RT NEWS - URGENT UPDATES 28.10.23 Extreme Violent Bombing; Blackout; US troops deployed

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13:23 GMT
Israel has “moved on to a new phase in the war,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced, declaring that “the ground shook in Gaza” on Friday night as Israeli forces “attacked above ground and below ground, attacking terrorists of all ranks, in all places.”

Friday night saw both the heaviest Israeli bombardment of Gaza since the beginning of the conflict and the first major incursion into the strip by Israeli troops and armour. Gallant said that the operation will continue in this manner “until new orders are given.”

12:12 GMT
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will make his Starlink internet service available to “internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,” he announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Phone and internet lines went down in the enclave after a heavy Israeli bombardment on Friday, leaving aid groups unable to communicate with their staff in the besieged territory.

12:04 GMT
Some 5,000 US troops took part in an Israeli ground assault on Gaza on Friday, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. Last week, the Pentagon said it had ordered more than 2,000 additional troops to prepare to deploy in support of Israel in its conflict with Hamas.

At the same time, the Israel Defence Forces said on Friday that it was “expanding” both ground and air operations in the enclave.

Tasnim also reported, citing security sources, that Israel’s overnight assault involved three divisions and several brigades, with troops attempting to advance on several axes to divide Gaza into two or three sections.

10:53 GMT
Palestinian authorities are in talks to secure access to the Starlink satellite system operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, Communications Minister Ishaq Sidr said in an interview with Al-Hadath TV. The statement comes after Gaza suffered the complete severing of internet and landline services amid the Israeli siege.

The minister also noted that local authorities are in contact with neighbouring Egypt to provide communications assistance.

08:12 GMT
Hamas says it has thwarted an attempted ground assault by Israel’s military on Gaza, adding that the country’s military sustained heavy losses, according to media reports. It claimed that Israeli forces were caught in ambushes set by the Palestinian resistance, and it had to use helicopters to evacuate the dead and wounded from the battlefield.

05:19 GMT
The Israeli military claims it has killed Asem Abu Rakaba, a top Hamas official in charge of air defence, aerial reconnaissance, and drones, in an airstrike. The IDF said he participated in “the massacre in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7” and directed militants who infiltrated Israel by paraglider.

04:43 GMT
The newly elected US House Speaker Mike Johnson has held a phone call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing “strong support” and saying that “the House of Representatives stands with Israel.”
https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1718041485843591230

03:56 GMT
The United States is “not drawing red lines for Israel,” and is going to continue to support its battle with Hamas militants, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday night. However, “since the very beginning we have, and will continue to have, conversations about the manner that they are doing this,” he added.

03:20 GMT
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has held yet another phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, in which he “underscored the importance of protecting civilians” during operations in Gaza, and emphasized the “urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza,” according to the Pentagon. “He also raised his focus on the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said.

02:35 GMT
US ‘entering battle’ in Gaza – Hamas

A senior member of Hamas has said the Palestinian militant group was surprised by America’s reaction to recent violence in Gaza, suggesting the US would enter the fight after it sent thousands of troops and a pair of aircraft carriers to the region.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, Ali Barakeh, a member of Hamas’ political leadership based in Lebanon, said the group “didn’t expect this much of a response” from the United States.

“An Israeli response? Yes, we expected that,” he said. “But what we’re seeing now is the entrance of the US into the battle, and this we didn’t count on.”

US ‘entering battle’ in Gaza – Hamas
Washington has deployed forces across the Middle East as Israel prepares a ground assault on the Palestinian enclave

A senior member of Hamas has said the Palestinian militant group was surprised by America’s reaction to recent violence in Gaza, suggesting the US could enter the fight after it sent thousands of troops and a pair of aircraft carriers to the region.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, Ali Barakeh, a member of Hamas’ political leadership based in Lebanon, said the group “didn’t expect this much of a response” from the US.

“An Israeli response? Yes, we expected that,” he said. “But what we’re seeing now is the entrance of the US into the battle, and this we didn’t count on.”

Washington has made major shows of force in the Middle East since Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel, deploying two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Mediterranean, as well as an amphibious assault ship carrying 2,000 sailors and marines. US officials have said the moves were meant to deter outside actors from taking part in the Gaza war.

On Thursday, the Pentagon said it carried out airstrikes on two facilities in eastern Syria alleged to be used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and “affiliated” groups, claiming the operation was in “self-defence” following a string of rocket attacks on US troops. While the mission highlighted escalating US military action in the region, officials stressed that it was “separate and distinct” from the hostilities with Hamas.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have pounded Gaza with airstrikes in response to Hamas’ attack earlier this month, which claimed around 1,400 lives, according to Israeli officials. More than 7,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in weeks of IDF bombing since, with Israel now preparing a significant ground operation intended to eliminate Hamas.

