Gaza ‘running out of water’, says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Gaza faces an imminent public health crisis as the Palestinian enclace is “running out of water”.
The UN agency said the lives of more than 3,500 patients in 35 hospitals in Gaza are at immediate risk, and called for the unobstructed access for humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Sunday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Israeli officials had told him that they had turned the water pipe back on in southern Gaza. A Hamas spokesperson denied Israel’s claims, saying that the people in Gaza “drink unhealthy water, posing a serious health crisis threatens the lives of the citizens”.
Jason Lee, the Palestine director of Save the Children, told the BBC earlier today that the aid agency had had reports that the water was flowing in parts of southern Gaza again, but that without fuel or electricity to pump it, it would not be available to the general population.
The head of the UN’s agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned late Sunday that Gaza is “being strangled”, adding that “not one drop of water” has been allowed into the Gaza Strip for more than a week. Philippe Lazzarini said:
Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity. If we look at the issue of water – we all know water is life – Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life.
Key events
UNRWA, the UN’s agency supporting Palestinian refugees, said reports circulating on social media that its supplies had been stolen from its warehouses on the Gaza Strip are false.
“No looting has taken place in any of its warehouses in the Gaza Strip,” it posted to X.
🛑URGENT CLARIFICATION FROM @UNRWA
With regards to reports on social media of looting of an UNRWA warehouse.
UNRWA would like to confirm that no looting has taken place in any of its warehouses in the Gaza Strip. [1/2]— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 16, 2023
Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, talked about the possibility of the release of hostages during a phone call with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, according to his office.
Fidan discussed “the latest developments in Palestine and the possibility of release of civilians” with the exiled Haniyeh, Reuters cited a Turkish foreign ministry statement.
‘This is on me’: Israeli intelligence head takes responsibility for Hamas terror attacks
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency took responsibility for the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,400 people on 7 October.
In his first comments since the attacks, Shin Bet director Ronen Bar said:
Despite a series of actions we carried out, unfortunately, on Saturday we were unable to generate sufficient warning that would allow the attack to be thwarted.
As the one who heads the organization, the responsibility for this is on me. There will be time for investigations. Now we fight.
The EU has announced it will launch a “humanitarian air bridge” consisting of “several flights” to Egypt to bring supplies to humanitarian organisations on the ground in Gaza.
The first two flights will take place this week, carrying humanitarian cargo from Unicef including shelter items, medicines and hygiene kits, it said in a statement.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, during a press conference in Tirana on Monday, said:
Palestinians in Gaza are in need of humanitarian help and aid, they cannot pay the prize of Hamas’ barbarism.
US-led diplomatic effort fails to ease Palestinians’ plight in Gaza
Julian Borger
An intense US-led diplomatic effort failed on Monday to ease the plight of 2 million Palestinians trapped under bombardment in Gaza, with supplies of water, food and medicine all running out, raising the prospect of a humanitarian disaster.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived back in Israel after a tour of the five Gulf Arab states and Egypt as part of an ongoing but faltering diplomatic mission. US media reported that Joe Biden was considering a trip as an already dire situation drastically deteriorated.
Trucks carrying badly needed supplies have waited for days at Egypt’s border crossing with Gaza but repeated Israeli strikes and a diplomatic stalemate with Cairo have meant they have been unable to enter. An Israeli airstrike hit the border crossing again on Monday evening, a BBC journalist in Gaza reported, the fourth time the area has been bombed since the war began.
Residents of the strip, which is ruled by Hamas, said strikes overnight between Sunday and Monday were the heaviest yet as the conflict entered its 10th day.
According to an aid official, a few UN lorries carrying oil were allowed into Gaza from Egypt on Monday morning but the crossing remained closed to most humanitarian deliveries. “No food, nothing of that sort, made it through,” an aid source said. “Nobody is able to get anything close to that border.”
Egyptian security services had earlier assured aid agencies and journalists that an agreement had been reached for the Rafah crossing to be opened at 9am on Monday. But in response, the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a one-line statement saying: “There is no ceasefire.”
Civil defence personnel say they are struggling to extract hundreds of bodies trapped under the rubble in Gaza amid a lack of equipment and resources.
Civil defence officer Abid Saqir said there are 1,000 bodies under the rubble across the strip, citing figures shared by Gaza’s ministry of interior.
The priority for our teams in the civil defence is to extract martyrs from under rubble, despite our limited capabilities.
Blinken and Netanyahu shelter in bunker during meeting in Tel Aviv
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sheltered in a bunker for five minutes when air sirens went off during their meeting in Tel Aviv.
The two have since moved out and are continuing their discussions at the defense ministry’s command centre, Reuters reports that a US state department spokesperson said.
Earlier, PM Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Blinken held an in-depth private meeting, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, during which National Security Council Director Hanegbi and the Prime Minister’s Military Secretary, Maj.-Gen. Gil, participated at times. pic.twitter.com/AveRWVVpjb
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 16, 2023
Gaza ‘running out of water’, says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Gaza faces an imminent public health crisis as the Palestinian enclace is “running out of water”.
The UN agency said the lives of more than 3,500 patients in 35 hospitals in Gaza are at immediate risk, and called for the unobstructed access for humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Sunday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Israeli officials had told him that they had turned the water pipe back on in southern Gaza. A Hamas spokesperson denied Israel’s claims, saying that the people in Gaza “drink unhealthy water, posing a serious health crisis threatens the lives of the citizens”.
Jason Lee, the Palestine director of Save the Children, told the BBC earlier today that the aid agency had had reports that the water was flowing in parts of southern Gaza again, but that without fuel or electricity to pump it, it would not be available to the general population.
The head of the UN’s agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned late Sunday that Gaza is “being strangled”, adding that “not one drop of water” has been allowed into the Gaza Strip for more than a week. Philippe Lazzarini said:
Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity. If we look at the issue of water – we all know water is life – Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life.
Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, warned that the probabilty of the conflict spreading to other fronts “is approaching [the] unavoidable stage”.
“Time is running out for political solutions,” he posted to X.
Conferred with my counterparts from 🇹🇳,🇲🇾,🇵🇰. Underlined the need to immediately stop Zionist crimes&murder in Gaza&to dispatch humanitarian aid. I stressed that time is running out for political solutions; probable spread of war in other fronts is approaching unavoidable stage.
— H.Amirabdollahian امیرعبداللهیان (@Amirabdolahian) October 16, 2023
Rishi Sunak held a call with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday where he expressed his condolences for the deaths of Palestinian civilians, Downing Street said.
The prime minister “reiterated the UK’s position that Hamas does not speak for ordinary Palestinians,” a No 10 spokesperson said.
The pair “agreed that the international community must intensify efforts to break the cycle of violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the statement continued.
The Prime Minister affirmed that the UK continues to support a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state existing alongside a safe and secure Israel.
A 19-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces near the Salem military checkpoint outside Jenin in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Anas Raed Farid Manasra was shot in the head and chest, Reuters reports that the Palestinian ministry said on Monday.
Sirens have sounded in Tel Aviv, where US secretary of state Antony Blinken has been meeting with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his war cabinet.
From John Hudson of the Washington Post:
Two British teenagers feared kidnapped in Hamas attack on Israel
Two teenage sisters are among the list of missing British nationals following the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, the BBC is reporting.
The family of Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, believe they were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri, and taken across the border into Gaza. The family has not released the girls’ surname.
Their mother Lianne, who is British and born in Bristol, was murdered in the attack, it was confirmed on Sunday night.
