Why doesn't Egypt open Rafah crossing?published at 09:48 British Summer Time 17 October 2023

09:48 BST 17 October 2023

Sebastian Usher
BBC Arab Affairs Editor

Cairo has kept tight restrictions on movement through the Rafah crossing for many years - to such an extent that many Palestinians have essentially accused Egypt of bolstering Israel's blockade of Gaza, which has been in place since Hamas took full power there in 2007.

That has mostly been about security concerns in north Sinai where the Egyptian authorities have long been involved in a deadly conflict with jihadists linked to Al Qaeda.

But Egypt's current reluctance to open the crossing without clear conditions and guarantees may be more about trying to avoid a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza.

Egypt does not want to play any role in what could amount to a permanent resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza.

It is likely, though, to allow foreigners and Palestinians with dual nationality to leave, but it wants this to be dependent on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.

For anything beyond this, Egypt may expect considerable economic incentives to help its ailing economy.

Hundreds of lorries carrying vital supplies are headed towards the only crossing into Gaza not controlled by Israel, aid officials have said.

"We've not been told what time we're going to cross but we were asked to head for Rafah," an Egyptian Red Crescent official said, asking not to be identified.

But all crossings into Gaza remain closed, including Rafah, and trucks have been piling up on the Egyptian side for days. On the other side, crowds of Palestinians with foreign passports wait to leave.

At least 49 people were killed in an overnight Israeli air strike that hit homes near the Rafah area and in Khan Younis, also in the Gaza's south. Here are some images we've had from the Rafah border:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

More now from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which has been highlighting the lack of clean water in the Gaza Strip and warning that waterborne diseases are going to start spreading.

"Most of Gaza, in fact the vast majority, does not have running water," Juliette Touma, from the UNRWA, told Radio 4's Today programme.

"This is why its is absolutely fundamental that we are allowed to bring in fuel into the Gaza strip for the pumping stations across the strip so that clean water resumes across Gaza."

Gaza’s last functioning seawater desalination plant - which makes seawater drinkable - shut down yesterday, the UNRWA said.

It also said that one line of water was opened yesterday for three hours in Khan Younis in Gaza's south. But in that time, only 14% of people in Gaza received water, the organisation said and reiterated its warning that without clean water, people will die.

As we've just reported, Yahel, a 13-year-old British girl who had been missing after Hamas gunmen rampaged through Kibbutz Be'eri, has now been confirmed dead by her family.

Sharon, a relative of the family, told the BBC yesterday that Yahel was "funny, all the time," and liked to hear music, sing and dance.

Yahel had been missing along with her sister, 16-year-old Noiya, and father, Eli. They are both still missing.

Dozens of countries have reported people killed and missing in the attack. On Monday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said six British citizens had been killed, and a further 10 were missing.

Lucy Manning
Special correspondent

A British teenager missing with her sister after the Hamas attacks has been murdered.

Family members told BBC News this morning that 13-year-old Yahel is now confirmed as having been killed in the attack.

Her mum Lianne was also murdered. Her British sister Noiya, 16, and her dad Eli are still missing.

• Read more about their story here

Biden's Israel visit is a significant momentpublished at 08:23 British Summer Time 17 October 2023

08:23 BST 17 October 2023

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Presidential trips usually take months to prepare - and only rarely do they visit a country at war to try to shape the conduct of the conflict.

Above all, it will be a huge demonstration of what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called America’s solidarity and “ironclad commitment” to the security of Israel.

President Joe Biden will be briefed on the country’s war aims and he’ll discuss plans to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas.

But the announcement of the trip came only after Blinken had more than seven hours of talks with Israel’s war cabinet.

And crucially, he said Israel had agreed to develop a plan to enable humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza - and establish areas where civilians would be out of harm's way. This is something many Arab leaders demanded from Blinken on his recent tour of the Gulf.

Biden will also travel to Jordan to meet King Abdullah, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt and the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Image source, EPA

We've just been listening in to David Petraeus - former CIA director and retired US general - who was talking to our radio colleagues over on Radio 4's Today programme.

Asked if US President Joe Biden's imminent visit to Israel will be helpful at this stage of the war, he says he believes it coveys "how serious this [conflict] is - there's nothing that shows that more than how the US president spends his time".

Petraeus says officials will also be looking closely at what other countries do in the coming days - particularly Iran.

Not necessarily watching "directly" what they do - "although that can't be ruled out" - but "what they do through their proxies, through the militia they support in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon".

