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Nadeem Badshah (now); Maya Yang, Amy Sedghi and Hayden Vernon (earlier)

Middle East: African Union joins UN member states in expressing support for Guterres – as it happened

United Nations Israel Gaza Anas alSharif Lebanon Simon Harris Hezbollah UNIFIL Al Jazeera Joe Biden
Man in suit in crowd.
Antonio Guterres, UN secretary general, at the Asean-UN summit in Vientiane, Laos, on 11 October 2024. Photograph: Sakchai Lalit/AP

This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon here.

Sixteen patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza have been evacuated in a “complex mission” that lasted 12 hours, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said.

Fourteen of the patients’ friends or family members were also successfully evacuated.

Israeli forces ordered staff and patients to evacuate the hospital, threatening them with arrest if they did not comply, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Updated

There has been an updated death toll. At least 15 people were killed and 37 wounded in Israeli strikes across three areas in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said.

One of the targeted locations was in the town of Deir Billa in northern Lebanon, which had not been struck before, Reuters reports.

Updated

Interim summary

Here’s a look at where things stand:

  • The African Union has joined 104 UN member states in issuing a joint letter of support for UN secretary general António Guterres after Israel declared him persona non grata. In the letter, the UN member states wrote: “Such actions undermine the United Nations’ ability to carry out its mandate, which includes mediating conflicts and providing humanitarian support.”

  • Thirty-four Unifil-contributing countries have signed a joint statement reaffirming the protection of Unifil peacekeepers in Lebanon and condemning the latest attacks against them. The letter, which was initiated by Poland, comes after five peacekeepers in Lebanon were wounded in recent days amid Israel’s attacks on the country.

  • Israeli raids on al-al-Maaysra, in the Keserwan district, in Lebanon have killed at least nine people while wounding 15 others, the Lebanese health ministry announced. The health ministry added that in Deir Bella, Batroun, Israeli attacks have killed at least two people and injured four others.

  • The Palestinian Red Crescent Society evacuated 16 patients and 14 of their companions from Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The mission, which lasted 12 hours, comes as Israel expands its deadly invasion into north Gaza. In recent days, Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering in north Gaza, including 22 people in the area’s Jabalia refugee camp.

  • UN peacekeepers will remain in south Lebanon, despite five of their members being wounded amid Israeli airstrikes on the country. In a statement to Agence France-Presse on Saturday, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), said that despite Israel’s request to Unifil to withdraw from positions “up to five kilometers from the blue line”, the peacekeepers refused.

  • Israeli airstrikes have forced 40% of students from their homes in Lebanon, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Friday. Additionally, more than 60% of public schools in the country are being used as shelters.

  • Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 2,255 people while wounding 10,524 more since Israel launched its attacks on the country several weeks ago, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Saturday. The rising death toll also comes amid Israel’s forced displacement of 1.2 million people in Lebanon, approximately a quarter of the country’s population.

Updated

Here are some images coming through the newswires from Lebanon, where Israeli forces have killed more than 2,000 people in recent weeks while forcibly displacing 1.2 million people across the country:

Updated

Gazans who escaped and the diaspora community in Australia spoke to the Guardian of the anguish and guilt of watching a year-long war from afar.

The Guardian’s Rafqa Touma and Mostafa Rachwani report:

Asmaa Elkhaldi was waking up early to pray. It was a Saturday. Light spilled through the windows of her apartment in Gaza’s north.

Then came the sounds of rockets and everything was on fire. Elkhaldi and her husband fled, taking only a laptop and key documents.

Later “the whole building was flattened to the earth without any notification”, she says from south-western Sydney where she now lives. “Some of our neighbours were killed.”

Elkhaldi has been in Australia since November.

“I still feel it very vividly,” she says this week, almost a year after fleeing her homeland. “My body has this kind of trauma and I feel there is going to be a bombardment any time.”

Being in Sydney, she says, is at times “more painful than being in Gaza”. There, at least, “watching the genocide with your family or friends … you know they’re safe. …

“When you are in another country, another continent, your mind can trick you, your worries can exaggerate or can drive you crazy.”

