On Monday 4 November, Israel officially informed the UN of the cancellation of the agreement with the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), voted by the Israeli parliament. Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations agency has become the bane of Israel, which accuses it of being infiltrated by the terrorist movement Hamas. The UN Security Council condemned the measure approved by the Israeli Parliament earlier this week.
At the same time, war still rages in the Gaza Strip, where thirty Palestinians lost their lives in Israeli raids on Sunday. The IDF also bombed southern and eastern Lebanon, where Israel is waging an offensive against Hezbollah, an Islamic movement allied with Iran. The latter claimed responsibility for the attack on a military base in the Israeli city of Haifa.
Information to remember
⇒ Israel has officially informed the UN of the cancellation of its agreement with UNRWA
⇒ Hezbollah claims to have fired a salvo of rockets at Safed, in northern Israel
⇒ Thirty people killed in Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip
Israel: Hostage Forum calls for investigation into document leak case
The Families Forum, the main association of relatives of hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip, asked on Monday that light be shed on the affair of the leak of documents that taints the Israeli prime minister and which could have compromised an agreement on the release of the hostages. “The families (of the hostages) call for an investigation into all those involved in suspected sabotage and damage to state security. Such actions in general and particularly during war endanger the hostages, compromise their chances of return and they abandon at the risk of being killed by Hamas terrorists,” the Forum said in a statement. This Forum brings together most of the families of the 97 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
An Israeli court announced on Sunday that a former spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested for releasing classified military documents to the press without authorization, which could have undermined a hostage release deal. Four people, including members of the Israeli security apparatus and Eliezer Feldstein, a former associate of Benjamin Netanyahu, are currently in detention, the Rishon LeZion court (center) said.
Iran denounces the “destabilizing presence” of the United States in the Middle East
The Iranian Foreign Ministry denounced the “destabilizing presence” of the United States in the Middle East on Monday, following Washington’s announcement of the deployment of B-52 strategic bombers in the region to defend Israel, a sworn enemy of the Islamic Republic. “We have always believed that the American presence in the region is a destabilizing presence,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaïl Baghaï said during his weekly briefing.
The Pentagon announced the arrival of American B-52 fighter jets in the Middle East on Saturday, a day after announcing new military deployments to “defend Israel”, a close US ally, and warn Iran. “The strengthening of the (American) presence will create more tension and will certainly not influence our determination to defend ourselves,” added Esmaïl Baghaï, answering a question about the arrival of the American bombers.
UNRWA says ban in Israel could cause aid system in Gaza to “collapse”.
The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees told AFP on Monday that its ban in Israel could cause the “collapse” of the aid system in the Gaza Strip, ravaged by more than a year of war. After the Israeli parliament voted on a law banning UNRWA activities on its territory, Jonathan Fowler, the organisation’s spokesperson, told AFP: “If this law is implemented, it risks causing the collapse of the humanitarian operation international in the country. Gaza Strip, an operation of which UNRWA constitutes the backbone”.
The Israeli army announces that it has “eliminated” Hezbollah’s commander in Lebanon
The Israeli army announced Monday that it had “eliminated” a local Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, where it is waging a campaign of intense bombings and ground incursions against the Lebanese Islamic movement. The army “hit and eliminated Abou Ali Rida, the commander of the Baraachit region in southern Lebanon”, it said in a statement. Abu Ali Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli troops and oversaw Hezbollah’s terrorist activities in the region,” the army added.
In recent weeks, the Israeli army has killed several military leaders and senior officials of the pro-Iranian group, including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on September 27 in a major attack on its headquarters in Beirut.
Hezbollah says it has fired a salvo of rockets into Safed, northern Israel
Lebanese Hezbollah announced that it had launched “a large salvo of rockets” on the city of Safed, in northern Israel, this Monday morning. The pro
-Iranian movement has been at open war since late September against Israel, which killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah, and is carrying out intense airstrikes and a ground offensive against Lebanon.
Last night Hezbollah had already said it had launched missiles against a military base in Haifa, the main city in northern Israel, where sirens were sounding. In a statement, the pro-Iranian formation specified that its fighters had targeted “for the first time the technical base of Haifa, affiliated to the Israeli Air Force (…) with a salvo of missiles”. The group, which launches projectiles towards Israel daily, also claimed responsibility for an explosive drone attack on Sunday against another military base located about twenty kilometers south-east of Haifa.
Israel informs UN of cancellation of UNRWA agreement
Israel on Monday officially informed the UN of the cancellation of the agreement with the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), voted by the Israeli parliament, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “On the instructions of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA,” the statement added.
The Israeli Parliament several days ago adopted a law banning “UNRWA activities on Israeli territory.” Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, the UN agency has become the bane of Israel, which accuses it of being infiltrated by Hamas. Last Wednesday the UN Security Council called on Israel to “respect its international obligations” and the “mandate” of the irreplaceable UNRWA in Gaza. In a statement all the members of the Council recall “the vital role” of the agency which “remains the backbone of the entire humanitarian response in Gaza”.
New attacks in southern and eastern Lebanon
The Israeli army carried out attacks on areas of southern Lebanon on Sunday, killing five people, according to the Health Ministry. The IDF claims to have killed several Hezbollah fighters. The public hospital in Tebnine (south) has been damaged and is at risk of being out of service after its surroundings were hit by raids, according to mayor Nabil Fawaz. In eastern Lebanon, Israel carried out attacks in several locations in the Bekaa plain, following an Israeli call to evacuate the thousand-year-old city of Baalbeck and its region.
Thirty people killed in the Gaza Strip
In the Gaza Strip at least 30 people died yesterday in Israeli raids, including 17 in the north of the territory, where the Israeli army has been carrying out an offensive since October 6 to prevent Hamas from regrouping its forces, explained the Protection spokesperson civil, Mahmoud Bassal.
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The strikes targeted homes belonging to two families in Beit Lahia and Jabalia (north), killing 10 people, including women and children, he said. In the south of the territory, according to the Ministry of Health, 13 Palestinians were killed, including four children, in Khan Younes. Houses housing civilians are hit ”without warning”, accused Mahmoud Bassal. “In northern Gaza, the siege is complete: more than 100,000 residents are without food, water and medicine.”
On the border with Lebanon, Benjamin Netanyahu threatens Hezbollah with a “firm response”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to hit Hezbollah hard, during a trip Sunday evening to the border with Lebanon, where his army has stepped up its deadly attacks on strongholds of the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement.
“I want to be clear: with or without a (ceasefire) agreement, the key to restoring security in the north (of Israel) is first and foremost to keep Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, to react to any rearmament attempt on its part. and to react firmly to any operation against us,” he said in front of Israeli soldiers.