Closing summary
Six people have died in an Israeli attack in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City on Saturday morning. Al Jazeera reported that two families were killed in the attack on the Fahd al-Sabah school.
Israeli airstrikes attacked a Hezbollah headquarters in Lebanon’s capital Beirut overnight. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has said it also struck a weapons production site and other areas used by the terror group.
Lebanon fired five rockets at Israel, leading to sirens being sounded in Western and Upper Galilee. The munitions either being intercepted or falling into open areas.
Seven people have now been killed following Israeli air strikes on the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre. Lebanon’s health ministry said the death toll had risen from three after the attack on Friday, in which 46 people were injured.
Qatar has withdrawn as a key mediator for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal due to refusal by both Israel and Hamas to negotiate. A diplomatic source told AFP on Saturday that both sides have been informed that the Gulf state won’t mediate “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith”.
Hamas may be forced to close its offices in Qatar. The US has told the tiny Gulf state that it is no longer acceptable to allow the Islamist group to have a base there.
Dutch prosecutors expect to make more arrests in connection with the clashes involving Israeli football fans in Amsterdam on Thursday night. Clashes after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv led to police detaining 62 people.
Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof has canceled a trip to United Nations climate talks next week to deal with the fallout. Schoof will miss the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan as investigations continue into whether warning signs were missed.
There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, a committee of global food security experts has warned. Israel has denied the claim made by the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC), arguing that it has relied on unreliable data.
Updated
There are ‘severe cases of food insecurity, illness, and thirst’ in Gaza, a partner of ActionAid has warned.
A committee of global food security experts has warned that there is a “strong likelihood” of imminent famine in areas of the northern Gaza Strip.
The independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) has said that immediate action within days is “required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict”.
Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) – a partner of ActionAid’s in Gaza – described the situation as “very critical”.
We are passing through the worst time in this war. We are suffering from severe food insecurity. The majority of the people cannot find food, whether in the market or from the small amounts of humanitarian aid which have been permitted to enter the Gaza Strip in different areas.
Supplies for the bakeries have become very limited, so some bakeries closed their doors and they cannot produce more bread. Community kitchens have stopped cooking hot meals for the families who have become dependent on them. 300,000 people are dependent on these meals. This will lead to famine and, for sure, severe food insecurity for women and children.
Israel has said these reports are overstated, with its military claiming that the FRC has relied on unreliable data.
Updated
There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, a committee of global food security experts has warned, as Israel claims to be pursuing a military offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in the area.
“Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert.
The warning comes just days ahead of a US deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which the UN said almost a year ago had been made “uninhabitable” by Israeli attacks, or face potential restrictions on US military aid.
Updated
A Maersk container ship has been denied entry to the Spanish port of Algeciras amid claims it was transporting arms to Israel.
The Danish shipping company denied the accusation on Saturday, telling AFP in a statement: “The cargo to be trans-shipped through the port does not include any military weapons or ammunition.”
Spanish government officials said earlier this week that the vessel “will not stop in Spain”, according to media reports. Spain, which is urging European allies to recognise a Palestinian state, has refused docking to ships transporting arms to Israel.
“To gain clarity for future operations, we have consulted the Spanish authorities to understand why entry was denied for cargo no different than previous shipments that have routinely been trans-shipped through this port without incident,” Maersk said.
“Spain … is now rejecting vessels that carry anything military related going to, or from, Israel, notwithstanding such cargo being legal.”
The ship was diverted to Tangier and is now en route to Oman, according to the VesselFinder site.
Updated
More arrests expected in Amsterdam as protests banned
Dutch prosecutors expect to make more arrests in connection with what authorities called “hateful antisemitic violence” against Israeli football fans.
Clashes which took place on Thursday after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv led to police detaining 62 people in Amsterdam.
According to prosecutors 40 suspects have been given fines for disturbing public order.
In light of the clashes the decision was taken to ban demonstrations for three days from Friday.
Amsterdam’s police chief, Peter Holla, said there had been “incidents on both sides” starting on Wednesday night.
A plane chartered by the Israeli government to bring supporters home landed on Friday at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof has canceled a trip to United Nations climate talks next week to deal with the fallout.
Reuters reported that Schoof will miss the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan as his government investigates if warning signs were missed.
Updated
Israeli attacks have killed over 3,100 people in Lebanon
Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,136 people and injured 13,979 in Lebanon, the news agency Reuters has reported.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that 19 fatalities were reported on Friday.
On Saturday evening several areas in Lebanon have come under Israeli attack.
The Jerusalem Post has reported that the IDF is attacking Tyre, Baalbek, and southern Lebanon after rocket alert sirens were heard throughout Israel’s north earlier in the day.
Updated
Safety guidelines to residents of northern Israel have eased, the military has said.
