Palestinian group calls Israel’s suspension of water supply to Gaza ‘crime against humanity that leads to genocide’
Muhammed Sabry |07.11.2023 -
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Hamas on Tuesday called on the UN to pressure Israel to restore water supply to the blockaded Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the Palestinian group called the Israeli suspension of water supply to the enclave as a “crime against humanity that leads to genocide.”
“The (Israeli) occupation cut off all water supplies to the Gaza Strip … which forced citizens to drink unsafe water after the occupation bombed the remaining water tanks with American missiles and aircraft,” Hamas said in a statement.
It called on the UN and international parties “to stop this crime against humanity that leads to genocide and to work immediately to restore water supplies.”
Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children and 2,719 women, have been killed since then. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.
Besides the large number of casualties and massive displacements, basic supplies are running low for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents due to the Israeli siege.
‘Nothing justifies the horror’: UN says 160 children dying daily in Gaza
A spokesman for the UN agency said an average of 160 children were being killed each day in Gaza.
Christian Lindmeier said the level of suffering and hardship in the war-torn and under-siege strip of land was hard to fathom.
“Nothing justifies the horror being endured by the civilians in Gaza,” he said.
Israel has unrelentingly bombarded Hamas-run Gaza, killing more than 10,000 people, around 40 percent of them children, according to tallies by health officials there.
“It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volcker Turk said in a statement at the start of a trip to the region.
Earlier UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Gaza Strip had become a graveyard for children.
He said 89 United Nations workers killed while coming to the aid of Palestinian refugees was the highest in the organisation’s history.
Israelis have marked one month since the savage attack by Hamas militants on October 7 which triggered the war. Hamas fighters burst across the fence and killed 1400 Israelis and abducted more than 200, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel said on Wednesday (AEDT) its forces had surrounded Gaza City, home to a third of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, and were poised to attack.
Palestinians still trapped inside were given a four-hour window to leave.
“For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza,” the military announced, referring to the wetlands that bisect the strip.
Gaza’s interior ministry says 900,000 Palestinians are still sheltering in northern Gaza including Gaza City.
“The most dangerous trip in my life. We saw the tanks from point blank (range). We saw decomposed body parts. We saw death,” resident Adam Fayez Zeyara posted with a selfie of himself on the road out of Gaza City.
Hamas says Israel forced fleeing Palestinians to hold white flags as they fled to humiliate them.
In some of the first direct comments on Israel’s plans for the future of Gaza after the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take over responsibility for the territory’s security once it defeated the militants.
Israeli forces have relied on air and artillery strikes to clear a path for their ground offensive.
While Israel’s military operation is focused on the northern half of Gaza, the south has also come under attack. Palestinian health officials said at least 23 people were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes early on Tuesday in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“We are civilians,” said Ahmed Ayesh, who was rescued from the rubble of a house in Khan Younis where health officials said 11 people had been killed.
“This is the bravery of the so-called Israel – they show their might and power against civilians, babies inside, kids inside, and elderly.”
As he spoke, rescuers at the house used their hands to try to free a girl buried up to her waist in debris.
Palestinians look for survivors following an air strike in Khan Younis refugee camp.
Netanyahu said Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in Gaza fighting to let hostages leave or emergency aid to enter but he again rejected international calls for a ceasefire.
Gaza services are close to “breaking point” without fuel supplies, the UN humanitarian office said. Gaza’s interior ministry said all bakeries in the north were out of service due to Israeli attacks and lack of fuel.
Israel has given few clear indications about what fate it sees for Gaza when the war is over.
Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005, and two years later, Hamas took power there, defeating the Palestinian Authority (PA) which exercises limited self-rule in a separate, Israeli-occupied territory, the West Bank.
Asked who would be responsible for security in Gaza after Hamas was defeated, Netanyahu told US television’s ABC News: “I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
The White House, however, does not favour Israeli re-occupation.
“It’s not good for Israel, it’s not good for the Israeli people,” spokesman John Kirby told CNN.
“Whatever it is, it can’t be what it was on October 6. It can’t be Hamas.”
The New Arab Staff & Agencies
07 November, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will assume overall responsibility for Gaza indefinitely after Israel ends its war on the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Netanyahu has given the strongest indication yet of what Israel plans to do in Gaza [Getty]
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that his country will take "overall responsibility" of Gaza's security for an indefinite period after its war on the Palestinian enclave ends.
