WORLD BRIEFING: October 15, 2023
ISRAEL-GAZA WAR
Here are the latest casualty figures as of October 14, 7:00am local time (04:00 GMT):
Gaza - Killed: At least 2,300 ; Injured: More than 8,700
West Bank - Killed: At least 53; Injured: At least 1,100
Israel - Killed: At least 1,300; 3715 wounded and evacuated to hospitals (Haaretz)
The Israeli military will attack by land, air and sea, it says in a statement ahead of an expected ground offensive - but gives no timings or specifics. Meanwhile, Israel has warned 1.1m Palestinians living in north Gaza to evacuate south, and thousands have been fleeing by vehicle or on foot - BBC
The UN's aid agency told the BBC that Gaza is "being pushed into an abyss"
An IDF spokesperson said Sunday that Hamas is trying to prevent civilians in Gaza from fleeing to the south. Comparing the group to ISIS, he said that they’re using Gaza residents as “human shields.” The spokesperson said that going to the south will allow them “a safe standard of life.”
Several United Nations agencies have warned that mass evacuation under siege conditions will lead to disaster, and that the most vulnerable Gazans, including the sick, elderly, pregnant and disabled, will not be able to relocate at all. For days, Israel has cut off the Gaza population’s access to electricity, food and water. “Despite Israeli announcements suggesting that there are safe areas for people trapped in the Gaza Strip, they are in fact exposed to bombardment throughout the entire territory, including in the south,” said Avril Benoit, executive director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) - CNN
All the living generations of 45 families have been wiped from the Gaza civil registry, the health ministry says. Conditions are particularly dire at Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza City, where Palestinian doctors warn of an impending infectious disease outbreak due to overcrowding. The situation is so bad that ice-cream trucks are now being used to store bodiesas hospital morgues are full due to the rising death toll – more than 2,200 people as of Saturday, according to health officials - Al Jazeera
As the U.S. Defence Secretary visits Israel - the second senior Biden Administration cabinet officials to do so in as many days - he confirmed the movement of a second aircraft carrier to the region. It will join America’s largest carrier, the USS Ford.
CNN reported that “right under Israel’s nose,” Hamas maintained at least six training camps near Gaza’s border with Israel. There was no offensive Israeli military action, the network reported.
American citizens said they were stranded at Gaza’s border with Egypt on Saturday afternoon despite a U.S. official saying earlier that an agreement had been reached to allow them safe passage from the blockaded enclave. The official said that both Israel and Egypt had agreed to allow Americans to go through the Rafah crossing from Gaza between noon and 5 p.m. local time. But as of 4 p.m., the crossing remained closed, according to two families. There was no immediate comment from the State Department. The official who earlier had spoken of the agreement said it had been unclear whether Hamas, which controls Gaza, would allow the safe passage. There also had been no confirmation from Egyptian authorities that they would open the crossing - NYT
Australia has cancelled two planned flights to repatriate citizens from Israel and the Palestinian territories due to the "highly challenging" situation, the foreign affairs department said on Saturday. Repatriation flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday will not depart as planned amid a "highly challenging and rapidly changing" situation - Reuters
Meanwhile, airlines wrestled with the safety risk of evacuation operations in Israel on Thursday, with carriers including Dutch KLM cancelling flights while sister airline Air France mounted a special relief flight chartered by the French foreign ministry. Airlines have faced warnings over insurance coverage in the wake of the weekend attacks on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants, which have been followed by Israeli retaliatory strikes and growing concerns among some airlines and insurers over the security of airspace near Tel Aviv's airport. And at least one foreign carrier, Norwegian Air, said its insurers had refused to provide cover, forcing it to cancel a planned evacuation flight.
Elsewhere
Polls open in Poland in the 'most important' vote since communism. To secure a fresh parliamentary majority, the ruling populists will likely need support from a far-right party that called for an end to Poland's large-scale assistance for Ukraine, reports DW. The government has been accused of using administrative resources to tilt the ballot and delays approval of election observers.
As well as the parliamentary vote, the Polish government has ordered a referendum on migration, the retirement age, whether to sell off state assets and whether to keep a new wall on the border with Belarus. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has vowed to continue its anti-migration policy and to oppose new European Union plans regarding the sharing of migrants and asylum seekers across all EU states. Critics says the government has tried the influence the vote, including by using the postal service
Russia's "renewed offensive" in eastern Ukraine hasn't made much progress despite the Russian military bringing back its infamous "human wave" tactics, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Oct. 13, as citedby Politico. Kirby described the tactics as throwing "masses of poorly trained soldiers right into the battlefield without proper equipment, and apparently without proper training and preparation." His statement comes three days after Russia launched a heavy assault against Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, deploying over 2,000 soldiers to the area, according to the Ukrainian military. Avdiivka has stood on the front lines since the very start of Russia's war in 2014, but the new Russian offensive occurred after months of comparatively static siege - Kyiv Independent
The White House on Friday accused North Korea of shipping weapons to Russia, near the Ukraine border. Its claims are based on an image released Friday showing a shipment from an ammunition depot in North Korea, or DPRK, that was loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being moved by rail to a depot along Russia’s southwestern border. The delivery took place between Sept. 7 and Oct. 1, the U.S. says. "We condemn the DPRK for providing Russia with this military equipment, which will be used to attack Ukrainian cities, kill Ukrainian civilian and further Russia's illegitimate war," National Security Council Director of Strategic Communications John Kirby said Friday - VOA
A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, found that September 2023 was the hottest in its 174 years of climate records. The striking thing was just how abnormally hot September was, says Ellen Bartow-Gillies, a NOAA climatologist and the lead author of the report. "This was the warmest September on record, but it also beat out the previous record September, which was in 2020, by 0.46 degrees Celsius, or 0.83 degrees Fahrenheit," Bartow-Gillies says. "A pretty significant jump." She said another way to think about it is that compared to the average July from 2001-2010, "September 2023 was actually warmer than that." - NPR
With thanks to Preeti Bali for her research support