Key points
- Israel says it launched ‘limited raids’ into the Gaza Strip overnight
- Israel intensifies attacks on Gaza as air force pounds Hamas targets around the clock
- Israeli troops are on the Gaza border waiting for order to begin a ground offensive
- Israel is urging some 300,000 who remain in Gaza City to move south
- Fourteen trucks carrying aid entered Gaza from Egypt on Sunday night, UN says
Top reads
- Israeli attacks reduce much of northern Gaza to rubble as more aid enters enclave
- Ursula von der Leyen’s solo run on Israel has damaged the EU, writes Una Mullally
- Israeli ambassador accuses President Higgins of repeating ‘misinformation’
- German Jews shocked by lack of empathy after Israel attacks
The Israeli embassy has admitted that a tweet/post by its Deputy Head of Mission was “wrong” and did not reflect its government’s policy.
In a twitter post on Sunday, Ms Maoz stated: “#Ireland Wondering who funded those tunnels of terror? A short investigation direction - 1. Find a mirror 2. Direct it to yourself 3. Voilà”
She linked to a post by the Israeli deputy spokesman on foreign affairs, Alex Gandler.
Mr Gandler stated that international aid to Gaza is being diverted by Hamas into building tunnels.
“There is a city of defense and attack tunnels under the sands of Gaza. Instead of investing in a metro, water treatment plants, roads, schools, electricity grids and the wellbeing of all Gaza residents, what Hamas has done is dig tunnels of terror, filled with bunkers, ammo storage facilities, command and control centers and hostage\kidnaped cells. Hamas is ISIS.”
Ms Maoz has now deleted the tweet. In a statement the embassy said it has now been deleted “since it does not represent the official position of Israel or the Embassy.
“The tweet was in reference to the ample evidence that Hamas, which controls Gaza, abuses international humanitarian aid that is sent to Gaza.
“However since the text and wording were wrong, it was deleted.”
Our Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary writes:
Ireland is pushing for the European Union to call for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow vital supplies to reach Gaza at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said.
“Ireland has called for a humanitarian ceasefire, to allow goods, aid and supplies to the hospitals there in particular, this is a matter of utmost urgency,” Mr Martin told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
“The loss of life is enormous, is at a scale that has to be stopped, and in our view the suffering of innocent civilians and particularly children, is on a scale that requires an immediate cessation in our view.”
Martin said he had spoken to Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, and had stressed to him the importance of avoiding an escalation of conflict in the wider region, using any influence it can over Hizbullah and Hamas.
The Israeli embassy deputy chief of mission Adi Ophir Maoz has now deleted the tweet in which she suggested that Ireland has been funding Hamas tunnels which have been used to target Israel.
In a post on Sunday, Ms Maoz stated: “#Ireland Wondering who funded those tunnels of terror? A short investigation direction - 1. Find a mirror 2. Direct it to yourself 3. Voilà”
She linked to a post by the Israeli deputy spokesman on foreign affairs, Alex Gandler.
In his post Mr Gandler stated that international aid to Gaza is being diverted by Hamas into building tunnels.
“There is a city of defense and attack tunnels under the sands of Gaza. Instead of investing in a metro, water treatment plants, roads, schools, electricity grids and the wellbeing of all Gaza residents, what Hamas has done is dig tunnels of terror, filled with bunkers, ammo storage facilities, command and control centers and hostage\kidnaped cells. Hamas is ISIS.”
Ms Maoz has now deleted the tweet, but People before Profit TD Gino Kenny said her original sentiments were “outrageous”. Coupled with the comments made by the ambassador criticising President Michael D Higgins, Mr Kenny suggested that the entire Israeli diplomatic service in Ireland should be expelled.
This is from a freelance journalist in the Middle East, Jotam Confino, has been given access to CCTV footage which the Israelis have shown to the international media. Andrew Hilliar, a France 24 journalist, said the 45 minute video was “very distressing”. One piece of footage saw a father, who is running to a shelter with his two sons, being killed. The children return to their house screaming while their father’s killer helped himself to drinks from the shed. “There was loud gasps in the auditorium. It was difficult to watch,” he said.
Ireland’s Enterprise Minister has said the Israeli ambassador’s comments accusing the Irish President of misinformation were not helpful.
Dana Erlich told the Sunday Independent at the weekend that she was frustrated at what she said was “misinformation” shared by President Michael D Higgins in relation to whether Israel had breached international law.
Ms Erlich also said Ireland was not a neutral country in relation to Israel-Palestine.
Asked about the comments on Monday, Simon Coveney, who is a former foreign affairs minister, told RTÉ Radio: “I don’t think that’s helpful.
“President Michael D Higgins is somebody who for many years has taken an interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He, like many others in Ireland, is deeply concerned about what is currently unfolding in Gaza.
“I don’t think it’s helpful when an ambassador starts to make pointed comments in relation to our President.
“I think Michael D Higgins has reflected the view of many in Ireland.”
Leaders of three EU countries are visiting Israel over the next 24 hours. The Greek prime minister, Kryiakos Mitsotakis; the Dutch prime minster, Mark Rutte; and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, are due to meet Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu today. They are expected to plead with him to ensure that sufficient aid gets to the people in Gaza.
Israel’s military said on Monday that ground forces launched “limited raids” into Gaza overnight to fight Palestinian gunmen amid the intensification of its bombardment of the enclave.
The announcement came after the White House pledged a “continued flow” of aid into Gaza, with a second convoy entering on Sunday. The convoy of 14 trucks reached Gaza through the Rafah crossing, after the UN said the amount of aid entering Gaza was just 4 per cent of the daily average before the conflict.
Israel has continued to target Gaza with airstrikes, with leaders of the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain calling on Israel to follow international humanitarian law, while emphasizing their support for the state.
Israel’s two-week bombardment has killed at least 4,600 people, Gaza’s health authority said, after Hamas’s attacks on October 7th that killed 1,400 people in Israel and saw 212 hostages seized.
Seven hospitals in northern Gaza have been forced to shut down due to damage from strikes, lack of power and supplies, or Israeli evacuation orders, according to the World Health Organisation.
The Israeli embassy has sought to clarify a tweet/post made by Adi Ophir Maoz, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in Dublin.
In a post on Sunday, Ms Maoz stated: “#Ireland Wondering who funded those tunnels of terror? A short investigation direction - 1. Find a mirror 2. Direct it to yourself 3. Voilà”
She linked to a post by the Israeli deputy spokesman on foreign affairs, Alex Gandler.
In his post Mr Gandler stated that international aid to Gaza is being diverted by Hamas into building tunnels to attack Israel.
“There is a city of defense and attack tunnels under the sands of Gaza. Instead of investing in a metro, water treatment plants, roads, schools, electricity grids and the wellbeing of all Gaza residents, what Hamas has done is dig tunnels of terror, filled with bunkers, ammo storage facilities, command and control centers and hostage\kidnaped cells. Hamas is ISIS.”
An Israeli embassy spokesman added: “Ms Maoz is stating in that tweet that international funding for Gaza is misappropriated by Hamas to fuel its terrorist capability.”
Israel says it launched ‘limited raids’ into the Gaza Strip overnight.
Reuters reports that Israel’s military said on Monday that ground forces mounted limited raids into the Gaza Strip overnight to fight Palestinian gunmen, and that airstrikes were being focused on sites where Hamas was assembling to attack any wider Israeli invasion.
Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari also said the military had carried out strikes to eliminate 20 Hizbullah cells in southern Lebanon since the start of the war.
It quotes Mr Hagari as saying: “During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for our next stage in the war. These are raids that go deep.”
Reuters reports he also added that the raids tried to gather information on the 222 hostages being held by Hamas.
Hamas fighters engaged with an Israeli force that infiltrated the Gaza Strip and returned to their base after destroying some Israeli military equipment, the Palestinian group’s armed wing Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades has said.
The group said in a statement the infiltration by what it described as an armoured force took place east of Khan Younis in the southern region of Gaza, amid expectations of a full-scale ground offensive by Israeli forces massed around the enclave.
“Fighters engaged with the infiltrating force, destroying two bulldozers and a tank and forced the force to withdraw, before they returned safely to base,” the statement said.
There was no immediate Israeli comment about the destruction of Israeli equipment or vehicles.
Interesting comments from Adi Ophir Maoz, the Israeli deputy chief of mission in Ireland.
What does he mean by Ireland funding the Hamas tunnels?
Watch this space.
Mai Khaled in Rafah and Heba Saleh in Cairo report for The Irish Times:
Hana Abu Awda and the 40 people with whom she shares a home in Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, have been unable to shower for more than a week.
They are crammed into one house after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee to the south of the territory by Israeli bombardments and orders to leave the heavily populated north of the besieged strip.
“Whatever water we manage to get is barely enough for drinking,” said Abu Awda. “We prioritise the children and we just wipe our bodies with a wet cloth. It is still very hot here, and this is giving us skin problems.”
Securing water has become a huge challenge for Palestinian families in the territory, home to 2.3 million people, where the temperature on Sunday was 31 degrees. People are being forced to drink dirty water, according to UN agencies, which have reported cases of diseases spread by contaminated water being drunk and poor sanitary conditions.
Juliette Touma, spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian relief, said that across Gaza “people have either no water at all or limited supplies”. Even in UNRWA shelters, drinking water was scarce, she added.
Israel has laid siege to Gaza, cutting off power, water and fuel supplies, since Hamas, which controls the strip, killed more than 1,400 people in their October 7th attack, according to Israeli officials. More than 4,650 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza from land, air and sea since then, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday.
Israel has linked the siege to the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza, two of whom were freed this week. “No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” Israel’s energy minister Israel Katz said on social media on October 12th.
The strip normally receives fresh water from a mixture of wells, a pipeline from Israel and desalination plants on the Mediterranean. However, fuel and power shortages have hit the plants and water pumping facilities, aid agencies say.
Israel is allowing only a restricted and insufficient water supply, for about three hours a day, through its pipeline to southern Gaza, UN officials say.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said he is outraged by the anti-Semitic agitation spreading even to Germany as the Israel-Hamas war rages, and warned at the inauguration of a new synagogue that the vow of “never again” must be unbreakable.
Mr Scholz’s remarks come as anti-Semitic incidents have been rising in Germany following the violent escalation of the war in Gaza.
Assailants threw two Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in Berlin on Wednesday, prompting Mr Scholz to say that attacks on Jewish institutions would never be accepted.
He expanded on his comments at the inauguration of the temple in Dessau, a city in eastern Germany whose synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis 85 years ago.
“I am deeply outraged by the way in which anti-Semitic hatred and inhuman agitation have been breaking out since that fateful October 7, on the internet, in social media around the world, and shamefully also here in Germany,” Mr Scholz said.
“Here in Germany, of all places. That is why our ‘never again’ must be unbreakable.”
Mr Scholz spoke as he gathered with Jewish leaders at the synagogue. He noted that the community has recently grown as it welcomed people from Ukraine.
“This synagogue here in the middle in Dessau says that Jewish life is and remains a part of Germany. It belongs here,” Mr Scholz said.
“Germany will do everything to protect and strengthen Jewish life.”
Two-thirds of Gazans (1.4 million people) have been displaced by the bombing, according to the latest reports.
They have been placed in 147 UN shelters. The World Food Programme says the situation is “catastrophic” and the 50 trucks that have entered the strip is nowhere near enough to cope with demand.
Residents in the northern Gaza Strip have been told to leave and move south of Wadi Gaza in the centre of the territory.
However Israeli air strikes have also continued in southern Gaza and some people have refused to leave their homes, saying nowhere is safe.
Irish citizen Aymen Shaheen, who is trapped in Gaza, has described the situation as a “catastrophe”.
Mr Shaheen said he left Gaza city in the north of the Gaza Strip before the Israeli bombardment began and is staying with family in Rafa which is in the south of the strip.
He said the Israelis are bombarding Rafa too and that neighbours’ homes have been hit within 100 metres of where he is staying.
