Israel-Hamas war LIVE: All hostages held in Gaza could be freed in days if there is a pause in fighting, Qatar says after Erdogan accused the West of ‘ignoring international law because the blood being spilled is Muslim blood’

With no sign of a let-up in Gaza, the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemned Israel for what they called the targeting of civilians and violations of international law.

Their joint statement said Israel’s right to self-defence did not justify breaking the law and neglecting Palestinians’ rights. The Arab ministers condemned forced displacement and collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza, where an estimated more than 613,000 people have been made homeless and are being sheltered by UNRWA.

They also criticised Israel’s occupation of Palestinian areas and called for more efforts to implement a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict – an idea at the heart of long-moribund peacemaking.

‘The absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to repeated acts of violence and suffering for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region,’

Fires were raging on Thursday night in the Gaza Strip as airstrkes continued.

The war, now in its 20th day, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed so far – more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids following Hamas’ surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.

American journalists in Gaza and Israel are reporting continued firing from Israeli tanks into Gaza on Thursday evening.

Videos on social media purport to show flares, tank fire and airstrikes crossing into the territory as night fell over the border.

Pro-Palestine activists today blocked an entrance to a military tech factory claimed to be sending kit to Israeli forces.

The Palestine Action group said more than 100 people gathered outside Instro Precision at Discovery Park in Sandwich, Kent, holding up placards reading ‘stop arming Israel’.

Instro Precision Ltd is owned by Israeli-based Elbit Systems, which has a documented history of working with the Israeli Defence Force.

US troops have been attacked in Iraq and Syria at least 16 times in the last week, the Pentagon has said.

It came as it announced 900 US troops have either newly arrived in the Middle East or are on their way to the region.

At least one attack has been thwarted today, officials said.

In Gaza, reports of missile strikes and shells being launched from Israeli tanks into the strip continue to come in.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children.

The US State Department said Washington knows that a significant number of people have died in Gaza but does not have independent confirmation of numbers, and it does not trust figures released by Hamas.

The Israeli military has also said Hamas figures cannot be trusted, but has not provided its own assessment. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra rejected statements questioning the figures.

The Hamas-run ministry on Thursday published a document which it said contains the names of all the victims who have been identified and their ID numbers.

Palestinians said Israeli air strikes pounded the territory again overnight and people in central Gaza reported intensive tank shelling all night.

Israelis were pictured hitting the ground and covering their heads at a funeral on Thursday after sirens warned of imminent missile strikes from Gaza.

Family and friends gathered for the funeral of Sagiv Ben Svi, an Isaraeli national killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival on October 7.

Labour leader Keir Starmer faced a new challenge to his authority today after a frontbencher openly joined backbench left-wingers demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Bradford East MP Imran Hussain lined up alongside 38 other Labour MPs who are backing a parliamentary motion calling for ‘an immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities’ in the Palestinian territory.

The 45-year-old, who backed Jeremy Corbyn to become Labour leader in 2015, last night posted on social media from a meeting with the Palestinian ambassador, Husam Zumlot, in Parliament.

Israel has called on Russia to expel a visiting Hamas delegation, saying their invitation to Moscow was ‘deplorable.’

‘Hamas is a terrorist organization worse than ISIS. The hands of senior Hamas figures are covered with the blood of more than 1400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed and burned, and they are responsible for the abduction of more than 220 Israelis, including babies, children, women and the elderly,’ the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Chilling footage has emerged showing the elaborate tunnel systems that Hamas terrorists have been using to move weapons, hostages and stage attacks on Israel.

The footage gives insight into the claustrophobic conditions the Palestinian Islamist fighters have been operating in.

It shows militants using metal rods and shovels to dig the tunnels. Many of them appear to be quite cramped and dark with footage showing the fighters slightly slouching as they move through the tunnels guided by headtorches.

Hamas has claimed that Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 50 hostages taken into Gaza by the terror group.

A spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, gave no further details.

Biden discussed efforts to locate and secure Americans believed held hostage in Gaza in a phone call with Netanyahu.

