Israel - Palestinian militants launch massive attack, 7 Oct 2023 #3

[PommyMommy]

Israel-Hamas war live updates: Gaza hit with more shelling as Israel defends evacuation order (nbcnews.com)
7m ago / 9:15 AM PDT

Saudi Foreign Minister and Blinken discuss need to protect civilians​

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the two countries should work together to "continue their cooperation towards regional security" amid concerns about the number of civilians at risk from the war.

"It’s a disturbing situation. It’s a very difficult situation. And, you know, the primary suffer of this situation are civilians and civilian populations on both sides are being affected," the foreign minister said Saturday. "It’s important, I think, that we all condemn the targeting of civilians in any form at any time, by anyone."

The foreign minister said priority needs to be placed on stopping "further civilian suffering."

"We need to find a way to quickly de-escalate the situation to quickly bring back peace," he said.

Blinken agreed that civilians need to be protected. "We’re working together to do exactly that," he said. "In particular, working on establishing safe areas in Gaza, working on establishing a corridor so that humanitarian assistance can reach people who need it."

"None of us want to see suffering by civilians on any side, whether it’s in Israel, whether it’s in Gaza, whether it’s anywhere else, and we’re working together to do our best to protect them," he continued.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

7:10 pm

Hanegbi says Israeli goal is to remove Hamas as ruler of Gaza​

National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi reaffirms the cabinet’s war goal is remove Hamas from military and political control over the Gaza Strip, but declines to elaborate on planned next steps for the coastal enclave.

When asked about Israeli plans for alternative control, or return to occupation, of the Gaza Strip, Hanegbi tells The Times of Israel that: “We can’t report through you to the enemy on what is coming, we can tell Hamas that it is prohibited for it to be the sovereign in Gaza.”

Hanegbi says that in a recent cabinet meeting, the government approved a plan to “destroy” Hamas, as stated by the prime minister and defense minister.

“Hamas will not be the ruler, the sovereign in Gaza after the combat,” he says.

 

[margarita25]

2 hours ago:

3 hours ago:

 

[Sundog]

300 Palestinians killed in past 24 hours, health ministry reports – as it happened

Israeli PM posts video to troops saying ‘we are all ready’

www.theguardian.com

32m ago12.04 BST

''Protesters gathering outside BBC headquarters​

Hundreds of protesters have gathered outside Broadcasting House, the BBC’s headquarters in London, ahead of a pro-Palestinian march.

Palestine flags and supportive placards were waved as people chanted, with police officers stationed near Portland Place.

A cordon had been placed outside the main entrance to the building after red paint was thrown at its entrance early on Saturday morning.

Victoria Derbyshire, a journalist and presenter for the corporation, posted images and footage showing a vandalised main entrance at its principal building near Oxford Street.

The revolving doors and brickwork had been covered in paint.



The BBC, as the UK’s national broadcaster, has faced criticism in recent days for maintaining its editorial stance not to describe Hamas militants as terrorists.''

Shame on the BBC, using taxpayers' money to remain silent about the barbaric attack by Hamas terrorists against the State of Israel, especially since the UK recognizes Hamas as a terrorist organization. Lawmakers should cut their public funding, I hope they do.

 

[PommyMommy]

7:32 pm

Hanegbi: We obviously had erred in believing that Hamas had weakened​

National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi says that it is obvious Israel made enormous errors and failures in keeping its citizens safe.

Hanegbi says he was obviously mistaken in comments just two weeks ago that Hamas was deterred and weakened after previous IDF military campaigns in the Strip.

“It is of course my mistake, and it shows the mistake of all such authorities for many years,” he says.

Hanegbi says that security forces received “an indication hours before” the attack began, but that the IDF and the Shin Bet believed that it was nothing close to “what we suffered.”

59sec ago

Hamas chief Haniyeh calls on Gazans to ignore IDF calls to evacuate​

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh urges Palestinians to refuse “displacement” within the Gaza Strip or leaving the blockaded enclave to head to Egypt, following Israeli airstrikes and calls to evacuate.

“No to displacement from the [West] Bank, not from Gaza and no to displacement from Gaza to Egypt,” Haniyeh says in a televised speech.

