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Key points
- Israel wants hostages freed before its siege of the Gaza Strip ends. Israel has identified 97 of them.
- An Israeli military spokesman told reporters that forces “are preparing for a ground manoeuvre” should political leaders order one.
- Israel’s death toll had risen to more than 1300. More than 1400 Palestinians have been killed.
- The Israeli government has posted images that appear to show babies murdered and burned by Hamas terrorists.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on a trip to show solidarity.
Jerusalem/Gaza/Tel Aviv: Israel said there would be no pause in its siege of the Gaza Strip for aid or evacuations until all its hostages were freed, as Washington urged it to protect civilians and the Red Cross warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, arriving in Tel Aviv on a trip to show solidarity, told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America would always be by Israel’s side and give security assistance, but he urged Israel to show restraint “even when it’s difficult”.
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said there would be no exceptions to the siege without freedom for Israeli hostages.
“No electrical switch will be lifted, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home. Humanitarian for humanitarian. And nobody should preach us morals,” Katz posted on social media platform X.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip, in retribution for the deadliest attack on civilians in Israeli history, when hundreds of gunmen crossed the barrier and rampaged through towns on Saturday.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that forces “are preparing for a ground manoeuvre” should political leaders order one. A ground offensive in Gaza, where the population is densely packed into a sliver of land only 40 kilometres long, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.
Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel.Credit: AP
Public broadcaster Kan said the Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1300. Most were civilians gunned down in their homes, on the streets or at a dance party. Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza; Israel says it has identified 97 of them.
Israel has responded so far by putting Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, under total siege and launching by far the most powerful bombing campaign in the 75-year-old history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, destroying whole neighbourhoods. Gaza authorities said more than 1400 Palestinians have been killed and more than 6000 have been wounded.
The head of the Israeli military, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said lessons would be drawn from the security failures around Gaza that enabled the attack.
“The IDF is responsible for defending the country and its citizens, and Saturday morning, in the area around Gaza, we did not live up to it,” he said. “We will learn, investigate, but now is the time for war.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals in Gaza could run out within hours.
“Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said. “The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians.”
Egypt, which has a single border crossing with Gaza, said it was trying to allow in aid there.
‘Thank you, America’
In the biggest sign yet of the conflict potentially spilling across borders, Syria said Israeli air strikes had hit the airports in Damascus and Aleppo, putting both out of service. The Israeli military said it does not comment on such reports. Syria is a close ally of Iran, which sponsors Hamas and has celebrated the attacks while denying a direct role.
Standing beside Netanyahu, Blinken said: “You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourself. But as long as America exists, you will never ever have to. We will always be there by your side.”
Netanyahu said: “Thank you, America, for standing with Israel, today, tomorrow and always.”
Blinken also offered an emotional, personal aside, recounting how his own grandfather had fled pogroms in Russia and his stepfather survived Nazi concentration camps.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to a dual US-Israeli citizen, as he visits a donation centre for victims of the Hamas terror attacks.Credit: AP
“I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’ massacres carry for Israeli Jews, indeed, for Jews everywhere,” he said.
“We democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for a different standard, even when it’s difficult. That’s why it’s so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”
Blinken will visit Jordan to meet King Abdullah and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority which operates limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Abbas, whose Fatah faction is a longstanding foe of Hamas, condemned violence against civilians on both sides on Thursday.
“We reject the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides because they contravene morals, religion and international law,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Abbas as saying.
Scores of Israelis gathered in Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery to bury their dead.
“When you didn’t take my call, I knew you were fighting with all your power. When I realised you were missing, I could not imagine this is how it would end,” one mourner said.
In Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis, where cemeteries were already full, dead were being buried in empty lots, like the Samour family, killed on Wednesday night in a strike that hit their house.
Relatives and friends found eight bodies at the morgue, with 10 more still believed to lie under the rubble. The bodies were driven from the hospital in a truck covered with flowery blankets, and lined up in white shrouds at a lot down the street from their destroyed home. Hundreds of men prayed nearby.
In Gaza’s Al Shati refugee camp, residents were sifting through rubble with their bare hands looking for survivors and bodies. Rescue workers say they lack fuel and equipment to dig.
While Washington has strongly backed Israel, Blinken’s plan to meet Abbas shows it is still mindful of Palestinian grievances, strongly felt by Arab allies.
Gazans, mainly descendants of refugees who fled or were expelled from homes in Israel at its founding in 1948, have suffered economic collapse and repeated Israeli bombardment under a blockade since Hamas seized power there 16 years ago.
Palestinians evacuate wounded after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip.Credit: AP
Palestinian anger has mounted in recent months, with Israel carrying out the deadliest crackdown for years in the West Bank and its right-wing government talking of seizing more land.
A peace process meant to create a Palestinian state collapsed a decade ago, which Palestinian leaders say left the population with no hope, strengthening extremists.
Infant death pictures
The Israeli government has posted images that appear to show babies murdered and burnt by Hamas militants, which have emerged as a point of debate days after the massacre at Kfar Aza kibbutz on Saturday.
The distressing images appear to show a bloodstained infant body, as well as small, entirely burnt bodies.
The photos appear to confirm multiple deaths of infants at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
“This is the most difficult image we’ve ever posted,” Israel posted on social media platform X.
“As we are writing this we are shaking … We went back and forth about posting this, but we need each and every one of you to know. This happened.”
Earlier this week, as news broke of the Hamas attack on civilians at the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, an Israeli journalist, citing the Israeli Defence Force, described “bodies of babies with their heads cut off”. A figure of 40 then began circulating.
The IDF this week said in a statement: “We cannot confirm any numbers. What happened in Kibbutz Kfar Aza is a massacre in which women, children and toddlers and elderly were brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”
The uncertainty around the report has fuelled debate online. Since then, voices on social media have both amplified and in some cases denied the report.
US President Joe Biden cited the images, before the White House clarified that the leader had based his comments on what he’d been told by Israeli officials.
More coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Surprise attack: Hamas terrorists fired up to 5000 rockets from Gaza into Israel on October 7, triggering a declaration of war. Read our guide to the militant group and why it’s at war with Israel.
- The Iron Dome explained: How did Hamas breach Israel’s sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system? And why didn’t Israel’s intelligence services see these attacks coming?
- Tragedy in Israel: A 66-year-old Sydney woman has been killed and is the first known Australian casualty. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says the woman’s family in Israel and Australia is receiving consular assistance.
- What’s next: International editor Peter Hartcher joins the Please Explain podcast to analyse the escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip – and explain why a much bigger conflict is afoot.
Reuters, AP with Chris Zappone
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