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

The Israeli army says it killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in al-Sultaniyah village in southern Lebanon. According to the Israelis, Riad Rida Ghazzawi was the head of the force’s anti-tank unit.

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.

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.

The office said in a statement on Telegram that 1,800 people were killed and 4,000 wounded in northern Gaza in the past month.

The statement noted that civil defence teams have faced attacks while on duty, with some members being arrested or prevented from carrying out their work.

Israeli military vehicles have raided el-Bireh city in the occupied West Bank hours after reports that settlers burned several Palestinians’ vehicles, Al Jazeera and Palestinian media reported.

Wafa News Agency said at least six vehicles were set on fire in the early hours of Monday morning.

Land seizures and settler attacks aimed at forcing Palestinians to abandon their homes have spiked in the West Bank since 7 October. According to data from the United Nations humanitarian affairs office, at least 1,423 incidents of settler violence in the West Bank were recorded over the past year.

Israel’s military announced it has killed Hezbollah commander Abu Ali Rida in the Baraashit area of southern Lebanon.

In a post on X, the military stated that Rida had “directed and executed” attacks on Israeli forces and led Hezbollah fighters in the region.

The post also mentioned that Israeli forces were continuing to operate in southern Lebanon, destroying Hezbollah infrastructure and attacking the group’s fighters.

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.

"This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, it is devastating. And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza," Harris said at the start of her speech at Michigan State University.

Many Arab and Muslim Americans as well as anti-war activist groups have condemned US support for Israel's war in Gaza and Lebanon, and the displacement of millions.

A poll showed 40 percent drop in Muslim support for Democrats, as 29 percent of those Muslim voters polled said they were planning to cast their votes for Green Party's Jill Stein, who has made ending Israel's war on Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank a key policy priority.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

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

• The Israeli foreign ministry has informed the UN that it has ended the 1967 agreement that recognises the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), The Times of Israel reported.

• “Heavy” Israeli bombardment across the Gaza Strip killed many Palestinians and wounded or trapped many others under the rubble in the early hours of the morning, The Wafa news agency reported.

• Around 472,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since 23 September, following the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR reported.

• Israeli settlers have burned multiple Palestinian vehicles in el-Bireh, a city in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate, according to the Wafa news agency.

Hello Middle East Eye readers. On Sunday, reports emerged that an Israeli court is considering lifting a gag order on a case involving classified documents leaked by an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The leaks concern information shared with two European media outlets by an adviser close to Netanyahu, who may not have had the necessary security clearance.

The leaked documents are reported to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the Jewish Chronicle (JC) that claimed Hamas planned to smuggle captives from Gaza to Egypt and an article in the German newspaper Bild that claimed Hamas delayed talks as a form of psychological warfare against Israel. 

In Gaza, Israel's siege on the northern part of the enclave continues. The Palestinian Ministry of Health issued an appeal for aid, stressing that the siege is affecting hospitals in the area.

And in Lebanon, the Israeli military issued new expulsion orders on Sunday in the ancient city of Baalbek.

Here's what else you need to know about today's developments:

• Israeli forces killed at least 27 Palestinians and wounded 86 in the last 24 hours across Gaza, bringing the death toll in the besieged enclave since 7 October 2023 to 43,341.

• Turkey submitted a letter to the United Nations, signed by 52 countries and two organisations, calling for a halt to arms sales to Israel. 

• Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,897 people since October 2023, according to the new death toll reported by Lebanon's health ministry.

• Hezbollah said it launched a "squadron of attack drones" at the Elyakim military base in northern Israel, located south of Haifa.

• Israeli soldiers shot dead a 14-year-old child in Halhoul, a city in the occupied West Bank near Hebron.

• The Houthis in Yemen said in a statement that it would continue its blockade of Israeli ships in the Red Sea, after saying there were reports that Israeli shipping companies were selling their assets to other companies.

More than 100 staff members at the BBC have accused the corporation of giving Israel favourable coverage in its reporting on the war on Gaza.

A letter sent on Friday to BBC director-general Tim Davie and chief executive officer Deborah Turness criticised the broadcaster for providing “favourable coverage to Israel” and failing to uphold a “basic journalistic tenet” when holding Israel to account. 

The signatories included 230 people, among them 100 anonymous BBC employees, as well as media professionals, journalists, actors and academics. 

“The consequences of inadequate coverage are significant. Every television report, article and radio interview that has failed to robustly challenge Israeli claims has systematically dehumanised Palestinians,” the letter, first reported by the Independent, said.

To read the full story, click below.

Over 100 BBC staff accuse network of pro-Israel bias in Gaza coverage

Intense shelling has damaged several residential areas in Baalbek, as Israeli forces escalate their bombing campaign in east Lebanon.

Over a month into Israel's intensive bombing campaign on Lebanon, the country's death toll stands at nearly 3,000. pic.twitter.com/jjdJf2JCEv

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 3, 2024

Osama Hamdan, a senior political official in Hamas, said that a dialogue among Palestinian factions in Cairo has been "positive".

Still, Hamdan said Hamas hasn't received any new written proposals regarding a possible ceasefire in Gaza.

Reporting by Reuters

The Houthis in Yemen said in a statement that it would continue its blockade of Israeli ships in the Red Sea, after saying there were reports that Israeli shipping companies were selling their assets to other companies.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the group would not recognise any changes of ownership.

The Houthis, known as Ansar Allah, would "continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and target all ships belonging to, or linked to, or heading to it", the group said in its statement.

The group added that the blockade would "continue until the aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted and the aggression on Lebanon stops".

Israeli soldiers shot dead a 14-year-old child in Halhoul, a city in the occupied West Bank near Hebron, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The boy's name was Naji Nidal al-Baba, the medical organisation said.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it launched a "squadron of attack drones" at the Elyakim military base in northern Israel, located south of Haifa.

The Lebanese movement said that the attack "hit its targets accurately".

Israel's military said it intercepted an unmanned aerial vehicle near Caesarea, which is also located south of Haifa. It didn't comment on whether the military base was hit.

Turkey submitted a letter to the United Nations calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel, the country's foreign ministry said.

“We have written a joint letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel. We delivered this letter, which has 54 signatories, to the UN on November 1,” Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a press conference in Djibouti.

“We must repeat at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide,” said Fidan. The letter is “an initiative launched by Turkey”.

Among the signatories were Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran and Russia. The Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation were also signatories to the letter.