"There's a lot of risk here, there's a lot of potential [for] further challenges if the war truly becomes regional", he says, adding the Israeli military leadership "clearly understand the magnitude of what lies ahead".

Image source, Reuters

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is overwhelmed, its communications director Juliette Touma has told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme just now.

She said the UNRWA's operations centre has moved from the north to a warehouse in the south - and the warehouse is currently housing more than 8,000 people.

"Hundreds of people are sharing one toilet, our own staff have had to ration drinking water to one litre a day," Touma said.

"Our staff are also very very tired, they have been impacted themselves. We have lost 14 staff members, and this number continues to increase," she added. "UNWRA is overwhelmed, our supplies are dwindling and running out fast."

The Israeli military has killed four people attempting to enter the country from Lebanon, officials say, branding them "terrorists".

A statement reads:

Tensions are running high between Israel and Lebanon, which share a border, following exchanges of fire between the IDF and Lebanon's most powerful military group, Hezbollah. They previously fought a month-long war in 2006.

On Sunday, an Israeli civilian and a soldier were killed by missiles fired from Lebanon, and the IDF said it struck Hezbollah military sites in response.

Israeli government minister Benny Gantz was asked yesterday whether he thought there could be another war with Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. "I hope for them not, but we do all the preparations," he replied.

Iran makes its strongest warning yetpublished at 07:41 British Summer Time 17 October 2023

07:41 BST 17 October 2023

Hugo Bachega
BBC Middle East correspondent, Lebanon

In recent days, Iran has repeatedly talked about the risk of an escalation in the Israel-Hamas war. But the comments by the country’s foreign minister are the strongest warning yet that the fighting might spread, making it into a regional conflict.

Hossein Amirabdollahian said the “resistance front” could carry out a “pre-emptive action” in the coming hours” - if Israel’s “war crimes against Palestinians” in Gaza did not stop.

The “resistance front” is an alliance of forces in the region that includes Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese group backed by Iran.

In the past week, Hezbollah and the Israeli military have exchanged fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border, raising fears that this could become another front in the war.

Hezbollah has a vast arsenal of weapons, with missiles capable of striking deep into Israeli territory, as well as tens of thousands of well-trained, battle-hardened fighters.

The “resistance front” also includes groups Iran supports in Syria - which borders Israel - and Iraq.

Western countries have warned Tehran against escalating the situation and, so far, the cross-border violence has been contained. But some believe this could change if Israel goes ahead with a ground offensive into Gaza, and militants here decide they must respond.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

There have been hopes of opening Egypt’s Rafah crossing on Gaza’s southern border to let lorryloads of urgently needed aid in and Palestinians with foreign passports out.

Up until now, that’s not happened, and last night an Israeli air strike damaged a building at the crossing.

As the humanitarian situation worsens – with a million people now displaced in Gaza – discussions are focused on how to ensure that assistance will go to ordinary civilians and won’t reach Hamas, which governs the territory.

Israel has also been demanding that hostages held by Hamas should be freed. Overnight, Hamas released a video of a 21-year-old Israeli woman, Maya Shem, who said she was captured at a party. Hamas said as many as 250 people were being held in Gaza.

In a separate development, Israel’s military said it launched new strikes on targets belonging to the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah overnight in response to earlier cross-border fire. It raises fears that fighting here could escalate on another front.

More now from Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus, who says some 600,000 people have so far fled northern Gaza but hundreds of thousands remain.

In his daily update on the war, Conricus says 600,000 Palestinians have made "the smart and self-preservatory" decision to move south, after a warning by Israel to do so ahead of its expected ground offensive.

But, he goes on, there are "still a few hundred thousand that need to - and should - go".

Conricus claims Hamas - which told people to stay put - had a "delaying effect" on people leaving the region, but he is confident that the more time goes on, the more the militant group will stop using "its own civilians as human shields".

Elsewhere, the military official gives an insight into the wider conflict in Israel saying "operations continue in the south" and Israel is “targeting Hamas leaders and their infrastructure”. He also says the IDF is continuing to “actively search for where Hamas leaders are hiding”.

Israeli strikes have targeted homes in the south of Gaza, the Palestinian interior ministry has said - including 21 people killed in an air strike on a house in Khan Younis.

It said another 28 people were killed in a strike on a house in the Rafah area, near to the border crossing with Egypt. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said women and children were among the 28 killed at the "family house".

The total of 49 people killed in last night's strikes is an update on a previous figure given by the interior ministry.

