| | | | | | | Hello. The Israeli military has shared unseen footage of the attack perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October with journalists including my colleague Joel Gunter, who describes what he has seen in a report that some readers might find distressing. While the US has vouched support for Israel in the aftermath of the attack, defence correspondent Jonathan Beale examines the extent to which the Biden administration is willing to take an active role in the conflict. As I prepared to send this email, reports emerged of Hamas releasing two further hostages. Our live page has the latest news. Scroll down for some colourful pictures of Mexico’s Parade of the Catrinas and for a shocking video making the rounds on Chinese social media involving popular beer Tsingtao. |
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| | | | Get up to speed | | • | An off-duty pilot has been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, after he allegedly tried to crash an Alaska Airlines passenger jet on Sunday night. | | • | The race for the US Speaker of the House of Representatives now counts nine candidates. Only two of them voted in favour of ratifying the result of the 2020 presidential election. | | • | The dog that held the record of being world’s oldest has died, aged 31 years and 165 days. |
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| | Questions Answered | | The role the US plays in the Israel-Gaza war | | | | The USS Gerald R Ford is part of the US show of force in the Eastern Mediterranean, Credit: Reuters |
| | The US is Israel’s main military backer, contributing $3.8bn in defence funds a year. Last week, President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve an additional $14bn to the country as part of a broader military aid package, and the Pentagon is providing weapon supplies. The show of support aims to prevent the conflict from spreading. | | | | Jonathan Beale, Defence correspondent |
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| | What is the US’s main concern in the conflict? | | It is primarily the threat from Israel's north, and specifically from the militant group Hezbollah. Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, fears the Iranian-backed group could intervene when Israel is "already deep inside Gaza and already committed and tired". | | What would happen then? | | If that happens, then Mr Oren believes there is a possibility the US would commit its sizeable airpower to strike targets inside Lebanon, though he does not see a situation in which America would commit boots on the ground. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin have both asserted that the US would respond if the situation escalates and any US personnel or military are targeted. Seth G Jones, director of International Security at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the US would be very reluctant to get directly engaged militarily in a war in Gaza. | | How would a ground invasion of Gaza affect the US’s support for Israel? | | President Biden wants Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and he does not want to see Israel occupy the Gaza strip indefinitely. Yaacov Katz, a military analyst and a columnist with the Jerusalem Post, believes that America's support for Israel will come under pressure as soon as its military operation begins in Gaza and the civilian casualties mount. | | | | • | Critical diplomacy: Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, faced backlash after she criticised remarks made by Irish President Michael D Higgins about the Israel-Gaza war. | | • | Al-Ahli hospital: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the UK has judged that the blast that hit the facility was likely caused by "a missile, or part of one" fired from "within Gaza". |
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| AT THE SCENE | Tel Aviv, Israel | | Restricted viewing of Hamas footage | | | | Dashcam footage showed the moment Hamas gunmen fired at a civilian car. Credit: IDF Handout | | The Israeli military showed journalists raw footage and documents recovered from Hamas gunmen, in an effort to remind the world of the brutality of the attacks in southern Israel two weeks ago. | | | The bodycam footage, cut together with clips from CCTV, dashboard cameras and the mobile phones of both Hamas gunmen and victims, showed in stark detail the sheer horror visited on a music festival and family neighbourhoods. It contained clips of Hamas gunmen cheering with apparent joy as they shot civilians on the road, and later stalking the pathways of kibbutzim and killing parents and children in their homes.
Speaking to the assembled international media after the screening, Major General Michael Edelstein, a former IDF Gaza division commander, said: "We see that some of the channels are trying to compare what Israel is doing and what those vile terrorists are doing.” He added he could not understand those who make the comparison. "And after what we have shared with you, you should know it," he said. |
| | | | • | ‘The nightmare was real’: One survivor of the 7 October attacks tells Middle East correspondent Anna Foster how Hamas militants stormed the Nahal Oz kibbutz, killed her daughter and took away her husband. | | • | Lacking supplies: BBC Arabic reporter Adnan El-Bursch witnesses distressing scenes from a Gaza hospital where funerals are held in the courtyard and no shrouds are left to cover the bodies. | | • | Moving back: A senior UN official said some Palestinians who fled their homes in the north of Gaza after Israel warned them to leave are starting to return because of the dire situation in the south. |
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| | | | The big picture | | The run-up to Day of the Dead | | | | The Parade of the Catrinas is one of Mexico's most important annual festivals. Credit: EPA |
| | A colourful procession of skeletons anticipates Mexico’s Day of the Dead, the pre-Hispanic celebration of the cycle of life and death that takes place every year on 1 and 2 November. The event is known as the Parade of the Catrinas, named after an elegant skeletal figure popular in Mexican culture. | | | | |
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| | | For your downtime | | Alien imagination | | Early sci-fi creatures were more odd-looking than their Hollywood-made successors. | | |
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| | And finally... in China | | Chinese social media has been shocked by a video that appeared to show a worker at a Tsingtao brewery urinating into a tank, believed to contain ingredients for its popular beer. The brewer said it "attached great importance” to the video, which Chinese authorities are investigating. |
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