Israel-Hamas war updates: Here’s what happened on Oct. 15

This live coverage has now ended. Find the latest up-to-date information on the Israel-Hamas war here.

9:30 p.m. ET

Nervous markets eye Gaza as oil hovers above US$90

Crude oil hovered above $90 a barrel while equities were weak and the safe-haven dollar was firm on Monday as investors nervously watched for whether escalating violence in Gaza would cause the conflict to spread beyond Israel and Hamas.

Israel’s shekel sank to a nearly eight-year low, after the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to “demolish Hamas” in retaliation for the rampage on Oct. 7 that killed 1,300 people in the worst attack on civilians in Israel’s history.

– Reuters

8:20 p.m. ET

Biden considering trip to Israel in the coming days

President Joe Biden is considering a trip to Israel in the coming days but nothing has been finalized, a senior administration official said Sunday.

The news comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been traveling around the Mideast this past week trying to prevent the war with Hamas from igniting a broader regional conflict. Biden has staunchly proclaimed his support for Israel and a trip there would be a firm sign of U.S. support following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. The official could not publicly discuss internal deliberations about the potential presidential travel and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Yet in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, the president warned Israel not to reoccupy Gaza, in his strongest public effort to hold Israel back after the attack that killed more than 1,300 people, including at least 30 U.S. citizens.

– The Associated Press

8:20 p.m. ET

Blinken plans return to Israel as U.S. vows to mitigate deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza

The U.S. government is scrambling in a bid to prevent Israel’s war with Hamas from expanding into a regional conflict, and vowing to help mitigate the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel for another round of meetings on Monday following a frantic tour around the Middle East in which he sat down with seven Arab leaders. His aim was to seek help ensuring Israel’s enemies, including Iran, Syria and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, do not get involved in the war.

– Adrian Morrow, U.S. correspondent

8:00 p.m. ET

Hezbollah flaunts its firepower as tensions mount at Israel-Lebanon border

Hamas, like Hezbollah, is backed by Iran and has long opposed Israel, at times with armed violence. But Hezbollah has amassed far more fearsome firepower.

Among the most dangerous questions for Israel is whether its actions in Gaza will prod Hezbollah to direct its full arsenal toward a second front.

“Everyone is looking at Hezbollah and wondering what they’re going to do,” said Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East program.

Already, the rumble of warfare is echoing along Lebanon’s border with Israel, which on Sunday dispatched helicopters to attack what it called military targets in Lebanon after receiving anti-tank fire that killed one man in an Israeli co-operative.

– Nathan VanderKlippe, senior international correspondent

7:50 p.m. ET

Gaza border crossing set to reopen as Israeli troops prepare ground assault

An Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza is expected to reopen amid diplomatic efforts to get aid into the Hamas-controlled strip that has been under intense Israeli bombing since the group’s rampage that that killed 1,300 people on Oct. 7.

Hundreds of metric tons of aid from several countries have been held up in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing.

NBC News, citing a Palestinian official, reported the Rafah border crossing would open at 9 a.m. on Monday. Citing a security source, ABC News reported the crossing would open for a few hours on Monday, without providing details. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm either report.

– Reuters

6:40 p.m. ET

Water runs out at UN shelters in Gaza, death toll rises in Gaza

Water has run out at U.N. shelters across Gaza as thousands packed into the courtyard of the besieged territory’s largest hospital as a refuge of last resort from a looming Israeli ground offensive and overwhelmed doctors struggled to care for patients they fear will die once generators run out of fuel.

Palestinian civilians across Gaza, already battered by years of conflict, were struggling for survival Sunday in the face of an unprecedented Israeli operation against the territory following a Hamas militant attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians.

Israel has cut off the flow of food, medicine, water and electricity to Gaza, pounded neighborhoods with airstrikes and told the estimated 1 million residents of the north to flee south ahead of Israel’s planned attack. The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 2,300 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting erupted last weekend.

– The Associated Press

5:50 p.m. ET

President Abbas says Hamas’s actions do not represent Palestinians

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the actions and policies of Islamist group Hamas do not represent Palestinian people, according to official news agency WAFA.

In a phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Abbas also called the Palestine Liberation Organization the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” WAFA said.

“The president affirmed his rejection of the killing of civilians on both sides and called for the release of civilians, prisoners and detainees on both sides,” added the news agency.

