Israel-Hamas war, Day 27 | Hamas says it fired 12 rockets from Lebanon

Armed conflict in the Middle East is likely to have only a limited impact on global energy prices, provided that hostilities do not spread further, European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel said on Thursday.

“Our preliminary analysis at this point shows that given that Israel in the end is relatively small, as long as the conflict remains contained, the impact on energy prices should be relatively limited,” Schnabel told a lecture.

“If of course the conflict widened, in particular if Iran was involved, the situation could change quickly,” she said.

Reuters

House passes $14.5B in military aid for Israel, sending bill to Senate as President Biden threatens to veto GOP approach.

AP

Israeli troops fought with Hamas militants on the edges of Gaza City on Thursday, as the Palestinian death toll rose above 9,000. After nearly four weeks of war sparked by Hamas’ deadly rampage in Israel, U.S. and Arab leaders raised pressure on Israel to ease its siege of Gaza and at least briefly halt its attacks in order to aid civilians.

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading to the region for talks Friday in Israel and Jordan, after President Joe Biden suggested a humanitarian “pause” in the Gaza fighting to let in aid for Palestinians and let out more foreign nationals.

AP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday he would seek “concrete measures” from Israel to minimize harm to Gaza civilians as he headed on his second crisis trip to the Middle East since a Hamas assault triggered a war.

President Joe Biden has promised full support and ramped-up military aid to Israel for its retaliatory strikes in Gaza, but in a visible shift of tone has also voiced empathy for Palestinian suffering which has stoked anger in parts of the world.

“We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimize harm to men, women and children in Gaza,” Blinken told reporters as he flew out of Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

AFP

The military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas says it fired 12 rockets from Lebanon toward the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

The Qassam Brigades said in a statement that Thursday’s rocket attack came in retaliation for the “occupation’s massacres against our people in Gaza.”

It was not immediately clear if the rockets fired from Lebanon hit the northern Israeli town.

The firing of the rockets came amid major escalation along the Lebanon-Israel border with Hezbollah attacking an Israeli army position with two suicide drones.

By sunset, Israel’s air force conducted airstrikes along the border area. - AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israeli forces had pushed further in than the outskirts of Gaza City in their assault on Hamas militants in the northern half of the Gaza Strip.

“We’re at the height of the battle. We’ve had impressive successes and have passed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office. It gave no further details. - Reuters

Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says it has attacked an Israeli army post in a disputed area with two suicide drones filled with explosives.

Hezbollah said in a short statement that the drones “precisely” hit their targets Thursday in the disputed Chebaa Farms that Lebanon claims are Lebanese territories.

It was the first time that Hezbollah says it attacked Israeli forces using suicide drones.

The drone attack is an escalation by the militant group and comes a day before Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to give his first televised speech since Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing over 1,400 Israeli troops and civilians. - AP

An Israeli strike hit a residential building in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson said.

Speaking to Qatar’s Al Jazeera television, Mahmoud Bassal said it has been difficult for civil defense vehicles and first responders to arrive to clear the rubble.

Residents said dozens of people were trapped under the rubble. The strike created a large crater and severely damaged the buildings around it. A survivor speaking to the television network compared it to an earthquake.

Bassal said Gaza Civil Defense paramedics and first-responders are struggling because of crippled infrastructure and fuel shortages. He said they have relied on donations of fuel by individual Palestinians from their personal supplies to run ambulances and other vehicles. Israel has banned the transport of fuel into Gaza. - AP

A Sikh community delegation led by former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjeet Singh GK met the Palestinian Ambassador to India Adnan Abu Al-Hija on Thursday and offered help to those affected by the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“Our community always roots for peace and harmony and as a humanitarian gesture, we want to extend help to those who are affected by the Israel-Hamas war,” Manjeet Singh GK told PTI.

The delegation also submitted a memorandum to the Ambassador after the meeting mentioning their concerns about the ongoing conflict and offering to help.