 

[Herat]

US Secretary of State Bliken is on a rapid trip to visit leaders of the most prominent MidEast countries, in an attempt to gather support for release of the hostages, including the US hostages. He's already visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and was most recently in Qatar.

Interesting comments in The Daily Telegraph, It's behind a paywall, but here are the pertinent sentences:

"At first glance, Qatar, which blames Israel for the terrorist outrage, does not appear to be particularly fertile ground for his diplomatic blitz.

But, unlike Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Qatar has pull with Hamas, which will be vital in helping to free US hostages. Qatar is home for Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who celebrated the attack with his fellow terrorists as they watched in the safety of the former British protectorate.
The Saudis have no leverage with Hamas, the proxy of their hated regional rival Iran, despite their support for Palestinians in general.
Unsurprisingly, Iran is not on Mr Blinken’s list and it is unlikely he would fly to the pariah clerical state even if he was invited.
There is another reason to hope Mr Blinken might be able to save some US lives from Hamas kidnappers by visiting Doha.
Qatar helped broker the US-Taliban Doha Accord, which was signed in 2020 the year before Afghanistan fell to the Islamists. As part of the peace deal, there was a prisoner swap. Some 5,000 Taliban prisoners were exchanged for 1,000 Afghan government soldiers held by the extremists.

Qatari mediators are reportedly already in touch with Hamas over possible swaps of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages, which Jerusalem denies. (Bolded by me)

Blinken is also heading for other Gulf states and will make Egypt his final stop before returning to the US.

IMHO, IDF will not start the ground attack until Blinken departs Egypt on Monday

Access Restricted

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[margarita25]

6 hours ago:

 

[Vern]

Seeing footage out now of the explosion that apparently killed 70 persons and there are questions as to whether or not this was due to IDF activity.

What seems to be a cargo truck explodes outwardly in the midst of traffic. Experts going through the footage now, but concensus thus far seems to be that is wasn't an airstrike, but perhaps an IED in the roadway or armaments being carried within the truck that exploded.

 

[PommyMommy]

War Against Hamas—1 week in 1 minute. (Video)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1713224721381118418

 

[margarita25]

“Death was a blessing.”

2 days ago:

 

[fred&edna]

WATCH: Israel is only the first target, warns Hamas commander​

Mahmoud al-Zahar: "The entire planet will be under our law, there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors."​

WATCH: Israel is only the first target, warns Hamas commander | The Jerusalem Post

Mahmoud al-Zahar: "The entire planet will be under our law, there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors."

www.jpost.com

This is their goal. This is a holy war. I don't know why there are so many people who don't "get it". There are more with this same goal, they do not ever intend to live in peace with "infidels".

mo

 

[margarita25]

1 day ago:

 

[Herat]

This is their goal. This is a holy war. I don't know why there are so many people who don't "get it". There are more with this same goal, they do not ever intend to live in peace with "infidels".

mo

Agree. The goal has not changed for centuries for the radical Islamist factions.

 

[PommyMommy]

Israel Gaza live news: Children among dead after strike hits Palestinian convoy - BBC News
Posted at 9:359:35

Who are the hostages Hamas took from Israel?​

While the death tolls in Gaza and Israel grow, up to 150 hostages are being held captive by Hamas while their families live in hope and fear.

The Palestinian militant group says it has hidden them in "safe places and tunnels" within Gaza but has threatened to kill them if civilian homes are bombed by Israel without warning.

Among them are Maya Regev, 21, and her brother Itay, 18, from Herzliya.

They had attended the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. On the morning of the attack, Maya's father got a call from his daughter who screamed "Dad they're shooting at me!".

The family said they later spotted Itay in handcuffs in the back of a vehicle in a video released by Hamas.

Doron Asher, mother of two girls, Raz and Aviv, was taken captive while staying with relatives near the Gaza boundary. Husband Yoni saw a video of his wife and daughters, aged five and three, being loaded onto a truck with other hostages.

