Israeli tanks push deeper into Jabalia as army expands operations in south Lebanon

 Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians, including nine members of the same family, in northern and central Gaza, the Palestine's official news agency WAFA reported early on Wednesday.

The nine family members were killed in a strike targeting their apartment at the Shujaiyya neighbourhood in northern Gaza, WAFA said citing medics from Palestinian Red Crescent.

While at Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, three others were killed, including a child, and several were wounded in an Israeli attack, the agency added.

Doha launched an "air bridge" to transport medical supplies and food aid to Lebanon, a Qatari minister said in Beirut on Tuesday, more than two weeks into intense Israeli strikes on the country.

"Today we launched the air bridge with consecutive planes carrying food, shelter materials and medical supplies," said Qatar's Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al-Khater from a public hospital in Beirut.

She said Doha was working "on medium and long-term plans to contain this humanitarian crisis".

Since September 23, Israel has launched an intense air campaign mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, killing more than 1,150 people and displacing upwards of a million people.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the Qatari aid "will help cover shortages of medical, relief and support supplies" and will be "a vital push" for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured people.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will this week meet with leaders in Bahrain and Jordan as part of Western diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East.

Lammy will arrive in the region on Wednesday to "reaffirm the importance of working with regional partners to press the case for restraint and will demand Iran and its proxies stop their attacks," the foreign office said in a statement.

"The situation is incredibly dangerous and further escalation or miscalculation in the region is in no one’s interests," Lammy said in the foreign office statement.

"We must not waver at this critical period to achieve ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, to get more desperately needed aid into Gaza, and secure the release of all hostages."

Israel has vowed to retaliate for Iran's missile attack last week, with options ranging from symbolic strikes on military strikes, to strikes on Iran's vital oil industry. 

The intensity and timing of any retaliatory strike was expected to top the agenda of a planned meeting this week at the Pentagon between Israel’s defense minister and his U.S. counterpart. But late Tuesday, the Pentagon said the meeting was abruptly postponed.

In a sign of possible disagreement over the right approach, US President Joe Biden has already urged Israel not to hit Iran's nuclear program and discouraged it from hitting the oil industry.

The Associated Press spoke to two former Israeli prime ministers and other experts to explore Israel’s options. There is broad consensus that Israel must strike back, but deep disagreement over the best way to do so.

Israeli bombing across Lebanon killed 36 people and wounded at least 150 others on Monday, figures released by the Lebanese health ministry said late on Tuesday. 

Lebanese state-run media reported a series of Israeli strikes on south Beirut stronghold on Tuesday causing "massive destruction" and razing four buildings, after the Israeli army warned residents to evacuate.

"Beirut's southern suburbs are still being subjected to a series of strikes, the latest of which hit the main road at Al-Kafaat, and caused massive destruction" in several south Beirut neighbourhoods, the National News Agency said.

The NNA said "four adjacent residential buildings collapsed in the Burj al-Barajneh area after the recent Israeli strike," and had earlier reported several "enemy" strikes in the area.

Hezbollah warned on Tuesday that it would intensify attacks on Israel, including the northern port city of Haifa, if it continues to strike Lebanon.

"The Israeli enemy's intensifying strikes" mean that "Haifa and other locations will be targeted by our rockets just as much as Kiryat Shmona, Metula, and other" locations, the group said.

The Israeli army earlier reported that 85 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, including Haifa.

An Israeli strike on Syria's capital, reported earlier today, has killed seven people, Syrian state TV reported. 

The strike targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood. Women and children are believed to be among those killed. 

Initial reports state at least 11 people were wounded in the strike, which caused widespread destruction and chaos in the neighbourhood. 

Earlier today, Syria’s official SANA news agency said there was an attack on the area, which is busy and is home to security headquarters and embassies.

Lebanon's transport minister said they have received "assurances" Israel will not target its only international airport, located in the capital's suburbs. 

Lebanon "seeks to keep its public airport, sea ports and land crossings – chief among them the Rafik Hariri International Airport – functional",  Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh told the AFP news agency.

However, he later highlighted that this does not amount to a guarantee. 

"Ongoing international calls have given us a sort of assurance" the airport will be spared Israeli strikes, he continued, adding: "There is a big difference between assurances and guarantees."

An Israeli strike hit a residential building in Syria's capital, Damascus, Syria's state news agency announced. 

The strike hit the building located in the Mezzah suburb, west of Damascus. 

Local media reports said that it has caused injuries to civilians in the area.

Earlier media reports stated that Syria’s air defences had intercepted "hostile" targets in the vicinity of Damascus.

Israeli strikes on Syria have increased since October 2023. 

