Lebanese PM calls for UN ceasefire resolution as Israeli strikes pound Beirut and Gaza

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

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced hope Friday for a diplomatic solution in Lebanon and preventing a broader conflict, as he backed efforts by the fragile state to assert itself against Hezbollah.

Blinken again said that Israel, which has been carrying out deadly strikes on Lebanon, "has a right to defend itself" against Hezbollah, but said he was alarmed by the worsening humanitarian situation.

"We continue to engage intensely to prevent broader conflict in the region," Blinken told reporters after an East Asia Summit in Laos.

"We all have a strong interest in trying to help create an environment in which people can go back to their homes, their safety and security, kids can go back to school," he said.

"So Israel has a clear and very legitimate interest in doing that. The people of Lebanon want the same thing. We believe that the best way to get there is through a diplomatic understanding, one that we've been working on for some time, and one that we focus on right now."

Nicaragua on Friday announced plans to break off relations with Israel over the war in Gaza, calling the Israeli government "fascist and genocidal."

Left-wing President Daniel Ortega, who has been fiercely critical of Israel's yearlong war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, ordered ties to be cut over Israel's attacks on Palestinian territories, said Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega's wife.

The move is an essentially symbolic one, with ties between Israel and the central American country virtually nonexistent.

Israel has no ambassador in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

Nicaragua has twice before broken off ties with Israel -- once in 2010 under Ortega as well as in 1982 under the Sandinista revolutionary government led by Ortega following the country's 1979 revolution.

At least 22 people have been confirmed dead following an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia, northern Gaza, as reported by the Wafa news agency.

Earlier, it was reported that Israeli fighter jets targeted a multistorey apartment block in Jabalia, hitting four homes that were occupied. According to Wafa, women, children, and elderly individuals are among the dead. An additional 30 people were injured, and 14 others remain missing beneath the rubble.

In Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood, at least three people were killed and several others injured when the Israeli military bombed a home, according to paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Hezbollah has ordered Israelis to move away from military sites in residential areas in the north of the country.

"The army of the Israeli enemy uses houses (...) as assembly centers for its officers and soldiers " in several regions of northern Israel and "has military bases" in the main cities of the north such as "Haifa, Tiberias, Acre" in particular, Hezbollah declared in a message broadcast in Arabic and Hebrew. The group said its call was on behalf of "the residents who would be near these military gatherings in order to preserve their lives."

In an updated report, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that three people were killed and six others injured in an Israeli attack on Baissariyeh, in the district of Sidon. Earlier, the ministry had specified that among the victims were a two-year-old child and a 16-year-old girl.

The ministry also reported that on Friday, three people were killed and five others were injured in an Israeli strike in Ansariyeh. In Ghaziyeh, one person was killed , while in Adloun, another was injured

Gaza's civil defence agency Friday said at least 30 people have been killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza's Jabalia town and refugee camp amid intense combat operations by the Israeli army in the area.

The agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that a strike that occurred before 9:40 pm local time (1840 GMT) had left "12 dead, including women and children" in the town.

Bassal said that 14 people were still missing and likely trapped under the rubble.

Before that incident, Ahmad al-Kahlut -- director of the agency in northern Gaza -- said 18 people had been killed by several strikes, including hits on "eight schools" in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced people.

In total, the day's strikes left at least 110 injured, according to figures provided by Bassal and Kahlut.

Israel said its forces fired at a threat near a UN peacekeeping position on Friday in Lebanon, acknowledging that a "hit" was responsible for wounding two Blue Helmets in an incident that has sparked a fierce diplomatic backlash.

The two Sri Lankan Blue Helmets were hurt at the main base of the UNIFIL force in Naqura, southern Lebanon, the day after two Indonesian soldiers were hurt when, according to the mission, tank fire hit a watchtower.

As Israel faced a chorus of condemnation from United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and Western allies, its army pledged to carry out a "thorough review" while releasing its preliminary findings.

Israeli soldiers had responded with fire to "an immediate threat" around 50 metres (yards) from the UNIFIL post, the military said.

"An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a UNIFIL post... resulting in the injury of two UNIFIL personnel," the statement added.

Sean Clancy, the Irish Defence Forces' chief of staff, said he did not believe Israel's explanation.