Israel said there were 224 hostages, whose presence complicates any Israeli ground invasion. Some of those held include a number of foreign passport holders. Hamas has freed four captives since Friday and Gaza began receiving a small amount of aid the following day.

A Qatari negotiator told Sky News that a pause in fighting could help get more hostages released in the coming days.

Israel claimed on Wednesday night to have killed a key Hamas intelligence chief who played a major role in planning the October 7 attacks.

This is the airstrike which they say resulted in his death.

Iran’s Foreign Minster Hossein Amirabdollahian warned at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israel’s retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip doesn’t end then the United States will ‘not be spared from this fire.’

‘I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome (an)expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire,’ he told a meeting of the 193-member General Assembly on the Middle East.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,400 people and saw hundreds taken hostage. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion. Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 have been killed.

Hamas has told Iran that it was ready to release civilian hostages, adding that the world should push for the release of 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, Amirabdollahian said.

‘The Islamic Republic of Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavor, along with Qatar and Turkey. Naturally, the release of the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners is another necessity and responsibility of the global community,’ he said.

• The IDF claims to have ‘eliminated’ a Hamas intelligence chief who helped to plot the October 7 attacks.
• Israel’s envoy to the United Nations has accused Iran of training and funding Hamas and said it should not have a seat at the UN.
• The Palestinian UN representative said at the emergency meeting that 3,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out.
• Hostages held by Hamas could be released in days, a senior Qatari negotiator has claimed, if there is a pause in fighting.
• Pope Francis spoke to Turkey’s President Erdogan about the ‘dramatic situation in the Holy Land’, the Vatican confirmed.
• Erdogan called Israel’s Gaza bombardment ‘a shame for humanity’ and blasted the West for ‘ignoring international law because the blood being spilled is Muslim blood’.

Iran’s foreign minister has said Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners, while also saying the world should support the release of 6,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has been speaking to the emergency council.

Here is some of what he said:

• Iran ‘has the blood of thousands of Israelis on its hands’ for training, funding and arming Hamas.
• He said Iran has ‘no place at the United Nations’ and its continued presence is a ‘moral stain’.
• He accused Iran and Hamas of having a ‘Nazi ideology’ and said October 7 atrocities were ‘thoroughly-planned’.

[Hamas] came with one purpose: to savagely murder every living thing they encountered. Hamas Nazi murderers went from house to house with hitlists – a thoroughly planned, willful, premeditated attack.

Over 200 hostages taken from Israel and being held by Hamas could be released in days if there were a pause in the fighting, according to the Qatari officials leading negotiations.

Dr Mohammed Al Khulaifi, a senior negotiator and Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, told Sky News: ‘It’s a very, very difficult negotiation that we’ve been dealing with.

‘Our target is to release all of the civilian hostages. That’s what we’re working on, and that’s what we want to achieve.

‘We remain hopeful. We do the best that we can trying to get everyone soon and hopefully we can achieve that goal within the upcoming days.’

The Palestinian representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, has told the conference today:

• Entire families and neighbourhoods have been destroyed by Israeli bombing of Gaza.
• In less than three weeks, 3,000 innocent children have been killed and 1,700 women.
• Around 900 children are feared trapped under piles of rubble from destroyed buildings.
• More than 40 per cent of all homes have been razed, making ‘an entire population homeless and displaced’.
• Israel is only allowing enough aid in to ‘pretend you have a sense of humanity but nowhere enough to address the immense needs that are growing exponentially’.

Oxfam has said that only two per cent of food that would have been delivered to Gaza has made it through since Israel tightened restrictions on supplies able to enter on October 9.

Sally Abi Khalil, the Middle East Director of Oxfam said:

The situation is nothing short of horrific – where is humanity? Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world, there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war. World leaders cannot continue to sit back and watch, they have an obligation to act and to act now

The estimated number of Hamas-held captives killed in Gaza due to Israeli strikes is around 50, Hamas’s armed wing said via Telegram.

The spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, failed to provide any further details. The claims have not been independently verified.

A senior Hamas leader previously claimed that 22 hostages had been killed, which was also not verified.