For the full story, click here:

Updated

More than 100 UN member states sign letter of support for UN chief after Israel's persona non grata declaration

The African Union has joined 104 UN member states in issuing a joint letter of support for UN secretary general António Guterres after Israel declared him persona non grata.

In the letter, the UN member states wrote:

We … express our deep concern with and condemnation of the recent statement from the minister of foreign affairs of Israel declaring the secretary general persona non grata. Such actions undermine the United Nations’ ability to carry out its mandate, which includes mediating conflicts and providing humanitarian support.

Among the countries absent from the signatories are the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

“Persona non grata” is a legal term indicating a country’s refusal to allow a diplomat from entering that country as a diplomat.

Updated

Israeli raids on al-Maaysra, in the Keserwan district in Lebanon, have killed nine people while wounding 15 others, the Lebanese health ministry announced.

The health ministry added that in Deir Bella, Batroun, Israeli attacks have killed two people and injured four others.

Additional body parts found in the area of the attacks are undergoing DNA testing to identify the other victims.

Updated

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society evacuated 16 patients and 14 of their companions from Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

The mission, which lasted 12 hours, comes as Israel expands its deadly invasion into north Gaza. In recent days, Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering in north Gaza, including 22 people in the area’s Jabalia refugee camp.

In the last year, Israeli forces have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians while forcibly displacing nearly 2 million survivors across the narrow strip.

In addition to targeting healthcare workers and ambulances, Israel has destroyed dozens of hospitals. As of September, only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional as surviving healthcare workers attempt to treat deluges of patients amid overwhelmed and poorly equipped hospital systems.

Updated

34 countries call for protection of Unifil peacekeepers in joint statement

34 Unifil-contributing countries have signed a joint statement reaffirming the protection of Unifil peacekeepers in Lebanon and condemning the latest attacks against them.

The letter, which was initiated by Poland, comes after five peacekeepers in Lebanon were wounded in recent days amid Israel’s attacks on the country.

“We consider UNIFIL’s role as particularly crucial in light of the escalating situation in the region. We therefore strongly condemn recent attacks on UNIFIL peacekeepers. Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated,” the letter said.

Updated

At least 22 people have been killed in airstrikes in northern Gaza, with Israeli forces stepping up their campaign on the besieged Palestinian territory even as fighting in the new war in Lebanon escalates.

The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports:

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) renewed its evacuation orders for Palestinians still living in the decimated northern half of Gaza, although many residents say the fighting and Israeli sniper fire make it impossible to leave.

Avichay Adraee, an IDF spokesperson, told people that the area includes parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and sections around Jabalia, the urban refugee camp.

In a social media post, Adraee asked people living there to head south to al-Mawasi, a coastal area of southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of people are already displaced. A total of 84% of the territory is currently under evacuation orders, pushing civilians into ever-dwindling “humanitarian zones” which Israel has bombed regardless.

For the full story, click here:

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, released the following statement surrounding reports that Israeli forces attacked a Unifil tower in Lebanon:

The United States is deeply concerned about reports that Israeli forces fired on positions and a tower used by @UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon. While Israel is conducting targeted operations near the Blue Line to destroy Hizballah infrastructure, it is critical its forces do not threaten the safety and security of UN peacekeepers. UNIFIL must be able to operate freely and in accordance with its mandate and UN peacekeepers must never be the target of an attack.

The Blue Line is a UN-established demarcation that divides Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights.

Despite five peacekeepers having been wounded in the last few days as Israel expands its attacks across Lebanon, UNIFIL said that it will not remove its peacekeepers from the country.

  • This blog post has been updated to correct that five peacekeepers have been wounded, not killed.

Updated

UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon

UN peacekeepers will remain in south Lebanon, despite five of their members being wounded amid Israeli airstrikes on the country.

