Israel-Hamas war, live updates: Israeli PM invokes apocalyptic Old Testament prophecy

Hamas holding 54 Thai hostages

More than half of the estimated 220 Israeli hostages captured by Hamas are also citizens of other countries, Israeli officials announced on Wednesday.

At least 138 of the of the hostages had foreign passports, including 12 Americans, 12 Germans, 15 Argentinians, and six from both France and Russia, according to Reuters.

Many of those people are believed to have dual nationality with Israel, except 54 Thais, five Nepalese, and single hostages from China, Sri Lanka, and two from both Tanzania and the Philippines.

Thailand is one of Israel’s largest sources for foreign laborers — about 30,000 are employed in the country’s agricultural sector. At least 24 Thais have been confirmed killed in Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack on Israel, while 21 remain unaccounted for.

Foreign victims identified as dead or missing in Hamas’ massacre totalled 328 people from 40 different countries, Israel said.

Besides Thailand, foreign nations that experienced high death tolls included the United States with at least 34 dead and five still missing, Ukraine with 25 dead and two still missing, France with 23 dead and one missing, and 23 Russians dead and four missing.

One Australian citizen, 66-year-old Galit Carbone, was killed.

Al Jazeera journalist’s family killed

The family of an Al Jazeera journalist have been killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza, the Qatar-based network said in a statement on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera said the wife and two children of its Arabic-language channel’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

“Members of the family of our colleague Wael Al-Dahdouh, including his wife, son, and daughter, were martyred in an Israeli bombing,” Al Jazeera wrote in an on-air message, per CNN.

“The indiscriminate assault by the Israeli occupation forces resulted in the tragic loss of his wife, son and daughter, while the rest of his family is buried under the rubble.”

The network reported that Al-Dahdouh’s grandson was declared dead two hours later.

Israel has yet to respond to the claims.

CNN noted Al Jazeera had not provided evidence directly linking the source of the blast to an Israeli air strike.

In images and footage run by Al Jazeera and shared on social media, Al-Dahdouh was shown mourning over the bodies of his wife and children at a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera said the family were staying in a temporary home after evacuating Gaza City following Israel’s warning for residents to move south as its forces intensified strikes targeting Hamas.

“This is the safe zone the occupation [Israeli] army was talking about,” Al-Dahdouh said on Al Jazeera.

The media organisation said “their home was targeted in the Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza, where they had sought refuge after being displaced by the initial bombardment in their neighbourhood”.

“Al Jazeera is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of our colleagues in Gaza and hold the Israeli authorities responsible for their security,” it added.

The International Press Institute described the reported killing as “horrifying and outrageous news”. “Journalists in Gaza forced to fear not only for their own lives, but for their lives of their families as they courageously cover this war,” the group said on X.

According to a statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists earlier on Wednesday, at least 24 journalists have died since the war broke out on October 7, including 20 Palestinians, three Israelis and one Lebanese.

It comes after Israel last week approved emergency regulations paving the way to shut down Al Jazeera’s offices in the country, claiming the foreign broadcaster was harming its national security.

“Al Jazeera’s broadcasts and reports constitute incitement against Israel, help Hamas-ISIS and the terror organisations with their propaganda, and encourage violence against Israel,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said in a statement on Friday.

US forces face spike in attacks

American and allied forces deployed in Iraq and Syria as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition have been repeatedly targeted by drone and missile attacks this month.

Although the attacks have not been claimed by a known group with documented links to Iran, Washington says Tehran is involved and has threatened to respond “decisively” to strikes by its proxies.

The recent spike in attacks is linked to the latest war between Israel and Hamas.

Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack US interests over Washington’s support for Israel, with one of them — Ketaeb Hezbollah — demanding that American forces leave Iraq or “taste the fires of hell”.

The Pentagon said there were 10 attacks on American and allied forces in Iraq and three in Syria between October 17 and 24, involving a “mix of one-way attack drones and rockets”.

Many — though not all — of the recent attacks have been claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”. It is not one of the established militant groups operating in the region and has not publicly claimed affiliation with or backing from a specific government.

But its claims of attacks on US forces have appeared in Telegram channels used by pro-Iranian armed factions, and the Pentagon has said the organisations “conducting these attacks are supported by the IRGC and the Iranian regime” — a reference to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The White House has meanwhile said Iran is “actively facilitating” attacks on US forces in the Middle East.

Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a media claiming name, it’s not a group”. It is the result of various existing Iran-backed groups in Iraq deciding “during the duration of this Gaza conflict to jointly claim all of their attacks,” he said.

The impact of the attacks has been relatively limited so far, but the possibility of escalation is high.

