Rubbish and debris are scattered near damaged buildings in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. © AFP

Israeli strikes kill at least 46 Palestinians across Gaza, hospital hit, ministry says

31 Oct 2024, 05:55 · France 24

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01/11/2024 - 02:02

Israel disputes UNRWA chief claim that Israeli forces damaged agency's West Bank office

Israeli bulldozers damaged the office of UN aid agency UNRWA in the West Bank's Nur Shams camp on Thursday, the agency's chief said, with Israel disputing his account in the latest exchange between both sides.

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN Palestinian refugee agency, said on social media platform X that the office was severely damaged and was no longer usable. The Israeli military, however, issued a statement denying responsibility for any damage to the building.

"The claim that the UNRWA offices in Nur Shams were destroyed by IDF soldiers is false," the statement read, in reference to Israel Defence Forces.

"Terrorists planted explosives in the proximity of the UNRWA offices that were then detonated in an attempt to harm IDF soldiers. The explosives likely caused damage to the structure," the IDF statement said.

01/11/2024 - 01:37

Israel's waiver for Palestinian banks cooperation was 'very short term', US says

The U.S. government on Thursday said Israel's decision to sign a waiver to extend cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks for another month was for a "very short term duration" and would create "another looming crisis" by Nov. 30.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's spokesman said on Thursday he will sign a waiver to extend cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks for another month after the cabinet agreed.

01/11/2024 - 01:29

US, Israel defense ministers discuss regional de-escalation

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed "opportunities for regional de-escalation" with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant during a phone call, the Pentagon said on Thursday, amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Austin "also reviewed steps Israel is taking and should continue to advance to improve the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, and prospects for a hostage release and ceasefire deal," according to the readout.

01/11/2024 - 00:23

Netanyahu tells US envoys Israel looking to enforce potential Lebanon ceasefire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. envoys on Thursday that Israel's ability to counter threats to its security from Lebanon and return displaced people to the north were key elements of any ceasefire deal with Lebanon.

He was speaking shortly after a Hezbollah attack on northern Israel's Metula killed five people including an Israeli farmer and four foreign workers, while two more civilians were killed by shrapnel near the town of Kiryat Ata, Israeli authorities said.

Meanwhile, Beirut said a series of Israeli strikes had killed six health workers in southern Lebanon. "The main issue is ... Israel's ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon," Netanyahu's office cited him as telling two U.S. envoys.

Sources previously told Reuters that talks for Lebanon were centred on a 60-day pause to allow for the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which would entail militant group Hezbollah withdrawing its armed presence from south of the Litani River.

31/10/2024 - 21:50

Egypt denies assisting Israel’s military operations amid reports of drone smuggling weapons

Egypt’s army on Thursday denied it assisted Israeli military operations after media reports that an Egyptian port received a shipment of explosives bound for an Israeli defence contractor.

“The Egyptian Armed Forces categorically deny what has been circulated on social media and suspicious accounts and what is being promoted about assisting Israel in its military operations in general and in detail,” the army said in a statement.

31/10/2024 - 10:43

31/10/2024 - 20:14

WHO condemns attack on north Gaza hospital

The World Health Organization condemned an Israeli attack Thursday on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, which caused injuries and damaged recently-delivered lifesaving supplies.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) meanwhile voiced concern for one of its medics detained by Israeli forces in Kamal Adwan.

The UN health agency’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the attack “caused injuries to some hospital staff members, and hit a storage space containing lifesaving WHO supplies brought in via complex missions, as well as the desalination station and water tanks on top of the hospital.”

“The hospital has been barely functioning since the most recent raid. The latest attack is putting patients’ lives at grave risk. The health situation in northern Gaza is appalling. We call on everyone to protect hospitals and fully comply with international humanitarian law,” Tedros added.

31/10/2024 - 20:05

At least 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, hospital hit, says Gaza ministry

At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave’s health officials said.

Israel’s military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya for military purposes and said “dozens of terrorists” have been hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the charge.

Later on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike on two houses in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza strip killed at least nine Palestinians, medics told Reuters.

31/10/2024 - 19:40

Blinken says progress made on implementing UNSC Resolution 1701 in Lebanon

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said that there has been progress on an understanding of requirements for the effective implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which would be the basis of a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"It's important to make sure we have clarity, both from Lebanon and from Israel, about what would be required under 1701 to get its effective implementation," Blinken said

31/10/2024 - 19:39

Blinken says 'urgent' for Israel to facilitate Gaza polio vaccinations

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Thursday on Israel urgently to facilitate a second round of vaccinations in the war-battered Gaza Strip.

"It is urgent that this be completed in the days ahead, and we're looking to Israel to facilitate that action," Blinken told reporters.

31/10/2024 - 18:25

EU Council chief warns of ‘consequences’ of Israel’s UNRWA ban for key trade deal

The European Council President warned on Thursday that Israel’s decision to ban the key UN aid agency for Gaza could result in the annulment of a deal establishing Israeli trade relations with Brussels.

