Heavy fighting as southern Lebanon comes under fierce Israeli bombardment

There have been several strikes since this morning. In the past hour only, there have been at least four air strikes on the outskirts of Tyre. There was also an air strike on the city of Tyre. In parallel, the coastal line is being bombarded with artillery.

Also, the Ministry of Public Health has said five paramedics were killed in two separate incidents. There are also reports coming from the UN forces in Lebanon that four Italian soldiers were injured in shelling.

Meanwhile, there are clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.

In the western sector, the Israeli forces are trying to get to the coastal line and close it to besiege the city of Tyre. They’ve been pushing towards the town of Chamaa. In parallel, there’s another operation going on towards the eastern sector.

Khiam, a major town on the border with Israel, is also under fierce Israeli bombardment and is also witnessing fierce battles between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli military, which is trying to push through Khiam to get farther.

The Israeli army is saying that is the second phase of its operation. What they mean is dismantling Hezbollah’s capabilities in these areas.

But given the fact that we’re talking about places like Chamaa and Khiam, after 53 days, it seems the Israeli army has not been able to cross major border towns towards the depth that they were looking for, which was 7 to 10km [4.3 to 6.2 miles].

Israel’s attack on Beirut’s Chiyah area instills ‘panic’

People are in “shock” and there is a lot of “panic” in the aftermath of Israel’s attack on Beirut’s southern suburb of Chiyah, says Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr from the site.

While Beirut’s southern suburbs have been repeatedly hit in recent months as Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon, it is the first time this neighbourhood – located near a busy highway – has been hit, said Khodr.

“People are coming out of their homes and saying, ‘We’ve lost everything, look at our homes,'” she added, reporting just metres away from where the attack took place. “So people are now concerned that these strikes are expanding. Some are asking each other whether they should leave this area for good.”

Most of the 700,000 people who live in Beirut’s southern suburbs have left, but a few thousand stayed behind because they don’t want to leave their homes and businesses, she explained.

“This building is likely to fall, or at least there will be a lot of falling debris, so [there’s] chaos and panic and really a lot of concern, because the bid by the US administration to bring about a ceasefire has apparently failed,” Khodr said.

Fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon: UN

Intense fighting is taking place in southern Lebanon between Israeli troops and Hezbollah, according to The Associated Press news agency, which cited the UN. Its UNIFIL peacekeeping force told the agency that it is monitoring “heavy clashes” in the coastal town of Naqoura and the village of Chamaa to the northeast.

UNIFIL’s headquarters are located in Naqoura, close to the border with Israel.

“We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said.

Asked if the peacekeepers at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes, for the moment.”

UN official warns of spiralling violence in Syria as Israel increases air attacks

The UN’s deputy special envoy for Syria, Najat Rochdi, has warned the country is being battered by regional conflicts and increasing attacks within the country will likely make this year its most violent since 2020.

Speaking at the UN Security Council on Thursday, Rochdi urged all countries and parties with influence “to prevent Syria being further swept into a broader conflagration” and warned that “once again, Israeli air strikes on Syria have increased significantly, both in frequency and scope”.

Rochdi pointed to the attack near Palmyra city on Wednesday that killed dozens, and which she said was “likely the deadliest Israeli strike in Syria to date”.

Israeli strikes on residential areas in the capital Damascus as well as on bridges, roads and border crossings have further hindered civilians fleeing the war in Lebanon and disrupted essential imports and exports, she said.

Edem Wosornu, the UN humanitarian office’s operations director, said that since late September, 540,000 people have arrived in Syria from Lebanon – amid Israel’s attack on the country – and an estimated two-thirds of them are Syrians.

Record number of aid workers killed this year – most in Gaza: OCHA

There have been 281 aid workers killed this year, according to the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD), a USAID-funded project of the international research group Humanitarian Outcomes.