– Reuters

5 p.m. ET

Gaza struggles to access food and water amid blockade

4:21 p.m. ET

Ukraine working to evacuate citizens from Gaza and Israel, Zelensky says

Ukraine is working to evacuate nearly 260 of its citizens from Gaza and to fly other Ukrainians out of Israel, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Sunday.

Ukraine’s embassy in Israel said on social media on Saturday that 207 Ukrainian citizens, including 63 children, were evacuated from Tel Aviv to Romania on Saturday and that another flight would take 155 people to Romania on Sunday.

Many countries are working to get their citizens out of Israel and Gaza and send in humanitarian aid to civilians.

Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said three parties would have to approve the departure of Ukrainians from Gaza, complicating the process.

“The Palestinians need to release all Ukrainian citizens, Egypt to accept them, and Israel should not conduct any operation at this time, so that the crossing point would be safe,” he said in remarks televised on Sunday.

Egypt says its side of the Rafah crossing that connects Sinai with the Gaza Strip remains open, though traffic has been halted for several days due to Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side of the border. Israel’s military spokesperson said on Saturday that the border remains closed and any crossing into Egypt needed to be coordinated with Israel.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry protested to Israel after Ukrainian citizens were not allowed to evacuate from Gaza on Saturday.

Zelensky has condemned the attacks by Hamas on Israel, calling for world solidarity with Israel.

– Reuters

4:12 p.m. ET

Iran warns Israel: Don’t attack us, we won’t engage you

Iran said on Sunday that if Israel does not attack it, its interests or its citizens, then Iran’s armed forces would not engage militarily with Israel.

“Iran’s armed forces will not engage, provided that the Israeli apartheid does not dare to attack Iran, its interests, and nationals. The resistance front can defend itself,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York told Reuters.

– Reuters

2:50 p.m. ET

The scene on the ground in Sderot

Globe and Mail photographer Goran Tomasevic visited Sderot on Sunday, where evacuations were under way. Residents of the southern Israeli city boarded buses for other parts of the country to escape the rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip. Thousands already left the city last week under a state-sponsored program that puts them up in hotels elsewhere as a respite from the violence. The program in Sderot was expanded Sunday.

”There is no reason to return to Sderot,” Mayor Alon Davidi told Army Radio. “It’s on the front line.”

– Goran Tomasevic and Globe staff. With files from Reuters

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2:40 p.m. ET

Blinken says Rafah border crossing to reopen, working on aid delivery

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza would reopen and the US was working with Egypt, Israel and the United Nations to get assistance through it.

Hundreds of tonnes of aid from several countries have been waiting in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing.

Egypt said it had stepped up diplomatic efforts to break the impasse.

“We have put in place, Egypt has put in place a lot of material support for people in Gaza, and Rafah will be reopened,” Blinken told reporters in Cairo after what he said was a “very good conversation” with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“We are putting into place — with the United Nations, with Egypt, with Israel, with others — the mechanism by which to get the assistance in and to get it to the people who need it,” he added.

– Reuters

2:15 p.m. ET

The war between Israel and Hamas is testing the Republican Party’s isolationist shift

The Republican Party’s White House hopefuls are offering conflicting messages on the mounting foreign policy challenges as a presidential election long centered on domestic kitchen-table issues suddenly shifts its focus abroad. The rapidly evolving dynamics are testing the limits of the GOP’s drift toward an isolationist foreign policy and threaten to undermine the party’s broader argument that Democratic President Joe Biden has mismanaged U.S. relationships with the rest of the world.

Continue reading here.

– The Associated Press

1:35 p.m. ET

France says 19 citizens were killed in Hamas’s attack on Israel; 13 may be held hostage in Gaza

France says it now counts 19 of its citizens who were killed in Hamas’ assault on Israel just over a week ago, with no news of 13 others who are missing and who, in some cases, may be held hostage.

The latest tally was given by France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, on a visit Sunday to Israel. She vowed that “everything will be done” to free the hostages.

Colonna also urged that the United Nations be allowed to organize deliveries of food and other essentials to displaced people in southern Gaza “who are lacking everything.”

Israel is entitled to defend itself against “the monstrosity of Hamas and the danger it represents,” Colonna said after talks with Israeli officials but she also appealed for civilians to be safeguarded.

She urged Israel to abide by “international law, in particular international humanitarian law” and preserve Gaza’s civilian population.”

Colonna will also be traveling to Egypt and Lebanon in an effort to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading to other parts of the region.

