Summary
Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Israeli naval forces have captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, an Israeli military official said on Saturday. The operative appears to be a Lebanese sea captain. Earlier, Lebanese authorities said it was investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a sea captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast near the northern town of Batroun on Friday.
Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said an “unidentified military force” carried out a “sea landing” on the shore of Batroun, south of Tripoli, at dawn on Friday. The force “went with all its weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, kidnapping a Lebanese man … and sailing away into the open sea on a speedboat.”
Israeli forces have struck the Sheikh Radwan healthcare center in northern Gaza, injuring four children, according to reports. In a statement on Sunday, World Health Organization head Tedros Ghebreyesus wrote: “These vital humanitarian-area-specific pauses must be absolutely respected. Ceasefire!”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has released the following statement on the US’s military support to Israel amid its deadly wars in Gaza and Lebanon: “Ongoing events in Lebanon & Gaza have resulted in the martyrdom of 50,000 ppl in the last year, mostly women & children… The US that claims to be an advocate of human rights, supports & is complicit in those crimes. Plans & weapons used are from the US.”
UNRWA, the main UN relief aid agency in Gaza, as well as the World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund has resumed the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza amid Israeli blockages on aid and food. “This polio campaign is critical, but while we protect children with vaccines, they will continue to die & suffer each day until there is a comprehensive & lasting ceasefire, which is needed more urgently than ever,” the agencies said.
At least 43,314 Palestinians have been killed and 102,019 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 55 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.
Two Microsoft employees who were fired last week after organising a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza say the company retaliated against them for their pro-Palestinian activism. The two, Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist, and Hossam Nasr, a software engineer, organised the event outside Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on 24 October. They were fired later that evening.
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Lebanon where Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,000 people across the country in recent weeks while injuring more than 13,000 survivors:
