Israel-Hamas war, day 6 live updates

Around 230 Indians are expected to be brought back from Israel on Friday in a chartered flight under Operation Ajay, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

India launched the operation to facilitate the return of those Indians who wish to come back home as a series of brazen attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas militants over the weekend triggered fresh tensions in the region.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing on Thursday that the chartered flight is expected to reach Tel Aviv this evening and it will bring back the first batch of around 230 Indians on Friday.

We are closely monitoring the situation, he said.

On the attacks by Hamas on Israeli cities, Mr. Bagchi said India considers them as terrorist strikes.

To a question on India’s position on the Palestine issue, he said New Delhi always advocated resumption of direct talks towards establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine living side-by-side and at peace with Israel. – PTI

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the U.S. secretary of state’s visit on Thursday is a “tangible example of America’s unequivocable support of Israel”.

He compared the Hamas militant group that staged a ferocious attack on Israel over the weekend to the Islamic State group.

“Just as ISIS was crushed, Hamas will be crushed,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated America’s support.

“The message I bring with me is this: You may strong enough on your own to defend yourselves but as long as America exists you will never have to,” he said. – AP

Palestinians lined up outside bakeries and grocery stores in Gaza on Thursday after spending the night surrounded by the ruins of pulverized neighborhoods darkened by a near-total power outage. Israel launched new airstrikes and said it was preparing for a possible ground invasion.

“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director. “Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said nothing would be allowed into Gaza until the captives were released. “Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” he tweeted.

AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday reassured Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu of Washington’s support, during a trip to the Middle East that aims to prevent the conflict with Palestinian Hamas militants from spreading.

An hour after landing in Tel Aviv, Blinken shook hands with Netanyahu and told the prime minister: “We’re here, we’re not going anywhere,” footage from Netanyahu’s office showed.

After Israel, Blinken will head to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He is likely to continue onto other Arab countries, U.S. officials say, without specifying which.

Reuters

The Indian embassy here is carrying out an extensive outreach activity for the Indian community in the country amid Israel’s raging war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Officials from the Indian Embassy said they have been holding online meetings with Indian companies, emailing details of the flight to return to India, assuring Indian students of all assistance and allaying their concerns, and meeting the Indian caregivers, who form the largest chunk of the Indian Diaspora in Tel Aviv.

On Wednesday, posting a photo of more than two dozen youngsters about the outreach meeting for Indian students, the India in Israel handle posted on X: “Assuring our students of all assistance. First Secretary Vishal met some of our students at Tel Aviv University (TAU) today to allay their concerns.” Prior to that, a similar meeting was held with the caregivers.

“Our caregivers in Israel have been a pillar of support for the Israeli society for years. Counsellor Dinesh met some of them today to discuss the current situation and assure them of our help,” the Embassy said in a post on X.

PTI

Egypt said on Thursday it was directing international aid for the besieged Gaza Strip to Al Arish airport in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The nearby Rafah crossing between Sinai and Gaza remained open, the statement said, adding that Egypt had asked Israel to avoid targeting the Palestinian side of the crossing after strikes that prevented normal operations there.

Reuters

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 1,354, the Hamas health ministry said, with dozens killed since Thursday morning following a massive Israeli bombardment of the enclave.

At least “1,354 citizens have been martyred and 6,049 suffered various injuries”, the ministry said, updating an earlier death toll of around 1,200 that was announced at dawn on Thursday.

Dozens of the United Nations’ rights experts on Thursday condemned Hamas’s “horrific crimes” and said Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip “amounts to collective punishment”.

“There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces,” said the experts in a joint statement.

“This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime.”

They denounced what they called the targeted and deadly violence directed at civilians in Israel.

But they also warned that Israel’s “further tightening of the unlawful blockade” on the Gaza Strip would have devastating impacts on its entire civilian population.

“We strongly condemn the horrific crimes committed by Hamas, the deliberate and widespread killing and hostage-taking of innocent civilians, including older persons and children,” the experts said.

“These actions constitute heinous violations of international law and international crimes, for which there must be urgent accountability,” they added.

“We also strongly condemn Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza, comprising over 2.3 million people, nearly half of whom are children.

AFP

The war between Israel and Hamas has darkened the horizon for a world economy that was already experiencing weak growth, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday.

Speaking at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Marrakesh, Morocco, Georgieva said the International Monetary Fund was “very closely monitoring how the situation evolves” and how it is affecting oil markets.

Georgieva noted that the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, which was released earlier this week but drafted before the conflict broke out, already showed weak global growth.

“We are experiencing severe shocks that are now becoming the new normal for a world that is weakened by weak growth and economic fragmentation,” she said at a news conference.

She said it was “too early” to assess the impact of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

But, Georgieva added, “very clearly, this is a new cloud on not the sunniest horizon for the world economy — new cloud, darkening this horizon.”

