Israel-Hamas war, live updates: Israel blocks UN visas after disagreement over ceasefire in Gaza
Infuriated by a speech from the head of the United Nations, Israel has decided to hit back and send an umistakeable message.
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Welcome back to our live coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
More than 1400 people have been killed in Israel since Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on October 7, according to Israeli authorities.
The Gaza health ministry, which is under the control of Hamas, says the Palestinian death toll has risen to 5791, including 2360 children, with 704 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Those numbers have not been independently verified.
A statement from the Palestinian media office said “more than 80 people” were killed and “hundreds wounded” after raids by Israel were carried out on Tuesday night.
Australia has now committed troops and aircraft to the Middle East as the global leaders continue to show support for Israel.
“The deployment of Australian aircraft and supporting Defence personnel is a precautionary measure to support whole of Australian Government contingency options due to the risk of the security situation deteriorating further,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Wednesday.
Read on for the latest news.
UN warns power will run out tonight
The United Nations says fuel in Gaza will run out tonight, unless fresh supplies are delivered immediately. Hospitals are now being forced to only operate on life-threatening injuries as essential medical reserves deplete.
The World Health Organisation’s Dr Richard Peeperkorn said healthcare facilities are running on the lowest possible generator levels as they await further aid.
“We have teams on the ground in Gaza and we know from the ground that fuel is absolutely limited,” he said.
“The hospitals we work with, they all run the generator at minimum levels, only for life-saving operations.”
Syrian soldiers killed in Israel airstrikes
Eight Syrian soldiers have been killed and a further seven wounded after Israeli strikes on military positions in the nation’s south.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said the attack occurred after midnight local time on Wednesday.
Israel’s military confirmed it had attacked Syrian targets near the Jordan border, reporting that fighter jets carried out a strike on military infrastructure and mortar launchers after rockets were fired.
‘Teach them a lesson’: Tensions flare at UN Security Council
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” saying that “clear violations of international humanitarian law” are occurring every day in Gaza.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan hit back immediately at Mr Guterres, demanding he “resign immediately” and claiming he was “not fit to lead the UN”.
It came as Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who was at the United Nations on Tuesday, said he would not meet with Mr Guterres and that “there is no place for a balanced approach”.
Mr Cohen described Mr Guterres’ comments as “shocking” and “disconnected from the reality in our region”.
Israel later announced it would halt visas for UN officials following Mr Guterres’ comments.
“As a result of this, we will refuse visas to UN representatives,” Mr Erdan told the Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday.
“It‘s time we teach them a lesson.”
Meanwhile, US military officials are attempting to persuade Israel against a full-scale ground invasion, citing past experiences with urban combat against insurgents during the Iraq War.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong also called for an immediate “pause on hostilities”.
“We call for humanitarian pauses on hostilities, so food, water, medicine and other essential assistance can reach people in desperate need, and so civilians can get to safety,” Ms Wong said in a statement posted on her official X account.
Female IDF squad eliminates nearly 100 Hamas militants
An all-female Israel Defense Force unit eliminated nearly 100 Hamas terrorists, according to their commander, who cited it as proof there “are no more doubts about female combat soldiers.”
Israeli Caracal Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Or Ben-Yehuda praised her unit for its bravery in the southern Gaza Strip, where the female troops took down approximately 100 Hamas terrorists
Ben-Yehuda said she received a message reporting an infiltration of heavily armed terrorists near Sufa and Nirim and told her soldiers: “We are going out to eliminate terrorists. Infiltration into Israel is happening, and it’s spreading.
“Stay alert. We might cross paths. We are a strong squad,” she told her unit as they headed to Sufa.
Combat between the female battalion and the terrorists lasted nearly four hours and included large firefights. It took the IDF about 14 hours altogether to secure the base.
At least 1,400 Israelis and 5,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, while tens of thousands on both sides have been injured or displaced from their homes due to the conflict, officials on both sides have said.