“We understand that Palestine is currently facing a humanitarian crisis and we offer our assistance to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine and their requirements of civil and food supplies. Sikhs around the world are deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict in West Asia, which has resulted in the loss of precious lives in both Israel and Palestine,” the memorandum read.

“Our community always vowed for global peace and harmony. We urge upon all parties to desist from indulging in warfare and maintain global peace and harmony,” it added.

Manjeet Singh GK, president of the JAGO Party, further said, “Whoever needs help, whether it is Israel or Palestine, we are ready to provide humanitarian aid.” - PTI

Fires caused by Israeli shelling in south Lebanon have burned some 40,000 olive trees and torched hundreds of square km (miles) of land, dealing a serious blow to a major Lebanese crop, the agriculture minister said.

Fires on Lebanon’s side of the border have flared daily since the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging fire last month after war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas erupted.

“Forty-thousand trees mean 40,000 histories. People are connected to olives spiritually. Our ancestors planted them, and we are losing them today,” Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan told Reuters.

He accused Israel of starting the fires by using shells containing white phosphorous to destroy wooded areas which Hezbollah fighters - who began firing into Israel in support of Hamas in what has become the worst flare-up of border hostilities since a 2006 war - could use as cover.

The Israeli army denied the accusation and said the types of smoke-screen shell it uses do not contain white phosphorus.

“The smoke-screen shells containing white phosphorus in the (Israeli military) are not intended or used for setting fire, and any claim that these shells are used for that cause is baseless,” an army spokesperson said. - Reuters

Residents reported mortar fire around Gaza City and said Israeli tanks and bulldozers were sometimes driving over rubble and knocking down structures rather than using regular roads.

The south of Gaza was not spared either, with three Palestinians dead from tank shelling near the town of Khan Younis and an air strike killing five outside a U.N. school in Beach refugee camp, Gaza health officials said.

Brigadier General Iddo Mizrahi, chief of Israel’s military engineers, told Army Radio troops were in a first stage of opening access routes in Gaza.

“This is certainly terrain that is more heavily sown than in the past with minefields and booby-traps,” he said. “Hamas has learned and prepared itself well.”

Palestinian border official Wael Abu Mehsen said 400 foreign citizens would leave for Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Thursday, after some 320 on Wednesday. Another 60 critically injured Palestinians would be crossing too, Mehsen added. - Reuters

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Thursday that more than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed since war broke out more than three weeks ago.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, a ministry spokesperson, said 9,061 people have been killed in Gaza, including 3,760 who are under 18.

More than 1,400 people have been killed on the Israeli side, the vast majority civilians killed by Hamas in its bloody Oct. 7 incursion into Israel.

The Health Ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but includes doctors and veteran civil servants who are not affiliated with the group. Its tolls from previous wars have held up to U.N. scrutiny, independent investigations and even Israel’s tallies.

Al-Qidra warned of an “imminent health catastrophe” after the main generator in a hospital in northern Gaza failed and other hospitals face shortages of fuel and medicine. He said the generator at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the territory’s largest hospital, appears likely to fail soon.

“We appeal to all parties to provide safe passage for the urgent flow of medical aid into Gaza,” he said. - AP

Three Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, and an Israeli was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, according to first responders.

Violence has surged across the West Bank for months and intensified further since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7. - AFP

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Israel’s recommendation that its citizens leave Russia’s North Caucasus region after a violent anti-Israeli protest in Dagestan on Sunday was “anti-Russian”.

In a briefing with reporters, Ms. Zakharova said that an Israeli warning against travel in the mostly Muslim regions of the North Caucasus bore “no relation to reality”.

Dozens were arrested after hundreds of protesters stormed Makhachkala airport in Dagestan on Sunday, looking for Jewish passengers on board a plane arriving from Tel Aviv. - Reuters

The bodies of two Lebanese shepherds who had been shot at by Israeli forces were found in an area near the border on Thursday, the Lebanese state National News Agency (NNA) reported.

A spokesperson for the Israeli army said it was looking into the report.

