Israel-Hamas war live: Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza refugee camp, say Palestinians; Biden says progress being made towards a ‘pause’
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Gaza ministry says more than 30 killed in Israeli bombing of Maghazi refugee camp
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 30 people were killed in an Israeli bombing of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza late on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports.
“More than 30 [dead] arrived at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the massacre committed by the occupation in al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip,” a health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a statement.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa earlier said 51 Palestinians had been killed and scores wounded in the bombardment.
Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram that Israel had “directly” bombed citizens’ homes, adding that most of the dead were women and children.
“An Israeli air strike targeted my neighbours’ house in al-Maghazi camp, my house next door partially collapsed,” said Mohammed Alaloul, 37, a journalist working for the Turkish Anadolu Agency.
Alaloul told AFP his 13-year-old son, Ahmed, and his four-year-old son, Qais, were killed in the attack, along with his brother. His wife, mother and two other children were injured.
An Israeli military spokesperson said it was looking into whether the Israel Defence Forces had been operating in the area at the time of the bombing.
Key events
Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians across the occupied West Bank on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the Jerusalem Post is reporting, citing Palestinian reports.
The Post said Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm were among the locations of the fighting.
In Nablus, three Palestinians were injured during an Israeli raid, the report said. In Jenin, one Palestinian was injured, while at least one other was arrested during a raid.
Harriet Sherwood
The “day after” the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza may still be weeks or months away, but it will come. “When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next,” US president Joe Biden said recently. “And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution.”
Against a backdrop of repeated cycles of violence and a military occupation lasting more than half a century, diplomats and analysts agree that lasting peace must follow the bloodiest fighting between Israelis and Palestinians for decades.
The two-state solution to the bitter conflict that has beset the region for almost a century – dividing the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean to carve out two independent, sovereign Israeli and Palestinian states existing side by side – has repeatedly been endorsed by world leaders.
But it has proved impossible for Israel and the Palestinians to reach an agreement. And, since US-brokered talks collapsed in 2014, and as Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have proliferated, the consensus has been that the two-state solution is dead.
Can it be revived? And – given the continuing war, regional tensions and settlers’ presence in what would be a Palestinian state – what might a two-state solution look like?
See here for the full story:
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has expressed Canada’s support for Israel and its right to defend itself while reaffirming “the importance of upholding international humanitarian law and making every effort to protect Palestinian civilians”, Trudeau’s office has said.
In its statement on a conversation between the two leaders on Saturday, Trudeau’s office said he “highlighted his deep concerns with the dire humanitarian crisis, and reiterated Canada’s position on the immediate need to create conditions for urgent and necessary humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza”.
Trudeau’s office said the leaders agreed on the need for all hostages held in Gaza to be immediately released, adding:
The two leaders also discussed ongoing efforts to get foreign citizens out of Gaza and the prime minister thanked prime minister Netanyahu for Israel’s assurances that Canadians in Gaza will be able to leave in the coming days.
Trudeau’s office also said the two leaders “denounced Hamas’ continued terror and discussed the risk of potential escalation in the region” and that Trudeau “underscored Canada’s enduring support for a two-state solution and for the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and security”.
Trudeau also “recognised the disturbing rise of antisemitism around the world, including in Canada, and the impact of the October 7 attack on Canada’s Jewish community”.
Just to recap: President Joe Biden suggested there have been some advances in US attempts to persuade Israel to pause military strikes on Gaza for humanitarian reasons.
In a brief exchange with reporters as he left a church in Delaware on Saturday, Biden was asked if there was progress and he responded “Yes” and gave a thumbs-up, but did not share specifics.
Associated Press also reported that the comment came after US secretary of state Antony Blinken met with his Arab counterparts on Saturday. He disagreed with them on the need for an immediate ceasefire, saying that would leave Hamas in place, and made clear the furthest he would go was backing a pause for aid to reach civilians in Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces has posted a video on social media of apparent Hamas tunnels in northern Gaza, saying Israel troops had uncovered “multiple access points” to them.
The IDF’s post on X (formerly Twitter) says:
While Hamas obstructs their civilians from getting to safety in southern Gaza, Hamas hides within their intricate network of terror tunnels.
IDF troops uncovered multiple access points during operational activity in Northern Gaza.
While Hamas obstructs their civilians from getting to safety in southern Gaza, Hamas hides within their intricate network of terror tunnels.
