Updates: Deadly new Israel attack on north Gaza as south Lebanon targeted

Read about how refugees and displaced Palestinians are grappling with the Israeli decision to cut an essential lifeline here.

Check out our explainer on what we know about Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, here.

Finally, watch an interview with the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza on why he won’t leave despite the killing of his son here.

But before leaving, here are the latest developments:

• Israeli air strikes killed 19 people, including eight women, in two towns in Lebanon’s Baalbek region, according to the Health Ministry.
• Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he’s hopeful of a ceasefire with Israel in “coming hours or days” after speaking with US envoy Amos Hochstein.
• Naim Qassem delivered his first speech as secretary-general of Hezbollah, pledging that under his leadership the Lebanese group will keep fighting a war with Israel and “helping Gaza”.
• Hezbollah says its “fighters launched a complex attack” using “high-quality rockets and a swarm of drones” that targeted three Israeli military bases.
• The US State Department said it hasn’t seen any “significant improvement” in humanitarian aid reaching desperate Palestinians in Gaza after senior officials told Israel it had 30 days to improve the situation or face possible weapon transfer restrictions.

The index, launched in 2008 by the Committee to Protect Journalists, comprises 13 nations this year and includes both democracies and non-democratic governments.

The CPJ said Israel’s “failure to hold anyone to account in the targeted killing of five journalists in Gaza and Lebanon in a year of relentless war” had resulted in its ranking on the index.

While the press freedom NGO is investigating the killings of at least 10 journalists, it said the number of murdered media workers might still be higher considering the scale of Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

“What’s clear from our index is that Israel is not committed to investigating or punishing those who have killed journalists … Israel has deliberately targeted journalists for being journalists,” CPJ Chief Executive Jodie Ginsberg told Al Jazeera.

Read more here.

How Israel Won the West examines how Israel has come to occupy such a privileged and protected place in the Western world.

It traces the journey of the Jewish people from biblical stories of origin through centuries of persecution and the advent of Zionism, all the way to the creation of Israel and its ensuing occupation of the Palestinian territory.

A UN special rapporteur urged the suspension of Israel’s UN membership citing repeated violations of international law and the occupation of Palestinian territory.

“I do believe that the impunity that has been granted to Israel has allowed it to become a serial violator of international law,” Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, said at a news conference.

Albanese said she recommends the General Assembly consider the suspension of Israel’s credentials as a member of the UN until it ends violating international law and withdraws the “clearly unlawful” occupation.

“Israel, in the pursuit of realising Greater Israel, is attempting to reduce physically or spiritually … the presence of the Palestinian identity in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

The Arab League announced it will be holding an emergency session on Thursday to address Israel’s decision to block the UN agency for Palestinian refugees operating in the Israeli-occupied territories.

In a statement, the League said the session, led by Yemen and requested by Jordan, will bring together permanent representatives at its Cairo headquarters to form a united response to the ban.

The unmanned aerial vehicle fell into an open area and no injuries have been reported.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella of Iran-backed armed groups in the region, claimed to have attacked a “vital target” in Golan Heights with drones.

The Golan Heights – a hilly 1,200-sq km (463-square mile) plateau that also overlooks Lebanon and borders Jordan – is Syrian territory occupied by Israel in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen says the country’s security cabinet is meeting to discuss what terms it might offer to secure a truce with Hezbollah.

“There are discussions, I think it will still take time,” Cohen, a former intelligence minister, told Israeli public radio.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met ministers late Tuesday to discuss Israel’s demands in return for a 60-day truce. These include that Hezbollah withdraws north of the Litani River, 30km (20 miles) from the Israeli frontier, and that the Lebanese state’s army deploys along the border.

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon have come under direct Israeli fire and sustained injuries in recent weeks as the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.

Despite recent attacks, however, the UNIFIL force remains committed to its decades-long peacekeeping mission. But with escalating tensions and the safety of troops in crisis, what does the future of UNIFIL look like in Lebanon?

Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, said he was cautiously optimistic about this potential ceasefire proposal, which we understand is on its way to Israel in the hands of the US envoy, Amos Hochstein.

I’ll give you some of the details. According to this proposal, there will be no arms or military infrastructure south of the Litani River except for the Lebanese army and international forces under a ceasefire agreement in line with UN Security Council 1701.

That’s the agreement that was made after the end of the last war in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel.

Mikati went on to say any ceasefire would have to come with an American guarantee. He said Amos Hochstein told him it was possible to reach a ceasefire before November 5th. It shows you just how much effort the Americans are making before this election.

It’s really important to mention that, according to Lebanon’s speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, who has effectively been acting on behalf of Hezbollah in this negotiation, has repeatedly said there will be no change to 1701.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports Israel’s public broadcaster published the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire draft document, which the US presented to Israel.

It says it includes “a mandate which would allow Israel to conduct air strikes along the border between the two countries, in Lebanese territory, in order to thwart threats brought on by Hezbollah or other groups”.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, has condemned the killing of children by Israeli strikes in the besieged coastal enclave.

Members Navi Pillay and Chris Sidoti were speaking at a UN briefing. Sidoti said at least 13,319 Palestinian children have died in Israeli attacks since October 2023.

“Kids aren’t terrorists,” he said, warning the war risks turning occupied Palestinian territory into a “terrorism-creation factory” over the coming decades.

The Washington Post reports the US government is investigating 500 incidents in which American-made munitions were allegedly used by Israel during its war on Gaza but were never properly probed.

John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said the Biden administration “has consistently deferred to Israeli authorities and declined to do its own investigations”.

“The US government hasn’t done nearly enough to investigate how the Israeli military uses weapons made in the United States and paid for by US taxpayers,” he said.

Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, since October  2023.

The US Department of State says it has not seen a “significant improvement” in aid reaching Palestinians in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to Israeli officials earlier this month demanding concrete measures to address the worsening situation in the Palestinian enclave.

They told Israel it must take steps in 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid.

The letter outlined specific steps Israel must take including enabling a minimum of 350 trucks to enter Gaza per day, instituting pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery, and rescinding evacuation orders to Palestinian civilians when there is no operational need.

Espen Barth Eide told Al Jazeera Israel’s ban on UNRWA is an “absolutely very dramatic decision.”

“UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian efforts in Gaza and … the West Bank, in addition to the neighbouring countries,” he said. “The other humanitarian organizations, both the voluntary and the other UN organizations, are extremely clear in saying that they can simply not operate if UNRWA is not there.

“Norway has not only condemned this, we have also made clear that our view is that this decision is illegal under international law. Nobody stands above the law that also applies to Israel.

He said many countries have criticized and condemned the decision to ban UNRWA, but Norway has taken it a step further and is now presenting a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly.

It will ask the international court to evaluate whether Israel had the right to ban UNRWA, or whether it’s in violation of its obligations as an occupying force.

“Our argument is that even if the occupation of Palestine is illegal, which we know it is, there are certain obligations that you hold as long as you are an occupier. That means Israel shall provide … key essential humanitarian services and other types of life support for the Palestinian population.”

Najib Mikati says he’s striving for a truce in Israel’s war on Lebanon within days.

“We are doing our best … to have a ceasefire within the coming hours or days,” Mikati said during a televised interview with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, adding he’s “cautiously optimistic”.

The comments come after he spoke to US envoy Amos Hochstein.

Top US officials – including CIA Director William Burns and envoys Brett McGurk and Hochstein – will visit Egypt and Israel on Thursday, the White House said, as Washington seeks to de-escalate tensions in the region.

Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, says the group will keep fighting its war with Israel until it is offered ceasefire terms it deems acceptable, as Israeli forces bombarded the ancient eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek.

“If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but according to the conditions that we see as suitable,” Qassem said. “We will not beg for a ceasefire.”

Read the full story here.