Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says

France has banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming military naval trade show, two sources aware of the matter have told Reuters. 

The ban is in relation to an annual naval fair, organised by Euronaval, being held between 4 and 7 November. 

Earlier this year, Paris already banned Israeli firms from taking part in a military trade show. 

Tensions between France and Israel have emerged several times in recent weeks, particularly after Israeli forces wounded UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.  

An Israeli air strike on Nabatieh in southern Lebanon has killed the city's mayor and at least five other people, wounding several more.

Ahmad Kheil, Nabatieh's mayor, was conducting a daily crisis management meeting in the city's municipal building when it was bombed on Wednesday morning. 

"The mayor of Nabatieh, among others… was martyred. It’s a massacre,” Nabatieh governor Howaida Turk told AFP. 

The governor reported 11 strikes on the city and its surroundings. Emergency workers in the area said Israeli bombardment also destroyed a medical facility near the municipal building, killing two doctors. 

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israel deliberately targeted the municipal meeting. 

Mikati said he "condemned the new Israeli aggression against civilians in the city of Nabatieh, which deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city's services and relief situation".

Read more: Israeli air strike kills mayor of Nabatieh during official meeting

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he is "looking at" sanctioning Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, as well as the national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday in response to a question by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, Starmer said comments made by the two ministers were "abhorrent" and that the government is "looking at" sanctioning them.

Davey said that Smotrich "said that starving two million people in Gaza might be justified and moral". He added that Ben Gvir "called settlers who killed a 19-year-old in the West Bank heroes", before asking whether the government will sanction the ministers.

Starmer replied: "We are looking at that, because they are abhorrent comments, as he [Davey] rightly says, along with other really concerning activity in the West Bank, but also across the region."

On Wednesday morning, Labour MP Emily Thornberry labelled Ben Gvir and Smotrich "racist".

Read more: Britain considering putting sanctions on Israeli ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich

Israeli media has reported evidence that a plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza and kill any Palestinians who remain is underway.

Three Israeli reserve soldiers serving in Gaza told Haaretz this week that they believe the "Generals' Plan", also known as the Eiland Plan, is being implemented.

“The goal is to give the residents who live north of the Netzarim area a deadline to move to the south of the strip. After this date, whoever will remain in the north will be considered an enemy and will be killed," a soldier stationed in the Netzarim Corridor was quoted as saying.

"It doesn’t conform to any standard of international law. People sat and wrote a systematic order with charts and an operational concept, at the end of which you shoot whoever isn’t willing to leave. The very existence of this idea is unfathomable.”

Over the past 10 days, as Israeli forces ordered hundreds of thousands of people to flee northern Gaza before launching a new offensive, Israeli media and analysts have suggested that the military is implementing this controversial plan.

There are now increasing signs that even if the policy has not been adopted by top military officials who are reportedly discussing it, the plan is already being carried out, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

"Ideas such as deliberately opening fire close to a population and even steps towards starving the inhabitants are being debated," wrote Haaretz journalist Amos Harel.

"These ideas haven’t officially been validated in the IDF chain of command, but the very fact that they are being discussed, and the political involvement of right-wing parties and media outlets, is trickling down."

Read more: Israeli soldiers say generals' ethnic cleansing 'plan' underway in northern Gaza

UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said on Wednesday civilian suffering was reaching an unprecedented level after an Israeli strike in the south killed at least six people and wounded 43, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

Reporting by Reuters

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Wednesday divisions between European states over Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon send wrong messages to Israel and Arab countries, saying it was unacceptable for splits to continue.

Reporting by Reuters

The UN Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) is close to a possible breaking point for its operations in the Gaza Strip due to increasingly complicated conditions, said its head on Wednesday.

"I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won't be able any more to operate," Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini told journalists at a news conference in Berlin.

"We are very near to a possible breaking point. When will it be? I don't know. But we are very near of that," he said.

Reporting by Reuters

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the deadly Israeli strikes on the southern city of Nabatieh on Wednesday, saying that they intentionally targeted a municipal meeting.

In a statement, Mikati said he "condemned the new Israeli aggression against civilians in the city of Nabatiyeh, which deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city's services and relief situation". The city's mayor was among those killed, according to local media. 

