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:
Sheikh Radwan health facility in Gaza struck by Israel, four children injured - report
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:
We have received an extremely concerning report that the Sheikh Radwan primary health care centre in northern #Gaza was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving #polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow vaccination to proceed. Six people, including four children, were injured.
We have received an extremely concerning report that the Sheikh Radwan primary health care centre in northern #Gaza was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving #polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow… pic.twitter.com/YaFL6pQT3c
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 2, 2024
Israeli forces have routinely targeted healthcare facilities across Gaza, leaving only 17 out of 36 hospitals across the narrow strip partially functional.
In a report last month, Medecins Sans Frontieres detailed Israel’s attacks on healthcare facilities and aid blockades across Gaza, saying:
“The lack of access to health care is compounded by the lack of humanitarian and medical supplies in Gaza. Israeli authorities have routinely imposed unclear, unpredictable criteria for authorizing the entry of supplies.”
Here is the Guardian’s Beirut correspondent William Christou’s report on the Israeli forces’ abduction of the alleged Hezbollah official during a sea raid:
The Israeli military abducted who it said was a senior Hezbollah official in an unprecedented operation on Saturday morning during which Israeli commandos landed on the shores of Batroun, northern Lebanon, captured the alleged official and escaped via speedboat.
In a statement, an Israeli military official said its forces captured a “senior operative of Hezbollah” and transferred him to its territory to be investigated by military intelligence. Axios media outlet cited Israeli sources as saying the captured man – Imad Amhaz – was responsible for Hezbollah’s naval operations.
Lebanon’s caretaker minister of transport, Ali Hamie, said that Amhaz was a civilian boat captain, while Hezbollah did not comment on allegations that he belonged to the organisation. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said Lebanon would be submitting a complaint to the UN security council, and that he had asked both Lebanon’s military and the UN’s peacekeeping mission to investigate the incident.
For the full story, click here:
The Lebanese man captured in Batroun was “a trainee marineer”, according to reports.
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”.
According to Agence France-Presse, an acquaintance of the abductee identified him as a student at the state-run Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute in Batroun, Lebanon’s primary training college for the shipping industry.
He was taken from student housing near the institute, but was a resident of the Shiite-majority town of Qmatiyeh, said the acquaintance, who wished to remain anonymous.
He was completing courses to become a sea captain, the source told AFP, adding that the man was in his 30s and was well known by the teaching staff at the institute.
US has warned Iran that it won’t be able to restrain Israel if it attacks again.
The US has warned Iran against launching another attack on Israel, adding that Washington will not be able to restrain Israel if it attacks again, the American news website Axios has reported, citing a US official and a former Israeli official.
Axios previously reported that Israeli intelligence suggests Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days, possibly before the US presidential election on 5 Nov.
Updated
The Israeli military has named the Hezbollah commander it has killed in southern Lebanon as Jaafar Khader Faour, a commander of Hezbollah’s Nasser Brigade rocket unit.
A spokesperson told Reuters Faour had been responsible for multiple attacks on Israel since October 2023.
Key event
Israeli forces capture senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, Israeli military official says.
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.
“The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is being investigated,” the Israeli military official said, without naming the captive.
Two Lebanese military officials confirmed to the Associated Press that a naval force landed in Batroun, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Beirut, and abducted a Lebanese citizen. Neither gave the man’s identity or said whether he was thought to have links to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. They did not confirm whether the armed men were an Israeli force.
Three Lebanese judicial officials told reporters the incident occurred at dawn on Friday, adding that the captain might have links with Hezbollah. The officials said an investigation is looking into whether the man is linked to Hezbollah or working for an Israeli spy agency and an Israeli force came to rescue him.
Hezbollah issued a statement calling what happened a “Zionist aggression in the Batroun area”, but did not confirm whether one its members had been captured by Israeli forces.
Updated
The Israeli military is reporting that two more soldiers have been killed in southern Gaza, Reuters reports.
The latest reported deaths brings the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since last October to 780.
Israeli forces have killed more than 43,300 Palestinians in the past year across Gaza while displacing nearly 2 million survivors.
In recent weeks since Israel’s war on Lebanon, Israeli forces have killed more than 2,890 people across the country while wounding more than 13,000 survivors.
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. Is this a small matter? The US that claims to be an advocate of human rights, supports & is complicit in those crimes. Plans & weapons used are from the US.
