23:00 Mahmoud Komati, vice-president of Hezbollah’s political council, says the group’s rocket power is still intact, refuting Israeli claims that most of its rockets have been taken out in air raids.
Hezbollah has been able to maintain steady rocket fire with hundreds of projectiles daily at military bases and towns in northern Israel.
Komati told Al Jazeera that the election of Naim Qassem as Hezbollah’s new chief shows the firmness of the group’s leadership structure.
Israel’s defence minister had issued a thinly veiled threat to Qassem, saying that his appointment is “temporary”.
Komati said Gallant’s statement “does not scare” Hezbollah.
22:45 According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli army says four soldiers have been killed in northern Gaza, another officer was severely injured
The incident brings the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since October 2023 to 776.
22:15 Lebanon’s health ministry has issued an updated death toll from Israeli attacks in the country to 2,792, with 12,772 others wounded.
In the last 24 hours, 82 people were killed, and 180 others wounded, the report added.
21:30 Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday the appointment of Naim Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah chief would "strengthen" the resistance.
Pezeshkian expressed confidence that Qassem's appointment "will strengthen the will of the resistance", while hoping for "the cessation of aggression by the illegal Zionist regime (Israel) and the establishment of peace, tranquillity and security in Gaza, Lebanon, and the entire region," according to his website.
21:15 Lebanon's health ministry said at least five people were killed and another 33 injured on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a town near the main southern city of Sidon.
"An Israeli enemy strike on Haret Saida this evening killed five people and injured 33 others in a preliminary toll," the ministry said in a statement -- the second deadly strike on the town since Sunday.
Rescuers were still looking for survivors under the rubble, it added.
The strike hit a small building, causing significant damage, an AFP correspondent in Haret Saida said, with dozens of rescuers rushing to clear the rubble.
The targeted building was less than 500 metres from where the strike on Sunday hit, the correspondent said.
21:00 In an initial toll, 13 Palestinian civilians have been reported killed and dozens of others injured due to Israeli airstrikes targeting residential buildings in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Quds News Network reported.
20:55 The US expressed concern over an Israeli strike that killed 93 people, including a large number of children, in a residential building in the northern Gaza district of Beit Lahiya.
20:45 United Nations chief Antonio Guterres sent a letter Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu protesting a new law that could effectively cripple the UN agency responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), his spokesman said.
Guterres outlined in his letter "the issues of international law that have been raised by this law," Stephane Dujarric said, adding that it would have a "devastating impact on the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in the occupied territory" if implemented.
20:30 Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Al Jazeera, that the group was open to discussing a deal that secures an end to the war in Gaza and a complete Israeli army pull-out.
He added, “we responded to the mediators’ request to discuss new proposals for a ceasefire agreement."
19:10 In the latest toll, six Palestinians have been reported killed, several others injured due to an Israeli airstrike that targeted civilians waiting for aid near Al-Khalidi Mosque in northwest Gaza, Quds News Network reported.
18: 45 Qatar says it will work with US President Joe Biden “until the last minute” to reach a ceasefire deal.
“We don’t foresee any negative result of the elections on the mediation process itself,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told a press conference.
“We believe that we are dealing with institutions and in a country like the United States, the institutions are invested in finding a resolution to this crisis.”
Qatar, along with the US and Egypt, continues to mediate negotiations between Israel and Gaza for a deal to end the war.
18:10 Rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble in Beit Lahia on Tuesday after an overnight Israeli strike that Gaza's civil defence said killed 93 people in a residential building.
Around 40 people remained missing under the debris, the civil defence agency said.
Its spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, described the complete destruction of a five-storey home, adding that the area lacked medical facilities to treat the wounded.
"The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble," he told AFP.
17:45 The UN's special coordinator for Middle East peace warned Tuesday that the region was at its "most dangerous juncture" in decades, as the war between Israel and Iran-backed groups risks "serious escalation."
"We have now entered the second year of this horrific conflict, and the region is on the verge of yet another serious escalation," Tor Wennesland told the Security Council, adding that "the violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the wider region shows no signs of abating."
17:30 A rocket attack on Tuesday injured eight Austrian soldiers with a UN peacekeeping contingent in southern Lebanon, the Austrian defence ministry said, condemning the attack and adding it was "currently not possible to say where the attack came from".
"Eight Austrian army soldiers from the UNIFIL contingent (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) were injured today at 12:58 pm (1058 GMT) by a rocket hit in Camp Naqoura; none of them seriously," the statement said, adding the injuries were "minor and superficial".
Israeli forces have been repeatedly accused of purposefully attacking UNIFIL forces, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having voiced his desire for UNIFIL forces to be removed numerous times.
UNIFIL forces are resopisnble for maintaining the blue line, the line seperating Lebanon and Israel.
