MIddle East Escalation

Paramedics and Civil Defence crews are still collecting bodies from the streets of Nuseirat refugee camp. The past 24 hours have been very difficult in the northern part of the camp, where the Israeli military operated aggressively, destroying many of the homes and public facilities.

So far, 19 bodies have been collected. But there are still more, according to one of the first responders. Many of the bodies are difficult to reach because they are in areas very close to where the Israeli military is stationed.

In recent hours, Israel’s military has deliberately stopped ambulance and Civil Defence crew from getting to some of the sites where wounded people were still bleeding. Quadcopters chased them, firing live ammunition.

Palestinians who made their way to their homes in Nuseirat talked about the sheer level of destruction inflicted on their homes and public facilities. The military turned entire neighbourhoods into more of a wasteland.

The head of Israeli army’s Northern Command, Major General Uri Gordin, has been quoted by Israeli media as saying that “strong strikes on Hezbollah’s firing systems have significantly reduced its combat capability”.

He said he did not expect the Lebanese armed group to return to the border areas, but “if they make a mistake, it will be a big mistake, and we are prepared to return to the forward attack and return to combat”.

There have been no reports of ceasefire violations or accusations from either side [today]. But we are hearing reports that American and French officials, who are members of a committee set up to monitor this ceasefire, are in Beirut meeting with Lebanese army officials.

The push now on the third day of the ceasefire is to try to prevent the sort of violence that took place during the first two days, when we saw Israeli forces opening fire, killing and injuring Lebanese people. Both sides [Israel and Hezbollah] accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

The goal of this committee will be to steady the ship, to try to make sure that nothing happens to teeter the delicate balance of trying to keep this ceasefire going.

Meanwhile, people in Lebanon are trying to come to terms with exactly how bad the damage is.

Ministries that oversee education, municipal services, power and electricity, are looking at the number of buildings damaged and housing units made uninhabitable, trying to cater to the more than one million people who have been displaced.

These people are not only returning to homes they’ve been displaced from but trying to rebuild their lives. Many people don’t have anything, even winter clothes, according to aid groups.

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Israel’s military has warned the public to stay away from evacuated areas near the Lebanon border in the northern Galilee region, where it says there could still be “unexploded ordnance”.

The public should “refrain from entering restricted areas and allow the security forces to continue carrying out their missions”, the military said in a statement.

Geographic data analysis shows that the Israeli army warned Lebanese citizens against returning to 20 villages it had not previously invaded during the ground operation in southern Lebanon in its first and second phases.

A statement by the Israeli army spokesperson had warned the Lebanese against entering 62 villages in southern Lebanon, covering an area of 500 square kilometres (193 square miles).

The analysis of the Israeli map conducted by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, showed that only 42 villages were entered by the Israeli forces or witnessed clashes, even if they did not reach their depths or control them, such as Naqoura and Bint Jbeil.

Activists and media outlets circulated footage documenting the return of displaced people to the southern villages, amid widespread celebrations on the roads, and during the journey back from displacement areas to towns and homes in the Bekaa Valley, Tyre, Nabatieh, and others.

Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie confirmed that the authorities are fully prepared to secure the return of all displaced people to their homes and to open the roads and streets damaged by the Israeli aggression.

We are getting more reports of casualties near Gaza City, where Israel’s military has carried out a spate of deadly attacks in recent hours.

According to our colleagues on the ground, an Israeli attack killed or injured three people at an intersection to the west of the city.

Further south, a recent Israeli attack killed four family members in their home in Khan Younis, reports Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud.

“The attacks continue to pound across the Strip, not only causing casualties but inflicting more destruction and trauma,” said Mahmoud.

It is day three of the ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon. Overnight, there weren’t any more reports [of ceasefire violations], but the events of the last two days have illustrated some important stress tests.

The ceasefire is not exactly in jeopardy, but recent events have illustrated just how fragile and nascent the circumstances are.

On the first day, there were some incidents in which Israeli soldiers opened fire on people returning to their homes and villages. At least six people were killed and many were injured.

The second day in which they open fired on people, journalists were injured. Yesterday afternoon, an Israeli air strike also targeted what the military described as a Hezbollah target.

Hezbollah described this as a violation of the ceasefire, as did the Lebanese parliament speaker and prime minister.

People here are worried that if the violence of the last two days carries on or escalates, it would not bode well for the coming months when Israel is expected to begin departing the land in Lebanon it is still currently on.

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has called on the international community to join together and use its collective strength to demand Israel end the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, and also bring those guilty of genocide in Gaza to justice.

Commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Muizzu said the struggle of the Palestinian people is also the struggle of “every Maldivian”.

“We call on the international community to come together and leverage all its political will and economic power to demand an immediate end to Israel’s illegal occupation and hold those responsible for war crimes and genocidal acts accountable,” he said on social media.

“We firmly believe that a lasting solution can only be possible through the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he added.

