Israel-Hamas war, Day 28 | Israel targeted convoy of ambulances leaving Al-Shifa hospital, Health Ministry in Gaza says

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel on Friday that it risks destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acts swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

In a blunt call for Israel to pause military operations in the territory to allow for the immediate and increased delivery of assistance, Blinken said the current situation would drive Palestinians toward further radicalism and effectively end prospects for any eventual resumption of peace talks to end the conflict.

AP

Twenty people were killed and dozens more injured in an attack “targeting” a school in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry in the Palestinian territory said early Saturday.

“20 martyrs and dozens of wounded arrived at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after the direct targeting of a school turned into a makeshift camp for displaced people in the al-Saftawy area in northern Gaza,” the health ministry said in a statement.

“Several tank mortar shells fell into the school that was directly targeted,” it added.

AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday pushed back against growing U.S. pressure for a “humanitarian pause” in the nearly month-old war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza, insisting there would be no temporary cease-fire until the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas are released.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his third trip to Israel since the war began, reiterating American support for Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas after its brutal Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. He also echoed President Joe Biden’s calls for a brief halt in the fighting to address a worsening humanitarian crisis.

AP

As Israeli forces intensify their assault against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, diplomats in Washington, the United Nations, the Middle East and beyond have started weighing the options for the “day after” if the Palestinian militant group is ousted - and the challenges they see ahead are daunting.

Discussions include the deployment of a multinational force to post-conflict Gaza, an interim Palestinian-led administration that would exclude Hamas politicians, a stopgap security and governance role for neighboring Arab states and temporary U.N. supervision of the territory, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Reuters

The foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman Saturday to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.

A Jordanian foreign ministry statement Friday said a Palestinian Authority representative will also join the talks that will focus on “repercussions ... of the dangerous escalation which threatens security throughout the region”.

AFP

The Honduran foreign ministry said on Friday it is recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations due to what it called Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.

Reuters

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “utterly shocked” by a deadly Israeli strike on an ambulance near Gaza’s largest hospital on Friday.

An AFP journalist saw multiple bodies beside a damaged ambulance outside Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, which is overcrowded with civilians seeking shelter from Israeli bombing as well as those wounded.

Ghebreyesus said he was “utterly shocked by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients close to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, leading to deaths, injuries and damage”.

AFP

Israel struck an ambulance in Gaza City on Friday that it said was carrying militants, but which health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave said was evacuating wounded people from the besieged north to the south of the territory.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza, said the ambulance was part of a convoy that Israel targeted leaving al-Shifa Hospital, adding that “a big number” were killed and wounded but without giving figures.

Qidra said Israel had targeted the convoy of ambulances in more than one location, including at al-Shifa Hospital gate and at Ansar Square a kilometer (0.6 miles) away.

Reuters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak had a telephonic conversation on Friday as they discussed development in West Asia and conflict between Israel and Hamas, and expressed deep concern on terrorism, worsening security situation and the loss of civilian lives.

“Both leaders expressed deep concern at terrorism, worsening security situation and the loss of civilian lives. They agreed on the need for regional peace, security, stability and continued humanitarian assistance,” the PMO said in a statement.

Modi congratulated Sunak on the successful completion of one year in office and they welcomed progress being made for an early conclusion of a mutually beneficial Free Trade Agreement, according to the statement.

PTI

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that his powerful militia is already engaged in unprecedented fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border and threatened a further escalation as Israel’s war with Hamas nears the one-month mark.

In televised remarks — his first since the Palestinian militants’ deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel — Nasrallah stopped short of announcing that Hezbollah would fully enter the war, a move that would have devastating consequences for both Lebanon and Israel.

Hezbollah is prepared for all options, he declared, “and we can resort to them at any time.” The fighting would “not be limited” to the scale seen so far, he added. In recent weeks, Hezbollah has fired rockets across the border daily, mainly hitting military targets in northern Israel, but it has a substantial arsenal capable of hitting anywhere in Israel and thousands of battle-hardened fighters.

