Summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
The US government is investigating an alleged leak about classified US intelligence on Israel’s strikes against Iran, CNN reports, citing people familiar with the matter. CNN reports that the documents which date from 15 and 16 October started circulating on Friday on Telegram through an account called the Middle East Spectator.
Israeli airstrikes on Beit Lahiya in Gaza have killed at least 73 people, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday evening. In addition to several houses being destroyed by Israeli forces, multiple people have been injured, according to emerging reports.
In a new statement on Saturday, Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake.” Netanyahu vowed that Iran and its proxies would “pay a heavy price”, adding that Israel would continue to “eliminate the terrorists and those who dispatch them”.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu after reports of an attempted drone attack on the Israeli prime minister’s holiday home in Saturday. According to a Downing Street spokesperson, Starmer told Netanyahu that he was alarmed to hear about what Netanyahu called an “assassination attempt” on his life.
In a joint statement released on Saturday, G7 defence ministers expressed their concern over Israel’s latest attacks on Unifil in Lebanon. The group, which has been meeting in Naples, Italy, said: “We … are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to Unifil’s security.”
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Saturday, reviewing US forces’ “posture adjustments”. Those include the recent deployment of an anti-missile system to reinforce Israel’s defences against regional threats, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The US would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around the Lebanese capital of Beirut, Austin said. “The number of civilian casualties have been far too high,” Austin told reporters at a G7 defence gathering in the Italian city of Naples.
Updated
The history of “decapitation strategies” tells us it is almost impossible to know what effect assassinating a key figure such as Yahya Sinwar will have, the Guardian’s Jason Burke reports:
Israelis and others have welcomed the killing of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 October 2023 attacks, as an “Osama bin Laden moment”. This reflects how many in Israel feel about the death of a man responsible for the murder of 1,200 people, mostly civilians and their compatriots, but terrorism experts have long debated the efficacy of eliminating the leaders of violent extremist groups, with some suggesting the strategy is counter-productive.
The truth is that no one is sure.
There are some cases where the elimination of a leader has brought definitive success. When the Mossad killed Wadie Haddad, leader of a breakaway faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and responsible for a string of spectacular terrorist attacks in the 1970s, probably with poisoned chocolates, his group disintegrated. Hijackings and bombings continued, but were carried out by others.
Read the full story below:
Updated
The US government is investigating an alleged leak about classified US intelligence on Israel’s strikes against Iran, CNN reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to one US official speaking to the outlet, the leak is “deeply concerning”.
CNN reports that the documents, which date from 15 and 16 October, started circulating on Friday on Telegram through an account called the Middle East Spectator.
It added that the documents were marked top secret and were reserved only for the Five Eyes – the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
The documents describe Israel’s preparations for a potential strike against Iran and were reportedly compiled by National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, CNN reports. It added that the documents included plans about Israel transporting munitions around.
Another document cited the National Security Agency and outlines Israeli air force exercises involving surface-to-air missiles, CNN reports.
According to the outlet, a US official said that the investigation into the leaks surrounds who had access to the confidential documents.
Updated
The UN acting under-secretary general humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Joyce Msuya, said that Palestinians in northern Gaza are enduring “unspeakable horrors” as a result of Israel’s siege.
Appalling news from northern #Gaza where Palestinians continue to endure unspeakable horrors under siege by Israeli forces.
— Joyce Msuya (@JoyceMsuya) October 19, 2024
These atrocities must stop. pic.twitter.com/fCbsYtDtgU
Updated
Israeli airstrikes on Beit Lahiya in Gaza have killed at least 73 people, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday evening.
In addition to several houses being destroyed by Israeli forces, multiple people have been injured, according to emerging reports.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu after reports of an attempted drone attack on the Israeli prime minister’s holiday home in Saturday.
According to a Downing Street spokesperson, Starmer told Netanyahu that he was alarmed to hear about what Netanyahu called an “assassination attempt” on his life.
The statement reads:
The Prime Minister spoke to the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon.
The prime minister said he was alarmed to hear about the drone launched towards Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home this morning.
They discussed the situation in the Middle East following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who the prime minister said was a brutal terrorist and that the world is a better place without him.
He also discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu the opportunity presented by Sinwar’s death to halt the fighting and get the hostages out. The prime minister [Starmer] also stressed the importance of getting much more aid into Gaza.
Finally, the leaders also discussed Lebanon and the importance of making progress on a political solution.
Updated
Israeli raids have killed three people and wounded one other person in Zafta, south Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.
3 شهداء وجريح بسبب غارة للعدو الإسرائيلي على زفتا في جنوب لبنان
— Ministry of Public Health - Lebanon (@mophleb) October 19, 2024
صدر عن مركز عمليات طوارئ الصحة العامة التابع لوزارة الصحة العامة بيان أعلن أن غارة العدو الإسرائيلي على زفتا في جنوب لبنان أدت إلى استشهاد ثلاثة أشخاص وإصابة شخص بجروح.
