Israel sends Palestinian workers back to the Gaza Strip

Friday, November 3rd, 3:54: Israel wants to send Palestinian workers back to the Gaza Strip. There will be “no more Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip” in Israel, the Israeli security cabinet said on Thursday evening. “The workers from the Gaza Strip who were in Israel on the day the war began will be sent back to Gaza,” and Israel is breaking off contact with the Palestinian territory, it said.

According to the Israeli Authority for Civil Affairs in the Occupied Territories (Cogat), around 18,500 people from the Gaza Strip have work permits in Israel. The authority did not say how many Palestinian workers were in Israel at the time the war began and would be affected by the repatriation.

After the major attack on Israel by the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas around a month ago, in which 1,400 people were killed on the Israeli side and more than 240 people were abducted, Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip and responded with retaliatory strikes. According to Hamas information that cannot be independently verified, more than 9,000 people have been killed on the Palestinian side since then.

Israeli army reports encirclement of Gaza City

7.30 p.m.: The Israeli army says it has surrounded Gaza City. “The city of Gaza has been surrounded,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Thursday evening. Israel has increased its attacks on the Gaza Strip in recent days and has also allowed more and more ground troops to enter the Palestinian territory controlled by the radical Islamic Hamas.

“Our soldiers have completed the encirclement of the city of Gaza, the center of the terrorist organization Hamas,” Hagari said. The encirclement came about a week after the start of Israeli ground operations in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, launched a large-scale attack on Israel on October 7th in which, according to Israeli figures, around 1,400 people were killed, mostly civilians. More than 240 people were kidnapped from Israel to the Gaza Strip by Hamas fighters. According to Hamas figures that cannot be independently verified, more than 9,000 people have been killed by Israel’s counterattacks in the Gaza Strip.

Israel attacks Hezbollah military targets

6:59 p.m.: The fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border continues to escalate shortly before Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s planned first speech since the outbreak of the Gaza war. In response to shelling from Lebanon, Israel’s army said it attacked military positions of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia on Thursday evening.

The military announced on Thursday that the targets were, among other things, command and control centers and weapons depots. Israeli forces also attacked a military site used by Hezbollah. The army emphasized that the Shiite militia Hezbollah was “responsible for the current situation in Lebanon.”

Israeli army warns neighboring states: “Less than half of fighter jets in use”

5:13 p.m.: The Israeli Chief of General Staff, Herzi Halevi, spoke in a statement about the fight against Hamas and warned neighboring countries. “Make no mistake – less than half of the IAF’s total strength is deployed in the Gaza Strip,” he wrote. “The majority are prepared and ready, with bombs under the wings and people ready to go to the planes at any moment and strike in other areas if necessary.”

“We fight in the name of the sanctity of life, against an enemy who has taken death and destruction on his banner,” Halevi continued. “We are fighting for our right and the right of future generations to live safely here and to thrive in our homeland. This is our homeland – we have no other country.”

At the end, he reiterated his warning to neighboring countries. “We will fight as warriors, with a sharp compass of values ​​in hand, on which our country, which is also surrounded by enemies, was built.”

Anew Rocket fire on Israel north and south

3:55 p.m.: Extremist Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have again fired rockets into southern Israel. The army announced on Thursday that there had been an alarm in the desert town of Beersheva and in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip. In addition, rocket alarms were triggered several times in the north.

It was unclear where the shelling there came from. According to the emergency services, there were initially no reports of injuries. According to Israeli figures, more than 8,000 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel in the first three weeks of the Gaza war alone, which began on October 7th.

400 more foreigners leave Gaza

10:26 a.m.: Around 400 foreigners and Palestinians with dual nationality have left the Gaza Strip for Egypt. They arrived in the Egyptian part of the Rafah border crossing on Thursday, as the Egyptian Red Crescent confirmed to the German Press Agency. In addition, 200 additional foreign passport holders are scheduled to leave the country on Thursday.

According to a list, around 400 Americans as well as people from Switzerland, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Croatia, Mexico, South Korea and other countries should leave the country. In the transit area they completed formalities for entry into Egypt, said Raed Abdel Nasser, secretary general of the Egyptian Red Crescent in North Sinai. The Palestinian border authority had asked them to wait at the border crossing.

According to Egypt, a total of around 7,000 foreign nationals from 60 countries are waiting to leave the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry invited representatives of foreign embassies to a meeting in Cairo to provide information about the documents required to enter Egypt and the logistics. It remains unclear whether there are other foreigners in Gaza who do not want to leave.

Faeser bans Hamas and Samidoun

10:05 a.m.: Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has banned the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas and the pro-Palestinian network Samidoun. She announced this on Thursday in Berlin. As a terrorist organization, Hamas aims to destroy the state of Israel, Faeser explained in a statement. “As an international network, Samidoun spread anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda under the guise of a ‘solidarity organization’ for prisoners in various countries.”

In the case of Hamas and the foreign structures of Samidoun, it is a so-called ban on activity, and for the German structures of Samidoun it is also a ban on associations. The consequences are similar. Any assets will be confiscated and internet presence and social media activities will be banned. Anyone who continues to be active for the organizations is committing a criminal offense.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the USA. According to estimates by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany, there are around 450 people behind it, many of whom are German citizens. However, there is no official branch of the Islamist group in this country. Associations that were close to the movement were banned a few years ago. As an additional measure, the ban on activity remains.

Samidoun is a group that describes itself as the “Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.” According to constitutional protection officers, Samidoun belongs to the radical Palestinian organization PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and is hostile to Israel. The PFLP itself propagates the armed struggle against Israel, but, unlike Hamas, is not religious. Samidoun caused outrage just a few hours after the bloodbath in Israel on October 7th because members of the network distributed sweets in honor of Hamas on Sonnenallee in the Neukölln district of Berlin.