23:00 Egyptian sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that US Intelligence Chief William Burns is expected to arrive in Cairo to hold a new round of talks to reach a truce in Gaza.
Burns' visit would come three days after his stop in Doha for another round of talks with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Israeli and Egyptian security officials.
Early this week, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi unveiled on Sunday an Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire in Gaza for two days in which four Israeli captives are exchanged for several Palestinian prisoners.
The president said the initiative is a preliminary step for a lasting ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Sami Abu Zahri, a member of Hamas's Political Bureau, announced that the group has agreed to study recent ceasefire proposals presented by mediators.
"The Islamic Resistance Movement will study all proposals that will end the suffering of our people," Abu Zahri said.
Egypt, along with the US and Qatar, has been mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal for months. Still, Tel Aviv has rejected all proposals and opted to continue its genocidal war on the strip.
A new round of talks would take place amid an increasingly deadly Israeli assault on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza since early October to force the civilian population to move towards the south.
Israeli airstrikes and a military ground operation have destroyed hundreds of residential buildings and killed hundreds of Palestinians in Beit Lahia and Jabalia and another town in the northern part of the strip.
Meanwhile, a total Israeli blockade on all food and water has left the entire civilian population on the brink of starvation.
22:30 Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday said he was striving for a ceasefire in the Israeli war on his country 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 that he was "cautiously optimistic."
22:00 Hezbollah says its fighters launched a complex attack at 5pm (15:00 GMT) “with high-quality rockets and a swarm of drones.
In a statement, the movement said it targeted the Ein Shemer Airfield, east of Hadera, as well as soldiers at the Eliakim camp south of Haifa and the Shraga base north of Acre, adding that the attack hit its targets “accurately after the enemy failed to intercept” the rockets and drones.
21:30 The besieged Kamal Adwan Children Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip has just one paediatrician, one orthopaedic surgeon, and limited nursing staff during Israeli military attacks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The hospital building and equipment sustained damage during the most recent siege, and its four ambulances were destroyed,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN organisation, said in a post on X.
22:00 Amos Hochstein, the US envoy who has beeen delivering Israeli conditions for ending its war on Labanon to the Lebanese government, and Brett McGurk, the top White House official on the Middle East, will lead the talks with Israel.
The two "are traveling to Israel to engage on issues including a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon, as well as how we get to an end to the conflict in Gaza," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
21:00 The Israeli army announced that 777 Israeli soldiers and officers were killed and 5,200 were seriously wounded in battle in Gaza and Lebanon since 7 October 2023.
It also said 17 soldiers were injured in fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
Israeli warplanes struck various villages in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah targeted Nahariya and various Israeli settlements in the Galilee with rockets and missiles in the evening hours.
20:30 Air France said Wednesday that it would extend a suspension of flights to Tel Aviv until at least November 5 "given the security situation at the destination."
With Paris-Beirut connections also suspended until November 30, "the resumption of operations still depends on evaluation of the situation on the ground," the airline said in a statement.
It added that it was offering affected passengers later flights or reimbursement.
19:00 Iran condemned what it called Israel's "outrageous and cruel" new law that could effectively cripple the work of the United Nations agency responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
"This is outrageous and cruel and extremely consequential as UNRWA is 'irreplaceable' and 'essential' without which the humanitarian system in Gaza will collapse," Iran foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghi said.
"The world must act decisively to stop the regime from uprooting the 75-year-old agency and to prevent deprivation of Palestinian refugees of their minimum basic rights," he posted on social media site X, formerly Twitter, which is blocked in Iran.
18:00 Israeli airstrikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its outskirts on Wednesday, an AFP) correspondent reported, hours after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area.
Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed strikes hit the city and surrounding areas.
Reuters reports, citing security sources, that Israel launched heavy airstrikes on Baalbek and surrounding villages in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region.
The news agency reports that thousands of people have fled the city since the evacuation order was issued, approximately four hours before the strikes began. There was no immediate word on casualties, it said.
16:02 Hezbollah's new Secretary-General Naim Qassem reiterated the movement’s stance on resistance as a response to Israel's persistent violations and threats to Lebanon's sovereignty.
“Our resistance exists to liberate the land and confront the occupation and its expansionist ambitions,” Qassem affirmed, citing the daily incursions and violations as the driving force behind Hezbollah’s ongoing mission.
Qassem added that Israel’s disregard for United Nations Resolution 1701 — established to cease hostilities between Israel and Lebanon in 2006 — has been evident, with Hezbollah documenting over 39,000 air and sea violations since the resolution's enactment.
"Israel's hostile intentions toward Lebanon are clear, as the Israeli enemy has been assaulting Lebanon daily since 2006," he noted.
