Summary of the day so far...
The UN relief and works agency (Unrwa) has warned that already low levels of aid trickling into Gaza had dwindled further, with the situation in the north of the territory described as “catastrophic”. , Louise Wateridge, an Unrwa emergencies officer, said “aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months”
Israel has claimed it has met most US demands to increase aid access to the Gaza Strip, despite its own official figures showing aid delivery is at its lowest since December. The Kisufim crossing was opening on Tuesday to allow some trucks through
Israel’s newly appointed defense minister Israel Katz has said there will be “no ceasefire” and “no respite” in Lebanon. Posting to social media, Katz said “The warning and powerful activity carried out by the IDF and the security agencies against Hezbollah and the elimination of [Hassan] Nasrallah are a picture of victory and the offensive activity should be continued, in order to worsen Hezbollah’s capabilities and realise the fruits of victory. In Lebanon there will be no ceasefire and there will be no respite”
Katz’ comments directly contradicted a statement from Israel’s foreign minister on Monday that there had been a “certain progress” in ceasefire talks. Hezbollah said on Monday that it had not been directly involved in any talks
Beirut’s southern suburbs have again been hit by multiple Israeli air strikes. Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson had issued orders that people in specific locations in southern Beirut – and many villages in southern Lebanon – should flee their homes.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,287 people and injured 14,222 since 7 October 2023, the Lebanese health ministry said on Tuesday, adding that 44 people in Lebanon had been killed and 88 others injured on Monday alone
At least five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese town of Baalshamieh, according to the health ministry
Rocket fire from Lebanon has killed two men in their 40s in northern Israel, close to the town of Nahariya, first responders said
Air raid sirens were heard in Tel Aviv earlier today, with the Israeli military saying it had intercepted three projectiles fired from Lebanon. Media reported that sirens were also activated at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, where flights were temporarily halted
UN peacekeepers have warned that the Israeli military has committed “severe violations” of a ceasefire deal with Syria as its military continues a major construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria
Palestinian media sources report that the Al-Qassam Brigades has claimed it successfully mounted an attack on Israeli troops that had taken refuge inside a house in Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip. Overnight Israel announced the deaths of four soldiers in combat in the northern Gaza Strip
At least 43,665 Palestinian people have been killed and 103,076 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in an update today. Of those, 62 Palestinians were killed and 147 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the following in a direct message to Iranians. In it, he says that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s government feared the people of Iran more than Israel.
In the video message, Netanyahu said:
That’s why they spend so much time and money trying to crush your hopes and curb your dreams.
Well, I say to you this: Don’t let your dreams die. I hear the whispers: Women, Life, Freedom. Zan, Zendegi, Azadi.
Don’t lose hope. And know that Israel and others in the free world stand with you.
“I know that you don’t want this war,” says Netanyahu. “I don’t want this war either. The people of Israel don’t want this war. There is one force putting your family in grave danger: the tyrants of Tehran. That’s it.”
Updated
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have said they conducted two military operations against US naval vessels in the Red and Arabian seas which the group’s military spokesperson said lasted for eight hours, Reuters reported.
The first operation targeted an American aircraft carrier in the Arabian sea with a number of missiles and drones, while the second operation launched missiles and drones at two US destroyers in the Red Sea, Yahya Sarea said on Tuesday.
A vessel 70 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Hodeidah reported several explosions in its vicinity earlier on Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, adding that the vessel sustained no damage, and the crew remained safe.
Since last October, the Iran-backed Houthis have positioned themselves as a key member of Tehran’s regional network of allies, which includes armed groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Houthi rebels say attacks in the Red Sea are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Updated
Two killed in northern Israel by rockets fired from Lebanon - emergency responder
Rocket fire from Lebanon has killed two men in their 40s in northern Israel, close to the town of Nahariya, first responders said. Emergency medic Dor Vakinin said a rocket hit a warehouse.
