Israel-Hamas war live: Israel on ‘high alert’ on Lebanon border; Blinken meets Netanyahu to discuss protection for Gaza civilians | Israel-Hamas war
Israel on ‘very high alert’ along northern border with Lebanon
The Israeli military says it’s on “very high alert” along the country’s northern border with Lebanon and will “respond to every event” on the border. We’re expecting a big speech this afternoon from Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Key events
Erdoğan seeks Gaza ceasefire to halt ‘crimes against humanity’
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, saying “crimes against humanity” are being committed in Gaza.
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 7 October.
“There is no concept that could explain or excuse the brutality that we have witnessed since 7 October,” 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.
“Our priority is to establish a humanitarian ceasefire quickly,” he said, adding that Turkey was working on “new mechanisms that will guarantee the security of everyone, regardless of whether they are Muslims, Christians or Jews.
“Our efforts to lay the groundwork for an international peace conference continue,” he said, without elaborating. (Via AFP)
At least 9,227 Palestinians, including 3,826 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory said on Friday.
The families of nine Israeli victims of last month’s Hamas attacks have lodged a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for suspected war crimes, their lawyer said on Friday.
The families also want Hamas prosecuted for genocide, and the ICC to issue an international arrest warrant for its leaders, lawyer Francois Zimeray said in a statement.
On October 7, Hamas carried out bloody raids that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.
“The complaint concerns victims who were all civilians,” Zimeray said, adding that several of them were at the Tribe of Nova rave party – a music festival.
“The complaint states that the Hamas terrorists do not deny the crimes committed, which they have amply documented and broadcast, and that the… facts cannot therefore be disputed,” he said.
In an interview with France’s Radio Classique, Zimeray said he was always wary of “excessive qualifications” of events.
But, he said, he and his legal team had established that the “genocide” accusation “holds up before the law”.
Any individual or group can bring a case to the ICC, which is located in The Hague, but it is up to the court’s prosecutor to launch an investigation.
Contacted by AFP, the court was not immediately able to say whether it had received the paperwork.
The ICC, founded in 2002, investigates and prosecutes grave offences across the world.
In 2021, it opened a probe into Israel as well as Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups for possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
Its prosecutor, Karim Khan, has said that any suspected war crimes in the ongoing conflict would fall under the ICC’s jurisdiction.
ICC teams have not, however, been able to enter Gaza, or Israel which is not a member of the ICC. (Via AFP)
Israeli raids kill six Palestinians in West Bank – health ministry
Israeli forces on Friday killed six Palestinians in raids across the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, as violence surged in the occupied territory in tandem with the Gaza war.
It said three males, aged between 17 and 26, were killed in the northern city of Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and the target of frequent military incursions.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, two of the men died when a drone strike hit a house in the city’s refugee camp.
The Israeli army on Friday said its forces were “operating against Hamas” across the West Bank, with operations in Jenin and the northern city of Nablus.
In the southern city of Hebron, two more Palestinians, aged 33 and 36, were killed during a military raid on Fawwar refugee camp, the ministry and Wafa said.
The army said troops there “responded with fire” after Palestinians hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at them as they seized “weapons manufacturing” equipment.
A sixth Palestinian, aged 29, died during an Israeli arrest operation in Qalandiya refugee camp, between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, the ministry said.
The ministry also said two other Palestinians had been shot dead in Jenin late on Thursday. An army spokesperson told AFP troops were conducting “counterterrorism activities” in the area without elaborating
And it said a Palestinian hit by Israeli fire in Nablus on Wednesday had succumbed to his wounds. (Via AFP)
The UN has launched an emergency aid appeal seeking $1.2bn to help some 2.7 million people in Gaza and the West Bank.
“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 $1.2bn,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
OCHA had originally sought $294m in aid to support nearly 1.3 million people in an appeal on October 12.
“The situation has grown increasingly desperate since then,” it said.
OCHA said the new appeal “will outline the need for food, water, health care, shelter, hygiene and other urgent priorities following the massive bombardments in the Gaza Strip.
“We urge donors to promptly make resources available for the response,” it added.
