Second Israeli strike in two days hits Damascus

Syrian state-run media say Israel has attacked the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus, the second such strike in as many days to hit the neighbourhood, which is home to embassies, security headquarters and United Nations offices.

“Israeli aggression targets Mazzeh area in Damascus,” the official SANA news agency said after reporting a deadly Israeli air raid on the district a day earlier.

As attacks intensify against the backdrop of the war in Lebanon, Israeli strikes in and around Damascus on Thursday killed 23 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

Thursday’s attack on Mazzeh killed 13 people, including civilians and Iran-backed fighters, while an attack on the outskirts of Damascus killed 10 Palestinian fighters, the monitor said.

‘They were all my brothers’: Lebanese rescuer describes Israeli strike

A Lebanese medic who survived a deadly Israeli attack on a civil defence agency centre recounted the scene. Fifteen civil defence agency emergency rescuers were killed in the Israeli bombing on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek on Thursday.

“I rushed to the centre after hearing about the strike. I was in shock and started to scream,” Saiid Othman told Al Jazeera.

“What is happening? We are people who help others, our job is humanitarian. I started to call out to Haidar, he was my friend for 45 years. I called out for the others, no one answered. They were all my brothers.”

EU condemns Israeli killing of 15 paramedics in Lebanon

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has condemned the Israeli killing of 15 Lebanese paramedics in Baalbek.

“Attacks on healthcare workers and facilities are a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The protection of medical personnel in conflict zones is non-negotiable,” Josep Borrell said.

The strike may have been a “reckless” accident or deliberate but it still violates fundamental human rights either way, he added.

The Israeli military targeted the site in Baalbek as about 20 civil defence workers gathered there. As we reported earlier, it also killed another five paramedics in the village of Arabsalim in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh.

Search continues after Israel bombs Lebanese rescue workers

Rescue teams continue to search through rubble for missing people near the city of Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon, where an Israeli air strike hit a civil defence centre. The General Directorate of Civil Defence expressed “deep regret over this direct attack on its members”. Staffers “will continue to respond to relief calls and continue with its humanitarian mission, no matter how great the challenges and sacrifices are”, it said.

All those killed in the strike on the town of Douris near Baalbek were employees and volunteers of the emergency services agency. Remains were also recovered and will require DNA testing, the agency said in a statement.

Ben & Jerry’s says parent company Unilever silenced it over Gaza support

The parent company of Ben & Jerry’s has attempted to silence the ice cream brand’s support for the Palestinian cause, threatening to dismantle its board and sue its members, according to a lawsuit.

“Ben & Jerry’s has on four occasions attempted to publicly speak out in support of peace and human rights. Unilever has silenced each of these efforts,” according to the lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court on Wednesday.

The legal action is the latest spat between the Unilever conglomerate and Ben & Jerry’s over the Palestinian issue.

Three years ago, Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop selling its ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territory, saying it was “inconsistent” with its values. This led Unilever to look for a “new arrangement”, offloading its Israeli Ben and Jerry’s business to a local licensee, which kept the ice cream for sale in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Ben and Jerry’s sued Unilever for selling its business to a licensee. The lawsuit was settled in 2022, but the details remain confidential. Ben and Jerry’s alleges in its latest suit that Unilever has violated the agreement.

The Vermont-based ice cream maker called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in January, making it one of the first multinational companies to do so after Israel began bombing Gaza in October 2023. In May, its board expressed support for pro-Palestine protests sweeping US college campuses, saying they were “essential” to democracy.

Canadian ministers call out Israel over ‘catastrophic’ situation in Gaza

Canada has told Israel that “there is an absolute imperative to act now” and immediately provide “a significant and sustained increase of humanitarian assistance” to the civilian population in Gaza.

In a joint statement, Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen referred to “catastrophic humanitarian conditions” in Gaza where there are “life-threatening levels of acute malnutrition”.