“There was a lot of destruction and an active fire,” he said. “We performed medical examinations on two men who were lying unconscious and suffering from severe injuries to their bodies. Unfortunately their injuries were too severe and after the examinations, we had to determine the death of both of them.”
Posting footage of the scene, Israel’s foreign ministry wrote in a post on X: “Two Israelis were murdered when a Hezbollah rocket targeted Nahariya earlier this evening. Hezbollah must be dismantled terrorist by terrorist, rocket by rocket, until Israelis are safe in their homes.”
Two Israelis were murdered when a Hezbollah rocket targeted Nahariya earlier this evening.
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) November 12, 2024
Hezbollah must be dismantled terrorist by terrorist, rocket by rocket, until Israelis are safe in their homes.
May the memory of the victims be a blessing.
📸 @Mdais pic.twitter.com/XYOxCsMKZo
The Israeli military said earlier that a barrage of 10 rockets was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, some of which were intercepted, while “others fell in the area”.
It said sirens had sounded in central Israel, including in Tel Aviv and at Ben Gurion airport (see earlier post at 15.12). Three projectiles that crossed from Lebanon were intercepted, the Israeli military said.
Updated
Israeli forces detained at least 15 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank overnight, the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said.
According to Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, the detentions were carried out in various areas in the West Bank, including Hebron, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Nablus, Salfit and Jerusalem.
Israeli forces destroyed property and made threats against detainees – which included former detainees who had already spent time in Israeli prisons – and their families while conducting “violent raids on homes”, Wafa reports. Some Israeli troops were reported to have ransacked homes and destroyed personal belongings.
It is estimated that at least 11,600 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since last October.
Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the West Bank.
They have described alleged abusive and humiliating treatment, including holding blindfolded and handcuffed detainees in cramped cages as well as beatings, intimidation and harassment.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,287 people since October 2023 – health ministry
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,287 people and injured 14,222 since 7 October 2023, the Lebanese health ministry has said, adding that 44 people in Lebanon had been killed and 88 others injured on Monday alone.
Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group, began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 7 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
The Israeli military unleashed its assault on Lebanon in October, claiming its aim was to return tens of thousands of people evacuated from homes in northern Israel due to the cross-border hostilities.
British surgeon talks of 'collective punishment' of Palestinians in Gaza
Geneva Abdul is a reporter for the Guardian
In the UK, Dr Nizam Mamode, a general, vascular and transplant surgeon who travelled to Gaza in August, has told MPs of “collective punishment” in Israel’s war in Gaza that has seen more than 43,000 civilians killed by Israeli forces.
Giving evidence to the International Development Committee on Tuesday, Dr Mamode told MPs of the deliberate targeting by Israeli forces on children, the lack of medical and general supplies in the territory and the deliberate targeting of healthcare infrastructure and aid workers.
When asked by MP Sarah Champion if he regarded what he saw as genocide, Dr Mamode said:
I’m not a international human rights lawyer so I can’t talk about the absolute definitions but it’s difficult to find another word for it given what we’ve seen, and I certainly feel the Palestinians feel that is what is happening to them.
He added: “In a word, yes.”
"Would you regard what you saw as Genocide" - @SarahChampionMP asks Prof. Nizam Mamode at the @CommonsIDC
— Gary Spedding (@GarySpedding) November 12, 2024
Acknowledging he isn't an international human rights lawyer, so he can't discuss the absolute definitions, but it is
"difficult to find another word for it, given what we… pic.twitter.com/sKM4UbEoqj
In October, the Guardian spoke with Mamode upon his return to the UK. For a month he volunteered at Gaza’s Nasser hospital as part of a medical team with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). He described the territory as “postapocalyptic” and said that aid workers and journalists were deliberate targets.
When asked about deliberate targeting of health workers and facilities by the panel on Tuesday, Mamode said: “To my mind it can’t be anything other than collective punishment, it’s just a consistent attempt to essentially wipe out a large part of the population.”
