Israel kills over 111 people across Gaza in 24hrs

This live blog has now wrapped up. The New Arab will be back at 9am with live updates from Gaza and Lebanon.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Congresswoman from New York, has urged her party to examine the role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in its recent losses in the US presidential and congressional elections.

AIPAC, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, spent over $100 million in political campaigns this year, including primary races targeting progressive Democrats who criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“If people want to talk about members of Congress being overly influenced by a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats, then they should be discussing AIPAC,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on X.

If people want to talk about members of Congress being overly influenced by a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats then they should be discussing AIPAC https://t.co/2o22CMMtqw

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 17, 2024

 Al Jazeera is reporting that at least one person was killed and several others injured after Israeli forces bombed the so-called humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi.

Hezbollah has announced the death of its spokesman Mohammed Afif, who according to one security source was among four people killed in an Israeli strike on central Beirut on Sunday.

Hajj Mohammed Afif al-Nabulsi, Hezbollah's head of media relations, had been killed, said a statement, referring to him as "a great martyr on the road to Jerusalem", the expression used for its members killed by Israel.

Israeli strikes Sunday have killed 11 people and wounded dozens more in Lebanon's southern Tyr region, the Lebanese health ministry said.

"The raids of the Israeli enemy on villages in the Tyr district have left 11 dead and 48 wounded," said a ministry statement. 

Lebanon's health ministry said four people died Sunday in an Israeli strike on central Beirut's Ras al-Nabaa district that a security source said killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.

"The Israeli enemy strike on Ras al-Nabaa led to a final toll of four dead including a woman and 14 others wounded including two children," a health ministry statement said, raising an earlier toll of one dead and three wounded.

Lebanon’s health ministry reported that an Israeli airstrike killed two people and wounded 13, revising an earlier figure of one dead and nine injured.

“Israeli warplanes launched a strike on the Mar Elias area,” stated the official National News Agency, describing it as a densely populated residential and shopping district that also houses those displaced by the conflict.

The NNA added that the strike “targeted a Jamaa Islamiya centre,” referring to a Sunni Muslim group allied with Palestine’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

We reported earlier on an Israeli strike in Mar Elias Street in central Beirut. Lebanon's health ministry has now said that at least one person was killed and nine others wounded in the attack.

"The Israeli enemy strike on Mar Elias Street in Beirut led to the death of one person and wounded nine others, two of them critically," a health ministry statement said.

Qatar has condemned Israel’s military strike on a UNRWA-affiliated school in the al-Shati refugee camp, which serves as a shelter for displaced individuals.

In a statement posted on X, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “This attack led to casualties and injuries and is considered an extension of the occupation’s policies targeting defenseless civilians and civilian facilities.”

The ministry further cautioned about the “dangerous implications of the occupation’s attempts to impede the activities of UNRWA.

Qatar strongly condemns the Israeli occupation’s bombing of an UNRWA-affiliated school in the Gaza Strip#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/JS2sNgrO6g

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) November 17, 2024

The Gaza Government Media Office reports that the earlier strike targeted a residential tower in northern Gaza, home to six Palestinian families, killing at least 72. The attack also left dozens injured.

Lebanese media is reporting an explosion in the centre of Beirut in a suspected Israeli strike in the Mar Elias area, in a possible second targeted strike in just a day.

Footage shared online shows a huge fire burning and sparking as people in the area are shouting and filming.

The strike came without warning and is not in the Dahiyeh suburb area of Beirut which Israel has been targeting heavily over the weekend.

Mar Elias is a busy commercial and residential district and also home to the Palestinian refugee camp Mar Elias.

It comes following a day of heavy Israeli air attacks on Beirut's suburbs and on an apartment building in Ras al-Naaba which killed Hezbollah's media spokesperson Mohammed Afif.

We will bring you more when we have it.

مشاهد إضافية من العدوان الذي طال العاصمة بيروت pic.twitter.com/6s2WfKZUYd

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) November 17, 2024

Israel's military on Sunday told AFP that it had struck "over 200 targets" since Saturday morning in Lebanon, where it escalated air strikes in late September against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

The army said in the past 36 hours it had struck Tyre in the south and Beirut's southern suburbs on multiple occasions.

The Lebanese health ministry reported that 29 people were killed and 122 wounded in Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Saturday in its latest medical update.

This brings the total number of dead to 3,481 and wounded to 14,786 since the beginning of the fighting in October 2023.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that an officer and a soldier from the Nachshon Regiment (90), Kfir Brigade, had been killed during combat in northern Gaza on Saturday.

The army identified them as Captain Yogev Pazy, aged 22 from Giv'ot Bar, a platoon commander, and Staff Sergeant Noam Eitan, aged 21, from Hadera.

