Sahel hospital evacuated despite Israel saying it would not attack it although at least four people died in nearby strikes
Israel has accused Hezbollah of keeping hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker under a hospital in the southern suburbs of Beirut, though it said it would not strike the complex.
The Sahel hospital in Dahiyeh was evacuated shortly afterwards, and Fadi Alame, its director, told Reuters that the allegations were untrue.
Continue reading...Officials say no further leaks but investigation under way into how documents came to be published on Telegram
US government officials investigating the leak of two classified intelligence papers assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran have said they did believe any more documents had been compromised.
However, the Biden administration remained “deeply disturbed” by the unauthorized release, John Kirby, the national security communications adviser, told reporters at a White House briefing on Monday.
Continue reading...Strikes targeted Al-Qard Al-Hassan buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley
Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley early on Monday morning, hitting buildings belonging to the Hezbollah-run banking institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan.
At least 10 airstrikes were carried out in the southern suburbs of the capital, with an entire building collapsing and a jet of fire streaming into the air in the Chiyah neighbourhood. A building close to Lebanon’s only commercial airport was also struck, video footage showing a smoke plume billowing while a nearby plane sat on the runway.
Continue reading...Suspects are accused of photographing and collecting information about Israeli bases and facilities
Israeli police and the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency say they have arrested a network of Israeli citizens spying for Iran who allegedly provided information on military bases and conducted surveillance of individuals.
The investigators claimed the network had been active for about two years. According to reports in the Israeli press, the suspects are accused of photographing and collecting information about Israeli bases and facilities, including the defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, known as the Kirya, and the Nevatim and Ramat David airbases.
Continue reading...Letter to governing body accuses Saudis of using sports to ‘distract from the regime’s brutal human rights reputation’
More than 100 professional female footballers have signed a letter calling on Fifa to end its sponsorship deal with the state-owned Saudi Arabian oil company, Aramco, accusing Saudi authorities of “brutal human rights violations”.
A four-year deal signed in April will see Aramco, which is 98.5% state-owned, sponsor major tournaments including the men’s World Cup in 2026 and the Women’s World Cup in 2027.
Continue reading...Warning of ‘lost generation’ in Adré and Farchana camps as Sudan’s civil war drives huge numbers across border
Refugees and aid agencies have warned of deteriorating conditions in overcrowded and severely underfunded camps in Chad, as intensifying violence and a hunger crisis in Sudan drive huge numbers across the border.
About 25,000 people – the vast majority women and children – crossed into eastern Chad in the first week of October, a record number for a single week in 2024. Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, hosts 681,944 Sudanese refugees – the highest number globally.
Continue reading...Detainees say they were sent into unexplored houses and tunnels before soldiers, in violation of Geneva conventions
After they burned down his family home in northern Gaza, Israeli troops separated Ramez al-Skafi from his family and detained him. They had a particular job in mind for him, he said.
For the next 11 days in early July, the 30-year-old Palestinian said he was sent into one house after another in his home district, Shuja’iya, watched by his Israeli military minders. According to the account he gave the Guardian, they turned him into a human shield against booby-traps and Hamas gunmen.
Continue reading...Hundreds evacuate after Israeli military says it will strike areas linked to Al-Qard Al-Hassan association, a US-sanctioned banking system
Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes on Sunday night as blasts were heard across its southern suburbs after Israel’s military said it was preparing strikes on branches of a banking system linked to Hezbollah, a further escalation of Israel’s nearly month-long war against the militant group.
Reuters witnesses saw dense plumes of black smoke billowing in the air in Lebanon’s capital after at least 10 blasts. Witnesses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighbourhood in the southern suburbs was reduced to rubble and the few people in the area had fled ahead of the explosion, resulting in no casualties.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron has banned Israeli companies from the Euronaval Salon defence fair in Paris next month
Israel’s foreign minister has announced he is taking “legal and diplomatic measures” against the decision by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to ban Israeli companies from showing their wares at an arms fair in Paris next month.
Israel Katz described the “boycott” as an anti-democratic measure that was “not acceptable, especially between friendly nations”.
Continue reading...This blog is closing now. You can read our full report on the latest Israeli attacks on Lebanon here and our report on the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza here.
At least 42,603 Palestinian people have been killed and 99,795 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Of those, 84 Palestinians were killed in the latest 24-hour reporting period, according to the ministry, which has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory.
