Israel strikes kill 33 in Lebanon, Gaza strikes persist

The New Arab's lie blog on Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon has now ended, and will resume at 0900 GMT.

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 The US military said on Tuesday it had conducted strikes against an Iranian-backed militia group's weapons storage facility in Syria.

"These strikes were in response to a rocket attack on U.S. personnel at Patrol Base Shaddadi. There was no damage to US facilities and no injuries to U.S. or partner forces during the attack," the US military said in a statement.

Israeli forces pounded Gaza have killed at least 63 people on Tuesday, with strikes across Deir al-Balah, Gaza City, Nuseirat and other locations.

Joyce Msuya, the UN’s top humanitarian official,  briefed the council on Israel’s ongoing siege on northern Gaza, decrying the humanitarian situation there.

"People under siege now tell us they are afraid that they will be targeted if they receive help," she said. "As I brief you, Israeli authorities are blocking humanitarian assistance from entering North Gaza, where fighting continues and around 75,000 people remain with dwindling water and food supplies."

"Conditions of life across Gaza are unfit for human survival. Food is insufficient, with famine looming. The most basic requirements of humanity are being disregarded," she said on X.

Conditions of life across Gaza are unfit for human survival.

Food is insufficient, with famine looming.

The most basic requirements of humanity are being disregarded.

Member States must use their leverage to prevent and stop violations of international humanitarian law now.

— Joyce Msuya (@JoyceMsuya) November 12, 2024

A strike hit a southern Beirut suburb after an Israeli order to locals to evacuate, AFPTV showed on Wednesday, airing images of fires and smoke in the area.

The evacuation order posted on X by Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee warned people living in houses close to buildings "linked to Hezbollah" to move out, warning of imminent heavy strikes.

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had picked real estate investor and campaign donor Steve Witkoff to be his special envoy to the Middle East.

The United States stressed at the United Nations on Tuesday that "there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza" by Israel, warning that it would have grave implications under U.S. and international law.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that "thanks to intervention by the United States, Israel has taken some important steps" toward addressing "the undisputed humanitarian crisis" in the Palestinian enclave.

"Still, Israel must ensure its actions are fully implemented - and its improvements sustained over time," she told the UN Security Council.

Palestinian group Hamas on Tuesday condemned the United States for complicity in the "war of genocide" in the Gaza Strip after Washington said Israel was not violating US law on the level of aid entering the territory.

Hamas condemned Washington's "claims" that Israel is "taking measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza" and said in a statement that it was a "a confirmation of the full partnership of President (Joe) Biden's administration in the brutal war of genocide against our people".

Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed 33 people across the country on Tuesday, among them many who had been displaced by Israel's intensified strikes on the country.

The health ministry said a strike on a town in the Chouf region south of Beirut killed at least 15 people.

"The Israeli raid on Joun in the Chouf district resulted... in the death of 15 martyrs, including eight women and four children," it said.

The official National News Agency (NNA) said the building had housed displaced people fleeing bombardment by Israel in its war against Hezbollah.

The health ministry said a strike a few kilometres (miles) further north in the mountainous Aley region east of the capital killed eight people.

A security source told AFP the attack had hit a house where people displaced in the war had taken refuge.

In the south of the country, the ministry reported strikes on the towns of Tefahta and Roumin killed seven people.

Attacks on the Hermel region in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country bordering Syria killed another two people.

Nabatiyeh, the largest city in the south, again came under attack. Last month, Israeli strikes razed its historic marketplace and killed the mayor.

A top UN official on Tuesday condemned "daily cruelty" in Gaza, describing "acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes."

"What distinction was made, and what precautions were taken, if more than 70 percent of civilian housing is either damaged or destroyed?" Joyce Msuya, interim chief of the OCHA humanitarian agency, told the Security Council. "We are witnessing acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes."

Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted two US destroyers with drones and missiles as they transited the Bab al-Mandab Strait, but the warships defeated the attacks, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The ships "were attacked by at least eight one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles, which were successfully engaged and defeated," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.

"The vessels were not damaged, no personnel were hurt," Ryder said of the Monday attacks.

US President Joe Biden's outgoing administration said Tuesday it still hoped to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, even as key go-between Qatar suspended mediation.

"We're continuing to pursue a number of initiatives to secure the release of hostages. That work is ongoing. We have not given up hope," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

"It's critical to us to get a deal done as soon as possible, especially so that we can bring the remaining hostages home to their families," he said.

The United States said on Tuesday that Israel was not in violation of US law on allowing assistance into Gaza but called for further progress, a month after Washington threatened to withhold military support.

On the eve of a deadline set by a letter to make progress within 30 days, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said of Israel, "We have not made an assessment that they are in violation of US law."

An Israeli air strike on a town in the Chouf region south of the Lebanese capital Beirut killed at least 12 people Tuesday, the health ministry said in a statement.

"The Israeli enemy raid on Joun ... killed 12 people and wounded eight," the ministry said, adding that rescuers were searching through the debris. The National News Agency said the building had housed displaced people fleeing bombardment by Israel in its war against Hezbollah.

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel, Trump announced Tuesday.

Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.

“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”

The death toll of Israel's strikes on the Mount Lebanon of Baalchmay has increased to eight, the health ministry said. 

Five people have also been injured by the strike.

Two people were killed on Tuesday in Nahariya, northern Israel, after a residential building was struck, Israeli police said in a post on X.

Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Tuesday it said was aimed at a military base, east of Nahariya.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday told a senior Israeli official that the steps Israel has taken to better the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza must lead to actual improvement on the ground, the State Department said on Tuesday.

Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to their Israeli counterparts on October 13 with a checklist of specific steps to address the worsening situation in the Palestinian enclave amid a renewed Israeli offensive.

Washington gave Israel 30 days to comply and said results on the ground would determine whether or not enough had been done. Washington has not yet said whether it deems Israel to have complied.

In a meeting on Monday, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer updated Blinken on the policy decisions the Israeli government has taken to address the requirements, along with operational changes by the Israeli army.

"The Secretary emphasised the importance of ensuring those changes lead to an actual improvement in the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, including through the delivery of additional assistance to civilians throughout Gaza," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack on a military base near the town of Nahariya in northern Israel on Tuesday.

The base lies inland from the Israeli coastal town, near which Israeli emergency services said two men were killed by rocket fire.

Doctors and medical staff on the ground in Gaza painted a grim picture for UK members of parliament on Tuesday, describing the dire healthcare crisis gripping the besieged enclave.

During a meeting with MPs and the International Development Committee, they shared firsthand accounts of overcrowded hospitals, severe shortages of medical supplies, and relentless violence impacting civilians.

Professor Nizam Mamode, a former transplant surgery specialist who had spent time in the Nasser Hospital, which Israeli forces raided and besieged in February, spoke of his experience in Gaza.

He told the MPs that the scenes he witnessed "resembled Hiroshima and Nagasaki," with devastated landscapes and buildings reduced to rubble.

"Most people in Gaza have been forced to move six or seven times," he said.

"There are constant drones, which existed before October last year - this has been a feature of Palestinian life for some time - but now they instil fear" he added.

Mamode was in Gaza from mid-August to mid-September and said much of what he saw was distressing.

"There were clear, deliberate, and persistent acts, where after a bomb would drop, drones would come and target civilians and children… 60 percent of the people we treated were women and children," he said.

You can read more of the report from The New Arab journalist Nadda Osman here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday in a direct message to Iranians that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's government feared the people of Iran more than Israel.

"That’s why they spend so much time and money trying to crush your hopes and curb your dreams," he said in a video message. "Well, I say to you this: Don’t let your dreams die. I hear the whispers: Women, Life, Freedom. Zan, Zendegi, Azadi.

"Don't lose hope. And know that Israel and others in the free world stand with you," Netanyahu said. 

(Reuters)

Israel's military said on Tuesday that it had dismantled most of Hezbollah's weapons and missile facilities, which it says are located under the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.

(Reuters)

Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they conducted two military operations against US naval vessels in the Red and Arabian seas which the group's military spokesperson said lasted for eight hours.

The first operation targeted a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian sea with a number of missiles and drones, while the second operation launched missiles and drones at two US destroyers in the Red Sea, Yahya Sarea said.

(Reuters)

A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera, which cited the Palestinian Health Ministry as saying that he had died.

