Summary
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has said that 25 people were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on Syria. Syrian state media had put the death toll at 16 with 40 people injured. Iran described the airstrikes as a “criminal” attack on Syria. The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles programme but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus.
Benny Gantz, the centre-right National Unity party leader and former defence minister, has reportedly said that Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border. “The story of Hamas is old news,” Gantz was quoted as saying at a Middle East forum in Washington DC. He said that, instead, “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue”.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The director of Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, Hussam Abu Safia, warned that the hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages and a lack of critical medical supplies. Safia said fuel shortages in the intensive care unit could lead to the deaths of dozens of children.
At least 40,988 Palestinian people have been killed and 94,825 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
You can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Updated
The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN’s food agency, says 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza are in “urgent” need of food and livelihood assistance.
The WFP in the Middle East and north Africa said Israeli evacuation orders are hindering efforts to deliver aid. The agency reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire.
🔴11 months of war in #Gaza
— WFP in the Middle East & North Africa (@WFP_MENA) September 9, 2024
And 2.2 million people are still in urgent need of food & livelihood assistance.
Despite @WFP’s commitment to deliver aid, evacuation orders are hindering our efforts, and needs are on the rise.
A ceasefire is needed! pic.twitter.com/uHJAPFnchd
Víctor Aguayo, Unicef’s director of child Nutrition, has said that one of the most severe food and nutrition crises in history is currently being experienced by Palestinian people in Gaza.
He said the impact of the war and “severe restrictions” on the humanitarian response have led to a “complete collapse” of food, health and protection systems, with “catastrophic consequences”.
Aguayo warned that there is a real risk of famine, with most of the agricultural land in the Gaza Strip having been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.
Under the technical definition of famine, 20% of households must face an extreme lack of food, or essentially be starving. One-third of children must be suffering from acute malnutrition or wasting, and two adults or four children for every 10,000 people must be dying daily from hunger and its complications.
Death toll in Gaza reaches 40,988, says health ministry
At least 40,988 Palestinian people have been killed and 94,825 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday. The toll includes 16 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.
The health ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.
Updated
The UN’s Palestine relief agency, Unrwa, has said that over 446,000 children in Gaza have been vaccinated against polio so far, after Hamas and Israel agreed on limited pauses in their fighting,
“As of tomorrow, the campaign will move to the north entering its most complex phase. Many more children urgently need the vaccine,” Unrwa, the main channel for humanitarian support for Palestinians, wrote in a post on X.
The World Health Organization believes that 90% of children under 10 in Gaza must be immunised for the campaign to be effective.
At the end of the second phase of the #polio vaccination campaign in #Gaza, @UNRWA teams and partners have vaccinated over 446,000 children.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 9, 2024
As of tomorrow, the campaign will move to the north entering its most complex phase. Many more children urgently need the vaccine. pic.twitter.com/z9EWNWUPE8
The vaccination campaign comes after a case was discovered last month for the first time in 25 years after doctors concluded a 10-month-old had been partially paralysed by a mutated strain of the polio virus after not being vaccinated due to the war.
Health officials said on Monday that two separate Israeli airstrikes had killed seven people in central Gaza, while another strike killed one man in Khan Younis further south.
As we reported in an earlier post, the new school year in the Palestinian territories officially began on Monday. But all schools in Gaza are shut after 11 months of Israel’s war and no sign of an immediate ceasefire.
In addition to the 625,000 Palestinians already registered for school who would be missing classes, another 58,000 six-year-olds should have registered to start first grade this year, the education ministry said.
ActionAid have spoken to schoolchildren whose education has been disrupted because of the devastating impacts of the war.
Arwa said:
[I am] an 11-year-old student in the fifth grade. I lost my right of going to school as displaced people need to live there. Most schools were destroyed, burnt down or bombarded as a result of the ongoing war. I really miss my school. I miss my friends and my teachers very much.
