/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Israel strikes Beirut after US assurances not to

Earlier, Israeli air strikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs hours after the United States said it opposed the scope of attacks on Lebanon’s capital.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday that US officials assured Lebanon that Israel would tamp down its strikes on Beirut. He added Washington was “serious about pressuring Israel to reach a ceasefire”.

Israel has not struck the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital since late last week after hitting the area on a near nightly basis for weeks in attacks that destroyed buildings and killed scores of people.

Almost 340 Israeli artillery, air strikes in 36 hours on southern Lebanon
Imran Khan
Reporting from Hasbaiyya, Lebanon

Artillery shelling from Israel continues and air strikes are also continuing throughout the day.

The Israelis have suggested that they’ve hit 140 Hezbollah targets yesterday alone.

That brings the total in the last 36 hours to nearly 340 individual artillery or air strikes in the southern Lebanese border area alone, a lot of them concentrated near to where we are right now.

The Israelis also say they’ve gone in and destroyed – on the ground – rocket launchers and Hezbollah infrastructure in those front-line villages on the border with northern Israel.

However, Hezbollah is saying that they are fighting back. They are fighting back on the ground and 24 hours ago they did say – and it hasn’t been confirmed – they said they managed to shoot down an Israeli drone.

Death toll from Israeli attack on Qana rises to 15

The death toll from an Israeli strike on the Lebanese southern town of Qana has risen to 15, Lebanon’s civil defence agency says. At least 15 others were wounded.

Qana, 10km (4.5 miles) southeast of the main city of Tyre, was the site of an Israeli artillery strike on a United Nations compound in 1996 that killed dozens of civilians.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike late on Tuesday.

Israeli strike on Qana village ‘symbolically important’, echoes massacres in 2006, 1996
Laura Khan
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

We know this is very much an active scene in Qana. Rescue are workers digging through the rubble to see if there are any more survivors.

We know at least 10 people have been killed and 15 wounded, and a healthcare centre struck. It’s certainly not the first time. Israeli forces have killed dozens of healthcare workers since the beginning of this conflict with Hezbollah and have hit a number of facilities.

At least 37 healthcare facilities have also been closed down. It led the World Health Organization just a couple of weeks ago to warn about the provisions for mass trauma management, particularly in these active areas in the south of Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley, and also the southern suburbs of Beirut.

We also know that Qana is symbolically important to the people there. In 2006, more than 50 people were killed in Israeli shelling and also, 10 years before, in 1996 at least 116 people were killed in Israeli shelling of Qana. Many of those people were fleeing from the war and trying to find shelter.

We also understand this evening, that there have been a number of strikes in southern Lebanon and across the Bekaa Valley. Mostly civilians are being caught up in the crossfire since the beginning of this conflict in October 2023. More than 2,350 people have been killed so far.

US advocacy group condemns ‘double tap’ attack that killed children, doctor in Jabalia

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned an Israeli “double tap” attack that killed several children, as well as a doctor who tried to save them, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza.

The Israeli military reportedly returned to bomb the home of the family of a US citizen after an initial strike injured 15 people, including seven children, on Monday night, CAIR said in a statement.

Trapped under the rubble, the family called for help, but Israeli forces also then targeted an ambulance, killing Ahmed Najjar, a doctor, and several children, CAIR said.

CAIR called on US leaders, including the Biden administration, the US State Department and elected officials in Virginia, where the family’s relatives live, to “demand that the Israeli government cease its attacks on” Jabalia.

‘It’s a massacre’: Israeli strikes kill mayor and others in Nabatieh

Earlier we reported nearly a dozen Israeli strikes hit the southern Lebanese town.

Local authorities are reporting Nabatieh Mayor Ahmad Kahil is among those killed. “The mayor of Nabatieh, among others … was martyred. It’s a massacre,” Governor Howaida Turk said.

Kahil was inside the town’s municipal building when it was attacked, said Turk. Rescuers said several others were killed.

Smoke from Israeli strike on Beirut ‘doesn’t suggest’ Hezbollah arms dump hit
Imran Khan
Reporting from Hasbaiyya, Lebanon

This strike took place at about 6:50am. It was actually three air strikes that we hear took place in the Dahiyeh area.

We don’t actually know which building was targeted, but the Israelis say that this was an underground storage facility for Hezbollah weapons.

If it was that, the kind of smoke that we are seeing, and the kind of damage that we are looking at, doesn’t really suggest that it was an arms dump.

Because, if it was an arms dump, when you strike it, those arms go up too [in the explosion] and the damage is so much wider.

This has been a period of relative calm in the Lebanese capital … But after five days it’s now back to Beirut and a very serious attack against that southern suburb.

Israeli forces shoot teenager, then beat him in occupied East Jerusalem

Video has emerged of Israeli soldiers running after, shooting and then beating an injured teenage boy.

Security camera footage shows Israeli soldiers chasing Palestinian children in the town of Biddu, occupied East Jerusalem.

The video shows the moment when a soldier fires towards one of the fleeing boys with an assault weapon. Then the troops start beating the wounded boy as he lies on the ground before arresting him. It’s unclear when the attack happened.

As war rages in Gaza, Israeli forces continue deadly incursions into the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. More than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied territory since October 7, 2023.

US sudden ‘concern’ for Gaza is deflection as it prepares for war – Marwan Bishara

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said the US warning to Israel that it has 30 days to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza or risk losing access to US weapons funding is little more than a deflection.

“There is always some sort of American reservation about this, that and the other thing. While at the same time providing more and more arms to Israel. More and more money. And more and more diplomatic shield to Israel as it carries out its genocide. And as it carries out its war crimes in the West Bank and in Lebanon,” Bishara said.

“Every time an American says we are ‘concerned’, one should only roll their eyes,” he said.

“We know that when 1,000 children died [in Gaza], they were ‘concerned’. When more than 40,000 people died, they were ‘concerned’. When Israel expanded the war into Lebanon, they were ‘concerned’”, he said.

“It’s not working any more,” he added.

‘Now or never’: Belgium deputy PM urges recognition of Palestine

Petra De Sutter says her country must “resolutely opt for international law by recognising the Palestinian State”.

“It is now or never. Our proposal on the recognition of Palestine is before the House today. The lack of action is culpable neglect,” she posted on X.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/16/live-ten-killed-as-israel-hits-homes-healthcare-centre-in-lebanons-qana

Mansour to UNSC: ‘General’s Plan’ already in motion in Gaza, Israel seeks annexation

Palestine’s UN envoy calls Israel’s ongoing assault on northern Gaza the country’s “latest plan to achieve what has been its goal all along”.

“We warned since the early days of Israel’s assault that its goal was forcible displacement of the Palestinian people and annexation of the Palestinian territory. What we are seeing in northern Gaza is exactly that,” Mansour said.

“The so-called Israeli General’s Plan is in motion,” he added.

The “General’s Plan” is a strategy put forward by retired Israeli Major General Giora Eliand that aims to lay siege to the few hundred thousand remaining residents of northern Gaza to essentially empty out and ethnically cleanse this part of the territory.

Israeli media have quoted soldiers who said this strategy in effect is Israel’s latest campaign in northern Gaza.

UNIFIL says Israeli tank deliberately targeted position

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has issued a statement saying that an Israeli tank targeted yet another UN position in southern Lebanon earlier today.

The peacekeeping mission said that one of its watchtowers in the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila was struck by an Israeli Merkava tank, destroying two cameras and damaging the tower.

“Yet again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire at a UNIFIL position,” the statement says.

Israel has targeted UNIFIL positions several times in the last week, in an apparent attempt to get the agency to heed its public calls for it to withdraw peacekeeping forces.

Report: Biden official told aid groups Israel too important to face military aid cutoff

The US news outlet Politico has reported that a Biden administration official told humanitarian groups that the White House would not consider suspending arms transfers to Israel, even if it was blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Under US law, blocking humanitarian aid, as Israel has been doing for months, is supposed to trigger the suspension of weapons transfers.

The report focuses on an August 29 meeting between humanitarian official Lisa Grande and more than a dozen aid organisations, where Grande allegedly stated that the US could use pressure in forums such as the UN but would not consider ending arms supplies.

Critics have said for months that the administration’s efforts to pressure Israel to let more aid into Gaza are useless so long as arms transfers, the largest source of US leverage over Israel, are not in danger of being suspended.

Palestine’s UN envoy calls on Security Council to end silence

Riyad Mansour has given an impassioned speech before the UN’s highest body, saying that all members present are witnessing genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza whether or not they are willing to recognise it.

“What is happening in northern Gaza now is another level of monstrosity”, he said, focusing in on Israel’s ongoing relentless pounding of the northern Strip.

“Silence and inaction are not an option. Are you ready to proclaim that while Palestinians refuse to surrender even when faced with collective capital punishment, this council decided to surrender?” he asked the council.

“We know that many members around this table refuse to do so, and we could on them today to fight back, with the tools provided by the [UN] charter and by the law to combat those who are obliterating the charter and the law. This is the responsibility of the council and of each and every state around the world”.

“The massacres have to stop, ceasefire now”, Mansour added.

China calls on Israel to cooperate with humanitarian efforts in Gaza

Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the UN, says the situation in Gaza has deteriorated in the past two weeks and shows no signs of stabilising.

“Israel has not relented in its military operations in Gaza at all but has constantly attacked and bombed schools and hospitals, completely cut off access to humanitarian supplies in northern Gaza and once again forcibly ordered an emergent evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people,” he told the UN Security Council.

Fu called on Israel to “cooperate fully with the UN and other humanitarian entities to facilitate and ensure the safety of humanitarian operations, such as transportation of humanitarian supplies and polio vaccination”.

“They are all human beings like us. Why, when born in Gaza, do they have to suffer like this?”

Iran’s president urges Muslim countries to unite against Israel

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has exhorted Muslim countries to come together against Israel.

“If we, Islamic countries, are united with each other, the Zionist regime will not dare to commit crimes so easily,” the president’s website quoted him as saying during a phone conversation with the ruler of Oman, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq.

Pezeshkian praised Oman’s stance regarding “Israeli crimes” in Gaza and Lebanon and demanded more pressure on those supporting Israel.

There was no immediate report in Omani state media on the call. Oman has long served as an interlocutor between Iran and the West.

Israel trying to make Lebanese border towns ‘unlivable’

Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem says Israel’s systematic destruction of Lebanese towns near their shared border indicates that it is trying to make the area uninhabitable.

“In the south, we saw pictures of Israel detonating a whole village, the village of Mhaibib, that’s just on the border,” he reported from Beirut. “That gives an indication that there is an attempt to make the border villages unlivable so that people won’t get back there even if there is a settlement or an end to the hostilities between the two sides.”

Israeli equipment barred from defence show in France

More than a week after French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel, Israeli arms manufacturers have been told they can take part but not exhibit in the Euronaval defence show in Paris next month.

“The French government informed Euronaval of its decision to approve the participation of Israeli delegations at Euronaval 2024 without any stand or exhibition of equipment,” said the organisers of the show, which is due to start on November 4.

The organisers of the biennial event, which attracts naval defence exhibitors from around the world, said seven Israeli companies would be impacted.

“In accordance with the French government’s decision, Israeli companies and citizens who wish to attend will be welcomed at the show under the conditions listed above,” they added.

UK considers sanctions against Israeli ministers

The economic restrictions would target Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over comments they made about civilians in Gaza and settlers’ activities in the occupied West Bank, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said.

Starmer was responding to a question about Smotrich’s comments that starving civilians in Gaza might be justified and Ben-Gvir’s remarks that perpetrators of settler violence in the West Bank were heroes.

EU members of UNIFIL call for revised rules of engagement in Lebanon

A number of European Union (EU) nations that contribute troops to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the UN’s peacekeeping mission to the country, such as Italy, Spain, and France, made the call without offering clear details.

A letter signed by 16 EU countries who contribute to the peacekeeping mission said that the mission’s rules of engagement need to be more effective following a series of widely condemned Israeli attacks on UNIFIL positions.

“The message we want to send to Israel is that if you stop your army, the UN can also change its approach in that part of Lebanon, so that we can peacefully achieve what you’re now trying to do by attacking Hezbollah’s bases militarily,” Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told RAI television.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/16/live-ten-killed-as-israel-hits-homes-healthcare-centre-in-lebanons-qana

>>484996
So Canadian groceries are more expensive than getting produce in a warzone.

>>485000
>Zionist Assistant Professor Shai Davidai has been suspended from Columbia University’s campus.
I wonder what that guy did. It must have been pretty terrible given how much Zionists tend to get away with.

>>484996
A thousand bucks for a sack of flour ?
yikes

Israel not killing these subhumans fast enough tbh.

Israel says it is investigating whether Hamas’s Sinwar killed in Gaza attack

Israel’s army says it is investigating whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in an attack in Gaza.

We will bring you more soon.

Israel security official confirms army DNA testing fighter’s body: Report

An Israeli security official has told AFP news agency that the military was conducting a DNA test on a fighter’s body to confirm whether it was Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.

“The Israeli military is conducting DNA tests on a body of a militant to confirm whether it is Sinwar,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media on the issue.

Houthis promise response to US attack

Yemen’s Houthis have promised to retaliate after the US conducted multiple strikes on weapons storage facilities in areas controlled by the group.

“We confirm that the American aggression will not pass without a response,” said a statement from the Houthis’ political bureau.

Earlier, the US announced its B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers targeted the facilities that “demonstrate US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

At least 15 people killed in Israeli attack in Jabalia

Israeli strikes have killed at least 15 Palestinians at an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera’s Moath Kahlout, who is at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, reported that the majority of casualties are children and women.

Israel’s so-called ‘limited’ campaign in Lebanon is expanding
Imran Khan
Reporting from Hasbaiyya, Lebanon

Two sets of evacuation orders have been issued. This is the first time that this has happened in the Bekaa Valley.

Now, when those evacuation orders were issued, it wasn’t long after that the air strikes came in, so that’s likely to be connected.

This is getting people worried because on September 29, Israel said that it was going to mount a limited ground invasion into Lebanese territory.

Now, they have been doing that on the border, but the aerial campaign is getting wider and wider.

Some 32 percent of the south, just where I am, is under Israeli evacuation orders.

The attack on Bekaa now adds to that, and it’s in the east of Lebanon.

In total, some 8 percent of Lebanese territory is now under those Israeli evacuation orders, which is concerning to many Lebanese people.

But we’re now hearing from politicians about what they think the definition of Israel’s saying, using the word limited, actually is.

What is that definition? No one seems to know what limited means for the Israelis.

