WHO says 1,140 attacks on healthcare in Palestinian territory since October 2023

Since October last year, 1,140 attacks on healthcare have been verified in the occupied Palestinian territory – 516 in Gaza and 624 in the occupied West Bank, the World Health Organization says.

In a post on X, the UN agency said: “In emergencies, attacks on health care prevent people from accessing health services when they need them the most.

“Health should be always protected everywhere.”

WHO condemns Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and Lebanon

Regional WHO chief Hanan Balkhy says the targeting of healthcare workers and facilities in the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza and Lebanon “cannot continue to be a defining feature of conflicts”.

Speaking at a news conference in Cairo, Balkhy reiterated the importance of protecting hospitals, clinics and workers in Gaza and Lebanon, saying up to 1,000 healthcare staff have lost their lives in Gaza and 77 in Lebanon in the past year.

“More evacuation orders have been issued in the past few days, and the strength of Gaza’s healthcare workers is dwindling,” she said, adding that Gaza was one of the most dangerous places for the UN to operate.

On Lebanon, Balkhy said there had been dozens of attacks on healthcare facilities there too.

“Basic healthcare infrastructure has been severely impacted with the organisation verifying 36 attacks on healthcare facilities since last October,” she said.

Israeli military says it intercepted two launches from the Gaza Strip

The Israeli military has said it had detected and intercepted two launches crossing the Gaza Strip into its territory.

Its statement came shortly after the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it had launched rockets towards Sderot in southern Israel.

Israeli army tells civilians in north Gaza to evacuate as it blocks exit point

What we are going through right now in Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp is a massacre, as the Israeli army is bombing the Beit Lahiya project relentlessly. Right now, the hospital is receiving casualties from Beit Lahiya.

On the other side here, there are people who escaped from the attacks and arrived at the hospital since they could not find any safe place in the Jabalia refugee camp.

The Israeli army ordered civilians to flee their homes and dropped leaflets on Beit Hanoon and Jabalia refugee camps, telling them to do so. At the same time, the army is blocking the way out. We are all trapped here. We don’t know what will happen in the next hours.

Palestinians evacuating northern Gaza say they are being shot at by Israel's military

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/middleeast/gaza-jabalya-idf-shooting-intl


_{A still from footage by Mohammad Sultan, who said he was fired at while retrieving food, water and blankets.}

Palestinians fleeing sites of Israel’s renewed military operation in northern Gaza are being shot at as they evacuate, according to residents there and footage shared with CNN documenting their journey.

Mohammad Sultan, 28, said he and his family fled their house in Jabalya in northern Gaza “due to the intense and continuous bombardments in the area.” When he went back to retrieve food, water and blankets, he and other civilians were fired at, he said.

“Drones were firing at everyone passing by on the road,” Sultan told CNN. “Three people were shot right in front of me. My brother and I tried to help the injured get to the hospitals, but a little girl was shot in the neck, and her father was also injured.”

The shooting took place at Abu Sharkh roundabout in Jabalya, according to Sultan. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Footage taken by Sultan during his journey shows residents walking along a sandy road, surrounded by rubble and half-destroyed buildings. Some, including children, are on foot, struggling to walk with heavy bags. Others are on bicycles or tuk-tuks.

Drones can be heard buzzing in the background as the bullwhip-like sound of bullets piercing the air trigger screams and attempts to shelter.

Norway hikes threat level to ‘high’ over conflict

Norway’s intelligence agency says it has raised its “terror” threat level to “high”, fearing repercussions in the Scandinavian country from escalating tensions from Israel’s war on Gaza and its conflicts with Lebanon and Iran.

“We are raising the threat level from moderate to high in Norway due to several factors, primarily the current escalation in the Middle East,” Police Security Service spokesman Martin Bernsen told the AFP news agency.

“We have no information about any concrete or realistic plans aimed at carrying out terrorist acts on targets in Norway,” he stressed.

After the announcement, Norway’s police directorate ordered officers, normally unarmed on patrol, to carry their service weapons.

“In Norway, it’s the threat against Jewish and Israeli targets that has increased further,” Bernsen said. “There are several Jewish holidays in October, and some people could take advantage of that to stage an attack.”

In addition to armed patrols, the police said they planned to bolster preventive measures, including boosting their presence at sensitive sites or gatherings and increasing border controls and surveillance.