Israel’s military has carried out a familiar wave of arrests in the occupied West Bank.

In Qalqilya, Israeli forces raided a Palestinian home and arrested a father and son. In the nearby village of Baqat al-Hatab, they arrested two brothers, according to the Wafa news agency.

Additionally, in Beit Furik, near Nablus, soldiers apprehended four people and confiscated their money and items of jewellery, Wafa reports.

Starting in the early hours of this morning, we clearly heard the sound of heavy machineguns and drones buzzing overhead, encircling Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat refugee camp.

This provided cover for Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles as they pull out from areas they invaded over the past 24 hours.

As the day broke, many displaced people made their way back to Nuseirat refugee camp to check on family members still inside.

Many were shocked to find out that their family members were not able to leave due to quadcopters constantly shooting at them.

We’ve seen footage of ambulances being barred from reaching people injured in the streets, where some were left overnight.

We spoke briefly to paramedics and first responders, who described the grim reality in the refugee camp.

Many people have been killed either inside their homes or as they were making their way out of their residential buildings into the streets, they said. They are literally collecting bodies right now from the streets.

Israeli Brigadier General Yisrael Shomer has warned that Israel has not yet fended off the threat of Hezbollah and should be ready to “strike back anywhere” to stop it from regrouping.

True “victory”, he said, is unlikely to come for decades.

“The test against Hezbollah will be in enforcement and preserving the achievements,” Shomer told the news outlet Israel Hayom.

“We must ensure this [threat] doesn’t grow back in Lebanon, or in Gaza. And if it does, we must go in and strike, even if it means they will fire some rockets at us,” he said.

“A few days of battle are preferable to Hezbollah returning to what it was,” he added.

As we’ve been reporting, Israeli forces have repeatedly fired at what it claims are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon despite the continuing ceasefire, which both Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of violating.

The Israeli prime minister addressed his base through a very right-wing Israeli media outlet, Channel 14, and in that interview, he said that the army would be ready to relaunch the war against Lebanon at the sight of any violation of the ceasefire.

He even said that he didn’t sign on to an end to the war, just a ceasefire.

In the meantime, of course, you have the Israeli army using firepower to create no-go zones in southern Lebanon which it still – de facto – occupies to strike at suspected Hezbollah sites and they say they will enforce the ceasefire with fire. Those were the words of the Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi .

Of course, this is all catering to the frustrated political base of Benjamin Netanyahu … the right wing and especially those residing in northern Israel communities, some of whom are refusing to return there because they were promised that their return would only be secure when Israel is done dismantling Hezbollah. And the ceasefire came without achieving that.

For now, there is a lot of grandstanding and a lot of observers are worried about whether this tenuous ceasefire, which will be implemented over 60 days, can hold.

Mediators have their work cut out for them and everybody else will be watching developments in the coming days.

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The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee has posted a list of villages in southern Lebanon that civilians are banned from returning to “until further notice”.

In a post on X, Adraee shared a map of southern Lebanon with a line demarcating the exclusion zone, along with the names of dozens of settlements.

“[The Israeli military] does not intend to target you and therefore you are prohibited at this stage from returning to your homes from this line south until further notice,” he said.

A ceasefire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah came into effect on Wednesday, but both sides have accused one another of violating the terms of the agreement.

The Israeli military has stormed the occupied West Bank town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, and arrested 10 Palestinians, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces had arrested 11 Palestinians in the town of Baqat al-Hatab near Qalqilya.

Translation: Israeli forces arrest one of the wounded during the storming of Beit Furik town in Nablus.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Israel’s assault on Gaza has continued overnight, including three separate attacks in northern Gaza City which have killed a combined 10 people, including women and children.
• Israeli fighter jets have also bombed a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least five people.
• Israel’s Minister of Housing and Construction Yitzchak Goldknopf has said “Jewish settlement” in Gaza is an appropriate response to the October 7 attack and the International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
• The EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has called out the rise of extremism in Israel, where “the colonisation of the mind of the people is the most dangerous thing” facing Israeli society.
• The Israeli military has informed the family of a Palestinian detainee they will be demolishing their home in the occupied West Bank town of Bal’a, east of Tulkarem.

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Earlier, we reported the far-right Israeli finance minister claimed Israel had “thwarted a great threat to the settlements and the state of Israel”.

Bezalel Smotrich suggested he had leveraged a one-year extension of an Israeli banking deal, crucial to the survival of the Palestinian state, to ensure a US-supported resolution at the UN Security Council recognising Palestinian statehood would not pass before Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.

But a Biden administration official has said that no such initiative was ever on the cards, The Times of Israel reports.

The official told the Israeli news outlet that Washington is, however, considering other steps to boost the prospects of a two-state solution before the end of the Biden administration.

The US administration has repeatedly come out against efforts to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state, asserting that its creation should be the result of “direct negotiations” between involved parties.

