Israel-Hamas war: IDF launches daring night-time raids into Gaza to ‘kill terrorist cells’
With a ground invasion still anticipated, Israel has started to launch daring raids into Gaza with two clear aims.
WARNING: Distressing content
Welcome to our live coverage of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
As Sunday dawned in the Middle East, the Israeli military followed through on a promise to intensify its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, its stated aim being to minimise the threat to its soldiers when they begin an anticipated ground invasion.
Israel has repeatedly warned residents of northern Gaza, of whom there are more than a million, to move south for their safety. According to the United Nations, more than half of the Gazan population is now internally displaced.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to still be in and around Gaza City in the north, as they’re either unwilling or unable to leave.
The IDF has now updated the hostage figure to 222.
More than 4,650 have been killed in Gaza, around 40 percent of them children, the Palestinian health ministry reported on Monday. Thousands of buildings have been destroyed and more than one million people displaced.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled government media office said that “more than 60 were martyred in the raids” during the night - including 17 in a single strike that hit a house in northern Gaza - and at least 10 others were killed in new strikes on Monday morning.
Read on for the latest news.
‘They betrayed us’: Civilian shelter bombed
Reuters has interviewed an 18-year-old Palestinian who says 13 of her family members were killed in an air strike, despite heeding Israeli warnings to move south for their safety.
Dima Al-Lamdani told the news service her immediate family and that of her uncle travelled south from a refugee camp in Gaza City in two cars, ending up at a temporary shelter in Khan Younis, a city in southwestern Gaza, near the border with Egypt.
In the early hours of the morning, the shelter was bombed.
“At 4.30am I was awake and sitting with my aunt drinking coffee. Suddenly I woke up in the middle of ruins. Everyone around me was screaming, so I screamed,” Ms Al-Lamdani said.
After searching for her family members in the morgue, she found that only her brother and two of her young cousins had survived the blast.
“This is a nightmare. It will never be wiped from my memory,” she said.
“I had a sister, 16. They wrote my name on the white sheet they wrapped her body in. They thought it was me.”
Ms Al-Lamdani said the Israelis had “betrayed” her family.
“They told us to evacuate your place and go to Khan Younis, because it is safe,” she said.
“They betrayed us and bombed us.”
In a statement to Reuters, the IDF said: “The IDF has been encouraging residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move southward and not to stay in the vicinity of Hamas terror targets within Gaza City.
“But, ultimately, Hamas has entrenched itself among the civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip. So wherever a Hamas target arises, the IDF will strike at it in order to thwart the terrorist capabilities of the group, while taking feasible precautions to mitigate the harm to uninvolved civilians.”
Daring night-time raids into Gaza
While no official ground invasion has been initiated yet, the IDF today confirmed small strike teams had been operating within the Gaza Strip, launching daring but limited night-time raids to take out Hamas terrorists.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said small “armoured and infantry forces” had been deployed overnight “to kill terrorist cells that are preparing for next phases of war”.
“During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for our next stage in the war,” he said.
“These are raids that go deep.”
The operation was also focused on gathering more information on the 222 hostages still held by Hamas, most of whom are Israeli citizens.
Hospitals operating without painkillers
Aid agencies across the globe have continued calls to cease violence in Gaza, with hospitals now forced to operate without basic painkillers and morphine as casualties stack up.
Aid trucks from various nations have arrived, but there are still fears over civilians getting adequate supplies as Gaza runs out of basic items.
“What is extremely important are the trauma kits, the surgery kits,” the Head of Mission for Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) Leo Cans said.
Doctors working in the warzone are “doing surgical operations without the correct dose of narcotics, without the correct dose of morphine”, according to Cans.
“In terms of pain management, it‘s not happening. We currently have people being operated on without having morphine. It just happened to two kids.We have a lot of kids that are unfortunately among the wounded, and I was discussing with one of our surgeons, who received a 10-year-old yesterday, burnt on 60 per cent of the body surface, and he didn‘t end up having painkillers.
“There is no justification at all to block these essential medicines to reach the population.”
The lack of fuel to power vehicles and generators has also been noted by aid agencies working in the region.
“Fuel is essential for the water plants in order to desalinate to water…If you don’t have fuel, you don‘t have quality water,” Cans said.
“Even war has rules, and you cannot bomb civilians. We have too many children, too many women arriving at the hospital. It is not acceptable.”
