New Delhi: At least 2,269 Palestinians have been killed and 9,814 others wounded due to Israeli attacks in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian health ministry said in a report on Saturday as the bloody war entered 8th day with Israel warning 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to evacuate ahead of its feared ground offensive.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas for the attack a week ago in which its fighters killed 1,300 Israelis, mainly civilians, and seized scores of hostages. Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear that Israel ultimately hopes to push Gaza’s people out through the southern border with Egypt.
Suffering in Gaza has been rising dramatically, with Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine and the territory's only power plant shut down for lack of fuel. The morgue at Gaza's biggest hospital overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.
Here are the live updates from day 8 of the war:
- Israel military to strike Gaza City very soon
Israel's chief military spokesman says that the Israeli military is going to strike Gaza City very soon. In a nationally broadcast address Saturday night, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari issued a new appeal to residents to move to the southern Gaza Strip. We are going to broadly attack Gaza City very soon, he said. He accused Hamas of trying to use civilians as human shields. Israel has ordered nearly half of Gaza's population to evacuate their homes ahead of an expected ground offensive. Israel has been striking Gaza since a deadly cross-border attack by the Hamas militant group that killed over 1,300 Israelis on Oct. 7
- Hamas says Palestinians will not migrate to Egypt
A top official with the militant Hamas group says the people of Gaza will not migrate from the strip to Egypt. In a televised speech Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh said that “all the massacres” will not break the Palestinian people. “There will be no migration from Gaza to Egypt,” he said, adding that “our decision is to stay in our land.” Haniyeh said Israel suffered a “strategic strike” and that last week’s attacks by Hamas that have killed more than 3,200 are an indication the end of Israel's occupation is near. Haniyeh said the aim of Hamas is to liberate the land and set Palestinian prisoners free, and that the blockade in Gaza be lifted.
- 35,000 people take shelter in Gaza City's main hospital
Medical officials say an estimated 35,000 have crammed into the grounds of Gaza City’s main hospital, seeking refugee ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive. Mohammad Abu Selim, general director of Shifa Hospital, confirmed that massive crowds had thronged the building and the courtyard outside. Shifa is the largest hospital in the entire Gaza Strip.
“People think this is the only safe space after their homes were destroyed and they were forced to flee,” said Dr. Medhat Abbas, a Health Ministry official. “Gaza City is a frightening scene of devastation.” The Israeli military has ordered roughly half of Gaza’s population, including all of Gaza City, to evacuate as it prepares to send in ground forces.
More than 320 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours, including many women and children killed in Israeli air raids on convoys fleeing Gaza City. Palestinians are also grappling with a growing water and medical supply shortage ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody, wide-ranging attack into Israel. Water has stopped coming out of taps across the territory.
Amal Abu Yahia, a 25-year-old pregnant mother in the Jabaliya refugee camp, said she waits anxiously for a few minutes each day or every other day when contaminated water trickles from the pipes in her basement. She then rations it, prioritizing her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. She said she is drinking so little herself, she only urinates every other day. Near the coast, the only tap water is contaminated with Mediterranean Sea water because of the lack of sanitation facilities. Mohammed Ibrahim, 28, said his neighbours in Gaza City have taken to drinking the salt water.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is ready with its fighters in the Gaza Strip at the front line. "With our fighters in the Gaza Strip, on the front line. We are all ready," Netanyahu wrote on 'X' on Saturday. Netanyahu on Saturday toured Kibbutz Be'eri and Kibbutz Kfar Azza, two of the worst-hit Gaza border communities in last week's Hamas onslaught, his office announced.
Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.” Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible. Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel.
- Hamas says 9 hostages killed in 24 hrs in Israeli bombing
The military wing of Hamas says nine hostages including four foreigners were killed over the past 24 hours as a result of the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Qassam Brigades said Saturday the hostages were killed when Israel’s military bombarded areas where they were being held. The announcement came a day after the group said 13 hostages it is holding were killed in the bombardment, raising the total number of hostages killed to 22. The claim could not be independently verified. Hamas fighters took more than 100 people hostage during last Saturday’s attack on southern Israel and military posts surrounding Gaza.
- US seeks China's help to prevent spreading of Israel-Palestine war
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to seek China’s help in preventing the Israel-Hamas war from spreading. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken called Wang on Saturday from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to ask China to use whatever influence it has in the Middle East to keep other countries and groups from entering the conflict. Miller would not say which countries and groups the U.S. believes Beijing has influence with but China is known to have close trade and political ties with Iran, which in turn supports Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. Miller declined to characterize Wang’s response, but said the U.S. believes it and China have a shared interest in Middle East stability.
- UNRWA says its shelters in Gaza 'not safe anymore'
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees 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. 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 said its “shelters in Gaza and northern Gaza are not safe anymore. This is unprecedented.”
- OIC to meet in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia called an urgent meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member bloc of Muslim countries. The OIC said in a statement Saturday 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.
Egypt, Israel and the United States have agreed to allow foreigners in Gaza to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, a senior Egyptian official says. The official said Saturday that Israel has agreed to refrain from striking areas the foreigners would pass through on their way out of the besieged Palestinian territory.
He said Qatar also was involved in the negotiations and the participants received also approval from the Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. A second official at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing point said they received instructions to reopen it on Saturday afternoon for foreigners coming from Gaza. The first official said negotiations were still underway to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza through the crossing point.
- Supplies for Gaza arrived in Egypt awaiting reopening of Rafah crossing, WHO says
A plane carrying medical supplies for Gaza from the United Nations health agency landed Saturday in el-Arish airport in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, awaiting the reopening of the Rafah crossing point. That’s according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization. “We’re ready to deploy the supplies as soon as humanitarian access through the crossing is established,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
- US Air Force deploys fighter aircraft to Middle East
The United States Air Force said overnight that it had deployed F-15E fighter aircraft in the Middle East to support its operations backing Israel after Hamas’ unprecedented attack Oct.7. Already, there’s more attack and support aircraft in the region over tensions with Iran as it enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation slams Israel's treatment of Palestinians
The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation issued a blistering statement Saturday expressing what it describes as “its absolute rejection and condemnation of Israel, the occupying power’s calls for the forced displacement of the Palestinian people.” The OIC broadly reflects the thinking of Saudi Arabia’s rulers.
- Israel must give residents more time to evacuate Gaza, EU official says
The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Saturday that the Israeli military needs to give more time for 1 million people to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of any military action. Josep Borrell, speaking to news media during a visit to China, welcomed the warning to evacuate but said the tight time frame could create a humanitarian crisis given the lack of shelters and transportation.
- South Korean and other Asian nationals evacuate from Israel
A South Korean military plane evacuating 220 South Korean and other Asian nationals from Israel has departed Tel Aviv and was expected to land in South Korea later Saturday, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said. No South Korean casualties have so far been reported from the violence in Israel and Gaza.
- 16 Palestinians killed in West Bank, Health Ministry says
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported 16 Palestinians killed Friday in the occupied West Bank, bringing to 51 the total number of West Bank Palestinians killed since Hamas waged its brutal assault on Israel last Saturday. The United Nations says attacks by Israeli settlers have surged there since the Hamas assault.
- Relatives of abducted Israelis plead for world's help
Relatives of Israelis abducted during Hamas militants' attack last weekend pleaded at the U.N. on Friday for the world's help getting their loved ones home. Speaking by video from Israel, Yoni Asher told diplomats at an Israel-organized event that he hasn't slept or eaten since his wife and two small daughters vanished Saturday while visiting his mother-in-law in the country's south.
Hamas fighters took 150 hostages during Saturday's surprise assault. Alana Zeitchik said a half-dozen of her cousins were snatched from a kibbutz. They were known to be alive as of Friday morning, she said.
- Biden says addressing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a priority
President Joe Biden said Friday that it's a priority of his administration to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Biden said he's directed his team to work with the governments in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab nations and the United Nations to surge humanitarian relief to those impacted by the war.
- UN Security Council meeting behind closed door
The U.N. Security Council still hasn't found a collective voice on the Israel-Hamas war after meeting behind closed doors Friday for the second time in five days. Russia is proposing a "humanitarian cease-fire," which could be a tough sell as Israel is expected to undertake a ground offensive against the Hamas militants who rule Gaza and launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel last weekend.
- Syria calls on world to stop Israel's 'crimes' against Palestinians
Syria's president on Friday called on countries of the world to stand together to stop "the crimes that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people." Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip since the militant group Hamas launched a bloody incursion into the country's south on Saturday, killing hundreds.
- Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas, says Gaza offensive in early stages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas as the army prepares for an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu delivered the threat in a nationally televised address late Friday. Israel has been pounding Gaza with airstrikes since Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented cross-border attack last Saturday, killing over 1,300 people in a brutal rampage. Early Friday, Israel ordered half of Gaza's population to evacuate their homes.
- UN agency shifts operations but some staying in the North
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has shifted its Gaza center of operations and some staffers to the territory's south, but many of the world body's 13,000 Gaza workers have chosen to remain in the north to continue helping people there, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Friday. The world body earlier warned of "devastating humanitarian consequences" after the Israeli military told the entire population of northern Gaza to leave.
- Pro-Palestinian students briefly clash with police at rally in Rome
A few hundred pro-Palestinian students clashed briefly with police in Rome on Friday as they tried to detour from a rally route that had been approved by authorities. Helmeted police, using shields and batons, pushed back the surging students near Sapienza University when the protesters, many waving or clutching Palestinian flags, tried to head toward a rally being held by right-wing students, Italian news outlets reported.
- 70 people killed in Israeli airstrike on convoys fleeing Gaza City, Hamas press office says
Hamas officials say 70 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City. Hamas' media office says the cars were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City. It was not immediately clear who the target of the airstrikes was, or whether militants were among the passengers. The army ordered residents to evacuate the city early Friday ahead of an expected ground invasion.
- Israeli military launches drone at Hezbollah targets
The Israeli military has announced that an Israeli drone is currently striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. (With AP inputs)
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