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Live updates: What’s happening on Day 12 of the Israel-Hamas war [1]
['Associated Press']
Date: 2023-10-18 10:07:11-04:00
President Joe Biden is in Israel on an urgent mission to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader regional conflict. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt following a request from Biden.
The president’s visit on Wednesday came after hundreds of people were reported killed in an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital the night before. There were conflicting claims of who was responsible for the hospital blast. Officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was due to a missile misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.
WATCH: Families of Americans kidnapped by Hamas describe anguish and what they want Biden to do
The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in the past 11 days.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Currently:
Biden says the U.S. will provide $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians affected by conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.
Doctors in Gaza City performed surgery on floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save wounded victims of a massive blast that killed civilians sheltering in a hospital.
Rage at the hospital carnage spread throughout the Middle East.
The leaders of Egypt and Jordan, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called off a planned summit with Biden.
The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution about the fighting between Hamas and Israel, but negotiations on the wording are still underway.
Here’s what’s happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
Airstrike kills 7 small children in Gaza home, residents and doctors say
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Residents and doctors in this southern Gaza town said an airstrike slammed into a home, killing seven small children.
The news spread quickly on social media, as grisly images of dead and bloodied toddlers lined up side by side on a hospital stretcher stirred outrage in Gaza and the West Bank.
READ MORE: U.S. vetoes UN resolution condemning all violence against civilians in Israel-Hamas war
Bandaged and caked in dust, the bodies were brought to the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis along with three other dead members of the Bakri family. Photographers swarmed the operation room as women covered their eyes and doctors wept.
“This is a massacre,” hospital director Dr. Yousef Al-Akkad said, his voice choking with emotion. “Let the world see, these are just children.”
Local medics also confirmed that the children were killed in a strike and said the Bakri family was just one of many such cases Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Liverpool and Egypt star Salah urges leaders to prevent more bloodshed, get humanitarian aid to Gaza
CAIRO — Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah, arguably the most celebrated Arab footballer, called on world leaders to “come together to prevent further slaughter of all innocent souls” and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza.
“There has been too much violence and too much heartbreak and brutality,” the Liverpool striker said in a video that lasted a little under a minute. “The escalations in the recent weeks is unbearable to witness. All lives are sacred and must be protected. The massacres need to stop. Families are being torn apart.”
Aid to Gaza “must be allowed immediately,” he added. “The people there are in terrible conditions.”
They were Salah’s first comments on the Israel-Hamas war, after he was criticized by some Arab fans for his silence.
Officials said Wednesday that some aid will begin flowing into Gaza in the coming days.
U.S. senators say after classified briefing that Israel not behind hospital blast
WASHINGTON — Senators who attended a classified briefing with top defense, intelligence and other administration officials said they were briefed that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast.
“The intelligence community assesses that Israel is not to blame for the explosion of the hospital in Gaza,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as he left. “They believe it was an errant rocket from terrorists in Gaza.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said the intelligence is “definitive” that it was not an Israeli operation.
In a joint statement earlier in the day, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the panel, said they had reviewed intelligence and “feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.”
UN officials warn over Gaza health system, risk of conflict expanding
UNITED NATIONS – U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the deadly destruction of a hospital has heaped further pressure on Gaza’s crumbling health system, depriving the territory of a facility that cared for 45,000 patients every year.
Speaking in a video briefing from Qatar, Griffiths also said the Al Ahli hospital was previously struck on Oct. 14.
He also said the death toll in the 11 days since Hamas’ surprise attack inside Israel has already exceeded what was seen during seven weeks of Israeli-Hamas hostilities in 2014.
Meanwhile the U.N. Mideast envoy warned that the risk of the conflict expanding is “very real and extremely dangerous.”
Tor Wennesland told the council that recent events “have served to reignite grievances and re-animate alliances across the region.”
Earlier in the day at the U.N., the United States vetoed a resolution that would have condemned violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and pushed for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said President Joe Biden was in the region engaging in diplomacy and “We need to let that diplomacy play out.”
