is deploying two Royal Navy ships and surveillance aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel and reinforce regional stability, his office said on Thursday.

Maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft will begin flying in the region from Friday to track threats to regional stability, Sunak’s office said.

“We must be unequivocal in making sure the types of horrific scenes we have seen this week will not be repeated,” he said in a statement.

“Alongside our allies, the deployment of our world class military will support efforts to ensure regional stability and prevent further escalation.”

The military package, which includes P8 surveillance planes, other surveillance assets, two auxiliary ships, three Merlin helicopters and a company of Royal Marines, will be on standby in the region. - Reuters

Two officers were wounded Thursday in a shooting in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, police said, adding the gunman was “neutralised”.

An AFP photographer saw what appeared to be a dead body outside the Shalem police station near Jerusalem’s Old City, with dozens of officers in the area.

One of the officers was in serious condition and the other was lightly wounded, police said citing medics. - AFP

The Biden administration is expected to announce soon that the U.S. government will begin operating evacuation flights to help Americans leave Israel as Israel prepares to escalate retaliatory action against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, according to two people familiar with the plans.

The evacuation flights are expected to begin operating as early as Friday, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the plans before the official announcement.

The U.S. government is arranging for at least four charter flights a day out of Israel through Frankfurt, Germany. - AP

The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.

Medics said they ran out of places to put remains pulled from the latest strikes or recovered from under the ruins of demolished buildings.

The morgue at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital can only handle some 30 bodies at a time, and workers had to stack corpses three high outside the walk-in cooler and put dozens more, side by side, in the parking lot.

“The body bags started and just kept coming and coming and now it’s a graveyard,” Abu Elias Shobaki, a nurse at Shifa, said. “I am emotionally, physically exhausted. I just have to stop myself from thinking about how much worse it will get.”

“We are in a critical situation,” said Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry. “Ambulances can’t get to the wounded, the wounded can’t get to intensive care, the dead can’t get to the morgue.” Lines of white body bags – soles of bare feet sticking out from one, a bloodied arm from another – brought the scale and intensity of Israel’s retaliation on Gaza into sharp relief. - AP

Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh said its employees in Israel are primarily locals but declined to comment on the exact staff strength there. The company further said it is “saddened” by the situation unfolding in the region.

“We have business in Israel in that part of the region and...with what is going on there...we are saddened by it. All of our employees are safe in that business,” the Infosys top honcho said during the Q2 earnings briefing.

On Wednesday, the country’s largest IT services company TCS said it has 250 staffers in Israel and stressed that the ongoing conflict will not have any major impact on its business.

TCS has said it is in constant touch with all staffers, and at present, the focus is their safety and to look at how they help the communities they live in.

It has initiated business continuity plans wherever necessary to ensure that the customers do not get impacted, TCS Chief Operating Officer N. Ganapathy Subramaniam told reporters, adding that it does not expect any major impact of the war on its business.

Asked if it is evacuating its workers out of the country, he said a good number of the staffers there are locals. However, he added that if anybody wants to come back or stay, the decisions will be taken. - PTI

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday he raised with Israel the “humanitarian needs” of the Gaza Strip while defending the right to retaliate for the deadly Hamas attack.

“We did discuss ways to address the humanitarian needs of people living in Gaza to protect them from harm, while Israel conducts its legitimate security operations to defend itself from terrorism and to try to ensure that this never happens again,” Mr. Blinken told reporters after talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials in Tel Aviv. - AFP

Russia’s foreign ministry urged Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza to allow in food and medicine and said it was unacceptable that what it called the “indiscriminate” bombing of the Gaza Strip was causing so many civilian casualties.

Moscow issued the statement after Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov spoke to Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), by phone.

Israel said earlier there would be no humanitarian exceptions to its siege of the Gaza Strip until all its hostages were freed, after the Red Cross pleaded for fuel to be allowed in to prevent overwhelmed hospitals from “turning into morgues”.

The Russian foreign ministry said Bogdanov and Al-Sheikh had agreed on the need for a ceasefire and for the opening of human corridors to deliver food and medicine to Gaza’s population.

Both also agreed that water and electricity supplies to Gaza should be restored, it said.

“The unacceptability of the indiscriminate bombardment leading to numerous civilian casualties was emphasised,” the Russian statement said.

“The goal of preventing an exodus from the Gaza Strip, which should become part of an independent Palestinian State on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, was (also) emphasised.”

