LIVE | Day 19 of Israel-Hamas war: Israel urges India to declare Hamas as terror organisation
The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza.
Palestinians inspect the damage to destroyed houses after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Tuesday, October 24. Photo: AP/PTI
Israel has been escalating its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants. The war is rapidly raising the death toll in Gaza, and the US fears the fighting could spark a wider conflict in the region.
Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the Hamas attack on Israeli towns on October 7. The aid convoys allowed into Gaza so far have carried a fraction of what's needed, and the UN said distribution will have to stop if there's no fuel for the trucks.
The war, in its 19th day on Wednesday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Health Ministry said at least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed and 16,297 wounded. In the occupied West Bank, 96 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since October 7. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage. In addition, 222 people including foreigners were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, Israel's military has said. Four of those have been released.
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Time has come for India to proscribe Hamas as a terrorist organisation like many other nations have done, Israeli ambassador to India Naor Gilon said on Wednesday.
The Israeli envoy, at an interaction with journalists, also thanked India for its "100 per cent" support to Israel in its anti-terror operations against Hamas.
Gilon said Israel conveyed to relevant Indian authorities to declare Hamas as a terrorist organisation following its brutal attack on Israel on October 7.
At the same time, he indicated that the matter was taken up earlier as well.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among first world leaders to condemn the terror attack... India is a very important moral voice in the world and the important countries for us are with us," Gilon said.
"It is time for India to declare Hamas as terrorist organisation in India," he said, adding many countries have already done that.
"India is solidly supporting us in our counter-terror operations," he said.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Wednesday said at least 6,546 Palestinians, including 2,704 children, were killed and 17,439 wounded in Israeli strikes since October 7.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Wednesday that without immediate deliveries of fuel it will soon have to sharply cut back relief operations across the Gaza Strip, which has been blockaded and hit by devastating Israeli airstrikes since Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel more than two weeks ago.
The warning came as hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources, and health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory said the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets continued striking the territory overnight into Wednesday.
The Israeli military said its strikes had killed militants and destroyed tunnels, command centers, weapons storehouses and other military targets, which it has accused Hamas of hiding among Gaza's civilian population. Gaza-based militants have been launching unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 704 people over the past day, mostly women and children.
Israel has killed Taysir Mubasher, the commander of Hamas's North Sector Battalion in Khan Younis, the army said on Wednesday, according to local media.
The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza.
A brief statement following the meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, said that Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed with Hamas' Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad's leader Ziad al-Nakhleh on the next steps that the three — along with other Iran-backed militants — should take at this “sensitive stage." Their goal, according to the statement that was carried on Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, was to achieve “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine” and halt Israel's "treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank”.
After an airstrike in the Al Shatea refugee camp in Gaza on October 24, Unicef has called the number of Gaza child deaths a ‘growing stain on our collective conscience’.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moved away from Gaza and carried out a drone strike overnight near the city of Jenin in the West Bank.
Israel said it was responding to "armed terrorists" who "fired and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces". Three Palestinians were killed, the director of Jenin Governmental Hospital said.
This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since 7 October to 103, said the Palestinian ministry of health.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas after the group launched unprecedented attacks on Israel by land, air and sea on October 7. The war has already claimed the lives of over 5,000 and injured hundreds of others.
Even as Israel says it is 'ready to invade Gaza', the US and Russia, called for a 'humanitarian pause' to allow safe deliveries of aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip as the enclave battles a shortage of food, water, medicine and electricity.
Three Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces carried out a night raid in Jenin in the West Bank. Sources told Al Jazeera that 20 people were injured in a drone attack that was later confirmed by Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a possible ground invasion was still on track as he visited soldiers stationed near the Gaza border. He said, "We stand before the next stage, it is coming."
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas after the group launched unprecedented attacks on Israel by land, air and sea on October 7. The war has already claimed the lives of over 5,000 and injured hundreds of others.