Middle East latest: Israel says it killed a Hezbollah official expected to be group’s next head

By The Associated Press The Associated Press

People take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets during the funeral of Alexei Popov, who was killed during a rocket attack fired from Lebanon last weekend, at the Tel Regev cemetery in the outskirts of Haifa, northern Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Leo Correa]

The Israeli military said Tuesday a top Hezbollah official who had been widely expected to be the group’s next leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut in early October.

Hashem Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the party ranks, was expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September. There was no immediate confirmation from the militant group about Safieddine’s fate.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military leveled a suburban Beirut building that it said housed Hezbollah facilities, sending smoke and debris into the air a few hundred meters (yards) from where a spokesperson for the militant group had just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Tuesday with Netanyahu as part of his 11th visit to the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Blinken landed hours after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel around the same time Israeli airstrikes significantly damaged Beirut’s largest public hospital.

Netanyahu has pledged to annihilate Hamas and recover dozens of hostages held by the group. Hamas says it will only release the captives in return for a lasting cease-fire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Bilal Hussein

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 differentiate between militants and civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

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Here’s the latest:

4 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will live in poverty by the end of year, UN says

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations estimates that over 4 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will be living in poverty by the end of 2024 as war in Gaza enters its second year with the economy faltering and unemployment rising.

The assessment by the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia launched Tuesday projects that GDP in the Palestinian territories will contract by 35.1%, compared with a no-war scenario, this year and will see unemployment potentially rise to 49.9%.

UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said: “Projections in this new assessment confirm that amidst the immediate suffering and horrific loss of life, a serious development crisis is also unfolding – one that jeopardizes the future of Palestinians for generations to come.”

According to the estimates, poverty in the Palestinian territories will rise to 74.3% in 2024, affecting 4.1 million people including 2.6 million who are newly impoverished as a result of the war.

Rola Dashti, head of the Western Asia commission, said the assessments sound “the alarm over the millions of lives that are being shattered and the decades of development efforts that are being wiped out.”

Steiner said the assessments indicate that even in the Palestinians receive humanitarian aid every year, “the economy may not regain its pre-crisis level for a decade or more.”

Blinken postpones visit to Jordan, foreign minister says

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s Foreign Minister announced late Tuesday that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will postpone his visit to Jordan, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi spoke to Blinken by phone Tuesday and stressed the importance of a regional cease-fire and putting an end to Israeli operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

A U.S. State Department official confirmed Blinken would not be making the trip to Jordan.

Safadi will instead travel to Paris to participate in an international ministerial conference about Lebanon, hosted by France. Blinken’s visit to the region is likely to include stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Israel says a Hezbollah official expected to be group’s next leader was killed earlier in the month

The Israeli military said Tuesday that a top Hezbollah official who had been widely expected to be the group’s next leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut in early October.

There was no immediate confirmation from the militant group about the fate of Hashem Safieddine.

Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the party ranks, was expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September.

Israel said Safieddine was killed in Israeli airstrikes in early October in a southern suburb of Beirut. Around 25 other Hezbollah leaders were killed during the airstrike.

Over the past months, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership, leaving the group in disarray.

Airstrikes in south Lebanon and Bekaa Valley kill 10 and wound 31

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli airstrikes have killed 10 people and wounded 31 others in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

The ministry said that five people were killed and 10 others were wounded in an Israeli strike on Baalbeck-Hermel province in the Bekaa Valley. Five more were killed in an Israeli strike on Ksar Zaatar neighborhood in the Nabatiyeh province in south Lebanon. The strike also wounded 21 people.

Israel has denied requests to deliver aid to northern Gaza, UN humanitarian office says

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations humanitarian office reports that Palestinians under an Israeli siege in northern Gaza “are rapidly exhausting all available means for their survival,” and Israel has denied U.N. requests to deliver life-saving aid to the area.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also reports that Israeli authorities are still denying its requests to help rescue dozens of people trapped under their collapsed homes in the Falouja area of the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters Tuesday.

The requests by the humanitarian office, known as OCHA, that were denied include planned missions by U.N. agencies and their partners to deliver supplies including blood, medications, food parcels and fuel to hospitals and water facilities, he said.

The United States warned Israel earlier this month 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. It said at least 350 trucks a day need to get into Gaza and Israel must provide additional humanitarian pauses and increased security for humanitarian sites.

OCHA reported that 25 trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, 25 on Saturday, and 65 on Friday.

Haq said the director of Kamal Adwan, one of the last functioning hospitals in north Gaza which is seeing a constant influx of casualties, reported Monday that blood supplies have run out and medical teams are working non-stop with no food.

