Gaza live: Several dead including Hezbollah commander after Israeli strike on southern Beirut

Israel is recruiting African refugees for "life-threatening" operations in Gaza in exchange for settled status in the country, sources have revealed.

Defence officials told Haaretz that the project was being conducted under the guidance of legal advisers from the defence establishment in an organised manner.

There are approximately 30,000 African asylum seekers in Israel. They have faced growing pressure from anti-immigrant politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who regularly refers to them as "infiltrators".

One man interviewed by Haaretz, who ultimately chose not to enlist, recounted being approached by a security official to join the war effort. The official explained that after a two-week training period, he would be deployed alongside other asylum seekers.

"I asked, 'What do I get?' even though I'm not really looking for anything," said the man, identified as A.

Read more: Israel recruits African refugees for Gaza operations in exchange for settled status

The Israeli army said it was unaware of leaflets being dropped over the Wazzani area in southern Lebanon, which called for residents to evacuate, describing the move as a "unilateral initiative by Regional Brigade 769".

Lebanese media reported on Sunday morning that Israeli forces had dropped leaflets urging families to leave Wazzani and some of its surrounding areas.

Israel's Channel 11 reported that neither the military nor political leadership had prior knowledge of the leaflet drop, which was carried out by the local brigade’s drones, not the Israeli Air Force.

The Israeli army has launched an investigation into the "unusual incident", saying: "There is no evacuation order for residents of southern Lebanon."

The Wazzani area is primarily made up of tents for displaced people, mostly Syrian refugees, rather than permanent homes.

When Anoud was diagnosed with stomach cancer in July 2023, she never imagined her path to recovery would unfold amid a brutal war that would tear her from her husband and two young daughters.

That summer, when presented with a treatment plan, doctors informed Anoud that she would need to travel frequently to the occupied West Bank for chemotherapy sessions, as they were unavailable in the besieged Gaza Strip.

A few months later, war erupted in Gaza and the Israeli military tightened its siege on the enclave, blocking essential supplies such as water, electricity, fuel, food and vital medications. This left countless Palestinians without access to the necessary treatments or the possibility of seeking them elsewhere.

“She was supposed to travel to take her doses, but she couldn’t due to the war. Unfortunately, that led to the spread of cancer in her body. Her condition has deteriorated to the point where she has lost the ability to move,” her husband, Ibrahim Rayyan, told Middle East Eye.

After numerous appeals, the Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank facilitated Anoud's travel to Egypt.

Read more: Families torn apart by Israel's occupation of Rafah crossing

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Yemen's Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a heavy price following their attack on Israeli soil.

Yemen's Houthis fired a surface-to-surface missile that reached central Israel for the first time, striking an unpopulated area and causing no injuries.

During his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also said that the current situation in northern Israel "will not continue" and that he was determined to do everything possible to ensure the return of Israelis who have evacuated the north to their homes.

Israeli forces assaulted a Palestinian family during a home raid in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, reportedly resulting in a pregnant woman suffering a miscarriage.

Local sources told Wafa news agency that Israeli troops stormed southern Hebron and the Old City on Sunday morning, conducting several home raids and attacking members of the Jaabari family. The violence caused one woman in the family to miscarry and she was later taken to a hospital, Wafa reported. 

Elsewhere in Hebron, Israeli settlers reportedly attacked Palestinian residents and their properties in the neighbourhoods of Jaber, Wadi al-Hussein and the Old City. No injuries were reported. 

Yemen's Houthis fired a surface-to-surface missile that reached central Israel for the first time on Sunday, hitting an unpopulated area and causing no injuries.

Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the missile landed at around 6.30am local time (3.30am GMT). 

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the east and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported," the Israeli military said.

Houthi spokesperson Nasruddin Amer said in a post on X that a Yemeni missile had reached Israel after "20 missiles failed to intercept", describing the strike as the "beginning".

The attack marked the first time the Houthis had penetrated deep into Israeli airspace with a missile.

The Houthi movement, which controls the north of Yemen, has fired at Israel several times since last October in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Most of those missiles have been intercepted, though one hit an open area near Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat in March.

In July, a Houthi drone reached Tel Aviv, killing one man and wounding four others. Israel retaliated with a major air strike on targets near Yemen's Hodeidah port, killing six people and injuring 80.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 41,206 Palestinians since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry announced on Sunday.

