Israel’s war against Hamas has entered its 25th day, three weeks after Hamas killed at least 1,400 Israelis and injured more than 3,300. The Gaza health ministry reports at least 8,306 Palestinians have been killed. The Islamic Jihad Organization and Hamas are holding more than 240 soldiers, civilians and foreign nationals as hostages.
Israeli Military Endeavors
The Israeli army is now engaged on five fronts at different levels of intensity: Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and the Houthis in Yemen.
Fighter jets and aerial defense systems thwarted a drone attack over the Red Sea. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they launched numerous ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel, their third such launch targeting Israel.
In northern Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital reported many deaths and injuries from as a result of an Israeli strike on the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Israeli Army confirmed that two Israeli soldiers were killed during the ground incursion, while Israeli forces claimed the killing of the commander of Hamas’ northern division, Nissim Abu Ajina.
The Health ministry in the Gaza Strip stated that at least 50 people were killed on Tuesday, October 31, in Israeli bombardment on the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Palestinian territory.
“More than 50 martyrs and around 150 wounded and dozens under the rubble, in a heinous Israeli massacre that targeted a large area of homes in Jabaliya camp in the northern (Gaza) Strip,” read the ministry statement.
Media sources have been reporting a death toll reaching as far as 400 people.
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66 aid trucks had entered Gaza over the past 24 hours through the Rafah crossing.
Diplomatic Activity
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, stated that now is not the time for a ceasefire, saying it would “simply consolidate what Hamas has been able to do.”
Iran said on Tuesday that it was “natural” for Tehran-backed groups to attack Israel in light of its war on Hamas, warning of a wider spillover if no ceasefire is reached.
The remarks were made by Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where he met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and his Qatari counterpart to discuss a push for a diplomatic breakthrough
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Jordan’s King Abdullah II received a call from US President Joe Biden in which they discussed the deterioration of the situation in Gaza.
King Abdullah stressed the importance of a ceasefire and humanitarian truce in Gaza, to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, and increase efforts to end the war.
He reaffirmed his position on the two-state solution being the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian war, by creating an independent Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967, borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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Khalil Wakim