“Our ability to ease the suffering of the Palestinian population will depend on adequate funding; safe and sustained access to all people in need, wherever they are; sufficient flow of humanitarian supplies; and – importantly – fuel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now holding a private meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at the Kirya in Tel Aviv.
They will also meet with the members of the War Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/WnyrNfXSQr
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 3, 2023
Israel on ‘very high alert’ along northern border with Lebanon
The Israeli military says it’s on “very high alert” along the country’s northern border with Lebanon and will “respond to every event” on the border. We’re expecting a big speech this afternoon from Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel says its forces struck Hamas targets overnight, killing several militants
The Israeli military said on Friday that its war planes, artillery and navy had struck Hamas targets overnight, killing several militants including Mustafa Dalul, a Hamas commander it said had directed fighting in Gaza. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas.
In one Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a local journalist working for the official Palestine TV and at least nine of his immediate family were killed in their house, relatives and health officials said.
The United Arab Emirates, one of a handful of Arab states with diplomatic ties to Israel, said on Friday it was working “relentlessly” for an immediate ceasefire, warning that the risk of regional spillover and further escalation was real.
Israel has dismissed these calls, saying it targets Hamas fighters whom it accuses of intentionally hiding among the population and civilian buildings.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is due to meet Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, in Amman on Saturday.
In a statement, Safadi said Israel must end the war on Gaza, where he said it was committing war crimes by bombing civilians and imposing a siege.
The Israeli military said its troops and tanks were encountering mines and booby traps as they advanced in Gaza. Hamas fighters were making use of a vast underground tunnel network to stage hit-and-run attacks. Israel has said it has lost 23 soldiers in the offensive.
Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas, said in a televised speech that Israel‘s death toll in Gaza was much higher. “Your soldiers will return in black bags,” he said.
Two US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the US was flying intelligence-gathering drones over Gaza to help locate hostages. (Via Reuters)
Thai foreign minister says he has pressed Iran on Hamas hostages
Thailand’s foreign minister says he has pressed his Iranian counterpart over the fate of 23 Thais taken hostage by Hamas during 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 during Hamas’s attack on 7 October.
“I pointed out to them that Thais working there are low-income people, and work in the agricultural sector to boost their income,” Parnpree told reporters in Bangkok on Friday.
“I talked to the Iranian foreign minister and told him the Thais’ work is unrelated to politics and conflict. I asked him to send a message to the Hamas group that they are just labourers.”
About 30,000 Thais are working in Israel, mostly in the agriculture sector, according to the kingdom’s labour ministry.
Thirty-two Thai nationals have been killed and 19 wounded in the conflict, and the kingdom has evacuated more than 7,000 of its citizens on repatriation flights.
All three countries committed their full support to assisting with the negotiations, Parnpree said. “They expressed their view that the earlier the ceasefire, the sooner the hostages can be released,” he said.
During the talks, Egypt agreed to allow Thai officials to travel to the Rafah border crossing once the Thai hostages were released.
A team of Thai Muslim negotiators last week met Hamas officials in Tehran and were given a pledge that the Thais would be released at the “right time”. (Via AFP)
Irish PM says Israel actions in Gaza resemble ‘something approaching revenge’
Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has once again criticised Israel’s actions, describing its operations in Gaza as “something approaching revenge”.
This morning, he told state radio RTE:
I strongly believe that … Israel has the right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas, that they cannot do this again. What I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defence. It looks, resembles, something more approaching revenge. That’s not where we should be. And I don’t think that’s how Israel will guarantee future freedom and future security.
Asked by a journalist whether Israel’s actions were war crimes, Varadkar said: “That’s not for me to determine.”
Ireland has been a European outlier in its criticism of Israel’s response to the 7 October attacks.
Varadkar has previously said that while Israel has a right to defend itself, it “doesn’t have the right to do wrong”. Early on in the bombardment of Gaza, he also said: “To me, it amounts to collective punishment.”
Cross-border Gazan workers sent back to Gaza
Thousands of cross-border Gazan workers and labourers in Israel and the occupied West Bank were sent back to Gaza on Friday, Reuters journalists said.
Some of the workers returned through the Kerem Shalom crossing east of the Rafah border crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt, they said.
The office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Thursday night: “Those workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day of the outbreak of the war will be returned to Gaza.”
