Australia called for a humanitarian pause on hostilities in Gaza. Wong said that the way Israel chose to defend itself against Hamas’ attack on October 7 mattered, and it should not lead to the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians
Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas figures met in Beirut and agreed on a goal of “total victory” in the West Bank and Gaza
Qatar said negotiations on freeing hostages were making progress
Israeli officials have demanded the resignation of the UN secretary-general over “shocking” comments in which he suggested that the October 7 attack was provoked by the “suffocating occupation” of the Palestinian territories
Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, addressed the National Press Club and said Israel was the victim in the war with Hamas, not the aggressor
Violence between Israel and Syria has raised fears of wider regional conflict
The United Nations says the humanitarian need in Gaza would require about 100 aid trucks a day, instead of the 10 or 20 a day that have been arriving from Egypt since the weekend

Thank you for joining us today. Our coverage will resume in the morning.

8.57pm on Oct 25, 2023

Palestinian flag flies outside Sydney council

By Latika Bourke

Canterbury-Bankstown Council in Sydney’s south-west has voted, unanimously, to fly the Palestinian flag until a ceasefire is declared in Gaza.

Our colleagues at Nine were there to capture the scenes.

8.37pm on Oct 25, 2023

S&P downgrades Israel’s outlook to negative

By Latika Bourke

In another sign of the Israel-Hamas war is taking an economic toll on the Jewish state, ratings agency S&P has downgraded its ‘AA-’ long-term foreign and local currency ratings on Israel to negative from stable.

In a statement, S&P said it predicted that the war would last no more than three to six months.

But it warned that it could lower the ratings on Israel if the security situation worsened.

“In our view, an additional risk could come from the potential for rising tensions between the Jewish majority and Arab-Israeli minority within Israel, as happened during a previous war with Hamas in May 2021, but this risk appears to be contained at the moment,” primary credit analyst Maxim Rybnikov said.

“Even though we assume the conflict will not spread beyond Gaza, we expect it will still hurt Israel’s economic performance.”

S&P expects Israel’s economy to rebound after contracting by five per cent in the next quarter.

8.03pm on Oct 25, 2023

Turkey calls for ceasefire, warns of new world war

By Latika Bourke

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is speaking in Doha alongside Qatar’s Prime Minister.

Qatar is a supporter of Hamas and has been helping negotiations over freeing hostages.

However, Hamas has so far only agreed to release four of the citizens it snatched from Israel on October 7 and Israel says more than 200 people were taken and are being held hostage.

Qatar’s Prime Minister said that some progress was being made in the hostage negotiations.

Fidan called for an immediate ceasefire and said that a new world war could break out.

“This crisis is massive and it entails great dangers, it is not like the previous crises Gaza has experienced,” Fidan said.

“War must come to an end, lasting peace must be established in the region.

“The Israelis must establish peace first with the Palestinians.”

He said that a diplomatic solution that achieved a two-state solution was the only viable outcome.

He accused Israel of creating a new Holocaust in Gaza.

7.28pm on Oct 25, 2023

Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas seek ‘real victory’ in Gaza

By Latika Bourke

Just in from the Associated Press.

The leaders of Lebanon’s Hezbollah has held talks with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in Beirut.

According to a statement run by Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed with Hamas’ Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad’s leader Ziad al-Nakhleh on the next steps that the three — along with other Iran-backed militants — should take at this “sensitive stage.”

“An assessment was made of the international positions being taken and what the parties of the Axis of Resistance must do ... to realise a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestinian and to halt the brutal aggression,” Hezbollah said.

“There was agreement on continuing the coordination.”

Israel wants to eliminate Hamas from Gaza but is yet to launch its ground invasion, 19 days after Hamas staged a brutal attack, murdering, kidnapping and torturing Israeli citizens.

People search through buildings that were destroyed during Israeli air raids in the southern Gaza Strip on October 25, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Getty

But some world leaders are calling for Israel to stop its bombardments of Gaza. The White House says a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas and give the terrorist organisation time to regroup and launch new waves of attacks on Israel.

Australia wants a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid into the Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million Palestinians are running short of essential supplies.

6.49pm on Oct 25, 2023

Penny Wong gives Gaza updates on X

By Latika Bourke

Good evening.

Latika Bourke logging on from London to take you through developments in the Israel-Hamas war this evening.

The time in Tel Aviv is approaching 11am.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has turned to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk to give further updates about the Australians being evacuated from the West Bank.

Wong said Australia had helped eight more Australians leave the West Bank, which borders Israel and Jordan, which is not controlled by Hamas and is separate from The Gaza Strip.

6.29pm on Oct 25, 2023

The headlines so far

By Caitlin Fitzsimmons

This is Caitlin Fitzsimmons and I’m handing over the reins to Latika Bourke for the rest of the evening. Thank you for joining me this afternoon.

Here’s a briefing on what happened today:

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has joined international allies and called for a humanitarian pause on hostilities in Gaza. Wong said that the way Israel chose to defend itself against Hamas’ attack on October 7 mattered, and it should not lead to the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians.
Israeli officials have demanded the resignation of the UN secretary-general over “shocking” comments in which he suggested that the October 7 attack was provoked by the “suffocating occupation” of the Palestinian territories.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, addressed the National Press Club and said Israel was the victim in the war with Hamas, not the aggressor.
Violence between Israel and Syria has raised fears of wider regional conflict.
The United Nations says the humanitarian need in Gaza would require about 100 aid trucks a day, instead of the 10 or 20 a day that have been arriving from Egypt since the weekend.

6.19pm on Oct 25, 2023

Clarifying the water shortage in the Gaza Strip

By Caitlin Fitzsimmons

I promised earlier that we would try to fact-check the Israeli ambassador’s claims that Israel is not responsible for water and electricity in Gaza.

Amir Maimon, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, told the National Press Club this afternoon that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “fair” and not wholly Israel’s fault.

Maimon claimed Israel provided less than 10 per cent of Gaza’s water via a pipe, and supply was resumed last week. He said the remaining water came from two desalination plants that he believed were still operating.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in its daily briefing from yesterday (its most recent update) paints a different picture.

Humanitarian aid arrives through the Rafah land crossing into the Gaza Strip.Getty

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), by far the largest humanitarian provider in Gaza, warned that unless fuel is allowed into Gaza immediately, the agency will be forced to halt all operations as of tonight, October 25.

The UN said Gaza has been under a full electricity blackout since October 11, rendering hospitals and water facilities dependent on backup generators run by fuel. The UN also said bakeries could not operate without fuel.

The briefing says one of the three seawater desalination plants in Khan Younis resumed operations at less than 7 per cent of capacity on October 21. This was made possible after a UN aid agency retrieved fuel from a storage facility in Gaza, and the other two plants remain non-operational.

This plant is now producing about 450 cubic metres per day and the water was being trucked south of Wadi Gaza to serve 40,000 displaced people a day. Israel has told Gazan civilians to evacuate to this zone.

The UN says Gazans are drinking water with over 3,000 milligrams per litre of salt content from agricultural wells.

“This poses an immediate health risk, raising hypertension levels, especially in babies under six months, pregnant women, and people with kidney disease,” the UN says.

“The use of saline groundwater also increases the risk of diarrhoea and cholera.”

Maimon said 30 aid trucks had entered Gaza via Rafah, on the Egyptian border, while the UN said it was 54 since Saturday. Some of the aid trucks have carried bottled water and food.

But UN officials say about 100 aid trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people. Some 1.4 million of those are now homeless.

Maimon also claimed nine of the 10 electricity lines in Gaza were damaged by misfired Hamas rockets. We have not been able to fact-check this claim.

With Reuters

5.43pm on Oct 25, 2023

Conflict between Israel and Syria fuels fears of violence spreading

By Caitlin Fitzsimmons

It is now 9.30am in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Syrian state news agency has reported that an Israeli attack on military positions in southwest Syria today killed eight soldiers and wounded seven more.

Israel’s military said earlier that its jets had struck Syrian army infrastructure and mortar launchers early today, in what it described as a response to rocket launches from Syria toward Israel.

View post on X

The conflict with Syria will fuel the fears of US and other officials that the Israel-Hamas war could spill over into a wider regional conflict.

Citing a military source, the Syrian news agency said Israel’s “aerial aggression” targeted a number of military positions near the southwestern city of Deraa. The strike also caused material damage, it reported.

The attack allegedly took place at around 1.45am local time on Wednesday.

The war, in its 19th day today, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said at least 5791 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 704 in the past day, and 16,297 wounded. In the occupied West Bank, 96 Palestinians have been killed and 1650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since October 7.

Israeli officials say more than 1400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage.

In addition, more than 200 people including foreigners are believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza. Four of those have been released.

Israel claims Palestinian civilian deaths are much lower than Hamas claims. We posted earlier about why media organisations report Hamas figures on Palestinian deaths.

With Reuters, AP

5.30pm on Oct 25, 2023

Refresher on the Palestinian territories

By Caitlin Fitzsimmons

With all the posts quoting the two diplomats this afternoon, it might be worth a bit of a refresher on who is who and where they come from.

Australia has recognised the state of Israel since it was set up in 1948. Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, addressed the National Press Club today.

Australia’s foreign policy is also to support a two-state solution that would mean the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Dr Izzat Abdulhadi is head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. This means he represents the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank.

Here is a map showing Israel and the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It also shows the Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria in 1967. The US recognises the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

Lucy Cormack wrote an excellent explainer on Hamas and the separate Palestinian Authority on the West Bank.

Hamas does not speak for all Palestinians. The larger West Bank is governed by the Fatah party and overseen by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Fatah recognises Israel’s right to exist and is seen by most Western countries as representing the Palestinians.
Hamas and Fatah have ruled the occupied Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank respectively since 2007.
Among the key differences between the groups is their approach to Israel: where Hamas has remained committed to using armed resistance, Fatah believes in negotiation and has ruled out using attacks or violence.

Israel-Hamas conflict as it happened: IDF escalate bombardment of Gaza; Hamas say at least 5700 Palestinians have been killed

Key Posts

Wrapping up

Palestinian flag flies outside Sydney council

S&P downgrades Israel’s outlook to negative

Turkey calls for ceasefire, warns of new world war

Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas seek ‘real victory’ in Gaza

Penny Wong gives Gaza updates on X

The headlines so far

Clarifying the water shortage in the Gaza Strip

Conflict between Israel and Syria fuels fears of violence spreading

Refresher on the Palestinian territories

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