Operation Iron Swords - Day 22 - 29 October 2023

Palestinian armed group Hamas launched thousands of missiles at Israel and deployed its militants to infiltrate Jewish settlements near the country’s border with Gaza on 07 October 2023. The 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day would be the equivalent of 36,000 Americans killed in an attack, as a proportion to Israel’s population of 9.3 million people (compared to 332 million in the USA). Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated: “Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in one day". PM Netanyahu stated "On October 7th, Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis. Maybe more. This is in a country of fewer than 10 million people. This would be equivalent to over 50,000 Americans murdered in a single day. That’s twenty 9/11s. That is why October 7th is another day that will live in infamy."

Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs

On the 23rd day of the war on Gaza, Israeli raids claimed dozens of martyrs in several areas of the besieged Strip. The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the number of martyrs in Gaza had risen to 8,005, including 3,342 children, 2,062 women, and 460 elderly people, in addition to over 20,242 wounded. More than 1,650 were missing and presumed buried undre rubble, including 940 children. On the West bank, at least 112 Palestinians had been killed, and more than 1,900 injured. IDF said it was holding 1,500 bodies of terrorists.

More than 1,405 Israelis were killed as a result of HAMAS attacks, including 311 soldiers and officers, according to what was announced by the Israeli army, in addition to over 5,431 wounded.

Some 230 hostages are being held by militants in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli army. Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said “almost 50” hostages had been killed in Israeli bombing raids in the three weeks since the war began. About 100 Israelis remained missing.

By one estimate, over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. More Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank led to the arrests of dozens of Palestinians, and the number held in Israeli jails has more than doubled to about 10,000 since the Hamas attack on October 7. Israeis jails initially held about 4,000 prisoners from Gaza, and more than 1,550 from the West Bank.

Thousands of Palestinians whose permits to work in Israel were revoked are believed to be held in detention camps, but Israel has so far refused to release information about them, human rights groups say. About 18,500 residents of Gaza held permits to work outside the besieged strip. On October 10, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) revoked all work permits it had previously issued to Gaza residents, instantly turning permit-holders into “illegal aliens”. The Minister of Labour for the Palestinian Authority estimated that about 4,500 workers were unaccounted for and are believed to have been detained by Israeli forces.

The Al-Qassam Brigades had previously confirmed that the price for the release of its detainees was the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, and the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar , announced that the movement was immediately ready for a deal to exchange Israeli prisoners for all Palestinian prisoners held by the occupation. On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his forces had begun the second phase of the war by launching ground operations, but he and other Israeli officials pointed to ongoing talks regarding a possible exchange of prisoners.

Representatives of the families of Israeli prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip said that they asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return their families before any ground operation, stressing their acceptance of an exchange deal based on the principle of "all for all." They added in a press conference in front of the Tel Aviv Museum on Saturday evening that they asked Netanyahu to take the fate of these people into consideration when planning any action, and that they informed him that the prisoner exchange deal would receive great support, and they held the government alone responsible for the safety of their families.

They also confirmed that they asked Netanyahu to take into account a possible deal to exchange prisoners from both sides, and informed him that it would enjoy broad national support, and that they hoped it would take place soon.

Operational Update

Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council's Middle East Program, wrote, "there remains an open question still as to what the size and scope [of the ground offensive] will be." "Does this mark the beginning of a full-scale ground invasion or is this preparation for a more focused, smaller-footprint counterinsurgency operation?" he asked. "In the coming days, Jerusalem's decision as to what kind of operation to undertake may be revealed." Although much is still unclear at this point, experts seem to be aligned on at least one thing: Israel's military effort to "decimate Hamas" will probably be long — "measured in weeks or months, not days," Panikoff wrote.

It was unclear how much resistance Israeli troops have gotten from Hamas militants. Hamas said its fighters were engaged in “heavy fighting” in Gaza where Israel has escalated ground operations, The Al- Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) - announced that it was confronting a new Israeli incursion attempt into northern Gaza, and that its members carried out a landing operation behind the occupation army’s concentration lines, near the Erez crossing, and engaged in clashes with Israeli soldiers and destroyed military vehicles.

Hamas's armed wing said its fighters were engaged in "heavy fighting" with Israeli forces in Gaza after Israeli military deployed more ground forces across the Palestinian territory. "Our fighters are currently engaged in heavy fighting with machine-guns and anti-tank weapons with the invading occupation (Israeli) forces in northwest Gaza," the Qassam Brigades said in a statement. In an earlier statement the group said two Israeli tanks had caught fire after they were targeted by its fighters, a claim which the army has not confirmed.