The count, the highest since the project began tracking victims 27 years ago, was cited by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“The war in Gaza is driving up the numbers, with more than 320 humanitarian personnel killed since 7 October 2023,” the OCHA statement said. “Many were killed in the line of duty while providing humanitarian assistance. Most were staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).”

Humanitarians “are working courageously and selflessly in places like Gaza, Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine and so on. They show the best humanity has to offer, and they are getting killed in return – in record numbers,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for OCHA.

“These numbers will send shockwaves around the humanitarian community, especially on the front lines of the response,” he said.

Four killed in Israeli strikes on al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah

Israeli fighter jets bombed a tent housing displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza, killing a woman and her daughter, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report.

Two people have also been killed and several others injured following an Israeli air strike on a house in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Two killed in attack near Rafah

Palestinian ambulance crews have retrieved the bodies of two people killed in Gaza’s southern town of Khirbet al-Adas, near Rafah, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues on the ground report.

Meanwhile, the death toll from an earlier attack on a tent camp in the al-Mawasi area of central Gaza has risen to three, including two children, our colleagues also report.

Israel claims to have killed five Hamas fighters in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman, says the army and the Shin Bet internal security service have killed five Hamas fighters in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya town.

He claimed the air attack that killed them came in the early hours of Thursday.

Hamas said on Thursday afternoon that the Israeli attacks in Beit Lahiya killed 112 people, including 64 children and women, in “four brutal massacres by bombing a residential neighbourhood around Kamal Adwan Hospital and other areas”.

Jenin residents return after Israeli raid to find damaged, destroyed homes

Many residents of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin left their homes on Tuesday night as Israeli forces entered on the pretext of rooting out Palestinian fighters.

But once inside, Israeli forces conducted chaos, torching homes and gutting rooms. After a harrowing wait, residents returned to inspect what was left of their destroyed homes.

Clashes reported as Israeli military raids Nablus

Israeli forces have stormed the old quarter of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues.

Palestinian resistance groups have said they opened fire and set off explosive devices targeting Israeli troops as they raided the city. No casualties or injuries have been reported so far.

Israeli military raids have been reported in other locations in the occupied West Bank in recent hours, including:

Israeli settlers threaten to set Palestinian families on fire during attack: UN report

Israeli settler violence, intimidation and harassment has driven more than 1,720 Palestinians in Bedouin and other herding communities from their homes in the occupied West Bank in just over a year, the UN reports.

Also, between November 12 and 18, a total of 25 Palestinians, including children, were displaced as a result of Israeli settler violence directed against them, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report on the occupied West Bank.

Among the 1,722 Palestinians displaced in total by settlers since October 7 2023, there were 835 children, according to OCHA.

In one attack by armed settlers on November 15, assailants threatened Palestinian families to leave their homes at gunpoint and warned they would be set on “fire if they stayed”. “During the attack, settlers broke the windows and physically assaulted both the father and his son” who were in one of the homes that were raided, the UN said.

“The father later reported that his family was traumatized and had to leave without gathering their belongings,” OCHA adds.

Ample evidence of Israel using food as weapon of war: Analyst

In light of the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli leaders, analyst Neve Gordon says there is “substantial” evidence of Israel using food as a method of war.

“First, there’s the intent and we have heard utterances both by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant saying they intend to deprive the Palestinians in Gaza of fuel, electricity and food,” Gordon, a professor at Queen Mary University in London, told Al Jazeera.

“And second, we have the level of trucks that were entering the Gaza Strip before October, which was around 500 trucks … and it has gone down recently to only 50 or 100 trucks or so.”

Gordon said since Israeli authorities are “controlling all the borders to the Gaza Strip”, this is evidence that it isn’t providing the necessary food items.

“We also have evidence from doctors and different UN agencies that have been telling us for months that malnutrition is spreading among the population. In several places, there’s over 20-30 percent of children suffering from acute malnutrition.”

