Gaza famine fears as Israel ends UNRWA agreement, while settlers rampage near Ramallah

The live blog has now ended and will be back tomorrow at 9 am GMT. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage on Israel's war on Gaza here, and Lebanon here.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 3,002 people and injured 13,492 since October 2023, Lebanon's health ministry said on Monday.

(Reuters)

Israeli peace organisation Peace Now has accused the military of carrying our "ethnic cleansing" in north Gaza under what has been dubbed the 'General's Plan'. 

"Displacement, starvation, and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents from the area are underway to reestablish Jewish settlements in Gaza," the Peace Now said in a series of posts on X.

This is what ethnic cleansing looks like.

And Israel, it seems, is carrying out ethnic cleansing.

Under the codename "General's Plan," horrific war crimes are currently being committed in northern Gaza.

🧵👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/FL6YXKmKx5

— Peace Now (@peacenowisrael) November 4, 2024

Iran is preparing a counterattack on Israel using more powerful warheads and other weaponry, according to a report on Sunday by the Wall Street Journal, which cited Iranian and Arab officials familiar with the plans.

Iran's response is anticipated to go beyond missiles and drones, according to the WSJ, which emphasised that it remains to be seen whether the threats are real or "just tough talk".

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday the country would "certainly" launch a new attack against Israel, a day after its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed a harsh retaliation.

"Details cannot be discussed, but it will certainly be carried out," Ali Fadavi, the IRGC's deputy commander in chief, was cited as saying by Iran's semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency.

ISNA reported that the potential attack is likely to be named Operation True Promise 3, following previous missile strikes on Israel in April and October.

You can read more about the reported preparations made by Iran to retaliate against Israel's strikes on the 26 October here.

The health ministry in Gaza said Monday that Israeli forces are bombarding the last partially functioning hospital in north Gaza, the area of intense Israeli military operations for the past month.

"At this moment, occupation forces are continuing to violently bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital, targeting all parts of the hospital," the ministry said of the hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia. The military when contacted said it was checking the reports.

Initial reports following a loud explosion near Damascus say an Israeli strike targeted the Sayeda Zeinab area, Syrian state media SANA said on Monday. 

(Reuters)

A loud explosion was heard around Syria's capital, Damascus, Syrian state media said on Monday, adding that authorities were investigating the cause. 

(Reuters)

UNRWA Chief Philippe Lazzarini has said that the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip is "the lowest in a long time", adding that the aid flow into the enclave "cannot meet the needs of over 2 million people, many of whom are starving, sick and in desperate conditions." 

"Restricting humanitarian access and at the same dismantling UNRWA will add an additonal layer of suffering to already unspeakable suffering," Lazzarini added.

#Gaza pic.twitter.com/7gA4XvzScn

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) November 4, 2024

A Qatari aircraft has reportedly landed in Beirut carrying aid for the people of Lebanon, impacted by Israel's aggression and invasion of the country.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, said that Israel has rejected any proposal deals for Lebanon, saying that "the ongoing Israeli aggression, the killings and destruction, are a matter for the international community, which remains silent in the face of these events".

"At a time when nations that champion humanity and human rights should be applying maximum pressure on Israel to halt its aggression."

Mikati emphasised that "the Lebanese government has clearly declared its commitment to UN Resolution 1701 and its intention to strengthen the army in the south. It has welcomed all calls for a ceasefire".

"However, the Israeli enemy has rejected all proposed solutions and has continued its war crimes across various Lebanese regions, including targeting archaeological sites, which constitutes an additional crime against humanity that must be stopped," he added.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 Palestinians in Gaza on Monday, with seven dead in an attack on two houses in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and three fatalities in a strike on a house in Nuseirat camp in the enclave's centre, medics told Reuters.

Several people were wounded in both attacks, they said, adding that Israeli forces had sent tanks into the northeast of Nuseirat camp earlier on Monday.

Northern Gaza has been subject to a month-long offensive, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.

Palestinians have described the new aerial and ground offensives and forced evacuations as "ethnic cleansing" aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp of their population to create buffer zones.

European Union ambassador Sandra de Waele stressed on the need for an immediate ceasefire after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail in Beirut, on Monday. 

She said that the visit was part of expressing the EU’s support for Lebanon, explaining the various ways in which the EU has supported the country through humanitarian, financial, and political assistance.

She also highlighted issues related to education, stressing the need to ensure access to education for all children in Lebanon. 

Additionally, she discussed the importance of reforms, noting that a well-functioning banking sector was essential, along with implementing reforms and combating corruption.

Activists from the UK-based Palestine Action targeted the Bank of New York Mellon's office in London, in protest over the ongoing war i Gaza.

The activists broke windows and sprayed paint across the building in anger over the BNY Mellon's complicity in the ongoing atrocities carried out against Palestinians in the territory.

The bank reportedly has over &.6 million in shares in Elbit Systems, Israel's biggest weapons manufacturer. 

The group said in an official statement: "Financial institutions reduce Palestinian lives to profits on their balance sheets. Therefore, we will make investing in Israel's weapons trade more costly than any potential gain, through direct action. Actions will cease once the bank no longer holds any shares in Israel's biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems."

Lebanon's National News Agency is reporting that Israeli aircraft are striking the Nabatieh region in south Lebanon as well as the city of Tyre, causing injuries.

An Israeli airstrike on two houses in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahia killed at least seven people and wounded several others on Monday, medics told Reuters. 

