Summary of the day
Israeli attacks in the past day have killed at least 53 people and injured 161 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said, bringing the total to 3,103 deaths and 13,856 injuries as a result of those attacks since last October.
The Lebanese army said three of its troops were injured in an Israeli airstrike near an army checkpoint in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. The army said the airstrike killed three Lebanese citizens.
The UN’s cultural agency, Unesco, has said it will hold a meeting on 18 November to consider enhanced protection of cultural sites in Lebanon as the deadly Israeli bombing campaign across the country continues. The session will consider the inscription of Lebanese cultural properties on Unesco’s international list of sites under “enhanced protection” as well as more funding, the UN cultural body said. The announcement came after over 100 Lebanese lawmakers appealed to Unesco to ensure the preservation of heritage sites in areas heavily bombed by Israel in recent weeks.
At least 43,469 Palestinian people have been killed and 102,561 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 12 Palestinians in a school housing displaced people in al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
Ireland intends to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice (ICJ) before the end of the year, its foreign minister, Michael Martin, said.
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, reportedly said the result of the US election did not matter to his country.
Israel’s military announced it was expanding its ground offensive in Gaza, saying that “troops started to operate in the area of Beit Lahia” after it claimed that “prior intelligence information and a situational assessment indicating the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”.
The Israel defence ministry said it had signed an agreement to acquire 25 next generation F-15 fighter jets from Boeing as part of a broader package of US aid approved by the outgoing Biden administration.
Israel’s ousted defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has reportedly said the army has achieved all its objectives in Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a hostages-for-peace deal against the advice of his own security establishment.
The French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot abandoned a visit to a holy site in Jerusalem under French control after armed Israeli police entered the site and briefly arrested two French gendarmes.
Updated
Trump will give Israel ‘blank check’ which may mean all-out war with Iran, says ex-CIA chief
Donald Trump will as president give Benjamin Netanyahu a “blank check” in the Middle East, possibly opening the way for all-out war between Israel and Iran, the former CIA director and US defense secretary Leon Panetta predicted.
“With regards to the Middle East, I think he’s basically going to give Netanyahu a blank check,” Panetta said of Trump, who won the presidential election this week and will take office again in January.
“‘Whatever you do, whatever you want to do, whoever you want to go after, you have my blessing.’ I mean, he basically said that [before the election].”
The Israeli prime minister has overseen attacks on Iran and its assets as part of a growing conflagration since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October last year. He and the US president-elect were reported to have spoken during the US election campaign. Netanyahu congratulated Trump on Wednesday, after Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris was confirmed.