Australia sends troops, planes
Australia is sending troops and two military transport aircraft to the Middle East as concern grows for Australian citizens in the region.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said a “significant number” of troops were being sent but declined to give the number. Two C-130J Super Hercules aircraft had also been deployed.
Mr Marles would not say where the aircraft and troops would be based. The planes will add to a C-17A Globemaster heavy transport aircraft and a KC-30 air refueller already in the area.
“The point of this is to provide support to Australian populations who are in the Middle East if this gets worse,” he told the ABC.
More than 800 Australians have been flown out of Israel since October 13. Mr Marles said the Australian government is trying to help 79 citizens in Gaza and 51 in the West Bank who have asked to leave.
The chief of the ADF, General Angus Campbell, warned the conflict was in its early stages.
“The conflict that we see between Israel and Hamas appears to be in its early stages, and we want to be well-positioned,” he said.
“I would very much encourage Australians to follow DFAT’s advisories in regard to travel and to pay attention to their safety.”
Hamas planners used ‘hardwired phones’
Hamas operatives used hardwired phones built into the vast tunnel network beneath Gaza to plan the deadly October 7 attack without being spied on by Israeli or US intelligence, according to a new report.
Hamas claims to have a network of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip stretching 500 kilometres, complete with plumbing and electricity, which it uses to store rockets and ammunition and hold prisoners.
The deadly assault, which completely blindsided Israel’s vaunted intelligence agencies, was planned over two years by a small Hamas cell, who stayed dark until it was time to call on hundreds of terrorists to launch the attack, CNN reports.
Sources briefed on the matter told the broadcaster that intelligence shared with the US by Israel suggested the planners used hardwired phone lines in the tunnels to communicate, and avoided using computers or mobile phones during the two years to evade detection.
The intelligence reportedly revealed how Hamas hid planning of the operation using old-fashioned measures such as conducting meetings in person and staying off digital communications.
“There wasn’t a lot of discussion and back and forth and co-ordination outside of the immediate area,” one of the sources told CNN.
The planning cell waited until just before the attack to prep a larger group of fighters above-ground. At least 1500 Hamas terrorists poured across the border into southern Israel on October 7, brutally massacring 1400 people and abducting more than 200 hostages.
Sources told CNN that Hamas fighters were being trained for months and kept at a state of general readiness, but were only informed of the specific plans in the days leading up to the attack.
One source said some of the training above-ground was observed but did not ring major alarm bells, as the thinking was “oh they always train people like this … it didn’t look different”.
Israel hits ‘military infrastructure’ in Syria
The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it had 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.
While Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at the government-controlled airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, it is the second time since this month’s conflict between Israel and Hamas began that the two sites have been struck simultaneously.
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.
During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-foe Iran, which supports President Bashar al-Assad’s government, to expand its presence there.
Hamas’ fiendish plan for hostages
Hamas is following a fiendishly “calculated” blueprint in its hostage release to try to curry global favour — and it likely doesn’t include freeing any Israeli soldiers without major quid pro quo, a top expert says.
The move by the Palestinian terrorists to release an American mother and daughter first last week was probably designed to pressure the Biden administration into urging Israel to delay its planned scorched-earth ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to buy time in the hostage crisis, former FBI agent and hostage-team expert Christopher O’Leary told the NY Post on Tuesday.
Hamas’ release of another pair of women, two elderly Israelis, late Monday was also a “very calculated” move — this time to try and show the world that it is “a legitimate negotiator with some kind of humanitarian leaning”, Mr O’Leary said — even though the terrorists brutalised women and children during their bloody invasion of Israel on October 7.
After former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was released Monday, she revealed that she and a few of her fellow captives were separated from the main group into a smaller room in Hamas’ infamous “spiderweb” of Gaza tunnels.
Mr O’Leary said the move wasn’t surprising.
“Hamas has [probably] bucketed the victims into different groups — women and children, people with medical conditions, dual nationals like Americans, Israeli civilians and Israeli military,” he said.