In a second statement later on Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry said that four Russian citizens had been killed in southern Israel which Hamas attacked on Saturday, slaughtering hundreds of civilians. A further six Russian citizens were still missing, the ministry said.

“We strongly condemn any manifestations of extremism, terrorism, hostage-taking, blockading people, deliberately creating unbearable living conditions and other violent acts against civilians, along with the indiscriminate use of force in the conduct of military operations,” the same statement said. - Reuters

After visiting Israel and Jordan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel on Friday to Doha where he will have talks with senior Qatari officials.

Qatar has ties with Hamas and has in the past served as facilitator in discussions to calm tensions in and around Gaza. - AP

In a meeting with the King of Jordan Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave tempered remarks calling for the end of aggression toward Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian state media reported, as Israeli airstrikes pummeled the besieged strip.

“We reject the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides,” said Mr. Abbas, who is the head of Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.

In 2007, Hamas violently seized Gaza from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. - AP

The chief of staff for Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, admitted Thursday that the military had failed to protect civilians around the Gaza Strip from Hamas’s unprecedented attack on the country.

“The IDF is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not,” Mr. Halevi said. “We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war.”

Fourteen health facilities have been damaged and 10 health care workers killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, Palestinian health officials said Thursday.

At least 1,417 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip and over 6,200 have been injured since the Israel-Hamas war began, Palestinian health officials said Thursday.

Of the dead, nearly 450 are children and 250 are women.

The war has claimed at least 2,600 lives on both sides since Hamas launched its attack on Israel last Saturday. - AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Mr. Blinken offered a statement with Herzog that touched on the same themes as his earlier statement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There really are two paths before countries in this region and in many ways, countries in this world. But here in the Middle East, there’s the path of integration, cooperation, normalization and equal measures of justice, opportunity, dignity for all peoples, including the Palestinians,” Mr. Blinken said.

He added: “Or there’s the path that Hamas has shown to the world these last few days — terror, destruction, nihilism, a path that leads to nowhere for anyone except to the darkest places in our souls. - AP

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that he has ordered the dispatch of humanitarian aid to the Gaza enclave, currently under siege by Israeli forces.

He said coordination with Egyptian authorities is underway to ensure the safe and prompt delivery of the aid, including medical supplies, to Gaza. - AP

The number of U.S. citizens who have died in the Israel-Palestinian war has risen to at least 25, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday during a visit Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

That’s an increase from 22 on Wednesday. The State Department previously said at least 17 more Americans remain unaccounted for. - AP

Palestinian residents of the city of Beit Lahiya in the northern region of the Gaza Strip said Thursday that Israeli planes dropped flyers warning them to evacuate their homes and to head to “known shelters.”

“Anyone who is near Hamas terrorists will put their lives in danger,” the flyers said. “Adhering to IDF instructions will prevent you from being exposed to danger.”

The area had already been heavily struck by the time the flyers were dropped. Shelters in the Gaza Strip are not safe from airstrikes — the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has seen 10 of its shelters struck since the start of the operation.

Palestinians living the pummeled Strip have said that the military often has not alerted them before striking homes, or will alert them but not with enough time to evacuate before their homes are struck. Israeli defense officials have said that they attempt to provide warning before strikes. - AP

Around 230 Indians are expected to be brought back from Israel on Friday in a chartered flight under Operation Ajay, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing on Thursday that the chartered flight is expected to reach Tel Aviv this evening and it will bring back the first batch of around 230 Indians on Friday.

On the attacks by Hamas on Israeli cities, Mr. Bagchi said India considers them as terrorist strikes.

To a question on India’s position on the Palestine issue, he said New Delhi always advocated resumption of direct talks towards establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine living side-by-side and at peace with Israel. - PTI​

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the U.S. secretary of state’s visit on Thursday is a “tangible example of America’s unequivocable support of Israel”.

He compared the Hamas militant group that staged a ferocious attack on Israel over the weekend to the Islamic State group.

“Just as ISIS was crushed, Hamas will be crushed,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated America’s support.

“The message I bring with me is this: You may strong enough on your own to defend yourselves but as long as America exists you will never have to,” he said. - AP

Palestinians lined up outside bakeries and grocery stores in Gaza on Thursday after spending the night surrounded by the ruins of pulverized neighborhoods darkened by a near-total power outage. Israel launched new airstrikes and said it was preparing for a possible ground invasion.

“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director. “Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said nothing would be allowed into Gaza until the captives were released. “Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” he tweeted.

AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday reassured Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu of Washington’s support, during a trip to the Middle East that aims to prevent the conflict with Palestinian Hamas militants from spreading.

An hour after landing in Tel Aviv, Blinken shook hands with Netanyahu and told the prime minister: “We’re here, we’re not going anywhere,” footage from Netanyahu’s office showed.

After Israel, Blinken will head to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He is likely to continue onto other Arab countries, U.S. officials say, without specifying which.

Reuters

The Indian embassy here is carrying out an extensive outreach activity for the Indian community in the country amid Israel’s raging war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Officials from the Indian Embassy said they have been holding online meetings with Indian companies, emailing details of the flight to return to India, assuring Indian students of all assistance and allaying their concerns, and meeting the Indian caregivers, who form the largest chunk of the Indian Diaspora in Tel Aviv.

On Wednesday, posting a photo of more than two dozen youngsters about the outreach meeting for Indian students, the India in Israel handle posted on X: “Assuring our students of all assistance. First Secretary Vishal met some of our students at Tel Aviv University (TAU) today to allay their concerns.” Prior to that, a similar meeting was held with the caregivers.

“Our caregivers in Israel have been a pillar of support for the Israeli society for years. Counsellor Dinesh met some of them today to discuss the current situation and assure them of our help,” the Embassy said in a post on X.

PTI

Egypt said on Thursday it was directing international aid for the besieged Gaza Strip to Al Arish airport in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The nearby Rafah crossing between Sinai and Gaza remained open, the statement said, adding that Egypt had asked Israel to avoid targeting the Palestinian side of the crossing after strikes that prevented normal operations there.

Reuters

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 1,354, the Hamas health ministry said, with dozens killed since Thursday morning following a massive Israeli bombardment of the enclave.

At least “1,354 citizens have been martyred and 6,049 suffered various injuries”, the ministry said, updating an earlier death toll of around 1,200 that was announced at dawn on Thursday.

Dozens of the United Nations’ rights experts on Thursday condemned Hamas’s “horrific crimes” and said Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip “amounts to collective punishment”.

“There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces,” said the experts in a joint statement.

“This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime.”

They denounced what they called the targeted and deadly violence directed at civilians in Israel.

But they also warned that Israel’s “further tightening of the unlawful blockade” on the Gaza Strip would have devastating impacts on its entire civilian population.

“We strongly condemn the horrific crimes committed by Hamas, the deliberate and widespread killing and hostage-taking of innocent civilians, including older persons and children,” the experts said.

“These actions constitute heinous violations of international law and international crimes, for which there must be urgent accountability,” they added.

“We also strongly condemn Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza, comprising over 2.3 million people, nearly half of whom are children.

AFP

The war between Israel and Hamas has darkened the horizon for a world economy that was already experiencing weak growth, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday.

Speaking at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Marrakesh, Morocco, Georgieva said the International Monetary Fund was “very closely monitoring how the situation evolves” and how it is affecting oil markets.

Georgieva noted that the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, which was released earlier this week but drafted before the conflict broke out, already showed weak global growth.

“We are experiencing severe shocks that are now becoming the new normal for a world that is weakened by weak growth and economic fragmentation,” she said at a news conference.

She said it was “too early” to assess the impact of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

But, Georgieva added, “very clearly, this is a new cloud on not the sunniest horizon for the world economy -- new cloud, darkening this horizon.”

AFP

Israel has a right and duty to respond, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed “how democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law.”

A siege can be considered a war crime if it targets civilians, rather than a legitimate means to undermine Hamas’ military capabilities, or if found to be disproportionate.

Attacks on military objectives have to be proportional under international law which means they must not lead to excessive loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects in relation to the direct and concrete military advantage expected.

Nick Kaufman, a British-born Israeli defence lawyer at the ICC, cited the gruesome killings by Hamas militants of hundreds of revellers at a dance rave and civilians in several Kibbutz communities near the Gaza border as an obvious focus for a war crimes case.

Reuters

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts and taken down or labeled thousands of pieces of content since the militant group’s attack on Israel, according to the CEO of the company formerly known as Twitter.

Linda Yaccarino on Thursday outlined efforts by X to get a handle on illegal content flourishing on the platform. She was responding to a warning from a top European Union official, who requested information on how X is complying during the Israel-Hamas war with tough new EU digital rules aimed at cleaning up social media platforms.

“So far since the start of the conflict X has identified and removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the platform,” Yaccarino said in a letter posted on X.

