Israel-Hamas war, Day 32 updates | Defence Minister says Israeli forces in the ‘heart of Gaza City’

Israel’s military is operating deep within Gaza City, the stronghold of the Palestinian group Hamas, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Nov. 7, adding that Israel had no desire to rule the Palestinian enclave once the war was over.

“IDF forces are in the heart of Gaza City. They came from the north and the south. They stormed it in full coordination between land, air and sea forces,” Mr. Gallant said in a televised news conference.

“They are manoeuvring on foot, armoured vehicles and tanks, along with military engineers from all directions and they have one target -- Hamas terrorists in Gaza, their infrastructure, their commanders, bunkers, communication rooms. They are tightening the noose around Gaza City,” Mr. Gallant said.

Mr. Gallant described Gaza City as “the biggest terrorism base built by man”. He said that below the city there were kilometres (miles) of tunnels that ran under schools and hospitals and that housed weapon depots, communication rooms and hideouts for militants.

Asked about plans for who would rule Gaza once the war was over, Mr. Gallant said, “I can tell you who will not govern [Gaza]. It will not be Hamas, and it will not be Israel. Everything else is a possibility.”

He repeated Israel’s call on Palestinian civilians to move to the south of Gaza for their own safety. — Reuters

Crammed under makeshift canvas shelters in the car park, sleeping in corridors or on landings, passing the hours of the day in stairwells, hanging laundry on the roof - thousands of displaced Gazans are filling every space at Al Shifa Hospital.

The main hospital in Gaza City has turned into a giant refuge for people whose homes have been bombarded, or who fear that they will be, in Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip, which is entering its second month.

“We ran from our house because of the heavy air strikes,” said Um Haitham Hejela, a woman sheltering with young children in an improvised tent fashioned from fabric, string and mats.

“The situation is getting worse day after day,” she said. “There is no food, no water. When my son goes to pick up water, he queues for three or four hours in the line. They struck bakeries, we don’t have bread.” - Reuters

A top U.S. envoy said in Beirut on Tuesday that Washington doesn’t want the ongoing war in Gaza to expand to Lebanon, as a Lebanese woman and her three granddaughters were laid to rest two days after they were killed in an Israeli strike.

The comments from Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden come during a previously unannounced visit to Beirut to discuss the volatile situation with Lebanon’s parliament speaker and caretaker prime minister.

Mr. Hochstein told reporters after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that restoring calm along Lebanon’s southern border is of “utmost importance.” Mr. Hochstein said he heard Berri’s concerns over the tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border where fighters of the militant group Hezbollah and their allies have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops for about a month, after the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7.

“The United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon,” Mr. Hochstein said in a brief statement. He did not take questions from journalists.

Mr. Hochstein’s comments came as the Israeli military and Hezbollah exchanged fire on Tuesday following what Israel said was the targeting of one of its posts along the Lebanese border. The clashes along the border have intensified since Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza against Palestinian militant group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah. - AP

Hundreds of Palestinian foreign passport holders waited on Tuesday inside the war-stricken and besieged Gaza Strip to escape through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

While most still queued nervously, the first arrivals were seen on the Egyptian side where paramedics transferred an injured woman on a stretcher into an ambulance to rush her to a hospital.

Tuesday was set to mark the fifth day on which Gaza’s sole land crossing not controlled by Israel has opened in the past week, to wounded Palestinians as well as foreigners and Palestinian dual nationals.

AFP video footage from the Gaza side showed hundreds waiting with suitcases, bags and other scant belongings at the Rafah terminal complex.

“We were suffering just like any Gazan resident, we waited a long time for the crossing to open,” said Farid Nawasra, who holds a Russian passport.

“We were waiting every day for our names to be added to the list, and we hope today that they allow us to pass, as they allowed other foreigners to pass.”

Departures from the Gaza Strip were expected to resume for many more on Tuesday afternoon after 500 people had received authorisation to enter Egypt, Hamas officials said.

“Every person in Gaza is in danger,” said Myrian Abu Shaban, a resident of Gaza City. “I’m happy that we managed to make it to the border.” - AFP

Five hostages of Hamas are free, offering some hope to the families of more than 200 others snatched in southern Israel during the militants’ deadly rampage on Oct. 7.

But the families of those still in captivity have questions, such as why progress has been so slow, why some and not others are being released and whether Israel’s punishing bombardment of the Gaza Strip puts their loved ones in danger. - AP

Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday 10,328 people have been killed in the month-long war between Israel and the militant group Hamas which controls the Palestinian territory.

Thousands of children are among those killed in Gaza since October 7, when Israel launched a blistering assault in response to a deadly attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants. - AFP

What was once Gaza’s busiest thoroughfare has become a terrifying escape route for Palestinian civilians fleeing combat on foot or on donkey carts. On their way south, those running for their lives said they raised their hands and waved white flags to move past Israeli tanks along the four-lane highway.

Some reported Israeli soldiers firing at them and said they passed bodies strewn alongside the road.

