Israeli attacks kill over 40 in Gaza, as Lebanon bombed

US lawmakers called on Tuesday for an independent investigation into an Israeli attack in Lebanon last year that wounded Dylan Collins, an American citizen and journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Collins and five others, including AFP's Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated,  were wounded and Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while they were reporting in southern Lebanon in October 2023.

"It has now been more than one year since Mr. Collins was injured in a targeted Israeli strike while on assignment for AFP. To date, Mr. Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability," the 12 lawmakers -- 11 Democrats and an independent -- wrote.

"Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident," said the letter, which was addressed to US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

"The evidence clearly indicates that this was an unlawful direct attack on civilians in which a US citizen was injured and was lucky to survive," the lawmakers wrote, describing it as "part of a wider pattern of disregard by the Israeli military for the safety of civilians, including journalists and humanitarian aid workers."

Israel's strikes on Lebanon have rapidly escalated in recent weeks. More than 1,550 people have been killed in bombardment by Israel since it intensified its air campaign on Lebanon last month, according to an AFP tally, while Lebanese authorities say that more than a million people have been displaced.

At least three Palestinians have been killed an Israeli drone strike on Gaza City, multiple reports state. 

The strike targeted a group of people in western Gaza City, with witnesses stating it hit in front of the Al-Soussi tower.

The Israeli military said late on Tuesday that Hezbollah had fired around 140 projectiles. 

The majority of them appeared to have been rocket barrages, they added. 

Earlier on, they reported that a drone had also crossed into Israel. 

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told visiting US top diplomat Antony Blinken that his government expects Washington's support when it attacks Iran in response to a missile strike earlier this month.

"The United States' stance with Israel following our attack on Iran will strengthen regional deterrence and weaken the axis of evil," Gallant said according to a statement from his office, referring to Tehran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, after Israel has vowed retaliation for the 1 October missile attack.

At least three Israeli strikes targeted Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday evening, following calls to evacuate, Lebanon's official ANI news agency reported, hours after a strike flattened a building in the area

Two of the strikes hit the Laylake district, near a stadium, ANI reported, while AFP footage captured plumes of smoke rising from the location regularly shelled by Israel since intensifying its offensive last month.

The Israeli army said late on Tuesday it has killed Hashem Saifeddine, who was set to take over as the next Hezbollah chief, in an air strike earlier this month.

"Hashem Safieddine has been eliminated," the Israeli army's spokesperson to Arabic media, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X.

Hezbollah has not yet commented on the matter. 

The visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Jordan, planned to be on Wednesday, was postponed, Jordanian foreign ministry said on Tuesday without giving any reason for the decision.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel's leadership on Tuesday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar presented an "important opportunity" to end the war on Gaza.

"I believe very much that the death of Sinwar does create an important opportunity to bring the hostages home, to bring the war to an end and to ensure Israel's security," Blinken said as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog following talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli strikes on Tuesday evening killed at least 10 in Lebanon, the country's health ministry said in a statement.

In two separate announcements, the ministry said five people were killed and 10 others wounded in the northeastern Hermel region near the Syrian border, and five more killed and 21 wounded in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, which has endured Israeli attacks for days.

Israel promised to address U.S. concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza as Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visited the region and told officials their efforts so far were insufficient, according to a U.S. State Department official.

The official told reporters that Blinken, in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, discussed the need for more humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza. They also discussed other concrete steps moving forward, including setting up post-war structures in Gaza, the official said.

Hezbollah said it launched attack drones at an Israeli military base south of the coastal city of Haifa on Tuesday, with the group also saying it struck seven tanks at the border.

Fighters launched "attack drones" on a "base south of Haifa," the group said, also claiming throughout the day that it had fired on a total of seven Israeli tanks.

The Palestinian ministry of health announced that an 11-year old child in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus has died after Israeli forces shot him. 

The child has been identified as Abdullah Jamal Hawash. 

Videos circulating online show the child throwing a stone at an armed Israeli jeep from a distance, before he is shot and falls to the ground. 

Palestinian medical sources announced late on Tuesday that over 40 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across the enclave, with the majority of them in the north where an Israeli siege has now continued for 18 days. 