READ MORE: US will ‘not be spared’ if Israel-Hamas war escalates – Iran
Barakeh went on to say the militant group had at least 40,000 fighters in its ranks, and that most were based in extensive tunnel networks built under Gaza. “We have been prepared for a ground offensive,” he added, explaining that the underground complex is stocked with months of supplies.
https://www.rt.com/news/586022-us-hamas-israel-war/
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02:00 GMT
The State Department was allegedly unaware about Israel’s plan to “expand” ground operations in Gaza before the official announcement on Friday, two US officials told ABC news. However, amid growing international pushback against a full-fledged ground invasion, Washington has been “pressuring Israel to adopt a narrower scope for its offensive and take a more incremental approach,” ABC News reported, citing two unnamed US officials.

01:43 GMT
A member of Hamas's political bureau, Ezzat El-Reshiq, has blasted Israel for “cutting off the phone network and internet” as well as “electricity, water, food, medicine and fuel,” calling it a “full-fledged war crime” aided by the West.

The militant’s group's political official added that the Qassam Brigades “and all Palestinian resistance forces” are ready to “thwart incursions.”

01:38 GMT
Clashes between the Israeli forces and Hamas militants have been taking place in at least three locations along the Gaza Strip border, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Safwat Kahlout who cited information from Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the group.

“After a few minutes of a relatively calm situation, now Israeli artillery resumed heavy bombardment across the border line,” the reporter claimed early Saturday morning, adding that from the rooftop of his building he could see the “flashes of Israeli artillery blowing up across the border line.”

01:25 GMT
The Israel Defence Forces is “expanding ground operations” against Hamas in the Gaza Strip while the air force has intensified its aerial bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari reiterated on Friday night, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“In the last few hours, we have severely increased our attacks in Gaza,” he said during an evening briefing, noting that attacks were taking place from the air, sea and land, according to the Jerusalem Post.

While Israeli soldiers and tanks have conducted several limited raids into the strip over the last days, no major offensive has been officially announced yet. A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Mark Regev, told CNN that the “expansion” of ground operations in Gaza means the IDF is “beefing up the pressure on Hamas.”

“That pressure will increase and continue to increase until we achieve our goal,” he added.

01:02 GMT
Amid the communication blockade on the Gaza Strip, the President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has confirmed that the organization also lost contact with its teams on the ground.

“The blackout affects emergency medical services, but also we can’t know what is happening. Deeply concerned about civilians, healthcare workers and facilities,” Francesco Rocca said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent's media officer, Nibal Farsakh claimed that the “Israeli authorities have cut off landline, cellular, and internet communications, severely affecting our essential emergency medical services.”
https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1718021023696609374

00:51 GMT
The World Health Organization also lost contact with its staff in Gaza, as well as “health facilities, health workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground,” the UN agency’s director-general has confirmed.

“This siege makes me gravely concerned for their safety and the immediate health risks of vulnerable patients. We urge immediate protection of all civilians and full humanitarian access,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

00:47 GMT
The number of United Nations staff who have lost their lives in Gaza amid the ongoing Israeli war with Hamas has increased to at least 53 since October 7, after another 14 humanitarian personnel were killed in the past 24 hours, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said in a statement on Friday.
https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1717943214823407678
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23:33 GMT
Amnesty International also lost contact with its team in Gaza, according to the organization's Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, Erika Guevara-Rosas.

“This communications blackout means that it will be even more difficult to obtain critical information and evidence about human rights violations and war crimes being committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and to hear directly from those experiencing the violations,” Guevara-Rosas said.

Multiple humanitarian organizations and international media and have lost contact with their colleagues on Friday night, as the Gaza Strip has suffered a near-total blackout of internet and cell phone services after Israel “expanded” its military operation against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.

Internet and cell phone services stopped working in Gaza on Friday night, after Israel “expanded” its military operation against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.

The largest telecommunications provider in Gaza, Paltel, has announced “a complete severance of all communications and Internet services” due to intensified Israeli strikes.

“The intense bombing in the last hour caused the destruction of all remaining international routes linking Gaza to the outside world,” the company said.

Netblocks, a company that tracks internet connectivity globally, confirmed the information blackout, calling it “the largest single disruption to internet connectivity in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict and will be perceived by many as a total or near-total internet blackout.”

International media outlets, including RT, have partially lost contact with their crews and stringers on the ground. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told news organizations that Israel “cannot guarantee your employees’ safety, and strongly urge you to take all necessary measures for their safety,” according to a letter sent to Reuters and AFP.

