Israel Hamas War Updates: Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Israel’s military relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip early this morning as fighting raged with Hamas around the Gaza Strip and the number of deaths from the war against the Palestinian militants surged above 1,300.
Israel’s Defence Minister ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza on Monday. “We are putting a complete siege on Gaza… No electricity, no food, no water, no gas — it’s all closed,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video message.
The Israeli army said it hit more than 500 targets in the blockaded and impoverished Gaza Strip in overnight clashes, while fighting persisted in seven to eight locations inside Israel around the enclave.
It came two days after Hamas launched a barrage of rockets and sent a wave of fighters who gunned down civilians and took at least 100 hostages in an massive attack that took Israel by surprise.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the nation to prepare themselves for a “long and difficult” war a day after Hamas fired a barrage of thousands of rockets at Israel and sent a wave of fighters who gunned down civilians and took at least 100 hostages.
The US said several Americans were killed in the surprise land-sea-air attack on Israel and ordered the deployment of US warships and fighter jet squadrons to Israel. Thailand also claimed its 12 citizens were killed and 11 kidnapped. Besides, citizens of Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Nepal, and Ukraine were either killed, kidnapped, or are missing.
Here are the Updates on the Israel-Hamas Conflict:
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Israel-Hamas War Updates:
Three Hezbollah members killed in Israel strikes on Lebanon
An Indian woman in Israel was injured in the massive surprise attack on the country with a barrage of rockets by Hamas while she was on a video call with her husband, her family has told NDTV.
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas threatened on Monday to kill hostages if the Israeli army carried out air strikes without prior warning targeting residents of the Gaza Strip.
“Every targeting of our people without warning will be met with the execution of one of the civilian hostages,” the Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement.
At least one Russian was killed in the offensive launched by Palestinian Hamas fighters against Israel on Saturday, and four others remain missing, Moscow’s embassy in Tel Aviv said Monday.
“According to information received from the Israeli side, a citizen of the Russian Federation is considered dead,” the embassy was quoted as saying by Russian press agencies.
Russia is “in the process of clarifying all the circumstances” of the death, it added.
The names of the four other Russians appear “on the lists of missing persons provided by the Israeli side”.
Spain said on Monday that it “disagrees” with a decision by the European Union to suspend development aid to the Palestinians in the wake of the Hamas assault on Israel.
“(Foreign Minister) Jose Manuel Albares, called European Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi to say he disagrees with this decision,” Spain’s foreign ministry said, adding that Albares called for this to be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting of European foreign ministers.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday he was “deeply distressed” by Israel’s imposition of a total siege on the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ assault on the country.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza was extremely dire before these hostilities,” Antonio Guterres told reporters. “Now it will only deteriorate exponentially.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged Israel against “indiscriminately” attacking civilians in its war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Israeli President Isaac Herzog by phone that “harming the people of Gaza collectively and indiscriminately would further increase the suffering and the spiral of violence in the region,” the Turkish leader’s office said in a statement.
US energy giant Chevron said Monday it has suspended operations at a natural gas production platform off the coast of Israel, at the request of Israeli authorities after a shock Hamas assault on the country over the weekend.
“Chevron Mediterranean Limited was instructed by Israel’s Ministry of Energy to shut-in production at the Tamar Production Platform,” said a spokesperson.
The company added that it continues to supply customers in Israel and the region from the Leviathan Production Platform.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he is due to hold talks later Monday with the leaders of France, the United States and Britain on the crisis triggered by Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.
“The United States, Britain, France and Germany are united,” he said alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who was visiting the German city of Hamburg for talks.
This “must not be allowed to become a conflagration in the region,” he added.
An Israeli strike on a Lebanese watchtower killed a member of Hezbollah on Monday, two Hezbollah officials said, as bombardment intensified after Palestinian militants tried to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon.
“A member of Hezbollah was martyred in an Israeli strike on a watchtower in south Lebanon in Aita al-Shaab,” one of the officials told AFP, with a spokesperson for the group confirming the death.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group’s armed wing claimed responsibility for a thwarted bid to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon on Monday, as war rages between Gaza terrorists and Israel.
