Follow the latest updates on the Israel-Hamas war as fighting enters its fourth day.
Summary
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warns Israel is ‘just getting started’, after the worst attack on its soil in decades
Israel says it will impose a “total blockade” on Gaza, cutting off water and electricity and not letting in food and fuel
The Gaza Strip is being hit by what Israel calls the largest aerial bombardment it has ever conducted against the besieged enclave
The latest death toll stands at 770 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials, and more than 900 Israelis, report Israeli medical services
187,000 Gazans are now displaced, says the UN
Hamas has pledged to kill captured Israelis if Palestinian civilians are targetted without warning
Hamas’s surprise attack on Saturday came after a record number of Palestinians were killed by Israel in recent months
Over 1,000 Israelis murdered since Saturday, authorities say
More than 1,008 Israelis have been killed since Hamas’s surprise attack on Saturday, according to Israel’s Embassy to the USA.
Posting an operation update on Tuesday, the embassy reported that over 3,418 people were injured, more than 4,969 rockets had been launched, and an unspecified number of “women and children” had been kidnapped.
Other estimates give the number of hostages in the hands of Hamas fighters at around 150.
EU and Gulf plead for ‘sustainable financial support’ to Palestinians
Following a joint meeting of foreign ministers in Oman on Tuesday, the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council pleaded for “sustainable financial support” to Palestinians.
Both parties “underlined the importance of sustainable financial support for UNRWA (the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees) and the continuation of humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians in the occupied territories”, according to a joint statement read by top EU diplomat Josep Borrell in Muscat.
Israel using chemical weapons, claims Palestine
The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs has accused Israeli forces of using white phosphorus against the Gaza Strip.
It posted a video on X, which purported to show the aftermath of the weapons use Al Karama area, northern Gaza.
Euronews cannot independently verify this claim.
Israel has faced similar accusations in the past and admitted it used phosphorus shells during the battle against Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon War.
Several human rights groups alleged the IDF also deployed white phosphorous against civilians during the 2008-09 Gaza War.
While phosphorus is not classified as a chemical weapon in international law, its use against civilian areas is considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention because of its “indiscriminate” and “traumatic effects”.
Phosphorus creates flash fires that are incredibly hard to put out. If people are hit with the chemical they suffer horrendous burns, which actually accelerate if they come into contact with water.
It can, however, be legitimately used by military forces for night illumination and smoke screens.
Israel-Palestine bloodshed shows US failure in Middle East – Putin
Russia’s president said on Tuesday the eruption of violence between Israeli and Palestinian forces highlighted how US policy in the Middle East had failed.
During a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister, Vladimir Putin claimed Washington had tried to monopolise the search for a settlement in the region, while failing to take the interests of the Palestinian people into account.
The Kremlin earlier said it was in contact with both sides and would try to help end the violence.
Israeli soldiers drive by the rave party site, where scores were killed, near the Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip border fence, on Tuesday, Oct.10, 2023.
Israeli soldiers take position near the Israeli Gaza border, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.
Israeli soldiers drive by the rave party site, where scores were killed, near the Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip border fence, on Tuesday, Oct.10, 2023
Germany investigating kidnapping of its citizens in Israel
German prosecutors are investigating the apparent kidnap of their compatriots in Hamas’s surprise attack over the weekend.
On Tuesday, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement emailed to the US news agency AP it was looking into suspicions of hostage-taking and murder by unknown members of Hamas.
The German Foreign Ministry has said it assumes an unspecified number of German-Israeli dual citizens were among those captured by the Palestinian militant group on Saturday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said today that Germany is working closely with Israel to determine how many citizens were kidnapped and how they might be freed.
It is standard practice for German prosecutors to open an investigation when the country’s citizens are harmed abroad.
Israel army kills militants on beach
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said this afternoon it killed a number of “terrorists” in the Zikim Beach area of southern Israel.
IDF soldiers “identified four armed terrorists in the area of Zikim Beach a short time ago,” the force wrote on X, adding they exchanged fire and “eliminated them”.
Extremist Israeli minister proposes ‘massively’ arming civilians with rifles
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israeli national security minister, has announced plans to buy 10,000 rifles to arm “civilian security teams” across Israel and the occupied West Bank, according to The Times of Israel.
It said the guns, of which 4,000 have already been brought, will go to Israeli towns near the borders, alongside mixed Jewish-Arab cities inside Israel and West Bank settlements.
Long accused of being a provocateur, Ben-Gvir is a far-right Jewish settler who has been convicted for supporting terrorism against Arabs.
In October 2022, he took part in clashes between Israeli Jewish settlers and the local Palestinian residents, brandishing a gun, and reporting telling the police to shoot at Palestinians throwing stones at the scene.
In Tuesday’s Times of Israel report he was quoted as saying the weapons and equipment will be distributed to “hundreds of towns that have civilian security teams linked to the Israel police’s border police force”.
Civilian security teams provide security to small towns and communities but have attacked Palestinians.
“We will turn the world upside down so that towns are protected,” Ben Gvir was quoted as saying. “I have given instructions for massively arming the civilian security team.”
