Middle East crisis live: death toll rises in southern Lebanese city as Israeli army urges residents to evacuate | Middle East and north Africa


Death toll from Israeli attack on Tyre rises to 7, Lebanon’s health ministry says

Lebanon’s health ministry has increased the death toll from the Israeli attack on the southern city of Tyre from five to seven, and revised the number of people injured from 10 to 17 (see earlier post at 07.51 for more details).

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Key events

EU foreign policy chief renews calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Lebanon

Spanish politician Josep Borrell, who serves as the EU’s high representative of the union for foreign affairs, has called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Lebanon and condemned Israel’s “unacceptable attacks” on UN peacekeepers in the region.

Borrell told a forum in Barcelona that the bloc calls “for an immediate ceasefire across the blue lines”.

He added: “More than ever we need to reclaim the humanity lost in Gaza, while the world seems unable, or unwilling, to stop the man-made catastrophe unfolding before our eyes.”

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The Palestinian Red Crescent has said three people have been killed in an Israeli drone attack on Gaza City.

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100,000 residents ‘trapped in northern Gaza’ – Palestinian emergency service

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service has said about 100,000 people are trapped in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun areas without medical or food supplies.

The emergency service said its operations had ground to a halt because of the three-week-long Israeli assault back into the northern part of the Strip, which the IDF claims is being conducted to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping there.

Residents, however, say Israeli troops have besieged shelters and levelled civilian infrastructure, while killing many civilians in deadly airstrikes. Residents in the north, under sweeping evacuation orders, say they feel trapped as there is nowhere safe for them to flee to due to the relentless Israeli attacks there.

Meanwhile, north Gaza’s three hospitals, where officials refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli attacks during the assault and run out of medical, food and fuel stocks.

On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said there was only one of roughly 70 medical staff – a paediatrician – was left at Kamal Adwan hospital after Israel “detained and expelled” the others (see post at 10.25 for more details).

Palestinians view the damage done by Israeli forces after the military withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia. Photograph: Reuters
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Death toll in Gaza reaches 43,020, says health ministry

At least 43,020 Palestinian people have been killed and 101,110 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The ministry has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory.

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Hezbollah said its fighters have targeted “an Israeli enemy troop gathering” near Wazzani village in southern Lebanon “with a rocket salvo”. The Lebanese militant group earlier claimed four attacks with rockets and artillery on Israeli troops at Fatima’s gate, a shuttered border crossing at the nearby Lebanese village of Kfar Kila.

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Lebanon’s foreign ministry has complained to the UN security council over an Israeli airstrike last week that killed three journalists in Hasbaya, in the country’s south.

Wissam Qassem, a camera operator with TV station Al-Manar, and news channel Al Mayadeen’s Ghassan Najjar, a correspondent, and Mohammad Reda, a technician, were killed in the strike.

As my colleague William Christou explains in this story, the airstrikes hit a group of small chalets that 18 journalists from at least seven different media outlets – including Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabia and TRT – were staying in while covering Israel’s war on Lebanon.

Lebanon has now submitted “a complaint to the security council regarding the latest Israeli attacks that targeted journalists and media facilities in Hasbaya in south Lebanon, and the Ouzai area” in Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to a statement from the foreign ministry.

“The repeated Israeli targeting of media crews is a war crime” and Israel must be “held to account and punished”, the statement added.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati said the attack was deliberate and both he and Information Minister Ziad Makary labelled it a war crime. The Israeli army said on Friday that the airstrike was “under review”, claiming it targeted Hezbollah militants. Israel has killed at least 12 journalists in Lebanon – six of whom were on duty – since 8 October 2023.

Three journalists killed by Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon – video

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Death toll from Israeli attack on Tyre rises to 7, Lebanon’s health ministry says

Lebanon’s health ministry has increased the death toll from the Israeli attack on the southern city of Tyre from five to seven, and revised the number of people injured from 10 to 17 (see earlier post at 07.51 for more details).

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X suspends new Hebrew-language account for Iran’s supreme leader

The social media platform X – owned by Elon Musk – has suspended a new account on behalf of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, that posted messages in Hebrew.

