No letup in Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon

These air strikes on Beirut have been taking place on a nightly basis, especially since the escalation has heated up in the last couple of weeks.

We have seen a few in the past couple of hours hitting Dahiyeh and those southern suburbs of Beirut. We know that there’s an airport just adjacent and there’s one airline still operating: Middle East Airlines.

We’re seeing these flights going through these plumes of smoke. It is also very scary for people living there. On Sunday evening, we saw some of the heaviest bombardment in this area. Late into the evening, there was a massive explosion.

The suburbs have predominantly emptied of people but there will still be a few there. Paramedics cannot get in to see if there are any injuries or fatalities.

Explosion lights up Beirut’s skies after Israeli evacuation order


_{An explosion on Monday, October 7, lights up the sky over Beirut's southern suburbs.}

The skies of Beirut were lit up by an explosion on Monday evening (local time) amid nightly strikes that have targeted the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital city since September 27.

A CNN camera captured the explosion, which lit up the skies for less than a second but cast an orange light from the area that was targeted. CNN staff also heard several strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs during the day.

Approximately half an hour before the explosion was captured by CNN, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), warned residents that the IDF was going to target two areas in the southern suburbs, Burj Al-Barajneh and Hadath, which he said were located near Hezbollah facilities and interests.

In a later statement, the IDF said the Israeli Air Force had conducted strikes on “terror targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters” on Monday night. The IDF said it had also struck alleged Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area on Monday morning, including “weapons storage facilities, terror infrastructure sites, and a launcher.”

Large pro-Palestine protests expected in New York

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of New York today. They’ve been showing up at different parks and locations around the city.

We’re seeing student groups, labour unions, Orthodox Jewish groups and Jewish Voices for Peace, a very young group that has been organising around the cause of Palestinians.

There is a huge police presence behind me as demonstrators are expected to arrive in the coming minutes.

They’ve been marching around the city. We know that in at least 10 universities today, student groups called for walkouts from their classes, and those university students gathered at one park to make their voices heard to call for an end to the genocide in Gaza and the ongoing hostilities in Lebanon.

This movement has been taking place since last year but only seems to be getting bigger, and it certainly has attracted a lot of attention on this momentous day.

US is not currently pushing to revive Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal, officials say

Two weeks after Israel upended a US-led ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah, the US is not actively trying to revive the deal and has resigned itself to trying to shape and limit Israeli operations in Lebanon and against Iran rather than halting hostilities, US officials told CNN.

The US’ inability to halt Israel’s intense bombing campaign and ground invasion of Lebanon, which has killed over 1,400 people in less than three weeks and displaced over 1 million more, has raised questions about whether Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is disregarding the Biden administration’s calls for more restraint like it did in Gaza, leaving the White House again looking feckless.

Concerns within the Biden administration are running high, officials say, that what Israel has promised would be a limited operation will soon grow into a larger-scale and prolonged conflict. US-led efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have also floundered.

As with Gaza, US officials say Israel was initially planning for a much larger ground incursion into Lebanon before the US convinced it to scale back. But they also acknowledge what they have learned over the last year, which is that the US’ influence is limited when it comes to Israel’s military operations.

State Department won't say if US views Israeli airstrikes as in compliance with international law

The United States continues to assess Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon to be “limited,” but a State Department spokesperson Monday would not say whether the US views the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut to also be “limited.”

Matthew Miller argued that the US supports strikes targeting Hezbollah, but expects them to be done “in a way that complies with international humanitarian law and minimizes civilian casualties.”

Similar calls from the US for Israel to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza have not yielded results.

Miller said Monday that he did not have a “sweeping characterization” of the Israeli military’s strikes on the Lebanese capital and would not say if the US assesses them to be in compliance with international humanitarian law. He also would not say if the US is carrying out its own assessments of the matter.

“I can’t give you a readout of what we’re doing with respect to strikes in Lebanon, but we take that obligation incredibly seriously,” he said at a press briefing.

US officials remark on Israel's future 1 year into the war in Gaza


_{White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during event at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC marking the anniversary of October 7}

Israel needs to “turn tactical wins in battle into a strategy that secures Israel’s people and its future,” the White House national security adviser said at an event commemorating one year since the October 7 attacks.

“It takes foresight to match the conduct of war to a clear and sustainable set of objectives, and to turn tactical advantage into enduring, strategic gains,” Jake Sullivan said at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, referring to the war in Gaza. “That is never easy, but it’s imperative, and we are here to work with you on that.”

His forward-looking comments were echoed by State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier Monday. He said at a press briefing that it’s “very difficult to answer” whether Israel is safer in the long-term after one year of the war in Gaza.

“Certainly, Israel is safer when it comes to the immediate threat that Hamas bears to the Israeli people. Hamas can, in no way, today launch an attack with the size, scale and scope of the attack it launched on October 7. So when it comes to dealing with the threat from Hamas, Israel is safer, at least in the short term,” Miller said.

However, “as long as Israel is mired in conflict in Gaza, as long as it is dealing with an unstable situation on its northern border, as long as it is dealing with unrest and insecurity in the West Bank, ultimately, its security is never going to be assured,” he added.

Miller said that there must be a path forward on “governance in Gaza by someone other than Hamas.”

Add occupation, apartheid and illegal settlements to the obstacles standing in the way of Israel's security.

From Bilbao to Baghdad, people show solidarity with Palestine, Lebanon


_{Iraqis participate in a rally in solidarity with Palestine in Baghdad, Iraq, October}

_{People carry signs and flags during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, organised by Palestinarekin Elkartasuna (Solidarity With Palestine), in Bilbao, Spain, October 5}

_{Participants attend the pro-Palestine demonstration in Piazza Castello, in Turin, Italy, October 7}

_{Palestinians living in Greece shout slogans during an antiwar protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Athens, October 7}

_{Turkish riot police block demonstrators as they walk to the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Trade to protest against trade with Israel, in Istanbul, October 7}