Israel's war on Gaza continues unabated with no relief in sight for Palestinian civilians: Day 8 as it happened

Ahram Online , Saturday 14 Oct 2023

The ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip has entered a critical phase as Tel Aviv continues untold crimes against humanity toward 2.3 million Palestinians in the strip. Pro-Palestine demonstrations in the West; Egypt and Turkey reject all Israeli attempts to displace Palestinians in Gaza; Hamas leader Haniyeh vows Palestinians will not leave Gaza.

A Palestian girl seen through a hole in the wall inspects the damage in the courtyard of a school ru
A Palestian girl seen through a hole in the wall inspects the damage in the courtyard of a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) following Israeli airstrikes targeting Gaza City on October 9, 2023. AFP

 

Summary

  • The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) and the Palestinian Health Ministry rejected an Israeli ultimatum to the hospitals in the north of the strip to evacuate  
  • Israel said 14 additional Israeli soldiers killed since last Saturday, bringing the number of soldiers killed to 279
  • The U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is calling on Israeli authorities to protect all civilians sheltering at the agency’s premises across the Gaza Strip 
  • In a televised speech, Ismail Haniyeh, the chair of the political bureau of Hamas, defiantly said:  "We want the occupation to leave our sacred land and we want to have our own state and we want our captives freed"
  • Exchange of fire continued on the Israel-Lebanon border between Israel and Hezbollah
  • Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Cairo for talks that focused on the conflict. Both officials understand “the necessity of immediate cessation of escalation,” said Ahmed Abu Zaid, spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry
  • Informed Egyptian sources have confirmed that Egyptian authorities refused to permit the passage of foreign residents in Gaza through the Rafah crossing, except within an agreement that encompasses the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip, Al Qahera News TV reported
  • 2,268 Palestinians have been killed and more than 10,000 wounded since the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced
  • Families of Israeli captives including young children, gathered at the Defense Ministry to demand the Israeli government provide answers and act to bring about the captives' immediate release
  • The Interior Ministry in Gaza said "at least 20 people were killed and more than 80 injured in a new massacre committed by the  Israeli occupation forces in the Al-Fakhoura district in the Jabalya refugee camp in north Gaza"
  • UNICEF has called for an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian access into the Gaza Strip, stressing hundreds of thousands fleeing the conflict have run out of food, water, and electricity with a shortage of medicine and no safe access to hospitals
  • Saudi Arabia calls an urgent meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member bloc of Muslim countries
  • Tens of thousands of people on Saturday chanted Free Free Palestine! as they took to the streets in Central London in the UK and other Western capitals to demonstrate against the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip 

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22:00 Nibal Farsakh, spokeswoman for the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC), said that the medical staff at Al-Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals in northern Gaza will not leave their workplaces, rejecting the Israeli occupation army’s ultimatum to the hospitals in the north of the strip to evacuate.  

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza also rejected the Israeli ultimatum, stating "this is an impossible task."

21:00 The British government could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza if it does not do more to "restrain" Israel, a senior Conservative MP has warned, according to the UK Independent newspaper.

Crispin Blunt, a former chair of parliament's foreign affairs committee, has written to Rishi Sunak warning the UK is in "legal peril" on account of his "apparent unqualified support to the policy of the Government of Israel," according to Independent. 

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, which Mr Blunt co-chairs, has issued a notice of intention to prosecute UK officials and says there is "clear evidence that Israel has committed war crimes," it added.

20:40 The Israeli army released the names of 14 additional Israeli soldiers killed since last Saturday, bringing the number of soldiers killed to 279.

20:30 The Israeli army has "determined the need for a ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip, which would require entering the heart of Gaza and reaching Hamas representatives," Haaretz said on Saturday.

20:00 The U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is calling on Israeli authorities to protect all civilians sheltering at the agency’s premises across the Gaza Strip including those in northern Gaza and Gaza City, AP said.

UNRWA said that despite the order to evacuate more than 1 million people from the northern parts of the Gaza Strip and Gaza City to the south, many people — particularly pregnant women, children, older people, and people with disabilities — will not be able to flee the area.

