12 October 2023
By The Associated Press
The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to topple Hamas after its militants stormed through a border fence Saturday and killed hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival.
In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, residents are facing ever-growing uncertainty after the territory’s only power plant ran out of fuel and shut down Wednesday. Without power, communication is limited and information is scarce.
Egypt has engaged in intensive talks with Israel and the United States to allow the delivery of aid and fuel through its Rafah crossing point, which remained closed on both sides Thursday. However, Egypt pushed back against proposals to establish corridors out of Gaza, saying an an exodus of Palestinians from the enclave would have grave consequences on the Palestinian cause.
The war, which has claimed more than 2,500 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate.
Here’s what’s happening on Day 6 of the latest Israel-Palestinian war:
CAIRO — Egypt’s Foreign Ministry denied Thursday it had officially closed the Rafah crossing and said Israeli airstrikes have prevented it from operating.
In the statement, the ministry called on all countries and international organizations wishing to provide humanitarian aid to deliver supplies to el-Arish International Airport, in Egypt’s northern Sinai. Hamas’ border authorities said Tuesday that an Israel airstrike hit the no-man’s land between Gaza and Egypt, blocking the road with a large crater.
The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday said it was in touch with Hamas and Israeli authorities as part of efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages who are believed to be held in the Gaza Strip.
“As a neutral intermediary we stand ready to conduct humanitarian visits, facilitate communication between hostages and family members and to facilitate any eventual release,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the group’s Middle East regional director.
The Mideast emirate of Qatar, a frequent mediator between Israel and Hamas, has also confirmed its involvement in the negotiations.
Carboni appealed to Israel to allow badly needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza as Palestinians face staggering supply shortages following Israel’s decision to impose a siege on the crowded territory.
PRAGUE — The Czech Foreign Ministry said it has agreed with a request from Israel to allow Israeli citizens to fly home on Czech government planes evacuating Czech citizens from Israel. The ministry said the Israeli nationals need to return home for humanitarian and family reasons, or to join the military following the attacks by Hamas.
An unspecified number of Israel’s citizens were aboard a Czech plane that took off from Prague on Thursday. Another such plane is scheduled to fly to Israel later in the day.
CAIRO — Fabrizio Carboni, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s regional director, said the aid group’s first aim is to mobilize the medical supplies, fuel and staff already within Gaza — particularly those that could support medical facilities.
Speaking to journalists at an online presser, he said that aid delivery through the Rafah crossing requires both a political agreement and also a security deal so that needed supplies can safely reach affected areas.
“I fear that what’s coming next is going to be at least as challenging as what we’re seeing now.” Carboni said.
LONDON — The head of Elon Musk’s social media platform X says it has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts and taken down or labeled thousands of pieces of content since the militant group’s attack on Israel.
CEO Linda Yaccarino on Thursday outlined efforts by X, formerly known as Twitter, to get a handle on illegal content flourishing on the platform following a warning from a top European Union official, who requested information on how X is complying during the Israel-Hamas war with tough new EU digital rules aimed at cleaning up social media platforms.
The new Digital Services Act mandates social media companies step up policing of their platforms for illegal content, under threat of hefty fines.
ISRAEL — The Palestinian Health Ministry reported Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank when Israeli settlers sprayed bullets at a funeral for three Palestinians who had been killed in a settler rampage the day before. Footage showed Jewish settlers in their cars swerving into the funeral procession and cutting off the road to the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, before stopping and opening fire.
Health authorities identified the two men killed as a father and son: 62-year-old Ibrahim al-Wadi, a local official in the secular nationalist Fatah party; and 25-year-old Ahmed al-Wadi, an off-duty Palestinian security officer.
Residents near the northern West Bank city of Nablus and north of Ramallah reported that armed settlers have rampaged through villages and hurled stones at passing Palestinian cars after the unprecedented Hamas militant attack on Israel on Saturday.
MADRID — Spain’s foreign ministry says a plane evacuating 220 people from Tel Aviv landed in Madrid late Wednesday, bringing to 429 the number of people flown out of the city on Spanish flights in two days.
The Wednesday flight included 149 Spaniards, 15 people from other European Union countries, 36 from Latin America and 20 from other countries, a foreign ministry statement said.
The previous day’s flight brought out 209 people, 185 of them Spaniards.
PARIS — France’s interior minister is reporting 24 arrests for antisemitic acts in the country since Hamas attacked Israel and says that online hate is surging.
