On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists launched a savage attack against Israel, targeting civilians and Israeli Defense Forces, and killing more than 1,400 individuals. In response, Israel undertook an offensive against Hamas, primarily in Gaza, with increased military activity in the West Bank and along the northern border with Lebanon. As of Nov. 8, more than 10,600 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The IDF reports that 31 Israeli soldiers have been killed.
Articles below are curated from a range of news outlets and perspectives, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Better World Campaign, nor serve as an endorsement of the opinions therein. Our intent is to share a diversity of information to offer context in this evolving situation. News is updated daily.?
- Israel’s war against Hamas is reportedly deepening divisions among nonpartisan American government officials, who are raising alarm that the Biden administration’s ironclad commitment to Israel is failing to take into account key issues of concern.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeing his lowest approval rating in two decades following Hamas’s deadly attack.?Some hostages’ relatives want him to step down. Netanyahu told reporters that “the only thing that I intend to have resign is Hamas.”
- Amid the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza, an assassination attempt was plotted against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as his convoy was attacked in the West Bank area. The attack was reported a day after Abbas met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in West Bank. The attack was perpetrated by a group called the “Sons of the Leader Abu Jandal” in response to Abbas’ calls for resumption of a peace process.
- As part of the European Union’s continued support to people in Gaza, the EU Commission will provide a further €25 million in humanitarian aid. This quadruples EU humanitarian assistance to over €100 million for Gaza this year.
- Foreign ministers from the Group of 7 nations (G7) have urged humanitarian pauses, but stop short of calling for a cease-fire. The breaks in fighting would help get more aid into Gaza, protect civilians and facilitate the release of hostages, they note.
- As the House Foreign Affairs Committee prepares to discuss funding of UNRWA on Wednesday, the U.S. representative to the UN’s “Fourth Committee” “affirmed that there is simply no replacement in Gaza for UNRWA, whose schools, clinics and relief efforts provide the only alternative to Hamas.” The U.S. is the single largest donor to the Palestinian people, with more than $1 ?billion provided to UNRWA since 2021.
- 92 employees of UNRWA have been killed in Gaza since fighting began, making it the deadliest conflict for UN personnel in the history of the organization.
- The UN launched a $1.2 billion humanitarian appeal to assist 2.7 million people in Gaza and an additional half million in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Funds will be used by OCHA and other UN agencies to immediate humanitarian needs. An original appeal on Oct. 12 sought $294 million to support nearly 1.3 million people.
- The House of Representatives voted to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday night, as Republicans and some Democrats voted for a resolution that claimed she had been “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” The tally was 234 yes votes to 188 no votes.
- The Israeli military says it has completely encircled Gaza City after over a week of heavy fighting, in effect severing the territory into two. The latest moves on the ground were accompanied with mounting speculation over the kind of fighting that would unfold in Gaza City’s streets, amid suggestions that the Israel Defense Forces would try to avoid costly warfare within Hamas’s tunnel system.
- The U.S. Navy has dispatched a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East. The posting was revealed by the military in an announcement late on Sunday. The unusual revelation regarding the location of the ship, which can launch nuclear missiles, suggests a show of force intended to try to contain regional tensions amid the Israel-Hamas war.
- The U.S. has intelligence that the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary group, may provide an air defense system to Hezbollah. The system in question is the SA-22, which uses antiaircraft missiles and air defense guns, to intercept aircraft. Intelligence sources also report that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to provide the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with a Russian-made missile defense system.
- The heads of several major UN bodies on Monday made a united call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza as Israeli strikes intensify one month into the conflict. The 18 signatories include the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the head of the World Health Organization and UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
- Violence in the West Bank has surged since Oct. 7. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that at least 98 households, comprising 828 people, have been displaced amid Israeli settler violence or increased movement restrictions. More than 170 individual attacks by settlers against Palestinians have been reported in the past three weeks.
- Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has asked the International Criminal Court in the Hague to investigate the killing of nine journalists – eight Palestinians and one Israeli – since the war began. “The scale, seriousness and recurring nature of international crimes targeting journalists, particularly in Gaza, calls for a priority investigation by the ICC prosecutor,” a spokesperson for RSF said.
- Talks are underway to establish a multinational force in Gaza after Israel uproots Hamas, two Senators confirmed Wednesday, the clearest sign yet that the U.S. and its partners are seriously weighing deploying foreign troops to the enclave. A peacekeeping force in Gaza, however, is unlikely to include American troops.
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