Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

Three Palestinians have been wounded following an attack by armed Israeli settlers, flanked by Israeli soldiers, on the village of Khallet al-Dabaa, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.  Two other Palestinians were arrested during the attack.

Rateb-al-Jubour, a local activist, reported that dozens of armed settlers broke into the village, raided households, detained people, and seized their phones. Several people were physically assaulted. 

Jubour added that the Israeli forces did not intervene to prevent the settler violence.

Israeli forces have also arrested the head of the village council of the nearby village of al-Tawana, Mohammad al-Rabai, while ambulances were reportedly prevented from entering the village by Israeli forces.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is committing a genocide in Gaza” to prolong his career following his government’s failure to prevent the 7 October attack.

“The reality is that Netanyahu is committing this genocide to prolong his political life and avoid prosecution,” Erdogan said in a statement given to journalists who accompanied him during a state visit to Greece.

“As you know, Netanyahu was in a judicial process, and there were even rumours that convictions would be given against him. During such a period, Israel's attack on Gaza broke out," he added.

"Now he is prolonging this process with the thought that 'the longer these attacks go on, the more I can save myself from being tried.'"

The deputy mayor of the Israeli-run Jerusalem municipality has called for burying alive dozens of civilian Palestinians whom he described as "subhuman".

Arieh King called the unarmed men, who were arbitrarily grabbed from their homes in Gaza by the Israeli army on Thursday, "Nazi Muslims". 

"We have to pick up the pace," he said on X, referring to the Israeli army's "elimination" of Palestinians. 

King added that if it were up to him, he would have used the D-9 armoured bulldozers to bury the men alive, calling them "ants".  

"They are not human beings and not even human animals, they are subhuman and that is how they should be treated," King said. 

At least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry has said. 

Israeli forces raided the Far’a camp, 17 kilometres northeast of Nablus, for two hours in the early hours of the morning. 

Local media said residents confronted them by hurling stones in some areas while armed clashes were heard in other locations. 

Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 476 Palestinians in the West Bank this year, 268 of them killed since 7 October.

Israeli forces arrested a prominent Al-Aqsa Mosque official on Friday. 

Najeh Bkeirat, the deputy director of the Islamic Waqf, was detained from the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to local media. 

Israeli authorities had banished Bkeirat from his hometown of Jerusalem earlier this year for a period of six months and banned him from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

The Islamic Waqf, or religious endowment, is a Jordanian-appointed organisation in charge of the control and management of Islamic sites in Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Preventing the departure of critically wounded Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing is a "disgrace" to the world, the Palestinian health ministry's director-general in Gaza said. 

Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic, Dr Munir al-Borsh said only 388 patients have been allowed to leave the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave out of at least 47,000 people wounded in Israeli air strikes. 

He said it was unacceptable that after more than two months of war, the Rafah crossing remains tightly restricted to the departure of people needing life-saving medical care. 

"Palestinians are dying in Gaza and are not allowed to receive treatment abroad. This is a disgrace," al-Borsh said. 

He explained that the ministry regularly sends lists of patients to be evacuated to Egyptian authorities but the approval takes so long that some die before their applications are green-lit. 

The armed wing of Hamas said it thwarted an Israeli special operation to free a soldier held by the group in Gaza on Friday morning. 

In a communique published on Telegram, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades said Palestinian fighters discovered special Israeli forces advancing towards the location of one of the captives at dawn. 

Palestinian fighters clashed with the Israeli force, killing and wounding some of the soldiers, the group said. 

Fighter jets then launched air strikes at the location of the incident, leading to the death of the imprisoned soldier, whom the group named Saar Baruch, 25. 

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. 

However, the Israeli Ynet news site reported earlier that a combat helicopter "mistakenly" killed an Israeli soldier after hitting a building with troops inside. 

It was not clear if the two incidents are connected.  

Middle East Eye could not independently verify either claim.

Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of air strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight on Friday.

Shelling was reported in northern areas, including in Gaza City and Beit Lahia, central areas, including in Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat refugee camp, as well as southern areas, including in Khan Younis and Rafah. 

Translation: Israeli bombing of a residential square and homes belonging to the al-Nadi family in the Nuseirat camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, leaving several killed and wounded.

At least three rockets targeting the US embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone were fired at dawn on Friday, landing on the outskirts of the district housing government and diplomatic buildings, an Iraqi security official said.

A US military official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that alarms had gone off and that "probable sounds of impacts were heard" near the US embassy and Union III base, where international troops are stationed.

A school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip was set on fire Friday morning after being targeted by Israeli forces, a journalist at the scene said.

A video by Hossam Shabat published on X showed people rushing to put out the fire.

Shabat said the Israeli army dropped a large number of incendiary and smoke bombs on the school in the early hours of the morning.

Similar reports of widespread use of smoke bombs overnight were reported across the Palestinian enclave, particularly in the north where hundreds of thousands of civilians are living.

Mahmoud Abusalama, reporting from the Jabalia refugee camp, said Israeli forces had been shelling for hours and using gas and smoke bombs. 

"Children and women are suffocating in their homes," Abusalama said. 

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip, the military said on Friday morning. 

According to a Middle East Eye tally, at least 94 Israeli soldiers and officers have been killed since Israel began a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave in late October. 

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

"If I must die, you must live to tell my story, to sell my things, to buy a piece of cloth and some strings... If I must die, let it bring hope. Let it be a tale".

That was a poem written by Refaat Alareer, one of the founders of the We Are Not Numbers project and professor at the Islamic University of Gaza. On Thursday, he was killed by Israeli forces.

Today marked the 62nd day of the Israeli war in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll since 7 October has been increasing.

The total number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks since 7 October is now 17,177, Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday, with the majority of those killed women and children.

More than 46,000 Palestinians have been wounded. 

Here are some of the  updates from the past few hours: 

• The “extremist” march at Al Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem on Thursday evening was aborted after police asked participants to leave.
• At the request of the US, Israel has agreed to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing exclusively for screening and inspecting humanitarian aid entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
• The son of Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli war cabinet minister, was killed in northern Gaza, the Israeli army announced on Thursday.
• A new report by the United Nations World Food Programme found that at least 97 percent of households in northern Gaza have "inadequate food" to meet their needs.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed support on Thursday for Israel's decision to investigate an attack that resulted in the death of journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six others in southern Lebanon on 13 October.

"It is important and appropriate that it be fully and thoroughly investigated," Blinken said at a news conference.

"My understanding is that Israel has initiated such an investigation and it will be important to see that investigation come to a conclusion and to see the results of the investigation."

The United Arab Emirates is urging the UN Security Council to conduct a vote on Friday morning regarding a proposed resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

For a resolution to pass, it must secure a minimum of nine affirmative votes and avoid vetoes from any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain.

Currently, the US has indicated its lack of support for any additional measures by the council at this time.

Refaat Alareer, one of the founders of the We Are Not Numbers project and professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, was killed by Israeli forces, his friend announced on Thursday.

We Are Not Numbers is an initiative of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, and pairs Palestinian writers with mentors to write the stories “behind the numbers of victims”.

“[Alareer] authored many books and wrote tens of stories about Gaza. Refaat’s assassination is tragic, painful and outrageous. It is a huge loss,” his friend and We Are Not Numbers co-founder, Ahmed Alnaouq, wrote on X.

If I must die, let it be a tale. #FreePalestine #Gaza pic.twitter.com/ODPx3TiH1a

— Refaat in Gaza 🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) November 1, 2023