According to the Israeli army, the man, 18-year-old Waleed Ashraf Mohammed Hussein, "attempted to stab" soldiers at a checkpoint.

Hezbollah said it fired missiles at an air base near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, after the Israeli military said it had intercepted projectiles fired from Lebanon.

Hezbollah fighters targeted an "air base south of Tel Aviv... with a salvo of quality missiles," the group said. The Israeli military said sirens sounded across central Israel and Israeli media reported flights were temporarily halted at Ben Gurion International Airport.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 3,287 people and wounded 14,222 since 7 October 2023, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Tuesday.

It said 44 people were killed and 88 wounded on Monday. 

The Israeli military has intensified its invasion of southern Lebanon, according to reports from Israel's Hebrew media outlets.

Both Maariv and Israel's public broadcaster Kan 11 reported that the 36th division has begun maneuvering to a second line of villages in south Lebanon in a bid to locate and destroy Hezbollah equipment.

The Israeli military said that three rockets that were fired at Tel Aviv were intercepted, as first responders in northern Israel say a rocket from Lebanon killed two people when it struck the city of Nahariya, according to the Times of Israel.

Another rocket injured two people when it struck Kibbutz Kabri.

Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and other areas of central Israel following rocket fire from Lebanon, according to reports from Israel media. 

The Israeli military confirmed the sirens in a post on X, saying that the rocket fire came from Lebanon.

At least five people were killed and two were injured in an Israeli strike on the Mount Lebanon town of Baalchmay on Tuesday, health ministry said.

(Reuters)

The UN on Tuesday warned that already low levels of aid trickling into Gaza had dwindled further, with the situation in the besieged north especially "catastrophic".

The warning from UNRWA, the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees, came as Israel said it was opening an additional aid crossing into Gaza on the eve of a US-imposed deadline to improve humanitarian conditions in the war-ravaged territory.

Asked about whether there were signs the situation had improved ahead of Wednesday's deadline, Louise Wateridge, an UNRWA emergencies officer, highlighted that "aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin last month cautioned Israel that it had until November 13 to let more aid into Gaza or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United States, Israel's primary supporter.

The letter was sent weeks before the November 5 US presidential election won by Donald Trump, who has promised to give Israel freer rein.

Speaking to a Geneva media briefing via video-link from Gaza, Wateridge said that "the average for October was 37 trucks a day into the entire Gaza Strip... That is for 2.2 million people".

"Children are dying. People are dying every day," she said, stressing that "people here need everything".

Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 43,665 Palestinians and wounded 103,076 since October 7, 2023, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Tuesday.

A total of 62 Palestinians have been killed and 147 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement. 

Hezbollah has said that it has forced an Israeli Hermes 450 drone to leave Lebanese airspace after its air defence unit confronted it.

Six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Deir al-Balah on Tuesday, according to reports from Palestinian news agency Wafa. 

The bodies of those killed were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa said citing paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israeli forces detained 15 Palestinians during overnight raids in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The report noted that the raids targeted the cities of Hebron, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Nablus, Salfit, and east Jerusalem, with some detainees previously being detained before.

Waves of Israeli airstrikes have been hitting Beirut since Tuesday morning, with 13 strikes targeting the city's southern suburbs following displacement orders issued by the Israeli military, according to Lebanese channel Al-Jadeed.

The Israeli army announced Tuesday the opening of an additional aid crossing into the Gaza Strip, ahead of a US-imposed deadline to improve humanitarian conditions for Palestinians living there.

"As part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid to the Gaza Strip, the 'Kissufim' Crossing was opened today," the army said in a joint statement with COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry agency responsible for civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Iran will pursue whatever secures its interest, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Tuesday, when asked if there could be direct talks with the Trump administration.

"Whatever secures the country's interest and values of the revolution will be pursued by the government," Mohajerani told a journalist, according to the Iranian Student News Agency.

There have been no reports that Donald Trump or his team are planning any such talks as he prepares to return to the US presidency.

Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers during his last term of office in 2018 and re-applied sanctions which severely impacted the Iranian economy.

"The maximum pressure campaign of Trump has failed, even if people have been burdened by it. What is important will be actions and not words, but we recommend Trump to take into account the failure of his past policies," Mohajerani added.

