Israel-Hamas war updates: Here’s what happened on Oct. 10

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6:54 p.m. ET

Saskatchewan donates to Israel in show of support

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said his government is donating $100,000 to provide ambulances and medical equipment to Israel in a show of “unwavering support” as the Israel-Hamas war escalates.

Mr. Moe announced on Tuesday that the funding is being given to the Canadian Magen David Adom for Israel, the sole-authorized fundraising organization in Canada that aids the Middle Eastern country’s ambulance service.

“This donation to the CMDA demonstrates Saskatchewan’s unwavering support for Israel, and condemnation of the horrific terrorist attacks waged against civilians at the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah,” he said in a statement.

“We stand with the people of Israel during this tragic time and pray for all of those affected by this terrorist attack.” The province said CMDA has, to date, provided Israel with more than 250 ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

- Alanna Smith

6:20 p.m. ET

Canada planning to evacuate Canadians from Israel in coming days, foreign minister says

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Ottawa is planning to airlift Canadians out of Tel Aviv in “the coming days,” as conflict between Israel and Hamas escalates.

Joly says the government aims to conduct the evacuation using aircraft from the Canadian Armed Forces, and it is working on additional options for people who are unable to reach the airport in Tel Aviv.

She says the flights will be available to Canadian citizens and permanent residents, along with their spouses and their children.

Joly posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Canadians who are in Israel should register with Global Affairs Canada.

The post did not mention the Gaza Strip, where some Canadians are believed to be trapped as Israel closes off the Hamas-controlled territory.

Israel is hammering Gaza in retaliation for a surprise attack by Hamas militants on Israeli soil on Saturday, with fighting causing the deaths of at least 1,800 people so far.

– The Canadian Press

5:52 p.m. ET

Israel prepares for expected ground invasion of Gaza Strip, exchanges fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon

Tensions spiked around Israel on two fronts Tuesday, as the country’s military continued to mass troops ahead of an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip and exchanges of fire continued across the northern border with Lebanon.

In the south, Israeli warplanes hammered Gaza, reducing entire buildings to rubble throughout the fourth day of an all-out war that began on Saturday when Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, launched a surprise attack that killed more than 1,000 Israelis. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has declared that the country is implementing a “full siege” of the densely packed strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military escorted journalists into the Kfar Aza kibbutz, one of the Israeli communities briefly taken over by Hamas on the weekend. A Reuters reporter saw the bodies of Israeli residents and dead Hamas fighters lying in the streets amid burned-out cars and smashed furniture. U.S. President Joe Biden, in a special address on Tuesday, described the Hamas attack as “pure, unadulterated evil.”

The threat of a region-wide war continued to grow on Tuesday as Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia – which, like Hamas, is backed by Iran – fired a guided missile across Israel’s northern border, striking an Israeli military vehicle. After that, Israel shelled a Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon. It was the second straight day of tit-for-tat fire across the border, prompting the northern Israeli town of Metula to recommend that its 1,700 residents evacuate.

- Mark MacKinnon, Tel Aviv

5:45 p.m. ET

Israeli airlines add more flights to bring reservists home

Israeli airlines El Al, Israir and Arkia added more flights on Tuesday to bring home reservists, according to their websites and Israel’s airports authority, though the prospect of more conflict also stoked sector worries about staff shortages.

Israel said on Monday it had called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists and warned residents of Palestinian enclave Gaza to evacuate in a sign it could be planning a ground assault in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas’ unprecedented weekend attack.

Separately, U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller said the U.S. government was in conversation with various carriers to “encourage” them to consider resuming travel in and out of Israel to help a number of American citizens leave the country.

– Reuters

5:02 p.m. ET

Ottawa crafting plan to evacuate citizens stranded in Israel, head of Jewish-Canadian group says

The head of a major Jewish-Canadian group says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured him this morning that Canada is “actively working” on a plan to evacuate Canadians stranded in Israel.

Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said he’s confident now that Ottawa is working to address the problem facing Canadians who have not been able to find a flight home.

He said he believes that as many as 1,000 Canadians in Israel are looking for a way to leave after the Islamist group Hamas launched its biggest assault on the Mideast nation in years. Hamas is designated a terrorist group by the Canadian government.

