Middle East latest: Hezbollah says its war with Israel is entering a new phase

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

___

Here's the latest:

UNITED NATIONS -- Gaza has experienced “a biblical, unprecedented rain of destruction” since Israel launched its military offensive following Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, the U.N. housing expert says.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the U.N. independent investigator on the right to adequate housing, told reporters Friday that “the ferocity” of destruction in Gaza wasn’t seen in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

By January 2024, Rajagopal said, 60-70% of all homes in Gaza were destroyed, and in northern Gaza it was 82% of homes. “It is far worse than that right now,” particularly in the north which is approaching the 100% level, he said.

Israel’s U.N. Mission had no comment on the U.N. rapporteur’s statements.

Rajagopal said a recent report by the U.N. Development Program estimated that in May there were over 39 million tons of debris in Gaza, and he said that rubble is mixed with unexploded ordnance, toxic waste, asbestos from collapsed buildings, and other material.

“The groundwater pollution and the soil contamination are so catastrophic that we don’t know if they can ever be remedied in time for people to move back at least within this generation,” he said.

How long will it take to rebuild Gaza?

Rajagopal said first the debris has to be removed, secondly there must be financing, and then “there is another big elephant in the room, which is that no reconstruction can happen unless the occupation ends.” That’s because Israel has restricted building materials and equipment to rebuild, which it contends have dual uses, he said.

After the 2014 war in Gaza, Rajagopal said, less than 1,000 homes were built every year.

The UNDP report estimated that about 80,000 homes have been destroyed in the current war, so it would take about 80 years to rebuild if the occupation continues, he said.

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. independent investigator on the right to food insisted Israel is still conducting “a starvation campaign” in Gaza, despite its delivery of over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food to the territory since it launched its military operation a year ago.

Michael Fakhri told reporters Friday that food is not calories and Palestinians have not gotten adequate food or calories.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, recently warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within 30 days or it could risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding.

Fakhri said: “Based on a year-long starvation campaign and a 24-year blockade and siege, allowing a few more trucks to enter in now does not actually address the humanitarian needs.”

“But most importantly, what Israel is saying contradicts everything every humanitarian organization is saying now, and has been saying,” he said.

Fakhri said humanitarian officials call Israel’s rules on what is allowed into Gaza “opaque and absurd.”

Convoys that make it through are often shot at and targeted by Israeli forces despite coordination with Israeli authorities, he said. “And then even if those convoys get past that, civilians seeking aid have been shot at and killed several times.”

Israel’s U.N. Mission did not respond to a request for comment on Fakhri’s press conference.

UNITED NATIONS — Arab nations and the Palestinians are pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution that demands an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

Asked to respond to Israel and Hamas saying they don’t want a cease-fire following the Israeli killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told reporters Friday that the decision isn’t up to them.

“It is not up to the fighting parties to dictate upon all of us their wishes and their activities, … especially Israel,” he said. “It is the duty of the Security Council to say, `We demand an immediate cease-fire and compliance by all parties, and we demand that to take place, for example, within 24 hours or within 48 hours.”

Mansour said it should not be “taboo” for the Security Council to draft a resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which would make it militarily enforceable.

Mansour was speaking after he and 10 Arab ambassadors met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The Palestinian ambassador said they discussed a leaked proposal from Israeli generals to declare northern Gaza a military zone and seal it off, which he said would threaten 400,000 Palestinians there with death or starvation.

Mansour expressed hope that the often divided Security Council has “the spine and the strength and the determination” to stop that from happening and demand an immediate cease-fire and the delivery of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza, “and to allow for opening a door to a political horizon.”

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military says it killed the militant who guarded the late Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar.

Sinwar was killed by Israeli troops on Wednesday in Rafah, Gaza.

In a statement released Friday night, the military identified the militant as Mahmoud Hamdan. It says troops killed Hamdan on Friday, 200 meters (650 feet) away from where Sinwar was killed.

The military says Hamdan acted as a guard for six hostages who were killed in August as Israeli troops drew near to where they were being held in the Gaza tunnel network. It did not provide evidence for the claim.

The six hostages included an Israeli-American, Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

BERLIN — President Joe Biden has suggested that negotiating a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah could be easier than forging one between Israel and Hamas.