The UN human rights chief warned that bombing the telecommunications infrastructure places civilians in the Gaza Strip in grave danger. "Last night’s bombardment and ground operations in Gaza by Israeli forces were reportedly the most intensive yet, taking this terrible crisis to a new level of violence and pain," Volker Turk said in a statement. "Compounding the misery and suffering of civilians, Israeli strikes on telecommunications installations and subsequent Internet shutdown have effectively left Gazans with no way of knowing what is happening across Gaza and cut them off from the outside world," said Turk.

Gaza had been under a near-total communications blackout for nearly 36 hours following Israeli air attacks on Friday that Palestinian telecoms providers said knocked out communications lines and towers. The destruction of communication nodes and the use of electronic countermeasures to block any remaining public lines that survived will not harm Hamas fighters who, knowing Israeli tactics and capabilities, appear to have prepared for this course of action. Palestinian sources claim that Hamas installed “Israel-proof” communications infrastructure in its extensive network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip. It allegedly laid tens of kilometres of cables with strong electromagnetic shielding to prevent the detection and interception of signals.

Installed in the most modern tunnels, set in much deeper, they are almost fully secure from prying Israelis. The cables emit a minimum amount of electromagnetic radiation, and the great depth practically prevents detection and signal interception. These new, secure, means of communications may explain how Hamas managed to keep its plans for the October 7 attack secret.

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stated that his forces were specifically targeting the tunnels. Israel claimed it hit more than 150 underground targets, but this claim must be taken with a pinch of salt. Buildings hiding tunnel entrances, maybe; 150 tunnels, maybe not. Internet and phone services were returning to Gaza following a communications blackout that humanitarian groups had warned could be used as a cover for war crimes. Paltel Group, which provides communications services in Gaza, said that landline, mobile and internet services were gradually being restored after being disrupted by “ongoing aggression.”

Israel has begun a ground offensive into Gaza, but it was unclear whether the maneuvers mark the official start of an invasion. The still-ongoing attack seemed to some not to be the “‘Big One”. But as an obvious extension of the previous two incursions into Gaza, it may be a precursor to an all-out offensive. Israeli forces hit public telecom infrastructure and Gaza is now under an almost total communications blackout. The only means to get information out to the world are the few remaining satellite telephones, but those could be targeted at any time.

It could be the start of a series of small incursions, she said, with a big invasion planned further down the line — or not at all, depending on how sentiment continues to develop among allies and Israelis themselves. Over the past three weeks since Netanyahu first announced his plans to facilitate a full-scale ground invasion — an outcome many saw as inevitable — morale had changed. Feelings among the Israeli population had shifted since the October 7 attacks. A poll suggested the population is not as much in favor of a full-scale invasion as they were two weeks ago.

Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, said: “The objectives of this war require a ground operation - the best soldiers are now operating in Gaza”. The Chief of Staff in a conversation with female fighters and artillerymen : The IDF is now focused on only one thing - victory, dismantling Hamas, hitting as many enemy commanders as possible, as many enemy fighters as possible, as much enemy infrastructure as possible."

Commander of the Home Front Command, Major General Rafi Milo: "We have finished the first phase of the war, we have moved to the second phase of the attack, which will continue and intensify. This war will be long - weeks and months. On that Saturday, October 7, I am aware that the personal security of many Israeli citizens was compromised. We are together With the citizens of the State of Israel, together with you."

Armored, Combat Engineering and infantry IDF forces have been operating in the northern Gaza Strip. IDF soldiers identified terrorist cells attempting to launch anti-tank missiles and mortar shells and struck them. An IDF UAV located and struck Hamas terrorists in a structure rigged with explosives. IDF tanks directed IAF helicopters toward a Hamas operational meeting point, which the helicopters struck. Several terrorist cells attempted to fire anti-tank missiles at the soldiers. The soldiers neutralized the cells. As part of the expansion of the activity of the ground forces, the combined combat teams attacked terrorist squads that tried to attack the forces and squads that planned to fire anti-tank weapons and also directed aircraft at targets from the ground.

The Israeli army has raised the number of troops fighting inside Gaza, a spokesman has said as the military stepped up its attacks against the Palestinian territory. "Overnight we increased the entry of IDF forces into the (Gaza) Strip, and they joined the forces already fighting there," army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing. "We're gradually expanding the ground activities and the extent of our forces in the Gaza Strip," Hagari said. The IDF was progressing through the stages of the war according to plan. The operations on the ground are complex and include risks to Israeli forces. The IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Daniel Hagari said the IDF "will do everything we can from the air, sea and land to ensure the safety of our forces and achieve the goals of the war."