"So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act," said Clancy, whose country has troops in the UNIFIL mission.

The Israeli military on Friday said air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon, with at least one building damaged north of Tel Aviv during the incident.

"Following the sirens activated earlier in central Israel, two UAVs (drones) were identified crossing from Lebanese territory. The aircrafts were monitored the moment they crossed the border," the military said in a statement.

The Israeli Air Force "successfully intercepted one of the aircraft. At this stage, there is damage to a building in Herzliya. No casualties are currently reported," the military added.

Roughly 20 minutes after the alert was first activated, Israel's military said the incident had ended.

The air raid sirens came as Israelis observe the Yom Kippur holiday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with his Saudi, Qatari and French counterparts about how a resolution — particularly the election of a new Lebanese president — might reduce tensions in the Middle East by getting Hezbollah to move its forces away from Israel’s northern border to the line set out in a U.N. Security Council resolution ending the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“It’s clear that the people of Lebanon have an interest, a strong interest, in the state asserting itself and taking responsibility for the country and its future," Blinken told reporters Friday in Laos. "The presidency has been vacant for two years now, and for the Lebanese people, having a head of state would be very important.”

He said Lebanon's future is for its people to decide and no one else, including “any outside actor, whether it’s the United States, Israel, or any of the many actors in the region.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned as unacceptable Friday Israeli fire against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, where Italy has more than 1,000 troops.

"UNIFIL mission headquarters and two Italian bases were hit by gunfire fired by Israeli forces... It is not acceptable, it violates what is established under UN resolution 1701" which governs the peacekeepers' presence, Meloni said at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Cyprus.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that "stopping the export of weapons" used in Gaza and Lebanon was the only way to end fighting there, and also condemned "deliberate" targeting of UN peacekeepers.

"We all know it. It's the unique lever that would end it," Macron said at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Cyprus, where he also said it was "absolutely unacceptable" that UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are "deliberately targeted" by Israeli forces.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he is asking Israel to not hit U.N. peacekeepers in its conflict with Hezbollah after two peacekeepers were injured on Friday by an Israeli strike near their watchtower in south Lebanon.

Donald Trump's campaign has requested the use of military aircraft and vehicles to protect the former president as he campaigns, the New York Times and Washington Post reported on Friday.

(Reuters)

The Israeli army has intensified its strikes on sites belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), coinciding with Israeli criticism of the peacekeeper force and calls to relocate them 5 kilometers north "to avoid danger amid escalating conflict."

However, these efforts are seen as attempts to undermine UNIFIL’s mission, which Lebanese sources believe are part of an Israeli plan to end its role on the border to faciliate a deeper ground invasion.

Despite international outcry against Israel’s attacks—denounced as war crimes and flagrant violations of international law—and calls to protect the peacekeepers, UNIFIL's headquarters was hit again on Friday, the second incident of its kind in 48 hours, injuring two soldiers after blasts near a watchtower. 

A statement from UNIFIL said that several protective walls at the UN site near the Blue Line in Al-Labouneh collapsed when an Israeli bulldozer collided with the site’s perimeter. Israeli tanks were also spotted moving near the UN post. UN peacekeepers remained at the site, and a rapid reaction force was dispatched to assist.

Read more here.

The Israeli military said its forces fired at a threat near a UN peacekeeping mission position on Friday in southern Lebanon, and acknowledged that a "hit" was responsible for wounding two people, after an initial examination of the incident.

Israeli "soldiers operating in southern Lebanon identified an immediate threat against them. The soldiers responded with fire toward the threat. An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a UNIFIL post, located approximately 50 meters (yards) from the source of the threat, resulting in the injury of two UNIFIL personnel," the statement said.

It came after the UN mission said two of its peacekeepers were injured after explosions close to an observation tower at its Naqura headquarters.

It was the second incident of its kind reported by UNIFIL in two days, after two other Blue Helmets were injured on Thursday, sparking global condemnation.

Hours before Friday's incident, "the IDF instructed UNIFIL personnel to enter into protected spaces and remain there. This instruction was in place at the time of the incident," the military added.

Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli strike on an army post in southern Lebanon on Friday, the army said.

The incident takes the number of Lebanese soliders killed on duty to five in addition to 16 killed off-duty, a security source told Reuters. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the latest report.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the killings.

