Rishi Sunak confirms 6 Britons dead and 10 missing after Hamas ‘pogrom’ in Israel – live
The PM’s statement will be followed by a Commons session where MPs will debate the UK’s involvement
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Rishi Sunak has provided an update on the number of Britons missing or killed as a result of the conflict in an address to Parliament today: 6 dead and ten missing.
It comes after the prime minister’s visit to a Jewish school in north London, where he repeated his belief that Israel has “every right to defend itself and its people to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again”.
He added that in his conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he had also raised the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where 2,700 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 people wounded in retaliatory airstrikes.
Mr Sunak’s statement to the Commons is expected to set out how the UK is aiding British nationals caught in the fighting and supporting Israel, as well as detailing the response to the impact on Palestinians trapped in the strip.
Hospitals across Gaza are expected to run out of fuel, while international aid is being held up in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula pending a deal to ensure its safe delivery.
Israel targets Hamas tunnels in Gaza City
Israel’s ground forces in the Gaza Strip aimed on Wednesday to locate and disable Hamas’s tunnel network beneath the enclave.
Israeli forces said on Tuesday that they have encircled the Gaza City – the territory’s largest town and Hamas’s main stronghold.
Chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Israel’s combat engineering corps was using explosive devices to destroy a tunnel network built by Hamas that stretches for hundreds of kilometres beneath Gaza.
Defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel had “one target - Hamas terrorists in Gaza, their infrastructure, their commanders, bunkers, communications rooms”.
Israeli ambassador says Ireland is not ‘politically neutral’ in Gaza conflict
The Israeli Ambassador in Dublin has said she does not believe Ireland is politically neutral in respect of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as she warned of a rising “wave of antisemitism” internationally.
Dana Erlich, who took up the Dublin role less than three months ago, said she was familiar with pro-Palestinian sentiment throughout Ireland and political parties.
However, she said she was “surprised” by the public reaction to October 7 and the ongoing conflict.
She said she did not hear protesters condemn Hamas or call for the release of hostages.
Asked if the perception of Ireland being pro-Palestinian meant it could play a role as an interlocutor in resolving the conflict, Ms Erlich said she did not know if Ireland “wants to play that part”.
Read more:
Israeli ambassador says Ireland is not ‘politically neutral’ in Gaza conflict
The Embassy of Israel in Ireland screened a graphic video showing killings carried out during Hamas’ October 7 attack.
Canadian poet Rupi Kaur snubs White House over Israel support
Rupi Kaur, a renowned Canadian poet of Indian descent, has publicly declined an invitation to attend a Diwali event to be hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Wednesday.
In a statement posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), Ms Kaur wrote that she’d received her invitation “a few days ago” and remarked that she was “surprised this administration finds it acceptable to celebrate Diwali, when their support of the current atrocities against Palestinians represent the exact opposite of what this holiday means to many of us”.
Andrew Feinberg has more.
Canadian poet Rupi Kaur snubs White House over Israel support
Vice President Harris will host a Diwali celebration on 8 November
Over 200 Germans and 40 Filipinos flee Gaza through Rafah crossing
More than 200 Germans and dozens of Filipinos fled from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Rafah crossing.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed in a social media post that more than 200 German nationals and their family members have left the Gaza Strip.
Ms Baerbock thanked Egypt for its assistance in helping the Germans leave the besieged coastal enclave where more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military.
The 40 Filipinos were traveling to the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where they planned to take flights back to the Philippines, president Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a video message on Wednesday.
Two Filipino doctors managed to leave the Gaza Strip into Egypt last week.“I hope the rest of our countrymen who also wanted to return home can also exit properly with their spouses and loved ones,” Mr Marcos added.
Brit trapped in Gaza describes ‘desperate’ scenes at Rafah crossing
A British citizen in Gaza has described the desperate scenes at the Egyptian border that has opened for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Mohamed Ghalayni, a British-Palestinian scientist based in Manchester who was in Gaza visiting family when the war started, told The Independent he used precious fuel supplies to travel to the border to see if he or any of his family were on a list of permitted evacuees.
Brit trapped in Gaza describes ‘desperate’ scenes at Rafah crossing
A British citizen in Gaza has described the desperate scenes at the Egyptian border that has opened for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began. Mohamed Ghalayni, a British-Palestinian scientist based in Manchester who was in Gaza visiting family when the war started, told The Independent he used precious fuel supplies to travel to the border to see if he or any of his family were on a list of permitted evacuees. A communications blackout meant trapped foreign nationals don’t know if their names are on the list. “It is imperative on the UK and the US to actually stop this madness,” Mr Ghalayni said.
Palestinian PM sobs at cabinet meeting telling story of children killed in Gaza
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh cried during a cabinet meeting as he spoke about the deaths of children and mothers in Gaza.
Violence in the region has surged since Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip, killing more than 10,000 Palestinians, after Hamas’s devastating 7 October attack.
“Children writing their names on their bodies so that their corpses can be identified, the mother of the three children that were buried under the rubble, tells her children, let me see you,” Mr Shtayyeh said, through tears, during his opening speech to cabinet.
More here.
Palestinian PM sobs at cabinet meeting telling story of children killed in Gaza
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh cried during a cabinet meeting on Monday (6 November) as he spoke about the deaths of children and mothers in Gaza. Violence in the region has surged since Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip, killing around 9,770 Palestinians, after Hamas’ devastating 7 October attack. “Children writing their names on their bodies so that their corpses can be identified, the mother of the three children that were buried under the rubble, tells her children, let me see you,” Mr Shtayyeh said, through tears, during his opening speech to cabinet. “Mercy be upon the souls of the martyrs and shame on the criminals.”
The Israel-Palestine conflict, explained
The modern state of Israel was founded in May 1948 in the aftermath of the Holocaust and Second World War but the conflict that has raged between Israelis and Palestinians since can be traced back much further.
Historians and commentators offer differing opinions as to when this chapter of history begins. In her series Al Nakba (2008) on Al Jazeera, documentary maker Rawan Damen begins her story with Napoleon Bonaparte, who proposed a Jewish homeland in Palestine as long ago as 1799 in the wake of the siege of Acre during his war against the Ottoman Empire.
More here.
Israel-Palestine conflict, explained. A brief timeline history to 2023
Tensions raging since Middle Eastern state’s founding in May 1948 date back much further
Palestinians flee on foot as Israeli troops enter Gaza City
Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing south on foot with only what they can carry after running out of food and water in the north, a UN agency said Wednesday, as Israel said its troops were battling Hamas militants deep inside Gaza City. Over 70 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have already fled their homes, but the growing numbers making their way south point to an increasingly desperate situation in and around Gaza’s largest city, which has come under heavy Israeli bombardment.
About 15,000 people fled northern Gaza on Tuesday, triple the number that left Monday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They are using Gaza’s main north-south highway during a daily four-hour window announced by Israel. Those fleeing include children, the elderly and people with disabilities, and most walked with minimal belongings, the UN agency said. Some say they had to cross Israeli checkpoints, where they saw people being arrested, while others held their hands in the air and raised white flags while passing Israeli tanks.
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