Israel-Palestine live: Thousands in state of panic as Israel continues to strike hospitals
Live Updates
Israeli authorities returned to Gaza thousands of Palestinian labourers who were working in Israel when war broke out on 7 October.
The labourers described being "humiliated" and "abused" by Israeli forces, who arbitrarily revoked their permits after the war, rounded them and held them in detention facilities.
The Palestinian Authority's labour ministry estimated that around 4,500 workers from Gaza had gone missing earlier in the week. Israeli media said on Friday that 3,200 people returned to Gaza after Israeli authorities decided to send them back late on Thursday.
Upon their return to Gaza, workers said they were detained and abused without anyone coming to their aid, including the Palestinian Authority and the International Red Cross.
"Young men the age of my children stripped us naked and urinated on us," one worker told local media on Friday. He said that the Palestinian Authority handed them over to Israeli authorities after they sought shelter in the West Bank.
"The Palestinian Authority betrayed us, the whole world betrayed us."
Other workers told Reuters news agency they were ill-treated, while some still had plastic stickers carrying numbers around their legs when they crossed back to Gaza.
"We used to serve them, work for them, in houses, in restaurants, and in markets in return for the lowest pay and despite that, we were humiliated," said Jamal Ismail, a worker from the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel on Friday in his second visit in less than a month.
Blinken is expected to hold discussions with Israeli officials about the ongoing war in Gaza and the so-called "humanitarian pauses" that would be "temporary and localised", according to the White House.
The US top diplomat will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, as well as attend a meeting with the Israeli war cabinet.
Israeli fighter jets killed at least seven people in air strikes targeting a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning.
According to local media, a group of people working at the cemetery in Beit Lahia are among those killed in the bombing.
Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians on Friday in raid across the occupied West Bank overnight, according to the official Wafa news agency.
Attacks took place shortly after Thursday midnight in Jenin, Hebron, Nablus and Qalandiya.
In Jenin, five people were killed as Israeli drone strikes hit the city's densely populated refugee camp and military bulldozers razed roads and monuments erected on key roundabouts.
Two more people were killed in Hebron, one killed in Qalandiya and another in Nablus succumbed to Israeli gunshot wounds he suffered earlier in the week.
The US has been operating surveillance drones above Gaza to locate hostages taken by Hamas, two US officials said on Thursday.
MQ-9 Reapers, managed by the U.S. Special Operations forces, have been identified on Flightradar24, a flight-tracking website accessible to the public, with their first sighting occurring on Saturday, though officials say they have been active in the area days after 7 October, the NY Times reported.
US defence officials indicated that although Israel regularly performs surveillance flights above Gaza, it is thought to be the first instance of US drones being used for missions in the airspace over Gaza.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced on Friday that Filipinos seeking to exit Gaza through Egypt's Rafah border may be able to do so today or Saturday, based on assurances received from Israel.
On Thursday, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs announced the evacuation of two Filipino doctors from Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Doctors Darwin Dela Cruz and Regidor Esguerra, who were affiliated with the international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), were among the 136 Filipinos and numerous other foreign nationals stranded in Gaza following Israel's daily bombardment of the densely populated area, Arab News reported.
Israel announced on Friday morning that four of its soldiers were killed in Gaza, the Israeli military posted in a statement.
It brings the total death toll for Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza to 23, CNN reported.
Israeli troops have been moving forward into the northern part of the besieged territory. Additionally, a spokesperson has stated that they have surrounded the vicinity of Gaza City.
The United Arab Emirates issued a caution on Friday about the possibility of the Israel and Palestine war expanding into a broader regional crisis.
The UAE also stated it is working “relentlessly” to facilitate a ceasefire for humanitarian purposes, Noura al-Kaabi, a minister of state for foreign affairs, told a policy conference in the capital Abu Dhabi.
"The risk of regional spillover and further escalation is real, as well as the risk that extremist groups will take advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in cycles of violence,” Kaabi said.
"Every effort must be made to protect civilians and immediately put an end to this conflict.”
Thailand is coordinating with Iran and other nations it says are capable of establishing contact with Hamas to secure the safe release of nearly two dozen Thai nationals reportedly being detained by the group, Thailand’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said Iran has promised to help with negotiations. He said they were walking with Egypt and Qatar as well to help secure the release.
