As the conflict in Gaza enters its tenth day, the death toll continues to climb as both sides confront escalating fatalities.
According to the latest figures released by the Palestinian health ministry, Palestine Red Crescent Society and Israeli Medical Services, at least 3,682 people have been killed in Israel, Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.
Here’s a wrap of the latest situations over the weekend:
Hostage situation
Last Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it had notified the families of 126 people taken captive by Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his tour of the Arabs states that he is trying to secure the release of the hostages.
Some hostages were taken from their homes across communities on the Israeli border while others are believed to have been seized from a music festival in the southern desert.
It’s been more than a week since they were taken to Gaza, and family members of those taken have pleaded through TV, radio and social media for the status of their loved ones.
Gal Hirsch has been named as a contact for the families in Israel, however Tzachi Hanegbi, the head of the national security council said no compromise or negotiations would be entered into. “We are not negotiating with an enemy that we have promised to eradicate from the surface of the earth,” he said.
At a press conference on Saturday, Hanegbi also told reporters his country’s intelligence community was completely unprepared for last week’s shocking Hamas attack.
“It’s my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making [intelligence] assessments,” Hanegbi said.
An organisation set up by the National Council of Jewish Women, Voices for Hostages, is calling for the immediate release of all women and children being held hostage by Hamas.
“Their continued captivity is a standing violation of international humanitarian law and demands an international response,” the organisation’s mission statement reads.
It has released a Global Women Leader’s Letter, urging governments to take action in helping secure the release of the hostages, and for aid organisations including International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, to “do everything within their power to get much-needed aid to hostages.”
“International humanitarian law requires that Hamas immediately provide all necessary means to identify those being held hostage, to allow for medical treatment, not to engage in their torture and ill-treatment, and to respect the dignity of remains by not desecrating bodies and returning them for burial,” the letter reads.
Notable signatories include Hollywood actors and celebrities such as Helen Mirren, Amy Schumer, Gal Gadot and Mandy Moore.
Another group, called the Families of Hostages and Missing Persons Forum, has been providing support to those affected by the crisis from its headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The forum grew from a chain of WhatsApp texts, started by Israeli civilians who realised that their government would be too overwhelmed with retaliating after Hamas’ surprise attack to respond to families who were searching for their loved ones.
The group’s spokesperson, Haim Rubinstein, said they have already put together a team tasked with speaking to the government and lobbying foreign diplomats in their attempts to find strategies on how to secure the release of the hostages.
“I understood that the state was not going to do anything,” Rubinstein told The Times of Israel. “It was in a state of shock on all fronts.”
According to Rubinstein, the group has already raised $500,000 and met with Gal Hirsch, the general whom Netanyahu has put in charge of the hostage issue.
“I haven’t cried for 20 years,” Rubinstein said. “I didn’t cry at my dad’s funeral. I always thought I didn’t know how to cry. This week I haven’t stopped crying.”
Gaza exodus
Between 450,000 to 600,000 civilians in Gaza have been forced to flee their homes as the Israeli military continues to bombard the besieged territory and block fuel, food and water from entering.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a warning to Israel, calling its forced mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of Gazans from their homes a decision that could lead to a “public health and humanitarian catastrophy.”
Over the weekend, WHO Director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus expressed his concern over the Israeli attacks where Palestinian civilians are “paying the price”.
The war “is an awful reminder of how quickly the health of millions of people can be put at risk,” Ghebreyesus said.
“WHO calls on Hamas to release civilian hostages, and we continue to appeal to Israel to abide by its obligations under international law to protect civilians and health facilities.”
“I’m also gravely concerned about Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians. The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the humanitarian and public health catastrophe.”
“WHO is calling for the restoration of electricity and water in the Gaza Strip, and for conditions to allow the immediate and safe delivery of food, medical supplies, and other humanitarian aid.”
Ghebreyesus also expressed his horror at the Hamas attacks on October 7, calling them “unjustified and horrific” and “should be condemned”.
On Sunday, Israel’s energy minister said that Netanyahu had agreed with U.S. President Joe Biden to resume the water supply to parts of southern Gaza, although some Gazans believe the decision was merely a ‘publicity stunt’.
