Replace(1730ET): Amid the increasing floor operation which has seen Israeli tanks positioned outdoors of Gaza Metropolis and heavy firefights with Hamas militants erupt, Axios has revealed that the top of Mossad, David Barnea, made a secretive weekend journey to Qatar the place he met with senior Qatari officers as a part of mediation efforts to safe the discharge of Israeli and international hostages.
Based on the most recent replace, over 235 are in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) captivity, and Qatar stays the chief third get together speaking with each Tel Aviv and Hamas. However Israeli officers have described that the bottom offensive was launched after it grew to become clear that the talks had born no fruit. Barnea was in Doha as the bottom invasion kicked off and progressed. Based on the Israeli facet’s conclusions reached on account of the conferences, per Axios:
- Israel made the choice [to invade] partially as a result of Hamas refused to provide Israel by way of Qatar a listing of names of all of the hostages it’s holding, the officers stated.
- Hamas instructed the Qatari officers it’s nonetheless within the strategy of discovering out the place all of the hostages are situated and their identities. However the feeling in Jerusalem was that this was only a tactic to purchase time and forestall an Israeli floor operation, the Israeli officers stated.
Monday the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) made the surprising announcement that one hostage, a army member who had been taken on Oct.7, has been rescued alive from the battlefield…
She is dwelling.
PVT Megidish was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Tonight, she was rescued throughout floor operations.
Ori is now dwelling along with her household. pic.twitter.com/SZsqpvPQux
— Israel Protection Forces (@IDF) October 30, 2023
But in addition on Monday, Hamas launched a brand new hostage video that includes three ladies. They have been recognized by Israeali sources as Yelena Tropenov, Daniel Aloni and Rimon Kirsht. Netanyahu has denounced this instance of “merciless Hamas-ISIS psychological warfare” – and Axios has detailed of the video:
- Aloni, who speaks within the video, blames Netanyahu for abandoning them when the assault occurred and after they had been taken hostage.
- “Free us now. Launch their civilians. Launch their prisoners. Launch us now,” Aloni yells within the Hamas video.
New launched video of Israeli hostages. pic.twitter.com/HbvmglYNE0
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) October 30, 2023
The White Home has in the meantime reiterated Monday that “We don’t consider {that a} ceasefire is the precise reply proper now,” in accordance with Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby. “We don’t help a ceasefire right now.”
And the US has additionally signaled it’s winding down chartered evacuation flights of Americans from Israel:
US State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller says Washington will stop working constitution flights for civilians trying to flee Israel in the course of the battle because of an absence of demand.
“We’ve got constantly seen the demand for our constitution flights go right down to the place we’ve had lots of flights going out with 50% functionality,” Miller says. “I believe that the variety of seats that we’ve provided, we’ve had one thing like 25% of them truly be stuffed.”
* * *
The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) says it has killed dozens of Hamas militants, amongst them commanders, because it pushes deeper into Gaza, with tanks being seen Monday on the outskirts of Gaza Metropolis, blocking a key highway linking the northern and southern halves of the Strip.
Hamas has additionally introduced it’s engaged in “heavy combating… with the invading occupation power”, after the IDF confirmed extra Israeli troops have been surged into the Strip. It seems the warring sides are in some locales engaged in building-to-building and door-to-door combating within the dense city zone.
“In a single day, troops eradicated dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves within the buildings and tried to assault the forces that had been transferring of their route,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated. “We’re finishing up an expanded floor operation into the Strip… forces are transferring in the direction of the terrorists, the terrorists are barricading themselves in staging grounds, and we’re attacking them from the air.”
Israel is signaling its intent to encircle Gaza Metropolis with tank and floor items – a major problem given its measurement of 18 sq. miles with a pre-conflict inhabitants of over 650,000 folks. In whole some 1.1 million folks stay within the northern half of the Strip.
Latest reviews have estimated that a whole bunch of hundreds of Palestinians have defied Israel’s order to flee south. By Saturday the IDF had utilized open areas just like the seashore to rapidly enable tank items to plunge two miles deep into the Strip.
IDF has been publishing transient clips of forces working in Gaza:
צה”ל המשיך במהלך הלילה בהרחבת הפעילות הקרקעית ברצועת עזה.
בהיתקלויות עם מחבלים ברצועת עזה, חיסלו לוחמי צה”ל עשרות מחבלים אשר התבצרו במבנים וניסו לפגוע בכוחות. במהלך אחד מהאירועים, כלי טיס בהכוונת הלוחמים בשטח תקף מבנה כינוס של ארגון הטרור חמאס ובו מעל ל-20 מחבלים >> pic.twitter.com/IlGkMyoiSG
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) October 30, 2023
Gazans have instructed Al Jazeera that they’re receiving emergency cellphone calls at their residences (after communications had been switched again on this weekend) with messages like the following: “That is the Israeli military, we’re telling you to evacuate south as a result of within the coming hours it’ll be very harmful within the space the place you’re at.”
