Family forcibly displaced 14 times during war on Gaza

Palestinian woman Sabreen Lushan knows all about the anguish of forced displacement in Gaza. Now sheltering in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, she and her family have been forced to move 14 times in a year of Israel’s war on the besieged enclave.

Infant among 4 killed in Israeli attack on shelter

Israel has bombed a clinic in Gaza that was being used as a shelter. At least four people have been killed and many others wounded.

“This morning, while I was doing my lessons, the building was hit with a missile. I started screaming and crying. I ran down to see all those children killed,” a Palestinian girl who survived the attack told Al Jazeera.

A man who was also present at the time of the attack said: “We were sitting peacefully and all of a sudden, there was a huge explosion.

“A missile was fired on us, right through the top of the building. A months-old baby girl was blown to pieces in the upper floors. Down here, many innocent civilians were killed. There are no resistance fighters or militants here. This is a war crime.”

Several people killed by Israeli attack in Jabalia

The Israeli military has shelled homes in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, killing several people and injuring others, our colleagues on the ground are reporting.

Attacks, detentions and demolitions at record highs in West Bank

Israel’s war on Gaza emboldens settler attacks in West Bank

There has been a massive increase in settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since last October, when Israel’s war on Gaza started, according to Yara Hawari of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

“Every day, there are several settler attacks, which have resulted in dozens of Palestinians being killed, hundreds of injuries and destruction of properties,” she said. “This is emboldened by the genocide in Gaza, where we have seen the Israeli regime commit horrific acts of violence.

“Obviously, they have not faced any kind of consequences for that. Worse than that, the Israeli government also actively encouraged them [settlers] more than ever before for them to attack Palestinians,” Hawari said.

She reminded that the Israeli government distributed hundreds of firearms to Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

‘Feels like Israel is going to war with the UN’

UN forces are once again in the firing line and this is being taken very seriously. The UN has sent letters to the Israeli government, saying Israel knows it is a peacekeeping mission and knows its location.

This is the fourth attack in as many days. You can attribute one attack to the fog of war, but four attacks amount to deliberate targeting, according to the people we’ve been talking to.

UNIFIL have an observation tower in this area. One of the reasons for that mission is observation and looking for infractions across the border. They coordinate with Israel and Lebanon, they know where they are and they’re not trying to hide.

So now people are wondering what Israel’s position towards the UN is because this is not happening only here. UNRWA is also under threat. Israel is trying to designate it as a terrorist organisation and trying to turn its headquarters into housing for settlers.

One person from the UN I spoke to said this feels like Israel is going to war with the UN.

Israel’s plans to ban UNRWA ‘unacceptable’: WHO director-general

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who heads the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), has criticised Israel’s plans to ban The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied West Bank and Gaza in a post on X.

UNRWA supports some 6 million Palestinian refugees who live within and outside Palestine, providing direct services, such as schools, primary health centres and other social services.

“UNRWA was established by the countries of the world – the UN members – to ensure health and well-being of Palestinians and it has done so for over 70 years” Tedros said.

Peacekeepers wounded, Israeli tanks ‘moved in proximity of UN position’: UNIFIL

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirms in a statement that its headquarters in southern Lebanon’s Naqoura has been hit by explosions for the second time in 48 hours.

“Two peacekeepers were injured after two explosions occurred close to an observation tower. One injured peacekeeper was taken to a hospital in Tyre, while the second is being treated in Naqoura,” it said.

The statement added that multiple walls of the UN position came down after an Israeli military bulldozer hit its perimeter and tanks “moved in the proximity of the UN position”, but the UN peacekeepers remained in position and called in reinforcements.

“Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and Security Council resolution 1701 (2006),” it said, adding that peacekeepers are at serious risk.

France summons Israeli envoy over attack on Lebanon UN peacekeepers

France says it summoned the Israeli ambassador after UN peacekeepers in Lebanon said Israeli fire on their headquarters wounded two staff.

“These attacks constitute serious violations of international law and must cease immediately. The Israeli authorities must explain themselves,” the French Foreign Ministry said. “France is therefore summoning, today the Israeli ambassador to France.”

Israel says UN peacekeepers ‘inadvertently hurt’ during its attack

The Israeli military says it was “conducting a thorough review” to determine details of attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, after mission members were injured on consecutive days.

The military said it was notified “that two UN peacekeepers were inadvertently hurt during [Israeli military] combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The [Israeli military] expresses deep concern over incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to determine the details,” the army said in a statement.

US defense secretary urges Israel to protect UNIFIL

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has urged his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant to ensure the safety of UNIFIL forces and to coordinate efforts to “pivot from military operations to a diplomatic pathway as soon as possible”.

