IRNA reported, three Mossad agents with Iranian nationality were arrested in the intelligence operation in mountainous areas between Iran and Afghanistan.
The detainees intended to fire suicide drones from across the Afghan border into targets inside Iran.
They will soon be transferred to Iran for interrogation.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, made the announcement in a post on the brigades’ Telegram channel on Saturday, which was also confirmed in an official statement.
“Since October 7 until now, the barbaric Zionist [regime’s] bombing of Gaza has caused the loss of more than 60 enemy captives in Gaza,” he said.
The spokesman added that the bodies of 23 captives are trapped under the rubble of the buildings and structures that have been destroyed by the Israeli strikes.
“It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza.”
On October 7, Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups captured around 250 Israeli soldiers and settlers during Operation al-Aqsa Storm, their biggest operation against the occupying entity in years.
Following the operation, Abu Ubaida stated 200 of the captives were being held by al-Qassam Brigades, while the rest were kept by other Palestinian resistance factions.
Last month, the brigades announced that around 50 of the captives were killed in the devastating war that the Israeli regime has launched against Gaza since the Palestinians’ operation.
The Israeli war has so far killed at least 9,400 Palestinians, including nearly 3,900 children and 2,500 women. Over 24,000 Palestinians have also been wounded.
On October 28, Hamas’ leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar said in a statement that the group was prepared for an “immediate” exchange of prisoners with Israel, but the regime was stalling.
The movement has so far released four of the captives on humanitarian grounds.
Late last month, Hamas released a video of three captured Israeli women voicing outrage at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his declining to agree to a swap deal and a ceasefire.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said issued a statement that Israel has intensified its attacks, deliberately targeting hospitals, and that all the laws designed to protect medical and ambulance teams have been violated by the regime.
She added that the international community’s silence over aggressions in Gaza “is giving the green light to Israel to shed Palestinian blood, and commit other atrocities”.
Over 25,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on Gaza by Israel since the start of the war on 7 October, Gaza’s media office has announced on Saturday.
A total of 9,425 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to figures released Saturday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.
An additional 24,000 others have been injured, the ministry added.
According to the ministry’s report, nearly 73% of the fatalities are from among vulnerable groups, including children, women and the elderly.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has also warned of a “catastrophe within Gaza hospitals”, adding that wounded people are “taking their last breaths” due to the lack of medical resources and fuel.
The ministry announced “16 hospitals and 32 primary healthcare centers have been taken out of service”.
The Israeli military continues to encircle and pound the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. Calls for a ceasefire by aid organizations and global community have been rejected by Tel Aviv.
Police held back hundreds of protesters outside Netanyahu’s residence on Saturday. Waving blue and white Israeli flags, demonstrators chanted “Jail now!” as a crowd pushed through security barriers.
In Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, several thousand protesters, including relatives and friends of some of the captives, chanted: “Bring them home now”.
“I expect and demand from my government, think out of the box,” stated Hadas Kalderon, who said five members of her family were among the kidnapped.
“I find myself in hell,” she continued, adding, “Every day I wake up to another day of war. A war for the life of my children.”
Netanyahu has so far not accepted personal responsibility for the failures that allowed the surprise assault which saw hundreds of Hamas fighters storm into southern Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking at least 240 captive.
The war Israel has since launched on Gaza has so far killed more than 9,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and reduced large areas of the besieged enclave to rubble.
Public anger in Israel has been growing, with many families of the captives held in Gaza bitterly critical of the government’s response and calling for their relatives to be brought home.
Even before the war, Netanyahu had been a divisive figure, fighting corruption charges, which he denies, and pushing through a plan to curb the powers of the judiciary that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets to protest.
On Saturday, a poll for Israel’s Channel 13 Television found 76 percent of Israelis thought Netanyahu, now serving a record sixth term as prime minister, should resign and 64 percent said Israel should hold an election immediately after the war.
When asked who is most at fault for the attack, 44 percent of Israelis blamed Netanyahu, while 33 percent blamed the military chief of staff and senior Israeli Defence Force officials and 5 percent blamed the defence minister, according to the poll.
On Saturday, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the US is calling for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza, during a press conference in Amman with his counterparts from Jordan and Egypt.
But the Jordanian and Egyptian ministers rebuked that position, instead reiterating the need for an immediate ceasefire – echoing calls from other Arab leaders.
The armed wing of Hamas said on Saturday that more than 60 captives are missing because of Israeli air raids on Gaza.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, also stated on Hamas’s Telegram account that 23 bodies of Israeli captives were trapped under the rubble.
