Israel Hamas War Live: More than 3,700 Palestinians have been killed since October 7
Israel-Hamas war live updates:
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Egypt today and hold talks with counterparts in the region to discuss the Israel and Gaza conflict. In the talks, he will stress “the imperative of avoiding regional escalation and preventing the further unnecessary loss of civilian life”, his office said.
Earlier on Thursday, as the Israel-Hamas war escalates, Rishi Sunak visited Tel Aviv to show his solidarity with Britain’s close ally in the Middle East.
After meeting with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, he said that he “grieves” with Israel and stands with them against the “evil that is terrorism”.
The war-torn Gaza health ministry said that at least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and 12,493 injured in Israeli strikes since the October 7 attack by the Hamas group.
Here are the live updates on the Israel-Hamas war:
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The Palestine Red Crescent Society (RCS) on Friday made an urgent appeal for the evacuation of Al-Quds Hospital in northern Gaza to prevent another tragic incident like Al-Ahli Hospital, reported The Times of Israel.
According to the Palestine RCS, the hospital houses more than 400 patients and approximately 12,000 displaced civilians.
Taking to their social media ‘X’, Palestine Red Crescent Society stated, “Urgent Appeal PRCS faces an imminent threat. The IOF demands the evacuation of Al-Quds Hospital, a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians. We call the international community to act urgently, averting another catastrophe like Al-Ahli Hospital.”
Two American citizens held hostage by Hamas since October 7 have been released, US President Joe Biden announced Friday, assuring that his government would fully support the duo in their recovery and healing process.
Biden thanked the governments of Qatar and Israel for their partnership in securing the release of the two hostages — a mother and her teenage daughter.
Soon thereafter, Biden spoke over the phone with the two released hostages and their family.
Following the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have confirmed the release of two US citizens who were being held hostage by Hamas, and that the duo is now in Israeli troops’ hands, as reported by The Times of Israel.
However, the IDF strongly criticized the Hamas terror group for continuing to hold approximately 200 other hostages.
“Hamas presents itself to the world at this hour as one who releases hostages for humanitarian reasons, but in reality, we are talking about a murderous terror group, which at this hour is holding babies, children, women, and the elderly captive,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.
France’s DRM military intelligence agency said Friday that there was no evidence that an Israeli strike had caused the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of people.
“The most probable hypothesis is that a Palestinian rocket exploded with a charge of about five kilos,” on Tuesday, the Directorate of Military Intelligence said, adding there was “nothing to indicate… an Israeli strike”.
France’s DRM military intelligence agency said Friday that there was no evidence that an Israeli strike had caused the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of people.
“The most probable hypothesis is that a Palestinian rocket exploded with a charge of about five kilos,” on Tuesday, the Directorate of Military Intelligence said, adding there was “nothing to indicate… an Israeli strike”.
Hamas said Friday, after the release of two American women, that it was working with Qatari and Egyptian mediators to release “civilian” hostages taken during their October 7 attacks on Israel.
Gaza’s Islamist rulers said they were “working with all mediators to implement the movement’s decision to close the civilian (hostage) file if appropriate security conditions allow.”
The group said that Americans Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan were freed following efforts by Qatar and Egypt.
US President Joe Biden said Friday he was “overjoyed” after Hamas released two American hostages abducted during the militant group’s surprise attack from Gaza on Israel.
“Today, we have secured the release of two Americans taken hostage by Hamas during the horrific terrorist assault against Israel on October 7,” Biden said in a statement.
“Our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days, and I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear.”
Gaza rulers Hamas on Friday released two American hostages, from around 200 captives abducted in attacks by the militant group in Israel on October 7, Israel and the militant group said.
“In response to Qatari efforts, (Ezzedine) al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons,” Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Israel later confirmed two hostages had been released and were in the country.
German police have recorded more than 1,100 offences in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict since Hamas launched its deadly attack earlier this month, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Friday.
