Israel-Hamas war updates for Oct 31, 2023

Palestinian telecommunications provider Paltel said all internet and communications services in the Gaza Strip have been interrupted, according to a statement on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

— Christine Wang

President Joe Biden said on X that he is “not done pushing for more aid and will continue to support safe passage for Gaza civilians seeking safety.”

“Yesterday saw the largest delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance into Gaza so far, and more trucks are being cleared to enter today. But many more are needed,” Biden posted on Tuesday.

Human rights groups have been sounding the alarm about an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza amid heavy bombardment by Israeli troops, as Gaza health officials report more than 8,500 people have lost their lives since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Oct. 7. Stark images of entire families stranded without food, water, sanitation and other basic necessities have emerged on social media and television networks across the world, sparking protests globally.

NBC News reported that although Muslim Americans voted overwhelmingly for Biden, community leaders in swing states say that the president’s handling of the war in Gaza risks losing their support.

“It literally may dissuade enough voters to sit back in the next election and watch Donald Trump control the presidency, watch the Republicans control the Congress and also know that conservatives will have control of the Supreme Court,” said Wa’el Alzayat, the CEO of Emgage, a group that mobilizes American-Muslim voters.

Read the full report on NBC News.

— Riya Bhattacharjee

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday “emphasized the need to take feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians” during a telephone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the State Department said, amid the conflict with Hamas.

“The Secretary reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism consistent with international humanitarian law,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

— Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced plans to travel to Israel on Friday to consult with Israeli officials about their ongoing war on Hamas.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that Blinken would visit Israel “and then will make other stops in the region.” He did not identify the other planned stops.

Blinken made an urgent trip to the Middle East earlier this month, visiting Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

— Associated Press

Editor’s note: The following post contains a photograph with graphic content.

The director of the Indonesian Hospital said at a press conference on various networks that the initial number of people who were killed and injured during the air strikes on Jabalia currently stood at 400, NBC News reported.

Dr. Atef Al-Kahlot said that recovery work was still ongoing. The hospital had reported on social media after the strikes that dozens were killed and hundreds injured.

“The initial number of martyrs and injured in the occupation’s attack on Jabalia is 400,” Al-Kahlot said during the press conference. “We are still searching for missing persons and carrying out rescue operations from under the rubble in Jabalia. We stress the necessity of supplying the hospital with medical supplies and medicines. We stress the necessity of supplying us with fuel to continue the necessary work in the hospital. Running out of fuel will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, and we call for the opening of the Rafah crossing to relieve the wounded. Most of the bodies and wounded were seriously injured, indicating the use of different types of weapons.”

Two of President Joe Biden’s top advisers asked U.S. lawmakers to provide billions more dollars to Israel on Tuesday at a congressional hearing interrupted repeatedly by protesters denouncing American officials for backing what they called “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Biden’s request for $106 billion to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and U.S. border security.

Arguing that supporting U.S. partners is vital to national security, Biden requested $61.4 billion for Ukraine, about half of which would be spent in the United States to replenish weapons stocks drained by previous support for Kyiv.

Biden also asked for $14.3 billion for Israel, $9 billion for humanitarian relief — including for Israel and Gaza — $13.6 billion for U.S. border security, $4 billion in military assistance and government financing to counter China’s regional efforts in Asia.

As the hearing began, a line of anti-war protesters raised red-stained hands in the air. Capitol police later removed them from the room after shouted slogans including, “Ceasefire now!” “Protect the children of Gaza!” and “Stop funding genocide.”

Blinken did not respond to the protesters, but when he was asked later about the possibility of a ceasefire, he said that would “simply consolidate what Hamas has been able to do and … potentially repeat what it did another day.” A pause, however, for humanitarian reasons can be considered, he said.

“We do believe that we have to consider things like humanitarian pauses to make sure that assistance can get to those who needed and people can be protected and get out of harm’s way,” Blinken said.

Blinken said Gaza in the future could not be governed by Hamas, but could also not be run by Israel, adding that ideally an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” could ultimately run the strip, while other countries in the region could step in to help under temporary arrangements.

— Reuters

The Pentagon said it will deploy an additional 300 troops to the U.S. Central Command region, which oversees America’s national security interests in the Middle East and northern Africa, but declined to say which countries the servicemembers would relocate to.

“I can confirm they’re not going to Israel and that they are intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities,” Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a daily Pentagon press briefing.

“These additional troops will provide capabilities and explosive ordinance disposal, communications and other support enablers for forces already in the region,” he added.

— Amanda Macias

The United Nations said that, so far, more than 140 trucks carrying crucial humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza have moved through the Rafah border crossing.

“The level of humanitarian assistance that has been allowed into Gaza up to this point is completely inadequate and not commensurate with the needs of people in Gaza, compounding the humanitarian tragedy,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a statement.

Guterres reiterated his urgent call for unhindered access to humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.

— Amanda Macias

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the “intensification of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza” in a new statement.

“Civilians have borne the brunt of the current fighting from the outset. Protection of civilians on both sides is paramount and must be respected at all times,” Guterres said, adding that he is “dismayed by reports that two-thirds of those who have been killed are women and children.”

He called on all parties to abide by international humanitarian law.

— Amanda Macias

A representative for the Rafah border crossing said it will open tomorrow to allow some wounded civilians out of Gaza and into Egypt, though those reports are not confirmed, according to NBC News.

Wael Abu Omar, media director at the Rafah land crossing, said it would open Wednesday,” for a number of wounded to leave to complete their treatment in Egyptian hospitals.”

