Live: Over 200 Lebanese children killed in two months of Israeli attacks
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Here are the day's key developments:
-The number of known dead in Gaza is closing in on 44,000 people, the health ministry says. In Lebanon, officials there have put the number of known dead at nearly 3,500. Both tallies began in October 2023.
-Israel carried out several airstrikes on northern Gaza as well as the centre of the strip just after midnight local time on Saturday, Aljazeera's correspondents there have reported. The bombing raid targeted Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the north, which has been under a crippling siege for more than a month. Israel also struck areas near Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of Gaza.
-The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Friday the provision of $230m for "recovery and development programs" in the West Bank and Gaza. The press release noted that this follows the $2.1bn in humanitarian assistance provided since 7 October 2023 when the war on Gaza broke out.
-The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said that he has proposed to EU member states the banning of imports from illegal Israel settlements and the suspension of political dialogue with Israel, citing the country's many violations of international law in Gaza and Lebanon. The Foreign Affairs Council will discusses the proposed measures next week.
-Unifil, the UN's peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said on Friday that a 155mm live artillery shell hit its sector west headquarters in Chama but that it did not detonate. Unifil did not say which side the shell may have come from.
-The French foreign ministry says that Paris has demanded "accountability from the Israeli authorities" following the Israeli demolition of the French-financed Al-Bustan Association centre in the Silwan neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. The centre is supported and funded by the French foreign ministry and 21 French local authorities.
Israel carried out several airstrikes on northern Gaza as well as the centre of the strip just after midnight local time on Saturday, Aljazeera's correspondents there have reported.
The bombing raid targeted Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the north, which has been under a crippling siege for more than a month. Israel also struck areas near Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of Gaza.
The reports say there are multiple casualties, though it remains too early to assess how many.
On the first anniversary of Israel's war on Gaza, the Palestine solidarity movement held its 21st national demonstration.
Some 300,000 joined the march, according to organisers, making it one of the largest protests of the past 12 months.
Not that any of the marches have been small by historical standards. The smallest of them was 100,000 strong; the largest, on Armistice Day last year, attracted over 800,000 people.
Certainly, in the pre-Iraq war days, any cause that mobilised 200,000 people, such as the largest of the Vietnam war protests, the poll tax march of 1990 or CND’s 1983 anti-cruise missile demonstration, was considered huge.
But the Palestine movement has transformed the metric because no other cause this century has mobilised so many, so often, over such a short period.
Read more: As Israel and its imperial backers escalate the war, the Palestine solidarity movement must broaden its analysis of the conflict
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Friday the provision of $230m for "recovery and development programs" in the West Bank and Gaza.
The press release noted that this follows the $2.1bn in humanitarian assistance provided since 7 October 2023 when the war on Gaza broke out.
The new funding, it added, is intended to "further reduce the influence of Hamas".
The statement was made public on Friday but appears to be mistakenly dated 17 November 2024.
The Israeli Air Force on Friday said it carried out "intelligence-based" air strikes on what it describes as Hezbollah "infrastructure" in Dahieh, in southern Beirut.
"Prior to the strikes, aerial surveillance and numerous advanced warnings were issued to the population in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians," the Israeli military said in a post on X.
⭕️ The IAF conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah terrorist targets in Dahieh, a key Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut where terrorist infrastructure is systematically embedded.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 15, 2024
Prior to the strikes, aerial surveillance and numerous advanced warnings were issued to the… pic.twitter.com/QAwuDzvTr3
Hezbollah has released a video which it says shows an attack on the Elyakim military base in northern Israel.
The clip, which is less than a minute long, opens with the launch of what appear to be drones. It later features a shot of smoke billowing from what is said to be the target facility.
بث حزب الله مشاهد من عملية إستهداف قاعدة إلياكيم التابعة لجيش العدو الإسرائيلي جنوب مدينة حيفا المحتلة pic.twitter.com/Vkr9PCTiMv
— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) November 15, 2024
The Lebanese Health Ministry on Friday said the number of known dead from Israeli attacks had reached 3,445 since 8 October 2024.
There are also 14,599 wounded.
On Thursday alone, 59 people were killed, the ministry said.
US President-elect Donald Trump's choice for the next United States defence secretary has called for the building of a third Jewish temple on the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Pete Hegseth, a former TV show host, was picked by the incoming president for the role following his election victory earlier this month.
Hegseth has previously touted his avowedly pro-Israel credentials, which derive in part from his fundamentalist Christian beliefs.