The IDF continued to attack and eliminate terrorists in the Gaza Strip, IDF fighters operating near the Erez crossing identified a number of terrorists who came out of a tunnel shaft in the Gaza Strip, after the identification the fighters engaged in a battle against them, killing a number of terrorists and injuring others. At the same time, several other battles took place in which terrorists were eliminated.

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 450 targets over the past 24 hours, including Hamas command centres, observation posts and antitank missile launching positions. It said more ground forces were sent into Gaza overnight.

In response to the fire from Lebanon toward the northern border, during the night the IDF struck military targets, infrastructure and posts belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization. The Hezbollah terrorist organization continues to operate against us in the north and the IDF are striking all those who are acting against us. Any Hezbollah terrorist cell that comes near the fence will be struck.

The IDF and ISA reveal additional evidence of Hamas' use of the Shifa Hospital for terrorist activity in footage from ISA interrogations of two terrorists regarding Hamas' use of hospitals. The two terrorists were involved in the brutal massacre on October 7th in southern Israel: It should be noted that the IDF and ISA have also shared more intelligence on the subject with Western officials in the intelligence community.

Following the initial report regarding sirens that sounded in northern Israel, three launches were identified from Lebanese territory toward Israel. The launches fell in open areas. In response, the IDF struck Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon. Following the initial report regarding sirens that sounded in northern Israel, several anti-tank missile and mortar shell launches were identified from Lebanese territory toward Israel, including IDF posts along the border. The launches fell in open areas. IDF tanks and artillery responded with fire toward the origin of the launches and striking Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon.

An IDF aircraft attacked targets of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanese territory, in response to launches towards the territory of the State of Israel earlier today. Among the targets that were attacked, infrastructures for directing terrorism and military infrastructures of the organization.

Since the beginning of the fighting, the IDF forces under the Northern Command have foiled terrorist squads in Lebanon, most of them before completing their mission and firing into the country. Infantry forces, commandos, tanks and artillery alongside Air Force aircraft, continue to be at a high level of defense readiness and work at all times to remove the threat . The IDF forces continue defensive activities alongside preparations to carry out additional operational plans.

Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes near Gaza's largest hospital, which is packed with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter, residents said. Israel has said Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have a command post under the hospital, without providing much evidence.

The cities of the West Bank witnessed escalating attacks by the Israeli occupation forces, which resulted in the death of 3 martyrs, coinciding with attacks by groups of settlers that - under the protection of the occupation soldiers - targeted a number of areas in the West Bank, while demonstrations took place in various parts in support of Gaza.

Israeli forces escalated the incursions into West Bank cities and camps, as it blew up a house in the old Askar camp in Nablus , while its incursion into the Jenin camp was met with violent clashes from the Jenin Brigade, which announced the targeting of its vehicles and the downing of its drone, along with Nablus and Jenin. The occupation stormed the cities of Ramallah, Tubas, Bethlehem, and Tulkarm, causing martyrs and wounded.

The Israelis also stormed several neighborhoods in the city of Jenin , sirens sounded in the city, and violent clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli special forces and military patrols that stormed the city. The clashes resulted in 4 Palestinians being injured by occupation bullets.

The Jenin Battalion said that it was engaged in clashes with the occupation forces in the Al-Marah neighborhood in the city of Jenin, adding that it directly targeted the occupation army and a number of vehicles storming the town of Silat Al-Harithiya, west of the city. The battalion also confirmed that it was able to shoot down a drone during the ongoing clashes in the city of Jenin, before Israeli army vehicles began to leave the Jenin camp,

Explosions sounded and clashes broke out between Palestinian youths and the occupation forces that stormed the Askar camp. The confrontations resulted in 8 Palestinians being injured by live bullets, one of them seriously injured.

Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health announced the death of a Palestinian by gunfire from an Israeli settler in the Nablus area, while a settler leader said that the shooter was an off-duty soldier. The ministry said in a statement that Bilal Abu Saleh (40 years old) "died from serious wounds sustained by a bullet in the chest fired at him by a colonialist in the town of Al-Sawiya" near Nablus. The mayor of Al-Sawiya, Mahmoud Hassan, told Agence France-Presse that Bilal Abu Saleh was killed while he was picking olives with members of his family on their land located near the security fence surrounding the Israeli settlement of Rushalaym.

The Interior Ministry in Palestine's Gaza stated that Israel continues to cut off electricity, potable water, fuel and food supplies to the region, resulting in a catastrophic situation in the bombarded Gaza. Iyad al Buzm, the ministry's spokesperson, said in a press conference: "The occupier continues to cut off electricity, potable water, fuel, medicine and food supplies to the strip in a fierce war that exceeds the Holocaust." He added: "Gaza is in dire need of fuel to operate hospital generators, potable water filtration stations, bakeries, ambulances and civil defence vehicles."

