Harris says death of Yahya Sinwar is chance to finally end Israel-Gaza war
Kamala Harris has hailed the death of Yahya Sinwar as an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza and prepare for “the day after” when Hamas no longer dominated the territory.
The US vice-president and Democratic nominee said “justice has been served” with the death of the Hamas leader, adding that the US, Israel and the wider world were “better off as a result”.
“Hamas is decimated and its leadership is eliminated,” she said. “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.” The end of the conflict had to be accompanied by security for Israel, the release of the remaining hostages and an end to suffering in Gaza, she said.
She also hinted at her support for Palestinian statehood by saying it should herald Palestinians’ rights to “dignity, security, freedom and self-determination”.
Her comments chimed with those of Joe Biden, who has been criticised by progressives for unstinting support for Israel even while Netanyahu had ignored his entreaties to avoid civilian casualties and ease humanitarian suffering in the tiny coastal territory.
“Israel has had every right to eliminate the leadership and military structure of Hamas,” Biden said in comments that appeared designed to answer criticisms of his support.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza, Beirut and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed by Israeli forces, in a major boost to the Israeli military and Benjamin Netanyahu, as the latest in a string of high-profile assassinations of enemy leaders in recent months. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sinwar had been “eliminated” in Tel Sultan, a neighbourhood of Gaza’s southernmost town, Rafah, on Wednesday. The bodies of three militants were taken to Israel for DNA and dental record testing.
Sinwar’s death brings to an end to a year-long hunt for the mastermind of the 7 October attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader had been killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. Photos and video from the scene, broadcast on Israeli media, showed what appeared to be Sinwar’s body lying in a pile of rubble on the floor of a destroyed building.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said “today we have settled the score”, describing Sinwar’s death as the “beginning of the end”. Addressing Israeli citizens on Thursday, Netanyahu said that there are “a lot of challenges still facing us” and that the country must “stand firm on our ground and to continue to fight”. Israel will continue with “all our strength” to bring the hostages still held in Gaza home, he added. It is not yet clear what impact Sinwar’s killing will have on Israel’s campaign in Gaza, but analysts believe that Israel is now intent on a military occupation of the territory for the foreseeable future.
Hundreds of people gathered in Tel Aviv to call for the release of hostages held in Gaza after the news of Sinwar’s assassination broke, as leaders around the world responded to the news.The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said his country “will not mourn” Sinwar’s death, as he called for the release of hostages, an immediate ceasefire and an increase in humanitarian aid into Gaza. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said his death “is certainly weakening Hamas”. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said he was thinking “with emotion of the victims” of the 7 October Hamas attacks for which Sinwar was the mastermind. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, called on Hamas to “immediately release all hostages and lay down its arms, the suffering of the people of Gaza must finally end”. Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, said he hoped that that Sinwar’s killing “will lead to a ceasefire in Gaza”.
The US is “determined” to “seize the opportunity” of the death of Sinwar by pushing forward with negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza, a US state department spokesperson said. Joe Biden, the US president, said he was sending his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to Israel to push for a Gaza ceasefire deal after the killing of Sinwar, after he held a call with Netanyahu on Thursday. Biden said it was “a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.” Blinken, in a separate statement, said the “world is a better place” with Sinwar dead. Kamala Harris, the US president, said “justice has been served”.
At least 28 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school turned shelter in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City on Thursday. Among those killed in the bombing of Abu Hussein school included doctors and several children, according to health officials, who warned the final toll was likely to be higher. The attack on the Jabaliya school also caused a fire.
Another 11 people were killed in two separate airstrikes in Gaza City on Thursday, as Israel’s latest campaign in Jabaliya, a district of Gaza City, reaches its second week. Jabaliya residents said on Thursday that several streets were blown up in bombings, by tank fire and controlled detonations, and that Jabaliya, together with the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, are now under a complete siege. An estimated 400,000 people are trapped by the fighting, with dwindling humanitarian supplies.
The entirety of northern Gaza is under Israeli evacuation orders. Among those who have remained in the north are disabled or elderly people and their families, who say it is too dangerous and difficult to move. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, warned Israel that any “large-scale forcible transfer” of civilians out of conflict-wracked north Gaza could constitute a war crime if not done on “imperative military grounds”.
Israel allowed 50 lorries carrying food, water and medical equipment to enter northern Gaza on Wednesday, following a warning from the US that Israel must allow more aid to reach Gaza or face a cut off in military support. Israel had previously not allowed any aid to enter the north since the start of the month, leading the UN World Food Programme to once again raise the alarm of imminent famine.
It was unclear how many Palestinians were killed in other strikes in central and southern Gaza on Thursday. At least 42,438 Palestinians have been killed and 99,246 injured since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday. The toll includes 29 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 99,246 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
Lebanon’s crisis response unit said 45 people were killed and 179 were wounded in the past 24 hours on Thursday. The latest figures raise the total death toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,412 killed, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. In addition, 11,285 people have been injured.
The mayor of one of the largest cities in Lebanon’s south has been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit the city’s municipal headquarters during a meeting to coordinate aid deliveries to residents and those displaced by war. The strike, one of a series on Nabatieh, killed 16 people and wounded 52, the Lebanese health ministry said. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, accused Israel of “intentionally targeting” the meeting.
Al Jazeera staff evacuated their offices in downtown Beirut on Thursday afternoon after receiving messages warning them to leave the building, similar to past evacuation warnings from Israel that preceded bombings, the network reported. Two embassies, one of which is the Norwegian embassy, is also housed in the same building were also evacuated.
The US carried out B-2 stealth bomber strikes on Houthi underground weapons facilities in Yemen for the first time. Local television in Houthi-run areas of the country reported 15 strikes hit five sites near the capital, Sana’a, and in the northern governorate Saada, the traditional Houthi homeland, on Thursday around dawn. The move appears in part to be a warning from Washington to Houthi’s backers in Tehran. The Houthi rebels vowed to retaliate.
The US announced a new “temporary protected status” allowing Lebanese nationals in the US to remain in the country and apply for work permits. The designation will last 18 months “due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Lebanon that prevent nationals of Lebanon from returning in safety”, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
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The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, warned Israel that any “large-scale forcible transfer” of civilians out of northern Gaza could constitute a war crime.
“Israel’s evacuation orders appear designed to cut off North Gaza completely from the rest of the territory,” Türk said at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.
