RT News - October 26 2023 LATE

Numbers update: The death toll from Israeli retaliatory strikes in Gaza has reached 7,028, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave announced. 2,913 children were among the dead, 1,709 women and 397 elderly. Day 20 (latest updates as they happened below)

Disturbing images in video

Airstrikes/attacks/bombings by Israel have continued. In Khan Yunis the locals say the bombings are like and earthquake. Hamza Chalan reports. Updates from Iran, Yusef Jalali reports. Updates from Israel, Maria Finoshina reports.

Clashes on the Lebanon/Israel borders have created large wild-fires. Yasin Eken reports.

Eunan speaks to Amb. Mohhamed El Shazly (Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs) about Egypt's position in the conflict. The Egyptians are very annoyed that the humanitarian aid (hundreds of trucks) are being prevented entry to Gaza by the Israelis.

US Sec of State Tony Blinken has asked Al Jazeera to "tone down" it's news reportage! Earlier, a member of the Israeli government said that reporters must only cover the side of the Israelis, otherwise it casts Israel in a bad light. (and he says he knows this as he was a reporter for most of his life! - I'm lost for words.... please see video at https://rumble.com/v3rrqzg-hostages-comments-benefit-hamas-israeli-diplomat.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&ep=2 )
Nidal Kabalan - former Syrian Amb. to Turkiye comments from Damascus.
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Short take : Dozens are reported killed in recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, as the Palestinian death toll surpasses seven-thousand according to the Gazan health ministry. Israel says its hit more than 250 Hamas targets over the past 24 hours as IDF troops look increasingly set to invade the Gaza Strip. A top Iranian commander says the US is directly responsible for the relentless Israeli bombing of Gaza.
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stop press (as the day unfolded) 26 October 2023
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14:26 GMT
A Hamas representative has announced that approximately 50 hostages in Gaza have lost their lives due to Israeli airstrikes. Earlier in the day, the Israeli military reported that the number of individuals who were confirmed to be in captivity in Gaza following the cross-border raids by Hamas on October 7 had reached 224 and could potentially increase.

14:01 GMT
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas has arrived in Moscow for negotiations. RIA-Novosti news agency reported earlier that the delegation was headed by a member of Hamas’ political bureau, Moussa Mohammed Abu Marzouk.

13:46 GMT
Seven people were injured after an IDF drone fell on the balcony of a home in the northern Israeli city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, not far from the country’s border with Lebanon, the Galilee Hospital has said. According to the hospital, its doctors tended to five adults and two children, aged 5 and 11, who suffered smoke inhalation and acute anxiety. Six patients have already been sent home, while a 66-year-old man had to be left at the facility for further treatment, it added. The IDF said that it was investigating the incident. The Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah had exchanged fire in the border area earlier that day.

12:34 GMT
The death toll from Israeli retaliatory strikes in Gaza has reached 7,028, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave has announced. Some 2,913 children were among the dead, along with 1,709 women and 397 elderly, it said.

12:03 GMT
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz has denied media reports that the government has been delaying a ground operation against Hamas in Gaza due to pressure from the US.

“We are making decisions only based on our own interests,” Gantz told reporters in Tel Aviv. “Only we will defend ourselves and every Jew.” Gantz stressed that Israel was grateful to the US for the support it has been providing, while warning that “tough times are expected for us,” although “the danger of being eliminated” is not Israel’s, “but its enemies.”

11:03 GMT
Another twelve aid trucks loaded with food, water and medicine has entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, the Palestine Red Crescent Society has said. This puts the number of trucks to have arrived in the Palestinian enclave over the past five days at 74. The UN said earlier that 100 trucks per day are required to meet the essential needs of the besieged enclave.

10:52 GMT
The FBI has warned the American public that it “has seen an increase in reports of threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities and institutions.” According to a statement issued by the agency, the escalation between Israel and Hamas has “increased the possibility of potential attacks against individuals and institutions in response to developments in the Middle East.” The FBI also claimed that foreign actors, including Iranian media outlets and terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), were using the conflict to stoke divisions and call for violent attacks in the US and other Western countries.

