Jews Against Israel
Israel expands ground assault into Gaza
Fears rise as airstrikes near crowded hospitals
Videos circulating on social media showed an Israeli tank and bulldozer in central Gaza blocking the territory’s main north–south highway, which the Israeli military earlier told Palestinians to use to escape the expanding ground offensive. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the north would no longer be able to escape if the road is blocked since it’s the only useable route south.
When asked whether forces had positioned on the road, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that “we expanded our operations” but would not comment on specific deployments.
Heavy fighting
On Monday, Israeli tanks advanced into the fringes of Gaza City, witnesses said, as it ramped up its war, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the “second stage” of the war ignited by Hamas’ October 7 attack.
The Israeli military claimed it killed dozens of Hamas fighters in hundreds of strikes.
An Israeli military spokesperson told AFP that they have hit “more than 600 targets in the past 24 hours,” up from 450 the previous day, with Hamas fighters also reporting “heavy fighting” in northern Gaza.
Hamas’ military wing said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops who entered the northwest Gaza Strip. Palestinian fighters have continued firing rockets into Israel, including toward its commercial hub, Tel Aviv.
Hospitals under growing threat
Meanwhile, crowded hospitals in northern Gaza came under growing threat. Strikes hit near Gaza City’s Shifa and Al Quds hospitals and the Indonesian and Turkish hospitals in northern Gaza in recent days, the UN and residents said Monday.
All 10 hospitals operating in northern Gaza have received evacuation orders, the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said. Staffs have refused to leave, saying evacuation would mean death for patients on ventilators.
Tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering in Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital but has not provided much evidence. Hamas denies the allegations.
Death toll
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 8,306 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war.
The ministry added on Monday that at least 3,457 children were among the dead, as Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip with air and artillery strikes.
Israel has warned that the territory’s northern areas must be considered a war zone. Although huge numbers have left in recent weeks, tens of thousands are believed to be still in the zone.
‘Catastrophic situation’
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concerns about the “catastrophic situation” of Palestinian children in the besieged strip.
In an interview with Al Jazeera TV channel on Sunday, UNICEF spokesperson Toby Fricker said the number of children killed in Gaza is catastrophic.
“The situation for children is horrific,” he said, calling for the protection of Gaza hospitals from relentless Israeli airstrikes, the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors, and the continuous and sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid to the people in the coastal enclave. In another interview with France 24, Fricker said the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “staggering”, adding: “Children don’t want to drink water because it’s so salty. They are suffering from dehydration, and the risk of disease is really very real.”
Plea for cease-fire
Israel’s expanded operations sparked new warnings from leaders about the risk of broader regional conflict, as well as heightened calls from the UN for a humanitarian cease-fire to deliver desperately needed aid into Gaza.
The United Arab Emirates requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council for Monday as the council’s Arab representative seeks a binding resolution, demanding that Israel accepts a humanitarian pause to the fighting in Gaza.
The World Health Organization’s Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday pleaded with global leaders to unite for peace.
The WHO has called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas for the safe delivery of food, medical supplies, and other aid into the Gaza Strip.
Tedros said on X that he was making “a humble plea for cease-fire and peace”.
‘Humanitarian catastrophe’
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sunday he regretted that “instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations”.
“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes. More than 2 million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life — food, water, shelter, and medical care — while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink.”
Since October 21, only 94 humanitarian aid trucks have been able to arrive IN the strip through the Rafah crossing, but Israel has not allowed any fuel into Gaza, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Iran in talks with Egypt
Expressing regret that a limited number of aid trucks have reached Gaza, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said on Monday that his country has been in contact with Egypt to weigh plans for lifting the siege of the strip and supplying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the enclave.
Nasser Kanaani said Iran has been holding negotiations with Egypt about the establishment of a corridor to send humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister, in separate phone calls with his Saudi and Qatari counterparts, underlined the need for an immediate halt to Israel’s indiscriminate strikes against the blockaded Palestinian territory.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani urged the uninterrupted supply of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
Earlier the same day, Amir-Abdollahian had a phone call with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan, during which both sides called for collective regional and international action to immediately end Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians.
