Summary of the day
Here’s a recap of the main developments:
The situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic” as Israel pursues a military offensive against Hamas militants in the area, top UN officials warned on Friday. “The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” they said, adding that humanitarian efforts could not keep up with the scale of the needs in northern Gaza, due to constraints on access for aid workers.
About 60 people have been killed and dozens injured overnight and into Friday morning in Israeli strikes on the city of Deir al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of al-Zawayda, all in central Gaza, as well as in the south, according to medics. At least 43,259 people have been killed in the year-long war in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry on Friday, including 55 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The death toll from an Israeli raid in the north of the occupied West Bank has risen to four, according to Palestinian health officials. The Ramallah-based health ministry said two people were killed by gunfire and two by bombing in the two-day military raid, which ended yesterday. The operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp heavily damaged the offices of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.
The Israeli military said on Friday it killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab in an airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Hamas mourned his death, but said he was not a member of its decision-making political office.
At least 2,897 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since last October, according to the latest figures from Lebanon’s health ministry on Friday. The toll includes 30 people killed on Friday. A further 13,150 people have been injured in Lebanon.
Israel’s air force continued to bombard Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight, destroying dozens of buildings in several neighbourhoods, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said on Friday. Israel has recently intensified its airstrikes on the north-eastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages, and parts of southern Lebanon.
The US asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire to revive stalled talks to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a report later denied by the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati. Reports said the US envoy, Amos Hochstein, had communicated the proposal to Mikati this week. Mikati’s office said his government’s stance was clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides and implementation of UN security council resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between Israel and Lebanon in 2006.
A Hamas official said it received a proposal for a short-term truce in Gaza and rejected it for not including a lasting ceasefire. “The proposals do not include a permanent cessation of aggression, nor do they entail the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip or the return of displaced persons,” the official, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that a second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza would begin on Saturday, after Israeli bombing in the area halted the drive. Separately, the WHO said it is deeply concerned about rising attacks on health care workers and facilities in Lebanon.
A former Israeli intelligence official told CNN there is a “high possibility” that militia groups in Iraq will be used by Iran to carry out a potential retaliatory strike against Israel. It comes after an Axios report that claimed Israeli intelligence suggested Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days, possibly before the US presidential election on 5 November.
Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Tehran is likely to increase the range of its ballistic missile. Kharrazi also indicated that Iran’s nuclear doctrine could change if the nation faced an existential threat. Kharrazi said that Iran has the capability to make a nuclear weapon, but a “fatwa” (ruling) by supreme leader Ali Khamenei currently prohibits it.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has said that the killing of journalists in Gaza, which has taken place at levels that are unprecedented in any conflict, was “unacceptable”.
“The voices of journalists must be protected and press freedom must be safeguarded,” he said on the sidelines of a UN seminar in Geneva, Al Jazeera reported.
In a statement to mark International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on Saturday, Guterres said:
Recent years have seen an alarming rate of fatalities in conflict zones – in particular in Gaza, which has seen the highest number of killings of journalists and media workers in any war in decades.
Hamas has confirmed the death of senior official Izz al-Din Kassab, after the Israeli military said it had killed him in an airstrike in Khan Younis.
The group mourned the death of Kassab in a statement on Friday, adding that he was killed along with another Hamas official, Ayman Ayesh, in an Israeli attack on their car in Gaza.
Hamas sources told Reuters that Kassab was a local group official in Gaza but not a member of its decision-making political office.
Updated
A former Israeli intelligence official said there is a “high possibility” that militia groups in Iraq will be used by Iran to carry out a potential retaliatory strike against Israel.
Miri Eisen, a fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, told CNN on Friday:
This would be a way for Iran to retaliate without being held directly responsible, at least in their thinking.
It comes after an Axios report that claimed Israeli intelligence suggested Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days.
The Israeli military is “still assessing the decision-making process in Iran” to determine if and when a retaliation will take place,” an Israeli military source told CNN.
Summary of the day so far
It’s approaching 8pm in Tel Aviv, Gaza and Beirut. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 30 people in northeastern Lebanon, said the country’s news agency, bringing the total toll to 2,897 since Israel started its recent offensive against Hezbollah.
The death toll from strikes in the central Gaza Strip rose to 25, including five children, as more bodies were recovered. The Israeli military told AP that it had hit a Hamas infrastructure site and a militant who was operating in the area of Nuseirat, but did not comment on the other strikes. Many of the Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the entrance of a school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating.
The unfolding situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic”, United Nations chiefs said on Friday, with a warning that its entire population was at “imminent risk” of death. “The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic,” said the joint statement from heads of organisations that form the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee. “The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue. Just in the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and thousands have once again been forcibly displaced … The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”
Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, has told pro-Iran broadcaster Al-Mayadeen that Tehran is likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles, according to Reuters reports.
The United Nations have called the unfolding situation in the northern Gaza Strip “apocalyptic”, and warned that its entire population was at “imminent risk” of death. They said the entire Middle East region was now on a precipice and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Hamas rejected a short-term truce proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar, for not including a lasting ceasefire. A spokesperson said the group had responded by restating its position that “what the Palestinian people want is a complete, comprehensive and lasting ceasefire”.
The Israeli military said it had killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab in an airstrike in Khan Younis.
Updated
Hamas official Izz Al-din Kassab killed, says Israeli military
The Israeli military said on Friday it killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab, describing him as one of the last high-ranking members of Hamas responsible for coordinating with other groups in Gaza, in an airstrike in Khan Younis.
An update from the Lebanese Health Ministry said the death toll from Israeli attacks on Friday has risen to 30, bringing the total toll to 2,897. A further 13,150 people have been injured in Lebanon.
Updated
Situation in Gaza is 'apocalyptic', say UN chiefs
The unfolding situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic”, United Nations chiefs said Friday, warning that its entire population was at “imminent risk” of death.
They said the entire Middle East region was now on a precipice and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
“The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic,” said the joint statement from heads of organisations that form the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
“The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue. Just in the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and thousands have once again been forcibly displaced.
“The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”
They urged all parties fighting in the besieged Palestinian territory to protect civilians, and called on Israel “to cease its assault on Gaza and on the humanitarians trying to help”.
“Humanitarian aid cannot keep up with the scale of the needs due to the access constraints. Basic, life-saving goods are not available. Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need,” they said.
“Humanitarian relief must be facilitated, and we urge all parties to provide unimpeded access to affected people,” while hospitals “should not turn into battlegrounds”.
The statement was signed by the heads of the UN humanitarian, health, food, rights, migration, refugee, development, children and women’s agencies, among others.
“The entire region is on the edge of a precipice. An immediate cessation of hostilities and a sustained, unconditional ceasefire are long overdue,” they said.
Updated
Hamas rejected Gaza truce proposal, says group official
A Hamas official said Friday the group received a proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar for a short-term truce in Gaza and rejected it for not including a lasting ceasefire, AFP reports.
“The proposals do not include a permanent cessation of aggression, nor do they entail the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip or the return of displaced persons,” the official, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the issue.
A senior Hamas leader, Taher al-Nunu, had already warned on Thursday that the group would reject any proposal for a temporary halt to the fighting. But Nunu had said the group had not received any formal proposal at the time.
The Hamas official who spoke to AFP on Friday said the temporary ceasefire proposal had included an increase in the number of aid trucks as well as a partial exchange of prisoners.
He said the group had responded by restating its position that “what the Palestinian people want is a complete, comprehensive and lasting ceasefire”.
Death toll in Lebanon rises to 24, says Lebanese news agency
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country’s news agency said, raising the death toll from earlier estimates.
Israel’s military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.
Lebanon’s state National news agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country’s northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.
Iran signals possible missile expansion and nuclear doctrine shift
Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told pro-Iran broadcaster Al-Mayadeen that Tehran is likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles, Reuters reports.
Kharrazi also indicated that Iran’s nuclear doctrine could change if the nation faced an existential threat. Kharrazi said that Iran has the capability to make a nuclear weapon, but a “fatwa” (ruling) by supreme leader Ali Khamenei currently prohibits it.
