🔴 Live: Netanyahu says Israel ‘preparing’ Gaza ground war

Issued on: 26/10/2023 – 05:45

2 min

• French President Emmanuel Macron met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Wednesday, wrapping up a whistlestop tour that included visits to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Macron warned that a “massive” Israeli ground incursion into Gaza would be a “mistake” and called for humanitarian aid to enter the enclave without obstacles.
• Speaking at the White House, US President Joe Biden denied reports he had asked Israel to delay its ground invasion of Gaza. He also urged Israel to protect innocent civilians in Gaza and offered a rare rebuke of “extremist settlers” targeting Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
• Three people were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli attack near the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestinian media reported Wednesday.
• Israeli fighter jets on Tuesday struck military infrastructure in Syria in response to fire directed at Israel, the IDF said Wednesday.
• Nearly 600,000 internally displaced Gazans are sheltering in 150 UN facilities in the enclave, according to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. Israeli operations have impacted at least 40 UNRWA installations, said the UN. 
• Hamas has so far released four hostages. Israel has not freed Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostage releases, which was an initial Hamas pre-condition.
• The death toll in Gaza rose to 6,546, including 2,704 children, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said Wednesday. The Israeli military put the number of people taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 at 222. The official number of people killed in the Hamas attack has not been revised since Saturday; it remains at 1,400.

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Key developments of Wednesday, October 25:

A “massive” Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip would be “a mistake”, French President Emmanuel Macron said in Cairo, warning it would harm civilians without ensuring Israel’s long-term security.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” at the reaction to a statement he made on Tuesday about the war between Israel and Hamas

The UN warned that it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the blockaded territory.

And the UN Security Council failed again to address the Israeli-Hamas war, rejecting rival resolutions by the United States and Russia.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)