Alert – Israel-Hamas LIVE: Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar has been ‘isolated’ in his bunker, Israel’s defence minister says as he confirms IDF troops are in the heart of Gaza City

Murdered, kidnapped and tortured by terrorists, British-Israeli Ayelet Svalitzky’s family has been ripped apart by Hamas.

Then they tormented her by sending her photos of her elderly mother and brother on Facebook with a one-word caption: Hamas.

Later, Ayelet, 46, who lives on a kibbutz in northern Israel discovered that the armed group had murdered her elder brother Roi, 54.

Today marks one month since the abduction of Ayelet’s brother Nadav Popplewell, 51, and her mother Channah Peri, 79, on what Israelis now call ‘Black Saturday’.

A bartender who survived the Nova festival massacre by hiding under a stage, smearing her face with blood and pretending to be dead has gone back to the scene –  and warned the world to ‘wake up’ to Hamas.

May Hayat, from Tel Aviv, was one of the first to witness the true horrors of the war – as she watched Hamas gunmen attack the open-air music festival a few kilometres from the Gaza security fence, killing 260 and taking others hostage.

The 30-year-old only escaped after the man hiding in a hole with her had been shot dead – but a Hamas terrorist took pity on her and told her to flee while another argued that they wanted to kill her too.

She then hid under a stage, smearing herself with another victim’s blood and playing dead as gunmen stalked between the bodies.

Returning to the scene of the massacre for the first time since she fled, Ms Hayat’s eyes filled with tears as she watched over the tragic site.

Scotland Yard last night gave the green light to a pro-Palestine rally on Armistice Day as its top cop claimed it had ‘no absolute power’ to ban the protest.

In a thinly veiled swipe at the Home Secretary, Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley said the laws of Parliament and intelligence gathered by its sources did not justify a ban.

The country’s most senior police officer said the protest, which is expected to draw in 70,000 people, could only be banned if there was a ‘real threat’ of serious disorder.

This was despite fears of violent clashes between the marchers and Right-wing activists. The rally’s organisers had already rebuffed the Met’s pleas to postpone.

They have also defied Rishi Sunak, who said the event was ‘disrespectful’, and Suella Braverman, who called it a ‘hate march’.

These photos released by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) show infantry moving through the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

The Israeli military says it has moved into Gaza City itself as it looks to strike a blow against Hamas in its own backyard.

US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a three-day fighting pause could help secure the release of some hostages, according to a report that cites two US and Israeli officials.

Under a proposal being discussed between the US, Israel and Qatar, Hamas would release 10-15 hostages and use the pause to verify the identities of all the hostages and deliver a list of names of the people it is holding, Axios reports.

In a statement on Monday, the White House said Biden and Netanyahu discussed ‘the possibility of tactical pauses to provide civilians with opportunities to safely depart from areas of ongoing fighting, to ensure assistance is reaching civilians in need, and to enable potential hostage releases.’

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Axios report.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel’s military was encircling Gaza City and operating inside it.

‘Hamas is now discovering we are coming into places they never thought we would,’ he said.

In a televised statement, Netanyahu said there would be no ceasefire or fuel delivery to Gaza before Hamas released Israeli hostages and repeated a call on Palestinian civilians to move south for their own safety.

‘We will not stop,’ Netanyahu said.

Iyad Shaqura, who has been working throughout the war as an emergency physician, fainted when he saw the bodies of his two children, his mother and his two brothers arrive at the emergency room.

His family had been killed by a strike that hit their home in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces have infiltrated deep into Gaza City, according to an IDF commander.

‘For the first time in decades, IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza City. At the heart of terrorism,’ Major General Yaron Finkelman said.

The British Army is posturing itself for the prospect of a non-combatant evacuation operation in the Middle East in the event the conflict expands, General Sir Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff has said.

Appearing before Parliament’s Defence Select Committee, he was asked about the readiness of the armed services and the steps taken in light of the fighting, according to the Press Association.

He went on to discuss ‘contingency’ options, adding: ‘Clearly there is a prospect if the conflict does expand of a non-combatant evacuation operation in some parts of that region. We’re posturing ourselves for that.’

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has again urged all parties in the on-going conflict to agree to a ceasefire and ‘work toward a lasting peace’.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a post on social media, said 10,000 people have been killed over the course on the month-long war, including more than 4,000 children.

