Israel attacks Lebanon and Syria, keeps up siege of north Gaza
- Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in Khan Younis and three in the Jabalia refugee camp as a siege that forced the United Nations to shut down schools and hospitals in northern Gaza enters a sixth day.
- Israel’s air force also continued bombarding Lebanon, killing five paramedics, and launched attacks on Syria’s Homs and Hama provinces, damaging a car plant and a military site.
Dozens of rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon, impacts reported
The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards the Upper Galilee, in northern Israel, with some intercepted but others making impact.
It did not provide details about damage, but Israeli media report a building in Margaliot suffered a direct rocket strike and was damaged.
Loud explosions were reportedly heard in the skies of Kiryat Shmona, a settlement near the border where a Hezbollah rocket killed two Israelis on Wednesday.
Israel ‘must do much more’ to avoid civilian casualties: UK envoy
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon defended his country’s record on allowing aid into Gaza after a torrent of criticism. The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza and distributing it during the war.
“Israel imposes no restrictions on humanitarian aid. In fact, 82 percent of all requests for humanitarian coordination have been approved and implemented.” He accused Hamas of diverting aid from those in Gaza who need it.
The UK’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the UN Security Council that Israel “must do much more” to avoid civilian casualties and ensure the UN and aid groups can operate safely and effectively in Gaza.
“Delivery of humanitarian assistance is being hindered, and humanitarian workers are constantly under threat,” French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere also noted.
More than 300 humanitarian aid workers – most of them staff from the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees – have been killed since Israel launched its attack on Gaza in October 2023.
UK relief group urges world to ‘act before Gaza is erased entirely’
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said it is deeply alarmed by Israel’s forced displacement orders for northern Gaza, including the evacuation and closure of its hospitals.
“The Israeli military’s actions in northern Gaza are systematically collapsing the little of what remains of the health system and eliminating the conditions needed to maintain Palestinian survival,” said Rohan Talbot, MAP’s director of advocacy and campaigns.
The international community’s “catastrophic failure” to take action and enforce a ceasefire has enabled Israel to ramp up its deadly assault, Talbot said, despite the International Court of Justice’s calls to prevent potential genocide in Gaza.
“The world must act before Gaza is erased entirely,” he added.
Iran’s foreign minister holds war-focused meetings in Qatar
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meeting Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha.
The Iranian diplomat has been on a regional tour he says is aimed at finding ways of ending Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
He arrived in Qatar late last night after completing a trip to Saudi Arabia. Araghchi visited Lebanon and Syria before that, despite the intense Israeli bombing of the two countries.
LISTEN: Could the Middle East be heading for a new era?
One year on and the war in Gaza shows no sign of abating. Instead, conflict is spreading across the region and diplomacy has all but failed.
So what’s the likely result of the ongoing tension? Could the Middle East be heading for a new era?
Early this morning the Israeli army said it assassinated two Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon. It also claimed to have killed Hezbollah commanders in Syria, in Homs and the occupied Golan Heights. These claims remain unconfirmed by Hezbollah.
The military also confirmed the death of an Israeli soldier and a critical injury to a reservist during clashes with Hezbollah fighters during these incursions into southern Lebanon that are increasing by the day.
The mood in Israel is about what the coming escalation with Iran would look like. In the media, there are very few opinion pieces about the need not to attack Iran and prevent an all-out regional war. One piece was titled “Israel must just go crazy and attack Iran”, with another talking about the “golden opportunity”.
In contrast, regional Arabic media are discussing the wider consequences of such an attack – how it would affect the stability of the region, what it would do to oil prices and the economy.
Three children, including 7-month-old baby, among Khan Younis victims
Earlier, we reported that Israeli fighter jets bombed a house in the al-Fakhari neighbourhood of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killing five people.
Now, the Wafa news agency reports that three children, a seven-month-old girl among them, have been killed, along with their mother and father – named Saqr al-Amur.
We will bring you further updates on this attack when we have them.
Lebanese accuse Israel of collective punishment as bombardment continues
Israeli strikes on Lebanon are continuing.
In the town of Khiam, which is about 14 kilometres from where I am, we’ve been hearing intense Israeli air strikes. We’ve counted at least nine of them so far, and there were at least 16 in that area yesterday.
And overnight, there were attacks on Wardaniyeh, which killed at least five people. This is a town in central Lebanon, in the Mount Lebanon Governorate.
That’s far away from southern Lebanon and from the southern suburbs of Beirut and that’s very concerning to the Lebanese because it shows the Israeli air campaign is widening across the country.
And there were two key strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight.
A lot of people here feel that this is just collective punishment. The Dahiyeh suburb is actually a vibrant neighbourhood. It gets called a Hezbollah stronghold in the media, which makes it sound like a garrison town. It’s not. It’s just a regular neighbourhood in Beirut. And Beirut’s a lively capital.
So people are just wondering what is left for the Israelis to bomb and they feel that this now is just either collective punishment or straight-up vengeance.
Israel claims killing two Hezbollah commanders
The Israeli military said it has killed two Hezbollah commanders in air attacks in southern Lebanon.
They are Ahmed Mustafa Allhaj Ali, who the Israeli military said was responsible for firing hundreds of rockets and antitank missiles at the city of Kiryat Shmona, and Muhammad Ali Hamdan, who it said was responsible for launching missile attacks on northern Israel.
The Israeli military also said it bombed weapons warehouses in Beirut and other military infrastructure in southern Lebanon overnight.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
Death toll rises following Israeli attack in Khan Younis
Earlier, we reported that Israeli fighter jets bombed a house in the al-Fakhari area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The death toll for that attack has risen to five, according to the Shehab news agency and the Palestinian Information Center.
We will bring you further updates when we have them.
Medics in Lebanon say Israel is deliberately targeting them
Over 100 medics have been killed in Lebanon since hostilities broke out and it’s having an effect.
Hospitals here in southern Lebanon and frontline medical centres have been shut down. At least 40 of them since October 8 – simply because Israeli air strikes are coming too close into their compounds for the doctors and the front-line staff to say that they can operate here safely.
So they’ve shut them down. That’s at least 40 out of 137 hospitals across this 120km border.
So the front-line emergency services are incredibly stretched and this is all just putting more pressure on them. Medical staff say they feel that they are being deliberately targeted and that it’s exactly like what the Israelis have done to medical facilities in Gaza.
