Israel announces ‘total blockade’ on besieged Gaza – DW – 10/09/2023

The European Union’s foreign ministers will meet on Tuesday to discuss the unprecedented attack by the militant group Hamas on Israel this weekend and its ongoing repercussions.

“I am convening tomorrow an emergency meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to address the situation in Israel and in the region,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The EU has strongly condemned the terror attack by the Islamist militants that has sparked a series of strikes by Israel on Gaza. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza. 

Gallant said the new measures will cut electricity and include a ban on admitting food and fuel.

He described the measure as part of a battle against “beastly people,” the Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.

Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians, since militant group Hamas came to power in 2007. Israel controls access by land, sea and air.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.

The UN Human Rights Council has held a moment of silence to remember those killed in Israel and Gaza.

US Ambassador Michele Taylor requested the moment of silence “to honor and remember the victims of these appalling terrorist attacks,” she said, stressing that innocent lives were lost across Israel and Gaza “resulting from the attacks by Hamas.”

Taylor condemned the “horrific attacks carried out by Hamas terrorists on Israeli civilians,” saying the “calamity” had resulted in “hundreds and hundreds of innocent civilian lives lost — and we’re still counting.” 

She said the US “unequivocally condemns these heinous acts of terrorism” and extended its deepest condolences to the families affected. 

Germany has announced the suspension of development aid to the Palestinian territories in light of Hamas militants’ surprise attack on Israel on Saturday.

The ministry of economic cooperation and development said a thorough review of financial aid would be conducted.

“It is being examined, that is, temporarily suspended,” a ministry spokesperson said. 

Meanwhile, Austria said it too was suspending development aid worth some €19 million ($20 million) to the Palestinian territories, in response to the Hamas attack.

“We will put all Austrian development cooperation payments on hold for the time being,” Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told radio station Ö1.

Schallenberg said, “the scale of the terror is so horrific,” stressing that “this is such a breach that one cannot go back to business as usual.”

The Russian government said it was “extremely concerned” by the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories, warning that it could escalate into a wider conflict.

“We believe that it is necessary to bring the situation to a peaceful path as soon as possible because the continuation of such a round of violence is fraught with further escalation and the expansion of this conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “This is a great danger for the region.”

Peskov said the Russian embassy had no information yet regarding the number of Russian citizens in Israel who could have been hurt or killed. Moscow was in contact with Palestinians to investigate whether any Russians had been injured in the Israeli bombing of Gaza, he added.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, head of the regional cooperation body, the Arab League, in Moscow on Monday. There he stressed they would work together to “stop the bloodshed” in Israel and Gaza.

Lavrov said Moscow and the Arab League will also work “with those countries that are interested in establishing lasting peace in the Middle East.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he will chair a meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency response committee to discuss Israel later on Monday.

“I’m chairing a COBRA [meeting] with my ministerial colleagues this afternoon, when we’ll continue to discuss the situation, but we’re in close dialogue with our Israeli counterparts,” the British broadcaster Sky News quoted him as saying.

Sunak stressed his government’s support to Israel, telling reporters that Britain was “one of their strongest allies.”

“We’ve provided in the past the kinds of equipment that they’ve used to defend themselves over the past couple of days, and as I said to the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu], we will continue to provide — whether that’s diplomatic, intelligence or security support — as they need,” he added.

Global oil prices have jumped amid growing fears that the outbreak of violence could disrupt supplies out of the oil-rich Middle East region.

Early on Monday, US benchmark crude oil was selling at $85.48 (approximately €81.23) per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up by $2.70.

Brent crude, which represents the pricing basis for international trading, was at $87 per barrel, up by $2.42.

Tensions in the Middle East often spike oil prices.

“The shocking attacks in Israel have sent the price of oil soaring, as investors assess the potential for the conflict to disrupt supply in the Middle East, if other countries are drawn in,” the French news agency AFP quoted Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, as saying.

Hungary is evacuating 110 individuals from Israel, most of them Hungarian citizens, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

That brings the total number of people evacuated by Hungary to 325, including 46 children, Szijjarto said in a Facebook post.