AP

The United States called on Friday for Hezbollah not to “take advantage” of the Israel-Hamas war after the Lebanese militants’ leader said “all options” were open.

“We and our partners have been clear: Hezbollah and other actors -- state or non-state -- should not try to take advantage of the ongoing conflict,” a spokesperson from the National Security Council said.

In his first speech since war broke out last month between Hamas militants and Israel, the head of Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed Shiite movement, said the United States was “entirely responsible” for the ongoing Gaza conflict, and could prevent a regional conflagration by preventing its ally Israel’s attacks.

Asked for a response, the National Security Council spokesperson said: “We will not engage in a war of words.”

“The United States does not seek escalation or widening of the conflict that Hamas brought onto Israel,” the spokesperson said.

AFP

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said the October 7 attack on Israel by militant group Hamas was “a big act of terrorism” and is “unacceptable” but there is also an issue of Palestine which must be resolved through dialogue and negotiation.

Addressing the Joint Session of the Senate’s External Affairs and Defence Commission here, Jaishankar underlined that international humanitarian law must be respected by everybody.

“What happened on October 7, this big act of terrorism, the subsequent happenings after that, this has taken the entire region into a very different direction...the conflict cannot be the normal of that region, that it comes back to some stability, some cooperation. And within this, we have to find a balance between different issues,” he said in response to questions from senators at the session.

Jaishankar said there is no question of if there is an issue of terrorism and reiterated India’s position on the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, which is a two-state solution.

“We all find terrorism unacceptable. We have to stand up on purpose. But there is also an issue of Palestine and there has to be a solution...and our view is that it has to be a two-state solution,” Jaishankar said.

PTI

Japan will provide $65 million in additional humanitarian aid to Palestinians out of concern for the conflict in Gaza, foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa said on Saturday during a tour of Israel and Jordan.

She also met with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and called for a humanitarian pause to the deepening crisis in Gaza, she said.

Reuters

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Friday Israel targeted a convoy of ambulances leaving Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Israel’s military said on Friday it was looking into the report. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

“We have informed the Red Cross in accordance with the international law about moving a convoy carrying injured people in ambulance vehicles from Al-Shifa hospital,” Ashraf Al-Qudra, the health ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

“At the gate of the hospital and then at the Ansar square, the occupation targeted the convoy in more than one location outside Al-Shifa hospital.”

The statement made no mention of any casualties. Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV had earlier quoted the ministry as saying scores and had been killed and injured.

Reuters

Weeks after ordering northern Gaza’s 1.1 million inhabitants to evacuate south, the Israeli army is intensifying its bombardment of the area that stretches down toward the wetlands of Wadi Gaza, in the central strip. Israeli soldiers are also battling Hamas militants in close quarters just north of Gaza City — the start of what is expected to be a long and bloody ground invasion.

Israel’s ground operation, under cover of heavy tank and artillery fire, has stranded hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in northern Gaza.

Residents say they are trapped in hell.

AP

The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said scores of Palestinians were killed and injured on Friday in Israeli targeting of an ambulance convoy carrying critically wounded people in Gaza.

The health ministry spokesman, Ashraf Al-Qudra, earlier said they would send critically injured Palestinians who needed to be urgently transferred for treatment in Egypt from Gaza city and the north to the south.

Reuters

Israel urged its citizens on Friday to reconsider trips abroad and to exercise extra caution if already out of the country, citing an increase of hostility toward Jews and Israelis over the present conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

Life threatening assaults, antisemitism and incitement have been significantly rising in many countries, a joint statement from the prime minister’s office and the foreign ministry said, since Israel launched its campaign in Gaza.

On Monday, Israel issued a “highest level travel warning” for Russia’s Dagestan region after hundreds of Dagestanis, mostly young men, rampaged through the terminal building of an airport and on to the tarmac hunting for Jewish people who had just flown in on a flight from Tel Aviv.

