Skip next section Be’eri kibbutz resident prays for return of family membersOctober 30, 2023
Be’eri kibbutz resident prays for return of family membersShaked Haran, whose family lived in Be’eri kibbutz in southern Israel, has told DW she fears that “every day that goes by” puts her relatives — held hostage by Hamas militants — at greater risk.
The Islamist militant group killed her father, aunt and uncle during the terror attack on Israeli communities on October 7. Several of Haran’s family members were also taken hostage.
“What we know is that they were taken alive. We haven’t received any further information,” she said. “I’m praying that my family would be brought back alive.”
Some of her missing relatives have Austrian, German and Italian citizenship. Haran said she hoped governments were doing all they could to secure their release.
Israel-Gaza war: Relative of Hamas hostages demands actionTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by Germany, the EU, Israel, and the US among others.
“We had official declarations of Germany that it is taking steps in order to care for the German citizens there. I don’t know what this practically means behind the scenes,” she added.
“I fear that every day that goes by risks my family and risks the babies that are there, the many women and many children that are held hostage. And that’s why we really, really hope that these governments are doing whatever they can to bring these people back,” she said.
Haran said she held on to the hope “that I will get to meet my family, that I will hug my small niece.”
“My personal feelings, since day one, are between horror and hope,” she said. “I’m in fear and terror of what they’re going through and I feel helpless and that there is not enough being done to bring them back.”
https://p.dw.com/p/4YCNuSkip next section Germany calls on Israel to ‘protect’ West Bank Palestinians from ‘extremist settlers’October 30, 2023
Germany calls on Israel to ‘protect’ West Bank Palestinians from ‘extremist settlers’Berlin has urged Israel to “protect” Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, is responsible for ensuring the safety and integrity of the Palestinian population in the West Bank,” German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer said.
“We call on Israel to protect Palestinians from the activities of extremist settlers and to hold those responsible accountable,” he said.
“It must be ensured that Palestinian families can remain where they have resided for decades and are not forced to leave their ancestral homes out of fear for life and limb,” he added.
Some 700,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.
According to the Palestinian Authority, 121 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, when the Hamas militant Islamist group, which governs the Gaza Strip, launched attacks in Israel.
Germany is a close ally of Israel and has stressed Israel’s right to defend itself following the attacks by Hamas.
Hamas is classified by Germany, Israel, the United States and others as a terrorist organization.
https://p.dw.com/p/4YCCuSkip next section Israel balancing ‘contradicting goals’ in ground offensive, analyst tells DWOctober 30, 2023
Israel balancing ‘contradicting goals’ in ground offensive, analyst tells DWGil Murciano, the CEO of MITVIM, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies think tank, told DW that Israeli authorities were trying to balance between “three impossible or contradicting goals” in its ground operations in the Gaza Strip.
Murciano said Israel’s government had the “stated goal of bringing [about] the collapse of Hamas,” as well as the goal of “bringing back the hostages.”He said that Israel was also under Egyptian and US pressure to allow a “humanitarian corridor” for civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Murciano argued that Israel was balancing these three different goals by engaging in “large-scale raids” rather than launching a “ground offensive to conquer Gaza.”
He said that while the “entire society” in Israel was “recruited and mobilized in order to fight Hamas,” public approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “incredibly low” and constituted “open animosity” towards the leader.
Murciano added that there was “very high” public trust towards the “army and security establishment,” combined with “total mistrust for the political leadership.”
What is the two-state solution?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
He argued that coexistence between Israel and Hamas was a “dead end.” He added that “the ability to create an alternative to Hamas is obviously connected to […] the renewal of a political process between Israelis and Palestinians.”
The analyst called for “international” and “regional” involvement in a political process over the status of the Palestinian territories. He added that this would only be possible after the removal of Hamas and the fall of Israel’s current right-wing government.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, Germany, the United States, the European Union and others.
https://p.dw.com/p/4YCLOSkip next section Russia blames anti-Israel airport riot on ‘external interference’October 30, 2023
Russia blames anti-Israel airport riot on ‘external interference’Russia has accused outside forces of fomenting an anti-Israel riot that broke out at an airport in the southwestern region of Dagestan.
