Tel Aviv: Israel went a step ahead in its war crimes on Saturday launching an expanded ground operation after knocking out communications and creating a near-blackout of information in the Gaza Strip with increased bombardment and artillery fire overnight.
Israel’s defense minister said that “the ground shook in Gaza” and that the war against the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers had entered a new stage. Gaza residents described the massive overnight bombardment from the sea and the air as the most intense of the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war. Other countries, United Nations officials and aid agencies described a dire situation on the ground in Gaza as ambulances left without cellphone or radio service resorted to chasing the sound of artillery fire to local people wounded.
The Palestinian death toll since the war started passed 7,700, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during a surprise incursion by Hamas militants, including at least 310 soldiers, according to the Israeli government. At least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza, and four hostages were released earlier.
The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused “complete disruption” of internet, cellular and landline services as the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million people were largely cut off from contact with the outside world. Some satellite phones continued to function.
Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
- UN Chief surprised by Israel's unprecedented bombardment of Gaza
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he was surprised by Israel’s massive overnight airstrikes on Gaza amid a communication blackout across the besieged strip. Writing Saturday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Guterres said he previously had felt encouraged by an apparent growing consensus on the need for a humanitarian cease-fire.
“Regrettably, instead I was surprised by an unprecedented escalation of bombardments, undermining humanitarian objectives. This situation must be reversed,” he said. Guterres called President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt on Saturday, and the two discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to deescalate the war between Israel and Hamas, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
- UN Human Rights Chief: Israel's military action takes pain in Gaza to a new level
The U.N. human rights chief said Israel’s overnight intense air and ground bombardment has taken the crisis in Gaza to “a new level of violence and pain.” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk’s comments came in a statement Saturday as Gaza remained cut off from the outside world following a communication blackout.
He said the communication blackout has added to the misery and suffering of civilians in the Palestinian territory, with ambulances and civil defense teams no longer able to locate the wounded.
The humanitarian and human rights consequences will be devastating and long-lasting,” Turk said. “Given the manner in which military operations have been conducted until now, in the context of the 56-year-old occupation, I am raising alarm about the possibly catastrophic consequences of large-scale ground operations in Gaza and the potential for thousands more civilians to die.”
- Israel attack has killed 377 since Friday evening
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 377 people have been killed since Israel expanded its large ground offensive on Friday evening. Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra told reporters Saturday that Israel has “totally paralyzed” the health network in Gaza by cutting off internet and cellular service.
“Israel has turned Gaza into pieces of fire,” al-Qedra said, adding that the bombardment is the most intense since Oct. 7. Al-Qedra said the 377 people killed in the past day raises the death total in Gaza to 7,703 people, including 3,195 children and 1,863 women. He called on people in Gaza to donate blood, requested delivery of all blood types from the International Committee of the Red Cross and urged the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to allow medical products and fuel to enter and evacuate seriously wounded people.
In Ramallah in the West Bank, the Palestinian health minister said the Gaza situation has grown dire since the bombing that cut off telecommunications to most people, including hospital teams. “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Mai al-Kailah said at a press conference.
Thousands of people are trapped under the rubble of bombed-out buildings, al-Kailah said, adding that disease is spreading rapidly among the 1.4 million displaced people forced to crowd into shelters with unsanitary conditions due to a lack of water.
With communication networks largely severed, residents had no way of calling ambulances as Israel intensified its bombardment. Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson Nebal Farsakh said emergency teams were chasing the sounds of artillery barrages and airstrikes to search for people in need.
Many Palestinians used bare hands to pull bodies from the rubble and load them into personal cars or donkey carts to rush them to a hospital. In a video posted by local media, Palestinians sprinted down a ravaged street with a wounded man on a stretcher covered in the dust of a collapsed building while he winced, eyes clenched shut.
"Ambulance! Ambulance!” the men shouted as they shoved the stretcher into the back of a pickup truck and shouted at the driver, “Go! Go!”
- Egypt, Turkey call for humanitarian aid and end to military action
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisis of Egypt on Saturday urged for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, saying the number of trucks allowed into the besieged territory is far below the needs of Gaza’s population. “The needs are massive,” he said in televised comments, noting the importance of all aid being delivered.
The Egyptian government was working to de-escalate the conflict through talks with the warring parties, including discussions about releasing prisoners and hostages, he said without providing details. Egypt’s foreign ministry warned about “gave risks” of a wide-scale Israeli ground invasion, slamming Israel for not respecting the U.N. General Assembly’s resolution on Friday calling for a “humanitarian truce.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Israel to emerge from what he described as its “state of insanity” and end military actions.
“The ever-increasing Israeli bombardments on Gaza, which intensified last night, have targeted women, children and innocent civilians, deepening the humanitarian crisis,” Erdogan wrote in a message posted Saturday on X, formerly Twitter. “Israel must immediately emerge of this state of insanity and stop its attacks.”