Another soldier was severely wounded in the same battle, the army added.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said on Sunday that a peacekeeping patrol was fired upon "about 40 times" a day earlier, with the culprit "likely from non-state actor members".

"A group of individuals", at least one armed, sought to prevent the patrol from passing in south Lebanon on Saturday, but it continued and was later "fired upon about 40 times from behind, likely from non-state actor members", UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that no peacekeepers were injured though "some patrol vehicles had bullet impacts".

Hundreds of cultural professionals, including archaeologists and academics, called on the United Nations to safeguard war-torn Lebanon's heritage in a petition published Sunday ahead of a crucial UNESCO meeting.

Several Israeli strikes in recent weeks on Baalbek in the east and Tyre in the south -- both strongholds of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah -- hit close to ancient Roman ruins designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The petition, signed by 300 prominent cultural figures, was sent to UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay a day before a special session in Paris to consider listing Lebanese cultural sites under "enhanced protection".

It urges UNESCO to protect Baalbek and other heritage sites by establishing "no-target zones" around them, deploying international observers and enforcing measures from the 1954 Hague Convention on cultural heritage in conflict.

"Lebanon's cultural heritage at large is being endangered by recurrent assaults on ancient cities such as Baalbek, Tyre and Anjar, all UNESCO world heritage sites, as well as on other historic landmarks," says the petition.

Read more here.

Lebanon's Hezbollah group said on Sunday its forces had fired rockets a several sites including Maalot-Tarshiha town in northern Israel and a gathering of Israeli troops at Ramim barracks on the border.

In statements shared on its Telegram channel, the Iran-backed group said it fired a "rocket salvo" towards a gathering on Israeli troops on the eastern outskirts of Khiyam in south Lebanon, which has been at the focus of intense battles for weeks.

Gaza's civil defence agency said 30 people were killed on Sunday, including children, and dozens were missing after an Israeli air strike hit a building in the Palestinian territory's north.

Israel's army told AFP that it had conducted overnight strikes and hit "terrorist targets" in the area.

After the strike early Sunday, 30 bodies were pulled from the rubble of the five-storey residential building in Beit Lahia, "including children and women", civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, updating a previous figure of 26.

Seven people were injured, Bassal added. Earlier on Sunday he said at least 59 people were missing.

"The chances of rescuing more wounded are decreasing because of the continuous shooting and artillery shelling," Bassal said.

AFP images showed men covered in dust scrambling to reach people under the rubble, as some of the bodies were taken away on a donkey-pulled cart.

Other AFP images showed the flattened building with broken concrete and twisted metal sticking out from the ruins as more bodies covered in blankets lay nearby.

The Lebanese army said an Israeli attack on Sunday killed two soldiers, accusing Israel of directly targeting their position in south Lebanon where the Israeli military is fighting Hezbollah.

"The Israeli enemy directly targeted an army centre" in Mari in the Hasbaya area, causing "the death of one of the soldiers and the wounding of three others, one of whom is in critical condition", the army said in a statement.

A separate statement shortly afterwards said "a second soldier" had died of his wounds.

Israeli fire has killed more than a dozen Lebanese soldiers since all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group erupted in September, according to an AFP tally of official announcements.

Israeli bombing of different parts of Gaza has killed at least eight Palestinians and wounded several others on Sunday.

According to the Wafa news agency, medical sources reported that four of those killed were in the Qizan an-Najjar village, south of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. 

An Israeli drone strike on Lebanon's Sour district killed a paramedic and wounded two others on Sunday afternoon.

The drone strike targeted a team of rescue workers from the Islamic Health Committee.

Israel condemned the United Nations for what it described as "anti-Israel fabrications" after a UN committee said its warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide.

"The UN is breaking its own record when it comes to biased reports, singling-out Israel and anti-Israel fabrications," the foreign ministry said late on Saturday.

The UN special committee said in a report that Israel was "intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury" in the Gaza Strip, accusing it of "using starvation as a method of war".

But the ministry dismissed the accusations as "false claims".

The UN committee had said "through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury".

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian journalist in a drone attack on north Gaza on Saturday, the Wafa news agency reported, citing local sources.

According to the sources, Israeli forces shot dead Mohammed Saleh Al-Sharif using gunfire from a quadcopter drone.

Al-Sharif was recently forced to evacuate his home in the Tal Al-Zaatar neighbourhood in east Jabalia due to ongoing Israeli bombardment and sought refuge with a relative in Beit Lahia.

Reports state that Al-Sharif and his cousin were returning to their home to assess the damage when the Israeli drone targeted them, leaving Al-Sharif to bleed for two hours before succumbing to his wounds, while his cousin was killed instantly.

