Dozens killed in Israel strikes across Gaza as Lebanon bombardment continues

Israel's economy grew slower in the second quarter than previously thought, data showed on Tuesday, as Israel's war on Gaza continued to weigh on growth.

Gross domestic product rose by an annualised 0.3 in the April-June period, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in its third estimate, down from 0.7 percent reported a month ago and from an initial 1.2 percent published in August.

The economy was supported by gains in consumer and state spending and in investment in fixed assets, while exports fell.

Last week, the Bank of Israel trimmed its Israeli economic growth estimate in 2024 to 0.5 percent from a prior estimate of 1.5p percent.

Along with a weakening economy, inflation has spiked and central bank officials have warned of possible interest rate increases. It held rates steady last week for a sixth straight policy meeting.

First-quarter GDP growth was unrevised at 17.2 percent, as the economy bounced back from a steep contraction in the fourth quarter of 2023 when the war began.

(Reuters)

Two United Nations agencies on Tuesday called for more funding to address "increasing" needs in Lebanon, where the war between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

"We are preparing for the reality that the needs are increasing," said UNICEF deputy executive director Ted Chaiban and World Food Programme deputy executive director Carl Skau in a joint statement, adding: "We need additional funding, without conditionalities".

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group said Tuesday it had carried out a rocket attack targeting the suburbs of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv a day earlier.

Hezbollah fighters launched "a rocket barrage at Tel Aviv's suburbs" on Monday night, a statement said, adding that the attack came "in defence of Lebanon and its people, and responding to Israeli" attacks on "cities, villages and civilians".

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it downed an Israeli drone on Tuesday, without saying where, as the Iran-backed group battles Israeli troops near the border and as Israel bombs south and east Lebanon.

Hezbollah fighters from the group's "air defence units... downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone" just after midnight, the armed movement said in a statement.

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday it had received reports that most of the 22 victims of an Israeli air strike on a building in northern Lebanon were women and children.

"What we are hearing is that amongst the 22 people killed were 12 women and two children," UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva press briefing in response to a question about a strike on Aitou on Monday.

"We understand it was a four-story residential building that was struck. With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to IHL (International Humanitarian Law), so the laws of war, and the principles of distinction proportion and proportionality," he said, calling for an investigation.

At the same press briefing, the UN refugee agency's Middle East Director Rema Jamous Imseis said that new Israeli evacuation orders to 20 villages in southern Lebanon meant that over a quarter of the country was now affected.

"Now we have over 25% of the country under a direct Israeli military evacuation order," she said. "People are heeding these calls to evacuate, and they're fleeing with almost nothing."

(Reuters)

Israel will take into consideration the United States's opinion but will act against an Iranian missile attack based on its own "national interests", the prime minister's office said Tuesday.

"We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest," Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Gaza's Ministry of Health have said that in the last 24 hours Israeli strikes have killed 55 people and wounded a further 329 others.

The ministry added that Israel's war on Gaza has killed 42,344 people, and injured a further 99,013 others.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said today that Israel has deliberately chosen to expand its aggression by implementing pre-planned plans in the West Bank and Lebanon, stressing that after all the killing and destruction, it will have no choice but to adopt a two-state solution. 

His comments came at the opening of the regular session of the Qatari Shura Council.

He said that his country was making efforts to stop the fire and will continue to do so, calling for an end to the aggression on Gaza and Lebanon.

"We will continue to make every effort to reach an agreement that ends this war despite the obstacles that hinder mediation efforts," he said.

"We follow the approach of dialogue, and support the settlement of disputes through peaceful means," he added.

"We warned against the escalation in Lebanon and the Israeli aggression against it and its consequences for the region, and we called on the international community to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians," he said, reiterating that the Palestinian issue was at the forefront of Qatar’s priorities.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) grouping has claimed a new drone attack on Israel.

The group on Telegram yesterday that an attack on "a vital target in the east of our occupied territories [Israel] by a drone with advanced capabilities".

As in previous statements, IRI said the claimed attacks had come "in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity [Israel] against civilians, including children, women and the elderly".

IRI has increased its attacks - at least in terms of claimed strikes - against Israel since the flare-up with Hezbollah began in late September.

An area in the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah province on the western Yemeni coast was targeted in joint US-British strikes, according to local media in Yemen.

The Al-Satif district was targeted by US-British attack yesterday in a bid to "pressure" the Iran-backed movement into abandoning its support for the Palestinians in Gaza. 

On 5 October, Yemeni media reported a series of joint US-UK strikes on areas controlled by the Houthis, including the capital, Sanaa.

The strikes came after the group claimed a series of attacks on ships and Israeli cities following a month-long lull. 

Yesterday, the Houthi chief negotiation team, Mohammed Abdulsalam, held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in the Omani capital, Muscat over developments in Gaza and Lebanon. 

Fresh Israeli strikes hit various areas in central and southern Lebanon overnight and early this morning, with one raid hitting a hospital in the Bekaa Valley.  

A series of Israeli air raids targeted several areas in the Bekaa in central Lebanon and in the south. 

Meanwhile, a hospital in the city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley had sustained "major damage" in Israeli strikes in the early hours of this morning. Footage shared online showed scenes of damage caused by Israeli strikes. 

Fierce clashes were reported between Hezbollah fighters and a group of Israeli infantry soldiers who were trying to enter the town of Rab Thalatheen in southern Lebanon.  

Yesterday, Hezbollah released a video showcasing some of its weapons and military capabilities, saying they were "very good". 

Iranian commander Esmail Qaani on Tuesday attended the funeral in Tehran for slain general Abbas Nilforoushan who was killed last month alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

The funeral procession for Nilforoushan, a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, began at the Imam Hossein Square, according to a live broadcast on state television.

Qaani - who heads the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations arm - had disappeared from public view and was rumoured in some media to have been targeted in an Israeli strike on Lebanon before reappearing.