Israeli forces killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in the city of Halhul in the occupied West Bank this evening, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
According to information from security sources reported by the agency, the boy, named Naji Nidal Al Baba, was killed near the northern entrance to the city.
His body was claimed by the Red Crescent Society in Hebron.
The killing came amid a year-long increase in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Last month, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that at least 165 Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli forces in the past year in the West Bank, where there is no war like the one in Gaza.
The OHCHR report said 36 children were killed in airstrikes, while 129 were killed by Israeli firearms, "mainly by shots to the upper body and head."
The report specifically cited the recent killing of 11-year-old Abdullah Jamal Havash, who was shot during an Israeli military raid in Nablus.
The boy was injured by Israeli fire and succumbed to his injuries later that day.
The OHCHR said the boy did not pose a "realistic threat" to Israeli forces, after videos posted online showed Havash throwing stones at them during the violent raid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today visited Israeli soldiers on the Israel-Lebanon border and threatened Lebanon's Hezbollah to expect a strong response if it attacks Israel, his office said.
"I want to be clear with or without an agreement (on a cease-fire), the key to restoring peace and security in the north of Israel is first and foremost to move Hezbollah away from the Litani River, to respond to any attempt to rearm by Hezbollah and to retaliate firmly against any operation against us ", Netanyahu said during a meeting with Israeli soldiers.
Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in order to allow the return of around 60.000 residents from the north of its territory, displaced by constant rocket attacks since the start of the Gaza war in October last year.
At least 1.829 people have been killed since September 23 in Lebanon, Agence France-Presse reported, citing official data.
(BETA)
The Israeli army announced today that it invaded Syria by land and kidnapped a Syrian citizen who was involved in "Iranian networks".
It was the first time during this war that Israel announced that it had sent troops to Syria.
Syria did not immediately confirm this.
The army did not specify where and when the attack took place in Syria, but they announced the identity of the detained Syrian. They stated that it was Ali Suleiman al-Asi from the Said region.
They also added that he had been under military surveillance for several months and was involved in Iranian initiatives aimed at areas of the Golan Heights annexed by Israel near the border with Syria.
Body camera footage of the raid released by the military shows soldiers grabbing a man in a white tank top inside a building. He was brought to Israel for questioning, the army said.
(BETA)
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkiyan said that if Israel and Tehran's allied groups in the region reached a ceasefire, the action "could affect the intensity" of any retaliatory strike by the Iranian military, state news agency IRNA reported.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained his firm stance during a visit to the Lebanese border on November 3, saying the extremist group Hezbollah must be pushed beyond the Litani River and prevented from rearming, Radio Free Europe (RSE) reports.
Israel has in recent months attacked sites suspected of belonging to Hezbollah, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization while the European Union has blacklisted its armed wing but not its political party.
Much of Hezbollah's leadership was killed in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon and around the capital Beirut.
"If (the Israelis) reconsider their behavior, accept a ceasefire and stop massacring oppressed and innocent people in the region, it could affect the intensity and type of our response," Pezeshkiyan was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
However, he added that Tehran "will not leave unanswered any aggression against its sovereignty and security."
Pezeshkian, who took office at the end of July, has been labeled a moderate by some Western observers of Iran's political situation.
A day earlier, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened Israel and the United States.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu said: "I want to be clear: with or without a (ceasefire) agreement, the key to restoring peace and security in the north, the key to bringing our northerners home safely, is first and foremost to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, as secondly to target any attempt to rearm and thirdly to respond decisively to any action taken against us".
Israel will "definitely do whatever needs to be done ... whether in terms of military, weapons or political work," he said.
In an Axios report dated November 2, a US official and a former Israeli official said that the US administration has warned Tehran in recent days that it will not be able to contain Israel if Iran launches another attack on the US ally, RSE reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is at the center of new political chaos, following the arrest of several people over alleged leaks of classified documents from his office.
