Some stuff from 09/18:
‘Days of rage’: Hamas calls for global protests to end war and lift blockadeHamas has issued a statement urging worldwide protests on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to demand an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the lifting of the blockade that has unleashed famine in the Palestinian territory.
The group called on “all free people” to escalate global demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza’s population, and to protest “genocide, starvation, and forced displacement”.
The statement encouraged rallies outside Israeli and US embassies and urged unions, students and lawmakers to intensify pressure campaigns to reopen border crossings and allow humanitarian aid into the battered enclave.
Hamas also called for support for the next humanitarian aid flotilla headed to Gaza, warning Israel not to target it. The group said the coming days should mark “a new phase” of international mobilisation aimed at stopping the war and ending the siege.
Israel begins striking southern LebanonThe Israeli army says its air force has begun striking “Hezbollah military sites” across southern Lebanon.
The attacks came shortly after the military said it planned to attack southern Lebanon and called on residents in at least three areas to flee.
Israel has repeatedly attacked southern Lebanon despite agreeing to ceasefire in November 2024 with Lebanon.
Israeli air raids hit two towns in southern LebanonLebanon’s National News Agency reports that an Israeli strike has just targeted the town of Kfar Tebnit.
Separately, two missiles struck residential homes at risk of collapse in the town of Meiss el-Jabal, also in southern Lebanon.
Israeli army attacks ‘densely populated’ villages in southern Lebanon as resident fleeBy Zeina KhodrReporting from Beirut, LebanonThe Israeli army has begun carrying out a number of air strikes on a number of locations in southern Lebanon.
The evacuation orders [were] issued approximately an hour ago. We saw mass evacuations, people leaving villages because the evacuation warnings were posted on social media and marked the buildings it planned to hit in three villages … villages that are densely populated.
We saw people pack whatever they could and make their way to safer areas.
Israel continuously targets Lebanon despite the November cessation of hostilities agreement. Near-daily attacks.
Most of these attacks are pinpoint strikes; they target vehicles, motorcycles – they target what they call Hezbollah members and assets.
But these buildings are in densely populated areas, so there is a lot of concern and fear. People are worried that Israel intends to escalate its attacks.
The Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is calling the international community … among them the United States, to pressure Israel to stop these attacks and to withdraw from positions it still holds within Lebanese territory along the border, as well as to release prisoners.
Israeli army orders more evacuations in southern Lebanon as strikes resumeIsraeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee has issued new forced evacuation orders to residents of the southern Lebanese towns of Tair Zebna in al-Shahabiya, and Burj Qallawiyah, warning them to immediately leave buildings marked in red on maps published on social media and move at least 500 metres away.
The warning, framed as a “safety measure”, amounts to a forced displacement order and comes just minutes after Israel confirmed it has begun a new wave of air strikes on “Hezbollah targets” across southern Lebanon, despite a ceasefire agreement reached with the group in November 2024.
Residents who remain in their homes “are at risk”, Adraee said, as Israeli warplanes continue bombing multiple areas in the south.
Israel has committed more than 4,500 violations since 2024 truce, Lebanese army saysLebanon’s army says Israel has committed more than 4,500 violations since the cessation of hostilities agreement with Hezbollah went into effect in November after its assault on Lebanon.
In a statement, the military said Israel continues to attack civilians and villages in the south, including more strikes today that have killed and wounded residents, and accused Israel of repeated violations by land, sea, and air.
The army added that Israeli actions, including firing incendiary bombs and demolishing homes, are obstructing its deployment in the south and threaten to derail its plan to fully secure areas south of the Litani River.
During engineering sweeps in southern Lebanon, an army unit found and dismantled a camouflaged Israeli spy device in the Labbouneh area near Tyre. The army said it is coordinating with UNIFIL and the ceasefire monitoring committee to follow up on the violations.
Northern Gaza emptying as tents vanish, displacement surgesThe Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics says about 740,000 people – roughly 35 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million population – remained in the north of the enclave as of Tuesday.
In a statement, the bureau warned the figure could drop further because of continued Israeli attacks and forced displacement. It said northern Gaza – once a major population centre – has turned into a “hub of renewed displacement” with basic services largely absent and security conditions worsening.
Satellite images taken from September 4 to Monday showed thousands of tents that had been set up on empty land along the coast and among Gaza City’s rubble have now disappeared or have significantly declined in number, including large camps in the Sheikh Radwan and Remal neighbourhoods and Shati refugee camp.
Despite some families trying to return home in the past several months, the bureau said ongoing Israeli assaults and the new ground invasion are driving residents to flee again, leaving the population “highly unstable and constantly shifting”.
Houthis claim missile and drone strikes on IsraelYemen’s Houthis say they carried out a “qualitative military operation” firing a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military site in the Tel Aviv area, forcing Israelis into shelters and briefly closing airspace.
