RT News - October 29 2023

Numbers update (unconfirmed) 10,000 people are now thought to have died and 19,000 wounded. Day 23

Updates "as they happened" below

Aistrikes and bombing have continued in Gaza overnight. Internet and phone systems come partly back online. People are communicating only by passing word of mouth, even for emergency services.

10 people were killed and many more injured as an airstrike targeted a house.

14,000 Civilians sheltering at the Al-Quds hospital are to be moved out as Israel extends it's incursion. The IDF says it has deeper into Gaza and has hit several HAMAS targets

Families of Israeli hostages worry for their lives as Israel continues to bomb Gaza
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short take : Explosions rock Gaza as Israel ramps up its offensive on the enclave, locals describe survival amid a communications blackout. Amid the siege on Gaza, hundreds of thousands rally for Palestine across the globe from London to Rome and New York. Relatives of those held hostage by Hamas meet with the Israeli prime minister, saying they fear for the safety of their loved ones who are held in Gaza while it's being attacked by the IDF from above.
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== UPDATES "as they happened"

29 October 2023

15:18 GMT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must “rein in…extremist settler violence against innocent people in the West Bank,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has told CNN.

At least seven Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers since the conflict with Hamas began on October 7, the Associated Press reported on Sunday. Across multiple terms in office, Netanyahu has overseen a dramatic expansion in the construction of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, which the International Court of Justice deems illegal.

14:52 GMT
Israeli airstrikes destroyed most of the roads leading to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday morning, the Associated Press has reported. The Shifa Hospital is the largest medical facility in the Palestinian enclave.

The IDF claimed on Friday that Hamas had built an elaborate network of tunnels and bunkers under the hospital. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari refused to rule out bombing the hospital, declaring that “in this war, all options are on the table.”

09:39 GMT
Israel’s military has “improved and refined [its] plan” for the ground operation in Gaza after talks with top US officials, including Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, the New York Times reported, citing sources.

US officials interviewed by the outlet said the original plans “alarmed” Washington, which expressed concerns about Israel’s ability to achieve its stated objectives. However, after consultations with the US, the IDF’s ongoing operations appear to be more limited in scope than Israeli officials initially described to their American counterparts, the article says.

06:33 GMT
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk insisted that no Starlink terminal operated by the company has attempted to connect from Gaza, and vowed to “take extraordinary measures to confirm that it is used only for purely humanitarian reasons.”

He also pledged that his company would “do a security check with both the US and Israeli governments before turning on even a single terminal” in the Palestinian enclave.

The billionaire’s comments came after Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Kahri, said his country would do its best to fight Starlink terminals providing internet access in Gaza. Musk previously said he would only provide “internationally recognized aid organizations” with Starlink services amid a communications blackout in the besieged enclave.

04:29 GMT
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that Israel’s “crimes” in Gaza have “crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action,” in a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday morning.

“Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel. The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield,” the Islamic Republic’s leader added.

04:09 GMT
The UN Security Council is set to meet on Monday afternoon sometime after 7pm GMT to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after the UAE requested an emergency meeting in the wake of Israel’s “expanded ground operations” in Gaza.

04:03 GMT
The Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) has announced that landline, mobile and internet services are now “gradually being restored across Gaza,” following a major blackout on Friday night. The company said that its technical teams “are diligently addressing the damage to the internal network infrastructure under challenging conditions.” https://twitter.com/Paltelco/status/1718469093450289659

03:39 GMT
Benjamin Netanyahu had never received any prior warnings about the October 7 Hamas assault, his office reiterated on Sunday after the PM was pressed on the issue at an earlier press conference.

“All the security hierarchies, including the head of the Shin Bet and the head of IDF military intelligence, assessed that Hamas was deterred and was interested in an arrangement… That was the assessment that was repeatedly presented to the prime minister and the cabinet by all security and intelligence hierarchies,” the office said in the statement on X.

03:28 GMT
The Israeli military has launched the “second stage” of war against Hamas militants in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address on Saturday night, while warning citizens to prepare for a long struggle ahead.

