Israeli Hostilities
Live Reporting
Gaza health ministry says death toll since Oct 7 Israeli offensive at 38,243
Gaza’s health ministry has said at least 38,243 people have been killed in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.
The toll includes at least 50 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said. It added that 88,033 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Gaza truce talks to resume in Doha, Cairo after Sisi-Burns meeting
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV has said Gaza ceasefire negotiations will resume in Doha on Wednesday and then return to Cairo on Thursday after talks between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, Reuters reports.
An Egyptian security delegation will head to Qatar’s capital on Wednesday “on a mission to bring viewpoints closer between Hamas and Israel in order to reach a truce agreement as soon as possible”, Al-Qahera News quoted a senior source as saying.
“There is an agreement over many points,” the senior source said, adding the negotiations will be back in Cairo on Thursday.
Gazans flee Israeli assault that Hamas warns could threaten ceasefire bid
Gaza City residents fled under Israeli fire as tanks thrust deeper into the heart of the city on Tuesday, the second day of a stepped-up military offensive that Palestinian militant group Hamas said could jeopardise ceasefire talks.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators, backed by the United States, have accelerated their efforts this week to seal a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the Gaza war and releasing Israeli hostages in the enclave in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
UN experts say Gaza children dying in Israel’s ‘starvation campaign’
UN rights experts have accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that has resulted in the deaths of children in Gaza, AFP reports.
“We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” 10 independent United Nations experts said in a statement.
The UN has not officially declared a famine in the Gaza Strip. But the experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri, insisted there was no denying famine was under way.
Family of Israeli captive released video to press government for Gaza truce deal
The family of a captive still held in Gaza has allowed the publication of a video which purports to show Daniel Gilboa, 19, urging the government to do more for her release from Gaza.
The footage was shared with the family months ago, but had remained unpublished so far, Israeli media said.
Her mother, Orly Gilboa, told the Israeli Broadcasting Authority she decided to make the footage available today to put pressure on the Israeli leadership to reach a ceasefire agreement to secure the return of all captives.
In the video, Gilboa identifies herself as a soldier taken from the Nahal Oz military base on October 7 and says she had been held in the enclave for 107 days.
Israel army arrested at least 16 people in occupied West Bank: Report
The Israeli army has arrested at least 16 people across the occupied West Bank, according to the Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, cited by the Wafa news agency.
The raids took place in Ramallah, Qalqilya, Hebron, Nablus, Bethlehem and Jericho, the report said, adding that the Israeli army damaged some homes.
Mass arrests have become a nearly daily occurrence in the Palestinian territories since the start of the war with an estimated 9,600 Palestinians now in Israeli jails, according to rights groups.
The Israeli army says its actions are an attempt to root out activities of Palestinian armed groups with whom Israeli soldiers have often exchanged fire during their incursions.
Israel facing shortage of 120mm tank shells: Report
Israel’s Defense Ministry and the army are concerned about the possibility of ammunition shortages after arms suppliers have stopped responding to their Israeli counterparts and others have refused to supply raw materials used to make ammunition.
That’s according to the Israeli newspaper Calcalist.
The report said the army is facing a shortage of 120mm tank shells and some tanks stationed in Gaza were carrying less shells to preserve the supplies in the event of war in the north with Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group.
Lapid accuses Netanyahu of deliberately complicating truce talks ‘to wink at his political base’
Opposition leader Yair Lapid has told Israel’s 103FM radio that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a list of non-negotiable conditions for Israel to accept any ceasefire deal for his political games.
“Unnecessary damage … it’s a complicated negotiation even without Netanyahu deliberately complicating it to wink at his political base,” Lapid said.
His comments came a day after he reiterated to the Israeli prime minister that he would guarantee a parliamentary safety net should Netanyahu sign an agreement and therefore lose the support of two far-right ministers.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich oppose any ceasefire deal.
Israeli army will recruit 4,800 ultra-Orthodox in next two years
Amir Baram, the Israeli army’s deputy chief of staff, has said he will be able to recruit 4,800 ultra-Orthodox men in the next two years, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority has reported.
Gil Limon, a deputy legal adviser to the Israeli government, criticised that number however, saying that according to a court ruling, the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox men should increase every year to reach the same rate as in the general population.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in June that the government must enlist draft-age ultra Orthodox Jews into the military, reversing a decades-long exemption.
The exclusion from military service of ultra-Orthodox men has long been a source of anger among the secular public and the divide has widened during the eight-month-old war in Gaza for which tens of thousands of soldiers have been called up to fight.
Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Israel's plan to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank is a clear violation of international law.
News reports said that Israel’s top general in the occupied West Bank has marked his retirement by making a rare public rebuke of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said that three young children have been injured by shrapnel from bullets after the Israeli military stormed the Askar refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
France has asked Israel to reconsider allowing new settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, and Canada has said that this action goes against international law.
Approximately 2 million Palestinians are currently enduring hardships and facing the challenges of "continuous displacement." Disturbingly, even injured and sick people are being compelled to flee, says the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
Patients and staff flee the al-Ahli Arab Hospital and the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital after the Israeli military issues another mass evacuation order for parts of Gaza City.
Thousands of Palestinians flee fighting in Gaza City, mediators push for truce deal
GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories) – Heavy fighting raged in the besieged north of the Gaza Strip on Monday, forcing thousands of Palestinians to pick up their belongings and flee from Gaza City. Israeli tanks and troops moved into the city as ceasefire mediators Egypt and Qatar prepared to host new truce talks this week.
Thousands of Palestinians fled heavy battles in Gaza City on Monday, as Israel's military expanded an evacuation order nine months into its war with Hamas militants.