(Reuters)

The Israeli military eliminated the commander in the Hezbollah Radwan force's anti-tank missile unit Riad Rida Ghazzawi in the al-Sultaniyah village in southern Lebanon, it said in a statement on Monday

(Reuters)

Germany calls on Israel to let more humanitarian aid into north Gaza, where a lack of supplies has led to a "desperate" and "unbearable" situation, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday.

"We call on the Israeli government urgently to meet its responsibilities under international law," the spokesperson told a regular news conference in Berlin.

"Israel has the right to self defence against Hamas within the framework of humanitarian international law," he added.

The spokesperson was responding to a question about an ultimatum set by Washington for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza this month or face potential restrictions on US military aid.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Monday that at least 43,374 people have been killed by Israel, including 33 in hte last 24 hours.

The ministry added that 102,261 people have also been wounded.

The Israeli military denied on Monday that it had hit a clinic in the northern Gaza Strip where health workers were carrying out polio vaccinations.

On Saturday, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli fire had hit the Sheikh Radwan clinic as parents brought their children in to be vaccinated. It said four children had been wounded in the explosion, which took place during an agreed humanitarian pause to allow the campaign to go ahead.

The military said it was aware of the reports but said an initial review showed its forces had not carried out any strikes when the incident took place.

"Contrary to the claims, an initial review determined that the [military] did not strike in the area at the specified time," it said in a statement.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the incident had taken place just after a WHO team was at the clinic and that it had endangered a vital health protection campaign.

"These vital humanitarian-area-specific pauses must be absolutely respected. Ceasefire!" he said in a statement on the social media platform X on Saturday.

Yemen's Houthi authorities have issued a fresh warning over shipping in the Red Sea, saying that its forces would not take into account any change in the ownership or flags of vessels heading towards Israeli ports.

In a statement, spokesman Yahya al-Sarea said that intelligence gathered by the group has revealed that companies operating in maritime shipping affiliated with Israel were "working to sell their assets" and transfer cargo to other companies and re-register them under different names.

Sarea warned all concerned parties against dealing with vessels attempting to reach Israel, saying that the Houthi forces' "naval blockade against the Israeli enemy" would continue until a halt in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday criticised what he called the United States' "destabilising presence" after the deployment of B-52 bombers in the region.

"We have always believed that the presence of America in the region is a destabilising presence," said Baghaei told a news conference in response to a question about the deployment, adding that it "will not deter (Iran's) resolve to defend itself".

The UN agency for supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday that Israel's ban on its operations would lead to the "collapse" of humanitarian work in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

"If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip - an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone," Jonathan Fowler, an UNRWA spokesman, told AFP after Israel formally told the United Nations it was cancelling its ties with the agency.

Israel's foreign ministry said today that it had notified the UN that it had cancelled the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees.

The move followed a vote last month in the Israeli parliament banning the agency from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.

The foreign ministry reiterated Israeli accusations that UNRWA employees in Gaza had participated in the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and that 100 of its employees were operatives of the group. It made this claim without providing any evidence.

An independent investigation into the agency found no evidence to link its employees in Gaza to the attacks, but had dismissed nine employees in interest of the agency - despite finding no authenticated evidence against them.

The review, which was ordered by the UN, said in April that Israel had yet to provide supporting evidence for accusations that a significant number of Unrwa employees were members of Palestinian groups.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was "eliminated" in an air strike, the military said, without specifying when he was killed.

Rida "was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on (Israeli military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area", the military said in a statement.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed on Monday, the latest attack in more than a month of war.

Hezbollah fighters launched a "big rocket salvo" at the city, the group said in a statement.

Israeli settlers stormed the Palestinian town of al-Bireh, near Ramallah, overnight, torching vehicles and reportedly homes with at least one woman injured in the latest pogrom in the occupied West Bank.

Footage showed a line of vehicles on one street in the town set ablaze by the settlers, with Palestinians who intervened reportedly attacked or shot at.

Israeli media said that 15 vehicles were torched although local Palestinian sources put the figure higher, in the latest violent raid by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

At least one woman was injured after the mob pelted her vehicle with stones, according to Iranian Press TV.

A horrific night for the West Bank citizens after tens of terrorist Israeli settlers launched an attack on the city of Al Bireh, setting fire to their properties and attacking them with stones. At least 20 cars were burned, and a woman reported wounded. pic.twitter.com/fARgjyRqEd

— Hamza (@HowidyHamza) November 4, 2024

The World Food Programme has issued a warning that the lack of access to humanitarian supplies to Gaza could result in a famine unless urgent action is taken.

The body warned that less than half the enclave's population that is in need of food assistance is getting it due to limits on supplies entering Gaza, particularly the north which is under a new devastating Israeli siege.

“North Gaza remains under siege since early October, with humanitarian agencies unable to reach people in need. Urgent international effort is required to allow the delivery of critical assistance and grant humanitarian agencies access to the area,” it added.

It comes as Israel announced it was ending cooperation with UNRWA on Monday, greatly worsening the humanitarian outlook in Gaza.

Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, has made another chilling attack on UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinians, as his country ends cooperation with the group, sparking fears of famine in Gaza.

Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA of being a front for Hamas and its employees of taking part in the 7 October attacks without providing hard evidence to back their claims.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence we submitted to the UN that substantiate Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA, the UN did nothing to rectify the situation,” Danon says in a tweet.

“The State of Israel will continue to cooperate with humanitarian organizations but not with organizations that promote terrorism against us,”