WATCH: Dramatic moment Israeli official ducks for cover as blast at Israel-Lebanon border interrupts interview
Breaking: Israeli military says it fired on ‘aerial target’ from Lebanon
The Israeli military said on Monday it had launched an interceptor missile at a ‘suspicious aerial target’ that crossed in from Lebanon, and that sirens had been sounded in areas of the border as a precaution.
Israel’s armed forces have massed tens of thousands of soldiers, tanks, heavy armour and artillery along the Gaza border ahead of a much-anticipated ground assault that aims to crush Hamas in retaliation for the group’s ruthless October 7 attacks.
On the face of it, the conflict looks to be a considerable mismatch.
Israel boasts one of the most advanced militaries in the world, with state of the art equipment and technology.
By contrast, Hamas is thought to have as many as 40,000 fighters, all of whom are crammed into Gaza, a small 140-square-mile strip of land home to more than 2.3 million people – with limited training and resources.
But military experts are reluctant to suggest an armed Israeli incursion into Gaza will be a walk in the park.
With this in mind, MailOnline breaks down the military capabilities of both sides ahead of Israel’s ground assault. Read more here.
Israel strikes eight ‘terrorist cells’ in Lebanon
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had wiped out eight terrorist cells in Lebanon over the past 24 hours and more than 20 since the start of the war.
Hagari said seven of the positions were struck before Hezbollah terrorists managed to fire anti-tank missiles and rockets
WATCH: IDF destroys Hamas targets across Gaza
Third aid convoy enters Gaza via Egypt border crossing
An aid convoy entered the besieged Gaza Strip on Monday via the Rafah border crossing, the third since war erupted on October 7.
More than a dozen lorries crossed Rafah, adding to a previous total of 34 trucks that had entered Gaza on Saturday and Sunday according to an Egyptian Red Cross official.
The United Nations says at least 100 trucks a day are needed to provide the basic needs of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants as fighting triggered by a massive Hamas onslaught rages on, with thousands killed already.
‘Blood and dead bodies everywhere’: Nurse describes conditions in Gaza hospital
The situation at al-Shifa hospital, one of Gaza’s biggest, is so dire that medics are being forced to improvise without supplies, medics say.
- ‘Last night it was a horror movie. Blood and dead bodies everywhere,’ Naseralldin Abutaha, an emergency nurse at the hospital, told NBC News.
- ‘I feel if I didn’t die, I’m dead inside. I can’t cry anymore,’ Abutaha, 21, said, adding that staff would be forced to use shirts as tourniquets. The medic said even water was not available, adding: ‘I swear I once used cola to wash a cut.’
- It comes as Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, said medics at the hospital were almost at the bottom of the fuel tanks.
- ‘We have switched the fuel to the most essential life-saving services including the incubators but we don’t know how long it can last,’ al-Qidra said.
- The United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said it would run out of fuel in three days. ‘Without fuel there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries,’ it said.
- It comes as a third convoy of aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Monday bound for the besieged Gaza Strip, an aid worker and two security sources said.
- Deliveries of aid through Rafah began on Saturday after wrangling over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border had left relief materials stranded in Egypt. But there will be no delivery of fuel which is vital for hospitals.
China views situation in Gaza as ‘very serious’
China views the situation in Gaza as ‘very serious’ with the risk of large-scale ground conflict growing and because the conflict has begun to spill over in the region, the country’s Middle East envoy said.
- The envoy Zhai Jun, who is visiting the Middle East, noted conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese and Israeli-Syrian borders, according to China Central Television. This has made ‘the outlook worrisome,’ he said.
- Zhai called on the international community to be ‘highly vigilant’ and to take immediate action urging parties concerned to strictly abide by international humanitarian law and avoid a serious humanitarian disaster while putting in ‘joint efforts to control the situation’.
- Zhai was also quoted as saying that China is willing to do ‘whatever is conducive’ to promote dialogue, achieve a ceasefire and restore peace, as well as to promote a two-state solution.
MAP: Latest updates on Israel-Hamas war
WATCH: Medics pull injured Palestinians from rubble after Israeli strike on refugee camp
In pictures: Israeli troops and tanks continue to mass on border
- The Home Secretary will demand an explanation from Sir Mark Rowley over why his officers stood by as demonstrators called for a ‘jihad’ against Israel, while others were filmed chanting ‘pro-Hamas slogans’.
- In one demonstration on the same day that 100,000 people marched through London in support of Palestine, members of the extremist group Hazb ut-Tahrir – which has been banned in almost all Arab countries – were filmed shouting ‘jihad’.
- The group’s leader, Luqman Muqeem, previously said Hamas terrorists were ‘heroes’ for massacring Israelis and the attacks of October 7 had ‘made us all very, very happy’.
- During a separate demonstration on Saturday, a man was filmed waving a black and white Islamic flag while reportedly shouting in Arabic: ‘God’s curse be upon the Jews’ and ‘God’s curse upon Israel’. He was arrested for inciting racial hatred.
Read our full report here.
Israel mounts limited ground raids into Gaza Strip to target Hamas gunmen and search for hostages
Israel said it had carried out ‘limited’ ground raids into Gaza overnight to target Hamas gunmen and search for the 220 hostages.
- IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said a soldier was killed and three others were wounded by an anti-tank missile during a raid inside Gaza.
- Hagari also claimed airstrikes are focusing on areas where Hamas terrorists are assembling to combat any Israeli ground invasion.
