Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says

Iran has suspended all flights following Israel's attack on the country.

"Flights on all routes have been cancelled until further notice," the spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Organisation said, according to the official IRNA news agency. 

Israel and Iran have both closed their airspace and issued an advisory to pilots.

Live air traffic data from Flightradar24 shows flights avoiding the region between Israel and Iran.

Iraq's transport ministry said in a statement that the country has suspended all air traffic at its airports until further notice.

"Due to regional tensions, Iraqi air traffic has been suspended until further notice to preserve the safety of civil aviation in Iraqi airspace," the minister said in a statement published by the official INA news agency.

Israel's army announced it launched an attack on Iranian military targets in the early hours of Saturday.

Explosions were heard around Tehran and Iran's state TV described them as "strong". 

Iran’s IRNA news agency said some of the sounds heard in the capital were caused by air defences being activated and added “the air defence was successful,” according to a security official.

The news agency also said that the situation is normal at Tehran's two main airports.

The White House released a statement shortly after the attack began calling it "an exercise of self-defence" in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on 1 October.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in a bunker in Tel Aviv’s Kirya military base as the strikes were launched, according to Netanyahu’s office. The image shared shows him sitting next to Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister and other military officials. 

Hello Middle East Eye readers. Our live blog will soon be closing for the day. 

Here's what you need to know from today's developments:

• An Israeli strike on the southeastern Lebanese town of Hasbaya hit a compound where journalists were staying, killing three media workers.

• Twelve people have been killed by Israeli drone strikes on a group of Palestinians waiting to receive humanitarian relief near the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Friday.

• The Israeli army announced the killing of five soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon on Friday.

• The Israeli army has abducted famed teenage Palestinian activist and journalist Aboud Battah from northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital.

• Lebanon's health minister said on Friday that more than 160 rescuers and health workers had been killed in Israeli strikes, during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

• Israel has bombed the Qaa crossing between Lebanon and Syria on Friday, causing the second crossing between the two countries to go out of service due to Israeli attacks.

• UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported that one of their observation posts was fired at by Israeli forces.

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced it will replace on health grounds one of the judges deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

• Gaza’s health ministry says Israeli soldiers have opened fire inside the besieged Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza.

• Two children died at the last functioning hospital in Gaza after Israeli fire hit oxygen equipment, Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday.

Two children died at the last functioning hospital in Gaza after Israeli fire hit oxygen equipment, Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday.

"Two children have died in the intensive care unit after the hospital's generators failed and the oxygen station was targeted," the statement by Gaza's health ministry reads.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating around Kamal Adwan hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza, where it launched a major operation earlier this month.

A series of Israeli strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs late Friday, Lebanese state media reported.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said that an "enemy aircraft" carried out at least eight strikes on southern Beirut area, a Hezbollah stronghold, targeting districts including Haret Hreik, Burj al-Barajneh and Laylaki.

The Israeli army had earlier told residents of two neighbourhoods in the area to leave immediately.

Gaza’s health ministry says Israeli soldiers have opened fire inside the besieged Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza.

“The occupation forces are searching the hospital and shooting inside the various departments, increasing the state of panic and anxiety,” the ministry said, adding that two children died in the damaged intensive care unit after its generators stopped functioning and the oxygen station was targeted by Israeli forces.

The Israeli army issued a new expulsion order for residents in two areas in Beirut’s southern suburbs, threatening to strike Hezbollah’s targets there “in the near future”.

“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them a distance of no less than 500 metres,” the military said.

More than half a million people, mostly Syrians, have crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month in an all-out war with Hezbollah, Lebanese authorities said on Friday.

Since 23 September, Lebanon has documented the crossing of 348,237 Syrian citizens and 156,505 Lebanese citizens into Syrian territory, a statement from the Lebanese disaster management unit said.

Twelve people have been killed by Israeli drone strikes on a group of Palestinians waiting to receive humanitarian relief near the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Friday.

"Civil defence teams retrieved 12 martyrs and several injured individuals after Israeli drone strikes targeted a group of citizens and a vehicle waiting for aid,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said.

Israeli forces detained hundreds of staff, patients and displaced people during a raid on Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday.

Israeli troops were "detaining hundreds of patients, medical staff and some displaced individuals from neighbouring areas who sought refuge", the health ministry said.

WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus has said that the organisation has "lost touch" with staff at the hospital.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military launched a major operation around Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia refugee camp.

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 are calling 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.

On Monday, Krayem was in the area of the Yemen al-Saeed hospital, when a quadcopter appeared and began telling everyone to head to the southern Gaza Strip.

"We left around 2pm and there were around 18 children with me," he recalled. "On our way, we tried to cross from Yemen hospital, but a quadcopter attacked us with a direct bomb.

"A young man saw the bomb being dropped and started shouting, 'They dropped a bomb!' so we fled, and then they dropped another one about 10 metres away from us. Four of us were wounded, one around 50 years old shot in the back, and a child about 12 years old hit with shrapnel in his chest.

"Throughout the journey, the quadcopters were firing at us, and shrapnel was everywhere."

Read more: Palestinian civilians forced out of Jabalia recall terror by Israeli army

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced it will replace on health grounds one of the judges deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

In May, the ICC announced it was seeking arrest warrants for the two Israeli leaders, as well as three Hamas leaders, stating that there were reasonable grounds that they had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The three Hamas leaders named, Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, have all since been killed by Israeli attacks. 

The presiding judge in the case, Romanian magistrate Iulia Motoc, asked to be replaced on health grounds on Friday. She was immediately replaced by Slovenian ICC judge Beti Hohler.

The replacement is expected to further delay a decision on possible arrest warrants, with the new judge expected to need time to catch up on the filings.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement’s Arabic-language account published a call to boycott what they called “the mouthpieces of the Israeli enemy that speak Arabic”.

The targeted channels include the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, MBC, Al Hadath channels, Emirati-owned Sky News Arabia, streaming platform Shahid and Lebanese news network MTV.

The movement says these channels are “not only directed to consecrate and spread Arab normalisation with the Israeli enemy, but they also constitute an integral part of the weapons of the colonial war on Arab consciousness, and of the persistent and desperate attempts to colonise the minds of the peoples of our Arab region with despair”.

The evidence shared by BDS mostly constitutes reports published by these channels that they say corresponds with Israel’s narrative in its war on Gaza and Lebanon, such as the claim that Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes, and sometimes interviews with Israeli officials.

The movement has called on people to refrain from watching or subscribing to these channels, pressure Arab journalists syndicates to boycott these channels and to commit to the opposition to normalisation.

Read more: BDS calls for boycott of Arabic channels serving as 'mouthpieces' for Israel