JERUSALEM: Quiet sobs during memorial speeches, mourning crowds lighting candles… Israel fell silent briefly on Tuesday, marking one month since the deadly Hamas attacks of October 7 plunged it into war.
At Jerusalem’s Hebrew University around 1,000 people observed a minute of silence and recited prayers for the 1,400 killed, mostly civilians, in the worst attack on Israel since its founding in 1948.
“The atrocities left a horrible mark,” said university president Asher Cohen. “But there is hope. There will be rebirth.”

GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel’s ground forces in the Gaza Strip aimed on Wednesday to locate and disable Hamas militants’ vast tunnel network beneath the enclave, the next phase in an Israeli offensive that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
Since Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 cross-border gun rampage, Israel has pounded Gaza from the air and used ground troops to divide the coastal enclave in two.

LONDON: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Tuesday spoke with Egyptian Minister of Defense Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Zaki, the Pentagon said.
The two discussed efforts to bolster security in the Middle East following an attack by the Gaza-based Hamas group on Israel on Oct. 7 that followed a month-long retaliatory assault by Israeli forces.
“The secretary expressed appreciation for Egypt’s work to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and the safe evacuation of US citizens from Gaza,” the Department of Defense said in a statement.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: Israel said Tuesday that its ground forces were battling Hamas fighters deep inside Gaza’s largest city, signaling a major new stage in the month-old conflict, and its leaders foresee controlling the enclave’s security after the war.
The push into Gaza City guarantees that the already staggering death toll will rise further, while comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about controlling Gaza’s security for “an indefinite period” pointed to the uncertain endgame of a war that Israel says will be long and difficult.

JEDDAH/GAZA: Up to 900,000 Palestinian civilians remained in northern Gaza and Gaza City on Tuesday surrounded by Israeli tanks and troops preparing for a military onslaught.

Israel urged civilians to flee south and offered a four-hour window to travel, but southern Gaza also came under attack. At least 23 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.