Russia, Syria call for end to violence against civilians
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad have called for the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilians of the besieged Gaza Strip, during a phone call.
Both Russian state news agency Tass and the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported the conversation.
Assad’s regime has historically been backed by Iran, which also supports Palestinian militant group Hamas. Tehran has praised the terrorist Oct. 7 attacks of Hamas against Israel, but denied involvement in the operation. In the week since then, Syria says its international airports at Damascus and Aleppo have been struck by Israeli missiles, raising fears over a possible spread of the Israeli-Hamas conflict into the wider Middle East.
Responding to a social media post posing the scenario of whether Iran is moving strategic weapons to Syria to open a northern front against Israel, Joshua Zarka, head of strategic affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, on Sunday said, “They are.”
Throughout the conflict, Moscow has urged an end to civilian suffering and violence, but has treaded a fine line to avoid alienating either its Israeli or Iranian allies. The Kremlin has instead blamed the conflict on a failure of Western — and particularly U.S. — diplomacy.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Biden: ‘There must be a path to a Palestinian state’
U.S. President Joe Biden stressed his belief in the need for eventual Palestinian statehood — something that Israel’s current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes — while also supporting Israel’s mission to eliminate the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“There needs to be a Palestinian Authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state,” Biden said in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” which aired on Sunday evening.
Biden reiterated his administration’s support for Israel and its right to defend itself and neutralize Hamas, saying that the group does not “represent all the Palestinian people.”
While Biden has so far not vocally criticized Israel’s military response — which the UN says is causing a humanitarian catastrophe and falling foul of international law — the president cautioned that “it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.”
— Natasha Turak
‘The worst is yet to come,’ think tank says
The nature of the likely urban warfare and the resource deficit already experienced by the civilians of the Gaza Strip mean that an Israeli ground incursion into the region will greatly exacerbate the local death toll, warns Rajan Menon, director of the Grand Strategy program at Defense Priorities.
Israel is expected to launch a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks of Palestinian militant group Hamas. After amassing troops at the border, the Israel Defense Forces late last week instructed residents of Gaza City to move south.
“When the [Israeli military] begins its ground operation, because of the density of population in Gaza, there are going to be very many more deaths, and the campaign is going to be very brutal,” Menon told CNBC’s Dan Murphy.
“Hamas, in my view, probably anticipated an Israeli retaliation of some sort, if not a full ground invasion, and I think they are prepared to fight, and urban warfare by its very nature is very, very dangerous and bloody. So the worst is yet to come, unfortunately.”
He stressed that the Israeli military has shown “every indication” of preparing to proceed with a ground campaign, which he believes the residents of the besieged Gaza strip are unequipped to handle.
“The population not only lacks basic necessities for survival, they are now facing an incoming army. And so the civilian casualty toll will reach very, very high levels,” he said, adding that the Arab community may put some of the fault of the attack at the feet of the Washington administration, which has firmly condemned Hamas and expressed support for Israel.
“Of necessity, because the U.S. is supplying Israel, is backing Israel, there will be some association in the minds of the Arab population at large that this is an operation that is … backed by the U.S, no matter what the words of Mr. [national security advisor Jake] Sullivan and Mr. [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken.”
Blinken on Monday arrived in Tel Aviv, marking his second visit to Israel within five days.
— Ruxandra Iordache
More than 1 million Gazans displaced; not enough body bags for the dead, U.N. says
Palestinians searching for survivors after an Israeli airstrike on the refugee camp of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip on October 9, 2023.
Mahmud Hams | Afp | Getty Images
More than 1 million people, or nearly half the population of Gaza, have been displaced, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in its latest report on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The mass displacement follows an evacuation order from the Israeli Defense Forces on Oct. 13, which urged the 1.1 million residents of the northern half of Gaza to relocate to the south, ahead of an anticipated Israeli ground offensive. The U.N. has warned that such a large migration is not possible without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
“Some 600,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are in the Middle Area, Khan Yunis and Rafah, of those, nearly 400,000 are in UNRWA facilities – much exceeding our capacity to assist in any meaningful way,” the UNRWA report wrote.