“Civilians – men, women and children – are dying because of the lack of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza,” the ministers said. “The Israeli Government must abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law,” they added.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally against Israeli football match in Paris

Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in Paris on Thursday, objecting to France hosting the national football team of Israel. There was a heavy security presence at the Nations League match, which was attended by French President Emmanuel Macron.

UN Security Council draft resolution notes ‘risk of famine’ in northern Gaza

The UN Security Council’s (UNSC) 10 elected members – Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia – have agreed and circulated a new, draft resolution on the situation in Gaza.

The draft, which was sent to the UNSC’s five permanent members on Thursday, expresses the council’s “deep alarm over the ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza including the lack of adequate healthcare services and the state of food insecurity creating a risk of famine notably in the north”.

The draft, which was obtained by The Associated Press news agency, also demands immediate access for Gaza’s civilian population to humanitarian aid and services essential for their survival, and “underscores” that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), “remains the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza”.

Israel’s parliament passed two laws last month banning UNRWA’s operations in the Palestinian territories, which stoked international condemnation of Israel.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether this latest resolution will be adopted. The council’s four other permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France – are expected to support the resolution or abstain.

Incoming US envoy to Israel refuses to say ‘West Bank’

Israeli media network Arutz Sheva has interviewed Mike Huckabee, US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, a devout evangelical Christian known for his staunch pro-Israel views, told the media he was surprised by his nomination, but eager to take the role.

“[It’s] the only thing that President Trump could have asked me to do that I probably would’ve said yes to,” he said.

Huckabee doubled down on his position that there is “no such thing” as the occupied West Bank, instead referring to the territory as the “promised land” and “Judea and Samaria”, using the biblical term often employed by right-wing Israelis.

“It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham,” said Huckabee, noting he would continue to use his preferred “nomenclature unless I’m instructed otherwise”.

By his logic, give the US back to Asia...

Approximately 30,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians, the ancestors of Native Americans, followed herds of animals from Siberia across Beringia, a land bridge connecting Asia and North America, into Alaska. By 8,000 B.C.E., these peoples had spread across North and South America.

Besides that, the descendants of the Natufians (Mesolithic culture of Palestine and southern Syria dating from about 9000 bc) still live in the West Bank and Gaza.


During the interview, Arutz Sheva asked Huckabee about Israel’s potential annexation of the occupied West Bank, which Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered preparations for.

“That’s a decision for Israel to make, not for the United States to impose it on them,” said Huckabee. “I don’t think Donald Trump is the kind of president that wants to tell other countries what to do and how to do it. He wants to accommodate, help, encourage peaceful endeavours, strengthen alliances.”

He added that “as an ambassador, you don’t get to do what you want. You carry out the wishes and the directions of the president, and it will be his policies, not mine, that we will implement. But I’m very pleased that his policies have been the most pro-Israel policies of any president in my lifetime.”


It's not a decision for Israel to make. The decision has already been made by the ICJ. It's the US' obligation as a member of the UN to stop any and all support for further annexation of the West Bank and to reverse the process.

UK complicit in Gaza genocide: Britain’s former Labour leader

The UK’s former Labour Party leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn has said “there is a very simple reason why the UK government refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza.

“If it did, they would be admitting their own complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time,” he said.

He called for the UK to “end all arms sales to Israel.”

Corbyn has long been a supporter of Palestinian rights and a staunch critic of Israel’s policies.

In September, the UK announced it had suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, citing a “clear risk” they could be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

However, human rights organisations and experts said the suspension was not broad enough as it exempted crucial F-35 fighter jet parts.

Katz set to approve 7,000 conscription orders for ultra-Orthodox Jews: Report

Israeli Army Radio reports that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has decided on 7,000 conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox Jews to be sent out gradually starting next month.

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews are commonly referred to as Haredim (Haredi in the singular) in Hebrew. They are the most religious demographic in Israel and typically segment themselves from broader society to devote themselves to prayer and worship.

