Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv for meetings with Israeli leaders – videoShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Live feedIsraeli minister says no power, water, fuel to Gaza until hostages freedIsrael’s energy minister, Israel Katz, has just tweeted:
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarianism for humanitarianism. And no one will preach us morality.”
Key events
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Matt Fidler
Here is a selection of images we are seeing on the wires this morning.
An Israeli man signs-up as they arrive at a weapons distribution point for people allowed to carry arms, at the Ayyelet HaShahar Kibbutz, in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border. Photograph: Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty ImagesSecretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/APA Thai national hugs family members after arriving on a flight from Israel in Bangkok. Thailand’s prime minister said the death toll of Thai nationals killed in the conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas had risen to 21. Photograph: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty ImagesSmoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City. Photograph: Ibrahim Hams/AFP/Getty ImagesA Palestinian girl holds two children as she stands on a street in Gaza City. Photograph: Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty ImagesPeople display images of victims of Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel during a vigil in Santiago, Chile. Photograph: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty ImagesEgyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has spoken with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the need to ensure regularity of humanitarian relief services and aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, blocking all movement of civilians, as well as cutting off supplies of food, fuel, water and power.
Egypt has a border crossing with Gaza but it remains closed after accusations that Israeli airstrikes hit the area. The Israeli military said it could “neither confirm or deny” any attack on the crossing.
Egypt has not said whether it will allow Palestinians to flee into its territory.
Rory Carroll
The family of Kim Damti, a 22-year-old Irish-Israeli woman who went missing during the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival, has announced that she is dead.
Laura Damti said in a social media post on Wednesday night that her sister had been killed and would be buried on Thursday in the Israeli town of Gedera. “With great sorrow and gloomy grief, I announce the killing of our angel, our flower, Kim my blood, who was murdered by the cursed terrorists,” she said.
In a statement to RTE News Damti’s family in Ireland thanked people for their support and asked for privacy.
Damti had lived in Gedera, in central Israel, and spent summer holidays in Ireland, where her mother is from. She was one of hundreds of people massacred when Hamas militants attacked the music festival and surrounding communities.
Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins, paid tribute to Damti and expressed condolences to the family. “Kim’s death once again reminds us what an outrageous breach of fundamental international law in conditions of conflict it is to target civilians in this way.”
The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said Ireland was united in mourning. “Her death, and the deaths of more than a thousand other citizens of Israel and from around the world, was senseless and barbaric.”
Kim Damti Photograph: FacebookIsrael confirms identity of 97 hostages held in GazaIsrael’s military spokesperson has said that the government has been able to confirm the identities of 97 people taken hostage into Gaza during the attack by Hamas on Saturday.
“The military is preparing for the next stage of the war,” Daniel Hagari said in a televised press briefing, adding that 222 soldiers had been killed since Saturday.
More than 100 people are believed to have been taken.
Lili Bayer
Guardian journalist Lili Bayer has spoken to Israel’s ambassador to the EU and Nato, Haim Regev, at the Nato headquarters.
They spoke after the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, briefed his Nato counterparts via videoconference this morning.
“The main message of the minister was that it was a savage attack, brutal attack by terrorists – Hamas is Isis – and we are expecting full support,” the ambassador said.
“We do not ask specific things from Nato as Nato,” he added.
“The idea,” the ambassador said, “was to share with Nato what Israel faces since the beginning, since Saturday morning – and the minister focused on that, because it’s important to understand against whom we are standing.”
“It’s black and white,” he added. “Israel is fighting against a terror group – not against anybody else.”
Regev said Israel’s defence minister did mention to his Nato counterparts that Iran is backing and financing Hamas, but that the focus of the short discussion was Gaza.
Ministers were shown a video showing atrocities, he said.
Regev said he felt there was strong backing for Israel in the meeting.
“We would like to see a statement by Nato – strong statement, strong support,” he said.
“For us, it was extremely important that the defence ministers will hear from firsthand what happened,” he added.
Asked whether Israel had asked any specific Nato members – besides the US – for equipment or ammunition, the ambassador said: “Israel is a strong country.”
“We have all the means right now that we need,” he said, noting that with the exception of the US, Israel is not asking for specific assistance.
UK minister says Hamas responsible for Israeli attacks on Gaza
Aubrey Allegretti
Hamas is responsible for the Israeli attacks being launched on Gaza, the British health secretary, Steve Barclay, has said.
He signalled “strong support” for Israel while calling for international rules of war to be “adhered” to, in a series of broadcast interviews this morning.