Workers crossing into the Palestinian territory said they had been detained and ill-treated by Israeli authorities after the Hamas attack on southern Israel. Some still had plastic stickers carrying numbers around their legs.
“We used to serve them, work for them, in houses, in restaurants, and in markets in return for the lowest prices and despite that we were humiliated,” said Jamal Ismail, a worker from the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
Those from areas in northern Gaza would have to stay in the south after Israeli forces have completed cutting off roads late on Thursday, according to Palestinian officials. (Via Reuters)
Here’s some background on the Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who is today due to make his first public comments since Israel and Hamas went to war after the latter’s terror attacks on 7 October. (Via Reuters)
Many people in Lebanon are anxiously awaiting the 3pm speech, rattled for weeks by fear of a catastrophic conflict. Some say they are not making plans beyond Friday, believing his remarks will signal the chances of escalation.
The speech is also being anticipated more widely. Nasrallah is a leading voice in a regional military alliance established by Iran to counter the US and Israel. Known as the “Axis of Resistance”, it includes Shia Muslim Iraqi militias that have been firing at US forces in Syria and Iraq, and Yemen’s Houthis, who have waded into the conflict by firing drones at Israel.
Wearing the black turban of a sayyed, or a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, and Shia clerical robes, Nasrallah is one of the most prominent figures in the Arab world.
Recognised even by critics as a skilled orator, his speeches have long been followed closely by friend and foe alike. He is deemed a terrorist by adversaries including the US.
His fiery speeches during the 2006 war elevated his profile, including one in which he announced Hezbollah had struck an Israeli naval vessel with an anti-ship missile, urging viewers to “look to the sea”.
While Nasrallah has stayed out of the public eye since 7 October, other Hezbollah officials have indicated the group’s combat readiness. But they have not set any red lines in the conflict with Israel.
The speech will be broadcast to coincide with rallies called by Hezbollah to honour fallen fighters.
Mutual threats of destruction have deterred Israel and Hezbollah from waging war across the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since 2006. Syria has meanwhile served as an arena for their conflict.
Sources familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking say the group’s attacks so far have been measured to avoid a big escalation, while keeping Israeli forces busy at the border.
Lebanon can ill-afford another war with Israel. Many Lebanese are still reeling from the impact of a catastrophic financial collapse four years ago.
Israel has said it has no interest in a conflict on its northern frontier with Lebanon. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah against opening a second war front with Israel, saying that doing so would bring Israeli counter-strikes of “unimaginable” magnitude that would wreak devastation upon Lebanon.
As Blinken begins his visit, Reuters has a good analysis of the massive scale of the diplomatic and humanitarian challenges involved what it terms “the day after” the war.
As Israeli forces intensify their assault against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, diplomats in Washington, the UN, 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 neighbouring Arab states and temporary UN supervision of the territory, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The process is still at what another US source terms an informal “idea-floating stage”. Key questions include whether Israel can destroy Hamas as it has vowed and whether the US, its western allies and Arab governments would commit military personnel to stand between Israel and the Palestinians, overcoming a long reluctance to do so.
The White House said on Wednesday there were “no plans or intentions” to put U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza.
More than half of Gaza’s population is already displaced, crammed hospitals lacking electricity and medicine are turning away the injured and gravediggers are running out of cemetery places.
It is also unclear whether the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza, would be able or willing to take control. On Tuesday, Blinken held out the prospects for a “revitalised” PA, but President Mahmoud Abbas’ administration has been plagued by accusations of corruption and mismanagement.
Any entity that seeks to exert authority in post-war Gaza would also have to contend with the impression among Palestinians that it is beholden to Israel. Even if Hamas’ leadership is toppled, it would be all but impossible to eradicate pro-militant sentiment from the Gaza population, raising the threat of new attacks, including suicide bombings, against whomever assumes power.
“If the Israelis succeed in crushing Hamas, I think it’s going to be extremely difficult to get a governing structure in there that is going to be legitimate and functional,” said Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East negotiator.
“The ‘day after’ exercises right now strike me as fantastical,” he said.
The discussions have increased as Israel expands its air, land and sea assault on Gaza, but they have also been driven by what US officials see as Israel’s failure so far to articulate an endgame.
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