IDF troops uncovered multiple access points during operational activity in Northern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/vovapYD4Xn
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 5, 2023
Dozens arrested and police injured at pro-Palestinian rally in Trafalgar Square
Four police officers were injured and 29 people were arrested after thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, PA Media reports.
They were arrested for inciting racial hatred, other racially motivated crimes, violence and assaulting a police officer, the Metropolitan Police said.
Demonstrators climbed on top of the square’s fountains as the mostly peaceful group waved flags and banners on Saturday afternoon.
But the force said some demonstrators had launched fireworks into crowds and towards police, leaving four officers injured.
There were scuffles with police as the evening went on, and smaller groups of protesters began moving away from the square.
More than 1,300 officers were on duty in the area, four of whom were injured, the force said.
At least one protester was seen carrying a banner that read “Let’s keep the world clean” with a picture of an Israeli flag being thrown into a bin.
A similar banner displayed at a protest in Warsaw was condemned by the Israeli ambassador to Poland as “blatant antisemitism”.
Effigies of dead babies were left on the ground in Trafalgar Square, next to pictures of children and candles.
The Metropolitan police issued a dispersal order for an area around the square which will remain in force until 1am. An order was also issued giving officers the power to require someone to remove any item being used to conceal their identity, the force said.
Gaza ministry says more than 30 killed in Israeli bombing of Maghazi refugee camp
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 30 people were killed in an Israeli bombing of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza late on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports.
“More than 30 [dead] arrived at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the massacre committed by the occupation in al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip,” a health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a statement.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa earlier said 51 Palestinians had been killed and scores wounded in the bombardment.
Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram that Israel had “directly” bombed citizens’ homes, adding that most of the dead were women and children.
“An Israeli air strike targeted my neighbours’ house in al-Maghazi camp, my house next door partially collapsed,” said Mohammed Alaloul, 37, a journalist working for the Turkish Anadolu Agency.
Alaloul told AFP his 13-year-old son, Ahmed, and his four-year-old son, Qais, were killed in the attack, along with his brother. His wife, mother and two other children were injured.
An Israeli military spokesperson said it was looking into whether the Israel Defence Forces had been operating in the area at the time of the bombing.
Peter Beaumont
In the dark and the cloying heat of a Gaza night, the troops of the 13th Battalion of Israel’s Golani Brigade were attempting to advance in northern Gaza amid the flashes of air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip.
The ambush, when it happened, caught them by surprise – 30 fighters from an elite Hamas unit emerging from hidden tunnel entrances. The prolonged battle that followed saw Hamas deploy drones, anti-tank missiles and mortars against the Israeli armoured personnel carriers.
As Israel’s ground invasion has pushed forward in the past seven days, it has been marked by ambushes on tanks, on troop concentrations and positions taken in shattered, bomb-damaged buildings. Vehicles have been engaged with anti-tank guided missiles and have run over mines, leading to a steady stream of Israeli casualties, even while the Israel Defence Forces has claimed to have killed scores of Hamas fighters.
As the ground war enters its second brutal week, the unanswered questions driving its logic have become ever more pressing. Can the war aims be achieved? And what happens on the day after the shooting stops?
Strikingly, unlike in previous rounds of conflict in Gaza, the strong sense of social solidarity in wartime exists this time in tandem with a furious debate over whether the public rhetoric of Israel’s political and military leaders is reflective of reality.
For the full analysis on Israel’s growing concern about the war’s direction, see here:
The Hamas-run government of Gaza suspended the evacuation of foreign passport holders to Egypt on Saturday after Israel refused to allow some wounded Palestinians to be evacuated to Egyptian hospitals, a border official said.
“No foreign passport holder will be able to leave the Gaza Strip until wounded people who need to be evacuated from hospitals in north Gaza are transported through the Rafah crossing” to Egypt, Agence France-Presse quoted the official as saying on condition of anonymity.
An Egyptian security source confirmed to AFP that “no wounded person or holder of a foreign passport arrived at the Egyptian terminal” of Rafah on Saturday.
He said the evacuation was suspended “after the bombing of ambulances transporting injured people who were on their way to the Egyptian terminal”.
On Friday, the Israeli army announced it had struck an ambulance outside al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, saying it was “used by a Hamas terrorist cell”.