“Yesterday’s events at Makhachkala airport are, to a large extent, the result of external interference,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference.
The multiethnic, Muslim-majority Dagestan autonomous republic lies in Russia’s northern Caucasus region. Russian police said they arrested 60 people suspected of storming the airport and seeking to attack passengers of a plane that had flown in from Israel.
“Against the backdrop of TV footage showing the horrors of what is happening in the Gaza Strip — the deaths of people, children, old people, it is very easy for enemies to take advantage of and provoke the situation,” Peskov said.
The spokesperson said that President Vladimir Putin will meet with his top advisers to discuss “the West’s attempts to use the events in the Middle East to split Russian society.”
Russian state media cited the Governor of Dagestan as claiming that the “initiators of this action are our enemies who organized it from Ukrainian territory.”
https://p.dw.com/p/4YBuhSkip next section Death of German missing since Hamas terror attacks confirmedOctober 30, 2023
Death of German missing since Hamas terror attacks confirmedThe mother of Shani Louk, a German citizen believed to have been taken hostage by the Hamas militant group, says she has received information from the Israeli military that her daughter is dead.
“Unfortunately, we received the news yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive,” Ricarda Louk told German broadcaster RTL/ntv.
Her sister Adi also confirmed Shani’s death in a post on Instagram.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of my sister, Shani Nicole Z.L. [may her memory be a blessing], who was on October 7, 2023, at the party massacre in Re’im.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also confirmed the death.
Shani Louk had not been heard from since the October 7 terror attacks on IsraelImage: shanukkk/instagram In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, pictures and videos shared online showed a young woman, believed to be Shani, lying face down in a pick-up truck driven by militants. It was unclear from the footage whether she was alive.
Hamas militants killed at least 1,400 people during their assault on Israeli communities near the Gaza border. They also took at least 229 people hostage, including several Germans. Dozens of others are unaccounted for, according to the Israeli military.
https://p.dw.com/p/4YBmuSkip next section Israeli military strikes target in SyriaOctober 30, 2023
Israeli military strikes target in SyriaIsrael’s military says it has carried out air strikes on military infrastructure in Syria.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted launchers from where overnight attacks originated towards Israeli territory.
The military did not provide details on what area was struck. The Israeli public broadcaster Kan News said the strikes hit near the southern city of Daraa.
Syria’s Defense Ministry confirmed that Israel had carried out air strikes around 1:35 a.m. local time on Monday (2235 UTC on Sunday). It said that the strikes hit the countryside of the southern Daraa region.
The ministry said the strikes caused “some material losses.”
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel hit “an artillery battalion” in the Daraa region.
The Observatory said that Israel targeted Hezbollah-linked Syrian and Palestinian groups that had shelled the occupied Golan Heights overnight.
Israel seized the Golan Heights in 1967 and annexed it in 1981. Most of the world’s countries, with the exception of Israel and the United States, recognize the territory as being within Syria’s borders.
The Lebanon-based and Iran-backed Hezbollah Islamist group is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Germany, and a number of other countries, while the European Union has listed Hezbollah’s armed wing as a terrorist group.
Israel and Hezbollah have periodically traded rocket fire across the Lebanese border since October 7, when the Islamist militant group Hamas carried out terror attacks on Israel.
https://p.dw.com/p/4YBcpSkip next section Israel expands Gaza ground operations, military saysOctober 30, 2023
Israel expands Gaza ground operations, military saysIsrael’s military says that it “continued and expanded” its ground operations in the Gaza Strip overnight.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that an aircraft guided by ground forces struck a post operated by the Hamas Islamist group. It claims the strike killed over 20 militants.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, Germany, the United States, and several other countries.
The IDF claimed several other militants in the Gaza Strip were killed in Israeli raids of tunnels and civilian buildings.
