Overnight raids on the Gaza Strip killed at least 55 people, the Hamas government said on Sunday, after Israel announced it was stepping up strikes.
“More than 55 martyrs,” the government press office said in a statement on the latest night of bombing in response to the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, Agence France-Presse reported.
The statement added that more than 30 homes had been destroyed in the hours after an Israeli military spokesperson said raids would be increased.
The Hamas government says more than 4,300 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war started in response to a Hamas attack on Israel that left about 1,400 people dead.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from inside the Gaza Strip.
A general view of the destruction after an Israeli attack in Nuseirat camp, Gaza Strip. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty ImagesA mourner carries the body of a child during the funeral of Palestinians who were killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ReutersPalestinians queue as they wait to buy bread from a bakery amid shortages. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/ReutersHeavily damaged commercial premises in Khan Yunis after Israeli strikes in one of the areas of Gaza they have instructed civilians to evacuate to. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images
Julian Borger
Posters went up online overnight calling for religious Jewish settlers to go to pray at the sacred enclosure around Al-Aqsa mosque, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, a provocative act that has the potential for triggering unrest in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
About 100 people turned up at the Mugrabi Gate at the western wall, but they were only allowed in by the police 20 at a time, and they were then escorted across the esplanade to the eastern wall to pray out of sight – a compromise with the religious right that has become routine.
The police locked down the Old City checking all bags, and there were no sign of any Palestinian demonstrations, but it is a potential flashpoint in the coming days.
Julian Borger
On the Jenin airstrike, the IDF spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht said: “Last night, there was an aerial strike on an underground terror compound in the al-Ansar mosque in Jenin. We were focusing on terrorists, an imminent threat, a ticking timebomb.”
Asked to specify whether the strike was carried out by a drone or a jet fighter, which would be the first time a warplane had been used against the West Bank since the second Intifada, nearly 20 years ago, Hecht said only that it was an “aerial attack”.
The Israel Defence Forces claim that this morning they shot down a drone approaching from the direction of Lebanon, and said they were returning fire into Lebanon after anti-aircraft missiles were fired into Israel across the UN-drawn blue line that demarks the boundary that has existed between the two countries since 2000.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has criticised those attending pro-Palestinian demonstrations in order to intimidate the Jewish community, saying they should “shut up”.
On Sky News, Husam Zomlot was asked about people attending rallies carrying Hamas flags or glorifying the attacks on 7 October, and said:
This is abhorrent, unacceptable. Those people hijack our cause for their own twisted logic.
The Jewish people have nothing to do with it. This is not a religious conflict. Many of those who demonstrated for Palestine yesterday were Jews. Many of those strong voices are the Jewish people defending us.
Those who have hate in their hearts for Jews would have hate in their hearts for Muslims and Christians, we have nothing to do with them and they should shut up.
Russian news agency RIA is reporting that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Tehran on Monday.
Israel has claimed it has killed the deputy commander of the Hamas rocket fire force.
The Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari made the claim and said: “We continue to attack targets with an emphasis on Gaza City and its surroundings, but in the entire Gaza Strip, in preparation for the next phase of the war.”
Hagari also referenced the strike on al-Ansar mosque, in the Jenin refugee camp, claiming that Hamas had been operating underneath it. “They [Hamas] desecrate holy places in the hope that they will be harmed and they will be able to start a campaign against Israel,” he said. Palestinian sources say at least two people were killed in the strike.
Palestinians inspect the damages after an Israeli airstrike at al-Ansar mosque in Jenin refugee camp. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPATurkey sent a plane with a medical team and supplies to Egypt on Sunday carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, the Turkish health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said.
“Our plane took off to help Gaza. The presidential plane filled with medicine and medical supplies, carrying 20 specialist doctors, departed from Ankara to Egypt,” Koca said in a post on social media, Reuters reports.
Workers load medicines and medical supplies for Gaza on the Turkish presidential plane in Ankara. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty ImagesThe UK’s immigration minister has said on television this morning that the UK government’s priority is getting British nationals out of Gaza rather than offering to take in additional refugees from the region.
Speaking on Sky News, Robert Jenrick said:
We already have a global scheme which is operated by the UN on our behalf and they choose individuals.
At the moment, priority is simply to get the British nationals out of Gaza and to ensure there is as much humanitarian relief there. That’s the first step.
It’s quite a long way ahead before we could reach the point where we might be able to see more people leaving Gaza. At the moment Egypt, for example, is not willing to admit refugees, and we understand the reasons behind that.
Haaretz reports that sirens are sounding in Ashkelon. The city is in Israel’s south, close to the Gaza Strip.
Reuters has a quick snap that Israel’s military has said the number of confirmed hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is now 212.
More details soon …
Palestinians said they had received renewed new warnings from Israel’s military to move from north Gaza to the south of the strip, with the added message that they could be identified as sympathisers with a “terrorist organisation” if they stayed put.
Reuters reports that the message was delivered in leaflets marked with the Israel Defence Forces name and logo from Saturday and also sent to people via mobile phone audio messages across the Gaza Strip.
“Urgent warning, to residents of Gaza. Your presence north of Wadi Gaza puts your life in danger. Whoever chooses not to leave north Gaza to the south of Wadi Gaza might be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organisation,” the leaflet said.
Israel has previously warned Palestinians to move south, although Palestinians told Reuters they had not previously been told they could be considered “terrorist” sympathisers if they did not.
Since it began launching retaliatory strikes following the Hamas attack on 7 October, Israel has repeatedly bombarded areas south of the Wadi Gaza, despite instructing Palestinians to evacuate to there.
An example of an Israeli leaflet dropped earlier in the campaign, seen on 13 October, instructing civilians to move south of the Wadi Gaza. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images