RT News - November 03 2023 LATE

Numbers update. 9,061 confirmed dead in Gaza and of those 3,760 are children. Unconfirmed wounded: more than 21,000. Day 28. The day "as it happened" below description.

In Khan Yunis in the south of Gaza, a residential building has been hit killing 11 people. Khan Yunis is a receiving city for evacuees from the north of Gaza but since the first days of evacuees arriving and even two days before, the city had been struck with Israeli aerial bombing. There is literally nowhere for the evacuees or those who stay in place to go where it's safe.

IDF says it only targets HAMAS centres and has urged those in the north of Gaza to evacuate to the south (my comment - meanwhile they bomb the south and north without regard to civilians)

According to IDF, Gaza city is surrounded by Israeli forces. Overnight, bombs rained down on north Gaza. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari says there is no ceasefire on the table.

Maria Finoshina makes reports from Jerusalem. The tanks roll in, aerial bombardment of Gaza continues despite many countries condemning Israel's actions.

More than half of the remaining Gazan hospitals are now dysfunctional.

Sanaa Kamal makes an audio report from Gaza.

The checkpoint on the Gaza/Egypt border has been reopened by the passage isn't safe with regular bombings. Once across, the people are worried about what will happen next. Aziz Abuzayed, a Palestinian in Rafah talks to RT.

In Gaza, Mansour Shouman updates with the situation, he says not only F-16 are doing the bombing raids but also now F-35s (my comment - can this EVER be called "proportional" ? )

A reporter has been killed in Gaza. His cousin speaks with RT. There have been several reporters who have been taken out. Ruptly spoke with Mohammad Abu Hatab just a few days before he died. Mohammad's colleagues are understandably angry and grief stricken.

Rabbis are speaking out, some with gruesome encouragement of the actions of IDF and some vehemently against. Rabbi Arik Ascherman spoke to RT.

Pro-Palestinian rallies continue around the world. In Ghana hundreds have come out to give support. Joshua Nana Kwame Ayira, researcher and journalist talked about the position of the government. In Pakistan huge pro-Palestinian rallies continue to take place, RT hears from some of the people in the crowds. Mohsin Ismail Hussaini reports. In Greece, Germany and France, protests continue demanding a ceasefire and a halt to the Israeli offensive.

Charlotte Dubenskij looks at the double standards of western media reportage and attitudes.

short takes:
Refugee camps are flattened in central Gaza, and eleven reported killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza. The IDF forces advance into the enclave, saying peace is not an option. The Palestinian death toll tops nine-thousand, Gazans are struggling to find their relatives among the survivors. We hear the story of displaced civilians taking care of a wounded girl, whose parents have not been found. An Israeli strike kills Palestinian journalist Mohammad Abu Hattab along with 10 of his family members, with media claiming he was the direct target of the attack.
Eleven people are reported killed in an Israeli strike in the south of Gaza as IDF forces advance into the enclave, saying peace is not an option. As the Palestinian death toll tops nine-thousand, Gazans are struggling to find their surviving relatives. We hear the story of displaced civilians taking care of a wounded girl, whose parents have not been found. And, as the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts continue to rage, double standards among western media and politicians become evident. We explain how coverage shapes narrative.
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Updates "as they happened"

04 November 2023

03:45 GMT
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jordan on Friday evening. He will meet with Palestinian officials and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE on Saturday.

The Arab states will reiterate the call for “an immediate ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and [finding] ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region,” the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said.

US President Joe Biden was due to attend a meeting with Palestinian and Arab officials in Amman on October 18. However, the event was abruptly canceled following an explosion outside the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, for which the IDF and Hamas blamed each other.

03:30 GMT
The US asked Israel for an explanation of its first strike on the Jabalia refugee camp, which took place on Tuesday, according to Politico magazine. The report said that Washington urged its ally to “do more to avoid civilian casualties.”

