Middle East latest: Dozens killed as Israeli troops pound Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s bombardment of central and northern Gaza has killed dozens of people and trapped thousands in their homes, Palestinian officials said Wednesday, as the death toll in the yearlong war passed 42,000.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya from Sunday until Tuesday, and another 14 from communities farther north. The toll is likely higher as there are bodies buried under the rubble and in areas that can’t be accessed, it said.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesperson, said that Israeli forces were operating in Jabaliya to prevent Hamas from regrouping and had killed about 100 militants, without providing evidence. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it fights in residential areas.

A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.

Turkey evacuates citizens from Lebanon

Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign nationals started boarding a Turkish military ship late Wednesday that brought in aid and will take them out of a country being hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah.

It’s part of a six-ship convoy including escorts that set sail from the southern Turkish port of Mersin early Wednesday, transporting 300 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, hygiene kits, kitchenware, tents, beds and blankets.

Besides the Turkish citizens, people from Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan were among those who applied to evacuate on the ships. Officials did not provide numbers.

Turkey’s government plans to organize more sea evacuations if necessary and is contemplating charter flights to repatriate citizens.

Top UN official in Lebanon says ceasefire is still on the table

UNITED NATIONS – The top U.N. official in Lebanon repeated her call for an immediate cease-fire, saying the 21-day cease-fire proposal launched by the U.S. and France is still on the table “and very relevant.”

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said Wednesday that a halt to fighting is the only way to ease “the colossal human suffering that is happening right now,” address Lebanon’s “humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions” and provide a window “for diplomatic efforts to take hold and succeed.”

The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon expressed hope during a video press conference from Beirut “that Israel will now, or soon, be ready to add its support to the many calls and appeals out there for a cease-fire or a pause.”

“I’m not saying that it’s going to be an easy ride or walk in a park,” she said. “It will be difficult, but I am convinced that it’s doable, and it’s in the interest of Lebanon, in the interest of Israel to find sustainable solutions.”

Hennis-Plasschaert said there must also be a realistic roadmap to implement the 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the Israeli-Hezbollah war. Its key provisions include disarming all armed groups including Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army throughout the country’s south, which borders Israel and is mainly controlled by the militant group.

“At the end of the day, it is the lack or non-implementation of resolution 1701 over the past 18 years that led to today’s harsh reality,” Hennis-Plasschaert said.

Israeli move to ban UN agency could derail aid to Palestinians, official warns

UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees is warning that if pending Israeli legislation is adopted, all humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank may “disintegrate,” leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in dire need as conflict rages.

An Israeli parliamentary committee approved a pair of bills Monday that would ban the agency, known as UNRWA, from operating in Israeli territory and end all contact between the government and UNRWA. The bill needs final approval from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that senior Israeli officials are bent on destroying the agency.

He urged the U.N.’s most powerful body to shield UNRWA “from efforts to end its mandate arbitrarily and prematurely in the absence of a long-promised political solution,” saying the legislation violates Israel’s obligations under the U.N. Charter and international law.

Lazzarini stressed that operationally the entire humanitarian response in Gaza rests on UNRWA’s infrastructure — and it “may disintegrate” if the legislation is adopted.

He also warned that the halt to coordination with Israel would further disrupt the provision of shelter, food and health care to Palestinians as winter approaches, more than 650,000 children would lose any hope of resuming their education “and an entire generation would be sacrificed.”

Airstrike kills 5 Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics, officials say

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike hit a Lebanese Civil Defense center in the town of Dardghaya in southern Lebanon, killing five paramedics stationed there Wednesday, civil defense spokesperson Elie Khairallah told The Associated Press.

The Lebanese Health Ministry also confirmed the news in a statement, saying Israel has “renewed its targeting of rescue and ambulance crews tonight, disregarding international laws, norms and humanitarian conventions.”

There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military.

Among the victims was Abdullah Al-Moussawi, head of the Tyre regional civil defense center, Khairallah said. The health ministry said teams continued to search for survivors in the rubble.

Before Wednesday’s strike, six civil defense members had been killed since last October, Khairallah said.

As of last Thursday, the health ministry reported that more than 100 paramedics had been killed by Israeli airstrikes since last October and 225 wounded, with significant damage to emergency infrastructure, including 128 ambulances and fire trucks destroyed, as well as damage to nine hospitals and 45 medical centers.

Just last week, Al-Moussawi, spoke with the Associated Press, saying the Israeli airstrikes had made his team increasingly nervous, but that they were hopeful that the international protection guaranteed to medics would extend to them as well.

