Updated Oct. 27, 12:00 p.m.
The arrival of a Hamas delegation in Moscow on Thursday has sparked prompt criticism from both Israel and the United States. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat condemned the Russian government for inviting the envoys, led by senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzook, calling it an “act of support of terrorism” that “legitimizes the atrocities of Hamas terrorists.”
When U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby was asked about the Moscow meeting Thursday, he responded that “this is not a time to be supporting Hamas’ ability to continue to kill Israelis.”
Hamas released a statement after the arrival, saying that it “highly appreciated the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as the efforts of active Russian diplomacy.”
According to several sources, Abu Marzook, who is believed to be based in Qatar, is currently the No. 2 official of Hamas.
Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas is also set to visit Moscow in the coming days, according to Russian news agency TASS, although Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to specify the exact date.
TASS also reported that the Russian Ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, mentioned that three people with both Russian and Israeli citizenship may have been taken hostage by Hamas militants.
Meanwhile Putin on Wednesday warned that Israel’s war in Gaza could spread beyond the Middle East, criticizing Israel for the rising numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza.
“Our task today, our main task, is to stop the bloodshed and violence,” Putin said at a Kremlin meeting with Russian religious leaders, according to a Kremlin transcript.
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Russia has ties to both Israel and the various Palestinian factions, though Putin has previously blamed that the current crisis on “the failure of United States policy in the Middle East,” and that American leaders have neglected the Palestinians and their wish for an independent state.
Russia has criticized the United States’ decision to veto a United Nations Security Council Resolution last week which aimed for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.
Meanwhile, Russia’s own war in Eastern Ukraine rages on, as the Kremlin’s counterparts in Kyiv have staunchly backed Israel.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has offered Israel unconditional support, according to Spanish Daily El País. Zelensky, many analysts note, is hoping to prevent the world’s attention from shifting towards Israel, and neglecting his country’s war against Russia.
Israel has remained ambiguous on the Russia-Ukraine War however, as roughly 30% of Israelis are of Russian origin. Israel also maintains a strategic relationship with Russia to retain access to Syrian airspace, which is largely under Russian control, in order to launch air-strikes on Iranian militias in the country. While Israel condemned the initial Russian invasion, it has refused to enact sanctions on Russia or supply weapons to Kyiv.
The United States launched airstrikes against Iranian facilities in Eastern Syria Friday morning, after announcing that 19 U.S. troops had suffered “traumatic” brain injuries last week — due to attacks by Tehran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria. In a press conference, Pentagon Spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder confirmed that there have been at least 12 drone or rocket strikes on US forces in Iraq and four in Syria by Iranian-backed Militias since October 17.
Ryder said there are currently some 2,500 U.S. servicemen in Iraq and 900 in Syria, primarily to assist local forces countering ISIS. The Pentagon has significantly increased its presence in the region since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, looking to dissuade Iran’s militias in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and most potently, Lebanon, from spreading the war to other countries. American Troop counts have been increased throughout the Middle East, and the US has expanded its naval presence in both the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
Screenshot of a video posted by the IDF showing a ground incursion into Gaza
Israeli troops conducted “targeted raids” inside Gaza for a second consecutive night before withdrawing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in statement Friday.
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the ground raids into Gaza will continue in the coming days to prepare for the next stages of war. He said the IDF continues its strikes against Gaza from air and sea, and is focusing on killing senior Hamas commanders and destroying Hamas infrastructure.
“There will be more,” vowed Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at a news briefing Thursday. Gallant’s comments echoed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address on Wednesday, during which he said Israel is “raining down hellfire on Hamas” and “preparing for a ground incursion.”
Israeli troops carried out another “targeted raid” early Thursday with tanks rolling into northern Gaza, before withdrawing hours later from the enclave.
A video published by the Israel Defense Forces showed tanks and armored vehicles, including a bulldozer, moving on a road near a fence. The tanks fired artillery, and some destruction could be seen nearby.
In a statement, the IDF said the operation was “preparation for the next stages of combat.”
Meanwhile, a report by local radio described the raid as a “relatively large” ground incursion, suggesting it was the biggest since Israel started massing forces on the border of Gaza in preparation for a full-scale ground invasion.
Indeed on Wednesday night, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed for the first time that Israel was “preparing a ground invasion” of Gaza that would be aimed at destroying Hamas.
Netanyahu’s statement and Thursday’s incursion come amid rising debate in Israel over the timing of the ground war.
