Hamas-Israel war – October 2023 – Some View on the World

Israel-Hamas War day by day for October 2023

An Israeli child has sketched his harrowing recollections of the Hamas attack on Oct 7, showing terrorists shooting at a house and his father’s futile attempt to escape to safety.

Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed ”mighty vengeance” for Saturday’s October 7 surprise attack by Palestinian militants. Hamas gunmen rampaging through Israeli towns have killed at least 250 Israelis and taken scores of hostages, while more than 230 Gazans have been killed in Israeli reprisals.

In one action, paragliders reportedly shot everyone in sight. There are also reports of people in London celebrating the attack. The Telegraph says Israel, an ally at war, deserves Britain’s full support.

The United States has deployed warships in support of Israel as Iran denies involvement in Hamas’ deadly attack on Saturday.

On October 9, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed four Israelis held captive in the city, Hamas has said. Bombing was carried out overnight after terrorists slaughtered at least 250 civilians and took dozens of hostages in a major surprise assault.

George Awhazov thought the worst was over, as he emerged from an air raid shelter in Israel following an attack by Hamas terrorists. But shortly after returning home, his family came within moments of being kidnapped, when a man with a rocket launcher knocked at the door. Nataliya Vasilyeva tells the Awhazovs’ remarkable story.

‘The day Hamas terrorists came knocking at my door with rocket launchers’

Israel has no choice but to commence a ground operation in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Joe Biden.

“We have to go in, we can’t negotiate now. We need to restore deterrence,”

Mr Netanyahu reportedly said on Sunday. Discussing the international response to the conflict, Mark Almond suggests that Biden’s America has failed Israel while Richard Kemp argues the Russia-Iran axis is fomenting war in the Middle East.

A plume of smoke rises in the sky of Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike

Images show the scale of destruction in Gaza where Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes after Hamas terrorists killed hundreds of civilians in a major surprise assault.

On October 10 an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip appeared imminent as troops gathered on the border after a night of air strikes – and pro-Palestinian protestors threw fireworks at the Israeli embassy in London.

Gaza has also been placed under “complete siege”, Israel’s defence minister said, after cutting off supplies of food, water and electricity. Hamas, however, has said that if Israel does not end its bombardment, it will execute one Israeli hostage on live television for every bomb that is dropped without warning.

More than a thousand Pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli embassy last night as they launched fireworks at the building and chanted anti-Israeli slogans. People trying to pay their respects to Israel left the area because they “didn’t feel safe”. You can watch footage of the incident in our full report by Michael Murphy.

On October 11 An Israeli military commander has claimed Hamas killed babies and children in a massacre discovered by his soldiers yesterday at Kfar Azza, one of the last villages to be recaptured from the terrorist group.

Former British Army colonel Richard Kemp argues that such atrocities mean Israel has only one choice: crushing Hamas with a show of overwhelming force. Columnist Allison Pearson, meanwhile, contends that the events in Israel are not a specifically Jewish issue – civilisation itself stands at a crossroads.

A Lebanese terror group has sent a large number of “hostile aircraft” into Israel, the IDF said on Wednesday. Air alert systems showed a huge number of red warnings in northern Israel, while sirens went off in every town. The IDF alerted the nation to an “aerial intrusion” with unconfirmed reports saying it may include drones and paragliders. Giora Zaltz, a community leader in northern Israel said:

“This is what we feared, what we were preparing for.”

The report suggests a new front may have opened in the war.

October 17 Hundreds of people have been killed in a suspected Israeli air strike on a hospital compound in Gaza, officials in the territory said.

October 18 With more tragic news emerging from the Middle East day by day in a conflict sparked by Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel, Sunak rightly stressed the importance of dealing in facts and caution given the region’s volatile political situation.

Sajid Javid, a former home secretary, made one of the most powerful interventions of a session largely focused on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Calling the UK the

“most successful multiracial democracy in the world”,

Javid condemned the hatred targeted at British Jews since the outbreak of war. (According to the Community Security Trust, anti-Semitic incidents are up by 581 per cent.)

He asked Sunak:

“May I ask him to consider urgently an immediate and specific policy of revoking the visas of any foreign national who commits an act of anti-Semitism or any other hate crime?”

Not only was Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, appearing to nod along, but the Prime Minister seemed receptive to Javid’s idea – promising ministers will “do whatever it takes” to ensure the Jewish community is kept safe.

The UK is working with Qatar in an attempt to secure the release of British hostages held by Hamas following the terrorist group’s attack on Israel. Rishi Sunak said he had spoken to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, yesterday to discuss “this very issue”.
The Prime Minister told MPs at PMQs that the

“Qatari government is taking a lead and working intensely to help release hostages using their contacts in the region” and the UK is “working very closely with them”.

October 19: Rishi Sunak has landed in Israel, with his office saying he will warn against an escalation in the conflict. You can follow live updates on the Prime Minister’s visit here.

Speaking alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in Tel Aviv, Joe Biden promised “unprecedented” American support in the war, saying:

“We have your back.”

But after meetings with Israel’s war cabinet and survivors of the attack, he cautioned against the “rage” that led to “mistakes” made by the US following the 9/11 terror attacks.