Reuters

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday issued a statement warning that a planned pro-Palestinian protest in London would be “provocative and disrespectful”, as he deputed Home Secretary Suella Braverman to intervene.

The protest planned for Armistice Day on November 11, also known as Remembrance Day commemorates the end of hostilities during World War I in 1918 and honours the martyrs of both World Wars, will follow similar weekend protests in the UK since the Israel-Gaza conflict intensified last month.

However, the timing of next weekend’s protest has caused concern amid fears that the Edwin Lutyens’ designed Cenotaph memorial to Britain’s war casualties and other war memorials in London may be targeted.

“To plan protests on Armistice Day is provocative and disrespectful, and there is a clear and present risk that the Cenotaph and other war memorials could be desecrated, something that would be an affront to the British public and the values we stand for,” reads Sunak’s statement posted on X.

“The right to remember, in peace and dignity, those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for those freedoms must be protected. I have asked the Home Secretary to support the Met Police in doing everything necessary to protect the sanctity of Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday,” he said.

PTI

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, saying he will press ahead with a devastating military offensive until hostages held by the Hamas militant group are released.

Netanyahu spoke Friday shortly after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who pressed Israel for a temporary pause in its offensive in order to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Blinken also urged Israel to do more to protect civilians from its attacks.

In a statement to reporters Friday, Netanyahu said Israel is continuing with “all of its power” and “refuses a temporary cease-fire that doesn’t include a return of our hostages.”

Hamas kidnapped some 240 people in its bloody Oct. 7 cross-border attack that triggered the Israel-Hamas war. The attack killed some 1,400 people, while over 9,000 people have been killed since Israel began striking Gaza the same day, according to Palestinian health officials.

AP

Some 5,000 Jordanians protested Friday in the capital Amman, calling on King Abdullah II to press for a ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, AFP correspondents said.

Speaking at the demonstration, lawmaker Yanal Fraihat said protesters wanted the king “to stop the aggression against Gaza” by using Jordan’s peace agreement with Israel as leverage.

The rally came a day ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken who was to discuss the ongoing Gaza war with his Jordanian counterpart.

Israel launched an intense military campaign against Gaza’s Hamas rulers after its militants staged a surprise October 7 assault that Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people.

AFP

Celebratory gunshots rang out over Beirut as thousands packed into a square in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Friday to watch a televised speech by Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group.

Nasrallah taunted Israel in his remarks, which were broadcast via a video-link. It was his first address to supporters since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the Palestinian militants’ deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel.

In his lengthy remarks, Nasrallah praised the Hamas attack four weeks ago in which the militants attacked farming villages, towns and military posts in southern Israel. More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel in the attack.

“This great, large-scale operation was purely the result of Palestinian planning and implementation,” Nasrallah said, suggesting his militia had no part in the attack. “The great secrecy made this operation greatly successful.”

He also said that Oct. 7 had come as “proof that Israel is weaker than a spider’s web” and that one month into the war, it allegedly “has not been able to make any achievement.”

Nasrallah also criticized the strong U.S. backing of Israel in its bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians. While U.S. officials in recent days have pushed more publicly for protecting civilians in Gaza, they have yet to call for a cease-fire.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday he would ask Israel to take “concrete steps” to minimize harm to civilians in Gaza as he left on a crisis trip.

“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 at Andrews Air Force Base as he flew out.

“This is something that the United States is committed to,” he said.

AFP

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Friday the death toll since the start of Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group in the territory reached 9,227.

The ministry said 3,826 children and 2,405 women were among the dead.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Israel’s response to the October 7 attack by Hamas “resembles something more approaching revenge,” in comments to Irish media on Friday.

The remark during a trip to South Korea came as Israeli troops escalated their assault on Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed 1,400 people, most of them Israeli civilians.

The bombardment of Gaza since has killed more than 9,000 people, the majority ordinary Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

“I strongly believe, like any state, Israel has a right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas, so they can not do this again,” Varadkar told reporters in Seoul.

“But what I am seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defence, it resembles something more approaching revenge and that’s not where we should be and I don’t think it is how Israel will guarantee its future freedom and security.”

AFP

The Kremlin on Friday dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that U.S. intelligence believed Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah with an air defence system, saying such talk was unfounded.

“We have already said that, de-facto, such a group (Wagner) does not exist,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked about the report, which cited unidentified U.S. officials as saying that U.S. intelligence thinks Wagner plans such a transfer.

“All of these musings are as a rule based on nothing and have no foundation,” Peskov said when asked about the report.

“There are emergency channels of communication between the (Russian and U.S.) militaries, and if there are real concerns about something, they (the Americans) can always convey them to our military.”

Reuters

France is sending two new flights to Egypt with aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and is seeking to augment its military deployment in the area to provide medical support, the defense minister said Friday.

Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu told BFM television that the new flights would leave Friday and Sunday. France sent an initial flight last week with 54 tons of aid, and is urging the creation of a humanitarian corridor that would allow Palestinian civilians to flee Gaza and for aid to be brought in.

Lecornu spoke from a French helicopter carrier sent to the eastern Mediterranean to serve as a mobile hospital for people from Gaza.

‘’While Israel should defend itself and should ensure that Hamas can no longer inflict harm, ... the civilian populations of Gaza must be preserved and the best way to protect them is to give them medical care,’’ he said.

AP

Germany has announced a complete ban on the activities of Hamas and ordered the disbanding of a pro-Palestine group for spreading anti-Israel and anti-Semitic ideas, reported Al Jazeera.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Thursday said she implemented a formal ban on activity by or in support of Hamas, which has been designated as a “terrorist” organisation in the country.

“With Hamas, I have today completely banned the activities of a terrorist organisation whose aim is to destroy the state of Israel,” Faeser said.

Reacting to the decision, a Hamas official in Lebanon said that the move showed that the country was in partnership with Israel on crimes against Palestinian people, according to Al Jazeera.

ANI

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Friday that Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself as it continues to pummel the Gaza Strip with an air and ground assault.

“Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself... to make sure that this October 7 never happens again,” Blinken told journalists as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.

Israel launched a massive retaliatory assault against Gaza’s Hamas rulers after its fighters carried out the October 7 attack which Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people.

AFP

The UN voiced deep concern as Israel on Friday began sending back thousands of Palestinian workers, who had been stuck in Israel since the start of hostilities, back to Gaza.

“They are being sent back, we don’t know exactly to where,” and whether they “even have a home to go to”, and “we are deeply concerned about that”, UN human rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told a press conference.

AFP

Israel said on Thursday it would proceed with a tax revenue transfer to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank but would withhold funds bound for Hamas-ruled Gaza, where the PA helps cover public sector wages and pay for electricity.

Following a debate over whether to make the transfer as Israel battles Hamas militants in Gaza, the Israeli cabinet said it would also withhold money to offset stipends the PA pays to Palestinian militants and their families.

There was no immediate comment from the PA, which in the past has refused to accept trimmed tax transfers. The PA is estimated to spend some 30% of its budget in Gaza, where it also pays for medicine and social assistance programs.

Reuters

The newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Israel arrived in the country on Friday to assume his position, which had been vacant for months, as war rages between Israel and Hamas.

Jack Lew, who was sworn in on Thursday, was on board the plane that brought US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel, an AFP journalist said.

An Orthodox Jew who observes the weekly sabbath, the 68-year-old is due to present his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the coming days.

Despite being its closest ally, the United States has not had an ambassador to Israel since July when Lew’s predecessor Tom Nides departed.

AFP

The United Nations rights office on Friday described the situation in the West Bank as “alarming”, saying Israeli forces were increasingly using military tactics and weapons in law enforcement operations there.

“While much attention has been on the attacks inside Israel and the escalation of hostilities in Gaza since the 7th of October, the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is alarming and urgent,” said Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

She added that at least 132 Palestinians, including 41 children, were killed in the West Bank, 124 of those by Israeli forces and some eight by settlers. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israel’s Prime Minister on Friday to press American calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza, even as fears grew that the conflict could widen, with Israel warning that it was on high alert for attacks on its border with Lebanon.