British PM Rishi Sunak heads to Middle East in bid to contain conflict
LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is flying to Israel and nearby countries as part of diplomatic efforts to stop the crisis triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack from worsening.
Sunak’s office says he will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Thursday. He will condemn Hamas’ “horrific act of terror” and express condolences for the “terrible loss of life” in both Israel and Gaza.
READ MORE: UK Prime Minister Sunak delays ban on new gas and diesel cars by 5 years in contentious climate shift
He’ll also visit “a number of other regional capitals,” Downing Street said, without providing details.
The British leader’s trip follows a visit to Israel on Wednesday by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Sunak said in a statement that Tuesday’s explosion at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza “should be a watershed moment for leaders in the region and across the world to come together to avoid further dangerous escalation of conflict.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is also on a visit to the region that begins with talks in Egypt on Thursday. He is also due to visit Qatar and Turkey.
5:12 p.m. EDT
Biden says Egypt agrees to open Rafah crossing for Gaza aid
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Egypt’s president has agreed to open a border crossing into Gaza to allow in 20 trucks with humanitarian aid.
Biden said he spoke with Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi after his visit to Israel, where leaders there agreed to allow the aid in. Biden was speaking to reporters on Air Force One during a refueling stop in Germany on his way back to the U.S. from Tel Aviv.
Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip, stopping all entry of food, water, medicine and fuel to its 2.3 million people following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
White House officials said the aid would flow in the coming days. Biden said if Hamas confiscates the aid, “it will end.”
Security forces arrest dozens, fire live rounds to disperse protests in the occupied West Bank
JERUSALEM — Rights groups in the occupied West Bank say Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of people protesting the deadly explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.
The protests late Tuesday devolved into skirmishes with Palestinian security forces, who fired tear gas, stun grenades and live fire to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators, wounding several.
Lawyers for Justice, a legal aid group, said Wednesday that some 50 Palestinians protesters were arrested overnight by Palestinian security forces in Ramallah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent meanwhile reported that Israeli soldiers using live rounds and rubber bullets shot and wounded 10 Palestinian protesters in the southern city of Hebron 21 people in the northern city of Nablus. A 24-year-old Palestinian man was killed, according to the humanitarian organization.
Angry protests continue in Tunisia and Morocco
Large protests erupted Wednesday in Tunisia and Morocco, with demonstrators outraged by a blast that killed hundreds at a hospital in Gaza.
Police stood by as protestors gathered outside the Parliament in Rabat chanting “Down with America” and demanding that Morocco reverse its 2020 decision to normalize relations and deepen security ties with Israel.
In Tunis, protesters gathered outside the U.S. and French Embassies to condemn those nations’ support of Israel and demanding that their ambassadors be removed from Tunisia.
Observers said Wednesday’s demonstrations were among the largest since the Arab Spring more than a decade ago.
Ezer Imeny, a Tunisian student protesting outside the French Embassy, said the war shows rulers worldwide, including Arab ones, lack moral authority.
“Palestine, we are with you to the death,” Imeny said “An eye for an eye.”
3:12 p.m. EDT
Riot police quell pro-Palestinian protest in Athens
ATHENS, Greece — Greek riot police fired tear gas Wednesday after participants in a thousands-strong pro-Palestinian march tried to advance on the Israeli Embassy in Athens.
No arrests or injuries were reported, and the unrest ended quickly.
An estimated 10,000 people took part in Wednesday evening’s demonstration, many waving Palestinian flags. The march was organized by left-wing groups and Palestinians in Greece.
Earlier, about a hundred people took part in a pro-Israeli gathering outside the embassy. That ended well before the pro-Palestinian march.
The Greek government has voiced strong support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
NY governor visits Israel to show solidarity
TEL AVIV, Israel — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul arrived in Israel Wednesday to show support for the country during its war with Hamas.
The Democrat was met at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv by Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog.
After a security briefing, Hochul met with families near the airport and was scheduled to head to a food pantry to help pack and drop off boxes for people displaced by the conflict. Hochul is expected to stay in Jerusalem overnight.
