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Israeli infantry and tanks have carried out “localised raids” in Gaza – the first hint at a shift to ground assaults.

The small raids were carried out to attack Hamas rocket crews and seek information on the location of hostages taken by Palestinian gunmen last Saturday, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

It is the first time the Israeli military has stated ground troops have been operating inside the besieged strip, entering the territory to battle Hamas fighters and destroy weapons as well as search for evidence about the captives.

Early on Saturday morning, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said more than 120 civilians were being held hostage by Hamas inside the Gaza Strip.

Israeli media reported remains of people who had gone missing in last week’s attack had been found during the IDF raids.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, armed forces entered an enclave where it is thought up to 200 people were being held hostage by Hamas, and retrieved the bodies of several people.

Shortly after the announcement, Hamas said 70 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on convoys fleeing Gaza City.

The cars were struck in three places as they headed south from the city, it said.

The Israeli Defence Force has ordered 1.1 million people currently north of the Wadi Gaza bridge to move south
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The Israeli Defence Force ordered 1.1 million people currently north of the Wadi Gaza bridge to move south

Follow live: Gazans told ‘go south if you want to live’

It was not immediately clear who the target of the airstrikes was, or whether militants were among the passengers.

Israel said fighter jets had continued to carry out wide-scale attacks against Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians began a mass exodus in the north of Gaza after Israel’s military warned more than a million people to evacuate to the southern part of the territory across the Wadi Gaza – a piece of coastal wetland with a river running through the middle – to “save their lives”.

Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel. Pic: AP
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Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel. Pic: AP

Israel has issued a statement in Arabic, offering safe movement for Gazans on two main roads.

Early on Saturday, Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said: “We have seen a significant movement of Palestinian civilians towards the south.

“Around the Gaza Strip, Israeli reserve soldiers in formation (are) getting ready for the next stage of operations.

“They are all around the Gaza Strip, in the south, in the centre and in the north, and they are preparing themselves for whatever target they get, whatever task.”

Hamas militants have vowed to fight and told residents to stay, urging them “not to fall” for “fake propaganda”.

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Gaza streets reduced to rubble

For nearly a week, Israel’s military has been launching retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza targeting Hamas since the ruling Palestinian militant group stormed the border last weekend, killing hundreds of Israelis in their homes – as well as 260 others at a music festival.

The Palestinian health ministry said 1,900 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, including hundreds of women and children, and more than 7,600 people were injured.

Israel said a total of 1,300 of its people have been killed since Saturday’s surprise raid as its troops continue to mass along the barbed wire fence ahead of a possible ground offensive on Gaza, with 300,000 reservists called up.

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Israel: ‘We are escalating’

Meanwhile, the United Nations has said it was “impossible” for Palestinians to move to the south of Gaza within the 24-hour deadline set, which passed on Saturday at 3am UK time.

A map showing the evacuation zone of northern Gaza down to the Wadi Gaza.
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A map showing the evacuation area of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, down to the Wadi Gaza

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency has warned Gaza was becoming a “hell hole” and was on the “brink of collapse”.

In other key developments:
• It’s “highly likely” Britons among hostages
• Israel denies claims it used white phosphorous as a weapon in Gaza and Lebanon
Protests around the world show support for Palestinians
• Humza Yousaf’s mother-in-law shares tearful plea from Gaza

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Yousaf tearful over family in Gaza

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences”.

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The IDF said “this evacuation is for your own safety”, but in response, Hamas has called the warning “fake propaganda” and urged Palestinians “not to fall for it”.

The UN has appealed for the order to be rescinded to avoid turning “what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation”.

Read more on this story:
Why Israel is braced for Hezbollah attack from Lebanon
How negotiators will be working to free Hamas hostages

Palestinians evacuate a wounded youth after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
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A wounded Palestinian youth is rescued after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Pic: AP

The World Health Organisation has also called for the order to be immediately reversed to protect health and reduce suffering.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman on Friday he “rejects the forced displacement” of Palestinians in Gaza.

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Landmark moment as the return of Trump stuns UK into action on defence

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Landmark moment as the return of Trump stuns UK into action on defence

This is the moment the government finally woke up to the enormity of the threat faced by the UK and the inability of its hollowed-out armed forces to cope.

But make no mistake, today’s decision to increase military spending is not just about increasing the number of troops, warships and fighter jets or even ensuring they can use the latest drones, satellites or artificial intelligence breakthroughs.

This is an emergency that requires the entire nation to take responsibility for – or at least an interest in – the defence of the nation and the importance of being able to deter threats.

Politics latest: PM makes defence commitment

Sir Keir Starmer signalled this fundamental shift in priorities when he told parliament: “We must change our national security posture because a generational challenge requires a generational response that will demand some extremely difficult and painful choices.”

He continued: “And through those choices, as hard as they are, we must also seek unity. A whole society effort that will reach into the lives, the industries, and the homes of the British people.”

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Starmer announces defence spending hike

Such a proposal is not something new.

The UK has a long history of being prepared for war.