“We are in a high state of readiness in the north, in a very high state of alert, to respond to any event today and in coming days,” he said.

This is Blinken’s third trip to Israel since the war began and he also plans to visit Amman, Jordan.

AP

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Friday the death toll since the start of Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group in the territory reached 9,227.

The ministry said 3,826 children and 2,405 women were among the dead.

AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, saying “crimes against humanity” were being committed in Gaza.

Mr. Erdogan has strongly supported the Palestinians in the face of Israel’s war with Hamas, attending pro-Palestinian rallies and positioning himself as a mediator since the war began on October 7.

“There is no concept that could explain or excuse the brutality that we have witnessed since October 7,” Mr. Erdogan said during a summit of Turkic States in the Kazakh capital Astana.

“To put it bluntly: crimes against humanity have been committed in Gaza for exactly 28 days,” he said.

AFP

Gulf Arab power the United Arab Emirates warned on Friday that there was a real risk of a regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, adding that it was working “relentlessly” to secure a humanitarian ceasefire.

The U.A.E. was the most prominent Arab country to sign the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of pacts with Israel, which the latter hoped would pave the way to normalisation of ties with Muslim superpower Saudi Arabia, but the war dealt those plans a blow.

“As we continue working to stop this war we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point,” Noura al-Kaabi, a Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told a policy conference in the capital, Abu Dhabi.

Reuters

The United States has intelligence that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, an air defence system, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials.

The Journal said Wagner plans to supply the Pantsir-S1 system, known by NATO as the SA-22, which uses anti-aircraft missiles and air-defence guns to intercept aircraft.

Wagner Group, which was funded by the Russian state and has been brought firmly under Kremlin control since an aborted mutiny by its former leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in June, did not reply to a request for comment from Reuters.

One unidentified U.S. official quoted by the Journal said that Washington had not confirmed that the system had been sent. But U.S. officials are monitoring discussions involving Wagner and Hezbollah, the Journal said.

Reuters

The United Nations humanitarian office said on Friday the cost of meeting the needs of people in Gaza and the West Bank was estimated at $1.2 billion.

“The cost of meeting the needs of 2.7 million people - that is the entire population of Gaza and 500,000 people in the occupied West Bank - is estimated to be $1.2 billion,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

That sums covers the humanitarian needs in Gaza and part of the West Bank until the end of the year.

Reuters

Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday will break weeks of silence since war broke out between Hamas and Israel, in a speech that could impact the region as the Gaza conflict rages.

After Hamas militants launched an unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon’s southern border has seen escalating tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group, stoking fears of a broader conflagration.

The cross-border attacks heated up Thursday, as Israel responded with a “broad assault” after Hezbollah attacked 19 Israeli positions simultaneously, according to the group.

AFP

Thailand’s Foreign Minister said Friday he had pressed his Iranian counterpart over the fate of 23 Thais taken hostage by Palestinian militant group Hamas in its attack on Israel.

Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara travelled to Qatar and Egypt this week for talks on the hostages, and met his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Doha, urging him to use Tehran’s links with Hamas to help secure the release of Thai nationals.

Israeli authorities say 1,400 people, many of them civilians, were killed and more than 230 hostages taken in the October 7 attack launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

AFP

Israel on Friday began sending thousands of Palestinian workers back to Gaza who had been stranded inside Israel since its war with Hamas erupted, a Gaza border official said.

“Thousands of workers who were blocked in Israel since October 7 have been brought back” through the Karem Abu Salem crossing between southern Gaza and Israel, Hisham Adwan, head of the Palestinian territory’s crossings, told AFP. AFPTV footage showed groups of workers entering the crossing on Friday morning.