“It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza,” he added.
“Now, none of the EU, US leaders, our partners are putting pressure on us in terms of sitting down [at the negotiating table] with Russia, talking to it or surrendering something to it,” he told journalists on Saturday.
“This is not going to happen,” he added.
Zelensky then said he “does not know” who even publishes such reports. He did admit, however, that he had “got an impression” that the Ukrainian media and Ukrainians themselves are speculating about the idea of potential talks with Russia and about Western nations allegedly pushing Kiev towards such a decision. The president went on to say that he was “surprised” by such sentiments.
Earlier on Saturday, NBC reported that Western officials were holding behind-the-scenes talks with Kiev about the possibility of negotiating with Russia and were even exploring potential concessions Ukraine might agree to in order to end the conflict.
The report also said that the Western nations were concerned about a potential “stalemate” in the conflict and Ukraine “running out of forces” in the future.
Russia has repeatedly signaled its readiness to engage in negotiations with Kiev but has insisted that such talks should take Moscow’s security interests and the “reality on the ground” into account. In autumn 2022, four former Ukrainian territories, including the two Donbass republics, officially joined Russia following a series of referendums. Kiev never accepted their results, branding the votes a “sham” and seeking to restore its control over the four territories, as well as Crimea, which joined Russia in 2014 following another referendum.
In October 2022, Zelensky also signed a decree banning Ukraine from holding any talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This past September, Putin stated that if Kiev is willing to end the conflict it should demonstrate its intentions publicly, including by revoking the 2022 decree.
“If their wish to achieve something through negotiations is genuine, let them do that,” he said at that time.
“Let the Ukrainians themselves say it… announce it publicly,” the Russian president added.
Palestine’s Foreign Ministry has condemned an Israeli minister’s comments where he called for dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza.
“These remarks are a translation of the genocidal war that Israel has been waging against the Gaza Strip for 30 days,” the ministry said in a statement.
Israeli media reported that Eliyahu has been suspended from government meetings indefinitely, citing a statement by the PM’s office.
The number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the war has now risen to 346, including 32 who died after Israeli troops entered Gaza.
Palestine’s ministry of health announced on Sunday that the death toll in Gaza has now reached 9,770 since the start of the war on 7 October. The figure includes 4,800 children.
Over 24,000 others in Gaza have been wounded in the bombing of Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, 152 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the same time frame, while 2,100 have been wounded.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken there must be an immediate ceasefire to the war in Gaza during Blinken’s flash visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to Abbas’ spokesperson, adding to a growing chorus of Arab leaders stressing the need for a truce as the death toll in Gaza approaches 10,000.
During a news conference in Amman, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stressed that Arab countries want an immediate ceasefire, warning that “the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.
“We don’t accept that this is self-defence,” Safadi added, referring to Israel’s monthlong assault on Gaza that has killed at least 9,488 Palestinians, more than a third of them children.
“It cannot be justified under any pretext and it will not bring Israel security, it will not bring the region peace.”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, whose country has been acting as the sole conduit for foreigners to escape Gaza and for aid to get in, also called for an “immediate and comprehensive ceasefire.”
In a rare public divide with his Jordanian counterpart, Blinken said the US was against a ceasefire because it would give Hamas more breathing room.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah Sunday amid escalating settler violence in the West Bank following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The top US diplomat’s visit to Ramallah — his first since that attack – comes as the United States grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and resulting humanitarian catastrophe. It comes on the heels of Blinken stops in Israel and Jordan.
Abbas and Blinken met twice in Jordan during the latter’s trip to the region several weeks ago, after October 7.
At a summit Saturday in Amman with the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, as well as the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Blinken said they are “all deeply concerned about escalating extremist violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank”, calling it “a serious problem that’s only worsened since the conflict”.
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health – a number nearing the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank in all of 2022.
Blinken, who met with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv Friday, stated he heard “a clear commitment from the government to deal with extremist violence in the West Bank, to condemn it, to take action to prevent it, to take action against those who perpetrate it”.
“This is important, and we will be looking closely to ensure that our friends make good on that commitment,” he added.
Blinken has spoken about the need to focus on “the day of” and the “day after”, and has suggested the Palestinian Authority could play a role in Gaza’s future if Hamas is eliminated.
“At some point, what would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza,” he said at a congressional hearing last week.
“Whether you can get there in one step is a big question that we have to look at. And if you can’t, then there are other temporary arrangements that may involve a number of other countries in the region. It may involve international agencies that would help provide for both security and governance,” he added.
