Despite appeals and overseas demonstrations, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas and accusing it of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of civilians killed.

Also read: ‘Gaza Strip cut into two’ says Israeli army, ‘ready to attack Northern Gaza any moment’

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in nearly a month of war in Gaza, more than 4,000 of them children and minors. That toll likely will rise as Israeli troops advance into dense, urban neighborhoods.

Israel-Gaza war: Top-10 updates

• The Israeli Army said on Sunday that “significant strikes” are being carried out and the Gaza Strip has been “cut into two”. “Troops reached the coastline and are holding it”, an Israeli Army spokesperson said.

Also read: From Jordan to Turkey – Which countries have recalled ambassadors from Israel amid war?

• Hamas said the Israeli army carried out “intense bombings” on Sunday evening around several hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip. The vicinity of the Palestinian territory’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, saw particularly heavy strikes. The bombing came after the Israeli military once again accused Hamas of using hospitals in their military campaign against Israel.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, trying to assure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the Biden administration was intensifying efforts to ease the plight of Gaza’s civilians. President Joe Biden’s top diplomat later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as American forces in the region face a surge of attacks by Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere.
• Jordan’s Air Force personnel air-dropped urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza early on Monday. Jordan announced last week recalled its ambassador to Israel and told the Israeli ambassador to stay away in protest at the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, saying the attacks had killed innocents and caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

Also read: ‘Israel won’t agree to Gaza ceasefire unless…’: PM Netanyahu issues ultimatum amid war with Hamas

• CIA Director William J Burns, arrived in Israel on Sunday to hold discussions with leaders and intelligence officials, the first stop in a multi-country trip in the region, the New York Times reported citing US officials. The visit comes as the US is trying to prod Israel to allow pauses in the fighting for aid to enter Gaza.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel will not agree to a ceasefire until the Hamas terror group releases the hostages it is holding. “Take this (word ‘ceasefire’) out of the lexicon. We will continue until we defeat them; we do not have an alternative,” Netanyahu is quoted saying in a statement from his office.

Also read: Israel cuts off internet, telecommunications services in Gaza Strip

• Hundreds of family members of hostages taken by Hamas in attacks on October 7 held a rally in front of the Kirya, the government’s military headquarters, in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, “to demand greater action by the government to release the hostages”. More than 200 hostages are still being held in Gaza after Hamas’ attacks nearly a month ago.
• An Israeli strike on a car in south Lebanon killed three children and their grandmother on Sunday, Lebanese authorities said, as the Israeli army said a Hezbollah attack from Lebanon killed an Israeli citizen in northern Israel. The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said it responded to the Israeli strike, in which three girls aged between 10 and 14 were killed.
• France has recorded more than a thousand anti-Semitic acts since the deadly October 7 attack by a Hamas gunman on Israel. Paris police chief said that there had been 257 anti-Semitic acts in the Paris region alone and 90 arrests.
• The creator of the cult Israeli web series ‘Fauda’, Avi Issacharoff, weighed in on the air assault and ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza, saying that the ongoing operations are the repercussions of what the terror group did in southern Israel on October 7. He claimed that the Israeli forces are succeeding in their military objectives in Gaza and are getting ever closer to the centre of Gaza City.

Milestone Alert!Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.

Updated: 06 Nov 2023, 06:50 AM IST