AFP

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Friday described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “something approaching revenge”, in some of the strongest criticism of Israel by a leader of a European Union member state.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9,061 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for deadly attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

“I strongly believe that ... Israel has the right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas, that they cannot do this again,” Mr. Varadkar told journalists during a visit to South Korea, according to comments broadcast by state radio RTE.

Reuters

Israeli ground troops encircled Gaza City on Friday in their war against Hamas, as top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for a trip focused on “concrete steps” to minimise Palestinian civilian casualties.

Ahead of mR. Blinken’s arrival, Israel’s military said on Thursday it had “completed the encirclement” of the narrow Palestinian territory’s largest city -- signalling a new phase in the nearly month-long conflict.

Fighting was triggered by Hamas’ bloody raids on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.

AFP

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will on Friday make his first public comments since the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel went to war, a speech that will be scrutinised for clues on how the group’s role in the conflict might evolve.

A formidable military force backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the border, where 50 of its fighters have been killed in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.

The group said it had mounted 19 simultaneous strikes on Israeli army positions on Thursday using guided missiles, artillery and other weapons, coinciding with what it called strikes using two explosive drones.

Israel responded with air strikes along with tank and artillery fire as the fighting on the border escalated.

Reuters

Palestinian medical sources said on Friday that eight Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in the West Bank overnight.

One of them died of wounds from a previous incident, they said.

- Reuters

Thousands of cross-border Gazan workers and labourers in Israel and the occupied West Bank were sent back to Gaza on Friday, witnesses said.

Some of the Gazan workers returned through the Kerem Shalom crossing east of the Rafah border crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt, the witnesses said.

- Reuters

The gray film covering the faces of children rushed to Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza on Thursday made it hard to distinguish between the living and the dead.

After two Israeli airstrikes flattened an entire block of apartment buildings in the Bureij refugee camp and damaged two UN schools-turned-shelters, rubble-covered Palestinians big and small arrived at a hospital too packed to take them.

Tiny, motionless bodies lay flat against the hospital’s hard floor. A small boy bled out onto the tiles as medics tried to staunch the flow from his head. A baby lay next to him with an oxygen mask strapped on — covered in ash, his chest struggled to rise and fall. Their father sat beside them.

“Here they are, America! Here they are, Israel!” he screamed. “They are children. Our children die every day.” More than 3,700 Palestinian children and minors have been killed in just under a month of fighting, and bombings have driven more than half the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes, while food, water and fuel run low.

As Israeli troops encircle Gaza City and press ahead with a ground offensive, the death toll is expected to grow.

- AP

The Russian Emergencies Ministry has sent two Il-76 planes to deliver humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians, TASS reported, citing the Russian ministry’s press service.

“In accordance with the Russian president’s decree, two Il-76 planes of the Russian emergencies ministry have been sent to transport humanitarian cargo to the people of the Gaza Strip,” a spokesperson said.

The overall weight of the delivery is 28 metric tons, including medicines, hemostatic agents and bandaging materials, according to TASS. The cargo will be handed over to the members of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, who will further deliver it to the enclave.Earlier, the ministry supplied 27 metric tons of food for Gazan civilians, TASS reported.

- ANI

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Friday, an AFP correspondent travelling with him said, in a trip focused on measures to minimise harm to civilians in the war in Gaza.

Prior to his departure, Mr. Blinken said he would seek “concrete steps” from Israel to ensure that harm to Palestinian civilians is reduced, as U.S. President Joe Biden also called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict.

This is Mr. Blinken’s second trip to the Middle East since fighting erupted on October 7 after Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a massive attack on southern Israel that left 1,400 people dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

In retaliatory Israeli strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, more than 9,000 people have died including more than 3,700 children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

“We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimise harm to men, women and children in Gaza,” Mr. Blinken told reporters before departing for Israel.

“This is something that the United States is committed to.”

“When I see a Palestinian child — a boy, a girl — pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in Israel or anywhere else,” Mr. Blinken said.

“So this is something that we have an obligation to respond to, and we will.”

