Israel-Hamas War Highlights: At least 33 Americans killed in Hamas attacks, US Secretary of State Blinken says

Israel promises 'unrelenting attacks' on Hamas; US, Obama urge caution

Israel's military said it was preparing for "unrelenting attacks" to dismantle Hamas while former US President Barack Obama warned that "any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire."

China will 'do utmost to contribute to Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation'

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

China will do its utmost when it comes to contributing to Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation, its foreign minister told his Israeli counterpart in a phone call on Monday, according to Chinese state media. China will firmly support any resolution as long as it is conducive to peace, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Israel's Eli Cohen, calling the conflict a "major choice between war and peace", state media said on Tuesday. Wang also called for Israel to take effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions in the Middle East, adding that "all countries have the right to self-defence, but they should abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians."

China has condemned violence and attacks on civilians in the conflict, and while Wang has declared Israel's actions "beyond the scope of self-defence" he has not named Hamas in his comments.
In a separate phone conversation with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, Wang said he "deeply sympathises" with the people of Gaza and that what they need most are security and efforts to stop war and promote peace, not weapons or geopolitical calculations.

China calls for the convening of a "more authoritative, wide-ranging and effective international peace conference" soonest to promote the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Wang said.
"The UN Security Council should effectively shoulder its responsibility, the international community must act urgently, and countries outside the region, especially major powers, should be objective and impartial," he said.

via Reuters

'We must never lose sight of how essential the two-state solution is,' says UK PM Rishi Sunak

Biden urges 'continuous flow' of aid to Gaza in call with Netanyahu

US President Joe Biden.

US President Joe Biden underscored the need to sustain 'a continuous flow' of humanitarian assistance into Gaza in call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the White House said. He also 'welcomed the release of two additional hostages from Gaza earlier today, and reaffirmed his commitment to ongoing efforts to secure the release of all the remaining hostages taken by Hamas,' the White House added.

via Reuters

Need to eliminate Hamas once and for all, says Indian American Congressman Thanedar

Indian American Congressman Shri Thanedar.

Describing Hamas as a barbaric terrorist organisation, an Indian American Congressman has said there is a need to eliminate the terror outfit.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a barrage of rocket attacks in Southern Israel on October 7.

The unprecedented assault triggered retaliatory strikes from the Israel Defense Forces. “Hamas is not a militant organisation. Hamas is not a resistance movement. They are just barbaric terrorists. There's no other way to describe it,” Shri Thanedar told a group of eminent Indian-Americans at the US Capitol Hill on Monday.

“This is a time where we just can't just push them. Because they will regroup and come back and do these atrocities once again. That's what they will do. So, we need at this stage to eliminate them; eliminate them from the face of this earth,” he said at an event organised by HinduACTion here in support of Israel. “We need to dismantle their military operations. We need to free the Palestinian people, the two million Palestinian people who live in Gaza. They need to be freed from these terrorist control of Gaza,” he said.

President Biden says Pope Francis 'on the same page' as him when it comes to the Israel-Hamas conflict

US President Joe Biden.

Over 19,000 people displaced inside Lebanon as a result of Hezbollah-Israel clashes

Per the International Organization for Migration

Six UN refugee agency workers killed in Gaza in 24 hours,

Reports AFP

A general view shows the house where Palestinian teenager Dima Allamdani, who fled to southern Gaza Strip with her family to avoid the constant onslaught of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, was sheltering in, which was hit by Israeli jets that killed 13 of her relatives, including her parents, 7 siblings and 4 members of her uncle's family, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Tel Aviv

French President Emmanuel Macron.

At least 10 British nationals killed in Israel-Hamas conflict, six missing, confirms UK government

Hamas-run media claims at least 140 killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes

Fourth humanitarian aid truck envoy preparing to enter Gaza via Egypt

A convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egyptian NGOs for Palestinians waits for a decision for the Rafah crossing to open, to enter Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 17, 2023.

France's Macron says releasing Gaza hostages must be 'first objective'

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, meets Israel's President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

Italy Foreign Minister questions death toll in Gaza hospital strike

Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in alleged Israeli strikes, at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Italy's foreign minister said an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City last week was not caused by a missile fired by Israel and also questioned the death toll reported by Palestinian officials."We need to avoid the negative impact of propaganda because that missile that was said to have caused 500 deaths, in reality it was around 50 people....was not launched by Israel," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told the Sky TG24 news channel.The Gaza health ministry has put the hospital death toll at 471. Tajani did not say what evidence his comments were based on. (Reuters)

Hamas says it has 35,000 fighters inside Gaza and is 'ready' for an Israeli ground operation

A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas.