"We are only at the beginning of the road. The battle within the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long,” Netanyahu warned, while stressing that “this is our second War of Independence. This is our mission, our purpose in life, and together we will prevail.”

“Last night, additional ground forces entered Gaza, marking the beginning of the second stage of the war, whose goal is to destroy the military and political capabilities of Hamas and to bring our kidnapped citizens back,” Netanyahu declared.

02:27 GMT
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group transited the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean sea on October 28, and will soon join the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in “support of the defence of Israel and to deter aggression throughout the region,” the US navy has announced.

“Our arrival in the Mediterranean, en route to CENTCOM, provides reassurance to our allies and partners that we are committed to ensuring their security and well-being,” said Rear Adm. Marc Miguez.

After Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, the US military scrambled to reinforce its presence in the region. The Pentagon has sent two aircraft carriers with supporting vessels to the area, as well as “activated the deployment” of THAAD and Patriot air defence systems.

Last week, it also said it had ordered more than 2,000 additional troops to prepare to deploy in support of Israel in its conflict with Hamas. On Thursday, it said that it would deploy 900 soldiers to the Middle East. US officials, however, insisted, that none of the troops would go to Israel, and are rather “intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities.”

00:53 GMT
The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 8,000 people, “half of whom are children,” the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave told AFP early Sunday.

00:04 GMT
Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman is expected to visit Washington on Monday, where he will meet several senior US officials, including defence secretary Lloyd Austin, state secretary Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Axios reports citing three unnamed sources with knowledge of the trip.

Earlier on Saturday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that any “ground operation by Israel would threaten the lives of Palestinian civilians and result in inhumane dangers.”
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28 October 2023
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22:49 GMT
International humanitarian organizations Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC) are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to prevent more civilian deaths and desperately needed aid into the Palestinian enclave.

“It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza amid the massive bombardments, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible,” the head of the ICRC Mirjana Spoljaric wrote, describing the situation as a “catastrophic failing that the world must not tolerate.” https://twitter.com/ICRC/status/1718371781256659423

“The actions of world leaders are too weak, too slow, as a non-binding UN resolution for a ceasefire has done nothing to reign in the indiscriminate violence unleashed on a helpless people,” the MSF said in a separate statement, adding that it had “teams on standby ready to send medical supplies and to enter Gaza, as soon as the situation allows it.”

22:33 GMT
The IDF has refused to either confirm or deny whether it was behind a near-total communications blackout in Gaza, according to Reuters.

“We do what we have to do to secure our forces for as long as we must, temporary or permanent, as much as we need to and we will not say anything further about that,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday evening, when asked if Israel had intentionally knocked out cellular services as it “expanded” its ground operations against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.

21:51 GMT
The Israeli warplanes have struck “a number of military targets of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanese territory,” the IDF said, releasing a video of the air raids. Israel claims to have destroyed “terrorist infrastructure… including a military compound and observation posts” in its retaliatory strikes, with allegedly came in response to “launches from Lebanese territory in the past day.” https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1718351209197641789

21:03 GMT
Tens of thousands of people joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday. Video footage from the rally showed protesters packing the streets of the British capital holding signs saying “Gaza, stop the massacre” and “Free Palestine, end Israeli occupation.” https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1718238609117942093

London’s Metropolitan Police said that nine people were arrested throughout the day, with two accused of assaulting officers. “A number of the Public Order arrests are being treated as hate crimes,” the force said in a statement.

Similar protests took place in Berlin and Paris, with thousands of demonstrators in the French capital defying a ban on pro-Palestinian rallies.

18:32 “Israel will use all means at its disposal to fight” Elon Musk’s planned provision of Starlink internet access to Gaza, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Kahri wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“Hamas will use it for terrorist activities,” Kahri claimed, suggesting that the SpaceX CEO only provide Starlink service to Gaza if Hamas releases “our abducted babies, sons, daughters, [and] elderly people.”

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