Israel launched retaliatory strikes on sites in Iran last weekend in a widely anticipated response to an Iranian ballistic missile salvo on Tel Aviv and military bases on 1 October.
AFP reports another strike has hit the city of Tyre in Lebanon.
the strike levelled a building on the city’s seafront, where rescuers and paramedics were seen pulling people from under the rubble, an AFP correspondent said.
Unverified videos posted on social media appear to show a large plume of smoke billowing over the city. We will update you when we find out more.
Updated
Palestinian health officials say the death toll from an Israeli raid in the north of the occupied West Bank has risen from three to four, AP reports.
The Ramallah-based health ministry said two people were killed by gunfire and two by bombing in the two-day military raid, which ended yesterday.
The Israeli military said its troops withdrew from the camp after striking two militants who had fired upon soldiers and killed other militants in “close quarters combat.”
Hamas denounced the attack, which it said killed a Hamas leader in the area.
The operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp heavily damaged the offices of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. The agency’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote Thursday on X that it had been put out of service by Israeli military bulldozers that partially demolished the building.
The Israeli military denied it damaged the building. It said militants had planted explosives nearby and set them off to attack Israeli troops and that the blast “likely caused damage to the building.”
Here are some of the latest images from Israel, Lebanon and Gaza coming from the wires …
Updated
Houthi supporters chanted slogans and held up rifles at a rally in Sana’a, Yemen.
Yemenis gathered for a rally today in solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people amid Israel’s military operations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Yemen’s Houthis have launched missile and drone attacks against 202 vessels in the seas around the country since November 2023 in retaliation for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, the Houthis’ leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on 31 October.
Israel is ramping up defence spending as its cabinet passed the budget for 2025, AP reports.
The budget, which must still be approved by Israel’s parliament before taking effect, increases defence spending to at least $27.2bn (£21bn), Israeli media reported, though that could increase to $40 billion pending further cabinet discussions.
In the last year, Israel spent $27.5 billion on defence, according to the the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The budget has been mired in controversy in Israel, with the destruction caused by conflicts on two fronts driving up government expenditures and debt, a mass call-up of reservist soldiers hurting families and small businesses, and international credit ratings being downgraded.
Economists have called for an end to the war with Hamas in Gaza and for far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich to construct a budget that reduces the country’s deficit — something that would require unpopular decisions such as raising taxes or cutting spending.
Opposition politicians criticised the budget for allocating funds to government ministries — run by Netanyahu’s far-right and ultranationalist coalition partners — which they described at superfluous. Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition in Israel, wrote on X that the budget “distributes billions of shekels to 10 unnecessary government ministries. They’ve lost their shame.”
Israeli strikes kill 25 in Gaza and 13 in Lebanon
AP has provided updated death tolls for the Israeli strikes on Gaza and Lebanon overnight and today.
The death toll from strikes in the central Gaza Strip rose to 25, including five children, as more bodies were recovered, while officials said that 13 people were killed in airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday.
Sixteen people had initially been reported killed in two strikes on Thursday on the Gaza Strip’s central Nuseirat refugee camp, but officials from the Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies continued to be brought in.
Overall, the hospital said they had received 21 dead from the strikes, including some transferred from the Awda hospital, where they had been brought the day before.
One of the strikes killed an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister — the children’s mother was missing as of today, while the father was killed by an Israeli airstrike four months ago, the family told an AP journalist at Al-Aqsa hospital.
Strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and on a house in Deir al-Balah today killed four more people, hospital officials said, bringing the overall toll to 25.
The Israeli military told AP that it had hit a Hamas infrastructure site and a militant who was operating in the area of Nuseirat, but did not comment on the other strikes. It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that a second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza would begin on Saturday, after Israeli bombing in the area halted the drive.
“Polio vaccination in northern Gaza is ready to resume tomorrow,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, adding: “We are assured of the necessary humanitarian pause in Gaza City to conduct the campaign.”