His comment came after Israeli forces hit UN bases in the south of Lebanon for two consecutive days, wounding at least two soldiers. UNIFIL peacekeeping forces have been stationed there since 2006 to secure stability in the troubled region following a 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel.

France, Italy, Spain ‘outraged’ by Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

France, Italy and Spain have condemned in a joint statement the recent targeting of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, by the Israel army. The statement said such attacks are “unjustifiable” and should “immediately come to an end”.

“We express our outrage after several peacekeepers were injured in Naqoura. These attacks constitute serious violation of the obligations of Israel under UNSCR [United Nations Security Council Resolution] 1701 and under humanitarian international law,” the statement said.

“We recall that all peacekeepers must be protected and reiterate our praise for the continued and indispensable commitment of UNIFIL troops/personnel in this very challenging context,” it added as it called for “an immediate ceasefire”.

Israeli attacks on UNIFIL positions in the past two days have wounded four peacekeepers.

Biden says ‘absolutely’ asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers

US President Joe Biden says he “absolutely, positively” is asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon after question by a reporter at the White House. His comments follow incidents in which Blue Helmets were wounded, drawing condemnation of Israel from the UN chief and its Western allies.

Biden’s administration has often claimed that they are pressuring the Israeli government to alter aspects of its military operations since its war on Gaza began.

However, Israel has often continued to operate seemingly without consequence, with the US having provided so-far-unconditional military and diplomatic support for its war.

Asking and urging isn't worth shit with Netanyahu. Biden is just virtue signalling, he knows damn well Netanyahu isn't listening.

The morning after Israel’s deadly attack on central Beirut

_{Members of the Lebanese Civil Defense battle a fire at the site of an Israeli attack on Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood on Friday}

_{At least 22 people were killed in Israeli attacks on a densely populated area of central Beirut on Thursday}

_{Lebanese women pass near destroyed cars at the site of Thursday’s Israeli air strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, October 11}

_{Kamal Khatib, a volunteer with the Animals Lebanon rescue group, kisses kittens after rescuing them from the debris of destroyed buildings at the site of Thursday’s Israeli air strike}

How Israel is replaying its Gaza doctrine in Lebanon

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/10/11/israel-wages-war-on-lebanon-with-its-tactics-from-gaza

A year ago, Israeli ministers supported PM Netanyahu’s ostensible war aim to “eradicate” Hamas in Gaza, after the Palestinian group led an attack on southern Israel.

Under that pretext, Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, uprooted nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people, destroyed all civilian infrastructure and generated conditions for mass famine.

Since stepping up its war against Lebanon in late September, Israel is now deploying similar tactics in southern Lebanon, according to civilians, analysts and rights groups.

_{A man carries a damaged bicycle at the site of an Israeli air attack in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, on September 26}

Israel used US-made munition in Beirut deadly strike: Report

A US-made munition was used in an Israeli air strike in a highly densely populated area in Beirut on Thursday which killed at least 22 people, UK newspaper The Guardian has found. The strike in Beirut was the single deadliest attack on the capital since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire more than a year ago.

The newspaper found remnants of a US-manufactured joint direct attack munition (JDAM) amid the debris of a building that was reduced to rubble.

According to the report, “JDAMS are guidance kits built by the US aerospace company Boeing that attach to large ‘dumb bombs’ ranging up to 2,000lbs (900kg), converting them into GPS-guided bombs”.

Richard Weir, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch’s conflict and arms division and a former US military bomb technician, verified the weapons remnant.

“The bolt pattern, its position and the shape of the remnant are consistent with the tail fin of a US-made, JDAM, guidance kit for Mk80 series air-dropped munitions,” Weir was quoted as saying in the report.

100 rockets fired at northern Israel from Lebanon in a single hour: Israeli military

In its latest update, the Israeli military says a wave of 80 rockets was fired from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted. “Fallen projectiles were identified”, the update adds, implying some rockets slipped past Israeli air defences.

The second wave included 20 rockets of which “some of the projectiles were intercepted” the military said.

It said its air force fired at Hezbollah launchers, which had been used to fire rockets at northern Israel. We do not have information on whether casualties resulted from these rocket attacks at this time.

Hezbollah clams flurry of attacks on Israel

As we just reported, the Israeli army said it detected 100 projectiles fired from Lebanon towards Israeli territory in the last hour.

On its official Telegram channel, Hezbollah has claimed to have carried out a number of rocket and missile attacks, also in the last hour. It said that it targeted gatherings of “enemy soldiers” in the Israeli towns of Kiryat Shmona and Kfar Yuval with salvoes of rockets, and bombed the city of Safed with “a large missile salvo”.