The latest update from Lebanon's ministry of health states at least 1,473 people have died in the country since mid-September, when Israel expanded the war far deeper into the country.

The figures add that in one year, at least 2,083 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 127 children and 261 women. 

The ministry also said that at least 9,869 have been wounded. 

Since October 2023, Israel and Hezbollah started exchanging fire across the border, however, in mid-September, Israeli attacks on the country went deeper into the country, targeting Beirut, the north of the country and Baalbek. 

UN chief Antonio Guterres said that Israeli attacks on Lebanon are "threatening the entire region", with the death toll already surpassing that of the Israeli war in 2006.

"Large-scale Israeli strikes deep into Lebanon, including Beirut, have killed more than 2,000 people over the last year and 1,500 in the past two weeks alone,” he said. 

“Lebanese authorities report that over one million people have been displaced and 300,000 people have fled into Syria," he added.

Israeli forces have taken out the would-be successors of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, without naming them.

"We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement, and the replacement of the replacement," Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message.

Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the slain Nasrallah, had probably been "eliminated". It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the "replacement of the replacement".

(Reuters)

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had detected and intercepted two launches crossing the Gaza Strip, shortly after the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it had launched rockets towards Sderot in southern Israel. 

(Reuters)

Doha launched an "air bridge" to transport medical supplies and food aid to Lebanon, a Qatari minister said in Beirut on Tuesday, more than two weeks into intense Israeli strikes on the country.

"Today we launched the air bridge with consecutive planes carrying food, shelter materials and medical supplies," said Qatar's Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al-Khater from a public hospital in Beirut.

She said Doha was working "on medium and long-term plans to contain this humanitarian crisis".

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the Qatari aid "will help cover shortages of medical, relief and support supplies" and will be "a vital push" for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured people.

France and Qatar delivered urgent humanitarian aid to Lebanon on Tuesday, France's foreign minister said, as Paris pushes for broader humanitarian efforts and a ceasefire in the country.

"If we don't do anything, then Lebanon tomorrow could resemble what Syria has become," Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers in parliament. "(That is), a hub of instability for smuggling, terrorism and a point of departure for a large migration of civilians seeking refuge in Europe."

French and Qatari military planes delivered some 27 metric tons of medicines and basic necessities, including blankets and hygiene kits, diplomatic sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Reuters)

Beirut has received "assurances" that Israel will not target the country's only international airport, Lebanon's transport minister told AFP, but said those fell short of guarantees.

On Monday, the United States warned Israel not to attack the Beirut airport or the roads leading to it after repeated Israeli strikes near the facility.

Lebanon "seeks to keep its public airport, sea ports and land crossings, chief among them the Rafik Hariri International Airport, functional," Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh told AFP.

"Ongoing international calls have given us a sort of assurance" the airport will be spared Israeli strikes, he said, however adding that "there is a big difference between assurances and guarantees".

Qatar has launched an airlift on Tuesday between Doha and Beirut to deliver crucial humanitarian aid to Lebanon, which has been facing ongoing Israeli attacks. 

Lolwah Al-Khater, Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, announced the initiative in a joint press conference with Lebanese Minister of Health Firas al Abiad that ten C-17 planes will be dispatched throughout October, transporting medical supplies, shelter materials, and food to assist those impacted by the ongoing crisis. 

During a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, al Khater emphasised Qatar's "firm and steadfast position regarding Lebanon, its sovereignty, and its right to maintain its security and stability and the safety of its citizens." 

Turkey's lawmakers held a closed-door session on Tuesday to discuss the spread of war in the Middle East, a week after President Tayyip Erdogan made an unsubstantiated claim that Israel eventually aimed to encroach on Turkish territory.

Israel has not publicly responded to Erdogan's claim, which analysts and opposition lawmakers say is far-fetched and is intended primarily to deflect public attention away from Turkey's economic woes.

Israel has also not commented publicly on Tuesday's closed-door parliamentary session in Ankara, which is titled "Israel's occupation of Lebanon and developments in the region".

(Reuters)

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday said Hezbollah had been "battered and broken" following continuous strikes against the group and the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

During a briefing with the northern command, Gallant said Hezbollah "is a battered and broken organisation, without significant command and fire capabilities, with a disintegrated leadership following the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah".

Earlier on Tuesday, the military said about 85 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday condemned Cyprus for returning to Lebanon two Syrian refugees who had arrived on a small boat without examining their asylum claim.

In a damning verdict, the ECHR said that Cyprus had committed four violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the Strasbourg-based court enforces, by returning the two refugees to Lebanon.

The pair fled the Syrian city of Idlib and the civil war in their home country in 2016, staying in refugee camps in Lebanon. In 2020, they paid a smuggler to take them across the Mediterranean to Cyprus along with over two dozen other migrants, the ECHR said.