8 out of 24 hospitals in Gaza Strip now out of service

via The Spectator Index

People inspect the area of Al-Ahli hospital where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other, and where Palestinians who fled their homes were sheltering amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, in Gaza City.

5,791 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since October 7, Gaza Health Ministry says

At least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, including 2,360 children, Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

It said 704 Palestinians had been killed in the previous 24 hours alone.

People gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 24, 2023.

Fending off critics, Netanyahu says there's 'clear unity of purpose' with defence chiefs

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved to dampen media pressure over the government's conduct of the war against the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, issuing a statement insisting he was in full accord with his defence and army chiefs.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister, has seen his already falling approval ratings plunge following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed some 1,400 people in the deadliest day for Israel in its 75-year history.

On Monday, amid growing expectations of an imminent ground operation against Hamas in Gaza, Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest circulation newspaper, published a stinging attack on the government, saying that a "crisis of confidence" had developed between Netanyahu and the army leadership.

"It has deeply impeded the need to focus on the war and on making decisions, including painful decisions. Israel now needs an effective, task-oriented leadership," it said.

Making the comparison with the 1973 Yom Kippur war, which began with an attack by Egypt and Syria that caught Israeli forces unprepared, the newspaper said that the country's leaders 50 years ago were able to restore confidence before Israel achieved final victory.

"Nowadays, Israel is managing, but it doesn't have a functioning management," it said.

Late on Monday, Netanyahu's office, together with the defence minister and the army chief of staff, issued a statement saying they were working together in full cooperation and urging the media to avoid "false publications that only harm our unity and strength".

"Between Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff there is complete and mutual trust and a clear unity of purpose," the statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

35 UNRWA staff killed in Gaza since October 7

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has reported that the death toll of its staff in Gaza has risen to 35.

A woman carries a baby as families of staff of international organisations carry their belongings as they shelter at a United Nations center after UNRWA said it relocated its central operations centre to the south of Gaza Strip after Israel's call for more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to move south within 24 hours, amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 13, 2023.

Freed Israeli hostage says Hamas treated her well after initial violence

An elderly Israeli hostage who was released by Hamas overnight said she had been beaten by the militants when she was abducted and taken to Gaza on Oct. 7, but was then treated well during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was one of two women freed late on Monday, leaving around 220 hostages still in the hands of Hamas, including both of their husbands.

"I've been through hell," Lifshitz told reporters, speaking in barely a whisper and seated in a wheelchair outside the Tel Aviv hospital, where she was taken following her release.

"They stormed into our homes. They beat people. They kidnapped others, the old and the young without distinction," she said.

A group of five people from her kibbutz were held together, each with an individual guard who stayed with them 24 hours a day. Lifshitz said a doctor visited them every other day and brought them the medicines they needed.

Read more

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, an Israeli grandmother who was held hostage in Gaza, speaks to members of the press after being released by Hamas militants, at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel October 24, 2023.

WHO unable to distribute fuel and vital supplies to major hospitals in north Gaza

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it remains unable to distribute fuel or life-saving health supplies to major hospitals in northern Gaza due to a lack of security guarantees.

The WHO called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire so health supplies and fuel can be delivered safely throughout the Gaza Strip".

File Photo: Trucks carrying aid wait to exit, on the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 21, 2023.

'Hamas attacks did not occur in a vacuum,' UN Secretary-General says; draws strong criticism from Israel

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the 15-member U.N. Security Council that at a "crucial moment like this," it was vital to be clear that war has rules, starting with the fundamental principle of respecting and protecting civilians.

"It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation," Guterres said.

"But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," he said.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan described Guterres' speech as "shocking."

"His statement that 'the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum' expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder," Erdan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "It's truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ahead of a meeting on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas at UN headquarters in New York, October 24, 2023.

At least 33 Americans killed in Hamas attacks, US Secretary of State Blinken says

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a meeting on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas at UN headquarters in New York, US, October 24, 2023.

UNRWA warns it will be forced to halt Gaza operations by Wednesday night due to fuel shortage

via Haaretz