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

Palestinians in Gaza told AFP on Tuesday that whoever wins the US presidential election must work to end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 43,391 people so far.

"We are hanging by a thread, and like every other people in the world, we are looking for someone who can stop the war," said Ayman al-Omreiti, 45, from Gaza City's al-Daraj neighbourhood.

"Our hope is that the American people will choose someone who can end the suffering of the Palestinian people."

Omreiti, who has been displaced several times during the 13 months since the war began, expressed hope that Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris would defeat Republican rival Donald Trump.

British charity War on Want says it has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and called on the UK government to end its complicity "in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people".

The charity's statement comes as UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy faces mounting criticism for comments last week in which he said the use of the word genocide to describe the Gaza war undermined the seriousness of the terminology.

War on Want said on Tuesday that the UK has a legal duty to prevent and punish genocide, but has instead continued to supply arms and military technology to Israel.

"We must stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people to amplify and expose the crimes that are being committed against them by Israel," the organisation said.

"All people of conscience must hold governments to account for their duties to protect civilians and to prevent acts that amount to war crimes - including the crime of genocide."

Read more: British charity War on Want says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

As Israel continues its genocidal war in Gaza, and expands it to Lebanon, most Arab countries appear to be mere observers or enablers of the massacre of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians on an unprecedented scale.

Even with the threat of a large-scale regional war looming, which could have extremely destabilising effects on the entire region, the ability and desire of Arab states to restrain Israeli imperial hubris appears to be non-existent.

There is good reason to argue that the main enabler of the current crisis engulfing the Middle East is none other than the United States, which has effectively funded the Israeli wars on Gaza and Lebanon, with aid topping $17.9bn since 7 October 2023. It has also provided diplomatic cover to Israel and given its far-right government the green light to expand the war into Lebanon.

This, however, misses an important aspect of the dynamic. Namely, Israel's colonial hubris regards having the ability to reshape the Middle East through mass violence being fed by the autocratic nature of the Arab states and the failure of the democratic movement in the region.

More than a decade after the mass revolts that swept the region, the result is weak states, with contested legitimacy, only able to exercise power over their own citizens through mass violence - not dissimilar to the way that Israel is treating the Palestinians.

Read more: How Arab autocrats enabled Israel's Gaza genocide: Opinion by Maged Mandour

No casulaties have been reported from the Israeli atack on an industrial zone in al-Qusayr near Homs in Syria, Syrian state TV is reporting, citing the province's health director.

A previous attack on al-Qusayr on Thursday caused material damage and resulted in multiple injuries, according to state media.

In a statement, the Israeli military claimed its jets had struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and command centres.

The Israeli military has destroyed 37 towns and razed more than 40,000 housing units since October 2023, as part of its deadly assault on Lebanon, Lebanese media is reporting.

According to Lebanon's State News Agency, most of the destruction is concentrated between Naqoura and Khiam in southern Lebanon.

Over 3,000 people have been killed and another 13,500 injured by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

At least seven people have been killed in an Israeli military raid and air strikes on the occupied West bank, according to the Palestinian ministry of health.

Five of the seven were killed in two separate Israeli attacks in and near the city of Qabatiya, while two others were killed in the Tammoun area.

Reporting by Reuters

Israeli forces have killed at least 54 Palestinians in attacks across Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting citing medical sources.

At least 39 of the fatalities were in northern Gaza, it added.

Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians during a raid of the occupied West Bank city of Qabatiya, near Jenin.

Israeli fighter jets have targeted civilian buildings near an industrial zone in al-Qusayr, south of Homs, Syria's official Sana news agency is reporting.

Over three dozen British human rights and aid groups have called on Foreign Secretary David Lammy to clarify his understanding of genocide and Britain’s related legal obligations as pressure mounts over comments he made in relation to Israel's war in Gaza.

Last week, a Conservative MP asked the foreign secretary to clarify that "there is not a genocide occuring in the Middle East" and said that that terminology like "genocide" referring to Gaza was "not appropriate".

Lammy said he agreed and added: “Those terms were largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the way that they are used now undermines the seriousness of that term."

On Tuesday, the 37 organisations, which include Christian Aid, Action Aid UK, the Council for Arab-British Understanding, and Medical Aid for Palestine, said Lammy’s focus on death tolls appeared to show “a dangerously misguided understanding of the crime”. The Genocide Convention does not use numerical thresholds to define the crime.

In an open letter, they said his comments “injected a deeply troubling ambiguity… in light of the mass atrocities perpetrated against civilians in Gaza”.

Read more: Three dozen UK NGOs call on David Lammy to clarify his position on genocide

An Israeli strike has targeted a residential building in the Jiyeh coastal area south of Beirut, the Lebanese National News Agency is reporting.

AFP news agency reported that a large plume of smoke emanated from the area.

Israeli authorities demolished three residential buildings in Silwan town in occupied East Jerusalem, Anadolu news agency is reporting, citing one of the owners.

Fakhri Abu Diab said that Israeli authorities cited a lack of building permit for demolishing the three buildings, which contained eight residential apartments.

“Our neighborhood is targeted by the Israeli occupation to build a Jewish project on the ruins of our homes and to displace the Palestinians from east Jerusalem," Diab told Anadolu, adding that "dozens of homes" inhabited by about 1,550 Palestinians in the neighbourhood are currently under demolition orders.

Israeli shelling targeting the Alami area in northern Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp has killed at least four people, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting.

Meanwhile another two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a motorcycle in Khirbet al-Adas, north of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Forty four Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attack since dawn, 30 of them in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera is reporting citing medical sources.

At least 25 people, including 13 children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a home in Beit Lahia, according to AJ correspondent, Hind Khoudary.

Al Jazeera is reporting that Israeli quadcopters are firing directly at northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital, which has been besieged and subjected to multiple attacks by Israeli forces.

On Monday, the hospital's director, Dr Husaam Abu Safiya issued a final plea for help after Israeli forces launched a fresh attack on it on Sunday, targeting its paediatric ward with artillery fire and seriously wounding a child who was recovering from surgery.

What is happening at Kamal Adwan Hospital is a complete crime. After targeting children’s patient rooms, burning the medicine storage, and destroying water tanks, the Israeli occupation forces are now deliberately targeting the hospital and everyone inside it directly. pic.twitter.com/V7qPENLFXT

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) November 5, 2024

US Vice President Kamala Harris finds herself locked in a knife-edge contest with Donald Trump in the race for the White House, with many on the left withholding their support for the Democratic nominee over her views on Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and the ongoing war on Gaza.

Some have argued that Harris, 60, is the better option for voters after she began presenting herself as a more compassionate voice in the Biden administration when it comes to the plight of the Palestinian people.

But with Harris maintaining that Israel has a right to defend itself against its enemies, and also welcoming the political endorsements of Liz Cheney and her father Dick Cheney, one of the architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many have begun questioning what kind of a president she could be.

Former US officials have said that given her role as President Joe Biden's second-in-command - her presidency will likely be a continuation of Biden's.

"She may be a more energetic player but one thing you shouldn't expect - any immediate big shifts in the substance of Biden's foreign policy," Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations, told Reuters.

READ MORE: How Muslim American elites weaponised identity to push for Kamala Harris