Israel-Hamas war: Families plead for German hostages in Gaza

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza needs "aid at scale and on a sustained basis."  

"We need food, water, medicine and fuel now. We need it at scale, and we need it to be sustained. It is not one small operation that is required," Guterres said in Cairo during a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

He called for an "immediate humanitarian cease-fire" as Israel's military kept up its retaliatory strikes in Gaza after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7.

"In plain terms, that means humanitarians need to be able to get aid in, and they need to be able to distribute it safely," Guterres said.

The UN chief also called on Hamas to release the hostages they seized during their attack.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops deployed at the Gaza border to be ready to enter the territory. 

"You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come," Gallant said.

He told the soldiers to "get organized, be ready" for an order to move in. 

Gallant also said the battle will be long and hard.

Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border following the terror attacks by Hamas militants on October 7.

Next month's MTV Europe Music Awards has been canceled because of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

"As we watch the devastating events in Israel and Gaza continue to unfold, this does not feel like a moment for a global celebration," the organizers said. "With thousands of lives already lost, it is a moment of mourning."  

The event, held in a different European city each year, was scheduled to take place in Paris on November 5. 

France is on its highest alert after a schoolteacher was murdered in a suspected Islamist attack last week. 

"Given the volatility of world events, we have decided not to move forward with the 2023 MTV EMAs out of an abundance of caution for the thousands of employees, crew members, artists, fans, and partners who travel from all corners of the world to bring the show to life," organizers said.

MTV said the EMAs would return in November 2024.

Germany's Foreign Ministry urged German citizens to leave Lebanon and the West Bank.

The German statement comes shortly after US and British embassies in Beirut advised citizens to leave Lebanon while flights "remain available." 

Germany described the security situation in the Israeli-Lebanon border area as highly volatile.

There have been several clashes between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The ministry warned the situation could get worse.

Israel has also stepped up its operations in the West Bank since the terror attacks by Hamas from Gaza on October 7. 

Germany has asked its citizens in Lebanon and the West Bank to provide their contact details on an online crisis portal.

The World Health Organization said five of its trucks with medical supplies are ready to cross the border between Egypt and Gaza.

"Our trucks are loaded and ready to go," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Israel has agreed that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt following a request from US President Joe Biden.

Tedros hoped the supplies would be delivered as soon as the Rafah crossing opened, "hopefully tomorrow."

The WHO's emergencies chief Mike Ryan said aid needed to flow through a corridor into Gaza daily.

"We need to make sure the corridor is a corridor ... humanitarian assistance needs to move every day," Ryan said. 

"Twenty trucks is a drop in the ocean of need right now in Gaza."

Relatives of German citizens held hostage by the Islamist militant group Hamas have asked for more support from Germany in a meeting with Bundestag President Bärbel Bas.

Germany deems Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, a terrorist organization, as do the European Union and the United States.

"We talked about the fact that we really expect Germany not only to stand on Israel's side and take our side but to actively act and take a role in this war," Roni Roman, a relative of two hostages, said.

She called on Germany to provide immediate humanitarian aid to ensure that those abducted can receive medical care,

"We really need Germany to act quickly. We are running out of time," she said. "There are family members we know have been kidnapped, but we haven't known how they are for several weeks."

Roman stressed the need to get signs of life from the hostages and bring them back to Germany immediately.

Israel's military says 203 people were abducted by Hamas and brought to Gaza in its attacks in southern Israel on October 7. Among those held in the territory are several German citizens.

Hamas claims nearly two dozen hostages have been killed due to Israeli strikes on the enclave.

The German Foreign Ministry has said that there are eight confirmed cases of German citizens held hostage in the Gaza Strip and that the total was likely "a small double-digit number."

European ruling body UEFA has decided it won't host football matches in Israel "until further notice."

The decision was made after a "thorough evaluation of the current safety situation in the whole territory," UEFA said.

UEFA had already postponed the Euro 2024 qualifiers match between Israel and Switzerland, which was scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv.

The Israel-Switzerland game has been provisionally rescheduled for November 15.

A Europa League game between Villarreal and Maccabi Haifa has been postponed to December 6, and a Conference League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Zorya Luhansk has been postponed to November 25.

UEFA asked the Israeli football association and its clubs to propose "alternative venues/stadiums outside the territory of Israel for their home matches to be used for as long as this decision remains in force."

At least 3,785 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.

The Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, Germany and several other countries.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said that 1,524 of those killed were children and 1,000 were women.

He said that 44 health workers had been killed in Gaza, four hospitals were out of service and 14 basic healthcare services had stopped functioning.

"There are no medical stocks in any of the hospitals in Gaza," he said, calling on countries to expedite aid deliveries to the strip.

Also on Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to work with Israel to allow aid deliveries into Gaza, a day after he visited Egypt to discuss the establishment of a humanitarian corridor.

The Israeli army says at least 203 people were taken to the Gaza Strip by Hamas fighters.