In pictures: Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza
Israel claims Hamas were carrying chemical weapons instructions
Israeli president Isaac Herzog told Sky News that Hamas were carrying instructions on how to make chemical weapons when they carried out their massacre on October 7.
- He said documents found on the bodies of dead fighters in kibbutz Be’eri were ‘official Al Qaeda material’ showing how to build a weapon with cyanide.
Israel’s Defence Forces have published what they claim is proof of Hamas rocket launch sites nestled amid mosques, schools and nurseries in Gaza.
- A series of satellite images, shared on the IDF’s official website and social media accounts, shows what they claim are launch pits dug into the ground right next to the civilian structures – something Israel says backs up their claims that Hamas is using the Palestinian people as human shields.
- Two alleged launch sites were located a stone’s throw away from each other, one in the garden of a mosque, and another mere feet away from a kindergarten.
- A third was seen across the road from a UN building in Gaza and a fourth was located opposite the Manfaluti Secondary School for Boys.
- Geolocation of the images provided by the IDF confirmed the locations given were correct, and analysts pointed out that previous satellite images taken in September did not show any launch sites – suggesting that any rocket launch platforms would have been recently constructed.
EU ministers discuss ways to get more aid into Gaza
European Union foreign ministers are meeting today to discuss ways to help vital aid get into Gaza, particularly fuel, after two convoys entered over the weekend.
- EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that ‘in normal times, without war, 100 trucks enter into Gaza every day. So it’s clear that 20 is not enough.’
- Borrell said the emphasis must be on getting power and water-providing desalination plants running again.
- ‘Without water and electricity, the hospitals can barely work,’ he told reporters in Luxembourg, where the meeting is taking place.
- He said the ministers will also look at ways to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the long term.
- ‘The great powers have forgotten about the Palestinian issue, thinking it was going to be solved alone, or it doesn’t matter. Yes, it matters,’ Borrell said.
![Empty trucks wait for aid arriving for the Gaza Strip at the Rafah crossing with Egypt on October 22, 2023. An aid convoy carrying desperately needed fuel entered Gaza on October 22 as Israel intensified strikes on the Palestinian enclave suffering a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in the war sparked by Hamas's bloody attack. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) / "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the CAPTION of this photo by MOHAMMED ABED has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Empty trucks wait for aid arriving for] instead of [Trucks carrying aid await entry into ]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefor](https://cdn.healthlydays.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1698048283557_lc_galleryImage_Empty_trucks_wait_for_aid.jpg)
Breaking: IDF: At least 220 hostages in Gaza
The Israeli military said the number of people confirmed as being held hostage by Hamas terrorists has risen to 222.
Netanyahu warns of a ‘do-or-die battle’ to ‘erase Hamas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday warned that the nation was in a ‘do-or-die double battle’ to ‘erase Hamas‘ in Gaza while trying to hold back against Hezbollah firing missiles from Lebanon
- Netanyahu said Hezbollah terrorists in the north will be making ‘the biggest mistake of their lives’ if they launch a war against Israel.
- ‘It will be the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state will be devastating,’ Netanyahu said.
- Hezbollah’s political movement is part of Lebanon’s fractious government, but its fighters operate outside the state’s control.
- Israel heavily bombed Beirut’s airport and civilian infrastructure during a 2006 war with Hezbollah.
- Israel is meanwhile evacuating some communities on its own side of the border.
IDF strikes two ‘terrorist cells’ in Lebanon
The Israeli military said it had destroyed two ‘terrorist cells’ inside Lebanon in an overnight strike.
- The IDF said it had struck two Hezbollah terrorist cells operating on the border with Lebanon as well as infrastructure targets including an anti-tank missile launch post, a military compound and an observation post.
- ‘The terrorist cell was planning to carry out an anti-tank missile launch towards the town of Shlomi,’ the IDF said on Telegram.
- Israel has frequently traded fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group, which is armed with tens of thousands of rockets.
- It comes amid growing fears the Israel-Hamas war will widen across the Middle East.
IDF destroys 320 Hamas targets in Gaza over last 24 hours
The Israeli military said on Monday it had struck 320 Hamas targets throughout Gaza over the past day.
- The IDF said it has destroyed anti-tank positions, tunnels, operational headquarters and other targets that could endanger forces preparing for a ‘manoeuvre in the Gaza Strip’ in reference to Israel’s imminent ground invasion
What’s happened in the past few hours?
Good morning to our MailOnline readers. Here’s a recap of what’s happened in the Israel-Hamas conflict in the last few hours.
- Israeli warplanes struck targets across Gaza early on Monday
- Another aid shipment was allowed into Gaza
- Israel is widely expected to launch ground offensive as tanks continue to mass on the border
- Israel has said it has stepped up airstrikes in order to reduce the risk to troops in the next stages
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington expects the Israel-Hamas law to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran
- Blinken said the US government is prepared to respond if American personnel or armed forces become the target of any such hostilities
Key Updates - Third aid convoy enters Gaza via Egypt border crossing
- ‘Blood and dead bodies everywhere’: Nurse describes conditions in Gaza hospital
- MAP: Latest updates on Israel-Hamas war
- In pictures: Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza
- Israel claims Hamas were carrying chemical weapons instructions
- Netanyahu warns of a ‘do-or-die battle’ to ‘erase Hamas
- IDF destroys 320 Hamas targets in Gaza over last 24 hours
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