Main points on November 24th

Israel apologises for deadly attack on Lebanese troops: Report

The Times of Israel is reporting that the Israeli military has apologised for an attack in southern Lebanon that killed one Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others.

“The incident took place in an area where fighting is ongoing against Hezbollah,” the Israeli military was quoted as saying. “The [military] regrets the incident and clarifies that it is fighting in a targeted manner against [Hezbollah], and not against the Lebanese Army,” it added.

The report came as Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced Israel’s attack on the town of al-Amiriya as a “brazen rejection” of the ceasefire proposal that is currently under discussion.

Lebanon’s military has stayed out of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, but more than 40 Lebanese troops have been killed in Israeli attacks since hostilities between the two parties broke out into all-out war in September.

Fierce clashes reported in south Lebanon

Israel’s military continued to bombard villages and towns across the Nabatieh governorate in southern Lebanon overnight, according to the National News Agency (NNA), amid “fierce” clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters around the town of Khiam.

At least one person was killed in an Israeli air raid on Deir al-Zahrani, while 15 houses were destroyed in the town of Yammer al-Shaqif, it said.

Israeli forces also subjected Khiam to “huge bombings” as ground troops in Merkava tanks tried to advance on the town. Hezbollah fighters clashed with the troops in a  “fierce manner” and hit two of the tanks, according to NNA.

Clashes between the two sides were also reported on the outskirts of Shamaa and al-Bayyaada. NNA said Israeli troops were active in Deir Mimas, and that Hezbollah fighters had launched four rocket attacks on the soldiers in the area.

Earlier, we reported that Hezbollah attacks forced Israeli troops to retreat from a strategic hilltop position in al-Bayyaada on Sunday.

UN’s Syria envoy says Middle East ‘at a very critical point’

Geir O Pedersen has called for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza to avoid Syria and Iraq getting dragged into Israel’s wars in the Middle East. He made the comments after meeting Syrian Foreign Minister Bassam Sabbagh in Damascus on Sunday.

“We agreed that it is extremely critical that we de-escalate so that Syria is not further dragged into this,” Pedersen said. “And you also have seen now increased nervousness in Iraq when it comes to development. So, as I said, we are at a very critical point. So, I will continue to call for immediate de-escalation.”

The envoy noted that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have resulted in some 400,000 Syrians, who had sought refuge in the country during Syria’s civil war, to return home. “This places a heavy responsibility on the government and the international community,” Pedersen said, calling on the Syrian government to continue to provide protection and security for the returnees.

Ben-Gvir speaks out against a ceasefire deal in Lebanon

Israel’s far-right national security minister says, “An agreement with Lebanon is a big mistake,” following reports in Israeli and US media that a deal to stop the war between Hezbollah and Israel is closer than ever.

“A historic missed opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah. I understand all the constraints and reasons, and it is still a grave mistake. … Precisely now, when Hezbollah is beaten and longs for a cease-fire, it is forbidden to stop,” he wrote in a post on X.

“As I warned before in Gaza, I warn now as well: Mr. Prime Minister – it is not too late to stop this agreement! We must continue until the absolute victory!” he added.

Gallant set to travel to the US for the first time since ICC arrest warrant: Report

Israeli Army Radio reports that the former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will travel to the United States less than a week after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants against him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.

The court had found that there were reasonable grounds that the Israeli siege of Gaza “created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population”.

The ICC pre-trial judges who issued the warrants said Netanyahu and Gallant faced charges of using starvation as a method of warfare as well as crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.

US officials have largely rejected the ruling and questioned the court’s legitimacy.

The ICC was established in 1998 when the Rome Statute was signed. Although the US helped negotiate the accord, it did not join the ICC, which means Washington would not have to comply with the arrest warrant when Gallant sets foot in its jurisdiction.

UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit: UK foreign secretary

David Lammy says there “would be a court process and due process would be followed in relation to those issues” when asked if the UK would fulfil the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.

“We are signatories to the Rome Statute; we have always been committed to our obligations under international law and international humanitarian law,” Lammy told reporters at a G7 meeting in Italy.