Ongoing events in #Lebanon & #Gaza have resulted in the martyrdom of 50,000 ppl in the last year, mostly women & children. Is this a small matter? The US that claims to be an advocate of human rights, supports & is complicit in those crimes. Plans & weapons used are from the US.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 2, 2024
Egypt is hosting meetings between Fatah and Hamas in regards to forming a committee to run Gaza following Israel’s war on the strip, Reuters reports, citing a senior Egyptian security source speaking to Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News.
According to the source, Hamas insists that the discussions should lead to a comprehensive agreement on ending the war, as well a deal to release the hostages and Palestinians detained across Israeli prisons.
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.
Today @UNRWA, @WHO, @UNICEF & partners resumed the polio vaccination campaign in northern #GazaStrip
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 2, 2024
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,… https://t.co/sVwUNQedIM
An Israeli airstrike has hit the border post of Joussieh, Syria, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
In a tweet on X, Filippo Grandi wrote:
A new Israeli airstrike hit the border post of Joussieh, where many Lebanese and Syrians cross from Lebanon to Syria. Humanitarian structures were also struck. Even fleeing (and taking care of those who flee) are becoming difficult and dangerous as the war continues to spreads.
A new Israeli airstrike hit the border post of Joussieh, where many Lebanese and Syrians cross from
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) November 2, 2024
Lebanon to Syria. Humanitarian structures were also struck.
Even fleeing (and taking care of those who flee) are becoming difficult and dangerous as the war continues to spreads. pic.twitter.com/xdlI0zIeNw
Summary of the day so far
It has just gone 5.30pm in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut. Here is a summary of the latest developments:
Israel on Saturday again carried out deadly airstrikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions “apocalyptic”, as Lebanon’s Hezbollah intensified rocket fire near Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv. “The situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic,” said a joint statement by UN agency heads. Witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Israeli warplanes twice hit Beit Lahia, adjacent to Jabalia, overnight. Israel’s military on Saturday said dozens of militants were killed around Jabalia “in aerial and ground activity”.
Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its 26 October attack that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.
Troops were also operating in central Gaza and Rafah in the territory’s far south, the Israeli military said, while witnesses told AFP that Israeli drones and boats opened fire on al-Mawasi in south Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 52 people and injured scores more, the Lebanese health ministry said. In Lebanon’s north-eastern Bekaa valley, rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed nine people and brought down a building that had housed 20 people in the town of Younine. Israeli strikes also killed 12 people in the town of Amhaz and 31 others across at least a dozen villages, bringing the total death toll to 52, the health ministry said. The bombardment left 72 people injured, the ministry added. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strikes.
Israeli police said 19 people were injured before dawn on Saturday in the central town of Tira. Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, Israel’s military said, and some were intercepted. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said two of those injured were in moderate condition from the attack, and the others had lesser injuries. A photo the service released showed damage to what appeared to be an apartment building.
Medics and Gaza’s civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after AFP images showed the blood-stained shrouds of several people killed there in an Israeli strike.
A strike in Israel’s Sharon area north of Tel Aviv injured 19 people, police said early on Saturday, after the army reported three projectiles fired from Lebanon into central Israel. Four of the injured were “in moderate condition”, the Israeli police said.
Hezbollah said it had again launched rockets at Israel’s Glilot intelligence base near Tel Aviv. At 2.30am (12.30am GMT) militants “fired a salvo of rockets at the Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit in the suburbs of Tel Aviv” the group said in a statement.
Israel’s military said a strike around the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Friday killed two fighters “responsible for firing over 400 projectiles at Israel over the last month alone”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 11 people were injured on Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold. The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the “Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout mall... in the southern suburbs of Beirut”. The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning, reported AFP.
Hezbollah said on Saturday it carried out a rocket attack against Israeli “military industries” in Zvulun, near the northern city of Haifa, after a drone attack on a base south of Tel Aviv. Twice on Saturday, “salvoes of rockets” were fired at “the Zvulun base for military industries north of the city of Haifa”, the group said in a statement. Earlier, it said it had launched drones at the Palmachim airbase south of Tel Aviv.
On Saturday the Israeli military said it had intercepted three drones over the Red Sea, after late Friday reporting seven drones had been launched from “several fronts”.
