Biden calls for a humanitarian ‘pause’
Joe Biden called for a “pause” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza after he was confronted by a protester calling for a ceasefire at a campaign fundraiser.
Biden was speaking to about 200 people when the protester shouted: “As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now.”
Biden responded: “I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”
The White House later clarified that Biden was referring to the hostages held by Hamas since its 7 October attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.
The White House has previously said it supports a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid deliveries to Gaza and the release of hostages. Biden has thrown his support behind Israel, but he has shifted his response in recent weeks as the humanitarian situation worsens in Gaza and the civilian death toll rises.
The president has faced intensifying pressure from human rights groups, fellow world leaders and even liberal members of his own Democratic Party, who say that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza is collective punishment and that it is time for a ceasefire.
The difference between a ceasefire and pause may seem semantic, but a pause is generally considered less formal and shorter than a ceasefire.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says at least 8,796 Palestinians – including 3,648 children – have been killed by Israeli strikes since the start of the conflict.
Key events
Peter Beaumont
In the north of Israel, the sound of exchanges between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah and other armed factions in Lebanon have become a daily fact of life for the few who have opted to stay in its deserted towns and communities.
The roads close to the frontier, planted years ago with eucalyptus trees to screen cars from overlooking heights across the border, have signs warning drivers they are entering a danger zone.
The gates to border communities in the Upper Galilee such as Metula and Menara are closed and guarded by soldiers. The tourist cabins and attractions are empty. The sound of drones is now a constant, irritating buzz. Occasionally, a boom can be heard in the distance.
In recent days, anti-tank guided missiles, mortars and an anti-aircraft missile have been fired from the Lebanese side of the frontier, while Israel has used artillery and drone strikes to kill at least 50 members of Hezbollah.
Amir Ottolenghi, 65, was at home with his wife in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona when a rocket struck his neighbour’s residence next door, smashing through the red-tiled roof and setting it on fire.
We heard the missile come from the Lebanese side of the frontier, and then the boom-boom of Iron Dome [Israel’s anti-missile system]. Then another bang as the rocket hit the house. The instruction is to wait for 10 minutes. But we could hear the house opposite on fire. The sound of glass being blown out.”
The meaning of the exchanges, however, remains ambiguous, with some analysts suggesting that while Hezbollah is keen to signal that it is engaged at a low level, it does not want to escalate to a full-blown conflict, amid opposition to war from a large section of Lebanese society already battered by economic and political crisis.
Israeli forces say ‘dozens’ of Hamas fighters killed in overnight operations
Israel’s air force has released a statement saying IDF fighters and armored forces were fired on with anti-tank weapons and grenades in overnight operations.
The forces engaged in prolonged battles with the terrorists, assisted by brigade fire from artillery and tanks, while directing an aircraft to attack from the air and directing a missile ship to attack from the sea. At the end of the fighting, dozens of terrorists were killed.”
Japan’s foreign minister has said she will communicate Japan’s readiness to provide aid in meetings with Palestinian counterparts this week.
Yoko Kamikawa is also set to meet Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen during her two-day trip from Friday.
“I hope to discuss how to respond to the grave humanitarian situation in the Gaza region as well as directly communicate Japan’s readiness to continue providing aid,” Kamikawa said of her meeting with her Palestinian counterparts.
All 10 Japanese nationals and their eight Palestinian family members wishing to leave Gaza evacuated to Egypt on Wednesday, Kamikawa said, adding that the evacuees were in good health.
She said Japan would remain in touch with one Japanese national living in Gaza who wished to remain there and did not evacuate.
More than 20,000 wounded people are still trapped in the Gaza Strip, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), despite the evacuation of some foreign passport holders and badly injured Palestinians across the border to Egypt on Wednesday.
MSF said that 22 of its international staff members in Gaza had been among those who left the territory via the Rafah border crossing.
“However, there are still over 20,000 injured people in Gaza with limited access to healthcare due to the siege,” it said.
