UPDATES: Gaza Health Ministry says 200 killed in Israeli siege of north
These were the updates on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon for Saturday, October 12.
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- The director of Gaza’s Health Ministry tells Al Jazeera that Israeli has killed at least 200 people in its eight-day siege of north Gaza.
- The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says unknown gunfire on Friday night hit a peacekeeper, the fifth wounded in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border in just two days.
- Israeli attacks and injury of UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon over the past two days have been condemned as “unjustifiable” by France, Italy, Spain and other countries.
- At least 22 people killed in an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza that a witness described as being like a “strong earthquake”.
- In Gaza, at least 42,175 people have been killed and 98,336 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 2023. In Israel, at least 1,139 people were killed on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 people were taken captive.
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For more on how Israel’s expanding military campaigns across the Middle East could bruise the chances of the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, read here.
If you want to know how it feels to live in a house with no front wall or running water in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, read here the story of Akram Nasser and his children.
And here’s a brief explainer on the dynamic between Syria and Israel over the last year:
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But before going, let’s get you up to speed with the latest developments:
- Dr. Mounir al-Bursh, head of Gaza’s Health Ministry, gave a terrifying picture of Israel’s siege of the northern Strip saying 200 people have been killed in eight days of siege with many dead bodies left on the streets.
- The Israeli army has kept pounding several areas across Lebanon, including hitting Nabaiteh, a major city in southern Lebanon.
- At least 1,645 people have been killed in Lebanon since late September when Israel escalated its attacks, the Health ministry said.
- UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon will not move from the border area despite five of their members being wounded and damage to facilities during the Israel-Hezbollah war, their spokesperson told AFP.
- Israeli army says 40 rockets fired from Lebanon which were either intercepted or fell into open areas.
- The Israeli army has announced that five areas in northern Israel close to the border with Lebanon have now turned into closed military zones.
- Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says his decision to declare UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “persona non grata” won’t change despite opposition from more than 100 UN member states.
Qatar condemns Israel’s seizure of UNRWA HQ in occupied East Jerusalem
“The State of Qatar strongly condemned the Israeli occupation’s seizure of the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East Jerusalem”, reads a statement from the country’s Foreign Ministry.
Two days ago, Israel announced the seizure of the land as well as plans to build an illegal settlement on it.
Israel’s “efforts to dismantle UNRWA are a link in a chain of reprehensible targeting of the United Nations itself”, Qatar’s statement continued.
The EU also recently condemned Israel for its attacks on the UN agency, saying it is “gravely concerned” about draft legislation that would ban UNRWA from operating in Israel and likely scale back aid distribution across war-ravaged Gaza.
Israeli forces raid Tal, occupied West Bank
Palestinian sources are reporting that the village, which is southwest of Nablus, has been stormed by Israeli forces, as the West Bank enters the early hours of Sunday morning.
After entering the town, soldiers launched a large-scale search campaign targeting vehicles and shops.
According to local media, the soldiers fired tear gas and burned Palestinian flags hanging in the area.
Photos: Protesters in Ireland decry use of airspace to aid Israel’s war on Gaza
Air strikes in Lebanon south, east
We are getting reports of an Israeli air strike on the town of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.
In a separate attack, an Israeli salvo targeted the town of Younin in the eastern Bekaa region, according to an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent.
WATCH: Palestinian engineer creating machines to solve some of Gaza’s most crucial issues
Discover how innovative solar cookers are transforming lives in Gaza by providing a sustainable alternative to gas cylinders as Israel continues to block vital supplies from entering the Strip.
Using mirrors to focus sunlight, these cookers prepare a wide range of meals, from boiled eggs to baked bread, without relying on gas.
This eco-friendly solution not only addresses energy shortages but also reduces dependency on traditional fuel sources.
Watch below to learn more:
Five members of the same family killed in central Gaza
Gaza’s Civil Defence said it retrieved the bodies of five people from under the rubble of a house belonging to the Abu Dalal family in the Nuseirat refugee camp, located in the middle of the Strip.
That brings the total death toll from today’s Israeli air strikes across the enclave to at least 36.
Israeli army says 40 rockets fired from Lebanon
The military added that some of them were intercepted while the rest fell into open areas.
This follows Israeli media reports on the activation of air raid sirens in the Upper Galilee region of Israel.
WATCH: At least 30 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn
Watch our video for an update on a blood day in the Gaza Strip, during which Israel continued its attacks from the air across all areas, and continued to squeeze Jabalia refugee camp in the territory’s north.
Learn more here:
Eight wounded after Israeli strike on Lebanon’s Nabatieh
We have been reporting throughout the evening on an Israeli air strike hitting the main commercial market street of Nabaiteh, a major city in southern Lebanon.
Now, the country’s Health Ministry said at least eight people have been wounded there while rescue teams are still working to extinguish fires and remove the rubble that resulted from the strike.
Two people were injured in a separate Israeli air raid in Aitat, in the southern Tyre district, the ministry added.
