The father of freed American hostage Natalie Raanan says she is doing well following her two weeks in captivity after she and her mother Judith were abducted in Israel by Hamas.
Uri Raanan spoke as Hamas released footage of the pair after their release. He told reporters he had spoken to his 17-year-old daughter on the phone.
"She's doing good. She's doing very good," he said.
Knowing Natalie may be able to celebrate her 18th birthday next week at home with family and friends feels "wonderful... the best news", he said.
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"I'm going to hug her it will be the best day of my life," he added.
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'My daughter is very happy'
Mr Raanan said he believes Natalie and Judith, 59, are making their way to Tel Aviv to reunite with relatives, and that both will be back in the US early next week.
US President Joe Biden celebrated the news of their release.
Image:Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie speak to Joe Biden following their release. Pic: US Embassy Jerusalem
"I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear," Mr Biden said in Washington.
The president also spoke with Judith and Natalie and "relayed that they will have the full support of the US government as they recover from this terrible ordeal", the White House said.
Despite this release - Gaza hostage crisis remains the biggest in Israel's history
Late on Friday night, somewhere along the Gaza – Israel border, Judith and Natalie Raanan were handed over by masked Hamas gunmen into the care of the International Red Cross.
In a video released by Hamas, they look exhausted and dazed. No wonder.
The two Americans were just two of an estimated 203 hostages taken by Hamas when they broke through the border fence and went on a murderous rampage exactly two weeks ago
For all the good news that last night was, this remains the biggest hostage crisis in Israel’s history.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported the Raanans from Gaza to Israel, said their release offered "a sliver of hope" for those still being held.
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Ben Raanan, said the family was 'completely taken by surprise' after Hamas released Natalie and Judith Raanan
Judith and Natalie had left their home in the Chicago suburb of Evanston to travel to Israel to celebrate the Jewish holidays, according to family members.
On 7 October they were in Nahal Oz, near Gaza, for the holiday Simchat Torah, when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israeli towns, killing and abducting hundreds of people.
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Two US hostages freed by Hamas
Their family had heard nothing from them since the attack and were later told by US and Israeli officials that they were being held in Gaza, Natalie's brother Ben Raanan told the Denver Post earlier this week.
Natalie loves art, makeup, fashion, and DoorDash - "she hates eating at home", according to Ben, who is based in Denver, Colorado.
She graduated from high school this year and was deciding between going to college to study interior or fashion design and taking an apprenticeship with a tattoo shop.
Qatar said it would continue its dialogue with Israel and Hamas in hopes of winning the release of all hostages "with the ultimate aim of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace".
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Mother of hostage: 'I miss her'
The release comes amid growing expectations of a ground offensive that Israel says is aimed at rooting out Hamas fighters who rule Gaza.
In a statement issued late on Friday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Two of our abductees are at home. We are not giving up on the effort to return all abducted and missing people.
"At the same time, we'll continue to fight until victory," he added.
A small convoy enters the Gaza Strip from Egypt, carrying desperately needed medicine and food supplies.
The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has opened to let a small amount of desperately needed aid flow to Palestinians running short of food, medicine and water in the territory that is under an Israeli siege.
A convoy including 20 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday from Egypt, carrying medicine and food supplies, a statement from Palestinian group Hamas said.
More than 200 trucks carrying roughly 3,000 tonnes of aid had been positioned near the crossing for days before heading into Gaza.
“The relief aid convoy that is supposed to enter today includes 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies [canned goods],” Hamas’s media office said earlier.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, welcomed the delivery, saying it followed “days of deep and intense negotiations with all relevant sides to make sure that aid operation into Gaza resumes as quickly as possible and with the right conditions”.
“I am confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies – including food, water, medicine and fuel – to the people of Gaza, in a safe, dependable, unconditional and unimpeded manner,” he added.