She said her trip is meant as a gesture of solidarity and support for Israel. New York is home to the largest Jewish population of any U.S. city, according to the American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University.
“There is a deep, direct connection between New York state and Israel that has always been there, a bond steeled over decades,” Hochul said.
Protesters around the world berate Biden for Israel support
U.S. President Joe Biden, who defended Israel during his visit to Tel Aviv, has become a target of angry protests in support of Palestinians.
Biden’s visit Wednesday came a day after a blast caused massive carnage at a Gaza hospital. Hamas said it was from an Israeli airstrike while Israel blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants. Biden sided with Israel, saying the explosion appeared to be the work of the “other team.”
READ MORE: Despite setbacks, Biden reaches aid breakthrough on Israel trip
The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
In Amman, a sign hoisted by one protester labeled Biden and Netanyahu war criminals, saying: “Partner in Crime.”
“Today, the Jordanians declare that the Americans are an enemy, just as the Israeli enemy is,” political activist Rania al-Nimr said.
At the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in south Lebanon, protesters set fire to a cardboard cutout of Biden’s head with a rope around his neck and blood painted over his mouth.
In Tokyo, protesters outside the U.S. Embassy chanted “USA, shame on you” and “Joe Biden, shame on you.”
Egypt foreign minister confirms agreement on aid to Gaza
CAIRO — Egypt’s foreign minister has confirmed there’s an agreement between Egypt, Israel and other international actors to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.
In an interview with Al-Arabiya, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said he hoped aid would enter the Palestinian enclave soon but did not provide a timeframe. He said Egypt would work under “the supervision of the United Nations, and in coordination with the Egyptian and Palestinian (branches) of the Red Cross.”
Asked whether foreign nationals would be allowed to leave Gaza, Shoukry was more cautious, replying: “As long as the (Rafah) crossing is operating normally and the (crossing) facility has been repaired.” Egyptian authorities say the Rafah crossing has been damaged by four Israeli airstrikes.
Hamas rejects claims that Israel isn’t behind hospital blast
BEIRUT — Hamas is denying Israel’s claims that another militant group was responsible for the massive explosion at a Gaza City hospital that killed hundreds of people.
In a statement Wednesday, Hamas said that in the days before Tuesday’s blast at al-Ahli Hospital, Israeli authorities sent threats to several Gaza Strip hospitals and told each to evacuate otherwise “they will be responsible for what happens.”
READ MORE: Biden says ‘it appears’ Israeli military not responsible for deadly blast at Gaza hospital
Hamas said Israeli forces have targeted several emergency departments and ambulances since the violence began, adding that Israeli military officials contacted 21 hospitals including Al-Ahli, demanding that they evacuate “immediately because they are located in area of operations for the Israeli” army.
There have been conflicting claims about who was responsible for the explosion. Hamas officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike, saying nearly 500 were killed. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.
The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
Any vehicle will do in rush to get airstrike victims to Gaza hospital
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — A steady stream of ambulances, taxis, cars and a motorcycle sped to the entrance of the Khan Younis hospital carrying the victims of reported Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Wednesday.
Sirens blared and horns honked to clear the way before they screeched to a stop. Crowds lining the street outside watched the urgent scene repeat itself.
Men jumped from the vehicles and scrambled to open rear and side doors and remove the casualties laying on car seats. Hospital workers and others standing nearby helped carry bodies that appeared to be in various states of consciousness.
A man rushed into the hospital with a limp child in his arms. A girl with a large cloth on her head as a bandage was helped from the car but still walking. Several of the injured had to be carried by multiple men or hoisted onto gurneys.
As soon as the wounded were unloaded, the drivers sped off and more vehicles arrived.
UNHCR says it has 3,000 tons of aid for Gaza ready in Egypt
GENEVA — The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a Wednesday news release that an estimated 3,000 tons of humanitarian assistance are awaiting entry to Gaza from Egypt.
OCHA said it estimates about one million people are internally displaced, including about 352,000 people sheltering in UNRWA schools in central and southern Gaza “in increasingly dire conditions.”
It said Gaza is “still under a full electricity blackout.”
Hostages’ families decry Israeli decision to let aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM — The families of hostages held in Gaza have harshly criticized the Israeli government’s decision to allow limited humanitarian aid into Gaza.
A statement released Wednesday by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said the move only increased their suffering.
“Children, infants, women, soldiers, men, and elderly, some with serious illnesses, wounded and shot, are held underground like animals and without human conditions, and the Israeli government pampers the murderers and kidnappers with baklavas and medicines,” the statement read.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier Wednesday that Israel would allow deliveries of food, water and medicine to Gaza, as long as the supplies do not reach Hamas.
Hamas says militants are holding 250 hostages in Gaza.
U.S. vetoes UN resolution to condemn violence in Israel-Hamas war
UNITED NATIONS — The United States has vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have condemned violence against all civilians in the Israel-Hamas war including “the heinous terrorists attacks by Hamas” against Israel, and would have pushed for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Twelve of the 15 Security Council members on Wednesday voted in favor of the resolution sponsored by Brazil. The United States voted against, while Russia and the United Kingdom abstained.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that President Joe Biden is in the region engaging in diplomacy to secure the release of hostages, prevent the conflict from spreading, and stress the need to protect civilians.
“We need to let that diplomacy play out,” she said.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States of “hypocrisy” and “double standards,” saying the Americans didn’t want a solution in the Security Council.
Brazil, France, China, the United Arab Emirates and many other council members expressed regret and disappointment at the U.S. veto.
12:53 p.m. EDT
U.S. says intelligence assessment shows Israel not behind Gaza hospital blast
WASHINGTON — An intelligence assessment shows Israel was “not responsible” for the explosion at a Gaza hospital, but information is still being collected, the White House said Wednesday.
The assessment is “based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a social media post.
The announcement followed President Joe Biden’s comment to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.”
There have been conflicting claims of who was responsible for the hospital blast. Officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a missile misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.
The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
Biden said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren’t sure what caused the blast, which sparked protests throughout the Middle East. He later said he made the assertion based off “data from my Defense Department.”
Biden says U.S. to provide $100 million for Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank
TEL AVIV, Israel — The United States is promising $100 million in humanitarian assistance to help Palestinian people who have been displaced or otherwise affected by conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.
President Joe Biden announced in a news release Wednesday that the assistance would be provided through trusted partners, including U.N. agencies and international NGOs.
Biden is in Tel Aviv to show support for Israel following the Hamas attacks more than a week ago that killed some 1,400 people. His announcement came after Israel agreed to allow limited aid into Gaza from Egypt.
“Civilians are not to blame and should not suffer for Hamas’s horrific terrorism,” Biden said. “Civilian lives must be protected and assistance must urgently reach those in need.”
Aid group warns of unnecessary deaths at Gaza hospitals
PARIS — Doctors Without Borders says severely injured people at overwhelmed Gaza hospitals are likely to die because the medical system is collapsing.
The aid group’s president in France, Isabelle Defourny, said Wednesday that one of their surgeons in Gaza reported he will likely have to perform amputations on patients in the coming days because the breakdown in medical care means their limbs cannot be saved.
“The seriously injured who arrive every day … are condemned in the days to come,” she said. “The doctors, the nurses courageously continuing to work won’t succeed in saving their lives. Help is needed extremely urgently.”
11:28 a.m. EDT
Israel allows Egypt to deliver limited aid to Gaza
JERUSALEM — Israel says it will allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was approved Wednesday in light of a request from visiting President Joe Biden.
In a statement, it said it “will not thwart” deliveries of food, water and medicine, as long as the supplies do not reach Hamas. The statement made no mention of badly needed fuel.
It was not clear when the aid would start flowing. Egypt’s Rafah crossing has only a limited capacity, and Egypt says it has been damaged by Israeli airstrikes.
