Iraq’s PM dismisses Israeli complaint over attacks by Iraqi militias

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has dismissed an Israeli complaint to the UN Security Council about strikes by Iraq’s Shia militias on Israel as a “pretext and argument to attack Iraq” and to “expand the war in the region”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier posted on X a letter to the Security Council saying: “Israel has the inherent right to self-defence … and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”

An umbrella group of Iraqi militias, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has regularly launched drone strikes on targets in Israel in recent months in support of its Hamas and Hezbollah allies in the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

Saar said some of the militias are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shia armed groups, and urged the Iraqi government to “take immediate action to halt and prevent these attacks”.

Al-Sudani’s office said in a statement that Iraq has refused to enter into the regional conflict while “seeking to provide relief to the Palestinian and Lebanese people”.

Netanyahu announces $5m reward for each Gaza captive freed

Netanyahu says Israel is offering a reward of $5m to anybody who returns a captive held in Gaza by Hamas.

“Anybody who brings out a hostage will find with us a secure way for them and their family to leave [Gaza],” Netanyahu said in a video filmed inside the Palestinian territory. “We will also give them a reward of $5m for each hostage.”

Earlier, Netanyahu said Israel has not given up trying to locate the remaining captives.

Anything but a ceasefire...

Palestinian Canadians condemn ‘betrayal’ of faltering Gaza visa scheme

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/19/palestinian-canadians-condemn-betrayal-of-faltering-gaza-visa-scheme

_{Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa}

UN chief decries ‘systematic’ looting of Gaza humanitarian aid

The United Nations chief denounced the repeated looting of critical humanitarian assistance in Gaza, a day after the besieged enclave’s Interior Ministry said 20 people were killed in a security operation targeting criminal gangs.

“Armed looting has become systematic and must end immediately. It is hindering life-saving aid operations and further endangering the lives of our staff,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“However, the use of law enforcement operations must be lawful, necessary and proportionate.”

Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza in the early stages of the war last year, and the UN warned on November 9 that famine looms in some areas because of a lack of food aid.

West Bank haulers’ union worried about drivers after aid trucks looted in Gaza

The head of the West Bank haulers’ union says he is concerned about truck drivers and aid not reaching people in need after nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on November 16 after entering Gaza.

“Of course, we get worried for the Gazan driver that comes to transfer the aid, so he leaves his home risking his life not knowing if he will go back home,” said Adel Amr.

The convoy transporting food provided by United Nations agencies was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing, said Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer for the UN  Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Ninety-eight of the 109 trucks in the convoy were raided and some of the transporters were injured during the incident, she said.

Al-Aqsa TV channel quoted Hamas interior ministry sources in Gaza as saying more than 20 gang members involved in looting aid trucks were killed during an operation carried out by security forces.

It said anyone caught aiding such looting would be treated with “an iron fist”.

Israel ‘has taken Palestinian people and international law hostage’: Jordan

Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, says “failure by the international community to act has allowed Israel to violate international law and use starvation as a method of war” in Gaza.

Safadi made his comments during a visit from the UN’s Senior Humanitarian Coordinator Sigrid Kaag, with whom he discussed efforts to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged coastal enclave.

“Numerous UN organizations have warned that little to no supplies are entering Gaza, particularly northern Gaza, where famine is the brutal reality,” Safadi said. “Yet Israel is maintaining the siege. This brutality should not stand. The aggression has to end. Supplies must be allowed into Gaza.”

Air strike hits central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, killing 3 people

Not an hour passes by without Israeli bombs going off across the Gaza Strip. There doesn’t seem to be an end to it.

Just before we began this report, an air strike hit a residential block in Nuseirat refugee camp. So far, the attack has killed three people. There are at least double the number of injuries. Again, it’s the same exact scenario as other Israeli army strikes. Many people are still missing under a huge pile of rubble as a result of the bombing.

