Updates: Israel kills 6 Lebanese medics; Hezbollah fire kills 7 civilians

For more on former US President Bill Clinton facing a backlash from Muslim and Arab Americans after saying Israel was “forced” to kill civilians in Gaza, read here.

To know more about why Israel’s outlawing of UNRWA will make life “unbearable” for Palestinians, read here.

“Time for action”: Read Al Jazeera’s demand for protection for journalists in the Gaza Strip here.

But before that, let’s bring you up to speed with the latest developments:

• An Israeli attack struck two houses near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing 16 Palestinians.
• Medical sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli air raids killed at least 95 people since dawn, the vast majority in the besieged northern Strip.
• The third floor of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza was bombed by Israel, resulting in the loss of crucial medical supplies at the overwhelmed facility.
• Israeli attacks killed 45 people in Lebanon in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 2,865 since October 2023.
• Hezbollah rockets killed seven civilians in northern Israel – one of the deadliest attacks since its invasion of southern Lebanon.
• At least 10 people, mostly civilians, were killed in air strikes on Syria’s Qusayr region bordering Lebanon, where Israel said it hit a Hezbollah weapons depot.

Senior White House aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein are in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials about the wars with Hamas and Hezbollah.

The meetings were attended by Netanyahu, as well as Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister; David Barnea, director of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency; and others.

But with the US election on Tuesday, hopes for immediate progress appeared remote – particularly in Gaza where Israel has come under criticism for not letting more humanitarian aid into the besieged north.

“If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but according to the conditions that we see as suitable,” Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said on Wednesday. “We will not beg for a ceasefire as we will continue [fighting] … no matter how long it takes.”

The Israeli army has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians in its siege of northern Gaza that started nearly four weeks ago, the director of its Health Ministry says.

“The Israeli army continues to commit massacres and target shelters and civilians in Beit Lahiya, resulting in casualties amidst a severely strained healthcare system,” said Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Health Ministry.

“The Israeli occupation is committing murder and destruction due to the absence of oversight or accountability to stop its crimes.”

Al-Bursh accused the Israeli army of “preventing the entry of medical supplies into northern Gaza and imposing a blockade on the Kamal Adwan, al-Awda, and Indonesian hospitals in the northern enclave”.

Israeli bulldozers “severely damaged” UNRWA’s office in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the UN agency’s chief Philippe Lazzarini says.

“The office can no longer be used. It was the hub to deliver basic services to more than 14,000 Palestine Refugees in the camp, including learning for children, health, sanitation & social protection,” Lazzarini said.

During its military incursion, the Israeli army also destroyed roads, water systems, and electricity networks in the camp, he added.

Using bulldozers, Israeli Forces severely damaged today (Thursday) the @UNRWA office in the Nur Shams Camp, north of the #WestBank.

The office can no longer be used.
It was the hub to deliver basic services to more than 14,000 Palestine Refugees in the camp, including… pic.twitter.com/QFAR4LcPRb

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) October 31, 2024

Mounir Shehadeh, a former Lebanese government coordinator for the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL, says Hezbollah is ready to implement UN Resolution 1701 for a ceasefire – provided that Israel does so.

“[But] Israel has no interest in implementing the resolution, and it has been violating it since it was signed in 2006,” Shehadeh said.

Another stumbling block to a ceasefire is many Hezbollah fighters come from the very villages Israel wants the group to vacate. Hezbollah fighters “are the sons of these southern towns”, noted Shehadeh.

“Someone who was born in these villages and grew up there – and his family is there and his interests are there – how can he be asked to leave his village and head to the north of the Litani [River]?”

Israeli soldiers in Gaza are seemingly surprised they’re being identified through their social media posts. Some are now worrying about possible consequences.

Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, Israeli soldiers have been posting videos in which troops can be seen – often gleefully – committing war crimes against Palestinians.

“Hezbollah rockets killed 7 innocent civilians inside Israel today,” the military said on its English-language X account.

“We will not let Hezbollah’s deadly attacks go unanswered.”

Seven people were killed in separate strikes in Metula and Haifa, in northern Israel, marking the deadliest day in months for civilians inside the country.

Rocket barrages from Lebanon into northern Israel killed four foreign workers and three Israelis – the deadliest cross-border strikes in Israel since it invaded Lebanon.

Projectiles from Lebanon crashed into an agricultural area in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, killing four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer.

Hours later, the Israeli military reported another volley of 25 rockets from Lebanon that struck an olive grove in a suburb of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. That strike killed a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman while wounding two others, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical organisation.

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli organisation that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.