The Pentagon said Wednesday that 21 US personnel “received minor injuries due to drone attacks” in Iraq and Syria last week, but that all of them returned to duty.

And a US civilian contractor suffered a “cardiac episode” and died while sheltering at a base in Iraq after early warning systems indicated a threat was approaching, according to the Pentagon, which said an attack ultimately did not occur in that case.

There is significant potential for the situation to worsen, especially in the event that a drone or rocket directly kills American personnel.

“What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against US forces and personnel across the region in the very near term coming from Iranian proxy forces, and ultimately from Iran,” the Pentagon said.

There are roughly 2500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which once held significant territory in both countries but was pushed back by local ground forces backed by international air strikes in a bloody multi-year conflict.

US forces and other personnel from the international coalition against the jihadists are deployed at bases in Iraq and Syria that have been the target of the attacks, but the facilities are ultimately controlled by local forces rather than international troops.

American troops in Iraq are playing a training and advisory role following the official end of the coalition’s combat mission in December 2021, while those in Syria conduct frequent raids against IS.

‘Prophecy of Isaiah’: PM’s doomsday warning

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invoked an apocalyptic Old Testament prophecy often linked to the Second Coming of Christ in a televised speech about the war against Hamas.

In a night-time address on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu described the war against the Palestinian terror group as a battle of “light” versus “darkness” and said Israel would “realise the prophecy of Isaiah”.

“Our war against Hamas is a test for all of humanity, it is a struggle between the axis of evil of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, and the axis of freedom and progress,” he said, according to a translation by Israel’s i24 News.

“We are the people of the light, they are the people of darkness, and light shall triumph over darkness.

“As Prime Minister I am responsible for guaranteeing the future of this country and now my role is to lead all Israelis, the state of Israel and the people of Israel, to an overpowering victory.

“It is now a time to come together for one purpose, to storm ahead to achieve victory. With joint forces and a profound belief in our justness, a profound belief in the eternity of the Jewish people, we shall realise the prophecy of Isaiah.”

Isaiah was an Israelite prophet who lived in the 8th century BC.

In addition to foreshadowing the coming of the Messiah — interpreted by Christians in the New Testament to be Jesus Christ — Isaiah’s prophecies cover the worldwide persecution of Jews and the restoration of Israel.

Mr Netanyahu has previously quoted the Book of Isaiah in public speeches, telling the United Nations in 2017 that Israel is “a light unto the nations, bringing salvation to the ends of the earth”.

Writing for Bloomberg on Wednesday, Professor of History at the University of Georgia, Stephen Mihm, noted that many American evangelical Christians see the Israel-Hamas war as “part of a prophecy” linked to the Second Coming of Christ.

“Israel first became central to evangelical eschatology four centuries ago, when Protestant theologians, especially those of a millenarian bent, seized upon very specific passages about the end times,” Prof Mihm said.

“For example, in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah predicted that God ‘shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the Earth’.

“Exegetes took this to mean that the return of Christ would take place once the Jewish diaspora returned to Palestine. Eager to put God’s plan in motion, these Christian Zionists — not an oxymoron — began to push their governments to take active steps to get Jews back to Palestine.”

Following Israel’s triumph over its neighbours in the Six Day War of 1967, evangelicals “felt increasingly confident” that Israel embodied the “final countdown” to the Armageddon.

“All that remained was for Israel to secure a final victory over its enemies and rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem,” he said.

“And then, if the prophets were right, some pretty unpleasant things would happen — a false messiah known as the Antichrist would take over Jerusalem and install himself as the saviour before inaugurating the Tribulation, a seven-year period of death and destruction, with most Jews perishing. Finally, Jesus would return to earth, overthrowing the pretender and inaugurating a thousand-year reign of peace on Earth.”

Prof Mihm said for decades the two groups had formed an unusual alliance with a “shared ambition to see Israel conquer its enemies” — for rather different reasons.

“The Israelis had practical aims, hoping that American support would preserve their embattled nation,” he said. “The evangelicals, by contrast, prayed that aid would trigger the apocalypse and set the stage for the coming of Christ.”

Release hostages on ‘health grounds’: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called for Hamas to provide proof of life of the hostages it is holding and release them all on health grounds.

The WHO said the International Committee of the Red Cross should be allowed immediate medical access to ascertain their health status, while it stands ready to provide the ICRC with any health support required for the hostages.

The WHO said it was “gravely concerned” for the health of the hostages, which, it said, include health workers and up to 30 children.

“There is an urgent need for the captors of the hostages to provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care and the immediate release, on humanitarian and health grounds, of all those abducted,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

He held talks on Wednesday with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli non-governmental organisation which represents families of those abducted.

