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

The Houthi military spokesman in Yemen announced the downing of an American MQ-9 drone.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree stated that this marks the eighth drone of this type that the group has shot down. 

The Breaking Defense website quoted the commander of the US Fifth Fleet in August, stating that the Houthi group in Yemen now has a more powerful military arsenal than it did a decade ago.

“There’s a line of effort right now that continues to look at all supply coming into the Houthis and … we  don’t believe is necessarily limited to the Iranians,” he said in a webinar hosted by the Center for International and Strategic Studies on Wednesday. “The Iranians certainly back the Houthis, but the Houthis are diversifying.”

Compared to a decade ago, the Houthis have “developed … far beyond the ways we used to look at the Houthis being supplied”, he added.

Since November, Yemen's Houthis have launched attacks on vessels passing through the Red Sea, which they have said are connected to Israel's ongoing war on Gaza.

The group has declared these attacks as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and said that they would stop once Israel stops its onslaught in Gaza. 

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested across the country on Saturday for the eighth consecutive night with some clashes reported with the police.

The demonstrations were ignited on Sunday last week after the bodies of six captives were recovered from the Gaza Strip.

In Tel Aviv, the main site of the protests, organisers reported that over 500,000 people participated. Other significant demonstrations took place in Jerusalem, Haifa, Be'er Sheva, and near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea.

After the main protest in Tel Aviv, demonstrators gathered near the Ayalon Highway, blocking it and setting a bonfire on nearby Begin Street. There were scuffles with police, and at least one person was arrested.

The momentum from these protests shows no sign of fading. After a week of demonstrations, hostage families and advocacy groups are urging the public to keep taking to the streets to demand a deal.

Read more: Half a million people protest against government in Israel

Phil Gordon, Assistant to US President Joe Biden and National Security Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, failed to condemned the Israeli killing Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US citizen killed in the occupied West Bank.

In a post on X, Gordon said only that "we deplore the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi – an American citizen – in the West Bank, and we send our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. We are seeking more information about this terrible tragedy," Gordon stated without mentioning Israel.

An activist who was with Eygi at the time told Middle East Eye that she and other volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement had been attending the weekly demonstration at Beita.

The activist said they retreated from soldiers, who had shot tear gas into the crowd. Then two rounds of live ammunition were fired at the group, the activist said, one of which struck Eygi in the head.

"When she was shot, she was standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman - it was a deliberate shot because they shot from a very, very, very far distance," said the activist, who did not want to be identified.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned the recent brutual actions of Israeli forces in the West Bank, including the killing of 26-year-old Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during a peaceful protest in Beita, south of Nablus. 

The OIC also criticised the killing of 13-year-old Bana Amjad Bakr in attacks on the village of Qaryut by Israeli settlers. 

The organisation called for an independent international commission to investigate these incidents and urged the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to enforce its resolutions and push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

A video depicting Albania's chief rabbi, Yoel Kaplan, celebrating the destruction in Gaza and leading Israeli troops in prayer has prompted an angry backlash in the country.

Kaplan, who is also an Israeli officer, returned to Israel after 7 October following the Hamas assault on the south, which resulted in nearly 1,200 Israeli nationals and foreigners being killed and 251 people being captured and taken back to Gaza.

Since then, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel and over 94,000 wounded.

The video featuring Kaplan in Gaza was posted by a Jewish community website on Monday, but it is not exactly clear when it was taken. 

Kaplan was appointed chief rabbi by the Albanian government in 2010, against the wishes of the country’s Jewish community.

Read more: Albania's chief rabbi faces calls for removal after video shows him celebrating Gaza destruction

The family of an American woman who was shot and killed by Israeli forces while protesting in the occupied West Bank has called for an independent investigation. They stated that an Israeli-led probe would be insufficient and biased.

The 26-year-old woman was participating in a weekly protest against an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Beita when she was shot.

Eygi, who held both US and Turkish citizenship, was involved in the protest. US officials are investigating the incident, while the Turkish government has held Israel accountable for her death.

A young, apparently lifeless girl lies on a hospital bed at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, her pink roller skate still strapped to her foot.

Footage circulating on social media showed Tala Abu Ajwa, 10, covered in blood as doctors desperately tried to save her on Tuesday.

Moments before, she had been playing with her neighbours outside their residential building in central Gaza City.

"She insisted on going down to play with her friends. She kept nagging, saying that she would not be late. When her mother refused out of fear for her safety, given the situation, she had her friend’s mother call to convince her to let her join them," Tala's father, Hussam, told Middle East Eye.

"At around 5pm, her mother finally gave in to her pleas and allowed her to play downstairs. She left the apartment, and just a couple of minutes later we heard two massive explosions. The first thing that came to my mind was that Tala was not home, so I rushed downstairs to find her."

Read more: 'I recognised her by her roller skate': Israeli strike on Gaza kills children playing in the street

The Israeli Prisoners' Families Authority reported that over 400,000 people took part in the demonstration in Tel Aviv.

Demonstrators gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, waving yellow flags representing the movement for the release of captives held by Hamas.

The protesters are chanting for an end to the war, the resignation of the government, and another general strike to pressure for a resolution.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich expressed opposition to a captives-ceasefire deal, even if it allows Israel to maintain a presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. He argued that even the terms supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would undermine Israel’s goals of destroying Hamas and securing the release of all captives.

In an interview on Channel 12 news, Smotrich, who leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, stopped short of saying he would leave the coalition if such a deal proceeded.

Smotrich rejected the idea that the Israeli military onslaught in Gaza hinders the captives release, insisting that destroying Hamas and rescuing captives "are not contradictory goals."

Smotrich clarified that he seeks "a deal of surrender," but not one where Israel surrenders by leaving Gaza. Instead, he envisions a scenario where Hamas is forced to disarm and is expelled from Gaza, paving the way for a demilitarised Gaza to be rehabilitated. He has previously advocated for Israel to regain full control of Gaza and restore Jewish settlements there.

Smotrich ruled out a deal involving Israel's full withdrawal from Gaza, stating that retaining control of the Gaza-Egyptian border is "a minimum."

Three paramedics from the Lebanese Civil Defense were killed in an Israeli raid on the town of Froun in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

The raid also injured two other paramedics, with one in critical condition, NNA reported.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health condemned the attack, stating that the paramedics were targeted by Israeli forces while extinguishing fires caused by earlier raids in the area.

This incident marks the second attack on paramedics in the last 12 hours. Earlier, an Israeli raid on the town of Qabrikha left two paramedics injured.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that three Civil Defense personnel were killed and two others injured during an Israeli raid on the town of Frun in southern Lebanon.

When the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was inaugurated in 2006, it was hailed as a crucial commercial bridge that would connect Asia to Europe. 

The 1,768km pipeline, which transports oil from Azerbaijan to Turkey, carried around 30 million tonnes of crude oil in 2023, with 227 million barrels of oil lifted at the port of Ceyhan and loaded onto 313 tankers.

But in recent months, as Israel's war on Gaza has continued to rage, the pipeline has come under fire from pro-Palestine activists who claim it's fuelling Israel's war effort in the enclave, and that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must act to shut it down. 

"Erdogan, turn off the oil valves," said a banner carried by the activist group called "One Thousand Youth for Palestine" outside the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in Istanbul last Friday. 

"End your participation in Israel's genocide."

Read more: Does Turkey have a duty to turn off the taps on oil supplies to Israel?

Palestinian medical sources informed Al Jazeera Arabic that at least 31 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, with 22 of those fatalities occurring in the central and southern parts of the Strip.