Israel-Hamas war live: death toll in Gaza rises to 9,770, Palestinian health authority says; Abbas tells Blinken there must be ceasefire | Israel-Hamas war
Death toll in Gaza since 7 October rises to 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,800 children
It is reported that at least 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,800 children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
Reuters reports the new figure has been released by the spokesperson for the Hamas-run ministry of health in the Gaza Strip. Israel has been bombarding Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attack inside its borders which killed at least 1,400 Israelis.
In addition, the Palestinian Authority health ministry in the Israeli-occupied West Bank says that 152 Palestinians have been killed and 2,100 wounded since 7 October. The claims have not been independently verified.
The health ministry in Gaza has appealed to Egypt to allow Egyptian ambulances into the Gaza Strip to treat the wounded via the Rafah crossing. A limited number of people had been allowed to leave Gaza for hospitals in Egypt last week.
Key events
Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia has condemned in the strongest terms the statements issued by Israeli cabinet minister Amichai Eliyahu regarding dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip.
It said such statements show the penetration of “extremism and brutality” among members of Israeli Government.
Israel’s prime minister has suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings in the wake of the remarks, amid calls for him to be fired.
Here are some images from the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah where there was a protest against the visit by US secretary of state Antony Blinken today.
World Food Programme head: ‘nowhere near’ enough food currently entering Gaza
World Food Programme (WFP) head Cindy McCain said on Sunday that the aid currently entering Gaza is “nowhere near” enough to meet the needs of people there, which she added were growing exponentially.
“We need to continue to work together to get safe and sustained access to Gaza at a scale that aligns with the catastrophic conditions facing families there,” Reuters reports McCain said in a statement after visiting the Rafah border crossing through which a limited number of aid trucks have been allowed to enter Gaza.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority should play a central role in what comes next in the Gaza Strip, a senior state department official has told Reuters.
The senior official added that the “future of Gaza was not the focus of the meeting but the Palestinian Authority seemed willing to play a role”.
Blinken made an unannounced visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to meet the Palestinian Authority president Abbas earlier. The pair spoke for an hour, but did not make a joint media appearance or issue a joint statement.
A read-out from the meeting from the office of Abbas said that he told Blinken there must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US has refused to call for one. On Saturday, Blinken said a ceasefire would allow Hamas time to regroup.
Pope Francis made an urgent plea for a halt to the conflict in Gaza on Sunday, calling for humanitarian aid and help for those injured in order to ease the “very grave” situation.
“I keep thinking about the grave situation in Palestine and Israel where many people have lost their life. I pray you to stop in the name of God, cease the fire,” he said, speaking to crowds in St Peter’s Square after his weekly Angelus prayer.
“I hope that all will be done to avoid the conflict from widening, that the injured will be rescued and aid will arrive to the population of Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very grave,” Reuters reports he said.
The pontiff renewed his calls for a ceasefire and for the release of hostages, focusing on the children, who he said “must return to their families”.
People in the crowd at the Vatican could be seen holding banners calling for “peace” and “let’s stop the massacre”.
Death toll in Gaza since 7 October rises to 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,800 children
It is reported that at least 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,800 children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
Reuters reports the new figure has been released by the spokesperson for the Hamas-run ministry of health in the Gaza Strip. Israel has been bombarding Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attack inside its borders which killed at least 1,400 Israelis.
In addition, the Palestinian Authority health ministry in the Israeli-occupied West Bank says that 152 Palestinians have been killed and 2,100 wounded since 7 October. The claims have not been independently verified.
The health ministry in Gaza has appealed to Egypt to allow Egyptian ambulances into the Gaza Strip to treat the wounded via the Rafah crossing. A limited number of people had been allowed to leave Gaza for hospitals in Egypt last week.
Reuters has some quotes from residents in Gaza, where Israel has cut off electricity and fuel supplies, while allowing in only a trickle of food and medicine. At the same time, Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip since 7 October, in attacks launched following the Hamas attack inside Israel that day.
Saeed al-Nejma, 53, said he had been asleep with his family in their single-storey house when the blast hit his neighbourhood of Maghazi refugee camp overnight.