“They have no choice and must be protected at all times,” UNRWA said.

UNRWA added its “shelters in Gaza and northern Gaza are not safe anymore. This is unprecedented.”

19:00 In a televised speech, Haniyeh, the chair of the political bureau of Hamas, said:  "We want the occupation to leave our sacred land and we want to have our own state and we want our captives freed."

"I say to my brothers in Egypt that our decision is to remain in our land and your decision is also ours," in reference to Cairo's rejection of any forced displacement of the Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt.

18:50 More than 14 Palestinians are killed every hour by the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, according to a report by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor on Saturday
 
18:45 The Hamas organization in the occupied West Bank has called for the broadest participation from Palestinians in the demonstrations set for tonight after the Al Esha (Evening) Prayers from all mosques and marches on all points of contact, checkpoints, and confrontation with the Israeli army surrounding Palestinian towns and cities in the occupied territory.
 
The Palestinian population living in the occupied West Bank is estimated at 2.9 million. More than 54 Palestinians were killed and nearly 1,000 injured in clashes with the Israeli army since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Flood operation by Hamas.
 
18:40 Israeli shells Hezbollah posts in south Lebanon.

18:35 Russia’s embassy in Israel said Saturday in a statement: “According to the Israeli side, as of 13:00 on 14 October, the number of Russian dead citizens who also had Israeli citizenship increased to 16 people.

“The updated lists of missing persons provided by the Israeli side include eight Russian citizens.” At least one Russian citizen is being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, Russian state news agency RIA reported. 

18:20 Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan said Turkey rejects the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza to Egypt, stressing full support to Cairo in this regard.

In a press conference with Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, Fidan thanked the Egyptian authorities for coordinating the reception of three Turkish planes loaded with humanitarian aid in Arish City to be delivered to Gaza.

17:55 2,268 Palestinians have been killed and more than 10,000 wounded due to Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced.

17:50: Hussein Al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee says Israel’s call on residents of north Gaza to leave ahead of an expected ground offense is a “war crime.”

In a statement, Al-Sheikh said that the “Palestinian leadership rejects by all means the Israeli attempts to displace the citizens of Gaza Strip; considers this a war crime added to the series of Israeli war crimes and calls on the international community to intervene to stop this genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.”

17:40 According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 28 medical staff have been killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict last Saturday.

It also said two hospitals in Gaza (Beit Hanoun and Al-Dura Hospital for Children) are out of service, and 15 other medical centres have been damaged. ​

17:00 US Joe Biden tweets that the US is working with the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and the UN to surge support to ease the humanitarian consequences of Hamas’s attack ... and create conditions needed to resume the flow of assistance.

18:20 Israel slammed Croatia's president for saying Israel lost its sympathy over the response in Gaza to the Hamas attacks, and deeming the Croatian Foreign Ministry's decision to display the Israeli flag outside its building as "idiotic," Haaretz said.

“With all my sympathy for Israel, which unfortunately they lost within 15 minutes … there is no place for other flags in Croatia, except in strictly regulated situations,” said Croatian President Zoran Milanović.

“I condemned [Hamas’] murders, I even expressed disgust and abhorrence, but the right to defense does not include the right to revenge and the killing of civilians,” he added.

17:30 Tens of Israeli protesters on Saturday called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ouster as families of those captured by Hamas say they are desperate for answers.

An Israeli man whose wife and three children were kidnapped by Hamas to Gaza says he intends to stay outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv until they are freed.

"I am not a political being and I will disappear as soon as they are freed." 

Families of captives including young children, gathered to demand the Israeli government provide answers and act to bring about the captives' immediate release.

Distraught parents cried out and one woman said that no parent should be in her situation not knowing where her children are and what is being done to them.

17:00 Semafor.com reported on Saturday that MSNBC has quietly taken three of its Muslim broadcasters out of the anchor’s chair since Hamas’s attack on Israel last Saturday amid America’s wave of sympathy for Israeli terror victims.