More on Sinwar claims

As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli army has said it is looking into whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in an “operation” in Gaza. Hamas has not commented yet.

Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg says the possibility of Sinwar being killed is a “meaningful event” for Israel so the army would not want to officially announce it until they’re “105 percent sure”.

“If Israel has managed to kill Yahya Sinwar that might be the only event on the ground that could potentially get Israel to stop decimating Gaza. That is the symbolic achievement Israel has been looking for,” Goldberg told Al Jazeera.

“Israel has been fighting in Gaza ultimately without any sort of clear plan except to kill as many Hamas operatives as possible and destroy as much … as possible,” he added.

No confirmation of attack on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

In the past few minutes, we received a statement from the Israeli army and intelligence services saying that they had targeted a building and that three Hamas figures were killed, and they were verifying whether one of them was, in fact, the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Sinwar was elected as the leader of the Hamas movement after Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Iran earlier in the year.

We have to stress there is absolutely no confirmation. We have not heard from Hamas.

Even the Israeli military sources say it could take hours for them to confirm from their end whether that assassination was actually successful, but if that is correct, this would be the second head of the Hamas movement killed just during this war.

Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi, shot by Israeli forces, slips into coma

Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi has slipped into a coma following a deterioration in his condition after being shot by Israeli forces in the Jabalia refugee camp on October 9.

Despite appeals from three media freedom organisations, the Israeli authorities have refused to allow al-Wahidi and fellow Al Jazeera photographer Ali al-Attar to leave Gaza for medical treatment. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that it has not received a response from Israeli officials regarding the request for their medical evacuation.

The doctor treating al-Wahidi confirmed that he has undergone several surgeries, but said medics were unable to prevent him from suffering paralysis.

In a statement, Al Jazeera strongly condemned the targeting of its journalists and urged the international community “to take immediate action” to ensure the safety of media workers and civilians in the Gaza Strip, as well as hold the Israeli army accountable for its “repeated crimes against journalists”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/17/live-food-running-out-dozens-buried-in-gazas-jabalia-amid-israeli-siege

>>485013
Leninhat would never say this

Israel’s Lapid says country’s security relies on ‘short’ wars

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says the “concept” of Israel’s security dictates that the war they engage in “should be short”, adding that the war on Gaza was “supposed to last two months”.

Lapid argued that without the opposition, “no one would talk about the abductees, and there is a deliberate effort by the government to hide the issue from awareness”.

But he said that he was angry with French President Emmanuel Macron for suggesting an arms embargo on Israel, which the opposition leader said was “the wrong conduct against Israel at the wrong time”.

He added that the “correct response” to the Iranian attack on Israel was to target its oil facilities.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/17/live-food-running-out-dozens-buried-in-gazas-jabalia-amid-israeli-siege

Yair Lapid, Israel's funnyman.

‘Yahya Sinwar enjoys great popularity in the Gaza Strip’
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza

Sinwar has been imprisoned before in Israeli jails. He has a long history of fighting back against Israel, and he was released in a prisoner swap deal in 2011.

Later on, he took leadership of the Hamas movement in Gaza and he has also been responsible for carrying out plenty of military activities and operations against the Israeli army.

People here feel Sinwar holds great symbolism among the Palestinians, and his possible killing would be a great loss for everyone on the ground.

They believe he has been effective in working against Israel in the past year.

People here believed he was hiding underground. But now, if this assassination is confirmed while he was wearing his military uniform, it means that he was following all the latest security developments on the ground.

It means that he has also been in very direct contact with manoeuvring Hamas fighters in separate areas of Gaza, Rafah and Khan Younis.

Till now, people here have been in a great sense of shock, and others have been wondering about who would replace Sinwar, if he has been killed.

Israeli military bombs Syrian port city: Report

The Israeli military has attacked Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Latakia, according to Syrian state media network, SANA. It described the attack as “aggression”, without offering more details.

We will bring you more information on this attack when we have it.

Yemen’s capital Sanaa, Saada city hit by US air strikes: Reports

Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV has reported air strikes on the capital Sanaa and the city of Saada while US outlet ABC News said that the US military attacked weapons storage facilities in the country overnight.

“US Central Command forces conducted multiple air strikes on numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” ABC News reports, citing a US defence official.

Al Masirah TV said the attack was carried out by US and UK forces.

We will bring you more on this attack as information emerges.

US Central Command claims attacks on Yemen targeted underground weapons facilities

US Central Command has confirmed that it struck multiple sites in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, hours after Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported attacks on the capital Sanaa and the city of Saada.

“These actions were taken to degrade the Houthi’s capability to continue their reckless and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping and on the US coalition, and merchant personnel and vessels in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” US Central Command said in a statement shared on X.

The statement said the US attacked “hardened underground facilities housing missiles” and other weapons.

Gaza’s media office condemns Israeli attack on school

Gaza’s media office condemned Israel’s attack on the Abu Hussein school for displaced Palestinians in Jabalia, which killed at least 28 people.

“We condemn the Israeli occupation’s commission of this new massacre against civilians, children and women, and we call on all countries of the world to condemn these ongoing crimes against the displaced, civilians, children and women,” the media office said.

It added in a statement on Telegram that they hold Israel and the US administration “fully responsible” for the attacks against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

The attack on the school increased the number of shelters and displacement centres targeted by Israel to 192 since the war began more than a year ago.

The attack also comes alongside the collapse of the health situation in the north of Gaza, where about 400,000 people live.

Israeli artillery, air and drone attacks on Lebanon intensify
Imran Khan
Reporting from Hasbaiyya, southern Lebanon

Intense artillery shelling continued overnight and Israeli air and drone attacks are now ongoing.

In the last 30 to 45 minutes, we’ve heard a barrage of Hezbollah rockets from beyond a nearby ridgeline – at least five of them going into northern Israel. We’ve also seen video of buildings on fire, likely as a result of that rocket barrage.

Hezbollah is saying they hit a gathering of what they call enemy soldiers in the occupied Shebaa Farms area, which is very close to the border. So there is still a lot of escalation.

In the previous 36 hours, Israel said they had struck about 340 Hezbollah targets. That’s likely to go up. We know of at least another 100 that were hit yesterday. So we are looking at about 440 targets within 48 hours.

That is a lot of incoming hits and certainly more than we have seen since September 29, when Israel announced that they were going to make this limited ground offensive into Lebanon.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims attack on Eilat

The coalition of Iran-backed fighter groups in Iraq said it launched a drone attack on Israel’s southernmost city, located on the Red Sea near Jordan.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq statement came several hours after sirens sounded in communities north and west of Eilat.

There have been no reported injuries or property damage.

Fire breaks out in Syria’s Latakia city after Israeli attack: Report

We reported earlier on an Israeli air strike on the Syrian coastal city of Latakia.

Syrian state news agency SANA has now reported that “anti-aircraft defence intercepted hostile targets above Latakia” and fires broke out after the attack. “Fires were triggered by the Israeli aggression” at the entrance to Latakia, SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitor, said the Israeli strike “targeted a weapons depot in Latakia city”.

Though Israel’s military has launched hundreds of strikes against targets in Syria in recent years, it rarely admits to its military campaign against what it says are Iran-aligned and supported armed groups in the country.

Lebanese village blown up by Israeli soldiers was home to historic shrine: Report

Mhaibib, A Lebanese village where Israeli soldiers filmed themselves setting off a massive explosion, was home to a 2,100-year-old shrine of significant religious and historic value, the Anadolu news agency reports.

The exact fate of Mhaibib, including the shrine of Benjamin, son of Jacob, was unclear after the explosions, since most residents had already fled following earlier orders to leave from the Israeli army, the village’s leader, or mukhtar, Qassem Ahmed Jaber, told Anadolu.

As we reported earlier, Israeli soldiers filmed themselves smiling and laughing in a video showing the destruction of what appeared to be most, if not all of the historic village.

Israeli forces kill 60-year-old woman picking olives in West Bank: Report

A 60-year-old Palestinian woman was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the village of Faqqua, northeast of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reported

The director of the Red Crescent Society in Jenin, Mahmoud al-Saadi, told Wafa that the woman was shot while she was picking olives with her family in the area near the separation and expansion wall built on the lands of the village.

The attack comes after Israeli forces opened fire on an event organised by the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission to help farmers from the village of Kafr al-Labad, east of Tulkarem, pick olives from their lands.

On Wednesday, UN experts said farmers in the occupied West Bank face the most dangerous olive season ever this year after being subjected to intimidation, restricted access to land, severe harassment and attacks by armed settlers.

German Defence Ministry says warship shot down drone off Lebanon: Report

A German warship operating as part of the United Nations’ UNIFIL mission brought down an unmanned flying object off the coast of Lebanon, a spokesperson for the German Defence Ministry told Reuters news agency.

Members of Netanyahu’s party to speak at conference on settling Gaza

Ten members of Netanyahu’s Likud party are scheduled to speak at “Preparing for settlement in Gaza”, a two-day conference hosted by Nachala, a far-right Israeli settler organisation, next week.

Promotional materials for the event, shared by Nachala on X, also promise “practical preparation workshops for settlement in Gaza” as well as a tour of Nirim, a kibbutz in the northwestern Negev desert, near the Israel-Gaza separation fence.

Nachala hosted another conference earlier this year where Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined crowds dancing and celebrating and a map was displayed showing plans for 15 illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza.

EU criticises US for giving Israel a month to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation

The EU’s foreign policy chief has criticised the United States for allowing Israel an entire month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“The US has been saying to Israel that they have to improve humanitarian support to Gaza, but they gave one month delay,” Josep Borrell told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

“One month delay at the current pace of people being killed. It’s too many people,” Borrell added, calling the situation a “catastrophe”.

US officials told Israel on Wednesday it must take steps in the next month to improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid – the strongest warning since the war began a year ago.

Humanitarian groups have accused Israel of deliberately starving and forcibly displacing Palestinians in northern Gaza.

Germany pledges continued military support to Israel

Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany plans to continue supporting Israel’s militarily, despite the current siege on northern Gaza and the ongoing offensive in Lebanon.

“It is clear that supporting Israel also means that we are constantly ensuring Israel’s defence capability, for example by supplying military goods or weapons,” Scholz said on the sidelines of an EU leaders’ summit.

He also stressed Israel must comply with international law and that a two-state solution remains the long-term goal.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/17/live-food-running-out-dozens-buried-in-gazas-jabalia-amid-israeli-siege

>>485013
> killing these subhumans
The subject is showing a symptomatic expression of a defective brain.
Extermination-brain is a severe illness, the disease progression is often fatal.

Historic treatments:
Re-education-camps and self-criticism struggle-sessions have show only limited effectiveness.
Heavy percussion therapy with ballistic projectiles was effective at significantly reducing the symptoms, but the survival rate of the patients proved to be extremely low.

Contemporary treatments:
Decades of lectures on human-rights have shown only limited effectiveness.
New treatment options are needed.

>>485016
>Israel’s Lapid says country’s security relies on ‘short’ wars
Israel isn't really capable of sustaining anything but short wars without significantly eroding it's economy. So there is some truth in that statement.

However the concept of wars for security that seems nonsense. There is a clear correlation between Zionist regime aggression and the amount of rockets that impact on the Zionist regime occupation.

>But he said that he was angry with French President Emmanuel Macron for suggesting an arms embargo on Israel
>said was “the wrong conduct against Israel at the wrong time”.
Yeah the correct conduct would be to implement the arms embargo, but there's a least a little surplus enjoyment in making the Zionist seethe.

Israeli army, Shin Bet now saying Hamas leader has been killed

A joint statement from the spokespeople for the Israeli army and domestic security agency Shin Bet says Sinwar was killed on Wednesday during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.

“A force of the 828th Brigade, which operated in the area, identified and eliminated three terrorists. After completing the process of identifying the body, it can now be confirmed that [Sinwar] was eliminated,” the statement reads.

This statement follows a statement moments ago from Israel’s foreign minister saying Sinwar had been killed.

Hamas has still not commented on these claims by Israel.

War is not over, Netanyahu says

The Israeli prime minister says the war is not over and that in Gaza, Beirut and the region, “light is prevailing over darkness,” according to translated remarks.

More to follow …

More from Netanyahu

The Israeli PM, for whom the ICC’s prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant over alleged war crimes, also said in his televised address:

Sinwar was eliminated, but the mission is not over yet and we must recover the kidnapped.
We have dealt a blow to evil, but the mission is not yet complete.
To those holding the kidnapped, we say: Free them and we will let you live.
Hamas will no longer rule Gaza.

‘Israel has full intention to stay in Gaza’

Gideon Levy, an Israeli political analyst and Haaretz columnist, says the – unconfirmed – killing of Sinwar is unlikely to change the fate of the more than 100 captives still held in Gaza because the government’s priority is to remain in the Strip.

“In a normal situation, I would expect the killing of Sinwar to make us do big progress towards releasing the hostages and even putting an end to this war – but not in Israel because the aim is to stay in Gaza,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

“So what will the killing of Sinwar change? And if the release of hostages is on the table again, with whom will we renegotiate? And if we negotiate, who will agree to return all the hostages when Israel aims to stay in Gaza?” he asked.

“And no doubt about this, Israel has the full intention to stay in Gaza, at least for the coming months or, God forbid, even coming years.”

Sinwar did ‘not shy away’ from tough questions: Journalist

Hind Hassan, who conducted a one-on-one interview with Yahya Sinwar in 2021, said he came across as a man “who was defiant” in his beliefs.

Hassan told Al Jazeera she met him “walking down the street in full view” during a period when Israel had been bombing Gaza for 11 days and “everyone had believed he was in hiding”.

Hind said he did “not shy away” from some of the tougher questions.

She said when she asked a question about the claims that Hamas firing rockets into Israel could constitute a war crime, he became “passionate” in his responses.

He said that Palestinians were expected to be “perfect victims, and that’s something that they cannot be”, she said.

He also drew a comparison between the protest movement that sprung up in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by US police in 2020, and what happened with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, to the Palestinian cause, Hind said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/17/live-food-running-out-dozens-buried-in-gazas-jabalia-amid-israeli-siege

https://x.com/intifada/status/1846969899995824289
🚨 UK "counterterrorism" police raid home, seize devices of EI’s @AsaWinstanley

>>485002
>vid
What these bandits are doing is kidnapping and torturing children, and because they haven't been released it has to be seen as a hostage situation. I don't understand why their parents are still maintaining a part of that unhinged rationalization narrative.