MSF’s Palestinian staff were still offering care in the territory, it added, and another international team was waiting to enter the territory to replace those who left “as soon as the situation allows”.
The organisation went on to call for a greater number of people to be evacuated, as well as for a ceasefire and for more critical aid to be allowed in.
“Those who wish to leave Gaza must be allowed to do so without further delay. They must also be allowed the right to return,” the statement said.
Patrick Wintour
Egypt has been caught in a dilemma for weeks about opening the Rafah crossing into Gaza: wanting to help the most seriously injured Palestinians leave, but adamantly refusing to contemplate a surge of Palestinian refugees into the Sinai peninsula.
Some have criticised Egypt and its authoritarian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, for not opening his borders, but Palestinians also fear a repeat of what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe – the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948 after the creation of Israel.
It appears also that Egypt does not want to repeat the experience of Lebanon and Jordan, which have been housing Palestinian refugees for decades. Sisi considers the housing of up to 1 million Palestinians in camps in his country a political risk not worth taking.
References to a mass exodus makes Sisi jumpy. The Cairo-based Mada Masr news outlet was suspended for six months and referred to the prosecutor-general after running a report on what it said were plans for the displacement of Gaza’s Palestinians in Sinai.
On Wednesday, Rafah opened for the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians and hundreds of foreign passport holders, but no one knows how long that situation will last. Moreover, the selection process for who can leave – negotiated between Israel and Egypt in Qatar – is opaque. National embassies, it seems, can lobby for nationals to cross the border, but do not have a say.
Egypt’s concern is that the current trickle turns into an avalanche: Sisi has assembled a mass of tanks on the Egyptian side of the border to prevent such an occurrence.
It’s now 8am in Gaza and 6am in London.
If you’re just waking up and want to get up to speed, we’ve published a fresh wrap of all the latest news from the Israel-Hamas war. You can read it here:
The Associated Press has sent through a dispatch from the Gaza side of the Egyptian border, as hundreds wait to leave via the Rafah crossing.
The news agency reports that hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports and dozens of seriously wounded patients desperate to escape the war in Gaza crowded at the border gate.
AP reporters describe restless children pressing their faces against the wire mesh, as families wait for the Hamas authorities to call their names over a scratchy loudspeaker.
“We are relying on God and hoping that we get out,” Rania Hussein, a Jordanian resident of Gaza said. She said entire neighbourhoods had been razed by airstrikes with families crushed to death.
A large number of foreign passport holders remain stuck in Gaza, including an estimated 400 Americans who want to leave. AP says a widely shared Google spreadsheet outlined just a few hundred names of those cleared for departure.
“No one understands how you get on this list or why you’re not on this list,” said Hammam al-Yazji, a Palestinian businessman trying to get out of Gaza with his 4-year-old American son.
“We came here today to the Egyptian borders hoping to leave Gaza, but our Canadian embassy didn’t contact [us] due to the bad network,” said Asil Shurab, a Canadian citizen.
The US says it expects more foreign nationals will be allowed to leave over the coming days.
Thai officials hold talks with Hamas in Iran
Thai officials held direct talks with Hamas in Iran last week, reports Agence France-Presse, citing the Thai negotiating team.
Negotiators met Hamas officials in Tehran on 26 October and were given a pledge that the 22 Thais being held in Gaza would be released at the “right time”, Areepen Uttarasin told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday.
Areepen, who led the three-person team appointed by the speaker of the Thai parliament, said they held a two-hour meeting with Hamas officials in Iran.
“I asked them to release them because they are innocent,” he said, adding “they assured me that they were taking good care of them, but they couldn’t tell me the release date… they were waiting for the right time.”
He said after the talks the Thai team prayed with the Hamas representatives.
Israeli authorities say 1,400 people, many of them civilians, were killed and more than 230 hostages taken in the 7 October attack launched by Hamas from Gaza.
Thai prime minister Srettha Thavisin has said his government is working hard to bring the hostages home, and his foreign minister held talks in Qatar and Egypt this week.
Srettha spoke by phone with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
“He told me he would do his best to help the Thai hostages immediately,” Srettha said.
Netanyahu’s office said after the call that he had assured Srettha that “Israel is making every effort to free all of the hostages”.
About 30,000 Thais are working in Israel, mostly in the agriculture sector, according to the kingdom’s labour ministry. Thirty-two Thai nationals have been killed and 19 wounded in the conflict, and the kingdom has evacuated more than 7,000 of its citizens on repatriation flights.
You can read more of the Guardian’s coverage of the Thai hostages being held in Gaza here:
The Associated Press is reporting that democrats in Michigan have warned the White House that president Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 election in a state he almost certainly can’t afford to lose.
The situation has prompted the White House to discuss ways to alleviate tensions with some of the state’s prominent democrats, including several who have been vocal critics of the president over the war.
“The message has been relayed. We’ve had calls with the White House,” said Abraham Aiyash, the third-ranking democrat in the state’s House of Representatives. “We’ve been clear in saying the humanity should matter, but if that is not a calculation that you’re going to make in this moment, recognise that there will be electoral reverberations to this.”
Victory in Michigan was critical in helping Biden win the White House in 2020, after Donald Trump unexpectedly won the state in 2016. In the last few years Democrats have felt more confident about their standing in Michigan, particularly after the state’s governor notched a commanding 10-point reelection victory last year.
But local democrats are concerned the war may have a more lasting political impact. Michigan holds the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the nation and over 310,000 residents are of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Many in the community are pledging not to support Biden’s reelection unless he calls for a ceasefire in the war.
In 2020, Muslim voters nationally supported Biden over Trump 64% to 35%, according to polls.
On Wednesday the White House announced that it would develop a national strategy to battle Islamophobia, a plan that has been expected for months but which has gained momentum in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East.
The Biden administration in May released a national strategy to combat antisemitism that also made a reference to countering hatred against Muslims.
Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister and army chief has spoken to Foreign Policy magazine, saying Israel will “probably lose the support of public opinion” over its response to the 7 October Hamas attack.
In a transcript of the interview published on the publication’s website, the former prime minister said, “our objective is to limit the military and government capabilities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This could not be accomplished by airstrikes alone. We have to deploy probably many thousands of boots on the ground.”
When asked about US support, he said “We know that within a week or two we will probably lose the support of public opinion in many parts of the free world, and within another two or three weeks we might lose support of many of the governments in the free world. I think that America will still be with us, but it will be more and more complicated for them to stay behind us.”
On Israel’s military strategy, the former prime minister said it would take “probably about 50,000 or more troops in order to make sure that we win.”
Even if it develops into a full-scale regional conflict with Hezbollah, which has 10 times more rockets and missiles, or if the West Bank or Golan Heights are involved, Israel is still stronger. It’s not an existential threat, but it will take more time, more losses, and more friction with our supporters in the world.”
Israel says ‘no damage’ to drone over Lebanese border
The Israeli military has disputed a statment from Hezbollah, in which the group claimed to have destroyed an Israeli drone over south Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile.
Earlier we reported that Hezbollah had said in a statement that its fighters shot down the drone just after midnight over two villages on the Lebanese side of the frontier.
The Israeli military said that a surface-to-air missile was launched from Lebanon toward one of its drones.
“In response, the [military] struck the terrorist cell that fired the missile and the launch site,” the military said in a statement, adding that “there was no damage to the [drone]”.
Neither side provided evidence to back up its claims and the Guardian is unable to verify either account.
It was the second time this week that Hezbollah claimed to down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile. Cross-border clashes have escalated since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.
Al Jazeera has spoken to some of the injured who were waiting to cross into Egypt from Gaza.
The Rafah border crossing opened for the first time on Wednesday after more than three weeks to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians needing hospital treatment, as well as hundreds of foreign passport holders.
