THE LATEST:
- Israel’s military is advancing deeper into the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
- UN agency says the chaos has put four of its aid distribution centres out of action.
- UNICEF says more than 3,400 Palestinian children have been killed.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel won’t agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.
- The Israeli military has freed one of its soldiers from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, according to Netanyahu.
- Hamas releases a video of three women who are being held hostage. In it, the women ask to be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Armoured Israeli forces attacked the Gaza Strip’s main city from two directions on Monday and targeted the main road linking it to the south of Gaza, witnesses said, drawing more international appeals for Palestinian civilians to be protected.
Israel said its forces freed a soldier from Hamas captivity, one of 239 hostages Israel says were captured on Oct. 7 by Hamas gunmen from Gaza who rampaged through southern Israeli communities, killing over 1,400 people. Those captured include several Canadian citizens.
The military identified the released woman as Ori Megidish and said she had since undergone medical checks and is “doing well.” It gave no details on the circumstances of her release.
Israel’s military said it had struck more than 600 militant targets over the past few days as it expanded ground operations in the territory, where Palestinian civilians are in dire need of fuel, food and clean water as the war enters its fourth week.
According to the latest figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health, more than 8,300 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured.
UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell says those numbers include more than 3,400 children killed and more than 6,300 injured.
“This means that more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day — a number which should shake each of us to our core,” she said.
That’s more than the number of children killed yearly in all the world’s conflict zones since 2019, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees
“This cannot be ‘collateral damage,”‘ he said.
Featured VideoIsrael says it has expanded its ground operation, a move some analysts say is likely a precursor to a brutal phase of the war with Hamas. We speak to the family of a Canadian trapped in Gaza on the deteriorating situation and their pleas for help.
Significantly fewer humanitarian aid trucks have reached the besieged enclave than are required, say UN officials, and civil order has broken down with people storming UN warehouses in search of food.
That has put four UN aid distribution centres and a storage facility out of action, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.
“It’s a disaster on top of a disaster. Health needs are soaring and our ability to meet those needs is rapidly declining,” World Health Organization regional emergencies chief Rick Brennan told Reuters, reiterating international calls for a ceasefire to enable a larger humanitarian operation.
The White House said it was working to get more aid trucks into Gaza.
Many stay put despite warnings
Israel renewed warnings for civilians to move from the north of Gaza to the south as it began an advance late on Friday to pursue Hamas militants it says are hiding in a labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza City.
Many Palestinians have stayed put, some fearing they might become homeless as in previous generations and some alarmed by Israeli aerial strikes further south.
Fadi, who lives in the Jabalia refugee camp on Gaza City’s northern outskirts and declined to give his last name, said the area was now in mortal danger from Israel’s ground offensive with tanks rumbling on its fringes. He vowed not to flee.
“No one in the entire neighbourhood has left. We are staying,” he told Reuters by phone. “Whether tanks or planes, there will not be another displacement (of Palestinians). That is our decision even if that will mean our martyrdom (death).”
Israel says 4 Hamas leaders killed
Islamist militants said they had repelled an attempted thrust by Israeli tanks into Gaza City from the east and were fighting them along the border with Israel in north Gaza.
“Our duty today is fight and fight,” the Islamic Jihad militant group, fighting alongside Gaza’s ruling Hamas, said in a statement, adding that now was not the time for a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said it had killed four prominent Hamas operatives. “IDF troops killed dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels, and attempted to attack the troops,” it said in an update, using the abbreviation for the Israel Defence Forces.
In a statement, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the army would continue to expand the ground operation.
“Additional infantry, armour and combat engineering forces are entering Gaza for the continued coordinated operations by land, air and sea at full force,” Hagari said.
Neither side commented on the other’s reports.
Military reaches main north-south Gaza road
On Monday, residents said Israeli forces carried out dozens of airstrikes on Gaza City’s eastern side, with some reporting the roar of tanks rolling in amid exchanges of fire.
Witnesses said Israeli tanks also reached Gaza’s main coastal north-south Salahudeen road during the day, in an apparent bid to intensify the siege in the north by cutting Gaza City off from the enclave’s southern half.
Later, residents and the Hamas-run government’s media office said the tanks had pulled back toward the fortified boundary fence around Gaza
Featured VideoThe health-care situation for women in Gaza due to Israeli airstrikes and an expanded ground offensive is worsening. The UN estimates there are some 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 160 giving birth each day. The lack of food and clean water, and overcrowded hospitals, pose risks for women going into labour, according to an ActionAid representative in the West Bank.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports. The Israeli military said it would not give details on the positions of its forces.
Palestinian health officials reported airstrike impacts near three large hospitals in Gaza City on Monday. The UN humanitarian office OCHA said 117,000 civilians were sheltering alongside patients and doctors in hospitals in the north.
Israel has accused Hamas of placing command centres and weaponry near hospitals, which the group denies.
“Where should we go? It is all one death,” said Hatem Sultan, sheltering near Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s biggest medical centre.
OCHA said rescuers were struggling to reach people. “As of 29 October about 1,800 people, including at least 940 children, have been reported missing and may be trapped or dead under the rubble, awaiting rescue or recovery,” it said.
OCHA also said Palestinian armed groups were continuing to launch rockets into Israel indiscriminately, with no fatalities reported.
Netanyahu denounces video of female hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as “cruel psychological propaganda” a video released by Hamas showing three female hostages with one accusing him of failing to protect and secure the release of all the captives.
Speaking to media from Tel Aviv later on Monday, the prime minister said Israel won’t agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.
Netanyahu said Israel’s ground campaign creates possibilities for rescuing the hostages.
Featured VideoAs the Israeli ground forces push further into Gaza, flattening buildings and killing more Palestinian civilians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not agree to a ceasefire. Hamas released a video of three hostages criticizing Netanyahu but many are suspicious they were coerced into saying so.
“Hamas will not do it unless they are under pressure,” he told reporters. “We obviously greeted one hostage with open arms after yesterday’s successful action … but we’re committed to getting all the hostages back home. We think that this method stands a chance.”
Hamas has released four hostages and said 50 have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were also fighting Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Jenin. The Palestinian health ministry said four people were killed there on Monday. Israel said an airstrike killed several fighters.
The House9:56An open letter reveals internal divisions over Israel-Hamas war
Featured VideoAlmost two dozen Liberal MPs signed an open letter pushing the federal government — their own party — to take a firmer line on calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East. Where does the disagreement over the Israel-Hamas war leave the party and the government? Journalists Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star and Stuart Thomson of The Hub weigh in on that question, as well as the government’s carbon tax backtrack.
The conflict has led to demonstrations worldwide in support of the Palestinians, and antisemitic and Islamophobic harassment.
Russian authorities said they had taken over an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region and arrested 60 people after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed the facility in search of Jewish passengers on a plane from Israel.