Israel, which controls most crossings into Gaza, says it will not allow deliveries from its territory. It also demanded that international Red Cross be allowed to visit kidnapped Israelis held captive in Gaza.
Iran accuses U.S. of complicity in Israeli attacks on Gaza
TEHRAN, Iran — President Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday that Iran will retaliate against Israel for its attacks in the Gaza Strip and accused the United States of complicity.
Addressing a crowd of thousands in central Tehran, Raisi warned of “severe revenge.”
Raisi called Washington an “accomplice” of Israel, saying “the bombs that are falling on the people of Gaza belong to you.”
He said Iran and other Muslim nations are ready to defend the Palestinian people.
Pro-Palestinian protesters clash with security forces in Lebanon
BEIRUT — Hundreds of protesters in support of Gaza clashed with Lebanese security forces Wednesday in a suburb of Beirut near the United States Embassy.
Rioters holding Palestinian flags and flags of Palestinian factions took down a security wall and cut a barbed wire barrier on a road leading to the embassy. Riot police lobbed dozens of teargas canisters and fired water canons to disperse the protesters in the intense standoff.
Several protesters were wounded.
Meanwhile, in another suburb south of Beirut, Hezbollah organized a rally in support of the Palestinians and to slam the U.S. for its ongoing support of Israel.
“The time has perhaps come for the peoples of the region to declare their word in the face of American tyranny,” Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said in a speech at the rally.
Hezbollah and Israeli troops continue to clash in a handful of towns along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Turkey declares 3 days of mourning in solidarity with Gaza hospital blast victims
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey has declared three days of national mourning following the blast on a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of Palestinians, a senior official said.
The period of mourning reflects Turkey’s solidarity with the victims, said Omer Celik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party.
Celik called the blast one of the worst massacres in modern history.
The hospital explosion caused outrage in Turkey, where thousands of people demonstrated outside Israeli diplomatic missions in Istanbul and Ankara. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.
At least 63 people, including 43 police officers, were injured and five people were arrested in Istanbul, according to officials.
10:07 a.m. EDT
France says 24 French citizens died in Hamas attacks, 7 missing
PARIS — France’s death toll from the Hamas assault on Israel has climbed to 24, with seven other French citizens still listed as missing, including several thought to be held hostage in Gaza.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne delivered the latest toll in a briefing to senators Wednesday.
The family of 24-year-old French-Israeli citizen Karin Journo is among those who have recently learned of a loved one’s death. Her sister, Meitav Journo, said the funeral was held Tuesday.
Gaza residents line up for fuel
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — A shortage of fuel led to a long line of cars and motorbikes blocking a street outside at a gas station in Khan Younis as motorists and people on foot with containers hoped to fill up.
Men and boys stood in a parallel line holding empty plastic jugs and water bottles as they waited for a turn at the pump.
Palestinians are struggling to survive since Israel cut off supplies of food, electricity, water and fuel to Gaza in retaliation for the attack launched Oct. 7 by Hamas militants. Scarce fuel that can be found can help to run generators and power water pumps.
“Everyone needs fuel to pump water to their homes, to irrigate their farms and to provide water for poultry, cattle and sheep,” said Khalid al-Najjar. “The whole world relies on fuel; it is an essential commodity just like food for us.“
Egyption university students rally in support of Palestinians
CAIRO — Thousands of students rallied at Egyptian universities to condemn Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza. The pro-Palestinian demonstrations took place in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities.
Videos posted on social media showed scores of mostly student protesters marching in the city of Fayoum, roughly 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Cairo, chanting: “With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Al-Aqsa.”
The Al-Aqsa mosque sits on a hilltop in Jerusalem’s contested old city. The mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam and stands in a spot known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism.
A Tuesday night explosion at a Gaza City hospital also triggered protests in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry blamed the blast on Israel, while the Israeli military said it resulted from a misfired rocket launched by Palestinian militants.
Dozens of aid workers waiting on the Egyptian side of the Egypt-Gaza Rafah crossing point held a symbolic funeral for the Palestinians who were killed in the hospital explosion. Wearing black T-shirts, they said they were holding a sit-in until Israel allows the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to a local rights group, Sinai for Human Rights.