The latest attack was on Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, who reported four were killed in the bombing of the Tawbah clinic in south Gaza. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he held talks on Tuesday with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem on joining forces to counter threats from Iran.

"During the meeting, the Iranian threat and the need for both countries to unite forces against it were raised," Netanyahu's office said in a statement, adding that "the prime minister thanked the US secretary of state for the United States' support in the fight against Iran's axis of evil and terror," referring the Iran-aligned armed groups in the region.

France's government on Tuesday defended its decision to bar Israeli companies supplying the wars in the Middle East from exhibiting at an upcoming trade fair outside Paris.

The organisers of the naval defence exhibition Euronaval posted on the event's website that Israeli firms can participate in the show and "may have an exhibition stand, provided that their products are not used in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon."

The organisers attributed the restrictions to French government decisions taken earlier this month.

Addressing parliament Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the policy doesn't amount to a boycott of Israeli firms.

But he also said it would be "incoherent" for France to allow the promotion of weapons used in the wars when Paris is also pushing for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon.

"Therefore, we have indicated to the Israeli authorities, with whom we communicate very regularly, that the participation in the form of stands by companies should respect this balance," Barrot said.

"Also, companies whose equipment is not used in offensive actions in Gaza and Lebanon will naturally be able to have stands at the exhibition," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said there was a need for a security and political change in Lebanon that would allow displaced Israelis to return safely to their homes.

Netanyahu met with Blinken for 2-1/2 hours on Tuesday, and the meeting was friendly and productive, according to a statement from the prime minister's office.

Netanyahu also said Israel was working hard to bring back captives still held in Gaza and that the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar "may have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the goals of the war, and the day after the war".

(Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday to seize on the killing of Hamas's leader to work towards a Gaza ceasefire.

Blinken also pressed for more aid to be allowed into the Palestinian territory as concerns rise for tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in the hard-to-reach north.

Blinken "underscored the need to capitalise on Israel's successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after the talks in Jerusalem.

Blinken also "emphasised the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and ensure that assistance reaches civilians throughout Gaza," Miller said.

The UN rights chief said Tuesday he was "appalled" by a deadly Israeli strike near a south Beirut hospital on Monday, demanding a "prompt and thorough investigation".

"I am appalled by the Israeli strike near Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut's densely populated Jnah neighbourhood that reportedly killed at least 18 people, including four children, and wounded 60 others," Volker Turk said in a statement.

"The fundamental principles of international humanitarian law concerning the protection of civilians must be respected."

At least 18 people were killed, including four children, and 60 were wounded in an Israeli strike on Monday near Beirut's main government hospital, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

Israeli jets hit a Hezbollah target close to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut but did not target the hospital, and it was not affected by the strike, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

However, the director of the hospital said that due to the Israeli attack, nearby debris, probably from heavy ammunition, had caused damage to the medical facility.

While there were no casualties among the staff, efforts to rescue people in front of the hospital were ongoing, the director, Jihad Saadeh, added. 

(Reuters)

Lebanon will need $250 million a month to help more than a million people displaced by Israeli attacks, its minister in charge of responding to the crisis said on Tuesday, ahead of a conference on Thursday in Paris to rally support for Lebanon.

Nasser Yassin told Reuters that the government response, helped by local initiatives and international aid, only covered 20 percent of the needs of some 1.3 million people who were uprooted from their homes and were sheltering in public buildings or with relatives.

Those needs are likely to grow as daily waves of airstrikes push more people out of their homes and leave Lebanon's government scrambling to find ways to house them, Yassin said.

"We need $250 million a month" to cover basic food, water, sanitation and education services for the displaced, he said.

Schools, an old slaughterhouse, a fresh food market, an empty complex - all have been turned into collective shelters recently.

"We're transforming anything, any public building," Yassin said.

"There is a lot to be done."

(Reuters)

Sixty percent of Germans are against supplying arms to Israel, a new poll revealed on Tuesday.

Only 31 percent said Germany should send arms, while 9 percent remained undecided.

Germany has been a strong ally for Israel, being its second biggest arms exporter, approving arms exports worth 326.5 million euros, including military equipment and war weapons, in 2023.

The nation says the allyship is over its responsibility over its Nazi past and the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.

