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 Monday, 28 October, as they unfold.
23:10 The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Monday condemned the Israeli parliament's approval of a bill banning its activities in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, calling the move "outrageous".
"It's outrageous that a member state of the United Nations is working to dismantle a UN agency which also happens to be the largest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza," Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for UNRWA, told AFP.
"If it's implemented it's a disaster including due to the impact this is likely to have on the humanitarian operation in Gaza and in several parts of the West Bank," she said, adding the agency is the lead provider of "shelter, food and primary health care" in war-battered Gaza.
23:00 Israel's parliament on Monday approved a bill banning the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), despite objections from the international community.
Lawmakers passed the bill with 92 votes in favour and 10 against, after years of harsh Israeli criticism of UNRWA, which has only increased since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza.
22:40 The flow of displaced families crossing from Lebanon into Syria via a secondary crossing has slowed to a trickle following an Israeli strike there last week, a local official told AFP on Monday.
The land crossing on Lebanon's northeastern border, known as Jousieh on the Syrian side, connects to Qusayr in Syria's Homs province.
It was put out of service last Friday after the Israeli strike created a large crater, blocking vehicle traffic.
The raid followed an earlier strike on October 4 that forced the closure of the mainland border with Syria, known as Masnaa on the Lebanese side, which links Beirut to Damascus.
These attacks have severely constrained the ability of people to flee Lebanon overland, especially as all airlines except the national carrier have suspended flights.
22:10 The European Union has expressed serious apprehension regarding legislation set for a vote in the Israeli Knesset that would prohibit contact between Israeli state entities and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
In a statement released today, the EU characterized the proposed laws as potentially catastrophic, stating, "If adopted, these laws will have far-reaching consequences, de facto rendering UNRWA’s vital operations in Gaza impossible."
The statement notes that the legislation could seriously hamper "UNRWA’s provision of health, education and social services in the occupied West Bank" and revoke the agency's diplomatic privileges in Israel.
The EU emphasized that such actions contradict international law and humanitarian principles, warning that they would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian crisis in the region.
"The EU reiterates that UNRWA is the sole provider of these critical services and is essential for delivering emergency relief to millions of Palestinian refugees," the statement continued. With over 40,000 staff across the region, including 13,000 in Gaza, UNRWA has a long-standing mandate from the UN General Assembly to support vulnerable populations.
The EU's concerns are amplified by the potential eviction of UNRWA from its East Jerusalem premises, which could violate provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice.
"Millions of lives are potentially at stake, and these obligations cannot be disregarded any longer," the EU warned.
In light of these developments, the EU urged Israeli authorities to reconsider the legislation to prevent disruptions to UNRWA’s life-saving services, emphasizing the need for "continued and unhindered humanitarian access for UNRWA to the Palestine refugees that it was set up to serve."
21:30 The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan has conducted a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
The Saudi Press Agency reported that the ministers discussed the latest developments in the region and the repercussions of the escalating conflict.
Both ministers stressed the importance of avoiding anything that would destabilize the region's security and stability.
They also reviewed bilateral relations.
21:00 Five Palestinian journalists were killed within 24 hours amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
This tragic loss raises the total number of journalists killed to 182 since the onset of the current conflict, according to the Government Media Office.
Journalists, repeatedly targeted for dissenting against Israel's atrocities since the onset of the war on Gaza, are again met by assaults, cyber-attacks, hacking, and censorship from Israeli forces and settlers.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) among others previously stated that journalists in Gaza face untold risks.
20:30 Footage shared by Quds News Network shows Israeli forces allegedly torturing Palestinian detainees in the Jabalia refugee camp.
The video, purportedly recorded by a trapped civilian, states that the torture is occurring at a "displacement center" within the camp.
In the footage, detainees lie face down, their faces pressed into the sand, as Israeli soldiers hold them at gunpoint and search their bodies. This scene adds to accusations against the Israeli army amidst the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
The Jabalia refugee camp, located in northern Gaza, has faced multiple attacks and remains under complete siege. The blockade has halted the entry of essential aid, leaving those who haven’t fled vulnerable to starvation, disease, and alleged abuse by Israeli forces.
20:10 The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported the successful evacuation of 20 patients and 14 companions from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. This operation, coordinated with the World Health Organization, followed a 24-day Israeli siege that severely restricted access to healthcare.
The evacuation came amid escalating violence and predation on the medical facility, as Israeli forces detained 100 staff members from Kamal Adwan Hospital earlier in the day. Medical sources indicated that the hospital, located in Beit Lahiya, was raided on Friday, resulting in the detention of 44 male staff members and significant damage to the facility. As per the latest update, the hospital is treating 200 patients and is critically low on supplies and personnel due to the Israeli seige.