“You don’t want soldiers mixed with civilians. Because the soldiers are going to be looking for an opportunity to break out or gather information, and they’re going to need more security on them.”
8-year-old Ella and 15-year-old Dafna were kidnapped to Gaza.
— Yael Bar tur (@yaelbt) October 24, 2023
Look at the terror in their faces. This is what we’re up against. pic.twitter.com/CsPxHpbXhF
Mrs Lifschitz — who was beaten during capture but did not have any visible physical injuries when released — said the terrorists were “friendly in their own way” to the hostages she saw, making sure they had food and proper medical care.
“Hamas looks at [hostages] as currency,” Mr O’Leary explained. “Like a cattle farmer, they want to keep their herd healthy and well-looked-after. And they want to be able to conduct a transaction at some point. But it’s not for any humanitarian reason.”
Both Mrs Lifschitz and her neighbour, 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, were released without their husbands, who remain in captivity in Gaza. Mr O’Leary speculated that such civilian hostages “will be allowed to drip out over time” to delay the Gaza invasion and rehabilitate Hamas’ image.
But Hamas will not unilaterally release the soldier hostages, who are their most valuable bargaining chips, he said.
“Hamas held one Israeli soldier hostage from 2006 to 2011 — and [the terrorists] were able to negotiate the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners,” Mr O’Leary said, referring to the prisoner exchange deal for Israeli Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
Unfortunately, the number of hostages that Israeli and US authorities believe have been taken is likely higher than they’ve said, according to the expert.
“I don’t think the Israeli number [of around 200 hostages] is completely accurate,” he said. “They are putting out what they can confirm, and they are not going to confirm someone is a hostage unless they have information that corroborates that.”
— NY Post
Australia calls for ‘humanitarian pause’
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has called for “humanitarian pauses in hostilities” so aid can be delivered to Gaza.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire and human suffering is widespread,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Australia has consistently called for the protection of civilian lives.
“We have consistently called for safe, unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access, and safe passage for civilians.
“There has been access in recent days but nowhere near enough.
“We call for humanitarian pauses in hostilities, so food, water, medicine and other essential assistance can reach people in desperate need, and so civilians can get to safety.
“The way Israel exercises its right to defend itself matters. It matters to civilians throughout the region, and it matters to Israel’s ongoing security.
“Innocent Palestinian civilians should not suffer because of the outrages perpetrated by Hamas.
“Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people and undermines the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.”
‘Triumph’: Fury over TV interview
UK broadcaster ITV has apologised after airing an interview with a British Palestinian woman for a segment on “Islamophobia”, days after she celebrated the Hamas terror attack as a “homecoming” and “moment of triumph”.
Latifa Abouchakra, a reporter for Iranian state news channel Press TV, was interviewed for the ITV program about her experiences of Islamophobia in the UK, telling the program she had been “called a terrorist” by strangers in the street.
BREAKING 🚨@itvnews platforms Iran propagandist who presents antisemitic programme Palestine Declassified.
— Harry's Place (@hurryupharry) October 23, 2023
Latifa Abouchakra only last week appeared to justify the murder of Israeli civilians who she calls "settlers" and labelled the attacks "the homecoming"
WATCH TO THE END pic.twitter.com/Nw3Gar3XDN
But Jewish groups have blasted the TV channel for “staggering failures of due diligence”, after it emerged Abouchakra had produced a report hailing the October 7 terror attacks as a “homecoming by the Palestinian resistance” and describing the hundreds of hostages as “prisoners of war”.
She also shared a video on Instagram shortly after the attacks, giddily celebrating the massacre. “Nothing will ever be able to take back this moment,” she said.
“This moment of triumph, this moment of resistance, this moment of surprise, this moment of humiliation on behalf of the Zionist entity. Nothing, ever.”