In a statement to Agence France-Presse on Saturday, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), said that despite Israel’s request to Unifil to withdraw from positions “up to five kilometers from the Blue Line”, the peacekeepers refused.

“There was a unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region, and to be able to report to the Security Council,” Tenenti said.

In the last two days, five peacekeepers wounded by gunfire in what Tenenti warned was becoming a “a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone”.

Meanwhile, Irish president Michael Higgins, whose country has troops in Lebanon, said Israel “demanding that the entire Unifil operating under UN mandates walk away” was “outrageous”.

Updated

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has released the following statement on Saturday regarding one of its peacekeepers:

Last night, a peacekeeper at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura was hit by gunfire due to ongoing military activity nearby. He underwent surgery at our Naqoura hospital to remove the bullet and is currently stable. We do not yet know the origin of the fire.”

It added that one of its buildings in Ramyah “sustained significant damage due to explosions from nearby shelling”.

Updated

Israeli airstrikes have forced 40% of students from their homes in Lebanon, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Friday.

Additionally, more than 60% of public schools in the country are being used as shelters.

Updated

Lebanese health ministry: 2,255 people killed by Israeli raids on Lebanon since attacks began

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 2,255 people while wounding 10,524 more since Israel launched its attacks on the country several weeks ago, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Saturday.

The rising death toll also comes amid Israel’s forced displacement of 1.2 million people in Lebanon, approximately a quarter of the country’s population.

In addition to civilians, at least 28 healthcare workers have been killed in Lebanon, the World Health Organization said last week.

Israeli forces have also targeted UN peacekeepers in Lebanon this week, prompting the UN to release a statement saying:

We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times.

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza last October and most recently Lebanon, nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers, with more than two-thirds being UN staff, have been killed during the conflict.

In May, Human Rights Watch released a report stating that Israeli forces are attacking known aid worker locations in the region.

“This pattern of attacks despite proper notification of Israeli authorities raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment and capacity to comply with international humanitarian law, which some countries, including the UK, rely on to continue to license arms exports that end up in Israel,” the HRW added.

Updated

Summary of the day so far

It has just gone 6pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut. Here are the latest developments so far today:

  • The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said on Saturday that unknown gunfire a day earlier hit a peacekeeper, the fifth wounded in south Lebanon near the Israeli border in just two days. “Last night, a peacekeeper at Unifil’s headquarters” in Naqura “was hit by gunfire due to ongoing military activity nearby … We do not yet know the origin of the fire,” a statement said, adding that the peacekeeper was “stable”.

  • A spokesperson for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Saturday said that Israel had requested it leave its positions in south Lebanon where Israel is clashing with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, but they had refused. They asked us to withdraw “from the positions along the blue line … or up to five kilometers (three miles) from the blue line,” UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Agence France-Presse (AFP), using the term for the demarcation line between both countries. “But there was a unanimous decision to stay,” he said.

  • The Israeli military on Saturday warned residents of south Lebanon “not to return” to their homes as troops continued fighting Hezbollah militants in the area. In a statement, 22 southern Lebanese villages were ordered to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River.

  • Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee reiterated an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances, claiming they are being used by Hezbollah fighters. “We call on medical teams to avoid contact with Hezbollah members and not to cooperate with them,” he said. “The IDF (Israeli military) affirms that the necessary actions will be taken against any vehicle transporting armed individuals, regardless of its type.”

  • Hezbollah said on Saturday it had launched a drone attack on a military base in north Israel’s Haifa a day earlier. Hezbollah fighters at 8pm local time (5pmGMT/6pm BST) on Friday launched “an air attack with a swarm of explosives-laden drones on an air defence base” in Haifa, a statement from the group said.

  • The United Nations food agency said on Saturday that no food aid had entered northern Gaza since 1 October. The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the primary border crossing into the war-ravaged area had been closed for about two weeks, warning that Israel’s ongoing ground operation has a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families there.

