Middle East latest: Hezbollah's acting leader says the group is focused on hurting Israel

Hezbollah’s acting leader declared Tuesday that the Lebanese militant group is focused on “hurting the enemy” by targeting Haifa and other parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv.

Sheikh Naim Kassem, Hezbollah’s deputy chief, vowed in a televised speech to “defeat our enemies and drive them out of our lands.” It was his third appearance since Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut.

The United Nations human rights office meanwhile called for an independent probe into an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment block in Aito in northern Lebanon, killing at least 22 people, including 12 women and two children.

Israeli strikes continued in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters.

It’s been more than a year since 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 say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel almost daily for the past year. Israel has escalated its campaign against the group in recent weeks.

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United Nations says Yemen risks being pulled further into regional escalation

UNITED NATIONS — Yemen risks being dragged further into the military escalation in the Middle East, the U.N. special envoy for the Arab world’s poorest nation says.

Hans Grundberg also told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that repeated attacks on international shipping by the Houthi rebels who control most of the country’s north “have significantly increased the risk of an environment disaster” in the Red Sea.

Both Grundberg and acting U.N. humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya urged the Iranian-backed Houthis to halt their attacks on shipping and release dozens of U.N. personnel, staff of non-governmental organizations and diplomatic missions, and members of civil society. Most have been detained since June.

Days after the June detentions, the Houthis said they had arrested members of what they called an “American-Israeli spy network,” an allegation vehemently denied by the U.N. and others.

Msuya called the Houthis’ recent referral of a significant number of those detained for “criminal prosecution” unacceptable.

She warned that despite escalating needs, the issue continues to "significantly hinder our ability to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance in Yemen.”

The number of Yemenis without enough to eat soared to "unprecedented levels” in August, she said.

Airstrikes intensify in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley

BEIRUT — Several villages in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley are witnessing intensified airstrikes.

According to the state-run National News Agency, an Israeli airstrike on Qana in Tyre province on Tuesday killed at least one person and wounded 30, with many believed to be trapped under the rubble.

In the same province, incessant airstrikes targeted villages including Al-Qasimiyah, Ain Baal, Aita al-Jabal, Majdalzon, and Al-Mansouri, according to the agency.

The Lebanese Health Ministry says an Israeli strike on Riyak in the Bekaa Valley killed five people, including three children, and wounded 16.

UN warns of 'catastrophic' situation in northern Gaza

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations humanitarian office is warning that the situation is “catastrophic” in northern Gaza, where only three hospitals are operating and Israeli military operations have intensified.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the escalation in the north is “severely compromising people’s access to means of survival.” He said the U.N.’s health partners report that the three hospitals “have dire shortages of fuel, of blood, of trauma items and medications.”

With military action continuing outside, he said, about 285 patients remain in Kamal Adwan Hospital, Al-Adwa Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital.

Dujarric said the U.N. World Health Organization warned that Kamal Adwan hospital “remains overwhelmed, receiving between 50 and 70 new injured patients each day.”

With dwindling food stocks, he said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs known as OCHA said available food supplies are still being delivered, including more than 110,000 meals in Gaza City every day.

However, “there is barely any food left to distribute, and most bakeries will be forced to shut down again in just days without any additional fuel,” the U.N. spokesperson said.

In the first two weeks of October, OCHA reported that just one of its 54 efforts to get to the north was facilitated by Israeli authorities, Dujarric said.

He said 85% of the requests were denied, “with the rest impeded or canceled due to various logistical or security reasons.”

UN chief says attacks on peacekeepers in Lebanon may be a war crime

UNITED NATIONS — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning again that attacks on U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon violate international law and may constitute a war crime.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric delivered the warning Tuesday. He told reporters that not only have five UNIFIL peacekeepers been wounded in southern Lebanon but U.N. premises “have been impacted on at least 20 occasions since Oct. 1,” when Israel launched its ground offensive.

Also Tuesday, U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix met with Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon.

Danon said Hezbollah militants “find shelter behind UNIFIL positions,” and even though there are regular contacts between UNIFIL and the Israeli military, “Israel still insists that the U.N. peacekeeping forces temporarily withdraw from their positions.”

Lacroix told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that Guterres said UNIFIL peacekeepers would remain where they are, even though Israel asked them to move five kilometers (3 miles) north.

Dujarric expressed deep concern at the impact of the continued strikes on civilians on both sides of the U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel, but especially in Lebanon.

He said Guterres condemns the loss of civilian lives in an Israeli airstrike on Aito in northern Lebanon that killed at least 22 people. The U.N. human rights office has called for an independent investigation into that airstrike.

“All actors must uphold obligations under international law, including International humanitarian law, and do their utmost to protect civilians,” Dujarric said.

US warns Israel to allow more aid into Gaza or risk losing weapons funding

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has warned Israel 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.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday that the changes must occur. The letter, which restates U.S. policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers, was sent amid deteriorating conditions in northern Gaza.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that a similar letter Blinken sent to Israeli officials in April lead to more humanitarian assistance getting to the Palestinian territory. But that didn’t last.

Miller says the leaders wanted to make clear to Israel that it must bring assistance back up from “very, very low levels.”

For Israel to continue qualifying for foreign military financing, the aid getting into Gaza must increase to at least 350 trucks a day, Israel must institute additional humanitarian pauses and provide increased security for humanitarian sites, Austin and Blinken said in their letter. They said Israel had 30 days to respond to the requirements.

An Israeli official confirmed a letter was delivered but did not discuss the contents. That official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a diplomatic matter, confirmed the U.S. has raised “humanitarian concerns” and is putting pressure on Israel to speed up the flow of aid into Gaza.

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Associated Press writers Tara Copp, Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, and Josef Federman in Jerusalem, contributed to this report.

Lebanon says 2,350 of its people have been killed in a year of conflict with Israel

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit says 41 people were killed and 124 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,350 killed and 10,906 wounded.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said Tuesday that the crisis response unit report also recorded 146 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, most in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.

Some 1,067 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities, and other institutions — are sheltering 188,652 people, including 41,894 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report said.

Among these shelters, 881 have now reached capacity. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to a top official with the U.N. children’s agency.

The Lebanese Ministry of Education reported that 77% of public schools are out of service, either because they are being used as shelters or they are in areas directly affected by the war.

Displaced people continue to flow from Lebanon into Syria, even after an Israeli strike took out a major border crossing last week. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 15, Lebanese General Security recorded 329,386 Syrian citizens and 126,842 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria, the report said.

Israel assures US it won’t strike Iranian nuclear or oil sites, US officials say

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden's administration believes it has won assurances from Israel that it will not hit Iranian nuclear or oil sites as it considers retaliating to Iran’s missile barrage earlier this month, two U.S. officials say.

The administration also believes that sending a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to Israel and roughly 100 soldiers to operate it has eased some of Israel’s concerns about more Iranian strikes and general security issues.

The Pentagon announced Sunday that the THAAD deployment was to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel in April and October, saying it was authorized at Biden's direction.

However, the U.S. officials who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic discussions, cautioned that the assurance is not iron-clad and that circumstances could change. The officials also noted that Israel’s track record on fulfilling assurances in the past is mixed and has often reflected domestic Israeli politics that have upended Washington’s expectations.