The FBI is investigating the public disclosure of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel's preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, the bureau said on Tuesday.

"The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community," it said in a statement.

White House spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that it has not been determined whether the disclosure was a hack or a leak. President Joe Biden was watching the investigation results closely, he added.

"We're not exactly sure how these documents found their way into the public domain," Kirby told reporters.

"The president remains deeply concerned about any leakage of classified information into the public domain. That is not supposed to happen, and it's unacceptable when it does," he said.

The documents appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. They describe US interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite imagery from 15-16 October.

They began circulating last week on the Telegram messaging app. Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic missile barrage carried out by Iran on 1 October, Tehran's second direct attack on Israel in six months.

(Reuters)

Israel is unlikely to make a "significant move" against Tehran but could instead mount a symbolic limited attack, Revolutionary Guards cultural and social commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Tuesday, according to the Iranian Student News Network.

Israel is widely thought to be planning retaliation for a missile barrage launched by Iran on 1 October.

"Israel is too small to be able to attack Iran, although it may carry out a desperate, limited, and small attack to say it has retaliated, but it will definitely not carry out an offensive (strike) similar to ours," said Jafari, the former commander in chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

He added that Iran's response would depend on the intensity of Israel's retaliation, and that if Israel ended up carrying out a significant attack, Iran would respond with a higher-intensity offensive against Israel.

Jafari commanded the Revolutionary Guards from 2007-2019.

(Reuters)

The Lebanese Health Ministry has revealed that 2,546 have been killed and 11,862 have been wounded since 8 October. 

This includes yesterday's toll of 63 killed and 234 wounded.

At least 1,552 have been killed since 23 September.

An Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday just minutes after a Hezbollah official cut short a news conference in the area, an AFP video journalist said.

Journalists hastily left the press conference held by Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammed Afif after the Israeli military warned people near two buildings in the Ghobeiri area to evacuate. The official National News Agency said Israeli aircraft then carried out a strike in the area.

Israel's army on Tuesday called on residents of a southern Beirut suburb to evacuate ahead of military operations in the area.

"For your safety and the safety of your family, you must evacuate these buildings and the surrounding ones immediately and move at least 500 meters (yards) away," the army's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X alongside a map showing two specific buildings to be targeted.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday they had targeted an Israeli military base in Tel Aviv using ballistic missiles in solidarity with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Three paramedics were wounded on Tuesday in a strike on south Lebanon while on a rescue mission coordinated with UN peacekeepers, the Lebanese Red Cross said.

Four ambulance teams were dispatched to the southern city of Nabatiyeh in coordination with UNIFIL following a strike there, the Lebanese Red Cross said, adding that "the site was bombed again and three...volunteers were injured and are being transported to hospital".

Hezbollah said on Tuesday that there will be no negotiations while fighting continues and that it held Israel responsible for the wellbeing of the group's fighters who had been captured.

"Hezbollah takes the full and sole responsibility for targeting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's house," Mohammad Afif, the head of the militant group' media office, told a press conference in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israel said a drone was launched at Netanyahu's holiday home on Saturday. Netanyahu was not there at the time. But he described it as an assassination attempt by "Iran's proxy Hezbollah" and called it a "grave mistake".

(Reuters)

Branches of Qard al-Hassan, a non-profit financial association affiliated with Hezbollah, targeted by Israel, are not military targets and likely violate international law - Amnesty says.

The Israeli military announced it would begin attacking infrastructure linked to Qard al-Hassan and struck its buildings 35 minutes later in Beirut and the south and the Bekaa.

Qard al-Hassan is Lebanon's biggest microcredit provider and is used by many Lebanese civilians. 

"Israeli forces have targeted an institution that serves as an economic lifeline for countless Lebanese civilians. This, along with an evacuation warning issued less than 40 minutes before the start of the strikes, shows Israel's disregard for international humanitarian law," said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International's Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.

"Even if as the Israeli military alleges, the institution does provide financing to Hezbollah, it is not likely to meet the definition of a military objective, particularly for branches serving civilian customers."

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency called on Tuesday for a temporary truce to allow people to leave areas of northern Gaza as health officials said they were running out of supplies to treat patients hurt in a three-week-old Israeli offensive.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UNRWA relief agency, said the humanitarian situation had reached a dire point, with bodies abandoned by roadsides or buried under rubble.