An Israeli court announced the arrest Friday afternoon, before the start of Shabbat, saying a joint investigation by the police, internal security services and the military suspected a "violation of national security due to the illegal provision of classified information," which also "harmed the achievement of Israel's war aims ".
One of the arrested is probably the prime minister's spokesman.
Although many details are still under a partial publication ban, Israeli media reports that the "war objective" referred to is the release of 101 Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas. The suspects are said to have selectively passed on documents on Hamas strategy found by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza, and to have manipulated or edited the material to make it appear that the Palestinian militant group was trying to smuggle hostages into Egypt and then Iran or Yemen.
In September, Netanyahu made this claim in interviews and press conferences, supporting a new demand he made in the ceasefire and hostage release talks: the need for Israeli troops to remain on the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas rejected this demand because it was not part of the terms that both sides had already tentatively accepted, which was one of the main reasons months of negotiations collapsed, the Guardian reports.
Netanyahu has been repeatedly accused of delaying the deal to avoid the collapse of his coalition government. Anything less than a total victory over Hamas is unacceptable to his far-right allies, and Netanyahu is believed to see staying in power as the best way to avoid legal action in fraud, bribery and breach of trust cases brought in 2019. He denies any wrongdoing.
Shortly after the Israeli leader first mentioned the alleged Hamas plan, reports that appeared to be based on the same manipulated material appeared in the British newspaper The Jewish Chronicle and the German tabloid Bild, and were then widely reported in the Israeli media.
Concerned that the publication of the articles could jeopardize intelligence gathering in Gaza, the Israeli military launched an investigation into the leak, saying it was "unaware of the existence of such a document." The Jewish Chronicle later retracted the story and fired the reporter who wrote it.
The prime minister's office said on Friday that no one from Netanyahu's team had been questioned or detained, but on Saturday they did not deny that the source of the leak could be from his office. They also stated that dozens of other leaks of information about the negotiations on the ceasefire and the release of the hostages had already been in the media, but had not sparked investigations.
The charges, as it is understood, refer to the leaking of confidential documents, negligence in handling material and using that material to influence public opinion, as well as the irresponsible employment of advisers without adequate security checks.
News of the arrests sparked outrage among Netanyahu's opponents in politically divided Israel. On Saturday night, thousands of people across Israel joined the now regular protests in favor of reaching a deal.
"We have serious enemies abroad, but the danger from within and at the most sensitive decision-making centers is shaking the foundations of the confidence of the citizens of Israel in the conduct of the war and in the resolution of the most sensitive and explosive security issues," opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on the X network.
UNICEF has condemned recent Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia in Gaza, saying more than 48 children have been killed in the last 50 hours and expressing concern about civilian casualties from escalating Israeli violence.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued a statement condemning Israel's escalating violence in northern Gaza, specifically highlighting airstrikes that killed more than 50 children in Jabalia in the past 48 hours.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell described this as a "deadly weekend in Northern Gaza", noting that children are the main victims of these strikes. Russell expressed her deep concern, stressing the serious consequences of "random attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip," reports the Iranian Tasnim news agency.
In a related incident, Russell said a UNICEF staff member involved in a polio vaccination campaign narrowly escaped injury when his vehicle was hit by fire from a suspected Israeli quadcopter while driving through Jabalia on Saturday. Although the vehicle was damaged, the staff member was unharmed but "deeply shaken," Russell said.
"The attacks on Jabalia, a vaccination clinic and a UNICEF staff member are further examples of the serious consequences of indiscriminate strikes on civilians," Russell added.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Israeli jets bombed a residential building in Jabalia, killing at least three people and injuring several others. In addition to the airstrikes, Israeli forces are shelling northern Gaza and have carried out two separate raids on Beit Lahiya, sources confirmed to Al Jazeera.
Major General Hossein Salami issued a message on the occasion of the National Day Against Global Arrogance, which marks in Iran the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned the United States of America, which he called the sworn enemy of the Iranian people, as well as their "rabid dog - the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime", that the Islamic resistance forces in the region will provide a strong response to the "front of evil".