The Prime Minister’s Office was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

– Steve Chase, Marieke Walsh, Ottawa

4:47 p.m. ET

Israel nears forming emergency government after Hamas attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has agreed to form an emergency unity government with opposition politicians following the deadliest militant attack in Israeli history, his ruling Likud Party said on Tuesday.

The main opposition leaders, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and former Defence Minister Benny Gantz, had agreed in principle to join a unity government following the surprise attack on Saturday by the Islamist group Hamas.

A spokesperson for Gantz’s National Unity party said she was optimistic there would be “good news” the party would unite with Netanyahu to form an emergency government but would not elaborate on the terms.

A meeting between Gantz and Netanyahu was scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed to Wednesday.

The agreement by political parties that are normally deeply hostile to one another underlines the scale of the crisis following the killing by Hamas gunmen of more than 1,000 Israelis at the weekend and the capture of more than 100 others.

– Reuters

4:34 p.m. ET

The latest from the ground in Israel and Gaza

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The Israeli military said Tuesday that it had shelled Syria after rockets hit open land in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

The military did not accuse any group of the rocket attack. The Syrian government did not comment. However, Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says a Palestinian faction conducted the rocket attack from Syrian territory.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it struck hundreds of Hamas targets overnight in Gaza. Tens of thousands of residents fled their homes as relentless airstrikes leveled buildings. Along with bombarding downtown Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also targeted the crossing between Egypt and the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, the only passage out of the territory.

On Tuesday, a large part of Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood was reduced to rubble after warplanes bombarded it for hours the night before. The Israeli military told residents of the nearby al-Daraj neighborhood to evacuate, and soon after new explosions rocked the area, and Rimal, continuing after nightfall. One strike hit Gaza City’s seaport, setting fishing boats aflame.

– The Associated Press

4:21 p.m. ET

U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in Mediterranean, within range of Israel

The Ford carrier strike group from the United States has arrived in the far Eastern Mediterranean, within range to provide a host of air support or long-range strike options for Israel if requested, but also to surge U.S. military presence to prevent the now 4-day-old war with Hamas from spilling over into a more dangerous regional conflict, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Israel on an urgent mission to show support for Israel, the State Department said Tuesday.

The U.S. is also talking to Israeli officials and others about the idea of a safe passage for Gaza civilians after Israel’s air strikes following a deadly Hamas attack over the weekend, the U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday.

– The Associated Press, Reuters

4:07 p.m. ET

The Israel-Hamas war: The days of strife so far

Since Hamas’s surprise attack on Oct. 7, fighting has taken a heavy toll and raised urgent questions about Palestinians’ and Israelis’ futures. Here is a visual overview of what’s happened so far.

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3:56 p.m. ET

After a day of confusion and social media chaos, Europe confirms that funding to Palestinians will continue

The European Union’s foreign ministers have rushed to forge a consensus on continued financial assistance to the Palestinian territories at an emergency meeting in Oman after a top European Commission official created confusion and anger by halting the aid.

In a statement, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said the EU and the Arab Gulf States “stressed the importance of sustained financial support” for UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency working with the Palestinians, and continued “humanitarian and development support for the Palestinians in the occupied territories.”

Mr. Borrell had sought to widen the scope of the meeting by inviting Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Eli Cohen and his Palestinian Authority counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, to the event, which was held Tuesday on the sidelines of an EU-Gulf States summit in Oman’s capital, Muscat.

Earlier, Mr. Borrell said the aid would continue after a review to ensure that none of the funds are leaked to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip and which the EU, the United States, Canada and Israel have labelled a terrorist organization.

– Eric Reguly

2:39 p.m. ET

U.S. President Biden reiterates support for Israel, calls on Congress to approve more military aid

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Fourteen U.S. citizens have been killed in Hamas’s attack on Israel and others are currently being held hostage, President Joe Biden said Tuesday as he reiterated his government’s support for Israel and called on Congress to approve more military aid.

The White House announcement was the first official confirmation that Americans were among the roughly 150 people kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza. More than 1,200 people were killed by Hamas in total.