And if anyone was in doubt this is what she said on her Instagram on Oct 7 (the day of the massacres that left more than 1,400 dead and over 200 kidnapped)@mailplushttps://t.co/ei1nIgPXG0pic.twitter.com/NlHqTiXYrr
— Sabrina Miller (@SabriSun_Miller) October 24, 2023
In a letter to ITV, Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the decision to give a platform to Abouchakra was “an astonishingly bad one”.
“As a 20-second internet search could have informed your channel’s researchers, Ms Abouchakra is a reporter for Palestine Declassified, a show produced by Press TV, the state channel of the Iranian regime,” she wrote.
“This was a catastrophic breach of your channel’s journalistic standards. I sincerely hope that your channel will be issuing a public apology for this egregiously incompetent decision.”
ITV News editor Andrew Dagnell apologised in a letter on Tuesday. “Please be reassured that we would not have included the contributor you refer to had we been aware of her previous comments,” he wrote.
“We recognise that better due diligence should have taken place before she was featured. We apologise for this. ITV News London will tighten up the procedures around booking interviewees. ITV News has a responsibility to accuracy and due impartiality. We take these responsibilities particularly seriously while reporting on the situation in Israel and Gaza.”
These fuel tanks are inside Gaza.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 24, 2023
They contain more than 500,000 liters of fuel.
Ask Hamas if you can have some. https://t.co/Dlag6VdbMqpic.twitter.com/WXzZMFr8yI
‘Ask Hamas’: IDF mocks UN fuel warning
Israel has hit back at the United Nations after its Palestinian refugee arm warned it was running out of fuel, telling it to “ask Hamas” for some.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that Gaza was facing a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis after Israel cut off almost all water supplies as well as food, fuel and electricity, warning its crucial aid operations were poised to grind to a halt without fuel.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip as of tomorrow night,” UNRWA wrote on X.
In response, the IDF shared a satellite image of what it claimed were Hamas-controlled fuel supplies. “These fuel tanks are inside Gaza,” it wrote. “They contain more than 500,000 litres of fuel. Ask Hamas if you can have some.”
Although dozens of trucks carrying desperately-needed aid began entering Gaza at the weekend following a US-brokered deal, there were no deliveries on Tuesday, an AFP correspondent at the Rafah border crossing said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also said fuel supplies were critically low. The WHO, which works through UNRWA, said it delivered 34,000 litres of fuel on Monday to four hospitals and the Palestine Red Crescent.
That amount was only enough to keep ambulances and critical hospital functions running for just over 24 hours, the Times of Israel reports.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, claimed the Gaza Strip was hours away from no longer being able to provide any medical services.
“We have reached the stage of complete collapse,” he told Al Jazeera.
UN figures show more than 1.4 million people — out of a total population of 2.4 million — have been displaced within Gaza since the war began, with nearly 590,000 people taking shelter in its schools.
Hostage with arm blown off dragged away
Horrifying footage surfaced on Tuesday showing American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin looking dazed and shocked just moments after Hamas terrorists blew off his arm.
The bone from the young man’s mangled left limb was visibly protruding when he pulled himself into the bed of a truck under gunpoint by Hamas terrorists shortly after they opened fire at the Tribe of Nova music festival in the southern Negev on the morning of October 7, according to video released by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Mr Goldberg-Polin’s arm was blown off when the terrorists lobbed a grenade into a shelter that the festival-goer was taking refuge in during the carnage.
The disturbing footage — which Cooper’s team filmed off the phone of an Israeli soldier who later arrived at the scene — showed several Hamas fighters dragging three other men into the truck with Mr Goldberg-Polin before driving back into Gaza.
Cooper said he realised he had possible footage of Mr Goldberg-Polin’s capture while doing a live remote interview with the 23-year-old’s parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, last week.
He later sent the parents the footage, and they confirmed that the bleeding, stunned-looking young man was indeed their missing son.
