Middle East crisis live: dozens reported killed in Gaza after Israeli strike on school sheltering displaced people | Israel-Gaza war

More than 42,065 Palestinians have been killed and 97,886 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry does not distinguished not distinguish between militant and civilian deaths.

Geneva Abdul

Humanitarian organisations including Amnesty International, Oxfam and War on Want have called on the UK government to stop all arms transfers to Israel, as the bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza worsens more than a year into the conflict.

“The escalation of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon underscore our concerns and the need for the UK government to immediately suspend all weapons licences to Israel, and ensure it is not complicit in atrocities,” the letter says. It adds:

Despite the UK’s partial suspension of arms licences to Israel, Israeli forces continue to commit apparently unlawful activities against Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

Other signatories include Action Aid UK, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, among others.

In September, the UK implemented a partial ban on export licenses to Israel after a review by the Foreign Office found a “clear risk” that UK arms may have been used in violation of humanitarian law. The suspension included components for military aircraft, helicopters, drones and targeting equipment.

Campaigners however have criticised the government’s decision to exclude all UK components for the F-35 fighter jet programme, which signatories have said make up 15% of every aircraft used by Israel.

The Labour government has previously said the components are exempted because they belong to a global programme which the UK does not have unilateral control over the components, which are sent to the US. They will not be exempt, the government said, on the rare occasion where the part is sent directly to Israel.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it destroyed an Israeli tank advancing on Lebanon’s southern border on Thursday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Iran-backed group fired rockets at “an Israeli tank as it advanced towards Ras al-Naqura, leading to its burning and destruction,” it said, claiming casualties. No other details were reported.

An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza killed at least 21 people on Thursday, with the toll likely to rise, Palestinian medical officials said.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah confirmed the toll, and an Associated Press (AP) reporter counted the bodies.

Witnesses say the strike on Thursday appeared to target a makeshift post staffed by Hamas-run police inside the school.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Irish PM says he is hopeful of Middle East ceasefire after meeting with Biden

Lisa O’Carroll

Ireland’s prime minister has said he is hopeful of a ceasefire in the Middle East after an hour long meeting with Joe Biden in Washington last night.

Simon Harris said the US president told him he had a “very lengthy” conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu and he was left “in no doubt that this was a conversation of substances and of depth in terms of actions that Israel need to take in terms of aid, humanitarian aid, in terms of bringing about a ceasefire”.

The taoiseach told reporters that he was clear that “proportionality has been completely and utterly lost by the Netanyahu government” and the number of civilians, including children “needlessly dying” was “unacceptable”.

He said he also thanked the president, who he spoke to on Monday night, for his intervention over the positioning of Israeli artillery adjacent to an Irish peace keeping post on the blue line, the de facto border between Lebanon and Israel.

They also discussed the “thuggery of Putin” and Northern Ireland.

At least 400,000 people trapped by Israel’s latest Gaza offensive, says Unrwa

Peter Beaumont

Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza remain trapped by the latest Israeli offensive centred on Jabaliya refugee camp, according to UN agencies and human rights groups.

“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, posted on X on Wednesday, amid witness accounts of bodies lying uncollected in the streets because of the renewed fighting.

“Recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again and again, especially from Jabaliya camp,” added Lazzarini. “Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in Gaza is safe.”

The Israeli military says the large-scale raid, now in its fifth day, is intended to stop Hamas fighters staging further attacks from Jabaliya and to prevent them regrouping, as at least 60 people were killed in Israeli military strikes on Gaza on Wednesday.

Lazzarini said some Unrwa shelters and services were being forced to shut down for the first time since the war began and that with almost no basic supplies available, hunger was spreading again in northern Gaza. “This recent military operation also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the #polio vaccination campaign for children,” he said.

Israel did not immediately comment on Lazzarini’s remarks. Israeli authorities have previously said they facilitate food deliveries to Gaza despite challenging conditions.

Al Jazeera accuses Israel of deliberately targeting journalists after reporter death and others injured

Helen Livingstone

Al Jazeera has accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists after one of its cameramen was shot and critically injured by an Israeli sniper on Wednesday while a photojournalist for another network was killed and a third also injured while covering the siege of Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.

