The Israeli Parliament voted on Monday October 28 for a bill banning the activities of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Israel. A vote massively condemned internationally and by the UN. “If implemented, the laws passed today by the Israeli Knesset would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees,” he said on Tuesday. its secretary general, Antonio Guterres. Israeli strikes continue in parallel in Gaza, Syria and eastern Lebanon.
Information to remember
⇒ Hezbollah has chosen its number two Naïm Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah
⇒ Israel’s vote on bill banning UNRWA causes international outcry
⇒ Netanyahu claims not to have received Egypt’s proposal for a two-day truce
10:35 a.m.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels confirm drone attack on southern Israel
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a drone attack on southern Israel, where the army said a drone from that country fell in an open area on Tuesday morning, causing no injuries. The Houthis “carried out an operation targeting the industrial zone of the Israeli enemy in the Ashkelon region” using drones, according to a statement read by Yahya Saree, the military spokesperson for the Yemeni rebels supported by Iran.
10:00 a.m.
Iran: the government proposes to triple the defense budget
The Iranian government has proposed a 200% year-on-year increase in the country’s military budget for the next Iranian fiscal year, which begins March 21, 2025, its spokesperson announced on Tuesday. In this budget proposal, “a significant increase of more than 200% of the country’s military budget” was made, announced Fatemeh Mohajerani during her weekly conference.
09:35
Naïm Qassem elected new leader of Hezbollah
Lebanese Hezbollah announced this Tuesday that it had elected its number two, Naïm Qassem, at the head of the pro-Iranian formation to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, killed on September 27 in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. “The Shura Council”, the governing body of Hezbollah, “agreed to elect Sheikh Naïm Qassem secretary general of Hezbollah,” announced a press release from the Shiite Islamist group at war against Israel.
Hachem Safieddine, Hassan Nasrallah’s presumed successor, was also killed in another Israeli strike in early October. His death was confirmed last week by Hezbollah, several other leaders of which were killed.
Naïm Qassem, 71, was one of the founders of Hezbollah in 1982. It was in 1991 that he became deputy secretary-general of the movement, a year after the agreements supposed to reconcile the Lebanese after the civil war (1975-1990). . Recently, he appeared in three televised speeches since the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the last of which was on October 15.
09:20
Jordan denounces Israeli attempt at “political assassination” of UNRWA
Jordan condemned on Tuesday the decision of the Israeli Parliament to ban the activities in Israel and East Jerusalem of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), denouncing an attempted “political assassination” of this agency. “The adoption of these laws is part of a systematic campaign against the agency and constitutes a continuation of Israel’s relentless efforts to politically assassinate it, while intensifying its aggressive war against the Palestinian people,” denounced the door -spokesperson for the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “These Israeli measures and practices are illegal and invalid,” he added.
09:05
Gaza: “more than 55” dead in Israeli strike in the north
Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip reported this Tuesday that “more than 55” people were killed in Beit Lahia in a nighttime Israeli strike on this town in the north of the Palestinian territory. “More than 55 martyrs and dozens of wounded are under the rubble of a 5-story residential building belonging to the Abounasr family, which was bombed by the Israeli occupation last night,” said Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesperson. word of the Civil Defense. He specified that the building was located in Beit Lahia, where, as in the rest of the northern Gaza Strip, rescue workers say they can no longer work.
08:00
Drone from Yemen reaches southern Israel
The Israeli military said a drone from Yemen reached the Ashkelon region in southern Israel on Tuesday morning before falling in an open area. “The sirens sounded between 6:39 a.m. and 6:42 a.m. in Ashkelon, as a drone crossed Israeli territory and fell in an open area nearby,” the army said in a statement, adding that “no injuries were reported.” .
07:30
Two dead in Syria in Israeli strikes on the Lebanese border
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported this Tuesday two deaths in Israeli raids on vehicles near the Syrian village of Al-Nazariya on the border with Lebanon, an area already recently targeted by Israel. According to this NGO, which has a vast network of correspondents in the country, this sector is used for smuggling and the transport of people and goods by dirt roads between Lebanon and Syria.
The Israeli army confirmed having targeted this crossing point located in the Bekaa plain on October 25, claiming that it was used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons. These Israeli strikes were denounced by the United Nations, saying they threatened the main transit route for people trying to flee the conflict in Lebanon.
07:00
Outcry after Israel bans UNRWA
Israel’s vote Monday on a bill banning UNRWA caused an international outcry. Around ten states including Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States have declared themselves opposed to this vote. A first text prohibits “the activities of UNRWA on Israeli territory” while the second prohibits Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees, which should considerably disrupt the activities of the agency, while Israel strictly controls all entries of humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza.
UNRWA denounced a “scandalous” measure against it, even though it is the main actor in humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip, besieged and devastated by more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas. This ban “creates a dangerous precedent”, declared on X its leader, Philippe Lazzarini, denouncing the latest episode “of an ongoing campaign to discredit” the UN agency.
Israel accused around twenty of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the attack on October 7, 2023. Nine people “may have been involved” in the attacks, according to a UN investigation in August, while at least 223 agency employees have lost their lives for more than a year in the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was ready “to work with our international partners to ensure that Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security”, despite this vote.
06:45
60 dead in Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon
At least 60 people were killed Monday in several Israeli raids on eastern Lebanon, according to a “non-definitive” report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, listing the bombings on 12 localities in the Baalbeck region and the Bekaa plain. , Hezbollah strongholds. Since September 23, the latent conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian movement has transformed into open war. Among the victims are two children, according to the ministry’s count.
With this non-exhaustive toll, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have caused more than 1,700 deaths since September 23, according to an AFP count based on data from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
06:40
At the UN, Israel and Iran accuse each other of threatening peace in the Middle East
Israel and Iran, emphasizing their right to defend themselves, accused each other of threatening peace in the Middle East on Monday evening, during a meeting of the UN Security Council convened after Israeli strikes on Iranian military sites. “Israeli aggression against Iran is obvious and does not occur in isolation,” said Iranian Ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani. He also repeated threats of reprisals after these strikes carried out in response to Iranian missile attacks on Israel on October 1, but assured that he would “always” favor “diplomacy to resolve regional problems.”
His Israeli counterpart Danny Danon assured for his part that his country had only defended itself after the “brutal attack” of October 1. “Iran has sowed violence, chaos and destruction across the Middle East. This violence is not limited to Israel’s borders, it threatens regional stability and global security,” he said. continued.
06:30
Netanyahu says he has not received truce proposal from Egypt
During a parliamentary meeting of his party, Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that Israel had “not received a proposal on the release of four hostages in exchange for a 48-hour ceasefire in Gaza” , said Omer Dostri, its spokesperson, in a press release on Monday. “If this proposal had been made, the Prime Minister would have immediately accepted it,” he added, referring to the proposal announced by Egypt on Sunday.