Two days ago, Israel entered Gaza on several fronts with tanks and troops, while a permanent savage bombardment of the besieged population continues. It accelerates genocide and terror intending to expel the Palestinians and colonizing Gaza, regardless of the number of deaths, which already exceeds 8,117, at least 3,324 of them children. The complete cutoff of communications, the depletion of fuel, water, food and medicine are acts of state terrorism and genocidal ethnic cleansing. The people resist heroically. The mobilizations of solidarity with the world grew and expanded like never before during the weekend.
Saturday, October 28
The Israeli army continues attacking the Gaza Strip this Saturday, after ground battles between soldiers and militiamen of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and night bombings of unprecedented intensity since the start of the war, which destroyed hundreds of buildings.
Israel says its ground troops are fighting inside Gaza as it subjects the besieged territory to the heaviest bombardment since the war began. Hamas says its fighters have clashed with Israeli troops in several locations.
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, stated this Saturday that the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas “entered a new phase”, after a night of intense bombing and a ground incursion by the Israeli army into the Gaza Strip.
“We have entered a new phase of the war. Yesterday, the earth in Gaza shook,” Gallant said in a video released by his communications services. Hamas said on Saturday that its militants in Gaza were ready to meet Israeli attacks with “all” their “strength” after the Tel Aviv Army extended its air and ground attacks against the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli Army insisted to the inhabitants who still remain in the north and in Gaza City that they are “running out of time” to flee to the south of the enclave, at a time when there are fears of an imminent large-scale entry by land of Israeli forces in the territory. Even UN organizations denounce the attempted forced transfer of an entire city as a war crime, evidently part of the Zionist plan of ethnic cleansing and colonization.
International media and aid agencies say they lost contact with staff in Gaza amid a near-total communications blackout.
“We are extremely concerned about the well-being of our teams,” said Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, adding that the loss of communication means more than 2 million people cannot reach ambulance services. “This includes injured people, people with chronic diseases and pregnant women,” he said.
AP and Al Jazeera journalist Fares Akram said in a post on X that he lost 18 members of his family in an Israeli airstrike, and that the communications blackout in Gaza made it difficult to confirm the whereabouts of his relatives: “With no internet and phone connection, it took 12 hours to confirm that 18 of my extended family members lost their lives and 18 others remain trapped under the rubble.”
Parents across Gaza have been writing their children’s names on their bodies, so they can identify them after Israeli airstrikes.
At least 110 medical staff in the Gaza Strip have been killed by Israeli shelling and airstrikes since October 7, the Health Ministry says. In addition, 50 ambulances have been attacked, half are no longer working. 12 hospitals and 46 primary care clinics have closed due to damage caused by bombing or lack of fuel. 24 hospitals, with an occupancy of 2,000 beds, have been ordered to be evacuated in northern Gaza.
Another protest and another vigil are taking place in central Ramallah, West Bank. This is now an evening event. Not just here in Ramallah, but throughout the occupied West Bank. We see protests every night in Nablus, Hebron, and Jenin.
An intense exchange of fire continues along the border between Israel and Lebanon. Israel says mortars and anti-tank guided missiles have been launched from southern Lebanon at its military positions, setting off sirens.
The United States has been quietly moving forward with the expansion of a secret base it maintains in Israel’s Negev Desert, just 32 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaza, according to a report by The Intercept. With the code name “Site 512,” construction at the radar facility atop Mount Har Qeren will include what U.S. government records describe as a “life support facility,” or barracks-like structures for staff.
A protest against the fighting in Gaza is currently taking place in Tel Aviv. Protesters carried banners calling for a ceasefire and to negotiate a “hostage deal” to bring home captives held by Hamas.
More than 200,000 people took to the streets of central London this Saturday to demand that Israel end its offensive on Gaza and that the British Government intercede so that a ceasefire can be declared.
Tens of thousands once again filled the streets of Baghdad in Iraq.
Sunday, October 29
There are already more than 8,117 dead in Gaza, at least 3,342 of them children, at least 2,062 women and 460 elderly; the injured are already more than 20,242. Hundreds were killed in this morning’s “unprecedented” Israeli attack. Save the Children denounces violence of “epic proportions” against children: since October 7, 3,195 more children have died than the annual total in conflict zones around the world since 2019.
The Palestinian telecommunications company Jawwal announces the “gradual” return of telephone and internet services. Our correspondents report that all service has already been cut off again.
Egypt denounces that “Israeli obstacles” prevent the delivery of aid to Gaza. Thousands of people break into UNRWA warehouses to take supplies. Yesterday, Doctors Without Borders lamented that the efforts of the international community are “weak” and “too slow” and criticized that the non-binding resolution approved on Friday by the UN General Assembly “has done nothing to reign in the indiscriminate violence unleashed on a helpless people“. The WHO warns that the Israeli order to evacuate hospitals in Gaza cannot be carried out. The Palestinian Red Crescent reports that it has received “threats” from Israeli forces to evacuate Al Quds hospital “immediately.”
A large and violent series of attacks is now taking place in the Tal al-Hawa area, as well as in the northern Gaza Strip. There is violent shelling around Al-Quds Hospital and Al-Dahdouh Square in the Tal Al-Hawa area of Gaza City.
Netanyahu warned today that the war “will be long,” attacking by land, sea and air. Unlike previous night operations, Israeli forces now remain inside the Strip. The Israeli government amends the 2016 anti-terrorism law to apply it more broadly, pending ratification by Parliament. The modification will allow individuals to be considered terrorists and not only organizations, as was established until now.
Some thirty human rights groups in Israel urge the international community “to act in the face of unprecedented levels of violence” by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and to “stop the forced removal of Palestinians from their lands.” Hezbollah claims its first attacks after last night’s major offensive against Gaza.
Hamas offers to hand over all Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of all Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. In a televised speech, Abu Obeida said there were contacts to negotiate a prisoner exchange and that “there was an opportunity to reach an agreement, but the enemy blocked it.“
The resistance continues to confront the occupation forces in the West Bank. Occupation bulldozers advance towards the Jenin camp and demolish the street of the Tawalba mosque amid armed clashes.
Massive mobilizations break out everywhere in defense of the Palestinian people and against the Zionist genocide. From the LIS we call to deepen mobilization and international solidarity to stop the Zionist genocide.