Israeli military said on Saturday that safety guidelines for residents of northern Israel had been eased to “full activity” from “partial activity”.
The news agency Reuters has reported that gatherings are now restricted to a maximum of 2,000 people.
Updated
Israeli army reportedly attacks several areas in Lebanon
Several areas in Lebanon have come under Israeli attack on Saturday evening, according to reports.
The IDF is attacking Tyre, Baalbek, and southern Lebanon, the Jerusalem Post reported, after rocket alert sirens were heard throughout Israel’s north earlier in the day.
Several rockets were reportedly seen crossing from Lebanon and falling into open areas.
Hamas says it has 'not received' request to leave Qatar
A senior Hamas official told AFP on Saturday that the militant group had received no indication from Qatar that it should leave the country, where its political office has been based for years.
It comes as Qatar reportedly said it was withdrawing from its role mediating talks between Israel and Hamas to bring the conflict to an end. They also said the office was “no longer” serving its purpose.
“We have nothing to confirm or deny regarding what was published by an unidentified diplomatic source and we have not received any request to leave Qatar,” the official said from Doha, after a diplomatic source told AFP.
Qatar, with the United Sates and Egypt, has been engaged in months of fruitless negotiations for a truce with hostage and prisoner releases.
The informed source said Qatar had already “notified both sides, Israel and Hamas as well as the US administration” of its decision.
“The Qataris conveyed to the US administration that they would be ready to re-engage in mediation when both sides … demonstrate a sincere willingness to return to the negotiating table”, the source added.
Qatar reportedly backs out of mediating in Israel-Hamas talks
Qatar has withdrawn as a key mediator for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and warned Hamas that its Doha office “no longer serves its purpose”, a diplomatic source told AFP on Saturday.
“The Qataris informed both the Israelis and Hamas that as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith, they cannot continue to mediate. As a consequence, the Hamas political office no longer serves its purpose,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
It comes as the US told the gulf state that allowing the militant Islamist group to have a base there is no longer acceptable.
Qatar has been home to a Hamas political office for more than a decade. Senior leaders of the terror group have also lived there.
Updated
The news agency Reuters has spoken to the family of a Palestinian child who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza on Friday.
A Gaza family sat weeping on Saturday over children killed by an Israeli strike as they were getting ready to play soccer, amid an intensified bombardment that Palestinian health authorities said has killed 44 people over the past 24 hours.
The strike was in Mawasi, a southern coastal area where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter after Israel’s military told them to leave other areas it was bombing in its war against Hamas.
“The rocket struck them. There were no wanted or targeted people there and there was nobody else in the street. Just the children who were killed yesterday,” said Mohammed Zanoun, a relative of the dead children. Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 43,500 people, with another 10,000 believed to be dead and uncounted under the rubble.
Israel launched its offensive in response to the attack on Oct. 7 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed border defences and rampaged through Israeli communities killing 1,200 people and seizing about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.#
The conflict has expanded, with Israel also fighting the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
An Israeli strike on Tyre in southern Lebanon killed at least seven people on Saturday, Lebanese health authorities said.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said on Friday that nearly 70% of fatalities it had verified in Gaza were women and children. Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the office is based, said it categorically rejected the report, saying it did not accurately reflect realities on the ground.
Israel rejects warnings of famine in Gaza
Israel has said reports warning of a potential famine in Gaza are overstated, with its military saying the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) was relying on unreliable data.
“Unfortunately, the researchers continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests,” the military said in a statement, Reuters reports.
The FRC said on Friday in a rare alert that there was a strong likelihood of imminent famine in parts of north Gaza with immediate action required from the warring parties to ease a catastrophic situation.
Israel’s military said it had increased aid efforts including opening an additional crossing on Friday.
In the last two months, 39,000 trucks carrying more than 840,000 tons of food have entered Gaza, it said, and meetings were taking place daily with the U.N. which had 700 trucks of aid awaiting pickup and distribution.
With some critics decrying a starvation tactic in north Gaza, Israel’s main ally the U.S. has set a deadline within days for it to improve the humanitarian situation or face potential restrictions on military cooperation.
More on the Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese city of Tyre, where the country’s health ministry has said two children are among the seven killed on Friday.
Agence France Presse (AFP) reports that rescuers still searching for missing people under the rubble.
“Israeli enemy strikes on the city of Tyre killed seven people including two girls, and injured 46 others,” the ministry said, adding that body parts had been found and will be “identified with DNA testing”.
It added that rubble was being cleared after the strikes as part of efforts to locate people who are unaccounted for.
The ministry had on Friday reported a toll of three killed and 30 injured in the strikes.
AFP photos showed rescuers carrying bodies on stretchers amid the wreckage in Tyre, as rubble and twisted metal were strewn across the street.
