Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says

Fadi al-Wahidi, the Palestinian journalist who was shot by Israeli forces last week, has now slipped into a coma, said Hossam Shabat, a fellow journalist, on X. 

Wahidi, a camera operator for Al Jazeera, was shot in the neck while reporting from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

"My friend Fadi Alwahdi's condition has deteriorated, and he has now fallen into a coma. If he is not evacuated, he will lose his life," Shabat wrote.

My friend Fadi Alwahdi's condition has deteriorated, and he has now fallen into a coma. If he is not evacuated, he will lose his life.

— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) October 17, 2024

Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said that its fighters targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in al-Rayyan in Rafah.

The group said it used a "booby-trapped tunnel", publishing a video showing nearly a dozen Israeli soldiers prior to the explosion.

The Biden administration said it was going to authorise certain Lebanese nationals currently in the US to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), allowing them to remain for the next 18 months and apply for work permits.

The announcement comes as Israel continues attacking Lebanon. Any Lebanese nationals who were already in the US as of 16 October will be able to apply for TPS.

Israel informed the US that they are currently investigating whether Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was killed in Rafah, Al Jazeera is reporting.

The US is consulting with its own spy agencies on the ground, according to the news agency.

Officials have told Israeli media that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in a strike on Gaza.

The Palestinian leader, who oversaw the 7 October attack on southern Israel that sparked off the massive Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, was killed in a strike in Rafah, according to outlets KAN and N12.

Earlier reports said that three Hamas leaders were killed in a strike on Rafah. Photos had circulated in Israeli media of a slain man that appeared to be Sinwar, but the military censor ordered them to be taken down.

Threats made on Thursday to office buildings in Beirut containing Al Jazeera and the Norwegian embassy have been deemed to be fake, Lebanese security sources told Reuters.

Both the embassy and Al Jazeera's offices were evacuated following the threats.

Israel has said it is investigating the possibility that an Israeli attack has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

So far there has been no confirmation, though a number of Israeli media outlets shared a photo purporting to show his body, which were later taken down at the request of the military censor.

Hamas on Thursday denied using the Abu Hussein school in Jabalia refugee camp, which was targeted by Israeli air strikes that killed 15 people, for fighting purposes.

Israel claimed that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad had been using the school - which had been serving as a shelter for displaced people - as a command centre.

Five children were among those killed in the strike.

Al-Jazeera said it evacuated its Beirut offices after warnings.

The broadcaster did not say who issued the warnings.

The death toll from an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip has risen to 22, including children, according to Al Jazeera. 

Medhat Abbas, a health ministry official, told Reuters dozens were wounded.

"There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing," Abbas said. 

Israeli forces have committed a massacre in the Jabalia refugee camp after bombing a school sheltering displaced people, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

At least 15 people have been killed and dozens wounded in an initial death toll, Al Jazeera reported. 

Over two weeks have passed since Israel announced the start of its ground operations in Lebanon on 1 October.

Statements and videos shared by both sides claim to show military accomplishments, but with little media access on the ground, the full picture remains foggy.

Journalists covering the situation in southern Lebanon have told MEE that most Lebanese towns bordering Israel have fallen under effective Israeli control.

Most of the towns are less than two kilometres inside Lebanese territory, which suggests Israelis are being “extremely slow” in their advances.

While some reports claim Israeli forces have reached further, they have not been able to stabilise their positions.

Real figures for total losses may be difficult to find, as both Israel and Hezbollah may be trying to understate their numbers, but both sides are believed to have suffered heavy losses.

Read more: Israel's invasion of Lebanon: What is happening on the ground?

The Israeli military on Thursday called on residents to leave parts of eastern and southern regions of Lebanon, warning Israeli forces would again target the areas.

The notices to leave were issued for residents in specific areas of Bekaa in the east and Tyre in the south, both regions regularly struck by Israeli warplanes.

"Urgent warning to the residents of the Bekaa region, specifically those located in the building marked on the map in the Tamnine area," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X

Adraee claimed there were Hezbollah "facilities and interests" nearby without giving any evidence. Hezbollah repeatedly denies placing military infrastructure in civilian areas. 

Reporting by AFP and MEE

Israeli forces have killed at least 29 Palestinians and wounded 93 in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the death toll since 7 October 2023 to 42,438, with more than 99,246 wounded and at least 10,000 still missing, likely buried under rubble.

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

Unemployment in Gaza has soared to nearly 80 percent since the Israel war on Gaza erupted, with the devastated enclave's economy in almost total collapse, the International Labour Organization said on Thursday.

Economic output has shrunk by 85 percent since the Israeli assault began a year ago, plunging almost the entire 2.3 million population into poverty, the United Nations agency said.

The conflict has caused "unprecedented and wide-ranging devastation on the labour market and the wider economy across the Occupied Palestinian Territory", the ILO said, referring to Gaza and the West Bank.

In the West Bank, the unemployment rate averaged 34.9 percent between October 2023 and the end of September 2024, while its economy has contracted by 21.7 percent compared with the previous 12 months, the ILO said.

Before the crisis, the unemployment rate in Gaza was 45.3 percent and 14 percent in the West Bank, according to the Geneva-based organisation.

Palestinians in Gaza either lost their jobs entirely or picked up informal and irregular work "primarily centred on the provision of essential goods and services," the ILO said.

Reporting by Reuters