The military branch of Hamas affirmed, Wednesday, November 1, that seven hostages, including “three foreign passport holders”, were killed on Tuesday in the Israeli bombardment of the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Islamist movement said the strike on the largest camp in the Gaza Strip had “more than 50” dead and hundreds injured. No other source can confirm this assessment. The Israeli army admitted to having carried out this operation, which led to the killing of Ibrahim Biari, presented as one of those responsible for the October 7 attack. Follow our live stream.
The fate of the hostages uncertain. After the bombing of the Jabaliya camp, Qatar, involved in attempts to resolve the hostage crisis, condemned “a new massacre” and warned against operations likely to “undermining mediation efforts”. The military branch of Hamas assured on Tuesday that it was ready to release “a number of foreigners in the coming days”.
First evacuations of foreigners and wounded to Egypt. Dozens of foreigners and dual nationals, as well as ambulances carrying wounded Palestinians, left the Gaza Strip for Egypt on Wednesday through the Rafah border crossing. The Egyptian authorities had announced the exceptional opening of this crossing point to allow the evacuation of around 545 dual nationals and foreigners and nearly 90 people requiring surgical care.
The toll is increasing for the Israeli army. The latter published, on Wednesday, the names of nine soldiers killed in combat the day before in Gaza, bringing to 326 the number of Israeli soldiers dead since the Hamas attack on October 7. On Tuesday, the army reported the first two deaths as part of its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel claims to have struck “more than 11,000 targets”. These places targeted since the start of the war “belong to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip”according to the army of the Jewish state. On the human level, Hamas claims that more than 8,500 people died in less than a month on the Palestinian side, including some 3,500 children. For their part, the Israeli authorities assure that more than 1,400 people have died since October 7, mainly civilians killed on the day of the attack.