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

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man near the village of al-Jarushiya in the Tulkarm district, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The ministry identified the Palestinian as Samir Abdel-Rahim Aamar, aged 55. 

Aamar's death brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or in settler attacks in the West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza to 706. 

Dozens of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah were seriously wounded on Tuesday in Lebanon's south and the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, security sources told Reuters.

A Reuters journalist saw 10 Hezbollah members bleeding from wounds in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut.

Israeli forces have killed 1,151 Palestinians working in Gaza’s health sector during its onslaught on the enclave, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday. 

A total of 986 were named in a new report published by the ministry, while personal data for the remaining 165 was still being verified. 

The delay in the verification process was due to Israeli authorities withholding the victims' bodies or their remains being buried under rubble. 

At least 165 of those killed were doctors, 260 nurses, 300 management and support personnel, 184 health associate professionals, 76 pharmacists and 12 other health workers. 

“The Palestinian sector has been subjected to a systematic attack by the occupation forces that has affected all its components,” the ministry said. 

Read more: Nearly 1,000 Palestinian health workers killed by Israeli forces in Gaza named

Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, said that it has thwarted a recent plot by Hezbollah to kill a former high-ranking defence official, Israeli media reported.

The Shin Bet did not disclose the identity of the official but said the attack was meant to take place in the coming days.

The security service said it had recovered an explosive device connected to a remote detonation system, which Hezbollah intended to control from Lebanon using a mobile phone and camera.

It added that the explosive device, a Claymore-style anti-personnel mine, is known to be in the arsenal of the Lebanese group.

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who is in hiding in the Gaza Strip, has written a letter to Yemen's Houthi movement thanking them for their support against Israel and commending the armed group on its recent missile attack.

“I congratulate you on the success of your missiles reaching deep into the heart of the enemy entity, surpassing all layers and systems of defence and interception,” Sinwar wrote in the letter published by Houthi media on Tuesday, addressing Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, the head of the Yemeni group.

The Houthis, who control most of Yemen and the capital Sanaa, on Sunday claimed a missile attack that hit the centre of Israel but did not leave any casualties. They said the attack was carried out with a new hypersonic ballistic missile, a claim denied by the Israeli military.  

Sinwar said in his letter that his group is prepared for a protracted conflict with Israel, aided by the Houthis and other allies in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. 

"We have prepared ourselves for a long battle of attrition that will break the enemy's political will, just as the Al-Aqsa Flood shattered its military will," he wrote, referring to the 7 October attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which killed more than 1100 people, most of them civilians. 

Read more: Hamas chief Sinwar writes glowing letter to Yemen’s Houthis from Gaza

German news media outlets on Tuesday called on Israel to allow them access to the widely devastated Gaza Strip, arguing that the "almost complete exclusion of international media... is unprecedented in recent history".

"After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip," a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

They also urged Egypt to permit them entry into Gaza via the southern Rafah border crossing.

Signatories included editors and reporters from Der Spiegel, Die Welt, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and the German Journalists Association.

The media organisations wrote that "anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility. 

"Anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights to be violated."

The signatories added that they have decades of experience in conflict reporting, saying: "We know the risk. We are prepared to take it. Grant us access to the Gaza Strip. Let us work, in the interest of everyone."

Britain’s Liberal Democrat party passed a motion in favour of suspending arms exports to Israel and backing an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Monday at its annual conference in Brighton.

The motion, which was tabled by British-Palestinian MP Layla Moran, passed with an overwhelming majority and also called for Hamas to be ousted from Gaza "through diplomacy".

It also recognised Iran as an “existential threat” to western democracies and asked for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. 

Moran said she had worked with both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups to formulate the motion, which may explain its mixture of positions.

Read more: UK's Liberal Democrats back Israel arms ban, ousting Hamas and proscribing IRGC

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in a statement that it received the body of Maher al-Jazi, the citizen who shot and killed three Israeli border guards at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank on 8 September.

Al-Jazi’s funeral is expected to be held on Tuesday in the Ma’an governorate, south-east Jordan.

Footage online shows people gathering ahead of the funeral and chanting.

The foreign ministry’s official spokesperson also told Jordan's Petra News that his country is working on securing the release of two Jordanian citizens who were detained at the crossing following the attack.

"في سبيل الله قمنا.. نبتغي رفع اللواء.. "

جانب من هتافات الأردنيين داخل مسجد الحسينية في محافظة معان قبيل تشييع جثمان الشهيد ماهر الجازي. pic.twitter.com/JifEATtQJc

— أخبار الأردن (@AkhbarOrdon) September 17, 2024

Benny Gantz, chairman of Israel's National Unity party, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "security recklessness" following reports that he is close to firing Defence Minister Yoav Gallant with New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar.

"What Netanyahu is doing at the moment endangers Israel’s security in the most tangible way that I can remember having been done by a prime minister during a war - and in general," Gantz said.

The opposition politician added that Netanyahu's moves, ahead of potential military actions in Lebanon, recklessly endangers Israel.

Additionally, the Israel Business Forum, which represents most private sector workers in the country, urged Netanyahu to reconsider his reported decision, saying firing Gallant would further harm Israel's war-battered economy.

"It is clear that replacing the defence minister in exchange for a political deal regarding legislation that allows exclusion [of most ultra-Orthodox men] from military service, will exacerbate the gap in equally sharing the burden," the forum said. "[It] will dramatically increase the frustration among the public who bear the burden of the [military] service, and the economic burden."

Gallant's opposition to the Israel government's drafting plan for ultra-Orthodox Jews is believed to be one of the main sources of tension between him and Netanyahu, along with diverging views regarding ceasefire talks in Gaza.

"The Prime Minister knows better than anyone that all the economic indicators show that Israel is deteriorating into an economic abyss and is sinking into a deep recession," the forum adds.

Gaza's health ministry said that 26 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave, bringing the total to 41,252 since 7 October.

Additionally, 95,497 people were wounded since the start of the war.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza says that seven people have been identified as killed following the Israeli strikes on the Bureij refugee camp.

Around 50 people are believed to still be stuck under the rubble, with rescuers struggling to reach the scene due to repeated Israeli strikes.

عاجل | عائلات كاملة مسحت عن السجل المدني في مجزرة البريج التي ارتكبها الاحتلال صباح اليوم، عُرف من الشهداء:

- أبو ياسر أبو شوقة وزوجته
- أم حسين أبو شوقة
- معتصم أبو شوقة وزوجته
- الباشا أبو شوقة وزوجته
- أبو خليل أبو شوقة وزوجته وأولادهما
- معتز أبو شوقة وزوجته…

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) September 17, 2024

The Israeli army struck several homes in central Gaza's Bureij refugee camp, killing at least four people, Gaza's civil defence said.

The civil defence says their team was targeted by Israeli warplanes as they were trying to reach the scene, which injured one of their members.

Dozens of people remain trapped under the rubble.

The UN General Assembly to set to debate a push by Palestinians to pass a resolution that calls for the end of Israeli occupation within 12 months.

The text is based around the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion calling Israel's occupation of territories since 1967 "unlawful".

The draft resolution "demands" the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories, a halt to new settlements, the return of seized land and property and the possibility of return for displaced Palestinians.

Israel has strongly criticised the wording.

The resolution is expected to be voted on late on Tuesday or Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt on Tuesday, the State Department said in a statement on Monday, saying that he will meet with Egyptian officials to discuss efforts to reach a ceasefire and release of captives in Gaza.

Reporting by Reuters

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• Three people were killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza City, including a child, while two were killed in a strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in Deir al-Balah, according to the Wafa news agency
• Israel's security cabinet has updated its goals for its ongoing war on Gaza, adding "the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes", hinting at more escalations with Lebanon
• A statement by 15 aid organisations has revealed that Israel is blocking 83 percent of food aid reaching Gaza
• Israeli forces have arrested the wife of Ahmad Saadat, the long-imprisoned leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, during a raid on his home in al-Bireh, occupied West Bank