“As horrible as it is as a parent to your kid under gunpoint, with one arm … the composure with which he’s walking on his own legs, pulling himself with his one weak hand onto the truck, gave me a real dose of strength,” Mr Polin told Cooper.
— NY Post
This is how Hamas manipulates the world.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 24, 2023
They keep 222 civilians hostage and then make the world believe they are humane.
The worst part is, the world believes. pic.twitter.com/F14YcymGfR
‘Not showing’: Brutal truth of hostage release
Israel has urged the world not to be “manipulated” by Hamas after the Palestinian terror group released two more hostages this week.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, were released on Monday after more than two weeks in captivity. Both of their octogenarian husbands are still in Gaza.
Hamas has now freed four women following the release of an American mother and daughter, Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Raanan, 17, on Friday, for “humanitarian reasons”.
“This is how Hamas manipulates the world,” the IDF captioned a video on X. “They keep 222 civilians hostage and then make the world believe they are humane. The worst part is, the world believes.”
In the video, the IDF urged viewers not to lose sight of the horrific October 7 invasion of southern Israel by Hamas terrorists, who massacred, mutilated, raped and burnt alive more than 1400 people and took hundreds hostage.
“Three weeks before being served coffee for the cameras, these 80-year-old women were brutally abducted from their homes and held hostage in Gaza,” the video said.
“Two may have been released, but 222 are still held hostage. Don’t let Hamas manipulate you.”
PM insists ground offensive ‘is coming’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told troops that the ground offensive into Gaza “is coming”, despite growing signs the long-awaited invasion has stalled.
Mr Netanyahu made the comments on a visit to the IDF’s Yahalom Unit, a special unit of the Combat Engineering Corps, according to a press release from his office on Tuesday.
“I want to tell you where we are at the moment,” he told the troops.
“We are striking the enemy with great force. Yesterday, in our attacks in Gaza, we struck the enemy the harshest blow they have taken in a single day. We killed dozens of terrorists, possibly even more. At this very moment, we are clarifying the exact magnitude of the strike. However, we also know that even as we are active in additional sectors in the north, we are hitting whoever tries to attack us, in Judea and Samaria as well.
“We stand before the next stage, it is coming. You know it and you are part of it — you are part of the vanguard. I greatly appreciate what you know how to do, your fighting spirit, your readiness to save our country from these animals, and I am certain that you will succeed.
“We have only one mission — to smash Hamas. We will not stop until we complete it, with your help. I rely on you — the people of Israel rely on you. I am proud of you and I salute you.”
Why Israel hasn’t invaded yet
Israel has not launched a ground invasion of Gaza, despite announcing its imminence, a delay media reports and experts attribute to international pressure, political-military divisions and concerns over hostages.
Eighteen days after the deadliest attack ever launched into Israel by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas that rules Gaza, the Israeli military is relentlessly pounding the territory. But apart from some relatively minor incursions, the much-vaunted land offensive has not been unleashed.
“There’s a crisis of confidence between [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF,” noted editorial writer Nahum Barnea in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth. “The government is having difficulties taking decisions that everyone agrees on about the top issues.”
According to government and military sources cited by Barnea, “Netanyahu is angry at the generals and blames them for what happened” during what Israelis are calling “the October 7 fiasco”.
Unanimity has brought together the left and right wings of mainstream Israeli politics.
“Disputes over these operations are creating tensions, especially between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant,” wrote columnist Amos Harel in Tuesday’s left-leaning Haaretz daily.
State radio noted “dissent between the premier and senior ranks in the military”, with mutual accusations of failing to prevent the bloody attack by Hamas militants.
Commentators say the fact that official statements often mention convergence of views at the highest level means the opposite, revealing the artificial nature of a united front.
“The Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and the IDF chief of staff are working in close and full co-operation, around the clock, to lead the State of Israel to a decisive victory over Hamas,” said a communique on Tuesday from the Government Press Office.
“There is total and mutual trust between the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and the IDF chief of staff — the unity of the goal is clear.”
