RT News - November 6th 2023 (includes live GAZA/ISRAEL conflict updates)

Numbers update: 9,922 Palestinians have been killed and more than 23,000 wounded (unconfirmed) in Israel's attacks on Gaza and the occupied West Bank since October 7. Day 31. Situation update after video description below.

As previously mentioned, all communications were cut off again by Israel ahead of some of the heaviest bombings since the conflict began on Oct. 7th.

Eunan presents a short visual update of the state of play, including landings to the Gaza strip by sea/marine forces. One aerial attack killed 21 people from one family and dozens more. RT talks to some people local to the latest aerial bombardments.

PM Netanyahu refuses calls for a ceasefire until the hostages are returned. Recall yesterday that some hostages have been killed by Israel's bombardment and their bodies are under the rubble.

The UN has called for a ceasefire as many of it's workers have also been killed. (separate - a UN Security Council meeting behind closed doors at the request of the Emirates and China will be held this afternoon - the meeting was requested in light of the continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Strip)

Watch Afshin's interview/discussion with Prof. Ilan Pappé on Rumble https://rumble.com/v3txpgs-gaza-slaughter-is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-zionist-israel-proje.html

In Lebanon, four people (three children) have been killed as an Israeli missile struck their car (my comment - this is serious escalation). Lebanon has been keeping the Israeli's busy in the north of Israel in the evacuated "buffer zone" (see previous reports) as a way to stop the attacks on Gaza.

The IDF says it's ready for a regional conflict. Yasin Eken reports from Lebanon. (my comment this is REALLY serious. The entire region is like a "powder keg" and the countries are pretty much united in support of Palestine/Gaza). Malak Khaled gives commentary. See https://twitter.com/DontDenyThe/status/1720910687034069323 for Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-general of Hezbollah's important speech

Sec of state Blinken visited Iraq and issued a warning, suggesting other countries "might take advantage of the conflict" (my comment - of course this is not the case; any action would be in support of Palestine/Gaza). Sec. Blinken was "welcomed" with mass protests in Baghdad; he has been visiting other regional states (all with similar welcomes from the public) and he continues with the no ceasefire narrative.
Rachel Blevins reports/analyses on the goings on. (NB the "authority" in the West Bank is appointed by Israel). Billions of $$$ are now allocated for Israel (... me - why? )

RT spoke to Syria, Washington, Egypt & South African analysts. "This sort of U.S. plan faces a number of major red lines"

The EU has been moaning about anti-Semitism in the bloc. (me - this conflict is not about Jews or any other religion. It's about avarice, lies, real estate, racism and apartheid - the actions of the Israel lobbies and people like the ADF have totally destroyed the safety of Jewish people by them making the GAZA conflict into a "holy war" - I hope to goodness someone will stand up and make proper commentary about this rotten, stinking, divisive, fascist machine and get it outlawed as a terrorist body, quickly)
Rachel Marsden presents in her own inimitable way (excellent by the way, today)

In Iran, their defence minister Mohammad-Reza Astiani has advised the US to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire. Yusef Jalali reports.

Protests around the world continued over the weekend. In Pakistan Hameedullah Khan reports from a hundred-thousand strong protest in Islamabad.
=
Updates "as they happened" = 07 November 2023

02:21 GMT
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees says that five staffers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza “in the last 24 hours,” while several others were confirmed killed in earlier strikes.

“This brings the total number of confirmed UNRWA colleagues killed to 88 and at least another 25 injured since the hostilities began,” the agency said on Monday evening, adding that over the past month at least 48 UNRWA-operated facilities were damaged.

01:31 GMT
The Israeli forces will take “overall security responsibility” of the Gaza Strip for an “indefinite period” of time after the war with Hamas ends, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News on Monday.

“When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine,” Netanyahu added.

Netanyahu also ruled out any “general ceasefire” until all hostages are released, but said that Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.
=
=== = = Updates "as they happened" = 6th November 2023

06 November 2023

23:12 GMT
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reportedly talked about using tactical pauses in West Jerusalem’s military offensive in Gaza to enable more aid shipments to get into the Palestinian enclave and to negotiate more releases of hostages held by Hamas.