According to Norwegian authorities, Norway’s Jewish community has about 1,500 members, most of them in the Oslo area.

Israel’s embassies in Denmark and Sweden were targeted last week in separate attacks – in Stockholm with explosions in its vicinity and gunfire in Copenhagen.

Israeli ‘aggression’ against Lebanon ‘against international law’: Qatari official

Qatari Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah bint Rashid Al-Khater says her country stands firmly by Lebanon’s side as Israeli attacks escalate.

Al-Khater made her statement during a visit to the Beirut Governmental Hospital during a trip to Lebanon that included bringing emergency food and medical supplies as part of a joint Qatari-French humanitarian mission.

“There is unity in the Arab ranks and position towards this aggression. This aggression is against all international norms and laws, against international law and international humanitarian law, and against Security Council resolutions,” she said.

Israel says Hezbollah ‘battered and broken’ since Nasrallah’s killing

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said Hezbollah has been “battered and broken” following continuous strikes against the group and the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

During a briefing with the army’s northern command, Gallant said Hezbollah “is a battered and broken organisation, without significant command and fire capabilities, with a disintegrated leadership following the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah”.

Earlier today, the military said about 85 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a televised address that the group’s capabilities were intact and its fighters were pushing back Israeli ground incursions, despite the “painful blows” inflicted by Israel in recent weeks.

Hezbollah ‘is back’, according to Qassem

It’s clear that Hezbollah is establishing its line of communication with its supporter base and with the outer world through Naim Qassem, its deputy secretary-general.

He highlighted that there is now a collective leadership, but there’s going to be an election of a new secretary-general. Besides that, he said that all the deputies and all other command positions had been elevated in the place of the original commanders.

So he’s trying to say in one way or another that the party now is back – the structure is back intact, and everything is going to be moving as per the plans.

With respect to the war, with respect to the attacks in the south, he highlighted the idea of resisting the ground operation, but he didn’t mention much on how Hezbollah is going to continue this war. It was clear that he sees it as a long war.

With respect to the political side, he says that the party delegates completely to Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri to be the negotiator on their behalf with the international community.

He showed openness to a ceasefire. There are many things that are linked to the ceasefire, including what’s going to happen in Gaza. And this is what Nasrallah, when he was alive, was always stressing on.

‘If the enemy continues its war, the battlefield will decide’: Hezbollah

The Lebanese armed group’s deputy leader Naim Qassem says he supports attempts by Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a halt to fighting with Israel.

It wasn’t clear whether this signalled any change in stance after a year in which Hezbollah said it’s fighting in support of Palestinians in war-battered Gaza and won’t stop without a truce there.

“In any case, after the issue of a ceasefire takes shape, and once diplomacy can achieve it, all of the other details can be discussed and decisions can be taken,” Qassem said. “If the enemy [Israel] continues its war, then the battlefield will decide.”

His 30-minute televised address earlier came 11 days after the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the most devastating blow Israel has dealt its foe in decades. Another senior Hezbollah figure, Hashem Safieddine, seen as a likely successor to Nasrallah, has not been heard from publicly since an Israeli air strike late last week.


_{Lebanon’s Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem}

Israel has killed Nasrallah’s ‘replacement’, says Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has published a video addressed to Lebanese citizens claiming Israel has killed former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s “replacement and the replacement of his replacement”.

“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years. Now, you, the Lebanese people, you stand at a significant crossroads. It is your choice. You can take back your country, you can return it to a path of peace and prosperity,” Netanyahu said.

He added that if Lebanese citizens do not reclaim their country, Hezbollah will “continue to fight Israel from densely populated areas at your expense”.

“You have an opportunity that hasn’t existed in decades…You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to the destruction and suffering that we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli army previously confirmed that it had targeted top Hezbollah commander Hashem Safieddine, who was the rumoured successor to Nasrallah, in an airstrike on Beirut last week, but his fate is so far unknown.

Erm he's right there, deputy leader Qassem. Assassinations don't work, there's always a new replacement.

Hezbollah says it repels Israel soldiers who ‘infiltrated’ near UNIFIL post

Hezbollah says it has forced Israeli forces to retreat after they crossed into Lebanon near a UN peacekeeping post following Israel’s announcement last week that it was conducting ground incursions.