Qassem emphasized Hezbollah's commitment to its resistance trajectory, underscoring his intention to follow the path set by his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah.
“My practical program is a continuation of the legacy of our former Secretary-General, the martyr Hassan Nasrallah,” he added.
He further stressed, "For 11 months, we said we do not want war, but we are ready if it is imposed on us."
"We in Lebanon are not fighting on behalf of Iran but to protect and liberate our land."
15:30 France "firmly condemned" an Israeli strike in Gaza that collapsed a building in Beit Lahia, killing at least 93 people, including a large number of children.
"France also condemns recent Israeli strikes on hospitals in the north" of the Palestinian territory, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The siege imposed on north Gaza must be ended immediately," it added.
15:05 CIA Director Bill Burns will arrive in Cairo Thursday to engage with Egyptian counterparts on bilateral matters and the process of securing a ceasefire deal in Gaza, American media reported.
The US official adds that CENTCOM Commander General Erik Kurilla is also travelling to the region to discuss regional defence and will visit Israel to engage with counterparts and US personnel.
14:30 Senior Hezbollah official and MP Hassan Fadlallah said a remark by Israel’s defence minister suggesting the Lebanese armed group’s new chief, Naim Qassem, would not hold the post for long would not deter the group’s resistance."
“The Israeli occupation's threats to kill or assassinate resistance leaders will not be effective; rather, they will reinforce our commitment to defend our country and uphold our legitimate rights."
"After a month of confrontations, the Israeli enemy has not been able to establish any foothold within Lebanese territory," he added.
He further added that “the resistance will not allow the Israeli enemy to impose its conditions on our country."
14:27 Iran said that its production of missiles remained intact after Israeli airstrikes targeting military facilities last week.
"There has been no interruption in producing offensive systems such as missiles," Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh told reporters.
“The enemy tried to damage both our defensive and offensive systems,” he added.
Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday, citing Tehran’s 1 October retaliatory attack that followed the assassinations of Iran's Revolutionary Guards commanders and Hamas leader in Teheran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed later that the strikes “hit Iran’s defence capabilities and missile production.”
14:00 Residents of Baalbek rushed out of their homes after the Israeli army ordered Lebanon's central eastern city and its outskirts evacuated for the first time in more than a month of war.
An AFP correspondent reported that the main roads out of the city were jammed with vehicles as civilians fled in panic.
Civil defence vehicles drove around the city, urging everyone to leave immediately over loudspeakers.
"The city is almost empty," the correspondent said about an hour after the evacuation warning.
On Monday, Lebanon's health ministry said at least 60 people were killed in Israeli raids on the Bekaa, most of them in the Baalbek region.
According to Beirut Urabn Lab, the evacuation orders are “part of Israel’s strategy to manufacture consent for the incoming strikes, legitimizing the bombings by claiming the presence of a so-called “terrorist threat.”
The Israeli war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures. However, the actual number is likely to be higher.
13:20 Israel has killed at least 43,163 Palestinians in Gaza since its bloody war on Gaza on 7 October, with the majority being children and women, the health ministry said in the most recent toll. A
nother 101,510 people were injured in Israel’s attacks.
The ministry added that 102 Palestinians were killed and 287 injured in the past 24 hours.
13:00 Egypt’s Permanent United Nations Ambassador Osama Abdel-Khalek said that Israel must withdraw from the territories of Palestine and Lebanon and urged its compliance with the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
During a UNSC briefing on the situation in the Middle East, Abdel-Khalek stressed that the security council should pass a resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, mandating Israel to cease fire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and to withdraw from these territories.
He added that this also involves reopening all border crossings, allowing unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid, ending forced displacement and targeting UN personnel and institutions.
12:38 An Israeli strike on a van near Beirut killed the driver, a Lebanese security official told AFP
"A van was targeted in an Israeli strike on the Kahhale road, and its driver killed," the official said.
Lebanese state media said the Kahhale road, which links Beirut to Damascus, had been "blocked in both directions due to the Israeli attacks.
Another vehicle in Bchamoun, roughly 10 kilometres (6 miles) southeast of Beirut, was also hit, as the state-run National News Agency reported.
12:20 Hezbollah group said it launched drones at an Israeli base in the port city of Haifa.
Hezbollah fighters "launched an air attack at 7:45 am (0545 GMT)... with a squadron of attack drones" on a "base in southern Haifa", the group said in a statement.
Israel meanwhile continues to evacuate wounded soldiers from Lebanon.
11:58 Four civilians, including a child and two women, were killed in a strike that targeted a home in the Sheikh Nasser area in Khan Younes, Gaza, WAFA news agency reported
Earlier, a helicopter strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, killed three civilians and injured several children.
Civil defence teams also recovered six bodies from under the rubble following an airstrike on a gathering of civilians in the al-Sudaniya area northwest of Gaza City.
