LIVE | Day 31: Israel cuts off north Gaza; Palestinian death toll crosses 10,000

The heads of 11 UN agencies and six humanitarian organisations issued a joint plea for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the protection of civilians, and the swift entry to Gaza of food, water, medicine, and fuel.

In a statement issued on Sunday night (November 5), they called Hamas' surprise October 7 attacks in Israel “horrific.”

“However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel,” the heads of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory said.

The UN and humanitarian organisations said more than 23,000 injured people need immediate treatment and hospitals are overstretched.

“An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals, and places of worship,” the joint statement said.

The UN and aid organisation leaders said over a hundred attacks against health care operations have been reported and 88 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been reported killed – “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.”

Medical aid was airdropped into Gaza by a Jordanian military cargo aircraft, the kingdom's leader announced on social media early Monday (November 6).

A trickle of humanitarian aid has entered Gaza via its land border with Egypt, but this appeared to be the first time that aid was delivered by Jordan, a key US ally that has a peace deal with Israel.

King Abdullah II said the aid reached the Jordanian field hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. “This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza,” he wrote on X.

King Abdullah II has recalled its ambassador to Israel and told Israel's envoy not to return to Jordan until the Gaza crisis was over.

Michael Hertzog, the Israeli ambassador to the US, says Gaza is “the biggest terror complex in the world,” with tens of thousands of fighters and rockets, among other weaponry — and 500 kms of underground tunnels.

“This is what we're up against. And we have to uproot it, because if we do not, they will strike again and again,” Hertzog told CBS' “Face the Nation” in an interview aired on Sunday (November 5).

He also said Israel was making every effort to distinguish between “terrorists and the civilian population” in its war with the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.

“This is a very complicated military operation in a densely-populated area, and we're trying to move the population away from that war zone,” he said.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency says the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The date of the meeting was not disclosed in the report on Sunday (November 5).

According to IRNA, Khamenei praised the patience and endurance of the people of Gaza and emphasised Iran's policy in supporting the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Khamenei urged Islamic countries and international organisations to take serious actions in support of Gaza's people.

Israel's military last week accused Haniyeh, who lives in exile, of flying to Iran on a “private jet” as the people of Gaza suffer in a devastating Israeli offensive against Hamas.

Israel accuses Iran of destabilising the region by supporting proxies like Hamas and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

Supporters of an Islamist group marched to the US Embassy in Ankara on Sunday (November 5), hours ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's expected arrival in the Turkish capital.

Several hundred protesters chanted “God is great” and held their index fingers skywards as they approached the compound in the city's Cukurambar neighbourhood. Riot police lined up in front of the US complex as the crowd, many carrying black and white flags with Arabic script, called for Turkish soldiers to be sent to Gaza.

Israeli jets struck a house near a school at the crowded Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday (November 5). At least 13 people were killed, hospital workers said.

Dozens of residents scrambled to remove the wounded and dead trapped under the rubble. Young men rushed carrying the wounded to ambulances near the school, which took them to Al-Aqsa Hospital. Hospital workers told The Associated Press that at least 13 people died.

The Bureij refugee camp is home to an estimated 46,000 people. Many Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza have stayed in refugee camps and schools as temporary shelters.

The Israeli military said on Sunday (November 5) that it discovered an extensive stash of weapons in a home in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip as it searched the area. It found rifles, grenades, explosives, suicide drones, and missiles in the residence, bringing some of the weapons back to Israel to inspect them. The military said that forces had also destroyed a nearby explosives lab.

Israel's president received the diplomatic credentials of the newly-minted US ambassador to Israel on Sunday (November 5), with both men expressing the strong bond between the two countries during wartime.

Ambassador Jacob Lew said he had met with the families of those held hostage in Gaza during his visit, and that the release of the hostages was a top priority for the US. He reiterated US support for Israel in the war effort.

“As President Biden has said so passionately, Israel has a right and indeed a responsibility to defend this nation and its people in a manner that reflects the values that we share,” Lew said.

President Isaac Herzog thanked Lew and said he was “speaking for all Israelis when I say: never has American friendship been more evident or more valued than it is right now.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Ramon Air Force base in southern Israel on Sunday (November 5) and reiterated his opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza.

Addressing pilots, Netanyahu said, “There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages. We say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them.”

Some Palestinians appear to have heeded Israeli orders to head to the southern part of the Gaza Strip during a four-hour window on Sunday (November 5) as intense bombardment rages on in the northern part of the territory.

Crowds of people, including women and children, were seen walking down Gaza's main north-south highway with only what they could carry in their arms. Others were seen leading donkey carts on the road.

Earlier, Israeli planes once again dropped leaflets urging people to head south as its forces advance in the outskirts of Gaza City.