RT News - October 31 2023 LATE

Numbers update. More than 8,300 Gazans have been killed and more than 21,000 are wounded. Day 25. The day's events "as they happened" posted below

There is no safe place left to go in Gaza. The airstrikes/bombing have continued through the night and day. The ground incursion has started but the resistance is holding them back. Hamza Chalan reports.

A Palestinian Red Crescent warehouse was bombed today.

The United Nations has described the war against Gazans as "collective punishment" (my comment - but they don't seem to know what to do to stop it continuing. Pointless UN remarks...) Food, water and medicines are at critical levels despite 3,000 trucks being detained at the borders by Israel forces. They still have no electricity and other fuel is gone. Nebal Farsakh (Red Crescent Spokesperson) says (after IDF told hospitals, inc. Al Quds) evacuating hospitals now would be devastating.

Other live (current) on the ground reports from Maria Finoshina in Sderot, Israel. Yasin Eken reports (live current) from Beirut, Lebanon.

Washington is trying to exert pressure on Malaysia "to take sides" with Israel. Olsi Jazexhi (asst. professor, International Islamic University of Malaysia) talks about this and says "it's not new"

In the United Nations Amb. Nebenzia poses questions to the United States in their stance against a ceasefire in the Gaza/Palestine/Israel conflict. He also shames the others who have supported continuing this horrible conflict. Elijah Magnier (journalist veteran) comments on the "double standards" and hypocrisy.

Nigerians are warned about unauthorised trips to Israel. Timothy Obiezu reports.

In Donbass, an attempted assassin has been caught and detained.
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short take: Israel's Prime Minister says the war against Hamas has entered its third phase. The Palestinian death toll surpasses 8-thousand 3-hundred since the war began three weeks ago. The UN has labeled the forced displacement of 1.4 million Gaza civilians as collective punishment. Washington pressures Malaysia, a majority Muslim nation, over its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says the Southeast Asian country's Prime Minister.
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The day's events in Gaza, etc "as it happened"
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31 October 2023

16:42 GMT
FBI director Christopher Wray warned that the threat of terrorism against the US had reached a “whole ‘nother level” following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, in testimony before the US Senate’s Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday.

Acknowledging in written remarks accompanying his testimony that there was no evidence Hamas itself had either the capacity or intention to attack the US directly, Wray explained that the militant group’s surprise strike against Israel was likely to “serve as an inspiration” for both foreign terrorist groups and domestic violent extremists looking to target Americans on US soil.

The FBI director predicted that both cyber and “kinetic” threats would grow with Israel’s war in Gaza, warning lawmakers that restricting the agency’s power to spy on American citizens under the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act may open the door to terrorist attacks in the future.

15:41 GMT
Thirty-six American citizens have been killed in Israel and Gaza since Hamas’ October 7 attack, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified on Tuesday at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Joe Biden’s proposed $106 billion in funding to Israel and Ukraine.

The Pentagon chief said he had “repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative.”

15:07 GMT
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly raided the West Bank home of Nasser al-Laham, the Palestinian bureau chief of the Lebanese media outlet Al Mayadeen, on Tuesday morning. The journalist reported that Israeli troops had detained both of his sons before releasing one and confiscating the phone of the other. However, he said he hesitated to discuss the raid given the suffering of fellow Palestinians in Gaza.

15:00 GMT
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday was interrupted by the anti-war group Code Pink, which staged a protest demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

As Blinken attempted to make the case for “not shrinking back” from Washington’s global engagements, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin stood up with a sign reading “No more $$$ for Israel” and urged the assembled legislators to stop funding the “brutal massacre in Gaza,” arguing neither the international community nor the American people supported Israel’s bombardment of the enclave.

“Not one senator is calling for a ceasefire! Shame on you all!” Benjamin shouted as she was escorted out of the chamber by Capitol security, and over a dozen protesters silently raised their hands covered in red paint.

14:41 GMT
Israel may have violated international law in its bombardment of Gaza, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barthe Eide told Reuters on Tuesday, questioning whether the country was taking care to distinguish between combatants and civilians and avoid excessive harm to the latter.

“We believe that there have been cases where this proportionality and this distinction have not been fully respected,” he said, describing the situation in Gaza - whose inhabitants have been cut off almost entirely from water, electricity, and medical supplies in recent weeks - as “clearly problematic” from the viewpoint of international humanitarian law.

14:01 GMT
UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned that Gaza “has become a graveyard of children” during a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday. Spokesperson James Elder explained that children were dying not only because of Israeli airstrikes but also because they were not receiving necessary medical care, urging for an immediate ceasefire to deliver humanitarian aid.

At least 3,457 Palestinian children have reportedly been killed in Gaza since Hamas’ attack on Israel earlier this month, the enclave’s health ministry said on Tuesday - nearly half of the 8,306 total recorded Palestinian deaths.

13:51 GMT
The Houthi government in Yemen have claimed they’ve launched a “large number” of missiles and drones at Israel. The attacks will continue until “the Israeli aggression stops” in Gaza, Houthi militray spokesman Yahya Saree warned in a televised address.

Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF reported shooting down an unidentified “aerial target” over the Red Sea near the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

13:12 GMT
Sirens have been sounding in Tel Aviv and areas north of Israel’s largest city, including Ra’anana, Herzliya, Kfar Saba, Jaljulya, and Hod Hasharon, the Times of Israel paper has reported, with Hamas taking credit for the rocket attacks.

Earlier, Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said that a 29-year-old man had suffered light injuries after his car was hit with shrapnel from a rocket interceptor near the city of Beersheba in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

12:10 GMT
The IDF says Israeli troops have been engaged in “fierce battles” against Hamas deep inside the northern part of Gaza. It also shared several clips of the fighting, which showed IDF soldiers and tanks moving around devastated neighborhoods in the Palestinian enclave.
https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1719322411240231274

11:54 GMT
Israel can no longer be found on China’s leading online digital maps on platforms including Baidu and Alibaba, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing web users.

According to the outlet, Baidu’s Chinese language maps still show the borders of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as key cities in the region. However, they no longer identify Israel by name. Alibaba’s Amap also reportedly no longer displays the name of Israel on its maps.

Read full story below these updates ***

31 October 2023

11:39 GMT
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 8,525 people, including 3,542 children, the local health ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave has said.

“The Israeli occupiers continue to intentionally hit medical institutions,” the ministry’s spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, told journalists. A total of 57 medical institutions have been struck so far, with 130 doctors and nurses killed, he said. According to al-Qudra, some 32 medical centers in Gaza have also been rendered inoperable due to the lack of fuel, he added.

11:00 GMT
The Israeli military has published a video of the head of its Southern Command, Major General Yaron Finkelman, addressing Israeli troops and insisting that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will triumph in Gaza.

“Southern Command stations, commander is speaking. We are launching an attack on Hamas and the terror groups in the Gaza Strip. Our goal is one, victory. No matter how long the fighting will be, how difficult, there is no other result but victory,” Finkelman said in the clip, according to a translation by the Times of Israel paper.

“We will fight in the alleys, we will fight in the tunnels, we will fight where necessary. We will strike the terrible enemy that stands before us,” the commander added, in an apparent paraphrasing of one of the most famous World War II speeches by then UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The so-called “We shall fight on the beaches” address was delivered by Churchill to the British parliament in June 1940 shortly after the evacuation of more that 338,000 allied troops from France amid an advance by Nazi Germany.
https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1719293627757691079
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09:45 GMT
Hamas has said its fighters have engaged an Israeli armored convoy in the al-Tawam area of northern Gaza. Two IDF vehicles were set on fire by rockets and one Israeli soldier was killed during the exchange of fire, the Palestinian group claimed in a Telegram post.

09:25 GMT
The Israeli military has updated the number of hostages held by Hamas armed group, with IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying the families of 240 people have been notified that their loved ones are being held in Gaza.

The number doesn’t include the four hostages released by Hamas or the Israeli soldier freed by the IDF on Sunday night. Hagari stressed that the figure isn’t final as the military keeps investigating information about missing persons.

08:20 GMT
The Israeli military has said that its warplanes struck some 300 targets in Gaza overnight, attacking anti-tank and rocket launching positions, tunnel shafts and suspected Hamas military compounds.

During ground operations, Israeli troops clashed with the Palestinian fighters, who employed missiles and heavy machine gun fire, the IDF said. “Numerous” Hamas fighters have been killed, it claimed. The statement gave no new information about the losses on the Israeli side.
https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1719233279428014089

08:06 GMT
Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum director Dani Dayan has said that a recent stunt by Israel’s envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, who addressed the UN Security Council on Monday while donning a yellow Star of David, “dishonors both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel.”