‘History will judge us all by what we do to end this tragedy,’ he wrote.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said rising reports of antisemitism in the UK in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict ‘sickens’ him.

Mr Sunak also said he had spoken with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reiterate the UK’s support, while stressing the need to allow aid into Gaza, and confirmed reports that ‘well over’ 100 British citizens had escaped Gaza.

He also warned against calls for a ceasefire, telling the Commons:

In an ‘operational update,’ Israel’s southern army commander has said IDF troops are ‘fighting in the heart of Gaza City, in the heart of terror’.

‘This is a complex and difficult war and unfortunately it has costs,’ Major-General Yaron Finkelman said, Al Jazeera reports.

‘Will not be silent until our mission is complete,’ he added.

If confirmed, it would be the first time Israeli forces are fighting in central Gaza City for the best part of a decade. The last time was in 2014 when the Israeli military entered Shuja’iyya, a densely populated neighbourhood of the city.

A Palestinian doctor has been pictured saying goodbye to his family as they evacuate through the Rafah border crossing without him.

Instead of leaving with them, Mohammad Abu Namoos has chosen to stay behind in the enclave to continue treating patients, according to a Reuters photographer.

In one emotional photo, Dr Namoos is seen squeezing the chin of his young daughter Dina before she leaves Gaza for Egypt with her mother.

Many more people are hoping to escape Gaza through the crossing, but so far it has only been open to foreign passport holders and severely injured Palestinians.

More than 100 French nationals and their dependents have been evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, the foreign ministry in Paris has said.

‘Two groups of French nationals, officials and rights holders were able to leave’ on Monday and Tuesday from Gaza and are now ‘in safety in Egypt,’ the ministry said in a statement.

The departures ‘bring the number of exits organised by France to more than 100 people,’ it added.

Hundreds of foreign passport holders were waiting at the Rafah crossing Tuesday for evacuation into Egypt, an AFP news agency journalist saw.

People were allowed to leave between Wednesday and Friday last week, including dozens of wounded Palestinians as well as foreign nationals.

A charity has warned that the more than half a million people trapped in northern Gaza face death by starvation if aid does not reach them.

Riham Jafari, Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication for ActionAid Palestine, said: ‘Over half a million people are trapped in northern Gaza who have barely survived the relentless bombing and face death by starvation as food supplies run perilously low.’

He also said ‘cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly. Hospitals, which have remained over capacity for weeks on end, can offer no solace to those on the brink of starvation as medical supplies run low, fuel is scarce, and bombs are indiscriminately dropped across Gaza including on the footsteps of hospitals.’

Meanwhile UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accused Israel of commiting forced displacement, and described the humanitarian situation on the ground as a ‘tragedy of colossal proportions’.

Israel today opened evacuation routes for people still in the north to reach the south of the coastal territory. It is unclear how many remain today. Aid groups have said many are incapable of making the journey.

The US is set to sell $320 million worth of precision-guided bombs to Israel, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

It is hoped that the missile system will help the Jewish state limit the number of civilian casualties as it continues to go after Hamas.

The deal will see Israel’s Rafael defense contractor buy the Spice Family Gliding Bomb Assemblies from Rafael USA, an American subsidiary.

The system is designed to turn unguided bombs into GPS-guided munitions.

It is understood the deal was signed off months ago, and before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking the on-going conflict.

Turkey’s parliament has removed Coca-Cola and Nestle products from its restaurants over their alleged support for Israel amid the conflict in Gaza, according to an official statement and a source who named the two companies.

The two companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters news agency reported.

‘The products of companies that support Israel will not be sold in restaurants, cafeterias and tea houses in the parliament campus,’ Turkey’s Grand National Assembly said, without identifying the companies.

A former Hamas chief is behind one of the groups planning a pro-Palestine protest in London on Armistice Day, it emerged today.

Muhammad Kathem Sawalha led the terror group in the West Bank in the late 1980s and allegedly ‘masterminded’ its military strategy as recently as 2019 before moving to the UK, where he lives in a London council house.

Mr Sawalha, 62, is a founder of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) – one of the groups behind the proposed march this Saturday, The Telegraph reported.

Half the groups organising the march this Saturday, which the Met Police has called on to be cancelled, have links to Hamas, the newspaper claimed.

