Settler attack on reporters in Beita a war crime, Palestinian press syndicate says

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has condemned the attack by dozens of heavily armed Israeli settlers on journalists in the town of Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, calling it a “war crime aimed at killing them”.

The syndicate said in a statement that five journalists – Ranin Sawafteh, Mohammed al-Atrash, Louay Saeed, Nasser Ishtayeh, and Nael Bouaitel – were injured in the assault.

It added that it is coordinating with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to “urgently mobilise international institutions to provide protection for Palestinian journalists”, who it said are being systematically targeted.

The syndicate added that, alongside the IFJ, it will also pursue legal action through international judicial bodies to ensure those responsible are held accountable.

_{Photographer Raneen Sawafta is carried on a stretcher into Rafidia Hospital for treatment}

Israeli activist describes settler attack in West Bank

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli anti-apartheid activist, says he was helping Palestinians harvest their olives earlier today when a group of dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with clubs, attacked them.

The settlers descended from a hill and “started hurling … huge rocks at us and we had to flee”, Pollak told Al Jazeera.

He said the assault led to more than a dozen injuries that required medical attention, including a journalist who was bludgeoned by the settlers and a 70-year-old activist who had his cheekbone and jaw broken.

But Pollak stressed that the assault was not an isolated incident carried out by “extremist” settlers but rather part of a longstanding Israeli government policy.

“We live in a situation that’s very similar to the US South during the Jim Crow period, where the sheriff and the [Klu Klux] Klan are one and the same,” he said.

“Here in the West Bank, armed Israeli civilians and the army are merely separate fingers in one clenched fist, which is the fist of Israel’s policy [to] ethnically cleanse Palestinians.”

Another settler attack reported in West Bank

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian homes in the village of Raba, southeast of Jenin – the latest in a string of settler assaults across the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency cited local sources as saying the settlers attacked homes and farmland under the protection of armed Israeli soldiers, who entered the village at the same time as the attacks.

In a separate incident, Israeli forces raided an area around a school in a nearby town, east of Jenin, assaulting several children who were playing there. No arrests or injuries were reported.

Settler violence and Israeli army raids have sharply increased across the West Bank since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza. According to UN figures, Palestinians are experiencing the highest level of settler violence since 2020, with at least 126 incidents reported in 70 towns and villages since September, and more than 4,000 olive trees and saplings destroyed.

Israeli troops carry out multiple raids across the occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have carried out a series of raids and assaults across the West Bank this evening, arresting a 13-year-old boy, injuring a man, and firing tear gas at Palestinian worshippers, the Palestinian Wafa news agency is reporting.

In the town of Yabad, near Jenin, soldiers arrested Rakan Amarna, 13, after beating him while he was walking in the street, local sources told Wafa. Israeli forces have been raiding the town since early this morning, turning several homes into military posts and closing side roads, residents said.

Separately, in ar-Ram, north of occupied East Jerusalem, a Palestinian man was shot in the leg near Israel’s separation wall and transferred to a medical facility in Ramallah, Wafa said.

Meanwhile, in Salem, a village east of Nablus, dozens of Palestinians suffered from tear gas inhalation after Israeli forces fired gas canisters at worshippers performing evening prayers at the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Mosque. Soldiers also set up a military checkpoint at the village entrance and searched vehicles.

Earlier, Israeli troops also raided the village of Immatin, east of Qalqilya, and patrolled its streets. No arrests were reported.

Palestinian man dies after being shot by Israeli forces near Tubas

We have an update on the Palestinian man who was shot by Israeli forces in the north of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that Abdel Rahman Darawsha died of his wounds after the Israeli army opened fire in Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas.

“Darawsha was struck by bullets and rushed by a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance to Tubas Governmental Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead due to the severity of his injuries,” the Wafa news agency reported.

Record number of Palestinians killed in West Bank since October 7, 2023

Israeli army claims responsibility for deadly attack near Lebanon’s Shebaa

Israel’s military has confirmed carrying out an attack that killed two people near the southern Lebanese town of Shebaa.

In a statement, the army claimed the two men were part of the Lebanese Resistance Brigades, a paramilitary group linked to Hezbollah, and engaged in a weapons-smuggling operation.

The military shared footage apparently showing the strike that hit the car the men were travelling in, engulfing it in flames.

Earlier, the EU condemned recent Israeli strikes on Lebanon and urged the country to “cease all actions” that violate the truce it reached a year ago.