This triggered a number of conversations and calls between Lebanese officials – the Lebanese speaker of parliament, the Lebanese prime minister – speaking to French President Emmanuel Macron.

The French are members of a committee that has been set up to oversee the ceasefire, to make sure that it lasts.

But what we are seeing here on the ground in Beirut, at the end of these two days, is a serious concern by people who saw the ceasefire as a positive step forward.

Serious concerns that if the violence in the first two days is any indication – if the violence is to get worse – then that does not bode well for the coming months in which the ceasefire is expected to hold long enough to see Israel leave Lebanese territory, and both sides – Lebanon and Israel – work towards some sort of a lasting peace.

During the first two days of the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, there have been a number of incidents that are a stress test, no doubt, to its long-term durability.

As people started returning to the south of the country, there were a number of incidents where Israel opened fire on groups of people, killing and injuring Lebanese in the south of the country as they went back to some of those areas.

Lebanese people say that it is their country, and they can go where they want.

Israel said that they are maintaining the terms of the ceasefire, and those people were in areas where they should not have been and too close to where Israel still maintains positions inside Lebanese territory.

Also, there was an air strike on Thursday carried out by the Israeli air force on what it described as a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese army issued a statement saying that on the 27th and 28th of November – the first two days of the ceasefire – “the Israeli enemy violated the agreement several times”.

• The Israeli military has launched multiple attacks on what it claims are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, as both sides accuse one another of violating a fragile US-brokered ceasefire agreement.
• The Israeli military has also renewed a curfew imposed on residents in southern Lebanon after thousands of civilians returned to their damaged homes in the area.
• Israeli forces have continued their bombardment of Gaza, killing at least 42 people over several deadly attacks on Thursday, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is “ready for a ceasefire” in Gaza, but not an end to the war with Hamas, during his first interview since the truce with Hezbollah came into effect.
• An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general has been killed in Syria amid an ongoing assault by armed groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Tehran has labelled the offensive a “ploy” by the United States and Israel to destabilise the region.

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Israeli forces raided the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, and stationed troops in three different areas, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Soldiers launched sound bombs and tear gas canisters towards residents and their homes, it added, without reporting any injuries.

Israeli forces often raid Palestinian towns and villages across the West Bank and carry out large-scale arrest campaigns. They also often wound and kill Palestinian residents during these incursions, which have intensified in frequency since October 2023.

The families of Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip have written to Benjamin Netanyahu to say he should act immediately to strike a deal if, as he earlier today claimed, conditions have gotten better.

“The time is ripe for a deal” if killed Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh were the reason previous attempts failed, they said in a statement.

“Winter has arrived, and with it more dangers to the lives and health of the abductees. They will not be able to survive another winter without food, without water, without medicines in the frost and dampness underground. If not now, when?”

New York City police say they arrested 21 people after protesters jumped barricades and sat down on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade route with Palestinian flags and a “Don’t Celebrate Genocide” banner.

They chanted “Free, free Palestine!” as a giant Ronald McDonald balloon bore down on them on Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue.

People protesting Israel’s war in Gaza also interrupted last year’s parade.

The Israeli strike targeted a tent housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

A child was among those killed, it said, adding that several more people were wounded in the attack.

Israeli forces had earlier carried out another strike on southern Gaza, killing several people in Khan Younis and Rafah.

People in Lebanon are picking up the pieces after nearly 14 months of war. The pause in hostilities has renewed a push to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Could the Lebanon ceasefire be a step towards broader regional peace?

Find out in the latest episode of Inside Story:

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati have had separate phone calls with French President Emmanuel Macron, the National News Agency (NNA) reports.

They discussed “the ongoing situation in Lebanon” after the announcement of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah as well as issues relating to the “broader political and security landscape”, NNA said.

Mikati thanked Macron for his commitment to Lebanon and key role in securing the ceasefire, NNA said. He also confirmed that the army was bolstering its presence south of the Litani River near the border with Israel.

For his part, Berri discussed “Israeli provocations that continue to complicate the security situation”, NNA added.

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The Israeli prime minister made a distinction between a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and a permanent end to the war during the interview with Channel14, his first since the Lebanon ceasefire agreement.

Netanyahu said that Israel intends to continue its war with Hamas and added that he is optimistic about efforts to release the captives held by Hamas.

“The answer is clear: I am ready for a ceasefire in the south, one that we think can achieve the release of the abductees.”

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel has “thwarted a great threat to the settlements and the state of Israel this evening in a smart and quiet way”.

He wrote in a post on X that Israel has ensured a resolution recognising Palestinian statehood in the UN Security Council would not be passed during the period leading up to Donald Trump taking over the White House again in January,

“We will continue to develop the settlements, fortify Israel’s security and prevent the establishment of a terrorist state that will endanger our existence and the future of our children,” Smotrich said.

The minister has called for the military occupation of Gaza and is a staunch supporter of rapidly expanding Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, which are illegal under international law.