He said he “heard first-hand the tragedy, trauma and suffering they are facing”.

“Many of the hostages, including children, women and the elderly, have pre-existing health conditions requiring urgent and sustained care and treatment. The mental health trauma that the abducted, and the families, are facing is acute and psychosocial support is of great importance,” he said.

Mr Tedros said the UN health agency would do “all we can to support the health and humanitarian needs of those being held captive”.

“All civilians who are suffering in this conflict must be protected,” he added. He called on all 194 WHO member states to put people’s health first and “take immediate action to end the ongoing suffering”.

The UN health agency has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the safe delivery of health supplies and fuel throughout the Gaza Strip.

Biden says Israel must protect civilians

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Israel has the right to respond to the October 7 Hamas attack but must do everything it can to protect civilians.

As international pressure mounts for a ceasefire, Mr Biden told a press conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that he “did not demand” that Israel delay a ground invasion of Gaza.

“Israel has a right, and I would add responsibility, to respond to the slaughter of its people,” Mr Biden told reporters in the Rose Garden at the White House.

Mr Biden accused Gaza’s rulers Hamas of “hiding behind” Palestinian civilians, as Israel bombards the territory, but said Israel must follow the “laws of war”. “Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians. It’s difficult,” he said.

Mr Biden also called for an immediate end to Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

“That’s pouring gasoline on the fire,” he said. “They’re attacking Palestinians in places that they’re entitled, and … it has to stop now.”

Mr Biden, however, cast doubt on civilian casualty figures put forward by the Palestinians.

“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s a price of waging war,” he said.

“But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”

US media have meanwhile reported that Mr Biden has pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on a ground invasion of Gaza while Hamas still holds hostages, but Mr Biden denied it.

“What I have indicated to him is that if that’s possible to get these folks out safely, that’s what he should do. It’s their decision,” Mr Biden said.

“But I did not demand it. I put it out to him, if it’s real, it should be done.”

Ten Americans remain unaccounted for after the Hamas attacks and a number are believed to be among the hostages. Two US women were released by the militant group last week.

Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address minutes before Mr Biden and Mr Albanese spoke that “we are preparing the ground offensive” but refused to say when or what form it would take.

The US President meanwhile said there “has to be a vision of what comes next” after the conflict.

“In our view it has to be a two state solution,” he said. “It means a concentrated effort for all the parties [including Israel, the Palestinians and regional powers including Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia].”

Mr Biden reiterated that he was “convinced” that one of the reasons for the Hamas attack was to derail his bid to normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Israel PM: Date for Gaza offensive set

In a night time address on Israeli television on Wednesday local time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his plans for an incursion into Gaza.

“We are preparing for a ground operation,” he said, adding that “the timing of the operation was decided unanimously by the war cabinet”, reported Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

However, he did not say when the move might happen with reports an invasion is on hold under pressure from the US.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Israel has agreed to delay any incursion into Gaza until the US can reinforce its defence installations in the Middle East. The US has bases in Iraq, Syria, Qatar and other countries. Already some missiles, believed to be from Iran-backed proxies, have been targeted at bases.

The US is said to be rushing missile defence systems to a number of air bases as it expects attacks to increase if Israel moves into Gaza.

In his address Mr Netanyahu also appeared to acknowledge some of the blame for Israel’s failure in not knowing an attack would take place would fall on him.

“Everyone will have to answer [for the attack], including me, but that will only happen after the war,” he said.

He added work was ongoing to free more than 200 hostages.

Queen hits out at ‘glaring double standard’

The Queen of Jordan has said the West has a “glaring double standard” over the conflict.

Talking to CNN, Queen Rania said Western leaders had quickly expressed outraged at the Hamas atrocities on October 7 but claimed they had failed to condemn the killing of civilians in Gaza due to Israeli air strikes.

Jordan borders Israel and the West Bank and is a major ally of the US in the region. It signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994.

“In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world,” Queen Rania said.

“When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened. But what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.”

Queen Rania made comparisons between how Hamas killed Israelis and Israel killed Palestinians.

“Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s OK to shell them to death?” she said.

“It is just shocking to the Arab world.”

UN chief hits back: ‘This is false’

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said he was “shocked” at the reaction to comments he made at the UN and claimed they had been “misinterpreted” amid a huge row with Israel.

On Tuesday, Mr Guterres had said Hamas’ massacre “did not happen in a vacuum”. He also called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and said “clear violations of international humanitarian law” were occurring every day in Gaza.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, hit back at Mr Guterres, demanding he “resign immediately” and claiming he was “not fit to lead the UN”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen then said he would not meet with Mr Guterres and that his comments were “shocking” and “disconnected from the reality in our region”.

