Israel-Hamas war, Day 18 updates | Israel calls for resignation of UNSG Antonio Guterres after he says Hamas attacks did not happen in vacuum

Israel’s military suggested on Tuesday that the United Nations ask Hamas for fuel supplies after the U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip warned it would have to halt operations on Wednesday night if no fuel was delivered.

The agency, known as UNRWA, posted its warning on social media on Tuesday. The Israel Defense Forces reposted it and said that Hamas militants have more than 500,000 litres of fuel in tanks inside besieged Gaza.

“Ask Hamas if you can have some,” the IDF wrote.

While there have been some limited deliveries of food, water and medicine since Saturday, no fuel has been allowed in. Israel is concerned about the possible diversion of fuel deliveries by Hamas and White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday described Israel’s concerns as legitimate.

“We still believe, just in general, that fuel needs to be able to get in to the people of Gaza,” he told reporters.

However, Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Tuesday accused Hamas of stealing petrol from UNRWA, adding: “Petrol will not enter Gaza. Hamas takes the petrol for its military infrastructure.”

Reuters

Delta Air Lines said on Tuesday it will cancel all flights to Israel through Nov. 15 because of the ongoing conflict in the region.

Since earlier this month, United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta have all temporarily halted direct flights to Israel. Delta had said it planned to resume some flights on Nov. 1. American has cancelled flights through Dec. 4.

Reuters

Arab and Muslim Americans and their allies are criticizing President Joe Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war, asking him to do more to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza or risk losing their support in the 2024 election.

Many Arab Americans are upset Biden has not pushed for any humanitarian ceasefire even as Palestinians are killed fleeing Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, more than a dozen academics, activists, community members and administration officials said.

Their growing frustration could impact Democrat Biden’s reelection bid, which opinion polls show is likely to be a rematch with the Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump.

In hotly contested Michigan, Arab Americans account for 5% of the vote. In other battleground states Pennsylvania and Ohio, they are between 1.7% to 2%, said Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.

Reuters

The United States and Russia have put forward rival plans at the United Nations to help Palestinian civilians caught in the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip: a humanitarian pause or a ceasefire.

Both countries seek U.N. Security Council resolutions to address shortages of food, water, medical supplies and electricity in Gaza. But the U.S. has called for pauses to allow aid to enter Gaza, while Russia wants a humanitarian ceasefire.

Russia announced on Tuesday that it could not support the U.S. plan for action and put forward its own text that calls for a ceasefire, an idea backed by Arab states.

A council resolution needs at least nine votes and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to be adopted. It was not immediately clear if or when the U.S. and Russian draft resolutions could be put to a vote.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the case for the U.S. draft resolution at a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, saying the body had a crucial role to play and that the U.S. text “sets out practical steps.”

The United States last week vetoed a Brazil-drafted resolution for humanitarian pauses, arguing that time was needed for U.S.-led diplomacy focused on brokering aid access to Gaza on the ground and trying to free hostages held by Hamas.

Reuters

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s comment to the Security Council that attacks by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum” angered Israel, which called for the UN chief’s resignation and apology.

In a post on X, Mr. Cohen said he “will not meet with the UN Secretary-General. After the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!”

Later talking to reporters at the UN Security Council stakeout, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan lashed out at Mr. Guterres, saying his remarks in the council are “unfathomable”.

“You, Mr. Secretary General, have lost all morality and impartiality. Because when you say those terrible words that these heinous attacks did not happen in a vacuum, you are tolerating terrorism and by tolerating terrorism, you are justifying terrorism.”

Read the full story here

Eight trucks containing water, food and medicine entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt late on Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, adding it was the fourth emergency aid convoy to enter the enclave since war with Israel broke out.

Five of the trucks contained water, two contained food and one contained medicine, it said in a statement.

Reuters

Israel vowed again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls from the UN chief, the Palestinians and many countries at a high-level UN meeting on Tuesday for a cease-fire and declaring that the war in Gaza is not only its war but “the war of the free world.”

“Tell me, what is a proportionate response for killing of babies, for rape (of) women and burn them, for beheading a child?” Cohen asked. “How can you agree to a cease-fire with someone who swore to kill and destroy your own existence?” He told the UN Security Council that the proportionate response to the October 7 massacre is “a total destruction to the last one of the Hamas,” calling the extremist group “the new Nazis.”

AP

The White House said Tuesday that “prudent contingency planning” is underway to evacuate Americans from the Middle East in case the Israel-Hamas war spreads into a broad regional conflict.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stressed there are currently no “active efforts” to evacuate Americans from the region beyond charter flights the US government began operating earlier this month out of Israel.