Maryam said:
My house was bombed, and I now live in my school. I wish to go back home. I wish for the war to be over. I don’t want to live in my school. I want to learn in it. I miss my friends and my teachers … My books were burnt to ashes. My bag was torn, and my notebooks are gone … I wish to go back home. I wish to get back to learning. I want to put on my school uniform and get ready for school. And to buy my school supplies.
Raed, aged 9, said:
I really miss my school and wish to go back [to] learn. I haven’t been in school, nor have I studied for 10 months now.
Mona, aged 7, said:
I miss my school and my friends a lot. I miss holding a pen and writing. I miss writing and learning my alphabet.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
In the latest evacuation order, the Israeli military has told residents of an area in the northern Gaza Strip they must leave their homes, after the firing of rockets into southern Israel the previous day.
“To all those in the specified area. Terrorist organisations are once again firing rockets at the State of Israel and carrying out terrorist acts from this area. The specified area has been warned many times in the past. The specified area is considered a dangerous combat zone,” an Israeli military spokesperson wrote on X.
The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and more than 85% of the territory has been put under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the UN.
Several hundred thousand people have packed into al-Mawasi, a so-called safe zone located west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, since the beginning of the conflict despite minimal provision there of even basic services.
Almost every week this year, Jagan Chapagain has had to sign a letter of condolence to the families of aid workers killed in the line of duty while serving the world’s largest humanitarian network. A volunteer in Sudan, shot while collecting data; a paramedic gunned down while evacuating wounded civilians in the West Bank; and an ambulance driver in Ethiopia, who died of a bullet wound on his way to hospital, are among the 28 staff and volunteers the secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has commemorated since the year began.
By late August, 187 aid workers around the world, who play a vital role in delivering food, water and medical supplies during crises, had been killed, making 2024 likely to be the deadliest year ever for aid workers. Last year currently holds that title, when 280 lost their lives compared with 118 in 2022. The Israeli-Gaza war, where more than 280 aid workers have been killed since 7 October, as well as Sudan and South Sudan accounted for most of the deaths.
It is largely local aid workers, who usually do not have access to the same level of security, training and protection as international staff, who are the most likely victims.
You can read the full story here:
Israel’s energy minister Eli Cohen has warned the international community that it should not complain if Israel “acts with force to exact a heavy price from Lebanon” if the community is unable to “restrain” Hezbollah.
Describing Hezbollah as “a terrorist organization that deliberately fires at residential buildings with the intent to kill Israeli civilians” he included in a social media post an image purporting to show damage to a building from an aerial attack.
Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that deliberately fires at residential buildings with the intent to kill Israeli civilians.
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) September 9, 2024
If the international community cannot restrain Hezbollah, it shouldn't complain when we act with force and exact a heavy price from Lebanon and… pic.twitter.com/WNeTUJbZIa
Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent for the Times of Israel, reports that a barrage of 15 rockets has been fired into Israel from the direction of Lebanon.
Citing the IDF, he writes that “The rockets struck open areas, and there are no reports of injuries.”
Earlier a drone from the direction of Lebanon was reported to have struck a high-rise building in the Israeli city of Nahariya.
Updated
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed to have located “a machine used to produce weapons” in the Zeitoun area of northern Gaza.
It stated that troops “raided terror targets where terrorists had embedded themselves, eliminated dozens of terrorists and dismantled numerous terrorist infrastructures” in the area.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Bezalel Smotrich, the hardline finance minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, has again today reiterated that he sees it as his life’s mission to “thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state”.
In a post to social media, echoing words he said back in June, Smotrich said:
My life’s mission is to build the land of Israel and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger the state of Israel. It is not political. It is national and existential.
This is the reason why I took upon myself, in addition to the position of minister of finance, also the responsibility for the civil issues in Judea and Samaria. [An Israeli term for the occupied West Bank]
I will continue to work with all my might so that the half million settlers who are on the frontline and under fire will enjoy the rights of every citizen in Israel and to establish facts on the ground that will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state that will be a forward Iranian base for the next massacre.