The NNA, which gave no source for its report, said they had been tending to their flock near the Wazzani river when they were shot at. - Reuters

Praising India for its morality and humanity on the global stage, Iran’s Ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi has said that India possesses the potential to play a pivotal role in putting an end to the brutalities in the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.

The Iranian envoy took a sharp dig at Israel for its ground offensive in Gaza and said, “Undoubtedly, India boasts a rich history of upholding moral courage and showcasing the indomitable human spirit. With this in mind, I firmly believe that India will not turn a blind eye to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In fact, India possesses the potential to play a pivotal role in putting an end to the brutalities inflicted by the Zionists.”

He said that as India aspires to become the voice of the Global South, it cannot be discussed without discussing the problems of people in Palestine.

- ANI

Saudi Arabia said it was launching a fundraising campaign for Palestinians in war-torn Gaza where Israel is pressing a massive military operation following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler, donated 20 million Saudi riyals (roughly $5.3 million) to the campaign, the state-affiliated channel Al-Ekhbariya reported.

The campaign “comes within the framework of the Kingdom’s well-known historic role in standing with the brotherly Palestinian people,” said Dr. Abdullah al-Rabeeah, head of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

- AFP

The number of people held as hostages in Gaza is 242, Israeli military confirmed on Thursday. - Reuters

The Hamas-run government in Gaza said on Thursday 195 people had been killed in Israeli strikes this week on Jabalia refugee camp, the biggest in the narrow Palestinian territory.

“The victims of the first and second massacres in Jabalia exceed 1,000” including “martyrs and wounded”, said the Hamas government press office in a statement referring to strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We have recorded 195 martyrs, 120 missing under the rubble, and 777 wounded.” - AFP

Arab countries, including those allied with the U.S. and at peace with Israel, have expressed mounting unease with the war. Jordan recalled its ambassador from Israel and told Israel’s envoy to remain out of the country until there’s a halt to the war and the “humanitarian catastrophe” it is causing.

More than 3,600 Palestinian children have been killed in 25 days of fighting, as bombings have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and food, water and fuel run low. - AP

Israel’s ground troops advanced toward Gaza City on Thursday, as the U.S. and Arab countries intensified diplomatic efforts to ease the siege of the Hamas-ruled enclave and bring about at least a brief stop to the fighting to help civilians.

President Joe Biden suggested a humanitarian “pause” on Wednesday, as hundreds of foreign passport holders and wounded Palestinians were allowed out of Gaza for the first time, exiting via Egypt’s Rafah crossing. - AP

Egypt will help evacuate “about 7,000” foreigners and dual nationals from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

In a meeting with foreign diplomats, Assistant Foreign Minister Ismail Khairat said Egypt was preparing “to facilitate the reception and evacuation of foreign citizens from Gaza through the Rafah crossing”, adding they “number at about 7,000” representing “more than 60” nationalities.

- AFP

Following the removal of its Ambassador from Israel by Jordan, the White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby has said that Jordan has the right to manage bilateral relations the way they see fit.On being asked by the reporters if the current conflict could lead to deeper isolation for Israel as Jordan took such a step, Kirby responded by saying, “Well, certainly that’s going to be a comment for -- or that’s an issue for the Jordanian government to speak to. I wouldn’t get involved in that. They have a right to manage bilateral relations the way they see fit.”

The White House official added by saying that an integrated Israel is good for the region. “We still believe that an integrated Israel is good for the region. And we still believe that that is a path worth pursuing. And we’re not giving up on that. I think you’ve heard me say we’re still interested in pursuing this normalization arrangement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. And as I said yesterday, the Saudi Arabians have indicated a willingness to continue in that regard,” he said, according to a White House release.

“Again, the Jordanian government can and should speak for their own decision. We still believe that there is great power and there’s great promise in a more integrated, more cooperative Middle East, and we’re not going to give up on that,” he said.

Jordan had withdrawn its ambassador from Israel amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

- ANI

More than 3,600 Palestinian children were killed in the first 25 days of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. They were hit by airstrikes, smashed by misfired rockets, burned by blasts and crushed by buildings, and among them were newborns and toddlers, avid readers, aspiring journalists and boys who thought they’d be safe in a church.

