We’re ending our live coverage, but if you want to read the latest on the Hezbollah attack on Israel’s Binyamina military base, you can see our full report here.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said late Sunday that a WHO-Red Cross operation had managed to resupply two hospitals in northern Gaza.
WHO and partners finally managed to reach Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals yesterday after 9 attempts this past week.”
In his statement, Tedros said the team delivered
20,000 litres of fuel to keep Kamal Adwan and Al- Awda functional.
23,000 litres of fuel to Al-Sahaba Hospital.
800 blood units, along with essential medicines and medical supplies to Al-Sahaba Hospital.
One-off missions are not enough. There is a sustained need for resupplying hospitals to keep them functioning. We reiterate our call for sustained facilitation of humanitarian missions and ensuring safety for humanitarian staff; and for a ceasefire.
.@WHO and partners finally managed to reach Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals yesterday after 9 attempts this past week:
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 13, 2024
- 13 critical patients from Kamal Adwan hospital were transferred to Al-Shifa hospital. The hospital is overwhelmed and still serving around 60 in-patients… pic.twitter.com/jSmdC93dtP
Israeli media is reporting that the head of Israel’s security service – Shin Bet – secretly vistied Cairo on Sunday, where he met met with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
According to reports in the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post, the purpose of the visit was to find ways to restart the stalled talks over a possible hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza.
According to the reports, this was the first visit by a top Israeli official to Cairo since late August, when ongoing negotiations for a pause in fighting in Gaza broke down. Since then, the focus of the conflict has moved north, with Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon and attacks on Hezbollah targets in Beirut.
Lebanese journalists and activists have demanded justice for Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed a year earlier in what multiple probes said was Israeli tank fire while covering cross-border clashes in south Lebanon.
Two strikes in quick succession on 13 October, 2023 killed Abdallah and wounded six other journalists including AFP photographer Christina Assi and video journalist Dylan Collins.
Assi later had a leg amputated and spent five months in intensive care in hospital as a result of the attack. Two investigations have pointed to an Israeli tank being behind the attack, but Israel has denied it targets “civilians, including journalists”.
Lebanese rights group Maharat called on the international community to “implement treaties, resolutions and commitments to protect journalist”.
In a post on X, journalist Salman Andary demanded “justice for Issam and for all the victims of this crime”.
On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists decried a lack of accountability for Israel over the killing of Abdallah.
CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said that “in spite of extensive evidence of a war crime, a year on from the attack, Israel has faced zero accountability for the targeting of journalists”.
The journalists were working near the border village of Alma al-Shaab in an area that has been the site of near-daily clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
An AFP investigation in December pointed to a tank shell only used by the Israeli army being fired in the attack. A separate Reuters probe, including initial findings from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), found two Israeli tank rounds fired from the same position across the border were used.
An Israeli military spokesman said after the strike: “We are very sorry for the journalist’s death”, adding that Israel was “looking into” the incident, without taking responsibility.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Sunday said Israeli strikes across Lebanon a day earlier killed 51 people.
Saturday’s death toll included at least 22 people killed in three areas outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds.
Among those were 16 people killed in Maaysra, a Shiite village in a Christian-majority area north of Beirut, the ministry said. The strikes also killed four people in Barja in the Shouf district south of the capital.
In the country’s south, the ministry said strikes killed 10 people in the Nabatiyeh area, whose main market was hit by strikes late Saturday.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,300 people since 23 September, according to an AFP news agency tally of official figures.
Most strikes have targeted south and east Lebanon, as well as the densely populated Beirut southern suburbs where Hezbollah holds sway. But several air raids have also hit areas in central Beirut.
Hezbollah threatens more attacks after drone attack kills four
Hezbollah threatened Israel with more attacks if its offensive in Lebanon continues, after a drone attack on a base killed four soldiers on Sunday.
In a statement, the groups said it “promises the enemy that what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our... people.”
In what it described as a “complex” operation, the Iran-backed group said it had launched dozens of missiles towards Nahariya and Acre north of Haifa “with the goal of keeping Israeli defence systems busy”.
At the same time, it launched “squadrons of various drones, some of which were being used for the first time, towards various areas in Acre and Haifa, where they were able to get past Israeli air defence radars without being detected” and hit the training camp in Binyamina south of Haifa.
They “exploded in the rooms where dozens of officers and soldiers of the Israeli enemy were present”.
Israel’s military said four soldiers were killed in the attack, the deadliest such assault on an Israeli base since 23 September, when Israel increased its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
After claiming the Binyamina attack, Hezbollah said it had launched missiles at a “maintenance and rehabilitation base” of the army, also south of Haifa.
The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon. At least one building north of Tel Aviv was damaged during the incident.
Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since the fighting escalated in late September.
Israel’s air defences, including the Iron Dome system, have intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.
More now on the accusations that Israeli troops have fired on and endangered UN peacekeepers operating in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said on Sunday it was “incomprehensible” that the United Nations would not move peacekeepers out of areas in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces are battling Hezbollah militants.
His message cam after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated Israeli calls for Unifil troops to evacuate. Netanyahu was speaking after the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said two Israeli tanks destroyed a gate and forcibly entered a base in the south of the country.
Danon also said in his statement that the details of that incident were being investigated.
Hezbollah terrorists are using UNIFIL outposts as hiding places and as places of ambushes. The U.N.’s insistence on keeping the UNIFIL soldiers in the line of fire is incomprehensible.”
Fifteen killed in Israeli strike on Gaza shelter, Palestinian civil defence agency says
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli shelling late on Sunday on had killed at least 15 people at a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp.
The Al-Mufti school was bombarded with a large volley of Israeli artillery, resulting in an initial death toll of 15 martyrs, including children, women and entire families, and 50 wounded.”
This school shelters hundreds of displaced people from different families, including some from Gaza, the south, and various parts of the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli military said it was “looking into the reports”.
The attack comes just days after an Israeli air strike on a school killed at least 28 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
Israel’s military regularly accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter - a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
Four Israeli soldiers killed in drone attack on military base in northern Israel
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base adjacent to Binyamina in northern Israel, the IDF has announced. Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said even others were severely injured.
Previously, Israel’s N12 News television said at least 67 people were wounded in the attack on the Israeli military’s Golani Brigade in Binyamina, northern Israel.
Hagari said the incident was being investigated.
Last night (Sun), an unmanned aircraft belonging to the terrorist organisation Hezbollah hit a military base near Binyamin. All the injured were taken to the hospitals and a message was given to their families.
In the incident, four IDF soldiers were killed and seven soldiers were seriously injured. A message was given to their families and their names were added for later publication.”
Interim summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
The US will send an antimissile system to Israel as well as a crew of US military personnel to operate the system. In a statement released on Sunday, Pentagon press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder said that the US will also send an “associated crew of US military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses”.
Israeli rescuers said more than 60 people were wounded in a Hezbollah claimed drone strike, Agence France-Presse reports. In a Facebook statement on Sunday, the Israeli rescue service United Hatzalah said: “With the help of United Hatzalah ambulance teams, we provided assistance to over 60 wounded people with varying degrees of injuries – critical, serious, moderate and mild.”
Sixteen people have been killed during Israel’s raid on Al Ma’asara in Lebanon’s Keserwan district. In a post on Sunday updating the death toll from yesterday’s attacks, the Lebanese health ministry said that in addition to the 16 people killed, 21 people were injured.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres warned on Sunday that any attacks against peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime”, his spokesperson said, after Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon. Reuters reports it was the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission, known as Unifil, in recent days.
French president Emmanuel Macron urged his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian to support a “general de-escalation” in the Middle East during a phone conversation on Sunday, the presidential office said. Reuters reports that in a separate discussion, Macron reiterated to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati the “absolute necessity” of obtaining a ceasefire in Lebanon without further delay.