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Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee to consider the impact of the conflict in the UK.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said ‘it will look a wide range of areas but it’s obviously particularly focused on the impact of the terrorist attack on the UK domestically’ and how to address important issues around ‘community cohesion’.

News of the meeting comes ahead of protests planned for the weekend in London to coincide with Armistice Day.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has cancelled his planned trip to Israel today after news of his arrival was leaked over the weekend.

According to The Times Of Israel, citing diplomatic sources, he is still expected to make the trip, but no date is set at this stage.

An Israeli official said on Sunday: ‘If President Zelensky comes, he will be welcomed with open arms.’

• The IDF was forced to intercept a ‘suspicious aerial target’ it said was fired into the territory from north of the Lebanese border.
• “A short while ago, the IDF aerial defence array intercepted a suspicious aerial target that was identified in the area of the border with Lebanon before it crossed into Israeli territory,” a military statement said.

Al Jazeera reports that Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, has said on its Telegram channel that it was ‘ready to release’ 12 of the roughly 240 captives who were taken into Gaza on October 7.

However, the group said ‘the situation on the ground is what hinders this from being completed,’ blaming Israeli air strikes and the on-going ground offensive.

The post said Hamas was ready to release ’12 detainees in Gaza who hold foreign nationalities, but the occupation (Israel) obstructed that’.

In pictures taken yesterday, Palestinians are seen in the aftermath of an alleged Israeli air strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, in Deir Al Balah, Gaza.

Gaza’a Hamas-run health ministry said yesterday the death toll in the territory since the war began climbed over 10,000.

Reports suggested more than 40 people were killed in the strike. Israel said it would investigate whether it was operating in the area at the time.

Israeli forces have pushed further into Gaza and engaged Hamas fighters near the Shifa Hospital, is have been reported.

The IDF claims the hospital sits on top of the terror group’s headquarters, and accuses Hamas’s leaders of using it as a civilian shield against Israeli strikes.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the country’s forces were ‘deepening the pressure’ on Gaza City, with anticipation for a full ground offensive into the city’s narrow streets now building.

IDF troops were reportedly near the enclave’s Shifa Hospital – Gaza’s main and largest medical facility – which sits about 800 yards from the coast.

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The UN rights chief is visiting the Middle East amid rising concerns over Israel’s escalation in Gaza, his office said today.

Volker Turk is in Egypt at the start of a five-day visit to the region, and was planning to visit the Rafah crossing to Gaza on Wednesday, his office said in a statement.

Turk will visit Amman Thursday, and has also sought access to Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, it added. The UN has been highly critical of Israel over its bombing campaign in Gaza, and has called for a ceasefire.

‘It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,’ Turk said in the statement.

‘Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain.’

Israelis observed a minute of silence on Tuesday morning in memory of the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel and the 348 soldiers killed since the assault, on its one-month anniversary.

Israelis are marking the anniversary as a day of mourning over the attack, in which more than 1,400 people were killed and 242 were taken hostage.

The one-month anniversary is a milestone in the timeline of Jewish mourning.

Memorial events are scheduled to be held in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem later in the day.

At least 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of fighters.

The new toll marks an increase of around 300 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said Israel’s forces are continuing their efforts to destroy Hamas’s network of tunnels under Gaza.

He posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) showing underground explosions, followed by Israeli soldiers operating in the small territory investigating what appeared to be an entrance into a tunnel.

What was once Gaza’s busiest thoroughfare has become a terrifying escape route for Palestinian civilians fleeing combat on foot or on donkey carts.

On their way south, those running for their lives said they raised their hands and waved white flags to move past Israeli tanks along the four-lane highway.

Some reported Israeli soldiers firing at them and said they passed bodies strewn alongside the road. Many escaped with just the clothes on their back.

One woman, covered head-to-toe in a black veil and robe, cradled a toddler and clutched a black purse. A man walked alongside a covered donkey cart that transported his family. It was piled high with mattresses.

‘The most dangerous trip in my life. We saw the tanks from point blank. We saw decomposed body parts. We saw death,’ resident Adam Fayez Zeyara posted with a selfie of himself on the road out of Gaza City.

During a four-hour evacuation window Sunday, fewer than 2,000 made the move, followed by about 5,000 on Monday, according to UN monitors.