Saeed Imran, 23, told the broadcaster that he was on his way to his job as a labourer on 10 October when an Israeli air attack struck a building close to him in Khan Younis. He woke up in the hospital, with shrapnel in his head and his right eye.
“I can only see out of my left eye now … I did an operation on my right eye, but the hospital said I needed another one to save my eye and a referral. But the second operation got cancelled because the supplies needed were in a warehouse that Israel bombed.”
Imran was accompanied by his father, Amin, who told Al Jazeera “The situation is very difficult … people, afraid that they will be buried alive in their own homes, are sleeping in the streets. Others queue from 2am until the afternoon just to get a bag of bread at a bakery.”
Amin was turned back at the crossing as he did not have his passport with him. Injured patients required only their identification cards, issued by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera reports. But those travelling with the injured needed their passports to cross.
Of saying goodbye to his family, Imran said “I don’t know whether they will be alive or dead by the time I get back … I just hope life gets better for everyone in Gaza.”
Ben Doherty
A spokesperson for an Australian family of four who managed to escape through Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday said crossing the heavily militarised checkpoint had taken hours and was “nerve-racking”.
The family was “exhausted” and travelling to a hotel in Egypt before their expected repatriation to Australia out of Cairo.
“They are incredibly grateful to the Australian government and to everyone who has assisted and advocated for their evacuation,” the spokesperson said.
The family remains extremely concerned for the lives of their loved ones in Gaza. They have left behind ill, elderly parents, who have run out of essential medication. They have left behind siblings, nieces and nephews who are petrified and want a chance at a normal life in safety. They may never see their family again. Parting with them prior to crossing the border was distressing and something no family should have to endure.”
The spokesperson said the family was asking the Australian government to bring their loved ones to safety as well as other Australian Palestinians.
The family had previously told Guardian Australia they feared they would not survive the bombardment of Israeli airstrikes, one of which destroyed their family’s home.
Australia’s foreign minister confirmed 20 Australian citizens were able to cross the border out of Gaza, along with a permanent resident and two family members.
Officials say there are 65 Australians still stuck in Gaza and that they are being provided with consular assistance.
Main generator at key Gaza hospital ‘out of service’ – reports
The main generator at the Indonesian hospital in Gaza went out of service on Wednesday night, according to the head of the hospital, Dr Atef Al Kahlout, who was speaking to CNN.
Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, said in a televised news conference on Thursday that the main power generator at the hospital was no longer functioning due to lack of fuel.
He said that the hospital was switching to a back-up generator but would no longer be able to power mortuary refrigerators and oxygen generators.
“If we don’t get fuel in the next few days, we will inevitably reach a disaster,” he said.
Since the conflict began, Israel has refused to let humanitarian convoys bring in fuel, citing concern that Hamas fighters would divert it for military purposes.
Last week the Guardian reported that there had been blackouts at the Indonesian hospital after the fuel that powers the generators there had run short.
New images have been released from the site of Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, which was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing 195 people according to Hamas.
Israel says the strikes on both days were targeting senior Hamas officials.
Satellite images from Maxar Technologies and the AP news agency show an overview of the camp before and after the airstrikes.
Rescuers have continued to search through the rubble for survivors. After more than three weeks of intense bombardment of Gaza, it’s become harder for heavy machinery to reach some bomb sites and people on the ground say fuel to operate machines is running out.
The below is an image from the centre of the rescue operation.
At least 195 Palestinians killed in strikes on Jabalia refugee camp – Hamas
At least 195 Palestinians were killed in two rounds of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, a Hamas-run government media office said.
About 120 were still missing under the rubble, and at least 777 more were wounded, the office said in a statement.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it targeted and killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in the strikes on Wednesday.
The IDF said it had targeted the camp on Tuesday to kill Ibrahim Biari – a key Hamas commander linked to the group’s 7 October attack on Israel who, it said, had taken over civilian buildings in Gaza City with his fighters.