Four paramedics were wounded when an Israeli drone struck near two ambulances on their way to pick up casualties from overnight strikes in southern Lebanon, local officials told the AP.
The civil defence unit of a scouts group affiliated with Lebanon’s Amal Movement, a political party allied with Hezbollah, said the drone “directly targeted” their ambulances.
Officials added the Lebanese army and the Red Cross transported the wounded paramedics to a hospital in Tyre, as Israeli air raids reportedly did not stop.
There were reports that the paramedics were on their way to retrieve the bodies of two Hezbollah fighters.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said there had been “false” reports on negotiations to release Israeli captives held in Gaza, without elaborating.
During a news conference in Doha along with French Foreign Minister Colonna, Al Thani stated that there were complexities in the field due to “Israeli military practices” in the enclave.
In separate remarks, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said efforts to secure the release of the captives required a “period of calm” and that leaks from the negotiations were “harmful”.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said in Doha on Sunday that too many civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza.
In a joint press conference with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, she stated that schools, hospitals, humanitarian workers and journalists must be protected.
Colonna added that an international humanitarian conference, to be hosted by France on 9 November, will cover respecting international law, basic needs such as health, water, energy and food, and will call for concrete action for civilians in Gaza.
The Israeli army announced it hit more than 2,500 targets inside the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
In the latest update on its military operations inside the besieged enclave, the military said it continued to engage in “face-to-face” battles.
The Israeli minister who said dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza is a possibility has been suspended from government meetings indefinitely, Israeli media reported citing a statement by the PM’s office.
In addition to the nuclear bomb comment, Amihai Eliyahu also suggested the entire besieged enclave’s population could move to Ireland or desert areas.
Eliyahu later walked back on his comment stating it was “metaphorical”.
Chad has become the latest country to recall its ambassador from Israel, citing “the unprecedented tide of deadly violence” inside Gaza.
“In front of such tragedy, Chad condemns the loss of numerous innocent civilians and calls for a ceasefire for a durable solution to the Palestinian issue,” read a statement.
Honduras, Chile and Colombia also recalled their ambassadors while Bolivia severed ties with Israel last week over the ongoing assault on Palestinians.
US Secretary of State Blinken is scheduled to meet Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
While the primary focus of the meeting will be to discuss stopping the war in Gaza, local media reports that Abbas is also expected to bring up the ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank as nightly raids by Israeli soldiers continue.
On Saturday, Blinken held a news conference in Amman alongside Jordan’s deputy prime minister and Egypt’s foreign minister on his third visit to the region since the war began.
Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu has said that dropping a nuclear weapon on the Gaza Strip is “an option”, according to Haaretz.
The minister said the comments on a radio interview where he maintained that “there are no non-combatants in Gaza”, adding that providing humanitarian aid to the Strip would constitute “a failure”.
Eliyahu was then asked if – since there are no non-combatants in his view – a nuclear attack on the Gaza Strip is an option. “That’s one way,” he responded.
When asked about the fate of Palestinians, he stated, “They can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves.”
He also added the Strip has no right to exist, adding that anyone waving a Palestinian or Hamas flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth”.
Bombs have repeatedly targeted the vicinity of Gaza’s al-Quds hospital, where around 14,000 Palestinians were sheltering.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, the intensity of the bombardment is causing the building to shake, and emergency response teams are unable to leave due to the severity of the attacks.
Currently, there is heavy artillery shelling, airstrikes, and powerful explosions in the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital and the PRCS HQ. The intensity of the bombardment is causing the building to shake, and emergency response teams are unable to leave due to the severity of the… pic.twitter.com/BA57xOVOxP
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 5, 2023
According to local media reports, 100 doctors in Israel are demanding that the Israeli army bombs hospitals in Gaza, calling them “infrastructure used by Hamas”.
The letter, written in Hebrew, states: “we, the undersigned doctors who work in healthcare systems responsibility and professionally, hereby implore terrorist organisations using hospitals as their headquarters…for years the citizens of Israel have suffered from murderous terror.”
“The residents of Gaza saw fit to turn hospitals into terrorist nests to take advantage of western morality, they are the ones who brought destruction upon themselves, terrorism must be eliminated everywhere attacking terrorist headquarters is the right and the duty of the Israeli army,” the letter adds, noting that it is an “obligation,” for the army to target hospitals allegedly used to shelter Hamas.
The letter ends with the names of the doctors.
