October 29, 2023
Israel’s war on live ticker +++ 02:58 Saudi Arabian Defense Minister travels to the USA +++
According to the American news portal Axios, Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman is expected to travel to Washington on Monday for a meeting with senior US government officials. The news portal references three people familiar with the trip. The visit had been planned for a long time. According to inside sources, Prince Khalid bin Salman is scheduled to meet with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and several senators.
+++ 02:12 Nouripour condemns Fridays for Future’s anti-Semitic content +++
Green Party leader Omid Nouripour condemns anti-Semitic content from climate protection movement Fridays for Future on social media. “The activists also smuggled an octopus-shaped stuffed toy into the photo,” Nouripour told newspapers from the Funke media group, referring to a photo published on Instagram in which well-known activist Greta Thunberg can also be seen. “The octopus has been known as anti-Semitic symbolism for decades. Now, conspiratorial ideologies have been shared. These posts are disturbing and unacceptable.” Nouripour welcomes the fact that the German group Fridays for Future has distanced itself from this.
+++ 01:16 President of the Red Cross: “The loss of so many civilian lives is shameful” +++
The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, calls on all parties to the conflict in the Middle East to stop the “unbearable” suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip. “This is a catastrophic failure that the world cannot accept,” she says. It is “unacceptable that civilians in Gaza do not have a safe place to go.” Spoljaric calls for an immediate de-escalation of the conflict. “The tragic loss of so many civilian lives is shameful,” says the ICRC president. Due to “the military siege, an adequate humanitarian response is also not possible.”
+++ 00:31 Saudi Arabia condemns “any ground offensives” by Israel +++
Saudi Arabia condemns “any ground offensives” by Israel in the Gaza Strip, calling them a threat to Palestinian civilians. The Foreign Ministry in Riyadh said this exposed Palestinians to “further danger and inhumane conditions”. Saudi Arabia speaks of a “flagrant and unjustified violation of international law”. The kingdom views with concern the military escalation in the Gaza Strip, which has “serious consequences for the stability of the region and for regional and international peace”. Saudi Arabia is an important protective power for the Palestinians and has been hostile to Israel for decades. Before the start of the war in Gaza, there were many signs of a possible normalization of relations with Tel Aviv through US mediation. However, due to the violent escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, Riyadh halted negotiations on possible normalization.
+++ 00:04 Schuster, head of the Central Council, criticizes German abstention +++
The Central Council of Jews criticizes Germany’s abstention in a UN resolution on the war between Israel and the radical Palestinian organization Hamas. The President of the Central Council, Josef Schuster, speaks in the “Tagesspiegel am Sonntag” of a “disappointment for the Jews in Germany”. By abstaining, Germany supported the UN’s “relative attitude towards Israel”. Germany should have rejected the resolution, Schuster said. This meant that “mantra-like declarations of solidarity with Israel” could have been maintained “in the face of headwinds from the UN General Assembly”.
+++ 23:32 Guterres calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict +++
UN Secretary-General António Guterres once again calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. Guterres said he was surprised by the “unprecedented escalation” of the attacks, according to a statement. He reiterated his call for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, along with the unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of aid to the people of the Gaza Strip. A humanitarian catastrophe is happening there “before our eyes”.
+++ 22:45 Relatives of hostages demand prisoner exchange +++
After a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, representatives of the families of hostages detained in the Gaza Strip called for a prisoner exchange. Israel should consider releasing all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons in exchange for all hostages kidnapped in Israel, relatives’ representatives suggest, according to Israeli media. Later, at a press conference, the head of the Israeli government said that a prisoner exchange was being discussed. He doesn’t want to give details. Publicizing the terms of such an agreement will not help make it a reality, Netanyahu said.
+++ 22:10 Insider: Negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue +++
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, continued despite the expansion of the ground offensive by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, a person familiar with the matter told Portal. However, the pace of negotiations has become much slower since the escalation of fighting, said the person, who preferred to remain anonymous.
+++ 21:43 The UN humanitarian agency also lost contact with Gaza +++
Following the failure of internet and communication services in the Gaza Strip, contact with officials from the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, was also lost. UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said he had no contact with the “vast majority” of his team. “This makes me extremely worried for colleagues and their families.” He sincerely hopes his message reaches his colleagues. Lazzarini describes the failure of communications services since Friday night as “yet another attempt to impede the humanitarian response to civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
You can read about previous events here.