Israeli forces also raided a car in Jounieh and killed two additional people, the ministry added.
شهيدان بسبب غارة للعدو الإسرائيلي على سيارة في جونية
— Ministry of Public Health - Lebanon (@mophleb) October 19, 2024
صدر عن مركز عمليات طوارئ الصحة العامة التابع لوزارة الصحة العامة بيان أعلن أن غارة للعدو الإسرائيلي على سيارة في جونية أدت إلى استشهاد شخصين.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Lebanon, where Israeli forces have killed more than 2,300 people – including at least 28 healthcare workers – in recent weeks while forcibly displacing 1.2 million people across the country:
G7 defence ministers express concern over Israel's threats to Unifil
In a joint statement released on Saturday, G7 defence ministers expressed their concern over Israel’s latest attacks on Unifil in Lebanon.
The group, which has been meeting in Naples, Italy, said:
We … are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to Unifil’s security. The protection of peacekeepers is incumbent upon all parties to a conflict. We also reaffirm the importance of supporting Unifil and the Lebanese armed forces in their role of ensuring the stability and security of Lebanon.”
The group also condemned Hamas’s 7 October attacks and said it was “united in supporting the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and a significant and sustained increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza and a sustainable pathway to a two-state solution.”
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in the seaside town of Caesarea was hit by a drone on Saturday, causing superficial damage and no casualties, as Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon rage unabated following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, write Bethan McKernan and William Christou.
The Israeli government said that one of the prime minister’s three homes was targeted by three drones, two of which were intercepted, and that neither Netanyahu nor his wife, Sara, were home at the time.
Israel’s air raid system was not triggered by the lightweight drones, which are difficult to detect. The Lebanese militia, Hezbollah, did not claim responsibility for the attack but said it fired several barrages of rockets at northern and central Israel, which killed a 50-year-old man in Acre.
The rocket attacks came after Hezbollah said on Friday it had entered a new phase of the full-scale war that began with Israel’s ground invasion of southern Lebanon earlier this month. The Shia group, allied to Iran, said it planned to send more guided missiles and explosive drones into Israel.
Updated
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Saturday, reviewing US forces’ “posture adjustments”, including the recent deployment of an anti-missile system to reinforce Israel’s defences against regional threats, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Austin also told Gallant that he was relieved that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was safe after a drone attack reportedly targeted his holiday home in Caesarea, the Pentagon said.
Updated
The US would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around the Lebanese capital of Beirut, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.
“The number of civilian casualties have been far too high,” Austin told reporters at a G7 defence gathering in the Italian city of Naples.
“We’d like to see Israel scale back on some of the strikes it’s taking, especially in and around Beirut, and we’d like to see things transition to some sort of negotiation that will allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.”
Updated
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, said on Saturday that the killing of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the attack that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, presented an opportunity for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
“This creates an opening that I believe we must take full advantage of to dedicate ourselves to ending this war and bringing the hostages home,” Harris told reporters.
“As it relates to the issues in the Middle East and in particular in that region, it has never been easy. But that doesn’t mean we give up. It’s always going to be difficult.”
Updated
Netanyahu calls attempted drone attack on his house a ‘grave mistake’
In a new statement on Saturday, Benjamin Netanyahu said:
The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake.
Netanyahu vowed that Iran and its proxies would “pay a heavy price”, adding that Israel will continue to “eliminate the terrorists and those who dispatch them”.
Reports had emerged of his house in northern Israel being targeted on Saturday. The prime minister and his wife, Sara, were not home at the time. Israeli media later published a video of the prime minister walking in a park.
The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake.
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 19, 2024
This will not deter me or the State of Israel from continuing our just war against our enemies in order to secure our future.
I say to Iran and its proxies in its axis of evil:…
Updated
Two patients at a hospital in north Gaza have died during an Israeli siege of the facility, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday.
Agence France-Presse reports that Israeli forces have surrounded and attacked the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya since dawn, Gaza’s health officials said.
“Israeli tanks have completely surrounded the hospital, cut off electricity and shelled the hospital, targeting the second and third floors with artillery,” the facility’s director, Marwan Sultan, said, AFP reports.
“There are serious risks to medical staff and patients,” he added.
In the past year, Israel has routinely attacked healthcare facilities across the strip along with healthcare workers. In addition to restrictions imposed on medical aid, Israel’s attacks on and sieges of hospitals have left tens of thousands of patients in Gaza without care.
Updated
Palestine Red Crescent Society launches second polio and vitamin A vaccination campaign
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has launched a second-dose campaign for polio and vitamin A vaccinations for children under 10 in Khan Younis.
The vaccination points have been set up at Al-Amal Hhospital, Kuwait Red Crescent field hospital, Al-Quds field hospital, Ma’an clinic, Mawasi clinic, and Qarara Mawasi clinic, the few remaining healthcare facilities that Israel has not destroyed across the strip.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has launched the "second dose" vaccination campaign against #Polio and Vitamin A for children under 10 in #KhanYunis. Vaccination points are set up at Al-Amal Hospital, Kuwait Red Crescent Field Hospital, Al-Quds Field Hospital, Ma'an Clinic,… pic.twitter.com/RoON1ouKQp
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) October 19, 2024
Updated
The Lebanese National News Agency is reporting a series of Israeli raids on multiple towns across the country.
