New Israeli airstrike hits south Beirut after military evacuation order
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency has reported a “heavy strike” carried out with two missiles fired by an “enemy aircraft” in the neighbourhood of Bourj al-Barajneh in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military says it has identified several buildings in the suburbs of Ghobeiry (see opening summary for more details) and Bourj al-Barajneh that the military plans to target as it claims Hezbollah targets are there.
“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 500 meters,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X.
#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية:
🔸برج البراجنة
🔸الغبيري⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني القريب… pic.twitter.com/5MqqIm5CCc
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 15, 2024
Key events
Hamas official says militant group is ‘ready’ for Gaza ceasefire
A senior Hamas official has said the Palestinian militant group is “ready for a ceasefire” in Gaza and urged US President-elect Donald Trump to “pressure” Israel to “end the aggression”.
“Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if a ceasefire proposal is presented and on the condition that it is respected” by Israel, Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “We call on the US administration and Trump to pressure the Israeli government to end the aggression,” he said.
Naim added:
Hamas informed the mediators that it is in favour of any proposal submitted to it that would lead to a definitive ceasefire and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, allowing the return of displaced people, a serious deal for a prisoner exchange, the entry of humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
The latest round of talks in mid-October failed to produce a deal, with Hamas rejecting a short-term ceasefire proposal, according to Reuters. Israel has previously rejected some proposals for longer truces. Disagreements have centred on the long-term future of Hamas and Israel’s presence in Gaza.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s newly reinforced position now Trump has won the US presidency could lead to further intensification of Israel’s wars in both Gaza and Lebanon – although Trump has said he wants to swiftly end both conflicts.
Death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza reaches 43,764, says health ministry
At least 43,764 Palestinian people have been killed and 103,490 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Of those, 28 Palestinians were killed in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
Gaza’s health ministry has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory.
Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, is reporting that two Palestinian people were killed in an Israeli artillery attack in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Three other Palestinians were killed in a separate Israeli airstrike near the general security junction in western Gaza City, according to Wafa. A renewed Israeli assault was launched on the northern part of the Gaza Strip last month, with the Israeli military claiming it was to stop Hamas fighters regrouping there. The blockage of aid and food deliveries and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, however, have led to accusations that Israel is committing the war crime of seeking to forcibly displace the remaining population. The entirety of northern Gaza has been under Israeli evacuation orders but it is unclear how many people remain.
Iran backs Lebanon’s government over ceasefire talks, advisor to Iran’s supreme leader says
We have some comments coming through from Ali Larijani, the senior advisor to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. He has been speaking with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri and Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, in Beiurt.
Larijani said Iran would support any decision taken by the Lebanese government and Lebanon’s “resistance” (Hezbollah) in current talks on a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Lebanon.
“We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems,” Larijani said after meeting with Mikati and Berri.
Ali Hassan Khalil, the political aide to Berri, on Wednesday said Lebanese negotiators reached a preliminary understanding with US envoy Amos Hochstein on a framework for a ceasefire.
In an interview with the broadcaster Aljzaeera on Wednesday evening, Khalil said that this proposal was conveyed to the Israeli side through Hochstein.
He said any potential deal must be firmly based on UN Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, to help the Lebanese army keep its southern border area with Israel free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state. Khalil said Lebanon had no objection to US or French participation in overseeing ceasefire compliance. Israel has said that Hezbollah would need to retreat north of the Litani, 18 miles from its northern border, to ensure the “security” of north Israel.
Here is a video showing the Israeli airstrike levelling a building in the Tayouneh neighbourhood of Beirut:
As we have been reporting, a series of Israeli airstrikes have struck Beirut today. Reuters is now reporting that one of them flattened a building near one of the Lebanese capital’s busiest traffic junctions. The attack reportedly struck near the Tayouneh junction in an area where the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs meet other parts of the city. It is a more central location than most Israel has hit in its deadly bombing campaign over recent weeks.
In a post on X, Ali Larijani, a special envoy for Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says he is travelling from the Syrian capital Damascus to the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
He was later pictured with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
Yesterday, an Israeli missile reportedly hit a building in Damascus close to where Larijani, a former speaker of Parliament, was meeting with the director of Syria’s national security committee. Larijani was not injured, according to reports, which we have not yet independently verified. Local Iranian media reported that Larijani had been on a “special mission” to Syria on behalf of Khamenei, the ultimate authority in Iran as supreme leader.
