“You now see Gaza from afar, soon you will see Gaza from within.” During an inspection of troops stationed near Gaza on Thursday, October 19, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asked the Israeli army to prepare for a ground offensive on tunnel-riddled northern Gaza, where Hamas hides fighters and weapons.
On Thursday, the Israeli army indicated that it had carried out hundreds of airstrikes in 24 hours, targeting Hamas infrastructure. Rockets were also fired from the enclave into Israel, according to AFP journalists.
More than 1,400 people were killed on Israeli territory by Hamas men, the majority of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or died of mutilation on the day of the deadly Hamas attack, according to Israeli authorities. According to the Israeli army, around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the counter-offensive which allowed Israel to regain control of the attacked areas. On the Palestinian side, 3,785 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, including at least 1,524 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Joe Biden will ask Congress to “urgently” finance aid to Israel and Ukraine
Joe Biden will ask the American Congress this Friday, October 20, to “urgently” finance aid to Israel and Ukraine, “our essential partners,” he declared Thursday during a speech to the nation. “It’s a smart investment” that will bring greater security to Americans “for generations,” added the American president.
According to Joe Biden, Palestinian Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin “both want to completely wipe out a neighboring democracy,” he also declared Thursday from the White House. “Hamas and Vladimir Putin represent different threats, but they have this in common,” the US president said in his solemn address to the nation.
According to the New York Times, Joe Biden will ask Congress for 10 billion for security assistance to Israel, and 60 billion to continue supporting the Ukrainian war effort. By joining the two, he puts pressure on the Republican Party, a fringe of which is reluctant to spend any more on Ukraine, while the right is unanimous in asking for muscular aid to Israel.
Gaza hospital: the death toll is “between 100 and 300”, according to American intelligence
The human toll from the strike on the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza on Tuesday is “probably at the bottom of a range between 100 and 300” dead, according to an American intelligence note of which AFP was able to consult extracts on Thursday. . This summary sent to Congress affirms, as Joe Biden declared on Wednesday, that Israel “probably did not bomb the hospital in the Gaza Strip”.
“We are still working on the quantification of deaths and our estimate may change, but this human toll still represents a staggering loss of human life,” estimates the office at the origin of this note, the ODNI, which coordinates the whole American intelligence agencies.
Humanitarian aid expected this Friday in Gaza
Palestinians in Gaza are hoping for the arrival of humanitarian aid this Friday. The Egyptian channel AlQahera News, close to Egyptian intelligence, said Thursday evening that the Rafah crossing point, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the only one not controlled by Israel, would open this Friday. Humanitarian aid convoys, waiting to go to this cramped enclave where 2.4 million Palestinians live, have been blocked for days in Rafah, as the conflict enters its 14th day.
“We need unhindered access and to deliver our vital aid safely. Time is running out,” called Unicef on Friday morning on X. In Cairo, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said pleaded Thursday for “rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access”, calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
Israel-Hamas: Russia believes that the American veto at the UN will have “monstrous consequences”
Russia said Thursday that the United States’ decision to block a UN resolution which called for a “humanitarian pause” between Hamas and Israel will have “monstrous consequences” in terms of the loss of civilian lives. “In the context of a confrontation which is gaining momentum and risks going beyond the borders of the Middle East region and acquiring a sectarian dimension, the consequences of such a step are monstrous,” the ministry said. Russian Foreign Affairs in a statement.
Deeming it “disappointing” the fact that this resolution which could have contributed to “stopping the escalation of tensions and reducing violence against civilians” was not adopted, Moscow judged that the American veto “clearly demonstrates the real aspirations of Washington for the Middle East region.
Nine Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank
Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported. At least 75 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or Israeli settlers since October 7. In the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, seven people including a 16-year-old teenager were killed “during an attack by the occupation (Israel, Editor’s note) in the Nour Shams refugee camp (north)”, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Hamas hostages: World Jewish Congress calls on Pope to act
The president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Thursday called on Pope Francis to act to help free hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the organization announced. During an audience at the Vatican, Ronald Lauder urged the pope to use “his moral authority to seek the safe return of the hostages,” the WJC said in a statement. This meeting had been planned for the beginning of September, the Vatican said in a press release.
Israel on Thursday revised upwards, to 203, the number of people taken hostage by the Palestinian Islamist movement during the October 7 attack on Israeli soil. Pope Francis, 86, publicly called for their release, while expressing concern for civilians in the Gaza Strip.