Around 20,000 people took part in a pro-Palestinian rally on Monday in Melbourne, Australia, according to police officials.
The rally was peaceful without any issues or arrests made, according to Senior Constable Adam West.
The rally came a day after thousands of protesters rallied in Washington, DC, and in major cities across Europe, calling for a ceasefire in the hostilities.
Demonstrations also took place across Europe on Saturday – in Paris, Berlin and London, as well as the British cities of Manchester, Oxford, Newcastle and Liverpool.
At least 51 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed and scores of others were wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza’s Maghazi camp on Saturday night, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The bombing is the latest mass killing of Palestinians to take place in recent days. Earlier this week, Israeli air strikes killed hundreds of Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the majority of those killed and wounded on Saturday night were women and children.
At least 51 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed and scores of others were wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza's Maghazi camp on Saturday night, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa pic.twitter.com/ooXBfdHlUW
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 5, 2023
The supporters of Palestine smeared red paint on the White House security fence on Saturday evening, with some attempting to break through the gate, as they denounced President Joe Biden for backing Israel.
Angry activists waved Palestinian flags and shouted obscenities directed at the president. They also violently shook the gate as security personnel looked on from the other side.
Despite the heated atmosphere, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi later told reporters that “the attempted gate trespass from earlier was handled without incident”, and no arrests were made outside the White House.
Tens of thousands marched in Washington, DC on Saturday, calling for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militants and decrying the “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday demanding an end to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. Local authorities have heavily restricted pro-Palestine protests.
Some 6,000 people marched in the German capital, the DPA press agency reported, although some leftist groups involved in organizing the rally claimed that more than five times that number took part.
Video footage showed crowds holding Palestinian flags and placards reading “stop the genocide,” “how many kids have to die?” and “ceasefire now.”
Berlin and other German cities responded to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war by banning all pro-Palestine demonstrations.
The ban has since been relaxed, with authorized demonstrations permitted. Expressions of support for Hamas or other militant groups, as well as slogans deemed anti-Semitic or anti-Israel are forbidden at these officially sanctioned rallies. German federal law also prohibits the glorification of violence and the burning of the Israeli flag.
On Thursday, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced a ban on all pro-Hamas activity and dissolved the German branch of Samidoun, a group that organizes pro-Palestine rallies in Europe and the US. Faeser accused Samidoun of holding “jubilant celebrations” when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
The crackdown has been condemned by a group of more than 100 German Jewish intellectuals. In an open letter last month, the group accused police of using anti-Semitism as an excuse “to suppress legitimate and non-violent political expression, which may include criticism of Israel.”
Saturday’s rally was peaceful, with police reporting the arrest of only one person; a woman who allegedly attacked a journalist.
Pro-Palestine activists should be jailed immediately if they attempt to desecrate London’s iconic monument to fallen British soldiers, Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned in light of plans to hold protests on Armistice Day on November 11.
“If anyone were to vandalize the Cenotaph, they must be put into a jail cell faster than their feet can touch the ground,” Braverman told Sky News on Saturday.
She promised that authorities “won’t hesitate to act” if police need reinforcements to deal with “utterly odious” conduct during rallies.
Braverman doubled down on labeling pro-Palestinian demonstrations “hate marches,” arguing that there is “no excuse” when the exercise of the freedom of speech “crosses the line” into hateful slogans.
The home secretary’s statement came after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak denounced the planned Armistice Day protests as “provocative and disrespectful,” warning about the risk of desecration of the Cenotaph and other war memorials.
On Saturday, Palestine supporters protested on Trafalgar Square and staged a sit-in, blocking traffic at the corner of Oxford Circus and Regent Street. They were filmed shouting “smash the Zionist settler state” in the London subway and at least one person was holding a sign with an image of the Star of David being thrown into a trash bin, with a slogan: “Let’s keep the world clean.”
A total of 29 people were arrested in London on Saturday for inciting racial hatred and other crimes, including assaulting a police officer, the Metropolitan Police confirmed.
Protestors in France took to the streets in various cities Saturday to demand an end to Israel’s ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Demonstrators marched in support of Palestine in Paris and other cities, including Toulouse and Lyon. Protesters urged Paris to take action to secure a cease-fire.
Tens of thousands participated, including members of the La France Insoumise, a left-wing populist political party that includes MPs Louis Boyard, David Guiraud and Rachel Keke.
Protesters drew attention to the deaths of children in Israel’s attacks as they carried small coffins covered in red paint and toy dolls, while some raised their red-painted hands in the air.