Updated
Afternoon summary
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has said that 25 people were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on Syria. Iran described the airstrikes as a “criminal” attack on Syria. The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles programme but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus.
Benny Gantz, the centre-right National Unity party leader and former defence minister, has reportedly said that Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border. “The story of Hamas is old news,” Gantz was quoted as saying at a Middle East forum in Washington DC. He said that, instead, “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue”.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The director of Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, Hussam Abu Safia, warned that the hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages and a lack of critical medical supplies. Safia said fuel shortages in the intensive care unit could lead to the deaths of dozens of children.
Updated
The Syrian foreign ministry has condemned the overnight Israeli strikes on Syria as an act of blatant aggression. In addition to the people killed and injured in the attack, it had caused “material damage to some residential areas”, the ministry said in a statement reported by Syria’s official news agency, Sana.
Two regional intelligence sources told Reuters that a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Masyaf, in Hama province near the Mediterranean coast, had been hit several times. They said it was believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.
“We do not confirm what was reported by media outlets linked to the Zionist regime (Israel) about an attack on an Iranian centre or a centre under Iran’s protection”, Iran’s foreign minister spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told journalists.
Israeli strikes on Syria kill at least 25 people, war monitor says
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has given an updated death toll resulting from the Israeli strikes overnight across Syria. The death toll is now 25, up from 18 earlier.
The war monitor said among the people killed were “five civilians, four soldiers and intelligence personnel and 13 Syrians working with pro-Iran groups”. Three more bodies were unidentified, the observatory added.
The observatory described the Sunday night strike as “one of the most violent Israeli attacks” in Syria in years and said it was carried out with 14 missiles.
The Syrian state news agency is reporting that 16 people were killed. The Guardian has not yet independently verified these figures.
Updated
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under huge pressure to agree a hostage-for-peace deal with Hamas that has been under negotiation for several months. A major impasse in the negotiations has been the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim east-west corridor across the territory. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel retain control of the corridors to prevent smuggling and catch militant fighters. Hamas is demanding the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The Philadelphi corridor only emerged as an Israeli government talking point in recent weeks, and was not part of the plan that the US president, Joe Biden, had presented in May, which the Israeli government said at the time it accepted.
About 250 hostages were taken by the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed. 97 hostages abducted during the attack remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces, according to the Times of Israel.
An Israeli official told the outlet that the Israeli government still expects a new US proposal for a hostage deal to be presented in the future.
“We are waiting,” says the official. “The Americans are being cautious, they don’t want to put forward a deal that they know will be rejected by Hamas. They know that Hamas is the one putting obstacles in the way.” “Just because it’s not happening soon doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” the official added.
Here are some more remarks given by Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, in the traditional opening address to sessions of the human rights council, which typically list a wide range of pressing global concerns. Its five-week autumn session opened today.
Turk said:
I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone.
And I urge all voters to be vigilant. Be wary of the shrill voices, the ‘strongman’ types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality.
Updated
The director of the Karama Border Crossing police, Mustafa Dawabsheh, was quoted by Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, as saying that the King Hussein Bridge (also known as the Allenby Bridge crossing) will be closed today to the movement of departing and arriving passengers and cargo.
On Sunday, three Israeli workers were killed at the border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan when a Jordanian truck driver opened fire on them. You can read more on this story here.
Updated
UN human rights chief calls on states to challenge Israel over occupation
The UN human rights chief has said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (UN) security council and orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), neither in this nor any other situation,” the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said in a speech at the opening of the UN human rights council in Geneva.
He cited an opinion released by the UN top court in July that called Israel’s occupation illegal and said this situation must be “comprehensively addressed”. Israel rejected the opinion and said a political settlement can only be reached through negotiations.