New Israeli drone attack in southern Lebanon’s Baraachit

Another Israeli drone attack has targeted southern Lebanon, this one hitting a car in the Baraachit area, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports.

A photo shared by the agency showed smoke rising over blazing wreckage on a road following the attack, which it reported caused an unknown number of casualties.

It is at least the third aerial attack on southern Lebanon today after earlier strikes near Bint Jbeil and Shebaa.

Death toll in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon rises to 3

One person has been killed in Israel’s latest attack on the Baraachit area of southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). It said four other people had been injured in the drone attack.

The Israeli military claimed in a statement that the attack killed a member of Hezbollah.

Earlier, an Israeli air attack on a vehicle between the southeastern towns of Ain Ata and Shebaa killed two brothers, according to NNA.

In a separate attack, an Israeli drone struck a car near Salah Ghandour Hospital in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, injuring seven people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Main events on November 8th

• The Israeli army has continued to launch attacks on Palestinians in Gaza despite the ceasefire, killing one man in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp, while demolishing homes and structures in the south.
• Hamas says it has retrieved the remains of deceased Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin in Rafah.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed receiving the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel via the Red Cross, bringing the total number of dead received during the ceasefire to 300.
• Munir al-Bursh, director of Gaza’s Health Ministry, has warned of a severe shortage of medicines, describing it as “the most dangerous manifestation of the health system’s collapse” in the enclave.
• A surge in Israeli settler violence has swept across the occupied West Bank, injuring several Palestinian farmers and journalists near Nablus.
• Israeli forces also carried out new raids in multiple areas of the West Bank, arresting several people and shooting dead a Palestinian man in the Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas.
• Israel has launched three aerial attacks on southern Lebanon, killing at least three people and injuring seven others, according to the country’s National News Agency.

Why Israel is 'DISINTEGRATING': Ilan Pappé on the End of Zionism

“Israel is disintegrating from within,” Ilan Pappé says. In conversation with Mehdi Hasan and an audience of paid Zeteo subscribers on Zoom, acclaimed Israeli-British historian Ilan Pappé explains why Zionism is collapsing. In an intriguing conversation, the two touched on a wide range of topics, including:

• Pappé’s vision for a decolonized state for both Palestinians and Israelis, as discussed in his new book, ‘Israel on the Brink: Eight Revolutions That Could Lead to Decolonization and Coexistence’.
• Diet Zionism (“You cannot be a progressive colonizer, and you cannot be a socialist genocider.”)
• Whether he believes popular Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti will be released from Israeli prison
• Israel as a settler-colonial project (“If the Jews are indigenous to Palestine, then so are all the Christians and the Muslims in the world.”)
• Plus, what Palestinians really want, models for non-violent decolonization, the fallout from alpha-male politics, fighting Nakba denial, and more.

Will Israel Be Decolonized? (w/ Ilan Pappé)

Ilan Pappé describes what will be the slow and likely grueling process of the decolonialization of Israel. In the end, he hopes, a one state solution can be achieved.

Irish football body overwhelmingly backs call for Israel’s ban from UEFA

Members of Irish football’s governing body have approved a resolution instructing its board to submit a formal motion to UEFA requesting the immediate suspension of Israel from European competitions, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) said.

The resolution passed by the FAI members on Saturday cites violations by Israel’s Football Association of two provisions of UEFA statutes: its failure to implement and enforce an effective antiracism policy and the playing by Israeli clubs in occupied Palestinian territory without the consent of the Palestinian Football Association.

The resolution was backed by 74 votes, with seven opposed and two abstentions, the FAI said in a statement.

On October 2, FIFA President Gianni Infantino brushed aside calls to ban Israel by indirectly addressing it as a “geopolitical issue” at the FIFA Council.

Palestine urges global action after Turkiye issues arrest warrants for Israeli officials

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has welcomed Turkiye issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials, considering the move “a step in the right direction towards achieving justice”.

In a statement on X, the ministry praised the decision issued over crimes committed in Gaza. It called the move “a victory for the principles of justice” and a rejection of “the policy of impunity that some countries have afforded Israel”.

Among 37 people listed are Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and army chief Eyal Zamir, according to a statement from the Istanbul prosecutor’s office.

Palestinian sues EU over dismissal from Gaza border mission

A Palestinian man is taking the European Union to court over his dismissal from a border monitoring job in Gaza, The Guardian reports.

Mohammed Baraka, who worked at the EU’s Rafah border mission for nearly two decades, has filed a discrimination claim in a Belgian court. After the war started, he was relocated to Cairo, where he continued his work, but his employment ended this year after the mission’s closure.

