The Ukrainian counteroffensive began in June, with Kiev deploying brigades trained by NATO instructors and armed with Western equipment. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kiev's push had failed, with Ukraine suffering casualties estimated at more than 90,000.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released footage of the commander of a Russian assault group, Ivan, saying that Ukrainian forces are just retreating.
"They are only retreating, there is not much left of the professional army. Mostly mobilized, maybe there is a part of mercenaries who do not go to the positions, control at a distance, as barrier units stand," the commander of the Airborne Forces assault group with the call sign "Ivan" explained.
According to the fighter, there is not much left of the professional army - only mobilized and some mercenaries.
Combat of the Ivanovo assault group can be seen in the footage released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Soldiers of the Airborne Forces in small assault groups from several directions secretly approached a Ukrainian stronghold where, according to intelligence, a Ukrainian unit was preparing to move toward Russian defensive positions.
The Russian paratroopers immediately attacked the enemy. During the battle, the soldiers managed to capture and destroy a BMP-1 and a light tank of Western design. When the Ukrainian militants tried to counterattack, they were attacked by a fire support group of Ivanovo paratroopers. The militants, having lost several men, abandoned their plans.
PoW: 'There Are as Much Drugs as Dirt' in Ukrainian Armed Forces
Data on drug use in the Ukrainian Armed Forces has appeared regularly. This was also mentioned by the Russian participants of the special military operation, who saw the confirmation of such facts among the enemy's ranks.
Ukrainian military officer Maxim Kolyada, who was captured in the Zaporozhye region, said that his unit included many drug addicts with years of "experience".
"There are many people like me out there. Of 20 to 30 people, about half of them are drug addicts, as far as I can see," Kolyada explained.
He admitted to using drugs himself; the soldier took a dose the day he was captured.
The soldiers have had no problem with buying drugs. According to Kolyada, the Ukrainian armed forces now have "as much drugs as dirt, because these are salaries".
The suggestion by Israel's heritage minister of a nuclear strike on the Gaza Strip has raised numerous questions, including whether Israel possesses nuclear weapons, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Solovyov Live television.
Russian officials have joined other countries in expressing concern over the remarks of an Israeli junior minister who appeared to express openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza, saying that it raises a “huge number of questions”.
Moscow’s reaction came on Tuesday, days after Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu, said during a radio interview, that the nuclear option would be “one way” to deal with Gaza, implying that, not only is Israel in possession of nuclear weapons – something the country has never admitted – but that it is also willing to use them.
"It raised a huge number of questions. The number one question is, did we hear an official declaration that [Israel] has nuclear weapons? Consequently, the next questions that everyone had were: Where are the international organizations, where is the IAEA, where are the inspectors?" she said.
Zakharova also said that such statements by Israeli officials shed light on the true reasons why Tel Aviv is opposing the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. According to the diplomat, the US made every effort to help Israel acquire nuclear weapons, giving it full support in this matter.
"If this program exists and existed, where were the tests conducted, at what testing grounds? Obviously, apparently not in the region, then where? And isn't the United States behind all this?" the diplomat said.
Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu was asked in an interview with Kol Berama Radio on November 5 whether a nuclear bomb should be dropped on Gaza and responded that it was one of the possibilities. The official later said that the nuclear bomb statement was metaphorical, but Israel definitely needs a powerful and disproportionate response to terrorism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from government meetings and criticized his remarks about the possibility of using nuclear weapons in Gaza.
Eliyahu's remarks were condemned by several Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking hostages. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.
State Department officials, in a leaked memo, reportedly criticized the Biden administration's approach to the Palestine-Israel conflict, calling for a more public condemnation of Israeli actions.
A Monday US media report detailed that the memo outlines two requests: endorsing a ceasefire and adopting a more balanced approach in public and private communications regarding Israel, including the open discussion of concerns about Israeli military tactics and the treatment of Palestinians.
Authored by two mid-level staffers with Middle East experience, the memo also reportedly acknowledges Israel's legitimate right and obligation to seek justice against the Hamas militant group over the October 7 surprise attack while deeming the subsequent high number of Palestinian casualties - mostly civilians and many children - as unacceptable.
“We must publicly criticize Israel’s violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets,” the message also states.
“When Israel supports settler violence and illegal land seizures or employs excessive use of force against Palestinians, we must communicate publicly that this goes against our American values so that Israel does not act with impunity.”
The memo, which was marked as "sensitive but unclassified," further highlighted that the US' messaging downfalls "contributes to regional public perceptions that the United States is a biased and dishonest actor, which at best does not advance, and at worst harms, US interests worldwide."
The State Department did not offer comment to the outlet in light of the leaked document, which was aired through the department's Dissent Channel, a platform where government employees are freely allowed to outline their disputes.
Palestinians evacuate the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, November 6, 2023. REUTERS/Yasser Qudih Acquire Licensing Rights
Gaza is becoming a "graveyard for children", U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, amplifying demands for a ceasefire in the enclave, where Palestinian health authorities said the death toll from Israeli strikes had exceeded 10,000.
