What to know on fourth day of latest Israeli-Palestinian War

PTI, Oct 11, 2023, 8:54 AM IST

Israel’s military said Tuesday that it had regained effective control over its south and the border with the Gaza Strip four days after Hamas fighters stormed into the country and brought gunbattles to its streets for the first time in decades.

The declaration came as the Israeli Defense Forces sought to make good on the government’s vow to hunt down the militants and to intensify an assault on densely populated Gaza, the Palestinian territory ruled by Hamas and home to 2 million people. The conflict already has killed hundreds on both sides. The Israeli military said more than 1,000 people have died in Israel since Saturday’s incursion. In Gaza and the West Bank, 830 people have been killed, according to authorities there. In Israel and beyond, the families of more than 150 people kidnapped by Hamas and other militant groups feared for the lives of their loved ones. The armed wing of Hamas has warned it will kill one of the hostages every time Israel’s military bombs civilian targets in Gaza without warning.

Here are some key takeaways from the war:

WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE GROUND?

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it had shelled Syria after rockets hit open land in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

The military did not accuse any group of the rocket attack. The Syrian government did not comment. However, Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says a Palestinian faction conducted the rocket attack from Syrian territory.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it struck hundreds of Hamas targets overnight in Gaza. Tens of thousands of residents fled their homes as relentless airstrikes levelled buildings. Along with bombarding downtown Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also targeted the crossing between Egypt and the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, the only passage out of the territory. On Tuesday, a large part of Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood was reduced to rubble after warplanes bombarded it for hours the night before. The Israeli military told residents of the nearby al-Daraj neighbourhood to evacuate, and soon after new explosions rocked the area, and Rimal, continuing after nightfall. One strike hit Gaza City’s seaport, setting fishing boats aflame.

Israel expanded its mobilization of military reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according the country’s news outlets reported. The chief military spokesman emphasized the unprecedented nature of the current campaign against Hamas, saying “all options are on the table.” The bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were found on Israeli territory, the military said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those numbers overlapped with deaths previously reported by Palestinian authorities.

Over 1,37,000 Palestinians were packed into United Nations shelters, and the World Health Organization reported that the medical supplies it had pre-positioned in seven Gaza hospitals were already used up.

The head of Doctors Without Borders for the Palestinian Territories said he was concerned the humanitarian medical group’s team in Gaza would soon run out of medical supplies now that the enclaves borders have closed.

Hamas leaders have not spoken publicly about whether they anticipated Israel’s ferocious retaliation — or the potential risk of losing much of the group’s government infrastructure — when they launched the weekend attack.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE FROM THE U.S. AND OTHER NATIONS?

The Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the far Eastern Mediterranean, within range to provide a host of air support or long-range strike options for Israel if requested, but also to surge U.S. military presence to prevent the now 4-day-old war with Hamas from spilling over into a more dangerous regional conflict, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is travelling to Israel on an urgent mission to show support for Israel, the State Department said Tuesday as U.S. President Joe Biden continued to condemn Saturday’s attack by Hamas, calling it an act of “pure unadulterated evil.” “In this moment, we must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel,” he said Biden warned adversaries not to take advantage of the crisis. “I have one word: Don’t. Don’t.” Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone earlier on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the situation on the ground. Biden spoke out of the actions he and other allies have taken to support Israel in the aftermath of the attack and expressed his horror about “sickening” reports of torture inflicted by militants on innocent civilians.

The war threatened to delay or derail a country-by-country diplomatic push by the United States to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Hamas’ attacks in Israel and much of the Arab world’s response to it raised questions about whether Palestinian ambitions for sovereignty could be put aside during the so-called normalisation push. Foreign governments tried to determine how many of their citizens were dead, missing or in need of medical help or flights home from Israel. Japan’s top government spokesperson pledged to do the utmost to protect the safety of a small number of Japanese citizens in the conflict area.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that at least 20 U.S. citizens are unaccounted for. Eighteen Thais were feared dead based on reports from employers, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kanchana Patarachoke said Tuesday. A first batch of 15 evacuees was scheduled to board a flight to arrive in Thailand on Thursday. Ambassador to Israel Pannabha Chandraramya said the Thai Embassy was in touch with Israeli authorities about Thai nationals who were abducted by militant groups but has not been informed of their conditions or whereabouts.

The Austrian government said three Austrian-Israeli dual citizens may be among the people kidnapped by Hamas during its attack on Israel. Italy’s foreign minister said an Italian-Israeli couple living on the Be’eri Kibbutz had been missing since the incursion and were “probably taken hostage.” Arab foreign ministers planned to convene Wednesday in Cairo at the behest of the Palestinians. Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki said the ministers would discuss Arab efforts to “stop the Israeli aggression” on Gaza.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF THE WAR?

Major airlines have suspended flights in and out of Israel. Scores of arriving and departing flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport were cancelled or delayed, according to the airport’s online flight board, which also showed a steady trickle of flights. Most were operated by Israel’s national airline El Al along with others by regional carriers such as Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines and Greece’s Blue Bird Airways.

Finnish carrier Finnair on Tuesday followed American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and German airline Lufthansa in suspending service to and from Israel.

Hong Kong leader John Lee said the government had issued a red outbound travel alert for Israel, becoming the latest government telling its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to the country. Spanish multinational clothing company Inditex, owner of Zara, Massimo Dutti and other fashion brands, said it was temporarily closing its 84 franchised stores in Israel for security reasons.

WHAT PROMPTED THE ATTACK?

Hamas officials cited long-simmering tensions, including a dispute over the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Competing claims over the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.

In recent years, Israeli religious nationalists — such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister — have increased their visits to the compound. Last week, during the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the site, prompting condemnation from Hamas and accusations that Jews were praying there in violation of the status quo agreement.

Hamas also has cited the expansion of Jewish settlements on lands Palestinians claim for a future state and Ben-Gvir’s efforts to toughen restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Tensions escalated with recent violent Palestinian protests. In negotiations with Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations, Hamas has pushed for Israeli concessions that could loosen the 17-year blockade on the enclave and help halt a worsening financial crisis.