The White House has stepped back from Joe Biden’s comment apparently agreeing that Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, saying the US president did not fully hear the question.
Reuters reported that late on Friday, reporters shouted questions at Biden as he was climbing the stairs to board Air Force One, over the sound of the plane’s engines. One of the questions was whether Israel should delay an invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out.
But the White House said later that Biden did not fully hear the question.
“The president was far away. He didn’t hear the full question,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said, adding:
The question sounded like: ‘Would you like to see more hostages released?’ He wasn’t commenting on anything else.
Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the perimeter of Gaza for a planned ground invasion. Its bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 4,137 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, while more than 1 million have been displaced, according to Palestinian officials.
The bombings came after Hamas gunmen burst into Israel on 7 October, killing 1,400 people – mainly civilians – and taking about 200 hostages.
We’ll wrap up this blog now and continue our live coverage on a fresh blog here for all the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war. Thanks for reading.
As it turns 7.45am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv, here’s a snapshot of where things stand.
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The White House has stepped back from Joe Biden’s comment apparently agreeing that Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, saying the US president did not fully hear the question. Reuters reported that late on Friday reporters shouted questions at Biden as he was climbing the stairs to board Air Force One. One of the questions was whether Israel should delay an invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, to which Biden replied: “Yes.” But White House communications director Ben LaBolt said later: “The question sounded like: ‘Would you like to see more hostages released?’ He wasn’t commenting on anything else.”
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Two newly freed American hostages have been reunited with family inside Israel as relatives celebrated back home in Illinois, nearly two weeks after Hamas gunmen abducted them and dozens of others near Gaza. Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the Gaza Strip border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides. Their release was “a first step and discussions are ongoing for more releases”, Reuters cited a source familiar with the negotiations as saying. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country “will not relent in our effort to return all of the kidnapped and the missing”.
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Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasonsand to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by [President Joe] Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”.
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Israeli aircraft struck six homes in northern Gaza early on Saturday, killing at least eight Palestinians and injuring 45, Palestinian media reported. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought refuge, Reuters reported.
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Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October aimed to disrupt a potential normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Joe Biden said on Friday. “One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel ... they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” the US president said.
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The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described reports that a hospital in Gaza has been ordered to evacuate as “disturbing”. The Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier on Friday that its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City faced an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X/Twitter it was “impossible” for overcrowded hospitals to safely evacuate patients. Hospitals in Gaza “must be allowed to perform their lifesaving functions” and “must be protected”, he said.
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Tensions flared in the West Bank as angry and sometimes armed confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces took place across the occupied territory after a deadly raid by Israeli troops. The Palestinian health ministry said 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank.
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The US and the EU said they were “concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. “It is crucial to prevent regional escalation. We call for the immediate release of all hostages and emphasise our shared view that a two-state solution remains the viable path to lasting peace,” a joint statement said after talks between European Council president Charles Michel, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Joe Biden.
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The Palestinian Red Crescent said its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation. The PRCS posted in an “urgent appeal” on Friday saying that the hospital was “a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians”.
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An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said “there’s going to be no break” in his country’s effort to destroy Hamas, amid reports that the US and European governments have been putting pressure on Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for secret talks under way to win the release of hostages held by Hamas.
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Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, flew to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, with the first aid delivery expected “in the next day or two”. The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border had been due to open on Friday. When the crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal.
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Joe Biden said on Friday that he believed trucks carrying much-needed humanitarian aid should enter Gaza “within the next 24-48 hours”. Separately, Rishi Sunak said the Rafah border crossing should reopen “imminently”.
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Rishi Sunak and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi agreed world leaders needed to “do everything possible to avoid a contagion of conflict”in the Middle East during their talks in Cairo on Friday, Downing Street said. The UK prime minister praised Cairo’s efforts to allow movement through Rafah as he spoke about the need to ensure aid can get to Palestinians “as quickly as possible”.
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Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
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A candlelit vigil for Issam Abdallah, the Reuters visuals journalist killed last week while filming Israeli missile attacks at the Israeli-Lebanon border, was held in Beirut on Friday.
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A-list Hollywood celebrities including Cate Blanchett, Joaquin Phoenix, Ramy Youssef and Andrew Garfield have penned a letter to US president Joe Biden urging him to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Where do the countries around the Israel-Hamas war stand on the conflict? Peter Beaumont looks into the complicated web of relationships that are strained as Israel bombards Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s attack.
Here are some more shots of family and relatives of the two American hostages newly freed by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the territory’s border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides.
Uri Raanan, the teenager’s father, has said he spoke with his daughter by phone and “she sounds very, very good, very happy – and she looks good”.
Israeli aircraft struck six homes in northern Gaza early on Saturday, killing at least eight Palestinians and injuring 45, Palestinian media reported.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought refuge.
Israel has told all civilians to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City. Many people have yet to leave, saying they fear losing everything and have nowhere safe to go with southern areas also under attack.
Asked if Israel had so far followed the laws of war in its response, US secretary of state Antony Blinken reiterated on Friday that Israel had the right to defend itself and make sure Hamas was not able to launch attacks again.
The UN humanitarian affairs office said more than 140,000 homes – nearly a third of all homes in Gaza – had been damaged, with nearly 13,000 completely destroyed.
From Reuters
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has acknowledged the emotional toll that the Israel-Hamas war has taken on US diplomats amid media reports of internal dissent over Washington’s handling of the conflict, Agence France-Presse reports.
Blinken sent a letter to all State Department employees noting the “challenging” circumstances affecting the US diplomatic corps, some of whom feel the “ripples of fear and bigotry” the conflict has generated.
US leaders including President Joe Biden and Blinken have pledged unwavering support for Israel, publicly blessing the country’s reprisals for Hamas’ surprise raid from the Gaza Strip on 7 October.
At least one State Department official has quit over the Biden administration’s approach to the conflict. The official, Josh Paul, said on LinkedIn that he left over “policy disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel”.
Blinken’s letter on Thursday night was not a response to the reports of frustrations within the department, a source familiar with the matter said.
In his letter, Blinken described his recent trip to the Middle East, which saw him move between Israel and several Arab countries, visiting some several times. He wrote:
I know that, for many of you, this time has not only been challenging professionally, but personally.
Attendance at pro-Palestine rallies around Australia is expected to surge on Saturday as the violence in the Middle East reverberates through communities.
Up to 10,000 people were expected to march through Sydney’s CBD on Saturday afternoon after police approved the event, and many more were set to attend events in the cities of Perth, Hobart and Brisbane as more information came from conflict-stricken Gaza.
Previous protests have been met with a heavy police presence after videos emerged of a group chanting anti-Jewish slogans at last week’s rally at the Sydney Opera House.
Sydney’s rally organisers have said they will not tolerate antisemitic chants or any other conduct that vilifies any race or religion at Saturday’s rally.
For the full story from Australian Associated Press and Guardian Australia’s Natasha May, click here:
The two newly freed American hostages have been reunited with family inside Israel as relatives celebrated back home in Illinois, nearly two weeks after Hamas gunmen abducted them and dozens of others near Gaza.
Reuters reports that Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the Gaza Strip border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides in the latest round of Middle East conflict.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the mother and daughter, from the Chicago area of Illinois, were “on their way to a meeting point at a military base in the centre of the country, where their family members are waiting for them”.
Reached by phone in Bannockburn, outside Chicago, Uri Raanan, the teenager’s father, said he spoke with his daughter by phone.
She sounds very, very good, very happy – and she looks good.
Natalie Raanan’s uncle Avraham Zamir said the family was joyful the pair had been safely released.
He added from his Illinois home:
But there are still many families whose loved ones are still being held hostage, and we will continue our efforts for their release.
The White House has stepped back from Joe Biden’s comment apparently agreeing that Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, saying the US president did not fully hear the question.
Reuters reported that late on Friday, reporters shouted questions at Biden as he was climbing the stairs to board Air Force One, over the sound of the plane’s engines. One of the questions was whether Israel should delay an invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out.
But the White House said later that Biden did not fully hear the question.
“The president was far away. He didn’t hear the full question,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said, adding:
The question sounded like: ‘Would you like to see more hostages released?’ He wasn’t commenting on anything else.
Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the perimeter of Gaza for a planned ground invasion. Its bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 4,137 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, while more than 1 million have been displaced, according to Palestinian officials.
The bombings came after Hamas gunmen burst into Israel on 7 October, killing 1,400 people – mainly civilians – and taking about 200 hostages.
Two weeks of non-stop western shuttle diplomacy appear to have reached the brink of failure since, as it stands, the west can only point to 20 aid trucks crossing into Gaza as the visible fruit of its labour. At the same time, Israel’s neighbours are taking to the streets and acts of terrorism are returning to the capitals of Europe.
With more than 4,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis already dead, the only certainty is that Gaza’s depleted healthcare system will collapse if Israel launches a lengthy land invasion to wipe out Hamas.
The round of western diplomatic visits to Jerusalem had a dual purpose. They were public acts of solidarity in which the visit was the message, but there was also private questioning of the Israeli war cabinet, and what comes after an invasion.
In particular Joe Biden, for all the empathy that he showed to victims and the families of hostages, has been quite sharp in urging caution on Israel, though he was subtle in couching that counsel in terms of the lessons the US has taken from fighting terrorism.
To read all of diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour’s analysis of where things stand, click here:
A-list Hollywood celebrities including Cate Blanchett, Joaquin Phoenix, Ramy Youssef and Andrew Garfield have penned a letter to US president Joe Biden urging him to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Agence France-Presse reports that dozens of top-flight names from the entertainment world asked Biden to work to achieve an “immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost”.
Their letter on Friday, released by artists4ceasefire.org, said:
We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honour all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages.
Saving lives is a moral imperative.
The letter, which was also signed by Jon Stewart, singer Dua Lipa, Susan Sarandon and Channing Tatum, comes a week after hundreds of Hollywood figures signed an open letter condemning the “barbaric acts” committed by Hamas fighters in its attack on 7 October.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country “will not relent” in its efforts to bring home all the hostages and people missing after Hamas’s attack.
Netanyahu said on X/Twitter in a tweet from his office after Hamas freed two US hostages:
Two of our kidnapped are home. We will not relent in our effort to return all of the kidnapped and the missing.
At the same time, we continue to fight till victory.
US president Joe Biden, when asked by a reporter on Friday whether Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, said “Yes”, Reuters reports.
A US mother and daughter who had been seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza were released on Friday after Qatar brokered negotiations with the militant group.
Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, 59, were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were met by Israeli security forces, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
They were then taken to an Israeli military base to be reunited with their relatives.
The US and European governments have been pressing Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for what a news report said was secret talks under way to win the release of more hostages held by Hamas.
The negotiations with Hamas via Qatar are delicate and may fail, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the efforts, as we posted earlier.
The sources told the outlet there were signs Hamas might agree to release at least some of its civilian hostages without demanding Israel release any prisoners in return.
Israel agreed under US pressure to hold off a huge military operation, they said.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has spoken with Saudi prime minister and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the two expressed their “deep concerns with the humanitarian impact of the conflict in Gaza and stressed the importance that all parties protect civilians and ensure humanitarian access to the affected areas”, Trudeau’s office has said.
The leaders also discussed the regional security implications of the conflict and “efforts toward de-escalation to prevent further deaths of innocent civilians”, the office said in a statement, posted on X/Twitter.
Trudeau “condemned the horrific attack against Israeli civilians, as well as the bombing of Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza and the ongoing hostage situation”, it said.
He also “reiterated Canada’s longstanding support for a two-state solution and for the right of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security”.
Hamas’s attack on Israel that killed about 1,400 people aimed to disrupt a potential normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, US president Joe Biden has said.
“One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel ... they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Reuters reports Biden as saying on Friday at a campaign fundraiser.
Saudi Arabia, a Middle East powerhouse and home to Islam’s two holiest shrines, gave its blessing to Gulf neighbours United Arab Emirates and Bahrain establishing relations with Israel in 2020 under the previous US administration of Donald Trump. Riyadh has not followed suit, saying Palestinian statehood goals should be addressed first.
The potential normalisation of relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states was a top priority for secretary of state Antony Blinken during his June trip to Riyadh, although he acknowledged no progress should be expected imminently.
Blinken told CNN on 8 October – a day after Hamas’s attack on Israel – that “it wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation [for the attack] may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together”.
Biden told CBS’s 60 Minutes in an interview that aired last Sunday that the prospect of normalisation was “still alive – it’s going to take time”.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described reports that a hospital in Gaza has been ordered to evacuate as “disturbing”.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier on Friday that its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is “impossible” for overcrowded hospitals to safely evacuate patients in a statement posted to X.
Hospitals in Gaza “must be allowed to perform their lifesaving functions,” he posted to social media. “They must be protected.”
The WHO’s regional office for the eastern Mediterranean said the reports of evacuation orders sent to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza were “worrying”.
Sick and injured patients, as well as health workers, are inside the hospital it said.
Hundreds more — mostly women and children — are seeking shelter on the hospital’s grounds. The sanctity of health care must be respected at all times.
The US embassy in Jerusalem has shared a photo of Judith and Natalie Raanan speaking to President Joe Biden after their release earlier today.
It’s just past 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
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Tensions flared in the West Bank as angry and sometimes armed confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces took place across the occupied territory after a deadly raid by Israeli troops. The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed after an Israeli assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted on 7 October, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.
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The US and the EU said they are “concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. “It is crucial to prevent regional escalation. We call for the immediate release of all hostages and emphasize our shared view that a two-state solution remains the viable path to lasting peace,” a joint statement said after talks between the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the US president, Joe Biden.
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The Palestinian Red Crescent said its operations at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City face an “imminent threat” after the Israeli military ordered the hospital’s evacuation. The PRCS posted in an “urgent appeal” on Friday saying that the hospital was “a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians”.
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A mother and daughter from Chicago who were seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza have been released after Qatar brokered negotiations with the militant group. Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were met by Israeli security forces. They were then taken to an Israeli military base to be reunited with their relatives. Their release is “a first step and discussions are ongoing for more releases”, Reuters cited a source familiar with the negotiations as saying.
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A Hamas spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by [President Joe] Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”.
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Most of the 200 or so people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli military said on Friday. The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60.
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An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said “there’s going to be no break” in his country’s effort to destroy Hamas, amid reports that the US and European governments have been putting pressure on Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza to buy time for secret talks under way to win the release of hostages held by Hamas.
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Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited troops on the Gaza border on Thursday, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”
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Gallant also said that after Israel destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli defence minister’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, flew to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, with the first aid delivery expected “in the next day or two”. The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border had been due to open on Friday. When the crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal.
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Joe Biden said on Friday that he believed trucks carrying much-needed humanitarian aid should enter Gaza “within the next 24-48 hours”. Separately, Rishi Sunak said the Rafah border crossing should reopen “imminently”.
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Israel bombarded Gaza early on Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which was already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
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At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Greek Orthodox church compound in Gaza on Thursday. Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter in the church from Israeli bombardments. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike, which it said constituted a war crime.
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Rishi Sunak and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi agreed world leaders needed to “do everything possible to avoid a contagion of conflict” in the Middle East during their talks in Cairo on Friday, Downing Street said. The UK prime minister praised Cairo’s efforts to allow movement through Rafah as he spoke about the need to ensure aid can get to Palestinians “as quickly as possible”.
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Sunak also met with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, during his trip to Egypt on Friday. The two leaders “condemned Hamas’s terrorism and stressed that Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people”, a statement from Sunak’s office said.
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More than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to an update from the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza on Friday. A total of 4,137 people have lost their lives, it said, while more than 13,000 people have been injured. More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave.
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Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and announced plans to evacuate Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border.
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A candlelit vigil for Issam Abdallah, the Reuters visuals journalist killed last week while filming Israeli missile attacks at the Israeli-Lebanon border, was held in Beirut on Friday.
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