"Israel will, for an indefinite period, have the overall security responsibility," he said in a television interview with ABC News broadcast on Monday.
"When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine," he added.
The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza by air, land and sea since October 7, when Hamas launched a cross-border attack.
The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 10,000 people, Gaza's health ministry said Monday, including more than 4,000 children.
AnalysisDario Sabaghi
In Monday's interview, Netanyahu disputed the health ministry's figures, which he said likely included "several thousand" Palestinian combatants, though he cited no evidence for this claim.
Despite growing calls for a ceasefire from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other world leaders, Netanyahu said he did not support one.
"There will be no ceasefire -- general ceasefire -- in Gaza without the release of our hostages," he said.
"As far as tactical, little pauses -- an hour here, an hour there -- we've had them before," he said.
Israel may agree to pauses to let humanitarian goods into Gaza, or to allow for hostages to leave the besieged Palestinian territory, he added.
Asked if he should take any responsibility for the October 7 attack, Netanyahu said "of course".
"It's not a question and it's got to be resolved after the war," he said, adding that his government had "clearly" not met its obligation to protect its people.
By: Newsroom
Date: November 7, 2023
The Middle East is on the brink of a regional war, and the United States obviously bears responsibility for this. In this context, we would like to note several paradoxes, notes ‘Al Khaleej’ from UAE.
The first is the predicament in which the United States finds itself. In recent decades, successive American administrations have consistently declared that their country ‘is leaving the Middle East’ with all its chronic and re-emerging crises. They concentrated on East Asia to counter China.
Despite this strategy, the United States is now almost completely consumed by wars in the Middle East.
The second paradox: the Biden administration, unlike previous governments, showed no interest in resolving the Palestinian issue, unlike Donald Trump. But the Democratic government is now more involved in the Gaza war than any other US administration in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflicts.
The third paradox represents a serious decline in the effectiveness of America’s political management of crises in the Middle East. She constantly changes her rhetoric, which affects her relationships with traditional allies. Worse, the US doesn’t know how far it can go by directly participating in a regional war it says it doesn’t want.
The absolute bias of the United States against Israel is nothing new since the establishment of American hegemony after World War II. But this time they seem unable to keep the situation in Gaza under control, which is about to escalate into a dangerous regional war.
For example, the current US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cannot be compared with Henry Kissinger. Yes, they are both Jewish and loyal to Israel, but Kissinger has proven himself to be a competent foreign minister for a superpower, while Blinken has been careful to emphasize his religious affiliation.
The main drawback of Blinken’s policy is that he has focused most of his diplomatic efforts on moving Gazans to Sinai. Egypt did not agree to this scenario. Jordan also could not remain silent about the consequences of such a decision. And the Palestinians themselves are not ready to go to Sinai due to fears that this will be the beginning of a second Nakba.
So, for the first time in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the US administration has no idea what might happen the next day.
The fourth paradox: US military and intelligence support for Israel, arms supplies, sending US aircraft carriers and battleships to the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as joint planning and preparation of military operations have reached unprecedented proportions.
At the same time, the Biden administration fears the consequences of a long and costly ground war and has asked Israel to delay the deployment of troops to the Gaza Strip under the pretext of preserving the lives of hostages and completing the training of the US army stationed in the region, fearing that they would be attacked by so-called “Iranian agents”.
The fifth paradox is that the Biden administration, which has relied on the conflict in Ukraine to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia and reaffirm its unilateral leadership in the international system, is faced with a difficult question: what is more important for American interests – victory in the conflict in Ukraine or salvation Israel?
There is near consensus between the Democratic and Republican parties in the US House of Representatives to support Tel Aviv. At the same time, the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Trumpist Mike Johnson, is seeking to cut aid to Kyiv. Here we would like to draw your attention to the fact that news about the Ukrainian conflict has almost disappeared from television screens and the front pages of newspapers. This, of course, plays into the hands of Russia and China.
The sixth paradox is the failure to combine within one policy the humanitarian considerations that require the sustained delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip to save the lives of more than two million Palestinians, and the initiation of a large-scale war that would result in more casualties.
The United States still refuses to accept a UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire, under the pretext that it allegedly serves the interests of Hamas, while the Palestinian resistance adheres to a different approach, close to the positions of Russia and China on the need to stop the fighting.
