SvennoJ on 20 October 2024
Main points on October 20th
- The Israeli army launched a barrage of rockets across Lebanon – including 12 in Beirut’s suburbs – after it announced the targeting of Hezbollah’s al-Qard al-Hassan financial institution’s offices.
- The al-Qard al-Hassan Association, which Israel says is Hezbollah’s financing arm, says its deposits are secure after Israel launched 12 missiles at Beirut, after saying it would target the financial institution.
- UN peacekeeping forces remain in place in southern Lebanon despite an Israeli army bulldozer deliberately demolishing a UN peacekeeping observation tower and perimeter fence, UNIFIL said.
- Hezbollah said it fired rockets at three military bases in northern Israel and that its air defence units downed an Israeli drone on Saturday.
- Israeli forces have also intensified attacks across Gaza where several Palestinians have been wounded by an Israeli bombardment in the Jabalia camp, in northern Gaza.
- The UN’s Human Rights Office says it is increasingly concerned that the Israeli military’s actions in northern Gaza “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population through death and displacement”.
- UN officials have been asking Israeli authorities since Friday “to urgently facilitate our access to North Gaza, to support rescuing dozens trapped under rubble”, the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said.
- Israeli media reported that the head of Israel’s security service met the chief of Egyptian intelligence in Cairo.
- Israeli media is reporting that the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, met the chief of Egyptian intelligence in Cairo to revive talks to free the captives still held in Gaza.