He added that, in this context, the resistance front and Islamic Iran will equip themselves with everything necessary to face and overcome the enemy.
Salami also stressed that "resistance forces" will not feel intimidated by "threats and propaganda of evil rulers from Washington and Tel Aviv", reports Iran's IFP News.
The Iranian leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, emphasized yesterday that "the actions of the enemy will not go unanswered by those who fight for the Iranian people and that such actions will not be forgotten."
He said that "the Zionist regime and the United States of America will undoubtedly receive a strong response for their actions against the Iranian people and the resistance front."
Palestinian officials claim that six people, including four children, were wounded in an Israeli drone attack on a clinic in the northern Gaza Strip where children are vaccinated against polio.
The Israeli army has denied responsibility, AP writes.
The attack, according to Palestinian officials, took place on Saturday in the northern Gaza Strip, which has been encircled by Israeli forces and largely isolated for the past year.
Israel has been conducting another offensive in the area in recent weeks, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands of people.
Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked hospitals in Gaza, claiming they are being used for militant purposes by Hamas, a group the European Union and United States consider a terrorist group.
Palestinian health officials have denied the allegations.
Munir Al Bursh, a representative of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told the AP that a drone attacked the Sheikh Radwan Clinic in Gaza City on Saturday afternoon, just minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF, which jointly run the polio vaccination campaign, said they were concerned about the attack.
"The reports of this attack are all the more disturbing because the Sheikh Radvan clinic is one of the health centers where parents can vaccinate their children," said Rosalia Bolen, UNICEF spokeswoman.
Nadav Shoshani, a spokesman for the Israeli army, said that "contrary to Palestinian claims, it was determined that the Israeli army was not responsible for the attack on the area."
A campaign to vaccinate children against polio began on Saturday in parts of northern Gaza.
It was supposed to start on October 23, but was delayed due to Israeli bombings and mass evacuation orders, and a lack of guarantees for humanitarian breaks, the UN said.
At least 100.000 people have been forced to evacuate northern Gaza, according to Gaza City, in recent weeks.
However, around 15.000 children under the age of ten remained in the northern cities, including Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, according to the UN.
The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign aimed to reach 119.000 children in northern Gaza with a second dose of the vaccine, but international agencies say that is now unlikely due to access restrictions to the area.
The campaign was launched after the first polio case in 25 years was reported in Gaza.
The World Health Organization claims that this case is a warning that there could be hundreds of people infected but not showing symptoms.
The Gaza War began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel and killed around 1.200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250.
An Israeli offensive followed, killing more than 43.000 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities.
(Radio Free Europe)
The head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russell, warned that the Palestinian population in the north of Gaza is in imminent danger of dying from disease, hunger and continued Israeli bombardment.
In a statement released on Saturday, Russell stated that in the past 48 hours alone, more than 50 children were allegedly killed in Jabalia, the largest of the eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, where deadly Israeli airstrikes destroyed two residential buildings housing hundreds of people, reported today. agencies.
Israel severely limited aid to Gaza in October and allowed only a third of the humanitarian aid entering the Palestinian territory the previous month.
"Civilians and civilian buildings, including residential buildings, and humanitarian workers and their vehicles must always be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law," Russell said.
She added that "displacement and evacuation orders do not allow any party to the conflict to consider all individuals or objects in the area as military targets, nor can they exempt them from the obligation to distinguish between military and civilian targets, be proportionate and take all feasible measures precautions in attacks".
Russell assessed that these principles were not respected, and that tens of thousands of children were killed, wounded and deprived of the basic services they needed to survive.
Attacks on civilians, including humanitarian workers and what remains of civilian facilities and infrastructure, must stop, the head of UNICEF concluded in a statement posted on the ix platform.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian news agency Wafa announced that at least nine Palestinians were killed this morning in Israeli airstrikes targeting two houses in Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza and in the south in Rafah.
