Despite international calls for restraint, Israeli battalions preparing to ’fight and win’
Israeli Defense Forces are moving ‘from defence to attack’, a senior Israeli military spokesperson has warned. Follow updates. Warning: Graphic
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Israeli Defense Forces are moving “from defence to attack”, a senior Israeli military spokesperson has warned.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari posted images to X/Twitter of two Israeli battalions who were among the first responders to the surprise Hamas attack on October 7.
“The forces fought hard and stubborn battles against hundreds of terrorists in the Kissufim sector and Nahal Oz,” he wrote. “The battalions, which suffered many losses, are currently undergoing in-depth... and extensive training for the next phase of combat.”
Despite increasing international calls for Israel to show restraint, Rear Admiral Hegari said the battalions are preparing to “fight and win”.
“We will arrive with intense concentration, with all the advanced capabilities and the high standard of the battalion, and we will be the ones who win!,” he posted.
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LEAVE LEBANON WONG TELLS AUSSIES
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has reiterated her call for Australians in Lebanon to leave the country.
“We have serious concerns about the volatile security situation. If you are an Australian in Lebanon, you should consider leaving on the first available commercial option, if it is safe to do so,” she posted on X/Twitter.
The US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand are among the nations that have also recommended their citizens depart Lebanon as soon as possible.
Senator Wong also revealed a further eight Australians had safely departed the West Bank for Jordan, after four citizens and one permanent resident were able to get out on Tuesday.
“We continue to assist Australians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as a small number of New Zealand citizens who want to leave,” she said.
NETANYAHU: GROUND OFFENSIVE ‘IS COMING’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told soldiers that a ground offensive of Gaza “is coming”, as the UN chief warned “clear violations” of international humanitarian law were being committed.
“We stand before the next stage, it is coming,” the prime minister told the Israel Defense Forces’ Yahalom unit on Tuesday, according to a press release from Netanyahu’s office.
“You know it and you are part of it; you are part of the vanguard.”
The Yahalom unit is a special unit of the Combat Engineering Corps and is trained to deal with special engineering tasks, according to the IDF website.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres meanwhile alleged violations of international law in Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire.
“I am deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza. Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law,” Mr Guterres said, without explicitly naming Israel.
He also said the Hamas attacks “did not happen in a vacuum” as the Palestinians have been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
It comes as the Israeli Defence Force said it struck more than 400 Hamas targets in 24 hours.
More than 700 Palestinians were killed overnight by Israeli air raids on Gaza, according to Palestinian officials, creating the highest death toll in a day since Israel’s offensive on Gaza began.
WEST BANK AIR STRIKE KILLS THREE
Three people were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli strike near the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestinian media has reported.“An Israeli plane fired at least two missiles towards a group of people near Jenin camp,” killing three people and wounding several others, the WAFA report said, citing local sources.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had carried out “counterterrorism activities” in the area, but did not mention casualties.
It said it was responding to an attack from what it called “armed terrorists”, who “fired and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces”.
In response, it said, one of its attack drones had “struck the terrorists. Hits were identified”. “No injuries to Israeli security forces were reported.” The UN humanitarian agency OCHA says at least 95 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza earlier this month.
PALESTINIANS TOLD TO FLEE THEN BOMBED
As the death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza rises, the Associated Press sent this report from inside the enclave.
“Across central and south Gaza, where Israel told civilians to take shelter, there were multiple scenes of rescuers pulling the dead and wounded out of large piles of rubble from collapsed buildings,” they said.
“Graphic photos and video shot by the AP showed rescuers unearthing bodies of children from multiple ruins.
“A father knelt on the floor of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah next to the bodies of three dead children cocooned in bloodied sheets. Later at the nearby morgue, workers prayed over 24 dead wrapped in body bags, several of them the size of small children.
“The legs of a dead woman and another person, both still half buried, dangled out of the wreckage where workers dug through the dirt, concrete and rebar.”
ISRAELI AMBASSADOR DEFENDS STRIKES AGAINST GAZA
Israel's ambassador to Australia has declared the escalating war crisis as the darkest moment in the state’s history and claimed Israel posed no threat to Palestinian civilians.
Ambassador Amir Maimon addressed the National Press Club on Wednesday.