“All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn apart flesh,” he said.
“Imagine you are in a prison and the prison guards are taking aim at one prisoner after another from a high tower, killing them one by one,” said Ismail, 43, an accountant in Gaza City describing how he felt under the bombardment.
“My father almost had a heart attack last night when a missile strike shook the building. We felt it was us being hit,” said Ismail, who did not give his name for fear of Israeli reprisals.
Several Gaza City residents Reuters did speak to said they were too frightened to attempt the crossing to the south of Gaza Strip, where they have been ordered to evacuate to by Israel’s military. Some pointed to recent accounts of deaths on the main roads connecting south and north.
“I want at least to send my family to the south and hope they can cross into Egypt through Rafah but I’m not sure I can. I am afraid their car might be shelled by Israeli tanks on the road,” said Abu Tamer in Jabalia refugee camp adjacent to Gaza City, refusing to give his full name for fear of reprisals.
Emma Graham-Harrison
My colleague Emma Graham-Harrison has this analysis today on the difference between a “ceasefire” and a “humanitarian pause” in a conflict:
“The difference between the two is more political than legal,” said Helen Duffy, professor of international humanitarian law and human rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
“Ceasefire or cessation of hostilities suggests [an agreement] that is, or at least could be, a permanent end to hostilities, and ceasefire agreement suggests negotiation, of course,” Duffy said. “Whereas ‘humanitarian pause’ sends a clear message that it is temporary and for one purpose only.”
Those who oppose a ceasefire say Israel has an urgent need to defend itself against a group that has threatened more attacks on civilians, denies Israel’s right to exist and has been officially designated a terrorist organisation by countries including the US and UK. “A ceasefire now would leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on 7 October,” the US secretary of state, Blinken, said at a news conference on Saturday.
Those demanding a ceasefire say a humanitarian pause will not offer the time and security needed to meet even basic civilian needs, given the scale of damage, death and deprivation in Gaza after a month of intense fighting. “It is our position that a ceasefire is imperative to deal with the humanitarian consequences of this crisis,” said Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, speaking to journalists alongside Blinken.
Read more of Emma Graham-Harrison’s analysis here: Ceasefire or humanitarian pause? The bitter debate on the best route to peace
The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, discussed the situation in Gaza with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts in separate phone calls, a Turkish diplomatic source told Rueters on Sunday.
Fidan had exchanged views on “stopping the attacks targeting the civilian population in Gaza” and on achieving an urgent ceasefire, the source said.
Fidan also discussed efforts to guarantee the unimpeded and continuous provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza with the Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, the source added.
Yesterday, Turkey recalled ambassador Şakir Özkan Torunlar from Tel Aviv to Ankara, with the foreign ministry saying it was “in view of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza caused by the continuing attacks by Israel against civilians”, and citing Israel’s refusal to accept a ceasefire.
Fidan is expected to meet the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, for talks on Gaza in Ankara on Monday.
Iran said that the US would “be hit hard” if Washington did not implement a ceasefire in Gaza, Reuters reports the country’s minister of defence was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire, otherwise they will be hit hard,” Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani reportedly said.
Iran has previously said that it considers the US to be “militarily involved” in the conflict.
Reuters reports that Antony Blinken and Mahmoud Abbas met for an hour. There was no joint press briefing afterwards.
Israel’s military claims to have successfully intercepted a drone flying towards Israel from “deep inside Lebanon”.
In a post to the Telegram messaging app, it added:
Earlier today, several launches from Lebanon to Avivim in northern Israel and a fire toward the area of Malkiya in northern Israel were identified. The IDF responded with artillery fire toward the sources of the fire.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 1pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, made an unannounced visit to meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah after meeting with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan. A spokesperson for Abbas said after the meeting that the Palestinian president had called for an immediate ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Al Jazeera reported small protests against the visit took place.
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The US said Blinken reaffirmed the US commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced. It has refused to back calls for a ceasefire, arguing that it would allow Hamas to regroup.