“Al-Quds brigade claims responsibility for the afternoon operation on the south Lebanon border,” the group said in a statement.
The Israeli army had earlier said it “killed a number of armed suspects” who had crossed the border from Lebanon.
Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf on Monday said his wife’s parents have been caught up in the aftermath of Hamas’s weekend attack on Israel.
Humza Yousaf’s wife Nadia El-Nakla is Palestinian and her parents, who live in Dundee, northeast Scotland, were visiting family in Gaza.
“They’ve been in Gaza and are currently trapped in Gaza, I’m afraid,” he told reporters.
Arab League foreign ministers will meet Wednesday to discuss “Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip” following a surprise assault by Hamas on Israel, the regional bloc announced.
The “extraordinary meeting” in Cairo will seek to find “avenues of political action at the Arab and international level”, as Israel keeps pounding targets in Gaza following Saturday’s attack, Arab League deputy chief Hossam Zaki said in a statement.
Israel-Hamas War Updates:
“Currently no chance” of prisoner exchange with Israel, says Hamas official
Israel’s response to the unprecedented multi-pronged attack by Palestinian gunmen from the Gaza Strip will “change the Middle East,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
He was speaking to mayors of southern border towns hit by the surprise assault that began on Saturday, a statement from his office said. It did not elaborate on his prediction.
The EU has halted development aid payments to the Palestinians and is placing 691 million euros ($728 million) of support “under review” after the Hamas assault on Israel, an EU commissioner said Monday.
“All payments immediately suspended. All projects put under review. All new budget proposals, including for 2023 postponed until further notice. Comprehensive assessment of the whole portfolio,” European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi posted on social media.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip rose to 560 on Monday, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave said, as Israel pounded Hamas targets for the third consecutive day.
The Hamas-controlled ministry said “570 people were killed and another 2,900 injured” in the fighting that began on Saturday after Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets in Israel in a surprise dawn assault.
Israel shells south Lebanon, says local official
Israeli soldiers “killed a number of armed suspects” who crossed the border from Lebanon, the country’s military said Monday as further south it fought a devastating war with Gaza militants.
“Additionally, IDF (Israeli army) helicopters are currently striking in the area,” an army statement said.
Qatar Leads Talks To Swap Hamas-Held Hostages For Palestinians In Israeli Jails: Report
Qatari mediators have held urgent calls with Hamas officials to try to negotiate freedom for Israeli women and children seized by the militant group and held in Gaza in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israel’s prisons, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters.
Israel-Hamas War Update:
US confirms death of 9 citizens in attack on Israel by Hamas.
Dozens of balloons of smoke covered the morning sky over Israel as the Hamas group continued to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip and Israel’s impregnable Iron Dome intercepted them midair.
Israel and Hamas are in the middle of the bloodiest escalation in decades that has caused thousands of casualties and injuries on both sides.
Israel Hamas War Updates:
Israeli strikes on Gaza kill four ‘prisoners’, says Hamas.
Britain supports Israel’s right to take proportionate action, acting within international law, to bring an end to violence, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said, following Israeli retaliation to a surprise attack by Hamas militants.
“We support Israel exercising its right to self defence and to taking proportionate action to bring an end to the violence,” the spokesman told reporters. “In situations like this they can take proportionate action … acting within international laws.”
Israeli authorities have ordered an “immediate” cut to water supplied to the Gaza Strip, the energy minister said, as the military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes.
Energy Minister Israel Katz has ordered “to immediately cut the water supply to Gaza”, his spokesman said in a statement.
Katz’s order came soon after the country’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip, which receives about 10 percent of its annual water from Israel.
Russia said Monday that creating a Palestinian state is the “most reliable” solution for peace and that fighting terrorism alone would not ensure security.
Creating a “Palestinian state that would live side by side with Israel.. is the most reliable path to solve (the conflict),” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “We cannot agree with those who say that security can only be ensured through a fight with terrorism”.
