It’s approaching mid-morning in Gaza now. The Guardian and other outlets have been reporting that the White House announced Israel would begin to implement four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in parts of northern Gaza to allow people to leave. However, there is yet to be a clear sign that this is taking place. Here are some scenes from the strip yesterday.
Here is our latest full report on recent developments in the Israel-Hamas war. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he isn’t seeking to govern Gaza, after earlier saying Israel may be responsible for its security indefinitely. It also includes reports of attacks on three hospitals in the territory, including the main Al Shifa hospital.
In Israel, healthcare professionals and the families of hostages and their supporters held a demonstration outside the International Committee of the Red Cros (ICRC) headquarters in Tel Aviv on 9 November. They were calling on the organisation to demand access to visit and treat the hostages still being held inside Gaza. Here are some scenes from that protest:
Let’s get a bit more on our earlier post on Israel’s response to the drone that hit a school in the southern Israeli city of Eilat. The Israeli military has now posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the strike it says it carried out. On the post the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say that they believe an organisation in Syria was responsible and that the IDF has now hit back. There’s no more detail yet as to which organisation Israel is referring to. Here’s the post below:
In response to a UAV from Syria that hit a school in Eilat, the IDF struck the organization that carried out the attack a short while ago.
The IDF holds the Syrian regime fully responsible for every terror activity emanating from its territory.
We will respond to every…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 10, 2023
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have occupied the lobby of The New York Times on Thursday, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza while accusing the media company of showing a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the publication’s Manhattan headquarters. Many entered the building’s atrium for a sit-in and vigil that lasted more than an hour.
Led by a group of media workers calling themselves “Writers Bloc,” demonstrators read off the names of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza, including at least 36 journalists whose deaths have been confirmed since the war began.
The sit-in followed a series of actions at high-profile locations in New York intended to bring attention to the growing death toll in Gaza.
An email sent to New York Times staffers by the publication’s head of corporate security described the protest as “peaceful,” noting that “no entrances are blocked.”
On Tuesday, activists with the group Jewish Voice for Peace briefly took over the Statue of Liberty. The week prior, hundreds of people packed into Grand Central Terminal, shutting down the commuting hub during rush hour while hoisting banners that read “Ceasefire Now.”
A new UN report paints a stark picture of the Palestinian economy after a month of war and Israel’s near total siege of Gaza.
The gross domestic product shrank 4% in the West Bank and Gaza in the war’s first month, sending more than 400,000 people into poverty – an economic impact unseen in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, or any previous Israel-Hamas war, the UN said.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers launched a surprise attack on Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and kidnapping about 240 others.
More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since Israel launched weeks of intense airstrikes, followed by an ongoing ground operation. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Thursday that 10,818 Palestinians, including more than 4,400 children, have been killed so far.
The rapid assessment of economic consequences of the Gaza war released on Thursday by the UN Development Program and the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia was the first UN report showing the devastating impact of the conflict.
If the war continues for a second month, the UN projects that the Palestinian GDP, which was $20.4bn before the war began, will drop by 8.4%. That’s a loss of $1.7bn. If the conflict lasts a third month, Palestinian GDP will drop by 12%, with losses of $2.5bn and more than 660,000 people pushed into poverty, it projects.
UN Development Program Assistant Secretary-General Abdallah Al Dardari told a news conference launching the report that a 12% GDP loss at the end of the year would be “massive and unprecedented.” By comparison, he said, the Syrian economy used to lose 1% of its GDP a month at the height of its conflict, and it took Ukraine a year and a half of fighting to lose 30% of its GDP, an average of about 1.6% a month.
Here are some of the latest images coming from inside Gaza as the fighting continues:
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says it’s found Democrats are split on how President Joe Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The poll found 50% of Democrats approve of how Biden has navigated the conflict while 46% disapprove – and the two groups diverge substantially in their views of US support for Israel.
Biden’s support on the issue among Democrats is down slightly from August, as an AP-NORC poll conducted then found that 57% of Democrats approved of his handling of the conflict and 40% disapproved.