They include Yatar, Zubfin, Aita al-Shaab, Marouhin, Ramia and Beit Lif.
Updated
The Lebanese city of Nabatieh is reeling following deadly Israeli airstrikes that targeted the city’s mayor and civil defense workers.
The Guardian’s William Christou reports:
Hussein Jaber, the head of Nabatieh’s civil defence station, picked his way through a mess of shattered concrete and twisted metal piled knee high, surveying what was left of the city’s Ottoman open-air market, built in 1910 and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes last Saturday.
“When we were kids, everyone would come here to buy their things. This market wasn’t just for Nabatieh, but for all the villages around,” said Jaber, 30, gesturing at the ruined promenade, still smoking five days later.
Children’s clothes, computer parts and products from the now-levelled stores that used to line the market littered the ground, all covered in a layer of grey ash.
Also hidden among the rubble was a fragment of the US-made munition that destroyed the marketplace. The tail fin of a joint direct attack munition (Jdam) – the guidance kit which turns dumb bombs ranging from 500-2,000lbs (230-910kg) into GPS-guided bombs – was found by the Guardian and verified by the crisis, conflict and arms division of Human Rights Watch. A week earlier, another US munition was found at the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed 22 people in central Beirut.
For the full story, click here:
Summary of the day so far
It is approaching 6pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut. We will be handing this blog over to our US colleagues shortly.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza on Saturday showing a picture of the dead Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with the message that “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza”, echoing language used by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “Whoever drops the weapon and hands over the hostages will be allowed to leave and live in peace,” the leaflet, written in Arabic, read, according to residents of the southern city of Khan Younis and images circulating online.
Residents and medics said Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historical refugee camps, which it encircled by also sending tanks to nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents. Israeli officials said the orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas, but local people and medical officials said forces were bombing houses and besieging hospitals, preventing medical and food supplies from entering to force them to leave the camp.
After reports of a drone being launched towards Netanyahu’s home in the northern Israel town of Caesarea earlier on Saturday, Israeli media published a video of the prime minister walking in a park. Earlier Netanyahu’s spokesperson said the premier had not been in the vicinity of the drone. “Nothing will deter us, we will keep going until victory,” Netanyahu said in the video filmed by one of his aides.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Saturday that more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the north of the territory over the past two weeks during a military assault Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping. “We have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas in the northern Gaza Strip, including Jabalia and its camp, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, since the start of the military operation by the occupation army” on 6 October, a Gaza civil defence agency spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Israeli airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut on Saturday, Lebanese state media said, shortly after Israel ordered residents to evacuate, marking the first attacks in three days on Hezbollah’s main stronghold.
Israeli emergency services said a man was killed by shrapnel near the port city of Acre on Saturday after a barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. “Paramedics have pronounced the death of a man, around 50 years old, who was struck by shrapnel while sitting in his vehicle,” the Magen David Adom emergency service said in a statement.
At least nine people were injured in northern Israel amid a Hezbollah attack on the Haifa area and western Galilee this morning, reported the Times of Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 55 rockets had been fired in the attack, including 20 at the Haifa area.
Earlier, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets on Saturday towards Haifa in response to Israeli attacks on its strongholds in southern Lebanon. “The large rocket salvo” came in retaliation for Israeli attacks on south Lebanon villages, said Hezbollah.
Lebanese authorities said two people were killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday in Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first strike on the area since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire last year. The health ministry said an “Israeli enemy raid” hit a car in Jounieh, with Lebanese state media saying the attack occurred on a key highway linking the capital to the country’s north.
Lebanon state media said four people including a mayor were killed on Saturday in an Israeli strike on a town in the eastern Bekaa valley region. The strike hit a residential building in the town of Baaloul, killing four, the official National News Agency said, adding that the dead include Haidar Shahla, the mayor of the nearby town of Sohmor.
Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and Gaza are pushing Iran to take “legitimate steps”, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Saturday, in an apparent show of support for Tehran’s 1 October missile attack on Israel. “Israel’s aggressive stance is forcing Iran to take legitimate steps,” Hakan Fidan said at a joint press conference in Istanbul with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi.
The European Commission vice-president, Josep Borrell, said on Saturday the killing of Sinwar opened a “new perspective” for a ceasefire in Gaza. “Certainly after the killing of Yahya Sinwar a new perspective is open and we have to use it in order to reach a ceasefire, to release the remaining hostages and to look for a political perspective,” Borrell told journalists on the sidelines of a G7 defence summit. Borrell also suggested the UN peacekeepers’ mandate should be beefed up by the UN security council to give them more scope to act amid repeated attacks they say Israeli forces are conducting on their positions.
