The Israeli military stepped up airstrikes in Gaza, including near its main hospital, as thousands of people desperately broke into relief camps in the besieged enclave in search of food and basic supplies.
Internet and phone connectivity was restored for many people on Sunday after Israeli attacks late Friday knocked out most communications in the area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the three-week-long war between Israel and Hamas on Saturday as a fight for Israel’s existence and said: “Never again!” He announced a “second phase” of the war and said Israel was determined to take 229 hostages that Hamas took during its bloody rampage on October 7th.
According to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the Palestinian death toll topped 8,000, most of them women and children. More than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.
More than 1,400 people, including at least 310 soldiers, were killed in Israel in a surprise incursion by Hamas militants, according to the Israeli government. Four of the 229 hostages were released.
At the moment:
Here’s what’s happening in the recent war between Israel and Hamas:
The Pope calls for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza on Sunday.
“Let us continue to pray for Ukraine and for the serious situation in Palestine and Israel, as well as for other regions at war,” Francis said.
“Leave space, especially in Gaza, to ensure humanitarian assistance. And release the hostages immediately. Don’t let anyone give up the opportunity to stop the guns. Truce,” he added, speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace above St. Peter’s Square.
The pope cited Father Ibrahim Faltas, the Holy Land’s parish priest, as joining him in the urgent request for a ceasefire.
“Back off, brothers and sisters, war is always a defeat. Always! Always!” he concluded.
NORWAY’S PRIME MINISTER CRITICIZES ISRAEL
HELSINKI – Norway’s prime minister says Israel’s response to the Hamas attack exceeds international law’s rules on proportionality.
“International law states that (the response to such an attack) must be proportionate,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in an interview with public broadcaster NRK on Sunday.
“Civilians must be taken into account and humanitarian law is fully aware of this. I believe that the border has now been largely crossed by Israel,” he said, adding that his main concern was that emergency aid was not reaching the Gaza Strip.
Norway voted on Friday in favor of the United Nations resolution calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” leading to a cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
“It is a catastrophic situation and I believe it clearly violates what we call the rules of war or humanitarian law,” he said. “Many fear that the escalation we are now seeing could trigger a much larger conflict in the region, and of course a much more lasting conflict.”
GAZA MINISTRY OF HEALTH SAYS THE NUMBER OF DEATHS IN PALESTINE EXCEEDS 8,000
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip says over 8,000 Palestinians have been killed since war broke out on October 7.
On Sunday it said the number had risen to 8,005 Palestinians, including more than 3,300 minors and over 2,000 women.
The Health Ministry is part of the Hamas-led government but includes doctors and senior officials not affiliated with the group. The death toll of previous wars has withstood UN scrutiny, independent investigations and even Israel’s figures. The ministry released detailed records last week with names, ages and ID numbers of most registered deaths. Some bodies have not yet been identified, it said.
More than 1,400 people have been killed on the Israeli side, the vast majority civilians killed by Hamas in its bloody invasion of Israel on October 7.
UN chief repeats call for humanitarian ceasefire
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has reiterated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, calling for the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained relief supplies to people in the area.
Guterres, who is on an official visit to Nepal, condemned Hamas’s “appalling attacks” and said: “There is never any justification for the killing, injury and kidnapping of civilians.” He also said he regretted Israel’s move, to intensify its military operations in Gaza.
He also reminded Israel and Hamas of their obligations under international humanitarian law. “I have always consistently advocated strict compliance with the established principles and rules of international humanitarian law. The protection of civilians is of utmost importance,” he said.
“The laws of war establish clear rules to protect human life and respect humanitarian concerns. These laws cannot be distorted for the sake of convenience. “The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes,” he added.
WHO RESTORED CONTACT WITH A TEAM IN GAZA
CAIRO – The head of the World Health Organization says they have managed to communicate with the agency’s team in Gaza after internet and telephone connectivity was gradually restored in the enclave.
“They said the last two nights have been extremely tense, with many airstrikes – without fuel, water, electricity, connectivity and safe accommodation for evacuation,” Tedros Adhanom wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
He added that the WHO team, like others in Gaza, remained insecure and called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the agency had 30 staff in Gaza.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says Israel orders Gaza hospital evacuation
JERUSALEM – A spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent said Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City received two calls from Israeli authorities on Sunday morning demanding evacuation.
A statement released by the organization said the calls constituted a “clear and direct threat that the hospital must be evacuated immediately or PRCS will bear full responsibility for the lives of all those hospitalized.”
Spokesman Nebal Farsakh said Israeli airstrikes in the area had increased since Sunday morning, reaching buildings as close as 50 meters (yards).
She said 12,000 people are currently hospitalized. The intensive care unit is mostly occupied by children who were injured in the recent air raids. “Most of them are hooked up to oxygen machines,” she said. “Evacuating them would kill them.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment Sunday. The military has asked about a million people to evacuate to the southern part of the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion.
The WHO said it was impossible to evacuate patients without endangering their lives. Hospitals across the Gaza Strip are already at capacity due to injuries from the relentless bombardment and are unable to cope with the dramatic increase in patient numbers while housing thousands of civilians, the UN agency said.
UN SAYS THOUSANDS ARE BROUGHT INTO GAZA WAREHOUSES TO STORE FOOD
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says thousands of people have broken into its relief camps in the Gaza Strip to steal food and other “basic survival supplies.”
