EL PAÍS offers free updates on the Arab-Israeli conflict. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe.
The Israeli military has stepped up aerial bombardment of Gaza and announced an "expansion" of ground operations on Friday. Shortly after, Gaza residents reported the entry of Israeli troops into the enclave, which has been practically cut off by telephone and internet communications, according to different local media. The army has not clarified whether the troop movement is the ground invasion to overthrow Hamas that it has been announcing for days or whether it is a temporary incursion with tanks and infantry like those of recent days. The former, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has warned, would be a "humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions." The UN Human Rights Office on Friday denounced that war crimes are being committed in Gaza. "The cycle of revenge and bloodshed must stop," he said. According to the latest report from the Gazan Ministry of Health, 7,326 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. Of those victims, 40 per cent – 3,038 deaths – were children.
- Photo gallery: images of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza
00:45
Israeli military spokesman says ground forces are expanding operations in Gaza
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their operations in Gaza at an appearance on Friday.
Back to top
New Posts
El PaísAgencies
U.S. House Speaker Assures Netanyahu Support Israel
The new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, ultraconservative Republican Mike Johnson, has spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and shown his support in his first call with a foreign leader since taking office two days ago. "It was a privilege to speak this afternoon with my friend Benjamin Netanyahu. The House of Representatives stands with Israel and I have reaffirmed our strong support for it," Johnson said on his X profile, formerly Twitter.
Johnson is seeking to divide the $14 billion that the U.S. planned to send to Ukraine and allocate a portion to help Israel, against the wishes of President Joe Biden's administration, according to the Israeli newspaper Hareetz. The new speaker of the House is an ultraconservative evangelical Christian who led the Republican group's legal efforts to try to overturn Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the 000 presidential election.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 05:56
Luis de Vega
War between Israel and Gaza
The Israeli occupation first separated her family and now the Gaza war buries her under bombs
Luis de Vega (SPECIAL ENVOY)
It had been a quarter of a century since Mohamed Farra had seen his sister Simat. Now he knows he'll never do it again. The war is putting the finishing touches on thousands of Palestinian families who have been living in the West Bank for decades, cut off and divided by the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Cameraman Mohamed Farra, a 45-year-old from the Gaza Strip, was doing a live broadcast for Al Araby on Wednesday during a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah when he learned that an Israeli bombardment — which has already killed more than 7,000 people — had just killed his sister, brother-in-law and three nieces. The two had last spoken on their cell phones that morning, around <> a.m., he said.
You can read the full report here.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 05:30
EFE
Israel blames Yemen's Houthi rebels for launching drones that hit Egypt
Israel accused Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Monday of launching "missiles and drones" that were aimed at the Jewish state but have hit two Egyptian tourist towns on the Red Sea, injuring at least six people. "Israel condemns the damage caused to Egypt's security forces by the missiles and drones launched by the Houthi terrorist organization with the intention of harming Israel," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said on X. The spokesman said the Houthis "are representatives of the terrorist regime" in Iran, which he accused of "controlling" the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, and the Palestinian militias Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which he described as "terrorist organizations."
The Houthis control part of Yemen's Red Sea coast and have launched numerous cross-border attacks from there in recent years, most of them targeting Saudi Arabia. On Friday, six people were injured after a drone hit a medical facility in the Egyptian city of Taba, on the shores of the Red Sea and bordering Israel at the eastern end of the Sinai Peninsula, according to the Egyptian Armed Forces. Another "foreign object" landed in a desert area of Nuweiba, a resort town about 70 kilometers south of Taba. Both objects, according to the army, fell in Egyptian territory after being intercepted outside its airspace in the Gulf of Aqaba. The Yemeni Houthis have warned on several occasions that they "will not stand idly by in the face of the genocidal war" in Gaza, warning that "crossing red lines forces Yemen to fulfil its religious and principled duty".
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 05:07
EFE
U.S. Asks U.S. Citizens to Leave Lebanon While Flights Are Available
The United States on Friday asked its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial flights are still available due to "the unpredictable security situation," in an announcement posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Last week, the U.S. State Department raised its travel alert for the country to Level 4, the highest, asking Americans to avoid traveling to the territory because of the constant artillery exchanges between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
Since 8 October, the Lebanese movement, an ally of Iran, and Israeli forces have been engaged in intense crossfire across the border between the two countries, where there have also been actions claimed by Palestinian factions present in Lebanon. The escalation has already left 46 casualties in Hezbollah's ranks and more than 19,000 displaced on the Lebanese side, while raising fears that the Mediterranean country could become a second front in the war between Israel and militias in the Gaza Strip. EFE jdg/laa
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 04:34
Agencies
Thousands Demonstrate in Jordan Against Israel's Ground Operations
Thousands of people demonstrated Friday night in front of the Israeli Embassy in Jordan to protest Israel's ground operations. The Jewish state's army has begun to make inroads into Gaza, where Hamas' military wing has warned that "intense fighting" is taking place between Israeli forces and Palestinian militia. The crowd marched through the streets of central Amman after Friday prayers, according to the Al Ghad newspaper, prompting the intervention of the police, who used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, as shown in videos and images shared on social networks.