Also speaking before the panel was Sam Rose, a senior deputy director for Unrwa affairs. Rose described the recent Israeli ban on the UN aid organisation as “devastating”.
“It will be devastating,” said Rose, adding that no other organisation has the scale or scope to provide for Gaza’s 1.9mn residents as Unrwa does. The agency provides food aid, shelter, sanitation, water management and public health services in Gaza, which already faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.
When asked by MPs of the limited aid entering the territory, Nebal Faraskh from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said “Israel is still obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid”.
“The humanitarian situation is only deteriorating and the healthcare system is continuing to collapse,” she said. For more than 40 days, no aid, including food, water and medical supplies has reached northern Gaza, she said, where there are no ambulances operating, she added.
Since May, only 65 of the organisation’s aid trucks have entered the territory, she said. Nineteen PRCS members she said were killed, as she called for protections for healthcare facilities and workers.
“Unfortunately based on figures from last month, we are only receiving less aid from the previous month,” said Faraskh. “The situation is beyond catastrophe, it’s unimaginable.”
When asked of the US aid ultimatum delivered on 13 October, which expires today, Rohan Talbot, advocacy director for MAP, said “Israel is not acting in good faith with regards to its obligations”. Talbot said 42 aid trucks are entering the territory daily, compared to nearly 500 before the conflict. “Israel is not complying with what is being demanded of them by the US,”he added.
Updated
Israeli ground troops have laid siege to three areas – Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jabalia refugee camp – in the northern Gaza governorate in recent weeks.
Al Jazeera is reporting that the Israeli army surrounded an evacuation centre and a school housing hundreds of Palestinians in Beit Hanoun earlier today, demanding residents go southwards.
Lots of men have been detained and taken to undisclosed locations. We’ve been in touch with some who were released, and they say that they went through a nightmare.
The Israeli soldiers had ordered women to flee southwards without allowing them to take any sort of aid.
As soon as they left the school, they were targeted by Israeli quadcopter drones as a method of intimidation.
Updated
Air raid sirens sound in Tel Aviv as flights halted at Ben Gurion International Airport
Air raid sirens have been heard in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, with the Israeli military saying it had intercepted three projectiles fired from Lebanon.
“Following the sirens that sounded in numerous areas in central Israel, the IAF (Israel Air Force) intercepted three projectiles that crossed from Lebanon,” the army said. Media reported that sirens were also activated at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, where flights were temporarily halted. It is Israel’s main airport.
Breaking | Sirens sound in Tel Aviv and surrounding Israeli settlements following a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/xxmKwwMaRT
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 12, 2024
Updated
UN peacekeepers warn of Israeli violations of Syria ceasefire deal
UN peacekeepers have warned that the Israeli military has committed “severe violations” of a ceasefire deal with Syria as its military continues a major construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
The comments from the UN Disengagement Observer Force, which has patrolled the area since 1974, come after an Associated Press report on Monday that published satellite imagery showing the extent of the works along the frontier.
The work, which UNDOF said began in July, follows the completion by the Israeli military of new roadways and what appears to be a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s frontier with Israel. The Israel military also has begun demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other UN peacekeepers have come under fire.
While such violence hasn’t broken out along the Alpha Line, UNDOF warned on Tuesday the work risked further inflaming tensions in the region. “Such severe violations of the (demilitarized zone) have the potential to increase tensions in the area and is being closely monitored by by UNDOF,” it added.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Syrian officials have declined to comment on the construction.
Updated
Following news that five people have been killed in an attack east of Beirut, a security official, speaking anonymously to Agence France-Presse, said the “Israeli strike targeted a house where displaced people lived, including women and children”.
Updated
Lebanon says five people killed in Israeli strike east of Beirut
Lebanon’s health ministry has just said that five people were killed in the Israeli airstrike in the mountains east of Beirut, after a security official said a house was targeted.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Baalshamieh killed five people,” the ministry said in an initial report.