Indirect talks between Washington and Tehran to revive the nuclear deal were initiated under the administration of US President Joe Biden, but stalled. Iran is still formally part of the deal but has scaled back commitments to honour it due to US sanctions reimposed on the Islamic Republic.

(Reuters)

International aid groups say Israel has failed to meet US demands that it allow greater humanitarian access to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.

The Biden administration last month called on Israel to "surge" more food and other emergency aid into Gaza, setting a 30-day deadline that was expiring Tuesday. It warned failure to comply could trigger US laws requiring it to scale back military support as Israel wages war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has announced some steps toward improving the situation. But in recent days, US officials signaled Israel still isn't doing enough, though they have not said if they will take action against it.

Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said on X on Tuesday that during a meeting with military officials, he reiterated that Israel will continue hitting Hezbollah with full force and that there will be no ceasefire.

(Reuters)

Iran is building a "defensive tunnel" in the capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday, following strikes by Israel on targets in the country.

The tunnel, located near the city centre, will link a station on the Tehran metro to the Imam Khomeini hospital, thus allowing direct underground access to the medical facility.

"For the first time in the country, a tunnel with defensive applications is being built in Tehran," the head of transport for Tehran City Council told Tasnim.

Last month, Israel carried out its first officially-recognised strikes in Iran, hitting missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in the country's west, as a response to Iran's 1 October attack on Israeli territory.

(Reuters)

The Israeli military carried out at least five airstrikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, after Israel's defence minister ruled out any ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel's goals had been met.

Smoke rose over Beirut as blasts shook the capital around mid-morning. The explosions followed an Israeli military displacement order posted on social media identifying 12 sites in the southern suburbs and saying it would take action against them soon. It told residents they were located near Hezbollah facilities.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the latest strikes. Residents have largely fled the southern suburbs since Israel began bombing the area in September.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) has claimed three drone attacks early this morning against targets in Israel.

In separate Telegram statements, the group said the attacks were launched against "military" and "vital" targets in the southern and northern "occupied territory [Israel]".

The group said the attacks came "in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon".

The IRI also released videos which it said showed the launch of the drones used in the attacks.

The IRI also claimed six drone attacks yesterday against targets in Israel.

Hamas rejected Smotrich's statements, saying in a Telegram statement that what Smotrich had announced "categorically confirmed the intentions of the colonialist occupation and its denial of our people's national rights".

"We will not allow the terrorist Smotrich or any other Zionist war criminal to carry out their malicious plans, which will never grant them legitimacy over our occupied territories," the statement said.

Hamas urged the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the UN to take "effective action to curb this Zionist, colonialist gang that continues to defy international legitimacy".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in talks recently that the possibility of applying Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank should be put back on the agenda when president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported this morning.

The report comes after the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said yesterday at meeting of his Religious Zionism Party that Trump's victory presents an "important opportunity" to "apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria," referring to the West Bank.

Smotrich added that he had instructed the Defence Minister's Settlement Administration and the Civil Administration to begin preparatory work for annexation, according to reports.

The Walla news site reported that settlement leaders are in disagreement over the timing of calls for annexation.

Deadly Israeli strikes across Lebanon late yesterday and overnight, resulting in dozens of casualties.

An Israeli strike on Saksakiyeh in Sidon in southern Lebanon killed 11 people, mostly women and children, and injured five, L'Orient-Le Jour reported.

Israeli military ships shelled Al-Nakoura in southern Lebanon, Lebanese media reports said.

In northern Lebanon, eight people were killed and 14 others wounded in an Israeli strike on a building in Ain Yaaqub. The casualties included Syrian nationals, displaced Lebanese nationals and people from the town.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman issued some of the kingdom's strongest criticism of Israel yesterday, condemning its actions in Gaza as "genocide".

Speaking at the Arab-Islamic summit focused on the regional conflict, the crown prince called for an immediate end to Israeli attacks on "the brothers in Palestine and Lebanon", and demanded that Israel "respect the sovereignty of the brotherly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to attack its territory".

The Saudi leader accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and called for the respect of Iran's sovereignty.

Bin Salman's remarks were echoed in the summit's final declaration issued yesterday evening. The statement also called for the "freezing" Israel's participation at the UN and for a ban on arms exports to Israel.