Erdogan is scheduled to attend a mass rally organized by his ruling party in Istanbul to show solidarity with Palestinians on Saturday, which he said would be used to "make this call louder and shout that we stand with the Palestinian people against the Israeli oppression.”
- 'Impossible for ambulances to reach the injured': WHO director
Tedros Adhanom, the director of the World Health Organization, highlighted that the communication blackout has rendered it “impossible for ambulances to reach the injured.
"Reports of intense bombardment in Gaza are extremely distressing. Evacuation of patients is not possible under such circumstances, nor to find safe shelter. The blackout is also making it impossible for ambulances to reach the injured. We are still out of touch with our staff and health facilities. I’m worried about their safety. WHO appeals to all those who have the power to push for a ceasefire to act NOW," the WHO posted on X.
- Hamas calls incursion a failure, Israel claims to shoot down missile
Hamas has proclaimed Israel’s overnight ground incursion to be a failure. Hamas said in a statement Saturday that its military arm, Qassam Brigades, used anti-tank Kornet rockets and mortar shelling to repel the attack and claimed its fighters inflicted casualties among Israeli troops. The militant group did not provide evidence.
Qassam Brigades said late Friday its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in the town of Beit Hanoun in northwestern Gaza and in Al-Bureij in central Gaza. Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, said it fired a barrage of rockets Saturday morning on the Kissufim kibbutz, northwest of the Negev desert.
Israel’s military announced it shot down a missile fired at an Israeli drone from Lebanon Saturday. It was not immediately clear if the missile was fired by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. Lebanese security officials said two missiles were fired toward an Israeli drone flying over Lebanon but did not hit the target.
Meanwhile, the head of Hamas' aerial unit, Asem Abu Rakaba, was killed in an overnight airstrike, Israel Defence Forces said. Rakaba was responsible for overseeing Hamas' drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, paragliders, aerial detection systems, and air defences. "He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts," IDF said in a post on X.
- WHO, WFP, Doctors without Borders lose contact with teams
The U.N. health agency and other aid groups said Saturday they remain unable to communicate with their teams in the besieged Gaza Strip during intense Israeli air and land bombardment. Tedros Adhanom, head of the World Health Organization, said the blackout has made it “impossible for ambulances to reach the injured.”
“We are still out of touch with our staff and health facilities. I’m worried about their safety,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said the organization was “extremely worried” about aid workers and civilians in Gaza following the blackout preventing communications its team.
“As conflict rages on, I am extremely worried for the safety of all humanitarian workers and civilians, she said on X. “We are at a tipping point. Humanity must prevail.” UNWRA, the U.N. agency for refugees, announced that as of Friday, 58 staff members had been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Juliette Touma, communications director, said in a text to the AP that the organization has very limited communications with its director currently in Rafah and is working to re-establish contact with its teams, including those in UNRWA shelters attempting to assist up to 600,000 displaced Palestinians.
Guillemette Thomas, Palestinian territories medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said the aid group had not able to reach its team for more than 12 hours. “The situation is very difficult,” she said. “We can’t communicate with our team. We don’t know whether they are safe.”
In the occupied West Bank, increased violence from Israeli settlers has prompted many Palestinians, particularly Bedouin communities, to flee. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories said Friday that settler violence in the West Bank has displaced more than 600 Palestinians, including 211 children. The Palestinian Health Ministry said a settler shot dead a 40-year-old Palestinian man in the town of Sawiya in Nablus on Saturday.
- Hostage families seek meeting with Israeli authorities
The families of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas warned they will begin protesting if Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant do not meet with them Saturday. A spokesperson for the families said they plan to gather at a central square in Tel Aviv. They want the meeting because of increased apprehension about their loved ones after Israel ramped up attacks on Gaza overnight Friday.
The military's claim it is targeting tunnel infrastructure has prompted fear among the families that military leaders are being cavalier with the lives of the hostages, who are believed to be held inside the tunnels.
- Israel announces expansion of ground operation into Gaza
Israel is expanding its ground operation in Gaza with infantry and armoured vehicles backed by “massive” strikes from the air and sea, the Israeli military spokesman said Saturday. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said “the forces are still on the ground and are continuing the war.” Troops previously conducted brief nightly ground incursions before returning to Israel.
Earlier Saturday, the military released videos showing columns of armoured vehicles moving slowly in open, sandy areas of Gaza, the first visual confirmation of ground troops. The military said warplanes bombed dozens of Hamas tunnels and underground bunkers. Journalists inside Gaza who were able to communicate with the outside world said there was intense Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza overnight and early Saturday.
“The raids were very intense from artillery shelling and air raids. There is an explosion, gunfire and clashes are heard on the border,” journalist Mohammed Abdel-Rahman told The Associated Press.
They heard sounds of clashes Saturday morning on the western borders of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and “artillery shelling from time to time, intermittent and not continuous," Abdel-Rahman said. Another journalist, Anas al-Sharif, reported shelling close to the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia and said rescuers have retrieved wounded people and many bodies from rubble across northern Gaza.