“It’s not about just a ceasefire but that we won a ceasefire,” said 25-year-old Ibrahim Termos, smiling. He lost his home in this war, but the fact the nightmare of the past two months is over has him focusing on the positive.

“Our apartment was destroyed, but the building is still standing,” Termos said.

Read our full story here.

Families from southern Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre have been returning to their homes following the newly announced ceasefire, but Israeli strikes have turned parts of the city into an uninhabitable disaster zone without water or electricity.

“I wasn’t expecting such damage. We saw the pictures, but the reality is harder,” said resident Dunia Najdeh, 33, upon returning to her home.

As she struggled to protect her children from the shards of glass interspersed between their books and toys, her father-in-law Sleiman Najdeh looked on with despair at the devastation wrought upon the ancient city.

“There’s no more water or electricity, even the private generators don’t work any more, their cables are severed,” said the 60-year-old.

“Tyre and Lebanon don’t deserve what happened… but God will compensate us, and Tyre will be even better than it was before,” he said.

Here’s an update on the latest developments.

• The Israeli military launched multiple attacks on southern Lebanon in a stated effort to enforce the ceasefire deal. At the same time, the Lebanese army accused it of repeatedly violating the agreement and said it is following up.
• Several Palestinians were killed as a result of the latest Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip in the past few hours, including one in the southern city of Khan Younis, with the total number of people killed today reaching at least 25.
• A senior Iranian general was killed in Syria’s Aleppo after armed groups stormed the military positions of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
• Tehran said it considers the major offensive in Syria a “ploy” by the US and Israel to destabilise the region further.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that conditions for reaching a possible deal to secure the release of Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip have considerably improved.

Asked about a possible deal in an interview with local Channel 14, Netanyahu said, “I think the conditions have very much changed for the better.”

His comments come as US President Joe Biden announced a renewed push to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza following several failed attempts.

The Israeli prime minister says that he ordered the military to be prepared for an intense war in Lebanon if the ceasefire’s framework is violated.

He made the remarks during an interview with Israeli Channel 14.

Both Israel and Lebanon have accused the other of violating the ceasefire, which came into effect yesterday.

The security cabinet in Israel has voted to extend for another year a waiver that allows Israeli banks to engage in correspondent banking ties with Palestinian counterparts amid pressure from the US and E3, according to Israeli media.

The extension comes after two previous one-month extensions by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, which had caused uncertainty over whether Israel wishes to go ahead with cutting off funding to the Palestinian Authority and bring about its collapse.

After the vote, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote in a post on X that his opposition to indemnifying the banks is a “principled objection”.

He said he is sorry that some of his peers speak against the PA but vote differently in practice. He said the Palestinian organisation should be completely cut off and “collapsed”.

The Israeli military says it was ending some protective restrictions that had limited the size of gatherings in parts of central and northern Israel.

The change was made following a situational assessment, the military said.

The statement comes days after Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire. Both accused the other of violating the accord earlier today.

The UN sends a reminder that more than two million people are now trapped in the Gaza Strip with little access to food and no access to safe drinking water.

“Food is scarce, and famine is imminent. Most of Gaza’s water supply is unsafe to drink. With nowhere to go, families are living in abandoned homes or out in the open,” the UN said.

At least three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone attack that hit “a group of people” in an area southeast of Khan Younis, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

It said “several others” were killed in an Israeli attack near Khirbat al-Adas, north of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Wafa reports that at least 25 people have been killed in strikes today across central and southern Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians near Gaza City’s Yarmouk Stadium endure harsh living conditions in makeshift tents, where families sit outside patched tarpaulin shelters to shield themselves from the cold and rain.

Children navigate muddy roads, some barefoot, while others help with daily chores such as carrying water or gathering supplies.

Those sheltering in tents endure harsh conditions, struggling with cold weather and heavy rainfall. Limited fuel supplies exacerbate heating challenges, while the worn-out tents, damaged by the sun and wind, fail to provide adequate protection from the elements.

The Israeli army says they neutralised the area where medium-range rockets of Hezbollah were stored. It did not say whoever was there was attempting to launch them.

But this is in line with what the Israeli army and government have been saying even from before the ceasefire agreement took effect, which is that Israel would enforce the ceasefire with fire. And that it would not allow Hezbollah to roam free in southern Lebanon and wouldn’t allow the group to rearm. That is the interpretation of the agreement Israel is going with.

But what we’ve been able to see and read from the text of the agreement is that it doesn’t include Israel’s right to enforce the ceasefire.

In any case, this does stress-test the agreement, which is supposed to be implemented over 60 days, long time with a lot of room for these sorts of incidents.

Inside Israel, the right-wing coalition government is still tightly held together.

But what we’re seeing now is that residents of northern Israel, who have been supporting the war and Benjamin Netanyahu, are very angry. Many of them are not accepting the invitation to go back to their communities, and the Israeli opposition is capitalising on that anger.

