SVE NEWS & FRANCE24.COM Sharing Series — Urgent ceasefire ‘matter of life and death’ for millions of Palestinians, says UN agency

An immediate ceasefire is now “a matter of life and death for millions” of Palestinians, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) told a UN emergency meeting Monday, warning that basic services are crumbling in Gaza and that medicine, food, water and fuel are running out. Follow our live blog for the latest updates. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).

A boy sits on a donkey-drawn cart loaded with a water tank, as drinking water becomes increasingly scarce, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 30, 2023.A boy sits on a donkey-drawn cart loaded with a water tank, as drinking water becomes increasingly scarce, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 30, 2023. © Mahmud Hams, AFP

  • Thailand‘s foreign minister begins an urgent visit to Qatar and Egypt on Tuesday for talks on the fate of 22 Thais taken hostage by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas during its deadly October 7 attack on Israel. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said Monday his government was working hard to get Thai citizens home.
  • Israel is running an online campaign targeting mostly Europeans with shocking images and testimonies from the October 7 Hamas attack. Dozens of clips of burnt bodies, bereaved families, rescue workers and pathologists and fast-cuts of screams and sirens are featured on the Israeli foreign ministry’s official social media channels and in paid advertising campaigns.
  • Israeli officials are going back on their promised refusal to grant entry visas to UN officials. Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, tweeted Monday that he was in Israel – less than a week after Israel’s UN ambassador said it had “refused” to grant Griffiths a visa. Israeli officials had expressed outrage over comments last Wednesday by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the October 7 Hamas attack “did not happen in a vacuum”.
  • Israel has warned its citizens to leave the northern Caucasus after a mob stormed an airport in Russia‘s republic of Dagestan when a flight from Israel landed there. The attack seemed to be partly fuelled by anger at Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, where it has been at war with Hamas following the militant group’s attack.

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Key developments from Monday, October 30:

Hamas on Monday released a video it said showed three women from the more than 230 people Israel says were abducted by militants and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack. Sitting on plastic chairs against a white tile wall, one of the women urges Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a prisoner exchange for the release of all captives. Speaking in Hebrew, she becomes very agitated and starts shouting, almost screaming by the end, as the other two sitting on either side of her remain silent.

A female Israeli soldier was released from captivity in the Gaza Strip, the army said Monday, following an operation in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. “Last night, soldier Ori Megidish was released during a ground operation after being kidnapped by Hamas on October 7,” the army said in a statement. “The soldier was medically checked, is doing well, and has met with her family.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told journalists in Tel Aviv that a ceasefire in Gaza “will not happen”. Despite mounting criticism over the growing number of civilian casualties in Gaza amid ongoing Israeli strikes, Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting Hamas “barbarians”. The US said it does not back a ceasefire at this time.

Read our blog to see how yesterday’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

 

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Sources from: FRANCE24.COM

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