A spokesperson for Jordan's Public Security Agency said that "rioters" had set fires in the vicinity of the Israeli Embassy in the country and said that while the Jordanian authorities allow freedom of opinion, they would not tolerate legal violations. On Friday, thousands of Palestinians intensified their protests in the main cities of the West Bank, such as Ramallah, Hebron, Jenin and Nablus, to denounce the intense bombardment carried out by Israel on the Gaza Strip and the "international silence" on the matter.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 03:57
EFE
U.S. Stresses Right to Self-Defense After Bombing Facilities in Syria
The United States on Friday stressed its right to "self-defense" after launching two strikes on facilities linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in eastern Syria the day before. "The President [Joe Biden] has made it very clear that he will act to protect our personnel on the ground. We continue to reserve the right to respond to any attack at a time and place of our choosing. We will not hesitate to take further steps in our own defense," White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said at a news conference.
The attacks come after the Pentagon confirmed that at least 21 U.S. soldiers have suffered minor injuries in 20 drone strikes by pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. In addition, a U.S.-employed civilian contractor died of a heart attack while sheltering from pro-Iranian attacks. U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked 14 separate times in Iraq and six times in Syria since Oct. 17.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 03:32
Agencies
Human Rights Organizations Warn of "Risk" of "Information Blackout" in Gaza
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have insisted this morning on the "risk" posed by the "information blackout" in Gaza, which this Friday has been left without internet or mobile connection. Deborah Bown of Human Rights Watch posted a message on social media saying the cut threatens "to cover up mass atrocities" and "contribute to impunity for human rights violations." For her part, Erika Guevara-Rosas, of Amnesty International, has warned that this is an "unprecedented risk".
"Palestinian civilians are already besieged in the Gaza Strip and are now also trapped in a complete communications blackout," Guevara-Rosas said in a statement published by Amnesty International. For this reason, he has called on Israel "to put an immediate end to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks" and restore telecommunications infrastructures "urgently" to allow rescues "amid intense Israeli airstrikes and the expansion of ground operations".
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 02:53
El País
Hundreds Demand Ceasefire at New York's Grand Central Station
Hundreds of people took over the main concourse of New York's Grand Central Station on Friday night to call for a ceasefire in the war. The event has brought together "Jews and friends," according to the call released this afternoon by the organizers, a group called Jewish Voice for Peace. "We refuse to allow genocide to be carried out in our name. Cease fire now! Never again for anyone!", has been the message spread on social networks.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 02:56
EFE
Guterres calls on Iran to help release Hamas hostages
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called on Iran to "contribute to the unconditional and immediate release" of the 229 Israeli hostages held by Hamas, after meeting with the country's foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, at UN headquarters. In a statement issued by his office, Guterres stressed "the importance of Iran's contribution" in this, after Abdollahian himself offered his country's mediation on Thursday to secure the release of those "civilian" hostages, as he specified. Abdollahian said Hamas, a militia with which his country has close relations, would demand the release of 6,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli jails.
The confirmed number of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip since October 7 by Hamas has risen to 224, according to the Israeli military. So far, only four hostages have been released.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 01:31
El País
29 reporters killed since the start of the war
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that at least 29 reporters have been killed since the start of the war: 24 Palestinians, four Israelis, and one Lebanese. In addition, eight have been injured and nine are detained or missing. "Journalists are civilians who do important work in times of crisis and should not be targeted by warring parties," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.
The Israeli military this week warned international news agencies Reuters and France Presse that it cannot guarantee the safety of its reporters in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces wrote to the agencies after they asked for assurances that their journalists in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli attacks. "The Israel Defense Forces are attacking all Hamas military activity in Gaza," the response said.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 01:18
El País
Médecins Sans Frontières also lost contact with "some of its Palestinian staff"
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it had lost contact "with some of its Palestinian staff" and was "deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza". The message spread on social networks joins others sent during the afternoon by international organizations such as UNESCO or the WHO after the Gaza Strip was left without internet or mobile connection this Friday afternoon.
ACT.28 OCT 2023 - 00:16
El País
Israel rejects UN General Assembly statement, accuses 'yes' voters of defending 'Nazi terrorists'
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, has rejected the General Assembly resolution passed on Friday, which has overwhelmingly called (120 votes in favor and only 14 against, including Israel's) for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas and demanded aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and protection of civilians.
Erdan said the United Nations "no longer has any legitimacy or relevance" and accused those who voted yes of preferring to support "the defense of Nazi terrorists" rather than Israel. "This ridiculous resolution has the audacity to call for a truce. The aim of this truce resolution is for Israel to stop defending itself against Hamas, so that Hamas can set us on fire," he told the General Assembly after the vote.
On his X account (formerly Twitter), Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has described the resolution as "shameful" and said Israel would continue to work to destroy Hamas, "just as the world destroyed the Nazis and the Islamic State."
ACT.27 OCT 2023 - 23:30
El País
Unicef also has no news of its staff in Gaza: "Another night of unspeakable horror for a million children"
The United Nations children's agency, Unicef, also has no news of its staff in Gaza, its director-general, Catherine Russell, has reported through her X account (formerly Twitter)
"I am extremely concerned for their safety and for another night of unspeakable horror for a million children in Gaza," she said. "Everyone who provides humanitarian aid, as well as the children and families they serve, MUST be protected."
ACT.27 OCT 2023 - 23:21
El País
Scotland's First Minister has lost communications with his family in Gaza: 'We can only pray that they survive the night'
Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf has lost communications with his family. "Gaza is under heavy bombardment. Telecommunications have been cut off. We can't communicate with our family, who have been trapped in this war zone for almost three weeks. We can only pray that they survive the night. How many more children have to die for the world to say enough is enough?" he posted in a message on his profile on the social network X (the former Twitter). His in-laws are in Gaza.
ACT.27 OCT 2023 - 23:01