US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that negotiators have made "good progress" towards an agreement to establish a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Washington "worked very hard" to conclude an agreement that would include the withdrawal of Hezbollah from the border area with Israel, Blinken said, according to Agence France-Presse.
"Based on my recent trip to the region and the work that's going on right now, we've made good progress on that understanding," the US secretary of state said, adding that more work remains and calling for a "diplomatic solution."
He also called for the effective implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of non-state groups in southern Lebanon and a complete Israeli withdrawal from that country.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a joint press conference that there is an opportunity in Lebanon and expressed hope that change will be seen in the not-so-distant future.
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The office of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was badly damaged in today's Israeli raid in a refugee camp in the West Bank. The official Palestinian news agency reports that Israeli military bulldozers partially damaged the building.
Associated Press video shows the outer concrete wall of the office destroyed and lots of sand and dirt dug up in the yard.
The main building suffered minor damage, and the adjacent hall was flattened, covered with earth and the roof collapsed.
The Israeli army claimed to have damaged a building in the Nur Shams refugee camp. As it was announced, the extremists planted an explosive nearby and activated it to attack the soldiers and the explosion "probably caused damage to the building".
The cause of the damage could not be independently confirmed, but it appears to be similar to earlier demolitions of Palestinian homes and buildings in the occupied West Bank, and Associated Press reporters saw military bulldozers at the camp during a military operation.
Israeli soldiers stormed the camp last night and said they were fighting extremists.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced today that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack, and another in a shooting. The Israeli military said it had killed a Hamas extremist.
The damage to the office was preceded by the adoption of a law in the Israeli parliament that will ban the activities of UNRWA in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Israel accuses the agency of pretending not to notice extremists among its staff, which UNRWA denies. The law will enter into force in three months.
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today called for an immediate ceasefire, saying at least one child has been killed in Lebanon every day this month and at least ten wounded.
"The ongoing war in Lebanon has turned children's lives upside down and in many cases caused serious physical wounds and deep emotional scars," UNICEF said in a statement.
According to data from the Ministry of Health of Lebanon, 166 children have been killed and at least 1.168 have been wounded since the beginning of the conflict between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel in October last year.
The agency said that thousands of children who survived the bombings and attacks are showing worrying signs of emotional, physical and behavioral disorders such as disturbed sleep, loss of appetite, excessive fear, increased anxiety, aggression and difficulty concentrating.
UNICEF announced that thousands of children have been given psychological first aid and support since the conflict escalated this month.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assessed today that Israel's freedom of action to stop attacks by the Lebanese Hezbollah is more important than the cease-fire agreement in Lebanon.
Speaking at the end of the training of Israeli military officers, members of combat units, he said that "agreements, papers, proposals, numbers 1509, 1701 (UN Security Council resolution) all have their place, but they are not the main thing".
Netanyahu said something similar at today's meeting with high-ranking American diplomats in Jerusalem, according to Israeli media.
"The main thing is our ability and our determination to conduct security, to thwart attacks on us and to act against the arming of our enemies as necessary despite all pressures and restrictions," the Israeli leader said.
He also referred to the recent attack on Iran and said that Israel has more freedom of action in that country than ever before, and that it can reach anywhere in it if necessary.
Last Sunday, the Israeli Air Force attacked anti-aircraft batteries and radar sites in Iran in response to Iran's October 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel.
Netanyahu said today that the highest goal of the Israeli army is to stop Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons.
He added that for obvious reasons he could not disclose the details of the plan to achieve that goal.
"I do not set the date of the end of the war, but I set clear goals for winning the war," said the Prime Minister of Israel.
"We chose first to focus on military strikes against Hamas and not to divide our forces between two main efforts at the same time," Netanyahu explained, saying that Hamas' organized force had been destroyed, 90 percent of residents had returned safely to southern Israel and that now the focus is on northern Gaza.
In addition, he assessed that Israel is changing the strategic reality in the Middle East, and that he appreciates the support of the USA.
Speaking about Lebanon, he criticized those who were pushing for what he said was an early diplomatic deal before destroying the network of tunnels on the border, before eliminating the Hezbollah leader and his deputy, and destroying much of the missile arsenal.
Regarding the hostages, he said that more than half of those abducted in the attack by Palestinian Hamas on October 7, 2023 were brought home from Gaza and that Israel was working to bring the rest, but that he would not speak about it publicly.
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Rocket fire from Lebanon killed two more people in northern Israel this afternoon, bringing the death toll to seven.
These are the deadliest attacks on Israel since the Israeli army began its invasion of southern Lebanon.
The attacks occurred during a visit by diplomats from the United States of America (US) to establish a cease-fire in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, in the hope that the wars in the Middle East will subside before the upcoming US presidential elections and the end of President Joseph Biden's term.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel, sparking revenge attacks since Hamas' incursion into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023 sparked a war in the Palestinian territory. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies supported by Iran. The conflict along the border escalated into war in September when Israel launched fierce airstrikes across Lebanon, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his deputies. In early October, Israeli ground forces entered Lebanon. Israeli emergency services said today that two women were killed in the suburbs of the city of Haifa, in the north of Israel, and two were wounded. The Israeli army announced that 25 rockets flew from Lebanon into Israel and landed in an olive grove, where people had gathered for the harvest. Hours earlier, local officials in Metula, northern Israel, said missiles from Lebanon had hit an agricultural area, killing four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer. Metula, the northernmost Israeli town surrounded on three sides by Lebanese territory, suffered heavy damage from rockets. The residents were evacuated in October last year, and only soldiers and farmers remained. An organization representing foreign workers said the authorities had put them at risk by allowing them to work along the border. Agricultural areas near the Israeli border, where most of the orchards are, are closed military areas and can only be entered with official permission. Eight people were killed in Israeli attacks in various parts of Lebanon today, the Lebanese news agency reported. More than 2.800 people have been killed and almost 13.000 wounded in Lebanon since the start of the conflict last year, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. At least 68 people died in Israel, more than half of them soldiers.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced today that three people were killed in Israeli attacks on the Syrian town of Qusair near the border with Israel.
The Israeli army announced that it targeted weapons depots and locations of an elite unit of the Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria, France Press reported.
The official Syrian news agency SANA reported that there was damage in the industrial zone and some residential areas of Qusair in the Homs region and that civilians were wounded.
The Human Rights Watch, an opposition organization based in Great Britain, said weapons and fuel depots in the Kusair industrial zone were targeted, without knowing what nationalities were killed, adding that five Syrian civilians were wounded.
A military statement said the air force hit targets near Qusair, a city in western Syria along the border with Lebanon, the Associated Press reported.
The military claims that Hezbollah recently began stockpiling weapons along the Syrian-Lebanese border in an attempt to smuggle them into Lebanon.
Since the start of Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon, the army has repeatedly targeted crossings on the Syrian border, claiming they are used for weapons smuggling.
The attacks have exacerbated an already serious humanitarian crisis by blocking supply routes and hindering access to those fleeing, humanitarian organizations said.
Three of the six official border crossings between the two countries have been closed due to airstrikes, forcing people fleeing Lebanon to take a longer route or cross on foot.
Meanwhile, thousands of Lebanese have fled to the Christian area of the eastern Bekaa Valley after Israel warned civilians to leave the town of Baalbek and the surrounding area this Sunday ahead of a bombardment.
An official from the Union of Municipalities in the Deir El-Ahmar area said that there was a large influx of people after the warning and that the roads were like parking lots, and that it was the first time such a large disaster was seen.
About 120.000 displaced people are now in the area, including 2.500 in shelters and the rest in private homes.
About 1,2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates.
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US officials remain skeptical that the latest diplomatic efforts in the Middle East this week will lead to a pause in fighting ahead of Tuesday's US presidential election, sources familiar with the situation said, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waits to see who will be the next US president, CNN reports.
The view that Netanyahu is waiting for the end of the US election season has long existed within the Biden administration, and that sentiment remains strong as top envoys travel to the region to discuss options for ending the violence.
CIA Director Bill Burns was in Cairo today for talks on Gaza and Lebanon, including a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El Sisi.
At the same time, US envoy Amos Hochstein and White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk are in Israel for talks on hostage and truce issues, along with talks on Iran, all within the US policy of "de-escalation supported by deterrence".
However, with the conclusion of a close US election on the horizon, expectations are not high that the final attempts to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon will lead to immediate success.
Six Lebanese health workers were killed and four wounded in Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, the country's health ministry said.
Five people were killed, including four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer, in a Hezbollah attack on the northern Israeli town of Metula, Reuters reports, citing Israel's Channel 12.
Syrian state media announced that Israeli attacks hit the town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border, which is the latest in a series of attacks in the area, reports Agence France-Presse.
"The Israeli aggression targeted the area of Qusayr in the southern part of Homs province, causing material damage in the industrial zone and some residential areas," state news agency Sana said.
A senior Hamas official said that the group rejects any proposal for a temporary end to the conflict that has lasted for more than a year in Gaza and insists on a permanent truce, reports Agence France-Presse.
"The idea of a temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent cessation of war, not a temporary one," Taher Al Nunu, a senior leader of the group, told AFP.
Mediators trying to broker a ceasefire in Gaza are expected to propose a truce of "less than a month" to Hamas, a source familiar with the negotiations told AFP on Wednesday.
Meetings between Mossad chief David Barney, CIA director Bill Burns and the Qatari prime minister in Doha, which ended on Monday, included talks of proposing a short-term truce "less than a month", the source told AFP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. .
