Live: At least 22 Palestinians killed in strike on Gaza shelter, Hezbollah hits military base inside Israel

The devastation of Israel’s war on Gaza has not spared the besieged strip's cultural heritage and museums, mosques, churches, and archaeological sites have been destroyed or heavily damaged.

As of September, Unesco confirmed damage to 69 cultural heritage sites since the war started on 7 October 2023.

These include 10 religious sites, 43 buildings of historical and artistic interest, two repositories of movable cultural property, six monuments, one museum, and seven archaeological sites.

Unesco told Middle East Eye that its preliminary assessment using satellite imagery shows that out of these sites, 29 per cent (20 sites) appear destroyed, 20 per cent (14 sites) severely damaged, and 51 per cent (35 sites) moderately damaged.

The UN agency said that it has only been able to conduct remote assessments of the damage due to the war. That could mean the extent of the damage on the ground may be more severe.

Read more: Gaza's cultural and religious heritage lies in ruins after a year of attacks by Israel 

The UN human rights office said on Friday that over 100 medics and emergency workers had been killed in Lebanon since the Israeli assault began a year ago.

"In all, over 100 medical and emergency workers have been killed across Lebanon since October last year," spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a UN briefing without giving details of when or where they were killed.

Reporting by Reuters

The situation for children in Gaza is similar to the situation in Japan at the end of World War II, the co-head of new Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo said Friday.

"In Gaza, children in blood are being held. It's like in Japan 80 years ago," Toshiyuki Mimaki told a news conference in Tokyo.

Reporting by AFP

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday called on the international community to stop selling weapons to Israel. 

Sanchez also condemned Israel's attacks against the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon. 

"Let me at this point criticise and condemn the attacks that the Israeli armed forces are carrying out on the United Nations mission in Lebanon," Sanchez said after meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Reporting by Reuters 

China on Friday expressed "grave concern and strong condemnation" of Israeli attacks on UN peace operations, after peacekeepers said Israeli forces fired on their headquarters in south Lebanon.

"China expresses grave concern and strong condemnation over the Israeli Defense Forces' attack on UNIFIL positions and observation posts, which resulted in injuries to UNIFIL personnel," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

"Such actions must be stopped immediately," Mao said, calling for an "investigation into the incident, accountability for those responsible, and measures to be taken to prevent a recurrence".

Reporting by AFP

Two missions by the World Health Organization (WHO) to war-ravaged northern Gaza, which is under relentless Israeli siege and attacks, have been impeded and denied, the UN agency's chief said on Thursday.

The missions attempted to carry out medical evacuations of critical patients and the delivery of life-saving fuel, blood units and medical supplies. However, delays at Israeli checkpoints and other impediments forced them to turn back. 

A total of seven similar mission were denied this week, WHO said. 

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Israel to "stop evacuation orders, protect hospitals" and  "facilitate humanitarian missions".

"North Gaza has barely any health services left. People have no where to go," Ghebreyesus said. 

"Work towards a ceasefire. All people trapped in this conflict need peace."

Two @WHO missions to northern #Gaza were impeded and denied again today.

We urge Israel to:
- Stop evacuation orders, and protect hospitals. North Gaza has barely any health services left. People have no where to go.
- Facilitate humanitarian missions. Lives depend on it.
-… pic.twitter.com/AxOj2PRXca

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 10, 2024

Israeli forces fired at an observation post belonging to UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, in a repeat of a similar attack that sparked international condemnation on Thursday, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera Arabic.

At least two peacekeepers were wounded in the attack, which took place in Naqoura village. 

The Israeli military is currently enacting a plan that would effectively ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population in northern Gaza after a siege that could last months, according to an Israeli report based on conversations with military officials. 

The plan was conceived by retired Major-General Giora Eiland and aims to empty northern Gaza of its 400,000 residents to make way for a "closed military zone".

"The general's plan," which was launched in an Israeli TV campaign, calls for the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, warning that those that remain will face starvation.

"The right thing to do is to inform the approximately 300,000 residents who remained in the northern Gaza Strip… we are ordering you to leave," Eiland said last month.

"In a week, the entire territory of the northern Gaza Strip will become military territory."

According to a report published Friday in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli military is now implementing a "scaled-down" version of the plan in the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza.  