Continue reading...Internet chatter and Oklahoma arrest of alleged would-be IS attacker indicate terror group’s planning
After the FBI arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma planning an election day shooting on behalf of the Islamic State, the terrorist organization re-entered what has become one of the most chaotic news cycles leading up to a November vote.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City admitted to investigators he and a co-conspirator expected to die as IS martyrs as they opened fire on crowds on election day, according to charging documents.
Continue reading...UN special coordinator says ‘nightmare in Gaza is intensifying’ and calls for immediate end to violence
At least 87 people have been killed or are missing and 40 injured after intense Israeli airstrikes overnight in the north of the Gaza Strip, part of the country’s ferocious renewed assault on the area, medics in the besieged Palestinian territory have said.
In the past 24 hours 108 people had been killed in bombings across the territory, according to local health officials on Sunday. “The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying. Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern strip amidst relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis,” Tor Wennesland, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Shia group has not claimed responsibility for attack on PM’s home but says it fired several barrages of rockets
Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in the seaside town of Caesarea was hit by a drone on Saturday, causing superficial damage and no casualties, as Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon rage unabated after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The Israeli government said that one of the prime minister’s three homes was targeted by three drones, two of which were intercepted, and that neither Netanyahu nor his wife, Sara, were home at the time.
Continue reading...The history of ‘decapitation strategies’ tells us it is almost impossible to know what effect assassinating a key figure such as Yahya Sinwar will have
Israelis and others have welcomed the killing of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 October 2023 attacks, as an “Osama bin Laden moment”. This reflects how many in Israel feel about the death of a man responsible for the murder of 1,200 people, mostly civilians and their compatriots, but terrorism experts have long debated the efficacy of eliminating the leaders of violent extremist groups, with some suggesting the strategy is counter-productive.
The truth is that no one is sure.
Continue reading...Airstrikes Israel says are targeting Hezbollah have killed the city’s mayor as well as civil defence workers
Hussein Jaber, the head of Nabatieh’s civil defence station, picked his way through a mess of shattered concrete and twisted metal piled knee high, surveying what was left of the city’s Ottoman open-air market, built in 1910 and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes last Saturday.
“When we were kids, everyone would come here to buy their things. This market wasn’t just for Nabatieh, but for all the villages around,” said Jaber, 30, gesturing at the ruined promenade, still smoking five days later.
Continue reading...At least 73 killed strike on northern Gaza, health ministry says, after drone attack on Netanyahu’s home. This blog is now closed.
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the news wires:
Naval drills hosted by Iran with the participation of Russia and Oman and observed by nine other countries began in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, Iran’s state TV said, according to Reuters.
Continue reading...Researchers urge caution after Jordan tomb excavation and say new clues about Nabataean culture may lie elsewhere
For one of the most famous ancient sites on the planet, there is a surprising amount about the city of Petra – and the Nabataean people who built it – that we don’t know for sure.
What exactly were their origins? How did their society operate? And why did they hand-carve such spectacular monuments into the reddish rock of the Jordanian desert?
Continue reading...This blog has now closed. You can read our latest story here
At least 28 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school turned shelter in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, amid accusations Israel intends to forcibly expel the remaining population in a renewed ground campaign.
The bombing of Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya on Thursday killed 28, including doctors and several children, and injured dozens more, according to health officials, who warned the final toll was likely to be higher. Another 11 people were killed in two separate airstrikes in Gaza City, and it was unclear how many were killed in other strikes in central and southern Gaza.
Continue reading...Deputy leader says group’s conditions for a ceasefire will be maintained, as Israel shows no sign of accepting them
Hamas has acknowledged the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar but vowed to keep fighting, in the face of international calls for an immediate ceasefire.
“We are continuing Hamas’s path,” Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy said from exile in Qatar, adding that the slain leader’s conditions for a ceasefire would not be compromised.
Continue reading...Nine deaths in a week, including soldier’s killing of 59-year-old woman as she farmed, brings charges of ‘war-like’ tactics
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are facing an increase in Israeli settler attacks and Israeli army violence at the start of the important olive harvest season, the UN has said.
The international body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) accused Israel on Friday of using “war-like” tactics in the West Bank amid a rise in killings and settler attacks since the olive harvest got under way last week. Nine people were killed by Israeli forces between 8-14 October, OCHA said.
Continue reading...