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

At least 15 people were killed in Gaza’s Beit Lahia when an Israeli air strike hit a building housing displaced people in the al-Manshiyya area in Beit Lahia, according to Al Jazeera. 

A woman identified as Shurooq al-Radhi, wife of Naseem al-Radhi, who is imprisoned by Israeli authorities, and her three children were among those killed Beit Lahia, according to the Wafa news agency.

At least six people, including two women and three children, died in a house in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Nuseirat’s al-Awda Hospital, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reported. 

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib defeated her Republican opponent in Michigan's 12th congressional district election on Tuesday, securing a fourth term as the only Palestinian-American woman in the US Congress.

The Associated Press called the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted. 

Tlaib secured 77 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican Party's James Hooper who received just 19 percent of the vote.

Her victory comes amid the backdrop of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians so far and has been diplomatically and militarily supported by the Biden-Harris administration for more than a year.

Tlaib has been a vocal critic of the war, calling for the US to withhold weapons from Israel. Her opposition to the war on Gaza and support for pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses have drawn harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.

READ MORE: US elections 2024: After not endorsing Harris, Rashida Tlaib secures win in Michigan

The White House is concerned about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to fire Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, "especially in the middle of two wars and as Israel prepares to defend against a potential attack from Iran," a US official told Axios.

"We have real questions about the reasons for Gallant's firing and about what is driving the decision," the official said.

A former general, Gallant shaped the war on Gaza but fell out of favour with Netanyahu over the future of the war.

On election night on Tuesday, protestors in New York City came to reject the US presidential election, calling it a farce. 

Hundreds of people assembled under the towering skyscrapers of JP Morgan and Newscorp in Midtown Manhattan. 

An ensemble performed and the crowd chanted and sang rhythmically. 

The buoyant scenes betrayed the outrage and urgency for which they had assembled.

“Remember Hiroshima. Remember Vietnam. Democratic Party, we know what side you’re on!” 

Organisers said that they came to remind voters that while they waited in the queue to vote for their next president, several Israeli air strikes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza killed several dozen Palestinians.

Organisers added that they had come to remind Americans that no matter who they elected tonight - Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump - the country would still be complicit in the long war against the Palestinians.

For those considering Harris as “the lesser evil,” Nerdeen Kiswani, one of the organisers of the protest, said, “We should not be voting for the Democrats. We should be charging them with war crimes.”

READ MORE: US elections 2024: Pro-Palestinian protesters denounce Democrats in New York City

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from Israel's wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

• An Israeli air strike has killed at least 20 people in the Lebanese coastal town of Barja, the country’s Health Ministry says.

• Israel's assault on Gaza has continued, with strikes killing five people in an apartment building in Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood and four more in a shelled house in al-Fukhari, southeast of Khan Younis.

• Israeli police have arrested around 40 people in Tel Aviv who protested the sacking of Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

• Israeli forces have killed six people in the city of Jenin, and wounded, arrested a man during a raid in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Shakeel Ahmed has been driving a cab in Washington DC for the last two decades. Throughout his time taking passengers all over the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia area, he has come to know the city and its politics intimately.

He has driven around more politicians than he can remember, and is all too familiar with the halls of power in the city, like Washington DC's K Street, where the bulk of the city's lobbyists have offices.

The people who've sat in his cab have ranged from all over the political spectrum, from progressive Senator Bernie Sanders to Louisiana's former Republican governor, Bobby Jindal.

For Ahmed, a Pakistani-Muslim immigrant, when the decision of who to vote for happens every four years, he traditionally votes Democrat. But times have changed. 

"Since I became a US citizen, I've been voting for the Democrats. I voted Democrat for Clinton, for Obama, and I even voted for the Democrats against George W Bush," said Ahmed.

But when it comes to foreign policy in today's world, for him there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans.

As a result of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza which is supported by the US, he and other cab drivers like him have decided to vote for the Green Party for the first time.

Read more: US elections 2024: After decades of driving around DC's political elite, these cabbies are voting Stein

An Israeli air strike targeting a residential building in a town south of Beirut on Tuesday killed at least 20 people, Lebanon's health ministry said.

"The raid by the Israeli enemy on Barja left 20 dead," the ministry said, referring to the coastal town around 20 kilometres south of the capital, adding that rescue operations were underway.

It was the second Israeli strike on Tuesday in a region outside the strongholds of Hezbollah.

If you’re not coming up against any traffic, Michigan's downtown Detroit is just a 20-minute drive from the heart of Dearborn, known as the capital of Arab-majority America. 

On Monday night, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz held his final campaign rally before election day, arriving after 1030pm local time at Detroit's Hart Plaza to deliver a five-minute address to a crowd of about two thousand people. They had been waiting since the doors opened five hours earlier.

A DJ kept the crowd on their toes with top 40 hits and TikTok-famous tunes until Jon Bon Jovi and Michael Stipe of the 90s band REM took to the stage. 

There was, without a doubt, a sense of hope, joy and confidence that this was the right place at the right time, for the right candidate, and the right party. 

Tuesday’s vote, Walz said at the top of his remarks, boils down to the protection of women’s rights. It was a reference to the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority which overturned national abortion rights. 

The female-heavy crowd, young and old, showed up predominantly for that reason. 

“She's a woman and she's for women,” one enthusiastic voter told Middle East Eye. “I'm a retired nurse. I like everything. She stands for good,” she said of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is competing against former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party for control of the White House.

“It’s setting a precedent,” another voter said. “Reproductive rights, women's rights, basic human rights… This is my life, my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids,” she told MEE.

Very few here seemed clued-in enough to what the Democrats, under the current administration, have carried out and supported in the Middle East.  

Read more: US elections 2024: Some Arab Americans look beyond Harris for place in Democratic Party

Israel's newly-appointed defence minister, Israel Katz, vowed on Tuesday to prioritise the return of Israel's hostages from Gaza and the "destruction" of Hamas and Hezbollah, in his first post on X since accepting the role.

"We will work together to march the security system to victory against our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of all the abductees as the most important value mission, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the containment of Iranian aggression and the return of the residents of the north and south to their homes in safety," he said.

Yoav Gallant has been an “important partner” for the US on all matters related to Israel’s security, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said on Tuesday, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to dismiss Gallant as defence minister.

“As close partners, we will continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next Minister of Defense,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

An Israeli strike on the Lebanese town of Barja, 34km south of Beirut, killed at least 15 people, the Lebanese health ministry said on Tuesday.

“The security of the state of Israel was and will always remain the mission of my life,” Yoav Gallant wrote in a post on X.

Earlier today, Gallant was fired by Prime Minister Netanyahu, citing a "breach of trust".

ביטחון מדינת ישראל היה ותמיד יישאר משימת חיי 🇮🇱🇮🇱

— יואב גלנט - Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) November 5, 2024

Election day has dawned in the United States, marking the culmination of a highly charged campaign season. 

The campaign was defined by President Joe Biden's decision not to seek re-election after a disastrous debate and two assassination attempts on the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

By the time polls close on 5 November, tens of millions of early votes will have already been cast, but millions more will vote in person today.

The 2020 elections saw record participation, with more than 200 million voters - a turnout peak not seen since 1992.

Election experts anticipate a similar surge this year, as the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump appears to be highly competitive if polls are to be believed. FiveThirtyEight, a popular website that weighs and ranks national polls, predicts a razor-thin margin, with Harris winning 50 times out of 100 and Donald Trump 49 times out of 100, according to their simulation.

In addition to the presidential race, Americans are also voting in thousands of elections at federal, state and local levels.

Here is an overview of the critical factors shaping the outcome of today's elections.

Read more: US elections 2024: What you need to know about election day

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in what he described as a "crisis of trust".

Israel Katz, currently serving as foreign minister, will assume the role of defence minister, while Gideon Saar will replace Katz as foreign minister.

Several of Europe's biggest financial firms have cut ties with Israeli companies or those linked to the country, according to a Reuters analysis of filings.

The move comes amid mounting pressure from activists and governments to end the war in Gaza.

UniCredit put Israel on a "forbidden" list as the conflict escalated in October last year, said a source familiar with the matter, confirming a study by Dutch NGO Pax.

Meanwhile, Norwegian asset manager Storebrand and French insurer Axa have divested from some Israeli firms, including banks.

"We don't know whether this represents the beginning of a shift in the industry, one that recognises the power banks have in choosing where to allocate capital and where not," said Martin Rohner, executive director of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, which focuses on sustainable financing.