The network did not air a scheduled Thursday night episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show on the streaming platform Peacock, add the website.

MSNBC also reversed a plan for Ayman Mohyeldin to fill in this week on the network for host Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. show on Thursday and Friday, according to Semafor.

Mohyeldin is an Egyptian-American journalist and veteran NBC News correspondent who covered the conflict from Gaza for two years.

16:30  Khaled Mashaal, the former leader of Hamas, said from abroad that "the operation against Israel was planned solely by the Al Qassam Brigades". 

"The events didn't start on 7 October; you should read before that, and even better, read since the occupation of our land, the killing, and displacement of our people."

Regarding the timing of the operation, he said, "The operation is linked to the escalating crimes of the occupation and its violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem."

He emphasized that the Al Qassam Brigades' rules in combat are derived from the teachings of the true religion, stating, "You have heard the directives of the Al-Qassam Brigades' leader, saying: 'Do not kill a child, a woman, or an elder.'"

While acknowledging that there may be some mistakes in war, he asserted that there is absolutely no deliberate intent to kill civilians. He further added, "If the Qassam Brigades possessed precision and advanced technology weapons, there would definitely be no mistakes. On the other hand, the occupation, backed by all of America and the West's resources, deliberately kills and carries out genocide against civilians."

16:05 The Interior Ministry in Gaza says "at least 20 people were killed and more than 80 injured in a new massacre committed by the  Israeli occupation forces in the Al-Fakhoura district in the Jabalya refugee camp in north Gaza."

15:40 The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, or OCHA, confirmed to the Associated Press that this week was the deadliest in the West Bank since the U.N. started recording in 2005.

In the week since Hamas launched its attack on Israel last Saturday, 54 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the West Bank with 14 killed on Friday alone.

15:35 Hezbollah's TV station has reported an intense exchange of fire along Lebanon's border with Israeli positions in a disputed area along the border with Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Al-Manar TV reported that Hezbollah fighters pounded Israeli positions in the Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba hills area on Saturday.

15:30 Informed Egyptian sources have confirmed that Egyptian authorities refused to permit the passage of foreign residents in Gaza through the Rafah crossing, except within an agreement that encompasses the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip, Al Qahera News TV reported. 

Witnesses reported that foreign nationals waited for several hours at the crossing without any response from the Egyptian authorities.

15:20 The Ambassador of Spain to Egypt Alvaro Iranzo highlighted the urgency of recalling that the only road to a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis is the one leading to the two-state solution, as defined by the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

In a speech at an event hosted by the embassy in Cairo, Iranzo said “Self-defense should be exercised according to international law. We reject collective punishment and call for immediate humanitarian relief for the population of Gaza." 

"We deeply value Egypt's contribution to stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa," Iranzo stressed.

15:00 Thousands of Palestinians continued to flee the north of the Gaza Strip on Saturday from the path of an expected Israeli ground assault, while Israel pounded the area with more air strikes. In total, Israel killed 2,215 Palestinians in the coastal enclave.

In Gaza City's Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood, part of the area Israel has ordered evacuated, warplanes bombed a residential area during the night, hitting several houses, according to residents who posted appeals on social media platforms.

Hundreds of residents of the area took refuge at the nearby Quds hospital and planned to join those fleeing to the south in the morning. "We lived a night of horror. Israel punished us for not wanting to leave our home. Is there brutality worse than this?", a father of three told Reuters by telephone from the hospital, declining to give his name for fear of reprisals.

"I was never going to leave, I prefer to die and not leave, but I can’t see my wife and children die before my eyes. We are helpless."

In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli planes struck a four-story building, killing and wounding several people. Neighbours rushed to rescue people trapped in the rubble.

"This is a genocide, not a war, it's genocide. And it's an attempt to displace the people of the Gaza Strip, but this will not happen," said neighbour Mohammad Sadeq. "Martyrs are stuck under the rubble and until now neither us nor the medics nor civil defense were able to take them out."