The Israeli military launched intense attacks on northern Gaza on October 9, claiming it was trying to stop the regrouping of Hamas fighters.
But the attacks have killed many civilians and residents say Israeli forces are surrounding hospitals and displacement shelters and targeting residential areas.
Northerners ordered to evacuate feel that nowhere is safe.
Al-Jazeera reported that 23 people in Gaza were killed in Israeli strikes since dawn, including 13 in the north of the territory.
It was later reported that at least seven Palestinians, including children, were killed in southern Gaza's Khan Yunis in an Israeli airstrike, health officials told Reuters.
(Beta)
Filipe Lazarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA), which provides them with shelter, education, medical services, food and water, warned that banning the agency from operating inside Israel and occupied East Jerusalem will deprive Palestinian children of an education for the foreseeable future.
In a statement posted on the X platform, Lazarini stated that the deprivation of education will increase the chances of children becoming radicalized and used to join armed groups, and also increase the level of poverty.
"Without UNRWA, the fate of millions of people will hang in the balance. Instead of focusing on banning UNRWA or finding alternatives, the focus should be on reaching an agreement to end the conflict," Lazarini wrote.
Due to the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, almost all the inhabitants of the Palestinian territory live in poverty, and indicators of the quality of life, such as health and education, show that it has gone back 70 years, the UN Development Agency announced in October.
Since the war began in October last year, schools have been bombed in Israeli attacks or turned into shelters for displaced people, and an estimated 625.000 students in Gaza have been unable to attend classes.
Lazarini said that until the end of last October, UNRWA provided lectures for more than 300.000 children, but that they are now deprived of education for the second year in a row.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education has launched virtual and open schools in the West Bank for students in Gaza, saying it has decided to provide school classes wherever possible, even in tents, the agencies reported.
Last Sunday, 92 Israeli MPs voted to ban UNRWA activities in Israel, and only ten opposed.
(BETA)
The Health Ministry of Hamas in the Gaza Strip announced today that at least 27 people were killed in the past 24 hours.
The announcement states that the total number of victims since the beginning of the war is 43.341, and that 102.105 people were wounded.
(BETA)
The Israeli army today called for the evacuation of the town of Balbek in eastern Lebanon, warning that it intends to attack Hezbollah targets there and in the neighboring town of Durissa.
"For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate from these and neighboring buildings immediately and remain at a distance of no less than 500 meters for the next four hours," announced Israel's military spokesman for the Arabic language, Avihai Andrae, on Platform X.
Israel has expanded its airstrikes in recent weeks to urban centers in Lebanon, such as Baalbek, home to about 80.000 people, after first targeting smaller border villages in the south where Hezbollah operates.
More than 2.100 people in Lebanon have been killed in the past five weeks and 1,2 million displaced by Israeli attacks, Lebanese officials say.
The United Nations said many people forced to flee Lebanon, many of whom went to Syria, slept in their vehicles last night facing harsh conditions in search of safety, the agencies reported.
(BETA)
The head of the US Central Command, General Michael Kurila, met with the Chief of the General Staff of Israel, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, in order to assess the situation in the region, the Israeli army announced today.
As stated, the assessment focused on "security-strategic issues and joint preparedness in the region, as part of the response to threats in the Middle East with an emphasis on Iran."
Kurila arrived in Israel at the time of the Israeli army's preparations for a potential Iranian response to the revenge attack on Iran carried out on October 26, according to Israeli media.
The general arrived on Thursday and during his visit toured the anti-missile defense system of the US Army deployed in Israel as part of those preparations, according to Israeli media.
"The Israeli military will continue to deepen relations with the US armed forces due to our commitment to strengthening regional stability and coordination between the two militaries," the statement added.
(BETA)
Israeli analysts state that currently the Palestinian Hamas is holding 51 hostages alive, and that the rest are dead, although this has not been officially announced, the newspaper Israel Hayom (Israel Today) announced today.
Two months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee briefing that half of the hostages were alive.
