Israeli bombing leaves devastation in Lebanon’s Nabatieh

_{Volunteers and residents search through the rubble after an Israeli attack on Nabatieh, Lebanon, that killed at least 16 people and injured 52}

_{The strike targeted a local municipal building, with the town’s mayor among those killed}

Lebanese village blown up by Israeli soldiers was home to historic shrine: Report

Mhaibib, A Lebanese village where Israeli soldiers filmed themselves setting off a massive explosion, was home to a 2,100-year-old shrine of significant religious and historic value, the Anadolu news agency reports.

The exact fate of Mhaibib, including the shrine of Benjamin, son of Jacob, was unclear after the explosions, since most residents had already fled following earlier orders to leave from the Israeli army, the village’s leader, or mukhtar, Qassem Ahmed Jaber, told Anadolu.



As we reported earlier, Israeli soldiers filmed themselves smiling and laughing in a video showing the destruction of what appeared to be most, if not all of the historic village.

Rocket sirens blare in Israel overnight

The Times of Israel is reporting that residents were told to take shelter in communities between the Lebanese border and the Nazareth areas of northern Israel as sirens warning of incoming rockets were heard just before 3:30am local time [00:30 GMT].

In a separate incident, sirens sounded in Israel’s Arava region and the southern Negev after midnight local time when a drone was intercepted over the Mediterranean Sea before it crossed into Israeli airspace, the Israeli army said in a post on X.

Israeli soldiers raise flag near Lebanon monument

Israeli soldiers have filmed themselves raising Israel’s national flag in the south Lebanon village of Labbouneh, near a monument marking the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.



A soldier fist-pumps the air and cheers as the flag is raised.

Israeli artillery, air and drone attacks on Lebanon intensify

Intense artillery shelling continued overnight and Israeli air and drone attacks are now ongoing.

In the last 30 to 45 minutes, we’ve heard a barrage of Hezbollah rockets from beyond a nearby ridgeline – at least five of them going into northern Israel. We’ve also seen video of buildings on fire, likely as a result of that rocket barrage.

Hezbollah is saying they hit a gathering of what they call enemy soldiers in the occupied Shebaa Farms area, which is very close to the border. So there is still a lot of escalation.

In the previous 36 hours, Israel said they had struck about 340 Hezbollah targets. That’s likely to go up. We know of at least another 100 that were hit yesterday. So we are looking at about 440 targets within 48 hours.

That is a lot of incoming hits and certainly more than we have seen since September 29, when Israel announced that they were going to make this limited ground offensive into Lebanon.

Rocket barrage fired at Upper Galilee area

A barrage of about 30 rockets has been fired at the Upper Galilee area of northern Israel, according to Israel’s Kan news outlet. Some of the rockets were intercepted while others landed in open areas, according to the report.

Hezbollah has also announced that it targeted a “gathering of Israeli soldiers” in al-Sadana, along the Lebanon-Syria border in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms. It is not known if the two incidents are related.

Israeli army calls on residents to evacuate building in eastern Lebanon

The Israeli army has announced new evacuation orders for Lebanese living in a residential building in the Tamnin area of the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon.

“Urgent warning to the residents of the Bekaa region, specifically those located in the building marked on the map in the Tamnine area,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X. “You are located near facilities and interests that belong to Hezbollah, which will be targeted by the Defense Forces (army) in the near future.”

Israeli air raids hit east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley: Reports

Israeli warplanes have targeted the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon following a warning by Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee for residents to immediately evacuate, accroding to local media reports verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency.

Israeli air strikes reported across eastern and southern Lebanon

Israeli air strikes have been reported in several areas across eastern and southern Lebanon following a series of evacuation calls from the military. In eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, air strikes have been reported in areas of Sarin, Safri and Tamnin.

In southern Lebanon, an Israeli air strike targeted the Al Hawash area near the coastal city of Tyre.

The Israeli army has not commented on the attacks so far.

50 aid trucks fall significantly short of 350 needed per day

Here’s the reality. Over the last 24 hours, about 50 trucks of aid have gone into Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip. But in the letter sent to the Israelis, which was meant to be a private letter, the US said that they’d like to see somewhere in the region of 350 trucks going in a day.

So you can see they are significantly short of the aid that is required. And this is the situation that has been repeated since May when the number of aid trucks went down. In September, there were 300 over the course of the month, and in the first 14 days of October, no aid went into northern Gaza at all.

From the United Nations, we know that somewhere in the region of 2.2 million people are either facing extreme food insecurity or the possibility of famine.

The State Department believes that the letter sent by the two secretaries of state and defence will get the Israelis’ attention to try and address the real critical issue of aid into Gaza. They have been given a deadline of 30 days to do it. The situation has improved in the last 24 hours. They want to see that continue and expand.