As bombing and other attacks continue, there are serious concerns about a large-scale forcible transfer of civilians not meeting the requirements of international law for evacuation on imperative military grounds.
“Forcible transfer of a large part of the population of North Gaza would amount to a war crime,” he said, adding:
I call on Israel immediately to facilitate the massive influx of humanitarian aid that is needed across all parts of Gaza.
IDF releases footage it says shows Sinwar moments before death
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released drone footage of what it said showed the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, in his final moments before he was killed.
Sinwar is seen sitting on a chair in a living room that has been largely destroyed. The Hamas leader appears injured as he doesn’t move in the raw footage and throws a projectile at the drone.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the death of Yahya Sinwar “is certainly weakening Hamas”.
She was speaking after an EU summit in Brussels, where European leaders discussed the crisis in the Middle East.
In a wide-ranging statement EU leaders condemned Iran’s “seriously destabilising actions throughout the Middle East – through terrorist and armed groups – including the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas, which constitute a serious threat to regional stability”.
The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said “almost everyone” in Gaza is going hungry, according to its latest assessment.
In a post on X, Tedros said:
WHO calls for immediate access for all humanitarian aid, starting with food and medicine for severely malnourished children, who need to be treated urgently.
WHO continues to call for a ceasefire. The best medicine is peace.
Almost everyone in #Gaza is going hungry according to the latest assessment. This is inhumane.@WHO calls for immediate access for all humanitarian aid, starting with food and medicine for severely malnourished children, who need to be treated urgently.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 17, 2024
WHO continues to call… pic.twitter.com/U0YGTc8IrU
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Britain 'will not mourn' Sinwar's death, says Starmer
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said his country “will not mourn” the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
In a statement, Starmer said the Hamas leader “was the mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, as 1,200 people were slaughtered in Israel”.
Today my thoughts are with the families of those victims. The UK will not mourn his death.
He called for the release of hostages, an immediate ceasefire and an increase in humanitarian aid into Gaza.
In the end, after a year-long, multi-agency manhunt involving the latest technology, Israel’s best special forces and American assistance, Yahya Sinwar appears to have been killed by regular soldiers who had stumbled into him and had no idea whom they had killed.
According to the initial reports, they were not there on an assassination operation and had no prior intelligence that they could be in the vicinity of the elusive Hamas leader, architect of the 7 October attacks, the man Israel most wanted to kill. It was only after they took a closer look at his face and found identity documents on him that the troops realised they had got Sinwar.
Along the way, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have smashed much of Gaza and are estimated to have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, driving two million from their homes, a humanitarian disaster Sinwar set in motion with the sheer brutality of the initial surprise assault a year ago, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 hostage.
The ferocious manhunt that ensued involved a mix of advanced technology and brute force, as his pursuers have shown themselves prepared to go to any lengths, including causing extremely high civilian casualties, to kill the Hamas leader and destroy the tight circle around him.
The hunters were a taskforce of intelligence officers, special operation units from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), military engineers and surveillance experts under the umbrella of the Israeli Security Agency, more widely known by its Hebrew initials, or by the acronyms Shabak or Shin Bet.
Personally and institutionally, this team was seeking redemption for the security failures that allowed the 7 October assault to happen. But despite their motivation, they faced more than a year of frustration.
Read the full story here: Israel kills its prime target – but Sinwar’s death seems down to chance, not precise planning
Hundreds of people gathered in Tel Aviv to call for the release of hostages held in Gaza after the news of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s assassination broke.
Protesters chanted, “Bring them all back – now!” Others carried signs saying, “Sinwar’s end, end the war.”
Here are some images sent from the newswires from the protest in the Israeli capital on Thursday.
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US secretary of state to return to Middle East soon – report
Antony Blinken is preparing to head back to the Middle East very soon in a fresh push for a deal between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire, an Axios reporter further posts on X, saying the secretary of state has said as much to the Israeli government.
Here’s Barak Ravid again:
Secretary of State Blinken told Israeli President Herzog that he is planning to travel to the region in the coming days to discuss ways to push for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, Israeli President's office said https://t.co/daoAB43RUB
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 17, 2024
Blinken had stopped shuttling back and forth to the region in recent weeks, as hopes of a ceasefire faded. Blinken has just arrived in Germany with Joe Biden.
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French president Emanuel Macron is again urging Israel to end its military operations in Lebanon.
France’s leader said Israel should not broaden its action on the ground north of its border with Lebanon and should respect the country’s sovereignty, Reuters reports.
Macron said his government “stands alongside Israel, its security, its existence” but that does not mean he cannot have “disagreements” with the Jewish state’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Macron made clear, however, that the root of the destabilization in the region right now “is the action that Iran has led directly and through its proxies for many years”.
Last month, the Guardian reported, an effort led by France and Britain to secure a joint statement by the United Nations security council, calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon, stalled in the face of US objections. France and the US, however, then called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
It may be too soon to tell if Yahya Sinwar’s apparent killing by Israel in Gaza will mean a quick breakthrough in the war between Israel and Hamas, according to one report.
“Israeli officials involved in the negotiations over the hostage and ceasefire deal said it is too soon to know if Yahya Sinwar’s death will allow for a breakthrough in the short term,” Axios’s Barak Ravid has posted on X.
Israeli officials involved in the negotiations over the hostage and ceasefire deal said it is too soon to know if Sinwar's death will allow for a breakthrough in the short term https://t.co/daoAB43RUB
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 17, 2024
US president Joe Biden has spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu and congratulated the Israeli prime minister for the death of Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, according to Axios.
Both leaders “agreed that there is an opportunity to advance a deal to free the hostages and they will work together to achieve that goal,” according to a statement by Netanyahu’s office.
Here’s a clip from the video statement by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, following the Israeli military’s announcement that it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on Wednesday.
Netanyahu described Sinwar as the person who “committed the most terrible massacre in the history of our nation since the Holocaust, the mass murderer who murdered thousands of Israelis and kidnapped hundreds of our citizens”.
Lebanon’s crisis response unit said 45 people were killed and 179 were wounded in the past 24 hours on Thursday.
The latest figures raise the total death toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,412 killed, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. In addition, 11,285 people have been injured.
The crisis response unit report recorded 96 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.
Here’s more from the briefing with the spokesperson for the US state department, Matthew Miller, in Washington.