Hamas called on people around the globe to “step up” their support and solidarity for the Palestinian people and call for an end of the genocide in Gaza.

In a statement commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, slated for November 29, Hamas called on rights groups and the international community to pressure Israel to halt its deadly assault and “aggression” on Gaza.

It also called on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel to “escalate all forms of resistance” against the Israeli occupation.

The Lebanese army says Israeli forces have violated the new ceasefire agreement “several times” since Wednesday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, “after the ceasefire agreement was announced, the Israeli enemy violated the agreement several times, through air violations and targeting Lebanese territory with various weapons,” the army said on X.

It added that it was “following up” on the violations with the relevant authorities.

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Moody’s says it is too early to say whether Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon has “significantly and sustainably” reduced the risk that led the agency to downgrade Israel’s sovereign credit rating.

“It is too early to say whether these risks will be significantly and sustainably reduced,” Moody’s said.

The agency downgraded Israel’s credit rating to Baa1, from A2, in September.

Earlier today, ratings agency Fitch said the ceasefire deal could limit strains on Israel’s credit profile.

Israel’s bonds, which have been under pressure during the war, gained after the ceasefire deal took effect on Wednesday, while Lebanon’s deeply distressed bonds also got a boost.

Moody’s also said that while geopolitical risks “appear to have partially diminished”, domestic political risks remained.

“In our view, the Israeli government is pursuing policies that add to already high social tensions in the country,” it said, citing disputed judicial reforms and attempts to permanently exempt the ultra-orthodox from military service.

We’ve been hearing lots of tragic stories coming from families who are trapped in the city of Beit Lahiya. Even our colleagues there are still trapped.

We’ve heard stories from families who’ve gone days without having any sort of food, and they have been depending on drinking water and eating dates.

Also, civilians have been reporting on their family members being buried under the debris of their houses after being targeted by Israeli artillery and fighter jets without being able to be rescued.

Civil defence members and crews cannot effectively operate in the north of the Strip because this area is no longer recognisable.

All the landmarks [in Jabalia and Beit Lahiya] … have been completely changed forever due to the widespread destruction in that area.

These attacks continue to hammer residential buildings, destroying what’s been left of the northern part of Gaza.

What’s so grim is that we continue to hear from families that they are not even able to go to Gaza City, given the fact that it has also been under relentless attacks on evacuation centres.

A World Health Organization official has expressed hope that some of Lebanon’s shuttered health facilities would soon be operational again, provided that there’s no return to fighting.

“Probably some of our hospitals will take some time, but some hospitals probably will be able to restart very quickly,” Abdinasir Abubakar, WHO representative in Lebanon, told an online news conference after a damage assessment this week.

“So we are very hopeful,” he said, adding that four hospitals in and around Beirut were among those that could restart quickly.

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Here’s a quick look at the latest developments:

• The Israeli military fired on southern Lebanon multiple times, including with fighter aircraft, claiming it detected “terrorist activity” and acted against what it said it considered to be violations of the ceasefire agreement.
• A Hezbollah-affiliated lawmaker accused Israel of violating the deal by firing on civilians returning to their homes in southern Lebanon.
• The director of hospitals at Gaza’s Health Ministry told Al Jazeera that 75 percent of the capacity of hospitals in the territory has been lost, and only five understaffed hospitals are currently operational.
• An Iranian general with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been confirmed killed in Syria’s Aleppo amid an ongoing major assault by armed groups opposed to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
• Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Lebanese counterpart that the deadly offensive in Syria is a “ploy” by the US and Israel to further destabilise the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says US Joe Biden’s announcement to launch a new initiative for a ceasefire in Gaza is a belated, but important step.

He was speaking at a joint news conference in Ankara with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said.

Another 78 people were killed across Lebanon on Tuesday and 266 were wounded, according to the country’s health ministry.

This brings the death toll since the start of the war on Gaza and before the ceasefire early Wednesday to 3,961 people, it said, adding that 16,520 people were injured.

At least 248 children and 736 women have been killed, with Tuesday’s death toll mostly coming as a result of Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon. At least 222 health workers have been killed since October last year, with 330 others wounded and 94 hospitals impacted by attacks.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken on the phone with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib about the ceasefire in Lebanon and renewed fighting in Syria.

The top Iranian diplomat said the ceasefire was a result of “indescribable resilience” by the Lebanese nation and resistance forces, and of political leadership by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the government.

Araghchi warned that Lebanon must remain “seriously vigilant” because Israel has shown it cannot be relied upon to stay committed to such agreements, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

He said the fact that “terrorist takfiri groups have been reactivated” in Lebanon’s neighbouring Syria is a “US-Zionist ploy to disturb regional stability and security after the defeats and shortcomings of the Zionist regime against the resistance”.

