Israel begins strikes on Tyre

Israel began attacks in the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre, witnesses have told Reuters news agency. The National News Agency reported that a drone had targeted Sawt Al Farah Street in Tyre.

Lebanon’s Tyre is being evacuated hours after latest Israeli order

Lebanon’s Tyre is now on the move, people are leaving already. We have a civil defence management person saying “the entire city is being evacuated”. People are taking this seriously. This is only going to add to the pressure on places like Beirut, which doesn’t have any more government shelters. People are sleeping on the streets, on the Corniche along the beach, and living in tents.

This is going to get people very frightened because the fourth largest city in Lebanon is now being emptied within a few hours after the latest evacuation orders.

The evacuation orders are effectively a kill zone. What the Israeli military is saying is that if you remain behind after we give you an order, then you’re pretty much a fair target. People thought inside Tyre city itself they would be relatively safe, but that has now been shattered. Tyre has come under attack before, with an area within it actually being hit with 13 Israeli air strikes just 24 hours ago.

Strike on Tyre ‘seen as an escalation’ of Israeli attacks

We’re beginning to see some very dramatic video of those strikes in the heart of Tyre. We understand at least one air strike so far following evacuation threats made by the Israeli army about an hour ago.

The strike looks absolutely vast – taking out a number of buildings.

The Israelis will say that this is a targeted strike, and they’ve said that in their warnings and their threats, but you can see in these pictures that certainly the level of the damage is extensive, taking out multiple buildings.

Now, this is the first time that the Israeli military has targeted the centre of Tyre. This is Lebanon’s fifth-largest city. Before this crisis began, it had a population of about 200,000 people. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



We can’t confirm exactly how many people are still in the city. It’s being reported that the number could be about 15,000, but we can’t confirm that. But what’s important to recognise is that many people in Tyre have already fled from areas further south as this crisis has escalated. So this strike in Tyre, these threats by the Israeli military, are definitely being seen as an escalation in their attacks on that area.

We’ve already had a strike in the Tyre government at a time when it’s been reported that there was an attack on the city.

The city on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon, the site of the latest expansion of devastating Israeli air attacks on the country, is one of the region’s oldest and historically most significant cities. It has been continuously inhabited for more than 4,000 years, also rising to prominence as a key maritime and trade hub in the Mediterranean under different empires.

_{Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, October 23}

Israeli army says it attacked Hezbollah sites in Tyre

The Israeli army has issued a statement about its attacks on Tyre earlier today, saying it targeted “Hezbollah command and control complexes, including the headquarters of the Southern Front Unit”.

Without providing evidence, it alleged that Hezbollah had used the headquarters to promote the implementation of “terrorist” operations against Israeli citizens and forces.

Aftermath of Israeli strikes in Beirut’s southern suburb of Mreijeh

Man moderately wounded after Hezbollah rockets intercepted over northern Israel

The Israeli military reports that more than 25 rockets were detected crossing into Israeli territory from Lebanon in the past couple of hours. It said most were intercepted, with some landing in northern Israel.

The Magen David Adom emergency response service said a 50-year-old man sustained a head injury after the interceptions. His situation is described as stabilised.

After sirens also sounded in Lower Galilee and other surrounding areas, the Israeli army reported that two more projectiles fired by Hezbollah were intercepted.

Hezbollah has claimed multiple rocket attacks today, with the latest said to have targeted Israeli soldiers in Misgav Am.

Hezbollah launches ‘suicide’ drones at Israeli army base near Haifa

Hezbollah fighters have initiated “an air attack with a swarm of explosives-laden drones” on an Israeli military base south of Haifa.

Israel strikes on Lebanon finance firms ‘illegal’: UN expert

Ben Saul, the United Nations special rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism, says Israel’s bombing of branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial firm in Lebanon this week is a clear violation of international law.

Israeli strikes hit al-Qard al-Hassan branches in Beirut, Nabatieh and Tyre on Monday. The institution offers microcredit in a country where the traditional banking system collapsed five years ago at the start of a crushing economic crisis.