A coalition of pro-Iran groups in Iraq said it carried out four drone attacks on the Israeli resort of Eilat on Saturday, after Israel said it intercepted three drones approaching from the east. In a statement, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it was behind the attacks on what it called “four vital targets” in the resort on Israel’s Red Sea coast, all conducted within one hour.
A suspected Israeli naval force landed in the northern Lebanese coastal town of Batroun early on Saturday and captured one person, a security source said, while another source confirmed the incident but did not say who was responsible, reported Reuters. There was no immediate comment from Israeli and Lebanese authorities. Pro-Hezbollah journalist Hassan Illaik shared CCTV footage on X that appeared to show soldiers walking in a street, two of them holding a person. Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye, who represents Hezbollah in Lebanon’s government, said the video was accurate but did not provide further details.
Axios has reported that Israeli naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah official, Imad Amhaz, in an operation in northern Lebanon. Barak Ravid wrote the news on X, citing an Israeli official.
Unicef has warned that the ongoing conflict in Lebanon is “massively impacting children’s mental health”. In its post on X on Saturday, Unicef wrote: “True healing can only begin when this war on childhood ends. Ceasefire now.”
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. It does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Israel’s military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since it began ground operations on 30 September. According to Israeli figures, at least 63 people have been killed on the Israeli side since October last year.
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.
Updated
A Lebanese military source said on Saturday that unidentified naval commandos abducted a trainee mariner in the coastal city of Batroun, in an operation a judicial official said was likely carried out by Israel.
“A naval commando force kidnapped a civilian,” the military source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity, adding an investigation was under way to determine whether the operation was carried out by Israel.
A Lebanese judicial official said Israel was likely behind the “kidnapping operation”, the first of its kind since the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted in September.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, the official told AFP there was a “90% chance” that Israel was responsible.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said they were checking reports of the incident.
Lebanon’s official National News agency (NNA) 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,” the NNA said.
An acquaintance of the abductee identified him as a student at the Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute (MARSATI) in Batroun, reports AFP.
He was taken from student housing near the Batroun institute, but was a resident of the town of Qmatiyeh farther south, said the acquaintance who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security concerns.
He was completing courses to become a sea captain, the source told AFP, adding that the man was in his 30s and was well known by the teaching staff at the centre.
Updated
Israel's war on Lebanon 'massively impacting children's mental health,' says Unicef
Unicef has warned that the ongoing conflict in Lebanon is “massively impacting children’s mental health”.
In a post on the UN agency’s X account on Saturday, Unicef shared a video and written message that read:
The ongoing war in Lebanon is shattering children’s lives, inflicting severe physical wounds and deep emotional scars.
With prolonged periods of traumatic stress, children face severe health and psychological risks, and the consequences can last a lifetime.
True healing can only begin when this war on childhood ends. Ceasefire now.”
Unicef said it had reached more than 10,000 children and caregivers with psychological and community support.
The ongoing conflict in Lebanon is massively impacting children’s mental health.
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) November 2, 2024
UNICEF has reached over 10,000 children and caregivers with psychological and community support.
The children of Lebanon need a ceasefire now. pic.twitter.com/6nlzCf1stA
The video also included the story of nine-year-old Mira, who shared the following:
We were at home. Suddenly, there was the threat of bombing near our house. At that moment, we got scared and ran away.
We don’t know if our house was damaged, but the windows might be broken because they bombed near our house.
Here we’re doing social activities. I’m making new friends, studying and learning. They’re [Unicef] giving us blankets and supplies.
I feel a strong sense of longing to return home, to sleep in my own bed and play with my toys.
Once the war ends, the first thing I want to do is visit my relatives. I want to check on them, and I’ll hope we’ll all be safe and well.”
Updated
Lebanon’s health ministry said 11 people were injured on Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, which has been hard hit by the Israel-Hezbollah war, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the “Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout mall... in the southern suburbs of Beirut”. The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning, reports AFP.
Updated
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.
“Microsoft really crumbled under pressure, internally and externally, to fire me and to shut down and retaliate against our event, not because of policy violations, simply because we were daring to humanize Palestinians, and simply because we were daring to say that Microsoft should not be complicit with an army that is plausibly accused of genocide,” said Nasr, who has been criticized on social media and in internal Microsoft employee communication groups over his support for Palestine.