The situation is equally difficult in the north during day 45 of the Israeli ground invasion and siege. Attacks continue, and food is running out. There’s a flour crisis, and bread is extremely difficult to find.

Israeli helicopters fire on homes in central Gaza

Israeli helicopters and drones are firing at homes in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report. Meanwhile, we are also getting reports that Israeli helicopters are firing machine guns at areas in southern Gaza City.

Six people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza refugee camps

Israeli air strikes on the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps have killed at least six people. Earlier, we reported an attack that hit a residential block in Nuseirat, killing three people.

Another raid on a residential block in Bureij killed three more people, Palestine’s Wafa news agency reported.

Several of the wounded were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah while the fate of many remains unknown as people try to dig in the debris of collapsed buildings for survivors, the news agency said.

Israeli attack on Beit Lahiya in north Gaza kills 8 Palestinians

At least eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a building in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, the official news agency Wafa reports.

According to witnesses, the attack targeted a residential building housing members of the al-Kahlout family and displaced civilians. Emergency responders managed to pull out some of the victims and transfer them to Kamal Adwan Hospital, Wafa said.

However, reports indicate several people remain trapped under the rubble with rescue teams unable to access the site because of ongoing air strikes and the scale of the destruction.

Israeli settlers wait for Trump to reverse US sanctions

Amana, an Israeli organisation that backs illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, has denounced sanctions imposed on it by the US.

US authorities said Monday that they will impose sanctions on Amana and its construction branch, Binyanei Bar Amana, as well as others that have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank”.

But settlers are waiting for President-elect Donald Trump to take office in January to reverse the move.

“We are confident that with the change of administration in Washington and with proper and necessary action by the Israeli government, all sanctions will be lifted,” Amana said of Trump’s perceived leniency towards Israeli actions.

Yossi Dagan, Shomron Regional Council president, in charge of settlements in the northern West Bank, called the sanctions “the final act of the Biden administration, which is cynical and hostile towards the Near East’s only democracy”.

Israeli raid in occupied West Bank wounds 9 Palestinians

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says nine Palestinians have been injured by Israeli forces when they opened fire in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank.

Israeli troops use Palestinian paramedics as ‘human shields’: PRCS

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says Israeli forces used one of its teams as human shields in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

Soldiers detained the paramedics inside a house “while they were en route to evacuate an injured person in the eastern neighbourhood of Jenin during a raid on the house”, the emergency service said.

Malnutrition victims arrive at north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital

The World Health Organization has expressed grave concern for hospitals in war-battered northern Gaza where one hospital director described the situation as an “extreme catastrophe”.

“We are very, very concerned, and it’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in. It’s getting harder and harder to get the specialist personnel in at a time when there is greater and greater need,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told journalists in Geneva.

She said the organisation is “particularly concerned about Kamal Adwan Hospital” in Beit Lahiya, which was again attacked on Tuesday by Israeli troops.

“A large number of children and elderly people continue to arrive suffering from malnutrition,” hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safia said, accusing Israel of “blocking the entry of food, water, medical staff and materials destined for the north”.

Harris estimated that between November 8-16, “four WHO missions we were trying to get up to go were denied”.

Main points on November 19th

'That Is Genocide': Israeli-American Holocaust Historian on Gaza

Israeli-American historian and esteemed professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, Omer Bartov, sat down with Mehdi Hasan to discuss Gaza, genocide, and the far right in Israel during a live event hosted by Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C.

During the discussion, Bartov explained the extremist direction of the Israeli military, the current far-right Israeli government, the weaponization of antisemitism to shield Benjamin Netanyahu from criticism, and how the United States could have prevented Israel from committing genocide against Palestinians.

This talk was part of Busboys & Poets’ The Gaza Lecture Series of 2024, organized in partnership with the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Zeteo was proud to be involved in this important conversation.