“It would be imprudent and irresponsible if we didn’t have folks thinking through a broad range of contingencies and possibilities,” Kirby said. “And certainly evacuations are one of those things.” The White House addressed the contingency plans amid growing concerns that the 18-day-old Israel-Hamas war could further escalate.

AP

Some trucks were transporting aid to Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the United Nations said as U.S. President Joe Biden dubbed humanitarian efforts to deliver help via a crossing from Egypt as “not fast enough.”

The United Nations had earlier said about 20 trucks had been unable to cross into Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. The Palestinian Red Crescent later said eight trucks had arrived in Gaza late on Tuesday carrying water, food and medicine.

“We can confirm that some trucks are currently heading to Rafah to deliver supplies to Gaza,” said U.N. aid spokesperson Eri Kaneko, without saying how many.

The United States is negotiating with Israel, Egypt and the United Nations to try and create a sustained delivery mechanism to get aid into Gaza. They are wrangling over procedures for inspecting aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border.

When asked by reporters at the White House on Tuesday whether aid was getting to Gaza as fast as needed, Biden said: “not fast enough.”

Reuters

Canada supports the idea of a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war so aid can reach Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.

“There are a lot of conversations going on now about the need for humanitarian pauses and I think that’s something Canada supports,” he told reporters.

Ottawa’s priority was to protect innocent civilians and the release of hostages, he added.

Reuters

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Tuesday denounced UN chief Antonio Guterres over his criticism of Israel’s Gaza campaign, as Cohen recounted graphic details of Hamas attacks on civilians.

“Mr. Secretary-General, in what world do you live?” Cohen told Guterres at a Security Council session on the crisis.

Cohen later told reporters that he had canceled a meeting with Guterres.

The United Nations leader earlier had alleged “clear violations” of international law as Israel pounds Gaza in response to the October 7 assault by Hamas and called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Guterres also said that the Hamas attacks did not occur “in a vacuum,” pointing to “56 years of suffocating occupation” endured by the Palestinians.

“How you can agree to a ceasefire with someone who swore to kill and destroy your own existence?” Cohen said in English.

AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron proposed on October 24 that an international coalition fighting against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria be widened to include the fight against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Mr. Macron gave no detail on how the U.S.-led coalition of dozens of countries, of which Israel is not a member, could be involved.

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Mr. Macron stressed that France and Israel shared terrorism as their “common enemy”.

“France is ready for the international coalition against Daesh in which we are taking part for operations in Iraq and Syria to also fight against Hamas,” he told reporters, referring to Islamic State.

Mr. Macron, who warned against the risks of a regional conflict, also said the fight against Hamas “must be without mercy but not without rules”.

Eighty-five-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz spoke of a “hell that we never knew before and never thought we would experience” as she described the harrowing Oct. 7 assault on her kibbutz by Hamas militants and the terror of being taken hostage into the Gaza Strip.

Lifshitz was the first of the four hostages released so far to speak of their experience, from the initial attack through the more than two weeks of captivity.

“Masses swarmed our houses, beat people, and some were taken hostage,” said Lifshitz, speaking softly from a wheelchair as she briefed reporters on Tuesday at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, a day after Hamas released her and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper. “They didn’t care if they were young or old.”

AP

Doctors in Gaza say patients arriving at hospitals are showing signs of disease caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation after more than 1.4 million people fled their homes for temporary shelters under Israel’s heaviest-ever bombardment.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a health crisis in the tiny, crowded Palestinian enclave under an Israeli blockade that has cut off electricity, clean water and fuel, with only small U.N. convoys of food and medicine getting in.

“The crowding of civilians and the fact that most schools used as shelters are housing lots of people, it’s a prime breeding ground for disease to spread,” said Nahed Abu Taaema, a public health doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

The World Health Organization warned that a third of Gaza hospitals were not operating. “We are on our knees asking for that sustained, scaled up, protected humanitarian operation,” said WHO regional emergencies head Rick Brennan.

Reuters

The Gaza war raging between Israel and Hamas could deal a heavy blow to the global economy, banking titans told a glitzy investment forum in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The dour mood from some of the gathering’s most high-profile speakers underscored how the conflict threatens attempts by the world’s biggest oil exporter to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.

“What just happened recently in Israel and Gaza ... you put all this together, I think the impact on economic development is even more serious,” World Bank President Ajay Banga told the Future Investment Initiative (FII).

“I think we’re at a very dangerous juncture,” he added at the event often referred to as “Davos in the Desert”.

AFP

Rapidly expanding Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people in the past day as medical facilities across the territory were forced to close because of bombing damage and a lack of power, health officials said on Tuesday.