All this points to future changes in the calculations of the conflicting parties in the Middle East.
For months Israel has been on the brink of of a civil war, spurred by Israeli Government plans to drastically change parts of Israeli life and society. And at the heart of it has been one man — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since his re-election to the top job at the end of 2022, Bibi, as he's known to most people here, has created a deep rift inside Israeli society that's gone to heart of the future of this country.
The tension has been rising here, week after week, as people have called for Bibi's resignation, "for the good of the country".
Coupled with a cost-of-living crisis that's seen Tel Aviv named the world's most expensive city, Netanyahu has been under prolonged attack from within. It's meant that for most Israelis going about their daily lives this year, the ongoing conflict with Palestinians had been a relatively background issue.
And then there was the October 7 Hamas massacre, and everything changed.
While my Israeli neighbours and I navigate the new throngs of security checks and physical barriers, his presence here has made for interesting conversation. Some of my neighbours, who are not usually fans of Bibi, have told me that "war is a time to put politics aside" — an indication they want the prime minister to do what he needs for the security of the country.
But large numbers of Israelis disagree and feel Netanyahu himself has contributed to the current crisis.
Every night, I listen to protesters who stand outside the prime minister's temporary residence, with their Israeli flags, megaphones and posters, shouting over and over again, "down with Bibi".
Security usually holds Israel together
Anger at Netanyahu has been boiling for 10 months over his unwavering push to change Israel's judiciary, handing the government more power over judicial appointments and court decisions.
This political agenda, backed by his ultra-right wing allies, has led to the country's largest and most wide-ranging anti-government protests ever. Week after week since the start of the year, I have stood among crowds of hundreds of thousands of people who flooded Israeli streets to protest the "judicial coup" as they called it, calling for the prime minister to resign.
In Gaza's busiest hospital, doctors do what they can to treat a tidal wave of desperate patients injured in Israeli air strikes. WARNING: Some readers might find the details and images in this story distressing.
Warnings have swirled from the business sector, military figures and even Israel's president have warned that the country was verging on societal and constitutional collapse.
Even in times of political crisis, one thing usually holds Israel together. Security. But this month has been different.
Many people who already believed Bibi had divided the country now hold him responsible for the most shocking breach of Israeli defences in half a century.
For months during his push for judicial changes, Netanyahu had been repeatedly warned by senior members of his security establishment that he was distracted and the country's enemies could exploit the political crisis, making Israel vulnerable.
There is also a view among some Israelis that Netanyahu's security focus had been directed more towards increasing tension in the West Bank, stoked in part by his hard-line ultra-nationalist coalition government and its appetite to increase settler presence in the Palestinian territory.
This week, a day before the one-month anniversary of the October 7 attack, I spoke with an Israeli man at an event supporting hostages and their families.
"The real problem is the guy who's our leader, he's worse than Hamas," he proclaimed.
This view isn't an anomaly. Numerous polls indicate support for the prime minister has nosedived since the Hamas attack, including a damning survey by Israel's Channel 13 television that found 76 per cent of Israelis think Netanyahu should resign. Another poll by the Dialog Centre found an overwhelming number of Jewish Israelis, 86 per cent, believe the attack from Hamas is a failure of the country's leadership.
Will Bibi ultimately fall?
There's one question that keeps being asked by journalists, commentators, down through to the general public: will Benjamin Netanyahu take some responsibility for the events of October 7?
Mea culpas have already been issued by senior Israelis including the IDF's intelligence chief, the head of Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, and the commander of the Israeli air force.
IDF operations in Gaza will deal a lethal blow to Hamas, but destroying the group requires long-term political and social remedies that eliminate the reasons why young men in Gaza feel a need to join.
But the prime minister has been conspicuously quiet. The closest he has come to acknowledging his part was during an Israeli-media press conference, where he said he would "have to give answers" for the security failure.
But for many in Israel, that's far from adequate.
Today the country is bound by grief and fear, united in a way it hasn't been during the internal rancour of the past 10 months.
But after the war ends, it's likely all political hell will break loose.
The hundreds of thousands of protesters who dedicated their energy to fighting against Bibi's judicial changes will transform into a bigger, broader group, targeting his management of the crisis, and wanting him to pay.
And despite being known for his political comebacks, this crisis could be the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership career.