More than £11m has been raised in two days after a UK appeal to help those affected by conflict in the Middle East. King Charles, Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales are among those who donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) appeal, launched on Thursday.
Two patients in intensive care at Gaza’s Indonesian hospital died “as a result of the hospital’s siege and the power outage and medical supplies”, the Gaza health ministry said. “The Israeli occupation is intensifying its targeting of the health system in the northern Gaza Strip, by besieging and directly targeting the Indonesian hospital, Kamal Adwan hospital, and al-Awda hospital during the past hours and its insistence on putting them out of service,” the Gaza health ministry said. Israel’s military said the troops operating in the area had been “briefed on the importance of mitigating harm to civilians and medical infrastructure”.
At the al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya, strikes hit the building’s top floors, injuring several staff members, the hospital said in a statement.
In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital where the casualties were taken. An Associated Press (AP) reporter counted the bodies at the hospital.
Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the al Maghazi refugee camp, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, where they were taken. An AP journalist also counted the bodies at the hospital.
At least 42,519 Palestinians have been killed and 99,637 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. Gaza’s health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq ransacked offices affiliated with a Saudi TV channel in Baghdad early on Saturday, two security sources said, after the broadcaster aired a report referring to commanders of Tehran-backed militant groups as “terrorists”. After midnight, between 400 and 500 people attacked the studios of a production company in Baghdad that works for the Saudi broadcaster MBC.
An adviser to al-Qaida’s probable current leader is calling for Hamas to release its Israeli hostages held in Gaza, according to an US jihadist monitoring organisation, Site. Attention given to recovering the Israeli hostages, dead and alive, was overshadowing the fate of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel, said Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al-Masri, who is father-in-law to Saif al-Adel, the man widely believed to now head al-Qaida, in an online declaration.
Naval drills hosted by Iran with the participation of Russia and Oman and observed by nine other countries began in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, Iran’s state TV said.
Updated
Israeli airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut on Saturday, Lebanese state media said, shortly after Israel ordered residents to evacuate, marking the first attacks in three days on Hezbollah’s main stronghold, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
AFP footage showed plumes of smoke rising over the area, less than an hour after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported two Israeli strikes on the same building in the neighbourhood of Haret Hreik, and later added that “Israeli warplanes” had struck the Al-Umara neighbourhood in nearby Choueifat.
According to AFP, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an “urgent warning to residents of the southern suburb (of Dahiyeh), specifically those in … Haret Hreik neighbourhood”.
“You are located near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the IDF (Israeli military) will be operating in the near future,” he wrote in Arabic on X. He later also issued warnings for the Burj al-Barajneh and Choueifat neighbourhoods.
Updated
An adviser to al-Qaida’s probable current leader is calling for Hamas to release its Israeli hostages held in Gaza, according to an US jihadist monitoring organisation, Site.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the online declaration was made on Friday by Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al-Masri, who is father-in-law to Saif al-Adel, the man widely believed to now head al-Qaida, according to Site.
In it, Hamid claimed the attention given to recovering the Israeli hostages, both dead and alive, was overshadowing the fate of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel.
He also hailed Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader whom Israel announced a day earlier it had killed.
Hamas must now “immediately” return the hostages and their bodies, and “this file must be closed and not opened again, as we know its consequences,” according to the statement.
“No one cares about the Palestinian prisoners, neither in the media, in negotiations, nor in demonstrations,” it said.
Al-Qaida, held responsible for the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, was the target of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, where it was traditionally based.
Its then-leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in neighbouring Pakistan in 2011. Bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed by a US drone strike in July 2022.
The core al-Qaida organisation survives, and its de facto leader is believed to be Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces lieutenant-colonel whose presence has been reported in Iran.
Several experts consulted by AFP say Hamid is close to higher-ups in the core al-Qaida organisation.
AFP reports that the group, which has spawned regional affiliates in Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Mali, has little leverage over Hamas, which is backed by Iran.
Hamas on Friday vowed not to release any hostages under the Gaza war ends.
According to AFP, analysts said that, with no successor to Sinwar named and a vacuum in Hamas’s leadership, it will be difficult to find someone to negotiate their release.
Updated
Residents and medics said Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historical refugee camps, which it encircled by also sending tanks to nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents, reports Reuters.
Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas.
Residents and medical officials said Israeli forces were bombing houses and besieging hospitals, preventing medical and food supplies from entering to force them to leave the camp.
Reuters reports that health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate the hospital or leave the patients, many in a critical condition, unattended.
“The Israeli occupation is intensifying its targeting of the health system in the northern Gaza Strip, by besieging and directly targeting the Indonesian hospital, Kamal Adwan hospital, and al-Awda hospital during the past hours and its insistence on putting them out of service,” the Gaza health ministry said.
It said two patients in intensive care at the Indonesian hospital died “as a result of the hospital’s siege and the power outage and medical supplies”.
Israel’s military said the troops operating in the area had been “briefed on the importance of mitigating harm to civilians and medical infrastructure”.