The soaring death toll from Israel’s escalating bombardment was unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It could signal an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli ground forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected offensive into the territory aimed at crushing Hamas.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been under increasing bombardment and running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating October 7 attack by Hamas militants on towns in southern Israel.

Qatari negotiators playing a lead role in efforts to free hostages seized by Hamas from Israel are hopeful of securing more releases, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Gulf state has been engaged in intense diplomacy behind the scenes and secured the release of four hostages held by the Palestinian militants following their October 7 attack on Israel.

Majed al-Ansari said Qatar’s negotiators were “hopeful for further releases” with talks ongoing with Israel and Hamas.

There was “more openness on political will between the two sides” after the release of two elderly Israeli women on Monday night, the spokesman told AFP.

AFP

UNRWA warned that it would halt its operations in the besieged Gaza enclave on Wednesday night because of the lack of fuel, the relief group posted on the messaging platform X.

“UNRWA will run out of fuel TOMORROW night - forcing us to halt operations and delivery of humanitarian aid to people in need,” it said.

Reuters

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Tuesday visited troops deployed near the border with Israel and U.N. peacekeepers, as Saudi Arabia evacuated the families of diplomatic staff because of ongoing clashes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.

The Saudi move comes amid rising tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah members have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops daily for two weeks.

There was no official announcement from Saudi authorities, but the move came days after Saudi Arabia urged its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately. Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Waleed Bukhari, the military attache and other staff members were not with the 65 people leaving Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon.

The visit by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati to the tense southern province was his first since clashes erupted along the border following a surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7. It also came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops along the border on Sunday.

AP

For more than a week, Talaat Ghabayen, a citizen of Norway who spent his whole life in Oslo, has waited days and nights at the Gaza Strip’s land crossing with Egypt as his embassy advised, hoping to flee Israel’s bombardment and looming ground invasion and reunite with his wife and sons back home.

“Egypt is literally meters away, I can see it,” Ghabayen, a 54-year-old insurance agent who traveled to Gaza before the war erupted for his mother’s funeral, said Tuesday from the Rafah crossing.

Under intense Western pressure, the gates at Rafah opened over the weekend for the first time since the war broke out, letting a trickle of humanitarian aid into the besieged strip and stoking hopes that hundreds of foreign nationals trapped in Gaza would be able to cross into safety.

AP

The Israeli ground invasion of Gaza is being delayed by “strategic considerations,” the Israel Defense Forces’ Chief of Staff told reporters on Monday.

“The IDF is ready for the [ground] manoeuvre, and we will make a decision with the political echelon regarding the shape and timing of the next stage,” said Lt-Gen Herzi Halevi at a press conference near the Gaza border.

Halevi said that there are “tactical and even strategic considerations” delaying the ground offensive, but stressed that the IDF is taking advantage of the interval.

ANI

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas told France’s Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that the international community must halt Israel’s “aggression” as it battles Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We urge you, President Macron, to stop this aggression,” Mr. Abbas said after the two leaders held talks in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Mr. Macron told reporters that “nothing can justify” the suffering of civilians in Gaza, a narrow territory of some 2.4 million people.

- AFP

Russia said on Tuesday it does not support proposed U.S. action at the United Nations Security Council on the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip and has put forward an alternative draft resolution.

“The whole world is expecting from the Security Council a call for a swift and unconditional ceasefire,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council. “This is precisely what is not in the American draft. Therefore, we don’t see any point in it, and we cannot support it

- Reuters

A barrage of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday crushed multiple residential buildings and buried families under rubble, as health officials in the besieged territory reported hundreds killed in the past day and the closure of medical facilities because of bomb damage and a lack of power.

The soaring death toll from Israel’s escalating bombardment is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It augurs an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas militants.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on towns in southern Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry run by Hamas said the attacks killed at least 704 people over the past day, including 305 children and 173 women; the ministry said it tallies daily figures collected from hospital directors. The AP cannot not independently verify the death tolls cited by Hamas.

- AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that all acts of terrorism are “unlawful and unjustifiable”, whether they are carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba or Hamas, targeting people in Mumbai or Kibbutz Be’eri.

Mr. Blinken made the remarks while addressing the Security Council ministerial meeting on the situation in the Middle East following the October 7 attack on Israel by Gaza-based Hamas militants.

“As this Council and the UN General Assembly have repeatedly affirmed, all acts of terrorism are unlawful and unjustifiable. They’re unlawful and unjustifiable, whether they target people in Nairobi or Bali… Istanbul or Mumbai, in New York or Kibbutz Be’eri,” Mr. Blinken told the UN Security Council.