The account was suspended early on Monday with a brief note appended to it saying: “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules.” It wasn’t immediately clear what the violation was.

Khamenei said in a speech on Sunday that Israel’s airstrikes on Iran early on Saturday “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation.

The X account opened on Sunday with a message in Hebrew reading: “In the name of God, the most merciful,” a standard Islamic greeting.

🔰 Zionists are making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don’t know Iran. They still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power, initiative, and determination of the #Iranian people. We need to make them understand these things.

Imam Khamenei
Oct. 27, 2024 pic.twitter.com/4h2K5sZV8G

— Khamenei Media (@Khamenei_m) October 27, 2024

A second message corresponded to a speech Khamenei gave on Sunday and was sent on his English account as: “Zionists are making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don’t know Iran. They still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people.”

Khamenei – the ultimate authority in Iran – has reportedly previously had his Facebook and Instagram accounts removed by Meta over his support of Hamas after the militant group’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

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Israel army urges immediate evacuation for residents in Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre

The Israeli army told residents in parts of Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre to leave immediately, warning that it would attack Hezbollah targets there.

“Hezbollah’s activities force the (Israeli army) to act against it forcefully,” military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X that included a map of targeted areas in the coastal city.

He wrote:

Hezbollah’s activities force the IDF to act against it forcefully, as we do not intend to harm you.

You must immediately move out of the area marked in red and head north of the Awali River.

Anyone who is near the elements of Hezbollah, its facilities and combat equipment, is putting his life in danger.

#عاجل 🔴 بيان عاجل لسكان منطقة صور في لبنان وتحديدًا إلى المتواجدين في المباني بين الشوارع: دكتور علي الخليل، حيرام، محمد الزيات، نبيه بري

⭕️أنشطة حزب الله تجبر جيش الدفاع على العمل ضده وبقوة حيث لا ننوي المساس بكم

⭕️عليكم الابتعاد فوراً الى خارج المنطقة المحددة بالأحمر والتوجه… pic.twitter.com/6rc2GpVtQQ

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 28, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has repeatedly issued evacuation orders during its assault on Lebanon over the last month. Lebanon’s health ministry said earlier today that an Israeli airstrike in the centre of the city killed at least five people and injured 10 others.

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Israeli soldiers arrested around 100 suspected Hamas militants during a raid in Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, the military has claimed.

The Israeli military said:

The soldiers apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians.

Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents and in the surrounding area.

Israeli troops withdrew from the Kamal Adwan hospital on Saturday, after storming the medical facility and detaining dozens of its staff.

Kamal Adwan, along with the nearby Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals, have reported dire shortages of fuel and other supplies amid relentless Israeli attacks in the area over recent weeks.

Hussam Abu Safia, director of the hospital, told Al Jazeera on Friday that most of the surgeons had been arrested by Israeli troops, meaning urgent surgeries could not be performed.

Injured Palestinian people lie on beds and the floor at Kamal Adwan hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital in Jabalia. Photograph: Reuters

The hospital is located in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historical refugee camps, which has become the centrepiece of a renewed assault on northern Gaza by the Israeli military, who claim they are trying to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.

Tens of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped in Jabalia, where conditions are rapidly deteriorating. The entirety of the northern part of the Strip is under evacuation orders but some residents have not left as they say there is nowhere safe to flee to.

Over the last month, there have been frequent reports of Palestinian civilians in Jabalia being killed in Israeli airstrikes, which have caused widespread destruction, levelling civilian infrastructure. Israel’s 24-day assault on northern Gaza has killed more than 1,000 people, mostly women and children, according to reports.

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Israeli forces have detained at least 12 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank over the last day, according to a joint statement by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

The detentions were reported by Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, as having occurred across various areas, including Hebron, Nablus and Bethlehem.

Israeli occupation forces raided the al-Masri family’s home in Askar refugee camp, east of Nablus, early this morning, causing significant damage to their belongings. pic.twitter.com/HxaJ48ia9U

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 28, 2024

It is estimated that over 11,500 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since last October.

Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the West Bank.

They have described alleged abusive and humiliating treatment, including holding blindfolded and handcuffed detainees in cramped cages as well as beatings, intimidation and harassment.

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Israel’s parliament is expected to vote on a pair of bills today that could effectively bar the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, from operating in Israel, and severely limit its activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, filed this story yesterday about a UK minister warning that Israel’s reputation would be severely damaged if the legislation passed. Here is some of what he wrote:

Israel’s reputation as a democracy would be “deeply harmed” if the Knesset pressed ahead with bills this week that would end all Israeli government cooperation with the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, the UK’s Middle East minister has said.

Hamish Falconer said such a move at a time when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was catastrophic and worsening would “neither be in Israel’s interest or realistic”.

His remarks are the strongest criticism yet by a western government minister of the legislation, which could be voted on as early as this week unless the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, intervenes.

He was speaking as a joint statement was released from seven European foreign ministries, including the UK’s, urging Israel to drop the proposed bill, saying: “It is crucial that Unrwa and other UN organisations be fully able to deliver humanitarian aid and their assistance to those who need it most, fulfilling their mandates effectively.”

Falconer said: “We are deeply concerned by legislation currently under consideration by the Israeli Knesset which would critically undermine Unrwa. It is neither in Israel’s interest nor realistic.

“Given the agency’s vital role in delivering aid and essential services at a time when more aid should be getting into Gaza, it is deeply harmful to Israel’s international reputation as a democratic country that its lawmakers are taking steps that would make the delivering of food, water, medicines and healthcare more difficult.”

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Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, is reporting that a child was killed after being shot by an Israeli drone in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, and that two people were killed in Israeli bombing of the al-Bureij camp, also in the central Gaza Strip. The Guardian has not yet independently verified this reporting.

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Iraq complains to UN over Israel’s use of its airspace for its attack on Iran

As we mentioned in the opening summary, Iraq has condemned Israel’s use of its airspace to attack neighbouring Iran in a protest letter sent to UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, and the UN security council. Here is a little more information on the letter.

A statement from government spokesperson Bassim Alawadi said the letter condemns “the Zionist entity’s blatant violation of Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to carry out an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on 26 October”.

Alawadi said the Iraqi foreign ministry would raise “this violation” in talks with the US, Israel’s biggest arms supplier and most powerful diplomatic ally.

The Iranian military said that some Israeli aircraft had fired a “small number of long-range missiles… from a distance”, inside the US-patrolled airspace of Iraq, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

Baghdad has close ties with Tehran but also a strategic partnership with Washington, which has troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

While the Iraqi government has sought to avoid being dragged into the escalating regional conflict, some pro-Iran factions have launched attacks on US forces in the region and claimed responsibility for drones sent to Israel.

The UN security council is expected to meet today to discuss Israel’s attack on Iran, which targeted military sites in several regions of the country and killed at least four soldiers. The Swiss UN mission said the meeting had been requested by Iran with the support of Algeria, China and Russia.

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Tehran will “use all available tools” to respond to Israel’s attack on military targets in Iran over the weekend, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has said.

Speaking at a weekly televised news conference, Baghaei, who didn’t specify what the nature of Iran’s response would be, said:

(Iran) will use all available tools to deliver a definite and effective response to the Zionist regime (Israel).

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said yesterday that the attack should not be “exaggerated or downplayed” but did not vow immediate retaliation, while the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, also adopted a cautious tone, saying Tehran would “give an appropriate response” to the attack.

Middle East in turmoil as Israel attacks Iran – video report

The Israeli air force struck about 20 military bases across Iran, including missile and drone manufacturing sites and air defence systems, in the early hours of Saturday. The attack, which killed at least four soldiers, was in retaliation to a missile barrage launched by Iran on 1 October in which about 180 ballistic missiles fired towards Tel Aviv and military bases. Most of these missiles were intercepted by Israel, with the help of western allies.

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An Israeli attack in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City has killed at least three people, Al Jazeera reported. We will bring you more information on this as we get it.