Nearly half of the crowded strip’s 2.3 million inhabitants are under 18, and children account for 40% of those killed so far in the war. An Associated Press analysis of Gaza Health Ministry data released last week showed that as of Oct. 26, 2,001 children ages 12 and under had been killed, including 615 who were 3 or younger.

“When houses are destroyed, they collapse on the heads of children,” writer Adam al-Madhoun said on Wednesday as he comforted his 4-year-old daughter Kenzi at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.

Israel says its airstrikes target Hamas militant sites and infrastructure, and it accuses the group of using civilians as human shields. It also says more than 500 militant rockets have misfired and landed in Gaza, killing an unknown number of Palestinians.

More children have been killed in just over three weeks in Gaza than in all of the world’s conflicts combined in each of the past three years, according to the global charity Save the Children. For example, it said, 2,985 children were killed across two dozen war zones throughout all of last year.

“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency.

- AP

Just weeks after a frenzied trip to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the region with a somewhat more nuanced message than he offered in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ bloody October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s military response.

As he did last month, Mr. Blinken will stress U.S. support for Israel and try to prevent a wider Mideast war as he visits Israel and Jordan starting on Friday. But Mr. Blinken’s agenda this time is more crowded and more complex as the conflict intensifies and the Biden administration grapples with competing domestic and international interests and anger.

He’ll push for the evacuation of more foreigners from Gaza and more humanitarian aid for the territory. He’ll press Israel to rein in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank committed by Jewish settlers. And, he’ll stress the importance of protecting civilians — even though the administration has yet to offer any criticism of Israel for strikes that have killed thousands of civilians in Gaza.

So, while calling for brief pauses in air strikes and fighting for humanitarian purposes, he will continue to oppose growing calls for a broader cease-fire. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he thought there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war in order to get “prisoners” out.

But, Mr. Blinken will also be introducing a new element to the U.S. list of priorities: the need for Israel and its neighbours to begin to consider what a post-conflict Gaza will look like, who will govern it, how it can be made secure and how to establish an independent Palestinian state.

- AP

In a truncated land where there is repeated violence, Palestinian writers face up to the conflict by documenting experiences of dispossession, exile and restriction. After decades of failure in peacemaking efforts, they also wonder what it will take for the strife to end.

President Joe Biden wants Congress to quickly pass billions of dollars in new aid for both Israel and Ukraine, but the Republican-controlled lower chamber on Thursday is set to consider a Bill that puts Kyiv on the back burner.

Debate over the funding request is beginning in earnest after a weeks-long delay while House Republicans struggled to name a new Speaker, and it is unclear what, if anything, can get through both chambers.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress want to promptly adopt military aid for Israel, a long-standing U.S. partner at war with Hamas.

- AFP

20 Australians were among the first group of foreign citizens to leave the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip and enter Eygpt via the Rafah border crossing, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts said on Thursday.

At least 320 foreign nationals left the Palestinian enclave to cross into Egypt on Wednesday, the first to benefit from a deal mediated by Qatar.

Mr. Watts said there were still 65 Australians trapped in Gaza and the government had urged them, using all available communication channels, to move toward the Rafah crossing as soon as possible.

“We are providing all possible support we can, communicating through all available channels,” Mr. Watts told ABC television. “It is not always perfect. This is a conflict zone.”

Mr. Watts said the government was not planning for more assisted flights at the moment as there were enough commercial options available. Since the conflict began on October 7, the Australian government has conducted several repatriation flights.

- Reuters

Two Data Points published last week explored the impoverished nature of the Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, and how Israel controls employment, trade, water and electricity in both Gaza and the West Bank. This third and concluding part of the series on the Israel-Hamas conflict also explores how Israel controls the economy of the Palestinian territories, but focuses only on Israel’s control of exits and entry points, which determines trade and movement of men for employment and other needs.