"In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die," he said in a statement on social media platform X. "They feel deserted, hopeless and alone."

"I am calling for an immediate truce, even if for a few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area & reach safer places," he said.

(Reuters)

🆘🆘 from our @UNRWA staff in northern #Gaza.

Nearly three weeks of non-stop bombardments from the Israeli Forces as the death toll increases.

Our staff report they cannot find food, water or medical care.
The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) October 22, 2024

The war on Gaza has devastated the Palestinian economy, which is now 35 percent smaller than it was at the start of Israel's invasion a year ago, while development levels in Gaza itself have collapsed to the level of the 1950s, the UN's development agency said.

Launching a new study on the socioeconomic impacts of the war, which Palestinian officials say has claimed more than 42,500 lives, the UNDP's Chitose Noguchi said that by some measures, the region's poverty level was now approaching 100% as a result of the disruption, with unemployment now at 80 percent.

"The state of Palestine is experiencing unprecedented levels of setbacks," she said over a crackling line from Deir Al-Balah. "For Gaza, reversing development by an estimated 70 years to 1955."

(Reuters)

Analysis from The New York Times of satellite imagery shows that the Israeli military demolished an entire village - at least 79 buildings in Mhaibib in southern Lebanon last week.

A new analysis of satellite imagery (here overlaid on Google Earth) shows that the Israeli military demolished at least 79 buildings in Mhaibib in southern Lebanon last week — basically the entire village. Half of the ancient shrine dedicated to Benjamin is gone, too. https://t.co/9x9WGLwRG1 pic.twitter.com/YI4RpFZAtM

— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) October 21, 2024

Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Tuesday after Israel's military issued an evacuation call.

AFPTV footage captured smoke billowing after the Israeli military on X warned residents of Al-Hawsh, just south of Tyre, to evacuate, while Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that "enemy aircraft launched a series of strikes" that targeted the area.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday that at least 42,718 people have been killed since 7 October.

The toll includes 115 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which said 100,282 people have been wounded.

Israeli jets hit a Hezbollah target close to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut late on Monday but did not target the hospital, which was not affected by the strike, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

(Reuters)

Lebanon's health ministry on Tuesday said 13 people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli strike near a south Beirut hospital the previous night, revising upwards its initial toll of four.

Another 57 people were wounded in the strike near Lebanon's biggest public hospital, located a few kilometres from the city centre, the health ministry said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday for meetings with Israeli leaders, the first stop of a wider Middle East tour to launch another push for an elusive ceasefire.

The top US diplomat's latest trip - his 11th to the region since 7 October - comes as the Israeli military has intensified its campaign in the Palestinian enclave as well as in Lebanon.

Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and other officials during the day during a week-long Middle East visit, including Jordan and Qatar.

(Reuters)

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli positions in the Tel Aviv suburbs on Tuesday, including an intelligence base, and launched rockets at a naval base in north Israel's Haifa.

Hezbollah launched a "salvo of rockets" targeting the "Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit", the group said in a statement, after claiming similar attacks on the base in the Tel Aviv suburbs the night before.

The group also said it fired rockets at another position in Tel Aviv's suburbs and launched a "salvo of rockets" targeting the "Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa", a coastal city in northern Israel.

The Israeli military said in a statement that following sirens, "in central Israel, approximately five projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. The majority...were intercepted".

It also said that following sirens "in the Upper Galilee area and northern Golan Heights, approximately 15 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon", with some intercepted and the rest falling in open areas.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Tuesday that it bombed the Nirit area in the Tel Aviv suburbs with missiles.

Sirens sounded in central Israel as a projectile was identified crossing from Lebanon and falling into open ground, the army said on Tuesday.

Alerts sounded in the Samaria area, and in Modi'in Illit, the Israeli military added a statement.

(Reuters)

The Israeli army said late on Tuesday it has killed Hashem Saifeddine, who was set to take over as the next Hezbollah chief, in an air strike on 27 September. 

"Hashem Safieddine has been eliminated," the Israeli army's spokesperson to Arabic media, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X.

Hezbollah has not yet commented on the matter.