Casualties
Gaza: 8,850 Killed and 22,219 Wounded
Occupied West Bank: 128 Killed and 1,980 Wounded
Key Developments
- Israeli warplanes bombed the Jabalia refugee camp for the second day in a row, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians.
- Hamas confirmed that seven captives, including Israelis and three foreign citizens, were killed in Israel’s bombing of Jabalia.
- An entire neighborhood, known as Block 6, was flattened in the Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday, killing 50 people and injuring 400.
- Scotland’s First Minister: “I am sorry to those innocent men, women and children in Jabalia Refugee Camp that the world could not protect you.”
- Israeli army: 15 soldiers have been killed in ground operations in Gaza
- Israel cut off communication and internet services in the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, Palestine’s main telecommunications company, Paltel, announced.
- The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only cancer hospital in Gaza, was forced to shut down due to a fuel shortage just one day after being struck by Israel.
- Al-Jazeera: 76 “exceptional cases” were allowed to cross through the Rafah border into Egypt to receive urgent medical treatment; 300 people who hold foreign citizenship were allowed to leave the Gaza Strip
- Bolivia severs ties with Israel; Colombia and Chile recall their ambassadors. An Israeli official condemned Bolivia’s decision, accusing it of “supporting terrorism.”
- Hamas spokesperson ‘Abu Obaida’ refutes claims that Israel freed a captive soldier in a ground operation, saying the alleged soldier identified by Israel was never captured by Hamas.
- Hezbollah: group has carried out 105 attacks on Israel since October 7, claiming 120 Israeli military casualties (killed and injured), and the destruction of nine armed military vehicles; 48 Hezbollah fighters have been killed.
- Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to give a televised speech on Friday, the day the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be visiting Israel.
Another Jabalia massacre: 50 people killed and 400 injured
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been left once again with no moment to breathe, rushing from one area to another in an attempt to identify their relatives killed in Israeli air strikes, in many cases, digging through the rubble with their own bare hands.
That was the scene on Wednesday, November 1, in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, as Israel entered its 26th day of aerial bombardment on the tiny besieged Gaza Strip.
Just one day after Israel carried out another massive bombing campaign on Gaza’s largest refugee camp – Israel bombed the densely packed area again.
On Wednesday, Israeli warplanes bombed the Faluja neighborhood in Jabalia. Palestinian news agency Wafa said that dozens were killed and injured, but the exact figures are yet to be released. The Israeli airstrike was launched on Wednesday around noon local time.
Wednesday’s bombing took place as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were still reeling from the bombing campaign on the refugee camp less than 24 hours earlier.
On Tuesday, Israel bombed an entire neighborhood in the densely packed refugee camp, known as Block 6, flattening it. The bombs left huge craters where the residential buildings once stood. Hundreds of Palestinians rushed to find survivors and bodies under the concrete and soil debris.
At least 50 people were killed and hundreds others were injured in Tuesday’s bombing, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. It was estimated that dozens or even hundreds more were still trapped under the rubble.
The 400 injured people were rushed to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, which warned that it might shut down within 48 hours if fuel is not supplied to operate electric generators.
The number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip reached 8,796, and 22,219 were injured, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday.
At least 3,648 children have been killed, and there are 2,030 reports of missing people under the rubble, 1,120 of them thought to be children.
Jabalia camp is only around half a square mile in size and is home to some 116,000 people, making it one of UNRWA’s most densely populated camps.
Nearly 35,000 Palestinian residents of the camp are originally from the towns of Isdud, Yaffa, Simsim, Niilia, Lod, and Magdal, all now in present-day Israel They were expelled from their homes to the refugee camp in Gaza by Zionist militias in the Nakba of 1948.
Israel publicly took responsibility for the Jabalia camp bombing, with its army spokespeople saying it was targeting a Hamas commander in the area. Hamas denied the report, saying that no commander was in the camp at the time of the bombing, which sparked a global outcry.
Humza Yousef, Scotland’s First Minister, whose family is still inside Gaza, wrote on X: “I am sorry to those innocent men, women and children in Jabalia Refugee Camp that the world could not protect you.”
“This blatant disregard for human life must be condemned unequivocally. Do not let any more children die. We need an immediate ceasefire, nothing less.”
Yousef said that his wife parents’ Elizabeth and Maged al-Nakla were forced in recent days to get their water from the sea after they ran out of fresh water.
In addition, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Israel is “completely out of its mind and lost it,” vowing to intervene in a statement following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“I believe that we should stop Israel — which looks as if it’s completely out of its mind and lost it — as soon as possible. We will ensure that those responsible for war crimes in Gaza will face justice,” Erdogan said.
Countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, along with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen, all condemned the attack.
Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that “The Kingdom expresses its condemnation and complete rejection of the Israeli occupation forces’ repeated targeting of densely populated areas.”
The attack came as Israel cut off communication and internet services in the Gaza Strip again early on Wednesday, the telecommunication company, Paltel Group, announced.
The most recent bout of telecommunications and internet blackouts comes just days after they were restored. On Sunday, the internet and phone signals returned gradually to the Gaza Strip after nearly 48 hours of blackout.
Hamas says seven captives killed in Jabalia bombing
The Hamas movement confirmed on Wednesday that seven captives, including Israelis and three foreign citizens, were killed in the Israeli bombing of Jabalia on Tuesday
“The Al-Qassam Brigades announce the killing of 7 of its civilian detainees in the Jabalia massacre yesterday, including three holders of foreign passports,” the movement’s armed wing said in a short statement on Wednesday.
Part of Israel’s army doctrine since the 1980s Hannibal directive, which is a strategy of allowing the killing of Israeli captives or putting them at risk to avoid having to negotiate over them, although the code has not been officially disclosed.
