Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says
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The Israeli military said on Friday that three of its soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza Strip.
Reporting by Reuters
UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported that one of their observation posts was fired at by Israeli forces.
A statement from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said that Israeli soldiers had targeted a post near the border village of Dharya on Tuesday, adding that "the duty guards withdrew to avoid being shot".
It described the security situation as "extremely challenging."
Unifil also reported three seperate incidents of unidentified fire hitting Unifil positions, teams and vehicles this week, clarifying that there were no casualties.
At least nine Palestinians have been killed and others injured in an Israeli strike on al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.
Anadolu agency cited a medical source from al-Ahli Hospital who reported that they had received the bodies of nine people after the attack.
Earlier today, another 38 people were killed, most of them from one family, in Israeli strikes targeting residential buildings in Khan Younis.
WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus has said that the organisaton has "lost touch" with staff at northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital after it was bombed and stormed by Israeli forces on Friday morning.
Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that they have not heard from the staff since last night, describing this development as "deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there."
He added that prior to the raid, WHO had managed to evacuate 23 patients and 26 caregivers to al-Shifa Hospital.
"Kamal Adwan Hospital has been overflowing with close to 200 patients - a constant stream of horrific trauma cases. It is also full of hundreds of people seeking shelter," he said.
Since this morning’s reports of a raid of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern #Gaza, we have lost touch with the personnel there. This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 25, 2024
Prior to this, @WHO and partners managed to… pic.twitter.com/KL5ElhoQia
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.
"The Qaa crossing has been put out of service after an Israeli strike on Syrian territory," Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told AFP.
This comes after Israel hit near the Masnaa crossing, the main international passage between Lebanon and Syria, on 4 October.
Only one main official passage between the two countries remains operational.
In an indirect comment on Israel's killing of three Lebanese journalists in a strike on Friday, Germany's embassy in Beirut has posted on X that "journalists and media workers are not a target".
Germany is Israel's second largest weapons supplier, accounting for 30 percent of imports between 2019 and 2023.
Israel's war on Lebanon has cost the tiny country $20bn, Lebanese Economy Minister Amin Salam told Bloomberg.
The losses are greater than Lebanon's GDP in 2023, which stood at $18bn.
The direct and indirect costs include "the near-total shutdown of tourism and agriculture, damage to buildings and a surge in unemployment," said Bloomberg reporter Omar Tamo.
BREAKING: Israel-Hezbollah clashes have already cost Lebanon $20 billion, economy minister tells Bloomberg
— Omar Tamo (@OmarTamo19) October 25, 2024
Direct and indirect costs include the near-total shutdown of tourism and agriculture, damage to buildings and a surge in unemployment
Lebanon's GDP was $18 billion in 2023
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed on Friday to work with "real urgency" for a diplomatic resolution to end Israel's offensive in Lebanon but said it was first critical to reach understandings on disarmament of Hezbollah.
Meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in London, Blinken also pleaded for protections of civilians but stopped short of urging an immediate ceasefire by Israel, which relies on US diplomatic and military support.
"We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along the border between Israel and Lebanon," Blinken told reporters, saying he was "intensely engaged".
Resolution 1701, approved in 2006 after an earlier war, calls for the disarmament of non-state groups in Lebanon - an allusion to Lebanese armed group Hezbollah - and for a full Israeli withdrawal from the country.
Reporting by AFP
Palestinian activist Aboud Battah posted a story on Instagram with the caption "thank God who saved us", indicating that he has been released from Israeli custody.
Israeli forces abducted Battah earlier on Friday, taking him 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.
"The total number of rescuers and health sector workers killed has so far has reached 163, with 272 others wounded," Firass Abiad told reporters during a press conference detailing "damage caused by Israeli attacks on the health sector in Lebanon".
Reporting by AFP
Less than a month into Israel’s war on Gaza, pro-Israel social media accounts, some of them based in India and since suspended, suddenly decided they were very concerned by what was happening in Sudan.
Why, these accounts asked, did the world not care about a war that had been raging since April 2023?
On the Telegram channel of Hananya Naftali, who has been working for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his digital team, the right-wing influencer declared that “there is zero interest in civilians murdered in Sudan”.
"It’s clear now – the outcry for Palestinians often masks a deeper hatred for Jews. No Jews, no news," Naftali wrote.
At other times, pro-Israel accounts have claimed a direct link between the armed movements fighting Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is at war with the Sudanese army and has been widely accused of carrying out an ongoing genocide against “non-Arab groups” in Darfur.
READ MORE: What about Sudan? The new talking point to distract from Israel's Gaza horrors
The Israeli army has abducted famed teenage Palestinian activist and journalist Aboud Battah from northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, Al Jazeera reports.
جيش الاحتلال يختطف الناشط عبود بطاح من مستشفى كمال عدوان pic.twitter.com/7dwqpJ6rjf
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) October 25, 2024
The Israeli army announces the killing of five soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon on Friday.
Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital, has decried the situation they are in as Israel bombards and storms the hospital.
"Instead of receiving aid, we receive tanks... which are shelling the [hospital] building," he said, speaking from the Intensive Care Unit where the injured and medical staff are huddled after Israel started its bombing.
"Where is the law? Which law in the world allows for a hospital to be directly targeted?"
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital speaks from within the ICU where the injured and medical staff are huddled after having been bombarded by Israeli tanks, despite the total lack of humanitarian aid and fuel entering the hospital. pic.twitter.com/9LmMdTTotZ
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) October 24, 2024
Israeli forces are detaining the young men sheltering in northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital and interrogating them, Al Jazeera reports.
