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More than three weeks after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel, the Israeli ground forces today attacked the militant groups’ infrastructure in Gaza City as the UN warned of further devastation among the Palestinian civilian population and called for a ceasefire. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, however, rejected the idea of a ceasefire, saying, “Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas. That will not happen.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s offensive to the October 7 Hamas attack has killed more than 8,306 Palestinians, including 3,457 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s latest update. Of this, 329 Palestinians were killed in West Bank and the rest in Gaza City. As many as 1,400 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack and nearly 240 others are being held hostage by the military group.
As the conflict continues, here are the key updates from Day 25 of the war.
- 01
Israel says it attacked Hamas militants inside tunnels
The Israel military said that it has attacked Hamas gunmen inside the militant group’s vast tunnel network beneath Gaza and that Hamas responded with anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire.
“Over the last day, combined IDF combat forces struck approximately 300 targets, including anti-tank missile and rocket launch posts below shafts, as well as military compounds inside underground tunnels belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Over the last day, during ground operations:
🔻Numerous Hamas terrorists have been eliminated.
🔻The IAF struck terrorist targets and infrastructure.
🔻IDF combat forces struck approximately 300 targets, including:
• Anti-tank missiles posts.
• Rocket launch posts.
•… pic.twitter.com/RymFDCFrw1— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 31, 2023
- 02
An unprecedented 10,000+ killed in 3 weeks
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting in the past three weeks, an unprecedented number on both Israeli and Palestinian sides. More than 8,300 Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank have been killed by the Israeli forces while 1,400 Israelis were killed in Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7.
Thousands of others have been injured and lakhs of Gazans have been displaces. Over 240 Israelis and foreign citizens are believed to be held hostage by the Hamas.
- 03
UN agency in Gaza says urgent cease-fire is ‘matter of life and death’ for millions of Palestinians
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told a UN emergency meeting yesterday “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions,” accusing Israel of “collective punishment” of Palestinians and the forced displacement of civilians.
Philippe Lazzarini warned that a further breakdown of civil order following the looting of the agency’s warehouses by Palestinians searching for food and other aid “will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the largest UN agency in Gaza to continue operating.”
Gazans ‘feel the world is equating all of them to Hamas.
This is dangerous. And we know this too well from previous conflicts and crises.’Full remarks from @UNLazzarini at the @UN Security Council ⬇️https://t.co/0KbTXV279M pic.twitter.com/IhGYmxo8e6
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 30, 2023
- 04
An Israeli ministry, in a ‘concept paper,’ proposes transferring Gaza civilians to Egypt’s Sinai
An Israeli government ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and worsening tensions with Cairo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise — a “concept paper.” But its conclusions deepened long-standing Egyptian fears that Israel wants to make Gaza into Egypt’s problem, and revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948.
‘We are against transfer to any place, in any form, and we consider it a red line that we will not allow to be crossed,’ Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said of the report. ‘What happened in 1948 will not be allowed to happen again.’ A mass displacement, Abu Rudeineh said, would be “tantamount to declaring a new war.” (AP)
- 05
UN pushes to open Kerem Shalom crossing to deliver aid to Gaza
More than one border crossing was needed to deliver aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and Kerem Shalom controlled by Israel is the only one equipped to take enough trucks, the United Nations said as it continued to push for more aid deliveries to the besieged civilian population in Gaza.
The red marker shows the Rafah crossing and the green one the Karem Shalom check point on Israel side.Aid trucks have been trickling into Gaza from Egypt over the past week via Rafah, the main crossing that does not border Israel. UN officials have repeatedly said this was insufficient for the scale of needs of Gaza’s civilian population of about 2.3 million, more than one million of whom have been made homeless by Israel’s bombardment.
“More than one entry point into Gaza is indispensable if we are to make a difference – Kerem Shalom, between Israel and Gaza, is the only crossing equipped to rapidly process a sufficiently large number of trucks,” senior UN aid official Lisa Doughten told the UN Security Council. (Reuters)
- 06
US House Republicans unveil bill to fund Israel by cutting IRS budget
US House of Representatives Republicans have introduced a plan to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel by cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, setting up a showdown with Democrats who control the Senate.
In one of the first major policy actions under new House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Democratic President Joe Biden’s request for a $106 billion package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security.
Johnson, who voted against aid for Ukraine before he was elected House speaker last week, had said he wanted aid to Israel and Ukraine to be handled separately. He has said he wants more accountability for money that has been sent to the Kyiv government as it fights Russian invaders. “Israel is a separate matter,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News last week, describing his desire to “bifurcate” the Ukraine and Israel funding issues. (Reuters)
- 07
Kuwait condemns Israeli ‘aggression’ on Gaza, calls for ceasefire
Kuwait’s crown prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah said on Tuesday that his country condemns Israeli “aggression” on Gaza and called for a ceasefire.
Al-Sabah was addressing the parliament on behalf of the Emir in the opening of the parliament regular second session. (Reuters)
- 08
More children killed in 21 days in Gaza than in conflicts across 20 countries in a whole year since 2019: Report
Since the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza on October 7, the number of children reported killed in Gaza in just three weeks has surpassed the number of children deaths in armed conflicts across 20 countries in a whole year, for the last three years, Save the Children said in a report dated October 29.
Palestinian children standing amid rubble look on during a search for casualties in the aftermath of Israeli strikes on houses, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 25, 2023. (Reuters)In a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, the head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini stressed that “this cannot be ‘collateral damage”, adding that Israel is carrying out “collective punishment”. (Read more)
- 09
Why the pace of Israel’s ground operation counts
In the 23 harrowing days since Hamas attacked Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel’s Western allies have had to perform a delicate balancing act: expressing steadfast support for the country during its darkest hours, while navigating the growing public anger on their streets over the intensifying bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s neighbours in the Middle East have walked a different tightrope: managing outraged populations and, in some cases, proxy militant groups, which threaten to drag them into a broader war with Israel that they may not seek.
For both, Israel’s unfolding ground invasion of the densely populated Gaza Strip has complicated their calculations. Here’s why.
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