Israel-Hamas war – live: IDF warns ‘time is up’ as troops surround Gaza and fighting intensifies

US president Joe Biden said there is a need for a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war after he was interrupted by a protester calling for ceasefire in Gaza.

Mr Biden was speaking to a crowd of supporters in Minneapolis about his reasons for running for president in 2020 when a woman got up and yelled: “Mr President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire.”

“I think we need a pause,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Biden’s latest remark was a subtle departure for the president and top White House aides, who throughout the Mideast crisis have been steadfast in stating they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations in response to the 7 October attack by Hamas.

The White House has refused to call for a cease-fire but has signaled that the Israelis should consider humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to receive aid and for foreign nationals trapped on the strip to leave Gaza.

“This is incredibly complicated for the Israelis,” Mr Biden added. “It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well. … I supported a two-state solution, I have from the very beginning.”

An MP who has been suspended by Labour over what the party said were “deeply offensive” comments at a pro-Palestine rally is threatening legal action against a Tory MP over a “highly defamatory” accusation that he sought to “justify” Hamas’s murderous attack on Israel.

Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald said he was “not prepared to stand by” while Chris Clarkson or others “peddle the lie” that he sought to justify Hamas’s actions on 7 October.

Mr McDonald was suspended by Labour earlier this week after he used the phrase “between the river and the sea” in a speech during a demonstration.

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $14.3bn aid package to Israel that would strip money meant for the Internal Revenue Service to beef up enforcement against tax cheats – setting up a likely veto from Joe Biden.

The bill passed overwhelmingly 226 to 196, with just 12 Democrats voting yes alongside the GOP majority, bucking the trend of normally widespread bipartisan support for aid to Israel.

The House bill would fund the aid by stripping money from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Democrats’ signature 2022 climate and health care bill, which allocated billions to increase tax enforcement and create a free government-run electronic tax filing system.

More in this report from Eric Garcia and Josh Marcus:

“We have advanced another significant stage in the war [with Hamas],” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, said. “The forces are in the heart of northern Gaza, operating in Gaza City, surrounding it, and deepening [the ground offensive].”

Echoing Lt Gen Halevi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops were “at the height of the battle” with Hamas and were “advancing”.

“We’ve… passed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing,” he said. Military officials had said that troops were conducting “face-to-face” battles with Hamas militants.

Read more from Bel Trew, in Tel Aviv, here:

Pro-Palestinian protesters are planning to take to the streets on Armistice Day as the Metropolitan Police commissioner admitted he may have to look to other forces to help deal with the ongoing action.

Demonstrations are set to be staged this Saturday in London and across the UK, with a further march planned in the capital on November 11, the anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) is preparing to bus protesters from Leicester to London next weekend to demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, and said it expected hundreds of thousands of people to take part in the demonstration organised by a coalition of groups.

But it vowed to avoid the Cenotaph war memorial on Whitehall – the focus of national remembrance events.

A two-minute silence is held each year at 11am on Armistice Day – also known as Remembrance Day – to commemorate those who died in conflict.

Ismail Patel, FOA spokesman, said: “We definitely will not be at the Cenotaph. We understand the sensitivity of the date.”

Israel’s government was split on Thursday over whether to make a regular transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, adding to growing signs of strain in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich were pulling in opposite directions over whether to release tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority following the deadly attack by hundreds of Hamas gunmen out of the Gaza Strip on 7 October.

The ultra-nationalist Smotrich has refused to release the funds, accusing the Palestinian Authority of supporting the “horrific massacres of the Nazi terror organisation Hamas”.

He has rejected an appeal by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who has called for the funds to be disbursed to help restore stability to the volatile West Bank where there has been a surge in violence since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

“This is clearly a problem for cohesive policy at the time of war,” said Gideon Rahat, senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. “They are already thinking about the day after the war.”

At least 74 American citizens crossed into Egypt from Gaza on Thursday as part of a deal brokered by the US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar, which acted as a mediator with Hamas.

“Good news we got out today 74 American folks, dual citizens,” US president Joe Biden told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. It comes one day after Mr Biden declared that he had “secured safe passage” for wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals to exit the territory.

More than 400 US citizens have been cleared to leave under the deal, according to a list of names seen by The Independent. But precisely how many will be able to make it to the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt, is unclear, due to the intensity of Israeli bombing across the Gaza strip.

British Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta said that the Israeli army had opened fire on ambulances carrying wounded people along a coastal road that was declared safe by the Israeli army on Thursday. Video footage released a few days ago an Israeli tank firing on a car on Salalhuddin road: the main artery from the north to the south in Gaza.

The Independent requested comment from the Israeli army about the alleged attack on the coastal road but did not receive a response.

Still, some are making it through. Wael Abo Mohsin, a Palestinian official in Gaza, said that 384 foreign nationals had left via the Rafah crossing on Thursday, along with 21 wounded.

An MP who has been suspended by Labour over what the party said were “deeply offensive” comments at a pro-Palestine rally is threatening legal action against a Tory MP over a “highly defamatory” accusation that he sought to “justify” Hamas’s murderous attack on Israel.

Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald said he was “not prepared to stand by” while Chris Clarkson or others “peddle the lie” that he sought to justify Hamas’s actions on October 7.

Mr McDonald was suspended by Labour earlier this week after he used the phrase “between the river and the sea” in a speech during a demonstration.

A slogan used by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, has been described as antisemitic by critics, with Home Secretary Suella Braverman claiming that it is “widely understood” to call for the destruction of Israel.

Mr McDonald, who is sitting as an independent MP while an investigation takes place, said his reference to the phrase was part of a “heartfelt plea” for peace in the region.

Irish president Michael D Higgins has hit out at breaches of international law by both State and non-State actors while speaking about the Israel-Hamas conflict.

He said in a statement released on Thursday that the “ongoing horrific loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel has to be addressed”, and “should concern us all”.

“Violence by non-State as well as State actors must be described for what it is – breaches of international humanitarian law,” Mr Higgins said.

“If international law is to respected, it is important that hostages be released and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire be put in place.

“In this terrible ongoing loss of civilian life, that is having such a devastating impact on families on all sides, with the large proportion of those killed being women and children, it is important that there be a verification of figures, that the lives lost are not reduced to competing press releases.”

The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevy, said his forces were encircling Gaza City from several directions and “fighting in a built-up, dense, complex area.”

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were in “face to face” battles with militants, calling in airstrikes and shelling when needed.

He said they were inflicting heavy losses on Hamas fighters and destroying their infrastructure with engineering equipment.

Casualties on both sides are expected to rise as Israeli troops advance toward the dense residential neighborhoods of Gaza City.

Israeli officials say Hamas’ military infrastructure, including tunnels, is concentrated in the city in and under civilian areas.

On Thursday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets warning residents to immediately evacuate Shati refugee camp, a densely built-up district on the Mediterranean coast bordering Gaza City’s center.

“Time is up,” the leaflets read, warning that strikes “with crushing force” against Hamas fighters were coming.