Biden says he discussed the way ahead to end the Middle East conflict following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza when he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday.

Biden told reporters that the leaders “think that there is a possibility of working for a cease-fire in Lebanon and it’s going to be harder in Gaza.”

He continued: “But we agree there has to be an outcome of what happens the day after.”

Sinwar was killed Wednesday by Israeli forces in Gaza, and Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone the following day.

Biden declined to say whether Netanyahu gave him assurance during that conversation that the Israelis are ready to get back to negotiations toward a cease-fire and the release of hostages.

“We’re in the middle of discussions about that,” Biden said, adding: “I’m not going to get into that.”

Asked whether he had an understanding of when and how Israel may respond to Iran’s missile barrage on Israel earlier this month, Biden responded, “Yes and yes.”

He declined to offer any further details on Israel’s potential retaliation.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to convene a special meeting with government ministers to discuss hostage negotiations in the light of Israel's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

It’s unclear when the meeting will be held or what exactly is on the agenda.

Israelis have urged the government to use the opportunity to seal a deal for the hostages’ release since Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces Wednesday.

Among hostage families, there’s hope Sinwar’s death could restart the negotiations that sputtered to a stop three weeks ago, when Hamas and Israel accused each other of negotiating in bad faith.

BEIRUT — The U.N.’s children’s agency says it has activated an emergency cholera response to help protect children and families by containing the disease.

The announcement by UNICEF Friday follows the confirmation of a cholera case in the Akkar governorate in North Lebanon.

The health ministry said in a statement that the cholera case was unrelated to the growing displacement crisis in Lebanon. However, the country remains vigilant in controlling the spread of communicable diseases amid the ongoing displacement.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit says six people have been killed and 69 wounded in the past 24 hours in the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The new numbers raise the total toll over the past year of conflict to 2,418 killed and 11,336 wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Friday.

The crisis response unit report also records 87 airstrikes and shellings in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

Some 1,098 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities, and other institutions — are sheltering 191,501 people, including 44,646 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report says.

Among these shelters, 902 are full. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the U.N. children’s agency.

The Lebanese Ministry of Education reports that 77 % of public schools are out of service, either due to their use as shelters or their location in areas directly affected by the war.

Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after an Israeli strike on the road, crowds continue to flow across the border seeking safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 18, Lebanese General Security recorded 335,948 Syrian and 135,181 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria, the report says.

BERLIN — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has told Israel that “the world will not tolerate any more excuses on humanitarian assistance” to people in Gaza.

Speaking Friday during a visit to Berlin to meet President Joe Biden and European leaders, Starmer said “the dire humanitarian situation cannot continue. … Civilians in northern Gaza need food now.”

The Biden administration warned Israel on Sunday that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it allows into Gaza within the next 30 days or risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding.

Starmer says the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar should be a precursor to a cease-fire.

Starmer says “no one should mourn” the death of Sinwar, who had “the blood of innocent Israelis” on his hands, as well as the blood of Palestinians “who suffered in the chaos and violence that he sought and celebrated.”

He says he strongly supports Israel’s right to self-defense, “particularly in the face of the Iranian regime’s actions” and that Sinwar’s death ”provides an opportunity for a step towards that cease-fire that we have long called for.”

BEIRUT — Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says European countries are working for a “sustainable cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Speaking in Beirut after meeting Friday with her Lebanese counterpart, Najib Mikati, Meloni said European nations also support negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October last year.

Mikati says “a diplomatic solution should overcome” war that has intensified in recent weeks into an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, and that Israel must agree to a cease-fire.

Meloni says targeting U.N. peacekeepers deployed along the Lebanon-Israel border is unacceptable and that both sides must “ensure at all times the safety of each of these soldiers.” She says the peacekeepers will be needed in any post-conflict scenario.

Over the past two weeks, U.N. posts along the border have been subjected to fire that that has wounded at least five peacekeepers.

She says the peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, must be strengthened and that UNIFIL and Lebanese troops should be the only armed forces in the area south of the Litani river along the border with Israel.

According to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, Hezbollah should have no presence in the area along the border with Israel.

MOSCOW — Asked about the possibility of an all-out war between Iran and Israel, Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced hope that tension can be defused in the region.

Speaking Friday during a meeting with media representatives he said “no one is interested in the escalation of the conflict for both economic and security reasons.”