Indonesia says Gaza hospital for Palestinians after Israel accusations
JAKARTA, Nov 7 ― Indonesia's foreign ministry said today that the purpose of the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza was to “fully” serve Palestinians in response to an accusation by the Israeli military that it has been used by Hamas to launch attacks.
Israeli military's has said that Hamas “systematically exploits hospitals as part of its war machine” as it exposed a network of tunnels, command centres and rocket launchers beneath and adjacent to hospitals in northern Gaza.
Hamas denies doing so and has accused Israel of spreading lies.
“Indonesia Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by Indonesians fully for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza,” said the ministry said in a statement, adding the hospital is run by Palestinian authorities, helped by a few Indonesian volunteers.
The hospital “is currently treating patients in the amount that far exceeds its capacity”, the ministry added.
Sarbini Abdul Murad, the chairman of MER-C, a voluntary group which funded the Indonesia hospital, told Reuters today the hospital had run out of fuel, and had “collapsed”.
Yesterday, Sarbini denied Israel's accusations, adding that it was a “precondition so that they can attack the Indonesian hospital in Gaza”.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has called for an immediate ceasefire and has sent humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza said more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the war since Hamas launched a cross-border assault on October 7, killing 1,400 people and seizing more than 240 hostages.
― Reuters
IDF to Newsmax: Gazan Hospital 'Abused by
By Nicole Wells | Monday, 06 November 2023
Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told Newsmax on Monday that the military's discovery of a tunnel network underneath a hospital in Gaza shows that humanitarian facilities are being "abused by Hamas" for warfare.
"Regarding this Qatari hospital in the name of one of the royals, which is there in order to provide medical service for Gazans, but has been used by Hamas to actively conduct combat, there were armed Hamas militants in that building fighting, using that specific building to shoot against our troops, and they conducted fighting and war operations from it," Conricus said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "What we're doing now is clearing the underground complex because we know – I tweeted this a few hours ago yesterday and now there's Palestinian claims – that this is some fuel depot and it's not a terror tunnel. Our troops are on the ground, and they are going through the booby traps and clearing it, and we will provide new detailed information exactly how this underground facility was used."
"But one thing that is very clear is that this hospital, like so many other hospitals in Gaza, has been abused by Hamas in order to fight against Israel," he continued. "They're using humanitarian facilities in there, fighting in direct violation of international law. We're not going to have it. We're exposing it to the world, and we will continue to fight and defend ourselves until Hamas is defeated."
Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip began after the Palestinian militant group launched a surprise Oct. 7 attack against the Jewish state that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and left hundreds more wounded or taken hostage.
When asked where the hostages are being held, Conricus said the "working assumption is that they are hidden underground" in tunnels like the one discovered beneath the hospital.
"They are protected by Hamas as their perhaps most important asset, and we work under the assumption that they are not in the same location," he said. "There's a lot of effort going into finding the hostages, understanding where they're held, who is holding them, and we are hard at work in doing exactly that. Our ground operations are also facilitating new access and more intelligence as to the location, and perhaps it will open up opportunities for us to be able to extract successfully [and] get people out."
"I don't want to speak too much about it, but I can just say that a lot is going on and that we are 100% committed to getting all of the 242 Israelis back home," he added.
Young Gazans describe how the Israel-
Hamas war has upended their lives
PBS NEWSHOUR
By —Amna Nawaz
By — Zeba Warsi
Life in Gaza was not easy before the Hamas terror attacks against Israelis on Oct. 7. Now, it’s immeasurably more difficult and deadly. We hear from several people in Gaza whose lives have been upended by the conflict, some of whom are still sending messages and others whose whereabouts are now unknown.
Full Transcript
Amna Nawaz:
Before the Hamas terror attacks against our Israelis, life in Gaza was not easy. Now it's immeasurably more difficult and deadly.
For the last two weeks, my colleague producer Zeba Warsi and I have been talking to people inside Gaza whose lives have been upended by this conflict.
We will hear now from several of them, some from whom we still receive messages and others whose whereabouts are now unknown.
That beautiful coastal city is Gaza, its charming port, peaceful beaches and life, both every day and extraordinary, pulsating through its people.
All that was before that war captured by 32-year-old Gazan photojournalist Motaz Al Aaraj. That Gaza lives only on his Instagram now. When his home was hit by an Israeli airstrike, Motaz lost his life's work.