What does that mean? Will they arrest Netanyahu / Gallant or put up some show trial? Staying vague on purpose.

UAE says three Uzbeks arrested in murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi

The United Arab Emirates Interior Ministry says “initial investigations” into the three suspects, aged 28 to 33, have begun. Zvi Kogan, a resident of the UAE, was found dead on Sunday. He had gone missing on Thursday.

The ministry said authorities were taking “the necessary measures to uncover the details, circumstances and motives of the incident”.

Netanyahu described Kogan’s killing as a “heinous anti-Semitic terrorist act”, but Israeli authorities have provided no details.

#BreakingNews :

Ministry of Interior: Security authorities identify the perpetrators of the murder of the Moldovan citizen and initiate legal proceedings.

The Ministry of Interior announced that the competent security authorities have begun initial investigations with the three… pic.twitter.com/f5eNwVvdCa

— وزارة الداخلية (@moiuae) November 25, 2024

How has Haaretz covered Israel’s wars?

As we’ve been reporting, Israel’s government has approved sanctions on the Haaretz newspaper for publishing articles that “hurt” Israel.

Here’s a look at some of the articles Haaretz has published:

_{A photograph published by Haaretz in December 2023 shows Palestinian men bound and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers}

Does Meta censor pro-Palestinian voices?

The way people follow news events has now changed dramatically with digital media, including Israel’s war on Gaza. Al Jazeera examined whether Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has been censoring pro-Palestinian voices on social media.

Not available on YouTube: https://aje.io/afq66v?update=3347264

Anyway it's been brought up since last December

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/meta-systemic-censorship-palestine-content
https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/10/07/human-rights-ngos-say-social-media-platforms-continue-to-censor-pro-palestine-content

Some 25 percent of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have scabies

For the first time since cases of scabies were identified in May, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) has admitted to an outbreak of the skin disease among Palestinian prisoners, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has said.

According to the IPS, 2,874 prisoners have contracted the contagious condition – which causes severe itching, rashes and sores – over the past year, with 1,704 still actively infected.

“Current data reveals that 430 prisoners in Ramon and Nafha prisons are battling the condition, alongside 596 in Megiddo and 566 in the Ketziot prison facility. Additionally, dozens of cases have been reported in Ofer detention centre and other detention centres,” the group said in a statement.

In response to the outbreak, the IPS confirmed it had postponed lawyers’ visits and cancelled court appearances for affected prisoners. These measures were revealed in a state response to a High Court petition filed by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and other human rights organisations.

The petition calls for urgent action to eradicate the scabies epidemic, asserting that the IPS has failed to implement widely recognised medical interventions necessary to contain the outbreak.

Life in Gaza’s tent camps

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting dismal conditions in the tent camps of southern Gaza as winter brings cold temperatures and rough weather, including heavy rain and high tides.

On the southern coast, higher tides flooded and washed away some tents housing displaced Palestinians, AJA reported. “Citizens are living in catastrophic conditions due to winter and cold weather,” AJA said.

More than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza do not have sufficient shelter to weather winter this year, according to aid groups. Israel’s relentless bombardment has flattened homes and destroyed infrastructure across the enclave, forcing displaced Palestinians to take shelter in makeshift tents made from tarpaulin, blankets, cardboard and even old rice sacks.


_{A child runs through muddy puddles between makeshift tents in the Yarmouk Stadium, in Gaza City, in the north of Gaza on Sunday}

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza forced to shelter in bombed out schools

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) posted footage of displaced Palestinian families sheltering in schools damaged in Israel’s bombardment.

“Despite the school being damaged from ongoing military operations, many people who have recently fled besieged north Gaza are forced to shelter here because they have nowhere else to go,” it said in a post on X.

The agency added that people in Gaza are at continuous risk of dehydration and disease as water wells have stopped working due to fuel shortages. “In besieged northern Gaza alone, around 70,000 people struggle to access clean water,” it said.

At our school-turned-shelter in Gaza City this morning, families queue in the rain for healthcare at an @UNRWA medical point.

Despite the school being damaged from ongoing military operations, many people who have recently fled besieged north #Gaza are forced to shelter here… pic.twitter.com/jutxRxKrVa

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 24, 2024

Winter to worsen health crisis for Palestinians in Gaza: UNRWA official

In comments to the UK newspaper Financial Times, Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, says an estimated half a million people in Gaza could be flooded with sewage once winter rains start.

“When it rains, sewage is going to pile up in lower [elevation] areas,” she told the newspaper. All displaced people “are using some kind of makeshift toilet and essentially trying to just get the sewage away from their shelter. But that doesn’t mean it’s not accumulating near somebody else’s or on the street.”

Israeli attacks have decimated infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, leaving Palestinians there to improvise. In winter, Wateridge said, malnourished people “will get sicker because it all works together against their health and wellbeing”.

Israel is still making it difficult to get aid into the Strip, she continued, saying 33 trucks loaded with mattresses had been parked at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza for six months due to restrictions on aid deliveries.

“At the current rate of aid entering it will take two years to get it to everybody, so that they can all have basic things like mattresses, blankets and waterproof tents and tarps,” she said.

In #Gaza, the first rains of the winter season mean even more suffering. Around half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding.

The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every strike.#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/2Kl4MmOt3P

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 25, 2024

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians swept away during storms in Gaza

Parents are telling us that their children were confused about whether there was a thunderstorm or an air attack. They described this night as one of the hardest nights. Israeli forces are not only striking Palestinian tents but there have also been a lot of restrictions on the delivery of these tents.

We’re talking about more than a year of Palestinians displaced from one place to another multiple times, and most of these families do not have any shelter or protection. They do not even have any winter clothes.

The situation is very, very hard. More than half of Gaza’s population are living in makeshift camps with tents that have been there since last winter and are very fragile. They say they can’t afford to bring more tents because they are very expensive, and even if they were available, it would not be enough for many families.

Palestinians are not able to secure a loaf of bread for their families. Bakeries are not working today in Gaza because of a lack of fuel and flour.

Gaza experiencing tragic conditions worsened by rain: Civil Defence

Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal has spoken to Al Jazeera about the humanitarian situation in Gaza:

More than 1,000 doctors, nurses killed in Israel’s war on Gaza

Local authorities in Gaza have again accused Israel of deliberately bombing, besieging and storming hospitals in the enclave and killing more than 1,000 doctors and nurses. In a statement to the Wafa news agency, the officials said an additional 310 medical personnel from Gaza have been “arrested, tortured and executed” in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli military has also “prevented the entry of medical supplies, health delegations, and hundreds of surgeons into Gaza”, the statement added.

Kamal Adwan doctor accuses Israel of using a new type of weapon in northern Gaza

Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, has renewed an appeal for global intervention in a letter published in English on Telegram.

“We are speaking from the center of the intensive care unit, the only one in the northern Gaza Strip, after enduring over fifty days of siege,” he wrote.

“After the failure of the occupying army to evacuate the north, they have now begun to directly target our healthcare system… For the past seven consecutive days, we have been bombed directly,” he said. These include attacks on the hospital’s reception, emergency departments, the electricity generators, the oxygen station and the water network, he said.

The doctor, who was also wounded in an Israeli attack on Saturday, said “everyone here is at risk” and accused Israeli forces of using a new type of weapon against people at the facility. “Specifically a quadcopter that drops bombs containing tiny fragments that are nearly invisible to the naked eye. These projectiles penetrate the bodies of our workers, causing severe bleeding and damage to internal organs,” he said.

Israeli forces are waging a “campaign of extermination” in northern Gaza, he said. “Once again, we urgently call on the world to stop the bloodshed occurring in the northern Gaza Strip."

Abu Safia also called for the immediate release of dozens of medical staff who were detained by Israeli forces in late October.

“They were brutally detained, beaten, and insulted, dragged in an inhuman manner,” Abu Safia said in his letter posted on Telegram.

“Unfortunately, we still have no information on their whereabouts or wellbeing,” he added. “We call on the world to intervene immediately to ascertain the fate of our colleagues who were arrested and to secure their release without delay.”

‘Designed to kill’: Israel accused of using bombs that scatter tiny metal cubes