At least 23 Thai nationals were among more than 240 people taken hostage by Hamas, Bahiddha-Nukara said.
A Gaza-based journalist was visibly distraught during a live television broadcast following the death of his colleague and the colleague's family, including his wife, son, and brother, in an Israeli air strike.
“Our colleague, Mohammed Abu Hatab was here, just half an hour ago. And now he has left us.”
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 3, 2023
A journalist in Gaza broke down on live television after his colleague was killed by an Israeli air strike, along with his wife, son, and brother, and many other victims from his family pic.twitter.com/gwDK7D5OOy
“Our colleague, Mohammed Abu Hatab was here, just half an hour ago. And now he has left us.”
”We can’t take it anymore; we’re exhausted. Here, we become martyred victims in a matter of time. We are going one after the other, and no one is seeing us or at the size of the catastrophe and the crime we are experiencing in Gaza.”
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced on Friday that four Indonesians and the wife of an Indonesian national were successfully evacuated from Gaza on 2 November.
Marsudi confirmed during a press conference that the evacuees had safely arrived in Cairo.
He added that they were using all networks to free the other Indonesians still stuck in Gaza.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) is seeking immediate clarity on the UK government's stance regarding Britons participating in the war in Israel and Palestine.
In a letter to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Thursday, the ICJP said it was writing “in light of the catastrophic situation current unfolding in Gaza, with clear evidence that war crimes and crimes against humanity may already have been committed in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and the real risk that further mass atrocity crimes may be imminent.”
It added that the UK government has made it clear that British citizens who travel to fight in Ukraine could be committing a criminal offence.
“It is unclear to us whether British citizens going to fight in Israel or Gaza would face similar sanctions. ICJP has asked the Foreign Office to clarify whether it is a criminal offence for Britons to fight in the current conflict,” the letter said.
It also asked “whether the government has issued any warnings to people wishing to go to Israel or Gaza about potential criminal liability they could face for complicity in mass atrocity crimes.”
A plane operated by Japan's Air Self-Defence Force evacuated 46 passengers from Israel to Japan on Thursday.
Out of the 46 passengers, 20 were Japanese nationals, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
The ministry also announced on Friday that among the passengers were 15 South Koreans, four Vietnamese, and one Taiwanese individual.
The evacuation marked the second time that Japanese military aircraft have been used to evacuate people since 7 October. It took place amid the visit of Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa to Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territories.
Israel announced on Thursday that it will continue with the transfer of tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank, but withhold funds intended for the Gaza Strip.
Israel says it’s because the PA assists in covering public sector salaries and electricity costs.
As part of interim peace agreements, Israel is responsible for collecting taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and typically transfers these funds to the PA on a monthly basis, subject to approval by the finance minister.
The most recent transfer was scheduled to be released by the end of October.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich withheld the funds, accusing the PA of supporting Hamas, which he referred to as a “Nazi terror organisation.”
Good evening MEE readers,
At the end of the 27th day of the war, the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment now exceeds 9,000.
As Israeli air strikes continue to rain down on the Gaza Strip, heavy clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters are ongoing within the enclave.
There’s also been a marked escalation on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, with heavy exchanges of fire.
Here’s what you need to know from the last few hours:
- Heavy clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters are ongoing around Gaza City, the most densely populated area in the besieged strip housing its biggest hospital and other key facilities.
- Hezbollah said it launched simultaneous attacks on 19 positions in northern Israel, including two drone attacks in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms. Meanwhile, Hamas’ armed wing in Lebanon launched rocket attacks on the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, wounding two people. Israel hit back with air strikes on south Lebanon.
- An Israeli air strike killed Mohammad Abu Hattab, a reporter for Palestine TV, along with 11 members of his family in southern Gaza. He produced a television report just an hour before his death.
- A group of UN experts said they “remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide”
- Antony Blinken said that civilians were bearing the brunt of the war and that he would be working to prevent wider escalation during a trip to the Middle East later this week
- Israeli air strikes flattened yet another residential block in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, destroying homes in the crowded Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Dozens were feared dead.
- Four cancer patients died in Gaza after the last remaining medical facility designated for cancer treatment closed down due to lack of fuel
- The White House is exploring the idea of "pauses" in the conflict to deliver aid into Gaza and seek to get captives out of the enclave
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