Israel and Hamas at war: what we know on day 27

 

Explainer

Israel and Hamas at war: what we know on day 27

 

The Rafah crossing opens to allow injured Palestinians and some foreign nationals out; the UN says the scale of the tragedy in Gaza is ‘unprecedented’

 

Guardian staff and agencies

Wed 1 Nov 2023 23.47 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/02/israel-and-hamas-at-war-what-we-know-on-day-27

 

• The scale of tragedy in Gaza is “unprecedented”, the commissioner general for the main UN agency in Palestine has said after visiting the besieged territory for the first time since 7 October. Philippe Lazzarini of the UNRWA described his visit to the Gaza Strip as “one of the saddest days in my humanitarian work” and urged a “meaningful” humanitarian response to prevent people in Gaza from dying.
• The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the first time on Wednesday, after more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow.
• The families of some British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, as the Foreign Office said the first UK nationals have made it through. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
• An Australian minister confirmed that 20 Australian nationals had crossed the border at Rafah to exit Gaza on Wednesday. He went on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.
• US citizens were able to exit Gaza on Wednesday as part of the first group of “probably more than 1,000” people, Joe Biden said. The US president said the opening of the Rafah border crossing to wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals came after “intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region”. Some American citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip and their families in the US have launched legal action after weeks of desperate and futile attempts to exit the war zone.
• Israeli forces continued to bomb the Palestinian territory from land, sea and air as they pressed their offensive. Another blast shook Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed about 50 people and wounded 150 there. Israel claims it killed a Hamas commander in the attack. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it has killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in the airstrike on Wednesday.
• Fifteen Israeli soldiers have been killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza, in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the IDF in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza. The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.
• The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes. The agency said it had “serious concerns” given the “high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction” after the strikes. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the airstrikes were “just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza” and said the world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act”.
• The only cancer treatment hospital in Gaza has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference: “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”
• A senior Hamas official said that several hundred Israeli and other hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were subject to the same risk of “death and destruction” that Palestinians have faced. The warning was made after Hamas said that seven hostages – including three foreign passport holders – were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that caused dozens of fatalities.
• The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities. The UN’s humanitarian office has reported that at least 123 Palestinians, including 34 children, have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.
• The UN child rights committee has warned that “grave” human rights violations against children are “mounting by the minute” in Gaza, and called for an immediate ceasefire. “There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” the UN committee on the rights of the child said in a statement on Wednesday.
• Pope Francis said on Wednesday that a two-state solution was needed for Israel and Palestine. The head of the Catholic church noted that Jerusalem should be given special status.
• A senior UN official who sent a letter denouncing the organisation’s failure to protect civilians in Gaza had been subject to a review into allegedly biased social media posts after a pro-Israel lobby group complained. Craig Mokhiber, director of the New York office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, had been subject of complaint over his social media output and his broadcast interviews had been under review since March.
• Jordan has told its ambassador to come back from Israel over the war in Gaza, the foreign ministry said. The ambassador would only return to Tel Aviv if Israel halted its war in Gaza and ended “the humanitarian crisis it has caused”, the ministry added.
• The BBC has announced it is launching an emergency radio service for Gaza in response to the conflict in the region.