It’s unclear if the opening will come to fruition as neither the Egyptian side nor Israel have confirmed the reports.

The crossing is the only travel point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and the only land route out of the region not controlled by the Israeli government.

— Chelsey Cox

The Senate voted to confirm former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew as the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel.

President Joe Biden nominated Lew last month.

“He’s more than qualified to be our ambassador to Israel,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House ahead of the completed Senate vote.

“We are very excited to get him over there so he can get on the ground and start leading our efforts to support Israel and their fight against Hamas but also to help us integrate and continue to lead the effort of getting humanitarian assistance to people of Gaza,” he added.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed that the Israeli military killed senior Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari, one of the architects of the Oct. 7 terror attack, during a deadly strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza.

“Tonight we eliminated the murderous terrorist Ibrahim Biari,” Hagari said. “Biari is the main fighting leader in the north of the Gaza Strip since the IDF forces entered Gaza and he also had a part in the massacre. During his assassination, many terrorists were killed, terrorists who stayed with him in Mena and in the underground area of the building.”

NBC News has not independently verified Biari’s death.

According to Hamas, the strike destroyed at least 20 homes. A hospital nearby reported dozens of deaths. Photos and videos posted on social media and aired on Al Jazeera show the devastation in the area.

IDF posted on X that IDF troops carried out a ground operation during which they eliminated approximately 50 terrorists. NBC News has not verified this number.

— Riya Bhattacharjee

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday 66 trucks entered Gaza in the last 24 hours.

“It’s the highest single day delivery so far,” Kirby told reporters at the White House briefing.

Kirby said “dozens” more trucks of aid are expected to clear by the end of the day.

— Emma Kinery

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to use the ongoing conflict in Gaza to distract from the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

“Putin is very much trying to take advantage of the Hamas attack on Israel in the hopes that it will distract us, that it will divert our focus away from Ukraine and away from his aggression in Ukraine,” Blinken said during testimony before the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

Blinken said that Putin would want to see the U.S. pull back its aid and security assistance to Ukraine and pivot that support to Israel.

Biden’s top diplomat added that the State Department and Pentagon are poised to continue supporting both Ukraine and Israel.

— Amanda Macias

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. has not seen any indication that Hamas has taken the critical humanitarian aid delivered through the Rafah border crossing.

“Neither the Israelis nor the U.N. have said the aid has been averted,” Blinken told lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that the aid transported into Gaza is given directly to humanitarian organizations, like the United Nations.

“That’s what we’ve seen with every single one,” Kirby said of the trucks carrying the humanitarian aid to the region.

— Amanda Macias

The local Indonesian Hospital in Gaza reported in a post on its Facebook page that dozens of people have been killed and hundreds wounded, most of them women and children, in the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp.

The camp is located at the northern end of the Gaza Strip and is one of the most densely populated places on Earth.

The Government Information Office in Gaza also reported that 20 homes were completely destroyed in the Israeli bombing that targeted a residential neighborhood in Jabalia. It was unclear whether the homes were the intended target of the bombardment.

Earlier Tuesday, the Hamas-run health ministry, and the director of the Indonesian Hospital, said that at least 50 people had been killed in the blast.

CNBC and NBC News were unable to independently verify the number of casualties.

— Karen Gilchrist, Terri Cullen

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly visits the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip as trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians, prepare to move into the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt, on Oct. 31, 2023.

An Israeli government ministry drafted a proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, in a move that has inflamed tensions with Palestinians and Cairo.

In a wartime document dated Oct. 13, six days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, Israel’s Intelligence Ministry outlined the transfer of civilians to Sinai as one of three options in the report.

The other options proposed that the population remain in Gaza, either under the rule of the Palestinian Authority or under a new “local Arab authority.”

According to an NBC translation of the document, the removal of Gazans to Sinai was assessed as providing “positive, long-term strategic outcomes for Israel” but likely to face international pushback.

“The option that will yield positive, long-term strategic outcomes for Israel, and is an executable option. It requires determination from the political echelon in the face of international pressure, with an emphasis on harnessing the support of the United States and additional pro-Israeli countries for the endeavor,” the document said.

Egypt’s government, which is facing an economic crisis, has already rejected the idea of a forced relocation of millions of Palestinians from their homes and into the Egyptian desert region.

“What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refugee and migrate to Egypt, which should not be accepted,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Oct. 18.

“Egypt rejects any attempt to resolve the Palestinian issue by military means or through the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land, which would come at the expense of the countries of the region,” Sisi said, adding that such a measure would turn the Sinai into a base for attacks against Israel.

Israel dismissed the plans as a hypothetical “concept paper” after the document was seen by media. Israel’s Intelligence Ministry conducts research but does not set policy.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, in a statement to NBC News, called the paper “an initial thinking document, of which there are dozens at all levels of the government and the security arms.”

It added that “the issue of ‘the day after’ was not discussed in Israel’s official forum, which is now focused on destroying the governmental and military capabilities of Hamas.”

— Karen Gilchrist, Natasha Turak

Editors note: The following post contains a disturbing image of a child in a body bag.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, said that more than 3,400 children have died since the start of the Israel and Hamas conflict on Oct. 7.

“The numbers are appalling; reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva.

“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else,” he added.

Elder added that in addition to the active war zone in Gaza, children are also facing a water crisis.

“Gaza’s water production capacity is a mere 5 percent of its usual daily output. Child deaths – particularly infants – to dehydration are a growing threat,” he added.

Elder warned of the mounting traumatic experiences children are also facing.

“When the fighting stops, the cost to children and their communities will be borne out for generations to come,” he said.

— Amanda Macias