“The yellow patch symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people and being at the mercy of others. Today, we have an independent country and a strong army,” Dayan said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “We are masters of our destiny. Today, we place a blue-white flag on the lapel, not a yellow patch,” he insisted. During the World War II-era, the Nazis forced Jews to wear yellow stars in public to distinguish themselves. It’s now one of the symbols of the Holocaust.
https://rumble.com/v3ssefw-israels-un-envoy-wears-yellow-star-during-security-council-meeting.html
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07:22 GMT
The Israeli hostages held by Hamas have criticized their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for not doing enough to set them free in a new video published by the militant group. “We know there was supposed to be a ceasefire. You were supposed to release us as you promised,” one of the women in the clip said, addressing the PM. She claimed that the captives are suffering from a “political, security, and military failure” by Netanyahu. “Release us now, release the Palestinian citizens, release the prisoners now,” the female hostage pled.
https://rumble.com/v3snvxv-netanyahus-failures-caused-gaza-war-israeli-hostages.html
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06:37 GMT
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have allegedly demolished a home owned by the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, in the town of Aroura in the occupied West Bank, several media outlets have reported. The footage of what is said to be the controlled demolition of the building has also been published on social media.

According to Al Jazeera, the destroyed house had been empty for a long time. Al-Arouri, who is considered one of the main masterminds of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, is reportedly staying in Lebanon, the broadcaster said. https://twitter.com/AlQastalps/status/1719210255479980462

06:15 GMT
Women and children have accounted for about 70% of fatalities in Gaza since the start of the escalation between Israel and Hamas, the head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini has said in a statement. Nearly 3,200 children have lost their lives in the area in just three weeks, surpassing the number of minors killed annually across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, he stressed. “This cannot be considered ‘collateral damage’,” Lazzarini insisted. He described Israel's action in Gaza as “collective punishment” and called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Palestinian enclave.

05:54 GMT
The IDF has published footage of what it says were Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure. The "weapons, posts and sites" of the Lebanese armed group were destroyed in the attacks, it said.
https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1719134000868958544

05:54 GMT
The IDF has published footage of what it says were Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure. The "weapons, posts and sites" of the Lebanese armed group were destroyed in the attacks, it said.
https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1719134000868958544

05:32 GMT
A total of 31 journalists have been killed in the Israeli-Palestinian hostilities this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. According to the US-based NGO, 26 media workers were killed in Gaza, four lost their lives during the initial attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, and another one died in an alleged Israeli strike on Lebanon. Another nine journalists have been reported missing or detained, it added.

“Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict in the face of an Israeli ground assault on Gaza City, devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, and extensive power outages,” the CPJ stressed.

03:50 GMT
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, meanwhile, urged the UN Security Council to intervene and end Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

“2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza face death every day and every night,” the diplomat said. “How many more days will you wait to say enough?” He called on the international community to help Palestinians, who had been driven from their homes by the Israeli airstrikes and are “sleeping in their cars, sleeping in the streets and still being killed wherever they go.”

The Palestinian Authority does not control the Gaza Strip, which since the 2000s has been solely governed by Hamas.

02:50 GMT
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and his delegation wore a yellow Star of David with the words “Never Again” during the UN Security Council meeting on Monday.

He compared Hamas to Nazi Germany, urging everyone to condemn the militants for killing Israeli civilians. “I will wear the yellow patch until the Nazi Hamas is eliminated and until the Security Council stops being silent and condemns the October 7 massacre. Some of you have learned nothing in the last eighty years!” he said.
https://twitter.com/AmichaiStein1/status/1719120471109587065
The yellow star is one of the symbols of the Holocaust. During the World War II-era, the Nazis forced Jews to distinguish themselves by wearing it in public.

00:26 GMT
The UN called on Israel to reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing in order to deliver humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“More than one entry point into Gaza is indispensable if we are to make a difference,” Lisa Doughten, director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the UN Security Council on Monday.

Israel previously refused to reopen the crossing, but said that aid could be delivered to Gaza through Egypt.
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30 October 2023
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22:38 GMT
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Hamas “must be held accountable” for the death of Shani Louk, the German-Israeli woman whose body was paraded by the Palestinian militants during their incursion into Israel on October 7.

“This is terror, and Israel has the right to defend itself,” Scholz wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday shortly after the Israeli authorities confirmed Louk’s death.
https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1718946200307593261
Louk was kidnapped by Hamas during the group’s attack on an open-air music festival near the border with Gaza. Her fate had remained unkown for more than two weeks.

20:58 GMT
“We do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer right now,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has told reporters. “We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now,” Kirby added.

