Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says

A Unrwa staff member was killed in an Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Unrwa spokesperson Juliette Touma told Al Jazeera.

The vehicle hit was clearly marked with Unrwa insignia, she said, and the agency is working to confirm if another staff member also died in the attack.  

As of October 13, 228 Unrwa staff members have been killed in Gaza since last year.  

The Israeli Minister for Social Equality and the Advancement of the Status of Women, May Golan, stated in an interview, "what the Arabs need to get today is a Nakba, that's all," referencing the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 establishment of Israel.

The 1948 expulsion of Palestinians resulted in the longest unresolved refugee crisis in modern history.

Since dawn on Wednesday, 16 people have been killed in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera Arabic.

Fourteen of the victims were located in the northern part of Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew into Israel on Tuesday pressing for a ceasefire in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

But a ceasefire was the last thing on the mind of the Knesset members, government ministers and hundreds of Israeli settlers who convened a day earlier to plan the future of the enclave.

These plans did not include any kind of negotiation. There was one subject under discussion at the conference, timed to coincide with the annual Sukkot religious holiday which marks the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Israel's settlement of Gaza.

The event, organised by the settler organisation Nahala, was held just three kilometres from the Gaza frontier.

Read more: As Gaza burns, Israeli settlers make 'real estate' plans

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that polio vaccinations in Gaza have been suspended because of "intensive bombing," according to reports from AFP.

Israel has commenced strikes in the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre, according to witnesses speaking to Reuters news agency.

The National News Agency reported that a drone targeted Sawt Al Farah Street in Tyre.

Earlier this morning members of Lebanon's civil defense were patrolling the streets of Tyre, using loudspeakers to urge residents to leave the city immediately.

Tyre has been hosting many displaced individuals who fled from southern towns and villages.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has accused Israel of taking advantage of the world's diverted attention to commit "ethnic cleansing" in northern Gaza.

In a statement, B’Tselem said that Israel intends to forcibly displace residents of northern Gaza, committing what it calls some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war.

The group called on nations and international organisations to take "immediate, decisive" action.

The statement added that since Israel's current operation in northern Gaza began on 5 October, the area has been under near-total siege and relentlessly bombarded by Israeli forces.

"Israel has cut them off from the world," the statement noted, with testimonies describing dead bodies in the streets, widespread hunger, and no access to drinking water

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Israel to seize the “incredible opportunity” to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia, a process that has been stalled due to the ongoing war in Gaza. 

Before departing Tel Aviv for Riyadh, Blinken stated, “There remains, despite everything that’s happened, an incredible opportunity in this region to move in a totally different direction.”

He emphasised that Saudi Arabia would play a central role in this shift, which includes the potential normalisation of ties with Israel.

In a separate appeal, Blinken urged Israel to leverage its recent successes against Hamas, including the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, to pursue a long-term solution to the conflict.

“Now is the time to turn those successes into enduring, strategic success,” he remarked, stressing that this approach should involve the return of all captives and an end to the war “with an understanding of what will follow.”

Blinken also cautioned Israel to avoid “greater escalation” in response to Iran’s missile attack on October 1. “It’s also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation,” he told reporters in Israel before heading to Saudi Arabia, the next stop on his Middle East tour.

Lebanese civilians are fleeing the southern city of Tyre following threats from the Israeli army for residents to leave large portions of the area, which is currently home to thousands of displaced individuals.

“The situation is very bad; we’re evacuating people,” said Mortada Mhanna, head of Tyre’s disaster management unit. Bilal Kashmar, the unit’s media officer, informed AFP that many residents are abandoning the city for the suburbs.

“You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated,” he noted, mentioning that this once vibrant southern hub has largely been emptied of its inhabitants.

As of Tuesday, only about 14,500 people remained in Tyre, many of whom were displaced from other areas in the south.

“Some families, who had not left Tyre before, began leaving their homes to avoid areas threatened by the Israeli enemy,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported. 

Prior to Israel threats the metro area population of Tyre was around 170,000 people.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, emphasised the need for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during their meeting in Germany yesterday, Reuters reported.

According to a government spokesperson, they also called for increased diplomatic efforts to achieve lasting peace in the region.

The Israeli army has issued a new order for the forced displacement of residents in Tyre, warning them to evacuate before military operations targeting alleged Hezbollah facilities commence. 

In a statement on X, the army's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said, “Hezbollah’s activities force the IDF to act against it forcefully, as it does not intend to harm you. You must immediately move out of the area marked in red and head north of the Awali River,” accompanied by a map indicating two specific buildings that are set to be targeted.

He added, “Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, facilities, and combat equipment is putting his life in danger.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has taken responsibility for a drone attack on a "vital target" in Eilat.

The Israeli army reported that it intercepted and shot down two unmanned aircraft that had crossed into Israeli waters near the southernmost city of Eilat.

The Israeli military is suspected of forcibly entering a UN peacekeeping force's base in Lebanon and using white phosphorus in close enough range to injure 15 peacekeepers, The Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing a confidential report from a country that provides peacekeepers to Lebanon.

The report details around a dozen attacks launched on UN troops in Lebanon, including damaging several facilities and injuring troops at border posts in south Lebanon.

The reported incident occurred on 13 October, when the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said two Israeli Merkava tanks broke through the gates of one of its bases. The tanks left after 45 minutes, following complaints from Unifil.

The Financial Times does not specify in its report where the incident took place, but on that same day, two tanks were reported to have hit the post of a Unifil base in Ramya, a town in southern Lebanon. Unifil said its peacekeepers were being treated for skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions.

Within the next hour after the tanks left, several rounds were fired 100 metres north of the Unifil base, and the rounds emitted a "smoke of suspected white phosphorous" that ultimately injured 15 peacekeepers.

Read more: Israel suspected of using white phosphorus on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon: Report

A new report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warns that it could take 350 years for Gaza to recover economically if the blockade remains in place.

The report, released Monday, suggests that even if the war ends and Gaza returns to conditions before 7 October 2023, attack on Israel, the region’s economy would struggle to restore its already fragile pre-war state.

The report states that a ceasefire alone won’t lead to recovery, noting, “A return to the pre-October 2023 status quo would not put Gaza on the path needed for recovery and sustainable development."

The report goes on to explain that if Gaza’s growth rate, which averaged 0.4 percent between 2007 and 2022, remains unchanged, it could take 350 years to return to the GDP levels of 2022.

The report's author, Rami Alazzeh, calculated this projection based on the extensive damage to Gaza’s economy during the early months of the war and how long it would take to rebuild at historical growth rates.

He emphasised that "the recovery in Gaza depends on the conditions in which the recovery would happen."

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has reportedly rejected a request from US Secretary of State Blinken to publicly dismiss accusations that Israel is implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza.

According to media reports, Netanyahu and his aides have avoided Blinken's appeal to distance Israel from the so-called "General’s Plan."

During his visit to the Middle East as part of the US's effort to push for a ceasefire, Blinken met with Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Tuesday.

The meeting touched on the General’s Plan, which was introduced in September by retired General Giora Eiland.

Critics have condemned the plan, which advocates for the expulsion of Palestinians from northern Gaza and the forced starvation or targeting of those who remain, as a form of ethnic cleansing.

Although Netanyahu reportedly assured Blinken that Israel is not pursuing the plan, he declined to make a public statement to that effect.