Israeli opposition leader pushes for strike on Iran’s energy facilities

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says broad international support is needed before Israel retaliates against Iran for last week’s missile attack.

In remarks quoted by Israeli public radio, he said the US does not want oil and natural gas prices to rise before the presidential election, so it’s against an attack on Iran’s oil facilities.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that Israel has its own interests and perspectives. Immediate retaliation against Iran’s economic infrastructure is crucial after two separate Iranian attacks,” said Lapid.

Iran to Israel: ‘Do not test our will’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned Israel “not to test” Tehran’s resolve amid reports of possible military strikes in retaliation for the barrage of missiles Iran launched last week.

“Our missiles can reach all their targets. We will respond to any attack on our institutions or infrastructure,” Araghchi said during a conference discussing the impact of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

He said Iran will continue to support the Palestinian cause to establish their own state. Addressing the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Araghchi said the “resistance” to Israel is not based on a person.

Emirates cancels its flights to and from Iran

The Emirates, the UAE’s state-owned airline, says flights to and from Iran are cancelled for the day. The airline said it continues to closely monitor the situation in the region and is in contact with the relevant authorities regarding developments.

Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1 after several assassinations targeting its allies – Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel said it will retaliate and is weighing its targets.

Israeli sergeant killed in northern Gaza

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation said the 20-year-old soldier was killed during battle in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday.

According to the Israeli military, 729 soldiers and 67 police officers have been killed since Hamas’s October 7 attacks.


At least 25 Palestinians, including women and children, killed in Gaza

At least 25 people, including six children and two women, were killed in Israeli strikes on central Gaza overnight.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken, provided an updated toll early on Tuesday as more bodies were recovered from the rubble. Two strikes hit houses in the Bureij refugee camp.

The Palestinian death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza is nearing 42,000 with almost 100,000 people wounded over the past year. The vast majority of the dead are children and women.

‘The army is systematically working to empty northern Gaza’

We have been hearing huge explosions since the early hours in the Bureij refugee camp. At least 25 Palestinians have been confirmed killed.

We were in the morgue at Al-Aqsa Hospital and what we saw was devastating. Bodies were lined up on the ground with family members expressing a great deal of grief and agony.

Palestinians continued to live in the Bureij camp – despite Israel ordering them to flee because it would be an “active military zone” – as they had nowhere else to go. And that’s why the Israeli military targeted them.

Meanwhile, in the north of the Gaza Strip, the situation is getting much worse. The Jabalia refugee camp has been under complete siege by the Israeli army for days now. Troops and equipment are destroying roads and splitting the camps and villages from each other.

Residents are fleeing from one neighbourhood to another to find some sort of safety. The army is systematically working to empty northern Gaza.

_{Displaced people arrive in Khan Younis after being ordered to evacuate by Israeli forces}


Qassam Brigades attacks Israeli forces in northern Gaza

The armed wing of Hamas says it detonated an explosive device near an armoured personnel carrier in the west of the besieged Jabalia refugee camp. It also targeted an Israeli Merkava-4 tank with a Shuwath antitank weapon in the camp, it said on Telegram.

The Israeli army recently started a large-scale operation in northern Gaza. It comes after the military said in January that Hamas had been “dismantled” in the enclave’s north.

Israel’s army says it killed 3 who took part in October 7 attack

A military statement says an air strike on September 30 in Tuffah, in northern Gaza City, killed Muhammad Rafai, who participated in the attacks in Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz in Israel.

Another air attack on October 1, in southern Rafah city, killed two others – Muhammad Zenon and Bassel Ahars – who allegedly participated in the October 7 attack, the army said.

A year ago, Hamas-led fighters stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, one-third of whom are believed to be dead.

Lack of food, water, hygiene, safety, medicines has made it impossible for people in #Gaza to access care or remain safe and healthy, especially those with special needs:
💔 24,090 of the injured have life-changing injuries
💔 180 women giving birth every day

And even before the… pic.twitter.com/AgXDH4EADq

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) October 8, 2024

Infrastructure massively destroyed in Gaza after a year of war

One year of war has rendered the Gaza Strip unrecognisable amid relentless Israeli bombardment of the enclave. Israel’s attacks have obliterated the infrastructure needed to provide the basic necessities of life.

Al Jazeera’s Behdad Mahichi takes a look at the trail of destruction the Israeli military has left behind:

Gaza: ‘A stain on the consciousness of humanity’

Chris Gunness, a former spokesman for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, denounced Israel’s continuing “slaughter” in Gaza, and countries around the world for failing to stop it.

“In the last year, we have seen Gaza transform from the world’s largest open-air prison to the world’s largest concentration camp,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.

“Today, Gaza has been transformed into an industrial-scale slaughterhouse. And I use the word ‘slaughter’ advisedly because frankly animals in most abattoirs around the world are killed more humanely than the women and children of Gaza.

“Shame on the UN Security Council, shame on the Israeli leaders who’ve done this, and shame on all of us because what we’ve seen in the last year is a stain on the conscience of humanity.”

Displaced Palestinians in Jabalia targeted by Israeli gunfire

Video obtained by Al Jazeera’s team on the ground in the Gaza Strip shows a group of displaced people in Jabalia, in the north of the territory, coming under heavy gunfire by Israeli soldiers.

The video shows the group, which was in the process of evacuating Jabalia towards the western part of Gaza City, running in terror.

The video also shows many wounded. One man was bleeding from the abdomen as people tried to help him walk. Another, a little girl, is shown bleeding from the neck as she is bandaged in the back of an ambulance.

Earlier, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported that the Israeli army is “systematically working to empty northern Gaza”, after placing the Jabalia refugee camp under siege for days.

Medical sources say 43 Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israel today

This includes a rise in the death toll from Israel’s earlier attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Strip, which now stands at seven, medical sources told our team.

The Israeli army has placed Jabalia under siege for the last several days, in tandem with stepping up its attacks on North Gaza to a level not seen in months, according to our team on the ground.

Qassam Brigades claims killing of Israeli troops in northwest Gaza

The armed wing of Hamas has said its fighters killed in close combat a soldier in the Gaza Strip’s at-Twam area. The Israeli forces who came to rescue the soldier were subsequently targeted with an antipersonnel bomb, it said on Telegram.

The group added more soldiers were killed and wounded in the bomb attack, without giving any numbers.

Attacks on UNRWA primarily politically motivated: Lazzarini

We have spoken to Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UNRWA, about the work of the agency for Palestinian refugees. His comments below have been lightly edited for flow and brevity.

Al Jazeera: How would you describe the difference between the UNRWA as it is now and what the agency was like before the war on Gaza began

Philippe Lazzarini: UNRWA before the war was an agency which was investing in the human development of the Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA was a real lifeline of the Palestinian refugees in Gaza. We had about 300,000 girls and boys in our schools, we were providing education at the primary and secondary level, we had vocational training, we were offering job opportunities to a number of Palestinians – basically the agency was a glimpse of hope for the Palestinians.

Today, we are in a lifesaving mode, we are trying to adapt to this catastrophe.

Gaza has been flattened down into a rubble. It has basically been the war of all the extremes, with the number of people who have been killed and injured. It has been a war on children, Gaza has become a graveyard, in fact, for the Palestinians in general.

Today people have nothing else than to struggle daily to stay alive – they struggle against diseases and they struggle to find some food.

Al Jazeera: Israel has made allegations against some UNRWA staff and the agency itself. What kind of impact has that had on the organisation’s worldwide image?

Lazzarini: It has a huge reputational impact but fortunately the agency has taken bold measures from day one. An investigation has taken place and has concluded. We also had a review of all our internal management systems, which concluded that we are more robust than any other agency in the region.

Basically it shows that the agency is capable to deal with neutrality issues; that, in reality, the attacks on the agency are primarily politically motivated.

Al Jazeera: How much of an impact have these allegations had in terms of the money that the UNRWA needs to raise in order to be able to operate? Is there a change in the willingness of countries around the world to supply money?

Lazzarini: There is definitely a change, donors need to be constantly reassured.

I think the seriousness of UNRWA to implement the recommendations of the review by Catherine Colonna, the former minister of foreign affairs of France, has also helped donors to reinforce their confidence in the agency.

Today, there is only one country which has suspended and frozen its contribution to the agency.

Al Jazeera: More than 220 UN aid workers have been killed since the start of the war. UNRWA of course relies heavily on local staff with local knowledge and local sources to be able to operate. How difficult is it, given the circumstances that UNRWA has found itself not just in Gaza, but also in the occupied West Bank and now in Lebanon, to recruit people with that very vital local knowledge?

Lazzarini: Sadly, the number of our staff killed today stands at 226. There is no day without an increase of staff being killed and this is the sad reality.

It is also true that our staff share the same daily life and destiny with the rest of the population.

One of the strengths of the organisation is that our staff come from the community we are assisting and protecting.

This is one of the reasons why, despite the extraordinarily dangerous environment, despite the fact that staff premises and operations have been targeted, we are still able to continue to provide lifesaving assistance to the community.

Al Jazeera: Israel seems determined to either sideline UNRWA or have it shut down altogether. If UNRWA didn’t exist, what effect would that have on the lives of Palestinians not only in Gaza but in other parts of the region as well?

Lazzarini: It would be a total disaster. It would first mean the sacrifice of one million children below the age of 18 in the Gaza Strip, denying them education in the future and this would certainly sow the seeds for more resentment and extremism.

But politically, if Israel got rid of an organisation like ours in this region, that would mean that any other country anywhere else in the world could do the same with a UN agency.

And I believe this would open a Pandora’s box. It’s very dangerous and it would further weaken our common, I would say, multilateral instrument that we inherited after World War II.

‘Very hard not to conclude’ Israel deliberately killing Gaza journalists

At least 175 media workers have been killed in Gaza in the past year – a figure described as an “absolutely shocking level of loss of life” by Tim Dawson of the International Federation of Journalists.

“The toll paid by journalists in Gaza is something the world has no prior experience of. Well over 10 percent of journalists in Gaza have lost their lives since this conflict began,” Dawson told Al Jazeera.