Israel 'ALLYING' With ISIS To Starve Gaza - Shocking New Allegations In Israeli Media

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-11-11/ty-article/.premium/the-idf-is-allowing-gaza-gangs-to-loot-aid-trucks-and-extort-protection-fees-from-drivers/00000193-17fb-d50e-a3db-57ff16af0000

https://truthout.org/articles/aid-truck-looters-in-gaza-operate-under-israeli-forces-protection-reports-find/

Hezbollah fighters clash with Israeli troops in south Lebanon: Report

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that Hezbollah fighters clashed with Israeli troops trying to advance on the town of al-Bayyadah, near the city of Naqoura, in the South Lebanon governorate.

Hezbollah fighters fired rockets and missiles at the invading troops and destroyed a Merkava tank, it said.

The agency also reported “violent clashes” in the Nabatieh governorate, where it said Israeli troops are trying to advance on the village of Kfar Shouba.

Two killed in Israeli attack on south Lebanon

Israeli forces bombed a house in the town of Maarakeh in South Lebanon, killing at least two people, the National News Agency reports.

Three bodies recovered from rubble in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh area

The rubble removal work has been completed in the village of Zefta in the Nabatieh governorate of Lebanon, where a house was destroyed in an Israeli air attack yesterday evening. Three bodies were recovered, according to the National News Agency.

Israeli attack kills another Lebanese soldier

A Lebanese soldier has been killed after an Israeli attack on an army vehicle in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese army. The soldier was first injured by this morning’s attack, which occurred on a road between the villages of Burj al-Muluk and Qlayaa, the army said, but later died of his wounds.

The soldier’s death follows an earlier Israeli attack in the southern town of Sarafand that killed three Lebanese soldiers.

Lebanese army suffering casualties despite not being directly involved in conflict with Israel

While there are efforts to bring about a ceasefire and the Lebanese army is expected to play a central role in implementing any ceasefire deal, there were two Israeli attacks. Last night, an Israeli strike hit an army position in the town of Sarafand in southern Lebanon, killing three soldiers. The army says this was a deliberate attack.

A short while ago, the army announced the death of one more soldier. The military vehicles came under Israeli fire on the Marjayoun road, very close to the border.

It is not the first time the Lebanese army has been hit in the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. It has lost more than 40 men in recent months despite the army not being directly involved in the conflict.

It is staying on the sidelines for a number of reasons, even though it calls Israel the enemy. First of all, the Lebanese army is weak. It has not responded to any of these Israeli attacks on its troops. Hezbollah is a much stronger force.

Secondly, there are many political considerations, because Hezbollah’s decision to open up a front against Israel in support of Gaza is a divisive decision here and the army is split along political and sectarian lines.

_{Aftermath of an Israeli strike that hit an Lebanese army post in the town of Sarafand, southern Lebanon}

Israeli army says not fighting Lebanese army, despite killing soldiers

“We emphasise that the [Israeli army] is operating precisely against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation and is not operating against the Lebanon Armed Forces,” the military told the AFP news agency in a statement.

Nevertheless, in the last 24 hours, the Israeli army has killed four Lebanese army soldiers in total in two separate strikes. This brings the total number of Lebanese soldiers killed by Israel since hostilities broke out between it and Hezbollah in October of last year to 42.

French UN troops came under fire in Lebanon: Foreign Ministry

A United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol comprising French troops came under fire yesterday, France’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that none of its forces were wounded in the incident.

It did not say who was responsible for the shooting, but stressed that the safety and security of UN personnel, property and premises must be ensured.

“France reiterates that it is imperative that UNIFIL be able to exercise its freedom of movement so that it can fully implement its mandate,” the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Israel says hit over 100 targets in Lebanon in past day

The Israeli military says it has struck more than 100 targets in Lebanon over the past day and has “eliminated” two Hezbollah commanders on the weekend. The targets included “launchers, weapons storage facilities, command centres, and military structures”, the army said in a statement.

It also said: “On Sunday, the [air force] eliminated the commanders of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile and operations unit in the coastal sector.”