“It is emphasised that the hospital continues to operate without disruption and in full capacity, and there was no intentional fire directed at it,” it said.
Updated
Israel drops leaflets over Gaza showing Sinwar's body and message to Hamas
Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza on Saturday showing a picture of the dead Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with the message that “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza”, echoing language used by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reports Reuters.
The move came as Israeli military strikes killed at least 32 people across the Gaza Strip and tightened a siege around hospitals in Jabalia in the north of the territory, Palestinian health officials said.
“Whoever drops the weapon and hands over the hostages will be allowed to leave and live in peace,” the leaflet, written in Arabic, read, according to residents of the southern city of Khan Younis and images circulating online, reports Reuters.
The leaflet’s wording was from a statement by Netanyahu on Thursday after Sinwar was killed by Israeli soldiers operating in Rafah, in the south near the Egyptian border, on Wednesday.
'Nothing will deter us' says Netanyahu in video published after reports of a drone being launched at his house
After reports of a drone being launched towards Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the northern Israel town of Caesarea on Saturday (see 8.43am BST), Israeli media have published a video of the premier, reports Reuters.
According to the news agency, the video shows Netanyahu walking in a park. “Nothing will deter us, we will keep going until victory,” he said in the video filmed by one of his aides.
Gaza rescuers say more than 400 killed in past two weeks in Israel assault on territory’s north
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Saturday that more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the north of the territory over the past two weeks during an ongoing military assault Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.
“We have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas in the northern Gaza Strip, including Jabalia and its camp, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, since the start of the military operation by the occupation army” on 6 October, Gaza civil defence agency spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Updated
Lebanon media says mayor among 4 killed in Israeli strike in east
Lebanon state media said four people including a mayor were killed on Saturday in an Israeli strike on a town in the eastern Bekaa valley region, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The strike hit a residential building in the town of Baaloul, killing four, the official National News Agency said, adding that the dead include Haidar Shahla, the mayor of the nearby town of Sohmor.
More than £11m raised after UK appeal to help people affected by conflict in Middle East
More than £11m has been raised in two days after a UK appeal to help those affected by conflict in the Middle East.
King Charles, Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales are among those who have donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) appeal, launched on Thursday, reports the Press Association (PA).
Millions in Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region urgently require food, shelter and medical care after fleeing their homes in search of safety, the DEC said.
As donations from Britons, corporate partners and supporters surpassed £11m by Saturday, DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said he was “extremely grateful”.
He said:
Every donation will make a real difference to people at this time. The levels of need are huge and millions are displaced, hungry and desperately in need of a lifeline of support.
Giving through the DEC is the most effective way for us to get widespread and coordinated assistance to those most in need right now across Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region.
DEC member charities are responding now and providing lifesaving food, water, shelter, medicine and so much more, where the needs are greatest.”
Madara Hettiarachchi of the DEC said that in Gaza crops have been destroyed, meaning access to fresh food has become “severely limited” and prices are too expensive.
She went on:
As winter approaches the need is growing, and we urgently need more funds. The risk of famine is real. Without humanitarian access and support, hunger in Gaza will only increase.”
The UK government is matching pound for pound the first £10m donated by the public, the DEC said.
Updated
Agence France-Presse (AFP) have more on the comments by European Commission vice-president Josep Borrell that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar opened a “new perspective” for a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to AFP, Borrell told reporters there was much to discuss at the G7 defence summit being held in Naples, Italy, including recent strikes on the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, and the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Certainly after the killing of Yahya Sinwar a new perspective is open and we have to use it in order to reach a ceasefire, to release the remaining hostages and to look for a political perspective,” Borrell told journalists.
In Naples for the first-ever @G7 Defence Ministers’ meeting, discussing #Ukraine, #MiddleEast, #Indo-Pacific, #Africa and how to boost defence readiness.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 19, 2024
We are committed to work together on strengthening our security and defence in turbulent times. pic.twitter.com/VoV2TZE0Uq
A morning session included discussions over recent strikes on Unifil, the UN’s Lebanon peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, where Israel is also at war with Hamas ally Hezbollah.
The death of Yahya Sinwar should mark a turning point in the Middle East.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 18, 2024
Hostages must be freed, and the wars in Gaza, the West Bank & Lebanon need to stop.
Read my blog on the 5 dimensions of EU foreign policy in the region:https://t.co/M7f3nCKnrg pic.twitter.com/1XzruUG5vc
According to AFP, Borrell suggested the peacekeepers’ mandate should be beefed up by the UN security council to give them more scope to act amid repeated attacks on their positions they say are being conducted by Israeli forces. “They cannot act by themselves, it is certainly a limited role,” he said.
Earlier Saturday, Borrell wrote on social media that “a more robust mandate for Unifil” was needed.
As the Naples talks began, Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto told the group that the “critical situation in the Middle East”, Russia’s war in Ukraine, “profound instability” in sub-Saharan Africa and “increasing tension” in the Asia-Pacific region “highlight a deteriorated security framework with forecasts for the near future that cannot be positive”.