Reading the court’s historic, albeit non-binding, opinion at the time, the president of the ICJ, Nawaf Salam, said:
The court considers that the violations by Israel of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force and of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination have a direct impact on the legality of the continued presence of Israel, as an occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the occupied Palestinian territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.
Breaches of international law identified by the court included:
Forcible evictions, extensive house demolitions and restrictions on residence and movement.
The transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and East Jerusalem and maintenance of their presence.
Its failure to prevent or to punish attacks by settlers.
Restricting the access of the Palestinian population to water.
Israel’s use of the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The extension of Israel’s law to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Updated
Israel’s war on Gaza disrupts second school year for hundreds of thousands of children
Since the war began last October, schools have been bombed or turned into shelters for displaced people, leaving Gaza’s estimated 625,000 school-age children unable to attend classes. Gaza and the occupied West Bank have internationally high literacy levels, and the under-resourced education system was a source of pride among many Palestinians. Israel’s war in Gaza has devastated the education system, casting a long shadow over many children’s future, adding to the legacy of trauma and loss from the conflict.
Here are some figures released by the Palestinian education ministry:
More than 600,000 students, since 7 October 2023, have been deprived of their right to a free and safe education.
More than 25,000 children have been killed or injured in Israeli attacks, including more than 10,000 students.
About 90% of the 307 government school buildings have been destroyed
In a press release, the ministry said:
Despite the expansion of the scope of targeting, the ministry is moving forward with all hope towards protecting education and providing all opportunities for our children in the Gaza Strip as the ministry is working and has begun to launch virtual schools and open our schools in the West Bank to our students in Gaza, and determination leads us to provide as much education as possible, even if inside dilapidated tents.
The right to education is an approach and practice, not a luxury, theory and slogans.
Updated
Iran accuses Israel of carrying out a 'criminal' attack on Syria
Iran has accused Israel of carrying out what it called a “criminal” attack in Syria, where 18 people were reported to have been killed.
“We strongly condemn this criminal attack by the Zionist regime on Syrian soil,” foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani told a news conference in Tehran, calling on Israel’s backers to “stop supporting and arming it”, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Since the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck its army air defences and some forces.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups. Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Updated
Israeli strikes in central Syria kill 18 people, UK-based war monitor says
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has given an updated death toll resulting from the “intense Israeli strikes” overnight across central Syria.
It is now saying 18 people, including eight Syrian fighters, were killed and 32 others injured. The war monitor said previously that seven people were killed in the strikes that destroyed military and scientific facilities where Iran-backed armed groups were said to have been present (you can read more details here).
Updated
Israel should shift focus towards Hezbollah, Netanyahu's top political rival says
Benny Gantz, the centre-right National Unity party leader and former defence minister, has reportedly said that Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border.
Speaking in Washington DC at a Middle East forum, he was quoted by the Times of Israel as having said:
We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north.
The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this.
In Gaza, we have crossed a decisive point of the campaign. We can conduct anything we want in Gaza. We should seek to have a deal to get out our hostages but if we cannot in the coming time, a few days or few weeks, or whatever it is, we should go up north.
We are capable of … hitting the state of Lebanon if needed.
“The story of Hamas is old news,” Gantz, the former army chief added, saying instead that “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue.”
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading near-daily cross-border fire since last October, with Hezbollah saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians affected by Israel’s war in Gaza.
Gantz, a major rival to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, joined the now disbanded three-man war cabinet as a minister without portfolio in the aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostages taken.
But as Israel’s war in Gaza dragged on, disagreements over strategy emerged, culminating in Gantz accusing Netanyahu of pushing strategic considerations such as a hostage deal aside for his own political survival. He resigned from his position in June.
Updated
More on the deadly overnight Israeli airstrikes on central Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has said that at least four of the people killed were civilians.
Syrian state media says the total number of people killed in the strikes is 14, with more than 40 injured. The strikes damaged a highway in Hama province, sparking fires. Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartus, along with the city of Homs.
