Mayor of Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh among dead in Israeli strike on municipality, say officials
The mayor of Nabatiyeh was among those killed on Wednesday in Israeli strikes on the municipality of the southern Lebanese city, where Hezbollah and its ally Amal hold sway, authorities said.
“The mayor of Nabatiyeh, among others … was martyred. It’s a massacre,” Nabatiyeh governor Howaida Turk told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding he had been in the municipality building.
Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers also told AFP that several people were killed in the strike on the municipality building including mayor Ahmad Kahil.
Key events
Israeli delegations taking part in the major Euronaval defence show in France next month will not be permitted to set up any stand or exhibit hardware after a decision by the French government, organisers said on Wednesday.
“The French government informed Euronaval of its decision to approve the participation of Israeli delegations at Euronaval 2024, without any stand or exhibition of equipment,” said the organisers of the show which is due to start on 4 November in Paris, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A specialised surgical team experienced in war injuries has been deployed to a hospital in southern Beirut to help relieve exhausted medical staff and offer care, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) shared on Wednesday.
The ICRC said that the medical reinforcement came “amid escalating hostilities, a rising number of wounded people and a healthcare system struggling with an influx of people in desperate need”.
According to its statement, the surgical team from the ICRC, including an emergency doctor, a surgeon and an anaesthetist, are all “experienced in the unique and destructive injuries caused by weapons of war”.
The team will operate with ICRC’s existing 22-person team out of Rafik Hariri university hospital, said the humanitarian organisation, in a deployment closely coordinated with Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
A shipment of medical supplies sent by the ICRC to Rafik Hariri university hospital earlier this month has helped equip and supply the facility’s trauma unit, it added in the statement. The ICRC said that the shipment will also help a similar unit at Zahle – Elias Hrawi government hospital in the Bekaa, where 10 additional ICRC hospital specialists, including nurses and doctors, will soon be deployed.
“This critical assistance provides much necessary relief, but the needs continue to grow significantly,” said Simone Casabianca-Aeschlimann, the head of the ICRC delegation in Lebanon. “While our surgical team and medical supplies will help ease the burden on healthcare providers, sustained and safe humanitarian aid is urgently needed. The humanitarian crisis deepens by the hour.”
The ICRC said it “continues to remind all parties to the conflict that constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians, and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations.”
“Additionally, under international humanitarian law, medical personnel, units, and transport exclusively assigned to medical duties and purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances.”
Sarah Basford Canales
The US law professor who told a pro-Palestine rally on 7 October that the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel marked “considerable celebration” for its role in elevating “global literacy” on Palestine has had his visa cancelled.
An Australian government source confirmed Khaled Beydoun, an associate professor in law at Arizona State University, had left the country last week after being informed his visa status was under consideration by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, after the remarks.
The visa was then cancelled after Beydoun had flown out of Australia.
Beydoun made the remarks at a rally planned by Stand 4 Palestine on the steps of Lakemba mosque earlier this month, sparking backlash from Coalition frontbenchers.
According to a recording of the speech aired on the ABC, he said:
In many respects, today is also a day that marks considerable celebration, considerable progress, and in some respects, considerable privilege. The level of global literacy around what’s taking place in Palestine has exponentially risen.”
The speech was on the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage – about 100 of whom remain unaccounted for.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military response to the 7 October attacks, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Responding to initial media reports, Burke said he had asked the home affairs department to conduct a check on his visa status.
“At 8.30pm they confirmed this man is traveling on a visa. I immediately asked them to prepare a brief so I can consider his visa status,” he said in a statement.
The opposition home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, said Beydoun’s visa should never have been approved in the first place.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) warned on Wednesday of the risk of famine in Gaza, a day after the US said Israel had been warned to improve aid deliveries to the territory, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Unrwa commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, told a press conference in Berlin that “there is a real risk today … that we enter a situation where famine or acute malnutrition is unfortunately again a likelihood,” pointing to the upcoming winter and the weakened immune systems of Gaza’s population.
Lazzarini painted a dire picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying it had “become a kind of wasteland, which I would say is almost unliveable”.
In relation to aid deliveries to Gaza he said that “over the last two to three weeks there was no convoy entering into the north except yesterday”.
“We have a huge drop of convoys in the south with only an average of fifty to sixty for two million people, while we estimate the number needed much, much higher,” Lazzarini said.
AFP reports that he pointed out that the convoys which had managed to enter had been subject to looting “because of the total breakdown of law and order”.
However, he stressed that with appropriate action a hunger crisis in Gaza “can be avoided” if convoys and food are allowed to enter.
“We have shown that we can have a polio campaign, so why can we not bring food?” he asked.
On Tuesday, the US state department said secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin had sent a joint letter making “clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today”.
Cogat, the Israeli military body supervising civilian affairs in Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that “50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid – including food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment provided by Jordan – were transferred today to northern Gaza”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday said they “will not hesitate to support” regional allies in the conflict against Israel, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … will not hesitate to support the Islamic resistance decisively … in bravely standing up against this fake regime (Israel),” the IRGC said in a statement published by their official Sepah news agency.
