Live: Thousands return home as Lebanon ceasefire takes hold

Israeli forces are using an AI weapons system in Gaza co-produced by an Indian defence company that turns machine guns and assault rifles into computerised killing machines, Middle East Eye can reveal.

According to documents and news reports seen by MEE, Israeli forces have been using the Arbel weapons system in Gaza following their devastating invasion of the enclave after the 7 October attacks on southern Israel.

Touted as a "revolutionary game changer that improves operator lethality and survivability," the Arbel system enhances machine guns and assault weapons - such as the Israeli-produced Tavor, Carmel and Negev - into a weapon that uses algorithms to boost soldiers chances of hitting targets more accurately and efficiently.

The past 13 months has seen Israeli forces engage in a catalogue of massacres - from bombing schools and refugee camps and hospitals to conducting executions on the streets of Gaza.

More women and children have been killed by Israeli firepower than in any other conflict over the past 20 years while close to 1,000 entire families have been erased.

Read more: Israel using AI weapons system co-produced with Indian firm in war on Gaza

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health has announced that Israeli strikes on the Tyre district have left at least nine people dead and 65 injured, according to an initial assessment.  

“Nine martyrs and 65 wounded in the preliminary toll of the raids on Tyre district,” the ministry stated in a social media post.

Turkey's foreign ministry condemned a Houthi missile attack on the Anadolu S, a Panama-flagged cargo ship owned by a Turkish company, in the Red Sea.  

“We condemn the missile attacks by the Houthis on the Panama-flagged dry cargo ship Anadolu S, owned by a Turkish company, while sailing off the coast of Yemen,” the ministry said in a statement.  

It added that “necessary initiatives are being taken to prevent the recurrence of a similar incident”. 

The Houthis have claimed recent strikes on shipping in the area as part of what they describe as a campaign of solidarity with Gaza.  

The death toll from an Israeli air strike on the town of Maarakeh, near Tyre in southern Lebanon, has risen to five, with 23 others wounded, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).  

Civil defence teams are continuing evacuation operations amid widespread destruction. Earlier reports indicated that four people were killed and three wounded, but updated figures reflect the escalating toll.  

Separate attacks in the Tyre district today have claimed the lives of at least nine more people, NNA said. Rescue efforts remain underway in the affected areas.  

The Israeli military reported the death of a soldier in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, where its forces have been engaged in direct conflict since late September.  

This casualty brings the total number of Israeli military fatalities in Lebanon to 50 since the start of ground operations.

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, marking the 49th time the US has used its veto power against Israel-related UN Security Council draft resolutions.

The draft resolution was brought forth by the 10 elected members of the Security Council, and every member except for the US voted in favour of the measure.

The veto marked over a year of US diplomatic cover provided to Israel as it continues to wage its war on Gaza, which last month was expanded with Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

However, this diplomatic support for Israel from Washington is nothing new and has been taking place on a bipartisan basis for decades.

In addition to giving Israel around $3bn in military aid each year, the US has also been Israel’s biggest ally in the international body and has often used its veto power at the Security Council to block diplomatic measures targeting Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.

Read more: The 49 times the US used veto power against UN resolutions on Israel

An Israeli settler from the occupied West Bank settlement of Ofra was killed in southern Lebanon during clashes with Hezbollah fighters. He had entered the area under the escort of an Israeli army unit.  

Zeev Ehrlich, 71, was a provocative figure who, in 2012, drew attention for touring archaeological sites in Palestinian villages with military protection, sparking criticism from Peace Now.  

“The army's conduct is outrageous, violates proper protocols, and unnecessarily endangers soldiers' lives," the group said at the time. "Once again, a small group of extremist settlers manages to drag the Israeli army into political missions and secure close protection for every whim of an individual settler."

An Israeli strike on the town of Maarakeh, near the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, has killed four people and wounded three others, according to the National News Agency.  

The agency reported that civil defence teams are conducting evacuation operations amid significant destruction. The casualty figures are described as an initial toll, with ongoing rescue efforts.

