Updates: 21 killed in southern Lebanon, Israeli siege intensifies in Gaza

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To read about the struggle to survive in northern Gaza as Israel’s siege and bombing of the area enters its 23rd day, go here.

Known for unarmed protest and settling disputes in his West Bank community, the killing of Abu Hilaiel has left a void in his community. You can read more about his story here.

We’re about to close this live page and move to a new one but before we do, here are the latest developments from the day:

• Gaza officials say Israeli forces killed two more journalists in the besieged enclave, bringing the total death toll of media workers in Gaza since the start of the war to 182.
• The UN’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression said that the “deliberate killing of a journalist is a war crime”.
• Iran’s foreign minister said the government “received indications since the evening about the possibility of an attack that night”, referring to the Israeli attacks in the early hours of Saturday.
• Israeli soldiers sealed off the village of Madama in the occupied West Bank, imposing a curfew on its residents.
• Israeli air strikes across Lebanon have killed at least 21 people, including three paramedics, in the past 24 hours.
• Egypt’s President el-Sisi said he proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza followed by more negotiations within 10 days.

The assault occurred in the town of Deir Sharaf, west of Nablus.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams transported the 54-year-old and 42-year-old women to a nearby medical facility, without providing further details.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank.

At least 762 Palestinians have been killed and about 6,300 injured by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The current escalation follows a July opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories “illegal” and called for the evacuation of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

A reminder that at least 53 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza on Sunday. At least 46 of them were killed in the north as Israel tightened its siege with bombings on residential areas and mass arrests.

“Asmaa School has been targeted by Israeli warplanes. A large number of injured people have been transported to al-Ahli Hospital. Several injured people remain trapped. This school was sheltering people from Jabalia and western areas of Gaza City,” said Hussein al-Halabi, a Palestinian medic.

The Israeli siege is now in its fourth week. Some medical sources have told Al Jazeera that at least 1,000 Palestinians have been killed during that time.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 50 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in less than a day, most of them in the north of the enclave which has been the scene of renewed Israeli ground offensive for the past three weeks, leading the UN chief to call the plight of civilians there “unbearable”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he is “shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction” in north Gaza.

Read full story here.

We reported earlier of an Israeli air strike in Lebanon’s southern town of Ain Baal.

Now, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has updated the death toll to seven, including three paramedics. At least 24 people were also wounded in the attack.

Since the start of the war in October last year, at least 168 healthcare workers have been killed in Israeli attacks, in what constitutes a war crime, according to the ministry.

Despite all the Israeli offensives of the past year – in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and elsewhere – Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti believes that the Palestinians are closer than ever to achieving their freedom.

Barghouti tells host Steve Clemons that Israel can’t achieve “total victory” as long as the Palestinians “refuse to give up [or] accept a life of subjugation or enslavement to the Israeli occupation”.

And regardless of anti-Palestinian bias and unconditional support for Israel in the West, Barghouti argues that Israel has “reached a point of crisis” and will be seen as a “pariah structure” over time.

Watch the interview below:

Gaza officials say Israeli forces killed two more journalists in the besieged enclave, bringing the toll of reporters killed since the start of the war to 182.

Gaza’s media office named the two journalists as Nadia Imad Al-Sayed and Abdul Rahman Samir al-Tanani.

Israel has come under great scrutiny for killing journalists in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as for restricting their access to the occupied West Bank.

On Friday, an Israeli air strike killed three media workers in southern Lebanon after hitting a compound hosting 18 of them from different media outlets.

Advocates say the mounting death toll of journalists is a result of the failure of the international community – particularly the US, Israel’s top backer – to hold the country accountable.

Israeli air strikes on Saturday killed at least 19 people and wounded 108 in Lebanon. Here’s the breakdown announced by its health ministry:

• 7 killed and 48 wounded in the south.
• 10 killed and 55 wounded in Nabatieh.
• 2 killed and 5 wounded in Baalbek-Hermel.

The latest update brings the total death toll in the country since October last year to 2,672, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said. The majority of all casualties were recorded since mid-September when the Israeli army stepped up its military bombing campaign across Lebanon and started ground operations into the south.

Fatah’s central committee has denounced what it called repeated attacks by Israeli forces on Barghouti, who has been in prison since 2002, and other Palestinian detainees, who have been subject to “horrific violations” since October 2023.

In a statement, the committee said that detainees are being subject to solitary confinement, assault, as well as a denial of food and medical treatment. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs both confirmed that prisoners have been subject to mistreatment since the war on Gaza began.

“As the genocidal war continues in Gaza, Israeli occupation authorities are committing heinous crimes in prisons that are not being documented by cameras,” the committee said in a statement.

Civilians across Gaza live in makeshift tents scattered across the besieged territory. On top of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, lack of food and constant Israeli bombardments, they are now anxiously fearing more cold and rain.

“Rainwater has flooded the tents, making them uninhabitable, and most residents have lost their belongings. People are enduring extremely harsh conditions that put their lives and health at risk,” Samar Mahmoud, a volunteer doctor working in Gaza, told Wafa news agency.

Children and elderly people are the most exposed, Mahmoud said, warning that the lack of food and a critical shortage of medicine could cause fatalities to increase.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s findings, one year into the war, the risk of famine persists across the Gaza Strip.

More than 1.8 million people across Gaza are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, including nearly 133,000 facing catastrophic food insecurity, according to a UNRWA report.

“Acute malnutrition is 10 times higher than it was before the war,” it added.

Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said the government “received indications since the evening about the possibility of an attack that night”, referring to the Israeli attacks in the early hours of Saturday on military targets across three Iranian provinces.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the indications.

Araghchi said the “necessary measures” were taken when the attack unfolded, adding that he had been in contact with military officials and that “messages were also exchanged with different parties”.

Israeli soldiers sealed off the village of Madama, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, imposing a curfew on its residents, Wafa news agency is reporting.

Abdullah Ziyada, head of Madama’s village council, said Israeli forces blocked the entrances to the village and imposed a curfew on residents.

In recent days, the village has been raided repeatedly and has had its entrances closed, Wafa added.

“In a related development, a group of [settlers] gathered at the bypass road near the bridge connecting Madama and Burin areas and attacked the vehicles of Palestinian residents,” the agency reported.

As winter approaches, life for civilians in Gaza is becoming harder.

The tents they have used to shelter are not strong enough to withstand repeated displacements and may not be fit to cope with the season’s rains.

“Since our house was destroyed, we haven’t found a place to call home. We fled to Rafah in southern Gaza, hoping this tent would shelter us,” Mohammad al-Jarousha, who fled with his family from northern Gaza to the south, told Wafa news agency. “However, it has been worn out from constant use. Still, there are no alternatives.”

Civilians across the enclave are exhausted after having fled multiple times as Israeli forces continue to pound locations across Gaza, including designated safe areas.

“The tents can’t withstand much more. Every night, the winds threaten our fragile shelter, and the blockade stops any aid that might ease our suffering,” he added.