Connect with us

Published

on

Israeli troops and tanks launched an hourslong ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several terrorist targets in order to prepare the battlefield ahead of a widely expected ground invasion after more than two weeks of devastating air raids.

The raid came after the UN warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory, which has also been under a complete siege since Hamas bloody rampage across southern Israel ignited the war earlier this month.

The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll, and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

By comparison, 2,251 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the entire six-week-long war in 2014, according to UN figures.

In preparation for the next stages of combat, the IDF operated in northern Gaza.

IDF tanks & infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts.

The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory. pic.twitter.com/oMdSDR84rU— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023

On Wednesday, the wife, son, daughter and grandson of Wael Dahdouh, a veteran Al-Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, were killed in an Israeli strike.

The Qatar-based network showed footage of his grief upon entering a hospital and seeing his dead son. Dahdouh and other mourners attended the funerals on Thursday wearing the blue flak jackets used by reporters in the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli military says it only strikes terrorist targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in densely-populated Gaza. Hamas terrorists have fired rocket barrages into Israel since the war began. 7 Israeli troops and tanks launched an hourslong ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several terrorist targets in order to prepare the battlefield. IDF/X 7 The raid came after the UN warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip.IDF/X

During the overnight raid, soldiers killed fighters and destroyed terrorists infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions, the military said.

It said no Israeli were wounded.

There was no immediate confirmation of any Palestinian casualties.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, said the limited incursion was part of our preparations for the next stages of the war.

Israel also said it had also carried out some 250 airstrikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours, targeting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other terrorist infrastructure. 7 A portion of a building is destroyed during Israel’s raid overnight on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.IDF/X

An airstrike on the southern town of Khan Younis hit a residential building where 75 people were staying, according to family members, including 25 who had fled other parts of Gaza.

Ambulances streamed into the nearby Nasser Hospital, but there was no official word on casualties.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war.

That figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.

The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.

Hamas also holds at least 224 hostages in Gaza. 7 Smoke billows in the air over the northern Gaza Strip on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 26, after a “column of tanks and infantry” launched an overnight raid into Hamas-controlled Gaza.AFP via Getty Images

The warning by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.

Gazas population has also been running out of food, water and medicine.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowded into UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south, saying those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas. 7 People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza strip on Oct. 26, 2023. AFP via Getty Images

In recent days, Israel let more than 60 trucks with aid enter from Egypt, which aid workers say is insufficient and only a tiny fraction of what was being brought in before the war.

Israel is still barring deliveries of fuel needed to power generators saying it believes Hamas will take it.

An official with the International Committee of the Red Cross said it hopes to bring in eight trucks filled with vital medical supplies.

This is a small amount of what is required, a drop in the ocean, said William Schomburg, head of the sub-delegation in Gaza. We are trying to establish a pipeline.

UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment working. 7 Smoke rises from the an Israeli attack in Khan Yunis on Thursday, Oct. 26.AFP via Getty Images

If it continues doing all of that, fuel will run out by Thursday, so the agency is deciding how to ration its supply, UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told The Associated Press.

Do we give for the incubators or the bakeries? she said. It is an excruciating decision.

More than half of Gazas primary health care facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.

At Gaza Citys al-Shifa Hospital, the lack of medicine and clean water have led to alarming infection rates, the group Doctors Without Borders said.

Amputations are often required to prevent infection from spreading in the wounded, it said. see also Israel war 2023 Israel agrees to delay Gaza offensive to allow US missile defense placement

One surgeon with the group described amputating half the foot of a 9-year-old boy with only slight sedation on a hallway floor as his mother and sister watched.

The conflict has also threatened to spread across the region.

The Israeli military said Wednesday it struck military sites in Syria in response to rocket launches from the country.

Syrian state media said eight soldiers were killed and seven wounded.

Strikes in Syria also hit the airports of Aleppo and Damascus, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to terrorist groups, including Lebanons Hezbollah.

Israel has been exchanging near daily fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.

Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks early Thursday caused fires in open land in the southern Lebanon border town of Aita al Shaab, where clashes have intensified, Lebanons state-run news agency said.

It reported strikes late Wednesday on towns in the Tyre district, saying a mattress factory was hit. 7 A tank fires a round after crossing the border into the Gaza Strip during an overnight raid by Israeli forces.IDF/X

Hamas surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel stunned the country with its brutality, its unprecedented toll and the failure of intelligence agencies to know it was coming.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a peech Wednesday night that he will be held accountable, but only after Hamas was defeated.

We will get to the bottom of what happened, he said. This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me.

Continue Reading

Politics

Why Boris’s best mate is off to Reform

Published

on

By

Why Boris's best mate is off to Reform

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈       

Former Conservative chairman and friend of Boris Johnson – Sir Jake Berry – is defecting to Reform UK, causing more problems for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

On today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss if his defection will divide parts of Reform policy.

Elsewhere, the Anglo-French summit gets under way, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hoping to announce a migration deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings.

Plus, chatter around Whitehall that No10 are considering a pre-summer reshuffle, but will it have any value?

Continue Reading

US

Donald Trump praises Liberian president’s English – the country’s official language

Published

on

By

Donald Trump praises Liberian president's English - the country's official language

Donald Trump has praised the Liberian president’s command of English – the West African country’s official language.