09:57 GMT
Israel has asked India to designate Hamas as a “terrorist” organization following the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented attack on October 7, Israeli Ambassador to New Delhi Naor Gilon has said. The Indian authorities should make the move because of the countries’ shared “war on terror,” Gilon explained, as quoted by the Hindustan Times.

Read full story here.

09:43 GMT
Israelis and Palestinians could use Russia as an example of peaceful co-existence between peoples of different faiths, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar said during a meeting of religious leaders with Russian President Vlaimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday.

“I have no doubt that Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, can live in peace, respect each other, and even help each other when necessary,” Lazar stated. “The fact that here, in Russia, we have peace between Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists – all religions and all peoples – could be taken as an example. In fact, this is an example for the whole world.”

06:32 GMT
The IDF is training its troops for a ground invasion of Gaza at a specially built replica of a generic Palestinian village nicknamed “Little Gaza” at a base in the Negev Desert, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Among other things, the Israeli soldiers have been practicing carrying injured troops to safety and spotting gunmen behind windows, it said.

09:11 GMT
The deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, has claimed that “the battles have not begun yet” with Israel. “If the enemy enters [Gaza] by land, it will be an unprecedented defeat [for the Israeli forces],” he said.

In an interview with Hezbollah-owned Lebanese broadcaster al-Manar, al-Arouri urged Palestinians in the West Bank to “escalate the resistance by any means.” He also spoke about the hostages being held by the group, describing them as “guests,” and stating that Israeli citizens would be swapped for Hamas detainees in Israel.

08:45 GMT
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeated his nation’s calls for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas, and for the “resumption of negotiations aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state, which had been solemnly promised to the Palestinians almost 75 years ago.”

Speaking at a security conference in Belarusian capital Minsk, Lavrov stressed that Moscow condemns terrorist acts and any other actions that contravene international humanitarian law and harm civilians.

The Russian diplomat said that a joint international effort would be required to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also described the US as “one of the leaders” among the countries interfering in the crisis.

08:05 GMT
The IDF has said that its warplanes have struck 250 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours. The Palestinian armed group’s underground tunnels, command centers and rocket launchers placed “in a civilian environment” were attacked, among other things, the Israeli military added.

07:40 GMT
Hamas has urged mass protests in Israel, the occupied West Bank and across the Muslim world to demand the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. “We call on our people throughout the homeland and outside, and on all the members of the Arab and Islamic nation, and the free people of the world, to intensify the popular mobilization in the coming days, and to demonstrate actively on Friday and Sunday under the slogan ‘Open the Rafah crossing’ and ‘Stop the genocidal war on Gaza,’” a statement from by the Palestinian militant group read.

07:27 GMT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged for the first time that he could also be held partly accountable for the security blunders that allowed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. “This failure will have to be investigated to the last degree. Everyone will have to give answers. Myself included,” Netanyahu said during a televised address on Wednesday. However, he made it clear that the time for the probe hasn’t come yet, saying that now the Israeli society should “join forces for one goal: to charge forward to victory.”

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Shin Bet internal security service head Ronen Bar have been among the top Israeli officials who have publicly accepted responsibility for the events of October 7. Even former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who led the government between June 2021 and June 2022, said that he shares in the blame.

Hamas “want us to come in” to Gaza, one of the servicemen suggested, describing the urban warfare that awaits the IDF inside the Palestinian enclave as “the mother of all fears.” The invasion is being delayed for now as Israel has agreed to the Pentagon’s request to give it more time to place air defenses in the region to protect US troops, American officials told WSJ.

06:07 GMT
The Palestinian death toll provided by the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip is “generally reliable,” Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) Omar Shakir has told Al Jazeera. The ministry bases its figures on the data it gets from hospitals and morgues, he added.

