LIVE

Israel-Hamas war LIVE: US President Joe Biden to visit Israel on October 18

"At our request, the US and Israel have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza," Blinken said.
An Israeli armoured vehicle rolls in a field close to the border with the Gaza Strip on October 15, 2023, amid the ongoing battle between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. (Photo | AFP)
An Israeli armoured vehicle rolls in a field close to the border with the Gaza Strip on October 15, 2023, amid the ongoing battle between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. (Photo | AFP)
Online Desk

US President Joe Biden will pay a solidarity visit to Israel on Wednesday following the Hamas attacks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced, as he also said Israel and Washington had agreed to develop a plan for aid to Gaza.

Blinken spoke after meeting for nearly eight hours at the defence ministry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the top US diplomat's second visit since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

"The president will reaffirm United States solidarity with Israel and our ironclad commitment to its security," Blinken said early Tuesday in Tel Aviv.

US President Joe Biden speaks about his Bidenomics agenda at Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 2023. (Photo | AFP)
US President Joe Biden speaks about his Bidenomics agenda at Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 2023. (Photo | AFP)

Biden hopes to "hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimises civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hama," Blinken said.

"At our request, the United States and Israel have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza," Blinken said.

The war between Israel and the Hamas militants entered its 11th day on October 17. The war has claimed over 4,000 lives since it began last Saturday. These include around 1,400 Israelis and 2,750 Palestinians.

The current war has already claimed thousands of lives on both sides and the conflict is expected to escalate further.

Fuel, basic supplies to run out in 24 hrs at Gaza hospitals as invasion looms

Hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents moved from the northern half of the territory in response to Israel's evacuation order ahead of their expected ground offensive.

Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of US warships in the region, are currently positioned along Gaza’s border, readying for a Gaza ground invasion aimed at destroying Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that unleashed the bloodiest attack in the country's history.

Palestinians in the besieged coastal strip are desperate after Israel cut off the flow of food, medicine, water and electricity to Gaza until Hamas released Israeli hostages.

Fuel reserves in hospitals across Gaza are only expected to last another 24 hours, the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) warned in its update on Sunday.

In Chicago, a 71-year-old Illinois man was accused of killing a 6-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy Wadea Al-Fayoume and seriously wounding his 32-year-old woman, on Sunday. Police allege he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.

In the nine days since Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,300 Israelis in their unexpected onslaught, Israel has responded with a devastating bombing campaign that has claimed over 2,300 lives in Gaza.

The immediate trigger was Hamas firing thousands of rockets and sending fighters --- through land, air and sea --- into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip during a major Jewish holiday (Simchat Torah) on October 7 in a deadly, surprise offensive branded "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood".

Here are highlights

Gaza is running out of water: WHO

UK unveils GBP 10 million aid for Palestinian civilians caught up in conflict

Addressing members of Parliament in the House of Commons, Sunak delivered a statement to reiterate the UK's condemnation of Hamas' actions in both Israel and Gaza, and called for immediate access for humanitarian organisations to be allowed to deliver life-saving aid. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT

  • "We should call it by its name: it was a pogrom," Sunak said.

  • "I'm proud that we are a longstanding and significant provider of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people. And I can announce today that we are increasing our aid by a third, with an additional GBP 10 million of support," he said.

  • "We are committed to supporting the Palestinian people, they are victims of Hamas too. This funding will provide vital, lifesaving support to Palestinian civilians who are caught up in this conflict and are in desperate need of help," said UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

    • 'Price will be high, but we are going to win', says Israel defence minister to Blinken

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant make brief statements to the media at The Kirya, Israel's Ministry of Defense, on Oct. 16, 2023, in Tel Aviv (Photo | AP)
    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant make brief statements to the media at The Kirya, Israel's Ministry of Defense, on Oct. 16, 2023, in Tel Aviv (Photo | AP)

    Israel's defence minister told visiting United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday to expect a long but successful campaign against Hamas militants.

    "Let me tell you, Mr Secretary, this will be a long war, the price will be high, but we are going to win -- for Israel, for the Jewish people and for the values that both countries believe in," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

    Hezbollah destroys Israeli surveillance cameras along the Lebanese border

  • Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said it has started destroying surveillance cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border.

  • Hezbollah’s military media arm released a video showing snipers shooting at and destroying surveillance cameras placed on five points along the Lebanon-Israel border including one outside the Israeli town of Metula.

  • Biden postpones trip to Colorado, fueling speculation of Israel trip

    • Israel military confirms 199 hostages abducted by Hamas in cross-border attacks

  • The Israeli military on Monday raised the figure to 199 people confirmed to have been abduced by Hamas to the Gaza Strip in the militants' cross-border attacks which sparked a devastating war. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed.

    • Gaza is being strangled: UN

  • The U.N.'s Palestinian refugee agency says Gaza “is being strangled” and the number of people seeking shelter at their schools and facilities in the south of the territory is overwhelming.

  • “If we look at the issue of water — we all know water is life — Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA at a news conference in Jerusalem on Sunday. (AP)

    • Photos from the ground

    Palestinian civil defense officers mourn over the body of one of their colleagues who arrived dead at the Shifa hospital, after Israeli airstrikes targeted a civil defense site in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, early Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. (AP)
    Palestinian civil defense officers mourn over the body of one of their colleagues who arrived dead at the Shifa hospital, after Israeli airstrikes targeted a civil defense site in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, early Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. (AP)
    A press photographer takes an image from the edge of a large crater following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, in the southern of Gaza Strip, on October 16, 2023. (AP)
    A press photographer takes an image from the edge of a large crater following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, in the southern of Gaza Strip, on October 16, 2023. (AP)

    WHO says lifesaving aid is awaiting entry at Rafah crossing

  • The World Health Organization said lifesaving assistance, including health supplies to serve 300,000 patients, is awaiting entry through the Rafah crossing into Gaza.

