Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says
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Here are some of the day's key developments:
An Israeli air strike on Beit Lahiya in the besieged north of Gaza has killed at least 40 people, some of them entire families, reporters on the ground have said. Emergency crews and hospitals in northern Gaza are almost entirely non-functional, leaving people to search through the rubble for their loved ones. Palestinian Islamic Jihad called the act a "Nazi crime" and said the US is "complicit".
The son of the director of northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital has been killed in the latest Israeli attack on the facility, health officials reported. Footage from the funeral of Ibrahim, the son of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was shared widely on social media as the hospital remains under siege, with 200 critically wounded patients inside.
Iran said four of its soldiers were killed by the Israeli army's attacks early Saturday, but downplayed the extent of the damage to its military infrastructure, saying that radar systems were "affected" but quickly "repaired".
Tehran also said Israel's attack was launched from Iraqi airspace, some 70 miles from Iran's border, blaming Washington given its unfettered access to Iraqi airbases.
Hezbollah fired around 80 projectiles into Israel on Saturday, just hours after Israel launched air strikes targeting military facilities in Iran, the Israeli military said.
The US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has warned Iran not to "make the mistake" of responding to Israel's attacks early Saturday. In a post on X discussing his latest phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, Austin said the US is "well postured to defend [its] forces and facilities across the region."
The US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has warned Iran not to "make the mistake" of responding to Israel's attacks early Saturday.
In a post on X discussing his latest phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, Austin said the US is "well postured to defend [its] forces and facilities across the region."
I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant today to discuss the Israel Defense Forces' overnight precision strikes on military targets in Iran. I reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and support for Israel's right to defend itself.…
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 26, 2024
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says it has attacked "a vital target" in the occupied Golan Heights using drones.
In a statement, the group said that "operations to destroy enemy strongholds will continue at an increasing pace."
The death toll from the Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza is now at least 40, reporters in the area have said. Most are women and children.
Entire families appear to have been killed in the five homes the Israelis targeted.
Abo Shadk, Silman and Al-Masri family near the western junction. All killed.
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) October 26, 2024
Entire Families killed. Many women and children in the death toll records pic.twitter.com/IMTcxn3nUI
In a statement, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) - one of the fighting factions alongside Hamas in Gaza - pointed the finger at the US for what it described as a "Nazi crime".
"We find the American administration complicit, with Israel responsible, for the continuation of the massacres against our people," PIJ said.
"The occupation's massacre in Beit Lahia is a new Nazi crime added to its record full of crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing."
Israel's Channel 12 has confirmed that David Barnea, the head of Israel's spy agency the Mossad, is headed to Qatar for Sunday's first ceasefire talks since August.
CIA Director William Burns, new Egyptian intelligence director Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani are all slated to participate.
Earlier this week it was reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told families of Israeli captives that the US is now proposing a temporary ceasefire as a "test" for Hamas following the killing of its leader Yahya Sinwar. The short ceasefire would be accompanied by a limited hostage release.
For three weeks, Muhammed Krayem and his family could barely find anything to eat as they endured a suffocating siege in northern Gaza, where the Israeli army continues what residents call an "ethnic cleansing" of the area.
When one of their neighbours attempted to reach a school in search of canned food, he was shot directly in the leg by the Israeli army and left to bleed for over two hours while soldiers prevented anyone from approaching him.
Krayem, 38, recounts to Middle East Eye a harrowing journey of multiple forced displacements and relentless attacks along the way, which left him and all his family members wounded before they were forced out of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
Read more: Palestinian civilians forced out of Jabalia recall terror by Israeli army
An Israeli air strike on Beit Lahiya in the besieged north of Gaza has killed at least 30 people, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The air strikes targeted five homes, additional reporting from Aljazeera shows.
One survivor told Aljazeera's correspondent in the area that there are no first responders available to assist in rescue and recovery.