17:20 Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah's new leader, Naim Qassem, on Tuesday that his appointment was "not for long".
"Temporary appointment. Not for long," Gallant wrote in a post on X alongside a photograph of Qassem, whom Hezbollah had earlier named as assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah's successor. In a separate post in Hebrew, Gallant wrote that the "countdown has begun".
17:00 Spain’s Interior Ministry says it is cancelling a contract to buy ammunition from an Israeli firm; widening a Spanish pledge not to sell weapons to Israel to include purchases too, Reuters reports.
Cadena Ser radio earlier reported that the Guardia Civil police force agreed to buy more than 15m 9mm rounds for €6m (£4.98m, $6.48m) from Guardian LTD Israel. Spain said it would stop arms sales to Israel in October 2023, when Israel’s war started in Gaza.
Ministers now say, "The Spanish government maintains the commitment not to sell weapons to the Israeli state since the armed conflict broke out in the territory of Gaza. Although, in this case, it is an acquisition of ammunition, the Interior Ministry has initiated the administrative procedure to cancel the purchase."
The ministry said Israeli companies would also be excluded from any outstanding tenders. The contract was tendered in February and awarded on 21 October; with two of the three lots awarded to an Israeli company, it added.
Spain has been one of the European Union’s harshest critics of Israel’s campaign in Gaza and, more recently, in south Lebanon.
16:30 France "very strongly regrets" Israel's adoption of laws barring activities of the UN's Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, the foreign ministry said Tuesday in a statement.
"Implementation of these laws would have very serious consequences for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is already catastrophic, but also all of the Palestinian territories," the statement read, adding that France "reiterates its support for UNRWA and will continue to track the implementation of reforms necessary for its actions to be neutral".
16:20 The Israeli army said Tuesday that four of its soldiers fell in combat in the northern Gaza Strip during a single incident in which one other soldier was severely wounded.
"During the incident in which Captain Yehonatan (Joni) Keren, Staff Sergeant Aviv Gilboa, Staff Sergeant Nisim Meytal and Staff Sergeant Naor Haimov fell, an officer in the Multidimensional Unit (888) was severely injured," the army said in a statement, adding the wounded officer was evacuated to hospital.
16:00 The health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 43,061 people have been killed in the year-long Israeli war on Gaza, most of them women and children.
The toll includes 41 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 101,223 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
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 Tuesday, 29 October, as they unfold.
15:40 The governments of Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain issued a strong condemnation of the Israeli Knesset's recent approval of legislation aimed at preventing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In a joint statement, the four nations emphasized that "the work of the Agency is essential and irreplaceable for millions of Palestinian refugees in the region, and particularly in the current context in Gaza."
They expressed grave concerns that the legislation sets a "very serious precedent for the work of the United Nations and all organizations of the multilateral system."
The governments of Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain reiterated their commitment to work with donor and host countries to support the viability of UNRWA's humanitarian role.
15:00 Gaza's civil defence agency said that 93 people were killed in an overnight Israeli air strike on a residential building in the northern district of Beit Lahia.
"The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP in an updated toll.
14:40 Lebanese state media said that Israeli tanks have rolled into the outskirts of the village of Khiyam, their deepest incursion yet into south Lebanon in the ground operation launched last month.
The official National News Agency reported the entry of "a large number of tanks belonging to the Israeli occupation army" into the eastern outskirts of Khiam, some six kilometres (nearly four miles) from the border with Israel.
14:00 Hezbollah's allies issued statements of support for Qassem’s appointment.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad extended congratulations, calling Qassem’s leadership a symbol of Hezbollah’s resilience and ability to “confront the enemy, thwart aggression, and derail its plans.”
Hamas also expressed solidarity, viewing Qassem’s election as “proof of the party’s recovery from targeted attacks on its leadership.”
Hamas affirmed its commitment to stand by Hezbollah’s new leadership, praying for success in its “path of jihad and resistance.”
13:20 United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has stated in a new report that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank constitute acts of genocide, detailing a long-standing pattern of violence and forced displacement.
The report, titled “Genocide as Colonial Erasure,” was presented to the UN General Assembly amid rising humanitarian concerns and escalated conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.
Albanese’s report states that recent actions in Gaza represent an "intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians," which the Rapporteur attributes to a broader agenda aimed at eliminating the Palestinian presence.
“The violence that Israel has unleashed against the Palestinians post-7 October is not happening in a vacuum but is part of a long-term ... trajectory,” the report says, noting the "irreparable prejudice to the very existence of the Palestinian people" in the region.
