Middle East latest: Israel strikes in the heart of Lebanon's capital

Israeli airstrikes targeted a neighborhood in the heart of Lebanon's capital late Monday evening, slamming into an area near the Parliament, several embassies and the U.N. headquarters, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said at least five people were killed and 31 wounded. An Associated Press reporter at the scene in Beirut described significant casualties on the street as ambulance sirens echoed through the area.

Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple the militant group Hezbollah and end its barrages into Israel. Over the past year, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire — 80% of them in the past month — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

The current wave of conflict gripping the Middle East began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 43,800 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. The officials do not distinguish between militants and civilians but say most of those killed are women and children. The fighting has left 77 people dead in Israel, including 31 soldiers.

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Food shortages bring hunger pains to displaced families in central Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A shortage in flour and the closure of a main bakery in central Gaza have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation, as Palestinian families struggle to obtain enough food.

A crowd of people waited dejectedly in the cold outside the shuttered Zadna Bakery in Deir al-Balah on Monday.

Among them was Umm Shadi, a displaced woman from Gaza City, who told The Associated Press that there was no bread left due to the lack of flour — a bag of which costs as much as 400 shekels ($107) in the market, she said, if any can be found.

“Who can buy a bag of flour for 400 shekels?” she asked.

Nora Muhanna, another woman displaced from Gaza City, said she was leaving empty-handed after waiting five or six hours for a bag of bread for her kids.

“From the beginning, there are no goods, and even if they are available, there is no money,” she said.

Almost all of Gaza's roughly 2.3 million people now rely on international aid for survival, and doctors and aid groups say malnutrition is rampant. Food security experts say famine may already be underway in hard-hit north Gaza. Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza.

Meanwhile, dozens lined up in Deir al-Balah to get their share of lentil soup and some bread at a makeshift charity kitchen.

Refat Abed, a displaced man from Gaza City, no longer knows how he can afford food.

“Where can I get money?” he asked. “Do I beg? If it were not for God and charity, my children and I would go hungry,”

Suspected attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen target a ship in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a Panama-flagged bulk carrier traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, although no damage or injuries were reported, authorities said Monday.

The Houthis have targeted more than 90 merchant vessels with missiles and drones in the waterway — which typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it a year — over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon.

The bulk carrier Anadolu S first had been contacted over VHF radio by someone claiming to be authorities in Yemen, demanding the ship turn around, said the Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational task force overseen by the U.S.

“The vessel did not comply with the order and continued its transit,” the center said.

The ship’s captain later saw that “a missile splashed in close proximity to the vessel” as it traveled in the southern Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting to the Gulf of Aden in the first attack late Sunday night, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in an alert. The attack happened some 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Yemen port city of Mocha.

On Monday, another attack some 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Aden in the Gulf of Aden similarly saw a missile splash down close to the vessel, the UKMTO said.

The Houthis did not immediately claim the attacks. However, it can take the rebels hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. The Joint Maritime Information Center said the Anadolu S had an “indirect association to Israel.” However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

5 people wounded in Israel by shrapnel from an intercepted rocket

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli medical officials say at least five people in central Israel have been wounded by shrapnel after a missile launched from Lebanon was intercepted.

The missile triggered air raid sirens in the Tel Aviv area before it was shot down. But authorities said shrapnel from the interception hit several people on the ground.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated five people for injuries. Victims were taken to Beilinson Hospital, where one woman was reported in serious condition.

UN says 98 aid trucks were robbed of food in Gaza, its worst theft of the war

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations suffered its worst loss of humanitarian aid in Gaza when desperately needed food was stolen from 98 out of 109 trucks over the weekend.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told said the U.N. doesn’t know who hijacked the trucks. “When armed people try to take control of a vehicle and goods, we’re not asking questions,” he told reporters Monday.

Only 11 trucks made it to a warehouse in the city of Deir al-Balah on Saturday, making this theft “the worst in terms of volume” during the 13-month war in Gaza, he said. As for the rest of the vehicles, he said, “we no longer have control of the trucks,” which suffered “severe damage.” He said the U.N. has no information about their drivers.

Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza relies on international aid for survival, and doctors and aid groups say malnutrition is rampant. Food security experts say famine may already be underway in hard-hit north Gaza. Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza.

Dujarric said the convoy was instructed to depart from Kerem Shalom border crossing Saturday morning “via an alternate, unfamiliar route.” He said the trucks were stolen not far from the Karem Abu Salem crossing and Gaza's old airport.

He reiterated that the United Nations does not accept protection for its convoys from any warring party — referring to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Israeli military.

