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Middle East live: UN issues food warning for northern Gaza as thousands remain trapped by Israeli offensive


No food has entered northern Gaza since 1 October, says UN

The United Nations food agency said on Saturday that no food aid had entered northern Gaza since 1 October, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the primary border crossing into the war-ravaged area had been closed for about two weeks, warning that Israel’s ongoing ground operation has a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families there.

Escalating violence in northern #Gaza is having a disastrous impact on food security.

No food aid has entered the north since 1 October.

It is unclear how long WFP’s remaining food supplies in the north, already distributed to shelters and health facilities, will last.

— World Food Programme (@WFP) October 12, 2024

“The north is basically cut off and we’re not able to operate there,” said Antoine Renard, the WFP country director of Palestinian territories, according to the AP.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, has said that as many as 400,000 people are believed to be trapped by Israel’s latest Gaza offensive.

Concerns of a hunger crisis have risen in Gaza roughly a month after the UN’s independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians.

Israel has denied such allegations and insisted that it has allowed food and other aid into Gaza in significant quantities.

“Israel has not halted the entry or coordination of humanitarian aid entering from its territory into the northern Gaza Strip. As evidence, humanitarian aid coordinated by Cogat and international organisations will continue to enter the northern Gaza Strip in the coming day as well,” Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing aid distribution, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The WFP said its food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in northern Gaza, have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders, reports the AP. It said that the only functioning bakery in north Gaza, supported by WFP, caught fire after being hit by an explosive munition.

The WFP said its last remaining food supplies in the north – including canned food, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits, and nutrition supplements – have been distributed to shelters, health facilities and kitchens in Gaza City and three shelters in the northern areas. It is unclear how long these limited food supplies will last, said the WFP, warning that the consequences for fleeing families will be dire if the escalation continues.

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Key events

Iran has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, AFP reports, citing local media, weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel.

“The entry of any electronic communication device, except mobile phones, in flight cabins or … in non-accompanied cargo, has been banned,” ISNA news agency reported, quoting the spokesperson for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, Jafar Yazerlo.

The decision came over three weeks since sabotage attacks targeting members of the Iran-allied Hezbollah group in Lebanon that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode, killing at least 39 people.

Nearly 3,000 others were wounded in the attack, which Iran and Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

Earlier this month, Dubai-based airline Emirates banned pagers and walkie-talkies onboard its planes.

The IDF reported sirens sounding in the northern city of Haifa.

The military also said it identified about 30 projectiles crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory following sirens that sounded in the Upper Galilee area, which is north of Haifa, close to the border with Lebanon.

Reuters reports that Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 19 Palestinians, while forces continued to push deeper into the Jabalia area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped.

Residents said Israeli forces continued to pound Jabalia, home to the largest of the enclave’s historic refugee camps.

There has been no fresh Israeli comment but the military said in past days that forces operating in Jabalia and nearby areas killed dozens of militants, located weapons and dismantled military infrastructure.

Palestinian health officials put the number of people killed in Jabalia over the past week at around 150.

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“The bombardment has not stopped. Every minute there are shells, rockets and fire on the buildings and everything that moves”, Areej Nasr, 35, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) after fleeing from Jabalia to Gaza City on Thursday.

On Friday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes in the area, including on schools being used as shelter by displaced people.

An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy artillery shelling, explosions and gunfire Saturday farther south in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.

EU concerns over Israeli legislation that would ban Unrwa

The EU said on Saturday that it was deeply concerned about draft Israeli legislation that would ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) from operating in Israel and likely scale back aid distribution across war-ravaged Gaza, reports the Associated Press (AP).

According to the AP, earlier this week an Israeli parliamentary committee approved a pair of bills that would ban Unrwa from operating in Israeli territory and end all contact between the government and the UN agency. The bill needs final approval from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

“If adopted, (the bill) would have disastrous consequences, preventing the UN agency from continuing to provide its services and protection to Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” the EU said in an online statement, reports the AP.

Israel has alleged that some of Unrwa’s thousands of staff members participated in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. The UN has since fired more than a dozen staffers after internal investigations found they may have taken part in the attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel.

The UN agency has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to Palestinian civilians during the 12 month conflict in Gaza.

Concern about the Israeli bill was echoed by Unrwa’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, on Wednesday, who said all humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank could “disintegrate” if the bill was implemented. Lazzarini has previously accused Israel of seeking to close down Unrwa.

No food has entered northern Gaza since 1 October, says UN

The United Nations food agency said on Saturday that no food aid had entered northern Gaza since 1 October, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the primary border crossing into the war-ravaged area had been closed for about two weeks, warning that Israel’s ongoing ground operation has a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families there.