It is sanctioned by the United States, which accuses Hezbollah of using it as a cover to mask the group’s financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.

“International humanitarian law does not permit attacks on the economic or financial infrastructure of an adversary, even if they indirectly sustain its military activities,” Saul said in a statement. “Unlike fighters or weapons, the mere economic activities of an adversary do not effectively contribute to military action.”

Israeli targeting hospitals and Lebanese civilians is a ‘war crime’

The Sahel hospital in Beirut, which the Israeli military bombed on Monday, was not “a legitimate target”, says Omar Nashabe, a criminal justice analyst and a former human rights adviser to the Lebanese government.

The targeting of a hospital with civilians inside is a “war crime”, he told Al Jazeera. “It is the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to look into these crimes and prosecute those who actually commit these crimes,” Nashabe said.

He added Israel is not adhering to the two vital principles of international humanitarian law, “proportionality and precaution” in Lebanon.

“You can see the extent of destruction of villages and towns … This seems to be like mass destruction. That is against the law. In these villages, there are community centres, there are places of worship, there are also healthcare centres that are being destroyed.”

PM Netanyahu says Hezbollah prepared ‘invasion’ of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel uncovered a plot by Hezbollah to attack his country via underground tunnels involving jeeps and missiles.

He told French broadcasters CNews and Europe 1 that had the plan succeeded such an assault would be been more damaging than the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

“A hundred metres [328 feet], two hundred metres [656 feet] from the border we found tunnels, tunnels that were preparing an invasion of Israel – an attack even greater than on October 7,” Netanyahu said. “With jeeps, with motorbikes, with rockets, with missiles. They were planning an invasion.”


Pure propaganda or paranoia, they found one cross border tunnel that was a few meters long...

The military recently said it found one cross-border tunnel that stretched just a few meters into Israel but did not have an opening. Israel also exposed a tunnel shaft that was located about 100 meters (yards) from a U.N. peacekeepers ' post, although it wasn't clear what the precise purpose of that tunnel was.


Besides that 10 days ago Israel claimed Hamas had asked Iran and Hezbollah to join the Oct 7 plan...
https://www.timesofisrael.com/reports-hamas-delayed-oct-7-attack-to-enlist-iran-hezbollah-plotted-9-11-style-bombing/

Israel can't even keep its lies straight.

Air strikes target southern Beirut

Beirut under heavy attack by Israeli air force

Lebanese state media say four “violent” Israeli strikes launched by warplanes destroyed a residential complex near Beirut’s southern suburb of al-Laylaki.

Lebanese state media reported at least 10 Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs after the Israeli army issued an “evacuation” warning for the area. “The total number of raids launched by the enemy’s air force on the southern suburb this evening has reached 10 so far,” the official National News Agency reported.

Footage showed a massive explosion followed by smaller blasts in the area.

_{Smoke over Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli strikes on Wednesday}


Israeli strike hits Al Mayadeen TV office in Beirut

Israel’s military carried out an air strike on an office belonging to a Beirut-based TV station. Pan-Arab TV channel Al Mayadeen, which is politically allied with Hezbollah, said its office in the area between Jnah and Ouzai on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs was hit.

“Al Mayadeen holds the Israeli occupation accountable for the attack on a known media office for a known media outlet,” Al Mayadeen TV said. It added the office had been evacuated. The Israeli army did not issue a warning before the strike.

On November 21, 2023, an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed two Al Mayadeen journalists who were reporting on military activity along the border with Israel.

This is one of the most intense evenings in Beirut

What we know so far is that Israel carried out at least 11 air strikes in the past hour on various areas in the southern suburb and its nearby neighbourhoods.

What is clear is this is one of the most intense evenings we’ve seen in the southern part of Lebanon’s capital in recent weeks. What we had heard from the Israeli military earlier was a forced evacuation threat issued for four buildings in Dahiyeh before the strikes happened. But before that, several strikes, at least three, took place without warning.

We must remember that Dahiyeh was once home to about 700,000 people. It is a very densely populated area in the southern part of the capital. Now, many people have left their homes, but I have spoken to some who said they hoped there would have been something to return to. But they’ve seen these images and the different neighbourhoods coming under attack yet again, and now there is very little hope.

At least 1 killed, 5 wounded in strikes on south Beirut

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic now report there have been 15 Israeli strikes in southern Beirut in the past hour.

Sirens sound across Tel Aviv as Hezbollah fires projectiles

Air raid sirens echoed across Tel Aviv as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to end a visit to Israel.

Smoke, apparently from an intercepted projectile, could be seen in the sky above the hotel where Blinken is staying. Hezbollah said in a statement its missiles hit a military factory in the Tel Aviv suburbs. There was no immediate confirmation by Israel.

Near-daily rocket barrages have emptied communities across northern Israel, displacing some 60,000 people. In recent weeks Hezbollah has extended its range, launching scores of rockets daily and regularly targeting the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Most are intercepted or fall in open areas.

Daily rocket barrages aimed at Haifa, Tel Aviv concerning Israelis

There have been no casualties or damage reported as a result of the rockets aimed towards Tel Aviv. We have seen videos showing Israel’s air defence Iron Dome system intercepting at least a few of those missiles over the skies of Tel Aviv.

It’s the second time today that sirens have sounded in the central region of Israel, including Tel Aviv.

More and more over the past couple of weeks cities such as Tel Aviv in the centre of the country and Haifa in the north have been coming under more attacks from Lebanon.

Haifa is a strategic port city. It’s the third-most populous city in the country and the largest city in the north. It’s the home of Israel’s main naval base, there’s a military presence there, and there are oil refineries.

It is a strategic target and some projectiles in the past few weeks actually hit the centre of the city and caused damage and injuries. That’s causing more concern for Israelis.

Israeli forces raid Khiam in southern Lebanon

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that Israeli forces have launched three raids on the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon.

The Health Ministry also reported 16 people were wounded in Israeli strikes on Tyre city and its surroundings. Twenty-four other people were wounded in an Israeli strike on Nahle-Baalbek road in the Bekaa Valley.

UN official warns Syria under pressure during Israel’s wars

Syria is teetering on the brink of a “military, humanitarian and economic storm”, a top UN official says, warning of escalating violence within the country and spillover from fighting in neighbouring Gaza and Lebanon.

“The fires of conflict are raging in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, and in Lebanon,” Geir Pedersen, special envoy for Syria, told the UN Security Council. “And the heat is being felt in Syria, too.”

He warned the “regional spillover into Syria is alarming and could get much worse”. While Israel has for years struck Hezbollah positions in Syria, it has increased its air raids as its conflict in Lebanon expands.

“The past month has seen the fastest-paced and broadest-ranging campaign of Israeli air strikes in the last 13 years, even in the heart of Damascus,” said Pedersen.

China’s Xi pledges to boost Iran ties in talks with Pezeshkian

China’s President Xi Jinping pledged to increase ties with Iran during talks with his counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Russia, state news agency Xinhua reports.

Xi pledged that “no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly cooperation with Iran”.

The promise of continued support comes as Middle East tensions soar over Israel’s ongoing wars on Gaza and Lebanon, and as the world awaits an Israeli response to Iran’s latest missile attack.

At a BRICS plenary session on Wednesday, Pezeshkian urged members of the grouping to “use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon”.

Xi, meanwhile, repeated his call for a ceasefire, saying: “We need to … stop the killing and work tirelessly for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”

‘US wields diplomacy as a weapon of mass destruction’

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a professor and expert on Hezbollah, has said that Israeli forces committed “a significant number of war crimes in Lebanon over the past 72 hours, facilitated by US political cover”.

As we’ve reported this week, US envoy Amos Hochstein held talks in Beirut on Monday with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Blinken was in Israel on Tuesday for meetings with Israeli leaders.