The military launched an assault on Jabalia on Saturday. The densely-populated area has been encircled and besieged for a week, with no food or water coming in, where tens of thousands of people are trapped. 

According to the report, even though the "general's plan" aims to create conditions to force the population to flee south, most people have refused to leave their homes so far. 

The assault, including the siege, is unlike raids conducted by the army in the previous year and could last for several months, the report said. 

Indonesia on Friday confirmed two of its UN peacekeepers were wounded in Israeli fire in Lebanon, and called the attack a violation of international law. 

UN peacekeepers said Israeli troops opened fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday, injuring two Blue Helmets, and sparking condemnation.

Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah fighters near UN posts in an operation that came after the peacekeeping mission rejected Israeli demands to "relocate" from some of its positions. 

"In the attack on the tower in Nakura, two personnel were injured, and they were from Indonesia," Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a statement. 

She added the two peacekeepers had sustained light injuries and are in hospital for further observation. 

"Indonesia strongly condemns the attack," she said. "Attacking UN personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law."

She called on all parties to ensure respect for UN territory at all times and under all circumstances.

Indonesia, a staunch critic of Israel and supporter of Palestine, has around 1,232 personnel currently deployed with the UN mission in Lebanon, Unifil.

Unifil has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon. 

Reporting by AFP

Turkey condemns Israel's attacks targeting the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon (Unifil), its foreign ministry said late on Thursday, adding Ankara would continue supporting similar peacekeeping initiatives and structures.

Israeli attacks against Unifil in recent days have wounded UN personnel and prompted international alarm.

In New York, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Israel recommends Unifil relocate north in Lebanon "to avoid danger as fighting intensifies".

"Israel's attacks on UN forces, following its massacres against civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon is a manifestation of its perception that its crimes go unpunished," Turkey's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The international community is obliged to ensure that Israel abides by international law," it said, adding that Turkey contributed to the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force with one corvette and five personnel.

Reporting by Reuters

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 371st day:

• Israeli forces continued to pound north Gaza for a seventh consecutive day as it tightens its siege on the area. More than 60 Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Thursday, according to local media.

• Fighting has also been fierce in northern Gaza, with Hamas claiming several deadly attacks on invading Israeli troops in Jabalia. At least three Israeli officers were killed and others wounded by Hamas fighters on Thursday alone, according to the Israeli military. 

• In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli drone strike killed two Palestinians near the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm. 

Our live coverage will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

At least 22 people have been killed and 117 wounded in central Beirut after Israeli airstrikes reportedly targeting a senior Hezbollah political figure leveled one building and badly damaged another. Wafiq Safa remains alive, Lebanese security sources told Reuters. 

A UN inquiry said on Thursday it found that Israel carried out a concerted policy of destroying Gaza's healthcare system, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.

Italy's Defence Minister said that Israel shooting at UN peacekeepers along the demarcation line in Lebanon could constitute a war crime, after summoning Israel's ambassador to Italy on Thursday.

Unicef, the UN children's agency, has said that humanitarian pauses have been agreed to allow for a second round of polio vaccinations for 590,000 children under the age of 10, starting from 14 October.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that Germany will send more weapons to Israel soon, following a drop in deliveries this year which prompted opposition accusations that Berlin has delayed exports.

Experts argue that Hezbollah’s battles over the past year may have restored some of the reputation the group had earned itself prior to its highly controversial involvement in the Syrian civil war.

That war, which saw hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and millions of displaced, has arguably changed the Lebanese armed movement’s role in the region forever.

Read more: How war in Syria changed the image of Hezbollah

Lebanese officials have now raised the death toll from Thursday's Israeli air strikes on central Beirut to 22, with more than 100 wounded. 

The neighbourhoods targeted by Israel were sheltering many who had been forcibly displaced from southern Lebanon. Two residential buildings were struck, with one leveled to the ground.

The apparent intended target of the air strikes, Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa, is alive, Lebanese security sources told the Reuters news agency earlier. 

Wafiq Safa, a leading political figure in Hezbollah, has survived what is now understood to be an Israeli assassination attempt in central Beirut on Thursday, the Reuters news agency reported, citing Lebanese security sources.

Israeli air strikes on two neighbourhoods damaged one residential building and levelled another. 

Israeli media had suggested Safa was the intended target.