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

The number of French citizens killed in the attacks in Israel has risen to at least eight, Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna has said, as reported by French media outlets.

Sweden is temporarily halting development aid to Palestine, according to Development Minister Johan Forssel.

According to the Swedish International Cooperation Agency’s (SIDA) website, in 2022, SIDA contributed just under $40m in development assistance to Palestine.

Yesterday, a European Union official said the EU would be halting aid to Palestine, but this was later contradicted by another official who said humanitarian assistance will continue as needed.

EU ministers will be meeting on Tuesday to settle divisions between its members on whether to continue aid payments to Palestinians.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israel's move to cut off water to Gaza.

"Where are the human rights? You have no right to cut water under the declaration of human rights," he said.

"Can you think about the hospitals in Gaza?" he asked. "But you hit hospitals and temples without any mercy. And no one says anything about it."

He also questioned the US decision to send a US carrier strike group, which includes F-35 fighter jets.

"What will they do? Will they hit Gaza with their warplanes and commit a massacre?" he said.

Around 300,000 reserve soldiers have been mobilised by Israel, in what many have viewed as a prelude to a potential ground operation in Gaza. 

The last such land incursion occurred in the summer of 2014, ten days into a conflict that would last 50 days. 

Israeli forces killed an estimated 2,251 Palestinians across the duration of that war, including over 500 children. Seventy Israelis were also killed, the vast majority of whom were combatants. 

Israel succeeded in damaging underground tunnels, but on a wider level, it failed to deeply penetrate Hamas's infrastructure. It also came at a significant human cost. 

“Most militaries in the 21st century don’t want to do ground operations because it's massively costly to the side that launches it,” said Craig Jones, a senior lecturer at Newcastle University. 

Read more about how Israel's last ground operation had a significant toll on Israeli troops, and saw military lawyers play a role in the battle front: 

Ground invasion of Gaza: What Israel learned from last time

Humza Yousaf, the first minister of Scotland, has called on the UK government to push for a corridor to evacuate civilians from Gaza. 

He wrote to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, calling for the UK to call on Israel to “ensure innocent civilians are protected and to put in place an immediate ceasefire to allow the safe passage of civilians through the Rafah border”. 

On Monday, Yousaf revealed that his parents-in-law were “trapped” in Gaza. 

His wife, Nadia el-Nakla, who is of Palestinian heritage, said her parents were visiting family in the enclave when Hamas assault took place and did not know “if they would make it through the night”.

Renewed gun fights between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters were reported in Sderot, Israeli media has said, with gunshots heard in the area.

Israel's military has announced that its army is firing artillery at rocket launch sites in Lebanon. 

Rockets were fired simultaneously from Lebanon and Gaza towards Israel earlier, prompting sirens to blare in both southern and northern Israel.

Journalists in Gaza remain fearful after an Israeli air strike killed three of their colleagues overnight.

Said al-Taweel, Mohammed Sobboh and Hisham Nawajhah were killed while covering ongoing aerial bombardments of the Gaza Strip.

“Unfortunately, they have sent a warning notice to the Hiji building just now that it will be bombed,” al-Taweel said in his last words, according to Al-Jazeera.

“The area has been evacuated entirely. Women, men, the elderly, kids have all completely fled the area.”

All three were killed as an air strike hit the building.

Samer Zaaneen, another journalist, was with the three when the attack happened. He spoke to Middle East Eye correspondent Mohammed al-Hajjar about the incident.

“We were at the Burj al-Ghefari,” he explained, referring to a building in Gaza.

“We went downstairs to cover [the situation] because there were people fleeing. Saied before us. We knew from colleagues that he was there. It was a call from Saied that told us to go downstairs to take photos.

“Mohamed took the camera and went inside. I was standing with Hisham. Hisham told me ‘I would like to go’, but I told him no. Then Hisham followed him.”

He said the the F-16 strike took place as people were fleeing the building. The building was three buildings away from the one which received a warning from the Israelis.

“At the beginning, we didn’t expect the building to be bombed - there had been two strikes on the same building. So we didnt expect them to be hit,” said Zaneen.

“One colleague told us that one journalist was lying on the ground. We found Saied’s body."

"Hisham and Mohammed were missing. Only Hisham’s phone was ringing but Mohamed’s phone wasn’t reachable from the time of the strike.”

Salama Marouf, head of the government Media Office, said the journalists were killed in “cold blood” despite wearing press vests.

“We had warned hours earlier from the assassination of an intention by occupation forces [to kill journalists] after tens of notifications of evacuations sent to media organisations,” he told MEE.

“We’ve experienced this criminal behaviour by the occupation forces in the past, targeting of journalists and media organisations and considering them fair targets, thinking this could cover their crimes and prevent the truth from being covered.”

Ahmed Issa, a resident of the area, said Israel had “targeted half the city” and spent 12 hours targeting the same areas.

“The area was like hell. We didnt know until the morning. At night we evacuated. We thought it was one target. But when we woke up we saw a disaster. They targeted half the city,” he told MEE.

“Everyone on social media was saying we should evacuate. Most of the area is residential, so we didn’t predict this. But we evacuated. The electricity has been cut off from the beginning of the assault till now.”

Rockets have fallen in Israel's Ashkelon after a heavy barrage fired from Gaza at 5pm, with smoke seen rising from different buildings.

Israeli media said there have been casualties as a result. 

Rockets were fired simultaneously from Lebanon and Gaza towards at Israel, with sirens blaring in southern and northern Israel.

Some reports have shown rockets falling in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. 

The Palestinian death toll from four days of Israeli air strikes in Gaza has reached 830, the health ministry said.

More than 4,250 others have been wounded.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed at least 19 Palestinians in the West Bank. 

The massive rocket attack targeting Israel's Ashkelon at 5pm is a response to the displacement of Gaza residents by Israeli air strikes, Hamas' Izzideen al-Qassam Brigades said.

The barrage of rockets, which has been ongoing for over 15 mins, is unprecedented in volume, according to Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets. 

A massive barrage of rockets has been fired from Gaza towards the Israeli city of Ashkelon at 5 pm local time. 

Abu Ubaida, the spokesman of Hamas' Izzideen al-Qassam Brigades, had told residents earlier to leave the city before 5 pm.

Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from the ground said he has never seen this volume of rockets fired from Gaza. 

When Yakov Argamani heard rockets and sirens on Saturday morning, he immediately went to his daughter Noa’s bedroom in their house in southern Israel’s Beersheba. She wasn’t there.

“I phoned her right away and there was no answer. Two and a half hours later, her boyfriend sent me a WhatsApp message that everything was OK and said they’ll be in touch later on,” Argamani told Middle East Eye. 

There was something in the way Noa’s boyfriend Aminatan responded that made him worry.

'They are suffering, too; they are being battered, too'

- Father of girl taken to Gaza

“I tried a third time to get in touch and at that point they didn’t answer. I told my wife I was going to the hospital.”

That morning, hundreds of Palestinian fighters had stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, and thousands of rockets rained down overhead.

“I got a phone call from her friend, who said they saw her on a motorcycle being abducted in the direction of Gaza. It was shattering, but I didn’t believe it, I thought it was a mistake,” Argamani said.

“I hope we can come together, so that together we can think about what is best for us and also for them. They are suffering, too; they are being battered, too,” he added.

Read more: Father of girl taken to Gaza says he hopes Israelis and Palestinians can come together

Two members of Hamas' political bureau, including an economy minister of the Gaza-based administration, have been killed in Israeli air strikes.

They were named as Jihad Abu Shammala and Zakaria Muammar.