Hamas-Israel conflict as it happened: Biden to visit Israel as residents along Lebanon border evacuated; 45 Australians in Gaza

The Israeli military is getting ready for the next phase of its campaign against the Gaza Strip but plans may not conform to widespread expectations of an imminent ground offensive, an army spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht told a regular briefing with reporters.

We haven’t said what they will be.

“Everybody’s talking about the ground offensive.

“It might be something different.”

And that’s where we will end our live coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Recapping events:

• US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday aimed at getting aid to Gaza and prevent the conflict from spreading across the Middle East
• A Hamas video of one its Israeli hostages, Mia Shem, has emerged, as Israel aired a video of atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.
• The Gaza Health Ministry said 2778 Palestinians have been killed and 9700 wounded
• More than 1400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel
• Jordan said Palestinians should not be pushed into Jordan or Egypt and that the issue of refugees was a “red line”
• There are 45 Australians among those trapped in Gaza
• And the first planeload of Australians evacuated from Israel touched down at Sydney Airport via Dubai.

Thank you for joining us today, we will resume our coverage in the morning.

We’ll leave you with these heartwarming photos taken by our photojournalist Wolter Peeters.

Geoffrey Robertson says Hamas’ deadly raids on Southern Israel, including the capture of around 200 hostages, including children and babies, are “obscene” examples of “ongoing war crimes.”

London-based Robertson is one of the world’s celebrity human rights lawyers and was married to the writer Kathy Lette, he has defended Julian Assange, the Australian WikiLeaks founder who is being held in Belmarsh Prison fighting extradition to the United States.

Geoffrey Robertson.Credit: Smart Street Films

Robertson said that Hamas’ actions gave Israel the right to self-defence but said laying siege to the Gaza Strip was not an appropriate response.

“But there are limits obviously to that right, to the time of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, that we find in the bible is long gone,” he said.

“That seems to be, in part, the Israeli reaction and it’s a wrong, unethical reaction.”

Robertson was speaking on Al Jazeera, the Qatari government’s broadcaster. Qatar rejects accusations it supports Hamas.

Photojournalist Wolter Peeters has taken these snaps of the travellers who landed on the Qatar Airways flight at Sydney, via Dubai a short time ago.

The king of Jordan has said that the movements of the Palestinians must be handled in Gaza and the West Bank, stressing that they cannot go to Jordan or Egypt.

Around 2.2 million people live in the Gaza Strip and half have been told to move south as Israel bombards the north in pursuit of Hamas targets.

King Abdullah, speaking alongside Germany’s Olaf Scholz in Berlin, said that pushing Palestinians into Egypt and Jordan should not happen and was a “red line.”

“No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt, this is a situation of humanitarian dimension that has to be dealt with inside Gaza and the West Bank and not to try and push the Palestinian challenge and their future onto other people’s shoulders.”

One-third of Jordan’s population are refugees.

King Abdullah said only a political solution could resolve the crisis.

“The whole region is at the brink of falling into the abyss that this new cycle of death and destruction is pushing us towards.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel.Credit: AP

“Enough is enough, we cannot continue this cycle of violence every single year, unless there is a political horizon that brings Israelis and Palestinians together that then allows Israelis and Arabs to come together then this will be a cycle of violence that none of us can afford,” he said.

Israel has cut off fuel and food deliveries to the area but says it has restored water supplies, under pressure from the United States.

Aid agencies say the situation is untenable and that people are being forced to drink untreated water.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday called for preventing an escalation in the Middle East and warned Hezbollah and Iran against intervening in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“I expressly warn Hezbollah and Iran not to intervene in the conflict,” Scholz told a news conference after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Berlin.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein.Credit: Reuters

Jordan has long been warning that the United States’ retreat from the Middle East was unsustainable.

The country’s king has been on a diplomatic tour of Europe, meeting world leaders, and on the weekend was in London to meet the UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

with Reuters

The first flight of Australians evacuated from Israel has just touched down in Australia.

Qatar Airways flight QR7424, a government-assisted flight from Dubai, landed in Sydney a few moments ago.

Travellers are reunited with family as they arrive at Sydney Airport from Israel via Dubai on a government assisted Qatar flight QR7424.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Family and friends are waiting at the terminal, including grandparents Dina and Shai Tahlei, who are expecting two of their three grandchildren to soon arrive.

The 13- and 16-year-old grandchildren left behind their sibling and parents.

Their father is a high school teacher in the north of Israel and was not able to leave.

“They were really protected by the Australian government, the whole way [home],” Dina said. She said the children were showered with treats onboard the flights.

Qatar provided the flights for free in partnership with Virgin. Virgin will provide further free domestic travel for anyone who does not live in Sydney.

Good evening. Thank you for joining our live coverage of the crisis in Israel and Gaza. I’m Ben Cubby and I’ll now be handing over to my colleague Latika Bourke to take you through this evening’s news.

Here are the day’s main headlines so far:

• Heavy bombing continued in Gaza, where over 2800 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded. There are 45 Australians among those trapped in the walled enclave as the humanitarian crisis deepens.
• US President Joe Biden is set to visit Israel and Jordan on Wednesday, to voice support from Israel and work to prevent the conflict spreading.
• Iran has said there may be “pre-emptive action” against Israel from its network of militants including Hezbollah, which is based to Israel’s north in Lebanon.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israelis had agreed to develop a plan to get aid into Gaza, as aid convoys are held up at Rafah, on the territory’s southern border with Egypt.
• A Hamas video of one its Israeli hostages, Mia Shem, has emerged, as Israel aired a video of atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.
• Australians are scheduled to arrive home from Israel aboard a Qatar Airways flight into Sydney this evening.

NSW Police have released the images of five people at a pro-Palestine protest at Sydney’s Opera House alleging they could have information about an assault on an Israeli supporter who confronted the demonstration.

The 45-year-old man began arguing with a group of men supporting Palestine about 7:30pm on Monday 9 October as the conflict erupted in the Middle East.

NSW Police have released photographs of five people they say could have information about an alleged assault during a pro-Palestine rally at the Opera House on October 9.Credit: NSW Police

Police allege the Israel supporter was assaulted and spat on during the argument, before officers intervened to disperse the group.

The man later reported the assault to Maroubra Police.

Strike Force Mealing, set up to investigate the protest, released CCTV images of five people on Tuesday who they believe could “assist with their investigation”. The Herald is not suggesting that these individuals have done anything unlawful, simply that the police believe they may have information about the alleged assault.

Read the full story here.

A shoot-out between Israeli cops and Palestinian terrorists. Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Kill or be killed. Daniel Damri’s story of October 7 sounds like a video game. But as he recounts his survival to us from his hospital bed it was clear this wasn’t virtual reality, it was reality. The limitless barbarity and bravery of which mankind is capable is on gruesome display, here in the dusty plains of the Negev Desert.

Police officer Daniel Damri recovers from six bullet wounds in the Soroka Medical Centre.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Damri’s plan for Saturday was simple: to relax with his wife and three young children in their hometown of Be’er Sheva, a city of 213,000 people in southern Israel. It was Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, and the 32-year-old police special forces officer was not rostered to work. The perfect day for a hike and a trip to the playground.

This tranquil vision was shattered when he awoke at 6:30 am to the wailing cry of air raid sirens.

Read the full report from Matthew Knott and Kate Geraghty, who are on the ground in southern Israel, here.

Trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip arrived on Tuesday at the only border crossing into the territory not controlled by Israel, a witness and Egyptian security sources said, after the US said it was developing with Israel a plan for aid delivery.

Egypt says the Rafah crossing, a vital artery before the fighting and now a key route for desperately needed supplies into the Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave, had not been officially closed but was made inoperable due to Israeli air strikes on the Gaza side.

A convoy of air trucks at the Egyptian border with Gaza, near Rafah.Credit: Getty Images

On Monday, local media and Egyptian security sources said that Israel had struck the vicinity of the crossing in Gaza. Two of the sources said the aid deliveries were now waiting for the Gaza side of the border to open and for assurances of safe passage before entering the crossing.

Some 160 trucks left al-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula in the early hours of Tuesday, where hundreds of tonnes of aid has been awaiting an agreement on aid delivery, the witness told Reuters.

Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been left without power, pushing health and water services to the brink of collapse, with fuel for hospital generators running low.

After nine hours of negotiations, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he had agreed with Israel “to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organisations to reach civilians in Gaza”.

An understanding was reached that the aid would be delivered to specific secure locations in Gaza under monitoring, the Egyptian security sources said, in exchange for limited evacuations of foreign passport holders.

Reuters