WHO warns of imminent ‘public health catastrophe’ and risk of infant deaths in GazaA World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that a “public health catastrophe” was imminent in Gaza amid overcrowding, mass displacement and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.
Reuters reports that at the same press briefing, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency warned of the risk of infant deaths due to dehydration with just 5% of normal water supplies available.
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Summary of the day so far …It is 2.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of the main developments today …
A World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that a “public health catastrophe” was imminent in Gaza amid overcrowding, mass displacement and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure. At the same press briefing, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency warned of the risk of infant deaths due to dehydration with just 5% of normal water supplies available.
At least 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has claimed. The health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said 130 healthcare staff had been killed, and 15 hospitals were now out of service along with 32 healthcare centres.
The Israeli military has raised the number of hostages it says are confirmed held in Gaza by Hamas to 240. In a briefing on Tuesday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “So far, families of 240 hostages have received notification. The number rose to 240 because our identification – as I’ve explained, some of the people are not citizens of Israel, so identification is more complicated. It takes time.”
Hagari has also claimed that Israel intercepted a missile from the Red Sea direction. He said “A surface-to-surface missile that was launched into the territory of the state of Israel from the Red Sea area was successfully intercepted by the “Arrow” long-range defence system. The IDF also said it had scrambled planes “and intercepted hostile targets flying in the area”. “These drones belong to the state of Yemen,” Abdelaziz bin Habtour, the prime minister of the Houthi government told AFP, claiming the attacks.
Israeli troops on Tuesday destroyed the family home of Saleh al-Arouri, the exiled commander of Hamas forces in the occupied West Bank. Arouri, a veteran Hamas leader who has spent 17 years in Israeli jails, is deputy to the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and among a group of leaders singled out by Israeli officials. His house, which local residents said was not occupied, was blown up in the early hours of the morning.
The IDF has claimed it also struck 300 locations in its latest assault on Gaza. Spokesperson Jonathan Conricus saying that Israel’s military is “striking in all parts of the Gaza strip”. Israel has told Gazan residents to flee south of the Wadi Gaza.
The al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said it fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli forces early on Tuesday, adding that troops were “invading the southern Gaza axis”. Hamas said it also targeted two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in north-west Gaza with missiles.
The mother of Ori Megidish, the soldier the IDF on Monday said it rescued after she had been kidnapped by Hamas into Gaza, has said that “We’re praying for the return of the remaining hostages.”
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has spoken of his horror at the killing of Shani Louk, which he described as “slaughter”, and reiterated the EU’s call for Hamas to release all of the hostages held in Gaza.
UK opposition leader Keir Starmer has set out why he opposes calls for a ceasefire, warning “that would leave Hamas with the infrastructure and the capability to carry out the sort of attack we saw on 7 October”, and instead insisting there should be “a pause in the fighting for clear and specific humanitarian purposes.”
Kuwait’s crown prince, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, said on Tuesday that his country condemned Israeli “aggression” on Gaza and called for a ceasefire. He requested the opening of the crossings to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and condemned the displacement of people within Gaza.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has spoken of his horror at the killing of Shani Louk, and reiterated the EU’s call for Hamas to release all of the hostages held in Gaza.
He posted wrote on social media:
Horrified by the slaughter of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli citizen, by Hamas. Her death is an illustration of the barbarity of terrorists committed against hundreds of Israeli and international citizens. The EU calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in Gaza.
Horrified by the slaughter of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli citizen, by Hamas
Her death is an illustration of the barbarity of terrorists committed against hundreds of Israeli & international citizens
The EU calls for the immediate & unconditional release of all hostages in Gaza
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 31, 2023Paris has seen Stars of David stencils painted on buildings again overnight, residents told the AFP on Tuesday, as fears mount in France over the targeting of Jews amid the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Jewish symbol was painted in multiple spots across several building fronts in a southern district of Paris, an AFP journalist saw.
Similar tags appeared over the weekend in suburbs of the city including Vanves, Fontenay-aux-Roses and Aubervilliers. In a nearby town, Saint-Ouen, they were accompanied by inscriptions such as “Palestine will overcome”.
The Union of Jewish students of France said they were designed to mirror the way Jews were forced to wear the stars by the Nazi regime.