Israel later announced it would halt visas for UN officials.

“It’s time we teach them a lesson,” Mr Erdan told the Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday.

But on Wednesday, US time, Mr Guterres said he in turn was “shocked” at the reception to his statement.

He reiterated that his comments placed the current conflict against the backdrop of 56 years of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza but repeated that did not justify Hamas’ actions which saw 1400 people die.

“As if it was justifying acts of terror by Hamas,” he tells reporters. “This is false. It was the opposite.”

Turkey calls Hamas a ‘liberation group’

In a speech which is sure to anger Israel, Turkey’s President has said Hamas is not a terrorist group, but rather a “liberation group”.

Turkey is a member of NATO and an ally of the US. While it is a Muslim majority country it is officially a secular government.

In a speech to parliament on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey “doesn’t owe” Israel anything.

Mr Erdogan did say that Turkey had “no problem with the state of Israel”, but said it disapproved of the “atrocities” he said had been caused by Israel.

“Killing people, women and children, innocent people cannot be justified, even if in response to some acts which we do not condone,” he said.

Mr Erdogan, who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York just last month, has now said he has cancelled a planned trip to Israel.

US warns against all-out ground assault

Israel says it may be poised to move into the Gaza Strip, but the US is further advising caution against what could be a bloody and difficult battle.

According to CNN, US military officials have told Israel that the lesson it learned in Iraq was not to get embroiled in brutal house-to-house combat.

Specifically, military planners have recalled the battle of Fallujah in 2004 as an example of what could lie ahead. It was the deadliest battle of the Iraq War for US troops with almost 100 killed and more than 500 wounded. Around 800 civilians died.

CNN said the view in Washington was a plan to invade Gaza was “half baked” and could lead to many deaths and Israeli forces unable to leave the territory.

“I don’t think Israel has a strategy for what they do next,” a source familiar with the US government told the network.

UN warns power will run out within hours

The United Nations says fuel in Gaza will run out on Wednesday night, local time, unless fresh supplies are delivered immediately. Hospitals are now being forced to only operate on life-threatening injuries as essential medical reserves deplete.

The World Health Organization’s Dr Richard Peeperkorn said healthcare facilities were running on the lowest possible generator levels as they await further aid.

“We have teams on the ground in Gaza and we know from the ground that fuel is absolutely limited,” he said.

“The hospitals we work with, they all run the generator at minimum levels, only for lifesaving operations.”

Syrian soldiers killed in Israel air strikes

Eight Syrian soldiers have been killed and a further seven wounded after Israeli strikes on military positions in the nation’s south.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said the attack occurred after midnight local time on Wednesday.

Israel’s military confirmed it had attacked Syrian targets near the Jordan border, reporting that fighter jets carried out a strike on military infrastructure and mortar launchers after rockets were fired.

Female IDF squad ‘kills 100 militants’

An all-female Israel Defence Force unit eliminated nearly 100 Hamas terrorists, according to their commander, who cited it as proof there “are no more doubts about female combat soldiers”.

Israeli Caracal Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Or Ben-Yehuda praised her unit for its bravery in the southern Gaza Strip, where the female troops took down approximately 100 Hamas terrorists

Ms Ben-Yehuda said she received a message reporting an infiltration of heavily armed terrorists near Sufa and Nirim and told her soldiers, “We are going out to eliminate terrorists. Infiltration into Israel is happening, and it’s spreading.”

“Stay alert. We might cross paths. We are a strong squad,” she told her unit as they headed to Sufa.

Combat between the female battalion and the terrorists lasted nearly four hours and included large firefights. It took the IDF about 14 hours altogether to secure the base.

Australia sends troops, planes

Australia is sending troops and two military transport aircraft to the Middle East as concern grows for Australian citizens in the region.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said a “significant number” of troops were being sent but declined to give the number. Two C-130J Super Hercules aircraft had also been deployed.

Mr Marles would not say where the aircraft and troops would be based. The planes will add to a C-17A Globemaster heavy transport aircraft and a KC-30 air refueller already in the area.

“The point of this is to provide support to Australian populations who are in the Middle East if this gets worse,” he told the ABC.

More than 800 Australians have been flown out of Israel since October 13. Mr Marles said the Australian government is trying to help 79 citizens in Gaza and 51 in the West Bank who have asked to leave.

The chief of the ADF, General Angus Campbell, warned the conflict was in its early stages.

“The conflict that we see between Israel and Hamas appears to be in its early stages, and we want to be well-positioned,” he said.

“I would very much encourage Australians to follow DFAT’s advisories in regard to travel and to pay attention to their safety.”