“We put international protection (tag) on our vehicles along with the (national) Civil Defense flag and we wear the yellow vests,” he said.

Video shows what appears to be Israeli soldiers raising flag in Lebanon

TEL AVIV, Israel — Video verified by The Associated Press shows what appears to be a group of Israeli soldiers raising an Israeli flag in a village in southern Lebanon.

In the video, which appears to have been filmed in Maroun A-Ras, three soldiers are seen hoisting a flag atop a pile of debris. A soldier off camera speaks in Hebrew and refers to the nearby Israeli village of Avivim. It was not clear when the video was recorded.

Israeli troops have been operating in Maroun a-Ras, where they have taken up positions inside a public garden on the edge of the village.

The video follows other similar acts that took place throughout Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Israeli strike on Iran would be ‘lethal,’ defense minister says

JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that an Israeli strike on Iran in response to its recent missile attack would be “lethal” and “surprising.”

“Our attack will be lethal, precise and above all surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened,” Gallant said during a speech to Israeli troops.

Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel last week in an escalation of the conflict between the two countries.

Israel has vowed to respond to the missile attack but has not outlined what this retaliation would entail.

The ballistic missile attack came weeks after Israel’s military intensified its airstrikes across Lebanon wiping out the majority of Hezbollah’s high ranking commanders including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. In July, a strike in Tehran assassinated Hamas’ political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, and Iran blamed Israel. Israel has not confirmed or denied it was behind his killing.

Iran is the main sponsor of the Lebanese militant group and Hamas in Gaza.

Third Brazilian repatriation flight leaves Beirut

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s third repatriation plane left Beirut for Brazil on Wednesday, carrying 218 passengers including 11 infants, as well as five pets, according to a statement from Brazil’s foreign ministry. The flight is set to land in Sao Paulo on Thursday morning local time after a stop to refuel in Lisbon.

The Brazilian government has evacuated 674 people and 11 pets from Lebanon in five days, the foreign ministry said.

The aircraft also delivered Brazil’s second donation of health supplies to Lebanon.

About 21,000 Brazilians live in Lebanon, which is home to the largest community of Brazilians in the Middle East. Two Brazilian adolescents have been killed by Israeli bombardments in Lebanon.

Biden and Netanyahu have first phone conversation in weeks

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday held their first call in seven weeks, a conversation that comes as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon and considers how to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.

Vice President Kamala Harris joined the call, according to the White House.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the prime minister had recently spoken with former President Donald Trump.

The Republican, who is the midst of a close White House race against Harris, called Netanyahu last week and “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah,” according to Netanyahu’s office.

22 killed and 80 wounded in past 24 hours, Lebanon’s health ministry says

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit announced Wednesday that 22 people were killed and 80 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,141 killed and 10,099 wounded, according to Lebanese Health Ministry.

The report also recorded 70 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.

Some 1,000 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities and other institutions — are sheltering 185,400 people displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report said. Half of those displaced are housed in facilities concentrated in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

Among these shelters, 807 have reached full capacity. Overall, the total number of displaced individuals in Lebanon stands at 1.2 million.

Additionally, 15,000 displaced individuals have received medical treatment and medication.

Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after an Israeli strike hit the road last week, crowds have continued to flow across the border seeking relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Wednesday, Lebanese General Security recorded 311,034 Syrian citizens and 108,672 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria, the report said.

Palestinian militants killed by Israeli forces in West Bank, officials say

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Health Ministry said four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday. A militant group later said the slain men were its fighters.

Commenting on the incident, the Israeli police said its forces killed five militants, including a local commander in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. The Associated Press was not immediately able to reconcile the conflicting death tolls.

The military said the slain men were planning attacks against Israeli troops and civilians.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war erupted 12 months ago. Over that time, more than 740 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Nablus and other northern cities have seen some of the territory’s worst violence.

Palestinian journalist killed and another wounded in a Gaza airstrike

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian journalist was killed and at least one other injured in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities said.

Mohammed Tanani, a cameraman working with the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV station, was killed in a blast at Abu Shrekh roundabout in the Jabaliya area, the Palestinian Red Crescent and Hamas-affiliated outlet said.

Another Palestinian reporter from the TV station was wounded, the network said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a media freedom organization, say 128 journalists have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last October. They include 123 Palestinian, two Israeli and three Lebanese media workers.

2 killed in a rocket attack on northern Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli first responders say a man and a woman were killed by a rocket fired from Lebanon.

