Reuters World News - Nowhere to hide in Gaza, hostage fears and a US general's Iran warning

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Israel secures its border, three days after Hamas launched its audacious attacks. Why the taking of hostages has complicated any plans for a ground offensive in Gaza. Netanyahu calls for a united government, as 300 thousand reservists are called up. Plus, how the rules of war are different in this 75-year old conflict. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Israel and the Middle East on a knife edge. Palestinians try to flee Gaza. Mothers take their children to shelters, fearing for their lives. But many say they have nowhere to go. The intensifying Israeli siege has cut off food, water and power. In Israel, relatives pray for word of loved ones held hostage. Fathers like this left helpless after his daughter was snatched by gunman at a rave and dragged into Gaza. As the world watches to see how far the conflict will spread, the US tells Iran to stay out of it.

It's Tuesday, October 10th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, every weekday. I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. And I'm Kim Vennel in Nicosia. Israeli rockets strike Gaza in a relentless barrage. Three days after Hamas launched its attacks, Israel says its re-established control over the Gaza border. But the conflict, which has claimed more than 1,500 lives, is escalating.

Hamas is threatening to execute an Israeli captive every time a Palestinian home is bombed without warning. and Israel is flying in reservists from around the world, raising fears it could be planning a ground assault. It's imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened the militants to Islamic State. Hamas terror is bound, burned, and executed children. They are savages.

Hamas is ISIS. And just as the forces of civilizations united to defeat ISIS, The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas. At the United Nations, Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an end to the bloodshed. I am deeply distressed by today's announcement that Israel will initiate a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, nothing allowed in, no electricity, food or fuel. The United States top general has warned Iran not to get involved in the crisis, after the Hezbollah militant group

fired a salvo of rockets onto northern Israel. The last 24 hours were very difficult. The last time Yanni Asher spoke to his wife was on the phone on Saturday when she and their two kids were visiting her mother in a kibbutz near Gaza. And she told me the terrorists are in the house. Later on, the conversation was disconnected

and I couldn't reach her anymore. The next time he saw them was in a video online. showing them being held captive and led into the Gaza Strip. I want to ask of Hamas. Don't hurt them. Don't hurt little children. Don't hurt women. If you want me instead, I'm willing to come.

In Luitz Israel, Advar Adar watches a video of her 85-year-old grandmother Yaffa being driven away by militants. I'm sure she's very scared and I'm sure she feels very alone. and that's not a way to live when you're 85 and they're not been taken away from your bed, from your house. I don't know how long she can survive like this. The large-scale abduction of Israelis

represents a new and brutal tactic. Dan Williams is in Jerusalem. What was Hamas' motivation with these abductions? The value of these captives, this is to judge by early statements from Hamas, is to exact a yet another prisoner swap with Israel, but I think realizing the extent of the captivity, the sheer number of people they brought,

and the psychic shock it has imposed in Israel and beyond, they appear now at least to judge by public statements to be going for broke, meaning they want a full comprehensive prisoner release by Israel. This will be a very tall order for Israel, but again, we have had lopsided trades in the past, so it's not, such trades are not without precedent. And now Qatar might be helping to mediate a prisoner swap.

Is that right? The report that Reuter has is that Qatar is seeking as an initial proposal, a swap whereby women and children taking captive in Gaza would be released, would be freed to Israel in exchange for Israel's release of 36 women and children held in its jails. Israel has several thousand Palestinian prisoners. At least two Israeli correspondents have said that they spoke to senior Israeli officials whom they did not name. And the quotes attributed to those officials were that Israel has no interest in prisoner swap negotiations at this time. It's not doing it.

Conditions now in Gaza look worse than at any point since Palestinian refugees flocked there during the 1948 fighting. when Israel was founded. Hamas, meanwhile, is threatening to kill hostages. Mothers, daughters and grandmothers have been taken. This new escalation has already seen brutal new tactics against civilians, so what will stop it from getting worse? I called up Stephen Farrell, who has long covered the conflict, to understand the international rules at play. Well, the modern Israel-Palestinians'

conflict was born in war in 1948. So from the very first day, I think it's fair to say that both sides see this as an existential conflict. Both sides say this is a hard part of the world in which you should not be judging what is happening with your rules and regulations and niceties because our very survival, our lives are at stake here. Is there anything that can be done to ensure the two sides adhere to any conventions of war? Nobody knows where this is going to go. This is unprecedented, certainly for decades. There are huge concerns. International lawyers, jurists, United Nations, ICRC, all the normal bodies that try and de-escalate and contain conflict. So where it goes, nobody knows. But there are considerations that both sides will have to abide by. The

international criminal court is already in the process of drawing up an investigation into crimes and potential war crimes by Israel and by Hamas. That hasn't come to fruition yet, but it is bubbling away there in the background. And if Israel does drive large numbers of people out, that investigation will focus on attacks on civilians, almost certainly. Now, Israel is a nation state, but it argues that it is in a unique position. It's surrounded by enemies, so they are not signatories to certain conventions and certain treaties and certain laws. And Hamas, of course, is an anti-national pariah. So what Hamas has done is to create a shock event with attacks across the Gaza-Israel border and whatever consequences come will come. While many will be saying Israel has the right

to defend itself, there will be those expressing grave concerns. if large numbers of Palestinians are driven out of Gaza or there is what they would say, disproportionate Israeli force in retaliation for these attacks. And all this against the backdrop of improving relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, that seems really far away now. There is no question that Hamas wants to stop any Arab nations doing a peace deal with Israel. In 2002, it did exactly the same thing. When there was a Saudi proposal for a Middle East peace agreement, Hamas blew up a hotel

full of Israelis on Passover in Israel, many of them Holocaust survivors, causing such outrage and horror that it pitched the second Palestinian uprising into full-scale war. They have done, some might think a similar thing here. there's a Saudi deal in the offing. It will be very difficult for the Saudis to sign any peace deal if Gaza is burning. Carmel, markets appear to have regained their composure after that initial jolt from the violence in Israel. Will they now put it behind them? So you're right.

Oil prices have eased back and stocks are trading up again. A lot of the relief in equity markets is actually down to dovish comments from Fed policymakers, which have given investors, you know, some comfort about the direction of interest rates. But traders are still very cautious, given what's going on in the Middle East, and they're keeping a close eye on the clashes between Israel and Hamas. If this conflict is drawn out and it pulls in more actors, then you could see a dramatic reaction, you know, a jump in oil prices, for example, which, if persistent, could boost inflation and so complicate things for the Fed.

The search for survivors from the weekend's earthquake in Afghanistan is winding down. At least 2,400 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured in the quake. Police officers have shot dead the driver of a vehicle that crashed into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. It smashed through into the lobby of the building's visa office. An artillery strike has killed at least 29 people at a refugee camp near Myanmar's border with China. It's unclear who was responsible. That's it for today's episode. of Reuters World News. We'll be back on Wednesday with our daily news show. To make sure you know

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