The war could complicate Biden’s re-election effort as he faces having to balance factions of his party with very different views on the conflict and who is ultimately responsible.
The poll was of 1,239 adults, conducted between 2 and 6 November.
The Reuters news agency is reporting that Israel’s military says an organisation in Syria launched a drone that hit a school in the southern Israeli city of Eilat on Thursday, and that it struck the group in response.
The military did not say what organisation in Syria had launched the drone toward Eilat, on the Red Sea.
But it said in a statement it holds Syria’s government fully responsible “for any terror activity emanating from its territory.” There were no reports of injuries from the drone strike, which caused light damage, according to Reuters.
The drone incident adds to a spate of attacks directed from the region since the 7 October outbreak of Israeli fighting with Gaza’s Hamas militants.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. I’m Reged Ahmad and these are the latest developments:
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of his government: “we don’t seek to conquer Gaza, we don’t seek to occupy Gaza, and we don’t seek to govern Gaza”. But he said “a credible force” would be needed to end Hamas rule of the territory. “What we have to see is Gaza demilitarised, deradicalised and rebuilt,” he told Fox News in the US. “We have to destroy Hamas, not only for our sake, but for the sake of everyone.” His comment come days after he suggested Israel would keep control over Gaza indefinitely after its war against Hamas ends, saying his country will take “overall security responsibility” for the territory.
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Gaza officials said Israel launched air strikes on or near at least three hospitals on Friday, further stressing the Palestinian territory’s precarious health system as it struggles to cope with thousands of people wounded or displaced in Israel’s war against Hamas militants.
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At least 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza has said in its latest update. The death toll from the Hamas attacks on Israel is 1,400 and 240 hostages remain in Gaza.
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18 Palestinians have been killed and at least 20 others injured by the Israel Defence Forces during a raid on Thursday on Jenin city and its refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. According to Palestinian health ministry figures, at least 178 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the 7 October attack on Israel.
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The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said one of their paramedics was shot in the back and wounded by Israeli forces targeting an ambulance during the raid in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
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Officials and diplomats are negotiating a days-long ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages, including children, women, elderly and sick people, the Guardian understands. The discussions include the possibility of a one- to three-day ceasefire, although nothing has been agreed, sources with knowledge of the negotiations have said.
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The White House announced that Israel would begin to implement four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in parts of northern Gaza to allow people to leave. The US national security spokesperson, John Kirby, described it as “a significant first step”. The US state department later said on Thursday that there will be two humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave hostile areas of northern Gaza.
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The Israeli military has said it has not agreed to a ceasefire but that it will continue to allow “tactical, local pauses” to let in humanitarian aid into Gaza. A senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel the new four-hour pauses will take place in a different northern Gaza neighbourhood each day, with residents notified three hours ahead of time. There were no immediate reports of a lull in fighting raging among the ruined buildings in the north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said it was undertaking “localised and pinpoint measures” for civilians to leave but “these things do not detract from the war fighting”.
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Any plans for short-term pauses in the fighting in Gaza must be carried out in coordination with the UN and following agreement by all sides to be “truly effective”, a UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has said.
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Thousands of Palestinians continued to flee south from northern Gaza. Israel said it had allowed movement along the Salah al-Din road – the main highway that runs along the Gaza Strip – for the fifth consecutive day. Images of the mass exodus showed many people evacuating on foot with their belongings tied to their backs, with some pushing wheelchairs and prams.
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Yemen’s Houthi forces have said they launched “a barrage of ballistic missiles” targeting “various sensitive targets” in southern Israel. A Houthi military spokesperson said some of those missiles were heading for the Red Sea city of Eilat. Israel’s military said a drone hit a building in the southern Israeli city, and that no physical injuries were reported.
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The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Thursday for limited evacuations. Nearly 700 foreign passport holders and dependents were reportedly able to leave Gaza through the crossing on Thursday as well as 12 medical evacuees and 10 companions, after the crossing was suspended for a day.