  • The crossing was closed because of airstrikes earlier in the war, and U.S. has been trying to broker a deal to reopen the crossing to allow foreigners to leave and allow in humanitarian aid amassed on the Egyptian side.

  • WHO said four hospitals in northern Gaza are no longer functioning as a result of damage and 21 hospitals are under an Israeli evacuation order. (AP)

    • Israel orders people near Lebanon border to evacuate

  • The Israeli military has ordered people living in 28 communities near the Lebanese border to evacuate.

  • The order Monday comes as there’s been increasing cross-border fire between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. (AP)

    • Israeli forces offer corridors, more time for evacuation

  • Israel's military said it would not target a specific route south for several hours, again urging Palestinians to leave the north en masse.

  • The military offered two corridors and a longer window the day before.

  • It says hundreds of thousands have already fled south. (AP)

    • Identifying Hamas victims is a new ordeal for Israel

  • When Rabbi Israel Weiss opens the doors of the refrigerated containers holding the bodies of hundreds of victims of the Hamas attacks the smell is overwhelming

  • The former military chief rabbi came out of retirement to become one of the leaders of an Israeli operation to identify the more than 1,400 dead from the raids by Hamas fighters on October 7

  • Hundreds of bodies waiting to be identified or to be taken for burial are stored in containers lined up in the base next to a tent where the teams work.

  • "I open the door to the cooling containers, I see the bodies I smell the odour, I let it fill my lungs and my heart but what I feel is their pain and the loss," said the rabbi. (AFP)

    • Covered with the Israeli flag, the body of Antonio Macias, killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival in southern Israel, is buried at Pardes Haim cemetery in Kfar Saba, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)
    Covered with the Israeli flag, the body of Antonio Macias, killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival in southern Israel, is buried at Pardes Haim cemetery in Kfar Saba, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)

    Israel-Lebanon border fire stokes fears of wider war

  • Analysts have said Hezbollah is more likely to scale up its involvement if Israel launches a ground offensive of Gaza.

  • Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, warned Sunday that a ground offensive could expand the scope of the conflict elsewhere in the Middle East.

  • "No one can guarantee the control of the situation and the non-expansion of the conflicts," said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. (AFP)

    • READ FULL REPORTHERE

    Palestinian children look at the building of the Zanon family, destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 14, 2023. (ap)
    Palestinian children look at the building of the Zanon family, destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 14, 2023. (ap)

    One million Palestinians forced to flee as Israel readies to invade Gaza

    WATCH: Global Express | Hamas attack: Harakiri? Or genius? Or playing into Israel’s hands?

    Biden says killing of Muslim boy in US a 'horrific act of hate'

  • US President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the deadly stabbing attack against a six-year-old Muslim boy as a "horrific act of hate."

  • "This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are," Biden said, adding he was praying for the recovery of the boy's mother, who was also severely wounded in the attack. (AFP)

    • Biden says Israeli occupation of Gaza would be 'big mistake'

  • Any move by Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip again would be a "big mistake," US President Joe Biden said in an interview.

  • Asked by CBS news program 60 Minutes if he would support any occupation of Gaza by the American ally, Biden replied: "I think it'd be a big mistake."

  • Hamas "don't represent all the Palestinian people," he continued.

  • But invading and "taking out the extremists" is a "necessary requirement," he added. (AFP)

    • US president Joe Biden (AP)
    US president Joe Biden (AP)

    Man killed Palestinian Muslim boy, wounded his mother in hate crime motivated by Israeli-Hamas war, police say

  • A 71-year-old Illinois man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman was charged with a hate crime Sunday.

  • Police allege he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.

  • Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said: “To take a six-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil."

  • "Wadea should be heading to school in the morning. Instead, his parents will wake up without their son. This wasn’t just a murder—it was a hate crime. And every single Illinoisan — including our Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian neighbors — deserves to live free from the threat of such evil.” (AP)

    • READ FULL REPORT HERE

    Key Developments | Day 10 of the war: Thousands will die, warn medics; water runs out at UN shelters

    1. Hospitals in Gaza are packed with wounded people

    2. They are running desperately low on fuel and basic supplies

    3. Hospitals in Gaza are expected to run out of generator fuel within a day: UN

    4. Gaza’s sole power plant shut down after Israel sealed off the 40-km long territory

    A Palestinian child wounded during an Israeli airstrike receives medical treatment at al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)
    A Palestinian child wounded during an Israeli airstrike receives medical treatment at al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)

    5. Water has run out at UN shelters across Gaza

    6. Fighting along Israel's border with Lebanon intensified on Sunday

    7. Hezbollah militants fired rockets, an anti-tank missile; Israel responded with airstrikes, shelling

    8. David Satterfield, former US ambassador to Turkey, to be special envoy for getting aid to Palestine

    9. Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has not evacuated despite Israeli orders

    10. There were seven newborns in the ICU hooked up to ventilators, a doctor at the hospital said.

    11. Shifa hospital in Gaza City to bury 100 bodies in a mass grave after morgue overflowed.

    12. Israel has ordered people near Lebanon border to be evacuated (AP)

    TNIE LIVE COVERAGE

    1. Read our coverage of the war on Oct 12 HERE (Day 6 of the latest war)

    2. Read our coverage of the war on OCT 13, 14 HERE (Days 7, 8 of the latest war)

    3. Read our coverage of the war on Oct 15 HERE (Day 9 of the latest war)

    Israel
    Palestine
    Gaza
    Joe Biden
    Hamas

    Related Stories

    No stories found.

    X
    The New Indian Express
    www.newindianexpress.com