“They are unlawful and unjustifiable whether they’re carried out by ISIS, by Boko Haram, by Al Shabaab, by Lashkar-e-Taiba or by Hamas. They are unlawful and unjustifiable whether victims are targeted for their faith, their ethnicity, their nationality or any other reason,” Mr. Blinken said.

He stressed that the Security Council has a responsibility to denounce member states that arm, fund and train Palestinian militant group Hamas or “any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts.” Mr. Blinken’s remarks appeared to refer to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba.

- PTI

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim joined 16,000 pro-Palestinian supporters to condemn Israel’s “barbaric” acts in the Gaza Strip, where thousands are estimated to have been killed in Israeli attacks, and denounce its Western supporters.

The gathering in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, was the largest in a series of demonstrations held in Muslim-majority Malaysia in recent weeks.

Malaysia has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause and has called for a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

“It’s a level of insanity to allow people to be butchered, babies to be killed, hospitals to be bombed, and schools to be destroyed... it’s the height of barbarism in this world,” Mr. Anwar told the crowd gathered at an indoor stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

“We are with the Palestinian people yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he said, adding that support from the United States and Europe was bolstering Israel’s position.

- Reuters

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday the “terrorist attack” by Palestinian militants against Israel on October 7 did not justify killing “millions of innocents” in Gaza.

“Just because Hamas committed a terrorist attack against Israel doesn’t mean Israel has to kill millions of innocents,” the veteran leftist said in his weekly live address on social media.

The UN Security Council is set to hold a new meeting on the conflict Tuesday, after failing to pass two resolutions aimed at brokering a ceasefire, including one put forward by Brazil.

Mr. Lula, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, said the conflict had exposed the “weakness” of the United Nations.

“If the UN were stronger, it could play a bigger role” in brokering a stop to the fighting, he said.

Mr. Lula called for talks to set up a humanitarian corridor for the besieged Gaza Strip and broker a peace deal in which “Israel keeps its territory and the Palestinians have theirs.”

- AFP

The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister on Tuesday deplored inaction by the UN Security Council to stop “massacres” in Gaza by Israel, which has retaliated for a massive attack by Hamas that largely killed civilians.

“The ongoing massacres being deliberately and systematically and savagely perpetrated by Israel — the occupying power against the Palestinian civilian population under illegal occupation — must be stopped,” Riyad al-Maliki told a special Security Council session.

“It is our collective human duty to stop them,” he said. “Continued failure at this council is inexcusable.”

- AFP

Doctors in Gaza say patients arriving at hospitals are showing signs of disease caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation after more than 1.4 million people fled their homes for temporary shelters under Israel’s heaviest-ever bombardment.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a health crisis in the tiny, crowded Palestinian enclave under an Israeli blockade that has cut off electricity, clean water and fuel, with only small U.N. convoys of food and medicine getting in.

“The crowding of civilians and the fact that most schools used as shelters are housing lots of people, it’s a prime breeding ground for disease to spread,” said Nahed Abu Taaema, a public health doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

With all hospitals running out of fuel to power their generators, doctors have warned that critical equipment, like incubators for newborns, risks stopping.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry said 40 medical centres had suspended operations at a time when the bombardment and displacement are putting enormous strain on the system.

The World Health Organization warned that a third of Gaza hospitals were not operating. “We are on our knees asking for that sustained, scaled up, protected humanitarian operation,” said WHO regional emergencies head Rick Brennan.

The private Indonesian Hospital, the biggest in north Gaza, said on Tuesday it had switched off everything except the last vital departments such as the Intensive Care Unit.

The only other hospital that had still been serving patients in northern Gaza, Beit Hanoun Hospital, stopped operations because of the intense bombardment of the town, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

“If the hospital doesn’t get fuel, this is going to be a death sentence against the patients in northern Gaza,” said Atef al-Kahlout, the hospital’s director.

- Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a call that Western countries’ silence was exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Mr. Erdogan’s office said.

In a statement, the presidency said Mr. Erdogan told Mr. Putin the “savagery” towards Palestinian lands was deepening and that civilians were constantly being killed.

He also repeated earlier comments that Ankara would continue working to achieve calm in the region, the statement added.

- Reuters

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer will fly to Israel together on Wednesday, a Czech government spokesperson said on Tuesday, adding that Mr. Fiala would meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.

“The aim of the talks will be support for Israel, including coordination in the context of the European Council, which meets this week,” the spokesperson said in a text message.