- AFP

Israel President Isaac Herzog met ambassadors of Thailand, Philippines, Tanzania, and Nepal, whose citizens were killed and taken hostage by Hamas, The Times of Israel reported. Herzog highlighted the important contribution that citizens from other nations make to Israeli society and industry.

“We are here because of the tragedy that has befallen the people of Israel, and many people from your nations.” Herzog further said, “We know that many of your citizens in Israel were murdered, killed, tortured, wounded, and unfortunately, taken hostage,” he said.

Thailand’s Ambassador to Israel Pannabha Chandraramya said that Thailand lost 23 citizens and four remain in hospital. She further said that 29 Thailand citizens remain in Hamas’s captivity, according to The Times of Israel report.

Pannabha Chandraramya said, “The news about Israel is every day in the Thai media, and we are concerned about the well being of the Thai people who are still living and working here in Israel, and also we have grave concern for those who have been abducted.”

She added, “We want to know whereabout they are and how could we help them,” according to The Times of Israel report. Four Philippines nationals, four Nepalese nationals were killed and two Tanzanian nationals remain missing.

- ANI

Gulf Arab power the United Arab Emirates warned on Friday that there was a real risk of a regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, adding that it was working “relentlessly” to secure a humanitarian ceasefire.

The UAE was the most prominent Arab country to sign the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of pacts with Israel, which the latter hoped would pave the way to normalisation of ties with Muslim superpower Saudi Arabia, but the war dealt those plans a blow.

“As we continue working to stop this war we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point,” Noura al-Kaabi, a minister of state for foreign affairs, told a policy conference in the capital, Abu Dhabi.

“The risk of regional spillover and further escalation is real, as well as the risk that extremist groups will take advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in cycles of violence.”

A leading oil power, the UAE views groups such as Hamas, which was tied to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, as an existential threat to the Middle East.

- Reuters

Thailand is in touch with Iran and other governments that can make contact with Hamas for the safe release of nearly two dozen Thai nationals being held hostage by the organisation, its foreign minister said on Friday.

Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said Iran, which is close to Hamas, has promised to help with negotiations.

At least 23 Thai nationals were among more than 240 people taken hostage when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

- Reuters

Israeli ground troops encircled Hamas stronghold Gaza City on Friday, after close ally the United States urged “concrete steps” to minimise civilian casualties.

Ahead of top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken’s scheduled visit to Israel on Friday, the country’s military said it had “completed the encirclement” of Gaza’s largest city — signalling a new phase in the month-long war against Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also on Thursday hailed victories so far, telling a group of elite soldiers that Israeli forces were “advancing” despite “painful losses”.

“We are in the midst of the campaign. We have very impressive successes” he said at a base near Tel Aviv.

“We are already more than on the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing.”

Israel’s military describes Gaza City as “the centre of the Hamas terror organisation”.

But it is also home to some half a million Palestinians who have endured weeks of withering aerial bombardments, dwindling supplies and daily carnage.

- AFP

On the country’s ongoing war with Hamas, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lior Haiat has said that this is a war of self-defence after being attacked brutally.

Haiat said that Israel’s goal in this war is to eliminate Hamas control and Hamas terrorism from the Gaza Strip.

“On October 7 Israel declared war against Hamas. This is a war of self-defence after being attacked brutally. Our goal in this war is to eliminate Hamas control and Hamas terrorism from the Gaza Strip,” he said in a press conference virtually.

He said that the elimination of Hamas is a matter of survival now.

“It’s a matter of survival because if we don’t do that, Hamas will continue with other massacres one after the other. This is just not me saying that Hamas leadership is saying that they plan another October 7-like massacre one after the other...,” the Israel Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

- ANI

Germany has announced a complete ban on the activities of Hamas and ordered the disbanding of a pro-Palestine group for spreading anti-Israel and anti-Semitic ideas, reported Al Jazeera.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Thursday said she implemented a formal ban on activity by or in support of Hamas, which has been designated as a “terrorist” organisation in the country.

“With Hamas, I have today completely banned the activities of a terrorist organisation whose aim is to destroy the state of Israel,” Ms. Faeser said.

Reacting to the decision, a Hamas official in Lebanon said that the move showed that the country was in partnership with Israel on crimes against Palestinian people, according to Al Jazeera.

Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, said, “This prompts us to question whether the German political mentality is a Holocaust mentality that affects all peoples and is not limited to one party or another.”

Moreover, Ms. Faeser added that she is also banning and dissolving the German branch of the Samidoun network, which she noted “supports and glorifies” groups including Hamas.

- ANI

President Joe Biden said Thursday that 74 U.S. citizens with dual citizenship have left the Gaza Strip, announcing the development as he dispatched his top diplomat to the Middle East for consultation with Israeli and Jordanian leaders concerning the Israel-Hamas war.

“We got out today 74 American folks out that are dual citizens,” Biden said in a brief exchange with reporters as he hosted Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader for an Oval Office meeting.

The White House has previously said some 500 to 600 U.S. citizens had been trapped in Gaza since the start of the Oct. 7 Israel-Hamas war. Since then, the nearly four-week-old conflict continues to rage on with no end in sight.

- AP

Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday will break weeks of silence since war broke out between Hamas and Israel, in a speech that could impact the region as the Gaza conflict rages.

After Hamas militants launched an unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon’s southern border has seen escalating tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group, stoking fears of a broader conflagration.

Mr. Nasrallah’s highly anticipated speech will be broadcast as part of an event in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, at 3:00 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Friday, in memory of fighters killed in Israeli bombardments.

On the Lebanese side, more than 70 people have been killed — at least 50 of them Hezbollah fighters but also other combatants and civilians, one a Reuters journalist, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, nine people have died — eight soldiers and one civilian, the army says.

- AFP

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Friday that four Indonesians and one wife of an Indonesian national had been evacuated from Gaza on Nov. 2.

The evacuees had arrived in Cairo, she said in a press conference.

- Reuters

Israel will return Gazans working inside the country to the besieged Palestinian territory, the government said, almost four weeks after it began striking Hamas targets there in response to a deadly cross-border attack.

“Israel is severing all contact with Gaza. There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza,” the Israeli security cabinet announced in a statement late Thursday.

“Those workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day of the outbreak of the war will be returned to Gaza,” it added, without specifying how many people would be sent back.

Before the Israel-Hamas conflict started, Israel had issued work permits to some 18,500 Gazans, according to COGAT, the Israeli defence body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs.

COGAT did not immediately return a request for information on the number of Gazans working inside Israel at the time of the attack on October 7.

- AFP

Israeli troops battling Hamas militants encircled Gaza City on Thursday, the military said, as the Palestinian death toll rose above 9,000. 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.

Nearly four weeks after Hamas’ deadly rampage in Israel sparked the war, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading to the region for talks Friday in Israel and Jordan following President Joe Biden’s suggestion for a humanitarian “pause” in the fighting. The aim would be to let in aid for Palestinians and let out more foreign nationals and wounded. Around 800 people left over the past two days.

Israel did not immediately respond to Biden’s suggestion. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has previously ruled out a cease-fire, said Thursday: “We are advancing … Nothing will stop us.” He vowed to destroy Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip.

An airstrike on Thursday smashed a residential building to rubble in the Bureij refugee camp several miles south of Gaza City.

- AP

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Friday Filipinos waiting to leave Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah border could leave by today or tomorrow, citing a commitment from Israel.

- Reuters

Israeli troops advanced further toward Gaza City on Thursday, battling with Hamas militants as the Palestinian death toll surged above 9,000. In the nearly four weeks since Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel, U.S. and Arab leaders are ramping up pressure on Israel to at least briefly pause its attacks in order to aid civilians.

Israel has allowed more than 260 trucks carrying food and medicine through the crossing, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough.

Roughly 800 people — including hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports and dozens of injured — have been allowed to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing under an apparent agreement among the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,061, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 130 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and around 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

- AP