Live: Over 200 Lebanese children killed in two months of Israeli attacks
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Fifteen people were killed and 16 wounded in Israeli attacks on a number of residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, state news agency Sana reported, citing a Syrian military source.
One building was located in the suburb of Mazzeh and the other in Qudsaya, west of the capital.
Israel is closer to reaching an arrangement over the war on Lebanon than it has been since the start of the conflict, but it must retain freedom to act inside the country should any deal be violated, said an Israeli security cabinet minister.
"I think we are at a point that we are closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war," said Energy Minister Eli Cohen in an interview with Reuters.
A key sticking point for Israel, he said, is ensuring it retains freedom of action should Hezbollah return to border areas.
Syrian state news agency Sana said initial reports indicated that an Israeli strike on Thursday had targeted the Damascus suburb of Mazzeh.
Another Israeli strike hit a residential building in Qudsaya, west of Damascus, Syrian state media said.
Reporting by Reuters
Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, a special UN committee said Thursday, accusing the country of "using starvation as a method of war".
Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices said, pointing to the "mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there".
Reporting by Reuters
Israeli forces have killed at least 24 Palestinians and wounded 112 in the last 24 hours across Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
This brings the death toll in the besieged enclave since 7 October 2023 to 43,736, with more than 103,370 wounded. At least 10,000 people are still missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.
Health officials report that over 60 percent of the victims are women and children.
An Israeli minister has said her office is working at "full speed" to ensure the maximum amount of land is included in the future annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strock, a far-right politician, told Ynet one Wednesday that she dreams of annexation, or declaring "sovereignty" over the Palestinian territory, particularly now under the incoming Trump administration in the US.
The Palestinians living there would be given some rights, but not the right to vote, she said.
"I don’t want to sketch something precise right now. I’m saying that in general, it’s important to me that all people have human rights, but that the national right to the land should only belong to the people of Israel," Strock said.
Regarding Gaza, she said the government should not bother with an exit strategy from the besieged Palestinian enclave, adding that she is pressing to seize territory there.
Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday that Israel's repeated evacuation orders in Gaza amount to the "war crime of forcible transfer", and to "ethnic cleansing" in parts of the Palestinian territory.
"Human Rights Watch has amassed evidence that Israeli officials are... committing the war crime of forcible transfer," the report said.
"Israel's actions appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing" in the areas where Palestinians will not be able to return, HRW added.
Nadia Hardman, an HRW researcher, noted the 172-page report's findings are based on interviews with displaced Palestinians, satellite imagery, and public reporting conducted until August 2024.
Although Israel says the displacement is justified for civilians' safety or by military imperatives, Hardman said that "Israel cannot simply rely on the presence of armed groups to justify the displacement of civilians".
"Israel would have to demonstrate in every instance that displacement of civilians was the only option", to fully comply with international humanitarian law.
According to the United Nations, 1.9 million Palestinians were displaced in Gaza as of October 2024. Before the start of the war on 7 October 2023, the official population figure for the territory was 2.4 million inhabitants.
"Systematically rendering large parts of Gaza uninhabitable... in some cases permanently... amounts to ethnic cleansing," Ahmed Benchemsi, spokesman for HRW's Middle East division said in a press briefing.
The HRW report pointed in particular to the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors, running along the Egyptian border and cutting Gaza along its east-west axis respectively, which have been "razed, extended, and cleared" by Israel's army to create buffer zones and security corridors.
Reporting by AFP
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
As the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon entered it's 405th day on Thursday, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in early morning shelling on the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Palestinian media.
In Lebanon, at least seven air strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Hello Middle East Eye readers,
Israel launched strikes on Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon on Wednesday.
At least seven people were killed by the strikes on Gaza, including one that hit a tent housing displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp.
Israel’s strikes on Lebanon hit the Burj al-Barajneh and Haret Hreik neighbourhoods.
In Syria, Israel targeted Homs, saying it was destroying Hezbollah supply lines.
Israel also escalated in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli troops detained Esra Ghorani, a female reporter with the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, and her TV crew. Israel launched a raid in Tulkarm camp that killed at least two people, and attacked several other villages in the occupied West Bank.
Here is what else you need to know:
- France said Israel wants to maintain the ability to strike Lebanon at any moment, as part of conditions to secure a ceasefire with Hezbollah
- A CIA official has been charged with leaking top-secret US documents about Israel’s potential plan to retaliate against Iran for a missile attack in October
- Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for countries to stop sending arms to Israel, after Turkey announced it was breaking diplomatic ties with Israel.
- US President-elect Donald Trump said he and President Joe Biden "talked very much about the Middle East" at their White House meeting
- The European Union's top foreign policy chief proposed that the bloc suspend political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations from its war on Gaza
The European Union's top foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed that the bloc suspend political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations from its war on Gaza, according to Reuters.
Writing to EU foreign ministers Borrell cited "serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza" and said "thus far, these concerns have not been sufficiently addressed by Israel".
The EU and Israel have an official mechanism for political dialogue that includes trade relations.
"In light of the above considerations, I will be tabling a proposal that the EU should invoke the human rights clause to suspend the political dialogue with Israel," Borrell wrote.
The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday condemned attacks in recent weeks on the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), calling on all parties to respect the safety of members of that force.
"They urged all parties to take all measures to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and premises. They recalled that peacekeepers must never be the target of an attack," the UNSC said in a statement, noting in particular attacks on October 29, November 7 and November 8.
Sakina Mansour Kawtharani, a journalist with al-Nour radio station, was killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
The Union of Audiovisual Media Workers in Lebanon confirmed to NNA that Kawtharani was killed in a strike on Joun in the Chouf district, of Lebanon, but did not say when the attack took place.
Kawtharani's two children and additional family members were also killed.
Israel has announced new forced displacement orders for Beirut, signaling more strikes to come.
The Israeli military said it would attack Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh.
Israel has been striking Lebanon throughout Wednesday.
Israel has launched raids across the occupied West Bank, storming the town of Beita, south of Nablus, and the town of Taybeh, west of Jenin.
The attacks come after at least two people were killed by Israel in a raid on Tulkarm.
In his first term, Trump was surrounded by neocons and war hawks, none more prominent than John Bolton, who repeatedly advocated regime change in places such as North Korea and Iran.
This time around, Trump looks set to take a different approach, Middle East Eye's Umar Farooq reports.
Trump has stated that neocon stalwarts like Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley will not be returning to his administration, but at the same time, he has already begun filling his administration with several Iran hawks and staunch pro-Israel advocates.
Trump nominated Florida Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Rubio is a staunch Iran hawk.
In a move that surprised many in Washington, Trump selected military veteran and conservative media personality Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defence.
In another surprise move by Trump, he has chosen former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence. She is a military veteran who went from supporting progressive Senator Bernie Sanders to endorsing Trump earlier this year. She travelled to Syria in 2017 on a fact-finding mission and met with President Bashar al-Assad, who is under sanctions by the US.