Patrick Bettane, an intelligence specialist at Israel’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) think tank, confirmed “disagreement about a ground offensive”.
“But the fact that there are hostages being held in the Gaza Strip complicates everything,” he said. “Israel is waiting to see how this problem can be resolved before it acts.”
Relatives of those seized and taken to Gaza have staged daily demonstrations outside Mr Gallant’s home in Tel Aviv.
Akiva Eldar, an expert on Israeli politics, asserted that “after the emotions aroused by this terrible massacre, Bibi [Netanyahu] and the generals are starting to think differently”.
He said the presence in Israel of US military personnel was aimed at preventing any move that could mean the death of hostages, including Americans.
Political analyst Daniel Bensimon said, “Disagreement or not, it’s a fact that Americans and the Europeans are coming to Israel to caress it with honeyed words with the aim of preventing a ground offensive.”
The @UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN.
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ×רדן (@giladerdan1) October 24, 2023
I call on him to resign immediately.
There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most…
Israel calls on UN head to resign
The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations has called on the head of the international body to resign.
The demand came after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “humanitarian law” was being broken in Gaza and that the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1000 Israelis did not occur in a “vacuum”.
Israel’s ambassador Gilad Erdan said Mr Guterres had shown “understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly,” and so was “not fit to lead the UN”.
“I call on him to resign immediately,” said Mr Erdan.
“There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Israel’s foreign minister has now said he will refuse to meet with Mr Guterres.
“After the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!” Eli Cohen wrote on Twitter, now called X.
The row erupted at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday where Mr Guterres said: “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their lands steadily devolved by settlements and plagued by violence. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
However, he added that it could not justify “the appalling attacks by Hamas”.
Mr Guterres added that there had been “clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza”.
He called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire
Sydney council to fly Palestinian flag
A Sydney council will fly the Palestinian flag until a cease fire is declared — but the same gesture will not be extended to the flag of Israel.
Canterbury-Bankstown Council, in Sydney’s south west, will fly the Palestinian flag from its main administration building in Campsie and at Paul Keating Park in Bankstown.
Labor councillor Karl Saleh introduced the motion at Tuesday evening’s council meeting “in support of the Palestinian people” until “a cease fire is declared”.
“Of course we have no place for anti-Semitism or Islamophobia in our city but let’s not pretend that the Palestinians have only been suffering since the 7th of October this year.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip told the Canterbury-Bankstown Express the move could harm “community cohesion”.
“An act of support for Palestinian civilians caught up in Hamas’ war is understandable but without also condemning the Hamas terror regime, you’re just giving comfort and support to Hamas who have proven to be worse than ISIS”.
‘They will pay’: Top Israeli general speaks
In new remarks, the chief of staff of the IDF, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, has said that: “Israel is in the midst of a war that was launched by the Hamas terror group. (Hamas) already regrets it”.
“We are making use of every minute to be even more prepared. And every minute that passes on the other side, we strike the enemy even more. Killing terrorists, destroying infrastructure, collecting more intelligence for the next stage.
“This war has one address: the Hamas leadership and all those who acted under its command. They will pay the price for what they did.”
Gen Halevi said the IDF was fighting Hamas, not “Gaza’s populace”, and that Israel wanted Gaza’s residents to remain “as unharmed as possible”.
‘Didn’t take it seriously’: Hostage lashes IDF
There is something else worth noting from the remarks of freed Israeli hostage Yocheved Lifschitz, beyond her description of the “hell” she went through in Hamas custody: she accused the IDF of failing to take the threat from Hamas seriously.
Ahead of the October 7 incursion, she said, Hamas had issued a warning by sending “balloons with fire and burning our fields”.
“The IDF didn’t take that seriously,” Ms Lifschitz said.
Israel’s military response to Hamas is one aspect of this story. But as time passes, massive questions will be asked about how the IDF and Israel’s intelligence apparatuses allowed itself to be so catastrophically blindsided.