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Here are some images coming through the newswires from Lebanon, where Israeli forces have killed more than 2,000 people in recent weeks while forcibly displacing 1.2 million people across the country:
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Over 60 people wounded in Hezbollah-claimed drone strike in Israel
Israeli rescuers said more than 60 people were wounded in a Hezbollah claimed drone strike, Agence France-Presse reports.
In a Facebook statement on Sunday, the Israeli rescue service United Hatzalah said:
With the help of United Hatzalah ambulance teams, we provided assistance to over 60 wounded people with varying degrees of injuries - critical, serious, moderate and mild.
On Sunday, Hezbollah said it had launched a “squadron of attack drones” at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli airstrikes on the country, Agence France-Presse reports.
Updated
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has said Israeli forces forcibly entered one of its bases in the southern part of the country.
The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports:
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has said two Israeli tanks destroyed a gate and forcibly entered a base in the south of the country as Israel’s ground operation against Hezbollah moved deeper into Lebanese territory.
The incident in Ramyah on Sunday morning was the latest in a string of violations that Unifil, the UN force deployed since 1978 to southern Lebanon, has blamed on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
After the tanks left, shells exploded about 100 metres from the base, and the ensuing smoke left 15 staffers needing medical treatment for unusual symptoms despite the use of gas masks. Unifil also accused the Israeli military of holding up a logistics convoy.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be 'war crime' – UN chief
United Nations secretary general António Guterres warned on Sunday that any attacks against peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime”, his spokesperson said, after Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon.
Reuters reports it was the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission, known as Unifil, in recent days.
In a statement UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said:
Unifil peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.
The Secretary-General reiterates that Unifil personnel and its premises must never be targeted.
Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime.
Updated
French president Emmanuel Macron urged his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian to support a “general de-escalation” in the Middle East during a phone conversation on Sunday, the presidential office said.
Reuters reports that in a separate discussion, Macron reiterated to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati the “absolute necessity” of obtaining a ceasefire in Lebanon without further delay.
Updated
Hunger in Lebanon could soar amid Israeli onslaught on the country, a leading UN expert has warned.
The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports:
Hunger and malnutrition rates could rise “exponentially” in Lebanon, if Israel follows through with threats to escalate the current military operation which has so far killed more than 2,000 and displaced as many as a million people, according to a leading UN expert.
“Israel has the ability to starve Lebanon – like it has starved Palestinians in Gaza,” said Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food. “If you look at the geography of Lebanon, Israel has the power to absolutely put a stranglehold on the food system. There is a huge risk of hunger and malnutrition rates skyrocketing very quickly in Lebanon.”
Acute hunger rates could rise very quickly because food security in Lebanon was precarious even before Israel launched its full-scale aerial bombardment in mid-September, as growing hostilities with Hezbollah since 7 October had already displaced 40% of local farmers, disrupting local production and interrupting trade flows and access to markets, according to the UN World Food Programme.
For the full story, click here:
16 killed during Israeli raid on Al Ma'asara in Lebanon
Sixteen people have been killed during Israel’s raid on Al Ma’asara in Lebanon’s Keserwan district.
In a post on Sunday updating the death toll from yesterday’s attacks, the Lebanese health ministry said that in addition to the 16 people killed, 21 people were injured.
In the last few weeks, Israel has killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon while displacing 1.2 million people across the country.
The UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi has warned that Lebanon is seeing a “major displacement crisis” as a result of Israel’s deadly attacks.
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At least 39 injured by drone attack in northern Israel
At least 39 people have been injured by a drone attack in northern Israel, according to Israeli media outlets.
N12 News is reporting that among the 39 people injured near Binyamina in the northern Haifa district, five were seriously injured.
The outlet added that an IDF spokesperson confirmed that the drone was launched from Lebanese territory and that large medical forces have been called to the scene to treat the injured.
Updated
Hezbollah airs Hassan Nasrallah recording
Hezbollah aired an audio recording on Sunday of Hassan Nasrallah, its veteran leader, a little over two weeks after an Israeli strike killed him in Lebanon.