The proposal includes exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to Gaza, the source added.
"US officials believe that if a short-term deal is reached, it could lead to a more permanent deal," the source told AFP.
Al Nunu said the group had not received any proposal so far, adding that it would respond if it received one. However, he reiterated the demands the group has been pushing for months: a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced people, sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza and a serious prisoner exchange deal.
At least one child has been killed and 4 wounded every day in Lebanon since October XNUMX, UNICEF, the UN children's agency, said, as Israel continues its military campaign in the country.
Many other children, although physically unharmed, were deeply traumatized by the violence, it said, adding that many showed severe signs of emotional distress, including separation anxiety, withdrawal, aggression and concentration problems.
UNICEF Director Ketrin Rasel called for an immediate ceasefire to protect children.
A Lebanese security source said one person was killed in an Israeli attack on a road where a Hezbollah van carrying ammunition was hit a day earlier, AFP reports.
The drone struck the Araja-Kahala road, which connects the capital Beirut with the eastern Bekaa Valley, the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The target of the attack was a Mercedes vehicle, in which the driver was killed, the source said, without revealing the identity of the victim.
The official National News Agency (NNA) said an "enemy drone" targeted a car on a key road that passes through the city of Araya.
On Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit a Hezbollah van carrying ammunition on the same highway, the source said, adding that the driver was killed in the attack.
On the same day, the municipal authorities of Araya and Kahala called on the Lebanese army to "immediately intervene" to prevent the road from being used to transport weapons or fighters, AFP reports.
On Thursday, an Israeli drone attacked a motorcycle near the coastal city of Nakura, the NNA said. Another engine was hit in the eastern Beka valley, they added.
Reuters reports that the Israeli army said it shot down a drone that smuggled weapons from Egyptian territory into Israel on Wednesday.
Israeli police said they arrested an Israeli couple on suspicion of spying for Iran, just a week after two groups allegedly working for Tehran were detained, Agence France-Presse reports.
"Preventing Iranian efforts to recruit Israelis continues," police and Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet said in a statement.
Two Israelis, a couple from the city of Lod, allegedly collected intelligence data on "national infrastructures, security facilities and followed an academic woman," according to the statement:
"Rafael and Lala Goliyev, residents of Lod, were arrested after carrying out tasks on behalf of an Iranian cell recruiting Israelis from the Caucasus countries in Israel," it added.
According to AFP, Israeli police claim the pair were recruited by Elshan Agayev, an Azerbaijani national acting on behalf of Iranian officials. It is not clear whether Agaev is in Israel.
The Golias are said to have been monitoring sensitive Israeli locations, including the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, and gathering intelligence on an academic working at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
As reported by AFP, this announcement comes a little more than a week after Israeli security services said they had discovered two more suspected spy networks.
Israeli attacks on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank on Thursday killed two Palestinians, including a child, Reuters reported, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
A Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces overnight in the West Bank's Tulkarem refugee camp, the health ministry added.
The Israeli army announced on Thursday that it was conducting an operation targeting "terrorist infrastructure" in Nur Shams.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that a large number of Israeli vehicles and heavy bulldozers entered the city and headed towards the Nur Shams refugee camp.
According to Reuters, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, the Al-Quds Brigades, said in a statement that they had detonated an explosive bomb on a military bulldozer to thwart an incursion by the Israeli army.
Iran will retaliate against Israel's recent attacks with a "decisive and painful response" likely before the US presidential election, an unnamed senior Iranian official told CNN.
The statement marks a change from Iran's initial attempts to play down the seriousness of the strikes carried out by Israel on October 25, which was the first time Israel publicly acknowledged attacks on Iranian targets.
"The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the aggression of the Zionist regime will be decisive and painful," the source said.
Although he did not specify the exact date of the attack, he said that "it will probably come before the US presidential election."
In his first response to last weekend's attacks, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a more moderate statement, saying the attacks should be "neither exaggerated nor downplayed."
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday that Iran should not respond to Israeli attacks on its territory over the weekend.
She added that "if Iran still decides to respond, the US will be ready to help Israel in its defense."
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Matthew Mueller did not provide an assessment of what Iran "may or may not do", but reiterated that the US believes Iran "should not be held accountable".
Miller did not say whether Iran had communicated to the US its intention to respond before November 5.
"I will not talk about the communication between our two governments, whether real or imagined. But as we have made clear publicly, and I can confirm that Iran knows this message very well, it should not continue to escalate this conflict," he told the conference. to the press on Wednesday.
U.S. State Department officials have identified nearly 500 potential incidents in which civilians were injured during Israeli military operations in Gaza that involved U.S.-supplied weapons, but have taken no further action in any of those cases, three sources told CNN. a, including a US official familiar with the matter.