In north Gaza, the Israeli occupation army continued its brutal aggression and genocide campaign for the 26th consecutive day amid a strict blockade in the area.
This assault in north Gaza so far has killed at least 1,000 civilians and hundreds more wounded, WAFA said.
People search the rubble for missing persons at the site of an Israeli strike a day earlier that hit the Al-Loh family home in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP
11:14 Israeli tanks continued early Wednesday their incursion into the outskirts of the Lebanese village of Khiyam in the most profound Israeli ground invasion yet into southern Lebanon, Lebanese media reported.
Moreover, Israeli warplanes intensified their raids on south Lebanon's villages, including six raids in the Khiam area, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Three people were killed early Wednesday in Israeli strikes in Nabatieh governorate in southern Lebanon, NNA added.
On Tuesday, a “large number” of Israeli tanks entered the eastern outskirts of Khiam, about 6km from the border with Israel, while Israeli forces carried out a series of air attacks on the town and launched a large-scale sweep “using heavy and medium weaponry,” AFP reported.
Hezbollah said it destroyed two tanks using guided missiles and targeted Israeli troops south and southwest of Khiam with rockets and artillery.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in the southern Lebanese village of Khiyam. AFP
11:50 Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it has documented attacks involving “apparent war crimes” in which the Israeli army “unlawfully struck medical personnel, transports, and facilities, including paramedics and hospitals in Lebanon."
These included "attacks on paramedics at a civil defence centre in central Beirut on October 3, and an ambulance and a hospital in southern Lebanon on October 4, killing 14 paramedics," the group said.
As of 25 October, Israeli attacks have killed at least 163 health and rescue workers across Lebanon over the past year and damaged 158 ambulances and 55 hospitals, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
The report said they also damaged 158 ambulances and 55 hospitals, citing figures from the Health Ministry.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful attacks on medical workers and hospitals are devastating Lebanon’s already frail healthcare system and putting medical workers at grave risk,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at HRW.
“Strikes on medical workers and healthcare facilities also compound risks to injured civilians, severely hindering their ability to receive urgently needed medical attention,” he added.
HRW urged Israel’s allies to suspend the transfer of arms to Israel “given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses.”
12:23 The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning on Wednesday to residents of the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, along with surrounding areas and key routes in the Bekaa Valley, an Israeli army spokesperson wrote on X.
The area marked for evacuation includes the ancient Roman temple complex, which is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
11:00 Lebanon's health ministry said at least eight people were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on the southern coastal city of Sarafand.
"The Israeli enemy raid on Sarafand this evening has, according to a provisional toll, left eight dead and 21 wounded," a ministry statement said, adding that rescue workers were searching for survivors.
An earlier strike further north near Sidon left six dead and 37 wounded, according to a new toll from the ministry.
10:55 The Israeli army said it had detected six drones launched from Lebanon since dawn. It claimed to have intercepted five of them, and one fell into the industrial zone in Nahariya.
10:37 Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri stated that the Palestinian group is open to discussing "any agreement" that ensures a complete ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the total withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces.
Abu Zuhri added in a televised statement that Hamas has responded to the mediators' request to explore new proposals for a ceasefire agreement, confirming that it has held and will continue to hold more meetings.
He said that during these meetings, the group’s delegation reaffirmed its openness to anything that would end the aggression, withdraw the occupying forces, lift the blockade, allow aid access, and achieve a genuine captive-prisoner exchange deal.
Meanwhile, Israeli Ynet news reported that Mossad chief David Barnea presented a new proposal to mediators during meetings on Sunday and Monday in Doha.
Barnea's proposal stipulates a release of 11-14 captives from Gaza in exchange for several Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and a month-long truce in Gaza, according to Ynet.
10:30 US President Biden's senior advisers Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk will arrive in Israel on Thursday to try to close a deal that would end the war in Lebanon and allow displaced civilians from both sides of the border to return to their homes, three sources with direct knowledge of the trip told Axios.
A deal that would end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could be achieved within a few weeks, Israeli and U.S. officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting with several ministers and senior leaders of the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli intelligence services on Tuesday night to discuss the potential deal, Israeli officials said.
Israeli officials told Axios that the Israeli army is very close to ending its ground operation in the villages in southern Lebanon that are close to the border with Israel.
The army has recommended to Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that now would be an excellent time to work out a diplomatic solution to end the fighting with Hezbollah and avoid getting bogged down in a war in Lebanon, the officials said, according to Axios.
10:11 Norway said it would seek clarification from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Israel’s legal obligations after the Knesset voted on the ban of any cooperation with the UNRWA.
Espen Barth Eide, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, said that his country will submit a resolution to the UN General Assembly, which will request the ICJ to give an advisory opinion on Israel's obligations as an occupying power to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.