Of those evacuated, 15 were foreign citizens, he said. They included Israeli, Swedish, Austrian, German, British and Portuguese nationals.

Israel has announced drafting a record 300,000 reservists as it responds to a Hamas attack from Gaza in which hundreds of Israelis were killed, wounded or abducted.

The Israeli chief military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said that those killed included 73 members of the security forces.

He said Israel had responded by killing hundreds of Hamas gunmen.

“We are now carrying out searches in all of the communities and clearing the area,” he added, announcing the recapture of towns in the Gaza border area that had been overrun by Hamas.

The number of reservists drafted is unprecedented. The Israeli military stopped short of saying whether it was preparing to invade Gaza.

“We have never drafted so many reservists on such a scale,” Hagari said. “We are going on the offensive.”

The Palestinian militant group Hamas rules the Gaza Strip and is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.

The Israeli military has re-established control over communities near the Gaza Strip which had been overrun by Hamas after the extremist group infiltrated them on Saturday, the military announced.

An army spokesperson added that isolated clashes were continuing with some Hamas gunmen still active.

“We are in control of the settlements. There may be terrorists in the area,” said IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, some 123,538 people have been internally displaced in the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA.

The agency said most people have fled due to “fear, protection concerns and the destruction of their homes.”

Of those displaced, 73,538 people are sheltering in 64 schools, some of which are designated emergency shelters, OCHA said.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on Gaza since Saturday, when Hamas militants launched a series of deadly attacks on the country. More than 700 people have been killed in Israel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, meanwhile, put the number of those killed in Gaza since the latest violence started at 493, in addition to 2,751 injuries.

The besieged strip is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians, who have been living under an Israeli blockade since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the assault by Hamas on Israel.

She said the terrorist attacks were “inhumane and barbaric,” stressing that her solidarity lay with the Israeli people and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Merkel, who served as Germany’s leader for 16 years from 2005 to 2021, said she fully supported the comments made by Chancellor Olaf Scholzon Sunday.

Scholz said at the weekend that Israel has the right to defend itself against “barbaric attacks” and “to protect its citizens and to pursue the attackers.”

The Thai government says 12 of its citizens have been killed in the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kanchana Patarachoke said the Thai embassy in Israel learned of the deaths from the victims’ employers.

Eight other Thai nationals were injured, the spokesperson said, adding that 11 others were taken captive.

Bangkok’s Labor Ministry puts the number of Thai workers in Israel at around 30,000, many of them employed in the agriculture sector.

Thai air force planes were on standby to fly citizens out of Israel, but a date for an evacuation was yet to be set, Patarachoke said.

Meanwhile, Thai Labor Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said Israeli forces had begun to move workers away from danger zones. Some 5,000 Thai laborers were currently working in areas affected by fighting, the minister said.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say they have carried out over 500 attacks on “strategic targets of the terrorist organizations” in Gaza overnight.

Fighter planes, helicopters, aircraft and artillery forces attacked “many hundreds” of Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets, the IDF said on X, formerly Twitter. Both groups are listed as terrorist organizations in the EU and the US.

An Israeli military spokesperson was meanwhile quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that Israeli forces were fighting Hamas gunmen at seven or eight points outside of Gaza.

“It’s taking more time than we expected to get things back into a defensive, security posture,” Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told a briefing with journalists.

Several international airlines have suspended flights to Tel Aviv, saying they would wait until the security situation improved before resuming their services. 

US carriers United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines all suspended flights, as did Air France.

United Airlines said in a statement it had run two scheduled flights to the US from Israel late on Saturday and early on Sunday. Services were then suspended “until conditions allow them to resume.”

Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines also canceled flights between Tel Aviv and Shanghai on Monday, citing the security situation.

Cathay Pacific announced the cancellation of its flights between Hong Kong and Tel Aviv from Tuesday. 

Korean Air also canceled its Monday flight between the port city of Incheon and Tel Aviv.