>>485022
>UK "counterterrorism" police
journalism intimidation psychological terror group

I think there has to be some kind of "thing" that prevents states from waging psychological warfare against it's citizens or better yet civilians in general.

I bet somebody has already formulated coherent theory about that.

Maybe a mind-fuck-prohibition

>>485024
>states waging psychological warfare against it's citizens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_Insights_Team
There's a whole book about it called State of Fear.

Reportedly the last footage of Yahya Sinwar before he was killed, released by the IDF, filmed by a drone.

A description from Max Blumenthal:
Yahya Sinwar went out fighting. Dressed in fatigues, his right arm severed, he flung a stick defiantly at the Israel drone filming him. He had submitted to his fate from the moment he unleashed the flood. This video practically ensures the tide will rise.

https://x.com/PAME_Greece/status/1847006899184476231
Reportedly ''Container carrying bullets for the Israeli army has been BLOCKED by
Dockers of #cosco in port of Piraeus, Greece''

Hamas leaders killed by Israel

Since the start of the war on Gaza, Israel has killed a number of Hamas leaders – Here’s a list of the most prominent:

Saleh al-Arouri: The deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau was killed in January this year in an air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. He was also one of the founders of the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. He had been living in exile in Lebanon after spending 15 years in an Israeli jail.

Marwan Issa: In March, Israel said it had killed Issa, the deputy of Hamas’ then-military leader Mohammed Deif, but Hamas has not confirmed his death. Issa, nicknamed the “shadow man” by fellow Palestinians for his ability to stay off the enemy’s radar, had risen to third in command within Hamas.

Mohammed Deif: The Israeli army claimed to have killed the military commander – and one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing – in an air strike in July on al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. He was also said to be a key figure who planned suicide bombings leading to the deaths of dozens of Israelis. Hamas has not confirmed Deif’s claimed killing.

Ismail Haniyeh: the political leader of Hamas was killed in Iran’s capital Tehran soon after the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian. In 2006, Haniyeh led the group to a legislative election victory briefly serving as the Strip’s prime minister of the Palestinian Authority’s government. Three years later, having stepped down as Hamas head in Gaza, Haniyeh left the enclave and began living abroad, leading the group’s diplomatic efforts as its political chief.

Hezbollah’s ‘operations room’ releases new update. Here are the takeaways

In a statement attributed to its military “operations room”, the Lebanese group stresses that it is inflicting heavy losses on the Israeli army and fending off its ground advances in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah has been using such updates to underscore the recovery of its capabilities and structure after several of its top leaders, including its chief Hassan Nasrallah, were assassinated by Israel.

Here’s what the latest statement said:

Israel has amassed more than 70,000 soldiers and hundreds of military vehicles at the front lines that are being confronted by hundreds of Hezbollah fighters, who are luring them into deadly ambushes.
Hezbollah is gradually escalating its rocket and drone attacks against Israeli troops alongside the border as well as deep inside Israel.
About 55 Israeli soldiers have been killed in clashes since the start of the invasion last month, while more than 500 others have been injured.
Hezbollah has destroyed 20 Merkava tanks, four military bulldozers and two surveillance drones.
“In accordance with the leadership of the resistance, the operations room announces moving to a new escalatory phase in the confrontation” that will become clear in the coming days.

‘This is not the end of the war in Gaza’: Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given a speech in English to comment on the claimed killing of Sinwar.

“This is not the end of the war in Gaza. It’s is the beginning of the end,” Netanyahu said.

“This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down his arms and returns the hostages,” he said, directly addressing the people of Gaza.

Israel will guarantee the safety of all those who return the captives, but for those who arm them “Israel will hunt you down and bring you to justice,” the prime minister said.

He also addressed his message to the wider region saying that Iran’s axis of resistance was “collapsing before our eyes”.

Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have sent out strong signals since news of Sinwar’s apparent killing broke that the country will continue to persecute its war on Gaza.

Death toll from Israeli strike on Maghazi camp rises to 10

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli air strike on a house that belonged to the Talibani family in the Maghazi camp in central, the Palestinian Civil Defence says.

No arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu, Gallant despite chief prosecutor’s request

The Israeli claim that Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed comes five months after chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Kahn applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC prosecutors said there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed al-Masri (known as Mohammed Deif) and Hamas’s late political leader Ismail Haniyeh, bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in July in what Hamas and Iran say was an Israeli attack.

Israel has claimed to have killed Deif in an attack that killed 90 Palestinians in al-Mawasi in August, although there has not been any confirmation from Hamas.

Israeli army gives more information on claimed Sinwar killing

The Israeli army’s spokesperson Daniel Hagari has spoken to reporters about the killing of the Hamas leader.

Here are the key points of his news conference:

The Israeli soldiers identified three fighters who were fleeing from house to house.
After being shot at by the Israeli forces, the group split.
Sinwar fled alone to a building where the Israeli army sent a drone.
Sinwar, wounded in his hand from the shooting, is seen throwing what looks like a stick towards the drone.
After being killed, he was found with a protective vest, a gun and 40,000 shekels.
In the past months, the Israeli army had found his DNA in an underground tunnel a few hundred metres from the one where six captives had been killed in August.
A video posted on the Israeli army’s website purports to show a man, his face wrapped in a scarf, sitting alone on an armchair inside a heavily damaged apartment. He stares at the drone and throws the stick which falls on the ground. The video ends.

Hamas could look to replace Sinwar with another military figure

Roxane Farmanfarmaian, a lecturer on international relations of the Middle East at the University of Cambridge, told Al Jazeera that some of the possible leaders who might take Yahya Sinwar’s place are more “hardline” than he was.

Others include more pragmatic figures such as Khaled Meshaal, the former head of Hamas’s political directorate, who is more of a “negotiation expert”, Farmanfarmaian said.

She said that since Hamas may have lost its military leader, her inclination is that it will probably choose another military leader rather than a political one at this stage, as the “fight is not over”.

Some Palestinians hope for end of the war
Maram Humaid
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Gaza

Some Palestinians in Gaza have expressed hope that the killing of Yahya Sinwar won’t be in vain and that it will put an end to their suffering.

“I really hope that Sinwar’s death will be the end of the war and that he will be a sacrifice for the Palestinian people, like the rest of the martyrs who fell,” said Rasmiya Khalil, a displaced woman now staying in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.

“The world should at least sympathise with us as a people who want to live, including children and women. Help these people to live,” the 53-year-old added.

Her comments were in stark contrast with what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said soon after the Israeli army claimed the killing of Sinwar. He said that “the mission was not over” as dozens of captives are still believed to be inside Gaza – something that will likely drag the war further.

Some in Gaza skeptical about fallout from Sinwar’s killing
Maram Humaid
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Gaza

Some civilians in Gaza received the news of Sinwar’s claimed killing with sadness but also with pride, noting that his death would not translate into an end to the conflict.

“Sinwar is the only leader who said no to Israel, but his death does not mean stopping the war. Israel targets every child, woman and man in Gaza, and not just Sinwar,” said Hamza al-Kurd, 50, displaced from the north of Gaza to a makeshift camp in Deir el-Balah.

“Sinwar was a caring father to us. He was killed on the battlefield, engaged and fighting for his people and his land,” Salah Musleh, 30, said.

The Hamas leader’s killing “will not stop the war because it is a war on the Palestinian cause and Palestinian existence.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/17/live-food-running-out-dozens-buried-in-gazas-jabalia-amid-israeli-siege

Deaths, injuries as Israeli military bombs home in Shati camp

Israeli fighter jets bombed the Qadiri family home in the Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza City, northern Gaza, killing a “number of citizens” and injuring others, the Wafa news agency reports.

We will bring you more information on this attack when we have it.

Hezbollah says fighters entering ‘escalating’ phase of war with Israel

Hezbollah in Lebanon has announced that it will “transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with Israel”, which will become clear in the coming days.

In a statement, the group also said that Israel’s military losses have reached about 55 soldiers killed and more than 500 injured since the start of Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon on October 1.

Hezbollah also announced that it has destroyed 20 Israeli Merkava tanks, four military bulldozers and two surveillance drones in recent fighting.

45 killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon in 24-hour period: Ministry

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reports that 45 people were killed and 179 injured in attacks across the country on Thursday.

The latest casualties bring the overall death toll in Lebanon to 2,412 people killed and 11,267 wounded since fighting broke out between Hezbollah and Israel one year ago.

Israeli army says it killed Hezbollah commander

The Israeli army has claimed it has killed Mohammad Hussein Ramal, a Hezbollah commander, in Taybeh, southern Lebanon, in an air strike.

It also said it located and destroyed rocket launchers primed to attack northern Israel, while its troops uncovered Hezbollah weapons in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli Air Force also attacked a cell it said was preparing to fire an antitank missile at Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon.

Reported killing of Sinwar neither intelligence based nor targeted assassination: Analyst

Elijah Magnier, a military and political analyst, said the Israeli and US characterisation of how Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was reportedly killed is far from the reality.

“It is not at all an intelligence operation nor a targeted assassination,” Magnier told Al Jazeera.

“It’s a clash between three people, three militants who were in a location and opened fire against soldiers who are invading Rafah,” Magnier said.

Israeli forces “opened fire from their tank, destroying the location and this is how, the next day, they found Sinwar with another commander in a house above the ground and not in tunnels,” he said.

“Everybody is claiming victory, quoting intelligence collaboration … Shin Bet from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Kamala Harris saying we have been collaborating to make sure that we reach out and arrest or bring to justice all of the Hamas leaders, which has nothing to do with the reality of the event on the ground,” he added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/18/live-israel-says-hamas-chief-yahya-sinwar-killed-war-on-gaza-to-continue

Reports of telecoms blackout as Israeli forces attack northern Gaza
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza

Just in the last hours, there has been more information that the Israeli forces have cut off communication and internet networks to the northern part of Gaza, in particular in Jabalia.

This was a highly predictable step because the army has been obliterating everything in Jabalia – residential homes, key infrastructure and even the communication towers that provide Palestinians with internet connection and signals to communicate with each other.

This means that the military might now expand its operation in Jabalia. They have worked before in destroying residential homes and civilians there are reporting horrific aerial and ground attacks over the past 24 hours.

We know that since dawn today at least 20 Palestinians have been killed, including 11 only in the Jabalia refugee camp.

People run from shelling in Gaza’s Jabalia; house bulldozed with family inside

Videos posted on social media and verified by Al Jazeera show heavy smoke enveloping a heavily damaged building in Jabalia in northern Gaza and chaotic scenes as people run for cover amid heavy Israeli shelling.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, meanwhile, report that Israeli bulldozers have demolished a house in the al-Faluja area, where a family of displaced Palestinians are living.

Medical crews were unable to reach the house to evacuate the family before the house was demolished while they were inside.

There are also reports of an ongoing telecoms blackout as Israeli military vehicles and a large number of soldiers advance towards the Jabalia refugee camp from several directions.

How Israel killed Sinwar

Hamas has in the past 90 minutes confirmed that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed in combat, fighting against Israeli forces in Gaza.

In a statement, senior leader Khalid Hayya said Sinwar, “weapon in hand”, battled and confronted the Israeli army “until the last moment of his life at the forefront of the ranks”.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, also said Sinwar was killed “facing the enemy, not retreating”.

The statements came a day after Israel announced that the Hamas leader had been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on Wednesday.

The Israeli army said infantry soldiers from the Bislach Brigade were searching an area in Tal as-Sultan, in southern Gaza, when they identified three fighters who were moving between buildings. A gun battle ensued in , during which Sinwar went into a heavily damaged building.

The military released footage from a mini-drone that it said showed Sinwar, badly wounded in the hand, sitting on a chair inside the ruined building, his face covered in a scarf. The video shows him staring at the drone and throwing a stick at it before the video ends.

Not long afterwards, a tank shell was fired into the building, the Israeli military said. Wary of booby traps, Israeli forces did not enter the building until the next day.

“The morning afterwards, they discovered the body and realised this could be Sinwar,” military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters.

When the troops reached him, the found him with a weapon, a flak jacket and 40,000 shekels ($10,731.63).

Dental records, fingerprints and DNA testing provided confirmation of Sinwar’s identity, Israeli officials said.

The Israeli military and media had regularly claimed Sinwar was hiding deep in tunnels under Gaza. But Hamas said in the statement confirming Sinwar’s killing that he was “moving between combat positions steadfastly” in Gaza.

There were also reports that he had surrounded himself with several captives – but when Sinwar was killed, there were none by his side.

Unusual language from Mikati as he rejects Iranian interference
Zeina Khodr
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

It’s unusual language coming from Mikati, who accused Iran of violating Lebanon’s sovereignty. This is the first time the prime minister has made such a statement.

Yes, Lebanon is facing this war but at the same time there’s already a fight for post-war Lebanon which has been the playground for regional powers in a power struggle.

Iran sent two of its high-ranking officials to Lebanon in recent weeks in a show of support, but many understood this as a message to Lebanon that Iran has a seat on the negotiating table.

States helping Israel’s occupation may be ‘complicit’: UN experts

UN experts say countries enabling Israel’s “unlawful occupation” of the occupied Palestinian territories and assisting it despite warnings of war crimes and possible “genocide” in Gaza should be deemed “complicit”.

“Israel’s internationally wrongful acts give rise to state responsibility, not only for Israel, but for all states,” said Navi Pillay, head of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry.

The commission has published a new legal position paper spelling out specific actions required following a recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declaring Israel’s occupation since 1967 “unlawful”.

It also examines the implications of last month’s UN General Assembly vote demanding the occupation end within a year.

Iran’s president offers condolences for Sinwar

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a statement offering condolences over the killing of Yahya Sinwar and condemning Israel for his death.

“The news of the assassination and martyrdom of the steadfast fighter, Yahya Sinwar, Head of the Hamas Political Bureau, is both painful and heartbreaking for freedom lovers around the world, especially the brave people of Palestine,” Pezeshkian said. “However, it also clearly highlights the ongoing atrocities of the occupying and child-killing Zionist regime.”

He added that Sinwar fought “heroically” in the final moments before his death.

“The struggle against aggression and the fight to restore freedom and liberation to the rightful owners of the occupied lands is a great movement and a noble cause,” he said. “It will not be stopped by the assassination or elimination of heroes in this battle.”

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip saw Sinwar as a legend
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Deir el Balah, central Gaza Strip

People here inside the Gaza Strip believe that Yahya Sinwar was killed on the front lines, clashing with the Israeli military in Rafah.

The city has been one of the strongholds of the Hamas movement in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where a [Israeli] military operation has been ongoing for more than four months.