(Al Jazeera)
For two weeks, Israel has blockaded the territory and launched waves of punishing air attacks following an October 7 rampage by Hamas fighters on towns in southern Israel.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays said that although the opening of the Rafah crossing is “significant” as it might lead to more aid being sent into Gaza, experts are saying more is aid needed.
“I have to say 20 trucks, given that Gaza used to get – in terms of aid coming into Gaza before this conflict started – about 100 trucks of aid a day … so this really is a drop in the ocean,” he said.
Many in Gaza, reduced to eating one meal a day and without enough water to drink, are waiting desperately for aid. Hospital workers were also in urgent need of medical supplies and fuel for their generators as they treat thousands of people wounded in the bombings.
Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, told Al Jazeera that 20 trucks of aid is not enough.
“The situation inside Gaza is dire. Not only is there no food, there is no water, electricity, or fuel. And that combination is not only catastrophic but can lead to more starvation and disease as well,” she said. “We’ve got to get more trucks in.”
Israel has sealed off the territory, forcing Palestinians to ration food and drink filthy water from wells. Hospitals say they are running low on medicine and fuel for emergency generators amid a territory-wide blackout.
Hamas’s media office issued a statement on Saturday saying that expected truckloads of aid “will not change the catastrophic medical conditions in Gaza”.
The last time anyone other than the Law and Justice party (PiS) ruled Poland, Aleksandra, a sociology student in Warsaw, was 10. Throughout her adolescence, the rightwing populism of Jarosław Kaczyński’s party was the defining force, a series of governments rolling back abortion rights, eroding the rule of law and politicising the state apparatus.
Now, however, Aleksandra’s generation appears to have fought back, turning out in huge numbers to help oust PiS and its septuagenarian leader from power. “I voted for the first time and I don’t really remember a Poland ruled by the opposition,” said the now 18-year-old student, who preferred not to give her surname.
Aleksandra voted in Sunday’s election for the leftwing party Lewica, which garnered 8.6% of the overall vote and is likely to enter some form of coalition with Donald Tusk, the opposition leader and former prime minister. She said she hopes any new government will “depoliticise public television” and address women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
But, standing near the entrance of Warsaw’s busiest underground station, known almost universally as Patelnia (the frying pan), she said she had not only been voting for a progressive cause, but against the status quo: “My motivation was also to help put an end to the PiS rule.”
Turnout in this election was 74.3%, a record that exceeded even the turnout of 1989, a vote that triggered the collapse of the Soviet-backed communist system. Key to that was the mobilisation of youth, historically the most disengaged demographic, and women, said Jacek Kucharczyk, a sociologist who is director of the Institute of Public Affairs (ISP). Almost 69% of under-30s turned out to vote.
“There have been many social media campaigns and projects encouraging young voters to vote,” he said. “But I think Jarosław Kaczyński has himself driven many young voters to polling stations by pushing all the money towards pensioners.”
In central Warsaw, where turnout was a staggering 84.9%, Michał Grabarski, a 25-year-old flight attendant, said he hoped a new Tusk-led government would translate into a more attractive country for his generation.
“I think Poland will now become a better country for young people. There will be more incentives for them to stay here,” he said. Grabarski voted for Tusk’s Civic Coalition, even if Lewica is closer to his heart, in the hope that a bigger opposition party will have more scope to improve the future of Poland. In the end Civic Coalition won 30.7% of the vote.
“This record turnout among young people demonstrates that we’ve had enough,” he added. “Prohibitions don’t work with young people – they want to love whom they want and decide about themselves.”
A reversal of PiS’s hostile stance on minority rights seems to have been on the minds of many young voters: during the campaign Tusk said he would make it a priority to introduce same-sex civil partnerships. So too is a potential legalisation of abortion up to 12 weeks, which the former president of the European Council also vowed to enact if elected.
“I hope that the ban on abortion will be lifted, that women’s rights will be respected, and that there is more financial transparency,” said EspraMielczarek, a 25-year-old arts student. She voted for Lewica: “I think that our younger generation has a chance to change Poland.”
Paulina Pospieszna, a political scientist at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, west Poland, said the enormous street protests of 2020 against a near-total ban on abortion had been a breakthrough moment for youth political mobilisation.
“I think the abortion protests were a moment of political awakening for many young people and taught many the value of civic engagement,” she said. “Many felt agency and the need to protest because religion and politics encroached on their private lives too much.”
While the abortion laws had “pushed Poland back in time”, young Poles had not been fooled, she added. “[They are] modern, they travel and have friends abroad; they know what’s normal outside of the country and they value their civil liberties. If we look at how they voted, young people are not conservative or populist; civil liberties are important to them.”
Pospieszna said Poland was witnessing nothing less than “the rebirth of representative democracy”. “I am glad that youth have seen that voting is their civic responsibility, because not voting puts them in danger of authoritarian and populist governments.”
Standing by the Warszawa Centralna railway station, Robert, a 22-year-old soldier, said he had personal experience of how such governments operate. “I was appalled to see PiS using the army for their political aims during the campaign. In the past two months, my colleagues and I were constantly sent to potato festivals, driven around like a circus – presenting army gear, uniforms. This is not the role of a serious army.”
Robert, who did not want to be identified for professional reasons, voted for the Third Way, a centre-right party, “because I consider all the other parties repulsive”. “During the past 30 years there was no change and the same people have been keeping their noses in the trough,” he said. Now he wants a new government to focus on the depolarisation of society. “We need to be able to act together, as one.”
Not all young voters, however, have been reflecting quite so seriously on the election results. Near Warsaw’s looming palace of culture and science, Jakub Gajownik, 22, said that he had voted despite nursing an aversion to politics and made his choice while driving his car and seeing a poster of a Civic Coalition candidate. “I thought: you are the one for me,” he said, laughing. But since voting, he confessed, with a disarming smile, he hadn’t actually checked who had won.
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A small convoy enters the Gaza Strip from Egypt, carrying desperately needed medicine and food supplies.
The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has opened to let a small amount of desperately needed aid flow to Palestinians running short of food, medicine and water in the territory that is under an Israeli siege.
A convoy including 20 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday from Egypt, carrying medicine and food supplies, a statement from Palestinian group Hamas said.
More than 200 trucks carrying roughly 3,000 tonnes of aid had been positioned near the crossing for days before heading into Gaza.
“The relief aid convoy that is supposed to enter today includes 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies (canned goods),” Hamas’s media office said earlier.
Israel blockaded the territory and launched waves of punishing air attacks following an October 7 rampage by Hamas fighters on towns in southern Israel.
Many in Gaza, reduced to eating one meal a day and without enough water to drink, are waiting desperately for aid. Hospital workers were also in urgent need of medical supplies and fuel for their generators as they treat thousands of people wounded in the bombings.
Israel has sealed off the territory for two weeks, forcing Palestinians to ration food and to drink filthy water from wells. Hospitals say they are running low on medicine and fuel for emergency generators amid a territory-wide blackout.
The Egyptian foreign ministry has accused “western media” of targeting the country about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
On the social media site X, formally known as Twitter, the Egyptian foreign minister said the media were “Promoting displacement scenario, holding Egypt responsible for the Crossing closure despite Israeli targeted attacks and refusal of aid entry and recently insinuating Egypt responsibility for obstructing third-country nationals exit.”
It added: “Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible for obstructing third-country nationals exit.” A subsequent tweet said: “The opportunity is available tomorrow to change course and awaken the conscience.”
It’s just past 6.45pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited troops on the Gaza border on Thursday, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”
Gallant also said that after Israel destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli defence minister’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
Any escalation of military activities in the Gaza Strip would be “catastrophic” for people there, the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said on Friday.
Israel bombarded Gaza early on Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which was already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, flew to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, with the first aid delivery expected “in the next day or two”. The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border had been due to open on Friday. When the crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal.
More than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to an update from the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza on Friday. 4,137 people have lost their lives, it said, while more than 13,000 people have been injured. More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave.
At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Greek Orthodox church compound in Gaza on Thursday. Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter in the church from Israeli bombardments. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike, which it said constituted a war crime.
The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee campin the West Bank. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted on 7 October, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
The Egyptian foreign ministry has accused “western media” of targeting the country about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
An Israeli airstrike on Friday targeted three Hezbollah militants near the Lebanese border, Israel’s military said.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said two more of its staff have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total number to 16 since the war began.
Most of the 200 or so people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli military said on Friday. The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60. There are also between 100 and 200 people considered missing since the Hamas attacks, the army added.
Joe Biden has drawn a direct, provocative link between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel in only the second Oval Office address of his presidency. The White House on Friday asked Congress for nearly $106bn to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and US border security, but offered no strategy for securing the money from a broken Congress.
Police in London say they have recorded a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared with the same period last year, while Islamophobic offences were up 140% after the attack by Hamas on Israel.
The UK government has said that pro-Palestine marchers attending demonstrations scheduled to take place around the UK this weekend have a right to protest but should “be mindful” of the “fear and distress felt by many families in this country”.
The world’s biggest network of climate change campaign groups has issued a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the end to the occupation of Palestine.
Climate Action Network International, a coalition of more than 1,900 civil society organisations campaigning on the climate crisis in 130 countries, said it condemned “all killing, indiscriminate attacks, civilian hostage taking and arbitrary detention of any civilians”.
Insisting the network stood “in solidarity with Palestinian, Israeli and all families who have lost loved ones in this latest conflict”, the statement, issued on Friday, said:
Our work is motivated by our deep commitment to achieve climate and social justice, and the certainty that this can only be achieved if human rights, everyone’s human rights, are upheld. There can be no climate justice without human rights.
We join the calls for an immediate ceasefire, respect for international humanitarian and human rights’ law, the provision of humanitarian access and support.
There can be no peace without justice. The end of the occupation of Palestine is a precondition to ensure a sustained and long-lasting solution.
CAN’s statement comes nearly a week after Friends of the Earth International released a statement denouncing Israel’s occupation and ongoing assault on Gaza, saying:
This attack on the civilian population of Gaza is a war crime and must stop immediately.
Western officials are voicing mounting concern over the risk of a regional “spillover” from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as US forces in the region come under repeated drone attack, including in Iraq.
Amid indications that Israel may be poised to launch a major ground offensive into Gaza, and escalating tensions on Israel’s boundary with Lebanon,Iranian proxies in particular appeared to be stepping up their threats.
The Ain al-Asad airbase, which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, was targeted by drones and missiles on Thursday evening, according to security sources. Multiple blasts were reportedly heard inside the base.
The Iraqi military said it had closed the area around the base and started a search operation. It was not clear yet whether the attacks had caused casualties or damages.
The assault came after rockets hit another military base hosting US forces near Baghdad’s international airport on Thursday, according to Iraqi police.
US military forces in Iraq were also targeted on Wednesday in two separate drone attacks, with one causing minor injuries to a small number of troops even though the US military managed to intercept the armed drone.
On Wednesday, a drone hit US forces in Syria, resulting in minor injuries, while another one was brought down.
Earlier on Thursday, the USS Carney, a navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen.
A Pentagon spokesperson told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the US had not finished its assessment of what they were targeting. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the US military in the defence of Israel in this conflict.
Lebanon’s national carrier says it is cutting more than half of its flights as tensions along the border with Israel prompt more western countries to warn against travel to Lebanon.
On Friday, Mohammad El-Hout, chairman of Middle East Airlines (MEA), said only eight of the company’s 22 planes would operate as of next week, with the rest of the fleet relocated to other airports.
“More than half of the company’s flights will be cancelled,” Hout said during a televised interview from Beirut’s airport, which was knocked out during the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group.
The decision came after changes to the company’s insurance coverage after the 7 October Hamas attack, he said.
Other airlines, including Swiss International Air Lines and Germany’s Lufthansa, have already temporarily suspended Beirut flights, as western countries urge their nationals to leave Lebanon.
On Friday, Belgium became the latest country to issue a Lebanon travel advisory, following similar moves by the US, Britain, France, Australia, Canada and other nations.
The White House on Friday asked Congress for nearly $106bn to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and US border security, but offered no strategy for securing the money from a broken Congress.
President Joe Biden’s request for the funding comes days after he visited Israel and pledged solidarity as the country bombards Gaza following an attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel.
By grouping Israel funding with Ukraine, border security, refugee assistance, measures to counter China and other hotly debated priorities, Biden is hoping he has created a must-pass national security spending bill that can win support in a chaotic House of Representatives.
The chamber, which Republicans won control of last year, has been without a leader for more than two weeks.
Some Republican lawmakers have grown skeptical of the need to fund Ukraine’s war with Russia, and have threatened to halt government altogether to put an end to debt-fuelled fiscal spending.
“The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities,” said Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, in a letter to the acting House speaker, Patrick McHenry. “I urge Congress to address them as part of a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement in the weeks ahead.”
Police in London say they have recorded a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared with the same period last year, while Islamophobic offences were up 140% after the attack by Hamas on Israel.
Police in the British capital have ramped up patrols amid growing tensions, but said there had been 218 antisemitic offences between 1 October and 18 October, compared with 15 in the same period in 2022. Islamophobic offences were up to 101, from 42.
“This includes abuse directed at individuals or groups in person or online, racially or religiously motivated criminal damage and other offences.”
Officers have made 21 arrests for hate crime offences, including a man detained for defacing posters of missing Israelis and another over Islamophobic graffiti on bus stops.
The Community Security Trust, a charity that advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said it had recorded 457 antisemitic incidents across the UK between Hamas’s attack on 7 October and 18 October.
TellMama, which monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said it had received 200 cases up to 16 October.
“The conflict is having a direct impact on London and Londoners, with increasing cases of abhorrent Islamophobia and antisemitism seen in the capital,” said the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
Pro-Palestine marchers have a right to protest but should “be mindful” of the “fear and distress felt by many families in this country”, says the British government
The British government has said that pro-Palestine marchers attending demonstrations scheduled to take place around the UK this weekend have a right to protest but should “be mindful” of the “fear and distress felt by many families in this country”.
The comments by a spokesperson for Rishi Sunak are a subtle shift in the government’s tone from last week, when the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said there should be a “pause” in such protest after the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
“We’re clear that people must remain free to peacefully express their views, and protest is an important part of our democracy, but we also recognise that this is clearly a deeply distressing time for many,” a Downing Street spokesperson told reporters on Friday.
“And we would appeal to everyone across the country and those who are considering joining these protests to be mindful of that – and to consider the fear and distress felt by many families in this country over the distressing events that we’ve seen.”
The comments came as the Metropolitan police said 1,000 officers would be deployed in London for what is expected to be a major protest in the city organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
In a statement, the force said that anyone wearing, carrying or otherwise displaying symbols that are supportive of a banned organisation could be arrested, adding that the same would be true for chanting.
“One particular chant that has been the subject of extensive discussion is: ‘Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.’ This is a chant that has been frequently heard at pro-Palestinian demonstrations for many years. We are well aware of the strength of feeling in relation to it,” it added.
“While we can envisage scenarios where chanting these words could be unlawful, such as outside a synagogue or Jewish school, or directly at a Jewish person or group intended to intimidate, it is likely that its use in a wider protest setting, such as we anticipate this weekend, would not be an offence and would not result in arrests.”
Board of Deputies of British Jews meets BBC director general
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has put out a statement after a meeting today with Tim Davie, the BBC director general.