“The best protection for us is for people to know that aid will come in every day at massive levels,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious that we would be an even greater target if we were surrounded by armed soldiers from one of the two parties during the this conflict.”

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon blamed Hamas for stealing the aid trucks and holding the drivers at gunpoint. He gave a slightly different number — 97 looted trucks — speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday.

He said Israel will continue allowing trucks into Gaza but the U.N. and international organizations must step up aid distribution, and “the focus must also shift to Hamas’ constant hijacking of humanitarian aid to feed the machine of terror and misery.”

US sanctions a group that builds illegal West Bank settlements, with close ties to Israeli government

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has imposed sanctions on organizations and firms involved in illegal settlement development in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including a decades-old group that has close ties with Israeli leadership.

U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Amana, the largest organization involved in illegal settlement development in the West Bank, and its subsidiary on Monday.

Already sanctioned by Britain and Canada, Amana is one of the major funders and supporters of unauthorized settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Peace Now, a settlement tracking group, says its assets are valued at around 600 million Israeli shekels, or about $160 million, and that it has a yearly budget stretching into tens of millions of shekels.

Among other things, the sanctions deny the people and firms access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. and prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them.

The Associated Press previously reported that the sanctions measures have had minimal impact, instead emboldening settlers as attacks and land-grabs escalate, according to Palestinians in the West Bank, local rights groups and sanctioned Israelis who spoke to AP.

Israel captured the West Bank along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want those territories for their hoped-for future state.

Threatened by Israeli airstrikes, Lebanon's cultural sites get increased protection from UN

BEIRUT — A specialized United Nations agency granted on Monday provisional enhanced protection to 34 cultural properties in Lebanon, including the World Heritage sites of Baalbek and Tyre, following recent Israeli strikes near them.

“Non-compliance with these clauses would constitute serious violations of the 1954 Hague Convention and would constitute potential grounds for prosecution,” the U.N. cultural and scientific agency UNESCO said in a statement. The decision also includes financial and technical assistance to safeguard Lebanon’s heritage.

The decision was made during an extraordinary session of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property that was held in Paris on Monday, at the request of Lebanese authorities.

This move comes amid mounting threats to Lebanon’s cultural sites. On Nov. 7, an Israeli airstrike destroyed an Ottoman-era building near the UNESCO-listed Roman temples of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said, “UNESCO has a deep and long-standing cooperation with Lebanon. We will spare no effort to provide all the expertise and assistance needed to protect its exceptional heritage.”

In addition to legal protections, UNESCO said it has been implementing measures such as satellite monitoring, risk management training and emergency relocation of movable artifacts.

Israeli woman killed by Hezbollah rocket attack and 10 wounded

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said one woman was killed and 10 wounded in a Hezbollah rocket attack that hit northern Israel.

According to paramedics who arrived at the scene, one woman was killed instantly and 10 others were injured after a rocket struck a four-story building the northern Israeli city of Shfaram.

The Israeli military said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah had launched more than 100 projectiles toward Israel on Monday.

Hezbollah began launching missiles, rockets and drones at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza. Israel stepped up their attack against Hezbollah in mid-September.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire — 80% of them in the past eight weeks — according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. In Israel, 77 people, including 31 soldiers, have been killed by Hezbollah.

Israel bombs a main water facility in southern Lebanon, killing 2 local officials

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike targeted the main water facility in the southern port city of Tyre, killing two local officials and injuring two others, further compounding southern Lebanon’s worsening water crisis, Lebanon’s state media said.

The attack severely damaged the facility, prompting the Tyre Municipality to urge residents to ration water use until repairs can be made, the National News Agency said.

Those killed in the attack included Samer Shaghri, a local elected official called a mukhtar who handles residents’ administrative affairs, and Qassem Wehbi, the deputy mayor of Burj al-Shamali, a town east of Tyre.

This strike is part of a broader pattern of bombardments in the 13-month conflict between Hezbollah and Israel that, according to an October 22 UNICEF report, have damaged at least 28 water facilities, cutting off access to safe water for over 360,000 people, primarily in southern Lebanon.

UNICEF’s report quoted Lebanon’s Minister of Energy, Walid Fayyad, who said, “The ongoing hostilities have inflicted severe damage on Lebanon’s essential services, leaving hundreds of thousands without access to safe water and electricity.”

Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut near key government buildings and embassies

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike hit a densely populated residential area in central Beirut on Monday evening, close to major landmarks including the U.N. headquarters in Lebanon, the country's parliament, the prime minister’s office and several embassies, including the EU delegation.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two missiles hit the area of Zoqaq al-Blat. The strike follows reports that the U.S. envoy has delayed his visit for cease-fire talks.