Spokesperson Yahya Saree said their drone forces also struck “various targets” in Eilat with three drones and hit a “sensitive target” in Beersheba with another. He said both operations “successfully achieved their objectives”.
Saree warned that Eilat would “remain under continuous targeting” and accused Israel of endangering the entire region, pledging to keep supporting the Palestinian people “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted”.
US vetoes ceasefire resolutionThe US is the sole country to vote against today’s ceasefire resolution. Because it is a permanent member of the council, the vote means the resolution has been scuttled.
The US representative said the resolution “fails to condemn Hamas or recognise Israel’s right to defend itself, and it wrongly legitimises the false narratives benefiting Hamas, which have sadly found currency in this council”.
The US, a close ally of Israel, has repeatedly voted down UN Security Council resolutions on a ceasefire.
PM Salam says Lebanon committed to ceasefire, Israel is notAs Israel prepares to bomb several areas across south Lebanon, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has accused Israel of carrying out “intimidation and aggression” outside the framework of last year’s ceasefire agreement and the internationally backed mechanism to monitor it.
“Lebanon calls on the international community, especially the countries sponsoring the agreement to cease hostilities, to exert maximum pressure on Israel to immediately stop its aggressions,” he said in a statement.
France and the United States are the main sponsors of the deal.
Salam also called for pressuring Israel to withdraw from the Lebanese areas that it still occupies and to release Lebanese captives in its custody.
US veto of Gaza ceasefire bid is complicity in ‘genocide’, Hamas saysHamas has condemned Washington’s move to block a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, calling it “blatant complicity in the crime of genocide”.
The group praised the 10 countries that sponsored the resolution and urged them to increase pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to halt its assault.
Hamas hails Allenby crossing attack, vows continued resistanceHamas has praised the shooting attack that killed two Israelis near the Allenby crossing, calling it a “heroic operation” and a clear message against Israel’s “genocide, annexation, and settlement policies” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In a statement, the group said the assault reflects the anger of the Palestinian people and the broader Arab and Islamic world, particularly Jordanians, in response to “daily massacres” and Israel’s ongoing aggression.
Hamas added that the attack proves the determination of the region’s people is “stronger than the machine of oppression and terror” and that attempts to isolate Palestinians from their Arab and Islamic surroundings will fail.
The group pledged that Israel’s assault will only fuel further resistance and said Palestinians will remain committed to defending their land and establishing an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Israeli army: Four soldiers killed in fighting in southern GazaFour Israeli soldiers have been killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, the army says.
Israeli media reported that the four were killed in the early hours of the morning in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Lebanon’s Meiss al-Jabal officials decry ‘cowardly’ Israeli attacksThe municipality of Meiss el-Jabal in southern Lebanon condemned a “cowardly aggression” after Israeli forces bombed two homes in the town earlier today, causing extensive damage, wounding a worker, and forcing the temporary evacuation of dozens of families, including children, women, and the elderly.
In a statement, the municipality said the repeated Israeli attacks are undermining security and obstructing civilian life.
“We place this ongoing aggression in the hands of Lebanon’s official authorities and the international mediators of the ceasefire agreement, which so far has only been implemented by Lebanon,” the statement read.
“Mere condemnations are no longer enough unless they are accompanied by serious national actions or binding international decisions.”
Italian port blocks arms for Israel as worker protests mountItaly’s Adriatic port of Ravenna has refused entry to two trucks said to be carrying arms to Israel, as protests mount among Italian dockworkers and other labour groups against the war in Gaza.
The centre-left mayor of Ravenna, Alessandro Barattoni, told reporters the port authority had accepted the request from him and the regional government to deny access to the lorries carrying explosives en route to the Israeli port of Haifa.
“The Italian state says it has blocked the sale of arms to Israel, but it is unacceptable that, thanks to bureaucratic loopholes, they can pass through Italy from other countries,” Barattoni said in a statement.
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Similar action to block arms shipments to Israel has been taken by dockworkers in other European countries such as France, Sweden and Greece.
Ravenna’s decision reflects growing mobilisation in Italy against Israel’s assault and in support of an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to the Palestinians.
On Friday, Italy’s largest trade union body, the CGIL, will hold a national half-day strike and marches in Rome and other cities, while on September 22, two other unions will halt work and try to block activity in the large ports of Genoa and Livorno.
The CGIL said its protests were aimed at generating pressure on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government “to suspend all commercial and military cooperation agreements with Israel, lift the humanitarian embargo, and recognise the State of Palestine”.
UNIFIL resumes landmine clearing suspended at start of warThe United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), meant to enforce a buffer area between Israel and Hezbollah, made the announcement today before Israel’s latest strikes on southern Lebanon.
It said de-mining efforts had been suspended at the start of the war amid exchanges of fire across the border. It was not immediately clear whether Israel’s repeated violations of a ceasefire agreement reached in November would again force the peacekeeping mission to suspend the effort.
