Warning: This article contains details and images that some readers may find disturbing
Wednesday’s newspapers continue to lead with Hamas attacks on Israel. The Financial Times reports that Israel “pounded” the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and prepared for a ground invasion of the enclave, three days after an attack by Hamas triggered the “bloodiest war on the country’s territory for decades”. In the UK, the paper says, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has promised to “bulldoze” the planning system and work with the private sector to unleash a “big build” across the UK as part of “radical action” to accelerate house building.
The Guardian reports that a huge Israeli military build-up was continuing along Gaza’s border on Tuesday as the country’s military confirmed the death toll from Saturday’s Hamas attack had “passed 1,000”. The paper also displays an image of Starmer and his wife, Victoria, at the end of his party conference speech in Liverpool.
The Daily Mail reports on the “horror of Israel’s 9/11” and says Hamas gunmen “massacred 40 children in one farm settlement alone”. The paper quotes a bereaved grandson, Shmuel Harel, who said: “This was a holocaust, pure and simple.” The paper features a photo of Holly Willoughby after the British TV presenter “dramatically quit This Morning”.
The i newspaper reports that babies and children were killed by Hamas in a village massacre at Kfar Aza near the Gaza border. The paper says US President Joe Biden described the Hamas attacks as “pure evil” and compared the group to the Islamic State group. The paper also shows an image of Starmer covered in glitter after a protester stormed on stage during his speech at the Labour conference.
The Labour leader makes the headlines in the Daily Mirror, which says Starmer “offered the nation hope for the future” as he vowed to “undo the damage caused by years of Tory misrule”. Willoughby’s departure from This Morning after 14 years also appears in the paper.
The Daily Telegraph also reports that “dozens of dead civilians” were found in the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, with soldiers at the scene comparing the murders to “the Nazi pogroms of the Second World War”.
The Metro reports on claims that Hamas militants murdered “40 babies in a massacre at a kibbutz during their savage assault on Israel”. The paper quotes Israeli Defence Force commander Maj Gen Itai Veruv who said: “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre.”
The Sun has reports of a mother who “listened helplessly” as Hamas kidnapped her young daughter and elderly mother.
The Times reports that the death toll at Kfar Aza was rising with “entire families having been shot as they slept”. The paper quotes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who warned that the retaliation, in which targets were destroyed across Gaza for a third day, had “only just begun”.
The Daily Express also leads on the Hamas attack on families in Kfar Aza by Hamas. The paper says the “war crime” was condemned by US President Joe Biden, who said: “There are moments in this life… when a pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world.”
And the Daily Star says fungi boffins claim a new species of mushrooms will “hold the key to beating diseases”.
Israel’s war with Hamas dominates coverage. The Guardian says the bodies of victims are still being recovered, four days after the attacks. Reports of children being killed in the village of Kfar Aza are reflected in the i, which carries the headline “massacre of innocents”.
“This was a holocaust pure and simple,” says the Daily Mail. The Express talks of “barbaric terrorists” from Hamas. The Times reporter Anshel Pfeffer, who visited the village, says the killings there are likely to be the greatest loss of civilian life in a terrorist attack in Israeli history.
“Israel prepares for ground invasion” is the headline in the Financial Times with news of a further 60,000 reservists mobilised. The paper reports on a warning from the UN of a “severe shortage” of water in Gaza which is under a tightened Israeli blockade. The Sun features a photo of devastated buildings in Rimal, Gaza, after Israeli air strikes with the headline “reduced to rubble”.
A former chief of the General Staff, General Lord Dannatt, urges caution in Israel’s response. Writing in the Telegraph, he says an Israeli ground assault could result in the death of large numbers of Palestinian civilians and the destruction of much of the already impoverished infrastructure of Gaza.
This, he adds, would play into the hands of Iran. But, elsewhere in the paper, the former army colonel Richard Kemp argues for the deployment of “overwhelming force” against Hamas, saying Israel must focus on “crushing its will to exist, something which is only attainable by eliminating fighters in large numbers and destroying combat capability through devastating military force”.
Image source, EPA
Israeli soldiers take position next to Kfar Aza kibbutz near the border with Gaza
Sir Keir Starmer’s interrupted speech at the Labour party conference makes many of the front pages. There are photos of the protester covering him in glitter with the headlines “Starmer’s time to shine” in the Daily Telegraph, and “Starmer versus stormer” in the Metro.
The Daily Mirror describes Starmer’s speech as “rousing”. In its leader column, it says he delivered a “stunningly compelling, persuasive, case for political change”. The Times describes him as “Steady Starmer”. It says he sounded like a prime minister-in-waiting, but adds there are still questions to answer about his party’s policies.
For the Mail, he was “Shallow Sir Keir..taking voters for fools”. “With an election in the offing”, the paper says, “voters deserve to know in specific detail how Labour would change their lives for the better”.
A number of the papers report research which suggests the impact of private renting on biological ageing is nearly double that of being unemployed, and greater than that experienced by smokers.
The Times says owning your own home can slow down the ageing process because it is less stressful than renting.
The former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher has lent his voice to a new project, the i reveals. Manchester’s Metrolink passengers will hear his work for the first time this weekend when he becomes the voice of tram stop announcements on the service as part of a festival in the city.