The head of RT Arabic, Maya Manna, said there was no contact with correspondents and photographers operating in the Palestinian enclave as of Friday evening. The sole message came from an RT stringer in the area, describing a “very violent bombing.”

“I don't know what to do with my children and my family. Everyone is afraid, everyone is terrified, and there is screaming everywhere in the Gaza Strip,” Masoud Abu Jarash, a local reporter, told RT.

According to an NBC News crew member, who was also able to message colleagues, “all internet, electricity and everything” has been cut off. “The situation we’re in is difficult, so difficult and very dangerous. We’re being extensively shelled by artillery and by air,” the unnamed staffer said.

The UN children’s agency also lost contact with their colleagues in Gaza, with UNICEF chief Catherine Russel saying she was “extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for 1 million children in Gaza.”

The international healthcare charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said there was no contact with some of their Palestinian colleagues.

“We are particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities,” MSF said, expressing deep concern over the situation regarding one of Gaza’s biggest medical centres.

Israel has accused Hamas of turning hospitals into “headquarters for their terror,” referring specifically to Al Shifa, and even published an “illustrative video” which supposedly points out the “different locations in and under the hospital which are being used to plan and implement terrorist activities.”

Hamas claims that by cutting off communications from Gaza, Israel is attempting to “cover up the crimes of the occupation without any oversight or accountability,” and tries to “create an image of victory,” a senior official, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera.
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22:47 GMT
The UN children’s agency UNICEF has also lost contact with their colleagues in Gaza amid the reported near-total communications blackout.

“We have lost touch with our colleagues in Gaza. I’m extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for 1 million children in Gaza,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russel wrote on X, adding that “all humanitarians and the children and families they serve must be protected.”

22:17 GMT
The international healthcare charity Doctors Without Borders says that it has lost contact with some of their Palestinian colleagues on the ground in Gaza.

“We are particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities,” it said, expressing deep concern over over the situation around one Gaza’s biggest medical centres. “We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip.”

Israel previously accused Hamas of turning hospitals into “headquarters for their terror,” specifically one Al Shifa, and even published an “illustrative video” which supposedly points out the “different locations in and under the hospital which are being used to plan and implement terrorist activities.” https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1717927514666844581
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22:14 GMT
Amid the reported disruption of communications with Gaza, the head of RT Arabic, Maya Manna, said that contact has been lost with RT’s war correspondents and photographers operating in the Palestinian enclave on Friday evening. The sole message came from an RT stringer in the area, describing a “very violent bombing.”

“I don't know what to do with my children and my family. Everyone is afraid, everyone is terrified, and there is screaming everywhere in the Gaza Strip,” said Masoud, a local reporter.

21:50 GMT
The US State Department has urged American citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, citing an “unpredictable security situation.”

“There is no guarantee the US government will evacuate private US citizens and their family members in a crisis situation,” it said. “US military-assisted evacuations of civilians from a foreign country are rare… You should have a plan of action for crisis situations that does not rely on US government assistance.”

21:45 GMT
Israel has slammed the UN General Assembly for passing a non-binding resolution which urged a humanitarian truce in Gaza.

“This is a dark day for the UN and for mankind,” Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan said. “Today is a day that will go down as infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance.”

“We reject outright the UN General Assembly despicable call for a ceasefire. Israel intends to eliminate Hamas just as the world dealt with the Nazis and ISIS,” added Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

21:38 GMT
By cutting off communications from the Gaza Strip, Israel is attempting “to create an image of victory,” a senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera, accusing the IDF of “an attempt to cover up the crimes of the occupation without any oversight or accountability.”

21:34 GMT
There is a near-total blackout of internet and cell phone services across the Gaza Strip, according to service providers and global connectivity monitors.

The largest telecommunications provider in Gaza, Paltel, announced on Friday "a complete severance of all communications and Internet services" due to intensified Israeli strikes. “The intense bombing in the last hour caused the destruction of all remaining international routes linking Gaza to the outside world, in addition to the routes previously destroyed during the aggression, which led to the interruption of all communications services from the beloved Gaza Strip.”

A company that tracks internet connectivity globally, Netblocks, confirmed that “live network data show a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel.”

“Today’s incident is the largest single disruption to internet connectivity in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict and will be perceived by many as a total or near-total internet blackout,” said Isik Mater, the director of research at NetBlocks. https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1717942556703551590
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21:22 GMT
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the humanitarian system in Gaza is facing a “total collapse with unimaginable consequences for more than 2 million civilians,” according to a statement on Friday night.