Israel's former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel risks sliding into “military governance” in Gaza if the government fails to propose viable alternatives to Hamas rule in the enclave.  

He said that transferring aid distribution responsibilities to private companies, guarded by the Israeli army, would edge the government closer to "military rule", stating, “Israeli soldiers will pay for it with their blood.”  

Criticising the government’s priorities, Gallant said, “The aid will be distributed by private companies, the companies will be guarded by the IDF, and we will all pay the price.” He called a military administration in Gaza a “dangerous and irresponsible political act” outside the war’s stated objectives.

Many in the Israeli military are now looking to the "Generals' Plan", also known as the Eiland Plan, to secure the defeat of Hamas.

At its simplest, this suggestion by a group of senior Israeli reservists, involves ethnically cleansing the northern Gaza Strip of people and then besieging the region, including stopping the entry of humanitarian supplies, to starve out anyone left, including Palestinian fighters.

It is part of a military plan that legal experts have described to Middle East Eye as "genocidal" and aimed at permanent forced displacement of the northern Gaza population as settlers plan for post-war colonisation of the Palestinian enclave.

Hamas’s acting Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, stated in an interview with Al-Aqsa TV that no captives-for-prisoners exchange deal would occur unless Israel’s assault on Gaza came to an end.  

Hayya confirmed “ongoing calls with mediating countries” regarding potential negotiations and expressed the group’s readiness to engage.  

He accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of stalling the talks for “political reasons”, claiming his government was hindering progress.

The Israeli military on Wednesday killed one Palestinian and wounded four others in Jenin, as they pressed on with a large-scale raid across the occupied West Bank city for a second day in a row.

The military incursion started in the early hours of Tuesday, with Israeli forces carrying out a wide arrest campaign in the city, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Five people were killed on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, with footage shared online showing Israeli military vehicles blocking ambulances and obstructing medical assistance during the raids. 

While attempting to evacuate a wounded person during the incursion, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that Israeli forces used their personnel as human shields.

"The occupation forces used our team as human shields after detaining them inside a house while they were en route to evacuate an injured person in the eastern neighborhood of #Jenin, during a raid on the house," PRCS said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Read more: Israeli forces wreak havoc in Jenin on second day of raid

US special envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel on Wednesday evening after holding meetings in Lebanon.  

After meeting with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, Hochstein reportedly said, "there is hope" for reaching an agreement in the coming days.

A Palestinian man was fatally shot in the chest during confrontations in Kafr Dan, a village west of Jenin, according to the Wafa news agency.

The report says that Israeli forces raided the village earlier.

Hamas has accused the United States of being “directly responsible” for Israel’s “genocidal war” in Gaza.

The statement followed a US veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.  

“Once again, the United States demonstrates that it is a direct partner in the aggression against our people, that it is criminal, kills children and women and destroys civilian life in Gaza, and that it (Israel) is directly responsible for the genocidal war and ethnic cleansing, just like the occupation,” the group said in a statement.

Warner Bros has announced plans for a film about Adolph "Al" Schwimmer, an American World War II veteran and the founder of Israel Aerospace Industries, with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin set to write the script and potentially direct it, according to Deadline.

The announcement has ignited scathing backlash on social media, where critics have accused the project about the "father of the Israeli air force" of perpetuating a biased narrative about Israel’s founding and glorifying Schwimmer’s controversial legacy as “heroic”.

According to media reports, the film will be based, in part, on the article "America's greatest gift to Israel" by David Kushner, published by Business Insider.

In 1948, in violation of an international arms embargo, Schwimmer smuggled military planes and over 50,000 weapons via Czechoslovakia to the Haganah, one of the three underground Zionist militias at the time. The operation aided militias involved in the 1948 Nakba, or the Catastrophe, in which 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed to make way for the creation of Israel.

The smuggled planes are considered pivotal in Israel's creation, with Boaz Dvir, professor and author of Saving Israel remarking: "Without Al's operation, Israel would have never survived its first war."

Read more: 'Artwashing': Warner Bros faces backlash over biopic of Israel air force founder