"This persistent Israeli crime against Lebanon did not spare today the brave soldiers who are carrying out their national duty in protecting the land and defending the people," he said in a statement.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas, the Palestinian organization that governs the Gaza Strip.

The Lebanese army has historically stayed out of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, focusing instead on maintaining order inside Lebanon.

(Reuters)

More than 300 Algerian nationals were evacuated from Lebanon and arrived in Cairo on Thursday in the latest evacuation mission as Israeli attacks on the country surge.

Algeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinated the evacuation flight with Middle East Airlines, one of the few carriers still operating from Beirut.

In Cairo, the evacuees, mainly families and students, were met by diplomats from the Algerian embassy in Cairo before they will board a second flight to Algeria on Friday.

Dozens of countries have orchestrated evacuation plans for nationals stuck in Lebanon after Israel dramatically ramped up attacks on the country in late September which have seen dozens of strikes hit Beirut, south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley. 

Hezbollah's priority right now is defeating Israel militarily but it is open to any efforts to stop "the aggression", the head of Lebanese group's media office, Mohammad Afif, said in a televised press conference on Friday.

Afif said the battle with Israel was "still at the beginning" but claimed that residents would return "soon" to southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley.

(Reuters)

Hezbollah said on Friday it launched rockets towards Israeli soldiers stationed in Tal Shaar opposite the town of Rmeish and near the town of Blida, in the latest aggressions in the border zones.

The Lebanese Shia political and military group said earlier on Friday it launched rockets at the Israeli settlement of Shomera.

Israel said on Friday that its "successfully intercepted" projectiles that crossed from Lebanon after sirens sounded in multiple towns in the northern Galilee region.

Lebanese Army says two soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an airstrike near its checkpoint in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese media reports that an "enemy raid" hit a road near an army checkpoint in the southern town of Kafra in the Nabatieh governorate.

Israel has said is it targeting Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure in its Lebanon offensive, but hundreds of civilians have been killed and it is not the first time a Lebanese army post has been hit.

France summoned Israel's ambassador on Friday to seek an explanation after Israeli troops fired at positions held by UN peacekeepers, including at the Naqoura base in southern Lebanon, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"These attacks constitute serious violations of international law and must stop immediately," the ministry said.

France has about 700 troops as part of the UNIFIL mission. None of its troops has been wounded so far.

The ministry said that all sides in the conflict had an obligation to protect peacekeepers.

Dozens of Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli quadcopter fire at a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza's Jabalia refugee Camp, the Civil Defence said on Friday.

It said crews were transferring the wounded to a nearby hospital. 

Israel's military chief and the head of its Shin Ben security agency held a security assessment inside southern Lebanon on Thursday, the military said on Friday.

"We continue to operate against the enemy and will not stop until we ensure that we can safely return the residents (evacuated from the north), not just now, but with a future outlook," said Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi in a video of the gathering released by the military.

"If anyone considers rebuilding these villages again, they will know that it's not worth constructing terrorist infrastructure because the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will neutralize them again."

Ronen Bar, who heads the Shin Bet, said that "on a peaceful border, defense is on one side; on a wartime border, defense must be on both sides of the border with freedom of action."

A Thai agricultural worker was killed by an anti-tank missile fired into northern Israel, Israeli emergency services said on Friday, while the army confirmed that two civilians were injured in a strike from Lebanon.

"Following an anti-tank missile strike on farmland in Upper Galilee, (rescue workers) declared the death of a 27-year-old Thai foreign worker," according to a statement from emergency service provider Magen David Adom (MDA).

Thai nationals in Israel have been particularly hard hit since the start of the war with Hamas, with at least 39 killed as a result of the October 7 attack on southern Israel.

More than two dozen are believed to have been captured by militants during the attack.

During a brief November truce, 23 Thais were released from captivity.

The Israeli army said two Thai nationals had died in captivity in Gaza in May.

A campaign starting next week to give hundreds of thousands of children in war-stricken Gaza the necessary second dose of polio vaccine will be "more complicated" than the first round, the UN said on Friday.

The United Nations agencies for health and for children said they were gearing up to start providing follow-up doses to some 591,700 children under the age of 10 across Gaza from Monday.

That follows a first vaccination round implemented from September 1 to 12, which Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative for the Palestinian territories, hailed Friday as "a massive achievement".

The vaccination campaign began after the first confirmed polio case in 25 years was reported in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Like the last round, the upcoming campaign will take part in three phases, aided by localised "humanitarian pauses" in fighting: first in central Gaza, then in the south and finally in the hardest-to reach north of the territory.

Speaking via video-link from Jerusalem, Peeperkorn told reporters he had "confidence" in the hundreds of teams ready to roll out the second stage of the campaign.

But he acknowledged he was "concerned about the developments in the north", where Israel has dramatically escalated its operations and has issued a string of evacuation orders.

"We are concerned," agreed Jean Gough of UNICEF.

"The conditions on the ground are really more complicated this time," she told the briefing, also speaking from Jerusalem.

She emphasised the need to fully vaccinate at least 90 percent of children to ensure polio does not spread.

"It will be absolutely critical that not only the localised humanitarian pauses are respected in the north, but also that people are not forced to move from one area to another," she said.

The UK government on Friday condemned firing by Israeli forces on a United Nations peacekeeper base in Lebanon, urging all parties in the conflict to "comply with international law".

"We were appalled to hear those reports and it is vital that peacekeepers and civilians are protected," a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters.

The United Nations on Friday said it was "appalled" by inflammatory language surrounding the war between Israel and Hezbollah and asked leaders to end their "bellicose posturing".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week urged the Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah, or risk a similar fate to Hamas-run Gaza.

"We are appalled by sweeping inflammatory language on multiple sides," UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva.

"Recent language threatening Lebanese people as a whole and calling on them to either rise up against Hezbollah or face destruction like Gaza, risks being understood as encouraging or accepting violence directed against civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international law."

She also decried as "unacceptable" the "ongoing denigration of the UN, in particular UNRWA", the UN agency supporting nearly six million Palestinian refugees spread across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

"This kind of toxic rhetoric, from any source, must stop," she said.

United Nations officials voiced concerns on Friday that an Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza might affect the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign set to start next week.

In Gaza's north, the Israeli military has been pursuing an offensive in recent days, sending its troops into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

"I am of course, concerned about the developments in the north, and specifically with these evacuation orders," Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, told reporters in Geneva, saying dozens of healthcare facilities across the Strip were under such orders by the Israeli military.

Jean Gough, a UNICEF special representative also voiced concern and described conditions as "more complicated" than in the first phase of the vaccination campaign last month. The first vaccinations are set to start in central Gaza on Monday, before moving to the south and then the north, she added.

At the same briefing, Peeperkorn said that three attempts by the UN health agency and partners to assist and evacuate patients from northern Gaza hospitals under evacuation orders have been thwarted this week.

"It's kind of unacceptable that we still struggle with what... should be routine humanitarian missions by now," he said, voicing deep concern about the affected patients. Fresh attempts will be made to reach them in the coming days, he added.

Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza said on Friday it was facing dire conditions due to severe shortages of fuel to power generators, after an intensification of Israeli incursions in the area.

The hospital in Beit Lahia has defied Israeli military orders to evacuate citing difficulties of critically-ill patients and new-born babies and has said it needs to continue serving the population.

It is calling on support from the international community to ensure it can keep operating.

Throughout the war, Israel has ordered dozens of hospitals and medical centres to evacuate and waged devastating attacks on hospital infrastructure, ambulances, and arrested health workers.

Situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital: The situation at the hospital is catastrophic. Due to fuel shortages and Israel’s restrictions on access to northern hospitals, the lives of many children in intensive care are at serious risk. The coming hours will be decisive for their… pic.twitter.com/55TiNrFAFZ

— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) October 11, 2024

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Mikati told reporters the foreign ministry would ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution demanding a "full and immediate ceasefire" and that his government was committed to Resolution 1701 which was adopted in 2006 and called for the Lebanese army and peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in the south of the country.

Tehran will not hesitate to take "stronger defensive actions" if Israel retaliates for last week's missile attack by Tehran, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday.

Iran is "fully prepared to take stronger defensive actions, if necessary, in response to any further aggression, and will not hesitate to do so," Araqchi said in a letter to other foreign ministers, according to a ministry post on X.

Israel has repeatedly said it will respond to Iran's missile attack on Oct. 1, launched in retaliation for Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Gaza and the killing of a Hamas leader in Iran.

Araqchi said in his letter that Iran’s missile attack on Israel had been in accordance with its right to self defence under international law and followed much restraint as it sought a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said Israel will hit Iran in a way that will be "lethal, precise and surprising".

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned Israeli forces firing on a peacekeeper base in Lebanon as a breach of international humanitarian law.

"I condemn the fact that there was a shooting against a UN premise, wounding two peacekeepers, which is a violation of international humanitarian law," the UN secretary general told reporters at a summit in Laos.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack Friday on a military base in north Israel's Haifa, a day after deadly strikes in Beirut and as the group battles Israeli forces on the border.

Hezbollah launched "an air attack with a group of explosive-laden drones" towards the "air defence command base" in Haifa, "responding to" Israeli attacks on "cities and villages and civilians", the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

More than 100 Europeans were evacuated from Lebanon on a Belgian military plane on Thursday evening, most of them from Belgium, the Netherlands and France, the government in Brussels said.

The aircraft, which landed at Melsbroek military base near the Belgian capital was carrying "58 Belgians and dependents, 41 Dutch citizens, 11 from France and one from Luxembourg, a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday.

Over the past week nearly 150 of the 1,800 or so Belgians living in Lebanon have benefited from assistance to return to Belgium, he said.

A first group left last week on two flights arranged by the Netherlands.

It included two Belgian journalists who were attacked and injured in Beirut while covering an Israeli bombardment of the city on the night of October 2 to 3.

"All the Belgians who wanted to leave have been able to do so. We are continuing to assess the situation," the spokesman said.

Lebanon's foreign ministry condemned an Israeli attack that it said wounded United Nations peacekeepers in the country's south, after Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a new attack on Friday.

The ministry condemned "the targeting... carried out by the Israeli army" on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, most recently "the bombing that targeted watchtowers and the main UNIFIL base in Ras Naqura, and on the Sri Lankan battalion's base, which led to a number of wounded", a statement said.

Lebanon's official National News Agency earlier Friday reported that "an enemy Merkava tank targeted one of the UNIFIL towers on the main road linking Tyre and Naqura... which wounded personnel from the Sri Lankan battalion."

Israeli forces fired at an observation post belonging to the UNIFIL peacekeeping force at its main base at Naqoura in southern Lebanon on Friday, wounding two people, a UN source said.

Israeli forces also breached the perimeter of another UNIFIL position they had fired at on Thursday, the source said. 

(Reuters)

Israeli army says it killed a leader of Islamic Jihad in the occupied West Bank in a strike on Tulkarm on Thursday.

In a statement the army said it killed Muhammed Abdullah, head of Islamic Jihad in Nur Shams.

Islamic Jihad is a smaller Sunni Palestinian political and armed group operating mainly in West Bank towns of Tulkarm, Nur Shams and Jenin.

Israel has been raiding West Bank towns for months waging hours long clashes with local armed militants and causing widespread destruction.

Israeli army says it struck a drone which crossed into Israeli airspace near Ashkelon in the north of the country. It did not say where the drone came from but follows a drone infiltration near Eilat, claimed by the Iraq- Islamic Resistance Groups.

Sirens have been sounding in upper Galilee in northern Israel where some rockets from Lebanon were intercepted, according to reports.

The times of Israel reported that two people were wounded by anti-tank missile fire in the Israeli town of Kibbutz Yir’on on the border with Lebanon. Yiron is opposite Maroun el Ras which has been the site of clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.

Israeli media reported that a 27 year old Thai national was killed and one other injured by the anti-tank missile attack on Kibbutz Yir’on, citing the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised support on Friday for efforts by the Lebanese state to assert itself as Israel strikes Hezbollah militants.

"It's clear that the people of Lebanon have an interest -- a strong interest -- in the state asserting itself and taking responsibility for the country and its future," Blinken told reporters after the East Asia Summit in Laos.

EU chief Charles Michel on Friday condemned attacks on UN peace operations, after peacekeepers said Israeli forces fired on their headquarters in south Lebanon.

"An attack against a UN peace mission is not responsible, is not acceptable and that's why we call on Israel and we call on all sides to fully respect international humanitarian law," the European Council president told AFP on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Laos.