Oct 31, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
22:00 Qatar condemned Israel's bombing Tuesday of Gaza's largest refugee camp and warned that expanded strikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave would "undermine mediation and de-escalation efforts".
The Qatari foreign ministry described the strike on Jabalia camp as a "new massacre against the defenceless Palestinian people", warning against "the expansion of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip to include civilian targets", according to the official Qatar News Agency.
21:05 Lebanon on Tuesday accused Israel of white phosphorus attacks that it said it would file a complaint to the UN over, with a minister alleging the incendiary weapon had burned 40,000 olive trees.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib also accused Israel of "deliberately burning Lebanese groves and forests".
20:40 Israel army confirms refugee camp bombing to kill Hamas commander
20:25 Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said on Tuesday in a news briefing that this month, there have been 27 attacks against US troops in Iraq and Syria.
20:10 The United Nations chief says he’s “deeply alarmed” at the intensifying conflict in Gaza and escalating civilian casualties, demanding that Israel and Hamas abide by international humanitarian law which makes protecting civilians paramount.
In a statement Tuesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres singled out “the expansion of ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces accompanied by intense air strikes, and the continued rocket fire towards Israel from Gaza.”
19:50 Hamas says it will free foreign hostages 'in the next few days'
Hamas said Tuesday it would release in the coming days some of the foreign hostages in its captivity, as it vowed to turn Gaza into a graveyard for Israel's military.
"We have informed intermediaries that we will release a certain number of foreigners in the next few days," Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a televised address.
19:25 An investigation by human rights NGO has found the Israeli army used white phosphorous in an attack on a populated area of south Lebanon – an action the organisation considers a "war crime".
"A new Amnesty investigation has found that the Israeli army indiscriminately, and therefore unlawfully, used white phosphorous in an attack on Dhayra in south Lebanon on 16 October," wrote Amnesty International on the social media platform X. "The attack must be investigated as a war crime."
18:48 The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said it will file a complaint with the UN Security Council to condemn Israel's use of white phosphorus in the country.
18:40 Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Craig Mokhiber resigned Tuesday in protest, expressing his concern about the response by certain parts of the UN system to issues related to Palestinian human rights
18:26 Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Tuesday pledged more attacks against Israel if its war on Gaza continues, saying it had already fired drones and ballistic missiles on three separate operations.
18:19 The Israeli military said that two of its soldiers were killed and two others were seriously injured this morning in Gaza.
18:15 Hamas called for clashes with the Israeli occupation forces, "who are sadistically documenting the brutal torture scenes of our people in the West Bank."
17:29 Israeli gunboats shelled homes west of Rafah, in the south of Gaza, killing and wounding an unknown number of Palestinians, Al Jazeera reported
17:25 Israeli airstrikes hit the Jabalia refugee camp with six 2,000 lb bombs, according to Gaza’s Interior Ministry.
16:07 The Palestinian Interior Ministry estimates that the airstrike on Jabalia has resulted in nearly 400 people killed or wounded. The final death toll is yet to be announced.
15:30 Thirteen aid trucks have passed inspection and made their way into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, according to a CNN journalist at the Rafah border crossing.
Eighty-one trucks are currently undergoing security checks by Israel, according to an Egyptian border official at the crossing.
15:15 Turkey’s foreign ministry said Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, will pay an official visit to Ankara on Wednesday to discuss the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, Reuters reports.
15:07 Dozens of Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
"At least 50 people were killed and have been rushed to the Indonesian hospital", according to Al-Jazeera TV.
14:59 Norway believes Israel has broken international law in its bombardment of Gaza. Proportionality and humanitarian law have not been respected by Israel in Gaza, Espen Barth Eide told Reuters in an interview.
“What we’re seeing in Gaza is a terribly dramatic humanitarian situation,” Barth Eide said.
He described conditions there as “terrible” with people largely cut off from water, electricity and medical supplies after weeks of heavy bombardment by Israel.
He described satellite images that showed entire areas bombed, homes of thousands of people destroyed and medical facilities attacked as being “clearly problematic” from an international humanitarian law perspective.
“We need to get back to the key issue of what to do about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The two-state solution envisaged in the Oslo Accords was the only solution, he said.
14:40 Rockets target areas north of Tel Aviv for the second time in minutes. Sirens were sounding in areas north of Tel Aviv, including Kfar Saba, Jaljulya and Hod Hasharon.
A bombardment in the same area minutes earlier was claimed by Hamas.
14:32 Missiles were fired by Hezbollah at two Israeli military positions on the northern border, while Israel army said it carried out a strike against a cell in southern Lebanon.
14:19 "We are confronting an extermination war launched by Israel against Gaza", Hamas spokesman said.
14:17 Israel said it had used its "Arrow" aerial defence system for the first time since the war began to intercept a surface-to-surface missile fired from the area of the Red Sea.
It comes after air raid sirens were sounded in the Red Sea city of Eilat and Israel's military said it downed an approaching "aerial target" this morning.
14:10 The Interior Ministry in Gaza said that the Israeli occupation vehicles into the Al-Karama area, northwest of the Strip.
13:53 The Israeli army reported that troops in the last few hours were engaging in fierce battles against Hamas fighters “deep in the Gaza Strip,” noting that ground and air forces have successfully hit several Hamas positions and anti-tank guided missile squads from inside the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military claims to have killed dozens of Hamas fighters in today’s fighting.
Israel is attempting to penetrate into the strip by land from three axes, Hamas said. A spokesperson of the resistance movement said Israel raised entire housing buildings, in the northeast.
13:20 The Israeli army on Tuesday issued a temporary order that allows Israel to impose a minimum prison term of two years on those convicted in the West Bank of associating with Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Lions’ Den among others.
The maximum penalty for these offenses is ten years in prison, the army added.