- Reuters

An elderly Israeli hostage who was released by Hamas overnight said she had been beaten by militants when she was abducted and taken to Gaza on October 7, but was then treated well during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was one of two elderly women freed late on Monday, leaving around 220 hostages still in the hands of Hamas, including both of their husbands.

“I’ve been through hell,” Ms. Lifshitz told reporters, speaking in barely a whisper and seated in a wheelchair outside the Tel Aviv hospital where she was taken following her release.

Looking frail, Ms. Lifshitz said gunmen had burst into her kibbutz, Nir Oz, taking residents by surprise.

“They stormed into our homes. They beat people. They kidnapped others, the old and the young without distinction.”

Ms. Lifshitz was put on a motorbike and driven into nearby Gaza.

Ms. Lifshitz was critical on Tuesday of the Israeli military for failing to protect southern communities from the Hamas assault, saying the army had not taken the threat of attack seriously.

“We were left to fend for ourselves,” she said.

She added that a costly security fence that was meant to keep militants out “didn’t help at all”.

“When I was on the bike, my legs were on one side and the rest of my body on the other side. The young men hit me on the way. They didn’t break my ribs but it was painful and I had difficulty breathing.”

She said her watch and jewellery were stolen during the ride.

Inside Gaza, a group of hostages were led into what Ms. Lifshitz called a “spider’s web” of damp tunnels, built by Hamas beneath the narrow coastal territory, and eventually reached a large hall.

“When we got there, first of all they told us that they believed in the Koran and that they would not harm us,” she recounted.

A group of five people from her kibbutz were held together, each with an individual guard who stayed with them 24 hours a day. Ms. Lifshitz said a doctor visited them every other day and brought them the medicines they needed.

“They took good care of the wounded,” Ms. Lifshitz said.

Video of her release on Monday showed her turning around to shake the hand of a masked captor. Asked why she had done that, she replied: “They treated us gently and met all our needs.”

- Reuters

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it remains unable to distribute fuel or life-saving health supplies to major hospitals in northern Gaza due to a lack of security guarantees.

The WHO called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire so health supplies and fuel can be delivered safely throughout the Gaza Strip”.

- Reuters

The war between Israel and Hamas could deal a heavy blow to the global economy, banking titans told a glitzy investment forum in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The dour mood from some of the gathering’s most high-profile speakers underscored how the war threatens attempts by the world’s biggest oil exporter to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.

“What just happened recently in Israel and Gaza — at the end of the day you put all this together, I think the impact on economic development is even more serious,” World Bank President Ajay Banga told the Future Investment Initiative (FII), often referred to as “Davos in the Desert”, on Tuesday.

“I think we’re at a very dangerous juncture,” he added.

The raging war risks drawing in other countries, notably Lebanon, home to the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group which has engaged in daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces.

“If these things are not resolved, it probably means more global terrorism, which means more insecurity, which means more (of) society is going to be fearful, less hope,” said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

“And when there’s less hope we see contractions in our economies.”

More than 6,000 delegates are registered for the three-day event that will feature appearances by global banking chiefs and the presidents of South Korea, Kenya and Rwanda, organisers say.

- AFP

Nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s health facilities have ceased functioning amid a massive and deadly increase in Israeli airstrikes in the territory, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

A total of 46 out of 72 health care facilities — including 12 out of 35 hospitals — have stopped functioning across Gaza, the WHO said. Palestinian health officials said the lack of electricity and fuel to power generators from an Israeli blockade, as well as damage from airstrikes, has forced many of the facilities to close.

Gaza health officials said more than 700 people had died in Israeli airstrikes over the past day.

- AP

Gaza Health Ministry on Tuesday said Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed more than 700 people in the past day.

- AP

Two people were arrested after police say one man fired a shot into the air and another pepper-sprayed pro-Palestinian demonstrators near an Israel solidarity event in Chicago’s northern suburbs.

The episode took place on Sunday evening around a banquet hall in Skokie, where about 1,000 people had gathered to show solidarity with Israel, according to event organisers.

A group of about 200 pro-Palestinian protesters staged their own rally near the hall. A man reportedly drove his car into the group, got out and fired a shot before police said they took him into custody. A witness told the Chicago Sun-Times that the man’s car had been covered in Israeli flags, the newspaper reported.

A man coming out of the banquet hall wearing an Israeli flag as a cape sprayed the crowd with pepper spray before he was arrested. No one was seriously hurt in the melee, but the pepper spray hit several protesters, a Chicago police officer and a Sun-Times reporter.