Here are the stories of people confirmed by the BBC, or credibly reported, to have been taken hostage by Hamas from Israel. They include 13 children and at least eight over-60s

 

[sds71]

The Israeli Defense Force is preparing to Deploy the “Iron Beam” Laser Point-Defense System to Active Combat Service for the 1st Time in order to Reinforce the Air Defense Array across the Country; the System was not originally supposed to enter Service for several more Years.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1713233524327600612

https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/new-laser-defense-makes-israel-invincible/

 

[margarita25]

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF Spokesperson (video posted 3 hours ago)

 

[JennieM]

14m ago
Lebanon said on Saturday that Israel had launched a deadly strike on Friday that killed a Reuters journalist and injured six other journalists from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Al Jazeera.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy fired a rocket shell that hit a civilian car belonging to a media team, leading to the death of Issam Abdallah”, AFP reports.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry called the strike a “deliberate killing” and a “crime against freedom of speech and journalism”.

Fatima Kanso, Abdallah’s mother, said: “Israel deliberately killed my son. They were all wearing journalists’ gear and the word ‘press’ was visible. Israel cannot deny this crime,’” Reuters reports.

The AFP photographer Christina Assi and AFP video journalist Dylan Collins were among the six journalists wounded.

“We were filming smoke billowing from Israeli artillery fire targeting a distant hill in front of us,” Collins told the AFP, adding, “There was no military activity in our direct vicinity and no artillery fire near us.”

Al Jazeera has also accused Israel of launching the deadly strike, which injured its reporter Carmen Joukhadar. Joukhadar said she and her colleagues had been filming footage on a hill “in an open-air area, without any military sites near us”.

AFP reports Joukhadar running to her car for shelter when the first strike landed. “Then I thought I shouldn’t be close to the car, so I ran and the second strike hit” the vehicle, Joukhadar said.

An Israeli military spokesperson said that the military was looking into the circumstances surrounding the deadly strikes.

300 Palestinians killed in past 24 hours, health ministry reports – as it happened

Israeli PM posts video to troops saying ‘we are all ready’

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

35m ago
Saudi Arabia is reported to have suspended normalisation talks with Israel, a source tells Agence France-Presse.

“Saudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,” the source told AFP, which reports that the source spoke the same day US secretary of state Antony Blinken met in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan.

Following the meeting, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and its surroundings” and the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.

300 Palestinians killed in past 24 hours, health ministry reports – as it happened

Israeli PM posts video to troops saying ‘we are all ready’

www.theguardian.com

 

[JennieM]

52m ago

UN aid chief: Gaza humanitarian situation "becoming untenable"​

The UN’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “fast becoming untenable”.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Griffiths said:

“In Gaza, families have been bombed while inching their way south along congested, damaged roads, following an evacuation order that left hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for safety but with nowhere to go.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed and many more have been injured. There is no power, no water and no fuel. Food supplies are running dangerously low. Hospitals, overwhelmed with patients, are running out of medicine …

Even wars have rules, and these rules must be upheld, at all times, and by all sides. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including humanitarian workers and assets, must be protected.

Civilians must be allowed to leave for safer areas. And whether they move or stay, constant care must be taken to spare them.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/1713214788896006389

300 Palestinians killed in past 24 hours, health ministry reports – as it happened

Israeli PM posts video to troops saying ‘we are all ready’

www.theguardian.com

 

[PommyMommy]

7:48 pm

Turkey says it has evacuated 30 Turkish citizens from Israel​

The Turkish government says it has successfully evacuated 30 citizens out of Israel.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking to reporters alongside his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, says the citizens were among roughly 300 people with dual Turkish-Israeli citizenship in Gaza. He reiterated Turkey’s condemnation of “any attack aimed at innocent civilians.”

The Israeli Embassy in Turkey announced on social media Thursday that one Turkish citizen had been killed in Hamas’s attack and that another citizen could not be reached.

7:52 pm

Hanegbi confirms 150-200 hostages held in Gaza; ‘no way to have a negotiation’ right now​

National Security Council Head Tzachi Hanegbi confirms about 150-200 Israeli hostages are being held in the Gaza Strip, but said that the government, seven days after their capture, still does not know all of their identities and their status.

Hanegbi confirms that no active negotiation efforts are underway to repatriate Israelis kidnapped by Hamas last Saturday, saying that “there is no way right now to have a negotiation.”

He says that the government’s liaison for hostages, Gal Hirsch, updates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a few times a day.”

The government, and its representative Hirsch, have come under fire from hostages’ families for not sharing information, or even initiating contact, with the families of captured Israelis.