13:15 Muslim Americans and some Democratic Party activists say unless Biden takes immediate steps to secure a Gaza ceasefire they will mobilize millions of Muslim-Americans to withhold donations and votes in Biden’s 2024 US elections race, Reuters reported.
13:00 The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza has risen to 8,525, including 3,542 children; 2,187 women, and dozens of health personnel, rescue workers, and journalists, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The figure is an increase from the 8,306 deaths recorded on Monday.
The health ministry also said 15 hospitals are out of service, along with 32 healthcare centres, due to Israeli deadly bombardments, as well as lack of fuel delivered to the area.
Because of this lack of fuel, Palestinians are now carrying bodies of victims of Israel's ground attack on a donkey cart.
12:40 Hamas says it is clashing with Israeli occupation forces in several locations in the Gaza Strip.
The resistance movement confirmed firing rocket artillery at multiple Israeli military vehicles in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Al Quds brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance Jihad movement, said they have attacked two groups of Israeli troops and vehicles with mortar shells near Erez and Al-Atatra in north-west Gaza.
12:17 Yemen's Houthi rebels said on Tuesday to have launched drones toward Israel in retaliation for its deadly war against Gaza. Israeli occupation army said earlier it identified an "aerial target" approaching the city of Eilat, in southern Israel.
12:00 A Palestinian youth was injured by live bullets, while dozens suffered from suffocation, during violent confrontations that broke out between Palestinians and the occupation forces that stormed the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, in the West Bank according to Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).
Meanwhile, a youth was injured by live bullets and 17 others were detained during the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of the Dheisheh camp, south of Bethlehem.
Security sources told WAFA correspondent that a large force of the occupation army stormed the camp amidst gunfire, which resulted in injuring a 20-year-old youth with live ammunition in the foot.
Moreover, in a raid in the West Bank city of Tubas, a Palestinian elderly Rawhi Sawafta, 70, has been shot and killed by the occupation forces.
Israeli special forces raided the city of Tubas and surrounded a house, before reinforcements from the Tayasir military checkpoint followed, leading to the outbreak of confrontations, during which bullets, stun grenades, and poisonous gas were fired at citizens, resulting in nine citizens being injured by live bullets, including two.
They were in critical condition and were taken to the hospital. Later, Sawafta died as a result of his injuries.
With the death Sawafta, the death toll in the West Bank since the 7 October Israeli war on Gaza to 124.
11:50 38 Palestinians have been arrested by the occupation forces in the West Bank, according to Israeli army reports.
11:15 The US news site Axios has reported that the director of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad visited Qatar over the weekend to discuss their efforts in trying to secure the release of 240 Israelis detained in Gaza since 7 October during Al-Aqsa flood operation in Gaza envelope.
10:43 Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly arrived in El-Arish city of North Sinai on Tuesday and is currently in Battalion 101 in El-Arish, accompanied by a group of tribal leaders of Sinai, politicians, parliament members, and media professionals.
"We would not permit any regional matters to be resolved or settled at their own detriment," he stated.
According to media reports, Madbouly will visit the Rafah border crossing connecting North Sinai to Gaza and inspect some projects implemented in Egypt’s northeastern governorate.
10:30 Nearly 70 percent of the Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza are children and women, said the UNRWA chief.
The head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees has warned that the level of destruction across Gaza “is unprecedented, the human tragedy unfolding under our watch is unbearable.”
Philippe Lazzarini, who addressed the UN Security Council on Monday, is expected in Cairo on Tuesday for a meeting with Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry.
The U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) said that water supply through a pipeline from Israel to southern Gaza was cut off on Monday for unknown reasons, and that an announced repair of another pipeline to central Gaza did not take place.
"At the time of writing, no water is provided to Gaza from Israel," OCHA said.
10:05 A Telegram account operated by the Al Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, says it ambushed three Israeli vehicles in north Gaza.
The post says the vehicles were fired upon with anti-tank missiles while attempting to move deeper into Gaza in the Al-Tawam area.
Israeli occupation army says its forces were attacked by anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire.
In an earlier update, Hamas says it attacked Israeli forces ground troops with mortar shells near the Kerem crossing in southern Gaza.
The al-Qassam also said the fighters clashed early on Tuesday with Israeli forces invading southern Gaza. Four vehicles were targeted with al-Yassin 105 missiles, it said, referring to locally produced anti-tank missiles.
9:55 The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Oman calls for the prosecution of Israel for its deliberate targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip, the Omani News Agency reported. The Minister also called for an independent investigation into the Israeli aggression on Gaza
9:45 Violent Israeli raids target the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City.
9:40 Israeli occupation army says that it identified an "aerial target" approaching the city of Eilat, in southern Israel.
Air raid sirens have sounded in Eilat after a "hostile aircraft intrusion," the Israeli army says.
The army did not say whether the target was destroyed by air defense or otherwise intercepted.
Reports from Israeli radio suggest a drone was shot down over the Red Sea.
9:05 Director General of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Marwan Jilani, told BBC that Al Quds Hospital in Gaza City was under heavy Israeli bombardment overnight, with his colleagues at the facility saying the strikes were so close "the whole building was shaking".
They "didn't know whether they were going to hit the hospital".
Two Al Quds outbuildings - an emergency medical center and main warehouse - were "severely damaged and are now out of service," Jilani adds.
9:02 The US backed Netanyahu in rejecting a ceasefire in Gaza saying Washington does not believe a ceasefire is “the right answer” right now.
“We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now,” John Kirby, the White House’s national security council spokesperson said during the night.
9:00 Israel's occupation army spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, confirmed that Israel's military is conducting strikes across all parts of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says the area around the Al Quds hospital in Gaza City has been under heavy bombardment by Israeli forces.
Ahramonline
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