Israel’s military also announced Saturday it had struck and killed a top Hamas naval operative, Ratib Abu Tzahiban, who it says orchestrated an attempted naval attack in Israel on Oct. 24. It was unclear if the military was referring to an episode when a group of Hamas divers were repelled after trying to infiltrate Israel on a beach north of Gaza.
- Large demonstration at US embassy in Indonesia
More than 3,000 protesters marched to the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Saturday to demand an end to the war and bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags, the protesters, many wearing white Islamic robes, filled a major thoroughfare in downtown Jakarta running outside the embassy. About 1,000 police were deployed around the compound, which is blocked off by concrete road barriers.
The protesters, organized by the Indonesian Ulema Council, known as MUI, chanted “God is Great” and “Freedom for Palestine” during the noisy but peaceful protest. Banners and placards proclaimed, “We stand with Gaza,” and slammed the Israeli government while denouncing the staunch U.S. support of Israel.
“We are not willing to allow our brothers and sisters in Palestine to be tyrannized or genocided by Israel,” MUI Secretary General of MUI Amirsyah Tambunan told the crowd. “We will continue to support and fight for Palestinian independence and sovereignty.”
- NYC protesters demand Gaza ceasefire
Hundreds of protesters in black T-shirts filled New York City’s iconic Grand Central Terminal during the evening rush hour on Friday to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Many of the protesters were detained by police and taken out of the station, their hands zip tied behind their backs. The NYPD could not immediately say how many were taken into custody.
“Hundreds of Jews and friends are taking over Grand Central Station in a historic sit-in calling for a ceasefire,” advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace said on social media. Inside the main concourse, protesters wearing shirts that read “cease-fire now” and “not in our name” chanted, with some holding banners in front of the list of departure times. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked commuters to use Penn Station as an alternative.
The scene echoed last week’s sit-in where more than 300 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating on Capitol Hill in Washington.
- Explosions shatter night sky over Gaza as Israel expands bombing
The dull orange glow of Israeli flares shone in the night sky over Gaza, slowly descending through the haze to illuminate targets for warplanes before eventually flickering out, plunging the scene back into darkness.
Multiple explosions from Israeli airstrikes tore into northern Gaza on Friday, quick flashes of bright orange silhouetted against the rooftops of Palestinian apartments and refugee camps. The sharp crunching sound of the bombs followed each time, seconds later, one after another. Overhead, the buzz of Israeli military drones cut through, growing quieter and louder as the crafts circled the airspace.
For most Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, their world has shrunk to these few sounds and colours. Israel dramatically ramped up its bombardment Friday after knocking out internet and communication in Gaza, largely cutting off the tiny besieged enclave’s 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world.
UN General Assembly calls for humanitarian truce
The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution on Friday calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers. It was the first U.N. response to Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and Israel’s ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.
The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States to unequivocally condemn the “terrorist attacks” by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by the militant group.
- Gaza's largest hospital struggles to keep its neonatal units running
Premature babies wiggle and squirm, some with oxygen tubes under their noses, in rows of clear plastic incubators inside the neonatal unit of Gaza’s largest hospital, which, like the rest of the besieged Palestinian territory, is running out of fuel, food, water and electricity. Doctors in Gaza say conditions have reached catastrophic levels. They say a lack of basic supplies has left them struggling to maintain hygiene and sanitation, and hospital grounds are overcrowded with displaced civilians seeking refuge from Israeli airstrikes.
“We have noticed an increase in premature birth cases,” said Dr. Nasser Bulbul, head of the NICU at al-Shifa Hospital. “We had to perform a premature delivery of the fetus from the mother’s womb while she’s dying,” he said. “Many of these infants are orphaned, and we don’t know the fate of their relatives or have information about their identities.”
Around 50,000 pregnant women are caught up in the conflict, with around 5,500 due to give birth within the next 30 days, according to the United Nations Population Fund. If fuel supplies run out, neonatal intensive care units will be impacted and planned or emergency caesarean sections will be impossible, the U.N. agency said.
- Press Group says past 3 weeks have been deadliest for journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists says the past three weeks have been the deadliest on record for journalists covering conflict since the organization started tracking in 1992.
The organization said in a statement Friday that at least 29 journalists have died covering the Israel-Hamas war since it ignited Oct. 7, including 24 Palestinians, four Israelis and 1 Lebanese. Additionally, 8 other journalists were reported injured and 9 were reported missing or detained.
CPJ also criticized the cutting of communications services in the Gaza Strip, warning that the blackout is also a “news blackout” that has compromised the public’s ability to “know and understand what is happening in this conflict.” “This can lead to serious consequences with an independent, factual information vacuum that can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation,” it said. (With AP inputs)
Also read: Mass graves, unclaimed bodies and overcrowded cemeteries; War robs Gaza of funeral rites
