BRICS alliance reaffirms support for Palestine’s full UN membership

The BRICS alliance, currently holding its annual summit in the Russian city of Kazan, has reaffirmed its “support for the State of Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations”.

The alliance – initially comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but expanded in 2023 to include Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – also reiterated its “unwavering commitment” to a two-state solution “in line with internationally recognised borders of June 1967”.

The Kazan Declaration also expressed “grave concern” at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. It calls for “an immediate, comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”, the release of all captives and detainees on both sides, and for Israel to allow “unhindered” humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Hamas seeks Moscow’s help to push Palestinian unity government for post-war Gaza: Report

Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official has told the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow, the Reuters news agency reports.

“We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war,” Marzouk was quoted as saying by RIA.

Marzouk said Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations on a unity government, RIA reported.

Iran says UN ‘turned into a frustratingly dysfunctional platform’

Iran’s foreign ministry has criticised the UN on the anniversary of its founding in 1945, saying that it has failed to live up to its mandate.

The UN “has turned into a frustratingly dysfunctional platform unable to take any effective collective measures to stop Israel’s maniacal genocide in Gaza and its aggressive war on Lebanon and beyond”, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote in a post on X.

“The UN is sadly defeating its purpose as US’s unconditional support for occupying regime has so emboldened the regime as to expand its aggressions and atrocities across the region,” he said of Israel.

Baghaei added that the UN must be “revitalised by its responsible membership to reign in the rogue entity’s warmongering”.

Iranian president criticises UN Security Council’s inefficiency

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has slammed the UN Security Council for failing to tackle the Middle East conflict.

“The fire of war is still raging in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Lebanese cities, and international institutions and assemblies, and at the top of it the United Nations Security Council, as drivers of international peace and security, lack the necessary efficiency to extinguish the fire of this crisis,” Pezeshkian told leaders from emerging economies at the BRICS gathering in Russia.

China’s Xi calls for ‘no more destruction in Palestine, Lebanon’

Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking at the BRICS summit, says it is important to continue pushing for “a ceasefire in Gaza, relaunch the two-state solution and stop the spread of war in Lebanon”.

“There should be no more suffering and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon,” Xi stressed.

“We should come forward together to form a stabilising force for peace and explore solutions to address both symptoms and roots of hotspot issues,” Xi said in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan.

UN chief calls for peace ‘across the board’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told BRICS leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, that the world needs peace in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan.

“Across the board, we need peace,” Guterres said at the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan. “We need peace in Ukraine, a just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and UN General Assembly resolutions.”

Syria blames Israel as blasts reported in Damascus

Explosions have been heard in the Syrian capital Damascus in what state media has described as an act of “Israeli aggression”.

Israeli strike hits building in Syria’s central Damascus area: Report

Syrian state news agency SANA is now reporting that the Israeli attack targeted a residential building in the central Damascus neighbourhood of Kafr Sousa. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

Israel has for years conducted regular attacks on targets inside Syria but rarely admits to its military campaign. Those attacks have escalated amid Israel’s war on Gaza and attack on Lebanon.

On Monday, an Israeli missile attack on a car in Damascus killed two people. Israel’s military claimed it killed a Hezbollah commander in the strike in the Syrian capital.


_{Syrian emergency and security services inspect the wreckage of a car that exploded in Damascus on October 21, 2024. Syria’s Defence Ministry said two civilians were killed in an Israeli strike on the vehicle in the Mazzeh district of Damascus, home to embassies and security headquarters}

One killed, 7 injured following Israeli strikes in Damascus, Homs

A Syrian soldier has been killed and seven others have been injured following an Israeli military attack in Damascus and Homs, Syria’s state news agency SANA reports. Earlier, we reported that Israeli air strikes targeted a residential building in the central Damascus neighbourhood of Kafr Sousa.

SANA now reports that Israeli forces have also bombed a military site in the Homs countryside.

Iran’s IRGC chief cautions Israel not to rely on ‘limited’ THAAD capabilities

The commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has suggested advanced US missile defence systems will not be enough if Israel prompts an Iranian attack by hitting Iran.