He declared that the developing conflict was not Israel’s private war but was about “the future of the entire Middle East but about the future of the world in which we live”.
“It will have implications for all of us and a valuable and importance alliances forming between like-minded countries such as the United States, the UK, Australia,” he said.
“On the other side, an evil coalition of rogue states and terrorist groups of which Hamas and Hezbollah are the most prominent are attempting to reshape the world of curling to their dangerous agenda.”
ISRAEL HITS ‘MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE’ IN SYRIA
The Israeli army claims to have struck military infrastructure inside Syria in response to earlier launches towards Israel.
The IDF said in a statement that its “fighter jets struck military infrastructure and mortar launchers belonging to the Syrian Army in response to the launches toward Israel yesterday (Tuesday)”.
A military spokesperson told AFP the strikes were inside Syria.
Fears are growing that Israel’s war with Hamas will create wider regional turmoil, and especially further inflame existing tensions with Syria and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
Israeli strikes on Sunday put war-torn Syria’s two main airports out of service, according to Syrian state media.
Earlier in the month, Israeli strikes targeted Aleppo airport, wounding five people, a war monitor reported, and also put it out of service, according to the authorities.
ISRAEL CALLS FOR UN CHIEF’S RESIGNATION
Israel has hit back at UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s claim of alleged violations of international law in Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen recounted graphic accounts of civilians including young children killed in the deadliest single attack in Israeli history.
“Mr Secretary-General, in what world do you live?” Mr Cohen said.
Mr Cohen said Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians “to the last millimetre” with its withdrawal in 2005.
Israel shortly afterwards imposed a blockade of the impoverished territory, in place ever since, after Hamas took power, and it still occupies the West Bank.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on Guterres to resign – writing on X, formerly Twitter, that the UN chief has “expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder.”
ADF DEPLOYMENT IN MIDDLE EAST
Australia will send more soldiers and military resources to the Middle East, the defence minister has announced.
Richard Marles said two Royal Australian Air Force aircraft and a “significant contingent” of Australian Defence Force personnel will be sent to the region as a precautionary measure.
“We’ve sent an additional two aircraft to the Middle East, which takes the total to three. And the support crew for them, which is a significant number of personnel,” Mr Marles said.
“And there’s a small command detachment which goes with all of that. We’re not saying we’re in the Middle East for operational reasons, but we are putting that in place, really, as a contingency to support Australian populations in the Middle East.
“Bearing in mind that this is a very volatile situation, and we just don’t absolutely know which way it goes from here, as the world really holds its breath watching it.”
The Defence Minister said the C-17 and KC-30 have the capacity to transport passengers out of war zones and touched on the number of Aussies who want to evacuate the area.
“From the West Bank that number is 51 and the number now in Gaza is 79,” Defence Minister Marles said.
“We’re working with those in the West Bank as you’ve just described.
It’s difficult but there are options there and we are trying to find ways in which we can assist people’s departure from the West Bank.
“To be honest, the people we’re really concerned about are those in Gaza, where it’s a much, much more difficult situation.”
AUSTRALIA SAYS IT’S ‘NOT INFLUENCED BY US’
Mr Marles insists the decision to up ADF resources in the Middle East was not influenced by Australia’s relationship with the US.
“No, this is very much about Australian populations. It’s about supporting them,” he said in an interview with Sunrise.
“There are significant Australian populations in the region and if they need support … I mean, if there is a moment where we need to engage in evacuations we want to make sure that we’re ready because this could happen all pretty quickly. So, that’s why we’ve taken the steps that we’ve taken. It’s really unrelated to the measures that the United States have taken.”
Mr Marles confirmed four Australians were able to leave the West Bank with the help of Jordan overnight.
Fifty-one Australians remain in the West Bank and 79 in Gaza.
He also revealed the government was “looking at very carefully” whether the terror threat level should be upgraded in Australia.
ISRAEL’S HOSTAGE BOUNTY
The Israel Defense Force dropped leaflets in the Gaza Strip offering Palestinians a bounty for tip-offs on hostages held by Hamas.
“If you want a better future for you and your children, take action and provide us with solid and useful information as soon as possible regarding the hostages in your area,” the leaflet reads.