“These are preliminary figures… and investigations are underway everywhere,” Faeser told journalists in a press conference at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in Wiesbaden.
Canada is still committed to a two-state solution to create peace in the Middle East, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, reiterating the country’s long-time position in the wake of deadly Hamas attacks against Israel earlier this month, according to news agency Reuters.
“Canada remains firm and steadfast in our commitment to a two-state solution,” Trudeau told reporters in Toronto. “The world and the region needs a peaceful, safe, prosperous, viable Palestinian state alongside a peaceful, prosperous, democratic, safe… Israel.”
One of Israel’s objective of its military campaign in Gaza is to end its responsibility over the Palestinian coastal enclave, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, according to news agency Reuters.
Gaza has no access to the outside world except through Israel, which controls 90% of its land and sea boundaries, and Egypt, which has a narrow land border to the south.
Israel has enforced a rigid blockade on the enclave since Hamas Islamists took control of the territory in 2007, imposing comprehensive curbs on exports and imports, and severely restricting who could enter or leave.
Germany’s interior minister said Hamas supporters should be deported from the country where possible, adding that authorities would keep a close eye on potential Islamist attackers, according to news agency Reuters.
“If we are able to deport Hamas supporters, we must do this,” Nancy Faeser told reporters following talks with officials at the Federal Criminal Police Office.
“Our security authorities have currently placed an even stronger focus on the Islamist scene,” Faeser added, pointing to a recent attack in Brussels as an indication of the threat relating to tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Israeli military on Friday said that most of around 200 people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas group and taken to Gaza strip are still alive.
“The majority of the hostages are alive. There were also dead bodies that were taken… to the Gaza Strip,” an army statement said.
The army also said that over 20 hostages were childrem, while around 10-20 hostages were of the age 60 and above.
At least 4,137 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began bombarding the Palestinian enclave, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Friday, according to news agency AFP.
The ministry said another 13,162 people have been wounded in the Israeli strikes, which have been ongoing since October 7.
UN Chief Antonio Guterres visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Friday to oversee the preparations for aid delivery to besieged gaza.
So far, no aid has been delivered to Gaza even though cargo planes and trucks have been lining up at Rafah border.
The United Nations said on Friday that the first aid delivery into the besieged Gaza strip through the Rafah border should take place “in the next day or so”.
“We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation in Gaza starts as quickly as possible… a first delivery is due to start in the next day or so,” the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said, his spokesman told reporters in Geneva, according to news agency AFP.
The first aid delivery into the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt should take place “in the next day or so”, the United Nations said Friday.
“We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation in Gaza starts as quickly as possible… a first delivery is due to start in the next day or so,” the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said, his spokesman told reporters in Geneva.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani today agreed on the need to prevent escalation in violence across the Middle East and urgently get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“They underlined the imperative of avoiding any escalation in the violence across the region and agreed that leaders had a responsibility to do everything possible to prevent it,” Mr Sunak’s office said in statement following a meeting between the pair.
“They agreed on the urgent need to get food, water and medicine to civilians who are suffering,” the statement added.
The UN high commissioner for refugees today said that any escalation of Israel’s military action in Gaza will be “catastrophic” for people there.
“(I) can tell you with certainty that any further escalation or even continuation of military activities will just be catastrophic for the people of Gaza,” AFP quoted UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi as saying.
The death count from a raid by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank rose to 13, the news agency AFP reported citing Palestinian health officials.
At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted after the Hamas group attacked Israel cities on October 7.
One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.
On Thursday, the Israeli military had said it carried out an air strike which killed “a number of terrorists” in Nur Shams.
Egypt has removed concrete blocks near the border with Gaza, the news agency AFP reported, citing an Egyptian security source.
Egyptian state-linked broadcaster Al Qahera News had said the Rafah crossing would open on Friday, but Cairo said it needed more time to repair roads.