  • US forces have conducted airstrikes against multiple Islamic State (IS) group sites in Syria, the military said on Saturday. US forces “conducted a series of airstrikes against multiple known ISIS camps in Syria in the early morning of Oct. 11,” the US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on X, using an acronym for the Islamist militant group.

  • The Israeli military on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops press on a weeklong offensive against militants. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people to leave parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and other areas in and around Jabaliya.

  • Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 19 Palestinians, while forces continued to push deeper into the Jabalia area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped.

  • The EU said on Saturday that it was deeply concerned about draft Israeli legislation that would ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) from operating in Israel and probably scale back aid distribution across war-ravaged Gaza. “If adopted, (the bill) would have disastrous consequences, preventing the UN agency from continuing to provide its services and protection to Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” the EU said in an online statement

  • Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers.

Updated

In northern Gaza, residents told the Associated Press (AP) many were trapped in their homes and shelters with dwindling supplies while seeing bodies uncollected in the streets as the bombing hampered emergency responders.

Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya found a hole 20 meters (65 feet) deep where a home once stood, reports the AP.

At least 20 bodies were recovered as of Saturday morning, while others likely were trapped under the rubble, emergency service officials said. Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a home killed two brothers and injured a woman and newborn baby, the officials said.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to request for comment on the strikes, reports the AP.

Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone as Israel plans to use great force “and will continue to do so for a long time”.

Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

“It’s like the first days of the war,” a Jabaliya resident, Ahmed Abu Goneim, told the AP. “The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we will not leave.”

The 24-year-old told the AP that Israeli warplanes and drones struck many neighboring houses in the past week, He counted 15 relatives and neighbors, including four women and five children as young as 3, killed in neighboring homes. He said there were dead in the streets and “no one is able to recover them because of the bombing.”

Hamza Sharif, who stays with his family in a school-turned shelter in Jabaliya, described “constant bombings day and night”.

He told the AP that the shelter has not received aid since the beginning of the month. “Families depend on what they have stored, but they will run out of supplies very soon,” he said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it distributed in northern Gaza earlier will last.

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warn against ’catastrophic’ regional conflict

A spokesperson for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Saturday said he feared an Israeli escalation against Lebanese militants Hezbollah in the country’s south could soon spiral out of control.

This risks “turning very soon into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone,” Unifil spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Agence France-Presse (AFP), calling for a diplomatic solution.

UN reports fifth peacekeeper wounded in Lebanon

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said on Saturday that unknown gunfire a day earlier hit a peacekeeper, the fifth wounded in south Lebanon near the Israeli border in just two days, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“Last night, a peacekeeper at Unifil’s headquarters” in Naqura “was hit by gunfire due to ongoing military activity nearby … We do not yet know the origin of the fire,” a statement said, adding that the peacekeeper was “stable”.

Unifil says it refused a request by Israel to leave its positions in south Lebanon

A spokesperson for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Saturday said that Israel had requested it leave its positions in south Lebanon where Israel is clashing with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, but they had refused.

They asked us to withdraw “from the positions along the blue line … or up to five kilometers (three miles) from the blue line,” UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Agence France-Presse (AFP), using the term for the demarcation line between both countries. “But there was a unanimous decision to stay,” he said.

It comes after two Sri Lankan members of the Unifil were injured when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) opened fire on Friday near the peacekeeper’s base in Naqoura. The Israeli army said that its soldiers had targeted what they believed to be a threat 50 metres from the base, adding that it would continue to “examine the circumstances of the incident”.

Updated

US forces have conducted airstrikes against multiple Islamic State (IS) group sites in Syria, the military said on Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

US forces “conducted a series of airstrikes against multiple known ISIS camps in Syria in the early morning of Oct. 11,” the US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on X, using an acronym for the Islamist militant group.

“The strikes will disrupt the ability of ISIS to plan, organise, and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond.”

The US military has about 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against the IS group. The coalition was established in 2014 to help combat the armed group, which had taken over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.

US forces have carried out multiple retaliatory strikes against militant factions in both Iraq and Syria.