The ministry added that four people were injured in Temnine, a village in the eastern Baalbek region as Israeli air strikes damaged three hospitals in the area. “For the third consecutive time today, the aggressive Israeli enemy has targeted the area surrounding the hospital,” an official from the Temnine General Hospital was quoted as saying by the Anadolu news agency.
The strikes “resulted in significant and severe damage to the hospital, in addition to injuring many patients present in the hospital due to flying glass and shrapnel”, Anadolu added.
Kuwait condemns Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers
In a statement, the country’s foreign ministry calls Israel’s attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and relevant Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 1701”.
Over the last three days, the Israeli army has fired on UNIFIL positions and wounded its personnel a number of times, drawing widespread international condemnation.
“The Ministry stresses the importance of preserving the security and safety of United Nations personnel and employees and respecting the sanctity of its premises, expressing its wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured, and stressing the need for serious action to identify those responsible for these violations and ensure that they do not escape accountability”, Kuwait’s statement reads, calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Katz stands firm on Guterres ban despite widespread support for UN chief
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says his decision to declare UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “persona non grata” won’t change despite opposition from more than 100 UN member states.
In a joint letter, 104 nations said Guterres had their “full support and confidence” and that Katz’s decision harmed the UN’s “ability to carry out its mandate” and “could further delay an end to all hostilities and the establishment of a credible path towards the two-state solution”.
The statement had little effect on the Israeli top diplomat who said on X that Guterres had failed to “condemn the Iranian missile fire on Israel” and cited what he called the UN chief’s “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli behavior”.
On October 1, Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the killing of prominent figures close to Tehran, including Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah. Shortly after the attack, Guterres condemned the escalation of violence in the region but made no mention of Iran.
“Guterres can continue to try to collect signatures in support of him from members of the UN – the decision will not be changed,” Katz said.
Israeli strikes continue to kill across Lebanon
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health has released updates on the death tolls that resulted from two recent Israeli strikes.
At least nine people were killed and 15 wounded in the village of Maaysrah, the ministry said. Maaysrah is located in the Mount Lebanon governorate, between Beirut and the city of Byblos.
At least four were also killed and 18 wounded in the town of Barja, in the Chouf district of Lebanon, the ministry said.
We will continue to keep you updated on the toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Israeli army storms Shu’fat refugee camp, occupied East Jerusalem
We are receiving reports of the Israeli army’s infantry forces storming the Shu’fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem.
We will get you more updates soon.
Meanwhile, for a little bit of context, the camp, combined with the nearby neighbourhoods of Anata, Ras Khamis, Ras Shhadeh and Dahiyat as-Salam, is home to about 130,000 Palestinians. Residents living there are fully encircled by Israel’s Separation Wall and have only two exit and entry points in the form of permanently staffed Israeli border police checkpoints.
Israeli army detects ‘suspicious aerial target’ from Red Sea
The Israeli army said it detected a “suspicious aerial target” from the Red Sea which did not cross into Israel.
Soon afterwards, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups in the region – said it attacked with drones two targets in Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city.
It is not clear whether the two statements refer to the same incident.
Hamas official in Beirut: ‘What is happening in northern Gaza is genocide’
Osama Hamdan, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, has given a phone interview with our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
Here is a summary of some of the key points he made:
- The enemy [Israel] has prevented the entry of food supplies to the north for 10 days.
- The enemy tried to advance, but the resistance confronted it fiercely.
- The enemy’s decision is to besiege Jabalia for a long time to exhaust the people with hunger and thirst.
- What is happening in Jabalia camp is a crime against humanity.
- The occupation does not confront the resistance, but rather tries to kill the people.
- The occupation does not target Gaza alone and seeks to displace two million Palestinians.
- We seek to form a transitional administration from a national consensus government or a committee to manage the situation [after the war].
Photos: Israelis protest demanding release of captives in Tel Aviv
‘We are suffocating’: At least three killed in central Gaza
At least three people were killed in an attack by an Israeli drone missile on a group of people who were gathering around a water tank in Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, our correspondent on the ground reports.
Casualties arriving at the Al-Aqsa Hospital were shredded and fully soaked in blood, they said.
“Either you kill all of us or relocate us abroad,” a man on the scene told Al Jazeera. “Every day, we experience anguish over our relatives, neighbours and loved ones. We are suffocating … we are dying! Every day, we grieve the killing of someone new,” he said.
“Girls killed. Children torn to pieces. They are all gone. Put an end to this war, we can’t take it any more,” he added.
More on Israeli attack on Lebanon’s Nabatieh
As we reported earlier, a large Israeli strike has been carried out on the central commercial area of Nabatieh, a major city in southern Lebanon.
Now, the Lebanese Red Cross says in a statement that its teams are responding to a “major air strike” in the city.
“Severe fires are preventing us from reaching the targeted area”, the statement reads, promising updates as the situation develops.
The Red Cross shared a photo of high flames in Nabatieh along with its statement: