Israel-Hamas war : Gaza death toll rises to 2,215 including 724 children: ministry

NEW DELHI,OCTO 14: Air India and SpiceJet will operate one flight each to Tel Aviv on Saturday to bring back Indians amid escalating tensions due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to officials.

These chartered flights will be operated under Operation Ajay, which the government has launched to facilitate the return of those who wish to come back from Israel.

Tributes pouring in for journalist killed in LebanonTributes are pouring in for Issam Abdallah, a video journalist for the Reuters news agency who was killed on Friday in southern Lebanon, amid escalating violence along the country’s border with Israel, reports BBC.

Abdallah, who was working near the Israel-Lebanon border, was killed in a cross fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.

Six other journalists including from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera were wounded in the Israeli air strike. “The teams were filming missile fire coming from the direction of Israel when one struck Abdallah as he was sitting on a low stone wall near the rest of the group,” Reuters reported citing injured journalist Maher Nazeh.

Abdallah’s funeral will be held later today in south-east Lebanon.

Earlier today, Israel defence forces Spokesperson Richard Hecht said, the Israeli army was “deeply regretful for the incident.”

Israel, Egypt agree to let US citizens leave Gaza Saturday: US

Egypt and Israel have agreed to let US citizens leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Saturday as Israel carries out strikes against Hamas, a US official said.

The two US partners agreed to keep the sole crossing from Gaza to Egypt open from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm (0900-1400 GMT), said a US official accompanying Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a regional tour.

The official said that the United States did not yet have confirmation that the agreement was being implemented, “but the intention was to have it open.”

Iran’s foreign minister calls on Israel to stop attack on Gaza

Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.”

Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible.

Gaza death toll rises to 2,215 including 724 children: ministry

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel one week ago have killed at least 2,215 people, including 724 children, the Palestinian territory’s Hamas-controlled health ministry said Saturday.

Some 458 women were among those killed, the ministry said. It added that 8,714 people have also been wounded, after an earlier statement said at least 324 people were killed in the past 24 hours alone.

Israel strikes kill at least 324 in Gaza in past 24 hours: ministry

According to the health ministry in Gaza, more than 320 Palestinians, including women and children have been killed in the past 24 hours in the Israeli air strikes.

The ministry also informed that 1000 others have been wounded in the air strikes.

WHO plane with medical supplies for Gaza lands in Egypt

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, World Health Organization chief Tedros Aldhanom Ghebreyesus stated that an aircraft with medical supplies to support the urgent health needs in Gaza has landed in Egypt’s Al Arish- close to the Rafah crossing.

He added that the supplies are ready to be deployed to Gaza as soon as humanitarian access through the crossing is established.

More than 1,300 buildings destroyed in Gaza: UN

More than 1,300 buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, the United Nations said Saturday, after nearly a week of fierce bombardment by Israeli forces.

The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said “5,540 housing units” in those buildings were destroyed and nearly 3,750 more homes were so badly damaged they were uninhabitable.

Gaza evacuation a war crime, says former Norwegian diplomat Egeland

Jan Egeland, former Norwegian diplomat who has previously facilitated talks between the Palestine and Israel, told BBC radio 4 that Israel’s evacuation order for Gaza is a forced one, and considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

He also added that the scale of the crisis in gaza has not yet been fully grasped by the West.

“The UK, US and EU have rightfully said we’re with Israel in fighting terror,” Egeland adds. ” I hope they haven’t given a green light to smash a million children,” reported BBC quoting Egeland.

IDF asks civilians to head south before 4 pm local time

Israel military told the civilians from northern Gaza to head south by 4 pm local time (6.30 pm IST).

In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Israel defence Force spokesman Avichay Adraee asked Gazans to use two specific routes to head south. The statement says people can use the two routes between 10 am and 4 pm local time (6.30 pm IST) without any harm.

Civilians from gaza has been advised to move south from Beit Hanoun to Khan Yunis, ahead of a potential ground offensive by the Israeli army.

Israel strike kills senior Hamas military commander: army

A senior military commander of Hamas who headed the Islamist group’s aerial operations in Gaza City has been killed in Israeli air strikes, the military said Saturday.

Murad Abu Murad was killed over the past day when fighter jets struck an operational centre of Hamas from where the group carried out its “aerial activity”, the military said. There was no immediate confirmationfrom Hamas.

Israel army recovers bodies of missing people from Gaza in ground raid

Reports from media say Israel military recovered bodies of missing israelis during ground raid in Gaza.

According to reports by Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post, the Israel Defence Forces are bringing back the bodies to Israeli territory. Infantry and armoured units took part in the raid during which a Hamas cell which fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli territory was “taken out”, the Jerusalem Post reported.

International aid groups warn humanitarian crisis after Israel blocked entry of supplies

More than a million people in the northern Gaza Strip have been ordered to evacuate to the south as the latest Israel-Hamas war entered its seventh day Friday and Israel appeared to be preparing a ground offensive. Hamas urged residents to stay put.

The orders sent panic through civilians and aid workers already struggling under Israeli airstrikes and a blockade of the Hamas-ruled area. International aid groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis after Israel prevented the entry of supplies from Egypt to Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

In the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, India had launched ‘Operation Ajay’ to facilitate the return of those Indians who wished to come back home. The first flight bringing 212 Indian nationals back from Israel successfully landed at Delhi Airport on Friday among which 21 (including 14 male students and two female students) were from Tamil Nadu.

A second flight carrying 235 Indian citizens arrives in New Delhi

Reuters journalist dead, AFP reporters among 6 wounded in south Lebanon

A Reuters journalist was killed Friday and six others from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera were wounded while working in southern Lebanon, the three news organisations said.

A group of journalists from different media outlets was near the village of Alma al-Shaab, close to the border with Israel, when they were caught up in cross-border shelling, one of the two wounded AFP correspondents said.

A Lebanese security source had told AFP that initial Israeli shelling followed an infiltration attempt by a Palestinian faction from the Lebanese side of the border.

AFP photographer Christina Assi and AFP video journalist Dylan Collins were working in the area. Both were taken to a hospital in Tyre for treatment.

Two other Reuters reporters, “Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh also sustained injuries and are seeking medical care,” Reuters said, adding it was “urgently seeking more information”.

Al Jazeera said two of their reporters were among the wounded, blaming “Israeli bombing on their vehicle”. They named them as Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Brakhya.

Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms

Thousands of Palestinians fled to southern Gaza in search of refuge Friday after Israel warned them to evacuate before an expected ground offensive against Hamas in retaliation for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

“Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, as she broke into heaving sobs.

The mass exodus comes after Israel’s military told over 1.1 million people to evacuate towards the southern part of the besieged territory, ahead of a feared Israeli ground offensive. Many Palestinians in Gaza still struggled with indecision, not knowing whether to leave or stay.

However, the Palestinian militant group Hamas urged residents to “remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm” against Israel.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the order would have “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

Nearly 1,800 Gazans — again most of them civilians and including over 580 children — have been killed in waves of missile strikes on the densely populated enclave, the health ministry said.

At least 423,000 people — nearly one in five Gazans — have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, the UN said on Thursday.

Suffering in Gaza has been rising dramatically with Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine and the territory’s only power plant shut down for lack of fuel. The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.

The current conflict has already claimed thousands of lives on both sides.

The immediate trigger was Hamas firing thousands of rockets and sending fighters — through land, air and sea — into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip during a major Jewish holiday (Simchat Torah) on October 7 in a deadly, surprise offensive branded “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”.

Israel has been responding to Saturday’s attack with a massive bombardment of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas.

The conflict is expected to continue to escalate.

-The New Indian Express