The Kremlin said Monday there was a “high risk” of a third party entering the conflict between Israel and Hamas, after the US said it was moving warships closer to the country.
“The risk of third forces becoming involved in this conflict is high. It is very important to find ways as soon as possible to move towards some kind of negotiation process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.
At least eight French nationals were missing, confirmed dead or taken hostage after Hamas’s weekend attack on Israel, a lawmaker said Monday.
Paris “should hold Hamas directly responsible for (hostages’) safety and use every means to secure their release,” conservative MP Meyer Habib, who represents French people living abroad in a swathe of Mediterranean countries including Israel, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
EU foreign ministers will hold urgent talks tomorrow on the situation in Israel and Gaza after Hamas terrorsists launched a surprise assault, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
“I am convening tomorrow an emergency meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to address the situation in Israel and in the region,” Josep Borrell wrote in a social media post Monday.
I am convening tomorrow an emergency meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to address the situation in #Israel and in the region.
– Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 9, 2023
Israel Hamas War Updates
Germany ‘temporarily suspends’ Palestinian development aid: ministry
Moscow and the Arab League will work to “stop the bloodshed” in Israel and Gaza, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday as he met the group’s chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Russia.
“I am sure that Russia and the Arab League (will cooperate) above all else to stop the bloodshed,” Sergei Lavrov said. Aboul Gheit said the Arab League “condemns violence, but from all sides.”
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant Monday ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip as the military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes.
“We are putting a complete siege on Gaza… No electricity, no food, no water, no gas — it’s all closed,” Yoav Gallant said in a video statement, referring to the crowded enclave home to 2.3 people.
Israel’s army declared on Monday that its forces were in “control of communities” in its southern territory near Gaza, two days after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack there.
“We are in control of the communities,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, adding however that there still might be “terrorists” in the area.
Austria Suspends Aid For Palestinians After Hamas Attack: News Agency AFP
The Austrian government announced Monday that it was suspending development aid to Palestinian areas, in reaction to the surprise attack launched by Hamas militants against Israel.
Anti-rocket sirens followed by the sound of blasts were heard Monday in Jerusalem, AFP journalists said, as Israel’s army battled Hamas militants in southern towns for the third consecutive day.
The army also pressed on with air strikes in the Gaza Strip, targeting the Palestinians Hamas group which had launched a massive surprise dawn assault on Israel on Saturday.
Hamas gunmen killed around 250 people who attended an outdoor music festival in an Israeli community near Gaza at the weekend, a volunteer who helped collect the bodies said on Monday.
“In the area where the party took place, and at the party itself” it could be estimated that “there were 200-250 bodies,” said Moti Bukjin, a spokesman for the humanitarian NGO Zaka, based on the number of trucks that ferried away the corpses.
At least 700 people were killed in southern Israel when Hamas forces stormed across the border, shooting people in the communities and towns near Gaza before security forces began fighting back.
“I’ve been a volunteer at Zaka for 28 years” and after working at a deadly stampede in Meron during a religious festival two years ago, “I thought I reached my end,” Bukjin said.
The United Arab Emirates is “appalled” that Israeli civilians were taken hostage in the Hamas assault near the Gaza Strip, a foreign ministry statement said.
“The ministry is appalled by reports that Israeli civilians have been abducted as hostages from their homes,” said the Arab Muslim country, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
The United Nations Human Rights Council stood in silence on Monday to remember the “innocent lives lost” in Israel and in Gaza, at the request of the United States.
“I respectfully request a moment of silence from this esteemed council, and all present here today to honour and remember the victims of these appalling terrorist attacks… innocent lives lost across Israel and Gaza resulting from the attacks by Hamas,” US ambassador Michele Taylor said in the top UN rights body, before delegates stood.
Iran on Monday rejected as unfounded allegations it had a role in the massive assault on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“The accusations linked to an Iranian role… are based on political reasons,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told reporters, adding that Palestinians had “the necessary capacity and will to defend their nation and recover their rights” without any help from Tehran.
More than 123,000 people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the conflict between Palestinian militants and Israel, the United Nations said Monday.
“Over 123,538 people, have been internally displaced in Gaza, mostly due to fear, protection concerns and the destruction of their homes,” said the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, with more than 73,000 sheltering in schools.
On October 6, thousands of Israelis woke up with a shudder to sirens blaring across several cities. The Palestinian group Hamas had launched around 5,000 rockets from Gaza along with a sensational land-sea-air attack into Israeli soil.
Hamas sent its fighters to infiltrate towns, kibbutz communities, and even an outdoor music festival. Panic-stricken Israelis hid in their homes with reports rife that Hamas fighters were carrying out terrorist attacks going door-to-door, shooting civilians or dragging them away.
The Hamas land assault was augmented by boats and motorised paragliders who breached Israeli soil early in the morning using guerilla tactics.
Israel is fighting an all-out war against Hamas in Gaza after one of the deadliest offensives was launched by the Palestinian group against Israel in recent years. The war began with a land, sea and air offensive from Hamas, an approach Israel has never seen in its recent history from the terrorist group.
Over 1,100 have died on both sides since the attack on Saturday and Israel is retaliating with full force. The Gaza Strip has suffered its deadliest day in 15 years after nearly 300 Palestinians died in Israeli air strikes in the last 24 hours.
The unprecedented scale of violence has brought the two Intifadas or Palestinian uprisings against Israel back into the spotlight and there is speculation about whether the all-out war is the beginning of the Third uprising.
Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister of Israel, arrives for reserve duty.
He has joined Israel’s soldiers on the frontlines to defend Israel. May he and all the soldiers stay safe.pic.twitter.com/2kuDAuazBy
– Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 7, 2023
Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas Palestinian militants was ongoing Monday in seven to eight locations around the Gaza Strip, the army said.
“We’re still fighting. There are between seven to eight open places around Gaza (where) we have still warriors fighting terrorists,” military spokesman Richard Hecht told reporters, two days after the Palestinian Islamist group launched a surprise attack on Israel.
Israel-Hamas War Updates:
Israeli forces fighting Hamas militants in ‘seven to eight’ locations around Gaza: army
The Palestinian group Hamas’s surprise assault on Israel Saturday and Israel’s retaliation have killed more than 1,100 people and focused attention on the Iran-backed Islamist group.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Iran has not yet been able to spend a single dollar of the $6 billion in funds that were unfrozen in a US-Iran prisoner swap in September.
Blinken also said he had “not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack, but there’s certainly a long relationship.”
Israel Hamas War Updates:
Around 10 Nepali students died in the ongoing situation in Israel: Nepal Embassy in Israel official confirmed ANI
A 23-year-old American-Israeli man is missing after Hamas attacked a music festival in Israel. Hamas group stormed the music festival in the south of Israel and opened fire as part of the huge surprise attack on Israel. Hersh Golberg-Polin was attending the music festival to celebrate his birthday and has not been heard from since Saturday morning.
He texted his parents “I love you” and “I’m sorry,” before becoming unreachable, his father told The Jerusalem Post.
“We just want him home and safe,” his father, Jonathon Polin told the outlet, adding that if he could tell his son anything, he would say, “We love you. Come home to us.”
Update- Israel strikes over ‘500 Hamas targets’ overnight in Gaza, says Israel army: news agency AFP
Twelve Thais have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, the kingdom’s government said Monday as it prepared a plan to evacuate its citizens.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Kanchana Patarachoke said the Thai embassy in Israel learned of the deaths from the victims’ employers.
The skies were illuminated with rocket trajectories as a NDTV crew made their way to Ashkelon, a coastal city few kilometres from Gaza, the blockaded strip where Israel is fighting an all-out war against Palestinian groups.
Several roads are barricaded and led to traffic jams, the journalists saw, giving a real time account of the situation in Israel.