In a blistering attack on the BBC’s coverage, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick compared the reporting of the deadly Gaza hospital blast to “21st century blood libel”. It comes as James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, urged the media to prioritise accuracy over speed after a BBC reporter prematurely speculated that Israel was responsible for the catastrophic explosion at Ahli Arab Hospital.

The speed with which so many gleefully rushed to judgment over the hospital attack was disgraceful, writes Allister Heath. Michael Deacon, meanwhile, questions why the “sanctimonious” Left has so much to say about Israel, but not about Hamas.

In the last few hours, Egypt has agreed to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza for a humanitarian aid convoy – you can follow further updates on our live blog here.

October 20 Hamas has issued a rallying cry for Muslims across the world to protest for Palestinians on Friday. Similar calls by the Islamist terror group after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip prompted tens of thousands of people to gather around Europe in protest against military action.

October 21-22

Hostages — **Freed |** American mother and daughter first hostages released

An asylum seeker who wanted to avenge deaths in Gaza has carried out a suspected terrorist attack in the UK. The public has not been told that the man, who came to the UK in 2020, told police he had done it for “Palestine”. The world is on high alert for such attacks as Israel’s war with Hamas escalates global tensions.

Meanwhile, the BBC finally bowed to criticism of its refusal to call Hamas terrorists, saying it would now call them a group “proscribed as a terror organisation by the UK Government and others”.

Plus: An American mother and daughter (pictured) became the first hostages to be freed by Hamas on Friday night.

What next | The biggest challenges facing Israel’s invasion of Gaza
Hamas attacks | Colleagues left ‘appalled’ by top doctor’s comments
Protest | Police under fire for allowing ‘jihad’ chant at London rally
Gaza | Hostages’ families pressure Israel to delay ground offensive
Solidarity | Rally to free Israeli hostages to be held in London
Three clues the Ahli Arab Hospital strike came from Gaza

October 23: After analysing an online video, the Met Police said jihad had “a number of meanings” and concluded that no offence had taken place. Somewhat predictably, this view was not shared by all, and the Home Secretary is to hold a meeting with Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley about the matter later today.

Calling for jihad on the streets of Westminster was not the only questionable activity that the Met Police chose not to act on over the weekend. A group of young men filmed chanting

“God’s curse be upon the infidels… God’s curse be upon the Jews… God’s curse be upon Israel”

was among several other incidents caught on camera that appear to have gone unchallenged.

Sir Mark Rowley has called for changes in the law around policing extremism as he said officers could not be expected to “enforce taste and decency”. In the Metropolitan Police commissioner’s first comments following criticism of officers’ failure to intervene when pro-Palestine protesters chanted “jihad”, Sir Mark warned there were gaps in the law that meant extremist groups were able to propagate “some pretty toxic messages”. His comments come amid claims Met Police officers were “frustrated” they were unable to step in during a London rally.

Noiya’s family have confirmed that the 16-year-old was killed by Hamas terrorists alongside her younger sister Yahel, 13, and their mother Lianne.

Israel is reportedly delaying its ground invasion of Gaza because of an increasingly complicated situation along its northern border with Lebanon, where clashes with Hezbollah continue to intensify. Israel’s Channel 14 cited unnamed officials as saying that the escalation of violence along the Lebanese frontier meant “we shouldn’t enter Gaza now”. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself warned Hezbollah against

“making the mistake of its life”

by entering the war.

Three men have been arrested for race hate offences following reports of a Union Jack flag being set alight in Twickenham amid chants of “Free Palestine”. The suspects, a 17 year-old and two 18 year olds, were detained in Church Street, shortly after 6pm on Monday. It is understood the flag was removed from outside The Fox pub and no other businesses were targeted. The Metropolitan Police said the group had allegedly made remarks about the conflict in Gaza.

Police have “lost the plot” over the “woke” handling of the pro-Palestine protests, Lord Pickles, the UK’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, has said. Lord Pickles, the former Conservative Cabinet minister, said he feared the police’s “compliant” approach to chants of “jihad” at the protests last weekend could encourage “impressionable” people to go further and turn to violence.

An elderly hostage who was released on Monday night says she was beaten and forced to walk for hours through Hamas’s web of underground tunnels in Gaza. Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, walked free on Monday along with 79-year-old Nurit Cooper. Both were abducted earlier this month from their kibbutz of Nir Oz near Gaza and are now recuperating at a hospital in Tel Aviv. She said that she had been robbed and beaten with a stick by one of her captors.

October 25: Israel has demanded the resignation of the UN secretary-general over “shocking” comments in which he suggested that the Oct 7 attack was provoked by the “suffocating occupation” of the Palestinian territories. The row came as Emmanuel Macron, the French president, dropped calls for a ceasefire as he visited Israel.

An Islamic centre visited by Sir Keir Starmer last weekend has accused the Labour leader of bringing it into “disrepute” amid the Israel-Gaza conflict. Sir Keir met worshippers at the South Wales Islamic Centre on Sunday and uploaded photographs to social media of him talking to those present. But the centre has now rebuked the opposition leader in a series of posts, which accuse him of having “misrepresented” the event.

At least half a dozen foreign nationals could have their visas revoked for anti-Semitic behaviour or comments in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Israel. Home Office officials have or are about to write to them telling them the Government is minded to revoke their visas to stay in the UK because of their anti-Semitism. They will be able to lodge objections before a decision is made within the next few days whether to go ahead with their expulsion.

October 26: The Israeli prime minister used a prime-time television address to say Israel’s “hellfire” had “already eliminated thousands of terrorists”, adding that every single member of Hamas was “doomed” and “this is only the beginning”. He would not be drawn on the timing of any operation, insisting only that he, his war cabinet and the Israel Defense Forces would make the decision.

Hamas has spent two decades building a labyrinth of deep, defensive tunnels. Israel has developed a secret weapon in response, but targeting the tunnels risks incurring civilian casualties.

The Telegraph’s Associate Editor (Defence) Dominic Nicholls explains Israel’s novel new ‘sponge bombs’, a chemical device that produces a foam explosion, that may be used against Hamas tunnels during ground operations.

UK Border Force officials have been sent out to Egypt to help evacuate British citizens trapped in Gaza who manage to get across the border, Rishi Sunak has announced. The Prime Minister said about 200 British citizens in Gaza had been in touch with the Foreign Office ahead of the expected Israeli invasion. Click here for all the latest updates on the conflict.

Israel briefing: Israel launches ‘targeted raid’ into Gaza and Palestinian death toll rises to more than 7,000

October 27: Vladimir Putin sought to intervene in the Middle Eastern conflict on Thursday by inviting senior Hamas and Iranian leaders to Moscow. In a move condemned by Israel as an “obscene step” that “gives support to terrorism”, Russian officials met with the terror group who praised them for taking an “active role” in the war. The developments have raised concern in the West that Russia has formed an “axis of terror” with Hamas, mediated by Iran.

October 28

New onslaught | Israel’s ground forces have expanded operations in Gaza. Frequent heavy explosions lit up the coastal enclave in what witnesses said was the most intense bombardment of the war so far, while Hamas’s military wing said it was fighting Israeli forces on the ground. Follow the latest updates in our live blog and read a full report on a dramatic day in the Middle East.

Special report | The heartbreaking hostage ordeals of Israeli families
Hostage negotiator | This is the deal Israel should strike

October 29

Moving in | Israel’s forces on Saturday fought fierce street battles against Hamas in northern Gaza using tanks and infantry, with Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, the chief of the general staff of the Israel Defence Forces, saying his troops had killed “hundreds” of terrorists. Mr Netanyahu warned that Israel’s campaign to “abolish evil” was “only just beginning”.

Hostages | How will our loved ones be rescued, anxious relatives ask
Watch | Protesters call for ‘intifada from London to Gaza’
‘Treachery’ | Arabs and Bedouins join war for Israel despite anger
New rules | Crackdown on extremism to tackle anti-Jewish hate

News focus | Israel and the United Nations: a toxic 76-year relationship

October 29

As Israeli troops step up their ground offensive, the United States has claimed that Hamas is blocking the exit of foreign nationals from the besieged city. At least 200 British citizens are thought to be registered inside the Gaza strip, and some 600 Americans, as well as many other nationalities.

Israeli troops have clashed with Hamas for the first time since the ground offensive began in an ambush sprung by the terror group from a tunnel network in northern Gaza. In our dispatch from Israel by Danielle Sheridan, you can watch footage of Israeli troops in combat as an explosion lands close to their position.

Israeli tanks advanced into the fringes of Gaza City, witnesses said, as the army ramped up its war on Hamas – saying it had killed dozens of militants in hundreds of strikes. Videos circulating on social media showed an Israeli tank and bulldozer in central Gaza blocking the territory’s main north-south highway, which the Israeli military earlier told Palestinians to use to escape the expanding ground offensive.

Today Tuesday, October 31:

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said his military had “liberated” Ori Megidish, 19, a soldier who was captured on Oct 7, and who is now back with her family. theTelegraph’s Global Health Security Editor Paul Nuki is in Israel and reports on the IDF push into Gaza, which he describes as less ‘shock and awe’ and more cautious and methodical.

Ignoring protesters outside waving Palestinian flags, and social media posts by an ever-growing number of his MPs, Sir Keir Starmer insisted a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is not currently the solution to the conflict.

In a speech at Chatham House in central London, the Labour leader acknowledged “the rising temperature on British streets” which has seen anti-Semitic incidents soar and tens of thousands march for Palestine.

“While I understand calls for a ceasefire at this stage, I do not believe that it is the correct position now,”

he said – warning Hamas would be “emboldened” to repeat the horrors of October 7, which saw the terror group murder 1,300 Jews in Israel.

The body of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli who was abducted by Hamas at the Nova music festival and paraded half-naked in a truck, has been found and identified. Ms Louk’s mother Ricarda announced her death on Monday, saying:

“Unfortunately we got the news yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive.”

Ms Louk was attending the festival near the Gaza border when Hamas militants attacked it on Oct 7, opening fire and sending partygoers fleeing through the desert.

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