Israel-Hamas War Highlights: 7,028 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since October 7, Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says

Biden says he has 'no confidence' in Palestinian death count

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he has "no confidence in the number that Palestinians are using" for the death toll in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where the health ministry says over 6,500 have been killed in Israeli attacks.

Biden was asked at a White House press conference whether the death count, which the ministry says includes some 2,700 children, meant Israel was ignoring US appeals to reduce civilian deaths in its bombardment of the coastal enclave.

Israel has right to respond to the slaughter of their people: Biden

Israel has the right to respond to the slaughter of its people and it will be ensured that the country has what it needs to defend itself, US President Joe Biden said in a joint news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Israel has launched a massive counter-offensive against Hamas after unprecedented attacks by the militant group on October 7 killed more than 1,400 people.

Several family members of Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau chief killed in Israeli airstrikes

At least four family members of a prominent Al Jazeera journalist in the Gaza Strip were killed, the news organisation said on Wednesday.

The network said the wife, son, daughter and infant grandson of Wael al-Dahdouh, the Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language service, were killed at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where they had been sheltering.

(NYT)

Biden, Netanyahu discussed efforts to secure release of American hostages in Gaza: White House

US President Joe Biden and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday discussed "ongoing efforts to locate and secure the release" of Americans believed held hostage in Gaza, the White House said.

Biden also stressed to Netanyahu the "importance of focusing on what comes after this crisis to include a pathway for a permanent peace between Israelis and Palestinians," the White House said.

(Reuters)

Empty chairs, demonstrations, missing civilians, grieving families: The war in pictures

Japan calls for temporary suspension of fighting in Gaza

Japan has called on Israel to temporarily suspend fighting to allow humanitarian assistance to the Gaza strip, its foreign ministry said. The call was made in a meeting between Japan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Israel's ambassador to Japan late on Wednesday, according to a readout issued by the ministry on Thursday.

(Reuters)

WHO calls for 'immediate release' of those abducted by Hamas

The World Health Organization calls for 'immediate release' of 'all those abducted' by Hamas.

The Spectator Index

Israel is fighting for its existence, ground operation in Gaza coming: Netanyahu

Israel is in the midst of a fight for its existence and preparations are underway for a ground incursion into Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said and added that 'all Hamas members are dead men walking'.

In an address to the nation on Wednesday evening, he stressed that the two main goals of the war were 'to eliminate Hamas by destroying its military and governance capabilities, and to do everything possible to get our captives home'.

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Israel ground forces conduct 'relatively large' Gaza incursion overnight

Israeli ground forces carried out a relatively large incursion into the Gaza Strip overnight to attack Hamas positions, Israel's Army Radio reported on Thursday.

It described the raid as larger than previously carried out during the Gaza war, now in its third week.

(Reuters)

Israel ground forces raid Hamas sites in Gaza, withdraw

Israeli ground forces operated within the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, attacking multiple Hamas targets before withdrawing, the military said in a statement on what Israel's Army Radio described as the biggest incursion of the current war.
The military statement posted online said the incursion was carried out "in preparation for the next stages of combat", a possible reference to the large-scale invasion that Israeli leaders have threatened as part of the war to destroy Hamas.
"The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory," the military statement added.

(Reuters)

People react as Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza City.

Demonstrators from ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’, their supporters rally in Detroit

Demonstrators from ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ and their supporters rally for a ceasefire in Gaza, outside the Federal building in Detroit, Michigan US October 25, 2023.

Britain will convene a meeting of the government's COBRA emergency response committee on Thursday to consider its strategy and approach towards Gaza and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told Times Radio .Britain is pushing for a humanitarian pause to the conflict, and for Britons in Gaza to be able to leave safely.

(Reuters)

Hamas calls for mass protests demanding Rafah border opening

“We call on our people throughout the homeland and outside, and on all the members of the Arab and Islamic nation, and the free people of the world, to intensify the popular mobilization in the coming days, and to demonstrate actively on Friday and Sunday under the slogan ‘Open the Rafah crossing’ and ‘Stop the genocidal war on Gaza,’” a statement from Hamas read.

The Times of Israel

267 people still hospitalized in Israel after Hamas assault

According to The Times of Israel, as many as 267 people still remain injured in the October 7 attack by Hamas and the ensuing war in hospitals across the the country.