Both employees were members of No Azure for Apartheid, a group of Microsoft workers protesting the company’s sale of its cloud computing technology to Israel.
The group demands Microsoft sever all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government, disclose all ties with Israel, call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza, and protect and uphold the free speech of employees.
Updated
Axios is reporting that Israeli naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah official, Imad Amhaz, in an operation in northern Lebanon.
Barak Ravid wrote the news on X, citing an Israeli official.
A suspected Israeli naval force landed in the northern Lebanese coastal town of Batroun early on Saturday and captured one person, a security source said, while another source confirmed the incident but did not say who was responsible, reports Reuters.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli and Lebanese authorities.
According to Reuters, the pro-Hezbollah journalist Hassan Illaik said in a post on X that a large group of Israeli troops made a landing in the resort town and captured the man, before departing on speed boats.
He reportedly shared CCTV footage appearing to show soldiers walking in a street, two of them holding a person.
Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye, who represents Hezbollah in Lebanon’s government, said the video was accurate but did not provide further details, reports Reuters.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:
Updated
Hezbollah says targeted 'military industries' in Haifa, northern Israel
Hezbollah said on Saturday it carried out a rocket attack against Israeli “military industries” in Zvulun, near the northern city of Haifa, after a drone attack on a base south of Tel Aviv, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Twice on Saturday, “salvoes of rockets” were fired at “the Zvulun base for military industries north of the city of Haifa”, the group said in a statement.
Earlier, it said it had launched drones at the Palmachim airbase south of Tel Aviv.
Updated
At least 43,314 Palestinians killed in Israeli offensive since 7 Oct 2023, says health ministry
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.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Updated
Israel’s military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since it began ground operations on 30 September, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to Israeli figures, at least 63 people have been killed on the Israeli side since October last year.
On Saturday the Israeli military said it had intercepted three drones over the Red Sea, after late Friday reporting seven drones had been launched from “several fronts”.
Updated
Troops were also operating in central Gaza and Rafah in the territory’s far south, the Israeli military said, while witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Israeli drones and boats opened fire on al-Mawasi in south Gaza.
Medics and Gaza’s civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after AFP images showed the blood-stained shrouds of several people killed there in an Israeli strike.
A strike in Israel’s Sharon area north of Tel Aviv injured 19 people, police said early on Saturday, after the army reported three projectiles fired from Lebanon into central Israel. Four of the injured were “in moderate condition”, the Israeli police said.
Hezbollah said it had again launched rockets at Israel’s Glilot intelligence base near Tel Aviv.
AFP images from Tira, a predominantly Arab town about 25 kilometres (15 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv, showed the upper wall blown out in what appeared to be a residential building. Several cars below were crushed.
Israel’s military said a strike around the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Friday killed two fighters “responsible for firing over 400 projectiles at Israel over the last month alone”.
Updated
Deadly Israeli strikes on 'apocalyptic' north Gaza
Israel on Saturday again carried out deadly airstrikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions “apocalyptic”, as Lebanon’s Hezbollah intensified rocket fire near Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
Since 6 October Israeli forces have carried out a major air and ground assault on north Gaza, centred on the Jabalia area, vowing to stop attempts by Hamas militants from regrouping.
“The situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic,” said a joint statement by UN agency heads, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue,” the heads of the humanitarian, health and other agencies said.
The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”
Witnesses told AFP that Israeli warplanes twice hit Beit Lahia, adjacent to Jabalia, overnight.
Israel’s military on Saturday said dozens of militants were killed around Jabalia “in aerial and ground activity”.
Updated
Hezbollah said it had targeted Israel’s Palmachim airbase in southern Tel Aviv on Saturday with drones, reports Reuters.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the attack.
Updated
Bin bags were piling up at one end of the chaotic main thoroughfare in Shuafat refugee camp on Friday morning as shoppers walked by, stepping over a stream of wastewater trickling from a nearby drainpipe. Poor sanitation is just one of the UN-administered Palestinian camp’s problems – but things will get much worse.
Despite huge international pressure not to jeopardise the work of Unrwa, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the Israeli parliament voted this week to ban the organisation from operating on its soil. It also declared it a terror group, in effect severing all cooperation and communication between the UN agency and the Jewish state.