In the audio, which Reuters reported, Nasrallah could be heard saying:
“We count on you … to defend your people, your families, your nation, your values and your dignity, and to defend this holy and blessed land and this honourable people.”
According to Reuters, the recording of Nasrallah was made during a military manoeuvre.
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US to send antimissile system to Israel
The US will send an antimissile system to Israel as well as a crew of US military personnel to operate the system.
In a statement released on Sunday, Pentagon press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder said:
At the direction of the President, Secretary Austin authorized the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1.
The THAAD Battery will augment Israel’s integrated air defense system. This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran. It is part of the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months, to support the defense of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias.”
Sunday’s announcement marks the third THAAD system to be deployed to the region. Following Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, Joe Biden authorised the deployment of a THAAD battery to the region. In 2019, the US deployed a THAAD battery to Israel in 2019 for training and an integrated air defense exercise, the Pentagon said.
Palestinian civilians and aid workers in the Gaza Strip say “no one is talking about” the bloodshed there and ceasefire hopes are receding as the world’s attention shifts to Lebanon.
The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports:
As Israeli bombs began to fall across Lebanon, the scenes of bloodshed and chaos were grimly familiar to the people of Gaza. Mai al-Afifa, 24, was teaching a workshop about how to identify unexploded ordnance in a school turned shelter in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday when an Israeli missile hit the next building in the compound. Twenty-eight people were killed and 54 injured, according to medics at the scene.
Through the smoke and rubble dust Afifa saw the body parts of two women and a male aid worker as she stumbled to safety. The Israeli military said it had used a precise strike to target Hamas fighters using the school as a command centre.
“We are very sad about what is happening now in Lebanon … We have experienced this pain and loss,” Afifa said. “But we also fear that Gaza will be forgotten: the massacres have increased here and no one is talking about it. All the TV channels are talking about the regional war, Iran, Israel and what is happening in Lebanon.”
For the full story, click here:
The US is planning to send an anti-missile system to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing US officials.
According to the outlet, the US is also planning to send “just under 100 troops in all” to operate the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system.
The White House has not released an official statement yet.
An Israeli airstrike killed five children in northern Gaza on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Citing Palestinian news agency WAFA, Reuters reports that the children were playing near a cafe in the Al-Shati area when they were killed by a drone strike.
Since last October, Israel has killed more than 16,400 children in Gaza, making the occupied Palestinian territory the deadliest place in the world for children, according to Save the Children.
Former president Donald Trump, who is the Republican presidential candidate, said he spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “like two days ago”.
Trump made the comments in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday.
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Hezbollah fighters will not be allowed back into south Lebanon’s border villages, which they have turned into underground military posts stocked with hundreds of weapons, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday.
“We will not allow the terrorists back to these places. This is vital to ensure the safety of [Israel’s] northern residents,” Gallant said in a video statement from the Israel-Lebanon border.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say Israeli tanks destroyed their main gate
The Unifil peacekeeping force in Lebanon said that it had reported additional Israeli violations against its positions in the country, including what it described as the forcible entry of Israeli tanks through its main gate on Sunday.
UNIFIL’s mandate provides for its freedom of movement in its area of operations, and any restriction on this is a violation of resolution 1701.
— UNIFIL (@UNIFIL_) October 13, 2024
We have requested an explanation from the IDF from these shocking violations.
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“Israel is not invading Lebanon, it is liberating it.” So proclaimed France’s pre-eminent liberal philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy as Israeli tanks drove across the border and its war planes bombed villages in the south and residential districts in Beirut. “There are moments in history,” he exulted, “when ‘escalation’ becomes a necessity and a virtue.” For Lévy, it is not just Lebanon that Israel is liberating, but much of the Middle East, too.
Lévy is not alone in rejoicing at Israel’s spreading military offensive. For many, Israel is waging war, not merely in “self-defence” but, in the words of president Isaac Herzog, “to save western civilisation, to save the values of western civilisation”, a claim echoed by many of its supporters. And the destruction of Gaza, of its hospitals and universities, and the killing of 40,000 people? And the 2,000 people killed in Lebanon in a fortnight, and the fifth of its population displaced? Collateral damage en route to saving civilisation.