Many escaped with just the clothes on their back. One woman, covered head-to-toe in a black veil and robe, cradled a toddler and clutched a black purse. A man walked alongside a covered donkey cart that transported his family. It was piled high with mattresses. - AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Tuesday on the G7 to speak “in a clear voice” about the Israel-Hamas war as he kicked off talks with fellow foreign ministers from the grouping in Japan.

“This is a very important moment... for the G7 to come together in the face of this crisis and speak as we do in one clear voice,” Mr. Blinken said at the start of the two-day meeting in Tokyo.

Arriving in Tokyo following his latest whirlwind tour of the Middle East, Mr. Blinken was set to “brief his counterparts on his trip... and progress on delivering humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and efforts to contain the conflict,” a senior State Department official said. - AFP

China’s special envoy for Middle East issues, Zhai Jun, met with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns on Tuesday and exchanged views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and other topics, the Chinese foreign ministry said. - Reuters

A Palestinian journalist was killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip and another was wounded, the official Palestinian news agency reported Tuesday.

Mohammad Abu Hasira was the latest among dozens of journalists killed in the month-long conflict that began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.

WAFA news agency reported that Abu Hasira “and 42 members of his family, including his sons and brothers” were killed in the strike. - AFP

A Lebanese woman and her three granddaughters were laid to rest in their hometown in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, two days after they were killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit the car they were travelling in near the Lebanon-Israel border.

Hundreds of men and women marched before the four coffins, which were draped in black and white banners as they were carried through the streets of the village of Ainata. The coffins were later taken for burial in a cemetery in the nearby village of Blida. - AP

The UN rights chief is visiting the Middle East amid rising concerns over Israel’s escalation in Gaza, his office said on Tuesday, a month after Hamas carried out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

Volker Turk was on Tuesday i.n Egypt at the start of a five-day visit to the region, and was planning to visit the Rafah crossing to Gaza on Wednesday, his office said in a statement. - AFP

The United Arab Emirates is to set up a field hospital in the Gaza Strip, official media said after the number of people killed in Israeli bombardments passed 10,000.

Five aircraft flew out of Abu Dhabi for Arish in northern Egypt carrying equipment and supplies for the 150-bed facility, WAM news agency said late Monday. - AFP

Singapore’s government has warned that anyone who displays or wears emblems linked to the Israel-Hamas war could be jailed, saying the conflict was an “emotive issue” that could disrupt national peace.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement late Monday that Singapore’s laws prohibited the display or wearing of foreign national emblems, including flags and banners of any state. It also warned that promoting or supporting terrorism by exhibiting apparel or paraphernalia with logos of terrorist or militant groups such as Hamas or its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigade, will not be condoned.

Those convicted face up to six months in prison or a fine of up to 500 Singapore dollars ($370) or both. Travelers who wear such apparel can also be denied entry into Singapore, it added.

-AP

Fresh from a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shifted his intense diplomacy on the Israel-Hamas war to Asia on Tuesday, as he and his counterparts from the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies began two days of talks in Japan.

“Even as we are intensely focused on the crisis in Gaza, we’re also very much engaged and focused on the important work that we’re doing in the Indo-Pacific and in other parts of the world,” Mr. Blinken told reporters in Ankara, Turkey, before leaving the Middle East for Asia. - AP

Energy giant Saudi Aramco on Tuesday posted a 23-percent year-on-year drop in profits for the third quarter, the result of lower oil prices and production cuts.

The drop from $42.43 billion last year to $32.58 billion “principally reflects the impact of lower crude oil prices and volumes sold”, the firm said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange. - AFP

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a statement by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to voice openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised many questions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suspended Heritage Minister Amihay Eliyahu, from a far-right party in the coalition government, from cabinet meetings “until further notice”. - Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that Israel will take control of “overall security” of besieged Gaza after the war, as the Hamas-run health ministry said the death toll has surged past 10,000. - AFP

As Palestinians in Gaza face genocide, the silent annexation of the West Bank receives less attention. Since October 7, reportedly 114 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, and 1,200 arrests and rapid raids have taken place.

Today, West Bank is facing another Al Nakba (exodus). In the worst-hit cities and refugee camps such as Jenin, Aqabat Jaber, Qalqilya, and Qalandiya, smaller Bedouin communities are being evacuated, land is being grabbed, and farms are being vandalised.

How and why is the Shomron Regional Council, located north of West Bank with 35 Israeli settlements under its jurisdiction, in the process of distributing 300 assault rifles to civilian security squads? Does state-sponsored violence have legitimacy in illegal Israeli settlements? Yossi Dagan, the head of the Council, says he has raised “millions” of shekels from donors around the world to purchase the rifles. Who are these donors? What is the surveillance on such funding? The conversation about the complicated nature of the Israeli occupation has been replaced with a debate between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. The Hamas attack of October 7 cannot be justified, but we need to ask why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu propped up Hamas, primarily after 2009, gave unhindered access to funds flowing in from Qatar and Iran to the Gaza Strip, and thereby created his Frankenstein monster.

