The U.N. human rights chief has voiced concern about the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, where his office said nearly 100 people had been reported killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including women, children and medics, Reuters reports.
“UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk is gravely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon with at least 97 people reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes between the 22nd and 24th of November,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, told a Geneva press briefing.
He said that at least seven paramedics had been reported killed in three Israeli strikes in the south of Lebanon on Nov. 22-23, adding to 226 healthcare worker deaths since Oct. 7, 2023. He did not specify how many of the recent deaths had been verified by U.N. human rights monitors.
Israel says it targets military capabilities in Lebanon and Gaza and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah, like Hamas, of hiding among civilians, which they deny.
Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since Oct. 2023, and fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year.
In a statement Israel’s military has claimed that on Tuesday it struck “six Hezbollah terror targets” in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hind Khoudary has been reporting from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for Al Jazeera. In her latest dispatch for the news network she writes:
Israeli forces are using quadcopters to shoot at any Palestinian who is moving in Jabalia or Beit Lahiya. They have also been using explosive robots on residential homes and neighbourhoods. This is the first time these explosive robots have been used this much throughout northern Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel or the Israli-occupied West Bank.
Reuters has a quick snap that Jordan’s air force has performed a humanitarian aid drop from the air over northern Gaza for the first time in five months.
Israeli forces have again carried out airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Weather conditions in Gaza have been making conditions in the makeshift shelters people are being forced to use by Israel’s military assault even more difficult. Here are some of the latest images from Deir al-Balah.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports “dozens were killed and injured” in an Israeli strike near a bakery in northern Gaza City.
More details soon …
Israel’s military has claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander in its strikes on Tyre in Lebanon, naming him as Ahmad Sabhi Hazima.
The IDF, in a message on its official Telegram channel, suggested he had only been in the role of “commander of Hezbollah’s operations unit in the coastal sector” for a few days, as his predecessor had been killed by Israel on 17 November.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Israeli media reports that Israel Katz, the recently appointed Israeli defense minister, has told UN special envoy for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert that Israel will continue to act against threats even in the event of a ceasefire agreement.
He is quoted as saying:
We will act against any threat, anytime and anywhere. Every house in southern Lebanon that is rebuilt and in which a terrorist base is established will be demolished, every rearming and regrouping by terrorists will be attacked, every attempt to smuggle weapons will be thwarted, and every threat to our forces or Israeli citizens will be immediately destroyed.
Katz promised that Israel would show “zero tolerance” for any breach of an agreement, saying that if UN peackeeping forces and the Lebanese army could not enforce the terms and conditions of a deal with Hezbollah then “we will. And with great force.”
Israeli official: agreement with Lebanon will maintain Israel's freedom of operation there
Israeli government spokesperson has David Mencer told Reuters that a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon will maintain Israel’s freedom of operation to act in defence to remove Hezbollah’s threat, and will enable the safe return of the residents of the north of Israel to their homes.
Lebanon’s foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said he hoped a ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah would be agreed later today.
It is understood that the ceasefire deal to be discussed by the Israeli cabinet later today will see Hezbollah move its forces north of the Litani River, with the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers the only armed forces allowed between the Litani River and the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.
Bou Habib said the Lebanese army would be ready to have at least 5,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw, and that the US could play a role in rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by Israeli strikes.
Some community leaders in the north of Israel have expressed anger at the proposal, saying it does not go far enough in protecting them from the threat of a Hezbollah incursion into Israel in the future.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right interior security minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, has said a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah would be a “historical missed opportunity”.
These images from northern Israel show the damage in Kiryat Shmona, where a rocket has hit a residential home. There are at present no reports of any injuries.
Israel has announced the death of one soldier, and that two more have been wounded.
A 23-year-old soldier has died from wounds sustained over 13 months ago during the 7 October 2023 surprise Hamas attack inside southern Israel. The IDF said he sustained the intial injuries “during combat in the communities near the Gaza Strip.”
The IDF said that the two wounded soldiers were both hurt during duty today, one by fighting in the central Gaza Strip, and another after a drone launched from Lebanon fell in the Mount Hermon area.
Palestinian news sources are carrying claims by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, that it is has killed and wounded some Israeli troops inside the Gaza Strip in an attack in Jabalia, by detonating a booby-trapped building. The claims have not been independently verified.
More details soon …
Warning sirens have again sounded in northern Israel.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires of the southern suburbs of Beirut, which have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks.
Community leaders in north of Israel express anger at prospect of ceasefire deal with Hezbollah
The Times of Israel reports that local community leaders in the north of Israel have expressed anger at the prospect of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah to end hostilities in Lebanon.
Metula mayor David Azoulay reportedly told Israel’s Channel 13:
Do not surrender to terrorism. Do not make this shameful agreement. This is a sad arrangement, an agreement of surrender by the Israeli government to Hezbollah, an arm of Iran. The threat has not been removed. We will not agree to return to the reality of [a new] 7 October in the north. For as long as there is no real security here, not just a “sense of security,” we will do everything to not return.
The Times of Israel also quotes the chair of the Margaliot moshav, Eitan Davidi, who said:
We will be relying on Lebanon to guarantee our safety. Northern residents didn’t leave their homes for over a year, just to return to having Hezbollah as neighbours. The massacre in the south will pale in comparison to what will happen here.