Hezbollah militants killed near Lebanon-Israel border
BEIRUT — A Hezbollah spokesperson says the Lebanese Red Cross has collected the remains of four of the group’s militants.
An AP photojournalist saw three body bags and a bag of remains transferred from the Lebanese Red Cross to Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Unit at Hiram Hospital, which is near southern Lebanon’s city of Tyre.
The spokesperson said the bodies belonged to militants who were pronounced dead Tuesday. He did not say how they died.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that its forces killed four militants who were allegedly carrying an explosive device and were suspected of attempting a cross-border operation.
Death toll from Gaza hospital explosion unclear
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry revised the death toll from an explosion at a Gaza City hospital down from 500 to 471 on Wednesday but did not elaborate on how authorities reached that figure.
Staff members at al-Ahli Hospital said they could not gauge the toll because the blast had dismembered so many bodies. Hospital director Suhaila Tarazi and Episcopal Church officials that run al-Ahli could only estimate that the toll was “in the hundreds” and refrained from giving an exact number.
Mohammed Abu Selmia, general director of Shifa Hospital where all the wounded and dead were transferred following the explosion, told The Associated Press early Wednesday he believed the death toll was closer to 250, with hundreds more wounded.
Survivor recounts friends ‘torn to pieces’ by blast at Gaza hospital
A displaced Gaza resident says he was wounded and not killed by a blast at a hospital because he had gone to fetch coffee for a group of men with whom he’d been sitting on a staircase.
“When I returned, they were torn to pieces,” Mohammed al-Hayek, wearing a head cloth covering one injured eye, said. The blood of his relatives and friends splattered the stone walls, he said.
He and his family, including several cousins, had gone to the hospital from the Zeytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, thinking it would be a safe place to find refuge.
“No one knows anyone,” al-Hayek said, referring to the difficulty of identifying the victims. “They became pieces, all of those poor people, civilian citizens.”
UK leader urges lawmakers not to ‘rush to judgment on hopital blast
LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says U.K. intelligence services are “rapidly analyzing the evidence to independently establish the facts” behind the devastating explosion at a Gaza hospital.
Sunak urged lawmakers in the House of Commons not to “rush to judgment” about the blast at the al-Ahli hospital, which Hamas blames on Israel and Israel blames on Palestinian militants.
Calling it an “awful situation,” Sunak said: “Every member will know that the words we say here have an impact beyond this House.”
He added: “The Israeli president has made it very clear that their armed forces will operate in accordance with international law, and we will continue to urge the Israelis to take every precaution to avoid harming civilians.”
Bishop says staff failed to heed warnings to evacuate church-run hospital
JERUSALEM — The Anglican bishop of Jerusalem said a Gaza City hospital run by the Episcopal Church had received at least three Israeli military orders to evacuate that staff members refused to heed before a lethal Tuesday night explosion.
The Israeli army delivered the warnings by phone beginning Sunday after Israeli shelling hit two floors of the al-Ahli Hospital hospital, Bishop Hosam Naoum said.
Naoum refused to assign blame for the blast, and urged the public to focus on the wider destruction and deaths unfolding in Gaza. “As people of the cloth, we are not military experts,” he said. “We just want to let people see what is happening on the ground and hope that people will come to the conclusion that we’ve had enough of this war.”
Naoum said the blast at the hospital also ripped through a church at the center of a courtyard where Palestinians had taken refuge. He said the casualties were “in the hundreds” based on reports he heard from local staff.
Palestinian diplomat accuses Israel of intentionally bombing Gaza hospital
BEIRUT — Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki accused Israel of “intentionally” bombing a hospital in Gaza and said the strip’s residents are being subjected to genocide.
Malki, who spoke in Saudi Arabia during a Wednesday meeting of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, alleged the Israeli military had attacked the same hospital two days earlier and warned doctors there.