“There are moments in this life and I mean this literally when the pure unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world. The people of Israel lived through one such moment this weekend,” Biden said. “This is an act of sheer evil.”

Biden spoke after his third phone call in four days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He outlined in his remarks the U.S. military assistance being sent to help Israel in its fight.

- Adrian Morrow

2:27 p.m. ET

Doug Ford, Jewish groups condemn CUPE Ontario president for tweets about Israel

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and national Jewish groups are denouncing Fred Hahn, Ontario president of the Canadian Union for Public Employees, for issuing social media statements celebrating “resistance” and criticizing Israel in the wake of deadly attacks by Hamas over the weekend.

Mr. Hahn issued posts on social media platform “X” that Jewish groups say celebrate the massacre of hundreds of Israeli women, children and elderly people by terrorist group Hamas.

Mr. Ford on Tuesday condemned Mr. Hahn’s posts and said he doesn’t believe they represent the tens of thousands of workers who are part of the union.

Richard Marceau, vice-president of external affairs and general counsel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, called on CUPE Ontario and at the national level to distance itself from Mr. Hahn’s comments and replace him as president. Mr. Hahn’s posts remained online as of Tuesday afternoon.

– Laura Stone

1:59 p.m. ET

Vancouver man confirmed as second Canadian victim in Hamas attack in Israel

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A 22-year-old Vancouver man, Ben Mizrachi, was among those killed during an attack on the Supernova music festival in southern Israel on Saturday.

He is the second confirmed Canadian victim in the early morning attack on the rave, which was one of the targets in a string of surprise attacks on Israel by Hamas militants. The music event was billed as an all-night nature festival. More than 200 people are reported to have been killed at the event, which was held six kilometres from the Gaza border. Alexandre Look, 33, of Montreal, was also among the dead.

Mr. Mizrachi graduated from a private Jewish high school in Vancouver, King David, in 2018, and then enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. A funeral service will be held in Kvutzat Yavne, a kibbutz in central lsrael. His parents, Dikla and Etsik Mizrachi, flew to Israel on the weekend when their son was first reported missing.

– Justine Hunter

1:15 p.m. ET

Ottawa urged to dispatch evacuation flights for Canadians stranded in Israel

The Official Opposition is calling on the Canadian government to dispatch evacuation flights for citizens in Israel, noting other countries have already done so.

“Other countries, like Mexico, Brazil and Poland, have sent aircraft to evacuate their citizens that want to leave. Canada has not,” Mr. Chong said.

According to the Canadian government, about 35,000 Canadian citizens live in Israel on a permanent basis. The Department of Global Affairs says about 90,000 Canadians travel to Israel each yea

The Globe asked the Department of Global Affairs and the Department of National Defence whether they had plans to operate evacuation flights but they did not answer the question.

Instead, the government said it’s considering what to do. “Right now, the Government of Canada has advised Canadians to ensure they register with Global Affairs Canada and to shelter in place,” Emily Williams, director of communications for Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said.

– Steven Chase, Marieke Walsh, Ottawa

12:32 p.m. ET

Rescuers pull bodies from Gazan municipal building used as shelter

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Gazan rescuers on Tuesday pulled the body of a four-year-old girl and other dead from the rubble of a municipal building where she and many others were sheltering, and which was damaged during an Israeli air strike.

The girl was named as Shahid Abu Rokbah, and rescuers said her family fled from east of the Khan Younis district to inside the city in search of safety, only to be killed. ”They tried to escape death only to find it... They came to find shelter. They were taking refuge next to the stairs where it could have been a safe place. They targeted them and killed them,” said volunteer Mohammad al Najjar.

He and others dug through the rubble of the building, which housed shops in its ground floor, with hand tools to avoid injuring anyone still alive. A building nearby was also knocked down.

Al Najjar said they were retrieving body parts but also hopeful of finding some people alive. ”Some injured people were sleeping here. This is their blood. Here there was a mother and her children. We removed the woman in the evening and the children were martyred and we just took them out from under rubble,” he said.

Ala Abu Tair, 35, who had sought shelter with his family after fleeing Abassan Al-Kabira near the border said, “there is an extraordinary number of martyrs, people are still under the rubble, some friends are either martyrs or wounded,” he said.

