Israel war recap: Mums, babies beheaded; first Aussie victim Galit Carbone confirmed; Gaza under fire

Our live coverage of the horrific Israel war has concluded for the day.

We will be back tomorrow morning to bring you the latest updates as they happen.

Despite security concerns, more than one thousand people, including tennis great Margaret Court, gathered at a Perth synagogue on Wednesday night in an emotional display of solidarity with Israel.

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The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees told the AP on Wednesday that nine of its staffers have been killed in airstrikes since the the start of the Israeli bombardment on Gaza on Saturday, with several killed late Tuesday.

AP

A Perth woman on tour in Israel was able to escape and cross the border into Jordan on Wednesday.

Ronda told the ABC she was lucky to be able to leave but felt for all the people getting left behind.

“We’re leaving these beautiful Israeli people behind,” she said.

“They have to live with this, we don’t. We get to escape.”

The Gaza Strip’s sole power plant is now out of fuel meaning Gaza has no electricity.

The leader of a prominent Iranian-backed militia in Iraq threatened Wednesday to attack American bases in retaliation if the United States intervenes in the latest war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.

“Our missiles, drones, and special forces are ready to direct qualitative strikes at the American enemy in its bases and disrupt its interests if it intervenes in this battle,” Ahmad “Abu Hussein” al-Hamidawi, head of the Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement. He also threatened to launch missiles at Israeli targets.

Al-Hamidawi called on Iraqis to demonstrate and collect donations in support of the Hamas military campaign. - Via AP

Gaza’s power authority says its sole power plant will run out of fuel within hours, leaving the territory without electricity after Israel cut off supplies.

Israel said it would cut off all electricity to the territory after Hamas’ bloody rampage over the weekend.

All of Gaza’s crossings are closed, making it impossible to bring in fuel for the power plant or the generators on which residents and hospitals have long relied.

The power authority said Wednesday that the plant would shut down in the afternoon. -AP

Pope Francis on Wednesday called for the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas fighters in the most serious assault on Israel in half a century.

Francis said during a weekly audience that he is following events in Israel and the occupied territories with “pain and apprehension,” with “many dead and injured,” and said he is praying for those who saw “a day of celebration transformed into a day of mourning.”

The pope said that “whoever is attacked has the right to defend himself. But I am very worried about the total siege under which the Palestinians in Gaza are living, where there are also many innocent victims.” - Via AP

Doctors Without Borders are calling for militants to allow the safe passage of medical teams and wounded civilians to health facilities after ambulances and a hospital were damaged during deadly airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.

Medical teams from humanitarian medical non-profit Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders have been working around the clock to treat injured civilians since the escalation of violence on Saturday.

The organisation said surgical units are operating day and night, and an MSF-supported hospital was recently damaged in an airstrike.

Israel calls last week’s devastating attack by Hamas its 9/11 moment. The secretive mastermind behind the assault, Palestinian militant Mohammed Deif, calls it Al Aqsa Flood.

The phrase Israel’s most wanted man used in an audio tape broadcast as Hamas fired thousands of rockets out of the Gaza strip on Saturday signalled the attack was payback for Israeli raids at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque.

It was in May 2021, after a raid on Islam’s third holiest site that enraged the Arab and Muslim world, when Deif began planning the operation that has killed more than 1200 people in Israel, according to a source close to Hamas in Gaza.

“It was triggered by scenes and footage of Israel storming Al Aqsa mosque during Ramadan, beating worshippers, attacking them, dragging elderly and young men out of the mosque,” the source said. “All this fuelled and ignited the anger.”

Who is Deif?

His wife, 7-month-old son, and 3-year-old daughter were killed by an Israeli air strike in 2014.

Palestinian sources said one of the homes Israeli air strikes hit in Gaza during recent strikes belonged to Deif’s father.

Deif’s brother and two other family members were killed in the strike, according to the sources.

Born as Mohammad Masri in 1965 in the Khan Yunis Refugee Camp set up after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the militant leader became known as Mohammed Deif after joining Hamas during the first Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which began in 1987.

He was arrested by Israel in 1989 and spent about 16 months in detention, a Hamas source said.

Deif earned a degree in science from the Islamic University in Gaza, where he studied physics, chemistry and biology. He displayed an affinity for the arts, heading the university’s entertainment committee and performing on stage in comedies.

Rising up the Hamas ranks, Deif developed the group’s network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise. He has topped Israel’s most wanted list for decades, held personally responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.

For Deif, staying in the shadow has been a matter of life or death. Hamas sources said he lost an eye and sustained serious injuries in one leg in one of Israel’s assassination attempts.

His survival while running Hamas’s armed wing has earned him the status of a Palestinian folk hero. In videos he is masked, or just a shadow of him is seen. He doesn’t use modern digital technology such as smart phones, the source close to Hamas said.

“He is elusive. He is the man in the shadows.”

Two brains, one mastermind

The source close to Hamas said the decision to prepare the attack was taken jointly by Deif, who commands Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigades, along with Yehya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, but it was clear who was the architect.

“There are two brains, but there is one mastermind,” the source said, adding that information about the operation was known only to a handful of Hamas leaders.

But while Israel began providing economic incentives to Gazan workers, the group’s fighters were being trained and drilled, often in plain sight of the Israeli military, a source close to Hamas said.

“We have prepared for this battle for two years,” said Ali Baraka, the head of external relations for Hamas.

Speaking in a calm voice, Deif said in his recording that Hamas had repeatedly warned Israel to stop its crimes against Palestinians, to release prisoners, whom he said were abused and tortured, and to halt its expropriation of Palestinian land.

“Every day the occupation storm our villages, towns and cities in the West Bank and raid houses, kill, injure, destroy and detain. At the same time, it confiscates thousands of acres of our land, uproots our people from their houses to build settlements while its criminal siege continues on Gaza.” - Via Reuters