The entirety of the Cold War era was framed around ensuring the UK had enough troops and reservists to fight a sustained conflict, supported by a vast industrial base to produce weapons and a society that was intrinsically resilient, with the ability to sustain itself with emergency food rations, power supplies and an understanding of the need to be prepared to respond in an emergency.

Back then, the threat was war – maybe even nuclear annihilation – with the Soviet Union.

Today the threat is just as stark but also far more complex.

Russia is the immediate danger. But China poses a long-term challenge, while Iran and North Korea are also menacing adversaries.

Most fundamentally though is the change in the UK’s ability to rely squarely on its strongest ally, the United States.

Donald Trump, with his resentment of shouldering the responsibility for European security, has made clear the rest of the transatlantic NATO alliance must take much more of the share of defending themselves.

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‘The world is becoming more dangerous’

He has also signalled that he may not even be willing to deploy America’s powerful military to defend every single member state – singling out those who pay far too little on their defences.

He has a point when it comes to Europe freeloading on the might of the United States for too long.

But the suggestion that European allies can no longer automatically rely on their American partner to come to their aid is enough to call into question the value of Article 5 of the NATO Alliance, which states an attack on one is an attack on all.

When it comes to deterring foes, there must be no such uncertainty between friends.

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Sanctions have changed European imports

Soldiers from 5 Scots during training at West Freugh Airfield as they take part in Exercise Joint Warrior, which sees warships, submarines and aircraft take to the west coast of Scotland for a two-week training exercise. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date, Monday April 16, 2012. The exercise is held twice a year to prepare forces from the UK, US, Denmark, Norway, France, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands for events and active service. See PA story DEFENCE Exercise. Photo credit should read:
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File pic: PA

It is why countries across Europe are being urged by the new head of NATO to rapidly ramp up defence spending and adopt what NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called a “war mindset”.

The UK, who along with France are the only two NATO powers in Europe to possess nuclear weapons, has a bigger responsibility than most to heed that call.

Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 was not a sufficient enough alarm bell.

Eve Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022 failed to shake the UK and most of the rest of Europe from their slumber.

Instead, it seems the return of Donald Trump to the White House, with all the unpredictability that he brings, is the final shock that has stunned the UK into action.

Of course, defence insiders know that increasing spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 is not soon enough.

But this – coupled with Sir Keir’s language about the need for a “generational response” – is a landmark moment.

The beginning of the correction of a strategic mistake made by Labour and Conservative governments over years to take a “holiday from history” and fail to find credible, capable armed forces and ensure society understands the importance of defence and the ability to deter.

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Mystery illness kills more than 50 people in Democratic Republic of Congo

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Mystery illness kills more than 50 people in Democratic Republic of Congo

An unknown disease has killed more than 50 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to doctors.

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Africa office said the first outbreak was discovered in the town of Boloko, in the northwest of the country.

It is reported that three children ate a bat and died following haemorrhagic fever symptoms.

The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases.

“That’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre, told the news agency, The Associated Press.

Map showing the location of an unknown illness which has killed over 50 people in part of Congo
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An outbreak was reported in Boloko in January followed by more cases in Bomate in February

The outbreak began on 21 January and 419 cases have been recorded including 53 deaths.

There was a second outbreak of the mystery illness in the town of Bomate on 9 February.

Samples from 13 cases have been sent for testing to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, the WHO said.

All samples have been negative for Ebola or other common haemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg. Some tested positive for malaria.

Last year, another mystery flu-like illness which killed dozens of people in another part of Congo was considered likely to be malaria.

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Scientists have had concerns for a long time about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are eaten.

The number of these types of outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022.

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‘Misunderstanding’ in arrest of British couple in Afghanistan, Taliban says

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'Misunderstanding' in arrest of British couple in Afghanistan, Taliban says

The arrest of a British couple in Afghanistan was over a “misunderstanding”, the Taliban has said.

Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife Barbie, 75, were detained by the Taliban’s interior ministry on 1 February.

The reason for their arrests was immediately unknown.

But the Taliban said on Tuesday that the couple were detained due to a “misunderstanding” that they had fake Afghan passports.

The four adult children of the couple said last week that their parents were married in Kabul in 1970 and have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years – remaining after the withdrawal of Western troops and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

The couple runs an organisation named Rebuild, which provides education and training programmes for businesses, government agencies, educational organisations and nongovernmental groups.

Mr and Mrs Reynolds, who are also Afghan citizens, allegedly texted their children after their arrests saying they did not want Western authorities to get involved.

Read more from Sky News:
NHS England chief to step down
Mystery illness kills more than 50 people

In a letter to the Taliban, their children wrote: “Our parents have consistently expressed their commitment to Afghanistan, stating that they would rather sacrifice their lives than become part of ransom negotiations or be traded.

“We trust that this is not your intention, as we are instructed to respect their wishes to remain with you.”

The Taliban have released no further details nor confirmed if the couple have now been released.

On Monday, the BBC reported the Taliban as saying they would “endeavour” to release the couple “as soon as possible”.

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