13:00 Egypt condemned the Israeli Knesset’s approval of a bill banning UNRWA's operations and restricting its ability to provide support to Palestinian citizens in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Egyptian foreign ministry announced
In a statement, the foreign ministry considered this action as part of a long series of Israeli violations of international law and international humanitarian law, indicating a troubling lack of respect for the international community and the United Nations.
12:20 Jordan said the Israeli parliament's decision to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees was a violation of international law and part of its bid to dismantle the organisation.
In a statement, the kingdom's foreign ministry said Monday's vote was "part of the systematic targeting" of UNRWA and a "continuation of Israel's frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically, in addition to its aggressive war on the Palestinian people".
12:20 An Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 60 people early Tuesday, according to health officials.
Dr Marwan Al-Hams, director of the field hospitals’ department at the Gaza Health Ministry, announced the toll from Tuesday’s strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya at a news conference. He says another 17 people are missing.
The ministry’s emergency service says the dead include at least 12 women and 20 children, including babies.
Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said it was overwhelmed by the wave of wounded people from the strike. Israeli forces raided the medical facility over the weekend, detaining dozens of medics.
Palestinian first responders remove a body from the rubble of a building following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP
12:10 Yemen's Houthi rebels said they carried out a drone attack on southern Israel on Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by the Israeli military.
"The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a specific military operation targeting the industrial zone of the Israeli enemy in the Ashkelon region," a Houthi military statement said.
11:45 Lebanon's Hezbollah elected its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem to succeed head Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in a targeted Israeli airstrike in south Beirut last month.
11:15 An Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
The ministry's emergency service said another 20 people were wounded in the strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, near the Israeli border.
The dead included a mother and her five children, some of them adults, and a second mother with her six children, according to an initial casualty list provided by the emergency service.
10:20 The Israeli military claimed a drone that hit the southern city of Ashkelon was launched from Yemen, from where Huthi rebels have mounted a drone and missile campaign in support of Hamas.
"Following an initial examination regarding the UAV that fell in an open area in Ashkelon in southern Israel earlier today, it was determined that the UAV was launched from Yemen," the military said in a statement.
9:30 A Syrian war monitor said that two people were killed in an Israeli strike near Syria's border with Lebanon, the second strike in less than a week near a critical land crossing.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, related to the Syrian opposition, said Israeli warplanes "attacked vehicles near Al-Nazariya Village in Al-Qaseer countryside" along the border with Lebanon, adding that "two people inside the vehicles were killed".
The NGO said the area lies on a smuggling and transportation route between Lebanon and Syria.
The attack comes less than a week after Israel's military confirmed a similar strike on the nearby Jousieh crossing.
Lebanese and United Nations officials warned that the strike had jeopardised the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria.
Israel had previously struck the Masnaa crossing further south, leaving it unusable.
Nearly 1.2 million have been displaced, and 500,000 people have fled to Syria since Israel launched an intense air campaign on Lebanon in late September, Lebanese official figures show.
9:10 Israel and Iran accused each other of endangering Middle East peace in a heated exchange at a UN meeting called after Israel attacked Iran.
Each country asserted its right to self-defence at a meeting of the UN Security Council, which Iran requested.
"Israeli aggression against Iran is obvious and does not occur in isolation. This aggressive attack is part of a broader, sustained pattern of aggression and unchecked impunity with which Israel continues to destabilize the entire region," Iran's ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the council.
He added that Israel's "persistent and systematic violation of international law" and military engagements in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen should spark "unequivocal condemnation" by the council.
The ambassador repeated Iran's threat to retaliate after Israel's weekend air strikes but said Tehran preferred diplomacy.
Israeli ambassador Danny Danon said his country had defended itself after the October 1 missile attacks by Iran.
"We promised their actions would not go unanswered," said Danon.
The United States defended its ally Israel.
"Our message for Iran remains clear, as well: should it choose to undertake further aggressive acts against Israel or US personnel in the region, there will be severe consequences," US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the meeting.
"We will not hesitate to act in self-defence, " she said, adding that the United States wants to avoid escalation.
9:00 The Israeli bill banning the central UN aid agency for the war-devastated Gaza Strip sparked an international outcry.
Despite objections from the United States and warnings from the UN Security Council, Israeli lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the bill banning the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem.
Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, and lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees.
For more than seven decades, UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling, healthcare, and assistance to Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere.
Hamas called the bill an act of "Zionist aggression" towards Palestinians, while Islamic Jihad described the ban as "an escalation in the genocide".
Even several of Israel's staunch Western allies voiced disquiet at the ban, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Britain was "gravely concerned".
Germany -- which has been a staunch defender of Israel's security -- warned it would "effectively make UNRWA's work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible... jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people".
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the Israeli law could have "devastating consequences" if implemented and "would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work".
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that the vote "sets a dangerous precedent".
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