Motaz Al Aaraj, Photojournalist, Project HOPE:
I have thousands of shots for Gaza, for the sea, for the people, for the markets, for all thing. I lost all thing. I don't have anything to show people what Gaza like before.
Amna Nawaz:
Now Motaz documents the war for D.C.-based charity group Project HOPE, the dire conditions in hospitals, the brutal impact of airstrikes, and the worsening humanitarian crisis.
Motaz Al Aaraj:
I found Sara (ph) under the car, under car. I have video for this.
Amna Nawaz:
He's living through the same war he's documenting, last week, capturing his neighbors 16-year-old daughter trapped under a car after an airstrike.
Motaz Al Aaraj:
I can't do anything for her. This is in — near my home.
Amna Nawaz:
Motaz is sheltering with his extended family and 50 others who fled their homes. Every day, he says, is a struggle to survive.
Motaz Al Aaraj:
It is very hard. Yes, not all days, I can found water and bread. Maybe I join the line six hour or seven hour and don't take anything, go to home empty and no food.
Rawan Shaheen, Student, University of Palestine: You're seeing so many people around you die, like every single day. You hear about a person, your neighbor or your friend. To be honest, I wonder a lot. It's like, when is my turn going to be?
Amna Nawaz:
That is 19-year-old Rawan Shaheen, Motaz's niece. She's a second-year college student studying pharmacy at the University of Palestine in Gaza.
Before the war, her life revolved around her friends and school.
Rawan Shaheen:
I had a plan for this year laid out. I had a plan for each module. I think everyone had plans. And all their plans were canceled, and none of us expected this.
My brother, Ibrahim (ph), is 12 years old. And when he talks to me, he talks like — he's kind of very sad at the moment, because he feels as if were not going to make it. I think there is a feeling of numbness, that we don't feel like we are sharing our emotions that much, because, honestly, it's kind of sad.
But what's happening, it shouldn't be normal. But because we're seeing so much death, it's almost becoming some sort of normal, which is not normal.
Amna Nawaz:
We spoke to Rawan in a video chat last week when she had an Internet connection. Since then, we can only text, and, even then, sporadically. Her story is one of many.
Palestinian:
Completely disconnected from the outside world.
Amna Nawaz:
Including 20-year-old Shaimaa Ahmed.
Palestinian:
This is what a Palestinian needs to go through to just buy bread.
Amna Nawaz:
And her younger siblings, Malik (ph)…
Palestinian:
And these are the last words of a grandmother for her grandchildren.
Amna Nawaz:
… and Dua (ph). They live in North Gaza and have been posting about life in the war on Instagram under GazanVoices whenever they're able to get a connection.
Shaimaa Ahmed, Gaza Resident:
To be honest, my biggest wish now isn't even to go back to my university to how it used to be, but for my professors and for my friends and the people I know to stay alive and for me to be able to see them after this whole chaos is over.
Amna Nawaz:
With limited connectivity, Shaimaa and I have been messaging whenever she can.
On October 25.
Woman:
"Our neighborhood is being severely bombed as I am texting you. We were thinking of leaving, but we have no place to leave to."
Amna Nawaz:
On October 29.
Woman:
"My sister and I had recently saved up to redecorate our room. My house has been reduced to rubble. Every day is worse than the previous one."
Amna Nawaz:
That night, Shaimaa recorded this audio of the Israeli bombings around her. We've since lost contact with Shaimaa, her last messages to me from Tuesday, October 31.
Woman:
"It feels terrible. We hear so many sounds, but have no idea what is going on. I get connected for exactly one minute, and then it cuts off. The tanks are moving closer. The living situations are unbearable now."
Amna Nawaz:
We were able to confirm she and her family had fled south after this and were still alive as of November 3.
For these young Gazans, who've grown up online and connected to the rest of the world, they say all they want now is to be heard.
Rawan Shaheen:
I feel like its very important, especially if you're living outside of Gaza, outside of Palestine,your voice makes a huge difference to us, and it really helps us.
And, in fact, the reason they cut out our communications, Internet and electricity and all of that is because they don't want our voice to be reached out to the world. But you have a voice, so you could use it to help us.