IDF confirms raids carried out in Gaza
While no official ground invasion has been initiated yet, the IDF today confirmed small strike teams had been operating within Gaza, launching daring but limited night-time raids to take out Hamas terrorists.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said small “armoured and infantry forces” had been deployed overnight “to kill terrorist cells that are preparing for next phases of war”.
The operation was also focused on gathering more information on the 222 hostages still held by Hamas, most of whom are Israeli citizens.
IDF hits 320 targets in one day
Israeli forces reported they had attacked 320 targets across the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, the IDF said it had targeted Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels and operational headquarters.
The IDF said it had struck critical positions that could “endanger” its forces in a ground invasion.
The Palestinian interior ministry said 17 people were killed and dozens injured by two separate Israeli strikes in northern Gaza.
One missile hit a house in Jabalia, while another hit an apartment in the Al-Faluga neighbourhood early in the day.
A further 10 were killed in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Israel official declares ‘no ceasefire’
A senior Israeli official has announced there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza even as allied nations rally to free hundreds of hostages stuck in the region under siege.
Israel has openly placed the eradication of Hamas at the top of its priority list as multiple calls from humanitarian agencies attempt to stop the violence.
The official, speaking with CNN said they were “not aware” of US calls for a delay to Israel’s expected Gaza ground operation, which has been speculated for over a week.
“Humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas,” the official said.
Reports of explosions near several Gaza hospitals
There have been reports of explosions near several hospitals in Gaza as the city wakes from another night of conflict with Israel.
The hospitals include Al-Shifa, the largest medical complex in Gaza, as well as Al-Quds and the Indonesian Hospital, according to the Reuters news agency citing Palestinian media.
Hamas published a video where it claimed an Israeli airstrike stuck near Al-Quds. It also published pictures of a destroyed building on its Telegram channel, claiming it was behind the Kuwaiti Hospital.
These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Terrorists had ‘cyanide’ instructions
Hamas terrorists killed in the horrific October 7 attack on southern Israel were discovered carrying instructions on how to deploy cyanide-based chemical bombs, Israeli officials revealed.
The directions included detailed diagrams for a “cyanide dispersion device” and were stored in USBs found on the bodies of Hamas operatives who massacred kibbutz Be’eri, according to Israeli intelligence reviewed by Axios.
“This finding points to an intention by Hamas to use chemical weapons as part of its terror attack against civilians,” a cable sent by Israel to its embassies read.
The cable advised the embassies to inform its diplomats that Hamas had been instructed “to conduct attacks in a similar way that ISIS tried to do”.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog confirmed the existence of the instructions during an interview with Sky News on Sunday, disclosing they originated from an al-Qaeda design for chemical weapons dating back to 2003.
“It’s al-Qaeda material. Official al-Qaeda material. We are dealing with ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hamas,” President Herzog said.
“This is how shocking the situation is where we’re looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide.”
Israeli officials have repeatedly compared Hamas to groups like ISIS — a terror group known for using horrifying violence while trying to force extremist Islamic law across the world — since its attack on the Jewish homeland two weeks ago.
“The atrocities carried out by Hamas have not been seen since the atrocities of ISIS,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address shortly after the attack.
“Children bound and executed with the rest of their families, young girls and boys shot in the back, executed, and other atrocities that I will not describe here.”
Hamas even brought ISIS flags to some of the kibbutzs attacked during the ambush, according to images released by Israeli Defense Force soldiers.
Israel has disclosed other pieces of intelligence reportedly found on the bodies of Hamas agents, including battle plans to “kill as many people as possible” and take hostages as they raided and burned civilian villages.
Some plans reportedly included explicit directions to target schools for kidnapping children en masse and pointed out locations where large groups of people were likely to be found like supermarkets and dining halls.
— NY Post
Western leaders reiterate Israel support
US President Joe Biden discussed the Israel-Hamas war on Sunday with leaders of major Western powers, the White House said, as Israel intensified its attacks on Gaza.
Mr Biden spoke with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy, the White House said.
“The leaders reiterated their support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism and called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians,” a White House readout of the discussions said.
It said the leaders discussed their own citizens trapped in the Israel-Hamas war, “in particular those wishing to leave Gaza”.