“@WHO and @Unicef urge for the humanitarian pauses to be respected. However, what the children in northern Gaza and across the whole Strip really need is peace.”
#Polio vaccination in northern #Gaza is ready to resume tomorrow. We are assured of the necessary humanitarian pause in Gaza City to conduct the campaign. Unfortunately, the area covered is substantially reduced compared to the first round of vaccination, which will leave some…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 1, 2024
Updated
Israeli commentator and analyst Akiva Eldar has told Al Jazeera that there are no signs that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is either ready or willing to reach a ceasefire deal with Lebanon before the US election next Tuesday.
“He is praying and putting his bets on the victory of former president Trump, and he believes that once this happens, he will be able to manipulate the president,” Eldar told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv. “There is another deadline for Netanyahu, and this is [in] the first week of December when he will have to start testifying in his corruption trial, and he will do anything to avoid it,” Eldar added.
The UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon said the country’s cultural heritage was being endangered by Israeli strikes on the ancient Lebanese cities of Tyre and Baalbek, home to Unesco-designated Roman ruins, according to AFP.
“Ancient Phoenician cities steeped in history are in deep peril of being left in ruins,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a social media post, adding that “Lebanon’s cultural heritage must not become yet another casualty in this devastating conflict”.
Updated
10 Palestinians reportedly killed in school in refugee camp in Gaza
At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike targeting the entrance of a school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, Reuters reports, citing medics on the ground.
Updated
The UN humanitarian aid coordination agency is pointing to a new “wave of displacement” in Lebanon after the Israeli army issued new orders for people to leave areas it is targeting, AP reports.
Spokesperson Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, citing local officials, said new displacement orders for Beiruts southern suburbs were followed shortly afterward by heavy airstrikes.
He told reporters in Geneva that other recent displacement orders from the Israeli military spurred an estimated 50,000 people to leave the eastern city of Baalbek and head mostly toward the northern Bekaa Valley.
“We are working to access civilians who remain in hard to reach areas. To date, 15 convoys have successfully been organised to reach areas” in four Lebanese cities, including Baalbek, Laerke said. “But the insecurity has an impact on what we can do.”
The office of Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati denied an earlier report by Reuters that the US had asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire, after two sources told Reuters that a US envoy had made the request to inject momentum into stalled talks on a deal to end hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.
In a statement to Reuters, Mikati’s office said the government’s stance was clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between the two foes in 2006.
Gaza death toll reaches at least 43,259, says health ministry
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reports that at least 43,259 people have been killed in the year-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 55 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.
Updated
Lebanon state news agency reports that another Israeli strike has hit the city of Baalbek.
The National News Agency said Israeli “enemy aircraft launched a raid on the Zahraa neighbourhood in the city of Baalbek,” home to ancient Roman ruins designated a Unesco World Heritage site.
Israel put the city under an evacuation order yesterday – causing a mass exodus of people – as it carried out strikes in the region.
Updated
The World Health Organisation is deeply concerned about rising attacks on health care workers and facilities in Lebanon, a WHO official said.
Margaret Harris said at a UN briefing that while 55 attacks on health care workers have been verified, the actual number of incidents is likely to be significantly higher.
AFP reports on the destruction of homes in border towns in Lebanon by Israel.
According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency, Israeli troops dynamited buildings in at least seven border villages in Lebanon last month, AFP reports.
Earlier this week Israel’s Channel 12 broadcast footage appearing to show one of its presenters blow up a building while embedded with soldiers in the village of Aita al-Shaab.
On 26 October, the NNA said Israel “blew up and destroyed houses... in the village of Odaisseh”.
That day, Israel’s military said 400 tonnes of explosives detonated in a Hezbollah tunnel, which it said was about a mile long.
Lebanon’s National Human Rights Commission has said “the ongoing destruction campaign carried out by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon is a war crime”.
Israel’s military used “air strikes, bulldozers, and manually controlled explosions” to level entire neighbourhoods - homes, schools, mosques, churches, shrines, and archaeological sites, the commission said.
The tweet below shows the Channel 12 segment where one of its journalists participated in the demolition of homes in Lebanon.