I should not need to say this but, as it has become commonplace to portray anyone criticising Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon as supporting Hamas or Hezbollah or celebrating the slaughter on 7 October last year, let me say that what Hamas did was barbarous, and that, as I wrote at the time, “Hamas represents a betrayal of Palestinian hopes as well as a threat to Jews”. The same can be said of Hezbollah.
Meloni tells Netanyahu attacks on peacekeepers are unacceptable
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has told her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu that attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are unacceptable, her office said on Sunday.
“Prime minister Meloni reiterated the unacceptability of Unifil being attacked by Israeli armed forces,” the Italian government said in a statement.
Italy is a significant contributor to the UN mission known as Unifil.
In a phone conversation with Netanyahu, Meloni also called for the “full implementation” of the UN’s Security Council Resolution 1701 on Lebanon and stressed the urgent need for a de-escalation of conflict in the region, her office said.
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Lebanon’s prime minister has condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to UN chief Antonio Guterres to remove peacekeepers from the Lebanese side of the border.
Lebanon “condemns Netanyahu’s position and the Israeli aggression against Unifil,” said Najib Mikati. “The warning that Netanyahu addressed to … Guterres demanding the removal of the Unifil represents a new chapter in the enemy’s approach of not complying [with international norms],” he added.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), is a mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities and was created following Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon.
As AFP reports, it is currently tasked with monitoring a ceasefire that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
Forty contributor nations to Unifil said on Saturday that they “strongly condemn recent attacks” on the peacekeepers.
“Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated,” said the joint statement, posted on X by the Polish UN mission and signed by nations including leading contributors Indonesia, Italy and India.
Benjamin Netanyahu said the criticism of Israel was misplaced and should be directed at Hezbollah.
“Instead of criticising Israel, they should direct their criticism to Hezbollah, which uses Unifil as a human shield, just as Hamas in Gaza uses Unrwa as a human shield,” he said of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Peacekeepers 'human shields' for Hezbollah, says Netanyahu
Associated Press has more on Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments about UN peacekeepers, saying they serve as “human shields” for Hezbollah after Israeli strikes wounded five of them in recent days.
The Israeli military has warned the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) to evacuate southern Lebanon as it carries out air and ground operations against Hezbollah militants, but the peacekeepers have so far refused.
Netanyahu said Sunday that their refusal to clear out “has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields,” saying they had become “hostages of Hezbollah”.
“We regret the injury to the Unifil soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said in a video addressed to the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, who has been banned from entering Israel.
The military has ordered the peacekeepers to move five kilometers (three miles) north, which would effectively keep them from doing their mission. They have already halted patrols because of air and ground attacks.
The day so far
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the United Nations on Sunday to evacuate troops in its Unifil peacekeeping force from combat areas in Lebanon. Netanyahu said the military had asked the UN to evacuate the soldiers repeatedly, adding that their presence in the area made them hostages of Hezbollah.
The Israeli military ordered residents on Sunday of 21 more Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali river which flows through southern Lebanon, as it intensifies its attacks in the region.
Iran has “no red lines” when it comes to defending its people and interests, foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said in a post on X on Sunday, as the region braces for Israel’s retaliation following Iran’s recent missile attack.
A family of eight, including six children, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, as Israel continued its devastating assault on the territory and its siege of the northern Jabalia refugee camp stretched into an eighth day. Eight members of the Abu Ghali family were killed in a strike on a home in Nuseirat refugee camp, Wafa reported, and their bodies taken to al-Awda hospital. The dead comprised Walid Abu Ghali, his wife, Shireen, and their six children: Mohammad, Ahmad, Yasmeen, Samah, Yara, and Tala.
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz reiterated on Sunday that the country considers UN secretary-general António Guterres persona non grata due to his failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack and what Katz described as antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct. Katz had said on 2 October that he was barring UN secretary-general António Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned the missile attack, Reuters reported.
