Update: Death toll rises in shelling of Deir el-Balah home

The media office of Israel’s interior ministry has updated the death toll of the earlier attack on a home in Deir el-Balah to at least 20.

Spain says Israel must remain ‘within limits of international law’

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has warned that international law prohibits the type of large-scale evacuation Israel has ordered in the Gaza Strip.

“Israel has the right to defend itself but always within the limits of international humanitarian law, which does not authorise the evacuation of Palestinians from Gaza, as the United Nations says,” Sanchez said during a gathering of his Socialist Party in the southwestern city of Merida.

Arabs reject mass displacement of Palestinians: PLO

Hussein AlSheikh, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, says there is an “Arab consensus” on the “categorical rejection of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland”.

Palestinians and their neighbours fear a repeat of the mass exodus of 1948, in what is known as the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when the state of Israel was created.

‘Loss of civilian life must be stopped’: Turkey rejects exile of Palestinians

Turkey says it stands with Egypt in rejecting the exile of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in Israel’s war with Hamas.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the statement at a press conference alongside his counterpart in Cairo. Fidan said it is important to stop the conflict from spreading and re-start peace talks centred on achieving a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

“We reject the policy of Palestinians’ being removed from their homes in Gaza and exiled into Egypt. We are fully against it and stand with Egypt,” Fidan said.

“The loss of civilian life must be stopped regardless of which side they’re on. We see some states try to justify Israel’s attacks on Gaza as some sort of justifiable act. We invite Israel to stick to international law and humanitarian values.”

Turkey has long had contacts with Hamas but has also worked to repair ties with Israel after years of acrimony.

Germany’s Scholz says important to avoid Hezbollah intervention

Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, has held a phone conversation with Netanyahu during which he reiterated that his country “stands unwaveringly at Israel’s side”, according to a spokesperson.

The two also agreed it was important to avoid a wider war in the region as well as Hezbollah’s intervention in the conflict, the spokesperson said.

There have been several bouts of cross-border exchange of fire between the Lebanese group and Israeli forces since Hamas’s attack last week.

‘I’m starting my day with the first air strike in the morning’: Gaza doctor

Omar Najjar, a 24-year doctor at the Al-Nasser complex in Khan Younis, has described to Al Jazeera a day in the life of medical workers in Gaza:

“I’m starting my day with the first air strike in the morning. We run to the emergency room and we are directly managing the patients. Many times we are asking if those patients are our relatives. Many times we can see our close friends, close members of our family in the emergency room.

“Here in the hospital we have been officially informed by managers … that we will totally run out of electricity completely within 48 hours or maybe less. Everyday I’m going to stitch some patients, I can’t find the stitches, I can’t find the gauze. There are more than 30,000 people who are also taking this hospital as home [shelter], so this also may be a barrier for our work inside the hospital.

“I can’t describe what we are feeling. I have lived here in Gaza for four wars, but this is the worst war. We can’t find minutes or seconds to sit and take a rest. I did not take breakfast or anything, even lunch. So to the whole world: Please stop this war.”

Ground invasion of Gaza expected soon

By Stefanie Dekker in southern Israel


We’ve been witnessing heavy bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip the last couple of hours.

It’s impossible to call out when the Israeli army is going to go in, but the feeling is certainly that they are in position – that it is going to be soon.

Iran: Israel must stop ‘war crimes’ before it’s ‘too late’

Iran demanded that Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning the war could expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, adding Israel may suffer “a huge earthquake” .

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian 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 immediately.

Amir-Abdollahian said he met Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

“I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place. Any step the resistance [Hezbollah] will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity,” he said.

“I want to warn the war criminals and those who support this entity before it’s too late to stop the crimes against civilians in Gaza, because it might be too late in few hours.”

Hamas chief says Palestinians will ‘never leave Gaza’

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has just begun a televised address, accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.

“Our enemy is doing this with the US administration and some European countries,” he said.

“The people of Gaza are staying in their land. They will never leave Gaza or flee [to Egypt],” he added.

“I salute the people of Gaza who are facing the barbaric machine of the Zionist machine. They are committed to their lands.”

Hamas defiant in face of imminent Israel attack on Gaza

More from Haniyeh.

“Hamas has always been keen not to target civilians despite everything done by the Zionist regime.”

“Hamas is a freedom movement that adhere to these ethics.”

UN aid chief says ‘humanity is failing’

Martin Griffiths, in his latest statement on the conflict, reflected on a “dreadful week” in which “humanity is failing”.

“I fear the worst is yet come,” he said, adding in Gaza, there is “no power, no water and no fuel”, food supplies were running low, hospitals are “running our medicine”, and “morgues are overflowing”.

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza, already critical, is fast becoming untenable,” he said.

He also warned of rising violence in the West Bank and the risk of escalation between Israel and Lebanon.

Photos: Palestinians rushed to Deir el-Balah hospital following Israeli air strike

Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes on Deir el-Balah City have been taken to al-Aqsa hospital.

At least 20 people were killed by Israeli shelling of a home in the area in the Gaza Strip, according to the interior ministry.

Two civilians killed in Israel shelling of Lebanese village: Mayor

Israeli shelling in the southern village of Shebaa has killed two Lebanese civilians.

“A man and his wife have been killed in their home by Israeli shelling,” Mayor Mohammad Harb was quoted as saying.

The deaths come one day after Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed one journalist wounded six others.

Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon on a near-daily basis since Sunday, although the tit-for-tat attacks have so far remained limited.

Palestinian teen in occupied West Bank succumbs to wounds

A Palestinian teenager succumbed to wounds sustained on Sunday, the health ministry says.

Mohammed Edwan, 16, was shot by Israeli forces in Tulkarem, northwest in the occupied West Bank.

More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7 as Israeli army and settler violence intensifies.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced earlier this week that 10,000 assault rifles will be distributed to those living in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s army says preparing operation by ‘air, sea and land’

Israel’s military has said it is “preparing to expand the attack” in Gaza, hinting at a long-expected land incursion into the enclave.

In a statement, the military said it was planning a wide range of offensive operations, including “coordinated attack from the air, sea and land”.

“Various battalions and army forces are deployed throughout Israel in preparation for raising the level of readiness and in preparation for the next stages of the war, especially the large ground operation,” the military said.