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile, the first time it has announced such an incident, as clashes on the Lebanese border escalate. The drone was hit near Khiam, about 5 km (3 miles) from the border with Israel, and was seen falling in Israeli territory, Hezbolla added. Two security sources in Lebanon said it was the first time Hezbollah had announced downing an Israeli drone. "They have insinuated they have this capability but it is the first time they declare they have this kind of capability to shoot down a drone," Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center said.

Israel will take major casualties in Gaza and if Lebanon's Hezbollah enters into all-out conflict, Israel will have to accept "a scale of destruction that it has never experienced before," experts said. Jonathan Rynhold, a specialist on the Israel-Palestine conflict at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said Israel will have to be ready for major casualties which will be worse if Hezbollah turns its near-daily artillery exchanges with Israel into all-out conflict. Israeli troops have been given special training for urban warfare in the Palestinian territory's narrow rubble-strewn streets and huge network of Hamas underground tunnels.

"If Israel follows through on the stated aim of destroying Hamas military capabilities in the Gaza Strip and overthrowing its regime, then the scale and length of this war will be much bigger and much longer" than the four previous fightings in Gaza since 2005, the longest of which lasted seven weeks, said Rynhold.

The expansion of ground of operations "will be the critical moment as to whether a second front opens with Hezbollah and that is a higher risk" than in previous wars, he added. Open conflict with Hezbollah could drag in the United States and would mean Israel having to accept "a scale of destruction that it has never experienced before," Rynhold said.

H.A. Hellyer, a security specialist for the Royal United Services Institute in London, said that Israel is not doing enough to head off new war fronts. "There is a risk of extension of the conflict," he said. "Israel is prioritising revenge and retaliation over all else, as far as we can see from the statements of senior Israeli officials."

Israel's reputation "depends on its projection of strength, its swagger," said Laura Blumenfeld, a former US State Department adviser on Israel-Palestine negotiations and now a security specialist at Johns Hopkins University. If the war tarnishes "its sheen of deterrence" it will look "weak" before its rivals and countries that might be considering normalising ties, she added.

Rynhold said: "It is not that Israel will lose but that the price of victory will be very high."

Bystanders

The International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor Karim Khan told a news conference in the Egyptian capital Cairo that Israel must make “discernible efforts” to ensure civilians get basic food and medicine. In a video statement posted earlier on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Khan warned that curtailment of those rights could give rise to “criminal responsibility” under the Rome Statute. “There should not be any impediment to humanitarian relief supplies going to children, to women and men, civilians,” Khan said in the video from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

“They are innocent, they have rights under international humanitarian law,” Khan added. “These rights are part of the Geneva Conventions, and they give rise to even criminal responsibility when these rights are curtailed under the Rome Statute.” Oxfam said Israel was using “starvation as a weapon of war” in Gaza, noting that since the war began, Gaza has received only 2 percent of the food it normally would have seen delivered.

Khan said the court had “active investigations ongoing” in relation to “crimes allegedly committed in Israel on October 7, and also in relation to Gaza and the West Bank in our jurisdiction, going back to 2014”. “We are independently looking at the situation in Palestine, we are looking at events in Israel and the allegations that Palestinian nationals have also committed crimes,” Khan said.

UN officials criticized the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip and the cutting off of communications, and warned of the consequences for civilians, while Egypt accused Israel of obstructing the entry of international aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing . The Arab Gulf states also warned of the repercussions of Israeli ground operations in Gaza.

“The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk said that the intensification of the Israeli bombing of Gaza yesterday brought the "terrible" crisis to a new level of violence. He added that bombing communications infrastructure exposes the civilian population to grave danger. Turk explained that the ambulance and civil defense teams were no longer able to locate the injured, suggesting that thousands of people were likely under the rubble. He said that the humanitarian consequences would be devastating and long-lasting, calling for every effort to be made to calm the conflict.

In the same context, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees ( UNRWA ) said that communication is still cut off with the vast majority of the agency’s team in the Gaza Strip. He added, in a letter addressed to the agency’s staff in the Strip, that cutting off communications is another measure to attempt to impede the humanitarian response to civilians in Gaza. He also stressed that cutting off communications will not discourage the agency and it will continue to fulfill its humanitarian duty in the face of these unprecedented challenges.

The United Nations relief agency says thousands of Palestinians, desperate due to three weeks of total siege and bombing, broke into several of its warehouses in the Gaza Strip, taking wheat, flour and other basic goods. “This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege,” said Thomas White, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza.

Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the agency, said the crowds broke into a total of four facilities on Saturday. She said the warehouses did not contain any fuel, which has been in critically short supply since Israel cut off all shipments after the start of the war. One of the warehouses pillaged is located in Deir el-Balah, where UNRWA stores supplies from the humanitarian convoys crossing into Gaza from Egypt.

Publishing unsubstantiated claims, telling only one side of the story, and painting Palestinians as nothing more than objects in Hamas’s hands are all unprofessional mistakes Western media makes while covering the conflict between Israel and Hamas, media experts and Arab journalists say. Experts and journalists who spoke to Al Jazeera said the systemic “bias in favour of Israel” is “irreparably damaging” the credibility of news agencies considered “mainstream” in the eyes of Arabs and others. Western correspondents have gone to Israel where they reported extensively on the grief of Israeli families, but Israel has not allowed foreign journalists to enter Gaza, which means they’re missing a vital aspect of the story.

Palestinians invited to speak to Western news channels are frequently asked if they “condemn Hamas”, while Israeli guests are seldom asked to condemn their government’s apartheid policies in the occupied West Bank or its siege and bombardment of Gaza, experts told Al Jazeera.

Unsubstantiated claims made by Israeli parties have made their way to the front pages of Western news agencies, according to the experts Al Jazeera spoke to. A recent example was the oft-reported claim that Hamas “beheaded 40 babies”. Despite the lack of evidence, the allegations were reported by The Independent, CNN, Fox News and the New York Post. Even United States President Joe Biden implied he had seen pictures of dismembered babies on October 12. The White House later walked back his comments, saying Biden had seen no such images, and that he had seen news reports.

Journalists at the BBC are understood to have objected to the United Kingdom broadcaster’s framing of the war in Gaza. While the BBC has used words such as “massacre”, “slaughter” and “atrocities” when describing Hamas’s attack on Israel, it has refrained from describing Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in a similarly negative way, according to an email that staff at the network sent to Director-General Tim Davie, the UK’s Times reported.

Tommaso Della Longa, Spokesman, Intl. Fed. of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies said how his colleagues move around with ambulances, “just with the idea of finding the injured”. He added that they “did it the old way”, by following the sound of bombardments and then going to the specific area to see if they could find wounded individuals.

“The Israeli army deliberately continues to launch rockets directly near al-Quds hospital with the aim of forcing medical staff, displaced individuals and patients to evacuate the hospital,” the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement. “This has caused significant damage to hospital departments and exposed residents and patients to suffocation,” the statement added.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it has received warnings from Israeli authorities to immediately evacuate al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip. "Since this morning, there has been raids 50 meters away from the hospital," it added in a statement on Facebook. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that reports the Palestinian Red Crescent had received warnings from Israeli authorities to immediately evacuate al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip were "deeply concerning". "The Palestinian Red Crescent report of evacuation threats to Al-Quds hospital in Gaza is deeply concerning," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media platform X. "We reiterate - it's impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives."

Norway’s prime minister said that the Israeli army’s response to the deadly Hamas attack was disproportionate and denounced a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza. “International law stipulates that it (the reaction) must be proportionate. Civilians must be taken into account, and humanitarian law is very clear on this. I think this limit has been largely exceeded,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on NRK public radio. “Almost half of the thousands of people killed are children,” he added. “Israel has the right to defend itself, and I recognize that it is very difficult to defend against attacks from an area as densely populated as Gaza,” Store said.

Norway was involved in the secret negotiations that led to the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993. Norway voted in favor of a non-binding UN resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities”.

With Gaza's hospitals and food supplies devastated, Israel's Arab neighbours worry that the images of Palestinian suffering could trigger a pro-Hamas backlash in their own countries. With Gaza's hospitals and food supplies devastated, Israel's Arab neighbours worry that the images of Palestinian suffering could trigger a pro-Hamas backlash in their own countries. The United States and the European powers have given Netanyahu strong support while urging him to limit the civilian casualties that fuel Arab anger, and open up Gaza to more humanitarian aid.

Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, said Hamas is "probably a lot more popular today" in the Arab region than before its unprecedented raid on Israel.

Spain's acting social rights minister urged Europe to act urgently against "planned genocide" in Palestine. Ione Belarra's remarks came in a video shared on her X account, in which she spoke to reporters during a pro-Palestine protest in Madrid. "Today we are here accompanying all the decent people of our country and also all those people throughout Europe who want to ask and demand an end once and for all to this planned genocide, this ethnic cleansing of the people of Palestine that is being carried out by the State of Israel,” Belarra said.

Axis of Resistance

The ground operations have heightened fears that Israel’s other enemies -- the Iran-allied “axis of resistance” forces in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen -- could enter the conflict. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi warned on X, formerly Twitter, that Israel’s “crimes have crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action”.

“Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel,” he said. “The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield,” he said, using a term often used by Iranian officials to refer to a network of regional militant groups supported by Tehran. This network includes organizations like the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as various militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthi militia in Yemen.

Although it was not immediately clear what Raisi was referring to, there have been a string of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria as well as increasing exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon border since the Gaza conflict began. Iran, which financially and militarily backs Hamas, hailed the October 7 attacks as a “success.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian described claims that Iran was directly connected to Hamas's October 7 attack as "baseless". "We always had political, media and international support for Palestine. We have never denied this," Amirabdollahian said during an appearance on CNN. "This is the truth, but in relation to this operation called the Al Aqsa Storm, there was no connection to that data between Iran and this Hamas operation, not my government nor part of my country."

Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad called on the international community to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza from Egypt, specifically medical equipment and fuel, as he spoke to reporters in Beirut. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza becoming increasingly dire as Israel entered a new phase of its war on Hamas, expanding its ground attacks after blacking out nearly all communication in the Gaza Strip with increased bombardment and artillery fire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is trying to persuade Israel to abandon its "scorched earth" strategy because "it is impossible to destroy" Hamas without destroying Gaza with the majority of the civilian population. In an interview with the Belarusian state news agency Belta, Lavrov said the reason for the current escalation on the Palestinian territories is a direct consequence of the failure to create a Palestinian state. The minister assessed as "unreal" the prospects of direct Palestinian-Israeli talks.

Türkiye rejected the "slander and baseless allegations" by some Israeli officials against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Foreign Ministry said. "The efforts of some Israeli officials, who cannot tolerate even the expression of the truth and facts, to change the agenda accompanied by distortions and slanders in the hope of covering up the brutal massacre targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza, will not yield results," the ministry stressed in a statement. "The targeting of the UN, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by these authorities, who have committed a crime against humanity in front of the whole world but cannot even tolerate criticism and condemnation, is a clear indication of the weakness they have fallen into," it said.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Mayadeen that Iraq unequivocally stands with occupied Palestine in light of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. amas top official Osama Hamdan, currently in Baghdad, met with leaders of resistance factions and influential figures and discussed Iraq's unwavering support for the Palestinian cause, especially during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Hamdan explained the reasons behind recent developments and shared the positions of prominent figures like Sayyed Ali Sistani and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani. They also emphasized the Palestinian people's right to resist and the readiness of the resistance factions to respond to any American intervention.

Hamdan expressed hope that Iraq would play a role in the Palestinian cause, emphasizing: "We have confidence in it as a vanguard in case the aggression escalates. Iraq's stance is exemplary, and it requires support in all its forms." "In the early days, the US attempted to build a regional alliance against the Palestinian people," he said. "Political positions, including Iraq's, played a role in thwarting this US plot, and Iraq made efforts to clarify the situation."

The Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and the Injured affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) described the news coming from within the Israeli occupation's prisons regarding the level of systematic crimes carried out against Palestinian prisoners as "horrifying". The office condemned the continued aggression perpetrated against prisoners since October 7th with ongoing acts of abuse and retaliatory measures. The office added that the occupation has deliberated on assassinating prisoners through punitive measures taken by the prison administration, pointing to the increasing number of martyrs as evidence of that.

The Secretary-General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is set to deliver a televised speech on Friday, November 3, at three o’clock in the afternoon, during a ceremony honoring the martyrs “on the road to al-Quds." It will be the speech by Sayyed Nasrallah since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa flood, while Israeli media continues to analyze the reasons behind the Secretary-General's silence.

"Nasrallah is hinting that he is in the picture... wait and see what's coming," Yaron Schneider, Israeli Channel 12 commentator on Arab affairs, suggested Schneider also noted that "Israel" has been receiving a lot of signals from Hezbollah in recent days, indicating they are on the brink of more intense involvement than previously seen. "While there has been no clear statement, no explicit declaration from Nasrallah, there has only been the remark that [fallen] Hezbollah fighters are martyrs on the road to Al-Quds," Schneider said.

A Member of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Loyalty to the Resistance, MP Hassan Fadlallah, declared that Sayyed Nasrallah is actively monitoring the developing situation in real-time. He also confirmed that Sayyed Nasrallah is supervising and managing the situation through direct communication with Resistance field commanders, and he serves as the leader of this Resistance. Fadlallah emphasized that the Resistance is well-prepared for various scenarios and that Sayyed Nasrallah plays a direct and active role in the ongoing battle, engaging with fighters at both the political and grassroots levels.