Asked what sympathy he had with the people of Gaza who are facing bombardment, Barclay told Sky News: “The UK does have sympathy. That’s why we contribute about 10% of the aid that is distributed in the region through the United Nations.
However, Barclay added: “Israel has a right to defend itself but also to deter future attacks from Gaza. So Hamas are responsible for what we’re seeing in Gaza.”
He added: “We agree that international law, international rules of war should be adhered to. And those are the sort of conversations I’m sure the foreign secretary [James Cleverly] was having in Israel yesterday. But we should also be very clear: it is Israel that has been attacked here.”
Gaza authorities say more than 1,200 people have been killed and more than 5,000 people have been wounded in the bombing.
Lisa O’Carroll
Elon Musk’s social media firm, X, formerly known as Twitter, has responded to the EU’s warning over the alleged spread of illegal content and disinformation in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, insisting it removes fake news and accounts from the platform.
In a three-page letter from its chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, X said it had “taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content” since the attack and “removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts on the platform”.
Yaccarino added it had “responded to 80 requests to take down content from the EU within the required timelines”.
Hinting at a greater scale of illegal content sweeping social media, Cybara, an Israeli threat intelligence firm, identified “tens of thousands of fake profiles” on X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in the 48 hours after the Hamas attack.
Of 162,000 profiles it found, 40,695 were fake.
X’s Yaccarino was responding to a demand by Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for internal market, that X report back within 24 hours on the measures in place to prevent illegal content.
The EU has sweeping new powers to force tech companies, for the first time, to be responsible for the legality of their own content under the Digital Services Act.
He cited reports of “fake and manipulated images and facts” circulating on the platform including “repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts” and “military footage that actually originated from video games”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken lands in Tel AvivAntony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv for meetings with Israeli leaders – videoWashington’s top diplomat will meet Israeli officials today.
Blinken is expected to meet Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday.
Israeli minister says no power, water, fuel to Gaza until hostages freedIsrael’s energy minister, Israel Katz, has just tweeted:
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarianism for humanitarianism. And no one will preach us morality.”
Hamas fighters still making attempts to enter Israel but have been blocked, IDF says
Ruth Michaelson
A spokesperson for the Israeli forces, Lt Col Richard Hecht, has just been speaking to the media. Here are the key points.
Hecht stated that strikes on Gaza last night targeted members of Hamas’s elite Nakhba force. He also said Israeli intelligence is focusing on identifying the fighters who staged the incursion “after interrogating people captured”.
Hecht said the IDF intends to target Hamas senior leadership, beyond its military wing but also political figures that operate in government institutions.
Hamas fighters are still attempting to enter Israeli territory by sea, he said. “We’ve intercepted a few maritime targets.”
The IDF is still securing the border area around Gaza, “building little barricades with tanks and cover to slowly secure the border. It’s not hermetic,” but the IDF has “overflowed the area” with soldiers.
Anyone who approaches the Gaza border, said Hecht, “will be shot. Anyone. No one’s coming in, no one’s coming out.”
The IDF is “preparing ourselves for the next stages of war”, but any decision regarding a ground invasion comes from the government.
Regarding suggestions of an incursion by air that occurred last night from Lebanon, Hecht described reports that gliders or drones had entered Israeli airspace as a result of a “human mistake”.
The IDF has widened and intensified the scope of its bombing campaign in Gaza, Hecht said “we are not just doing carpet bombing, although there are some people who would like to see that. We are not going for any target which is not based on intelligence. Yes, it is bigger than they have seen before, If there’s a person hiding somewhere we will notify them and people who want to leave will leave. The scale and scope of this is going to be very severe.”
Asked how the IDF can notify people in Gaza when the area has no power and very little telephone connectivity, Hecht replied: “The notification is through phone calls, social media, and that’s how we’re doing it right now. There is also an option of sending (firing) a small munition on to the roof or perimeter, then people know it’s a sign for them to move.”
German chancellor Scholz confirms suspending development aidScholz has confirmed Germany will suspend all development aid to the Palestinian Territories pending the completion of a review to ensure it best serves regional peace and Israel’s security.
“Our yardstick will be whether and how these projects best serve peace in the region and the security of Israel,” he said. “Until that review is complete we will not make available any new development cooperation resources.”
He added: “Sadly, we can foresee the suffering of the civilian population in the Gaza strip likely growing further – but that too is the fault of Hamas and its attack on Israel.”
German chancellor Scholz says working to free all hostagesThe German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he was working with “full force” to free all hostages, in close coordination with Israel, and would work with regional powers in a bid to stop violence spreading further.
