Updates: Israel kills over 40 in Gaza, attacks Lebanon’s Beirut again

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Read about how, according to the UN, Israel’s war on Gaza has set developments back by 69 years, here.

Watch our discussion on whether the US will pressure Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza, here.

We will be closing this live page shortly but before we do, here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Israel has continued to attack southern Beirut, destroying a residential building and carrying out at least six strikes on the Lebanese capital’s suburbs.
• An Israeli bombardment of a school-turned-shelter in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, has killed at least seven Palestinians.
• At least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the western part of Gaza City.
• Four people were killed and many were wounded by the Israeli bombing of the Tawbah clinic in Abasan al-Kabira in southern Gaza.
• The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iran-linked groups, says it carried out a drone attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
• The Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank says an 11-year-old child died after he was shot by Israeli forces in Nablus.
• The Israeli army says it killed Hashem Safieddine, who was touted to take over as the next Hezbollah chief, in an air strike earlier this month. Hezbollah has yet to comment.

At least three Palestinians were killed and several wounded by an Israeli drone strike targeting a group of people in western Gaza City, the Anadolu news agency is reporting.

Witnesses said the strike occurred in front of the al-Sousi tower in an industrial area.

The attack comes as Israeli forces continue their deadly siege of northern Gaza, demolishing residential buildings and shelling homes.

Senator Bernie Sanders and 11 other members of Congress are calling on the Biden administration to open an independent investigation into a deadly Israeli attack on a group of journalists in October 2023.

Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in the bombing and other journalists, including two from Al Jazeera as well as American Dylan Collins, were injured.

“It has now been more than one year since Mr Collins was injured in a targeted Israeli strike while on assignment for AFP,” the US lawmakers wrote in their letter.

“To date, Mr Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability. Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident.”

In March, a UN investigation found that an Israeli tank fired two 120mm rounds at the group of “clearly identifiable journalists” in violation of international law.

The majority of the projectiles appear to have been rocket barrages, according to the Israeli military war updates published throughout the day.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military had reported that a drone also crossed into Israel, triggering sirens in various areas.

Hezbollah said it launched “a squadron of suicide drones” at the Eliakim military base south of Haifa and struck its targets.

Dozens of US House Democrats urge US President Joe Biden to push Israel for independent media access to Gaza.

Israel has severely restricted international journalists from entering Gaza as its military has carried out its assault on the Palestinian territory for more than a year.

Politicians in the United States are questioning the decision to block access to foreign media outlets.

Weeks before Americans elect a new president, dozens of Democrats from the House of Representatives have written to US President Joe Biden, urging him to press Israel for “unrestricted, independent media access to Gaza.”

Will the US president act? And how will this play out in campaigning ahead of the November 5 election?

Watch the discussion below:

The strikes started around 11pm in Beirut (20:00 GMT).

The southern suburbs have been predominantly emptied of people, with thousands forcibly displaced from their homes.

We know the areas of Haret Hreik, Burj al-Barajneh and al-Laylaki have all been targeted.

We’ve been seeing this for the past few nights since Saturday evening. There have been heavy bombardments.

Some of the worst of them was yesterday in an area called Jnah, where we saw at least 60 people injured and 18 people killed, including children.

The Israelis are saying they are targeting Hezbollah and Hezbollah infrastructure, but clearly, many civilians are caught in the crossfire, and we’ve seen at least 1,952 people killed since mid-September alone and 1.2 million people displaced across the country.

So, even though we did see a lull last week for about five days, it seems they’ve now started this up again.

Beverley Milton-Edwards, a senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, says the Israeli army, not only in northern Gaza but across the besieged territory, is once again trying “to degrade, demolish, finish off, destruct the entire civilian population”.

She told Al Jazeera the situation was reminiscent of the early days in the war, when Israeli officials announced a complete siege of Gaza, cutting off food and essential supplies.

“The statistics don’t lie,” Milton-Edwards said, citing the fact that prewar, more than 500 aid trucks crossed into Gaza daily.

“Now in the first two weeks of October there were only 30 trucks of humanitarian aid coming in per day and none of them were going to Gaza north, to those affected communities in north Gaza,” she said, noting that this level of aid was “not remotely enough” to cover the needs.

As we’ve been reporting, there have been new Israeli air strikes on southern Beirut.

Footage shared online, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows the moments just after one of the attacks:

Analysts say Israel is trying to empty Gaza of Palestinians with its siege of the north of the enclave.

Mohamad Elmasry, a professor in the media studies programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that the siege is most likely the first stage of a plan – formulated by former Israeli Major General Giora Eiland – of ethnically cleansing northern Gaza.

Here are some of the main developments:

• An Israeli bombardment of a school-turned-shelter in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, has killed at least seven Palestinians, according to the Wafa news agency.
• The agency also reports that four people have been killed and many wounded by the Israeli bombing of the Tawbah clinic in Abasan al-Kabira in southern Gaza.
• The Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank says an 11-year-old child, Abdullah Jamal Hawash, has died after he was shot by Israeli forces in Nablus.
• Israel has continued to attack southern Beirut, destroying a residential building earlier today and, more recently, conducting a series of strikes on the Lebanese capital’s suburbs.
• The Israeli army says it killed Hashem Safieddine, who was touted to take over as the next Hezbollah chief, in an air strike earlier this month; Hezbollah has yet to comment.

Israel’s Defence Minister Gallant told visiting US official Blinken that his government expects Washington’s support when it attacks Iran in response to a missile strike earlier this month.

“The United States’s stance with Israel following our attack on Iran will strengthen regional deterrence and weaken the axis of evil,” Gallant said according to a statement from his office.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iran-linked groups, says the drone attack was carried out in solidarity with people in Palestine and Lebanon.

The coalition said it aimed at an Israeli target in the Syrian Golan Heights, which is occupied by Israel.

The Israeli military has yet to comment.

Earlier this month, Iraqi drones killed two Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights.

Despite its sophisticated air defence systems, Israel has struggled to deal with low-flying drones launched from Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

The US Secretary of State Blinken, speaking to reporters in Tel Aviv with Israel’s President Herzog, says the death of Hamas leader Sinwar now creates “an important opportunity” to bring Israeli captives back, end the war and “ensure Israel’s security”.

He said he had spoken to Netanyahu and Gallant, during which they had discussed “arrangements for the period following the end of the conflict”.

Former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin says he hopes Antony Blinken’s trip to Israel will at least “contribute to the option of a ceasefire”.

“It really is time to end this war. We are all paying a very high price. We are all suffering. We are all victims … we are competing with each other who is the bigger victim,” he told Al Jazeera.

On the fighting with Hezbollah, Beilin said he did not believe that the so-called “destruction of Hezbollah” was realistic.

“Our original demand, which is more than reasonable, that Hezbollah fulfil UN resolution 1701 and go to the north of the [ Litani] river – so that Israelis who left their homes [in the north can return],” he noted.

In a post on X, Israeli army said that it killed Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine as well as “Hossein Ali Al-Zima, head of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, killed in an attack in Dahiyah in Beirut, along with other commanders in Hezbollah”.

There has been no comment from Hezbollah yet on the Israeli army claims.

Earlier this month, a Lebanese security source told Al Jazeera that Hezbollah has lost contact with Safieddine, who was seen as a possible successor to slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, after an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighbourhood.

As the chairman of the armed group’s Executive Council, Safieddine is a very high-ranking member of the organisation and also Nasrallah’s cousin.