October 12, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

Gaza will not be provided with any electricity, water or fuel until Israeli hostages being held by Hamas are returned home, Israeli energy minister Israel Katz said Thursday.

During the onslaught on Saturday, armed Hamas militants poured over the heavily-fortified border into Israel and took as many as 150 hostages, including Israeli army officers, back to Gaza.

Hamas warned that it would start executing hostages if Israel targeted people in Gaza without warning.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told CNN's Erin Burnett that the situation with the hostages is an "extremely sensitive and complex topic."

Although Israel has "some experience" with hostage situations, Conricus said they have never dealt with an operation like this: "Not in the scope, not in the magnitude and not in the complexity of where our hostages are."

Conricus said "reason dictates" that the hostages are being kept underground, to "keep them safe from Israeli intelligence, and efforts to get them out."

Israel's Euro 2024 qualifier against Kosovo scheduled for Sunday has been postponed "as the Israeli authorities currently do not allow their national team to travel abroad," UEFA announced Thursday.

Israel had been due to play their Group I qualifier against Kosovo in Pristina.

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, has already postponed all soccer matches scheduled in Israel over the next two weeks due to the conflict in the region.

A new date for the October 15 fixture was not given.

Germany will ban Hamas from operating in the country, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers Thursday.

The pro-Palestinian association "Samidoun" will also be banned in Germany after its members celebrated “the most brutal acts of terror in the open streets," Scholz said.

Scholz blamed Iran for backing Hamas, although he had "no solid evidence that Iran has provided concrete and operational support for this cowardly attack by Hamas."

"The jubilant statements by the top of the Iranian regime and some other government officials in the region are abhorrent. The leadership in Tehran is unashamedly showing its true colors – and confirming its role in Gaza," he added.

Scholz warned Hezbollah not to “intervene in the fighting" as “this would not only result in a justified and harsh Israeli reaction," but also draw Lebanon “to the brink of the abyss."

Behind the scenes Germany was working “in close coordination with Israel" with all its “might to ensure that all hostages are released again," Scholz said.

“Our immediate concern today is for the children, women and men who have been trafficked into the Gaza Strip. We are all deeply moved by their fate," the German Chancellor said.

Scholz said he is counting on the possible mediating role of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Jordanian King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein and the Emir of Qatar, whom he will receive for talks in Berlin on Thursday.

Weapons request: Israel has also asked Germany for ammunition for warships in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks, German defense minister Boris Pistorius said on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv Thursday, where he will meet with Israeli officials.

He is also scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Before departing for Israel, Blinken told reporters discussions about a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to leave Gaza via Egypt are "ongoing." The situation was “understandably complicated,” he said.

An Irish-Israeli woman has been confirmed killed at the music festival attacked by Hamas militants on Saturday, Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Wednesday.

Kim Damti had been missing for several days after she was last seen at the Nova Festival outside Re’im.

In a Facebook post, Damti’s sister Laura said the family had lost “our angel, our flower ... who was murdered by the cursed terrorists."

Israeli rescue workers said at least 260 bodies were found at the festival site. Some attendees were taken hostage, seen in social media videos being seized by their armed captors.

Israel's ongoing aerial bombardment of Gaza “will not lead to peace,” a Palestinian Parliament member said Thursday, as he called for a ceasefire to stem the deepening humanitarian crisis in the densely populated enclave.

Speaking to CNN's John Vause, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, president of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), a political party headquartered in the West Bank, said the “dehumanization of all Palestinians will also not solve the problem.”

Barghouti also called for the "immediate" exchange of Palestinian prisoners in order to free Israelis held hostage by Hamas.

An “immediate two-state solution” is the best hope to achieve lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, he added.

At least 1,203 Palestinians have been killed and 5,763 others injured since Israel's bombardment of Gaza began on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said it is "conducting a large-scale strike" on Hamas targets in Gaza as the conflict entered a sixth day.

A humanitarian crisis is rapidly spiraling in the coastal enclave. The UN said Thursday more than 330,000 people have been displaced there since Israel began its bombardment.

Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel at the weekend killed at least 1,200 people and injured thousands more, according to Israeli officials.

As thousands of rockets have rained down on Israel, the country has been relying once again on the Iron Dome system to protect its citizens.

The missile defense system is one of the most important tools in Israel’s arsenal and has saved countless civilian lives over various conflicts in the past decade, analysts say. It is highly effective. The Israel Defense Forces said the system boasted a 95.6% success rate during a rocket salvo fired by Islamic Jihad in May.

The Iron Dome is designed to shoot down incoming projectiles. It is equipped with a radar that detects rockets and then uses a command-and-control system that quickly calculates whether an incoming projectile poses a threat or is likely to hit an unpopulated area. If the rocket does pose a threat, the Iron Dome fires missiles from the ground to destroy in the air.

Saudi Arabia is "exerting maximum effort" to prevent an escalation of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iran's president in a phone call on Wednesday, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

The prince also expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and stressed Saudi's support to achieve a "comprehensive and fair peace that ensures the Palestinian people's legitimate rights," SPA reported.

According to an Iranian official, the call between the Saudi crown prince and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi Wednesday was their first since the two countries renewed diplomatic ties earlier this year.