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

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 43,391 Palestinians and wounded 102,347 since 7 October last year, Gaza’s health ministry has reported.

The total includes 17 fatalities in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry.

Over the last year, Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has cast an even darker shadow over the upcoming US presidential election, in which the majority of Americans have expressed dissatisfaction over familiar candidates running.

Voter frustration with the two-party system has only been exacerbated by the broad bipartisan support for Israel's mass slaughter of Palestinians.

For some, glimmers of hope began to emerge with the rise of Arab and Muslim-led movements to "abandon" President Joe Biden and, later, Vice President Kamala Harris - or remain "uncommitted" to endorsing any Democratic incumbents until they force a ceasefire in Gaza.

Uncommitted movement leaders' pledges to hold politicians accountable over Gaza through votes were replaced with milquetoast demands centred on Palestinian representation. And even when those half-hearted calls were ignored, the narrative began to mirror the standard Democratic Party line on the unique danger that Donald Trump poses.  

READ MORE: How Muslim American elites weaponised identity to push for Kamala Harris Opinion by Maha Hilal

The death toll from Israeli air strikes in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday rose to four, Palestinian officials said.

"There is a martyr from the air strike whose body is torn to pieces," he told AFP.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah confirmed earlier reports that two Palestinian men had been killed by Israeli forces in Tammun on Tuesday.

"The body of one of them, whose identity is still unknown, has been withheld by the army," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia's Emergencies Ministry is evacuating around 100 Russian citizens on a special flight from Beirut to Moscow, the Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying.

Over 60 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, according to a joint statement from the Israeli army and the Shin Bet security agency, as reported by The Times of Israel.

The PFLP is a leftist Palestine resistance group founded in 1967 by George Habash within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). 

More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday in a rare transfer out of the strip, a World Health Organization official said.

"These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza," said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.

Peeperkorn said the patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates. Then a portion will travel to Romania, he added.

Egypt has condemned Israel's decision to ban the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, calling it an "unacceptable disregard" for the UN, its agencies and the international community.

Israel officially informed the UN on Monday of its decision to cut ties with Unrwa, following a vote by Israeli lawmakers to bar the organisation, which is seen as vital for Palestinians.

"Egypt strongly condemns Israel's withdrawal from the agreement governing the operations of Unrwa and its formal suspension of operations," Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook late Monday.

The ministry called the move a "dangerous development" aimed at erasing the Palestinian cause, adding that the decision represented "a new chapter in Israel's blatant and systematic violations of international law and international humanitarian law".

At least 70 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip amid repeated Israeli attacks on a heavily populated neighbourhood in the town of Beit Lahiya in the north, Al Jazeera reported.

At least nine Palestinians have been confirmed killed in attacks on three tented camps for displaced people in the central and southern areas of Gaza while at least 20 Palestinians have been killed in northern Gaza. 

Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem today under the protection of the Israeli police, the Wafa news agency reported.

Eyewitnesses said that the settlers stormed the holy Islamic site in groups, carried out tours, and performed Talmudic rituals in its courtyards. During the incursion, Israeli police imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshippers to the mosque.

Additionally, Israeli police intensified the restrictions at the gates of the Old City, effectively turning the area into a military zone, the agency said.

An Israeli drone bombed a site in the village of Muthalath al-Shuhada, south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, killing two Palestinians, the Wafa news agency reported.

One victim was a 40-year-old man who died from shrapnel injuries, as reported by Wafa, citing the director of Al-Razi Hospital. Furthermore, the Jenin Governmental Hospital has received a second body, but its identity has not yet been established.

The drones continued bombing the area for more than seven hours, and sent more military reinforcements to the entrances of the town of Qabatiya, the agency said.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq takes responsibility for launching drones at Israel overnight, claiming to have launched three drones at Haifa between 2am and 4am, Times of Israel reported.

The Israeli Air Force reported that alerts in northern Israel were activated after fighter jets intercepted "two launches" from Lebanon. Additionally, they confirmed intercepting an "unmanned aircraft" that had crossed into Israeli airspace from Syria.

This came after the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for four separate drone attacks targeting Haifa.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

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

• The UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency said its partners in Gaza are reporting a rise in premature births and maternal deaths.

• Israeli forces have killed at least 33 people in Gaza overnight, with 20 fatalities reported in the besieged northern town of Beit Lahia and another four in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood, as reported by Al Jazeera Arabic and the Wafa news agency.

• The UN’s refugee agency said an average of 400-600 refugees from Lebanon are arriving in Iraq daily as more people flee Israel’s attacks on the country.

• Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a raid on the town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank.

• Israeli forces have continued their attacks on Lebanon, resulting in at least one reported death in the southern town of Haris.

• Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq stated that it carried out three drone strikes on the Israeli port city of Haifa.

Our live coverage from Gaza and Lebanon will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• At least 43,374 people have been killed and 102,261 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza's health ministry said

• Thirty-three people were killed and 156 wounded in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said

• Peace Now, an Israeli rights group, has accused the Israeli army of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in northern Gaza

• Lebanon’s health ministry reports that over 3,000 people have died in 13 months of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, with at least 13,492 injured

• All hospitals in northern Gaza are out of service, amid continuing Israeli air strikes and a military siege that prevents access to humanitarian aid including medical supplies, the Gaza government's media office has said

• Vice President Kamala Harris pledged her commitment to a ceasefire in Gaza as she appealed to 200,000 Arab American voters in Michigan ahead of the 2024 US presidential election on Tuesday, 5 November

• Germany has called on Israel to let more humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, where a lack of supplies has led to a "desperate" and "unbearable" situation, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said

• The United States said on Monday that it is "deeply concerned" about escalating violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, following reports of settlers setting fire to homes, cars and olive trees near Ramallah

• Carrefour announced on Facebook that it will shut down all of its branches in Jordan starting Monday. This move aligns with heightened calls from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which had urged boycotts against Carrefour due to the ongoing Gaza war and accusations of support for Israel

Israeli newspaper Haaretz issued an editorial on Monday disavowing its own publisher after he referred to Palestinians as "freedom fighters".

Amos Schocken was speaking at a conference in London last month when he made the comments, which provoked an outcry and calls from government ministers to clamp down on the Israeli outlet's activities.

"The Netanyahu government doesn't care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population," he told attendees.

"It dismisses the costs of both sides for defending the settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters, that Israel calls terrorists."

Although he later clarified his remarks to emphasise that he did not consider Hamas specifically to be freedom fighters, his comments have sparked a controversy at the Israeli media outlet.

Read more: Haaretz disavows own publisher for calling Palestinians 'freedom fighters'