An Israeli “senior journalist” from Israel’s channel 12 just blown up a house in southern Lebanon on camera.
— Nafiseh Kohnavard (@nafisehkBBC) October 27, 2024
Nothing more to add here… pic.twitter.com/nPm9JVoQHO
Updated
US asked Lebanon to declare unilateral ceasefire with Israel
A US envoy this week asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Israel as part of an effort to help negotiations to reach a resolution for the more than year-long conflict, a senior Lebanese political source and a senior diplomat said, Reuters reports.
The sources said the effort was communicated by US Lebanon envoy Amos Hochstein to Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati.
But such an announcement was seen as a non-starter in Lebanon, the sources said, where it would likely be equated with a surrender.
Mikati said Israel’s expanded strikes on Lebanon last night indicated a rejection of efforts to broker a truce.
The Israel Defence Force has shared pictures of Nazi memorabilia it says it found in “civilian homes exploited by Hezbollah” in Lebanon.
The IDF shared photos of a book with a swastika and the name “Hassan Salih” inscribed on the front, as well as a Nazi pennant flag and figurine of Adolf Hitler, but it did not provide any more evidence or details of the find. The Guardian could not independently verify the images.
It’s no coincidence these were found in civilian homes exploited by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 1, 2024
Hezbollah’s goal has always been the same: annihilate Israel. pic.twitter.com/hFYS8zaloU
Thailand’s labor minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said he had ordered the evacuation of all Thai workers from the north of Israel to the south, after four Thais were killed by rocket fire while working on farms near Israel’s border with Lebanon.
Maris Sangiampongsa, Thailand’s foreign minister, confirmed the deaths of four workers, and said another had been injured close to the town of Metula near the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Three Israelis were also killed in what was the deadliest cross-border strikes from Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion.
The deaths, which follow the killing of another Thai worker in a mortar strike in October near the border with Lebanon, have prompted questions over why workers are being deployed to areas so close to the conflict.
The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli organisation that supports migrant workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.
Thai workers have been among the foreign nationals worst affected by the conflict. Before the war, about 30,000 Thai nationals were working in Israel, mostly in agricultural jobs, where the salaries offered are much higher than back home.
Many were killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attacks on 7 October. So far 23 Thai hostages have been released, while a further six remain in Gaza.
Maris, Thailand’s foreign minister, said he had instructed the Thai embassy in Tel Aviv “to extend every and all assistance to the injured and families of the deceased”.
“Thailand continues to strongly urge all parties to return to the path of peace, in the name of the innocent civilians gravely impacted by this prolonged and deepening conflict”, he said.
Lebanon PM says Israel's expanded strikes suggest 'rejection' of ceasefire
Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati criticised Israel’s “expansion” of its attacks on his country, saying they indicated a rejection of efforts to broker a truce after more than a month of war, AFP reports.
“The Israeli enemy’s renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids, are all indicators that confirm the Israeli enemy’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire,” Mikati said in a statement after overnight raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, in the first such attack this week.
Lebanon’s health ministry says an Israeli airstrike on a mountain town overlooking Beirut has killed three people and wounded five, AP reports.
The ministry gave no further details about the airstrike on the edge of Qamatiyeh, southeast of Beirut.
An AP journalist who visited the scene said the strike was closer to the nearby village of Ein al-Rummaneh, adding that it caused minor damage to an apartment on the first floor of a building.
Updated
A Reuters report looks at the worsening conditions in Lebanon as looming winter stretches the country’s ability to aid those displaced by Israel’s attacks:
Thousands are seeking refuge from Israeli strikes in the mountainous Christian town of Deir al-Ahmar in eastern Lebanon.
The town was already hosting more than 10,000 displaced people before Israel escalated its strikes on predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Baalbek and nearby towns starting on Wednesday this week.
“If we flee the bombing, are we meant to die of cold?” said Suzanne Qassem, a mother of two at one displacement centre, whose home in Buday had been destroyed. “I’m sick, I’ve been taking medicine for a week and I’m still coughing... If my son gets sick, am I going to be able to get him medicine?”