“Despite the Israeli Forces’ evacuation order, an unknown number of IDPs remain in UNRWA schools in Gaza city and the North. UNRWA is no longer able to assist or protect them,” the agency said, adding that “the number of killed is increasing,” and that “there are not enough body-bags for the dead in Gaza.”
— Natasha Turak
Iran accuses U.S. of military involvement in Israel-Hamas war
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Iran accused Washington of being militarily involved in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“We believe the U.S. is militarily involved in this war right now, because they said that they would send an aircraft carrier to the region, and they also sent a second aircraft carrier,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in Google-translated comments reported by Iran’s state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency.
Kanaani further said that the alleged U.S. military involvement included providing roughly $8 billion to Israel and help with the Iron Dome missile defense system. He also said that the United Stated should be “held accountable” for the purported crimes of Israel.
U.S.-sanctioned Iran has historically backed Hamas and praised — but denied involvement in — the group’s terrorist attack against Israel of Oct. 7. The Iranian foreign minister has been on a tour of the Middle East that included a visit to the leadership of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire with Israel last week.
Israel has meanwhile accused Iran of ordering attacks carried out by Hezbollah at the Lebanon-Israel border on Sunday.
“Hezbollah carried out a number of shooting attacks in order to distract from our war efforts in the south [Gaza], under Iranian instruction and with [Iranian] support,” chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a Monday briefing, according to Reuters.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Egypt says Israel has not allowed Rafah crossing to open from Gaza
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is welcomed by Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Al-Safadi on May 1, 2023 in Amman, Jordan.
Jordan Pix | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Monday said that Israel had yet to take a stance that allowed the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office appeared to deny reports of a humanitarian corridor that would facilitate the safe passage of foreign nationals through the Rafah crossing — the only exit point out of the Gaza Strip enclosure, which is otherwise bordered by Israel and the sea.
Fears have mounted over the possibility of a military Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, following an Israeli instruction for the residents of Gaza City to evacuate south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands. Israel has launched a complete siege that seals off Israel’s own supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food to Gaza, following a multi-pronged terrorist attack from Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7.
Shoukry urged “joint efforts to calm down, reduce escalation, and address the crushing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip,” during a meeting with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna, the Egyptian foreign ministry said Monday in a Google-translated post on social media.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Intelligence failure of Hamas attack will reshape Israel’s political landscape: Editor-in-chief
The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel will eventually result in a political reckoning, Avi Mayer, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, told CNBC.
“This is a military and intelligence failure that is unprecedented in Israeli history,” Mayer said.
“Just as in the aftermath of that war [the 1973 Arab-Israeli war] there was a commission of inquiry that essentially brought down the rule of Golda Meir, I am absolutely certain that there will be a similar commission of inquiry once the dust settles, once things return to some sense of normalcy. I would not be surprised if blame were placed on the prime minister.”
Opinion polls show a majority of Israelis hold the government responsible for the “terrible failure,” he added.
“I am absolutely certain that there will be a re-shifting of the political map in Israel, I don’t know that Prime Minister Netanyahu will survive.”
— Jenni Reid
Israel to evacuate several settlements near Lebanese border
Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced it would implement a plan to evacuate residents of northern Israel living up to 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) from the Lebanese border to state-funded guesthouses.
The evacuation would involve 28 communities and will be overseen by the heads of local municipalities, the Ministry of Interior and the National Emergency Management Authority, according to a statement published by the Israel Defense Forces on social media.
The order comes after Israel last week exchanged fire on multiple occasions with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has stated its readiness to intervene in Israel’s conflict with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
On Sunday, Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al Manar said that the militant group launched strikes at the Israeli settlement of Shtula near the Lebanese border — one of the areas that Israel plans to evacuate. Hezbollah attributed the strikes to “retaliation for the aggression on Lebanon which killed three Lebanese in the last two days.”
— Ruxandra Iordache
China, Russia foreign ministers meet, urge cease-fire
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Beijing and exchanged views on the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, China’s foreign ministry said, according to a Google translation.
China reiterated its condemnation of harm to civilians, with Wang Yi saying “the top priority is to cease fire and end the war, push both sides to return to the negotiating table, establish emergency humanitarian relief channels, and prevent greater humanitarian disasters,” according to the ministry.
China supports a two-state solution to the conflict between Israeli and Palestinian people, which would create an independent state of Palestine alongside that of Israel.
Both China and Russia have previously advocated a cease-fire of hostilities and denounced violence, without explicitly condemning Hamas.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Secretary of State Blinken returns to Israel amid marathon Middle East trip
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to members of the media before leaving Cairo, Egypt, Sunday Oct. 15, 2023, en route to Jordan.
Jacquelyn Martin | Pool | via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel for a second time within five days, following stops in several Middle Eastern capitals, in an attempt to address the Israel-Hamas war and prevent broader regional spill-over. He first traveled to Israel on Thursday to express support for the country and its government, as it battles Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
“From here, we’re heading back to Israel,” Blinken said from Cairo on Sunday, in comments reported by NBC News. “I want an opportunity to share everything that I’ve heard, that I’ve learned over the last few days visiting with our other partners and to talk about the way forward with our Israeli allies and friends.”
“We stand with Israel as it defends itself,” Blinken posted on Monday morning on his official account on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter. “The United States is also actively working to ensure the people of Gaza can get out of harm’s way and the assistance they need — food, water, medicine — can get in. Hamas does not care if Palestinians suffer.”
— Natasha Turak
Israel appears to deny cease-fire to allow foreigners out of Gaza Strip
Gazans with foreign passports wait at the Rafah Border Gate to cross into Egypt as Israel’s attacks on Gaza continue on the eighth day in Rafah, Gaza on Oct. 14, 2023.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to deny the existence of a humanitarian corridor allowing the passage of foreign nationals out of the Gaza Strip.
“There is currently no cease-fire and humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the expulsion of foreigners,” it said in a Google-translated statement.
Earlier on Monday, Reuters had reported, citing anonymous Egyptian sources, that the U.S., Egypt and Israel had agreed a ceasefire coinciding with the re-opening of the Rafah border into Egypt — the only crossing out of the besieged Gaza Strip enclosure, otherwise surrounded by Israel and the sea.
Netanyahu’s office did not clarify if the statement referred to this report, which CNBC could not independently verify.
An alert on the site of the U.S. embassy to Israel said, “According to media reports, the Rafah crossing will open at 9am local time on October 16. We anticipate that the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable and it is unclear whether, or for how long, travelers will be permitted to transit the crossing.”
The Israeli Defense Forces late last week urged the 1.1 million residents of the northern half of Gaza to evacuate south, stoking concerns over the possibility of an Israeli ground incursion into the region. Israel, which has amassed substantial troops at the border, said it exclusively targets Hamas military positions.
Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned that such a short window for evacuation in the Gaza Strip, which is blockaded on all sides and has been cut off from Israel’s electricity, water, food and fuel supplies, will compound the local civilian crisis.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Biden warns Israel that re-occupying the Gaza Strip would ‘be a big mistake’
U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on October 04, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Re-occupying the Gaza Strip would “be a big mistake” for Israel, U.S. President Joe Biden said during an interview with CBS News that aired Sunday.
Asked by the interviewer during the program “60 Minutes” if Biden would support an Israeli occupation of Gaza, Biden replied: “I think it’d be a big mistake.”
The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel has triggered a ferocious Israeli response, with an aerial bombardment and full siege of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. To date in the conflict, officials say that 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, and 2,750 have been killed in Gaza.
Israel has mobilized more than 300,000 reservists and amassed a large number of troops near the Gaza border, suggesting a possible ground invasion of the battered enclave.
Many military analysts say a re-occupation of Gaza by Israel would create an immediate disadvantage for Israeli troops who are not familiar with the lay of the land and would be fighting a deeply embedded enemy waiting to ambush them.
— Natasha Turak
Biden says effort to normalize Saudi-Israel relations still ‘alive’
The latest hostilities triggered by the terrorist attacks of Palestinian militant group Hamas have not ended efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a TV interview with CBS News.