Fighting raged unchecked and scores more were killed in air strikes by Israel in Gaza as the humanitarian situation in the enclave worsened.
Another convoy of 17 aid trucks arrived in Gaza as the Hamas-run territory faced “catastrophic” shortages.
The readout said the Western leaders voiced commitment to co-ordinate “to ensure sustained and safe access to food, water, medical care, and other assistance required to meet humanitarian needs”.
They also pledged close diplomatic co-ordination “to prevent the conflict from spreading, preserve stability in the Middle East, and work toward a political solution and durable peace”.
In addition to Mr Biden, those on the call included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the White House said.
‘We must deport on a large scale’
Germany must “finally deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay” in the country, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has declared in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests and incidents of anti-Semitism.
Mr Scholz outlined the tougher approach to migrants in an interview with Der Spiegel on Friday, following a trip to Israel where he met with family members of German citizens taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks.
He slammed recent violent anti-Semitic protests, particularly in Berlin, and said Germany stood by its Jewish citizens against those who “unashamedly celebrate the death of those killed in the Hamas terror attack”.
The interviewer asked, “Among those in Germany who harbour hatred for Israel are many people with Arab roots. Did German policymakers ignore for too long the deep hatred entrenched in some groups?”
Mr Scholz denied the issue had been “ignored”, but said going forward “we will now be differentiating even more precisely” who was coming to the country and who was allowed to stay.
He outlined a “package of measures” to reduce the number of people coming to Germany, including working with the European Union to ensure migrants are “fairly distributed”, tighter border controls and winding back cash payments.
“And I haven’t even mentioned one important one yet — we must finally deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay in Germany,” Mr Scholz said, referring to asylum seekers found not to be genuine.
“Those who are not likely to be granted permission to stay in Germany because they cannot claim a need for protection must go back,” he said.
“To make that possible, our public authorities must be reachable around the clock so that someone can actually be deported when the federal police take them into custody … Court proceedings must also speed up. In some states, initial rulings in deportation cases come after four months, while in others, it takes 39 months. That is unacceptable. We have to deport people more often and faster.”
Germany took in more than 1.1 million migrants in the wake of the 2015 crisis.
Growing public discontent has led to a surge in popularity of the far-right AfD party, which recently made unprecedented election gains in the west German states of Hesse and Bavaria, putting pressure on the three-party governing coalition led by Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats.
His government has already signalled it is looking to tighten immigration policy, which is considered by 44 per cent of German voters to the country’s “biggest political problem”, “way ahead of environmental and climate issues (18 per cent) and the cost of living (13 per cent)”, Aston University’s Ed Turner and University of Birmingham’s Julian Hoerner wrote for The Conversation last week.
Diplomat urged Hamas to use paragliders
A former European Union envoy to Gaza is being slammed for allegedly empowering Hamas to use paragliders, the very devices employed by the Palestinian terrorists to invade Israel and kill more than 1400.
Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, a German diplomat, crowed on video in July that he was conducting “the first Gaza paragliding flight in history” as he soared over Gaza’s coast while shouting, “Free Palestine!”
The giddy then-EU envoy told Palestinians in the footage that once they’re free, “You can do exactly the same thing.”
But rather than seeing Palestinians enjoy recreational paragliding as he advocated, such gliders were instead used by Hamas to kill Israelis on October 7.
Israel has since declared war on Hamas and launched devastating airstrikes on Gaza, prompting Mr von Burgsdorff to condemn the Jewish state, claiming it “doesn’t matter what Hamas did”, Israel Hayom reported.
I wonder what the UN Envoy (Sven Kuhn Von Burgsdorf) think now. I think he is a collaborator of Nazi murderers pic.twitter.com/WD7kZTp2Fd
— Ben Caspit בן כספית (@BenCaspit) October 22, 2023
“It cannot be that Israel has carte blanche because terrible acts, cruel and shocking acts happened to 1000 or even 1200 Israelis,” Mr von Burgsdorff said during a recent radio interview. “This is not the excuse you can use to flatten Gaza.”
The former diplomat found himself in the middle of the debate raging around the Israel-Hamas war after the video resurfaced of him taking to the skies over Gaza in July, claiming Palestinians could enjoy things such as paragliding and kayaking if Israel ended its blockade.
Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the spectacle at the time as a form of “provocative” propaganda that only serves to empower Hamas.
