UN security council warns against attempts to dismantle Unrwa
The UN security council on Wednesday “strongly warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish” the operations and mandate of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, after Israel passed a law banning its operations.
Reuters reports that in a statement adopted by consensus, the 15-member body expressed grave concern over the legislation adopted by the Israeli parliament on Monday.
The council “urged the Israeli government to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of Unrwa and live up to its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip”.
Key events
Closing summary
Hello, Middle East blog readers. We are bringing this live coverage to a close for the time being. All our latest articles on the region can be found here.
It’s not long after 9pm in Gaza City, Beirut and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
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Donald Trump promises that he will bring “peace” to the Middle East, with the US Republican nominee for president making the pronouncement in a letter just six days before the US election for the White House on 5 November. “During my administration, we had peace in the Middle East, and we will have peace again very soon! I will fix the problems caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon,” he said in his letter to Lebanese Americans.
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At least 30 people were killed as Israel pummeled Gaza with new bombardments, Palestinian medics said. Eight of today’s victims were killed in northern Gaza. The area Israel hit is near to where medics said at least 93 people had been killed or reported missing on Tuesday in an Israeli strike Washington called “horrifying”.
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The UN security council “strongly warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish” the operations and mandate of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, after Israel passed a law banning its operations. In a statement adopted by consensus, the 15-member body expressed grave concern over the legislation adopted by the Israeli parliament on Monday.
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Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, warned Israel it would pay a heavy price if its forces remain in Lebanon, stressing his group was ready for a prolonged conflict. “Get out of our land to reduce your losses. If you stay, you will pay more than you have ever paid in your life,” Qassem said in a pre-recorded speech, asserting Hezbollah could sustain fighting “for days, weeks and months”.
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Airstrikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its outskirts, hours after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area. Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed strikes had hit the city and surrounding areas, without providing further details.
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Naim Qassem said he would stick to the war strategy laid out by his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel last month after full-scale fighting broke out. “My work programme is a continuation of the work programme of our leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” Qassem said in his first remarks as Hezbollah leader. Qassem pledged to press on with “the war plan that he (Nasrallah) developed with the leadership” of the Iran-backed group.
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The Israeli army said it had killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, in a strike in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon. “In an intelligence-directed strike, the Israeli air force struck and eliminated Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, deputy commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces, in the area of Nabatieh,” the army said in a statement.
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Israel’s security cabinet is discussing the terms of a truce with Hezbollah in south Lebanon, where Israeli troops are conducting a ground offensive, energy minister Eli Cohen said. “There are discussions, I think it will still take time,” Cohen told Israeli public radio. According to Israel’s Channel 12 television, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with ministers on Tuesday evening on Israel’s demands in return for a 60-day truce.
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At least 43,163 Palestinians have been killed and 101,510 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. The ministry said that 102 Palestinians had been killed and 287 injured in the past 24 hours. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
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Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it had launched drones at an Israeli base in the port city of Haifa. Hezbollah fighters “launched an air attack at 7.45am (0545 GMT) … with a squadron of attack drones” on a “base in southern Haifa”, the group said in a statement.
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Human Rights Watch warned that Syrians fleeing Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon could face repression at home as more than 355,000 Syrians returned in more than a month of war. “Syrians escaping Lebanon, particularly men, risk arbitrary detention and abuse by Syrian authorities,” the group said in a statement. AFP reports that since Israel launched its intensive air campaign on Lebanon on 23 September, in an action against Hezbollah, more than half a million people have fled from Lebanon to Syria, including more than 355,010 Syrians, according to Lebanese official figures.
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The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the US “rejects any Israeli efforts to starve Palestinians in Jabaliya or anywhere else” and called on the Netanyahu government to tackle the “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
The White House media briefing just wrapped up in Washington DC and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed misgivings about Israel voting to ban the United Nations humanitarian organization Unrwa from the country within 90 days.
“We are troubled by any legislation that could shut down Unrwa,” Jean-Pierre said, Reuters reports.
The US is talking to the Israeli government about the vote this week, the White House said.
Gaza, deep in a humanitarian crisis during the massive Israeli military offensive that’s been going on since just after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel last October, relies heavily on Unrwa for survival supplies for Palestinians trapped in the enclave.
