LIVE | Israel-Hamas War Day 23: Thousands loot UN aid warehouses in Gaza
Israel is determined to bring back all the hostages, said Netanyahu, and maintained that the expanding ground operation “will help us in this mission”
Israel has entered into a “new phase” in the war by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while warning of a “long and difficult” war against the militant group Hamas. He said these activities would only increase as Israel prepares for a broad ground invasion.
Netanyahu’s statement has stoked concerns of a broader Middle Eastern conflict. He also vowed to “destroy the enemy above ground and below ground”. He said that Israel is determined to bring back all the hostages, and maintained that the expanding ground operation “will help us in this mission”.
However, Hamas’ armed wing has said that it was ready to release the hostages if Israel freed all the Palestinians held in its prisons, reported AFP. “The price to pay for the large number of enemy hostages in our hands is to empty the (Israeli) prisons of all Palestinian prisoners,” it said. “If the enemy wants to close this file of detainees in one go, we are ready for it. If it wants to do it step-by-step, we are ready for that too.”
Israel said fighter jets struck over 450 military targets belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip over the past day. These included operational command centers, observation posts, and anti-tank missile launch posts.
Gaza’s largest hospital attacked
Israeli warplanes also carried out airstrikes early Sunday near Gaza’s largest hospital, which is packed with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter, report AP quoting residents. Israel has accused Hamas of using the hospital as its base.
The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a “second stage” in Israel's war on Hamas. Residents said the latest airstrikes destroyed most of the roads leading to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which is part of the northern half of the besieged territory, which Israel has told people to evacuate. According to news agencies, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said the death toll due to Israeli airstrikes has now crossed 8,000.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) also said that they were heading towards a new phase of the ongoing war on Hamas. The IDF is expanding its operations. “We are moving to the next phase of our war against Hamas, Gaza from the air, land and Sea. On October 7, the Hamas committed a crime against humanity. Israel is in a war it did not start and it did not seek. Hamas is attacking Israeli civilians while firing from among dozens of civilians. These are both war crimes,” an IDF spokesperson said.
Communication restored
Phone and internet communications were restored to many people in Gaza, the telecommunications providers told media on Sunday. A rare few Palestinians with international SIM cards or satellite phones took it upon themselves to get the news out.
Elon Musk said his Starlink satellite service would support internet access for “internationally recognised aid organisations in Gaza”, which have faced a telecommunications blackout since Friday. Starlink is a network of satellites in low Earth orbit that can provide internet to remote locations, or areas that have had normal communications infrastructure disabled.
Israeli bombs had cut off cellular and internet service for most of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip. The United Nations has reiterated its appeal for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.
People asked to relocate
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari urged civilians residing in the northern regions of Gaza and Gaza City to temporarily relocate to the safer South, where they can access essential supplies such as water, food, and medicine.
“The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are expanding their operations. We are moving to the next phase of our war against Hamas in Gaza, from the air, land, and sea. On October 7, Hamas committed a crime against humanity. Israel is in a war, it did not start, and it did not sink. Hamas is attacking Israeli civilians while firing from among dozen civilians. These are both war crimes. Our fight is with Hamas. Not with the people of Gaza,” Hagari said in a video posted to the IDF's profile on 'X'.
More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel after Hamas attacked Israeli towns from the Gaza border on October 7. In addition to that, at least 222 people including foreigners were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza. Four of them have been released since then.
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Live Updates
- 29 Oct 2023 7:45 AM IST
Give back Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has conveyed to the Israeli side that the outfit will release the people it took hostages during the October 7 attacks if Israel immediately releases Palestinian prisoners.
“We are ready to conduct an immediate prisoner exchange deal that includes the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for all prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance,” Sinwar said in statement.
- 29 Oct 2023 7:43 AM IST
‘The war has just begun,’ says Israeli PM as military expands attack on Gaza Strip
In a televised talk on Saturday (October 28) night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the country’s military has launched the “second stage” of the war against Hamas by sending ground forces to Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea.
He said the war was the second one for “independence.”
“We have unanimously approved the widening of the ground invasion…our objective is singular: to defeat the murderous enemy. We declared ‘never again’, and we reiterate ‘never again, now’,” he said.
Stating that Israel has eliminated several militants of the Hamas, Netanyahu said it, however, was only the beginning of the war and the “battle within the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long; this is our second war of independence.”