France’s government defends decision to bar some Israeli companies from exhibiting at upcoming trade fair

PARIS — France’s government is defending its decision to bar Israeli companies supplying the war in the Middle East from exhibiting at an upcoming trade fair outside Paris.

Organizers of the Nov. 4-7 naval defense exhibition, called Euronaval, posted on the event’s website that Israeli firms can take part in the show and “may have an exhibition stand, provided that their products are not used in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.”

Addressing parliament on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the policy does not amount to a boycott of Israeli firms. But he also said it would be “incoherent” for France to allow the promotion of weapons used in the war when Paris is also pushing for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.

“Therefore, we have indicated to the Israeli authorities, with whom we communicate very regularly, that the participation in the form of stands by companies should respect this balance,” Barrot said.

In a Sunday post on the social platform X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz urged French President Emmanuel Macron to rescind the restrictions, calling them “unacceptable” and “anti-democratic.”

Lebanon’s health ministry says 63 people were killed and 234 wounded in past 24 hours

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health ministry said that 63 people were killed and 234 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,546 killed and 11,862 wounded.

Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 125 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

Some 1,095 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities, and other institutions — are currently sheltering 191,516 people, including 44,124 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report said.

Among these shelters, 908 have now reached full capacity. 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.

Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after Israel struck the road several times, crowds have continued to flow across the border seeking relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 22, Lebanese General Security recorded 343,404 Syrian and 147,608 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria, the report said.

Yellen says the US is working to ‘ensure that legitimate aid flows reach Gaza,’ among other things

WASHINGTON — The United States is working to “ensure that legitimate aid flows reach Gaza,” as well as “imposing sanctions on Israeli violent extremist settlers and pressing Israel to maintain vital correspondent banking relationships with Palestinian banks,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech ahead of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings this week.

“We look forward to the Israeli cabinet extending the waivers to preserve correspondent banking relationships for banks in the West Bank by the end of the month deadline to support economic stability in the West Bank,” she added.

The agreement will expire on October 31, after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed to extend it for only three months during the summer. U.S. officials have warned that a failure to extend the banking relationship risks an economic collapse in the occupied West Bank and of the Palestinian Authority.

Death toll from strike near Beirut hospital rises to 18

BEIRUT — The death toll from Israeli airstrikes late Monday that destroyed several buildings facing one of Beirut’s main hospitals climbed to 18. Lebanon’s health ministry said 60 others were wounded in the strikes, including seven who were in critical condition.

Netanyahu’s private residence was hit and damaged during a weekend drone attack

TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence was hit and lightly damaged during a drone attack over the weekend, according to footage of the attack published by Israeli media on Tuesday. A photo of the attack showed damage to the bedroom window, which had a spiderweb of cracks and some burn marks. There were no injuries in the attack and neither Netanyahu nor his wife were in the home at the time of the attack.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah’s chief spokesperson took responsibility for the drone attack.

“The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate the Prime Minister, it’s clearly a grave mistake,” said David Mencer, Israeli government spokesperson.

Israel’s military has at times struggled to intercept drones, which are smaller, fly more erratically and are harder to track and intercept. Last week, a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and wounded 67 others, the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon three weeks ago.

Israeli airstrike levels building in southern Beirut suburb

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike leveled a building in the southern Beirut suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. The strike came 40 minutes after Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning, claiming the two buildings targeted contained “Hezbollah facilities.”

The building stood in a heavily trafficked area across the street from a large park, which has become a refuge for many displaced families. It is also not far from the French ambassador’s residence.

No immediate casualties were reported. The Israeli military did not have immediate comment about the target of the strike.

At the time of the warning, Hezbollah’s chief spokesperson was holding a pre-scheduled press conference just a few hundred meters from the targeted area. The event was quickly cut short, with journalists and the spokesperson evacuating the location.

The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment about the target of the strike.

Amnesty International criticizes Israel’s strikes on al-Qard al-Hasan

JERUSALEM — Human rights group Amnesty International has criticized Israel’s targeting of branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial institution, saying the round of strikes this week “likely violates international humanitarian law.”

Amnesty said Tuesday the attack on al-Qard al-Hasan must be investigated as a war crime because financial institutions are considered civilian infrastructure under the laws of war unless they are being used for military purposes.

“Even if as the Israeli military alleges, the institution does provide financing to Hezbollah, it is not likely to meet the definition of a military objective, particularly for branches serving civilian customers,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns.

Israel’s strikes overnight Sunday into Monday hit at least 15 branches of al-Qard al-Hasan in Lebanon. Israel says the bank is used to fund attacks, and it issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes. Many ordinary Lebanese keep their savings at the financial institution.

Hezbollah says it was behind the drone attack on Netanyahu’s house

BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s chief spokesperson says the group was behind the weekend drone attack that targeted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house without inflicting casualties.