Nine Arab countries, including Egypt and the UAE, have asserted their condemnation of what they say is Israel’s targeting of civilians and violations of international law in Gaza.

Their joint statement said that the right to self-defence does not justify breaking international law and neglecting Palestinians’ rights.

The nations’ foreign ministers also condemned forced displacement and collective punishment in Gaza.

The joint statement was issued by:

• The United Arab Emirates
• Jordan
• Bahrain
• Saudi Arabia
• Oman
• Qatar
• Kuwait
• Egypt
• Morocco

• Pope Francis spoke to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday about the war between Hamas and Israel, the Vatican said.
• He reiterated the Holy See’s position on the importance of a two-state solution.
• Erdogan meanwheil said that ‘the international community’s silence about what is happening is a shame for humanity’.

A top Russian government minister claims to have held talks with Hamas about the fate of hostages taken from Israel on October 7.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Russian media, without providing further details, ‘of course, we met the political leadership.’

• Erdogan said the West is providing unconditional support for Israeli attacks.
• A Hamas official warned the IDF would suffer major losses if they choose to invade the Gaza Strip.

Read the full story here:

A fifth aid convoy, consisting of 12 lorries carrying food, water and medical supplies, is entering Gaza from Egypt, the Palestinian Red Crescent has said.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s war on Hamas on October 7, it has been reported.

This total of 7,028 includes 2,913 children, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said Western countries are not adhering to international law in Gaza because the ‘blood spilled is Muslims’ blood.’

In a speech at his presidential palace, he labelled Israeli attacks on the enclave ‘barbaric.’

Erdogan also condemned Western countries’ ‘unconditional support’ for Israeli attacks instead of calling for restraint.

He asked: ‘What more needs to happen in Gaza for West to call for ceasefire?’

• The confirmed number of Gaza hostages has risen to 224 and could increase further, the Israeli military says.
• The Deputy leader of the Hamas political bureau said ‘the battles have not begun yet’ and revealed he had met with Hezbollah’s leader on October 7.
• The UN has warned that ‘nowhere is safe in Gaza’, as Israeli strikes continue to pound the enclave.
• The Israeli defence minister says the war campaign ‘will soon ramp up’ and that ground invasion would be ‘one stage in a process that will take years’.
• Rishi Sunak has said that the government is ‘very keen’ to get British citizens out of Gaza but that there ‘needs to be a safer environment’ to do so.

Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid has attacked the government, saying that, twenty days on, it has still not overcome the ‘shock’ of Hamas’s attack.

‘It’s possible to understand the shock and paralysis of the government’ immediately after Hamas’s October 7 attack, he said, but added ‘it’s hard to understand how the government hasn’t emerged from the shock.’

‘The government isn’t present,’ he adds.

Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israel’s war Cabinet, has said Israel’s war campaign against Hamas ‘will soon ramp up with greater force’.

In a speech in Tel Aviv and on X, he said:

• Any possible ground offensive would be only ‘one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years’.
• ‘We will not be the ones at risk of being wiped out. That will be the fate of those who seek to do us ill,’ he said.
• He denied reports of US pressure, saying Israel is making its own military decisions ‘based on our own interests’.

***WARNING: Pictures contain distressing content***

• ‘My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. And he should be prepared,’ Biden said.
• The president also gave a rare rebuke to Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and reiterated calls for a two-state solution.

Read the full story here:

A doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City has revealed that bodies are having to be stored in ice cream vans, with pictures showing the dead wrapped in white sheets with their names written on.

‘We brought ice cream trucks from ice cream factories to preserve the huge amount of dead bodies the hospital receives every day,’ Dr Yasser Ali said.

‘Even with these freezers, the number of dead bodies exceeds the capacity. Additionally, 20-30 bodies are put in the tents outside every day.’

He added that some bodies were ‘so mutilated’ they could not be identified.

‘There is a real humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Gaza is facing a disaster. If this war continues, we won’t be able to bury the dead.’

Despite Israel assuring Gazans that the south of the strip would be safer than the north, those who have fled there are telling a different story.

‘The southern area, south of the valley, is not safe,’ a man in Khan Younis said.