‘Dangerous juncture’: Global turmoil looms
The war between Israel and Hamas could deal a terrible blow to the global economy, leading figures in the banking industry said at a forum in Saudi Arabia today.
“What’s just happened recently in Israel and Gaza – at the end of the day, you put all this together, and I think the impact on economic development is even more serious,” said the President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga.
“I think we’re at a very dangerous juncture.”
Among the chief risks is that the war draws in other countries, most likely Lebanon, in which the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah wields immense influence.
“If these things are not resolved, it probably means more global terrorism, which means more insecurity, which means more of society is going to be fearful. Less hope. And when there is less hope, we see contractions in our economies,” said Larry Fink CEO of Blackrock.
So throw global economic instability into the soup of potential problems here.
Bold suggestion for alliance against Hamas
French President Emmanuel Macron was the latest Western leader to visit Israel today. He came armed with a bold suggestion: the formation of an international coalition to fight Hamas, similar to the one that was formed to battle the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Indeed he proposed that the existing Global Coalition against Daesh (an alternative name for ISIS) “should also fight against Hamas”.
“We should build a regional and international coalition to battle against terrorist groups that threaten us all,” said Mr Macron.
The anti-ISIS coalition has 86 members, which include both countries and broader groups like the European Union and Arab League.
However he cautioned that any conflict should be conducted under international law.
“The fight must be without mercy, but not without rules,” Mr Macron said.
“Because we are democracies which fight against terrorists, democracies which respect the right to war and assure humanitarian access.”
He also appeared to push Israel towards launching “targeted operations” instead of the full-scale ground invasion of Gaza that’s widely anticipated.
And Mr Macron said the “first objective” must be “the release of all hostages”.
He spoke of the need to “relaunch” the peace process with Palestinians, saying “the Palestinian cause must be heard with reason” and “Israel’s security cannot be sustainable” otherwise.
Speaking alongside the French President, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Israel’s situation to having “ISIS in the suburbs of Paris”.
“We cannot live like that,” he said.
A third of Gaza’s hospitals stop functioning
The World Health Organisation says nearly two-thirds of all the health facilities in Gaza have stopped functioning amid Israel’s continuing bombardment of the Strip.
The WHO identified 72 such facilities, 46 of which have ceased to function. Among them are 12 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals.
The crisis is being blamed not just on the damage from air strikes but on the Strip being starved of fuel and electricity by Israel.
Palestinian death toll rises further
Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas, says the Palestinian death toll has risen to 5,791, including 2,360 children.
It claims that 704 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours.
The figures have not been independently verified.
Hostage reveals life as Hamas captive
An 85-year-old woman taken hostage by Hamas said she had “been through hell” but described some of her Hamas captors as surprisingly “gentle”.
Yocheved Lifschitz was visibly shaken as she fronted the press on Tuesday, explaining her husband was still a hostage inside Gaza.
Her daughter Sharone said she had been beaten with sticks and forced to walk kilometres on wet ground after being taken by Hamas militants on a motorbike on October 7.
Lifschitz said that captives are being forced to sleep on mattresses in tunnels, but admitted Hamas had treated her “gently” with a paramedic regularly coming to bring he medicine.
“They gave us pitta bread, hard cheese, some low fat cream cheese and cucumber and that was our food for the entire day,” she said, adding that the militant group was “really prepared” for the situation.
She also claimed Hamas had sent a warning weeks before the October 7 attacks, sending “balloons with fire and burning our fields”.
“The IDF didn’t take that seriously,” she said.
Hostage rescue groups continue to operate by the minute but information is patchy.
“My father is there. There’s so many other people. We’re waiting for good news about everyone. My heart is with all my friends and loved ones,” Sharone said.
Originally published as Israel-Hamas war, live updates: Israel blocks UN visas after disagreement over ceasefire in Gaza
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