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

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 on Sunday.

The number of wounded has risen to at least 13,150 during the same period. In the past 24 hours alone, 30 people were killed and 183 injured.

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

The letter's signatories include Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran, and Russia, as well as the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed Ankara had submitted the letter during a press conference in Djibouti.

"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 1 November," Fidan told reporters. 

"We must repeat at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide."

Israeli media reports that an Israeli court is considering lifting a gag order on a case involving suspected information leaks from an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A court document confirmed that Israeli police, the military and the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency are investigating the suspects linked to the leaks. 

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.

Netanyahu said the person in question "never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or received classified information and did not take part in secret visits". 

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. 

The JC has since withdrawn the discredited article and distanced itself from the author who wrote the original piece. 

Israeli media criticised both articles, accusing them of supporting Netanyahu’s demands in talks and absolving him of blame for their failure.

Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians and wounded 86 in the last 24 hours across Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the death toll in the besieged enclave since 7 October 2023 to 43,341, with more than 102,105 wounded. At least 10,000 people are still missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

Health officials report that over 60 percent of the victims are women and children.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has issued an urgent appeal for aid amid the ongoing intense assault by Israeli forces on northern Gaza and the tightening siege affecting hospitals in the area.

The ministry called on all international and global organisations to send medical and surgical teams to northern Gaza, particularly to Kamal Adwan Hospital.

It also stressed the urgent need for ambulances to transport the wounded and critically ill to medical facilities.

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

These orders often precede heavy bombardment.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from Israel's wars on Gaza and Lebanon, now in their 394th day:

• Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning have killed at least 18 people so far, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence search-and-rescue service. 

• In Lebanon, Israeli bombardment continued in several villages in the south, while Hezbollah fired multiple rockets at Israel. 

• The Qatar-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet cited an Iranian source saying that Tehran’s response to the latest Israeli strikes will be the “greatest in quantity and quality” to date.

Hello Middle East Eye readers. On Saturday, Israeli soldiers kidnapped a Lebanese citizen from the Batroun area in northern Lebanon.

An Israeli military official confirmed the news, alleging that the individual is a senior Hezbollah operative — Hezbollah has not commented on the incident.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told the country's foreign ministry to submit a formal complaint to the UN Security Council over the raid.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israel has continued its siege on northern Gaza, with a bombing of the area killing 50 children late on Friday. Israel launched several strikes throughout Gaza on Saturday, killing at least six in a bombing in the Bureij camp in central Gaza.

As the war continues, the US has reportedly been trying to deter Iran from launching another retaliatory strike against Israel.

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

• Israeli forces launched a raid on al-Fawwar camp in the Hebron governorate in the occupied West Bank, arresting 10 Palestinians.

• The Israeli military's social media account has announced that two more Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza. The Qassam Brigades meanwhile claimed to have killed four soldiers in an ambush in northern Gaza.

• The military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it launched a barrage of rockets towards Israel, hitting the city of Sderot, the Mefalsim kibbutz and settlements around Gaza.

• Israeli figures show that 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since the military began its ground operations on 30 September.

• The Palestinian health ministry confirmed on Saturday that the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 43,314 since 7 October 2023. A further 102,019 have been injured.

• Lebanon's Hezbollah said it targeted Israel's Palmachim Airbase in southern Tel Aviv using drones.

US Central Command, the American military's command post for the Middle East, announced that a squadron of B-52 bombers have arrived in the region.

Earlier, the US reportedly warned Iran against launching another retaliatory strike on Israel.

The military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it launched a barrage of rockets towards Israel, hitting the city of Sderot, the Mefalsim kibbutz and settlements around Gaza.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that two rockets were fired from Gaza towards Sderot. It added that there was an ongoing investigation as to whether they fell into an open area.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Hamas' armed wing says it detonated an explosive rigged inside of a home that a group of Israeli soldiers entered in northern Gaza.

The group said the explosion killed four Israeli soldiers, including one officer.

The Israeli military has not commented.

The Israeli military said it killed Jaafar Khader Faour, a commander of Hezbollah's Nasser Brigade rocket unit, and the military said Faour was responsible for multiple attacks on Israel since October 2023.

Hezbollah has not commented on or confirmed Faour's death.

Axios is reporting that the US warned Iran in recent days against launching another attack on Israel.

Axios, citing a US official and a former Israeli official, reported that Washington relayed to Tehran that it would not be able to restrain Israel if Iran were to attack again.

Axios previously reported that Israeli intelligence suggests Iran is preparing to attack Israel. Iran first responded to Israeli aggression in the region amid the ongoing war on Gaza in April, in an attack that was in response to the Israeli bombing of an Iranian consulate building in Syria.

Then, after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a bombing in Beirut in October, Iran launched another attack on Israeli military sites.

Israel responded in kind with its a strike on Iranian military strikes.

The Israeli military's social media account has announced that two more Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza. 

The soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, which has for weeks faced an Israeli siege as Israeli forces killed more than 1,000 Palestinians there.

A total of 780 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

An Israeli military official has told AFP that naval commandos captured a “senior Hezbollah operative” in the city of Batroun.

"In the Lebanese town of Batroun, a senior operative of Hezbollah, who serves as an expert in his field, was apprehended," the official said. "The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated."

Hezbollah has not commented on the incident. Earlier, Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported that Israel's military had captured a Hezbollah official named Imad Amhaz.