The incidents, some of which may constitute a violation of international humanitarian law, according to the sources, have been recorded since October 7, 2023, when the war in Gaza began. They are collected through the State Department's Civilian Injury Incident Response Guidelines (CHIRG), a formal mechanism for tracking and evaluating reported abuses of US-sourced weapons.
State Department officials gathered the incidents from public and other sources, including media reports, civil society groups and contacts with foreign governments.
The mechanism, which was established in August 2023 to apply to all countries that receive US weapons, has three phases: incident analysis, policy impact assessment and coordinated departmental action.
None of the Gaza cases have yet reached the third stage of action, said a former US official familiar with the situation. The options, the former official said, could range from cooperating with the Israeli government on damage reduction, to suspending existing arms export licenses or suspending future approvals.
The Washington Post first reported the nearly 500 incidents on Wednesday.
The Biden administration has said it is reasonable to assess that Israel has violated international law in the conflict, but that assessing individual incidents is very difficult work, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that Israel could carry out ethnic cleansing of Gaza if the international community does not take a decisive stand to prevent it.
Guterres made his appeal at a time when civilian casualties are mounting due to Israel's bombardment of northern Gaza. On Tuesday, an attack in the Beit Lahiya district killed at least 93 people, in what the United Nations said was just one of at least seven "mass casualty incidents" in Gaza over the past week, the Guardian reports.
At the same time, humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza are reported to have fallen to their lowest level since the conflict began, leading to mounting accusations that Israel's real intention is to expel the remaining Palestinian population from at least part of Gaza.
The UN secretary-general, speaking on the sidelines of the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, suggested that the "ethnic cleansing" of Gaza has so far been prevented thanks to the refusal of the people of Gaza to give in to pressure to leave their homes, as well as Arab determination not to accept mass relocations of the population.
"The intention might be for the Palestinians to leave Gaza, for others to occupy it. But there was - and I pay tribute to the courage and endurance of the Palestinian people, as well as the determination of the Arab world - an effort to prevent ethnic cleansing from becoming a reality," Guterres told Guardian.
"We will do everything possible to help them stay there and prevent the ethnic cleansing that could occur if there is no strong determination from the international community," he added.
At least 19 people were killed yesterday in Israeli attacks on two areas in the Balbek region of eastern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said shortly after the country's prime minister expressed hope that a ceasefire agreement with Israel could be announced within days.
The Israeli airstrikes in Balbek came hours after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for residents of the entire city — including the UNESCO World Heritage-listed ancient Roman temple complex.
The Israeli military said it hit Hezbollah command centers during an attack on the southern Lebanese city of Balbek and Nabatia.
"The air force carried out strikes on command and control centers and terrorist infrastructure used by the terrorist organization Hezbollah, in the areas of Balbek deep in Lebanon and Nabati in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement.
Five women were among eight people killed in Israeli attacks on the Bednael district of Balbek, while three women were among 11 killed in separate Israeli attacks on a village in the same region, the health ministry said.
Israeli ground forces launched operations in southern Lebanon in early October against Hezbollah, which the US considers a terrorist organization, while the EU blacklisted its armed wing, but not its political party, which is represented in the Lebanese parliament.
The conflict in Lebanon has escalated dramatically over the past five weeks, and most of the 2.800 deaths reported by Lebanon's health ministry over the past 12 months have occurred in that period.
Lebanon's interim prime minister, Najib Mikati, expressed hope that a cease-fire agreement with Israel would be announced within days, after Israel's national television service released what he said was a draft of the agreement that provided for an initial 60-day truce.
The document, which Khan TV said was leaked, a proposal written by Washington, states that Israel will withdraw its forces from Lebanon in the first week of the 60-day ceasefire. That largely aligns with details previously reported by Reuters based on two sources familiar with the matter.
Mikati said he did not believe a deal was possible until Tuesday's US presidential election, but that he was more optimistic after talks Wednesday with US Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein, who was scheduled to travel to Israel on Thursday. .
"During the conversation, Hochstein suggested to me that we could reach an agreement before the end of the month and before November 5," Mikati told Lebanese Al Jadid television.
The draft published by Khan TV was dated Saturday, and when asked to comment, White House National Security Spokesman Sean Savet said that "there are many reports and drafts circulating", but that "they do not reflect the current state of negotiations".
The council did not answer the question whether the version published by Kan television is even a basis for further negotiations.
Israeli television said the draft had been presented to Israeli leaders. Israeli officials have not yet commented.
Hezbollah has not yet commented on the leaked ceasefire proposal, but its new leader, Naim Qassem, said the Iran-backed armed group would agree to a ceasefire within certain parameters if Israel wanted to end the war, but that Israel had not yet agreed. not a single proposal that could be debated.
(Radio Free Europe)
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