Updated
Israeli military issues new urgent evacuation order for villages in southern Lebanon
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee has again issued a forced evacuation order for residents of southern Lebanon, this time saying people in the affected villages must move north of the Awali river, which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel. He prohibited residents from fleeing south.
The order was aimed at the villages of Chaqra, Hula, Majdal Selem, Taloussa, Meiss el-Jabal, as-Sawana, Qabrikha, Yahmour, Arnoun, Blida, Muhaibib, Barashit, Fron and Ghandouriya.
In a post on X, Adraee wrote:
Hezbollah’s terrorist activities force the IDF to act forcefully against it in these areas, and we do not intend to harm you. For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali river. For your safety, you must evacuate without delay. Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, facilities or weapons is putting his life in danger.
#عاجل بيان عاجل إلى سكان #جنوب_لبنان في القرى التالية:
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 12, 2024
🔸 شقرا, حولا, مجدل سلم, طلوسة, ميس الجبل, صوانة, قبريخا, يحمور, ارنون, بليدا, محيبيب, برعشيت, فرون, غندورية
🔸نشاطات حزب الله الارهابي تجبر جيش الدفاع للعمل ضده بقوة في هذه المناطق ولا ننوي المساس بكم
🔸من أجل سلامتكم… pic.twitter.com/ikFJU7aAk0
Reports of an Israeli airstrike on a villa east of Beirut
A Lebanese security official has told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that an Israeli airstrike hit a villa east of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday.
The security official said the “Israeli strike caused an unspecified number of casualties”. The country’s state-run National News Agency later said Israeli warplanes hit a house between Baalshamieh and Dhour al-Abadiyah. Details of the attack are still emerging. We will give you the latest developments as soon as we get them.
A renewed Israeli assault was launched on the northern part of the Gaza Strip last month, with the Israeli military claiming it was to stop Hamas fighters regrouping there.
The blockage of aid and food deliveries and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, however, have led to accusations that Israel is committing the war crime of seeking to forcibly displace the remaining population.
Last month, the Knesset – the Israeli parlimanet - banned Unrwa from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, including the areas of annexed East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. A second vote declared Unrwa a terror group, effectively banning any direct interaction between the agency and the Israeli state. Unrwa provides education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the Knesset vote was “intolerable” and would have “devastating consequences”.
Updated
Aid entering Gaza is lowest at has been in months, Unrwa warns
The UN relief and works agency (Unrwa) has warned that already low levels of aid trickling into Gaza had dwindled further, with the situation in the north of the territory described as “catastrophic”.
The warning came as the Israeli military said it had delivered hundreds of packets of food to cut-off areas of northern Gaza as the deadline for Israel to get more aid into the Strip or face cuts in military assistance fast approaches (the US government said in a letter on 13 October that Israel had 30 days to take specific steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza).
Asked about whether there were signs the situation had improved ahead of Wednesday’s deadline, Louise Wateridge, an Unrwa emergencies officer, said “aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months” (see post at 11.29 for some of her other comments).
Speaking to a Geneva media briefing via video-link from Gaza, Wateridge said that “the average for October was 37 trucks a day into the entire Gaza Strip... that is for 2.2 million people”.
“Children are dying. People are dying every day,” she said, stressing that “people here need everything”.
The situation is at its worst in northern Gaza, where a UN-backed assessment at the weekend said that famine was imminent.
No food was permitted to enter besieged northern Gaza for an entire month, Wateridge said, adding that UN requests to access the area have been repeatedly denied.
Wateridge said that testimonies from the north painted “an endlessly horrific” picture that was becoming “more critical” by the hour, AFP reports.
“Hospitals have been bombed, the doctors inform us that they have run out of blood supplies, they have run out of medicine... there are bodies in the streets.”
Updated
Death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza reaches 43,665, says health ministry
At least 43,665 Palestinian people have been killed and 103,076 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Of those, 62 Palestinians were killed and 147 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
Gaza’s health ministry has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory.
Israel’s Kan news reports that an IDF soldier has suffered a head injury after Jewish settlers in the Oz Zion outpost in the Israeli-occupied West Bank threw stones at them.
Israeli forces were demolishing several illegal buildings when masked youths began throwing stones, Kan reports.
The soldier’s injury was described as “moderate” and they were taken to hospital in Jerusalem.
Israeli security forces have been attending the site of a drone strike which hit a kindergarten in Nesher, near Haifa, this morning .
There were no reports of casualties, and the children attending the kindergarten had already been moved to its bomb shelter when the drone struck.
The Times of Israel reported the drone “hit a tree next to the kindergarten and exploded, causing slight damage to the building and a fence.”
The IDF said earlier it is investigating why warning sirens in the local area did not sound.
Palestinian news sources report that the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the farthest north of the Gaza Strip has said it is yet to receive any medical aid.
Lebanese official: 'no sane person' would agree deal that achieves Israel's goals at the expense of Lebanon's sovereignty
Will Christou reports from Beirut for the Guardian
While Hezbollah has indicated that it wants a ceasefire in Lebanon, it has insisted that it would have its own conditions to stop firing at Israel, and said that it has the capacity to continue fighting for months to come.
Lebanon’s speaker, Nabih Berri, who negotiates on behalf of Hezbollah, said on Tuesday that “There is no sane person who thinks that we will agree to a settlement or solution that achieves the interest of Israel at the expense of Lebanon and its sovereignty.”
Israel has issued contradictory statements about ceasefire talks in the last 24 hours, with foreign minister Gideon Saar saying “certain progress” had been made on Monday, but defense minister Israel Katz on Tuesday morning saying there would be “no ceasefire” and “no respite” in Lebanon.
Leaked drafts in Israeli media of a ceasefire proposal showed that Israel was seeking the freedom to fly over Lebanese airspace at will, as well as to take offensive action in Lebanon if it thought Hezbollah was violating the terms of the ceasefire deal. The leaked proposal is understood to reflect Israel’s maximal demands in any future ceasefire negotiation and is expected to be a non-starter with Lebanese and Hezbollah officials, who see it as a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
On Sunday, the Israeli military it had approved plans for an expanded ground offensive in south Lebanon, a month after it launched what it called a “limited and targeted” cross-border operation.
Hezbollah, for its part, continued to carry out attacks on northern Israel, launching over 200 rockets on Monday and launching a rocket salvo at the town of Kafr Yuval in north Israel on Tuesday afternoon.
Israeli strikes on Beirut level a multi-storey building and strike restaurant and medical complex
William Christou reports for the Guardian from Beirut
Israel carried out more than a dozen airstrikes on Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday morning, the most intense aerial bombardment of the city in weeks.
An Israeli military spokesperson published maps on social media of 11 buildings in Dahiyeh that it said were Hezbollah installations and warned civilians to distance themselves. Around 40 minutes after the warnings were issued, the bombing started and the resulting explosions were heard around the capital city, accompanied by sonic booms of Israeli jets passing overhead.
A video showed two missiles striking an at least ten-storey building, leveling it completely. Among the places that were destroyed were Harkous chicken, a neighbourhood restaurant and landmark in Dahiyeh, as well as a medical complex.
Israeli warplanes destroy a high-rise building in the Dahieh district of Beirut. pic.twitter.com/c9VBFdzXGT
— WAFA News Agency - English (@WAFANewsEnglish) November 12, 2024
Daytime strikes in Dahiyeh have been rare over the past two months and residents typically return to the southern suburbs to check on their homes in the relative safety of daylight. The area which used to house around half a million people has been mostly depopulated since Israel began to regularly bomb Dahiyeh in late September.