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Israeli jets struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip killing at least 38 people and wounding dozens, officials from Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry said. Israel has not confirmed it had hit Al-Maghazi camp, and a military spokesperson said they were looking into whether forces were operating in the area at the time of the bombing.
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Israel says that in the combined activities of its ground, air and naval forces in the Gaza Strip, “over 2,500 terror targets have been struck”. Israel launched the campaign on 7 October after the surprise Hamas attack inside Israel’s borders that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, and during which at least 240 people were abducted and taken into Gaza as hostages. The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip puts Palestinian casualty figures since 7 October at 9,488, with a large proportion of them being women and children.
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Evacuations for civilians and heavily wounded Palestinians from Gaza have been suspended since Saturday, according to Egyptian security and medical sources said, following an Israeli strike on ambulances near the entrance to Gaza City’s main Dar al-Shifa hospital. Israel later claimed Hamas was using an ambulance to move it fighters.
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More than 100 Britons have been evacuated from Gaza and the government hopes more will be able to leave, the UK’s deputy prime minister said on Sunday, as he urged the reopening of the Rafah crossing. Oliver Dowden said “The first thing we are doing is trying to make sure we get the Rafah crossing open again and I’m hopeful we will make progress on that today. Secondly, we are seeking to have these temporary pauses to allow humanitarian aid in and to get our people out”. The UK government has also refused to back calls for a ceasefire.
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The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said on Sunday there had been “false” reports on negotiations to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Qatar’s foreign ministry said efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza required a “period of calm”, and that leaks from the negotiations are “harmful” and make it difficult for mediators to do their jobs.
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The French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said in Doha on Sunday that too many civilians had died in Israeli strikes on Gaza. Colonna added that an international humanitarian conference, to be hosted by France on 9 November, would cover respecting international law, basic needs such as health, water, energy and food, and would call for concrete action to help civilians in Gaza.
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The Committee to Protect Journalists has said that more media workers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war than in any other conflict in the area since it started monitoring in 1992. As of Friday, 36 media workers – 31 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese – have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, according to the group.
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The World Health Organization in Palestine has issued an updated bulletin in which it says it has documented 102 attacks on healthcare facilities within the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
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An Israeli drone struck near two ambulance on their way to pick up casualties from overnight strikes in southern Lebanon, wounding four paramedics, local officials have claimed.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to distance himself from comments by a minister in his government that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza is “one of the possibilities” and that the Palestinian population can “go to Ireland or deserts”. Heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit party made the comments in a radio interview. Netanyahu said the statements “are not based in reality” and suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings. Opposition leader Yair Lapid called for him to be fired, saying the comments harmed Israel’s international standing.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul, Sydney and Washington on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Peter Beaumont
State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on an unannounced visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, reaffirmed the US commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced.
Blinken and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, discussed efforts to restore calm and stability in the West Bank, including the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible, Miller said, in reference to violence being committed by Israeli settlers.
Abbas told Blinken there must be an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, a call the US has consistently resisted making.
The health ministry in the West Bank says 152 Palestinians have been killed and 2,100 wounded by Israeli actions there since 7 October.
Abbas tells Blinken there must be ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza
The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, told the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Ramallah on Sunday that there must be an “immediate ceasefire” and humanitarian aid allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.
The US has resisted calls for a ceasefire, arguing that it would allow Hamas time to regroup.
Al Jazeera reports that its correspondents in Ramallah say small protests against the visit of the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, are taking place.
It quotes the activist Fadi Quran saying “Blinken is currently acting against the majority of the US public and US interest. So continued public pressure will force the US to either decide to be complicit with the mass murder of Palestinians or to force Israel to go for a ceasefire.”
Qatar: hostage negotiations require ‘period of calm’, and leaks about them are ‘harmful’
The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said on Sunday that there had been “false” reports on negotiations to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza, without elaborating.
Reuters reports Al-Thani said during a news conference in Doha alongside the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, that there were complexities in the field due to “Israeli military practices” in Gaza.
In addition, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza required a “period of calm”.
Leaks from the negotiations were “harmful” and made it difficult for mediators to do their jobs, ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said during a press conference in Doha.
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