“Do not trust the THAAD systems. They are limited, and you have relied on a limited power,” Hossein Salami is quoted as saying by the IRGC-linked Tasnim news website.

“Whatever you wish to fire, your enemies will fire at you several times stronger. You cannot emerge victorious in this story, and we will defeat you.”

The US has situated one THAAD system in Israel along with about 100 soldiers, and Israel has requested a second system.

Salami also threatened that “a small territory whose economy is 98 percent reliant on the sea must think more as unwise decisions could bring about the downfall of a regime with surprising speed.”

The IRGC chief said the US is making a mistake by “tying its political reputation with the crimes” of the Israelis, adding that the world now knows the US by “the bombs that are falling on the children of Gaza and Lebanon”.

Israel 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”, Nashabe 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,” he said.

‘More and more’ missiles, rockets launched by Hezbollah towards Israel

On Wednesday evening, at least four rockets were launched from Lebanon heading towards Tel Aviv. That’s according to Israel’s army.

Videos posted on social media sites showed some of those rockets being intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system. In the videos, you can also hear air raid sirens.

At least twice on Wednesday evening, air raid sirens sounded throughout the greater Tel Aviv area in central Israel. In fact, in the past few days, Tel Aviv and parts of the north of the country, like the city of Haifa, have been targeted more and more by missiles and rockets launched from Lebanon.

In the immediate aftermath of the news that four rockets had been launched towards Tel Aviv on Wednesday, news emerged that civilian air traffic had been closed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

The fact of the matter is more and more rockets – dozens, usually, per day – are being launched from Lebanon towards Israel. On Wednesday, it was announced by Israel’s army that in the 24 hours of Wednesday, there had been at least 135 rockets launched from Lebanon towards Israel.

Israeli strike kills 3 Lebanese soldiers in country’s south

The soldiers were killed, including an officer, in an Israeli attack during the evacuation of wounded people from the outskirts of Yater village in southern Lebanon, the army said in a statement.

Israel’s killing of 3 more Lebanese soldiers ‘a very serious incident’

Three more Lebanese soldiers were killed as they were moving people who had been injured out of the village of Yater in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. It’s not actually that far from here.

Since September 29, a total of 13 Lebanese soldiers have been killed.

The Lebanese army is not fighting the Israelis in these cases. What they are doing is providing support services for the Civil Defence or the emergency services. They are trying to help the civilian population and it is in that role that they have been attacked.

The same as the IDF does to rescue services in Gaza, double tap strategy for maximum casualties.

Attacks by Israel kill 28, injure 139 in one day: Lebanese Health Ministry

The Ministry of Public Health said the 28 were killed across Lebanon in Israeli attacks throughout Wednesday. The latest killings bring the death toll in Lebanon to 2,574 since fighting erupted between Hezbollah and Israel in October last year.

Israel army says it hit Hezbollah arms factories in overnight Beirut strikes

The Israeli military says it hit several Hezbollah weapons production facilities in overnight strikes on southern Beirut’s Dahiyeh.

“Overnight, the IAF [air force] conducted intelligence-based strikes on several weapons storage and manufacturing facilities belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in the area of Dahiyeh,” the military said in a statement.

Lebanese state media reported that six buildings were levelled in at least 17 Israeli strikes during the night.

Hezbollah’s drone attacks are ‘difficult to detect and intercept'

The siren sounded off twice yesterday in Tel Aviv, and what we understand is that in addition to about 135 rockets, Hezbollah has been sending out drone attacks.

These drones are flying low, they’re manoeuvring, and they’re very difficult to detect and intercept. And so what is happening is, as soon as a drone is seen or detected in the sky, sirens go off in all sorts of areas, and people really consider them the most dangerous, far more than the rockets.

We’ve also seen a difference in the rockets that are being fired by Hezbollah. They’re more precise, they’re larger. They have a bigger impact when they do reach their targets, as we saw yesterday in Israel’s northern district Acre when a factory was hit and caught fire.

Four injured after Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel

The hospital in the Israeli city of Nahariya has announced that it received four people who were injured by rocket shrapnel in Western Galilee, with two in moderate condition and two sustaining minor injuries.

Hezbollah has claimed multiple attacks so far today, with some of the latest saying it launched rockets on Safad and Nahariya, with another claiming to target the “Zevulon military industries base north of Haifa with a missile salvo”.

Videos of rockets being intercepted over Safad are circulating on social media.

Israel asks northern settlements to limit their movements

Israel has asked about 25 towns in the Upper Galilee region in the north of the country to reduce movements in settlement areas, avoid gatherings and stay near protected zones, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

In recent days, Tel Aviv and northern areas, including Haifa, have increasingly been targeted by missiles and rockets fired from Lebanon, with at least 135 rockets launched towards Israel on Wednesday alone.

Targeted assassination shows no front line in escalating war

It appears that the Israeli strike on a car near the Lebanese village of Aley some 12km (7 miles) east of Beirut was yet another targeted assassination.

At the site of the strike, we are on the main highway that links the capital, Beirut, to the east of the country, including the Bekaa region and all the way to the Syrian capital, Damascus. So, this is a main road which people use. When we arrived at the scene, the car was still in flames.

We understand at least one person was killed and some reports are suggesting that two people were killed. This happened a short time ago and we do not know the identities of the people targeted. The Lebanese army is deployed on the ground with forensic teams.

We’ve seen many attacks like this for more than a year. An attack like this shows that there is really no front line in what is an escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli military says 5 rockets intercepted as Hezbollah reports ground fighting

The Israeli military says its air force successfully intercepted five rockets launched by Hezbollah towards the upper and central Galilee in northern Israel.

Hezbollah said its latest rocket salvo targeted the settlement of Karmiel.

The armed Lebanese group also reported more ground fighting with invading Israeli forces, saying it hit soldiers as they were advancing near Odaisseh with bullets and rockets, “forcing them to retreat”.

EU’s top diplomat calls for reinforcement of UNIFIL, Lebanese army

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called for an immediate reinforcement of Lebanon’s army and the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (UNIFIL) amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

“We know who is attacking UNIFIL. I’ve been watching videos where it’s clear that Israeli Defense Forces are attacking UNIFIL, and it is completely unacceptable,” he told reporters during an aid conference for Lebanon in Paris.

Calling for stronger international support for the peacekeeping mission, he also called for urgent support for the Lebanese army.

“The Lebanese army has to be reinforced, and once there is a cease-fire, the Lebanese army has to deploy in the south,” he said.

Israeli military arrests more than 200 people in northern Gaza

The Israeli military said its Division 162 has eliminated “dozens of terrorists” and destroyed “terrorist infrastructure” in the Jabalia refugee camp since its military operation began in northern Gaza in early October.

The military also said it had arrested “more than 200 terrorists” in the same timeframe.

Israeli forces have held northern Gaza under 20 days of punishing siege, killing at least 640 people since October 4, and trapping about 400,000 people without access to food, water or medicine, according to the UN.

“Genocide is unfolding in northern Gaza in its clearest form, in full view of the world,” the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry warned in a statement on Sunday.

Mother and child killed in Israeli bombing of Jabalia

Two people have been killed in the latest Israeli air attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. A mother and her child were the victims, according to the official Wafa news agency, which said their home was hit on Thursday morning.

Jabalia and the northern parts of Gaza are now undergoing a 20th day of intense ground attacks and aerial bombardment. So far, more than 770 people have been killed and 1,000 wounded in the Israeli attacks on Jabalia, the Government Media Office in Gaza announced on Wednesday.

Israeli forces destroy only firetruck in north Gaza, ending rescue services

As it advances into the 20th day of siege and attacks on northern Gaza, the Israeli military has forced a halt to all rescue operations in the heavily bombed area.

These are the latest updates from the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, which also released the image below of its destroyed firetruck.

‘Women forced into holes’: Israel’s intimidation tactics

We contacted a number of civilians who managed to flee Jabalia in northern Gaza and move to Gaza City.

They shared with us disturbing details about what is going on in the Jabalia refugee camp and Beit Lahiya, especially in light of forced evacuation orders being issued to families in the north.