Families here are expressing their condolences, saying that Sinwar was a legend and was [a symbol of] resistance.

Because this man has, with his killing, refuted the old Israeli claims that he was hiding in the underground tunnel systems and was surrounding himself with Israeli captives.

It also raises more questions, including if he was fighting in other areas of the Gaza Strip.

People know Yahya Sinwar. He is an educated, intellectually knowledgeable negotiator leading the team in Gaza to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel.

Now all eyes are focused towards who will replace Yahya Sinwar in the leadership of the Hamas movement in Gaza.

Sinwar exposed Israeli propaganda: Palestinian politician

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says the Israeli prime minister “wanted an image of victory” but Sinwar, at the end of his life, “gave the world an image of Netanyahu’s failure” instead.

“All the lies [Israel] told about Sinwar were exposed – that he was hiding behind civilians, taking them as human shields, proved to be a lie. The lie that he was hiding behind Israeli captives was also proven to be a lie, and the claim that he was running away and hiding in tunnels was exposed,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera, noting that Sinwar was in Rafah fighting the Israeli army.

“Sinwar revealed how wrong the Israeli propaganda was not only about him, but in general of the situation,” he said.

Hamas likely to have a bifurcation or a hydra approach to leadership

Beverly Milton-Edwards of the Middle East Council on Foreign Affairs says after the assassination of Haniyeh in Iran, it appeared in public that Sinwar was taking over the whole of the movement, including the armed wing as well as the political bureau.

“But at the same time, the leadership met internally and reached [an agreement] to form a decision-making that there would be a parallel leadership, which included [deputy leader] Khalil al-Haya, who knows, grew up with and was close to Sinwar,” she added.

The analyst said it is likely that the movement will have two leaders in the future and has many senior figures among the prisoners in addition to other locations.

She also said what is happening is “a bifurcation or a hydra approach” to leadership, adding that “the leadership or the knowledge about leadership” is likely to become more secret.

Beverly Milton-Edwards reminded that similar secrecy was carried out when Hamas was founded after the first Intifada – the mass demonstrations by Palestinians that started in 1987.

Israeli settlers steal sheep from Jurish village near Nablus

Israeli settlers have stolen a herd of sheep from the village of Jurish, southeast of Nablus, Wafa news agency is reporting.

A group of settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, attacked a young shepherd while he was with his sheep at the junction of Jurish village, according to the report.

Israeli forces detained the shepherd at the scene and the settlers stole the sheep and headed towards the nearby illegal Israeli Migdalim settlement, Wafa reported.

Jordan rejects claim its soldiers crossed into Israel

Jordan’s official news agency, quoting a military source, says Israeli claims that the country’s soldiers crossed the border into Israel are not true.

The agency posted on its website that there was “no truth” in the reports.

The Israeli military said it had identified what it called “a number of terrorists” crossing from Jordan into Israel south of the Dead Sea region and had killed two of them after they opened fire on Israeli forces.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/18/live-israel-says-hamas-chief-yahya-sinwar-killed-war-on-gaza-to-continue

>>485048
>UN experts say countries enabling Israel’s “unlawful occupation” of the occupied Palestinian territories and assisting it despite warnings of war crimes and possible “genocide” in Gaza should be deemed “complicit”.
The UN lacks enforcement abilities. So all this stuff likely won't be applied until after the dust has settled.

The faction that supports fascism of the Zionist type likely calculates that if they win they can't be held accountable. However at the moment the odds stack up against the Zionist project because at the current rate the fascists in Israel will wreck it in about 2 years, at which point it will become a failed state. With some delay the Zionist lobby in the west will weaken accordingly. Simply because a wrecked Israel will no longer service the interests of imperial capital.

I think the money that is currently being funneled into the Zionist bribe, blackmail and harassment machine will be diverted to mostly automated drone ships that uses drones like fractional ammunition.
<the ship carries the drones over the very long distances,
<it launches a a few big drones that carries many little drones over medium distances,
<the little drones only go a short distance until they disperse and attack lots of targets.

The partially automated fractional murder machines probably won't be that much more effective at poking that region, but they'll be cheaper and easier to controle, at that point the Zionists will become a loose end and they'll be persecuted for their crimes.

>Israeli settlers have stolen a herd of sheep from the village of Jurish
so they're the big bad wolf now ?
Somebody warn all those people to not build their houses out of hay.

>>485050
>Biden called Germany the "closest and most important" ally of the US
the rest of the world hears
<be US ally
<have your economy/energy-supply wrecked

>the streets are echoing with a different message.
Giving Biden prestige prizes probably amounts to some kind of intra-elite loyalty proclamation. But for the population it probably feels like somebody is spitting in their face.

Israeli strike kills at least 30 in Jabalia: Wafa

The Palestinian news agency says at least 30 were killed, including 20 children and women, and more than 50 others were wounded, when the Israeli army bombed the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza.

Palestine UN envoy: We seek to expel Israel from UN General Assembly

A group of 12 Arab ambassadors has met behind closed doors with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss Gaza at the UN headquarters in New York.

After the meeting, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters the discussion centred on a need for an immediate ceasefire and bolstering support for UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency. Israel’s parliament is currently considering legislation to ban the organisation from operating in the country.

He also said the group is pushing for a new UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire and renewed a call for Israel to be expelled from the UN General Assembly.

“The Security Council has the tools to force its will and to use everything available to it,” Mansour told the press.

“With regard to UNRWA, if they [Israel] continue on the path, among other things, of trying to destroy it, there is no taboo in the General Assembly of questioning the seat of a country that does not respect all of us, nor the General Assembly, nor international law, nor the Security Council, nor the secretary-general.

“A country that behaves in such arrogance and disrespect to its obligation under the Charter of the United Nations does not deserve to have a seat in the General Assembly among us”, he said.

Iranian FM says US should be held accountable for potential Israeli attack

Earlier, we reported on comments from US President Biden saying that he had a better idea of how and when Israel would attack Iran, which it has promised to do in response to a missile attack Iran carried out on Israel late last month.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, has posted on X saying “Anybody with knowledge or understanding of ‘how and when Israel was going to attack Iran’, and/or providing the means and backing for such folly, should logically be held accountable for any possible causality”.

He accompanied this post with a photo of President Biden, sending a clear message to the US.

Hezbollah says it has launched drones at a military base in central Israel

The Lebanese armed group says the attack is dedicated to its late leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed last month in an Israeli air strike on Beirut.

Hezbollah fighters launched “a swarm of explosive-laden drones” at an “air missile defence base” east of the central Israeli city of Hadera, the group said in a statement, adding it came “in response to the targeting of civilians” and “at the service” of Nasrallah.

Earlier, we reported that Hezbollah had targeted the area of Haifa in the north of Israel with a rocket salvo. The Israeli military said it had successfully intercepted that attack.

UN expert on freedom of expression says Israel seeking to stop documentation of crimes

Irene Khan, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has presented a report to a special UN committee on global threats to freedom of expression arising from the conflict in Gaza.

She highlighted severe attacks on the media, including targeted killings and censorship, and the impunity surrounding these acts. She called for the establishment of an international investigative mechanism for killings of journalists.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo asked her about this. Here are some highlights from her response:

“The severe attacks on media in the occupied Palestinian territory, in Gaza, but also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the targeted killings of journalists, … the banning of Al Jazeera, the tightening of censorship within Israel and in the occupied territories seem to indicate a strategy of the Israeli authorities to silence critical journalism and obstruct documentation of possible international crimes,” she said.

When asked by Elizondo why, of all the documented cases of Israel targeting journalists, none has been investigated or prosecuted, Kahn replied:

“In most cases, impunity occurs because the national state is inactive and, therefore, the international mechanism has to be strengthened. There should be an international independent international mechanism to investigate when killings take place.”

Belgian soldier under investigation for possible war crimes in Gaza: Report

The Belgian prosecutor’s office says it has launched an investigation into possible war crimes committed by a Belgian soldier fighting for Israel in Gaza, US publication Politico reports.

The news site said the probe focused on a Belgian member of an elite unit of the Israeli military.

Citing multiple reports in local media, Politico said the man is a dual Belgian-Israeli citizen in his 20s from the Brussels municipality of Uccle who serves the Israeli army in the “Refaim” sniper unit.

It said the unit, which has been operating in the besieged enclave since October 2023, consists of 21 people, including three Americans, two French, a German, an Italian and a Belgian man.

Hezbollah eulogises Sinwar

The Lebanese group says the slain Hamas leader has won all the “medals of honour and dignity” in his life of struggle against Israel.

Hezbollah also lauded Sinwar for leading “one of the most humiliating operations in the history of the Israeli occupiers”, referring to the October 7 attack.

“He won the badge of martyrdom as he loved and wished – in the battlefields of struggle, clashing face to face with occupation soldiers to the last breath,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

“The martyrdom of the commander [Sinwar] and those who came before him in the axis of resistance will strengthen the resolve and determination of the resistance in all the battlefields and arenas to proceed on the road of liberating Palestine and eradicating the cancerous Zionist tumour.”

German MP faces criticism for post critical of Israel

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left party has faced a backlash after one of its lawmakers, a vice president of parliament, shared an online post which other politicians claimed was anti-Israeli.

Aydan Ozoguz shared a post from the US-based group Jewish Voice for Peace that showed an image of a building on fire with the message “This is Zionism”.

The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said the post “indirectly questions Israel’s right to exist” and accused Ozoguz of “pouring oil on the fire”.

The Social Democratic Party lawmaker, one of five vice presidents of the German Bundestag, later deleted her message and apologised.

“I realised that the shared post hurt the feelings of fellow citizens who stand up for peaceful coexistence,” she wrote. “That was not my intention and I deeply regret that.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/18/live-israel-says-hamas-chief-yahya-sinwar-killed-war-on-gaza-to-continue

>>485052
>German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left party has faced a backlash after one of its lawmakers, a vice president of parliament, shared an online post which other politicians claimed was anti-Israeli.
>Aydan Ozoguz shared a post from the US-based group Jewish Voice for Peace that showed an image of a building on fire with the message “This is Zionism”.
I guess they figured out they can't accuse Jewish Voice for peace of being anti-semitic anymore because people kept rolling their eyes, so they had to make up a new accusation.

>The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said the post “indirectly questions Israel’s right to exist”
Israel does a lot more than question the Palestinian right to exist. They directly try to "un-exist" Palestinians

>The Social Democratic Party lawmaker, one of five vice presidents of the German Bundestag, later deleted her message and apologised.
That's their goal, to get people who criticize them to self-censor.

>“I realised that the shared post hurt the feelings of fellow citizens who stand up for peaceful coexistence,”
Zionists stand for peaceful coexistence ?
The insanity.

Director of Indonesian hospital in Gaza says Israeli tanks have surrounded building

Israeli tanks have completely surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in Bait Lahia, northern Gaza, and cut off the medical facility’s electricity supply, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report, citing Dr Marwan al-Sultan.

Israeli forces have bombed the hospital, targeting the second and third floors with artillery shells, putting medical staff and patients at serious risk, according to al-Sultan.

Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Gaza also reports that Israeli forces have begun demolishing parts of the hospital.

Israeli army says drone hit Netanyahu’s home

A drone launched from Lebanon hit Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, according to his spokesperson.

Netanyahu and his family were not in Caesarea at the time of the attack, the statement said, adding that there were no casualties.

Protesters storm Saudi TV channel in Iraq over labelling Hamas, fighters in region ‘terrorists’

Protests have stormed and ransacked the offices of a Saudi television channel in Baghdad, after the broadcaster reportedly aired a segment that referred to fighters in the region, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iraqi Mobilisation Forces, as “terrorists”.

French news agency AFP reports that between 400 and 500 people attacked the studios of Saudi broadcaster MBC in the early hours of this morning.

“They wrecked the electronic equipment, the computers, and set fire to a part of the building,” an Iraqi interior ministry source told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding the fire had been extinguished and the crowd dispersed by police.

Israel drops leaflets over Gaza showing Sinwar’s body

Israeli planes have dropped leaflets over southern Gaza showing a picture of dead Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with the message that “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza”, echoing language used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Whoever drops the weapon and hands over the hostages will be allowed to leave and live in peace,” the leaflet, written in Arabic, read, according to residents of the southern city of Khan Younis and images circulating online.

The leaflet’s wording was from a statement made by Netanyahu on Thursday after Sinwar was killed by Israeli soldiers in Rafah, in the south near the Egyptian border, a day earlier.

Hezbollah sends ‘large rocket salvo’ at Israeli military base

We’ve been reporting about sirens going on in northern Israel.

Hezbollah has now said it fired rockets towards an Israeli military base north of Israel’s Haifa in response to Israeli attacks on its strongholds in southern Lebanon.

“The large rocket salvo” came in retaliation for Israeli attacks on south Lebanon villages, Hezbollah announced after the Israeli army said a barrage of projectiles was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.

Israeli Army Radio is reporting at least 13 people have been injured in these rocket attacks today.

Where has Hezbollah carried out today’s attacks?

Hezbollah says it carried out attacks on:

Safad
Philon base in Rosh Pina, east of Safad
Krayot, north of Haifa
Shlomi settlement
Al-Bassa settlement
Military base in Nesher
Settlement of Kiryat Shmona
A group of Israeli soldiers at the al-Marj site and in the settlement of Zarit
Israel said a Hezbollah drone also hit Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv.

Caesarea hosts strategic assets, politicians and businesspeople
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan as it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank by the Israeli government.

We have seen videos posted by the residents in Caesarea on the drone attack on Netanyahu’s residence.

The house was struck in the attack. Neither Netanyahu nor his family were present at the time of the incident.

The Israeli military has imposed a very tight censor and restrictions on the Israeli media and has also sealed off the area.

Businesspeople and politicians live in the area, where a lot of power and strategic assets are concentrated, including military bases and oil refineries.

No warning sirens went off in Caesarea, while they did in the neighbouring areas, such as Haifa.

Hezbollah uses the tactic of launching drones and rockets together at different targets to evade detection.

Iran hosts joint naval drills with Russia and Oman

Naval drills hosted by Iran with the participation of Russia and Oman and observed by nine other countries have begun in the Indian Ocean, according to Iran’s state TV.

The report said that the exercises, dubbed “IMEX 2024”, are aimed at boosting “collective security in the region, expand multilateral cooperation, and display the goodwill and capabilities to safeguard peace, friendship and maritime security”.

The exercises coincide with heightened tensions in the region as Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon rages and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group retaliates by launching attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Mayor among four killed in Israeli strike on eastern Lebanon

Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting that an Israeli air raid that targeted an apartment in the town of Baaloul in the Western Bekaa district has killed four people, including the mayor of Sahmar, Haidar Shahla.