“As the bombing intensifies, needs are growing ever more critical and colossal,” he said. “Misery is growing by the minute. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering.”

21:09 GMT
The IDF has told international news organizations that Israel “cannot guarantee your employees' safety, and strongly urge you to take all necessary measures for their safety,” according to a letter sent to Reuters and AFP, after they had sought assurances that their journalists in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli strikes.

“The IDF is targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza,” the letter stated, accusing Hamas of deliberately conducting military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians.”

20:48 GMT
US sources told ABC News that Friday night’s ground incursion into Gaza was not a “large-scale offensive,” while an IDF spokesman confirmed that it was not the planned (and repeatedly delayed) major ground offensive. Residents of Gaza report “heavily intensified” IDF airstrikes in the enclave, according to local media.

20:29 GMT
The UN General Assembly called for a humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in a Friday vote. Of those present, 120 countries supported the resolution, while 45 abstained and 14 – including the US and Israel – opposed it.

The vote comes after a UN Security Council resolution that would have ordered “humanitarian pauses” for aid delivery to Gaza was vetoed by the US last week.

20:22 GMT
A spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces urged reporters on Friday to ignore any rumours about a deal to release the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, insisting the IDF “will reach and present any credible information” regarding the captives to the families first and then inform the public.

“Until then, don’t surrender to Hamas’ manipulations of psychological terror,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
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20:12 GMT
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has “completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza and all our teams operating there,” the organization said in a statement on Friday, warning that the unusually heavy IDF bombardment of the enclave had disrupted the operations of its central emergency ‘101’ line, preventing the dispatch of ambulances to those wounded and injured in the airstrikes.

19:44 GMT
The streets of Gaza are overflowing with sewage, exacerbating the massive public health hazard in the enclave, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA warned on Friday. “The last remaining public services are collapsing, our aid operation is crumbling, and for the first time ever, [our staff] report that people are now hungry,” agency director Philippe Lazzarini said, stressing that the amount of aid trickling in amounted to “nothing more than crumbs.”

While aid deliveries have supplied some food, water and medicine, they have not included fuel, meaning the UNRWA is unable to collect and distribute the aid that does make it into the enclave and will soon be forced to “wind down” its relief efforts, Lazzarini explained.

19:35 GMT
The US State Department will not support a ceasefire in Gaza that would allow Hamas to “rest and refit, and continue launching terrorist operations against Israel,” spokesman Matthew Miller has said.

Instead, he suggested a “humanitarian pause” to allow the delivery of aid to Gaza. However, Miller declined to address concerns that Americans may have been among the 50 hostages reportedly killed during Israeli airstrikes since October 7.

18:45 GMT
Hamas has called on Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Palestinian diaspora to “mobilize in support of Gaza and stop the aggression and war of extermination” being waged by Israel. In a statement, the militant group also called on Arab and Islamic countries to “take immediate action to stop the…massacres against our people.”

In a separate statement on Friday, Hamas official Husam Badran called on Palestinians in the West Bank to take up arms against occupying Israeli troops, declaring “this is the time for weapons.”

17:49 GMT
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced they were “expanding ground operations” in Gaza on Friday, warning residents who were still in the city to move south as a series of massive explosions were reported in and around the vicinity on Friday night.

17:40 GMT
Israel “cut communications and most of the internet” to the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Hamas militant group has said. Netblocks confirmed that live network data showed a collapse in connectivity in the territory, with Gaza's last remaining service provider, Paltel, severely impacted.

Additionally, Palestinian telecom company Jawwal announced the “complete interruption of telecommunications services” to Gaza in a statement on Friday, explaining “the intense bombardment of the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international [communications] routes connecting Gaza with the outside world.”

17:30 GMT
Hamas “categorically” rejected the Israel Defence Forces’ claim that it situates its command centres or any other military assets under hospitals in Gaza in a statement posted to the militant group’s Telegram account on Friday. Warning that such “criminal and dangerous allegations” paved the way for the targeting of the Al-Shifa hospital, which it said houses more than 40,000 displaced Palestinians, Hamas urged the United Nations and the Islamic world to “intervene immediately to stop the madness of bombing and destroying the medical system” in the enclave.

16:40 GMT
Four people were wounded when a rocket hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv on Friday, according to emergency medical service Magen David Adom. None of the four was seriously injured, and all were taken to a nearby medical centre for treatment.

Hamas reportedly took credit for firing the rocket on its Telegram channel.

The city of Ashkelon also came under rocket fire, with rockets hitting the 9th floor of one building, a construction site, and a ground-level house, resulting in an unknown number of casualties.