Closing summary
Hello, Middle East blog readers. We are bringing this live coverage to a close for the time being. All our latest articles on the region can be found here.
It’s not long after 9pm in Gaza City, Beirut and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
Donald Trump promises that he will bring “peace” to the Middle East, with the US Republican nominee for president making the pronouncement in a letter just six days before the US election for the White House on 5 November. “During my administration, we had peace in the Middle East, and we will have peace again very soon! I will fix the problems caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon,” he said in his letter to Lebanese Americans.
At least 30 people were killed as Israel pummeled Gaza with new bombardments, Palestinian medics said. Eight of today’s victims were killed in northern Gaza. The area Israel hit is near to where medics said at least 93 people had been killed or reported missing on Tuesday in an Israeli strike Washington called “horrifying”.
The UN security council “strongly warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish” the operations and mandate of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, after Israel passed a law banning its operations. In a statement adopted by consensus, the 15-member body expressed grave concern over the legislation adopted by the Israeli parliament on Monday.
Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, warned Israel it would pay a heavy price if its forces remain in Lebanon, stressing his group was ready for a prolonged conflict. “Get out of our land to reduce your losses. If you stay, you will pay more than you have ever paid in your life,” Qassem said in a pre-recorded speech, asserting Hezbollah could sustain fighting “for days, weeks and months”.
Airstrikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its outskirts, hours after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area. Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed strikes had hit the city and surrounding areas, without providing further details.
Naim Qassem said he would stick to the war strategy laid out by his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel last month after full-scale fighting broke out. “My work programme is a continuation of the work programme of our leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” Qassem said in his first remarks as Hezbollah leader. Qassem pledged to press on with “the war plan that he (Nasrallah) developed with the leadership” of the Iran-backed group.
The Israeli army said it had killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, in a strike in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon. “In an intelligence-directed strike, the Israeli air force struck and eliminated Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, deputy commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces, in the area of Nabatieh,” the army said in a statement.
Israel’s security cabinet is discussing the terms of a truce with Hezbollah in south Lebanon, where Israeli troops are conducting a ground offensive, energy minister Eli Cohen said. “There are discussions, I think it will still take time,” Cohen told Israeli public radio. According to Israel’s Channel 12 television, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with ministers on Tuesday evening on Israel’s demands in return for a 60-day truce.
At least 43,163 Palestinians have been killed and 101,510 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. The ministry said that 102 Palestinians had been killed and 287 injured in the past 24 hours. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it had launched drones at an Israeli base in the port city of Haifa. Hezbollah fighters “launched an air attack at 7.45am (0545 GMT) … with a squadron of attack drones” on a “base in southern Haifa”, the group said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch warned that Syrians fleeing Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon could face repression at home as more than 355,000 Syrians returned in more than a month of war. “Syrians escaping Lebanon, particularly men, risk arbitrary detention and abuse by Syrian authorities,” the group said in a statement. AFP reports that since Israel launched its intensive air campaign on Lebanon on 23 September, in an action against Hezbollah, more than half a million people have fled from Lebanon to Syria, including more than 355,010 Syrians, according to Lebanese official figures.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the US “rejects any Israeli efforts to starve Palestinians in Jabaliya or anywhere else” and called on the Netanyahu government to tackle the “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
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The White House media briefing just wrapped up in Washington DC and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed misgivings about Israel voting to ban the United Nations humanitarian organization Unrwa from the country within 90 days.
“We are troubled by any legislation that could shut down Unrwa,” Jean-Pierre said, Reuters reports.
The US is talking to the Israeli government about the vote this week, the White House said.
Gaza, deep in a humanitarian crisis during the massive Israeli military offensive that’s been going on since just after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel last October, relies heavily on Unrwa for survival supplies for Palestinians trapped in the enclave.
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