Several people were wounded in the attack, the report said.

Search and rescue teams are searching for missing people under the rubble.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/19/live-israeli-attack-kills-at-least-33-in-north-gazas-jabalia-refugee-camp

https://twitter.com/redstreamnet/status/1847706476972036440
More from Germany

Israeli army demolished UNIFIL observation tower in southern Lebanon

An Israeli army bulldozer “deliberately” demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin, southern Lebanon, UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL said in a statement.

“Yet again, we note that breaching a UN position and damaging UN assets is a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701,” read a statement. “It also endangers the safety and security of our peacekeepers in violation of international humanitarian law.”

The incident is the latest in a series of attacks against UN bases in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army is pressuring the peacekeepers to leave their positions.

“Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries, peacekeepers remain in all positions. We will continue to undertake our mandated tasks to monitor and report,” UNIFIL said.

In Jabalia, Israeli forces ‘detained all men and warned women to leave’

The Israeli military siege of northern Gaza, now in its 16th day, continues with access to food, water, medicine and vital services cut off for an estimated 400,000 trapped residents.

Some of them say they have been separated from their families after Israeli soldiers stormed their shelters and detained dozens of men.

“The Israeli tanks besieged the area and forced all us out of the sheltering school,” a Palestinian woman, carrying a baby on her shoulders, said. “They detained all men and warned all women to leave in groups. We left everything behind, even baby milk.

“The Israelis started shelling us with artillery, their drone and warplanes fired missiles too. Then, they stormed the area with their tanks and opened fire randomly.”

https://twitter.com/ytirawi/status/1848039684850786675

Israeli army destroys southern Lebanon villages, razing homes and mosques

The Israeli army has almost destroyed several villages in southern Lebanon, razing homes and mosques to the ground, local security sources told dpa news agency.

According to the report, the military blew up the town of Ramyah in the Bint Jbeil District in southern Lebanon.

A few days ago, a photo was shared on social media showing Israeli soldiers posing in front of the village’s community building.

A separate report from Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel was carrying out a large-scale bombing in buildings across the southern Lebanese towns of Adaisseh, Markaba and Rab el-Thalathine.

The reports come as Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told his troops that Israel was not only “defeating the enemy [Hezbollah], but we are destroying them in all the villages along the border, in the places that Hezbollah planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel”.

While Israel claims its stated objective is to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure in southern Lebanon , it has issued a wave of enforced evacuation orders for hundreds of villages in the south causing mass displacement.

It has also bombed towns in the north of the country, as well as locations that are far from Hezbollah-controlled areas.

UN ‘crumbling under the weight of shame’ over Gaza

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said that “in Gaza, the collective shame of the century continues unabated and unstopped, in defiance of every norm of international law”.

In a post on X, she said Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave have been abandoned and subjected to Israeli summary executions, mass forced displacements, and other egregious abuses.

Albanese called it “a disgraceful testament to our global failure to protect basic human rights”.

“The United Nations, once a believed beacon of hope and a force for peace, crumbling under the weight of this shame – and the pressure of the inaction or complicity of its most powerful member states.”

Amnesty International urges European countries to halt arms sales to Israel

Amnesty International has expressed concern over continued arms sales by European nations to Israel amid attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, calling for a complete “arms embargo” due to “severe human rights violations”.

“States should unilaterally impose an embargo on Israel that would include not just weapons and systems that are coming from their states, but stopping participation in supply chains into weapon systems that eventually end up in Israel,” Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International arms control policy advisor and human rights researcher, said in an interview with Anadolu news agency.

European countries are part of the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits them from authorising the transfer of arms that could be used in attacks against civilian targets.

Israeli army says colonel killed in northern Gaza

The army said Ahsan Daksa, 41, was the commander of the 401st Armoured Brigade and his tank was hit by explosive devices during operations in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/20/live-dozens-killed-in-israeli-attack-on-beit-lahiya-in-north-of-gaza

Iran says Hezbollah behind drone attack on Netanyahu’s residence

Iran’s UN mission says Hezbollah is behind a drone attack on Netanyahu’s residence.

“This action was taken by the Lebanese Hezbollah,” the mission said in response to a question about Iran’s role in the attack, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Lebanese detainee dies in Israeli custody: Report

Israeli Army Radio and broadcaster Channel 12 are reporting that the army has launched an investigation into the person’s death.

The individual was held in southern Lebanon, and the army alleged the detainee belonged to Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group Israel launched a ground operation against weeks ago.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/19/live-israeli-attack-kills-at-least-33-in-north-gazas-jabalia-refugee-camp

87 people killed or missing in Beit Lahiya: Health Ministry

A total of 87 people have been killed or are missing under debris after an Israeli attack on the town in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry.

More than 40 others were injured, it added. The Israeli military said it is checking on the report.

Israeli forces have conducted a large-scale incursion in northern Gaza as they also destroy residential buildings in air and artillery attacks and carry out mass arrests, with tens of thousands of people stuck there.

Fatah says far-right Israeli government ‘fully responsible’ for Beit Lahiya ‘massacre’

Fatah has issued a statement saying it holds “the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the bloody massacre” in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, Wafa reports.

Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority and has partial administrative power in the occupied West Bank, called on “the world” to help “stop the systematic Israeli war of extermination” in Gaza, Wafa reported, adding it was a Zionist conspiracy to displace Palestinians from their land.

“Palestinian people are being subjected to an organised war of extermination led by the far-right government in Israel with the utmost criminality and hatred,” Fatah added.

3 troops killed by Israeli attack in southern Lebanon: Army

The Lebanese military says three of its soldiers have been killed in an Israeli air strike on their vehicle.

More on Israeli attack that killed 3 Lebanese soldiers

We are receiving updates on the strike that killed three soldiers in the south of the country, according to the Lebanese army.

The military said they were killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike that “targeted” their vehicle.

The troops were killed on a road connecting the border village of Ain Ebel to the nearby town of Hanine. The latest deaths bring the number of troop casualties to eight killed since an all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah last month.

Israeli army claims killing of Hezbollah commanders

In a statement, the Israeli military says its fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders.

It said the dead included Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group’s southern command, Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who was responsible for strategic weapons development.

It wasn’t clear if the three were killed in what the military said were strikes on Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in southern Beirut or in separate actions. Hezbollah made no immediate comment.

Early on Sunday, two Israeli strikes targeted the Harat Hreik neighbourhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, hitting a residential building near Bahman Hospital, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.

Israel to take legal action against Macron over naval trade show ban

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he ordered legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after France banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming naval trade show.

“[These] are undemocratic steps that are not acceptable between friendly countries and I call on French President Macron to cancel them completely,” he wrote on X in Hebrew.

The decision to bar Israeli firms is the latest incident in a row fuelled by the Macron government’s unease over Israel’s conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israeli air strike kills aid worker in Gaza: NGO

The aid group Mercy Corps says a member of the organisation, Mahasin Khatee, was killed in an attack on Friday.

“We are grieving and send our deepest condolences to her family … our team in Palestine, and to all those who have lost family members and loved ones to violence over the last year of war and unimaginable suffering in Gaza,” a statement by the NGO said.

In April, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution denouncing attacks on UN staff and aid workers as record numbers have been killed in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

Iran says Israeli military sites in its sights

Tehran says it has pinpointed all of the military targets in Israel it will strike should it launch an attack on Iran, its top diplomat says.

“We will not leave any attack against Iran unanswered and Israel will receive a proportionate response. We have identified all our targets there and a similar attack will be made on their targets,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Turkey’s NTV.

He specifically noted any strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.

“Any attack on Iran will be considered crossing a red line for us. Such an attack will not go unanswered. The necessary response will be given to any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities or any similar attack.”

US probes leak of ‘top secret’ documents on Israel’s Iran plan

The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three unnamed US officials told The Associated Press news agency.

A fourth US official said the documents appear to be legitimate.

The documents – attributed to the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and marked “top secret” – indicate Israel is moving military assets into place to conduct a strike in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on October 1.

It is unclear how the US and its European allies are planning to prevent a spiralling escalation of the direct violence between Iran and Israel.

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually, and an additional $18bn in aid since the war on Gaza began in early October 2023.

Attack on Netanyahu’s home may prompt targeting of Iran’s supreme leader

Jean-Marc Rickli, head of global risk at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, says the fact the Israeli leader is pointing the finger at Iran for the attack on his residence in Caesarea could turn into a major escalation.

“If we look at the equivalent of Benjamin Netanyahu being attacked by a drone being considered as an assassination attempt … if we make a parallel with Iran the legitimate target could be the supreme leader,” Rickli told Al Jazeera.

“Israel is trying to establish deterrence against Iran’s proxies and surrogates in the region, not only Hezbollah but the Houthis and other groups. The Israelis are signalling they’re ready to apply what they have done with Hamas and what they started to do with Hezbollah – which is decapitating first the heads of these movements – and then trying to neutralise these movements.”

Israeli settlers plan ‘observer tour’ of northern Gaza during conference

The “Preparing to Settle Gaza” conference, which begins today, will include a “Gaza Observer” tour departing from an illegal Israeli settlement less than 10km (6.2 miles) away from Beit Lahiya where an Israeli attack killed at least 73 Palestinians overnight.

The tour, which begins in the Givat Kobi neighbourhood of Sderot, is part of a two-day event that will also include “practical preparation workshops for settlement in Gaza”, as well as 10 speakers from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party.

“Gaza is the property of our ancestors since time immemorial, we will not rest until we settle it again,” Limor Son Har Melech, a member of the Knesset from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, which is part of Netanyahu’s coalition government, said in a post on X, promoting the conference.

The far-right settler organisation Nachala which is hosting the event, also held another conference earlier this year, where a map showing plans for 15 illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza was displayed.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/20/live-dozens-killed-in-israeli-attack-on-beit-lahiya-in-north-of-gaza

>>485088
>Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he ordered legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after France banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming naval trade show.
seething Zionists
small amount of surplus enjoyment

>“[These] are undemocratic steps
I somehow always expect Netanyahu to burst into flames when he says words like "democracy".

Suspected hack at Haifa’s port database

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority is reporting that port workers in the northern Israeli city of Haifa have received messages that the port’s computer systems have been hacked and that it will be subjected to a missile attack.

Port officials estimated that workers’ phones were located in an external database that was hacked a few years ago.

“We know you work at the port. It will be one of our targets” was the message that was reported to have been sent.

Haifa has been the target of several attacks by Hezbollah in recent weeks, with some rockets evading air defences.

Israeli strikes target three locations in Beirut

As we’ve reported, Israeli air strikes have targeted southern Beirut yet again.

According to reports, the strikes hit Dahiyeh in three locations: Ozai, Jinah and Haret Hreik.

Vicinity of hospital in southern Beirut targeted

The vicinity of Rafik Hariri Hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs has been bombed by Israeli forces, Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting.

Casualties are feared in the attack.

We will bring you more on this as soon as we can.

Israeli allegations about Hezbollah bunker under hospital create panic in Lebanon
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank

There were incredible allegations made by the spokesperson of the Israeli army earlier. He said that according to their intelligence, there is a bunker underneath Al Sahel Hospital in Haret Hreik, Beirut’s southern district.

According to that allegation and that illustrative video that he shared with the press, up to a half billion dollars in cash and gold is stored there.

But of course there is absolutely nothing to corroborate this, and our viewers would remember that the same spokesperson made very similar allegations about a tunnel underneath al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. That allegation did not pan out either, but it did result in the destruction of the hospital.

Now the spokesperson did not say that Israel would bomb it, but he did create a lot of panic in Lebanon. He said that Israel calls on the Lebanese army and Lebanese institutions to reclaim that money, and in that sense, he spoke to something that Netanyahu had earlier said about the Lebanese needing to liberate Lebanon from Hezbollah, fomenting that precarious civil peace in Lebanon.

Lebanon hospital denies Israeli claims of Hezbollah cash bunker

Lebanon’s Sahel General Hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs is being evacuated after Israel claimed that Hezbollah has a bunker filled with cash under it, the hospital director says.

Fadi Alameh rejected Israeli claims made earlier that Hezbollah is storing half a billion dollars under the hospital, and called on the Lebanese army to visit and inspect these allegations in order to quash them.

Hezbollah says targeted Israeli army intelligence base near Tel Aviv

There were reports of an explosion earlier today near Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah has just released a statement saying it launched rockets at an Israeli army intelligence base in the city’s suburbs.

Hezbollah fighters launched “quality rockets” at “the Glilot base of the Military Intelligence Unit 8200 in the Tel Aviv suburbs”, the group said, adding the attack was “in defence of Lebanon” and “in response to Israeli aggressions” and dedicated to their slain leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Two civilians killed in missile attack on car in Damascus: Syrian state media

We have some more information about the attack on a car in Syria’s capital, Damascus, that we reported earlier.

Syrian state news agency SANA has quoted a military source as saying the apparent guided missile attack, which was blamed on Israel, had killed two civilians.

“At approximately 5:17pm [14:17 GMT] today, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack targeting a civilian car in the Mazzeh residential neighbourhood in Damascus, which led to the death of two civilians, the injury of three others and material damage to private property in the surrounding area,” the source said.

There was no immediate comment by Israel, which rarely provides information about its attacks in Syria.

Israel has been carrying out attacks against what it says are Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids over the past 12 months.

Israeli military says it shot down drone from Iraq

A drone that crossed into Israel from the East and activated warning sirens in the Jordan valley was shot down, the Israeli army said in a post on X.

In an earlier post on Telegram, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it launched a drone towards a military target in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Hezbollah says it targets Israeli military camp in occupied Golan

Hezbollah says it has targeted the Yoav military camp in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with what it describes as a “large missile barrage”.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

Meanwhile, to the west, sirens sounded in the Margaliot and Manara areas of Upper Galilee, according to the Israeli Home Front Command.

Israeli military claims killing of Hezbollah commander in Damascus strike

The Israeli army spokesperson claims that a strike in Syria’s capital killed the commander of a Hezbollah unit who was responsible for the transfer of weapons from Iran.

Hezbollah has not commented yet on the strike.

Israel rejects UN’s request to access Jabalia

Gabriel Elizondo, Al Jazeera’s correspondent at the United Nations, is reporting that a request by the world body to access Jabalia in northern Gaza has been rejected by Israel for the fourth time.

“UN says urgent request to allow access to Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza to help rescue people trapped under the rubble has been denied by Israel for the fourth consecutive day,” he said in a post on X.