At this level amid the fog of battle in addition to the need of every facet current that they’ve the battlefield edge, it isn’t anticipated that army casualty charges will probably be revealed, however the Israeli media has cited a collection of IDF statements to compile the next accounts:
- In a single incident, floor troops directed the Air Drive to hold out a drone strike on a Hamas staging floor, killing greater than 20 terrorists, in accordance with the IDF.
- In one other incident, the IDF stated a fighter jet struck an anti-tank guided missile launch place and a variety of Hamas operatives who had been recognized by floor troops close to Al-Azhar College in Gaza Metropolis.
- Later Monday, the IDF stated troops encountered a variety of Hamas cells making an attempt to assault them in the course of the morning hours. Floor forces directed air power fight helicopters and drones to strike the fear cells and kill their members.
- Forces additionally demolished anti-tank guided missile and rocket launch positions, in addition to different infrastructure belonging to Hamas, the IDF stated.
As for Israeli forces having reportedly gained management of a key highway that runs north-south, AFP has additionally cited eyewitnesses who say “They’ve minimize the Salah al-Din highway and are firing at any automobile that tries to go alongside it.”
Palestinian photojournalist Youssef Al Saifi exclaimed within the beneath video that “they’re taking pictures at a complete household”:
JUST IN: Israeli Forces Block Key Gaza North-to-South Street, Elevating Hypothesis of an Advance on Gaza Metropolis
– An Israeli tank and armored automobile reported having minimize Salah-al-Din highway close to Gaza Metropolis, with hypothesis of an advance on the territory’s largest metropolis.
– A video… pic.twitter.com/SfoQuzY0JP
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 30, 2023
Moreover Hamas has claimed to have stalled the IDF’s advance deeper into Gaza City:
Afterward Monday, Salama Maarouf, the top of the Hamas authorities workplace in Gaza, stated the Israeli tanks had retreated from the outskirts of Gaza Metropolis.
“There’s completely no floor advance contained in the residential neighborhoods within the Gaza Strip. What occurred on Salah al-Din Road was the incursion of some occupation military tanks and a bulldozer,” Maarouf stated in an announcement.
The Hamas official then asserted, “These automobiles focused two civilian automobiles on Salah al-Din Road and bulldozed the road earlier than the resistance pressured them to retreat. There’s at the moment no presence of occupation military automobiles on Salah al-Din Street, and citizen motion has returned to regular on the highway.”
Now with the dying toll in Gaza having far surpassed 8,000 – with an estimated half of those ladies and youngsters – Israel is going through rising worldwide stress and condemnation, together with from some European nations, as we detailed Sunday. Statements of PM Netanyahu and his high officers basically declaring a scorched earth marketing campaign over the densely populated land have drawn rebuke from some corners of Europe, however obtain scant point out in US mainstream media…
Netanyahu declaring invasion: “It’s essential to keep in mind what Amalek has achieved to you, says our Holy Bible”
1 Samuel 15:3
“Now go and smite Amalek, and completely destroy all that they’ve, and spare them not; however slay each man and girl, toddler and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass” pic.twitter.com/5QF9PkGhjJ
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 28, 2023
In the meantime, the Israeli army’s Chief of the Common Employees, LTG Herzi Halevi, has outlined the mission as follows: “The IDF is concentrated proper now on one factor—victory and dismantling Hamas.” However the query of the destiny of tens of millions of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Financial institution and Gaza hangs within the steadiness, with Palestinian leaders and their supporters expressing alarm over Netanyahu’s “smite the Amalek” reference.
Israel has been searching for retaliation for the Oct.7 Hamas terror raids into southern Israel, which killed over 1,400 Israelis and foreigners, and resulted in a minimum of 220 hostages nonetheless held captive someplace within the Strip. However extra tragic information has emerged regarding one one girl who had been taken from the Nova music competition, and who had been seen half-naked at the back of a pick-up truck, presumably deceased or a minimum of badly wounded:
Shani Louk, a German-Israeli girl kidnapped by Hamas gunmen in the course of the October 7 assault and brought to Gaza, has been discovered useless, the Israeli Ministry of Overseas Affairs has stated.
“We’re devastated to share that the physique of 23 12 months previous German-Israeli Shani (Louk) was discovered and recognized,” the ministry posted on X, previously Twitter, on Monday.
The pictures, together with graphic video, of what appeared her lifeless physique beneath a number of smiling Hamas militants within the mattress of a pick-up truck was among the many first to go viral on Oct.7 – and underscores the utter brutality and mercilessness of the Hamas terror raid.
Loading…