The BBC confirmed it was committed to continued dialogue. It also confirmed it is no longer BBC practice to call Hamas militants. Instead, the BBC describes the group as a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK government and others, or simply as Hamas.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the board of deputies, said:
We emphasised our outrage at the refusal of the BBC to describe Hamas’ barbaric actions as terrorism and the damaging, false report of the rocket which killed innocent civilians. We will both continue dialogue as well as pursuing legal avenues.
Germany’s interior minister says Hamas supporters should be deported from the country where possible, adding that authorities would keep a close eye on potential Islamist attackers.
“If we are able to deport Hamas supporters, we must do this,” Nancy Faeser told reporters following talks with officials at the Federal Criminal Police Office.
“Our security authorities have currently placed an even stronger focus on the Islamist scene,” Faeser added, pointing to a recent attack in Brussels as an indication of the threat relating to tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has flown to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, as Israel’s bombardment continued ahead of a looming ground offensive.
The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border was due to open on Friday under an agreement Joe Biden believed he had brokered on his one-day visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. But the US state department said on Thursday that the “modalities” of opening the gate were still being negotiated, and the Egyptian government said it needed more time to repair the bomb-damaged road.
Guterres called for significant deliveries of aid to be let through and for security checks to be speeded up. “We are actively engaging with all parties to make sure conditions for delivering aid are lifted,” he said.
Thousands of Jordanians rally in support of Hamas
Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to intensify their strikes on Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital and around the country on Friday to protest against Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.
More than 6,000 people took part in the protest in downtown Amman arranged by opposition parties and tribal groups in a kingdom where passions are running high since the escalation of violence between Palestinians and Israel.
“Oh Hamas, hit them with al-Qassam rockets ... Bring the suicide bombers to Tel Aviv,” they chanted, referring to the military wing of Hamas.
In Amman on Friday, several thousand people also gathered near the Israeli embassy, a common spot for anti-Israel protests at times of turmoil in the Palestinian territories. “No Jewish embassy on Arab land!” protesters chanted.
Riot police blocked roads leading to the fortified embassy complex to keep back demonstrators who gathered around the nearby Kaloti mosque in the capital.
Authorities in Jordan earlier this week quelled rioting around the Israeli embassy and said they would not tolerate any attempt by mobs who sought to exploit anger against Israel to create havoc.
On the outskirts of the capital, hundreds of anti-riot police blocked all roads leading to Jordan Valley opposite the West Bank, where activists had called for large protests.
More than 2,000 protesters who were prevented from heading to the border called on the authorities to allow them to join the fight alongside Hamas.
In the southern city of Karak, hundreds of protesters gathered at a checkpoint on a highway leading to the border chanting pro-Hamas slogans.
Many of Jordan’s 10 million citizens are of Palestinian descent. They or their parents were expelled or fled to Jordan in the fighting that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.
They have close ties with family on the other side of the Jordan River in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. (Via Reuters)
The Egyptian foreign ministry has accused “western media” of targeting the country about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
On the social media site X, formally known as Twitter, the Egyptian foreign minister said the media were “Promoting displacement scenario, holding Egypt responsible for the Crossing closure despite Israeli targeted attacks and refusal of aid entry and recently insinuating Egypt responsibility for obstructing third-country nationals exit.”
It added: “Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible for obstructing third-country nationals exit.” A subsequent tweet said: “The opportunity is available tomorrow to change course and awaken the conscience.”
The Egyptian foreign ministry has accused “western media” of targeting the country about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
On the social media site X, formally known as Twitter, the Egyptian foreign minister said the media were “Promoting displacement scenario, holding Egypt responsible for the Crossing closure despite Israeli targeted attacks and refusal of aid entry and recently insinuating Egypt responsibility for obstructing third-country nationals exit.”
It added: “Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible for obstructing third-country nationals exit.” A subsequent tweet said: “The opportunity is available tomorrow to change course and awaken the conscience.”