Timing of US aid ultimatum to Israel ‘troubling’, says analyst

Israel is likely to increase aid to Gaza “just enough so that they can avoid the kind of disaster that the Biden administration is asking them to avoid”, Joshua Landis, director of Middle East studies at the University of Oklahoma, told Al Jazeera.

The timing of a leaked letter from the Biden administration, giving Israel 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, is “troubling” because it creates a deadline after the US elections, Landis added.

Yet, while Landis noted many US voters are “disconcerted and heartbroken” by the humanitarian situation in Gaza, he said it was unlikely there would be any “major change” in Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s positions before the election, given billionaire donors are “really driving both sides” as “both candidates are scrambling to get donations”.

“If she wins the election, she will be able to deal with Israel in a little tougher manner,” Landis added.

EU criticises US for giving Israel a month to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation

The EU’s foreign policy chief has criticised the United States for allowing Israel an entire month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“The US has been saying to Israel that they have to improve humanitarian support to Gaza, but they gave one month delay,” Josep Borrell told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

“One month delay at the current pace of people being killed. It’s too many people,” Borrell added, calling the situation a “catastrophe”.

US officials told Israel on Wednesday it must take steps in the next month to improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid – the strongest warning since the war began a year ago.

Humanitarian groups have accused Israel of deliberately starving and forcibly displacing Palestinians in northern Gaza.

US will not consider Israel arms embargo, Biden official tells aid groups: Report

The US will not consider imposing an arms embargo on Israel despite its restrictions on aid entering Gaza, the Biden administration’s Middle East aid envoy told humanitarian groups, according to a report by US outlet Politico.

Sources, speaking anonymously due to concerns that their work in Gaza may be hindered for speaking out, said that Lise Grande, Biden’s special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, met with humanitarian groups in Washington in August.

In that meeting, Grande told them Israel is part of a “tight circle of very few allies” to whom Washington would not refuse aid.

On October 13, senior Biden administration officials sent a letter to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warning that Washington’s supply of weapons to Israel was at risk if it did not take significant steps to address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis within 30 days.

It all reads more like a plea from the US not to starve people too much before the elections... All PR, zero humanity.

Gaza has become a ‘wasteland’, UNRWA chief says

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said Gaza has “become a kind of wasteland” that is now “almost unliveable”.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday, Lazzarini also said famine is again possible in Gaza where vast areas have been pulverised by Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory.

“There is a real risk today … that we enter a situation where famine or acute malnutrition is unfortunately again a likelihood,” he said, noting that the upcoming winter and the weakened immune systems of Gaza’s population were a lethal combination.

Regarding aid deliveries, Lazzarini said that “over the last two to three weeks there was no convoy entering into the north except yesterday”.

He also said that with appropriate action, a hunger crisis in Gaza “can be avoided” if convoys and food are allowed to enter the territory, which has been besieged and bombarded by Israeli forces for more than a year.

Palestinians in Gaza face ‘catastrophic’ hunger this winter: UN

Some 345,000 Palestinians in Gaza will face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after a fall in aid deliveries, according to a UN-backed assessment warning of a persistent risk of famine across the Palestinian territory.

This is up from the 133,000 people currently categorised as experiencing “catastrophic food insecurity”, according to a classification compiled by UN agencies and NGOs.

A surge in humanitarian assistance this summer had brought some relief to Gaza Palestinians, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report said, but September saw the lowest volume of commercial and humanitarian supplies entering the enclave since March.

As a result, it projected that the number of people experiencing catastrophic food insecurity – IPC Phase 5 – between November 2024 and April 2025 to reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.

The recent “sharp decline” in aid “will profoundly limit the ability of families to feed themselves and access essential goods and services in the coming months, unless reversed”, the report said.

IPC warns Gaza still at risk of famine: Report

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) finds despite the extreme hunger decline in Gaza in recent months, the enclave is still at risk of famine.

The latest findings on hunger in Gaza found that in over 1.8 million people, about 86 percent of Gaza’s population, people are experiencing food crisis levels of hunger defined as Phase 3 or higher on the IPC’s five-point scale.

Some 133,000 people, about 6 percent of the population, are in Phase 5, the highest level, known as catastrophic hunger.

While the new findings are down from earlier periods of the war, when nearly a third of the population was at Phase 5, the IPC warned that the situation could rapidly deteriorate and expects catastrophic hunger levels to double in the coming months.

The IPC references the slowdown in aid in recent weeks, the incoming cold and rainy winter, and the harsh conditions people face in crowded tent camps as reasons for the worsening hunger levels.

Palestinian groups issue urgent appeal to stop Israel’s ‘Generals’ Plan’ in north Gaza

Three Palestinian human rights organisations have issued an urgent appeal to stop Israel’s “genocidal violence against Palestinians in northern Gaza, specifically in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoon”.