The US is “determined” to “seize the opportunity” of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by pushing forward with negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza, Miller said.
He said that the US hopes that whoever is the next leader of Hamas “will look at what has happened over the past year” and decide that they “ought to pursue a different path forward” from Sinwar.
The Israeli military said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was “eliminated” on Wednesday in Tel Sultan, a neighbourhood of Gaza’s southernmost town, Rafah, on Wednesday.
US to 'redouble its efforts to end this conflict', says Blinken
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has echoed his spokesperson Matthew Miller’s comments by saying that Washington will redouble efforts in the days ahead to end the conflict in Gaza after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
In a statement on Thursday, Blinken described Sinwar as a “vicious and unrepentant terrorist responsible for the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
“The world is a better place with him gone,” the US secretary said.
We remember today the victims of Sinwar’s unspeakable crimes and hope that his death brings them some measure of justice. The United States stands with Israel in holding accountable those responsible for October 7 and ensuring such an attack can never be repeated.
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The US state department is holding a press conference following the Israeli military’s announcement that the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed on Wednesday.
Matthew Miller, the US state department spokesperson, said Sinwar was a “brutal, vicious terrorist” who was responsible for the death of American and Israeli citizens and the citizens from more than 30 countries across the world.
Sinwar’s “decision” to launch the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October “unleashed a year of tragedy”, Miller said. He said the Hamas leader refused to agree to a ceasefire proposal to end the war, and that he refused to return home the hostages.
Miller noted that there are more than 100 hostages who remain in Gaza, including seven Americans, and that there are two million Palestinians who “continue to suffer the consequences of Sinwar’s decision to endanger their lives”. He said:
The path that Sinwar wanted for the region was death, instability, chaos … It is time to try a different path.
He said the US will “redouble” its efforts to return the hostages home, to bring an end to the war, to “alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people” and to allow the people of Gaza to “rebuild their lives”.
Biden says Sinwar's death 'a good day for Israel, the US and the world'
Joe Biden, the US president, said Israeli reports that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had been killed marked a “good day” for Israel, the US and the world.
In a written statement posted to X, Biden said Israeli authorities informed his national security team earlier on Thursday that an IDF mission likely killed Sinwar.
He said DNA tests conducted since “have now confirmed that Sinwar is dead”, adding:
This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.
Biden said to the people of Israel, “this is no doubt a day of relief and reminiscence”, comparing it to the feeling of Americans after the killing of the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden.
He said he planned to speak with Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them “and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all”. He added:
There is now the opportunity for a ’day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 17, 2024
This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.
Here’s my full statement. pic.twitter.com/cSe1czhd9s
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Sinwar's death a chance to 'finally end the war in Gaza', says Kamala Harris
The US vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, said she hoped that Israel’s announcement that it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar would bring “a sense and measure of relief” to the families of the victims of the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.
“Justice has been served,” Harris told reporters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday.
This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.
"Justice has been served. ... [Sinwar] had American blood on his hands. Today, I can only hope that the families of the victims of Hamas feel a sense and measure of relief."
— The Recount (@therecount) October 17, 2024
— VP Kamala Harris after Israel confirms the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar pic.twitter.com/DRd6JzLM6A
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We reported earlier that the UK’s defence secretary, John Healey, said he will “not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar” as reports came that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had been killed.
Here’s some more international reaction to reports of Sinwar’s death:
The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said he “personally will not miss” Sinwar if he has died.
Sinwar “is widely recognised as the architect of the Oct 7th, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel”, Rutte said, adding:
I have condemned them, all allies have condemned them. Every reasonable soul in the world has condemned them.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said he was thinking “with emotion of the victims” of the 7 October Hamas attacks for which Sinwar was the mastermind.
France “demands the release of all hostages still held by Hamas”, Macron wrote.
Yahya Sinwar was the main person responsible for the terrorist attacks and barbaric acts of October 7th. Today, I think with emotion of the victims, including 48 of our compatriots, and their loved ones. France demands the release of all hostages still held by Hamas.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 17, 2024
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, called on Hamas to “immediately release all hostages and lay down its arms, the suffering of the people of Gaza must finally end”.
Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, said he hoped that that Sinwar’s killing “will lead to a ceasefire in Gaza”.
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Who is Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar?
Within days of the 7 October attacks last year, Israeli investigators identified Yahya Sinwar, then the military leader of Hamas in Gaza, as the mastermind of the surprise attack on Israel.
To their increasing astonishment, they learned that Sinwar had not just conceived of what he had called “Operation al-Aqsa Flood”, but that he had planned and organised the assault almost alone.
Only a handful of close aides had been let in on the plans, some with only days to go before the attack, which led to the killings of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, the abduction of more than 250, and triggered an Israeli offensive that has so far killed more than 42,000 and laid waste to swathes of Gaza.
His unremitting and ruthless commitment to the cause of Hamas – and to violence – marked the decades-long career of Sinwar.
Born in a refugee camp in Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, to parents who had been forced to flee their homes in what became Israel in 1948, Sinwar was drawn into Islamist activism as a teenager.
Read the full profile here: Yahya Sinwar: Hamas leader described as architect of 7 October attack
The Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum has welcomed reports of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
In a statement, the group said it “welcomes Yahya Sinwar’s elimination and urges leveraging this major achievement to secure hostages’ return”.
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Netanyahu says Israel will continue with 'full force' until hostages are returned
Netanyahu addresses the families of the hostages still held in Gaza, saying that Israel will continue with “all our strength” until they are brought home. “It is our commitment,” he says.
“This is the end of the evil rule of Hamas,” the Israeli leader says.
I’m telling you in a clear cut manner: Hamas will no longer rule the Gaza Strip.
“Today we have settled the score,” he says in relation to the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
To the dear hostage families, I say: this is an important moment in the war. We will continue full force until all your loved ones, our loved ones, are home.
Netanyahu says Israel 'will not stop the war'
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been speaking at a televised press conference after the Israeli military said it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Netanyahu says evil has “suffered a heavy blow” but warns that the “task before us is not yet complete”.
He describes Sinwar’s death as the “beginning of the end”, and says Israel will continue to work until the end of the war.
We have demonstrated today that all those who try to harm us, this is what happens to them. And how the forces of good can always beat the forces of evil and darkness. The war is still ongoing, and it’s costly.