The Cypriot maritime authorities intercepted the boat, which they said had entered Cypriot territorial waters without permission. It swiftly returned to Lebanon, where it remains.

Cypriot authorities had essentially returned the pair to Lebanon "without processing their asylum claims and without all the steps required under the refugee law," said the verdict.

Cyprus failed to assess " the risk of lack of access to an effective asylum process in Lebanon or the living conditions of asylum-seekers there," it added.

Nicosia had also not assessed the risk of "refoulement" -- the forcible return of refugees to a country such as Syria where they might be subjected to persecution, it added.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday that it appears that the replacement of slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been eliminated.

(Reuters)

Turkey's exports to Palestinian territories leapt sixfold in the first nine months of the year to $571.2 million, data showed on Tuesday, five months after the country halted trade with Israel in protest over its war on Gaza.

The 526% rise in exports occurred largely after the ban went into effect. In the first four months of the year, Turkish exports to Palestinian territories were up 35% to $49.4 million, according to data from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).

Turkish opposition lawmaker ​​Mustafa Yeneroglu on Monday submitted questions to parliament about the sharp increase in exports to Palestinian areas and ongoing ship traffic from Turkey to Israel, despite the trade ban.

Yeneroglu asked Trade Minister Omer Bolat to respond to local media reports that trade with Israel was quietly continuing through Palestinian companies, with shipping documents describing goods as going to Palestinian territories when they were actually going to Israel.

Asked for comment by Reuters, the Trade Ministry pointed to previous statements on the issue. On September 18, it denied trade with Israel was continuing, reiterating that it ended on May 2.

It said Palestinian authorities had declared several times that Turkish goods were used exclusively in Palestinian areas.

Fishermen in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon stayed ashore on Tuesday, an AFP journalist reported, after the Israeli military warned of strikes along the coast.

Sidon's typically lively fish market was unusually quiet following the warning issued the previous night.

"The Lebanese army told us we weren't allowed to go out, and we are respecting that," said Mohammed Bidawi, a member of the fisherman's syndicate. "If it continues like this, the market will close too."

The Israeli army warned late Monday that it would expand its operations against Hezbollah to Lebanon's southern coast.

It warned people to stay away from the shore in the area south of the Al-Awali river, which flows into the sea to the north of Sidon.

حذر الجيش الإسرَييلي المدنيين اللبنانيين من دخول البحر أو التواجد على الشاطئ في جنوب لبنان من خط نهر الأولي الواقع شمال صيدا وعلى طول ساحل البحر الأبيض المتوسط ​​حتى الحدود الجنوبية في الناقورة. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/xKYTp6YsqY

— abdalahaj II (@lbsaj1) October 7, 2024

UN humanitarian officials called Tuesday for urgent action to stop the escalating conflict in Lebanon from spiralling into a similar scene of devastation as seen in Gaza.

"We need to do everything we can to stop that from happening," said Matthew Hollingworth, Lebanon country director for the United Nations' World Food Programme.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva from Beirut, he said he had spent the first half of the year coordinating WFP's operations in Gaza before taking the helm of its Lebanon office, and was deeply concerned by the similarities.

"It is in my mind from the time I wake until the time I sleep, that we could go into the same sort of spiral of doom... We shouldn't allow that to happen," he said.

UNRWA has provided over 5.6 million medical consultations to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric also said that UNRWA has also reached nearly 1.9 million people with two rounds of flour supplies, adding concerns about the current situation in Gaza.

Over 100 rockets were fired towards Haifa and Acre in Israel by Hezbollah after Hezbollah's deputy chief, Naim Qassem's speech. The rockets targeted the cities as opposed to military sites and impacted the Kirya Am and Kiryat Motzkin settlements.

Videos show rockets being fired in the sky.

Many are calling git one of the heaviest barrages on Israel since the beginning of its war.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">About 100 rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon towards Haifa and Acre after the end of Naim Qassem&#39;s speech. <a href="https://t.co/RIogdXxqbo">pic.twitter.com/RIogdXxqbo</a></p>&mdash; Clash Report (@clashreport) <a href="https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1843584806279622967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday that at least 41,965 people have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza, now in its second year.

The toll includes 56 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 97,590 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people Tuesday at a refugee camp in the centre of the territory.

"The civil defence teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.

Lebanese group Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at the city of Haifa in northern Israel on Tuesday.

The Iran-backed group said it had launched a "large rocket salvo" at Haifa and its northern suburbs, after the Israeli military said "85 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory".

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem on Tuesday said the Lebanese militant group supported efforts for a ceasefire with Israel after two weeks of intense Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

"We support the political efforts that (Lebanese parliament speaker) Nabih Berri is undertaking towards a ceasefire," he said in a televised speech.

A World Food Programme official voiced concern on Tuesday about Lebanon's ability to feed itself, saying thousands of hectares of farmland across the country's south has burned or been abandoned amid escalating hostilities.

"Agriculture-wise, food production-wise, (there is) extraordinary concern for Lebanon's ability to continue to feed itself," Matthew Hollingworth, WFP country director in Lebanon, told a Geneva press briefing, adding that harvests will not occur and that produce is rotting in fields.

At the same briefing, World Health Organisation official Ian Clarke in Beirut warned that there was a much higher risk of disease outbreaks among Lebanon's displaced population.

(Reuters)

The situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day, the European Union's foreign chief Josep Borrell told the European Parliament on Tuesday, adding a ceasefire should be achieved.

According to figures, some 20% of the Lebanese population had been forced to move, he said.

(Reuters)

Israel sent tanks deeper into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and advised people to leave as it pounded the historic Palestinian refugee camp from the air, residents said.

Palestinian medics said casualties had been reported in Jabalia but that they were unable to reach areas under fire.

Israel's army has said its forces are trying to stop fighters from the Hamas militant group staging attacks from Jabalia and want to prevent them from regrouping.

"Jabalia is being wiped out," was repeated in many messages posted on social media by residents of Gaza, who on Monday marked the first anniversary of Israel's war on Gaza.

(Reuters)

Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, delivers a televised speech on Tuesday.

He highlighted that Israel has "two main goals" in its wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

"First, to completely eliminate the resistance so that there is no longer any resistance to Israel, and the second is to annihilate the Palestinian people, rendering them incapable of generating resistance again or demanding their rights."

He said the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Flood attack on Israel was an "extraordinary and exceptional event".

He said the events of 7 October mark the beginning of a transformation in the Middle East region.

More to follow from this live address.

The Israeli army has said they have killed three who participated in the 7 October attacks.

The military says a strike on a school in Gaza City on 30 September killed Muhammad Rafai and 30 others, who reportedly participated in the attacks in Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz in Israel.

Another strike on 1 October in southern Rafah City killed Muhammad Zenon and Bassel Ahars - who the army claims also took part.

Iran's foreign minister warned Israel against launching an attack, saying on Tuesday any strike on Iranian infrastructure would be met with a stronger retaliation.

Iran attacked Israel last week with a salvo of missiles. Israel has vowed to retaliate.

"We recommend the Zionist regime (Israel) not to test the resolution of the Islamic Republic. If any attack against our country takes place, our response will be more powerful," Araqchi said in a televised speech.

Any attack on Iran's infrastructure will be met with a stronger retaliation, and "our enemies know what kind of targets inside the Zionist Regime (Israel) are in our reach," Araqchi added.

Iran's oil minister landed on Kharg Island, home to the country's main export terminal, and held talks with a naval commander on Sunday, the oil ministry's news website Shana reported, amid concern Israel could attack energy facilities.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not think Israel had yet decided how to respond.

(Reuters)

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) group has claimed a new drone attack on a military target in Israel without giving further details.

The group said in a Telegram statement yesterday that the attack was "in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians, including children, women and the elderly".

The IRI released a video which it said showed the launch of the drone used in the attack.

On 4 October, the Israeli army said that two soldiers had been killed and 24 others wounded at a base in the occupied Golan Heights hit in by an Iraqi drone attack.

The Israeli military says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike on Beirut.

The military said Tuesday that it killed Suhail Husseini, who it said was responsible for overseeing logistics, budget and management of the militant group.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

The military said Husseini was involved in the transfer of advanced weapons from Iran and their distribution to different Hezbollah units and that he was a member of the group’s military council.

Turkish navy ships will evacuate Turks who have applied to leave Lebanon by sea on Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The two ships were expected to set off for Beirut on Tuesday with a total capacity of around 2,000 passengers, the ministry said in a statement.

It said the evacuation process would continue in the following days if necessary, adding that the ships carrying out the evacuation would also transport humanitarian aid to Lebanon.

A foreign ministry source said that around 2,500 Turkish citizens had applied to be evacuated from Lebanon, but after checks, it was determined that a ship with a capacity of 2,000 would be sufficient.

The naval ships will set off on Tuesday from Turkey's eastern Mediterranean province of Mersin, the source said.

Turkey had previously said it was working with around 20 countries on preparing for a possible evacuation of foreign nationals via Turkey.

Hundreds of people of various nationalities arrived in Turkey from Lebanon last week on a commercial ferry.

(Reuters)