Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says
Live Updates
The Israeli military’s assault on northern Gaza continues, with dozens of deaths and injuries reported over the past 24 hours as Israeli forces launched more than 20 raids across the enclave, according to the Wafa news agency.
Israeli forces have maintained their weeks-long siege in northern Gaza, bombing homes, displacing residents, and blocking the entry of food, medical supplies, and other essentials.
Here’s a breakdown of recent incidents:
- An Israeli air strike hit a home in as-Saftawi, west of Jabalia, resulting in unspecified casualties.
- Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp and carried out strikes in the at-Twam and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods of Gaza City.
- At least seven people were killed when Israeli tanks shelled the Zaid bin Haritha School in Beit Lahiya, where displaced civilians were taking shelter.
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon:
- Israeli air strikes hit southern Beirut suburbs, triggering large explosions and fires
- Israeli forces in northern Gaza killed at least seven people in Beit Lahiya and three in Gaza City
- Palestinians fleeing Beit Lahiya reported Israeli soldiers forcing men to strip down to their underwear, with bodies left in the streets
- An 11-year-old boy was killed by Israeli forces in Nablus, according to the Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank
- The Israeli army announced it killed Hashem Safieddine, who was expected to be Hezbollah’s next leader, in an air strike earlier this month. Hezbollah has not commented
Good evening Middle East Eye readers,
Israel continued to pummel the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, with massive strikes reported in northern Gaza. At least seven people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a school turned shelter in the south. Four people were killed in a strike on a health clinic in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel stepped up its strikes on southern Beirut. The UN rights chief said he was “appalled” by an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Beirut on Monday that killed at least 18 people.
Here's what else you need to know about today's developments:
- US envoy Amos Hochstein was in Beirut were he presented several “amendments” to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, according to a Lebanese media report
- An 11 year-old Palestinian child died after being shot by Israeli soldiers in Nablus
- At least 63 people have been killed in the last day by Israeli strikes on Lebanon, according to the Lebanese government
- Israel arrested seven Jerusalem residents over allegations they were planning to assassinate Israeli officials
- Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has called on the international community to stop what it labelled an Israeli campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in northern Gaza
- Members of the British-Palestinian community with family members trapped in Gaza met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday and urged him to evacuate injured children needing life-saving medical care
The Israeli military is burnings homes in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Arabic media reports.
Footage shared on social media showed at least one home in the beseiged northern Gaza camp ablaze. Middle East Eye could not independently verify the footage.
Meanwhile, Israel launched fresh strikes on the camp.
The Israeli military said that Hezbollah fired 140 projectiles into Israel on Tuesday, as fighting on the ground rages in southern Lebanon.
On Tuesday evening, Israel launched strikes across southern Beirut.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant telegraphed that Israel is moving ahead with plans to attack Iran and expects US support after its attack.
Gallant delivered the remarks in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to Gallant's office.
“The United States’s stance with Israel following our attack on Iran will strengthen regional deterrence and weaken the axis of evil,” the statement said.
An Israeli deputy battalion commander was killed fighting in southern Lebanon, the Israeli media said on Tuesday.
Major Aviram Harib, a deputy battalion commander in the 228th Brigade, was killed.
Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders and Democrat Peter Welch have spearheaded a letter calling on the Biden administration to investigate an October 2023 Israeli attack on a group of journalists, including American journalist Dylan Collins, in southern Lebanon.
The letter, signed by 10 other members of Congress, said Israel had failed to provide any explanation for the attack which killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six reporters.
"The evidence clearly indicates that this was an unlawful direct attack on civilians in which a US citizen was injured and was lucky to survive," the letter said.
Collins, a resident of Vermont, was working for the AFP at the time and suffered serious shrapnel wounds from Israeli tank fire.
“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," the letter said.
Israel is pummelling southern Beirut shortly after issuing a forced displacement order.
The strikes have hit Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and al-Laylaki, according to Lebanese media.
The strikes come after Lebanon's health ministry said 10 people were killed on Tuesday evening by Israeli strikes.