The United States said that ally Israel was not doing enough to answer questions a day after a strike in Gaza killed a large number of children.
“They are not doing enough to get us the answers that we have requested,” Matthew Miller, the US state department spokesperson, told reporters, AFP writes.
The strike Tuesday in the northern Gaza district of Beit Lahia collapsed a building and left at least 93 people dead, including a large number of children, according to the territory’s civil defense agency.
Miller yesterday called the strike “horrifying” and said that the United States was seeking answers from Israel, which relies on US diplomatic and military support.
Asked whether the US had learned more over the past day since it asked for answers, Miller said:
We reiterated that call with them today. We do not yet have an explanation. They have said to us what they had said publicly, which is they’re investigating the matter.
Meanwhile, from earlier today: the Washington Post reported that the US government has received about 500 reports that American weapons are killing Palestinians.
The reports have been received from across the government, global aid organisations, non-profit groups, media reports and other eyewitnesses – but no single case has been acted on.
Hezbollah has just said that it targeted a military camp south-east of Tel Aviv in Israel with missiles.
There are few details yet but the basic news has just been reported by Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP). We’ll bring you any more information as it emerges.
US state department supports Israel in its targeting of ‘legitimate’ Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
State department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at a regular news briefing that Israel does so in a way that does not threaten the lives of civilians. “That’s especially true in densely populated areas,” he said.
“It’s important that they not threaten the lives of journalists, UN peacekeepers, members of the Lebanese armed forces, and it’s also critical that civilian infrastructure and significant cultural heritage sites can be protected.”
Donald Trump promises ‘peace’ in the Middle East
In a letter addressed to the Lebanese-American community, US presidential candidate Donald Trump promises that he will bring “peace” in the Middle East just six days before Americans head to the polls.
“During my Administration, we had peace in the Middle East, and we will have peace again very soon! I will fix the problems caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon,” he said in his letter.
“I want to see the Middle East return to real peace, a lasting peace, and we will get it done properly so it doesn’t repeat itself every 5 or 10 years!” he added.
Trump added that he wanted to work with Lebanese Americans to “ensure the safety and security of the great people of Lebanon”.
“You have my word. I will preserve the equal partnership among all Lebanese communities. Your friends and family in Lebanon deserve to live in peace, prosperity, and harmony with their neighbours, and that can only happen with peace and stability in the Middle East,” he added.
The former president did not offer any details about his plans to achieve peace in the region.
At least three drones were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel in the past hour, one of which was intercepted by air defences, according to the military.
The IDF says it has received reports of two drone impacts. It does not specify where they hit or if any damage was caused.
Nadia Khomami
More than 1,000 figures from the literary and entertainment industry – including several Nobel laureates, Pulitzer prize, and Booker prize winners – have signed an open letter against “illiberal and dangerous” cultural boycotts.
The letter was released by the nonprofit body Creative Community For Peace [CCFP], which campaigns against cultural boycotts of Israel, after more than 1,000 book industry figures pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions that “are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians”.
Among the signatories of the CCFP letter are Lee Child (creator of the Jack Reacher novels), Booker winner Howard Jacobson, Pulitzer winner David Mamet, Nobel winners Herta Müller and Elfriede Jelinek, historians Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore, and entertainers Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne and Debra Messing…
Bernie Sanders
I understand that there are millions of Americans who disagree with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the terrible war in Gaza. I am one of them.
While Israel had a right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, it did not have the right to wage an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.
It did not have the right to kill 42,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were children, women and the elderly, or injure over 100,000 people in Gaza. It did not have the right to destroy Gaza’s infrastructure and housing and healthcare systems. It did not have the right to bomb every one of Gaza’s 12 universities. It did not have the right to block humanitarian aid, causing massive malnutrition in children and, in fact, starvation…
Sirens have sounded on Israel’s northern border.
The Israeli military says the sirens are due to the “identification of a number of suspicious aerial targets that crossed from Lebanon”.
It says the targets are being “monitored” by the Israeli air force, and the situation is still “developing”.
We will bring you the latest as we hear it.