Middle East crisis live: Israeli airstrike kills 10 in Gaza City school; Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers hit by Israeli forces | Israel

The UN’s cultural agency, Unesco, has said it will hold a meeting later this month to consider enhanced protection of cultural sites in Lebanon as the deadly Israeli bombing campaign across the country continues.

A session of a Unesco committee will be held at the body’s Paris base on 18 November to consider the inscription of Lebanese cultural properties on Unesco’s international list of sites under “enhanced protection” as well as more funding, the UN body said.

It comes after more than 100 Lebanese lawmakers issued an appeal to the UN earlier today, demanding the preservation of heritage sites in areas heavily bombed by the Israeli military in recent weeks.

“During the devastating war on Lebanon, Israel has caused grave human rights violations and atrocities,” a letter addressed to Unesco’s chief said, demanding “the protection of Lebanon’s historic sites in Baalbek, Tyre, Sidon, and other invaluable landmarks currently at risk due to the escalation of the atrocities”.

At least 40 people were killed in Israeli air strikes in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, which struck in the governorates of Baalbek and Bekaa, according to reports.

An Israeli airstrike hit nearby Baalbek’s Unesco-listed Roman ruins, a famous heritage site with some of the largest Roman temples outside of Rome, an official said yesterday.

Israel last month reportedly bombed between major heritage sites in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, including the Hippodrome, a Unesco world heritage site, and some seaside sites linked to the Phoenicians and the Crusaders.

The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said the result of the US election did not matter to his country, according to reports on state media. Earlier Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the presidential election result in the US was a chance for a new administration to “review the wrong approaches of the past”.

“To us it does not matter at all who has won the American election, because our country and system relies on its inner strength and a great and honourable nation,” Pezeshkian said late on Wednesday, quoted by the state news agency IRNA and reported by Reuters.

“We will not be close-minded in developing our relations with other countries [while] we have made it our priority to develop relations with Islamic and neighbouring countries,” Pezeshkian said.

It was not immediately clear if Pezeshkian was also referring to the United States, with which Iran does not have diplomatic relations. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, has banned holding any direct talks with the United States.

Bethan McKernan is Jerusalem correspondent for the Guardian

The Israeli army has distanced itself from comments made by a brigadier general that ground forces are getting closer to “the complete evacuation” of the northern Gaza Strip and residents will not be allowed to return home.

In a media briefing on Tuesday night, the Israel Defense Forces’ Brig Gen Itzik Cohen told Israeli reporters that “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return”. He added that humanitarian aid would be allowed to “regularly” enter the south of the territory but there were “no more civilians left” in the north.

International humanitarian law experts have said that such actions would amount to the war crimes of forcible transfer and the use of food as a weapon.

The IDF did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on Cohen’s remarks. But on Thursday, a spokesperson said the comments had been taken out of context during a discussion about Jabaliya, and did not “reflect the IDF’s objectives and values”.

The spokesperson said the briefing on Tuesday had been on background, and the brigadier general should not have been quoted in Hebrew media reports that emerged.

You can read the full story here:

At least 43,469 Palestinian people have been killed and 102,561 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Of those, 78 Palestinians were killed and 214 injured 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.

The Lebanese army said three of its troops and four Malaysian UN peacekeepers have been injured in an Israeli airstrike near an army checkpoint in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. The army said the airstrike killed three Lebanese citizens.

“The Israeli enemy targeted a car while it was passing through the Awali checkpoint in Sidon, which led to the killing of three citizens who were inside it, in addition to the injury of three soldiers manning the checkpoint and four members of the Malaysian” contingent in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) force, the army said in a statement.

The UN has said Unifil positions had come under attack many times since the start of Israel’s ground assault on southern Lebanon on 1 October, including by direct fire.

Unifil is located in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel. Israel claims UN forces provide cover for Hezbollah, the Iran backed Lebanese militant group, but the peace force has stayed to continue its work.

An Israeli airstrike has killed at least 10 Palestinians and injured many others in a school housing displaced people in al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, according to medics.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli forces bombed the al-Shati elementary boys school, which is affiliated with the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa). Unrwa has provided education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region.

The Israeli parliament – the Knesset – passed two bills last month banning Unrwa from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli state contact with the agency on the basis of allegations that Hamas had infiltrated it.

Unrwa’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, has previously said his agency had responded promptly and seriously to the initial Israeli allegations that 12 staff members had taken part in the 7 October Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed. He said 10 staff had been sacked immediately and two investigations completed, including one by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna.

Unrwa said the new laws – due to come into effect within three months – will cause the supply chain of aid to Gaza to “fall apart”, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s war on the territory.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, who met hostage families earlier today, has been speaking to journalists in Jerusalem, alongside Israel Katz, the outgoing foreign minister who is due to replace Yoav Gallant as defence minister.

He expressed hope that president-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the US election would increase the likelihood of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon being brought to an end.

Citing Trump’s “wish to see the end of the Middle East’s endless wars”, he said:

I believe a window has opened for putting an end to the tragedy in which Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region have been immersed since 7 October.

“Diplomatic solutions are possible to free the hostages, protect civilians and ensure the safety of all,” the French foreign minister wrote on X, shortly before meeting Katz. “It is time to end the tragedy that began on October 7.”

Trump has promised to bring “peace” to the Middle East, but not specified how. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was among the first of the world’s leaders to call Trump with congratulations on Wednesday, has called him the “best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House”.

In this analysis piece, my colleague, Julian Borger, explains why Trump’s election night victory over Kamala Harris has been so welcomed by Netanyahu. Here is an extract from it:

The incoming administration will almost certainly not defend Unrwa. Trump cut off US funding to the agency in 2018 and it was only restored by Biden three years later. The UN and the whole relief effort in the region could well face a funding crisis.

The restoration of Trump also removes a substantial barrier to Israel’s full control and potential annexation of at least part of Gaza and the West Bank. The incoming president has shown himself unburdened by the weight of international law and UN security council resolutions when it comes to territory. His administration recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019.

It is approaching 2pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City, 3.30pm in Tehran and 7am in Washington DC. Here are the latest headlines …

• Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that three children are among the latest victims of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, killed in an attack in the east of Rafah

• Israel’s military has announced it was expanding its ground operation in Gaza, saying that “troops started to operate in the area of Beit Lahia” after, it said, “prior intelligence information and a situational assessment indicating the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”. Israel said that in the past day it had conducted 110 airstrikes combined in Gaza and Lebanon

• Overnight the IDF released the name of a solider it said was killed in fighting in southern Lebanon

• A 22-year-old Palestinian was reported killed by Israeli security forces in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Others were wounded when an Israeli drone attacked the camp

• Lebanon’s transport minister said the country’s only international airport was operating normally after Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, including one on an area near the hub

• Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that during the night at least ten locations were the subject of Israeli airstrikes, while heavy artillery fire continued on locations in the south of the country near the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon and Israel.

• Gali Baharav Miara, the attorney general of Israel, has written to Israel’s high court to say that Benjamin Netanyahu was within his powers to fire defense minister Yoav Gallant earlier this week. The move by Netanyahu sparked protests across Israel and a legal challenge

• Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has said acts of jihad in Lebanon, Gaza, and Palestine “will definitely lead to the victory of the Resistance Front”

• Iran’s foreign minister has criticised the EU for what he described as a failure to take action over Israel’s “heinous crimes and genocide in Palestine and Lebanon”. Abbas Araqchi was speaking to Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said the presidential election result in the US was a chance for a new administration to “review the wrong approaches of the past”

• The Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, has called on US president-elect Donald Trump to act immediately to intervene in the Middle East conflict, and not wait until he takes office in January. Speaking on Israel’s Channel 12 news, a spokesperson for the US Republican party said she believed Trump wanted the conflict in the Middle East to end with “a decisive victory” for Israel

• The Israeli defence ministry said on Thursday it had signed an agreement to acquire 25 next generation F-15 fighter jets from Boeing as part of a broader package of US aid approved by the outgoing Biden/Harris administration

• French interior minister Bruno Retailleau has said he is not ruling out sanctions against the football club Paris Saint-Germain after their fan unveiled a large “Free Palestine” banner ahead of last night’s Uefa Champions League tie against Spain’s Atlético Madrid

Lebanon’s transport minister said the country’s only international airport was operating normally after Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, including one on an area near the hub.

Minister Ali Hamie told AFP that planes were taking off and landing without any issue.

The overnight strike in Beirut caused “minor damage” to some buildings but “not inside the terminal building”, an airport official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.

He said the strike had affected a maintenance building belonging to a subsidiary of Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s national carrier which is practically the only airline still operating flights, although aid deliveries have been using the airport.

A witness to the strike told AFP “The entire car park shook. People were carrying their luggage on their shoulders and running. When I made it to the street there was so much smoke I had to turn the headlights [of my taxi] on.”

Another nearby resident told the agency “We’ve had to flee our homes several times. Sometimes we sleep in the car. Death has become a matter of luck.”

An AFP photographer said a heater factory next to the airport’s perimeter wall had been badly damaged.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that three children are among the latest victims of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, killed in an attack in the east of Rafah.

The agency also reports that four people were killed and an unknown number of others wounded when Israeli forces bombed two houses in Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Another ten people were reported killed in earlier strikes on Thursday. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

Israel’s military has announced that it was expanding its ground operation in Gaza, saying that “troops started to operate in the area of Beit Lahia” after, it said, “prior intelligence information and a situational assessment indicating the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”

Israel said that in the past day it had conducted 110 airstrikes combined in Gaza and Lebanon.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah for Al Jazeera, Hind Khoudary wrote:

The situation continues to be indescribable in the north. We are talking about more than a month of the Israeli army targeting densely populated houses.

Most of the people living in the Jabalia refugee camp evacuated to Beit Lahiya, so these are already displaced Palestinians from Jabalia, and now Israeli forces are targeting them.

Palestinians there say Beit Lahiya and Jabalia have been transformed into rubble after Israeli forces have been bulldozing agricultural land, wiping out and bombing residential houses.

Civil defence teams are also not allowed to enter – so whoever needs to be rescued or taken from under the rubble can’t be assisted.

Gaza’s civil defence said it was the 16th consecutive day that Israeli forces had prohibited access to the north of Gaza.