They carried banners that read: “Free Palestine”, “Ceasefire” and “This is a genocide, not a conflict,” and chanted: “Israel is a murderer, Macron is an accomplice”, “Gaza, Paris is with you” and “Long live Palestine.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his continued support for Israel’s right to defend itself in its war against Hamas when he spoke with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.
Trudeau also called for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and stressed the need to provide humanitarian aid to those in Gaza, according to a readout from his office.
The Canadian leader received assurances that “Canadians in Gaza will be able to leave in the coming days,” the readout said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) informed Canadian officials Saturday “that more than 400 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and eligible family members will be able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing” as they make their way back to Canada. There are currently 5,755 Canadians registered with the Registration of Canadians Abroad in Israel and 453 Canadians registered in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the latest update from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
Canadian officials are in contact with 69 Canadians, permanent residents, and family members in the West Bank, 516 in Gaza and 51 in Israel, according to GAC.
Trudeau highlighted his deep concerns over the increasingly dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to the readout, and reiterated Canada’s position on the immediate need to create conditions for urgent and necessary humanitarian aid to flow into the region.
He also expressed “the importance of upholding international humanitarian law and making every effort to protect Palestinian civilians,” the readout added.
When asked on Saturday whether progress had been made on “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict, President Joe Biden replied “Yes” and gave reporters a thumbs up.
The president did not provide any further details, as he left a church in Delaware.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected the idea of a permanent ceasefire during a meeting with his Arab counterparts in Amman, reiterating Washington’s desire for “pauses”.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah warned Saturday of a “catastrophe within Gaza hospitals”, adding that wounded people are “taking their last breaths” due to the lack of medical resources and fuel.
Palestinian Health Minister Dr. Mai al-Kaila also called on the international community to provide fuel to Gaza hospitals to prevent the shutdown of services.
As of midday on Saturday, more than 150 health care professionals in Gaza have been killed, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.
The ministry also added “16 hospitals and 32 primary healthcare centers have been taken out of service”.
“The continued Israeli shelling of the vicinity and entrances of Gaza hospitals in the north aims to force medical personnel to abandon their patients and leave the hospitals. This constitutes a complex massacre against the wounded and patients,” al-Kaila added.
Organizations outside of Gaza are also raising an alarm about the dire situation in the enclave’s hospitals.
At least seven Palestinians were killed and many others were wounded from an Israeli air strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Wafa news agency.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded the camp – home to over 100,000 people – in recent days.
A total of 84 Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment have entered Egypt through the Rafah border crossing so far as of Saturday, an Egyptian government official told CNN.
The injured Palestinians all had injuries sustained from airstrikes, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity since they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Most are currently receiving treatment in hospitals across the country, and more are expected to arrive in the coming days, the official added.
According to an Egyptian border official, more Palestinians were expected to arrive in ambulances on Saturday, but the border was shut for a few hours out of caution following an Israeli airstrike that targeted an ambulance on Friday.
Located in Egypt’s north Sinai, the Rafah crossing is the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. It falls along an 8-mile (12.8-kilometer) fence that separates Gaza from the Sinai desert.
The number of people who have fled from north of Wadi Gaza to the southern part of the enclave is estimated to be 800,000 “to perhaps a million”, the US special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues said Saturday — a mass relocation that has exacerbated humanitarian issues, which are only expected to grow as more people flee.
The envoy, David Satterfield, stated there needs to be the “secure, sustained movement” of aid not only from the Rafah crossing in Egypt to Gaza, but “into points of need in the south.”
“And those points of need are growing as individuals come increasingly to the south,” he added.
The ability to move assistance has scaled up exponentially, particularly in the last week, from “pretty much zero in terms of ability to move humanitarian assistance through the Rafah corridor into Gaza”, Satterfield continued, but reiterated that even the current number of aid trucks getting through the crossing per day is not sufficient.
Although the US believes the current daily flow of trucks into Gaza is sustainable, “it’s challenged by the environment on the ground in south Gaza,” Satterfield said, noting United Nations warehouses with basic supplies and food had been broken into early in the week.
“There was … an environment in Gaza, which allowed more normal commercial life, cooking gas, cooking oil, provisions, necessities of life to move in. That’s not the situation now,” he added.
Shelter is also a problem, he continued.
“You’ve got 350,000 or 400,000 still in the north. If those individuals — some portion of them — come to the south, that’s going to increase the load, increase the demand even more.”
