Hamas leadership ‘dead men walking … inside and outside Gaza,’ says Israeli military spokesman
Jonathan Conricus, the acting spokesperson for the Israeli military, has described the Hamas leadership inside and outside of Gaza as “dead men walking” in an interview with Sky News in Australia.
Posting a clip to social media, in which he described the channel as asking “refreshing questions actually pertaining to the fighting and situation on the ground”, he told viewers:
The mission [inside Gaza] is to engage with Hamas and simply to dismantle each and every Hamas stronghold that is buried underground in bunkers. We are doing that in slow and meticulous order according to plan. Our advances are good, solid.
It is a very challenging battlespace to be in. Hamas has prepared the battlefield, unfortunately, very well.
And it is totally enmeshed with tunnels. Many of them short tactical tunnels that are just basically fighting positions, that allow Hamas to move from one ally to another. To emerge and then submerge. And some are longer and deeper and wider. But we are slowly getting to all of them and there are gains achieved each day of the fight.
The directive is definitely to kill or capture … all the leaders of Hamas. Those who planned, facilitated, and executed the murderous 7 October massacre in Israel. We’ve said so clearly. All of them are dead men walking. And it’s only a matter of time inside Gaza and outside of Gaza, until these Hamas leaders will either be captured or killed by Israel.
Refreshing questions actually pertaining to the fighting and situation on the ground. We’re making solid progress according to plan, and we intend to keep at it until we dismantle Hamas and return the hostages. With @ljayes on @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/Zdg8yW2wiT
— Jonathan Conricus (@jconricus) November 8, 2023
Key events
Wafa Aludaini, reporting for the Guardian from Gaza, has interviewed three Palestinians who have been left as the last members of their family:
Eighteen-year-old Dima al-Lamdani dreamed of being a successful businesswoman while growing up in the Shati refugee camp. When Israel’s military warned on 13 October that everyone in the north of Gaza should evacuate south, Lamdani’s father called his brother, and all of them, several generations of an extended family, decided to flee the camp. They took temporary refuge in the home of a family friend.
Two days later at dawn, Lamdani sat with her aunt drinking coffee, unable to sleep. The next thing she remembers, she was covered in rubble with the sounds of people shouting all around her. Nearly 50 people were in the residential building, including 17 members of Lamdani’s family. Lamdani, her brother, and her two younger cousins, who were pulled from the rubble of the house, were the only survivors. “The time I spent waiting to be found were some of the most horrifying moments. I was about to lose my mind. I screamed and cried when they found me,” Lamdani said.
Lamdani was then brought to a mortuary where she had to identify the bodies of her loved ones. “I could hardly recognise them, as their facial features changed. I bawled and begged: ‘Please don’t leave me alone. I can’t live without you!’” she said. Lamdani’s two cousins are now in her care, and she wonders how she will go on.
Read more of Wafa Aludaini’s report here: ‘Why didn’t we die together?’: the last survivors of three Gaza families speak
Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 10,569, including 4,324 children
The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip has said that the number of people killed in Gaza by Israeli military actions since the start of the war on 7 October has risen to 10,569.
It says 4,324 of these are children, and that a further 26,457 Palestinians have been injured.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued from Gaza.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
AP is reporting that the pace of Palestinian civilians fleeing the combat zone in northern Gaza has increased as Israel’s air and ground campaign there intensifies.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said on Wednesday that about 15,000 people fled on Tuesday, compared with 5,000 on Monday and 2,000 on Sunday.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has posted to social media to say all roads are closed heading to al-Quds hospital, and that “medical teams are unable to leave the hospital to reach the injured persons”.
It writes that an “Israeli bombardment has been ongoing since last night in the vicinity of al-Quds hospital from the western side”.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 12.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
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Jonathan Conricus, who is acting as a spokesperson for the Israeli military during the conflict, has described the Hamas leadership inside and outside of Gaza as “dead men walking”. He said “The directive is definitely to kill or capture … all the leaders of Hamas. Those who planned, facilitated, and executed the murderous 7 October massacre in Israel. We’ve said so clearly. All of them are dead men walking. And it’s only a matter of time inside Gaza and outside of Gaza, until these Hamas leaders will either be captured or killed by Israel.”
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Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are encircling Gaza City and operating inside it. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Netanyahu said there would be no ceasefire before hostages were released and urged people in Gaza to move south “because Israel will not stop”.
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Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, also said the IDF were operating in the heart of Gaza City and “tightening the chokehold” around it. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Gallant rejected any humanitarian pauses without the return of hostages.
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Foreign ministers from the G7 called Wednesday for a “humanitarian pause” in the war between Israel and Hamas to allow essential supplies to be delivered to desperate civilians in Gaza. Speaking to reporters after a meeting in Tokyo, Japan’s foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, said the G7 had confirmed the need for “urgent action to address the humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. The foreign ministers repeated their condemnation of Hamas’s 7 October on Israel and their support for Israel’s right to self-defence. But they also emphasised the need to comply with international law during the ongoing conflict, Kamikawa added.
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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, again rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel on Wednesday. He told the media in a press briefing in Tokyo “those calling for an immediate ceasefire have an obligation to explain how to address the unacceptable result that would likely bring about. Hamas left in place, with more than 200 hostages, with the capacity and stated intent to repeat 7 October, again, and again and again.”
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Blinken also set out the US position on what he described as “a pathway to Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in states of their own”. He said the only way to “durable peace and security” was “no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza … no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism … No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besieged Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza”. He later added that “Gaza cannot be continued to be run by Hamas. It is also clear that Israel cannot occupy Gaza. Now, the reality is that there may be a need for some transition period at the end of the conflict.”
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Israel has claimed to kill the senior weapon maker of Hamas, Mohsen Abu Zina. The IDF described him as “an expert in developing strategic weapons and rockets used by Hamas terrorists”.
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Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson, told Sky News in the UK on Wednesday that only 100,000 civilians remained in northern Gaza out of the population of 1.1 million.
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The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said “a move towards a peace-loving Palestinian leadership is the most desired outcome” of the current Israel-Hamas conflict.
Al Jazeera is carrying some quotes from Alyona Synenko, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Speaking in East Jerusalem, she told the network that the accounts she was hearing from colleagues inside Gaza were “heartbreaking”, adding:
They were on the way to distribute medical supplies, they saw thousands of people on the road … people in wheelchairs, elderly, children. These people are desperate. They kept asking, ‘Are we safe? Is there shelter for us? Where can we find food? Where can we find water?’ … we didn’t have answers to these questions and this is devastating to be there and witnessing these massive needs and not having enough of a response to help these people.
Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, defended her criticism of Israel before a House of Representatives vote to censure her over her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war. The House ultimately voted 234-188 to censure Tlaib. The Michigan Democrat said: “I will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words,” Tlaib said, adding: “I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable.”
The censure measure was forwarded by the Republican Rich McCormick in response to what he said were “falsehoods” about “our greatest ally, Israel, and the attack on 7 October”.
Here is the video clip:
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said “a move towards a peace-loving Palestinian leadership is the most desired outcome” of the current Israel-Hamas conflict.
Speaking after the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Tokyo, Reuters quotes Cleverly saying:
In the short term, it is inevitable that Israel, because they have the troops in Gaza, will need to have a security responsibility. But our view is as soon as practicable, a move towards a peace-loving Palestinian leadership is the most desired outcome.
Reuters is carrying an additional quote from Antony Blinken, in which the US secretary state has modified earlier comments that “durable peace and security” in the region means “no reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends” and “no attempt to blockade or besieged Gaza”, by suggesting that Israel might run the Gaza Strip for a “transition period”.
Blinken said:
Gaza cannot be continued to be run by Hamas. That simply invites repetition of 7 October. It is also clear that Israel cannot occupy Gaza. Now, the reality is that there may be a need for some transition period at the end of the conflict. We don’t see a reoccupation and what I’ve heard from Israeli leaders, is that they have no intent to reoccupy Gaza.
Justin McCurry
Foreign ministers from the G7 have called for a “humanitarian pause” in the war between Israel and Hamas to allow essential supplies to be delivered to desperate civilians in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting in Tokyo, Japan’s foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, said the G7 had confirmed the need for “urgent action to address the humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
The foreign ministers repeated their condemnation of Hamas’s 7 October on Israel and their support for Israel’s right to self-defence. But they also emphasised the need to comply with international law during the ongoing conflict, Kamikawa added.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, along with foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy said they supported a pause in the fighting “to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement and the release of hostages” held by Hamas.
They said “the rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians” was “unacceptable, undermines security in the West Bank, and threatens prospects for a lasting peace”.
Speaking in Tokyo, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, again rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.
He told the media in a press briefing:
All of us want to end this conflict as soon as possible. And meanwhile, to minimise civilian suffering. But as I discussed with my G7 colleagues, those calling for an immediate ceasefire have an obligation to explain how to address the unacceptable result that would likely bring about. Hamas left in place, with more than 200 hostages, with the capacity and stated intent to repeat 7 October, again, and again and again.
In a media briefing after the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Tokyo, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, set out Washington’s position of what it believes a “day after” scenario should look like in Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war concludes.
He told the press that these were the conditions needed for “durable peace and security”, saying:
The US believes key elements should include no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Not now. Not after the war. No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks. No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besieged Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza. We must also ensure no terrorist threats can emanate from the West Bank.
Blinken went on to say the US was seeking a future settlement that “must include the Palestinian people’s voices and aspirations at the centre of post-crisis governance in Gaza. It must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, and it must include a sustained mechanism for reconstruction in Gaza”.
He said the US sought “a pathway to Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in states of their own, with equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity”.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is to hold a news conference in Tokyo, after attending the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting there. We will bring you any key lines that emerge.
More details soon …
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
