UN humanitarian chief says essential supplies are ‘running out’ in Gaza
The top UN humanitarian official is accusing Israel of blocking the delivery of desperately needed aid to Gaza, saying there is barely any food left in the north where an Israeli offensive is underway, AP reports.
Acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council today that no food entered northern Gaza from 2 October to 15 October, “when a trickle was allowed in.”
“All essential supplies for survival are running out,” she said. “There is now barely any food left to distribute, and most bakeries will be forced to shut down again in the next several days without additional fuel.”
Throughout Gaza, Msuya said, less than one third of the 286 humanitarian missions coordinated with Israeli authorities in the first two weeks of October “were facilitated without major incidents or delays.”
She said the level of suffering and reality in Gaza is brutal and worsens every day as Israeli bombs fall, fierce fighting continues and “supplies essential for people’s survival and humanitarian assistance are blocked at every turn.”
Msuya urged all Security Council members to ensure that international humanitarian law is respected. It requires that civilians are protected and receive supplies to meet their essential needs wherever they are.
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Hezbollah said it has fired rockets at the Israeli town of Safed, Reuters reports.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Hezbollah said that it targeted “at 6:50 pm (1550 GMT)… the occupied town of Safed with a salvo of rockets” in “defense of Lebanon and its people.”
The reported attack marks the third attack in 24 hours which Hezbollah said was a response to Israeli raids across Lebanon which have killed over 2,000 people in recent weeks.
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As well as warning about the risk of cholera spreading in Lebanon after a case was identified there, the WHO urged Israel to ensure the necessary conditions to finish the job of vaccinating Gaza’s children against polio, after reaching more than 150,000 with the required second dose.
Despite continuing Israeli military operations in the territory, the second round of a polio vaccination campaign, aiming to reach more than 590,000 children under the age of 10, got under way on Monday.
“The total number of children who received a second dose of polio vaccine in central Gaza after two days of vaccination is 156,943,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X along with a video showing the WHO’s vaccination efforts. “The vaccination continues today. At the same time, 128,121 children received vitamin A supplements.
“We call for the humanitarian pauses to continue to be respected. We call for a ceasefire and peace,” he said.
The total number of children who received a second dose of #polio vaccine in central #Gaza after two days of vaccination is 156,943. The vaccination continues today.
At the same time, 128,121 children received vitamin A supplements.
We call for the humanitarian pauses to… pic.twitter.com/TCWqYF13vn
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 16, 2024
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Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli town of Safed today, the third such attack in 24 hours which the Lebanese armed group described as a response to Israeli raids, AFP reports.
Militants from the Iran-backed group targeted “at 6:50 pm (1550 GMT)… the occupied town of Safed with a salvo of rockets” in “defence of Lebanon and its people,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
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WHO: cholera case confirmed in Lebanon, risk of spread ‘very high’
The risk of cholera spreading in Lebanon is “very high”, the World Health Organization has warned, after a case of the acute and potentially deadly infection was detected in the conflict-hit country, AFP reports.
The WHO highlighted the risk of cholera spreading among hundreds of thousands of people displaced since Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah.
“If the cholera outbreak … spreads to the new displaced people, it might spread very fast,” Abdinasir Abubakar, WHO’s representative in Lebanon, told reporters at an online news conference.
Lebanon’s health ministry said a cholera case had been confirmed in a Lebanese national who went to hospital on Monday. The patient, from Ammouniyeh in northern Lebanon, had no history of travel, the ministry said.
Lebanon suffered its first cholera outbreak in 30 years between 2022 and 2023, mainly in the north of the country. The disease, which causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps, generally arises from eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the WHO.
The UN health agency has for months been warning that the disease could resurface amid “deteriorating water and sanitation” among the displaced and their host communities, Abubakar said.
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US tells Israel is opposes daily strikes on Beirut
The US has told Israel it opposes near-daily strikes in densely populated Beirut and it was crucial that Israeli operations be conducted in a way that does not threaten civilian lives, Reuters reports.
The comments by spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre at a daily press briefing come as more strikes continue in Beirut. The State Department said yesterday it opposed the strikes.
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An Israeli strike on a municipality building in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh earlier today killed 16 people and wounded 52, the Lebanese health ministry said, giving a final toll.
The Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati earlier condemned the deadly Israeli strikes, saying they intentionally targeted a municipality meeting.
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The World Health Organization called for the protection of health care facilities in Lebanon, where Israel has intensified its military campaign against Hezbollah in recent weeks, AFP reports.
“WHO calls for an end to attacks on health care facilities,” the UN agency said in a statement, adding that heavy bombardment was “forcing a growing number of health facilities to close, particularly in southern Lebanon”.
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Here’s Keir Starmer earlier telling the House of Commons he was ‘looking at’ sanctions against the extreme-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who are serving in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Starmer’s response came after the Liberal democrat leader, Ed Davey, asked what actions the government would take after Smotrich said starving 2 million Palestinians in Gaza was ‘justified and moral’ and Ben-Gvir called Israeli settlers who killed Palestinians in the West Bank ‘heroes’.
Starmer replied: ‘We are looking at that because they’re obviously abhorrent comments … along with other really concerning activity in the West Bank but also across the region’
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The Israeli military says it has killed another Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, AP reports.
The army said that Jalal Mustafa Hariri, Hezbollah’s commander of the Qana area, was killed in a strike alongside other Hezbollah militants.
There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah, though Lebanese authorities say 15 civilians were killed in Israeli attacks in the town.