“The European diplomat forgot a long time ago that he represents the European Union and its member states,” the ministry said in a statement.
“[He] continues to represent the Palestinian narrative and to be a propaganda tool in the hands of the terrorist organisations that control Gaza.”
A rep for the EU delegation to the Palestinians told Reuters that the paraglider used in the stunt belonged to von Burgsdorff.
Von Burgsdorff left his post in Gaza in August but has continued to voice his opposition to Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory, most recently involving its airstrikes.
With more than 4700 Palestinians killed since October 7, the diplomat said in the radio interview that nothing justified “the use of such deadly force without distinction and proportionality as far as the Palestinian population in Gaza is concerned.
“It cannot be that Israel is threatening to bomb corridors and shipments carrying humanitarian equipment. It cannot be. It is another war crime if it happens,” he added.
He did not condemn Hamas’ attack in Israel that targeted hundreds of innocent civilians, many of them women and children, and also involved the kidnapping more than 200 people, including at least a dozen Americans.
Mr von Burgsdorff could not be immediately reached for comment.
— NY Post
Israel says ‘no ceasefire’ for hostage talks
A senior Israeli official has told CNN there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza amid efforts by US and Qatar to free the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas.
On Friday, Hamas released two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, for “humanitarian reasons”.
Asked on Saturday if the US was encouraging Israel to delay the invasion, US President Joe Biden said, “I’m talking to the Israelis.”
CNN later reported the US was pressing Israel to delay the invasion to allow for the release of more hostages and the transfer of aid into Gaza.
The Israeli official told CNN they were “not aware” of US calls for a delay and said both countries wanted all hostages released “as quickly as possible”.
“Humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas,” the official said.
Elite unit to hunt down terrorists
An elite unit of Israeli agents has been formed to hunt down every Hamas terrorist involved in the heinous October 7 sneak attack on the Jewish state, according to reports.
The specially selected members of Shin Bet, Israel’s version of the FBI, will function independently from other units targeting high-ranking terrorists, the Jerusalem Post said.
The new unit will specifically target members of the special Hamas commando group called Nukhba, which is believed to have pulled off the attack that slaughtered hundreds of innocent Israelis along the country’s border with the Gaza Strip.
The unit is being named after the World War I-era Jewish underground organisation “Nili”, an acronym in Hebrew for “the Eternal One of Israel will not lie”, said the Times of Israel.
Shin Bet and the Israeli Defense Forces were chided in the aftermath of the massacre for being caught off guard.
Shin Bet’s new unit will use intelligence as well as agents in the field to hunt down the estimated 2500 terrorists involved in the attack.
The Israel Defense Forces has already announced the deaths of several Nukhba operatives, including Billal al-Qedra, the head of the terror group’s Khan Younis battalion, and commander Ali Qadhi.
Last week, the Israeli military reported killing 10 Nukhba militants during operations in the Gaza Strip.
— NY Post
Horror evidence from massacre
Graphic images released by Israeli authorities reportedly show the scale and brutality of the October 7 massacre by Hamas, with evidence of civilians tied up and burned alive and multiple victims, including babies, with their heads cut off.
International media were invited to review forensic evidence of the terror attacks at Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, also known as Abu Kabir, in Tel Aviv last week.
Israeli officials allowed the unprecedented access to the facility, where experts have been trying to identify the mutilated and charred remains of hundreds of people slain in the attacks, in the face of denials by Hamas and scepticism online about some of the most horrific allegations, such as babies being beheaded.
One image shown to journalists was of a charred mass of flesh, alongside a CT scan which revealed two spinal columns — belonging to an adult and a child.
Adults and children were bound and burned alive, their bodies charred beyond recognition. pic.twitter.com/a1eEUVw8gl
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) October 22, 2023
They had been bound together by metal wires before being set alight. “On the scanner, we clearly see two spinal columns,” said the centre’s director Hen Kugel.
“That of a man or a woman, and that of a child. The posture of the two bodies shows that the adult tried to protect the child. They were tied up then burned alive.”
Dr Kugel, who was reduced to tears, said officials “decided to show this horror because there are people who accuse us of lying, of telling stories and of actually showing dog bones”.
“I’ve been doing this job for 31 years,” Dr Kugel said. “I’ve never seen such barbarity, such cruelty, such relentlessness. It’s just atrocious.”