The Magen David Adom rescue service said the two were killed Wednesday when a rocket struck the northern town of Kiryat Shmona.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in recent days as Israel has ramped up its airstrikes in Lebanon and pushed ahead with a ground incursion.

Most of the rockets have been intercepted or landed in open areas, but the barrages have grown more intense and have reached deeper into Israel, disrupting daily life.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack from Gaza into Israel ignited the war. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allied with Iran, and Hezbollah said the attacks were in support of the Palestinians.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict escalated into a full-blown war last month.

At least 4 killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT — The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a hotel-turned-shelter for displaced people in southern Lebanon.

Ten others were wounded in the strike that hit the building in Wardaniyeh in Lebanon’s Chouf province.

An Associated Press reporter in a nearby town heard two sonic booms and an explosion from Israeli jets before the strike, followed by plumes of black and white smoke rising from the building.

At least 6 people stabbed and wounded in an attack in northern Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel — At least six people were stabbed and wounded in northern Israel in what police say was a militant attack.

Police said the assailant stabbed people in multiple locations in the northern city of Hadera on Wednesday before fleeing on a motorbike. Police said they shot and “neutralized” the attacker, later clarifying that he was arrested. They did not provide the name or nationality of the assailant.

Five of the people who were attacked were in critical or severe condition, while the sixth was moderately wounded, according to the nearby Hillel Yaffe Medical Center.

Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years, and tensions have spiked over the war in Gaza.

Philippine president orders preparations for evacuation from Lebanon

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered government agencies Wednesday to prepare to evacuate Filipinos “by whatever means” from Lebanon.

Marcos held a virtual meeting with key Cabinet members while attending a summit of Southeast Asia leaders in Laos, underscoring the urgency as Israel intensified attacks against the militant group Hezbollah.

“We are now going to evacuate our people by whatever means — by air, or by sea,” Marcos said, adding that any ship to be used has to be positioned near Beirut so Filipinos could immediately leave.

About 11,000 Filipinos live and work in Lebanon, including many house helpers, but Philippine Foreign Affairs officials say many are hesitant to leave their jobs. Only about 171 Filipinos in Lebanon were ready for immediate repatriation, they said.

Turkish navy ships bring humanitarian aid to Beirut and evacuate citizens

BEIRUT — Turkish navy ships docked at a port in Beirut on Wednesday as a part of a mission to bring humanitarian aid to Lebanon and evacuate Turkish citizens.

Two of the ships, which can accommodate up to 2,000 passengers, were carrying up to 300 tons of humanitarian aid consisting of food, tents and blankets, according to a statement from the Turkish Defense Ministry.

Rear Adm. Nihat Baran, commander of the evacuation mission, said the trip was ordered by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “to ensure that our citizens living in Lebanon are transferred to Turkey safely.”

Citizens of Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan also applied for the evacuation, the ministry said.

The two ships are part of a larger six-vessel convoy that departed the southern port of Mersin early Wednesday. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said additional evacuations would be organized if necessary.

Gaza death toll passes 42,000

Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll from the war in Gaza has passed 42,000.

The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count, but has said women and children make up more than half of those killed.

It said Wednesday that 42,010 Palestinians have been killed and 97,720 wounded since the start of the war, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel.

German police close pro-Palestinian protest camp Greta Thunberg planned to visit

BERLIN — German police say they dissolved a pro-Palestinian protest camp in the western city of Dortmund after organizers told them that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was planning to visit the camp.

Dortmund police said late Tuesday the decision was made, among other reasons, because Thunberg’s appearance would probably have drawn more people to the protest camp than originally permitted.

The dismantling of the camp, which had been in existence for months, was accepted without resistance, police said. Seven protesters were present at the camp on Tuesday, but Thunberg did not appear, German news agency dpa reported.

On Monday, Thunberg participated in a pro-Palestinian protest in Berlin.

18 dead after Israeli strikes in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes in central and northern Gaza killed at least 18 people, including five children and two women.

Two strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza early Wednesday. The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the morgue.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a family home in the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least nine people, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run government. The dead were taken to the Al-Ahly Hospital, which said two women and two children were among those killed.

Footage shared by the Civil Defense showed first responders recovering dead bodies and body parts from under the rubble.

Israel launched an air and ground operation earlier this week in Jabaliya, a densely populated urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israel has carried out several previous operations in Jabaliya, and its forces have repeatedly returned to other areas of Gaza after militants have regrouped.