Through distributed leaflets, the Israeli government again warned Palestinians in Gaza City to leave the north of the enclave. Israel’s Defense Minister reiterated the goal of putting an end to Hamas, the Islamist organization in charge of the Gaza Strip and responsible for the terrorist attack on 7. The Prime Minister warned Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, not to associate with it interfere in. The US defense secretary also reiterated warnings to Iran and the groups it sponsors, while the head of diplomacy expressed concern about the possibility of US personnel being attacked. In Tehran, the expression to classify the Middle East is “powder keg,” and from there also came the warning that continued Israeli attacks could send the region “out of control.”
Israel continued its campaign of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after striking Deir al-Balah, in the center of the territory, on Saturday night, killing at least 80 people, according to Hamas. the total number of victims in the enclave exceeds 4,650. But the attacks were not limited to the Gaza Strip: in the West Bank, a mosque in the Jenin refugee camp was targeted by Israeli forces, killing two people and three others were injured. Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said there was an underground “terrorist complex” used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stage an imminent attack. A “time bomb,” he noted. The Palestinian Authority deemed the airstrikes on the West Bank a “dangerous escalation”.
The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said another 12 workers were killed in the latest Israeli attacks, out of a total of 29.
In addition, the Syrian regime said the Israelis carried out airstrikes on Damascus and Aleppo airports, leaving the runways out of service. The Israeli army also attacked, albeit “accidentally”, a border guard tower in Egypt. According to what the Egyptian military reported, “fragments of a projectile from an Israeli tank” hit the tower near the border between the two countries in Kerem Shalom. Tel Aviv immediately apologized for an incident that caused an unspecified number of “minor injuries.”
On the Israeli side, a soldier was killed and three others injured by anti-tank rocket fire during an Israeli army incursion into the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military stated that the aim of the attack was to locate Hamas prisoners in the Khan Yunis area and “destroy the terrorist infrastructure”, whereupon the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, announced that they were removing Israeli forces from the area had been expelled. territory.
With the military campaign still in its first phase, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said efforts to eradicate Hamas “may take a month, two or three, but eventually Hamas will cease to exist.” Thirteen Hamas leaders have been killed so far, if the group’s own and Israel’s statements are to be believed. The ground invasion of Gaza must be the last “for the simple reason that Hamas will no longer exist after that,” he assured.
The lives of 120 babies in incubators are at risk if fuel for electricity generators does not arrive in Gaza, UNICEF has warned. More than 1,750 children were killed in the bombings.
It was up to Prime Minister Netanyahu to warn of the “devastating consequences for Hezbollah and the state of Lebanon” if the Shiite group decided to join the conflict. “We’re going to hit you with a force you can’t even imagine.” Military actions and statements by Israeli rulers prompted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian to also issue a warning: “I would like to warn the United States and the Israeli puppet regime that if they do not immediately put an end to the crimes against humanity and the genocide in Gaza, anything is possible at any time and the region could spiral out of control.”
At the same time, after Washington announced that more anti-aircraft systems would be sent to Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he expected attacks on US forces in the region and that the US was working to respond. More immediately, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that his country “will not hesitate to take military action” against any organization or country that seeks to expand the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas. “We reserve our right to defend ourselves and will not hesitate to act accordingly,” he said.
The margin
Pope and Biden talk about conflicts
Pope Francis spoke for 20 minutes on the phone with United States President Joe Biden about “conflict situations in the world and the need to identify paths to peace,” the Vatican said.
Before his faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Argentine Pope called for an end to the conflict between Hamas and Israel, expressed fears of an escalation of the war and appealed for more humanitarian aid. in the Gaza Strip, while lamenting the “grave human situation”.
“War, any war, is always a defeat. War is always a defeat, a destruction of human brotherhood. Brothers, stop! Stop!” he shouted. From the window of the Apostolic Palace, Francis denounced the attacks on the Anglican Al Ahli Hospital and the Orthodox Church of Saint Porfirio, in which at least 18 Christian Palestinians were killed.
Demonstrations outside Europe
In Paris, Brussels or Sarajevo, but also in Rotterdam or Copenhagen, thousands gathered on the streets in defense of Palestine, while in Berlin, Geneva and also in the French capital, rallies were held for Israel, against anti-Semitism and the call for the liberation of about 200 hostages.
According to a police estimate, approximately 15,000 demonstrators gathered in Paris to demand an end to Israeli military operations, at the request of forty organizations. In Belgium’s capital, a crowd estimated by police at 12,000 gathered in front of EU institutions for the same purpose. In the Bosnian capital, there were people who compared the Serb siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s with the situation in Gaza.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke before 10,000 people in Berlin to denounce anti-Semitism and support Israel. The day before, about 100,000 people marched in London to demand an end to the war declared by Tel Aviv.
Sánchez calls for a humanitarian ceasefire
Returning from Cairo, where he took part in a peace summit that highlighted the divisions between Arab countries and Western countries, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu “deep concern for the protection of all civilians and the need for humanitarian aid that would population of Gaza in an adequate and sustainable manner.” In the first conversation between the two heads of government since the Hamas attacks on Israel, on the 7th, Sánchez added that “for this to happen, a humanitarian ceasefire is necessary.”
The socialist leader, whose current government also holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, reiterated “the condemnation of Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel and its right to defend itself against them, within the limits of international and humanitarian law.”
The Israeli president postpones his visit to Portugal
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has postponed a visit to Portugal planned for early November, his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reported. According to a note published on Belém’s official website, the president of the republic spoke with Herzog on the phone at his request. “The President of Israel wanted to explain the postponement of the visit to Portugal (which was scheduled for early November) and to inform the Portuguese President of his country’s position on the current situation,” the note said.
Source: DN