Ambulance sirens echoed through the area, and the Health Ministry said at least five people were killed, 31 wounded and two still missing. An Associated Press reporter at the scene described significant casualties on the street.

The target of the airstrike remains unclear, and the Israeli army did not issue a prior warning.

Many areas in central Beirut, including Zoqaq al-Blat, became a refuge for people displaced by the ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut.

This is the second consecutive day of Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut after more than a month-long pause on strikes in that part of the capital. On Sunday, a strike in the area of Ras el-Nabaa killed Hezbollah media spokesperson Mohammed Afif, along with six other people, including a woman. Later that day, four people were killed in a separate strike in the commercial district of Mar Elias. It remains unclear what the target of that strike was.

Biden says he will keep pushing Gaza cease-fire efforts

RIO DE JANEIRO -- President Joe Biden told fellow global leaders at a Group of 20 summit Monday that his soon-to-end administration would keep pushing to bring an equitable end to Israel’s devastating war against Hamas in Gaza.

Seated between leaders of France and India at a long oval table at the summit site in Rio de Janeiro, Biden cited U.S. efforts on hunger and poverty in his soon-to-end four years in office, saying he had put $160 billion into global development.

With fewer than three months left in his term, Biden also said his administration would keep pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on its conduct of the war and the need to end it. “Israel has a right to defend itself after the worse massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. But how it defends itself ... matters a great deal.”

“We’re going to keep pushing to accelerate a cease-fire deal that ensures Israel’s security and brings hostages home and ends the suffering of the Palestinian people and children,” he said.

Biden also said Hamas was still refusing a deal, adding, “I am asking everyone to increase the pressure on Hamas.”

UN says an aid convoy was attacked in Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel — United Nations aid organizations say a convoy carrying food supplies in Gaza was attacked over the weekend, further contributing to severe food shortages across the besieged territory.

UNRWA, the main U.N. agency responsible for distributing aid in Gaza, said gunmen stole aid from 97 of the convoy's 109 trucks on Saturday.

The Israeli military has said that attacking and stealing aid is an ongoing problem, especially in southern Gaza. COGAT, the military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said convoys are attacked by Hamas militants and known crime families. The military did not have an immediate response to Saturday's attack.

Death toll rises to 7 in Israeli strike in central Beirut

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the toll from Sunday’s Israeli strike in central Beirut rose to seven killed, including a woman, and 26 wounded.

The Health Ministry also said Monday that three people were killed and 29 wounded in a separate strike Sunday in the Mar Elias area of central Beirut.

The Hezbollah militant group said five members were killed including its spokesperson Mohammad Afif in the strike in the Ras Al Nabaa area.

9 members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed in Israeli strikes are buried in Damascus

DAMASCUS — Nine members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group who were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Damascus were buried Monday in the Syrian capital.

Women in the crowd wept as the dead were transported to the Yarmouk cemetery in the Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Some held images of slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Israeli strikes on Thursday targeted two buildings with the offices of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, killing 15 people, including Syrian civilians, and wounding 20 others, officials said.

The funeral on Monday was held for the nine Islamic Jihad members, including two high-ranking officials — commander Abdel Aziz Saeed Minawi and Rasmi Youssef Abu Issa, who was in charge of the group's Arab affairs.

The wife of Ali Kabalan, a 44-year-old fighter who was killed Thursday, told The Associated Press that while the loss was unbearable, she and their five children were “proud” that he died “a martyr for the cause of Palestine’s liberation.”

The Israeli military claimed the strikes dealt significant damage to its group’s leadership. Israel has accused the Islamic Jihad, alongside Hamas, of coordinating the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel that ignited the ongoing war.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

Head of UNRWA says banning the agency would leave Israel responsible for the needs of Palestinians

GENEVA — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says Israel would have the “responsibility” to respond to their needs if it goes through with plans to ban the agency.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, on Monday stepped up appeals to the international community to help convince Israeli authorities not to go through with the ban.

Measures passed by the Knesset, if carried out as anticipated in January, would ban UNRWA from operating and cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government.

“The clock is ticking,” Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.

Critics say the Knesset moves culminated a long-running campaign against UNRWA, which Israel contends has been infiltrated by Hamas. They say Israel’s real aim is to sideline the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Lazzarini all but suggested that the considerable work helping Palestinian refugees would otherwise fall to Israel under international humanitarian law.

“I keep being asked, Is there yes, or not, a Plan B? There is no plan B within the U.N. agency -- within the U.N. family because there is no other agency geared to provide the same activities,” he said.