They told us the Israeli army surrounded evacuation centres and shelters, and forced men to separate from women, taking them to other locations in the north.

They said the Israeli army dug huge holes in the ground and forced women to jump inside. Israeli tanks later started to move around these holes, throwing up huge amounts of dust as a sort of intimidation tactic.

Later, they gave the women a short amount of time to flee to Gaza City while horrific Israeli attacks were ongoing in nearby areas.

We have also heard that over 150 Palestinians were detained in the northern parts of Gaza and taken to Israel.

Israeli forces attacking, arresting rescue teams in Gaza’s north: Civil defence official

Muhammad al-Mughair, director of the supply department with the Gaza civil defence, says Israeli forces have ordered its rescue teams to evacuate areas in the north and head towards the Indonesian Hospital.

“A lot of our teams refused to obey the orders. Around five of our teams have been arrested. The Israeli forces have also attacked them before the time limit to evacuate. Three of our people have been wounded, and five vehicles were also attacked in the Beit Lahiya area,” he told Al Jazeera.

In parts of central Gaza, civil defence workers are working on putting out fires, al-Mughair revealed. He said the capabilities of the civil defence crews were “very limited” due to a lack of fuel and spare parts.

Four children among 16 killed in Israeli air raid on Nuseirat school

Sixteen Palestinians, including four children, were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, our colleagues on the ground are reporting.

The Shuhadaa (Martyrs) of Nuseirat, a public school, was hosting hundreds of internally displaced families when it was hit. Those injured in the attack, which took place at rush hour at about noon, are being taken to nearby hospitals, al-Awda and Al-Aqsa.

More than one missile was used in the area, which was close to the local market.

Number of school attack casualties rises to 17

Schools in Nuseirat are packed and overwhelmed with thousands of displaced Palestinians from other areas.

The latest attack on a school in Nuseirat has now killed at least 17 Palestinians, including seven-year-old Hamad, eight-year-old Mahmoud, nine-year-old Moatassem, five-year-old Malak and an 11-month-old baby called Mamdouh along with at least two women.

This is not the first time Israeli forces have hit a school that houses thousands of displaced families. Makeshift camps and shelters have also been hit repeatedly.

Some of the people injured in this attack are in critical condition. We know there is a shortage of medical supplies and medicine to treat them, and that’s why we expect the number of casualties to rise.

Israeli military claims school was ‘command and control centre’

As with previous strikes on Gaza schools, the Israeli military is claiming that it was targeting Palestinian fighters in the Shuhadaa school attack in Nuseirat that killed 17 people, including an 11-month-old baby. Israel has provided no evidence for its claim.

“The command and control complex was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist operations against the [Israeli military] forces and the State of Israel,” the army said in a statement, adding that it hit the school based on precise intelligence.

The Israeli military also claimed that it took “many steps” to ensure a limited chance of harm to civilians.

Palestinians gather to buy bread from a bakery in Deir el-Balah

Hamas says efforts in motion to thwart Israel’s ‘General’s Plan’ for Gaza

Hamas says it is engaged in intense efforts to make sure Israel fails in implementing the so-called General’s Plan of clearing Palestinians from northern Gaza.

“The leadership of the Hamas movement has launched a campaign of intensive political and diplomatic movements and communications to thwart the occupation’s plans and stop the complex crime that the occupation is committing within the framework of the war of extermination and open massacres in the Gaza Strip, specifically in the northern part,” the group said in a statement.

Hamas said it has warned others of the devastating consequences if such a plan is successfully implemented in Gaza, adding: “Delegations from the movement’s leadership are visiting Turkey, Qatar and Russia, and contacts have also taken place in Egypt, the United Nations and Iran.”

Another attack in central Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting Israeli shelling in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza with an unspecified number of people injured in the attack.

Israel is ‘putting numbers on men’ in northern Gaza

The situation is very hard in northern Gaza and also here in the south. We just received news that at least one Palestinian was killed and 16 others were completely severely burned after a target in the Maghazi refugee camp. And most of these Palestinians do not have any creams or any medicine to treat their burns.