Haidar Eid, an associate Professor at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, wrote: "Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, had headed a fascist administration that had fully adopted the programme and vision of Israel’s far right. ... Biden has fully embraced Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza, approving of the complete blockade that has cut off electricity, water, food, and medicine, and justifying the daily slaughter of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.... He has covered up Israel’s war crimes and parroted Israeli propaganda... Biden has truly surpassed Trump in the fascist dehumanisation of Palestinians.... The US position vis-a-vis the Palestinians is, unsurprisingly, reminiscent of the attitude of its first European settlers towards the Native Americans.... The US view is that Palestinians are fundamentally a pesky little native population that will not accept “reality” (colonisation) quietly so that the US-Israeli alliance can proceed undisturbed. That is why support for the genocide of the Palestinians is an acceptable policy in Washington. After all, the American nation was itself founded on the genocide of a native population."

Terrorist organizations directly and demonstratively come to Russia, showing who their key moderator is. This opinion was expressed on the FREEDOM TV channel by Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine (OPU) Mykhailo Podolyak, commenting on the visit of a delegation of Hamas representatives to Moscow. “Those who deal with the issues of the Middle East have repeatedly said that the main beneficiary of today’s events there, and, in principle, the moderator of the war is the Russian Federation,” Podolyak noted.

Russia today is most interested in diverting attention from the events in the Russian-Ukrainian war, Podolyak believes. “Events in the Middle East, one way or another, partially eat up information influence. Russia will maintain tension in the Middle East as much as possible in order to be able to get a temporary respite – so that less attention is paid to the genocidal practices that the Russian Federation uses in Ukraine, and less attention is paid to the shelling of the civilian population. And so that Russia gradually begins to enter the global arena with its traditional rhetoric,” said the guest on the air.

He also emphasized that the Russian Federation, through the visit of the Hamas delegation, is trying to show itself more significant on the global stage. “Russia today on the global stage looks like a “deserted country.” That is, the country whose word is of little significance has little influence on anything. And through Hamas’s visit, they want to regain their right to have a voice that will be heard. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the visit of the Hamas delegation to Moscow. Russia’s ideological, political, economic and military support for Hamas is undeniable,” Podolyak concluded.

Allied for Democracy

Israel must protect innocent Gaza residents by distinguishing between Hamas militants and civilians in the Palestinian territory, the White House warned. Israel's military has been urged to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, where health officials in the Hamas-run territory say more than 8,000 people have already died in three weeks of air strikes that Israel has conducted in retaliation for Hamas's unprecedented deadly attacks on October 7.

"There is a burden, as I said before and as the president has said, on Israel to take the necessary steps to distinguish between Hamas, who does not represent the Palestinian people, and innocent Palestinian civilians" in Gaza, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on CNN talk show "State of the Union."

"We do believe that thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in this bombardment, and every single one of those deaths is a tragedy," just as those in Israel are, Sullivan said. "What we believe is that every hour, every day of this military operation, the IDF, the Israeli government, should be taking every possible means available to them to distinguish between Hamas — terrorists who are legitimate military targets — and civilians who are not." Sullivan, speaking on ABC's "This Week" as he made a round of Sunday talk shows, said Hamas, "this brutal terrorist organization that conducted the attack, is hiding behind the civilian population — which puts an added burden on Israel to differentiate between the terrorists and innocent civilians.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, when asked about the phone calls received by the hospital from Israeli forces ordering them to evacuate the hospital ahead of strikes, told CBS show “Face the Nation” that he had not heard of these calls. “What I can tell you is that hospitals are critical civilian infrastructure. Under international humanitarian law hospitals should not be targeted. They are not military targets,” Sullivan said.

US President Joe Biden underscored the need for Israel to defend its citizens from terrorism in a manner that protects civilians during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said. Biden also "underscored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza." And in a separate call with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, which borders Gaza to the south, the two leaders “committed to the significant acceleration and increase of assistance,” the White House said.

Biden was having conversations with Middle East regional leaders on Sunday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, though he did not specify which leaders. "It's something I was on the phone late last night working on. Something the president will be working on today in conversations he's having with regional leaders and we will continue to pound away at this problem until we've gotten any American who wants to leave Gaza out," Sullivan told MSNBC.

France's foreign ministry said that violence by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which recently led to the killing and displacement of several Palestinian civilians, needs to stop. "France calls on the Israeli authorities to take immediate measures to protect the Palestinian population," the ministry said in a statement.