To the people of Israel, Netanyahu says that there are “a lot of challenges still facing us” and that “we have to remain resilient” and “stand firm on our ground and to continue to fight”.
We will not stop the war. We will go into Rafah.
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Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has recently spoken with his US counterpart, defence secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a US official.
The call came moments after Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, announced that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was dead, the official said.
According to CNN, Austin was passed a note about Sinwar’s death during a Nato meeting in Brussels earlier today.
And as we reported earlier, US president Joe Biden was briefed while aboard Air Force One after Israel said it was checking whether Sinwar had been killed.
The US speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and minority leader Hakeem Jeffries have also been briefed on the news of Sinwar’s killing, NBC is reporting.
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Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has commended the Israeli military, the Shin Bet intelligence agency, and the security services for the killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar.
In a post to X, Herzog described Sinwar as the “mastermind” behind the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel and for being “responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians” for years. He added:
His evil endeavors were dedicated to terror, bloodshed, and destabilizing the Middle East.
I commend the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet, and the security services for eliminating the arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar, the mastermind behind the deadly October 7th attack, has for years been responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians,…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) October 17, 2024
Israeli military confirms killing of Yahya Sinwar
The Israeli military has said it killed Yahya Sinwar in an operation in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in a statement shared by Reuters, said:
After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.
Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 17, 2024
The statement comes after the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said Sinwar had been killed.
“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
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What we know so far
On Thursday an Israeli military spokesperson said that there was a possibility that Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, had been “eliminated” in a military operation in Gaza, and that Israel was “checking the possibility”.
Here is everything we know so far:
Israeli police and military said, in a joint statement on Thursday, that dental images have been submitted to the police forensics lab and DNA testing is in progress. It added that, on completion of the processes, it would be “able to confirm the assassination” of Sinwar.
Hamas sources told Reuters that indications suggest that Sinwar was killed in an Israeli operation in Gaza. There has been no response from Hamas at the time of writing.
The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, said that Sinwar was dead, despite a positive formal identification yet to be confirmed.“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement, that the Times of Israel reported had been sent to dozens of foreign minister around the world.
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said that no hostages were believed to have been present at the site of the killing in the Gaza Strip, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “three terrorists were eliminated”.
US president Joe Biden was briefed aboard Air Force One while heading to Germany after Israel said it was checking whether it had killed Sinwar. Biden, on his way to Berlin for talks with European leaders, was being kept abreast of developments on board the presidential plane, the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity.
The Times of Israel reported that a senior Israeli official said there was a “high likelihood” that the one of the three militants the IDF said it killed in Gaza on Thursday, was Sinwar. The Times of Israel wrote: “According to reports, officials believed with high certainty that the body was that of Sinwar, but it was anticipated that a firm identification would take a number of hours.”
Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader, if confirmed dead, was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. The station also said the bodies were found with lots of cash and fake IDs.
Al-Majd, a Hamas-linked website that usually publishes about security issues, has urged Palestinians to wait for information about Sinwar from the group itself and not Israeli media outlets, which it said aimed to break their spirit, reported Reuters.
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The Times of Israel has more on the comments by Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz. According to the publication, Katz made the comments in a message sent to dozens of foreign minister around the world. It says this makes him the first Israeli official to confirm the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, despite identification still in process.
According to the Times of Israel, Katz wrote in his message:
The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who is responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers.
This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the evil axis of radical Islam led by Iran.”
According to the publication, Katz said the killing “creates a possibility” for getting the hostages out immediately and for creating a Gaza free of Hamas and Iranian control.
“Israel needs your support and assistance now more than ever to advance these important goals together,” it cites Katz as saying.
According to a breaking news line on Reuters, the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, has said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead.
“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
Formal identification has yet to be confirmed.
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On the topic of identifying whether the body is that of Yahya Sinwar, the Israeli police military said in a joint statement on Thursday:
As of now, one of the multiple necessary assessments has been completed for absolute confirmation. Dental images have been submitted to the police forensics lab, and DNA testing is currently in progress.”
Israeli police say dental images sent to lab and DNA testing in process to confirm Sinwar death
Israeli police and military said that in response to recent reports of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s being killed, they are “actively working to establish a definitive identification”, reports Reuters.
According to Reuters, Israeli police say dental images have been submitted to the police forensics lab and DNA testing is in progress. It added that, on completion of the processes, it would be “able to confirm the assassination”.
Seperately, Reuters reports that Hamas sources have said that indications suggest that Sinwar was killed in an Israeli operation in Gaza.
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UK defence secretary John Healey has said he will “not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar” if it turns out that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed. He told the BBC that the UK was still waiting for confirmation from Israel as to whether Sinwar had been killed.
According to the BBC, Healey said:
I for one, will not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar - someone who was responsible for the terror attack on 7 October.
[It] triggered not just the darkest, deadliest day for the Jewish people since the second world war, but that it’s triggered more than a year of conflict and an intolerable level of civilian Palestinian casualties.”
Washington will allow some Lebanese nationals to temporarily remain in the US and apply for work authorisation due to unsafe conditions in their home country, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The temporary protected status (TPS) designation will provide an “immigration reprieve” to eligible Lebanese due to the “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Lebanon,” the department said in a statement.
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Biden briefed as Israel checks if Hamas leader Sinwar killed: US official
US president Joe Biden was briefed aboard Air Force One while heading to Germany after Israel said it was checking whether it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a US official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday.
Biden, on his way to Berlin for talks with European leaders on Ukraine and the Middle East, was being kept abreast of developments on board the presidential plane, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
There are more details emerging on the Jabalia strike (see 12.32 BST)
Reuters reports:
At least 28 Palestinians including children were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on a shelter in the northern Gaza Strip, a Gaza health ministry official said, while Israel said the attack targeted tens of militants at the site.
Dozens were also injured in the strike, said the official, Medhat Abbas.
The Israeli military said in a statement the strike targeted militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, who operated from within the Abu Hussein school in Jabalia that had been serving as a shelter for displaced people.
It said dozens of militants were present inside the compound when the strike took place, and provided the names of at least 12 of them, which Reuters could not immediately verify.
The military said it took precautions to mitigate harm to civilians and accused Hamas of using them as human shields – a practice Hamas denies.
Hamas said in a statement that allegations there were fighters at the school were “nothing but lies”, adding this was “a systematic policy of the enemy to justify its crime.”
