Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps within the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing scores of individuals, well being officers stated. The strikes got here because the U.S. retains urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah within the West Financial institution for a beforehand unannounced assembly with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. On Saturday Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there might be no non permanent cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden recommended that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.
The Palestinian dying toll within the Israel-Hamas battle reached 9,700, in keeping with the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. Within the occupied West Financial institution, greater than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
Greater than 1,400 folks in Israel have been killed, most of them within the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that began the preventing, and 242 hostages had been taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Roughly 1,100 folks have left the Gaza Strip by way of the Rafah crossing since Wednesday below an obvious settlement among the many United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.
At present:
Right here’s what is going on within the newest Israel-Hamas battle:
ISRAEL AMBASSADOR TO US CALLS GAZA THE WORLD’S “BIGGEST TERROR COMPLEX”
Michael Hertzog, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., says Gaza is “the largest terror advanced on this planet,” with tens of hundreds of fighters and rockets, amongst different weaponry — and 310 miles (500 kilometers) of underground tunnels.
“That is what we’re up in opposition to. And we’ve got to uproot it, as a result of if we don’t, they’ll strike time and again,” Hertzog informed CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview aired Sunday.
He additionally stated Israel was making each effort to tell apart between “terrorists and the civilian inhabitants” in its battle with the Hamas militant group that guidelines Gaza.
“This can be a very sophisticated navy operation in a densely populated space, and we’re attempting to maneuver the inhabitants away from that battle zone,” he stated.
FORMER PRESIDENT OBAMA SAYS ALL SIDES OF CONFLICT ARE “COMPLICIT TO SOME DEGREE”
Former President Barack Obama says “no one’s fingers are clear” within the Israel-Hamas battle and acknowledged that he’s questioned in latest days whether or not his administration may have executed extra to push for a sturdy peace when he was in energy.
“If you wish to clear up the issue, then it’s important to soak up the entire fact,” Obama stated in an interview on “Pod Save America.” “And also you then need to admit no one’s fingers are clear. That every one of us are complicit to some extent.” The previous president went on to inform his interviewers, Obama administration alumni Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor, that he has requested himself because the begin of the battle, “Was there one thing else I may have executed?”
The previous president did make an try at peace between Israel and Palestinians throughout his second time period, however months of talks collapsed in 2014 amid disagreements on Israeli settlements, the discharge of Palestinian prisoners and different points.
“I have a look at this and I feel again what may I’ve executed throughout my presidency to maneuver this ahead — as onerous as I attempted, I’ve acquired the scars to show it,” Obama stated in excerpts of interview launched on X, the social media platform previously generally known as Twitter.
All the interview is scheduled to be launched on Tuesday.
GAZA EXPERIENCES THIRD COMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT SINCE START OF WAR
JERUSALEM — Gaza on Sunday fell below its third complete communications blackout because the begin of the battle between Israel and Hamas.
Palestinian communications firm Paltel introduced that each one of its “communication and web providers” had been down as soon as once more. Web-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org confirmed that communications had been curtailed throughout the besieged enclave.
Alp Toker, the group’s govt director, stated that the blackout was prone to be skilled by most residents as a complete or near-total lack of connectivity.
Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the Palestinian refugee company UNRWA, informed The Related Press that the company has misplaced communication with most of its staff.
STATE-RUN NEWS IN IRAN SAYS SUPREME LEADER HAS MET WITH HAMAS LEADER
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s state-run IRNA information company says the nation’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The date of the assembly was not disclosed within the report on Sunday.
In line with IRNA, Khamenei praised the endurance and endurance of the folks of Gaza and emphasised Iran’s coverage in supporting the Palestinians within the battle between Israel and Hamas.
Khamenei urged Islamic nations and worldwide organizations to take critical actions in assist of Gaza’s folks.
Israel’s navy final week accused Haniyeh, who lives in exile, of flying to Iran on a “personal jet” because the folks of Gaza undergo in a devastating Israeli offensive in opposition to Hamas.
Israel accuses Iran of destabilizing the area by supporting proxies like Hamas and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
NEW US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL SAYS RELEASE OF HOSTAGES IS A TOP PRIORITY
JERUSALEM — Israel’s president acquired the diplomatic credentials of the newly minted U.S. ambassador to Israel on Sunday, with each males expressing the robust bond between the 2 nations throughout wartime.
Ambassador Jacob Lew stated he had met with the households of these held hostage in Gaza throughout his go to, and that the discharge of the hostages was a prime precedence for the U.S. He reiterated U.S. assist for Israel within the battle effort.
“As President Biden has stated so passionately, Israel has a proper and certainly a accountability to defend this nation and its folks in a fashion that displays the values that we share,” Lew stated.
President Isaac Herzog thanked Lew and stated he was “talking for all Israelis once I say: by no means has American friendship been extra evident or extra valued than it’s proper now.”
ISRAELI TROOPS FIND WEAPONS CACHE IN GAZA
JERUSALEM — The Israeli navy stated Sunday that it found an in depth stash of weapons in a house in Beit Hanoun within the northern Gaza Strip because it searched the world. It discovered rifles, grenades, explosives, suicide drones and missiles within the residence, bringing among the weapons again to Israel to examine them. The navy stated that forces had additionally destroyed a close-by explosives lab.