Hezbollah fighters fired at “an Israeli enemy force that infiltrated from behind the international forces’ position in Labboune”, a border village, the group said, adding that it “forced the infiltrating enemy force to withdraw behind the border strip”.

 
Three people killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon’s Aitit: Report

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports three people have been killed when Israeli warplanes hit the town of Aitit in southern Lebanon, adding that local Civil Defence crews were able to retrieve the bodies.

This follows reports of two other Israeli strikes on the town of Saksakiyah in the Sidon District and on a house in Joya in the Tyre area.

Casualty information for these strikes was not immediately available.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry updates death toll from Israeli attacks

At least 1,473 people have died in Lebanon since mid-September, when the Israeli army dramatically escalated its attacks, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry.

As of October 8, 2023, at least 2,083 people have been killed, including 127 children and 261 women, and 9,869 have been wounded since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire across the border one year ago today.

The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count of those killed.

Israel tightens restrictions on Haifa area

Israel’s Home Front Command has tightened restrictions on civilians in the Haifa area in the wake of a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon.

“The activity scale will be changed from partial activity to limited activity, meaning educational activities are prohibited,” the military said, adding that the rest of the country’s guidelines remain unchanged.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah launched what is being called its biggest rocket attack yet on the Haifa area with more than 85 projectiles launched, according to the Israeli army.

The attack coincided with the end of senior Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem’s speech today, in which he promised further attacks on Israel.

UN secretary general addresses ‘nightmare’ in Gaza

“The nightmare in Gaza is now entering an atrocious, abominable second year. This has been a year of crises. Humanitarian crisis. Political crisis. Diplomatic crisis. And a moral crisis,” Antonio Guterres told the UN.


_{United Nations Secretary General António Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting}

Preventing UNRWA would be ‘terrible blow’ to Gaza

Guterres slammed the killing of journalists and aid workers, saying he wrote Netanyahu to “express profound concern” about a draft legislation that could stop UNRWA from working in Gaza.

“The vast majority of those killed were part of the backbone of humanitarian relief operations in Gaza – UNRWA,” he said. “In the midst of all the upheaval, UNRWA – more than ever – is indispensable. UNRWA – more than ever – is irreplaceable.”

“Operationally, the legislation would likely deal a terrible blow to the international humanitarian response in Gaza,” he said.

‘International law is unambiguous’

Guterres says he “strongly condemns” all violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and again called for the release of captives held by Hamas.

“International law is unambiguous: civilians everywhere must be respected and protected – and their essential needs must be met, including through humanitarian assistance,” he said. “No place is safe in Gaza, and no one is safe.”

Guterres says Israeli attacks in Lebanon are threatening region

The UN chief has said that the death toll on Lebanon has already surpassed that of the Israeli war in 2006.

“Attacks, including on civilians, are threatening the entire region. Large-scale Israeli strikes deep into Lebanon, including Beirut have killed more than 2,000 people over the last year, and 1,500 in the past two weeks alone,” Guterres said.

“Lebanese authorities report that over 1 million people have been displaced and 300,000 people have fled into Syria.”

UN chief says suffering worst for ‘civilians caught in the middle’

Guterres says the conflict in the region is “getting worse by the hour” and says that the UN’s warnings about the impact of an escalation continue to come true.

“Every air strike, every missile launch, every rocket fired pushes peace further out of reach and makes the suffering even worse for the millions of civilians caught in the middle,” he said.

“That is why we cannot and will not give up on our calls for an immediate ceasefire both in Gaza and Lebanon, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, and immediate lifesaving aid to all those who desperately need it,” he added before again calling for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.

“All people in the region deserve to live in peace.”

Israeli strike targets residential building in Damascus

An Israeli strike targeted a residential building in the Mezzah suburb west of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria’s state news agency says.

Preliminary reports indicated that the strike resulted in injuries among civilians. Local media said earlier that Syria’s air defences had intercepted “hostile” targets in the vicinity of Damascus.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against targets in Syria for years, but has ramped up such raids since October 7 last year.

Israeli air strike on Damascus kills seven people

At least seven people, including women and children, have been killed by an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood in Damascus, Syrian state TV reported. At least 11 others were also wounded in the attack.

According to the report, the strike caused widespread destruction in the neighbourhood, which was known to be busy at the time of the attack.

Earlier, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported the attack on the area which is home to security headquarters and embassies.