Nurit Boublil, head of the genetic identification unit, said more than 500 bodies had been identified out of the hundreds brought to the centre since October 7.
“Everything is made more difficult by the fact that often those who were tortured were tied together,” Dr Boublil said. “It is therefore possible that in a single bag there are two bodies or even three.”
According to members of an international team of forensic pathologists examining the bodies of the victims, Hamas terrorists committed unfathomable atrocities on 10/7. https://t.co/gCnYiS43Kzpic.twitter.com/toI9P2M293
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) October 21, 2023
Dr Kugel said the age of the victims ranged from three months to 90 years old, and that many were without heads.
He told The Media Line they had been decapitated, although admitted that given the state of the bodies it was difficult to tell whether it occurred before or after death and “whether cut off by knife or blown off by RPG”.
“We don’t know how many babies died, or how many elderly people,” Dr Kugel said. “There are also a lot of headless bodies. It will take a little more time to identify everyone.”
Similar work has been ongoing at four other sites in Israel.
One of them is the Shura military base near the central town of Ramla, where refrigerated containers are lined up, each holding up to 50 bodies.
One of the team leaders, Rabbi Israel Weiss, showed the site to a group of journalists.
Rabbi Weiss and other staff said there were signs that many of the victims had been tortured or raped. “Never in my life have I seen the horrors that lie behind us today,” he said.
“I have seen babies, women and men beheaded. I have seen a pregnant woman with her belly torn open and the baby cut out. A lot of the women who were brought here were raped.”
Israel launches new wave of strikes
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it is carrying out a wave of air strikes on Hamas targets inside Gaza.
“The IDF continues to attack dozens of terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip at this time,” the IDF wrote on X, sharing footage of air strikes on Sunday.
צה"ל ממשיך לתקוף בשעה זו עשרות מטרות טרור ברחבי רצועת עזה pic.twitter.com/lDTsFEKXSI
— ×¦×‘× ×”×”×’× ×” לישר×ל (@idfonline) October 22, 2023
The IDF earlier published aerial images showing what it said were Hamas rocket launchers placed near civilian infrastructure including mosques, schools and UN buildings.
“Since the beginning of the war, the Hamas terrorist organisation has been exploiting civilians and civilian sites such as kindergartens, schools, and mosques for the purpose of firing rockets at Israel,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari wrote.
“Hamas deliberately fires its rockets at Israeli civilians.”
The military has pounded Gaza with relentless strikes in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack, killing more than 4650 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced swathes of the densely populated territory to ruins.
The IDF has long accused Hamas of using the people of Gaza as human shields by placing its weapons in or near civilian buildings.
Aerial footage of the strike published by the IDF confirms that a building near the church was targeted, but the church itself was not struck.
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) October 20, 2023
Unlike Hamas terror rockets, the IDF actually aims with precision. pic.twitter.com/vU2vAjI4B1
On Thursday, an Israeli strike destroyed a building in the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City, where several displaced people were reportedly sheltering.
The IDF later released footage of the strike, saying its fighter jets had hit a command-and-control centre involved in launching rockets and mortars towards Israel near the church.
“As a result of the IDF strike, a wall of a church in the area was damaged,” it said. “We are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review.”
The health ministry in Gaza claimed 16 people were killed. Former US politician Justin Amash wrote on X that several of his relatives were among the dead.
US warns against ‘escalation’
The United States warned Iran or its allies against any escalation in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas, two top US officials said on Sunday, hours after the Pentagon moved to step up military readiness in the region.
With tensions mounting, Washington also announced it had ordered non-emergency staff to leave its embassy in Iraq.
“We are concerned at the possibility of Iranian proxies escalating their attacks against our own personnel, our own people,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on CBS News.
“We expect there is a likelihood of escalation. No one should take advantage of this moment to escalate to further attacks on Israel or, for that matter, attacks on us on our personnel.”
Mr Blinken said the United States, which has sent two carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean, was “taking every measure to make sure that we can defend them … and if necessary, respond decisively”.
His words doubled down on an earlier message from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who warned of a “prospect of significant escalation of attacks on our troops” in the region.
Their comments came amid growing fears that pro-Iranian Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, or other groups supported by Tehran, might take advantage of the tense situation over Gaza to enlarge the conflict and further stretch Israel’s military.
But Mr Austin, speaking to ABC News, issued a stern warning.
“If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we see, our advice is — don’t,” he said. “We maintain the right to defend ourselves and we won’t hesitate to take the appropriate action.”
IDF soldier killed as clashes begin
An Israeli soldier has been killed and three others wounded after an ambush by Hamas fighters, in what appears to be one of the first skirmishes inside the Gaza Strip since the war broke out.
The Palestinian terrorist group’s Al-Qassam Brigades said on Sunday its fighters had destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush, forcing the troops to retreat without their vehicles.
“The soldiers of the Zionist force that fell into the Khan Younis ambush left their vehicles and fled east of the fence on foot,” the Al-Qassam Brigades said on social media, CNN reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later confirmed a soldier had been killed and three hurt after they were attacked carrying out an operation on the western side of the Gaza border earlier on Sunday, near the southern Israeli community of Kissufim.
The IDF said Hamas fighters launched an antitank guided missile at an Israeli tank and engineering vehicle, being used as part of the search for bodies of missing Israelis and to clear the area for the upcoming ground offensive, the Times of Israel reported.
“Shots were fired at IDF soldiers operating west of the Gaza Strip security fence, in the area of Kissufim,” the IDF said. “An IDF tank struck the terrorist cell who fired at the soldiers.”
The IDF has launched several raids inside Gaza since the Hamas terror attack on October 7, but clashes had not been reported in previous announcements.
Israel strikes Syrian airports
Israeli strikes on Sunday put out of service war-torn Syria’s two main airports, state media reported citing a military source, with the transport ministry saying flights were re-routed to Latakia.
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 simultaneous strikes have hit the facilities since this month’s conflict between Israel and Hamas began.
“At around 5.25am (1.25pm AEDT), the Israeli enemy carried out … an air attack … targeting Damascus and Aleppo international airports, leading to the death of a civilian worker at Damascus airport and wounding another,” the military source said in the statement carried by state news agency SANA.
The wounded worker later died, state television reported, citing a transport ministry source.
The military source said the “simultaneous” strikes came “from the direction of the Mediterranean west of Latakia and from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan”, according to the statement.
“Material damage to the airports’ runways put them out of service,” the statement added.
The transport ministry said flights were diverted to Latakia airport. Syria’s foreign ministry lambasted the Israel strikes on the airports as well as its assault on Gaza, and criticised the country’s backers in a statement later on Sunday.
Syria “warns of the consequences of continuing these attacks and practises … that could plunge the region into wider spiralling violence that will be difficult to contain,” the statement said.
On October 12, simultaneous strikes knocked both Damascus and Aleppo airports out of service, Syria said at the time.
Last weekend, Israeli strikes targeted Aleppo airport, wounding five people, a war monitor reported, and also putting 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.
‘Mistake of its life’: Netanyahu’s blunt warning
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah that entering the war to help Hamas would be the “mistake of its life”.
Hezbollah, a political party and militant group based in Lebanon, is considered a terrorist organisation by Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and a lengthy list of other nations, including members of the Arab League. The European Union only classifies its military wing as such.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading sporadic fire since the war against Hamas started. Mr Netanyahu’s remarks on Sunday, delivered during a visit to a commando brigade in northern Israel, were aimed at preventing an escalation.
“I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to enter the war fully,” he said, adding that doing so would prompt counterstrikes of “unimaginable” magnitude from Israel and lead to “devastation” in Lebanon.
Mr Netanyahu suggested such a conflict would make Hezbollah “miss” their previous war against Israel in 2006, in which more than a thousand Lebanese citizens were killed and about a million were displaced.
“If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will long for the second Lebanon war. It will be making the mistake of its life,” he said, according to The Times of Israel.
“We will strike it with strength that it cannot even imagine.
“It’s a very difficult thing, but we are in the fight of our life, a fight for our home. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s not an overstatement. That’s this war. It is kill or be killed, and they need to be killed.”
Death toll surges as second aid convoy arrives
According to Gaza’s health ministry, the death toll among Palestinians has risen to 4,651, 40 per cent of whom are children.
That’s in addition to 14,245 people who have been wounded, among whom 70 per cent are claimed to be children or women.
Over the past 24 hours, it is claimed, Israeli strikes killed 266 Palestinians, 117 of whom were children.