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of dead at the school at 28. It said 160 people were injured in the attack.
Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said at least 11 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli strikes in Gaza City, while several others were killed in central and southern Gaza areas.
There has been no immediate comment from Hamas about the reports that the Israel army may have killed Yahya Sinwar. Neither the group or Israel have confirmed the identity of those killed during a military operation in Gaza earlier today.
Reuters reports that Al-Majd, a Hamas-linked website that usually publishes about security issues, has urged Palestinians to wait for information about Sinwar from the group itself and not Israeli media outlets, which it said aimed to break their spirit.
The Times of Israel reports that a senior Israeli official said there was a “high likelihood” that the one of the three militants the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed in Gaza on Thursday, was Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The Times of Israel writes:
According to reports, officials believed with high certainty that the body was that of Sinwar, but it was anticipated that a firm identification would take a number of hours.
The reports said the three bodies had been taken for DNA testing and would also undergo dental and fingerprint checks. Israel has both Sinwar’s fingerprints and dental records from his time in prison.”
The publication also reports that unverified photographs appearing to show a dead body of a man resembling Sinwar have been published on social media.
Updated
A German warship deployed as part of the UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon has shot down a drone off the Lebanese coast, the German army said on Thursday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“An unidentifiable unmanned aerial vehicle was detected in the vicinity” of the “Ludwigshafen am Rhein” corvette and was “brought down in a controlled manner”, an army spokesperson said.
According to the AFP, the spokesperson said he was unable to provide further details for “reasons of operational security”.
Andrea Tenenti, a Unifil spokesperson, confirmed that earlier on Thursday “an unmanned aerial vehicle of unknown origin approached one of Unifil’s maritime taskforce ships off the southern Lebanese coast”.
“In accordance with procedure, electronic countermeasures were used and the UAV fell and exploded on its own,” Tenenti said, adding that Unifil was “looking into the matter”.
The UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon has come under repeated fire in the Israeli-Hezbollah war in recent days.
Five peacekeepers were injured in a series of incidents last week, with the latest seeing the UN force accuse Israeli troops of breaking through a gate and entering one of their positions, reports AFP.
The Israeli military has said is not targeting UN peacekeepers, but the incidents have sparked a wave of international criticism.
Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who masterminded the 7 October attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, may have been killed, according to the Israeli military.
“During Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated. The IDF [is] checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” a statement released on Thursday afternoon local time said.
“In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area. The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution.”
Several security officials, speaking anonymously, told Israel media that the bodies had been taken to Israel for DNA tests, and that the IDF assesses “with high probability” that one of those killed was Sinwar.
Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. The station also said the bodies were found with lots of cash and fake IDs.
It has long been believed that Sinwar had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages to lessen the likelihood of being killed. However, in a statement, the prime minister’s office said that no hostages were believed to have been present.
Read the full report here:
Updated
From Reuters:
Israeli security cabinet officials have been informed that Sinwar is very likely dead, two officials say.
AFP has just reported that an Israel security official says the army is carrying out DNA tests on one of the bodies to confirm if it is Yahya Sinwar.
Israel’s Kan Radio is reporting that Yahya Sinwar was killed “by chance”, and there was no previous intelligence.
Israeli military says it is 'checking' if Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza
AP have reported more details on reports that Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a military operation in Gaza (see 13.53 BST).
The military said in a statement on Thursday that three militants were killed during operations in Gaza, without elaborating. It said the identities of the three were so far not confirmed, but it was “checking the possibility” that one of the three was Sinwar.
It said there were no signs that Israeli hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. He was chosen as the group’s top leader following the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh in July in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Updated
There has been an update on our earlier post (see 13.33 BST).
Threats made to buildings in downtown Beirut, including to the offices of Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV and the Norwegian embassy, are deemed to have been fake, a Lebanese security source and a diplomatic source told Reuters
Updated
Further to the news that the Israeli military said there is a possibility it had “eliminated” the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, Reuters reports that the military have also said that “at this stage, the identity cannot be confirmed”.
For background, Sinwar is a prime target for Israel. My colleague, Julian Borger, has written about Sinwar and Israel’s hunt for the Hamas leader previously:
Israeli forces may have killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar
According to a breaking news line by Reuters, an Israeli military spokesperson said that there is a possibility that Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been “eliminated”. Reuters adds that the Israeli military are checking this.
We will update with more information as it comes in.
Updated
Hamas denied using Abu Hussein school in Jabalia for fighting purposes, after Israeli military said it targeted militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, reports Reuters.
The Israeli military earlier said dozens of militants were operating from within the school that had been serving as a shelter for displaced people (see 1.09pm BST).
Updated
Al Jazeera staff evacuate Beirut offices after Israeli warnings
Al Jazeera staff evacuated their offices in downtown Beirut on Thursday afternoon after receiving messages warning them to leave the building, similar to past evacuation warnings from Israel that preceded bombings, the network reported. Two embassies, one of which is the Norwegian embassy, is also housed in the same building were also evacuated.
Al Jazeera’s office is located in the heart of downtown Beirut, a kilometer from the iconic Blue Mosque and Martyr’s Square where displaced people are residing.
People in Lebanon have been receiving messages and calls warning them to evacuate prior to Israeli bombing over the last month, since Israel started its Operation Northern Arrows on 23 September. Some of these messages have turned out to be false alarms, causing mass panic and leading to arrests of perpetrators by Lebanese security forces.
William Christou is a Beirut-based journalist writing on Lebanon for the Guardian.
Updated
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said on Thursday that the Israeli army was not fully in control of any south Lebanon village, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Until now, the enemy has been unable to take full control of any village,” Fadlallah told a press conference at Lebanon’s parliament, adding that Israel was applying “a scorched earth policy through the systematic destruction of villages … seeking to impose a buffer zone with no people, buildings, fields or trees”.
345,000 Palestinians face 'catastrophic' levels of hunger this winter, says UN-backed assessment
About 345,000 Palestinians face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said on Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of famine across the Palestinian territory.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that this is up from the 133,000 people currently categorised as experiencing “catastrophic food insecurity”, according to a classification compiled by UN agencies and NGOs.
More coming on the Israeli strike in Jabalia.
Reuters reports that Israel’s military said dozens of militants were at the site and it conducted a precise strike on a meeting point for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group inside the compound.
There has been no comment from Hamas yet.
Yemen's Houthi rebels vow to retaliate after US strikes
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have vowed to retaliate after the United States conducted multiple strikes with heavy B-2 bombers on weapons storage facilities in areas controlled by the Iran-backed group.
A statement from the Iran-backed Houthis’ political bureau said:
We confirm that the American aggression will not pass without a response.
'At least 19 killed and dozens injured' in Israeli strike in Jabalia - Gaza health ministry
At least 19 Palestinians, including children, were killed on Thursday after an Israeli strike hit a school in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip that is sheltering displaced people, a Gaza health ministry official told Reuters.
Dozens were also injured in the strike, said the official, Medhat Abbas, adding: “There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing.”
'New humanitarian crisis unfolding' in Syria - Norwegian Refugee Council
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has warned that “a new humanitarian crisis is unfolding” in Syria as civilians forced to flee the Israel-Gaza war to neighbouring Lebanon struggle to secure shelter, food, water, and protection.
Angelita Caredda, the NRC’s Middle East and North Africa Regional director said:
We are now looking at the third humanitarian crisis emerging in the region in just 12 months, amid a backdrop of numerous ongoing challenges.
Syria is already on its knees after 13 years of conflict. The mass displacement from Lebanon comes at a time when the aid response already cannot keep pace with existing needs. Thousands of families crossing into Syria will struggle to find a safe place to stay or the basics their children need. This is a crisis within multiple crises.”
The NRC added:
More than 276,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon have been forced to flee to Syria, most of whom are women and children – some children being sent across on their own. The journey into Syria carries its own risks; an Israeli airstrike on the main border crossing point between both countries has forced thousands to abandon their cars and cross on foot, carrying only what they can manage.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, discussed rising tensions in the region with Egyptian officials on Thursday in Cairo during the first such visit by a top Iranian official in around a decade.
AP reports:
Araghchi held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi focusing on efforts to deescalate Israel’s conflicts against Gaza and Lebanon.
El-Sissi reiterated calls to end Israel’s war in Gaza to prevent it from expanding into a regional conflict. An expanded war would have serious repercussions for the security and capabilities of all nations in the region, he added.
The Egyptian president also called for an end to the escalation in Lebanon, the violations in the West Bank, and to ensure the delivery of much needed humanitarian aid.
Araghchi’s visit to Egypt is part of a wider diplomatic tour in the region meant to ease tensions. This month he met with officials in Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq, and is expected to head to Turkey after concluding talks in Egypt.
A strike hit near the south Lebanon coastal city of Tyre on Thursday, AFPTV images showed, as official media reported an Israeli raid after Israel’s military issued an evacuation call.
AFPTV footage captured smoke billowing after the Israeli military on X warned residents in and near a building in Al-Hawsh, just south of Tyre, to evacuate, while Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that “enemy aircraft launched a strike that targeted” the Al-Hawsh area, AFP reports.
At least 42,438 Palestinians have been killed and 99,246 injured since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday.
The toll includes 29 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 99,246 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
People claim the foreign doctors coming back from Gaza are lying. I wish that were the case, because the truth is beyond horrific
First come the bombs. A boom, then 2,000lb worth of destructive force flattening everything in its way. Severing limbs, vaporizing bodies, leaving craters full of blood and rubble where children used to play.
Then come the drones. As the dust settles, the drones start to swarm, picking off any survivors. Armed quadcopters; ingeniously engineered killing machines hunting for human prey. The drones, many of which seem to be autonomous, shoot everything that moves. Even if it’s a helpless child, the drone will sometimes shoot: firing lethal bullets into a soft skull. A scene straight out of a dystopian sci-fi movie set on some desolate dust-covered planet. Except it’s not sci-fi; it’s reality. It’s happening right now in Gaza.
Bombs then drones. Bombs then drones. This was the pattern described time and time again by patients to Dr Nizam Mamode, a retired British surgeon who recently came back from working at the ravaged Nasser hospital in Gaza. Mamode, who went to Gaza with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), has worked in many war zones throughout his career. He’s been in Lebanon, Rwanda during the genocide, Sudan, Nicaragua. But, during a recent phone call, he told me what numerous other doctors have told numerous other media outlets: he’s never seen anything like Gaza.
Read the full report:
The Israeli military on Thursday ordered residents to leave part of the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon, warning that the area would again be targeted by Israeli forces, AFP reports.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X:
Urgent warning to the residents of the Bekaa region, specifically those located in the building marked on the map in the Tamnine area. You are located near facilities and interests that belong to Hezbollah, which will be targeted by the Defense Forces (army) in the near future.
A visual story by the Guardian’s Kaamil Ahmed and Ana Lucía González Paz with design by Ellen Wishart and Pip Burkett.
Their hopes for peace fading and fearful of being forgotten, two Gazans share the trauma of living their days and nights surrounded by the noise of gunfire, missiles and drones
The whirring of drones has become an inescapable constant to life in the Gaza Strip. At night the sound is punctuated by more violent intrusions: missile strikes, sirens, gunfire and the screams of frightened people. The sonic hellscape is alleviated at dawn, when people go out into the daylight to find the missing, dig out the dead and look at the damage. This contrast between the day and night is captured below in sounds recorded over the past year.
Here, we hear the sound stress on Gazans, as witnessed by two Palestinians. It is a layer of the war that experts associate with long term psychological trauma.
Some viewers might find the following footage distressing.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires from the Gaza Strip.
Iran-linked militias in Iraq have launched about 40 attacks involving missiles, drones or rockets on Israel in the past two and a half weeks, the latest escalation in a largely clandestine proxy battle fought across a swath of the Middle East.
The attacks began in October last year when the war in Gaza started, but data compiled by the Washington Institute, a US-based thinktank, shows a sharp increase in their pace after Israel killed the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike on 27 September.
Hezbollah, which was founded with Iranian sponsorship in Lebanon more than 40 years ago, is the keystone of the loose coalition of militant groups created by Iran over recent decades.
With Hamas significantly weakened after a year of war in Gaza, and Hezbollah now reeling under a continuing Israeli air and ground offensive in Lebanon, Tehran has looked to more junior members of the rough coalition of factions it has supported across the Middle East to strike its arch-enemy.
“The number of missiles and drones being fired from Iraq [at Israel] has gone through the roof. They’ve moved into a higher gear to demonstrate their support for Hezbollah,” said Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute who follows the activities of militias based in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The missile launches from Iraq underline Iran’s strategy of using members of its “axis of resistance” to support one another against Israel, as well as competition between the factions.
Read the full report here:
Summary of the day so far
The US military has mobilised its long-range B-2 stealth bombers to conduct strikes against “five hardened underground weapons storage locations” in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The Pentagon said the facilities house various weapons components the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels, roiling commercial shipping in the Red Sea. “This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
The US Central Command said its battle damage assessments from the strikes were under way and did not indicate civilian casualties. The early morning strikes marked the first the US has used the B-2 bomber to attack Houthis in Yemen, and according to Bloomberg, the first time since January 2017 the wing-shaped bomber has flown in a combat mission.
The mayor of one of the largest cities in Lebanon’s south has been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit the city’s municipal headquarters during a meeting to coordinate aid deliveries to residents and those displaced by war. The strike, one of a series on Nabatieh on Wednesday morning, killed 16 people and wounded 52, the Lebanese health ministry said. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “intentionally targeting” the meeting.
UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon said an Israeli army tank fired at a Unifil watchtower in Kafer Kela, a village in south Lebanon, in what it described as a “direct and apparently deliberate” act. The incident is the latest in a string of violations that Unifil has blamed on the IDF, prompting international condemnation. The IDF denied it was targeting Unifil forces.
Syrian news agency SANA reported an Israeli airstrike hitting the coastal city of Latakia. The state media outlet reported “fires were triggered by the Israeli aggression” at the entrance to Latakia, a stronghold of president Bashar al-Assad. It also reported two injuries and damage to private properties.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon says, after Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken jointly penned a letter earlier this week calling on Israel to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation.
The US has demanded proof on the ground that Israel does not have a policy of starvation in northern Gaza as it turned up the pressure on the Netanyahu government to allow more aid into the territory. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the security council on Wednesday at a meeting convened by France, UK and Algeria that such a policy “would not just be horrific and unacceptable” but also had “implications under international and US law”.
The risk of cholera spreading in Lebanon is “very high”, the World Health Organization has warned, after a case of the acute and potentially deadly infection was detected in the conflict-hit country. The WHO highlighted the risk of cholera spreading among hundreds of thousands of people displaced since Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah.
More than 500 Filipino migrant workers are expected to soon be repatriated from Lebanon, according to the Philippine government, amid warnings that workers who want to leave are facing resistance from their employers.
More than 500 Filipino migrant workers are expected to soon be repatriated from Lebanon, according to the Philippine government, amid warnings that workers who want to leave are facing resistance from their employers.
Migrante International, which represents Filipinos working abroad, warned last month that many workers wanted to leave Lebanon but were struggling with a slow repatriation process and problems with employers. Employers, who have paid large agency fees to hire workers, have been reluctant to support repatriation applications or hand over workers’ passports, the group warned. Filipino workers in Lebanon are mainly employed as domestic workers in Beirut.
Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said most of the 11,000 Filipino workers in Lebanon were choosing to stay for financial reasons and emotional ties, according to a report by the Philippine Inquirer.
Since October 2023, 488 Filipino migrant workers and their dependents have returned home.
Of the 514 workers who are preparing to leave, 250 are awaiting exit clearances from Lebanon’s immigration authorities while the remaining 264 have booked commercial flights.
Cacdac said that while some employers are reluctant to allow workers to return, “generally speaking, they have been cooperative”.
Some 192 Filipinos are staying at three Philippine government-provided shelters in Beirut, where they are receiving support from social workers and medical staff.
A brief update on the Israeli strikes on Syrian coastal city Latakia (see earlier post here).
Two people were injured and there was some damage to private properties, Syrian state media reported citing a military statement.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Wednesday of the risk of famine in Gaza, a day after the United States said Israel had been warned to improve aid deliveries to the territory, AFP reports.
Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini told a press conference in Berlin that “there is a real risk today … that we enter a situation where famine or acute malnutrition is unfortunately again a likelihood,” pointing to the upcoming winter and the weakened immune systems of Gaza’s population.
Lazzarini painted a dire picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying it had “become a kind of wasteland, which I would say is almost unliveable”.
In relation to aid deliveries to Gaza he said that “over the last two to three weeks there was no convoy entering into the north except yesterday”.
“We have a huge drop of convoys in the south with only an average of fifty to sixty for two million people, while we estimate the number needed much, much higher,” Lazzarini said.
Lazzarini added that his agency was “very near to a possible breaking point”.
“I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won’t be able any more to operate,” he said, according to Reuters.
The US state department on Tuesday said secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin sent a joint letter making “clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today”.
On Wednesday, Austin spoke with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant and encouraged Israel to “continue taking steps to address the dire humanitarian situation,” according to a Pentagon readout of the call.
COGAT, the Israeli military body supervising civilian affairs in Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that “50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid – including food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment provided by Jordan – were transferred today to northern Gaza”.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Wednesday that “the problem in Gaza is not lack of aid”, adding: “The problem is Hamas, which hijacks the aid, stealing, storing and selling it to feed their terror machine, while civilians suffer.”
A bit more context on the significance of the US using its B-2 stealth bombers in the latest effort to blunt attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis that have roiled commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The B-2s flew to their targets from Whiteman air force Base in Missouri. It marked the first time since January 2017 that the wing-shaped stealth bomber has flown a combat mission, Bloomberg reports. Back then, two B-2s flew a 30-hour round-trip mission to bomb an Islamic State training camp in Libya.
The strikes, the Associated Press says, also appear to be an indirect warning to Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, which has targeted Israel with ballistic missile attacks twice over the past year.
The B-2 would be used in any American attack on hardened Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz or Fordo given it is the only aircraft in service that can drop the GBU-57, known as the “Massive Ordnance Penetrator.”
Each B-2 is capable of carrying as much as 20 tons of bombs, including 80 500-pound GPS-guided munitions.
The Red Sea has become a battlefield for shippers since the Houthis began their campaign targeting ships traveling through the waterway, which once saw $1tn of cargo pass through it yearly.
Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023, according to AP. They have seized one vessel and sunk two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US -led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included western military vessels.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Despite previous strikes on the group, the US and its allies have so far been unable to halt Houthi attacks. In a June assessment, American intelligence officials said Houthi assaults on commercial vessels in the Red Sea led to a 90% decline in container shipping through the area between December and February, according to Bloomberg.
