Israel-Hamas war LIVE: IDF says it has now ‘split Gaza into two’ as UN agencies issue rare joint statement calling for a ceasefire

Humza Yousaf’s in-laws safely arrived back in Scotland after fleeing the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Scotland’s First Minister confirmed yesterday.

He shared a family photo on X, formerly Twitter, which included his wife Nadia, and her parents, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, and said they had endured ‘a traumatic few weeks’. He said his father-in-law had broken down as he described how heart-wrenching it had been to leave other family members behind in Gaza.

The El-Naklas, from Dundee, were named among 92 British nationals permitted to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Friday morning.

They became trapped in Gaza, where they had been visiting relatives, when the conflict with Israel erupted.

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Ireland’s Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, has said the Government is doing everything it can to support the family of an Irish-Israeli girl believed to have been abducted by Hamas, PA reports.

Emily Hand was originally feared dead after the assault on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. However, it was reported in Israel on Sunday that the eight-year-old’s family have been informed she may still be alive and being held hostage in Gaza.

Emily’s father, Thomas, is originally from Dublin. He said in the aftermath of the attack that he was relieved to learn she had been killed as he felt it would be worse for her to have been taken hostage.

Ms McEntee told RTE: ‘This is a hugely traumatic situation for her family and for every family who finds themselves with their loved one held hostage.

‘We are doing everything that we can to support this family and others to make sure that people can be returned home safely to their families.

‘We have called from the very beginning for Hamas to release any hostages that they might have. And, of course, where Irish citizens are involved here every effort has been made to support them.’

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The IDF last night said its forces had seized weapons and intelligence material from a residential area in Beit Hamsun, Gaza when carrying out raids.

‘Type weapons and a submachine gun, cartridges, grenades, explosives, protective equipment, armed drones and RPG missiles were found,’ the Israeli military said.

It also released pictures of several weapons including what appeared to be AK47s and RPGs, as well as a half-dismantled drone.

In a rare joint statement by more than a dozen UN agencies, the organisation has called for a ceasefire to the on-going conflict.

• We renew our plea for the parties to respect all their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.
• We renew our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held hostage.
• Civilians and the infrastructure they rely on – including hospitals, shelters and schools – must be protected.
• More aid – food, water, medicine and of course fuel – must enter Gaza safely, swiftly and at the scale needed, and must reach people in need, especially women and children, wherever they are.
• We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It’s been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now.

Signatories included officials from 18 agencies, including UNICEF, OCHA, OHCHR, Save the Children, UNHCR, WFP and the WHO.

The Palestinian Authority will not accept a partial transfer of tax funds from Israel that withholds sums earmarked for administration expenses in Gaza, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday, Reuters reports.

He said he hoped international pressure would bring a speedy transfer of the funds, which are collected by Israel in areas of the West Bank and paid to the Palestinian Authority under a longstanding arrangement between the two sides.

Part of the funds go to pay for expenses in Gaza, including the salaries of health workers, that are still covered by the Palestinian Authority even though the Islamist movement Hamas controls the blockaded enclave.

The Israeli army says it has arrested the prominent 22-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi during a raid in the West Bank.

‘Ahed Tamimi was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activities in the town of Nabi Salih’ near the city of Ramallah, an army spokesman told AFP.

‘Tamimi was transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.’

The activist was arrested during an Israeli army raid ‘aimed at apprehending individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and incitement to hatred’ in the north of the West Bank, the spokesman added.

When AFP news agency inquired about the reasons for her arrest, a security source forwarded an Instagram post, which has circulated widely on social media and is attributed to the young activist, the agency reported.

According to the post, written in Arabic and Hebrew, she called for the massacre of Israelis in explicitly violent terms, referring to Hitler.

But the activist’s mother, Nariman al-Tamimi, denied she wrote the post.

‘There are dozens of (online) pages in Ahed’s name with her photo, with which she has no connection,’ Tamimi told AFP.

These dramatic clips graphically reveal the intensity of the battle now raging between the Israelis and Hamas in war-torn Gaza.

They revolve around one incident during the ground war inside the enclave when a squad of Israeli armoured personnel carriers were ambushed by Hamas terrorists emerging from their tunnels and fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at the vehicles and tried to attach explosives.