"There are no ambulances or civil defence vehicles, and no functioning hospitals," the man says over the phone. "Dozens of martyrs and missing people are under the rubble, and the wounded are bleeding to death."
في مكالمة مع أحد الناجين من المجزرة الإسرائيلية المروعة في بيت لاهيا، أخبرني بوجود: “أكثر من 40 شهيدًا، أغلبهم من النساء والأطفال..لا توجد إسعافات أو سيارات دفاع مدني، ولا مستشفيات تعمل. عشرات الشهداء والمفقودين تحت الأنقاض، والجرحى ينزفون حتى الموت.” pic.twitter.com/ky53VAUVMX
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) October 26, 2024
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday that Israel chose its targets in Iran based on its national interests, and not "American dictates" as some earlier reports had suggested.
He said it was "completely false" that Israel had avoided striking Iranian gas and oil facilities because of pressure from Washington.
Israel had alerted the US to Saturday's strikes before they took place.
Reuters is reporting that Israel's military has eased some safety restrictions for residents in the country's north, suggesting there may be little concern about large-scale, imminent threats from Hezbollah or other regional forces backed by Iran.
Iran says Israel's attack was launched from Iraqi airspace, some 70 miles from Iran's border.
"Iraqi airspace is under the occupation, command and control of the U.S. military," Iran's Mission to the United Nations posted to X.
"The US complicity in this crime is certain."
1. The Zionist regime’s warplanes attacked several Iranian military and radar sites from Iraqi airspace, approximately 70 miles from Iran’s border.
— I.R.IRAN Mission to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) October 26, 2024
2. Iraqi airspace is under the occupation, command and control of the U.S. military.
Conclusion: The U.S. complicity in this crime…
Iran is downplaying the impact of Saturday's attack by Israel in a fresh statement from the Communications Center of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
"As a result of the timely performance of the country's air defense, limited and low-impact damage was inflicted, and some radar systems were affected, some of which have been immediately repaired and others are in the process of being repaired," the statement read.
"In this unlawful and illegitimate act, with the readiness of the country's air defense, a significant number of missiles were tracked and intercepted, and the entry of enemy aircraft into the country's airspace was thwarted."
The statement went on to blame the "terrorist and criminal US government" and warned it "to curb the illegal and illegitimate regime [of Israel], and not to become further entangled in the quagmire that the occupying regime has created."
A former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander in Iran has said Israelis should "practice living in shelters" ahead of an Iranian response to Israel's attack.
"Israel must pay for violating Iran's territorial integrity. Iran's response will be carried out at the best time, considering all aspects and in line with national interests," Esmaeil Kowsari said, as reported by Iran International.
"We advise the Zionists to practice living in shelters," he added.
Kowsari was previously the deputy commander of Tharallah Headquarters, an IRGC unit responsible for maintaining security in the capital Tehran. He has since become a member of parliament.
Regional and world governments have denounced Israel's attack on Iran on Saturday, calling it an assault on sovereignty and urging restraint between the two regional foes.
Israel struck several military sites in Iran in the early hours of Saturday after weeks of anticipation of a response to Iranian missile attacks on Israel on 1 October.
Officials said air defences activated and successfully repelled many of the strikes, while others caused "limited damage".
Read more: Saudi Arabia and other Arab states have condemned the attacks on 'Iranian sovereignty', while the US and UK supported Israel's 'right to self-defence'
The number of people killed in Israel's attack on Iran has risen to four, Tasnim news agency reported.
The four men, all members of the army, have been identified as Mohammad-Mehdi Shahrokhi, Hamzeh Jahandideh, Sajjad Mansouri and Mehdi Naghavi.
A paramedic was killed on Saturday in an Israeli strike on a medical centre in southern Lebanon, leaving five others wounded, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
"The Israeli enemy's raid on a medical centre" in Bazourieh resulted in the death of a rescuer with the Islamic Health Committee.
The health ministry added that 164 rescuers and paramedics have been killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah and Israel began trading cross-border fire last year.
