Israel-Hamas war: Forces ordered to capture Gaza City, destroy militants’ leadership: Latest updates

The Israeli military is preparing on Sunday to launch a ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, after telling Palestinians living in the densely populated territory to flee south towards a closed border with Egypt.

The Israeli national security adviser, meanwhile, warned Lebanese militant group Hezbollah not to start a war on a second front, threatening the “destruction of Lebanon” if it did.

The New York Times, citing three military officers, reported that tens of thousands of soldiers have been ordered to capture Gaza City and destroy the enclave’s current leadership.

that shocked Israel, over the killing and horrifying mobile phone footage and reports from medical and emergency services of atrocities in the towns and kibbutzes that were overrun. In response, Israeli jets and artillery have subjected Gaza to the most intense bombardment it has ever seen, putting the enclave, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under total siege.

Gaza authorities said over 2,200 people have been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded. Rescue workers searched desperately for survivors of nighttime air raids.

Israel-Hamas war: Latest updates on October 15

The Israeli military has announced that its ultimate goal is to wipe out the top political and military hierarchy of Palestine-based Hamas that controls Gaza and led last week’s terrorist attacks in Israel that killed over 1,300 people.

NYT report claimed that to make it easier for its soldiers to operate, the Israeli military’s rules of engagement have been loosened to allow troops to make fewer checks before shooting at suspected enemies, the three Israeli officers said. It would also be the first in which Israel has attempted to capture land and at least briefly hold onto it since its invasion of Gaza in 2008, the officers added.

The report also claimed that the Israeli ground invasion was initially planned for the weekend, but was delayed by a few days at least in part because of cloudy conditions that would have made it harder for Israeli pilots and drone operators to provide ground forces with air cover.

On Saturday, US President Joe Biden spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging the leaders to allow humanitarian aid to the region and affirmed his support for efforts to protect civilians.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday in Qatar, where they discussed the Palestinian militant group’s deadly attack in Israel “and agreed to continue cooperation” to achieve the group’s goals, Hamas said in a statement. During their meeting in Qatar’s capital Doha, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian praised the rampage as a “historic victory” that had dealt a setback to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

The US on Saturday deployed a second aircraft carrier “to deter hostile actions against Israel” while President Joe Biden pushed for the protection of civilians amid the American ally’s siege and bombardment of Gaza. The presence of the USS Eisenhower and its affiliated warships in the eastern Mediterranean signals Washington’s “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and our resolve to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war,” secretary of defence Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Iran’s mission to the UN once again warned that the war between Israel and Hamas could widen if Israel continues striking Gaza, seen as a veiled threat to deploy its proxy terror group Hezbollah or take action itself.

Accusing Israel of “war crimes and genocide”, the mission said “the situation could spiral out of control & ricochet far-reaching consequences”, placing the blame on the UN Security Council.

On Saturday, the Lebanese Army accused Israel of killing a Reuters journalist in southern Lebanon, with a Lebanese military source saying the country had conducted a technical on-the-ground assessment after the attack that supported its claim. Israel’s military said it used tank and artillery fire in the area to prevent an infiltration from Lebanon around the time of Issam Abdallah’s death. It said its actions followed Hezbollah fire along the Israel-Lebanon border, and that the incident was under review. The video journalist was laid to rest in his hometown on Saturday in a funeral procession attended by hundreds of people.

A planeload of World Health Organization supplies has landed at Egypt’s el-Arish airport and is destined for Gaza when humanitarian access across the border is possible, the UN said on Saturday. The cache includes enough basic essentials for 300,000 people and enough trauma medicines and materials for 1,200 wounded, the UN said in a release. It called for opening the Rafah border crossing immediately to humanitarian deliveries.

Syria’s defence ministry confirmed strikes on the Aleppo Airport which have been attributed to Israel. “At approximately 11:35 pm… the Israeli enemy carried out an air strike from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea… targeting Aleppo International Airport, causing material damage to the airport and putting it out of service,” the ministry says in a statement.