Updated
The Israel army has issued a new evacuation call for southern Beirut residents, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). No other details have been provided.
Updated
Writing for the Guardian, William Christou spoke to those in Nabatieh, a city in Lebanon that saw its mayor and 15 others killed by an Israeli strike on Wednesday.
Hussein Jaber, the head of Nabatieh’s civil defence station, picked his way through a mess of shattered concrete and twisted metal piled knee high, surveying what was left of the city’s Ottoman open-air market, built in 1910 and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes last Saturday.
“When we were kids, everyone would come here to buy their things. This market wasn’t just for Nabatieh, but for all the villages around,” said Jaber, 30, gesturing at the ruined promenade, still smoking five days later.
Children’s clothes, computer parts and products from the now-levelled stores that used to line the market littered the ground, all covered in a layer of grey ash.
Also hidden among the rubble was a fragment of the US-made munition that destroyed the marketplace. The tail fin of a joint direct attack munition (Jdam) – the guidance kit which turns dumb bombs ranging from 500-2,000lbs (230-910kg) into GPS-guided bombs – was found by the Guardian and verified by the crisis, conflict and arms division of Human Rights Watch. A week earlier, another US munition was found at the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed 22 people in central Beirut.
Similar scenes of destruction were repeated across Nabatieh, the second most populated city in south Lebanon, now eerily silent and devoid of life after a week of punishing airstrikes.
Hamas leader’s killing opens 'new perspective' for ceasefire, says Josep Borrell
European Commission vice-president Josep Borrell said on Saturday the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar opened a “new perspective” for a ceasefire in Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Certainly after the killing of Yahya Sinwar a new perspective is open and we have to use it in order to reach a ceasefire, to release the remaining hostages and to look for a political perspective,” Borrell told journalists on the sidelines of a G7 defence summit.
Israeli emergency services said a man was killed by shrapnel near the port city of Acre on Saturday after a barrage of rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.
“Paramedics have pronounced the death of a man, around 50 years old, who was struck by shrapnel while sitting in his vehicle,” the Magen David Adom emergency service said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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Pro-Iran protesters storm office linked to Saudi TV channel in Iraq
Supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq ransacked offices affiliated with a Saudi TV channel in Baghdad early on Saturday, two security sources said, after the broadcaster aired a report referring to commanders of Tehran-backed militant groups as “terrorists”.
After midnight, between 400 and 500 people attacked the studios of a production company in Baghdad that works for the Saudi broadcaster MBC, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“They wrecked the electronic equipment, the computers, and set fire to a part of the building,” an interior ministry source told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said the fire had been extinguished and the crowd dispersed by police.
“Security forces are still deployed near the building,” he added. There were no immediate reports of arrests.
On Saturday morning, a large police presence remained in the area, blocking access to the site, according to an AFP photographer.
“The demonstrators arrived at the offices before reinforcements of riot police were sent in,” a police source told AFP, also speaking on condition of anonymity. The second source confirmed that the offices had been “set on fire” and “badly ransacked”.
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At least 42,519 Palestinians killed since 7 October 2023 in Israeli offensive, says Gaza’s health ministry
At least 42,519 Palestinians have been killed and 99,637 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday.
Gaza’s health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
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At least nine injured by Hezbollah attack on Haifa and western Galilee, say Israel's emergency services
At least nine people were injured in northern Israel amid a Hezbollah attack on the Haifa area and western Galilee this morning, reports the Times of Israel.
According to the publication, a 28-year-old was left in“ light-to-moderate condition after being hit by shrapnel” after a home was hit in Kiryat Ata and a man and women in their forties were treated by Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services.
The Times of Israel reported that “in a separate rocket impact on a road in the western Galilee, MDA says four people were wounded, including a man in his 30s in moderate condition after being hit by shrapnel, and three others who were lightly hurt by the blast”.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 55 rockets had been fired in the attack, including 20 at the Haifa area.
Earlier, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets on Saturday towards Haifa in response to Israeli attacks on its strongholds in southern Lebanon.
“The large rocket salvo” came in retaliation for Israeli attacks on south Lebanon villages, said Hezbollah.
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Turkey says Israel actions pushing Iran to take 'legitimate steps'
Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and Gaza are pushing Iran to take “legitimate steps”, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Saturday, in an apparent show of support for Tehran’s 1 October missile attack on Israel, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Israel’s aggressive stance is forcing Iran to take legitimate steps,” Hakan Fidan said at a joint press conference in Istanbul with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.
Hezbollah says launched rockets north of Israel’s Haifa
Hezbollah said it fired rockets on Saturday towards a region north of Israel’s Haifa in response to Israeli attacks on its strongholds in southern Lebanon, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The large rocket salvo” came in retaliation for Israeli attacks on south Lebanon villages, Hezbollah announced after the Israeli army said a barrage of projectiles was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, with sirens blaring at regular intervals.
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the news wires:
Naval drills hosted by Iran with the participation of Russia and Oman and observed by nine other countries began in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, Iran’s state TV said, according to Reuters.