On Monday night, Israel killed at least 14 people in a strike in Ain Yacoub, in the northern province of Akkar about 110 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. The strike hit a building housing displaced people without warning, in an area that has not witnessed any prior Hezbollah-Israel fighting. Over the last two months, Israel has struck several buildings hosting displaced people in areas which have no affiliation to Hezbollah.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is approaching 2pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City. Here are the latest headlines …
Israel’s newly appointed defense minister Israel Katz has said there will be “no ceasefire” and “no respite” in Lebanon. Posting to social media Katz said “The warning and powerful activity carried out by the IDF and the security agencies against Hezbollah and the elimination of [Hassan] Nasrallah are a picture of victory and the offensive activity should be continued, in order to worsen Hezbollah’s capabilities and realise the fruits of victory. In Lebanon there will be no ceasefire and there will be no respite”
Katz’ comments directly contradicted a statement from Israel’s foreign minister on Monday that there had been a “certain progress” in ceasefire talks. Hezbollah said on Monday that it had not been directly involved in any talks
Beirut’s southern suburbs have again been hit by multiple Israeli air strikes. Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson had issued orders that people in specific locations in southern Beirut should flee their homes
Palestinian medical officials say two Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman. Associated Press reports that most of the victims of one of the strikes were in an Israeli-declared “humanitarian zone”. AP reports that one strike late Monday hit a makeshift cafeteria used by displaced people in Muwasi, the centre of the Israeli declared “humanitarian zone”. At least 11 people were killed, including two children
Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer for Unrwa in Gaza, told a Geneva press briefing that no food had been allowed to enter northern Gaza for an entire month. She told the media “Anything that happens now is already too late. Thousands and thousands of people have been killed senselessly. They have been killed because there is lack of aid, because the bombs have continued and because we have not been able to even reach them under the rubble”
Israel has claimed it has met most US demands to increase aid access to the Gaza Strip, despite its own official figures showing aid delivery is at its lowest since December. The Kisufim crossing was opening on Tuesday to allow some trucks through
Palestinian media sources report that the Al-Qassam Brigades has claimed it successfully mounted an attack on Israeli troops that had taken refuge inside a house in Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip. Overnight Israel announced the deaths of four soldiers in combat in the northern Gaza Strip
Israel’s military has issued a statement on its official Telegram channel that two suspects have been arrested after an incident yesterday in which two soldiers were injured after they were hit by a car in Al-Khader
Palestinians in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have staged a protest about the number of people detained in Israeli jails. According to Palestinian news agency Wafa more than 11,600 arrests of Palestinians have been made by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023
The IDF says it is investigating why warning sirens did not sound after a drone crossed into Israel from Lebanon and fell in Nesher, on the outskirts of Haifa
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) has reported multiple explosions in the vicinity of a vessel which was positioned of the western coast of Yemen. It says there was no damage and nobody was injured. Yemen’s Houthis have repeatedly targeted shipping in the area
Hebrew media outlet Ynet has reported that authorities in Thailand are warning they have intelligence of plans for an attack on Israeli tourists at a music party on Friday
Palestinian media sources report that the Al-Qassam Brigades has claimed it successfully mounted an attack on Israeli troops that had taken refuge inside a house in Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza.
Humanitarian aid agency Mercy Corps has said that Israel has failed to meet US demands to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and called on the Joe Biden administration to take further steps.
Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna said in a statement:
Our teams are doing everything possible, but we are stymied at every turn. Despite abundant clarity and evidence from organisations like our own operating in Gaza about the impediments to aid delivery, the US government has not done enough to hold Israel to account.
The clear and transparent failures to meet the US own standards must now lead to greater action, or risk pushing millions of people toward preventable suffering and death.
The US government must do everything in its power to ensure the unfettered provision of essential aid to people in desperate need.
Jenny Gustafsson in Hammana has this report today about the impact of Israeli bombing on Lebanon’s agriculture.
Palestinians in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have staged a protest about the number of people detained in Israeli jails.
According to Palestinian news agency Wafa more than 11,600 arrests of Palestinians have been made by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023.
