Israel Palestine news LIVE: IDF says coroner confirmed babies were beheaded – as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Jewish state

A total of 1,354 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, the local health ministry has said.

A further 6,049 people have been injured.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘We’re here, we’re not going anywhere,’ Blinken told the Israeli leader, signalling America’s support following the Hamas terrorist attack.

The British government has ordered families of its diplomats in Israel to leave the country as a ‘precautionary measure’ amid the on-going conflict.

A foreign office statement said British diplomats would remain on active duty in the country after it was plunged into chaos by the Hamas terrorist attack on Saturday.

‘We are temporarily drawing down dependants of staff at our Embassy in Tel Aviv and our Consulate in Jerusalem as a precautionary measure,’ the statement said.

‘Our Embassy and Consulate remain fully staffed and continue to provide consular services to those who require assistance.’

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday that the blockaded Gaza Strip still had some fuel to operate generators, including in hospitals, but that it could run out in a few hours.

‘Our understanding is that there is still fuel – but probably only for a few hours – to allow generators to work, including in hospitals,’ said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, told reporters.

Israel’s military assault against Hamas is focusing on ‘taking out’ the terrorist group’s senior leadership in the Gaza Strip, including chief Yahya Sinwar (pictured below), an army spokesman has said.

‘Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership, not only the military leadership (but) also their governmental leadership, all the way up to Sinwar,’ Richard Hecht told journalists, referring to Hamas’s chief in the enclave.

‘They were directly connected’ to the attack that Hamas launched on Israel over the weekend that left more than 1,300 people dead, he added.

A group of independent United Nations experts on Thursday condemned violence against civilians in Israel and deplored the ‘collective punishment’ of reprisal strikes against Gaza.

While condemning the ‘horrific crimes committed by Hamas’, the group said that Israel had resorted to ‘indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza’.

‘They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for,’ the group, which includes several U.N. special rapporteurs, said in a statement.

‘This amounts to collective punishment. There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces. This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime.’

The group said that taking hostages in the context of hostilities also constituted a war crime.

‘The civilians taken by Hamas must be immediately released, pending which their fate and whereabouts must be disclosed,’ the experts said.

The Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1,300 people since Saturday. Most were civilians gunned down by Hamas in their homes, on the streets or at a dance party.

Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza.

Israel said on Thursday there would be no humanitarian break to its siege of the Gaza Strip until all its hostages were freed.

Three Chinese nationals have been confirmed dead in the latest Israel-Palestinian war,’ Beijing has said today.

Two others are missing and several have been injured, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

He urged authorities to make every effort to search for and rescue the missing.

The Chinese Embassy in Israel reported earlier in the week that a young woman of Israeli and Chinese heritage was among the scores of hostages taken by Hamas fighters.

Israel’s military spokesperson has said that Israel has been able to confirm the identities of 97 people taken hostage into Gaza during the attack by Hamas.

Israel had earlier said up to 150 people had been kidnapped and taken across the border on Saturday, suggesting more people are yet to be identified.

Hamas says it has hidden the hostages in ‘safe places and tunnels’ within Gaza, but has threatened to execute one every time Israel strikes civilian targets in the enclave without warning.

The offensive Israel launched on the blockaded Palestinian enclave since was meant to eliminate the ability of the Islamist group to govern, Daniel Hagari said in a televised press briefing.

‘The military is preparing for the next stage of the war,’ he said, adding that 222 soldiers had been killed since Saturday.

Israel today warned it wouldn’t let any food, medicine or electricity reach the Palestinians stranded in the Gaza Strip until Hamas terrorists release the 150 Israeli hostages they captured.

‘Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,’ Israel’s Energy Minister Israel Katz vowed in a sinister threat.

‘Humanitarian for humanitarian. And no one will preach us morals,’ Katz added.

The stark warning comes as Israeli airstrikes continued to obliterate entire neighbourhoods and the IDF encircled Gaza with 300,000 troops ahead of an expected ground offensive that will see fighting in the streets.

But the airstrikes, which have killed 1,200 civilians in Gaza, and the total siege of the enclave has prompted the US to warn Israel to ‘uphold the laws of war’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with the Palestinian and Jordanian leaders in Amman, a US official has said.

Blinken arrived for a solidarity visit to Israel on Thursday.

‘Tomorrow (Friday) in Amman, Secretary Blinken will have meetings with Palestinian president (Mahmud) Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II,’ the official told an AFP correspondent travelling with Blinken.