Meanwhile, Iran’s top military commander said Palestinians decided to stand up against Israel and uphold their rights instead of giving in to their gradual death at the hands of the occupying regime.
Speaking on Monday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said that Israel’s bombing campaign on the blockaded strip “has no military value” compared to the October 7 operation conducted by Palestinian resistance fighters against the occupying entity.
The Zionists “are the losers of the war even if they continue the bombing for one year,” he stated.
No plans to send troops
US President Joe Biden also is facing pressure from within his own Democratic party to call for a cease-fire. Biden has strongly supported Israel’s right to self-defense after the attack by Hamas on 7 October.
Meanwhile, his Vice President Kamala Harris said that the US has “absolutely no intention” of sending American combat troops into Israel or Gaza amid fears over a wider regional conflict.
“We have absolutely no intention, nor do we have any plans, to send combat troops into Israel or Gaza, period,” Harris said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.
Harris, who has been included in briefings and phone calls on the Middle East crisis, closely stuck to the administration’s approach: Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while also calling for the protection of civilians.
Casualties on both sides are expected to rise sharply if Israeli forces expand their ground operation and end up battling Palestinian fighters in dense residential areas.
AP, AFP, Reuters, Press TV, France 24, Al Jazeera, and Tasnim news agencies contributed to the report.
Iranian Jews held pro-Palestine rallies in several cities on Monday to condemn Israel’s crimes against the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip.
The protests, which were held in Isfahan, Tehran, Kermanshah, Kurdestan, Shiraz, and Yazd, demanded an immediate end to the violence and bloodshed in the occupied Palestinian territory.
In the central city of Isfahan, protesters shouted slogans against the regime and its main supporter, the United States, to show their anger at the crimes committed by Israel, including the killing of civilians.
Since October 7, Israel has launched brutal strikes on the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas’ operation in the occupied territories, which claimed the lives of more than 1,400 people. Israeli attacks have also killed at least 8,300 Palestinians so far.
The demonstrators denounced the killing of Palestinian civilians as a war crime and called for an end to the genocide that is happening in Gaza.
They also criticized Western countries, especially the US, which are supporting the regime, saying that these countries are complicit in the regime’s massacre of the innocent people of Gaza.
The protestors underlined that Israel’s actions contradict the teachings of Judaism and the Holy Torah.
The demonstrators in Isfahan also demanded an immediate ceasefire and the lifting of the blockade imposed by the Israeli regime on Gaza in order to be able to send medicine, food, and fuel to Palestinians.
A similar demonstration was also held in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah where the protestors called on the international community to help the people of Gaza who have been under Israel’s attacks from the land, sea, and air in recent weeks.
Carrying placards reading “Don’t commit crime in the name of Judaism,” they condemned Israel’s killing of women, children, and defenseless people. The Jewish community in Iran’s central city of Yazd gathered outside the city’s synagogue to condemn Israeli crimes against Palestinians. The protestors expressed sympathy with the people of Gaza and urged the international community to stop these atrocities.
They also condemned the silence of many countries and international organizations over Israel’s deadly strikes in the Palestinian territory.
Anti-Israel protests are happening in many cities across the world on a daily basis, and Jewish communities participate in such rallies to condemn the Israeli crimes and tell the world that the Israeli regime does not represent Judaism.
In Australia, a Jewish organization named Jews Against the Occupation in a statement called on their government to support a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We call on the Australian government to cease all military relationships with Israel until it lifts the brutal blockade on Gaza and releases Palestinian prisoners held indefinitely without charge or trial,” the statement said.
Many Jewish Americans have also joined anti-Israel rallies held in the US in recent weeks.
On October 19, Jewish activists campaigned against Israel’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza in Washington. Demonstrators — some of them waving Palestinian flags — accused Israel of preparing to commit genocide in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
They protested against “Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians,” according to Jewish Voice for Peace, the group that organized the demonstration.
“We shut down Congress to draw mass attention to the US complicity in Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians,” the Jewish organization wrote on X.