More than 42,227 Palestinians have been killed and 98,464 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli forces widened their raid into northern Gaza, and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, residents said, forcing many families to leave their homes. Residents said Israeli forces have effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the territory from Gaza City, blocking access between the two areas except upon their permission for families willing to leave the three towns, heeding evacuation orders, Reuters reported.
US officials believe Israel has narrowed down targets in its potential response to Iran’s attack this month to military and energy infrastructure, NBC reported on Saturday. The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in a year of war as Israel battles Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has accused the Coalition of shifting positions on the US alliance and Middle East ceasefires for political reasons, after it appeared to abandon its insistence that US and Australian policy must always align. Wong called for Peter Dutton to clarify the Coalition’s position on the United States’ support for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon after the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, distanced the Coalition from the US stance.
Hunger and malnutrition rates could rise “exponentially” in Lebanon, if Israel follows through with threats to escalate the current military operation which has so far killed more than 2,000 and displaced as many as a million people, according to a leading UN expert. “Israel has the ability to starve Lebanon – like it has starved Palestinians in Gaza,” said Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food. “If you look at the geography of Lebanon, Israel has the power to absolutely put a stranglehold on the food system. There is a huge risk of hunger and malnutrition rates skyrocketing very quickly in Lebanon.”
A top United Nations official said during a visit to Beirut on Saturday that he is concerned that Lebanon’s ports and airport might be taken out of service, with serious implications for food supplies as Israel continues its offensive against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. “What I have seen and heard today is devastating, but the sense is that this can get much worse still, and that needs to be avoided,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Program, in an interview with AP.
The African Union has joined 104 UN member states in issuing a joint letter of support for UN secretary general António Guterres after Israel declared him persona non grata. In the letter, the UN member states wrote: “Such actions undermine the United Nations’ ability to carry out its mandate, which includes mediating conflicts and providing humanitarian support.”
Thirty-four Unifil-contributing countries have signed a joint statement reaffirming the protection of Unifil peacekeepers in Lebanon and condemning the latest attacks against them. The letter, which was initiated by Poland, comes after five peacekeepers in Lebanon were wounded in recent days amid Israel’s attacks on the country.
Israeli raids on al-Maaysra, in the Keserwan district, in Lebanon have killed at least nine people while wounding 15 others, the Lebanese health ministry announced. The health ministry added that in Deir Bella, Batroun, Israeli attacks have killed at least two people and injured four others.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society evacuated 16 patients and 14 of their companions from Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The mission, which lasted 12 hours, comes as Israel expands its deadly invasion into north Gaza. In recent days, Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering in north Gaza, including 22 people in the area’s Jabalia refugee camp.
UN peacekeepers will remain in south Lebanon, despite five of their members being wounded amid Israeli airstrikes on the country. In a statement to Agence France-Presse on Saturday, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), said that despite Israel’s request to Unifil to withdraw from positions “up to five kilometers from the blue line”, the peacekeepers refused.
Israeli airstrikes have forced 40% of students from their homes in Lebanon, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Friday. Additionally, more than 60% of public schools in the country are being used as shelters.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 2,255 people while wounding 10,524 more since Israel launched its attacks on the country several weeks ago, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Saturday. The rising death toll also comes amid Israel’s forced displacement of 1.2 million people in Lebanon, approximately a quarter of the country’s population.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has accused the Coalition of shifting positions on the US alliance and Middle East ceasefires for political reasons, after it appeared to abandon its insistence that US and Australian policy must always align.
Wong called for Peter Dutton to clarify the Coalition’s position on the United States’ support for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon after the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, distanced the Coalition from the US stance.
“A few days ago, Mr Dutton said the prime minister should be condemned for calling for a ceasefire,” Wong said on Sunday, referring to Dutton’s refusal to back a government motion in parliament on Monday marking the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks.
“Now the Liberals finally realise they’re at odds with the international community, including the United States, who are all pressing for peace – but he [Dutton] still can’t bring himself to do so.”