“I am in close contact with Egypt’s President Sisi, who has channels to Gaza. I will speak with Turkey’s President Erdoğan today and receive the Emir of Qatar,” he said. “All three can play an important role in de-escalating the situation.”
Rebecca Ratcliffe
On Thais in Israel, my colleague in Bangkok, Navaon Siradapuvadol, has spoken to a survivor of the Hamas attack who just returned to Thailand.
Katchakorn Pudtason, who was among the first group of 15 Thais to be repatriated, landed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport on Thursday morning.
Katchakorn was sitting alone in the back of his employer’s truck as he and colleagues made their way to the cherry farm where they worked near Gaza on Saturday. There had been conflict earlier that morning – gunfire had broken out, and a missile landed, not far away. But, after having gone to their employer’s house as a precaution, they felt it was safe to return to the farm. Things seemed to have quietened down, he said.
They were not far from the farm when Katchakorn realised something wasn’t right. He heard a loud noise, like a firecracker, on the left towards the main road. He ducked down, and warned a friend that he thought they were being shot at. “Then the gun shots kept firing, bang bang.”
It isn’t clear who was firing. “I think there weren’t any terrorists around, it was only soldiers who were stationed all around,” he said. He wondered if his group had been mistaken for militants.
Still ducked down, he felt a sharp pain in his knee; a bullet had hit him from the left side of the car. “That moment, when I got shot, it was not as scary as the firing that came after. It was like they were firing after us. Bang, bang, bang. It was more intense than in a war movie.”
Gunshots were fired across their camp at the farm where he and other workers stayed. None were taken hostage, but four were shot. One person remains in hospital
Katchakorn, who is from Phayao province in northern Thailand, had worked in Israel for a year and three months, and is one of many Thais who have moved to the country to work in agriculture, drawn by salaries that are much higher than back home. He lived in Moshav Mavki’im.
He would earn as much as 70,000 baht (£1,575) with overtime, working on a cucumber and cherry farm – far more than the minimum wage in Thailand, which is about 10,620 baht a month.
His family, he said, have cried a lot, waiting for him to return. “I told them I’m OK; I didn’t have any internal injuries,” he said. “But I can’t work. I was a breadwinner to the family.” He took on debt in order to travel to Israel, he added. He would return if it was safe and his injury is healed, he said.
He felt sadness, he said, for those killed.
Katchakorn’s employer was eventually able to drive him to a safe place, and then on to hospital, which was in a state of chaos. “I saw so many people crying,” he said. Soldiers kept rushing into the emergency room.
The bullet had gone through his knee, but had avoided the bone and cut the tendons. He wasn’t given any pills or injections. “I guess it’s just a little wound compared to others. So I went home and took paracetamol,” he says.
The Thai government says it believes 21 of its citizens have been killed, and 14 taken hostage.
“I didn’t know how I actually survived this … I can’t believe I survived this.”
A total of 16 Thai nationals have been taken hostage following the unrest in Israel, the country’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, adding two more people to the list.
Berlin will allow Israel to use two Heron drones the German air force has in use in the country, Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Thursday ahead of a Nato meeting in Brussels.
“We will provide two drones the Israelis had asked for. In addition, there are first requests for ammunition and for ships that we will now discuss with the Israelis,” Pistorius said, adding: “We stand by Israel’s side.”
Norwegian Air cancels evacuation flight over lack of insuranceNorwegian Air cancelled a planned evacuation flight from Tel Aviv to Oslo on Thursday due to a lack of insurance cover, the carrier said.
The airline had been due to fly Norwegians and other Nordic citizens stranded in Israel out of the country on Thursday evening. The flight had already been postponed from Wednesday.
“The reason is that the insurance company that Norwegian and a number of other airlines use no longer cover flights to Tel Aviv,” Norwegian said in a statement.
The airline industry in recent days faced a warning over insurance cover in the wake of the weekend attacks.
Norwegian said it was working with Norway’s foreign ministry to find other solutions.
On Tuesday it cancelled regular flights from the Swedish and Danish capitals to Tel Aviv until 19 December.
SummaryIt is 9am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where thing stand:
Israel conducts ‘large-scale’ strike on Gaza. At around 4.30am on Thursday, Israel’s military said it was conducting a “large-scale strike” on targets belonging to Hamas in Gaza. It did not provide details. Hamas media said 15 Palestinians had been killed and several wounded in Israeli air strikes.