No decisions were made as a result of Monday’s talks, but the two leaders agreed to continue discussing the issue in the days ahead, Reuters reported, citing White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “You can expect that we’re going to continue to advocate for temporary and localized pauses in the fighting,” Kirby said. “We consider ourselves at the beginning of this conversation, not at the end of it.”

22:48 GMT
South Africa and Chad have joined the growing list of nations withdrawing their diplomatic staff from Israel, condemning West Jerusalem for killing thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip as it tries to destroy Hamas.

“A genocide under the watch of the international community cannot be tolerated,” South African Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Monday in Pretoria. “Another holocaust in the history of humankind is not acceptable.”

Chad recalled its charge d’affaires to Israel on Saturday, according to a government statement on Monday. “Chad condemns the loss of human lives of many innocent civilians and calls for a ceasefire leading to a lasting solution to the Palestinian question,” the statement said. The central African country restored diplomatic relations with Israel in 2019, more than four decades after ties between the two governments were severed.

20:55 GMT
A group of staffers at the US State Department have called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to publicly condemn Israel’s killing of civilians and demand that the Jewish state agree to a ceasefire, Politico has reported, citing a leaked memo.

“We must publicly criticize Israel’s violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets,” the message reportedly reads. “When Israel supports settler violence and illegal land seizures or employs excessive use of force against Palestinians, we must communicate publicly that this goes against our American values so that Israel does not act with impunity.”

The report comes several weeks after Blinken reportedly met with a group of dissenting employees who formally protested his support for Israel, and after a senior official at the department resigned over what he called the US’ “destructive, unjust, and contradictory” rush to arm the Jewish state.

19:14 GMT
Israel’s Foreign Minister has condemned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for warning that Gaza is “becoming a graveyard for children.”

“Shame on you Antonio Guterres,” Eli Cohen wrote on social media, adding that Hamas’ kidnapping of 30 children from Israel justifies “Israel’s actions to eliminate” the militant group. https://twitter.com/elicoh1/status/1721598042858533337

Israel’s military operation in Gaza has killed more than 10,000 people, including 4,104 children, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.

17:31 GMT
The IDF has said that it is carrying out airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, after the militant group fired 30 rockets into northern Israel earlier on Monday. The uptick in activity on the border comes days after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that his fighters would continue to tie up Israeli forces on the border, and are prepared for any escalation.

17:13 GMT
Some 46 US personnel have been injured in attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since October 17, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a briefing. In the past 24 hours, six attacks on US bases were recorded, including three separate rocket barrages on the Al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, according to multiple sources.

A collective of Iran-aligned militia groups has claimed responsibility, and promised that more strikes would follow. The latest round of attacks came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Baghdad, where he warned that “the threats coming from the militia that are aligned with Iran are totally unacceptable and we will take every necessary step to protect our people.”

16:42 GMT
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to attend a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Iran’s Etemad newspaper has reported.

Earlier on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan spoke by phone, and agreed to hold “an extraordinary summit aimed at reviewing the developments in Palestine, stopping the war crimes against Gaza and the West Bank, and continuously sending in humanitarian aid to the region,” according to an Iranian readout of the call.

Earlier this year, Iran and Saudi Arabia restored their diplomatic relations after a seven-year freeze, following Chinese-brokered talks.

15:49 GMT
The number of people killed in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 10,022, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. Some 4,104 children are among the dead, while a further 25,000 people have been wounded and around 2,000 are trapped beneath rubble in unknown condition, the ministry added.

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of an immediate ceasefire last month, but Israel and the US have rejected the vote, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to “simply continue until we defeat [Hamas].”

12:10 GMT
Israel’s parliamentary Constitution Committee has approved in second and third readings a bill that would make it illegal to read the publications of organizations designated as terrorist in the country, including Hamas and the Islamic State.

Those who systematically consume such materials containing “words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for acts of terrorism” could face a year in prison. However, the legislation makes an exception for those who read such publications incidentally, in good faith, or for a legitimate purpose.