14:55 Israeli Airforce announced that one of its F-16 was damaged in the ongoing attack on Gaza.

14:35 UNICEF has called for an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian access into the Gaza Strip, stressing hundreds of thousands fleeing the conflict have run out of food, water, and electricity with a shortage of medicine and no safe access to hospitals.

The announcement comes after Israel issued a warning to some 1 million Palestinians to head toward the south of the Palestinian enclave ahead of an imminent ground invasion.

“The situation is catastrophic, with unrelenting bombing and a massive increase in the displacement of children and families. There are no safe places,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

14:29 Hamas says Israeli air strikes have killed nine of the Israeli war prisoners in the past 24 hours. The armed wing of Hamas has said in a statement that nine captives, including four foreigners, were killed due to Israeli air strikes on Gaza. 

14:25 Tens of thousands of people on Saturday chanted Free Free Palestine! as they took to the streets in Central London in the UK to demonstrate against the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. 

London’s Metropolitan Police deployed more than 1,000 officers in central London ahead of the march of Palestine supporters gathered in front of the BBC building waving Palestinian flags and chanting Free Free Palestine!

14:20 Saudi Arabia calls an urgent meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member bloc of Muslim countries.
 
The OIC says in a statement that the meeting will “address the escalating military situation in Gaza and its environs as well as the deteriorating conditions that endanger the lives of civilians and the overall security and stability of the region.”

The meeting will take place on Wednesday in Jeddah.

14:15 The Palestinian Red Crescent Society received an order from Israeli forces on Saturday with a new deadline to evacuate its Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City by 1300 GMT (4pm local time), according to a statement.

14:00 A plane carrying 78 cubic metres of health supplies from the WHOI’s logistics hub in Dubai has landed at Al-Arish airport. The supplies will be delivered to Gaza as soon as humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing is established. 

An initial deadline was given for 0300 GMT (6am local time) but was later extended. But the association said they cannot evacuate the hospital, and it is obliged under a humanitarian mandate to continue providing services to the sick and wounded, the statement added.

13:50 The Israeli army arrested 280 Palestinians across the West Bank, among them two senior members of  Hamas in Nablus, Israeli media reports. Some 54 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, Palestinian health ministry figures say.

13:30 Chief diplomats of Egypt and Germany held talks Saturday on the deteriorating “humanitarian and security” situation in Gaza amid ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, an Egyptian official said.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Cairo for talks that focused on the conflict. Both officials understand “the necessity of immediate cessation of escalation,” said Ahmed Abu Zaid, spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry.

13:22 Lebanon's foreign ministry said it will submit a formal complaint to the UN Security Council over what it called "Israel's deliberate killing" of Issam Abdullah, a Lebanese national and Reuters visuals journalist, state media reported on Saturday.

13:05 A substantial relief and aid convoy, organized by the National Alliance for Civil Development Work (NACDW), a coalition of NGOs in Egypt, was dispatched on Saturday to the Gaza Strip, as reported by Al-Qahera News channel. The convoy comprises 106 vehicles loaded with approximately 1,000 tons of essential supplies, 40,000 blankets, 50,000 clothing items, and 300,000 medicine boxes, according to the channel's report.

12:53 The Israeli occupation army said it had struck militants attempting to cross the Israel border from Lebanon. It was not clear which group the alleged militants belonged to.

On Friday, Hezbollah said its fighters fired several rockets at four Israeli positions along the border and the Israeli army said it had attacked Hezbollah targets with drone strikes.

12:50 Egypt and Israel have agreed to let US citizens leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Saturday as Israel carries out strikes against Hamas, a US official told AFP. 

The two US partners agreed to keep the sole crossing from Gaza to Egypt open from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm (0900-1400 GMT), said a US official accompanying Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a regional tour. The official said that the United States did not yet have confirmation that the agreement was being implemented, "but the intention was to have it open." 

The official speaking to AFP said that 500-600 US citizens in the Gaza Strip had reached out for information on leaving the hemmed-in territory.

The official did not know if other foreign nationals were able to leave.

12:45 Qatar said on Saturday that it categorically rejects any attempt to forcibly displace the Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip.

A statement from the Qatari foreign ministry said that the state of Qatar "call on lifting the siege of Gaza Strip, and provide full protection for the Palestinian civilians according to the international and humanitarian laws".

12:20 In Riyadh, the Saudi Foreign Minister discusses the developments in Gaza with his American counterpart, and the Kingdom rejects Israeli calls for the displacement of Palestinians from northern Gaza. 

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a meeting with his Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said work must be done to protect civilians, establish safe areas, and deliver aid to Gaza,

The Saudi minister stressed the need for a collective effort to stop the cycle of violence.

11:35 Israel's occupation army said on Saturday it killed two Hamas commanders who were behind the cross-border rampage into Israel a week ago. The army said it killed Merad Abu Merad, who was the head of the Hamas aerial system, and Ali Qadi, a company commander of a commando force.

11:07 Jordan's King Abdullah left for a European tour to garner support from the region's leaders for an end to the Israeli "war on Gaza", Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told state media.

On Sunday, King Abdullah spoke to regional and international leaders in a bid to de-escalate the rising tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.

He reiterated the need for collective action to prevent the conflict from escalating.

11:00 The Israeli military’s spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel is going to “attack with great force“. the Palestinians in Gaza. We are preparing the forces, going over plans, prepared in all arenas, south, north, and center,” he said.

“There are still citizens who have not yet evacuated. Anyone who chooses not to evacuate puts himself and his family in danger. We will attack with great force in the areas that have been evacuated,” he added.

10:59 The Israeli army announced that it had designated two routes for Gaza City residents to leave the city, via Salah al-Din and al-Bahr Streets, towards the south of the Gaza Strip for limited hours.

The evacuation order comes only a day after Israeli forces bombed a convoy of Palestinians fleeing to the south of the Palestinian enclave, killing more than 70 people, most of them women and children.

The death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza has risen to 2,215 Palestinians with 8,714 injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

10:20 The Israeli army stated that it has not yet been able to pinpoint the whereabouts of the Israeli war prisoners. Sky News Arabia reported an Israeli army spokesman as saying that none of the Israelis who were taken captive by the Palestinians have been located.

This announcement follows the statement by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which reported the loss of 17 captives during the relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said the number of prisoners in the hands of the movement is at least 120.

10:15 According to media reports, Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing, dividing Egypt from Gaza, with a "temporary" cement wall, as an alternative to the gate that was bombed by Israel. This step is aimed at preventing overcrowding and mass displacement, particularly in response to Israel's evacuation order amid ongoing Gaza attacks.

Egypt has stressed that allowing a refugee exodus to its territory would jeopardize the Palestinian statehood dream.

While the Egyptian side of the crossing remains open, the Palestinian side is non-operational due to recent Israeli airstrikes. With all crossings with Israel sealed and maritime and airspace controlled by Israel, the Rafah crossing is the only viable option to facilitate the evacuation of people from the enclave.

10:00 Tens of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza continued their exodus for a second consecutive day, ahead of an evacuation deadline as Israel extended its aerial bombardment.

9:45  Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian says resistance groups in the region are “fully ready” to respond to any move by Israel. The minister spoke in Beirut at the end of a tour that took him to Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, home to tens of thousands of Iran-backed fighters.

Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut Saturday that he met Hezbollah’s leadership, adding that “the resistance (Hezbollah) is in excellent condition and in full readiness to respond to criminal acts by the Zionist entity.”

He added that “the resistance will decide if the war will expand or new fronts are to be open.” 

“We will do all we can to stop the Zionist crimes in Gaza," Amirabdollahian said.

9:00 The Israeli army warned the Gazan population that they should move to the southern part of the enclave using evacuation corridors between 10am and 4pm according to Israeli media. This new timeframe appears to be an extension of the initial warning that concluded at 5am on Saturday.

“If you care about yourself and your loved ones, go south as instructed,” the occupation army said. 

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