Earlier this week, Daniel Hagari told reporters that the military was “ready and determined” for the next stage in the war, and was awaiting political instruction.
But according to The Times of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces believes that in order to attain the government’s objectives in the war against Hamas, the military must begin its ground offensive in Gaza “sooner rather than later.”
Israel’s allies including the U.S. have urged Israel to delay the ground offensive in order to allow humanitarian aid to pass into Gaza and provide time to win the release of the more than 200 hostages Hamas is holding.
Raphael Cohen, the director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program of RAND Project AIR FORCE, says one possible factor delaying the ground offensive is the fact that Israel has mobilized 350,000 reservists without them being trained. “It is important to know that that mobilization has tripled the size of the Israeli Defense Forces,” Cohen told Al Arabiya. “Now if you’re going to do that, so … you want to get them retrained.”
The army has brushed off such concerns, insisting that the ground offensive is ready to be launched, questioning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to hold off the assault.
According to French daily Les Echos, an Israeli government minister quoted anonymously by several media described Netanyahu as a “coward” for postponing the ground offensive.
Hagari, the army spokesman, stressed that the army had completed its preparations and was ready for action as soon as the government gave the order. IDF has told the government that it is fully prepared to enter Gaza, even at the risk of heavy casualties to soldiers, and amid ongoing attacks by Hezbollah in northern Israel that risk expanding the war to another front. The IDF has already heavily reinforced the Lebanon border, but most forces remain near Gaza, ahead of the expected ground offensive.
One of Netanyahu’s closest confidants, retired army general Itzhak Brik, is openly opposed to an invasion of Gaza, which he deems ultimately pointless and dangerous. He advocates destroying Hamas’s network of dozens of kilometers of tunnels by aerial bombardment, rather than endangering the lives of soldiers.
According to a poll this week, Israelis are fully behind the soldiers and reservists: 87% say they have confidence in the army, which is 2% more than before the war. The government’s credibility, on the other hand, has hit an unprecedented low score of 18%, compared with 43% in June.
All acknowledge the weight of the decision to take the war to the next level with a ground invasion. As one senior government official told NBC News, Netanyahu has not settled on an exit plan for how and when Israelis would leave Gaza after the invasion, which could shape the state of the region for the foreseeable future.
“That’s a huge added dose of anxiety and tension into what is already a tense and anxious, and what is a politically fraught, moment,” said Robert Satloff, the Howard P. Berkowitz chair in U.S. Middle East policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies “Add it all up and they haven’t made a decision to go in yet.”
Netanyahu’s statement and Thursday’s incursion come amid rising debate in Israel over the timing of the ground war.
Earlier this week, Daniel Hagari told reporters that the military was “ready and determined” for the next stage in the war, and was awaiting political instruction.
But according to The Times of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces believes that in order to attain the government’s objectives in the war against Hamas, the military must begin its ground offensive in Gaza “sooner rather than later.”
Israel’s allies including the U.S. have urged Israel to delay the ground offensive in order to allow humanitarian aid to pass into Gaza and provide time to win the release of the more than 200 hostages Hamas is holding.
Raphael Cohen, the director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program of RAND Project AIR FORCE, says one possible factor delaying the ground offensive is the fact that Israel has mobilized 350,000 reservists without them being trained. “It is important to know that that mobilization has tripled the size of the Israeli Defense Forces,” Cohen told Al Arabiya. “Now if you’re going to do that, so … you want to get them retrained.”
China plans to provide 15 million yuan ($2.05 million) worth of humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to Reuters. The aid is said to primarily consist of food and medicine.
China has remained relatively neutral in its stance on the Israel-Hamas war, calling itself “a friend to both Israel and Palestine, according to The Washington Post. China has looked to contrast itself from the United States and other Western countries that are the largest backers of Israel, and have lost trust in the Arab world.
Last week, China called for an “immediate” cease-fire and expressed “deep disappointment” when the United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.
Other notable countries that have announced new aid packages since the war began are India, Turkey, the United States and the European Union (much less than the amount promised to Israel), Morocco, and of course Egypt.
Al Jazeera condemns the killing of its journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/EYJShQt6J9
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
Most of the family of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Gaza, has been killed in an Israeli air strike, according to the Qatari state-sponsored news agency. The death of Dahdough’s wife, son, daughter and grandson took place in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp, where the family had evacuated to.
