Jerusalem: Israel launched an expanded ground operation on Saturday after creating a near-blackout of communication in the Gaza Strip with increased bombardment and artillery fire overnight. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a war for Israel’s existence, and said “Never again is now.”
Gaza residents described the massive bombardment from the land, air and sea as the most intense of the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war. Other countries, United Nations officials and aid agencies described a dire situation in Gaza, where 2.3 million people are cut off from the outside world and ambulances without cellphone or radio service chase the sound of artillery to locate the wounded.
The Palestinian death toll passed 7,700, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during a surprise incursion by Hamas militants, including at least 310 soldiers, according to the Israeli government. At least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza, and four hostages have been released.
Currently:
- Spider web of Hamas tunnels raises risks for Israeli ground offensive in Gaza Strip
- Mass graves, unclaimed bodies and overcrowded cemeteries replace funeral rites
- AP Photos: Scenes of sorrow and despair on both sides of Israel-Gaza border on week 3 of war
- Jewish and Muslim chaplains navigate tensions on US college campuses
- UN General Assembly calls for `humanitarian truce’ in Gaza leading to halt in Israel-Hamas fighting.
- Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.Com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
ISRAEL CALLS HAMAS PRISONER SWAP OFFER PSYCHOLOGICAL TERROR
JERUSALEM — Hamas’s top leader in Gaza Yehiyeh Sinwar said the Palestinian militant groups are ready to release Israeli hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s jails.
“We are ready immediately to have an exchange deal that includes releasing all prisoners in the prisons of the Zionist occupation enemy in return for the release of all prisoners held by the resistance,” he said in a comment posted Saturday evening on Hamas media groups.
The Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, dismissed the offer as “psychological terror” andsaid Israel is working on multiple channels to free the hostages.
ISRAEL SAYS ITS WARPLANES HIT 150 UNDERGROUND TARGETS
JERUSALEM — One of the biggest threats to both Israeli troops and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip is buried deep underground.
Israel’s military said Saturday that its warplanes struck 150 underground Hamas targets in northern Gaza, including tunnels, combat spaces and other infrastructure. But the extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by Hamas is believed to stretch for hundreds of miles (kilometers), hiding fighters, an arsenal of rockets and now more than 200 Israeli hostages.
Clearing and collapsing those tunnels is crucial to dismantling Hamas. But Israeli’s military could be at a serious disadvantage underground. Urban warfare experts say the militants can be hiding in millions of places, choosing when and where to ambush their enemies.
Former Israeli soldier Ariel Bernstein described urban combat in northern Gaza as a mix of ambushes, traps, hideouts and snipers in tunnels so disorienting that it was like he was fighting ghosts.
ISRAELI PM SAYS GAZA WAR IS EXISTENTIAL, NEVER AGAIN IS NOW
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war against Hamas will be “long and difficult,” calling it a battle of good versus evil and a struggle for Israel’s existence.
Netanyahu told the nation in a televised news conference Saturday night that Israel has opened a “new phase” in the war – by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea. He said these activities would only increase as Israel prepares for a broad ground invasion.
The goal, he said, is the complete destruction of Hamas.
“We always said, Never again,’” he said. “Never again is now.”
ROCKETS, AIR STRIKES AND ANOTHER HOSPITAL HIT
A Palestinian militant group in Gaza said it fired barrage of rockets Saturday evening on Tel Aviv and on Ashkelon and Ashdod in southern Israel. The rockets by Al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was the latest in a series of rocket attacks on Israel on Saturday.
Israeli forces continued a relentless bombardment. One Israeli airstrike late Saturday afternoon damaged the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, according to freelance journalist Anas al-Sharif, one of the few journalists in Gaza able to connect to the outside world. He shared images of the hospital’s damaged roof.
The Israeli strikes caused a blackout that cut off telecommunications and internet access for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, disrupting ambulances and aid groups in the besieged strip and enabling the Israeli military to control the narrative in the new stage of fighting.
Earlier Saturday, Israeli videos showed columns of armored vehicles moving slowly in open, sandy areas of Gaza, the first visual confirmation of ground troops.
PROTESTS SPREAD, CALLING ON ISRAEL TO STOP GAZA WAR
PARIS — Police encircled hundreds of people who defied a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday in central Paris. The officers tried to contain the protest but fired tear gas when tensions rose as a breakaway group tried to march.
The protest collective known as Urgence Palestine called for a cease-fire in the increasingly intense war between Israel and Hamas. At least 80 people were given citations, according to French media. Other pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held in Marseille and Strasbourg in the east.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin’s order to ban pro-Palestinian demonstrations in France was trimmed back by the nation’s highest administrative authority. The Council of State ruled any protests in favor of either side in the war are to be authorized on a case-by-case basis after assessing risks to public order.
Demonstrations also took place Saturday in London, Indonesia, Pakistan, Italy, Norway and Switzerland, and a crowd of protesters filled New York City’s Grand Central Station Friday night, many wearing black T-shirts saying “Jews say cease-fire now” and “Not in our name.”
ISRAEL DISMISSES CALLS FOR CEASE-FIRE AND HOSTAGE-SWAP
JERUSALEM — As Israeli airstrikes and an intensified ground attack pounded northern Gaza on Saturday, a representative for the families of the hostages held by Hamas told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu they support a prisoner swap.
“As far as the families are concerned, a deal of a return of our family members immediately in the framework of “all for all” is feasible, and there will be wide national support for this,” said MeIrav Gonen, the representative. Her daughter, RoMi, is one of the hostages.
Israel’s government has not yet commented on Hamas’s offer to free all the hostages in exchange for Israel releasing all Palestinians held in Israeli jails. It was unclear if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the possibility of a prisoner swap during the meeting with the families, or if he specified any military or diplomatic plan to achieve the release of hostages.
Israel’s military has said it will be able to continue its devastating campaign on Gaza while rescuing the hostages, and has dismissed the possibility of a Hamas-proposed cease-fire deal in exchange for their release. Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Saturday that by proposing the cease-fire, Hamas was engaged in a “cynical exploitation” of their famililes’ anxieties.
NETANYAHU MEETS FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES AS TUNNELS ARE BOMBED
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he told representatives of the families of hostages that Israel will exhaust every possibility to bring them home.
The Israeli military says Hamas militants kidnapped more than 200 people on Oct. 7 and took them into a network of tunnels inside the densely populated Gaza Strip. In the night from Friday to Saturday, Israeli war planes bombed Hamas tunnels and underground bunkers in dozens of strikes, heightening the concerns of relatives of hostages over the fate of their loved ones.
Netanyahu and his wife Sara told the families in Tel Aviv that getting abductees released is one of the goals of the war and that the greater the pressure, the greater the chances for bringing them home.
Hundreds of family members had demonstrated in Tel Aviv earlier Saturday, expressing fears that military leaders are being cavalier with the lives of the hostages. “The families feel like they’re they’re left behind and no one is really caring about them,” said Miki Haimovitz, a former lawmaker.
UN LEADER RENEWS CEASE-FIRE PLEA: HISTORY WILL JUDGE US ALL
CAIRO — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has reiterated his appeal for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, the unconditional release of hostages and a delivery of humanitarian aid the strip’s 2.3 million people.
“This situation must be reversed,” he said Saturday in a statement following his meeting in Doha with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani. “This is the moment of truth. Everyone must assume their responsibilities. History will judge us all.”
He warned that the ongoing escalation, including relentless Israeli bombardment and a communication blackout, would have devastating impacts and undermine “the referred humanitarian objectives.”
OMAN ACCUSES ISRAEL OF WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
CAIRO — Oman’s Foreign Ministry says Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity
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