Aid trucks routinely denied access to north by Israel’s army: Doctor

The amount of humanitarian assistance desperately needed has not entered Gaza in required quantities since October 7, 2023, says a British doctor who has volunteered in the Palestinian territory.

“And of course, since then needs have increased exponentially,” James Smith, an emergency doctor who recently returned after working in Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

Smith said he joined several aid and medical convoys that attempted to move from the south of Gaza to the north.

“More often than not, we were denied access by the Israeli military manning the checkpoints. Very few of the UN convoys that attempted to reach the north have reached. This also on occasion meant we could not retrieve injured and sick patients from the north.”

‘Genocide unfolding in northern Gaza in its clearest form’: PA

Israel is pushing Palestinians in northern Gaza to “certain death” in its deadly offensive and siege on the area, the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry says.

“The occupation army is forcing residents of northern Gaza to either flee under bombardment or face killing in what resembles a circle of certain death,” it said in a statement.

“Genocide is unfolding in northern Gaza in its clearest form – in full view of the world – marked by siege, starvation, forced displacement, destruction of buildings, aerial bombardment, targeting of health centres, and mass killings.”

The failure of the international community to stop this “war of extermination has emboldened Israel to continue its deadly campaign”, the ministry added.

Israeli air strike kills aid worker in Gaza: NGO

The aid group Mercy Corps says a member of the organisation, Mahasin Khatee, was killed in an attack on Friday.

“We are grieving and send our deepest condolences to her family … our team in Palestine, and to all those who have lost family members and loved ones to violence over the last year of war and unimaginable suffering in Gaza,” a statement by the NGO said.

In April, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution denouncing attacks on UN staff and aid workers as record numbers have been killed in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

Qassam Brigades claims killing Israeli soldiers in Jabalia

The armed wing of Hamas says its fighters hit two Israeli army personnel carriers with a Shuwath explosive device and a Yassin-105 rocket launcher. The attacks carried out in the east and west of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed and wounded troops, it said.

Israel has been carrying out a huge military incursion in the area, blowing up residential buildings and conducting mass arrests. Both Israel’s army and Palestinian armed groups report heavy clashes.

Statistics bureau says 5 employees killed since October 2023

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) also said its office in the Gaza Strip has been destroyed during Israeli bombardment.

But the PCBS said despite the challenges, it continues to work on gathering information pertaining to the Israeli onslaught on the besieged coastal enclave. According to the organisation, between October 7, 2023 and October 15, 2024:

Leak of classified documents on Israel’s preparations to attack Iran

Officials in the US say they are investigating the leak of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran, the AP reported. The leaked documents, attributed to the US Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, were posted on Telegram on Friday.

Axios news site, which first reported the leak, said the release of the highly sensitive material comes as Israel completes weeks of preparation for a promised attack on Iran following the Iranian missile barrage fired at Israel on October 1.

According to Axios, the documents detail measures taken in recent days at several Israeli airbases, including the transfer of advanced munitions in preparation for a forthcoming Iran attack. The documents also contain reports on detailed preparations by Israel’s drone units for the attack.

The Middle East Spectator Telegram channel, which released the documents, said they were provided by a source in the US intelligence community.

Leak of US intelligence on Israel-Iran under investigation: House speaker

US House Speaker Mike Johnson says there’s an investigation under way into the leak of classified US intelligence documents related to Israel’s preparations to launch an attack on Iran.

Speaking to CNN, Johnson said: “There’s a classified-level briefing … we are following it closely.” He did not provide details on the briefing.

The documents first appeared online Friday via a channel on Telegram, claiming they had been leaked by someone in the US intelligence community, then later the US Defense Department. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis.

Beirut covered in haze after Israeli bombardment


<sub>Israeli air strikes left Beirut’s southern suburbs covered in thick plumes of smoke on Saturday


Israel’s heavy bombardment has destroyed buildings, creating debris and contamination</sub>

The Associated Press news agency reports that early morning air strikes on the Lebanese capital have lit up the sky and smoke is billowing over Beirut city. The strikes follow after Israel carried out at least 10 air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh on Saturday.

No reports have yet emerged of casualties or the extent of the destruction in Dahiyeh, which was reportedly targeted once again this morning.

Israeli army claims killing of Hezbollah commanders

In a statement, the Israeli military says its fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders.

It said the dead included Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group’s southern command, Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who was responsible for strategic weapons development.

It wasn’t clear if the three were killed in what the military said were strikes on Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in southern Beirut or in separate actions. Hezbollah made no immediate comment.

Early on Sunday, two Israeli strikes targeted the Harat Hreik neighbourhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, hitting a residential building near Bahman Hospital, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.

Hezbollah says launched ‘big rocket salvo’ at north Israel base

The Lebanese group says it launched a large barrage of rockets at an Israeli army base near the northern town of Safad.

Hezbollah fighters fired “a big rocket salvo” at the base, the group said, adding the attack was “in defence of Lebanon” and “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks on villages and homes”.

Israel has reported repeated attacks with more than 100 rockets launched from Lebanon since early this morning.

Hezbollah says it attacked Israeli troops in Lebanon border villages

The group says it fired rockets at Israeli troops in two villages inside Lebanese territory near the southern border.

Fighters from the Lebanese group launched “a rocket salvo” at Israeli “enemy forces” on the outskirts of the village of Markaba, as well as on soldiers nearby “west of the village of Odaisseh”.

Hezbollah and Israel have been in intense exchanges of fire nearly three weeks after Israel announced ground incursions into neighbouring Lebanon.

Israel to take legal action against Macron over naval trade show ban

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he ordered legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after France banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming naval trade show.

“[These] are undemocratic steps that are not acceptable between friendly countries and I call on French President Macron to cancel them completely,” he wrote on X in Hebrew.

The decision to bar Israeli firms is the latest incident in a row fuelled by the Macron government’s unease over Israel’s conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

War’s expansion to the north cost Israel $6.7bn since September

Israeli media is reporting that these additional costs have led to an expansion in the country’s annual budget given the lack of funding sources.

The report added that the cost of the ammunition being used in Lebanon is “extremely high”, referring to an unnamed military source who said “a day of fighting in Lebanon costs $134m – a number that is likely to increase”.

The paper also cited an unnamed economic expert as saying that long-term fighting in the north and the south at the same time will have adverse effects on the Israeli economy.

That's almost a billion a week.

Amnesty International urges European countries to halt arms sales to Israel

Amnesty International has expressed concern over continued arms sales by European nations to Israel amid attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, calling for a complete “arms embargo” due to “severe human rights violations”.

“States should unilaterally impose an embargo on Israel that would include not just weapons and systems that are coming from their states, but stopping participation in supply chains into weapon systems that eventually end up in Israel,” Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International arms control policy adviser and human rights researcher, said in an interview with Anadolu news agency.

European countries are part of the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits them from authorising the transfer of arms that could be used in attacks against civilian targets.

Fires break out in northern Israel from Hezbollah rockets

Fires have broken out in Safed in northern Israel after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets from Lebanon. Planes were seen dropping water and responders were extinguishing fires near houses.

Sirens blared in Haifa after projectiles were launched. Israeli media reported that more than 100 rockets were fired from Lebanon to northern Israel on Sunday.

Hezbollah made no immediate comment on the strikes, but said it had fired missiles at Israeli forces in Lebanon and at a base in northern Israel.

Israeli army says 160 rockets launched from Lebanon

The Israeli army says at least 160 rockets were fired throughout the day from Lebanon. The latest volley was fired towards Haifa, in northern Israel. The rockets also hit areas in Safed, Haifa, Acre and Margaliot among other places in the country’s north near the border with Lebanon.

Israeli army destroys southern Lebanon villages, razing homes and mosques

The Israeli army has almost destroyed several villages in southern Lebanon, razing homes and mosques to the ground, local security sources told Germany’s DPA news agency. According to the report, the military blew up the town of Ramyah in the Bint Jbeil district in southern Lebanon.

A few days ago, a photo was shared on social media showing Israeli soldiers posing in front of the village’s community building.

A separate report from Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel was carrying out a large-scale bombing of buildings across the southern Lebanese towns of Odaisseh, Markaba and Rab el-Thalathine.

The reports come as Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told his troops that Israel was not only “defeating the enemy [Hezbollah], but we are destroying them in all the villages along the border, in the places that Hezbollah planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel”.

While Israel claims its stated objective is to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure in southern Lebanon, it has issued a wave of enforced evacuation orders for hundreds of villages in the south, causing mass displacement.

It has also bombed towns in the north of the country, as well as locations that are far from Hezbollah-controlled areas.

Israeli strikes target ‘financial’ arm of Hezbollah in Beirut

At least three branches of al-Qard al-Hassan, which Israel accuses of financing Hezbollah, were hit in the strikes, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The report added that residents of Hermel started evacuating after one of the branches in the area was hit. Another branch was hit in Ghobeiry in the Dahiyeh southern neighbourhood of Beirut, as well as in Hay el-Sellom and Burj al-Barajneh, NNA said.

Israel claimed the purpose of this wave of attacks is to undermine the economic stability of Hezbollah, Israeli Army Radio said.


_{Explosions could be seen near the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport}

Humanitarian teams must be allowed into Jabalia: UN

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says as Jabalia continues to be under Israeli siege, “humanitarian and rescue teams must be allowed access without delay to save lives”.

In a post on X, the UNRWA said: “Ongoing military operations in northern Gaza are putting tens of thousands of people in grave danger and cutting off access to their essentials for survival, including water.”

Earlier, Joyce Msuya, acting humanitarian chief at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said people are still trapped under the rubble after a deadly night of bombardment and first responders are being blocked from reaching them.

UN calls for ‘urgent’ opening of crossing points into north Gaza

The United Nations agency OCHA says it’s unable to run a humanitarian operation at the scale needed with what it called “a few unreliable and poorly accessible crossing points”. “Many routes must open for critical supplies/services. Aid has only been facilitated when it has reached the people who need it, when they need it,” OCHA said.

UN officials have been asking Israeli authorities since Friday “to urgently facilitate our access to North Gaza, to support rescuing dozens trapped under rubble”.

“Every minute counts. Previously, delayed approvals resulted in rescue teams only recovering dead bodies,” OCHA said.

Jabalia |

Israeli soldiers of the 432 battalion share on their private accounts scenes showing them burning Hamed School, Next to Indonesi Hospital in Jabalia RC.

The smoke rising from the school was filmed by Palestinian journalists near the area. pic.twitter.com/gpsZ7yzjWR

— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) October 20, 2024