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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved pager attacks that dealt a deadly blow to the Lebanese armed group  Hezbollah in September, Omer Dostri, spokesperson for his office, said on Monday.

The Israeli military, which has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, at first declined to respond to questions about the detonations.

On Sept 17, thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded across Lebanon, in most cases after the devices beeped, indicating an incoming message.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident was the "biggest security breach" for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.

In total, the pager attack, and a second on the following day that activated weaponised walkie-talkies, killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400.

Syrian state news agency Sana news agency reports an Israeli air strike near the village of Shinshar on the outskirts of Homs. A media activist, Fared al-Mahlool, said the strikes hit a military site linked to Iran.

BREAKING - Israeli airstrikes target a weapons depot and military sites linked to Iran, in the vicinity of the city of Hasiya in the countryside of Homs, Syria. pic.twitter.com/OSwcLMtsgq

— Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول (@FARED_ALHOR) November 11, 2024

Israeli forces sent tanks into the western side of Gaza's Nuseirat camp on Monday in a new incursion into the enclave's central area, and Palestinian medics said Israeli military strikes had killed at least 11 people since Sunday night.

Residents said Israeli tanks opened fire as they rolled into that sector of the camp, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee sites, causing panic among the population and displaced families.

One resident, Zaik Mohammad, said the tanks' advance was a complete surprise.

"Some people couldn't leave and remained trapped inside their homes, appealing to be allowed out, while others rushed out with whatever they could carry as they fled," Mohammad, 25, who lives one kilometre away from the targeted area, told Reuters via a chat app.

Taiwan on Monday said it had closed a probe into pager explosions in Lebanon in September that killed 39 and injured more than 3,400, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved.

Security sources have previously said the pagers carried the name of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company which has asserted that it did not make them. Taiwan's government has also said the pagers were not made in Taiwan.

Taipei prosecutors, who were investigating the case, said in a statement the AR-924 pager model that exploded in Lebanon was manufactured, traded, and shipped by a firm called Frontier Group Entity, and made outside of Taiwan. They added, however, that Gold Apollo had authorised the company to use the Apollo trademark.

"There is no evidence indicating that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were accomplices in the relevant explosions, violating the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or engaging in other illegal activities," the prosecutors said in a statement.

"No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity, following a comprehensive investigation."

Israeli forces shot a young man with live bullets and detained two others on Monday during a raid in Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Security sources said that the Israeli forces stormed Jalazone camp and fired live bullets and tear gas canisters at citizens and their homes, injuring a young man. They also detained two young men aged 18 and 29 after raiding and searching their homes.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iraq-based umbrella group of militias, claimed responsibility for four drone attacks on Monday targeting "vital targets" in Israel.

IRI announced they had carried out the attacks in northern and southern Israel in a series of posts on Telegram but did not disclose specific details about the targets.

Israeli shelling hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Monday, killing four Palestinians and injuring others, according to the Wafa news agency. An elderly woman and three other displaced Palestinians were among those who were killed by the strikes.

The death toll since the start of Israel's war on Gaza on 7 October 2023 has risen to approximately 43,600, with 102,929 people wounded, the majority of whom are women and children. Thousands of victims remain trapped under rubble or stranded on roads, unable to be reached.

Israeli firefighters were battling blazes Monday west of Jerusalem, with the army saying the fires were sparked by debris from an intercepted missile fired from Yemen.

Firefighters were working to douse the blazes, conducting scans around Beit Shemesh to rule out more fires and "damage from interceptor/missile shrapnel", the Jerusalem region fire service said.

Asked about the incident by AFP, the Israeli military said the interception of a projectile from Yemen caused fires in the Bet Shemesh area resulting from debris from that interception.

A fire has erupted in several vehicles in the colonial Israeli settlement of Beit Shemesh, occupied Jerusalem, following the recent missile strike from Yemen, according to Israeli reports. pic.twitter.com/9dTWywjYX0

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 11, 2024

The Al Masirah television channel, run by Yemen's Houthi movement, said early on Monday that a series of air strikes targeted the Amran and Saada governorates, which they say were carried out by the US and the UK.

The Israeli military said in a statement it intercepted more drones ‘from the east’ as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it launched a third drone attack on Israel in the early hours of Monday.

The military said the air force intercepted four drones “from the east” overnight.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon now in its 398th day: 

• Israel’s attack on Jabalia in northern Gaza on Sunday killed 24 members of one family, including 14 children and six women, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

• Israeli air strikes killed two Palestinians in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp and five people in an attack on the eastern Hermel district in Lebanon.

• Netanyahu has requested that the court postpone his testimony in his corruption trial, arguing that the ongoing war has made it impossible for him to adequately prepare, The Times of Israel reported.

• Pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated outside the hotel where President Isaac Herzog stayed in New York.

• Biden will meet Herzog on Tuesday, the White House confirmed.

• US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS that the Biden administration will assess this week if Israel has improved the humanitarian situation in Gaza and “make judgements about what we do in response”.

Hello Middle East Eye readers,

On Sunday, Israel launched fresh attacks in the occupied West Bank and launched airstrikes from Gaza and Lebanon to Syria. 

An Israeli strike on Damascus, Syria killed at least 7 people.

At least 40 people were killed by Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip. While the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said famine is "imminent" in northern Gaza. 

In Lebanon, at least 41 people were killed by Israeli strikes. Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack on a naval base in Haifa Israel. 

Here is what else you need to know. 

• Israel has “defeated” Hezbollah, the country’s new defence minister Israel Katz said
• US national security advisor Jake Sullivan said that the US will decide this week whether Israel has addressed a US letter warning that it has not done enough to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, in a first public disclosure, that he had okayed a September attack on Hezbollah in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded
• Israel said that its air force intercepted two drones that were en route to Israel from the east
• The Jewish National Fund of Canada has lost its appeal to stop the tax department’s revocation of its charitable status 

Israel's army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has approved the expansion of the ground invasion of southern Lebanon, according to Israel' Kan broadcaster. 

The approval comes the same day Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Israel had "defeated" Hezbollah

Israel has launched fresh strikes on Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Arabic media reports. 

At least 3 strikes were launched on two houses. 

Israeli soldiers stormed the village of Fasayil, north of Jericho, on Sunday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. 

Israeli forces also raided the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem and the home of the mayor of Hebron, Tayseer Abu Sneineh. 

Meanwhile, Wafa reported that Israeli soldiers stormed the village of Fasayil.