The head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency has today warned about the potential for opportunistic violence and called for calm as tensions rise ahead of another planned pro-Palestinian protest in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

In rare public statement, Mike Burgess, who is head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), said protests and rallies following the attacks by Hamas are likely to continue.

He said he remained concerned about the potential for opportunistic violence.

‘In this context, it is important that all parties consider the implications for social cohesion when making public statements,’ Burgess said. ‘Words matter. ASIO has seen direct connections between inflamed language and inflamed community tensions.’

Organisers said those filmed were a fringe group of ‘vile’ antisemites who had been told to leave.

Leaders across the political spectrum have denounced the comments and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said the protest should never have gone ahead.

The Red Cross has pleaded for fuel to be allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip to prevent overwhelmed hospitals from ‘turning into morgues’.

The sole electric power station in the enclave switched off yesterday after it ran out of fuel, and hospitals are running out of fuel for emergency generators.

‘The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians,’ Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement on Thursday.

‘As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.’

The organisation has said it is in contact with Hamas and Israel to try and negotiate the release of hostages. Israel has said it will not lift the siege on Gaza until they are freed, while Hamas has said they will not be released until the bombardment stops.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have said five of its members have been killed in the conflict.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and Iran’s president spoke by phone about the war between Israel and Hamas, Saudi state media said this morning, their first call since a surprise rapprochement in March.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a call on Wednesday from the Iranian leader, Ebrahim Raisi, during which they discussed ‘the current military situation in Gaza and its environs’, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

Prince Mohammed told Raisi that Riyadh is ‘communicating with all international and regional parties to stop the ongoing escalation’, SPA said. He also stressed ‘the kingdom’s firm position towards supporting the Palestinian cause’, it said.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle today condemned ‘all acts of terrorism and brutality’ following the Hamas attack on Israel.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex added that they were ‘supporting our partners and organisations on the frontlines in Israel to provide the urgent aid needed’.

In a message posted on their Archewell website under the title ‘with heavy hearts’, the couple said: ‘At The Archewell Foundation, with Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we stand against all acts of terrorism and brutality.

‘We are supporting our partners and organisations on the frontlines in Israel to provide the urgent aid needed, and to help all innocent victims of this unconscionable level of human suffering.’

Israel is targeting an underground system of tunnels in Gaza with its airstrikes, according to Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman.

The network was built and populated by Hamas, enabling them to hide from Israeli forces in the event of an attack.

‘What Hamas has done since they took control almost 20 years ago was to build a network of tunnels from Gaza City and under Gaza City all the way down to Khan Yunis and Rafah,’ Conricus said, according to the BBC.

He explained that the Gaza Strip needs to be thought of in two layers – one for civilians at ground level, and a subterranean level underneath. ‘What we are trying to do now is get to that second layer that Hamas has built,’ he said.

His comments come as Israel gears up to launch an offensive into the enclave, and a rescue mission to free Israeli hostages.

The Hamas -run Gaza Strip is a tiny enclave, measuring 25 miles long and no more than seven miles wide, surveilled continually by Israel, surrounded by its guns.

But rescuing – or even locating – more than 150 hostages hustled there by Palestinian terrorists who overran Israel’s southern border on Saturday will be a daunting task.

Gaza’s densely populated terrain, its network of underground tunnels and the sheer numbers of men, women and children taken captive present Israel with the most complex hostage crisis that the country has ever faced.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has weighed in on the conflict, blaming Iran for backing Hamas to grow into the terrorist body that carried out the attack on Israel.

He also attacked Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for his ‘shameful’ silence on the attacks – that left at least 1,300 Israelis dead – and urged him to clearly condemn Hamas’ actions.

‘Where is the clear condemnation of the terrorist violence by the autonomous (Palestinian) Authority and by its president, Mahmoud Abbas?’ Scholz said in an address to parliament. ‘Their silence is shameful,’ he said.

On Iran, Scholz said: ‘While we have no firm proof that Iran operationally supported this cowardly attack, it is clear to us all that without Iranian support Hamas would never have been able to launch this unprecedented attack.’

He also pledged Germany’s full support to Israel, pointing to his country’s history and ‘responsibility stemming from the Holocaust’.

‘For Germany at the moment, the only place is at Israel’s side,’ he said. ‘Our own history, our responsibility stemming from the Holocaust, make it an everlasting duty to stand up for the existence and security of the state of Israel.’

A top Israeli official has said the siege of Gaza will not end until hostages – taken into the enclave by Hamas terrorists – are freed.

Energy Minister Israel Katz said no ‘electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter’ until those who were kidnapped on Saturday are returned home.

Israel stopped the supplies into the Gaza Strip after Hamas attacked on Saturday, and has vowed to wipe out the group.

All signs are pointing to an immanent Israeli invasion of the territory, home to two million people, which is it also shelling.

The chief executive of easyJet has said the British airline wants to restart flights to Israel as soon as possible, but that it could not currently say when this would happen.

‘That is obviously something that we want to do as soon as possible but we cannot say now,’ CEO Johan Lundgren told reporters on Thursday.

The airline suspended its Tel Aviv routes on Sunday.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has arrived in Israel in a show of American support for the country after Saturday’s Hamas terrorist attacks.

Blinken is expected to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Washington closes ranks with its ally that has launched a withering air campaign against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip since the attacks.

The top US diplomat will also try to help secure the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas – some of whom are Americans – and safe passage of Gaza civilians out of the densely-populated enclave ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion.

Four of Britain’s top lawyers have complained to Ofcom over the BBC’s refusal to label Hamas ‘terrorists’ after its attacks on Israel.

The corporation last night defended its decision not to describe Hamas militants as ‘terrorists’ in its coverage of the deadly attacks in Israel, despite receiving a huge backlash from politicians and those within the Jewish community.

The broadcaster’s refusal continues despite King Charles condemning the ‘barbaric acts of terrorism’ while the Prince and Princess of Wales spoke of their distress following ‘Hamas’s terrorist attack’.

Instead, the BBC refers to Hamas as a ‘militant’ group and described the slaughter of civilians as a ‘militant’ attack.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis accused broadcasters of trying to ‘wilfully mislead’ by not using the word terrorist, while Defence Secretary Grant Shapps called on the corporation to ‘get the moral compass out’ and Labour leader Keir Starmer urged the broadcaster to ‘explain’ its reasoning.

Lord Wolfson KC, Lord Pannick KC, Lord Grabiner KC and Jeremy Brier KC have now accused the BBC of failing to show impartiality ‘beyond doubt’ by describing Hamas in ‘more sympathetic terms’ as ‘militants’.

The four senior lawyers signed a letter calling on Ofcom to investigate. In a letter seen by the Telegraph, they said: ‘On 7th October 2023, Hamas launched a large invasion of the State of Israel which resulted variously in the slaughter, rape and abduction of over a thousand Israeli citizens. There is nothing controversial about that. It is a fact.

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the sixth day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Israel continued to pound Gaza on Thursday, vowing to ‘destroy’ Hamas after the groups’ unprecedented surprise attack on Saturday, slaughtering civilians.

Thousands of people on both sides have died, with Israel responding to the killings with a massive bombardment of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Israel has massed its military forces around the besieged Palestinian enclave in what appears to be preparation for a possible ground invasion, and an attempt to rescue Israeli hostages who were taken back across the border by terrorists.

Here’s what you need to know this morning:

• Israel says Hamas gunmen have killed more than 1,300 people and wounded over 2,700 in Israeli cities, towns and kibbutz communities
• In Gaza, health officials said 1,200 people had been killed and 5,600 wounded
• Israel launched an ‘extensive attack’ on Hamas targets in Gaza overnight, which carried on into Thursday morning
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ‘crush and destroy’ Hamas with the support of a new war cabinet that includes a longtime opposition critic
• Israel’s military appears to have confirmed reports that babies were beheaded by Hamas terrorists in a Kibbutz close to the Gaza Strip where some 108 bodies were found
• Hamas claimed that four captives died in Israeli strikes and threatened to kill the others if civilian targets were bombed without advance warning from Israel
• Hamas claimed that four captives died in Israeli strikes and threatened to kill the others if civilian targets were bombed without advance warning from Israel
• It said it fired 5,000 rockets in an offensive it branded ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ and ruled out negotiating a prisoner swap with Israel as ‘the military operation is still ongoing’
• US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called the attack by Hamas the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust as the number of U.S. citizens killed in the fighting ticked up to at least 22
• Other countries have also seen casualties, including Britain, with 17 UK nationals either missing or confirmed dead
• Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel