FirstFT: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza grows

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International pressure is mounting on Israel and Egypt to allow aid into Gaza, as US secretary of state Antony Blinken prepares to rejoin efforts to prevent the crisis spreading across the region.

The US and other countries have been pushing for the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt to be opened to allow foreign nationals to leave the strip.

Blinken said yesterday that the crossing would reopen and that the US was working with Israel, Egypt and the UN to put in place a “mechanism by which to get the assistance in and to get it to people who need it”.

However, despite reports that Rafah could open at 9am local time today, diplomats working on the issue said it had not opened. The Israeli prime minister’s office and Hamas denied reports that a temporary ceasefire had been agreed to allow aid into the strip.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military today opened a second “corridor” for Gazans to flee south, saying it would not bomb the evacuation route between 8am and midday.

Israel has cut off supplies of electricity, water, fuel and goods to Gaza and has ordered almost half of its 2.3mn people to leave the north of the strip as it pounds targets there ahead of an expected ground invasion. More than 1mn people have been displaced, the UN humanitarian agency said.

Palestinian health officials said today that Israel’s bombardment had killed 2,750 people and injured 9,700. According to Israeli officials, more than 1,400 were killed during Hamas’s assault, while more than 3,000 were wounded and about 120 were taken hostage.

The spiralling violence has sparked concerns that the fighting between Israel and Hamas could spill over into a regional conflict. Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militia in southern Lebanon, and Israeli forces have repeatedly exchanged fire across the border in recent days.

Israel said today it would begin to evacuate the residents of 28 towns that lie within 2km of its border with Lebanon. It follows an announcement from the US over the weekend that it had ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean.

US president Joe Biden yesterday warned Iran against escalating the fighting between Hamas and Israel, while saying it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to reoccupy Gaza, in an interview with CBS. Here is the latest on the conflict, which is now in its 10th day.

• Israelis pull together: Jewish Israeli society has been quick to mobilise and organise with relief operations and emergency services after Hamas’s devastating attack.

• The reaction among Jews in America: For many American Jews, the attack in Israel has been devastating, frightening and all-consuming. It has also proved a test for the Democratic party that may ripple through to next year’s presidential election.

• China-Arab ties: The crisis in the Middle East is becoming a big test of Beijing’s ambitions to build influence in a region traditionally dominated by the US, according to diplomats and analysts.

• Iran: The October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel has highlighted Iran’s links with militants in the region. But what remains unclear to western capitals are Iran’s true calculations about the crisis.

• The Gaza Strip in charts: A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Palestinian enclave that is more crowded than Manhattan in parts and where there are almost as many children as adults.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Polish election: Counting continues in Poland’s parliamentary election. Exit polls suggest the opposition Civic Platform and its partners are on course to secure a majority in Poland’s lower house of parliament and defeat the incumbent Law and Justice party. Follow the count here.

• Results: Charles Schwab, the Texas-based broker, is expected to report a fall in third-quarter profits after some customers pulled their deposits following the regional banking crisis earlier this year.

• Monetary policy: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia president Patrick Harker speaks at several public events today.

Don’t miss the first issue of our new Central Banks newsletter tomorrow. Chris Giles will use nearly 20 years of experience as the FT’s economics editor to provide weekly insights on interest rates and monetary policy. Sign up here if you’re a premium subscriber or upgrade your subscription.

Five more top stories

1. Fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East pose a fresh threat to the global economy, finance ministers and officials said at the close of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Morocco. IMF head Kristalina Georgieva warned of a “new cloud on not the sunniest horizon for the global economy”. Sam Fleming and Colby Smith report from Marrakech.

• Rise of antisemitism in Europe: The Israel-Hamas war has unleashed a wave of antisemitism in Europe, with a big uptick in threats and insults targeting Jews in Germany, France, Italy and the UK over the past week.

2. Regulators must quickly find a way to manage risks posed to financial stability by the concentration of power in artificial intelligence platforms, the chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission has said. Gary Gensler told the Financial Times that, without swift intervention, it was “nearly unavoidable” that AI would trigger a financial crisis within a decade. Read the full interview.

3. Centre-right former lawmaker Daniel Noboa has won Ecuador’s presidential election as the South American country battles an unprecedented crimewave and an ailing economy. Noboa, 35, defeated leftwing rival Luisa González in yesterday’s run-off election, taking 52 per cent of the vote with 93 per cent counted. Here’s more on Ecuador’s new president.

• New Zealand election: The centre-right also secured victory in New Zealand’s general election over the weekend after the Labour party, formerly led by Jacinda Ardern, lost half of its seats.

4. Citibank has won an employment lawsuit against a banker who was dismissed for submitting an expenses claim that included coffee and sandwiches for his partner and lying about it. Szabolcs Fekete, a senior analyst, sued the bank, alleging unfair and wrongful dismissal. Read more on Fekete’s claim, which was well within the bank’s €100-a-day limit.

5. British chemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe hopes to get the green light to wrap up a minority investment in Manchester United in the coming days, after his only rival suitor for the Premier League club pulled out. Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, son of one of Qatar’s richest men who had been the only party looking to buy 100 per cent of United, withdrew from the bidding on Saturday.

The Big Read

Lego is one of Europe’s biggest corporate success stories of the past decade. With essentially just one product in endless iterations, the Danish company has raced past Mattel and Hasbro to become by far the biggest toymaker in the world by sales, and on a different level altogether in terms of profits. With a portfolio that now extends to movies and theme parks, the family-owned business has big ambitions.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

The Israel-Hamas war is heaping pressure on borrowing costs in neighbouring countries, with the gaps between the average yields on both Jordan’s and Egypt’s dollar-denominated bonds and equivalent US Treasuries shooting up last week. International investors have priced in more risk for owning the debt as worries grow that the conflict will rapidly escalate.

Take a break from the news

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Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Benjamin Wilhelm