AFP

Israel has a right and duty to respond, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed “how democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law.”

A siege can be considered a war crime if it targets civilians, rather than a legitimate means to undermine Hamas’ military capabilities, or if found to be disproportionate.

Attacks on military objectives have to be proportional under international law which means they must not lead to excessive loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects in relation to the direct and concrete military advantage expected.

Nick Kaufman, a British-born Israeli defence lawyer at the ICC, cited the gruesome killings by Hamas militants of hundreds of revellers at a dance rave and civilians in several Kibbutz communities near the Gaza border as an obvious focus for a war crimes case.

Reuters

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts and taken down or labeled thousands of pieces of content since the militant group’s attack on Israel, according to the CEO of the company formerly known as Twitter.

Linda Yaccarino on Thursday outlined efforts by X to get a handle on illegal content flourishing on the platform. She was responding to a warning from a top European Union official, who requested information on how X is complying during the Israel-Hamas war with tough new EU digital rules aimed at cleaning up social media platforms.

“So far since the start of the conflict X has identified and removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the platform,” Yaccarino said in a letter posted on X.

“There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups and we continue to remove such accounts in real time, including proactive efforts,” Yaccarino said.

AP

New York-based Human Rights Watch cited as possible war crimes the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate rocket attacks, and the taking of civilians as hostages by Palestinian armed groups, as well as the Israeli counter-strikes in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians.

“Deliberate killings of civilians, hostage-taking, and collective punishment are heinous crimes that have no justification,” said Omar Shakir, the group’s Israel and Palestine director.

The taking of hostages, murder and torture are explicitly banned under the Geneva Conventions, while Israel’s response could also be subject to a war crimes investigation.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew criticism from U.N. officials and human rights groups by announcing a tightened blockade to prevent food and fuel from reaching the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.

Reuters

Israel’s military assault against Hamas is focusing on “taking out” the Islamist group’s senior leadership in the Gaza Strip, including chief Yahya Sinwar, the Army spokesman said Thursday.

“Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership, not only the military leadership (but) also their governmental leadership, all the way up to Sinwar,” Richard Hecht told journalists, referring to Hamas’s chief in the enclave.

“They were directly connected” to the attack that Hamas launched on Israel over the weekend that left more than 1,200 people dead.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday that the blockaded Gaza Strip still had some fuel to operate generators, including in hospitals, but that it could run out in a few hours.

“Our understanding is that there is still fuel – but probably only for a few hours – to allow generators to work, including in hospitals,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, told reporters.

Reuters

The International Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s permanent war crimes tribunals, opened in The Hague in 2002. It has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in its 123 member states or committed by its nationals.

Many of the world’s major powers are not members, including China, the United States, Russia, India and Egypt. The ICC recognises Palestine as a member state, while Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and does not formally engage with it.

With a limited budget and staff, ICC prosecutors are already investigating 17 cases ranging from Ukraine and Afghanistan to Sudan and Myanmar. The ICC budget has allocated just under a million euros ($1.06 million) for investigations in the Palestinian territories for 2023 and is seeking additional resources.

The ICC has had an ongoing investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the occupied Palestinian territories since 2021.

It has not issued any arrest warrants.

Reuters

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian starts a regional tour on Thursday to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involving trips to Iraq and Lebanon, Iranian state media said.

“In light of the current Palestinian events, the crimes committed against Gaza and their dangerous ramifications, the foreign minister’s regional trip will start today”, Iran’s ambassador in Lebanon said on social media.

Amirabdollahian will travel to Iraq first and then to Lebanon, state media said.

Overnight, Amirabdollahian talked with his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, asking Islamic and Arab countries to support the Palestinian people.

Reuters

Internationally accepted rules of armed conflict emerged out of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which have been ratified by all U.N. member states and supplemented by rulings at international war crimes tribunals.

A series of treaties governs the treatment of civilians, soldiers and prisoners of war in a system collectively known as the “Law of Armed Conflict” or “International Humanitarian Law”. It applies to government forces and organised armed groups, including Hamas militants.

If alleged Palestinian perpetrators of atrocities in Israel and all alleged perpetrators of crimes on the occupied Palestinian territories are not brought to justice at home, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is the only international legal organ able to bring charges.

Domestic courts can apply so-called universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases, but that would be limited in scope.

The ICC’s founding Rome Statute gives it legal authority to investigate alleged crimes on the territory of its members or by their nationals, when domestic authorities are “unwilling or unable” to do so.

On Tuesday, the office of the prosecutor of the ICC confirmed that its mandate applies to potential crimes committed in the current conflict and said it continues to gather information.

Reuters

Germany is offering military help to Israel and promising to crack down on support for the militant Hamas group at home following the group’s attack on Israel. Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday underlined Germany’s historical responsibility for Israel’s security.