“A separate request to deliver food, water and fuel was also denied by Israel.”

Northern Gaza has been under an Israeli army siege for 17 days now. At least 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp as the forced expulsion by troops in the north continues.

Israeli police arrest seven citizens accused of spying for Iran

A spy network allegedly gathering information on military bases and energy infrastructure for Iranian intelligence has been broken up, Israeli authorities say.

In a statement, Israel’s internal security agency and police said they “successfully dismantled a spy network involving seven Israeli citizens who were operating on behalf of Iranian intelligence”.

All seven citizens were arrested for engaging in “gathering sensitive information”, the statement said.

More on Israel arresting seven for allegedly spying for Iran

As we previously reported, Israeli authorities have arrested seven citizens who they say were paid by Iran to collect intelligence for more than two years.

In a statement, Israel’s internal security agency and police alleged that the seven collected information about other Israelis and photographed Israeli military installations, including missile defence systems, air force and naval sites, and power plants.

Abed Abou Shhada, a Jaffa-based independent journalist, has told Al Jazeera what was particularly distinctive about this case was the identity of the suspects.

“This is without a doubt groundbreaking both for the Israeli society and the Israeli security services, because usually the people who are automatic suspects in these stories were either … Palestinian citizens or Palestinians from the West Bank,” he said. “But now, it’s Israeli Jewish citizens; two of them are minors and one of them was a soldier who deserted from the military.”

The timing was also particularly important, he noted, as the alleged operations happened at a time of war, with Israel having faced attacks by both Iran and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Azeri spies in Israel considered ‘reliable’ by Iranian intelligence

Spies operating a network allegedly working for Iranian intelligence in Israel are reported to be immigrants from Azerbaijan, military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera.

He said there is a “strong connection between Azerbaijan and Iran in borders but also a strong connection between Azerbaijan and Israel”.

“This is why this makes the Azeri very valuable for both sides where Azerbaijan provides oil to Israel and Israel provides weapons to Azerbaijan,” he said, adding: “This is what makes that community and diaspora extremely attractive” to Iranian intelligence services.

He said the fact that the spies were reported to have carried out 600 missions shows its members are considered “reliable” by Iranian intelligence.

Magnier added that it also represents “a failure” by the Israeli authorities to identify the network “only after two years”.

Palestinians say Israeli army used them as ‘human shields’: Report

Israeli soldiers in Gaza sent captured Palestinians into unexplored houses and tunnels before soldiers, in violation of international law, according to detainees interviewed by The Guardian.

Ramez al-Skafi, a 30-year-old Palestinian, told the UK newspaper that for 11 days in early July, he was sent into one house after another in his home district of Shujayea in Gaza City – effectively becoming “a human shield against booby-traps and Hamas gunmen”, according to the report.

“I tried to resist their proposal, but they started beating me and the officer told me it was not my choice to make and that I have to do whatever they want,” Skafi was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Skafi was one of three Palestinians interviewed who gave the newspaper similar accounts of being used in the same manner.

Israeli army dynamites houses in southern Lebanese village

The Israeli military has blown up houses in a southern Lebanese border village as clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters are reported in the area.

“The enemy army blew up houses in the village of Aita al-Shaab,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.

Heavy fighting is ongoing between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, “which is trying to advance on the ground” in the region, the report said.

Al Jazeera footage shows Israeli tanks stationed on the village’s outskirts.

Palestinian olive farmers attacked with toxic gas by Israeli forces

Several Palestinian farmers and international activists were attacked with toxic gas by Israeli forces and settlers while picking olives in Beit Lid, east of Tulkarem, in the occupied West Bank.

The director of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Murad Shteiwi, told the Wafa news agency that Israeli forces and settlers fired live rounds and gas canisters towards those harvesting olives.

Dozens of people suffered suffocation-like symptoms from the gas, Shteiwi added. He said the international volunteers refused to leave the area despite Israeli threats.

This year’s olive harvest season is experiencing repeated attacks by settlers and Israeli troops, including burning and cutting down olive trees and preventing farmers from reaching their land.

Israel bombs finance group in Lebanon

Israeli air strikes hit a Lebanese business association after accusing it of financing Hezbollah’s weapons.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli strikes hit al-Qard al-Hassan branches in the cities of Nabatieh and Tyre overnight, according to the official National News Agency.

On Monday, the Israeli military said it launched a series of attacks against “dozens of facilities and sites” used by Hezbollah in Beirut and southern Lebanon, including branches of the financial institution.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/21/live-israel-destroying-north-gaza-through-death-and-displacement-un-says

KernowDamo on recent developments with Jordan

Iran tells UN Biden signalled US approval, support for attack

Iran’s mission to the UN says that Biden has signalled “tacit approval and explicit support for Israel’s unlawful military aggression against Iran”, citing remarks by the US president in Germany last week.

“The United States will bear full responsibility for its role in instigating, inciting and enabling any acts of aggression by Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran… as well as for the catastrophic consequences on regional and international peace and security,” Iran’s UN mission said in a letter to the Security Council.

Biden, on a visit to Berlin, also told reporters that he had an understanding of how and when Israel would respond to the missile attacks by Iran, without elaborating.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/21/live-israel-destroying-north-gaza-through-death-and-displacement-un-says

Lebanese hospital offers tour to refute Israel’s bunker claims

The administrator of the Sahel General Hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs has offered to give journalists a tour to disprove an Israeli claim that Hezbollah is storing “millions of dollars in gold and cash” there, Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting.

The Israeli army “didn’t show any proof” to back up its claims, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan reported from the Lebanese capital.

“But it made the hospital essentially a target, so the hospital director immediately said they would start evacuating” on Monday, Khan said.

Israeli forces have directly attacked hospitals and health workers in both Lebanon and Gaza on multiple occasions, with Israeli officials offering scant and sometimes spurious claims to justify their actions.

US Justice Dept lawyers push for probe into Israel’s killing of Americans: Report

Lawyers at the US Department of Justice have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to investigate “potential‬‭ violations‬‭ of‬‭ US‬‭ law‬‭ by‬‭ Israel’s‭ government,‬‭ military,‬‭ and‬‭ citizenry”, the news website Zeteo is reporting.

The lawyers highlighted three areas of potential inquiry, the report said: (Illegal) Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, possible war crimes and torture committed by Israeli forces and recent Israeli army killings of US citizens.

That includes American Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was fatally shot by Israeli forces at a West Bank protest in September, and Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist who was killed by the Israeli army in 2022 while covering a raid in Jenin.

Washington initially called for accountability in Abu Akleh’s killing. But it shifted its position after Israel admitted that its soldiers killed her and dismissed the incident as an accident, refusing to open a criminal investigation.

By September 2022, the US dropped its demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted.

PEN America condemns Israeli censorship of film about Palestinian city

PEN America has condemned the Israeli government’s banning of the sci-fi feature documentary film Lyd, which was meant to be shown at the al-Saraya Theater in Jaffa earlier this month.

“We are particularly concerned about the Israeli government’s demand that al-Saraya Theater submit all future programming for approval by the Ministry of Communications,” PEN said in a statement.

Israeli police stopped the theatre from showing the film after Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport Miki Zohar said it slandered Israel and its soldiers, The Times of Israel reported earlier this month.

Co-directed by Rami Younis, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and Sarah Ema Friedland, a Jewish-American media artist, Lyd tells the story of the Palestinian city south of Tel Aviv. It is also known as Lod in Israel.

“The occupation can take many things, but one thing it can’t take is your ability to imagine,” Younis told Al Jazeera when the film premiered in London earlier this year.

Planes forced to switch runways after Israeli strikes near Beirut airport, says security official

Lebanon’s national airline had to switch landing strips on Monday due to Israel’s attacks near the main runway at Beirut international airport, a Lebanese security source has told the AFP news agency.

“Middle East Airlines switched the runway it was using because the main runway is close to the site of the Ouzai strike,” said the official, who requested anonymity.

UN-supported shelter for women and girls destroyed in south Beirut

The UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, says a shelter for women and girls was destroyed in attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday night.

The space was a “home-away-from-home” that “changed the lives of dozens of women and girls” escaping gender-based violence, the agency said in a post on social media.

It was run by UNFPA partner Amel Association International, it added.

Beirut has come under repeated Israeli bombardment in recent days, including at least 12 Israeli missiles that hit its southern suburbs on Sunday night.

Number of injured in Israeli attack near Beirut hospital rises

The Lebanese Health Ministry says at least 32 people were injured in the attack near Rafik Hariri Hospital, up from a preliminary toll of 24 wounded.

As we reported earlier, at least four people – including a child – were killed in the Israeli assault near the hospital.

Pro-Palestine protesters arrested after occupying US university building

A pro-Palestine protest organiser says US police have arrested demonstrators at the University of Minnesota after a group of students occupied an administrative building at the school.

The organiser said about 30 people occupied Morrill Hall, with a larger group gathered outside the building. They planned to stay until their demands – which include the university divesting from Israel and repealing its political neutrality agreement – are met.

School officials warned people to stay away from the Morrill Hall area, accusing protesters of “causing property damage and restricting [the] entrance and exit from the building”.

It is not known how many protesters were arrested, nor if any remain in Morrill Hall.

A university spokesperson said he had no further updates when contacted by The Associated Press and did not immediately respond to a query asking to confirm the arrests.

Israeli army says it killed other Hezbollah officials with Safieddine

In a post on X, Israeli army said that it killed Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine as well as “Hossein Ali Al-Zima, head of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, killed in an attack in Dahiyah in Beirut, along with other commanders in Hezbollah”.

There has been no comment from Hezbollah yet on Israeli army claims yet.

Protesters outside Blinken’s hotel are chanting ‘ceasefire now’
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The families of Israeli captives are the ones who are trying to keep the ceasefire issue alive.

They’re protesting in front of the hotel where Blinken is said to be staying to tell him that that should be the priority.

They’re chanting “ceasefire now” and demanding a deal in any way as it must be reached now because it is still possible to bring the captives home.

That is their one concern, their one demand, while in the Israeli political establishment, so much else is being talked about.

Some media reports are saying that Blinken even offered a road map to the Israelis about how to end the war on Gaza and what “the day after” would look like.

But as far as the Israeli discussions are concerned, the focus and chatter are on everything except a ceasefire.

Israel’s aim is to displace or exterminate Palestinians: Hamas official

Hamas official Osama Hamdan says relentless attacks by the Israeli forces aim to displace or exterminate the Palestinians.

Here are some of the key takeaways from his speech:

Israel has rejected all requests for the entry of aid into northern Gaza.
At least 700 people have been killed during the Israeli military operation in northern Gaza which is in its 18th day.
The credibility of the international community and its institutions is being tested on the charters they were founded on.
Israeli crimes are being carried out with the full US support.
The one-month deadline from the US for Israeli forces to consider allowing aid in confirms it is giving it a deadline to commit more crimes.
Only Palestinians can decide the details of the day after the war.
We demand a UN Security Council meeting to put pressure on Israel to stop the aggression.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/22/live-scenes-of-terror-in-northern-gaza-as-israel-bombs-beirut

Dimitri Lascaris on US/Israeli operations in Cyprus. Also includes a segment where he enters into an exclusive Israeli-operated hotel on the island.

>>485122
Really brings an extra dimension to Cyprus considering half the island is still illegally occupied by Turkiye.

>>485122
This is probably bad news for the people native to Cyprus, if Zionist ideology comes with these Israeli they might try to treat those people like Palestinians.

However overall so many jumping ship is a sign Zionism is weakening and likely has to dial down agression.

Israel minister says he expects US support ‘following attack on Iran’

Israel’s Defence Minister Gallant told visiting US official Blinken that his government expects Washington’s support when it attacks Iran in response to a missile strike earlier this month.

“The United States’s stance with Israel following our attack on Iran will strengthen regional deterrence and weaken the axis of evil,” Gallant said according to a statement from his office.

Iraqi armed groups say launched attack on Israeli-occupied Golan Heights

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iran-linked groups, says the drone attack was carried out in solidarity with people in Palestine and Lebanon.

The coalition said it aimed at an Israeli target in the Syrian Golan Heights, which is occupied by Israel.

The Israeli military has yet to comment.

Earlier this month, Iraqi drones killed two Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights.

Despite its sophisticated air defence systems, Israel has struggled to deal with low-flying drones launched from Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

US lawmakers demand probe into attack on journalists in Lebanon last year

Senator Bernie Sanders and 11 other members of Congress are calling on the Biden administration to open an independent investigation into a deadly Israeli attack on a group of journalists in October 2023.

Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in the bombing and other journalists, including two from Al Jazeera as well as American Dylan Collins, were injured.

“It has now been more than one year since Mr Collins was injured in a targeted Israeli strike while on assignment for AFP,” the US lawmakers wrote in their letter.

“To date, Mr Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability. Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident.”

In March, a UN investigation found that an Israeli tank fired two 120mm rounds at the group of “clearly identifiable journalists” in violation of international law.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/22/live-scenes-of-terror-in-northern-gaza-as-israel-bombs-beirut

>>485130
>However overall so many jumping ship is a sign Zionism is weakening and likely has to dial down agression.
It should! But it won't.

Netanyahu rejects Blinken request to publicly reject ‘General’s Plan’: Reports

The Israeli prime minister and his senior aides have sidestepped the US secretary of state’s request for Israel to publicly reject accusations it is pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, according to media reports.

Blinken, who is in the Middle East as part of the US’s latest push for a ceasefire in Gaza, met with Netanyahu and senior aide Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Tuesday.

One topic of discussion was the so-called General’s Plan, The Times of Israel and CNN are reporting, both citing an unnamed US official.

Put forward in September by retired General Giora Eiland, the General’s Plan – which calls for the expulsion of Palestinians from northern Gaza and the forced starvation and targeting of whoever stays behind – has been labelled a roadmap to ethnic cleansing by critics.

According to both reports, during the meeting, Netanyahu insisted Israel is not pursuing the plan, but refused a request from Blinken to state so publicly.

Washington believes Netanyahu’s refusal was due to fear of alienating the far-right coalition partners he relies on to remain in power, The Times of Israel said.

Israeli strike hits Al Mayadeen TV office in Beirut

Israel’s military carried out an air strike on an office belonging to a Beirut-based TV station.

Pan-Arab TV channel Al Mayadeen, which is politically allied with Hezbollah, said its office in the area between Jnah and Ouzai on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs was hit.

“Al Mayadeen holds the Israeli occupation accountable for the attack on a known media office for a known media outlet,” Al Mayadeen TV said.