_{A Palestinian child whose health is deteriorating from malnutrition in Jabalia, northern Gaza}

Bread increasingly hard to find in central Gaza

The UN says Gaza’s entire population is on the verge of famine. Aid workers in charity kitchens are still cooking what food they can – but nowhere near enough to feed all who are hungry

In central Gaza, Majdi Yaghi, 61, a displaced resident from Gaza City, said it’s increasingly difficult to find bread to eat. “This is the third day that I have come to Zadna Bakery, and I still cannot get bread. … I have children to feed, and I am able to pay. What about others who are not able?”

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification defines famine as when at least 20 percent of people in an area are suffering extreme food shortages, at least 30 percent of children are acutely malnourished, and two people of 10,000 die daily from starvation, malnutrition or disease.

G7 ministers to discuss ICC warrants next week: Italy PM

G7 ministers meeting in Italy next week will discuss the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says.

Meloni’s hard-right coalition government appears divided. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday that Italy would have to arrest Israel’s premier if he visited – only for Meloni’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, to say Netanyahu would be welcome in Italy.

“In the coming days I will delve deeper into the reasons that led to the ICC’s decision. Reasons that should always be objective and not political in nature,” Meloni said in a statement.

“One point remains clear from this government – there cannot be an equivalence between the responsibility of the state of Israel and the terrorist organisation Hamas,” Meloni said.

Why are they forcing double standards?? Not even hiding it. International law should treat everyone equal.

Besides that, the responsibility of the occupying party is indeed not the same as that of a resistance group. Both engage in terrorist activities, however one goes much further and turned terrorism into a daily tactic, killing dozens to over 100 people daily.

How about end your complicity in mass murder, starvation, torture and ethnic cleansing.

Nearly 80% of Israelis support probe into October 7 attacks

Seventy-nine percent of Israelis support a state commission of inquiry into the failures that led to the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2003, according to a poll by Israeli Channel 12. Eight percent of the public opposes the probe while 13 percent of respondents said they are not sure.

Several Israeli leaders have admitted responsibility for not stopping the assaults that last year killed more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 captive. Yet Netanyahu has so far refused to admit responsibility himself or to launch an investigation, saying the matter will be dealt with once the war on Gaza is over.

His refusal to take any responsibility has drawn the ire of many people who maintain the Israeli leader has been extending the war to guarantee his political survival.

Six Israeli soldiers die by suicide; thousands get mental health treatment: Report

At least six Israeli soldiers have taken their own lives in recent months, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reports, citing severe psychological distress caused by prolonged wars in Gaza and Lebanon as the primary cause.

The actual number of suicides may be far higher because the Israeli military has yet to release official figures despite a promise to do so by the end of the year.

The report highlights a broader mental health crisis within the Israeli army. Thousands of soldiers have sought help from military mental health clinics or psychologists with about one-third of those affected showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The number of soldiers suffering psychological trauma may exceed those with physical injuries from the war, it said.

Hezbollah launches 30 rockets in less than 20 minutes

Hezbollah fired three waves of rockets for a total of 30 missiles in less than 20 minutes towards northern Israel including the port city of Haifa, Israeli Army Radio reports. The army said some of the projectiles were intercepted while “crashes were detected”. No injuries were reported.

The Lebanese armed group says it has launched rockets at Israeli forces in the Deir Mimas triangle.

Israeli strikes kill 62 people in Lebanon in one day, bringing toll to 3,645

Israeli attacks killed at least 62 people and injured 111 in Lebanon on Thursday, bringing the toll since October 2023 to 3,645 dead and 15,355 wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

Death toll in eastern Lebanon attack rises to 7

Earlier we reported on the killing of five people in the Baalbek area, including the director of Dar al-Amal University Hospital in the town of Douris. The death toll has now risen to seven, the Health Ministry announced.

"This martyrdom comes amidst the ongoing attacks launched by the Israeli enemy army on health workers and facilities, which constitutes a series of war crimes,” it said in a post on X.