A member of a #Hamas delegation visiting #Moscow says #hostages taken from #Israel , during Hamas's surprise attack on on 7 October, can't be freed until a #ceasefire is agreed, local media reports.
#Russian newspaper Kommersant cites Abu Hamid as saying Hamas needed time to locate all of those who had been seized.
"They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them," Hamid is quoted as saying.
A State Dept spox has told the #BBC that the US does not support a ceasefire that would allow #Hamas to "rest and refit, and continue launching terrorist operations against #Israel". Miller said that in addition to 7 Oct attacks, "Hamas has launched rockets every day, targeting civilians in Israel".
"We would be opposed to any kind of ceasefire that would allow them to continue those operations; we do think that the parties ought to consider humanitarian pauses ti allow the delivery of aid"
Haaretz' Anshel Pfeffer tells #BBC that if elections in #Israel had been held on the eve of the war, #Netanyahu would have been voted out.
One factor weakening public support for the PM, Pfeffer explains, has been his government's decision to weaken the powers of Israel's supreme court - which led to protests during most of 2023, with many taking place "until just a few weeks ago".
UNRWA's Lazzarini on #Humanitarian situation in #Gaza: "people in Gaza are dying, basic services are crumbling," He adds that food and water are running out, the streets have started "overflowing with sewage... Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard and the risk of diseases are looming," he says. "Gaza is being strangled" and its people "feel shunned, alienated and abandoned", only a "handful of aid convoys" have been allowed in - they were "a distraction - nothing more than crumbs"
carried out by a pair of US F-16s hitting ammo depots.
Despite what the Pentagon says, it will be seen as part of US actions seen as supportive of Israel... why the US has asked #Israel to pause any ground incursion into #Gaza is because it needs more time to get its air defences into bases, in anticipation of attacks - the US has air bases in pretty much all the Gulf States, on quite a heightened state of alert expecting attacks by (Iran's) proxies.'
V #BBC Frank Gardner: 'The US is at great pains to say that the overnight action in eastern #Syria is not in connection with what is going on in #Gaza , that it was not done in any coordination with #Israel , and it is a completely separate action of self-defence.
The remote US base on the border between Syria and #Iraq has been attacked 19 times in the last few days by #Iranian-backed militias, the Pentagon says.
UNRWA's Lazzarini is asked about the casualty numbers in #Gaza, whether they are credible.
He says that in the past figures coming from Gaza were considered credible and "no one ever really challenged these figures". He explains that a correlation made by the UN compared the number of staff they have in Gaza and the number of staff killed within the population, and the total population. He adds, that "we have more or less the same percentage" At least 57 of his UNRWA colleagues have been killed
The 3rd humanitarian convoy in as many days has reached #Gaza from #Egypt via the #Rafah crossing. The #Palestinian Red Crescent said the 20 trucks were loaded with food, water and medical supplies. UNRWA, which looks after Palestinans in Gaza says its fuel reserves are nearly exhausted, meaning water desalination plants, hospitals or bakeries may be unable to work in couple of days. #Israel says it's not permitting fuel deliveries because they could be commandeered by Hamas.
Meanwhile #Israel's defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said Israel will sever all ties with the #Gaza Strip once its war with #Hamas is over -- it would, as he put it, end its "responsibility" for life there.
The #Hamas authorities say #Israeli attacks have now killed more than 4100 people.
Over 1400 Israelis were killed in Hamas' unprecedented extremist attacks within Israel earlier this month
UK foreign sec Cleverly has told the #BBC that #Hamas "has habitually brutalised #Palestinian people... Hamas published videos of water pipes funded by the EU being torn up and turned into missiles". (thought to refer to an al-Qassam Brigades vid - where they appear to be digging water pipes out of the desert and turning them into missiles. The BBC has not verified it). He claimed Hamas is using "fuel which could be used for the desalination plants to send rockets into Israel".
Now is not the right time for a ceasefire between #Israel and #Hamas , top White House and US State Dept officials have said.
"We don't believe that this is the time for a ceasefire," National Sec Council spox Kirby told reporters. "Israel has a right to defend themselves. They still have work to do to go after Hamas leadership."
State Dept spox Miller said: “What we will continue to do, with respect to this question, is focus on getting #humanitarian assistance in to #Gaza .”
UK PM Sunak says the British government will give an additional £20m in aid to civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, doubling its previous commitment
And in a domestic development UK hate crime law to be clarified after protest row where a man shouted 'jihad' in a megaphone on a London street https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67197002
Obama stmt on #Israel#Gaza https://barackobama.medium.com/my-statement-on-israel-and-gaza-a6c397f09a30 "I fully support Pres Biden’s call for the US to support our ally in going after Hamas, dismantling its military capabilities... we shd also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters". #Hamas leadership "seems to intentionally hide among civilians, thereby endangering the very people they claim to represent". "Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire," he says.
"The nurses say she is very keen to pass on the information to families of other hostages that she was with."
"There are still over 200 people there and we must must must not kind of get caught only in our personal happiness but work towards the release of everybody." "I guess no family has a plan for what happened if something like that happened, it’s so off the scale. We are just living one day at a time." (Cont.)
BBC #journalist, watches opposition in #Russia, FSU, E. Europe, Syria. Not a BBC spox, views my own, some humour 😵💫, migrant.Working on a radio programme, focusing on world news.Posts in unexpected languages, incl Hun, Ger, Ukr, Rus, Cz, Slo, dabbler in typos.Also twice daily resharing the #Ukraine war bulletin or the world #news #headlines of the BBC World Service on this feed#fedi22BBC World Service https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_serviceFan of #catsofmastodon