In September, US forces conducted two separate strikes in Syria, killing 37 “terrorist operatives” including members of IS and al-Qaida affiliate Hurras al-Din.

US Central Command said Saturday that its damage assessments were under way and “do not indicate civilian casualties”.

Iran’s highest court has overturned the death sentence of a woman labour rights activist who was accused of links to an outlawed Kurdish group, local media reported on Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“The supreme court … has overturned the verdict against my client, Ms Sharifeh Mohammadi,” her lawyer Amir Raisian was quoted as saying by the reformist Shargh daily. He added that the case was referred for a re-trial.

Iran carries out the highest number of executions annually after China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.

Mohammadi, 45, was sentenced to death in early July after her arrest in the northern city of Rasht, according to rights groups.

She has since been accused of being a member of the Komala party, an exiled Iraq-based Kurdish separatist group that Tehran considers to be a terrorist organisation.

The US has launched airstrikes targeting several camps run by the Islamic State group in Syria in an operation the US military said will disrupt the extremists from conducting attacks in the region and beyond, AP reports.

The US Central Command said the airstrikes were conducted yesterday, without specifying in which parts of Syria. About 900 US troops have been deployed in eastern Syria alongside the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that were instrumental in the fight against IS militants.

The US military said the strikes will disrupt the ability of the Islamic State group to plan, organise and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond. Syria borders Israel via the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as well as Lebanon.

The US said battle damage assessments were underway and there were no civilian casualties.

Iran has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, AFP reports, citing local media, weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel.

“The entry of any electronic communication device, except mobile phones, in flight cabins or ... in non-accompanied cargo, has been banned,” ISNA news agency reported, quoting the spokesperson for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, Jafar Yazerlo.

The decision came over three weeks since sabotage attacks targeting members of the Iran-allied Hezbollah group in Lebanon that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode, killing at least 39 people.

Nearly 3,000 others were wounded in the attack, which Iran and Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

Earlier this month, Dubai-based airline Emirates banned pagers and walkie-talkies onboard its planes.

Hezbollah said on Saturday it had launched a drone attack on a military base in north Israel’s Haifa a day earlier, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

Hezbollah fighters at 8pm local time (5pmGMT/6pm BST) on Friday launched “an air attack with a swarm of explosives-laden drones on an air defence base” in Haifa, a statement from the Iran-backed group said.

Updated

The IDF reported sirens sounding in the northern city of Haifa.

The military also said it identified about 30 projectiles crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory following sirens that sounded in the Upper Galilee area, which is north of Haifa, close to the border with Lebanon.

Reuters reports that Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 19 Palestinians, while forces continued to push deeper into the Jabalia area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped.

Residents said Israeli forces continued to pound Jabalia, home to the largest of the enclave’s historic refugee camps.

There has been no fresh Israeli comment but the military said in past days that forces operating in Jabalia and nearby areas killed dozens of militants, located weapons and dismantled military infrastructure.

Palestinian health officials put the number of people killed in Jabalia over the past week at around 150.

Updated

“The bombardment has not stopped. Every minute there are shells, rockets and fire on the buildings and everything that moves”, Areej Nasr, 35, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) after fleeing from Jabalia to Gaza City on Thursday.

On Friday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes in the area, including on schools being used as shelter by displaced people.

An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy artillery shelling, explosions and gunfire Saturday farther south in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.

EU concerns over Israeli legislation that would ban Unrwa

The EU said on Saturday that it was deeply concerned about draft Israeli legislation that would ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) from operating in Israel and likely scale back aid distribution across war-ravaged Gaza, reports the Associated Press (AP).

According to the AP, earlier this week an Israeli parliamentary committee approved a pair of bills that would ban Unrwa from operating in Israeli territory and end all contact between the government and the UN agency. The bill needs final approval from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

“If adopted, (the bill) would have disastrous consequences, preventing the UN agency from continuing to provide its services and protection to Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” the EU said in an online statement, reports the AP.

Israel has alleged that some of Unrwa’s thousands of staff members participated in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. The UN has since fired more than a dozen staffers after internal investigations found they may have taken part in the attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel.

