Israeli airstrike kills 28 people sheltering in a school in central Gaza

Lebanese authorities detained a US-Israeli national in Beirut last week and later deported him, Lebanese security and judicial sources said on Thursday.

"Joshua Samuel, a US-Israeli journalist, was detained on October 5 and deported the following day," a judicial official said, requesting to remain anonymous.

A security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah members detained a man called "Joshua Samuel Tartakovsky with US and Israeli passports" and handed him over to the military intelligence, but said he was not a journalist.

He had gone to Beirut's southern suburbs, which Israel has pounded in recent weeks, presenting himself as a "supporter of Gaza and Hezbollah", the security source said. He claimed he wanted to tell Hezbollah about "Israeli army tactics", the source said.

A spokeswoman at the US embassy told AFP: "We are aware of the arrest and due to privacy reasons have no further information to provide."

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Thursday two of its members were wounded when its positions came under repeated fire by Israeli forces in the country's south.

"Three positions were hit by fire and two peacekeepers were injured," a UNIFIL spokeswoman said, after Lebanon's official National News Agency said a watchtower of the peacekeeping force was hit in the Ras Naqoura area.

UNIFIL said the Israeli military "deliberately fired at and disabled" UN security cameras.

Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to a U.N. source who was not immediately able to specify the type of fire.

The source said one of the locations fired at was UNIFIL's main base at Naqoura.

There was no official statement from UNIFIL or immediate comment from the Israeli military.

UNIFIL had said on Sunday that it was "deeply concerned by recent activities" by the Israeli military near a peacekeeper position in southwestern Lebanon.

It did not provide details, but said the activities were dangerous and that it was "unacceptable to compromise the safety of U.N. peacekeepers carrying out their Security Council-mandated tasks".

In a letter to Israel's military dated October 3 and seen by Reuters, UNIFIL had objected to Israeli military vehicles and troops positioning themselves "in immediate proximity" to U.N. positions, "thereby endangering the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and premises".

Israel is committing the most horrific acts of genocide and displacement in the northern Gaza Strip to sabotage any chances of a ceasefire, the Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says 28 people were killed and at least 54 other wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

More than 42,065 Palestinians have been killed and 97,886 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7 last year, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

A ship was struck and damaged by an "unknown projectile" in the Red Sea, a British maritime agency said on Thursday, following months of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

"The master of the vessel reports being hit by unknown projectile and the vessel has sustained damage, no fires or casualties reported," said the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which is run by the British navy.

Ambrey, a maritime security firm, said the Liberia-flagged chemicals tanker was hit on its bridge, "causing light damage", 73 nautical miles southwest of Hodeida, a port city held by the Houthis.

The ship, which was travelling from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Muscat in Oman, later reported two more explosions nearby, UKMTO and Ambrey said.

"The crew are reported safe. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity," UKMTO added.

Palestinian medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has climbed to 21.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah confirmed the toll, and an Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.

Witnesses say the strike on Thursday appeared to target a makeshift post manned by police inside the school.

Hezbollah said it destroyed an Israeli tank advancing on the southern border on Thursday, amid clashes with Israeli forces trying to push deeper into south Lebanon.

The Iran-backed group fired rockets at "an Israeli tank as it advanced towards Ras al-Naqoura, leading to its burning and destruction," it said, claiming casualties.

Diplomatic communications have intensified in the past hours, before a UN Security Council meeting discussing the situation in the Middle East, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement on X on Thursday.

"There are contacts taking place between the United States and France with the aim of reviving a ceasefire declaration for a specific period in order to resume the search for political solutions," he was quoted as saying.

An Israeli strike hit a road linking Syria and Lebanon Thursday as Israel tries to cut off supply routes of Hezbollah, a war monitor said.

"Israeli aircraft carried out a strike targeting the road linking Syria and Lebanon" in the Quseir region on the Syrian side of the border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the group with a wide network of sources in Syria, said the strike came as part of Israeli attempts "to cut the supply line to Hezbollah".

There were no casualties and it was not immediately clear if the road had been cut off in the strike, he said.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported "enemy drone strikes on the border between Lebanon and Syria".

Hamas accused Israel of killing a cameraman for a television station it operates in the Gaza Strip, while Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera also blamed Israeli forces for wounding one of its journalists in the territory's north.

Muhammad al-Tanani, a cameraman for Al-Aqsa TV, was buried Wednesday afternoon by colleagues at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in northern Gaza City, according to AFP journalists.

In a statement, Hamas's press office called his killing an "despicable crime" and said the Israeli army was "fully responsible", without offering details of the circumstances of his death.

استشهاد المصور الصحفي محمد الطناني وإصابة الصحفي تامر لبد، برصاص الاحتلال، في محيط دوّار أبو شرخ، غرب معسكر #جباليا

أطلقت قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي الرصاص بشكل مباشر على الصحفييْن، بينما كانا يؤدّيان عملهما الصحفي بتغطية أحداث الاجتياح والقصف والنزوح شمال القطاع pic.twitter.com/oZMv3EZYcR

— بيســــان (@Bisan_Shrafi) October 9, 2024

Al Jazeera, meanwhile, said Wednesday that one of its cameramen, Fadi al-Wahidi, was "injured by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza, becoming the second Al Jazeera cameraman to be injured in an Israeli attack this week".

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Qatari counterpart and Qatar's prime minister on Thursday.

Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack early Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama, after an Israeli strike hit the country's south the previous day.

"At around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), the Israeli enemy launched an air attack... targeting a car assembly factory in the industrial area of Hassia in Homs province" and a military position in Hama, state news agency SANA said, citing a military source.

Hassia is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the city of Hama.

"The losses were limited to material damage," the report said.

Citing the manager of the industrial area in Hassia, SANA reported the attack targeted not only the factory but also vehicles "loaded with medical and relief supplies... which led to a large fire" that firefighters were working to extinguish.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said an "Iranian car factory" in Hassia was targeted "directly", while the strikes in Hama province targeted an area home to air defences and government troops.

Israel's military said it had eliminated a Hezbollah member in Syria who relayed intelligence against Israel in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had eliminated Adham Jahout, a member of Hezbollah’s "Golan Terrorist Network" in the area of Quneitra in Syria.

The army said Jahout's role was to relay information from Syrian regime sources to Hezbollah and transmit intelligence gathered on the Syrian front to facilitate operations against Israel in the Golan Heights.

Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign started boarding a Turkish military ship late Wednesday that brought in aid and will take them out of a country being hit by Israeli airstrikes.

They are part of a six-ship convoy including escorts that set sail from the southern Turkish port of Mersin early Wednesday, transported 300 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, hygiene kits, kitchenware, tents, beds and blankets.

Besides the Turkish citizens , people from Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan were among those who applied to evacuate on the ships. Officials did not provide numbers.

#Turkiye has sent two navy ships to a port in Beirut to evacuate 2,000 Turkish citizens from #Lebanon and deliver humanitarian aid amid #Israel's attacks. pic.twitter.com/O09bmT5hhv

— Al-Estiklal English (@alestiklalen) October 9, 2024

The Lebanese army said Wednesday it had arrested two Syrians on suspicion of having been recruited to work for Israel, amid its military offensive in Lebanon.

Lebanese army intelligence arrested two Syrians "for photographing different places... and documenting the results of enemy air strikes", an army statement on social network X said.

The arrests were "a result of surveillance and follow-up of Israeli spy networks and enemy agents", it said in the statement.

The pair had also documented "search and rescue operations and the recovery of bodies" at Israeli strike sites and were "recruited through social media", the statement said, adding that judicial authorities were investigating.

United Nations officials warned Wednesday that Lebanon was staring down a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis as the number of internally displaced people hit 600,000 and Israel presses its offensive against Hezbollah.

"Lebanon finds itself facing a conflict and a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, told a briefing.

She expressed "hope that Israel too will now be ready to add its support to the many calls and appeals that are out there" for de-escalation.

Lebanon's state civil defence body said an Israeli strike on Wednesday killed five of its personnel in the country's south, with the health ministry condemning the latest deadly strike on rescue workers.

Five personnel "were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted the civil defence centre in the village of Derdghaiya as they were inside on the alert to receive emergency calls," a statement from the body said.

Lebanon's health ministry said the toll of five was provisional, calling on the international community to take a "firm position" after Israel "renewed its targeting of rescue and ambulance teams".

استشهاد خمسة مسعفين على الأقل من #الدفاع_المدني_اللبناني وكشافة الرسالة الإسلامية جراء الغارة التي استهدفت مراكزهم في محيط كنيسة #دردغيا pic.twitter.com/f59YlyjR7b

— امال خليل (@AmalKhalil83) October 9, 2024