In a statement the Qatar-based broadcaster said in a statement:

The Israeli occupation forces targeted a number of journalists working in and around Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip this afternoon, killing one of the cameramen, and seriously injuring Al Jazeera Arabic Channel’s cameraman Fadi Al Wahidi with a bullet to his neck, causing critical injury while covering the attack on the camp …

This incident marks yet another grave violation against journalists in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been increasingly hostile toward media workers.”

The Hamas affiliated TV channel al-Aqsa said on Telegram that one of its photojournalists, Mohammad al-Tanani, had been killed in an Israeli attack in Jabalia refugee camp on Wednesday, while its journalist Tamer Labad, was injured.

Two days earlier, another Al Jazeera cameraman, Ali Al-Attar, was also critically injured in an Israeli attack on a hospital in northern Gaza.

Hossam Shabat, one of the few remaining journalists in the area, said his colleagues Al Wahidi and Labad were in critical condition. “They are in critical condition, and not much treatment is available for them here. Please pray for them and for us,” he wrote in a post on X.

Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif wrote in another post that Al Wahidi, who had been wearing a press vest, “sustained severe injuries to his neck vertebrae and spinal cord. According to hospital specialists, he urgently requires surgery, and there is a risk of partial paralysis due to the extent of the damage.”

Al-Sharif also posted footage that he said was the last thing filmed by Al Wahidi before he was shot, in which the journalist can be seen running while shots are fired.

It was not possible to verify the circumstances of the Israeli attacks as Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza. However Israel has previously been accused of deliberately targeting journalists, which it denies.

Israel has not commented on the latest attacks.

Israel’s defence minister has warned its next strike on Iran will be “deadly, precise and surprising”, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Yoav Gallant issued the warning in a video message on Israeli media on Wednesday night, broadcast after he postponed a scheduled trip to Washington, and a few hours after the conversation between Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden.

“Whoever attacks us will be hurt and will pay a price. Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising, they will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results,” he said.

Israel needs to urgently address “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries, the US has told the UN security council.

Speaking to the UN security council, UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said:

These catastrophic conditions were predicted months ago, and yet, have still not been addressed. That must change, and now.”

She also warned Israel against trying to permanently expel Palestinians from Gaza or seize any territory for itself. “There must be no demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Despite a year of relentless Israeli attacks on Gaza, and intermittent declarations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other officials claiming to have defeated Hamas, Israeli tanks and infantry attacked northern Gaza for a third time in force earlier this week, claiming the action was necessary to prevent Hamas “regrouping”.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza remain trapped by the latest Israeli offensive centred on Jabalia refugee camp, according to UN agencies and human rights groups.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are again being pushed to move to the south, where living conditions are intolerable,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), told the security council.

He added:

Yet again, Gazans are teetering on the edge of a man-made famine.”

The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza and distributing it during the war. Reuters reported last week that food supplies to Gaza have fallen sharply in recent weeks because Israeli authorities have introduced a new customs rule on some humanitarian aid and are separately scaling down deliveries organised by businesses.

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon defended his country’s record:

Israel imposes no restrictions on humanitarian aid. In fact, 82% of all requests for humanitarian coordination have been approved and implemented.”

Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken for the first time in weeks on Wednesday amid expectations of an imminent Israeli strike on Iran. Vice-president Kamala Harris also joined the call.

In its readout of the call, the White House said the US president emphasised “the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut”.

The readout did not directly mention possible retaliation for the Iranian missile strike but said Biden had condemned Tehran’s attack “unequivocally” and pledged “ironclad” support for Israel.

The president affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security. He condemned unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st.

On Lebanon, the president emphasised the need for a diplomatic arrangement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line. The president affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasising the need to minimise harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut.

On Gaza, the leaders discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas. The president also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately.”

The timing and scope of the Israeli retaliation is still unclear, and a miscalculation could propel Iran and Israel into a full-scale war, which neither side says it wants. The US, Israel’s staunch ally, is wary of being drawn into the fighting, and of oil price shocks.

