WORLD BRIEFING: November 6, 2023
Israel-Hamas War
Israel's military has carried out one of the heaviest bombardments of Gaza since the war began a month ago. The director of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital says about 200 people were killed in strikes overnight. Casualties arrived at the hospital in carts carried by donkeys, the director told our reporter in Gaza, as communications outages left people unable to reach ambulance services. Meanwhile, all major UN agencies have said "enough is enough" in a rare joint statement, as they repeat calls for a humanitarian ceasefire - BBC
In a rare announcement, the US military said a guided missile submarine has arrived in the Middle East, a message of deterrence clearly directed at regional adversaries as the Biden administration tries to avoid a broader conflict amid the Israel-Hamas war. US Central Command said on social media Sunday that an Ohio-class submarine was entering its area of responsibility. A picture posted with the announcement appeared to show the sub in the Suez Canal northeast of Cairo - CNN
In a media briefing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday compared Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in his indifference toward the welfare of his people. “[Sinwar] is behaving like a little Hitler in his bunker," he said, adding that "he doesn't care about his people. He couldn’t care less about his people.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli military claimed that Hamas positioned rocket launchers near a public pool and in an amusement park in Gaza. "This is more proof that the terror group used civilians as human shields," the military said.
Lior Hayat, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Sunday that diplomatic relations with Turkey remain unchanged despite the position taken by Ankara on the war in Gaza and the fact that the Turkish ambassador was recalled over the weekend. " We have to rethink how we prevent such a crisis," Hayat told Ynet in an interview.
Thousands of Palestinian workers have returned to the Gaza Strip after being deported by Israeli authorities. The Israeli security cabinet approved their return to Gaza, and announced severing of all contacts with Gaza. "Israel is severing all contact with Gaza. There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza," said a statement following the security cabinet meeting. According to a security source in the Karm Abu Salem commercial crossing, also known as Karem Shalom, the workers walked some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to enter Gaza after being left at the crossing by Israeli forces. The source, who spoke to Anadolu on condition of anonymity, said that the workers arrived in the city of Rafah and the necessary assistance were provided to them from the government and relief agencies, especially since the Israeli authorities confiscated all their money and mobile phones. Thousands of Palestinian workers from Gaza were in Israel on Oct. 7 when the conflict broke out following Hamas’ surprise attack against Israel.
Egypt allowed two Turkish ships with field hospitals to enter its ports to treat the wounded in the Gaza Strip.
Elsewhere
An overnight Russian attack on Odesa injured 8 people, damaged the port city’s water infrastructure and 20 apartment buildings. It also damaged the art museum - one of the Ukrainian city’s most cherished cultural facilities - and more grain infrastructure. Housed in one of the city’s oldest palaces, it has some 10,000 works of art. Museum officials feared a strike some months back and moved precious pieces into shelters.
Vladimir Putin has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that will keep him in power until least 2030, as the Kremlin chief feels he must steer Russia through the most perilous period in decades, six sources told Reuters. Putin, who was handed the presidency by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has already served as president for longer than any other Russian ruler since Josef Stalin, beating even Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year tenure. Putin turned 71 on Oct. 7. The sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of Kremlin politics, said that news of Putin's decision had trickled down and that advisers were now preparing for the campaign and a Putin election.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov offered his condolences and ordered a “full investigation” after Russian missiles reportedly killed some 20 soldiers attending an awards ceremony held in a frontline position in the south of the country - RFE/RL
More than 1.1 million people -- or about 40 percent of registered voters -- cast ballots in Moldova’s municipal elections, surpassing the required 25 percent in most areas, in a vote marked by accusations of Russian meddling in the former Soviet republic. The Central Electoral Commission on November 5 said that as of 7 p.m. local time, only nine of the 898 villages, towns, and cities voting to elect local leaders had failed to reach the 25 percent threshold to make the elections valid.
Runners from Ethiopia and Kenya took home the top prizes in the 2023 New York Marathon, which took place Sunday. Around 50,000 athletes competed in the race, with thousands more spectators lined up through New York City’s five boroughs to cheer them on - CGTN America
Required reading…
At gate to Gaza, deported workers mark end of rare exchange with Israel - Washington Post
With no money, identity documents or even phones, thousands of Palestinian workers trudged through a gate between Israel and Gaza — ending weeks in wartime custody and possibly drawing to a close a rare economic point of contact between the two sides.
In tattered clothes, the men passing through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Friday were among 10,000 Gazan workers ordered deported after spending weeks in Israeli prisons. Some still wore plastic tags around their wrists with numbers from their detention.
An estimated 7,000 other Gazans remain stuck outside of the enclave, stripped of their Israeli work permits and temporarily sheltered by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Wael Abu Omar, a border official in Gaza, said on Saturday.
Read the full Washington Post article here