One Gazan resident told Al Jazeera – “I think this is a publicity stunt and a distraction. I think only very few people will get water. The focus right now should be on food and fuel for electricity,” Refaat Al Areer said, adding that most Palestinian families are usually forced to buy fresh water because tap water is often not suitable for human consumption.
“Many water pipes were damaged” in the Israeli airstrikes, Al Areer said, adding that “without electricity, most households will not get the water as we need water pumps to fill the water tanks.”
“Freshwater stations are closed and again we need electricity to pump water to our fresh water tanks,” he said.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UN agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA said that UN relief operations in Gaza “are on the verge of collapse.”
“The number of people seeking shelter in our schools and other UNRWA facilities in the south is absolutely overwhelming, and we do not have any more the capacity to deal with them,” he said.
Israel’s attack on Gaza
Since the Hamas’s attack began on October 7, Israel has dropped more than 6,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 2,329 people and injuring almost 10,000.
Family members have been forced to store the bodies of their loved ones’ in ice cream freezer trucks due to the danger in moving them to hospitals. Cemeteries are also being over-filled.
One doctor in a hospital in Deir Al-Balah said they have brought in ice cream freezers from the ice cream factories in order to store the “huge numbers of martyrs”.
“Even with these freezers, the number (of the dead) exceeds the capacity of this main morgue of the hospital, and alternative ones, and between 20 and 30 bodies are being kept in tents too,” Dr. Yasser Ali told Reuters.
“The Gaza Strip is in crisis and if the war continues in this way we will not be able to bury the dead. The cemeteries are already full and we need new ones to bury the dead.”
On Sunday, Israeli aircraft bombed 250 Hamas military infrastructures, killing senior Hamas southern district commander, Muataz Eid.
Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told IDF soldiers they would be entering Gaza to target “every place, every commander, every operator.”
“You are about to do something big and important, that needs to change the situation for a long time in a clear way,” Halevi told his soldiers near the Gaza border.
“Our responsibility now is to enter Gaza, to go to the places where Hamas is preparing, acting, planning, launching. Attack them everywhere.”
“In one word: win.”
“This is a great mission, a great privilege. Do it with excellence,” he added. “The State of Israel, the residents of the south — they all place their trust in you.”
Meanwhile, Iran, which supports Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, warned Israel that things would get worse if it continued its assault on Palestinians.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian declared that his country will be unable to remain an observer if the war continues to spiral.
“We have conveyed our message to the Zionist regime through its allies that if they do not cease their atrocities in Gaza, Iran cannot simply remain an observer,” Amirabdollahian told Iranian state media.
“If the scope of the war expands, significant damages will also be inflicted upon America.”
Leaders backing Gaza
While as many as 84 countries have released statements supporting Israel, according to a list compiled by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, several have come out to condemn Israel’s retaliatory strikes and its blockade.
They include Malaysia, Ireland, Brazil and Algeria.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt called the total blockade of Gaza as “unacceptable”.
“The establishment of a full blockade, including on access to electricity, water, food, and other goods that are indispensable for the survival of the civilian population in Gaza, is unacceptable,” Huitfeldt said in a statement last week.
“The scale of destruction in Gaza is enormous. A large number of civilians have been killed. Given a full blockade by Israel, closed border crossings, and continued Israeli attacks, I fear that the civilian population in Gaza will face even greater hardship in the days to come,” she added.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called Israel’s retaliatory attacks as a “reaction [that] went beyond the right to self-defence, turning into collective punishment.”
Latest Announcements from Leaders
On Sunday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “demolish Hamas.”
“Hamas thought we would be demolished. It is we who will demolish Hamas,” he said.
Netanyahu convened former opposition lawmakers of Israel in an expanded emergency cabinet, declaring that all ministers were “working around the clock, with a united front” and that his emergency meeting “sends a clear message to the nation, the enemy and the world”.
Meanwhile, Blinken announced that the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would reopen.
“There’s a determination in every country I went to, to make sure that this conflict doesn’t spread,” Blinken told reporters at a press conference at Cairo airport.
“They are using their own influence, their own relationships, to try to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”
Blinken also reiterated his top priorities to “make clear that the United States stands with Israel; to prevent the conflict from spreading to other places; to work on securing the release of hostages, including American citizens; and to address the humanitarian crisis that exists in Gaza.”