Live: Over 200 Lebanese children killed in two months of Israeli attacks

Israel launched strikes on a bridge in the area of Qusayr in Syria near the border with northern Lebanon, Syria's state news agency SANA reported on Thursday.

Israel has been bombing Syria heavily in recent days, saying it is targeting Hezbollah supply lines. 

Two Palestinian minors were injured by Israeli fire in Beit Furik, a town east of the city of Nablus, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The two 15 year-olds were shot in the legs during a raid on the town, according to Wafa news agency.

Israel has issued a forced displacement notice in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh. 

Israel has been striking Lebanon throughout Thursday. 

Lebanon has suffered more than $5bn in economic losses as a result of fighting with Israel, the World Bank said on Thursday.

The World Bank's report estimated for damage between October 8 2023 and October 27 2024. It said that "the conflict has caused $5.1 billion in economic losses", with damage to physical structures amounting to "at least $3.4 billion" on top of that.

The losses are largely concentrated in the commerce, tourism and hospitality sectors. 

"The final cost of damage and losses for Lebanon associated with the conflict is expected to significantly exceed those presented in this assessment," the report said.

At least 16 people were killed and 18 wounded on Wednesday by Israeli strikes on Lebanon, the country's health ministry said.

The total casualty toll since 8 October 2023 now stands at 3,386 killed and 14,417 injured.

The ministry said 220 children were among the casualties.

Meanwhile, Lebanon said at least three people were killed in an Israeli strike on the eastern city of Baalbek on Thursday.

"The Israeli enemy strike... in Baalbek killed three people, in an initial toll," a ministry statement said, adding that "body parts were recovered from the site and their identities are being verified."

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned 26 entities, individuals and ships it said are working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force (IRGC-QF).

The sanctions apply to a network associated with the Syria-based Al-Qatirji Company. 

"The Al-Qatirji Company enabled the IRGC-QF to generate and access hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue this year alone," State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said, adding that it "launders revenue from selling Iranian oil and then provides millions of dollars per month to the Houthis, knowingly funding attacks carried out by the Houthis."

"Iran is increasingly relying on key business partners like the Al-Qatirji Company to fund its destabilizing activities and web of terrorist proxies across the region," Bradley T Smith, acting under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said. 

At least four Palestinians, including children, were killed by Israeli drone strikes on a tent housing displaced people in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera. 

The strikes come as Israel also pummels northern Gaza with artillery fire. 

Israel has announced the death of another soldier killed fighting in southern Lebanon. 

First Lieutenant Ivri Dickshtein, 21-years-old from Eli, was a platoon commander in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade.

He was killed in fighting on Thursday. 

Israel is launching a fresh series of raids on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Arabic media reports. 

The attacks come as Israel lays siege to northern Gaza. 

Greece is in talks with Israel to develop a $2bn anti-aircraft and missile defence dome, according to Reuters. 

The talks underscore how Greece is bucking a trend among countries like France, Spain, and Turkey to distance itself from Israel. 

“The plan is to create a multi-layer anti-aircraft and anti-drone system,” Reuters quoted one source saying. “We are in discussions with Israel."

Scenes like these have become so commonplace, they barely register: a group of men carrying sacks of flour are mown down where they stand by an Israeli strike, a massacre whose only purpose is to enforce mass starvation.

To publish unblurred photographs of this massacre is to risk having the content banned on social media websites, so I will describe the scene in words.

A line of flour and body parts stretches into the distance of northern Rafah. An Israeli air strike had struck a tuk-tuk vehicle near an aid distribution point in the Miraj area.

Seven bodies lie sprawled in various poses of sudden death, although we know that a total of 11 were killed. In the foreground, one man lies on top of another, red ribbons of blood stretching from the brains of the man beneath.

Behind him lies a man on his side. Rivulets of blood stretch away from him too. His clothes are covered in white dust, for behind him are the scattered remains of the sack of flour he was carrying. 

A horse and cart plods across. A boy walks away. Bystanders look on stunned, not knowing what to do. Flour is precious. Human life is not. 

As this was happening, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken let it be known that he was “happy with the number of aid trucks Israel was letting in”, and would not apply sanctions as his country had threatened to on 13 October.

Read more: Trump's cabinet is a recipe for all-out Middle East war

France is preparing to host Israel's national football team in a match deemed "high risk" by the authorities after last week’s violence in Amsterdam.

Violence erupted in the Dutch capital on Thursday in the run-up to Maccabi Tel Aviv's five-goal defeat to Ajax.

According to Dutch locals and police, Maccabi fans had torn down Palestinian flags on private property, threatened locals and threw projectiles at passers by.

They were also filmed singing racist chants against Arabs, leading to a response by locals, including members of the Moroccan community, in which dozens of Maccabi fans were injured, including at least one fan who was forced into a canal.

Despite eyewitness accounts detailing a series of provocations by Maccabi fans, western media outlets and politicians have characterised the events as an antisemitic pogrom.

France has announced exceptional measures to ensure security at the upcoming match, with the mobilisation of a total of 4,000 police officers and gendarmes.

Such a deployment corresponds to an "extremely reinforced system" and is "very unusual" for an international match, the Paris prefect of police Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.

To prevent an invasion of the pitch, the first rows of the stands will be closed off. Mobile force units and plainclothes police officers will operate in the stands, while the Raid, the elite unit of the national police, will be responsible for the security of the Israeli team.

Palestinian flags will also be banned from the stadium.

Read more: Fears in Paris over 'high risk' France-Israel football match

Donald Trump's choice as the next United States defence secretary has called for the building of a third Jewish temple on the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Pete Hegseth, a former TV show host, was picked by the incoming US President Trump for the role following his election victory earlier this month.

Hegseth has previously touted his avowedly pro-Israel credentials, which derive in part from his fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

Speaking at an event in Jerusalem in 2018 he said there was "no reason why the miracle of re-establishing the temple on the Temple Mount isn’t possible", using the Israeli name for the raised plateau in occupied East Jerusalem where Al-Aqsa Mosque stands.

He also told attendees that Israel should take advantage of Trump being in office to do what they needed to do in the region, because there were "true believers" in Washington who would back them.

Read more: Next US defence secretary Pete Hegseth called for building Jewish temple at Al-Aqsa

At least three people were killed in an Israeli air strike on the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, according to an initial toll from the Lebanese health ministry.

Twelve people were also wounded, the ministry said, adding that body parts recovered from the site of the attack and "their identities are being verified".

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have damaged nearly 100,000 houses since October last year and have cost the country $5.1bn in economic losses, the World Bank said.

The World Bank report provided estimates for damage between 8 October 2023 and 27 October 2024, saying "the conflict...has damaged an estimated 99,209 housing units", mainly in southern Lebanon.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah had been largely contained to southern Lebanon until mid-September, when the Israeli military launched a widespread bombing campaign across the country and a ground invasion.