19:40 A forum representing countries including the European Union member states, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey on Monday called for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Union for the Mediterranean also urged Israel to cease unilateral measures undermining a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the Gaza war spills over across the Middle East.
In a press conference after their meeting in Barcelona, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for a political solution to the crisis that "every day drives more people to despair and sows the seeds of hatred that will wipe out entire generations".
The forum, which gathers the EU and other countries in the Mediterranean basin, said in a joint statement that an "immediate and permanent ceasefire" in Lebanon and Gaza is a "top priority".
They also urged Israel to stop actions such as building settlements in the occupied West Bank and attacking UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
19:00 South Africa has filed "evidence" of a "genocide" committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip with the International Court of Justice, the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement on Monday.
The document "contains evidence which shows how the government of Israel has violated the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza", the presidency said amid claims that Israel has denied.
18:30 The Israeli military said Hezbollah launched more than 100 projectiles into Israel on Monday as Israeli forces continued to pound southern Lebanon.
17:30 Hezbollah said it fired on Monday a barrage of advanced rockets towards a naval base in the area of Haifa, a northern Israeli city.
The group said it launched "a rocket barrage at...a naval base" in the Haifa area after Israeli strikes hit Tyre.
Hezbollah also said it ambushed Israeli troops near a Lebanon border village on Monday, more than a month into an all-out war that has involved close-range combat in southern Lebanon.
The all-out war started after Israel changed the rules of engagement against Hezbollah and launched an attempted ground invasion.
The Lebanese group said it "ambushed... the Israeli enemy's vehicles and soldiers as they advanced towards" the outskirts of the border village of Kfar Kila ahead of deadly clashes.
Israeli troops and warplanes have repeatedly targeted Kfar Kila in their war against Hezbollah.
17:00 Israel launched fresh airstrikes Monday on Tyre after issuing "evacuation orders" following an earlier raid that killed seven people as Israeli troops continued blowing up entire villages in south Lebanon.
The National News Agency (NNA) reported "a series of strikes" on the ancient coastal city, beginning with a raid on a residential apartment.
Thick clouds of smoke covering parts of Tyre, including rising from a building along the seafront, were reported on TV screens worldwide.
On Monday, the Israeli army blew up entire residential buildings and homes in the town of Aitroun on the Lebanese-Israeli border, according to Sky News Arabia.
The army has detonated homes and residential buildings in other towns and villages in the past 72 hours.
Israel troops have carried out a scorched earth military campaign across the entire south of Lebanon to push hundreds of thousands of civilians toward the north of the country.
16:40 Israel's defence ministry said on Monday it had earmarked $530 million to accelerate the development of the laser air defence system known as "Iron Beam".
"The Ministry of Defence has signed a major deal worth approximately 2 billion shekels to significantly expand procurement of the laser interception systems, 'Iron Beam,'" a statement said.
The system is aimed at improving the interception of drones and other projectiles, which Hezbollah in Lebanon has fired at Israel since the start of the war on Gaza.
Iron Beam would supplement other aerial defence capacities such as the more well-known Iron Dome.
16:20 Flagrant violations of the laws of war by Israel in the escalating conflict in the Middle East are setting a dangerous precedent, aid workers in the region warn.
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, humanitarians say the warring parties are flouting international humanitarian law (IHL).
"The rules of war are being broken in such a flagrant way... (it) is setting a precedent that we have not seen in any other conflict," Marwan Jilani, the vice president of the Palestine Red Crescent (PCRS), told AFP.
Last week, during a meeting in Geneva of the 191 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, he lamented a "total disregard for human life (and) for international humanitarian law".
Amid Israel's devastating war on the Gaza Strip, local aid workers are striving to deliver assistance while facing the same risks as the rest of the population, he said.
Earlier today, the Senior Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the University of Hull Vascular surgeon Dr Junaid Sultan, who worked in the Gaza Strip for three months. had spoken out against Israeli atrocities.
15:50 Hezbollah said its fighters targeted Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon on Monday after earlier claiming repeated attacks on troops in the same area near the border.
Hezbollah fighters targeted "an Israeli enemy troop gathering" near Wazzani village "with a rocket salvo", the Iran-backed group said in a statement after earlier claiming four attacks with rockets and artillery on Israeli troops at Fatima's Gate, a shuttered border crossing at the nearby Lebanese village of Kfar Kila.
15:40 The number of Palestinians killed in the yearlong Israel war in Gaza has passed 43,000, most of them women and children, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday.
The tally includes 96 dead who arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past two days, the ministry said.
14:45 The death toll from the Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the coastal city of Tyre rises to seven, the Lebanese health ministry said in a revised toll. Another 17 people were wounded in the attack, it added.