- AP

Israel is escalating its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants. The war is rapidly raising the death toll in Gaza, and the U.S. fears the fighting could spark a wider conflict in the region.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the Hamas attack on Israeli towns on Oct. 7. The aid convoys allowed into Gaza so far have carried a fraction of what’s needed, and the U.N. said distribution will have to stop if there’s no fuel for the trucks.

- AP

The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said Tuesday that 5,791 people have been killed in the territory since the outbreak of war with Israel.

The death toll includes 2,360 children. A total of 16,297 people have also been wounded since the conflict erupted on October 7.

- AFP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday accused the Lieutenant Governor’s (L-G) administration of denying the party space to hold peaceful protests over the civilian deaths in Palestine and detaining the party leaders ahead of scheduled protests.

“Our party general secretaries, Ghulam Nabi Hanjura and Mehboob Beg, have been placed under house arrest. Several leaders, including elected District Development Council members, have been either detained and asked to report to police stations in Kashmir. They wanted to protest against oppression in Palestine. The administration is denying us the space to carry out peaceful protests over what is happening in Palestine,” PDP leader Iltiha Mufti said.

“On one hand, India is sending aid and support to the idea of an independent state of Palestine and on the other they (the government) use force and detain illegally those who want to protest in solidarity with Palestine. There is a gap between what is being said and what is being implemented on ground,” Ms. Mufti, daughter of ex-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said.

-Peerzada Ashiq

The Kremlin said Tuesday it had not succeeded in freeing Russian hostages being held by Hamas and did not know how many of its citizens had been taken.

Russia has working relations with Israel as well as Hamas, and when the Palestinian militant group took more than 200 hostages during its attack on Israel this month, Moscow launched a diplomatic effort to try to free them.

“Indeed, we have not succeeded so far, but we will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked about Moscow’s efforts to secure the release of Russian citizens.

“We don’t have exact information about how and when they can be returned at the moment,” Peskov added.

He added Moscow will “continue our contacts with all sides”.

Hamas has freed four women -- two Americans and two Israelis -- in recent days.

- Reuters

Amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that the world has proved that there are different laws for Russia and Israel.

Speaking to the media reporters in Srinagar over the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, the National Conference (NC) Vice President said that innocent people are being killed in Gaza bombings.

“... Since the first day, we have been opposing what is happening in Gaza. Innocent people are being killed in Gaza bombings... The world has proved that there are different laws for Russia and Israel...” Abdullah said.

Questioning the international community while addressing the media persons, he asked, “What Russia did to Ukraine was a war crime; then what Israel is doing to Gaza is not wrong? Both things cannot be correct. Now the world will have to decide what is right...” Abdullah said.

- ANI

French President Emmanuel Macron called Tuesday for the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group to be expanded to also fight Hamas after the October 7 attacks on Israel.

Macron, speaking after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, said that countries fighting IS “should also fight against Hamas.”

The French leader stressed there must be a “decisive relaunch” of the Palestinian peace process following the crisis set off by the deadly Hamas attacks and Israel’s response.

- AFP

An elderly Israeli hostage who was released by Hamas overnight said she was beaten by militants as she was taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, but was then well-treated during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was one of two women freed late Monday, leaving around 220 hostages still in the hands of Hamas.

Seated in a wheelchair, a frail looking Lifshitz told reporters that a doctor had visited her while she was held in a network of tunnels within Gaza and that all her needs had been taken care of.

- Reuters

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency on Tuesday called for an unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, trapped in a humanitarian crisis after two weeks of intense Israeli attacks.

“We call for an unimpeded and continuous flow of humanitarian assistance and medical assistance to continue coming into Gaza,” said Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

“The trucks that have come in so far are just a trickle in the face of the immense needs of people on the street.”

- Reuters

Since Israel activated the Iron Dome in 2011, the cutting-edge rocket-defence system has intercepted thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The system has given residents a sense of security, and Israelis can often be seen watching the projectiles flying through the skies and destroying their targets overhead.

Read more here...

Italy’s foreign minister said an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City last week was not caused by a missile fired by Israel and also questioned the death toll reported by Palestinian officials.

“We need to avoid the negative impact of propaganda because that missile that was said to have caused 500 deaths, in reality it was around 50 people....was not launched by Israel,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told the Sky TG24 news channel.

The Gaza health ministry has put the hospital death toll at 471. Tajani did not say what evidence his comments were based on.

- Reuters

Qatar’s ruling emir on Tuesday urged the international community not to grant Israel “unrestricted authorisation to kill” Palestinians in its fight against Hamas, in what he called a dangerous escalation that threatens global security.

“We say enough. Israel shouldn’t be granted an unconditional green light and unrestricted authorisation to kill,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in an annual speech to open the Gulf Arab state’s advisory Shura council, his first public comments since Qatar began its most recent efforts to mediate between Israel and Hamas.