Mohammed Afif told reporters in Beirut Tuesday that if in the previous attack Netanyahu was not hurt, “the coming days and nights and the (battle) fields are between us.” Afif was hinting that Hezbollah might carry out such attempts in the future.

Afif said Hezbollah is fully responsible for the drone attack that targeted Netanyahu’s house. He added that the group did it on its own.

Netanyahu’s office said the drone on Saturday targeted his house in the Mediterranean coastal town of Caesarea. Neither he nor his wife was there. It wasn’t clear if the house was hit.

Journalists taken on a tour of the Beirut hospital where Israel claimed Hezbollah stored cash and gold

BEIRUT — An Associated Press team was among journalists taken on a tour inside a hospital in Beirut’s southern suburb where the Israeli army claimed without offering evidence that Hezbollah was storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in tunnels underneath.

The Sahel General Hospital had already been emptied of most patients and staff following intense bombardment of the area in recent days, and the few remaining ones were hastily evacuated late Monday after the Israeli claim.

“We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours,” hospital director Mazen Alame said Tuesday. “There is nothing under the hospital.”

Journalists were taken to the two floors under the hospital, the first of which had two rooms for surgeries and the other had oxygen bottles stored inside. The second floor included a morgue with six doors in one room and a giant water tank in another.

Alame said the hospital has no affiliation with any political group or religious institution and has been working under the supervision of Lebanon’s health ministry since its founding.

Israel has made similar claims about tunnels used by Hamas militants under hospitals in Gaza. Omar Mneimne, a doctor at the hospital’s emergency department, said he fears a repeat scenario in Lebanon.

“We fear that,” Mneimne said, adding that the international community should act to defend health facilities in Lebanon. “It’s extremely hard. It’s very stressful for the community.”

7 Jerusalem residents arrested over an alleged Iranian-guided plot

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli authorities said Tuesday they have arrested seven Jerusalem residents in connection with an alleged Iranian-guided plot to assassinate an Israeli scientist and mayor.

It was the latest in a series of similar alleged spy rings foiled by Israel and blamed on Iran, highlighting the ongoing shadow war between the two countries even as their conflict has become more direct during the war in Gaza.

A statement by Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet did not name the scientist or the mayor targeted.

It said the seven people arrested were assigned various tasks as part of the alleged plot, including blowing up a police car and lobbing a grenade at a home. The Iranian agent promised the seven roughly $50,000 in exchange for the acts, the Shin Bet said. It said police found multiple credit cards, tens of thousands of shekels and a fake police car license plate.

Those arrested were not identified but were from a predominantly Palestinian area of Jerusalem, the Shin Bet said.

Tensions between Israel and Iran have soared since the killing in Tehran of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh — an attack blamed on Israel — and an Iranian missile attack on Israel earlier this month, for which Israel is expected to respond.

Death toll from strike near Beirut hospital rises to 13

BEIRUT — The death toll from Israeli airstrikes that destroyed several buildings facing one of Beirut’s main hospitals late Monday has climbed to 13. Lebanon’s health ministry said 57 others were wounded in the strikes, including seven who were in critical condition.

It said the airstrikes significantly damaged Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the country’s largest public hospital, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Progress on day-after plan is key to US hopes for a cease-fire, State Department official says

TEL AVIV, Israel — The United States is making an eleventh hour effort to resuscitate aspects of the halted cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas weeks before the presidential election and as Israel’s invasion of neighboring Lebanon intensifies, according to a senior U.S. State Department official.

Since negotiations fell apart over the summer, Americans have focused on a postwar plan for Israel and Gaza. The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity late Monday to preview Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s strategy, said stakeholders have reached consensus on some aspects of the so-called day-after plan and that the U.S. is hopeful the progress will bring the parties back to the table on a cease-fire.

The official added that the decision to go to Israel before meeting with Arab partners was a shift in the U.S.’s negotiation strategy.

The U.S. has long pushed for a postwar settlement in which a reformed Palestinian Authority would govern Gaza with help from Arab states and Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel.

Arab leaders insist such plans would depend on a pathway to Palestinian statehood, something to which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply opposed. He has ruled out any postwar role for the PA and says local Palestinians will administer Gaza, with Israel maintaining open-ended security control.

Blinken also planned to reiterate concerns about the humanitarian aid crisis in Gaza that U.S. officials outlined in a recent letter to Israel, the official said.

But the official said an anticipated Israeli retaliation against Iran is looming over the meeting, which will likely be the last time Blinken and Netanyahu meet before the U.S. presidential election.

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Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed.

Blinken arrives in Israel on mission to restart cease-fire talks

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as the U.S. hopes to revive cease-fire efforts after the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials. Following Israel, he’s expected to visit several Arab countries, likely to include Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.