It added the office had been evacuated. The Israeli army did not issue a warning before the strike.

On November 21, 2023, an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed two Al Mayadeen journalists who were reporting on military activity along the border with Israel.

Six buildings levelled in 17 Israeli strikes on south Beirut

Lebanon state media reported 17 Israeli raids on Beirut’s southern suburbs with six buildings destroyed.

The official National News Agency (NNA) reported at least 17 Israeli raids, marking one of the most violent nights in the area since the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on September 23.

Six buildings were destroyed around the suburb of Laylaki, NNA said, calling the raids “the most violent in the area since the beginning of the war”.

Hezbollah says it used new drones, missiles for first time

Hezbollah says it fired “precision missiles” and launched new types of attack drones for the first time in clashes with Israeli troops.

The Lebanese group said it was able to push back Israeli soldiers during battles in several border villages in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it forced Israeli troops to “retreat behind the frontier” after they attempted to infiltrate from the outskirts of the south Lebanon village of Aitaroun.

China’s Xi pledges to boost Iran ties in talks with Pezeshkian

China’s President Xi Jinping pledged to increase ties with Iran during talks with his counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Russia, state news agency Xinhua reports.

Xi pledged that “no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly cooperation with Iran”.

The promise of continued support comes as Middle East tensions soar over Israel’s ongoing wars on Gaza and Lebanon, and as the world awaits an Israeli response to Iran’s latest missile attack.

At a BRICS plenary session on Wednesday, Pezeshkian urged members of the grouping to “use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon”.

Xi, meanwhile, repeated his call for a ceasefire, saying: “We need to … stop the killing and work tirelessly for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”

Rescuers halt operations in north Gaza during Israeli attacks

The Gaza civil defence agency says three of its rescuers were wounded in northern Gaza in what it called a “targeted strike” that aimed to force them out of the besieged Jabalia refugee camp.

Later, it said all its operations in northern Gaza were suspended after Israeli forces detained five staff members and bombed the only fire truck.

“Our work has completely stopped in the north Gaza governorate, and the situation has become catastrophic there, and the citizens there are now without any kind of humanitarian services,” the agency said in a statement.

The municipality of Gaza City said two city workers were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli strike.

Health and civil emergency officials said dozens of bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in and around Jabalia are scattered on roadsides and under the rubble where medical teams could not reach them.

Tyre targeted by Israel as war spreads in Lebanon

Israel’s war against Hezbollah appears to be spreading with new strikes on Tyre, a UNESCO-listed port city in south Lebanon, which also came after Israeli evacuation orders.

Tens of thousands of people have already fled Tyre as Israel steps up its campaign to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Israel’s evacuation orders this week have for the first time encompassed swathes of Tyre, right up to its ancient castle.

“We are better off dying with dignity than living on the street,” said Batoum Zalghout, 25, who fled for another part of the city. She said she has been displaced with her two children five times.

The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah “command-and-control centres” in the ancient city recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Al Jazeera condemns Israel’s ‘baseless’ accusations against journalists

Al Jazeera Media Network has denounced Israel’s “unfounded allegations” that six of its journalists reporting in besieged northern Gaza are “terrorists”.

The network views the accusations “as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide”, it said in a statement.

“Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence,” it said.

The network noted Israeli forces in Gaza have killed more than 100 journalists and media workers in the past year “in an attempt to silence the messenger”.

Daily rocket barrages aimed at Haifa, Tel Aviv concerning Israelis
Mohammed Jamjoom
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

There have been no casualties or damage reported as a result of the rockets aimed towards Tel Aviv. We have seen videos showing Israel’s air defence Iron Dome system intercepting at least a few of those missiles over the skies of Tel Aviv.

It’s the second time today that sirens have sounded in the central region of Israel, including Tel Aviv.

More and more over the past couple of weeks cities such as Tel Aviv in the centre of the country and Haifa in the north have been coming under more attacks from Lebanon.

Haifa is a strategic port city. It’s the third-most populous city in the country and the largest city in the north. It’s the home of Israel’s main naval base, there’s a military presence there, and there are oil refineries.

It is a strategic target and some projectiles in the past few weeks actually hit the centre of the city and caused damage and injuries. That’s causing more concern for Israelis.

Hezbollah says it killed about 70 Israeli soldiers in weeks of clashes

Hezbollah says its fighters killed more than 70 Israeli troops in its clashes with Israeli forces, updating a statement from last week saying 55 were killed since a ground invasion was launched earlier this month.

Israel has said it lost about 20 soldiers inside Lebanon since its ground operations began, and 30 more in Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/23/live-israeli-tank-fire-on-north-gaza-school-beirut-bombed-again

Israeli strike hits building in Syria’s central Damascus area: Report

We reported earlier that explosions had been heard in the Syrian capital Damascus in what was reported to be an Israeli attack.

Syrian state news agency SANA is now reporting that the Israeli attack targeted a residential building in the central Damascus neighbourhood of Kafr Sousa. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

Israel has for years conducted regular attacks on targets inside Syria but rarely admits to its military campaign.

Those attacks have escalated amid Israel’s war on Gaza and attack on Lebanon.

On Monday, an Israeli missile attack on a car in Damascus killed two people. Israel’s military claimed it killed a Hezbollah commander in the strike in the Syrian capital.

One killed, 7 injured following Israeli strikes in Damascus, Homs

A Syrian soldier has been killed and seven others have been injured following an Israeli military attack in Damascus and Homs, Syria’s state news agency SANA reports.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli air strikes targeted a residential building in the central Damascus neighbourhood of Kafr Sousa.

SANA now reports that Israeli forces have also bombed a military site in the Homs countryside.

We will bring you more information when we have it.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/24/live-israel-pounds-beirut-in-violent-night-of-attacks-on-south-suburbs

At least 770 killed in 19 days of Israeli siege on Jabalia: Gaza gov’t media office

The Government Media Office in Gaza has said that more than 770 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded after 19 days of Israeli military attacks on Jabalia in the northern part of the territory.

It said in a statement that more than 200 civilians, including women, have been “kidnapped”, and dozens more remain missing amid communications issues.

“We express our fear that they may have been executed in the field, as has been done on many previous occasions,” it added.

More than 100,000 wounded and sick people in the northern parts of Gaza are in “urgent need” of assistance, which remains elusive due to the Israeli military’s destruction of the health system and four hospitals in the area, according to the office.

Israeli forces shoot at civil defence crew in Jabalia

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza has released a video that shows Israeli soldiers directly opening fire on emergency responders as they responded to the bombing of a family home in the al-Fakhoura area of Jabalia, in northern Gaza.

The video shared on Telegram shows emergency responders rummaging through debris at night, only to be forced into cover after being targeted by live ammunition. In the morning, bullet holes could be seen in their vehicles, including a fire truck.

Earlier today, the organisation had also reported that its first responders had to withdraw from another mission in Beit Lahiya after Israeli soldiers opened fire on them.

After we strike Iran, world will understand our preparations: Israeli defence minister

Yoav Gallant has spoken to pilots and technical staff at Hatzerim airbase, telling them that after Israel attacks Iran, the world will understand the preparations that went into such an operation.

“After we attack in Iran, they will understand both in Israel and in other places what your preparation process includes, and the arrangements and your readiness,” Gallant said, according to a video.

Israel has repeatedly said it would retaliate against Iran for launching 180 ballistic missiles on Israel on October 1. Iran said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, among other reasons, and has promised to respond if it comes under attack.

UN request to bring aid to Kamal Adwan Hospital ‘denied by Israeli authorities’

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that its humanitarian teams led by the WHO have arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza to evacuate critical patients.

“But our request to bring food, fuel, blood and medicines was denied by Israeli authorities,” it said in a post on X.

Richard Peeperkorn, a WHO representative, said it is “incomprehensible” that after more than a year, regular humanitarian missions are being denied.

Israeli military boasts about tens of thousands displaced from Jabalia

The Israeli military has released aerial footage showing the large-scale destruction of Jabalia in northern Gaza as it forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee amid an expanding siege and repeated threats for people to leave or face bombardment.

Civilians were seen fleeing the area in large numbers as tanks and blacked-out or destroyed buildings surrounded them.

The military boasted that another 20,000 more Palestinians are now forcibly displaced from the area, “despite the efforts of Hamas to prevent the citizens from evacuating the area”. It claimed that this signifies “the breaking of the Hamas siege on Jabalia”.

The Israeli army also claimed that it had arrested more than 150 Palestinian fighters in the area.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims drone attack on Israel’s Eilat

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq – a coalition of Iran-linked groups – has claimed a drone attack on a “vital target” in Eilat.

As we just reported, the Israeli army said it shot down two unmanned aircraft that crossed into Israeli waters near Eilat, which is the country’s southernmost city.

Spain freezes purchase of arms from Israel

Spain’s defence ministry has told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that all of Spain’s contracts to buy weapons from Israel have been suspended since October 7, 2023, with the exception of maintenance work.

According to ministry figures from last year, 1.7 percent of Spain’s defence imports came from Israel. The ministry, led by Margarita Robles, said Spain temporarily exported defence-related aircraft parts to Israel for repair and later reimported them.

Before Wednesday, Spain’s foreign minister had only said Spain stopped selling weapons to Israel since its war on Gaza began.

The ministry was responding to a formal letter submitted on Tuesday by ministers of Spain’s far-left coalition party Sumar, which called on its partners in government for a “total arms embargo with Israel”.

Turkey extends role in Lebanon UN peacekeeping mission

The Turkish parliament extended its troops’ participation in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon by a year. Turkey has contributed to UNIFIL since 2006 and currently has 97 troops deployed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hit out at the UN for failing to prevent Israel from firing at its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

“The image of the UN which cannot protect its own personnel is shameful and worrying,” Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel, said earlier this month in a televised address.

“Can you believe it? The Israeli tanks penetrate into the UNIFIL zone, attack peacekeeping soldiers, even wounding some of them, but the UN Security Council decides to just watch all this criminality from its stands – that’s what we call powerlessness.”

Hamas fighters destroy Israeli tank in northern Gaza, attack soldiers

The armed wing of Hamas has released a video showing an Israeli Merkava tank being destroyed after running over a planted explosive device in the Tall az-Zaatar neighbourhood east of Jabalia in northern Gaza.

The Qassam Brigades also announced its fighters used 114mm “Rajum” rockets to hit an Israeli command-and-control site along the Netzarim Corridor, the Israeli-established and -controlled strip of land that splits northern and southern Gaza.

Earlier, the group reported a D9 military bulldozer had struck a landmine in as-Saftawi in northern Gaza and another bulldozer was targeted with an antiarmour shell and an explosive device in the al-Faluja neighbourhood of Jabalia.

Israeli attack kills northern Gaza police chief

Israeli forces have killed the director of the municipal police of the northern Gaza Strip, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.

Mazen al-Kahlout was shot by an Israeli drone near al-Yaman al-Saeed Hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp.

Qassam Brigades mourns Hezbollah’s Safieddine

The armed wing of Hamas released a statement to acknowledge the death of the head of the executive council of Hezbollah “in a criminal Zionist raid” in Lebanon.

The Qassam Brigades praised the role Hashem Safieddine played “in supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance”.

It also noted his “great contributions to building and strengthening the resistance front against the Zionist occupation over many years”.

Israeli cyberattacks failing, Iran localising infrastructure: Official

Iran’s top cyber-defence official has said online Israeli attacks against Iranian interests continue, but are facing a “layer-by-layer” defence strategy that has kept them at bay.

“The offensive units of the enemy suffered big hits in the October 7 attacks, and Unit 8200 also took a hit,” Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization, told reporters in reference to the Israeli military’s top intelligence unit during a news conference in Tehran.

Jalali did not provide any details about Iran’s measures against cyberattacks amid a looming Israeli military attack on Iran.

He said the explosions of the pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah showed that “we cannot rely on sensitive and security-related foreign technologies” as they could provide avenues of access to enemies.

“The best solution is to employ indigenous systems and infrastructure,” Jalali said.

Iran condemns Israeli killing of its medic in Lebanon as war crime

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly condemned the killing of an Iranian medic in Lebanon, calling it a violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

Dr Ali Heydari had been based in Beirut “for some time” in order to provide medical assistance to victims of Israeli attacks “based on his human and religious sense of duty”, the ministry said in a statement.

“The act of the Zionist regime in targeting Dr Heydari, who was acting as a medic to treat the wounded and help patients, is a clear violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that forbid attacks on hospitals and medical centres and doctors and medical professionals, and is considered a war crime,” it said.

The ministry also called on relevant organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to document repeated instances of “gross violations of international humanitarian law” by the Israeli military in Lebanon.

Hamas official arrives in Russia: Report

The group’s official has arrived in Moscow on a planned visit and intends to hold a series of meetings with Russian officials, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing a diplomatic source.

UNRWA staff killed in Gaza

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma tells Al Jazeera that a staff member was killed in an Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

The vehicle that was hit was clearly marked UNRWA, she said, adding that the agency was confirming whether another staff member was also killed in the attack.

As of October 13, the total number of UNRWA team members killed in Gaza since October last year is 228.

Palestine Foreign Affairs Ministry holds UNSC accountable for failures on Gaza

The Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry has released a statement that says it holds the UN Security Council responsible “for the consequences of its continued failure to stop the war of genocide against our people”.

It demanded the council exercise its powers to protect Palestinians, especially those in harsh conditions in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The ministry warned of the dangers of “any proposed plans aimed at perpetuating the separation” of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, adding that international recognition for a legitimate Palestinian state is the only way to resolve the crisis.

It said the positions adopted by countries on the “day after” of the war reveal their true stance on the two-state solution.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/23/live-israeli-tank-fire-on-north-gaza-school-beirut-bombed-again

>>485153
>China’s Xi pledges to boost Iran ties in talks with Pezeshkian
>China’s President Xi Jinping pledged to increase ties with Iran during talks with his counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Russia, state news agency Xinhua reports.
>Xi pledged that “no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly cooperation with Iran”.
>The promise of continued support comes as Middle East tensions soar over Israel’s ongoing wars on Gaza and Lebanon, and as the world awaits an Israeli response to Iran’s latest missile attack.
>At a BRICS plenary session on Wednesday, Pezeshkian urged members of the grouping to “use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon”.
>Xi, meanwhile, repeated his call for a ceasefire, saying: “We need to … stop the killing and work tirelessly for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”
The Chinese are extremely shrewd, they don't back loosers. This means they have concluded that Iran most likely prevails.