He added that he thinks the international community is allowing Israel to kill under the “slogan of self-defense.”
Malki asserted that Israeli bombing has killed 1,300 children in the Gaza Strip in past 11 days. Israel’s military retaliated after Hamas militants broke through a border fence and killed more than 1,400 people in the country, according to Israeli authorities.
Red Cross says it has 60 tons of aid ready for Gaza delivery when it’s safe
GENEVA — The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has mobilized a convoy carrying 60 tons of aid, including medical supplies, for deployment into Gaza, but it needs safe access to deliver them.
“The recent violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory is at a level that the ICRC has not witnessed in many years,” the Geneva-based humanitarian organization said in a statement Wednesday.
Egypt’s president declares national mourning for victims of Gaza hospital blast
CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi declared three days of national mourning for those killed in the blast at al-Ahli Hospital and other Palestinians killed in the ongoing Hamas-Israel war. In a statement on social media, El-Sissi blamed Israel for a deadly blast at a Gaza City hospital. The Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza says the blast killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians, many of whom were sheltering from Israeli airstrikes at the hospital.
Gaza hospital director makes urgent appeal for war to end
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The director of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza made an urgent and emotional appeal for an end to the latest Hamas-Israel war after a devastating blast there Tuesday night.
Speaking to The Associated Press by phone, Suhaila Tarazi said the grisly scenes she encountered in the aftermath of the explosion were “unlike anything I have ever seen or could ever imagine.” She was not at the hospital at at the time of the Tuesday night blast but described body parts of children strewn everywhere in the hospital and the courtyard.
“Our hospital is a place of love and reconciliation,” Tarazi said. “We are all losers in this war. And it must end.”
Tarazi declined to comment directly on the death toll reported by the Hamas-run Health Ministry of at least 500 victims. “It could be more, it could be less. There are so many body parts that no one can really tell.”
Hamas spokesperson praises cancellation of Biden summit
BEIRUT — A spokesperson for Hamas in Lebanon praised the decision to cancel a summit in Jordan between Arab governments and U.S. President Joe Biden following a deadly hospital blast in Gaza.
Biden was supposed to meet with Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday in Amman in hopes of resolving the ongoing Gaza-Israel war.
Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan called for an immediate cease-fire, a humanitarian corridor into the blockaded Gaza Strip and the continuation of mass regional protests that took place after Tuesday night’s blast at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
He also called for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Israel to “rise up against the Zionist enemy and clash with it in all cities, villages, and camps.”
Israeli airstrike destroys a bakery at a Gaza refugee camp
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Fierce Israeli airstrikes hit houses in Gaza City and the southern border town of Rafah. Near the port, survivors said an Israeli airstrike hit a three-story building belonging to the Haboush family, killing 40 people and wounding 25.
In the central Gaza Strip, an airstrike hit a bakery at the Nuseirat refugee camp and ignited a massive fire that killed four bakers, witnesses told a journalist for the AP. Dozens of other bakeries across Gaza were forced to shut down due to a lack of water and electricity.
WATCH: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens ahead of anticipated Israeli invasion against Hamas
Supermarkets have dwindling supplies and are unable to restock because wholesalers cannot navigate the territory’s ravaged infrastructure to make deliveries.
The World Food Program has warned that Gaza’s population is at “the risk of starvation” if 310 tons of food aid languishing at the Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing are not urgently let through.
Iran’s foreign minister calls for oil embargo against Israel
JERUSALEM — Iran’s top diplomat is calling on Muslim nations to expel their Israeli ambassadors and launch an oil embargo on Israel after an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip.
The comments Wednesday by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian mark the first time an oil embargo has been discussed as Israel wages war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip after its unprecedented Oct. 7 attack.
“We expect the Islamic countries that have diplomatic relations with the Zionist regime to cut off their relations immediately and expel the Israeli ambassador from their country,” Amirabdollahian said in a clip aired by state television in Iran. “Secondly, the export of oil to the country of Israel and any project that exists between any Islamic state and Israel must be stopped immediately.”