Israeli’s military has called for civilians in Gaza to move south as it intensifies its air and ground assault on Gaza City and northern Gaza. International aid and rights groups have criticized Israel’s calls for residents to evacuate the north without a pause in fighting and while roads and other infrastructure are badly damaged.
Rouhani’s website cited the former president as saying he inaugurated only the first phase of the airport.
The minister of roads made the allegation on Friday while he was accompanying President Ebrahim Raisi during his inauguration of the airport.
Bazrpash also said Rouhani’s inauguration ceremony at the airport was merely a show.
The plan to build the Saqez Martyrs Airport was unveiled in 1996 but its construction started in 2007 with then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promising to make it operational within two years.
However, the Saqez Martyrs Airport’s first phase was made operational in July of 2021 under the then President Hassan Rouhani.
The website of Hassan Rouhani also added If the first phase of the airport had not been inaugurated, the Raisi administration could not have completed it even with a delay of two years.
“We have only one Putin!” Peskov said at the ‘Russia’ exhibition that opened in Moscow on Saturday.
He added that many ridiculous, absurd, and amusing things appear in various news outlets and on social media, naming the rumors about the Russian president’s alleged body doubles as examples.
The Kremlin spokesman joked that “experts” on the internet are now wondering how many doppelgangers Putin has and which ones they are seeing each day.
“Today [the Russian officials and public figures led by Putin] laid flowers to the Minin and Pozharsky Monument… Was it [Putin’s] third or fourth body double? I have no idea,” the spokesman jokingly stated.
On November 4, Russia celebrates Unity Day, a holiday that commemorates the end of the ‘Time of Troubles’ in the 17th century and the expulsion of the Polish-Lithuanian occupation forces from Moscow by a volunteer militia army led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and a merchant, Kuzma Minin.
The Kremlin already laid to rest the rumors about Putin’s doppelgangers last week after the UK’s Mirror newspaper reported on the issue, citing an anonymous Russian Telegram channel called General SVR. The paper claimed that the president’s body doubles were even used for some public appearances, including foreign visits. It also cited a recent Japanese TV report claiming that Putin had doppelgangers.
Similar statements have also been made by the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov.
Peskov had previously already dismissed reports about Putin’s doppelgangers, calling them “lies” back in April. He also said that the Russian leader has “fantastic fitness for working” and can work nonstop for several days in a row. The Kremlin spokesman added that he has experienced this firsthand while working directly under Putin’s leadership.
BRICS currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but will be joined by Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE this coming January. The decision to accept the new members was made during the group’s August summit in Johannesburg.
According to analyst estimates, the expanded group will represent nearly half of global output by 2040, doubling the share of the Group of Seven (G7), which consists of the US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan.
Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that BRICS already outpaced the G7 states in terms of the purchasing power parity (PPP) of their populations.
Experts project the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the expanded BRICS in terms of PPP to amount to roughly $65 trillion. This would push the group’s share of global GDP up from the current 31.5% to 37%. In comparison, the share of the G7 is currently around 29.9%.
BRICS was originally ‘BRIC’, a term coined by economists using the first letter of four nations – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – that were seen as having the potential to dominate the world economy in the 21st century. These countries first came together in 2006 and later welcomed South Africa as a new member, adding the letter ‘S’ to the acronym.
Originally formed largely for the purpose of highlighting investment opportunities among members, the group has become instrumental in building a new “multipolar” world order that will help give a stronger voice to the Global South.
In 2014, the BRICS group launched its own international lender, the New Development Bank (NDB), which was seen as an alternative to US-dominated financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. It provides funding for infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
The bank formally opened for business in 2015, and was later joined by Bangladesh, the UAE, Egypt, and Uruguay.
Amirabdollahian referred to efforts by the Brazilian government at the international level and its drafting of a resolution at the UN Security Council aimed at stopping the hostilities in Gaza, stressing the need for a ceasefire in the region and get humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
The Iranian foreign minister then thanked Brazil for sending relief aid to Gaza.
The top Brazilian diplomat for his part described Iran as an important player in the region and appreciated the Islamic Republic’s constructive efforts to establish peace and security in West Asia and the world.
Vieira underscored the necessity of truce in Gaza and sending in relief aid for residents of the besieged enclave.
He further called for the safe exit of foreigners from Gaza including Brazilian nationals.
More than 9,000 people have died in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza since October 7.
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas that controls Gaza is holding around 230 hostages taken during the group’s surprised attack on Israel on October 7. They also killed 1,400 Israeli in the attack.
Israel has so far defied all calls for a ceasefire.
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