Earlier on Saturday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency had said that the deadly strikes targeted three buildings in the coastal city, causing “massive damage to dozens of homes”.
The NNA also said “enemy fighter jets” destroyed two heritage houses in the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
Israel intensified its air campaign on Lebanon in September and later sent in troops after a year of cross-border clashes.
Here’s some photographs from Israel, Gaza and Lebanon on Saturday.
Hamas may have to quit political base in Qatar
Hamas may be forced to close its offices in Qatar, after the US told the tiny Gulf state that allowing the militant Islamist group to have a base there is no longer acceptable.
Qatar, a key US partner in the Middle East, has hosted the political office of Hamas for more than a decade and allowed many senior leaders of the organisation to live there.
The request was reported by Reuters late on Friday but has yet to be officially confirmed.
“After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, [Hamas] leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner. We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas’s rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal,” the senior official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Critics of the US request say it will hinder engagement with elements of Hamas potentially more inclined to compromise, and could boost the influence of more hostile states, such as Iran, over the group.
Hamas still holds about 100 hostages seized during its surprise attack into Israel last October. Multiple rounds of negotiations aimed at securing an end to the 13 month-long war in Gaza have failed.
The small but influential Gulf state has been a key intermediary in the talks to broker a ceasefire and is likely to comply with the US request, analysts said. The US official told Reuters that Qatar, which is designated as a major non-Nato ally by Washington, passed on the demand to Hamas leaders about 10 days ago.
Hamas leaders have been preparing for many months to leave Qatar, with Turkey and Iraq suggested as possible alternatives. The group recently opened a political office in Baghdad.
Hamas officials denied Qatar has told the organisation to leave and there has been no reaction from Qatar’s foreign ministry to the reports.
Israeli air strikes on the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre have now killed seven people.
Reuters reported that Lebanon’s health ministry said the death toll has risen from three to seven after the attack on Friday.
Another 46 people are injured, it added.
Lebanon has fired five rockets at Israel, with the munitions either being intercepted or falling into open areas, Israel has said.
The Israeli air force posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that sirens were sounded in Western and Upper Galilee.
בהמשך להתרעות שהופעלו בין השעות 12:42-12:43 במרחב הגליל המערבי והעליון, זוהו כחמישה שיגורים שחצו, חלקם יורטו והשאר נפלו בשטח פתוח.
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) November 9, 2024
More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the conflict last year, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said.
In its latest update, it said 43,552 have been killed with 102,765 others injured, since Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on 7 October last year, which saw Israel retaliate, pledging to eliminate the terror group.
The Dutch government is investigating if it missed possible warning signs from Israel in the events leading up to this week’s violence between football fans in Amsterdam, justice minister David van Weel said in a letter to parliament.
“An investigation is still being conducted on possible warning signs from Israel”, Van Weel said in his letter late on Friday evening.
At least five people were injured during the assaults on Thursday night and treated in hospital. All were released later on Friday, Reuters reports.
The incident concerned fans of the visiting Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv men’s team for a match against the Dutch side Ajax.
Amsterdam police have made more than 60 arrests after what authorities called “hateful antisemitic violence” against Israeli football fans.
Police on Saturday said four people remained in custody of the 63 people initially detained.
“The Public Prosecution Service has stated that it aims to apply fast-track justice as much as possible”, Van Weel said, adding that it is “the absolute priority” to identify every suspect.
He said the investigation would also examine whether the assaults were organised, with an antisemitic motive.
Political leaders have already denounced the attacks as antisemitic. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on Friday he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens” and had assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone that “the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted”.
Videos on social media on what happened showed riot police in action, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli slurs. Footage also showed Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters chanting anti-Arab slogans before Thursday evening’s match.
Amsterdam banned demonstrations through the weekend and gave police emergency stop-and-search powers in response to the unrest.
Antisemitic incidents have surged in the Netherlands since Israel launched its assault on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza after the attacks on Israel by Hamas militants in October last year, with many Jewish organisations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.
Iran warns Gaza and Lebanon conflicts could spread beyond Middle East
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has warned the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, where Israel is battling Iran-backed groups, could spill over beyond the Middle East.
According to Agence France Presse (AFP) in a speech on Saturday that aired on Iranian state TV, Araghchi said: “The world should know that in case of the expansion of war, its harmful effects will not be limited only to the West Asia region; insecurity and instability can spread to other regions, even far away.”
Updated
A Palestinian man has been killed and two others wounded by Israeli forces in the West Bank, the Palestinian news agency WAFA has reported.
It said Israeli forces, as well as bulldozers, surrounded a house in the town of Al-Aqaba.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, a man in his 50s was wounded by gunfire to the chest and is in a critical condition. A 49-year-old Palestinian was hurt after being beaten by the soldiers.