France condemned "unacceptable" Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. "France strongly condemns the settler attacks that have led to the deaths of several Palestinian civilians over the past few days in Qusra and Sawiya, as well as the forced departure of several communities," said a foreign ministry statement. "The violence perpetrated by settlers against the Palestinian population is multiplying. It is unacceptable and must stop," it added.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron underlined the importance of shipping urgent humanitarian support into war-torn Gaza, the UK government said. They spoke by telephone following the expansion of Israel's military operation against Hamas and expressed "their shared concern at the risk of escalation in the wider region", said a Downing Street spokesperson. "The leaders stressed the importance of getting urgent humanitarian support into Gaza," said the readout of the conversation between Sunak and Macron.

Against the backdrop of the Gaza conflict, anti-Jewish attacks have been on the rise in Russia's Muslim-dominated North Caucasus. Israel urged Russian authorities to protect Israelis and Jews in their jurisdictions following media reports of potential reprisals by pro-Palestinian protesters in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. Dozens of protesters stormed an airport in Russia's Caucasus republic of Dagestan looking for Israeli citizens after word spread that a plane was arriving from Israel, local media reported. To the now traditional cries of “Allahu Akbar,” stones and clods of dirt are flying at the security forces, and shots in the air can be heard in the background.

One of the Makhachkala airport terminals was captured by inappropriate local residents who are running around its territory and trying to break into closed premises in search of Jews. People in the crowd shouted anti-Semitic slogans and tried to storm the plane, which had landed from Tel Aviv. The protesters broke through doors in the terminal, with some running onto the runway while others broke barriers, aiming to check the cars leaving the airport, according to videos posted on social media, and Russia's RT and Izvestia media. At the moment, more than 20 people are known to have been injured during the riots, including 6 security officials. Ten people are in hospital, two in critical condition. There are also reports of problems with access to Telegram and WhatsApp in Dagestan.

It turned out that on board the plane that arrived from Israel there were parents with children who returned to Russia after undergoing treatment. Israel's National Security Council claims there were no Jews on board. Frightened passengers and crew urgently lock themselves inside their planes, while an angry crowd surrounds the planes and tries to climb inside right along the wings. According to some media reports, the police began jamming communications in the airport so that the rioters could not coordinate their actions.

A statement by the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said the Israeli ambassador in Moscow was working with Russian authorities. "The State of Israel views gravely attempts to harm Israelis citizens and Jews anywhere," the statement said. Israeli media aired footage from Makhachkala airport in Dagestan appearing to show scores of youths, incensed at the Gaza war, storming the tarmac in search of passengers from a flight that had been due to land from Tel Aviv. "Israel expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to safeguard all Israeli citizens and Jews, whoever they may be, and to take robust action against the rioters and against the unbridled incitement being directed at Jews and Israelis," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

The Federal Air Transport Agency stated that the Makhachkala airfield has been cleared of unauthorized people entering there. Some of the rioters still remain on the territory of the terminal, but the bulk of those who broke through to the runway were either detained or driven out. This can be the end of the first failed Jewish pogrom in Dagestan, and it’s time for the state and society to learn a lesson about how easy it is to inflame the situation out of the blue in what is already far from the most peaceful region of the country.

The storming of Makhachkala airport was not an isolated incident, but part of a broader trend in the predominantly Muslim region of the North Caucasus. On Saturday, a crowd of angry people surrounded a hotel in the city of Khasavyurt in Dagestan because of a rumor that refugees from Israel were staying there. According to local reports, several dozen men entered the hotel to allegedly check the passports of hotel guests.

In Nalchik on Sunday, tires were set on fire next to a Jewish cultural center under construction. The building was defaced with extremist slogans such as "Death to the Jews," according to security officials in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. In the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, demonstrators called for the expulsion of the local Jewish population.

The Israeli army said it would allow more aid into Gaza as it again called on residents to move to the south of the besieged Strip amid intensifying air strikes. So far, 84 trucks carrying aid have entered the enclave via Egypt's Rafah border crossing since October 21. At least a hundred trucks per day are needed in Gaza, the UN said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a jab at his intelligence chiefs on the X platform, saying they never warned him Hamas was planning its wide-scale attack on October 7, but later retracted his comments and issued an apology.

Netanyahu’s now-deleted post had said: “At no time and no stage was a warning given to Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding war intentions of Hamas. On the contrary, all security officials, including the head of army intelligence and the head of the Shin Bet, estimated that Hamas was deterred and interested in an arrangement.”

The remarks, posted on X at 1 a.m. on Sunday (around 2300 GMT on Saturday), caused a political uproar and a rift within the war cabinet of Netanyahu, who has drawn public ire for not taking responsibility over intelligence and operational failures relating to Hamas’ rampage through southern Israel. While top officials - from the heads of the military and the Shin Bet domestic spy service to his finance minister - have all acknowledged their failures, Netanyahu has not.