About 60,000 Israelis have been forced to flee their homes in the north of the country due to near-constant rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tens of thousands of Lebanese people have also been displaced on the other side of the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries.
Bashar Murad, a senior official at the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza, has said that 40% of children in the south of the Gaza Strip are suffering from malnutrition, and that “more than 10,000 tents” have been “blown away by strong winds and rain.”
Palestinian news agency Wafa was quoting an interview with Murad on Voice of Palestine radio, where he also said that people, especially elderly people and children, are suffering from various chest diseases due to a lack of warm winter clothing.
Israeli army radio reports that a building was damaged in Kiryat Shmona in Israel’s far north-east after “about five launches” were fired from Lebanon.
Israel’s military has issued another set of evacuation orders to citizens in neighbouring Lebanon, ordering residents in the southern suburbs of Beirut to flee their homes due to impending strikes.
#عاجل انذار آخر إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية:
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 26, 2024
🔸برج البراجنة
🔸تحويطة الغدير
⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على… pic.twitter.com/8rw4zjAnj2
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports an Israeli airstrike on Arnoun, in the south-east of the country.
Israeli opposition politician Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity political alliance, has said that Israel must take advantage of any deal with Hezbollah to “fundamentally change the situation in the north.”
Rejecting the idea of a “temporary ceasefire”, he said we must not do half-hearted work, we must not miss the opportunity for a strong agreement.”
Posting to social media he said:
We paid so much – in the blood of our fighters, in the wounded, in the many battle days of the military men, in budgets and armaments. The residents of the north have been evacuated for over a year, and those who live on the second line are staying in shelters.
EU's Borrell: 'no excuse' for not implementing ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, has said there is no excuse for not implementing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Reuters reports he said that the proposed deal has the necessary security guarantees for Israel, and that the international community should put pressure on Israel to approve it.
Borrell also referenced the recent decision by the international criminal court to issue arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.
Borrell said he hoped that Europeans would fulfil their obligations under international law, saying it was not possible to approve of the court when it pursues a case against Vladimir Putin, and oppose it when it puts a case against Netanyahu.
77-year-old Borrell is to be replaced in the role he has held since 2019 by former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas at the beginning of December.
The National News Agency of Lebanon reports that “civil defence, ambulance and Lebanese Red Cross teams [have] resumed searching for missing persons in buildings destroyed by the enemy” in Tyre.
Haaretz reports that the head of Shlomi regional council, an area in the far north-west of Israel, has said that a ceasefire deal would be a tactic to buy time until there was a change of government in the US.
Gabi Ne’eman is quoted as saying in a letter a ceasefire would “buy time” and allow Israel a pause to “assess the situation on the ground.”
He continued on to say “the US government will change … and the situation will change significantly.”
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that “dozens were killed and injured” on Tuesday morning by an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip.
More details soon …
Overnight, in operational updates posted to its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed that “approximately ten projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” some of which were intercepted.
It also reported a drone was intercepted “from the east” crossing into Israeli-held territory in the Golan area. When used by Israel’s military, the phrase “from the east” usually means from the direction of Iraq.
Israeli minister: ceasefire with Hezbollah would be 'historical missed opportunity'
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right interior security minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, has said a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah would be a “historical missed opportunity”.
Media in Israel quotes him in an interview with Kan Radio saying:
We have a historic opportunity to decisively act in the south [in Gaza] and north [in Lebanon]. It will be a historical missed opportunity if we stop everything and go backwards.
In reference to the Israeli prime minister’s apparent readiness for a deal, Ben-Gvir said “it’s possible that someone doesn’t want to hear my objections.”
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis.
Israel’s security cabinet is due to meet on Tuesday to decide on a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon after more than a year of fighting between Israeli forces and the Shia militia Hezbollah.
Under the deal being considered, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would reportedly withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah would pull its heavy weapons north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army would move in to provide security in the border zone alongside an existing UN peacekeeping force, during an initial 60-day transition phase.
Israeli ambassador to the US Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio on Monday that there remained “points to finalise” and that any deal required agreement from the government. But he said “we are close to a deal” and that “it can happen within days.”
In other developments:
A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in a 25 October attack in south Lebanon which legal experts have called a potential war crime.
Israel’s military launched airstrikes across Lebanon on Monday, unleashing explosions throughout the country and killing at least 31. Israeli strikes hit commercial and residential buildings in Beirut as well as in the port city of Tyre. Military officials said they targeted areas known as Hezbollah strongholds.
Syrian state television reported Israeli strikes on several bridges in the Qusayr region near the Lebanese border on Monday, with the defence ministry reporting two civilians injured in the attacks.
Weather is compounding the challenges facing displaced people in Gaza, where heavy rains and dropping temperatures are making tents and other temporary shelters uninhabitable. Government officials in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave said on Monday that nearly 10,000 tents had been swept away by flooding over the past two days, adding to their earlier warnings about the risks facing those sheltering in low-lying floodplains.
An Israeli strike has wounded the director of Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the northernmost part of Gaza, local and international health officials said. Dr Hossam Abu Safiya was in his office when it was hit by an Israeli quadcopter drone on Sunday, according to the humanitarian organisation MedGlobal.
