Israel Hamas war: Israel Hamas war live: Netanyahu agrees to ‘little pauses’ in Gaza assault

About 800,000 people have heeded Israeli military orders to flee to southern Gaza. But continued Israeli strikes in central and southern Gaza – the purported safe zone – killed dozens of people Sunday.

After another strike yesterday, in the southern town of Khan Younis, men dug through the rubble with sledgehammers and their bare hands. A young boy caked in dust screamed as he was rolled onto a stretcher and carried away. At least two people were killed, according to an AP reporter at the scene.

Earlier yesterday, Palestinians held a mass funeral for 66 people laid out on the ground outside a hospital morgue in the central town of Deir al-Balah. A man with bandages wrapped around his head placed his hand on a child’s body and wept.

Israeli troops yesterday arrested a Palestinian activist, regarded in the occupied West Bank as a hero since she was a teenager, on suspicion of inciting violence, but her mother denied the claim and said it was based on a fake Instagram post.

The Israeli military said it apprehended Ahed Tamimi, 22, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Tamimi rose to prominence in 2017 when, at age 16, she slapped an Israeli soldier who raided her village. She and others have for years protested Israeli land seizures.

Tamimi “is suspected of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activity to be carried out,” the military said.

Her mother, Nariman Tamimi, said more than a dozen Israeli soldiers entered their house overnight and arrested her daughter.

Israeli authorities alleged the young woman “wrote an inciting (Instagram) post calling for the killing of settlers and saying what Hitler did wasn’t enough – but Ahed does not have an Instagram account,” her mother said in an interview.

Some Israeli media outlets published a screenshot of what appeared to be an Instagram post by an account with Tamimi’s name and picture. The text threatened to “slaughter” Israel’s West Bank settlers.

Reuters was not able to locate the Instagram account, which had the handle “ahed_tamimi15”, or independently authenticate the image. The military did not comment on the image.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he may be open to “little pauses” in his nation’s bombardment on the Gaza Strip.

Mr Netanyahu made the admission in an interview with US broadcaster ABC, adding there would be no general ceasefire in Gaza without the release of the estimated 240 hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October.

“Well, there’ll be no ceasefire, no general ceasefire in Gaza without the release of our hostages,” he said.

“As far as tactical little pauses – an hour here, an hour there – we’ve had them before.

“I suppose we’ll check the circumstances, in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods, to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave.”

Lulls in the fighting are being sought to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries.

Over 450 trucks carrying aid have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt since October 21, but humanitarian workers say the support is far short of mounting needs.

The Irish father of a girl who is feared to have been kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip has said the family are praying “that she comes back”.

In an appeal to those who may have her, Dubliner Thomas Hand called for “some humane feelings of any kind” for captors to release the children.

Emily Hand was originally feared to be dead after the Hamas assault on Kibbutz Be’eri in Israel on 7 October.

However, the eight-year-old’s family have been informed she might still be alive and being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

About 800,000 people have heeded Israeli military orders to flee to southern Gaza. But continued Israeli strikes in central and southern Gaza – the purported safe zone – killed dozens of people Sunday.

After another strike yesterday, in the southern town of Khan Younis, men dug through the rubble with sledgehammers and their bare hands. A young boy caked in dust screamed as he was rolled onto a stretcher and carried away. At least two people were killed, according to an AP reporter at the scene.

Earlier yesterday, Palestinians held a mass funeral for 66 people laid out on the ground outside a hospital morgue in the central town of Deir al-Balah. A man with bandages wrapped around his head placed his hand on a child’s body and wept.

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.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli ground forces backed by relentless airstrikes have encircled Gaza City, the base of Hamas ‘ power, since the weekend. They cut the strip in half and sought to drive Palestinians from northern Gaza as troops advanced.

Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo is scheduled to meet US president Joe Biden this month, “most likely” at the White House, a spokesperson for the Southeast Asian country’s foreign ministry said today.

The date of the meeting was unclear. Jokowi, as the president is known, is scheduled to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco from 15-17 November.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Widodo, leader of the world’s largest secular Muslim-majority country, said Indonesia’s support for Palestine would “never waver”.

Indonesia has joined a chorus of international condemnation of Israel’s invasion of Gaza following Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October, and has called for an immediate ceasefire.

The military wing of Palestinian group Hamas yesterday said it fired rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, triggering Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese side of the border.

The Qassam Brigades said in a statement its militants fired 16 rockets on the town of Nahariya and the southern outskirts of the city of Haifa in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Haifa is the furthest city targeted by rockets from the Lebanese side since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly a month ago.

The Israeli army said approximately 30 rockets were fired from the Lebanese side targeting northern Israel, adding it was responding by shelling the origin points of rocket launches. The exchange lasted about half an hour and Israel’s Iron Dome could be clearly seen intercepting rockets from Lebanon. Relative clam prevailed afterward.

A 69-year-old Jewish man died yesterday after falling and striking his head following a confrontation during competing pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in suburban Los Angeles, authorities said.

Paul Kessler’s death was being investigated as a homicide and authorities haven’t ruled out the possibility a hate crime occurred, said a statement from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. No arrests had been made.

Kessler was injured shortly before 3.30pm on Sunday during competing demonstrations in Thousand Oaks, a city of about 125,000 northwest of Los Angeles. Police received reports that a battery had occurred and deputies sent to the scene found Kessler suffering from a head wound, the department said.

“Witness accounts indicated that Kessler was involved in a physical altercation with counter-protester(s). During the altercation, Kessler fell backwards and struck his head on the ground,” the department said.

An autopsy conducted yesterday determined Kessler died from a blunt force head injury and it was homicide, the department said.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said Kessler was Jewish and that he was struck in the head by a megaphone held by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator. The sheriff’s department didn’t confirm those details immediately.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry says the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza was “fully” dedicated to serving Palestinians, after an accusation by the Israeli military that it has been used by Hamas to launch attacks.

The Israeli military said that Hamas “systematically exploits hospitals as part of its war machine” as it exposed a network of tunnels, command centres and rocket launchers beneath and adjacent to hospitals in northern Gaza.

Hamas denies doing so and has accused Israel of spreading lies.

“Indonesia Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by Indonesians fully for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza,” said the ministry said in a statement, adding the hospital is run by Palestinian authorities, helped by a few Indonesian volunteers.

The hospital “is currently treating patients in the amount that far exceeds its capacity”, the ministry added.

Sarbini Abdul Murad, the chairman of Mer-C, a voluntary group which funded the Indonesia hospital, told Reuters that the hospital had run out of fuel, and had “collapsed”.

Yesterday, he denied Israel’s accusations, adding that it was a “precondition so that they can attack the Indonesian hospital in Gaza”.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has called for an immediate ceasefire and has sent humanitarian aid to Gaza.