Even before the state of Israel was created after the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 – the event known as the Nakba – an exemption was agreed upon for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Due to their high birthrate, ultra-Orthodox Israelis grew to become a significant part of the population over time. Last year, the group consisted of 1.3 million people in Israel, about 13 percent of the population.

Each year, about 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men reach the age of conscription, but 90 percent of them do not enlist.

Israel’s government ‘pushing more and more for endless war’

Uri Misgav, a commentator with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, says the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is becoming increasingly unpredictable as war rages in Lebanon and Gaza.

He expressed concern over Netanyahu’s threat to order the military deeper into Lebanon if a truce with Hezbollah is not reached. “Israel doesn’t have enough soldiers to back up these plans in my opinion. It’s very hard to tell what Netanyahu is doing,” Misgav told Al Jazeera.

“Netanyahu and his Likud party are pushing more and more for endless war because they know the moment there’s a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, that’s the end of their regime. They’ll have to be investigated for the crimes and to pay the toll in elections in Israel.”

But he added: “I’ve learned to not predict the moves by Netanyahu and never to say he’s over. Miraculously, politically, he’s managed to manoeuvre through everything.”

Hamas official says group ready for a truce if Israel honours it

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim says the Palestinian group would accept a ceasefire if it receives a proposal that Israel honours.

Speaking to the AFP news agency, Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, called on the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump to push Israel to “end the aggression”.

“Hamas informed the mediators it is in favour of any proposal submitted to it that would lead to a definitive ceasefire and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, allowing the return of displaced people, a serious deal for a prisoner exchange, the entry of humanitarian aid and reconstruction,” Naim said.

While campaigning for president, Trump promised to end the war quickly but also expressed wholehearted support for Israel’s far-right government. Since winning the November 5 election, Trump has named several prominent pro-Israel hawks to his administration, including former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee – who once said “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” – to be ambassador to Israel.

Priority is halting Israeli aggression: Lebanese PM

The Lebanese government has released a statement after the meeting between Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Iran’s Ali Larijani, an adviser to the country’s supreme leader.

During their meeting, Mikati stressed: “What is required is to support the position of the Lebanese state in terms of implementing international Resolution 1701.”

It’s also important to support national unity and not to take positions favouring one group at the expense of the other, he said. Mikati stressed that the priorities for his government are halting Israeli aggression and reaching a ceasefire.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, introduced in 2006, called for an end to hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and a permanent ceasefire based on the creation of a buffer zone.

According to the resolution, Lebanese armed forces and UN peacekeepers should be the only military presence between the border with Israel and the Litani River, 30km (18 miles) to the north.

Israel’s Dahiyeh Doctrine on full display as Iran’s Larijani visits Lebanon

For the third time today, the Israel’s forced evacuation orders were issued and then, about 20 minutes later, air strikes began in the southern district of Beirut in Dahiyeh. Dahiyeh has been targeted intensely. There have been hundreds of air strikes in the past 46 days and they’re still coming. This is the fourth consecutive day of air strikes coming in.

What we’ve been hearing from political and military analysts, particularly on the Israeli side, is that this may very well be a showing of the full force of the Dahiyeh Doctrine. The doctrine was brought into place by the Israelis after the 2006 war. It basically looks to destroy as much civilian infrastructure and cause as much damage as possible to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and the rest of the populace.

What we do know is there’s widespread destruction taking place, not just Hezbollah infrastructure as Israel says, but people’s homes and businesses.

The attacks are coming amid a solidarity visit by Ali Larijani from Iran, who said Iran stands by the Lebanese people and will not abandon Lebanon in its time of need. The timing is crucial because the Americans have now given a ceasefire proposal to Hezbollah and they are looking at it.

IAEA chief tours sensitive Iran nuclear plants

The UN nuclear chief toured two Iranian uranium enrichment plants that have been the focus of Western concern after Tehran said it’s ready to address “doubts” about its nuclear ambitions.

