Updates: Israeli forces launch new air strikes on Beirut suburbs

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For more on the attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, read our story here.

You can read more about how Israel reacted to Donald Trump’s win in the US election here.

You can also read how Palestinian and Lebanese victims of Israel’s wars are bracing for a second Trump administration here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of the day’s major developments:

• Israel has launched several strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, targeting the areas of Haret Hreik, Burj al-Barajneh and al-Hadath.
• At least three Palestinians have been killed and five wounded in an Israeli air strike on a tent housing displaced families west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
• A child was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a house in Abasan al-Jadida, east of Khan Younis.
• The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report that found 70 percent of verified war deaths in the Gaza Strip were women and children. Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said it “categorically rejects” the report.
• The independent Famine Review Committee, a committee of global food security experts, have warned of a “strong likelihood” of an imminent famine in northern Gaza.

Israeli forces seem intent on destroying every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza, including education. Universities and schools have been under repeated attacks, but many students are determined to continue their studies.

“In Gaza, the sound of sirens and the rumble of explosions have become the new soundtrack to student life,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza. “For Gaza’s college students, the pursuit of education has become a test of resilience, as they navigate war-torn streets and shattered classrooms in a bid to secure their futures.

“For students in Gaza who have been accepted to study abroad, the war has created heartbreaking obstacles to realising their dreams.”

Jihad, a student, asked for help “to reach our voice to the government and a lot of people to help us to evacuate Gaza and complete our dreams”.

“We don’t have any other choice to complete our education here in Gaza with no electricity and without any attention, and we don’t have any safer place to complete our education here.”

Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer for UNRWA in northern Gaza, shared these updates earlier today:

• In Gaza City, two UNRWA schools sheltering families were hit by strikes yesterday. Reports indicate 17 people have been killed and many others injured.
• More than 42 million tonnes of rubble and a large concentration of explosive hazards pose an imminent threat to civilians, while the entry of specialised personnel and equipment and the conduct of explosive ordnance disposal activities are restricted.
• In central and southern Gaza, more than 100 kitchens producing 400,000 meals a day are at risk of shutting down because of supply shortages.
• About 40 trucks loaded with essential medical, hygiene products, and reproductive health supplies are waiting at the Egypt and Jordan borders to enter Gaza.
• An estimated 10 percent of all journalists working in Gaza have been killed since October 2023, as the Israeli authorities still ban the entry of foreign media workers.
• About half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding.

New strikes have hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon’s NNA reported, including the al-Jamous area.

The news agency counted at least 12 air raids that hit the capital in the past hour.

A total of nine Israeli air raids have targeted southern Beirut. A second strike hit the surroundings of the Lebanese University in the al-Hadath area and a new raid also hit the Haret Hreik area.

The Palestine Football Association (PFA) has issued a statement saying it was “gravely concerned by the sequence of violent events in Amsterdam”, after clashes involving Maccabi Tel Aviv fans broke out in the Dutch capital.

The PFA condemned the “deplorable incitement to violence, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobia expressed by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, who also attacked homes and shops displaying the Palestinian flag in solidarity with the victims of the ongoing genocide”.

“The PFA had presented FIFA with extensive evidence of such hateful expressions, yet concrete action remains lacking,” it said. “The absence of accountability for such entrenched violence and normalised racism has only led to further unfortunate incidents, such as those in Amsterdam.”

We’re getting reports of at least five strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

This is an area where tens of thousands of people used to live and that has now been almost flattened.

The majority of the population has left the area, but some residents stayed, and it is possible that we will get reports of casualties in the coming hours, despite evacuation warnings by the Israeli army.

Israeli forces have killed another Palestinian journalist in Gaza.

The Gaza-based Government Media Office said Khaled Abu Zir, a journalist working for a local radio broadcaster, was killed by the Israeli army, bringing the death toll of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza killed by Israel since October last year to 184.

The statement urged the international community and international press groups to deter Israel and prosecute it before the international courts for its crimes committed against the Palestinians and journalists in particular.

Last week, UN chief said the killings of journalists in Gaza since October 7 last year have been “unacceptable”.

The Israeli army has issued another threat to residents of Dahiyeh, a southern Beirut suburb, claiming that they are “located near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the Israeli Army will act strongly in the near future”.

“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and move away from them by at least 500 metres [1,640 feet].”

Wafa news agency is reporting that Israeli forces have raided the Marda village, north of the occupied West Bank city of Salfit.

The report said that Israeli forces stormed the village while “firing barrages of live gunfire and flare bombs”.

The army also “sealed off the western entrance of the village at a time when the eastern entrance continues to be blocked by a metal gate for several months”.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has congratulated Donald Trump in a phone call, the Wafa news agency has reported, expressing his readiness to work with him to achieve a “just and comprehensive” peace.

Trump stressed that he will work to stop the war and work with the concerned parties in the region to make peace, the report added.

Our colleagues on the ground are reporting that a Palestinian child was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a house in Abasan al-Jadida, east of Khan Younis.