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Death toll from Israeli attack on Tyre rises to at least 5, Lebanese health ministry says

In the opening summary, we mentioned that an Israeli attack on the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre had killed at least three people.

Lebanon’s health ministry is now saying the Israeli airstrike in the centre of the city on Monday killed at least five people and injured 10 others. The ministry said emergency workers are removing the rubble from the building struck this morning.

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Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Middle East crisis amid Israel’s ongoing wars on Lebanon and Gaza.

The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned Israel it would face “bitter consequences” after its attack on Iranian military sites early on Saturday, according to local media reports.

The Israeli airstrikes killed four Iranian soldiers, Iran’s army said. As my colleague Patrick Wintour writes in this story, a debate has been set off inside Iran on whether the attack, more limited than some had predicted, warrants a military response and if the country will be seen as weak if it does nothing.

The Israel’s airstrikes were in retaliation for the 1 October attack by Iran, which fired about 200 missiles at Israel, though most were intercepted by the country’s air defences.

IRGC chief Maj Gen Hossein Salami was quoted on Monday as having said that Israel had “failed to achieve its ominous goals” with its air attack on Saturday, calling it a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness”. He warned that “its bitter consequences will be unimaginable” for Israel.

The IRGC is a major military, political and economic force in Iran. It holds significant power within the country, with its own ground forces, navy and air force.

Major General Hossein Salami is among the IRGC’s senior officers who routinely advise the supreme leader. Photograph: Sepahnews/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Here is a summary of the day’s other main events:

  • Israel’s parliament – the Knesset – is expected to vote on Monday on a pair of bills that, if passed, will make it impossible for the UN relief and works agency for Palestinians (Unrwa) to operate in Gaza and the West Bank. One of the bills seeks to ban Unrwa from operating within Israel’s sovereign territory, stating that the agency “shall not establish any representation, provide any services or conduct any activities within the territory of Israel”. This would lead to closure of the Unrwa headquarters in East Jerusalem and end visas for Unrwa staff. The measures look to have a cross-party majority of about 100 of the 120 members, despite widespread opposition from other countries, including most of Israel’s allies.

  • At least three people were killed and two others injured by Israeli attacks on the Raml neighbourhood in the Lebanese city of Tyre, according to the country’s national news agency.

The Lebanese National Agency reports that three people have been killed and two injured following an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Raml neighborhood of Tyre, South Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/thQs3SJOjW

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 28, 2024

  • Approximately 70 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past day, health officials in Gaza said, as Israel’s renewed assault on the north of the strip shows no sign of slowing. Information about the situation in northern Gaza has become increasingly sporadic and difficult to verify as Israel’s new ground and aerial assault focusing on Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun enters its fourth week. Internet and phone services were down for hours at a time, and civil defence workers were unable to reach the sites of recent strikes due to Israeli forces’ ever-tightening siege and attacks on their crews.

  • The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, expressed his shock at the appalling conditions the remaining residents stuck in northern Gaza are in. His spokesperson released a statement, with the UN chief calling the dire situation there “unbearable” as citizens remain trapped in extreme danger and deprivation, under siege by the Israeli military. Guterres was “shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north”.

  • Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that his government has proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza, after which talks should resume within 10 days in efforts to reach a permanent one. During the two days he suggested a swap of four hostages held in Gaza by Hamas for four Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

  • Iran’s leadership has said it is weighing a response to this weekend’s Israeli airstrikes, as the country called on the UN security council to meet on Monday. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Tehran was not looking for a war but would respond “appropriately” to Israel’s strikes. “We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country,” Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting on Sunday. He added: “We will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime.”

  • Iraq has submitted a complaint to the UN over Israel’s use of its airspace to strike Iran on Saturday, an Iraqi government spokesperson said on Monday.

  • One person was killed when a truck rammed into a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, on Sunday, in what Israeli police are treating as a suspected terrorist attack. About 40 people were injured to varying degrees, some seriously, and were taken to nearby hospitals, police said. The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised the suspected attack but did not claim it. The driver of the truck was a Palestinian citizen of Israel, police said, and was “neutralised” by passersby carrying firearms.

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