According to the IDF, the strike eliminated a senior Hamas commander responsible for the planning of the deadly October 7 attack on Israel. Local doctors, meanwhile, said that the strike claimed the lives of more than 50 people.

02:57 GMT
Tokyo will deliver $65 million in additional humanitarian aid to the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said during her trip to the Middle East on Friday.

“It is necessary for Israel and Palestine to be able to coexist peacefully in order to prevent the repeat of another tragic act of terrorism,” Kamikawa told reporters after visiting Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan.

01:57 GMT
Israel’s National Security Council issued a notice, recommending all citizens to reevaluate “the necessity of foreign travel” and take extra precautions during trips abroad.

Officials cited the sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents overseas since Israel launched its retaliatory operation against Palestinians militants in Gaza. “Jewish communities, religious and community establishments (synagogues, Chabad centers, kosher restaurants and Israeli businesses), Israeli delegations, and airports with flights to and from Israel are key targets for protests and attacks by anti-Semitic groups,” the government said.

03 November 2023

20:28 GMT
Some 420 children are killed or injured every day in Gaza, according to a statement by the UN’s relief agency in the enclave. As of Friday, more than 3,200 women and 3,760 children have been killed by Israeli forces, the agency added, noting that women and children represent 67% of all Palestinian casualties since the conflict began on October 7.

More than 9,200 people in the strip have been killed and 23,500 wounded, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.

20:14 GMT
Israeli forces have killed ten Hamas brigade and battalion commanders since the beginning of the war last month, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters. According to him, the officers killed had “planned the terrible massacre on October 7."

Israel has lost 333 soldiers since October 7, including 18 killed in Gaza since Tuesday, the IDF announced on Thursday afternoon. Among the dead is Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, a senior tank battalion commander killed in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave on Thursday.

20:01 GMT
Honduras has become the latest Latin American country to recall its ambassador to Israel, with the Honduran Foreign Ministry citing Israel’s violations of humanitarian law in Gaza. Colombia and Chile have both recalled their ambassadors, while Bolivia has completely cut diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

=== ==== ==== 19:53 GMT ==== === ===
Dozens of people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on an ambulance convoy outside Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that the ambulances had been returning from dropping injured people off at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, while the IDF has claimed that the vehicles were being used to “transfer terror operatives and weapons.” https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1720470804817703011

The Shifa Hospital is the largest healthcare facility in Gaza, and is currently sheltering around 20,000 displaced Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera. The IDF claimed last month that Hamas had constructed an elaborate network of tunnels and bunkers beneath the hospital.

================ 03 November 2023 Update "as the day happened"

14:28 GMT
In his first public speech since the start of the war, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that his forces “entered the battle” on October 8, and have since played a vital role in keeping a third of Israel’s combat troops tied up on the Lebanese border.

While the border skirmishes have increased in frequency and intensity over the past week, Nasrallah did not announce any major new operation against Israel. Instead, he warned that any Israeli offensive into Lebanon would be a “grave mistake,” and that Hezbollah was prepared for any escalation.

Nasrallah has also warned that “there will be more actions” against Israel on multiple fronts in the coming days, and that Hezbollah and its allies will work to ensure Hamas emerges victorious in Gaza.

12:54 GMT
Israel’s reported plan to transfer people from Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula is “aimed at delaying, if not burying altogether, the UN Security Council’s decision on creating a Palestinian state,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. This idea “contradicts the interests of the Palestinians, of the Egyptians and of peace in the region,” he stressed. Russia is “very concerned by plans to destroy the prospects for a Palestinian state,” the foreign minister added.

AP reported earlier this week that Israel’s Intelligence Ministry had prepared a document on October 13, in which it proposed moving Palestinians from Gaza to tent cities in northern Sinai and then building permanent cities there. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was just a “concept paper,” which hasn’t been seriously considered by the cabinet.

12:06 GMT
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza has reached 9,227 people, with 32,500 others wounded, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave has announced. Out of those killed, 3,826 are children, the ministry said. Some 1,200 children also remain trapped under the rubble of buildings destroyed in IDF airstrikes, it added.