The Israelis are offering protection and even a monetary award to any Palestinian who comes forward with verifiable information leading to the rescue of an Israeli hostage.
“The Israeli army assures you that it will put forth maximum effort to provide you and your home with security, as well as a financial reward,” the leaflet continues, adding a guarantee of “complete confidentiality.”
It comes after Hamas terrorists were offered a $US10,000 reward for each civilian hostage taken to Gaza.
DEATH TOLL CLIMBS
Tuesday marked one of the deadliest days of the war, with The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) saying it hit 400 “terrorist” targets within 24 hours, killing hundreds of people, including six United Nations staff.
Hamas said the death toll since Israel commenced its bombardment was now 5791.
Figures supplied by the terrorist group have not been independently verified, and claims of mass casualties like 500 at a Gaza hospital have been disputed by US and UK intelligence.
At least 1400 people have been killed in Israel with more than 200 kidnapped since Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
SHOCK HAMAS REWARD
Exclusive footage of Hamas terrorists being interrogated by the Israeli Security Authority has been released showing the fighters revealing they were promised incentives if they kidnapped someone.
In the footage shown on Sky News, the terrorists said the rewards they were promised was $10,000 and an apartment.
They also spoke about how they set homes on fire and shot civilians.
ALBO AVOIDS TROOP COMMITMENT
Anthony Albanese side-stepped questions about whether Australian military forces could go to war against Hamas under French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to send the international coalition that destroyed ISIS into Israel.
Hundreds of Australian soldiers have been part of that coalition — including special forces personnel and fighter pilots — which retains a presence in Syria and Iraq.
Asked about the idea Mr Macron floated in Israel alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Albanese said he hasn’t “seen the detail of any such proposal.”
“Certainly we agree with the United States that it’s important that we avoid spillover on this issue, which would be bad for Israel, bad for the region,” he said.
Speaking ahead of talks with US President Joe Biden, Mr Albanese said Australia was focusing on ensuring humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza, as well as providing safe passage for Australian citizens caught in the war zone.
The White House also played down Mr Macron’s suggestion, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying: “Our focus right now is making sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself and go after Hamas’s leadership.”
“Our focus is really on helping Israel from a bilateral perspective to be able to beat back the terrorists, and also obviously to work on the humanitarian situation, get the hostages home and take the necessary force protection measures we need for our troops in the region,” he said.
FREED HOSTAGE SAYS CAPTORS ‘GENTLE’, ‘FRIENDLY’
As the bombardment of the Gaza Strip continued overnight, Israeli hostages Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, were released by Hamas on “compelling humanitarian and poor health grounds” and later taken to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, where they were reunited with their families.
The women appeared to be in good health despite more than a fortnight spent in captivity, a hospital spokesperson said.
Footage of the moment the women were released showed them being fed biscuits and coffee by Hamas militants. Ms Lifshitz was also seen shaking the hand of a Hamas soldier before being helped into an ambulance.
Ms Lifshitz said she “went through hell” after being kidnapped by Hamas fighters.
In a media conference, Ms Lifshitz said Hamas fighters removed her watch and jewellery and then forced her to walk through fields before reaching a tunnel network, which she described as similar to “a spider web.”
She said she was among 25 hostages taken into the tunnels and after several hours, five people from her kibbutz, including herself, were taken into a separate room. There, they each had a guard and access to a paramedic and doctor.
Ms Lifshitz described clean conditions inside, with mattresses on the floor for them to sleep on. Another captive who was badly injured in a motorbike accident on the way into Gaza was treated for his injuries by a doctor.
“They made sure we wouldn't get sick, and we had a doctor with us every two or three days,” she said.
She also said they had access to medicines they needed and there were women there who knew about “feminine hygiene”.
They ate the same food – pitta bread with cheese and cucumber – as the Hamas guards, her daughter Sharone added.
🇵🇸🇮🇱 Video of Hamas handing over the 2 Israeli hostages pic.twitter.com/HOzUgRiANd
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) October 23, 2023
‘READY, DETERMINED’: ISRAEL ARMY
Israel’s military is “ready and determined” for the next stage of war and are awaiting political instructions, according to Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, reports Reuters.
“Our way is on our borders, not thousands of miles from Israel,” he said, explaining that Israel was learning from US’ experienced in the Middle East.
He said he expects the fighting to continue for weeks and acknowledged the key role Egypt was playing in negotiations for the release of hostages.
MORE HOSTAGE RELEASES ‘IMMINENT’
Hamas’s release of the two elderly women was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, amid reports a deal for the release of 50 more dual nationals held in Gaza was “imminent”.
While that would represent about a quarter of all hostages snatched during the October 7 attacks, Israel and the US stood firm, insisting no ceasefire deal could be struck until all hostages were released.
“We should have those hostages released and then we can talk,” US President Joe Biden said when asked if he would support a “hostages-for-ceasefire” deal.
But other world leaders struck a different note, urging Israel to show restraint as both the bombardment and slow trickle of aid into Gaza continued.
MACRON EXPRESSES ‘SOLIDARITY’ FOR ISRAEL
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for the coalition that fought against Islamic State to also fight Hamas.
President Macron, speaking at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that stability in the Middle East will only be possible if Israel also allows for a “political approach” to the conflict with Palestinians.
President Macron is on a one-day visit to Israel and has met with the families of Israelis killed and taken hostage by Hamas fighters.
He then met with Israeli President Isacc Herzog and told him the events of October 7 were an “awful crime” and people were killed just because they were Jewish.
But he said Israel was not alone.
Ahead of the visit President Macron foreshadowed calling for the “resumption of a genuine peace process” for the creation of a Palestinian state and “halting the colonisation” of the West Bank while visiting Israel.
During a visit to Tel Aviv, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the fight against Hamas “must be waged,” but “civilian casualties and regional escalation must be prevented”.
“This requires restraint from Israel when it comes to the use of force,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv and met with Israeli-French nationals who have had loved ones killed or taken hostage.
President Macron has met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and expressed France’s “solidarity today and tomorrow,” with THEM.
He said he shares President’s Herzog’s view “that there should be the immediate release of hostages without any distinction.”
“I want you to be sure that you are not left alone in this war against terrorism,” President Macron said.
He also said that France has “passed several messages to other potential terrorist groups wanting to join this operation,” including sending messages to Hezbollah.
He will also meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
During his one day visit, President Macron is expected to call for a humanitarian truce, the halting of the colonisation” of the West Bank and to propose relaunching a “true peace process” to create a viable Palestinian state in exchange for guarantees from regional powers towards “Israel’s security.
He also announced France would charter a special flight carrying emergency humanitarian aid for the Palestinians “as soon as possible”.
CHINA BROKE ITS SILENCE OVER GAZA
China also broke its silence over Gaza, with foreign minister Wang Yi telling Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen during a phone call that all countries had the right to self-defence, but they should also “abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians”.
Former US President Barack Obama backed the call for more aid for an “increasingly desperate Gaza population,” saying efforts should be “accelerating”.
OBAMA’S WARNING TO ISRAEL
In a post on the site Medium, the former US president made clear he supported the right of Israel to defend itself, and President Joe Biden’s call for the US to support Israel in its pursuit of Hamas.
But Israel’s bombardment and restriction of aid to Gaza could have significant consequences for Israel itself, Mr Obama warned.
“Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire,” he stated.
“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region.”
Mr Obama appeared to liken Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks to how the US retaliated in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
“America itself has at times fallen short of our higher values when engaged in war, and in the aftermath of 9/11, the US government wasn’t interested in heeding the advice of even our allies when it came to the steps we took to protect ourselves against al-Qaeda,” Mr Obama wrote.
His warning came as the UN General Assembly announced it would convene a special emergency session on Thursday to discuss the crisis in the Middle East.
FIVE AUSSIES ESCAPE WAR TORN REGION
Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed four Australian citizens and one permanent resident had successfully departed the West Bank into Jordan.
“More that 1800 previously registered Australians have now left Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” Ms Wong posted on Twitter/X.
“Officials remain in touch with other registered Australians wishing to depart the West Bank for Jordan. We are also assisting a number of New Zealand citizens.”
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration also warned of deepening instability in southern Lebanon, saying more than 19,000 people had been displaced in the region in the past few weeks.
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