Julian Borger
Julian Borger is the Guardian’s senior international correspondent
A UN special committee has said that Israeli policies and practices in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
The committee, set up in 1968 to monitor the Israeli occupation, also said in its annual report that there were serious concerns that Israel was “using starvation as a weapon of war” in the 13-month-old conflict, and was running an “apartheid system” in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The international court of justice (ICJ) is investigating a claim put forward by South Africa that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is genocidal, and has ordered Israel to take interim measures to prevent genocide taking place.
The new report is by the special committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories. The committee, set up in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, is made up of representatives from three member states: Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal.
You can read the full story here:
New Israeli airstrike hits south Beirut after military evacuation order
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency has reported a “heavy strike” carried out with two missiles fired by an “enemy aircraft” in the neighbourhood of Bourj al-Barajneh in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military says it has identified several buildings in the suburbs of Ghobeiry (see opening summary for more details) and Bourj al-Barajneh that the military plans to target as it claims Hezbollah targets are there.
“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 500 meters,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X.
#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية:
🔸برج البراجنة
🔸الغبيري⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني القريب… pic.twitter.com/5MqqIm5CCc
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 15, 2024
The World Bank has estimated that Lebanon, already reeling from a severe economic crisis that has gripped the country since 2019, has been hit by $8.5bn (£6.7bn) in physical damages and economic losses from 13 months of Israel’s war.
Damages to physical infrastructure alone were valued at $3.4bn (£2.7bn), while economic losses totaled $5.1bn (£4bn). Housing has borne the brunt of the destruction with nearly 100,000 units damaged, totaling $3.2bn (£2.5bn) in destruction and losses.
The UN security council’s 10 elected members – Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia – have circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza.
The draft resolution, which was sent to the council’s five permanent members yesterday, reiterates the council’s demand “for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” seized during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. Israel says about 100 hostages are still being held, though not all are believed to be alive.
The US, Israel’s closest ally and biggest weapons supplier, holds the key to whether the security council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France – are expected to support it or abstain.
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, also demands immediate access for Gaza’s civilian population to humanitarian aid and essential services (the UN relief and works agency, Unrwa, said earlier this week that “aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months”).
The draft “underscores” that Unrwa “remains the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza”.
Last month, the Knesset – the Israeli parlimanet – banned Unrwa from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, including the areas of annexed East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. A second vote declared Unrwa a terror group, effectively banning any direct interaction between the agency and the Israeli state. Unrwa provides education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the Knesset vote was “intolerable” and would have “devastating consequences”.
Five paramedics reportedly killed in Israeli attack in southern Lebanon as residents ordered to leave Beirut suburb
We are restarting our live coverage of Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
The Israeli military has ordered residents to immediately evacuate the Beirut southern suburb of Ghobeiry, where it says Hezbollah fighters are located.
“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will act forcefully in the near future,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X.
Al Jazeera reports this morning that several attacks on the area have taken place, with footage on social media showing large explosions and smoke bellowing out of buildings.
Lebanon’s state-run national news agency (NNA) said the Ghobeiry area “witnessed heavy gunfire” from Israeli forces. The number of people killed or injured is not clear yet.
Citing Lebanon’s health ministry, the NNA also earlier reported that six people had been killed in a “horrific massacre” carried out by Israeli soldiers on a civil defence centre in the town of Arabsalim in southern Lebanon. Six people were reported to have been killed in the attack, including five paramedics.
Here are some of the other latest developments:
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In Gaza, at least two people were killed and several others injured after an overnight Israeli airstrike hit a residential apartment in the centre of Deir al-Balah, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. In a separate attack, the outlet reports that two members of the same family – a father and son – were killed in an Israeli missile strike that targeted a home in the village of al-Nasr, northeast of the southern city of Rafah.
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The Israel Defense Forces said two rockets launched from Lebanon at the Haifa Bay area of Israel were successfully intercepted by air defenses. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.
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Canada’s foreign minister has expressed deep concern about “catastrophic” humanitarian conditions across Gaza and warned about “the life-threatening levels of acute malnutrition.” The country’s foreign affairs minister, Melanie Joly, cited a 8 November report by the Famine Review Committee that found a strong likelihood that famine is occurring or imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip. She said Israel must abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law and provide a significant and sustained increase to humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.
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Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity. The US-based group added it had collected evidence that suggested “the war crime of forcible transfer [of the civilian population]”, describing it as “a grave breach of the Geneva conventions and a crime under the Rome statute of the international criminal court” (you can read more about the report’s findings here).