In the northern Gaza Strip, we’re talking about 20 days of an imposed siege. No food, no water, no civil defence teams, no ambulances, no paramedics. The Israeli forces are literally forcing people to leave their houses, to leave their shelters, and also separating families from one another.

They’re putting numbers on men. They’re putting numbers on people and interrogating them. Israel has also been digging holes and putting people inside those holes and grouping them into 10.

After midnight, the Israeli forces also targeted civil defence teams and also forced them to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip. The situation in the north is miserable.

More than 770 people killed in Israel assault on north: Report

“Since the start of the military operation in northern Gaza more than 770 people have been killed,” said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the territory’s civil defence agency said, according to AFP news agency. He added that the toll could rise as there were people buried under the rubble.

The civil defence agency also said today it can no longer provide first responder services in the north, accusing Israeli forces of threatening to “bomb and kill” its crews, AFP reported.

Clashes, arrests reported as Israeli military carries out West Bank raids

Local media reports detail several Israeli military raids across the occupied West Bank in recent hours. They include:

Lebanon receives $1bn in pledges for aid and military support

The French are going to be pleased with that figure of $800m in money for immediate humanitarian aid in Lebanon and $200m towards the Lebanese army [during an aid conference in Paris for Lebanon] – which is very, very weak and very significantly underfunded.

It’s double what the French were looking for when they announced this conference on Lebanon itself. Lebanon’s government says it needs at least $250m a month to look after humanitarian needs in the country, not least those 1.3 million people internally displaced.

The UN Development Programme says the economic fallout, particularly from this fighting, could be worse than the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Unemployment is going up. The Lebanese pound has lost 98 percent of its value.

So, there is significant need for this money. The French were also hoping to achieve some sort of diplomatic solution, perhaps looking for a ceasefire. That might have always been a long shot.

There were lower-level representatives here, but they will be pleased with that large amount of money they’ve been pledged.


France raising money to keep people alive, Germany doing the opposite...

Germany approves more than $100m in arms exports to Israel

Germany has authorised more than $100m in military exports to Israel in the last three months, Foreign Office data showed, coinciding with the latest legal challenge by human rights groups concerned about the potential use of these weapons in the Gaza war.

Berlin has approved 94,052,394 million euros ($101.61m) in arms exports to Israel since August 2024, according to a government response to a parliamentary inquiry by left-wing lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen.

The new permits followed a significant drop in arms exports to Israel in the first half of the year.

Separately, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) says it has filed an appeal at the Frankfurt Administrative Court on behalf of a Gaza resident, seeking to halt further arms exports.

The appeal says German weapons are contributing to civilian harm in Gaza. The plaintiff, a Gaza resident who lost his wife and daughter in Israeli air strikes, says continuing arms shipments place his life and the lives of others in danger, calling on Germany to stop facilitating these transfers.

US and UK ‘literally funding’ Israel’s wars on Gaza, Lebanon: Defence Priorities

Benjamin Friedman, policy director for the US-based group Defense Priorities, says the US and UK bear significant responsibility for Israel’s bloody wars in the Middle East because of unfettered military and financial support.

“The United States and the United Kingdom have really facilitated the Israeli escalation that they purportedly oppose. In fact, they’re literally funding it through the weapon shipments and money given to Israel,” Freidman told Al Jazeera.

“I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’ve been in this country for a long time seeing with disappointment how closely we support Israel despite their regular refusals to listen to US presidents going back over decades.”

Writers’ group expresses ‘outrage’ at Israeli claims against Al Jazeera journalists

PEN International, an international association of writers that defends freedom of expression, condemned Israel’s allegations that six Al Jazeera journalists working in besieged northern Gaza are “terrorists”.

“We are outraged by [Israeli military] threats against six Palestinian journalists, labelling them as terrorists for reporting on Israel’s war crimes. We condemn the ongoing threats, impunity over their killings, and severe restrictions [on media in Gaza],” said the group.

Al Jazeera Media Network also denounced the “unfounded allegations” by the Israeli army, saying “these fabricated accusations” are “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide”.