Temperatures in Deir al-Ahmar are dropping to 6C overnight even before winter fully sets in and the schools have no diesel to run central heating systems.“At night, we’re shaking. I put my mattress up next to my daughter and tell her to hug me so that we can keep warm. But we’re not keeping warm,” said Neyfe Mazloum, 69.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes on Lebanon over the last year in its campaign against militant group Hezbollah. That includes nearly 190,000 who have sought refuge in shelters. Others are staying with relatives, have rented out homes, or are sleeping in the streets.
Lebanon’s crisis management agency says that out of 1,130 accredited shelters, 948 have reached maximum capacity. Most of the displaced are in the districts of Mount Lebanon and Beirut – easy to reach for most aid organisations – but Deir al-Ahmar is much further afield.
Local volunteers are worried that the looming winter will cut off the only safe route into Deir al-Ahmar, leaving them stranded. “That road will close with the first snow. It will be like a siege,” said Khodr Zeaiter, an aid volunteer.
More images show the level of destruction in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza following Israeli airstrikes overnight.
Updated
The first images of the overnight attacks on Lebanon are emerging on the wires …
Updated
Forty seven Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said, Reuters reports.
The Israeli military said its troops had identified and eliminated “several armed terrorists” in central Gaza and had eliminated “dozens of terrorists” in targeted raids in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area.
Israel’s air force pounded Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight, destroying dozens of buildings in several neighborhoods, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday, AP reports.
The strikes on Dahiyeh — after a four-day lull during which no airstrikes were reported in the suburb — destroyed dozens of buildings and caused fires in the area. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Recently, Israel has intensified its airstrikes on the northeastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages, as well as different parts of southern Lebanon.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told US envoys that Israel’s ability to counter threats to its security from Lebanon and return displaced people to the north were key elements of any ceasefire deal.
The comments came hours before Israel carried out airstrikes early on Friday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters witnesses said, the first strikes there in nearly a week.
“The main issue is … Israel’s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon,” Netanyahu’s office cited him as telling two US envoys.
The envoys, Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, were in Israel on a new push to secure ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza. Lebanon’s prime minister on Wednesday expressed hope that a ceasefire deal was imminent.
Hochstein and McGurk, met the Israeli prime minister on Thursday to talk about a ceasefire proposal for Lebanon. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said negotiators made “good progress” toward a deal. “We’re hopeful that we will see things transition in Lebanon in a not too distant future,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, who had expressed optimism of a speedy settlement “in hours or days” earlier on Thursday, said that Israel’s “ongoing escalation” in his country “does not inspire optimism”. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made it clear that the main point is not this or that agreement on paper but Israel’s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon, in a manner that will return our residents securely to their homes”.
Thursday marked a day when the most civilians in both Israel and Lebanon were killed since October 2023. The Lebanese health ministry said that Israeli attacks had killed 45 people in the previous 24 hours, amid bombing in the north-east Bekaa valley and infantry battles in the south. In one Bekaa village, eight people were killed from the same family. In northern Israel, seven people were killed by rocket fire from Lebanon, including four Thai agricultural workers.
The Israeli army’s evacuation call for several areas of south Lebanon on Thursday included a Palestinian refugee camp. Among the areas listed was Rashidieh camp, which houses thousands of Palestinian refugees. Israel issued its second evacuation order for the city of Baalbek and two surrounding villages in the Bekaa valley on Thursday afternoon, carrying out a series of airstrikes on the village of Durous a few hours later. The evacuation orders had prompted a mass exodus of residents from the city, which is home to a Unesco world heritage site.
Israeli attacks killed at least one child in Lebanon each day and injured 10 others, the UN children’s agency (Unicef) said. Citing the Lebanese health ministry, Unicef said 166 children have been killed since October 2023, while at least 1,168 have been injured. It awrned that the war in Lebanon is “inflicting severe physical wounds and deep emotional scars” on many of the country’s children. Six Lebanese health workers were killed and four wounded in Israeli strikes across south Lebanon on Thursday, the health ministry said in a statement.
