Israel-Palestine live: Week three ends with over 7,000 Palestinians killed

When the Israeli army told Palestinians in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City to flee south because it was safer, 18-year-old Dima Al-Lamdani's family prayed they would escape relentless air strikes.

But days later, Lamdani was left to identify the bodies of her relatives at a makeshift morgue in the southern city of Khan Younis. She said she lost her parents, seven siblings and four members of her uncle's family in an Israeli air strike.

"They told us to evacuate your place and go to Khan Younis because it is safe... They betrayed us and bombed us," she told Reuters.

She said her family and that of her uncle travelled in two cars across Gaza, which has faced the heaviest bombardment after the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack into Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,400 people and taking more than 200 captives.

Lamdani's family was staying at a temporary shelter in Khan Younis when she said: "At 4.30 a.m. I was awake and sitting with my aunt drinking coffee. Suddenly I woke up in the middle of ruins. Everyone around me was screaming, so I screamed."

Lamdani, the side of her face grazed and bruised, said after searching for her family members in the morgue on 17 October that only her brother and two young cousins had survived.

"This is a nightmare. It will never be wiped from my memory," she said. "I had a sister, 16. They wrote my name on the white sheet they wrapped her body in, they thought it was me."

A large pro-Palestine protest was held in the Belgian capital Brussels on Sunday, calling for for a ceasefire.

Sirens sounded in northern Israel north of Haifa and in the Acre area on Monday, according to Israeli media.

It was not immediately clear why the sirens were activated and whether there were incoming rockets or projectiles. 

It was the first time sirnes were wounded in Acre, which is some 170 km north of Gaza and some 20 km from south Lebanon.

At demonstrations across the world in support of the Palestinians and in opposition to Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, one refrain can regularly be heard: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

The slogan has been around for decades among Palestinians and pro-Palestinian campaigners and refers to liberating the territory that exists between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea in historic Palestine.

But many Israelis and supporters of Israel have claimed that the chant effectively calls for the destruction of Israel.

So where does it originate from? And why is it controversial? Middle East Eye explains in the following article: 

Read more: 'From the river to the sea': What does the pro-Palestine chant actually mean?

Palestinians across the Gaza Strip woke up this morning to survey the damage in their neighbourhoods after another night of Israeli bombardment.

On Monday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said the death toll in Gaza had surpassed 5,000, with at least 436 people dying from the Israeli bombardment on Sunday alone. 

The Ministry described the aftermath of the bombing as "massacres", a word it uses to describe Israeli attacks that leave mass deaths of three people or more in a single air raid.

A document presented by Israeli President Isaac Herzog as proof that Hamas intended to develop chemical weapons is actually an amateur biography of World Trade Center attacker Ramzi Yousef and contains no instructions on how to develop chemical weapons.

In an interview with Sky News, Herzog presented what he said was an "official" 2003 al-Qaeda manual that he claimed contained instructions on how to make chemical weapons.

He said the document was found on the body of one of the Hamas operatives who attacked southern Israel on 7 October and killed around 1,400 Israelis. Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 5,000 Palestinians since. The majority of both tolls are civilians, many of them children.

"It's al-Qaeda material. Official al-Qaeda material. We are dealing with ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hamas. And in this material there were instructions on how to produce chemical weapons," Herzog said of the document.

"This is how shocking the situation is where we're looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide."

The document he presented is attributed to the "Supreme Paradise Brigades, one of the battalions of the International Islamic Front for Jihad on Jews and Crusaders" and is adorned with a logo associated with the Islamic State group.

Readily available on the internet, the 30-page book contains no instructions on how to make chemical weapons but makes reference to the Kuwait-born Yousef's life working for al-Qaeda, especially his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

Read more: 'Chemical weapons manual' shown by Israeli president is biography of a bomber

Israel has killed 2,000 Palestinian children in 17 days of relentless bombardment in Gaza, according to the latest tally provided by the Palestinian health ministry.

The overall death toll of Palestinians reached 5,087 on Monday. Around 70 percent of those killed are children, women and elderly people.