14:00 The Israeli army told residents in parts of Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre to leave immediately, warning that it would attack sites there.
13:50 German airline group Lufthansa said it was extending the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv to 25 November as Israel is at war in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Lufthansa Group airlines Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS also confirmed that Eurowings flights to Tel Aviv are suspended until 30 November.
13:49 Lebanon submitted "a complaint to the Security Council regarding the latest Israeli attacks that killed three journalists and targeted media facilities in Hasbaya in south Lebanon, and the Ouzai area" in Beirut's southern suburbs, a statement from the foreign ministry said on social media platform X.
The strike early Friday hit a complex in the Druze-majority town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists from Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.
"The repeated Israeli targeting of media crews is a war crime" and Israel must be "held to account and punished", the statement added. Cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda from, Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, and video journalist Wissam Qassem from Al-Manar television, were killed in the strike.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack was deliberate and both he and Information Minister Ziad Makary labelled it a war crime.
13:46 The Israeli forces are detaining 100 staff members from Kamal Adwan Children Hospital in northern Gaza, medical sources from Gaza reported.
Israeli forces raided the hospital, located in Beit Lahiya, on Friday, detaining 44 male staff, the World Health Organization said earlier.
Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.
The Health Ministry called on anyone with surgical skills to join the hospital to “help save as many wounded and patients as possible,” after an Israeli raid on the facility left it low on supplies and staff.
“The ministry urgently calls on international organizations to promptly dispatch surgical teams to the hospital,” it added.
The ministry explained the hospital had been left without most of its medical staff after Israeli forces either detained or expelled most of the facility’s physicians.
It said, currently “only one pediatric doctor remains in the hospital across all specialties.”
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of the Hospital said: "The health system has completely collapsed and we only provide first aid."
He told Aljazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif: "Our children are being killed in front of our eyes, and we are burying them with our own hands."
"I lost my son because we carry a humanitarian message, our children are being killed. I buried my son next to the hospital wall," he added.
13:45 The UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said that a UNRWA staff was killed by Israeli forces while driving a marked UN vehicle in Gaza.
The Knesset is considering legislation forbidding contact between the Israeli state and UNRWA and banning it from work in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
Israel has targeted UNRWA for decades because the central premise of the UN relief agency’s mandate is the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.
Without UNRWA, life-saving aid to Palestinian refugees would be severely hampered, if not impossible. We urge the Israeli Government to keep UNRWA’s ability to work untouched.
13:35 Israel's Mossad chief David Barnea remained in Qatar following the overnight meeting for a potential cease-fire in Gaza and captives swap deals. According to Israeli media, the parties are considering a possible renewal of negotiations and the convening of teams within days.
On Sunday, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced that Egypt has proposed a two-day cease-fire and the release of four of the Israelis held in Gaza in exchange for several Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Talks are not expected to see “significant progress” until a winner is declared in the US presidential election, a source briefed on the talks told CNN.
"The source added the latest round of talks did not focus on achieving a captive release and ceasefire deal, but rather on jump-starting the process," CNN added.
A photo taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby village. AFP
13:10 The Lebanese health Ministry said 12 people were killed and at least 24 were wounded in Israeli strikes in two different villages in southern Lebanon.
According to reports, five were killed in Burj El Chemali and seven more were killed in Ain Ebel where at least 24 people were wounded.
12:50 Hezbollah announced the targeting of an Israeli military company east of Akka using a one-way drone, achieving a direct hit.
12:10 In a series of statements, Hezbollah said it carried out three rocket attacks on Israeli forces gathering near the Fatima Gate at Lebanon's borders.
Hezbollah also reported two additional attacks on clusters of Israeli soldiers between the Manara and Margaliot settlements in northern Israel.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that 15 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Kiryat Shmona and its surrounding areas in the Galilee.
The Israeli army announced it had intercepted a drone over western Galilee that was launched from Lebanon.
Israel's Home Front Command reported sirens in Metula, Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings in the Upper Galilee.
On Sunday, Hezbollah issued a warning to residents of the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona, urging them to evacuate immediately.
This follows an earlier advisory from Hezbollah to residents of 25 Israeli settlements in the Galilee to evacuate immediately, saying the Israeli army was using these sites as bases to launch attacks on Lebanon.
11:40 Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he had "received indications" hours before Israel's attack on the country.
"We had received indications since the evening about the possibility of an attack that night," Araghchi told reporters without specifying the nature of the indications.
On Saturday, Israel carried out air strikes on Iran in response to Tehran's 1 October attack, a retaliation for Israel's killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and a Revolutionary Guards commander in Damascus.
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" whom he did not name.
The Iranian foreign minister emphasised in his remarks that Tehran has the "right to respond".