11:45 GMT
The EU will allocate another €25 million ($27 million) for humanitarian aid to Gaza. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement at the EU Ambassadors Conference on Monday in Brussels. She noted that with this, the total amount of aid provided by Brussels is now €100 million.

10:21 GMT
Several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar, have hit back at Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who had earlier suggested that the country could consider dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza.

The UAE Foreign Ministry condemned the comments as “disgraceful and unacceptable,” suggesting that they “constitute a violation of international law.” This statement was echoed by the Saudi Foreign Ministry, which pointed out that Eliyahu’s remarks “show the pervasiveness of extremism and brutality among members of the Israeli government.”

Jordan was also highly critical, saying the nuclear remarks were a “call for genocide and a hate crime that cannot be ignored, as well as incitement to murder and the commission of war crimes.” Meanwhile, Qatar said it considers the comments “a disregard for human and moral values and international laws.”

04:50 GMT
More United Nations workers have died in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war than during any other single conflict, several UN agencies said in a joint statement.

“Scores of aid workers have been killed since October 7 including 88 UNRWA colleagues,” the statement said, referring to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

04:36 GMT
Al Jazeera reported that at least five family members of the public relations chief of the Al-Najjar Hospital were killed in an Israeli airstrike near Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The Egypt-Gaza border crossing near Rafah serves as the only route to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave and evacuate civilians.

The IDF has so far not commented on the airstrikes it conducted overnight. According to Palestinian media, 27 people were killed in Gaza on Monday.

03:25 GMT
The US dispatched an Ohio-class nuclear submarine to the Mediterranean Sea. https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1721271207260033230

The Pentagon sent two carrier strike groups in the region last month following the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas. The US Navy said on Friday that the naval armadas were practicing flights between two aircraft carriers and conducting other training.

02:01 GMT
The Palestinian enclave remains under a communications blackout – for a third time in 10 days – the connectivity tracking website NetBlocks confirmed.

The UN agency for Palestinians refugees (UNRWA) said that it is unable to contact “the vast majority” of its workers in Gaza.

01:34 GMT
The Jordanian military air-dropped medical supplies for the Jordanian field hospital in the Gaza Strip.

“This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza. We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren,” King Abdullah II wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. https://twitter.com/KingAbdullahII/status/1721301905731633533
The delivery of aid to the Palestinian enclave is seriously hampered by the continuing Israeli blockade. Some convoys from Egypt were able to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which is currently the only available route for humanitarian supplies on the ground.

======= 05 November 2023

21:57 GMT
The IDF continued to bomb Gaza on Sunday evening and the early hours of Monday, the Guardian reported, citing journalists on the ground.

Unverified videos posted to social media show huge explosions, with observers describing the blasts as the heaviest bombardment since October 7. https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1721279061668901283

19:12 GMT
Israeli troops have pushed through central Gaza and reached the coast, splitting the narrow enclave in two, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters. Hagari’s claim cannot immediately be verified, and Hamas has refuted a similar statement made by the spokesman earlier this week.

18:59 GMT
“For more than an hour, intense bombings have been taking place around hospitals” in northern Gaza, Hamas press chief Salama Marouf told AFP. The aerial attacks, said by multiple sources to be some of the heaviest of Israel’s month-long campaign, took place after phone and internet connections between Gaza and the outside world were severed.

The IDF has alternated between denying attacks on hospitals – as it did in the case of a missile strike on a Christian-run clinic last month – and claiming that Hamas militants are operating out of healthcare facilities, as it did when it launched an airstrike on an ambulance convoy earlier this week.

The Israeli military has claimed that Hamas has built bunkers and tunnels under at least three hospitals in Gaza.

Updates for prior times in previous posts. This channel is not monetised and never will be. Please show support by leaving a "thumbs up" - it costs nothing.

short take : Israel bombards Gaza with some of the heaviest strikes in a month as communication networks in the enclave stop operating ahead of the assault. Three children are among those killed in an IDF strike on southern Lebanon as fears mount of the conflict spreading wider. As tensions in the region escalate, the US Secretary of State visits Baghdad as part of a Middle East diplomatic tour, urging other states to follow Washington's lead - or else.