Israel-Palestine live: Thousands in state of panic as Israel continues to strike hospitals
Mises à jour du direct
From around 5pm local time on Friday, all phone and internet services in the Gaza Strip were suspended for 36 hours, preceding the most intense night of aerial, artillery, and naval bombardment experienced by the coastal territory in three weeks of conflict.
This disruption left the 2.3 million Palestinians residing in Gaza isolated not only from the global community, but also from one another.
Middle East Eye spoke to Samira Saber who said it took two days to find out if any of her relatives had been killed when her uncle’s house in Gaza was bombed.
“They are still under the rubble. Can you imagine that it has been two days, and they are still under the rubble? They cannot be alive, I hope they have already died."
The US State Department says “it made clear” to Israel that communications networks in Gaza must be restored after heavy Israeli bombardment led to a blackout in the besieged enclave.
The US says going forward that it will work to ensure communications in the enclave are maintained.
The State Department added that 45 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza on Sunday, bringing the total number of trucks to 150.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government will not agree to a cessation of fighting with Hamas after the 7 October attack.
Speaking on Monday, he said that he hopes and prays “civilized nations” will back this fight.
On Friday, 120 countries voted in favour of a UN resolution calling for a humanitarian truce, with just 13 countries voting against it and 45 countries abstaining.
Israel’s UN envoy said on Monday that Israel had been “let down” by the global body.
“Generally, the United Nations has let down the people of Israel,” Israeli ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar told reporters, naming the World Health Organisation.
The final scheduled charter flight to aid Americans wishing to leave Israel is set to depart on Tuesday, the US State Department announced.
“Tuesday, 31 October is the last planned US chartered flight out of Ben Gurion. Please go to Ben Gurion International Airport, Terminal 3 if you wish to depart Israel,” the State Department wrote on its website.
The chartered flights were arranged beginning on 13 October to help citizens who needed to depart Israel. The State Department gave no reasoning behind why it is the last chartered flight.
A member of Hamas' political bureau said the announcement by Israel that it rescued a solider from Gaza is an attempt to "distract" from the "shock" caused by an earlier video released by Hamas showing three other prisoners held by the group.
Izzat al-Risheq, who is based in Qatar, said "no one believes the false Zionist narrative, not even the Zionist public".
The leader added that "the resistance" - referring to the group's armed al-Qassam Brigades - would provide the truth about the reported Israeli rescue.
The Israeli military said earlier that it had rescued a soldier held by Hamas in Gaza during an overnight ground operation in the besieged strip. The statement did not provide further details on how or when exactly the soldier, Ori Megidish, was purportedly rescued.
Hours before the Israeli announcement, al-Qassam Brigades released a video of what the group said were three prisoners held by their members in Gaza.
One of the three women filmed in the video harshly rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Netanyahu has failed politically and militarily, and we demand that he return all the prisoners immediately," she said. "The day before yesterday there were discussions about a ceasefire and the release of everyone, but Netanyahu backed down."
Netanyahu called the video "cruel psychological propaganda".
Middle East Eye could not independently verify the authenticity of the claims made by Israel and Hamas.
The United Nations cautioned that the situation in Syria has reached its “most dangerous” phase in recent memory, with escalating violence and repercussions from the war in Israel and Palestine beginning to have an impact.
Syria has "seen growing instability and violence, exacerbated by the lack of a meaningful political process," Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, told the Security Council on Monday.
"Today, I am sounding an alarm that the situation is now at its most dangerous for a long time."
"Spillover into Syria is not just a risk, it has already begun,” Pedersen said.
The family of a British woman stranded in Gaza said she is "losing hope" the UK will evacuate her from the Palestinian enclave, as Israel steps up its air and ground campaign in Gaza.
Asma al-Badawi, sister of Zaynab Wandawi, said the school teacher from the north of England travelled to the besieged territory to attend a family wedding just days before the conflict erupted following the deadly attack by Hamas fighters into southern Israel on 7 October.
"We've had limited communication with Zaynab, but when we do, it is short messages saying she's okay, but we can tell she is losing hope," Badawi told Middle East Eye.
Badawi said her family was initially hopeful that officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) would evacuate Zaynab and her family when news reports emerged that the UK had begun evacuating British nationals in Israel.
But those hopes have faded with each day that passes, after officials directed Zaynab to call an FCDO hotline dedicated to helping British nationals in Gaza.