– The Associated Press

1:15 p.m. ET

Biden to push at least $2 billion weapons package for Israel, Ukraine this week

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that the Biden administration hopes to push a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine through Congress that will be significantly higher than $2 billion.

Sullivan, in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said U.S. President Joe Biden will have intensive talks with the U.S. Congress this week on the need for the package to be approved.

Republicans’ struggles to pick a speaker for the House of Representatives after party hardliners ousted Kevin McCarthy nearly two weeks ago has delayed action on legislation, as Israel prepares a ground war against Hamas in Gaza and U.S. officials warn the regional crisis could escalate.

Biden has been considering a budget request lumping together aid for Israel, Ukraine and possibly Taiwan and the U.S. southern border to improve the chances of getting it approved amid calls from some Republicans to cut money for Kyiv.

– Reuters

1 p.m. ET

Jordanian government preventing Canadians from leaving West Bank by keeping border crossing closed, officials say

Canadian officials say the evacuation of Canadians, permanent residents and their families from the West Bank may not go ahead as planned on Monday because the Jordanian government said it would keep the Allenby border crossing closed.

Julie Sunday, an assistant deputy minister for emergency management at Global Affairs Canada, told reporters on Sunday that approximately 250 people with the right to enter Canada have asked for help to leave the West Bank. That number has climbed since last week as hostilities increase between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza, and as skirmishes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon continue.

“We are ready to start a land transportation option as early as tomorrow, but it’s complicated,” Ms. Sunday said. ”We have been informed that the Allenby gate into Jordan will be closed tomorrow. And so that is something that we are working to see if we can resolve, but that is a blanket closure that is not specific to Canadians.”

Officials said the situation is constantly changing and volatile and they are still in talks with the Jordanian government, so its possible the gate could still open on Monday.

“We are relentless in our efforts to make sure that it opens to potential Canadians wanting to go across, so it is not a definitive answer at this point,” said Alexandre Lévêque, an assistant deputy minister who oversees Middle Eastern issues at Global Affairs Canada.

“We are deploying all efforts, calls at all levels, to ensure that Jordanian authorities continue to cooperate and facilitate the evacuation.”

– Marieke Walsh

12:40 p.m. ET

Number of Canadians killed in Israel climbs to five

The number of Canadians killed during the Hamas attack on Israel last weekend has now risen to five people, government officials said at a news conference on Sunday in Ottawa.

The number rose because one Canadian, who was identified as missing, was confirmed deceased over the weekend and an additional victim was brought to the government’s attention, said Julie Sunday, an assistant deputy minister for emergency management at Global Affairs.

Three other Canadians are still missing, Ms. Sunday said.

The federal government has not released the names of any of the Canadians who were victims of the Oct. 7 attack due to privacy concerns.

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– Marieke Walsh

12:10 p.m. ET

Iran warns Israel of potential escalation

Iran warned Israel of escalation if it failed to end aggressions against Palestinians, with the country’s foreign minister saying other parties in the region were ready to act, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

“If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger,” Hossein Amirabdollahian was quoted as saying.

– Reuters

Israel-Hamas war

As of Oct. 15

Rocket strikes by Hamas

Israeli air strikes

Military base

Clashes

Closed bordercrossings

3

2

5

4

WEST

BANK

Tel Aviv

Jerusalem

DEAD

INJURED

Israel

Gaza

1,300

2,300

3,400

9,700

1,500 Hamas killed in Israel

Oct. 7–9

Closed

military

zone

Mediterranean

Sea

Ashkelon

Israeli-ordered

evacuation zone

Zikim

Evacuation routes

Sderot

Wadi Gaza

Kfar Aza

1

Nahal Oz

Refugee

camps

Be’eri

Rahat

Re’im

ISRAEL

Ofakim

GAZA

STRIP

Magen

Sufa

EGYPT

8 KM

1

Gaza: Up to 400 Palestinians killed in last 24 hours. No new Hamas rocket attacks since Saturday night.

2

Syria: Iranian Revolutionary Guard deploying to Israeli border.

Israeli air strike disables Aleppo airport to prevent incoming Iranian arms and personnel.

3

Shtula: Israel creates 4km buffer zone after one killed by Hezbollah fire.

4

Israel: 126 families of missing and abducted people contacted.