Israel has announced a “second stage” in its ground offensive in the Palestinian territory, but operations have so far been limited to smaller incursions.
https://p.dw.com/p/4YBPsSkip next section Blocking Gaza aid could be ‘crime’ — ICC top prosecutorOctober 30, 2023
Blocking Gaza aid could be ‘crime’ — ICC top prosecutorThe International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has warned that blocking humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip could constitute a crime.
“Impeding relief supplies as provided by the Geneva Conventions may constitute a crime within the court jurisdiction,” the prosecutor said at a Cairo press conference.
“I saw trucks full of goods, full of humanitarian assistance stuck where nobody needs them, stuck in Egypt, stuck at Rafah,” he said.
“These supplies must get to the civilians of Gaza without delay.”
Khan said he wanted “to underline clearly to Israel that there must be discernible efforts without further delay to make sure civilians (in Gaza) receive basic food, medicines”.
The chief prosecutor also addressed the Hamas militant Islamist group that runs Gaza, urging it not to divert aid. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, Germany, the United States, Israel and several others.
“Hamas and anybody who has control in Gaza … when such aid reaches Gaza it’s imperative that assistance gets to the civilian population and is not misused or diverted away from them.”
Khan spoke after he visited the Rafah crossing that links Egypt to the Gaza Strip. It is currently the only entry point for international aid to enter the Palestinian enclave as Israel sealed its border crossings with Gaza in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas.
Since limited aid deliveries resumed on October 21, a total of 117 trucks have entered the territory. Prior to Israel’s siege, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered the Gaza Strip every day.
The UN has said the situation in Gaza is ‘growing more desperate by the hour’Image: Getty Images https://p.dw.com/p/4YBPUSkip next section Largest convoy of 33 trucks allowed in to Gaza, says UNOctober 30, 2023
Largest convoy of 33 trucks allowed in to Gaza, says UNAt least 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Sunday, the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
The UN humanitarian office said early on Monday morning that the aid convoy was the largest since October 21, when the first trucks carrying vital aid entered the besieged enclave.
Israel ordered a complete siege of the region to root out Hamas militants, considered a terror group by the EU, the US and others, following the militants’ terror attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
“Our teams in Gaza received 24 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent through the Rafah crossing this evening, containing food supplies and medical necessities,” the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.
The organization said it had received 118 trucks containing food and medical supplies in total. But trucks containing fuel are still not allowed to cross into Gaza, the PRCS added.
The aid allowed into Gaza has not been nearly enough to meet the needs of the 2.3 million residents in Gaza, aid groups and the UN have said.
Telecommunication in Gaza, including cellular lines and internet services, were also largely restored by the morning of October 29, after being shut down on the evening of October 27 following Israeli bombardment, the UN office said.
UN aid agency says people in Gaza at breaking pointTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
https://p.dw.com/p/4YBJfSkip next section Germany: Central Council of Jews warns of increasing hatredOctober 30, 2023
Germany: Central Council of Jews warns of increasing hatred The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany has spoken out against “Jew-hatred and hostility towards Israel” in the country, suggesting it is on the rise.
Josef Schuster told Germany’s Bild newspaper in remarks published on Monday that this was happening openly on the “streets, in lecture halls or theaters.”
“I sometimes don’t recognize this country,” he added.
https://p.dw.com/p/4YBJeSkip next section More DW content on the Israel-Hamas warOctober 30, 2023
More DW content on the Israel-Hamas warIsrael has begun a ground offensive into Gaza, but it’s unclear whether the maneuvers mark the official start of an invasion. DW examines whether Israel has actually started its invasion into Gaza?
As the conflict enters its fourth week, crossings remain shut to Palestinians trying to flee. Those who hold dual citizenship feel like they’ve been abandoned, while relatives outside Gaza are helpless.
The United Nations General Assembly has called for a “humanitarian truce.” But how does this differ from other terms considered? Cease-fire, truce, armistice: DW explains the difference.
sdi/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)
https://p.dw.com/p/4YBMm
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