The US president reacted with visible surprise to Joseph Boakai’s English-speaking skills during a White House meeting with leaders from the region on Wednesday.

After the Liberian president finished his brief remarks, Mr Trump told him he speaks “such good English” and asked: “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?”

Mr Trump seemed surprised when Mr Boakai laughed and responded he learned in Liberia.

The US president said: “It’s beautiful English.

“I have people at this table who can’t speak nearly as well.”

Mr Boakai did not tell Mr Trump that English is the official language of Liberia.

The country was founded in 1822 with the aim of relocating freed African slaves and freeborn black citizens from the US.

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

Mr Trump promised the leaders of Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau a pivot from aid to trade at the surprise meeting.

He described the countries as “all very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, and great oil deposits, and wonderful people”.

Read more from Sky News:
Gaza permanent ceasefire ‘questionable’, says Israeli official
Four dead and ‘many’ kidnapped after Houthi rebels sink ship

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Later asked by a reporter if he’ll visit the continent, Mr Trump said, “At some point, I would like to go to Africa.”

But he added that he’d “have to see what the schedule looks like”.

Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, promised to go to Africa in 2023, but only fulfilled the commitment by visiting Angola in December 2024, just weeks before he left office.

Continue Reading

US

Gaza permanent ceasefire ‘questionable’, says Israeli government

Published

on

By

Gaza permanent ceasefire 'questionable', says Israeli government

The Israeli government believes the chances of achieving a permanent ceasefire in Gaza are “questionable”.

The pessimistic assessment, in a top-level Israeli government briefing given to Sky News, comes as the Israeli Prime Minister prepares to leave Washington DC after a four-day visit which had begun with the expectation of a ceasefire announcement.

Benjamin Netanyahu will leave the US later today with the prospect of even a temporary 60-day ceasefire looking extremely unlikely this week.

Within “a week, two weeks – not a day” is how it was framed in the background briefing late on Wednesday.

Crucially, though, on the chances of the ceasefire lasting beyond 60 days, the framing from the briefing was even less optimistic: “We will begin negotiations on a permanent settlement. But we achieve it? It’s questionable, but Hamas will not be there.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Netanyahu arrives in US for ceasefire talks

Sky News has spoken to several Israeli officials at the top level of the government. None will be drawn on any of the details of the negotiations over concerns that public disclosure could jeopardise their chances of success.

But I have been given a very clear understanding of Mr Netanyahu’s thinking.

More on Israel

The Israeli position is that a permanent ceasefire (beyond the initial 60 days, which itself is yet to be agreed) is only possible if Hamas lays down its arms. “If they don’t, we’ll proceed [with the war],” said a source.

The major sticking point in the talks between Hamas and Israel is the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.

The latest Israeli proposal, passed to Hamas last week, included a map showing the proposed IDF presence inside Gaza during the ceasefire.

Read more: What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal?

Israeli military vehicles stand near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

This was rejected by Hamas and by Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who reportedly told the Israelis that the redeployment map “looks like a Smotrich plan”, a reference to the extreme-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

My briefing of Mr Netanyahu’s position is that he has not shifted in terms of Israel’s central stated war aims. The return of the hostages and eliminating Hamas are the key objectives.

But in a hint of how hard it will be to reconcile the differences, it was clear from my briefing that no permanent ceasefire is possible in the Israeli government’s view without the complete removal of Hamas as a political and military entity.

Hamas is not likely to negotiate its way to oblivion.

On the status of the Israeli military inside Gaza, a senior Israeli official told Sky News: “We would want IDF in every square metre of Gaza, and then hand it over to someone.”

Smoke rises in Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

It was clear to me that Mr Netanyahu wants his stated position to be that his government has no territorial ambition for Gaza.

One quote to come from my briefing, which I am only able to attribute to a senior Israeli official, says: “[We] don’t want to govern Gaza… don’t want to govern, but the first thing is, you have to defeat Hamas.”

Another clear indication of Mr Netanyahu’s position – a quote from the briefing, attributable only to a senior Israeli official: “You cannot have victory if you don’t clear out all the fighting forces.

“You have to go into every square inch unless you are not serious about victory. I am. We are going to defeat them. Those who do not disarm will die. Those who disarm will have a life.”

On the future of Gaza, it’s clear from my briefings that Mr Netanyahu continues to rule out the possibility of a two-state solution “for the foreseeable future”.

The Israeli government assessment is that the Palestinians are not going to have a state “as long as they cling to that idea of destroying our state”.

Read more:
UN Special Rapporteur criticises Israel
Why Netanyahu only wants a 60-day ceasefire
Trump applying ‘heavy pressure’ on Netanyahu

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

On the most controversial aspect of the Gaza conflict – the movement of the population – the briefing revealed that Mr Netanyahu’s view is that 60% of Palestinians would “choose to leave” but that Israel would allow them to return once Hamas had been eliminated.

“It’s not forcible eviction, it’s not permanent eviction,” a senior Israeli official said.

Critics of Israel’s war in Gaza say that any removal of Palestinians from Gaza, even if given the appearance of being “voluntary”, is in fact anything but, because the strip has been so comprehensively flattened.

Reacting to Israeli Defence Minister Katz’s recent statement revealing a plan to move Palestinians into a “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza, and not let them out of that area, the official wouldn’t be drawn, except to say: “As a permanent arrangement? Of course not.”

Continue Reading

Trending