“Since the end of the day Saturday, since the terrorist massacres in Israel, there have been more than 100 antisemitic acts, essentially graffiti — swastikas, ‘death to Jews,’ calls for an intifada against Israel,” said the minister, Gerald Darmanin. Speaking Thursday on France Inter radio, he said there have also been people caught with knives near Jewish schools and synagogues and a drone equipped with a camera that was spotted flying over a Jewish cultural center. Because of stepped-up police security around Jewish sites, “we were able to detain a large proportion of these people” with 24 arrests, he said.
Online, “hatred is surging,” he added, with more than 2,000 cases of antisemitic speech reported to a French online watchdog force, he said.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli official overseeing the effort to return hostages taken by Hamas says the government is still trying to identify all of those missing or taken captive in Saturday’s attack.
In a statement, Gal Hirsch said his office is working “to formulate an assessment of the situation” and to assist the families of the captives and missing. “The searches in the field are continuing and the difficult work of identifying the bodies continues,” said Hirsch, a former general who was appointed after the incursion by Hamas on Saturday.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, said Thursday that the army has notified the families of 97 Israelis believed to be in Hamas captivity.
BEIJING — China said Thursday that three Chinese nationals have been confirmed dead in the latest Israel-Palestinian war. Two others are missing and several have been injured, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. He urged authorities to make every effort to search for and rescue the missing.
The Chinese Embassy in Israel reported earlier in the week that a young woman of Israeli and Chinese heritage was among the scores of hostages taken by Hamas fighters.
China’s Mideast envoy, Zhai Jun, discussed the crisis with Amal Jadou, the first deputy foreign minister of Palestine, in a phone call Wednesday.
DAMASCUS, Syria — The presidents of Iran and Syria have discussed by telephone the situation in the Gaza Strip, expressing both countries’ support for the Palestinian people.
Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that Syria’s Bashar Assad and Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi said they stand behind the Palestinian people who are “being subjected to crimes and have the right to resist to defend their legitimate cause to gain back their rights.”
Assad was quoted by SANA as saying that Israel’s policies are leading to bloodshed in the region and called on Arab and Muslim countries to work on defending the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza.
Hamas responded defiantly Thursday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement the day before that he and opposition leader Benny Gantz had formed a national unity government to lead the country in its war on the Hamas militant group.
Hamas officials vowed that Israel’s united front would not “intimidate or deter the resistance.”
“We have been preparing for this attack for years,” said Mohammad Nazzal, a senior Hamas official. “The resistance fighters have prepared to engage in the most vicious of battles for many months.”
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Thursday morning in Israel amid its war on Hamas.
Blinken stepped down the stairs from his aircraft just before 10:30 a.m. local (0730 GMT) at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport outside of Tel Aviv. He was met at the airport by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and other officials.
He gave no public comments before getting into a vehicle to leave.
Blinken is scheduled to meet with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blinken will also meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman on Friday.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed.
JERUSALEM — Israeli airstrikes on Thursday killed a senior official in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command — a Syria-based Palestinian militant group — along with some of his relatives, the group’s media reported, without specifying how many family members were killed in the airstrike on northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp. Awad Al-Sultan had been in charge of prisoner affairs within the guerilla group, a militarized offshoot of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP.
JERUSALEM — The United Nations humanitarian office has reported that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza has leveled 1,000 homes since the retaliation began last Saturday, and many in the territory face dire shortages of water, fuel and medical supplies.
Another 560 housing units, it said, have been severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable. Over 12,600 homes have sustained damage due to Israeli airstrikes.
The agency, known as OCHA, also reported that all 13 hospitals in the territory are only partially operational because of severe shortages of fuel and crucial medical supplies. It said the reduction in water supplies due to Israel tightening its siege on the strip has resulted in dire water shortages for over 650,000 people in the territory of 2.3 million.
Sewage systems have been destroyed, the humanitarian office added, sending fetid wastewater into the streets and posing a health hazard.
PRAGUE — A Czech government plane landed in Prague early Thursday with some 40 Czech nationals onboard who were evacuated from Israel.
At least two other such planes are scheduled to fly to Israel on Thursday to take more Czech citizens back, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said. The Foreign Ministry said there are at least 250 Czechs still in Israel.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A plane from Israel with 180 people has landed in Oslo, Norway, the Scandinavian country’s foreign minister said Thursday, adding that most of them were Norwegian citizens and their families.
Anniken Huitfeldt said there also were other nationalities on the plane, though she didn’t identify them.
“It is very difficult to get out of the Palestinian areas, but we are still working on finding exit opportunities for Norwegian citizens in these areas,” she said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Finland also said an evacuation from the area of Finnish citizens and people living permanently in the Nordic country was being planned, Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.