The UN views Gaza as Israeli-occupied territory, along with the West Bank and Jerusalem, and international law requires an occupying power to agree to relief programs for people in need and to facilitate them "by all the means at its disposal."
"No country is above international law," Eide stressed.
He said that Israel also undermines the stability of the entire Middle East.
"Israel’s behaviour contravenes international law and undermines efforts to establish a viable Palestinian state and the two-state solution."
"UNRWA must survive," he added.
Palestinians queue to receive medicine at the UNRWA Japanese Health Center in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP
10:06 UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that the Israeli bills against the UN agency adopted by the Knesset "will not terminate the refugee status of the Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA’s service provision."
"They will severely harm their lives and future," he said.
He added that the situation in Gaza "is beyond diplomatic vocabulary."
"Today, even as we look into the faces of children in Gaza, some of whom we know will die tomorrow, the rules-based international order is crumbling in a repetition of the horrors that led to the establishment of the United Nations, and in violation of commitments to prevent their recurrence."
10:00 The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 14 humanitarian workers and four health workers since October 2024.
In total, since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, at least 322 aid workers, including 315 Palestinians and seven foreigners, were killed. This number includes 237 UN staff, of whom 233 were UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff members, 33 Palestine Red Crescent Society staff and volunteers, and at least 52 other aid workers with national and international non-governmental organizations, the OCHA said in its report.
On North Gaza, OCHA says that continued attacks and access constraints for humanitarian partners are severely hindering the delivery of lifesaving health services and critical supplies, such as fuel and medicine.
Only two – or 10 per cent – out of 20 health service points and two hospitals, Kamal Adwan and Al Awda, remain functional. However, the UN added that it partially hampers the delivery of life-saving health services.
09:46 Palestine’s envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, has called on the Security Council to take action to protect civilians who have endured over a year of Israeli attacks.
“Israel has crossed every red line, broken every rule, and defied every prohibition. When is enough truly enough? When will you act? You are the Security Council; it is your duty to reach out to every single Palestinian in pain,” Mansour said during a council meeting on Tuesday.
"Israel is waiting to see the international response to its actions, and in the absence of deterrence, Israel will move on to the next chapter of its crimes. The genocide is only possible because of impunity.”
He added that "Israel’s horrors in north Gaza is a genocide within a genocide."
In addition to the 43,000 people killed in Gaza, Mansour highlighted that 100,000 Palestinians have been maimed due to Israeli attacks, many suffering amputations and other permanent disabilities. He reported that two million Palestinians are displaced, with “people enduring unspeakable pain.”
“By ending impunity and ensuring accountability, by finally ending this terrible injustice, let your actions match your words. Stop this genocide or forever remain silent,” he urged.
09:31 Israeli colonial settlers have cut down and uprooted dozens of olive trees in areas surrounding the Qaryut village, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.
Anti-settlement activist Bashar al-Qaryuti said that trees next to Eli's illegal settlement had been destroyed.
Violence in the occupied Palestinian territory has dramatically intensified since Israel launched its devastating war on Gaza.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 730 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and a mob of terrorist settlers since 7 October.
At least 14,280 trees have been damaged or destroyed in the past year, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, read the Wafa report.
09:10 An Israeli soldier from the 435th Battalion shared photos of a Palestinian man abducted in northern Gaza, whose identity remains unknown.
The man was forced to wear an Israeli army uniform to serve as bait and a human shield.
The soldiers involved belong to the Givati Brigade’s “tunnel warfare unit,” Latak, within the 435th Battalion.
09:03 The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, condemned the deadly Israeli strike in Beit Lahia.
"This horrific Israeli strike is yet another in a deadly series of recent mass casualty incidents, alongside a massive displacement campaign, that raises serious concerns about violations of International Humanitarian Law, Tor Wennesland said.
09:00 "The number of martyrs from the Abu Nasr family massacre in Beit Lahia has risen to 93, with around 40 still missing under the debris," Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said.
Palestinian rescue workers and frantic family members gathered around the rubble of the demolished five-story building in northern Gaza.
A charred body hung from an upper-story window, while bodies wrapped in blankets were lined up along the street as distraught relatives tried to identify loved ones.
"The explosion happened at night. I first thought it was shelling, but when I went out after sunrise, I saw people pulling bodies, limbs, and wounded people from the rubble," Rabie al-Shandagly, 30, told AFP.
"Most of the victims are women and children. People are trying to help the injured, but there are no hospitals or proper medical facilities," he added.
On Tuesday, the municipality of Beit Lahia declared the city “disaster-stricken”. It issued an urgent appeal to the international community to facilitate the delivery of water, first aid, medical personnel, and other essential supplies to the area.
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