Those figures are attributed to a spokesperson for the health ministry, Ashraf Al-Qudra. They have not been independently verified.
Meanwhile a second convoy of aid trucks has arrived at the Rafah crossing, which is the only entry point into Gaza from Egypt and the only route through which aid can reach the Strip.
There appear to be 17 trucks, which follow a convoy of 20 yesterday. Israel has agreed to let aid come through the Rafah crossing but says it will not allow the same via its own border points with Gaza until all hostages are released.
‘Shut up’: Protesters slapped down
Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, has gone on television to say pro-Palestinian protesters attending rallies in the nation to intimidate or express hatred for Jewish people should “shut up”.
He stressed that most protesters were not acting in such a way.
Dr Zomlot’s remarks came the morning after roughly 100,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in the British capital, London.
There have also been demonstrations in Australia, one of which turned ugly when protesters chanted “gas the Jews” in front of the Sydney Opera House.
“This is abhorrent, unacceptable. Those people hijack our cause for their own twisted logic,” the ambassador said of the crowd’s unsavoury elements.
“The Jewish people have nothing to do with it. This is not a religious conflict. Many of those who demonstrated for Palestine yesterday were Jews. Many of those strong voices are the Jewish people defending us.
Those who have hate in their hearts for Jews would have hate in their hearts for Muslims and Christians. We have nothing to do with them and they should shut up.”
Dr Zomlot represents the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is officially recognised as the international spokesman for the Palestinian people. It runs the Palestine National Authority, which governs the West Bank, and is more moderate than Hamas.
During his Sky News interview, Dr Zomlot was asked whether the atrocities committed by Hamas during its attack on Israel had made the PLO’s ultimate goal of a two-state solution “less likely”.
The ambassador responded by accusing “successive Israeli governments”, over a period spanning decades, of “undermining” the two-state solution.
“Now creating a Palestinian state is becoming more and more an impossibility,” he said.
“Hamas, and all other groups, are part of that failure to actually head in the direction we wanted to be heading.
“I think the Israeli unwillingness to really go genuinely on that path has created this situation.
“What Israel is doing right now has nothing to do with Hamas. It’s revenge, and supremacists who want to use the moment to actually finish off (the two-state solution).”
Pressed repeatedly to address Hamas’s actions specifically, he did not.
Dispute over chilling message to civilians
Israel has hit back at claims about the wording of leaflets it dropped into Gaza on Saturday, as part of its continuing warnings that civilians should evacuate south.
The message, bearing the IDF’s logo and written in Arabic, was widely reported as saying: “Urgent warning to residents of Gaza. Your presence north of Wadi Gaza puts your life in danger. Whoever chooses not to leave north Gaza to the south of Wadi Gaza might be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organisation.”
This was taken, by many, to imply that Israel will consider any civilians who remain in northern Gaza “accomplices” of Hamas.
The IDF insists that translation is “imprecise”.
“The translation from Arabic that has now spread across platforms is imprecise,” the IDF said in a statement.
“To clarify, the IDF has no intention of considering those who have yet to evacuate a member of a terrorist group.
“The IDF states, once again, for the safety of Gazan civilians, that they should evacuate to the south of Wadi Gaza.
“All those who remain are endangering themselves due to the Hamas’s terrorist activities within civilian areas.”
Despite its warnings to move south, Israel has continued to launch air strikes in the southern Gaza Strip has well as in the north.
Israel warns it will cut off ‘snake’s head’
A prominent minister in the Israeli government has warned it will attack Iran and cut off “the head of the snake” if Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, joins forces with Hamas.
Hezbollah, a political party and militant group based in Lebanon, is considered a terrorist organisation by Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and a lengthy list of other nations, including members of the Arab League. The European Union only classifies its military wing as such.
Speaking to Britain’s Daily Mail, Israel’s Minister of the Economy, Nir Barkat, expressed his worry that Hezbollah would open up a “northern front” in the war.
He added that Iran’s clerics would be “wiped off the face of the earth” if that happened.
“We will not just retaliate to those fronts, but we will go to the head of the snake, which is Iran,” said Mr Barkat.
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“Israel has a very clear message to our enemies. Look what’s happening in Gaza. You are going to get the same treatment if you attack us.”
He said Lebanon would face a fate “similar to what Hamas is going to pay” if it allowed its territory to be used as a launch pad.
– with AFP
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