Israel at war: What happened on day 23?

The White House pushed on Sunday for a humanitarian pause to the Gaza war and stressed the importance of protecting Palestinian civilians, even as it underscored Israel’s right to eliminate Hamas’s terror threat.

“It is important for Israel to distinguish between going after terrorist targets, to take out terrorists who continue to threaten Israel, and going after civilians,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Israel would allow a dramatic increase in aid to Gaza in the coming days, an official said on Sunday, calling on Palestinian civilians to head to what he described as a "humanitarian" zone in the south of the territory.

"In the coming week we were planning to increase dramatically the amount of assistance" headed for Gaza from Egypt, said Colonel Elad Goren of COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.

"We have marked a humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip in the Khan Yunis area... we still recommend that the civilian population that evacuated will go to this zone," he told media during an online briefing.

Goren did not say whether the humanitarian zone was new or an existing area.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday it has received warnings from Israeli authorities to immediately evacuate al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip.

"Since this morning, there has been raids 50 meters away from the hospital," it added in a statement on Facebook.

Thousands of Gaza residents broke into warehouses and distribution centers of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) grabbing flour and "basic survival items," the organization said on Sunday.

"This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza," UNRWA said in a statement.

Egyptian cleaning workers are seen in front of the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, while trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians await for it to open to enter Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 19, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/STRINGER)

Aid supplies to Gaza have been choked since Israel began bombarding the Palestinian enclave in response to a deadly attack by its ruling terrorist group Hamas.

Due to a security incident, the residents of Misgav Am in northern Israel are asked to enter protected areas and remain there until further notice. The roads in the area have been closed to traffic.

This is a developing story. 

Egypt warned Israel against carrying out military operations along the Philadelphi Corridor and rejected Israel's apology for damage to an Egyptian Army guard post, according to Egyptian sources quoted in Cairo's Al-Arabi Al-Jadid newspaper on Sunday morning. 

The Philadelphi Corridor, also called the Philadelphi Route, is a narrow strip of land, 14 km in length, situated along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in southern Gaza.

Trucks carrying aid arrive at the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 21, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

One source quoted in the newspaper said that "Egypt may take diplomatic steps that will limit the relationship between Israel and Egypt."

'Deliberate provaction'

The source also claimed that Egypt made it clear that the Israeli apology for firing at one of the Egyptian Army's guard posts was not accepted. According to the source, the Egyptians claim that this is not an oversight, but a deliberate provocation.

According to another source quoted in the newspaper, Egypt also conveyed messages to the leadership of Hamas, when, among other things, a promise was made to Hamas that Egypt would refuse to condemn the organization or label it as a terrorist organization

IDF fighter jets attacked over 450 military targets of Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced on Sunday morning.

Among the targets that were attacked were military headquarters, observation posts, and Hamas anti-tank firing positions.

As part of the expansion of IDF ground forces' activity, combined combat teams attacked terrorist squads that tried to attack IDF soldiers.

On Saturday night, an IDF officer was seriously injured as a result of an IED hit in northern Gaza.

Additionally, an IDF soldier was moderately injured during an encounter with terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip.
The officer and the soldier were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital.

Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank overnight, the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said early on Sunday.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that Israel had “crossed the red lines” and could “force everyone to take action,” in a post on X (formerly Twitter) early Sunday morning.

Zionist regime’s crimes have crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action. Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel. The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield.

— سید ابراهیم رئیسی (@raisi_com) October 29, 2023

“Zionist regime’s crimes have crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action. Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel,” wrote the Iranian president.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (REUTERS/FLASH90)

“The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield,” added Raisi, in an apparent reference to rocket and drone strikes targeting US forces in Syria and Iraq.

Iranian proxies 'do not get orders from Tehran'

Raisi made similar comments in an interview with Al-Jazeera on Saturday night, additionally claiming that Israeli forces who had entered Gaza had been “defeated” and forced to retreat. As of Sunday morning, Israeli forces had seemingly not withdrawn from the positions they had reached on Friday night, with clashes reported by Palestinian media in a number of locations around the Gaza Strip.

The Iranian president additionally claimed that Iran’s proxies in the region are “independent” and “do not receive any orders from Tehran.” Raisi additionally stated that the strikes by Iran’s proxies were conducted in response to messages received by Iran from the US.

Telephone and internet connections were partially restored in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning, after they were disrupted on Saturday, according to Palestinian reports.

⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show that internet connectivity is being restored in the #Gaza Strip; service was disrupted on Friday amid heavy bombardment by Israel, leaving most residents cut off from the outside world at a critical moment 📈 pic.twitter.com/I7hBa9L9I9

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) October 29, 2023

The NetBlocks internet connectivity watchdog also reported that connection seemed to be restored on Sunday morning.