Israel-Hamas war: Israeli army operating 'inside Gaza City'

The US House of Representatives will vote on Wednesday whether to punish Democrat Rashida Tlaib for her comments about Israel's war against militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian-American in Congress and one of two Muslim women in the House.

Republican Rich McCormick has proposed censuring Tlaib for what he described as antisemitic rhetoric.

"Rep. Tlaib has levied unbelievable falsehoods about our greatest ally, Israel, and the attack on October 7," McCormick said.

Tlaib denied this on Tuesday and her criticism of Israel was directed at its government and not the Jewish people.

"I will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words," Tlaib said.

"It is important to separate people and government," she added. "The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent. And it's been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation."

On social media, Tlaib reiterated her calls for a cease fire in the Gaza Strip.

Just one Democrat voted with the Republicans when the matter was put to a procedural vote on Tuesday.

Censuring is a punishment one step below expulsion from the House.

It has traditionally been used as a last resort against behavior considered especially egregious, but censure motions are becoming more common in the chamber.

Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on Tuesday said it had registered over 2,600 crimes related to the war in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel one month ago on October 7. 

Social divisions over Israel's right to defend itself and the fate of Palestinians in Gaza now suffering the punishment of an Israeli counteroffensive have grown in the month since the attack took place. 

Germany, along with Israel, the EU, US and others, labels Hamas a terrorist organization and has sought to curtail pro-Palestinian demonstrations by banning them outright or keeping police close by after antisemitic slogans and support for Hamas were chanted at several of them.

In extreme cases, protesters denied Israel's right to exist. 

Last month a Berlin synagogue was targeted by would-be arsonists. Stars of David were reported to have been painted at the entrances of homes where Jews live. And parents have reported that their children are scared to go to school and refuse to wear religious clothing in public.

The BKA said Tuesday: "As of November 6, 2023, more than 2,600 criminal offenses have been registered in connection with the terrorist attacks against the state of Israel. The focus is on damage to property, incitement to hatred and offenses of resistance. The number of violent offenses in connection with the attacks is in the mid three-digit range."

German politicians have come out strongly in support of Israel, regularly denouncing antisemitism and saying it has no place in German society.

Beyond condemning Islamophobia as well, those same politicians have insisted that Muslims living in Germany must strongly denounce such anti-Israeli activities.   

Israel's military and its prime minister both said on Tuesday that its forces were "operating inside" Gaza City, with Benjamin Netanyahu saying the city was "encircled." 

"Gaza City is encircled, we are operating inside it," Netanyahu said in a televised statement. "We are increasing pressure on Hamas every hour, every day. So far, we have killed thousands of terrorists, above ground and below ground." 

Netanyahu again said a cease-fire or a resumption of fuel deliveries was out of the question unless Hamas released its remaining hostages. He repeated his call for civilians to flee south in Gaza to avoid the fighting. 

"We will not stop," Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli soldiers were operating in the heart of Gaza's most populous city. 

He said Hamas's most senior leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was isolated in his bunker as Israeli forces were "tightening the noose" around Gaza City. 

The government officials were speaking on the one-month anniversary of the Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,400 people and sparked the broader conflict. Various commemorations, including a minute's silence, took place on Tuesday to honor the victims.

The UN's relief agency for the Palestinian Territories, UNRWA, said in its update on the conflict on Tuesday that another of its aid workers was killed and another seriously injured in the past 24 hours. 

It said that 89 UNRWA colleagues had been killed and at least 26 injured since the outbreak of hostilities. 

"This is the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations," it said in the update. 

UNRWA said this week that almost 1.5 million people in Gaza in total had been displaced amid the conflict — equivalent to about 70% of its population. 

Roughly half of those were sheltering at severely overcrowded UNRWA facilities, often schools, it said. 

It said at least 50 such facilities had been "impacted" since the conflict's outbreak, and said that one displaced person was killed and nine more injured in one such facility in the north of Gaza on Monday after it was "directly hit by strikes." 

A senior advisor to US President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, made an unannounced trip to Beirut on Tuesday for talks with Lebanon's parliament speaker and caretaker prime minister. 

Hochstein told reporters after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that restoring calm along Lebanon's southern border was of "utmost importance."

"The United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon," Hochstein said in a brief statement. He did not take questions from reporters. 

His comments came as the Israeli military and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia exchanged fire along the border, calling their respective actions retaliation for other incidents. 

Sporadic exchanges of fire across the border have been more or less common since soon after Hamas' October 7 terror attack on Israel. They have also intensified since Israel's ground operations in Gaza began. But at the same time, both sides have so far avoided a larger-scale flare-up in fighting. 

The French and Canadian foreign ministries issued updates on their citizens leaving the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

France's Foreign Ministry said that more than 100 of their nationals and their dependents had left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. 

"Two groups of French nationals, officials and rights holders were able to leave" on Monday and Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement. 

The departures "bring the number of exits organized by France to more than 100 people," it added.

It said such operations would continue in the coming days so that all French citizens who wish to leave are able to do so. 

The Rafah crossing to Egypt first opened to foreign citizens and the injured last week. It had been closed over the weekend, but was then reopened once more on Monday.

France explicitly thanked Egypt for its assistance in the extractions and said it would increase its aid to Gaza. 

Meanwhile, Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on social media that the "first group" of Canadians seeking to leave Gaza had done so. 

"Our team of officials has met them on the Egyptian side of the border, providing them with support and care," Joly said. 

She did not provide a figure, but some 400 Canadians were registered with Canada as seeking to leave Gaza, and around one in five of those were thought to be on a list to exit the territory through Rafah. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier on Tuesday that some 30 German nationals had left Gaza at the Egyptian crossing the previous day.

The journalist-focused NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday that it had logged the deaths of 41 journalists since Hamas' October 7 terror attacks on Israel and Israel's retaliation against Gaza. 

