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Israel mobilizes hundreds of tanks and soldiers along Gaza border, ground offensive imminent
The situation escalated in the Gaza Strip as Israeli tanks and troops, positioned near the border in south Israel, awaited authorisation for a potential ground offensive. The deployment suggested the possibility of a direct assault on Hamas in Gaza.
Evidence shows Hamas militants likely used North Korean weapons in attack on Israel
Hamas fighters likely fired North Korean weapons during their October 7 assault on Israel, a militant video and weapons seized by Israel show, despite Pyongyang's denials that it arms the militant group.
South Korean officials, two experts on North Korean arms and an Associated Press analysis of weapons captured on the battlefield by Israel point toward Hamas using Pyongyang's F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon that fighters typically use against armored vehicles.
The evidence shines a light on the murky world of the illicit arms shipments that sanction-battered North Korea uses as a way to fund its own conventional and nuclear weapons programs.
Rocket-propelled grenade launchers fire a single warhead and can be quickly reloaded, making them valuable weapons for guerrilla forces in running skirmishes with heavy vehicles.
The F-7 has been documented in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, said N R Jenzen-Jones, a weapons expert who works as the director of the consultancy Armament Research Services.
“North Korea has long supported Palestinian militant groups, and North Korean arms have previously been documented amongst interdicted supplies,” Jenzen-Jones told the AP.
Attack underway throughout Gaza Strip: Israel military
The Israeli military posted on X that it continues to attack the Gaza Strip and has destroyed hundreds of “Hamas terrorist infrastructures” including anti-tank missile launch sites, tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructures, and operational headquarters among others.
The Israel Defence Forces also claims to have killed Rafat Harev Hossein Abu Halal, the head of the military wing of terrorist outfit People’s Committees in Rafah.
Biden says he was ‘very blunt’ with Israeli leaders about aid to Gaza
US President Joe Biden has said he was “very blunt” with Israeli leaders that they would be “held accountable” if they didn’t allow humanitarian assistance to relieve the suffering of people in Gaza displaced by its raging conflict with Hamas.
“As they probably told you I was very blunt with the Israelis,” Biden told reporters on Air Force One while on his return from Tel Aviv where he expressed America’s solidarity with Israel and held crucial talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Asked specifically what he was “blunt” with the Israelis about, Biden responded, “Everything.” “I was very blunt on the need to support getting humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to do it quickly,” he said.
The president added that he received “no pushback” from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu when he raised humanitarian issues.
“But we’ve had a number of discussions about this,” Biden said. “Look, I don’t know what you picked up in Israel but I got no pushback. Virtually none. Let me say it again, I got no pushback.” (PTI)Airstrike kills 7 kids in Gaza home, say residents and doctors
Residents and doctors in this southern Gaza town said an airstrike slammed into a home, killing seven small children.
The news spread quickly on social media, as grisly images of dead and bloodied toddlers lined up side by side on a hospital stretcher stirred outrage in Gaza and the West Bank.
Bandaged and caked in dust, the bodies were brought to the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis along with three other dead members of the Bakri family. Photographers swarmed the operation room as women covered their eyes and doctors wept.
“This is a massacre,” hospital director Dr Yousef Al-Akkad said, his voice choking with emotion. “Let the world see, these are just children.” Local medics also confirmed that the children were killed in a strike and said the Bakri family was just one of many such cases Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. (AP)British PM Rishi Sunak heads to Middle East in bid to contain conflict
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is flying to Israel and nearby countries as part of diplomatic efforts to stop the crisis triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack from worsening.
Sunak’s office says he will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Thursday. He will condemn Hamas’s “horrific act of terror” and express condolences for the “terrible loss of life” in both Israel and Gaza.
He’ll also visit “a number of other regional capitals,” Downing Street said, without providing details.
The British leader’s trip follows a visit to Israel on Wednesday by US President Joe Biden.
Sunak said in a statement that Tuesday’s explosion at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza “should be a watershed moment for leaders in the region and across the world to come together to avoid further dangerous escalation of conflict.” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is also on a regional visit beginning with talks in Egypt on Thursday. He will also visit Qatar and Turkey. (AP)Hamas used N Korean weapons?
Suspected North Korean-made F-7 rocket-propelled grenades, many with a distinctive red stripe on their warhead, are seen at an Israeli military base in southern Israel, Oct 15. Hamas fighters likely used North Korean-manufactured rocket-propelled grenades during their unprecedented assault on Israel that killed over 1,400 people and saw scores taken hostage, despite Pyongyang denying its weapons arm the militant group. South Korean officials, two experts on North Korean arms and an AP analysis of weapons captured on the battlefield by Israel point toward Hamas using Pyongyang's F-7 rocket-propelled grenade during their Oct 7 attack that sparked the war now raging | AP/PTI
Israel not behind hospital blast: US senators after classified briefing
Senators who attended a classified briefing with top defence, intelligence, and other administration officials said they were briefed that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast.
“The intelligence community assesses that Israel is not to blame for the explosion of the hospital in Gaza,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as he left. “They believe it was an errant rocket from terrorists in Gaza.” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said the intelligence is “definitive” that it was not an Israeli operation.
In a joint statement earlier, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the panel, said they reviewed intelligence and “feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.” (AP)