The Axios news website reported on Sunday that Israel had given Hochstein its conditions for ending the war, including a demand that the Israeli military be allowed “active enforcement” in Lebanon and the freedom to operate in the country’s airspace.

In a series of posts on X, Saad-Ghorayeb slammed the purported plan as one that “exclusively serves Israel’s interests and makes a mockery of Lebanon’s sovereignty”.

“Israel’s characteristic colonial hubris and grandiosity may explain its belief that it can subjugate Lebanon and force [Hezbollah] to capitulate despite failing to make any meaningful military gains,” she said. “What’s more perplexing is how the US, typically more rational than Israel, could expect this approach to succeed.”

ICRC calls for protection of hospitals and medical staff in Lebanon conflict

Shawky Amine Eddine, the humanitarian affairs adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera that “hospitals are beacons of hope and sanctuaries of human life” which is why they should be protected in wars.

Doctors and nurses “cannot save lives while they are worried about their own”, he added.

Israel waging ‘scorched earth campaign’ in Gaza, Lebanon: UN rights expert

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, says Israel’s destruction of villages in southern Lebanon shows that its objective “is not military, but extermination and annexation”.

“Israel doesn’t just wage war – in Gaza and now in Lebanon – but a scorched earth campaign that levels all houses, mosques, schools and signs of habitation,” Rajagopal added in a post on X.

Netanyahu rejects Blinken request to publicly reject ‘General’s Plan’: Reports

The Israeli prime minister and his senior aides have sidestepped the US secretary of state’s request for Israel to publicly reject accusations it is pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, according to media reports.

Blinken, who is in the Middle East as part of the US’s latest push for a ceasefire in Gaza, met with Netanyahu and senior aide Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Tuesday.

One topic of discussion was the so-called General’s Plan, The Times of Israel and CNN are reporting, both citing an unnamed US official.

Put forward in September by retired General Giora Eiland, the General’s Plan – which calls for the expulsion of Palestinians from northern Gaza and the forced starvation and targeting of whoever stays behind – has been labelled a roadmap to ethnic cleansing by critics.

According to both reports, during the meeting, Netanyahu insisted Israel is not pursuing the plan, but refused a request from Blinken to state so publicly.

Washington believes Netanyahu’s refusal was due to fear of alienating the far-right coalition partners he relies on to remain in power, The Times of Israel said.

Rights group says ‘world must stop ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza’

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says Israel is “taking advantage of the fact that global attention has been diverted” to commit “ethnic cleansing” in northern Gaza.

“It is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war,” B’Tselem said in a statement, calling on the world’s nations and international bodies to take “immediate, decisive” action.

“Ever since Israel’s current operation in the northern Gaza Strip began on October 5, the area has been under a near complete siege, relentlessly pummelled by the military,” the statement added.

“Israel has cut them off from the world” and “the few testimonies that have trickled out … describe dead bodies lining the streets, hunger [and] drinking water nowhere to be found.”

_{A drone image shows displaced Palestinians in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, in this picture obtained from social media on Monday}

Doctors group calls on Australia to challenge Israeli ban on medical teams

The Medical Association for the Prevention of War says it has written to Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong asking her to “use all diplomatic tools” to get Israel to “reinstate vital Gaza access to international medical teams”.

The Melbourne-based organisation warned that Israel’s ban will “increase preventable death, disease and suffering” in Gaza.

According to the World Health Organization, eight groups and more than 50 specialist health workers have been blocked from entering Gaza by Israeli authorities since August.

Wong last month made protecting humanitarian personnel a centrepiece of her speech at the UN General Assembly, nearly six months after an Israeli drone strike killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her World Central Kitchen colleagues in Gaza.

Blinken to stress it’s time to end the war as he meets Saudi officials

There are priorities that perhaps the two sides [the US and Saudi Arabia] do not share.

Antony Blinken is keen on making sure to stress the US believes it’s time to end the war, to reach a solution, to get a deal done that would release Israeli captives from Gaza. But his team has also been very keen to also focus on messaging regarding humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.