The exercises, dubbed “IMEX 2024”, are aimed at boosting “collective security in the region, expand multilateral cooperation, and display the goodwill and capabilities to safeguard peace, friendship and maritime security”, the English-language Press TV said.
Participants would practice tactics to ensure international maritime trade security, protect maritime routes, enhance humanitarian measures and exchange information on rescue and relief operations, it said.
The exercises coincide with heightened tensions in the region as Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza rages and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels retaliate by launching attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Reuters reports that in response to regional tensions with the US, Iran has increased its military cooperation with Russia and China.
In March, Iran, China and Russia held their fifth joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman. Countries observing the current drills include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand.
More strikes pounded Gaza on Saturday, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, and that forces opened fire at the hospital’s building and its courtyard, causing panic among patients and medical staff (see 8.33am BST).
At the al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya, strikes hit the building’s top floors, injuring several staff members, the hospital said in a statement.
In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital where the casualties were taken. An AP reporter counted the bodies at the hospital.
Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the al Maghazi refugee camp, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, where they were taken. An AP journalist also counted the bodies at this hospital.
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G7 defence ministers started talks on Saturday against a backdrop of escalation in the Middle East and mounting pressure on Ukraine as it faces another winter of fighting, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Italy, holding the rotating presidency of the G7 countries, organised the body’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defence, staged in Naples, the southern city that is also home to a Nato base.
Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto welcomed each of the attenders, who also included Nato chief Mark Rutte.
“I believe that our presence today … sends a strong message to those who try to hinder our democratic systems,” Crosetto told ministers as he opened the event, reports AFP.
Crosetto said on Friday in Brussels he had requested the summit, given the many conflicts facing the international community.
“Ample space” would be given to discussing the escalating Middle East conflict during the one-day summit, Crosetto said.
The meeting comes two days after Israel announced it had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death in the Palestinian territory signalled “the beginning of the end” of the war against Hamas, while US president Joe Biden saying it opened the door to “a path to peace”.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was in Lebanon on Friday, where Israel is also at war with Hamas ally Hezbollah.
Speaking in Beirut, Meloni slammed attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon as “unacceptable” after the UN force accused Israel of targeting their positions. Italy has about 1,000 troops in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which has soldiers from more than 50 countries.
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Further to the report earlier that at least two people were killed in an Israeli strike near the town of Jounieh, north of Beirut, Reuters has some more detail on the story.
The news agency reports that an Israeli military spokesperson said the report of the strike in Jounieh was being looked into. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
The Lebanese health ministry said the Israeli strike targeted a car.
Two witnesses told Reuters they heard a small blast and saw a Honda sports utility vehicle travelling on the main highway south in the direction of Beirut begin to lose control. The car stopped about 100 metres down the highway and a man and a woman ran out of the vehicle and into a grassy area on the side of the highway before another blast, the witnesses said.
One witness told Reuters they had then seen the charred remains of a person in the grassy area.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) have more detail on the story that a drone was launched towards Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement:
A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was launched toward the prime minister’s residence in Caesarea. The prime minister and his wife were not at the location, and there were no injuries in the incident.”
It was not immediately clear whether the structure hit as reported earlier by the military (see 8.43am BST) was his residence, reports AFP.
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Netanyahu spokesperson says a drone was launched towards Israeli PM's house
Reuters reports that a drone was launched towards Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the northern Israel town of Caesarea on Saturday, citing his spokesperson.
The spokesperson added that Netanyahu was not in the vicinity and there were no casualties.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the Israeli military said a drone was spotted crossing into the country from Lebanon on Saturday and struck the central town of Caesarea. It said two other drones were intercepted.
The drone “hit a structure in the area of Caesarea” without causing any casualties, the military said, without elaborating.
Gaza authorities accuse Israeli forces of attacking hospital
Health authorities in Gaza said Israeli forces surrounded and shelled the Indonesian hospital in the territory’s northern town of Beit Lahiya at dawn on Saturday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Israeli tanks have completely surrounded the hospital, cut off electricity and shelled the hospital, targeting the second and third floors with artillery,” said the facility’s director, Marwan Sultan. He added:
There are serious risks to medical staff and patients.”
In a statement, Gaza’s health ministry also said Israel had targeted the upper floors, adding there were “more than 40 patients and wounded in addition to the medical staff” present.
“Heavy gunfire” towards the hospital and its courtyard had sparked a “state of great panic” among patients and staff, it added.
Israel launched a new offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month, saying it was targeting Hamas fighters who were regrouping there.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli strike the night before in nearby Jabalia killed 33 people.
The UN humanitarian affairs agency on Friday continued “to sound the alarm about the increasingly dire and dangerous situation that civilians in northern Gaza are facing. Families there are trying to survive in atrocious conditions, under heavy bombardment.”
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Two people killed in Israeli strike that hit car in Jounieh, say Lebanese authorities
Lebanese authorities said two people were killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday in Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first strike on the area since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire last year, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The health ministry said an “Israeli enemy raid” hit a car in Jounieh, with Lebanese state media saying the attack occurred on a key highway linking the capital to the country’s north.