Hezbollah also says it attacked soldiers near an Israeli army barracks in the occupied Golan Heights with a rocket salvo.

Lebanese rescue teams search for three people missing from Thursday strikes

The Lebanese Civil Defence has resumed a search and rescue operation in central Beirut to find three people believed to be under the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike on Thursday.

The rescue team was informed by the Health Ministry that the missing persons were not found in hospitals, suggesting they were still under the debris.

The Lebanese capital has been hit by near-daily air raids by Israel in the past weeks. While most strikes have hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, some of them have hit central neighbourhoods such as two strikes on Thursday which killed at least 22 people.

Since Israel has expanded its military focus from fighting in Gaza to bombing Lebanon about three weeks ago, more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 1 million have been displaced.

Israeli forces hit south, east Lebanon

As we have been reporting throughout the day, Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire. A new wave of Israeli attacks this afternoon hit several locations in southern and eastern Lebanon. Here is a list of targeted locations created by our team on the ground.

Translation: This is a psychedelic video. Direct damage to a building in Herzliya, power outages in the area. No casualties are known

Berlin demands clarification as Israel kills six in Germany-supported centre

At least six people were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Dar-es-Salaam meeting centre in Lebanon, which is supported by German organisations, Germany’s Foreign Ministry has said.

“We are in contact with the Israeli government and await a full clarification,” it added.

Seven killed in Israeli air strikes in Lebanon

The country’s Health Ministry has issued its latest bulletin:

‘Silence is compliance and approval of what Israel is doing’

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati is saying that Beirut is ready to strengthen the Lebanese army’s position in the southern part of the country.

And he also made a plea to the international community. He said that Israel’s actions should be a wake-up call for everyone within the international community that silence is compliance and approval of what Israel is doing.

This is not the first time we’ve heard these from the caretaker prime minister, really reiterating that the only way forward is for the United Nations Security Council to pressure Israel to return to that Resolution 1701 that came into being in 2006 after the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended.

And that resolution is really the only diplomatic solution on the table at the moment. There is no other way forward.

Hezbollah media chief slams Israeli ‘justifications’ for attacking civilian targets

Hezbollah’s media chief, Mohammed Afif, held a news conference in Beirut, where he railed against Israel for its attacks and criticised local and foreign media that he said are lending credence to the killings.

He confirmed Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, civilians, residential areas, hospitals and medical staff, and slammed the “excuses” and justifications the Israeli military uses to keep hitting them, including saying they contain weapons and explosives.

“Some media outlets, including global international outlets, cannot dare address the Israelis and tell them openly you are killing unarmed, defenceless innocent civilians,” he said.

He said Israeli claims are part of its “psychological warfare” on Hezbollah and the Lebanese people, and also criticised the government for “not even lifting a finger” amid the Israeli attacks.

“The Israeli army continues to bombard residential areas and kill civilians, under the false pretext that these are weapons depots. The Israelis are even targeting Dahiyeh with bombs saying there are weapons there. Above all, they impede and deny the civil defence and paramedics access to the areas.”

Hezbollah denies report about a ‘new military command’

Hezbollah has rejected a report by the Reuters news agency that cites an unnamed field commander and another source close to the group as saying a new centralised command structure is allowing the group to carry out attacks against Israel despite the killing of its top leaders.

“This report is nothing more than the imagination of Reuters writers, journalists and security consultants, and certainly what it attributed to a field commander in Hezbollah is completely false,” the group said in a statement.

“Our policy, as has become known and may be necessary to emphasise again, is that there are no sources in Hezbollah, let alone a field commander, that would provide such dangerous information attributed to him.”

Reuters claimed that the Lebanese group is now firing rockets and fighting according to centrally issued orders, and is planning to wage a war of attrition.

After Blinken call, powerful Lebanese Shia politician says Israel committing ‘crimes’

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri – also head of the Amal Movement, Lebanon’s other major Shia political party aside from Hezbollah – has commented on Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, saying its actions amount to a “crime”.

These comments come a short time after Berri received a call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Here are a few of his other key points:

‘Disappointing’ that Nobel committee ignore Palestine amid genocide

Saul Takahashi, professor of peace studies at Osaka Jogakuin University, said that, while he has nothing negative to say about the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the committee missed an opportunity by snubbing Palestinians.

“In the midst of the genocide in Gaza and the accelerated violence in the West Bank and now what’s happening in Lebanon, a lot of Palestinian organisations and individuals like journalists were in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize, but they were passed over,” the former UN commissioner for human rights in occupied Palestine told Al Jazeera.