He says there is a possibility “to find a settlement, but that will depend on the parties involved in the confrontation.”

He notes that Russia has maintained contacts with Iran and Israel and stands ready to play mediator if asked, describing those relationships as “quite trusting.”

He says: “We are ready to do what depends on us, if our role is viewed positively, to also help end those horrible strikes on civilians in the Gaza Sector and help normalize the situation in southern Lebanon to end an exchange of strikes there.”

Israel’s military says it allowed 30 trucks of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, the latest delivery over the past week as Israel faces pressure from the U.S. to ramp up aid.

The military body in charge of humanitarian aid, COGAT, said Friday that the trucks carried food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment. There has been no confirmation from the U.N. that the aid arrived and is being distributed in the north.

Aid crossings to the north of Gaza were closed for the first two weeks of October, the U.N. says, sending food and water levels plunging in an area of Gaza where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place.

The closures raised fears that Israel was implementing an extreme plan proposed by Israeli generals to besiege northern Gaza and starve out Hamas militants there.

Following a letter from the U.S. saying the continual closures could risk continued weapons funding for Israel, Israel says crossings have reopened and aid is continuing to flow.

BERLIN — The Biden administration says it does not have any early insight on who might succeed Yahya Sinwar or whether the new Hamas leader might be more willing to revive a cease-fire and hostage deal.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby has called Sinwar the main obstacle preventing the negotiations from moving forward. But he says it remains to be seen if the killing of the Hamas leader could reinvigorate negotiations.

He adds it’s “too soon” to assess who Hamas “might anoint as Sinwar’s successor and what that individual may be willing to pursue.”

Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s military will keep fighting until the hostages are released and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming after a year of devastating war.

Khalil al-Hayya, who was Sinwar’s Qatar-based deputy, says Hamas will not return any of the hostages “before the end of the aggression on Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza.”

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and says his death will not disturb Islamic resistance.

The state-run IRNA news agency on Friday quoted Pezeshkian as saying, “Martyrdom will not create a disturbance in the Islamic Ummah’s resistance against force and occupation.”

Pezeshkian also expressed condolences to the people of Gaza and all the freedom-seekers of the world.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military has released new footage showing what it says is the killing of Yahya Sinwar, including a tank firing at a home where the Hamas leader took refuge after a firefight with Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli military says Sinwar was killed in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday when the tank shell hit the building where he had fled following a gunfight.

Israeli soldiers killed Sinwar after encountering three militants fleeing between buildings in Rafah, Israeli military spokesperson LTC Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters Friday. Under Israeli fire, two militants whose faces were covered by cloth fled into one building while another — Sinwar — entered a second.

Before night fell, soldiers killed the two militants in one building and fired a tank shell at the other. It wasn’t until the following day, that soldiers inspecting the rubble noticed the body of a man who looked like Sinwar. His identity was confirmed by forensic tests in Israel.

Shoshani says the military has intelligence that troops killed Sinwar during a rare moment when the Hamas leader was outside rather than in Gaza’s extensive tunnel network.

At one point, Shoshani said, Sinwar spent time in the same tunnel complex where six hostages were held. The military says they were killed by their Hamas captors as Israeli soldiers drew near.

BEIRUT — The militant group Hezbollah has expressed its condolences to the Palestinian people and Hamas for the killing of Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas’ political bureau.

A statement issued by the group’s leadership Friday referred to Sinwar as a “martyr” and praised his role in leading Hamas on “the path of resistance.”

Hezbollah describes him as the leader “who stood in the face of the American project and the Zionist occupation, and sacrificed his blood for that.”

“We in the leadership of Hezbollah, who are facing with our resistant and steadfast Lebanese people the repercussions of the criminal Zionist aggression, confirm our standing with our Palestinian people,” Hezbollah says.

— By Sally Abou AlJoud

BERLIN — U.S. President Joe Biden is reiterating his call for Israel to use the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as an opportunity to move toward peace.

Biden said as he met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin Friday that Sinwar’s killing “represents a moment of justice.” He says Sinwar “had the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands.”

Biden says he "told the prime minister of Israel yesterday, let’s also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas.”

Scholz, also a staunch ally of Israel, has said Sinwar’s death should open “the concrete prospect of a cease-fire in Gaza, of an agreement to release the hostages held by Hamas.”

BEIRUT — Hamas has heralded Sinwar as a hero who “ascended as a heroic martyr, advancing and not retreating, brandishing his weapon, engaging and confronting the occupation army at the forefront of the ranks.”

The Hamas statement released Friday appears to refer to a video circulating of Sinwar’s last moments, in which he sits on a chair in a badly damaged building, severely wounded and covered in dust. He then suddenly raises his hand and flings a stick at an approaching Israeli miniature drone in an apparent final act of defiance.

GENEVA — Forces in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon are maintaining their positions despite “demands” to move from the Israeli Defense Forces.

Spokesperson Andrea Tenenti of UNIFIL, the interim force in Lebanon, said Friday that a “unanimous” decision was taken by its 50 troop-contributing countries and the U.N. Security Council to hold its positions. They will also continue to monitor the conflict and ensure aid gets to civilians.

“The IDF has repeatedly targeted our positions, endangering the safety of our troops, in addition to Hezbollah launching rockets toward Israel from near our positions, which also puts our peacekeepers in danger,” he told a U.N. news briefing in Geneva by video.

Tenenti says deteriorating security in the recent fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces has forced UNIFIL — which has some 10,000 personnel — to suspend most, but not all, of its patrols near the U.N.-imposed Blue Line boundary separating Lebanon and Israel.

He says UNIFIL has seen “hundreds of trajectories, and sometimes more, crossing the Blue Line each day, forcing our peacekeepers to spend extended hours in shelters to ensure their safety, which remains our top priority.”

Tenenti says UNIFIL is maintaining its positions “despite IDF demands to move from positions close to the Blue Line.”

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military says two soldiers have been injured in a gunfight with militants who crossed from Jordan into Israel.

At least two militants crossed into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea Friday morning, before being shot dead by Israeli troops. The military says two soldiers were injured during an exchange of fire and that troops are searching the area for another militant who may have infiltrated.

The identities of those who crossed the border remain unclear.

Hamas praised the incursion but did not claim responsibility, calling it an “important development” in the war in Gaza and a “natural response” to the “brutal crimes of the occupation against our Palestinian people.”

The statement is one of the first public comments by Hamas since Israel killed its leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza.

BEIRUT — A statement issued by one of Hamas’ political leaders abroad has tacitly but not directly confirmed the death of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza.

Hamas said Friday that Israel is mistaken if it “believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people.”

Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim says past leaders have also been killed and “Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine.”

He says it is “painful and distressing to lose beloved people, especially extraordinary leaders” but that the Palestinian militant group is sure it will be “eventually victorious.”

When asked if the statement confirms Sinwar’s death, Naim said it does not.

JERUSALEM — Israeli prosecutors are set to indict a Palestinian from East Jerusalem who police say planned to carry out an attack on a hostage protest in Tel Aviv.

In a statement Friday, the police and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said the man was a supporter of Hamas and other militant groups, and planned to carry out multiple attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in retribution for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Police say the man had not yet acquired a weapon or explosives to carry out any of the attacks, but that he was planning to attack a protest calling for the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Such protests occur weekly in Tel Aviv.

BEIRUT — Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group says it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, adding that it has introduced new weapons over the past days.

A statement from the group’s operations room early Friday says Hezbollah’s fighters have used new types of precision-guided missiles and explosive drones for the first time.

The statement appears to refer to a drone laden with explosives that evaded Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and slammed into a mess hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens.

The group also announced this week that it fired a new type of missile called Qader 2 toward the suburbs of Tel Aviv.

The statement also says Hezbollah’s air defense units shot down this week two Israeli Hermes 450 drones.

Hezbollah says its fighters are working according to “plans prepared in advance” to battle invading Israeli troops in several parts of south Lebanon.

UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s Mission to the United Nations issued a statement honoring Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, after Israel said he had been killed in fighting.

It says: “When U.S. forces dragged a disheveled Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him despite being armed. Those who regarded Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed. However when Muslims look up to martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield — in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy — the spirit of resistance will be strengthened. He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forth his path for the liberation of Palestine. As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.”

Iran and Iraq fought a brutal war in the 1980s that began when Hussein launched an invasion of Iran. It killed more than 1 million people on both sides.