UK opposition politicians show concern for region
We’ve got more reaction from UK politicians to bring you. The spokesman for the opposition Labour Party on foreign issues, David Lammy, has said there must be humanitarian access to Gaza.
Speaking at the Labour Friends of Palestine event on the fringes of his party’s annual conference, Lammy condemned what he described as “terrorist” attacks from Hamas, but said Israel’s response must be proportionate and “in line with international law”.
“There will not be a just and lasting peace until Israel is secure, Palestine is a sovereign state and both Israelis and Palestinians enjoy security, dignity and human rights,” he added.
Layla Moran, the foreign affairs spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats – another opposition party – told BBC News that her family members in the West Bank were “very scared” but were “so far safe”. Moran is of Palestinian descent.
Asked about her recent tweet that condemned attacks on marginalised communities, Moran said there have been some “horrific antisemitic attacks in London”, but said she also had Muslim friends who were concerned about a potential rise in Islamophobia in the city.
Listen: What do the clashes in Israel and Gaza mean for the war in Ukraine?
The BBC’s Frank Gardner joins Hanna Notte, a Berlin-based analyst on Russian policy in the Middle East, to unpick what the latest developments in Israel and Gaza mean for the war in Ukraine.
You can listen today’s episode here, which is presented by James Waterhouse and Vitaly Shevchenko.
Scotland’s first minister calls for Gaza ceasefire
Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is calling on the UK government to lobby Israel to introduce a ceasefire and allow civilians safe passage out of Gaza.
Yousaf has described how his wife’s parents – who live in Dundee in north-east Scotland – were visiting family in Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel.
They are now trapped there because the Rafah border crossing into Egypt “has been bombed and is now closed”.
The first minister said his in-laws and their relatives in Gaza had survived a “terrifying night” of bombing, adding: “The house they’re in was shaking. The kids were screaming as they heard rockets drop nearby.”
Yousaf said the UK government should “call on its friend and ally” Israel to introduce “an immediate ceasefire” in order to open up a humanitarian corridor which could allow people out of Gaza and medical supplies in.
The Israeli government, he said, had “made it pretty clear what they’re going to do to Gaza and the implications of that”.
He said he completely understood “Israel’s right to protect its citizens from terror”, but added that “the collective punishment of 2.2 million people, the vast majority of whom are innocent civilians, simply could not be justified”.
Heated exchanges in US media briefing
The normally staid State Department Briefing got heated today, highlighting again the Biden administration’s rock solid support for Israel.There were animated exchanges about Israel’s decision to cut off electricity and supplies to Gaza.And criticism of the State Department for not condemning extremist rhetoric from Israeli lawmakers that indicated disregard for Palestinian civilians trapped between Hamas and Israel’s counter offensive.Spokesman Matthew Miller said the US expected that Israel would act in accordance with international law.But “some of the questions seem to pretend that Israel should not be able to conduct operations to defend itself” he said.“We always mourn the loss of civilian life,” he shot back as one questioner suggested he was accepting “baby killing”.“But the Hamas terrorists who launched this terrorist attack knew it would produce the loss of Palestinian civilian life. They ultimately bear the responsibility for those.”
Reports of more militants crossing from Gaza
Here in Ashkelon, we were told this evening to head to safe rooms amid reports that Hamas militants had crossed from Gaza.
The Israeli military later put out a statement saying its soldiers, backed by air support, had “exchanged fire with a number of terrorists in the Ashkelon industrial area”.
It said “three terrorists” had been killed, while searches of the area were continuing.
Numerous rockets have been launched at the city this evening, after Hamas set a deadline of 17:00 local time (15:00 BST), warning residents to leave.
American mum and daughter missing in Israel
A mother and daughter from the Chicago area are among those missing in Israel.
Friends and family members fear that Judith and Natalie Raanan are being held hostage by Hamas.
They have been in the country since early September and were at the Nahal Oz kibbutz in southern Israel, close to Gaza, when the attacks began. They haven’t been heard from since.
Rabbi Meir Hecht said that Judith, 59, is a member of his congregation at Chabad of Evanston, north of Chicago.
“Judith is a warm, kind, generous, giving person,” he told the BBC. “She’s always here to help others in the community and does whatever she can to be a friend.”
Natalie Raanan, 19, recently graduated from nearby Deerfield High School.
In a statement, the high school said it had no further information but that counselling services were available to students.
Man’s elderly mother missing since Saturday
The last time Yonatan Zeigan spoke to his 75 year-old mother Vivian was Saturday.
Vivian lives in Be’eri – a Kibbutz in southern Israel a few kilometres from the frontier with Gaza. She called her son as Hamas gunmen swept in. Yonatan heard gunshots ring outside his mother’s home, and hasn’t been able to speak with her since.
“We decided to stop speaking, so she won’t be heard – and started corresponding on WhatsApp,” Yonatan tells me in a quiet voice, a slight tremor visible in his fingers, as we sit on the balcony of his small apartment in Tel Aviv.
“She was still joking with me, because that’s the woman she was. And then she wrote me: they’re inside the house.”
There were, he says, “no more jokes. Just messages of love.” And then he lost contact altogether. Yonatan doesn’t know whether his mother was killed or kidnapped.
Yonatan says his mother volunteered for decades and led grass-roots groups aiming to spread peace and equality. Until recently she had driven ill residents of Gaza who’d managed to secure exit visas to Israeli hospitals.
Israel moves to disrupt militants’ crypto funding
There are reports that Israeli authorities have taken steps to disrupt the supply of crypto donations to Hamas.
Hamas has been accepting donations in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum for years and researchers have previously noticed spikes in funds during times of conflict.
Cryptocurrency donations have successfully raised millions over the years offering a way for people to donate anonymously without fear of breaking laws funding organisations designated as terrorists by some governments.
Without the need for banks anyone can send funds from their own crypto wallet to another.
However, with the help of cryptocurrency analysis firms, Israel has become adept at blocking crypto wallets that it says are being used to fund terrorism.
Swedish girl, baby sister and mother killed in Israeli strike
Ahmed Madi, a Swedish man living in Gothenburg, was on the phone to his wife Yasmine in Gaza – who was there with their two young daughters.
Minutes later, he got a call saying they were all dead. A missile had hit their home.
Four-year-old Nawal was a Swedish citizen, but her one-year-old sister Sila and mother weren’t, according to the girls’ cousin Mohammed Hassan. That’s why they weren’t in Sweden, he tells the BBC.
“Those girls were desperate to come to Sweden, to be with their dad,” he says.
A fourth member of the family has also died, he says – and others are in hospital.
Mohammed describes the helplessness of being abroad with family who are trapped as the bombs fall.
“You can’t help innocent people who are suffering. You just sit around waiting to see if they die.”
A number of countries say their citizens have been caught up in the latest hostilities. France is one of the latest countries to offer an update – saying eight of its nationals have been confirmed dead in attacks by Hamas.
Blinken to depart for Israel on Wednesday
Earlier we reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was planning to go to Israel in the coming days in an act of solidarity. The US State Department has now confirmed that he’ll set off tomorrow on his trip, which will also see him visit Jordan: another American ally. The visit will last until Friday.
In Israel, Blinken will meet with senior officials, and “reaffirm the United States’ solidarity with the government and people of Israel,” according to a statement.
“He will also discuss measures to bolster Israel’s security and underscore the United States’ unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself,” the statement adds.
‘The defining moment of my life’: Israeli reservist
As Israel rushed onto a war footing on Saturday morning, young army reservists around the country were already moving faster than the military machine.
“From 6.30am, we were itching to know why we weren’t being called up already,” said Michael Goldberg, a 24-year-old reservist in Jerusalem.
He had woken up early to a flood of videos of Hamas’s devastating attack. He had only recently returned to Jerusalem, to visit family after moving to the US six months earlier. Watching the attack unfold, he knew instantly that he would not be returning to the US.
“There is a tremendous amount of fear,” he said. “But you are also inspired in ways you have never been before. I realised that this is the defining moment of my life.”
Israel’s army relies on this enormous reserve contingent, made up of civilians who have completed their compulsory national service but can be mobilised again for duty until the age of 40.
You can read more about Goldberg’s story, and how reservists are flocking to fight for Israel, by clicking here