‘There are massacres day and night, many massacres, where children, young people, babies – everyone is being killed.

‘Buildings are killed, trees are killed… there is no safe place in all of Gaza Strip. The south is destroyed, all of the killings and displacement is in the south.

‘We belong to God and to him we shall return.’

Watch the full video here:

Rishi Sunak said there needed to be a ‘safer environment’ in Gaza in order to allow British nationals to leave the bombarded area.

• ‘Alongside (supplying) aid, we also want to try and get our British nationals out of Gaza, for the hostages to be released.
• ‘We recognise that for all of that to happen, there needs to be a safer environment, which of course necessitates specific pauses, which are distinct from a ceasefire.
• ‘And that is why we supported the resolution at the United Nations yesterday which, among many other things, mentioned that.’
• He said the UK Border Force has teams in Egypt ready to assist British nationals when they can leave Gaza.

The Prime Minister made the comments during questions after a speech on artificial intelligence.

• Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan held a phone call with Pope Francis today, his office said.
• In it, he said that Israel’s attacks on Gaza amounted to a massacre.
• He said that all countries must raise their voice against the humanitarian crisis in the region.
• He described the perceived silence of the international community as ’embarrasing’.

• Israeli police have identified 808 civilians killed in the Hamas attack of October 7.
• The army has identified 309 soldiers who lost their lives, bringing the total to 1,117.
• Work continues to identify the remainder of the 1,405 victims.

The number of people confirmed held hostage in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 attack by Hamas has risen to 224, the IDF has said.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the families of the 224 hostages have been notified.

He warned that this number could rise further as the military investigates new information.

Four hostages have been released by the terrorists so far.

Israel’s health ministry has said that 267 people are still receiving treatment in hospital following the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists.

Of this number, 50 are said to be in a serious condition.

European Union leaders are set to call for the establishment of ‘humanitarian corridors and pauses’ to get urgently needed aid into Gaza, a draft text for a summit today shows.

The IDF has shared footage of overnight strikes on what it says are Hamas terrorist targets.

Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on X: ‘In the last day, IDF warplanes attacked over 250 targets of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

‘Among the targets that were attacked, terrorist infrastructures, operational headquarters, terrorist tunnel shafts and rocket launchers placed in a civilian environment which were used to shoot at Israel during the fighting.’

Israel continues its aerial bombardment of Gaza today after tank raids on the territory overnight.

‘Nowhere is safe in Gaza,’ Lynne Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement.

‘When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices.’

The deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, has warned that ‘the battles have not begun yet.’

Saleh al-Arouri also revealed he had met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on October 7, the day of Hamas’ bloody invasion of Israel.

He made the comments in an interview with al-Manar, the TV channel of Hezbollah.

The Red Cross hopes to bring eight to 10 aid trucks into Gaza today and to ‘establish a pipeline’, an official has said.

‘This is a small amount of what is required, a drop in the ocean if you will, given the severity of the consequences of the violence in the last two and a half weeks,’ said William Schomburg, head of the sub-delegation in Gaza.

The government’s COBRA emergency response committee will meet today to consider its strategy and approach towards Gaza and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said this morning.

• Israel is blocking aid trucks delivering fuel from entering Gaza as it claims the goods are being seized by Hamas.
• Consequently, the UN Palestinian refugee agency has shared its own resources, but warns hospitals will shut down as their own fuel supply is about to run out.
• UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said agency workers are being forced to ration fuel reserves and choose where the resources are deployed.
• ‘Do we give for the incubators or the bakeries? It is an excruciating decision.’

• Israeli forces including tanks rolled into northern Gaza overnight in the biggest incursion of the war against Hamas so far to carry out ‘targeted raids’ on ‘terrorist cells’ ahead of a full-scale ground invasion.
• In an indication Israel was widening assaults into Gaza, the military said ground forces attacked multiple targets in the Hamas-ruled enclave on Thursday before withdrawing.
• The IDF said tanks and infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts ‘as part of preparations for the next stages of combat’ against Hamas.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night warned Hamas terrorists in a televised statement that they were ‘doomed’ as he vowed to push ahead with a ground invasion.