Saudi Arabia and a spate of other Arab nations have historically supported the Palestinian people, refusing diplomatic ties with Israel on that account. The U.S. has been pushing for a normalization of relations between its two key allies in the Middle East, Riyadh and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli administration.
“Saudis and Emiratis and other Arab nations understand that their security and stability is enhanced if there is normalization of relations with Israel,” Biden said. “And so I think that it’s still alive, it’s going to take time. Look, this [is] going to take time to get done. It’s going to take time, but the direction, the moving into normalization, makes sense for the Arab nations, as well as Israel.”
Israel made significant inroads in reconnecting with the Arab world through the September 2020 Abraham Accords brokered by the government of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The agreement re-established relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with Sudan and Morocco also recognizing Israel in the years since.
In March this year, a China-mediated deal pushed long-feuding arch-rival Iran — which has backed Hamas — and Saudi Arabia to rekindle diplomatic ties, raising questions over the future of Riyadh’s relations with Israel.
— Ruxandra Iordache
UNRWA says staff are ‘no longer able’ to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza
Displaced Palestinians gather at the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) school in Khan Yunis, after evacuating their homes that were damaged by Israeli airstrikes on October 15, 2023 in Gaza. The agency said its staff are “no longer able to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza.”
Ahmad Hasaballah | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said its staff are “no longer able to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza.”
“Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life,” the commissioner-general of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement Sunday, warning they will soon run out of food and medicine too.
“There is not one drop of water, not one grain of wheat, not a litre of fuel that has been allowed into the Gaza Strip for the last eight days,” said Philippe Lazzarini. “An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding under our eyes.”
In a statement to CNBC, Israel’s Defense Forces said: “Israel has no legal obligation to supply Gaza with electricity, fuel or goods. Gaza is independently capable of generating electricity and supplying water.”
The IDF claimed that “90% of Gaza’s water is sourced within the Gaza Strip,” and blamed Hamas militants for destroying the infrastructure at crossings “through which goods pass through everyday.”
The IDF also claimed the militants were diverting resources in Gaza for their own use.
The UNRWA has lost 14 of its staff members and said most of its 13,000 staff in the besieged enclave are now displaced or out of their homes.
“Unless we bring now supplies into Gaza, UNRWA and aid workers will not, be able to continue humanitarian operations,” Lazzarini said.
— Joanna Tan, Natasha Turak
Death toll in Gaza rises to nearly 2,700; Israel’s hostage count jumps to 155
The death toll in Gaza has risen to 2,670 and 9,600 people have been wounded, according to Gaza’s health ministry, as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas militants in the besieged enclave. Deaths in the occupied West Bank also climbed, with 55 people killed and 1,200 others injured.
In Israel, more than 1,400 people have died while 3,500 were wounded, according to the government press office.
The number of hostages believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza jumped to 155, according to IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagar, who did not confirm if it was due to an increase in civilian abductees or combined military-civilian hostages.
— Joanna Tan
Senate leader Schumer says chamber will rush through military aid to Israel
U.S. Capitol Police secure the U.S. Capitol in response to a call for a “Day of Rage” on October 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday that the senate would push through a military aid package to help Israel in its war against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“We will work to move this aid through the senate ASAP, and the Israeli leaders made it clear to us they need the aid quickly,” said Schumer during a trip to Israel.
He said among Israel’s requests are additional interceptors for its Iron Dome missile defense system, which has been operating non-stop shooting down Hamas rockets from Gaza, and precision munitions.
— Reuters
China says Israel’s actions have ‘gone beyond self defense’ in Gaza
Internally displaced Palestinians take refuge in a United Nations school, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip on October 15, 2023.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
China urged Israel to heed calls from the international community to end its collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“Israel’s actions have gone beyond self-defense and it should heed the call of the international community and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to stop its collective punishment of the people in Gaza,” China Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told his Saudi Arabia counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in a call on Sunday.
Wang’s comments came during a series of calls over the weekend, as world leaders worked to prevent an escalation of the Israel-Hamas war into a broader Middle East crisis.
Read more here.
— Clement Tan
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