At least 95,337 others have been wounded in the enclave since the war began, the ministry added. 

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Figures released by the Palestinian health ministry on Saturday revealed that the death toll in the besieged enclave had risen to 41,182 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces

• The Palestinian Civil Defence reported that an Israeli strike hit a house in Gaza City on Saturday morning, killing 11 members of the same family

• A spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defence reported that at least 26 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza today.

• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stressed the urgent "need for a ceasefire deal in the Middle East" while speaking to reporters a day after meeting with US President Joe Biden

• Hundreds of mourners, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags, gathered on Saturday for the funeral of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American activist who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank

• The UAE's foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, announced that the country will not participate in any post-war plans for Gaza unless a Palestinian state is established. He made this statement in a post on his X account

• Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell of being anti-Semitic and hostile towards Israel, claiming Borrell consistently pushes for resolutions and sanctions against the country

• Israeli Channel 13 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to expand military operations on the northern front

• Hezbollah's deputy leader has warned that if Israel launches a full-scale war aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes near Lebanon's border, it would instead displace "hundreds of thousands" more

• Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has accused Israel of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza

An autopsy report prepared by the Palestinian Authority suggests that Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist, was directly shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, according to three forensic experts who reviewed the dossier. 

The report, dated 6 September and drafted by a Palestinian medical committee led by Dr Rayyan al-Ali, contradicts the version of evens given by Israel and US President Joe Biden, who said the bullet that killed Eygi appeared to have “ricocheted off the ground”. 

Three separate forensic experts who viewed the autopsy report told Middle East Eye that the damage on Ezgi’s skull and the destruction within suggest that it was a direct hit. 

“The bullet left a large damage inside the skull and it appears like it spent all its kinetic energy in the impacted area in parallel with gun fire that directly hits to head,” Polat Erdi, a forensic medicine expert, told MEE. 

Eygi, a pro-Palestinian activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was shot in the head when Israeli soldiers opened fire on protestors in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus last week. 

Read more: Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed by direct Israeli hit, autopsy report indicates

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has accused Israel of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza.

“The way Israel is destroying Palestinian food sovereignty will be studied not only as a shocking example of genocidal conduct but also as a textbook case of sadistic disregard for human life and dignity,” she wrote on social media.

She referred to a report by UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri, who described Israel's actions as “a starvation campaign.”

“Life in Gaza revolves around the sea. Small-scale fishers are central to that life. Since October 7, Israel has denied all fishers access to the sea, destroying more than 75 percent of the fishing sector,” Fakhri noted in his report.

Former Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz criticised Prime Minister Netanyahu's government, stating, "Netanyahu's paralysed and fragmented government continues to neglect northern residents"—referring to those who fled their homes near the Lebanon border as clashes with Hezbollah persist.

In a post on X, the State Party leader wrote, "It's time to take decisive action against Hezbollah and ensure the safe return of residents to their homes."

More than 700 members of a major Hollywood union have demanded their association take a stand to protect pro-Palestinian voices from being blacklisted in the industry.

In an open letter released on Wednesday, actors and entertainment professionals called on the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) to issue a public statement condemning Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip as well as the industry's "McCarthyist repression of members who acknowledge Palestinian suffering".

“We... demand [our leadership]… to speak out against the targeting and killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, health workers, and our journalist colleagues... and to eliminate any doubt of our solidarity with workers, artists, and oppressed people worldwide,” read the statement, whose signatories include Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon, Common, Susan Sarandon, Riz Ahmed and Rosie O’Donnell.

The letter adds that SAG-AFTRA shared a statement condemning the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel, but has "remained silent" despite Israel's "clear violations of human rights and Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and lives".

Several Hollywood celebrities have come under pressure or been dropped by studios and agencies for criticising Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

Read more: Hollywood stars call for protection of pro-Palestinian voices from 'McCarthyist repression'

The anti-government protests in Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, which organisers claim attracted hundreds of thousands, ended relatively peacefully but not without incident. According to the Detainee Support Organization, which represents those arrested at anti-government protests, police detained seven individuals.

Following protests in Tel Aviv hundreds of demonstrators marched down a major road, setting tires on fire and clashing with police and mounted officers.

Israeli occupation forces raided the towns of Beit Amarin, northwest of Nablus, Zeita, north of Tulkarm, and Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, conducting searches and arresting citizens.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defence, reported that at least 26 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza today.