Israel passed a law on Monday banning the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA from operating in the country, raising concerns about its ability to provide relief in Gaza after over a year of war between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants.

“The decision made by parliament in Israel, if implemented, to ban UNRWA in Israel is absolutely not acceptable and I cannot imagine that there would be no consequences on the EU side,” Charles Michel told reporters in Geneva.

The deal, which entered into force in 2000, provides the legal basis for trade between the two parties. An EU website showed that the EU is Israel’s biggest trade partner, accounting for 28.8% of its trade in goods in 2022, while Israel is the EU’s 25th biggest trade partner.

31/10/2024 - 17:07

UN says war has killed one child a day in Lebanon in past month

The United Nations children’s agency said on Thursday that the Israel-Hezbollah war has killed at least one child a day in Lebanon over the past month.

“Since October 4th of this year, at least one child has been killed and 10 injured daily,” UNICEF said, adding that “the ongoing war in Lebanon is upending children’s lives”.

31/10/2024 - 16:50

‘Israel can reach any place in Iran as necessary,’ Netanyahu says

“Israel is able to reach anywhere in Iran should the need arise,” Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu said on Thursday.

Netanyahu, in a speech to new military officers, said that Israel has unprecedented freedom of action following its recent airstrikes against Iran.

“Israel today has more freedom of action in Iran than ever. We can reach any place in Iran as necessary,” Netanyahu said.

“The supreme goal I gave to the Israel Defence Forces and the security branches is to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon.”

31/10/2024 - 16:34

Banning UNRWA will lead to more suffering for Palestinians, agency says

According to Israeli media reports, Israel is planning on setting up what are being described as Hamas-free gated communities for Palestinians in Gaza.

Some are condemning the potential move, fearing it will exacerbate the already dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

Many are also denouncing Israel’s recent decision to ban the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency from operating in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, a move impeding the aid agency’s ability to operate in Gaza.

31/10/2024 - 16:16

Israel says another rocket barrage from Lebanon kills 2 in Israel, hours after 5 were killed

Rockets fired from Lebanon killed two more people in northern Israel on Thursday, Israeli medics said, raising the death toll there to seven in what marked the deadliest strikes to hit Israel since its military invaded southern Lebanon earlier this month.

The attack came as senior US diplomats were in the region to push for cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East in the Biden administration’s final months.

31/10/2024 - 16:05

All 3 Iranian Consulates in Germany ordered shut after execution of Iranian German prisoner

Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian Consulates in the country on Thursday in response to the execution of Iranian German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who lived in the United States and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces.

Sharmahd, 69, was put to death in Iran on Monday on terrorism charges, the Iranian judiciary said. That followed a 2023 trial that Germany, the US and international rights groups dismissed as a sham.

The decision to close the Iranian Consulates in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich, announced by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, leaves the Islamic Republic with only its embassy in Berlin.

31/10/2024 - 15:58

‘Any Hezbollah ceasefire must guarantee Israel security,’ Netanyahu tells US envoys

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein and US Middle East adviser Brett McGurk on Thursday that any ceasefire deal with Lebanon’s Hezbollah would have to guarantee Israeli security.

“The prime minister specified that the main issue is not paperwork for this or that deal, but Israel’s determination and capacity to ensure the deal’s application and to prevent any threat to its security from Lebanon,” Netanyahu’s office said after the meeting took place in Jerusalem.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also took part in the discussion which he said in a statement focused on “security arrangements as these relate to the northern arena and Lebanon, and efforts to ensure the return of 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza”.

31/10/2024 - 15:54

New Lebanon ceasefire proposal calls for 60-day truce, sources say

Lebanon’s prime minister expressed hope for a ceasefire deal with Israel soon, as Israel's public broadcaster reported a draft agreement for a 60-day truce.

FRANCE 24 International Affairs Editor Philip Turle had more.

31/10/2024 - 14:34

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 43,204 Palestinians killed in Israeli offensive since Oct. 7, 2023

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 43,204 people have been killed in the year-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The toll includes 41 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 101,641 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

31/10/2024 - 13:09

Three killed in Israel strike on Syria near Lebanon border, war monitor says

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three people were killed Thursday in Israeli strikes on Syria's Qusayr region near the border with Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah.

The Britain-based war monitor said a strike targeted "a weapons depot and a fuel storage facility for Hezbollah in the industrial city of Qusayr", killing three people.

Yesterday's key developments:

The Israeli military said Wednesday it had hit Hezbollah command centres during strikes on Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek and Nabatiyeh in the south.
Lebanon's health ministry said at least 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes on two areas in the eastern Baalbek region.
Israel hailed a French court's decision to overturn a French government ban on Israeli companies setting up stands or exhibiting hardware at the Euronaval defence trade fair.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reuters)