He told Morning Ireland his brother-in-law had been killed by an Israeli air strike.
Gazans are running short of everything, he said, adding only 20 trucks are getting through to Gaza compared to 500 that are needed on a daily basis.
“What to do? We are all helpless to your family. That is the reality on the ground for every parent and father. We can do nothing.”
Israeli president Yitzhak Herzog has claimed in a Sky News interview that a guide to making chemical weapons was found on the body of a dead Hamas soldier.
The guide, discovered on a USB storage device that the Hamas militant had been carrying, was “al-Qaeda material” on how to weaponise cyanide, a highly toxic chemical, said Mr Herzog.
It was found in Kibbutz Be’eri, where Hamas rampaged through on October 7th, killing dozens of people and taking hostages, he said.
“We’re dealing with Isis (Islamic State group), al-Qaeda and Hamas,” said Herzog, who also posted about his claims.
“In this material, there are instructions how to produce chemical weapons, this speaks about arson, speaks about various chemicals that come out and produce chemical weapons, simple as that.”
Washington has advised Israel to delay its expected ground invasion of Gaza in order to buy time to negotiate the release of 212 hostages held by Hamas and allow more aid in to Palestinian civilians, the New York Times has reported, citing US officials.
The US also wants more time to prepare for possible attacks by Iran-backed groups on US interests, the paper reported, adding that such attacks were likely to increase when Israel launches its invasion.
However, the paper noted that officials said the Biden administration was “not making a demand of Israel and still supports the ground invasion and Israel’s goal of eradicating Hamas”.
The Times said the advice was being relayed by defence secretary Lloyd J Austin because the Pentagon has been advising Israel on military matters and Mr Austin has being having near-daily phone calls with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant. – Guardian
In Berlin, Germany, thousands of people took part in a rally to show solidarity with Israel on Sunday.
Two Palestinians were killed at the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday.
Residents told Reuters that Israeli forces raided the camp and carried out widespread arrests, where they clashed with gunmen and some youths who threw stones.
Israeli forces have currently retreated to the outskirts of the camp, the residents added. – Reuters
The leaders of the US, UK, France, Canada, Germany and Italy have called on Israel to adhere to international law and protect civilians, while also reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism.
In a statement put out after a phone call, the leaders’ offices said: The leaders reiterated their support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism and called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.
They welcomed the release of two hostages and called for the immediate release of all remaining hostages. They committed to close co-ordination to support their nationals in the region, in particular those wishing to leave Gaza.
The leaders also welcomed news that aid conveys had been allowed into Gaza and added that diplomacy aimed at preventing the conflict from spreading was continuing.
The leaders committed to continue close diplomatic co-ordination, including with key partners in the region, to prevent the conflict from spreading, preserve stability in the Middle East, and work toward a political solution and durable peace. – Guardian
The White House has promised a “continued flow” of aid into Gaza, after a second convoy entered on Sunday and Israel continued to bombard the besieged enclave into the early hours of Monday.
US president Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed in a call that “there will now be continued flow of ... critical assistance into Gaza,” the White House said, after a second convoy of 14 trucks entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
The UN has warned that the volume of aid entering Gaza was just 4 per cent of the daily average before the hostilities and a fraction of what was needed with food, water, medicines and fuel stocks running out.
The Israeli defence body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs said Sunday’s second batch of aid included water, food and medical supplies and that everything was inspected by Israel before it was brought into Gaza. Israel has not allowed any fuel to enter Gaza. – Guardian
Israel is intensifying its attacks on Gaza, as its air force continues to pound Hamas targets around the clock.
With Israeli troops poised on the Gaza border waiting for the order to begin a ground offensive, much of northern Gaza has already been reduced to rubble and Israel is urging the 300,000 or so residents who remain in the area to move south for their own safety.
An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman said the army was waiting for the right moment to begin the next phase.
Fourteen trucks carrying aid entered Gaza from Egypt on Sunday night, the UN said.
Follow all the latest updates on the Israel-Hamas war here.