Egypt is still repairing these roads and on Friday “vehicles and Egyptian equipment went in to repair the road on the Palestinian side”, witnesses told AFP.
Senior Israeli officials have spoken about the prospect of an imminent large-scale ground offensive of the Gaza Strip to eliminate the terrorist group Hamas. Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers near Gaza that the order to enter the Palestinian enclave would be given “soon,” The Times of Israel reported.
“You now see Gaza from afar, soon you will see it from the inside,” he told troops of the Givati Brigade. He further said, “The order will come.”
Israel has announced plans to evacuate the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, after days of clashes with Hezbollah fighters along the border with Lebanon.
“A short while ago, the Northern Command informed the mayor of the city of the decision. The plan will be managed by the local authority, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Defence,” the military said in a statement.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah has traded cross-border fire with Israel for days, after Hamas group attacked Israeli cities on October 7.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Egypt today and hold talks with counterparts in the region to discuss the situation in Israel and Gaza.
In the talks, he will stress “the imperative of avoiding regional escalation and preventing the further unnecessary loss of civilian life”, his office said.
Amid an ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, the aid for Gaza has been piling in Egypt’s Sinai region at El Arish airport.
Rafah, the border crossing into Gaza that Egypt had promised to open on Friday, is a few dozen kilometres to the east and is the only crossing into the blockaded Palestinian territory that is not controlled by Israel.
On a visit to Cairo, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday that there needed to be “rapid, unimpeded humanitarian access” after dire warnings about the impact of the sustained Israeli blockade.
Israel today shared a picture, in which the volunteers of “Zaka” — Israel’s Search and Rescue Organization — can be seen holding human ashes. The Israel Defense Forces said that until today, the volunteers are “still on the ground” in southern Israel “looking for human remains”.
In this picture, you can see the volunteers of “Zaka”-Israel’s Search and Rescue Organization-holding human ashes.
Until today, they are still on the ground in southern Israel looking for human remains. pic.twitter.com/LkMg42KNGK
– Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 20, 2023
China’s special envoy for the Mideast pinned the cause of the Israel-Gaza crisis on the lack of guarantee for the rights of Palestinians.
China’s envoy for Middle East issues Zhai Jun landed in Qatar on Thursday where he reaffirmed with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Bogdanov Beijing’s alignment with Moscow in their efforts to help de-escalate the Gaza crisis.
“The fundamental reason for the current situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people have not been guaranteed,” he said.
Israel today said that this is the 13th day that Hamas has fired rockets targeting both southern and central Israel, “endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands”.
The Israel Defense Forces also shared a picture that mapped the rocket strikes over Israeli cities.
This is the 13th day that Hamas has fired rockets targeting both southern and central Israel-endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands. pic.twitter.com/cFIZ1v6rXe
– Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 19, 2023
The Hamas-controlled interior ministry said several displaced people who had taken shelter at a church compound in the Gaza Strip have been killed and injured after an Israeli strike on Thursday.
The strike left a “large number of martyrs and injured” at the compound of a Greek Orthodox church, the ministry said.
President Joe Biden today also asked Americans to spend billions more dollars to help Israel fight Hamas.
In his televised White House speech, he stressed the urgency of getting relief to Palestinian civilians in Gaza who lack food, water and medicine.
“We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have opportunity,” Mr Biden, who made an eight-hour visit to Israel on Wednesday, said.
“Hamas, Putin Represent Different Threats, But…:” Biden In Rare AddressPresident Joe Biden today said that the Hamas group and Russia are both out to “annihilate” democracies, in an impassioned speech to the nation from the Oval Office where he made the case for assistance to Ukraine and Israel as a vital US interest.
“We can’t let petty partisan angry politics get in the way of our responsibility as a great nation. We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win. I refuse to let that happen,” he said in a televised address to the nation.
The terror and tyranny of Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.
Let me share with you why this is vital for America’s national security: https://t.co/MoClTKCBCw
– President Biden (@POTUS) October 20, 2023