Watch the full video below:

Efforts were under way on Sunday to resume evacuations of foreign nationals and injured Gazans through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, suspended since Saturday after a deadly attack on an ambulance, Egyptian, U.S. and Qatari officials said.

The crossing to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is the only exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel.

Aid trucks were still able to travel into Gaza, two Egyptian sources said.

So far, roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

It was not immediately clear on Monday if the crossing would reopen.

Britain’s Foreign Office has declared it will withdraw some British embassy staff from Lebanon amid concerns that fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah would spiral out of control.

The FCDO said this morning it had already advised Britons against all travel to Lebanon due to the conflict between neighbouring Israel and Gaza, and encouraged any Britons still in the country to leave while commercial flights remain.

But the temporary withdrawal of embassy staff marks a ramping up of safety precautions as Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) traded fire with Hezbollah militants at the border over the weekend.

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A knife-wielding Palestinian assailant stabbed and seriously wounded a female Israeli soldier before being shot dead in east Jerusalem today, police said.

‘A terrorist armed with a knife arrived at Shalem police station and stabbed a female soldier… border police forces neutralised the terrorist by shooting,’ police said.

Police said a female soldier was seriously wounded and another suffered light injuries. The Israeli emergency services said they had provided medical treatment to the wounded, both aged 20.

The assailant was identified by police as a young Palestinian from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya.

It added that ‘another suspect’ had been arrested near the scene of the attack, which has been cordoned off.

The attack marks the latest violence to flare up in the area as Israel deepens its military offensive in Gaza.

On October 30, a Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli police officer before being shot dead in east Jerusalem, the police said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday, as he tours the Middle East attempting to tamp down tensions.

After an earlier visit to the West Bank, Blinken landed in Baghdad on Sunday evening for his first visit to the country as the US top diplomat and held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani.

Blinken said he had a good, candid conversation with the Iraq government.

Washington wants to prevent a wider regional conflict from spilling over and has stepped up diplomacy with regional countries whose populations have been angered by Israel’s assault on Gaza.

But Iran-backed group Kataib Hezbollah issued a warning on Saturday night that the expected Blinken visit would be met with ‘an unprecedented escalation.’

Actor Jon Voight has ripped anti-Israel posts by his famous daughter Angelina Jolie – branding them ‘lies’ and saying ‘the Israeli army must protect thy soil.’

Jolie has strongly condemned the IDF’s response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed 1,400 people, the majority of whom were civilians.

But in a video posted online, Voight, 84, did not hold back in his criticism of his daughter Jolie, saying: ‘I am very disappointed that my daughter, like so many, has no understanding of God’s honor, God’s truths.’

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Intense Israeli strikes killed more than 200 people overnight in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry in the besieged Palestinian territory has said.

‘More than 200 martyrs were reported in the overnight massacres,’ the ministry said in a statement, adding the death toll only covered Gaza City and the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and not the southern region.

Israel said this morning its fighter jets struck 450 Hamas targets and its troops seized a militant compound in the past 24 hours.

Jordan’s air force air-dropped vital medical supplies to a field hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip, King Abdullah II said early Monday.

‘Our fearless air force personnel air-dropped at midnight urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza,’ he said on X, formerly Twitter.

‘This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza,’ he said, adding: ‘We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren.’

• Israel later said it coordinated with Jordan on the air drop, a vital injection of supplies as the territory runs low on food, water, fuel and medicines.
• The air drop was announced as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken carried out a regional diplomatic tour, holding talks in Amman on Saturday with his counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
• A slow trickle of aid has been passing through the southern Rafah crossing. The number of trucks has increased in recent days, with Blinken saying on Saturday that 100 trucks were now entering Gaza each day.
• He said that was still not nearly enough for the population of 2.3 million.

Gaza lost communications in its third total outage of the Israel-Hamas war, while Israel’s military said it encircled Gaza City.

The IDF says it has divided the besieged coastal strip into two.

‘Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,’ Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a ‘significant stage’ in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the enclave.

Israeli media reported troops were expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours, and strong explosions were seen in northern Gaza after nightfall.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari has said freeing the hostages inside Gaza remains the Israeli military’s top priority.

‘We are going to defeat Hamas. We are going to free our hostages,’ he said during a press briefing, shown below.

