Middle East crisis live: Lebanese governor decries ‘massacre’ after mayor among those killed in Israeli attack

AP reports on further strikes by Israel in Lebanon this afternoon.

Israeli warplanes struck a two-story building in Yammouneh, in the Bekaa Valley, killing two people, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. The victims were a local woman and a displaced person, the report said.

Two people were killed and nine others injured in a separate airstrike on the Rayak-Baalbek highway, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Several Lebanese army soldiers were wounded when the strike landed near their military vehicle, the news agency reported.

An Israeli airstrike on Douair, near Nabatieh in south Lebanon, destroyed shops and residential apartments, the report said. It is unclear if there were casualties.

The two Israeli ministers threatened with sanctions by UK prime minister Keir Starmer have responded, Reuters reports.

Previous foreign secretary David Cameron had planned to sanction Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir before his then-governing Conservative Party lost power in July. Starmer told parliament he too was looking at the option.

Starmer was responding to a question about Smotrich’s comments that starving civilians in Gaza might be justified and Ben-Gvir’s remarks that perpetrators of settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were heroes.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir each said the threat of sanctions would not lead to a change in their positions. “They don’t scare me and I will continue to act only according to Israel’s highest national interests,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement, while Smotrich said “no threat will prevent me from doing the right and moral thing for the citizens of Israel.”

We have live coverage of the UN security council’s meeting on the war in Gaza. You can watch it here or at the top of the blog:

AFP reports that Beirut is creaking under the burden as displaced people converge on the city as Israel ramps up its war with Hezbollah.

Fadi Baghdadi, a member of the city’s disaster management unit, said its already-ailing infrastructure is now “in a deplorable state” due to the crisis.

He said more than 55,000 people forced to flee their homes were staying in 169 shelters dotted around Beirut, adding that all the centres were now full. Another estimated 200,000 people have found shelter in apartments and houses, he added.

All these people “need water, (extra) rubbish is being dumped, the sewage is increasing”, Baghdadi said, adding that the traffic was so bad that emergency vehicles were sometimes struggling to reach their destinations.

Trash has piled up around overflowing dumpsters, a worrying sight in a country that has been hit by past rubbish crises and a five-year economic collapse that has left many living in poverty. The sheer number of vehicles lining the roads has made work harder for rubbish collectors, he told AFP, with trucks unable to access narrower streets.

Nadim Farajalla, chief sustainability officer at the Lebanese American University, said Beirut’s water network is “under extreme stress”. “Demand for water is extremely high,” but “groundwater tables are very low” due to the lack of rain over the summer, he said.

Gulf leaders including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gathered with EU heads of state and government in Brussels today for a summit aimed at averting a “general conflagration” in the Middle East, AFP reports.

The European Union is seeking to work more closely with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – which brings together Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – in addressing conflicts in both the Middle East and Ukraine.

Confirmed at the last minute, the presence of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler among the six Gulf leaders in attendance heightened expectations.

The first-ever gathering of its kind, the EU-GCC summit comes on the eve of an EU leaders’ meeting in the Belgian capital.

“We are partners with aligned interests,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told journalists on arrival at the talks, adding he hoped the discussions would help bring about a ceasefire and de-escalation in the Middle East.

According to one EU official, “the Saudis appear to be re-engaging on the issue of Lebanon, which is absolutely vital to resolving the situation.”

France has banned Israeli firms from exhibiting at a naval arms trade show next month, Reuters reports, citing the organisers.

It is the latest incident in a row fuelled by the Macron government’s unease over Israel’s conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. It is the second time this year that France has banned Israel firms from a major defence show.

In May, France said the conditions were not right for them to take part in the Eurosatory military trade show when president Emmanuel Macron was calling for Israel to cease operations in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Euronaval, organiser of the event set to take place in Paris from 4-7 November, said in a statement that the French government had informed it that Israeli delegations were not allowed to exhibit stands or show equipment, but could attend the trade show.

Summary of the day so far

Civilians trapped in northern Gaza amid airstrikes and reports of close-quarters combat

Jason Burke

Israeli delegations taking part in the major Euronaval defence show in France next month will not be permitted to set up any stand or exhibit hardware after a decision by the French government, organisers said on Wednesday.

“The French government informed Euronaval of its decision to approve the participation of Israeli delegations at Euronaval 2024, without any stand or exhibition of equipment,” said the organisers of the show which is due to start on 4 November in Paris, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

A specialised surgical team experienced in war injuries has been deployed to a hospital in southern Beirut to help relieve exhausted medical staff and offer care, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) shared on Wednesday.

The ICRC said that the medical reinforcement came “amid escalating hostilities, a rising number of wounded people and a healthcare system struggling with an influx of people in desperate need”.

According to its statement, the surgical team from the ICRC, including an emergency doctor, a surgeon and an anaesthetist, are all “experienced in the unique and destructive injuries caused by weapons of war”.

The team will operate with ICRC’s existing 22-person team out of Rafik Hariri university hospital, said the humanitarian organisation, in a deployment closely coordinated with Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

A shipment of medical supplies sent by the ICRC to Rafik Hariri university hospital earlier this month has helped equip and supply the facility’s trauma unit, it added in the statement. The ICRC said that the shipment will also help a similar unit at Zahle – Elias Hrawi government hospital in the Bekaa, where 10 additional ICRC hospital specialists, including nurses and doctors, will soon be deployed.