The visit to Iran by International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi comes after he warned “the margins for manoeuvre are beginning to shrink” over its nuclear programme.

Samuel Hickey, of the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said Grossi’s tour of the two plants is “significant for both technical monitoring and symbolic reasons”.

“Natanz serves as Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility while Fordo houses some of its most advanced centrifuges,” Hickey said.

Fordo “is among Iran’s most proliferation-sensitive sites”, he added. Hickey said by allowing Grossi to visit the plants Iran “is signalling that the easiest access to these facilities is through diplomatic engagement”.

New video of Israeli captive Sasha Trupanov in Gaza

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, allied with Hamas, released new footage of Israeli captive Sasha Trupanov who has been held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack.

Trupanov, identified by his relatives in the previous video released on Wednesday, appealed to Aryeh Deri – leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, a member of Israel’s governing coalition – to help free him and the other captives held in Gaza.

The Shas party supports a deal for their release under the Jewish religious obligation to do everything possible to free captives.

Trupanov, 29, is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who was abducted with his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen, from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border. His mother and grandmother were also abducted and released along with Cohen during a week-long truce and captive-prisoner exchange in November 2023. His father, Vitaly, was killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called for the release of Trupanov and another captive, Maxim Herkin, in comments made before the release of the latest clip.

Yemenis hold another ‘million-man march’ to back Gaza, Lebanon

Many in Yemen have again turned up for weekly demonstrations in support of the people of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Images and footage released by Houthi media in Yemen showed people, some of whom were armed, demonstrating in the main square of the country’s capital.

صور | طوفان بشري متجدد في مليونية (مع غزة ولبنان.. على درب الشهداء حتى النصر) بميدان السبعين في العاصمة صنعاء 13 جمادى الأولى 1446هـ 15 نوفمبر 2024م pic.twitter.com/nqhsxSLPTv

— الإعلام الحربي اليمني (@MMY1444) November 15, 2024

Translation: A renewed human flood in the million-man march (with Gaza and Lebanon .. on the path of the martyrs until victory) in Al-Sabeen Square in the capital Sanaa, November 15

Antiwar demonstrations in Morocco

Thousands of Moroccans participated in protests and solidarity events in support of Lebanon and Gaza, condemning the ongoing Israeli wars. Large crowds gathered in several cities, including Kenitra, Berrechid, al-Hoceima, Kalaat M’Gouna among others across the country, following Friday prayers.

The rallies, organised by an NGO, the Moroccan Committee for the Support of the Ummah, called for continued support for Palestine and humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Morocco normalised relations with Israel at the end of 2020 when it signed the Abraham Accords, a US strategy from 2020 that saw the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan normalise relations with Israel in return for various concessions.

Palestinian solidarity march takes place in Israel

_{Ahmad Tibi, right, a prominent Palestinian member of Israel’s parliament, watches as a child confronts a member of the Israeli security forces in the city of Umm al Fahm on November 15}

Dozens of protesters have gathered in Umm al-Fahm – a town made up almost entirely of Palestinian Israelis located south of Haifa – to demonstrate against Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

⬅️شاهد ..
قوات الاحتلال تنتشر بكثافة خلال انطلاق التظاهرة التضامنية بأم الفحم pic.twitter.com/KVlHq9MGZs

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) November 15, 2024

Palestine hails UN vote on right to self-determination

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement welcoming the adoption of a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly to recognise “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.

The ministry pointed out that 170 countries voted in favour of the resolution, including states “that have evolved their positions to support this fundamental right”. Only Israel, the United States and four others voted against it, while nine countries including Palau and Tonga abstained.

The resolution is welcome “at a time when the Palestinian people are facing genocide and ongoing violations of all their rights, including the right to self-determination”, the ministry said, adding this gives hope to Palestinians that the world is ready to “confront genocide, colonial settlement expansion, and settler terrorism”.

EU to discuss sanctions, ‘suspending political dialogue with Israel’

Foreign ministers of the European Union will discuss proposals to ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements and suspend political dialogue with Israel.

