Live Blog Update| Israel's genocide in Gaza
This is an entry from: Live: Over 200 Lebanese children killed in two months of Israeli attacks

Evening recap

15 November 2024 00:01 GMT

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

Israel stepped up its strikes across Lebanon on Thursday amid reports that the US was pressing ahead with a ceasefire proposal and that Israel was weighing an end to fighting as a "gift" to the incoming Trump administration. 

The Biden administration reportedly delivered a truce proposal to Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, a Shia lawmakers and Hezbollah ally. 

Separately, the Washington Post reported Israel is eyeing a Lebanon ceasefire as a “gift” to President Donald Trump before he takes office again in January.

Behind the scenes, more diplomacy is playing out. Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, and a key advisor, met with Christian Lebanese lawmakers this week. 

But the most remarkable development was a meeting between Elon Musk, one of Trump's closest advisors, and Iran’s ambassador to the UN this week, according to the New York Times.

Meeting directly with Iranian officials in public is highly unusual for the US. 

The Biden administration has used Gulf states to speak with Iran and Trump's previous administration had basically no direct public contact with Iran between 2016 and 2020.

Meanwhile, Israel’s strikes are still causing destruction and death across Lebanon. At least 16 people were killed and 18 wounded on Wednesday by Israeli strikes on Lebanon, the country's health ministry said. 

At least 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon on Thursday that hit a civil defence centre in the city of Baalbek.

At least four Palestinians, including children, were killed by Israeli drone strikes on a tent housing displaced people in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. 

Here is what else you need to know:

  • Eighty-eight Democratic lawmakers have signed a letter asking US President Joe Biden to sanction far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich
  • Two Palestinian minors were injured by Israeli fire in Beit Furik, a town east of the city of Nablus, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS)
  • Lebanon has suffered more than $5bn in economic losses as a result of fighting with Israel, the World Bank said on Thursday
  • Clashes erupted in the stands of the Stade de France during the France-Israel Nations League football match