We reported earlier on an IRGC general who was killed in fighting in Aleppo, Syria. Iran blamed what it termed Israeli-backed militias for his killing.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s head Arabic-language spokesperson, has issued new warnings to people in southern Lebanon. In a post on X, he said the following:

• It is strictly forbidden to move or travel south of the Litani River starting from 5pm (14:00 GMT) until 7am (04:00 GMT) tomorrow.
• Those south of the Litani River must remain where they are.

Israel has fired on people in southern Lebanon several times since the ceasefire between it and Hezbollah went into effect yesterday.

Most of the incidents appear to have involved people of vehicles approaching zones Israeli unilaterally designated as “restricted”.

The director of hospitals at Gaza’s Health Ministry spoke to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic and offered these updates on the dire health situation in the Strip after more than 14 months of Israeli assault:

• A large number of hospitals in the territory are out of service.
• Only five hospitals are still operating but they are understaffed.
• We are suffering from a severe shortage of medicines and cannot treat thousands of patients.
• We have lost about 75 percent of the capacity of the hospitals [in Gaza].
• The health situation in the sector is catastrophic. We have a severe shortage in all surgical departments, which has caused many of them to close.

The Israeli military says its air defences have fired an interceptor missile after suspecting an aerial target on the border with Lebanon but it was a false identification.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the suspected target on the border with Lebanon was “most likely a bird, not a Hezbollah drone”.

The UK, France and Germany have urged Israel to renew vital banking ties with Palestinian financial institutions for at least 12 months, warning that a failure to do so could lead to the collapse of the Palestinian economy and destabilise the region.

The appeal was made as Israel’s indemnification of its banks for cross-border transactions with their Palestinian counterparts is set to expire on Saturday, according to a statement by the UK government.

The deadline comes during Israel’s 14-month war on the Gaza Strip, which has left most Palestinian institutions in the Strip little more than piles of rubble.”The issue of cross-border payments must not be leveraged to undermine the Palestinian Authorities,” the statement said.

On October 31, the Israeli government granted a 30-day extension to the banking ties – the shortest yet – raising alarm among European nations and international observers.

“This disappointing decision prolongs uncertainty and endangers the Palestinian economy,” the statement said.

“Cutting off these banking ties, which Israel has a clear duty under the Paris Protocol to maintain, would create significant economic turmoil in the West Bank, jeopardising the security of Israel and the wider region.”

The UK, France and Germany emphasised there is no technical justification for withholding a longer-term extension, citing improvements in Palestinian financial oversight.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says that ICC had “no justification” for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, in a joint news conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, the Reuters news agency reported.

Saar told Reuters Israel has appealed the decision, claiming that it set a dangerous precedent.

The ICC issued arrest warrants last week for Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war on Gaza.

The foreign minister also told the agency that Israel would finish the war on Gaza when it “achieves its objectives” of returning captives being held in Gaza and ensuring Hamas no longer controls the Strip.

Saar added that Israel does not intend to control civilian life in Gaza and that he believes peace is “inevitable” but that it can’t be based on “illusions”.

Spokesman Kazem Abu-Khalaf for the UN’s children’s relief fund says that 2,500 children in the Gaza Strip need urgent medical evacuation.

“30 percent of children in the Gaza Strip suffer from severe malnutrition,” he said in a media statement.

Meanwhile, 95 percent of the schools that house displaced people in the Gaza Strip have been “completely destroyed”, Abu-Khalaf said.

He added: “The situation in the northern Gaza Strip is extremely difficult, and tragic, and is getting worse.”

We’ve seen for the past many months, the large-scale destruction being carried out in the capital of Beirut, and in cities and communities across Lebanon. People filming the devastation of their own communities by themselves on their own phones.

Now into the second day of the ceasefire, the estimates of costs are coming in. These are initial but they are staggering.

In Beirut’s southern suburbs alone, at least 262 buildings were made inhabitable. The cost estimate from the World Bank is $2.8bn in damage to housing alone in Lebanon, across the country. A total of 99,000 homes – 99,000 living units – partially or completely destroyed, uninhabitable.

The World Bank also estimates the damage and loss in Lebanon to $8.5bn since November. That will be updated for the months since, with that number expected to go up.

We’ve seen $1.1bn in losses to one of the most important industries – agriculture – and tourism is also suffering. Shops, businesses, restaurants have been closed. And the cost of now dealing with people who remain displaced, who will have to be absorbed into the community by people whose homes are still standing.

And the very expensive cost in money and time, of de-mining areas that still have unexploded ordinances, where Israel was either operating, or laid down mines or dropped bombs.

So the road ahead is very, very complicated and very, very expensive.

Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, has announced that a session will be held on January 9, 2025, for the election of a new president.

The Lebanese Parliament has convened for this same purpose – and failed to elect a president – no less than 12 times since former President Michel Aoun’s term expired in the fall of 2022.

The latest failure came in June 2023, months before the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, and Hezbollah’s subsequent instigation of hostilities against Israel on October 8.

On that occasion, a bloc led by Hezbollah MPs broke quorum after the first round of voting, which requires a two-thirds majority of MPs to progress past.

Hezbollah has been severely crippled by Isreal and it remains to be seen what influence they will wield over the elections of a new Lebanese president.

Previously the group was seen as kingmaker for the position, meaning any potential president would need to get the OK of former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who is now dead.

The previous Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, and his Free Patriotic Movement party, are close allies of Hezbollah.

In the leadup to the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Isreal, officials from the US and Lebanon, including Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, had said that Lebanon must elect a new president as soon as possible.

Islamic Relief says the ceasefire in Lebanon “must allow people in Lebanon impacted by the violence to recover, get relief at last, and facilitate the return of displaced communities to their homes and businesses”.

“While there is a sense of hope in Lebanon following news of the ceasefire, there is still doubt over whether the parties to the conflict will or can honour it,” the organisation said in a statement.

It reported that between 12 and 20 shelters in Mount Lebanon have already closed as people return to their homes.

“Islamic Relief remains committed to providing humanitarian assistance to those in need in Lebanon and continues to work with people impacted by the devastating violence,” Islamic Relief said, adding it hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza.

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A young Palestinian man was shot by Israeli forces in the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli soldiers stationed inside a house they seized yesterday in the town opened fire on the young man inside his vehicle, wounding him in the shoulder. The man is from the town of al-Mughayyir, the agency reported.

At dawn yesterday, Wafa says, Israeli forces had seized the house of local resident Muntaser Naji Salama, and forced its owners to leave, turning it into military barracks.

Footage posted online and verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad, documents the moment a building in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip was bombed.

We reported earlier that at least nine people were killed in that attack.

Translation: The moment the Nazareth Tower in the New Camp was targeted and a number of casualties arrived at al-Awda Hospital.

Former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz tells Israel’s Maariv newspaper that the captives still held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups have not yet been returned “for political reasons”.

“We cannot deny the fact that we failed to protect the abductees and abandoned them, and we must fix this”, he told the newspaper.

He also called for the urgent reaching of a deal to return the remaining captives, calling it the “only way” to ensure their safety.

At the same time, the influential Israeli politician called yesterday’s ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon “a mistake”.

“A much stronger agreement could have been reached that would further reduce Hezbollah’s size, and the government made a mistake by choosing a forced ceasefire”, he said.

Out of power since resigning from the war cabinet in June, he has played antagonist to PM Netanyahu’s government in the media.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that four people were killed early on Thursday when drones targeted a group of Palestinian civilians near a camp for displaced people in the town of Abasan, located to the east of Khan Younis.

A number of other people were also injured in the drone strike, Wafa reports.

Residential buildings were also attacked and destroyed east of Rafah city in the south of the territory and in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to Wafa’s sources in the war-torn enclave.

We will bring you more on the Khan Younis drone strike as information becomes available.

This started in the early hours of this morning across the Gaza Strip.

We can confidently say that the entire Gaza Strip has been bombed equally since the early hours of this morning.

We can still clearly hear the sound of the fighter jets flying at a very, very low level across the central area of Gaza and Deir el-Balah city.

Reports were received from the northern part of the Strip, particularly from Jabalia and the city of Beit Lahiya. These fighter jets carried out deadly attacks that destroyed the remaining residential buildings in Jabalia refugee camp, Jabalia town as well as the northern part of Beit Lahiya Project area and Beit Lahiya city.

This is just pushing people into further internal displacement and causing massive civilian casualties.

In the Nuseirat refugee camp, particularly in the northern area of the camp, very close to the Netzarim junction, the Israeli military on the ground is conducting a policy to expand the junction. In doing so, it carries out these attacks to destroy remaining residential buildings.

These buildings are residential homes and residential towers that the Israeli military claims are being used as observation points by Palestinian fighters.

But from what we’ve heard from witnesses, there were massive numbers of civilians inside these residential buildings.

The ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel has been in place for almost a day now and Lebanese troops have started moving to the south of the country under the terms of the deal.

People are travelling back to towns, villages and homes they were forcibly displaced from but Israel’s military has imposed movement restrictions on Lebanese civilians in parts of south Lebanon.

US media are also reporting that President Joe Biden’s administration has provisionally approved new weapons sales to Israel.

Listen to the full report:

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster, US envoy Amos Hochstein has dismissed the idea that Israel could have achieved a better deal than the current ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Yes, there are fantasy deals that are utopia, where you get a ceasefire agreement with a security zone etc. But those won’t ever happen,” Hochstein said in the televised interview.

“There will never be an agreement that also has Israel as an occupying force in another country, that country will not sign that deal,” he said.

He added that if Israel insisted on a demilitarised zone inside Lebanon “then you are there as an occupier”.

Such a zone could be between two kilometres to five kilometres, he said, but added: “As every Israeli today knows, it’s no longer just about five or 10 kilometre ranges. It’s about much further”.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has taken effect, aiming to end more than a year of war in Lebanon. As displaced families return home and celebrations erupt in Lebanon’s streets, uncertainty looms over how long the fragile peace will last.

In this episode:

• Justin Salhani (@JustinSalhani), Al Jazeera Journalist

Here’s what you need to know:

• Israeli forces separated Palestinian women and children from men – who were detained and sent to Israel for interrogation – as hundreds of civilians fled north Gaza’s besieged Beit Lahiya, the Associated Press news agency reports.
• At least four people were killed in Israeli bombing of two houses in Beit Lahiya, Palestinian media reports.
• Palestinian media also report that Israeli special forces arrested four men during a raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
• Israeli police arrested four people at a protest in Jerusalem calling on Israel’s government to secure a deal to end the war in Gaza and free captives, Israel’s Maariv news outlet said.
• The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman issued a new warning and published a map indicating areas of southern Lebanon that the Israeli military said residents are prohibited from returning to.

Israeli special forces have infiltrated the Jabal an-Nasr area in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, and arrested four men after besieging their homes.

The al-Quds Brigades –Tulkarem Battalion said its fighters opened fire on Israeli forces in Jabal an-Nasr, while also detonating an explosive device on an Israeli military vehicle, achieving “confirmed casualties”.

Israeli military raids have been reported in other locations across the occupied West Bank, including:

• The town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, where Israeli forces have detained a Palestinian man
• Faqqua village, east of Jenin, where a minor was wounded by shrapnel

Translation: Part of the occupation forces storming Tulkarem city.

Israeli forces separated Palestinian women and children from men when hundreds of civilians fled the war-torn and besieged northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on Wednesday, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.

Many of those fleeing Beit Lahiya, which has been under an Israeli military siege for more than 50 days, crowded onto donkey carts with their belongings in their arms. Others walked on foot, some holding the hands of their small children, as they approached Israeli forces who had encircled the town and prevented food, water and medicine from entering.

“We left, and here we are sitting, with no shelter or food, and we do not know where to go,” Umm Saleh al-Adham, a woman who fled Beit Lahiya, told the AP news agency

She said Israeli troops separated the Palestinian men and only allowed the women and children to travel onward to Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it facilitated the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Beit Lahiya and also detained dozens of Palestinians who were taken to Israel for questioning, the AP reports.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty discussed ceasefire efforts in Gaza after a truce deal was reached in Lebanon.

“We discussed the truce agreement in Lebanon. And we express our hope that this agreement will result in a real ceasefire, and also that its effect will extend to the Gaza Strip – ending this human suffering as soon as possible,” Qatar’s prime minister said at a joint news conference in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital in the Cairo governorate.

“We talked about the sincere and tireless Egyptian-Qatari efforts that continued for more than a year in order to quickly reach a deal that would guarantee an immediate ceasefire and stop the bloodshed of the brotherly Palestinian people with the release of all hostages and a number of Palestinian prisoners,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Abdelatty added.

There is still some opposition in Israel to the ceasefire deal with Lebanon.

Mainly from the residents of northern Israel who were promised that their return would happen once Israel is able to crush and dismantle Hezbollah. They know that that hasn’t happened.

It’s a problem of perception because, so far, the ceasefire has been holding, and everybody is complying, relatively.

Now, what is the Israeli government trying to do in order to convince the public that this is a good deal and that Israel has come out victorious?

It’s focusing on the message that the Israeli army would enforce compliance, that it would not accept any infractions from Hezbollah, that it would act with force if it sees any movement of Hezbollah troops south of the Litani River. That it is even restricting the movement of the Lebanese trying to return home to southern Lebanon.

So there will be 60 days of a very tenuous, fragile ceasefire, during which the Israeli army gradually withdraws from southern Lebanon.

In the meantime, there’s a lot of convincing to do with Israel that this was actually a good deal, especially for Netanyahu’s base, in the right wing of Israeli society.

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• In its first statement since the ceasefire announcement, Hezbollah has proclaimed “victory” over Israel and says its fighters remain ready to deal with Israeli attacks.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the ceasefire “the first ray of hope” in the regional conflict after months of escalation and reiterated his calls for a truce in Gaza.
• Israeli forces have issued an overnight curfew in southern Lebanon, warning that travelling south of the Litani River is “forbidden” until 05:00 GMT Thursday.
• Israel has informed the International Criminal Court (ICC) it will appeal against arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over suspected war crimes in Gaza.
• Rights groups have strongly rejected a claim by France that Netanyahu has immunity from ICC prosecution as Israel has not signed up to the court’s statutes.
• The UN has sounded the alarm over the catastrophic situation for Palestinian civilians in Gaza’s north, which has been besieged for 55 days by Israeli forces amid an ongoing ground assault in the area.