_{A rescue worker checks a damaged building hit by an Israeli strike in a residential building in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday}

No major developments on the Lebanon-Israel border

Israel does seem to be expanding its operations on the ground in Lebanon, but we’re yet to see any major changes along the border. It seems like Hezbollah fighters are continuing to take on Israeli forces.

But we have had some statements from the Israelis, and one is kind of bizarre. What they’ve said is that they’ve located a tunnel that goes from Lebanese territory under the border 32 feet (9.7 metres) into Israeli territory but has no exit, so they’re saying it’s a work in progress.

Now, they’re making a big deal out of this, but it seems like this tunnel was going nowhere. But they also claim they’ve killed hundreds of Hezbollah operatives and fighters, destroyed Hezbollah positions and recovered weapons.

A 32 feet tunnel, my yard is bigger than that.

Israeli forces hoist flag on the outskirts of Lebanese border village, video shows

Israeli forces have hoisted Israel’s flag on the ruins of Iran Garden park on the southern outskirts of the Lebanese border village of Maroun Al-Ras, a video circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN shows.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had taken control of a Hezbollah combat compound in the Maroun Al-Ras area. It’s unclear if the Israeli military is still present in the area. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Satellite imagery from October 5 appears to show nearly 30 Israeli military vehicles near the Lebanese border village of Maroun Al-Ras, where Israeli soldiers have been filmed hoisting a flag.

While it is unclear when Israeli forces planted the flag, the satellite imagery shared by Planet Labs appears to show the Israeli military vehicles behind berms that surround a base belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The base is less than half a mile southeast of Iran Garden park, where the Israeli flag was hoisted.

On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that the “Israeli tanks and other armed elements” had since left the area surrounding the UNIFIL base. “I strongly appeal — strongly appeal — to both parties to fully respect the safety and security of UNIFIL,” Guterres said.

CNN analysis of the same imagery indicates that Iran Garden was heavily damaged on October 5.

Less than 1000 meters into Lebanon, PR shot

New Israeli air strikes hit Bekaa valley

Our colleagues on the ground are reporting a massive air strike on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in the last 30 minutes. They have also added that at least four strikes took place on Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut.

US spokesperson says Hezbollah’s ceasefire call shows it is on the ‘back foot’

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Hezbollah’s call for a ceasefire shows it’s on the “back foot”. Miller added that the US was speaking to “a number of different players inside Lebanon”.

Earlier, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said the group’s fighting capabilities were intact and were pushing back Israel’s ground incursions despite “painful blows” by Israel. Qassem added that Hezbollah would continue fighting until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

US State Department spokesperson claims Hezbollah ‘refused’ ceasefire

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller claims that Hezbollah previously “refused” a ceasefire and now that it was “getting battered, suddenly they’ve changed their tune and want a ceasefire”.

Hezbollah has consistently said they'll cease fire when a Gaza ceasefire is reached. It's still the same, Gaza is still tied to this ceasefire call. But Miller has to pretend military force is successful. I guess it can be eventually when there's no one left alive in the region...


Hezbollah says its rockets can reach anywhere in Israel

The Lebanese group stresses that its command and control structure has recovered fully and is now “stronger” than before. In a statement attributed to its military operation room, Hezbollah said its rockets are ready to be fired anywhere in Israel.

Hezbollah also threatened to put Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, under relentless rocket attack.

“The Israeli enemy’s aggression against our honourable people across all areas of Lebanon will make Haifa and places other than Haifa the same as Kiryat Shmona and Metula for our rockets,” the group said in a statement.

Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets towards Haifa earlier in the day, many of which fell in the city, evading Israel’s missile defences. A barrage of rockets earlier this week injured 10 people in Haifa.

Israeli army spokesperson says fate of Hezbollah’s Safieddine unknown

Israeli spokesperson Daniel Hagari says the military is still looking into whether top Hezbollah commander Hashem Safieddine was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beirut last week, Times of Israel reported.

During a news conference, Hagari said the army hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and that they knew Safieddine was inside the building. “The results of this strike are still being looked into. Hezbollah is trying to hide the details. When we know, we will update the public,” he said.

Hagari’s comments come after Netanyahu said earlier that the army had killed the Hezbollah leader Nasrallah’s projected successor, who is widely tipped to be Safieddine.