Confirmed number of Gaza hostages rises to 224: Israeli military

The Israeli military said on Thursday that the number of people confirmed held hostage in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 cross-border raids by Hamas had reached 224, and could rise further.

(Reuters)

In Pictures| Palestinians react as smoke rises following Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis

Palestinians react as smoke rises following Israeli strikes, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 26, 2023.

In Pictures| A Palestinian man carries a child casualty at the site of Israeli strikes

A Palestinian man carries a child casualty at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 26, 2023.

EU leaders to call for Gaza humanitarian corridors to get aid in

EU leaders are poised to call for humanitarian corridors in Gaza and for pauses in bombardments into and out of the enclave to enable access for aid, after days of wrangling that highlighted divisions within the bloc over the Israel-Hamas war.

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Gaza needs a full ceasefire for aid to get in, says Palestinian Foreign Minister

Israel needs to agree to a full ceasefire in Gaza in order enable urgently needed humanitarian aid to be brought in, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Thursday in The Hague.
EU leaders are poised to call on Thursday for pauses in bombardments into and out of Gaza to enable access for aid, but al-Maliki said this proposal was unacceptable, as it would not ensure aid could come in and water and electricity supplies be reinstated.

(Reuters)

Gantz says restoring Israeli security after Gaza attack will take years

Israeli efforts to rehabilitate southern communities ravaged by the Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught will take years and go beyond a planned ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet said on Thursday.

Benny Gantz, an ex-general who joined Netanyahu from the opposition in an emergency government, signalled to enemies of Israel other than Hamas that they too risked being destroyed.

"The battle against Gazan terror will continue within the strip's territory - going deep, anywhere and at any time required to ensure security for the communities that will be restored and will rebuild the region," he said in a speech.

"The (ground) maneuver will be but one stage of a long process that will include defensive, diplomatic and social aspects that will take years."

A long-time political rival of Netanyahu, Gantz said the two-week-old war cabinet was functioning well and making decisions based on calculations relevant to the national crisis.

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which is sworn to its destruction and has the support of Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"The danger of destruction will not be our destiny, but rather, the fate of those who would do evil to us," Gantz said.

People look up at the damage caused when a rocket, fired from Gaza towards Israel, at a Holocaust museum at a Kibbutz near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, October 24, 2023.

'Silence of international community over Gaza embarrassing,' Erdogan tells Pope

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

7,028 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since October 7, Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 26, 2023.

EU leaders will send signal of support to Israel, German Chancellor Scholz says

European leaders will use a summit in Brussels to send a clear signal of support to Israel in its self-defence efforts, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said as he met with fellow European Union government heads in Brussels.

"It also important that we allow for humanitarian help to enter (Gaza)", Scholz said in remarks to the press ahead of the meeting, adding that the civilian population of Gaza "also are victims of Hamas."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

France sends helicopter carrier to support Gaza's hospitals

The French assault vessel Tonnerre was on Thursday heading to the eastern Mediterranean to support hospitals in Gaza that are struggling to cope with the high number of victims of Israeli air strikes as fuel and medical supplies run low.

President Emmanuel Macron said he was sending the helicopter carrier to help Gazans get access to medicines and care.

France's Defence Ministry on Thursday described the 199-metre warship's role as one of humanitarian support but it was not immediately clear if that meant delivering medical supplies to the Gaza Strip or also treating wounded Palestinians on board.

"The conditions [for providing humanitarian support] have not yet been established. The idea is first to reach the area and then provide as much aid as possible," a Joint Defence Staff spokesperson said.

UN steps up appeal for fuel in Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens

The UN agency providing aid to Palestinian civilians in besieged Gaza warned it may have to shut down operations shortly if no fuel reaches the enclave, amid an increasingly desperate need for shelter, water, food and medical services.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it urgently needed fuel to maintain life-saving humanitarian operations in the Islamist Hamas-ruled enclave that has been under Israeli bombardment for almost three weeks.

"If fuel is not received into Gaza, UNRWA will be forced to significantly reduce and in some cases bring its humanitarian operations across the Gaza Strip to a halt. The coming 24 hours are very critical," it said.

Israel has refused to let in fuel with aid shipments, saying it could be seized by Hamas.

Palestinian children, who fled their house amid Israeli strikes, take shelter at a tent camp at a United Nations-run centre, after Israel's call for more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to move south, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 26, 2023.