“UNRWA is the response of the international community to the plight of the Palestinian refugees, through the mandate provided by the GA (United Nations General Assembly) resolution,” Lazzarini added. “So, if there is no U.N. or international community response, the responsibility will go back to the occupying power, being Israel.”

“And that’s where we have to ask: Where does a plan B sit today?” he said.

Israeli troops deliver fuel and medical equipment to hospitals in northern Gaza, military says

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Monday it had delivered fuel and medical equipment to hospitals in a besieged part of northern Gaza, where troops have launched an intense operation since October.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza said, said they delivered 10,000 liters of fuel and 149 packages of medical equipment to two hospitals, and helped oversee the evacuation of 64 patients and their escorts, along with the U.N., from hard-hit hospitals in the north.

The hospitals that serve the area have been largely inaccessible because of the fighting, and a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital last month left it barely functional.

Israel has faced international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, particularly in the war-ravaged north. Last week, the United States said it would not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to do in October if aid was not significantly stepped up.

In November, COGAT said they facilitated at least two aid deliveries to the far north, after a month in which virtually no supplies reached these areas. But international aid groups warned much more is needed, and famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza.

Funeral held for the Hezbollah main spokesman killed in an Israeli strike

BEIRUT — A funeral was held Monday in southern Lebanon for Mohammad Afif, Hezbollah’s head of media relations, a day after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut.

Afif’s coffin, draped in Hezbollah’s yellow flag, was carried through the streets of Sidon on the shoulders of mourners.

“Resistance is the response, and the convoys of martyrs create victory," Afif’s brother, Sadiq al-Naboulsi, said at the funeral.

"Hajj Mohammad Afif was a big figure in the media, and therefore the Israelis and Americans were hurt by his voice. For that reason, they assassinated him. The killing of Hajj Mohammad Afif and all the martyrs and leaders will not turn (us) back at all,” he said.

The strike that hit central Beirut for the first time in over a month also killed three other people on Sunday, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Afif had been a prominent spokesperson for Hezbollah, especially during the recent escalation of tensions with Israel. Days before his death, he held a press conference in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where he declared that Hezbollah was prepared for a prolonged war and denied claims that the group had lost its missile capabilities.

Lebanon will convey its positive response to a US cease-fire proposal, minister says

BEIRUT — A government minister close to Hezbollah says Lebanon will convey its “positive position” on a United States-backed cease-fire proposal this week.

The Biden administration is trying to halt the war between Israel and the militant group after months of sputtering cease-fire efforts.

Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who is mediating for the militants, is expected to meet with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.

Labor Minister Mostafa Bayram, who met with Berri on Monday, said Hezbollah’s function “is to make sure the (Israeli) aggression fails to achieve its goals, while negotiation is for the state and the government.”

A Western diplomat familiar with the talks told The Associated Press there is a sense of “cautious optimism.”

“Diplomatic efforts are converging towards a cease-fire, but it’s still in the hands and heads of key players to decide if it’s in their interest or not to stop things right now,” said the diplomat, who was not authorized to brief media and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The efforts are aimed at reestablishing a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon established after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Israel is said to be pushing for guarantees it can continue to act militarily against Hezbollah if needed, a demand the Lebanese are unlikely to accept.

— By Kareem Chehayeb

Turkey denies overflight permission for a plane carrying Israel’s president

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has denied Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s plane the right to use its airspace, preventing him from traveling to Azerbaijan, the Turkish state-run news agency reported.

The Anadolu Agency report late Sunday said Israeli authorities requested permission for the plane to access the Turkish airspace on its way to Baku, Azerbaijan, where Herzog was scheduled to attend the COP29 conference on climate change.

The agency based its report on unnamed Turkish officials. It did not say when the permission was denied. A statement from Herzog's office said the decision to cancel the president's trip to Baku was due to “the situation assessment and for security reasons." It did not comment on the Turkish report.

Turkey has emerged as one of the strongest critics of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon. It has suspended trade relations with Israel, accused the country of genocide and voiced support to Hamas.

Children and their parents among 8 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, officials say

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed eight people, including two children aged 7 and 9 and their parents, Palestinian officials said. A third child, 10 years old, was wounded in the same strike.

The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said Monday that the two children were killed in an overnight strike on a tent where displaced people were sheltering in the southern city of Khan Younis.

An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies at nearby Nasser Hospital. The two children were beheaded by the blast and their remains were placed in one body bag.

A separate strike early Monday killed four people, including a woman and a child, in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The Israeli military blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing militants of hiding among civilians and fighting from residential areas. It rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 43,800 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. They do not distinguish between militants and civilians but say most of those killed are women and children.