On Wednesday the UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on the Jabalia camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes.
Joe Biden has said he expects more Americans to cross from Gaza into Egypt “in the coming days.”
The president said his administration is “working nonstop to get Americans out of Gaza as soon as safely as possible,” after the first US citizens were able to exit through the Rafah crossing on Wednesday,
“I want to thank our partners in the region and particularly Qatar who’ve worked so closely with us to support negotiations to facilitate the departure of these citizens,” he said.
State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the United States has contacted US citizens in Gaza over the past 24 hours to assign them “specific departure dates” to leave through Rafah, the only Gaza crossing not controlled by Israel.
US officials have been saying for weeks that they were seeking to help US citizens leave Gaza and blamed Hamas for delays. Secretary of state Antony Blinken has sought to intervene with Hamas through Qatar, a US partner where the militants maintain an office.
Blinken told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the United States was tracking 400 US citizens and another 600 of their relatives seeking to leave Gaza.
Biden calls for a humanitarian ‘pause’
Joe Biden called for a “pause” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza after he was confronted by a protester calling for a ceasefire at a campaign fundraiser.
Biden was speaking to about 200 people when the protester shouted: “As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now.”
Biden responded: “I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”
The White House later clarified that Biden was referring to the hostages held by Hamas since its 7 October attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.
The White House has previously said it supports a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid deliveries to Gaza and the release of hostages. Biden has thrown his support behind Israel, but he has shifted his response in recent weeks as the humanitarian situation worsens in Gaza and the civilian death toll rises.
The president has faced intensifying pressure from human rights groups, fellow world leaders and even liberal members of his own Democratic Party, who say that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza is collective punishment and that it is time for a ceasefire.
The difference between a ceasefire and pause may seem semantic, but a pause is generally considered less formal and shorter than a ceasefire.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says at least 8,796 Palestinians – including 3,648 children – have been killed by Israeli strikes since the start of the conflict.
Opening and summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas. My name is Jonathan Yerushalmy and I’ll be with you for the next few hours.
Joe Biden has called for a humanitarian “pause” in fighting during a speech in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening. The US president said that a pause means “time to get the prisoners out.” White House officials later clarified he meant hostages and humanitarian aid.
He was speaking after the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the first time during the current conflict to allow the evacuation of some injured Palestinians and foreign nationals.
Here’s a summary of the day’s other main events:
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At least 195 Palestinians were killed in two rounds of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, a Hamas-run government media office said. Israel claims it killed senior Hamas officials both attacks. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, was targeted in Wednesday’s airstrike.
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The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes. The agency said it had “serious concerns” given the “high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction” after the strikes. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the airstrikes were “just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza” and said the world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act”.
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The scale of tragedy in Gaza is “unprecedented”, the commissioner general for the main UN agency in Palestine has said after visiting the besieged territory for the first time since 7 October. Philippe Lazzarini of the UNRWA described his visit to the Gaza Strip as “one of the saddest days in my humanitarian work” and urged a “meaningful” humanitarian response to prevent people in Gaza from dying.
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The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the first time on Wednesday, after more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow.
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The families of some British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, as the Foreign Office said the first UK nationals have made it through. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
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An Australian minister confirmed that 20 Australian nationals had crossed the border at Rafah to exit Gaza on Wednesday. He went on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.
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US citizens were able to exit Gaza on Wednesday as part of the first group of “probably more than 1,000” people, Joe Biden said. The US president said the opening of the Rafah border crossing to wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals came after “intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region”. Some American citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip and their families in the US have launched legal action after weeks of desperate and futile attempts to exit the war zone.
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Fifteen Israeli soldiers have been killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza, in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the IDF in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza. The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.
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The only cancer treatment hospital in Gaza has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference: “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”
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The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities. The UN’s humanitarian office has reported that at least 123 Palestinians, including 34 children, have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.