‘Last night was very difficult,’ said Amal, a young woman who declined to give her family name due to safety concerns. She was part of a group of 17 people making the journey Monday. She said tanks fired near the group. Soldiers then ordered everyone to raise their hands and white flags before being allowed to pass.

Nour Naji Abu Nasser, 27, arrived Sunday in Khan Younis in south Gaza. She described an hourslong frightening journey.

‘They fired at the sand around us. They wanted to scare us,’ she said, adding that she saw bodies lying along a road outside Gaza City.

The four-week war has displaced more than 1.5 million people across Gaza, according to UN figures.

Reporting by the Associated Press

Israel gave civilians still trapped inside the encircled Gaza City a four hour window to flee to the south of the territory today.

The window has now closed.

Residents escaping said they passed tanks in position to possibly begin storming it.

Israel says its forces have surrounded Gaza City, home to a third of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, and are poised to storm it soon in their campaign to annihilate the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israeli towns exactly a month ago.

Yesterday, it was reported the IDF could move in within 48 hours.

Israel gave residents a window from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm (0800 GMT – 1200 GMT) to leave Gaza City.

Residents say Israeli tanks have been moving mostly at night, with Israeli forces until now largely relying on air and artillery strikes to clear a path.

‘For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza,’ the military announced, referring to the wetlands that bisect the strip.

An elderly Jewish protester has been killed in California after a skirmish led to him falling on his head after reportedly being hit with a megaphone.

Paul Kessler, 69, was caught up in rival rallies in Thousand Oaks on Sunday – one in support of Israel and the other backing the Palestinian cause.

Kessler is understood to have been involved in a tussle with another person where he fell backward and hit his head on the ground.

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An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian journalist and wounded another, the official Palestinian news agency has reported.

If confirmed, Mohammad Abu Hasira would be the latest among dozens of journalists killed in the month-long conflict.

He ‘was killed in an Israeli bombing that targeted his house located near the fishermen’s port west of Gaza City,’ WAFA news agency said.

WAFA reported that Abu Hasira ‘and 42 members of his family, including his sons and brothers’ were killed in the strike.

The Hamas-run news press service in the Gaza Strip said the bombardment that killed Abu Hasira took place overnight between Sunday and Monday, but that his body was only found in the rubble on Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says 37 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israel and Gaza since the conflict began on October 7.

The UN Humanitarian office has said 569 aid trucks have entered Gaza to date, none of which have contained fuel.

Aid groups say an absolute minimum of 100 trucks per day are needed to sustain the population of 2.3 million people living in the coastal strip.

Today is the 32nd day of the conflict which broke out on October 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, meaning an average of 17 trucks have entered per day since the war broke out – far fewer than is needed.

In response to the Hamas attack, the IDF blockaded the territory, meaning it has been even more challenging to get vital supplies to the people of Gaza.

While trucks have delivered food, water and other supplies, the UN said none have contained fuel. Electricity into the territory is cut, meaning fuel is required for generators to power hospitals and other vital infrastructure.

Many hospitals have stopped functioning, while others are at their limit.

Space has become the new theater of war after Israel shot down a rocket soaring ‘outside of Earth’s atmosphere.’

The Israel Defense (IDF) revealed last week that its Arrow missile defense system took down an ‘aerial threat’ allegedly fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

While details are sparse, the accepted boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space is 62 miles above the surface, known as the Kármán line.

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Israel’s military says it has secured a Hamas military stronghold in Gaza.

In a statement, it said the stronghold belonged to ‘the Hamas terrorist organisation in the northern Gaza Strip’ where it is carrying out a ground offensive.

IDF troops found anti-tank missiles and rocket launchers among other weapons, as well as ‘various intelligence materials’, the army reported.

It said a fighter jet also struck a Hamas cell, killing 10 fighters.

‘Furthermore, IDF troops located a number of Hamas terrorists who barricaded themselves in a building adjacent to the al Quds Hospital, and planned to carry out an attack on the forces from there,’ the statement said.

Israel has long accused Hamas of hiding in or near important civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, a charge that Hamas denies.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that over 160 health care workers had died on duty in Gaza.

They also called for a lifting of restrictions on medical aid, saying some doctors were performing operations, including amputations, without anaesthetic.