Previously, Israel's military had made estimates of at least 199 hostages.

The Hamas militant Islamist group killed over 1,400 people in Israel on October 7, abducting many people during the attack. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, Germany, and several other countries.

On Monday, Hamas military spokesperson Abu Obaida said the group was holding at least 200 people captive, with 50 others being held by "other resistance factions." He claimed at least 22 hostages had been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with UK counterpart Rishi Sunak who is on a visit to show solidarity.

Netanyahu said the October 7 attack on Israel scuttled the expansion of peaceful relations in the Middle East.

"We were on the cusp of expanding that peace, and destroying that move was one of the reasons why this action was taken," Netanyahu explained.

Weeks before the terror attacks Saudi de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that their countries got "closer every day" and that they were "at the cusp of a deal, which would be a quantum leap for the region."

Talks on normalizing relations were put on ice following the attacks and Israel's response. 

The Israeli leader also said that "Hamas are the new Nazis, they're the new ISIS, and we have to fight them together, just as the world, the civilized world united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas, it must together now stand with Israel."

Standing alongside the UK prime minister, Netanyahu said that countries needed to work together "in every way possible" to get the hostages back from Hamas.

"This is our darkest hour," Netanyahu said.

Sunak said he wanted to share "the deep condolences of the British people" and stressed that Britain supported "Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law."

Sunak said that he was aware that Israel was "taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas which seek to put civilians in harm's way."

"The Palestinian people are victims of Hamas too and that is why I welcome your decision yesterday that you took to ensure that routes into Gaza would be opened for humanitarian aid," Sunak said.

The British prime minister concluded by saying: "I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darkest hour."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is on his way to Egypt where he will meet with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Egypt's president is also due to host Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Jordan said the two leaders will discuss ways "to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza."

On Wednesday, Jordan cancelled a four-way summit with US President Joe Biden, el-Sissi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital.

In a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shouky discussed "the priority of delivering humanitarian and emergency aid to the people of Gaza," according to the foreign ministry.

Also on Thursday, El-Sissi discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip with US Central Command chief Michael Kurilla, his office said.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Lebanon on Thursday as regional tensions continued to mount.

Pistorius was due to meet German armed forces personnel who are deployed to Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL peacekeeping operation. The German naval corvette, "Oldenburg," is conducting patrols of the coastline to prevent arms trafficking. 

The UN peacekeeping mission is also monitoring the border region between Israel and Lebanon.

In recent days there has been a steady exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants, which began shortly after the Islamist militant group Hamas — a designated terrorist organization by the US, the EU and other governments — launched a large-scale attack on Israel on October 7.

The Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has since claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on northern Israel.

European Union (EU) ministers are meeting in Luxembourg to debate how to deal with the impact the Israel-Hamas war is having on security in member states. 

This follows killings by a suspected Islamist extremists in Belgium and France and a Molotov cocktail attack on a Berlin synagogue.

"We have to address multiple impacts from the continuing crisis in the Middle East, and part of this is to assess all possible consequences for us in the European Union," European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas said.

"This entails the protection of our Jewish communities, but also the protection against a generalized climate of Islamophobia that has no place in our society," he told reporters in Luxembourg, where the meeting is taking place.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday moved to quash allegations that it was responsible for Tuesday's blast at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza.

In a morning briefing, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus used a screen to show footage he said was filmed by Al Jazeera and which he said showed the moment a rocket malfunctioned mid-flight.

Conricus said that an explosion could then be observed at the hospital "as the rocket falls down and causes an explosion on the ground," as he pointed out distinguishing features of the hospital.

Conricus then showed footage provided by the IDF taken shortly after the blast and said that the rocket had impacted the parking area of the hospital.

"What I see here are about 15 cars that were affected by the rocket that fell. I see remains of fire, what I don't see is bodies," Conricus said, adding "if 500 people were indeed killed here, or 471 which is the latest update from the Hamas-controlled ministry of health in Gaza, where were they here." 

DW has no way of independently verifying the claims made by either side.

The IDF has blamed the Palestinian militant organization Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip for the attack. Islamic Jihad rejected the accusation.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has arrived in Israel in a show of solidarity following the October 7 Hamas terror attack.

"I am in Israel, a nation in grief. I grieve with you and stand with you against the evil that is terrorism. Today and Always," Sunak posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Sunak said the Gaza hospital blast on Tuesday, that caused mass Palestinian casualties, should be "a watershed moment for leaders in the region and across the world to come together to avoid further dangerous escalation of conflict," adding that Britain would be at "the forefront of this effort".

Sunak is expected to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after which he is expected to visit other regional capitals

Sunak's spokesperson said that at least seven British nationals were killed in the October 7 Hamas terror attack and at least nine people were still missing.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will be meeting leaders in Egypt, Turkey and Qatar in the coming days to discuss ways of finding a peaceful resolution.