"When we started posting on social media that Zaynab and her family was stranded in Gaza, people kept commenting that they're not white and that the government are not gonna do anything for them. As the days go by, it feels like that is the reality," said Badawi.
"But the most the hotline said was they can call for a Red Crescent ambulance if there is a dire need," said Badawi.
The Foreign Office did not respond to a request for comment at the time of writing.
Read more: British woman who went to Gaza for wedding 'losing hope'
Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf has said he managed to contact his wife's family in Gaza, following the communications blackout established by Israel on 27 October.
Speaking to Sky News, Yousaf said the situation in Gaza was "dire" and that his in-laws did not have access to clean water.
"My call not just for my family but for all of the people who are suffering is for that ceasefire, to allow humanitarian aid in, not just a trickle, but significant humanitarian aid," he said.
Lebanon's prime minister said he was working to avoid "war" with Israel as tensions continues along the country's southern border.
Najib Mikati told AFP in an interview that he was concerned about the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in the south.
"I am doing my duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war" he said.
"Lebanon is in the eye of the storm."
Weeks after Israel followed through with its threat to cut water supplies to Gaza, Palestinians living in the besieged territory are struggling to survive without the basic necessities.
Residents of the area currently being bombarded by Israeli warplanes told Middle East Eye that obtaining water has become a “daily ordeal”, and they fear the spread of disease with a number of residents already dealing with stomach ailments and other illnesses.
Israel cut off water supply to Gaza shortly after the 7 October attack by Hamas-led Palestinian fighters on southern Israel.
During the attack, around 1,400 Israelis died and more than 220 were taken captive. At least 8,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliation for the assault.
Israeli authorities conditioned the resumption of water supplies on the return of the hostages, but has also attacked other means of water delivery and sewage treatment in the territory, such as desalination plants.
Read more: Amid bombs, Gaza's residents face 'daunting' task of finding water
Israel's Netanyahu calls Hamas prisoner video "psychological propaganda"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as "cruel psychological propaganda" a video released on Monday by Hamas that shows three of the prisoner held by the group in Gaza, according to Reuters news agency.
Netanyahu added that he will do everything to bring the prisoner home, telling the women in the video "our heart is with you".
The former British Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has expressed his disgust at “images of an antisemitic mob in Dagestan," in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
An airport in the southern Russian city of Makhachkala was closed on Sunday after a group of people poured onto the runway.
Media reports from the area said that demonstrators denouncing Israel's attacks in Gaza, many waving Palestinian flags, had thronged the airport.
Reports in Israeli media state that the demonstrators turned up at the airport as a flight had been due to land from Tel Aviv.
“The global rise in antisemitism & Islamophobia is terrifying,” said Corbyn.
"Hatred does nothing to generate solidarity or bring about peace. We cannot lose our common humanity. In times of darkness, it's all we have left," he added.
Corbyn, who led the Labour party from 2015 to 2019, has been one of the few voices in British politics to call for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation in Israel's war on Gaza.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed the riots in Dagestan on "outside interference" in the country seeking to divide Russian society.
Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, released a video of what the group said were prisoners held by their members in Gaza.
One of the three women filmed in the video addressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The unnamed prisoner rebuked the premier for purportedly rejecting a ceasefire with Hamas that could facilitate their release.
"Netanyahu has failed politically and militarily, and we demand that he return all the prisoners immediately," she said. "The day before yesterday there were discussions about a ceasefire and the release of everyone, but Netanyahu backed down."
The video ended with a passionate appeal to Netanyahu to bring back all prisoners "now, now, now".
Middle East Eye could not independently verify the authenticity of the video or claims made in it.
A Palestinian man, who survived an Israeli air strike on Monday, has been left jobless and homeless after his home and shop were destroyed.
Ashraf Dababesh, 55, worked in a phone shop located near his home in a residential building in Gaza, which was struck by the Israeli air force.
The father of six told Middle East Eye he now has nowhere to go.
It's a situation that many Palestinians find themselves in - nearly 50 percent of residential units in Gaza have been damaged and more than 1.4 million people in the Strip are displaced.
"We are people who love peace and want to live in peace, just like every nation in the world," Dababesh said.
"Everyone in the world can live in peace. Why should we be any different?" he asked.
A correspondent for Al Jazeera English received a "threatening phone call" from the Israeli army on Monday asking her to leave her home, the Qatar-based network has said.
Youmna ElSayed, based in Gaza, received the call "as explosions were going off all around" the neighbourhood where her home is located, Al Jazeera added.