The Biden administration is keen to weigh in on Israel’s plans and avoid surprises like the Israeli killing of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, although the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had so far refused to share details.

In the last few weeks, Israel’s deadly bombardment across Lebanon has killed at least 1,200 civilians while forcibly displacing 1.2 million residents. Across the country, thousands of Syrian refugees, in addition to Lebanese residents, have fled into Syria in recent days in attempts to escape Israeli airstrikes.

The Biden administration has previously also asked Israel to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians while displacing nearly 2 million in the territory. The Biden administration has also spent a record $17.9bn in military aid to Israel since last October.

The US has told the UN security council that Israel needs to urgently address “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries, Reuters reports.

Referring to reports of squalid conditions in south and central Gaza, US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said:

These catastrophic conditions were predicted months ago, and yet, have still not been addressed. That must change, and now.”

She also warned Israel against trying to permanently expel Palestinians from Gaza or seize any territory for itself. “There must be no demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Separately, members of the UN security council also warned Israel against proceeding with a law aimed at curbing the UN’s Palestinian refugees agency (Unrwa).

Israel has long been at odds with Unrwa and alleged, without providing any evidence, that 12 of its thousands of employees were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks.

More on that in a moment. First here is a summary of other developments:

• The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) has published a flash update about the latest situation in Lebanon which says one quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli military displacement orders. It said “Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate” as “Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded” and have “increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure”.

• Five members of Lebanon’s civil defence were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their base in the town of Dardghaya, south Lebanon, on Wednesday night. Pictures of the strike show burnt cars with civil defence written on the side of it, crumpled from the force of the blast as efforts to locate survivors and bodies remain ongoing.

• Canada will provide C$15m ($11m) in humanitarian assistance to Lebanese civilians who have been affected by Israel’s ongoing strikes across the country. In a statement reported by Reuters on Wednesday, Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly said: “Canada is deeply alarmed by the rapid escalation of the crisis in Lebanon. We are mobilising to ensure that Canada is there to bring much-needed assistance to the Lebanese people.”

• The governor of Akkar, in the far north of Lebanon, has said there are obstacles to delivering aid to the people who have sought refuge there after being internally displaced by Israeli strikes.

• Hezbollah has said its fighters have fired rockets and artillery shells “as Israeli troops tried to advance in the Mays al-Jabal area from several directions”. The group added that “clashes are ongoing”.

• Israeli strikes have killed five people and injured at least 12 in the Lebanese town of Wardiniyeh, about 40 kilometres south of Beirut, Al Jazeera reported, noting that the area is not one Israel has tried to empty of its residents.

• Speaking to the BBC about Gaza’s devastation caused by Israel’s attacks in the past year, Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the main UN aid relief organisation in Gaza, said: “We are becoming wordless.” Lazzarini added: “We soon have exhausted all our vocabulary to try to describe what has become a wasteland … an unliveable area.”

• Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks inside the Gaza Strip on Wednesday has risen to 60. This includes an incident where it reported “15 civilians were killed today when the Israeli occupation forces bombed the tents of displaced people in Jabalia”. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has ordered the closure once again of several hospitals in northern Gaza, including the Kamal Adwan, Indonesia and al-Awda hospitals. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights described the situation as “deja vu” on social media, adding: “We all know the horrors that follow such orders”.

• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned that after a year of conflict, as many as 51,000 children in Gaza could be unaccompanied or separated from their parents or caregivers.

• Al Jazeera has released a statement condemning Israel for the killing of one of its camera operators and injuring another while they were working in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. “The deliberate targeting of journalists is a flagrant violation of international laws protecting the press and humanitarian workers in war zones,” the network said.

• Two Israelis were killed in Kiryat Shmona in the north-east of Israel after it was reported to have been hit by a rocket barrage from Hezbollah. Israel’s military says it has destroyed the launcher used for the attack.

• Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has been highly critical of Israel, saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had a desire “expand the geography of armed escalation in the region”.