Thursday, October 12, 2023
0557 GMT — The Israeli military says it is preparing for a possible ground operation in the besieged Gaza but that the political leadership has not yet decided on one.
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told reporters on Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground manoeuvre if decided.”
Israel has called up some 360,000 army reservists and has threated an unprecedented response to Hamas’ unprecedented incursion over the weekend.
It has been launching intense airstrikes and declared a total siege of Gaza since the attack by Hamas on Saturday.
0557 GMT — Malaysian aid for Palestine
Malaysian Foreign Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir slammed Israel’s “outrageous acts of cruelty” in cutting off food, water and fuel to Gaza and said Malaysia will provide 1 million ringgit ($212,000) as an emergency fund to help Palestinians.
A strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, Malaysia has blamed the crisis on the oppression and injustice against the Palestinian people.
0522 GMT — More than 338,000 flee homes
More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in besieged Gaza, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave.
The number of displaced in the densely populated territory of 2.3 million people had by late Wednesday “risen by an additional 75,000 people and reached 338,934,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Thursday.
0215 GMT — Gaza death toll climbs to 1,200, with 5000 others wounded
Gaza’s Health Ministry has announced that the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks has climbed to around 1,200, with nearly 5,000 wounded.
Deputy Health Minister Yusuf Abu al-Reesh visited Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza to assess the state of health services.
Speaking at a press conference after the inspection, he said “the number of martyrs has approached 1,200 and there are approximately 5,000 injured.” He noted that most of the dead and wounded are women, children and the elderly.
In a previous statement, the Health Ministry said Gaza’s hospitals were operating at full capacity due to the increasing Israeli attacks.
Health Ministry spokesperson Esref al-Kudra said that due to overcrowding, patients and the wounded were being accommodated on the floors of hospitals and receiving treatment in this manner.
Al-Kudra warned that Israel continues to cut off electricity, water and fuel, which poses a “significant danger,” and “a severe environmental and health catastrophe could occur,” emphasising that the responsibility for this lies with the Israeli occupation.
0151 GMT — US asking countries to use influence on Hamas, Iran
The United States is encouraging its international partners to use their influence with Hamas and its supporters in Iran to get the Palestinian fighters to stand down amid the fight with Israel, a senior official said.
The comments came on Thursday as Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading to Israel for a visit of solidarity before stops in Jordan and likely other countries in the region.
“Frankly, we’re asking all of our partners to engage with Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran — with any of that trifecta — with whom they have any channels or relations or what have you, to get Hamas to stand down from its attacks, to release those hostages, and to keep Hezbollah out, and to keep Iran out of the fray,” the official said on a refuelling stop in Ireland.
Another US official confirmed that Blinken would visit other countries in the region after the announced trips to Israel and Jordan but did not say which ones.
Blinken and other US officials say that Hamas survives on Iranian support but that there is no evidence that Tehran directed the attacks on Israel.
0100 GMT — Dozens of Israelis in critical condition
Israel’s Health Ministry has announced that 3,268 wounded Israelis have been evacuated to hospitals since the start of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper cited a statement from the ministry indicating that 443 Israelis remain hospitalised, 105 of them in critical condition.
According to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN), the number of Israelis killed so far in the conflict totals 1,200 and the number of injured has reached 2,900.
0030 GMT — New casualties as Israeli bombs rain on Gaza
At least seven people, including women and children, have been killed and wounded in incessant Israeli bombing in Khan Younis south of besieged Gaza, according to Anadolu Agency correspondent.
The number of victims is likely to rise as rescue teams are still unable to pull out all bodies or wounded from the rubble, the news agency said, citing sources.
The fresh casualties came as the Israeli military continues to pound Gaza ahead of a possible ground invasion in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Most of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza have no electricity and no water.
And, with hundreds of Israeli strikes raining down on their tiny enclave, blockaded from land, air and sea by Israel since 2007, they have nowhere to run.
2100 GMT — Hamas frees Israeli settler, her two children from captivity
Palestinian group Hamas has released a captured Israeli woman and her two children.
A video aired by the Doha-based broadcaster Al Jazeera showed a woman in a blue and pink jacket walking toward a child and the two embracing, as Hamas fighters walked away.
They appeared to be near the Gaza border fence.
“An Israeli settler and her two children were released after they were detained during the clashes,” Ezzedine al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement.
A video footage aired by Hamas television Al Aqsa network showed a woman dressed in a blue shirt with two children in a barbed wired area that appeared to be between Israel and Gaza, while three Hamas fighters are seen walking away.
Around 150 people were captured by Hamas during Saturday’s assault, according to Israeli officials.
2235 GMT — Ultra-nationalist Israeli fans protest outside hospital in Tel Aviv
More than a hundred far-right protesters have rioted outside one of the main hospitals in Tel Aviv after hearing reports that doctors there were treating a Palestinian fighter, according to Hagai Levine, Chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians.
Protesters from La Familia — a group of notoriously racist Jerusalem fans of the “Beitar” football team — blocked the main entrance to the emergency room for three hours, according to videos circulated by doctors on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The ultra-nationalist football fans clashed violently with police and disrupted the passage of emergency crews into the hospital. At the time of the riot, Sheba hospital was not treating any fighters from Hamas, Levine said.
The protest came on the heels of a letter circulated by Israeli Health Minister Moshe Arbel that barred Israel’s public hospitals from treating Plaestinian fighters. Arbel wrote that wounded fighters should be referred to the Israeli military or Israel’s intelligence services.
2235 GMT — Palestinians find nowhere is safe in Gaza
Over 180,000 Palestinians in the Gaza are packed into UN shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people.
Residents say there is no real escape in Gaza, which has been under a suffocating 16-year blockade imposed by Israel from land, air and sea.
When war breaks out, as it has four times since Hamas assumed power in 2007, even UN facilities that are supposed to be safe zones risk becoming engulfed in the fighting.
2000 GMT — Iran and Saudi Arabia discuss Israel-Palestine war
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have discussed the situation in Palestine.
In their first-ever phone conversation following the resumption of ties between Tehran and Riyadh after a seven-year hiatus, Raisi and Salman spoke for 45 minutes on the latest developments in the Palestine-Israeli conflict and highlighted the need to stop war crimes from being committed by Israel against Palestinians.
During the call, the importance of unity in the Islamic world was underscored and criticism was directed towards the support provided by the US to Israel, which continues to launch heavy attacks on civilian settlements in Gaza.
1930 GMT — Biden urges Israel to operate ‘by the rules of war’
US President Joe Biden has said that Israel should abide by the rules of war in its fight against Hamas, five days after the Palestinian group’s surprise attack that Israeli forces say saw more than 1,200 people killed.
Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “It is really important that Israel — (with) all the anger and frustration … that they operate by the rules of war,” Biden told a gathering of US Jewish community leaders.
Gaza officials have reported more than 12,00 people killed in Israel’s sustained air and artillery strikes in recent days.