In past conflict zones, the average death rate for infantry soldiers was 5 percent, he noted, adding the figure for US Marines killed in Vietnam was less than 5 percent.

In Israel’s killing of Gaza’s media workers it’s “very hard not to conclude” these were deliberate actions, said Dawson.

“What is most important now is for the International Criminal Court to intensify its investigation … What we need is judicial review of the evidence and a holding to account, where necessary, of those who perpetrated war crimes.”

Israeli forces arrest 30 Palestinians in occupied West Bank

The detentions that took place overnight and in the morning included former prisoners, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

Twenty-three people were arrested in the Hebron governorate, while the rest were distributed among Nablus, Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem, the groups said in a statement.

More than 11,200 Palestinians have been arrested in Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank since last October, they added.

Israel’s war on the occupied West Bank since October 7 attacks

It isn’t just Gaza where Palestinians have been under Israeli attack since October 7, 2023 – analysts say Israel is annexing the West Bank.

Just last week, Israel conducted its largest air strike on the West Bank in decades, killing at least 18 people in Tulkarem.

US Senator Graham urges Israel-Saudi normalisation before year ends

Republican Lindsey Graham has called for Saudi Arabia and Israel to establish diplomatic ties by the end of the year, warning that the next US administration is unlikely to be able to secure enough votes to support the deal.

The Biden administration is seeking to broker a normalisation accord between the two countries that would include US security guarantees for the Gulf state, among other bilateral deals between Washington and Riyadh.

“We can get you a treaty through the Senate between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a defence agreement like you have in Japan and Australia, if you do it on President Biden’s watch,” Graham, who is seen as close to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, told reporters in the West Jerusalem.

“The next president will have a very difficult time getting 67 votes,” he said in reference to the two-thirds majority needed in the US Senate for approving a defence treaty.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s term will end on January 20, 2025.

Saudi-Arabia has tied normalization to the creation of a Palestinian state and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The population was always against the Abraham accords, sidelining the Palestine issue.


US NGO to Biden: Support Gaza ceasefire, end participation in regional war

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a nonprofit organisation based in Washington, DC, has urged President Biden’s administration to stop hindering a United Nations Security Council resolution mandating a ceasefire in the yearlong war on Gaza.

In a statement, Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director, said the Biden administration’s policies have not only failed to secure a ceasefire to protect civilians but have aided and abetted “Israel’s belligerence such that we now face the likely prospect of Israel dragging us into a war with Iran.”

The group said that the US should end its support for Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza by suspending arms transfers to Israel and ending combat operations that “have made the US a party to Israel’s conflict, inviting retaliatory attacks on US forces and risking an even broader regional war with Iran.”

“The only way to prevent a full-scale war in the region is declaring an immediate arms embargo on Israel and imposing a ceasefire in Gaza, with sanctions for non-compliance,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director. “Without a ceasefire in Gaza, there won’t be a de-escalation with Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, or Iran.”

Israeli army bombs close to Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital

Video posted on Instagram by a Palestinian journalist from the grounds of the medical centre in northern Gaza shows smoke rising in the near distance. We do not currently have casualty information on this strike, but we will update you as events develop.

Israel launched a large ground offensive on Jabalia refugee camp, where the hospital is located, two days ago.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DA3MNEPtG_3

In northern Gaza, ‘any source of life is being wiped out’


_{Palestinians walk past a house hit in an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Bureij refugee camp, Tuesday}

Nuseirat refugee camp, Bureij refugee camp and Jabalia refugee camp have all been under fire.

In the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli artillery shelling struck one of the bakeries in Jabalia, sparking a fire. The Civil Defence team told us that they are trying to contain it.

Israeli forces also targeted three schools after warning displaced Palestinians to evacuate from there. No people were killed, but there have been reported injuries. Giving Palestinians just a couple of minutes to evacuate under fire is a very terrible experience because people can only run to save their life and don’t have any time to collect any of their belongings. It’s important to also remember that all of these schools have been shelters for thousands of Palestinians across Gaza.

For the third consecutive day, the escalation continues in the north, where a ground invasion is taking place, especially in Beit Lahiya and Jabalia.

Palestinians there say the Israeli forces are wiping everything out: agricultural land, houses, water plants. Any source of life is being wiped from the Israeli forces. They also mention that there have been new evacuation orders by the Israeli army. But the fact is everywhere across the Gaza Strip is being targeted, so where should people go?

So the situation is escalating and not getting calmer despite the fact that we’ve already marked a year of this war.

People are trying to cope, but there are zero resources for them. There’s no education, no health facilities, no place for them to even set up their tents, no food. Sewage is everywhere, and garbage is piled up everywhere. Every single person here in Gaza has been severely impacted by this year of war. Palestinians are feeling trapped and helpless. They say there is no way out of this war, and some are asking if they are going to be facing another year of war.

Aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp

_{A house hit in an Israeli attack on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza}

_{Civil defense teams and residents look for survivors}

_{Medics at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah treat a girl who was wounded in the Israeli attack on Bureij}