Israel-Palestine war: First week ends with over 2,500 Palestinians, 1,400 Israelis killed

The UK is sending naval vessels and spy planes to support Israel as the country continues to bombard the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the prime minister's office said the move aimed “to support Israel, strengthen regional security and prevent any escalation.”

“Maritime patrols and surveillance aircraft will begin operating in the region from Friday to detect threats to regional stability, such as the transfer of arms to terrorist groups,” Downing Street said in a statement.

An exchange of fire was reported in occupied East Jerusalem near an Israeli police station, according to local media.

According to Jerusalem Post, police officers at the station shot and killed a gunmen who seriously wounded one officer and lightly wounded another near Damascus gate. Police said they were conducting searches in the area in the wake of the attack.

Palestinian news sources said the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem's Old City remained closed after the incident.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday that he would travel to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as part of a tour to discuss the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip, as he accused Hamas of using human shields.

"The United States will discuss with countries in the region the unconditional release of Hamas prisoners," he told reporters.

Blinken announced these steps during a press conference in Tel Aviv, during which he was also asked about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"Hamas continues to use civilians as human shields...intentionally putting civilians in harms way," he said.

"We democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for a different standard – even when it’s difficult – and holding ourselves to account when we fall short. That’s why it’s so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians."

In response to Hamas's surprise attack over the weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's response would "change the Middle East".

There are growing fears among Palestinians in Gaza that change could come in the form of a repeat of the Nakba, the mass Palestinian displacement of 1948, if thousands flee the besieged enclave and cross into Egypt.

Hamas launched a surprise multi-front assault on Israeli communities on Saturday, firing thousands of rockets and sending fighters into Israel across land, air, and sea. More than 1,300 Israelis have been killed, and around 130 people taken captive back to Gaza.

Israeli forces have responded by raining down a barrage of air strikes on the Gaza Strip this week, killing at least 1,350 people, most of them women and children.

Talk has ramped up this week of a humanitarian corridor being opened up between Egypt and Gaza, to allow for civilians to escape Israel’s relentless bombardment. 

Read more: Fear of 'second Nakba' if human corridor opened with Egypt

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin banned pro-Palestine protests across the country on Thursday stating they are “likely to generate disturbances to public order”.

At least 12 French nationals were killed in the attacks in Israel and 17 are missing according to France’s ministry of foreign affairs.

A senior Hamas official said on Thursday that the Palestinian group did not attack civilians and the plan behind Saturday's incursion was a military takeover of the Israeli army's southern command.

Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, said the deaths of civilians was the result of chaos caused by the rapid collapse of the Israeli army, which led to people getting caught in the cross fire.

"The instructions from the al-Qassam military command was to target the Israeli army's Gaza division and to not harm civilians and children," Arouri said in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic.

He added that the entire division collapsed within three hours, which was faster than they expected.

This, he said, caused an unplanned influx of Palestinian civilians into Israeli territory.

The sudden collapse of Israeli forces and the mass entry of Palestinian civilians led to clashes in civilian areas, he claimed.

Many people then got caught in the crossfire and Palestinian civilians took Israeli civilians hostage, which was also not part of the plan, according to Arouri.

Israel has accused Hamas of deliberately killing and abducting civilians in their attack.

Middle East Eye could not independently confirm either claim.Verifiable information about the first few hours of the attack are largely unavailable.

In his interview, Arouri rejected what he described as false news about the group's goals and conduct."

The West accuses us of committing crimes against humanity but ignores that the war against us was based on targeting civilians. Americans talk about morals and they are the ones who destroyed an entire people and established a state on their land and used the nuclear bombs on other people," Arouri said.

"The American and Western position is an extension of their first crime in supporting the occupation and the confiscation of our land and rights. Fascism, Nazism and all the barbaric ideologies that committed genocides came from the West and not from our region, what came from our region was faiths."