Israeli strike kills 3 Lebanese soldiers in country’s south

The soldiers were killed, including an officer, in an Israeli attack during the evacuation of wounded people from the outskirts of Yater village in southern Lebanon, the army said in a statement.

We will bring you more on this attack as information emerges.

Israel’s killing of 3 more Lebanese soldiers ‘a very serious incident’
Imran Khan
Reporting from Hasbaiyya, southern Lebanon

Three more Lebanese soldiers were killed as they were moving people who had been injured out of the village of Yater in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. It’s not actually that far from here.

Since September 29, a total of 13 Lebanese soldiers have been killed.

The Lebanese army is not fighting the Israelis in these cases. What they are doing is providing support services for the Civil Defence or the emergency services.

They are trying to help the civilian population and it is in that role that they have been attacked.

This is a very serious incident for the Lebanese army.

Israeli forces destroy only firetruck in north Gaza, ending rescue services

As it advances into the 20th day of siege and attacks on northern Gaza, the Israeli military has forced a halt to all rescue operations in the heavily bombed area.

These are the latest updates from the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, which also released the image below of its destroyed firetruck.

The Israeli military arrested five civil defence workers in Gaza’s Sheikh Zayed area and took them to an unknown location.
Israeli tanks targeted the only firefighting vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip with their shells and set it on fire.
The fate of three wounded civil defence personnel who were targeted by an Israeli drone in the Beit Lahiya Project area is unknown after contact was lost with them.

Hamas seeks Moscow’s help to push Palestinian unity government for post-war Gaza: Report

Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official has told the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow, the Reuters news agency reports.

“We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war,” Marzouk was quoted as saying by RIA.

Marzouk said Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations on a unity government, RIA reported.

BRICS alliance reaffirms support for Palestine’s full UN membership

The BRICS alliance, currently holding its annual summit in the Russian city of Kazan, has reaffirmed its “support for the State of Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations”.

The alliance – initially comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but expanded in 2023 to include Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – also reiterated its “unwavering commitment” to a two-state solution “in line with internationally recognised borders of June 1967”.

The Kazan Declaration also expressed “grave concern” at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. It calls for “an immediate, comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”, the release of all captives and detainees on both sides, and for Israel to allow “unhindered” humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Dozens of Israeli settlers perform Talmudic rituals at Western Wall

Dozens of Israeli settlers have performed Talmudic rituals at the Western Wall – which Muslims refer to as the Buraq Wall – in the Old City of Jerusalem in the occupied territories.

A video on Telegram verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency shows the settlers gathering at the holy wall for the Jewish holiday of “Simchat Torah”.

The wall is adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Israeli settlers have repeatedly performed Talmudic rituals in the past few months while escorted by armed security forces.

Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also stormed the mosque compound multiple times since the start of the war on Gaza, mostly to undermine any efforts to achieve a ceasefire and to challenge the status quo at the holy site.

Iran’s IRGC chief cautions Israel not to rely on ‘limited’ THAAD capabilities

The commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has suggested advanced US missile defence systems will not be enough if Israel prompts an Iranian attack by hitting Iran.

“Do not trust the THAAD systems. They are limited, and you have relied on a limited power,” Hossein Salami is quoted as saying by the IRGC-linked Tasnim news website.

“Whatever you wish to fire, your enemies will fire at you several times stronger. You cannot emerge victorious in this story, and we will defeat you.”

The US has situated one THAAD system in Israel along with about 100 soldiers, and Israel has requested a second system.

Salami also threatened that “a small territory whose economy is 98 percent reliant on the sea must think more as unwise decisions could bring about the downfall of a regime with surprising speed.”

The IRGC chief said the US is making a mistake by “tying its political reputation with the crimes” of the Israelis, adding that the world now knows the US by “the bombs that are falling on the children of Gaza and Lebanon”.

Iran says UN ‘turned into a frustratingly dysfunctional platform’

Iran’s foreign ministry has criticised the UN on the anniversary of its founding in 1945, saying that it has failed to live up to its mandate.

The UN “has turned into a frustratingly dysfunctional platform unable to take any effective collective measures to stop Israel’s maniacal genocide in Gaza and its aggressive war on Lebanon and beyond”, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote in a post on X.

“The UN is sadly defeating its purpose as US’s unconditional support for occupying regime has so emboldened the regime as to expand its aggressions and atrocities across the region,” he said of Israel.

Baghaei added that the UN must be “revitalised by its responsible membership to reign in the rogue entity’s warmongering”.

‘Women forced into holes’: Israel’s intimidation tactics
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza

We contacted a number of civilians who managed to flee Jabalia in northern Gaza and move to Gaza City.

They shared with us disturbing details about what is going on in the Jabalia refugee camp and Beit Lahiya, especially in light of forced evacuation orders being issued to families in the north.

They told us the Israeli army surrounded evacuation centres and shelters, and forced men to separate from women, taking them to other locations in the north.

They said the Israeli army dug huge holes in the ground and forced women to jump inside. Israeli tanks later started to move around these holes, throwing up huge amounts of dust as a sort of intimidation tactic.

Later, they gave the women a short amount of time to flee to Gaza City while horrific Israeli attacks were ongoing in nearby areas.

We have also heard that over 150 Palestinians were detained in the northern parts of Gaza and taken to Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/24/live-israel-pounds-beirut-in-violent-night-of-attacks-on-south-suburbs

>>485170
>Salami also threatened that “a small territory whose economy is 98 percent reliant on the sea must think more as unwise decisions could bring about the downfall of a regime with surprising speed.”
What's he hinting at ?

Hamas says no truce deal until Israel fully pulls out of Gaza

An Egyptian security delegation has met with a delegation of Hamas leaders in Cairo, part of efforts to resume the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV reports.

Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan told Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen that there is no change in the group’s position. “The hostages held by the resistance will only return by stopping the aggression and completely withdrawing,” Hamdan said.

Previous attempts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and captive release deal have failed.

Nuseirat school 196th to be hit by Israeli military since start of war

The Government Media Office in Gaza has announced that the direct Israeli air strikes on the Shuhadaa al-Nuseirat school in the central part of the enclave brings the number of displacement centres hit since the start of the war to 196.

At least nine children are among the 17 people confirmed killed so far, the office said in a statement, adding that 52 wounded Palestinians have arrived at hospitals in the area.

“The occupation army knew that the school housed thousands of displaced persons and that the majority of them are children and women who were displaced from their bombed homes and residential neighbourhoods.”

The graphic footage below, which has been confirmed by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency, shows the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Israeli air strikes destroy block of flats in Gaza’s Jabalia camp
Hani Mahmoud
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza

The Israeli military carried out a major attack on al-Hawaja Street, in the western part of Jabalia, causing a sheer level of destruction. At least a dozen residential buildings were blown up.

Based on an assessment the Civil Defence agency, an estimated 150 people were either killed or wounded. Rescue teams are unable to approach the bomb site to bring the injured to hospital.

These are people who refused to leave the Jabalia refugee camp simply because they are exhausted and the road to evacuate was not safe for them. They haven’t been eating or provided with water supplies. So they’re exhausted and decided to remain in their homes.

Hezbollah says Israeli troop casualties in tank attack in south Lebanon

Hezbollah says it destroyed an Israeli tank in Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, killing and wounding the crew.

The Lebanese group said it attacked the tank with a “guided missile”, causing it to catch fire.

Earlier, the group said its fighters were engaged in ongoing “intense” clashes at “point-blank range” using assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenades against Israeli army vehicles in Aita al-Shaab.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah said its fighters have killed more than 70 Israeli troops in its clashes. Israel says it’s lost about 20 soldiers inside Lebanon since its ground operations began, and 30 more in Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.

‘We can’t really believe anything the secretary of state says’

Talk of reviving a Gaza ceasefire is just “gaslighting” as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels through the Middle East, says the Israel-Palestine advocacy director at the US-based group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

“We can’t really believe anything the secretary of state says at this point,” Adam Shapiro told Al Jazeera. “What Blinken says about Israel’s war goals doesn’t match what the Israelis say are their war goals. The Israelis are planning for a resettlement of parts of Gaza, if not the entirety of Gaza.”

He also noted the clearing out of the Lebanese population suggests “there’s real reason to believe the settlement of southern Lebanon is on the table”.

“It’s the complete failure of this administration, of this secretary of state, for over a year now to do something meaningful to stop the atrocities that are happening.”

‘We lose at least one person every hour’: Medical supplies run out in Gaza

Health workers in besieged northern Gaza warned of a catastrophic situation as Israel’s army continues its ground incursion and air strikes for a 20th day.

Nearly 800 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in the north in recent days.

Dr Hussam Abu Safia, director of the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital, said about 150 wounded people are being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department. Israeli tanks shelled the intensive care unit earlier.

“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff. Our ambulances can’t transfer wounded people. Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care. But those who don’t just die in the streets.”

US Jewish group demands ‘end to Palestinian genocide’

The US-based Jewish Voice for Peace has demanded an arms embargo by the US government against Israel, comparing its war on Gaza to “the Nazi holocaust”.

“Many of us have parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who survived or perished in Nazi death marches and we have all grown up in the shadow of the Nazi holocaust. The state of Israel is currently perpetrating a holocaust, the deliberate mass slaughter of Palestinian people, with weapons provided by the United States,” the group said in a statement.

The images coming out of northern Gaza “are a terrifying echo of all-too-familiar images of European ghettos and Nazi concentration camps in the 2nd World War,” it added.

“Today we stand with our ancestors at our backs, in solidarity with our Palestinian siblings, demanding an immediate weapons embargo and an end to genocide — we will not act with indifference toward Palestinian suffering.”

Israeli army says it killed UNRWA staffer, alleging he’s a Hamas commander

The Israeli army says it killed “a Hamas commander”, alleging he was also an employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and responsible for the killing and kidnapping of Israeli civilians during the October 7, 2023, attack.

Asked about the allegations, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees confirmed that Muhammad Abu Atiwi was a staff member. It said his name was included on a list sent by the Israeli government to the agency alleging 100 UNRWA employees were members of Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas.

“The UNRWA commissioner general responded to that letter immediately stating that any allegation is taken seriously. He urged [Israel’s government] to cooperate with the agency by providing more information so he could take action. To date, UNRWA has not received any response to that letter,” it said in a statement to Al Jazeera.

No evidence has yet been “authenticated and corroborated” proving any UNRWA staff members were involved in the attacks on October 7, the agency said.

Hamas says efforts in motion to thwart Israel’s ‘General’s Plan’ for Gaza

Hamas says it is engaged in intense efforts to make sure Israel fails in implementing the so-called General’s Plan of clearing Palestinians from northern Gaza.

“The leadership of the Hamas movement has launched a campaign of intensive political and diplomatic movements and communications to thwart the occupation’s plans and stop the complex crime that the occupation is committing within the framework of the war of extermination and open massacres in the Gaza Strip, specifically in the northern part,” the group said in a statement.

Hamas said it has warned others of the devastating consequences if such a plan is successfully implemented in Gaza, adding: “Delegations from the movement’s leadership are visiting Turkey, Qatar and Russia, and contacts have also taken place in Egypt, the United Nations and Iran.”

Russia’s Putin meets Palestinian leader Abbas at BRICS summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the BRICS meeting.

“We are strongly for a quick end to the bloodshed [in Gaza],” Putin told Abbas in televised comments.

The Kremlin has maintained relations with both Israel and Palestine, but experts say its actual sway over the conflict is limited.

Unlike the United States and European Union, Russia has not blacklisted Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation, welcoming the group’s delegates to Moscow shortly after their victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and treating it as a legitimate political force.

Germany approves more than $100m in arms exports to Israel

Germany has authorised more than $100m in military exports to Israel in the last three months, Foreign Office data showed, coinciding with the latest legal challenge by human rights groups concerned about the potential use of these weapons in the Gaza war.

Berlin has approved 94,052,394 million euros ($101.61m) in arms exports to Israel since August 2024, according to a government response to a parliamentary inquiry by left-wing lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen.

The new permits followed a significant drop in arms exports to Israel in the first half of the year.

Separately, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) says it has filed an appeal at the Frankfurt Administrative Court on behalf of a Gaza resident, seeking to halt further arms exports.

The appeal says German weapons are contributing to civilian harm in Gaza. The plaintiff, a Gaza resident who lost his wife and daughter in Israeli air strikes, says continuing arms shipments place his life and the lives of others in danger, calling on Germany to stop facilitating these transfers.

Two-state solution would mean ‘correcting the historical injustice towards the Palestinian people’: Putin

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin warned during the BRICS summit that the Middle East was on the verge of “full-scale war”.

“The military action that started a year ago in Gaza has now spread to Lebanon. Other countries in the region are also affected,” Putin told a meeting in Kazan attended by several world leaders.

“The level of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply risen. This is all reminiscent of a chain reaction and puts the whole Middle East on the verge of full-scale war,” Putin said.

Violence in the Middle East will not end until the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Putin said at the summit.

“The key demand for restoring peace and stability on Palestinian territories is carrying out the two-state formula approved by the UN Security Council and General Assembly,” the Russian president said, adding that this would help solve “the historical injustice towards the Palestinian people”.

“Until this question is resolved, it will not be possible to break the vicious circle of violence.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/24/live-israel-pounds-beirut-in-violent-night-of-attacks-on-south-suburbs

https://x.com/owenjonesjourno/status/1849529008301437162
The ICC prosecutor is now being subjected to a smear campaign… which is sort of astounding, since it appears that the ICC judges have been entirely compromised already.

>>485183
>The ICC prosecutor is now being subjected to a smear campaign… which is sort of astounding, since it appears that the ICC judges have been entirely compromised already.
They are trying to destroy the UN institutions that might hold them accountable, for helping the Zionists make a huge bloodbath.

Whether that is prudent is another question. Because these UN institutions could get replaced with something else that does not bend.

>>485185
The ICC isn't technically UN, it's a separate international institution… and generally has a worse reputation than the UN's ICJ. This is still bad though, yeah.

Israel must stop ‘ethnic cleansing’

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has called for pressure on Israel to end “ethnic cleansing”, in strong remarks as he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in London.

Deploring the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, Safadi told Blinken: “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop.”

Blinken said there is an urgency to get to a diplomatic resolution in the ongoing conflict in Lebanon between the Israeli forces and the Hezbollah group.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/25/live-israel-accused-of-massacre-in-new-jabalia-raid-strikes-hit-beirut

What a weird fucking conversation to have to have with somebody where you have to ask them to stop facilitating ethnic cleansing.

This is really damning.