-Reuters

France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on a solidarity visit to Israel on Tuesday that releasing hostages held by Hamas must be the “first objective” of the war in Gaza.

“The first objective we should have today is the release of all hostages, without any distinction, because this is an awful crime to play with the lives of children, adults, old people, civilians and soldiers,” Macron said after meeting Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. Macron added that the campaign must be fought without “enlarging this conflict.”

- AFP

Israel is not looking to wage war with Hezbollah militants on its northern border, but is focused instead on battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Tuesday during a meeting with French head of state Emmanuel Macron.

“I want to make clear, we are not looking for a confrontation on our northern border or with anyone else ... But if Hezbollah drags us into a war it should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price,” Herzog said.

- Reuters

France will stand in solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday as he met with his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

“What happened will never be forgotten,” Macron said, referring an assault on Israel in which the militant group Hamas killed over 1,400 people. “I am here to express our solidarity.”

- Reuters

France’s President Emmanuel Macron will meet his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah on Tuesday, the Palestinian leader’s office said.

- AFP

Israel’s Military Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the military was “ready and determined” for the next stage in the war and was awaiting political instruction.

He said Israel was learning from U.S. experience in the Middle East but “our war is on our borders, not thousands of miles from Israel,” adding that he was expecting weeks of fighting ahead.

Mr. Hagari said Egypt was playing a key role in negotiations for the release of hostages from Gaza, which he said was a top priority for Israel.

- Reuters

The war between Israel and Hamas could deal a “serious” blow to global economic development, the president of the World Bank told an investor conference in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

“What just happened recently in Israel and Gaza — at the end of the day you put all this together, I think the impact on economic development is even more serious,” Ajay Banga said, adding: “I think we’re at a very dangerous juncture.”

-AFP

At least 10 British nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and a further six remain missing, junior British finance minister Victoria Atkins told Times Radio on Tuesday.

-Reuters

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat asserted that the world is looking towards India to lead by example and show a new path to peace.

“The world is facing the scourge of fanaticism, arrogance, and hysteria stemming from religious sectarianism. Any solution to conflicts like the war in Ukraine or the Gaza Strip, which arise due to a clash of interests and extremism, remains elusive,” Mr. Bhagwat said.

“Terrorism, exploitation, and totalitarianism are getting a free run to wreak havoc. It has become abundantly clear that the world cannot counter these problems with its inadequate vision. Therefore, the world is looking towards Bharat expectantly to lead by example and show a new path to peace and prosperity, based on its own Sanatan (eternal) values and Sanskars,” he added.

-ANI

In a phone conversation with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he “deeply sympathises” with the people of Gaza, adding that they need security and efforts to promote peace, not weapons or geopolitical calculations.

China calls for the convening of a “more authoritative, wide-ranging and effective international peace conference” soon, he said.

Mr. Wang’s comments come days before he visits Washington

He had also spoken to Israel’s Eli Cohen, calling the conflict a “major choice between war and peace”.

- Reuters

Gaza’s Hamas government said Tuesday that Israeli air strikes on the besieged territory during the night killed at least 140 people.

A statement from the government’s media office said “more than 140 people were martyred and hundreds wounded in massacres committed by the occupation (Israel) raids”.

Gaza’s rulers say more than 5,000 people have been killed in the territory since their gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people.

-AFP

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make efforts to see that a humanitarian corridor is opened in Gaza so that people can get relief and a ceasefire announced.

He spoke to reporters after addressing a public meeting on Monday night organised at the AIMIM headquarters here “in protest against the atrocities of Israel in Palestine”.

“India is sending aid. But, Israel is saying we will not allow it. We are talking about sending aid to Gaza through Rafah, Egypt. Our planes had gone. We demand Prime Minister Narendra Modi to first get a ceasefire made there. Get a ceasefire done in Gaza and a humanitarian corridor is opened there,” he said, when asked about India sending relief materials.

-PTI

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to express his country’s “full solidarity” with Israel after the deadly October 7 attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The French head of state was also expected to call for the “preservation of the civilian population” in Gaza, as Israel carries out a relentless bombardment of the Palestinian enclave and prepares for a ground offensive, the presidency said.

-AFP

Six workers with the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency were killed in just 24 hours in Gaza, the global body said Tuesday, bringing to 35 the total of its staff killed since October 7.

“Since the start of hostilities, at least 16 health workers have been killed while on duty, along with 35 UNRWA staff,” the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in an update sent Tuesday on the situation up to Monday evening.

