RT News - November 07 2023 (Double episode with live updates)

Numbers update: Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says 10,328 people, including 4,237 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7th 2023. More than 23,000 have been wounded (unconfirmed/unknown as hospitals can't report). Day 32

I decided to upload both the early and late news videos today, there are few duplications first to second and there's a lot to hear/see/know. Live updates below both short takes. I will add them as the come in (or as I can find them)

Short take 1)
The sky lit up over Gaza - as the IDF's ground incursion into the enclave comes alongside airstrikes across the region. The UN Secretary General sounds the alarm that the grim death toll in Gaza is burying future generations, as the number of Palestinians killed, is reported to have surpassed ten thousand people. One month ago Hamas attacked, Israel displays the wreckage from the Nova festival as the relatives of those taken hostage demand the government do more to bring them home. In Türkiye crowds protest the US Secretary of State's visit to Ankara, accusing the United States of complicity in the thousands killed in Gaza.

Short take 2)
Israeli forces bombard the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis, as the IDF's ground invasion of the enclave is paired with airstrikes across other parts of the region. Russia says goodbye to a key Cold War-era security treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe. Moscow says there's no point in maintaining it as it's been marred by NATO. Washington reportedly deploys the nuclear-powered USS Florida attack submarine to the Persian Gulf in an apparent bid to deter Iran. The democracy-cherishing West appears to be turning a blind eye to Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky's cancellation of the 2024 presidential elections in Ukraine, stating, 'now is not the time'.
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===== Updates "as they happened" ===08 November 2023

== = === 8th November 2023 = =

02:17 GMT
The White House has sounded alarms over the possible “reoccupation” of Gaza by Israel, after the country’s leader indicated Israeli forces would handle “overall security responsibility” in the area following the conflict with Hamas.
Asked to weigh in on the long-term plans for Gaza during an interview with CNN on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby urged Israel to reconsider a lengthy military deployment.

“The president still believes that a reoccupation of Gaza by Israeli forces is not good. It’s not good for Israel; not good for the Israeli people,” he said without elaborating.

“One of the conversations that Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken has been having in the region is what does post-conflict Gaza look like?” the spokesman added “What does governance look like in Gaza? Because whatever it is it can’t be what it was on October 6. It can’t be Hamas.”

00:38 GMT
The IDF says that its warplanes have carried out a series of airstrikes against multiple Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, including a warehouse, suspected rocket launch positions as well as “terrorist infrastructure and technological means.” The raid allegedly came in response to rocket fire from the Lebanese territory, the Israeli military said, releasing a video of its retaliatory strikes. https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1721987782753603850

07 November 2023

23:52 GMT
A senior adviser to PM Benjamin Netanyahu, has clarified the Israeli leader’s statements, insisting that Israel will not re-occupy and control Gaza, but only plans to maintain a “security presence” in the Palestinian enclave.

“There will have to be an Israeli security presence, but that doesn’t mean Israel is re-occupying Gaza, that doesn’t mean that Israel is there to govern the Gazans,” Mark Regev told CNN. “When this is over and we have defeated Hamas, it is crucial that there won’t be a resurgent terrorist element, a resurgent Hamas.”

22:11 GMT
Biden pushes for ‘three-day pause’ from Israel – AxiosREAD MORE: Biden pushes for ‘three-day pause’ from Israel – Axios https://www.axios.com/2023/11/07/biden-netanayhu-gaza-hamas-ceasefire-pause-hostages
US President Joe Biden has reportedly urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause attacks against Hamas for three days, saying such a halt to the fighting in Gaza could enable negotiators to secure the release of more hostages.

Under a proposal being discussed between the US, Israel and Qatar, Hamas would release 10 to 15 hostages during a three-day pause and verify the identities of its remaining captives, Axios reported on Tuesday. The militant group also would deliver a list of those hostages, the outlet said, citing an unidentified US official.

===== 7th November

22:25 GMT
US Sec. of Defence Lloyd Austin has spoken with his Egyptian counterpart, Minister of Defence General Mohamed Zaki, while US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Israeli President Herzog.

Austin “expressed appreciation for Egypt’s work to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and the safe evacuation of US citizens from Gaza. They also discussed the importance of civilian protection”, Pentagon. https://twitter.com/SecDef/status/1722012436193054822

22:11 GMT
US President Joe Biden has reportedly urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause attacks against Hamas for three days, saying such a halt to the fighting in Gaza could enable negotiators to secure the release of more hostages.

Under a proposal being discussed between the US, Israel and Qatar, Hamas would release 10 to 15 hostages during a three-day pause and verify the identities of its remaining captives, Axios reported on Tuesday. The militant group also would deliver a list of those hostages, the outlet said, citing an unidentified US official.

20:40 GMT
Some 89 UN aid workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel began bombing the Palestinian enclave a month ago, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has announced. Another 26 were injured in the same period, the agency added.

This death toll is the highest recorded by the UN “in any comparable period in the history of our organization,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, after a collection of UN agencies issued a joint statement calling for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”

19:20 GMT
A spokesman for the IDF unit responsible for tracking aid deliveries to Gaza has claimed that there is no shortage of food, water, or other humanitarian supplies in the Palestinian enclave, the Times of Israel has reported.

Multiple aid agencies, including the UN, World Health Organization, and Palestine Red Crescent Society have argued otherwise, claiming that the trickle of aid entering Gaza via Egypt is insufficient to meet the needs of its 2.3 million people. https://twitter.com/UNRWA/status/1721802988841226333
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the average Gazan now subsisting on two pieces of bread per day and is drinking water fit only for irrigation.

19:08 GMT
“Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land,” US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel has told reporters. Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s earlier statement that Israel will take responsibility for security in the enclave for an “indefinite period” after the war, Patel said that “our viewpoint is [that] Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions.”

“Generally speaking, we do not support reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel,” he added.

17:14 GMT
Hezbollah’s cross-border strikes on Israeli forces are intended to send “a clear message that if you expand there will be serious consequences,” the militant group’s deputy secretary general told NBC News.

Naim Qassem explained that Hezbollah “participates for the sake of lowering the pressure on Gaza.”

“Those in the Axis of Resistance have seen that the mastermind is America,” Qassem said, referring to a spate of recent attacks by Iran-aligned militias on US bases in Iraq and Syria. “So they strike America under the principle of sending a message to stop. Just as Israel should stop.”

16:55 GMT

Al Jazeera publishes numbers update and a refresher/explainer https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/one-month-of-israels-war-whats-happening-to-palestinians-outside-gaza - they say 24,800 is the latest number of wounded (still no word of confirmed or not though)

16:47 GMT
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has cancelled a planned trip to Israel after news of the visit was leaked last week, the Times of Israel reported.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported last Friday that the preparations were underway for the Ukrainian leader to travel to the Jewish state this week. Three weeks earlier, West Jerusalem rejected an offer by the Ukrainian president to visit, with officials reportedly telling him that “the time is not right.”

Diplomatic sources told the Times of Israel that Zelensky is still expected to make the trip, but at a later date.

16:45 GMT
Palestinian-American US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and US policy on the war, currently faces three separate resolutions attempting to censure her in the US House of Representatives. The first resolution, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, failed last week.
Rep. Rich McCormick accused Tlaib of “promoting false narratives” on the October 7 Hamas attack and “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel”.
https://twitter.com/RepRashida/status/1721915427045920966

16:35 GMT

At least 320 foreign nationals entered Egypt from Gaza today, after the Rafah crossing was closed over the weekend, according to the Reuters news agency, citing Egyptian sources. It re-opened on Monday with a limited number of people passing through, according to Reuters. Only four were injured Gaza Palestinians who would receive treatment in Egypt

16:27 GMT

A candlelight vigil is taking place in Tel Aviv, with relatives and friends of those held in Gaza calling for their release. Similar rallies have taken place outside the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, as well as near United Nations headquarters in New York, over the past weeks. Amnest calls for release of hostages https://twitter.com/amnesty/status/1721918935484834000

16:15 GMT
Hezbollah official says group seeking to pressure Israel, US to stop assault on Gaza
Speaking to NBC News, Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, said the growing level of cross-border fighting is meant to send “a clear message that if you expand there will be serious consequences”. “Hezbollah participates for the sake of lowering the pressure on Gaza,” Qassem told the US media outlet.
“Those in the Axis of Resistance have seen that the mastermind is America,” Qassem said. “So they strike America under the principle of sending a message to stop. Just as Israel should stop.”
He added, “How does America and the rest of the world have the right to stand on the side of Israel that kills civilians and children and destroys homes, while we don’t have the right to support our people and our loved ones in Palestine and the region?”

various times between :

==Gaza’s Interior Ministry says all bakeries in Gaza City and in the northern Gaza governorates have stopped operating due to systematic targeting and the lack of fuel and flour.

==Far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman says after the war, Gaza must not be under the control of the Palestinian Authority; former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin said it is “premature” to say what happens in Gaza after the war.

==Hamas’s armed wing, Qassam Brigades, says it is “ready to release” 12 captives taken into Gaza, but Israeli air and land attacks are “what hinders this from being completed”.

==The United Nations says Gaza’s health, sanitation, water and food services are nearing a “breaking point”.

==Sec of state Blinken has discussed the situation in Gaza with his Japanese counterpart in advance of the G7 meeting in Tokyo, where Sec Blinken is hoping members will agree on a unified response to the war in Gaza.

==There has been an Israeli attack on two houses in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

==Hezbollah has promised to “double” the death toll from any Israeli attacks on civilians after a recent attack killed three children and their grandmother in southern Lebanon.

==Israel’s southern army commander says that for the first time in a decade, the Israeli military “is fighting in the heart of Gaza City”.

12:37 GMT
The IDF will have “absolute freedom” of action inside Gaza when the war against Hamas concludes, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has claimed.

Questions over the future of the Palestinian enclave have arisen in recent weeks, and shortly before Gallant spoke to reporters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that the IDF will take responsibility for security in the enclave for an “indefinite period.”

The Israeli military withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after nearly four decades of occupation. Israel has kept the region under a strict blockade ever since, forbidding all sea and air access and limiting the flow of food, medicine, and consumer goods.

05:33 GMT
Israel has no plans to deport Palestinians from Gaza, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lior Haiat has said, responding to Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh’s warning that doing so would be viewed as a “declaration of war.”

Haiat stated that “Israel’s objective is to eliminate Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure,” while claiming that the Palestinian armed group is responsible for the “harm caused to innocent people and for the situation in Gaza today.” He added that while the country’s relations with Jordan are of “strategic importance,” Israel “regret[s] the inflammatory statements from Jordan’s leadership.”

03:51 GMT
China and the United Arab Emirates have delivered a joint statement after the UN Security Council has once again failed to agree on a resolution on Monday night.

“We call for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire,” China’s Ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters. “We emphasize the need for the Security Council to act with urgency and adopt a meaningful and actionable resolution.”

“As we heard today, civilians in Gaza cannot even find safety in UN facilities, hospitals and refugee camps,” added UAE representative Lana Zaki Nusseibeh. “Wars have laws… And they must be upheld.” https://twitter.com/Chinamission2un/status/1721693803935867380

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.

00:13 GMT
The IDF has accused Hamas militants of turning a mosque into a “rocket launching compound,” releasing a video that it said showed its ground troops uncovering spent missile containers. https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1721654675076718887

Previous video (6.11.23) has previous updates

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