Board of Deputies of British Jews meets BBC director general
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has put out a statement after a meeting today with Tim Davie, the BBC director general.
The BBC confirmed it was committed to continued dialogue. It also confirmed it is no longer BBC practice to call Hamas militants. Instead, the BBC describes the group as a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK government and others, or simply as Hamas.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the board of deputies, said:
We emphasised our outrage at the refusal of the BBC to describe Hamas’ barbaric actions as terrorism and the damaging, false report of the rocket which killed innocent civilians. We will both continue dialogue as well as pursuing legal avenues.
German interior minister calls for deportation of Hamas supporters
Germany’s interior minister says Hamas supporters should be deported from the country where possible, adding that authorities would keep a close eye on potential Islamist attackers.
“If we are able to deport Hamas supporters, we must do this,” Nancy Faeser told reporters following talks with officials at the Federal Criminal Police Office.
“Our security authorities have currently placed an even stronger focus on the Islamist scene,” Faeser added, pointing to a recent attack in Brussels as an indication of the threat relating to tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has flown to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, as Israel’s bombardment continued ahead of a looming ground offensive.
The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border was due to open on Friday under an agreement Joe Biden believed he had brokered on his one-day visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. But the US state department said on Thursday that the “modalities” of opening the gate were still being negotiated, and the Egyptian government said it needed more time to repair the bomb-damaged road.
Guterres called for significant deliveries of aid to be let through and for security checks to be speeded up. “We are actively engaging with all parties to make sure conditions for delivering aid are lifted,” he said.
Thousands of Jordanians rally in support of Hamas
Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to intensify their strikes on Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital and around the country on Friday to protest against Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.
More than 6,000 people took part in the protest in downtown Amman arranged by opposition parties and tribal groups in a kingdom where passions are running high since the escalation of violence between Palestinians and Israel.
“Oh Hamas, hit them with al-Qassam rockets ... Bring the suicide bombers to Tel Aviv,” they chanted, referring to the military wing of Hamas.
In Amman on Friday, several thousand people also gathered near the Israeli embassy, a common spot for anti-Israel protests at times of turmoil in the Palestinian territories. “No Jewish embassy on Arab land!” protesters chanted.
Riot police blocked roads leading to the fortified embassy complex to keep back demonstrators who gathered around the nearby Kaloti mosque in the capital.
Authorities in Jordan earlier this week quelled rioting around the Israeli embassy and said they would not tolerate any attempt by mobs who sought to exploit anger against Israel to create havoc.
On the outskirts of the capital, hundreds of anti-riot police blocked all roads leading to Jordan Valley opposite the West Bank, where activists had called for large protests.
More than 2,000 protesters who were prevented from heading to the border called on the authorities to allow them to join the fight alongside Hamas.
In the southern city of Karak, hundreds of protesters gathered at a checkpoint on a highway leading to the border chanting pro-Hamas slogans.
Many of Jordan’s 10 million citizens are of Palestinian descent. They or their parents were expelled or fled to Jordan in the fighting that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.
They have close ties with family on the other side of the Jordan River in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. (Via Reuters)
The Egyptian foreign ministry has accused “western media” of targeting the country about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
On the social media site X, formally known as Twitter, the Egyptian foreign minister said the media were “Promoting displacement scenario, holding Egypt responsible for the Crossing closure despite Israeli targeted attacks and refusal of aid entry and recently insinuating Egypt responsibility for obstructing third-country nationals exit.”
It added: “Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible for obstructing third-country nationals exit.” A subsequent tweet said: “The opportunity is available tomorrow to change course and awaken the conscience.”
Russia is urging its citizens to refrain from travelling to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon or Jordan, the foreign ministry said on its website on Friday.
It added in a statement:
We continue to work closely with the Egyptian and Israeli authorities to ensure the exit from the Gaza Strip of Russian citizens who have asked for assistance in evacuating.
(Reuters)
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has spoken by video link-up to families of the French hostages held by Hamas.