The data Netanyahu relied on was based on information collected through various channels since October 7 last year when Palestinian extremists from Gaza led by Hamas attacked southern Israel.
This means that the 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza are no longer alive, although 37 of them have been officially declared dead so far and said that their bodies are being held by Hamas. It is estimated that at least 13 more are dead, according to Israeli media.
It is also said that this difference is explained by the fact that the certification of death requires absolute evidence on the basis of which medical and religious rabbinic authorities can declare that a person is no longer alive.
There is no such evidence, but Israel seems to have enough information to estimate how many hostages are still alive.
Hundreds of Israeli protesters expressed their displeasure with the government in Tel Aviv last night for failing to reach a truce deal and bring the remaining hostages from Gaza home.
Waving Israeli flags, the demonstrators also carried banners with the messages: "Agreement now", "Stop the war", "We will not abandon them" and chanted "Why are they still in Gaza".
Opponents of the government question why there is no truce now that Israel has achieved many of its war aims, including the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in October.
Israel, US officials and some analysts have said that Sinwar is an obstacle to a truce between Israel and Hamas, reports France Presse.
A protester worried about her relative who is still in Gaza accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the truce talks, and that he kept blaming Sinvar, and now Sinvar is gone. "Netanyahu always finds another reason," she said. She added that "the bloody war must stop and that many soldiers and ordinary citizens are dying".
(BETA)
Journalist Reza Valizadeh, who holds dual American and Iranian citizenship and worked for a media outlet funded by the US government, has been detained in Iran for months, the authorities there have admitted.
The recognition comes today, as Iran marks the 45th anniversary of taking over the US embassy and after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened Israel and the US with a "devastating response" to attacks on Iran.
Valizadeh worked for Radio Farda as part of Radio Free Europe, which is overseen by the US Agency for Global Media. In February, he wrote on the social platform X that members of his family were also detained.
Valizadeh posted two messages a few months ago that suggest he has returned to Iran despite authorities there viewing Radio Farda as a hostile media outlet.
"I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024, before that I had unfinished negotiations with the intelligence department of the Revolutionary Guard," the message read.
"I finally returned to my country after 13 years without any security guarantees, not even verbal ones," he wrote.
Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Valizade has been arrested. The Activists for Human Rights news agency, which also follows disputed cases in Iran, said that he was detained upon arrival in the country earlier this year, but was later released.
He was then re-arrested and sent to Evin prison, where he now faces trial in Iran's Revolutionary Court, which routinely holds closed-door hearings where defendants are confronted with secret evidence, the agency reported.
The State Department told The Associated Press that they are "aware of reports that this dual US-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran."
Iran has not acknowledged that Valizadeh has been arrested. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(BETA)
Israel has identified targets in Iraq that it will attack if pro-Iranian militias continue to attack Israeli territory from there and has warned Baghdad about it, the London-based Saudi Elef news site reported.
Unnamed officials told the outlet that the satellites are monitoring what they say are preparations by Tehran to send ballistic missiles and equipment from Iran to Iraqi territory with the presumed goal of using them in an expected upcoming attack on Israel.
The report states that Israel is monitoring and identifying targets belonging to pro-Iranian militias and the targets of the Iraqi state, and that it has warned Baghdad that it must stop them, as well as to stop using Iraqi territory to carry out attacks, according to Israeli media.
Iraqi sources have expressed concern that Iran is using Iraq to shift the fight from its territory.
Iranian officials are threatening to attack Israel in retaliation for an October 26 attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran that targeted military bases and facilities and killed at least five people.
Israel's retaliatory attacks on Iranian facilities followed Iran's attack on Israel on October 1, when about 200 ballistic missiles were fired and one Palestinian was killed in the West Bank.
Any new attack by either side could affect the wider Middle East. The war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas and the Israeli ground operation in Lebanon could, as it is feared, turn into a major regional conflict even before the presidential elections in the USA, which will be held on November 5.
(BETA)
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