At least 15 people were killed and 60 wounded in the strike, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
51 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza refugee camp – report
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said 51 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed and scores wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp on Saturday night.
Reuters could not independently verify the Wafa report.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run Health ministry in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qidra, said a large number of people were killed without giving an exact figure, adding scores of people with severe injuries were laying on the ground of a hospital’s emergency ward, Reuters reported.
Maghazi is located in the Deir al-Balah Governorate in the central Gaza Strip.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas, not civilians, and accuses the militants of using residents as human shields.
Summary
Here is where the day stands:
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The Palestine Red Crescent Society received 30 aid trucks that entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing today. Three were handed to the Red Cross and 19 to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Eight trucks from the Eygptian Red Crescent were delivered to the Palestine Red Crescent.
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Agence France-Presse on Saturday called on Israel for “an in-depth and transparent investigation” into the exact involvement of its army after a strike severely damaged its office in Gaza City, which has been shelled for weeks. “A strike on the offices of an international news agency sends a deeply troubling message to all the journalists working in such difficult conditions in Gaza,” said AFP Chairman and CEO Fabrice Fries.
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In a small sign of progress towards getting a humanitarian pause in the war between Israel and Hamas, Joe Biden answered “yes” to a question about the issue this afternoon. US officials have been pushing for a pause, mainly out of concern for hostages taken by Hamas and brought to Gaza, but so far with little impact. The US has also been very clear that it does not back any calls for a ceasefire.
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Protesters gathered outside the residence of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid growing anger at the government’s failures that led to Hamas’s deadly attacks against Israel on 7 October. Protesters also gathered in Tel Aviv, with many holding signs that said “Ceasefire” and others that read “Release the hostages now at all costs.”
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Turkey announced on Saturday that it is recalling its ambassador to Israel and cutting contact with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat called the move “another step by the Turkish president that sides with the Hamas terrorist organisation.”
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Hamas’s armed wing said that more than 60 hostages were missing due to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, Reuters reports. Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, also said on Hamas’s Telegram account that 23 bodies of Israeli hostages were trapped under the rubble. Reuters could not immediately verify the statement.
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken has reaffirmed US support for “humanitarian pauses” in the ongoing fight between Israel and Hamas. In an address in Amman, Jordan, about sparing civilians and speeding up aid deliveries entering into Gaza, Blinken said: “The United States believes that all of these efforts will be facilitated by humanitarian pauses.”
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Thousands of protestors gathered in Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza in a show of solidarity with Palestinians. The rally is expected to be the US’s largest pro-Palestinian protest since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October.
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Israel will “find and eliminate” Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday. “We will find Sinwar and will eliminate him,” Gallant told a news conference, as Israeli forces fought street battles with Hamas inside the Palestinian territory.
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Thousands of protesters took to the streets in London for the fourth consecutive week of demonstrations in a show of solidarity with Palestinians. The Metropolitan police said there will be a “sharper focus” on using social media and face recognition to detect criminal behaviour at protests this weekend.
Here are some images coming through the newswires of Gaza where over 9,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes while thousands more remain in what the UN has called a “horrific” humanitarian condition amid Israel’s seige that has caused shortages of food, water and medical aid across the strip:
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs has released a flash update on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. Here is an excerpt on the ongoing internal displacement faced by Palestinians across the strip:
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Nearly 1.5 million people in Gaza are internally displaced (IDPs). Of them, 710,275 are sheltering in 149 UNRWA facilities, 122,000 people are in hospitals, churches, and public buildings, 109,755 people are in 89 non-UNRWA schools (previously 82), and the remainder are residing with host families.
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Overcrowding conditions continue to create severe health and protection risks for IDPs and are taking a heavy toll on their mental health. Damage to water and sanitation infrastructure and the limited availability of fuel to pump water creates additional public health risks. Several cases of acute respiratory infections, diarrhea and chicken pox have already been reported among people taking refuge at UNRWA shelters.
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Over 530,000 people are sheltering in 92 UNRWA facilities in the southern governorates of Deir Al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah areas. Shelters have exceeded their capacity and are unable to accommodate new arrivals. Many IDPs are seeking safety by sleeping in the streets, near to UNRWA premises
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An estimated 160,000 IDPs are housed in 57 UNRWA facilities in the north and in Gaza city. UNRWA, however, is no longer able to provide services in those areas and does not have accurate information on people’s needs and conditions since the Israeli evacuation order on 13 October.