Israel released a statement after a wave of air strikes in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre saying it targeted a Hezbollah “command-and-control centre”. We’ve seen this language used over recent weeks, with Israel saying it attacked Hezbollah’s infrastructure, both military and otherwise.

What we know about these strikes is there were warnings put out to eight areas of the Tyre governorate. Prior to this escalation, the area had a population of around 250,000 people – it is not clear how many have remained.

There were more attacks also in the east of the country, in the Bekaa Valley, at least two large air strikes in the last couple of hours.

Concerning the six medics killed today, the Health Ministry said 178 medics have been killed since the war started and 279 were injured.

Save the Children today put out some devastating statistics as well, saying in a five-week period 100 children have been killed – that’s at least two children a day.

Vice President Kamala Harris continues to face awkward public interactions over Israel’s war on Gaza.

At all three of the Democratic nominee’s rallies on Wednesday – in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – pro-Palestinian protesters broke in with chants, banners and even a whistle to criticise Harris for how she and President Joe Biden have handled the war.

When she faced protests at the end of her night in Wisconsin, Harris said: “We all want the war in Gaza to end and to get the hostages out, and I will do everything in my power to make it heard and known. And everyone has a right to be heard, but right now, I am speaking.”

Dearborn City Councilman Mustapha Hammoud said, “It’s nice her rhetoric has softened, but the time for that has passed.”

“Instead of peace, we’ve seen an increase in violence in the war. So, we can’t accept talk. We need actual outcomes,” said Hammoud.

In August, pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted Harris at an event by chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide. We won’t vote for genocide.”

Egypt’s army denied it assisted Israel’s military after media reports said an Egyptian port received a shipment of high explosives bound for an Israeli defence contractor.

“The Egyptian Armed Forces categorically deny what has been circulated on social media and suspicious accounts and what is being promoted about assisting Israel in its military operations in general and in detail,” the army said in a statement.

Human rights lawyers on Wednesday filed a court appeal in Berlin seeking to block a 150-tonne shipment of military-grade explosives on board German cargo ship MV Kathrin, which they said was for Israel’s biggest defence contractor, Elbit Systems.

Earlier, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV, citing a high-level source, said there was no truth to news reports that the MV Kathrin delivered military supplies for Israel to Alexandria Port.

Green Party parliamentarian Carla Denyer urged the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer to label the Gaza crisis as “genocide” after Israel’s parliament banned UNRWA and blocked UN aid.

Starmer expressed concern about what is taking place in Gaza but refused to describe it as genocide.

As we reported earlier, an Israeli attack struck two houses near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The death toll from that attack has now risen from nine to 16.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli air raids killed at least 95 people since dawn today, the vast majority in the north of the Strip.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 43,204 Palestinians and wounded 101,641 since October 7, 2023 – the majority children and women. At least 10,000 bodies are believed buried under the vast debris in the battered territory.

Iraq is trying to avoid being drawn into the growing regional conflict as Iran-backed armed groups launch attacks on Israel from Iraqi soil.

The issue has divided parties in Iraq’s ruling coalition, all of whom are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and view Israel as an enemy, though some differ over how involved Iraq should be in the regional confrontation.

Shia leaders discussed the risk of repercussions from attacks on Israel and possible Israeli retaliation during two meetings in October, said Ahmed Kenani, a lawmaker from the ruling alliance. Key players in the coalition view direct confrontation with Israel as counterproductive and potentially damaging to Iraq.

“Those groups who have the rockets and drones should go to Gaza and Lebanon to fight Israel rather than pushing Iraq towards destruction,” said Abul Ameer Thuaiban, an adviser to Iraq’s prime minister.

At least 10 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in air strikes on Syria’s Qusayr region bordering Lebanon, where Israel said it hit a Hezbollah weapons depot.

“An Israeli aggression targeted the Qusayr area in the southern Homs countryside,” causing “material damage to the industrial city and some residential neighborhoods”, the official SANA news agency said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor, said three strikes targeted the town of Qusayr, where Hezbollah operates, and later reported further attacks on the area.

One strike targeted “a weapons depot and a fuel storage facility for Hezbollah in the industrial city of Qusayr”, killing seven civilians and three Syrian fighters working for the Lebanese group, SOHR said. At least 11 other people were wounded.

Israel’s military says there’s an ongoing drone assault after the unmanned aerial vehicles were launched from Lebanon.

“A short time ago, alerts were activated following the identification of suspicious aerial targets crossing from Lebanon. The targets are being tracked and the event is still ongoing. You must continue to listen to the updated instructions of the Home Front Command,” the army said in a statement.

The Israeli army says it shot down two drones “from the east a short time ago”.

The unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted before crossing into Israel, it said.

In recent weeks, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iran armed groups, has claimed launching several drones targeting Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.