There was no immediate acknowledgment of the call by Israel, nor any other nation.
British foreign secretary urges people to ‘wait for facts’ on hospital blast
LONDON — British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has urged people to “wait for the facts” about what caused the explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.
The U.K. government has not formally attributed blame for the blast, which Hamas said was caused by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said a rocket misfired by Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad caused the massive explosion.
Cleverly wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Last night, too many jumped to conclusions around the tragic loss of life at Al Ahli hospital. Getting this wrong would put even more lives at risk. Wait for the facts, report them clearly and accurately. Cool heads must prevail.”
Save the Children calls for humanitarian corridor
As people in Gaza continue to suffer from dire shortages of water, food, electricity and fuel, aid organizations are pleading for a humanitarian corridor to allow for the entry of urgently needed supplies.
Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director for the Palestinian territory, told The Associated Press that until that happens humanitarian agencies will be unable to deliver life-saving and essential assistance — and that time is running out.
“We have no visibility in our offices, on warehouses, the facilities that we have because we have all been told to move south,” he said. Despite this, some Save the Children staff are still delivering what services they can.
Pope Francis announces prayer for peace in St. Peter’s Square
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has announced an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Square next week to pray for peace as he begged for an end to the Israeli-Hamas conflict and the unfolding “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Francis announced the day of fasting and prayer Oct. 27 during his weekly general audience Wednesday. He urged all Christians and believers of other faiths to join in with local initiatives, while he presides over an evening hour of prayer in the Vatican.
Francis begged for all sides to do whatever is possible to prevent the war from spreading and to avoid a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, where a blast Tuesday at a hospital killed hundreds.
“Silence the weapons. Listen to the cry for peace of the poor, of the people, of children,” he said.
Biden says hospital blast in Gaza appears to not have been caused by Israel
TEL AVIV — President Joe Biden says that an explosion that killed hundreds in a Gaza Strip hospital appears to not have been caused by Israel.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said Wednesday during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Biden said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren’t sure what caused the blast.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the destruction. The Israeli military denied involvement and blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group. However, that organization also rejected responsibility.
Egyptian president rejects calls to move Palestinians to Sinai Peninsula
CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says his country rejects what he calls efforts to force Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, warning that such an effort would jeopardize his country’s peace with Israel.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Cairo with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, el-Sissi said Wednesday that his government views Israel’s siege on Gaza as a scheme to expel the Palestinians to Egypt.
“We are rejecting the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the explosion of Palestinians to Sinai,” the Egyptian leader said, adding that Sinai would be turned into a launching ground for “terrorist attacks” against Israel, which would in turn blame Egypt for such attacks.
READ MORE: Aid still unreachable after Israel bombs region where civilians were told to flee
He proposed that Israel move the Palestinians to Negev in Israel until it ends “its announced mission” of destroying Palestinian militant groups.
German synagogue attacked with Molotov cocktails, police say
BERLIN — A Berlin synagogue has been attacked with Molotov cocktails, police in Germany say. It comes as antisemitic incidents in the German capital have been rising following the violent escalation in the Middle East.
The Kahal Adass Jisroel community said its synagogue in the city’s Mitte neighborhood was attacked early Wednesday with two incendiary devices. The complex in the center of Berlin houses a synagogue, a kindergarten and a community center.
Police also said there were clashes overnight between Muslim immigrants and police in the city’s Neukoelln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods and at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate.
Israeli military lays out intelligence on hospital explosion
JERUSALEM — An Israeli military spokesman said Israel crosschecked intelligence that proved a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch caused a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital.
Had it been an Israeli strike, “we would have seen craters and structural damage to the building, both of which haven’t been identified,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
Most of the damage was caused by propellant in the rocket and not by the warhead, he said. Propellant remained because the launch failed and the rocket didn’t travel as far as intended, he said.
According to Israeli intelligence reports, Islamic Jihad fired about 10 rockets from a nearby cemetery at 6:59 p.m. Tuesday, and there were reports of an explosion at the hospital at that time, Hagari said.
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