Watch
Watch 5:20
Blinken ends Middle East trip with mixed results on limiting Gaza civilian toll
By Nick Schifrin, Eliot Barnhart, Teresa Cebrián Aranda
Nov 06
Watch 8:39
Palestinian Authority not going ‘to Gaza on an Israeli military tank,’ PM says
By Leila Molana-Allen
Nov 06
Israeli forces cut off north Gaza as Palestinian death toll from monthlong war passes 10,000
By Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy, Associated Press
Nov 05
Watch 4:37
Gaza residents flee south as Israel’s military encircles Gaza City
By Leila Molana-Allen, Ali Rogin, Kaisha Young
By — Amna Nawaz
Amna Nawaz serves as co-anchor of PBS NewsHour.@IAmAmnaNawaz
By —Zeba Warsi
Zeba Warsi is Foreign affairs producer, based in Washington DC. She's a Columbia Journalism School graduate with an M.A. in Political journalism. Prior to the NewsHour, she was based in New Delhi for seven years, covering politics, extremism, sexual violence, social movements and human rights as a special correspondent with CNN's India affiliate CNN-News18.@Zebaism
Hamas leader refuses to acknowledge killing of civilians in Israel
A senior Hamas leader has refused to acknowledge that his group killed civilians in Israel, claiming only conscripts were targeted.
Moussa Abu Marzouk told the BBC that "women, children and civilians were exempt" from Hamas's attacks.
His claims are in stark contrast to the wealth of video evidence of Hamas men shooting unarmed adults and children.
Israel says more than 1,400 people were killed by Hamas in the 7 October attacks, most of them civilians.
Mr Marzouk, the group's deputy political leader, who is subject to an asset freeze in the UK under counter-terrorism regulations, was interviewed on Saturday in the Gulf. He is the most senior member to speak to the BBC since the 7 October atrocities.
The BBC pressed Mr Marzouk on the war on Gaza, specifically on the scores of hostages being held inside the territory.
He responded that they were not able to be freed while Israel was bombing Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry says 10,000 people have been killed since Israel started operations last month.
"We will release them. But we need to stop the fighting," he said.
Mr Marzouk recently travelled to Moscow to discuss eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens snatched on 7 October by Hamas, a proscribed terror organisation in many countries including the UK and US.
He said Hamas members in Gaza had "looked for and found two female hostages" from Russia but were unable to release them because of the conflict.
They could only realistically release hostages, he said, if "the Israelis stop the fighting so we can hand them over to the Red Cross".
Challenged by the BBC about the attack of 7 October, Mr Marzouk claimed that Mohamed el-Deif, the leader of Hamas's Qassam Brigades military wing, had ordered his men to spare civilians.
"El-Deif clearly told his fighters 'don't kill a woman, don't kill a child and don't kill an old man'," he said.
Reservist soldiers were, he said, "targeted". He maintained that only "conscripts [...] or soldiers" were killed.
But women, children and civilians were "exempt", he said.
The BBC challenged the senior Hamas leader on videos captured from the helmet cameras of Hamas fighters, which show unarmed civilians being shot in their cars and homes.
Mr Marzouk, whose polished, measured manner during the interview sometimes slipped into irritation, did not answer the question directly.
When asked if Hamas's political wing had known of preparations for the attack, the deputy leader said that the armed wing "don't have to consult with the political leadership. There is no need."
The political wing, based in Qatar, often presents itself as being remote from the military forces in Gaza.
The UK government sees no distinction - it proscribed the Hamas political wing as a terrorist organisation in 2021, saying that "the approach of distinguishing between the various parts of Hamas is artificial. Hamas is a complex but single terrorist organisation".
Mr Marzouk is also listed as a specially designated global terrorist by the US Treasury Department, and is indicted on several charges of co-ordinating and financing Hamas activities.
Hostage crisis
The interview on Saturday came after Israel had refused US requests for a "humanitarian pause" in Gaza to let aid in and help get out some of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday all hostages must be released before any temporary truce could be agreed.
Mr Marzouk claimed that Hamas did not possess a list of all those he referred to as "guests", nor did he know where many were, because they were being held by "different factions".
There are several groups inside Gaza including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which work closely with Hamas but are ostensibly independent.
He said a ceasefire was needed to compile the information - there were other priorities while the territory was under bombardment.
Mr Marzouk will play a key role in how the conflict with Israel plays out, and is likely to be central in negotiations over the hostages.