Read more here.

An Israeli strike on a densely populated district of Beirut on Sunday killed Hezbollah's media relations chief Mohammad Afif, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters.

The strike hit a neighborhood where many people displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs had been seeking refuge.

(Reuters)

One person has been killed and three injured in an Israeli strike on Ras al Naaba in central Beirut on Sunday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported.

The strike appears to have targeted the office of the Lebanese branch of al-Baath party, a Syrian socialist political group. The building is not in the area designated by previous Israeli evacuation warnings and is near to Beirut's museum and the French embassy. 

Lebanese media reported that the target of the strike was Hezbollah media spokesperson Mohammed Afif. It is not yet clear whether Afif has been killed.

The head of al-Baath party Ali Hijazi was not inside the building, according to Lebanese media.

A building in the Ras al Nabaa - Sodeco area of central Beirut outside the areas indicated by Israeli army warnings has been hit by an airstrike, according to local media reports.

Lebanese channel Al Jadeed reported that the strike hit the building of the Lebanon branch of the Hezb al-Ba'ath party known for its ties to Syria.

Israel has been hitting sites in Beirut's suburbs since early morning and has issued warnings prior to the attacks, but this strike came without warning.

We will update when we have more information.

المبنى الذي استهدفته الغارة الاسرائيلية منذ دقائق في محيط رأس النبع- السوديكو pic.twitter.com/CNX8fWicOV

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) November 17, 2024

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide , according to excerpts released Sunday from an upcoming new book ahead of the pontiff's jubilee year.

It's the first time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip. In September, he said Israel's attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate , and that its military has gone beyond the rules of war.

The book, by Hernán Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the Pope, is entitled “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims towards a better world." It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope's 2025 jubilee. Francis’ yearlong jubilee is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate the Holy Year.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.

Read more here.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that at least 43,846 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war.

The toll includes 47 deaths and 139 wounded people in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 103,740 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Gaza's government media office said the strike on a building in Beit Lahia this morning killed 72 people in the latest assessment of the damage as rescuers have been working to retrieve people under rubble.

The building was housing many families sheltering in the town since it came under blockade following Israel's renewed operation into north Gaza at the start of October.

In a statement the media office said Israeli army "committed 4 brutal massacres during the past hours, bombing several residential buildings and civilian homes, killing more than 72 martyrs from the families of Ghabayen, Ghanem, Safi, Ayada, Abdul Ati and Al-Taluli in Beit Lahia".

Israel said some 20 projectiles were fired towards Haifa and the western Galilee region on Sunday morning following air raid sirens at around 10am local time.

The Israeli military said the projectiles crossed from Lebanon and some "fell in open areas" and others were intercepted.

Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah said earlier on Sunday it fired a rocket salvo in the north of Haifa area.

Israeli army Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued evacuation orders for residents in Haret Hreik area of Beirut, claiming there are “Hezbollah facilities” in the area.

Earlier on Sunday, Adraee ordered residents of Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh and Chiyyah to evacuate which were subsequently hit by strikes according to reports.

International law protects civilians who choose to remain in zones which come under evacuation orders.

#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية:
🔸حدث بيروت
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⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى… pic.twitter.com/52GOiwu9z9

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 17, 2024

An Israeli strike hit a residential building in Beit Lahia in north Gaza on Sunday morning where some 70 people were sheltering, according to local sources.

Quds News Network reported that dozens of people have been killed, including women and children, with many others still missing.

Gaza Health Ministry’s Director-General Munir al-Bursh told Al Jazeera network that some 20 to 30 people are still under the rubble and that “30 percent” of the victims are children.

The Israeli army sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia last month in what it claimed was an operation to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

It follows a major strike on central Gaza’s Al-Bureij refugee camp which killed some 15 Palestinians, including 10 members of the Aqel family last night.

An Israeli strike hit south Beirut on Sunday where the military said it targeted Hezbollah, hours after the Iran-backed group said it fired on Israeli bases around the city of Haifa.

A column of smoke rose over the capital's southern suburbs, AFPTV footage showed, following a warning from the Israeli military for residents to evacuate three areas.

Further south, overnight Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling hit the flashpoint southern town of Khiam, some six kilometres (four miles) from the border, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported early Sunday.

The bombardment came after Israel's military reported a "heavy rocket barrage" on Haifa late Saturday and said a synagogue was hit, wounding two civilians.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that a fighter in the Nachshon Regiment (90), Kafir Brigade, was killed in battle north of Gaza on Saturday.

Nearly 800 soldiers have been killed since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, according to Israeli government figures.