Here are some photos coming through the newswires of the ongoing pro-Palestinian rally in Washington DC, which is expected to be the US’s largest pro-Palestinian protest since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October.
American celebrities have voiced their support for Palestinians in Washington DC’s pro-Palestinian protest that saw tens of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets in calls for a ceasefire and for the US to halt its military aid to Israel.
American rapper and singer Macklemore addressed a crowd of thousands, saying: “I know enough to know that this is a genocide.”
In what was perhaps the largest pro-Palestinian march to take place in the US on Saturday, Macklemore took the stage and said:
There are thousands of people here that are more qualified to speak on the issue of a free Palestine than myself but I will say this:
They told me to do my research, that it’s too complex, to be silent … In the last three weeks, I’ve gone back and I have done some research, I don’t know everything, but I know enough to know that this is a genocide.
Macklemore speaks at the “Free Palestine” rally in DC:
“They told me to do my research, that it’s too complex, to be silent … In the last 3 weeks, I’ve gone back & I have done some research, I don’t know everything, but I know enough to know that this is a genocide.” pic.twitter.com/QQcjZQcSFQ
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 4, 2023
Meanwhile, actress Susan Sarandon said:
You don’t have to be Palestinian to care about what’s happening in Gaza. I stand with Palestine. No one is free until everyone is free.
You don’t have to be Palestinian to care about what’s happening in Gaza. I stand with Palestine. No one is free until everyone is free. https://t.co/23JHFbuf5K
— Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) November 4, 2023
The Palestine Red Crescent Society received 30 aid trucks that entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing today.
Three were handed to the Red Cross and 19 to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Eight trucks from the Eygptian Red Crescent were delivered to the Palestine Red Crescent.
The humanitarian group added:
The trucks contain 4 trucks of medical supplies and medicines, while the remaining trucks contain food, water, and relief items.
The total number of trucks received from October 21, 2023, until now is 451 trucks, which is equivalent to 30 trucks per day. However, Israeli authorities have not allowed the entry of fuel up to this moment.
@PalestineRCS teams received 30 trucks loaded with aid through the Rafah crossing today, 3 trucks of them were handed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and 19 trucks to UNRWA, additionally, 8 trucks from the Egyptian Red Cressent were delivered to the Palestine Red… pic.twitter.com/tBtMTXhcvp
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 4, 2023
Agence France-Presse on Saturday called on Israel for “an in-depth and transparent investigation” into the exact involvement of its army after a strike severely damaged its office in Gaza City, which has been shelled for weeks.
Agence France-Presse reports:
AFP “has taken note of the recent statements from the Israeli army spokesman concerning ‘an army strike nearby (the AFP office) that might have caused debris,’” it said in a statement.
However, “this statement on its own does not explain the extent of the damage caused to the AFP bureau,” located on the top floors of an 11-storey building, it said of Thursday’s incident.
“A strike on the offices of an international news agency sends a deeply troubling message to all the journalists working in such difficult conditions in Gaza,” said AFP Chairman and CEO Fabrice Fries.
“It is essential that all efforts are made to protect media in Gaza,” he added.
AFP is one of the few international media organisations to have an office in the Gaza Strip.
It employs a total of nine people there and is “redoubling its efforts to allow employees and their families to evacuate if they wish to leave.”
AFP’s live video feed broadcasting 24/7 from Gaza City has been temporarily suspended since Saturday, for reasons outside AFP’s control.
An AFP employee who visited the office on Friday said an explosive projectile appeared to have entered the technician’s office in the bureau horizontally from east to west.
The strike destroyed the wall opposite the window and caused significant damage to the adjacent room and other doors. It also punctured water tanks on the roof.
“According to the current information we hold, it seems that there was a IDF (Israel Defense Forces) strike near the building to eliminate an immediate threat,” a spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society is providing pscyhological first aid and recreational activities to emergency medical teams at Al Quds Hospital in Gaza.
The activities are organized in efforts to ease “their psychological strain amid constant threats of being targeted,” PRCS said.
Pictures posted online showed emergency workers blowing balloons and sitting in a circle, smiling – a rare moment of respite amid deadly Israeli strikes that have killed over 9,000 Palestinians, including over 3,600 children across Gaza since October 7.
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