11:26 GMT
Israeli forces have been placed on high alert ahead of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah scheduled for later on Friday, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said. Nasrallah’s first public address since the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel is to take place on the day when the Lebanese armed group’s ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza expires.

“We will be ready to respond on any front if needed. In the north, we are prepared, and we will continue to respond to any attack, today and in days to come,” Hagari assured. “Iran is encouraging proxies against Israel, we will retaliate on any front vis-a-vis any threat. There is high alert, also in the north,” where Israel borders Lebanon, he stressed.

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Some of the IDF’s airstrikes on =Syria= have been carried out without prior warning to Russia since the conflict between Israel and Hamas was reignited in October, people familiar with the situation have told Bloomberg. Israel has lately stepped up its bombardment of what it says are Iran-backed militias in the neighbouring country. According to the sources, those unannounced strikes are “worsening already-troubled relations between Israel and Russia.”
Eleven people are reported killed in an Israeli strike in the south of Gaza as IDF forces advance into the enclave, saying peace is not an option. As the Palestinian death toll tops nine-thousand, Gazans are struggling to find their surviving relatives. We hear the story of displaced civilians taking care of a wounded girl, whose parents have not been found. And, as the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts continue to rage, double standards among western media and politicians become evident. We explain how coverage shapes narrative.

10:04 GMT
Hamas is eager to reach an agreement with Israel on the release of the hostages it has been holding since October 7, Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of the Palestinian armed group’s political bureau, has told NBC News. For this to happen, Israel should set free all Palestinian prisoners from its detention centres, he said.

“We want these people [hostages] to go home. And, also, we want our prisoners now to go home. So I think we are ready now to have complete compromise, complete a deal, in order to receive all the hostages, either military or civilians,” Hamad stressed. According to the latest figures from the IDF, Hamas is currently holding 241 captives inside Gaza.

09:35 GMT
Thousands of Gazan workers who were in Israel when Hamas attacked on October 7 have been sent back to Gaza, several outlets, including Reuters, AFP, and Al Jazeera, have reported. According to witnesses, the people returned to the Palestinian enclave through the Kerem Shalom crossing, east of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously announced that Israel is “severing all contact” with the besieged enclave, and that “there will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza” in the country.

08:31 GMT
Two Israeli troops were wounded after a drone launched by Hezbollah hit the IDF’s positions on the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military has said. One of the soldiers was in a moderate condition, while the other suffered a light injury, it added. The IDF said it carried out strikes inside Lebanese territory in response to the attack, destroying a Hezbollah compound and damaging the group’s infrastructure.

07:24 GMT
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has landed in Israel for his third visit to the country since the start of the current Israeli-Palestinian escalation. Ahead of his departure, Blinken said that he was planning to discuss “concrete measures” on the part of Israel to reduce harm to civilians amid its attacks on Gaza. The Secretary of State is expected to meet with top Israeli officials before heading to an Arab summit in neighbouring Jordan.

07:13 GMT
The situation in the Middle East “is approaching a boiling point” due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, UAE Foreign Minister Noura al-Kaabi has said during a conference in Abu Dhabi. “The risk of regional spill over and further escalation is real, as well as the risk that extremist groups will take advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in cycles of violence,” he warned.

According to al-Kaabi, the UAE, which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020, is working “relentlessly” to secure a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. “Every effort must be made to protect civilians and immediately put an end to this conflict,” he stressed.

06:39 GMT
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has said it will provide another 28 tons of humanitarian cargo for the population of Gaza on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin. According to the ministry, two Il-76 aircraft will deliver medical supplies, including haemostatic agents and dressing materials, to the besieged Palestinian enclave, which remains under heavy Israeli bombardment.

The Russian aid will be handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent Society for further shipment to Gaza, it added. In October, Russia supplied Gaza with 27 tons of food products, the ministry noted.

