Israel-Palestine: Hamas fighting continues beyond barrier as 500 targets in Gaza hit

Jeremy Corbyn has refused to condemn Hamas after militants stormed settlements in southern Israel, killing and taking hostage both soldiers and civilians in a surprise attack.

The former Labour leader said “all attacks are wrong” and repeated his call for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

“Which, of course, is fundamentally the background to the whole issue,” Mr Corbyn said. “I don’t support any attacks, therefore I criticise them all.”

The British government said it had updated its travel advice for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, advising against all but essential travel as fighting continued near Gaza after a bloody incursion by gunmen from Islamist group Hamas.

Britain already advised against all travel to Gaza, but on Sunday also added several areas in Israel close to the border with Gaza to that recommendation, and changed its advice for the country as a whole.

The British Foreign Office also asked all Britons in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to register their presence there, so they can be kept updated of further changes to travel advice.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday called on China to support Israel after deadly attacks by Hamas, adding he was “disappointed” that Beijing showed “no sympathy” for the country over the weekend.

Fighters from Islamist group Hamas killed 700 Israelis and abducted dozens more as they attacked Israeli towns on Saturday, the deadliest incursion into Israeli territory since Egypt and Syria’s attacks in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.

In response, China’s foreign ministry urged the “relevant parties” to remain calm and immediately end hostilities to protect civilians, adding that “the fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine”.

Schumer is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Asia, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. It aims to advance US economic and national security interests, and in China, the group hopes to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The ongoing events in Israel over the past few days are horrific. I urge you and the Chinese people to stand with the Israeli people and condemn these cowardly and vicious attacks,” Schumer said at a meeting with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Beijing.

“I was very disappointed, to be honest, by the Foreign Ministry statement that showed no sympathy or support for Israel during these troubled times,” he added.

Thailand said 12 of its citizens were killed in Israel, while 11 others have been kidnapped by Hamas fighters.

“We are working to help all Thai citizens in Israel,” foreign ministry spokesperson Kanchana Patarachoke said, according to Reuters.

The Thai students “are innocent and have nothing to do with any conflict”, prime minister Srettha Thavisin said.

Dozens of Israeli captives are being held in Gaza by Hamas militants, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Monday.

The militant group on Sunday claimed it had taken at least 100 Israeli citizens, including children and soldiers, hostage.

A second Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, said it was holding more than 30 of the captives.

Multiple Americans may have been killed or kidnapped in Israel as part of the ongoing war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared an update on the situation on Sunday.

Israel intensified its bombardments of the Gaza Strip on Monday after declaring war and vowing to destroy the “military and governing capabilities” of the enclave’s Hamas rulers.

An Israeli military spokesperson said that the army had called up around 100,000 reservists, and said in a statement that Israel would aim to end Hamas’ rule of Gaza.

“Our task is to make sure that Hamas will no longer have any military capabilities to threaten Israel with this,” said spokesperson Jonathan Conricus. “And in addition to that, we will make sure that Hamas is no longer able to govern the Gaza Strip.”

As of late Sunday, Israeli airstrikes had destroyed 159 housing units across Gaza and severely damaged 1,210 others, the UN said.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said a school sheltering more than 225 people took a direct hit, according to the Associated Press.

The killing of at least 700 Israelis in the carnage of the attack by Hamas is the most lethal day in the country’s many conflicts, exceeding by far the 317 killed on 7 October 1973, the first 24 hours of the Yom Kippur war, which had also started with the enemy achieving a total surprise attack to great effect.

Unlike that conflict, when multiple assaults came from Arab states led by Egypt and Syria, what happened this weekend is not an existential threat to the Jewish state.

Hamas, along with other militias which may join in the fight, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, are nowhere near being a military match for Israel. A reported request by the Taliban in Afghanistan to Iran to let its fighters transit to fight Israel is not going to change that balance, we can safely assume, if passage is granted.

But Benjamin Netanyahu’s government faces the severest security crisis in decades with the potential prospect of combat on two fronts, Lebanon and Gaza, as well as escalation in the West Bank where militant Palestinian groups such as the Jenin Brigade and Lion’s Den have already been involved in a rising number of armed clashes with Israeli security forces.

The Israel Defence Forces were fighting the Palestinian militants in six towns near the border with the Gaza Strip, a military spokesperson said on Monday.

Some of the Hamas militants were still in Israel since the attack on Saturday, while others managed to cross the border into Gaza, said Israel military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari.

He said Hamas was using the town of Beit Hanoun as a staging ground for attacks.

“We will continue to attack in this way, with this force, continuously, on all gathering (places) and routes” used by Hamas, he added.

Iran’s mission to the US on Sunday claimed Tehran was not involved in Palestinian militants’ attack in Israel.

“The resolute measures taken by Palestine constitute a wholly legitimate defence against seven decades of oppressive occupation and heinous crimes committed by the illegitimate Zionist regime,” Iran’s UN mission said in a statement.

Iran has made no secret of its backing for Hamas, funding and arming the group and another Palestinian militant organisation Islamic Jihad.“We emphatically stand in unflinching support of Palestine; however, we are not involved in Palestine’s response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself,” Iran’s UN mission said.

The statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps worked with Hamas since August to coordinate the eventual attack.

Iran’s UN mission said the “success” of the Hamas operation was because it was a surprise, which makes it the “biggest failure” of Israel’s security organisations.

“They are attempting to justify their failure and attribute it to Iran’s intelligence power and operational planning,” it added.