Escalating violence in northern #Gaza is having a disastrous impact on food security.

No food aid has entered the north since 1 October.

It is unclear how long WFP’s remaining food supplies in the north, already distributed to shelters and health facilities, will last.

— World Food Programme (@WFP) October 12, 2024

“The north is basically cut off and we’re not able to operate there,” said Antoine Renard, the WFP country director of Palestinian territories, according to the AP.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, has said that as many as 400,000 people are believed to be trapped by Israel’s latest Gaza offensive.

Concerns of a hunger crisis have risen in Gaza roughly a month after the UN’s independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians.

Israel has denied such allegations and insisted that it has allowed food and other aid into Gaza in significant quantities.

“Israel has not halted the entry or coordination of humanitarian aid entering from its territory into the northern Gaza Strip. As evidence, humanitarian aid coordinated by Cogat and international organisations will continue to enter the northern Gaza Strip in the coming day as well,” Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing aid distribution, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The WFP said its food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in northern Gaza, have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders, reports the AP. It said that the only functioning bakery in north Gaza, supported by WFP, caught fire after being hit by an explosive munition.

The WFP said its last remaining food supplies in the north – including canned food, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits, and nutrition supplements – have been distributed to shelters, health facilities and kitchens in Gaza City and three shelters in the northern areas. It is unclear how long these limited food supplies will last, said the WFP, warning that the consequences for fleeing families will be dire if the escalation continues.

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The Israeli military on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops press on a weeklong offensive against militants, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people to leave parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and other areas in and around Jabaliya, the urban refugee camp where Israeli forces carried out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as militants regroup.

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee areas in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, after an Israeli evacuation order. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters

In a post on X, Adraee asked people to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed by the military as a humanitarian zone, reports the AP.

Most of the fighting in the past week was centered in and around Jabaliya that was pounded by Israeli war jets and artillery. The AP reports that residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters. The military also ordered the three main hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate patients and medical staff.

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Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer said.

According to AFP, a source close to Hezbollah has said that the air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area, which killed at least 22 people, had targeted the Iran-backed group’s security chief Wafiq Safa, but his fate remains unknown.

Israel orders Lebanese to evacuate north of Awali river

Further to the news that the Israeli military on Saturday warned residents of south Lebanon “not to return” to their homes as troops continued fighting Hezbollah militants in the area (see 9.38am BST), Reuters has some more detail on the specific area mentioned.

According to the news agency, the statement refers to 22 southern Lebanese villages whose residents have been ordered to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River.

🟡 بيان عاجل إلى سكان #جنوب_لبنان
إلى سكان القرى التالية:

عيتا الشعب, رامية, ياطر, قوزح , بيت ليف, حنين , رشاف, عينتا, القليلة, الحوش, نبعة, تولين, التمرية , الخيام, الخربة, كفر حمام, عرب اللويزة, جسر ابو زبله, جبل العدس, ضهر برية جابر, كفرا, رمادية, زبقين.

إن نشاط حزب الله… pic.twitter.com/c5bQSgo2Db

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 12, 2024

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Images on the newswires show Palestinians fleeing areas in the northern Gaza Strip after a fresh Israeli evacuation order:

Displaced Palestinians carry their belongings as they flee Gaza City on Saturday following an Israeli evacuation order. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
A displaced Palestinian boy sits on a cart as he and others evacuate areas in the northern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee areas in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters

In a separate post on X to the one we reported on earlier (see 9.38am BST), Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee reiterated an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances, claiming they are being used by Hezbollah fighters.

“We call on medical teams to avoid contact with Hezbollah members and not to cooperate with them,” he said. “The IDF (Israeli military) affirms that the necessary actions will be taken against any vehicle transporting armed individuals, regardless of its type.”

On Saturday, Adraee called on residents of the area around Sheikh Radwan, south of Jabalia refugee camp, to evacuate.

“The specified area, including the shelters within it, is considered a dangerous combat zone,” Adraee said on X, ordering residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the southern part of the strip.

In a social media post on X, Unicef has said that children in Lebanon are “living in fear”.

The UN agency says it has been providing displaced children in Lebanon with “essential needs, including mental health support” but that what they “really need is a ceasefire”.

Children in Lebanon are living in fear.

UNICEF is providing children who are displaced with essential needs, including mental health support.

What they really need is a ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/tBoOvQR60m

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) October 12, 2024

Israel army warns south Lebanon residents ‘not to return to homes’

The Israeli military on Saturday warned residents of south Lebanon “not to return” to their homes as troops continued fighting Hezbollah militants in the area, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israeli forces continue to “target Hezbollah posts in or near your villages”, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X.