“There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups and we continue to remove such accounts in real time, including proactive efforts,” Yaccarino said.

AP

New York-based Human Rights Watch cited as possible war crimes the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate rocket attacks, and the taking of civilians as hostages by Palestinian armed groups, as well as the Israeli counter-strikes in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians.

“Deliberate killings of civilians, hostage-taking, and collective punishment are heinous crimes that have no justification,” said Omar Shakir, the group’s Israel and Palestine director.

The taking of hostages, murder and torture are explicitly banned under the Geneva Conventions, while Israel’s response could also be subject to a war crimes investigation.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew criticism from U.N. officials and human rights groups by announcing a tightened blockade to prevent food and fuel from reaching the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.

Reuters

Israel’s military assault against Hamas is focusing on “taking out” the Islamist group’s senior leadership in the Gaza Strip, including chief Yahya Sinwar, the Army spokesman said Thursday.

“Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership, not only the military leadership (but) also their governmental leadership, all the way up to Sinwar,” Richard Hecht told journalists, referring to Hamas’s chief in the enclave.

“They were directly connected” to the attack that Hamas launched on Israel over the weekend that left more than 1,200 people dead.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday that the blockaded Gaza Strip still had some fuel to operate generators, including in hospitals, but that it could run out in a few hours.

“Our understanding is that there is still fuel - but probably only for a few hours - to allow generators to work, including in hospitals,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, told reporters.

Reuters

The International Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s permanent war crimes tribunals, opened in The Hague in 2002. It has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in its 123 member states or committed by its nationals.

Many of the world’s major powers are not members, including China, the United States, Russia, India and Egypt. The ICC recognises Palestine as a member state, while Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and does not formally engage with it.

With a limited budget and staff, ICC prosecutors are already investigating 17 cases ranging from Ukraine and Afghanistan to Sudan and Myanmar. The ICC budget has allocated just under a million euros ($1.06 million) for investigations in the Palestinian territories for 2023 and is seeking additional resources.

The ICC has had an ongoing investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the occupied Palestinian territories since 2021.

It has not issued any arrest warrants.

Reuters

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian starts a regional tour on Thursday to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involving trips to Iraq and Lebanon, Iranian state media said.

“In light of the current Palestinian events, the crimes committed against Gaza and their dangerous ramifications, the foreign minister’s regional trip will start today”, Iran’s ambassador in Lebanon said on social media.

Amirabdollahian will travel to Iraq first and then to Lebanon, state media said.

Overnight, Amirabdollahian talked with his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, asking Islamic and Arab countries to support the Palestinian people.

Reuters

Internationally accepted rules of armed conflict emerged out of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which have been ratified by all U.N. member states and supplemented by rulings at international war crimes tribunals.

A series of treaties governs the treatment of civilians, soldiers and prisoners of war in a system collectively known as the “Law of Armed Conflict” or “International Humanitarian Law”. It applies to government forces and organised armed groups, including Hamas militants.

If alleged Palestinian perpetrators of atrocities in Israel and all alleged perpetrators of crimes on the occupied Palestinian territories are not brought to justice at home, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is the only international legal organ able to bring charges.

Domestic courts can apply so-called universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases, but that would be limited in scope.

The ICC’s founding Rome Statute gives it legal authority to investigate alleged crimes on the territory of its members or by their nationals, when domestic authorities are “unwilling or unable” to do so.

On Tuesday, the office of the prosecutor of the ICC confirmed that its mandate applies to potential crimes committed in the current conflict and said it continues to gather information.

Reuters

Germany is offering military help to Israel and promising to crack down on support for the militant Hamas group at home following the group’s attack on Israel. Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday underlined Germany’s historical responsibility for Israel’s security.

The Defense Ministry said it agreed to an Israeli request to use up to two of five Heron TP combat drones that are currently leased by the German military and were already in Israel for the training of German servicepeople. And Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in Brussels that Israel has requested ammunition for warships, a request that will now be discussed.

Scholz told the German parliament that he has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform Germany of any needs, “for example the treatment of wounded.”

“At this moment, there is only one place for Germany — the place at Israel’s side,” he told lawmakers. “Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel.”

AP

UEFA said on Thursday it was postponing Israel’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Kosovo in Pristina as Israeli authorities are not allowing the national team to travel abroad due to the conflict with Hamas.

European soccer’s governing body said a new date for the Group I match, which had been scheduled for Sunday, would be announced at a later time.