Updated
US vice-president Kamala Harris singled out Iran when asked which foreign country she considers to be America’s greatest adversary, in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night.
The Democratic presidential candidate said she had worked with the heads of the military to do what America must always do, which is to allow Israel to have the resources to defend itself from attack, “including from Iran and Iran’s terrorist proxies in the region. And my commitment to that is unwavering”.
Israeli airstrike hits Syrian port city Latakia – reports
Syrian state media has reported an Israeli airstrike hitting the coastal city of Latakia, targeting a weapons depot, AFP reports.
“Anti-aircraft defence intercepted hostile targets above Latakia,” SANA said without mentioning casualties or damage.
The Syrian news agency reported “fires were triggered by the Israeli aggression” at the entrance to Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad.
The government is allied to Hezbollah, which is at war with Israel in neighbouring Lebanon.
The Israeli military, which has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, would not comment on the Latakia bombardment when contacted by AFP.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Israeli raid “targeted a weapons depot in Latakia city”.
Strikes have been rare on the port city, which is near the Russian airbase in Hmeimim.
The Israeli military has intensified its raids on Syria in parallel with its escalation in Lebanon, where for more than three weeks it has heavily bombarded Hezbollah bastions.
Israel accuses the Lebanese group of transferring weapons through Syria.
US Central Command says battle damage assessments indicate no civilian casualties
The US Central Command has issued its own statement on the strikes on weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
It said the actions were taken “to degrade the Houthis’ capability to continue their reckless and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping”, reiterating that it targeted underground facilities that housed “missiles, weapon components and other munitions used to target military and civilian vessels throughout the region”.
It added that its battle damage assessments were ongoing and did not indicate civilian casualties.
U.S. Central Command Conducts Multiple Strikes on Underground Iran-Backed Houthi Weapons Facilities pic.twitter.com/6YjQRVFvSD
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) October 17, 2024
US long-range B-2 stealth bombers strike Houthi underground weapons storage facilities in Yemen
The US military has struck Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the Pentagon says.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the US military, including air force B-2 bombers, conducted precision strikes against five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
“This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” Austin said in a statement.
The Houthis are an Iran-backed group that swept to power in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, a decade ago, driving Saudi-backed forces south towards Aden where they set up their headquarters. They began aerial drone and missile strikes on the Red Sea in November in what they said was solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
It marks the first time the US has used the strategic B-2 stealth bomber to attack the Houthis in Yemen since the beginning of the US campaign, CNN reported. The B-2 is a much larger platform than the fighter jets that have been used so far to target Houthi facilities and weapons, capable of carrying a far heavier load of bombs.
The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel reported airstrikes around Sana’a, and around the Houthi stronghold of Saada. They offered no immediate information on damage or casualties.
The strikes are the latest in a saga of back-and-forth attacks by the Houthis and the US, as the Houthis have been carrying out constant attacks on commercial shipping and Navy assets in the region for months.
It also comes as US service members have begun arriving in Israel after the US announced the deployment of an advanced anti-missile system to help protect Israel following Iran’s missile barrage
US forces last carried out strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on 4 October, targeting weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iran-backed group.
More from Austin’s statement, released by the Pentagon:
Today, U.S. military forces, including US air force B-2 bombers, conducted precision strikes against five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
US forces targeted several of the Houthis’ underground facilities housing various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region.
This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified.
The employment of US air force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate U.S. global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere.
Updated
Opening summary
The US military has struck Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, according to the Pentagon.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the US military, including air force B-2 bombers, conducted precision strikes against five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
“This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” Austin said in a statement.
In Lebanon, the mayor of one of the largest cities in the country’s south has been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit the city’s municipal headquarters during a meeting to coordinate aid deliveries to residents and those displaced by war.
The strike, one of a series on Nabatieh on Wednesday morning, killed 16 people and wounded 52, the Lebanese health ministry said. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “intentionally targeting” the meeting.
Israel said it hit dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Nabatieh area and that its navy had also hit Hezbollah “launchers, military positions and weapons caches” in south-west Lebanon.
Meanwhile, UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon said an Israeli army tank fired at a Unifil watchtower in Kafer Kela, a village in south Lebanon, in what it described as a “direct and apparently deliberate” act. The IDF denied it was targeting Unifil forces.
The incident is the latest in a string of violations that Unifil has blamed on the IDF, prompting international condemnation. Several peacekeepers have been injured since Friday as Israeli ground troops have begun to advance farther north in Lebanon after weeks of intense fighting and airstrikes.
The US has demanded proof on the ground that Israel does not have a policy of starvation in northern Gaza as it turned up the pressure on the Netanyahu government to allow more aid into the territory. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the security council on Wednesday at a meeting convened by France, UK and Algeria that such a policy “would not just be horrific and unacceptable” but also had “implications under international and US law”.
The risk of cholera spreading in Lebanon is “very high”, the World Health Organization has warned, after a case of the acute and potentially deadly infection was detected in the conflict-hit country. The WHO highlighted the risk of cholera spreading among hundreds of thousands of people displaced since Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah.
Israeli forces have stormed the Jazalone refugee camp in the West Bank and deployed teargas, Al Jazeera reports. A young girl was reportedly treated for breathing issues.
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said that there have been no conversations with any parties on a Gaza ceasefire for the last three to four weeks. “On the prospects of the negotiation … basically in the last three to four weeks, there is no conversation or engagement at all, and we are just moving in the same circle with the silence from all parties,” he said.
Shaban al-Dalou, the 19-year-old Palestinian who was burned to death in his makeshift tent when Israel bombed the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital complex in Deir el-Balah on Monday, would have turned 20 today. “Losing him is an incredibly massive loss,” al-Dalou’s uncle, Mohammed al-Dalou said, adding: “He left a mountain of pain and memories.”
Hezbollah said it targeted “at 6.50pm (1550 GMT) … the occupied town of Safed with a salvo of rockets” in “defence of Lebanon and its people”. The reported attack marks the third attack in 24 hours which Hezbollah said was a response to Israeli raids across Lebanon which have killed more than 2,300 people in recent weeks.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, the Pentagon says, after Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken jointly penned a letter earlier this week urging Israel to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation.