Oil prices soared more than four percent Monday after Hamas launched an attack on Israel at the weekend, sparking concerns about possible supply shocks from the crude-rich region. Brent jumped 4.7 percent to $86.65 and West Texas Intermediate was up 4.5 percent at $88.39 in early Asian business.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said on Sunday that Tehran was not involved in one of the bloodiest attacks in Israel’s history when Islamist group Hamas killed 700 Israelis and abducted dozens more.
“The resolute measures taken by Palestine constitute a wholly legitimate defense against seven decades of oppressive occupation and heinous crimes committed by the illegitimate Zionist regime,” Iran’s UN mission said in statement.
It was October 6, 1973. On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, a coalition of Arab nations launched surprise attacks on Israeli-occupied territories, sparking the Yom Kippur War.
Battle lines were drawn and Israel went on an offensive against the Arab coalition. The fighting mostly took place in the Golan Heights, Sinai and the other areas under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Geopolitical tensions hit a tipping point when then-US President Richard Nixon issued a global nuclear alert.
As the war intensified, the Arab members of The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) suspended oil deliveries to all western countries that supported Israel, triggering a global energy crisis.
Israel-Hamas conflict is becoming worse by the hour, with shootouts between security forces and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Israeli Defence Forces termed the Hamas attack as the “worst massacre of innocent citizens in Israel’s history” and called the terror group “more barbaric and brutal than ISIS”. Read more
Oil prices soared more than four percent Monday after Hamas launched an attack on Israel at the weekend, sparking concerns about possible supply shocks from the crude-rich region.
Brent jumped 4.7 percent to $86.65 and West Texas Intermediate was up 4.5 percent at $88.39 in early Asian business.
Major airlines cancelled dozens of flights to Tel Aviv this weekend after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel.
American Airlines, Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates and Ryanair are among those pulling flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
However, airport authorities did not stop commercial air links with Israel’s second international airport at Eilat, a tourist destination on the Red Sea.
And Israeli flag carrier El Al said Sunday that it was maintaining its Tel Aviv flights for now, though some flights operated by foreign partners had been cancelled.
El Al said it was operating “in accordance with the instructions of the Israeli security forces”, with all flights now departing only from Terminal Three at Ben Gurion.
Like most other airlines, it said clients could change their tickets without charge.
Israel-Gaza violence is escalating by the day with rockets piercing the skies into each other territories and shootouts between security forces and Hamas group of Palestine. Over 1,100 have been killed on both sides since Hamas launched its attack on Saturday.
“This is our 9/11 and more,” the Israel Army’s spokesperson said, adding Hamas wanted “an annihilation of our State”.
The US is moving its ships closer to Israel in a show of support and boosting fighter jet squadrons in the eastern Mediterranean.
Several American citizens were killed in the surprise land-sea-air attack on Israel by the Palestine group Hamas, a US official confirmed on Sunday. The official did not provide any further details, such as the exact number of Americans killed or their identities.
“We can confirm the deaths of several US citizens,” a spokesperson for the US National Security Council said, as quoted by news agency AFP. “We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected.”
US President Joe Biden ordered the deployment of US ships and warplanes to Israel on Sunday, signaling Washington’s “unwavering” support for its ally in the face of escalating attacks by Hamas.
As Israel reeled from a deadly attack by Hamas militants who broke through barriers around Gaza and roamed at will, killing scores of civilians in Israeli towns, defence chiefs faced growing questions over how the disaster could have happened.
A day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Israeli forces were caught off guard by Syrian and Egyptian tank columns, the military appeared once again to have been surprised by a sudden attack.
“It looks quite similar to what happened at that time,” said retired General Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council. “As we can see it, Israel was completely surprised, by a very well coordinated attack,” he told a briefing with reporters.
An army spokesman said there would be discussions on the intelligence preparation “down the road” but for the moment the focus was on fighting. “We’ll talk about that when we need to talk about it,” he told a briefing with reporters.
- A surprise attack by Hamas on Israel, which combined gunmen breaching security barriers with a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza, was launched on Saturday during the Jewish high holiday of Simchat Torah.
- The attack came 50 years and a day after Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an assault during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in an effort to retrieve territory Israel had taken during a brief conflict in 1967.