He said he, along with every service of the French state, was fully mobilised to obtain their liberation. The Elysée said Macron had told the families of the hostages: “Everything will be done for them to come back safe and sound to France.”
More than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to the latest update from the Gaza health authorities. They said that 4,137 people have lost their lives, while more than 13,000 people have been injured.
Israel doesn’t plan to control ‘life in Gaza’ after destroying Hamas, says defence minister
Israel’s defence minister has said that after the country destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”.
Yoav Gallant’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
Gallant said Israel expected there to be three phases to its war with Hamas. He said the first would be an attack on the group in Gaza with airstrikes and ground operations, then it would defeat pockets of resistance and finally it would cease its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip”. (Via AP)
Israel will also “establish a new security regime”, he said.
“October 7 is the day that started the process of destroying Hamas,” Gallant said, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. He added that the war will be divided into three phases, the first of which is “a military campaign by fire and later by tactical manoeuvre, the purpose of which will be to assassinate operatives and damage infrastructure” to destroy Hamas.
After that, Gallant said, the fighting will continue “at a lower intensity.” The final stage of the campaign will include “the creation of a new security regime in the Gaza Strip, the removal of Israel’s responsibility for life in the Strip and the creation of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel,” the defense minister said.
“The majority of the hostages are alive. There were also dead bodies that were taken … to the Gaza Strip,” an army statement said.
The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60.
There are also between 100 and 200 people considered missing since the Hamas attacks, the army added.
My colleagues Angelique Chrisafis, Ashifa Kassam, Kate Connolly and Angela Giuffrida have written this piece about the fears of some Jewish communities around Europe in the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel:
In the usually bustling “Little Jerusalem” area of Sarcelles, north of Paris, the popular falafel and grill restaurant was eerily quiet. “People are not going out,” said Jérémy, the 33-year-old restaurant owner.
Lunchtime and evening crowds are common in one of the largest Jewish communities on the Paris outskirts. But many thought it wiser to stay home, fearing a growing number of antisemitic incidents in France and across Europe since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.
UN chief visits Egypt’s Rafah crossing ahead of Gaza aid delivery
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza to oversee preparations for the delivery of aid to the war-torn territory.
Cargo planes and trucks have been bringing humanitarian aid to Rafah for days, but so far none has been delivered to the Gaza Strip, which Israel has besieged and bombed for 13 days.
“We are actively engaging with all the parties, with Egypt, Israel, the United States... in order to have these trucks moving as soon as possible,” Guterres told journalists on Friday.
Rafah is the only crossing into the blockaded Palestinian territory that is not controlled by Israel, which agreed to allow aid to enter after a request from the US.
Earlier on Friday, the UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the first aid delivery via the Rafah crossing should take place “in the next day or so”.
Guterres said there was an “absolute need to have these trucks moving as soon as possible and as many as necessary”, adding that “this must be a sustained effort”.
“We are not looking for one convoy to come but we are looking for convoys to be authorised in a meaningful number to have enough trucks to provide support to Gaza’s people,” the UN chief said.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says two more of its staff have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total number to 16 since the war began.
An Israeli air strike on Friday targeted three Hezbollah militants near the Lebanese border, Israel’s military said.
“Three Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the area of the border with Lebanon. Israel Defence Forces aircraft struck the terrorists,” it said.
“In addition, a short while ago, IDF snipers opened fire toward gunmen that were identified operating in the area of the border with Lebanon.”
At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Greek Orthodox church compound in Gaza.
The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank.
The Israeli military says it attacked more than 100 operational targets in the Gaza Strip overnight.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
The first delivery of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt should take place “in the next day or so”, the UN has said.
The UN has also warned that any escalation of military activities in the Gaza Strip would be “catastrophic” for people there.
The Dutch government has joined other countries in advising its citizens against any travel to Lebanon and also urged those still in the country “to leave Lebanon as soon as possible”.