Reporting by AFP

The likelihood of an attack on Iran's nuclear sites remains low, but any potential damage would be "quickly compensated", Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), told Nournews on Wednesday.

"We have planned in a way that if they commit any stupidity, the damages would be minimal," Kamalvandi said, referring to a potential Israeli attack. 

Reporting by Reuters

Israeli forces have killed at least 65 Palestinians and wounded 140 in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the death toll since 7 October 2023 to 42,409, with more than 99,153 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.

Northern Gaza is being "wiped off the map" and world leaders need to act now to stop the "atrocities" committed by Israeli forces, 38 NGOs said in a joint statement on Tuesday. 

"The Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza has escalated to a horrifying level of atrocity," said the groups, which included Oxfam, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), ActionAid, Islamic Relief, Christian Aid and other UK-based charities. 

"Under the guise of 'evacuation,' Israeli forces have ordered the forced displacement of an estimated 400,000 Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza, including Gaza City," their statement read.  

"This is not an evacuation - this is forced displacement under gunfire. Since 1 October, no food has been allowed into the area, and civilians are being starved and bombed in their homes and their tents." 

Global leaders have a "legal and moral duty" to act now, the groups said, adding that Israel has failed to adhere to the orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. 

"This is not a time for silence - this is a time for action. The people of Gaza cannot wait. The world must intervene now before more innocent lives are lost." 

Israeli fighter jets heavily bombed the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Wednesday morning, launching at least 10 successive air strikes that killed at least five people and wounded several others. 

The city's mayor, Ahmad Kheil, and a number of the municipality's staff were killed in one of the air strikes that hit the building, according to Lebanese media reports.   

The Gaza-based government media office has issued an urgent appeal for safe passage into besieged northern Gaza to save its collapsing health system, which has been facing "catastrophic and unprecedented" conditions since Israel launched a new military assault on 5 October.  

Israeli forces are directly targeting hospitals in northern Gaza and have threatened to cause them to collapse, the media office said. 

It added that hospitals are struggling to operate under the Israeli siege, with neonatal intensive care units hit hardest by the harsh conditions.

Fuel, medical staff, medicine, vaccinations and baby formula are among the most critical needs for hospitals in northern Gaza, the office said.

"This is an urgent appeal to help save what can be saved in the North Gaza Governorate, which is being subjected to genocide. The governorate and its hospitals are experiencing a catastrophic situation in every sense of the word." 

European Union countries that contribute to UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) have no intention of pulling back from the south of the country despite Israeli calls to do so, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said.

Since an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon began on 1 October, Unifil positions have come under Israeli fire and two Israeli tanks burst through the gates of one of its bases. The Israeli attacks wounded five peacekeepers.

Sixteen EU countries, including Austria, contribute to Unifil and the recent incidents have sparked widespread alarm among European governments.

Schallenberg, summarising a discussion among EU foreign ministers on Monday, said European nations were not minded to pull troops back or out.

"There was no debate about pulling back or whatever," he told Reuters in an interview in Brussels.

"They are there to stay but the security and the safety of our troops is paramount and has to be ensured by everybody," said Schallenberg, whose country has about 160 soldiers in Unifil.

He added Israel had a right to defend itself against Hezbollah but even unintentional attacks on peacekeeping positions were a breach of international law.

"There's a clear demand on Israel to be very cautious on this," he said in the interview, which took place late on Tuesday afternoon.

Reporting by Reuters

Iran's top diplomat has warned UN chief Antonio Guterres that Tehran is ready to deliver a "decisive and regretful" response if Israel retaliates for its missile attack. 

On 1 October, Iran fired approximately 200 missiles at Israel in retaliation for the killing of two of its key allies, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as an Iranian general.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant vowed last week that Israel's response would be "deadly, precise and surprising".

"Iran, while making all-out efforts to protect the peace and security of the region, is fully prepared for a decisive and regretful response to any adventures [by Israel]," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during a phone call with Guterres, according to a statement from his office on Wednesday.

During the call on Tuesday evening, Araghchi also appealed to the UN to use its resources "to stop the crimes and aggressions of the Israeli regime and to send humanitarian aid to Lebanon and Gaza".

Reporting by AFP