UEFA has already postponed Israel’s qualifier against Switzerland to Nov. 15 in the wake of attacks by Hamas militants. The match had been scheduled to be played in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Reuters

A group of pilgrims who were in Israel on October 7 when the militant group Hamas began attacking the towns on the country’s border with its occupied region of Gaza have returned safely to India and thanked the Indian embassy for its prompt intervention in helping them escape the war zone.

Amidst a multi-front onslaught by Hamas, their timely return to Kerala was made possible through the swift and effective intervention of Indian Embassy officials, a pilgrim who identified himself as Moulavi told a Malayalam news channel here on Thursday.

“If our return journey was postponed even for one more day, we would have been trapped in the war zone... Anyway, we are home now,” the relieved Keralite pilgrim, who returned from Israel escaping from the conflict there, said with a smile.

PTI

The head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency on Thursday warned about the potential for opportunistic violence and called for calm as tensions rise ahead of a planned pro-Palestinian protest in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

In rare public statement, Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said protests and rallies following the attacks by Hamas are likely to continue and he remained concerned about the potential for opportunistic violence.

“In this context, it is important that all parties consider the implications for social cohesion when making public statements,” Burgess said.

“Words matter. ASIO has seen direct connections between inflamed language and inflamed community tensions.”

Reuters

Israel’s military indicated that it would not publish the number of interceptions of Palestinian rockets that it has carried out in the Gaza war, citing concern that such information would help Hamas.

“I’m not going to tell the enemy the number of our intercepts,” spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters, outlining what appeared to be a departure from past wartime policy.

Reuters

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz vowed Thursday his country would not allow basic resources or humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas released the people it abducted during its surprise weekend onslaught.

“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” he said in a statement.

Around 150 Israelis, foreigners and dual nationals were abducted to the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants as part of the Saturday attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israeli towns and communities around the enclave.

AFP

The first charter flight to facilitate the return of Indian citizens stranded in Israel will leave Thursday evening from the Ben Gurion airport, sources said, amid the country’s raging war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

About 230 Indians living in Israel will be leaving for India on a “first come first serve” basis on the 9 p.m. flight on Thursday, informed sources told PTI.

This flight has been arranged to facilitate the return of those who were unable to do so because Air India had immediately suspended its flight on the day fighting began on October 7, and its commercial operation remains suspended till now.

Those who are returning will not be paying any fare and the government is bearing the cost of their return.

PTI

Palestinians in Gaza lined up outside bakeries on Thursday after spending the night in pitch darkness surrounded by the ruins of pulverised neighbourhoods, as Israel launched new airstrikes and said it was preparing for a possible ground invasion.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground maneuver if decided,” but that the political leadership has not yet ordered one. A ground offensive in Gaza, the first since the 2014 war, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

AP

Broadly speaking, Israel’s options are linked to the objectives it sets. In the past, Israel had carried out military operations aimed at both weakening and destroying militant outfits. And they produced mixed results — Israel won the battles with short-term gains but faced long-term setbacks. When it comes to Israel’s military operations against non-state actors, history always suggests caution.

Read the analytical piece by Stanly Johny here.

Palestinian militant group Hamas would not have been able to launch its “unprecedented” attacks on Israel without having had Iranian support in recent years, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday.

“So far, we have no tangible evidence that Iran gave concrete and operational support to this cowardly attack,” Scholz said in an address to parliament.

“But it is clear to all of us that without Iranian support over the last few years, Hamas would not have been able to carry out these unprecedented attacks on Israeli territory.”

-AFP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday as part of a wider Middle East tour to display Washington’s solidarity with Israel after the attack by Palestinian Hamas militants and to seek to quell the conflict.

The top U.S. diplomat will also try to help secure the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas — some of whom are Americans — and safe passage of Gaza civilians out of the densely-populated enclave ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion.

-Reuters

The presidents of Iran and Syria have urged Islamic countries to reach agreement on a position in support of Palestinians, a news agency linked to Iran’s top security agency, Nournews, reported on Thursday.

“Islamic and Arab countries as well all free people of the world must reach a single position to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime against the oppressed Palestinian people,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told his Syrian counterpart over the telephone, Nournews reported.

-Reuters

Hamas militants on Thursday fired a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israeli air strikes that targeted “civilians” in two Gaza refugee camps, the Palestinian group said.

“Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to (Israeli strikes) targeting civilians in Al-Shati and Jabalia camps,” Hamas said, referring to its armed wing, in a text message sent to journalists.