More than 15,273 have been wounded and an additional 1,500 are trapped under rubble, including 830 children.

It's unknown whether they are dead or alive. Palestinian rescue workers are struggling to reach them amid intense Israeli shelling and lack of aid and tools.

Israeli forces killed at least 436 Palestinians, including 182 children, during overnight air strikes, with the vast majority of fatalities occurring south of the Gaza Strip. 

"The Israeli occupation committed 23 massacres in the past hours, claiming the lives of 436 martyrs, including 182 children, the majority of whom were from the south of the Gaza Strip," the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Monday morning. 

The Palestinian health ministry often uses the word "massacre" to refer to Israeli attacks that leave mass deaths of three people or more in a single air raid.

An aid worker and two security sources told Reuters that a third aid convoy had entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Monday for Gaza. 

But despite aid slowly trickling into Gaza, local officials said they desperately need fuel, which Israel has banned from entering the besieged territory.  

Over the weekend, 34 trucks passed through. U.N. officials say about 100 trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people and where food, water and fuel stocks have been running low.

Israeli warplanes destroyed homes and buildings in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza.

Footage posted online by Palestinian photographer Motasem Mortaja showed the devastation as residents surveyed the damage. 

Local media also reported that Israeli air strikes killed dozens of people in the Sheikh Radwan area. 

Sunday saw Israeli forces pounded the Gaza Strip, killing 400 Palestinians with that number feared to rise as medical teams and rescue workers assess the full damage of the air strikes last night.

The Israeli warplanes bomb a home in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza. 23.10.23

الاحتلال يقصف منزل في حي الشيخ رضوان بغزة pic.twitter.com/aI4AnSybBq

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) October 23, 2023

Israel has agreed to delay the invasion of Gaza at the request of the US until more American troops are deployed to the region, the Israeli army radio reported.

The US said shortly after the ongoing conflict started that it would be deploying 2,000 marines to the Middle East alongside two aircraft carriers, in support of Israel. 

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin over the weekend said he was placing additional troops on prepare-to-deploy orders after previously placing 2,000 soldiers in a heightened state of readiness.

American officials say the US has advised Israel to delay the planned ground invasion of Gaza, according to the New York Times.

Citing several officials, the NYT said on Sunday the suggestion was made to allow a window for more people held in Gaza to be released and for life-saving aid to enter the besieged enclave. 

Israel has imposed a "full siege" on Gaza for over two weeks, cutting supplies of food, water, fuel and electricity to the 2.3m Palestinians living there. Human rights groups criticised the move as a form of collective punishment that may amount to a war crime. 

A total of 34 aid trucks entered Gaza over the weekend, which comprise less than one percent of the relief needs, according to Palestinian officials. 

Meanwhile, Hamas' release of two American women from their custody last week has raised hope that more foreigners could be set free soon.

Hamas said it intends to release all non-Israels in their custody with no conditions. However, they suggested the intense Israeli bombing in Gaza is impeding the process. 

Good morning MEE readers. Monday morning saw some of the most intense and deadly Israeli bombings of Gaza since the latest conflict between Israel and armed Palestinian groups began on 7 October.

So far, at least 400 Palestinians have been killed over the past 24 hours, and that number has the potential to rise as medical teams and rescue workers assess the full damage of the air strikes last night.

Here is what you may have missed over the past few hours:

• One Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp killed around 30 Palestinians.

• Dozens of Palestinians have been arrested across the occupied West Bank as Israeli forces launched a number of raids near Ramallah, Hebron, and Jericho.

• Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, released a statement in which they reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself before going on to urge for the protection of civilians.

• Gaza's hospitals are almost out of anaesthesia, in addition to fuel and other other necessary supplies.

• Israeli air strikes have also hit near two hospitals: al-Shifa and al-Quds.

We at Middle East Eye are doing our best to continue providing you with up-to-date information around the clock. You can also find our coverage across Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

On Sunday, during a pro-Palestine demonstration in Minneapolis, a driver steered his car through a crowd of protesters.

Footage shared on social media shows the car driving through the crowd of demonstrators. No injuries were reported.