Of course, that is contrasted by the Israeli messaging, which talks about victory and about continuing until all its war goals are achieved.

Saudi Arabia will want to listen to what can be done. There have been a lot of statements from Riyadh and other Arab capitals about the need to stop the war, not just in Gaza, but also in Lebanon. There is very serious concern about the destabilising effect all of these tensions, as well as talk about striking Iran, is having on the entire region.

‘Now is the time’ to end Gaza war: Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Israel to use the opportunity created by its success in dismantling much of Hamas’s capacity in Gaza and the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to reach a longer-term solution to the conflict.

“Now is the time to turn those successes into enduring, strategic success,” Blinken said, adding that this includes the return of all captives and an end to the war “with an understanding of what will follow”.

Blinken added that Israel should avoid “greater escalation” in its response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack.

“It’s also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation,” the secretary of state told reporters in Israel before leaving for Saudi Arabia, the next stop on his Middle East tour.

Blinken urges Israel to move towards Saudi normalisation

Blinken says that Israel should seize the “incredible opportunity” to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia, a process halted by the war in Gaza.

“There remains, despite everything that’s happened, an incredible opportunity in this region to move in a totally different direction,” he said before leaving Tel Aviv for Riyadh, adding: “Saudi Arabia would be right at the heart of that, and that includes potentially normalisation of relations with Israel.”

Blinken is tone deaf. The population was already against the Abraham accords before Oct 7 and the following genocide. Not gonna happen until a Palestinian state is officially recognized. And if the US pushes it through regardless, expect another Oct 7 :(

Blinken’s Middle East visit expected to yield limited results

Adel Abdel Ghafar, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, says Blinken’s visit to the region is unlikely to yield as much as his previous 10 trips.

“The US trying to wind down the conflict arguably two weeks before the elections is pure lame duck presidency – I don’t think Americans will be able to stop the Israelis in any shape or form in the next two weeks,” Gharaf said, noting that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is at its worst.

Washington’s efforts to normalise ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia have not shown much success.

“The US has been focused on the potential normalisation but the wars in Gaza and Lebanon have torpedoed that deal – even Saudi Arabia said they would not pursue any normalisation with Israel until the war ends, and the state of Palestine is not established.”

Gaza Civil Defence retrieves bodies of mother, two children killed in Gaza City

Gaza’s Civil Defence says its crews retrieved the bodies of two children and their mother after a home was bombed in the az-Zarqa area of Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Six people injured in the attack on the Halawa family home were also rescued, the Civil Defence said on Telegram.

We reported earlier that three people had been killed in an Israeli drone attack on Gaza City.

Israeli military’s assault on northern Gaza continues

Dozens of deaths and injuries have been recorded over the past 24 hours in Gaza as the Israeli military launched more than 20 raids on various areas of the enclave, the Wafa news agency reports.

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces have continued their weeks-long siege, bombing homes and forcibly displacing residents while preventing the entry of food, medical supplies and basic necessities.

Here’s a breakdown of recent incidents:

PRCS salutes ‘humanitarian heroes’ working tirelessly in Gaza

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has shared a video showing one of its Gaza volunteers, Tareq Rajab, being comforted by colleagues after finding out several of his loved ones were killed in northern Gaza this week.

“A salute to the brave humanitarian heroes who continue to work tirelessly, day and night, despite personal losses and the dangers they face, unwavering in their mission to save lives,” the group said.

Bodies pulled from rubble of bombed Beit Lahiya Project in Gaza

At least two bodies were retrieved from under the rubble of a residential building known as the Beit Lahiya Project in northern Gaza, after it was bombed by Israeli forces, the enclave’s civil defence has said.

In a message on Telegram, Palestinian authorities also said their crews were forced to pull out from the rescue mission as Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. The same area witnessed a major attack on Sunday when an Israeli air strike killed at least 87 people.

The mass casualty event comes as northern Gaza – which includes the cities of Beit Lahiya, Jabalia and Beit Hanoon – experienced three weeks of strikes by Israeli forces with the stated aim of preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping there.