US FORCES SHOOT DOWN ATTACK DRONE NEAR BASE IN SYRIA
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. forces shot down one other one-way assault drone Sunday that was focusing on American and coalition troops close to their base in Tel Baider, Syria, a U.S. official stated on the situation of anonymity as a result of the official was not approved to debate the strike.
There was no data instantly obtainable on the origin of the assault drone, however it marked no less than the thirty second assault on U.S. and coalition navy amenities in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. Thus far there have been no less than 17 assaults in Iraq and 15 in Syria. A minimum of 21 servicemembers have been injured by the assaults however all have returned to responsibility, the Pentagon stated.
RELATIVES OF SCOTLAND’S FIRST MINISTER RETURN HOME FROM GAZA
LONDON — Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf says his in-laws have returned house after being allowed to depart the Gaza Strip. The dad and mom of his spouse, Nadia El-Nakla, had been visiting family members when the battle erupted on Oct. 7, trapping them in Gaza.
Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla had been amongst about 100 British nationals permitted to go by way of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Friday. However they needed to go away behind Maged El-Nakla’s mom, son and grandchildren.
“We’re, after all, elated. However my father-in-law stated, ‘My coronary heart is damaged in two,’” Yousaf stated on X. “He then broke down telling me how onerous it was saying goodbye to them.”
Yousaf has frequently shared updates on his in-laws’ plight together with that they needed to drink sea water. He stated his brother-in-law is a health care provider treating the wounded in Gaza.
The previous 4 weeks had been “a residing nightmare for our household,” Yousaf stated on Friday. He stated he and his spouse will proceed to name for a direct ceasefire within the battle.
“Though we really feel a way of deep private aid, we’re heartbroken on the continued struggling of the folks of Gaza,” the couple stated in a press release on Friday.
PROTESTERS IN TURKEY MARCH TO THE US EMBASSY
ISTANBUL – Supporters of an Islamist group marched to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara on Sunday, hours forward of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s anticipated arrival within the Turkish capital.
A number of hundred protesters chanted “God is nice” and held their index fingers skywards as they approached the compound within the metropolis’s Cukurambar neighborhood.
Riot police lined up in entrance of the U.S. advanced as the group, many carrying black and white flags with Arabic script, known as for Turkish troopers to be despatched to Gaza.
The demonstration was organized by Radical Change, which says it promotes the “residing of genuine Islamic concepts” and “the mental and political facets of Islam.”
The demonstration was the newest in Turkey to focus on the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Israel’s operations in Gaza.
“We, as Muslims, gathered to state that we’ll communicate out in opposition to this genocide and that we’ll not settle for it, that our armies and our nation are in opposition to Israel and on the facet of the folks of Gaza,” protester Ebru Petek informed The Related Press.
NETANYAHU REITERATES NO CEASE-FIRE UNTIL HOSTAGES ARE FREED
RAMON AIR FORCE BASE, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Ramon Air Drive base in southern Israel on Sunday and reiterated his opposition to a cease-fire in Gaza.
Addressing pilots, Netanyahu stated, “There can be no cease-fire with out the return of our hostages.”
“We are saying this to each our enemies and our mates. We are going to proceed till we beat them,” he added.
ISRAELI JETS HIT A HOUSE NEAR A SCHOOL, KILLING AT LEAST 13
BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip — Israeli jets struck a home close to a college on the crowded Bureij refugee camp within the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. A minimum of 13 folks had been killed, hospital staff stated.
Dozens of residents scrambled to take away the wounded and lifeless trapped below the rubble. Younger males rushed carrying the wounded to ambulances close to the varsity, which took them to Al-Aqsa Hospital. Hospital staff informed The Related Press that no less than 13 folks died.
The Bureij refugee camp is house to an estimated 46,000 folks. Many Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza have stayed in refugee camps and colleges as non permanent shelters.
SOME PALESTINIANS HEED ISRAEL’S ORDERS AND HEAD SOUTH ON FOOT
BUREIJ, Gaza Strip — Some Palestinians seem to have heeded Israeli orders to move to the southern a part of the Gaza Strip throughout a four-hour window Sunday as intense bombardment rages on within the northern a part of the territory.
Crowds of individuals, together with girls and kids, had been seen strolling down Gaza’s major north-south freeway with solely what they may carry of their arms. Others had been seen main donkey carts on the highway.
One man stated they needed to stroll 500 meters (547 yards) with their fingers raised whereas passing Israeli troops and tanks on the highway. One other described seeing lifeless our bodies in broken vehicles alongside the highway linking northern Gaza to the southern half.
“We noticed tanks, we noticed our bodies mendacity round … the youngsters noticed tanks for the primary time. Oh world, have mercy on us, have mercy on us,” stated one Palestinian, who declined to offer his identify.
Earlier, Israeli planes as soon as once more dropped leaflets urging folks to move south as its forces advance within the outskirts of Gaza Metropolis.