His lawyer argued that his European colleagues were transferred to other posts whilst Baraka was dismissed, constituting discrimination based on nationality.

The case also challenges the EU’s use of rolling one-year contracts, which the suit said breaches a Belgian law requiring permanent status after three consecutive contracts.

“When I was offered evacuation by the EU to a safe place as an EU employee who had served for 20 years, I accepted the offer. But had I known that my fate would be dismissal from my job and being left in a place with no residence or basic human rights, I would have never agreed to it,” Baraka said.

Netanyahu announces ‘national day of appreciation’ for Israeli soldiers

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a national day of appreciation for soldiers serving in the Israeli army as attacks on Palestinians continue in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Speaking at the start of a government meeting, Netanyahu said his cabinet would also approve “additional assistance for career and regular service personnel”, including an economic aid fund, grants, incentives and housing benefits.

More than 880 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023.

Doctor alleges organ harvesting in Palestinian corpses handed over by Israeli forces

A British Palestinian surgeon has told Al Jazeera that photographs he received of Palestinians’ bodies handed over by the Israeli army are “highly indicative of organ harvesting”.

Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah said he was “sent photographs of the bodies that were received by the Ministry of Health from the Israeli army”.

“The bodies show clearly surgically removed lungs, heart, kidneys and liver – done in a professional, surgical way, using sharp bone saws, causing zero damage to surrounding tissues,” he said.

“These bodies also had liquid nitrogen burns on their skin, but no other injuries. It’s unlikely the organs were retrieved post-mortem. All of these bodies belonged to Palestinians whose families said they had been imprisoned alive. So all of this is highly indicative of organ harvesting.”

Abu Sittah said the photographs were taken on October 17, shortly after Israel handed over 120 bodies. His comments support claims by Gaza Government Media Office director, Ismail al-Thawabta, who accused the Israeli army of stealing organs from Palestinian corpses and called for an immediate international investigation.

Israeli government officials have previously admitted that Israel harvested the skin, corneas, heart valves and bones of Palestinians up until the year 2000.


Palestinian describes ‘100 days of torture’ in Israeli detention

A Palestinian photojournalist has described how Israeli guards told prisoners “they had killed our children and our wives” while he was held without charge in an Israeli prison, the AFP news agency is reporting.

Shadi Abu Sidou, 35, said he was arrested in March 2024 while working at the al-Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City and detained under Israel’s “illegal fighters” law, which has allowed hundreds of Palestinians to be imprisoned without trial or access to lawyers.

He said that during detention, he was tortured. Abu Sidou said his “hands were tied and eyes blindfolded from 5am to 11pm” and that he was forbidden to speak throughout his confinement at the Sde Teiman military base, where many Palestinians from Gaza are still held.

Palestinian prisoners report daily abuses in Israel’s Ofer Prison

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs says Palestinian prisoners in the Gilad section of Israel’s Ofer Prison are facing “daily repression” and severe living conditions, the Wafa news agency reports.

A lawyer from the commission said the section houses 100 to 120 prisoners across 12 rooms with about 16 detainees per room. Prisoners suffer from shortages of clothing and hygiene supplies and reportedly bathe in cold water and use dishwashing liquid instead of shampoo.

Food is limited mostly to bread and yogurt with tuna or sausages provided once a week. Many sleep on the floor due to overcrowding and receive only one blanket and towel, which are rarely replaced.

The commission said prisoners face raids and punishments for minor reasons, including standing near windows or praying in groups. Some have been beaten, isolated or subjected to electric shocks, it said.

UN expert accuses Israel of ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza

More than 660,000 children are currently out of school in Gaza, and of its estimated 815 schools, 97 percent have been damaged or destroyed, Farida Shaheed says.

The UN special rapporteur on the right to education described the collapse of Gaza’s education system due to Israel’s war as a “scholasticide”, which is the intentional destruction of educational infrastructure or the targeting of teachers and academics.

Shaheed told Al Jazeera Israel’s actions were “the complete, deliberate and systematic destruction” of Gaza’s education system and it was a form of “intergenerational war”.

Shaheed said reinstating UNRWA, the UN agency established to support Palestinian refugees, which runs a large network of schools, could help increase access to education.

“We also need to listen to what the children and educators are saying in Palestine,” Shaheed added.

UNRWA says operations in Gaza continue despite Israeli ban

Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations at UNRWA, has told Al Jazeera that the body has 12,000 Palestinian staff who “have not stopped working in Gaza – even though Israeli legislation has banned the entry of international staff into Gaza”.

She said international colleagues have been managing the agency’s humanitarian response and services remotely.

The inability to engage directly with the Israeli government has also significantly affected daily logistics and UNRWA’s ability to roll out life-saving support programmes, Alrifai added.

Gaza receives less than a third of aid trucks promised in ceasefire

Gaza is receiving just one-third of the aid trucks agreed under the ceasefire that took effect nearly a month ago, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reports.

Only 4,453 trucks have entered the Strip since the ceasefire began, far short of the 15,600 expected by the end of last week, QNA quoted Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, as saying.

Daily deliveries average 171 trucks instead of the 600 stipulated in the humanitarian protocol, he said, adding that Israel is blocking more than 350 essential food items, including eggs, meat, fish and fresh vegetables while allowing nonessential goods at inflated prices.

Israeli forces carry out demolition operations east of Khan Younis

The Israeli army is carrying out major demolition operations east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, our colleagues on the ground are reporting.

The area has been substantially damaged by Israel’s war on Gaza, with nine in 10 buildings completely or partially destroyed, according to an initial assessment by officials in the territory.

One killed in Israeli drone attack on southern Gaza

One Palestinian has been killed by an Israeli drone attack on a group of people in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis.

Heavy gunfire reported east of Gaza City

Footage shared on Instagram and verified by Al Jazeera shows heavy gunfire in devastated neighbourhoods east of Gaza City.

In the video, sustained bursts of loud gunfire are heard as the camera pans across a landscape of tents and several damaged buildings, while men are heard shouting in the background.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ0n63LjA6h

Israeli shelling reported east of Gaza’s Khan Younis, Jabalia

Our teams on the ground in Gaza are reporting Israeli artillery fire in areas east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and east of Jabalia in the north.

Palestinian wounded in settler attack south of Hebron

The Wafa news agency is reporting, quoting a Palestinian activist, that a Palestinian man was severely beaten in the village of Umm al-Khair by armed settlers under the protection of the Israeli army.

The victim sustained head injuries and bruising and was taken to hospital in moderate condition, the activist said.

Settlers had attacked members of a Palestinian family who confronted them for releasing their livestock near Palestinian homes.

The attack comes just days after the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had recorded the highest monthly number of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank in October, since it began documenting the situation in 2006.

The office said there had been more than 260 settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, resulting in injuries, property damage or both in October – an average of eight per day.

Seven Palestinians wounded in Israeli settler attack in occupied West Bank

A group of about 50 Israeli settlers have attacked a Bedouin community east of Jaba village in the occupied West Bank.

Seven Palestinians were wounded in the attack. The settlers also burned the community’s property, causing significant damage, the Wafa news agency reported.

Settlers raise Israeli flags along road in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers have raised a number of Israeli flags along a road between Nablus and Ramallah amid a wave of attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.


_{A Palestinian man looks at Israeli flags placed over a demolished Palestinian house after an Israeli settler attack near Salfit in the occupied West Bank in May}

Israeli forces expel Palestinian family from home in occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli forces are expelling a Palestinian family from their home in the Silwan district of occupied East Jerusalem, an Al Jazeera team is reporting.

Israeli forces had stormed the Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood of Silwan and surrounded the home. Israeli authorities had previously handed the occupant a court order to evacuate the property, Wafa news agency reported.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian vehicles, destroy olive saplings in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers have attacked vehicles belonging to Palestinians in the village of al-Maniya, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

In separate incidents, settlers harassed Palestinians on their land in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, chasing a shepherd who was grazing livestock, and destroying about 70 olive saplings belonging to another local man, the Wafa news agency reported.

Those incidents follow two separate settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, which we reported on earlier, in which at least eight Palestinians were wounded.

Verified videos show Israeli forces demolishing Palestinian home in West Bank

Al Jazeera has verified two videos circulating on Palestinian media platforms showing Israeli forces demolishing and seizing Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank.

In one clip, filmed in the town of Broqin, west of Salfit, Israeli machinery can be seen demolishing the home of prisoner Maher Zohair.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, troops raided the house accompanied by a military bulldozer before tearing it down, amid a heavy deployment of soldiers in the area.

The second video, filmed in Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, shows Israeli authorities emptying the contents of a Palestinian home in preparation for seizing the property.

The footage shows a Palestinian woman being carried to hospital as soldiers remove furniture and personal belongings.