The two areas being worked on by teams from China and Cambodia cover 18,000 square metres (193,750 square feet). The UN Security Council approved what was described as the final extension of UNIFIL’s mandate in August, setting it on a course to wind down by December 2026.
Internet and landline services restored in northern GazaThe Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Paltel) says its crews have restored internet and landline services in Gaza and North Gaza governorates despite “dangerous field conditions”.
The restoration follows a full outage reported yesterday by the telecom regulator after Israeli attacks damaged key network routes.
This has been confirmed by connectivity watchdog NetBlocks, which, after a 35-hour blackout, said “overall service remains far below pre-war levels”.
Israeli attacks complicate Lebanese gov’t push to disarm HezbollahBy Ali HarbReporting from Washington, DCAs Israeli missiles started to rain down on south Lebanon earlier today, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam once again asked the sponsors of the ceasefire – the US and France – to reign in their ally.
The promise of US guarantees that Israel would not just roll in and take south Lebanon, if not the entire country, is at the heart of the so-called American paper that was adopted by the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah.
The group has resoundingly rejected that push, saying that it will treat the Lebanese government’s decree as if it does not exist. Hezbollah argues that even in its weakened state the group serves as a deterrence against Israeli expansionism.
The continuing Israeli bombardment may bolster Hezbollah’s argument.
After the Israeli strikes on Doha earlier this month, Hezbollah was quick to note a US administration that is unwilling to stop Israel from attacking Qatar – a major non-NATO ally of the US and a global transport and trade hub – also won’t protect a beleaguered Lebanon.
After Israel’s wave of air strikes, Shia Muslim Grand Mufti Ahmad Qabalan questioned Lebanese leaders’ stated commitment to the country’s sovereignty.
“With all my pain and sorrow, I say to the ruling class in this country, which is being offered for sale at the lowest possible price: Where is the authority of national screaming and the choir of arms monopoly from the hell of Zionist terrorism that tramples the very dignity of those who claim to represent national sovereignty?” Qabalan said.
Israeli army says van with ultra-Orthodox draft evaders attackedAn Israeli military van transporting arrested ultra-Orthodox Jewish draft evaders was attacked overnight by protesters from the community, the army says.
Thousands of draft notices have been sent in recent months to ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have traditionally been largely exempt from military service.
“Several draft evaders were arrested today, tried in disciplinary proceedings and sent to military detention,” the military said in a statement late on Wednesday. “While en route to the prison … several demonstrators threw stones and sprayed tear gas at the vehicle.”
Calls within Israel to end the exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews have intensified, with some reservists serving hundreds of days since the war began nearly two years ago.
Qatar goes to ICC over Israeli attackA senior Qatari official has met the president of the International Criminal Court as it seeks legal action against Israel over its unprecedented strikes on Doha.
Chief negotiator Mohammed al-Khulaifi met Judge Tomoko Akane in The Hague on Wednesday as Doha pursues legal moves against Israel.
In a post on X after the meeting, al-Khulaifi said his visit was “part of the work of the team tasked with exploring legal avenues to respond to the illegal Israeli armed attack against the State of Qatar”.
Last year, the ICC launched a prosecution of Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s war on Gaza, including by intentionally targeting civilians and using starvation as a method of war.
Two killed from shooting attack at Jordan-West Bank crossingThe two people hurt in the shooting attack at the Israel-controlled King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge between Jordan and the occupied West Bank have been pronounced dead, Israel’s emergency service said.
The Israeli military says details of the shooting are under investigation, adding that the attacker arrived in a truck transporting humanitarian aid from Jordan and opened fire.
The two victims were about 20 and 60 years of age, respectively.
Israeli ‘disinformation’ campaign seeks to erase Gaza atrocities: UNRWAPhilippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), says Gaza has been “the battleground of a fierce and rampant information war”.
“Disinformation continues to be used as a tool to distract from the atrocities in the war-torn enclave,” he said, adding that UNRWA was the first target followed by other UN agencies, the media, and health facilities.
Lazzarini said the recent denial of famine in Gaza, as well as the dismissal of genocide findings by a UN commission of inquiry released this week, are examples of efforts to undermine expert assessments and “promote narratives denying atrocities and dehumanising Palestinians”.
He called for international journalists to be allowed into Gaza to support their Palestinian colleagues, whose reporting he described as “heroic”, adding their voices risk being “silenced” as Israeli attacks expand.
Israeli attacks across Gaza kill 79, wound 228 in latest 24-hour reporting periodThe Palestinian Health Ministry has just released its latest daily statistical update on the casualties caused by Israel’s war on Gaza.
It said the bodies of at least 79 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks had been brought to hospitals across the besieged territory while 228 people had been wounded.
The figures bring the overall number of people killed and wounded to at least 65,141 and 165,925, respectively.
The ministry added that a number of people remain trapped under the rubble of buildings that collapsed in Israeli attacks.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/9/18/live-israeli-army-applying-extreme-pressure-as-gaza-toll-passes-65000