The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, announced he is proposing the measures because of the many violations of international law committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

The EU has imposed many sanctions – from visa bans and “terrorist” designations to import restrictions and sanctions – in other cases of violations of international law, but “until now Israel has been spared from any meaningful consequences”.

“This has to change. This is why I have proposed an import ban on illegal settlement products, based on the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, similar to the existing import ban on products from occupied Ukrainian territories – because even-handedness is the lynchpin of Europe’s credibility.”

Borrell said he will also propose a suspension of political dialogue with Israel to EU member states.

After a year of unheeded pleas about the situation in Gaza, we cannot continue with business as usual.
I have proposed to EU Member States to ban import of products from illegal settlements and to suspend the political dialog with Israel.

Read my blog:https://t.co/n9BM5UbW5n pic.twitter.com/PdeMiYPfyy

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 15, 2024

In Amsterdam, clashes trigger a divisive blame game as old wounds reopen

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/15/in-amsterdam-clashes-trigger-a-divisive-blame-game-as-old-wounds-reopen

More than a week after clashes in Amsterdam, Tori Egherman, a Jewish writer and researcher who has lived in the Dutch capital for 20 years, still feels angry.

“What makes me angry is that they come, act in the most violent and racist ways, and then leave us to clean up their mess,” she said of the Israeli football club fans involved in last week’s violence.

“This episode only makes Jews and Muslims suffer the most. If we are more divided and can’t work together, there’s little we can do as communities to improve the current situation.”

Killing of civilians continues in Gaza, day after day after day.

Three dead as Israeli military bombs Deir el-Balah in central Gaza

Israeli forces have bombed several areas in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, killing three people, including a child and a woman, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.

Al Jazeera Arabic also reports that an Israeli helicopter has fired missiles at targets in the city. It’s not currently clear if the two attacks are the same.

_{An injured Palestinian boy is treated at al-Ahli Hospital following an Israeli attack on a school sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday}


Bombed homes in north Gaza now graves for people trapped alive beneath rubble

The director of the besieged and under-fire Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has told of starvation-like conditions in the area and people trapped alive beneath a bombed building with no hope of rescue.

Dr Hussam Abu Safia said his medical facility is no longer able to “provide even a single meal to the patients, which prolongs wound healing, nor can we offer a meal to the healthcare workers who work around the clock”.

The hospital is seeing cases of children and adults who are malnourished and dehydrated, he said, adding his facility is running extremely low on medical supplies, The Associated Press news agency reports.

The director said his hospital has received phone calls from civilians trapped alive under buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes, but there was no way to rescue them. “Sadly, the next day, their voices were gone, and they were counted among the dead, with their homes becoming their graves,” he said.

“This scene is repeated daily.”

_{Palestinians view the damage after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around the Kamal Adwan hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, on October 26}

UN says Gaza aid convoy comes under fire, food stolen

The UN says three drivers were injured when 14 trucks in a 20-truck convoy carrying humanitarian aid were shot at and had food stolen in central Gaza.

The trucks had collected aid from the newly opened Kissufim border crossing with Israel – located near southern Gaza’s Khan Younis – and were travelling to a warehouse in Gaza’s central Deir el-Balah area when the convoy came under fire, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

The attack was a “law and order” episode and not crossfire between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces, he said.

“For months we’ve been calling for the opening of more land routes, both into and within Gaza,” Dujarric said. “But we also need increased access and security assurances, as well as more supplies so they can quickly reach all people across Gaza at the necessary scale,” he said.

“As we’ve said repeatedly, it is also critical that Israeli authorities facilitate the movement of aid workers and supplies across the Gaza Strip,” he added.

At least two killed in Israeli drone attack near Gaza City

An Israeli drone attack near Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood has killed at least two people and injured others, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic. Several other attacks hit neighbourhoods west of the nearby Jabalia refugee camp, they report.