Many Gaza residents evacuated to Khan Younis yesterday after the Israeli government told civilians to move south. Hopes remain a humanitarian corridor could be opened through the Rafah crossing to allow aid into Gaza, allow this has yet been agreed.

Hugo Bachega
reporting from Lebanon

Iran's foreign minister has said Israel will not be allowed to act in the Gaza Strip without consequences, and warns of "pre-emptive action" in the coming hours.

Tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border have been high since Israel began its reprisals against Hamas in Gaza. The fear here is that this could become a new front in the war with the involvement of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.

The US has warned Iran against escalating the conflict, and Israel says if Hezbollah gets involved, it will give a devastating response.

For the past week, Hezbollah and the Israeli military have exchanged fire across the border but so far the fighting has been contained.

Overnight, the Israeli military said it had targeted infrastructure linked to the militant group in response to cross-border violence. There were no reports of casualties.

Jean Mackenzie
Seoul correspondent

The South Korean military says it has been monitoring signs that North Korea supplied Hamas with weapons used in its attack on Israel.

"We continue to see evidence that North Korea has been exporting a variety of weapons to Middle Eastern countries and militant groups, including the recent discovery of North Korean-made 122mm radial artillery shells near the border with Israel, which are believed to be used by militants actively supporting Hamas or by Hamas-affiliated militants," a military official said in a background briefing to domestic reporters.

The official also suggested that the Hamas tactic of incursion by motorised paragliders could have originated in North Korea, pointing to the regime’s reinforced air infiltration training using paragliders.

Image source, Reuters

It's almost 8:00 in the morning in Israel and Gaza. If you're just joining us, here are the latest developments on the ground:

• US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Biden's visit comes at a critical moment for Israel, the region and the entire world
• Blinken also said the US had secured assurances from Israel about allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, but did not give details of when and how. Diplomatic talks about the possibility of reopening the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza are still ongoing

• Top US General Michael Kurilla is also in Israel on an unannounced trip. He heads the military's central command and oversees American forces in the Middle East

• The Israeli Air Force says its has hit targets in Lebanon belonging to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah
• Hamas has released a video showing one of the people it took hostage during its assault on Israel. It shows a young woman speaking Hebrew who identifies herself as 21-year-old Maya Shem
• Israeli military said about half a million Israelis have been evacuated in the past 10 days
• The UN says about one million Palestinians who've fled their homes are in urgent need of food, water and fuel
• Russia’s draft humanitarian resolution on Israel and Gaza failed to pass the UN Security Council with Western nations including the US and UK voting against it because it failed to condemn Hamas

Image source, Reuters

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has called for a humanitarian corridor to be opened into Gaza.

He said urgent help was needed to address an increasingly dire situation in the besieged enclave of 2.3 million people.

Canada supports Israel's right to defend itself but "even wars have rules", he added.

"Terrorism is always indefensible, and nothing can justify Hamas's acts of terror. ... Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people nor their legitimate aspirations," he told parliament.

Five Canadians were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel while three are still missing.

The chief Palestinian diplomat in the UK says that Israel has been preparing for the "mass slaughter, not of Hamas but of my people" from the moment Palestinian militants attacked on 7 October.

Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, told BBC's HardTalk that "we should believe Israel's defence minister when he says Palestinians are simply human animals".

Asked about the actions of Hamas, Zomlot said that "we do not condone violence on all sides, particularly civilians" but that the same condemnations are not coming from the Israeli side.

Zomlot said life in Gaza right now was "like living a horror movie".

He described how part of his extended family had been wiped out by the Israeli bombardment.

David Willis
reporting from Washington

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said Washington had secured assurances from Israel about allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.

He also said the two nations were discussing the possibility of creating special areas to – as he put it – "keep Palestinian civilians out of harm's way".

He made those comments after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the Israeli war cabinet.

He added that the US was committed to the security of its closest ally in the Middle East, and said President Biden's Wednesday visit to Tel Aviv was aimed at reaffirming that commitment.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim says he has expressed Malaysia's "unwavering support for the Palestinian people" to Hamas.

Ibrahim said he had a phone conversation with the head of Hamas' political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh.

"Given the dire situation in Gaza, I strongly advocate for the immediate cessation of bombardment and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor in Rafah," Ibrahim posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"It is also imperative for Israel to abandon their adherence to the politics of dispossession, immediately ceasefire with Hamas and genuinely pursue a peaceful resolution to end the ongoing conflict."

In this spirit, we are committed to delivering humanitarian aid, particularly in the form of food and medicine to alleviate the suffering of those in need.