The Israeli military says Hariri was responsible for planning and executing a large number of attacks against Israel.
Israel has killed several Hezbollah officials in recent attacks, including the militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
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UN humanitarian chief says essential supplies are ‘running out’ in Gaza
The top UN humanitarian official is accusing Israel of blocking the delivery of desperately needed aid to Gaza, saying there is barely any food left in the north where an Israeli offensive is underway, AP reports.
Acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council today that no food entered northern Gaza from 2 October to 15 October, “when a trickle was allowed in.”
“All essential supplies for survival are running out,” she said. “There is now barely any food left to distribute, and most bakeries will be forced to shut down again in the next several days without additional fuel.”
Throughout Gaza, Msuya said, less than one third of the 286 humanitarian missions coordinated with Israeli authorities in the first two weeks of October “were facilitated without major incidents or delays.”
She said the level of suffering and reality in Gaza is brutal and worsens every day as Israeli bombs fall, fierce fighting continues and “supplies essential for people’s survival and humanitarian assistance are blocked at every turn.”
Msuya urged all Security Council members to ensure that international humanitarian law is respected. It requires that civilians are protected and receive supplies to meet their essential needs wherever they are.
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UNIFIL’s EU members want ‘maximum pressure’ on Israel to stop ‘incidents’
EU ministers met today with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon and expressed “the shared will to exert maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel” to prevent further “incidents” against the UN mission, AFP reports.
Italy and France organised a video conference among the 16 EU countries that participate in UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, where the ministers “strongly condemned” attacks the mission has blamed on Israel, the Italian defence ministry said in a statement.
It said it had called the meeting – the day before a summit of EU leaders opens in Brussels – to seek a joint approach to fire against the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, as Israel wages a ground offensive against the Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
“Another key point that emerged from the meeting was the shared will to exert maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel, so that no further incidents occur,” it said. “At the same time, it was made clear that Hezbollah cannot use UNIFIL personnel as a shield in the conflict.”
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has strongly condemned the fire against the peacekeepers, who include a significant number of Italians, and is due to visit Beirut on Friday.
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The US is watching to ensure that Israel’s actions on the ground show that it does not have a “policy of starvation” in the northern Gaza Strip, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told this afternoon’s UN security council meeting, Reuters reports.
She told the council that such a policy would be “horrific and unacceptable and would have implications under international law and US law.”
“The government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will be watching to see that Israel’s actions on the ground match this statement,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
The US has told Israel it must take steps in the next month to improve the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave or face potential restrictions on US military aid.
Israel “remains committed to working with our international partners to ensure aid reaches those who need it” in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters ahead of the meeting.
“The problem in Gaza is not a lack of aid. The problem is Hamas, which hijacks the aid – stealing, storing and selling it to feed their terror machine, while civilians suffer,” he said. Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli allegations that it was stealing aid and says Israel is to blame for shortages.
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The Slovenian ambassador called Israel’s destruction of northern Gaza a “siege within a siege”.
Speaking at the UN security council’s meeting this afternoon on the war in Gaza, Samuel Žbogar said Slovenians were no strangers to sieges, given the country’s history in World War II and the Yugoslav Wars.
He went on to call for an immediate ceasefire and for the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas.
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Updated at 11.25 EDT
Lebanese Red Cross: Israel strike injured two paramedics during UN-coordinated mission
The Lebanese Red Cross said a strike by Israel injured two paramedics during a UN-coordinated mission this afternoon.
The tweet, translated from the original Arabic, said: “Following the raid on the Jwaya area (near the city of Tyre) in the south, two ambulances of the Lebanese Red Cross moved with their crews at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, October 16, after making the necessary contacts with UNIFIL.
“The crews arrived at the location at 4:52 and began scanning the area to search for the injured in order to treat and rescue them. At 5:10, the location was targeted, and two paramedics were slightly injured by shrapnel.
“The paramedics returned with the two vehicles to Jabal Amel Hospital, where the necessary medical examinations were conducted. Their condition is not worrisome.”
Israel has faced criticism in recent days following its attacks on UN forces stationed in Lebanon.
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Updated at 12.51 EDT
The US has imposed sanctions on what it described as a Lebanon-based sanctions evasion network that funnels millions of dollars to Hezbollah, Reuters reports.
The action targeted three individuals linked to Hezbollah’s finance arm and four Lebanon-based companies registered to conceal ties to the militant group, according to a Treasury Department statement.
The US also sanctioned three individuals involved in the production and sale of the amphetamine known as captagon. The majority of the world’s captagon is produced in Syria, with smaller production in neighbouring Lebanon. Western governments estimate illegal trade in the pills generates billions of dollars for the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and its allies, including Hezbollah.
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Hezbollah has reported its fighters in southern Lebanon were locked in clashes on with Israeli troops “at point-blank range”, according to AFP.
The Iran-backed armed group said militants were engaged in “ongoing” and “violent clashes with the Israeli enemy forces in the vicinity of the Al-Qawzah village at point-blank range with various types of machine guns,” it said.
In a tweet about an hour ago, the IDF said it had “eliminated dozens of Hezbollah terrorists” in targeted operations in southern Lebanon.
The Guardian could not independently verify the footage posted in the tweet.
⭕️Operational recap from limited, localized and targeted operations in southern Lebanon. Over the past day, IDF troops have:
– Eliminated dozens of Hezbollah terrorists, both from the ground and the air.
– Located 2 storage facilities in a civilian area containing large amounts… pic.twitter.com/kjCuqqIOZI
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 16, 2024
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