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Friday to adopt a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce,” between Israel and Hamas. The US and Israel were among 14 countries that voted against the resolution, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday that he would not heed the call, saying “this is a time for war.”

20:31 GMT
WikiLeaks has confirmed that an Israeli government document advocating the forced depopulation of Gaza and resettlement of its residents in Egypt is genuine. First published by Israeli news site Sicha Mekomit, the document calls on the government to establish a tent city in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, which would eventually be developed into a permanent settlement separated from the Israeli border by a “sterile zone of several kilometers.”

Under the proposed plan, Gaza would become Israeli territory.

The document was produced by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence, a department that prepares studies and policy papers for review by the government. The ministry is run by Gila Gamliel, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

20:17 GMT
Hamas political bureau official Izzat al-Rishq has cast doubt on the IDF’s claim that it freed a female Israeli soldier from captivity in Gaza. "No one believes the false Zionist narratives, and even Zionist society itself does not believe its leaders,” he said on the militant group’s social media accounts.

Hamas spokesperson Abdul Latif al-Qanou said earlier that Israeli tanks did not enter Gaza City during the supposed operation to free the soldier, claiming that they stuck to the outskirts of the enclave for a “photo opportunity to restore the prestige of their army.”
https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1719066404035391658

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31 Oct, 2023 11:07

*** *** *** Chinese tech giants ‘cancel’ Israel – WSJ

The Jewish state was reportedly left unnamed on China’s leading online map services

Israel can no longer be found on China's leading online digital maps on platforms including Baidu and Alibaba, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing web users.

According to the report, Baidu’s Chinese language maps still show the borders of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as key cities in the region. However, they no longer identify Israel by name.

Alibaba’s Amap also no longer displays the name of Israel. According to the report, the platform is usually known for its attention to details, with even small countries like Luxembourg clearly labelled.

The companies did not respond to media requests for comment. According to the publication, it is unclear when exactly the name Israel was removed from their maps, but web users have apparently been discussing the development since the escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict earlier this month.

According to local reports, the Chinese internet has been overflowing with anti-Semitic comments over the past month, which may be the reason behind the disappearance of Israel’s name from the maps. The Israeli Embassy in China was recently forced to close the comment section under its official account on the Weibo platform, following a slew of verbal attacks from users.

The Chinese government has not taken sides in the Mideast conflict, calling on the belligerents to end the hostilities and condemning attacks on civilians. However, Beijing has a long history of supporting Palestine. It recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964 and Palestinian sovereignty in 1988, and later established full diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority in 1989.

During his visit to Saudi Arabia in 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping called the fact that the global community still largely does not recognize Palestine as a country a “historical injustice,” and said China will support the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
https://www.rt.com/business/586245-israel-disappears-china-maps/
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30 Oct, 2023 09:24

Israel faces major economic crisis – JPMorgan

The economy may shrink more than 10% amid the conflict with Hamas

JPMorgan has sharply lowered its fourth quarter economic forecast for Israel. According to a research note made public on Friday, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) may shrink 11% from the previous three months amid the escalation of hostilities with the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

Earlier this month, the bank forecast a 1.5% downturn, but the initial projections were deemed “too optimistic,” analysts suggested.

“Gauging the impact of the war on Israel’s economy remains difficult, both due to still-very high uncertainty about the scale and duration of the conflict and the lack of high-frequency data at hand,” JPMorgan stated.

The bank also cut its initial projections for the country's yearly GDP growth to 2.5% instead of the previous 3.2%. Analysts, however, slightly raised the outlook for 2024, to 2% from the previous 1.9%.

JPMorgan noted that Israel’s previous conflicts, like the 2014 escalation of hostilities with Hamas or the 2006 conflict with the Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah, “barely affected activity.” However, “the current war has had a much larger impact on domestic security and confidence,” analysts warned. For instance, the death toll estimated at around 1,400 Israelis as of Friday was already much higher than during the previous conflicts, while the number of mobilized reservists has already topped 350,000, the most in Israel’s history and more than 5% of the country’s labour force.

The most recent escalation of hostilities between Hamas, which controls much of Gaza, and the Israel Defence Forces started on October 7. It has since caused a global surge in the price of oil and safe haven assets, like gold and silver. Analysts fear the conflict could destabilize the Middle East, especially if it spreads to neighbouring countries, which would in turn affect the entire global economy.
https://www.rt.com/business/586169-israel-economic-crisis-jpmorgan/
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