He wrote:

For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice. Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk.”

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, officials say, as thousands remain trapped

Helen Livingstone

Helen Livingstone

At least 30 people have been killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp, Gaza’s civil defence agency has said, a week after Israel launched an offensive there which it claims is aimed at stopping Hamas regrouping.

The agency’s spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, said a strike that occurred before 9.40pm local time killed 12 people including women and children, while 14 were missing and likely trapped under the rubble.

Before that incident, Ahmad al-Kahlut – director of the agency in northern Gaza – said 18 people had been killed by several strikes, including hits on eight schools in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced people.

In total, the day’s strikes left at least 110 injured, according to figures provided by Bassal and Kahlut. The Israeli military did not respond to questions posed by the news agency AFP about the strikes on schools in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s historic refugee camps.

Medics told Reuters that at least 61 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The Israeli military claims it has killed dozens of militants in Jabalia, without providing any evidence. Photos published from the area by news wires have shown many children among the dead. It is not possible to independently verify death tolls from the camp as Israel does not allow foreign journalists in.

Thousands of people are trapped in Jabalia camp, north Gaza, as Israeli forces attack the area.

“Nobody is allowed to get in or out, anyone who tries is getting shot,” says Sarah Vuylsteke, MSF project coordinator. Five of our staff are trapped in the camp, fearing for their…

— MSF International (@MSF) October 11, 2024

The charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), meanwhile, said thousands of people remained trapped in the camp while one staff member said people trying to leave – Israel has issued widespread evacuation orders for northern Gaza – are being shot.

At least 42,175 Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, says health ministry

At least 42,175 Palestinians have been killed and 98,336 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday.

The ministry does not distinguished not distinguish between militant and civilian deaths.

The Unifil peacekeepers have found themselves on the frontline of the Israel-Hezbollah war, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

The latest incident came a day after two Indonesian soldiers were hurt when, according to Unifil, tank fire hit a watchtower.

Sean Clancy, the Irish military’s chief of staff, said he did not believe Israel’s explanation of Friday’s incident, reports AFP.

“So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act,” said Clancy, whose country has troops in Unifil.

UN secretary general António Guterres condemned the firing as “intolerable” and “a violation of international humanitarian law,” while the UK government said it was “appalled” by reports of the wounded.

US president Joe Biden said on Friday he was “absolutely” asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers, while the French, Spanish and Italian leaders issued a joint statement expressing “outrage.”

AFP reports that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, renewed his call for an end to exports of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, while saying the UN peacekeepers had been “deliberately targeted”.

The incidents came more than two weeks into Israel’s war with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has seen Israeli warplanes conduct extensive strikes since 23 September on the militants’ strongholds, with multiple civilian areas hit, and ground troops deployed across the border.

Hezbollah says launched missiles on Israeli base near Haifa

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Saturday said it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base south of the coastal city of Haifa, as Israelis marked the Yom Kippur holiday.

Hezbollah fighters struck a base “south of the city of Haifa, targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of … missiles”, the group said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Health of Al Jazeera cameraman deteriorating, colleague says and appeals for help

Helen Livingstone

Helen Livingstone

The health of Al Jazeera cameraman, Fadi Al-Wahidi, who was shot by Israeli forces in northern Gaza on Wednesday, has deteriorated “significantly”, his colleague has said, appealing for help in evacuating him from the area. Anas Al-Sharif wrote on X:

Fadi was shot by an Israeli sniper while professionally covering events, and he was wearing a press vest clearly marking him as a journalist.

We are currently in northern Gaza, under siege by Israeli forces. If he does not receive urgent medical treatment abroad, his life is at serious risk.”

Urgent Appeal:
I am reaching out to all those concerned with press freedom. Today, I was informed by doctors that the health of my friend and Al Jazeera cameraman, Fadi Al-Wahidi, has deteriorated significantly.
Fadi was shot by an Israeli sniper while professionally covering… pic.twitter.com/86FxV5bJnE

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) October 11, 2024

In an earlier post Sharif said that Al-Wahidi had been permanently paralysed in the attack.

Anas, please, I just want to see my body.
Anas, please, I want to stand and walk.
Anas, where are you? I can’t even move my neck. I just want to see you all!
None of us had the heart to tell him that he would never move again after being shot by an occupying sniper.
In an… pic.twitter.com/yTMHMh3qSN

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) October 11, 2024

Foreign doctors who have deployed in Gaza have said that many patients who could be saved given the right medical treatment have died in Gaza due to grossly inadequate treatments available in the territory as Israel targets hospitals and limits humanitarian aid.