The UN agency has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to Palestinian civilians during the 12 month conflict in Gaza.

Concern about the Israeli bill was echoed by Unrwa’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, on Wednesday, who said all humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank could “disintegrate” if the bill was implemented. Lazzarini has previously accused Israel of seeking to close down Unrwa.

No food has entered northern Gaza since 1 October, says UN

The United Nations food agency said on Saturday that no food aid had entered northern Gaza since 1 October, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the primary border crossing into the war-ravaged area had been closed for about two weeks, warning that Israel’s ongoing ground operation has a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families there.

“The north is basically cut off and we’re not able to operate there,” said Antoine Renard, the WFP country director of Palestinian territories, according to the AP.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, has said that as many as 400,000 people are believed to be trapped by Israel’s latest Gaza offensive.

Concerns of a hunger crisis have risen in Gaza roughly a month after the UN’s independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians.

Israel has denied such allegations and insisted that it has allowed food and other aid into Gaza in significant quantities.

“Israel has not halted the entry or coordination of humanitarian aid entering from its territory into the northern Gaza Strip. As evidence, humanitarian aid coordinated by Cogat and international organisations will continue to enter the northern Gaza Strip in the coming day as well,” Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing aid distribution, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The WFP said its food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in northern Gaza, have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders, reports the AP. It said that the only functioning bakery in north Gaza, supported by WFP, caught fire after being hit by an explosive munition.

The WFP said its last remaining food supplies in the north – including canned food, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits, and nutrition supplements – have been distributed to shelters, health facilities and kitchens in Gaza City and three shelters in the northern areas. It is unclear how long these limited food supplies will last, said the WFP, warning that the consequences for fleeing families will be dire if the escalation continues.

Updated

The Israeli military on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops press on a weeklong offensive against militants, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people to leave parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and other areas in and around Jabaliya, the urban refugee camp where Israeli forces carried out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as militants regroup.

In a post on X, Adraee asked people to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed by the military as a humanitarian zone, reports the AP.

Most of the fighting in the past week was centered in and around Jabaliya that was pounded by Israeli war jets and artillery. The AP reports that residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters. The military also ordered the three main hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate patients and medical staff.

Updated

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer said.

According to AFP, a source close to Hezbollah has said that the air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area, which killed at least 22 people, had targeted the Iran-backed group’s security chief Wafiq Safa, but his fate remains unknown.

Israel orders Lebanese to evacuate north of Awali river

Further to the news that the Israeli military on Saturday warned residents of south Lebanon “not to return” to their homes as troops continued fighting Hezbollah militants in the area (see 9.38am BST), Reuters has some more detail on the specific area mentioned.

According to the news agency, the statement refers to 22 southern Lebanese villages whose residents have been ordered to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River.

Updated

Images on the newswires show Palestinians fleeing areas in the northern Gaza Strip after a fresh Israeli evacuation order:

In a separate post on X to the one we reported on earlier (see 9.38am BST), Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee reiterated an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances, claiming they are being used by Hezbollah fighters.

“We call on medical teams to avoid contact with Hezbollah members and not to cooperate with them,” he said. “The IDF (Israeli military) affirms that the necessary actions will be taken against any vehicle transporting armed individuals, regardless of its type.”

On Saturday, Adraee called on residents of the area around Sheikh Radwan, south of Jabalia refugee camp, to evacuate.

“The specified area, including the shelters within it, is considered a dangerous combat zone,” Adraee said on X, ordering residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the southern part of the strip.

In a social media post on X, Unicef has said that children in Lebanon are “living in fear”.

The UN agency says it has been providing displaced children in Lebanon with “essential needs, including mental health support” but that what they “really need is a ceasefire”.

Israel army warns south Lebanon residents 'not to return to homes'

The Israeli military on Saturday warned residents of south Lebanon “not to return” to their homes as troops continued fighting Hezbollah militants in the area, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israeli forces continue to “target Hezbollah posts in or near your villages”, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X.