Unrwa official: any improvement on Israel allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza is 'too late'
Israel’s military has posted to its official Telegram channel to announce that “in accordance with directives from the political echelon” it had opened the Kisufim crossing to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for over a year.
The move comes as a 30 day deadline from the US to improve the access of aid to Gaza expires, with international aid groups saying Israel has failed to make significant changes. The amount of aid reaching Gaza has dropped to the lowest level since December, official Israeli figures show.
Reuters reports Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer for Unrwa in Gaza, told a Geneva press briefing that no food had been allowed to enter northern Gaza for an entire month.
She told the media:
Anything that happens now is already too late. Thousands and thousands of people have been killed senselessly. They have been killed because there is lack of aid, because the bombs have continued and because we have not been able to even reach them under the rubble.
Despite the official figures and the verdict of organisations on the ground, Israel claimed yesterday it had met most of the US demands.
Updated
Al Jazeera is reporting that at least six people have been killed in a further Israeli airstrike on Gaza today.
The news network reports the strike targeted “an overcrowded area near Al Noor mosque in the western part of Deir el-Balah city in central Gaza,” and that in addition to the six people killed, “ten critically injured people were received by the American field hospital.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Al Jazeera has been banned from operating inside Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) has reported multiple explosions in the vicinity of a vessel which was positioned of the western coast of Yemen. It says there was no damage and nobody was injured. Yemen’s Houthis have repeatedly targeted shipping in the area.
More details soon …
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that, in a repeat of a near daily occurrence, Jewish worshippers have entered the al-Aqsa mosque compound and performed religious rites, which is banned.
Describing it as a “provocative tour”, Wafa reports that dozens entered the place, revered in both Muslim and Jewish traditions, “under the protection of the Israeli occupation police.”
It is a long-standing policy that Jewish prayer is not allowed in the Muslim parts of what Jews call the Temple Mount.
In August, Israel’s far-right interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the site, and said, contrary to stated Israeli government policy, that “our policy is to enable Jewish prayer”. He remains part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.
Updated
Hebrew media outlet Ynet is reporting that authorities in Thailand are warning they have intelligence of plans for an attack on Israeli tourists at a music party on Friday.
The warning comes a couple of weeks after a similar threat was reported in Sri Lanka.
Lebanese media reports more Israeli airstrikes in the south of the country, near Seddiqine and Kafra.
Reuters reports there have been at least five Israeli airstrikes on Beirut so far this morning.
Israel’s military has issued a statement on its official Telegram channel that two suspects have been arrested after an incident yesterday in which two soldiers were injured after they were hit by a car in Al-Khader.
The town is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to the west of Bethlehem.
Images sent over the news wires show smoke billowing over Beirut after Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital.
Lebanese media is reporting that two people have been killed and six wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Hermel, which is in the north-east of the country near the border with Syria.
In Iran, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani has been asked about the impact on Iran-US relations of the re-election of Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
She said there were no plans for direct talks, but said “Whatever secures the country’s interest and values of the revolution will be pursued by the government,” adding that “what is important will be actions and not words” and recommending Trump “take into account the failure of his past policies.”
Lebanese media has reported airstrikes in the southern Beirut suburbs.
Earlier Israel’s military ordered residents to evacuate specific areas, threatening strikes against what it termed “Hezbollah facilities and interests” in the area.
More details soon …
IDF to investigate why warning sirens did not activate after drone strike near Haifa
Israel’s military says it is investigating why warning sirens did not sound after a drone crossed into Israel from Lebanon and fell in Nesher, on the outskirts of Haifa.
The Times of Israel reports that “a drone launched from Lebanon struck a kindergarten, causing slight damage but no injuries. The children were in the shelter despite the lack of a siren.”
It speculates that “staff may have received a home front command alert on their phones, or heard the sirens in other areas from afar.”
The IDF, on its official Telegram channel, also stated “as of now, no reports of injuries have been received.”
At least 14 killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes, many in one of the IDF's 'humanitarian' zones
Palestinian medical officials say two Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman. Associated Press reports that most of the victims of one of the strikes were in an Israeli-declared “humanitarian zone”.
AP reports that one strike late Monday hit a makeshift cafeteria used by displaced people in Muwasi, the centre of the Israeli declared “humanitarian zone”. At least 11 people were killed, including two children, according to officials at Nasser hospital, where the casualties were taken. Video from the scene showed men pulling bloodied wounded from among tables and chairs set up in the sand in an enclosure made of corrugated metal sheets.
The strike came hours after the Israeli military announced an expansion of the “humanitarian zone”, where it has told Palestinians evacuating from other parts of Gaza to take refuge.
Overnight Israel has announced the deaths of four soldiers in combat in the northern Gaza Strip.
The IDF says that “since the beginning of ground operations in the Gaza Strip on 27 October 2023, 373 soldiers have fallen in combat.”
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson has again issued orders that people in specific locations in southern Beirut should flee their homes due to impending Israeli airstrikes, claiming that Israel will target what it deems “Hezbollah facilities and interests”.
#عاجل 3/3 إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في منطقة حدث بيروت
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 12, 2024
⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع بقوة على المدى الزمني القريب
⭕️من أجل… pic.twitter.com/IPHoe85Oms
Israeli defense minister: there will be 'no ceasefire' and 'no respite' in Lebanon
Israel’s newly appointed defense minister Israel Katz has said there will be “no ceasefire” and “no respite” in Lebanon, which has seen a series of Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions in recent weeks. Over 3,000 people have been killed.
Posting to social media Israel Katz said:
The warning and powerful activity carried out by the IDF and the security agencies against Hezbollah and the elimination of [Hassan] Nasrallah are a picture of victory and the offensive activity should be continued, in order to worsen Hezbollah’s capabilities and realise the fruits of victory.
In Lebanon there will be no ceasefire and there will be no respite. We will continue to hit Hezbollah with full force until the goals of the war are achieved. Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel’s right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own, and meeting the goals of the war in Lebanon, [which are] disarming Hezbollah and them withdrawing beyond the Litani River, and returning the residents of the north safely to their homes.
Katz was appointed into the defense minister role last week after Benjamin Netanyahu fired Yoav Gallant, citing disagreements over strategy. In May 2024 the international criminal court requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Israel has challenged the decision.
About 1.2 million people are believed to have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon by Israel’s military campaign, and tens of thousands of Israelis have also been forced from their homes in northern Israel by continuous rocket fire from Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces inside Lebanon.
Katz statement contradicts the words on Monday of Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar, who had claimed in public “certain progress” was being made on ceasefire talks, although a spokesperson for Hezbollah had said they were not involved with them.
Good morning and welcome to our blog covering the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
Israel’s recently appointed defence minister, Israel Katz, has dismissed talk of a ceasefire in Lebanon, saying “there will be no ceasefire and there will be no respite”
Israel’s newly appointed foreign minister, Gideon Saar, who replaced Katz in the role, had said on Monday that “certain progress” had been made on ceasefire talks in Lebanon. However a spokesperson for Hezbollah said they had not been involved in any direct talks
Speaking at the joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh yesterday, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said that his country was suffering an “unprecedented” crisis that threatens its existence
Iran’s first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref told the summit on Monday that the “world is waiting” for Donald Trump’s incoming US government to stop Israel’s wars with Hamas and Hezbollah
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,243 people and injured 14,134 since 7 October 2023, the Lebanese health ministry said. The death toll in Gaza in the same period has been put at over 40,000
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued more forced evacuation orders for residents of many towns/villages in southern Lebanon
The amount of aid reaching Gaza has dropped to the lowest level since December, official Israeli figures show, despite the US having issued a 30-day ultimatum last month threatening sanctions if there was no increase in humanitarian supplies reaching the territory
Overnight Israel announced the deaths of four soldiers in combat in the northern Gaza Strip
