- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Rafah border to be opened to wounded foreigners – source
- According to Israel, eleven soldiers were killed in Gaza on Tuesday
- Internet services cut off in Gaza
- Top US diplomat Blinken will visit Israel on Friday and make further stops in the region
GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 1 (Portal) – A number of foreigners and those seriously injured were due to leave the Gaza Strip on Wednesday under a Qatar-brokered deal, as Israeli forces pressed ahead with their offensive against Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The deal reached between Egypt, Israel and Hamas followed another day of bloodshed in Gaza, where an Israeli airstrike killed about 50 people in a refugee camp, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel said the attack killed a senior Hamas commander and other combatants.
Communications and internet services were again completely interrupted in Gaza on Wednesday, telecommunications provider Paltel said.
Israel sent its forces into the Gaza Strip after weeks of air and artillery strikes in retaliation for a deadly attack on southern Israel by Gaza-controlled Hamas on October 7.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas. But Gaza’s civilian death toll and desperate humanitarian conditions have sparked widespread concern around the world, as food, fuel, drinking water and medicines run short and hospitals struggle to treat the injured.
The Gulf state of Qatar, which has ties with Israel and Hamas, brokered a deal between the two sides to allow some seriously injured people and foreign passport holders to leave Gaza for Egypt, a source briefed on the matter told Portal.
Ambulances could be seen at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Israel, where the evacuations will take place.
The source said that this agreement, however, was not linked to other issues such as the release of about 240 hostages held by Hamas and a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting, which many countries have called for but rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to Israeli figures, around 300 soldiers and around 1,100 civilians were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7th.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
Refugee camp hit
The Israeli military said Tuesday’s attacks on Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, included Ibrahim Biari, a Hamas commander who it said was “crucial” in planning and carrying out the Oct. 7 attack, as well Dozens of Hamas fighters killed.
[1/13]Palestinians with dual citizenship wait in front of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the hope of obtaining permission to leave Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, November 1, 2023. Portal/ Arafat Barbakh acquires licensing rights
Palestinian health authorities said at least 50 Palestinians were killed and 150 injured, while a Hamas statement said 400 were dead and injured in Jabalia, which houses families of refugees from wars with Israel since 1948.
The Israeli military said 11 Israeli soldiers were also killed in heavy fighting on Tuesday, the biggest single-day loss for the armed forces since the initial attack.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that Hamas fighters had two options: “either be killed or surrender unconditionally.”
“This is the war (for) the future of Israel – nothing less,” he said.
After a pause in rocket fire lasting several hours, the Israeli military sounded sirens in several southern communities and in the port cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod.
POWER FAILURE
Two of Gaza’s largest hospitals – Al Shifa Medical and the Indonesian Hospital – faced a power outage as their generators quickly ran out of fuel.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra called on gas station owners in the enclave to urgently provide fuel as doctors worked around the clock to treat injured people with the supplies they had at their disposal.
“We do it for an hour,” said Dr. Mohammed al-Run.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who will visit Israel on Friday, said the United States and other countries were considering “a variety of possible options” for the future of the Gaza Strip if Hamas militants are removed from control.
Iran supports Hamas as well as several other militant groups in the region, and the conflict in Gaza has raised fears of further escalation.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had deployed missile boats in the Red Sea after the Houthis in Yemen announced long-range drone and missile attacks.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose; additional reporting by Portal bureaus; Written by Miral Fahmy and Angus MacSwan, editing by Lincoln Feast and Louise Heavens
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab