Israel continue Lebanon bombing; war on Gaza approaches one-year mark
A year after October 7, Houthi Red Sea attacks still torment global trade
As the war in Gaza approaches the one-year mark on October 7, Houthi attacks are still disrupting commercial shipping, exposing the vulnerability of the supply chains that form the backbone of international trade.
While a United States-led international force has been able to thwart many attacks, commercial ships continue to be targeted and operators remain hesitant to use the waterway, raising the likelihood that trade will continue to suffer as long as conflict persists in the Middle East.
WATCH: Could Israel and Iran go to war?
Iran has told the US its period of “unilateral self-restraint” is over.
The world waits to see what Israel will do next, as it continues bombing Gaza and Lebanon.
Can peace prevail – or is a wider war more likely?
Palestine and Lebanon ‘places without civilians’ for Israel: UN rapporteur
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, says Palestine and Lebanon have effectively become places where there are no civilians in the eyes of the Israeli military.
“All terrorists, deserving to die. Men, women, kids,” she wrote in a post on X. “This monstrosity must end.”
An investigation by Palestinian sources has uncovered evidence, including videos, where Israeli commanders and soldiers explain how they shoot at unarmed civilians in war zones.
Israeli army strikes mosque in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military has struck a mosque beside a hospital in south Lebanon, adding to a growing list of civilian infrastructure it has targeted in the country.
The Salah Ghandour Hospital said nine of its medical and nursing staff were wounded by heavy strikes, most of them seriously, after it received an Israeli warning to evacuate.
The Israeli military claimed Hezbollah fighters were present inside the mosque when it was targeted but no evidence has been given.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the grounds of the hospital in the southern town of Bint Jbeil were “subjected to Israeli shelling”.
AFP news agency reported the hospital director as saying that it took a direct hit and was evacuated.
Twelve killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza today
We’ve been reporting of intensified Israeli attacks across Gaza today:
- Six people were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes northeast of Nuseirat refugee camp.
- One person was killed and a number of people were wounded in an Israeli attack on a tent for displaced people west of Deir el-Balah.
- At least five people are now reported killed in an Israeli strike on Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza that we reported on earlier.
- There are also reports of artillery shelling northwest of Rafah city.
- In Nuseirat, there are also helicopter air strikes as well as armoured vehicles firing at civilian positions.
UNIFIL confirms peacekeepers will remain in Lebanon
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon says it will not leave positions in the country’s south despite the Israeli military telling it to “relocate”.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement that the Israeli military notified it of an intention to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon and requested UN forces to leave. It added that “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly”.
We are in the southern suburb of Beirut. The latest Israeli hit on the area is very close to the Rafic Hariri International Airport, Lebanon’s only international airport.
This attack took place in the last few hours and it’s in the same area where Israel hit a couple of days ago and claimed to target one of Hezbollah’s top leaders, Hashem Safieddine. For now, there’s no word from Hezbollah on the fate of the head of its executive council.
This attack took place without warning. These strikes were around a complex where Hezbollah used to hold their ceremonies. It’s not the exact location, but the smoke is rising from nearby areas.
It’s a residential area and it’s crowded, home to 700,000 people, most of whom have now left. But there are people who decided to stay, because either they don’t have the resources to leave or they don’t want to go into a cycle of displacement.
Hezbollah uses IEDs to thwart Israeli incursion: Monitors
While Hezbollah reports that ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IEDS) have blunted Israel’s ground offensive into southern Lebanon this week, an Israeli military correspondent blamed the slow going on Lebanon’s topography, war monitors report.
According to US-based think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), the correspondent reported that the Israeli military’s push into southern Lebanon had been “relatively slow” due to the hilly and rough terrain”.
Hezbollah said that its attacks have stalled Israel’s cross-border incursion, including targeting Israeli forces with three IEDs (improvised explosive devices) around the village of Maroun al-Ras, located some 500 metres from the border with Israel, on Friday. The IEDS were planted along paths that Hezbollah expected Israeli troops to pass, according to the latest ISW-CTP report.
Hezbollah also carried out at least 14 attacks on locations in northern Israel between Thursday and Friday, including one barrage of about 70 rockets and a second of about 40 rockets. Antitank missile fire also targeted Israeli armour on the border, the ISW-CTP reports.
Lebanon shelters filling up as Israeli bombing displaces more people
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reports that a second consecutive week of intense Israeli air strikes across Lebanon has driven more people from their homes, with attacks affecting central Beirut and Palestinian refugee camps.
As of Thursday afternoon, a total of 4,250 internally displaced people were registered in UNRWA shelters, marking an 82 percent increase from the 2,332 registered at the end of September.
The number is expected to rise, the agency said, adding that it has opened 12 emergency shelters across the country.
“At the start of October, UNRWA temporarily suspended most of its operations in the Tyre area, primarily because of the displacement of UNRWA staff due to the security situation.”
Israel cuts off main Lebanon-Syria road
On Friday, an Israel air strike hit Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria, cutting off a road that was being used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days.
Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig reports from the scene of the strike:
At least one killed in latest Israeli air strikes on Lebanon
A school director has been confirmed killed in Lebanon as the Israeli military continues hitting multiple areas.
The director of Al-Abrar School in the town of al-Rafid in the Bekaa governorate was killed after Israeli aircraft targeted his home at dawn, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
It said civil defence teams are also working to open a road connecting the towns of Shuhour and Saraifa after it was targeted in an air raid.
Another attack took place on the Burj al-Barajneh area, while Israeli drones are now flying over Beirut and its southern suburbs at low altitudes, it reported.
A systematic destruction of residential areas in Gaza
The security situation in Gaza is incredibly unstable because the Israeli military is targeting neighbourhoods and densely populated residential areas in multiple parts of the enclave.
There has been a systematic destruction of these areas. We’re talking about buildings and refugee camps being targeted.
In the north of Gaza, there has been an expansion of military operations with the infiltration of residential homes that are near the Netzarim Corridor.
In Rafah, the situation is getting much more critical where a ground invasion has been ongoing for four months. The death toll among Palestinian civilians is increasing daily.
The vast majority of those killed were innocent civilians, and people have been saying they did not receive any sort of warning, which is a reflection on how the Israeli military is killing families and wiping them off the civil registry.
At least 4 Palestinians killed by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza
At least four Palestinians have been killed and many wounded after the Israeli military shelled and opened fired on people on Banat Street in Beit Hanoon city, northern Gaza, according to the Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Center.
We will bring you more information on this attack when we have it.
What’s happening in Gaza right now?
- Five civilians have been killed and many were wounded when Israeli warplanes bombed a home near Nuseirat camp.
- Two Palestinians were killed when another house was targeted northeast of the same camp.
- Children were wounded in an Israeli bombing of a tent next to the Kurd School in Deir el-Balah.
- In Deir el-Balah, one civilian was killed and others were wounded in an Israeli bombing of a shelter.
At least 41,802 people have been killed a
Rockets launched from Lebanon detected over northern Israel: Military
Israel’s military said air defence systems detected about five rockets launched from Lebanon into northern Israel on Saturday morning.
Some of the rockets were intercepted by “air defence fighters”, the Israeli military said without giving the exact number of interceptions. The rockets that were not intercepted, had hit “open areas”, the military said.
The military did not mention casualties or damage to property or infrastructure.
Iran’s foreign minister arrives in Damascus
Iran’s Foreign Ministry is saying that Abbas Araqchi has arrived in Damascus to discuss regional developments and bilateral relations with Syrian officials.
On Friday, Araqchi visited Beirut in what was described by Syrian state media as a “solidarity visit”.
“A shipment of 10 tonnes of food and medicine will be provided to Lebanon as part of Iran’s humanitarian aid,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said about the visit.
Palestinian killed in Israeli forces’ raid in West Bank
The Israeli military shot dead a man after storming his home in the village of Wadi al-Far’a in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports, citing security sources.
The man was released from an Israeli prison last month after two years in custody, according to the director of the Prisoners Club in Tubas.
Israeli military raids have been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank. Incidents include:
- Two men arrested in Qalqilya
- A man arrested from Burqa, northwest of Nablus
- A former prisoner re-arrested in Budrus, west of Ramallah
- Fighting reported between Israeli forces and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Tubas
Since October last year, at least 742 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers. Another 6,250 have been wounded.
Sound of Israeli blasts in Beirut heard as far away as Sidon
There were several Israeli air strikes during the night that targeted buildings across Beirut’s southern suburbs. There is no information yet on casualties.
There were several warnings from the Israeli army spokesperson, and then very big explosions were heard across Beirut, the capital, and the southern suburbs. The attacks were out in the southern suburbs but the sounds were huge and some of the sounds actually reached the city of Sidon, which is 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.
These continuous attacks on Beirut’s south are not stopping. It seems that every night there is a new batch of attacks.
On the other side, we have heard nothing yet from Hezbollah on the fate of its executive council head Hashem Safieddine after the Israel strike the day before yesterday.