Iran has “no red lines” when it comes to defending its people and interests, foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said in a post on X on Sunday, as the region braces for Israel’s retaliation following Iran’s recent missile attack
The Israeli military ordered residents on Sunday of 21 more Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali river which flows through southern Lebanon, as it intensifies its attacks in the region.
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz reiterated on Sunday that the country considers UN secretary-general António Guterres persona non grata due to his failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack and what Katz described as antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.
Katz had said on 2 October that he was barring UN secretary-general António Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned the missile attack, Reuters reported.
Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on 1 October amid an escalation in fighting between Israel and its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defences.
Netanyahu urges UN to evacuate peacekeepers from combat areas in Lebanon
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the United Nations on Sunday to evacuate troops in its Unifil peacekeeping force from combat areas in Lebanon.
Netanyahu said the military had asked the UN to evacuate the soldiers repeatedly, adding that their presence in the area made them hostages of Hezbollah.
Earlier this week, Israeli troops fired on UN headquarters in southern Lebanon, injuring two peacekeepers for the second time in as many days.
On Saturday, it was reported by the United Nations that another peacekeeper was injured by gunfire in the country’s south.
Updated
More than 42,227 Palestinians have been killed and 98,464 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Hunger and malnutrition rates could rise “exponentially” in Lebanon, if Israel follows through with threats to escalate the current military operation which has so far killed more than 2,000 and displaced as many as a million people, according to a leading UN expert.
“Israel has the ability to starve Lebanon – like it has starved Palestinians in Gaza,” said Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food. “If you look at the geography of Lebanon, Israel has the power to absolutely put a stranglehold on the food system. There is a huge risk of hunger and malnutrition rates skyrocketing very quickly in Lebanon.”
Acute hunger rates could rise very quickly because food security in Lebanon was precarious even before Israel launched its full-scale aerial bombardment in mid-September, as growing hostilities with Hezbollah since 7 October had already displaced 40% of local farmers, disrupting local production and interrupting trade flows and access to markets, according to the UN World Food Programme.
Access to adequate food is becoming increasingly challenging, as entire communities have been forced to abandon their homes and farmland in southern Lebanon and as civilian areas in Beirut come under heavy aerial attack.
Israeli forces widen raid into northern Gaza
Israeli forces widened their raid into northern Gaza, and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, residents said, forcing many families to leave their homes.
Residents said Israeli forces have effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the territory from Gaza City, blocking access between the two areas except upon their permission for families willing to leave the three towns, heeding evacuation orders, Reuters reported.
Gaza’s health ministry said the eight-day-old Israeli incursions in the north have so far killed dozens of Palestinians, with dozens of others feared dead on roads and under rubble of their houses, beyond the reach of medical teams.
Many Jabalia residents posted on social media platforms: “We will not leave, we die, and we don’t leave.”
Updated
US officials believe Israel will target military and energy sites in Iran, NBC reports
US officials believe Israel has narrowed down targets in its potential response to Iran’s attack this month to military and energy infrastructure, NBC reported on Saturday.
The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in a year of war as Israel battles Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly said it will respond to Iran’s missile barrage on 1 October, which was launched in retaliation for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon and the killings of a string of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out assassinations, the NBC report said, citing unnamed US officials and adding that Israel has not made final decisions about how and when to act.
US and Israeli officials said a response could come during the current Yom Kippur holiday, according to the report.
When the Sabra family fled Israeli bombardments in the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun for Beirut’s southern suburbs in October last year, a monthly stipend in dollars from Hezbollah meant they did not fear going hungry. When they were displaced a second time, to the mountains around the capital by a wave of Israeli attacks on southern Beirut, regular deliveries of meals, food parcels and even cleaning supplies from organisations connected to the group have kept them afloat.
“They are taking incredible care of us even with everything that is happening. They never leave us alone,” said Hind Sabra, whose name has been changed. Their house of 14 people contains three families, each receiving a $200 (£150) monthly stipend in cash as well as cut-price medications, and food parcels containing rice, oil, tuna and beans.