The director of the Palestine Prisoner Society in the West Bank town of Tubas, Kamal Bani Odeh, told the Red Crescent that two Palestinians were detained by the IDF during the operation.
More on the Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon’s capital Beirut overnight.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has said it attacked a Hezbollah headquarters, a weapons production site and other areas used by the terror group.
במהלך הלילה, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר בהכוונת אגף המודיעין תקפו מפקדות, אתר ייצור אמצעי לחימה ותשתיות נוספות בשימוש ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב הדאחייה בביירות >> pic.twitter.com/a9bP90k2rL
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 9, 2024
An update on the earlier attack on a school in Gaza City, as six people are now reported to have died in the Israeli attack on Saturday morning.
Al Jazeera reports two families – a total of six people – have been killed in the attack on the Fahd al-Sabah school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.
An Israeli air strike on alleged military installations in rural Syria has killed one person and injured six soldiers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported the strikes had targeted military installations in the Saraqib area of Idlib.
The war monitor also said members of the Iranian revolutionary guards and pro-Tehran factions were based in the area. They include the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group.
Meanwhile eight soldiers have been injured in a separate Israeli air strike on a in countryside near Aleppo, the Observatory reported.
Syrian state media reported the strikes in the early hours of Saturday morning had caused damage and injured personnel in the area.
“At around 00:45 after midnight, the Israeli army launched an air aggression from the direction of southeast Aleppo, targeting a number of sites in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib,” the official SANA news agency said.
The report added that the attack had “resulted in the injury of a number of soldiers and some material losses”, without providing further details.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters including from Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on Syria since it launched its war on Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the conflicts in the Middle East.
At least 14 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza late on Friday and early on Saturday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.
The dead included nine who were killed when Israeli fighter jets bombed tents housing displaced people in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that women and children were among the dead and that the tents were in the al-Mawasi area, which Israel has designated a “humanitarian zone” although it has repeatedly attacked it.
Another five were killed and others wounded when Israeli forces targeted a school housing displaced people in Gaza City. Al Jazeera reported that two journalist siblings, Ahmad Abu Sakhil and Zahra Abu Sakhil, were among the dead together with their father, Muhammad.
Israel has repeatedly been accused of targeting journalists in its military campaign – an unprecedented number have died in the conflict – which it denies.
Al Jazeera reported that a “densely populated house” was also hit in Beit Lahiya with at least one dead and others injured.
Lebanese state media said Israeli air strikes also hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday, while at at least three people were killed and 30 others wounded on Friday in Israeli strikes on the southern city of Tyre.
More on that soonest. In other developments:
There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, a committee of global food security experts warned on Friday, as Israel claims to be pursuing a military offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in the area. “Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert.
The FRC said it could be “assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing” in north Gaza. “Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future,” the global hunger monitor said.
Nearly 70% of the people killed in the war in Gaza are women and children, according to a UN analysis of verified deaths that highlights the heavy civilian toll of the conflict. In a new report, the most detailed analysis of its kind yet, the UN human rights office said it had verified 8,119 of those killed during the first six months of the war in Gaza. Of the fatalities, 3,588 were children and 2,036 were women. The youngest victim was a one-day-old boy and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.
The UN’s peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said on Friday that the Israeli military’s “deliberate and direct destruction” of its property was a “flagrant violation” of international law. Since Israel launched a ground campaign across the border against Hezbollah fighters at the end of September, Unifil has accused the Israel Defense Forces on several occasions of deliberately attacking its bases, including by shooting at peacekeepers and destroying watchtowers, which Israel denies. In its latest accusation, Unifil said the IDF used excavators and a bulldozer to destroy part of a fence and concrete structure at a UN peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon on Thursday. Peacekeepers had also observed Israeli troops this week removing a barrel that marks blue line, it said.
Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a hardline supporter of the war in Gaza and longtime backer of settlements in the West Bank as his ambassador to the US as Israel prepares for the incoming administration of Donald Trump. Yechiel Leiter, an American-born rightwing publicist and former government aide who immigrated to Israel four decades ago, was announced as Israel’s next ambassador to Washington on Friday.
Amsterdam police have made more than 60 arrests after what authorities called “hateful antisemitic violence” against Israeli football fans. A plane carrying football supporters brought home from the Dutch capital by the Israeli government landed on Friday at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport after the clashes on Thursday, which took place after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Amsterdam’s police chief, Peter Holla, said there had been “incidents on both sides”, starting on Wednesday night when Maccabi fans tore down a Palestinian flag from the facade of a building in the city centre and shouted “fuck you Palestine”. A social media video verified by Reuters showed Maccabi fans setting off flares and chanting “Olé, olé, let the IDF win, we will fuck the Arabs”, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