“Six of (them) were killed in the past 24 hours.”

The UNRWA supports the 5.6 million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

-AFP

At a rally, former U.S. President Donald Trump criticised incumbent Joe Biden’s response to the Hamas attack on Israel, calling the speech the president gave in response to the war last Thursday night “a grotesque betrayal of Israel” and “one of the most dangerous and deluded speeches ever delivered from the Oval Office.”

He charged that Mr. Biden, in linking the threats posed by Hamas and Russia, “went before the American people and said that if you want to support Israel, then you have to give a blank check” to help Ukraine stave off Russia’s ongoing invasion.

To protect the country, Mr. Trump said that, if he returns to the White House, he will order the construction of a state-of-the-art missile defense shield over the U.S. that he said would be “capable of blasting Chinese, Russian, and Iranian missiles out of our skies.”

“Americans deserve an Iron Dome, and that’s what we’re going to have,” he said, referring to Israel’s vaunted defence system, which has intercepted thousands of missiles in the days since the attack.

-AP

French President Emmanuel Macron will call for the “resumption of a genuine peace process” for the creation of a Palestinian state and “halting the colonisation” of the West Bank while visiting Israel on Tuesday, his office said Monday.

“The only way to be useful is to one, show solidarity to Israel; two, make commitments against terrorist groups very clear; and three, to open up a political perspective,” Macron’s office said ahead of the trip.

Macron will also express France’s “solidarity” with Israel and the French citizens living there, while also urging “a halt of the colonisation” of the West Bank as a result of Israeli settlements.

-AFP

U.S. President Joe Biden underscored the need to sustain “a continuous flow” of humanitarian assistance into Gaza in call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the White House said.

Biden also “welcomed the release of two additional hostages from Gaza earlier today, and reaffirmed his commitment to ongoing efforts to secure the release of all the remaining hostages taken by Hamas,” the White House added.

He also updated the prime minister on “U.S. support for Israel and ongoing efforts at regional deterrence, to include new U.S. military deployments,” according to the White House.

-Reuters

Describing Hamas as a barbaric terrorist organisation, an Indian American Congressman has said there is a need to eliminate the terror outfit.

“Hamas is not a militant organisation. Hamas is not a resistance movement. They are just barbaric terrorists. There’s no other way to describe it,” Shri Thanedar told a group of eminent Indian-Americans at the US Capitol Hill on Monday.

“This is a time where we just can’t just push them. Because they will regroup and come back and do these atrocities once again. That’s what they will do. So, we need at this stage to eliminate them; eliminate them from the face of this earth,” he said at an event organised by HinduACTion here in support of Israel.

-PTI

Some of Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas, like cutting off food and water for Gaza, could “harden Palestinian attitudes for generations” and weaken international support for Israel, former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, Mr. Obama said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war “could ultimately backfire.”

- Reuters

China will do its utmost when it comes to contributing to Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation, its foreign minister told his Israeli counterpart in a phone call on Monday, according to Chinese state media.

China will firmly support any resolution as long as it is conducive to peace, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Israel’s Eli Cohen, calling the conflict a “major choice between war and peace”, state media said on Tuesday.

Mr. Wang also called for Israel to take effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions in the Middle East, adding that “all countries have the right to self-defence, but they should abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians.”

China has condemned violence and attacks on civilians in the conflict, and while Mr. Wang has declared Israel’s actions “beyond the scope of self-defence” he has not named Hamas in his comments.

-Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron is traveling Tuesday to Israel to show France’s solidarity with the country and further work on the release of hostages who are being held in Gaza, according to the French presidency.

Mr. Macron will have talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also meet with Israeli-French nationals who have lost loved ones, as well as families of hostages.

Mr. Macron may also seize the occasion to have talks with some Arab partners in the region, the French presidency said, without providing further details.

-AP

Fifteen members of the same family were among at least 33 Palestinians buried in a mass grave at a Gaza hospital on Monday after they were killed by Israeli airstrikes.

A harried-looking doctor in green scrubs walked past as bodies in white sheets were loaded into the back of a pickup truck. Men discussed where to fit the shrouded corpse of a small child between two adults.

Side-by-side, the bodies were laid to rest in a shallow, sandy grave in the courtyard of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, an ambulance parked nearby. “Bring them all,” a gravedigger called out.

-AP

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will travel to the United States later this week, senior Biden administration officials said on Monday, in a long-anticipated visit that comes amid soaring tensions in the Middle East, which U.S. officials hope Beijing can help contain.

Mr. Wang will visit Washington from Oct. 26-28 and meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, officials said, declining to say if he will meet with Mr. Biden as well.

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