The organization appealed for "the protection of all journalists in Gaza and for foreign reporters to be able to enter and work there freely." 

According to RSF, 36 of the journalists were killed in Gaza. It said that it could demonstrate that at least 10 of them were "clearly covering the news" when they died. 

One reporter was killed in Lebanon earlier in the conflict, and four Israeli journalists were killed in Hamas' October 7 terror attack.

"What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a tragedy for journalism, with more than one reporter a day killed since 7 October," the head of RSF's Middle East desk, Jonathan Dagher, was quoted as saying. "With their arbitrary airstrikes, the Israeli armed forces are eliminating journalists one after the other without restraint, all while their unacceptable comments betray an open contempt for international humanitarian law."

The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory have killed at least 10,320 people since the conflict broke out one month ago.

The ministry's death toll, which could not be independently verified, includes more than 4,200 children.

The conflict erupted on October 7 when Hamas militants carried out deadly terror attacks in southern Israel. Israel responded with a barrage of air strikes and a large-scale ground operation in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden has recently questioned the accuracy of the figures provided by the ministry, which is part of Gaza's Hamas-controlled government. The US, the EU, Germany and others consider Hamas a terrorist organization. 

The United Nations and other international organizations said that the death toll figures from the Gaza ministry have proven generally reliable in past conflicts.

The German Development Ministry announced releasing €71 million ($75.8 million) in aid as part of an ongoing review of its support for Palestinians, and pledged a further €20 million in new funding.

Berlin had temporarily suspended its development aid to Palestinian territories pending review following the Hamas terror attack on southern Israel on October 7. 

"Due to the fragile situation in the region, the review has not yet been fully completed," a statement from the ministry said.

However, the ministry said the review has focused on continuing support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 

It cited the needs of the people in Gaza and the increasingly unstable situation in neighboring countries.

The funding is set to be used particularly for providing drinking water to displaced people in Gaza and Palestinian refugees in Jordan.

UNRWA said on Tuesday that some 70% of the population in the Gaza Strip — amounting to 1.5 million people — has been displaced since the beginning of the conflict with Israel. 

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told reporters after meeting Jordan'sKing Abdullah in Brussels that both Israel and Hamas "disregard international humanitarian law." 

"Bombing down a refugee camp because it allegedly houses one Hamas leader is completely disproportionate," he said. "It is never acceptable that so many civilian casualties are caused trying to eliminate one person.

"Civilians and civilian places must be protected, but of course Hamas cannot use them as a shelter either because that only complicates matters," the prime minister said.

De Croo added that Hamas should release the more than 240 innocent hostages they have held since the October 7 terror attacks as soon as possible, saying it could be an important part of halting the "spiral of violence."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) gave Gaza residents who were still in the north of the enclave a four-hour window to move to the south on Tuesday. 

The IDF said "thousands" of people were passing through an evacuation corridor they had opened for civilians. 

According to Reuters and The Associated Press news agencies, residents escaping along the route said they passed tanks in position to possibly begin storming Gaza City, home to around a third of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people.

Israel has said that its forces were surrounding Gaza City and were set to enter it soon in their campaign to eradicate Hamas militants after Hamas terror attacks on Israeli towns on October 7. 

As Israel intensifies its strikes on northern Gaza, it has repeatedly warned civilians to flee to the south, which is also being bombed, according to reporters on the ground. 

Israel has said that it was working to limit civilian casualties and that it only targets Hamas bases, some of which Israel claims are located in tunnels near or under civilian facilities. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Tuesday that more than 30 additional German passport holders and their family members left the Gaza Stripon Monday. 

In total, more than 50 German nationals have left the besieged Palestinian territory through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7.

The evacuation of German citizens marked "a small glimmer of hope," she said. 

Baerbock made the announcement after arriving in Tokyo for a two-day meeting with her G7 counterparts, who are set to discuss the situation in Gaza, among other topics.  

The top German diplomat said she repeatedly pressed for other G7 foreign ministers to back a humanitarian pause of fighting in Gaza to allow the delivery of supplies to civilians caught in the fighting.

People in Gaza are in need of water, bread and medical care, Baerbock said, "and the most seriously injured must finally be treated." 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has traveled to Egypt on Tuesday for the start of a five-day trip to the Middle East. 

His tour includes a stop at the Egyptian border with Gaza, Rafah, on Wednesday and then a visit to the Jordanian capital of Amman for talks with officials and civil society groups on human rights. 

Türk said he was also seeking access to Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza. 

"It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair," Turk said in a 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 held a moment of silence at 11 a.m. local time (0900 UTC) to mark one month since the Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel and saw over 240 taken hostage by Hamas militants. 

Memorial ceremonies were planned throughout the day across Israel. 

According to Israeli media, a memorial service for the victims' families is planned in Tel Aviv at 6:30 p.m., with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra set to perform in tribute. 

A memorial and a rally is also planned in Jerusalem in the evening in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, The Times of Israel newspaper reported. 

The rally in Jerusalem is expected to be followed by a "permanent camp" led by the victims' families outside the Knesset demanding a new government, the paper reported, citing organizers. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure as hostages remain held by Hamas. 

The Palestinian border authority has released a list of around 600 names of people who were approved to leave the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip through the Rafah border with Egypt. 

Among the evacuees, around 150 hold a German passport. The list also included people with French, Canadian, Ukrainian, Romanian and Filipino passports, the German dpa news agency reported.

The border authority also released a list of 103 Egyptians who were set to leave Gaza on Tuesday. 

On November 1, over 300 people were able to leave Gaza and enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing for the first time since the start of the war. 

Their evacuation was part of a deal between Egypt, Israel and Hamas that was mediated by Qatar in coordination with the United States.