Opening summary

Ireland’s prime minister urged Israel on Saturday to heed “the concerns of the international community” and not repeat recent firing on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

“Israel must stop firing on UN peacekeepers serving with Unifil in Lebanon,” Simon Harris said in a statement, his latest comments on the recent incidents that have sparked a fierce diplomatic backlash. He added:

Israel must listen to the voice and the concerns of the international community.”

Ireland accounts for 347 of the 10,000 soldiers serving in Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which is charged with maintaining peace in the country’s south.

Israel said its forces fired at a threat near a Unifil position in Lebanon on Friday, acknowledging that a “hit” was responsible for wounding two blue helmets.

The two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt at Unifil’s main base in Naqura, southern Lebanon, according to the mission. It follows two Indonesian soldiers suffering injuries when tank fire hit a watchtower the previous day, the mission said.

The Irish military has said none of its staff were hurt in Thursday’s incident.

Harris, who visited Joe Biden earlier in the week, said he and the US president “agreed that those who serve in blue helmets on behalf of the UN must always be afforded full protection”.

Meanwhile in Gaza, at least 61 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Friday, nearly half of the them killed in Jabalia, the northern district which is the largest of Gaza’s refugee camps.

Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to al-Ahli Baptist hospital for treatment after an Israeli attack on Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City on Friday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 30 people were killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp.

At least 12 people were killed, including women and children, in an evening strike, it said. Dozens of Palestinians were reported to have been injured when an Israeli military quadcopter drone opened fire on a school sheltering displaced people in the Jabalia camp.

In other developments:

  • Hezbollah said on Saturday it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base south of the coastal city of Haifa, as Israelis marked the Yom Kippur holiday. Hezbollah fighters struck a base “targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of … missiles”, the Lebanese militant group said in a statement.

  • Joe Biden, the US president, said he was asking Israel not to hit UN peacekeepers, and the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told Israel that attacks on the peacekeeping force were intolerable. Downing Street said Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, was “appalled” at reports Israel deliberately fired on the peacekeepers. The leaders of France, Italy and Spain said in a joint statement the attacks were “unjustifiable” and a “serious violation of the obligations of Israel” under humanitarian international law.

  • Thousands of Palestinians are trapped in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said, including five of its staff, who were “fearing for their lives”. “Nobody is allowed to get in or out – anyone who tries is getting shot,” MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke said. It called on Israeli forces to stop forced displacements and stop the “all-out war on the people of Gaza”.

  • At least 42,126 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since the war started a year ago, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry on Friday. The figures were released prior to the latest deadly Israeli strikes on Friday, including in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

  • At least eight people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across villages in southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday evening, according to the country’s health ministry. Three people were killed, including a two-year-old and a 16-year-old, when an Israeli airstrike hit Baysarieh, a village in Sidon province. Three others were injured, the Lebanese ministry said. Five people were killed and five others injured in additional airstrikes in Baalbeck-Hermel province, located in the Bekaa valley, it said.

  • An Israeli airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three others in the southern Bint Jbeil province on Friday, prompting futher concern over Israel’s escalating campaign. Lebanon’s army has not been involved in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and it withdrew its forces from the border between the two countries when Israel launched its invasion last month.

  • At least 60 people were killed and 168 injured in the past 24 hours in Lebanon, the country’s crisis response unit said on Friday. The latest figure takes the total number of people killed in Lebanon over the past year to 2,229 killed and 10,380 injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The crisis response unit also reported 57 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa valley. The UN human rights office said more than 100 medics and emergency workers had been killed in Lebanon since a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began a year ago.

Lebanese firefighters, first responders and security forces at work after Israeli airstrikes in a crowded central district of Beirut on Friday. Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty Images
  • Israel’s military said air raid sirens sounded in several areas in central Israel on Friday due to a “hostile aircraft infiltration”. Israel’s military said two drones were detected “from the moment when they crossed the Lebanese border” late on Friday, and that it had successfully intercepted one of them. However, one building in Herzliya sustained some damage, the IDF and Israeli police said.

  • UN officials voiced concerns that an Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza could affect the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign, scheduled to start next week.

  • Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said Tehran would not hesitate to take “stronger defensive actions” if Israel retaliated for last week’s missile attack. Araqchi said Iran’s missile attack on Israel had been in accordance with its right to self-defence under international law and followed much restraint as it sought a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

  • Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN relief organisation for Palestinian refugees across the region (Unrwa), said people in Gaza had become accustomed to being moved about “like pinballs” by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations. He feared that the people of southern Lebanon were facing a similar plight, he said.





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