At present it is unclear how the new laws, which are supposed to come into effect in 90 days, will affect aid in Gaza, where UN officials say humanitarian efforts for 2.3 million people are “completely dependent” on Unrwa staff, facilities and logistical capabilities. Another 900,000 Palestinians in the West Bank rely on the organisation for basic services, which the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority does not have the capacity to take over, leading to fears it could collapse altogether.
“I have studied Unrwa for many years; I can emphatically say there is no alternative. It is not like other UN agencies in terms of the scope and scale of what the international community and Israel has asked it to provide while there is no solution to the conflict,” said Dr Maya Rosenfeld, a sociologist and anthropologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“Emergency providers can step in for a short time, but they cannot replace what Unrwa does long-term. It is too big to fail,” she added.
The new bills could yet be vetoed by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, if he can be persuaded to by western allies who support Unrwa’s activities, and they will almost certainly be challenged in petitions made by human rights groups to Israel’s supreme court.
At stake are 96 schools in the West Bank serving 45,000 students, as well as 43 health centres, food distribution services for refugee families, and psychological support services, according to the agency’s website. Before the war in Gaza, it operated 278 schools for 290,000 students, ran 22 medical centres, and distributed food packages to 1.1 million people, and now serves as a crucial emergency lifeline.
The anti-Unrwa legislation, passed by a 92-10 vote in the Knesset late on Monday evening, marks an all-time low in Israel’s relationship with the UN, which it has long accused of bias.
Updated
Iraqi pro-Iran groups say carried out drone attack on Israel’s Eilat
A coalition of pro-Iran groups in Iraq said it carried out four drone attacks on the Israeli resort of Eilat on Saturday, after Israel said it intercepted three drones approaching from the east, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In a statement, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it was behind the attacks on what it called “four vital targets” in the resort on Israel’s Red Sea coast, all conducted within one hour.
Updated
Iraqi pro-Iran groups say they have carried out a drone attack on Israel’s Eilat, according to a breaking news line by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
More details soon …
Updated
Hezbollah said on Saturday it had launched rockets at an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv in the early hours of Saturday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
At 2.30am (12.30am GMT) militants “fired a salvo of rockets at the Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit in the suburbs of Tel Aviv” the group said in a statement.
Updated
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had intercepted three drones launched from the east over the Red Sea, without specifying where they came from, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“A short while ago, three UAVs that were launched from the east were intercepted over the Red Sea …. the UAVs were intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
Updated
Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and Gaza kill dozens as rockets are fired into Israel
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 52 people and injured scores more, the Lebanese health ministry said, while rockets fired from Lebanon fell on Israel on Saturday.
Israeli police said 19 people were injured before dawn on Saturday in the central town of Tira. Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, Israel’s military said, and some were intercepted.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said two of those injured were in moderate condition from the attack, and the others had lesser injuries. A photo the service released showed damage to what appeared to be an apartment building.
In Lebanon’s north-eastern Bekaa valley, rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed nine people and brought down a building that had housed 20 people in the town of Younine.
Further Israeli strikes killed 12 people in the town of Amhaz and 31 others across at least a dozen villages, bringing the total death toll to 52, the health ministry said. The bombardment left 72 people injured, the ministry added. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strikes.
The latest violence comes against the backdrop of a renewed diplomatic push by Joe Biden’s administration, days before the US presidential election, to reach temporary ceasefire deals.
In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began on Thursday, hospital officials said.
Updated
Iran's supreme leader threatens Israel and US with 'a crushing response' over Israeli attack
Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its 26 October attack that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.
Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just head of the US presidential election this Tuesday.
“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media.
The AP reports that Khamenei did not elaborate on the timing of the threatened attack, nor the scope. Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.”
In other developments:
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 52 people and injured scores more, the Lebanese health ministry said, while rockets fired from Lebanon fell on Israel on Saturday. Israeli police said 19 people were injured before dawn on Saturday in the central town of Tira. Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, Israel’s military said, and some were intercepted.
The situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic” as Israel pursues a military offensive against Hamas militants in the area, top United Nations officials have warned. “The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” they said in a statement on Friday signed by the heads of UN agencies, including the UN children’s agency Unicef and the World Food Programme, and other aid groups.
The US asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire to revive stalled talks to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a report later denied by the Lebanese prime minister. Two unnamed sources, a Lebanese political source and a senior diplomat, made the claim to Reuters, saying the US envoy, Amos Hochstein, had communicated the proposal to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, this week.
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