“This critical assistance provides much necessary relief, but the needs continue to grow significantly,” said Simone Casabianca-Aeschlimann, the head of the ICRC delegation in Lebanon. “While our surgical team and medical supplies will help ease the burden on healthcare providers, sustained and safe humanitarian aid is urgently needed. The humanitarian crisis deepens by the hour.”

The ICRC said it “continues to remind all parties to the conflict that constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians, and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations.”

“Additionally, under international humanitarian law, medical personnel, units, and transport exclusively assigned to medical duties and purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances.”

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) warned on Wednesday of the risk of famine in Gaza, a day after the US said Israel had been warned to improve aid deliveries to the territory, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Unrwa commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, told a press conference in Berlin that “there is a real risk today … that we enter a situation where famine or acute malnutrition is unfortunately again a likelihood,” pointing to the upcoming winter and the weakened immune systems of Gaza’s population.

Lazzarini painted a dire picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying it had “become a kind of wasteland, which I would say is almost unliveable”.

In relation to aid deliveries to Gaza he said that “over the last two to three weeks there was no convoy entering into the north except yesterday”.

“We have a huge drop of convoys in the south with only an average of fifty to sixty for two million people, while we estimate the number needed much, much higher,” Lazzarini said.

AFP reports that he pointed out that the convoys which had managed to enter had been subject to looting “because of the total breakdown of law and order”.

However, he stressed that with appropriate action a hunger crisis in Gaza “can be avoided” if convoys and food are allowed to enter.

“We have shown that we can have a polio campaign, so why can we not bring food?” he asked.

On Tuesday, the US state department said secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin had sent a joint letter making “clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today”.

Cogat, the Israeli military body supervising civilian affairs in Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that “50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid – including food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment provided by Jordan – were transferred today to northern Gaza”.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday said they “will not hesitate to support” regional allies in the conflict against Israel, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … will not hesitate to support the Islamic resistance decisively … in bravely standing up against this fake regime (Israel),” the IRGC said in a statement published by their official Sepah news agency.

Britain and France call urgent meeting at UN security council to discuss humanitarian situation in Gaza

Lebanese officials say an Israeli airstrike on Nabatiyeh hit a building during a meeting coordinating relief efforts.

Associated Press reports:

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “intentionally targeting” a meeting of the municipal council convened to discuss city services and relief.

The strike killed the mayor of the city along with four other people and destroyed a municipal building.

Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in a separate statement that the building was targeted during a meeting held to coordinate relief work and aid distribution for people who have remained in southern Lebanon. He said a civil defence member was killed and others injured in the strike.

Mikati accused the international community of being “deliberately silent” about Israeli strikes that have killed civilians and attacks on UN peacekeepers.

“What solution can be hoped for in light of this reality?” he said in a statement.

Israel said the strike targeted what it said were Hezbollah militant sites embedded among civilians, without providing evidence.

Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank are facing “the most dangerous olive season ever”, experts said on Wednesday, urging Israeli settlers and forces not to interfere with the harvest.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the experts also recommended a “foreign presence” to act as a buffer between the two sides.

According to AFP, a dozen experts said farmers were facing intimidation, restriction of access to lands, severe harassment and attacks by armed Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces.

“In 2023, the harvest was marred by a sharp increase in movement restrictions and violence by Israeli forces and settlers,” the independent experts said in a statement.

Last year, they said:“Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, faced the highest level of Israeli settler violence.”

Settlers had assaulted Palestinians, set fire to or damaged their crops, stolen sheep and blocked them from getting to their land, water and grazing areas, the statement added.

“Last year, Israel also seized more Palestinian land than in any year in the past 30 years,” they said, adding that the situation was “expected to worsen”.

Olive harvests are central to Palestinian life and culture, said the independent experts, who are mandated by the Human Rights Council but do not speak for the UN.

“Restricting olive harvests, destroying orchards and banning access to water sources is an attempt by Israel to expand its illegal settlements,” they argued.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, was among the signatories, reports AFP.

The experts, also including those on the right to food, to safe drinking water and sanitation and to adequate housing, said Palestinian farmers were facing “enormous challenges, threats and harassment” in accessing their olive trees.

In 2023, more than 9,600 hectares (24,000 acres) of olive-cultivated land across the occupied West Bank was not harvested due to Israeli-imposed restrictions, they said.

That had meant the loss of 1,200 metric tonnes of olive oil, worth $10m, they added.

“This situation is expected to worsen,” they warned, as the Israeli authorities had revoked or failed to issue permits allowing farmers to access their lands.

They urged Israeli forces to refrain from interfering with this year’s olive harvest, and “concentrate their efforts on withdrawing the occupation and dismantling the colonies”.

The experts said they would “continue to call for protection, including through a foreign presence acting as a buffer between the Palestinians and their aggressors, and to protect Palestinian farmers and their families”.

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

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told journalists at a news conference in Berlin:

I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won’t be able anymore to operate.

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 the agency was facing a combination of a financial and political threats to its existence, in addition to difficulties in day-to-day operations, as aid is even more desperately needed against the threat of disease and famine.

He said there was a real risk, heading into winter, with people’s immune systems weakened, that famine or acute malnutrition could become a likelihood.

Civilian suffering in Lebanon has reached ‘unprecedented level’, says UN special coordinator for Lebanon