Since Israel imposed a full siege on Gaza on Monday, cutting off all electricity, food, water and fuel to the besieged enclave, civilians are struggling to live. 

MEE correspondent Maha Hussaini who is on the ground in Gaza describes what the situation is like as people lose connection and are “silenced” while Israel continues to bombard the Strip. 

Humanitarian organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, have demanded the establishment of safe spaces and safe passages for people to reach them as a matter of urgency.

Highlighting Israel’s siege on Gaza, they said “people must be afforded safe access to essential supplies like food and water and health facilities,” as people in Gaza go six days with no access to basic essentials. 

“Some 2.2 million people are currently trapped in the Gaza strip, where indiscriminate bombing has turned a chronic humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe. More than 300 MSF staff are in Gaza, some of whom have lost homes or family members; it has been near-impossible for them to move,” they added.

MSF have called the cutting of food, water and electricity in Gaza “unconscionable,” calling it a form of “collective punishment.”
 

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 44 members of the same family, the Shehab family, have been killed in Israeli bombing. 

The family included 16 children, with the eldest being 14-years-old and the youngest being two years-old.
 

Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned Palestinian armed groups for tactics used in their offensive on southern Israel on Saturday, which has killed at least 1,300 Israelis so far.

The rights group said Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, had engaged in mass killings of civilians, hostage taking and indiscriminate rocket fire.

“Massacring civilians is a war crime and there can be no justification for these reprehensible attacks.” Said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s Secretary General.

“All civilians who were abducted, including children, must be released immediately.” She added.

Callamard singled out the assault on the Nova music festival, which was held close to Gaza, as particularly egregious.

Amnesty said the attacks must be seen “in the wider context of the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories” but that “nothing justifies war crimes”.
 

Over 19,000 cases of hate speech and inciting content in Hebrew language have been recorded on social media platform X since Saturday, according to a digital rights group. 

According to 7amleh, the rights group, there has been a significant increase in this type of content since October 7th, the first day of the recent escalations, and the number of posts are continuing to rise. 

The rights group also said that there have been around 128 cases of Palestinian activists and supporters having their accounts restricted. 

“7amleh has been monitoring widespread internet shutdowns throughout the vast majority of Gaza since last Saturday due to Israel's targeting of telecommunications and electricity infrastructure,” they said in a statement. 

“The Israeli government is taking advantage of the current international sentiment to continue exerting pressure on social media companies to censor the Palestinian narrative and silence voices critical of Israeli policies,” they added.
 

The Hamas affiliated al-Aqsa satellite TV channel has been hacked by Israel, and is being used to spread false information according to Palestine’s Ministry of Information. 

Palestine’s Ministry of Health says that 14 medical facilities have been destroyed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since Saturday.

The Beit Hanoun Hospital has stopped operating comptley, following ongoing airstrikes on the besieged enclave, which has targeted civilian infrastructure. 

Many ambulances have also been targeted in the attacks, making it difficult for medical personnel to reach victims. 

Palestine’s Ministry of Health says that the death toll has now reached 1,417 as of 4pm local time. 

According to the ministry, around 447 children and 248 women have been killed in Israel’s attacks since Saturday. 

Israeli bombardment has also killed 10 medical personnel working in the besieged enclave. 
 

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an anti-Zionist activist organisation, issued a statement on Wednesday, calling on all people “to stop the imminent genocide of Palestinians.”

“We demand our government work towards de-escalation, that it immediately stop sending weapons to the Israeli military,” the US-based group's statement added. 

The organisation offered their condolences for the Israelis killed and denounced crimes committed by Hamas, saying that there is no justification for the killing of civilians. 

The statement also stated that “Israeli and American governments are weaponising these deaths to fuel a genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza…this war is a continuation of the Nakba, when in 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing violence sought refuge in Gaza.” 

According to JVP, the US is “enabling the Israeli government’s atrocities,” by sending weapons to Israel and “spreading racist, hateful and incendiary rhetoric.”