“This act of marking recalls the processes of the 1930s and the second world war which led to the extermination of millions of Jews,” its president, Samuel Lejoyeux, told AFP. “The people who did this clearly wanted to terrify.”
In another development in France, police have shot and wounded a woman who was allegedly making threats at a train station in Paris, in the latest security incident as the country remains on heightened anti-terrorism alert after a fatal stabbing at a school this month.
Angelique Chrisafis is in Paris for the Guardian, and has this report: Police open fire after alleged threats by woman on Paris train
The mother of Ori Megidish, the soldier the IDF yesterday said it rescued after she had been kidnapped by Hamas into Gaza, has said: “We’re praying for the return of the remaining hostages.”
Haaretz reports that Maggi Megidish, speaking to the media outside her home, said: “Thank you God. Thank you to the Shin Bet security service. Thank you to the IDF and the security forces. Thank you everyone. The people of Israel live on forever.”
There is going to be a Q&A after the UK opposition leader Keir Starmer’s speech about Israel and Palestine. It may well focus on domestic politics implications in the UK, so my colleague Andrew Sparrow is covering that here.
Israel claims to have intercepted ‘hostile targets’ approaching from Red SeaThe Israel Defence Forces spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, has claimed that Israel intercepted a missile from the Red Sea direction. On social media, he wrote:
A surface-to-surface missile that was launched into the territory of the state of Israel from the Red Sea area was successfully intercepted by the ‘Arrow’ long-range defence system.
The detection systems of the air force followed the trajectory of the missile and it is intercepted at the most appropriate operational time and location.
Also, IDF planes were launched in the morning following an aerial threat detected in the Red Sea area and intercepted hostile targets flying in the area.
All the threats were intercepted outside the territory of the state of Israel. No intrusion into Israeli territory was detected.
Earlier, AFP reported that a senior official from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed to have fired drones at Israel.
“These drones belong to the state of Yemen,” Abdelaziz bin Habtour, the prime minister of the Houthi government, told AFP when asked about the launch towards Eilat in southern Israel.
Israel blamed the Houthis for a similar drone attack on Friday in which its aircraft intercepted “hostile targets” headed for southern Israel.
Six people were lightly injured in neighbouring Egypt when debris hit a building in the Sinai resort of Taba, just across the border from Eilat, the Egyptian army said at the time.
The Houthis will release a statement on Tuesday with more details of their involvement in the “resistance” against Israel, Bin Habtour told AFP.
The UK opposition leader Keir Starmer has set out why he does not support a ceasefire in Gaza. He said:
While I understand calls for a ceasefire at this stage, I do not believe that it is the correct position now for two reasons.
One, because a ceasefire always freezes any conflict in the state where it currently lives.
And as we speak, that would leave Hamas with the infrastructure and the capability to carry out the sort of attack we saw on 7 October. Attacks that are still ongoing. Hostages, who should be released, still held.
Hamas would be emboldened and start preparing for future violence immediately.
And it is this context which explains my second reason. Our current call for a pause in the fighting for clear and specific humanitarian purposes, and which must start immediately, is right in practice, as well as principle.
In fact it is, at this moment, the only credible approach that has any chance of achieving what we all want to see in Gaza. The urgent alleviation of Palestinian suffering, aid distributed quickly, space to get hostages out.
Gaza health ministry: 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, killed by Israel since 7 OctoberAt least 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has claimed.
The health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, said 130 healthcare staff had been killed, and 15 hospitals were now out of service along with 32 healthcare centres.
A Palestinian man mourns relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in front of the morgue in Deir al Balah. Photograph: Fatima Shbair/APThe UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is beginning his speech about the Israel-Hamas war at Chatham House in London. You can watch it here:
Labour leader Keir Starmer delivers speech on war in Gaza – watch liveThere has been a protest outside calling for a ceasefire.
Protesters outside Chatham House, where Starmer is giving a speech. Photograph: GuardianHere is a video clip of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ruling out any ceasefire with Hamas. Speaking in English, Netanyahu said:
I want to make clear Israel’s position regarding a ceasefire.
Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of 7 October.
Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas. To surrender to terrorists. To surrender to barbarism. That will not happen.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that there is a time for peace, and a time for war. This is a time for war, a war for our common future.