Five people were killed and 10 others wounded in the northeastern Hermel region near the Syrian border, and five more were killed and 21 wounded in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, which has endured Israeli attacks for days.
The Israeli army said on Tuesday that it has confirmation it killed Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah official who was the presumed successor to Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel claimed it targeted Safieddine in a strike on 4 October in Beirut.
Hezbollah has not commented on the strike or Safieddine's status.
Al Jazeera Media Network has issued an urgent plea calling on Israel to allow the evacuation of two of its camera operators, Fadi al-Wahidi and Ali al-Attar, critically wounded by Israel's offensive on Gaza.
“Al Jazeera Media Network is appalled by the Israeli occupation authorities’ refusal of the critical medical evacuation requests for its camera operators," the network said in a statement.
"Both journalists have been gravely injured and their conditions continue to decline following an attack by Israeli occupation forces nearly two weeks ago," it added.
Wahidi suffered a gunshot wound in the head on 9 October while covering Israel's attack on Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza and now suffers from paralysis, along with significant respiratory and neurological issues, Al Jazeera said.
Two days earlier, Attar was injured during an Israeli air strike on Deir al-Balah. He has a cerebral haemorrhage, which has caused convulsions and severe damage to his nervous system.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has secured a pledge from neighbouring countries not to allow their “soil or airspace” to be used in any attack, as it girds for Israel's retaliation to its missile attack.
“All our neighbours have assured us that they won’t allow their soil or airspace to be used against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Araghchi said in Kuwait.
He also promised a tit-for-tat retaliation to any Israeli strikes.
“We are monitoring closely the movements of American bases in the region and are aware of all their movements and flights,” he said, adding, “If Israel attacks Iran in any form, Iran will respond in the same format".
US envoy Amos Hochstein presented several “amendments” to UN Security Council resolution 1701 during his meetings with Lebanese officials, Al-Akhbar news, a site seen as close to Hezbollah, reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, Hochstein floated several "amendments" that would widen the scope of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
Notably, the proposal would see UN peacekeepers deploy north of the Litani river.
It also called on peacekeepers to deploy along the Lebanese coasts from south to north, including Lebanese ports, with beefed-up authority to inspect ships arriving in Lebanon.
Hochstein’s proposals also outlined an amendment for peacekeepers to establish watchtowers on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Members of the British-Palestinian community with family members trapped in Gaza met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday and urged him to evacuate injured children needing life-saving medical care.
The community members included those who had children and babies killed and wounded by Israel in Gaza.
According to Palestinian health officials, at least 17,000 children have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023.
The family members called on Starmer to implement a "Child Evacuation Scheme", in Gaza.
The pilot project would initially provide life-saving medical treatment for fifteen critically injured children from Gaza, based on Ireland's decision to take in 30 pediatric patients from Gaza.
The UK government would coordinate travel permits, medical visas, and safe transport, the community members said.
The community members also called on Starmer to implement a "Family Reunification Scheme" for Palestinian refugees, noting that families have been separated by Israel's war on Gaza, with loved ones stranded in the enclave.
The system calls for a legal pathway for travel to the UK designed to model that offered to Ukrainians, following Russia’s invasion.
The community also called on the UK to lobby for more aid to enter Gaza, noting that Israel is using "starvation as a weapon of war".
"The families called for a British personnel presence at border crossings to ensure agile inspection processes and monitor and ensure that aid flows unrestricted into Gaza," said a statement shared by the British Palestinian Families Network and The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians.
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has called on the international community to stop what it labelled an Israeli campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in northern Gaza.
In a statement, the Israeli human rights group said the "international community has shown utter impotence" to stop Israel's "indiscriminate" attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip.
"Now, when it is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war, the world’s nations must take action," B'Tselem said.
The statement specifically addressed the humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza, where rights groups say Israel appears to be enacting its starvation policy.
B'Tselem noted that 50,000 Palestinians have already been driven from their homes, while residents are subjected to "starvation, disease without access to medical care and incessant bombardments".
"The magnitude of the crimes Israel is currently committing in the northern Gaza Strip in its campaign to empty it of however many residents are left is impossible to describe".