“Israel is directly implementing the so-called “Generals’ Plan”,” in northern Gaza, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights warned in the joint statement.

Palestinians in northern Gaza “are being starved to death as Israel continues to prevent humanitarian aid trucks from reaching these areas”, the groups said.

“Those attempting to flee from the area or move from one place to another to search for ‘safety’ or food are being shot at and killed by Israeli snipers, quadcopters, and drones,” they said.

“The streets are filled with dozens of dead bodies and wounded Palestinians, as medical and civil defence teams are unable to access any of these areas without risking being killed,” they add.

What is the Israeli ‘General’s Plan’ for Gaza?

As we’ve been reporting, Palestinian rights groups and Palestine’s envoy to the UN are warning that Israel’s so-called General’s Plan is already “in motion” in northern Gaza.

The General’s Plan is “aimed at emptying northern Gaza of its residents by laying a full siege, denying the entry of humanitarian aid, forcing Palestinians to leave, and unlawfully declaring whoever remains to be a military target”, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said in a statement on Wednesday.

Israel’s Ynet News reported in April that it had received a copy of the two-phased plan outlining a “full military siege” of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, after giving “an estimated 300,000 civilians” one week to leave. An estimated 400,000 people are trapped in northern Gaza as of October.

According to Ynet, the plan was spearheaded by retired Israeli Major General Giora Eiland and other senior officials on behalf of the Forum of Commanders and Soldiers in the Reserves.

A later version published by the reservist group in September says the plan applies to everything north of the Netzarim Corridor, a four-kilometre-wide (2.5-mile) strip of land occupied by Israeli forces, that has split the Gaza Strip in two.

Members of Netanyahu’s party to speak at conference on settling Gaza

Ten members of Netanyahu’s Likud party are scheduled to speak at “Preparing for settlement in Gaza”, a two-day conference hosted by Nachala, a far-right Israeli settler organisation, next week.

Promotional materials for the event, shared by Nachala on X, also promise “practical preparation workshops for settlement in Gaza” as well as a tour of Nirim, a kibbutz in the northwestern Negev desert, near the Israel-Gaza separation fence.

Nachala hosted another conference earlier this year where Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined crowds dancing and celebrating and a map was displayed showing plans for 15 illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza.


_{Israeli settlers chant and wave an Israeli flag at another conference on settling Gaza hosted by Nachala in January this year}

Israeli lawmaker says ‘Gaza must be annexed’ as settlement conference scheduled

Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of Israel’s Knesset, has shared a post expressing his excitement in advance of a conference on the proposed settlement of Gaza, where he is one of 10 Likud party representatives scheduled to appear.

“We must attach a price tag to the land to anyone who has attacked or will attack the state of Israel,” Milwidsky said in the post on X.

“Therefore, territories from Gaza must be annexed,” he said. “Yes, settlement is the best solution to terrorism and the annexed territories are … worthy of settlement,” he added.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli settler organisation Nachala will host the two-day conference, titled “Preparing for settlement in Gaza” next week.

Israeli settlers’ ambitions for Lebanon and Greater Israel

As Israel expands its incursion into southern Lebanon, the ongoing conflict appears to have emboldened some Israeli settlers’ ambitions to achieve the Zionist “Greater Israel” plan.

That plan envisions Israel claiming all the land between the Euphrates and Nile rivers – territory that is outside Israel’s borders.

Search for survivors trapped under concrete after Gaza City bombing


<sub>Palestinians search under piles of concrete for survivors and bodies after an Israeli attack on the Nassr neighbourhood of Gaza City on Wednesday


We reported earlier that five people were killed in an Israeli bombing of a home in the Nassr neighbourhood, that took place early on Wednesday morning</sub>

People trapped under the rubble send appeals in northern Gaza

The tragedies keep on unfolding across the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Today marks the 13th day of this military siege and people don’t have proper access to any of the necessities to keep them alive.

Let’s start with the many appeals made by people who are trapped under rubble. Many families have been targeted inside their residential homes in a neighbourhood at the entrance to the northern cities in the Gaza Strip.

Many of their homes have been flattened completely while people are inside them, whether it’s the Red Cross or civil defence departments, the paramedics are in touch with people under the rubble.

There is a fear right now that soon their phones will run out of batteries and they won’t be able to send more appeals. It would be very difficult to know if they are going to make it out from under the rubble or not.

Death toll rises in Gaza

At least 42,438 people have been killed and 99,246 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the enclave’s Health Ministry says. Of those, 29 Palestinians were killed and 93 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.

At least 15 people killed in Israeli attack in Jabalia

Israeli strikes have killed at least 15 Palestinians at an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera’s Moath Kahlout, who is at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, reported that the majority of casualties are children and women.