The Defense Ministry said it agreed to an Israeli request to use up to two of five Heron TP combat drones that are currently leased by the German military and were already in Israel for the training of German servicepeople. And Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in Brussels that Israel has requested ammunition for warships, a request that will now be discussed.

Scholz told the German parliament that he has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform Germany of any needs, “for example the treatment of wounded.”

“At this moment, there is only one place for Germany — the place at Israel’s side,” he told lawmakers. “Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel.”

AP

UEFA said on Thursday it was postponing Israel’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Kosovo in Pristina as Israeli authorities are not allowing the national team to travel abroad due to the conflict with Hamas.

European soccer’s governing body said a new date for the Group I match, which had been scheduled for Sunday, would be announced at a later time.

UEFA has already postponed Israel’s qualifier against Switzerland to Nov. 15 in the wake of attacks by Hamas militants. The match had been scheduled to be played in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Reuters

A group of pilgrims who were in Israel on October 7 when the militant group Hamas began attacking the towns on the country’s border with its occupied region of Gaza have returned safely to India and thanked the Indian embassy for its prompt intervention in helping them escape the war zone.

Amidst a multi-front onslaught by Hamas, their timely return to Kerala was made possible through the swift and effective intervention of Indian Embassy officials, a pilgrim who identified himself as Moulavi told a Malayalam news channel here on Thursday.

“If our return journey was postponed even for one more day, we would have been trapped in the war zone… Anyway, we are home now,” the relieved Keralite pilgrim, who returned from Israel escaping from the conflict there, said with a smile.

PTI

The head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency on Thursday warned about the potential for opportunistic violence and called for calm as tensions rise ahead of a planned pro-Palestinian protest in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

In rare public statement, Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said protests and rallies following the attacks by Hamas are likely to continue and he remained concerned about the potential for opportunistic violence.

“In this context, it is important that all parties consider the implications for social cohesion when making public statements,” Burgess said.

“Words matter. ASIO has seen direct connections between inflamed language and inflamed community tensions.”

Reuters

Israel’s military indicated that it would not publish the number of interceptions of Palestinian rockets that it has carried out in the Gaza war, citing concern that such information would help Hamas.

“I’m not going to tell the enemy the number of our intercepts,” spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters, outlining what appeared to be a departure from past wartime policy.

Reuters

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz vowed Thursday his country would not allow basic resources or humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas released the people it abducted during its surprise weekend onslaught.

“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” he said in a statement.

Around 150 Israelis, foreigners and dual nationals were abducted to the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants as part of the Saturday attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israeli towns and communities around the enclave.

AFP

The first charter flight to facilitate the return of Indian citizens stranded in Israel will leave Thursday evening from the Ben Gurion airport, sources said, amid the country’s raging war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

About 230 Indians living in Israel will be leaving for India on a “first come first serve” basis on the 9 p.m. flight on Thursday, informed sources told PTI.

This flight has been arranged to facilitate the return of those who were unable to do so because Air India had immediately suspended its flight on the day fighting began on October 7, and its commercial operation remains suspended till now.

Those who are returning will not be paying any fare and the government is bearing the cost of their return.

PTI

Palestinians in Gaza lined up outside bakeries on Thursday after spending the night in pitch darkness surrounded by the ruins of pulverised neighbourhoods, as Israel launched new airstrikes and said it was preparing for a possible ground invasion.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground maneuver if decided,” but that the political leadership has not yet ordered one. A ground offensive in Gaza, the first since the 2014 war, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

AP

Broadly speaking, Israel’s options are linked to the objectives it sets. In the past, Israel had carried out military operations aimed at both weakening and destroying militant outfits. And they produced mixed results — Israel won the battles with short-term gains but faced long-term setbacks. When it comes to Israel’s military operations against non-state actors, history always suggests caution.

Read the analytical piece by Stanly Johny here.

Palestinian militant group Hamas would not have been able to launch its “unprecedented” attacks on Israel without having had Iranian support in recent years, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday.

“So far, we have no tangible evidence that Iran gave concrete and operational support to this cowardly attack,” Scholz said in an address to parliament.

“But it is clear to all of us that without Iranian support over the last few years, Hamas would not have been able to carry out these unprecedented attacks on Israeli territory.”

-AFP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday as part of a wider Middle East tour to display Washington’s solidarity with Israel after the attack by Palestinian Hamas militants and to seek to quell the conflict.

The top U.S. diplomat will also try to help secure the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas — some of whom are Americans — and safe passage of Gaza civilians out of the densely-populated enclave ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion.

-Reuters

The presidents of Iran and Syria have urged Islamic countries to reach agreement on a position in support of Palestinians, a news agency linked to Iran’s top security agency, Nournews, reported on Thursday.

“Islamic and Arab countries as well all free people of the world must reach a single position to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime against the oppressed Palestinian people,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told his Syrian counterpart over the telephone, Nournews reported.