Thomas White, the agency’s director in Gaza, said Sunday that the break-in was “a worrying sign that civil order is beginning to collapse” after three weeks of war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The organization, known as UNRWA, provides essential services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza. Its schools across the territory have been converted into overcrowded shelters for Palestinians displaced by the conflict.
Iranian-backed Iraqi militia says it has hit a base housing US forces in Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Iran-backed Iraqi militia says it has launched drone strikes on a U.S. military base in eastern Syria.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria over the past two weeks, claimed responsibility for the latest attack on Sunday. The group said the attacks were in retaliation for U.S. support for Israel.
According to the Pentagon, there have been at least 20 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17 through Friday, and 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those attacks when drones struck al-Assad’s air base in Iraq and Syria targeted al-Tanf garrison in Syria.
Israeli airstrikes hit areas near Gaza’s main hospital, residents said
CAIRO – Israeli airstrikes have hit areas around Gaza’s largest hospital, residents said, destroying roads leading to the facility, which is a key refuge for Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombardment.
The Israeli military in recent days renewed long-standing accusations that senior Hamas leaders and operatives had built underground bunkers beneath Shifa Hospital, accusing the militant group of using civilians as human shields. Israel has provided no evidence and Hamas denies the claims.
“It is becoming more and more difficult to reach the hospital,” Mahmoud al-Sawah, who sought shelter in the hospital, said by telephone on Sunday. “It seems like they want to cut off the area.”
Another Gaza resident, Abdallah Sayed, described Israeli air and land strikes in the past two days as “the most violent and intense” since the start of the war.
The UN Security Council is planning an emergency meeting for Monday
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting Monday afternoon on Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip at the request of the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council.
INTERNET AND PHONE CONNECTIVITY RESTORED TO MANY IN GAZA
CAIRO – Internet and telephone connectivity was restored for many people in Gaza on Sunday morning, according to telecommunications company Paltel, internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and local confirmation.
For more than 24 hours, people in the besieged Gaza Strip were unable to communicate with each other or seek help despite the relentless Israeli bombardment. There has been a complete communications blackout in the narrow coastal region since Friday evening, worsening the misery of the more than 2.3 million people living there. Many residents, particularly in the northern half of the Strip, were unable to call ambulances to take the injured to hospitals or get help for those trapped under the rubble of bombed homes.
“The aggressive bombardment was terrible,” said Raed Sharif, a volunteer who helped transport wounded people to hospitals in Gaza City. “There were strikes everywhere.”
The medical group Doctors Without Borders said the communications blackout had further isolated the population suffering under siege and bombardment. The power outage also limited the group’s ability to coordinate and provide medical assistance, it said.
RED CRSCENT SAYS AID WILL CONTINUE OUTSIDE GAZA
JERUSALEM – No international aid arrived in the Gaza Strip on Saturday as the Israel-induced communications blackout continued.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, told the Associated Press that no aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday because communications were impossible and teams in the Gaza Strip could not connect with the Egyptian Red Crescent or United Nations personnel .
A total of 84 aid trucks were brought to Gaza before Saturday, a tiny amount for a population of 2.3 million people in need of electricity, food, medical care and clean drinking water.
2nd US AIRCRAFT CARRIER GROUP MOVES TO THE MEDITERRANEAN
WASHINGTON – The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group have advanced through the Strait of Gibraltar, carrying two American aircraft carriers into the Mediterranean, a rare sight in recent years.
The USS Gerald R. Ford’s Carrier Strike Group is already in the eastern Mediterranean, part of a troop surge as the US supports Israel in its war against Hamas.
The Eisenhower sailed into the Mediterranean on Saturday and is expected to enter the U.S. Central Command region through the Suez Canal as American forces expand their presence in the Middle East to deter Iran and its militant proxy groups from escalating the war.
The communications blackout sends Palestinians into panic
After Israeli bombs cut off cell phone and internet connections for most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, it’s up to a few Palestinians with international SIM cards or switched-on satellite phones to spread the news.
They described scenes of panic and confusion as Israel’s military attacks from the air, land and sea, the most intense bombing raids so far in the three-week war. Without social media to share their plight with the world, many appear to be filled with fear and hopelessness.
Reached via WhatsApp, freelance photojournalist Ashraf Abu Amra in northern Gaza said the international community must intervene to save Gazans from instant death. Palestinian journalist Hind al-Khoudary reported that around 50,000 people had gathered in Gaza’s largest hospital, where doctors were exhausted from having to operate on each patient with dwindling fuel and medical supplies.
GOP CANDIDATES OFFER UNLIMITED SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Republican presidential candidates are voicing their full support for Israel in speeches to an influential Jewish GOP group in Las Vegas. The campaign halt came as Israel entered a new phase of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Former Vice President Mike Pence paused his campaign and used his final speech as a candidate to call on Democratic President Joe Biden to unconditionally support Israel’s response to a Hamas attack that killed more than 1,000 Israelis.
Candidates Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy also said Israel’s right to defend itself is clear. Nikki Haley noted that former President Donald Trump lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Hamas attack, calling the militant group Hezbollah “very smart.” Trump, the front-runner, described himself as “the best friend Israel has ever had.”