Britain and France call urgent meeting at UN security council to discuss humanitarian situation in Gaza
Britain and France have called an urgent meeting at the UN security council to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza and Britain is considering sanctioning two Israeli ministers, said prime minister Keir Starmer.
Reuters reports that when asked about the situation, Starmer said:
We are constantly making representations on this with our partners.
There is an urgent need, and has been now for a very long time, for more aid to get into Gaza.
British foreign secretary David Lammy said in a statement Israel must ensure civilians were protected and routes were open to allow life-saving aid through, and that the United Nations meeting would address these issues. He said Algeria had also joined the call for the urgent meeting.
Starmer also said that Britain was looking at sanctioning Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over comments they had made about the conflict.
Previous foreign secretary David Cameron was also reportedly looking at sanctioning the pair before the then-governing Conservative party lost an election in June.
Asked if his government would sanction Smotrich over comments that starving civilians in Gaza might be justified and Ben-Gvir for saying perpetrators of settler violence in the West Bank were heroes, Starmer said:
We are looking at that because they’re obviously abhorrent comments.
Israel must take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties, to allow aid into Gaza in much greater volumes and provide the UN humanitarian partners the ability to operate effectively.
Along with France, the UK will convene an urgent meeting of the UN security council to address this.
Lebanese officials say an Israeli airstrike on Nabatiyeh hit a building during a meeting coordinating relief efforts.
Associated Press reports:
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “intentionally targeting” a meeting of the municipal council convened to discuss city services and relief.
The strike killed the mayor of the city along with four other people and destroyed a municipal building.
Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in a separate statement that the building was targeted during a meeting held to coordinate relief work and aid distribution for people who have remained in southern Lebanon. He said a civil defence member was killed and others injured in the strike.
Mikati accused the international community of being “deliberately silent” about Israeli strikes that have killed civilians and attacks on UN peacekeepers.
“What solution can be hoped for in light of this reality?” he said in a statement.
Israel said the strike targeted what it said were Hezbollah militant sites embedded among civilians, without providing evidence.
Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank are facing “the most dangerous olive season ever”, experts said on Wednesday, urging Israeli settlers and forces not to interfere with the harvest.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the experts also recommended a “foreign presence” to act as a buffer between the two sides.
According to AFP, a dozen experts said farmers were facing intimidation, restriction of access to lands, severe harassment and attacks by armed Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces.
“In 2023, the harvest was marred by a sharp increase in movement restrictions and violence by Israeli forces and settlers,” the independent experts said in a statement.
Last year, they said:“Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, faced the highest level of Israeli settler violence.”
Settlers had assaulted Palestinians, set fire to or damaged their crops, stolen sheep and blocked them from getting to their land, water and grazing areas, the statement added.
“Last year, Israel also seized more Palestinian land than in any year in the past 30 years,” they said, adding that the situation was “expected to worsen”.
Olive harvests are central to Palestinian life and culture, said the independent experts, who are mandated by the Human Rights Council but do not speak for the UN.
“Restricting olive harvests, destroying orchards and banning access to water sources is an attempt by Israel to expand its illegal settlements,” they argued.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, was among the signatories, reports AFP.
The experts, also including those on the right to food, to safe drinking water and sanitation and to adequate housing, said Palestinian farmers were facing “enormous challenges, threats and harassment” in accessing their olive trees.
In 2023, more than 9,600 hectares (24,000 acres) of olive-cultivated land across the occupied West Bank was not harvested due to Israeli-imposed restrictions, they said.
That had meant the loss of 1,200 metric tonnes of olive oil, worth $10m, they added.
“This situation is expected to worsen,” they warned, as the Israeli authorities had revoked or failed to issue permits allowing farmers to access their lands.
They urged Israeli forces to refrain from interfering with this year’s olive harvest, and “concentrate their efforts on withdrawing the occupation and dismantling the colonies”.
The experts said they would “continue to call for protection, including through a foreign presence acting as a buffer between the Palestinians and their aggressors, and to protect Palestinian farmers and their families”.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency is close to a possible breaking point for its operations in the Gaza Strip due to increasingly complicated conditions, its head said.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told journalists at a news conference in Berlin:
I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won’t be able anymore to operate.We are very near to a possible breaking point. When will it be? I don’t know. But we are very near of that.
He said the agency was facing a combination of a financial and political threats to its existence, in addition to difficulties in day-to-day operations, as aid is even more desperately needed against the threat of disease and famine.
He said there was a real risk, heading into winter, with people’s immune systems weakened, that famine or acute malnutrition could become a likelihood.
Civilian suffering in Lebanon has reached ‘unprecedented level’, says UN special coordinator for Lebanon
The UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has said that civilian suffering has reached an unprecedented level.
Her comments follow an Israeli strike in the south which killed at least six people and hurt 43, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
She also urged the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure after deadly Israeli strikes hit municipality buildings in the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Wednesday.
Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement:
Today, Israeli airstrikes hit the town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, yet again.
She added that “civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times”.