Northern Gaza hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages, director warns
The director of Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, Hussam Abu Safia, has described the dire conditions at the health facility amid continuing Israeli airstrikes.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, he warned that the hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages and a lack of critical medical supplies. Safia also said fuel shortages in the intensive care unit could lead to the deaths of dozens of children.
Conditions are dire across Gaza, with severe shortages of water, medicine and fuel. Few hospitals are functional. Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has decimated the territory’s healthcare system, with 31 of 36 hospitals damaged or destroyed, according to the World Health Organization It has left those with chronic conditions unable to access basic care.
Syria’s state media also reported that the strikes that hit Syria on Sunday caused two fires, which firefighters have been working to extinguish. Israel usually does not comment on attacks in Syria and has not given a response to this latest attack, which was reported to have come in waves.
Israeli airstrikes in Syria kill 14 people – media
As we mentioned in the opening summary, a series of Israeli strikes were reported to have hit multiple areas in central Syria on Sunday.
Syrian state media said on Monday that the overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in central Hama province, raising the earlier death toll of seven.
Two regional intelligence sources told Reuters that a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Masyaf had been hit several times. It is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.
“The number of martyrs resulting from the Israeli aggression on a number of sites in the vicinity of Masyaf has risen to 14 martyrs and 43 wounded including six critically,” official news agency Sana reported citing a medical source. These figures are yet to be independently verified by the Guardian.
“At around 23:20 on Sunday evening, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of northwestern Lebanon, targeting a number of military sites in the central region (of Syria),” a military source told the news agency.
“Our air defence systems confronted the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them,” the source added, without providing further details.
The strike in Syria reportedly targeted several sites near the cities of Homs, Hama and Tartus.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider crisis in the Middle East.
Israeli airstrikes in central Syria have killed at least seven people, including three civilians, a UK-based war monitor has said, in an attack believed to be targeting a military scientific research centre.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said:
The number of dead in the Israeli strikes on the Masyaf region stands at seven, namely three civilians, including a man and his son who were in a car, and four unidentified soldiers.
Thirteen violent explosions rang out in the zone housing scientific research centres in Masyaf where pro-Iranian groups and weapons development experts are present.
Reuters sources reported that a major military research centre for chemical arms production believed to house Iranian military experts was hit several times.
Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes there, targeting pro-Iranian groups in particular.
Here is a summary of the latest developments:
Jordan’s foreign ministry has said it believes the killing of three Israeli civilians at a border crossing in the occupied West Bank was an individual act. A gunman crossing from Jordan carried out the shooting before security forces shot him dead on Sunday, Israeli authorities said earlier. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the victims were private security guards. The Jordanian ministry said the attack was being investigated and that it “rejected and condemned violence and targeting civilians for any reason”. Israel announced the closure of its land crossings with Jordan, and later said all would reopen on Monday.
Speaking after the attack, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “a difficult day”, adding: “A loathsome terrorist murdered in cold blood three of our civilians.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, urged all parties to investigate the incident to prevent repeats.
An Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza has killed a senior aid official and four members of his family. Gaza’s civil defence group, which fights fires and rescues people trapped in rubble, said its deputy director for northern Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, had been killed in an airstrike. The organisation said four members of his family also died in the bombing of Morsi’s house in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, north-east of Gaza City.
Huge numbers of Israelis again poured into the streets on Sunday to protest against the government’s failure to secure the return of remaining hostages in Gaza. The new protest came a week after one of the largest demonstrations of the war after the discovery of another six dead hostages in Gaza, and after Netanyahu pushed back against pressure for a ceasefire deal and declared that “no one will preach to me”.
The Qatar Red Crescent and the UN agency for Palestinians (Unrwa) signed an agreement on Sunday, with $4.5m from a Qatari state development fund, to aid more than 4,400 stranded Palestinian workers and patients from Gaza in the West Bank.
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