“No place is safe in Gaza, as you see they hit everywhere.”

– Reuters

12:20 p.m. ET

Quebec delays opening of representative office in Israel amid Hamas attacks

The Quebec government says it will delay the opening of its representative office in Israel amid the unprecedented attacks on the country.

Catherine Boucher, a spokeswoman for the province’s international relations minister, says the office will officially open when security conditions improve.

She says the director of the office, which was scheduled to open in Tel Aviv next week, is working from Quebec for the time being.

Announced in early August, the office at the Canadian Embassy is intended to boost governmental relations and increase co-operation around research and innovation between Quebec and Israel.

– The Canadian Press

12:10 p.m. ET

Rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel, security sources tell Reuters

A salvo of rockets was fired on Tuesday from southern Lebanon towards Israel, three security sources told Reuters, in the third consecutive day of violence along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

One security source said the bombardment was carried out by Palestinian factions. A second source said Israeli shelling was hitting the southern area from which the rockets were launched.

The Israeli military said it was responding with artillery fire to launches coming from Lebanese territory.

Lebanon was already on edge after six fighters were killed along the border on Monday – three Hezbollah members, an Israeli officer, and two Palestinian militants who touched off the violence by infiltrating Israel from Lebanon.

The United Nations interim peacekeeping force in the south, known as UNIFIL, said it was verifying reports of rockets being fired.

– Reuters

11:52 a.m. ET

Officer: Israeli death toll from Hamas attack hits 1,000

An Israeli military official says the death toll from Hamas’s surprise attack over the weekend has now risen above 1,000.

Brig.-Gen. Dan Goldfus announced the figure during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

He spoke as Israel was pressing ahead with a fierce offensive of air strikes in Gaza that has claimed 830 lives there and caused widespread destruction.

”We are going to go on the offence and attack the Hamas terrorist group and any other group that is in Gaza,” he said. “We will have to change the reality from within Gaza to prevent this from happening again.”

– The Associated Press

10:51 a.m. ET

Landmarks around the world light up as a show of solidarity with Israel

10:45 a.m. ET

Airlines halt flights to Israel after Hamas attacks

Oct. 10, 10:20 a.m. ET

Israel secures border, pounds Gaza City as people scramble for safety

Israeli warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip neighbourhood by neighbourhood on Tuesday, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory as Israel vowed a retaliation for Hamas’ surprise weekend attack that would “reverberate ... for generations.”

Aid organizations pleaded for the creation of humanitarian corridors to get aid into Gaza, warning that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded were running out of supplies. Israel has stopped all access of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt shut down Tuesday after air strikes hit near the border crossing.

The Israeli military said it struck hundreds of targets overnight in Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood, an upscale district that is home to ministries of the Hamas-run government, as well as universities, media organizations and the offices of aid organizations.

The conflict is only expected to escalate. Israel expanded the mobilization of reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to the country’s media. After days of fighting, Israel’s military said Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over areas Hamas attacked in its south, and of the Gaza border.

U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about co-ordination with allies to “defend Israel and innocent people against terrorism,” the White House said.

The Israeli military said more than 900 people have been killed in Israel. In Gaza and the West Bank, 704 people have been killed, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

– The Associated Press

Oct. 9, 5:35 p.m. ET

Israel orders ‘full siege’ of Gaza ahead of counteroffensive while Hamas threatens to execute hostages

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Israel declared on Monday that it was laying “full siege” to the Gaza Strip, as it began a counteroffensive after a bloody invasion of Israeli territory led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The effort is complicated by Hamas’s claim that it is holding more than 100 hostages in Gaza, a number that reportedly includes three Canadians.

Speaking two days after the launch of the massive surprise attack, which had killed more than 900 people in Israel and wounded 2,400 others as of Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to punish Hamas. The Islamist group rules Gaza, a small Palestinian enclave on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.

“I ask you to stand firm, because we are going to change the Middle East,” Mr. Netanyahu said while meeting with mayors of southern Israeli cities that had been on the front line of the Hamas assault. “I know you have been through terrible and difficult things. What Hamas will go through will be difficult and terrible … We have only just begun.”

– Mark MacKinnon, Jerusalem