Israel-Hamas war updates: Gaza under ‘total blockade’, refugee camp hit

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to “change the Middle East” in the country’s war with Hamas.

“What Hamas will experience will be difficult and terrible … we are going to change the Middle East,” the 73-year-old leader told officials from southern Israel.

“This is only the beginning … we are all with you and we will defeat them with force, enormous force.”

As reports of tensions at the Lebanese-Israeli border intensify, Palestinian groups in Lebanon say they are eager to start a new front against Israel if Hezbollah leads the charge.

While the prospect of Lebanon joining the conflict is a very realistic possibility, if it does so, it would drag the region into a catastrophic war.

Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center said: “I think the Israeli response [to any attack from Lebanon] would be of a different magnitude.”

Read more about the readiness to fight from Palestinians in Lebanon.

To Sultan Barakat, director of the Global Institute for Strategic Research at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, Hamas’s operation happened at an “opportune moment”.

Barakat explained that the group “saw a very dysfunctional government led by Netanyahu and the extreme right [who] misled the Israelis, I think, in pushing towards the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He received many, many warnings about the attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, but still, they pushed ahead with that, and instead of retreating or changing the direction around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they brought their security forces from the south to protect the settlement in the north.”

He added that it was a combination of these factors that prompted Hamas to act.

The Israeli army has issued a statement on social media saying it has hit targets in southern Lebanon using helicopter gunships.

Separately, the United Nations Interim Force in Southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it detected explosions near al-Boustan in southwest Lebanon.

“UNIFIL Head & Force Commander Maj Gen Lazaro is in contact with the involved parties, urging them to exercise maximum restraint and utilise UNIFIL’s liaison and coordination mechanisms to prevent further escalation and loss of life,” the UN force posted on X.

Some social media users have criticised Western leaders’ statements about Israel’s “right to defend itself”, saying they highlight a double standard.

Ukraine’s resistance is praised by most international leaders while Russia’s invasion is condemned, but commentators said the same cannot be said about Israel’s 56-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Read our story here.

It’s past 16:00 GMT, and here’s a quick recap of the most significant developments from the conflict in the past few hours:

• Israel announced a “total blockade” on Gaza, including a ban on water and food, as part of its retaliatory measures after Hamas’s attacks.
• Gaza’s heavy bombardment continued as fears of an Israeli ground operation grew.
• Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, called for a return to a “two-state solution” as the only way to resolve the conflict.
• Israel said armed fighters who attempted to infiltrate the country via Lebanon were killed.
• The European Union has paused aid payments to Palestine until further notice.
• Foreign ministers from the Arab League said they will meet on Wednesday to discuss “Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip”.
• The United States said nine Americans were included in the death toll in Israel.

Our correspondent Charles Stratford, reporting from the Israeli town of Netivot, about 3km (1.86 miles) away from Gaza, says there is a “massive build-up” of troops in southern Israel.

“Heavy weaponry is being brought into this area,” he added. “You can see armoured personnel carriers, designed to bring troop infantry into battle. We have also seen tanks … and self-propelled mobile artillery pieces and cannons.”

“Israeli troops are being brought on trucks, what can only be described as specialised lightweight small vehicles, implying that some form of ground invasion was imminent,” he reported.

Moreover, Stratford said, there were continuous sorties being made by fighter jets flying towards Gaza, “dropping their bombs, returning and going around again”.

A barrage of rockets being fired from Gaza was also ongoing, he added.

Saturday’s surprise attack by Hamas has left Israelis in shock, outraged at a government many feel failed to protect them – but analysts say the political fallout will have to wait as the army wages war in Gaza.

You can read the full article here.

Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday to discuss “Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip”, the regional bloc announces.

The “extraordinary meeting” in Cairo will seek to find “avenues of political action at the Arab and international level” as Israel pounds Gaza, Arab League deputy chief Hossam Zaki said in a statement.

After Israel says it will impose a “total blockade” on the besieged Gaza Strip, Tamara al-Rifai, spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), says food and other essential items have been pre-positioned at UN schools and shelters.

More than 120,000 people have been forced from their homes in the past three days during the heavy Israeli bombardment.

“We’re able to receive up to 150,000 displaced people into our current structure. We’re going to assess how long we can receive them for, give them food and other items we currently have,” she said.

Al-Rifai added, however, that the 16-year-long blockade on Gaza has limited UNRWA’s access to fuel and food.

At least 250 people have been killed at a techno music festival in Israel near the Gaza Strip after the launch of Hamas’s offensive on Saturday, according to rescue workers.

Watch our video report below:

Have a listen to the latest episode from our podcast The Take, in which Al Jazeera journalists in both Gaza and southern Israel report on these unprecedented events.

Ten Palestinians have been wounded in the occupied West Bank by live Israeli ammunition, the Palestinian Red Crescent says.

Five Palestinians were shot by Israeli forces near the Beit El checkpoint close to Ramallah. Live rounds were shot at young men, paramedics and journalists, witnesses said.

Five others were also shot with live rounds in Beit Umar near Hebron.

The Lebanon-Israel border has become an “active borderline” after reports from the Israeli military that armed infiltrators had entered the country from Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr says while reporting from southern Lebanon.

As shelling sounded in the distance, she said: “We’re getting reports that shells were launched from southern Lebanon into northern Israel [and of] Israel responding so, undoubtedly, an escalation along one of the most volatile borders in the region.”

Khodr added that it is a “very tense situation” and that “these are yet more messages, more pressure on the Israeli army, telling them that if you continue your campaign against Gaza, then expect to face pressure from other fronts”.

Israel’s defence minister has called Palestinians in Gaza “human animals”as he announced a full siege on the coastal enclave.

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Yoav Gallant said.

“We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”

A US Department of State spokesman has confirmed the deaths of at least nine Americans amid the ongoing fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Speaking to US media outlet CNN, Matthew Miller said Washington expected further deaths of US citizens to be confirmed.

The European Commission is putting its full portfolio of development aid to Palestinians, worth 691 million euros ($729m), under review.

“The scale of terror and brutality against Israel and its people is a turning point,” EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said in a post on social media platform X.

“There can be no business as usual,” Varhelyi said.

The decision means that payments are immediately suspended, projects put under review and new budget proposals postponed until further notice, he added.

The scale of terror and brutality against #Israel and its people is a turning point.
 
There can be no business as usual.
 
As the biggest donor of the Palestinians, the European Commission is putting its full development portfolio under review, worth a total of EUR 691m
⤵️

— Oliver Varhelyi (@OliverVarhelyi) October 9, 2023

People in Israel are still searching for missing relatives who were present at a techno music festival on Saturday in the Negev desert near the Gaza fence, during which an attack by Hamas fighters killed at least 250 people.

“I don’t know if my daughter is lying somewhere bleeding, I don’t know if they took her to Gaza, I don’t know if she is suffering,” Ahuwa Maizel told the dpa news agency.

The last time Maizel spoke to her daughter Adi was on Saturday morning, she told dpa.

“There is a massacre here, they are causing a massacre, hundreds of terrorists are shooting,” Adi told Maizel during their brief conversation.

“If someone is holding her captive, please, please, stay human. We all have the same DNA, we are all just human,” Maizel said.

As Israeli attacks intensify in Gaza, Palestinians are forced to flee their homes and take refuge in United Nations schools and shelters – but many of these places are reaching capacity.

Al Jazeera’s Youmna ElSayed, reporting from Gaza, explained: “My family now are, with all the families in their building, in the basement. So in all buildings that have a basement there are [families] staying there, that’s the safest they can get to.”