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Opening summary
At least 72 Palestinians were reportedly killed on Friday as Israel launched new airstrikes and sent more troops into Gaza, dashing brief hopes among many residents of the territory that Thursday’s killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, could bring an end to the war.
At least 33 people were killed and 85 injured in Israeli strikes that hit several houses on Friday in Jabalia in northern Gaza, medics said, where residents said tanks blew up roads and houses.
Reuters reported that the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said the death toll from the strikes could rise because some people were believed to be trapped under the rubble, and the Palestinian official news agency Wafa said children were among those killed. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Other Israeli strikes killed at least 39 Palestinians across Gaza on Friday, 20 of them in Jabalia, the Gaza health ministry said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader said Hamas would survive after Sinwar’s death. “His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front” against Israel, “but it will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement.
In Jabalia, residents said Israeli tanks had reached the heart of the camp after pushing through suburbs and residential districts. They said the Israeli army was destroying dozens of houses daily, from the air and the ground, and by placing bombs in buildings then detonating them remotely.
The Israeli military says its operation in Jabalia is intended to stop Hamas fighters regrouping for more attacks.
Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated the far northern Gazan towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya from Gaza City, blocking movement except for those families heeding evacuation orders and leaving the three towns. They said communications and internet services had been cut, disrupting rescue operations.
In other developments:
Hamas confirmed the death of Yahya Sinwar in a defiant message that vowed the group would be undeterred by his killing. Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said its leader’s death “will only increase the strength and solidity of our movement”, adding that the group will not release the hostages it is holding captive in Gaza until Israel ends the war. Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam brigades, vowed to keep fighting Israel until the “liberation of Palestine” as it mourned Sinwar’s death.
Israeli military officials said Israel was sending reinforcements to bolster its operation in Jabalia, raising fears of an escalation of violence there. Israel has issued evacuation orders for inhabitants in almost all of northern Gaza, but many cannot or do not want to comply. Tens of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped in Jabalia, where conditions are deteriorating. Health officials have appealed for fuel, medical supplies and food to be sent immediately to three northern Gaza hospitals overwhelmed by the number of patients injured in Israeli attacks.
Supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq ransacked the offices of a Saudi TV channel in Baghdad early on Saturday, a security source said, after the broadcaster aired a report referring to commanders of Tehran-backed militant groups as “terrorists”. Agence France-Presse reported that 400 to 500 people attacked the Baghdad studios of Saudi broadcaster MBC after midnight. “They wrecked the electronic equipment, the computers, and set fire to a part of the building,” an interior ministry source said on condition of anonymity. The fire had been extinguished and the crowd dispersed by police, he said.
More than 42,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli offensive began, according to the Palestinian health ministry on Friday. Almost 100,000 have been injured. Six medical humanitarian groups were informed this week that their medical missions will now be denied entry into Gaza.
The leaders of the US, the UK, France and Germany released a joint statement where they stressed the “immediate necessity” for ending the war in Gaza. The leaders discussed events in the Middle East, particularly the “implications” of Sinwar’s death, as well as the need to “bring the hostages home to their families, for ending the war in Gaza and ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians”. Biden said Sinwar’s death raises “the prospect of a ceasefire” and “represents a moment of justice”.
World leaders continued to respond to news of Sinwar’s death. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, said “no one should mourn the death” of the Hamas leader who has Israelis and Palestinians on his hands. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he hoped it would open the door to a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the Hamas leader fought and died “like a hero” but that “the martyrdom of commanders, leaders and heroes will not make a dent in the Islamic people’s fight against oppression and occupation”.
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are facing an increase in Israeli settler attacks and Israeli army violence at the start of the important olive harvest season, the UN has said. The international body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) accused Israel on Friday of using “war-like” tactics in the West Bank amid a rise in killings and settler attacks since the olive harvest got under way last week. Nine people were killed by Israeli forces between 8 and 14 October, OCHA said.
Israeli airstrikes killed several Lebanese citizens and injured others across Lebanon on Friday morning, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency reported, without specifying the number of casualties. A number of civilians were reportedly killed in the town of Ansar, a village in southern Lebanon, as a result of the Israeli attacks. Wafa reported the strikes also targeted various towns including al-Duwayr, Baraachit, Dabbal, Haneen, Khiam and Ramiyah.
The Israeli army urged residents of 23 villages in southern Lebanon on Friday to evacuate northward as it intensifies its attacks in the region. The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said on X that residents were “prohibited from going south” and that doing so “could be dangerous to your life”. Lebanon’s health ministry said 45 people were killed and 179 injured in Israeli attacks across the country on Thursday.
Al Jazeera journalist Fadi Al-Wahidi has fallen into a coma more than a week after being shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper in northern Gaza, the broadcaster reported on Friday, adding that Israel has not responded to requests to allow his evacuation for medical treatment.
