<\/p>\n
\u2022 Israeli minister backtracks after suggestion of dropping nuclear bomb on besieged enclave GAZA: An Israeli minister suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, as ground battles raged in northern Gaza on Sunday, where Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City resulting in house-to-house combat with Palestinian fighters.<\/p>\n \u201cSoldiers were seen engaged in house-to-house combat as tanks and armoured bulldozers churned through the sand in footage released by the army,\u201d AFP<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, phone and internet connections were down on Sunday evening for the third time during the Israeli aggression, according to Paltel, the last remaining major operator. Shortly after the blackout, the Israeli army launched an intense bombardment on Gaza City and other nearby zones in the north of the enclave.<\/p>\n The explosions were so powerful they could be heard in Rafah in the far south of the Palestinian territory, according to an AFP<\/em> journalist on the scene. Hamas said Israel was carrying out \u201cintense bombings\u201d around several hospitals in northern Gaza.<\/p>\n Images from the Gaza Strip showed civilians heading south away from the fighting, though Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told foreign reporters Hamas was using roadblocks to try to prevent them from fleeing.<\/p>\n \u2018We saw dead bodies\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe saw dead bodies in the streets,\u201d Suhad Zorob said as she fled south. \u201cWe saw the tanks\u2026 only one street away from us.\u201d The Gaza health ministry said Israeli bombing of Al-Maghazi refugee camp late on Saturday killed 45 people, with an eyewitness reporting children dead and homes smashed.<\/p>\n \u201cAn Israeli air strike targeted my neighbours\u2019 house in Al-Maghazi camp, my house next door partially collapsed,\u201d said Mohammed Alaloul, 37, a journalist working for the Turkish Anadolu Agency. He told AFP<\/em> the bombing killed four of his children as well as four of his brothers and several of his nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n Since Israel sent ground forces into the north of Gaza late last month, \u201cover 2,500 terror targets have been struck\u201d by \u201cground, air and naval forces\u201d, the army alleged on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u2018Nuclear option\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n In light of his comment regarding the use of nuclear bomb on Gaza, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu was subsequently suspended from government meetings \u201cuntil further notice\u201d, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician part of Netnayahu\u2019s ruling coalition, told Israel\u2019s Kol Barama radio he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel\u2019s retaliation in the Palestinian territory after Hamas fighters carried out their deadly attacks inside southern Israel.<\/p>\n When the interviewer asked whether the Israeli minister advocated dropping \u201csome kind of atomic bomb\u201d on the Gaza Strip \u201cto kill everyone\u201d, Eliyahu replied: \u201cThat\u2019s one option\u201d.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s office quickly responded in a statement, describing Eliyahu\u2019s remarks as \u201cdisconnected from reality\u201d and adding that Israel was trying to spare \u201cnon-combatants\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n In a follow-up question about the estimated 240 hostages held in Gaza, Eliyahu said that \u201cin war we pay a price\u201d. \u201cWhy are the lives of the hostages\u2026 more important than the lives of the soldiers?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, representing relatives of people snatched to Gaza by Hamas, slammed Eliyahu\u2019s \u201creckless and cruel\u201d statement.<\/p>\n Following the outcry over his remarks, Eliyahu said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that his statement about the atomic bomb was \u201cmetaphorical\u201d. He also said that Israel was \u201ccommitted to doing everything possible to return the hostages safe and sound\u201d.<\/p>\n Separately, four relatives of a journalist were killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, the official Lebanese news agency said, adding that the journalist was also wounded. The National News Agency (NNA) said the four victims are the sister of radio correspondent Samir Ayoub and her three grandchildren, aged 10, 12 and 14. They were following the journalist\u2019s car in another vehicle when they were killed. Earlier in the day, four rescue workers were injured in an Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon that hit two ambulances, according to the association that owned the vehicles and state media.<\/p>\n Blinken in West Bank<\/strong><\/p>\n US top diplomat Antony Blinken visited the occupied West Bank on Sunday, part of a whirlwind Middle East tour. Mr Blinken met Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas who denounced a \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza, where the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said at least 9,770 people had been killed in more than four weeks of conflict. Washington rebuffed calls for a ceasefire and backed Israel\u2019s goal of crushing Hamas.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again vowed that \u201cthere won\u2019t be a ceasefire until the hostages are returned\u201d. \u201cLet them remove this from their lexicon. We are saying this to our enemies and to our friends,\u201d the veteran right-wing premier said after meeting troops at an air force base. \u201cWe will simply continue until we win. We have no alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n The Israeli aggression has exacerbated tensions in the West Bank, where more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces and in settler attacks, according to the Palestinian health ministry. In the West Bank city of Jenin, bulldozers cleared the smoke-blackened rubble of buildings officials said were burnt in a nighttime Israeli raid.<\/p>\n Following his visit to the West Bank, Blinken made a brief stop in Cyprus, the nearest EU member state to Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has said it is working towards establishing a maritime corridor for aid to Gaza.<\/p>\n French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, on a visit to Qatar, called for \u201can immediate, durable and observed humanitarian truce\u201d that could \u201clead to a ceasefire\u201d. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called for an \u201cimmediate and comprehensive ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n That call was echoed by thousands of protesters in Washington in solidarity with Palestinians, one of multiple rallies held from Indonesia to Iran, as well as in European cities. Thousands also demonstrated in Israel on Saturday.<\/p>\n Pope Francis on Sunday renewed his call for an end to the Hamas-Israel conflict, urging the release of hostages and humanitarian aid for Gaza, describing the situation as \u201cvery serious\u201d.<\/p>\n Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THIS picture released by Israel\u2019s military on Sunday shows Israeli troops patrol inside the Gaza Strip.\u2014AFP \u2022 Israeli minister backtracks after suggestion of dropping nuclear bomb on besieged enclave\u2022 Intense bombing reported as Gaza Strip suffers third internet blackout GAZA: An Israeli minister suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, as ground battles raged in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/0607280513a0936.png?r=072818","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2022 Intense bombing reported as Gaza Strip suffers third internet blackout<\/strong><\/p>\n