-AFP

South Africa is ready to help mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, drawing on its experience at conflict resolution, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

Mr. Ramaphosa also called for the immediate and unconditional opening of “humanitarian corridors” in the Middle East so that aid can get to people who urgently need it, in the wake of days of Israeli air strikes on Gazan targets in retribution for a weekend attack by Hamas militants.

-Reuters

Israel’s ambassador to Japan said on Thursday that his host country should be “vigilant” and look at what Hamas was doing with the aid it extends to Palestinians.

Gilan Cohen said at a press conference that he commended Japan for acknowledging the Hamas attacks as “terrorism” and for saying Israel had a right to defend itself.

Japan, which calls for a political solution to allow Israel and a future independent Palestinian state to coexist, provides assistance to Palestinians through various schemes. That assistance totalled $2.3 billion over the last decade, according to a foreign ministry document issued in June.

- Reuters

Over the years, Hamas has lost most of its founding leaders, it has been categorised as a terrorist outfit and faced Israeli attacks frequently. Every time it bombs Gaza, Israel vows to destroy Hamas’s militant infrastructure. But Hamas survives, to fight another day.

Read the report by Stanly Johny.

Israeli military says it is preparing for a ground operation in Gaza but the political leadership has not decided yet.

The military spokesperson said that at least 200 Israeli soldiers are among the more than 1,200 killed by Hamas. He added that Palestinian gunment are still trying to infiltrate Israel by sea.

The overnight Gaza strikes were focused on Hamas’ elite Nukhba force, it was said.

-AP, Reuters

Fifteen Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, Hamas Aqsa radio said on Thursday.

-Reuters

Brazil, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, called a Friday meeting of the body to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, its foreign affairs ministry said Wednesday.

Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira has interrupted an Asia trip to travel “to New York to participate in a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, called by Brazil... to address the situation in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement.

Brazil previously called an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday, the day after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.

-AFP

U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier and her strike group is heading to the Mediterranean, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said.

Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday, Kirby stated that there is no operational decision taken regarding the deployment of the second U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. However, he noted that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier was heading in that direction.

-ANI

Survivors recount the horrors of Hamas’s attacks that left over 1,200 people dead as Israeli troops are pounding Gaza and preparing for a ground offensive

Read the full ground report here.

More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave.

“Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Thursday.

By late Wednesday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 75,000 people from the figure given 24 hours earlier, reaching 338,934, it said.

-AFP

Read the full story here.

China’s special envoy on Middle East issues is expected to have a telephone conversation with Israeli officials on Thursday, Israel’s Ambassador to China, Irit Ben-Abba, told Bloomberg News.

China’s special envoy on the Middle East, Zhai Jun, earlier this week said the country condemns acts that harm civilians and called for an immediate ceasefire.

-Reuters

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 1,200 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Thursday, following an increase in Israeli bombardments on the sixth day since Hamas’s surprise attack.

“The number of martyrs has risen to around 1,200, and the number of wounded to around 5,600,” a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza said.

-AFP

A prominent Indian diaspora group has extended solidarity to the people of Israel, and said that the attack by Hamas militants against innocent civilians in the country is a crime against humanity.

“We stand in solidarity with the people of Israel and condemn these unprovoked and barbaric attacks,” said Khanderao Kand, director of Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS). “Hamas’ and Jihadi terrorists’ goal is to destroy Israel, and its attacks on innocent civilians are a crime against humanity,” he said.

FIIDS welcomed the US House bipartisan resolution, introduced by Congressman Michael MaCaul and Gregory Meeks, and supported by 392 House of Representatives, condemning the attack and supporting Israel in the ongoing war.

FIIDS compared Hamas’ attacks to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. “This is a 9/11-like attack on Israel,” he said.

-PTI

Will Hamas achieve anything for the Palestinian cause from its attack on Israel? If the Yom Kippur war was fought between national Armies, here, Israel is facing an Islamist militant group. Also, if, in 1973, the fighting mostly took place in Sinai and Golan — territories captured and occupied by Israel — Hamas launched attacks into Israeli towns on its southern border and fired thousands of rockets, killing some 700 Israelis, including many civilians.

Read the full story by Stanly Johny

President Joe Biden says the weekend attack by Hamas militants on Israel was the deadliest against Jews since the Holocaust and called it a “campaign of pure cruelty.”

Mr. Biden made the remarks while speaking Wednesday with Jewish leaders as the U.S. said the number of U.S. citizens killed during the Hamas-Israel war had risen to 22.

- AP