He wrote:

For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice. Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk.”

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, officials say, as thousands remain trapped

At least 30 people have been killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp, Gaza’s civil defence agency has said, a week after Israel launched an offensive there which it claims is aimed at stopping Hamas regrouping.

The agency’s spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, said a strike that occurred before 9.40pm local time killed 12 people including women and children, while 14 were missing and likely trapped under the rubble.

Before that incident, Ahmad al-Kahlut – director of the agency in northern Gaza – said 18 people had been killed by several strikes, including hits on eight schools in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced people.

In total, the day’s strikes left at least 110 injured, according to figures provided by Bassal and Kahlut. The Israeli military did not respond to questions posed by the news agency AFP about the strikes on schools in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s historic refugee camps.

Medics told Reuters that at least 61 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The Israeli military claims it has killed dozens of militants in Jabalia, without providing any evidence. Photos published from the area by news wires have shown many children among the dead. It is not possible to independently verify death tolls from the camp as Israel does not allow foreign journalists in.

The charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), meanwhile, said thousands of people remained trapped in the camp while one staff member said people trying to leave – Israel has issued widespread evacuation orders for northern Gaza – are being shot.

At least 42,175 Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, says health ministry

At least 42,175 Palestinians have been killed and 98,336 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday.

The ministry does not distinguished not distinguish between militant and civilian deaths.

The Unifil peacekeepers have found themselves on the frontline of the Israel-Hezbollah war, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

The latest incident came a day after two Indonesian soldiers were hurt when, according to Unifil, tank fire hit a watchtower.

Sean Clancy, the Irish military’s chief of staff, said he did not believe Israel’s explanation of Friday’s incident, reports AFP.

“So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act,” said Clancy, whose country has troops in Unifil.

UN secretary general António Guterres condemned the firing as “intolerable” and “a violation of international humanitarian law,” while the UK government said it was “appalled” by reports of the wounded.

US president Joe Biden said on Friday he was “absolutely” asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers, while the French, Spanish and Italian leaders issued a joint statement expressing “outrage.”

AFP reports that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, renewed his call for an end to exports of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, while saying the UN peacekeepers had been “deliberately targeted”.

The incidents came more than two weeks into Israel’s war with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has seen Israeli warplanes conduct extensive strikes since 23 September on the militants’ strongholds, with multiple civilian areas hit, and ground troops deployed across the border.

Hezbollah says launched missiles on Israeli base near Haifa

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Saturday said it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base south of the coastal city of Haifa, as Israelis marked the Yom Kippur holiday.

Hezbollah fighters struck a base “south of the city of Haifa, targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of … missiles”, the group said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Health of Al Jazeera cameraman deteriorating, colleague says and appeals for help

The health of Al Jazeera cameraman, Fadi Al-Wahidi, who was shot by Israeli forces in northern Gaza on Wednesday, has deteriorated “significantly”, his colleague has said, appealing for help in evacuating him from the area. Anas Al-Sharif wrote on X:

Fadi was shot by an Israeli sniper while professionally covering events, and he was wearing a press vest clearly marking him as a journalist.

We are currently in northern Gaza, under siege by Israeli forces. If he does not receive urgent medical treatment abroad, his life is at serious risk.”

In an earlier post Sharif said that Al-Wahidi had been permanently paralysed in the attack.

Foreign doctors who have deployed in Gaza have said that many patients who could be saved given the right medical treatment have died in Gaza due to grossly inadequate treatments available in the territory as Israel targets hospitals and limits humanitarian aid.

Opening summary

Ireland’s prime minister urged Israel on Saturday to heed “the concerns of the international community” and not repeat recent firing on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

“Israel must stop firing on UN peacekeepers serving with Unifil in Lebanon,” Simon Harris said in a statement, his latest comments on the recent incidents that have sparked a fierce diplomatic backlash. He added:

Israel must listen to the voice and the concerns of the international community.”

Ireland accounts for 347 of the 10,000 soldiers serving in Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which is charged with maintaining peace in the country’s south.

Israel said its forces fired at a threat near a Unifil position in Lebanon on Friday, acknowledging that a “hit” was responsible for wounding two blue helmets.

The two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt at Unifil’s main base in Naqura, southern Lebanon, according to the mission. It follows two Indonesian soldiers suffering injuries when tank fire hit a watchtower the previous day, the mission said.

The Irish military has said none of its staff were hurt in Thursday’s incident.

Harris, who visited Joe Biden earlier in the week, said he and the US president “agreed that those who serve in blue helmets on behalf of the UN must always be afforded full protection”.

Meanwhile in Gaza, at least 61 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Friday, nearly half of the them killed in Jabalia, the northern district which is the largest of Gaza’s refugee camps.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 30 people were killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp.

At least 12 people were killed, including women and children, in an evening strike, it said. Dozens of Palestinians were reported to have been injured when an Israeli military quadcopter drone opened fire on a school sheltering displaced people in the Jabalia camp.

In other developments:

  • Hezbollah said on Saturday it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base south of the coastal city of Haifa, as Israelis marked the Yom Kippur holiday. Hezbollah fighters struck a base “targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of … missiles”, the Lebanese militant group said in a statement.

  • Joe Biden, the US president, said he was asking Israel not to hit UN peacekeepers, and the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told Israel that attacks on the peacekeeping force were intolerable. Downing Street said Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, was “appalled” at reports Israel deliberately fired on the peacekeepers. The leaders of France, Italy and Spain said in a joint statement the attacks were “unjustifiable” and a “serious violation of the obligations of Israel” under humanitarian international law.

  • Thousands of Palestinians are trapped in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said, including five of its staff, who were “fearing for their lives”. “Nobody is allowed to get in or out – anyone who tries is getting shot,” MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke said. It called on Israeli forces to stop forced displacements and stop the “all-out war on the people of Gaza”.

  • At least 42,126 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since the war started a year ago, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry on Friday. The figures were released prior to the latest deadly Israeli strikes on Friday, including in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

  • At least eight people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across villages in southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday evening, according to the country’s health ministry. Three people were killed, including a two-year-old and a 16-year-old, when an Israeli airstrike hit Baysarieh, a village in Sidon province. Three others were injured, the Lebanese ministry said. Five people were killed and five others injured in additional airstrikes in Baalbeck-Hermel province, located in the Bekaa valley, it said.

  • An Israeli airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three others in the southern Bint Jbeil province on Friday, prompting futher concern over Israel’s escalating campaign. Lebanon’s army has not been involved in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and it withdrew its forces from the border between the two countries when Israel launched its invasion last month.

  • At least 60 people were killed and 168 injured in the past 24 hours in Lebanon, the country’s crisis response unit said on Friday. The latest figure takes the total number of people killed in Lebanon over the past year to 2,229 killed and 10,380 injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The crisis response unit also reported 57 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa valley. The UN human rights office said more than 100 medics and emergency workers had been killed in Lebanon since a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began a year ago.

  • Israel’s military said air raid sirens sounded in several areas in central Israel on Friday due to a “hostile aircraft infiltration”. Israel’s military said two drones were detected “from the moment when they crossed the Lebanese border” late on Friday, and that it had successfully intercepted one of them. However, one building in Herzliya sustained some damage, the IDF and Israeli police said.

  • UN officials voiced concerns that an Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza could affect the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign, scheduled to start next week.

  • Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said Tehran would not hesitate to take “stronger defensive actions” if Israel retaliated for last week’s missile attack. Araqchi said Iran’s missile attack on Israel had been in accordance with its right to self-defence under international law and followed much restraint as it sought a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

  • Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN relief organisation for Palestinian refugees across the region (Unrwa), said people in Gaza had become accustomed to being moved about “like pinballs” by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations. He feared that the people of southern Lebanon were facing a similar plight, he said.

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