Is it believed around 240 hostages are currently in Gaza. Hamas officials in the territory claims a number have been killed in IDF airstrikes.

IDF soldiers were marching through Gaza when they were attacked by terrorists who sprang out of a nearby underground hatch.

Video shows the Israeli troops pushed the enemy back through the opening but rather than follow them inside, they called in an airstrike.

An eight-year-old girl who was believed to have been slaughtered in Israel by Hamas terrorists is now thought to be alive and among those held hostage in Gaza .

Emily Hand, a young Irish-Israeli girl, was reported to have been one of the at least 130 people killed in the deadly massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where she spent the night of October 6 to October 7 at a sleepover at her friend’s house.

In the aftermath of the attack, in an interview that went around the world, her Irish-born father Thomas Hand said that he was glad to hear that she was dead as he was terrified of how she would have been treated by Hamas terrorists.

But after a month of mourning thinking she had been killed, her family today revealed Israeli authorities had told them the schoolgirl is a hostage of Hamas, and is likely being held somewhere in in the besieged Gaza Strip.

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Britain’s Foreign Office has said some staff and family members have been temporarily withdrawn from the British embassy in Lebanon due to the ‘security situation’ in the region.

Guidance on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) website said: ‘FCDO advises against all travel to Lebanon due to risks associated with the conflict between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

‘There are ongoing mortar and artillery exchanges and air strikes in South Lebanon, on the boundary with Israel. Tensions are high and events could escalate with little warning, which could affect or limit exit routes out of Lebanon.

‘There is also a risk of civil unrest. There have been large protests outside embassies, including outside the US and French embassies on October 17. Further protests are expected. British nationals should exercise caution and avoid areas where demonstrations may be held.

‘Due to the security situation, some staff at the British embassy and all family members of staff have been temporarily withdrawn. The embassy continues with essential work including services to British nationals.’

Israel has clashed with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah since the October 7 attack, raising fears the war in Gaza could spread to the wider region.

Israel continued its massive bombing campaign after the Palestinian militants staged the worst attack in the country’s history a month ago.

In their October 7 attack, Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 240 others hostage.

The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 9,770 people, many of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign since the war began.

Israel now says it has split Gaza in two, encricling Gaza City in the north. The IDF says it plans to see the whole of the north free of civilians, who it has repeatedly urged to flee to the south of the territory.

As the bombardment continues, UN aid agencies have released a rare joint statement calling for a ceasefire to the conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained firm on his position, vowing that ‘there won’t be a ceasefire until the hostages are returned’.

Meanwhile, Britain’s foreign office has said it is withdrawing some embassy staff from Lebanon amid fears the conflict could broaden.

Here’s what else you need to know of day 31 of the conflict:

• Israel on Monday pounded Gaza with ‘significant’ strikes, while IDF troops and Hamas fighters engaged in house-to-house combat in the north.
• Israeli officials have continued to ignore ceasefire calls by UN aid agencies who condemned surging civilian deaths in the month-long conflict.
• Since Israel sent ground forces into the north of Gaza late last month, ‘over 2,500 terror targets have been struck’ by ‘ground, air and naval forces’, IDF says
• ‘We will take the fight to Hamas wherever they are, underground, above ground’, Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said at a briefing Monday.
• He repeated calls for civilians to leave the urban war zone in the north of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the south.
• The war has sent 1.5 million people fleeing to other parts of the territory in a desperate search for cover.
• Conricus again accused Hamas of building tunnels underneath hospitals, schools and places of worship in Gaza to hide fighters, plan attacks and store ammunition – a charge the militant group has repeatedly denied .
• Israel has resisted calls for a halt in the fighting, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken touring the region calling for ‘pauses’ while rejecting Arab countries’ demands for a ceasefire.
• Israeli troops now encircle Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two, with ‘significant’ strikes carried out, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Sunday.
• On Sunday, the health ministry said 45 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a refugee camp in central Gaza, leaving people searching through the rubble.
• The sole border crossing into Egypt was closed Sunday for a second day in a row, with Hamas suspending the evacuation of foreign passport holders after Israel refused to allow some injured Palestinians to be evacuated.
• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed the closure, saying more than 1,100 people had been allowed out so far.