Read the Data story here.

President Joe Biden wants Congress to quickly pass billions of dollars in new aid for both Israel and Ukraine, but the Republican-controlled lower chamber on Thursday is set to consider a bill that puts Kyiv on the back burner.

Debate over the funding request is beginning in earnest after a weeks-long delay while House Republicans struggled to name a new speaker, and it is unclear what, if anything, can get through both chambers.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress want to promptly adopt military aid for Israel, a long-standing US partner at war with Hamas.

-AFP

The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris met with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday and discussed the support for Israel’s right to defend itself as well as the urgent need to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Today, I met with Prime Minister @RishiSunak and discussed our support for Israel’s right to defend itself and the urgent need to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Together we are committed to helping civilians in need,” Ms. Harris posted on X.

What event brought about a paradigm shift in the way Washington looked at the Jewish state? What is the basis of the ‘the special relationship’ between the two countries?

​Click here to read the explainer by Stanly Johny​

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNWRA, has said the number of its workers killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza now stands at 70. The group said that more than 690,000 displaced Palestinians were currently seeking shelter in 149 UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip.

UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, crossed into Gaza on Wednesday, meeting with Palestinians and also aid groups. In a statement that followed, Mr. Lazzarini reiterated UNRWA’s call for fuel to enter Gaza and for a humanitarian cease-fire.

-AP

A senior United Nations human rights agency official strongly criticized the U.N. in a retirement letter for appearing powerless and failing to stop what he called “a genocide unfolding before our eyes” in Gaza.

Craig Mokhiber, a U.S. human rights lawyer, claimed “the current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people” is rooted in decades of persecution and purging by Israel “based entirely upon their status as Arabs and coupled with explicit statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military.”

-AP

All 10 Japanese nationals and their eight Palestinian family members wishing to leave Gaza have evacuated to Egypt, the top government spokesperson said on Thursday.

Speaking at a regular press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno added that one Japanese national living in Gaza remains there with family.

-Reuters

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday it destroyed an Israeli drone over south Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile, an account disputed by Israel’s military which confirmed the missile launch but said its aircraft suffered “no damage”.

It was the second time this week that Hezbollah claimed to down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile.

Hezbollah said in a statement its fighters shot down the drone just after midnight over two villages on the Lebanese side of the frontier. “It crashed and fell instantly,” it said.

- Reuters

“The image of shattered solar panels in Gaza amid billowing smoke is a grim reminder that peace is a prerequisite for progress. If the political leadership of the world cannot ensure a peaceful present, how do we expect them to protect us from other threats like “global boiling”? Francis Bacon in his essay On Revenge describes revenge as “a kind of wild justice.” ‘Wild’ means raw or not regulated by judicial restraint or civilised conduct. Revenge is an act of retaliation implying an earlier act of provocation. Even if that is the case, and whatever its irrationality, an act of vengeance by the establishment can never be justified like the earlier act,” writes Ashok Lavasa, former Election Commissioner.

Some of Latin America’s largest countries came out on Wednesday to condemn Israel’s attacks on a densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, widening the diplomatic rift between the region and the Middle Eastern country.

Argentina, home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community, Peru and Mexico lambasted the Israeli attacks, which the Gaza government in the Hamas-controlled territory said had killed nearly 200 people.

The criticisms come a day after Bolivia cut diplomatic ties with Israel over its bombardment and siege of Gaza and mounting civilian casualties, while Colombia and Chile recalled their ambassadors to the country.

-Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden said he thought there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war, after his campaign speech Wednesday evening was interrupted by a protester calling for a ceasefire.

“I think we need a pause,” Biden said.

The call was a subtle departure for Mr. Biden and top White House aides, who throughout the Mideast crisis have been steadfast in stating they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations.

-AP

Deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip’s largest refugee camp “could amount to war crimes”, the UN Human Rights Office said on Wednesday.

“Given the high number of civilian casualties & the scale of destruction following Israeli air strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes,” the office wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

-AFP