“Human Rights Watch has been working in the occupied Palestinian territories for three decades. We’ve covered rounds of escalations and hostilities, and we’ve always found the numbers from the Ministry of Health to be generally reliable,” Shakir stressed.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden said that he has “no confidence in the numbers that the Palestinians are using” as he was speaking about the fatalities in Gaza. According to the Health Ministry, at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed and 17,439 others wounded in Israeli strikes since October 7.

04:52 GMT
The IDF has conducted a “targeted raid using tanks” in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said, releasing a video of the overnight combat operation.

“During the activity, soldiers located and struck numerous terrorists, terror infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts, and operated to prepare the battlefield,” according to the IDF.

The raid was reportedly conducted “as part of preparations for the next stages of combat,” and the soldiers have since exited the Palestinian enclave and returned to Israeli territory. https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1717401249199329634

00:39 GMT
An IDF drone was targeted by a surface-to-air missile from Lebanon, which was intercepted by the Israeli air defenses, according to the military. In response, Israel has struck the alleged missile launch site in the neighboring country.
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23:43 GMT
The Wall Street Journal claimed on Wednesday that about 500 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters took part in exercises organized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a month before the attack on Israel.

Iran has categorically denied any role in the attack. Speaking at the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Iran’s envoy to the UN Ami Saeid Iravani said Tehran “categorically rejects” the “groundless allegations” by the US of Iranian involvement in the events of October 7, which he described as “Palestinian anti-occupation.”
Paywall https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-fighters-trained-in-iran-before-oct-7-attacks-e2a8dbb9

22:11 GMT
US President Joe Biden has cast doubt over the accuracy of casualty numbers provided by health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza, saying he has “no confidence” in the latest reports that as many as 6,546 Palestinians were killed and 17,439 wounded in Israeli airstrikes since October 7.

“What they [casualty numbers] say to me is that I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden said during a join press conference with Australian PM Anthony Albanese.

“I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it's a price of waging a war,” the US leader added. “I think we should be incredibly careful – not we – the Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they're focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel. It's against their interests when that doesn't happen, but I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”

21:41 GMT
Russia and China have vetoed a US-authored draft resolution at the UN Security Council, that condemns Hamas’ attack on Israel and calls for release of hostages, but does not urge a ceasefire. The text was supported by ten countries, with Russia, China and the UAE voting against it, while Brazil and Mozambique abstained.

“The US seeks to promote some new project, saturated with politicized and extremely inappropriate statements… The authors ignored almost all objections of other delegations regarding their project,” Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya said after the vote.

22:11 GMT
US President Joe Biden has cast doubt over the accuracy of casualty numbers provided by health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza, saying he has “no confidence” in the latest reports that as many as 6,546 Palestinians were killed and 17,439 wounded in Israeli airstrikes since October 7.

“What they [casualty numbers] say to me is that I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden said during a join press conference with Australian PM Anthony Albanese.

“I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it's a price of waging a war,” the US leader added. “I think we should be incredibly careful – not we – the Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they're focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel. It's against their interests when that doesn't happen, but I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”

21:41 GMT
Russia and China have vetoed a US-authored draft resolution at the UN Security Council, that condemns Hamas’ attack on Israel and calls for release of hostages, but does not urge a ceasefire. The text was supported by ten countries, with Russia, China and the UAE voting against it, while Brazil and Mozambique abstained.

“The US seeks to promote some new project, saturated with politicized and extremely inappropriate statements… The authors ignored almost all objections of other delegations regarding their project,” Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya said after the vote. https://twitter.com/UN_News_Centre/status/1717300050353602807

The UN Security Council also failed to adopt an alternative Russia-led resolution calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” and unhindered aid into Gaza. The Moscow-sponsored text was backed by China, UAE and Gabon, while the US and UK voted against it. The remaining 9 members abstained.

20:49 GMT
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to lead the country to a “crushing victory” over the Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas “axis of evil” in a televised address on Wednesday evening. He also promised a ground invasion of Gaza when the time is right, and a reckoning for the “failures” of October 7 after the war, promising Israelis that the government will take care of them as it had during the Covid pandemic.