Gaza death toll rises to over 1,200. The death toll in Gaza rose to 1,200 early Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, including 51 people killed in what the Israeli military called a large-scale attack in the hours before daylight. The most recent Israeli death toll stands at 1,200.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will meet US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Friday, a Palestinian official said early on Thursday. Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, also said on messaging platform X that Abbas will meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman on Thursday.
More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave. “Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Thursday. By late Wednesday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 75,000 people from the figure given 24 hours earlier, reaching 338,934, it said.
Red Cross says in contact with Hamas, Israel over hostages. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in contact with Hamas and Israel to try to negotiate the release of hostages taken into Gaza, the group said Thursday. “As a neutral intermediary we stand ready to conduct humanitarian visits; facilitate communication between hostages and family members; and to facilitate any eventual release,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement.
Biden decries Hamas ‘campaign of pure cruelty’. Joe Biden addressed a round table of Jewish leaders in Washington on Wednesday, where he said, “This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty, not just hate, but pure cruelty against the Jewish people, and I would argue it is the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust”.
Biden warned Iran to ‘be careful’. During his speech to a group of Jewish community leaders in Washington, adding that the US is sending more military assistance to help Israel fight Hamas militants. Biden’s remarks marked the first time he connected the US deployment of a carrier fleet near to Israel to concerns Iran might seek to become involved, Reuters reported.
Twenty-one Thai nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas, the prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, said Thursday, up from the previous toll of 20. “The update from last night is bad news that one more Thai died, the number rises to 21,” he said. There are approximately 30,000 Thais in Israel, mostly working in the agriculture sector, according to Thailand’s labour ministry. Fears are mounting over the fate of 14 Thai citizens who have been taken hostage.
Biden also said the US was “working on every aspect” of the hostage crisis in Israel, but that “the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre”.
The Israeli air force said that it killed a senior Hamas operative overnight. In a pair of tweets, the IAF wrote on X: “Air Force aircraft killed Muhammad Abu Shamla, a senior operative from the Hamas naval formation in the Rafah Brigade. Abu Shamla’s house was also used to store naval weapons intended to carry out terrorist operations against Israel.”
China’s envoy for Middle East affairs says its government is willing to work with Egypt to promote an “immediate ceasefire and cessation of violence”. According to China’s foreign ministry (Mofa), special envoy Zhai Jun spoke to Egypt’s assistant minister of the Palestine department on Tuesday. A statement from Mofa said Zhai reiterated China’s position for a two-state solution as “the fundamental solution” to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine.
Israel’s ambassador to Japan said on Thursday that his host country should be “vigilant” and look at what Hamas was doing with the aid it extends to Palestinians. “Japan should be vigilant and look at what Hamas is doing with the aid,” Gilan Cohen said at a press conference. He commended Japan for acknowledging the Hamas attacks as “terrorism” and for saying Israel had a right to defend itself.
A ground offensive will be launched on Gaza ‘when opportune and fit for our purposes’, the IDF spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said in an update early on Thursday.
Turkey is carrying out negotiations aimed at securing the release of Israeli civilians held by Hamas, according to reports. Talks were being carried out by Turkish officials after instructions from the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a senior Turkish official.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has called for essential “life-saving” supplies of fuel, food and water to be allowed into Gaza. Guterres, in remarks to the press on Wednesday, said he will never forget the images of the “supercharged cycle of violence and horror”. He said he was in continuous contact with leaders in the region, and warned against any “spillover” of the conflict.
That is it from me, Helen Sullivan. My colleagues in London will take you through the rest of the day’s developments.
The IDF says sirens are sounding in central Israel:
🚨Sirens sounding in central Israel🚨
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 12, 2023 Red Cross says ready to help ‘facilitate’ the release of hostagesThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in contact with Hamas and Israel to try to negotiate the release of hostages taken into Gaza, the group said on Thursday.
At least 150 Israelis and foreigners – including soldiers, civilians, children and women – have been held hostage in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s surprise Saturday attack on Israel. Hamas has not announced an intention to negotiate.
“As a neutral intermediary we stand ready to conduct humanitarian visits; facilitate communication between hostages and family members; and to facilitate any eventual release,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement.
Hostage-taking is forbidden under international humanitarian law, and anyone detained must be released immediately, Carboni added.
Fabrizio Carboni, regional director for the Near and Middle East of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Photograph: Denis Balibouse/ReutersThe ICRC urged “both sides to reduce the suffering of civilians”.
“The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent,” Carboni said.
As Gaza is deprived of electricity, “hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken”, he added.
“Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”
Drinking water, already difficult to access, has also become more scarce.
“No parent wants to be forced to give a thirsty child dirty water,” he said.