The food, medication and cash are all part of a network of support long maintained by Hezbollah, including a de facto bank that has flourished amid Lebanon’s years-long financial crisis, a fund that cares for the families of those killed in battle, and a social care organisation responsible for distributing cash payments to tens of thousands displaced earlier this year, according to a Hezbollah official.
Over the past two decades, Hezbollah has come to dominate the various groups that make up Lebanon’s fractured and sectarian politics, as well as exerting control over key industries such as agriculture and construction in the south. Lina Khatib of Chatham House said the group’s status had grown to “influence and control the state in Lebanon from within state institutions as well as outside them”.
Western countries, including the US and UK, have placed sanctions on Hezbollah and regard it as a terrorist organisation. Meanwhile the group, which comprises a paramilitary organisation and a political party, maintains a support base mainly among Lebanon’s working-class Shia Muslim community that see Hezbollah as a defender of their interests, and essential protection against Israeli military power.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.
A family of eight, including six children, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, as Israel continued its devastating assault on the territory and its siege of the northern Jabalia refugee camp stretched into an eighth day.
Eight members of the Abu Ghali family were killed in a strike on a home in Nuseirat refugee camp, Wafa reported, and their bodies taken to al-Awda hospital. The dead comprised Walid Abu Ghali, his wife, Shireen, and their six children: Mohammad, Ahmad, Yasmeen, Samah, Yara, and Tala.
Israel, meanwhile, kept up strikes on Jabalia, farther north, where aid agencies have said thousands of people are trapped as supplies dwindle and have accused Israel of shooting on those trying to flee. Residents told the news agency Associated Press that bodies were uncollected in the streets as bombing hampered rescue efforts.
“What is happening in northern Gaza now is a genocide within the genocide,” Palestinian UN envoy Majed Bamya wrote in a post on X.
Elsewhere, a top United Nations official said during a visit to Beirut on Saturday that he is concerned that Lebanon’s ports and airport might be taken out of service, with serious implications for food supplies as Israel continues its offensive against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“What I have seen and heard today is devastating, but the sense is that this can get much worse still, and that needs to be avoided,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Program, in an interview with AP.
He appealed for “all diplomatic efforts possible to try to find a political solution” to the war and for supply lines to remain open.
“We have huge concerns and there are many, but one of them is indeed that we need the ports and we need the supply routes to continue to be able to operate,” Skau said.
In other developments:
The African Union has joined 104 UN member states in issuing a joint letter of support for UN secretary general António Guterres after Israel declared him persona non grata. In the letter, the UN member states wrote: “Such actions undermine the United Nations’ ability to carry out its mandate, which includes mediating conflicts and providing humanitarian support.”
Thirty-four Unifil-contributing countries have signed a joint statement reaffirming the protection of Unifil peacekeepers in Lebanon and condemning the latest attacks against them. The letter, which was initiated by Poland, comes after five peacekeepers in Lebanon were wounded in recent days amid Israel’s attacks on the country.
Israeli raids on al-Maaysra, in the Keserwan district, in Lebanon have killed at least nine people while wounding 15 others, the Lebanese health ministry announced. The health ministry added that in Deir Bella, Batroun, Israeli attacks have killed at least two people and injured four others.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society evacuated 16 patients and 14 of their companions from Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The mission, which lasted 12 hours, comes as Israel expands its deadly invasion into north Gaza. In recent days, Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering in north Gaza, including 22 people in the area’s Jabalia refugee camp.
UN peacekeepers will remain in south Lebanon, despite five of their members being wounded amid Israeli airstrikes on the country. In a statement to Agence France-Presse on Saturday, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), said that despite Israel’s request to Unifil to withdraw from positions “up to five kilometers from the blue line”, the peacekeepers refused.
Israeli airstrikes have forced 40% of students from their homes in Lebanon, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Friday. Additionally, more than 60% of public schools in the country are being used as shelters.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 2,255 people while wounding 10,524 more since Israel launched its attacks on the country several weeks ago, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Saturday. The rising death toll also comes amid Israel’s forced displacement of 1.2 million people in Lebanon, approximately a quarter of the country’s population.
