Saudi defense minister to visit US on Monday: reports Saudi Arabia’s defense minister Khalid bin Salman is expected to visit Washington on Monday, three sources with familiar knowledge told Axios. According to the sources, the visit has long been scheduled but will comes days after Israel expanded its ground operation in Gaza, Axios reports. Bin Salman is expected to meet with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, defense secretary Lloyd Austin, secretary of state Tony Blinken and several senators, the sources said. Earlier on Saturday, the Saudi foreign ministry issued a condemnation of Israel’s ground operations, saying: “The Kingdom condemns and denounces any ground operation carried out by Israel which would threaten the lives of Palestinian civilians and result in inhumane dangers. The Kingdom warns of the danger of continuing to carry out these flagrant and unjustified violations that are contrary to international law against the Palestinian people and the serious repercussions they will have on regional and international peace and security.” Summary Here is where the day currently stands: Qatar-mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas aimed at de-escalating fighting in Gaza continued on Saturday, a source briefed on the negotiations said, even as Israel intensified its assault on the enclave, Reuters reports. “Talks have not broken down, but are taking place at a ‘much slower pace’ than before the escalation from Friday evening, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of negotiations,” Reuters said. Médecins Sans Frontières is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza “to prevent more deaths … and allow desperately needed humanitarian supplies in.” “We have teams on standby ready to send medical supplies and to enter Gaza, as soon as the situation allows it. But if the bombing continues with the current intensity, any effort to increase medical aid will inevitably fall short,” the organization said. Elon Musk said that he will provide his Starlink satellite service to “internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.” Musk made the announcement in response to New York’s Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s condemnation of Israel’s communications blackout in Gaza last night. Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said that his office “will cut any ties with Starlink” following Elon Musk’s announcement on his Starlink satellite services. “Perhaps Musk would be willing to condition it with the release of our abducted babies, sons, daughters, elderly people. All of them! By then, my office will cut any ties with Starlink,” said Karhi. UN chief António Guterres met with Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. “I came to Doha to express to Prime Minister@MBA_AlThani_ our full gratitude, appreciation and support for Qatar’s tireless mediation initiatives, namely for the release of the hostages kept in Gaza,” Guterres tweeted on Saturday. Hamas said that it is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens who are among the more than 200 hostages captured during its 7 October attacks against Israel. “We are looking for those people ... It is hard but we are looking. And when we find them, we will let them go,” senior Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzook said, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is “ready to make sure that the murderers are going to pay the price for the massacre”, referring to the Hamas attacks of 7 October. He added that Israel is “going to abolish this evil in order to further all humanity.” The United Arab Emirates has asked the UN security council on Saturday to meet “as soon as possible” following Israel’s communication blackout across Gaza and its expanded ground operation. The 15-member council could meet as early as Sunday, diplomats said, and the UAE has asked for UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency providing aid to Palestinians, to brief, Reuters reports. Hamas’s armed wing has announced that it is ready to release hostages captured during the October 7 attacks in return for all Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli prisons. “The price to pay for the large number of enemy hostages in our hands is to empty the [Israeli] prisons of all Palestinian prisoners,” Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said in a statement broadcast by the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television channel, Agence France-Presse reports. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has ordered the return of Israeli diplomats from Turkey following Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan’s comments at a pro-Palestinian rally in which he called Israel an “occupier.” Cohen tweeted on Saturday: “Given the grave statements coming from Turkey, I have ordered the return of diplomatic representatives there in order to conduct a reevaluation of the relations between Israel and Turkey.” Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza following Israel’s expanded military operation in the strip that has killed over 7,000 Palestinians in the last three weeks: Médecins Sans Frontières is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza “to prevent more deaths … and allow desperately needed humanitarian supplies in”. In a series of tweets on Saturday, the humanitarian organization said: Since 27 October, the bombing by Israeli forces has intensified to a degree not seen until now: northern Gaza is being razed to the ground, while the whole Strip is being hit and civilians have no place to take shelter ... The actions of world leaders are too weak, too slow, as a non-binding UN resolution for a ceasefire has done nothing to rein in the indiscriminate violence unleashed on a helpless people. The international community must take stronger action to urge Israel to stop the bloodshed. We have teams on standby ready to send medical supplies and to enter Gaza, as soon as the situation allows it. But if the bombing continues with the current intensity, any effort to increase medical aid will inevitably fall short. Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said that his office “will cut any ties with Starlink” following Elon Musk’s announcement that he will provide his Starlink satellite services to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza. In a tweet on Saturday, Karhi wrote: Israel will use all means at its disposal to fight this. Hamas will use it for terrorist activities. There is no doubt about it, we know it, and Musk knows it. Hamas is ISIS. Perhaps Musk would be willing to condition it with the release of our abducted babies, sons, daughters, elderly people. All of them! By then, my office will cut any ties with Starlink.” Here are some images coming through the newswires of thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors that marched in the UK, France and Switzerland today to demand a ceasefire: Qatar-mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas aimed at de-escalating fighting in Gaza continued on Saturday, a source briefed on the negotiations said, even as Israel intensified its assault on the enclave, Reuters reports. From Reuters: Talks have not broken down, but are taking place at a “much slower pace” than before the escalation from Friday evening, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of negotiations. Gaza’s besieged people had barely any communications with the outside world on Saturday as Israeli jets dropped more bombs on the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave and military chiefs said a long-threatened ground offensive was gearing up. Qatar has been conducting behind-the-scenes diplomacy for more than three weeks, speaking to Hamas officials and Israel to promote peace and secure the release of hostages. Its mediation last week led to the release of two American hostages, a mother and daughter, and two elderly Israeli women. Elon Musk"s Starlink satellite service to support connectivity to "internationally recognized aid organizations" in Gaza Elon Musk said that he will provide his Starlink satellite service to “internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.” Musk made the announcement in response to New York’s Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s condemnation of Israel’s communications blackout in Gaza last night. “Cutting off all communication to a population of 2.2 million is unacceptable. Journalists, medical professionals, humanitarian efforts, and innocents are all endangered. I do not know how such an act can be defended. The United States has historically denounced this practice,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Arab Gulf states have largely denounced Israel’s ground operations in Gaza, AFP reports. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the ground ops in a statement, calling the latest military action “unjustified”. From AFP: Saudi Arabia “condemns and denounces any ground operations carried out by Israel due to the threat they pose to the lives of Palestinian civilians”, the kingdom’s foreign ministry said in a statement. It cautioned against “the danger of continuing to carry out these blatant and unjustified violations of international law against the brotherly Palestinian people”, warning of “serious repercussions for the stability of the region”. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani warned about the consequences of Israel’s ground operations in a post to X, formally known as Twitter. “Israeli ground escalation would have dire consequences for civilians and devastating humanitarian and economic impacts,” he said, AFP reported. UN chief António Guterres met with Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. “I came to Doha to express to Prime Minister@MBA_AlThani_ our full gratitude, appreciation and support for Qatar’s tireless mediation initiatives, namely for the release of the hostages kept in Gaza,” Guterres tweeted on Saturday. “I was encouraged by what seemed to be a growing consensus for the need of at least a humanitarian pause in the Middle East. Regrettably, instead I was surprised by an unprecedented escalation of bombardments, undermining humanitarian objectives. This situation must be reversed,” he added. An Israeli military spokesperson refused to confirm whether Israel was behind a communications blackout in Gaza that began Friday, Reuters reported. When asked whether Israel was behind the telecommunications blackout, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “We do what we have to do to secure our forces for as long as we must, temporary or permanent, as much as we need to and we will not say anything further about that.” The communications blackout has left the territory mostly cut off as Israel intensifies its siege. Here’s more information from the Guardian’s Rory Carroll in Jerusalem and Hibaq Farah: The destruction of phone and internet connections has plunged Gaza into a communications blackout and created an information vacuum amid the heaviest aerial bombardment of the war so far. A handful of reports that emerged from the enclave on Saturday depicted chaos and anguish as paramedic teams and aid agencies struggled to coordinate rescue and relief efforts and families sought news about relatives. Rushdi Abualouf, a journalist working for the BBC in Gaza, said since communications were cut on Friday night ambulance drivers could not receive instructions so they simply drove in the direction of explosions. ‘There’s been panic everywhere, even here in Khan Younis, where the bombing was less, as people try to reach family members in other areas to check they are safe, but the phones have been cut off,’ he wrote. ‘It’s total chaos.’ Hamas said that it is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens who are among the more than 200 hostages captured during its 7 October attacks against Israel. Agence France-Presse reports: “From the Russian side, via the foreign ministry, we received a list of citizens that have dual citizenship,” senior Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzook said, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. “We are looking for those people ... It is hard but we are looking. And when we find them, we will let them go … We are very attentive to this list and will process it carefully because we consider Russia to be a close friend,” he said. “About the peaceful citizens that were taken and that are now in Gaza, we treat them as guests,” claimed Abu Marzook, who arrived in Russia on Thursday for talks on the hostages. “We will free them as soon as there will be the conditions,” he said, referring to the Russian-Israelis. Russia’s deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov confirmed Hamas had handed over a list bearing eight names. “They have promised to react, to help, to find them and take all necessary measures to free the Russians,” TASS quoted Bogdanov as saying. Marzook told Russian media there was no progress on international talks to free the hostages. He was quoted as saying “dozens of Western and regional officials came to us to demand the liberation of the detainees.” The civilians were taken as “a result of chaos,” he said. A group of protestors appears to have gathered near the Israeli defense ministry in Tel Aviv in an anti-war rally. Several people held up signs that read: “Ceasefire. Bring them back now!” Other signs read: “Israelis for ceasefire now” and “War has no winners”. Egypt’s foreign ministry said that “Israeli obstacles” including truck inspection procedures were hindering the delivery of aid into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing. “The trucks must be inspected at the Israeli Nitzana crossing before they head to the Rafah crossing on a journey that takes a distance of 100 km (62 miles) before they actually enter the Rafah crossing, which causes obstacles that significantly delay the arrival of aid,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, Reuters reports. Prior to the conflict, approximately 500 aid trucks were crossing into Gaza. However, following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent Israeli bombing of Gaza, an average of only 12 trucks a day have entered, Guterres said on Friday, Reuters reports. “We have to win against Hamas because it’s our existence, but it’s affecting all of the western civilization,” said the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He added that “Iran is the axis of evil.” “We’re not going to change the goal of destroying Hamas,” the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu said in response to a question about the “tension between destroying Hamas and bringing back the abductees”. “There’s no tension,” he added. “We have two goals. One is to destroy the operational and military abilities of Hamas, and the second one is to bring back the abductees.” “There was a terrible failure. It’s going to be investigated. We’re going to turn each stone,” the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to a question about whether he bears responsibility surrounding the 7 October attacks by Hamas. “The ground operation that we expanded … is going to help us in this holy mission,” he added. “The operational stages are going to take a long time,” said Benny Gantz, Israel’s former defense minister. “Our unity is our strength, during the war and after. The people of Israel are ready … Nobody can win against us … With the help of God, we are going to fight, we are going to win.”