Gaza death toll tops 10k; UN calls it a
children's graveyard
An Israeli military unit fires from an undisclosed location near the Gaza Strip border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Israel, Nov 6, 2023.
PHOTO: Reuters
NOVEMBER 06, 2023
GAZA — Gaza is becoming a "graveyard for children", UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday (Nov 6), amplifying demands for a ceasefire in the enclave, where Palestinian health authorities said the death toll from Israeli strikes had exceeded 10,000.
Both Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza have rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire. Israel says hostages taken by Hamas during its rampage in southern Israel on Oct 7 should be released first; Hamas says it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.
"Ground operations by the Israel Defence Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and UN facilities — including shelters. No one is safe," Guterres told reporters.
"At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel," he said, calling for an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Israel said 31 soldiers had been killed since it began expanded ground operations in Gaza on Oct 27 and reiterated that Hamas was hiding with civilians and at hospitals. Hamas said the idea that Hamas was based in hospitals was a "false narrative that the UN should verify.
A Reuters journalist in Gaza said Israel's overnight bombardment by air, ground and sea was one of its most intense since the Oct 7 attack in which Hamas killed 1,400 people in Israel and seized more than 240 hostages.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave said at least 10,022 people in Gaza have since been killed, including 4,104 children.
"Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day," Guterres said.
PHOTO: Reuters
International organisations have said hospitals cannot cope with the wounded and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries nowhere near enough.
Guterres said 89 people working with the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) were among the dead. UNRWA said five colleagues had been killed in the past 24 hours alone.
"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now," an earlier statement by 18 UN organisations said.
The United States is pushing hard to arrange pauses in the conflict to allow in aid rather than a full ceasefire, arguing, like Israel, that Hamas militants would just take advantage.
US President Joe Biden discussed such pauses and possible hostage releases in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, reiterating his support for Israel while emphasising that it must protect civilians, the White House said.
The faces of hostages were projected onto the wall of Jerusalem's Old City on the eve of the one month anniversary of the attack.
Israel says it is closing in on Hamas
The Israeli military said its forces had taken a militant compound and were poised to attack Hamas fighters hiding in underground tunnels and bunkers in the northern Gaza Strip, having isolated the area with troops and tanks. It released video of tanks moving through bombed-out streets and groups of troops moving on foot.
"Now we are going to start closing in on them," Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters.
The armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, said it had damaged 27 Israeli military vehicles in 48 hours and inflicted significant losses in direct engagements with Israeli troops.
PHOTO: Reuters
The health ministry in Gaza said dozens of people were killed by Israeli air strikes in the north and south, including on Gaza City's Rantissi cancer hospital, where eight people were killed. Israel's military said it was looking into the report.
Gaza's health ministry spokesman said an air strike had also hit a building belonging to Gaza's largest hospital, Al Shifa, where 170 people were being treated and hundreds of evacuees were sheltering. One person was killed and several were wounded, he said. Israel said it had not struck the hospital.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had escorted a four-ambulance convoy of patients from Gaza City to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Evacuations had been suspended since an Israeli strike on an ambulance on Friday but three Egyptian security sources said dozens of foreign passport holders also left on Monday.
Blinken on regional tour
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has toured the region to try to prevent the conflict escalating and plan a secure future for Israelis and Palestinians as well as get in more aid.
"I think we'll see in the days ahead that assistance can expand in significant ways," Blinken said in Turkey.
He visited the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday to show support for Palestinians there and in Gaza and held talks in Israel as well as in neighbouring Jordan with Arab leaders
PHOTO: Reuters
US CIA Director William Burns also visited Israel and was due to go on to other states in the region, the New York Times reported. The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.
Israel said it was striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to a barrage of rockets fired at northern Israeli cities, an intensification of the worst clashes across the Israel-Lebanon border since 2006.
Hamas said it had launched 16 missiles towards Nahariyya and Southern Haifa in Israel.
Meanwhile, people searched for victims or survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the health ministry said Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people in strikes early on Sunday
PHOTO: Reuters
"All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh," said Saeed al-Nejma, 53. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said it was gathering details.
The Israeli military said a four-hour window for civilians to leave the north would be repeated daily. UN monitoring showed fewer than 2,000 people used the corridor on Sunday, citing fear and road damage. A US envoy said on Saturday between 350,000 and 400,000 people were still in the north.
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