-Reuters

Hamas militants on Thursday fired a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israeli air strikes that targeted “civilians” in two Gaza refugee camps, the Palestinian group said.

“Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to (Israeli strikes) targeting civilians in Al-Shati and Jabalia camps,” Hamas said, referring to its armed wing, in a text message sent to journalists.

-AFP

South Africa is ready to help mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, drawing on its experience at conflict resolution, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

Mr. Ramaphosa also called for the immediate and unconditional opening of “humanitarian corridors” in the Middle East so that aid can get to people who urgently need it, in the wake of days of Israeli air strikes on Gazan targets in retribution for a weekend attack by Hamas militants.

-Reuters

Israel’s ambassador to Japan said on Thursday that his host country should be “vigilant” and look at what Hamas was doing with the aid it extends to Palestinians.

Gilan Cohen said at a press conference that he commended Japan for acknowledging the Hamas attacks as “terrorism” and for saying Israel had a right to defend itself.

Japan, which calls for a political solution to allow Israel and a future independent Palestinian state to coexist, provides assistance to Palestinians through various schemes. That assistance totalled $2.3 billion over the last decade, according to a foreign ministry document issued in June.

– Reuters

Over the years, Hamas has lost most of its founding leaders, it has been categorised as a terrorist outfit and faced Israeli attacks frequently. Every time it bombs Gaza, Israel vows to destroy Hamas’s militant infrastructure. But Hamas survives, to fight another day.

Read the report by Stanly Johny.

Israeli military says it is preparing for a ground operation in Gaza but the political leadership has not decided yet.

The military spokesperson said that at least 200 Israeli soldiers are among the more than 1,200 killed by Hamas. He added that Palestinian gunment are still trying to infiltrate Israel by sea.

The overnight Gaza strikes were focused on Hamas’ elite Nukhba force, it was said.

-AP, Reuters

Fifteen Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, Hamas Aqsa radio said on Thursday.

-Reuters

Brazil, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, called a Friday meeting of the body to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, its foreign affairs ministry said Wednesday.

Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira has interrupted an Asia trip to travel “to New York to participate in a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, called by Brazil… to address the situation in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement.

Brazil previously called an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday, the day after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.

-AFP

U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier and her strike group is heading to the Mediterranean, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said.

Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday, Kirby stated that there is no operational decision taken regarding the deployment of the second U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. However, he noted that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier was heading in that direction.

-ANI

Survivors recount the horrors of Hamas’s attacks that left over 1,200 people dead as Israeli troops are pounding Gaza and preparing for a ground offensive

Read the full ground report here.

More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave.

“Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Thursday.

By late Wednesday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 75,000 people from the figure given 24 hours earlier, reaching 338,934, it said.

-AFP

Read the full story here.

China’s special envoy on Middle East issues is expected to have a telephone conversation with Israeli officials on Thursday, Israel’s Ambassador to China, Irit Ben-Abba, told Bloomberg News.

China’s special envoy on the Middle East, Zhai Jun, earlier this week said the country condemns acts that harm civilians and called for an immediate ceasefire.

-Reuters

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 1,200 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Thursday, following an increase in Israeli bombardments on the sixth day since Hamas’s surprise attack.

“The number of martyrs has risen to around 1,200, and the number of wounded to around 5,600,” a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza said.

-AFP

A prominent Indian diaspora group has extended solidarity to the people of Israel, and said that the attack by Hamas militants against innocent civilians in the country is a crime against humanity.

“We stand in solidarity with the people of Israel and condemn these unprovoked and barbaric attacks,” said Khanderao Kand, director of Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS). “Hamas’ and Jihadi terrorists’ goal is to destroy Israel, and its attacks on innocent civilians are a crime against humanity,” he said.

FIIDS welcomed the US House bipartisan resolution, introduced by Congressman Michael MaCaul and Gregory Meeks, and supported by 392 House of Representatives, condemning the attack and supporting Israel in the ongoing war.

FIIDS compared Hamas’ attacks to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. “This is a 9/11-like attack on Israel,” he said.

-PTI

Will Hamas achieve anything for the Palestinian cause from its attack on Israel? If the Yom Kippur war was fought between national Armies, here, Israel is facing an Islamist militant group. Also, if, in 1973, the fighting mostly took place in Sinai and Golan — territories captured and occupied by Israel — Hamas launched attacks into Israeli towns on its southern border and fired thousands of rockets, killing some 700 Israelis, including many civilians.

Read the full story by Stanly Johny

President Joe Biden says the weekend attack by Hamas militants on Israel was the deadliest against Jews since the Holocaust and called it a “campaign of pure cruelty.”

Mr. Biden made the remarks while speaking Wednesday with Jewish leaders as the U.S. said the number of U.S. citizens killed during the Hamas-Israel war had risen to 22.

– AP