Read more: Former TV host said in 2018 there was no reason the 'miracle' of the construction couldn't take place on site of mosque in Jerusalem
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Lebanon reported an 'alarming escalation' in the human toll of Israeli air strikes on densely populated areas across Lebanon.
Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has said its fighters killed three Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza's Beita Lahia.
In a statement on Telegram, the group said its fighters "managed to kill three Zionist soldiers at point-blank range in the vicinity of Abbas Kilani roundabout, north of Beit Lahia city".
The besieged Beit Lahia, along with Jabalia and Beit Hanoun, have been subjected to a month-long Israeli incursion, which has left thousands without access to food, water and medicals supplies as Israeli forces have cut off aid to the region.
More than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly women, children and the elderly, have been killed since it began on 5 October, Palestinian officials say.
Two Palestinian monitoring groups have warned of "catastrophic conditions" in Israeli jails after the recent deaths of two prisoners.
In a joint statement, the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society announced on Friday the deaths of Samih Suleiman Muhammad Aliwi, 61, and Anwar Shaaban Muhammad Aslim, 44.
Aliwi, a Hamas leader from Nablus, reportedly died on 6 November, six days after he was transferred from Ayalon (Ramla) Prison clinic to Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh).
According to the statement from the monitors, one of which is a Palestinian Authority (PA) agency, the Israeli prison administration did not disclose details of his death despite an obligation to release such information.
Aliwi had been held under administrative detention since 21 October of last year despite his pre-existing health issues. Testimony received by his lawyer indicated that Aliwi was suffering from multiple health issues prior to his arrest and had been surgically operated on several times for a benign intestinal tumour.
Read more: Two Palestinians die in 'catastrophic conditions' in Israeli prison
The French foreign ministry says that Paris has demanded "accountability from the Israeli authorities" following the Israeli demolition of the French-financed Al-Bustan Association centre in the Silwan neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.
French foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine described the move in a press briefing as being "part of the Israeli colonisation policy which is illegal under international law and threatens the two-state solution and the status of Jerusalem."
The centre is supported and funded by the French foreign ministry and 21 French local authorities.
The neighbourhood is particularly threatened by Israeli demolitions due to its proximity to east Jerusalem's most important holy sites.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said that he has proposed to EU member states the banning of imports from illegal Israel settlements and the suspension of political dialogue with Israel, citing the country's many violations of international law in Gaza and Lebanon.
In a blog post, Borrell highlighted that in other cases of violations of international law, the EU had imposed numerous sanctions, but that "until now Israel has been spared from any meaningful consequences".
"This has to change. This is why I have proposed an import ban on illegal settlement products, based on the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, similar to the existing import ban on products from occupied Ukrainian territories – because even-handedness is the lynchpin of Europe’s credibility," he said.
The Foreign Affairs Council will discusses the proposed measures next week.
Joseph Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, issued a statement condemning Israel's killing of 15 Lebanese paramedics in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon.
“Attacks on healthcare workers and facilities are a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The protection of medical personnel in conflict zones is non-negotiable,” Borrell said in a post on X.
"Be it reckless disregard or deliberate targeting, this is a blatant assault on human dignity, endangering lives & flagrantly violating fundamental human rights," he added.
Fifteen civil defence members were killed in an Israeli attack on Baalbek, and another five in a strike on the village of Arabsalim in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh.
The EU strongly condemns the killing of 12 paramedics in an Israeli strike near Baalbek.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 15, 2024
Attacks on healthcare workers and facilities are a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The protection of medical personnel in conflict zones is non-negotiable.
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Two groups challenging the UK government over its continued export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel say they will ask a judge to order a halt to all UK arms exports if the policy is not reversed by 4pm on Friday.
The case, brought by the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) and human rights group Al-Haq against the business secretary, is scheduled to resume in the High Court on Monday.
When the challenge was launched last December, the groups argued that the UK should ban all arms exports due to a clear risk that Israel might use British-made weapons to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza.
This September, after the newly elected Labour government suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel, the focus of the case shifted to UK-manufactured F-35 components, which can still be exported through third countries, with Israel as the final destination.
Arms control experts and researchers say Israel has relied on F-35s for a high volume of air strikes in Gaza and, more recently, in Lebanon over the past 13 months. UK-made parts make up 15 percent of the jets.
Read more: UK threatened with court-ordered ban on arms exports to Israel