As Israel’s Gaza attack is nearing a month, which has flattened Gaza’s high buildings and left piles of bodies in the besieged enclave, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a second trip to West Asia since the war began on October 7. Mr. Blinken’s main focus is not on bringing the war to an end, but to prevent it from escalating into a regional conflict.

Bahrain, one of the Abraham Accords countries, and Turkey have recalled their ambassadors from Israel, while Egypt and Jordan have repeatedly called for a ceasefire. Israel’s border with Lebanon has remained tense with continued exchange of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shia militia which has close ties with Iran. Mr. Blinken’s visit came immediately after Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, made a televised speech, saying his group was “prepared for all options”. Ever since Israel launched its attacks on Gaza, after Hamas carried out a cross-border raid in Israel killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, on October 7, there were speculations that the war could spill over into other parts of the region if Hezbollah opened a second front or Israel carried out a pre-emptive strike on the Shia group.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the purpose of the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza was to “fully” serve Palestinians in response to an accusation by the Israeli military that it has been used by Hamas to launch attacks.

Israeli military’s has said that Hamas “systematically exploits hospitals as part of its war machine” as it exposed a network of tunnels, command centres and rocket launchers beneath and adjacent to hospitals in northern Gaza.

Hamas denied doing so and has accused Israel of spreading lies.

“Indonesia Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by Indonesians fully for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza,” said the ministry said in a statement, adding the hospital is run by Palestinian authorities, helped by a few Indonesian volunteers. - Reuters

Law enforcement officials in California said on Monday they were investigating the death of a Jewish man who died after an altercation at dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said it had been called after a confrontation at the rallies on Sunday in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Los Angeles. - AFP

A 69-year-old Jewish man died Monday after falling and striking his head following a confrontation the previous day during competing pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in suburban Los Angeles, authorities said.

Paul Kessler’s death was being investigated as a homicide and authorities haven’t ruled out the possibility a hate crime occurred, said a statement from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. No arrests had been made.

Kessler was injured shortly before 3:30 p.m. Sunday during competing demonstrations in Thousand Oaks, a city of about 125,000 northwest of Los Angeles. Police received reports that a battery had occurred and deputies sent to the scene found Kessler suffering from a head wound, the department said.

“Witness accounts indicated that Kessler was involved in a physical altercation with counter-protestor(s). During the altercation, Kessler fell backwards and struck his head on the ground,” the department said. - AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on November 6 that Israel will take control of “overall security” of besieged Gaza after the war, as the Hamas-run health ministry said the death toll has surged past 10,000.

Resisting calls for a ceasefire, Netanyahu said there would be no letup in the war to destroy Hamas, whose October 7 attack left 1,400 dead in Israel, most of them civilians. - AFP

Yemen’s Houthis launched a new batch of drones against sensitive targets inside Israel on November 6, according to a statement from their armed forces broadcast by TV channel Al Masirah.

The statement said the targets of the drones were “varied and sensitive” and led to halting the movement in the targeted bases and airports for hours. - Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in Gaza fighting to facilitate the entry of aid or the exit of hostages, but again rejected calls for a general ceasefire despite growing international pressure.

Speaking in a U.S. television interview, Mr. Netanyahu, whose country has vowed to destroy Gaza’s Hamas rulers, said he thought Israel would need security responsibility over the Palestinian enclave for an “indefinite period” after the war.

Asked about the potential for humanitarian pauses in fighting, an idea supported by Israel’s top ally the United States, Mr. Netanyahu said a general ceasefire would hamper his country’s war effort.”As far as tactical little pauses - an hour here, an hour there - we’ve had them before. I suppose we’ll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave,” Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday.

“But I don’t think there’s going to be a general ceasefire.”- Reuters

The UN Security Council on November 6 failed again to agree on a resolution on the monthlong Israel-Hamas war.

Despite more than two hours of closed-door discussions Monday, differences remained. The U.S. is calling for “humanitarian pauses” while many other council members are demanding a “humanitarian cease-fire” to deliver desperately needed aid and prevent more civilian deaths in Gaza.

“We talked about humanitarian pauses and we’re interested in pursuing language on that score,” U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters after the meeting. “But there are disagreements within the council about whether that’s acceptable.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier Monday told reporters he wanted an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to the “spiral of escalation” already taking place from the occupied West Bank, Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen. - AP

Continuing high level international conversations on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke with the Iranian President Dr. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi.

Continuing high level international conversations on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke with the Iranian President Dr. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi.

The two leaders discussed the situation in Gaza as well as progress on the Chabahar port which received a major boost in August when both sides decided to avoid commercial foreign arbitration for disputes between users and operators. In his remarks, President Raisi called for an “immediate ceasefire” and argued that the situation in Gaza will have “extra-regional consequences”. ​Read more​