06:05 GMT
The Israeli military has said that its troops “clashed with multiple terrorist squads” inside Gaza overnight. According to the IDF, Hamas fighters targeted the soldiers with anti-tank missiles and homemade bombs, while also attempting to climb atop of one of the IDF’s vehicles. The Israeli servicemen on the ground directed air- and artillery strikes, “neutralizing the terrorists and their threats,” it said. https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1720290489214107879

05:51 GMT
The Israeli military has published the names of another four soldiers killed in the fighting with Hamas inside Gaza. This puts the IDF’s overall losses since it launched a ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave at 23 troops.

05:43 GMT
The US has been flying surveillance drones over Gaza in search of hostages taken by Hamas during its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, two American officials have told Reuters. One of the sources said that flights above the besieged Palestinian enclave have been underway for a week now. The officials expressed the belief that the ten American citizens who still remain unaccounted for could be among the more than 200 captives held by Hamas in the network of tunnels underneath Gaza.

04:52 GMT
Adnan Abu Hasna, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) told The Washington Post that around 79 of the agency’s staffers have been killed over the course of the conflict.

“There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip,” Hasna said, reiterating the call to protect civilians during the Israeli bombardment. He added that 50 sites used by the UNRWA have been targeted “directly or indirectly” by strikes.

04:11 GMT
The US House of Representatives passed a Republican-backed bill on Thursday that would provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel. The legislation is set to be voted down in the Democrat-held Senate, however, because it ties the money for Israel with some spending cuts at home and leaves out additional funding for Ukraine.

The White House also vowed to veto the bill, arguing that it was “further politicizing our support and treating one ally differently from others.”

01:18 GMT
Israel has decided to cut “all ties” with Gaza, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday night. It added that work permits for Palestinians traveling from Gaza to Israel would be revoked and the workers already present in Israel would be “returned to Gaza.”

Israel’s Security Cabinet also announced that it would remove all funds designated for the Gaza Strip from transfers to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Israeli government previously stated that the militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, uses the money to commit acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians. https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1720211304097501416
The PA, which is based in the West Bank, is estimated to spend 30% of its budget in Gaza, according to Reuters.

=================== 02 November 2023=

22:53 GMT
A 29-year-old Israeli army reservist was killed in the northern part of the West Bank on Thursday, local authorities said. The man was shot in his car when driving to his home in the settlement of Einav.

According to the Times of Israel, the IDF described the incident as “a terror attack,” and are searching for the gunman. https://twitter.com/btselem/status/1720057130458157546
Israeli media cited reports that settlers responded to the reservist’s murder by setting fire to Palestinian property, including shops and olive groves, in the nearby village of Deir Sharf.

21:30 GMT
Despite the constant skirmishes along the Lebanese-Israeli border, the US doesn’t have “any indication yet specifically that Hezbollah is ready to go in full force” against Israel, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House press briefing on Thursday.

21:30 GMT
Israeli troops have reached Rashid Street, which runs along the coast of Gaza, thereby cutting the Palestinian territory in two, the local authorities have said.

13:56 GMT
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that calls by Israel for its citizens to leave Russia’s North Caucasus and refrain from trips to the area “are simply aimed against our country and have nothing to do with reality.” The recommendations followed heated anti-Israeli protests in Russia’s Republic of Dagestan on Sunday. Zakharova stressed that rallies decrying IDF attacks on Gaza have also been taking place in some NATO countries, but the Israeli authorities have not issued any travel warnings about them.

13:25 GMT
Bahrain has announced that it has recalled its ambassador to Israel and has halted all economic ties with the country. The move was made in support of “the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” according to a statement. Israel’s envoy to Manama has already left the island nation, it added.

Israel and Bahrain established diplomatic ties in 2020 as part of the so-called Abraham Accords. On Wednesday, Jordan said it had recalled its ambassador to Israel to protest against the “catastrophe” caused in Gaza by the IDF’s attacks.