“I think this points to how the West has generally treated Palestinians for a long time.”

He said the threat of nuclear annihilations, on which the committee focused this year, is very serious.

“But given what is happening right now in Palestine and the clear double standards and hypocrisy which the international community, and in particular the powerful countries in the West, have been showing in, it would’ve made sense for the committee to make a strong message about the importance of peace and humanitarian work in Gaza right now. It’s disappointing that this didn’t happen.”

The South African anti-apartheid cathedral that’s now a pro-Palestine hub

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/10/11/the-south-african-anti-apartheid-cathedral-now-a-pro-palestine-hub

As Israel’s war on Gaza enters a second year, weekly vigils at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town have been held for more than a year to call for peace.

Every Wednesday, a crowd gathers on the stone steps outside the towering Gothic building, many with placards and Palestinian keffiyehs, as they call for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

_{In September 1989, thousands gathered to protest against apartheid outside St George’s Cathedral, a site of pro-Palestinian solidarity today}

People march in support of Palestinians in Fridays for future demonstration

_{Young protesters march during Fridays for Future demonstration in Milan, Italy on Friday}

_{About 2,000 young people participated in the march that had a ‘Stop genocide. Stop ecocide’ banner opening the event. During the march there were many pro-Palestine and anti-genocide choruses and actions near some city buildings and significant places}

Palestinian prisoners not getting any care: Israeli NGO

Guy Shalev, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, says his NGO, which documents human rights abuses, has been closely following Israeli attacks on Gaza’s health system.

“There are more than 20,000 Palestinians who await medical evacuation in Gaza who can’t be treated there and can’t get out,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that only several hundred have been allowed to leave since May.

In the occupied West Bank, the organisation is working closely with Palestinians to document “settler violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities” while trying to assist prisoners.

“Access is very restricted. For instance, the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] has not had any access to any Israeli prison in the past year, which is a dire violation of prisoners’ human rights and of international law,” he said.

Shalev said the NGO gets information through hundreds of people who are contacted through their lawyers.

“We’re getting a lot of medical requests that we can’t fully address because of the sheer amount and scale of violations,” he said.

“We’re now trying to address the needs of people who weigh just 40kg [88lb] and are in very bad health conditions after long months of not getting proper medical care and nutrition.”

_{This picture shows the Ofer military prison located between Ramallah and Baytunia in the occupied West Bank}

Israeli government ‘not interested’ in a diplomatic solution to the war

Since last year, the Israeli military and particularly the political echelons “have become more promiscuous” with how many human casualties they can tolerate, according to Daniel Seidemann, a specialist on Israeli-Palestinian relations.

“Any military operation requires proportionality. What we witnessed in Gaza and Lebanon and engagement with UNIFIL, it goes well beyond any reasonable interpretation of what proportionality is. These are unnecessary casualties,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that a ceasefire is desperately needed.

“But my government is not interested in a diplomatic solution, my prime minister has a vested interest in prolonging the war.”

Seidmann also said he understands that a number of members of the Israeli Knesset wish to expropriate the land of the UNRWA headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem to build illegal settlements, but no formal measures have been adopted by the government so far.

‘Israeli army is killing for the sake of killing’

We can still hear heavy artillery sounds coming from the eastern and southeastern parts of central Gaza. Overnight, the attacks have all fed into one conclusion: mass killing going on for the sake of killing without a clear objective.

When we look at the deaths arriving at the hospital in Deir el-Balah, it is the same pattern with women and children making up the majority of them. If they are lucky enough, they arrive here in one piece. Most of the deaths that arrive at the hospital are in really bad shape – either in pieces or with torn limbs.

Four people were killed in overnight attacks on the centre of Deir el-Balah – a crowded and busy area during the day and night. These people were inside their home when the attack took place and several injuries were also reported in the attack.

The same thing happened in Maghazi refugee camp – two people from the same family were killed by the Israeli military, including a 13-year-old boy.

Israel says soldier killed in southern Gaza fighting

The Israeli military has confirmed that Staff Sargeant Ittai Fogel of an armoured brigade has been killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.

It did not provide details about how he died. The soldier was from an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank and served as a tank commander in the besieged enclave.

Israeli forces fire tear gas during occupied West Bank raid

Israeli forces fired tear gas at Palestinians during a raid of Beita, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that several Palestinians suffocated after inhaling tear gas”, adding that a Palestinian Medical Relief Society ambulance was targeted “with a tear gas bomb, shattering its windshield”.

Tear gas and bullets were also fired at an anti-settlement march in Beita.