5

Eastern Mediterranean: U.S. sends second aircraft carrier – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower – to deter interference from Iran.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC

NEWS; OPENSTREETMAP; REUTERS

Israel-Hamas war

As of Oct. 15

Rocket strikes by Hamas

Israeli air strikes

Military base

Clashes

Closed border crossings

3

2

5

4

WEST

BANK

Tel Aviv

Jerusalem

DEAD

INJURED

Israel

Gaza

1,300

2,300

3,400

9,700

1,500 Hamas killed in Israel

Oct. 7–9

Closed

military

zone

Mediterranean

Sea

Ashkelon

Zikim

Israeli-ordered

evacuation zone

Evacuation routes

Sderot

Wadi Gaza

Kfar Aza

1

Nahal Oz

Refugee

camps

Be’eri

Rahat

Re’im

ISRAEL

Ofakim

GAZA

STRIP

Magen

Sufa

EGYPT

8 KM

1

Gaza: Up to 400 Palestinians killed in last 24 hours. No new Hamas rocket attacks since Saturday night.

2

Syria: Iranian Revolutionary Guard deploying to Israeli border.

Israeli air strike disables Aleppo airport to prevent incoming Iranian arms and personnel.

3

Shtula: Israel creates 4km buffer zone after one killed by Hezbollah fire.

4

Israel: 126 families of missing and abducted people contacted.

5

Eastern Mediterranean: U.S. sends second aircraft carrier – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower – to deter interference from Iran.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS;

OPENSTREETMAP; REUTERS

Israel-Hamas war

As of Oct. 15

Rocket strikes by Hamas

Israeli air strikes

Military base

Clashes

Closed border crossings

3

2

Mediterranean

Sea

ISRAEL

5

4

WEST

BANK

Ashkelon

Closed military zone

Tel Aviv

Israeli-ordered

evacuation zone

Zikim

Jerusalem

Evacuation routes

Sderot

Kfar Aza

Wadi Gaza

1

Nahal Oz

Be’eri

Refugee

camps

Netivot

Rahat

Re’im

Kisufim

GAZA

STRIP

Ofakim

Magen

DEAD

INJURED

Sufa

1,300

2,300

3,400

9,700

Israel

Gaza

EGYPT

1,500 Hamas killed in Israel

Oct. 7–9

8 KM

1

3

Gaza: Up to 400 Palestinians killed in last 24 hours. No new Hamas rocket attacks since Saturday night.

Shtula: Israel creates 4km buffer zone after one killed by Hezbollah fire.

4

Israel: 126 families of missing and abducted people contacted.

2

Syria: Iranian Revolutionary Guard deploying to Israeli border.

5

Israeli air strike disables Aleppo airport to prevent incoming Iranian arms and personnel.

Eastern Mediterranean: U.S. sends second aircraft carrier – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower – to deter interference from Iran.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS; OPENSTREETMAP; REUTERS

12:10 p.m. ET

Blinken says Arab states don’t want Israel-Hamas spillover

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday after visiting Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt that everyone is determined to stop a spillover of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

“What I’ve heard from virtually every partner was a determination, a shared view, that we have to do everything possible to make sure this doesn’t spread to other places,” Blinken told reporters.

– Reuters

10:40 a.m. ET

Water supplies to parts of southern Gaza renewed

JERUSALEM—Israel’s Energy Minister said on Sunday that a decision to renew water supplies to parts of southern Gaza was agreed on between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden.

Energy Minister Israel Katz said that the decision to partly renew water supplies was in line with Israeli policy, which is to tighten a blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory.

– Reuters

10:38 a.m. ET

Egypt calls Israel’s bombardment of Gaza ‘collective punishment’

Egypt said on Sunday it had stepped up diplomatic efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and its president told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel’s bombardment of the territory was disproportionate.

“The reaction went beyond the right to self-defense, turning into collective punishment for 2.3 million people in Gaza,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said of Israel’s retaliatory strikes for Hamas militants’ attacks a week ago.

Aid from several countries has been building up in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula because of a failure to reach a deal enabling its safe delivery to Gaza along with evacuations of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Israeli bombardments on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, the main crossing out of Gaza not controlled by Israel, have disrupted operations there.

There is alarm in Egypt over the prospect that residents in Gaza could be displaced by Israel’s siege and bombardment.

Like other Arab states, Egypt has said Palestinians should stay on their lands, and that it is working to secure delivery of aid.

A statement from Sisi’s office, issued after a meeting of the national security council, said Egypt rejected any plan to displace Palestinians “to the detriment of other countries” and that Egypt’s own security was a red line.

Sisi also proposed a summit to discuss the crisis, according to the statement.

– Reuters

10:20 a.m. ET

Chuck Schumer, bipartisan group of senators shelter during rocket attack in Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel—U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on social media that a bipartisan group of senators visiting Israel was rushed to a shelter in Tel Aviv on Sunday to wait out a rocket attack from Hamas. Schumer posted a photo of himself and Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah in the shelter.

“It shows you what Israelis have to go through. We must provide Israel with the support required to defend itself,” Schumer said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, took the trip to show support for Israel ahead of an expected request from President Joe Biden for Congress to approve wartime funding for Israel as well as Ukraine. Schumer, a Democrat, has said he would also hold discussions with Israeli officials over what kind of support the country would need for both military and humanitarian operations.

Republican Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Mark Kelly of Arizona were also on the trip.

– The Associated Press

10:00 a.m. ET

WHO says evacuating Gaza’s 22 northern hospitals ‘impossible’

The regional head of the World Health Organization said that evacuating hospitals from the northern part of the Gaza Strip is “impossible” and that Israel’s demand for the evacuation of medical facilities there goes against international law.

Ahmed Al-Mandhari said 22 hospitals with 2,000 patients in northern Gaza managed to move “mobile patients” to the south over the past two days, but that most of the patients can’t be evacuated.

“It is really very risky, very dangerous if we push these hospitals to evacuate,” he said in Cairo.

Egypt has yet to reach an agreement with Israel and Hamas to reopen the Rafah border crossing to deliver medical supplies and other humanitarian aid to the besieged, Hamas-ruled strip.

Al-Mandhari called for the reopening to happen “immediately, with no delay.” The UN health agency has supplies waiting in Egypt, around 20 kilometres from the Rafah crossing, but cannot take them inside, he said.

Rafah was shuttered early on Tuesday after Israeli airstrikes hit close to Gaza’s side of the crossing.

– The Associated Press

9:40 a.m. ET

Lebanon-Israel cross-border fighting only a ‘warning,’ Hezbollah says

BEIRUT—Cross-border clashes between Lebanon and Israel intensified Sunday, with the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group firing rockets and Israeli forces responding with shelling.

The Israeli army also reported a shooting at one of its border posts. The fighting has killed at least one person on the Israeli side and wounded several on both sides of the border.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Gaza’s Hamas rulers and an archenemy of Israel, said in a statement that it had fired rockets toward an Israeli military position in the northern border town Shtula in retaliation for Israeli shelling that killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah on Friday and two Lebanese civilians on Saturday.

However, a Hezbollah spokeswoman, Rana Sahili, said Sunday’s increase in the intensity of the exchanges doesn’t indicate Hezbollah has decided to fully enter into the Hamas-Israel war. The fighting on the border is “only skirmishes” and represents a “warning,” she said.

Israeli army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that regardless of who was shooting at Israel from across the northern border, “the country of Lebanon is responsible and will continue to be responsible for the fire that comes out from its territory.”

The Israeli military has said the incident that killed the Reuters videographer was “under review.”

After Hezbollah fired at several locations along the border Friday, including with an anti-tank missile that hit the Israeli-built security fence, Israeli soldiers “suspected a terrorist infiltration into Israeli territory, and in response, used tank and artillery fire to prevent the infiltration,” a military statement said.

“A number of hours later, a report was received that during the incident, journalists were injured in the area.”

– The Associated Press

8:45 a.m. ET

Moroccans rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza, denounce Israel’s action in war with Hamas

Thousands took to the streets of the Moroccan capital on Sunday to rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza and denounce Israel’s actions in the latest war with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.

The rally also marked a major showing for the banned Islamist movement Al Adl Wa Ihssane, which supports Hamas. After Hamas’s unprecedented and deadly Oct. 7 incursion into Israel, Morocco issued a statement condemning the violence. Royal Air Maroc temporarily cancelled flights from Casablanca to Tel Aviv – a route that began in 2021.

Demonstrators marched in central Rabat and threw smoke bombs and fireworks as riot police stood between them and the Parliament building and other landmarks.

Hassan Ait Amar, a 52-year-old from Casablanca, carried a sign demanding Morocco’s lawmakers revoke a normalization of ties with Israel.

“If they want peace, they [Israel] should respect Palestinians, international law and a two-state solution,” he said.

Israel and Morocco normalized relations as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic agreements between Israel and four Arab countries brokered by then-president Donald Trump. Israel is home to a large community of Jews of Moroccan descent. Morocco and Israel have agreed to military co-operation and boosted trade.

– The Associated Press

8:17 a.m. ET

Water running out in Gaza as UN warns of ‘death sentence’ to hospital patients

Water supplies in Gaza are rapidly dwindling and thousands of hospital patients are in severe danger as Israel’s nine-day blockade and bombing campaign triggers a growing humanitarian catastrophe for the 2.3 million people of the Palestinian territory.

The air strikes, coupled with Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza’s supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine, have created a humanitarian disaster that has sparked growing international concern. “Gaza is one of the worst places on Earth to be right now,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told a media briefing on Saturday.

Nearly half of Gaza’s people have been forced to flee from their homes. “Morgues are overflowing,” United Nations emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a weekend statement.

“Entire residential neighbourhoods have been razed to the ground. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, already critical, is fast becoming untenable.”

– Geoffrey York, Mark Mackinnon and Nathan VanderKlippe

7:55 a.m. ET

Netanyahu convenes Israel’s expanded emergency cabinet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened Israel’s expanded emergency cabinet for the first time on Sunday, saying the national unity on display sent a message at home and abroad as the country geared up to “demolish Hamas” in Gaza.

The meeting, held in military headquarters in Tel Aviv, began with ministers standing for a moment’s silence in memory of some 1,300 Israelis killed in Hamas’s shock Oct. 7 onslaught.

Welcoming former opposition lawmaker Benny Gantz, who joined the government along with several members of his party last week, Netanyahu said all ministers were “working around the clock, with a united front.”

”Hamas thought we would be demolished. It is we who will demolish Hamas,” Netanyahu said, adding that the show of unity “sends a clear message to the nation, the enemy and the world.”

– The Associated Press

7:37 a.m. ET

Open this photo in gallery:

Israelis in the southern city of Sderot near Gaza board buses to escape Hamas’s rockets

JERUSALEM—Residents of the southern Israeli city of Sderot boarded buses for other parts of the country on Sunday to escape rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Hamas militants who infiltrated Israel on a rampage that killed more than 1,300 people more than a week ago have also bombarded the country with thousands of rockets. Sderot, a city of about 34,000 people located about a mile from the Gaza border, has been a frequent target.

One of the residents, Yossi Edri, told Channel 13 before boarding a bus that “children are traumatized, they can’t sleep at night.”

Thousands already left the city last week under a state-sponsored program that puts them up in hotels elsewhere as a respite from the violence. The program in Sderot was expanded Sunday.

“There is no reason to return to Sderot,” Mayor Alon Davidi told Army Radio. “It’s on the front line.”

– The Associated Press

7:15 a.m. ET

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken says meeting with Saudi Crown Prince was ‘very productive’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said he held a fruitful meeting with the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh, a critical diplomatic engagement as Israel prepared to launch a ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Washington worked to contain the conflict.

“Very productive,” Blinken replied to a question from a Reuters reporter as he returned to the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying.

In the meeting, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed the need to find ways to stop the conflict, and respect international law, including by lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

The crown prince stressed the need to find “a peace path to ensure that the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights and achieve just and lasting peace,” SPA said.

The top U.S. diplomat’s meeting on Sunday with the Kingdom’s de-facto ruler comes as the region is on the brink of a further escalation with Gaza, which is bracing for Israel’s ground offensive.

Blinken has embarked on his most extensive trip to date to the Middle East, working with Arab allies to prevent the war from spiralling into a wider conflict and help secure the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas militants.

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas in retaliation for a rampage by the group’s fighters in Israeli towns eight days ago in which militants shot men, women and children and seized hostages, in the worst attack on civilians in the country’s history.

Late on Saturday, Iran warned of “far-reaching consequences” if Israel’s bombardment was not stopped.

Open this photo in gallery:

A U.S. official said the meeting lasted for just under an hour and took place at the Crown Prince’s private farm residence.

“The Secretary highlighted the United States’ unwavering focus on halting terrorist attacks by Hamas, securing the release of all hostages, and preventing the conflict from spreading,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“The two affirmed their shared commitment to protecting civilians and to advancing stability across the Middle East and beyond,” Miller added.

Blinken started his tour on Thursday in Israel, voicing robust U.S. support for Washington’s closest Middle East ally against Hamas. He is expected to travel to Egypt later on Sunday.

Gaza authorities said more than 2,300 people had been killed in the territory, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded. Rescue workers searched desperately for survivors of nighttime air raids. One million people had reportedly left their homes.

Blinken on Saturday met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan in Riyadh. Before their meeting, Blinken said protecting civilians on both sides of the conflict was vital.

“And we’re working together to do exactly that, in particular working on establishing safe areas in Gaza, working on establishing corridors so that humanitarian assistance can reach people who need it.”

– Reuters

7:00 a.m. ET

‘All these patients are in danger of death if the electricity is cut off’: Medics in Gaza warn of dire situation in hospitals

Medics in Gaza warned Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people run desperately low on fuel and basic supplies. Palestinians in the beseiged coastal enclave struggled to find food, water and safety ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in the war sparked by Hamas’s deadly attack on Oct. 7.

Hospitals are expected to run out of generator fuel within two days, according to the UN, which said this would endanger the lives of thousands of patients. Gaza’s sole power plant shut down for lack of fuel after Israel completely sealed off the 40-kilometre-long territory following the Hamas attack.

In Nasser Hospital, in the southern town of Khan Younis, intensive care rooms are packed with wounded patients, most of them children under the age of three. Hundreds of people with severe blast injuries have come to the hospital, where fuel is expected to run out by Monday, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, a consultant at the critical care complex.

There are 35 patients in the ICU who depend on ventilators to stay alive and another 60 on dialysis. If fuel runs out, “it means the whole health system will be shut down,” he said.

“We are talking about another catastrophe, another war crime, a historical tragedy,” he said, as children moaned in pain in the background. “All these patients are in danger of death if the electricity is cut off.”

– The Associated Press

6:30 a.m. ET

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Egypt-Gaza crossing point Rafah remains closed

The Rafah crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip remained closed on Sunday morning, as Egyptian authorities continued negotiations with Israel, the U.S. and Palestinian militant groups over allowing aid to flow into the besieged strip and letting Americans and other foreigners and wounded Palestinians cross into Egypt, two Egyptian officials said.

Convoys of humanitarian aid, including shipments from Turkey and Jordan, have been waiting near the crossing point for delivery to Gaza, they said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

– The Associated Press

6:15 a.m. ET

Continuing conflict could result in rise in oil prices

Economists and market strategists are anticipating further ripple effects globally from the Middle East conflict, watching to see if the situation draws in other countries with the potential to increasingly drive up oil prices and send capital flowing to safe havens.

“It looks like we’re headed for a massive ground invasion of Gaza and a large-scale loss of life,” said Ben Cahill, senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Any time you have a conflict of this scale, you will have a market reaction.”

In the past week, concerns about the conflict have fed through to asset prices, contributing to weakness in stocks on Friday, with the S&P 500 down 0.5 per cent. Safe-haven assets saw buying, with gold up more than 3 per cent on Friday and the U.S. dollar touching a one-week high. Oil prices leapt nearly 6 per cent on Friday as investors assessed what the conflict could mean for supplies from nearby countries in the world’s top oil producing region.

“If it looks like a broadening conflict, oil prices will rise further,” said Michael Englund, chief economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colo.

– Reuters

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Oct. 15, 5:30 a.m. ET

Gaza’s desperate civilians scramble to escape, as warnings of Israeli offensive mount

Desperate Palestinians scrambled for escape from northern Gaza on Saturday or huddled by the thousands at a hospital in the target zone in hopes it would be spared, as Israel intensified warnings of an imminent offensive by air, ground and sea, after Hamas militants’ deadly rampage in Israel a week ago.

While workers at an Israeli military base continued efforts through the Jewish Sabbath to identify the more than 1,300 people killed in the Oct. 7 assault, Israel dropped leaflets from the air and redoubled warnings on social media for more than one million Gaza residents to move south.

The military says it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a concentrated campaign against Hamas militants in the north, including in what it said were underground hideouts in Gaza City. Hamas urged people to stay in their homes.

Israel-Hamas war: Maps and graphics that show how the conflict is unfolding

The UN and aid groups say such a rapid exodus along with Israel’s siege of the territory would cause untold human suffering. The World Health Organization said the evacuation “could be tantamount to a death sentence” for the more than 2,000 patients in northern hospitals, including newborns in incubators and people in intensive care.

Gaza’s humanitarian crisis was already mounting Saturday amid a growing shortage of water and medical supplies under a week-old Israeli blockade, which has also forced electrical plants to shut down without fuel.

– The Associated Press