“We had our doubts that the Israeli occupation would not let these people go without punishing them. And sadly, that is what happened. This is the ‘safe’ area that the occupation army spoke of,” uttered Dahdough, speaking to Al Jazeera upon leaving the hospital where his family members’ bodies were brought to.
Al Jazeera has become a prominent news agency in the Middle East over the past several decades, and its coverage during conflicts such as these is widely considered to be representative of the Palestinian perspective.
At least 24 journalists have been killed since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, including 20 Palestinians, three Israelis and one Lebanese, according to the non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists.
“I’m not going to Israel,” titles Istanbul-based daily Hürriyet, quoting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who called off a planned visit to Israel and lambasted Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza. The leader condemned the “inhumane” war in Gaza and said he viewed Hamas as “liberators” fighting for their own land.Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva said the war in the Middle East constituted a “genocide,” according to Brazilian public news stationAgência Brazil. Though he did not cite Israel explicitly, the words appear to be the strongest condemnation of the Israeli military’s response in Gaza from a major world leader.
“It’s not a war, it’s a genocide that has killed nearly two thousand children who have nothing to do with this war, they are victims of this war,” Lula said. “And frankly, I don’t know how a human being is capable of war knowing that the result of that war is the death of innocent children.”
Brazil has called for the release of the Israeli hostages and avoiding civilian casualties in Gaza. “What is currently happening in the Middle East is serious, and it’s not a question of discussing who is right or who is wrong, who fired the first shot and who fired the second,” he added.
Israel wholeheartedly rejects the Turkish President’s harsh words about the terrorist organization Hamas.
Hamas is a despicable terrorist organization worse than ISIS that brutally and intentionally murders babies, children, women and the elderly, takes civilians hostage and uses… pic.twitter.com/LU4mJGz18v— Lior Haiat 🇮🇱 (@LiorHaiat) October 25, 2023
Israel on Wednesday rejected Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s assertion that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was “not a terrorist organization.” Erdogan said in a speech on Wednesday that “Hamas is a group for liberation and of mujahideen fighting to protect their land and citizens.”
Israel’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat wrote on social media “Israel wholeheartedly rejects the Turkish president’s harsh words about the terrorist organization Hamas.”
Speaking earlier to a group of his party’s MPs, Erdogan also said Israel “can view Hamas as a terrorist organization along with the West. The West owes you a lot. But Turkey does not owe you anything.” He urged Israel to stop attacking Gaza, saying that Israel’s actions were one of the “bloodiest, most disgusting and most savage attacks in history”.
Erdogan also announced that he had cancelled a planned trip to Israel, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “misused our goodwill”.
Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, met top officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Wednesday to coordinate their actions in the current conflict against Israel. According to a Hezbollah statement, Nasrallah met Hamas deputy chief Saleh Al-Arouri, and the secretary general of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziad Nakhla. There was no indication of where the meeting took place.
“An assessment was made of…what the parties of the resistance axis must do at this sensitive stage to achieve a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine and to stop the treacherous and brutal aggression against our people,” the statement said.
The Hezbollah press office also released a handwritten letter by Nasrallah commending those who have died fighting Israel, his first statement since the start of the war.
Hezbollah, which has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border, could become involved in the Hamas-Israel war. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is officially considered a “resistance” group tasked with confronting Israel, which Beirut classifies as an enemy state. Much of the Western world classifies it, along with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as terrorist organizations.
Read this report from opposition Iranian source Kayhan-London on the so-called “axis of resistance,” translated from Persian by Worldcrunch.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the Security Council open debate on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine
Israel has lashed at UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ harsh criticism of its attacks on Gaza, demanding his resignation Wednesday and refusing a visa to UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths.
On Tuesday, Guterres said that the “appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on October 7 cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
The UN chief demanded an immediate cease-fire, and called out “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza.”
Guterres added: “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”
Addressing the UN, the secretary-general then went on to say the attack on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum” and followed “56 years of suffocating occupation” for the Palestinian people by Israel.
“They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence,” Guterres said of the Palestinian people. They’ve seen “their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said Guterres should resign, calling the speech “shocking”, saying that the secretary general “views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner.”
Read more on Guterres’ statement from Die Welt’s editor in chief, translated from German by Worldcrunch.
🔺Nearly 600,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 150 @UNRWA facilities.🔺Our shelters are FOUR times over their capacities – many people are sleeping in the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed.
🔺At least 40 @UNRWA installations have been impacted. pic.twitter.com/2nHuZBSN7T