10:37 Iraq has submitted a complaint to the United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council over Israel’s use of its airspace to attack Iran on Saturday, Bassim Alawadi, an Iraqi government spokesperson said.
In a statement, he said the letter condemns “the Zionist entity’s blatant violation of Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to carry out an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 26.”
Images and videos on social media from Iraq appeared to show booster sections of missiles used by Israel.
The fragments of the missiles appeared to have fallen in an area north of Baghdad.
10:11 Lebanon’s health ministry reported that an Israeli strike in the center of the southern city of Tyre killed at least five people and wounded 10 others, according to an updated toll, which remains provisional.
"An Israeli enemy strike this morning on a residential building in the coastal city led to a provisional toll of five dead and 10 wounded,” the health ministry statement said, adding that “work is ongoing to remove the rubble.”
Another two persons were killed in raids near Baalbek and Nabatieh.
Nineteen people were killed and 108 more were injured as a result of Israeli air raids on Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.
The biggest number of casualties was reported from southern areas near Sidon and Tyre, where seven people were killed and 48 were wounded. Ten people were killed in Nabatieh and 55 were hospitalized with wounds.
Two people were killed and five more were injured in Baalbek-Hermel.
The overall death toll from Israeli bombardments and artillery attacks since the outbreak of the current escalation in October 2023 has reached 2,772, with 12,468 people being wounded.
10:10 The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting on Monday at Iran’s request.
Switzerland, which holds the council’s rotating presidency, said Russia, China and Algeria, the council's Arab representative, supported the request.
09:55 Israel's Knesset is set to pass two bills on Monday that would shut down the United Nations Relief and Works Agency operations in the occupied Palestinian territories including east Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank within 90 days, despite a massive international pressure campaign against such a step.
A Prime Minister’s Office source told The Jerusalem Post that the bills were expected to pass.
Foreign Ministers from Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement expressing their “grave concern” over the shutdown, particularly in light of the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza due to the war.
09:45 The top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has warned Israel it would face "bitter consequences" after it attacked Iranian sites, local media said on Monday.
Guards chief Hossein Salami, quoted by Tasnim news agency, said Israel had "failed to achieve its ominous goals" with its air raids on Saturday, calling it a sign of "miscalculation and helplessness" and warning that "its bitter consequences will be unimaginable" for Israel.
On Sunday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country will respond to Israel “appropriately."
“We are not seeking war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and country and will respond appropriately to the Zionist regime’s aggression,” Pezeshkian was quoted by state TV as saying.
Pezeshkian also said the US had promised Iran to stop the war in Gaza and Lebanon if Iran restrained. “They had promised to end the war in response to our restraint, but they did not keep their word,” he said.
The Iranian president also warned tensions will escalate if Israel’s aggression continues, adding, “We know that the United States is encouraging Israel to commit these atrocities.”
09:33 The Israeli army said four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without providing details.
An explosive drone and a projectile fired from Lebanon wounded five people in Israel, Tel Aviv said.
09:15 Marwan Barghouti, the prominent Palestinian political figure and leader in the Fatah movement, was subjected to a brutal assault in Israel's Megiddo Prison in early September.
According to a lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission, Barghouti and several fellow detainees faced severe beatings at the hands of Israeli prison guards.
The assault, which took place in Barghouti's solitary confinement cell on 9 September, left him with serious injuries to his back, ribs, and arms and legs, it added.
Barghouti's recovery has been slow and challenging as he struggles with limited mobility, chest and back pain, untreated infected wounds, and ear inflammation caused by internal bleeding that was left untreated, the statement said.
The injuries he sustained include damage to his ribs and limbs, bleeding in his right ear, and a wound on his right arm, accompanied by significant back pain.
Barghouti was jailed by Israel in 2002 in the height of the Second Palestinian intifada (2000-2003).
In August 2024, Hamas included his name on the list of Palestinian prisoners in any prisoner swap/ceasefire deal with Israel.
09:10 The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reports that Israeli warplanes have conducted a raid on Tyre in south Lebanon, killing at least three people and injuring two others.
Rescue workers and paramedics are working to clear the rubble and search for any missing people, it added.
09:00 An Israeli attack on a group of people in the Shujayea neighbourhood in Gaza City killed at least three people.
Another Palestinian was killed and several others wounded in an Israeli attack on a home in the central Nuseirat refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported.
Israeli warplanes and tanks continued to strike Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Shujayea in the under-bombardment/besieged northern Gaza.
Israeli warplanes also detonated a house belonging to the al-Ajjouri family in the Jabalia refugee camp, site of several Israeli massacres since the start of October.
Palestinians inspect the damage after an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia the northern Gaza Strip. AFP
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