Both Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza have rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire. Israel says hostages taken by Hamas during its rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 should be released first; Hamas says it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.
"Ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and U.N. facilities – including shelters. No one is safe," Guterres told reporters.
"At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel," he said, calling for an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Israel said 31 soldiers had been killed since it began expanded ground operations in Gaza on Oct. 27 and reiterated that Hamas was hiding with civilians and at hospitals. Hamas said the idea that Hamas was based in hospitals was a "false narrative that the U.N. should verify.
A Reuters journalist in Gaza said Israel's overnight bombardment by air, ground and sea was one of its most intense since the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas killed 1,400 people in Israel and seized more than 240 hostages.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave said at least 10,022 people in Gaza have since been killed, including 4,104 children.
"Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day," Guterres said.
International organisations have said hospitals cannot cope with the wounded and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries nowhere near enough.
Guterres said 89 people working with the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) were among the dead. UNRWA said five colleagues had been killed in the past 24 hours alone.
"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now," an earlier statement by 18 U.N. organisations said.
The States is pushing hard to arrange pauses in the conflict to allow in aid rather than a full ceasefire, arguing, like Israel, that Hamas militants would just take advantage.
U.S. President Joe Biden discussed such pauses and possible hostage releases in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, reiterating his support for Israel while emphasising that it must protect civilians, the White House said.
The faces of hostages were projected onto the wall of Jerusalem's Old City on the eve of the one month anniversary of the attack.
ISRAEL SAYS IT IS CLOSING IN ON HAMAS
The Israeli military said its forces had taken a militant compound and were poised to attack Hamas fighters hiding in underground tunnels and bunkers in the northern Gaza Strip, having isolated the area with troops and tanks. It released video of tanks moving through bombed-out streets and groups of troops moving on foot.
"Now we are going to start closing in on them," Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters.
The armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, said it had damaged 27 Israeli military vehicles in 48 hours and inflicted significant losses in direct engagements with Israeli troops.
The health ministry in Gaza said dozens of people were killed by Israeli air strikes in the north and south, including on Gaza City's Rantissi cancer hospital, where eight people were killed. Israel's military said it was looking into the report.
Gaza's health ministry spokesman said an air strike had also hit a building belonging to Gaza's largest hospital, Al Shifa, where 170 people were being treated and hundreds of evacuees were sheltering. One person was killed and several were wounded, he said. Israel said it had not struck the hospital.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had escorted a four-ambulance convoy of patients from Gaza City to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Evacuations had been suspended since an Israeli strike on an ambulance on Friday but three Egyptian security sources said dozens of foreign passport holders also left on Monday.
UN Chief ratchets up pressure as Security Council meets
The UN Security Council met on Monday afternoon for two hours, behind closed doors.
We’ve heard the Secretary General today warning that Gaza is becoming a “graveyard for children”. Even as the Council was meeting, he was tweeting that message. Repetitively tweeting about the need for a ceasefire today.
We’ve seen Guterres really ratchet up the pressure on the international community.
In 1 month Israel has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, incl more than 4,000 children. That is 1 in every 200 people, in Gaza alone. In 1 month. Let that sink in. https://t.co/XKd8DN6qqm
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) November 6, 2023
We’ve seen Guterres really ratchet up the pressure on the international community.
He said, “the parties to the conflict, and indeed, the international community, face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop the inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
He said, “the parties to the conflict, and indeed, the international community, face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop the inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
So council members discuss this behind closed doors. Many of them came out after the meeting, to speak to the media. Clearly they’re feeling pressure not just from the officials, but from their constituencies back home as well.
Teenager shot dead by Israeli forces in West Bank
A 19-year-old Palestinian was killed and another man wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on them near the town of Beit Anan in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the person killed as Musab Mujahid Kamel al-Matari.
Sources told Wafa that Matari and another unidentified Palestinian were shot by Israeli authorities before they were arrested.
The family was later informed of his death.
Even before Matari’s killing, at least four Palestinians had already been reported killed by Israeli forces during a rare daytime raid in Tulkarem.
At about the same time, Israeli forces also stormed the town of Beit Daqo, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, destroying a monument dedicated to Palestinians killed by Israel.
Hamas said it had launched 16 missiles towards Nahariyya and Southern Haifa in Israel.
How Western leaders reacted after attacks on civilians in Gaza, Ukraine
Here’s how these Western leaders reacted after attacks on civilians in Gaza vs. Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/uNTuK7ybE1
Meanwhile, people searched for victims or survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the health ministry said Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people in strikes early on Sunday.
"All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh," said Saeed al-Nejma, 53. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said it was gathering details.
Israeli forces just arrested Ahed Tamimi in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank.
Over a week ago they arrested her father, Bassem Tamimi while he was trying to make his way to Jordan. The family still has no idea where he’s being held.
I continue to think about the serious situation in Palestine and in Israel where many, many people have lost their lives. In God’s name, I beg you to stop: cease using weapons! I hope that avenues will be pursued so that an escalation of the conflict might be absolutely avoided.