Since October 7, Hamas has released six captives of the 239 believed to be held in Gaza, including five women and a child.
Earlier this week, Israel claimed that it had freed one of its soldiers being held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, Pvt. Ori Megidish. Hamas’s spokesperson Abu Obaida, rejected these claims in a statement on Tuesday, saying:
“If this story was true, it would have happened with individual parties who held captives of the enemy,” indicating that the soldier in question was not being held by Hamas, but potentially by other actors in the Gaza Strip.
“We said from the start of the battle, there were a number of detainees and prisoners held by some individuals in Gaza Strip,” Abu Obaida said.
“In any case, if the loser [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is bragging and celebrating, after a month of the battle, for freeing a single captive, this means that he needs 20 years to free the rest of his captives in Gaza,” he added in a video speech broadcast on Al-Jazeera Arabic channel.
Over a dozen Israeli soldiers killed as ground invasion continues
Israel’s ground invasion into the northern and border areas of the Gaza Strip entered its third day on Wednesday, with the Israeli army confirming that 15 of its soldiers have been killed so far.
The army also claims to have taken control of a Hamas military base in the northern Gaza Strip and to have killed around 50 Hamas fighters, though the movement has not confirmed those numbers.
Meanwhile, Hamas has continued to attack various Israeli targets. On Wednesday, Hamas published a video of launching rockets into Israeli settlements of Ashdod, Al-Jazeera reported.
The movement also said that one of its armed drones dropped three anti-infantry bombs on Israeli forces in Beit Hanoun, in the northeast of the Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, Hamas fighters also launched 105mm anti-tank shells Al-Yassin against four Israeli armed vehicles near the Al-Zaytoun area east of Gaza City.
Bolivia severs ties with Israel; Jordan, Colombia, and Chile recall ambassadors
The Israeli massacre in Jabalia was widely condemned and resulted in diplomatic strain for Israel in Latin America.
Bolivia said on Tuesday that it is severing ties with Israel after calls for a ceasefire were not answered by the U.S. and Israel.
Freddy Mamani, Bolivia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, said that La Paz is cutting ties with Tel Aviv “in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip.”
An Israeli official condemned Bolivia’s decision, accusing it of “supporting terrorism.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Jordan recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv. The Foreign Ministry also told its Israeli counterpart, who had left Amman in the early days of the war, to not return to Jordan.
Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel in October 1994. The country is vital to Israel’s security and has the longest border it shares with a neighboring country.
On Tuesday, two other Latin American countries followed Bolivia in taking diplomatic steps towards Israel.
Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s President, announced that he was calling the country’s ambassador in Israel for consultation.
“If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people we cannot be there,” he added.
Chile took a similar decision. President Gabriel Boric said that he is calling Chile’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, Jorge Carvajal, for consultations.
“From Chile, we have sent humanitarian support to Palestine, supported the actions being promoted by the UN so that there is a ceasefire, and we will continue to seek ways of collaboration to stop this massacre,” he said.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s President, also called for an urgent ceasefire.
“We are seeing, for the first time, a war in which the majority of those killed are children. No one takes responsibility and we were not even able to produce a letter from the UN convincing the ceasefire. Stop! For the love of God, stop!” he wrote on X.
Also on Tuesday, a senior UN official, Craig Mokhiber, resigned in protest of international inaction.
Mokhiber, director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, said on X that the genocide carried out in Palestine “is the product of decades of Israeli impunity provided by the US & other western governments & decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people by western corporate media. Both must end now.”
West Bank: 128 Palestinians were killed and 1,980 wounded
Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday morning.
Yanal Hamran from the village of Al-Hashimiya in west Jenin was shot in the head during an Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp.
Wiam Al-Hariri and Muhammad Younis Jarrar were announced dead at Ibn Sina Hospital following the launch of two missiles from an Israeli drone in the Jourat Al-Dhahab area inside the Jenin camp.
128 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, and 1,980 have been wounded.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, expressed on Tuesday “great concern over attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, which he firmly condemned,” during talks with senior Arab officials.
In the past day, disturbing videos have surfaced across social media, showing armed and uniformed Israeli soldiers – not only soldiers – physically abusing and torturing Palestinians in the West Bank, where Hamas does not govern.
Israeli forces continued the mass arrest campaign, detaining 70 people on Wednesday in the cities of Hebron, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jenin, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, and Nablus.
Wafa news agency reported the detainees’ names and said that since October 7, Israeli forces arrested 1,830 people in the occupied West Bank.
U.S. sends additional troops, Israel deploys Saar-class corvette boats to Red Sea
Israel announced on Wednesday that it deployed Saar-class corvette boats in the Red Sea’s Port of Eilat.
This comes following a Houthi rebels’ attack, in which the Yemeni movement said it launched a “large number” of ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel, claiming it was the third operation targeting Israel.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese movement Hezbollah announced it has carried out 105 attacks on Israel since October 7 and that it killed and injured 120 Israeli soldiers and destroyed nine armed military vehicles.
Hezbollah said it destroyed radars, communication, and intelligence towers north of the occupied Palestine near southern Lebanon. The movement confirmed on Monday that it had lost 48 fighters in armed clashes with the Israeli army in recent weeks.
Hezbollah’s leader is expected to give a televised speech on Friday, the day the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be visiting Israel.
The U.S. announced it is dispatching another 300 troops to the Middle East.
Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the troops would not be positioned in Israel.
“They are intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities,” Ryder said.
Mustafa Abu Sneineh
Mustafa Abu Sneineh is a journalist and writer from occupied Jerusalem, Palestine.
“I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lies are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men and women are prosecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must–at that moment–become the center of the universe.”
― Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech