In the face of the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian and Lebanese people amid Israel's wars in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, Ahram Online provides you with live updates of the most recent developments across the Middle East on Friday, 22 November, as they unfold.

19:49  Three rockets fall in northern Israel, ambulances and police comb the targeted sites, Channel 12 Israel reported

19:00 The UN voiced concern that conditions were so dire in Syria that some Lebanese residents who had fled there seeking refuge from the Israeli war were opting to return to Lebanon.

There are "Lebanese families who are beginning to take the very difficult and potentially life-threatening decision to return to Lebanon", said Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the United Nations refugee agency's representative in Syria.

"These are very, very small numbers, but for us, even small numbers are worrying signals," he told reporters in Geneva via video link from the Syrian-Lebanese border.

The UNHCR estimates that around 560,000 people have fled into Syria from neighbouring Lebanon since late September.

Lebanese authorities put the number even higher, at more than 610,000.

Vargas Llosa said that around 65 percent of those crossing into Syria -- itself torn apart by 13 years of civil war -- were Syrian nationals who had sought refuge in Lebanon from that conflict.

He warned that "unless there is a real injection of international support... this number of Lebanese choosing to return home to these extraordinarily difficult circumstances may grow in the coming weeks and months."

18:30 G7 ministers meeting in Italy next week will discuss the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said.

18:00 The state-run NNA said Israeli warplanes launched strikes on two buildings just inside Beirut's southern suburbs, near the centre of the capital.

An AFP photographer captured the moment a missile struck the middle of an 11-storey building housing shops, a gym and apartments, located on a usually busy street in the heavily populated Shiyah district.

The impact sparked a fireball and caused the structure to collapse on top of itself, littering the road with debris.

An Israeli missile is pictured before hitting a building in Beirut's southern Shayah neighbourhood. AFP

The NNA reported people fled an adjacent neighbourhood after Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee warned on social media platform X that the military would strike what he described as "Hezbollah facilities and interests" in Shiyah.

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Shayah neighbourhood. AFP

17:00 A Third Israeli raid hits Beirut's southern suburb, Al Arabiya correspondent reported.

A ball of fire erupts at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs. AFP

16:30 A Syria war monitor said that Israeli strikes on the city of Palmyra this week killed 92 fighters after a United Nations representative said they were likely the deadliest to date.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday's attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups that also involved commanders from Iraq's Al-Nujaba group and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The toll has risen to "92 dead: 61 Syrian pro-Iran fighters", 11 of them working for Hezbollah, "and 27 foreign nationals mostly from Al-Nujaba, plus four from Hezbollah", the Observatory said.

The Britain-based war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, had previously reported 82 dead, while the Syria defence ministry on Wednesday said 36 people were killed.

15:30 Italian authorities said four Italian soldiers had been lightly hurt in an "attack" by two rockets on the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

"I have learned with deep indignation and concern of the news of the new attacks suffered by the Italian headquarters of UNIFIL in southern Lebanon, which have also caused the injury of some of our soldiers engaged in a peacekeeping mission," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement.

A United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy drives through the southern Lebanese area of Marjayoun. AFP

Israel has repeatedly targeted UNIFIL forces since it escalated its assault on Lebanon in late September. Several peacekeepers have since been injured after refusing to leave their positions on the Lebanon-Israel border.

15:15 Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters in different areas in south Lebanon, including a coastal town that is home to the headquarters of UN peacekeepers.

A spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL told The Associated Press that they are monitoring “heavy clashes” in the coastal town of Naqoura and the village of Chamaa to the northeast.

UNIFIL’s headquarters are located in Naqoura on Lebanon’s southern edge, close to the border with Israel.

“We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said. Asked if the peacekeepers and staff at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes, for the moment.”

Several UNIFIL posts have been targeted by Israel since it began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, leaving some peacekeepers wounded.

15:10 Washington embassy in London returns to work after suspicious package detonated near its building, Al-Arabiya news network reported.

15:00 Gaza's health ministry warned that all hospitals in the besieged strip would have to stop or reduce services "within 48 hours" due to a lack of fuel caused by Israel's blockade of fuel, aid, and other essential goods.

"We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry," Marwan Al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, said during a press conference.

14:30 Pro-Palestinian groups took the Dutch state to court, urging a halt to arms exports to Israel and accusing the government of failing to prevent the "genocide" in Gaza.

The NGOs argued that Israel is breaking international law in Gaza and the West Bank, invoking, amongst others, the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention set up in the wake of the Holocaust.

"Israel is guilty of genocide and apartheid" and "is using Dutch weapons to wage war," said Wout Albers, a lawyer representing the NGOs.

"Dutch weapons are killing children every day in Palestine, including my family," said Ahmed Abofoul, a legal advisor to Al Haq, one of the groups involved in the suit.

The case comes one day after another court based in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, issued arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and former defence minister.

14:00 The World Health Organization said that nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel's war on Gaza last year.

In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on healthcare in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of the Israeli war.

Between October 7, 2023, and November 18 this year, "we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total," Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.

He said "almost 70 percent" of these had occurred since the Israeli escalation in late September.

Saying this was "an extremely worrying pattern," he stressed that "depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law."

Abubakar said, "A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care," highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks "have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient" -- the highest percentage of any active conflict today.

By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on healthcare globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory. 

He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on healthcare in Lebanon might be because "more ambulances have been targeted."

"And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed".

The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall healthcare in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.

The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon's 153 hospitals have now ceased to operate or are only partially functioning.

Hanan Balkhy, WHO's regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that "attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most." 

"Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward."

13:15 Strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut shortly after an Israeli evacuation warning early on Friday, according to Lebanese official media and AFPTV footage.

The state-run National News Agency said "enemy warplanes" had carried two raids on south Beirut and that "thick smoke was seen rising from the vicinity of the Lebanese University" in the Hadath neighbourhood.

Live AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke over the area after the Israeli military called for the evacuation of three locations, warning on social media of imminent attacks.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Burj al-Shamali, on the outskirts of Tyre. AFP

The military later issued a statement saying its "fighter jets completed a new round of strikes" on Beirut's southern suburbs.

The latest raids follow intense Israeli attacks on south Beirut as well as other areas in Lebanon's south and east, where Israel claims it has been targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

13:00 The Israeli army issued evacuation warnings for parts of the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre and the nearby Burj al-Shemali Palestinian refugee camp.

The pace of the strikes across Lebanon has increased since US envoy Amos Hochstein ended his visit to Beirut on Wednesday, seeking to broker an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war, AFP reported.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least 52 people were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, including some 40 dead in Lebanon's east.

12:00 Israeli strikes killed at least 51 people on Thursday in towns and villages across Lebanon, the country's Health Ministry reported.

In eastern Lebanon, intensified Israeli airstrikes killed 40 people in 10 different towns in Baalbek province, the ministry said. Rescuers were searching under the rubble of destroyed buildings, said Gov. Bachir Khodr, calling it “a very violent day” in his province.

Lebanese army soldiers stand guard in front of the six columns of the Temple of Jupiter at the Roman citadel of Baalbeck, in the Lebanese Bekaa valley, during a visit by the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon and the Director of UNESCO's Beirut office. AFP

In southern Lebanon, five people were killed by an Israeli strike in Tyre province, and seven others were killed by a strike in Nabatiyeh province, the Health Ministry said.

As of Thursday, the Health Ministry has recorded at least 3,583 people killed and 15,244 wounded in Lebanon during the 13-month Israeli war.

11:00 The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards described the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former defence minister as the "end and political death" of Israel in a speech.

"This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world, and its officials can no longer travel to other countries," Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami said in the speech aired on state TV.

In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami called the ICC warrant "a welcome move" and a "great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements," both supported by the Islamic Republic.
Demonstrators participate in an anti-Israel protest outside the United Nations (UN) office in Tehran. AFP