‘Over 160 of the healthcare workers have died on duty while taking care of those injured and diseased,’ Christian Lindmeier told a press briefing, without citing the source of information.

‘These are the people keeping the health system going through the dedication they have somehow found a way to keep some level of service going.’

Israel has reported its forces again fired into Lebanon, responding to an attack.

‘A short time ago, an IDF tank attacked a terrorist squad in Lebanese territory that tried to launch an anti-tank missile towards Israeli territory near the Shatula area,’ IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari wrote.

‘Also, earlier today IDF forces attacked a position of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, in order to remove a threat.’

Thousands of people are reported to be passing down the evacuation corridor opened by the IDF to allow Israeli citizens in the north of Gaza to flee south.

A video released by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit in the Israeli army that coordinates on civilian issues, shows a large crowd of people walking down what appears to be Gaza’s main road.

The Kremlin called on Tuesday for ‘humanitarian pauses’ during Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip.

It described the humanitarian situation there as ‘catastrophic’.

Russia will continue contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to help ensure that humanitarian supplies can be delivered into Gaza, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing.

He made no mention of Russian atrocities against civilians in Ukraine, where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by Moscow’s armies.

The IDF has said it has opened an evacuation corridor to allow civilians in northern Gaza to move south.

Israel has for weeks been urging civilians still in the north of the coastal strip to flee to the south before its forces move into Gaza City.

However, aid groups have warned that thousands of people, particularly the elderly and people who are injured or sick, are unable to make the journey.

What’s more, there have been reports of Israeli attacks on civilian vehicles along the main road that links the north and south of the Gaza Strip, including one incident in which an IDF tank opened fire on a car.

Israel has again air-dropped leaflets and sent text messages ordering Palestinian civilians still in northern Gaza to head south.

Home to 1.1 million before the war, many people have heeded Israel’s warning. But a US official said Saturday at least 350,000 civilians remained in the worst-hit areas.

Military analysts have warned of weeks of gruelling house-to-house fighting ahead in Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in 2005.

‘Hamas has had 15 years to prepare a dense ‘defence in depth’ that integrates subterranean, ground-level and above-ground fortifications,’ said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute think tank.

The group’s defences also include ‘potential minefields, improvised explosive devices, explosively formed penetrator anti-armour mines, and buildings rigged as explosive booby traps,’ he said.

The operation is hugely complicated for Israel because of the hostages, including very young children and frail elderly people, who are believed to be held inside a tunnel network spanning hundreds of miles.

Turkey’s Anadolu Agency has released the below map showing details of Israel’s on-going ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

It demonstrates how the IDF has cut off North Gaza and Gaza City from the southern part of the territory, and is now surrounding the city. The map also shows what areas of the coastal strip have been damaged by IDF airstrikes.

The United Nations Security Council failed again last night to agree on a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war.

Despite more than two hours of closed-door discussions, differences remained.

The US is calling for ‘humanitarian pauses’ while many council members are demanding a ‘humanitarian cease-fire’ to deliver desperately needed aid and prevent more civilian deaths in Gaza.

‘We talked about humanitarian pauses and we’re interested in pursuing language on that score,’ U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters after the meeting. ‘But there are disagreements within the council about whether that’s acceptable.’

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier Monday told reporters he wanted an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to the ‘spiral of escalation’ already taking place from the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen.

Guterres said international humanitarian law, which demands protection of civilians and infrastructure essential for their lives, is clearly being violated and stressed that ‘no party to an armed conflict is above’ these laws.

He called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages Hamas took from Israel to Gaza in its Oct. 7 attack.

China, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, and the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council, called Monday’s meeting because of the ‘crisis of humanity’ in Gaza.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader, has refused to acknowledge that his terror group killed civilians in Israel in the October 7 attack.

He told the BBC that ‘women, children and civilians were exempt’ from the attacks, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Videos filmed by Hamas fighters themselves have shown them shooting unarmed men, women and children, and the bodies of civilians have been recovered from several communities in southern Israel since the attack.

Israel says more than 1,400 people in Israel were killed, mostly civilians killed, in the October 7 incursion by Hamas that started the war.

Israel has vowed to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities.

Good morning and welcome to ‘s live blog covering the on-going war between Israel and Hamas.

Here’s what you need to know, one month to the day since Hamas’s carried out its deadly October 7 terror attack: